The Divine Origin of the Bible

The fifth proof of the divine origin and authority of the Bible is the history of the book; it has remained invincible against all man’s attacks upon it. The Bible is not only the most intensely loved book in the world; it is also the most bitterly hated. Scarcely had the Bible been given to the world before men discovered that it condemned sin, laid human pride in the dust, and demanded the renunciation of sin, of the world, and of self, and so man hated the Bible. Man’s hatred of the Bible has been of a most persistent, determined, relentless, and bitter character. It has led to eighteen centuries of repeated attempts to undermine faith in the Bible and to consign the Bible itself to oblivion. These attempts have utterly failed. Celsus tried it with the brilliance of his genius, and he failed. Porphyry tried it with the depth and subtlety of his philosophy, and he failed. Lucian tried it with the keenness of his satire, and he failed. Then other weapons were used.

Diocletian, the mightiest ruler of the mightiest empire of the world, brought to bear against the Bible all the power of Rome. He issued edicts that every Bible should be burned, but that failed. Then he issued the edict that all who possessed a Bible should be put to death. But even that failed. So, for eighteen centuries, the assault upon the Bible has continued. Every engine of destruction that human philosophy, human science, human reason, human art, human cunning, human force, and human brutality could bring to bear against a book has been brought to bear against this book, and yet the Bible stands absolutely unshaken today. At times almost all the wise and great of the earth have been pitted against the Bible, and only an obscure few were for it. Yet it has stood. At times people have thought the Bible had been destroyed, but when the smoke of the battlefield had cleared, there it stood, not one stone shaken out of place. The fierceness of the assault only served to illustrate again the impregnability of the citadel. Why is it that the Bible has been proven invincible against all the centuries of attacks that mankind has been able to make against it? There is but one correct answer: because it is God’s book. If the Bible had been man’s book, it would have been forgotten and destroyed centuries ago; but because this book contains not only God’s wisdom, but also His power, it stands and wonderfully fulfils the deeper meaning of Christ’s words, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”