I. There are _four claims_ made on behalf of the Bible by those who
believe in it.
1. _Its Genuineness._ By this we mean that we possess the book
substantially as it was written. Not that we have an absolutely perfect
text, or that the translations represent precisely the original, or
that we know just when or by whom all the books were written, but that
the work has come into our possession without serious mutilation or
interpolation. We can accept it as the Bible.
2. _Its Authenticity._ By this we mean that the book contains the
truth. Its records are trustworthy history; its reports of discourses
or parables or conversations give the substance of their thoughts; its
statements upon every subject can be depended upon as honest and truthful.
3. _Its Inspiration._ By this we mean simply that this book came from
God. “Divine inspiration we understand to be an extraordinary divine
agency upon teachers while giving instruction, whether oral or written,
by which they were taught what and how they should write or speak.” (Dr.
Knapp, quoted by McClintock and Strong.)
4. _Its Authority._ By this we mean that the Bible contains God’s law,
and was given to us as the standard in life. It contains “the only rule,
and the sufficient rule, for our faith and practice.” No doctrine is
to be accepted unless it is in accordance with the teachings of the
Bible, and no law is binding which conflicts with the higher law of the
Scriptures.
II. _The Evidences Supporting these Claims._ It is not necessary to
present the proofs of each claim apart from the others. Those attesting
the genuineness of the Bible will be given with Lesson iv, “The Canon
of Scripture;” but the other claims are so linked together that the
proofs of one are the proofs of all. If the Bible can be proven _true_,
its truth is of such a nature as to show a divine original; and if it
proceeds from God, it comes as God’s law. Hence we present together the
_Ten Evidences_ of its Authenticity, Inspiration and Authority.
1. _Its Adaptation to Human Need._ (1) We start with the proposition
that _there is a God_; a person who governs the universe; not a mere
personification of law or force, but a spiritual existence. (2) _God has
a Law._ If God has no law for man, then for man there is practically no
God. (3) _We have a right to know that law._ What would be thought of a
law-maker with absolute power, who concealed his decrees, yet expected
his subjects to obey them, and punished them for disobedience? (4) _We
find just such a law as we need in the Bible_, and we find it nowhere
else, for it is not stamped into our consciousness, nor is it written
in nature. (5) We conclude then that _the Bible contains the Divine
Revelation_.
2. _Its General Acceptance._ The common consent of intelligent society
has accredited this book as authentic and divine. (1) We find an _early
acceptance_ among those best acquainted with its facts, and nearest
to them; the Old Testament regarded as divine among the Jews; the New
Testament among the Christians. (2) We find a _continuous acceptance_
through all the centuries since; at no time the chain of belief being
broken. (3) We find a _present acceptance_ now; in this age of searching
investigation, when nothing is accepted on ground of tradition only, the
Bible has more readers, more students, more believers in the intelligent
classes than at any previous period of its history.
3. _Its Characteristics._ The Bible contains four traits which, taken
together, distinguish it from all other books. (1) _Its Variety._
Written at intervals through 1,600 years, by more than thirty authors,
in different lands and different languages, it contains history, poetry,
genealogy, biography, ethics, epistles, doctrine, and many other classes
of composition. (2) _Its Harmony._ Underneath its variety of the surface
there is a harmony, so that its statements and its principles are nowhere
discordant. Contrast with this the discords of scientists. Could we
place on one shelf sixty-six books on astronomy, written during sixteen
centuries, by thirty writers, and find them harmonious? (3) _Its Unity._
Amid all the different subjects of the Bible there is one unifying
purpose. It presents as its theme _Redemption_, and every chapter in
every book falls into line in relation to that central thought. (4) _Its
Progressiveness._ There is a steady development of truth in Scripture,
a growing light through its centuries. We see the revelation beginning
with Adam, taking a step upward with Noah, another with Abraham, again
with Jacob, and so mounting higher in turn with Moses, Samuel, David,
Isaiah, Malachi, Peter and Paul, each on a loftier platform of spiritual
knowledge than the age before him, until John crowns the pyramid of truth
in his gospel and the Apocalypse. Not all the earth can show another book
besides the Bible with all these four traits, which show the work divine.
