August 1929
365
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
Three Reasons Why I Believe the Bible is the Word of God B y R ev . W . P. W h ite / D.D. President, Bible Institute of Los Angeles
HE Bible is the Word of God_, the only infallible rule of faith and conduct. It is a rule of faith, in that it teaches what man is to believe concern ing God. It is a rule of conduct, in that' it teaches the duties God requires of men. It is infallible in that it makes no mistakes in doc trine, or precept. Some there are who tell us that the Bible contains the Word of God. We believe .that it is the Word of God. My father had great corn-fields, when I was a boy. In the corn-fields, he often planted melons. The corn field was not a melon patch- It was a corn-field with melons in it. It is as difficult for the men who tell us that the Bible contains the Word of God, to point it out, when asked to do so, as it was for the neighbor boys to find my father’s watermelons! The Bible is the Word of God, in the sense that the moment you open its pages, you have before you that on which God has placed His seal. Of course, there are words of Satan, and of wicked men,, recorded in the Bible, but they are recorded as such, by the authority of Jehovah. Men are in need of a revelation -vrith authority. If the Bible does not come to us with the authority of Jehovah, why should we be good? Who said that I should be good ? Suppose I do not want to be good ? Suppose it suits my purpose better to be dishonest, or vicious, or im pure? If a Supreme Being has not made a pronounce ment as to what I should, or should not do, why should I feel under obligation? “Let us eat and drink, for tomor row we die,” is the logical suggestion to young people today, who have been taught in the schools that the Bible does not create moral obligation, but is '“simply and only, the history of man’s search for God.” I shall give you three reasons why J believe the Bible to be the Word of God: I. T h e D e f in it e T estimony of J esus C hrist a n d H is D isciples The New Testament was not written when Jesus Christ was on earth in bodily form, but it is a product of Christ. If you believe that there was such a person as Jesus Christ, you can believe the entire New Testament. Jesus left no writings of His own. The Gospels were writ ten by His followers. The entire New Testament was written by men who professed to have seen and heard Him. According to these writers, Jesus had foretold that such revelations would be made after His departure. He said that He would send the Holy Spirit. That the Spirit would teach,them things that they could not receive from Him during His life here. “He shall take the things that are mine and shall show them unto you.” “He shall guide you iv\to all truth-” The disciples and followers of Jesus Christ produced the New Testament, according to the prophecy and promise of their Master. The New Testa ment and Jesus Christ cannot be separated. According to these same witnesses, Jesus Christ placed the stamp of His authority on the Old Testament' Scrip
tures. Let it be remembered that He had the same Old Testament that we have today. He used it and quoted from it. He distinctly said that Moses wrote of H im : “Beginning at Moses, and all the Prophets, He expounded unto them the things concerning Himself.” In talking to the Pharisee, in Matt. 19:4-6, He confirmed the Genesis story of Adam and Eve. He -put His O. K. on the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s wife, and the flood. We have a New Testament story of the flood, and from the lips of Jesus Himself: “They ' knew not until the flood came and took them all away.” He often referred to the Law of Exodus. He observed the ceremonial law of Le viticus. He was fhe antitype of the brazen serpent of Numbers. When tempted of the Devil in the wilderness, He quoted three times- from Deuteronomy, and the Devil did not challenge Him. That was before the Devil at tended a modern theological seminary! If the temptation would come to Jesus today, and He would quote Scripture to the Devil, he would say: “It has been universally con ceded by modern scholarship, that Deuteronomy is not the Scripture of God!” ' Jesus Christ believed the story of Jonah and the whale. Mr. Moody was right when he refused to allow men to speak from his platform who denied the Jonah story, for Jesus Christ 'referred to the Jonah story, and hung upon the historical fact of Jonah’s experience, His own expe rience in the heart of the earth : “A s Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly o f the whale, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart o f the earth.” Jesus Christ believed Daniel wrote Daniel: “When ye see the abomination o f desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, etc.” (Matt. 24:15). “The disciple whom Jesus loved” makes Jesus the ful fillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, and declares Isaiah author of it. A preacher once sat beside me on a railway train, and expressed his surprise that I assumed" that Isaiah wrote Isaiah. Said h e : “Don’t you know that the scholars are agreed that Isaiah did not write Isaiah?” I replied: “Mark Twain has said the best thing on that subject that I have heard. He said : ‘It has recently been discovered by modern scholarship that Isaiah did not write Isaiah, but another man by the same name wrote it.’ ” The apostle John is the latest authority on the Isaiah question. John quoted from “Second Isaiah,” then backed up into “First Isaiah,” and said: “These things said Isaiah, when he saw His glory and spake o f Him” (John 12:38-41). My preacher friend said to me: “Oh, John believed that Isaiah wrote Isaiah, but it is agreed among scholars that John did not know what he was talking about.” How sad that would be for some of us, if true! I have been preaching the Gospel for over forty years, founding my message on John 3:16, when I should have been saying: “John thought that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life; but it has been recently discovered by modern scholarship that John did not know what he was talking about!”
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