18 The Fundamentals tory where a healthy mind has been able to create ideas with out expressing them to its own perception ? In other words, as Dr. A. J. Gordon once observed: “To deny that the Holy Spirit speaks in scripture is an intelligible proposition, but to admit that He speaks, it is impossible to know what He says except as we have His Words.” I II . PROOF OF INSPIRATION 1. The inspiration of the Bible is proven by the philosophy, or what may be called the nature of the case. The proposition may be stated thus: The Bible is the his tory of the redemption of the race, or from the side of the individual, a supernatural revelation of the will of God to men for their salvation. But it was given to certain men of one age to be conveyed in writing to other men in different ages. Now all men experience difficulty in giving faithful reflections of their thoughts to others because of sin, ignorance, defective memory and the inaccuracy always incident to the use of language. Therefore it may be easily deduced that if the revelation is to be communicated precisely as originally received, the same supernatural power is required in the one case as in the other. This has been sufficiently elaborated in the foregoing and need not be dwelt upon again. 2. I t may be proven by the history and character of the Bible, i. e., by all that has been assumed as to its authenticity and credibility. All that goes to prove these things goes to prove its inspiration. To borrow in part, the language of the Westminster Con fession, “the heavenliness of its matter, the efficacy of its doc trine, the unity of its various parts, the majesty of its style and the scope and completeness of its design” all indicate the divin ity of its origin. The more we think upon it the more we must be convinced that men unaided by the Spirit of God could neither have con-
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker