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A Summary of ‘Ten Reasons Why I Believe the Bible to be the Word of God’ (by R A Torrey)

1). I Believe the Bible to be the Word of God because Jesus testified to the Fact that the Bible Is the Word of God

In the first place I believe the Bible to be the Word of God because of the clear and definite testimony of Jesus Christ to that fact.

We live in a day in which many people say ‘I accept what Jesus Christ teaches, but I do not know about the rest of the Bible’. Now at first glance that looks like an eminently rational position, but in point of fact it is utterly irrational and impossible. It is utterly irrational and impossible for this reason - if we accept the teaching of Jesus Christ we must accept everything on which He sets the stamp of His endorsement. And Jesus sets the stamp of His endorsement on the entire Bible.

As to the Old Testament you will find this, for example, in Mark 7.13. Here our Lord, in reasoning with the religious leaders of His day, said ‘you do make the Word of God of non-effect through your tradition’. He had just been drawing a sharp contrast between their traditions and the teachings of the Law of Moses, not merely of the Decalogue but of other parts of the Pentateuch as well, and having drawn this contrast He says these words, ‘making the Word of God of non-effect through your traditions’, thus in so many words calling the Law of Moses ‘the Word of God’.

When I was holding meetings in England, a prominent dignitary and scholar in the Church of England, in a private correspondence with me, took me to task for calling the Bible ‘the Word of God’ and said, ‘the Bible nowhere claims to be the Word of God’. In reply, among other passages, I called his attention to the one just quoted and showed him how the Lord Jesus Himself in so many words called the Law of Moses ‘the Word of God’.

Now turn to Matthew 5.18, where you will read these words of the Lord Jesus, ‘Verily I say unto you, Till Heaven and Earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.’ Now a ‘jot’, as every Hebrew scholar knows, is the Hebrew character ‘yodh’, the smallest character in the Hebrew alphabet, less than half the size of any other character in the Hebrew alphabet, and a ‘tittle’ is only part of a letter, the horn that the Hebrews put on some of their consonants, less than the cross we put on a ‘t’. So our Lord Jesus here sets the stamp of His endorsement, upon the Law of Moses as originally given, as being absolutely inerrant down to its smallest letter or smallest part of a letter. That is ‘verbal inspiration’ with a vengeance, and it is from our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

Of course, this only covers the first five books of the Bible. But if you can accept them you will not have much trouble with the rest of the Old Testament, for this is the very part of the Bible where the hottest controversy is being fought today, and always has been fought, between the rationalists and the believers in the Bible as the inerrant Word of God. It is in this part of the Bible that we read the story of creation, the story of the Fall, the story of the Flood, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the turning of Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt, the destruction of the Canaanite nations, and pretty much all the other things on which the objectors to a Bible verbally inspired most violently pour out their condemnation and their scorn. And is it not a remarkable fact that our Lord Jesus Christ, looking down through the coming centuries and anticipating the controversies of today, should have put the stamp of His endorsement in the most unmistakable way upon that very portion of the Bible where the hottest conflict would be raged eighteen centuries later?

Now turn to John 10.35. Here the Lord Jesus says, ‘the Scripture cannot be broken’. He had just quoted Psalm 82.6 as ending all controversy in the matter in dispute between Himself and His opponents, and having done it He utters the words quoted above, ‘the Scripture cannot be broken’, thus setting the stamp of His endorsement upon the absolute irrefragability or inerrancy of the Old Testament Scriptures.

Now turn to Luke 24.27, ‘And beginning from Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself’. Now read the 44th verse of the same chapter, ‘All things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me’. The Hebrew in our Lord’s time divided his Bible, our Old Testament, into three divisions - ‘the Law’, that is the part we call the Pentateuch, ‘the Prophets’, including not only the books we call prophetic, but many of the historical books as well, the material for which was derived from the prophets, and ‘the Psalms’, or ‘Hagiographa’, or ‘sacred writings’, including all the remaining books of our present Old Testament. So our Lord in these verses takes up each one of the three recognised divisions of the Jewish Bible of His day, and sets the stamp of His endorsement upon each and every one of them. Therefore if we accept the authority of Jesus Christ we are logically compelled to accept the entire Old Testament as the Word of God.

