21-CHAPTER XVI THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE NECESSARY BECAUSE OF THE FALL OF MAN

CHAPTER XVI THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE NECESSARY BECAUSE OF THE FALL OF MAN WE believe that full inspiration is necessary because of the absolute insufficiency of man. For how otherwise shall we be in a position to attain a God-given outlook? Were the Bible a mixture of truth and error we should have ourselves to attempt to decide what in it is to be acknowledged as from God and what in it must be refused as an admixture of human error. If man has no plain standard given to him by God Himself how shall his spirit decide what is Divine and what human? How shall our spirit be emboldened to analyse God’s book, or indeed to dissect it—mostly on purely subjective impressions or feelings, or on the basis of insufficient historical knowledge—and thereupon to sit in judgment and decide which statement of the Bible deserves to be believed and which not? We, the fallen! We, who not only morally, but in spirit and capacity for understanding have thrust ourselves through sin into darkness and mist! "Darkened in their thinking, aliens from the life of God in consequence of the ignorance which dwells in them" (Ephesians 4:18). "A natural man receives not what comes from the Spirit of God; he is not in a position to understand it" (1 Corinthians 2:14). Who then will draw the dividing line? Who will recognize the frontier? Not even the moral judgment of so sanctified and chosen an instrument (Acts 9:15) as was Paul offers to the inward man an absolute guarantee to perceive beyond doubt all the will and judgment of God. The apostle himself testifies:"I know nothing against myself, yet am I not hereby justified" (1 Corinthians 4:4). So far is the human judgment removed from being a "voice of God"; so difficult is it to effect a clearing and enlightenment of man’s spiritual understanding.

It is a necessary result from such a condition that all Divine matters must be made known to man by revelation from above; so that there must be given to him from heaven an objective basis of knowledge.

Here lies the decisive starting point for the doctrine of Biblical inspiration. That which fallen man thinks about God is un­trustworthy and mostly erroneous; it is "religion." What he needs to perceive is what the Most High thinks about him, and what He testifies concerning Himself and His way of salvation. This objective basic reality is not, as to its essential nature, a book but a Person. It is the crucified and risen Christ, exalted to the right hand of God, with Whom the Holy Spirit unites us organically. Christ is the living "Truth," the personal "Light," the Fountain of all knowledge; and, at the same time, as the Giver of light, He is also the Savior Who delivers us from darkness and makes us children of light. The first generation bore witness to Him. There was testi­mony to the sacred history of Jesus by those who had seen and heard (Luke 1:2; 2 Peter 1:16; 1 John 1:1-3); there were Spirit- given revelations in the gatherings of the first Christians (Acts 11:27-28; 1 Corinthians 11:23; Ephesians 3:5); there were exact historical accounts of the events by believing men who had been present or had drawn their knowledge from original sources. Through all this the first generation, who, as regards the sacred Book had at first only the Old Testament but not yet the New Testa­ment in its present complete form, possessed nevertheless a clear acquaintance with the objective foundation of salvation and spiritual knowledge. But with the departure of the first generation this direct message and witness more and more receded. Therefore, as the perpetuation of this apostolic testimony, the substance of this objective foundation of wholly reliable historical and doctrinal knowledge must be preserved to future generations. Only so could these be protected from gradually increasing darkness and be preserved clear, fresh, and healthy in knowledge, faith, and life.

Therefore God added the New Testament to the Old Testament already existing, and this was done in the apostolic period itself. Thenceforth this complete Holy Scripture is the fully reliable, prophetic, apostolic message given to us from above concerning the effectual salvation of God in Christ Jesus.

Thus the Bible is the book of the Truth, testifying of life and imparting life, given by the Holy Spirit and accompanied by the Holy Spirit. Without it the church of God would be given up to hopeless wandering and ignorance. Instead of light and faith there would come religious twilight, in place of sobriety, fanaticism, instead of clarity, a misty obscurity, and more and more would God’s word be exchanged for the subconscious voice, the so-called "inner light," and in the course of centuries the objective testimony of God would evaporate into a general subjectivism. But no: exactly as we need grace because of our moral incapacity, so do we need inspiration because of our intellectual and spiritual incapacity, i.e. we need an absolutely reliable record of God’s revelation, a fully inspired Bible; and this especially since the cessation of the direct prophetic, apostolic Divine testimony. Against this fact not even the most zealous agitation against the Bible as being a "paper Pope" can help. All contention against such an absolute objective element in the revelation rests upon a lack of self-knowledge. It is an instance of self-confidence and self-deification, though no doubt unconscious and unintentional.

Without belief in a full inspiration we open wide the door to arbitrary subjectivism. Rationalism mounts the throne, and finally our imperfect human understanding, darkened through the Fall, stands as judge over God’s Book and God’s Word. This be far from us! The accused sinner in the dock can never have the capacity or right to take the place of the Judge on the bench and to decide what God may or may not have said. This applies to the whole organism of the Divine revelation, and to the Bible as its record, down to its smallest particular.

First, and above all, this applies to the doctrine of the Scrip­ture. But as the revelation is at the same time history the doc­trinal and historical elements simply cannot be separated. Much doctrine of Scripture depends directly on the question whether the connected Biblical report is historically accurate; for example, whether Jesus did or did not make this or that statement and did or did not teach this or that doctrine. With uncertainty as to such historical accounts there would be joined uncertainty as to certain doctrines. No doubt the Bible is not a textbook of history just as it is not of science; but because of the inseparable connection of doctrine and history it must be strongly empha­sized that its historical information is reliable. The natural history references of the Bible must be regarded in the same way, for in the giving of the law to Israel the seven-day-week is referred back to the six days and the sabbath at creation, and also certain miracles, in Old and New Testament history, such as the standing still of the sun in the days of Joshua, set forth clearly a connection between Nature and history.

If Thy Word no more is valid Where shall then my faith repose? Not a thousand worlds I covet, But to do Thy Word I choose. (Zinzendorf).