THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION

Christian Theology is based upon the revelation of God in Christ, the record of which, in both its preliminary and its perfect stages, is given in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Referring the reader to our basic assumptions concerning the relation of the written word to that of the Personal and Eternal Word, as found in our discussion of the Scriptures, we may here in an introductory way speak of revelation and the Christian faith as the objective and subjective forms of God's disclosure of Himself to man. But Revelation refers them to God as the Revealer, while the Christian faith regards them as received by men. It is well to keep this before us in our discussions, for thus we preserve intact, both the formal and the material principles of revelation. What God is pleased to make known, man's acceptance makes his faith. Both the revelation and the Christian faith are coincident with the Scriptures. We do not say identical, for Christian Theology must ever make Christ, the Living and Eternal Word, the supreme revelation of God. But the Holy Scriptures as the true and inerrant record of the Personal Word, and the medium of continued utterance through the Holy Spirit, must in a true and deep sense become the formal aspect of the one true and perfect revelation. Regarding the Scriptures, therefore, as the formal Rule of Faith, our subject divides itself naturally into three main divisions: (I) The Nature of the Christian Revelation; or REVELATION; (II) The Origin of the Christian Revelation, or INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES; and (III) The Evidences of the Christian Faith, or THE CANON OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 

By revelation, in the broader sense of the term, is meant every manifestation of God to the consciousness of man, whether through nature and the course of human history, or through the higher disclosures of the Incarnate Word and the Holy Scriptures. It thus becomes at once, "the most elementary and the most comprehensive word of our theological system." It is customary to divide the subject broadly into (I) General Revelation; and (II) Special Revelation. Other terms used to express this twofold division are Natural and Supernatural, or External and Internal Revelation. MacPherson suggests the use of the terms Mediate and Immediate former being that made indirectly through the various mediating agencies and instrumentalities, the latter, the revelation made immediately to the spiritual nature of man. While these divisions are more or less conventional, they are distinctions admitted by the Scriptures themselves (Psalm 19, Romans 1:20, 2:15, Acts 14:17, 17:22-31); and the later and higher revelations of divine truth instead of abrogating them, seem to set them out in clearer light.  

GENERAL REVELATION 

By General Revelation as the term is used in theology, we mean that disclosure of Himself which God makes to all men-in nature, in the constitution of the mind, and in the progress of human history. There is a tendency frequently found among certain classes of theologians, to regard revelation as the divine aspect, of that which from the human plane may be viewed as the ordinary learning process. Thus Lipsius states that all revelation, both as to its form and its contents, is at once supernatural and natural; supernatural because it is the effect of the Divine Spirit in man, natural because it operates both psychologically and historically through consciousness regarded as embraced within the spiritual nature of man. MacPherson calls attention to this fallacy, and warns us that it resolves itself into practically a deistical theory of God and the universe. More modern views of inspiration, as being merely differences in degree rather than in kind, have likewise proved detrimental to a right conception of the Holy Scriptures. 
 

From the scriptural standpoint, however, the two terms apokaluyiV or an "unveiling," and fanerwsiV or a "showing forth" or "making known" are applied to the mysteries of religion solely, and not to the mere discoveries made slowly and gradually through the intellectual processes of learning. 

We have now to set forth in an enlarged manner, the results of the investigations learned in the science and philosophy of religion. These furnish undisputed evidence of the universality of religion, and of its ground in the nature and constitution of man. The philosophy of religion has shown that this natural religiousness of man is itself a revelation, and in its unfoldings, directly and of necessity leads to the revelation of the objective existence of God. Religion takes its moral character from the fact of conscience, by which man knows the fundamental distinction between right and wrong, and this leads immediately to the nature of the Supreme Being as holy. We approach the subject from a different angle, but we reach the same results when we use the term Revelation instead of Religion. Revelation in its general sense is made to man, (I) through nature, (II) through the constitution of man himself; and (III) through the progress of human history. 

Revelation through Nature. Here we mean the disclosure of God through the physical universe considered apart from man. This we have already pointed out in our discussion of nature as a source of theology. The argument need not be repeated. Nature is filled with the Divine Spirit and reveals God as the atmosphere is filled with sunlight and reveals the sun. But the language of nature falls upon darkened intellects and dulled sensibilities and must be read in the dim light of a vitiated 

      

In this more general application other words are used besides apokaluyiV or revelation: such as fwtizein or the light of the Son in human reason which lighteth every man that cometh into the world; faneroun, or the declaration of the divine glory in the universe, and of the testimony of the Supreme to all men which may be manifest (Rom. 1:19) and to the providential guidance of the Gentiles before whom He left not himself without a witness ouk amarturon (Acts 14:17). All of these lower and more restricted or improper revelations and methods of revelation are taken up into Revelation proper.-POPE, Compend Chr. Th, I, pp. 36, 37.

   

spiritual nature. However, as Ewald points out, "the more God is otherwise known, the more this whole infinite, visible creation declares His invisible glory, and reveals His hidden nature and will," and to this the testimony of every spiritually renewed soul bears joyful witness. 

