Christian Foundations Text

CHRISTIAN FOUNDATIONS by Dr. Ian R. K.
Paisley
What Saith the Scripture?

http://www.WhatSaithTheScripture.com/
CHRISTIAN FOUNDATIONS
by Dr. Ian Richard Kyle Paisley
WStS Note: This etext was typed and reformatted by Tom and Katie Stewart from a reprint (1971-- uncopyrighted) of the
original edition.
The use of the letter "s" instead of "z" was correct at the time of publishing.
CONTENTS
Seven Reasons Why I Believe

THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD
Seven Reasons Why I Believe in

THE VIRGIN BIRTH OF CHRIST

THE FULL DIVINITY OF CHRIST

THE ATONING BLOOD OF CHRIST

THE BODILY RESURRECTION OF CHRIST
Seven Reasons Why I Believe

THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD
THE BIBLE IS the Grand Charter of Christianity. To undermine, discredit and reject the Bible is to undermine, discredit and
reject Christianity. Christianity is rooted and grounded upon the Bible and if the foundations be destroyed what will
Christians do?
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CHRISTIAN FOUNDATIONS by Dr. Ian R. K. Paisley
The popular assertion of present-day shallow thinkers that their Christianity rejects the Old Testament but accepts the New is,
to say the least, unrealistic, for the New Testament is based on the Old. Both are inseparably united and of necessity when one
is rejected the other also must be refused. What the seed is to the plant so is the Old to the New. How can the plant be
received and the seed which produced it rejected?
The first task then of any inquiry into Christianity must be an examination of the claims of the Bible.
THE CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE
The Bible claims to be the Word of God and by staking this claim the Bible simply but plainly declares its divine authority,
complete infallibility and absolute sufficiency.
(a) Its Divine Authority. Its authority is grounded upon God Himself. 1 Thessalonians 2:13-- "Ye received the Word of
God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which
effectually worketh also in you that believe."
The Bible's authority is not derived from reason. The Bible does not appeal to reason and demand obedience because our
reason sanctions its teachings. Its authority is not rational in that sense, although we believe the Bible to be reasonable
ultimately, because it is the Word of Him Who is the source of all reason. Our reason needs to be approved by the Bible and
not the Bible by our reason.
The Bible's authority is not derived from the emotions. The Bible does not appeal to our feelings and demand obedience
because our feelings acquiesce in its teachings. Its authority is not emotional, and our feelings need to be approved by the
Bible, and not the Bible by our feelings.
The Bible's authority is not derived from the Church. The Bible does not appeal to the Church and demand obedience because
the Church decrees its teachings. Its authority is not ecclesiastical and the Church needs to be approved by the Bible, and not
the Bible by the Church.
The Bible claims that its authority is derived from the God Who breathed it. Its authority is divine.
(b) Its Complete Infallibility. Its infallibility is complete. John 10:35-- "The Scripture cannot be broken."
In all its words it can make no mistake. All it says, in the sense in which it says it, is true. What it records as history is real
history. Its descriptions of the processes of nature, though not described in scientific language, are as popular statements
infallibly true to what appears and hence scientifically correct. When the mistakes of men or the lies of Satan are given it is an
infallible record of mistakes or of lies that we have.
(c) Its Absolute Sufficiency. Its sufficiency is absolute. Galatians 1:8-9 "But though we, or an angel from heaven,
preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before,
so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."
All that we require to know in regard to faith and practice is contained in the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make us wise
unto salvation. John 20:31 "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that
believing ye might have life through His name."
Thus the Bible claims to be the Word of God, and as such is divinely authoritative, completely infallible and absolutely
sufficient.
VERBAL INSPIRATION
When I say that I believe the Bible is the Word of God, then I affirm that I believe it to be of divine authority, completely
infallible and absolutely sufficient.
In these days when theological definitions are discountenanced and human speculation has attempted to eclipse divine
revelation it is essential that we define what we mean when we say the Bible is the Inspired Word of God.
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The old line modernists speak of the inspiration of the Bible but inspiration is also ascribed to Shakespeare and other masters
of literature. For them inspiration stands for "human genius." The new modernists of the neo-orthodox (so near and yet so far)
schools of Barth and Brunner define inspiration in another manner. The Bible is the Word of God because particular passages
have conveyed from time to time a divine message to man. To man at times the Bible becomes a word of God. This theory
does not hold the Bible to be the Word of God but rather declares that under some circumstances parts of it become a word of
God. As both these views dethrone the whole idea of a real divine revelation I reject them.
When I speak of the Bible as the Word of God I do not only mean that it contains the Word of God but that it is the Word of
God.
I affirm that the Bible is an authoritative revelation to us from God in which God's thoughts are conveyed to us with infallible
accuracy and that the very words which clothe the thoughts are from God Himself. This is what is known as verbal
inspiration.
Let me quote two great statements which set out the historic Protestant belief in regard to the Bible. The first is from the pen
of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, rightly acclaimed as the Prince of Preachers. After his withdrawal from, and censure by, the
modernistic Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland and a little time before his call to higher service, Mr. Spurgeon along
with six like-minded brethren, drew up a doctrinal statement which they called "A Confession." This confession contained the
following concise statement on the Inspiration of the Bible:--
"We the undersigned, banded together in fraternal union, observing with growing pain and sorrow the loosening hold
of many upon the truths of Revelation, are constrained to avow our firmest belief in the verbal inspiration of all Holy
Scripture as originally given. To us, the Bible does not merely contain the Word of God, but is the Word of God. From
beginning to end, we accept it, believe it, and continue to preach it. To us, the Old Testament is no less inspired than
the New, the Book is an organic whole. Reverence for the New Testament accompanied by scepticism as to the Old
appears to us absurd. The two must stand or fall together. We accept Christ's own verdict concerning 'Moses and all
the prophets' in preference to any of the supposed discoveries of so-called higher criticism."
The second statement constitutes the finding of one of the greatest of Presbyterian Assemblies ever convened. In 1893 the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of America, an assembly whose membership included America's greatest
merchants, jurists, educators and statesmen as well as her greatest missionaries, evangelists, and theologians, put the
following of record:--
"The Bible as we now have it, in its various translations and revisions, when freed from all errors and mistakes of
translators, copyists and printers, IS THE VERY WORD OF GOD and consequently without error."
It is for the historic Protestant position as defined in these statements that I contend.
VERBAL INSPIRATION ESSENTIAL
Only verbal inspiration could secure an infallible revelation. Dr. James Gray, for many years head of the famous Moody Bible
Institute, often used the following illustration:--
"A stenographer in a mercantile house was asked by his employer to write as follows: 'Gentlemen: We misunderstood
your letter and will now fill your order.' Imagine the employer's surprise, however, when a little later this was set
before him for his signature: 'Gentlemen: We misunderstood your letter and will not fill your order.' The mistake was
only of a single letter, but it was entirely subversive of his meaning. And yet the thought was given clearly to the
stenographer, and the words, too, for that matter. Moreover, the latter was capable and faithful, but he was human, and
it is human to err. Had not his employer controlled his expression down to the very letter, the thought intended to be
conveyed would have failed of utterance."
If in simple matters such verbal superintendence is necessary in order to secure accuracy how much more when the
mysterious and transcendent revelation of God is being communicated. Without verbal inspiration no written revelation could
be reliable.
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THE LORD JESUS CHRIST BELIEVED IN VERBAL INSPIRATION
It is clear from a study of the language of the Lord that He believed in verbal inspiration. In confounding the Sadducees He
built the doctrine of the immortality of the spirit and the resurrection of the body on the tense of the verb "to be."
He drew attention to the Bible statement "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" and not that God was the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (see Matthew 22:32-- "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.")
Again, in Matthew 5:18 He emphasised that inspiration extended to the smallest Hebrew letter, the yod, and to the smallest
distinguishing mark, the tittle. "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass
from the law, till all be fulfilled."
To sum up, all Scripture is inspired of God
(2 Timothy 3:16-- "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness.");
the writers are inspired of God
(2 Peter 1:21-- "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost.");
every letter is also inspired
(Galatians 3:16-- "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of
many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.")
and inspiration extents to every jot and tittle
(Matthew 5:18-- "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise
pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.").
No better testimony to the extent of inspiration could be borne than that by Dean Burgon:
"The Bible is none other than the voice of Him that sitteth on the throne. Every book of it, every chapter of it, every
verse of it, every syllable of it, every letter of it, is the direct utterance of the Most High."
Having defined what I mean when I say the Bible is the Word of God, I now want to give seven reasons why I believe it to be
so.
FIRST REASON: THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF THE FACT OF THE BIBLE
The greatest fact of all time is the Bible. How a book which has been so universally attacked could survive and attain to such
a place of eminence is a miracle eloquently testifying to its supernatural origin.
Because the Bible forthrightly condemns sin, the hatred of sinners has been hurled against it. Because the Bible in plain and
unmistakable language debases the pride of man, proud man has set himself the task to discredit it. Because the Bible
uncovers the satanic underworld it is the object of the diabolical attacks of hell. Because the Bible declares that salvation is
by grace alone all false religions have sought to extinguish it.
The Bible condemns every man and condones no man; it accuses every man and excuses no man; it abases human reason and
exalts revelation; it repudiates the natural and rejoices in the spiritual, glorying not in flesh but in faith.
Attacked from all quarters and giving no quarter, the Bible has an Ishmaelite experience, its hand is against every man and
every man's hand is against it, but wonder of wonders, it continues to dwell in the midst of the brethren.
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Princes, philosophers, prelates, politicians and poets have all conspired against it. It has been insulted by the scorn of fools. It
has become the jest of infidels and the joke of sceptics. It has been assailed consistently and persistently by professed scholars
and has been made the butt of the critic. Assaulted by every known plan of hell, it has come forth unscathed from the inferno.
Like the three Hebrew children it has been in the fire and like them it has been wonderfully preserved and there is not a smell
of burning upon it.
The fire has yet to be lit that can destroy it. The steel has yet to be forged that can scar it. The weapon has yet to be devised
that can overthrow it. The scholarship has yet to be developed that can discredit it. The science has yet to be created that can
demolish it. The plan has yet to be devised that can annihilate it.
The cunning of hell and the craft of earth have combined against the Bible but it stands unmoved, for it is as W. E. Gladstone,
one of England's greatest Premiers has described it, the impregnable rock of Holy Scripture.
As the Bible has stood the hottest broadsides of hell it will not be affected by the popguns of modernism.
In the past century Voltaire thought he had demolished it and boasted that in one hundred years Christianity would be a
museum piece. As a result, infidelity ran riot in France. Voltaire, however, passed screaming into eternity, but the Bible has
not passed away. Moreover, Voltaire's printing press was used to print the very Scriptures which he boasted he had
demolished and his house became a depot for the Geneva Bible Society.
.
"WILL THE OLD BOOK STAND?"
Will the Old Book stand, when the "higher critics" state
That grave errors are discovered on its page?
Will it save the sinful soul? Will it make the wounded whole?
Will its glorious truth abide from age to age?
Will its message still abide, when the scientists decide

That its record of Creation is untrue?
Tell us the ascent of man is by evolution's plan;
Will its principles the sinful heart renew?
When in language wondrous fair, "Christian Scientists" declare

That there is no evil, only mortal mind.
When mental treatment fails, and seeming death prevails,
May we in the Bible consolation find?
When infidels parade the mistakes which Moses made,

When the truth of Revelation they deny,
Will the Ten Commandments still the demands of justice fill?
Will its word support us when we come to die?
Yes, the Word of God shall stand, though assailed on every hand,
Its foundations are eternally secure;
It will bear the critic's test, and the idle scoffer's jest,
Its saving truth forever shall endure.
So I believe the Bible is the Word of God because it remains with the passing and injuries of time, a temple unprofaned by the
foot of the enemy, a building of God, amidst the crumbling ruins of the centuries.
SECOND REASON: THE UNITY OF THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE
The unity of the Bible is one of the greatest evidences of its supernatural origin. This unity stands out in bold relief as we
consider--
The Diversity of the Bible's Writers
This diversity extends to their historical position. The Bible consists of sixty-six books written by some forty different
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authors over a period of a millennium-and-a-half (1,500 years). The first writer, Moses, died about 1450 years before the last
writer, John, was born. Yet none of these writers ever denounced, criticised or condemned any inspired teaching in the books
of the others. Their historical position was diverse, but their spiritual position was one and the same. Such a diversity creating
such a unanimity must of necessity strike the candid reader of Holy Scripture with profound wonder, and surely underlines
the unimpeachable conclusion that One Divine Mind was behind this One Book.
This diversity also extends to their social condition. The writers of the Bible, socially speaking, had no common denominator.
They were men actually very diverse in social condition, physical temperament and mental ability. Some were sovereigns,
others were subjects; some were lawyers, others were labourers; some were conquerors, others were captives; some were
farmers, others were fishermen; some were scholars, others were shepherds; some were priests and others were physicians,
and some were prophets and others were poets. From such a motley and heterogeneous group one could expect but
pandemonium, but behold instead a Pentecost! Their social condition was diverse, but their spiritual condition was one and
the same. Again, such a diversity creating such a unanimity must of necessity strike the candid reader of Holy Scripture with
profound wonder and surely underlines the unimpeachable conclusion that One Divine Plan was behind this One Book.
Further, this diversity extends to their particular language. The writers employed three different languages-- Hebrew,
Aramaic and Greek. If the works of any forty authors up to A. D. 100 written in three different languages on any one subject
were translated and bound in one volume what a volume we would have, a volume full of diverse theories and mutually
destructive tenets, scarcely understandable, its only unity being material, having been bound in the same volume, printed on
the same paper and upon the same press. Although the last book of the Bible was written about 1500 years after the first book
was written, yet it harmonises perfectly with it, and the whole Book is such a perfect whole, every truth being so dovetailed
and every doctrine being so interwoven that the effect of the different languages employed adds rather than detracts from the
harmony of the whole Book, which instead of being behind the times is actually always ahead of the times. The writers'
particular languages were diverse, but their spiritual language was one and the same. Again, such a diversity creating such
unanimity must of necessity strike the candid reader of Holy Scripture with profound wonder, and surely underlines the
unimpeachable conclusion that One Divine Power was behind this One Book.
Again, this diversity extends to their actual style. The Bible contains the loftiest kind of poetry and the profoundest type of
prose. Symbolism and imagery woven into the highest oratory, arguments and reasonings sharpened with the keenest logic,
lamentation of the deepest pathos and joy expressed in the most exalted language, are all intermingled together to form a
symmetry of golden truth. The actual style is diverse, but the spiritual tone is one and the same. Again, such a diversity
creating such a unanimity must of necessity strike the candid reader of Holy Scripture with profound wonder, and surely
underlines the unimpeachable conclusion that One Divine Purpose was behind this One Book.
Finally, this diversity extends to their characteristic outlook. The characteristic outlook of each writer is plainly portrayed in
the several writings. The personality of each writer tinges the inspired message from their pens. Characteristic expressions
and manners peculiar to the writers are subtly embalmed in their writings, but the whole, even to the very words, is divinely
given. As different wind instruments all playing the same notes retain their own particular individuality though sounded by
the same breath, so the writers of the Bible, though absolutely controlled by the same divine breath of inspiration nevertheless
retain their own particular individuality. The characteristic outlook is diverse, but the controlling uplook is one and the same.
Again, such a diversity creating such a unanimity must of necessity strike the candid reader of Holy Scripture with profound
wonder, and surely underline the unimpeachable conclusion that One Divine Person was behind this One Book.
The unity of the Bible is further manifested in:
The Details of its Wording.
For example, take the word "sweat" as it occurs in the Bible. It is mentioned only three times:
(1) Genesis 3:19-- "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground."
(2) Ezekiel 44:18-- "They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins;
they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat."
(3) Luke 22:44-- "And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of
blood falling down to the ground."
Notice the complete symbolic and doctrinal harmony and symmetry. In Genesis 3:19 "sweat" is part of the curse of sin. In
Ezekiel 44:18, no garments which would cause "sweat" were to be worn by the priests in the service of the sanctuary. This
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service was holy, hence no symbol of sin was permitted even in the priest's garment. Again, these priests were typical of the
sinless One Who alone could be our Great High Priest. In Luke 22:44 He Who was made sin was identified with the curse,
and therefore was bathed in the bloody "sweat" of Gethsemane's passion and agony. Think a moment of the fact that Ezekiel
wrote about 1000 years after Moses, and Luke about 500 years after Ezekiel. Though there could be absolutely no collusion,
yet there is absolutely no collision. In view of this we can assert that no artful conniver could devise such unity. The Power
behind such harmony in detail is surely divine. Many such examples of profound unanimity could be given, but this one is
sufficient to affirm the unity of the Bible as manifested in the details of its wording.
The Unity of the Bible is further demonstrated in:
The Doctrine of its Writings.
The Doctrine of the Bible is "Jesus Christ and Him Crucified." (1 Corinthians 2:2-- "For I determined not to know any thing
among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.") Christ alone could say, "In the volume of the Book it is written of Me."
(Psalm 40:7). The Subject of the Bible is Christ. The Object of the Bible is Christ. Its symbols symbolise Christ; its types
typify Christ; its predictions predict Christ; its gospels glorify Christ; and its epistles expound Christ. He is the genesis and
genius of the Book. He Himself is its unifying principle and person and hence, no potency can disintegrate the impregnable
rock of Holy Scripture. Touch the Bible anywhere and you touch Christ somewhere. Only by revelation could those who
lived generations before Christ describe Him so accurately and intimately and the unanimity in regard to His Person and
Work is an irrefutable demonstration that He Himself must have revealed Himself to them. They must supernaturally, like
Abraham, have "seen His Day" as no other satisfactory explanation can account for their intimate accuracy.
Surely this impregnable unity is a most convincing testimony to the Bible's authenticity, infallibility and divinity.
THIRD REASON: THE VERACITY OF THE FULFILLED PROPHECY OF THE BIBLE
The Bible is unique. Hundreds of years and in some cases over a thousand years before certain events took place, the Bible
made precise predictions concerning those events. No other sacred book ventured to make such predictions. The Bible is the
only book which dared to stake its claim to divinity on the accuracy of its prophecies.
In the following passage in Isaiah God challenges the idol-gods of the heathen to predict future happenings. Isaiah 41:21-23--
"Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth,
and show us what shall happen: let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the
latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are
gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together."
The idol-gods are impotent in this matter, and in contrast to their impotency God declares His Omnipotence. Isaiah 46:10--
"Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall
stand, and I will do all My pleasure:"
The fulfilled prophecies of Scripture amply demonstrate the truth of this statement of Jehovah.
It is surely to be regretted that the vast field of fulfilled prophecy is largely forsaken by Bible students today. The devil knows
that here conclusive proof of the divine origin of the Bible is furnished, so Higher Criticism which is only Infidelity in an
ecclesiastical suit, has set about to destroy these great prophetic Scriptures.
Five Rules by which the Truthfulness and Supernaturalness of any Prophecy can be Demonstrated.
Any prophecy can be tested by the application of the following five rules:--
1. Anticipation.
The prophecy must declare something concerning future events. It must be of such a nature that not only a lapse of
time must take place between the giving of the prophecy and its fulfillment but also it must be fulfilled in such a way
which precludes any possibility of the prophet himself effecting it.
2. Revelation.
That which is predicted must be such an unveiling that no human foresight could have guessed it. It must be of such a
kind that it could not possibly have been deduced from known facts and principles.
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3. Specification.
The prophecy must be definite and precise in its details. General statements may often give a remarkable forecast of
events but exact and precise predictions which forecast accurately even the smallest details preclude the utter
impossibility of any thing else but supernatural revelation.
4. Inspiration.
The prophecy must stake a definite claim that it is divine.
5. Realisation.
The prophecy must be fulfilled at such a time and in such a manner that the whole prediction is completely and
unassailably realised.
If these rules are applied to the fulfilled prophecies of Scripture, it will be found that on every occasion these prophecies stand
the test.
The prophetic field in Scripture includes predictions concerning Christ, the Jews and the Gentile nations.
Christ
We can only consider on prophecy concerning Christ, the great prophecy of Isaiah, chapter fifty-three.
"Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a
tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is
no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne
our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was
wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and
with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the
LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth:
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth. He
was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation? for He was cut off out of the land of
the living: for the transgression of My people was He stricken. And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the
rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to
bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He
shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the travail of His soul,
and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath
poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made
intercession for the transgressors."
Even if this prophecy is brought down to the very latest date to which the "higher critics" have assigned it, it was still uttered
many hundreds of years before the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Even a casual examination of the precise details of the
prophecy and their exact realisation in the sufferings of Christ cannot but impress the candid reader. No wonder such attempts
have been made to explain away this prophecy. For example, the sceptic Bolingbroke asserted that Jesus by a series of
deliberate provocative actions brought on His own crucifixion in order to give His disciples the triumph of an appeal to this
old prophecy.
The invincible power of fulfilled prophecy is thus demonstrated when infidels are compelled to invent absurdities in order to
evade the force of its almighty appeal.
Our Lord is not only predicted in direct prophecies but the characters, institutions, ceremonies, offerings and feasts o f the
Old Testament are also prophetical. These types all point to Christ. Dr. R. A. Torrey has well said:--
"The modern critical theories regarding the construction of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy go all to
pieces when considered in the light of the meaning of the types of the Old Testament. I have never known a
destructive critic that knew anything to speak of regarding the types One cannot study them thoroughly without being
profoundly convinced that the real author of the Old Testament, back of the human authors, is God."
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The Jews
The court chaplain of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, was asked by his royal master to prove the inspiration of the
Scripture in a word. He answered, "Your Majesty, the Jews."
The Jewish race is the living monument to every generation that the Bible is the Book of God. Take, for example, the twenty-
eighth chapter of Deuteronomy. Here we have predicted by Moses the tragic history of the rebellious Jewish nation.
Deut. 28:49-53,68-- "The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the
eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard
the person of the old, nor show favour to the young: And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land,
until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks
of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls
come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all
thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy
sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith
thine enemies shall distress thee... And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I
spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and
bondwomen, and no man shall buy you."
The Roman power here is clearly indicated by Moses, although that power had not yet come into being. Notice the mention
of the eagle, the very symbol of Imperial Rome.
The invader was to be of a tongue unknown to the Jews. History affirms that the Jews were ignorant of the Latin language.
The wars of the Jews with their many terrible sieges fulfil in every detail the awful predictions here made.
The return of the Jews to Egypt as slaves whom no one wanted to purchase was also fully realised. Those Jews who did not
perish in the destruction of Jerusalem were shipped to Egypt. There some were sent to the mines to labour constantly until
they died. Others were sold into slavery. Josephus records that 100,000 slaves glutted the markets of Egypt. Hence the
prophecy of Moses was fulfilled to its last detail, "no man shall buy you."
The Gentile Nations
Many great prophecies of the Gentile nations lie scattered through the Old Testament. Take but one, the great prophetic dream
of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter two. Here the three great world empires, Medo-Persian, Graeco-Macedonian and the
Roman, which were to follow the Babylonian empire were clearly predicted. The division of the Roman empire was indicated
by the two legs, while the rise of democracies, the rule of the people, was declared by the symbol of clay. Part of the iron was
still to remain however, so today monarchies and republics exist side by side in the very territory once occupied by the
Roman Empire.
After even a brief consideration of the field of fulfilled prophecy, the divinity of the Bible is remarkably demonstrated. The
Inspired Word as well as the Incarnate Word can declare, "And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is
come to pass, ye might believe." John 14:29.
FOURTH REASON: THE INEXHAUSTIBILITY OF THE WISDOM OF THE BIBLE
"We present you with this book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is wisdom, this is the royal law,
these are the lively oracles of God."
These words, used in the presentation of the Bible in the Coronation ceremony of the British monarchs simply sum up the
fact that the Bible is an inexhaustible Book.
Man can exhaust what man has produced and written. Man cannot exhaust what God has produced and written.
The inexhaustibility of the Bible is an evident token of the divinity of its origin. The greatest of intellects singly and in
concert have studied the sacred volume, but the depths of the riches of the Book are still unmined. Fresh light and truth
continually burst forth from its bosom, enlightening and instructing the diligent student of its contents.
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Other volumes have soon been outdated both in their principles and precepts but the Bible still remains ahead of fast moving
time. Humanity has outgrown its own productions but the fact that humanity has never yet grown up to the Bible proves that
it is divine.
What book can interpret the past like the Bible? What book can interpret the present like the Bible? What book can interpret
the future like the Bible?
Select any individual book of the sacred volume and with careful study an meditation, unending fields of investigation open
up before us. The wisdom of God and His overruling superintending care for the Bible are continually demonstrated.
Take for example, the book of Isaiah. We examine it and discover that its chapters are the same in number as the books of the
Bible, sixty-six. How fascinating our study becomes when we consider the contents of the book and find that it is indeed the
Bible in miniature.
In 1250 one Cardinal Hugo divided the Bible into chapters. Was it mere coincidence or the overruling providence of God
which determined that Isaiah should have its sixty-six chapters? I am not contending for the divine right of all Hugo's chapter
divisions, but I am drawing attention to the fact of the overruling superintendence of God in both the preservation and
regulation of the Books of the Bible. This is also demonstrated in the very order in which the books of the Scriptures are
arranged in our Bible today. A study of this order shows that the books of the Old and New Testaments are placed in
wondrous parallel according to their historical, doctrinal and prophetic contents.
Further, the Bible has a two-fold division, the Old and New Testaments. How intriguing when we discover that Isaiah has its
two-fold division, the first section containing the same number of chapters as there are books in the Old Testament,
thirty-nine, and the second containing the same number as there are books in the New Testament, twenty-seven.
In the opening of Genesis we have "The heavens and the earth." (Genesis 2:1) and in the opening of Isaiah we have the
prophet's appeal to the "heavens and earth." --"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken." Isaiah
1:2.
The burden of Genesis is man's way of ruin and God's way of redemption. A similar theme is the burden of the first chapter of
Isaiah, the genesis of this miniature Bible.
The second book of the Bible is Exodus, dealing with the going out of the Israelites from Egypt and the giving of the law at
the holy mount. In the Exodus of Isaiah, which is chapter two, we read:-- "Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the
LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion
shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem." Isaiah 2:3.
The last words of Malachi are judgment and judgment is the theme of Isaiah chapter thirty-nine.
Chapter forty commences the second division of Isaiah, the division which corresponds to the New Testament. The New
Testament opens, of course, with the gospels which tell of Christ at whose birth the angels shouted "Peace on earth". Isaiah
forty commences with the gospel (the good tidings) "Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God." Isaiah 40:1. Notice
the very expression "good tidings" in verse nine. "O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O
Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold your God!" Isaiah 40:9.
The first great character of the New Testament is John the Baptist. Isaiah speaks of him in verse three of this chapter, "The
voice of him that crieth in the wilderness."
At His baptism by John our Lord Jesus was manifested to Israel. Then the heavens were opened and the Father's voice rang
forth "This is My beloved Son." We have the corollary of that in Isaiah 40:9 in the exclamation "Behold your God."
The great doctrinal centre of the New Testament is the Cross Work of Christ. How wonderful that the exact centre of Isaiah's
New Testament in miniature is the great fifty-third chapter. What other chapter in the whole Bible depicts the Cross so
grandly?
The forty-fourth chapter is the Acts of Isaiah's New Testament. How appropriate is verse three "For I will pour waters on him
that is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground."
The forty-fifth chapter is the Romans of Isaiah's New Testament. The theme of the Roman Epistle is Justification by Faith.
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How fitting then that this chapter should close with the words "In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified."
Keeping in mind that the New Testament was not written until many hundreds of years after Isaiah's death, how can we
account for this unique New Testament in miniature on a mere human basis? Man could not have planned such a thing.
Undoubtedly this is the finger of God.
As we stand on the brink of the unbounded ocean of the fullness of Scripture, definition and description become impossible.
With arms uplifted in adoration to the great Source of the Book we can but break forth in the awed and exultant exclamation
of Paul, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His
ways past finding out!" Romans 11:33.
FIFTH REASON: THE ADAPTABILITY OF THE TEACHING OF THE BIBLE
It is surely a striking fact that although the Jews were the privileged depositories of the Bible revelation, and the greater part
of the Bible was therefore primarily national in character, yet the Bible is an international Book. This fact is even more
remarkable when we consider that the Hebrew was the most exclusive and continues to be the most exclusive race on the face
of the earth, and that the Bible writers were characteristically dominated with this Jewish exclusivism. By divine choice the
Jewish people were severed in feeling, religion, policy and destiny from the rest of the race in such a manner that even
adversity and dispersion could not destroy their peculiar isolation. How strange that such an exclusive race could produce an
inclusive Book. Only the high-born origin of the Bible can explain the mystery. It is plainly manifested that the Jewish race
became not merely the recipients of the divine message but also the spokesmen to proclaim that message to the ear and heart
of the entire world. The Bible's adaptability is self-evident being demonstrated in
(1) The Bible, the most translatable of all books-- a Book for all races. There is a universal standing about the
Bible which cannot be denied. The Bible is the World Book, and as the World Book it is national and yet
international, local yet worldwide, bounded yet unbounded, and limited yet unlimited.
It is enclosed in little space, yet it encloses all. "There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard." (Psalm
19:3-11). Prof. T. Lewis wisely comments:
"Every other assumed revelation has been addressed to but one phase of humanity. They have been adapted to one
age, to one people or one peculiar style of human thought. Their books have never assumed international character or
been capable of any catholic expansion. They could never be accommodated to other ages or other parts of the world.
They are indigenous plants that can never grow out of the zone that gave them birth. Zoraster never made a disciple
beyond Persia or its immediate neighbourhood. Confucius is wholly Chinese as Socrates is wholly Greek."
The Scriptures and the Scriptures alone speak to both north and south, east and west. The fact that the Bible is the most
translatable and the most translated of all books indicates its universal character. Translations at best are both unappealing and
unfamiliar, but the Bible adapts itself to the language in which it is clothed and to the land into which it comes. It is readily
admitted that the most English of all books is the Authorised Version of the Scriptures, yet in seeming paradox there is no
book so German as the German Bible. Only the scholarly linguist thinks of the Greek and Hebrew originals when the living
Word is read. It matters not the language, the mode of life or the degree of civilisation, the Bible adapts itself miraculously to
all. To the European and the Eskimo, the African and the American, the Asiatic and the Australian, the Bible becomes
singularly their own Book. In the lands which have already a vast library of sacred and venerated literature, the Bible enters,
and like the sun outshines all lesser lights. In other lands the written language has to be created in order that the sacred
volume might be translated, and even with the advent to these lands of the best of literature, the Bible easily retains foremost
place for the divine crystal spring unsullied will be preferred to the muddy stream of human intellect. In view of this surely
we can but say that the God who made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth hath also made one
Book for all nations of men who dwell on the face of the earth.
Again, the Bible's adaptability is demonstrated in--
(2) The Bible, the most seasonable of all books-- a book for all ages.
The Bible is never outdated. It is always in advance of the advancing ages, and yet its unchanging message is equally
adaptable to all. Studied by the far-off schools of the prophets in the hoary ages of the past, it still retains its place in the
curriculum of the greatest universities of the present. Many other volumes have been perused, patronised and praised by past
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generations, but their literary glory died with the generation which gave them birth. They were but productions of time and
products of clay, and with the passing of time in common with their authors, they returned to the dust.
Not so with the Bible, for passing time, instead of diminishing its glory has but added greater luster to its shining, and in its
passing the grip of this one Book upon the world has been forged into an indissoluble bond. The fast flowing currents of
passing millenniums which have erased the imprint of innumerable volumes from the sands of man's knowledge have had no
damaging effect on this one volume. Other volumes have been washed out of the consciousness of the race, while this volume
has been indelibly washed in.
The Bible stands today in solitary grandeur like a rock of while marble rearing its head majestically out of a dark lonely sea
in defiance of the surging billows which hurl themselves unrelentingly against its base.
Not only is it unerasable by the passing times, but it is always abreast of the times and the advancing times in all those fields
which really matter actually gain momentum from it. Progression is the natural outcome of obedience to its precepts, while
fleet of foot retrogression follows hard on the heels of disobedience to its commands. It is the bold crusader of every
movement, marking the real progress of the race being always wiser than man's highest wisdom and always purer than his
holiest ideal. Even a cursory study of the secular history of the nations of Europe amply illustrates this. The answer which the
enquiring prince received from the great British Queen when he desired to gain the secret of the Imperial Empire's might,
"The secret of England's greatness is the open Bible" was without doubt the right answer. The Bible open and obeyed casts
prosperity with both hands upon its faithful exponents. In contradistinction the Bible closed and condemned casts adversity
with both hands on its faithless opponents.
The history of man's dealings with man written in the books of man can be superseded, but the history of God's dealings with
man written in the Book of God can never be superseded.
The prophecy of man concerning man, written in the books of man fails, but the prophecy of God concerning man written in
the Book of God never fails. Man's words to man written in the books of man are soon forgotten, but God's Word to man
written in the Book of God can never be forgotten. Man's promises to man written in the books of man are broken, but God's
promises to man written in the Book of God can never be broken. Man's speech to man written in the books of man is soon
outdated by passing time, but God's speech to man recorded in the book of God outdates passing time. Man's language to man
written in the books of man soon decays, but God's language to man written in the Book of God never decays, having ever a
dew-like freshness. The Bible is a solitary book. In contrast to other volumes it can be said of it as of its Maker-- "They shall
perish, but Thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment... But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have
no end." --Psalm 102:26,27.
Its nature is as the nature of God, for like God it is not the I WAS, but the I AM-- the Immediate, the Present, and the Ever
Now.
.
A glory gilds the sacred page,
Majestic like the sun.
It gives a light to every age:
It gives, but borrows none.
The Hand that gave it still supplies
The gracious light and heat.
Its truths upon the nations rise,
They rise, but never set.
The Bible's adaptability is further demonstrated in :
(3) The Bible, the most practical of all books-- a Book for all peoples. The message of the Bible is the most
practical message ever embalmed in writing. There is not an experience known to the pilgrims of this planet for which
the Bible has not a word either of direction or correction. It prescribes for all cases ever known or ever to be known
by man.
There are seven Greek words used to describe the seven stages of man's development according to Philo:
1. Infancy, paidion, child.
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2. Childhood, pais, boy.
3. Youth, meirakion, lad.
4. Adolescence, neaniskos, young man.
5. Manhood, aner, man.
6. Decline, prebutes, old man.
7. Senility, geron, aged man.
In infancy, childhood, youth, adolescence, manhood, decline and senility, yes, in every stage of man's physical and spiritual
history the Bible has a message which is adaptable to all.
How children delight in the stories of the Bible. All classes and conditions of young folk find something fascinating and
appealing in the immortal records of Bible history. Adam driven out from the Garden and Abraham brought into Canaan,
Noah building the Ark and Nehemiah building the walls, Joseph the slave boy and statesman and Joshua the servant and
soldier, and David the shepherd boy giant killer, and Daniel the dreamer lion tamer are stories which enshrine themselves in
the hearts of the young; while nothing touches tender innocency like the glad tidings of Bethlehem and Calvary. Parts of the
Bible may remain closed for the present but children have more than enough to go on with in these great Bible histories
which are able to make them wise unto salvation.
When innocency is scarred with sin and upon the horizon of expectant youth there breaks the storm of irresistible temptation,
wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way but by taking heed thereto according to Thy Word.
In the trials and tribulations of life's rugged pathway, in the joys and pleasures of life's sunshine the Bible has always a
message suitable to our experience and need.
Indeed, as the night alone reveals to us the stars of celestial glory, and the firmament then becomes crowded to its farthest
depths with orbs of light, so in the night of sorrow the stars of promise otherwise hidden come out to cheer our hearts until
the day breaks and the shadows flee away.
In old age the Bible still has a fresh message for our tired hearts, while the silence of death itself is broken for us with the
assurance from the sweetest lips that ever spake, "Certainly I will be with you." --"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end
of the world. Amen" (Matthew 28:20).
"Bring me the Book," said Sir Walter Scott on his deathbed. "What book?" his attendant inquired, not knowing to
which volume the dying author referred. "Can you ask?" was the reproving answer, "there is but ONE."
SIXTH REASON: THE VITALITY OF THE HEARING OF THE BIBLE
"So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." --Romans 10:17.
A friend of mine, Ted Sherwood, an ex-welterweight champion boxer, once told me this story. Ted was saved from the depths
of sin and, fired with the zeal of an unabated first love, was very anxious to win others to Christ. When he preached he went
through all the movements of the boxing ring and to all criticisms of his peculiar mannerisms he would innocently reply,
"Well, ain't I fighting the devil anyway?" One night Ted found himself amongst the throngs at Hyde Park. Disgusted at so
many people listening to so much verbal trash, he decided he must attract as many of the crowd as possible away from the
various meetings and preach to them the gospel which transformed his life. Tugging at his Bible-- Ted's Bible always seemed
too large for his pocket-- he eventually got it out and set it on the ground. Taking off his coat he placed it over the Bible. Then
he started to jump around the coat, shouting in consternation "It's alive! it's alive!" The crowd ran from the other meetings to
see what was happening, and when Ted had a very large congregation around him he picked up his coat, lifted up his Bible
and shouted "It's alive!" "What did you do then?" I questioned. "O told them how this Book found me dead in the graveyard
of pollution and how it imparted new life to Teddy Sherwood the debauched, drunken and blaspheming boxer," he replied.
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Yes, Ted was right. The Bible is a living book. It is a volume of vital power. The power of the Bible is seven-fold in its
nature. It has power--
1. To convict of sin. Acts 2:37.
2. To regenerate the heart. 1 Peter 1:23.
3. To produce faith. Romans 10:17.
4. To cleanse the life. John 15:3.
5. To edify the believer. Acts 20:32.
6. To impart eternal life. 1 John 5:13.
7. To perfect the whole man. 2 Timothy 3:17.
A sailing vessel was wrecked off one of the South Sea islands. A member of the crew who, along with some others managed
to reach the shore, became greatly alarmed, for he recognised the island as the home of a notorious cannibal tribe. He left his
companions and climbed the summit which skirted the shore to reconnoitre and when he reached the summit his shipmates
saw him swing his arms in terrific excitement, and then point to something over the hill. They soon clambered up to where he
was and with great delight saw the steeple of a meeting house which had been built in the former cannibal village. That
building took all the fear out of their troubled hearts. Their necks were safe on that cannibal island. The advent of what other
book could have wrought such a change?
The living power of the Scriptures demonstrated daily in the glorious transformation of lives is an irresistible proof that the
Bible is what it claims to be, the very Word of God.
SEVENTH REASON: THE CALAMITY OF REJECTING THE BIBLE
"Lo they have rejected the Word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?" --Jeremiah 8:9
One of the greatest proofs that the Bible is the Word of God is the tragic calamities which follow on its rejection. The
alternative to accepting the Bible is a potent argument in favour of the divine origin of the Book. That alternative as
illustrated in the corrupted lives of infidels and sceptics, in the wrecking of families and the debasing of communities and
even nations, goes to form a dark background against which the Bible shines forth in heavenly purity.
The transformation of those who have accepted from the heart the Bible as the Word of God and the degradation of those who
have rejected from the heart the Bible as the Word of God, are stubborn facts which mere denials cannot obliterate.
Dr. R. A. Torrey once issued a challenge, a challenge which on one was able to accept. Here is Torrey's challenge:
"Show me a man that is living a life of absolute surrender to God, living under the control of the Spirit of God, living
a life of devotion to the Spirit of God, living a life of devotion to the highest welfare of his fellow-men, a life of
humility and of prayer, and I will show you every time a man who believes the Bible to be God's Word.
"On the other hand, show me a man who denies or persistently questions whether the Bible is the Word of God and I
will show you a man that is leading either (mind you, I say 'either' not 'all') a life of greed for gold or of lust, or of
self-will or of spiritual pride.
"I challenge any man to furnish me an exception. I have been looking for one literally round the world, and I have
never found one."
Whether men like it or not, a loose theology is bound up with loose living and unbelief in the head is the child of sin in the
heart. Does infidelity flourish in the company of the pure in heart? Never! Infidelity is at its strongest in the public-house, the
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gambling den and the blasphemer's club.
The testimony of Joseph Baker, a member of the Mother of Parliaments and an ex-President of the British National Secular
Society cannot be invalidated.
"I have seen the dreadful effects which infidelity produces on men's characters; I have had proof of its deteriorating
effects in my own experience; its tendency is to utter debasement."
Mrs. Mary Benjamin, an eyewitness of the deathbed agonies of the notorious infidel Thomas Paine writes:
"I was invited by a distant connection... to go and see T. Paine on his deathbed... The scene to me was appalling, and I
wished to leave at once. I remember him as he lay, his head near and close to the door we entered, his glaring rolling
eyes; uttering imprecations; apparently in agony of body and mind; his screams could be heard at a great distance. As
I shrank back they said (there were many there) he called on Jesus Christ for mercy, and next blasphemed."
Such was the end of one who rejected the Bible.
The awful results following the dethronement of the Bible are around us today. We are now reaping the harvest of the sowing
of modernism. Lawlessness is the great characteristic of the hour. The rising tides of sinful pleasure have engulfed the nation.
Crime is on the increase. Divorce courts are glutted with business. Ethical standards have given way. Morals have gone to
pieces. The home, the bulwark of society, has been breached. Sodom has been resurrected. Hell has broken loose, and daily
the appalling downgrade gathers momentum. Believing he evolved from the beast, man has become a beast.
Our lamentation is that of the prophet, "Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in
the streets and equity cannot enter." --Isaiah 59:14.
"Where will it all end?" I have been asked. "In hell," is the only reply. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Well may
Jeremiah say, "Lo, they have rejected the Word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?... Therefore shall they fall among
them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.." Jeremiah 8:9,12.
To reject the Bible is to reject the God of the Bible. To reject God is to reject the Commandments of God. To reject the
Commandments of God is to reject the Authority of Heaven. To reject the authority of heaven is to accept the Anarchy of
Hell.
The more I study the calamity which follows the rejection of the Bible the more I am convinced that the Bible is the
inbreathed Word of God.
In view of this impregnable fact, surely we need to get back to the Bible, back to Bible preaching, back to Bible praying and
back to Bible practicing. A revival of Bible Christianity alone can save the situation. A rediscovery of the Word of God
brought about the glorious Reformation of four-hundred years ago and thank God the Bible dynamite is just as potent today.
Let us then let the Bible rule our hearts and homes and refuse to support those who dare to trifle with it in the pulpit. Above
all things, let us seize the unfailing promises of the Book and never rest night nor day from prayer until the God of the Bible
visits us with a gracious revival.
.
"Go, search the Scriptures," saith our Lord,
"They testify of Me";
"Tis truth's eternal, great record,
From every error free.
There my eternal Godhead shines

With bright, refulgent rays;
There beam Jehovah"s great designs,
From everlasting days.
There the great gospel scheme behold,

Chief of the works of God,
Replete with grace and love untold,
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And pardon, bought with blood.
There's armour for the trying day,

Both shield and helmet too;
And grace, the fainting soul to stay,
And always something new.
There's balm to heal the wounds of sin,

On life's fair tree it grows;
And blood to wash your garments in,
From Jesus' side it flows."
O may the Spirit's influence sweet

Shine on the glorious whole,
Its precepts guide my roving feet,
And promise feast my soul.
Let Revelation's glories shine,

And spread from sea to sea;
Till reason stoops to faith divine,
And owns her sovereign sway.
.
THE END

THE VIRGIN BIRTH OF CHRIST
IN MANY QUARTERS, ecclesiastical as well as secular, belief in the Virgin Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is scouted as
unworthy of twentieth-century intelligence. Biologically, it is vehemently asserted, such a birth is impossible. Science with
pontifical authority has pronounced against it. Who dares to challenge the "all knowing" of such an eminent authority?
The fact of the Virgin Birth having been declared against, the evidence and proof which established the fact must now be
discredited. Let it be carefully noted that this finding against the Virgin Birth was not the result of a fresh examination of the
evidence but rather the arbitrary act of science falsely so called. Having destroyed, in their opinion, the supernatural birth,
these "know-alls" must of necessity demolish the evidence which supported that birth. All sorts of ingenious methods have
been brought into play to destroy the records-- from the mistranslation of words to the pen-knifing of whole passages of the
Bible. Historical evidence is flouted without respect for any known rule of evidence. Unfounded assertions are put forward as
sound conclusions and the whole basis of traditional Christian belief is subjected to the methods of a reckless infidelity.
This assault on the doctrine of the Virgin Birth is, however, but one phase of a great battle to evacuate the supernatural from
Christianity and to reduce it to the plane of natural religion. These naturalists in religion are out to destroy supernatural
Christianity. They go through the Bible and tell us there is no supernatural revelation there; they go through the Birth of
Christ and tell us there is no supernatural incarnation there; they go through the Person of Christ and tell us there is no
supernatural deity there... they go through the Works of Christ an tell us there are no supernatural miracles there; they go
through the Words of Christ and tell us there is no supernatural wisdom there; they go through the Death of Christ and tell us
there is no supernatural atonement there; they go through the Blood of Christ and tell us there is no supernatural cleansing
there; and they go through the Tomb of Christ and tell us there is no supernatural resurrection there.
Having jettisoned the supernatural from the Gospel Ship they have reduced her to an old hulk of man's manufacturing, a mere
plaything for the storms of unbelief and the reefs of infidelity.
Well may Moses say: "For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the
vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: Their wine is the poison
of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps." --Deuteronomy 32:31-33.
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As a fundamentalist I believe in a supernatural Christianity which presents a supernatural Christ Who had a supernatural
Birth, Who lived a supernatural Life, Who died a supernatural Death, Who rose in a supernatural Resurrection, and Who is
coming again in a supernatural Manner.
Rejection, then, of the Virgin Birth is an attack on the supernaturalness of Christ. Of Christ's wondrous birth, human
incredulity questions, "How shall this be?" Divine inspiration answers, "With God all things are possible."
When human impotence bows to that answer of divine omnipotence the Miracle of the Virgin Birth can be whole-heartedly
accepted. He who questions the Virgin Birth challenges the almightiness of God. To discredit the Virgin Birth is not only to
strike at the nature of Christ but at the very power of God.
WHAT IS IMPLIED BY REJECTION OF THE VIRGIN BIRTH
Before coming to my reasons for accepting the Virgin Birth let me point out briefly what the alternative is to my position.
No truly honest mind could possibly accept this alternative and continue to plead for Christianity... The alternative involved
in the rejection of the Virgin Birth discountenances for all time that glib articulation of the shallow-minded "Oh, the Virgin
Birth is not essential."
To reject the Virgin Birth is to impute the stain of unchastity to Mary. Before her marriage Mary was found with child. If this
was not by an act of God then Mary must have been unchaste. To reject the Virgin Birth is to affirm that Mary was an
adultress. Under the Jewish law an espoused woman's vows to her future husband were as binding as the actual marriage
vows. As an espoused woman, if Mary was pregnant by any other act than the act of the Holy Spirit, than she was an
adultress. Perish the thought that our Glorious Saviour came into being by an act of adultery. Yet this is what is involved in
rejecting the Virgin Birth. What honest person could say that the Virgin Birth is not essential?
To reject the Virgin Birth is to imply that our Lord was a nameless bastard. Joseph never claimed to be his father, but finding
Mary pregnant was "minded to put her away privily."
Matthew 1:19-- "Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was
minded to put her away privily."
Who, then, was the father of Jesus? The only logical answer to this, when the Virgin Birth is rejected, is an immoral coward
who covered over his crime with the cloak of anonymity.
To reject the Virgin Birth is to imply that our Lord Jesus Christ was an imposter and liar. He claimed to be the only begotten
Son of God. How could He be that, when in reality He was, according to these blaspheming modernists, the bastard child of a
fallen woman? Such are some of the implications involved in denying the Virgin Birth.
"But," you ask, "do these modernist preachers fully realise these implications?" Alas, they certainly do, and not only so, but
they go so far as to speculate on the very act of immorality which they maintain brought about the birth of Jesus Christ.
Here is a statement by Nels F. S. Ferre, an American theologian:
"Mary, we remember, was found pregnant before her engagement to mild Joseph. Nazareth was hard by a Roman
garrison where the soldiers were German mercenaries. Jesus is also reported throughout a continuous part of the
history of art, it is claimed, to have been blonde. This is supposedly unnatural for the Mediterranean countries where
this same tradition started and was continued. Hence Jesus must have been the child of a German soldier! After all,
the claim develops, such is the experience of many girls near military camps. His great genius, spiritual agony and
serene victory would thus be accounted for, as far as the unusual conditions go which gave Him the chance to respond
in an exceptional manner in the fulness of time. Such an interpretation has been made of His life, and who can deny
that such a conjecture could be true?"
Having sworn at ordination to preach the Christian gospel such men as Ferre have the brazen effrontery each time they enter
the pulpit to attempt to destroy the tenets they are under oath to proclaim. They are perjurers of the worst kind. No language
would be strong enough to describe their base villainy. No wonder Dr. Joseph Parker, the illustrious first pastor of the City
Temple warned:
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"Beware of such men, they are clever liars, swindlers who look too innocent to be quite guiltless, hirelings who
hunger for self. Nay the black indictment does not end there. They are killers of men, bandits who thrust weapons into
souls and slay the young, the unsuspecting and the frank. The man in the pulpit who insults the Bible on which he
lives, and wriggles out of the professions by which he climbed to the pulpit he dishonours, I charge with worst crimes
than those which blackened Barabbas or damned Iscariot."
Having briefly discussed the awful alternative to belief in this doctrine, I now come to positive arguments which
unquestionably establish the truth of this cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith.
FIRST REASON: I BELIEVE IN THE VIRGIN BIRTH BECAUSE THE SUPERNATURAL PREDICTIONS OF
CHRIST ANTICIPATED HIS SUPERNATURAL BIRTH
Across the impassable "fixed gulf"
Luke 16:26-- "And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from
hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence."
the words of Abraham came echoing into the doomed soul of the tormented Dives, "They have Moses and the prophets; let
them hear them." --Luke 16:29. But the ruined soul shrieked out, "And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto
them from the dead, they will repent" --Luke 16:30. Abraham's reply is a final indictment of the damned soul's unbelief: "If
they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead" --Luke 16:31. Then
came silence, the silence of eternity.
How true, for when God speaks and is unheeded there follows silence, the silence of eternity. No wonder the stricken and
rejected Saul wailed, "God is departed from me, and answereth me no more" --1 Samuel 28:15.
No other miracle, not even the miracle of resurrection, can blast the unbelief which rejects the miracle of revelation. "They
have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." Let us indeed hear them on this vital subject of the Virgin Birth.
Genesis 3:15
Turning to the first book of Moses, the book of Genesis at the third chapter and at the fifteenth verse, I listen to the words
which the Lord God spoke to the devil after the seduction of Eve and the fall of Adam.
"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel."
In passing, let me say that Satan has always fought hardest against these Scriptures specifically directed to himself. The
wounds of the sword of the Spirit still afflict his Satanic mind. Take, for example, the Scriptures which our Lord quoted in
His temptation. They all came from the Book of Deuteronomy. Now no book has been more attacked and discredited than
Deuteronomy. It has been the target for the Satanic fury of the so-called "Higher Critics" and the principal subject of their
destructive crucible...
The reference here is to the woman's seed, not to the seed of the man. This is unique because the common reference is always
to the seed of the man-- "the seed of Abraham" (Isaiah 41:8), not the seed of Sarah, "the seed of David" (Romans 1:3), not the
seed of Bathsheba, and so on.
Something extraordinary is referred to, for only a unique seed, a special seed, a supernatural seed, could accomplish that
unique, special and supernatural triumph "the bruising of the serpent's head." Every effect must have an adequate cause and
no son by ordinary generation of Adam's ruined race could accomplish the effect here spoken of. The adequate cause is found
in the woman's seed, a Virgin-born Saviour.
Jeremiah 31:22
"How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A
woman shall compass a man."
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Since natural generation commenced with the begetting of Cain, a woman in pregnancy always compassed the child and often
that child was a man-child. Here a new thing is mentioned, the result of a creating act of God, not the result of any acts of
man. A woman bears a child without any relationship to man, God alone taking the responsibility. This text as reference to the
passage can verify stands before prophetic Scriptures which tell of the ushering in of the gospel dispensation. Also another
Scripture which had its fulfillment in the birth of Christ occurs in this chapter, Jeremiah 31:15: "Thus saith the LORD; A
voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her
children, because they were not."
The new thing done by God in the woman compassing a man is none other than the Virgin Birth. Notice how the Scriptures
refer to it as a "creation," --"the LORD hath created a new thing".
.
A Virgin unspotted the prophets foretold,
Should bring forth a Saviour which now we behold.
To be our Redeemer from death, hell and sin
Which Adam's transgression had wrapped us up in.
Isaiah 7:14
"Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His
name Immanuel."
This verse has become the principal battleground of the whole controversy regarding the Virgin Birth. The first line of assault
of the critics is upon the Hebrew word "almah," here translated "virgin". It is urged that the proper Hebrew word for virgin is
"bethulah," and that if a virgin was what the prophet wished to signify he would have used that word. "Almah," it is
contended, simply means "a young woman of marriageable age."
Now the Lord, upon whose instruction the prophet spoke, foreknew that proud men would come and seek to undermine the
force of this prophetic Scripture. In order that the saints, to whom the faith was delivered, might have an answer to such an
argument, the Holy Spirit used the word "almah" seven times in the Old Testament, that in the mouth of two or three
witnesses every word might be established. The word "almah" occurs in the following Old Testament verses:--
1. Genesis 24:43-- "Behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass, that when the virgin cometh forth to
draw water, and I say to her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher to drink."
2. Exodus 2:8-- "And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother."
3. Psalm 68:25-- "The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; among them were the damsels
playing with timbrels."
4. Proverbs 30:19-- "The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of
the sea; and the way of a man with a maid."
5. Song of Solomon 1:3-- "Because of the savour of Thy good ointments Thy name is as ointment poured forth,
therefore do the virgins love Thee."
6. Song of Solomon 6:8-- "There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number."
7. Isaiah 7:14-- "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and
shall call His name Immanuel."
Seven in Scripture is the number of perfection, so the Holy Spirit has given us a perfect guide to the meaning of "almah".
Professor J. Gresham Machen in his scholarly work "The Virgin Birth of Christ" comments:
"As a matter of fact there is no place among the seven occurrences of 'almah' in the Old Testament where the word is
clearly used of a woman who was not a virgin."
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In his "Prophets and Promise" Professor Willis Beecher says:
"There is no trace of its use to denote any other than a Virgin."
Professor James Orr states in his great book, "The Virgin Birth of Christ":
"The objection from the meaning of 'almah' was, as we learn from Justin Martyr, Origen and other fathers, one urged
by the Jews against the Christian interpretation of the passage from earliest times. But it may fairly be replied now, as
it was then, that if the word does not necessarily bear this meaning of 'virgin,' it may and usually does bear it. In fact,
in all the six places in which, besides this passage, the word occurs in the Old Testament, it may be contended that
this is the meaning."
Four hundred years ago Martin Luther issued a challenge:
"If a Jew or Christian can prove to me that in any passage of Scripture 'almah' means 'a married woman' I will give
him one hundred florins, although God alone knows where I will find them."
Luther's challenge still stands impregnable today.
In Isaiah 7:14 the definite article is prefixed to "almah", the literal reading being "the virgin". The definite article has an
individualising and specialising force and so the virgin here is from God's point of view the virgin, in contradistinction to all
other virgins. This virgin then spoken of by God could be none other than Mary to whom the angel said, "Hail, thou that art
highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women." Luke 1:28.
The Old Testament was translated into the Greek language about the third century B. C. This version was called the
Septuagint Version. According to tradition this translation was made by about seventy divines hence it has been designated as
the LXX, the Roman numerals for seventy. Without doubt, those who made this translation were eminent Hebrew scholars
and better equipped to translate the Hebrew than any modern Hebraist, as Hebrew was still a spoken language in their day. In
the LXX "almah" in Isaiah 7:14 is translated by the Greek word "parthenos" virgin.
Dr. Edersheim, whose "Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah" presents a higher order of scholarship than any other "Life" of
Christ extant, states:
"The fact that the seventy who were the most eminent Hebrew scholars in the world translated the word 'virgin' is
sufficient evidence that in this connection the word could have no other meaning."
The second line of assault of the critics is regarding the significance of the prophecy to King Ahaz. The prophecy, it is argued,
is addressed to King Ahaz and of what particular benefit as a sign could this prophecy be if it referred to the birth of Christ
which did not occur until many hundreds of years after the death of the king? The sign, it is asserted, must take place during
the life of the king.
Conflicting theories have been brought forward by the critics as explanations of the sign to Ahaz. Some say that the virgin is
the prophet's wife, who, in the beginning of the next chapter, bore a son called Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. If this were so, why
use such a designation for the prophet's wife as "almah"?
Again, some say that the child here referred to is Hezekiah the king's son. Hezekiah however, was born before Ahaz ascended
the throne, so such an interpretation makes the prophecy meaningless.
Yet another theory rejects all actual identification of the mother or the child and says the prophet referred to any young
woman who at that particular time was conceiving a male child. If this were so, then the language of the prophet declaring a
special sign is extravagant and senseless. These theories which seek to explain this birth as an ordinary birth are, to say the
least, unconvincing. They bear too much the marks of man's manufacturing. They are only brought forward by prejudiced
minds closed to the supernatural.
If we look closely at the prophecy we shall find that the premise of their whole argument is false, for the prophecy was not
addressed to Ahaz as they so vehemently assert. In verse twelve Ahaz refused to ask a sign in the depth or in the height above
as God commanded him. As Ahaz closed his ear to the commandment of God, God then calls for a hearing from the whole
house of David, "And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my
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God also?" --Isaiah 7:13. The prophet ceases to address Ahaz particularly, and his words are now general to the whole house
of David.
Ahaz was to ask a sign in the depth, or in the height above but the sign which the Lord Himself gave, not to Ahaz, but to the
whole house of David and hence to all Israel was a sign upon the earth. The prophecy foretold an incarnation Immanuel, God
with us, by a supernatural medium, the Virgin Birth.
When the historical light of the New Testament falls on this prophetic passage the meaning is quite clear. In the temple
Simeon took the Babe (Christ) in his arms and blessed God (Luke 2:28) he then blessed Joseph and Mary, (verse 34) and
finally addressed certain words to Mary (verses 34 and 35). It is to be noted that he particularly addressed Mary, for his words
had no application to Joseph. "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which
shall be spoken against." Here we have the sign again. The mother and the sign go together and the sign is twofold, a virgin
birth and an incarnation.
It is also interesting to note that the Greek word "semeion", used here for "sign" is the same word which occurs in the LXX
translation of Isaiah 7:14. Today the words of Simeon are fulfilled in our ears when "the sign," the Virgin Birth, is spoken
against. All these prophetic Scriptures implicitly foretold the Virgin Birth and I wholeheartedly accept their testimony.
SECOND REASON: I BELIEVE IN THE VIRGIN BIRTH OF CHRIST BECAUSE THE SUPERNATURAL
RECORDS OF CHRIST AFFIRM HIS SUPERNATURAL BIRTH
By the supernatural records, I, of course, mean the New Testament records. There are other records which I do not accept.
These testify themselves to their own spurious nature and they have been rightly excluded from the canon.
Matthew and Luke each record the fact of the Virgin Birth. Their records are independent of each other which is an extra
guarantee of their worth. The efforts of the critics to show them to be contradictory is in vain. They are, in fact,
complementary. Professor James Orr says:
"The critics speak of the discrepancies of the narratives. Much more remarkable, it seems to me, are their agreements
and the subtle harmonies that pervade them. The agreements, if we study them carefully, prove to be far more
numerous than may at first strike us. Here, e.g., is a list of twelve points, which lie really on the surface of the
narratives, yet give very nearly the gist of the whole story.
(1) Jesus was born in the last days of Herod.

