The apostle Paul was in prison. His days were running fast to a close, and their termination he knew was to be martyrdom, under the most merciless of the Roman emperors—Nero.
Yet he was in no downcast, dispirited mood. Witness the Philippian epistle, which emanated from his cell, every line of it palpitating with joy. Such was his earnest desire to finish his course and win his crown, that he had no time to look back, and was eagerly embracing death, so that he might be more like his blessed Master, and the more quickly the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
In the course of his long and arduous ministry he had tested the word of God in a most thorough way. He could speak with authority. And so be writes from that same prison, tenderly, affectionately, and encouragingly, to his dear son in the faith—Timothy.
The days were dark—the house of God upon earth was in weakness and disorder. Yet we detect no despairing note in his message to the one whom he looked to more than all beside to bear aloft the standard of truth.
And more. His words are the words of the Spirit of God. And just as he could commend the Ephesian elders to God and to the word of His grace in the face of coming dangers, so now he can write to Timothy clearly and unwaveringly. “ALL SCRIPTURE is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished to all good works.”
Now, dear young Christian, here is a rock firm and steadfast for our feet. On this we take our stand, and there we intend to remain by the help of God.
I know people flippantly say, “Oh, that was what Paul said!” No. GOD thus in a day of weakness and darkness encouraged Timothy by the hand of Paul, and in every dark and evil day He encourages all His servants.
And now let me show you, in the briefest way possible, how the books of the Bible are like the links of a chain—if one link be broken the whole chain is useless.
It is admitted that the books composing the Bible were written in various ages, differing in date by hundreds of years; that they were written by very different people, such as king, ploughman, doctor, fisherman, and scholar.
Let us open our Bibles and see how unconsciously the writer of the Pentateuch in the opening chapters of Genesis foreshadows the events of the New Testament. Adam falls into a deep sleep, out of his side is taken a rib, and therefrom is builded a woman, and God Himself marries our first parents. Is not this a beautiful picture of Christ and the church? He falls into the deep sleep of death, and through His death is formed His Bride. Thousands of years afterwards the saints at Ephesus read in the epistle addressed to them by Paul how the husband should behave to his wife, and yet that was not the primary thought, but rather their earthly relationship was used as an illustration of Christ and His church—how He loved the church and gave Himself for it. Then we come upon the words used by Moses in Genesis 2:24, and quoted by Paul in Ephesians 5:31, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.” Yet the higher critics, forsooth, will tell us that the Pentateuch is discredited, and that its early chapters are nothing more nor less than mythology. But if we discredit Genesis we discredit Ephesians also.
Again. In the account of the fall, where God pronounces judgment upon the serpent—really upon Satan—we read, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Whose but the omniscient eye of God could have travelled down the ages and seen Christ—the Seed of the woman—dying for sin upon the cross, and Satan apparently bruising His head, but actually only bruising His heel? For Christ by dying entered into the domains of death and spoiled the power of Satan. By dying He gained all power. Now it is not apparent to the world, but we know that Christ will yet exercise universal power, and will bruise Satan’s head, for He will consign him to his eternal doom in the lake of fire. Yet we are told Genesis is discredited.
Again. In the account of Cain and Abel’s offerings we learn the great principle of atonement. Thus twice in the very earliest hours of the world’s history is foreshadowed in no uncertain way this great truth, once, when God clothed our guilty first parents in coats of skin in place of their own fig-leaved aprons; and again when He accepts the sacrifice of Abel, the firstlings of his flock, rather than Cain’s offering, the fruit of a cursed ground. The fig-leaved aprons and the luscious fruit are the very way man is still so fond of adopting—the way of good works. The coats of skin and the sacrifice of the firstling both spoke of Christ, THE LAMB OF GOD. Thousands of years afterwards the Hebrew Christians read, “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaks” (Heb. 11:4).
Yet we are told he never lived—that Genesis is discredited. Then we must give up Hebrews as well.
We could look at page after page in Genesis in the same way, but we forbear, only inviting our readers to follow up this interesting study.
A few more remarks. The Lord Jesus Christ again and again appealed to the Old Testament writings—to the Pentateuch, to the Psalms, to the prophets. Weaken any one of them, and you weaken the words of Christ Himself, and thoroughly discredit His deity.
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.
“The higher critics,” with all their pretension to learning, are not characterized by gathering around them spiritual congregations, nor by separation from the world, nor by jealous love for Christ and love for His truth. Nor are they characterized by missionary zeal at home or abroad, nor do they make much of the new birth, while their false charity will lead them to tolerate Buddhism and Eastern heathenism. Their practice of belittling the word of God is villainous in the extreme. Much more would we respect them if they doffed their religious garbs and stood upon the infidel platform. They are men to be shunned and feared.
May the bold, flippant talk of these deceivers—perhaps themselves deceived—never impair your whole trust in the Scriptures—the living word of God. You may not be learned in the original languages, nor in the question of translations, nor in the science of the present day, which they say proves the falseness of the Bible, nor may you be able to understand the word of God in all its parts, but may you have a living, loving trust in that precious word. It has made you wise—like Timothy—unto salvation. You owe your all to it.
And after all what we have been going over only proves that “the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).
Seek then to enter spiritually by dependence and prayer into the meaning of the word of God. May it prove increasingly your joy, and stay, and delight. May it lead you into a closer communion and deeper knowledge of Christ, and throughly furnish you to all good works.