 

It may be well to call attention to the fact also, that otherwise extraordinary experiences become through frequent repetition common and ordinary, and thereby lose the aspect of the miraculous. The most illuminating presentation of this fact which we have found is by Dr. Samuel Harris of Yale in his Self-revelation of God-an older work but a rich apologetic for Christian Theology. "Persons sometimes imagine," he says, "that if God had revealed Himself continually and to all men by working miracles before them, it would have been impossible to doubt His existence. But miracles are presented to the senses, and therefore, like the familiar works of nature are a veil which hides God while revealing Him; the mind must pass through them; just as it passes through the sensible phenomena of nature, to the God unseen and spiritual, behind the veil. And if miracles were as common as summer showers and rainbows, they would attract no more attention than they. It is sometimes thought that if God should habitually reveal Himself in theophanies such as the Bible records, doubt would be no longer possible. But even in the theophanies the prophets did not see God; they saw only signs and symbols through which their spiritual eyes saw what can be only spiritually discerned. Ezekiel saw a cloud coming out of the north with whirlwind and with infolding fire and flashing lightning; and from its amber brightness a crystal firmament evolved borne on four cherubim, with wheels of beryl so high that they were dreadful, and all moving with flashing light and, to the very wheels, instinct with the spirit of life. On the firmament was a sapphire throne, and on the throne the appearance of a man. But if that vision should rise on our view every morning from the north, wherein would that miniature firmament reveal God any more than the sun which rises every morning in the east, or the firmament with its thousands of stars which wheels majestically above us every night? What theophany presented to the senses can open to view -such energies, such swiftness of motion, such greatness and such fineness of being, such grand and harmonious systems, such powers instinct with the spirit of life, such manifestations of reason, such manifestations of God, as science is disclosing in the physical universe itself. We discover also a certain limitation in the nature of things to the revelation of God through words. Some may think it would be a great help to faith if "GOD IS LOVE" were written across the sky in letters of stars. We might ask in what language it should be written, and might suggest that such an arrangement would imply that the earth is the center of the universe, and that all other worlds exist for it. But were the words written thus, it would still be only an orderly arrangement of the stars through which the mind must look to read its significance; and such orderly arrangements we see everywhere in nature. How immeasurably more significant the revelation of His love which God has made in the life and self-sacrificing love of Jesus the Christ... So the words of the prophets and apostles fall without significance on the ear, until God by His divine action has disclosed their meaning. The hearer must first know God by his own experience of God's grace, or by his knowledge of God's action in nature, or in human history, or above all in Christ, in order to understand the prophet's communication (HARRIS, Self-revelation of God, pp. 70, 71). Here we anticipate our argument for the necessity of a supplementary revelation. 

 

The Revelation of God in the Nature and Constitution of Man. The next stage in natural revelation is to be found in the nature and constitution of man himself. Man knows himself to be a spiritual, personal being, and in the unity of this personality, he finds three moments or aspects of his being, that of intellect, feeling, and will. Man knows himself also to have a conscience, from which arises a sense of duty to an over Master or Lord. Nor can the root word be entirely overlooked. Conscience is the knowing along with someone. We may say, therefore, that consciousness is the self, apprehending the world and thereby distinguishing itself from the world; and we may say that conscience is the self apprehending God and thereby distinguishing itself from God. It knows further that as a person it is made for fellowship with the Supreme Person. In thinking of creation, the self posits a Creator; and in the idea of preservation, it posits a Ruler. But we are not through with this matter of conscience. Dr. Phineas F. Bresee in his chapel addresses frequently referred to Carlyle's definition which he would ask the students to repeat with him, commenting on the importance of each word. Conscience is "that Somewhat or Someone within us which pronounces as to the rightness or wrongness of the choice of motives." Were the word "Somewhat" omitted, he asserted, we should have Isaiah's definition of conscience. What is this which is a very part of our being, which when we have done our best to identify it with our own inner impulses, and know that however intimately it is related to our selfhood, it is not of our earth-born nature, nor is it an individual possession, but is in its essence, timeless and eternal? Nor is this inner reality impersonal, a mere abstraction or quality, but "a vital, concrete personal Presence." This is What Dr. Bresee sought to impress upon those who were so fortunate as to sit under his ministry. We are driven to the conclusion, that as consciousness is that quality of the self which knows itself in relation to external things, and cannot exist apart from its object in the temporal order; so also conscience cannot exist without a Personal Object in the timeless and eternal order. 

 

Referring again to the elements of personality, we may say that God is known to man through his reason, both immediately in his consciousness and mediately through the universe. It is a necessary intuition of the mind. "By a necessary intuition," says Dr. Miley, "we mean one that springs immediately from the constitution of the mind, and that, under Proper conditions, must so spring" (MILEY, Syst. Th., I, p. 68). These revelations are not merely products of thought. "As everywhere diffused daylight comes from the reflection of the light of the sun from the atmosphere and innumerable objects, the mind is illuminated with intelligence by thought reflected from innumerable points of reality around it." Goethe says, "All thinking in the world does not bring us to thought. We must be right by nature, so that good thoughts may come before us like free children of God, and cry, 'Here we are!'" These thoughts are reflected from the objects of the physical and moral universe, and reveal the spiritual and divine that is in them. "So in the spiritual life," continues Dr. Harris, "the knowledge of God is not originated by thinking, but presupposes revelation. And there is a spiritual insight which sees into the significance of the reality revealed. In the revelation of God in Christian consciousness, the humblest mind has a vision of God and of the universe in relation to Him, which ungodly genius with all its powers cannot see" (Cf. HARRIS. Self-revelation of God, p. 87). 