4. _The Harmony of its Relations._ The statements of the Bible come into
relation with facts ascertained in various departments of knowledge; yet
in none of these do we find contradiction, in all an ever increasing
harmony as our knowledge grows. (1) _With Localities._ The Bible names
more than two thousand places in the ancient world; lands, rivers, seas,
mountains, towns, villages, brooks, etc., yet not a single locality has
been placed wrongly by the Scripture. (2) _With Existing Institutions._
We find in the world such bodies of people as the Jews, the Samaritans,
the Christian church; such services as the passover, baptism, the Lord’s
Supper, etc. Take away the Bible and none of these can be accounted for;
open the Bible, their origin is plain. (3) _With Historical Monuments._
During the present century thousands of ancient inscriptions have been
brought forth and deciphered, and the history of great empires has been
written, bearing close relation to the history of the Bible. But not a
line of the Bible annals has been discredited by these explorations,
and many Bible statements have been placed in clearer light. (4) _With
Science._ Though “the conflict of science and the Bible” has been often
referred to, yet the testimony of the best scientists is that the opening
chapters of Genesis are in substantial and growing accord with geology;
that the tenth chapter of Genesis tallies with the latest conclusions
of comparative philology; and that modern astronomy furnishes the best
illustrations of the attributes of God as revealed in Scripture.
5. _The Fulfillment of its Prophecies._—It is very evident that no man,
unaided by Divine wisdom, can know the future and make prediction of
coming events. Yet there is a book containing many prophecies, which
have been fulfilled to the letter. (1) There are _predictions concerning
places_, as Babylon, Nineveh, Jerusalem, Tyre, Egypt, all differing in
their statements, yet all brought to pass. (2) There is a series of
predictions concerning Christ, beginning in Eden and extending through
the Old Testament, growing in definiteness as the hour of fulfillment
drew near, and all accomplished. Thus the New Testament and the Old
mutually prove each other.
6. _The Person of Christ._—We find in the gospels four accounts, by
different writers, of one Person. They tell us that he was at once God
and man; that he grew up in a country village, yet surpassed all the
wisdom of the philosophers; that he could create food, yet suffered
hunger; that he could raise the dead, yet submitted to be tortured and
crucified; that he was free from worldly ambition, yet became the founder
of the greatest kingdom earth has seen. The life, the character, the
personality, is so unique and original that no one could have invented
it. Hence the writers of the gospels must have drawn their sketch from
the life.
7. _The Candor of its Writers._—The authors of these documents write
like honest men, telling their story plainly, without partisan bias.
They relate the sins of their heroes, Abraham’s deception, Jacob’s
double-dealing, Moses’ anger, David’s crime, Peter’s denial, Paul’s
quarrel with Barnabas. Their tone of sincerity shows the truthfulness of
the narration.
8. _The Elevation of its Teachings._—Here is a book, written in an age
when even the most cultured nations worshiped idols and held the grossest
conceptions of God, with correspondingly low ideals of morals for men.
Yet in such ages, the Bible presents a view of God to which the world
has been slowly broadening its vision; and a standard of character which
rises far above that of Plato, Cicero, or Confucius, and is now adopted
as the ideal manhood by ethical philosophers. Whence, but from a divine
source, came those lofty teachings of the Scriptures?
9. _Its Influence Upon the World._—What the Bible has done shows the
hiding of its power. (1) _See its effects upon nations._ The lands where
it is honored, America, England, North Germany, are the three lands of
most advanced civilization and largest hope for the race. The lands where
it is forbidden, as Spain, or where it is unknown, as China, are those
whose condition is most hopeless. (2) _See its effects upon individuals._
The people who study the Bible are not the drunkards, thieves, criminal
classes. Those who have the word in their minds and hearts become purer,
better, higher than others. It transforms men from sinners to saints,
and its influence makes earth a picture of heaven. No false book, no
deceiving book could thus make the world better.
10. _Its Self Convincing Power in Experience._—There is in the
consciousness of man a conviction that the religion of the Bible rests
upon a sound foundation. And he who puts the Bible to the test in his
own experience, who lives its life, and follows its law, and enjoys its
communings, finds an assurance to the satisfaction of his spiritual
nature, that this book contains God’s message to his soul. Every
Christian’s experience is, therefore, a testimony to the truth and the
inspiration of Scripture.
[To those who wish to pursue this subject further we recommend the
following works: “Credo,” by L. T. Townsend; “The Logic of Christian
Evidences,” by Dr. Wright; Chautauqua Text Book No. 18; “Christian
Evidences,” by Dr. Vincent; “The Christ of History,” by Principal Young;
“Historical Illustrations of the Old Testament,” by Rawlinson & Hackett;
“The Story of Creation,” by Dr. Campbell; and “Farmer Tompkins and His
Bibles,” by W. J. Beecher, D.D.]