THE BIBLE AND THE NATION

THE BIBLE AND THE NATION

“And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”  Gen. 12:2-3 The greatest National promise connected to the Bible and the God Who wrote it concerning Israel. And soon this shall come about after great tribulation which is how they choose to learn.

            Our subject is strictly national. I am not dealing with the place of the Bible in the doctrine and life of the Church. That is quite another matter, necessarily related to this, and yet separate from it. Neither am I attempting to discuss the value of the Bible in the culture of personal devotion. That is still another subject, yet related. I emphasize the fact that our subject is strictly national, because there are some people who are inclined to say that the Christian has nothing to do with the nation and with his national life. I am not arguing that at any length, but shall dismiss it with a statement of profound conviction, which can be expressed in words familiar, written by Sir Walter Scott in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel":

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,

Who never to himself hath said,

"This is my own, my native land."

            and he goes on with biting words to say of such a one,

The wretch, concentrated all in self,

Living, shall forfeit fair renown,

And, doubly dying, shall go down

To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,

Unwept, unhonor'd and unsung.

            With that I agree. To tell me the Christian man has nothing to do with national life is to tell me he is a renegade to Jesus Christ in some depart­ment at least of his life and thinking.

It may immediately be said, however, that the thinking of the Christian man in regard to his value to his nation is qualified by his Christianity. He will never be very careful to sing, "America leads the world." It is a wild idea altogether, and I may say physically she never did rule the waves, as we know very well, for Britain used to,  and politically she is no longer ruling the world. Neither is our care, as Christian people, that our nation should be pre-eminent in commerce, important as this may be. Our value to our nation is qualified by our Christianity. Our love for our land is none the less, but there has come to us a new interpretation of life, which necessarily qualifies our attitude toward the nation of which we form a part.

            Believing, then, that our value to our nation has to do with the Bible, and the Bible with our value to our nation, I think the tendency of the times is to think of it as something that we have outgrown. That is stated carefully. I think that is the general attitude towards the Bible today. One of the leaders in America was a man named Ingersoll. He used to belittle the value of the Bibles various accounts and had a lecture on "The Mistakes of Moses." I cannot resist telling a story. Mark Twain had a very close friend who said to Mark Twain, "Sam" (Sam Clemens was his name), "Bob Ingersoll is lecturing tonight on ‘The Mistakes of Moses.’ It is only a dollar; let us go and hear him." To which Clemens replied, "No, I'm not going to hear Bob; but I will tell you what I will do. If you can arrange for Moses to lecture on the mistakes of Bob Ingersoll, I will give ten dollars to hear him!"

            Now the national attitude towards the Bible is one of ignorance for they ignore the Bible as a fairy tale story book with no practical value for right or wrong or as a source of truth on any subject. Our children display the truth that they have no hope as suicides increase. They display a set of moral standards that speaks of no input from God’s word. They have no fear of judgment for most know nothing of what follows the death experience. Righteousness, morality, is rooted in religion. Their concept of love is afoul for “God is love.” Love is the essence of Deity.

            And this shows the trend. Our nation was the beacon light of what this Literature can do for the good of all nations that would mimic Americas Godly values which con­tributed to the good of all other nations. But it cannot be neglected, without disaster to our nation. My purpose now is to claim that there are such values, contributive to national life, which, if we neglect, we cannot do so without disaster to our nation. We now go over some ground covered when dealing with the authority of the Bible, but from a different angle. I shall name four values derivable from this Book, and found nowhere else, which I maintain are vital to national life, and then we shall briefly consider them.

            First, in this Book we have the moral conception which has created the great civilizations. Second, in this Book we have the conception of God which has issued in the great humanities. Third, we have in this book the conception of man that has created discontent with false conditions, and has inspired all the great reforms that have come to human life. Finally and centrally, we have in this Literature the declaration of an Evangel which gives hope to man of renewal, personal, social, and national. None of these things are found in any other literature in existence today.

            First, then, I find in the Bible the moral con­ception which has created the great civilizations. I did not say the moral standards. These are involved, but I want to go behind them. I am not discussing laws either found in the Old or New Testament, but the conception of morality lying behind all the laws found in the Bible. What is that conception?

            I propose to answer my question by going back to the Old Testament, and, if that surprises some, then I will go to the New to show why I went first to the Old. I read in the Book of Deuteronomy these words: “Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

            Do not forget, this was a national word, spoken to a nation. That is the Biblical conception of morality. I go on to the New, and the record of our Lord, as given by Matthew. On one occasion a man devoted to the delivery and teaching of the law asked a question, "Which is the great com­mandment?" How did Jesus answer him? He said: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”

            He was quoting from the Old Testament: “This is the great and first commandment. And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

            Jesus had not finished. He not only quoted from Deuteronomy, and from Leviticus, but He then said this: “On these two commandments hangeth the whole law, and the prophets.”

            Jesus said the whole law, and all the prophetic interpretations, and applications to changing conditions and changing times, all depend upon these two. The first is the greater, and the second is the corollary and sequence, and is impossible apart from the first. That is the Biblical conception of morality. The Bible says that morality is rooted in religion. It teaches from beginning to end that there is no standard which is sufficiently powerful either to interpret or to enforce a beneficent law for the human race, except the standard that comes when the human race has right relationship with God. Righteousness, morality, is rooted in religion.

            Without considering any of the laws either of the Old or New Testaments, think for a moment of the relative issues of that conception of morality. First, the sacredness of life. Secondly, the sanctity of marriage. Thirdly, the importance of the family as God's first circle of human society. Finally, the test of the little child in the midst of the family. The Bible conception of morality has produced these things, and nothing else. The sacredness of life is not held anywhere where the Bible is denied ; not even in this country, in the measure in which people deny the Bible, do they hold life to be sacred, and certainly not anywhere else. I need not argue about the sanctity of marriage, the importance of the family, and the test of the child. All these things are the result of man's acceptation of the Biblical conception that morality must be rooted in religion.

            If that be the first great value, the second is that of the conception of God which the Bible gives, that has issued in the great philanthropies. The Biblical conception of God is completely crystallized in the clear, short, sharp, eternally undying definition in the writings of the New Testament, "God is love." I am always inclined to quarrel with the theologians if or when they tell me that love is a divine attribute. Love is not an attribute. It is the essence of Deity. There are attributes: truth, and justice, and beneficence, and compassion, but they are all included in love.             If we interpret that text, "God is love," by the abominable misinterpretation of love of which our thinking is so cursed, and make it weak, and sickly, and sentimental, we had better amend our understanding of the definition. Love can be as fierce as the grave, and fiercer than fire. That is not love that stands shedding tears over the man or woman with cancer. Love cuts it out, if it can be done. That applies to all world conditions. Soft and sentimental people who go back to the Old Testament, and weep and lament over the corrupt and licentious crowds in Palestine, against whom God raised a scourge to sweep them out of existence, do not understand that God was cutting out the cancer. I think He is doing it today in some parts of the world. Oh, yes, love can use the knife. Love can use the rod. Love can be fierce and angry. But God is love.

Take the conception of God found in the Bible, including Old and New Testaments, as they merge in one great harmony, I say the Bible reveals that God is Father and Mother. We have heard that in the Old Testament, and we are still singing it in the Psalms:

Like as a father pitieth his children,

So the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.

            Someone may say, What about motherhood ? Listen to one of the fierce prophets:

“As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you.”

