58 The Fundamentals In a comprehensive way the laws of the Pentateuch, or of the Old Testament, are called “the commandments of God.” “In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the command ment of God, ye hold the tradition of men. * * * Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition” (Mark 7 :8, 9) ; and in the context of this last quotation the commandment of God is identified with what “Moses spake,” showing that the words of Moses are also the words of God. Passages like these do more than prove that the Old Testament Scriptures express on the whole the mind of God, and, therefore, possess very high authority. If it can cer tainly be said that God spake certain words, or that certain words and commandments are the words and commandments of God, we have more than a general endorsement; as when, e. g., the editor of a periodical states that he is responsible for the general character and tendency of articles which he admits, but not for every sentiment or expression of opinion contained in them. I t needs, of course, no proof that the words quoted in the New Testament as spoken by God are not the only parts of the Old which have direct divine authority. The same thing might evidently be said of other parts of the book. The impression left, we think, on every unprejudiced mind is that such quotations as the Lord made are only speci mens of a book in which God speaks throughout. There is not encouragement certainly to attempt any analysis of Scrip ture into its divine and its human parts or elements—to appor tion the authorship between God and the human penman, for, as we have seen, the same words are ascribed to God and to His servant Moses. The whole is spoken by God and by Moses also. All is divine and at the same time all is human. The divine and the human are so related that separation is impossible.
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker