Our Lord, when speaking of the scriptures, said, “They are they which testify of me”; and when the Spirit of truth is come, “He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” It is clear then that those who are led by the Holy Spirit into the true teaching of scripture, will have the Lord Jesus Christ ministered to them. How can it be otherwise, for is He not emphatically “THE TRUTH”? Is it possible, then, to overrate the value of such divinely-given landmarks?
Atheists and Deists have long indulged in throwing their invectives against the sacred volume. Every now and then a Voltaire, a Tom Paine, or some other of that stamp, has been the avowed champion of infidelity, and has made no secret of his blasphemies; so that faithful men of God knew whom they had to encounter, and what they might expect from such. But now a far more effective class of instruments are actively employed in seeking to undermine the infinite worth and divine authority of the inspired word; and, we blush to add, not a few of them are the professed ministers of the gospel. The fatal mischief is wrought too, not as formerly by ignoring the Bible as a whole, as much as by various persons leveling their attacks on different portions of divine revelation; so that at this time there is scarcely a fundamental truth of scripture that is not being either questioned or denied in some part or other of Christendom. The days of evil have indeed come. The emissaries of Satan are active. Everything that can be shaken is on the move. Rationalists are busy. Distrust and incredulity abound; and many are fearful as to what may be coming next. And why all this? Is it not because they have not known “the truth”? Our Lord said,
I am . . . the truth.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free . . . If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
The root-error of all this departure from the truth, is doubtless the refusal to accept the divine verdict that “they that are in the flesh cannot please God,” and receiving instead the false notion of human competency to judge of the things of God; thus ignoring our fall through Adam’s disobedience. For matters of this life, no doubt men have natural abilities; but we are plainly told in scripture that “the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:1111For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:11)). Even the apostles, who were “able ministers of the New Testament,” with marvelous gifts and qualifications, were wont to say,
If such mighty men of God declared their inability to think a right thought apart from the teaching of the Spirit, how appalling is it in these days to find so many relying on learning and natural ability, and expressing their opinions of the scriptures with such temerity and boldness, instead of humbly owning and relying on the gracious ministry of “the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey him,” and thus
receiving in faith God’s testimony.
It is scarcely possible that Scripture could speak more plainly than it does on this momentous subject. We say nothing against learning and human talent for worldly things, but in reference to the things of God another Scripture says that believers have
How truly this is verified in these days! Let us not fail to notice further that one must be “spiritual” (under the guidance, teaching, and power, of the Holy Spirit, who occupies the soul with the Lord Jesus where He is), to discern the things of God.
No doubt most of the confusion in Christendom as to the Scriptures can be traced to confidence in human wisdom, instead of honoring the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It would be impossible for those who are born of God to advance opinions, or value those of others, as to the plain testimony of the written word, much less would they confer with known sceptics and Deists, if they knew in their own souls the teaching and power of “the Spirit of truth.” To question the divine authenticity of the holy Scriptures (alas! how few think it), is to refuse God’s word, God’s Son, and therefore God’s salvation. We are told that our Lord,
Men may boast of “modern thought,” and “intellectual progress,” and style themselves “an advanced school”; but we are persuaded that a solemn crisis is not far off. The question throughout Christendom, already beginning to be heard far and near, is, “Is the Bible God’s revelation of His mind and will? or, Is it merely a collection of the writings and opinions of good men?” Many of the adversaries of the truth lavish their praises on its being “the best of books,” but such compliments are unnecessary and unacceptable. Are the Scriptures the utterance of God’s mind, which came by His will, and not by the will of man, which holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost? If not, there can be no faith, no divine ground on which the soul can rest. But, having His own word, and knowing His perfect love and faithfullness in the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus, and having heard and received the gospel of His grace, the soul rests in perfect peace before Him, and can rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
The believer is not called on to define Inspiration. How the Scriptures were inspired has not been revealed. It is enough for him that by them God is made known, that holy men of God testified by “the Spirit of Christ which was in them,” and that they minister Christ to his soul. Our Lord, too when speaking of us to the Father said, “I have given them thy word.” After that, we read that the apostles and brethren prayed that they might “with all boldness speak thy word,” and were so answered, that “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and spake the word of God with boldness.” Believers knew that the ministry in old time, and also by our Lord and His apostles, was the ministry of “the word of God.”
Neither are believers called on to solve all the mysteries and difficulties of the Scriptures. They may know but very little of the Bible; but they find it therein revealed, without a shadow of question, that Jesus the Son of God “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification”; and that “by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses,” and they are filled with “joy and peace in believing.”
How plainly we can “see the day approaching”! The cry of “peace and safety,” the prelude of sudden destruction, well-nigh encircles the habitable earth. “The times of the Gentiles” are rapidly being fulfilled. Not a few have departed from the faith. The cloud which has been so long hanging over Christendom, thickens and lowers with incredible rapidity. The disciples of modern infidelity are being multiplied. “The way of Cain,” or approach to God without blood, is becoming largely accepted. The name of Christ is unblushingly attached to unscriptural efforts, in order that they may be accredited; and “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof,” from which the faithful are enjoined to “turn away,” is spreading itself far and near. The numberless confederacies of men on all sides may be casting their shadow, to intimate that the binding of the tares in bundles is not far off. Nor can we fail to see that the hostility between confessed infidels and formal professors of Christianity may possibly be the harbinger of that great collision ere long to have its solemn fulfilment. when they will
hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire (Heb. 10:2525Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25); 1 Thess. 5:33For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:3); Rev. 17:1616And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. (Revelation 17:16)).
