Each year as it comes and goes brings with it some more of men's vain attempts to discredit the holy Word of God-the Bible. It might be supposed that they would weary themselves in the ceaseless pursuit of evidences against the Book that reveals the Creator and shows men their responsibility to Him. But, No; the search is pressed. Old arguments finally die while the Bible remains impregnable as always, but within a generation or two others take up the same threadbare arguments as though they had discovered something new. On they press in their determined zeal until like the lemmings they are at last destroyed with their mission unaccomplished. One writer referred to the Word of God as an anvil which had worn out many a hammer.
The New York Times, Nov. 7, 1963, told of a noted cleric who has at length "proved" that the Apostle Paul did not write the following epistles which are ascribed to him: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, First and Second Thessalonians, First and Second Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews. He is willing to concede that Paul wrote the epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, and Philemon, although he considers the last named to be too short to really test on his scales.
This Scotch minister, the Reverend Andrew Q. Morton, who has received this dubious distinction of "proving" the point only arrived at the same conclusion (as he himself admits) as "F. C. Baur and other biblical critics at Tubingen University in Germany 100 years ago." The only novel thing about Mr. Morton's test is that it was accomplished by the aid of a modern computer. This is supposed to add an air of modernity to it, and to make it seem irrefutable and beyond the realm of human tampering, although we know that no computer can select its own material (that must be fed into it by human hands and brains); nor can it make the final evaluation of the answers. The human element and human predilection cannot be entirely discounted.
In this case the animus of the individual cannot be ruled out.
The general method used in such a case is to arrive at certain patterns of the Greek language which Mr. Morton says was done by comparing writings from Socrates to Aristotle. Then he began with Galatians, which all critics "admit" was written by Paul because of his "stinging or offensive retorts." This is an untrue aspersion cast not only upon Paul, but upon Paul's Lord. He then fed into the machine the various sentence lengths, and frequent or infrequent use of words like "and" or its equivalent, ignoring the fact that great men vary their style according to the subject in hand, its urgency, its reflection on other things, etc., and this without any thought of inspiration. But the whole scheme we are considering casts doubt upon the invaluable element of divine inspiration. It reduces all to mathematical equations, and the Holy Spirit of God is shut out of His own holy domain.
Through the years, scarcely any part of the inspired volume has not been disrespectfully handled by unholy hands. Starting with Genesis, nearly every book in the Bible has come in for the irrational attacks of so-called rationalists. And every time they lay hands on one part of the sacred volume, they do violence to another part, or to it as a whole. These self-appointed critics conjecture that Moses did not write the Pentateuch, and claim that whoever did merely compiled a lot of scattered legends. But will they explain how that many "scattered legends" belong together, and together form one indissoluble entity? They claim certain writers knew only of Elohim, and others only of Jehovah; but the precise exactitude with which each name is used is beyond question the sign of divine revelation. Each name has its own special meaning, and neither is ever used for "God" out of its context.
When Solomon, the writer of three books, wrote the book of Proverbs, which is full of instruction for a people in relationship with God, he used the only suitable name—Jehovah; when he wrote Ecclesiastes, the book of man's experimental research under the sun apart from revelation, he uses the name suitable to that condition—Elohim; when he wrote the beautiful "Song of Songs," where prophetically we have Israel being wooed back to Jehovah in a future day, he used neither Jehovah nor Elohim, but says rather, "Let HIM kiss me with the kisses of His mouth." How incongruous it would be to say, "Let Jehovah kiss me." But there are none so blind as those "men of the cloth" without the fear of God before them. That Book which at every word breathes the wisdom of God and His perfection is a meaningless jumble to them, a subject for critical review by a human being pronouncing on what is becoming of God.
The Lord Himself says that Moses wrote of Him; but they say, No, Moses did not write it. Other critics claim that there were two or three, or more Isaiahs. But the Lord who knew better than all of them put together refers to Isaiah the prophet, both in writing the 53rd chapter and the 6th chapter—two chapters which learned critics claim could not have been written by the same man. Away with such learning which is self-condemned. "Let God be true, but every man a liar." Let us consider the attacks on the epistles Paul wrote:
Will our readers accept the slur that Paul wrote such a caustic letter to the Galatian assemblies, because his authority was called in question there? Was not his authority more called in question at Corinth when he wrote the letters to the Corinthians? His manner was certainly peremptory and his language strong and unequivocal to the Galatians, but it was his zeal for the truth of God rather than self-vindication. They were turning away from the gospel, from Christianity itself. If Paul had not resisted that onslaught of the enemy, Christianity would have vanished, and a corrupted form of ritualism taken its place.
Paul said himself, "The salutation of Paul with mine own hand," in writing both to the Thessalonians and the Colossians. And to the Thessalonians he said, "We would have come unto you, even I Paul." Now because a modern critic says that the case "is open and shut," that Paul did not write these, are we to say he knew better than Paul, or allow that the Spirit of God indicted a fraud? Away with such a thought! "This persuasion cometh not of Him that calleth you."