Matthew 2:1-- "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king..."
Matthew 2:13-- "Arise, and take the young Child and His mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I
bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him."
(2) He was conceived by the Holy Ghost.

Matthew 1:18-- "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise... she was found with Child of the Holy
Ghost."
Matthew 1:20-- "The angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David,
fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost."
Luke 1:35-- "And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the
Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God."
(3) His mother was a virgin.

Matthew 1:18-- "When as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together..."
Matthew 1:20-- "Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy
Ghost."
Matthew 1:23-- "Behold, a virgin shall be with Child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His
Name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."
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Luke 1:27-- "To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's
name was Mary."
Luke 1:34-- "Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?"
(4) She was betrothed to Joseph.

Matthew 1:18-- "When as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph..."
Luke 1:27-- "To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph..."
Luke 2:5-- "To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with Child."
(5) Joseph was of the house and lineage of David.

Matthew 1:16-- "And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, Who is called
Christ."
Matthew 1:20-- "Joseph, thou son of David..."
Luke 1:27-- "to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David..."
Luke 2:4-- "And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of
David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David)."
(6) Jesus was born at Bethlehem.

Matthew 2:1-- "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king..."
Luke 2:4,6-- "And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of
David, which is called Bethlehem.. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished
that she should be delivered."
(7) By divine direction He was called Jesus.

Matthew 1:21-- "And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His Name JESUS..."
Luke 1:31-- "And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His Name
JESUS."
(8) He was declared to be a Saviour.

Matthew 1:21-- "He shall save His people from their sins."
Luke 2:11-- "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the LORD."
(9) Joseph knew beforehand of Mary's condition and its cause.

Matthew 1:18-20-- "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as His mother Mary was espoused
to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with Child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband,
being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But
while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream, saying,
Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is
of the Holy Ghost."
(10) Nevertheless he took Mary to wife, and assumed full parental responsibility for her child-- was from the first in
loco parentis to Jesus.
Matthew 1:20-- "But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a
dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife..."
Matthew 1:24-25-- "Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the LORD had bidden him, and
took unto him his wife: And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn Son: and he called His
Name JESUS."
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(11) The annunciation and birth were attended by revelations and visions.
Matthew 1:20-- "the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream...", etc.
Luke 1:27-28-- "And the angel came in unto her, and said...", etc.
(12) After the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary dwelt in Nazareth."
Matthew 2:23-- "And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene."
Luke 2:39-- "And when they had performed all things according to the Law of the LORD, they returned into
Galilee, to their own city Nazareth."
Matthew's narrative is told throughout from the standpoint of Joseph; Luke's from that of Mary. The language of both
narratives is so unmistakable, so unequivocal and so conclusive that to accept these Gospels one must accept the Virgin Birth.
There can be no halfway position here, only one of two things can happen-- either the Virgin Birth must be absolutely
accepted or the Gospels totally rejected. No man has a right to quote as authoritative any portion of Matthew or Luke who
rejects the testimony of these evangelists to the Virgin Birth.
The so-called modernists who reject the Virgin Birth because they allege that Matthew and Luke are the only two writers who
mention it are keen exponents of the "Sermon on the Mount." The total inconsistency of their reasoning is demonstrated when
we consider that only Matthew and Luke record "The Sermon on the Mount." If they were logical they would reject "The
Sermon on the Mount" for the same reason as they reject "The Virgin Birth." Principle for the modernists, however, must
always be sacrificed for prejudice.
In an effort to take attention away from these plain statements of the evangelists, the critics lay great emphasis on the
genealogies which they stress refer to Joseph and not to Mary. "It is beyond dispute," Lobstein the critic audaciously states,
"that in the mind of both genealogists Jesus is the son of Joseph." Such a statement is typical of the wild assertions of the
critics.
Nothing could be more widely disputed. As a matter of fact, it is beyond dispute that neither Matthew nor Luke wrote of
Christ as the son of Joseph. Matthew changes his whole style in verse sixteen of the first chapter, and states not as Lobstein
would have it, "And Jacob begat Joseph and Joseph begat Jesus," but "And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of
whom was born Jesus, Who is called Christ." --Matthew 1:16. Luke, on the other hand, carefully inserts a qualifying clause
"as was supposed". "And Jesus Himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph,
which was the son of Heli." --Luke 3:23. It is therefore evident that Matthew and Luke recognised no contradiction between
the genealogies and these implicit testimonies to the fact that Joseph was not the father of Jesus.
It ought to be pointed out also that, even if these genealogies refer solely to Joseph, it only makes sure that the legal and regal
standing of Jesus is established, for under Jewish law "he that brings up and not he that begets is called the father or parent"
and the adopted shares the legal standing of the foster male parent.
There is, however, evidence that Mary herself was of Davidic descent and was the daughter of Heli mentioned in Luke 3:23.
Now, under Jewish law "the family of the mother is not called a family" hence there is no mention of Mary's name. Mary and
Joseph were then nearly related and so even Matthew's genealogy while a genealogy of Joseph is also in reality a genealogy
of Mary. Hence Christ was legally, regally and maternally "of the seed of David".
Our Lord Jesus Christ was quite aware from His earliest days that Joseph was not his father, for at the age of twelve He
rebuked His mother for making that assertion. When after three days Joseph and Mary found the boy Jesus in the temple,
Mary said to Him, "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." --Luke 2:48.
The answer of Christ was a clear repudiation that Joseph was His father. "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's
business?" --Luke 2:49. He was not the son of Joseph; He was the Son of God.
Another argument frequently paraded by the opponents of this doctrine is the alleged silence of the rest of the New
Testament. What the critics do not stress is the fact that no New Testament writer denies the supernatural birth but that all
New Testament Christology is in complete harmony with the narratives of Matthew and Luke. Mark, we are told, knew
nothing about the Virgin Birth. Is it not striking that his first sentence is a complete repudiation of any assertion that Jesus was
the son of Joseph. He states plainly that Jesus Christ is "the Son of God." --Mark 1:1.
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In Matthew the townsfolk of Nazareth sneered at Christ and said, "Is not this the carpenter's Son?" --Matthew 13:55.
Matthew's genealogy, however, completely answers that insinuation. I do not think that it is a mere coincidence that Mark
reported another, though similar, sneer of the natives of Nazareth. "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?" --Mark 6:3.
Having no genealogy Mark records the sneer that does not impute fatherhood to Joseph.
"Mark," says one writer, "does not tolerate the paternity of Joseph even in the mouth of the Nazarenes."
The testimony of John to the full Deity in the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ of necessity implies the Virgin Birth. John
commences: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Same was in the
beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made" --John 1:1-3,
and then he makes that tremendous assertion. "The Word was made flesh." --John 1:14. But how? Certainly not by natural
generation, for further on John asserts that Jesus said "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." --John 3:6.
It would be blasphemous to suppose that John believed that Jesus by nature was unable to "enter into the Kingdom of God"
but like ourselves required to be "born again."
1. Mark 9:47-- "And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the Kingdom of God with one
eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire."
2. John 3:5-- "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the Kingdom of God."
3. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10-- "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived:
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves,
nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of God."
4. John 3:3-- "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot
see the Kingdom of God."
5. John 3:7-- "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again."
6. 1 Peter 1:23-- "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of Incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and
abideth for ever."
Jesus was born "according to the flesh" (Romans 1:3) but not "of the flesh." --John 3:6. We have also the confirming
testimony of history, which records that John's keen personal antagonism was against the arch-heretic Cerinthus the Gnostic
teacher who taught among other things that Jesus was the son of Joseph and Mary.
Then what of Paul? The critics allege that the silence of Paul proves he knew nothing of the Virgin Birth. It should be pointed
out, however, that even if Paul is silent on the matter the critic's conclusion "therefore he knew nothing about it" is not valid.
Silence and contradiction are two vastly different things. But, is Paul silent? "God sending His own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh." --Romans 8:3. "Was made in the likeness of men." --Philippians 2:7. Surely there is a clear distinction between
these assertions of Paul about Christ's birth and a mere natural birth. To Paul, Christ is God's own Son and not in any sense
the son of a man. In His incarnation He is one of us, but not of us. He is to be distinguished from all the rest of mankind
hence the expressions, "likeness of sinful flesh" and "likeness of men."
"God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the Law." --Galatians 4:4. Here again the sonship is in reference to
God the Father and not man, but the woman is the vehicle of the birth. In verses 22-31 of this chapter, Paul discusses the
births of Ishmael and Isaac. When Paul describes the birth of Christ in verse five, however, he employs a different Greek
word. Here, and in Romans 1:3 and Philippians 2:7, he uses a more general term which means "becoming". John says, "The
Word became flesh" and Paul says "God sent His Son, [literally] become of a woman."
Why did Paul not use the same word of Christ's birth as he used of the births of Isaac and Ishmael if he believed Christ was
born of natural generation? Why this careful distinction?
"Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God, (Which He had promised
afore by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,) concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed
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of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by
the resurrection from the dead." --Romans 1:1-4.
Again in this passage the Divine Sonship is emphasised. He is "God's Son" verse three, and the "Son of God" verse four. Paul
knew nothing of any other sonship. He was never to Paul the Son of any man let alone the son of Joseph. Paul also refers here
to the prophetic Scriptures. To pretend that he, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, was ignorant of Isaiah 7:14 the great Virgin Birth
prophecy, would be absurd.
Isaiah 7:14-- "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and
shall call His Name Immanuel."
In verses three and four, there will be found a likeness to Luke's narrative of the Virgin Birth. Professor James Orr comments:
"The contrast indicated is commonly taken to be between Christ's human and His higher or divine nature; but it seems
to be more in keeping with the context to interpret it of origin. 'Of the seed of David, according to the flesh'-- on the
side of fleshly origin; 'Son of God, with (or 'in') power, according to the Spirit of holiness' on the side of higher
spiritual origin. The words are then almost an echo of Luke's-- "Give unto Him the throne of His father David'-- 'The
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee.'-- 'Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.'-- 'therefore also that Holy Thing
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.'"
Luke 1:32-- "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the
throne of His father David."
Luke 1:35-- "And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the Power of the
Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of
God."
It is evident from a candid consideration of the above that Paul is certainly no witness to be called upon to disprove the Virgin
Birth. He stands not with the opponents but rather with exponents of the doctrine. Professor Orr ably sums up the
supernatural record thus:
1. "The only two narratives we have of the birth of Jesus tell us that He was born of a Virgin.
2. The Gospels containing these narratives are genuine documents of the Apostolic age.
3. The texts of these narratives have come down to us in their integrity.
4. The two narratives of the Virgin Birth are independent.
5. The narratives, nevertheless, are not contradictory, but are complementary and corroborative of each other.
6. There are the strongest reasons for believing that Matthew's narrative comes from the circle of Joseph, and Luke's
from the circle of Mary.
7. The Gospel of Mark, which embraces only the public ministry of Jesus, does not contradict the other narratives.
8. The Gospel of John does not contradict the other narratives, but presupposes them.
9. John unquestionably knew the earlier Gospels, and is traditionally identified with opposition to the earliest known
impugner of the Virgin Birth, Cerinthus.
10. Paul does not contradict the Virgin Birth. On the contrary, Luke, a chief witness of the Virgin Birth, was the
companion of Paul, and Paul's language seems to presuppose some knowledge of the fact.
11. The doctrine of Paul and John-- as of the New Testament generally-- implies a miracle in the origin of Christ.
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12. The Gospels containing the narratives of Christ's birth were, so far as known, received without question by the
Church from their first appearance"
It was a true remark of Dr. Dale's that particular texts are not the whole or most impressive proofs which the Scripture can
supply on any great doctrine. Particular texts he likened to salt-crystals which appear on the seashore when the tide has
receded. "These are not," he remarked, "the strongest, though they may be the most apparent, proofs that the sea is salt; the
salt is present in solution in every bucket of seawater."
So the testimony to the Virgin Birth is in solution on every page of the New Testament. Every book, every chapter, every
verse, yes every word which is spoken of Christ or by Christ is spoken on the assumption that He is Virgin born.
To destroy the supernatural birth one must first destroy the whole supernatural record. Therefore let me testify again that I
believe in the Virgin Birth because the supernatural records affirm the supernatural birth.
THIRD REASON: I BELIEVE IN THE VIRGIN BIRTH OF CHRIST BECAUSE THE SUPERNATURAL
INCARNATION OF THE SON OF GOD DEMANDS HIS SUPERNATURAL BIRTH
Those who deny the Virgin Birth of Christ must also deny the pre-existence of Christ and those who deny the pre-existence of
Christ must further deny the co-equality of Christ in the Godhead. By maintaining that the birth of Christ was by natural
generation the origin of Christ is fixed. His conception and birth mark the date of His origin. He had a beginning like all other
creatures. His eternity therefore must be rejected. Such is the logical outcome of the denial of the supernatural birth.
Apostasy in this vital doctrine leads to total apostasy in all vital doctrines.
To deny the Virgin Birth is to reduce Christ to the level of an ordinary individual. In doing so His pre-existence and hence,
His place in the Godhead, are repudiated. He cannot, therefore, by this reasoning, be the Son of God. If He is not, as the
Father from the heavens twice declared Him to be, the Son of God, then the God of Truth is a liar, heaven in reality is hell and
the whole revelation one colossal sham.
There is, in fact, no middle ground logically between denial of the Virgin Birth and the pestiferous bogs of open infidelity.
Those who maintain that the Virgin Birth is not essential only display their own abysmal ignorance.
If, on the other hand, it can be established that our Lord Jesus Christ was the eternal son of God incarnate in the flesh, the
possibility of any other birth but Virgin Birth is finally ruled out.
Only by a Virgin Birth could He, Who forever was, be manifested in time.
An ordinary birth results in the generation of a new person, but the extraordinary birth of Christ resulted in the incarnation of
an old person, even the Ancient of Days. No new person resulted at the birth of Christ, but through that Birth the Second
Person of the Trinity, by taking into union with Himself an impeccable human nature, was manifested in the flesh.
The Incarnation was a miracle in itself, and presupposes another miracle for its accomplishment, the miracle of the Virgin
Birth.
Writing to Timothy, Paul views--
Christ's Incarnation-- "God was manifest in the flesh"
Christ's Vindication-- "Justified in the Spirit"
Christ's Manifestation-- "Seen of Angels"
Christ's Revelation-- "Preached unto the Gentiles"
Christ's Reconciliation-- "Believed on in the world"
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Christ's Glorification-- "Received up into glory,"
and exclaims, "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness." --1 Timothy 3:16.
It is surely a great mystery, for it is clothed in the miraculous.
Those who declare that this great mystery all originated in an ordinary birth only reveal their own total misconception of the
vastness of God's redemptive purpose. The law that every effect must have an adequate cause rules out the possibility that
Christ's birth could be a birth by ordinary generation. Such an effect as the supernatural incarnation demands for its adequate
cause the supernatural generation. To tamper with the miraculous in the birth of Christ always leads to a diminishing of the
supernatural in Christ all through His life and work. Prof. Gresham Machen says:
"Certain it is that men who reject the virgin birth scarcely ever hold to a really Christian view of Christ. Conceivably,
indeed, a man might reject this miracle and yet accept other miracles that the New Testament contains; conceivably a
man might hold Jesus to be a supernatural Person and yet reject the Gospel story about the manner of His entrance
into this world. But it would perhaps be difficult to find a single New Testament student of any prominence who holds
to such a view today. In the overwhelming majority of cases those who reject the virgin birth reject the whole
supernatural view of Christ. They often profess belief in the 'incarnation'; but the word is apt to mean to them almost
the exact opposite of what the New Testament means when it says that 'the Word became flesh.' To those modern men
the incarnation means that God and man are one; to the New Testament it means rather that they are not one, but that
the eternal Son of God became man, assumed our nature, by a stupendous miracle, to redeem us from sin. Seldom
does any real belief in the incarnation go along with a rejection of the miracle of the virgin birth."
Now the testimony that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God and as such is God the Son, stands impregnable.
1. The testimony of the Father-- "This is My Beloved Son."
Matthew 3:17-- "And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well
pleased."
Matthew 17:5-- "Behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a Voice out of the cloud,
which said, This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him."
2. The testimony of Christ Himself-- "Because I said, I am the Son of God."
John 10:36-- "Say ye of Him, Whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou
blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?"
3. The testimony of the Spirit of God-- "This is the Son of God."
John 1:32-34-- "And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove,
and it abode upon Him. And I knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said
unto me, Upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He
which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God."
4. The testimony of Gabriel-- "That Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
Luke 1:35-- "And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of
thee shall be called the Son of God."
5. The testimony of John the Baptist-- "This is the Son of God."
John 1:34-- "Upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He
which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God."
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6. The testimony of Nathaniel-- "Thou art the Son of God."
John 1:49-- "Nathanael answered and saith unto Him, Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the
King of Israel."
7. The testimony of the devils-- "Jesus, Thou Son of God."
Matthew 8:29-- "And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son
of God? art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?"
8. The testimony of the Apostles-- "Of a truth Thou art the Son of God."
Matthew 14:33-- "Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped Him, saying, Of a truth Thou
art the Son of God."
9. The testimony of Peter-- "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Matthew 16:16-- "And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God."
10. The testimony of those who crucified Christ-- "Truly this was the Son of God."
Matthew 27:54-- "Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the
earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of
God."
11. The testimony of the Word of God-- "Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God."
John 20:31-- "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and
that believing ye might have Life through His Name."
12. The testimony of the believer-- "Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
Acts 8:37-- "And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and
said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
It cannot be questioned that the term "Son of God" conveyed to those who heard it that Christ was God. For example, when
Christ Himself used the expression we read: "Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, Many
good works have I showed you from My Father; for which of those works do ye stone Me? The Jews answered Him, saying,
For a good work we stone Thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God." --John
10:31-33.
This twelve-fold testimony to the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is significant. Twelve in Scripture is the number of
governmental perfection. This was manifested in Patriarchal government, twelve patriarchs from Seth to Noah and his family
and twelve from Shem to Jacob; in National government in the Twelve Tribes of Israel; in Apostolic Government in the
Twelve Apostles, and in Celestial Government in the City of God, which is characterised by twelve, having twelve
foundations and twelve gates.
Twelve is the product of three and four. Three is the divine number, three persons in the Trinity, and four is the earthly
number, the four regions of the earth, north, south, east and west. In the number twelve we have both combined, so in the
twelvefold testimony we have all in heaven combined with all under the heaven, testifying to the fact that Jesus is the eternal
Son of God.
Such a testimony refutes any assertion that He was the son of a man and demands the Virgin Birth as the only possible
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medium of His incarnation.
FOURTH REASON: [OMITTED]
FIFTH REASON: I BELIEVE IN THE VIRGIN BIRTH BECAUSE THE SUPERNATURAL BLOOD OF CHRIST
NECESSITATES HIS SUPERNATURAL BIRTH
The whole emphasis of the Bible is on Redemption by the shedding of the Saviour's blood. From the shedding of blood in
Eden's garden for the clothing of our fallen first parents, to the great throng of the Apocalypse who sing of the Blood of the
Lamb, the Bible is a book of blood. The crimson from Immanuel's veins tinges every verse, every chapter and every book.
With the indelible writing of God in the crimson letters of the blood of redemption, God's eternal law stands written across
the whole volume. "Without shedding of blood is no remission." --Hebrews 9:22.
Where, however, among the sons of men can blood be found rich enough to pay the tremendous debt of sin, precious enough
to satisfy divine justice, strong enough to cancel sin's appalling guilt, pure enough to usher in the reign of righteousness,
overcoming enough to crush the devil and divine enough to redeem the elect of God?
God has made of one blood, we read, all the nations of the earth. By God's creation men's blood is one in composition. By
sin's ruination, [sinful] men's blood is one in pollution. Through the veins of [sinning] humanity flows a poisoned
bloodstream The life of the flesh is in the blood. The life of [sinning] man is totally depraved, therefore his blood is but
human depravity in solution. Such blood calls for judgment rather than appeasement. its shedding can only bring God's wrath
and not God's mercy.
Although this is true, yet wonder of wonders amongst the race of sinners and in the house of David, a house as much cursed
with sin as that of any other human family, there has been opened up a fountain for sin and for all uncleanness.
.
What sacred fountain yonder springs
Up from the throne of God,
And all new covenant blessings brings?
'Tis Jesus' precious blood.
What mighty sum paid all my debt

