STRONGHOLD OF TRUTH
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In Gen. 15 :1, we first have the statement which is frequently found afterwards: "The word of the Lord came." In the prophets again and again we find what is found in Ezek. 6 :1: "The word of the Lord came unto me." In the Book of Leviticus, something like thirty times we read: "The Lord spake unto Moses." In the New Testament, John the Baptist, the last and greatest of the prophets, has the same prophetic exper ience-Luke 3 :2 : "The word of God came unto John." When we tum to the Epistles we find this in 1 Cor. 14 :37: "Let a man acknowledge that the things which I write are the commandments of the Lord;" and in 1 Thess. 4 :15: "This we say unto you by the word of the Lord." A modem writer has well said that the prophets were absolutely convinced of receiving commun ications from God. Now there are two tests given in the Old Testament in regard to this matter. There were two ways in which the Israelites were to examine the credentials of every man who claimed to be a prophet of the Lord. In Deut. 18 :21, 22, they were to know by the fulfillment; and with this can be compared Jer. 28 :9-if the .thing came to pass it was regarded as accredited. But then there was another and complementary test. They were to know by the genuineness of the thing whether it came from the Lord (Deut. 13 :1-5). It might come to pass and yet not be genuine. Just as there are spiritualistic media today, sometimes genuine communications I doubt not, but not, therefore, necessarily from God. I remember asking Dr. Zwemer some years ago how he accounted for the spread of Islam. He said that people make a great mistake in thinking that Islam is a natural religion. He said it is a supernatural religion, but supernatural from below. So that the two tests in the Old Testament were these: Is it accurate? Is it true? Divine Revelation In accordance with this, God is spoken of as the God of truth. The Lord Jesus Christ is described as "the
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