03.05 - Inspiration Claimed by the Scriptures

(5) Inspiration claimed by the Scriptures To argue the Inspiration of the Scriptures from the testimony and claims of the Scriptures themselves has the appearance of arguing in a circle. \Ye do not, however, start with an a priori assertion that the Scriptures are inspired, and thence seek to establish the fact of their inspiration. What we assume is that the Scriptures are reliable and trustworthy, that the sacred writers knew better than anyone else of the fact of their inspiration and the purposes for which they were inspired. And if we 1 may accept the sacred writers as honest and trustworthy men, and their writings as reliable and trustworthy records, then ma} we accept the testimony they give of their inspiration as trustworthy.

Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, and the Prophets tell us of the revelations that came to them, and of the directions given them to write the same in a roll or book, which they did; and because they have recorded this and narrated it with a simplicity, clearness, and fulness that carries with it the assurance of reality and conviction, we accept the writers testimony as to the revelations made and the directions given them to record the same. \Ye ma} be required to limit this statement to the particular message and communication with which the command is immediately connected. So that if Moses was commanded to write the words of the “ Decalogue,” of the “book of the Covenant,” of the “memorial of the destruction of Amalek,” and to make a record of the journey of the Israelites to the Promised Land, etc. then it is to those events the direction applies, and to those only, and affords no certain evidence that Moses wrote the whole of the Pentateuch. So with every other direction to write songs, laws, prophecies, narratives, records, etc, given to Joshua, Samuel, David, and the Prophets; the command can only apply to the song, the law, the memorial, the prophecy mentioned, and cannot be affirmed of the whole of the writings which pass under their names. It may be admitted that this is what the particular directions to write mean; yet there is the fact that we have other of their writings, and, as already shown, the teachings and contents of these writings are of the nature of divine revelations, bear the stamp of divine inspiration, and must have been written by men inspired of God, and are no less the revelation of God than those which they were expressly commanded to record.

Moreover, prophets and chroniclers speak of the “book of the Law,” of the commandments, statutes, and judgments written in the “ book of the Law,” or “ the law of Moses,” which comprise writings other than those with which the direction to write is concerned. The same holds good of other writings in the Old and New Testaments. There are, moreover, those prefatory forms of expression used by the sacred writers in making the record, that “the Word of the Lord came unto them,” or “the burden,” “the vision,”

“the oracle” of the Lord by them, implying God had given them that word, had communicated to them His will, that they were the bearers of His message, and wrote and spoke from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost. Further, it was they, and they alone, who received, declared, and recorded these messages, and no other such record of the Divine will as the Scriptures contain is known to us, and with the writings in our hands we can but receive the testimony of these men, and accept “ the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms,” as being the revealed Word of God, and as given by inspiration from God.