I
was brought up to believe that the Bible was the Word of God. In early life I
accepted it as such upon the authority of my parents, and never gave the
question any serious thought. But later in life my faith in the Bible was
utterly shattered through the influence of peer group. I found myself face to
face with the question, why do I believe the Bible is the Word of God?
I
had no satisfactory answer. I determined to go to the bottom of this question
if I must serve God as presented by Preachers. If satisfactory proof could not
be found that the Bible was God's Word I would give the whole thing up, cost
what it might. If satisfactory proof could be found that the Bible was God's
Word I would take my stand upon it, cost what it might.
I
doubtless had many friends who could have answered the question satisfactorily,
but I was unwilling to confide to them the struggle that was going on in my own
heart; so I sought help from God, mentors, Fathers of Faith and from books, and
after much painful study and thought came out of the darkness of skepticism into the broad daylight of faith and certainty that the Bible from beginning to
end is God's Word. The following are largely the outcome of that experience of
conflict and final victory. I would say I believe the word of God is one book
that changed my life as a person and I have proof of how it changed me from a
cultist to a Minister of the Gospel.
I
will give THREE Reasons why I believe
the Bible is the Word of God.
FIRST, on the ground of the testimony of Jesus
Christ.
Many
people accept the authority of Christ who does not accept that of the Bible as
a whole. We all must accept His authority. He is accredited to us by five
Divine testimonies: by the testimony of
the Divine life He lived; by the
testimony of the Divine words He spoke; by the testimony of the Divine works He wrought; by the Divine attestation of the
resurrection from the dead; and by
the testimony of His Divine influence upon the history of mankind. But if
we accept the authority of Christ we must accept the authority of the Bible as
a whole. He testifies definitely and specifically to the Divine authorship of
the whole Bible.
The
Jews, divided the Old Testament into three parts--the Law, the Prophets, and
the Psalms-- and Christ takes up each of these parts and sets the stamp of His authority upon it. In John 10:35 Christ says, "The Scripture cannot be
broken," thereby teaching the absolute accuracy and inviolability of the
Old Testament. More specifically still, it possible, in Matt. 5:18, Jesus says,
"One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled."
Now,
as to the New Testament. We find Christ's endorsement of it in John 14:26,
"The Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you
all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said
unto you." Here we see that not only was the teaching of the Apostles to
be fully inspired, but also their recollection of what Christ Himself taught.
We are sometimes asked how we know that the Apostles correctly reported what
Jesus said--"may they not have forgotten?"
True,
they might forget, but Christ Himself tells us that in the Gospels we have, not
the Apostles' recollection of what He said, but the Holy Ghost's recollection,
and the Spirit of God never forgets. In John 16:13, 14, Christ said that the
Holy Ghost should guide the Apostles into "all the truth," therefore
in the New Testament teaching we have the whole sphere of God's truth.
The
teaching of the Apostles is more complete than that of Jesus Himself, for He
says in John 16:12, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot
bear them now. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He shall guide
you into all the truth." While His own teaching had been partial, because
of their weakness, the teaching of the Apostles, under the promised Spirit, was
to take in the whole sphere of God's truth. So if we accept the authority of
Christ we must accept that of the whole Bible, but we must, as already seen,
accept Christ's authority.
SECOND, on the ground of the
direct testimony of the Holy Spirit.
We
began with God and shall end with God. We began with the testimony of the
second person of the Trinity, and shall close with that of the third person of
the Trinity. The Holy Spirit sets His seal in the soul of every believer to the
Divine authority of the Bible. It is possible to get to a place where we need
no argument to prove that the Bible is God's Word. Christ says, "My sheep
know my voice," and God's children know His voice, and I know that the voice
that speaks to me from the pages of that Book is the voice of my Father. You
will sometimes meet a pious old lady, who tells you that she knows that the
Bible is God's Word, and when you ask her for a reason for believing that it is
God's Word she can give you none, she simply says: "I know it is God's
Word." You say: "That is mere superstition." Not at all. She is
one of Christ's sheep, and recognizes her Shepherd's voice from every other voice.
She is one of God's children, and knows the voice which speaks to her from the
Bible is the voice of God.
Everyone
can have that testimony. John 7:17 (R. V.) tells you how to get it. "If
any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of
God." Just surrender your will to the will of God, no matter where it
carries you, and you will put yourself in such an attitude toward God that when
you read this book you will recognize that the voice that speaks to you from it
is the voice of the God to whom you have surrendered your will.
Third, on the ground of the
influence of the book.
There
is more power in that little book to save men, and purify, gladden and beautify
their lives, than in all other literature put together--more power to lift men
up to God. A stream never rises higher than its source, and a book that has a
power to lift men up to God that no other book has, must have come down from
God in a way that no other book was. I have in mind as I write a man who was
the most complete victim of strong drink I ever knew; a man of marvelous
intellectual gifts, but who had been stupefied and brutalized and demonized by
the power of sin, and he was an infidel.
At last the light of God shone into
his darkened heart, and by the power of that book he has been transformed into
one of the humblest, sweetest, noblest men I know to-day.
What
other book would have done that? What other book has the power to elevate not
only individuals but communities and nations that this book has?
I
am a complete testimony of CHANGE by the undiluted Word of God. I got saved
from Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they ... Your sins are scarlet red, but they will be whiter than snow or wool. So I have
no doubt that the Word of God is a tool for Personal Transformation.
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