Divinely Inspired Harmony

by Jim Lindsay, Edinburgh, Scotland | Category: General | Mar 1989

On what basis can it be justifiable to set the Bible apart from all other books and treat it as the revealed will of God? The validity of all Christian doctrine and faith is involved in the answer.

A longing after God is deeply implanted in the human heart although in many cases it has been all but obliterated or perverted. Even in pagan Athens of 2000 years ago there was that unique altar dedicated to "an unknown god" intended to cover all possible ranges of divinities.

The infinite God cannot be fully understood or appreciated by His finite creatures, but surely it is to be expected that He would wish to communicate the truth about Himself to those who have been made in His own image.

We hold it as fundamental that the word of God is an inspired revelation of the truth of God for man, conveyed through the pens of men whose minds were fitted by the Divine Spirit to communicate God's will and who wrote as He moved them. In confirmation of that we see in Scripture from the first pages of Genesis to the last of Revelation, in a most remarkable way, the evidence of the Spirit of God at work. Without detracting in the least from the individuality of the writers, the Spirit has controlled them to produce harmonious and coordinated revelation of truth. How that was accomplished is far beyond our understanding as much as are other manifestations of Deity. Suffice to say that although the vehicle of truth is human, the content is divine and the coordinating agency is none other than the Divine Spirit.

So we have a book, brought into existence over a period of at least 1500 years using a wide cross-section of men from a great variety of backgrounds - fishermen to kings, yet there is a most remarkable harmony of teaching and revelation. The message of the patriarchs is confirmed and underlined by the apostles, prophets, judges and poets, writing many centuries apart with no possibility of collaboration: evidence of a unity and harmony in their writings which is unique. And each writing reflects the character of the individual writers, giving a thoroughly human flavour to this great divine book.

All Scripture, from beginning to end, is focussed on Christ who endorsed the Old Testament in its entirety by His comment, "These are they which testify of Me" Christ's words were "with power"; they were, as Peter put it, "words of eternal life". They were, according to His own declaration "words by which men will be judged in the last day". He declared, "Heaven and earth shall pass away but, My word shall never pass away".

Jim Lindsay, Edinburgh, Scotland | Mar 1989
General