Copyright, 1922, byThe Bible Institute Colportage A ssociation

of Chicago

©Di. A 67 7 4‘

7 8

JUL10'

22

CONTENTS

THE BOOK

1 . Inerrancy

2 . Canon

3 . Versions

PART II . UND ERSTANDINGTHE BOOK

CH A P. 1 . Interpreting the Book

CH A P. 2 . God in the Book

CHA P. 3 . The Plan of the Ages

PART III . SALVATION IN THE BOOK

CHA P. 1 . The Law

CHA P. 2 . The Good News

CHA P. 3 . The Sign of the Prophet Jonas

PA RT“

ONE

THE BOOK

CHAPTER I

INERRA NCY

Y the inerrancy of the Bible, we m ean that the

B entire Scriptures of the Old and New Testa

m ents, having been given by inspiration of God

(2 Tim . 3 are infallible ; and therefore, they not

only constitute the only and all-suflicient rule of faith and

practice, but in_

addition thereto they present all the inci

dental facts of the text; whether relating to ph ilosophy,science, history, or other subj ect, wholly without error .

The evidence on this point can be produced at greatlength, along many lines, and without the slightest confliet or doubt. These lines of testimony to the inerrancyof the Bible are found in science, archaeology, criticism ,

fulfilled prophecy, Christ’s statem ents

, and in the Bookitself . We will refer to these briefly in the order m en

tioned. It must be borne in m ind at the outset, however,that the sublim e doctrines of the Word

, of which its -inerrancy is one, are not susceptible of treatm ent on the basisof formal logic or natural ph ilosophy .

“The natural man

receivet’h not the things of the Spirit of God ; neither

can he know them,because they are spiritually discerned

”

( 1 Cor. The Holy Spirit,He m ust ”

be our

teacher (JohnScience is a general term and o ften means noth

ing more than t he l atest hypothesis or conjecture in

an attempt to e xplain some phenomenon of nature.There ‘

are, however, certain“assured results” in science,

5

6 The Bible

and many of these testi fy to the inerrancy of the Bible.When geographers believed that the earth was flat

like a stove lid and rested upon four elephants or

a turtle, and when mariners worried about sailing

over the edge, the Bible referred to the sphericityof the earth (Job Isa. Luke 17 :31-36;Mark Gal ileo was haled before a churchtribunal for having impiously suggested that the

earth moved, and he and his pious inquisitorsm ight profitably have consulted Job 32, wh ich isan obvious reference to the precession of the equinox.

The learned Greeks pictured Jove in a continual state of

preparedness with a handful of flaming thunderbolts, andwere wholly ignorant of the scriptural statement regarding the formation of static electricity by the condensation of vapor (Jer. The regulations given the

ch ildren of Israel in the eleventh to the fifteenth chaptersof Leviticus and in other portions of the law, constitutethe scientific basis of all modern sanitation, o fttimeswithout noticeable change. In view of such facts, we cansafely refer to the Word as scientific. It would be a

graceful complim ent to any scientist, however, with lesschance of appearing to subordinate the Bible to science,to refer to his assured results as being wholly scriptural.

Whenever the skeptic asserts that the Scriptures are deficient with respect to their treatment of natural phenomena, we may safely conclude one of four thingseither he knows nothing of science him self , or he has not

read the account at all, or he is dishonest, or (wh ich verycommonly occurs ) he is drawing a hasty and ill-advised

conclusion as to some matter of wh ich science reallyknows little ornoth ing. For an example of the last alter

native (and without conceding that Joshua -14 in

volves a scientific question at all ) , we respectfully subm itthat no reputable scientist at this time would advance, as

finally determ ining the question,any statement as to just

The Book 7

what would occur here on earth should the sun and moon

(momentarily pause in their known activity .

Particularly in recent years , the archaeologist has been

a prom inent factor in the offensive and defensive opera

tions conducted in this controversy . Every monumentdealing with the sam e subject-matter has demonstrated

the precision of the scriptural narrative. It would almost

seem that the stone has indeed cried out of the wall and

the beam out of the timber (Hab . There is pecu

liar conviction whenever the pick and spade reply to the“higher

” critic, often before his ink is dry. Hardly

had it been conclusively proved” that Moses antedated

any and all possibility of a formal code of law than the

code of Hammurabi (Amraphel) hy e hundred years olderthan Moses , was discovered. Thereupon one of these

(alleged ) scholars observed that Moses had copied hissystem from the other, failing to observe the fundam entaldissim ilarity of the one from the other. This unfortunatesuggestion called forth the remonstrance of his co

critics , because they said that by adm itting that Mosesever wrote anything, their whole position was prejudiced,and they engaged in a brawl on thi s point. (Be it knownthat there is no concord between these so-called scholars ,and each is certain that he is right and that all the othersare wrong : their only agreem ent being that they are all

right so far as the Bible is concerned. ) One of the inci

dentals of this particular discussion regarding these codesis that A braham was thereby rescued from the quasirespectable society of Cressida, Dido , and other mythological characters ; and the lately discredited Amrapheland his three kingly companions (Gen.

“who

never existed, were reinstated in good standing in the

inner circle of historical characters . Suffice to say that

thi s is a fair instance of the state of the destructive critic1n v1ew of the disagreeable frequency with which the

contemporary remains demonstrate the inerrancy of the

Word o f God.

8 The Bible .

Criticism is a legitim ate system, and th is includes

higher” criticism in the technical sense, as well as

“lower”

criticism .

‘The reproach wh ich the “higher

” school has tobear comes from the fact that its m ethod of operationwas seiz ed upon by Astruc, Eichorn,

Graf , Wellhausen,

Kuenen,and their ilk for the dissemination of their in

fidel propaganda, and they have given more energy totheir publicity agents than they have to their

“scholarship” With certain exceptions, it is a characteristicof scriptural doctrines of any moment that they unfold

slowly and by virtue of Christian patience and study. In

proceeding to the end of removal of alleged discrepanciesin the text , it is natural that criticism would make slowprogress, as in the case of doctrines other than that of inerrancy (John Josh . In fact, it is in favorof inerrancy that it should develop in the sam e manneras do most other doctrines . The important things to notehere are, first, that apparent discrepancies, When honestlyconsidered by the scholar, have never in a single instanceturned out to involve a contradiction (Matt . 22 :23-33 ;John 7 :40-42 ) second

,that the progress of scholarsh ip

tends to discover the solution of one passage after anotherfrom tim e to time

,and these solutions invariably remove

the basis for any charge of discrepancy in each giveninstance ( 1 Pet. 1 :10 We can merely state the fore

going proposition, for we have neither the space nor the

qualifications requisite to enlarging upon thi s part of the

inquiry.

Fulfilled prophecy declares the Word to be inerrant .Prophecy is h istory related in advance. While the right

to guess or to reason as to what another day m ay bringforth is reserved to man

,with a mathematically unchang

ing,contingent probability of fulfillm ent, it is only with

God that there is no succession of tim e,and with Him

only does the panorama of eternity manifest itself as an

eternal present (John We do not understand th is

The Book

any more than we understand many other things which weknow to be true . I have one chance in two to correctlyforetell the outcom e of tom orrow’s weather ; but it isreadily apparent that I cannot even guess as to what unborn persons, acting under unforeseeable conditions, withunknown agencies, and for unheard of ends

,will do after

the lapse of a number of years . Yet this latter class ofevents, to occur often hundreds of years later, are foretold in the Bible with unfailing accuracy and certainty,events whose fulfillment often came through persons ignorant of the Bible ( Isa. 45 :1 or hostile to its mes

sage (D an. events wh ich in many cases theWriter did not comprehend ( 1 Pet .

-12 ; John1 1 :49

Som e examples of these prophecies are : Those concerning the dispersion (Deut. 37 ; Lev.

