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right; if he denies any one of the seven he is all wrong he is preaching another gospel than Paul preached and does not deserve fellowship; indeed to give him fellowship js to become partaker of his evil deeds, as John puts it in 2 John 10, 11,;“' “If any one cometh unto you, and bringeth not this teaching, receive him not into your house, and give him no greeting: for he that giveth him greeting partaketh in his evil works.“ This is plain language, indeed it is severe language, but it is language that is inspired of Cod. What are these seven fundamental, cardinal points in the Gospel Paul taught? Reliability of the Bible X. The First Cardinal and Funda mental point in the Gospel that Paul taught, the first absolutely essential doctrine of the Christianity is, THE DIVINE ORIGIN AND ABSOLUTE RE LIABILITY OF THE BIBLE. As Paul puts it in 1 Thess. 2:13, the first epistle that he was inspired to write, “ For this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that when ye received from us the word of the message, even the word of God, ye accepted it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also worketh in you that believe.“ He puts it even more specifically and definitely in 1 Cor. 2:12, 13, where he says, “But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the -Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God. Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth,: combining spiritual things with spiritual words.“ Here Paul claims absolute inerrancy for his teaching, he claims that it is of divine origin and that the very words were taught of God. Regarding the Old Testament Scriptures, Paul in 2 Tim. 3:16, 17 says: “ Every Scripture is inspired of God, and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correc tion, for instruction which is in righteousness: That the man of God may he complete, furn ished completely unto every good work.“ Again he says in Rom. 3:1, 2: “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision? Much every way: First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.“ The word translated oracles means utterances; so Paul taught that the Scriptures with which the Jews were entrusted, that is our present Old Testa ment, were “ the utterances of God.” This doctrine of the divine origin and
absolute reliability of the Bible is funda mental; in a way, it is more fundamental than any other doctrine. If a man is astray here, he is pretty sure to go astray some where else, before long. If a man is absolutely sound here, he is very likely to become sound every where else in course of time. Here is always the Devil’s first point, and chief point of attack. In Eden Satan first beguiled Eve by getting her to doubt God’s Word, and her yielding at this point led to all the awful tragedy fol lowing. In his assault upon our Lord in the wilderness, here was the Devil’s first point, and repeated point of attack. He approached our Lord with an if. God had said, “ Thou art my Son in whom I am well pleased,” Satan said, “ if thou art the Son of God,” etc. Our Lord Himself tells us in Luke 8:12, that when the seed of God’s Word is sown in men’s hearts in order'that it may be accepted and thus save them, “ THEN COMETH THE DEVIL AND TAKETH AWAY THE WORD FROM THEIR HEART, THAT THEY MAY NOT BE LIEVE AND BE SAVED.” The Devil knows there is saving power in the Word of God, in the words contained in the Bible; therefore his constant and persistent aim is to some how get the Word of God out of men’s hearts, to some how get men to discredit God’s Word. This is the real aim of the “ higher criticism.” It is not of course the conscious aim of all higher critics, but It is the aim of the Devil who is back of them, and whose unconscious but very effective servants they are. This is also the purpose of unbelief in all its forms. It is the purpose of the so-called ■“New Theology.” , It is all built upon not taking God’s Word as meaning what is really' says. The true gospel is the gospel that is taught in the Bible. It is taught in the Whole Bible, the Old Testament and the New, and when one begins to discount or discredit any part of the Bible, he has set out upon a course that will inevitably lead him into utter error and blackest mid night. The Divine origin and abso lute reliability of God’s revelation, was not only a fundamental point in Paul’s teaching, it was a fundamental point in the teaching of our Lord Himself. He taught that the Mosaic Scriptures were the Word of God. He said they were in so many words in Mark 7:13, as will be seen if we study the passage in the
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