 

We must not allow a mechanistic psychology, or an agnostic philosophy to tie us down to the earth, nor must we lose the sense of reality through a false idealism. "Rationalism dug so deep for a foundation for faith," says Dr. Buckham, "that is buried under the soil upon which it should have built. Absolute Idealism spurned the earth and has always remained in the air. Man is at once a creature in nature, and a personal being transcending nature. The Scriptures tell us that he is the highest of the created earthly creatures from the physical standpoint, and also that God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. In this he is the recipient of an imparted life and thus a son of God. Dr. Harris uses the terms "natural" and "supernatural" in this connection, but he does so by limiting the term "supernatural" to its strictly literal meaning as being "above nature," not as divine. The contrast between the human and the divine he thinks is better expressed by the terms "finite" and "infinite." "Man, therefore, as a personal and spiritual being is supernatural. He knows in himself reason and free will and rational motives, the essential attributes of a supernatural or spiritual being. As a spirit, he is like God who is a Spirit; he participates in reason the same as God, the eternal Reason; he recognizes as imperative in his own reason the same law of love which God commands, he can love like God. Thus he has something in common with God, while as to his physical organization he is in nature as really as the trees, is sensitive to its action on him, and so knows it in his conscious experience. In his spirit he is supernatural, is sensitive to the action of the supernatural on him, and knows it in his conscious experience. Thus he knows two systems in the universe, the natural and the spiritual or supernatural. . . . . . His consciousness is the center upon which the powers of nature converge and reveal themselves; it is likewise the center on which the powers of the spiritual system converge, and in which they reveal themselves. Thus he has knowledge of the system of nature and of the rational and moral system, and of their unity in the universe, which is the manifestation of God. The unity of the two appears in the subordination of nature to spirit and its harmony with it as the sphere in which it acts and through which it is revealed. If the physical organization of man is but the form and medium through which the human spirit reveals itself, if all nature is but the form and medium in and through which God and the spiritual system are revealed, the antagonism between nature and the supernatural disappears, but the distinction between them remains; and man by virtue of his spiritual and supernatural powers is participant in the light of the Divine Reason, and is capable of knowing God and communing with Him, of knowing the supernatural and participating in it. Thus man is at once a supernatural being in a supernatural or spiritual environment, and a participant of nature in a physical environment. If we once grasp this reality it will be impossible to doubt that his spiritual environment may reveal itself in his consciousness through his spiritual sensibilities or susceptibilities, as his physical environment reveals itself through his senses. The spirit will no longer be conceived as ghostly or ghastly, but as essentially and distinctively human" (HARRIS, Self-revelation of God, pp. 85, 86). 

 

The Revelation of God in History. The progress of human history reveals the purpose of God in a higher manner than is possible in the constitution of a single individual. This fact, which forms the basis of the teleological argument concerning the existence of God, must likewise be unfolded in our discussion of the subject of Divine Providence. It is sufficient here, however, to deal only with those aspects which will not be included in the later discussions. History is not a disconnected series of events. History belongs to human volition. It is a record of what men have done. But there is an inner directing Presence in history and an Authoritative Will above it which directs all to an expressed goal, a fullness of time. This goal is the coming of the Word made flesh, the Incarnate Son of God standing out on the plane of human history as God manifest in the flesh. In the light of this historical fact, we are able to look back through the pages of history and recognize purpose in its events; and we are able to read the words of the prophets and see their predictions fulfilled. But as the central point of all history, He has had His impress upon it. "The striking and significant fact concerning this fresh illumination of the Jesus of history is that He proves so real and so magnetic to the world of today. Many centuries separate Him from us; mighty changes have swept across the intervening generations; civilization has moved on through diverse periods and vast developments, but the Man of Nazareth is the same yesterday, today and forever in His hold upon men. Above  

       

MacPherson emphasizes the fact that although revelation is a spiritual communication to man, it is not concerned with natural knowledge, and therefore does not take into consideration the niceties of a metaphysical or psychological kind, but only with the facts that bear upon the relation of man to God (Cf. MacPHERSON, Chr. Dogm., p. 20).

 

the now curious and outgrown ideas of His time, the meager life, the archaic customs, He rises supremely real, supremely commanding and supremely winsome" (BUCKHAM, Christ and the Eternal Order, p. 65). History in its clearer light of the revealed Christ, sheds its searching rays back along the path and we see that He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. As in the metaphysical realm, He was the Light that lighteth every man coming into the world, and yet a Light which shined in the darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not; so in the course of human history he was forever coming to His own, yet His own received Him not. This "somewhat" proves to be in clearer light a "some one," who as the pre-existent and eternal Word, in whose image man was made, by whose power the worlds were formed, and by whose presence the course of history has developed in spite of the darkness and antagonism of sin; so this One must continue until, according to the Scriptures, all things are gathered together in one, both in heaven and in earth, even in Him (Eph. 1:10).  