We may go on to the epistles to Timothy and Titus and compare them with the divine historical records of The Acts, and there see how they are allied together and to Paul; but some people are satisfied with superficialities, or to take the word of mere men as authority. We will leave the majestic epistle to the Hebrews for consideration in the words of another.
It may be interesting to note that Mr. Morton refers to Germany and the thoughts of 100 years ago. In that day Germany was the home and culture center of what was called "higher criticism." It was the bad root from which modernism sprang with all its ugly fruit. It became a sign of erudition to be able to find flaws, imperfections, incongruities, in the sacred pages. Many feel that it also spawned the superman theory which eventually devastated Germany, and Marxism came from the same general area and age.
Now let us quote from an article printed in April, 1864, which deals with the same general subject that plagues us in 1964. This was written by a servant of Christ, Mr. William Kelly:
"The kind of opposition men make to Christianity proves its truth in the main, proves the consciousness of a real claim of God in it on the soul.
"No doubt men have attacked Paganism as false. They have resisted Mohammedanism, though its sword was its principle argument, so that there was less of this.
"But the constant and laborious exercise of free criticism, the close and sifting examination the Bible has gone through for ages, the anxious research after errors or contradictions within., proves anxiety to show that it is not what it pretends to be. Why all this anxiety? Those not immediately under the influence of Mohammedanism are long satisfied that it is false, and leave it there; but these minute researches after a flaw in the Scriptures continue—are repeated—renewed. Men take it up on every side. Astronomy and geology are called in to aid. Geography is ransacked; history, antiquity, style, manuscripts of all kinds, foolish writings of the fathers, absurd writings of heretics, apocryphal imitations of its contents; nothing is left unturned to find something to discredit it—wise writings of philosophers to prove they could do as well, or were the source of the good, or even of the alleged absurdities of doctrine; every other influence sought out which could have moralized humanity, that it may not be supposed to be this. Why all this toil? Why, if it be a doctrine like Plato's, should it not have produced its effect, and our philosophers be as cool about it as about other things? It has—their conscience knows it has -
God's claim and God's truth in it; and they will not allow that the true God, that Christ is the source of it; for then they must bend, and admit what man is.
"And this shows itself in the most curious way. Though they pretend to think nothing of Christ, or that He was an imposter, they will not allow that the authorized books of His religion give a true account of the doctrines of the religion. If I read the Koran, I am satisfied to take it as the account of Mohammedanism, absurd as it may be; and I say Mohammedanism is absurd. So of the Vedas and Puranas.
"But when the Christian books are in question, they are no doubt charged with error, contradiction, etc.; but the free critics will not even allow them to teach real Christianity after all! They are not a true, not an authentic account of Christianity! Why (if it be a mere fable, an imposture) be so difficult about the exactitude of the account of it? Surely the main propagators can give a sufficient account of the imposture and its doctrines, for anything that concerns us. But no. There is the consciousness that God is in Christianity. The conscience, in spite of the will, knows it has to do with God here; and it wants a true revelation, a real and authentic account of what God is. It is right. But though curiosity and a favorite subject may absorb many for a time, or an individual all his life, men are not so continuously, so perseveringly anxious to get at the truth of a fable. They do not reject the sacred books of any other religion as not being a true account of that religion. They take them as they are, because they know they are a fable. Or even if it be known to be the work of men's minds, it is the same."
We have quoted from writings from 1864 to 1964 to demonstrate that the same spirit of men against God and His revelation is still at work. We will now quote from a writer whom we know only by initials—"R. B."—which was printed about midway between the others. It was dated September, 1906, and was written to counteract the same spirit of criticism regarding the Word of God—the exquisite and sublime truth of that treatise of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrew believers in Jerusalem—a book of the Bible that has come under much criticism from men of darkened understanding, who operate only by the light of nature within them, which is darkness. "If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" Matt. 6:2323But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:23).
"It is no doubt the calm, measured, stately, almost rhetorical, style of the epistle to the Hebrews, that has led many to conceive that it cannot be the work of the great Apostle of the Gentiles. They compare the balanced sentences of this epistle with the rugged and impetuous language so characteristic of the Pauline writings. But even on this ground the argument is by no means convincing. For what can be more measured and stately than the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, or the 11th chapter of the same epistle? The fact is that a great writer adapts his style to his subject matter, quite apart from the question of whether he is inspired or not. As one, J.N.D., has beautifully said, the same divine water is in every vessel, be it a Paul, a Peter, or a John; but it takes the shape of the vessel through which it flows. And, we may add, the shape may vary in the same writer with the occasion. There is the tumultuous fervor of the indignant upbraiding; there is the calm and ordered flow of eloquent exposition. Hence they are evidently right who judge that Paul, and no other (in spite of those who ascribe it to the eloquent Apollos), is the author of the epistle to the Hebrews. And this opinion is powerfully buttressed by the words of Peter in his second epistle (3:15, 16).
