The incarnation was Man and God together. The church is being fashioned by
man and God together; the Spirit and the Bride are colleagues. Worship is
possible only when man and God are together in fellowship. If the Bible
came by any method other than the coworking of man and God, its production
would stand for a departure from the usual divine method. The power of the
Bible, however, grows out of the fact that it is not an abnormal book,
fantastically given to men. There is a humorous story of an old woman who
was discovered in diligent study of the Hebrew alphabet. Asked why at her
age she was beginning to learn so difficult a tongue, she made reply that
when she died she desired to address the Almighty in his own language!
There have been theories of the Bible that are scarcely caricatured by
this tale. If there have been doctrines of the Book that made it the
product of a lonely man, there have likewise been doctrines that made it
the product of a lonely God. Neither doctrine is correct. The Bible grew
out of human life that had been touched and glorified by the divine
presence and power. Because it grew out of life it makes its appeal to its
native element in life itself. It simply claims its own.
A review of the different parts of the Bible will show how true this
statement is. Practically every book is localized and personalized.
Something that happened among men called forth the writing. The names of
the books in the Pentateuch show this fact. Genesis treats of the origins
of the earth and of man, and is an answer to the inevitable question that
springs in the human mind. Exodus treats of the going forth of the Hebrew
people from their Egyptian bondage. Leviticus is a description and
discussion of the Levitical rules. Deuteronomy is a second giving of the
Law and an enlargement of its sphere as well as an enforcement of its
precepts. The Ten Commandments make a human document because their sole
aim is to ennoble and protect human life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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