THE TESTIMONY OF THE ORGANIC UNITY OF
THE BIBLE TO ITS INSPIRATION
The argument for the inspiration of
the Bible which I am to present is that drawn from its unity. This unity may be
seen in several conspicuous particulars, upon some of which it will be well to
dilate.
1. THE UNITY
IS STRUCTURAL. In the Book itself appears a
certain archetypal, architectural plan. The two Testaments are built on the
same general scheme. Each is in three parts: historic, didactic, prophetic;
looking to the past, the present, and the future.
Here is a collection of books; in
their style and character there is great variety and diversity; some are
historical, others poetical; some contain laws, others lyrics; some are
prophetic, some symbolic; in the Old Testament we have historical, poetical,
and prophetical divisions; and in the New Testament we have historic
narratives, then twenty-one epistles, then a symbolic apocalyptic poem in
oriental imagery. And yet this is no artificial arrangement of fragments. We
find “the Old Testament patent in the New; the New latent in the Old.”
In such a Book, then, it is not
likely that there would be unity; for all the conditions were unfavorable to a
harmonious moral testimony and teaching. Here are some sixty or more Separate
documents, written by some forty different persons, scattered over wide
intervals of space and time, strangers to each other; these documents are
written in three different languages, in different lands, among different and
sometimes hostile peoples, with marked diversities of literary style, and by
men of all grades of culture and mental capacity, from Moses to Malachi; and
when we look into these productions, there is even in them great unlikeness,
both in
matter and manner of statement; and
yet they all constitute one volume. All are entirely at agreement. There is
diversity in unity, and unity in diversity. It is “e pluribus unum.” The more
we study it, the more do its unity and harmony appear. Even the Law and the
Gospel are not in conflict. They Stand, like the cherubim, facing different ways,
but their faces are toward each other. And the four Gospels, like the cherubic
creatures in Ezekiel’s vision, facing in four different directions, move
in one. All the criticism of more than
three thousand years has failed to point out one important or irreconcilable
contradiction in the testimony and teachings of those who are farthest
separated — there is no collision, yet there could be no collusion!
How can this be accounted for? There
is no answer which can be given unless you admit the supernatural element. If
God actually superintended the production of this Book, then its unity is the
unity of a Divine plan and its harmony the harmony of a Supreme Intelligence.
As the baton rises and falls in the hand of the conductor of some grand
orchestra, from violin and bass-viol, cornet and flute, trombone and trumpet,
flageolet and clarinet, bugle and French horn, cymbals and drum, there comes
one grand harmony! There is no doubt, though the conductor were screened from
view, that one master mind controls all the instrumental performers. But God
makes His oratorio to play for more than a thousand years; the key is never
lost and never changes except by those exquisite modulations that show the
master composer; and when the last strain dies away it is seen that all these
glorious movements and melodies have been variations on one grand theme! Did
each musician compose as he played, or was there one composer back of all the
players? — “one supreme and regulating mind” in this Oratorio of the Ages? If
God was the master musician planning the whole and arranging the parts, then we
can understand how Moses’ grand anthem of creation glided into Isaiah’s
oratorio of the Messiah; by and by sinks into Jeremiah’s plaintive wail, swells
into Ezekiel’s awful chorus, changes into Daniel’s rapturous lyric; and, after
the quartette of the evangelists, closes with John’s full choir of saints and
angels!
The temple, first built upon Mount
Moriah, was built of stone, made ready before it was brought thither; there was
neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in
building. What insured symmetry in the temple when constructed, and harmony
between the workmen in the quarries and the shops, and the builders on the
hill? One presiding mind planned the whole; one intelligence built that whole
structure in ideal before it was in fact. The builders built more wisely than
they knew, putting together the ideas Of the architect and not their own. Only
so can we account for the structural unity of the Word of God. The structure
was
planned and wrought out in the mind
of a Divine Architect, who superintended His own workmen and work. Moses laid
its foundations, not knowing who should build after him, or what form the
structure should assume. Workman after workman followed; he might see that
there was agreement with what went before, but he could not foresee that what
should come after would be only the sublime carrying out of the grand plan.
During all those sixteen centuries through which the building rose toward completion,
there was no sound of ax or hammer, no chipping or hacking to make one part fit
its fellow. Everything is in agreement with everything else, because the whole
Bible was built in the thought of God before one book was laid in order. The
building rose steadily from cornerstone to cap-stone, foundations first, then
story after story, pillars on pedestals, and capitals on pillars, and arches on
capitals, till, like a dome flashing back the splendors of the noonday, the
Apocalypse spans and crowns and completes the whole, glorious with celestial
visions.
2. THE UNITY
IS HISTORIC. The whole Bible is the history of the kingdom
of God. Israel represents that kingdom. And two things are noticeable. All centers
about the Hebrew nationality. With their origin and progress the main
historical portion begins; and with their apostasy and captivity it stops. The
times of the Gentiles filled the interval and have no proper history; prophecy,
which is history anticipated, takes up the broken thread, and gives us the
outline of the future when Israel shall again take its place among the nations.
3. THE UNITY
IS DISPENSATIONAL. There are certain uniform
dispensational features which distinguish every new period. Each dispensation
is marked by seven features, in the following order:
Increased
light;
Decline
of spiritual life;
Union
between disciples and the world;
A
gigantic civilization worldly in type;
Parallel
development of good and evil;
Apostasy
on the part of God’s people;
Concluding
judgment. We are now in the seventh dispensation, and the same seven marks have
been upon all alike, showing one controlling power — Deus in Historia.
4. THE UNITY
IS PROPHETIC. Of all prophecy, there is but one
center, The kingdom and the King.
Adam, the first king, lost his
scepter by sin. His probation ended in failure and disaster
The second Adam, in His probation,
gained the victory, routed the tempter, and stood firm. The two comings of this
King constituted the two focal centers of the prophetic ellipse, His first
coming was to make possible an empire in man and over man. His second coming
will be to set that empire up in glory. All prophecy moves about these two
advents. It touches Israel only as related to the kingdom: and the Gentiles
only as related to Israel. Hence, in the Old Testament, Nineveh, Babylon, and
Egypt loom up as the main foes to the kingdom, as represented by the Hebrews;
and in the New Testament, the Beast, Prophet, and Dragon are conspicuous as the
gigantic adversaries of that kingdom after Israel again takes her place.
There are some six hundred and
sixty-six general prophecies in the Old Testament, three hundred and
thirty-three of which refer particularly to the coming Messiah, and meet only
in Him.
5. THE UNITY
IS THEREFORE ALSO PERSONAL:
“In the volume of
the Book It is written of Me.”
There is but one Book, and within it
but one Person. Christ is the center of the Old Testament prophecy, as He is of
New Testament history. From Genesis 3 to Malachi 3, He fills out the historic
and prophetic profile. Not only do the three hundred and thirty-three
predictions unite in Him, but even the rites and ceremonies find in Him their
only interpreter. Nay, historic characters prefigure Him, and historic events
are the pictorial illustrations of His vicarious ministry. The Old Testament is
a lock of which Christ is the key. The prophetic plant becomes a burning bush,
as twig after twig of prediction flames with fulfillment. The crimson thread
runs through the whole Bible. Beginning at any point you may preach Jesus. The
profile — at first a drawing, without color, a mere outline — is filled in by
successive artists, until the life tints glow on the canvas of the centuries,
and the perfect portrait of the Messiah is revealed.
6. THE UNITY
IS SYMBOLIC. I mean that there is a corresponding use of
symbols, Whether in form, color, or numbers. In form, we have the square, the
cube, and the circle, throughout, and used as types of the same truths. In
color, we have the white for purity, the lustrous white for glory, the red for
guilt of sin and the sacrifice for sin, the blue for truth and fidelity to
promise, the purple for royalty, the pale or livid hue for death, and the black
for woe and disaster. In numbers there is plainly a numerical system.
One seems to represent unity, two
correspondence and confirmation or contradiction, three is the number of
Godhead, four of the world and man. Seven, which is the sum of three and four,
stands for the combination of the Divine and human; twelve, the product of
three and four, for the Divine interpenetrating the human; ten, the sum of one,
two, three, and four, is the number of completeness; three and a half, the
broken number, represents tribulation; six, which stops short of seven, is
unrest; eight, which is beyond the number of rest, is the number of victory.
All this implies one presiding mind, and it could not be man’s mind.
7. THE UNITY
IS DIDACTIC. In the entire range and scope of the ethical
teaching of the Bible there is no inconsistency or adulteration. But we need to
observe a distinction maintained throughout as to natural religion and
spiritual religion. There is a natural religion. Had man remained loyal to God,
the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man would have
been the two great facts and laws of humanity; the broad, adequate basis of the
natural claim of God to filial obedience, and of man to fraternal love. But man
sinned. He fell from the filial relationship; he disowned God as his Father.
Hence, the need of a new and spiritual
relationship and religion. In
Christ, God’s fatherhood is restored and man’s brotherhood re-established, but
these are treated as universal only to the circle of believers. A new obedience
is now enforced, resting its claim, not on creation and providence, but on new
creation and grace. Man learns a supernatural love and life. Upon this didactic
unity we stop to expatiate. In not one respect are these doctrinal and ethical
teachings in conflict, from beginning to end; we find in them a positive
oneness of doctrine which amazes us. Even where at first glance there appears
to be conflict, as between Paul and James, we find, on closer examination, that
instead of standing face to face, beating each other, they stand back to back,
beating off common foes.
We observe, moreover, a progressive
development of revelation. Bernhard devoted the powers of his master mind to
tracing the “Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament.” He shows that although
the books of the New Testament are not even arranged in the order of their
production, that order could not, in one instance, be changed without impairing
or destroying the symmetry of the whole book; and that there is a regular progress
in the unfolding of doctrine from the Gospel according to Matthew to the
Revelation of St. John.
A wider examination will show the
very same progress of doctrine in the whole Bible. Most wonderful of all, this moral
and didactic unity could not be fully understood till the Book was completed.
The progress of preparation, like a scaffolding about a building, obscured its
beauty; but when John placed the cap-stone in position and declared that
nothing further should be added, the scaffolding fell and a grand cathedral was
revealed.
8. THE UNITY
IS SCIENTIFIC. The Bible is not a scientific
book, but it follows one consistent law. Like an engine on its own track, it
thunders across the track of science, but is never diverted from its own.
These statements deserve a little
amplification, as this has been supposed to be the weak side of the Bible. Yet,
after a study of the Word on the one hand and natural science on the other, I
believe we may safely challenge any living man to bring one well-established
fact of science against which the Bible really and irreconcilably militates!
God led inspired men to use such language, as that without revealing scientific
facts in advance, it accurately accommodates itself to them when discovered.
The language is so elastic and flexible as to contract itself to the narrowness
of ignorance, and yet expand itself to the dimensions of knowledge. If the
Bible may, from imperfect human language, select terms which may hold hidden
truths till ages to come shall disclose the inner meaning, that would seem to
be the best solution of this difficult problem. And now, when we come to
compare the language of the Bible with modern science, we find just this to be
the fact.
For example, we are told that the
Bible term “firmament” is but an ancient blunder crystallized. Modern science
says, “Ye have heard it hath been said by them of old time, there is a solid
sphere above us which revolves with its starry lamps; but this is an old notion
of ignorance, for there is nothing but vast space filled with ether above us,
and stars have an apparent motion because the earth turns on its axis.” But
this word “firmament,” which has been declared “irreconcilable with
modern astronomy,” we find, on
consulting our Hebrew lexicon, means simply an “expanse.” If Moses had been
Mitchell, he could not have chosen a better word to express the appearance, and
yet accommodate the reality. He actually anticipated science. This is one of
the “mistakes of Moses” to which the modern blasphemer does not refer!
