Book-02-The Bible God’s Word

The Bible God’s Word Text.—“But men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.”—2Pe 1:21.

“I AM, therefore God is, for no man ever made himself. I speak, there­fore God spake, for no man has ever spoken who was not first spoken to.” God has given to man two books— the book of nature and the book of reve­lation. The book of nature reveals a God of wisdom and of power; the book of revelation reveals a God of love, and this is the highest and best revelation. It reveals God as our Father. The Book is here; if God did not write it, who did? Man could not have done it, and he would not if he could. It is a book that reveals man’s defects and pronounces condemnation upon his head. All of the combined wisdom of all the combined ages could never have written this Book. We are certain that the devil did not write it, for it is opposed to his kingdom, and to follow its teachings will mean the destruction of the devil and his kingdom. It is antagonistic to all that is devilish.

Let me give you only a few reasons for believing it came from God and that it is the product of inspiration. Men of God spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit, says the apostle. It cannot be destroyed, and therefore we argue that its indestructibility is a proof of its inspiration. When Moses saw the burn­ing bush, the flames loomed and the fire burned, but the bush could not be con­sumed. God was in it. God is in this old Book and it cannot be destroyed. It has come to us through a river of blood. Every page is stained with the blood of the martyrs. Someone says: “It has been upset more times than any other book, and yet it is a solid cube right side up every time.” It is like the Irishman’s fence which was five feet thick and three feet high, and someone said: “Pat, are you not afraid to keep fooling with that fence—afraid you will upset it?” Pat replied: “Faith, if I do, it will be two feet higher after I’ve completed the job!” It is this way with the Bible. Every time a destructive critic or an infidel makes an attack on it, it comes before the people with renewed power and strength. Those who opposed it and tried to destroy it in the past ages have been almost for­gotten, and were it not for the fact that they linked themselves to its history, would not be thought of today. Voltaire predicted that within one hundred years there would be no Bibles, but when the hundred years had rolled around, the Christian people were printing Bibles on the very printing-press which had been used by the French infidel. Thomas Paine did his best to kill it in his day and gen­eration, but today there are millions of men reading the Book, and never in the world’s history have we had so many copies of the Bible, and in so many lan­guages, as we have today. No book at­tracts attention as does this one. Can you picture the scene in New York when the new version came from the press: ex- press-wagons loaded with Bibles and the Bible houses unable to supply the de­mand! Think of it: 118,000 words sent by telegraph to Chicago in order that the people in that locality might be able to read the message at the same time they were reading it in New York! Its Style.—The style of the Book is another reason for believing in its inspira­tion. When you translate a piece of liter­ature into a foreign tongue it loses its personality and its individuality.

Shakespeare’s magic could not copied be;

Within that circle none durst walk but he. The moment you translate his writ­ings, and put them into another tongue, they lose their power. Not so with the Bible; you can put it into every dialect, and you can create a language and then put it into the one you have created, and it is still the powerful, uplifting, soul-sav­ing message. It is a universal Father speaking to his universal family. Its con­ciseness is characteristic. You write the history of the Johnstown flood and you will have a book of hundreds of pages, but when God wrote the history of the greatest flood the world had ever seen, he put it into a few sentences, and you cannot add to it. It is a perfect descrip­tion. If you write the history of a man, you will use pages, but God can write the history of a nation and put it all into a few paragraphs, and you are impressed with it as being finished. Its Uniqueness.—Suppose the Presi­dent should issue a proclamation calling upon men from every country under the “Stars and Stripes” to bring to the city of Washington, on a certain day, pieces of marble taken from the quarries of their own land, and that these men, ignorant of each other’s work, should come to the city on that day and place their pieces of marble, and when it was all done, with­out the use of hammer or chisel, there would go up a beautiful and magnificent temple, perfect in form and in design. What would be your conclusion—that each man wrought under the direction of some master mechanic or that it was mirac­ulous? Here we have sixty-six blocks of spiritual marble, and they have been quarried by forty men and at different times and in different places, and when they are put into proper form we have the beautiful and magnificent spiritual temple of inspired wisdom and truth in which God is pleased to dwell. How do you account for it upon any other basis than that all of them wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit? Its Influence.—Just as the desert is made to blossom because of the presence of the spring of water, so society is bless­ed by the word of God. Wm. E. Glad­stone said: “After fifty-eight years of public life—forty-seven in the English Cabinet—having been associated with sixty master minds of the world, all but five were Christians.” Who would live in a community of in­fidels? The Bible in a community guaran­tees protection to property and to life. Two young men were traveling in what was then termed the “wild West.” One night they stopped at a cabin and asked to be taken in for the night. One of the young men was an infidel and the other was a devout Christian. The infidel said to his companion: “I am afraid to stay here all night. This old man would kill you for a quarter. I have determined to take my revolver to bed with me, and to cut a hole in the bed-quilt and peep out with my hand on my pistol and be ready to shoot.” When the time came to retire, the old man got his big family Bible and said:

“Young men, it is our custom to read God’s word and pray before going to bed. I hope you will join us.” He then read the chapter, and they got down on their knees and he prayed: “Father, bless these young men who are so far away from home. Keep them from dan­ger and from the power of the evil one. Bless their parents who are so anxious about them to-night. Comfort them with the thought that God will be unto them a Father and that he will care for and pro­tect them, we beg in Jesus’ name.” The infidel was the first to get into his bed. The Christian noticed that he did not have his revolver and that he had not cut the hole in the bed-quilt, and he asked him why he had not made provision for his safety. He replied: “That old man wouldn’t hurt you.” The presence of that Bible and the fact that he was a man of prayer made the man feel he was safe. Suppose he had placed on his table a deck of cards and a bottle of moonshine and said, “Now, gentlemen, we want to have a good time before we retire,” what would have been the effect on the man, do you think?

Internal Proofs.—One Sunday morn­ing I was in the hotel in my city talking with a minister who was to preach near the city that day. He was one of the high-brows and made light of miracles and certain books in the Bible. A Jew was present and heard our discussion, and he said: “I am a Jew and I do not believe in miracles. I do not believe in the Virgin birth. I am from Missouri and you will have to show me.” I said to him: “Did I understand you to say that you are a Jew and that you do not believe in miracles, and that you are from Mis­souri and that I must show you?” He said, “Yes.” “Then I will proceed to show you. Come and stand up in front of that looking-glass and take a good square look at yourself. Now explain to 36 me how the prophet, hundreds of years before you were born, knew that you would be a hissing and a byword and with­out a dwelling-place? How came you here? Look at yourself. You are a mir­acle of the twentieth century. ’ ’ He quick­ly replied: “There are more Jews today than when Christ was crucified.” I said: “Why is it? How did the prophet know when he said, hundreds of years before you were born, that you would be here as a people, but not as a nation, when the Lord returns? You are here—you cannot be destroyed. God has pronounced a curse upon the nation that persecutes you, and the nations of the earth that have put their hands upon you have paid the penalty, but you have no country and you are a hissing and a byword among the nations of the earth. Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit."

Fulfilled prophecy is the miracle of the age. Had we time, we could give a ser­mon on fulfilled prophecy. Take the 333 prophecies that relate to Christ, and all were fulfilled to the letter. This book is in the present tense. Like its author, it is I am. One day a Mormon elder came into my home and said: “I am an apostle of the Latter-day Saints. I can work miracles and speak in tongues, and if I take deadly poison it will not hurt me.” I asked him if an apostle did not mean a witness. He said it did. Then I wanted to know how a witness could have a successor. He ad­mitted that there are twelve thrones and that the twelve apostles are to sit upon the thrones, and then I told him that all of the seats were occupied, and if he were an apostle he would have to stand, for there was no vacant seat. I said: "I have been reading about you.” He was anxious to know where. I told him in Paul’s let­ter to Timothy, where he said that in the last days—and he professed to belong to the latter-day crowd — perilous times would come, and that men would creep into houses and take captive silly women, and that I noticed he had arrived on schedule time. He said he could perform miracles, and then I told him I had read again in the Book that out of the mouth of the beast came three frogs claiming to work miracles, which were of the devil, and I felt sure he was one of the frogs. The Bible is loaded, and when you want to kill false teaching all you need to do is to know your gun and how to pull the trigger.