-35)concerningAssyria

’s fate (Nahum ) Persia, Alexander,etc. , (D an. 8 ) concerning the destruction of Tyre

(Ez ek. 26) concerning Titus’ siege of Jerusalem (Luke

21 :5, 6, 20-24) and the Messianic prophecies,i. e. ,virgin

birth (Isa. birthplace (Mic . price of be

trayal ('ech . sm itten on the cheek (Mic.crucifixion (Psa . 22 :14 not a bone broken (Psa .

resurrection (Psa . and scores of others .

only through the dictation of God who alone knows theend from the beginning (Isa . 10) could the writersof the Bible haveaccomplished this . It follows that fromthe direction of God

,who makes no m istakes , inerrancv

must result.Christ’s statements as to anything should be sufficient

authority . He is God (“

John and infra ) and is omniscient (John His statements may be accepted asfinal (Matt . He taught the Old Testament toHis disciples (Luke and also to others (Luke24:25 He testified to Moses and the prophets (Luke16:29-31 ) and declared that all the law and the prophets

10 The Bible

prophesied (Matt. He stated that the Psalm swere concerning Him (Luke that David was inspired by the Holy Ghost (Mk . and that “theS cripture cannot be broken

”

(John He re

ferred to a large number of Old Testament events asliteral facts : for example

Creation of Mankind, Mk . 10Noah and the Flood, Matt . 24:37-39 ;D estruction of Sodom , Luke

Judgm ent on Lot’

s Wifey Luke 17Moses at th e Burning Bush,

Mk .

Manna from Heaven, JohnD avid and the Shewbread, Matt . 12Solomon and the 'ueen of Sheba, Matt.

Fam ine in Israel in Elijah’

s tim e, Luke

Jonah’

s A dventure and Preaching, Matt.

41 ;Naam an

’

s Cleansing, LukeMurders o f A bel and 'echariah, Matt

The New Testam ent was not written until afterChrist’s ascens1on,

but it had His authorization. Referring to the need of a further revelation

,He said that

there were many th ings yet to be spoken through the

guidance of the Holy Spirit (John Specialauthority was given to certain ones to be His witnesses

(John John Acts 6,15-17 ; Rev.

and see also Gal. 1 Cor. Eph .

Rev. Luke “from the very first”

=am ea = 'literally'“from The books of the

New Testament bear on their faces the evidence that thewriters were following this sanction in writing (Chap .

2,infra) , and that the text is given by inspiration.

Lastly, the Bible appears as a witness in its own behalf , and its testimony is of two kinds . First, we havesom e real and circumstantial evidence based upon the

Book itself as an exhibit . Second,we have the witness

of the statements found on its pages . The mere fact ofits existence is real evidence of its inerrancy (Matt.

The Book 1 1

24 Under like circum stances ,“

any book which was

not inerrant would have ceased to exist al together or

would have been preserved only by antiquaries as the discredited relic of a past age . It has defended itself for

centuries against the attacks of edicts , orders of councils,bans and bulls , the ridicule of atheists and infidels, theperversions of false creeds and teachers , and the assaults

of rationalists and skeptics .“Certain marginal notes and

comm entaries,it is true

, yielded to the intensity of the

fiery tes t,but without detrim ent to the smallest syllable

that had flam ed from the pen of insp iration”

(Earth’

s

Holocaust, Hawthorne ) . We now hnd it read univer

sally and translated into about five hundred languages anddialects . It is the foundation of the literature o f m ostcivilized nations . Its m essage is adapted to every changing age and condition (Psa . Isa . Jer.

1 Pet.

Whence but from H edveh could men un

skill’

d in arts ,In several ages born,

in several parts ,Weave such agreeing truths . Or how, or why,S hould all conspire to cheat as with a lie ?Unas k

’

d their pains, ungrateful their advice,S tarvih g their gains, and martyrdom their

prwe.

(Religio Laici, D ryden. )

The literarym erit contained in the style and subjectmatter of the Book makes up a bit of strong circum stan

tial evidence, derived from the Bible itself,in favor o f its

inerrancy . In order to meet the literary scholar ’s requirem ents , a production must have unity

,variety

,coherence,

and symm etry . A skillful author, fortified with the requisite preparation

,information, and education, often com

poses something which will in some degree meet thesetests. The circum stances attending the writing of the

Bible were unique : It claim s about forty authors , and is

12 The Bible

composed of sixty-six separate books ; and is in part in at

least four languages . Its authors did not write by com

mon design nor contemporaneously (except in a few in

stances ) , but extending over almost two thousand years .Further than that, it is quite possible that som e of its authors did not know that they were writing part of a Bibleat all. A nd it is certain

, as is stated, that some of themdid not understand their own writings ( 1 Pet.Again, much of the Bible was written by illiterate m en,

such as fishermen,tax collectors

,herdsmen, etc . With

such a state of facts, except for divine guidance, nothingunified, coherent, nor symmetrical could result and va

riety, instead of affording a refresh ing change, would tendto a bewildering, stupid, and meaningless hodge-podge .

But,wonder of wonders, we find the Bible to have perfect

unity . There is one great topic of revelation wh ich con

tinues throughout the work : This topic is Christ, and theblood

,without the shedding of wh ich there is no rem ission

(Gen. Gen. Ex . Lev. Heb .

1 Pet. 1 :18, Christ,revealed in the New Tes

tament,cam e to fulfill the Old Testament (Matt .

'

5 :17)

He is the believer’s Redeemer (Gal. 5) likethe Kins

man-Redeemer of the Law (Lev. 25 :25-28 ; Ruth 4:1-1 1 )He is the Mediator of the New Covenant (Heb.8 :8- 13 ;

and all the great Old Testament promises point toHim ; He has redeem ed us from the curse of the Law

(Gal . He is in. the first verse of the Bible

(“God

”

Elohim) and in the last verse ; and He iscom ing again (A cts By th is unity, we hnd theexplanation of the problem of how God can be just andjustify the ungodly (Rom . and the answer to the

question of the ages (Job“If a m an die

,shall he

live again?”

(Job 1 Cor .

In a unified production of so considerable extent, wemight reasonably expect to find the same style of writingand this would, after a time, become monotonous . Again

The Book 3

the unusual confronts us, and this time it is variety for

the mode of writing rapidly changes from plain discourseto the most classic phraseology. There is the poetry of

the Psalm s, the history of Samuel,‘

the b iography of the

synoptic Gospels, the account of the early Church in A cts ,the short story of Ruth , the dirge of Lam entations, theLaw of Moses, the drama of Job, the oration by Judah,

the sermons in Ecclesiastes, the personal correspondenceof Paul to Timothy, Titus and Ph ilemon

,the autobiogra

phy of Daniel, the debate of Romans,the song of Debo

rah, and other literary form s , telling of childhood, old

age, friendship, tragedy, love, disappointment,hom e, sor

row,marriage, death , peace, war, industry, nature, part

ing, religion,hatred

, joy, sin, God, heaven, and all of the

affections,sentim ents, desires , and pursuits of mankind.

No other book has such marvelous and attractive varietyin its composition.

A ll these diverse parts of the Bible are found, nevertheless, to be mutually dependent and related

, so as to

cohere one to another without explanation or artifice.

Many a book written by a single author on one subject requires more than one diversion from the topic in order to

give us the connection many a“sequel” discloses little

or no relation to its antecedent . Scripture is not only coherent through all its changes, but its different parts

—

serveto explain the whole and to develop what has gone be

fore .

‘

For example : Ruth follows Judges without any

attempt to synchronize or localize,and yet the two blend

into one whole . Judges portrays the conditions prevalent at the tim e of Ruth , while Ruth illustrates the Operation of those sam e conditions . Sim ilar coherence obtainswhere 1 Samuel resum es the synoptic narration

'left off in

Judges . Incidentally, Ruth illustrates the operation of the

Mosaic law of Leviticus 25 :47-50, and beautifully typifiesChrist as our Redeem er ; and at the sam e tim e

,it gives us

the genealogy of David, and hence of Christ. Exam ina

14 The Bible

tion of any parts of the Word will demonstrate the samecohesion.

The fourth outstanding mark of literary merit in the

Bible is a due proportion of all its parts in harmoniousrelation one to another . Nature bestows symmetry uponits creations and warns us ,

“N one genuine without this

trade—mark.

”

The Book is a constant example of sym

metry . A single illustration will suffice , and this is whatis known as the

“harm ony of the Gospels .

