The Truth About God And The Bible
By Robert Roberts
Chapter 5: What Christ Thinks
We ask what Christ thought about the Old Testament scriptures
-- the part of the Bible that existed in his day. What he thought
must be the truth, for he proclaimed himself "the way, the truth,
and the life," and proved his assertion by the miracles he wrought,
and finally by the resurrection of which he was the subject after
crucifixion.
First of all, he expressly said to people who imagined he was
come to set up a new religion, "Think not that I am come to destroy
the law and the prophets, I am not come to destroy but to FULFIL"
(Matt. 5:17). The law and the prophets (another way of describing
what we know as the Old Testament) teem with assertions of divine
authorship. Nearly two thousand times the phrase occurs, "Thus
saith the Lord." Hundreds of times in the law the statement occurs,
"And the Lord spake unto Moses,"If this allegation so constantly
made be true, we can understand there being something in Moses
and the prophets for Christ to "fulfil," for when God speaks,
He not only utters commandments, but shows things to come: saying,
as by Isaiah (46:10), "I shew the end from the beginning."
But if the writings of Moses and the prophets were the mere product
of human thought and impression, how could there be any thing
for Christ to fulfil? Man cannot lay down plans for God to follow:
man cannot foretell the future. But the prophets do foretell the
future. And they especially lay down plans in connection with
Christ (Dan. 9; Isa. 53; and many other places).
How Christ regarded these utterances is shown by the use he made
of them in his intercourse with the disciples. See what we read
in Luke 24 -- that after his resurrection, he expounded to them
in all the scriptures of Moses and the prophets, "the things concerning
himself." Referring to his death, from the standpoint of his resurrection,
he said, "These are the words which I spake unto you while I was
yet with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written
in the law of Moses and in the prophets CONCERNING ME" (verse
44).
This proves Christ's recognition of the divine character of the
scriptures. It was shown more expressly when he quoted from the
Psalms in his argument with the Pharisees, and said "The scripture
cannot be broken" (Jno. 10:35). If the scripture were human, it
certainly could be broken, for nothing is more upsettable than
the word or appointment of mortal fallible man. If it cannot be
broken, it must be of God. This was Christ's view.
He advised the people on one occasion to "Search the scriptures"
(Jno. 5:35). "They," said he, "are they that testify of me." The
scriptures which Jesus was referring to (for there were no New
Testament scriptures at the time Jesus spoke) were written hundreds
of years before Christ appeared. How could they testify of a teacher
to appear hundreds of years afterwards if they were merely human
writings? The did so testify, and their word was fulfilled. What
conclusion remains but that they were divine and not human writings?
This conclusion is expressly affirmed by the apostles, who were
inspired to declare the truth (Jno. 16:13), and concerning whom
Jesus said, "He that heareth you, heareth Me." First Peter said,
"No prophecy of the scripture is of private interpretation (or
origination), for holy men of God spake as they were moved by
the Holy Spirit " (2 Peter 1:21). This is in harmony with what
Paul declares concerning the knowledge of God. He says a man can
only know the things of man, "but the things of God KNOWETH no
man, BUT THE SPIRIT OF GOD" (1 Cor. 2:11). Now, the scriptures
of the Old Testament declare the things of God. Consequently,
they must on the principle defined by Paul be the product of the
Holy spirit, which Paul expressly alleges, saving, "All scripture
is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for correction
and reproof and instruction in righteousness."
Thus the doctrine of Christ and the doctrine of the apostles concerning
the Scriptures are one. It is a different teaching from the doctrine
which is becoming so fashionable through the influence of what
are called "the higher critics." The choice we are called upon
to make is a choice between the doctrine of Christ and the apostles,
who were divinely illuminated, and the speculative opinions of
men who do not know, but guess, and whose guesses are being continually
upset by the progress of discovery, as in the case of the inscribed
tablets of Tel-Amarna. Before these tablets were discovered, the
critics used to contend that the art of writing was not known
in the days of Moses, and that therefore Moses could not have
written the first five books of the Bible. They have ceased that
contention now that these ancient written tablets have been discovered.
The view enunciated by Christ and his disciples -- that the Scriptures
are of divine origin and authorship -- is borne out by all the
tests it is in our power to apply. Chief among those may be said
to be the quality of the book. A divine book ought to differ from
a human book as much as divine ways differ from human ways. And
it is so. The Bible differs from human literature in its style
of diction, and in the nature of its sentiment. It depreciates
man: It exalts God, as no human book does. Then look at its unsparing
candour of narrative; its forecasts of the future.
It differs from human books also in this, that though written
in an age when the world was sunk in gross ignorance of all natural
things, as well as in the deepest immorality of practice, it enunciates
the noblest and purest principles of action, and even the grandest
discovery of scientific investigation.
