QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR

Evening Star, Issue 19664, 17 September 1927, Page 4

QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR

THE WORD OF GOD Dr Pettit’s fifth lecture on ‘ Questions of the Hour ’ was delivered last evening at Knox Church. The lecturer took for his subject ‘How Can I Know with Absolute Assurance that the Bible is the Word of God?’ Emphasising the fact that this was the most momentous question that man was called upon to face and answer, Dr Pettit stated that if the Bible was not an authentic record of a divine revelation, mankind was adrift, like a derelict ship tossing in mid-ocean without chart or compass. All that they knew of Christ they learned from tlie Scriptures. The written word and the incarnate word must stand or fall together. Ho knew that the _ Bible was the Word of God because this fact was attested by an infallible witness. In the Gospel records there was presented a four-fold portrayal of a life and character unique in the pages of human history. The writers of the Gospels were men incapable of creating such a character out of their own imagination. John Stuart Mill, himself an unbeliever, realised this fact when he wrote; “Who among His disciples or among their proselytes was capable of inventing the sayings of Jesus or imagining the life and character ascribed to Him?” That being so, mankind could rest assured that Christ was the supremo reality of the universe.

Reason could not conduct tho soul beyond the confines of the present life, but the highest function of human reason was to bring a man to see the reasonableness of placing absolute confidence in every word spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ. The satanic origin of Modernist unbelief was seen in the fact that it discredited the trustworthiness of the Son of God where His explicit teachings conflicted with tho speculators of the higher critics. Tho higher critic to-day disbelieved the Genesis account of creation, tho record of man’s fall, and those wonderful foreshadowings of Christ and his redemptive work contained in tho Pentateuch. The critic realised, however, that the Lord Jesus Christ had placed his imprimatur upon it all declaring that “The Scripture cannot bo broken.” The speaker referred to the marvels of fulfilled prophesy as being a further Divine attestation of the truth of the Scriptures. Professor Sayce, in his remarkable hook, ‘Monument Facts and Higher Critical Fancies,’ had shown how repeatedly tho spado of tho archaeologist had destroyed the most assured results of subjective criticism and estimated tho accuracy of tho Word of God. The Rev. John Urquhart, in ‘The "Wonders of Fulfilled Prophecy,’ had unfolded the marvels of those prophetic forecasts which dealt with Gentile dominion and also with the preservation of the Jewish people down through the centuries and their restoration to their own land, which was now being witnessed in the Zionist movement. In conclusion, Dr Pettit ponded out that the claim of the Bible to be the Word of of God could bo tested by every man in bis own experience. Tho Lord bad said: “If any man willeth to do God’s will, bo shall know of the teaching whether ■it be of God or whether I speak of myself.” Dr Torrey, in ‘ Tho Divino Origin of the Bible.’ told of a sceptic who tested this promise. He placed bis signature to the following statement:—“l promise to make an honest search to find it Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and if I find' that He is I promise to accept Him as my Saviour and confess Him as sucli before the world.” In a short time the .man’s Agnosticism had all gone, and be bad become a humble believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, Any ilian who studied the Scriptures, wishing God to reveal to him the way of life and willing to follow wherever God led, must come to the absolute assurance that the Bible was indeed “ tho Word of God, which livetli and abidelli for ever ’*