 

Watson tells us that Revelation gives information on those subjects which most immediately concern the Divine Government. It must, Watson tell us that Revelation gives information on those subjects therefore, (1) contain explicit information on those important subjects on which mankind had most greatly and most fatally erred. (2) That it should accord with the principles of former revelations, given to men in the same state of guilt and moral incapacity as we find them in the present day. (3) That it should have a satisfactory external authentication. (4) That it should contain provisions for its effectual promulgation among all classes of men. The Christian Revelation therefore must give us a knowledge of God's will, the knowledge of the Mediator between God and man, Divine Providence, the chief good of man, his immortality and accountability and the future state (WATSON, Institutes, I, pp. 62, 63).  The writers of the mediaeval period made this distinction: Natural religion gives truths which can be learned by the unaided reason; Revelation is concerned with truths which are beyond the power of natural reason. Natural Theology, however, has generally gone too far, (1) in claiming for its arguments a stronger and more coercive proof than rightfully attaches to it; and (2) the assumption that Revelation lies wholly without the realm of reason. Thomas Aquinas maintained that revelation operates through an inward light, which exalts the mind to the perception of those things which it cannot of itself attain. Just as intelligence, therefore, is assured of what it knows by the light of reason, so in the realm of revelation it has an assurance by means of this inward supernatural light

  
   

SPECIAL REVELATION

 

By Special Revelation we refer to the redemptive purpose of God manifested in Christ Jesus, as over against the more general revelation of His power as manifested in His creative works. Some have objected to the idea of a special revelation as being derogatory to the wisdom of God in that it appears to represent Him as mending or supplementing the former disclosures of Himself. The objection is not valid. God created the earth as a theater for the activities of men as personal beings, who indeed as to their bodies are an integral part of nature, but who in their spiritual beings transcend nature. and form a spiritual fellowship. General revelation is basic and fundamental, but from the very nature of things, implies a revelation on a higher and personal plane. Thus by the union of these two forms of revelation, man comes to know God not as mere law, or as force working through law, but as a Supreme Personality, who is not only capable of entering into fellowship with men, but who has created men specifically for communion with Himself. Again, since man has been created for personal fellowship with God, it is rational to suppose that He would make disclosures of Himself through human personality beyond those possible through restricted and impersonal nature. Finally, the fact that sin entered the world as an event later than the creative fiat, necessitates a special revelation if God's attitude toward sin is to be understood, and His purpose of redemption effectually made known to men. As a corollary to this last position, a special revelation is necessary, because divine tuition must contend against the abnormal consequences of sin as discovered in the apathy, perversity and spiritual darkness which characterize the minds of men. "A single glance," says Sheldon, "at the tragedy of human sin and folly, ought to dissipate the fiction that nature affords an adequate revelation for man in his actual condition. It may indeed be sufficient to involve a measure of responsibility, but it is not sufficient to supply the highest motive power or the most efficient guidance" (SHELDON, System of Chr. Doct., p. 75). 

 

Strictly speaking we have here three grades of revelation-that made through impersonal nature, that made through man as a personal being in a peculiar sense transcending nature; and lastly that made through Jesus Christ as the Incarnate Word of God. It is evident, therefore, that the spiritual nature of man becomes the theater for the special revelation of God. Regarded from the lower standpoint, man represents the culmination of the revelation of God through Nature. Viewed from above, human nature becomes the organ of the Divine Revelation through Christ. In man, the human spirit rests in nature; in Christ the divine rests in the human. From the days of the early Church, there has been a speculative interest in the question as to whether or not Christ would have become incarnate in order to perfect the revelation of God through man, or whether He came solely in His redemptive purpose and power. However we view the question two comings are involved - one in humiliation, due to sin; the other a second coming in glory without sin unto salvation. Whether this second coming would have become a First, had sin not entered the world, can be only a matter of private conjecture. We are on safe ground, however, when we consider the revelation of God in Christ in its profoundest depths as an unfolding of the redemptive purpose of God. 

In thus limiting the idea of a special revelation to the unfolding of the eternal counsel of God as it concerns the redemption of men through Christ, we bring before us three salient points. First, the redemptive purpose of God as revealed in Christ; Second, the perfected Scriptures as the final testimony of Jesus to sinful men; and Third, the coincidence of these with the Christian Faith. 

 

Christ's Redemptive Mission. Only in a preliminary manner, and as it is directly concerned with the revealing work of Christ, do we call attention to the nature of His mission. "Revelation proper," says Pope, "is consecrated to the mystery hid with Christ in God, the one secret which it unfolds." To this the prophets bear witness, and it is common burden of both our Lord and His apostles. Christ himself is the sum of all revelati6n, the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power (Heb. 1:3). The incarnation is referred to as the mystery of godliness (I Tim. 3:16); and Christ is himself called the Mystery of God (Col. 2:2) in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3). St. Paul tells us that the knowledge of the glory of God is seen in the face of Jesus Christ (II Cor. 4:6). John sounds a deep and authoritative note in the prologue to the Fourth Gospel especially in such verses as In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God (John 1:1); and again, No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him (1:18). And in another place, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father (John 14:9). Matthew likewise tells us that no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him (Matt. 11:27). In Christ, all the prophets with their lamps, all the priests with their altars and sacrifices, and all the kings with their thrones and scepters, are lost in Him who is our Prophet, Priest and King. 

 

The Scriptures Contain and Are the Word of God. Christ was Himself the full and perfect revelation of the Father-the effulgence of His glory and the express or exact image of His Person. His testimony is the spirit of prophecy-the last word of all objective revelation. It is because this testimony is perfected in the Scriptures, that they become the Word of God objectified. Dorner maintains that neither faith nor the Scriptures but only God in Christ, and in the Holy Spirit, is the principle of the existence of Christianity (principium essendi), while faith is primarily the principle of the knowledge of Christianity (principium cognoscendi); and that for dogmatic theology, faith with its contents appropriated from the Scriptures, constitutes the immediate material. On the contrary, we must hold with MacPherson, that it is not faith with the Scriptures as its content, but the Scriptures, as the record of divine revelation, which claim acceptance from man. When received by faith in God who therein reveals Himself, the Scriptures become the principle of knowledge, and the Rule of Faith. Francke's position against which Dorner argues, is much more in harmony with the Protestant doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, which makes the Scriptures the principium cognoscendi objectivum, and then places the believing subject alongside, co-ordinated with the Scriptures as the principium cognoscendi subjectivum God himself, then as the principium essendi, binds these two together into ultimate unity. "Christianity thus owes its existence to Christ, the revealer of God, but the knowledge of Christianity is immediately set forth in the Scriptures, which must be received and understood by the heart and mind of the believer (Cf. MacPHERSON, Chr. Dogm., p. 27). 