Matthew pictures Christ as King ; Mark depicts Himas the obedient servant ; Luke tells of His humanity as

the m an Christ Jesus ; while John shows Him as verv

God. John’s Gospel is not synoptic , and was written afterthe destruction of Jerusalem by Titus . None of the fourclaim or aim to write all that they saw or knew of Christ

(John When presenting evidence to a court orjury, precise agreement in detail and recollectionon the parto f several witness es is a suspicious circumstance, giv

ing an impression of pre-arrangement . Only the more

outstanding details present themselves to different witnesses to a given occurrence , and the minor things wh ichimpress one will not be noticed or remembered by another

(Mk. Some things will be observed by twoor by three, but not by all . So it is here ; the writerstell what they saw and remember as it impressed them .

Each one has certain peculiar events to describe . Somethings are m entioned by only two (1. e . , the Lord

’s Prayer ,Matt . —15 ; Luke Another class of happenings will be prom inent enough to be recalled by three

( i. e. , the death of John the Baptist, Matt . -10 ; Mk .

-27 Luke On the main t acts they all bear

agreeing testimony (i. e . , the ministry of John the Bap

tist,the feeding of the five thousand, Peter

’s great con

fession,Christ ’s offer o f Himself as king, the betrayal,

denial. trial, crucifixion,resurrection, and the

'

prOphecy of

the second com ing of Christ ) . A ll this convinces us of

The Book 15

trustworthy first-hand testimony on the'

part of several

witnesses .The second class of testimony by the Bible to itself ,

and the last evidence of its inerrancy wh ich we shall discuss , consists as has been stated,

in its own statementsbearing on the question of its inspiration . Irrespective of

any question of interest in the outcome of the controversy,whenever

'

an interested person is known to be a generallyreliable and truth ful individual, his testimony is acceptedwithout question by court or jury . When such a one is a

party to the action, who was on the ground at the time, his

testimony is of the highest importance and value . Now

the Bible is , by common consent generally reputable and

reliable in a high degree . There 18 therefore every logical

consideration in favor of its accuracy in this particular .Furthermore, all the details of Scripture . as such , rest

upon the same authority and are substantiated by the sam e

claim as regards Divine revelation . Th is being true, wemay just as authoritatively deny any one detail or any

number thereof , as to deny any other detail thereof and

therefore, the denial of anything involves the possible de

nial of all and the loss of all basis for our faith . One

of these details, which assumes the proportions of a majordoctrine of theWord, is its own inspiration (2 Tim .

2 Pet . 1 :16 Moreover, the claim here is to VERBALINSPIRATION (Ex . By VERBA L IN

SPIRA TION we m ean tha t the D ivih e influence

(which accompanied all the writing,and both in thought

and in word insured its infallibility, and determined the

subject-m atter and material, so that the individuality of

each writer was preserved, and yet the writing was truly

the specific utterance of God) extended to the ve ry

words them se lves . The claim to such authorityand to such accuracy 13 peculiar to the Scriptures

,and in

them is found to be so interwoven as to be of the essenceof the whole work. No other writings make any such

16

bold declaration and if they should do so, it would bescorned as profane arrogance by the Christian world,would be ridiculed as nonsense by the rest of the world,and it would bring the work and its author 1nto disreputewith all - the world. Yet

, we take it in the Bible as a mat

ter of course . Let us exam ine this doctrine .

Inspiration, if it has any purpose, is to insure an infallible record. A record

,as such , must be words or their

equivalents ; and if any intelligible m eaning is to be con

veyed to the human m ind so as to avoid error,these words

must be exactly appropriate for the purpose. Naturallythen we find that never is it said that the mind or the

ideas of any person are inspired for the purpose of writing or otherwise communicating revelation, nor that thethought of the Lord came to anybody ’s m ind

,nor that

the Lord is with the mind or intellect of anyone . If suchwere the case, an additional miracle not contemplated ma single verse of the Word, conferring upon the sacredauthors the ability to correctly analyze and transcribetheir ideas, would be essential to

‘

protect us from the frailties and deficiencies of each . Furthermore, such a situa

tion,in view of statements of

‘

the Book to the effect thatthe writers often did not understand their own wr1tings

( 1 Pet. 1 :9 would leave us in hopeless confusion. We

note, however, that in all cases “the word of the Lord

”

comes to someone, or God is with the“lips” or the

“mouth,

”

or He“speaks through the inspired person,

who

later transcribes these words which in fact are thewordsof the Lord (Num . 38 ; John -51 ; Ex .

Num . 23 :5, 12- 16; Deut . 2 Sam . Job

Psa . Isa .

-9 ; Jer. 36 ; Ezek . Hab .

'ech . Matt . Mk . Luke

24 :44, 45 ; John 17-20 ; Acts 28 :25-27 1 Cor.

1 Tim . Rev . 19 ; and many, many

others ) . This quality of inspiration extends not only to

the words in the common sense of that term ,but to gen

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18 The Bible

CHAPTER II

CA NON

The canon of the Bible is the selection of sacred bookswhich, considered as a whole, constitutes the Church ’scomplete and only rule (Kava

'w) of faith and practice. A

canonical book is authoritative, not because it is in the

canon, but because it was given by inspiration oi God,wherefore it has a place in the canon.

The P‘entateuch , written by‘Moses

, was the first division accepted (Deut . This was accepted inthe days of Joshua (Josh . by divine command.

Joshua adm ittedly added to this record (Josh .

and Samuel after him ( 1 Sam . In Isaiah ’s time

a book of the LORD”

had come to exist ( Isa.

although the Law of Moses was still the standard aboutwhich they rallied (Isa . The spirit of prophecy,characterizing Moses and Joshua

,found permanent ex

pression under Samuel in the school of the Prophets, andcontinued down to Malachi . This is not inspiration

, al

though it undoubtedly exists wherever inspiration isfound ; but it is the divine influence wh ich , m anifestingitself in all the true prophets, enabled them to discern truedivine revelation. This spirit of prophecy appears throughout all the Old Testament (Matt . 1 1 By this means,pious men tested each work as it appeared. Uninspired

writings were put forward from time to time, and were

promptly rejected as spurious (Jer. 28 ; Jer. 29 :8

Under Ezra, the Great Synagogue”was formed, which ,

under his learned and pious leadersh ip, collected and ar

ranged all the sacred books up to that tim e. From relia

ble profane historians it would seem that this body con

tinued to act for some time, and probably until the gen

cration of Ezra had completely passed away . If so, whichis likely

,all the

’

books of the Old Testam ent were cer

tainly completed in the period of this body, with the pos

The Book 19

sible exception of Malachi, which appeared and was added.to the canon some fifty years or less after Ezra .

' The Septuagint, or Greek translation, was made about 285 B . C.

and included all the Old Testament books wh ich we nowrecognize. Christ and the apostles quote from this version, and we have it today. Josephus includes just those

books which are in our Old Testam ent as the recognized

writings of the Jews . S ince Christ, Jews and Christianshave been severally the guardians of the Old Testam ent .

In this way we know that the Scriptures” wh ich

Christ taught, and from which He read,were our Old

Testament, book fOr book . Christ sanctioned these Scriptures . He testified to the infallibility of “the law and the

prophets,”

a common designation for the canon of that

day (Luke He quotes them by their generally recognized title of

“the law, the prophets and the

psalms ”

(Luke Christ censured the Jews on

many occasions for being unfaithful doers of the Scriptures (Matt . but NEVER D ID HE A CCUSE

THEM OF BEING UNFAITHFUL CUSTODIANSTHEREOF The apostles often refer to them as divinewritings (2 Tim . Acts and never dothe apostles refer to or quote any other books as being inspired. Lastly, we are told by no less an authority on theNew Testament text than Dr. Brooke F. Westcott

,that

the writers thereof either by reference, quotation or in

corporation of phraseology have included parts of all of

the books of the Old Testament in some portion. or otherof the New.

This brings us to an inquiry into the canon of our

New Testament and its settlem ent . In the first place,there are the four Gospels to be considered. In the pre

ceding chapter we have seen the harm ony of the Gospelsvery briefly referred to . This literary characteristic, i fpursued further, clearly demonstrates that we have fourindependent accounts by eyewitnesses . The narratives in

20 The Bible

them selves demonstrate that they are by eyewitnesses

(Mk . 14:50-52 ; Mark and Peter ) . Yet they are separate accounts , as the numerous apparent differences (suchas the inscription on the cross

,etc . ) all demonstrate .