            If there are any doubts about motherhood in the heart of God, let Jesus speak:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.

            Fatherhood and motherhood, the merging in one great being of God of principle and passion; principle always, but suffused with passion. Passion always held in poise by principle, Grace and truth.

            In the history of man, the love of man is always the outcome of the love of God, and always has been. And nations are a part of that love. All the toils, travails, and triumphs with which we are familiar in the interest of suffering derelict humanity have resulted from this doctrine of God. There were no institutions caring for the unfit before Calvary. It is well to remind ourselves of that. I go back for one brief moment to those days of 1914-18. Oh, the horror of it all! Yes, but remember what came from those fields of battle. The white flag with a red cross. Not a red lion, nor a red eagle, but a red cross. From that Cross wherein God was unveiled in His compassion for derelict and broken and bruised humanity, men began to build hospitals to care for the unfit. All the great philanthropies have sprung out of the God revealed in this Book. If we destroy this Book, and lose that God, we have only to look abroad in the world to see the kind of God that will have to be substituted, some deity, whether of State or a man. We shall see the absence of compassion, and the drying up of all the springs of pity and tenderness from the human heart.

            But, third, we have in this Book the conception of man which has inspired the great reforms. What is the conception of man? That he is a being made in the image and likeness of God. We only begin to understand the ruin of man as we see that ideal broken, violated, smashed, a wreckage amid tears, and blood, and muck, and misery. It is because men have seen man as the Bible reveals him, that they have become discontented with false con­ditions. There are conditions of life, have been, and still are in America, in England, in other places, in which babies are more damned than born into the world. Well, why not? When that old pagan, Marcus Aurelius, was once questioned about the perfecting of human per­sonality someone said, "When you have perfected a few beings, what about the rest?" "Oh," said the old pagan, "there must always be shavings in a carpenter's shop." Now, the Bible cuts clean across that, and denies that any man is to be looked upon as shavings, to be flung away, in order that a few may be perfected. The Bible declares that every baby born (whether properly or improperly matters nothing) is born to a birthright of personality and faith; and if it is impossible for it to be realized, then out of that has come every passionate attempt at reform.

            Once more, we have in this Book the announce­ment of an Evangel, that gives to men the hope of renewal. That is no national value at all unless we add to the statement that history proves the an­nouncement is true in that it has worked, and is working still, in the recovery of human lives from dereliction to realization. That we claim, without any further argument. The Evangel works, and proof can be had in two ways. Derelict humanity, hearing the Evangel, believing the message, sub­mitting to the terms, goes out and expresses itself in victory over sin. Not completely and always.

            Many a tumble, many a trembling and failure; but the whole set of the life of the man who has believed this Evangel is against sin, and, though he fall, he will rise again, and press toward the goal. And the other proof that the Evangel works is that it expresses itself in the service of others. Victory over sin, and service of others; these are the great proofs of the effectiveness of the Evangel.

            There is no evangel in any other literature. There is no evangel in any philosophy or science. It is right here in this Book. It breaks like a sunbeam across a shadowed garden into which sin had come. Behold the woman's seed shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel; and it goes on through all the mystic writings of prophets, seers, and psalmists, until it culminates in the Cross of Calvary, which is the way of human redemption.

            Great as the Bible is as literature, great as its effect has been on language, these are the things in which it is greatest. We are hearing so much of the wonderful effect the Bible has had on literature. I am not denying it. I glory in it, but it is a by­product. We are hearing so much of the wonderful effect the Bible has had on language, so much so that people are eternally burning incense to the Authorized Version as well as the King James version showing how all high language is dependent upon it. I am not denying it. But I do not care very much about the effect it has had on literature, and am not particularly interested to know the effect it has had on language. I am tremendously interested to know the effect it has had on life. I declare that to neglect these things is to perish, in spite of policies and armaments. And if this is true of the national life, there is the point of the Church's responsibility for the Bible, to which, by the goodness of God, we shall come in our next two articles.

THE NATURE OF THE BIBLE'S AUTHORITY

THE FINAL AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE

            My purpose is not that of proving the finality of the authority of the Bible, so much as that of attempt­ing to consider the nature of that authority. I do propose, however, to devote a few moments in conclusion to one line of evidence in proof of its authority.

            We start then by assuming the truth of the words of the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews, that God spoke, and has spoken; that He spoke to man in one era, or age, through prophets in divers portions and in divers manners; and that after those days, He spoke at last in His Son. As we have seen in previous articles, the Bible is the record of things said through prophets in times past, and it is the record of the Son, and the speech of God that came to men through Him.

            Seeing that we are considering the nature of the authority rather than defending the fact of it, it is necessary that we should remind ourselves of the true nature of the Bible, which we have already considered in previous articles. The Bible is Christo-centric. In the Old Testament we have a revelation of human need and the promise of supply. In the New we have a revelation of divine supply. In the hope of that promise, men lived by faith. But the Old is not final. Its ritual was not final. It was an ordained ritual, a divine form of religion, given to man. Presently, however, God abolished that which He had given, because "it made nothing perfect." (Heb. 7:19) And God is ultimately interested in perfection. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matt 5:48) It fulfilled its temporary purpose, but it was not final. The New Testament brings about the final product God is interested in. “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.” (Jude 24). Do a search using the word "perfect" in the NT.

            Again, it is true that the ethic of the Old Testa­ment is not final. It is not complete. It deals with external rather than internal conditions. That is not to say that there is anything false in the Old Testament. The truth can be partial, without being final. There is absolutely no contradiction between the Old and the New Testaments. I am told today, that the God of the Old Testament is not the God of the New. Those who say that know neither the God of the Old nor the God of the New. They are exactly the same. There was accommoda­tion to the varying conditions of human life, but God is the same. He does not change.

            In the New Testament we have a revelation of supply, and a meeting of need; and to under­stand this is to realize immediately that the final authority of the Bible is found in Him. We do not look for finality of authority in the Old Testament. Finality is found in the New. It is all concerned with the Christ. We have seen His Person in the first four books; His power in the Acts; His precepts in twenty-one little Letters; His program in the Book of the Revelation. As F. W. H. Myers sang in that wonderful poem, "St. Paul," the whole Bible is saying, Christ! I am Christ's! And let the name suffice you, Ay, for me too He greatly hath sufficed . . . Christ is the end, for Christ was the beginning, Christ the beginning, for the end is Christ.

            So that the finality of authority must be discovered by dealing with the One who is central to the whole literature.

            I shall submit, therefore, that the Bible is final in its authority on four matters. We shall go over this ground again from a different stand­point in our next article, but we are beginning now with the fact of authority. The finality of Biblical authority is found in Christ. He is the final Authority concerning God, and man, righteous­ness, and redemption.

            I do not go to the Bible for philosophy, though the Bible is philosophic. I do not go to the Bible for a scientific treatise. I declare, with all the dog­matism of which I am capable, that there is no discrepancy between the ascertained facts of science and what the Bible says. There is a good deal of discrepancy between the hypotheses of scientific thinkers, and what the Bible says. There is a great deal of difference between a fact and a hypothesis. There is no difference whatever between what the Bible really says, and the truth in itself. There is a difference sometimes between what the Bible says, and what people say it says.

            But let those things be dismissed. We remember that Christ is central, and the whole Bible centers in Him. He is finally authoritative in human life on these four things—God, man, righteousness, and redemption. He through whom God spoke His final message to humanity, has uttered the last, the ultimate word in every case.

