The Bible — God's Revelation To Man
There was a time when it was thought that man would ultimately unravel all the secrets of the universe. In the last few decades of the nineteenth century, when the evolutionary hypothesis had intoxicated the best minds of the day, it was widely supposed that man was invincible, that the doctrine of evolution gave an unconditional guarantee that man's path would ever be upward and onward. There was a sort of childish optimism that seemed to say, "Day by day, in every way, we are getting better and better." With this attitude it is little wonder that many people began to discount the Bible. What need was there for a Bible when evolution would see to it that the race was improved? Why have a revelation from God to try to uplift society when society would inevitably uplift herself without it?
This was a prevalent spirit of seventy years ago; but today what a wonderful contrast! For the greatest minds of this age recognize that man's pathway is not upward and onward, but downward and backward. Indeed, without the restraining and uplifting influence of the Bible, the facts of the case are that man deteriorates and goes constantly backward, so instead of the contempt of enlightened men of fifty years ago, today we recognize that the Bible and the Bible alone contains the hope of the world. Whether men receive it or not, they do recognize that its teachings are the highest and noblest the earth has ever known. This great change in the attitude shown toward the Bible by scholars of the past and present reminds us of one of Mark Twain's delightful anecdotes of his childhood. He says that when he was about fourteen his father was such an ignoramus that he could hardly stand to have him about, but by the time he was twenty-one, he was positively astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven short years. So, in this year of grace, the world has come to realize that the once despised Bible contains the world's greatest wisdom — our strength for the present and our hope for the future.
What has brought about this change? Why has the attitude of the world shifted so suddenly and so completely? For one thing, it is because men have been forced to recognize that without a revelation from God, man's ethical and moral life must certainly retrograde and decline. As the world, in the last four years, has shrunk in size to about the dimension of a small Texas ranch, and as we have studied the lives of the people of the earth who have had no knowledge of the Bible, the conclusion has been inescapable that the absence of the Bible reflects itself in a reversion to the lowest depths of depravity and degradation. Instead of evolution bringing man higher, man's own nature will bring him lower and lower.
Human reason has ever been inadequate to meet the needs of the soul. Even the greatest of the philosophers, from Socrates and Plato down to our own times, have not given us that type of instruction and assurance which brings out the highest life possible. Men have known even instinctively, that there was something lacking. And over and over again the words of the scripture have been found to be profoundly true: "I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps." (Jeremiah 10:23) And again, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." (Proverbs 14:12) To these statements of a great truth the history of the race gives an abundant and undeniable corroboration. For observe any tribe or race of people left to its own devices, and with no sort of revelation to guide. See if the direction of that people is not downward rather than upward.
These things being true, what snail we say of the Bible? How do we know, or what right have we to say, that the Christian Bible happens to be the revelation of religious and spiritual truth which God has made? Admitting that man must have a supernatural guide, and that God, being what he is, would give such a guide, how do we know the Bible rather than the Koran or some other religious book is that guide? Do not other people give the same reverence, indeed, often greater reverence, to their separate holy books that Christian people give to the Bible? How can we know then that it is the Bible that is God's revelation to mankind?
A Practical Test
We are living in an age of practicality. We measure things not by sentiment or feeling, but by the hard and rigorous tests of an intensely practical civilization. We suggest that the Bible and all other holy books be examined by that test. Does the Bible produce the goods? Will its teachings, if fully followed, make a higher type person than the teachings of the Koran or the Vedas, if they were followed? To ask such a question is to answer it. For while all the other religious books have certain passages that are noble and uplifting, it must be said that their total teaching is bad and not good. This, it seems to us, should be living demonstration of the divinity of the Bible. It simply gets the work done where all others fail. And the contrast between its teachings and the teachings of even the best of other sacred books is so obvious and so fundamental as to convince even the most doubtful that both could not have been produced by the same sort of intelligence. In the other sacred books we have an example of what humanity will do when left to its own devices; we have here a fine record of human ideas of morality. In the Bible the ideas and ideals are lofty and exalted. Surely if others are the work of human beings, even good human beings, then the Bible cannot be in that class. The contrast is simply overpowering in its completeness, its minuteness, and its standards.
In some of the sacred literature of other great religions, there are to be found, of course, some lofty and exalted passages. But in history you will find this true that the finest passages and the highest ideals of morality and ethics are found always in the older portions of these books. And what does that suggest? Why simply this, that in their infancy all races had some knowledge of God and some conception of his truth. But as time went on, and the race grew farther and farther away from that early knowledge, the inevitable process of decay and degradation began to manifest itself. Thus the newest and latest portions of these books are without exception the lowest and most immoral.
But what of the Bible? Ah, here we find a contrast. For the Bible is a constant and perfect development of truth — an unfolding of ever ascending conceptions of God and his divine truth. In the early stages of the race, when ignorance and superstition were everywhere evident, it was impossible for the average man either to comprehend or to appreciate the ideas of God which were later possible. So the Bible gives him truth that he can receive — it leads him on to a higher plane than where he was found; then later generations having reached this higher plane, are led to still a more lofty conception. Until at last in Jesus Christ, God is completely and fully revealed for all ages.
Natural Revelation Inadequate
Thus, if we are to know anything of God today, if we are to really find fellowship with him, we must seek our knowledge and our conception in the book we call the Bible. Oh, of course, we get some idea of hint from Nature. The beautiful sunset and the fleecy white clouds floating lazily through the sky may overawe us with a sense of God's power and majesty. But nature does not, and cannot, reveal the character of God. The heavens may indeed declare the glory of God, but his character, and his will for mankind, can be found only in the Bible. Only here can we learn of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ; only here can we know that God demands truth and holiness and purity in our lives. If we depend only on nature for our revelation of God, then our morality will be only the morality of nature, our hope of eternal life will be no more than that of the beasts of the field.
We urge you, therefore, to study diligently from this book. If God has revealed himself at all to man, it is here; and if the Bible be not a revelation from God, then Jesus Christ was deceived, for he thought it was such; all the greatest minds of all generations since Christ have been deceived, for they have been almost unanimous in that belief. Indeed, so perfect has been the agreement among the greatest intellects the earth has known, that there can scarce be found a man in all history who has known the Bible who has not given it the highest of praise. Even among the atheists the superiority of the Biblical standard is acknowledged.
Lying latent at our very fingertips is the answer to the urgent needs of millions of bruised, bewildered people. We have the original Plan for Peace. The world is ripe for rejuvenation. The first world was made of chaos — the materials are at hand for a new world. The tool is the Bible. We have the balm, the sulfa, with which to bind up the wounds of a war-tom world — are we up to the challenge?
The churches of Christ stand squarely upon the belief that the Bible is God's revelation, must be respected as such, and is the answer to the needs of humanity. We have no patience with the attitude that seeks to belittle or destroy the influence of the Bible by declaring certain portions of it are uninspired. We believe that it is only by a strict and unquestioning obedience to the teachings of this book that the individual or the race can rise to the highest life possible. If we are to have fellowship with God and with Christ, it must be by following the plan which God has made known through the Bible.
F.Y.T