God Has Spoken
We have long been aware that when one accepts the truth that God is, and thus concedes that there is One who is God, he will be led to expect that such a Being will reveal his thoughts and ideals to the rational beings whom he has created. Indeed, one might well believe that a non-communicative God would not be God at all. There are certain aspects of life which rational beings long to know and which could only be ascertained by revelation from an omniscient being. To withhold such information when it could be given would be cruel, and since God could provide the information and it is his nature to be good, it is not presumptuous to expect him to do so.
Laying aside, for the moment, the claim of the sacred scriptures to contain a revelation from God, let us turn to the scientific method of arriving at a knowledge of a fact or truth. This requires that we move from the realm of what could be to the realm of what is or has been. The three steps are those of possibility, probability and certainty. If a thing is deemed impossible because of the nature of the subject this will at once eliminate the other two steps from consideration. This is not the case with probability which is a relative term. The degree of probability will be increased or diminished by certain factors which are so generally recognized that they are actually designated "laws of probability."
To demonstrate that a thing is possible does not argue that it is probable; to prove it is probable does not argue for its certainty. To establish possibility removes it from the realm of the "cannot be" to that of "could be"; to establish probability advances it one more step to "might be." It is still another important step to the domain of "is." Those who begin with the admission of the existence of a personal God will have no difficulty with the question of possibility for it would appear to be a necessary corollary that "with God all things are possible." However, we shall assign the reasons for our personal conviction that it is possible for God to communicate the divine thoughts and will.
All reasoning for the acquisition of knowledge must proceed from the known to the unknown. Whether in mathematics or philosophy we must begin with the recognized factors. Man, as a creation of God has a mind with which to think and the ability to convey his thoughts. It is unthinkable that, in his creation of man with such ability, God exhausted his power. To argue thus would be to contend that God created himself out of existence, and in the process made man a God. He who possesses the whole power of God is God, and if man exhausted the power of the Creator and appropriated it to himself, this would be in contravention of reason which affirms that the creator must be superior to the created and exist before it.
Since God could not bestow a power that he did not have, and since such power could not be exhausted in the process, the fact that man is possessed of the organs and faculties of communication, demonstrates that it is possible for God to convey thought and to communicate his will to other intelligent beings. Although our immediate appeal is not the scriptures, it is not inappropriate just here to point out that they do not oppose the scientific method, but rather endorse it. Thus we have the ancient prophet asking, "He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see?" (Psalm 94:9). It may be just as appropriately asked, "He that made the tongue, does he not speak?"
The nature of God and the needs of mankind constitute an argument in favor of the probability of God having spoken to the human family. God has exhibited himself as being kind, benevolent and loving. He is eminently good and has shown this by blessings bestowed upon the human family. He is called God which is but a form of the word "good." He is the Good One. It is a remarkable feature that mankind in primitive simplicity so referred to and described the Creator, and the Creator acknowledged the designation. The earth owes its existence to goodness. In spite of the wisdom and sagacity, the power and might, exhibited in the creation of the material universe, the Creator was not described by a word or words that indicate these. Although possessed of both omnipotence and omniscience, it is said, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." This world was a product of goodness in a pure and untinctured state.
We have previously affirmed that God has provided those things essential to the existence and happiness of man. He created an environment which forms a natural habitat for mankind. He has supplied the means for satisfaction of every urgent desire. Man is capable of curiosity out of which research and investigation grows, and yet he is limited in what he can ascertain through his own powers of study. The primary intellectual urge is to know of his origin and destiny. He cannot go back beyond the first man, he cannot pierce the veil of the future beyond his own death. It is evident that he must receive any information as to these two matters from the Eternal One.
Nothing else challenges man in his thought processes to the extent that his origin and destiny do. One of the first questions of importance asked by the child is, Where did I come from?" Equally important is the query as to where we go when we die. The child is an incipient philosopher for these questions are at the basis of all philosophy. It is not probable that one who was good would withhold from man the information so necessary for wellbeing and freedom from anxiety, and we must conclude that a benevolent God would without doubt reveal the truth about these things.
The highest form of communication between rational beings is speech. Having suggested that the nature of God and man constitutes an argument in favor of God's having spoken, we now urge that the nature of speech is another such argument. Man is able to speak. He can employ the organs of speech in such a fashion as to convey his thoughts. The act of speaking is a responsive and repetitive process. No man speaks who has not been first spoken to. If one were born under such circumstances as to be immediately secluded from human society he would not be able to speak.
Children speak the language of the family into which they are born. This is so obvious that no one questions that a child born into a family where German is spoken will speak the German language, while one born into a home where French is spoken will speak that language. Since man speaks, it is highly probable that he does so because he was first spoken to. Since the Creator preceded the creation the first man could have heard only his voice.
In conformity with this, Moses records the fact of God speaking before anything is spoken by man, and when man does speak it is in response to God. Every period of creation is introduced with the expression, "And God said," but it is only when we get to Genesis 1:28, when human beings have been created, that we have the expression, "And God said to them." The rest of the creation was governed by instinct, but man as a rational being must be governed by instruction.
The difference between rational and non-rational creation is another basis for contending for the probability that God has spoken. Of all created beings man is most helpless at his entrance into the world. At birth he has no knowledge of life and no power to use any instinct available unto him. He cannot defend himself nor hide from his enemies. He has no protective coloration conformable to his surroundings to conceal him from those who would destroy him. He cannot forage for his own food nor secure his own drink. He possesses no power of locomotion. He cannot discern color. He is born without a thought or a habit. He is dependent for survival upon the interest of other rational beings.
What is true of a human infant in one place is also true of human infants universally. We know it is true of those of three or four generations previous to our own and have no reason to doubt that it has always been true. In view of the need of the human being for the instruction of another interested and rational being in order to survive, it would seem that the first man in the infancy of the race, received such communication as was essential to his wellbeing from the Creator.
Further, it would appear that a communication given by God to man would be preserved insofar as it was of interest to the whole race. A number of factors may be urged for such a conclusion. We cite but a few of them.
1. Reverence for deity would prompt those to whom God spoke to hold as sacred any word received from him. Certainly if it is the tendency of men to treasure the words of great leaders and enshrine them in permanent memorials they would be even more concerned in guarding the word of God.
2. The generation receiving the communication would manifest every concern for transmitting it to succeeding generations as proof of the existence of God and his direct concern for their fathers. No one to whom God has actually spoken would fail to convey the message to his heirs.
3. The need for guidance from on high would not be limited to one generation and the same consideration which provoked the message originally would continue to demand its repetition. Since God does not do for man what he can do for himself, or what another man may do for him, the communication once given would be continued by men.
4. Divine providence would operate to preserve the oracles of God, for the same power which gave the message originally could act to maintain it, and would do so because of the same need which prompted it in the beginning.
This being true, we should be able to locate a
communication purporting to be from God, and bearing such marks as would
validate its claims. Is there such material known to us? Every reader will
immediately think of the Bible in this connection. Here is a collection of
writings designated as "holy scriptures" and demanding the attention of mankind
by its claim to be of divine origin. Is the Bible the kind of Book one would
expect from God? If we draw up a compilation of requirements which must be
met by any volume claiming to originate with Deity, will the Bible meet the
criterion thus established?
It will be agreed by all who believe in the existence of God, that if he intended to personally interrupt the onward flow of human history by a divine breakthrough in which the happiness and well-being of the human race was involved, he would point forward to it prior to its advent, and backward to it after its occurrence. That is, he would prepare mankind in advance for such an event, and ever after relate men to it. The nature of the revelation would be affected by whether it occurred before or after such divine visitation.
This is precisely the design of the Bible. It affirms that in Jesus of Nazareth dwelt all the fulness of Godhood bodily (Colossians 2:9). We use the word "Godhood" in place of "Godhead" as in the King James Version, for the simple reason that the term signifies all that is involved in Deity. Just as "priesthood" encompasses all that is related to the functioning of priests, and "manhood" embraces all that is related to the state or character of being a man, so "Godhood" includes the state or character of being God. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself."
The self-revelation of God would obviously be the median line in history for all revelation from God. The Bible is eminently faithful to this requirement. "God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son" (Hebrews 1:1, 2). God hath spoken! This is the most important statement ever made. It assumes the existence of God and affirms the communication of his will to men.
Revelation, as to time, is divided into two eras--time past, and these last days. As to agency, it involved the prophets then, and the Son now. As to nature, it was originally in many parts at various times, now it is complete.
The prophets laid the groundwork for the prime event in history. They informed the world in advance of where, when and how the divine-human encounter on a personal level would take place. The first national prophet of the Israelites was Samuel, which accounts for the statement of one of the eyewitnesses of Jesus that, "All the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days" (Acts 3:24). The same witness said upon another occasion, "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts 10:43).
The apostles universally pointed men back to the
cross as the hope of salvation. "I determined not to know anything among
you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). "But we preach
Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks
foolishness, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God, and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:23, 24). In the
matter of design the Bible is manifestly the kind of volume which God would
produce.
Again, it would appear obvious that any revelation from God must be adapted to the need of mankind at the time and in the place when given. The nature of the revelation at any given period would thus be defined and affected by the condition of those to whom it was vouchsafed. The world of mankind is composed of individuals and it passes through the same stages as do the individuals. The world has its infancy, childhood, adolescence and maturity. One does not communicate with mature men as he does with children.
The Bible is faithful in this respect. It actually presents the relationship of God to mankind in four dispensations--a patriarchal, a legalistic, a preparatory, and a mature state. In each age the revelation is given just as would be expected under the circumstances then prevailing. Each era becomes a foundation for the one succeeding it. The fact that God has so ordered his revelation has become the occasion for criticism from careless and casual thinkers. These have frequently objected to some things in the old covenant scriptures as childish and puerile, and unworthy of God. But the very word "childish" contains a clue to the reason for these things.
If a grown man stoops down to talk upon a level with his little son, and uses object lessons which appear to be trivial to mature observers, we regard this condescension upon the part of the father as an act of understanding love. If a parent insisted upon trying to teach a two year old child from a textbook on trigonometry and calculus instead of with building blocks we would conclude that such a parent was mentally unbalanced. On the same basis we must not expect God's revelation in the childhood age of the world to be upon the same level as that in these last days.
All learning is done upon an ascending scale, using the knowledge previously gained as a stepping-stone for acquisition of additional information. Consequently all systems of instruction must recognize the need for conveying facts in conformity with this natural law, beginning with the elemental features and progressing to the more complex. As the creator of rational beings, God understands the heart and mind of man and adapts his communication to their nature. The ancients declared, "O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways" (Psalm 139:1-3).
That God has proceeded according to the universal
law of instruction is evident in one passage which censures those who did
not progress in knowledge as they should have done. "For when for the time
ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the
first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need
of milk, and not of strong meat" (Hebrews 5:12). The original word for "first
principles" literally referred to the letters of the alphabet and can be
translated as the A, B, C's. In this place it refers to the old covenant
scriptures as constituting the elemental revelation from God.
If there are two systems of revelation adapted to the needs of mankind in succeeding ages, both professing to be of divine origin, the latter must consistently recognize and respect the former and defend its authority for the age to which it was given. Any attempt to reflect upon the origin and validity of the previous revelation would result in one of three conclusions: the first was not of divine origin, or, the second was not of divine origin, or neither of the two was of divine origin. God would not undermine his own authority and no revelation given by him would do so.
In this respect the Bible passes the test required of a compilation purporting to come from the same divine author. The system of religion and the scriptures regarded as sacred among the Jews, are both represented as being divine in the new covenant scriptures. Jesus attests to the divine origin of the Jewish system, and every writer in the new covenant scriptures who has occasion to mention the preceding dispensation recognizes the hand of God at work.
In the matter of primacy, Abraham was recognized as the father of the race, and Moses as the lawgiver. In John 8:52-59 is recorded a clever attempt of scribes and lawyers to trick Jesus into a conflict with what was known about Abraham but he resolved the controversy by saying, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad." The implication was quite plain that if Abraham was glad about the coming of Jesus on the basis of the meager testimony available unto him, those who professed to be his children should have been overjoyed when the Lord came.
In Acts 3:12-26, Peter made a speech to a multitude which assembled after a lame beggar, who was a public character, had been made to walk. The speech resulted in the arrest of Peter and John and their incarceration in the common jail. During his remarks the apostle affirmed of his hearers, "Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed."
In Galatians 3, the apostle Paul actually hinged his masterful argument on justification through faith, upon the authenticity of the old covenant scriptures. "And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed" (verse 8). The same thing is true in Romans 4:3, "For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. There can be no question of the attitude of the new covenant writers toward the origin of the promises unto Abraham.
What was true of the father of the patriarchs was equally true of the man who stood at the threshold of the legalistic age. Jesus said, "And as touching the dead that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?" (Mark 12:26).
Nothing is clearer than the consistency with which the writers of the new covenant scriptures assign the old covenant scriptures to the power and the implementation of the Holy Spirit. Those scriptures were divided into the law, the psalms, and the prophets, and all of these are ascribed to the instrumentality of the Spirit.
Peter affirms that no prophecy of the old covenant scriptures was the result of mere human interpretation of events or trends. The message did not originate with the messenger. "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of men; but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21). In harmony with this he asserts that it was the Spirit of Christ in the prophets which "testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow" (1 Peter 1:11).
In Acts 1:16 Peter affirms that a certain scripture had to be fulfilled, having been given by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of David. He then declares, "It is written in the book of Psalms" (verse 20). This is important to notice. It gives the divine agent of revelation--the Holy Spirit; the human agent for transmission--David; the method of revelation--oral speech; the means of preservation--writing. In a few words purely incidental to a narrative we have provided for us the whole scheme of revelation. The fact that it is incidental, and thus undesigned, makes it all the more valuable.
It is hardly necessary to multiply the examples from the new covenant scriptures in which the validity of the old covenant scriptures is asserted and upheld. The reader can seek these out for himself. However, we would like to mention a point of interest which, although it approaches the matter from the negative aspect, is very significant. Critics of the Bible have meticulously investigated every word of both the old and new covenant scriptures. Many of these critics have been prejudiced against the Bible. They have approached their research with pre-conceived notions adverse to the authorship and authority of the Book.
These men have listed any minute discrepancy in
testimony, and mistakenly branded it as contradictory. We can be certain
that if they could have located one place where they could turn the scriptures
against each other it would have been grist for their mill and they would
have kept it grinding incessantly. But the old covenant scriptures purport
to be a message from God pointing forward to the coming of a new covenant,
and the new covenant scriptures purport to be the fulfillment of the old,
and affirm over and over again the divinity behind them. The critics are
thus forced to use their inventive ability and imaginative quality to make
any case at all which will appeal to the credulous reader.
If it is concluded that God created man as a rational being, and that the purpose in doing so was to provide for mutual delight in each other of the creator and the created, it would appear reasonable that any communication directed toward the latter must proceed from a motivation worthy of the creator. Any selfish and unworthy motivation exhibited would lay the communication open to serious question as to its origin. If, upon examination of the scriptures called "sacred" there should appear a trivial and insignificant reason for the message contained in them, our intellects would rebel against acceptance of the information as coming from God. A divine communication should manifest the following characteristics:
1. It must uphold the majesty of the infinite and the splendor of one who is the object of all glory, honor and praise.
2. It must exhibit that grace which is an expression of God's goodness and which enables him to bestow benefits upon those who are undeserving and unworthy. Since we can plead no merit of our own, a communication from God must proceed from that attribute which imputes merit, else the communication would either be impossible or worthless.
3. It must, as we have previously suggested, take into account the nature of man, including his circumstances, needs and ability, and be couched in such language as to convey divine thought in terms that are understandable and comprehensible.
4. It must proceed from such motivation as transcends all other purposes, means and causes, and which is of such nature that all abuse of it by unworthy men can never permanently damage or finally destroy its value. The motivation must be as eternal as God himself.
The highest motive from which intelligent beings may act is love, and the Bible constantly holds out to us that it was this which prompted God's action in behalf of sinful and undeserving mankind. Since the word means so many things and covers so many categories in our day it is well to mention that the love (Greek agape) which motivated God was not mere sentiment or affection. Although no one can define this love, or confine it to mere terms, a working description of it may be, "That active and beneficent good will which stops at nothing to achieve the good of the beloved object."
This love is never passive, and once appropriated by a rational being, creates a responsiveness which manifests itself through that person. It thus becomes a dynamic which can truly save the world. John declares that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" (John 3:16), and again, "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 John 3:16).
Paul declares that it is the one absolute without which nothing else is valid, and while faith, hope and love are abiding principles, the greatest is love. It is twice affirmed by John that "God is love." Any elaboration upon this matter would be simply repetition of that which the earnest student may read for himself in the scriptures, and is not necessary here.
We accept the scriptures as being a revelation from God. They meet the criteria for such a revelation and bear a stamp of their origin in the form of internal evidence upon themselves. It is our conviction that God has spoken to man, revealing or uncovering for man what he could not discover for himself. We regard the Bible as containing that revelation and it is authoritative, not because of its beautiful literary composition, but because it is the word of God.