Holy Scripture and Modern Negations
109
an imperfect stage of revelation, no doubt. Christ, as the Son of Man, takes up a lordly, discretionary attitude to wards that revelation, and He supersedes very much what is in it by something higher, but Christ recognizes that there was true Divine revelation there , that He was the goal of it all; He came to fulfil the law and the prophets. The Scriptures are the last word with Him-"Have ye not read!" "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures." And it is just as certain that the Apostles treated the Old Testament in that way, and that they claimed in a peculiar sense the Spirit of God themselves. They claimed that in them and in their word was laid "the foundation on which the Church was built," Jesus Christ Himself, as the substance of their testi mony, being the chief corner-stone ; "built upon the founda tion of the Apostles and Prophets." And if you 3ay, "Well , are these New Testament Apostles and Prophets ?" That is in Ephesians, 2nd chapter. You go to the fifth verse of the third chapter and you find this mystery of Christ which God had revealed to His holy Apostles and Prophets by His Spirit; and it is on that the Church was built. And when you come to Timothy (2 Tim. 3 :14-17) to that classical pas sage, you find the marks there by which inspired Scripture is distinguished. Take the bo9k of Scripture and ask just this question: Does it answer to the claim of this inspired volume? How are we to test thiss? I do not enter here into the question that has divided good men as to theories of inspiration-ques tions about inerrancy in detail, and other matters. I want to get away from these things at the circumference to the cen ter. But take the broader test. THE BIBLE'S OWN TEST OF INSPIRATION What does the Bible itself give us as the test of its in spiration? What does the Bible itself name as the qualities that inspiration imparts to it? Paul speaks in Timothy c,f the
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker