August 1930
380
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
The fact is, that even the physicists and chemists cannot agree as to the ultimate composition o f matter. Now, in view of all this contrariety of opinion in the world of human wisdom, and that among the so-called erudite, how are we to account for the unity of teaching in the Bible composed as it was by about forty different writers in widely separated countries and extending over a period of nearly fifteen hundred years ? On the conception that the Bible is a production of mere human thought and wisdom, such unity is impossible. There is only one ade quate explanation of this outstanding phenomenon, name ly, that the ultimate Author of the- Bible was the one Holy Spirit, who moved and guided the various writers and thus unified their productions. Thus we believe that our first proposition has been established—that the Holy Spirit produced the Bible, and thus made it the infallible rule of faith and practice. II. T he H oly S pirit B egets A T rue E xperience T hrough T he B ible The Holy Spirit works in an orderly way in begetting a Christian experience— that is, in calling, enlightening, regenerating and sanctifying the human soul. He uses the divinely appointed means of grace, and especially the Word of God. The Holy Spirit baptizes the penitent be liever with fire—but not with wild fire. It is spiritual fire under divine control. All these facts are beautifully in accordance with right thinking and reasoning. Since the Holy Spirit has indited the Bible, it is reasonable and congruous to believe that He would honor the Bible and use it as His instrument in converting men and impinging upon their consciousness the experience of His redeeming love and grace. T he F acts A bout C hristian E xperience By canvassing the history of Christian experiences we shall find that every true conversion has been begotten by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached a powerful sermon, using the Old Testament history and prophecy as his text, while he himself spoke under the influence of the Holy Spirit; and it was after the preaching of the Word, that men cried out, “ What shall we do?” and when Peter gave them fur ther instruction in the way of faith and salvation, three thousand of them bent the penitent knee and received the gift and experience of the Holy Ghost. The conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch is another conspicuous instance. As he fode along in his chariot, he was reading a portion of the Old Testament; but he could not understand it until Philip explained it to him and showed him that the prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Then he accepted Christ and submitted to baptism. The same principle holds in the conversion of Cornelius, the Philippian jailor and the apostle Paul. In every case some divinely guided word o f God preceded the expe rience of conversion. Moreover, where do we learn the true way of salva tion? In the Bible, and only in the Bible. It is only through the Bible that we know of the love of God in sending His Son into the world. It is only in the Bible that we learn of the fact and the work o f the Holy Spirit. How do we know that there ever was a Pentecost in the history of redemption? We know it only through the record we have of it in the Bible. These matters, so fundamental to our well-being here and hereafter, were written down and gathered together in a holy book that (Continued on page 388)
M y Lord He guided by paths that I could not see, By ways that I have not known; The crooked was straight and the rough made plain, A s I follow’d the Lord alone. He was better to me than all my prayers, He was better than all my fears; He made a bridge o f my broken hopes, And a rainbow o f all my tears. He emptied my hands o f my treasured store, And His “ covenant love” reveal’d ; There is not a wound in my aching heart But the balm o f His breath has heal’d! Oh, tender and true was the chastening sore In wisdom that taught and tried, Till the soul that H e sought was trusting in Him, And nothing on earth beside. — The Dawn. high an evaluation on the human race and on each indi vidual composing it. T he U n ity of B ible T eaching About forty different authors had a hand in writing the Bible. They were men o f many different conditions and employments and various degrees of culture. Many of them lived in countries distant from one another. They were separated from one another by many centuries. And yet on all essential matters they teach the same doctrines— the same doctrine of God and the creation, the same doc trine of man, the same doctrine of sin, the same doctrine of redemption. All of them are intensely theistic in reli gion and philosophy. While there is progress in doctrine and revelation, no revelation given at any time contradicts those previously given, but is a clearer accordant revelation of the will, purpose and nature of God. This unity of teaching is as unique as it is marvelous. When men rely only upon their own wisdom, how they differ! No two merely human philosophers agree. Plato corrects Socrates, and Aristotle is not in accord with Plato. I f Spinoza is right, Kant and Berkeley and Hamilton are fundamentally wrong. And how the scientists differ! Millikan believes in God; Barnes is either an agnostic or an atheist, it is hard to tell which from his bombastic verbiage. As has often been said, the pathway of science is strewn with the debris of discarded theories. Once the Ptolemaic hypothesis was the fashion among all the sci entists, and that for many centuries. Not until the fif teenth and sixteenth centuries was it replaced by the Copernican theory. In my youthful days the nebular hy pothesis of Laplace was all the vogue among the scientific guild, and any one who would have called it into question would have been dubbed an “ ignoramus.” Today there is scarcely a scientist left to do this theory reverence. Only yesterday Darwin’s explanation of evolution by means of natural selection, the struggle for existence and the sur vival of the fittest was generally accepted. Today no reputable scientist would claim that Darwin’s explanation is adequate to account for the facts of the organic realm.
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