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The Fundamentals centers”, as they have well been called—a re Christ and the Bible. The two problems really resolve themslves into one, for Christ and the Bible are inseparable. I f we follow Christ, He will teach us of the Bible; and if we study our Bible, it will point us to Christ. Each is called the Word of God. Let us, first of all, be quite clear as to our meaning of our Lord as “The Word of God.” “In the beginning was the Word.” A word is an oral or visible expression of an invisible thought. The thought needs the word for its ex- pression, and the word is intended to represent the thought accurately, even if not completely. We cannot in any degree be sure of the thought unless we can be sure of the word. Our Lord as the Word, therefore, is the personal and visible expression of the invisible God. (John 14; Heb. 1:3.) We believe that He is an accurate “expression” of God, and that as the Word He reveals God and conveys God’s will to us in such a way as to be inerrant and infallible. As the In- carnate Word He is infallible. He came, among other things, to bear witness to the truth (John 18:37), and it is a necessary outcome of this purpose that He should bear infallible witness. He came to reveal God and God’s will, and this implies and requires special knowledge. It demands that every assertion of His be true. The Divine knowledge did not, because it could not, undergo any change by the Incarnation. He continued to subsist in the form of God even while He existed in the form of man. (Phil. 2:6. See Dr. Gifford’s “The Incarnation.”) In view of this position, we believe that, as Bishop Elli- cott says ( “Christus Comprobator”) we have a right to make this appeal to the testimony of Christ to the Old Testament. The place it occupied in His life and ministry is sufficient warrant for referring to His use of it. I t is well known that, as far as the Old Testament canon is concerned, our highest authority is that of our Lord Himself; and what is
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