"Now there is no more majestic statement even in this epistle, or indeed in the whole of the Bible, than is contained in the wonderfully balanced sentence with which this treatise (for such it strictly is, rather than a letter) opens. For you will see that it really is one sentence only from verses 1 to 4 inclusive. And the part of it most emphasized is the main part. 'God... Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son.' Other truths of equal, possibly of greater, moment (one most certainly is so, where the Son is spoken of as being the brightness of God's glory), are grouped around it, adding strikingly to the grandeur of the whole, but yet subservient to the point that the Apostle is pressing; namely, that 'God... hath... spoken... in His Son.' He reminds his readers how God spoke of old by the prophets (here no doubt a general term and taking in all the Old Testament writers), but that now it was no longer a question of hearing prophets, however venerable, lawgivers, however sage and discerning, nor psalmists, however tuneful. It was imperative to recognize, what was not so obvious to them as Hebrews, as it happily is to us, that the final messenger has come, and that he that is of God would hear Him (John 8:4747He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. (John 8:47)). Each prophet had contributed his quota to the grand total, and the Apostle in no way seeks to weaken the weight of their testimony. Quite the contrary. Just as the Lord Jesus, on a memorable occasion, actually placed Moses' writings as a testimony above His own spoken words (John 5:4747But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? (John 5:47)), so the writer urges that their acceptance of the sublime truths that were now being unfolded would be the proof that the Hebrews really held and understood and believed all that lawgiver and psalmist and prophet had written of old. If they believed that God had spoken in His Son, this would show that theirs was no merely national and patriotic clinging to their ancient oracles. They would own the Crucified as both Lord and Christ.
"God had spoken. This is the only book of Holy Scripture that commences with the sacred name, so august, so comprehensive and incomprehensible. How easy to utter it! How often it is taken in vain by profane men! How lightly even Christians may use the word! Everything is wrapped in it, so to speak. It is God, the Son, as we read in this very passage, who upholds all things by the word of His power. And by Him were all things created (Col. 1:1616For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: (Colossians 1:16)). The mind may proceed to lose itself forthwith in mazes of perplexity, as we contemplate the immensity of creation, and the insignificance physically of this tiny earth, which faith knows, on God's sure warrant, to have been the scene of nothing less stupendous than the incarnation. For here 'the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and,' says the Apostle John, 'we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.' John 1:1414And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14). Here the believer rests, while he who trusts to his own keenness of perception is baffled and dismayed.... We know that God has spoken unto us in His Son."
If then God has spoken unto us, we are under bounden duty to heed what is thus spoken. This is, doubtless, the reason that men labor so tenaciously to prove that the Bible is not really God's word to us. Privilege and responsibility are correlatives. It is indeed an immense privilege that the mighty God should concern Himself with the small creature man so as to reveal the otherwise unknowable to him; but our responsibility to heed Him is commensurate with that privilege. It is not a matter of our choice whether we listen and obey or not.
Another point we would make is that Scripture is right and is perfect, and it is ignorance that causes men to set one part of Scripture against another in a futile attempt to prove that it contains errors or inconsistencies. On this point we will again quote from William Kelly:
"Remember, there is no discrepancy [in Scripture] whatever. No more impudent belief can well be, than to set one part of the New Testament against another, or indeed any part of the Bible against another. Such a handling of Scripture is not only dishonest, but profound ignorance. There is not in all the Bible one passage that really contradicts another. Of course, there are passages that may seem at variance; but then, as we begin to get a little more light, these diminish in their number; and hence modesty would feel, if there were but fuller light, all the appearances of inconsistency would vanish away. It is just the same thing in the moral world, nor is it otherwise in the natural world. There are everywhere apparent contradictions and exceptions, but a larger knowledge of things brings these under a deeper rule. So it is with the Word of God. Greater spiritual wisdom causes these apparent anomalies to disappear. Sometimes they may be in the translation; sometimes they may be in faulty manuscripts of the original; sometimes, and most frequently, they are in our own understanding. But the great lesson learned throughout is, that the Bible becomes more manifestly the Word of God in its every detail. No doubt the more ignorant people are, the more fault they find with the Bible; the wiser they become, the more they rejoice in it, and bless God for it."
May our readers be content to be simple about Scripture and accept without reasoning the treasure we have in the very Word of God—of Him who cannot lie. And He has said, "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God: for it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain." 1 Cor. 3:19, 2019For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 20And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. (1 Corinthians 3:19‑20). "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?" Isa. 2:2222Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of? (Isaiah 2:22). "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. 2:1414But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14). "Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity." Psalm 39:55Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. (Psalm 39:5).
We especially speak to our young readers and urge that they weigh everything in the "balances of the sanctuary," and that they be not led away after men, be they high or low; for if they speak not according to God's Word there is "no light in them." Be not impressed with their pretensions to superior intelligence, or special education, to any legitimate degrees, whether of Ph.D. or even D.D. They simply are not wiser than Scripture; and any pretension to it will but manifest their folly in the end. God is true, and He is not mocked. "Every word of God is pure.... Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." Pro. 30:5, 65Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. 6Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. (Proverbs 30:5‑6).