            What then has Christ revealed to us about God? What is that which is finally authoritative in the Revelation? Sometimes it is best to be careful when quoting. We might profitably speculate maybe, but I prefer quotation, and one of the most familiar, taken from the Introduction of the Gospel according to John. Having given the word of final philosophy in the opening verse, passing to verse 14, he says, "And the Word became flesh." That is the whole statement of the Incarnation. We next come to what I want to quote "(glory as of the only-begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth." That is the ultimate in the Revelation concerning God, that came to man through Jesus Christ, that He is "full of grace and truth."

            We will for a moment take the two words in the other order. What is truth? Truth is holiness, truth is light shining. That means that in God there is a holiness that consents to no compromise with evil, it is absolute. Yes, we have the right to use the word absolute when we talk about God, and in no other way, in spite of a good deal of nonsense today. There are no absolutes in your life, my friend. Do not deceive yourself. But holiness is absolute in God, and that alone is almost a terrifying fact. Light, holiness, consenting to no compromise. Remember, all these things were seen in Christ.

            But there is the other word, coming first in that passage in John, "Grace." What is grace? If truth is light, grace is love, and love in action. If holiness consents to no compromise with evil, compassion stops at no cost to redeem. Those are the great facts concerning God; and the revelation that came to man in Christ was that of the inter­relationship of these two facts in their activity. Not truth only. That does not tell all there is to know about God. Not grace apart from truth. That denies the holiness of God. But the merging of grace and truth in Him. At once, with profound reverence, I say that we see that in the Cross. The Cross forevermore stands for the fact that God will make no terms with sin. The Cross is the ultimate revelation of the fact that God will stop at no cost in order to rescue and ransom the sinning soul; grace, and truth.

            It may be asked, can we not know God apart from Christ? No, we cannot. We can know much about Him, marvelous things. Take this Bible away from me, which means that Christ is taken from me, I can still find God, I find Him in might, I find Him in wisdom, I find Him in beauty. I care not whether it is a pansy or a planet, I can see the might and the wisdom and the beauty of God. I cannot be in any meadow, daisy decked, or on any mountain height, with the sweep of the land­scape before me, or gazing out in the silence of the night, and looking upon the stars, without my being very sure of God, in His might, His wisdom, and His beauty. But what I cannot find is His holiness and compassion. Other men have found God in His might and wisdom and beauty in other forms of religion, but the last word about God is the word that came to men through Jesus Christ, and it is an authoritative word. God is grace, and God is truth, and truth and grace in relationship with each other; never one at the expense of the other, and the other ever sacrificed to the one. That is the authority of the Bible concerning God.

            Second, its authority is found concerning man. That is a great theme. What is man? The old Hebrew singer felt it long ago, when he had been lifting his eyes to the heavens above:

“When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that Thou visitest him?”

            All the majestic music of the universe is sweeping round us as we listen to the singer. Well, what is man, in the presence of that vast universe? The Psalmist had discovered a glory and a wonder in man he did not find in sun or moon or stars, or the universe. He saw that man was a being that God visited. A wonderful gleam of light that, in the old economy. The question still abides, what is man? We can go back to Genesis to have it answered. There it is recorded that man was the outcome of the counsels of Deity, when He said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness."

            I stand in imaginative wonder. I want to see this being that God is making after His own image and His own likeness; and looking, I never see him. Before I have been able to understand the being so created, there is a catastrophe, a break­down, and red riotous ruin runs down the cycles, and I have not seen man. I do not know what God meant when He said, "Let Us make man," through the Old Testament. There are wonderful men who stand out, beacon-lights of glorious revelation of men who lived by faith in God, but not a man who did not tarnish his shield sooner or later, with perhaps one exception, Joseph. Still, there is frailty in him. We are left, discussing, what is man? Men are trying to find out today by going back and back until they arrive somewhere in a tailless being, and they declare he came out of that! I may be Victorian, and old-fashioned, but I am as old-fashioned as Genesis, because there I have a solution. What is man? I never know until, to use Paul's word, I see God's "Second Man." The "Second Man" was the "Last Adam."

            Then, picking up the Gospels, I say, Let me see Him, and in Him I see that ideal humanity is like God. In the fact of the Incarnation there was no break in upon a possible thing. It was quite possible that God should dwell in man, and take the form of man because He had made man in His own image and likeness. While I watch the perfect humanity of Jesus of Nazareth, I am seeing Someone who is like God. There is no point in the narrative at which I pause, where I cannot see God. Is He taking babies in His arms? That is God. Is He weeping by the side of a grave because the hearts of two women are broken that He is going to heal? That is God. Is He thundering vengeance upon those who are misinterpreting God, until the "woes” of Jesus flash like the lightning across the centuries? That is God. He is like Him, naturally like Him, because of His perfect humanity.

            Yet I watch Him through processes, see Him realizing Himself in fellowship with the God whom He is like. Experimentally, He lived all the way in fellowship with God, depended upon God, prayed to God, declared that He did nothing of Himself, but what His Father gave Him, that He did. What, then, does the Bible say about man? That essentially He is like God, and experimentally he can only realize the meaning of his humanity as He lives in fellowship with God. That is what the Bible says about man, and it says it in Christ.

            Turn away for a moment from the Bible, and what is man? What is the best thing man is saying about man? That man is a mixture of the angel and the beast, and human experience consists in circling between the angel and the beast. My only comment on that is this. As I look down the centuries; and out upon the world today, it seems to me the beast is in the ascendant at the end, and not the angel. But if I go back from all these theories and here behold the Man like God, He is realizing all the possibilities of His marvelous being in fellowship with God. That is what the Bible says about man.

            Again, Christ is the final word about righteous­ness. What does the Bible teach about righteous­ness? That it consists in right relationship with God. It declares that the ultimate standard of righteousness is found in God. Turn aside from that idea, and what is found? Man attempting to set up moral order and better conditions of life, and, in order to do it, making laws of convenience; and when man makes laws of convenience he has a thousand centers, and sooner or later the centers are in conflict, and there is chaos. It is always so. I do not want to be disrespectful to my own nation, of course; but there is no law upon the law books of America, that has resulted from acceptance of convenience, that does not break down. The cross-currents of conflict make a fool of the law. It is only when man is living himself in right relationship with God, and consequently in right relationship with his fellow-man, that we have the true standard of righteousness.

            We come then to the final word, about redemption. The Bible is authoritative on the subject of redemption, and here it is not a question of competition. Christ's is the only voice that proclaims the possibility of redemption. Other voices speak with more or less of understanding, about God. Other voices, thousands of them, are speaking about man. Other voices are speaking about righteousness. But there is no other voice speaks of redemption. Search the philosophies of man, search the religions of the world, and the old text we knew in childhood comes back to mind: "In none other is there salvation; for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved." (Acts 4:12) There we have finality, because there is no com­parison or competition, and the test in that applica­tion must be pragmatic and practical. Does this story tell of the possibility of redemption? Two thousand years have proved that it works.

He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free.

His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.

            Finally, when we are asked for proofs of our assertions as to the finality of Biblical authority in these matters, there are many lines of evidence. I am only going to name one or two.

            First, the proof of the finality of authority is found in comparison of what this Book says in Christ, and all other attempts to deal with these self­same subjects. Second, the finality of its authority is proved by the fact of development and application in every successive age. The revelation made here abides as germ and norm; germ, the life-principle that can be applied to changing conditions: norm, the test of accuracy with truth through all the generations. Again, thirdly, there is proof in the effects produced in human life wherever the ways of this Book, which are the ways of Christ, have been ordered in its light.

