Mullins ReligionCh05

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Chapter 5. Revelation

Introductory Statement

NO topic dealt with in theology calls for more careful attention to facts ascontrasted with theories than revelation. The subject has often been becloudedby the introduction of needless problems. Abstract anda priori considerationshave often ruled the minds of thinkers here. Attention to the facts of manscommon religious life, and particularly to those presented in the Christianrevelation, will lead to the conclusions which are called for by a system ofChristian doctrine.

There are several facts fundamental to clearness of view which may be namedat this point. The first is that the very conception of religion contains at itsheart the idea of revelation. No definition of religion which omits the idea canstand in the light of the facts. If the worshiper speaks to God, and God isforever silent to the worshiper, we have only one side of religion. Religionthen becomes a meaningless make-believe. The second fact is that the generalreligious life of mankind, with scarcely any exception, exhibits belief in

revelation as essential to religion. The apparent exceptions are instances likeBrahmanism and Buddhism, which are speculative systems of thought ratherthan religions. They are philosophies which mark the insufficiency of theethnic religions. They never have succeeded as philosophies. Always thereligious impulse reasserts itself and the gods swarm back into consciousness.The third fact is the unique and unparalleled revelation which God has made inand through Jesus Christ. With the revelation in Christ is to be taken therevelation of God to Israel. The remarkable record of this revelation ispresented to us in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The aboveconsiderations show how the doctrine of revelation arises out of the facts ofexperience and of history. The chief problem is to interpret the facts. In theScriptures we find an interpretation of the facts. In brief, it is that God revealedhimself to Israel in the life and history of the people, and that prophetic menhave left us a record of the revelation, and that God spoke supremely in andthrough Jesus Christ and the apostles.

There can be no question that the biblical writers regarded the revelationswhich came to them as supernatural. It is equally clear that the revelation wasmediated to them for the most part through their experience and needs. Godwas present with his people. He dwelt in them. He guided and cared for them,and slowly made himself known to them.


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1. Opposing Views

Before developing the idea of a supernatural revelation further we may notehere a few of the opposing views, based on certain philosophic assumptionsand world-views.

1. The agnostic does not assert or deny the reality of God, but he does denythat God can communicate with us. The absolute and infinite is too farremoved from man to make himself known to him. Of course we agree at oncethat we cannot know God perfectly. But we deny strongly the radical theory ofknowledge which asserts mans total incapacity for knowing God and Godstotal incapacity for revealing himself to man. As we have seen, man isconstituted for God in every part of his being. In his psychic, moral, scientific,

philosophic, and religious life, he seeks and progressively attains the truth.Agnosticism denies all meaning to these facts. For him the world is notcoherent, not a unitary system. It is awry. The parts of being are out of relationto each other. There is no food for mans soul-hunger. All of this shows thatthe agnostic denial of, the possibility of revelation is grounded, in an,unscientific theory of knowledge. In principle it is subversive of all thought inall spheres.

2. The pantheistic denial of the possibility of a supernatural revelation isdestructive or the true religious life in another way. It cancels the distinctreality of God as a personal being. It makes of man simply a part of the infinitesubstance. He is as divine as any other part of being. This view often expressesitself in the form of an exaggerated doctrine of the divine immanence. God isin all things and through all things, and, according to this view, we need notthink of him as also above all things. The reply is that if God only speaksthrough the natural and human development of events, then he is absorbed and

exhausted as it were in his own universe.

The doctrine of the divine immanence, which teaches that God is equallypresent everywhere, leaves no room for anything distinctive in revelation.Everything is divine revelation on this view. And this amounts virtually to thestatement that nothing is divine revelation. God never can distinguish himselfto our consciousness from his finite creation if we try to explain his action bymeans of an exclusive doctrine of the divine immanence. The immanence of

God is a great and important truth. The Scriptures everywhere recognize it. Butthe transcendence of God is equally important Gods transcendence is involvedin his personality. Personality in man is the chief element in his constitution asbearing the image of God. Mans personality is developed on the natural levelthrough interaction with matter and human society. On the spiritual level it isdeveloped through interaction with God. The unfolding of mans personal


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religious life then marks his distinction from God at every point. Thisdistinction is a fundamental condition of all the religious life of man. Religionmeans man in fellowship with God in personal terms. This implies both theimmanence and transcendence of God.