Careful study reconciles these surface dissimilarities sothat no contradiction is involved. Study also brings outwhat are called “

undesigned coincidences,”which by

showing the unintentional agreement of the writers provestheir accuracy . (A n interesting work but rather largefor common use is Blunt’s Undesz

’

gned Coih cidences . )Whether such considerations affected the early Christians or not

,we cannot say ; but it is certain that these

four books were promptly and universally accepted.

The Old Testament was directly delivered to the

Jewish people as the books from time to time made theirappearance ; while on the contrary

,the New Testament

books were, in the majority of cases, scattered about,as

sent to the different churches . D ifi erent ones of the

apostles were then living and actually present with manyof the diff erent churches , and these churches were qualified therefore to judge as to the inspiration of writingswhich came under their observation. IN NO INSTANCEdid any individual church reject a book which we now ac

cept . There was delay in having all the books universally

accepted,but delay does not constitute rejection. Of

course, the church at one place, while not rejecting, would

hesitate to accept an epistle to some other church withouthaving the opportunity to judge its qualifications by a per

sonal exam ination. There were no registered mails in

those days,and possession of Christian writings for the

first two centuries was often a dangerous thing so that

the complete and safe transm ission of these books for ex

am ination was not easily accomplished. In the course of

the first three centuries, the various churches had ample

opportunity to examine all the books, and then it was

that the canon was recogniz ed universally . as we have it

The Book

now. To this the church fathers and the early versions

bear agreeing testimony.

It is interesting to note that John’s Gospel, written

after ’

most of the other books were completed, contains

the plain statement by the Lord that the further revela

t1on of inspired truth was comm itted to those Who were

His companions or who saw Him present in the flesh

(John -15 John This had been stated

already in Hebrews 2 :1-4, which Scripture, together withmany other of the books , must have been known to John

(and therefore impliedly sanctioned by him ) , for theywere already fam iliar to Peter and approved by him (2Pet.

Let us now see if the writers of our New Testament

saw Christ in the flesh . Matthew, John, James, Peter, andJude were of His disciples (Matt . Mark.

nephew of Barnabas (Col . son of Mary, one of theearliest Christians (Acts manifestly saw Christ,as one vivid incident of his book indicates (Mk. 14:50-52)Paul had a special revelation of the Lord (A cts 26:14-18 ;l -Cor. Gal . and so apparently did Luke

(Luke“from the

'

very first,” is the Greek word

c’

ivmeev, which is literally“from above,

”

as in JamesThis includes the entire list of New Testament authors .

The book of Revelation clearly closed the canon. In

all the Bible, the claim is that each portion as written becomes an integral part of the whole which preceded it . It

follows that the anathema 111 Revelation 19,upon

anyone adding to or taking from“the words of the

book of this prophecy”

applies to all Scripture priorthereto, and precludes further writings .In conclusion,

we summarize by calling attention to

the fact that thel

versions of the Old Testam ent and theevidence therefor

,together with the New Testam ent

, es

tablish the correctness of the Old Testament canon as we

have it now. The canon of the New Testam ent was fully

22 TheBible

established by the early churches ; and, to paraphrase thewords of the Rev. A . R . Fausset, it is clear that this canonis correct, not because the churches COULD not err, but

because, as a matter of fact , they D ID not err.

“Thy tes timonies are wonderful” (Psa.

CHAPTER III

VERSIONS

Versions of the Scriptures have been numerous,their

occasions have been manifold, and they have been a val

uable feature in the life of the church . A discussionalong general lines would be unprofitable at this time.

however, for the reason that we use the Authoriz ed , orKing Jam es , Version almost altogether, and our concernis with it only . In connection with th is last version,

thereare two questions : first, How did we get it ? and, second,What have we now that we have it ?Prior to the sixteenth century there were few English

Bibles accessible to . the common people . Most of these

were from the Latin Vulgate of Jerome, and that ofWyclifi e is the best known. When England joined the Protestant reformation

,the language of Wycliffe was largely

obsolete, so that other renditions were required. Thesewere soon furnished, using the versions extant and any

available manuscripts . The best known of these are the

versions of Tyndale, Coverdale, Cranmer the GenevaBible

,and the Bishops ’ Bible . Th e Bishops Bible was so

called because it was produced largely by the etIorts of

the English bishops, and it was the first version to be au

thoriz ed by the established church . This work appeared

about 1570. Early in the seventeenth century, KingJam es I was requested to give a new translation. . A t this

time, the Geneva and Bishops ’ Bibles were the ones in

most general use . Fifty-four scholars were intrusted

with the work . The Bishops’ Bible was to be followed so

The Book 23

far as the original would perm it, although the other ver

sions were to be used as auxiliary to the work, and such

manuscripts as were available were the official documentsetnployed. This version,

which we now use,was pub

lished in 161 1 , and gradually superseded the others . Its

style is remarkable, and it has been the English literarystandard almost since its publication.

The remammg 1nqu1ry as stated is as to what we havein the A uthoriz ed

.

Version, now that we have it . Th isinvolves a discussion of translations . Let us inspect theOld Testament first. As stated in the preceding chapter, it has been in the custody of the Jewish nation con

tinuously since the time of Ez ra . Now remember that theJews were taken over by Rom e in toto as an existing na

tion, and so recognized by Rome, and were given a kingby Rom e

,who was Herod in the tim e of Christ . Irre

spective of the terrible punishment given the Jews byTitus in A . D . 70, they were never subjected to the vicissitudes to which the Christians were . They were enabledthrough all their trials to preserve their Scriptures in un

broken succession. These Scriptures , as was seen in our

discussion of the Old Testam ent canon, were sanctionedby Christ and the New Testam ent inspired writers ascorrect. To add to this we have the Septuagint Versionof B . C. 285. This version

,while containing inaccuracies ,

was so trustworthy that the Holy Spirit often used it inquoting the Old Testam ent upon the pages of the New .

Furthermore, it was, of course, translated from the old

originals of the canon of the“Great Synagogue .

” A stillfurther check on this translation will be found in the

numerous extant “Targum s .” These are the paraphrases,

made from time to tim e,from Ez ra to a late date, because

of the change in the character of the Hebrew language .

This change had come about from several sources, but

arose primarily in the fact that during the seventy yearscaptivity, the Jews generally acquired the use of the

24 The Bible

Aramaic as spoken at Babylon. A s the result of the opportunity.

afforded by these different means for safe

guarding the translation, we are in a position, as reliablescholars advise us, to accept the Old Testament of the

King James Version as fully accurate and reliable to themost remarkable degree.

The translation of the New Testam ent depends uponthe textual criticism

,by scholars, of the existing manu

scripts, versions and quotations by the early fathers , so as

to approximate the original text . The originals were destroyed in various ways , much as books and letters arelost or worn out today. Copies of them were made from

time to time, however, and they were well known to theearly fathers and by them liberally quoted . Parchmentwas expensive and scarce in those days , and the use or

possession of Christian writings was dangerous . Therewas little chance, therefore, of deliberate imposition. Peo

ple do not spend their money and theirlabor to perpetuate things which they do not believe in, when they will

get nothing but reproach out of it, with the probability ofpaying the penalty of their lives it discovered. Ou the

other hand, sincere persons do not do such things in an

insincere or haphaz ard way. So we have every reason to

believe that the copyists in practically every case were

acting honestly and carefully . This alone does not in

sure against inadvertence or occasional m istake . When

we consider, however, that we have two manuscripts of

the fourth century (the Sinaitic and the Vatican) , whichcontain respectively, all of the text, and all but the latterpart of Hebrews and on to the end, and four of the fifth

century, seven of the sixth, etc. , all of primary importance,

and many partial MSS . of lesser importance, so that there

are over a thousand MSS . in all, we realize how little

chance there is that the same inadvertence or m istake

would happen inmany MSS ., except where derived from a

common source having the same error, which would not

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PA RT TWO

UND ERSTA N D ING THE BOOK

CHAPTER I

INTERPRETING THE BOOK

N order to understand the Bible, we must find out

how to interpret its words (2 Pet . In thisinquiry we shall observe just three things . In the

first place, as was observed in our first chapter,“The

natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God :

for they are foolishness to him : neither can he know them ,

because they are spiritually discerned”

( 1 Cor.

