The Bible - What is it and who does it come from?

JEHOVAH GOD is the Creator of man. It is reasonable to expect that the Creator would give some revelation of himself and his purposes to man. The Bible purports to be that revelation. Is the Bible true, and is it the Word of God? Modernist clergymen say “No,” and they say it is unreliable. I here submit some proof that the Bible is God’s word of truth and that it is the only safe guide for man.

The physical facts prove beyond any question that there was once a great flood of water that covered this earth. Noah was brought over and saved from the world that was destroyed by that flood. Noah was the most important man on earth of his time. He possessed a personal knowledge of things that no other man on earth at that time could know so well.

From the creation of Adam to the flood was a period of 1656 years. In those days men lived for nearly a thousand years. Adam was on earth three hundred years after the birth of Enoch. Being a good man, Enoch would gather from Adam all the facts he knew concerning Eden and what occurred there. Naturally Enoch would tell those things to his son Methuselah, who was the grandfather of Noah.

From Methuselah and from Lamech his father Noah would receive all the information then obtainable by man, the most important part of which would be that which took place in Eden and following thereafter. Noah lived 350 years after he came out of the ark. Only two years after his death Abraham was born, and naturally Abraham would learn from Shem, his great grandfather, who was the son of Noah, the history of man.

Abraham is the beginning of the people of Israel, otherwise called the Jews. He is designated the “father of the faithful”, and no man could have faith without knowledge; therefore the conclusion must be that Abraham was informed of God’s dealings with man. Jacob was a grandson of Abraham, and the father of Joseph who became a mighty ruler in Egypt Moses, an Israelite, was born in Egypt, and it is written of him that he was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, which naturally would include all the information handed down by his ancestors.

It is not unusual for an American boy to learn from his father the important facts of American history. With stronger reasoning, Moses would learn from his father the history of his people. Moses was eminently qualified to write the history of man. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. It is therefore seen that this information could easily have been handed down from one generation to another.

Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Moses were men devoted to God and naturally would obtain all the information they could concerning God’s dealings with mankind. The New Testament mentions these men as being approved by Jehovah. If we had no other proof concerning the Bible except tradition, that would be sufficient proof to warrant us in accepting it as the history of the human race. We have much more than that, however.

It will be conceded that man is the most intelligent of earth’s creation. He has a natural tendency to keep a record of events for the benefit of himself and succeeding, generations. This in itself is proof that his succeeding desired man to keep such record and hence planted in his mind the inclination so to do. It logically follows that the great Creator would provide the means for keeping such record. Since it had to do with his own word and name, he would supervise the keeping that it would be correct. If Jehovah had to do with the keeping of such record, then we may know that the record contains the truth.

Both tradition and the Bible agree that Moses was devoted to God and that he was sent to Egypt by Jehovah on a specific mission. He was the very kind of man that God would choose to make the record of his Purposes concerning man. Moses, therefore, in writing was merely an amanuensis to write for Jehovah. The same is properly said of all the other writers of the Bible. God directed them what to write. Concerning such, David, the faithful king of Israel, said : “The spirit of the. Lord spoke by me, and his word was in my tongue.” The spirit of God means his power which is invisible to man but – which he causes to operate upon the mind of man and to direct him what to do.

Men of old who were faithful to God and who wrote portions of the Bible are called prophets. Concerning those men it is written, in 2 Peter 1: 21: “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the holy [spirit].” Those men wrote foretelling the coming of events which they did not understand and knew not about, which is proof that they were merely instruments in the hand of Jehovah, used by him to write such prophecy.

The prophecies written centuries ago are now being fulfilled by the facts coming to pass and which are well known to all who think seriously. That is conclusive proof that no human mind could conceive, or formulate the words of the prophets, but that they were dictated by Jehovah and that those men wrote as God’s power moved upon their minds. Daniel, one of the prophets, asked God when these things would come to pass, and was told to close up the book of the prophecy and seal it until the time of the end, and then it would be understood.