 

The Scriptures and the Christian Faith. The Revelation of God given to man in the Holy Scriptures, becomes the Christian faith when received by him. We must therefore regard the body of truth as addressed primarily to the principle of faith, and secondarily as presenting its credentials to reason in order to win the assent of those who are not yet of the household of faith. Concerning the First, we must now discuss more at length (I) The Christian Book and (II) The Christian Faith. Concerning the second we must give attention to (III) The Credentials of Revelation with its subtopics. 

 

 

THE CHRISTIAN BOOK 

 

The first subject in any discussion of the Christian revelation must of necessity be the Christian Book since here alone are to be found its documentary records. This leads us immediately to a consideration of the nature and function of the Scriptures as the oracles of God. Christ the Personal Word was Himself the full and final revelation of the Father. He alone is the true Revealer. Not merely His words and acts, but He himself as manifested in His words and acts. In this sense it may be truly said that "the Oracle and the oracles are one." To rightly understand, then, the nature and function of the Bible, it must be viewed as occupying an intermediate position between the primary revelation of God in nature, and the perfect revelation of God in Christ-the Personal Word. If we place at the very center of Revelation the idea of the Eternal Word, and draw about it a series of concentric circles, the first and nearest would represent the Word incarnate or the revelation of God in Christ the Personal Word. The second circle farther removed would represent the Bible as the written Word. It is in this sense that the Bible is at once the Word of God and the record of that Word. The Gospels were given to us by the evangelists who, under the inspiration of the Spirit, recorded the words and deeds of the Christ in the flesh. The Acts, the Epistles and the Apocalypse were given by the direct energizing of the Spirit, in fulfillment of Christ's purpose to give the Church the Scriptures of the New Testament as supplementary to, and a completion of, the Old Testament. It is evident, then, that the Bible bears the same relation to the Living and Personal Word, that our words spoken and recorded bear to our own persons. The third and outer circle would represent the revelation of God in nature and the created universe. In order, therefore, to correctly understand the Bible as the written Word, we must estimate it in its relation to nature on the one hand, and the Personal Word on the other. 

 

The Relation of the Bible to Nature. The revelation of God in the Holy Scriptures is not meant to supersede His revelation in nature but to supplement it. It is important that we keep before us, constantly, the fact that the mind rises to spiritual conceptions through the use of material things. That was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural: and afterward that which is spiritual (I Cor. 15:46). What did we know of spiritual things when we were children? And how could we ever have learned them, had it not been for the analogy of earthly things? Is not this the meaning of Jesus of whom it is recorded that without a parable spake he not unto them? (Matt. 13:34). When Jesus would lead His disciples into the deeper truths of the Spirit, He pointed to the lilies by the roadside, the grass of the field, the sparrows. From these observations He leads not directly to spiritual truth, but first to the realm of historical fact and then to spiritual values. Consider the lilies of the field-this is His primary observation, the basis of all scientific investigation. Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these-this is the realm of secondary or historical knowledge. How much more shall your heavenly Father clothe you-this is the spiritual value which forms the ultimate goal of His instruction-a knowledge of the Father and personal trust in Him. There is a deep and profound philosophy here. The Earth and the Bible are God's two texts, each having its place, time and function in progressive revelation. Nature is the primary source of knowledge, the Bible is the supplementary source. Nature proposes mysterious questions, and the Bible in so far as it is understood solves them. The Bible furnishes us with ideals, Nature gives us the tools with which to work them out. The one tells us of His eternal power and Godhead, the other of His mercy and love. Without the Bible the universe would be a riddle; without Nature, the Bible would be meaningless. When Nicodemus desired the knowledge of spiritual things, Jesus said unto him, If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? (John 3:12). 

 

The Relation of the Written Word to the Personal Word. The Bible on the other hand, must be considered in relation to Christ the Living Word. Not from themselves do the inspired books give forth light. The original source of the Christian knowledge of God must ever be, the Lord Jesus Christ. To Him as the everliving Light the written word is subordinate. The Personal Word manifests Himself in and through the written Word. The books which were written concerning Him by evangelists and apostles bear a relation to His Divine-human life resembling His own spoken words to His Person; and these books through the succeeding ages derive their light and their truth uninterruptedly from Him who is the Light and the Truth. Mystically connected with the Christ of God, the Scriptures continue to be the objective medium through which by the Spirit, the original Light shines into the hearts of true believers. When, however, the living synthesis of the written Word and the Personal Word is lost, the Church thereby sunders the Bible from the spiritual communion in which it perpetually stands, and comes to view it as an independent book, apart from the living Presence of its Author. Divorced from its true meaning and mystical ground, the Bible holds a false position for both theologian and teacher. 

 

False Conceptions of the Bible. It is evident that anything, however good, which sets itself up in a false independency and thus obscures or obstructs the revelation of the Living Word, becomes in so far a usurper or pretender to the throne. The history of Christendom reveals three such perversions of divine things. Three worthy monarchs have had scepters thrust into their -hands and were thereby forced into a false and unworthy position before both God and man. The first of these was the Church. Founded by her Lord as a holy fellowship of Christ with His people, the Church was composed of redeemed saints in loving obedience to their Lord. As such, the Church was spiritual and triumphant. Nothing could withstand the power and the glory which were hers in communion with her Lord. But through false teachers and a mistaken concept of the Church itself, she soon set herself up in the place of her Lord. She became an end in herself, instead of a medium through which the believer could approach to God, and thus a usurper of Christ's throne. It was against the tyranny of a false position concerning the Church that Protestantism revolted. Those who protested did not thereby cease to be Christians, but they did assert that they were free in Christ, and refused to be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. They insisted that one is their Master, even Christ, and that all they are brethren (Matt. 23:8-10). 

 

The next worthy monarch to be forced into the position of a usurper was the Bible. Before the second generation of Reformers had passed away, a movement was set up to place the Bible in the position formerly held by the Church. The Reformers themselves strove earnestly to maintain the balance between the formal and the material principles of salvation, the Word and Faith, but gradually the formal principle superseded the material, and men began unconsciously to substitute the written Word for Christ the Living Word. They divorced the written Word from the Personal Word and thus forced it into a false position. No longer was it the fresh utterance of Christ, the outflow of the Spirit's presence, but merely a recorded utterance which bound men by legal rather than spiritual bonds. Men's knowledge became formal rather than spiritual. The views of God attained were merely those of a book, not those of the Living Christ which the book was intended to reveal. As a consequence Christ became to them merely a historical figure, not a living Reality; and men sought more for a knowledge of God's will than for God himself. They gave more attention to creeds than to Christ. They rested in the letter, which according to Scripture itself kills, and never rose to a concept of Him whose words are spirit and life. The Bible thus divorced from its mystical connection with the Personal Word, became in some sense a usurper, a pretender to the throne. 

 

Lastly, Reason itself was forced into a false authority. Severed from its Living Source, the Bible was debased to the position of a mere book among books. It was thus subjected to the test of human reason, and as a consequence there arose the critical or critico-historical movement of the last century known as "destructive criticism." Over against this as a protest arose a reactionary party, which originating in a worthy desire to maintain belief in the plenary inspiration of the Bible, and its genuineness, authenticity and authority as the Rule of Faith, resorted to a mere legalistic defense of the Scriptures. It depended upon logic rather than life. Spiritual men and women-those filled with the Holy Spirit, are not unduly concerned with either higher or lower criticism. They do not rest merely in the letter which must be defended by argument. They have a broader and more substantial basis for their faith. It rests in their risen Lord, the glorified Christ. They know that the -Bible is true, not primarily through the efforts of the apologists, but because they are acquainte4 with its Author. The Spirit which inspired the Word dwells within them and witnesses to its truth. In them the formal and material principles of the Reformation are conjoined. The Holy Spirit is the great conservator of orthodoxy. To the Jew, Christ was a stumblingblock, and to the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God (I Cor. 1:24). 

 

 

 

THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

 

The next subject in our discussion of revelation is the Christian Faith, which may be defined as the acceptance by man of the revelation of God given in Christ and recorded in the Holy Scriptures. It becomes, therefore, the body of external revelation as surely accepted and believed by all Christians, because they are assured of its evidences, and have made it the ground of their personal trust. It is something more than merely external revelation, it is that revealed truth incorporated in personal life, it is the truth made vital and living by being embodied in human personality. The body of Christian truth is addressed primarily to faith, and only secondarily to reason. As appealing to that universal principle of human nature, the faculty of believing, this body of truth is the Christian Faith. As related to reason, it presents its credentials in order to acceptance on the part of those who seek the truth. 

 

The Body of Truth as Addressed to Faith. The principle of faith belongs to human nature as certainly as does reason. Faith- is the highest exercise of man as a personal being, and calls into action the full range of his powers-the understanding of the mind, the love of the heart and the volitional powers of the will. It is that power of personality, deep-seated in its spiritual constitution, by which it is able to accept truth presented to it on sufficient evidences, whether that evidence be consciousness, intuition or testimony. The revelation of God is personal. The Spirit demonstrates the truth to the intellect, the feelings and the will. Furthermore, the divine revelation is always made ultimately to the understanding. It is not always immediately so, for it is frequently mediated through the feelings, or the will. As such, however, the revelation may not be said to be fully personal. If the feelings be overemphasized in our knowledge of God, we have mysticism, which in so far as it insists upon immediate communion with God in the conscious experiences of men, is true and strong. Its chief error lies in the fact that it attempts to limit religious  

       

We are justified, therefore, in holding that the Scriptures of revelation and Christianity, as the Christian Faith, cover the same ground and strictly coincide we have to do only with the general fact that in all sound theology the Bible and Christ are inseparably connected. Not that they are in the nature of things identical: we can suppose the possibility of an Incarnate Revealer present in the world without the mediation of the written word. Indeed we are bound to assume, as has already been seen, that there is a wider revelation of the word in the world than the Scriptures cover. Moreover we may assert that His revelation of Himself is still, and even in connection with the Scriptures, more or less independent of the word. But as the basis for the science of theology the Bible is Christianity. It has pleased God from the beginning to conduct the development of the great mystery by documents containing the attested facts, the authenticated doctrines, and the sealed predictions of enlargement of the Volume of the Book. That Book is the foundation of Christianity; the lord of the Bible and the Bible are indissolubly the Rock on which it is based. We have no other Christian religion than that which is one with its document and records; we have no documents and records which do not directly pay their tribute to the Christian Religion; and there is no revelation in any department of truth of which the same may be said. All revelation is identical with Christianity and summed up in it. Hence, generally speaking, and as yet regarding the Scriptures only as a whole, we may say that the character of Christianity is the character of the Bible; the claims and credentials of the one are the claims and credentials of the other. This observation will lead us by an easy transition to the counterpart of Revelation: the Christian Faith.-POPE, Compendium of Christian Theology, p. 41.

