02.01. THE BIBLE - 01 - God's Book

THE BIBLE – 01 - God’s Book Reading. Psalms 119:97-112; Hebrews 8:6-13.

OUR word Bible comes from a Greek word biblia, so called from the byblos or papyrus reed which formed the material for ancient books. The name biblia means books, and denotes the fact that our Bible contains not one book, but many. We have a library and not a single volume. The Greek Christians centuries ago called their sacred Scriptures "The Books." In the thirteenth century, when it was thought wrongly that biblia was a singular noun, Christians began to speak of "The Book." They expressed, as we do when we speak of "The Bible," belief both in the unity which exists amidst the diversity of the sacred library and in the unique position occupied by it. For us, as for Sir Walter Scott in his dying hour, "There is but one book." Whether we view it as literature, or from the higher aspect as a guide of life, a guide to life eternal, a guide to God, it is unparalleled, unapproached and unapproachable. The divine library is made up of sixty six books; written by many different authors of different race, social position and temperament, published at intervals during a period of fifteen hundred years. These books comprise varied kinds of literature--law, prophecy, history, epistles, poetry. This book or library which we call "The Bible " it is evident, makes its appeal to us not simply as rivaling or excelling all other books in merit. Its writers do not seek to vie with other literature. The Bible Claims to Be God’s Book.

The fact that this claim is made by the book itself is important, for we can only judge it aright in the light of its own demand. The Old Testament may first be cited. We have over and over again in the opening books the phrase, "The Lord said unto Moses," or a kindred expression (Exodus 6:1; Exodus 6:10, etc., etc.). We read "The Lord spoke unto Joshua" (Joshua 1:1). As we look toward the end of the Old Testament, we have the prophets proclaiming, "Hear ye the word of the Lord" (Isaiah 1:10); "Thus saith the Lord, the Lord of Hosts" (Isaiah 1:24); "The word of the Lord came to me, saying" (Jeremiah 1:4); "Thus saith the Lord God" (Ezekiel 5:5); "The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi" (Malachi 1:1). A glance at the prophetical books particularly is instructive. Our chosen reading deals specially with the view taken by the Psalmist. Psalms 119:1-176 is one of the mnemonic or alphabetical psalms, specially prepared for committal to memory. Each verse in it praises God’s word. See the titles given to it in our lesson. We have God’s law, commandments, testimonies, precepts, judgments, words, word, Statutes. See the word "thy" throughout. All are God’s. A similar claim to possession of a divine word and law is found in Psalms 19:7-11, where also the effect of acceptance of the word of God is mentioned. When we turn to the New Testament, we find appeals made to the Old Testament Scriptures as books of God. We have Paul writing to Timothy of "the Holy Scriptures" or "the sacred writings," which were precisely the books we include in our Old Testament (2 Timothy 3:15-16). The same apostle speaks of "the word of God" (Ephesians 6:17). The apostle Peter, referring particularly to the Old Testament prophets, says, "Men spoke from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21). We have our Lord Jesus Christ himself making use of the claim. He referred to the Old Testament books as "the Scriptures" (John 5:39) and each of his hearers knew exactly the books so described. He referred to the message of old as "the word of God" (John 10:35). He looked upon the Old Testament books as written to lead to himself. "Beginning from Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27; cf. Luke 24:44-45). Side by side with this claim, we naturally find a specific claim to authority. (a) We may note again the highest of teachers, the Lord Jesus. With him it was a sufficient answer to Satan that "It is written" (Matthew 4:4) · Men erred, he said, because they knew not the Scriptures (Matthew 22:29), He did certain things that the Scriptures might be fulfilled (Matthew 21:4, etc.). He declared that not one jot or little should pass away from the law till all were fulfilled (Matthew 5:18). He said, "The Scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35). (b) The witness of the apostles, to whom Jesus promised the Holy Spirit that he might guide them into all truth, may be cited. For Paul’s testimony, see 2 Timothy 3:16-17, already referred to: the Scriptures contain enough to furnish completely the man of God. John regards the teaching of Christ as so authoritative and sufficient that he says: ’whosoever goeth onward [or "taketh the lead," R.V., margin] and abideth not in the teaching of Christ, hath not God" (1 John 2:9). The Bible practically closes with the pronunciation of a terrible doom against anyone who will dare to add to or take from the words of the book (see Revelation 22:18-19 which Christians accept as applicable to all the sacred writings). It is for these and similar reasons that we who are members of the church for which Christ gave himself, we who are Christians only, who believe the Bible to be indeed God’s book, have accepted that book as our sole and all-sufficient rule of faith and practice. We use and try to live up to the motto, "Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent." If the passages referred to in the previous paragraph present the truth of God we can hardly be wrong in unswerving loyalty to the Bible, or in declining to accept any substitute for the Bible, or even any subordinate standard of appeal. We but say with the Lord Jesus that human tradition when exalted into a rule of faith or conduct makes "void the word of God" (Matthew 15:6), we have learnt of him that to teach for doctrines the commandments of men makes vain our attempted worship (Mark 7:7).