3. Another view which opposes a supernatural revelation takes the form ofwhat is commonly known as natural religion. Its position is that the worldabout us, along with the human reason and conscience, sufficiently revealsGod to us. There is therefore no need of a supernatural revelation. Godsexistence we infer from the works of nature. Human freedom we know asbeing conscious of moral obligation. Immortality we infer from our ownspirituality and the necessity of a future life to adjust the wrongs andinequalities of the present life. Thus reasons natural religion.

There are various objections to the view. The first is that it is a creed based onphilosophic inferences rather than a religion. A man might hold all the aboveitems of belief and not be a religious man at all. Religion is experience offellowship with God, not logical deductions from a particular set of objectivefacts. The view is defective also in that it does not contain enough knowledgeof God to supply human need. Particularly does it come short in its failure toshow the redemptive love and purpose of God. It is also glaringly deficient in

its suggestions as to the moral and spiritual power needed for the victoriousreligious life. It has no suggestion for a renewal of mans nature and theimplanting of a love for holiness. The view of natural religion is radicallyobjectionable because it leaves God himself forever silent. His works indeedreveal something of God, the elementary truths of religion. In this naturalreligion is right. But according to it God never becomes active for mansenlightenment or salvation. Reason discovers what it can. But God speaks nodirect word to the most earnest seeker for truth. The view is essentially deistic.God made the universe and left it running. In a general way he upholds it. Hemay, as it were, keep it spinning round his finger, but he never touches it.

These three types of objection to the idea of a supernatural revelation willsufficiently indicate the prevailing views. None of them can make good itsclaim. The whole subject must be carried over from the realm of speculationanda priori reasoning into that of living experience. The Christian doctrine ofrevelation rests on a fact basis. It is not an abstract theory, but an explanation

of certain events in the spiritual history of the race. The record of these eventsis found in the Christian Scriptures.

2. Contents Of Revelation

Christian revelation may be defined as containing the following elements:


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1. It is primarily a revelation of God himself rather than of truths about God.This is a cardinal fact. Revelation is in the first instance God making himselfknown. Truths there are of course. Doctrines inevitably shape themselves asthe revelation proceeds. But the primal fact is God entering human experience,and man becoming conscious of his presence and power.

2. On the human side revelation is primarily a spiritual transaction rather thanmere illumination of the intellect. Revelation is an event in the soul, an act ofmans whole nature in response to Gods self-disclosure. Thus revelation isprimarily salvation God makes himself known by saving acts to the individualor to the redeemed society. It is easy to see how far removed this is from thebare communication of truth to the mind. There were indeed instances of thelatter recorded in the Old Testament. But the uniform law was revelation

through the redeeming activity of God.

There is a great principle of religious psychology involved in this point. Nobare truth about God can be a revelation of God in the Christian sense.Revelation is acquaintance with and not mere knowledge about God. Eventhe revelation in and through Jesus Christ would never have been completewithout the group of redeemed men to whom it was made. What Christ was asthe Revealer of God could only be known through his redeeming power in the

disciples. And the world at large could never have known that revelationunless the first group of disciples had left a record of their own experiences.The revelation included necessarily therefore the objective self-disclosure ofGod in the historical Jesus Christ; the subjective experience off the redeemingpower of Jesus in the regenerated society; and the permanent record of thatpower and that redemption given us in the New Testament. The gospel thusbecame the possession of the world at large and became an actual transformingpower organic in the human race.

3. Again, revelation was rooted in the life and needs of the people. We shouldnot think of it as a foreign thing grafted on Israel. It was not unrelated to theirlife and needs, but sprang directly therefrom. The message through theprophets and apostles met an actual situation. It did not spring out of thenatural life of the people as its producing cause. It was rather the coming ofGod into their life to meet an urgent need.

4. Revelation on Gods part evoked an active response on mans part. This is amatter of vital importance. It is frequently forgotten in discussions of thesubject. Here, as elsewhere in the religious life, man must conform to theuniversal law expressed by the apostle Paul: We work out what God works inus.


