The plain man and his Bible...

Front matter

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Contents

Chapter Page

I. The Introduction 5

II. How We Got Our Bible 12

II How We Got Our Bible

HOW did we get our Bible? Before answering this question I want to say that there are three classes of men attempting to answer it: First, the class that denies that the Bible is what we claim it to be. They believe that what we call the Bible is merely a historic scrap heap, put together for the most part by very crude and unlearned men; that it is only valuable because, for the most of the period covered by it, there is no other history to rely upon. This class denies in to to that there is such a thing as the " word of God."

Secondly, there is a class that admits that a part of the Bible is the word of God; they say that the other is the work of man. That part which they can easily reason out and have no difficulty in understanding they regard as the word of God. That part which is hard to understand — the mysterious — they charge is the work of man.

Then, thirdly, there is a class that believes that the Bible as we have it is the word of God; that holy men of old were inspired of God to write for him his words to men, and that the Bible as we have it is the product of this God-inspired work.

It will not be difficult for the reader to determine where we belong. However, it will not be amiss for us to affirm in the beginning that we belong to the last of the three classes named. We believe that the Bible, as we have it, is the word of God.

The Age of No Bible

It is interesting to note that prior to Moses, a period covering over more than one-third of man's history, the world had no Bible. Imagine it — the world without a Bible for twenty-five hundred years! It is hard for us to realize it, especially when we think of what the Bible is to the world at the present time; that it is the basis of our religion, our civilization, and our laws of government ; that it is the most universally read book in all the world; that it is more widely translated and more generally sought aiter than all the other books we have. How could we get along without the Bible ? The very thought sends a gloom over us. Life would be as the night without the stars. It is the basis of our government, the salvation of our society, and the solace of our hearts. What comes to us in the day of trouble, when the dark clouds hang low, with such sweetness and solace as the Bible? It stills our nerves in the hour of fear, and drives away the miasma that settles over the grave when we come to place a trusting saint within its cold embrace. How many a weeping mother, standing over the open grave which has just received all that is left of a babe that for months has nestled in her arms, has looked up through the light of the Bible and caught such a vision of angel spirits as to enable her to say with Christian fortitude, " The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord."

Oh, this blessed old book has directed the course of nations, formed our civilization, built our churches, schoolhouses, asylums, and hospitals ; and has been the comfort of the saints in all the ages past. How could we do without it? It cuts us to the heart when we sin, and then reveals the oil of grace when we turn to Him who made it.

The Age of Conscience

But we must not forget that there was a time, a long time, when the world had no Bible. How do I know this ? First, because there is no record of any inspired writings before Moses. To be sure, there were holy men in those days, such as Noah, Abraham, and Joseph, with whom God frequently communicated. Yet we do not find that God ever inspired one of them to put his words into writing; nor do we find in any of the records of the world any trace of such writings.

Then again, there is no reference to such writings. All through the Bible there are references by prophets, priests, and kings to the writings of Moses, but never to any one back of him.

In those days God communicated directly with individuals, who in turn communicated with the people. The conscience was the basis of his operation and the standard of judgment. God seems to have dealt directly with the conscience, and this whole period may properly be called the period of conscience.

But conscience was not the permanent standard of judgment. It could not be; for after all that is said about the conscience it is more or less a creature of education, warped and twisted by the environments of life. It holds the same relation to the word that a clock does to the sun. The clock is a convenient method of obtaining the time of day, but it is only infallible when it is kept perfectly regulated by the sun.

The man who follows blindly his clock without insisting that it must be kept regulated by the sun, will soon find himself living day for night and night for day. So the man who blindly follows his conscience without having it perpetually regulated by the word, will soon find himself living wrong for right.

Beginning of the Bible

So the age of conscience having prepared the way, God entered upon the work of giving to man the Bible, which was to place him first under law which, like conscience, was to do its work and then bring in the day of grace. We hear now and then of the failure of God to do this and that in his plan for man. We hear of the failure of the age of conscience; as if God tried to save man by conscience and could not do it. Then we hear of the failure of the age of law, as if God tried to save man by law and could not do it. There is no such thing as failure in any part of God's great plan. When man failed in Eden God had a plan, and that plan comprehended all the ages and periods through which the world has passed and will pass until the final consummation, and he has not failed in one whit. The age of conscience was to prepare man for the age of law ; and the age of law was to prepare man for the age of grace in which we are now living.