            I conclude by naming one which to me is final and inclusive. What is the proof of the authority of the Book and the Christ on these matters? The consent of the human soul to its finality of authority. How often we have referred to it, that when Jesus had uttered His great ethical Manifesto, as Matthew records it, at the close he tells us that the people were astonished at His doctrine, because He taught as One having authority, and not as the scribes. But the scribes were the authoritative teachers. Jesus said they were, for they sat on Moses' seat, and, moreover, He said as they were true to their position, they were to do what they said. And yet the people said, "There is something different here. This is not the authority of an office. It was what He said was authoritative." Matthew's record will apply at any time during all the centuries since. I challenge anyone to take the Sermon on the Mount and tell me something in it that can be called in question as to truth and accur­acy. Oh, I know it can be said it is not practicable, but we will not deny the severity of it, and the beauty and glory of it. It is a most remarkable fact that during recent decades amounting now to a couple of generations, when men have been questioning His deity, and when a great section of the Christian Church may or may not believe in the Virgin Birth, no one has called in question at all, in the Church or out of it, the perfection of the ideal represented in the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.

            I go further, and say that there is a consent everywhere to the finality of the idea of God that we have had through Christ. There is consent to the perfection of the ideal for man that He has presented to the world; and there is the consent to the beauty of the ideal of morality. We may stand aside and say these things are not practicable, but that does not interfere with the fact that the human mind and soul know the authority of all these things. And none who has lived with open eyes can question the power of the Gospel to rescue lost and ruined humanity and make it beautiful indeed. The authority of the Bible concerning God, man, righteousness, redemption, is all focused in the Christ Himself.

THE UNITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

THE UNITY OF THE BIBLE: NEW TESTAMENT

            We have seen that the Old Testament in its entirety and unity is a revelation of human need, and that the New Testament is a revelation of divine supply. As Augustine said long ago, Christ is hidden in the Old Testament, obvious in the New. In our last article we said that in the first movement, that of the Pentateuch, we heard the sigh after a Priest; and in the second movement, from Joshua to Nehemiah, we heard the cry for a King; and, taking all the rest of the Old Testament literature, both the poetic and didactic portions, we were conscious of the quest for a Prophet who should say the final word from God to man. But neither was the Priest, King, nor Prophet found. That is not to undervalue the stories in the Old Testament. A priest is there, Aaron, and the tribe of Levi. A king is there. That is the tragic part of the story. Saul, David, and Solomon, forty years each, but no perfect kingship; and from that time on, ruin! The prophets are there, the most wonderful part of the literature in certain ways, their voices sounding even yet, for they spoke of eternal principles as applied to temporal necessities. And yet the last word was not said.

            Then we turn to the New Testament, and the answer is discovered; the need is met. The King is found. The Priest is found. The Prophet is found. All humanity's need is answered in Christ.

            We will now survey the New Testament in three sections, not following the exact sequence of the epistles as found in our Bible. There is first the historic section, contained in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Acts, the Pentateuch of the New Testament. Then there is a section that we may accurately describe as didactic, or teaching, consist­ing of twenty-one letters or pamphlets, all of them having a teaching value. The last division consists of one book, which is apocalyptic literature, or the literature of Revelation.

            We then rapidly survey first the historic section from Matthew to Acts. Here we have the account of human history lasting about two generations, using the term generation as referring to thirty years or thereabouts. The first section, the four. Gospels, tells the story of Jesus. The second section, beginning immediately at the close of the first period, covers about the same time, thirty three years. That is the Acts of the Apostles.

            As we study these what do we find? In the Gospels a Person is seen, and a fourfold presentation of that Person. It was Origen who said long ago, there are not four Gospels, there is a four-formed Gospel. That is a very important distinction. We still speak of  "The Gospel of Matthew," "The Gospel of Mark," "The Gospel of Luke," and "The Gospel of John." In the Old Version it was printed so. Now there is a very slight difference made in the Revised, but it is far more accurate: "The Gospel according to St. Matthew," and so on in each case. It is the same story, the same Gospel, but according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

            What is the difference between these four nar­ratives? It is impossible finally for anyone to compile an accurate chronological story of the life of Jesus. That may be a very dogmatic statement; but after studying the sequences and harmonies of the Gospels, I never found one yet that satisfied me except one, and that was one I made myself, and it brought me to the conviction that it cannot be finally done at some points in the story. But the general scheme presented by the four is the same, so we can dismiss apparent discrepancies in the matter of time and place at which some things were done and said.

            Take the first. Read Matthew through. Read it through twice, and there will be no harm if it be read through fifty times. When that has been done, what is found? A Person who is presented as a King. Matthew wrote from that standpoint. He was the King's historian. He was accustomed to keeping accounts in the interest of the Roman Empire as a publican, and, as the Spirit of God al­ways does, He fitted a man for doing his special work on the basis of his natural ability. We can write across the Gospel according to Matthew, "Behold, the King." The dividing lines are clearly marked in chapter 4 and again in the 16th. First the Person of the King is seen. Who is He? In four and a half chapters we are told.

            Then beginning with the words, "From that time began Jesus to preach" (4:17), and running right on to Caesarea Philippi, Matthew tells the story of the propaganda of the King, of His teaching, of His illustrating by the wonders that He wrought, of the greatness and beneficence of His Kingdom. We have the ethical enunciation and the supernatural power in dealing with every form of human dereliction.

            In the 16:21 we read the same sentence, "From that time began Jesus to show unto His disciples how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer . . . and be killed . . . and be raised up." From there to the end of the nar­rative we are observing the Passion of the King. Behold the King, His Person, His Propaganda, and His Passion. We heard the cry for a king in the historic movement of the Old Testament. Behold the King! So Matthew.

            Pass on to Mark's record, and what is found? He plunges into his story at once, showing how this same Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, even as it is written in Isaiah the prophet." The Gospel of Isaiah is the Gospel of the Servant of the Lord. Go through his Gospel, and that is the emphasis. It is the same Person. There is no mistaking the identity with the Person seen in Matthew as King. But now He is seen stripped of all royalty and dignity, and every suggestion of Kingship with which we were made familiar in Matthew. Now, all the way He is the Servant of the Lord. He is first sanctified to His service, set apart. Then He is seen serving through public ministry, and finally we see Him culminating His service in sacrifice; and be­hold, He is the Priest, the One who mediates between God and man.

            In Luke we have the same Person, the same great movement generally with certain details of differ­ence, not contradictory, but explanatory and com­plementary. How does Luke present the Person? First of all he shows the perfect Personality in the early movement, as to who He is. Luke's last name for Jesus is Tou Logou, the inflected form of Ho Logos which is John's title for Him, but we should remem­ber that Luke uses that title more often than John does, "the Word." He tells us thus who He is; How He came into human history, and shows the perfect Person in the most matchless way. He then begins the same story of ministry, and shows how this perfect One, the perfect Instrument, was per­fected through suffering and through service.

            It may be objected, how can a perfect One be perfected? I have often used an illustration from this side of the Atlantic. Long years ago the Brooklyn Bridge was erected, uniting New York to Brooklyn. When it was finished, the great archi­tect was very weak, but he was conveyed on a boat, and was taken underneath the great bridge. He looked up for a long time, and then, holding the hand of his wife who sat by his side, he said, "Thank. God, it is perfect." And it was, a perfect piece of work. But it has been perfected as it has fulfilled the function for which it was made. The traffic, men and women, horses, and motor cars, and railway trains have beaten over it for a century, and it has stood the test. Jesus is demonstrated perfect by all He did and all He said.