When I a bondman stood,
And has my soul at freedom set?
'This Jesus' precious blood.
What stream is that which sweeps away

My sins just like a flood,
Nor lets one guilty blemish stay?
What voice is that which speaks for me

In heaven's high court for good,
And from the curse has made me free?
What theme, my soul, shall best employ

Thy harp before thy God,
And made all heaven to ring with joy?
Commenting on 1 John 1:7, Bishop Westcott says, "Jesus His Son, the union in the one Person is clearly marked by the
contrast 'Jesus' 'His Son.' Here the human name Jesus brings out the possibility of the communication of Christ's blood, and
the divine name brings out the all-sufficing efficacy."
1. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has all the essentials necessary for the accomplishment of the great work of
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reconciliation. His Blood is innocent Blood as opposed to guilty blood. "I have betrayed innocent blood." --Matthew
27:4.
2. His Blood is precious Blood as opposed to corruptible blood. "With the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot." --1 Peter 1:19.
3. His Blood is incorruptible Blood as opposed to corruptible blood. "Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things...
But with the precious blood of Christ." --1 Peter 1:18-19.
4. His Blood is divine Blood as opposed to human blood. "The church of God, which He hath purchased with His own
blood." --Acts 20:28.
5. His Blood is supernatural Blood as opposed to natural blood. "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His
Own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." --Hebrews 9:12.
6. His Blood is voluntarily-shed Blood as opposed to accidentally spilled blood. "No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it
down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of
My Father." --John 10:18. "For this is My blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of
sins." --Matthew 26:28.
7. His Blood is cleansing Blood as opposed to congealed blood. "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth [keeps on
cleansing] us from all sin." --1 John 1:7.
8. His Blood is living Blood as opposed to lost blood. "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our
Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant." --Hebrews 13:20.
9. His Blood is peace-speaking Blood as opposed to enmity-arousing blood. "The blood of sprinkling, that speaketh
better things than that of Abel." --Hebrews 12:24.
10. His Blood is justifying Blood as opposed to the blood of judgment. "Being now justified by His blood, we shall be
saved from wrath through Him." --Romans 5:9.
Christ's Blood could only have these great attributes if He was Virgin-born... The supernatural blood necessitates the
supernatural birth.
It is an established physiological fact that the mother's blood is neither the source nor supply of the blood in the unborn
infant's veins. It is the contribution of the male which leads to the development of the blood. Without that vital contribution
no blood could be produced because the female of herself does not produce the elements essential for the production of this
new blood. Gray's Anatomy, a recognised medical authority, states: "The fetal and maternal blood currents do not
intermingle, being separated from each other by the delicate walls of the villi."
Woman was so constructed that in the production of her child none of her blood would enter the veins of her offspring. This
brings us back to Genesis and there we read: "And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and
He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made
He a woman, and brought her unto the man." --Genesis 2:21-22. The word used in verse 22 for the making of the woman is
literally "builded." God builded, or constructed, woman and she was constructed in such a manner that when she was
producing a child, that child's blood would be a new creation and not formed by the mother's bloodstream. Why did God so
build, or construct, the woman? Simply because He was anticipating the Virgin Birth and making ready the woman for the
great incarnation of God in human flesh.
Satan used the woman as the instrument to ruin the race, but God who is always ahead of the devil, forestalled him and had
already constructed the woman so that she would be the instrument to produce the Redeemer of the race. If the woman had
not been constructed in this manner and the production of blood in the unborn infant not so ordered, than Christ's blood
would have been common with the whole race and valueless to redeem. The Virgin Birth of Christ, which took place with no
male contribution which would originate the infant's blood in the usual way, but by a supernatural act of God thus originating
supernatural blood, is absolutely essential to the work of redemption. By such a birth and by such a birth alone could blood be
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produced-- precious, incorruptible, supernatural and divine, to redeem the fallen sons of Adam's accursed race.
As I view the almighty wisdom of God in the production of such blood the words of the angelic announcement of the Virgin
Birth come with fresh authority to my heart. "For with God nothing shall be impossible." --Luke 1:37.
Dr. De Haan of the Radio Bible Class, in his great message "The Chemistry of the Blood" commenting on this tremendous
truth, states:
"Not only is this a scientific fact, but it is plainly taught in Scripture that Jesus partook of human flesh without Adam's
blood. In Hebrews 2:14 we read: 'Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself
likewise took part of the same.' You will notice that the 'children', that is, the human children, are said to be partakers
of flesh and blood, and then, speaking of Jesus, this verse says that He Himself likewise 'took part of the same.' The
word 'took part' as applying to Christ is an entirely different word from 'partakers' as applied to the children. In the
margin of my Bible, I read that the word translated 'took part' implies 'taking part in something outside one's self.' The
Greek word for partakers in 'koynoncho' and means 'to share fully,' so that all of Adam's children share fully in
Adam's flesh and blood. When we read that Jesus 'took part of the same' the word is 'metecho' which means 'to take
part but not all.' The children take both flesh and blood of Adam but Christ took only part, that is, the flesh part,
whereas the blood was the result of supernatural conception."
I therefore believe in the Virgin Birth of Christ because His supernatural Blood necessitates His supernatural birth.
SIXTH REASON: I BELIEVE IN THE VIRGIN BIRTH BECAUSE THE SUPERNATURAL RESURRECTION OF
CHRIST COMPLEMENTS HIS SUPERNATURAL BIRTH
In Romans 1:4 we read that our Lord Jesus Christ was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of
holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." He was not made the Son of God by the resurrection but the resurrection was a
stupendous affirmation of what He already was. It was a declaration concerning His Person unparalleled in all history.
Through it He was manifested as the Conqueror of Death, the Master of Satan and the Victor of the Tomb. The empty tomb
with eloquence unequaled and logic unanswerable declares Him to be the Eternal son of the living God. If He had been
merely the son of a man His body would long since have turned to dust but because He was the Son of God even Hid dead
body was not mutilated by the fingers of corruption. God His Father would not suffer His flesh to see corruption.
Acts 2:31-- "He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in hell, neither His
flesh did see corruption."
Now the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is the best attested fact of history and has rightly been called the Gibraltar of all
the Christian evidences. Its truth has been impregnably established. This supernatural exit from the world of the Lord Jesus
Christ, i.e., the resurrection, demands the supernatural entrance into the world of Christ, i.e., the Virgin Birth. The
resurrection is the complement of the Virgin Birth and its logical outcome. Christ's miraculous birth could only be
complemented by Christ's miraculous resurrection and His resurrection could only be complemented by His Virgin Birth.
Both are absolutely necessary and the one without the other is unthinkable.
Professor Warfield states:
"It is appropriate that this miraculous life should be set between the great marvels of the virgin birth and the
resurrection and ascension These can appear strange only when the intervening life is looked upon as that of a merely
human being, endowed, no doubt, not only with unusual qualities, but also with the unusual favour of God, yet after
all nothing more than human and therefore presumably entering the world like other human beings, and at the end
paying the universal debt of human nature. From the standpoint of the evangelical writers, and of the entirety of
primitive Christianity, which looked upon Jesus not as a merely human being but as God Himself come into the world
on a mission of mercy that involved the humiliation of a human life and death, it would be this assumed community
with common humanity in mode of entrance into and exit from the earthly life which would seem strange and
incredible. The entrance of the Lord of Glory into the world could not but be supernatural; His exit from the world
after the work which He had undertaken had been performed, could not fail to bear the stamp of triumph. There is no
reason for doubting the trust-worthiness of the narratives at these points, beyond the anti-supernaturalistic instinct
which strives consciously to naturalize the whole evangelical narrative."
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The New Testament's comments on two prophetic psalms link beautifully together the birth and the resurrection of our Lord.
Hebrews 10:5-- "Wherefore when He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body
hast thou prepared Me." Here we have the Divine Preparation of our Lord's Body which is nothing else than the Virgin Birth.
Acts 2:27,31-- "Because Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption... He
[David] seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see
corruption." Here we have the Divine Preservation of the Lord's Body which is nothing else than the resurrection.
These two Scriptures also reveal the care of the Father for the body of our Lord. In our day the attack is spearheaded against
this precious and holy temple in which our Lord has eternally taken up habitation. Those who impugn the Virgin Birth are
seeking to make that holy and precious body an unholy and polluted piece of flesh. On the other hand the great battle of the
day concerning Christ's reconciling work centres around His bodily resurrection, which the critics maintain did not take
place. They are prepared to accept any doctrine of rising again but the New Testament doctrine of a Risen Christ Who
declared: "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself: handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye
see Me have." --Luke 24:39.
The object of their attacks in both cases is the supernaturally prepared and supernaturally preserved body of the Saviour.
The dynamic power of Christianity for almost two thousand years affirms the reality of the resurrection of Christ and by so
doing establishes the only adequate complement of that resurrection, the Virgin Birth.
SEVENTH REASON: I BELIEVE IN THE VIRGIN BIRTH BECAUSE THE SUPERNATURAL COMING AGAIN
OF CHRIST WILL VINDICATE HIS SUPERNATURAL BIRTH
The personal, visible and glorious coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Blessed Hope of the Christian Church. This
great hope that our Lord and Saviour is to return again is established by a fivefold testimony. Such a testimony cannot be
broken.
1. The Return of Christ is Divinely Revealed

The New Testament Scriptures abound with references to this doctrine. It has been ascertained that in the two hundred and
sixty chapters of the New Testament, there are no less than three hundred and eighteen references to it. No other subject is
more fully expanded.
The testimony of Christ alone is sufficient to establish beyond question this most important truth. "And if I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." --John 14:3. No words
could be more convincing. He is gone and He is coming again.
2. The Return of Christ is Prophetically Declared

The Old Testament prophets whose predictions of Christ's first advent came so wonderfully true, also spoke of His second
advent. The testimony of the prophetic Scriptures is conclusive that the King is coming back again. These prophetic
Scriptures have been confirmed by many miraculous fulfillments and stand impregnable. Without doubt, as the references to
Christ's first coming were all proved true so their references to Christ's second coming will also be gloriously vindicated. The
first of the great line of Old Testament prophets, Enoch, proclaimed this truth. "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam,
prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to
convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their
hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." --Jude 1:14-15.
With Peter we can say, "We have also a more sure Word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light
that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." --2 Peter 1:19.
3. The return of Christ is Angelically Affirmed

When our Lord ascended to heaven the apostles were given a wonderful affirmation of this glorious truth. In Acts chapter
one, verses ten and eleven we read, "Acts 1:10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two
men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same
Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Here is
angelical affirmation of Christ's second advent. Just as a heavenly messenger affirmed to Mary His first coming, so heavenly
messengers affirm His second coming.
Who would dare to challenge such a testimony or suggest that Luke's record is a fabrication?
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4. The Return of the Lord is Apostolically Confirmed

The Apostles in their writings confirm the doctrine. Peter speaks of "appearing and revelation" of our Lord Jesus Christ.
"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found
unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ... Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and
hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." --1 Peter 1:7,13. Paul says, "For
the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the
dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to
meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." --1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. James exhorts to patience, "Be ye
also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." --James 5:8. John declares, "Behold, He cometh
with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of
Him. Even so, Amen." --Revelation 1:7. In fact, every writer of the New Testament plainly confirms that "Unto them that
look for Him [Christ] shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." --Hebrews 9:28.
5. The Return of Christ is Believingly Anticipated

The fact that Christ is to return has been the source of inspiration of the true Church of Christ in all ages. If the Lord's second
coming were the mere fiction of fallible man and not the mighty fact of the infallible revelation, how can the purifying
inspiration of this doctrine be accounted for? When the Church really looked for Christ she really laboured for Christ. History
invariably records that when the Church lost sight of this glorious truth she became corrupted, decadent and unworthy of her
Lord, but when she was captivated with the thought that her Lord was coming for her, then the fires of evangelism burned
within her bosom and she made her greatest advancements. Who can deny that modern evangelical foreign missions owe
their origin and impetus to the recognition of the fact that "the coming of the Lord draweth nigh"?
.
Lo! He cometh! countless trumpets
Blow to raise the sleeping dead;
'Midst ten thousand saints and angels
See their great exalted Head.
Hallelujah!
Let the welcome summons spread!
Sow console our waiting spirit,

Hasten, Lord, the general doom!
And to dwell in heavenly mansions
Take Thy longing exiles home;
All creation
Travails, groans, and bids Thee come.
The Supernatural second coming of Christ will vindicate finally His supernatural Birth. That He is not a son of any man, but
the Virgin born incarnate Son of God, could have no greater vindication than this stupendous event. "That at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." --Philippians 2:10-11. Perish the thought that the
One Who is coming in the clouds, attended with angels and accompanied by all the glory of the eternal Father, is the mere
product of fallen humanity. Who could seriously accept such a proposition? The birth by which
.
"Being's source begins to be,
And God Himself is born!"
must be supernatural.
No wonder those who deny His miraculous birth, also eventually discard His miraculous life, His miraculous birth, His
miraculous resurrection and then finally His miraculous coming again.
The golden symmetry of the glorious gospel of the blessed God which presents the Christ of supernatural Life, supernatural
Death, supernatural Resurrection and supernatural Return would be irreparably violated if that Christ was not supernaturally
born.
Those of us who, however, have had a saving experience of the supernatural Christ know assuredly that He who receives us
into His Kingdom by a miraculous birth was Himself, for our salvation, miraculously born and He who makes us sons of God
is Himself the Son of God.
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.
I do not know how Bethlehem's Babe
Could in the Godhead be;
I only know the manger Child
Has brought God's life to me.
The Virgin Birth will always remain a mystery, but its fact is eternally demonstrated in the Person it produced.
To reject the virgin-born Christ is to reject the only real Christ in favour of a christ of men's own vain imagination.
This humanitarian christ, a non-entity by birth, is powerless to save sinners. To accept and preach him is to be a participator
in the "strong delusion" and to believe "a lie."
2 Thessalonians 2:11-- "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie."
Such a christ is "another Jesus" which Paul warned against.
2 Corinthians 11:4 "For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive
another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with
him."
To this false christ I owe no loyalty and give no allegiance.
The Christ to Whom I have sworn fealty is "my Lord and my God."
John 20:28 "And Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God."
.
Dearest of all the names above,
My Jesus, and my God,
Who can resist Thy heavenly love,
Or trifle with Thy blood?
'Tis by the merits of Thy death

The Father smiles again;
'Tis by Thine interceding breath
The Spirit dwells with men.
Till God in human flesh I see,

My thoughts no comfort find;
The Holy, Just, and Sacred Three
Are terrors to my mind.
But if Emmanuel's face appear,

My hope, my joy begins;
His name forbids my slavish fear,
His grace removes my sins.
While Jews on their own law rely,

And Greeks of wisdom boast,
I love the incarnate mystery,
And there I fix my trust.
.
THE END
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THE FULL DIVINITY OF CHRIST
OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST is God manifest in the flesh. God tabernacling in human form. When I say I believe in the full
deity of Christ, that is what I affirm.
At His birth our Lord Jesu Christ did not begin to exist. He was before all worlds Very God of Very God. Neither did He
cease to be God, He was, is and always shall be the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity. At the incarnation God the Son took
on another mode of existence by taking into union with Himself an impeccable human nature. The Westminister Confession
of Faith states:
"The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance, and equal
with the Father, did, when the fulness of time was come, take upon him man's nature, with all the essential
properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost,
in the womb of the Virgin Mary, of her substance. So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the
Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition,
or confusion. Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and
man."
It is the full deity of Christ as taught in the scriptures and defined in this statement for which I contend.
The aim of the so-called modernists is to dethrone Christ and rob Him of the attributes of Deity. To them Christ is a man,
howbeit a great man, an unparalleled man, a unique man but still only a man. He was subject, they affirm, to all the failings
common to humanity.
On the other hand, the traditional view of the church for which I contend affirms with Paul that "Christ is God over all blessed
forever" and because He is God the saints can acclaim "Jesus never fails."
In this message I want to advance seven reasons which buttress my faith in the full deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
FIRST REASON: THE UNSHAKEABLE HISTORICITY OF THE PERSON OF CHRIST
Attempts have been made, and no doubt will continue to be made, to destroy the historical Christ as portrayed in the New
Testament. The assertion that Christ was a real person, born at the time and in the way the gospels state, living the life the
gospels portray, dying the death the gospels record and rising again from the dead as the gospels narrate, has been challenged
on every side.
Rationalistic writers have sought to explain away the historical Christ by seeking to establish that Christ is a composite idea
made up of many forms of religious thought.
Professor Jensen of the University of Marburg, a typical exponent of this school of thought, states:
"Jesus of Nazareth, in whom, as in the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, Christianity has believed for
nearly two thousand years, and who is regarded, even by the most advanced scholarship of our own day, as a
good and great man who lived and died the sublime pattern of the ideal ethical life -- this Jesus has never lived
upon earth; neither has He died, because He is nothing but an Israelitish Gilgamesh. We, the children of a
much lauded time of progress and achievements, we who look down upon the superstitions of the past with a
forbearing smile, we worship in our cathedrals and churches, in our meeting-houses and schools, in palaces
and shanties, a Babylonian deity."
In a similar manner so-called modernistic writers negate the actuality of the historical Christ of the gospels by means of "a
literary and higher criticism." For example, in a recent book "The Jesus of St. John," Principal J. E. Davey of the Irish
Presbyterian College, Belfast, writes:
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"Thus one must, I think, not claim too much, in the spheres of historical and literary criticism, for the factual
worth of the peculiarly Johannine material; and the discourses are obviously expansions due to meditation,
whether of historical sayings of Jesus or of apocryphal material based on the utterances of Christian prophets,
or are imaginative constructions of the evangelist or his sources."
To the modernist school the Christ portrayed in the gospels is partly historical, partly apocryphal and partly whimsical.
Paul anticipated the manufactured Jesus of both the philosophical and theological rationalists and warns against the preaching
of "another Jesus" 2 Corinthians 11:4.
Different Estimates of Christ
The searching question of our Lord Himself, "Whom do men say that I am?" rings down through the corridors of time
challenging the men of every age.
The estimate of the iniquitous Jewish leaders, "He hath a devil and is mad" (John 10:20) re-echoes in the blasphemies of the
infidels and sceptics.
The estimate of Nicodemus before his conversion that Christ was a great religious teacher finds its echo in the words of
unbelieving men of the centuries who have paid tribute to the genius of Christ.
Renan, the French infidel, said:
"All history is incomprehensible without him. He created the object and fixed the starting point of the future
faith of humanity. He is the incomparable man to whom the universal conscience has deemed the title Son of
God and that with justice."
Colonel Robert Ingersoll, the notorious American sceptic, stated:
"I wish to say once for all that to that great and serene man I pay, I gladly pay, the homage of my admiration
and tears."
Our Lord followed up His general enquiry with the individual enquiry "But whom say ye that I am?" Peter replied, "Thou art
the Christ the Son of the Living God."
I am of Peter's persuasion and it is the Christ whom Peter confessed for which I contend.
The question of Christ's contemporaries, "What manner of man is this?" is the question that has baffled the faithless
philosophers of the ages. The greatest intellects cannot on any natural basis explain His life, death, resurrection or His power,
universal influence and moral glory.
Viewing the Cross with Christ in the throes of His mighty passion, the centurion in charge became awed with solemn
conviction and exclaimed, "Verily this was a righteous man." That answer, however, was not sufficient. With conscience
disturbed he had yet another word to speak. When his dreadful task was finished as he rode away from that awful scene he
turned and took a final view of the crucified Christ. Then he cried out again, "Verily this was the Son of God." That word of
the centurion is the only adequate answer to the age-long enquiry, "But whom say ye that I am?"
The Supernaturalness of the Gospels
Now the master brains of all lands and ages have tried in vain to portray a perfect character. Their attempts all resulted in a
remarkable demonstration of the invulnerable fact that it is beyond the genius of man to paint a God-like man.
How comes it then, that four men, condemned by their learned contemporaries as "unlearned and ignorant" have
accomplished such a task? There is only one answer, they had before them the person about whom they wrote. They were not
novelists but eye-witnesses. It is self-evident that man could sooner create a world as invent the Christ of the gospels. It is
also self-evident that the evangelists wrote under the inspiration of God. Only Inspiration could record Incarnation.
Many other pens have attempted the colossal task of writing the life of Christ and their spurious gospels are themselves a
convincing testimony to their ignominious failure. Of these apocryphal gospels Prebendary C. A. Row writes:
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"The case stands thus: our Gospels present us with a glorious picture of a mighty Saviour, the mythic gospels
with that of a contemptible one. In our Gospels He exhibits a superhuman wisdom; in the mythic ones a nearly
equal superhuman absurdity. In our Gospels He is arrayed in all the beauty of holiness; in the mythic ones this
aspect of character is entirely wanting. In our Gospels not one stain of of sinfulness defiles His character; in
the mythic ones the Boy Jesus is both pettish and malicious. Our Gospels exhibit to us a sublime morality; not
one ray of it shines in those of the mythologists. The miracles of the one and of the other stand contrasted on
every point."
Another proof of the supernaturalness of the gospels is their indiminishable store of wisdom and knowledge compressed into
such small compass. For example, my copy of Geikie "Life and Words of Christ" contains 739 pages, my copy of Farrar's
"Life of Christ" contains 690 pages, my copy of Patterson-Smyth's "The People's Life of Christ" contains 336 pages, and my
copy of Stalker's handbook "The Life of Jesus Christ" contains 155 pages. In contrast, in my copy of the Authorized Version,
Matthew's gospel is contained in 46 pages, Mark's in 30 pages, Luke in 49 pages and John's in 36 pages. Notice the contrast,
the four "Lives" contain almost 2,000 pages, but the four gospels only 161 pages.
Almost innumerable volumes have been written explaining and commenting on the Four Gospels and yet their wealth of
wisdom is not exhausted. Why this undiminished wealth? From what source did the evangelists gain this eternal wisdom?
How did they attain their skill to portray the unfading beauty of the Perfect Life? Who taught them to describe a Person Who
to this day is unparalleled in history? There can be but one answer to these questions, The Living Christ was before them and
the Living Spirit infallibly enabled them to portray Him to the ages. This Christ is portrayed by them as none other than the
Mighty God enthroned in humanity.
I therefore believe in the Full Deity of Christ because of the Unshakeable Historicity of His Person.
SECOND REASON: THE UNQUESTIONABLE RELIABILITY OF THE PROPHECIES OF CHRIST
Christ is both the great Prophet of Scripture and the great Person of scriptural prophecy. Prophetic utterances heralded forth
His advent and His whole Person, Birth, Life, Death and Resurrection were prophetically unveiled long before His actual
entrance into the world. These prophecies, foretold many hundreds of years beforehand, the place, the time, the circumstances
and the characteristics of Christ's coming and they were fulfilled to the minutest detail.
If their testimony concerning the circumstances of Christ's birth stand impregnable, by what law of evidence can their
testimony to Christ's person be rejected?
Now the prophetic unveiling of Christ's Birth in the Old Testament is never divorced from the prophetic declaration
concerning His Person and Work.
Genesis 3:15. The earliest prophecy in Genesis 3:15 "He shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise His heel" not only
foretold Christ as the seed of the woman but also that He was to be the Person of Power who would crush the great adversary
of the human race. That Eve was in no doubt about this Person is evident from her exclamation when Cain was born, "I have
gotten a man, the Lord." Genesis 4:1. (There is no word in the Hebrew corresponding to the word "from" in our translation).
The learned Dr. Gill comments:
"It would appear that she took that seed to be a divine person, the true God, even Jehovah, that should become
man."
Eve was mistaken in thinking that Cain was the promised seed but she made no mistake in thinking that the promised seed
when He came would be none other than God Himself.
Dr. Munro Gibson says:
"Just as God wraps up in the seed, the stem and the root, the leaves and the branches, and all that afterwards
comes out of it, so in this old seed-bed of theology as we may call it, He wraps up all the most important
things which are afterwards fully unfolded."
Thus even here in the twilight of prophecy we catch a glimpse of the full deity of Jesus the Son of God.
Genesis 49:8-12. As the book of Genesis nears its end, another great prophetic utterance calls for attention -- the prophecy of
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Jacob concerning Judah found in Genesis 49:8-12. Each succeeding prophecy unfolds something new concerning the coming
One. In this particular prophecy four great truths are revealed concerning Christ.
His Sonship would be Special.
"Thy father's children shall bow down before thee," Genesis 49:8. The word translated "bow
down" is the same word which occurs in the second commandment concerning graven images.
"Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them." Exod. 20:5. In this prophecy those who by the
ordinary course of nature should be equal with the Messiah "thy father's children" were to bow
down to Him in the same manner as they would bow down and worship their God.
Now the name Judah means "Glory to God" and the name Shiloh "peace." In this connection
Dr. Gibson points out:
"There is, I cannot help thinking, something more than curiosity in the fact, that
if the Hebrew equivalents were given for the Greek words in the hymn which
was sung by the angels over Bethlehem's plains, when the great son of Judah
was born there, a Prince and a Saviour it might read thus, 'Judah' in the highest
and on earth 'Shiloh'; 'Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace'."
Yes, Christ's Sonship is Special.
His Sovereignty would be Supreme.
"Thy hand shall be in the neck of thy enemies," Genesis 49:8. This prophecy has a further
development in that great prophetic Psalm, Psalm 2. "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the
heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt
break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."
Yes, Christ's Sovereignty is Supreme.
His Sceptre would be Supernatural.
"Unto Him shall the gathering of the people be," Genesis 49:10. Here we have the magnetism
of the Divine Personality, a prophetic echo of the New Testament affirmation, "And I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." John 12:32. The pivot of the gathering is
Christ and its perimeter runs out into all the earth.
People and realms of every tongue

