How to Succeed in the Christian LifeTorrey, R. A. (Reuben Archer)
Religion
How to Succeed in the Christian Life
Torrey, R. A. (Reuben Archer)
Christian life -- Congregational authors
3. _The third thing to be said about the difficulties in the Bible is
that there are many more and much greater difficulties in the way of a
doctrine that holds the Bible to be of human origin, and hence fallible,
than are in the way of the doctrine that holds the Bible to be of divine
origin and hence altogether trustworthy._ A man may bring you some
difficulty and say, “How do you explain that if the Bible is the Word
of God?” and perhaps you may not be able to answer him satisfactorily.
Then he thinks he has you, but not at all. Turn on him and ask him how do
you account for the fulfilled prophecies of the Bible if it is of human
origin? How do you account for the marvellous unity of the Book? How
do you account for its inexhaustible depth? How do you account for its
unique power in lifting men up to God? How do you account for the history
of the Book, its victory over all men’s attacks, etc., etc., etc. For
every insignificant objection he can bring to your view, you can bring
many deeply significant objections to his view, and no candid man will
have any difficulty in deciding between the two views. The difficulties
that confront one who denies that the Bible is of divine origin and
authority are far more numerous and weighty than those that confront the
ones who believes it is of divine origin and authority.
4. _The fourth thing to be said about the difficulties in the Bible
is the fact that you cannot solve a difficulty does not prove that it
cannot be solved, and the fact that you cannot answer an objection does
not prove at all that it cannot be answered._ It is passing strange how
often we overlook this very evident fact. There are many who, when they
meet a difficulty in the Bible and give it a little thought and can see
no possible solution, at once jump at the conclusion that a solution is
impossible by any one, and so throw up their faith in the reliability of
the Bible and in its divine origin. A little more of that modesty that
is becoming in beings so limited in knowledge as we all are would have
led them to say, “Though I see no possible solution to this difficulty,
some one a little wiser than I might easily find one.” Oh! if we would
only bear in mind that we do not know everything, and that there are a
great many things that we cannot solve now that we could easily solve
if we only knew a little more. Above all, we ought never to forget that
there may be a very easy solution to infinite wisdom of that which to
our finite wisdom—or ignorance—appears absolutely insoluble. What would
we think of a beginner in algebra who, having tried in vain for half an
hour to solve a difficult problem, declared that there was no possible
solution to the problem because he could find none? A man of much
experience and ability once left his work and came a long distance to see
me in great perturbation of spirit because he had discovered what seemed
to him a flat contradiction in the Bible. It had defied all his attempts
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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