How do we know the Bible is from God?

We do not attempt to offer any apology to the reader for this lengthened introduction to the Book of Deuteronomy. Indeed we are only too thankful for an opportunity of bearing our feeble testimony to the grand truth of the divine inspiration of the holy scriptures. We feel it to be our sacred duty, as most surely it is our high privilege, to press upon all to whom we have access, the immense importance, yea, the absolute necessity of the most uncompromising decision on this point. We must faithfully maintain, at all cost, the divine authority, and therefore the absolute supremacy and all-sufficiency of the word of God, at all times, in all places, for all purposes. We must hold to it that the scriptures, having been given of God, are complete, in the very highest and fullest sense of the word; that they do not need any human authority to accredit them, or any human voice to make them available; they speak for themselves, and carry their own credentials with them. All we have to do is to believe and obey, not to reason or discuss. God has spoken it: it is ours to hearken and yield an unreserved and reverent obedience.

It is truly refreshing to transcribe such lines from the pen of one who has been a profound student of scripture for forty years. They are of unspeakable value, of a moment when so many are ready to cast a slight upon the sacred volume. Not that we are, in any wise, dependent upon human testimony in forming our conclusions as to the divine origin of the Bible, inasmuch as these conclusions rest upon a foundation furnished by the Bible itself. God's word, as well as His work, speaks for itself; it carries its own credentials with it; it speaks to the heart; it reaches down to the great moral roots of our being; it penetrates the very innermost chambers of the soul; it shows us what we are; it speaks to us as no other book can speak; and, as the woman of Sychar argued that Jesus must be the Christ because He told her all things that ever she did, so may we say in reference to the Bible, It tells us all that ever we did, is not this the word of God? No doubt it is only by the Spirit's teaching that we can discern and appreciate the evidence and credentials with which holy scripture presents itself before us; but still it does speak for itself, and needs not human testimony to make it of value to the soul. We should no more think of having our faith in the Bible established upon man's testimony in its favour than we should think of having it shaken by his testimony against it.

One of the most impressive things in Scripture is its unity. This unity is impossible apart from inspiration. When we find writers, separated by centuries, writing in different countries, writing on themes utterly beyond human ken, writing from different standpoints, writing, as a Puritan author happily phrased it, “without collusion or collision,” we can only come to the conclusion, that these writers were divinely inspired.

One of the most striking proofs of inspiration is the fact that the Bible is a collection of books by different authors, written at different times, the first and last books differing by a period of many hundreds of years. And yet there is a perfect unity of design running right through the whole Bible, the separate parts being perfectly linked up with each other, so that it is evidently the work of one mind producing the harmonious whole — even the work of the Spirit of God. The various authors lived and died, and yet the true Author remains from the first book to the last, all being fitted in according to His mind. I hope to show later, more in detail, how the various parts fit in one with the other, each filling its place so naturally that, until removed, one is not aware how important it is. The existence of a Master Mind guiding the hand of the various writers must be admitted by all serious students of Scripture.

The unity of Scripture is one of the most conclusive marks of its inspiration. To find a collection of sixty-six pamphlets, written by some forty authors, several of them unknown, and to find the whole marked by one controlling mind, distinctly raises the Bible as a book into a category of its own.

I desire to add a thought which tends to confirm the truth I seek to maintain, and which applies to the whole of the Bible. Our attention is called to the fact that the Bible is not one book, but a collection of writings by different authors. It is precisely on this fact that I ground my argument, adding also that they were written at periods very remote from each other. In spite of this great diversity of times and of authors there is a perfect unity of design and of doctrine: a unity, the separate parts of which are so linked with each other, and so entirely adapted to each other, that the whole work is evidently that of one and the same Spirit, one and the same mind, with one purpose carried on from the beginning to the end, whatever might be the date of each separate book; and this, not at all by means of mere uniformity of idea, for the promises are quite distinct from the law; and the gospel of grace is distinct from them both. Nevertheless, its parts are so correlative and form so harmonious a whole, that, with the least attention, one cannot fail to perceive, that it is the production of one mind. Now there is but One, who lived through all the ages during which the various books of the Bible were written, and that One is the Holy Ghost.

Now when I read the Bible and begin to discern the beauties of its sixty-six books and epistles, and see how harmoniously they are blended together, forming one complete book with one great central theme, and that no part of it could be dispensed with without serious loss to the whole, and when I learn that fifteen centuries passed between the first writings and the last, and that the contributors to it were men of widely different stations in life, learning and culture; that kings, great leaders of men, prophets and priests, fishermen, physicians, publicans, and pharisees all had their part in producing it, I conclude that one mind must have chosen, called, sanctified, moulded, and taught the writers, and directed and inspired each one in his contribution to it, and I ask, who can have done it? There is but one answer to the question, and it is the Bible's own answer, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God”—it is God-breathed. Shall the man who accepts that answer as the only possible one, be considered stupid and ignorant? Surely not, for there is none other.

Now when I read the Bible and begin to discern the beauties of its sixty-six books and epistles, and see how harmoniously they are blended together, forming one complete book with one great central theme, and that no part of it could be dispensed with without serious loss to the whole, and when I learn that fifteen centuries passed between the first writings and the last, and that the contributors to it were men of widely different stations in life, learning and culture; that kings, great leaders of men, prophets and priests, fishermen, physicians, publicans, and Pharisees all had their part in producing it, I conclude that one mind must have chosen, called, sanctified, moulded, and taught the writers, and directed and inspired each one in his contribution to it, and I ask, who can have done it? There is but one answer to the question, and it is the Bible's own answer, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God" — it is God-breathed. Shall the man who accepts that answer as the only possible one, be considered stupid and ignorant? Surely not, for there is none other.

It comes from the Lord. That's the essential starting point. Other books are good, other books are helpful, other books give great information - but none others are from the Lord. Of course, we hold to the verbal inspiration of Scripture - every single word in the original texts was inspired by God, although in a wonderful way He uses the personalities and writing styles of those He chooses to give us His word in order to convey His message. But it is HIS word; this is the pre-requisite, without this starting point, our study is merely an academic exercise.

The quotations from the Old Testament in the New are important as proving incontestably that God is the author of the whole. It is not simply that Moses or David said this or that — though the quotations prove that Moses was the writer of the Pentateuch — but they are introduced by such words as "God commanded," Matt. 15:4; "The Holy Ghost saith," Heb. 3:7; "David himself said by the Holy Ghost," Mark 12:36; "Spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet," Acts 28:25. Then the whole is spoken of as 'the scriptures,' which are all inspired by God. Whatever therefore is inscribed with 'It is written' has the authority of God Himself.