The Divine Origin of the Bible

The Bible possesses divine power to cleanse from the sin and imperfection that still clings to the one who has already been born again by its power. The Bible has the power not only to take impurity out of the heart but also to remove it from the outward life. It is true today, as it was in the days of the Psalmist, that the way for one to cleanse his way is by taking heed according to God’s word. The best way to keep from sinning against God is by hiding God’s word in the heart. Ps. 119:9, 11.

The man or woman who systematically, thoughtfully, prayerfully, and obediently studies the Bible will find their lives grow purer. This has been demonstrated repeatedly in the lives of people from all ranks of society. It has been proven in the lives of those born in the slums, who inherited the instincts, habits, and language of the slums. It has also been clearly proven in the lives of those reared in the midst of culture, refinement, and high ethical ideals. It might seem that the characters and lives of such people would be unsullied anyway, but by studying the cleansing book, those lives and characters have become whiter and whiter as they approached the dazzling whiteness of the absolute holiness of Him who is light and in whom there is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:6.

The Bible possesses divine power to promote the growth of the believer. Life is a gift of God. It defies all man’s ingenuity and all the progress of his science to produce it. Growth is also God’s work. Only the things that God has made promote growth, the things that themselves have life in them. The Bible possesses this power to promote growth.

All other things being equal, people grow in beauty, strength, and completeness of character just in proportion as they study the Bible. Other books that contain a large admixture of Bible truth promote growth because of the Bible truth in them; but to this day, no book promotes growth by its study as the Bible itself does. The writer of this book has enjoyed unusual opportunities to observe this fact; as superintendent of an institute devoted exclusively to Bible study, where several hundred are regularly enrolled as students each year, and six thousand persons attend the evening classes, and also as pastor of a church of sixteen hundred members, where special emphasis is placed on Bible study. Large numbers of persons just beginning the Christian life, others who have been Christians for years but who are suffering from retarded spiritual development, persons of all degrees of culture and of all sorts of domestic and social environments, have been seen to enter at once upon a period of rapid, healthy, continuous, steady, symmetrical growth when they have begun the systematic, daily study of the Bible.