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There is nothing in the Bible to warrant the Roman Catholic notion of implicitfaith; that is, the unintelligent acceptance on sheer authority of the dogma of anecclesiastical superior. There is nothing in Scripture to warrant the idea ofmechanically dictated truth to a merely passive intellect. Men sometimes thinkof revelation as if the mind of the prophet were as a blank sheet of paper on

which the Holy Spirit inscribed Gods message. On the contrary, the humanfaculties were, as a rule, intensely alive and active. The truth disclosed wasmolded in the forms required by the personality, training, and circumstances ofthe human organ of revelation.

Here again we have a principle of great significance. Gods revelation isdesigned to awaken and develop human personal. Never is it intended to crushor weaken it. Observe the care with which Jesus revealed himself to the early

disciples. Who do men say that I am? was his question at one stage of hispublic ministry. When Peter replied correctly Jesus pronounced him blessed.Jesus meant that men should discover him. The revelation was not completeuntil they responded actively. His parables were framed expressly to awakenthought about him. In a sense then Gods revelations can only becomerevelations when they become our discoveries.

3. The Record Of RevelationWe have in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments the record of Godsrevelation of himself to his people. There are two was of approaching thequestion of the authoritativeness of the Scriptures. One puts much emphasis onthe processes, the other upon the results, of inspiration. The former seeks toenter the realm of religious psychology and to show how Gods Spirit impartedthe light necessary for the inspiration of the biblical writers. The latter is morepractical and dwells rather upon the outcome of the process in the Bible as wehave it.

1. The psychological method seeks to distinguish between revelation,illumination, and inspiration. Revelation is the super natural communication oftruth to the human messenger. Illumination is the spiritual insight imparted byGods Spirit, enabling the human mind to grasp the meaning of the truth.Inspiration is the divine guidance and control of the messenger in delivering orrecording the message. These distinctions, when properly understood, arejustified. The revelation in and through Christ was given before theillumination required for its understanding in the minds of the early disciples.Again, illumination is bestowed by the Holy Spirit upon all obedient childrenof God. Spiritual insight, without revelation and inspiration in the strict sense,is the common possession of believers. It would be a mistake, however, to holdthese distinctions in too radical a manner. They are useful for thought. But the


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elements separated in thought are not always separate in fact. Revelation isusually accompanied by illumination. Inspiration also is most frequentlyattended by revelation and illumination.

2. As a result of the psychological method certain theories of inspiration have

arisen. In brief outline they are as follows: The naturalistic theory ofinspiration holds that as God dwells in all men, all are inspired. The degree ofinspiration depends upon their natural capacity, mental and spiritual. It isobvious that this is not the biblical doctrine of inspiration. Another theory isthat inspiration is illumination rather than infallible guidance into truth. It thusleaves room for many and varying degrees of truth and of error in the outcome.Another is called the plenary verbal theory of inspiration. It holds that everyward of Scripture was selected by the Holy Spirit and dictated to the writer.

One form of the theory of plenary inspiration is called the theory of dynamicalinspiration. This maintains that the thought rather than the language wasinspired, and that men were enabled to declare truth unmixed with error, butpermitted to convey their ideas in forms of their own selection.

a.With regard to these theories it may be remarked that none of them is anexhaustive or adequate expression of the teaching of Scripture. Most of themno doubt contain elements of truth, but they attempt the impossible. It is not

within our power to analyze fully the process by which Gods Spirit operatesupon the human mind in providing for us a record of his redemptive dealingswith men. There was great variety in the circumstances of the biblical writers,and great diversity in their gifts and capacities and in the forms employed forsetting forth the truths revealed. In some cases inspiration led to the selectionmerely of historical material, as in the historical books of the Old Testament.In others the facts were given and inspiration led to their interpretation. In thecase of Luke, as he informs us, careful research was necessary. Inspiration didnot exempt him from the ordinary task of the diligent historian.

b.Most of the psychological theories of inspiration start from a false premise.They begin by asking how God could have given to us a reliable guide for ourreligious life, and they proceed to answer the question by a theory whichseems to meet the end in view. They proceed thus: If the Bible is Gods wordto us, then it must have been given in such and such a manner. The truemethod, on the contrary, is to study the Bible inductively in order to learn what

its claims are and what success it has had in meeting those claims, in theexperience of Christians of the past and present. This is the experiential andpractical method of approaching the doctrine of inspiration. It is much moreconcerned with the result than it is with the process of inspiration. What is theBible, and what place does it hold in our religious life to-day? How does it


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meet the religious needs of men? This is the practical question. The Bible itselfcontains the best answer.