Dwell on His love with sweetest song;
And infant voices shall proclaim
Their early blessings on His name.
Yes, Christ's Sceptre is Supernatural.
His Sacrifice would be Salvation.
"He washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes," Genesis 49:11.
This wonderful unfolding of the blood-shedding at Calvary has its parallel in Isaiah 63:1-5:
"Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in
his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to
save.
"Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the
winefat?
"I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread
them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my
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garments, and I will stain all my raiment.
"For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.
"And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold:
therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me."
Complete atonement thou hast made,

And to the utmost farthing is paid
Whate'er Thy people owed;
How then can wrath on me take place,
If sheltered in Thy righteousness,
And sprinkled with Thy blood?
Yes, Christ's Sacrifice is Salvation.
Who else could this be? One, whose Sonship is Special, whose Sovereignty is Supreme, whose Sceptre is Supernatural and
whose Sacrifice is Salvation. This could be none other than God Himself. Every circumstance of this prophecy has been
fulfilled in Christ and Christ must therefore be God.
Isaiah 9:6. The twilight of Genesis now gives place to the morning of Isaiah. The prophetic vision becomes clearer.
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."
Here we have not only a child born but a son given. The Son of God could not be born by human generation. God so loved
that He gave. The Son was given. He could, however, only be given by an incarnation hence the child was born. Who was the
Son? None other than the Mighty God. Note, too, this was His name after the incarnation, "He shall be called."
The Son of God, the Son of man,

Who was before the world began,
Who is, and evermore shall be
One God to all eternity.
The child is none other than Jesus of Nazareth, and He is the Son and being the Son the Mighty God and Father of Eternity.
The prophecy concerning His birth was absolutely correct, so also is this prophetic testimony to His glorious Person.
Daniel 9:25 and Micah 5:2
In Daniel the morning has given place to mid-day and the very time of the coming of the Messiah is declared.
"Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the
Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in
troublous times." [Daniel 9:25].
In the previous verse we are told who the Messiah, the Anointed One, is. He is the Most Holy, none other than God Himself.
Also in the mid-day of prophecy a clear vision is given of the very place of Christ's birth.
"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto
me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." [Micah 5:2].
Nothing could be plainer. Christ was to be born in Bethlehem. This scripture was fulfilled to the last letter and although
circumstances seemed to point to Nazareth as the likely place of Christ's birth yet through the decree of a heathen emperor the
expectant mother was brought to Bethlehem and there the child was born. The prophecy is equally plain concerning the
Person who was to come forth at Bethlehem. "His goings forth have been of old, from everlasting, or from the days of
eternity." (marginal reading).
This could refer to no one but Jehovah Himself. Now history demonstrates that the first part of the prophecy is unassailable,
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how then can the second part be questioned?
Malachi 3:1
In Malachi we come to the evening of the Old Testament prophetic vision: "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall
prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the
covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts."
Here the ministry of John the Baptist is foretold and then fast on the heels of the forerunner the advent of the greater
Messenger, the Messenger of the Covenant. Who is He? The prophet answers, "The Lord." Where does He come to? The
prophet replies, "Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But He spake of the
temple of His body," John 2:20, 21.
Who came suddenly to that temple of flesh prepared by the Father's hand for His reception? None other than Jehovah the Son.
Ere the blue heavens were stretched abroad,

From everlasting was the Word;
With God He was, the Word was God,
And must divinely be adorned.
But lo! He leaves those heavenly forms,

The Word descends and dwells in clay,
That He must hold converse with worms
Dress'd in such feeble flesh as they.
Mortals with joy behold His face,

The eternal Father's only Son;
How full of truth! how full of grace!
When through His eyes the Godhead shone.
We conclude this brief survey of Messianic prophecy by repeating the question asked at the commencement, "If the testimony
of prophecy concerning Christ's birth and work stands impregnable, by what law can the same testimony concerning Christ's
Person be rejected?" The reliable prophecies declare that, He is God.
So I believe in the Full Deity of Christ because of the Unquestionable Reliability of the Prophecies concerning Him.
THIRD REASON: THE UNIMPEACHABLE VALIDITY OF THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST
The fact that our Lord Jesus Christ claimed to be God is incontestable. A study of His actual words as recorded in the gospels
demonstrate in at least seven ways that He placed Himself on a place of equality with God the Father and so coupled Himself
with the Godhead as to leave no doubt concerning His full and eternal Deity.
1. Christ claimed to be the God of Heaven
The title "Son of God" He repeatedly appropriated to Himself. By designating Himself by this divine title He
emphatically declared that He was God. That this name Son of God distinctly conveyed such a stupendous
claim to His hearers cannot be questioned. "Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not
only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God," John
5:18. "The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because
that thou, being a man, makest thyself God," John 10:33.
It was upon this title and its divine claim that the whole proceedings against Christ before the Sanhedrin were
based. "But Jesus held his peace, And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living
God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said:
nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and
coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what
further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy," Matthew 26:63-65.
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Luke supplements Matthew's account thus: "Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said
unto them, Ye say that I am," Luke 22:70.
Now if this interpretation of the Jews was erroneous it was the bounden duty of the Lord to set them right,
especially when upon this very interpretation they were going to stain their hands with His blood. Our Lord,
however, said nothing to show that they were under a misapprehension. He sealed the title "Son of God" with
His life's blood.
Under such circumstances, if Christ was not what He claimed to be, God incarnate in the flesh, what language
would be strong enough to condemn this act of the basest deception? What would we think of one who would
incite others to murder by a deliberate silence when one word could clear away the dreadful misapprehension?
This awful alternative I cannot accept, therefore I believe Him to be what He Himself claimed, the God of
Heaven.
2. Christ claimed to be King of both Worlds
"The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend,
and them which do iniquity," Matthew 13:41.
Here, in the plainest possible manner the Lord Jesus declares that He is King of both worlds. If He is not that
universal King then what must we think of Him?
3. Christ claimed to be Sovereign of the Law
As the Lawgiver is greater than the Law so did Christ exalt Himself above the Law. In the Sermon on the
Mount this sovereignty is implicit.
Seven in Scripture is the perfect number, and seven times Christ wields His perfect sceptre. He elevates the
law until it glows with the glory of the Christian ethic prefacing His commands on the whole range of human
duty with the simple yet sublime declaration, "But I say unto you." By this statement He not only places
Himself on a level with the law but as He defines and extends the limits of the laws already propagated and
adds new laws, He declares unquestionably that He is the Lawgiver Himself. (See Matthew 5:20, 22, 28, 32,
34, 39, 44.) ["20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven... 22 But I say unto you, That
whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall
say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in
danger of hell fire... 28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath
committed adultery with her already in his heart... 32 But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his
wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that
is divorced committeth adultery... 34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's
throne... 39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn
to him the other also... 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Matthew 5:20, 22, 28, 32, 34, 39,
44).]
4. Christ claimed to be the Judge of all Men
The eternal reception of joy, "Come ye blessed" and the eternal sentence of doom, "Depart ye cursed," Christ
claims will be pronounced by none but Himself. He will discern between the moral ability or inability of all
souls from Adam until the day of judgment.
5. Christ claimed to be the Lord of All
Over the divine institution of the Sabbath Christ claimed jurisdiction. "For the Son of man is Lord even of the
sabbath day," Matthew 12:8. Over the church and all her ordinances Christ claimed supremacy. "Go ye
therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway,
even unto the end of the world," Matthew 28:19, 20.
Over the very heaven of heaven He also claimed Lordship. "And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you,
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That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory,
ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel," Matthew 19:28. The very places in
heaven are prepared and assigned by Christ Himself. He is Lord in His Father's house. "In my Father's house
are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you," John 14:2.
6. Christ claimed to be Equal to the Father
The mighty works of the Father in creation, providence and redemption He claimed to be able to do. "For
what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise," John 5:19.
In the great High Priestly Prayer of John 17, Christ places His will and purpose on equality with the Father's
will and purpose. Only an equal would dare to address the Father and say, "Father, I will that they also, whom
thou hast given me, be with me where I am," John 17:24.
Granted, He said, speaking as the Mediator in the redemptive purpose of God, "My Father is greater than I,"
John 14:28. In contrast, however, speaking of His Deity He said, "I and my Father are one," John 10:30.
7. Christ claimed to be the Giver of Life
Christ claimed to be the giver of both physical and spiritual life. "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in
the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto
the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation," John 5:28, 29. "My
sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand," John 10:27, 28.
All that pertains unto eternal life Christ claims to give.
Forgiveness: "And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.
And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh
blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? But when Jesus perceived their thoughts,
he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? Whether is easier, to say, Thy
sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man
hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee,
Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house," Luke 5:20-24.
Rest: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my
yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto
your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light," Matthew 11:28-30.
Peace: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto
you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid," John 14:27.
Sonship: "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name," John 1:12.
No one else but Christ dared to say, "I am the resurrection and the life."
Now these tremendous claims of Christ have been so established by Him that they stand unimpeachable.
Christ's immaculate character alone impregnably establishes them. Even sceptics and infidels have paid their tributes to His
unblemished honour and humility. How then could Christ Who is universally admitted to be of unparalleled nobility and
character be anything else but what He claimed to be? Who could say after careful study of Christ's life that He was a
deceiver and an imposter? There is but one inexhorable alternative -- If Christ is not God He is not good. By proving His
sanity one proves His deity.
Hence I believe in the Full Deity of Christ because of the Unimpeachable Validity of His Claims.
FOURTH REASON: THE UNALTERABLE AUTHORITY OF THE WORDS OF CHRIST
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"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away," Matthew 24:35. The acid test of the passing of the
centuries has failed to destroy the truthfulness of this assertion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Down through the generations
Christ's words have established, beyond controversy, their unalterable authority. The closest scrutiny, and the bitterest enmity
have failed to undermine their impregnable veracity and stability. Dr. R. A. Torrey comments:
"All the artillery of science, literature, philosophy, political intrigue, sarcasm, ridicule, worldly ambition,
force, all the artillery of earth and hell, have been trained upon the words of Christ, and for centuries at a time
an almost incessant cannonade has been kept up. Sometimes weak hearts have been shaken by the roar of the
battle, but the words of Christ have remained absolutely unshaken. There has not been one single stone
dislodged from these fortifications. Words that can come out of eighteen centuries of such experience as that
unscathed, unscarred, unmarred, will stand forever."
One great demonstration of the proof of the unalterable authority of Christ's words is the story of His anointing for burial.
"Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of
very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation,
saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus
understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the
poor always with you; but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my
burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this
woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her," Matthew 26:6-13.
These words of Christ spoken in an obscure village of a vassal state to an inconspicuous company of people have been
fulfilled in all generations. Throughout the whole world, under all circumstances, in many different climates and to various
classes of people this story has been told as was infallibily predicted by Christ. As another Matthew (quaint old Matthew
Henry) remarks:
"This act of faith and love was so remarkable, that the preachers of Christ crucified, and the inspired writers of
the history of his passion, could not choose but take notice of this passage, proclaim the notice of it, and
perpetuate the memorial of it. And being once enrolled in these records, it was graven as with an iron pen and
lead in the rock for ever, and could not possibly be forgotten. None of all the trumpets of fame sound so loud
and so long as the everlasting gospel."
And is it not wonderful to think that as the reader peruses this very page the unalterable authority of Christ's word is
demonstrated yet another time this scripture is fulfilled?
The One Who of Himself spoke such words must surely be God. Never man spake like this man, for this is not man but God
in human form.
So I believe in the Full Deity of Christ because of the Unalterable Authority of His Words.
FIFTH REASON: THE UNASSAILABLE PURITY OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST
The heavenly immaculateness of Christ's life is the great demonstration of His Deity. Against the dark background of the
universal sinfulness of the race Christ stands our in unique contrast. Without doubt the writers of the New Testament viewed
Him absolutely without sin.
Paul--- "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him," 2 Corinthians 5:21. "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin," Hebrews 4:15.
Peter--- "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth," 1 Peter 2:22.
John--- "And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin," 1 John 3:5.
Even Christ's enemies had to admit this self-evident fact. On a garment which is dirty to begin with, many more stains may
escape detection, but on a garment immaculately white, the smallest stain cries out for attention. Christ's enemies could not
even find the smallest stain. Even those who were primarily responsible for His death gave striking testimony to His
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sinlessness.
Pilate, Christ's judge, as he seeks to disassociate himself from the sentence which he has been forced to pass,
exclaims three times: "I find no fault in Him," John 18:38; 19:4, 6.
Pilate's Wife, in an effort to deter her husband from the fatal act, warns: "Have thou nothing to do with that
just man," Matthew 27:19.
Judas the betrayer adds his testimony in the wail of hellish remorse, "I have betrayed the innocent blood,"
Matthew 27:4.
The Centurion who carried out the crucifixion concluded his awful task by exclaiming, "Certainly this was a
righteous man," Luke 23:47.
The Dying Thief who a few moments before reviled Christ (Matthew 27:44) testified, "This man hath done
nothing amiss," Luke 23:41.
Before the crucifixion Christ capped the climax of His spotless career with a devastating challenge to His unrelenting foes,
the Scribes and Pharisees, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?"
Further, in the gospels Jesus is never recorded as confessing sin. Over and over again He called for confession and repentance
on the behalf of others, but to Himself required no such experience. A troubled conscience was something absolutely
unknown to our Saviour. Dr. F. D. Jenkins writes:
"Had His nature entertained one touch of sin, one momentary flickering of an evil impulse, though He may
have concealed it at the time, He could never have thus carried the sham through life, for
(1) conscience, though temporarily stifled is inevitably its own Nemesis;
(2) the slightest, most transient sin not only lingers ineffaceably in human nature, but redoubles
its reproducing power by natural law; and progressively lowers the internal resistance until a
final breakdown and exposure is inevitable."
The sinlessness of Christ is incontestable. What J. P. Richer, the German poet truly wrote is true:
"He is purest among the mighty, and the mightiest among the pure -- and still continues to rule and guide the
ages."
Now I contend that if Christ was unassailably pure -- and the united testimony of friends and foes affirm it along with the
consensus of opinion of the ages -- then no mere natural explanation can possibly define His person. He who stands out as the
phenomenon in history, the moral miracle of the ages, can only adequately be explained in the words of John. "In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth," John 1:1, 14.
No other conclusion but that Jesus is God can define the exceptional Personality to whom sinlessness is predicated.
Therefore I believe in the Full Deity of Christ because of the Unassailable Purity of His Life.
SIXTH REASON: THE UNCONTRADICTABLE ACTUALITY OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST
The Resurrection of Christ has been rightly called, "the Gibraltar of Christian Evidences and the Waterloo of Infidelity."
It is the best attested fact in history and the keystone of Christianity. Is it not surprising that many accept the authority of the
gospel narratives in regard to the death of Christ but reject their testimony to His resurrection? How do we know that Christ
died? By exactly the same authority which tells us He rose again.
Now the evidence for His resurrection is of the most extensive and reliable nature. The trustworthiness of the gospel
narratives, the circumstantial evidence and the witness of Christian experience and the witness of Christian experience form a
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combined testimony to the actuality of the resurrection of Christ which is absolutely unshakeable. Now Christ declared that
the resurrection was the supreme test of His Messiahship. By this, His claim to be the Son of God was to be emphatically
vindicated. Now is Christ risen from the dead and thus is "declared to be the Son of God with power," Romans 1:4. Professor
James Orr states:
"If the premises of the Christian view are correct as to Christ's claim to be the Son of God, and as to the connection of sin
with death, it was impossible that He, the Holy One, should be holden of death. The Prince of Life must overcome death. His
resurrection is the pledge that death shall yet be swallowed up in victory.
"On the other hand, the denial of Christ's resurrection leads to a subversion of His whole claim as unfounded. If historically
real, the resurrection of Christ is a confirmation of Christ's entire claim; if it did not happen, this alone negates it. The
resurrection is thus an integral part of the Christian view. In this respect also -- as well as in its bearing on our justification --
we may say: "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins," (1 Cor. 15:17)."
No one but God could lay down His life and take it again. The empty tomb empties Unitarianism of its arguments. Deity
alone could smash the strong bands of Death. He Who is Lord of Death and Hell is surely Lord of All.
He dies! the Friend of sinners dies!

Lo! Salem's daughters weep around!
A solemn darkness veils the skies,
A sudden trembling shakes the ground:
Come, saints, and with your tears bedew
The Sufferer, bruised beneath your load;
He poured out cries and tears for you,
He shed for you His precious blood.
Here's love and grief beyond degree:

The Lord of Glory dies for man!
But lo! what sudden joys I see:
Jesus, the dead, revives again!
The rising God forsakes the tomb;
The tomb in vain forbids His rise!
Cherubic legions guard Him home,
And shout Him welcome to the skies!
Break off your tears, ye saints, and tell

How high your great Deliverer reigns;
Sing how He spoiled the hosts of hell,
And led the monster death in chains.
Say, Live for ever, wondrous King!
Born to redeem, and strong to save!
Then ask the monster, Where's thy sting?
And, Where's thy victory, boasting grave?
I believe then, in the Full Deity of Christ because of the Uncontradictable Actuality of His Resurrection.
SEVENTH REASON: THE UNSURPASSABLE VITALITY OF THE POWER OF CHRIST
Throughout all generations the unsurpassable vitality of the power of Christ has been both demonstrated and vindicated.
Compare the influence of Christ with the influence of Mohammed, Buddha and Confucius. The influence of the great
comparative religions is sullied with the depravity of their founders but the influence of Christianity is sanctified by the
impeccability of its founder.
"What is, after all," asks Professor Warfield,
"the fundamental difference between Christianity and other 'positive' religions? Does it not turn just on this --
that the founders of the other religions point out the way to God while Christ presents Himself as that way? It
is primary teaching that we receive, when we are told: 'Buddha and Confucius, Zarathustra and Mohammed
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are no doubt the first confessors of the religions which have been founded by them, but they are not the
content of these religions, and they stand in an external and to a certain extent accidental relation to them.
Their religions could remain the same even though their names were forgotten, or their persons replaced by
others. In Christianity, however, it is altogether different. Christianity stands to the Person of Christ in a
wholly different relation from that of the religions of the peoples to the persons by whom they have been
founded. Jesus is not the first confessor of the religion which bears His name. He was not the first and most
eminent Christian, but He holds in Christianity a wholly different place ... Christ is Christianity itself; He
stands not outside of it but in its centre; without His name, person and work, there is no Christianity left. In a
word, Christ does not point out the way of salvation; He is the Way itself."
The power of Christ to elevate is unquestionable. The triumph of evangelical missions is surely proof enough of that. Every
day throughout the world men and women hopelessly lost in sin are being saved by the transforming power of the risen
Christ. When all else fails Christ is triumphant. The experience of salvation witnesses to the fact that "Jesus is Lord to the
glory of God the Father."
Any doubt the soul may have about the Full Deity of Christ is quickly dispelled when contact is made with His Divine
Person. When His hand touches us we know it is the hand of God. When His power lifts us we know it is the power of God.
When His grace saves us we know it is the grace of God. When His love embraces us we know it is the love of God. When
His peace fills us we know it is the peace of God. When His joy thrills us we know it is the joy of God. When His presence
surrounds us we know it is the presence of God. And when He Himself speaks to us we know He is "God over all, blessed
forever."
As Dr. R. W. Dale has said:
"What it is to find God or to be found of God every devout man knows, but the secret cannot be told. We feel
His touch, and we know that the unseen Hand can be only His. There is a power upon us, and we need no
visible sign or symbol to assure us that it is the power of the Eternal. A light shines; we know that it is Divine.
In solitary places -- on the hills, by the sea, among the cornfields, in the woods -- in the crowded streets of
great cities, the glory finds us. It finds us when we do not seek it; sometimes when we seek we cannot find it.
And to Christian men these great hours often come when they are reading the Four Gospels. They witness a
diviner transfiguration than that which Peter, James and John saw on the sides of Hermon. They become
independent of the proof-texts on which biblical theologians have built their argument for our Lord's divinity;
as they read, Christ commands their reverence, their love, their worship. They may know nothing of
theological definitions, they may be perplexed by the terms of the creeds; but to them Christ is what God is,
and apart even from the authority of His own words, it would be in their hearts to say that, having seen Him,
they have seen the Father."
I believe therefore in the Full Divinity of Christ because of the Unsurpassable Vitality of His Power.
I could not conclude these arguments more appropriately than be recording that worshipful and triumphant Te Deum:
THE GLORIOUS COMPANY OF THE APOSTLES PRAISE THEE.

THE GOODLY FELLOWSHIP OF THE PROPHETS PRAISE THEE.
THE NOBLE ARMY OF MARTYRS PRAISE THEE.
THE HOLY CHURCH THROUGHOUT ALL THE WORLD ACKNOWLEDGE THEE.
THOU ART THE KING OF GLORY, O CHRIST;
THOU ART THE EVERLASTING SON OF THE FATHER.
THE END

THE ATONING BLOOD OF CHRIST
MY SUBJECT IS, "Seven reasons why I believe in the Atoning Blood of Christ." This vital consideration brings us to the
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fulcrum of the great operation of the Divine Revelation, to the centre of the vast circumference of Divine Redemption and to
the very heart of the throbbing purpose of Divine Reconciliation. We come from the shallows of human speculation to the
depths of divine revelation when we come to the Blood. We step at this juncture from the shadows of Old Testament typology
to the blazing sunshine of New Testament theology. It is here we launch our souls from the shores of man's estimate into the
boundless, tideless, endless sea of God's ultimate.
THE GEOMETRICS OF THE GOSPEL
No wonder Paul upon his knees longed that the Ephesian believers might know the geometrics of the gospel, the breadth and
length, the depth and height. ["To comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height."] Eph.
3:18. The breadth suggests the scope of it and it is broader than all sin, for where sin abounded grace did superabound. It is
vaster than the broad horizon's rim, for it reaches out to the extremity of the ruling sceptre of the Eternal and our Sovereign's
writ runs everywhere. The length proclaims the eternity of it and it is far longer than sin. Sin entrenches over the generations
and circumscribes their activities but grace spans the two eternities. The depth describes its power. It's potential baffles human
definition. Thank God it drowns our guilty burdens in its unfathomable deeps. The height speaks of the glory of it. It overtops
the topless steeps of the divine and loses itself in the glory of which and by which it was begotten.
A BLOODSTAINED GOSPEL
Ours is a bloodstained gospel. The Blood of the cross is the centre, but it flows in mighty torrent out to the circumference. It
is the pivot by which and around which the whole revolves. It is the heart but it throbs its incorruptible crimson life into the
whole body.
In the Divine eyes the heavens are bloodmarked, the earth is bloodmarked and the elect are bloodmarked. We bow before a
Bloodstained Throne, once a fiery throne of judgment, now by blood a mercy seat. The Church is a Bloodstained Church
purchased with the price most precious, 'tis the blood of God's dear Son. Our Bible is a Bloodstained Book. Prick the body of
heavenly divinity anywhere and out pours the life tide of Emmanuel. It is a crimson Book. Heaven is a Bloodstained Heaven
into which with His own Blood our Redeemer has entered. Our access to God is by a Bloodstained Path, only the Saviour's
bloodmarks can guide us to the throne. Our song is a Bloodstained Song, it recounts the emancipating power of Golgotha's
bloodshedding.
NOT WITHOUT BLOOD
What immensity of truth finds expression in the scripture precept "not without blood." God can pardon but "not without
blood." ["And almost all things are by the Law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission"] Hebrews
9:22. Men can be redeemed, but "not without blood," ["The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin"] 1 John
1:7. Heaven can be gained but "not without blood," ["Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the
blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh"]
Hebrews 10:19, 20. Peace can be enjoyed but "not without blood," ["And, having made peace through the blood of His Cross,
by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven"] Colossians
1:20. Justification can be ours but "not without blood," ["Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be
saved from wrath through Him"] Romans 5:9. Sanctification can be experienced but "not without blood," ["Wherefore Jesus
also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate"] Hebrews 13:12. Glorification can be
ours but "not without blood," ["And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of
Great Tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the
throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them"]
Revelation 7:14, 15.
The King's Highway has been blasted out of the Rock of Ages and cemented together by the Blood of the cross, and it is the
only way from the City of Destruction to the City that lies foursquare. Men sail to hell on the Dead Sea of sin; but we sail to
heaven on the Red sea of the Redeemer's Blood.
THE SATANIC COUNTERFEIT
In all our study of the scriptures we need ever to remember that over against the Sovereign Covenant of God there is the
Satanic counterfeit of the "god of this world." For instance, over against the Divine Trinity there stands the satanic trinity, the
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dragon , the beast, and the false prophet; over against the christ stands the antichrist; over against God's truth stands the
devil's lie; over against the Mystery of Godliness, the Incarnate Word of God, stands the mystery of iniquity, the incarnate lie
of Satan; over against the Only Gospel stand the other gospels and over against the Scripture of Truth stands the doctrine of
devils. Hence in this study we must ever keep in mind that over against and seeking to undermine and thwart the Precious
Blood of Christ there stands ever opposing the blasphemy of the cults.
THE BIBLICAL IDEA OF BLOOD
It is essential that we grasp the Biblical idea of Blood in divinely appointed sacrifice. A close study of the scriptures unveils a
threefold basic fundamental, the foundation of expiating sacrifice by bloodshedding.
1. The Vital Principle -- the Blood is the Life