            Then at Luke, chapter 9, there came an hour when Jesus steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. It is the same dividing line as in Matthew and Mark, but stated differently. From there we follow Him on the via dolorosa through the last six months of His ministry in which He was approaching the Cross, and talking of it. Now we see Him doing the work by which He is perfecting others. Behold the Man, perfect in Personality, perfected through processes, perfecting, and making possible the perfecting of those who have fallen by the way. There He is seen as the great Prophet, in all His teaching and in His life. He uttered forth the truth to man about God and about man. The whole incarnate story is one of a full and final prophetic utterance, as to what man is ideally, what He has become through sin, what He may become through the mighty work of Jesus. We have found the King, the Priest, and the Prophet.

            But there is yet another book, and it is a corollary to the other three, at no point contradictory. It was written from another standpoint. When we have read the first three records, and seen the King, the Servant-Priest, the perfect Man, expressing to man the Word of God, the whole truth of God, we may well ask, Who is He? To answer that question we turn to John. He shows that this King, this Priest, this Prophet is none other than God incarnate, Himself answering humanity's need in Kingly authority, in Priestly function, and in Prophetic utterance. That is a very rapid summary; but at any rate we may have caught anew the harmony, the unity of that fourfold presentation of Jesus Christ.

            Then in the Acts we have an unfinished fragment, unfinished because the story it started to tell is not completed yet. It is the story of a new race of men and women who are seen proceeding from Jerusalem, through Judea and Samaria, and toward the uttermost part of the earth; and the movement is still going on. Who are they? They are kings, they are priests, they are prophets. They are those who share the very nature and life of the King and the Priest and the Prophet who has been seen in the Gospel. In other words it is the same Christ, no longer limited and straitened by the circumstances of time and geographical environment, but moving out and on; and behold, they are kings and priests unto God, and they are witnesses, prophets, pro­claiming the Word of the Lord as it had been focused in the Son of God. We leave the historic section where it is left in the Acts, Paul, in his own hired dwelling, for two years, receiving all who went to him, and on and on the movement has been run­ning ever since.

            Take next a rapid survey of those twenty-one little letters, the didactic section. Not taking them in the order that we find them in our Bible; we find first a group of letters I will call fundamental; that is, specifically devoted to doctrine, to the statement of the facts of the Christian faith. In the second place we have a group of writings that I shall call experi­mental, those illustrating the experience of Christ­ianity in the lives of men and women. There is yet another section, vocational letters, dealing with the calling of the Church.

            All these letters were written to members of the Christian Church. There is not a letter addressed to the outside world, and they were written in every case for a purpose. There was a local background, and a reason for the letter. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians there were conditions that made him write. That is perfectly self-evident. Again, when Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he did not write about himself, or in pious platitudes, woven together. It was a definite letter, written under definite condi­tions. Remember, too, that when these men wrote the letters, they had not got the New Testament, and did not know there was going to be a New Testament. The New Testament is a fact, is the work of the Holy Spirit afterwards, in gathering together these writings. There can be no mistake that they were of divine origin, for their divinity is impressed upon them. I am not entering here into the question of the canon, though that is also involved.

            What are the letters dealing with fundamental matters of our faith? Romans, the subject of which is salvation. Galatians, where the subject is liberty. Thessalonians I and II, and the subject is the state­ment of the normal things of the life of the Christ­ian: "Ye turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God." That is the essence, and the great theme is that ultimately of the Second Advent in those two letters. Then Hebrews, a pamphlet of fundamental truth, proclaiming the finality of the speech of the Son of God. Finally John I, II, and III, three little letters dealing with the great doctrine of eternal life. Those are all letters written to Christian people who were to be kings, priests, and witnesses, but needing instruction and guidance, and rebuke. These are all found in the great funda­mental letters of the faith.

            Then there is a beautiful little group, Philippians, Philemon, Peter I and II, James and Jude. They deal not so specifically with the doctrines of the Church, though of course those are not neglected or absent; but rather with the experience of Christian souls. They are all experimental.

            Next we have the vocational letters, specifically concerned with the calling of the Church, Cor­inthians I and II, the second being the corollary of the first. In the first letter will be found two verses: "God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord" (1:9). "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord" (15:58). Those are the boundaries of the letter. God is faithful. He will not break down, and He has put us into business partnership with Jesus Christ. Be steadfast, be unmovable, be faithful as God is faithful, and fulfill the function, the calling. Between those boundaries are the things that hinder the Church, and the things of strength to the Church.

            Then there are the letters called pastoral, having to do with the ministry within the Church, I and II Timothy and Titus, a veritable vale mecum for the minister today if he will take the time and let his soul be impregnated with their teaching concerning the marvelous ministry within the Church.

            Lastly we have the twin epistles of Paul that crown his system, Ephesians and Colossians. They both have to do with the eternal vocation of the Church. We find ourselves first in the unutterable glory of the past eternity, but when we have finished our study we find we have been let out into the ages that are to come, and the Church is seen as fulfilling her final vocation. Such are the didactic writings.

            There is one book left, that puzzling book. Do we not find it so? If not, then we have never really studied it. Some people say they know all about it. I do not want to know them! Oh, yes, the real things are sun-clear. There are details with which I am not dealing. It opens, "The Revelation," the Apocalypse, the unveiling. "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." That means taking the veil off, re­moving the veil. What is the revelation? Of beasts? Oh, no. They are there, but they are quite incidental. Dragons? Certainly not. We shall meet them and shall not have to wait to read the Revela­tion. We can read our newspapers, and meet them. They are all there. What, then, is the book about? "The revelation of Jesus Christ." As we keep that in mind, we shall be saved from a thousand difficul­ties and snares in our reading. The purpose of the book all through is to show Jesus Christ.

            He is seen first in His glory, as John saw Him in Patmos. Second He is seen in His infinite grace in the letters to the Churches. Then He is seen in His authentic government from the moment that we behold the Throne in heaven to the very end of the book. We see the processes, but do not lose sight of Jesus.

            How is He named? "The Ruler of the kings of the earth," the King. The One "who was dead, and . . . am alive for evermore," the Priest. "The true and faithful Witness," the Prophet. Amid all the mysteries of the Apocalypse is the unveiling of the Son of God, the Word of God, who came as the Gift of God to answer the agonized cry of humanity in its sigh for a priest, and its cry for a king, and its quest for a prophet.

            What does our world need today? Have we outgrown this Book? Has humanity outgrown its revelation? Has it made any advance upon that which is evident here, the sigh for a priest, the cry for a. king, the quest for authority? It is trying to find it today. In some parts of the world it thinks it has found final authority. We know it has not, and however much those who are claiming the authority of dictators may refuse to consider this Person, they are doomed. They cannot live or last. However much a people may be oppressed, there surely comes the moment when the masses will straighten themselves, and fling off false authority. The world is still looking for final authority, though it does not understand it.

            The world is looking for a priest, some mediator, as Job said, for a mediator who will lay his hand upon God and upon man and bring them together.

            Moreover, it utterly needs interpretation of all matters, a prophetic voice that utters the final philosophy, the ultimate in truth. The world's need today is exactly what is revealed in the Old Testament.

