The Truth About God And The Bible
By Robert Roberts
Chapter 7: The Bible And Human Nature
As to man, the case is equally strong: The philosophers taught
that man was constitutionally an immaterial immortal being, underlying
and distinct from the body, and capable of existence apart from
it, a fallacy from which came their doctrine of post mortem rewards
and punishments in the Elysian fields and Tartarus, and a consequent
rejection of the doctrine of the resurrection. This notion, succinctly
defined as "the immortality of the soul," was, like their polytheism,
a plausible deduction from appearances -- universal among the
ancients, beginning with the Egyptians. But Moses, by the admission
of Gibbon, is untainted with the notion, notwithstanding his Egyptian
associations. The prophets and apostles are likewise free of this
philosophic speculation, and, on the contrary, teach human mortality
as expounded by Tyndall and other scientists of the modern era.
The doctrine of immortality which they teach is the hope of resurrection
to a future existence on the earth. Science does not teach this,
because science only deals with what is, and can throw no light
on what is to be. With the doctrine of human mortality all Scripture
agrees, consequently the Bible is in harmony with science on the
subject of man as well as God; that is, as regards his present
constitution. That the Bible should teach a doctrine in harmony
with science in an age when all the world was dreaming about the
natural immortality of speculative induction, is another proof
of the Bible's divinity. This argument has been obscured by orthodox
religion, which accepts the Pagan view, and, by consequence, teaches
the eternal torment of the unrighteous -- a doctrine which gives
the argument for unbelief an advantage that does not belong to
it.
The Bible's depreciation of human nature is the strongest proof
of the Bible having come from God. The sentiment is foreign to
human nature. This depreciation of human nature is characteristic
of the Bible alone. We have in Psalm 9 this inquiry made: "What
is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou
visitest him?" In Psalm 144 a similar question is asked and answered
in this way: "Man is like to vanity: his days are like a shadow
which passeth away." In Isaiah 40 we read: "The voice said, Cry;
and he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; the grass withereth;
the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon
it; surely the people is grass." Isaiah 2 last verse: "Cease ye
from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to
be accounted of?" Ezek. 36:22: "Not for your sakes, O house of
Israel," -- that is, not for their sakes would He bring them from
all the nations among whom they were scattered. "I do not this
for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake,
which ye have profaned among the heathen whither ye went." In
Jeremiah 17:5 we read: "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man,
and maketh flesh his arm . . . but blessed is the man that putteth
his trust in the Lord." In Jeremiah 9:23: "Let not the wise man
glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might;
Let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth
glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me."
No book, pervaded by such sentiments, could have a merely human
authorship. All writers, whether ancient or modern, Jew or Gentile,
glorify human nature, and boast in human achievements. All human
writers, without exception, speak of the dignity of manhood and
the greatness of human nature.