"For the life of the flesh is in the blood." Leviticus 17:11. This principle brings out the expiating wealth and eternal value of
the Blood of the Lamb. The blood equalled the life and the value of the blood was the value of the life.
Notice the different values of bloods contrasted in the law of the sin-offering in Leviticus chapter four. The priest, a public
person, must bring a young bullock, ["If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring
for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the LORD for a sin offering"] verse 3; the whole
congregation must bring a young bullock, ["When the sin, which they have sinned against it, is known, then the congregation
shall offer a young bullock for the sin, and bring him before the tabernacle of the congregation"] verse 14; a ruler must bring
a male kid of the goats, ["Or if his sin, wherein he hath sinned, come to his knowledge; he shall bring his offering, a kid of the
goats, a male without blemish"] verse 23; and a common person must bring a female kid of the goats, ["Or if his sin, which he
hath sinned, come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin
which he hath sinned"] verse 28. The blood of the female goat was less valuable than the blood of the male goat; and the
blood of the male goat was less valuable than the blood of the young bullock. Well can we repeat --
Not all the blood of beasts

On Jewish altars slain
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away the stain.
But Christ, the heavenly Lamb
Takes all our sins away,
A sacrifice of nobler name
And richer blood than they.
At the cross it was not pure humanity shedding blood for depraved humanity, but it was Incarnate deity shedding blood for
iniquitous dust. The eternal uncreated life of the Godhead flowed from Emmanuel's veins. ["Take heed therefore unto
yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He
hath purchased with His own blood"] Acts 20:28. The life of the flesh is in the blood -- the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us. The blood equals the life, therefore the Blood of Christ equals the life of the Incarnate Deity. According to
Colossians 2:9, in Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily and that fulness was emptied out in the crimson of the
cross. The blood then is the life-tide of the Godhead.
Note the Vital Principle -- the Blood is the Life.
2. The Vicarious Principle -- the Blood is the Life Given

"I have given it to you upon the altar." Leviticus 17:11. The blood must be shed, the life must be given. The Blood is
sacrificial Blood, in the Bible it is always that.
The offering on the cross was a substitutionary, vicarious "instead of me" sacrifice. It was the blood on the altar, the life given
in sacrifice that constituted the expiation. The blood shed was the sacrifice which alone was sin-atoning. The majesty of
Calvary's mystery comes into focus in John 10:18. "No man taketh it from me. I have power to lay it down, and I have power
to take it again." We need to remember that in the Blood there is not only substitution, He loved and gave Himself for me, but
restitution, He offered Himself without spot to God. It takes both substitution and restitution to justify the sinner. Both come
flowing to us in the blood of the cross.
That massive Puritan theologian John Owen, exclaims:
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"To see the mystery of the love of the Father working in the Blood of the mediator, to consider by faith the
great transaction of divine wisdom, justice and mercy therein -- how few attain unto it! To come unto God by
Christ for forgiveness and to behold the law issuing all its threats and curses in His blood and losing its sting,
putting an end to its obligation unto punishment, in the cross: to see all sins gathered up in the hands of God's
justice and made to meet in the Mediator, and Eternal Love springing forth triumphantly from His Blood,
flourishing into pardon, grace, mercy, forgiveness -- this the heart of the sinner can be enlarged by the Spirit of
God."
Note the Vicarious Principle -- the Blood is the Life Given.
3. The Vivifying Principle -- the Blood is Life Giving

"It is the Blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." Leviticus 17:11. The law states "the soul that sinneth it shall die."
Ezekiel 18:4. Stern justice demands the death of the transgressor but the Blood makes atonement for the sinning soul. By the
Blood God is both just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. Psalm 85:10-- "Mercy and Truth are met together,
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Where? In a fountain filled with Blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins. The
precious Blood is life-giving for it has opened the grave. The Great Shepherd of the sheep was brought again from the dead
by the Blood of the everlasting Covenant. ["Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our LORD Jesus, that
Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant"] Hebrews 13:20. Through the Blood we shout in
triumph "Death is swallowed up in Victory."
Thank God the precious, precious Blood has also opened heaven. ["Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own
blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us"] Hebrews 9:12. Christ entered into
heaven with His Own Blood. Notice heaven's ultimate in Hebrews 12:22 and 24, "The Blood of sprinkling speaketh." ["But
ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of
angels... And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things that that of
Abel"]. Death has no right to the Bloodwashed soul, but the Bloodwashed soul has a right to Heaven.
Note the Vivifying Principle -- the Blood is Life Giving.
Bearing this three-fold fundamental in mind I come now to the substance of my message. Before proceeding we must
emphasize that we refer to the Cross we refer not to the wood of the Cross but to the work of the Cross. The wood corrupted
but the work is incorruptible.
FIRST REASON: THE BLOOD OF CHRIST LIES AT THE HEART OF GOD IN THE ETERNITY PAST
1 Corinthians 2: 7, 8. "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God
ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of the world knew."
1 Peter 1:19, 20. "But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot Who
verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you."
Revelation 13:8. "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
Consider the expressions, "ordained before the foundation of the world unto our glory," "foreordained before the foundation
of the world," "slain from the foundation of the world," and learn that the Blood of the Cross had its inception in God's heart
from all eternity before it ever had its reception in the heart of man in time. The Cross is the Transcending Cross for
redemption far transcends creation. Creation cost God His breath; Redemption, His Blood. Creation was the pouring out of
God's language; Redemption was the outpouring of God's Life. The one is God in speech, the other is God in sacrifice. God
can and may make more worlds but God can never make another Cross. ["We are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all" (Hebrews 10:10).]
The Cross alone can measure the divine attributes and nature of God. Can omnipotence be measured? Nay, not by any
measuring rod of man but still it can be measured. How? By the measure of the Cross. The Blood of the Cross is the utmost
of omnipotence. Can omniscience be fathomed? Nay, not by any plumline of man, but still it can be measured. How? By the
plumline of the Cross. The Blood of the Cross is the ultimate of omniscience.
Can eternal love be circumscribed? Nay, not by any circle of man, but still it can be circumscribed. How? By the perimeter of
the Cross. The Blood of the Cross is the ultra of eternal love. On the summit of Calvary Christ overtopped the topless steeps
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of divine love for me. Hallelujah! All the attributes of God rise to their full level in the life-tide of Calvary. The Cross is the
Transcending Cross.
Again, the Cross is the Descending Cross. It was rooted in the heart of God long before it was planted on Golgotha's hill crag.
It was set on the hills of glory long before it was set up by the hand of man on Calvary. The Cross was an outward public
demonstration of what took place in the heart of God in eternity, and it is a bleeding heart that is unveiled. This is thrice-holy
ground. No wonder the blazing orb refused to light up that sacred scene and nature convulsed at such an unveiling. The Cross
is not the progeny of time, it is the offspring of eternity. The Cross is the Descending Cross.
Further, the Cross is the Ascending Cross. If God reached down and saved men by the Cross and He did, then by the Cross
men can ascend to God and they do. The arms of the Cross embrace the two eternities and the Top of the Cross reaches the
Eternal One Himself. The Holiest of All in the Blessed City of God is the tree of life, a healing tree, the eternal manifestation
of the Old Cross of Calvary. The Cross is the Ascending Cross.
The Blood is the blood of a transcending, descending, ascending Cross of a transcending, descending, ascending Christ Who
died for us, rose again for us, ascended for us, lives for us, intercedes for us and is coming for us. Bless His Worthy Name!
In Revelation John records his vision of the throne of the everlasting God. "And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and
a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald." Revelation 4:3.
The Eternal One, "the Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come" is here described as "like a jasper and a sardine
stone." The modern jasper stone is opaque but the jasper of the ancients, we are told, was a bright transparent stone,
representing to the eye a variety of lively colours. The sardine (translated in the Revised Version margin as "ruby") is said to
be deep red.
To the eye of John through the transparent jasper there appeared right in the heart of the Throne a deep red, for at the heart of
the glorious perfections of the everlasting God there lies the deep red of His eternal redemptive purpose.
So I believe in the Atoning Blood of Christ because that Blood lies at the heart of God in the eternity past.
SECOND REASON: THE ATONING BLOOD OF CHRIST LIES AT THE HEART OF THE WHOLE BIBLICAL
REVELATION
Space would not permit us to enlarge upon the irrefutable fact that the Bible Revelation is a crimson revelation, crimsoned by
the Atoning Blood of Christ either symbolically, prophetically or specifically.
We can but glance at the first and last books of the whole sublime volume, Genesis and Revelation. In Genesis we have the
genesis of blood in sacrificial atonement. Three men, Adam, Noah and Abraham, step on to the page of inspired history in
this book. These men are representative men and federal heads of their own particular seeds. Adam is the Father of the race.
Noah is the Father of the New World. Abraham is the Father of the Faithful. Each of these historical persons marked a
particular epoch in sacred history, each received a particular promise and was favoured by a particular sign. In Adam the race
was jeopardized by the Fall. In Noah the race was judged by the Flood. In Abraham the race was justified by Faith.
Adam
The Fall was the great epoch in Adam's life. The promise immediately after the Fall in Genesis 3:15 has been rightly called
the first gospel. ["And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy
head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."] The bruising here spoken of necessitates the bleeding, and so the Redeemer's Blood lies
at the heart of the first gospel. The sign to Adam was the cherubim with flaming sword beyond which lay the tree of life. The
cherubim in scripture are always related to the mercy seat, and symbolise the mercy of God; the flaming swords symbolise
the justice of God, and both in Adam's sign stand before the tree of life. Thus we have anticipated the great meeting of the
justice and mercy of God in the Bloodstream from the Cross of Christ.
To approach the tree of life meant death from the flaming sword which "kept the way." That flaming sword was plunged into
the bosom of Christ and its flames were eternally quenched for the people of God by the precious blood. Through His death
Christ has "opened the way." The sword of the king has a two-fold purpose. It can smite in justice or elevate in grace. The
flaming sword which once would have run us through in wrath, now quenched in the blood of the Lamb, elevates us in grace.
By a touch of this Bloodstained sword sinners arise sons of God. Through the Atoning Blood of Christ God is just, yet the
justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.
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Adam's sign has an eternal manifestation. In the actual heavens the cherubim cover the mercy seat, the symbols of the Mosaic
Tabernacle being "figures of the true." ["For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures
of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us"] Hebrews 9:24. In heaven, as in the
Tabernacle's Holiest of All, there is no flaming sword because the mercy seat is sprinkled by the blood. The tree of life in this
eternal setting is free to all. "In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which
bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
And there shall be no more curse." Revelation 22:2, 3.
Noah
The Flood was the great epoch in Noah's life. Immediately after the flood God entered into a covenant with Noah and in that
covenant gave him the great promise of preservation. The covenant is recorded in Genesis 9:9-11. "And I, behold, I establish
my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle,
and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my
covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood
to destroy the earth." In the final verses of the previous chapter the reason for the covenant is given. "And Noah builded an
altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the
LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for
the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not
cease." Genesis 8:20-22.
The bloodshedding was the basis of the blessing. The altar of sacrifice alone averted the further judgment of God. The curse
is not repeated for its fury is quenched in the bloodstream of the burnt offerings. This bloodstream of Noah's altar was but a
type of the greater Bloodstream from the Cross of Christ.
From whence this fear and unbelief?

Hath not the Father put to grief
His spotless Son for me?
And will the righteous Judge of men
Condemn me for that debt of sin
Which, Lord! was charged on Thee?
Complete atonement thou hast made,

And to the utmost farthing paid,
Whate'er Thy people owed;
How then can wrath on me take place,
If sheltered in Thy righteousness,
And sprinkled with Thy blood?
If Thou hast my discharge procured,

And freely in my room, endured
The whole of wrath Divine;
Payment cannot twice demand---
First, at my bleeding surety's hand,
And then again at mine.
Turn then, my soul, unto thy rest!

The merits of thy great High Priest
Have bought thy liberty;
Trust in His efficacious blood,
Nor fear thy banishment from God,
Since Jesus died for thee.
The sanctity of the blood is also emphasized to Noah and his family. "But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood
thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at
the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall
his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man." Genesis 9:4-6.
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God's distinct command concerning the sacredness of the blood is repeated to all people of all ages. All peoples of all ages
can be summed up under three Biblical designations.
1. Without the Law. "For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law." Romans 2:12.
2. Under the Law. "The law was given by Moses." John 1:17. "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to
them who are under the law," Romans 3:19.
3. Under Grace. "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." John 1:17. "For ye are not under the law, but under grace." Romans
6:14.
Now to Noah the representative of those without the law God commanded, "Flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood
thereof, shall ye not eat," Genesis 9:4.
To Moses the representative of those under the law God commanded, "Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it
be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings. Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be
cut off from his people." Leviticus 7:26, 27.
To the apostles the representatives of those under grace God commanded, "For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us,
to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood,
and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well," (Acts 15:28, 29).
This is the unalterable law of the immutable God. Men are in no wise, whether without the law, under law or under grace, to
eat blood. Human life which resulted from the impact of God's breath upon Adam's nostrils is not in the flesh and bones, but
in the blood. The life of the flesh is in the blood and that life in man, the result not of God's creating but of God's breathing, is
sacred.
God in His infinite condescension chose that animal blood should be used in sacrifice until the coming of the great sacrifice
for sin. It's only divinely permitted use was as a sacrificial offering and to put it to any other use was to violate the direct
command of the Eternal and thus to sacrilegiously destroy it as a type of the precious Blood of the Lamb of God. As a type it
was sacred, for it typified the most sacred thing God ever produced, the precious, supernatural, divine and incorruptible Blood
of Christ.
The sign to Noah was the bow in the cloud. "And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and
you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a
token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow
shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all
flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look
upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the
earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is
upon the earth." Genesis 9:12-17.
We have in Noah's sign a parallel to Adam's. In both, mercy and justice symbolically intermingle. The colours of the rainbow
are seven. The three upper colours are red, orange and yellow. These colours are all indicated by different degrees of heat and
can be seen in any fire. The lower colours are blue, purple and indigo. These are royal and heavenly colours. The central
colour is green which is brought about by the intermingling of the blue and the yellow. The symbolism is plain. The fiery
colours -- red, orange and yellow -- typify God's justice, and the heavenly colours -- blue, purple and indigo -- God's mercy.
Green, resulting from the intermingling of the justice colours and the mercy colours, symbolises salvation accomplished
when "Mercy and Truth met together and Righteousness and Peace kissed each other" at the Cross.
When we turn to the last book of the Bible we come across the rainbow again. Of the throne of the eternal God we read,
"There was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald." Revelation 4:3. In this bow the central colour,
green, has overspread the whole. Here a perfected salvation is manifested and it is significant that the seats of the twenty-four
elders, twelve representative of the Old Testament saints and twelve representative of the New Testament saints, are said to be
in the same position as the rainbow, "round about the throne." ["And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and
upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold."]
Revelation 4:4. They sit in the glory of the rainbow of a complete salvation. Only on redemption ground dare they occupy
such an exalted position. Only through the everlasting covenant of grace can they come to such a place. Through the Blood
alone in which justice and mercy embrace they wear their white robes and golden crowns. In this rainbow the other colours
are lost in the one all-pervading emerald green, for in salvation the attributes of God find their fullest and final harmony. In
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the blood of Christ the operations of the divine attributes are blended in glorious solution, a solution which solves the great
question of sin.
Of the harmony of the divine attributes displayed in the blood, Ralph Erskine, the old Presbyterian seceder quaintly said:
"Mercy cannot be vented without blood; Truth cannot be cleared without blood; Righteousness cannot be
vindicated without blood; and Peace cannot be purchased without blood; 'Without shedding of blood there is
no remission'; no mercy to be vented, no peace to be proclaimed; 'Christ hath made peace by the blood of the
cross,' Col. 1:20. 'A bloody husband hast thou been unto me,' said Zipporah; but O how much more may
Christ say, A bloody meeting hath this been unto me! 'Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed
garments from Bozra?' Isaiah 63:1. Why, what is the matter that his garment is dyed with blood? Why? When
Mercy and Truth meet together they pressed to be so near one another in him, that they pressed the blood out
of his veins; and so it was a bloody meeting; And when Righteousness and Peace kissed each other, it behoved
to be in Christ, and so the sword of justice behoved to pierce him through and through; that so these sacred
lips might meet and kiss each other in his heart; and so it was a bloody kiss; They kissed each other with such
good-will, that Christ was, as it were, bruised betwixt their lips, that the blood might cement and glue them
together. One would think, such a bloody kiss would be no pleasant kiss; nay, but, 'It pleased the Father to
bruise him': They met together on a sea of blood. -- Thus it was a bloody meeting."
Green is also the colour which symbolises perpetuity, the evergreen. "The fashion of this world passeth away" -- "But the
word of the Lord endureth forever." 1 Corinthians 7:31; 1 Peter 1:25. Salvation is eternal, it never withers or decays. It is the
timeless salvation of the Great I AM.
The rainbow as viewed by the Apostle John was a complete circle. Now the rainbow is in reality a complete circle and can be
seen as such "if the eye of the observer is in an elevated situation and the sun at a low altitude. The complete circle can often
be seen therefore on elevated ground or from an aeroplane. On favourable occasions both primary and secondary bows have
been observed as complete circles."
As Noah viewed the rainbow from Mount Ararat which is 16,696 ft. above sea level, he must have viewed it as a complete
circle. Just as in the first book of the Bible the rainbow circle, speaking of justice meeting mercy was displayed, so in the last
book of the Bible the rainbow circle again appears but now it is all of green, for salvation is perfected. The full circle
symbolises eternity for it never ends. Thus the token to Noah has its eternal manifestation in the emerald circle round about
the throne. This, none other than a further symbol of expiation by blood shedding, has, like Adam's sign its fullest
manifestation in eternal glory.
Abraham
The Call was the great epoch in Abraham's life. "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's
house, unto a land that I will shew thee." Genesis 12:1. The call was accompanied by a covenant of grace. This covenant of
pure grace is stamped with perfection's number, seven. Its promise is sevenfold.
1. "I will make thee a great nation."
2. "I will bless thee."
3. "And make thy name great."
4. "And thou shalt be a blessing."
5. "And I will bless them that bless thee."
6. "And curse him that curseth thee."
7. "And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."
Three, the divine number, is also manifested in the three great "I will's." Grace is sovereign grace, the sole prerogative of the
Triune God.
The promise to Abraham was the promise of a glorious seed, but before Isaac was begotten, God gave Abraham a sign. The
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sign was two-fold, the change of name and the token of circumcision. "As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou
shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a
father of many nations have I made thee." Genesis 17:4, 5. "And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be
a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child
in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is
born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh
for an everlasting covenant." Genesis 17:11-13.
Again, this sign is paralleled to those of Adam and Noah. The change of the name is an evidence of the grace of God. Seven,
the perfect number, is four plus three. Four terminates the first part, and five opens up the second part. Therefore five is four
plus one. One is the number of the Creator and four is the number of the world. Five speaks of Divine government. As God
governs the world in might and mercy, five is the number of grace and power. When God blessed Abram He took the fifth
letter of the Hebrew alphabet He, which equals five, and put it into Abram's name which is spelt with four Hebrew letters,
thus changing it to Abraham which is spelt with five Hebrew letters. in this way the token of grace was given with the
blessing of grace.
Circumcision was a type of the justice of God. It involved severe pain with the shedding of blood and the cutting off of the
foreskin. (See Genesis 34:25) ["And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob,
Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males"]. Even
in circumcision, however, mercy is manifested. By right the whole man should be smitten, but instead the foreskin is cut off
and the flowing of blood stops any further smiting. ["And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and
sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said,
Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the
circumcision."] Exodus 4:24-26.
Abraham's sign has also an eternal manifestation. Christ was circumcised in order to fulfill all righteousness. ["And when
eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the
angel before he was conceived in the womb."] Luke 2:21. In Galatians we read: "For I testify again to every man that is
circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law." Galatians 5:3. Now, Christ has absolutely kept the whole law
impeccably, and justice is completely satisfied with His perfect obedience. In this connection it is interesting to note that by
the shedding of blood at His Cross, Christ voluntarily on our behalf paid the debt of the whole law. Ferrar superbly
comments:
"As the East catches at sunset the colours of the west, so Bethlehem is a prelude to Calvary and even the
Infant's cradle is tinged with a crimson reflection from the Redeemer's Cross."
The eternal manifestation of Abraham's sign as with the others is an emphasis upon the grace of God. Abraham's name was
the token of grace. Of Christ we read: "And he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed
with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God." (Revelation 19:12-13).
Now, the Greek for "word" is logos, having five letters. Its numerical emphasis, like Abraham, is grace.
So we find that these three early signs have their final expression in eternity. There the symbol of justice is lost in the symbol
of mercy because of the Blood of the Cross. The cherubim have no flaming sword because the Blood is sprinkled on the
mercy-seat. The rainbow round about the throne is an emerald and has no judgment colours because, "Lo, in the midst of the
throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain," Revelation 5:6.
The Name stands alone in isolation from the circumcision because He who bears it has "a vesture dipped in blood."
In heaven, because of the precious Blood of Jesus, Mercy rejoiceth against Justice and Sovereign Grace reigns supreme.
The emphasis on the Blood is carried all through the Bible. Each book unfolds a little more of what Genesis first records and
Revelation finalises all that has gone before.
When the Atonement story first began

A lamb was sacrificed for every MAN.
And then when Israel was in Pharaoh's land,

This sacrifice could for a HOUSEHOLD stand.
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Later, a Lamb at the Atonement feast

Was offered for the NATION by the priest.
But last, on Calvary's Hill, the Lamb of God

Shed for a sinning world His precious Blood.
A Lamb before the world's foundation slain,

And in the farthest future just the same!
For in the Revelation we are shown

A Lamb, "that had been slain," amidst the Throne.
"A Lamb," the pivot of earth's history ---

God's great, impenetrable mystery.
"Thou has redeemed us by Thy precious Blood,

"And made us kings and priests unto our God."
"Worthy is the Lamb that once was slain" will be

Our theme of praise throughout eternity.
Hence I believe in the Atoning Blood of Christ because that Blood lies at the heart of all the Biblical Revelation.
THIRD REASON: THE ATONING BLOOD OF CHRIST LIES AT THE HEART OF THE PURPOSE OF THE
INCARNATION
The Birth of Christ was in order to the Bleeding of Christ. With the shadow of the Cross athwart His Person and the cries of
the infuriated mob thirsting for His Blood resounding in His ears, Christ said to Pilate, "To this end was I born for this
purpose came I into the world."
From His birth at Bethlehem Christ set His face to go to the Cross. His was ever the Calvary Road. In the Gospel of John the
great hour when the tremendous power of the Blood would be released, is continually anticipated. To that hour all the
miraculous events of Christ's life advanced and in that same hour all the purposes of heaven and the counter-purposes of hell
converged. The march of the great redemptive purpose of the ages culminated in
The fountain filled with Blood

