25-CHAPTER XX INSPIRATION TESTIFIED BY THE UNIFORM STRUCTURE OF THE HISTORY OF SALVATION
CHAPTER XX INSPIRATION TESTIFIED BY THE UNIFORM STRUCTURE OF THE HISTORY OF SALVATION
Webelieve in an organic,self-unfolding, full inspiration because l/t/ of the historical unity of the revelation testified by the Bible. This is the most wonderful thing about the Bible: in spite of its most astonishing variety it is a united organism, a harmonious system, full of life and animated by one spirit.
Because the revelation of God is a connected historical progress, its record must also be a connected, historical, systematic whole, a well-ordered prophetic and historical system. Therefore as in the development of salvation itself so also in His Book, God sets forth the truth of redemption not in abstract, intellectual, philosophical form but in concrete, comprehensible, living and natural instruction and in graded, progressive, historical unfoldings. It is therefore but just that men in the Evangelical Church, such as Bengel, Oetinger, Beck, and Blumhardt, and before them, as their common root, the Dutch expositor John Cocceius of Leyden, have conceived of Holy Scripture as a skilfully constructed building, the ground plan of which was prepared in advance, and of the whole of which Christ is the end, a system with measure and proportion, in which each separate part is organically incorporated as a member of the whole. All is radiant with the wisest order without any confusion. The harmony of every part constitutes the transparency and clearness of the whole.
Therefore all the books set forth one truth and one doctrine, on which account they mutually expound one another, and Scripture explains itself by Scripture. The subject of the kingdom of God, and its planned dispensations, is the leading melody of this whole Divine symphony. "But we have to bow down, observant and attentive, to comprehend the given harmony," and in the measure that this comes to pass in humility, faith, and obedience, the Divine glory of the Bible will ever anew rise before us, and from point to point, from detail to detail, will be livingly established, and the historical unity and the greatness of Holy Scripture, reaching even to the smallest matters, will ever afresh prove its character as inspired. In addition to many details, smaller and greater, in the agreement of prophecy and fulfillment, this is seen especially in the general inner formation and consistent structure of the whole as revealed in the sequence of periods and economies with their respective goals.
Indeed, could the preparation for salvation in the Old Testament be more clearly formed to move to a consummation that it was?
First, in the ancient Bible history, as the historical foundation of the whole course, there are two chief periods of revelation which, in the form of a polarity, are harmoniously opposed and joined to each other.
After the exclusion from Paradise, during the course of many centuries, there was in force the principle of self-determination without any revelation of Divine law and without God-ordained human authority (from Adam to Noah).
Then, when this principle had shown men’s failure, there was introduced its harmonious opposite, the principle of controlbyauthority ("Whoso sheds man’s blood by man shall his blood be shed." Genesis 9:6), and then followed the development of human history with human authority and the building up of Kingdoms and States (see Racial Table, Nimrod, Genesis 10:1-32).
Then, as this also was falsely perverted by man (Babel), came God’s change from the universalism of the original revelation to the particularism (separate part) of the revelation limited to Abraham and later to Israel. But the goal, the blessing of all peoples, and therefore the yet certain attaining of the glorious end of universalism, remained unshaken (Genesis 12:3; Galatians 3:8). Is not this, at the very beginning of history, a most consistent, systematic, inwardly connected, educational working clearly directed to a goal? And what harmony and consistency in the additional further guiding of the preparation for salvation from Abraham to Christ! Just here there is seen an absolutely clear, indeed, completely unsurpassable directing of history to the Redeemer and His work as its goal!
