Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 10
February 12, 1959
NUMBER 40, PAGE 1,9b-11a

The Bible, Whence Is It? From Heaven Or From Men?

Robert H. Farish, San Bernardino, California

Today, as in the early part of the nineteenth century, those who believe in the divine origin of the Bible are in the minority. The popular attitudes in academic and religious circles range from 'mild" modernism to rank infidelity which regards the Bible as nothing more than a collection of fables. Writing about the situation that existed in the latter part of the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth centuries, Frederick Ely states that, "It is an established fact that not five out of a hundred college students in American colleges made a profession of religion." (Introduction — The Christian evidence movement — James Orvil Filbeck). Our generation has seen a return, by the majority to the attitude of unbelief in the divine origin of the Bible, which characterized the early nineteenth century. The Christian Evidence Movement, tells the story of the efforts which were put forth in a counter movement which succeeded in checking and rolling back the attacks which were launched against the Bible. This movement was not an accidental thing, it would never have happened had not men of conviction relentlessly pressed the counter attack. Each generation needs to be taught the evidences for the divine origin of the Bible and frequently reminded of them. No member of the church is what God would have him be until he is able "to give answer to every man that asketh you (him) a reason concerning the hope that is in you (him.)" "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" Not unless those who claim to be his servants are aroused from their complacency and begin contending earnestly for the faith. There is an urgent need for a re-statement of the evidences which prove that the Bible is not a human production, but is truly from heaven.

This series of articles on the subject: "The Bible, Whence Is It: From Heaven or From Men?" is my contribution in the re-statement of the evidences of the fact that the Bible is from heaven. The subject allows for only two possibilities as the source of the Bible, viz. (1) heaven (2) men. It is proper to limit our inquiry to these two possibilities for there are but few people who would consider the possibility of a diabolic origin as a worthy explanation of the origin of the Bible. Neither is the view that some parts are human and some parts are divine given separate treatment due to the fact that this view for all practical considerations puts the Bible on no higher level of authority than human judgment; it would still be up to men to decide which parts were human and which parts were divine. This view is substantially included in the view that the Bible is from men for nothing would be passed by human judgment which did not meet the approval of human judgment. For all practical purposes the view of modernism can be correctly classified as a "from men" view. The modernist regards the Bible as merely the account of men's experiences and the conclusions drawn by men from those experiences as they struggled from ignorance to knowledge, from doubt to faith in God. It would follow that, as modern man's experiences are more varied and comprehensive, his powers of observation as keen and his ability to reason as great, modem man has as good or better chance of knowing God and the things of God through the wisdom of the world than did the writers of the Bible. The apostle Paul denies the possibility of man reasoning "from nature to nature's God" — "For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believed." (I Cor. 1:21) The view of modernism grants no more authority to the scriptures than to conclusions drawn from personal experiences. It puts human perception and reflection on par with divine inspiration and regards the conclusions of human wisdom as divine revelation. It does not fall within the scope of this series to define and refute the details of the modernistic view of the Bible; but as the view can be properly classified under the "from men" view, when the "from men" view is refuted modernism goes down with it. No one can successfully "limp between the two sides". If the Bible be from heaven, then it must be accepted "as it is in truth, the word of God" — if it be from man then we should relegate it to the museum and turn to the human reasoning of modern men for our guidance. We should wholeheartedly bow down and worship at the shrine of human reason.

Considering The Consequences

What Difference Does It Make Whether The Bible Be From Heaven Or From Men? Are The Respective Consequences Of Sufficient Significance To Merit The Effort Required To Determine The Answer? If The Consequences Are Insignificant, It Is No Great Matter What View One Entertains, But If The Consequences Are Significant And Vitally Touch One's Own Self, Then A Woeful Lack Of Intelligence Is The Only Explanation For A Casual Or Indifferent Attitude Toward The Matter. A Brief Notice Of The Respective Consequences Will Be Sufficient For Our Purpose.