The general correspondence between
the Mosaic account of creation and the most advanced discoveries of science,
proves that only He who built the world, built the Book. As to the order of
creation, Moses and geology agree. Both teach that at first there was an abyss,
or watery waste, whose dense vapors shut out light. Both make life to precede
light; and the life to develop beneath the abyss. Both make the atmosphere to
form an expanse by lifting watery vapors into cloud, and so separating the
fountains of waters above from the fountains below. Both tell us that
continents next lifted themselves from beneath the great deep, and brought
forth grass, herb, and tree. Both teach that the heavens became cleared of
cloud, and the sun and moon and stars, which then appeared, began to serve to
divide day from night, and to become signs for seasons and years. Both then
represent the waters bringing forth moving and creeping creatures, and fowl
flying in the expanse, followed next by the race of quadruped mammals, and,
last of all, by man himself. There is the same agreement as to the order of
animal creation. Geology and comparative anatomy combine to teach that the
order was from lower to higher types. First, the fish, in which the proportion
of brain to spinal cord is as 2 to 1; then reptiles, in which it is as 2 1/2 to
1; birds, 3 to 1; mammals, 4 to 1; man, 33 to 1. Now, this is exactly the order
of Moses. Who told him what modern science has discovered, that fish and
reptiles belong below birds? As Mr. Tullidge says: “With the advance of
discovery, the opposition supposed to exist between Revelation and Geology has
disappeared; and of the eighty theories which the French Institute counted in
1806 as hostile to the Bible, not one now stands.” Take an example of this
scientific accuracy from astronomy. Says Jeremiah in 30:22, “The host of heaven
cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured.” Hipparchus about a
century and a half before Christ, gave the number of stars as 1,022, and
Ptolemy, in the beginning of the second century of the Christian era, could
find but 1,026. We may, on a clear night, with the unaided eye, see only 1,160
or in the whole celestial sphere, about 3,000. But when the telescope began to
be pointed to the heavens, less than three centuries ago, by Galileo, then men
began to know that the stars are as countless as the sand on the seashore. When
Lord Rosse turned
his great mirror to the sky, lo! the
number of visible stars increased to nearly 400,000,000! John Herschel resolves
the nebulae into suns, and finds in the cloudy scarf about Orion, “a gorgeous
bed of stars,” and the Milky Way itself proves to be simply a grand procession
of stars absolutely without number. And so, the exclamation of the prophet, 600
years before Christ, 2,200 years before Galileo, “the host of heaven cannot be
numbered,” proves to be not a wild, poetic exaggeration, but literal truth. Who
was Jeremiah’s teacher in astronomy?
Let us take an example from natural
philosophy. Moses accords with modem discoveries as to the nature of light, in
not representing this mystery as being made, but “called forth,” commanded to
shine. If light be only “a mode of motion,” how appropriate such phraseology!
In Job 37:13,14, we read of the dayspring that it takes hold of the ends of the
earth; it is turned as clay to the seal, and they stand as a garment. The
ancient cylindrical seals rolled over the clay, and left an impress of artistic
beauty. What was without form before, stood out in bold relief, like sculpture.
So, as the earth revolves, and brings each portion of its surface successively
under the sun’s light and heat, what was before dull, dark, dead, discloses and
develops beauty, and the clay stands like a garment, curiously wrought in bold
relief and brilliant colors. Considered either as science or poetry, where, in
any other book of antiquity, can you find anything equal to that? That phrase,
“takes hold of the ends of the earth,” conveys the idea of a bending of the
rays of light, like the fingers of the hand when they lay hold. When the
sunlight would touch the extremities of the earth, it is bent by the atmosphere
so as to secure contact, and, but for this, vast portions, out of the direct
line of the sun’s rays, would be dark,
cold and dead. Who taught Job, 1,500
years or more before Christ, to use terms that Longfellow or Tennyson might
covet to describe refraction?
“When the morning stars sang
together,” Job 38:7, has been always taken to be a high flight of poetry. And
when in the Psalms, 65:8, we read, “Thou makest the outgoings of the morning
and evening to rejoice,” the Hebrew word means to give forth a tremulous sound,
or to make vibrations — to sing. In these poetic expressions, what scientific
truth was wrapped up! Light comes to the eye in undulations or vibrations, as
tones of sound to the ear. There is a point at which these vibrations are too
rapid or delicate to be detected by our sense of hearing; then a more delicate
organ, the eye, must take note of them; they appeal to the optic nerve instead
of the auditory nerve, and as light and not sound. Thus, light really sings.
“The lowest audible tone is made by 16.5 vibrations of air per second; the
highest, by 38,000; between these extremes lie eleven octaves. Vibrations do
not cease at 38,000 but our organs are not fitted to hear beyond those
limitations.” And so it is literally true that “the morning stars sang
together.” Here is Divine phraseology that has been standing there for ages
uninterrupted. And now we may read it just as it stands: “Thou makest the
outgoings [or light radiations] of the morning and evening to sing,” i.e., to
give forth sound by vibration.
“Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 12:6, has
left us a poetic description of death. How that “silver cord” describes the
spinal marrow; the “golden bowl”, the basin which holds the brain; the
“pitcher”, the lungs; and the “wheel”, the heart! The circulation of the blood
was discovered twenty-six hundred years afterward by Harvey. Is it not very
remarkable that the language Solomon uses exactly suits the fact — a wheel
pumping up through one pipe to discharge through another?
9. Last of all, THE UNITY OF
THE BIBLE IS ORGANIC. And this means it is the unity of
organized being. Organic unity implies three things: first, that all parts are
necessary to a complete whole; secondly, that all are necessary to complement
each other; and thirdly, that all are pervaded by one life principle.
Let us apply these laws to the Word
of God.
(1). All the parts of the Bible are necessary to its
completeness. Organic unity is dependent on the existence and cooperation of
organs. An oratorio is not an organic unit. Any part of it may be separated
from the rest, or displaced by a new composition. But if this body of mine loses
an eye, a limb, or the smallest joint of the finger, it is forever maimed; its
completeness is gone. Not one of the books of the Bible could be lost without
maiming the body of truth here contained. Every book fills a place. None can be
omitted. For example, the Book of Esther has long been criticised as not
necessary to the completeness of the Canon, and particularly, because “it does
not even once contain the name of God.” But that book is the most complete
exhibition of the providence of God. It teaches a Divine Hand behind human
affairs; unbiased freedom of resolution and action as consistent with God’s
overruling sovereignty; and all things working together to produce
grand results. The book that thus
exhibits God’s providence does not contain the name of God; perhaps because
this book is meant to teach us of the Hidden Hand that, unseen, moves and
controls all things.
“Ruth” seems to be only a love-story
to some; but how rich this book is in foreshadowings of Gospel truth,
especially illustrating the double nature of the God-man, our Redeemer. Boaz is
a type of Christ — Lord of the Harvest, Dispenser of Bread, Giver of Rest, He
is Goel — the Redeemer. Boaz, the near kinsman, buying back the lost
inheritance and marrying Ruth, suggests Jesus, the God-man, our near Kinsman,
yet of a higher family, the Redeemer of our lost estate, and
Bridegroom of the redeemed Church.
The Epistle to Philemon seems at
first only a letter tea friend about a runaway slave. But this letter is full
of illustrations of grace. The sinner has run away from God, and robbed Him
besides. The law allows him no right of asylum; but grace concedes him the
privilege of appeal. Christ, God’s Partner, intercedes. He sends him back to
the Father, no more a slave but a son.
(2). The second law of organic unity is that all
parts are necessary to complement each other. Cuvier has framed in scientific
statement this law of unity. Organized being in every case forms a whole — a
complete system — all parts of which mutually correspond; none of these parts
can change without the other also changing; and consequently each taken
separately indicates and gives all the others. For instance, the sharp-pointed
tooth of the lion requires a strong jaw ;these demand a skull fitted for the
attachment of powerful muscles, both for moving the jaw and raising the head; a
broad, well developed shoulder-blade must accompany such a head; and there must
be an arrangement of bones of the leg which admits of the leg-paw being rotated
and turned upward, in order to be used as an instrument to seize and tear the
prey; and of course there must be strong claws arming the paw. Hence from one
tooth, the animal could be modeled though the species had perished.