To make possible the Bible, which was the beginning of the age of law, God called Abram and set him apart as the head of a great race. This was about two thousand years after man began his career, and for a period of something like fivQ hundred years this work of preparation was carried on, and then Moses was commanded and inspired of God to begin his stupendous task. This was the first work for the sacred volume — going back to the beginning and giving a history of the creation and God's dealing with the world, and his promises, all of which finally culminated in the New Testament, where the promised Deliverer is revealed.

This is the general history of the Bible which is a revelation of God's plan for the redemption of the race.

The Manner of the Writing

About forty persons, representing practically every station in life, were engaged in writing the Bible, and the time that it took to complete it was about sixteen hundred years, beginning about 1500 B. C, when Moses began to write the Pentateuch amid the thunders of Sinai, and continuing to about A. D. 97, when the Apostle John wrote his Gospel.

At that time writings were preserved on stones and parchment and kept in sacredly guarded receptacles. Prophets and teachers studied these writings to know of God's dealings, and to know of his will concerning the government of the race. Thus the Old Testament Scriptures and the New were originally formed, and these ancient manuscripts were gathered up and translated into the language of the time.

Om English Bible

About one hundred years after the Old Testament canon was completed, something like 130 B. C., the first translation of the Old Testament

Scriptures was completed. It was a Greek translation, and was doubtless for the use of the Jews scattered abroad during the dispersion, who spoke the Greek language instead of the Hebrew. This translation was known as the Septuagint or Alexandrian version.

In the second century of the Christian era Latin superseded Greek, and hence a Latin translation was made of both the Old and the New Testaments. While revising this version Jerome, a great scholar and a man of great piety, who had access to the original manuscripts, made a new translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew. This is known as the Vulgate version.

This Latin version was England's first Bible. It was carried there by early Christian missionaries when England was still a pagan land. Although it was a Latin version, it changed the whole of England's public and private life.

For hundreds of years following this England was in the transition period. National wars and upheavals of every kind were constantly taking place. The Teutonic invasion introduced the Anglo-Saxon language, calling for another revision. However, this revision was never completed. Finally, it was the plan of God, through

William the Conqueror, for the Normans to take England in 1006, and with it there was a fusion of languages which resulted in time in the present English language, which has been the greatest language known to the world for the spread of the Bible.

It was then that God's time seems to have come to flash his truth around the world; and in 1320 John Wycliffe was born. It was the ambition of his life to put the entire Bible into the English language. It took him twenty-two years to accomplish this, but what blessings are the result of those twenty-two years! Hundreds of copies were made, and they cost immense sums of money. So eager were the people to read that those who could not buy it would pay considerable sums to be allowed to read it for one hour per day. Truly the word of God in those days was precious.

Wycliffe did not have an easy task. The Roman Catholic Church became alarmed. They saw the Bible getting into the hands of the people, and of course they had always stood against that, and so they began to persecute Wicliffe. So enraged was Rome that forty years after his death they took up his bones and burned them and scattered the ashes on the river Swift, which bore them to the Avon and out to the sea.

The Printing-Press

So soon as the EngHsh language had made the way for the word of God the next step was taken. It seems that God had been waiting all these years and arranging that those two great events should come together — the translation of the Bible into English and the introduction into England of the art of printing. Close upon the same time that Wycliffe was translating the Bible into English, Gutenberg, of Mainz, Germany, was at work upon his new invention, and in 1450 the printing-press was made a practical reality; and one of the first uses given it was that of printing the English Bible. Oh, how marvelously God has wrought! It sounds almost like a fairy tale, but it is history. God was back of it all directing the world with a view of sending forth his word.