Furthermore, as regards the Divine origin and authority of the Old Testament, our Lord Jesus says in Luke 16.31, ‘If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead’. In these words He endorses in the most emphatic way the infallible truth of the Old Testament. He says again in John 5.47, ‘If ye believe not his (Moses’) writings, how shall ye believe my words?’ In these words He sets the stamp of His authority upon the teaching of Moses as being as truly from God as His own, and declares that the same spirit that led men to reject the teaching of Moses, would lead them to reject His own teachings. So then, if we accept the authority of Jesus Christ we are compelled to accept the entire Old Testament as the Word of God.

But how about the New Testament? Did our Lord Jesus set His stamp of approval on that also?

He did. But someone will say, ‘How could He? Was the New Testament written while He was here on earth?’ No, not a single book of it. How then could He set the stamp of His endorsement upon books that were not as yet written? The answer is simple, by way of anticipation. Turn to John 14.26 and you will hear Jesus saying, ‘But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you’. In these words our Lord Jesus set the stamp of His endorsement not only upon the teaching of the Apostles as being Divinely inspired, but also upon their recollection of what He said as being also Divinely inspired.

The question is often asked me, ‘how do we know that in the four Gospels we have an accurate record of what Jesus Christ said? Did the Apostles take notes of what our Lord Jesus Christ said at the time, and if not, may they not have forgotten and misreported Him?’ To this question I would say, ‘There is reason to suppose that the Apostles did take notes at the time of what the Lord Jesus said, that Matthew, the author of the first Gospel, and Peter, from whom Mark derived his material for the second Gospel, and that James, the brother of John, from whom there is reason to believe Luke derived much of his material for the third Gospel, took down what Jesus said in Aramaic, and that John took down what the Lord Jesus said in Greek, for we must remember that when our Lord Jesus was here on earth the people among whom He lived were a bilingual people, speaking sometimes Greek, and sometimes Aramaic. But all this does not matter for our present purpose, for our Lord Jesus Christ Himself distinctly tells us that, in the Apostolic records of what He said, we would not have the Apostles’ recollection of His words, but the Holy Spirit’s recollection, that the Holy Spirit would bring to their remembrance all that He had said unto them, and while it was possible the Apostles might forget or misreport, the Holy Spirit could never forget nor misreport.

Now turn to John 16.12-13. There you will read these words, ‘I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all the truth’. In these words our Lord Jesus declares that the Apostles’ teachings were not only to be Divinely inspired, but that furthermore they would contain more truth than He Himself taught, that indeed they would contain ‘all the truth’. So if we accept the authority of Jesus Christ, we are logically compelled to accept the New Testament as being Divinely inspired, as containing more truth than Jesus Christ Himself taught, as indeed containing ‘All the truth’.

There was a fad cry that arose some years ago in England and was taken up in this country (USA). ‘Back to Christ’, they said. By this men meant, ‘Do not tell us what Paul said, do not tell us what John said, do not tell us what Peter said, let us go back to Christ, to the original source of authority. Very well, ‘Back to Christ’ - I rather like the cry myself. But when you get back to Jesus Christ you hear Him saying, ‘On to the Apostles. I have many things to say that I could tell you, but you are not ready to hear them yet; but when the Holy Spirit is come, He will guide you into all the truth’. So then if we accept the authority of Jesus Christ, we are compelled to accept the entire New Testament as being Divinely inspired, as containing more truth than He Himself taught, as indeed containing ‘all the truth’.

Here then is the point at which we arrive. If we accept the authority of Jesus Christ we must accept the entire Old Testament and the entire New Testament as the Word of God. It is either Christ and the whole Bible or else no Bible, and no Christ.