            The answer has been given. God has found the King, He has found the Priest, He has found the final Prophet, and the three merging in one, Who is He? God Himself, manifest in flesh, to rule with a final authority, to mediate, so that man may reach the heart of God, and be received; to say the last thing that God has to say. The calling of the Christian Church is that of ever going forth to bear witness to Him, and bringing together the appalling need of humanity, and the amazing supply of the divine grace.

THE UNITY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

THE UNITY OF THE BIBLE: OLD TESTAMENT

            This article is the first half of a larger whole. Our next article will constitute the other half. It is necessary, however, that we should first briefly consider the whole.

            The fact that the Bible is a Library has been stressed in the two previous articles. In all Bible study we start with recognition of that fact. In the former one, I said the student must approach the Bible in that way, separating it into its compon­ent parts. In the latter, I said that ultimately the claim of the Bible is spiritual. That is now the sub­ject to which we turn in these two lectures—the spiritual unity of the Bible.

            The whole case for that unity was stated long ago by Augustine, when he said, "Christ is hidden in the Old Testament and obvious in the New." I am, however, proposing another method of stating the same truth. In the Old Testament we have an interpretation of human need; and the New Testa­ment is a revelation of the Divine supply. In the Old we have unveilings of the human heart. In the New we have the unveiling of the heart of God, and the way in which He has answered humanity's need in Christ.

            The unity of the Old, therefore, is that of inter­pretation; and the unity of the New is that of revelation; and the unity of the whole is that of the inter-relationship between the interpretation of need and the revelation of supply.

            Let us first think of the Old Testament, familiar as it is in its movement. Think of the nature of the literature found therein. Then let us examine it briefly as to its sweep and movement; finally gathering up the revelation made of the need in the Old Testament.

            As to the nature, there is historic, poetic, and moral literature in the Old Testament. There is a clear line of continuous history—Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, Samuel (two books in our Bible; only one really in the Hebrew Bible), the Kings, and Ezra, Nehemiah. Every other book begins where the previous one finished. As collateral writings we have Leviticus, Deuteron­omy, Ruth, the two books of Chronicles, and Esther. Chronicles covers the ground of Samuel and Kings, but from another standpoint.

            In the poetic literature there are the five books of the Psalms. The Revised Version has sensibly restored the five books as in the Hebrew Bible. I believe the editing of the book was done in the time of Hezekiah, and in many ways the editing is as remarkable as the Psalms themselves. Each of these books ends with a doxology which gathers up the main thought that arises in that book. Also we have in this section the Canticles, or Song of Solomon.

            In the moralistic literature we have to divide, first the Wisdom literature, or the philosophic section; and secondly the distinctly prophetic. Under the heading of Wisdom are the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. These are distinctly philosophic books. Then in the Prophetic are the books of Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and the Twelve, commonly called the Minor.

            Now to examine that a little more carefully. Take first the historic section. Glance along the line of history which begins with the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis, and ends with Ezra and Nehe­miah. Look at that marvelous historic sweep, for such it is.

            There is, first of all, a cosmic sentence. That is how the history begins, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." That covers everything in what we speak of as the universe. We notice that the earth is named—"the heavens and the earth." That is a very arresting fact. In the beginning God created the heavens, and in those heavens, in that universe, there was one planet referred to, and that was the earth. In my youth I thought the principal thing was this earth, and that God made everything else, and put it round the earth. But that is not so. According to that cosmic sentence, the history is not going to follow the universe, but the earth. It is the limiting word in the cosmic sentence. The universe is there, but it is not explored and described.    We are told later on that the heavens are His handiwork—a great poetic statement. One of the occupations of heaven will surely be the investigation of the universe in its infinite wonder.

Then the next sentence is catastrophic. "And the earth became waste and void." That Hebrew word "became" is part of the verb hayah, not the verb halvah. The sentence is wrongly translated, "The earth was waste and void." This was not a catas­trophe which happened but is how God describes the earth which was not yet ready for habitation. "The earth was waste and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep." God goes on with His creative acts to make earth a fit habitation for mankind who was to follow on the sixth day.

            From that verse in the first chapter to the end of chapter two we have the record of construction, God's construction of that which was waste and void, the Spirit of God brooding over the chaos, and out of it God bringing light and order. That is the unfolding of creation.

            Then from Genesis 3 to 11 we have in historic sequence the story of the failure of the highest of God's created power, man. Genesis 3 begins, "Now the serpent," and tells of human failure in its beginning. At chapter 12 we have a new begin­ning, "Now Jehovah said unto Abram." This is the story of a man called by Jehovah, and from that point to the end of the book, the man is seen grow­ing into a people. And still the historic story runs on, and in Exodus we find this people becoming a nation. Not a monarchy, not a democracy—those two evil ideas in the human heart for human government, that have always broken down, and always will What then? A Theocracy, a nation God-governed.

            Then from the end of Exodus to the end of Nehemiah the story is one of the nation's failure, the utmost catastrophe being that the people turned from Theocratic government to monarchical, and clamored for a king like the nations. The history still runs on, until finally in Ezra and Nehemiah we find that through varied experiences the nation at last is restored to a Theocracy, having no King other than Jehovah. The people that had been scattered and peeled, are gathered back, a remnant weak and small, but a Theocracy. From the time of that return they never set up an idol. Idolatry ended with the returns.

            Turn now to the poetic writings. As we read the poetry of the Psalms, we hear human voices expres­sing every mood of the soul of man. Take any company of people, and if I could know the moods or feelings of each individual, I could find a Hebrew song that would exactly fit it. Is any glad? I will find a psalm such can sing. Is someone sad? I can find a song to express the sadness. Is someone else bad? I will find a psalm to bring the soul to peni­tence. Is anyone mad (I mean in the American sense)? I can find a song that can truthfully give expression to such feelings. All human moods are in these songs, with this one qualifying fact, never to be forgotten: every psalm is the utterance of a human need or mood in the presence of God.

            Other poets can write mighty poetry, and pour their souls out in hot anger, but these all do so in the presence of God. The Canticles or Song of Solomon is a book of Eastern color and imagery, depicting the highest in fellowship, the fellowship of the Bride and the Bridegroom, as revealing the deepest facts in fellow­ship between the human soul and God.

            In the didactic section we have first the Wisdom Literature. To summarize the book of Job: it is a revelation of the breakdown of human philosophy in the presence of the experiences of the human soul. The experiences are those of Job. Philosophy speaks through these wise men that came to him, excellent men in many ways. Their names are known, and also that younger man who began his address by reminding them that old men were not always wise! But they were all trying to account for Job's agony, and they could not do it. Then out of the storm there broke the voice of God across the eloquence of Elihu‑

"Who is this that darkens counsel
By words without knowledge?"

            Was there ever a profounder sentence about human philosophy than that? Men are still doing it. We see here the breakdown of human philosophy in its attempt to deal with the experiences of a human soul.

            Proverbs contains the application of wisdom. It is a wonderful collection. My father told me there were thirty-one chapters, a chapter a day for every longest month! Yes, they are applications of wisdom, but there is no secret of realization. There, too, is the breakdown of philosophy. Wisdom applied, but no secret of how it is to be applied.