At this time a number of translations were printed and scattered, but the first authorized version of the Bible was in 1536, during the reign of Henry VIII. This version was appointed to be used in all places of worship. In the meantime the Roman Catholics continued their opposition against the public use of the Bible. All sorts of persecutions were resorted to, and the country was swayed to and fro by it, sometimes rejecting the Bible, sometimes standing by it. Finally, James I called together fifty-four translators, including High Churchmen, Puritans, and the best scholars in the land, and set them to work making another translation. They brought out what is now called the King James version of the Bible. It took five years to accomplish this work. In 1611 it was finished, and the King James revision as we now have it was given to the world. Since that time other translations have been made, which in some respects are better than the old King James; in others not so good; but the work of the translator will continue to be necessary as language undergoes evolution. It must be remembered that all language is a growth; that we are constantly coining new words and retiring old ones, so the Bible will ever have to be revised to keep up with the language for the time.

How Do We Know ?

So much now for the general history of the formation of our Bible. The question naturally comes to our inquiring minds, how do we know that these manuscripts from first to last have been properly preserved ? The destructive critic is ever ready with his answer. He says that we do not know anything about it, and that in the absence of knowledge the devil has slipped in some of his work. He is willing to admit that God planned and gave to the world a Bible which was to be a chart and a compass for the guidance of his people for time and eternity, but they assure us that this Bible is not as God gave it; that man and the devil have interpolated it, putting into it that which God never intended should be there. Our answer to the critic at this point is that he is lacking in the proper conception of God. To imagine God, all-powerful, all-wise, giving to man a Bible, a thing so necessary, without which there is no light, and then turning his back upon a w^ork that has cost so much, and letting the devil steal part of it and mar the rest of it with his interpolations, is too ridiculous to engage the attention of people for a single moment. To imagine that God, knowing the necessity for such a chart, and having taken so much time and pains with man to bring it about and make it possible, then that he should turn it over to man and the devil to be changed is absolutely ridiculous.

I believe that God at the beginning planned the whole scope of the Bible, and that every step in the history of the race has been in accordance with his plan to bring about this blessed consummation; I believe that he inspired the holy men who wrote it; that he watched over it in its years of formation, and brought it forth when the time was ripe. I believe that he watched the copyists, the translators, and all, until to-day we have his blessed book, the very " word of God " to man.

No wonder it has outlived its enemies. No wonder it could not be kept from public use. It can no more be confined than God himself can be confined. It is his expression ; it is his truth, and around it have gathered the strongest minds and the greatest characters that ever turned the pages of history.

Many years ago one of England's greatest preachers had a talk with Mr. Gladstone, England's greatest statesman. It was only a short while before his death. The preacher said that he felt awed in the presence of this grand old man, so great and good he was. Their conversation turned upon the Bible, and Mr. Gladstone said, " I have all my life been a student of the Bible. It is the greatest book that the world ever saw. No man or set of men could have planned it or could have written it. It is truly God's book."

Pity the little man who thinks it a sign of intellectuality to stand up by the side of this grand old statesman whose name will be spoken as long as there is a human tongue, and speak lightly of the Bible, treating it as simply a bunching of incidents, collected and written by a set of men independent of God. No man has known God who sneers at the Bible, for the Bible presents God's photograph to man. It takes the whole of it to reveal him.

There is a story of a profligate girl ; a girl who had left her widowed mother and wandered into a life of shame. In her loneliness and sorrow the mother set to work to find her daughter, but to no avail. After a while a plan came to her which she proceeded to put into execution. She placed a photograph of herself in all the shelters for this class of women, thinking that perhaps her daughter might see it. Some time passed, and finally one night the girl did wander into one of those places, and seeing her mother's photograph on the wall she fell to her knees, saying as she sobbed, " Oh, that is my mother's face. Those are the lips that so often kissed these unworthy cheeks; those are the eyes that have wept away their luster over me! That is my mother! My mother! Surely she placed that there to remind me of her, and now I know she forgives me. Surely she still loves me and I will go home to-day!"

O wayward child, wandering alone in the world of sin and darkness, looking for God and finding him not, let me present you with this photograph. Come to this old book, the book of your mother and father ; the book of the old church where your feet once gladly led you ; the book of the preacher who had prayed for you and pleaded with you. It is the book of God; his own photograph in which you can see his love. It is God's picture of himself, in his heart of love wooing and winning a lost world back to himself and to heaven.

