Testimony of Christ to the Old Testament
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ABSOLUTE INFALLIBILITY OF SCRIPTURE
Attention may be specially called to three passages in which the Lord refers to the origin and the absolute infallibility of Scripture. Jesus asked the Pharisees, “What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He? They say unto Him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord?” The reference is to P salm HO, which the Lord says David spake or wrote “in spirit;” i. e., David was completely under the Spirit’s influence in the production of the Psalm, so that when he calls the Messiah his “Lord” the word has absolute authority. Such is clearly the Lord’s meaning, and the Pharisees have no reply to His argument. The Lord does not say that the entire Old Testament was written “in the Spirit,” nor even that all the Psalms were so produced; He makes no direct statement of this nature; yet the plain reader would certainly regard this as implied. His hearers understood their Scriptures to have been all written by immediate inspiration of God, and to be the word of God; and He merely refers to Psalm 110 as having the character which belonged to Scripture at large. In John 10:34-36 Christ vindicates Himself from the charge of blasphemy in claiming to be the Son of God: Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods. I f he called them gods unto whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken; say ye of Him whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God ?” The Scripture cannot be broken —ou dunatai luthenai. The verb signifies to loose, unbind, dissolve, and as applied to Scripture means to subvert or deprive of authority. The authority of Scripture is then so complete—so pervasive— as to extend to its individual terms. “Gods” is the proper word because it is used to designate the Jewish rulers. If this is not verbal inspiration, it comes very near it. One
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