            Ecclesiastes is an inspired confession of failure and pessimism, when God is excluded, when man lives under the sun, and forgets the larger part, which is always over the sun, the eternal and the abiding things. If we want to know what a man of great privilege, and of great learning, and great wisdom can come to, read this record of a man who has put God out of count in his actual life. Then we can turn to more modern writers, and we shall find they are all in the same category of pessimism, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." What a lie that is! It is not true when a man lives with the God who is above the sun. When a man lives in fellow­ship with Him, he does not say, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." He says—

“Heaven above is softer blue,

Earth around is sweeter green.

He is living the life of full rapture.”

            I am compelled to dismiss the prophetic section in briefer sentences, and by quotation from the New Testament. In them we find "divers por­tions," "divers manners," messages of God to men, but no finish, no finality, no reaching of the goal. Thus we have rapidly surveyed the Old Testament.

            Once more, imaginatively bend over the Book, and listen. Now I will take the divisions with which we are more familiar. Bend over the Pentateuch and listen. Bend over Joshua to Nehemiah and listen. Bend over all the poetic and prophetic literature and listen. What do we hear? In the Pentateuch we shall hear a story twofold, of sin, and of the necessity for salvation, deliverance, emancipation. Yes, that is all in the Pentateuch.

            Go to the history from Joshua to Nehemiah, and what shall we hear? Anarchy and authority, and both in conflict. Anarchy persistent, terrible, terrific. Authority persistent, august, majestic.

            Bend over the rest of the literature, the poetic and prophetic books, and we become conscious of ignorance and instruction side by side, in conflict oftentimes, but persistent all through that wonder­ful literature.

            Take the books again in their grouping. Bending over the Pentateuch, we hear the sigh for a Priest, that is, for a Mediator, for someone who will deal with sin and bring salvation. Listening to the historic message we hear the cry for a King. "Make us a king," and then the foolish addition, "like the nations," even when they had the one King. That is the need. Humanity is feeling after authority, and after a king. Once more we bend over the rest of the literature, the poetic and prophetic, and we are conscious of a quest for a Prophet, One who shall speak the word of God fully, finally.

            Once more, go over these books. We can hear the sigh for the Priest, but he is not found. There is the promise of a Priest, there is a priesthood which is symbolic, but it breaks down, terribly breaks down. We bend over the second section and hear the cry for the King, and he is a necessity of human nature. We see them, the kings, rising and falling; gleams of light shine through the stories of some of them, but darkness and disaster characterizing the great majority of them. The king is wanted, but he is not there. Bending over the last, we are conscious of the quest for an authentic Prophet who shall utter the full and final word of God. Ignorance is everywhere, and much instruction is given, for God was speaking to the fathers in divers portions, but there is nothing complete, no finality. So, while we are conscious of the quest for the prophet, he is not there.

            This is the threefold need. A Priest who mediates between humanity's dire and dark necessity as the result of sin, and acts in such a way as to restore the broken harmony. That is what humanity needs, and needs first, and needs today.

            What does humanity need? A King, One who governs with absolute and final authority, based not upon office, but upon the inherent necessity of the law he institutes. That is what humanity needs today.

            Humanity needs a Prophet who shall say God's word to man in fullness and in finality.

            The unity of the Old Testament is its revelation of the threefold need of humanity, and in thought we are already crossing over to our next article as we take up the New Testament and find the supply of God to humanity's need.

BIBLE SPEAKS FOR ITSELF

WHAT THE BIBLE CLAIMS FOR ITSELF

 

            In the Proclamation of 1538 the Bible is described as "the very lively Word of God." That designa­tion is a great one, though it is not used as fre­quently as it was. Indeed, there have been those who have objected to it, and have said the Book is not the Word of God, but contains the Word of God. Personally I have never fallen away from the habit of speaking of the Bible in that way.

            Thinking of it, then, as the Word of God, we now face a question which has often been asked, sometimes very sincerely, and again with satirical intention by others. When we have claimed that this is the Word of God and has a divine and inspired origin, people have said to us, Does the Bible ever claim to be divine? Does it ever claim within itself to be the Word of God?

Let it be at once granted that it makes no claim in any of its parts for its unity, that is, for the whole Book. How could it? Part was being written, and the entity was not complete. The Bible is a library, made up of many books, written over a period of fifteen centuries.

            In the New Testament claims are made for the Old Testament quite distinctly as to the way in which it was written, and as to the nature of the things written. No claim is made in the Old Testa­ment as to its completeness. Interestingly enough, the references in the New Testament to the Old are all in the plural—"the Sacred Scriptures" or the "Sacred Writings."

            Taken, then, as a collection of writings, what do the individual writings claim for themselves; and what does the New Testament claim for the writings of the Old Testament? These constitute the lines of our questioning and article.

            First, then, what do the individual writings claim for themselves within themselves? Dividing into the Old and New Testaments, and commencing with the Old, and following the arrangement of the Books in our Bibles, we find there are four distinct groups. First, the first five Books called the Pentateuch; then the second, twelve Books containing history, from Joshua to Esther; then the third, five Books, Job to Song of Solomon; and lastly the seventeen, commonly called the prophetic Books.

            Take the Pentateuch. We are not told when or by whom it was written. But it claims to be a record of God's ways with man, and a report of His law for man. Read naturally and simply, that is what it claims to be. If it is not what it claims to be, then it is worthless. When men tell me it is a collection of folk lore that is to make its authority worthless.

            The second group, the twelve Books, Joshua to Esther, claims to be the history of the Hebrew people, the race that emerged in the first five books.

            The third group, the Books from Job to the Song of Solomon, must be sub-divided into two sections, first, philosophy, and then poetry.

            The Book of Job is philosophy. There is no claim made, except that it is the story of a man passing through times of terrible suffering, and emerging therefrom; and telling of his relationship to God, and God's relationship with him.

            The Book of Proverbs does state exactly what it is, in the opening six verses:-‑

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;

To know wisdom and instruction;

To discern the words of understanding;

To receive instruction in wise dealing,

In righteousness and judgment and equity;

To give subtilty to the simple.

To the young man knowledge and discretion;

That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning;

And that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsel

To understand a proverb, and a figure;

The words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

That is what it claims to be.

            Ecclesiastes makes no claim, but its contents reveal very clearly the experiences of a man who lives upon the earth level. One phrase runs through the Book, "Under the Sun." This is one of the most up-to-date Books in the Bible. Our literature has been characterized during the past generation by the same despondent pessimism that character­ized Solomon when he wrote the Book. He was inspired to write it as a revelation of experience. In a great conclusion, he summed everything up as he wrote, "This is the whole of man" to "fear God, and keep His commandments." The word duty is not in the Hebrew. This is life over the sun as well as under the sun. This, Ecclesiastes makes perfectly clear.

            When we come to the five Books of Psalms, these make no claim, as a whole, except that they con­stantly refer to the Law and to the will of God. They are a wonderful collection of songs expressing all moods of human experiences, not as much modern poetry has done, into the void and into space; but in the presence of God. Some today want to get rid of the Psalms which call down God’s curse and wrath upon the enemies. Leave them where they are. We want them sometimes!

            To turn to the much-debated Book, the Song of Solomon, the claim is made in the opening state­ment, "The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's," which is a Hebraism, telling the reader it is the best song Solomon ever wrote.