There are many in these days who say that they ‘believe in Christ, but not in the Christ of the New Testament’. But there is no Christ other than the Christ of the New Testament. Any other Christ than the Christ of the New Testament is a pure figment of the individual imagination. He is just as much an idol, made with men’s brains, as any idol men make with their hands.

But can we accept the authority of the Christ of the New Testament? If we honestly face the facts we are compelled to accept His authority for Jesus Christ is accredited to us by five unmistakably divine testimonies.

First of all Jesus Christ is accredited to us by the testimony of the Divine life that He lived, for He lived as never man lived. If anyone takes the four Gospels for himself and lays them side by side, and reads them through carefully and honestly even once, he will discover two things. Firstly that the story here related is the story of a life that was actually lived here on earth, and not a mere romance. To imagine that any one man imagined such a character as that of Jesus of Nazareth, when such a live was never lived upon earth, is to suppose a greater miracle than any one recorded in any of the four Gospels. But to suppose that not only one man did it, but that four different men did it, and that each one not only made the story consistent with itself, but also consistent with the other three, is to suppose the absolutely preposterous and impossible. Secondly he will discover that the life here recorded stands absolutely apart from any other life lived upon earth.

Napoleon Bonaparte, late in life, was discussing Jesus of Nazareth with some of his friends, and he is reported to have said, ‘I know men, (and if he did not know men, who ever did?), and Jesus of Nazareth was no man’. He meant of course by this that while Jesus Christ was a man, he was also more than a man.

In the second place Jesus Christ is accredited to us by the Divine words that He spoke. If anyone will take the four Gospels and just read with candour and open mind the words spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ, he will soon discover that there is a quality in these words that distinguishes them from all other words spoken on earth. He will be compelled to say what the officers said who were sent to arrest Jesus, ‘Never man spoke like this man’.

In the third place Jesus Christ is accredited to us by the divine works that He wrought. Not only healing the sick, which many have done, but cleansing the leper by a mere word, opening the eyes of the blind by a mere word, raising the dead by a mere deed, stilling the tempest and the sea by a mere word, turning water into wine, and feeding five thousand people with five small loaves and two small fish, which was a creative act. These works of Divine power are clear credentials of a God-sent teacher. We cannot study them carefully and not come to the same conclusion that Nicodemus, a great Jewish teacher, came to, when he said, ‘We know that you are a teacher come from God, for no man could do these signs which you do, except God be with him’ (John 3.2). The truth is that all attempts to isolate Jesus and His teachings from his miracles, and there have been many, have ended in failure, and they are the unmistakable evidence that He was a teacher come from God..

In the fourth place Jesus Christ is accredited to us by His Divine influence on all subsequent history. There is no doubt that Jesus Christ claimed to be the Son of God in a unique sense. He says in Mark 12.6 that while all the prophets of the old dispensation, even the greatest, were ‘servants’, He Himself was the ‘Son’, and the ‘one’ and only ‘Son’ of God (see the Greek). He did not hesitate in John 10.30 to say ‘I and the Father are one’ (which the Jews themselves recognised as a Divine claim). He went so far as to say in John 14.9, ‘he who has seen me has seen the Father’, and He even went so far in John 5.22-23 to say that all men should honour Him, ‘the Son, even as they honour the Father’. But this very claim shows us that He was not just a good man. No good and rational man could have made the claims that Jesus did unless they were true. So we must conclude that He was unquestionably one of three things. Either He was truly the only Son of God, or He was deluded, or He was an impostor. So as we look at His influence on all subsequent history we have to ask, was this influence that of an impostor or a deluded man, or was it the influence of One uniquely come from God?

In the fifth place Jesus Christ is accredited to us by His resurrection from the dead. It can easily be shown that the historic evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so absolutely and overwhelmingly convincing, that doubting it would be impossible on the part of any man competent to weigh evidence, who will sit down before the evidence of His resurrection and carefully examine it with the single hearted desire to know and obey the truth. But this clearly proven resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the Lord God Almighty’s stamp of endorsement on Jesus Christ’s claims.

