308
July 1931
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
BIBLICAL PROOF
ARCHAEOLOGY . . . By J. A. HUFFMAN, Marion, Ind.
and, therefore, on the part of the powers of darkness and ill-designing men. It is no surprise that it should be so. Knowing the Bible as we know it, we should be surprised if it had not been so. During the Dark Ages, the attack took the form of wholesale destruction. Satan sought to annihilate the Bible. Wherever copies of the Word could be found, they were destroyed. It was unlawful to possess a copy of the holy Scriptures. Satan’s tactic then was Bible annihilation. But during these dark centuries God hid away, in a manner of which I do not know, a large num ber of the copies of the sacred Scriptures. He hid them so securely that neither men nor devils knew where they were. Then, when the Dark Ages rolled away, God sent men here and there to discover copies of His holy Book. This process of discovering copies of the Bible is still going on. S acrificial T ranslation The Bible is also a Book of sacrificial translation. After Satan was defeated in his attempt to annihilate the Bible, his attack was subtly turned against its trans lation. Rest assured that Satan never gives up. If he is defeated at one place, he attempts another. So, when he had failed to destroy the Bible, he vigorously contested its translation into the languages of the common people. I presume that it is known to all of us that the Bible was originally written in languages which most of us cannot read. The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, with a few portions in Aramaic. The New Testament was, of course, written in Greek. Most of us would be denied the privilege of reading the Bible, it we were compelled to read it in the languages in which it was originally written. So you can see why Satan, in a very subtle way, attempted to defeat the purpose of the Bible by defeating its translation. He made it hard for men to translate it. But, despite Satan’s vigorous protests, a few men of consecrated scholarship did the heroic deed of giving to the world, in the English tongue, copies of the Bible—both Old and New Testaments. Every Christian ought to be familiar with the story of the sacrificial work of Bible translation. Most of us do not appreciate our Bibles as we ought. If we, as Christians, have not at any time thanked God for the privilege of having the Bible, His Holy Word, in our mother tongue, we ought to take a little time off to do it! It has required profound scholarship to give to the world the English Bible. It has required conse crated scholarship to do it. Men did the work at the sacrifice of their lives. They were heroes and became martyrs because they gave to you and to me the Bible in our own tongue. R emarkable C onfirmation We come now to consider a new and remarkable con firmation which God is providentially giving to the Bible. Lest I be misunderstood, let me say that, for us, the Book
■ T o most of us, the Book of God needs no new confirmation. It is definitely confirmed by our own personal religious experience. But a sharp battle is being waged around the Bible, with Christians, ministers, teachers, and laymen on one side, and with destructive critics, infidels, and atheists on the other. Doubtless the present struggle which is going on about the Bible is that which was forecast by Jude when he ad monished us to “contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered unto the saints (R. V.).;’ Ag gressive Christians of all classes—by that I mean minis ters, teachers, and laymen—should be contending for the Bible in the front ranks. None of us ought to seek to get into the rear in this great contention for the Christian faith. The intelligent defender of the Book of God will draw from every known legitimate resource to confirm it, not necessarily to himself, but to those who are tempted to doubt it. Excavations in Bible lands furnish the Chris tian student with new and interesting proofs of the con firmation of the Bible. These should be at our fingers’ tips and at our tongue’s tip in the defense of the faith. D iv ine I nspiration The Bible is the Book of divine inspiration. It is not a human book. It is true that human agencies have been used in its writing, but the human element has been re duced to a minimum, and the divine element has been raised to the maximum. So, when we think of the Bible, we should not think of it as a human book, but as a divine book. It is a book in the writing of which have been employed about forty inspired penmen. In its writ ing, it has extended across fifteen hundred years; but it is still the inspired Book of God. I am always refreshed by God’s own testimony con cerning His Book. This you will find in Paul’s second letter to Timothy, in the third chapter, verses sixteen and seventeen. Here Paul, the great apostle and inspired writer, says: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” Were this particular line translated with absolute literalness, it would read thus: “All scripture is God breathed.” So God’s own testimony concerning the Book would read: “All scripture is God breathed, and is profit able for doctrine,- for reproof, for correction, for in struction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” Then again, God tells us how the Scriptures were in spired. He does not take time to argue the question, but in the Second Epistle of Peter, first chapter and twenty- first verse, we read: “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” So the Bible is the Book of divine inspiration. - P rovidential P reservation Again, the Bible is the Book oj providential preserva- firmation which God is providentially giving to the Bible, has ever been the object of attack on the part of Satan;
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