4. Distinguishing Marks Of The Biblical Revelation

In harmony with what has just been said we proceed next to name some of theleading characteristics of the Scriptures. These are given as a general survey ofthe contents of the Bible itself.

1. The biblical revelation is historical and experiential. This means thatindividuals in Israel and the people of Israel lived in conscious relations withJehovah. It means also that Jehovah made himself known to them in theirindividual and national history. Nothing stands out in clearer light as to the

writers of the Old Testament than their consciousness of God. This appears inmany passages. Many of the psalms are little more than fervid narrations ofGods dealings with Israel. (SeeDeu. 26:16; 28: 1; Psa. 107: 1ff.; 44: 1 ff.;105: 1 ff.) The prophets lived in the divine presence. The consciousness ofGod with them was a part of their own self-consciousness. It was their uniformclaim that Jehovah spoke in and through them. (SeeJer. 1: 4;Eze. 2: 1;Hos. 1: 1;Mic. 1: 1;Hag. 1: 1.)The same fact appears in the New Testament,but under changed conditions. Jesus declares the truth about God, and those

who receive the revelation record it in our New Testament books. The promiseto them is that they shall be guided into truth by the Holy Spirit. (Joh. 16:13)

2. The biblical revelation is regenerative and morally transforming. In the earlystages of the revelation the ethical qualities of the people do not shine with thesame radiance as in the later. But it is clear that one chief object of therevelation is moral transformation. To think of the sheer communication ofsupernatural truth as the most important object or result of revelation is to

misconceive it. There is a growth from immature forms of morality in the earlyparts of the Old Testament to a perfected morality in the New Testament whichpresents a striking contrast between the outward and inward, the temporaryand permanent, the special and the universal, the provisional and the final. TheSermon on the Mount alone is abundant proof of this statement. (Matthew 5to7.)

3. The biblical revelation is genetic. This means that the parts are vitally

related to each other. The revelation proceeds like the unfolding of an innerlife principle: We do not find the prophets warring with each other insentiment and aim. Each takes up the thread of teaching at the point where hispredecessors left it off. They build on each other. This is the fundamental lawof all progress. The traditionalist worships the ancient forms and will have nochange. The radical is so intolerant of the old that he would destroy it. The
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prophets and apostles avoided both errors. The continuity of the teaching of theBible is one of its most marked qualities.

4. Another outstanding characteristic of the revelation of the Bible is that it isgradual and progressive. The recognition of this fact is one of the most

important results of the modern critical study of the Bible. It is an easy task toshow that every leading idea of the biblical revelation undergoes change in thesense of growth and expansion in the course of the history. The conception ofJehovah himself is first presented with emphasis on the attribute of power. Heis thought of chiefly in his relations with Israel. Slowly the idea is transformedinto the splendid conception of Isaiah in which Jehovah is portrayed as infinitein all his attributes, and yet full of condescension, grace, and love. In the NewTestament we have the crowning revelation of God as the infinite Father who

sends his Son to redeem the world.

The principle of a gradual and progressive revelation sheds light on severalproblems which may be mentioned here.

a.It supplies the key for the interpretation of certain psalms and other OldTestament passages in which God seems to be represented as a vindictivebeing, rejoicing in his power to inflict suffering even upon the innocent along

with the guilty. (SeePsa. 137: 9; 109: 5-20.) The Old Testament law of divorceis not the same as that of the New Testament. Certain offenses whichcivilization no longer visits with penalties so severe were punishable in Israelby death. Now all these facts can be understood if we think of the Bible as therecord of Gods self-disclosure to a people incapable of more rapiddevelopment. It is impossible to reconcile them with any theory of inspirationwhich regards all parts of the Bible as equally absolute and final. Jesusexpressly rejected the view. A large part of Pauls writings are opposed to it.

