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TRUTH UNEARTHED. Again, the explorations of Pales tine, Egypt, and Babylon go to con firm the truth of the Bible, Old and New Testaments. During the last sixty years there have been many archaeological researches, and not one has gone against the Bible, or proved it untrue. This has been shown by the work of men like Sir William Ramsay, to mention only one out of many. ? Now, if we have followed the ar gument so far in support of the gen uineness and credibility of the New Testament, we shall be prepared to take the third step. It is a leap, but I believe it is an inevitable leap. The New Testament is Divine, Supernat ural. What are the reasons for this? F irst: Supernatural creation. There is that in the Bible which is supernat ural in connection with creation. Neither in the ancient world nor in the modern do we ever get behind the truth of Gen. 1 :2. There is not one of the accounts of creation in the old world that goes further back than chaos. They start with chaos, but the Bible starts with God. The same thing is true of modern science. Science cannot reach further back than the nebular hypothesis. But that has to assume two things: the existence of nebulae, and the power to rotate; but who created the neb ulae, and who gave them the power to rotate ? The Bible goes further back, and starts from God. Second: Supernatural revelation. There is a revelation of religion in the Old Testament, whether of the Jewish ecclesiastical system or of the prophets. It is immaterial whether you take one or the other, or both, but no' one can doubt that there is a supernatural revelation, A speaker is said to have uttered Words; .and these words were declared to others and were put down; and whether we
many, is that the best scholarship of our time is bringing the New Testa ment books back to the first century. | Speaking generally, Harnack and quite a number of English and Ger man scholars are pushing back the books of the New Testament to that time at which they have always been held by the Church of Christ to have originated. Secondly, the New Testament is credible; that is, it is worthy to be believed. There are many things that are genuine, but not credible. Many works of fiction are genuine, but not credible. The Shepherd of Hernias, which is the work of the John Bun- yan of the second century, is perfect ly genuine, but not credible. So the New Testament is not only genuine, but is worthy of our belief. Why? First, because of the unblemished character of the witnesses. If we ex amine them, we shall find their char acters stand* all the tests we can ap ply. Next, because of the agreement of the facts of the New Testament with the facts of Christianity in the world. Here is Christianity today, with its ordinances of Baptism, the Lord’s Day, and the Lord’s Supper, all independent of the New Testa ment, and in existence at least thirty years before the New Testament was written ; and yet when the New Test ament and they are compared, there is an entire agreement between these facts of Christianity in the world and the truths recorded in this Book. Then, third, the contents of the New Testament do nothing but good. This is another proof of their credi bility, And I would say to those crit ics of the Bible who accuse it of mendacity, that they should drink of its springs, and they will find in its beneficent draughts of grace and truth that which will assure. them of its credibility.
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