 

experience to the range of the emotions, instead of recognizing it as rooted in the spiritual constitution of man. It thus excludes the light of reason, and degrades the Word of God by claiming for itself an inspiration equal to the theopneustic utterances of Holy Scripture. It is a direct inlet to the most baneful error, that the body of truth accepted as the Christian Faith was not given from above as a complete whole, but left by the spirit of inspiration to be finished by endless supplements and communications made to individuals. On the other hand, if reason be unduly emphasized, or unchecked by religious experience and historical revelation, it issues in rationalism and falls short of the true knowledge of God. To those who receive the truth, however, revelation becomes an organic whole. To them it is both objectively .and subjectively the Christian Faith objectively as a body of revealed truth, subjectively as having become their own in faith and assurance. It is more than a philosophy of life, the glory of their powers of reason; and it is more than a tradition received by inheritance however rich that might be - it is the richer inheritance of the Holy Spirit who has quickened their belief into the assurance of personal knowledge and experience. As reason did not give them this body of truth, it cannot 

      

          

Dr. Daniel Steele describes a fanatic as one who "abjures and pours contempt upon that scintillation of the eternal Logos, human reason. This lighted torch placed in man's hand for his guidance in certain matters, he extinguishes in order ostensibly to exalt the candle of the Lord, the Holy Ghost, but really to lift up the lamp of his own flickering fancy. Reason is a gift of God, worthy of our respect We are to accept it as our surest guide in its appropriate sphere. Beyond this sphere we should seek the light of revelation and the guidance of the Spirit The fanatic depreciates one perfect gift from the Father of Lights, that he may magnify another. Both of these lights, reason and the Holy Ghost, are necessary to our perfect guidance. To reject one is to assume greater wisdom than God's. Such presumptuous folly He will glaringly expose. He who spurns the Spirit will be left to darkness outside the narrow sphere of reason; and he who scorns reason will be left to follow the hallucinations of his heated imagination, instead of the dictates of common sense." "'Tis reason our great Master holds so dear;        'Tis reason's injured rights His wrath resents.;   'Tis reason's voice obeyed His glorious crown;   To give lost reason life, He poured His own;   Believe, and show the reason of a man;   Believe, and taste the pleasure of a God.   Through reason's wounds alone thy faith can die."

 

take it away. They received it by faith, and hence live and move in that realm which is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). 

Faith as Allied with Reason. The Christian Faith is addressed to the principle of believing in man, and also to reason as subordinate to that faith. God is revealed to man through reason, both immediately in consciousness and mediately through the physical and moral systems of the universe. Basing his argument upon the threefold nature of personality as involving the affections, the will and the reason, Harris points out that there are three elements in our knowledge of the historical, and the rational; and that only in the synthesis of these three is the largest knowledge of God possible. Each of these must test, correct and restrain the others, and at the same time clarify, verify and supplement them. To attain this synthesis is the great problem of religious thinking, a synthesis which can be attained only through the medium of historical revelation. Religious experience and theological thought must center in the living Christ. In Him is life; 

 

There are therefore three elements in the knowledge of God, which may be called the experiential, the historical, and the rational or Ideal. Theological knowledge is the comprehension of these three elements in a unity or synthesis of thought. The historical is the medium for the synthesis of the experiential and the rational. . . . . The necessity of this synthesis is evident from the fact that thought, which recognizes only one or two of these three elements, issues in disastrous error. when the experiential belief withdraws into itself, the result is mysticism. when the rational or ideal isolates itself, the first result is dogmatism; the later result is rationalism. In each case the Bible, as the record of God's revelation of Himself recedes toward the background, and ultimately is disregarded. when the historical isolates itself, the result is unspiritual and arid criticism of the Bible, and anthropological and archaeological investigation.-HARRIS, Self-Revelation of God, p. 122.  Christianity does not come to men primarily as a system of doctrine demanding the assent of the intellect, but rather as a practical remedy for sin asking the consent of the will to its application. The gospel offers pardon for sin on the ground of Christ's atoning work, restoration to fellowship and sonship with God, and the grace of the Holy Spirit as the power by which sin may be overcome and holiness attained. The means or instrument by which this is appropriated is faith in Christ-a faith which consists primarily in trust, an act of the will, a giving of oneself in entire submission into the hands of the Saviour. Now this offer can be tested in only one way, that is, by personal trial. It belongs to the realm of inward and personal experience, and those who have fully and fairly tried it have never found it to fail. STEARNS, Present Day Theology, pp. 37, 38.

 

in Him also are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The Bible as the objective body of Christian truth must be held in solution in theological thought, and through the Spirit must be made vital in Christian experience. The gracious work of the Holy Spirit which awakens faith in the believer exerts an influence upon the whole range of his being. It not only purifies the affections so that they center in their living Lord, but it humbles reason to receive those mysteries which it cannot understand. Nor is this in any sense derogatory to reason. Faith honors reason when thus restored to soundness, and gives to it perfect authority in that field over which reason should preside. Reason approves the evidences upon which faith rests and therefore in the whole economy of redemption the Scriptures of revelation and the voice of sound reason blend into one perfect and harmonious whole. This leads us immediately to the credentials of revelation, presented to the reason as evidences.  

