The Testimony of the Bible Concerning the Assumptions of Destructive Criticism

by S. E. Wishard

5. In our Lord's parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Dives is represented as pleading that some one be sent from the dead to warn his brothers, lest they also come into this place of torment. The reply to his request was: "They have Moses and the prophets.... If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." (Luke xvi. 29, 30.) "Moses and the prophets" was the name for the Jewish Bible. If Moses did not write the Pentateuch, the name of their Bible was false, and the Savior indorsed a falsehood. We believe "the faithful and true Witness," and reject the critics who dishonor his character.

6. After Christ's resurrection he walked and communed with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. He instructed them concerning the Messiah's death, and, "beginning at Moses" (Luke xxiv. 27), informed them that it was God's plan, foretold in the Old Testament. He appeared to his apostles and declared to them that "all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses and the prophets." (Luke xxiv. 44.) The critics deny Moses' authorship, but Christ affirms it, using the language that means the Pentateuch. We believe him.

7. In our Lord's conversation with Nicodemus he recognizes Moses in connection with the book of Numbers. He refers to the historical incident, if our critical friends will leave us any Biblical history, in Numbers xxi. 8, 9. He says: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up," (John iii. 14.)

Recurring to the passage in Numbers, we learn that, in the dire distress of the people for their sins, God commanded Moses to make a brazen serpent, and lift it up before the people, that they might look and live.

Certain of the critical school consent that Moses, was connected with the event, but did not record it. Indeed! And what proof that he failed to make the record? It was personal to himself. It was symbolically prophetic of the crucifixion of Christ, as our Savior used it, an event toward which all prophecy moved. And we have already learned that nine times it has been stated in the book of Numbers that the acts, precepts, and statutes of this book were done and given by "the hand of Moses."

8. To the Jews, seeking to murder their Messiah, he said; "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me." (See John v. 45, 46.)

When and where did he write of Christ? He wrote of him in the five books which are ascribed to Moses by all the Old Testament Scriptures, and by Christ and his apostles. He wrote of him in Gen. iii. 15, when God promised that "the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." He wrote of Christ in Gen. xii. 3, when God promised Abraham: "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." He wrote of the Messiah when he recorded Jacob's prophecy in Gen. xlix. 10: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come." Moses wrote of Christ, when under divine direction he instituted the passover, as recorded in the twelfth chapter of Exodus.

He wrote of Christ in the Levitical ritual, when under God's instruction he set up the system of types, for the tabernacle and the temple service, which taught the fundamentals of the New Testament gospel—redemption by the blood.

The whole tabernacle and its furniture was necessary to complete the symbolism that should represent the Messiah. The altar, the laver, the shew bread, the golden candlestick, the mercy seat, and the officiating high priest. For "Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle," and received positive direction as to how he should construct it, that redemption should echo from every part of the service. Beautiful and glorious was the service that proclaimed "Christ and him crucified." Christ's testimony here is twofold: That "Moses wrote," and that he "wrote of me," of Christ, the witness of these things.

9. It was at the feast of tabernacles, in the year 29 A.D., that the Jews attacked the Savior in a fierce controversy, because he healed on the Sabbath day. He was teaching in the temple when they charged him with violating the Sabbath.