Father of mercies, in thy word

What endless glory shines, Forever be thy name adored

For these celestial lines.

III The Divine Arrangement Of The Bible

WE now come to consider the divine plan in the arrangement of the Bible. I do not claim to have worked all this out myself. I have gathered it from my own study and also from others, prominent among whom are Dr. A. T. Pierson, Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, Mr. Collett, Doctor Schofield, and Mr. Griffith Thomas. Their findings I have freely used.

We never see the glory of God unless we see his plans. David in that beautiful Nineteenth psalm breaks forth, " The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge." Surely this is true ! But the man who looks up into the heavens and fails to see the plan of God in fixing the sphere of the planetary system cannot appreciate the glory of God. See how carefully he has done his work. Every star differing from every other star, yet all are alike in everything that is essential ; every star fixed in its own circle and not allowed to leave it. How wonderful! What a mighty hand fashioned it, and what a mighty power governs it. Certain it is that " the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.'*

But not only do we see the plan of God in these things, but likewise in the smallest details of his creation and government. There is not a thing that ever received the touch of his creative hand that is not according to the most perfect plan. Look if you will at the wings of the butterfly. In their construction are the most perfect angles and lines that were ever seen. Every line and angle is so arranged as to form a complete whole.

God has ever been careful about the preservation of his plans. Not even a sparrow falleth to the ground without his knowledge, and even the hairs of our heads are numbered. All this goes to show God a great plan worker. The man who supposes that God, because he is all-powerful and can make and unmake at will, is not concerned about plans and specifications in creation and government has failed to see God.

And with the same care for his plans in the formation and government of the universe we find him forming the Bible. It is strange that men of good sound sense and reason can see and appreciate God's great and successful plan in creation, and at the same time fail to see the same in the Bible. They admit the necessity for a Bible, and that God endeavored to meet this by inspiration ; but they do not see the success of it. The unbelieving critical student sees a Bible mutilated by man. This is because he does not see God. It is ridiculous to think that in this the most important work for man, the giving of the Bible, God did what he never has done in any other line of work — operate without a fixed plan; for if he had a plan in the formation of the Bible, that plan would not be complete until the Bible was complete.

Thank God, some of us have seen him, and have seen him as a great plan worker — one who in the beginning wrought out not only his great plans for the formation and government of the world, but also for the Bible. The reason why this fact is not more fully comprehended is because skeptics do not know their Bibles. They study all about the Bible, but do not study the Bible itself. To see this great plan of God one has to begin at the beginning and reverently follow every step through its sacred pages, looking for God and God's plan, and when it is found the old book will shine with a new luster. It will have a new sacredness, and God as its author will be worshiped with a new spirit.

The Bible as a Whole

We see the plan of God when we study the Bible as a whole, which is a good way to begin the study. Too many of us are content with studying favorite portions — a sort of hop-andskip method. What we want, and what we must have if we are to get a proper appreciation of the Bible, is to study it as a great whole. Begin at the beginning and travel through it as one traveling through a great city — observing its main thoroughfares and points of interest, until the whole is comprehended. So is it with the Bible. We want to get a view of the whole of it that we may properly appreciate any part of it.

Observing it in this way we will be impressed with some very striking facts. For example, we will observe that the Old Testament begins with the expression, " In the beginning God." This is just what we would expect. The Old Testament is distinctly God's voice to man, and it is perfectly natural that the first line in it should announce God.

Then when we come to the New Testament we observe that it begins with Christ — " The Book of the Generations of Jesus Christ." This also is perfectly natural. The New Testament is distinctly to reveal Jesus Christ, and therefore it should properly begin with him.

See also the planning of God in the ending of the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament deals with the matter of law. Man is tried by the stern letter of the law, and hence it closes with a curse. The message of the New Testament is grace, hence it ends with a blessing.