            We come then to the seventeen. There are really sixteen Books, because Lamentations is part of Jeremiah. What do they claim? That they are messages delivered by men, which they received from God. I am not debating whether they told the truth or not. There are two formula, very arrest­ing, found in the prophets. "The Word of the Lord came." That is found in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Jonah, Micah, Zephaniah, Haggai, and Zechariah. Every one of these rough, rugged, and magnificent men of old used that formula for what they had to say—"the Word of the Lord came." It is interesting to note that phrase is only found in the historic portion of Isaiah. In other parts of his prophecy are other expressions which are exactly equivalent. The second formula is this: "Thus saith the Lord," used by Amos, Obadiah, Nahum, and Malachi. All these prophets claimed they were speaking words that they had received from God. There is no interpretation of how the Word came to them, but the fact is asserted, and reiterated again and again. Such are the claims scattered through the Old Testament made for the writings.

            Turning to the New Testament, again we group the books. The first five, the Pentateuch of the New Testament, the Gospels and Acts; then the second, the twenty-one little letters; and the last, one book, commonly called the Revelation.

            The first five books claim to be the history of Christ, and the beginnings of the history of the Church. They contain sentences that reveal definite claims. Matthew has none, but it is evident he was telling the story of Jesus. Mark began by showing how his writing fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah of the Messiah as the Servant of God. Luke in his introduction showed how he gained his informa­tion, recognition of the human element; and recognized the divine government, for he said he received these things "from above" (anothen). Toward the end of John's writing is a statement in which he said, “These are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in His name.” (20:31). In Acts, Luke commenced by reference to his previous writing, and it is a fair deduction that he adopted the same methods in writing again to this friend Theophilus. He was careful to examine with care all things "from above" (anothen). Truth was claimed by Luke for his first treatise, and so for his second; and implicitly that is claimed by all the rest.

            When we take the twenty-one letters, we find a collection of letters and pamphlets concerning the truths of Christianity, and their application to conduct. All the Christian fact is required before the letters are intelligent, but within themselves they do claim authority. In the seventh chapter of the first Corinthian letter there seems to be an exception, but it does but proves the rule. Concern­ing one matter, Paul distinctly wrote that he had not the guidance of the Spirit, but he believed he had the mind of the Lord (vv. 6, 10, 12, 25). It has been said that these statements of Paul reveal his usual method of writing. Surely, that is a most unfair deduction. I believe that the fact that when dealing with subjects about which he felt he had no direct revelation, he said so, is presumptive evidence that in the main bulk of his writings he was conscious that he had full and final authority. All the letters declare the truth concerning the Christ, concerning the Church, and concerning the conduct of Christian people within that Church.

            We come to the last Book, the Revelation. There its claim is made in the beginning, the writer telling distinctly that the things written were under com­mand, received from an angel, and that the angel was sent to give him that command by Jesus Christ; and that God authorized the command to be sent.

            We turn then to the testimony of the New Testament to the Old. Here we have a very inter­esting field, which can only be dealt with in brief outline. In the New Testament, every book of the Old Testament is quoted from, except Ruth, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes, and Lamentations, or to take that mathematically, in another way. In the New Testament there are 260 chapters; 209 have references to the Old Testament, leaving only fifty-one chapters with no reference. Thus the Old and the New Testament are inter­woven with the weave of a constant reference, allusion, and quotation: and no single reference in the New contradicts the Old, or undermines its authority. They all accept its full authority and its divine nature.

            Again, someone may say, Did not Jesus correct the Old Testament when He said, "Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time . . . but I say unto you." The answer is No, but He showed that His law moved on a higher level, which included the lower. There was no contradiction, but rather an enlargement of vision. He constantly referred to the Old Testament. Out of its thirty-nine books He quoted directly from twenty-four in the course of His teaching.

            Then He also made a central declaration concern­ing these Scriptures, which word we have previ­ously considered in our second article. When talking to those supposed to be exponents of the law and the prophets and the sacred writings, He told them that they searched the Scriptures, and He said "These are they which bear witness of Me." So He set His seal upon the authority of the Old Testament, and revealed the key of it, which has been of inestimable value to the students of the Scriptures.

            His final attitude is remarkably discovered also in Luke 24, after His resurrection. To His disciples He said, "These are My words which I spake unto you . . . how that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms concerning Me. Then opened He their mind, that they might understand the Scriptures." In referring to the Law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms, our Lord took in the whole of the Old Testament, naming the three great divisions familiar to the Jews. The Psalms included more than the books of the Psalms. It was a title for the third great division of their Scriptures, the Kethubim, or Hagiographa. So when Jesus spoke of the Law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms, He was referring to the Torah, the Nebiim, and the Hagiographa or Kethubim. What a gracious and wonderful thing He did when He disentangled their mind that they might understand the Scriptures.

            We glance next at the apostolic account, and we find two outstanding statements here concerning the Old Testament, one in 2 Pet. 1:19-21 and the other in 2 Tim. 3:14-17.

            Peter distinctly referred in that first passage to one section of the Old Testament, the prophetic, and that more particularly in its predictive value. He declared that no such writing was of private interpretation that is, self-solving. We cannot solve the prophetic writings by our own intellectual ability. The apostle declared that prophecy was the result of men being "moved by the Holy Spirit." That word "moved” fails to give the true idea of the Greek word of which it is a translation. It might be read thus, that men spoke from God, "being borne aloft and carried on by the Holy Spirit." That is how they saw. That is how they were able to utter the message of God. By the Holy Spirit they were lifted above their times, and beyond their times. That is what a New Testament writer has to say about the prophetic writings.

            The other equally familiar passage is from the pen of Paul. Writing to Timothy, he said, "Abide thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them." The reference was to his mother and his grandmother. "From a babe thou hast known the holy letters, the sacred writings, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Every writing God-breathed (Theopeustos), is also profitable for teach­ing, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work."

            Paul declared that the Sacred Writings which had been taught to Timothy by Lois and Eunice, are God-breathed. That is the New Testament estimate of those Sacred Writings.

            To sum up. What are the general results as to claims? As to their nature, they are God-breathed. These Sacred Writings are vehicles of the Spirit of God, through which He has made Himself known to men, and made known His will to men. As to the instruments, we find that they were men, through whose natural powers, which are God-created powers, God operated in order to communi­cate His thoughts about Himself, and about them­selves to men. These are the claims.

            And the claims therefore mean that in this Bible which is the "very lively Word of God," we have the true interpretation of life. We have the law of life, the revelation of God's thought about history, and about present conduct, about life in its every phase.

            There is no situation in human life or experience for which a message of God cannot be found through the Book. I do not care whether it be a personal, social, national, or international situation. And about the future, this Book has no hesitation. There is much it does not reveal, but the reality of it is insisted upon from beginning to end. The great fundamental things that we need to know in this preparatory life are all here in this Book.

            What is the final test and challenge? I make use of words that our Lord uttered in defense of Him­self. "If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God or whether I speak from Myself." (John 7:17) What a wonderful statement, and how terribly misquoted often-times! He did not say if we will to do the will of God, we shall know of the teaching. What He said was narrower than that, and broader, and fiercer, and more burning. If we will to do His will, we shall know whether the teaching is of God or from Him­self. That was His challenge about Himself. This Book is Christo-centric. As Augustine said, He is covert in the Old, and obvious in the New. I claim that the final word about the Book is the word about the Master Himself. If any man wills to do His will, he shall know about the Book, whether it is of God, or whether it is of human origin. That is the last test, and it is the challenging test. I submit that no man or woman who has given himself or herself to diligent study with the open mind and the devoted will, but that they have found out that this is the Book of God. So the old proclamation was quite right. The Bible is "the very lively Word of God."