It would be impossible at this time for the faithful not to “sound an alarm.” We are to “warn” as well as “comfort.” Neutrality is out of the question; for our Lord said, “He that is not with me, is against me.” With those who are true to Him, the supreme authority of Scripture will be maintained at all cost. Its intrinsic perfection and excellency have been tasted and enjoyed by them, and they know the Shepherd’s voice. Christ Himself, their life and righteousness, is their resource; His Father is their Father, who loves them as He loved His Son. The Holy Spirit is their Teacher, Guide and Strength. Their watchword is, “It is written,” and they find real delight in serving the living and true God, and waiting for His Son from heaven. They know that “the night is far spent” and “the day is at hand.”
That the Scriptures have been marvelously preserved for us to the present moment is an unquestionable fact; but what means God has employed for its accomplishment is another thing. Certain it is as to the Old Testament that to the Jews “were committed the oracles of God”; and it is most interesting to observe how scrupulously pious Jews have sometimes guarded the sacred treasure, and also that the books which they still accredit as divinely inspired correspond with what we call the Old Testament, though the books are not bound up together precisely in the same order.
The pretensions of Romish or Anglican churches to be the appointed custodians of the Scriptures, and that the decisions of their councils gives them their authority, is as gratuitous and unfounded as anything can be. Where is there a line of Scripture to warrant such a conclusion? We are well aware that our opponents would say, “Hear the church”; to which we reply, though that Scripture gives church or assembly authority in case of discipline, it gives not a shadow of warrant as to the oracles of God being now committed to the church. The words, “Hear the church” are found only in Matt. 18, and refer to an offending brother, who having been told of his trespass by the offended one alone, and not having been gained, then, having his fault again brought before him in the presence of one or two more, and having neglected to hear them, the assembly or church must then be told of it, and
if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican.
Now, honestly, whatever has this to do with the church being the custodians of the Scriptures, and to decide on their authority? Instead of the church giving authority to the Scriptures, it is really the Scripture which, in cases of discipline gives authority to the church.
Another word brought forward of late to bolster up this tradition of men is quoted from Luke 10:16,16He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me. (Luke 10:16) when our Lord on sending forth the seventy to preach the glad tidings of the kingdom (for the Messiah was there, and ready to set up His kingdom), said, “He that heareth you, heareth me.” Now where is there any allusion to the church or its authority here? To receive or reject the servant being to receive or reject the Sender has always been true, as here it is the servant being heard because he came to them in Messiah’s name. We know from Matt. 17:1818And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. (Matthew 17:18) and other Scriptures that the church on earth was not then in existence, nor could it be till the Holy Spirit came down, as recorded in the second chapter of Acts.
Again, refuge is taken by the opponents of the truth in the words,
These words are found in Paul’s last epistle to Timothy, when all Asia had turned away from him, and a prominent fellow-servant had forsaken him, and loved this present world. The Church had long gone on as God’s corporate witness on earth, and had deeply failed, and nothing would have been easier than for the aged apostle in prospect of martyrdom to have commended Timothy to church authority; but instead of that, he calls upon Timothy to look out for individuals in the church on earth whom he can judge true to the Lord, and commit the truth which he had received from the apostle to such as he could call “faithful men,” so that they might be able to teach others also. Timothy could not fail so to understand it. There is no thought of church authority in the passage. Nor is there such an idea here or elsewhere in Scripture as that “the church teaches.” Instead of the church teaching, the church is taught by the “gifts” received from Christ in ascension; and in the prospect of ruin and difficulty in the church looked at as God’s corporate witness on earth, we are directed to the Scriptures and their sufficiency as our resource in a time of evil in the last days (2 Tim. 3:15-1715And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (2 Timothy 3:15‑17); see also Eph. 4:8-168Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. 9(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 15But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: 16From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:8‑16)). From first to last in the sacred writings their divine authority is set before us. Even when Paul preached, who had received his commission directly from the Lord Himself, as he says, “not of men neither by man,” the Bereans were specially commended by the Holy Spirit, because they searched the Scriptures daily, “whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11, 1211These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. 12Therefore many of them believed; also of honorable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few. (Acts 17:11‑12)). How important it is at this time to see that instead of the church giving authority or adding any value to the written word, it is that word which is the only authority in the church, and is sufficient to guide, instruct, and correct every believer and furnish him unto every good work.
The truth is, that “the faith once delivered,” instead of being deposited to the care and authority of a corporate association — the church — we are plainly told was once given “to the saints,” so that every believer (for all such are “saints” by calling) has received this wondrous endowment from the Lord, and is under obligation to Him to “contend earnestly” for it, and maintain it at all costs for His honor (Jude 33Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. (Jude 3)). When the word of eternal truth is not heeded in its divine character, as the daily resource and guide, men and books will be almost sure to be resorted to, and will usurp the place of “God, and the word of his grace,” in the heart and mind, with great loss and damage of soul. “To obey is better than sacrifice”; and to heed and keep the “words” of the Son of God is the proof of our loving Him; and an apostle was wont to exhort believers to “be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior” (John 14:2323Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23); 2 Pet. 3:22That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: (2 Peter 3:2)).