It Is Not a Scientific Book.—The Bible is not a book of science; it is a revelation of God and the way to heaven. It does not contradict science, however. One time I was engaged in a meeting in Hagers­town, and I was using a query-box, giving the people a chance to ask questions on the Bible, and an infidel would cram the box with hard questions, and then leave as soon as I had answered the questions, refusing to hear me preach. One night he put this question in the box: “If your God has all power and the devil is the cause of sin, and sin is the cause of mis­ery, why does not your God kill the devil and put a stop to this?” I told him God could not afford to do it; it would leave too many orphans in Hagerstown. He became angry, and the next day called at the parsonage and challenged me for a debate. I refused, and told him I could not afford to give him any notoriety at my expense. He then said: “Your Bible con­tradicts science and I would not accept a Bible that does this.” I insisted that he show me one contradiction, and he said: “Your Bible says that God in six days of twenty-four hours each made the heavens and the earth, and this would be an im­possibility. It would have taken millions of years for the earth to have cooled off.” I gave him the Bible and challenged him to show me the statement, and he was a long time finding the first chapter of Genesis. When he read it I did not see the statement. He read again: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” I stopped him and asked: “When was the beginning?” He could not tell. Then I said: “God created all of this in the beginning, and we do not know how long that was, but we know that the evening and the morning were the first day. Now, there was no day until the earth revolved on its axis, and it did not revolve until it had been created and cooled off, and the evening and the morn­ing made the first day. No contradic­tion.” Then he said: “Your Bible says that Abraham was a man after God’s heart; but Abraham was an old liar, and I have no respect for a Bible that makes such a man a man after God’s own heart.” I asked him if he had ever told a lie. He insisted that he was a gentle­man. I told him I was glad to hear it, but I wanted to know if he had ever told a lie. He admitted that when in a tight place he might have prevaricated. I told him Abraham was in a tight place and prevaricated, and that God told the truth on him. That, fortunately for him, God had not seen fit to write his history, and when he did the world would learn a lot of which it was then ignorant. The Bible tells both sides—the good and the bad.

It Is Its Own Interpreter.—A noted lawyer, who had been for many years an infidel, was told by his physician that he had organic trouble and could live only a short while. He went to his associate in law, a Presbyterian elder, and asked: “Have you a book that will prove the Bible?” His partner handed him the Bible and told him to read it. He said: “You do not understand. I want a book to prove the Bible.” “Then,” said the lawyer, “go home and read your Bible.” He noticed the emphasis on the command, and went home and began to read it. One morning he came into the office, and his partner asked him how he was getting on with his Bible. He said: “I want to know where that man Cain got his wife.” I have been in but few places where some man did not want to know this. The Bible was not written to "tell where every man got his wife. You do not know where I got mine, and it is none of your busi­ness, and yet it is just as necessary to know where I got a wife as to know where Cain got one. It is a bad business to be looking after some other man’s wife. He was told to keep on reading his Bible. He came in one day, and again was asked how he was getting on. He said: “I am try­ing to find out if that flood was universal. ’ ’ He was told to just keep on reading his Bible. One day he came and was greatly excited. He said: “I am a lawyer and have been practicing law for many years, and I would like to know where that man Moses got that law. It would have taken a God to have given such a code. I am convinced and I am now a believer.” We read too much about the Bible and not enough of it. Not a Book of Theology.—The Bible is not a book of theology. God made some stars and hung them up in the heavens, and then man made a telescope and began to study stars and then wrote out what he thought about stars and called that astronomy. God made the stars and man-made the astronomy. God made the rocks and man began to dig and blast and ana­lyze the rocks and called that geology. God made the rocks and man-made the geology. God made the daisy to laugh on the hill­side and man began to pick it to pieces, and then wrote what he thought about it and called it botany. God made the flow­ers and man-made the botany. God made a Bible and man began to study it, and then wrote out his interpretations of it and called that theology. God made the Bible and man-made the theology. The world will go to sleep on theology, but it will sit up and listen when you give it the simple word of God. It is hungry for it.

One time a minister was visiting an­other minister, and he was taken into his cellar where he had a lot of dried leaves, broken sticks and roots and a smoky lamp. He said: “Here is where I study botany.” The visitor started to pick up one of the dead sticks, and the man said: “Don’t touch it; it will break.” Then the visitor said: “Let me out into the fresh air where I can smell the fragrance of living flowers. I do not want to live among a lot of dead leaves and roots; they are musty and you dare not touch them for fear they will break.” This is the way it is with the sermons that are composed of men’s opinions, and the old, musty, lifeless doctrines: the world will not stand for them. The Bible is God’s universal library. Do you want to study astronomy? Then, behold the Bright and the Morning Star. Do you want to study geology? Then, read about the Rock of Ages. Do you want to study botany? Then, take some lessons in the Rose of Sharon or the Lily of the Valley. Do you want to study biology? Then, become acquainted with the one who is the Way and the Truth and the Life. The Bible will do to live by and to die by. A noted infidel Wets called to the bedside of his daughter who was dying. Her mother was an earnest Christian, and had taught her to believe in the promises contained in the blessed old Book. The father had told her it was all a myth. She took the hand of the father and said: “Father, I am dying. Mother says the Bible is true, and that Jesus is my Savior, and that he has gone to prepare a home for me, and that he will come and take me to be with him. You say it is all a lie. I am dying, and I want to know —must I believe you or must I believe mother?” The infidel, with the tears streaming down his cheeks, said: “My child, you believe your mother.” I am a poor, blind, helpless cripple, and the Bible is my only crutch. Will you be so cruel as to try to knock it from beneath me?