We must then, if we are honest, accept the authority of Jesus Christ, and consequently we must accept the entire Old Testament and the entire New Testament, which He endorsed as being the Word of God, as being such in reality.

2). I Believe the Bible to be the Word of God Because of It’s Fulfilled Prophecies. My second reason for believing the Bible to be the Word of God is because of its fulfilled prophecies. The subject of fulfilled prophecy is a large one, and to go into it in any fullness would take many hours, but I think I can sufficiently outline it in a few minutes so that you will see its unanswerable force.

There are two kinds of prophecy in the Bible, first the explicit verbal prophecies, and second the prophecies of the types and symbols. Let us take up firstly the explicit verbal prophecies. These are of three kinds, first, prophecies regarding the coming Messiah, second, prophecies regarding the Jewish people, and third, prophecies regarding the Gentile nations. We will limit ourselves to the prophecies regarding the coming Messiah, and take only five of them by way of illustration.

The first we will consider is Isaiah 53, the entire chapter. A very determined effort is being made in our day to discredit the Messianic interpretation of Isaiah 53. This is done by both rationalists and unbelieving Jews. It is very natural that both of these classes should deny the Messianic implication of this chapter, for if Isaiah 53 is Messianic then beyond a doubt there is a predictive element in prophecy and this is denied by rationalists. Also if Isaiah 53 is Messianic then beyond a doubt Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah and of course unbelieving Jews are unwilling to believe that, so we are told that it is not Messianic.

But two things prove to a certainty that Isaiah 53 is Messianic. The first is that the Jews themselves taught that it was Messianic until Jesus of Nazareth came and fulfilled it. Then once He had come they began to deny the Messianic application of the prophecy because they did not wish to believe that He was the Messiah.

The second thing that proves that it is Messianic is that, if it does not refer to the Messiah, to whom does it refer? The best answer of those who do deny it is that the sufferer signifies suffering Israel. But anyone who will read the chapter through carefully, even if only once, will see that this explanation is impossible, for we are told that the sufferer in Isaiah 53 was suffering for the sins of others than himself. This we are told again and again. For example we are told, ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed’. We are told furthermore that the others for whose sins He was suffering, were Israel. Now put these two facts together - the sufferer suffering for the sins of other than Himself, and the others than Himself for whom He was suffering, I.e. Israel. Thus certainly the sufferer cannot be Israel.

Some years ago a Jew wrote to one of the most learned and best known Rabbis in America asking him if Isaiah 53 referred to Jesus of Nazareth. To this the brilliant Rabbi replied, ‘It seems to but don’t’. The answer was astray in only one or two words. It seems to and does. If you will read the chapter through carefully and thoughtfully for yourself you can hardly fail to be convinced.

The other passages to which I would call your attention are Micah 5.2; Daniel 9.25-27; Jeremiah 23.5-6; Psalm 16.8-11. In these five passages we have predictions of a coming King of Israel. We are told the exact place of His birth (Micah 5.2), and the exact time of His manifestation to His people (Daniel 9.25-27); we are told of the precise family of which He was to be born (Jeremiah 23.5-6 compare Isaiah 11.1), and the condition of His family at the time of His birth, a condition entirely different from that existing at the time the prophecy was written, and contrary to all the probabilities in the case (Isaiah 53.2-3); we are told of His death, the exact manner of His death and other details regarding it (compare also Psalm 22.16-18), we are told of His burial and the details in connection with it, (Isaiah 53.7-9) and of His resurrection and His victory subsequent to His resurrection (Psalm 16.8-11 compare Isaiah 53.12). Every one of these predictions was fulfilled centuries later with the most minute precision in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Now I submit that any book that has the power of looking centuries into the future, and predicting with minuteness and precision, and accuracy of time, person, place and circumstances, events to occur centuries later, must have for its author the only person in the Universe who knows the end from the beginning - that is, God.