The book of Hebrews is an elaborate and formal argument to show that the OldTestament revelation was preparatory rather than final.

All this is but illustrative of the divine pedagogy in the training of a race.There was no moral and spiritual method of forcing the process of growth. Itrequired free action on mans part. Men must learnobedience. Often itrequired severe discipline to teach it. But until they could grasp the truth it wasvain to proclaim it. And so Jehovah gently led his people and bore with their

infirmities and moral blindness until he could lead them out into a larger moraland spiritual life.

b.The gradualness of revelation sheds light on the question of delay in thegreat revelation in Christ. In the New Testament Paul often employs the phrasethe fulness of times in relation to the coming of Christ into the world. Therewas a ripening of the divine purpose. But there was also a maturing of human
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receptiveness for Christ. If Christ had come at the beginning of the revelation,the moral and spiritual preparation necessary on the part of the people wouldhave been wanting. No doubt he came as soon as the incarnation could proveeffective for the end in view. The idea of epochs and dispensations in Godsdealing with men is based on a profound law of mans spiritual development. It

has to be kept in mind by all who would understand the revelation in Christ.

c.The gradualness of revelation sheds light on the principle of development, inso far as that principle is applicable to the Scriptures. Many moderns havesought to apply to the Old Testament history a theory of natural developmentwhich eliminates entirely the need for any supernatural presence or power ofGod. As we have seen, there is beyond question a principle of growth anddevelopment in revelation. Indeed, there is no body of religious literature on

earth which compares with the Scriptures in steady progress from lower tohigher forms. But this is not evidence against, but rather in favor of the divineguidance. It is an impressive mark of divine wisdom. Here were writers ofvaried gifts, separated by long intervals of time, surrounded often by unbeliefand deadly hostility, speaking out their messages often at fearful cost in painand suffering. Sometimes they spoke under protest, as in the case of Jeremiah,and yet urged on by an inward voice they could not resist. The result is a bodyof literature covering a period of a thousand years, possessing a marvelousunity along with a marvelous progress.

We may indicate the underlying principle of progress by the followingstatements: at each stage there was a communication of life and truth neededfor that stage; the revelation contained in itself the principle for developmentto the next higher stage; the advanced stage in turn conserved the principle theof the preceding stage and contained the germ which should expand into thenext higher; the lines of development all converged toward fulfilment, in Jesus

Christ, the crowning revelation.

It is unnecessary to trace here the various lines of development in theprogressive revelation. It is sufficient to point out that it is ethical, containing adeepening appreciation of the higher moral ideals; that along with this there isa marked development of the consciousness of sin and guilt; that thisdeepening sin-consciousness is attended by a growth in the sense of need foratonement; that the need for atonement is coupled in a marvelous manner with

an enriched conception of Gods grace; that the conception of God himself isslowly rounded out into that of a Being whose purposes include all mankind;that the course of the history slowly converges upon the One who in his Personand work is to transform the temporal kingdom into a spiritual and universalone for the redemption of mankind. These facts are writ large on the pagesof Scripture.


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One point needs to be added as to the gradualness of revelation. By this it isnot meant that revelation was continuous and uninterrupted throughout the OldTestament period. There were great deliverances and deeds of Jehovah atspecial periods and great crises of Israels history. The deliverance fromEgyptian bondage and the great events which followed was one of these. To

this period the people ever looked back with gratitude. In the period of theExile there was a great revival of the prophetic inspiration and power. Themiracles of Jesus, and especially his resurrection, were the most notable of allGods great acts of deliverance. The special deed and the special redemptivemessage were outstanding features of a revelation which, regarded in its wholecourse and extent, was also progressive and gradual. Both aspects of the truthshould be held in mind.