If The Bible Be From Heaven its claims are heaven's claims; failure to respect its claims is failure to respect God! It is divinely authoritative and none of its requirements are to be set aside by human authority. The Bible claims that its testimony of "the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" is the testimony of eye-witnesses and that the witnesses did not "follow cunningly devised fables" (2 Peter 1:16). If the testimony is, as some assert, a collection of fables, then the Bible is from men and bad men at that. IF that which the writers put on record about the power and coming of the Lord was not observed as eye-witnesses, there is no defense for them, they are base liars. There is nothing to be gained by limping between the two sides. If these witnesses followed cunningly devised fables, then Jesus is not our Lord and Christ and any who subscribe to the fable theory and continue a pretense of religion in his name can only be classified as hypocritical promoters of that which is founded upon a lie. The Bible claims to be heaven's testimony, that its writers, "spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21); that the matters of fact about which they testified were revealed to them by God "through the Spirit"; that they "received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know he things that were freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth; combining spiritual things with spiritual words." (I Cor. 2:12-13); that they did not have to premeditate what they spoke "for the Holy Spirit shall teach you in that very hour what ye ought to say" (Mark 13:11); that heaven would insure their testimony by providing direct guidance by a member of the Godhead, "But the Comforter even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you" (John 14:26). Passages to the same point could be multiplied but these suffice to establish he proposition that the Bible claims to be from heaven. The passages bearing on this point will be discussed under he heading "Inspiration".

The Bible makes the claim of completeness; it comprises "all the truth" — "once for all delivered unto' the saints"; it completely furnishes unto "every good work". Every human creed which has been written and every effort in the name of religion based on human authority is a manifestation of lack of conviction that the Bible is adequate and this, in view of the claim which the Bible makes of adequacy, is simply lack of conviction that the Bible is from heaven. If the Bible be from heaven there is no room for additional "furnishing" unto any "good work". Conviction of the divine origin of the Bible plus knowledge of its claim of completeness will dispel any feeling of need for additional "furnishing".

If The Bible Be From Heaven, hope of a continued existence in brighter climes where joy, happiness and ease prevail continuously — where fear, shame, remorse, pain and every unpleasant thing is forever barred — is truly for the believer "an anchor of the soul" — an anchor 'both sure and steadfast". All the promises upon which hope is based are recorded in this testimony. Men write of "intimations of immortality" but have failed to demonstrate how man could have come to entertain any idea of immortality apart from divine revelation. How did the idea originate? It will not do to say that man reasoned from his experiences to the conclusion that he was designed to live forever, for not one single fact that has been earned by observation and reflection can be produced to prove such to be the case. It is freely admitted that the idea having been revealed, man can then see things in nature that tend to substantiate the idea. But an intelligible expression of the matter is the only satisfactory explanation of the origin of the universally held idea of life beyond the grave, and such an expression is revelation.

If The Bible Be From Heaven, righteousness is superior to wickedness, for the Bible teaches that the righteous shall "shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matt. 13:43) and that from the judgment the righteous go "into eternal life" Matt. 25:46. The Bible being from heaven, the promise of the reward to the righteous has substantial basis and thus the superiority of righteousness s established.

On the other hand if the Bible be from men, its claims are false; it can not be relied upon in any point; it is an inhuman sort of deception. Those responsible for the hoax cruelly and cynically extended promises which had no basis in fact. The cat playing with the mouse is not as basely cruel. If the Bible be from men, men are in this world without God and without hope; there are no prospects other than what past personal experiences might suggest as being in store for us and as these experiences provide guidance no further than the grave we will have to accept the grave as the final goal. Can anyone truly think that the few triumphs and brief periods of happiness, the punctuation marks in the "three score and ten years" composition, constitute the whole of the design of human existence? Were we born to die? Yet if the Bible be from men this is the bleak and despairing picture which we must contemplate the rest of our days. Human experience or "sight" provides knowledge by which we walk in the physical area, but it is temporal in its nature, it guides us no further than the grave. Peer as intently as we may by the faint, uncertain light provided through our experiences, we fail to even slightly penetrate the dark unfathomable mystery. Men from his experimental knowledge has not one sure word of comfort for the sorrowing soul standing by the grave watching earth receive the box containing the form of a cherished one. Is this the last scene? Will the curtain never be raised on other scenes? If the Bible be from men this is all.

Righteousness is inferior to wickedness if the Bible be from men. If the Bible came from men, the resurrection of Christ is a fable. If Christ hath not been raised then there exists no substantial basis for Christianity. The apostle affirms as much in I Cor. 15:19 — "If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable."

Some Good Books on the Subject Some of the books which have been consulted in preparing this series and all from which quotations have been made are listed here with comments. This is intended to serve as a bibliography and an introduction to these books.