There is furthermore a noteworthy and significant fact regarding the prophecies of the Bible, and that is that often there are two seemingly contradictory lines of prophecy, and it seems as though if the one line of prophecy were to be fulfilled, the other could not by any possibility be fulfilled. And yet these two seemingly contradictory lines of prophecy converge and are fulfilled in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. For example in the Old Testament we have two apparently contradictory lines of prophecy regarding the Messiah. One line predicts a suffering Messiah, ‘despised and rejected of men’, ‘a man of sorrows, acquainted (or humiliated by) grief, one who would lay down His life as an atoning sacrifice for sin, one whose earthly mission would end in death and ignominy. The other line predicts equally clearly and definitely a Messiah who would be an all-conquering Messiah, a king who would rule the nations with a rod of iron. How could these two lines of prophecy both be true?

This was the problem that faced the ancient Jew, and the best answer he could give was that there would be two (or even more) Messiahs, one a suffering Messiah of the tribe of Joseph, and the other an all-conquering Messiah of the tribe of Judah. But in the person of Jesus of Nazareth we find both lines of prophecy converging and being fulfilled in one person. The first line of prophecy is fulfilled in His first coming which culminated in His crucifixion on the cross of Calvary, the second is fulfilled in His glorious resurrection and ascension whereby He received all authority and power at the right hand of God and will find its glorious completion in His final return to earth as King and Judge of all men.

But if the explicit prophecies are conclusive, the prophecies of types and symbols are even more conclusive. if you ask the ordinary, superficial reader of the Bible how much of the Old Testament is prophetic he will answer something like this, ‘Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the minor prophets, together with some prophetic passages here and there in the Psalms and in the Pentateuch. But if you ask a thoroughgoing student of the Bible how much of the Old Testament is prophetic he will reply that the entire Old Testament is prophetic, that its personages are prophetic, and that its institutions, ceremonies, offerings, sacrifices and feasts are all prophetic.

If you doubt his statement, and you have a perfect right to doubt it, he will sit down and take you through the whole Old Testament from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of Malachi, and will show you everywhere unmistakeable foreshadowings of things to come. He will show you in Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, David and Solomon, and also in every sacrifice and offering in the Tabernacle and every part of the Tabernacle, its outer court with its brazen altar of sacrifice, its Holy Place with its seven-branched candlesticks and tables with the loaves of shewbread upon it, in the golden altar of incense before the curtain separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, in the curtain itself, in the Ark of the covenant beyond the curtain, with its perfectly kept law overshadowed by the blood-sprinkled mercy seat, in its various coverings, in every sacrifice and offering, in its laws regarding cleansing, in its feasts and all its ceremonies, the most unmistakeable foreshadowings and types of Jesus Christ, His twofold nature, divine and human; His sinless character; His atoning death; and His resurrection and return. And as you go on you will encounter all the facts concerning Church and Jewish history. Now at first this will seem a happy coincidence, but as you go on, chapter after chapter and book after book, the theory of ‘happy coincidence’ is ruled out by the law of mathematical probability, and you are forced to see that it is intended. You will find every fundamental truth that was to be fully revealed in the New Testament prefigured in the types and symbols of the Old Testament. Now I submit to you that any book that has the power of putting into a legislation, which is intended in the first place to meet the immediate needs of the people then living, the clearest foreshadowings of happenings and truths not to be revealed for at least fifteen hundred years, must have for its author the only being in the Universe who knows the end from the beginning - and that is, God.

3). I Believe the Bible to be the Word of God because of the Unity of the Book.

My third reason for believing that the Bible is the Word of God is because of the Unity of the Book.

This is an old argument, yet it is not only a good one but an unanswerable one.

The Bible is composed of sixty six separate portions or ‘books’. These sixty six books were written in three languages, Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. The period of their composition extends over more than fifteen hundred years. They were written in countries hundreds of miles apart. They were written by at least forty different authors. They were written by men in every plane of political and social life, from the king on his throne to the herdsman, the shepherd, the fisherman and the politician. They display every known form of literary composition. We not only have in the Bible both prose and poetry, but every known form of prose and poetry. We have in the Bible epic poetry, lyric poetry, didactic poetry, erotic poetry, elegy and rhapsody. we have also in it every form of prose. We have historic prose, didactic prose, epistolary prose, argument, theological treatise, proverb, parable, apothem, allegory, satire and oration.

In a book so marvellously composite, made up of such divergent parts, composed at such remote periods of time, and under such divergent circumstances, by so many different persons, what would we expect? Surely variance and discrepancy, absolute contradiction and discord, total lack of unity. But in point of fact what do we find? We find, as every thorough Bible student knows, the most marvellous unity known anywhere in literature. Every part of the Bible fits every other part of the Bible. One ever-increasing, ever growing, ever deepening thought pervades the whole. It is true that the Bible is a library, in fact it is a whole literature, but at the same time it is the most intensely and unvaryingly a unity of any book known in literature. The more we study its message the more we become aware of its unity. Now here is an astonishing fact. How are we to account for it?

If we were simply the type of theologian who does not bother with the facts but simply weaves his theories out of his inner consciousness we would not have to account for this fact. But being hard-headed, common sense, everyday men and women, we must account for facts, and this fact needs accounting for.

Two things about the character of the unity of the Bible demand attention. First of all is that it is not a superficial unity, but a profound one. It is not a unity that lies on the surface, it is a unity that only comes out of careful and protracted study. On the surface we often find apparent discrepancies and discord, but as we study and go far beneath the surface the apparent discrepancies and discord disappear and the deep underlying unity appears. The more deeply we study, the more complete do we find the unity to be.

The second characteristic of this unity is that it is an organic unity. That is to say it is not the unity of a dead thing, like a stone, or even a building, but of a living thing like a plant or a tree, where you have first the seed, then the young plant, then the mature plant, then the bud, then the blossom, and then the ripened fruit. In the early books of the Bible we have the germinant thought. As we go on we have the plant, then the bud, then the blossom and then the ripened fruit. Revelation is, as every student of the book knows, simply the ripened fruit of Genesis. Now how are we to account for this unity?

Suppose we proposed to build in Washington DC a Temple made up of stones from every state of the Union. Suppose some of the stones came from the marble quarries of Marlboro, N.H.; some from the grey granite quarries of Quincy, Mass; some from the brownstone quarries of Middletown, Conn.; some from the white marble quarries at Rutland, Vt; and indeed some from every state in the Union. These stones are of all conceivable sizes and shapes - large, medium and small, cubical, spherical, cylindrical, conical, and trapezoidal. And each of the stones is to be cut into shape at the quarry from which it comes. Not a mallet or chisel is to touch the stones once they have reached their destination. The stones arrive in Washington and the builders get to work. As they build they find that every stone fits into every other stone, and into its appointed place. They find that there is not one stone too many, nor one too few. How would you account for it? There is one simple way of doing so and that is to accept that behind all the individual activity of the quarrymen was the master mind of the architect, the one who planned the whole operation from beginning to end, and gave to each quarryman his specifications for the work.

Now that is precisely what we find in the Temple of eternal truth, the Bible. The ‘stones’ for it were quarried in widely separated places, over more than a thousand years, and yet they fit neatly into place producing the perfect whole. There is only one way to account for this and that is by recognising the hand of the Great Architect who planned the whole. The Bible is His handiwork.

4). I Believe the Bible to be the Word of God Because of the Immeasurable Superiority of its Teaching.

It was quite the fashion when I was studying at University to compare the teachings of the Bible with those of the ethnic philosophers and sages, with the teachings of, for example, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Seneca, Buddha, Zoroaster, Confucius, Mencius and Mohammed, and it is getting to be the fashion again. Anyone who institutes such a comparison, and puts the Bible in the same category with these ethnic philosophers and sages, must be either ignorant of the Bible, or else ignorant of the teachings of the ethnic philosophers and sage, or, what is more frequently the case, densely ignorant of both.

There are three points of radical difference between the teachings of the Bible and those of any or all other books.

First, that while the teachings of these ethnic philosophers and sages do contain truth, even precious truth, it is truth mixed with error, while the Bible ethical teaching contains nothing but truth. There are gems of thought in these ethnic philosophers and sages, but as Joseph Cook pointed out nearly half a century ago, they are ‘jewels picked out of the mud’.

We are often asked, ‘Did not Socrates teach in a way worthy of our attention how a philosopher ought to die?’. He did. But those who put Socrates in the same category as the Bible forget to tell us that Socrates also taught a woman of the streets how to conduct her business, and that was not quite so pretty.

‘Did not Marcus Aurelius teach, in a way that is worthy of our thought today, the excellencies of clemency and moderation?’ these men ask. He did, but they forget to tell us that this same Marcus Aurelius taught that it was right to put men and women to cruel, painful deaths for no other crime than that of being Christians, and being Roman Emperor, and having the power to do it, he practised what he preached. One of the most awful persecutions of Christians, that in which the holy Polycarp was martyred, was under the special patronage of this same Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.

‘Did not Seneca teach in a thoughtful and suggestive way the excellencies of poverty?’ these men ask us. He did, but they forget to tell us that at the very time Seneca was writing so beautifully about the excellencies of poverty he himself was one of the most notorious spendthrifts in Rome, the single item of onyx tables in his Roman mansion costing a fabulous fortune. Furthermore he was the tutor of the most infamous Emperor in Roman history, Nero, and under him Nero was trained for his awful work.

‘Did not Confucius teach the duty of children to parents in a way that is worthy of our attention today?’ these men ask. He did. But they forget to tell us that Confucius also taught that it was right to tell lies, and unblushingly tells us in a fragment of his own life which he has left us, how he himself told lies on occasion. And there is nothing in which his most devoted disciples, the modern Chinese, have proved themselves adept pupils of their great master as in this single matter of lying, for they have reduced lying to a fine art. In order to facilitate ‘saving of face’ they will resort to any type of untruth.

The second radical point of difference between the teaching of the Bible and that of all other books is that the Bible contains all the truth, while those other books only contain fragments of truth.

There is not one single known truth on moral and spiritual subjects that cannot be found for substance between the covers of the Bible. Often when speaking to audiences composed largely of secularists and unbelievers I have challenged anyone to produce one single truth on moral or spiritual subjects which I could not find for substance somewhere between the covers of the Bible. But no one has been able to do it yet. Of course, it is quite possible that somebody might be able to do that, for I do not pretend to know everything that is in the Bible, but it has not happened yet.

The Bible is a very old book, the last part of it was written over eighteen hundred years ago, and yet in all the thinking that men have done in the many long centuries since they have not been able to discover one single truth on moral or spiritual subjects that cannot be found in substance between the covers of the Bible. is that not a remarkable fact? Is it not suggestive? Does it not point unmistakably to God as the author of the book? Let me put it this way. If all other books in the world were destroyed and only the Bible be left, we would not lose one single known truth on moral or spiritual subjects.

The third point of radical difference between the Bible and all other books is that the Bible contains more truth than all other books put together. You can go to the literature of all ages and of all nations, the literature of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, of ancient Persia, ancient China, ancient India, and to all modern literature as well, and cull out of it all that is good, setting aside all that is bad or comparatively worthless, and put the results of your labour together in one book, and even then you will not have a book that can replace this one Book.

It is as clear as day then that the Bible stands absolutely in a class by itself, and that while other books are men’s books, this is God’s book.

5). I Believe the Bible to be the Word of God Because of its Ability to Stand up Against Continual Attack.

My fifth reason for believing the Bible to be the Word of God is because of the history of the Book, because of its omnipotence against all men’s attacks. It is as plain as day that what man has built man can destroy. Why then if man alone produced the Bible have nineteen centuries of assault upon the Bible been unable to destroy it?

Scarcely was the Bible given to the world when men discovered three things about it. They discovered that the Bible condemned sin. They discovered that the Bible demanded the renunciation of self. They discovered that the Bible laid human pride in the dust. But men were not willing to give up sin, they were not willing to renounce self, they were not willing to have their pride laid in the dust, therefore they hated the Book that made these demands, and they determined to destroy the book they hated.

Fronto, the most accomplished rhetorician of his day, the man whom the great Emperor Antoninus Pius chose to be the tutor of his even greater son Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, brought all the powers of his matchless rhetoric to bear against the Bible with the intention of discrediting it and destroying it, but he failed. Then Celsus tried it with the brilliance of his genius, and he failed. Then Porphyry, beyond a question the leading neo-Platonic philosopher of his day, tried it with all the depth of his philosophy, but he failed. Diocletian, the Roman Emperor, brought other weapons to bear against the Bible. He summoned all the military and political forces of the mightiest Empire the world has ever seen, Rome at the zenith of its glory, to discredit and destroy the Bible, and he failed. He issued edicts that every Bible in the Roman Empire should be destroyed, and that failed. Then he issued sterner edicts that everyone who had a Bible in his possession should be put to death, and that failed. And for nineteen long centuries the assaults on the Bible have gone on. (The Roman Catholic church proscribed it, forbidding ordinary people to read it. Russian Communism banned it and punished severely anyone possessing it.) Every engine of destruction that human reasoning, human science, human philosophy, human wit, human satire, human cunning, human force and human brutality could bring to bear against the Book have been brought to bear against it, vast resources of modern scholarship have sought to discredit it, and with what result? That the Bible has a stronger hold upon the confidence and affections of the wisest and best men and women in the world than ever before. This demonstrated indestructibility of the Bible is proof positive of its Divine origin.

6).Because of its influence and power to lift men up to God.

7). Because of the character of those who accept it as the word of God.

8). Because of the inexhaustible depth of the Book.

9). Because as spiritual Men grow in wisdom and character, knowledge and holiness, and towards God they grow towards the Bible.

10). Because of the testimony of the Holy Spirit towards that fact. (John 8.47).

IS THERE SOMETHING IN THE BIBLE THAT PUZZLES YOU?

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FREE Scholarly verse by verse commentaries on the Bible.

THE PENTATEUCH --- GENESIS ---EXODUS--- LEVITICUS --- NUMBERS --- DEUTERONOMY --- THE BOOK OF JOSHUA --- THE BOOK OF JUDGES --- SAMUEL --- KINGS --- PSALMS 1-50--- ECCLESIASTES--- SONG OF SOLOMON --- ISAIAH --- JEREMIAH --- EZEKIEL --- DANIEL --- --- HOSEA --- --- JOEL ------ AMOS --- --- OBADIAH --- --- JONAH --- --- MICAH --- --- NAHUM --- --- HABAKKUK--- --- ZEPHANIAH --- --- HAGGAI --- ZECHARIAH --- --- MALACHI --- THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW ---THE GOSPEL OF MARK--- THE GOSPEL OF LUKE --- THE GOSPEL OF JOHN --- THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES --- READINGS IN ROMANS --- 1 CORINTHIANS --- 2 CORINTHIANS ---GALATIANS --- EPHESIANS--- PHILIPPIANS --- COLOSSIANS --- 1 THESSALONIANS --- 2 THESSALONIANS --- 1 TIMOTHY --- 2 TIMOTHY --- TITUS --- HEBREWS --- JAMES --- 1 & 2 PETER --- JOHN'S LETTERS --- JUDE --- REVELATION --- THE GOSPELS & ACTS

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