CHAUTAUQUA NORMAL COURSE.
Season of 1884.
LESSON II.—BIBLE SECTION.
The Bible from God Through Man.
By J. L. HURLBUT, D.D.
The Sunday-school teacher in his work uses one book, and one only. To that one book he appeals as an authority; the doctrines contained in that book he asserts as truth; the moral system of that book he insists upon as the standard for man’s obedience. It is therefore necessary to know concerning the Bible:
I. The claims of the Bible believer.
II. The evidences supporting those claims.
I. There are four claims made on behalf of the Bible by those who believe in it.
1. Its Genuineness. By this we mean that we possess the book substantially as it was written. Not that we have an absolutely perfect text, or that the translations represent precisely the original, or that we know just when or by whom all the books were written, but that the work has come into our possession without serious mutilation or interpolation. We can accept it as the Bible.
2. Its Authenticity. By this we mean that the book contains the truth. Its records are trustworthy history; its reports of discourses or parables or conversations give the substance of their thoughts; its statements upon every subject can be depended upon as honest and truthful.
3. Its Inspiration. By this we mean simply that this book came from God. “Divine inspiration we understand to be an extraordinary divine agency upon teachers while giving instruction, whether oral or written, by which they were taught what and how they should write or speak.” (Dr. Knapp, quoted by McClintock and Strong.)
4. Its Authority. By this we mean that the Bible contains God’s law, and was given to us as the standard in life. It contains “the only rule, and the sufficient rule, for our faith and practice.” No doctrine is to be accepted unless it is in accordance with the teachings of the Bible, and no law is binding which conflicts with the higher law of the Scriptures.
II. The Evidences Supporting these Claims. It is not necessary to present the proofs of each claim apart from the others. Those attesting the genuineness of the Bible will be given with Lesson iv, “The Canon of Scripture;” but the other claims are so linked together that the proofs of one are the proofs of all. If the Bible can be proven true, its truth is of such a nature as to show a divine original; and if it proceeds from God, it comes as God’s law. Hence we present together the Ten Evidences of its Authenticity, Inspiration and Authority.
1. Its Adaptation to Human Need. (1) We start with the proposition that there is a God; a person who governs the universe; not a mere personification of law or force, but a spiritual existence. (2) God has a Law. If God has no law for man, then for man there is practically no God. (3) We have a right to know that law. What would be thought of a law-maker with absolute power, who concealed his decrees, yet expected his subjects to obey them, and punished them for disobedience? (4) We find just such a law as we need in the Bible, and we find it nowhere else, for it is not stamped into our consciousness, nor is it written in nature. (5) We conclude then that the Bible contains the Divine Revelation.
2. Its General Acceptance. The common consent of intelligent society has accredited this book as authentic and divine. (1) We find an early acceptance among those best acquainted with its facts, and nearest to them; the Old Testament regarded as divine among the Jews; the New Testament among the Christians. (2) We find a continuous acceptance through all the centuries since; at no time the chain of belief being broken. (3) We find a present acceptance now; in this age of searching investigation, when nothing is accepted on ground of tradition only, the Bible has more readers, more students, more believers in the intelligent classes than at any previous period of its history.
3. Its Characteristics. The Bible contains four traits which, taken together, distinguish it from all other books. (1) Its Variety. Written at intervals through 1,600 years, by more than thirty authors, in different lands and different languages, it contains history, poetry, genealogy, biography, ethics, epistles, doctrine, and many other classes of composition. (2) Its Harmony. Underneath its variety of the surface there is a harmony, so that its statements and its principles are nowhere discordant. Contrast with this the discords of scientists. Could we place on one shelf sixty-six books on astronomy, written during sixteen centuries, by thirty writers, and find them harmonious? (3) Its Unity. Amid all the different subjects of the Bible there is one unifying purpose. It presents as its theme Redemption, and every chapter in every book falls into line in relation to that central thought. (4) Its Progressiveness. There is a steady development of truth in Scripture, a growing light through its centuries. We see the revelation beginning with Adam, taking a step upward with Noah, another with Abraham, again with Jacob, and so mounting higher in turn with Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Malachi, Peter and Paul, each on a loftier platform of spiritual knowledge than the age before him, until John crowns the pyramid of truth in his gospel and the Apocalypse. Not all the earth can show another book besides the Bible with all these four traits, which show the work divine.