No one will dispute the fact that Jesus lived and died in Palestine about 2000 years ago. What he said surpasses in wisdom the sayings of any other man ever on earth. He spoke with authority from Jehovah, and his words concerning the prophets were words of approval ; and he quoted their words with approval.

Centuries before the birth of Jesus many of those prophets wrote concerning his birth, the course of action he would take, his persecution and his death and resurrection. The admitted facts concerning Jesus fully and completely support these prophecies and show that they were correct. This proves that no human mind formulated those prophecies, but that they proceeded from Jehovah God.

Jesus repeatedly stated that he is the Son of God and that he was sent by Jehovah from heaven to perform a work in the name of his Father and for the benefit of man. He was born a man that he might be a witness for God and speak the truth to men. His words recorded in John 18: 37 are these: “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” It was on that same day and shortly before his death that Jesus said concerning the Bible, God’s record : “Thy word is truth.”

To reject the Bible means we must reject Jesus as the Son of God and deny the truthfulness of his testimony. Anyone who believes Jesus was and is the great Teacher must believe the Bible is God’s word of truth. That part of the Bible called the New Testament was written by men who personally associated with Jesus and who learned of him and who wrote under the power and direction of the spirit of God, and what they wrote is the truth.

The original manuscripts of the Bible were kept in the custody of God’s chosen people, the Israelites. The indisputable historical facts aside from the Bible show that from the time of Ezra forward there was a rewriting or copying of the original manuscripts, and that this work continued until the year 900 (A.D.). Three of these manuscripts are in existence this day.

The Alexandrine manuscript is in the British Museum. The Sinaitic is in the library at Lenin-grad, and the Vatican manuscript is in the vatican at Rome. There have been many versions and translations of these ancient manuscripts made by faithful men. It is from these that we have the Bible that we use today. Every attempt that has been made to destroy the Bible has failed, which is proof that God has pre-served it for man’s benefit.

That the Bible is the true guide for man, it is written by one of the holy prophets, in Psalm 119: 105: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
God’s law to man is set forth in the Bible. To know and obey that law means to walk in the way of righteousness. In Psalm 19:7, 8 it is written: “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple: the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart ; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.”

The devout student may come with confidence to the Scriptures, knowing that these set forth the will of God concerning man and are given to man for his instruction in righteousness. Upon the Scriptures he can confidently rely.
The Bible constitutes the basis of his faith in God, and a knowledge thereof enables him to understand something of the great love of God toward the human family. A full discussion of the origin and the authenticity of the Bible is found in the book Creation.

The reason there is so much ignorance amongst the people concerning the Bible is that Satan the enemy of man and of God has interfered with the people’s understanding the truth. Satan through his agencies killed many of the men who faithfully performed their work in. connection with the Bible, but not until their work was done. Thousands of copies of the Bible were destroyed by those same evil agencies, but Satan, with all his efforts, could not stop the progress of God’s unfolding purposes and the revelation of himself to the people through his Word.

Being unable to stop the publication of the Bible, the Devil has sought through his representatives to corrupt the meaning thereof and to put into the minds of the people an improper understanding of its text. He has used every power at his command to turn the minds of the people away from Jehovah and from his pure Word of truth. For centuries many of these wonderful truths were obscure and taken away from the people. In God’s due time these pure doctrines have been restored to the honest seekers after truth.

It is now God’s due time for the truth to be known, and nothing Satan can do or will do can prevent the truth from being known. The time has come for the standard of Jehovah to be lifted up that the people may know which way to go. This standard is found in the Bible. Around this divine standard the righteous and truly honesthearted will rally. The tide of truth is rising higher and higher and will continue so to rise until it has filled the whole earth as the waters fill the deep. All this shall be to the glory of Jehovah God.

The time has come for Jehovah to make known his name in the earth, and he will make this known through his Word and through the manifestation of his power And be it noted that the truth does not belong to any man. It is God’s truth. God has used men or human instruments at different times for his own purposes and to his glory, but the truth has always been and always will be Jehovah’s. The Bible is his Word of truth, given to guide those who seek righteousness.

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