There are again two chief periods, two chief covenants (Abraham and Moses) in harmonious contrast, comprising first, an education offaith lasting through two thousand years (the covenant with Abraham); and then, as supplementary, through a millennium-and-a-half, an education in repentance (by awakening of consciousness of sin through the Mosaic law). Could there be a more suitable preparation for the New Testament unfolding of salvation? Was not this the great object, that the sinner should be saved? And this could not be effected save on condition of his turning to Christ as his personal Savior, that is, on condition of his conversion. And is not conversion simply the sum of turning from and turning to, of "No" to self and "Yes" to the Lord, that is, of repentance and faith? And now we see in the Old Testament revelation just these two periods with these two chief goals, faith and repentance. Therefore is not conversion, as the unity of these two, quite evidently the educative centre and goal of the entire Old Testament preparatory revelation? Can there be a more transparent historical system in the world than this, in which we see just two such outstanding time-sections (Abraham and Moses) which contain, as their respective educational goals, just these two central requirements (faith and repentance) which are indispensable in man’s subjective attitude to God if he is to obtain God’s free salvation? And is not the whole Old Testament, just precisely in these same two objectives, likewise directed with wonderful system to the objective work of the Redeemer Himself? As the main feature in God’s covenant with Abraham (seen especially in the birth and the offering up of Isaac) there is faith in the life-giving grace of God and His resurrection power. In the law of Moses, there is the death sentence of God upon the sinner as the deepest and gloomiest result of God’s judgment.
Thus the latter quite clearly points to Golgotha and the former to the resurrection of Christ. Thus are they both (Abraham and Moses), in their contrary unity, visibly and perceptibly directed to the two chief sides of the saving work of the Redeemer, and it becomes manifest that the whole Old Testament is directed not only to the subjective end of the conversion of the sinner (repentance and faith), but also to the objective end of the redemptive work of the sinner’s Savior (death and resurrection), and thus to the central human experience of salvation as well as to the central God-wrought event of salvation.
One must verily be blind not to see in all this a perfect Divine plan, established in advance, with a definite foreseen goal, clearly seen and consistent. And how organically and inwardly connected is also the structure of the New Testament unfolding of Salvation!
First, in the testimony of the Word and the Spirit, there stands in the centre the absent Christ, who has gone to heaven, during the period between His first and His second appearings. Then after the parousia (arrival, return, presence) there reigns as revealed in glory, the present Christ. Thus first covering, then uncovering; first concealment, then revelation; first, misunderstanding, then acknowledgment; first humiliation, then exaltation; first the crown of thorn, then the royal crown of triumph. And with regard to the human side, first salvation known by faith, then salvation seen by all.
Furthermore, regarding the expansion of the circles of light within the areas and spheres of the creation, we see clearly three stages: first the gathering of the church, then the blessing of the nations, and lastly a new heaven and a new earth, the transfigured universe. So also here there is clearly perceptible a harmoniously graded, progressive, magnificent plan. But above all this, surpassing indeed everything in the highest and most impressive degree, the progressiveness and consistency of the Divine plan shows itself in the gradual unfolding of the personal self-revelation of the Redeemer-God Himself.
First in the present period of the church, the special activity of the Spirit of God:then in the visible kingdom of God in the End-time, the period preceding the consummation, the kingly rule of the Son of God:finally, in the eternal state, the kingdom of glory of God the Father (1 Corinthians 15:28). This means that the whole New Testament revelation is a threefold, rhythmical, progressive self-revelation of the eternal God as the Holy Spirit, the Son, the Father, and it becomes evident that the whole historical course of redemption since Christ, salvation’s centre, bears a trinitarian stamp; so that in this universal course of history there is not only deliverance and salvation but above all the God of deliverance and salvation Himself shines forth ever more brightly and radiantly.
There can be no plan of history more logical, clear, purposive, harmonious, magnificent! But exactly this clarity of purpose and unity of the whole makes this history of salvation a universal, historical self-evidence of its Divine character. And because the Bible is the record of this historical revelation, this harmony of the whole proves also at the same time its proper inner historical God-ordered unity and thus the Divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures (for further treatment see Part I, chs. II and XII).