4. The Harmony of its Relations. The statements of the Bible come into relation with facts ascertained in various departments of knowledge; yet in none of these do we find contradiction, in all an ever increasing harmony as our knowledge grows. (1) With Localities. The Bible names more than two thousand places in the ancient world; lands, rivers, seas, mountains, towns, villages, brooks, etc., yet not a single locality has been placed wrongly by the Scripture. (2) With Existing Institutions. We find in the world such bodies of people as the Jews, the Samaritans, the Christian church; such services as the passover, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, etc. Take away the Bible and none of these can be accounted for; open the Bible, their origin is plain. (3) With Historical Monuments. During the present century thousands of ancient inscriptions have been brought forth and deciphered, and the history of great empires has been written, bearing close relation to the history of the Bible. But not a line of the Bible annals has been discredited by these explorations, and many Bible statements have been placed in clearer light. (4) With Science. Though “the conflict of science and the Bible” has been often referred to, yet the testimony of the best scientists is that the opening chapters of Genesis are in substantial and growing accord with geology; that the tenth chapter of Genesis tallies with the latest conclusions of comparative philology; and that modern astronomy furnishes the best illustrations of the attributes of God as revealed in Scripture.
5. The Fulfillment of its Prophecies.—It is very evident that no man, unaided by Divine wisdom, can know the future and make prediction of coming events. Yet there is a book containing many prophecies, which have been fulfilled to the letter. (1) There are predictions concerning places, as Babylon, Nineveh, Jerusalem, Tyre, Egypt, all differing in their statements, yet all brought to pass. (2) There is a series of predictions concerning Christ, beginning in Eden and extending through the Old Testament, growing in definiteness as the hour of fulfillment drew near, and all accomplished. Thus the New Testament and the Old mutually prove each other.
6. The Person of Christ.—We find in the gospels four accounts, by different writers, of one Person. They tell us that he was at once God and man; that he grew up in a country village, yet surpassed all the wisdom of the philosophers; that he could create food, yet suffered hunger; that he could raise the dead, yet submitted to be tortured and crucified; that he was free from worldly ambition, yet became the founder of the greatest kingdom earth has seen. The life, the character, the personality, is so unique and original that no one could have invented it. Hence the writers of the gospels must have drawn their sketch from the life.
7. The Candor of its Writers.—The authors of these documents write like honest men, telling their story plainly, without partisan bias. They relate the sins of their heroes, Abraham’s deception, Jacob’s double-dealing, Moses’ anger, David’s crime, Peter’s denial, Paul’s quarrel with Barnabas. Their tone of sincerity shows the truthfulness of the narration.
8. The Elevation of its Teachings.—Here is a book, written in an age when even the most cultured nations worshiped idols and held the grossest conceptions of God, with correspondingly low ideals of morals for men. Yet in such ages, the Bible presents a view of God to which the world has been slowly broadening its vision; and a standard of character which rises far above that of Plato, Cicero, or Confucius, and is now adopted as the ideal manhood by ethical philosophers. Whence, but from a divine source, came those lofty teachings of the Scriptures?
9. Its Influence Upon the World.—What the Bible has done shows the hiding of its power. (1) See its effects upon nations. The lands where it is honored, America, England, North Germany, are the three lands of most advanced civilization and largest hope for the race. The lands where it is forbidden, as Spain, or where it is unknown, as China, are those whose condition is most hopeless. (2) See its effects upon individuals. The people who study the Bible are not the drunkards, thieves, criminal classes. Those who have the word in their minds and hearts become purer, better, higher than others. It transforms men from sinners to saints, and its influence makes earth a picture of heaven. No false book, no deceiving book could thus make the world better.
10. Its Self Convincing Power in Experience.—There is in the consciousness of man a conviction that the religion of the Bible rests upon a sound foundation. And he who puts the Bible to the test in his own experience, who lives its life, and follows its law, and enjoys its communings, finds an assurance to the satisfaction of his spiritual nature, that this book contains God’s message to his soul. Every Christian’s experience is, therefore, a testimony to the truth and the inspiration of Scripture.
[To those who wish to pursue this subject further we recommend the following works: “Credo,” by L. T. Townsend; “The Logic of Christian Evidences,” by Dr. Wright; Chautauqua Text Book No. 18; “Christian Evidences,” by Dr. Vincent; “The Christ of History,” by Principal Young; “Historical Illustrations of the Old Testament,” by Rawlinson & Hackett; “The Story of Creation,” by Dr. Campbell; and “Farmer Tompkins and His Bibles,” by W. J. Beecher, D.D.]