This is true because “the carnal m ind is at enmity against

God : for it is not subject to the law of God, neither ihdeed can be

”

(Rom . So then, the first step towardscorrectly interpreting the BOOk is a personal acceptanceof Jesus Christ and a conform ity to His will. Understanding will follow obedience . Our Lord stated thiswhen He said

,

“My doctrine is not m ine, but his that

sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of thedoctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak ofmyself

”

(John 7 :16,In the second place, the reader must wait for. the Holy

Spirit to impart the true m eaning. He is the greatteacher ( 1 Cor. as Christ told His disciples (John

In th is respect, as in many of the other of thefinest of our Christian experiences

,we must wait pa

tiently and prayerfully on the Lord.

“I wait for Jehovah,

my soul doth wait, and in his word is my hope”

(Psa .

130

Unders tah ding the B0 0k

Lastly, as we have seen in an earlier chapter, it isthe .words and not merely the ideas of the sacred writerswhich we must seek to interpret (John Thesewords mean jus t wha t they say. Thi s IS no idle epigram ;but by the use of ordinary common sense it may be applied in our task The words of any document are to betaken in their ordinary and commonly accepted meaningin such a docum ent,' except that technical words and

phrases and those having a special significance by established usage are to be given the force of their respectivetechnical or special meanings . Hence, in the prose narrative of A cts 1 :1 1 , when the disciples are told that

“this

same Jesus,which is taken up from you into heaven,

shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into

heaven,”

these words m ean that THIS SAME JESUSWHICH IS TAKEN UP FROM YOU INTO HEA VEN

,SHALL SO COME IN LIKE MANNER A S YE

HA VE SEEN HIM GO INTO HEAVEN . So, in the

prose narrative of 1 Kings where we are told that.

“A sa slep t with his fathers,

” it neither means that A sawas enjoying natural sleep, nor that he had two or m oremale parents , for this phrase has a well known specialsignificance by established usage in Scripture . So,

whenLongfellow wrot e in Evangeline,“S ilently, one by one, in the infinite m eadows of heaven,

Blossom ed the lovely stars, the forget-me-h ots of the

angels,”

it neither follows that‘

he believed that the stars were necessarily

=silent,nor that the celestial firmam ent was a

meadow,non tha-t stars grow and blossom

,nor that the

angels pick them for nosegays ; nor does it follow that hewas a liar when he wrote these lines . For the

‘

ordinary

and commonly accepted meaning in such a document

(nam ely, in poetry ) of these words, 1eaves no doubt inourm inds as to the exact meaning of the verse . Now the

28 The Bible

Bible contains not only prose, but also poetry, oratory,song, and many other form s of literary composition, as

we have seen in an earlier chapter and in every case, inaccordance with the explanation just given,

the words ofthe text mean JUST WHA T THEY SA Y (LukeThat the conclusion just reached is correct, is evident

when we consider it in the light of the discussion of IN

ERRANCY in a preceding chapter . Science accords withthe plain meaning of the words ; archaeology demonstratesthe literal correctness of the historical narratives ; whileprophecy has always been fulfilled in an event word forword in accordance with the prediction. Here we notethat all the Old Testament is prophetic (Matt .and much of the New is manifestly prophetic also . A ll

fulfilled prophecy having been fulfilled to the word, it follows that all the prophetic Old Testament, and the prophecies in the New , will be fulfilled to the word. I t the

text mani fested any difference in the form of these twoclasses of prophecies

,we could not speak with confidence ;

but it does not . Fulfilled and unfulfilled prophecy, whet '

ever they coincide in the Old or New Testaments , are

intermingled without distinction in any detail, even to theextent of being found together in one sentence ( Isa.

2, and see LukeWe arrive at the inevitable conclus1on from all this , that

historical narratives always detail literal h istory, although

we may draw evident morals and lessons from the text

and that prophecy always predicts events to have a literal

fulfillm ent,although perhaps there was a moral lesson

Which the hearers of the prediction derived from the lan

gauge used (as in the case of the prophecy o f the de

struction of Nineveh in the book of Jonah ) , and whichmay likewise be profitable to us . Many things in the

Scriptures are types of th ings to follow (Hagar of the

Law, Gal . but that does not spiritualize away

the literal signification, but the primary interpretation

Understanding the B0 0k 29

must prevail, and other meanings must be secondary . For

the words of the Bible mean JUSTWHA TTHEY SA Y.

“Open than m ine eyes, that I may behold wondrous

things out of thy law”

(Psa .

CHAPTER II

GOD IN THE BOOK

In chapter'III of A Child’

s His tory of England, byCharles Dickens , the author tells us of a certain MAN .

As we read further in the chapter, we find that it concerns a certain KING.

‘

Yet again, we note that the sub

jcet-matter relates variously to a MONARCH , to one

RICHARD,to a ROYAL MASTER,

to a PRINCE,

and even to a BROTHER. Th is person 15 referred to inone place as a warrior,

“RICHARD OF THE LION ’

S

HEART”

; but in another place, he is a POET and a

MUSICIAN . It is at once clear that all these referencesare to King Richard the First of England ; and the different term s employed are necessary words

“

to indicatehis being, office, station,

name, authority, birth ,relation

ships and personal characteristics . Instead of producingconfusion

,Dickens has revealed the man to us in all his

essential details ;This all rem inds one of the Bible. In the first verse of

Genesis we find “God

”m entioned in connection with His

all-powerful existence and being. A gain'

we hnd Him as

“Lord” (Master ) , the Master of creation (Psa.

He is spoken of by His name “Jehovah” in

the King James Version : all capitals ) in_

Exodusand in many other places . Again He is the warrior, the“LORD of Hosts” (Psa . Sometimes ‘His attri

butes characterize the designation as“The Almighty

God”

(Gen. The Most High God (Gen.

“The Everlasting God

”

(Gen. 21 In the New Tes

30 The Bible

tam ent the Persons of His being are expressed by “the

Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit ” (Matt . 28 Irr

stead of producing confusion, these references , with the

context, should reveal Deity to us in all essential details.The understanding of thi s is one of the prim ary steps inunderstanding the Bible. If we fail to find God in the

Book, revealed through Jesus Christ our Lord, we havefa iled to comprehend its m essage (Heb . Luke24:44

, 45 ; JohnSome foolish people have tried to tell us that because

Deity has so many designations, particularly in the Pentateuch, therefore several different persons wrote the

Pentateuch and that each one used the terminology forhis im agination of God wh ich constituted his own traditional concept of a suprem e being. Also

,they say that

Moses was just the ideal composite of the editor (or re

dactor) who supervised the work, and that he neverreally existed.

“Very well, then,Dickens ’ Child’s His tory

of England had as many writers as there are d esignations for Richard I in chapter 'III ; each one gives ushis traditional concept of a King, who never really ex

isted ; and Dickens was not a real person, but only theideal composite of all the editors who collected these ac

counts” (Why ? when ? where ? who -We do not

know . Pray do not embarrass us With questions ) .

“But,

” they reply,“we know from other sources that

both Richard and Dickens existed,and that Dickens wrote

this history .

” “Verily, then,we know that the God of the

Old Testament lives and that Moses wrote the Pentateuch

,for one who was present during all that time has

told us so, and this is none other than God in the second

Person,Jesus Christ our Lord” (Mk . 10 ; Mk. 12 :26

Luke -3 1 ; John —47 ; Luke Whatwicked nonsense these self-styled scholars would have us

swallow'(Psa .

Now then let us look at two important things in con

Understanding the B0 0k 1

nection with the subj ect of th is chapter : First, thetriune nature of God second

,the way in wh ich God

is manifested to individuals . God is a Trinity. Thereare three persons in the Godhead (Matt . the

Father, who is'

God (John John the Son, who

is God (John John Isa . Col. 17,

and many other proof texts in all parts of the Book) , andthe Holy Spirit, who is

'

a person (John and others ) ,and is God (John Rom . Luke Rom .

1 Cor. These three persons are one

God (Matt. 28 :19— note that we have the “nam e

”of one

God,not the nam es of three) . Th is is an Old Testam ent

as well as a New Testam ent truth , and to cite all the evi

dence would be to read the whole Bible. The seli -cousisteney of the Book here is no m ore evident anywherethan in connection with the creation account : “

Ih the be

ginning, God created the heavens and the earth”

(A ndscholars tell us that the Hebrew for God in Genesisis Elohim , a plural form , but NOT the plural which theHebrew uses to denote MORE THAN ONE God) . Yet

in the New Testam ent we find that it is Christ who is theCreator (John Col. 1 In Genesis 27,

we read that God said, Let as make man in our

image. S 0 God created man in h is own

image male and female created he them .

”

Only one inference is_possib1e from the words “us,

” “our,

“his,

”

and“he

”

in these verses— Christ is God. Lastlynote the use of “I” and

“us ,

”in Isaiah, chapter 6, verse 8 :

“I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I

send, and who will go for as . Isaiah saw Christ at

this time (John but it was the Holy Spirit

who spoke to him (Acts 28 :25-27Secondly

,let us note how it is that God manifests

Him self to individuals .“N 0 man ha th seen God at any

time ; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of theFather, he hath declared him

”

(John“hath de

32 The Bible

clared 'Eng derivative, exegesis hathmade an exposition Now Abraham saw God (Gen.

Gen. Moses sawGod (Ex . and

Isaiah saw God ( Isa . Clearly the reference inJohn (supra) , is to God the Father . Now from the

very nature of things, God the Holy Spirit, being spirit inthe essence of His person,

could not be seen by mortaleyes . Manifestly

,it must have been Christ whom Abra;

ham , Moses and Isaiah saw, as is plainly stated in the

case of Isaiah (John Moreover,it was the

“LORD” Whom Isaiah saw ; it was to Moses that Godappeared for the first tim e by His name Jehovah (orLORD ) it was the

“LORD, we are told, who ap

peared to Abraham ,although as The Almighty God. Now

all the Old Testam ent appearances of God,when the con

text is exam ined, appear to refer to the same person. It'

then any one of these theophanies is identified with t hesecond Person of the Godhead, the others must necessarily be Christ as well. Taking up the words of the

New Testament on this subject (John we con

elude that every manifestation of God to an individual isin the person of Christ . Hence, it follows that every appearance of God to act for the redemption of His creatures

,whether in mak ing them a covering for the sin in

Eden (Gen. or in delivering Jacob from Esau

(Gen. or in delivering the children of Israel fromEgypt (Ex . or in redeem ing us by His bloodshed for our sins (Col . is in the person of

Christ. 5 0 then we hnd that God, in the form of Christ,is the active agent of our salvation in all ages . This truth

believed and received, as we read our Bible, will bless

the reading to us as the Holy Spirit teaches us the m es

sage.

“Search the scrip tures for in them ye think ye have

eternal life: and they are they which tes tify of me. A nd

ye will not come to me,that ye m ight have life

”

(John

5

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34 The Bible

we must conclude that its nurture and growth will com e

about when we, as Christians,seek to apprehend that

faith which in every age has characterized those whothereby obtained the record that they pleased God ( 1Pet . Acts Let us exam ine this subjectfurther.When man was first created

,he was innocent (Gen.

and God’s desire for him was to give him dom inion

over the earth (Gen. 1 :28 -30) There was one command :that man abstain from the fruit of the tree of the knowl

edge of good and evil (Gen. This requirementmight, perhaps , have been enforced by som e form of

constraint ; but it was not . The only thing asked in thisrespect was willing obedience

,which only proceeds from

faith by the one who obeys in the one requiring obe

dience. We never willingly respond to the request of anyone in whom we lack faith

,unless under some form of

direct or indirect compulsion. Now,Adam was not de

ceived ( 1 Tim . as was Eve, but he deliberatelybroke faith with God (Gen. By this means

,sin

and death entered the world ( 1 Cor. and a

new basis of dealing with man became necessary .

In spite of the curse brought on the race by lack of

faith (Gen. 3 :16 the LORD made a great prom iseto Adam of the Redeemer who should come, the firstprom ise of C hrist (Gen. God desired that man

kind should exhibit righteousness (2 Pet . and Hisdealing with man was on an individual basis . Faith con

sisted in man’s doing rightly and, for any fault , in pre

senting the blood ofi’ering (Gen. 5 ; Heb . God

had already revealed the need o f an offering, when byshedding the blood of animals in order to make a covering

-for the nakedness (the manifestation or confessionof the sin) of Adam and Eve (Gen. He indicated that without the shedding of blood there is no t e

m is sion or covering for sin (Heb . Man again

Unders tanding the B0 0 k 35

manifested a lack of faith by unwillingness to obey God

(Gen. until it once more becam e necessary to re

establish the basis of dealing with the race (Gen.

The third age began with the establishment of the

seasons after the Flood (Gen. and like the second,

started with a great prom ise to Noah and his descendants (oi whom we are a part

,as in the case of the prom

ise to Adam ) that the earth would never again be destroyed by a flood

,that the seasons should be perpetu

ally fruitful, and that the government of the earth shouldthereafter be in the hands of the race as a whole (Gen .

Punishm ent by society, which was theretofore expressly withheld, as in the case of Cain (Gen.

was expressly conferred as the type of the

highest form of governmental function (Gen. God

still desired that mankind should exh ibit righteousnessby faith (Heb . but He now dealt with man col

lectively, and nations first appeared on the earth (Gen.

As in the preceding age , lack of faith soon became the characteristic of the times

,except that it ap

peared in national form (Gen.

-4) with the conse

quence that the presumptious nations must be dispersed

(Gen. and a further basis of dealing adopted.

In the second and third ages , we have seen man

dealt with individually and collectively, and neither hasbeen a success

,because of lack of faith on man’s part,

faith being then as ever the great requirem ent . God

now chose a single man, from whom was to descend a

chosen race (Gen. 17 :1 This race was to be the

recipient of the revelation upon which the faith for thecom ing age would be based (Rom . That faithwas based upon the new promise or covenant wh ichGod made with Abraham (Gen.

-3 ; -18 ;

17 :6-8 ; and In this unconditional covenant

(Gal. the LORD prom ised blessing to Abraham

,to his posterity, and to the whole race (Gen.

36 The Bible

12 :1-3 ) a great natural posterity (Gen. a greatspiritual posterity (Gen. Rom . and the

land of Canaan as a perpetual inheritance (Gen.

This covenant called for faithful submission to its promise, and abiding thereunder, with the shedding of bloodas the unchanging requirement for the remission of sin

(Gen. as in all ages . A nd when finally the ch ildren of Israel persisted in leaving the land to wh ichAbraham was sent in the covenant (Gen. and in

going to Egypt, the last place to which they should have

gone (Gen. their faith had so far gone that theyforsook the promises and chose instead a covenant ofworks, by the doing of which they m ight live (Ex .

Thereby they abandoned the benefit of the promises, andGod perforce must deal with them on a new basis .Now the Law did not disannul the promise to Abra

ham , made four hundred thirty years earlier (Gal . 3but the children of Israel chose to live under law ratherthan under prom ise (Ex . The Law,

the covenantof works, consists essentially of the Ten Commandm ents

(Ex . 20 :3- 17 and is conditional (whereas the other

great promises of the Scriptures are all unconditional)upon obedience to the whole law (Ex . 19 :5-8 ; Jam es

1 John which was and is a condition which

nobody can ever satisfy (Rom . 3 :20-23 Psa.

Faith,therefore, consisted not in sinless compliance

with the condition of the covenant, nor in the formal

offerings of the Mosaic code, but rather in the sincere

ofi ering of the broken and contrite heart, whereby Godis pleased with the ofi erings ; and not otherwise (Psa .

In other words, faith is simply believing God’s

revelation (Hab . 2 In spite of all the failures and

the faithless conduct of God’s people, this age continued

until Christ was offered once for all,“one sacrifice for

sins forever ”

(Heb . Now where remission of

sins is, there is no more offering for sins (Heb :

Unders tanding the Book 37

so that the conditional covenant of works must give wayto the prom ises to f aithful Abraham , to which all childrenof God are heirs (Gal. 3 :26Now grace came by Jesus Christ (John and

grace is unmerited favor bestowed by faith through theredemption that is in Chriét Jesus (Rom . 3 :21 A nd

so,with the complete revelation which we have in the

Word, we have a new covenant (Heb . betterthan the other wh ich was the covenant of works (Heb .

based on Christ’s sacrificial death on the . cross

(Heb . prom ising to every believer justificationby faith (Rom . and made efficacious by the

blood of Jesus (Heb . Wherefore, if we believe God and receive this covenant

,which is revealed to

us in His Word, we are accounted righteous,“Even as

A braham believed God,and it was accounted to him for

righteousness”

(Gal. A nd this is the good news

for us of this age, the grace wherein we stand, by wh ichalso we are saved ( 1 Cor. 15 :1

But are these six ages all ? Or do we find another yetto come ? Let us see . God prom ised to Abraham thathis seed - should possess all the land from the river of

Egypt to the great river Euphrates , and this they havenot yet done (Gen. God said that the ch ildren of

Israel should be scattered “among all people, from the

one end of the earth even unto the other”

(Deut . 28 :64 and God made a great unconditional prom ise,that after all these th ings are come to pass , He will returnand will regather Israel to the land prom ised to Abraham ,

and there will be great national prosperity (Deut .The Hebrews are now scattered, and that part is nowbeing fulfilled, so that the other part , promising the

restoration, is still future . We further see another greatprom ise of Scripture, the one to David

,unconditionally

covenanting that his throne should be established forever (2 5am . This prom i se is confirmed

,re

38 The Bible

garding Jesus , to Mary,the descendant of David (Luke

and obviously has not yet been fulfilled. A ll

through the Old Testam ent, and particularly in the

Prophets, and in parts of the New Testament,reference

is made to this return and the splendor of the Jews, and

to a righteous rule of a Divine King ; and some time thiswill com e to pass . This will be the seventh age, when a

“King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgm ent and jus tice in the earth— and this is his nam e

whereby he shall be called,THE LORD OUR RIGHT

EOUSNES (Jer. 23 :5, when “the leopard shall lie

down with the kid ; and the calf and the young lion and

the fatling together and a little child shall lead them”

( Isa . when “they shall beat their swords

‘

into

plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks— neither

shall they learn war any m ore”

(Mic.A ll the Bible will naturally fall into one of these

seven ages , chronologically, and them eaning to be given

to the text will become clearer when considered in the

light of the special revelation regarding that particular

S tudy to show thyself approved unto God, a work

man that needeth not to be ashamed,rightly dividing the

word of trnt (2 Tim .

PA RT TH R EE

SA LVA TION IN THE BOOK

CHAPTER I

THE LA W

HE Law came by Moses (John and constitutes the condition of the covenant of works . Thiscondition

,by the perform ing of wh ich one m ay

live (Rom . consists of the Decalogue (Ex . 20 :

3 Immediately following the Commandments,we

find the judgm ents, - wh ich are not a part of the conditionof the covenant, but wh ich constitute the penalties forthe m isdeeds o i the people under the law (Ex . 21 , 22, 23 ,

et seq. ) Thence from place to place in the Pentateuch .

and particularly in Leviticus (Lev . 16,et al . ) we hnd the

ceremonial enactments , constituting the religious codeunder the law . These three

,the Law proper , the judg

ments, and the ceremonial enactments , taken together,constitute the Law of Moses as that term is used in general (Acts 14; LukeThere are four observations which we shall make in

this chapter : The first one is , that the law is“holy and just

and good”

(Rom . Its very operation demonstratesth is

,forby the law is the knowledge of sin (Rom .

and the law judges sin (Rom . Hence,by the law

,

sin is revealed and judged. This is just, for the reasonthat sin intrinsically is ill deserving, and requires punishment in exact proportion to its heinousness (Dent .

Psa . 5 ; Jer. Rom . 2 Thess .Wherefore, the doers of the law shall be justified by it

(Rom . and it is not made death unto anyone ; but

39

40 The Bible

sin, revealed by the law, is thereby disclosed in its true

sinful character, by virtue of sin’s working death in the

sinner by the“holy and just and good

”

law (Rom .

7 :7

Secondly, we'

note that sin hath reigned unto death

(Rom . This is true, as the Bible says (Rom .

not because God has orda ined sin unto death,for

God is not willing that any should perish (2 Pet .

Ez k. but because the Bible states what is the indisputable fact, that ALL HAVE SINNED (Isa.

Wherefore the law could not justi fy anybody, in that itis weak through the flesh (Rom .

Thirdly, we observe that the fulfillment of the penalties and judgments provided in the Pentateuch will neversatisfy the gu ilt of sin. Comm on sense tells us this

,for

punishment is never restitution,and the burnt child, al

though forgiven, still bears the scar of the burn receivedthrough disobedience. A nd the teaching of the Bible isuni form that punishm ent for sin is eternal and penal

,not

correct ive (Matt .In the fourth place, let us consider the function of

the ceremonial ordinances . The law,wh ile it did not

justify anyone, as we have seen, yet had a m eans of

escape through faith , as we saw in a form er chapter . Th isfaith consisted in bringing the offering commanded in the

ceremonial law,accompanied by faith in God’s revelation

through Moses, and a heart repentant and sorrowing for

sin (Psa . Most im portant am ong the ceremonials

was the sin ofi ering, always accomplished by the sheddingof blood (Lev. without which there is no rem ission

(Heb. These ofi erings could never satisfy the

guilt of sin (Psa. 17 ; Heb . but they

were the subj ect-matter revealed for the exercise of faith

and thereby served as a covering for sin until Christ

should come to make full atonement (Heb . In fact,we are told, as one may see, that the Hebrew word

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42 The Bible

comes foolish, and he changes the glory of God intoan image like unto corruptible flesh (Rom . 11 2 1 Hisoperations, pursuant to th is development, are likewisesure : he is abandoned in all his pursuits to an uncleanheart, to vile actions , and to a reprobate m ind (Rom . 1 :

24,26, Finally, the result of this developm ent is

sure : he is condemned by h im self and by God (Rom .

he will sufi er tribulation (Rom . and he willeither perish without the law or be judged by the law

(Rom . Thereby we conclude that all unbelieversare under sin

,are unrighteous , fail to understand God, to

seek after God, or to do good (Rom . 3 :9—12 ) that all are

gu ilty, none are justified by the law, and all com e shortof the glory of God (Rom . 3 :19

“But now the righteousness of God without the law

is manifested,being witnessed by the law and the

prophets ; even the righteousness of God which is byfaith of Jesus Chris t unto all and upon all them that

believe : for there is no difierence : for all have sinned,

and come short of the glory of God ; being justified freelyby his grace through the redemp tion that is in Chris t

Jesus : whom God hath set forth to be a propi tiation

through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness

for the remission of sins tha t are pas t, through the for

bearance of God ; to declare, I say, at this tim e his right

eousness : tha t he m ight be just, and the justifier of him

which believeth in Jesus Therefore we con

clude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds ofthe law

”

(Rom . 3 :21 A nd herein consists the gos

pel, the good news“concerning his Son Jesus Christ our

Lord.

” This m essage requires no expert theological

knowledge on our part, but only the simple receiving and

accepting of God’s revelation to us

“that as M oses lifted

up the serpent in the wilderness, even so mus t the S on ofman be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should

not perish,but have eternal life” (John

Salvation in the Book 3

Now as we have observed in the preceding chapter,sin is intrinsically ill-deserving, and requires death as pun

ishment (Rom . but Christ hath “once snfi

’ered for

sins,the just for the unjus t, that he might bring as to

God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by

the spirit ” ( 1 Pet . So we see that by His death ,Christ satisfied the claim s against us, by the accepting of

which satisfaction all of Satan’s dominion over us

through sins comm itted has been destroyed ( 1 Johnand not only his dom inion,

but also Satan him self (Heb .

There is an eternal relation of cause and effectbetween sin and death (Rom . and only throughChrist and faith in Him i s the eff ect of that relationtransferred from the guilty sinner,

“For in that he died,

he died n'

nto sin once : but in that he liveth, he liveth unto

God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead ih

deed wnto sin,but alive unto God through Jesus Christ

our Lord”

(Rom . His death satisfied the judgm ent against us for sins, so that

“There is therefore now

no condemnation to them which

are i h Ckrist Jesus”

(Rom He bare our sins in Hisown body that we m ight live ( 1 Pet.The result and power of th is wonderful salvation is

that we are born again from above (John and

being born again we are new creatures in Christ Jesus

(2 Cor. our old carnal natures having been crucified with Christ (Rom . Furthermore, we are

created anew in Christ Jesus, our bodies are m embers ofthe body of Christ ( 1 Cor. and the temples of theHoly Spirit ( 1 Cor. Christ is the head of the

body, and the body is the Church (Col . Then, as

members of the Church,we are m embers not of a phys

ical organization which derives its existence from human

consent, but of a living organism , vital not artificial,

which is His body (Eph . and His bride (Eph . 5

30 This Church , His body, is a mystery, h idden in

44 The Bible

God until revealed through Paul (Eph . When,through

th is great salvation which 1s g1ven to us in God’s provi

dence, and which is the m essage of the good news,we

are saved through faith, the study of His holy Word will

greatly enable us to grow in grace and“to put on the new

man, which after God is created m righteousness and

true holiness” (Eph .

“Verily, verily, I say unto yon, He that heareth my

word,and believeth on him that s ent m e

,hath everlas t

ing life, and shall not com e into cond/mna tion; but is

passed from death nnto life” (John

CHAPTER III

THE SIGN OF THE PROPHET J ONA S

Whence hath this man this wisdom , and these mightyworks ? Is not this the carpenter

’

s son? Is not his“

mother

called Mary ? and his brethren, Jam es, and l oses , and

S imon, and Judas ? A nd. his sisters, are they not all with

us ? Whence then hath this man all these things ?”

(Matt.13 :54 This was a natural inquiry, and it is one

which we may reverentially make. Even John the Bap

tist asked,“A rt than he tha t should com e

,or do we look

for another?”

(Matt. and John was the greatest

of the prophets (Luke7 :28 ) To the Christian,the Holy

Spirit will bear witness to the genuineness of Christ’sclaim s (John To the multitudes who saw Him ,

the works which He did bore witness that the Father hadsent Him (John Whether is easier, to say, Thy

sins be forgiven thee ; or to say, Rise up and walk? But

that ye may know that the S on of man hath power upon

earth to forgive sins, he saith unto the sick of the palsy)I say unto thee, A rise, and take up thy couch, and go into

thine own house . A nd imm ediately he rose up before

Salvation in the Book 45

them,and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to

his own house, glorifying God”

(Luke 5 :23We have seen that Christ testified to the Old Testa

ment (Part I , Chaps . 1 and 2 supra) , and authorized the

New Testament in advance (idem) . These statem ents on

His part constitute a part of the whole claim which He

makes throughout the four Gospels to Divine power andauthority. If we can find any tangible fact wh ich substantiates these claim s, we establish His power and au

thority as the Divine Saviour and as God,and incident

ally we establish the whole of revelation upon which our

faith rests. N0 more satisfactory evidence of th is character could be desired than the RESURRECTION . If

the resurrection be adm itted to be the fact upon wh ichChrist’s claim s are and were based, and if this fact be

an admitted fact, nothing more is needed : if it is true,anything else claim ed must be true. If the resurrectionnever occurred, noth ing can save Christianity from beingan admitted failure and delusion ( 1 Cor. That theresurrection is an adm itted fact, as clearly demonstratedas any fact of history, cannot intelligently be

‘

gainsaid,

( see, The Certainty and Importance of the Bodily Resur

rection of Jesus Chris t from the D ead,by R . A . Torrey ;

Observations on the Resurrection of Christ, by GilbertWest ; and any number o f others ) and it is not our intention here to offer any evidence along this line. We do

assert the other phase'

oi the situation : viz .,that the

claims of Christ to Divine power and authority.with all

the m tendments carried therewith were by Him basedupon the resurrection ; and therefore that those claim sand our faith stand or fall as the case may be on that

event. We ask you for a few m inutes to look with us at

the character of these claim s as m ade, and you‘

will seethat the resurrection is the basic fact upon Which the

verity of Scriptural doctrine rests .Christ stated the fact of the resurrection to His disci

46 The Bible

ples on several occasions, saying that He would be crucified and that He would rise again on the third day (Matt.

Mk. Mk. Luke But He

went further than th is ; for He said to the Jews, when

they asked Him for a sign,

“D estroy this temple, and in

three days I will raise it up. But he spake ofthe temple of his body. When therefore he was risen fromthe dead

,his disciples remembered that he had said this

unto them”

(John 2 :19-22) and again, when the Pharisees said to Him , Thou bearest record of thyself; thyrecord is not true. Where is thy father?

Who art than?”

(John 19, He replied tothem

,

“When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall

ye know that I am he”

(John But the record goes

yet /

further in th is respect for on various occasions,whether He were speaking and teaching, or doing m iracles , or asserting His claim s in other ways

, a sign bywhich His genuineness m ight appear was required o f

Him ; and“he answered and said unto them

,A n evil and

adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there

shall no sign be given to it,but the sign of the prophet

Jonas ”

(Matt . Luke Matt . Whatwas the sign of the prophet Jonas —

“For as Jonas was

three days and three nights in the whale’

s belly; so shall

the S on of man be three days and three nights in the

heart of the MM (Matt. The Pharisees rec

ogniz ed th is sign and its significance more promptly than

many Christians do ; for their first concernwas on thisscore and they required a guard of Roman soldiers of

Pilate in the vain hope of preventing resurrection (Matt .

27 :62 When Christ had arisen,the Pharisees real

iz ed that the unimpeachable sign had been fulfilled, and

vainly tried to conceal th is fulfillm ent by bribing the sol

diers to say,“His disciples cam e by night, ,

and s tole him

away while we slept ” (Matt. little real izing thatpeople cannot be so far deceived as to ignore the evid

Salvation in the Book

of their five senses, particularly when the deceit restsupon the report by the deceivers of what they saw

WHILE THEY WERE ASLEEP .

The gospel which Paul proclaim s to us is that Ckris t

died for our sins according to the scrip tures ; A nd that

he was‘

bnried, and that he arose again the third day A C

CORD ING TO THE SCRIPTURES”

( 1 Cor.

Now if Christ arose “according to the scriptures,

”

it issafe to believe that He would naturally have m entionedsom e of those scriptures in connection with His resurrection. A nd so He did ; and the scriptures wh ich He m en

tioned in each case was the book of Jonah . Small wonderthat Satan is so anxious to get Jonah out of the Bible'When Abraham took Isaac up into the mountain to offerhim as a sacrifice, he said to his young men,

“A bide ye

here with the ass ; and I and the lad will go yonder and

worship, and come again to you 22 Noticethat “come again to you,

” “acaccounting that God was able

to raise him up, even from the dead ; from whence also

he received him in a figure”

(Heb . Paul,as

quoted above,says that the resurrection

,according to

the scriptures , is a part of the good news . Be1ief in the

heart that God has raised Christ from the dead is partof the grounds of salvation (Rom . When Christwas raised, it was for our justification (Rom .

Faith by Abraham in the God“

who raises the dead to

make good His prom ises , gave him the testimony whichsaith ,

“A braham believed God

,and it was imputed unto

him for righteousness”

(Jam es Job had thisfaith (Job . and David (Psa . and

Isaiah ( Isa. and Daniel (D an. and Hosea

(Hos . and it is a part of the gospel whereby weare saved, as Paul says, and by accepting which it canbe said of us as of faithful Abraham

,that we believe God.

From all th is we conclude that the resurrection of

Christ is the sign upon which He based His claim s to

48 The Bible

divine power and authority. As such it is the basic factupon which scriptural doctrine rests, and thereby is an

essential elem ent of saving faith ( 1 Cor. Therebeing no doubt that it is a demonstrated

,historical fact,

we find in it the tangible and eternal foundation for and

evidence of Christianity.

“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of m ine,

and doeth them,I will liken

‘

him nnto a wise man, which

built his house upon a rock; A nd the rains descended,

and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat uponthat house; and it fell not; for

’

it was founded upon a

rock (Matt.

CONCLUSION

In closing, the author will but give th is testimony fromhis own Christian experience ; that relying only uponthe merits of his Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, whodied for our sins according to the Scriptures, he acceptsall Scripture as being given by inspiration of God, as the

only revelation of God’s m ind and-will for mankind, andas presenting all the incidental facts of the text in everyrespect, wholly w1thout error, even in the slightest de

gree.

“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy

m onth ; but thou shalt m editate therein day and night,

that thou mayest observe to do according to all that- is

written therein : for then thou shalt make thy way pros

perons, and then thou shalt have good snccessf

’

(Josh .