Observe also another fact concerning the beginning and the ending of the Bible. It begins with God and ends with man, and lying between these two personalities is what God has to say to man. If we divide the Bible in half we find ourselves at the eighth verse of the One Hundred and Eighteenth psalm, where we find God and man together. " It is better to take refuge in God than to put confidence in man." How significant this is ! I do not say that it was God's design, and yet I do say that it is striking that God and man, standing, one at the beginning and the other at the end, should meet in the exact center.

Attention has been called to the divine plan in the destructive work of the devil at the beginning, and the constructive work of Christ at the end :

In the b e g i n n i n g — God created the heavens and the earth.

Man leaves God, to run his

race alone.

Sin, pain, sorrow, death.

Earth cursed.

Tree of life — man driven away.

Man hiding from God.

Paradise lost.

First Adam failed and lost all.

First man attempts to clothe himself.

Woman taken from man's open side.

Marriage of a sinless man to a sinless wife.

Earth destroyed by water.

At the end — new heavens and new earth.

Satan cast out that he may deceive the nations no more.

Christ leaves God to save man.

No more death, neither sorrow, nor crying.

No more curse.

Tree of life, with right to eat of it.

God dwelling among men.

Paradise regained.

Last Adam, " He shall not fail."

Second man clothing us.

Another side opened — the

church formed.

Marriage of the Lamb.

Earth destroyed by fire.

Many tongues bringing blessing.

The first miracle in the Old Testament is significant. In the Old Testament the first miracle recorded is that of Moses turning water into blood, which was a type of death and was in keeping with the whole spirit of the law. In the New Testament the first miracle performed by Christ was turning water into wine, which was a type of life, joy, and strength.

The first question in the Old Testament is God's call for man, "Where art thou?" The first question in the New Testament is man's call for God, "Where is he?"

Surely these things have not occurred by accident. Back of them there must have been a divine plan.

The Plan of the Trinity

But nowhere in the Bible do we see greater evidence of a divine plan than in the prominence given the Trinity. Everywhere attention is called to the Holy Trinity — God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Man himself is represented as a trinity — body, soul, and spirit. The enemy of man is represented as a trinity — the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Temptation is represented as presenting itself in the form of a trinity. There is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. It is significant that the two great temptations, the one of our foreparents and the other of Christ, were in keeping w4th this trinity of temptation. The temptation in Eden :

The tree was good for food — " The lust of the flesh."

The tree was pleasant to the eyes — " The lust of the eye."

A tree desired to make one wise — " The pride of life."

In Christ's temptation in the wilderness we see the same order:

" Command this stone that it be made bread " — " Lust of the flesh."

" The devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world "— " Lust of the eye."

" Cast thyself down hence, for he shall give his angels charge over thee " — " Pride of Life."

Again, trinity is seen in the personalities of evil — the devil, the beast, and the false prophets. And against those we also have the strength of God — faith, hope, and charity.

These do not seem to me to be accidental arrangements. They are bound to be the product of the divine plan. Take for example the Scriptures as a whole in their reference to the Trinity. The Old Testament reveals God the Father. The Gospels reveal God the Son. The Acts of the Apostles reveals God the Holy Ghost, and the Epistles give to us the full revelation of the whole Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

These are only samples of the way the Trinity is used to reveal the plan of God in the Scriptures. Had we the time, we might go on and show how almost every great fact in the Bible is a part of a trinity which has ever called attention to the one triune God.

The Arrangement of the Books

There is also seen a divine plan in the arrangement of the books of the Bible. In the Old Testament there are thirty-nine books. In the New Testament there are twenty-seven books, making in all sixty-six. These books have a most wonderful arrangement according to their contents, and when taken together as a whole they show a wonderful development of the divine plan. For example, take the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible. In it we have the beginning of things. The beginning of creation — of man, of sin, of sorrow, of salvation, the beginning of the family. In Exodus we have the book of the emergence and redemption. In Leviticus we have the book of the sanctuary and the atonement. In Numbers we have the book of the wanderings of God's people. In Deuteronomy we have the book of law and obedience. So we might proceed through the whole of the Old Testament Scriptures and see that there is a great but simple plan underlying and connecting all of these books with their various lines of teaching.