5. Closely, connected with the idea of this gradual and progressive revelationis that, it is also unitary and purposive. All that we have just said as to thegradualness indicates as well the unity and purposiveness of Gods revelation.It is only necessary to add a few points to bring the latter into greater clearness.There are at least five things which serve this end.

First the purpose of God is seen in his selection of one nation from amongmany. Through that nation he reaches all nations with his saving truth.

Secondly, his purpose appears in the geographical position of Israel, the verycenter of the inhabited world of that age. Thus, like leaven in a lump, the lifeof Israel could slowly transform the rest of the world.

Thirdly, his purpose appears in the divine guidance which led to thepermanent record in writing of Gods dealings with his chosen people. None ofthe prophets knew the place their words would hold in the literature of therace.

Fourthly, Gods, purpose is seen in the supreme role which his recordedrevelation has played in the actual history of the world.

We note in theFifth place that the same purposive action of God is seen in theprovidential steps which led to the formation of the canon of Scripture. Thisarose not as an expression of ecclesiastical authority; it was the result of a vitalinner process of selection. The divinity of the contents of the Scripture books,

not church decrees, led to their incorporation in one body of literature.

6. The biblical revelation is congruous with mans general intellectual andreligious life. The bible, correctly understood, interferes in no way with manssearch for truth in the realm of science, philosophy, and other departments ofintellectual effort. The Bible is not a book of science nor of philosophy. It is a


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book of religion. It only asks that science and philosophy recognize the facts ofmans religious life for which it stands.

The biblical revelation does not require us to hold that no truths about Godwere known to the nations other than Israel. Many of the fundamental ideas of

the Bible are seen in imperfect or distorted form in the general religious life ofmankind. This does not discredit, but confirms the truth of the biblicalrevelation. These religious ideas were Gods means of preparing men for therevelation in Christ. Men were enfeebled and blinded by sin. Yet the religiousimpulse never died in them. They sought God. The various systems are theresult of their seeking. The special revelation in Christ is Gods clear answer tothem.

7. The revelation is supernatural. The Old Testament prophets constantlyclaimed divine authority for their words. This reference of their messages toGod or Gods Spirit is so uniform, so unvarying, that it has all theimpressiveness of a phenomenon and a law. (Num. 11:23; 20:24; Isa. 55:11;66: 2; Jer. 1:12; 4:27 23:28-30; Mat. 24:35; Joh. 5:24;2Ti. 3:16.)

How shall we account for it? Were these men self-deceived? Were theyafflicted with diseased minds? It is impossible to believe this in the light of

their lofty and sane moral teachings and of their commanding position in theworld to-day.

If men object that such revelations are psychologically impossible, we mayreply by pointing to the influence of our human mind and will upon otherminds and wills. Mysterious? Yes. But nothing is more mysterious than theaction of our own wills. The prophets knew as we know what came fromwithout to them. Their whole personal and religious life was developed inreaction upon God and his will, revealed in and to them. Their own self-consciousness was the proof of their God-consciousness. Their own wills andGods will interacted without confusion of the one with the other, withoutabsorption of their will in Gods, or loss of their individuality in the infinitesubstance. Certainly these are the conclusions thrust upon us as we read whatthese men say to us in their written words. We cannot analyze or defineaccurately all the processes. The details elude us. But the great outstanding factis beyond dispute if we are to credit what these men tell us about their own

experiences.Jesus Christ clearly recognized the unique and permanent value of therevelation of God through the Old Testament writings. (Mat. 21:42; 22:29;Mar. 14:49; Luk. 24:27; Joh. 5:39.) They spoke of him. With Jesus it was acommonplace thought that the Old Testament was Gods self-revelation.
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The apostles also claimed divine guidance for their messages. They were thewitnesses to the facts of the life of Jesus. They were the interpreters of Christto us. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to them for future guidance.

The apostle Paul is especially clear in his statements regarding the influence of

Gods Spirit in his work. (1Co. 2: 4, 5, 10-16.) In one notable passage he statesgenerally the doctrine of inspiration:

Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, forreproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man ofGod may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work(2Ti. 3:16).

However we may translate these words, the great outstanding fact remains that

the apostle regarded the Scriptures as derived from men who were guided bythe Holy Spirit of God.