It is such an attitude of faith in the Scriptures that alone makes possible the study of the Biblical history of salvation. But whoever, through unbelief or half-belief, takes up a lame attitude to the Scriptures, and especially to the first chapters of the Bible, the prophecies of Daniel, the saving significance of the Cross, the bodily resurrection of Christ and His personal return, to him the beginning, middle, and end of the Divine plan of redemption will be unintelligible, and the marvellous Divine temple of the history of salvation will remain to him a closed building. In an especial manner early history and final history belong together. He who denies the one will usually doubt the other. Thus Paul Althaus (Prof. of Theology in Erlangen) declares:"The history of salvation does not begin with an original historical Paradise and therefore does not close with a final historical kingdom of God on earth. The Paradise on this earth and the Millennial kingdom belong together. Theologically they stand and fall with one another." Here is seen that accepting or rejecting the history of salvation is directly connected with the personal attitude to the inspiration of the Bible, either positively or negatively.
One has called belief in a full, organic, historically unfolding inspiration a "levelling fundamentalism." It has been said that "in a false understanding of the doctrine of inspiration every word is put on one level without taking in account that the time is fulfilled, that Christ has come ... that only from this one middle point of the line, even from the history of God’s revelation in Christ, must past and future be viewed and estimated." But nothing can be more erroneous than this verdict. It is precisely belief in full inspiration which, with Christ and His apostles, acknowledges indeed all the fundamentals of revelation, that knows at the same time, with the Lord Himself, how to distinguish between "great" and "small" commandments of God (Matthew 22:38; Matthew 5:19), between God-inspired statements concerning things necessary to salvation1 and God-inspired arrangements of historical information of lesser significance.2
Further: it is precisely belief in full inspiration, historical and developing, that distinguishes between dispensations and periods of salvation, between preparation and fulfillment, between Old Testament dawn and New Testament noontide. This is, indeed, just the contrary to "levelling"! Much rather it is here plainly testified, that on the basis of Biblical revelation there is progress from lower to higher, from twilight to clear day, a manifold articulation, a chain of periods richly colored, an ever upward ascent. Just this /m-levelling of Scripture statements and periods is the precise presupposition for all study of redemptive history in which faith in full inspiration has always perceived the goal and crown of its spiritual and intellectual efforts in searching into Divine truth. And without any compromise we add: Even these words of God which rank lower as revelation are of full value, and allowing for all differences and non-levelling, we have no right to overlook them or to esteem them lightly. God’s word always remains God’s word, whether it speaks as to things necessary to salvation or of things external, of things eternal or temporal, or whether it be instruction by the Lord on a higher or lower plane of revelation. Here man has no right to make a difference, perhaps in the sense that he believes and follows one as important and rejects the other as wrong or superfluous. If anywhere there applies here the principle that Christ Himself declares, that one should do this and not neglect the other (Matthew 23:23).
Moreover what appears to one unessential may have essential significance for another. Concerning Paul’s word as to his books and parchments (2 Timothy 4:13), there is an interesting incident that shows the value of every word of Scripture. One asked J. N. Darby what loss there would be if that remark had not been preserved. He replied that he at least would have been the loser, because in his ascetic days as a clergyman he had thought to get rid of his library, but it was the care of Paul for his books that had restrained him. When the vast benefit to the church at large that resulted later from Darby’s use of his extensive and valuable library is considered, there is a remarkable example of the value of each word of God’s book. In an organism the less important members are penetrated by the same life. Now the Bible is a spiritual organism permeated with the life of God. A heathen Chinaman asked a missionary for a Gospel. The latter had at hand only a Gospel by Matthew. He regretted this:he would rather have given him the Gospel by John. For Matthew begins with its long genealogical table, which is so extended but contains, as it seems, so little that is interesting. Might not the reader after a few lines lose pleasure in the book and cease to read?—But what happened? Next day the Chinaman returned and expressed his very great joy, because the beginning of the book had been so interesting. As we know, the Chinese have a great regard for honoring their ancestors, and that must indeed be a special man, who had an ancestral tree of such importance and covering so many centuries! This had at once awakened his special interest in the history of such a man. The beginning had therefore inclined him to continue reading with double interest. So everything in Holy Scripture has its significance and importance. A word of the Bible which at the moment may not mean very much for one person, may for another be of perhaps special importance. The Bible is not God’s book only for certain individuals, but for all. Therefore it must contain suitable messages for everyone, and everything in it is God-given, profitable, and necessary.
We do not overlook the problems arising from such a faith, especially those geological and chronological. But unsolved problems are no hindrance to faith relying on Christ and the testimony of His apostles. Problems which seemed insoluble have often been suddenly cleared up, and the Bible has been justified where it had been accused of scientific or historical errors. In a letter to Jerome, Augustine justly said:"If here or there I stumble upon something which seems not to agree with the truth, I make no doubt that either the copy is faulty, or the translator did not express exactly the thought of the original, or that I do not understand the matter." In any case faith can wait.
Thus the question concerning the Millennial kingdom is in large measure a question of inspiration. Eschatology and faith in inspiration are inseparable. The expectation of a visible kingdom of God on the theatre of this earth is evident in the Old and New Testaments. In a hundred places it is the subject. To "spiritualize" them all is contrary to accurate exegesis. The promises of the first coming of Christ were fulfilled literally. Christ came literally from Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), rode literally on an ass into Jerusalem. (Zechariah 9:9), was literally betrayed for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12), and on the cross was literally pierced in hands and feet (Psalms 22:16). They literally cast lots for His garments (Psalms 22:18), literally His bones were not broken (Psalms 34:20), and literally His side was pierced by a spear. (Zechariah 12:10).
Combined with these prophesies of the first coming, there often stand in the verysamesentence prophecies of the second coming, and by the plain meaning of the words, and by their later fulfillment in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, it is evident that the first part of such sentences is to be taken literally. Who therefore can justify the taking merely "spiritually" of the second part of one and the same sentence (e.g. Luke 1:31-33)? Who gives us the right to take Jews to mean Christians, Jerusalem to mean now only the church, and Canaan heaven? No, the "spiritualizing" of these promises of the Messianic kingdom, given out of free grace and evidently understood literally, and a transference of them to some other corporate system, were nothing else than a veiled breach of covenant by God as regards Israel. But this is impossible.
It is quite evident that the Old Testament prophets expected above all else a spiritual renewing and conversion of Israel (Zechariah 13:1; Ezekiel 36:26; Isaiah 4:4); to which in the New Testament Paul especially refers (2 Corinthians 3:16; Romans 11:24-26); and it is likewise true that they announced a spiritual renewing of the nations (Zephaniah 3:9; Isaiah 2:4; etc.). But equally plainly, and in statements completely beyond misunderstanding, numerous prophecies announced for the End-times also a return of Israel to the land of their fathers and a national and territorial reinstatement (Isaiah 11:11, etc.). In plain words which admit of no other possible explanation they declare that for the Messianic End time they expected a reuniting of the Two-tribed kingdom with the Ten-tribed kingdom and the sovereignty of the Messiah over the whole Twelve-tribed people in a single proper civil institution and in racial national unity (Ezekiel 37:15-24). With indisputable clarity they proclaim it as a Divine message that those who had been scattered to all quarters of the world would be brought back, and this to their own land (Ezekiel 28:25), the land of their fathers (Jeremiah 16:15), this land (Jeremiah 32:41), the land of Israel (Ezekiel 11:17), in Gilead and on Lebanon. These terms can mean only the well known geographical area in Western Asia in which Israel formerly dwelled and which is unmistakably indicated by these unequivocal expressions (Zechariah 10:10).
They further declare that the central place of worship will be in Jerusalem. And not indeed for Israel alone but also for the renewed nations (Isaiah 2:1-3; Isaiah 27:13; Zechariah 14:16), and that from this renewed people of God, Israel, dwelling in the Holy land, there will go forth powerful influences upon all nations (Micah 4:1-4; Micah 5:8; Zechariah 12:6). It were no difficult task to multiply these proofs. Sound exegesis cannot overlook this Old Testament prophetic expectation of an earthly, territorial, national restoration of Israel. But of course all these prophecies do not apply to unconverted Israel, but only to the at last spiritually renewed Israel believing upon Messiah.
Similarly it is undeniable that the Revelation of John expects a kingdom of God that lies between the appearing of the Lord in glory and the proper renewing of the universe. For, first in chapter 19 it speaks of a return of Christ as the glorious Victor, Who, accompanied by hosts of angels, descends from the opened heaven, breaks His foes to pieces, and as King of kings and Lord of lords displays His conquering power. Only after this, in the beginning and middle of chapter 20, it speaks of the kingdom of the thousand years (20:3-7), which it thus quite plainly sets forth as a consequence of the victory so pictured; and not till then, at the end of chapter 20, and in chapter 21, after the catastrophic final events, does it speak of the great white throne, of world collapse, world transfiguration, and world renewing (20:11-15; 21).
Therefore the well-known German theologian Professor Paul Althaus says justly:"The Biblical argument cannot be refuted by asserting that the passages named do not speak of an End time period prior to the consummation. As to 1 Corinthians 15:23-25 one may perhaps ask how far the thought of an intermediate kingdom stands behind the intimation; but there can be no doubt as to Revelation 20:4-7." But when, in spite of this, building on "internal" reasons, Althaus and many others reject a visible Millennial kingdom they can do this only (if they think it through logically, which Althaus does) on the presupposition of an enfeebled view of inspiration influenced to a certain degree by Higher Criticism. The prophet, including John the Apostle, "was, indeed, just mistaken" (Althaus.) In fact, to "spiritualize" these promises—perhaps by referring to Israel having failed to accept the Messiah and being in consequence set aside—and to transfer them in this "spiritual" form to another body corporate, the church, would mean nothing else, than that these promises of the kingdom intheirplainliteralOldTestamentsensewillneverbefulfilled! By a logical explanation of the actual meaning of Old Testament prophecy, it remains wholly unavoidable to declare with Paul Althaus (who is one of the leading representatives of the method of spiritualization) that " history has taken a quite other course than the book of Daniel expected ... In contradistinction to the older theologians it must be stated plainly that the Old Testament contains sometimes even ‘ erroneous ’ beliefs, prophecies by God-called prophets which God according to their plain Old Testament meaning does not fulfill, expectations which He disappoints. Also expectations, which the prophet was quite certain he had received from God have ‘failed.’ Their ‘spiritual5 fulfillment in Christ signifies at the same time, that in their Old Testament sense they will not be fulfilled . . . One must say definitely that the ‘fulfillment’ of the Old Testament in Christ is at the same time a critique and annulment of those prophecies as to their earthly national realization. The promises of a high earthly standing for Israel are, and will be, not only fulfilled ‘spiritually’ in Christ . . . but through this spiritual fulfillment their earthly and national form is broken to pieces. . . . When Jesus vehemently rejected the national Messianic ideal of His contemporaries, He thereby stood in measure also against the great prophets. Indeed, it amounts to an actual opposition and conflict. There is another spirit, an antagonism for which there can be found no reconciliation as if there might come later in a Millennial kingdom what had not yet been fulfilled in Christ. . . . Since Christ is come the hour for the fulfillment of the vision of Ezekiel (ch. 40-48) of a new priestly Jerusalem can never come." In these words—which we certainly can only repudiate— there is laid bare, consistently and unmistakably, the only logical, fundamental background of the denial of the Millennial kingdom and of all pure spiritualizing of the meaning of Old Testament prophecy. This is said under the presupposition that the Old Testament prophetic passages are really taken in the sense in which the prophets meant them and which they expressed. CorrectexegesisofprophecyandthemethodofspiritualisingcanlogicallymiteonlyuponthebasisofacertainacknowledgmentofHigherCriticism. So here we stand unavoidably before a threefold choice:Either false exposition of prophecy, and then, indeed, the possibility of a method of spiritualizing, even with personal full belief in the inspiration of the prophetic words; or a correct exposition of prophecy, and then however, the possibility of pure spiritualizing, only involving acceptance of a certain measure of Biblical criticism, presuming that the problems are logically thought through to their deepest roots (as e.g. Althaus correctly does); or finally, right exposition of prophecy united with belief in full inspiration, but then indeed necessarily an expectation of a literal fulfillment of these promises, acknowledged as meant literally, and therefore to be fulfilled literally in a visible kingdom of God in the End days. A fourth possibility can scarcely exist.
Therefore Paul Althaus says quite justly that "where one defends the old conception of inspiration one must naturally refuse all sifting of Old Testament prophecy: the New Testament then completes indeed these old prophetic messages through fulfillment and newly added promises, but it does not sift them."
Out of the great number of the representatives of the spiritualization method we have quoted especially Professor Althaus because he, as a scholar of high scientific rank, clearly sees and frankly admits the actual, original meaning of the Old Testament prophecies, without, unscientifically, trying to attribute to them a sense which is alien to them; and because he, as a really logical thinker, thinks problems right through to their depths, and has also the courage to express the principal foundation on which this spiritualizing method necessarily stands, if the Old Testament texts are really taken in their indisputable, obvious sense. Not all representatives of the spiritualization method see and express this with the same clarity, transparency, and consistency. But here the position is set forth absolutely clearly. (For further remarks on the method of spiritualization see Part III). But we, in agreement with a very great number of Bible- believing scientific expositors and students of Scripture of the various Christian Churches, Free Churches, and assemblies, declare that all words of prophecy must find their fulfillment. They must be fulfilled literally, actually, completely, and in the same sense in which they were meant originally. The fact that, in addition to this, God often fulfils a prophecy in a still higher, spiritual, eternal degree, surpassing the Spirit-given wording of the message and the understanding of even the prophet himself, is no proof that thereby the original, literal meaning is dissolved and that the expectations, as far as God Himself through this inspired prophecy has evoked them, will ever be disappointed. No, God, the Eternal, Unchangeable and Faithful One, always keeps His word, and does this in the same sense as He first gave it. But it is His abounding grace that frequently He surpasses that meaning, and surprises expectant faith by the unfolding of greater blessings first indeed hidden, but already from the beginning immanent, and in their final display infinitely richer. "The gifts of grace and the call of God are beyond recall" (Romans 11:29).
Naturally the full explanation of prophecy will not come before the fulfillment. The exact details, stages, and sequence of all the separate intervening events God has not revealed. But in joyful confidence faith can look into the future with assurance that its main lines God has made known. The goal will be duly reached, the kingdom of God will triumph. The redemptive plan of the Eternal, which has advanced through ages and periods of revelation, will be completed until God shall be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28) To our powers of thought and perception it may not be easy to picture to ourselves the details of such an earthly kingdom of the heavenly Christ. It may also be difficult for us to comprehend intelligently how in this our world, which is still temporal and material, and among men who are yet in the flesh, there shall be a kingdom of God in which the forces of sin and death shall be indeed weakened but not yet entirely destroyed (Isaiah 65:17; Isaiah 65:20; comp. TheTriumphoftheCrucified, p. 170). In general this whole Biblical doctrine of a future earthly kingdom of God’s Messianic King, arising from the house of David, may be for many a thorn indeed a stone of stumbling. Especially will it be a vexation to the modern mind with its scientific reasoning, its philosophical view of history, its racial and national feelings, all the more since today in many lands Antisemitism in a certain measure is still present, even if concealed.