Drawn from Immanuel's veins.
At the commencement of His public ministry just before He miraculously turned the water into wine, Christ exclaimed to
Mary, "Mine hour is not yet come." John 2:4. Is it not significant that His first miracle was to create a symbol of His Blood?
As the wine of this miracle was not produced by the usual fermentation, so the precious Blood of Christ was not produced by
the usual generation. Both were miraculous products. Through the wine thus created the marriage supper proceeded with joy.
There is, however, another great marriage supper which can only proceed with joy because of that which the wine
symbolises, the precious Blood of Christ. Of this supper John records, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him:
for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be
arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed
are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." Revelation 19:7-9. "These are they which came out of great
tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Revelation 7:14.
In the seventh and eighth chapters of John's gospel we read: "His hour was not yet come." John 7:30 and 8:20. This had
reference to an attempt of the Jews to kill him. Now the Jews never put to death by blood-shedding. They executed capital
punishment by stoning. Christ was not to be killed by stoning. His was to be a death of bloodshedding. His hour was to be an
hour crimsoned by the life Blood of His veins. To the enquiring Greeks Christ said, "The hour is come that the Son of Man
should be glorified. Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour but for this cause came I
unto this hour. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me. This he said signifying what death he should
die." John 12:23, 27, 32, 33.
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Here again the hour is associated with the death of the cross. The death He should die was the bloody death of crucifixion.
With the emblems of the living God, "When I see the blood I will pass over you." Exodus 12:13, before Him, Christ's last
great discourse commenced with the assurance that He "knew his hour was come." John 13:1. These discourses, covering
chapters thirteen, fourteen, fifteen and sixteen of John's gospel conclude with another reference to the hour. "Behold, the hour
cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone,
because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall
have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:32, 33.
From that crucial hour to the believing soul there issues forth in the Bloodstream peace and power. "Having made peace
through the blood of his cross." Colossians 1:20. "And they overcame him (the devil) by the blood of the Lamb," Revelation
12:11.
It is quite evident that the great object of the incarnation was the Bloodshedding of Calvary. Its blessed culmination was the
bloody cross. Daniel defines the incarnation's mighty purpose thus: "To finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins,
and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness." Daniel 9:24. John declares that the Son of
God was manifest --
(a) To challenge and conquer Satan. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy
the works of the devil." 1 John 3:8.
(b) To carry and cleanse away sin. "And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is
no sin." 1 John 3:5.
(c) To commend and convey the love of God. "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that
God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." 1 John 4:9.
All these objectives were accomplished when the life-tide of Incarnate Deity was released in the Death of the Cross. The
torrent from Calvary's hill-crag generated sufficient power and to spare, to achieve the great goal of God's redemptive
purpose. I therefore believe in the Atoning Blood because that Blood lies at the heart of the purpose of the Incarnation.
FOURTH REASON: THE ATONING BLOOD OF CHRIST LIES AT THE HEART OF THE SUFFERINGS OF
CHRIST
The Blood of Christ is nothing less than the whole redeeming work of Christ in concentrated form. In the crimson gore of
Golgotha's agony comes flowing all the passion of the Substitute for sinners.
Every symbol of Scripture typology and every prediction of Scripture prophecy relating to the sufferings of Christ refer to the
Blood.
Abel's blood in Genesis has its New Testament counterpart in "the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
that of Abel," Hebrews 12:24.
The passover in Exodus has its New Testament counterpart in "Christ our passover sacrificed for us," 1 Corinthians
5:7.
The sin offering in Leviticus has its New Testament counterpart in the One "Who his own self bare our sins in his own
body on the tree," 1 Peter 2:24.
The red heifer which was offered outside the camp in Numbers has its New Testament counterpart in "Jesus also, that
he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate," Hebrews 13:12.
The chosen place of sacrifice in Deuteronomy has its New Testament counterpart in "the place which is called
Calvary," Luke 23:33.
The scarlet thread from the harlot's house in Joshua has its New Testament counterpart in the Corinthians, "Know ye
not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
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adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are
sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
The peace-offering in Judges has its New Testament counterpart in Christ who "made peace for us through the blood
of his cross," Colossians 1:20.
The redemption in Ruth has its New Testament counterpart in "redemption through his (Christ's) blood, even the
forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace," Ephesians 1:7.
The suckling lamb sacrificed in Samuel has its New Testament counterpart in "The Lamb of God which taketh away
the sin of the world," John 1:29.
The many offerings in Kings have their New Testament counterpart in "Christ once offered to bear the sins of many,"
Hebrews 9:28.
The altar in Ornan's threshing floor in Chronicles has its New Testament counterpart in the "altar whereof they have
no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle," Hebrews 13:10.
The continual offerings in Ezra have their New Testament counterpart in the "one sacrifice for sins forever," Hebrews
10:12.
The cleansing in Nehemiah has its New Testament counterpart in "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from
all sin," 1 John 1:7.
The lesson of Esther has its New Testament counterpart in the life of the One, "Who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God," Hebrews 12:2.
The intense sufferings of forsaken Job has its New Testament counterpart in the more intense sufferings of Job's
Redeemer who cried out on the bloody tree, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46.
The anticipations in the Psalms have their New Testament counterpart in the propitiation of the Cross. "And he is the
propitiation for our sins: and not for our's only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 1 John 2:2.
The wisdom of the Proverbs has its New Testament counterpart in the wisdom of the Cross. "For the Jews require a
sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the
Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom
of God." 1 Corinthians 1:22-24.
The preaching of Ecclesiastes has its New Testament counterpart in "the preaching of the cross." "For after that in the
wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe." 1 Corinthians 1:18 and 21.
The bride in the Song of Solomon has her New Testament counterpart in the Church. "As Christ also loved the church,
and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might
present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and
without blemish." Ephesians 5:25-27.
The sacrificial predictions of Isaiah have their New Testament counterpart at the Cross. "And they took Jesus, and led
him away. And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew
Golgotha: Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst." John
19:16-18.
The outpoured wrath of God in Jeremiah has its New Testament counterpart in Christ crucified "which delivered us
from the wrath to come," 1 Thessalonians 1:10.
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The sorrow of Lamentations has its New Testament counterpart in the Passion of the Christ Who exclaimed, "My soul
is exceeding sorrowful even unto death," Matthew 26:38.
The vision of Ezekiel has its New Testament counterpart in the apocalyptic vision, "And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst
of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven
horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth," Revelation 5:6.
The great prince of Daniel has its New Testament counterpart in "Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the
first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our
sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for
ever and ever. Amen," Revelation 1:5, 6.
The love of Hosea has its New Testament counterpart in the great Lover of souls Who, "having loved his own, loved
them unto the end," John 13:1.
The day of blood and darkness in Joel has its New Testament counterpart in the darkness of the crucifixion. "From the
sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And the earth did quake, and the rocks rent."
Matthew 27:45 and 51.
The mountains which drop sweet wine in Amos have their New Testament counterpart when we come to the "Mount
Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the
general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the
spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that
speaketh better things that that of Abel," Hebrews 12:22-24.
The deliverance of Obadiah has its New Testament counterpart in the great gospel deliverance. "But God
commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now
justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." Romans 5:8, 9.
The question of Micah, "Is the spirit of the Lord straitened?" has its New Testament counterpart in the exclamation of
Christ, "But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" Luke 12:50.
The gazing stock of Nahum has its New Testament counterpart in the uplifted Christ. "And all the people that came
together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned." Luke 23:48.
The victory of God in Habakkuk has its New Testament counterpart in the victory of the Cross. "And having spoiled
principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." Colossians 2:15.
The Lord's sacrifice in Zephaniah has its New Testament counterpart in "the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself without spot to God," Hebrews 9:14.
Zerubbabel in Haggai has his New Testament in the Lord of glory, "which none of the princes of this world knew: for
had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory," 1 Corinthians 2:8.
The smitten shepherd in Zechariah has his New Testament counterpart in the One who "by the cross, having slain the
enmity thereby: and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh," (Ephesians
2:16, 17).
The common denominator of all this tremendous testimony of the typical and prophetical descriptions of Christ's sufferings
and their actual fulfillment, is the blood. To reject the atoning Blood is to reject the vicarious sufferings of the Incarnate Son
of God and to reject these sufferings is to leave mankind hopelessly stranded in the fogs of rationalism and irretrievably
wrecked on the reefs of infidelity.
Therefore, I believe in the Atoning Blood of Christ because that Blood lies at the heart of all the sufferings of Christ.
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FIFTH REASON: THE ATONING BLOOD OF CHRIST LIES AT THE HEART OF THE THREE-FOLD
WITNESS ON EARTH
"And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree
in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he
hath testified of his Son." 1 John 5:8, 9.
The witness of God on this earth to the fact that His Only Begotten Son, the Eternal Word, has come into the world, is the
Spirit, the Water and the Blood. It is the reception of this fact that brings eternal life. Commenting on this verse Bishop
Westcott remarks:
"The three personal witnesses are turned to the one absolute end, to establish the one truth (the one, not simply
one) that definite Truth which is everywhere through the epistle. The idea is not that of simply unanimity in
the witnesses, but that of their convergence (so to speak), on the one Gospel of 'Christ come in the flesh' to
know which is eternal life."
Now the Spirit here spoken of is the Spirit of God. The Water is the Word of God. ("Now ye are clean through the word
which I have spoken unto you." John 15:3. "The washing of water by the word." Ephesians 5:26.) The Blood is the Blood of
God. "Feed the Church of God which He hath purchased with his own blood." Acts 20:28.
Professor B. B. Warfield comments:
"The reading 'God' is as F. J. A. Hort says, 'assuredly genuine' and the emphasis upon the Blood being His
own is very strong. There is no justification for correcting the text conjecturally as Hort does to avoid this. If
reading 'Lord' were genuine, the meaning would be precisely the same. 'Lord' is not a lower title than 'God' in
such connections. 1 Corinthians 2:8, 'They would not have crucified the Lord of Glory' is an exact parallel."
The blood of God outpoured upon the tree!

So reads the Book. O mind, receive the thought,
Nor helpless murmur thou hast vainly sought
Thought-room within thee for such mystery.
Thou foolish mindling! Do'st thou hope to see
Undazed, untottering, all that God hath wrought?
Before His mighty "shall," thy little "ought"
Be shamed to silence and humility!
Come mindling, I will show thee what 'twere meet
That thou shouldst shrink from marvelling, and flee
As unbelievable, --- nay, wonderingly,
With dazed, but still with faithful praises, greet:
Draw near and listen to this sweetest sweet, ---
Thy God, O mindling, shed His blood for thee!
Now, the Spirit of God is both living and life-giving; the Word of God is both living and life-giving and the Blood is both
living and life-giving. Their witness is not a dead witness but a living and life-giving witness.
The blood in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament had a two-fold aspect, death, the slaughter of the victim, and life, the
release of the blood which is the principle of life. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood." Leviticus 17:11.
The shedding of blood was death, the sprinkling of blood was life. In the sacrifice, death resulted in life, i.e., the blood. Death
was thus the gateway to life. The blood shed in sacrifice, is always treated as living and active even after the death of the
animal sacrificed. For example, on the day of atonement the blood was active in its sprinkling of the mercy seat after its
shedding at the altar.
What is true in type is even more so true in what is typified. The Blood of Christ shed in death was the release of the divine
Life of Christ and the making available of that Life for the sinner. In the shedding of His Blood Christ offered up His Life to
God as an all-sufficient sacrifice for sin. In the sprinkling of His Blood Christ offered His life to men as salvation from sin.
The Blood shed is the sacrificed Life of Christ propitiating Deity. The Blood sprinkled is the saving Life of Christ
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regenerating humanity.
The apostle John records concerning Christ's death a remarkable phenomenon. "But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced
his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth
that he saith true, that ye might believe." John 19:34, 35.
Bishop Westcott says:
"It has been argued (with the greatest plausibility and authority by Dr. Stroud, 'The physical cause of the death
of Christ,' that this is a natural phenomenon. The immediate cause of death was (it is said) a rupture of the
heart, which was followed by a large effusion of blood into the pericardium. This blood, it is supposed, rapidly
separated into its more solid and liquid parts, which flowed forth in a mingled stream, when the pericardium
was pierced by the spear from below. But it appears that both this and the other naturalistic explanations of the
sign are not only inadequate but also inconsistent with the real facts. There is not sufficient evidence to shew
that such a flow of blood and water as is described would occur under the circumstances supposed, and the
separation of the blood into its constituent parts is a process of corruption, and we cannot but believe that even
from the moment of death the Body of the Lord underwent the beginnings of that change which issued in the
Resurrection. The issuing of the blood and water from His side must therefore be regarded as a sign of life in
death. Though dead, dead in regard to our mortal life, the Lord yet lived; and as He hung upon the cross He
was shewn openly to be the source of a double cleansing and vivifying power, which followed from His death
and life."
This divine paradox, life issuing from death, is emphasised by the Apostle Paul. Writing to the believers in Rome he says,
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now
justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God
by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." Romans 5:8-10.
Here we have the two aspects of the Blood. Justification in the eyes of God by the Blood shed and salvation from sin by
Christ's life, i.e., the blood sprinkled. "Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience." Hebrews 10:22.
The uniqueness and vitality of the blood is taught by the writer to the Hebrews when he defines the Blood as "a new and
living way." "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way,
which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh." Hebrews 10:19, 20. The Blood of Christ is unique,
it is new. Never before in the history of man has such Blood been produced. It is unparalleled in haematology.
Again, this Blood is living, it is the fulness of the Godhead in solution. As the living waters bring forth life to the country
through which we pass, so this living stream brings God's life to the wilderness of the world. Itself the vehicle of uncreated
life, it creates life in its flow. It is, as we have already seen, living and life-giving.
Stretched on the cross, the Saviour dies,

Hark! His expiring groans arise!
See from His hands, His feet, His side,
Runs down the sacred crimson tide!
But life attends the deathful sound,

And flows from every bleeding wound;
The vital stream, how free it flows,
To save and cleanse His rebel foes!
Now as the blood of the Old Testament sacrifices is represented as being active even after its shedding, so the incorruptible
Blood of Christ has been active to the cleansing of sin since it was shed over nineteen hundred years ago. The Blood keeps on
cleansing. Its life is unabated; its power is undiminished; its merit is unimpoverished and its value is unlessened.
Dear dying Lamb! Thy precious blood

Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved to sin no more,
Unlike, however, the blood of the types, the Blood of Christ is not only active after its shedding but it was active long before
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its release at the cross. Stephen Charnock, the great puritan theologian states:
"Many were delivered from their bonds by God before the payment made by Christ, but not before the
payment promised by Him. The blood of this sacrifice as shed reaches us through sixteen hundred years since
it was poured out; but the blood of this sacrifice promised by the Redeemer, and receiving credit with God,
reached Adam four thousand years before it was shed. God imparted the virtue before Christ actually merited,
and freed the captive before the ransom was paid; yet upon the account of the promised merit and contracted
ransom, natural causes must be before the effect, moral causes may be after the effect. The blood of Christ
cleanseth not as a natural, but as a moral cause. He was in this respect a 'Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world,' Revelation 13:8; slain federally, though not actually; imputatively, though not really; sententially in
the acceptation of the judge, though not executively in the enduring passion; and therefore he was a Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world efficaciously, by whose blood the ancient believers were sprinkled, as
well as those of a later date."
Now it is this Blood, living and life-giving, which unites with the testimony of the Spirit of God and the Word of God as the
divine witness on earth of the Christ of God. Without the Blood witnessing to the heart of the believer, the witness of the
Word and the Spirit would be of none effect. The Blood is necessary to both the witness of the Spirit and the Word. To reject
the Blood is to reject the Spirit of God and the Word of God.
So I believe in the Atoning Blood of Christ for that Blood lies at the heart of the three-fold witness on earth.
SIXTH REASON: THE ATONING BLOOD LIES AT THE HEART OF THE CHURCH'S MEMORY OF HER
LORD
"For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in
which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my
body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup,
when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in
remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he
come." 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
One reason why the Lord's Supper was instituted was to stir the Church's memory in order that Calvary in all its solemn
significance might be unforgettable. "This do in remembrance of me." And as the Church participates in this act of
remembrance she also proclaims the act of redemption. "For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew forth
(or proclaim) the Lord's death till he come."
In the broken bread we have an emblem of the Broken Body. That breaking was in order to the bleeding.
In the poured-out wine we have an emblem of the poured-out blood resulting from the breaking of Christ's body on the Cross.
In the cup we have an emblem of the everlasting covenant, for as the cup holds the wine so the covenant holds out to us all
the merits of the precious Blood of Christ. The Blood of the Eternal Christ is the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant. So
Christ could say, "This cup is the new testament (or covenant) in my blood."
The covenant is a covenant in Blood. In the Blood the covenant blessings are secured and sealed to the covenant people.
Hence the breaking was in order to the bleeding and the bleeding in order to the blessing. Therefore Paul could say, "The cup
of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ," 1 Corinthians 10:16.
The whole centre of the supper is the typifying of the Blood. The broken bread speaks of the Body of Christ stained with the
Blood. The broken Body was a bleeding Body. The wine speaks of the Body of Christ drained of every life-drop of Blood.
The cup speaks of the Blood preserved, for the benefit of the believing soul.
The Lord's sacrifice was a crimson sacrifice and the Lord's Supper is a crimson supper. The Lord's death was dominated by
the Blood. The supper is dominated by that which typifies the Blood.
The Shorter Catechism in answer to the question, What is the Lord's Supper? states:
"The Lord's Supper is a sacrament, wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine, according to Christ's
appointment, his death is showed forth; and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporal and carnal manner,
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but by faith, made partakers of his body and blood, with all his benefits, to their spiritual nourishment, and
growth in grace."
The catechism guards against both the Romish and Lutheran errors regarding the ordinance. Rome teaches the
transubstantiation of the elements into the actual Body and Blood of Christ. Luther taught the reception of Christ's real Body
and Blood along with the elements. This is called consubstantiation, signifying that the Body and the Blood of Christ is in,
with and under the substance of the elements. The Reformed view which I believe is the scriptural one is that the soul alone at
the supper partakes by faith of the Body and Blood of Christ. The believing communicant takes by faith the benefits of the
Blood and by the act of partaking physically of the bread and wine he proclaims the Lord's death to his soul, conscience and
heart. There is no transubstantiation or consubstantiation here but an appropriation, not in the physical sense but in the
spiritual sense only, of the benefits of the Blood shed and sprinkled on our behalf. This appropriation by faith, however, is not
confined to the Lord's Supper. It takes place whenever faith in Christ is exercised. It is in this spiritual sense that we sing as
we approach the table ---
Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face;

Here would I touch and handle things unseen,
Here grasp with firmer hand the eternal grace,
And all my weariness upon Thee lean.
Here would I feed upon the bread of God,

Here drink with Thee the royal wine of Heaven;
Here would I lay aside each earthly load,
Here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiven.
Mine is the sin, but Thine is the righteousness;

Mine is the guilt, but Thine the cleansing blood;
Here is my robe, my refuge, and my peace ---
Thy blood, Thy righteousness, O Lord my God.
To reject the Blood is to destroy the meaning of the sacrament. Hence I believe in the Atoning Blood of Christ for that Blood
lies at the heart of the Church's memory of her Lord.
SEVENTH REASON: THE ATONING BLOOD OF CHRIST LIES AT THE HEART OF HEAVEN'S GLORY
In the last book of the New Testament we have the Revelation, the Unveiling, of Jesus Christ. As the curtain is drawn aside in
the prologue of chapter one, there is a doxology which sums up the reason for our inheriting heaven. "Unto him that loved us,
and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory
and dominion for ever and ever. Amen," Revelation 1:5, 6.
We come to heaven through the Blood of the Redeemer.
Revelation places a new and unique emphasis on Christ as the Lamb. Christ crucified is called "the Lamb that was slain,"
Revelation 5:12. Christ's indignation is called "the wrath of the Lamb," Revelation 6:16. Christ's union with the Church is
called "the bride, the Lamb's wife," Revelation 21:9. Christ's apostles are called "the apostles of the Lamb," Revelation 21:14.
Christ's record is called "the Lamb's book of life," Revelation 21:27. Christ's Blood is called "the blood of the Lamb,"
Revelation 7:14.
Well might Rutherford say:
The King there in His beauty,

Without a veil, is seen:
It were a well-spent journey,
Though seven deaths lay between;
The Lamb, with His fair army,
Doth on Mount Zion stand;
And glory --- glory dwelleth
In Immanuel's land.
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The bride eyes not her garment,

But her dear Bridegroom's face;
I will not gaze on glory,
But on my King of Grace ---
Not at the crown He gifteth,
But on his pierced hand;
The Lamb is all the glory
Of Immanuel's land.
Now four things are revealed about the Blood in heaven.
1. The Blood is the centre of heaven's throne.

"And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a
Lamb as it had been slain (or a newly-slain Lamb), having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven
Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth." Revelation 5:6.
At the centre of the Throne in the eternal heavens is the Blood of our redemption. The Blood is central in the
plan of salvation. The Blood is central in the work of redemption. The Blood is central in the Word of God.
The Blood is central in the Church of God. The Blood is central in the Mind of God and the Blood is central in
the Throne of God in heaven. Around this redemptive and regal centre all God's purposes revolve. By the
blood of Christ in the Throne we are lifted up onto the throne. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with
me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne," Revelation 3:21.
"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not
their lives unto the death," Revelation 12:11.
2. The Blood is the characteristic of heaven's dress.

"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True,
and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many
crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him
upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean," Revelation 19:11-14. "And one of the elders
answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I
said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and
have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb," Revelation 7:13, 14.
Christ's garments are white, dipped in Blood and the saints' garments are white being washed in the Blood.
Here is taught the great truth that we enter heaven in the garments of our Substitute and Saviour. Clad in the
righteousness wrought out by the obedience and Blood of Christ we are acceptable, and not only acceptable
but well pleasing to the eye of God. In this wedding garment our hearts shall be as pure as the unstained wool,
as spotless as the dew of the morning; no wrinkles upon the brow; no sin upon the soul.
Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness

My beauty are, my glorious dress;
Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.
This spotless robe the same appears

When ruin'd nature sinks in years;
No age can change its glorious hue,
The robe of Christ is ever new.
3. The Blood is the theme of heaven's song.

"And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou
wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and
nation," Revelation 5:9. The Blood provides an inexhaustible subject for the eternal praise of the redeemed in
glory. The Blood throughout all eternity has power to awaken in the whole host of heaven an overflowing of
joy and thanksgiving. It remains forever the source of heavenly bliss.
The blood has always precious been
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'Tis precious now to me;

Through it alone my soul has rest,
From fear and doubt set free.
O wondrous is the crimson tide,

Which from my Saviour flowed!
And still in heaven my song shall be
'The precious, precious blood!'
4. The Blood is the apex of heaven's glory.

"But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an
innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in
heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of
the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel," Hebrews
12:22-24.
On the great day of atonement under the Mosaic economy there were seven sprinklings of the blood. At the
end of the day there was a bloodmarked way straight from the door of the tabernacle through the two veils
into the Holiest of All, and right on to the mercy seat.
1. At the foot of the brazen altar. ["And he shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the
altar which is before the LORD, that is in the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall pour out
all the blood at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation."] Leviticus 4:18.
2. Round about upon the altar. ["And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger
seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel."]
Leviticus 16:19.
3. On the horns of the brazen altar. ["And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the
LORD, and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the
blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about."] Leviticus 16:18.
4. On the horns of the golden altar. ["And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it
once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make
atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the LORD."] Exodus
30:10.
5. Before the veil. ["And the priest shall dip his finger in some of the blood, and sprinkle it
seven times before the LORD, even before the vail."] Leviticus 4:17.
6. Before the mercy seat. ["And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with
his finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the
blood with his finger seven times."] Leviticus 16:14.
7. On the mercy seat. ["And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his
finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood
with his finger seven times."] Leviticus 16:14.
Now the furniture of the Tabernacle were patterns of the things in the heavens, and the writer to Hebrews
reveals what this sprinkling signified. "But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a
greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the
blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is
no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with
these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the
holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the
presence of God for us," Hebrews 9:11, 12; 22-24.
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The Blood opens the door of heaven and leads the way to the throne of heaven, and the Blood is the highest
revelation in heaven of the glory of the Lord. The glories of heaven are listed and the final glory is the blood
of sprinkling. Finality in the tabernacle on earth was the blood on the mercy seat and finality in the tabernacle
in heaven is the Blood. As the glory which overshadowed the camp of Israel arose from the blood-sprinkled
mercy seat, so the glory of heaven radiates from the Blood of the Lamb. The Blood is the foundation and
finish of heaven's glory.
Therefore I believe in the Atoning Blood of Christ because that Blood lies at the heart of heaven's glory.
Sing, O ye sinners bought with blood,

Hail the great Three in One!
Tell how secure the covenant stood
Ere time its race begun.
Ne'er had ye felt the guilt of sin,

Nor sweets of pardoning love,
Unless your worthless names had been
Enroll'd to life above.
O what a sweet exalted song

Shall rend the vaulted skies,
When shouting grace, the blood-wash'd throng
Shall see the Top Stone rise.
THE END

THE BODILY RESURRECTION OF CHRIST
CHRISTIANITY IS FOUNDED on "the empty tomb." Its throbbing vitality is the fact that the Christ who bled and suffered
on the Cross is gloriously risen from the dead and is alive for evermore. The Church's only justification for its origin and
doctrine is that Christ is risen from Joseph's tomb. The vacated sepulchre alone vindicates the Church's existence. The gospel
stakes all on the actuality that the Lord Jesus rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
The Resurrection is essential to Christianity, for by it alone can Christianity be confirmed. The Resurrection is the great
corroborator of the Christian gospel. Remove this keystone and the goodly temple crashes into ruin. As life is essential to
living so the Resurrection is essential to a living Christianity. Take away the Resurrection and Christianity becomes a dead
letter, but another contribution to the world's Pantheon.
The Resurrection is the Essential of the essentials of the Christian faith. Because of this it is the most important fact in
history, for thereupon hangs eternal destiny. Not only is it the most important fact but it is the best attested fact in history. The
foundation of God standeth sure.
Those who glibly deny the bodily resurrection of Christ never honestly faced the evidence which supports this, the mighty
foundation stone of the Gospel. The evidence is most convincing and conclusive.
The account of the conversion of two of the most notable sceptics of the eighteenth century is a good illustration of just how
convincing and conclusive is this evidence. These two men, Gilbert West and Lord Lyttleton, ranked among the most brilliant
intellectuals of their day. After many clever sallies against Biblical Christianity they decided that if two great fundamentals of
the Gospel were overthrown, Christianity would crumble into ruin. These fundamentals were, the Resurrection of Christ and
the Conversion of St. Paul. So West undertook to write a treatise on the Resurrection proving it to be a fabrication, and
Lyttleton vowed to produce a treatise demonstrating that St. Paul was not miraculously converted on the Damascus Road.
They therefore started to sift the evidence which they believed was pure fabrication and which they were determined to
expose and explode. From time to time they met in conference and then one day West said to Lyttleton,
"I have something very important to relate. You know, Lyttleton, how keen I was to expose as pure fabrication
the Resurrection of Christ. I therefore determined to thoroughly sift the evidence and in doing so I had to be
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honest, I had to be sincere, I had to be honourable and I had to forsake my prejudice and act on strict legal
principle. Having pursued this line I have been forced to the conclusion that Jesus Christ really rose from the
dead. Now, you may laugh at me if you like, Lyttleton, but I got down on my knees and asked the risen
Saviour to save me and He has done it."
Lyttleton replied,
"Strange to relate, I have had a similar experience. I, too, sifted the evidence, sincerely, candidly and honestly,
and the more I weighed the evidence the more I was forced to the conclusion that St. Paul was really
remarkably converted on the Damascus Road. That being so, West, as an honest person I could do no other but
fall on my knees and ask the same Christ to save me and He has done it."
In the course of time the treatises of West and Lyttleton appeared. West's treatise vindicated the Resurrection and Lyttleton's
the Conversion of St. Paul. Both these treatises can be found in our libraries to-day. To them unbelief has never been able to
fabricate an answer. They stand as monuments to the fact that if the evidence for the Resurrection of Christ is sifted and
weighed honestly, it will be found to be convincing and conclusive.
Let us then survey some of this evidence.
FIRST REASON: THE BODILY RESURRECTION WAS PROPHETICALLY ANTICIPATED BY CHRIST

HIMSELF
"But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall
no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the
whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth," Matthew 12:39,
40.
"And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, Behold, we
go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they
shall condemn him to death, And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him:
and the third day he shall rise again," Matthew 20:17-19.
"And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they
had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead," Mark 9:9.
"But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee," Mark 14:28.
"Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes,
and be slain, and be raised the third day," Luke 9:22.
"Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these
things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said
the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake
of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had
said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said," John 2:18-22.
The great sign of His Messiahship was the Resurrection. That Christ was not referring to a mere resurrection of spirit is clear
from His speech to the unbelieving Jews concerning the destruction and resurrection of the temple of His body. The Bible
knows no other resurrection than that of the body for the Scriptures teach implicitly that the spirit never dies but at death is in
a state of separation from the body.
All the prophecies which Christ made, have, when the time for the fulfillment came, been completely vindicated. Their
absolute truthfulness has been vividly displayed in the course of time. History has been their great corroborator.
The destruction of Jerusalem, the Coming of the Holy Spirit, the Building of the Church, the Rise of false prophets and false
christs and the Division of households through Christianity -- these and many more happenings all carefully predicted by
Christ have been fulfilled to the last letter. Fulfilled prophecy is a witness to the truthfulness of Christ which cannot be
silenced. No honest person dare reject this prophetic phenomenon. Now this being so by what law can we reject Christ's
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prophecy concerning His own resurrection as untrue?
We have already discovered that, tested by every known law, Christ stands forth as the One who has completely established
all His claims and fulfilled all His promises. This being so, His prophecy concerning this most important event of all, must be
true. To accept that Christ's prophecy concerning His betrayal, delivery into the hands of the Gentiles, and crucifixion was
true, but to reject the climax of it all, His Bodily Resurrection, is to act dishonestly and only demonstrates prejudice against
the supernatural.
The Resurrection, the climax of Christ's Life and absolutely unparalleled in itself and in its circumstances, is to be taken in
connection with the whole course of Christ's Life and with the sum of the great miraculous demonstrations which from time
to time He made manifest with overwhelming power. When viewed in this light, we could only accept that the climax of His
miraculous Life would be the Miracle of miracles itself. To this supreme miracle Christ prophetically pointed as the great sign
that He was the Christ, the Chosen of God.
The argument that Christ predicted His death by a deduction from antagonistic circumstances cannot stand. His prophecy in
John chapter two came early on in His ministry, long before the religious leaders organised themselves against Him. Again,
Peter and the other disciples were ever alarmists, and yet when Christ spoke of His death they repudiated it as impossible.
"From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of
the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to
rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind
me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men," Matthew
16:21-23.
As the prophetic accuracy of the Lord Jesus is a well attested fact, I believe in the Bodily Resurrection because it was
anticipated by Himself.
SECOND REASON: THE BODILY RESURRECTION IS PERFECTLY SUBSTANTIATED BY THE GOSPEL