Thus the Four Gospels are necessary
to each other and to the whole Bible. Each presents the subject from a
different point of view, and the combination gives us a Divine Person
reflected, projected before us, like an object with proportions and dimensions.
Matthew wrote for the Jew, and shows Jesus as the King of the Jews, the Royal
Lawgiver. Mark wrote for the Roman, and shows Him as the Power of God, the
Mighty Worker. Luke wrote for the Greek, and shows Him as the Wisdom of God,
the human Teacher and Friend. John, writing to supplement and complement the
other Gospels, shows Him as Son of God, as well as Son of man, having and
giving eternal life. These are not Gospels of Matthew, etc., but one Gospel of
Christ, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The first three present the
person and work of Christ from the outward, earthly side; the last, from the
inward and heavenly. In the beginning of each Gospel we find emphasized:
in Matthew, Christ’s genealogy, in
Mark His majesty, in Luke His humanity, in John His divinity. So, in the close
of each: in Matthew His resurrection, in Mark His ascension, in Luke His
parting benediction and promise of enduement, and in John the added hint of His
second coming.
The Epistles are likewise all
necessary to complete the whole and complement each other. There are five writers,
each having his own sphere of truth. Paul’s great theme is Faith, and its
relations to justification, sanctification, service, joy and glory. James
treats of Works, their relation to faith, as its justification before man. He
is the counterpart and complement of Paul. Peter deals with Hope, as the
inspiration of God’s pilgrim people. John’s theme is Love, and its relation to
the light and life of God as manifested in the believer. In his Gospel, he
exhibits eternal life in Christ; in his epistles, eternal life as seen in the
believer. Jude sounds the trumpet of warning against apostasy, which implies
the wreck of faith, the delusion of false hope, love grown cold, and the utter
decay of good works. What one of all these writers could we drop from the New
Testament?
The Unity of the Bible is the unity
of one organic whole. The Decalogue demands the Sermon on the Mount. Isaiah’s
prophecy makes necessary the narrative of the Evangelists. Daniel fits into the
Revelation as bone fits socket. Leviticus explains, and is explained by, the
Epistle to the Hebrews. The Psalms express the highest morality and
spirituality of the Old Testament; they link the Mosaic code with the Divine
ethics of the Gospels and the Epistles. The passover foreshadows the Lord’s supper,
and the Lord’s supper interprets and fulfills the passover. Even the little
book of Jonah makes more complete the sublime Gospel according to John; and
Ruth and Esther prophetically hint the Acts of the Apostles. Nay, when you come
to the last chapters of Revelation, you find yourself mysteriously touching the
first chapters of Genesis; and lo! as you survey the whole track of your
thought, you find you have been following the perimeter of a golden ring; the
extremities actually bend around, touch, and blend. You read in the first of
Genesis of the first creation; in the last of the Revelation, of the new
creation — the new heaven and the new earth; there, of the river that watered
the garden; here, of the pure river of the water of life; there, of the Tree of
Life in the first Eden; here, of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the
Paradise of God; there, of the God who came down to walk with and talk with
man; here, we read that the Tabernacle of God is with men; there, we read of
the curse that came by sin, here, we read: “And there shall be no more curse.”
(3). The third and last law of organic unity is,
that one life principle must pervade the whole. The Life of God is in His Word.
That Word is “quick” — living. Is it a mirror? yes, but such a mirror as the
living eye; is it a seed? yes, but a seed hiding the vitality of God; is it a
sword? yes, but a sword that, omnisciently discerns and omnipotently pierces
the human heart. Hold it reverently; for you have a living Book in your hand.
Speak to it, and it will answer you. Bend down and listen; you
shall hear in it the heart-throbs of
God. This Book, thus one, we are to hold forth as the Word of Life and the
Light of God, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. We shall meet
opposition. Like the birds that beat themselves into insensibility against the
light in the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, the creatures of darkness
will assault this Word, and vainly seek to put out its eternal light. But they
shall only fall stunned and defeated at its base, while it still rises from its
rock pedestal, immovable and serene!
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