(1) The New Testament — First published in the latter half of the first century. "It is a curious circumstance that the Christian apologists such as Butler, Paley, and Wayland did not insist on making the Bible itself the textbook rather than their works on evidences. In any case the great need of the day is a return of Christianity to teaching the New Testament in all its simplicity and power." (The Christian evidence movement).

(2) Attitudes and Consequences — Homer Hailey — copyright 1945 by Old Paths Book Club. This valuable book accurately describes various attitudes toward the Bible and shows the consequences of these attitudes. The book is particularly concerned with tracing the development of two attitudes within the ranks of the Restoration Movement and the respective consequences of these attitudes. This book is particularly valuable for our generation when many have lost their conviction of the sufficiency of the Scriptures. Here is a quotation from this book which strikes the very heart of the problems confronting the church today — "In the midst of modern rationalism and the attitude that the scriptures are of human origin, being the result of a general evolutionary process of development, the position of the churches of Christ appears unique. So far as is known, only a few liberalists have appeared among them, and they soon departed, finding a more congenial fellowship in other groups. The several thousand preachers, and several hundred thousand members believe with the pioneers of the movement, that the scriptures present a definite plan of salvation, a scriptural guide in all matters of faith and doctrine, and a divinely ordained church pattern, which will be sufficient to meet the needs of all men, in all lands, throughout all ages of the human family. So long as that attitude is maintained, they will be found earnestly contending for what they believe to be "the faith once for all delivered unto the saints". The movement was the development of an attitude — the division came as the result of another attitude growing up beside the first. The two bodies are separated today, not over instrumental music per se, nor over missionary societies, but as the result of an attitude toward the authority of the scriptures." p. 246.

(3) Greenleaf on Evidences — Simon Greenleaf, Red-fields Edition 1866, published by Little, Brown and Co., Boston. Simon Greenleaf is perhaps one of the outstanding legal authorities of all time. This book is a legal text book dealing with the principles of evidence.

(4) The Divine Demonstration — by Harvey W. Everest published by Christian Board of Publications, St. Louis, Missouri.

(5) Evidences of Christianity — by Charles Pettit M'Ilvaine, published by Smith, English and Co., Philadelphi, 1877.

(6) Evidences of Christianity — by J. W. McGarvey, published by The Standard Publishing Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. This is not the place for a detailed discussion of this scholarly work on evidences by this man of God who frankly and unblushingly on every occasion and in any company maintained his conviction that the Bible is from heaven. But it should be called to the attention, of preachers especially, that McGarvey deals in a detailed way with the many objections and thoroughly answers the arguments of the unbelievers.

(7) Paley's Evidences of Christianity Edited by Whatley, published by James Miller, New York, 1860.

(8) The University of Virginia Lectures — A series of lectures delivered at the University of Virginia in the school year 1850-1851. Published in book form by Robert Carter and Brothers of New York in 1853.

(9) Evidences of Christianity — A collection of essays published by The American Tract Society of New York. This collection includes: Jenyns' Internal Evidence, Leslie's Method, Lyttelton's Conversion of Paul. Watson's Reply to Gibbons and Paine, A Notice of Hume on Miracles, and an extract from West on the Resurrection.

(10) The Christian Evidence Movement — by James Orval Filbeck published by Old Paths Book Club. This book is well worth several times the price one pays for it — the catalog of text books alone is of sufficient value to make the book worth the price. The book deals with a movement which has been so neglected by the historians that few people were aware that such a movement had occurred. The writer gives a keen analysis of the back ground from which almost universal infidelity resulted in American universities. This widespread unbelief caused a counter movement which succeeded in bringing most back to the conviction of the divine origin of the Bible. At the present time the book is of great value by way of encouraging those who are set for the defense of the gospel — "they" did it before and we can do it again.

(11) New Testament Background: Selected Documents, C. K. Barrett, Printed by William Clowes and Sons Ltd. London and Beccles.

(12) Exegetical Analysis with Notes on Epistles, Isaiah B. Grubbs. Reprinted by Gospel Guardian Co., Lufkin, Texas, 1956. This book is primarily concerned with rules of Bible study which will enable the student to understand the will of God. There is, however, much valuable material on the subject under consideration in the preface and also under the heading "Subjective conditions".