A general opposition to everything supernatural on the part of many of courseforbids the idea of anything supernatural or special in the biblical revelation.For the present it need only be replied that the facts as we know them do notwarrant an impersonal conception of being as a whole; that personality is thesupreme fact; and that personality cannot be confined within the chain of

physical law; and that if the universe is ultimately personal, and if God is aGod of grace and love, there can be no possible objection on theoreticalgrounds to the idea of a supernatural revelation.

8. The biblical revelation is sufficient certain, and authoritative for all religiousends. This means that the Bible meets all the requirements of the religious lifeof man as the inspired literary record of the self-revelation of God.

Here we note one or two errors which are to be avoided. First, we must notimagine that the biblical revelation removes the necessity for the direct actionof Gods Spirit upon men. Mans approach to God is direct. Spirit with Spiritcan meet. It is the presence of Gods Spirit in men that enables them tounderstand, appreciate, and use the Scriptures aright. The Bible is notstatutory. It is not of the nature of a legal code. It is a book of life principles.To the regenerate man the most convincing of all the evidences of the divineorigin of the Bible is the identity of his own spiritual life with that revealed in

the Bible. The Christian finds a saving gospel there. The Bible is the collectionof writings which explains to him the life he has found in Christ. He thussustains a relation to the Bible which is independent of all theories pertainingto its literary structure.

Another error, to be avoided is the application of false standards to theScriptures. This mistake has often been made. Men have applied the scientific
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or philosophic test to the Bible and have rejected it because it does not at allpoints square with their own conclusions. This is the cardinal error of somemodern men in their approach to the Bible. Modern scientific methods are ofrecent origin. If the biblical writers had been divinely taught the truths ofmodern science and had announced them prematurely, the result would have

been to discredit rather than to commend their messages. Suppose, forexample, that in the Nineteenth Psalm, which has much to say about theheavenly bodies, the writer had announced the modern scientific formulationof the law of gravitation: Bodies attract each other directly as the mass andinversely as the square of the distance. What would have been the result? Themere supposition shows how completely foreign to the biblical writers was thismodern scientific point of view. What is the infallibility of the Bible? How is it

to be tested? Dr. Marcus Dods says:

f7

The whole matter hinges here. What is the infallibility we claim forthe Bible? Is it infallibility in grammar, in style, in science, or what?Its infallibility must be determined by its purpose. If you say that yourwatch is infallible, you mean, as a timepiece; not that it has a flawlesscase, not that it will tell you the day of the month, or predicttomorrows weather. The navigator finds his chart infallible as a guideto lighthouses, and shallows, and sunken rocks, but useless to give himthe time of day or to inform him of the products and races of the landshe is bound for. A guide may infallibly lead you over a difficult and noteasily found pass, although he is ignorant of any language but his ownand knows little that happens beyond his own mountains.

It is strange indeed how often the friends and foes of the Bible have createdfalse issues about it. We must let the Bible tell its own story and not hold it tofalse standards and tests. It shows us Gods presence among his people using

men of varying capacities, who were guided in the selection of a great varietyof means for conveying the truth; adapting the means to the end in view andthe need to be supplied; employing always the language of common life;sometimes using forms of pictorial representation suitable for a child-race; atothers rising to the lofty eloquence of Isaiah and the sublime conceptions of aGod infinite in majesty, power, grace, and truth; the whole culminating in thematchless revelation of God in Christ. The Bible then is a book of religion, not

of science. As such it has proved hitherto and will continue to prove in thefuture, mans sufficient and authoritative guide.

In conclusion, then, the Bible remains in its place of authority for Christians. Itis a vital and living authority, and not a mechanical and ecclesiastical one. It isour authoritative source of information as to the historical revelation of God inChrist. It is regulative of Christian experience and Christian doctrine. It is the
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instrument of the Holy Spirit in his regenerative and sanctifying influences. Asregulative and authoritative it saves us from subjectivism on the one hand andfrom a bare rationalism on the other. It holds us to the great saving deeds ofGod in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer and Lord. It is final for us in all the mattersof our Christian faith and practice.

Mullins ReligionCh05

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