The Ministry of the SpiritGordon, A. J. (Adoniram Judson)
Religion
The Ministry of the Spirit
Gordon, A. J. (Adoniram Judson)
Holy Spirit
Testament story of Abraham's servant seeking a bride for Isaac, or the
New Testament narrative of the walk of the risen Christ with his
disciples to Emmaus, the inimitable simplicity of the diction would
make us think that we were listening to the dialect of the angels who
never sinned in thought, and therefore cannot sin in style, did we not
know rather that it is the phraseology of the Holy Spirit.[6]
{178}
An eminent German theologian has written a sentence so profoundly
significant that we here reproduce it in Italics: "_We can in fact
speak with good reason of a language of the Holy Ghost. For it lies in
the Bible plainly before our eyes, how the Divine Spirit, who is the
agent of revelation, has fashioned for himself a quite peculiar
religious dialect out of the speech of that people which forms its
theatre._"[7] So true do we hold this saying to be, that it seems to
us quite impossible that the exact meaning of many of the terms of the
New Testament Greek should be found in a Lexicon of classic Greek.
Though the verbal form is the same in both, the inbreathed spirit may
have imparted such new significance to old words, that to employ a
secular dictionary for translating the sacred oracles, were almost like
calling an unregenerate man to interpret the mysteries of the
regenerate life. Do we not know how modern progress and discovery have
even put new meanings into many English words, so that one must be in
"the spirit of the age" in order to comprehend them?[8] Thus {179}
likewise, even in the work of verbal criticism, it is essential that
one possess the spirit of Christ in order to translate the words of
Christ.
As to the question of the "inerrancy of Scripture," as the modern
phrase is, we may well pass by many minor arguments, and emphasize the
one great reason for holding this view, viz.: If it is God the Holy
Ghost who speaks in Scripture, then the Bible is the word of God, and
like God, infallible. A recent brilliant writer has challenged us to
show where the Bible anywhere calls itself "The word of God."[9] The
most elementary student of the subject can, with the aid of a
concordance, easily point out the passages which so describe it. But
we dwell on the fact that is not only called _o logos tou theon_, "_the
Word of God_," but _ta logia tou theou_, "_the oracles of God_." This
collective name of the Scriptures is most significant. We need not
inquire of the heathen as to the meaning which they put upon the words
as the authoritative utterances of their gods; let the usage of
Scripture make its own impression: "What advantage then hath the Jew?
or what is the profit of circumcision? Much every way; first of all,
that they were intrusted with _the oracles of God_" (Rom. 3: 2, R.
V.).[10]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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