Nevertheless this "difficulty" of faith in the Bible cannot be simply set aside by reversing the sense of the Messianic prophecies concerned, and still less by stigmatizing the whole doctrine as fantastic and fanatical. The "difficulty" can be removed solely and only by faith bowing to the Divine word. But thereby faith will perceive that ecclesiastical and theological science has not seldom prepared its own difficulty of conception and faith by approaching this part of the Divine revelation with false presuppositions. But this friction between theology and the Bible can be overcome by a believing acknowledgment of the whole of prophetic Scripture. In this mighty development Christ is the centre. He is the central sun of the whole Bible. All the books of Holy Scripture bear witness to Him (John 5:39). Often in just those Old Testament places where at first sight it does not at all appear so, the instruction of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament shows that there also Christ was the subject (Hebrews 7:1-28; Matthew 2:15). This is seen, for example, in the appearing of Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18-24), or in the testimony of Hosea concerning Israel that God called His Son out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1), and in many other places.
Here again it is often the delicacies and details of the text which reveal not only a general but a quite special inspiration which attaches to the single words, sentences, and grammatical connections. Only such belief in full inspiration could enable Paul to give his proof from Scripture in the Galatian letter in that form which he used (Galatians 3:16). He wrote:"Now the [Divine] promises were given to Abraham, and to his seed. He saith not £and to seeds’ in the plural, but refers to a single person, ‘and to his seed’, which is Christ." Thus Paul sees the Messianic prophecies of the Old Covenant as Divinely and exactly ordered even to the smallest details of the text, indeed to the singular and plural endings of the words. In fact Hebrews goes so far that not only the speech but also the silence of the Old Testament is Divinely inspired; for the chief Scriptural proof for the high priesthood of Melchizedek being everlasting it draws from what is not stated in the sacred text, even from the fact that the historical account of the Melchizedek of Abraham’s time mentions neither his father nor his mother, nor the beginning nor end of his life, so that thus the priest-king of Salem, so far as the Biblical record is concerned, appears likewise without father or mother or genealogy, "having neither beginning of days nor end of life"; so that precisely in this respect he is (typologically) like the Son of God (Hebrews 7:3; Genesis 14:18-24). The Scriptural principle which is the basis of such proofs is entirely that of full inspiration. " The writer’s conception apparently goes so far as to believe that the Spirit of God infused and ordered not only the factual form of sacred history but also of its written description, and this in such degree that not only the positive statements but also the actual silences have typical Messianic import" (Prof. J. H. Kurtz).
It is further testimony to the wonderful ordering of the sacred text that at times the prophets did not themselves understand the things they prophesied, so that they pondered and " searched diligently what or what manner of time it was to which the Spirit of Christ working in them referred." And because they evidently did not gain rest as to their own message and its meaning, it was revealed to them as a general explanation that "through their service they did not impart to themselves but to you what is now proclaimed to you" (1 Pet. i:n, 12). This fact lifts above all doubt that, according to the testimony of the New Testament, the inspiration of the prophets goes far beyond bare "thoughts" or "personal" inspiration, and rises to the choice of even the words being guided by the Spirit of God. For when at times the prophetic message contained what the prophets themselves did not understand, and when their words, in which their message must perforce be clothed, held more than they themselves comprehended, this was only possible by the verywords being prompted and ordered by the Spirit of God.
Thus from the practical attitude of the New Testament to the letter of the Old Testament it arises that, for the apostles of Jesus Christ, belief in a full inspiration—without indeed laying down a defined doctrinal formula—was yet a tacit presupposition. In the New Testament faith in a full inspiration is not found as a dogmatic theological formula but certainly as a practical spiritual possession. Only in his second epistle to Timothy does Paul come very close to a formal declaration as to the inspiration of the Old Testament as the Holy Book of God:"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God (Gr. theopneustos, God-breathed, God-inspired) and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16-17; see also 1 Corinthians 2:13).
Notes
1Such as the incarnation of the Redeemer, His substitutionary work, bodily resurrection, the demand for rcpentence and faith, and the reception of the Spirit.
2Such as Christ’s statement regarding the tithing of mint, dill, and cummin (Matthew 23:23), or Paul’s word as to his cloak with Carpus (2 Timothy 4:13) or his dietetic advice to Timothy (1 Timothy 5:23).