Why does it matter if the Bible is true?

On the other hand, if the claim to inspiration is false and untrue, then the Bible is the most wicked and blasphemous hoax ever imposed upon the credulity of the human race, and should have an evil effect upon all who read it. If this is so, it should not be difficult to prove this and discredit the Bible and completely efface it from the earth.

Such are a few of the claims put forth in the Bible. If they are false claims, then let us reject the Book with the same indignation with which we reject the Koran and the Book of Mormon. No more dangerous book can be conceived than that which comes to us with exalted divine demands which have no real foundation. Any excellent things that may be found in such a book only render it the more to be feared.

The Bible claims inspiration, not in one part alone, but throughout its length and breadth, not once, but many times, not by one method but by several. If it be not inspired, then it is built upon a foundation of blasphemous falsehood, and is an utterly infamous book. On the other hand, if it is inspired, then the teachings of the Modernists are wicked and blasphemous. The only softening of this indictment can be made as to the Modernists, but none as to their teaching. In many cases, we trust, Modernists, when they get their eyes open to the tremendous mistake they have made, will be able to say with the apostle Paul, who had persecuted the church of God, “Nevertheless, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Tim. 1:13).

We have now reached the main object of the foregoing recital of what are now historical facts, related by the angel long before they occurred, demonstrating, it may once more be affirmed, both the presence of God and the character of inspiration. It is the habit of the present day to seek among ancient ruins and antique inscriptions and tablets for confirmation of the Bible records. It seems to be forgotten that God is not dependent on man for the authentication of the revelation He has made, and that if the word of God is not its own witness (see John 3:33) no amount of human evidence will establish it as such in the soul. Besides, the facts adduced, and the translations made from ancient cylinders and monuments assume a very different aspect and importance according to the views of the various interpreters. But accepting the Bible as the veritable word of God, and maintaining therefore its absolute "inerrancy" (to borrow a new theological term) where there is no dispute as to readings or translation, we have an infallible guide, a trustworthy standard of appeal, and thus the certainty that the events predicted must have a real and actual fulfilment, and that the historical facts recorded are given with the most truthful accuracy. It is of all moment, if we would understand the divine records, that we should begin with an undoubting faith in the infallibility of Scripture.

No; the truths of Scripture are like the stones in an arch—one stone removed, the whole arch goes to pieces. Become doubtful of inspiration, you must become doubtful of all the cardinal doctrines of the Bible—the deity of Christ, the atonement of Christ, and eternity of punishment, the sovereignty of God, the responsibility of man. Take one leaf out of the sacred book and you destroy them all.

Here then we have the four marks that incontestably prove the truthfulness of the sacred narrative. If all these adduced facts were false, then Christ was false, for a Christ who could make a mistake or a blunder is no Christ at all. The whole fabric of Christianity falls to the ground, if the children of Israel were not sheltered by the blood in Egypt, did not cross the Red Sea, were not sustained in the wilderness, and were not given the land of Canaan for a possession.

And if Deuteronomy were not true, not the Word of God, what then? Every part of the New Testament would collapse.

Thus we find the Lord claiming full and plenary inspiration for the Scriptures. If He was mistaken, then we have a fallible Christ, and if He was fallible, Christianity is utterly worthless, nay, the greatest deception practised on the credulity of mankind.

To have known better, and yet to have affirmed inspiration when it was not a true claim, would have branded Him as the worst of men, for the claim is of such a lofty nature, that if it is true, we can build on an infallible foundation, if it is not true, the claim would be blasphemous in the extreme.

For instance, if the Old Testament prophesied events to take place in relation to our Lord, and the time for their fulfilment arriving, they did not take place, or took place in a different manner than foretold, then we have an Old Testament that is not reliable, and the Higher Critics would be triumphant.

On the other hand, if our Lord supported the Old Testament, as He did here on earth, and the Old Testament does not fully answer to our Lord’s claim for it, then we have an unreliable Christ, who is no Christ at all. We need an infallible Christ and an infallible Word of God.

This sounds like honouring Christ, but it is anything but that, for He testified to an inerrant Word of God; and, if the Bible is, as the Modernist affirms, full of mistakes, then we have Christ affirming as free from error, that which is full of error. In that case we have a fallible Christ, and the Modernists’ slogan, “Back to Christ,” is meaningless, and in the end reduces Him to the level of a fallible man, leading to the complete undermining of the Christian faith.