NARRATIVES
The combined testimony of the Evangelists witnesses that the tomb is empty. A resurrected Christ is the climax of their
gospels. In perfect harmony they declare that Christ is risen from the dead.
Matthew
Matthew records two appearances of the Risen Christ.
The First to the women going from the sepulchre. "And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them,
saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him," Matthew 28:9.
The Second, the appearance upon a mountain in Galilee. "Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a
mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted,"
Matthew 28:16, 17.
Mark
Mark records three appearances.
First to Mary Magdalene. "Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary
Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with him, as they
mourned and wept. And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not," Mark
16:9-11.
Second, to the two on the road to Emmaus. "After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked,
and went into the country. And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them," Mark 16:12, 13.
Third, to the eleven. "Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their
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unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen," Mark 16:14.
Luke
Luke records four appearances.
First, to the two going to Emmaus. "And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus
himself drew near, and went with them," Luke 24:15.
Second, to Peter. "And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together,
and them that were with them, Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon," Luke 24:33, 34.
Third, to the eleven in Jerusalem. "And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto
them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said
unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I
myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he
shewed them his hands and his feet," Luke 24:36-40.
Fourth, at the ascension. "And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them,"
Luke 24:50.
John
John records four appearances.
First to Mary Magdalene at the sepulchre. "Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him,
Rabboni; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go
to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God," John
20:16, 17.
Second, to the Apostles apart from Thomas. "Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the
doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith
unto them, Peace be unto you," John 20:19.
Third, after eight days to the apostles, Thomas being present. "And after eight days again his disciples were within,
and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you,"
John 20:26.
Fourth, to seven disciples on the shore of Tiberias. "After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at
the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called
Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples," John 21:1, 2.
Of these narratives, Professor F. Godet states:
"Let us note in these evangelic records two characteristics: the variations in the details, the agreement in the
substance of the story. The substance is the fact of the resurrection. On this the accounts are unanimous. The
diversity in the details is the consequence of that between the witnesses who communicated the facts to the
writers, or who themselves drew up these records. It proves that no previous agreement, no ingenious
calculation, guided them in drawing them up.
"On looking back upon the whole, we easily perceive how wonderfully the several fragments of the picture fit
into each other. But the records themselves give not the slightest hint respecting this mutual interconnection
and this natural progress of the advancing steps of the story. 'What a proof is this of the perfect faithfulness, as
well as intrinsic truthfulness, of these primitive records!'"
These gospel records are further corroborated by Paul. "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how
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that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according
to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren
at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then
of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time," 1 Corinthians 15:3-8.
Now the truthfulness of the Gospel narratives is self-evident. A study of the intimate details recorded by the Evangelists
demonstrates their veracity. "But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye
see him, as he said unto you," Mark 16:7.
Notice the emphasis "and Peter." Peter was surely one of the disciples, why then this special addition? Peter's conduct is
undoubtedly in mind. He denied his Lord with oaths and cursing and by this time concluded that he was no longer reckoned a
disciple. If the message had named only the disciples, Peter would have excluded himself. Here, however, we have a real
portrayal of Christ. He remembered Peter, and in order to show His infinite compassion He adds in wondrous grace the words
"and Peter." No artful contriver would have thought of such an addition. This is no invention. It is something reported by an
eyewitness of the very event.
Again, take the narratives of the vision of angels. Minute details are given of their positions in the tomb, their dress, their
number, and the very degrees of light which radiated from their apparel. We read in Mark that the "young man" was seated on
the right side of the tomb, and was clad in a "long white raiment." Matthew records that the angel's raiment was "white like
snow." Luke records that the angels appeared in "shining garments." John speaks of them as being in "white."
Why such minute description? Without doubt the angels' raiment is recorded as was seen by the eyewitnesses. The narratives
are authentic accounts and not manufactured novels. The details display undesigned veracity.
Because of the self-evident truthfulness of the Gospel records I therefore believe in the Bodily Resurrection of Christ which
these records perfectly substantiate.
THIRD REASON: THE BODILY RESURRECTION IS PRACTICALLY DEMONSTRATED BY THE APOSTLES'

TRANSFORMATION
The great contrast between the disposition of the apostles at the time of Christ's death and their disposition as portrayed in the
Acts of the Apostles can not be satisfactorily explained apart from the Resurrection. Their Messianic expectation of Christ
reigning at Jerusalem with them as His princely courtiers had been rudely dashed by Christ's apprehension and subsequent
crucifixion. The dark treason of Judas, the blasphemous denial of Peter, their own cowardice at the hour of crisis, the base
victory of the Sanhedrin, the wild infuriation of the people and the awful crucifixion and sad burial of their Master had left
them hopeless and heartless, a byword and a contempt in the eyes of their enemies.
We realise something of their state in the pathetic exclamation concerning Christ, of the two who travelled to Emmaus, "But
we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things
were done," Luke 24:21.
After the third day, however, a unique moral transformation takes place. Their fears are exchanged for a rugged fearlessness,
their hopelessness for a transforming hope, their cowardice for an unflinching courage and their backwardness for a
triumphant boldness. In the power of that transformation they issued forth recklessly regardless of persecution and
martyrdom, to proclaim in the face of an antagonistic world the fact of Christ's Resurrection from the dead.
Dr. Philip Schaff comments in his valuable "Apostolic Christianity":
"This revolution was not isolated, but general among them; it was not the result of any easy credulity, but
brought about in spite of doubt and hesitation; it was not superficial and monetary, but radical and lasting; it
affected not only the apostles, but the whole history of the world. It reached even the leaders of the
persecution, Saul of Tarsus, one of the clearest and strongest intellects, and converted him into the most
devoted and faithful champion of this very gospel to the hour of his martyrdom.
"This is a fact patent to every reader of the closing chapters of the Gospels, and is freely admitted even by the
most advanced sceptics."
Contrast, for example, Peter and John at the trial of Jesus by the Sanhedrin, and Peter and John defying the very same
hierarchy and proclaiming:
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"Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but
speak the things which we have seen and heard," Acts 4:19, 20.
"We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on
a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel,
and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God
hath given to them that obey him," Acts 5:29-32.
Well may Bishop Westcott ask:
"If the crucified Lord did rise again, we can point to effects which answer completely to what we may suppose
to have been the working of the stupendous miracle on those who were the first witnesses of it: if He did not,
to what must we look for an explanation of phenomena for which the Resurrection is no more than an
adequate cause?"
There is only one answer to this stupendous transformation in the apostles, and that is that they were eyewitnesses of the
bodily presence of their once crucified but now risen Lord.
Therefore I believe in the Bodily Resurrection of Christ because it is practically demonstrated by the Apostles'
Transformation.
FOURTH REASON: BECAUSE THE BODILY RESURRECTION IS POWERFULLY VINDICATED BY

CHRISTIANITY'S HISTORY
If the Resurrection is not a fact then Christianity is inexplicable. The Resurrection is the foundation of Christianity but if this
foundation does not exist whence then Christianity? Dr. Philip Schaff comments:
"The Christian Church rests on the resurrection of its Founder. Without this fact the church could never have
been born, or if born, it would soon have died a natural death. The miracle of the resurrection and the
existence of Christianity are so closely connected that they must stand or fall together. If Christ was raised
from the dead, then all his other miracles are sure, and our faith is impregnable; if he was not raised, he died in
vain, and our faith is vain. It was only his resurrection that made his death available for our atonement,
justification and salvation; without the resurrection, his death would be the grave of our hopes; we should be
still unredeemed and under the power of our sins. A gospel of a dead Saviour would be a contradiction and
wretched delusion. This is the reasoning of St. Paul, and its force irresistible."
Beyond question, the Resurrection was the foundation truth of the apostolic gospel. The primitive church is best described in
the words of Luke. "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was
upon them all," Acts 4:33.
If the Resurrection of Christ was not an incontrovertible fact how dare the disciples proclaim it in the very place where it
happened? Is it likely, if it were a fraud, that the people would have tolerated, let alone believed, the apostolic gospel?
The empty tomb was an objective fact open for their investigation. If the tomb had not been emptied of its precious contents
by the miracle of Resurrection, then the production of Christ's body would soon have exposed the fraud. Is it credible to
suppose that if the disciples stole away the body, as the Jews in their dilemma lyingly suggested, that they would have been
prepared to be martyred for their deception?
That the main emphasis of the apostles was on the actuality of the Resurrection is further illustrated by the source from which
their main opposition came. In that invaluable book "Undesigned Coincidences," Dr. J. J. Blunt points out:
"There is a difference in the quarter from which opposition to the Gospel of Christ proceeded, as represented
in the Gospels and in the Acts, most characteristic of truth, though most unobtrusive in itself. Indeed, these
two portions of the New Testament might be read many times over without the feature I allude to happening to
present itself.
"Throughout the Gospels, the hostility to the Christian cause manifested itself almost exclusively from the
Pharisees. Jesus evidently considers them as a sect systematically adverse to it. 'Woe unto you, Scribes and
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Pharisees, hypocrites! .... Ye are the children of them which killed the prophets .... Fill ye up the measure of
your fathers.' And before Jesus came up to the last Passover, 'the chief priests and Pharisees,' we read, 'gave
commandment, that, if any man knew where he were, he should shew it, that they might take him.' And when
Judas proposed to betray Him, 'he received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees.'
On the other hand, throughout the Acts, the like hostility is discovered to proceed from the Sadducees. Thus,
'And as they' (Peter and John) 'spake thus unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the
Sadducees, came upon them.' And again, on another occasion, 'the high priest rose up, and all that were with
him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with indignation and laid their hands on the Apostles,
and put them in the common prison.' And again, in a still more remarkable case: when Paul was maltreated
before Ananias, and there was danger perhaps to his life, he, 'perceiving,' we read, 'that the one part were
Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a
Pharisee:' evidently considering the Pharisees now to be the friendly faction, and soliciting their support
against the Sadducees, whom he equally regarded as a hostile one; nor was he disappointed in his appeal.
"Whence then, this extraordinary change in the relations of these parties respectively to the Christians? No
doubt, because the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, which, before Christ's own resurrection, i.e.,
during the period comprised in the Gospels, had been so far from dispersed by the disciples, that they scarcely
knew what it meant (Mark 9:10), had now become a leading doctrine with them."
Of all people, the Sadducees would have exposed Christ's Resurrection as a deception if they had been able to do so. It was
the incontrovertible actuality of the empty tomb and Resurrected Christ, and the consequent refutation of their own doctrine
of no resurrection, which goaded them on to such acts of violence against the early church.
Bishop Westcott in "The Gospel of the Resurrection" says:
"From the time of the first preaching of the Apostles, Christianity has been a power in the world acting upon
society and acted upon by it. It conquered the Roman Empire, and remained unshaken by its fall. It sustained
the shock of the northern nations, and in turn civilised them. It suffered persecution and it wielded
sovereignty. It preserved the treasures of ancient thought and turned them to new uses. It inspired science,
while it cherished mysteries with which science could not deal. It assumed the most varied forms and it
molded the most discordant characters. And all this was done and borne in virtue of its historic foundation.
For its strength lay not in the zeal of a hierarchy who were the depositaries of hidden doctrines, but in the
open proclamation of a Divine Saviour."
Now the whole history of the triumph of Christianity is a powerful vindication of the Risen Christ. In fact, the whole history
of the last 2,000 years is the guarantee of the reality that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. The spiritual force of Christianity
is inexplicable, apart from the doctrine of the Bodily Resurrection.
So I believe in the Bodily Resurrection of Christ because it is powerfully vindicated by Christianity's History.
FIFTH REASON: THE BODILY RESURRECTION IS PERPETUALLY COMMEMORATED BY THE LORD'S

DAY
How did the seventh day cease so suddenly to the early Jewish christians to be their day for worship? Why the change to the
first day of the week? There is only one explanation, the Resurrection of Christ. John Bunyan said of the Lord's Day, the Lord
Himself began it, the Holy Spirit seconded it (Pentecost was on the first day of the week, see Leviticus 23:16) and the
Apostolic Church practised it. Its basis was the Resurrection of Christ.
The first day of the week is the only day mentioned in the New Testament as a special day. It was on the first day our Lord
arose; that He appeared to Mary, and to the disciples on the Emmaus Road, to Peter and to all the disciples apart from
Thomas. It was on the first day again He appeared to the disciples, Thomas being with them.
Paul waited for that day in Troas, and when it came remembered his Lord in the breaking of bread and preached to the
assembled disciples. Again, it was on the first day of the week that Paul commanded the Galatian and Corinthian Christians to
give their offerings to the Lord's work. In Revelation it was on the Lord's Day that John was granted his stupendous
apocalyptic vision.
The assertion of the Seventh Day Adventists that the Pope and the Church of Rome changed the day under Constantine is a
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pure fallacy, a sectarian invention with no historical foundation whatever. Dr. Schaff, the great authority in Church History,
states:
"The universal and uncontradicted Sunday observance in the second century can only be explained by the fact
that it had its roots in apostolic practice. Such observance is the more to be appreciated as it has no support in
civil legislation before the age of Constantine, and must have been connected with many inconveniences,
considering the lowly social condition of the majority of Christians and their dependence upon their heathen
masters and employers. Sunday thus became, by an easy and natural transformation, the Christian Sabbath or
weekly day of rest, at once answering the typical import of the eternal rest of the people of God in the
heavenly Canaan."
Now the Lord's day had its own prophetic anticipation. Over in Leviticus we have its type in the feast of the Firstfruits.
"Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap
the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf
before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it," Leviticus 23:10, 11.
Notice the time of this feast, "the day after the Sabbath." Now this day was the third day after the passover lamb was slain, so
at the very time when in the temple the priests were preparing the wave offering, Christ arose. Adolph Saphir says:
"Exactly as the type had prefigured it, so was He offered up unto God. And on the morrow after the Sabbath
He came forth the Sheaf, the Branch out of the earth ... Suffering and death were behind Him. He had died
once unto sin, but now He lived unto God."
It was of this feast of the first-fruits that Paul was thinking when he wrote:
"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept," 1 Corinthians 15:20.
In Psalm 118 we have a direct prophecy concerning the Lord's day. "The stone which the builders refused is become the head
stone of the corner. This is the LORD's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the LORD hath made; we
will rejoice and be glad in it," Psalm 118:22-24. We have the fulfillment of this prophecy mentioned by Peter to the
Sanhedrin: "Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye
crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which
was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner," Acts 4:10, 11.
The day was not of man's making, it was the day which the Lord made, by the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Resurrection is the only warrant for our keeping the first day of the week sanctified to the Lord.
Blest morning, whose first dawning rays

Beheld the Son of God
Arise triumphant from the grave,
And leave His dark abode!
Wrapt in the silence of the tomb

The great Redeemer lay.
Till the revolving skies had brought
The third, the appointed day.
Hell and the grace combined their force

To hold our Lord in vain;
Sudden the Conqueror arose,
And burst their feeble chain.
To thy great name, Almighty Lord,

We sacred honours pay,
And loud hosannas shall proclaim
The triumphs of the day.
Hence I believe in the Bodily Resurrection of Christ because it is perpetually commemorated by the Lord's Day.
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SIXTH REASON: THE BODILY RESURRECTION IS PLAINLY INDICATED BY THE IMPOSSIBLE

ALTERNATIVES
When one places the onus of the proof on those who deny the Bodily Resurrection, the reality of the Resurrection is
confirmed rather than refuted. Three possible theories have been advanced down through the centuries to prove that Christ did
not rise from the dead. These theories have been put forward at different times in different ways, but their substance has ever
been the same.
The Fraud Theory
The invention of the Jewish leaders is put forth as the real truth. The disciples stole the body of Jesus from Joseph's tomb,
while the guards slept, and have concealed it, deceived the world. This theory carries its own refutation, for if the guards were
sleeping how did they know it was the disciples who stole the body, and if they were not sleeping then they would have
prevented the crime. Again, if they really slept at the post of duty, as Romans they would never have confessed such an awful
crime. As for the disciples, they were too cowardly at this time to do such a daring act and too honest to connive to cheat the
whole world. How could such a fraud have nerved its perpetrators with such Christian patience and fortitude? It is clear that
the fraud theory is a fraud and is rightly described as "a wicked absurdity."
The Swoon Theory
This theory holds that Jesus did not really die on the cross but that He merely swooned from loss of blood. Nicodemus and
Joseph discovered this and with the help of others, by careful medical attention, restored Christ to life. Later He died a natural
death. Others have even absurdly stated that He recovered from the swoon of the cross in the cold tomb and by His own
medical attention recovered and somehow or other got out of the sepulchre. Besides insurmountable physical difficulties this
theory could never account for the marvellous transformation of the apostles. The experience of a weary, wounded sickly
Jesus hiding away from His enemies and eventually succumbing to death, would have overwhelmed the disciples completely
in utter despair.
The Vision Theory
The exponents of this theory have adopted all sorts of ingenuous methods to dispose of the fact of the empty tomb. Some say
Mary and the disciples visited another tomb which was not occupied. Others say the body was taken away by the enemies of
Christ. Another theory held by "Jehovah Witnesses" that the body dissolved into gases has recently been advocated by no less
a person than an ex-President of the Methodist Church, Dr. Leslie Weatherford. In a recent essay on the subject he states:
"It would not be wise to suppose that Christ walked out of the tomb in the same physical body that died on the Cross, for that
only postpones the question 'What then finally happened to His body?' Perhaps it completely dematerialised, that is, became
nothingness, so far as matter is concerned. It is easier to suppose that through the speeding up of molecular movement, it
became gaseous and escaped through chinks in the cave, not, of course, made airtight by the rough circular stone, and that
either
(1) those particles were used by Him to materialise again outside the tomb, or
(2) -- the hypothesis I prefer -- that a spiritual or etheric existence, which had the same effect on human senses
as a physical one, was the means of the post-Resurrection appearance."
This theory goes on to state as Dr. Weatherhead does, that the Resurrection appearances were merely visions of one kind or
another. Dr. Weatherhead finds the best explanation is spiritism. The insurmountable arguments against this theory are many.
What of the tomb? Are we to believe that the majestic discourses attributed to the Risen Christ proceeded from "dreamy and
self-deluded enthusiasts and crazy fanatics"? Are we to accept these appearances as ghost stories? Why did these visions
suddenly end on the fortieth day? Why did they not continue? Dr. Schaff says:
"The chief objection to the vision-hypothesis is its intrinsic impossibility. It makes the most exorbitant claim
upon our credulity. It requires us to believe that many persons, singly and collectively, at different times, and
in different places, from Jerusalem to Damascus, had the same vision and dreamed the same dream; that the
women at the open sepulchre early in the morning, Peter and John soon afterwards, the two disciples
journeying to Emmaus on the afternoon of the resurrection day, the assembled apostles on the evening in the
absence of Thomas, and again on the Lord's Day in the presence of the sceptical Thomas, seven apostles at the
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lake of Tiberias, on one occasion five hundred brethren at once most of whom were still alive when Paul
reported the fact, then James, the brother of the Lord, who formerly did not believe in him, again all the
apostles on Mount Olivet at the ascension, and at last the clear-headed, strong-minded persecutor on the way
to Damascus -- that all these men and women on these different occasions vainly imagined they saw and heard
the self-same Jesus in bodily shape and form; and that they were by this baseless vision raised all at once from
the deepest gloom in which the crucifixion of their Lord had left them, to the boldest faith and strongest hope
which impelled them to proclaim the gospel of the resurrection from Jerusalem to Rome to the end of their
lives!
"The vision-hypothesis, instead of getting rid of the miracle, only shifts it from the fact to fiction; it makes an
empty delusion more powerful than the truth, or turns all history itself at last into a delusion. Before we can
reason the resurrection of Christ out of history we must reason the apostles and Christianity itself out of
existence. We must either admit the miracle, or frankly confess that we stand here before an inexplicable
mystery."
All these impossible alternatives plainly indicate the fact of the Resurrection. The enemies of the Risen Christ cannot prove
He did not triumphantly vacate the tomb. That rugged empty tomb smashes all opposition.
Death could not keep its prey,

Jesus, my Saviour!
He tore the bars away,
Jesus, my Lord!
Up from the grave He arose,

With a mighty triumph o'er His foes.
He arose a Victor o'er the dark domain,
And He lives for ever with His saints to reign!
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!
Hence I believe in the Bodily Resurrection of Christ because it is plainly indicated by the impossible alternatives.
SEVENTH REASON: THE BODILY RESURRECTION IS PERSONALLY CORROBORATED BY THE

BELIEVER'S EXPERIENCE
Joseph's tomb is not only emptied of Christ's body but it is emptied of our curse. Christ was delivered because of our
offences, He was raised because of our justification. His death discharged our awful debt, His resurrection is the great receipt
that the full price has been paid.
Jesus, once numbered with the dead,

Unseals His eyes to sleep no more,
And ever lives their cause to plead,
For whom the pains of death He bore.
Our Surety freed declares us free,

For whose offences He was seized;
In His release our own we see,
And shout to view Jehovah pleased.
This experience of justification in the heart of the believer is a personal corroboration that Christ is risen from the dead, In the
joy of this experience the believer can say with Job, "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for
myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me," Job 19:25-27.
Thus the evidence of faith confirms the fact of the Resurrection. Of the empty tomb Professor Godet writes:
"Let us often visit this spot; it is not necessary for this end to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem; the entrance
into the holy sepulchre opens in the depths of the heart of each one of us. Let us descend into it, to find there
the pledges of our adoption, the shreds of the letter of acknowledgement of debt, which bore witness against
74 of 75
us, and which the hand of our Heavenly Creditor has torn up, the fragments of the sceptre of Death, which the
foot of our deliverer has broken to pieces; and lastly, the helmet of hope, which His hand has deposited there
in order that each believer may go thither to put it on his head. Ah! what good such a visit does to the
overwhelmed soul! She returns out of it as John came out of the sepulchre after seeing in it the linen clothes
wrapped together, and the napkin folded and laid by in a place by itself. 'He saw and believed,' he tells us
himself; summing up in these two words the deepest experience of his life. Let us believe in the testimony of
those who saw, in that which authenticates itself to our hearts as holy, and therefore true, and then we too shall
see; we shall behold, even here on earth, the glory of God."
I believe in the Bodily Resurrection of Christ, because my experience of the Saviour tells me it is so.
The day of resurrection!

Earth, tell it out abroad;
The passover of gladness,
The passover of God!
From death to life eternal,
From earth unto the sky,
Our Christ hath brought us over
With hymns of victory.
Now let the heavens be joyful;

Let earth her song begin;
Let the round world keep triumph,
And all that is therein;
Invisible and visible,
Their notes let all things blend,
For Christ the Lord hath risen,
Our joy that hath no end.
.
THE ENDb
y
.
THE END of the Book
75 of 75

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CHRISTIAN FOUNDATIONS by Dr. Ian R. K.

What Saith the Scripture?

Seven Reasons Why I Believe

Seven Reasons Why I Believe in

Seven Reasons Why I Believe in

Seven Reasons Why I Believe in

Seven Reasons Why I Believe in

Seven Reasons Why I Believe

THE CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE

VERBAL INSPIRATION ESSENTIAL

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST BELIEVED IN VERBAL INSPIRATION

To sum up, all Scripture is inspired of God

the writers are inspired of God

every letter is also inspired

and inspiration extents to every jot and tittle

FIRST REASON: THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF THE FACT OF THE BIBLE

Will its message still abide, when the scientists decide

When in language wondrous fair, "Christian Scientists" declare

When infidels parade the mistakes which Moses made,

SECOND REASON: THE UNITY OF THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE

The Diversity of the Bible's Writers

The unity of the Bible is further manifested in:

The Details of its Wording.

The Unity of the Bible is further demonstrated in:

The Doctrine of its Writings.

THIRD REASON: THE VERACITY OF THE FULFILLED PROPHECY OF THE BIBLE

The Gentile Nations

FOURTH REASON: THE INEXHAUSTIBILITY OF THE WISDOM OF THE BIBLE

FIFTH REASON: THE ADAPTABILITY OF THE TEACHING OF THE BIBLE

Again, the Bible's adaptability is demonstrated in--

The Bible's adaptability is further demonstrated in :

1. Infancy, paidion, child.

2. Childhood, pais, boy.

3. Youth, meirakion, lad.

4. Adolescence, neaniskos, young man.

5. Manhood, aner, man.

6. Decline, prebutes, old man.

7. Senility, geron, aged man.

SIXTH REASON: THE VITALITY OF THE HEARING OF THE BIBLE

1. To convict of sin. Acts 2:37.

2. To regenerate the heart. 1 Peter 1:23.

3. To produce faith. Romans 10:17.

4. To cleanse the life. John 15:3.

5. To edify the believer. Acts 20:32.

6. To impart eternal life. 1 John 5:13.

7. To perfect the whole man. 2 Timothy 3:17.

SEVENTH REASON: THE CALAMITY OF REJECTING THE BIBLE

gambling den and the blasphemer's club.

Such was the end of one who rejected the Bible.

There my eternal Godhead shines

There the great gospel scheme behold,

And pardon, bought with blood.

There's armour for the trying day,

There's balm to heal the wounds of sin,

O may the Spirit's influence sweet

Let Revelation's glories shine,

Seven Reasons Why I Believe in

WHAT IS IMPLIED BY REJECTION OF THE VIRGIN BIRTH

Here is a statement by Nels F. S. Ferre, an American theologian: