The Divine Inspiration of the Bible

The subject of the following pages is one upon which the writer has been asked to give addresses on various occasions during several years. While the effect has been to deepen his conviction as to his inability to handle so profound a subject at all adequately, he has ventured to hope that the presentation, in a simple form, of what he believes to be the truth may prove of service to some of the household of the faith in these days of apostasy from it. The pretentious claims made by Higher Critics, based upon the means of arousing a still more careful spirit of inquiry on the part of many whom they call “traditionalists” into the internal evidences of Holy Scripture as to the character of its Inspiration. In the writer’s own case the result has been a strong confirmation of his faith in the integrity, authenticity, and divine and plenary Inspiration of the writings which comprise the Bible. There are many eminent scholars today who have weighed the Higher Critical theories in the balances and have found them wanting, and this, not because of the influence of their own preconceived ideas, or a blind adherence to traditional views, but as the result of a careful and unbiased sifting of the evidences. Present-day theorists of the Higher Critical schools have become traditionalists after their own order. No matter how thoroughly recent discovery and scholarship disprove one after another the statements and suppositions advanced by the Higher Critics of former generations, these are still put forward by their successors.

The following pages have not been written, however, with the aim of attacking the critical position; they constitute an earnest attempt to set forth the result of careful study, in the hope that God may use them for His glory in the spiritual profit of the reader. Invaluable help has been rendered in the course of the preparation of the book by two of the author’s colleagues in editorial and expository work, to whom he is greatly indebted, Mr. W. R. Lewis, of Bath, and Mr. C. F. Hogg, of London, each of whom kindly went through the MSS, making useful suggestions.