 

THE CREDENTIALS OF REVELATION 

 

Having discussed the objective character of revelation, and having treated it from the subjective standpoint as the Christian faith presented for man's acceptance, it remains now to consider the subject as presenting its evidences to reason. For this we have scriptural authority. The believer is exhorted to be ready, or prepared, to give a reason or an apology (proV apologian) for the hope that is within him (I Peter 3:15). So also Luke, known as the Evangelist of the Evidences, addresses  

       

The Christian Faith presents to the faculty by which the infinite and eternal are perceived a system of truth which human reason cannot fathom or understand, against which it naturally rebels. But the same Spirit who opens the eye of faith gives reason its perfect soundness, so that it consents to accept what it cannot itself verify. Here, of course, we regard Revelation as one organic whole, which has for its unifying principle one overwhelming truth, the union of God and man in Christ. Around this center revolve other equally incomprehensible - doctrines; and beyond these in a wider orbit many which are not in the same sense beyond the human faculties. And speaking of the one vast Revelation we may say that it is committed to faith and submissively wondered at by reason. Faith is elevated to receive it and reason humbled to submit to it.-POPE, Compendium of Christian Theology, I, pp. 45, 46.

   

his Gospel to Theophilus that he might "know the certainty of those things" wherein he had been instructed (Luke 1:4). Here the word epignwV denotes accurate and systematic knowledge. While the Christian believer has the stronger evidence of the testimonii Spiritus sancti, he must not overlook the value of the credentials as a means of bringing the unbeliever to listen to the voice of revelation. And yet these external evidences apart from the internal demonstration of truth by the Holy Spirit, cannot have the same strength as the combined credentials and therefore too much cannot be expected of this form of evidence. 

We present the Credentials of Revelation under the following heads:(1) Miracles; (2) Prophecy; (3) The Unique Personality of Christ; and (4) The Witness of the Holy Spirit. 

 

We cannot give attention to the so-called "presumptive evidences" other than to point out that the rudimentary nature of religion as grounded in a feeling of dependence, necessitates such a revelation of God as shall satisfy the natural cravings of his heart. This was the plea of Augustine - "Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee." The Christian revelation evidences its value in that it appeals directly to a preparation in the human spirit. Throughout the whole of Scripture, the Voice of the Creator speaks directly to the inner needs of His creatures. The positive strength of the Scriptures, therefore, lie in this, that there is no possible question growing out of created human nature, to which response is not given by the Creator. Again, man requires immediate communion with God in order to preserve him from moral degradation. We have shown that the ethnic religions are the outgrowth of a failure to retain the knowledge of God. It may be presumed, therefore, that God who created man a social being, would provide such instruction as to order social institutions in righteousness. Consequently, not only did John, the Forerunner of Jesus, begin his preparatory ministry with the cry, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt. 3:2); but Jesus also came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:14). Thus there is given a corrective to the false structures of religious and social life by the revelation of Jesus Christ who becomes the center of a new redemptive order. Thus, also, is fulfilled the ancient prophecy, he correcteth the Gentiles-their chastisement performing the functions of the law in Israel-that of a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ (Cf. Psalm 94:10; Gal. 3:24). Lastly, since the former revelations were imperfect, we may presume that God, who reveals Himself through His created works and in the progress of human history, would perfect this revelation by an authoritative and satisfying disclosure of Himself in His spiritual perfections. Christianity answers as a credential of revelation, in that it is the explanation of all the preparatory disclosures, and the consummation of them all. God has not left Himself without a witness in every age, a chosen company to whom He has made known His will, and these preliminary revelations of truth have at once satisfied human hearts and kindled within them deeper desires and higher aspirations. Christianity comes, then, as the final answer to this continuous expectation. It comes "as the perfecting of its earlier self, the final and sufficient response to the expectation it had kept up from the beginning. This is its supreme preparatory credential. It is the last of many words, and leaves nothing to be desired in the present estate of mankind" (POPE, Compendium of Christian Theology, I, p. 59). 

      

This is in fact, the crowning presumptive argument in its favor, that it is the end and completion of a revelation that has been going on from the beginning. It is not a religion that literally began in Judea with the advent of Jesus. It does not profess to be the first supernatural communication to mankind, it is not the opening of the heavens for the first time. It finishes a testimony that began with the fall of man; in the best sense, therefore, it is as old as Creation. . . . . This is in fact its glory. It is the last accent of a Voice which spoke first at the gate of Paradise. That Voice was the primitive revelation from the perversions of which all the innumerable forms of mythology arose. But that Voice awakened the desire of the human race to which all revelation has been a response, and has constantly deepened that desire whilst it responded to it, but only in a peculiar line and within a limited area. On either side of that line, and beyond that area, men groped after the lost Creator and the forfeited Paradise in their own way, being dealt with in both justice and mercy. The mercy of the Supreme has in every age guided the instincts of all the sincere. (Cf. Acts 10:34, 35; Rom. 1:21) POPE, Compendium of Christian Theology, I, p. 58.

 

The Evidence of Miracles. Before turning our attention directly to a consideration of miracles, we need to remind ourselves that Revelation is throughout wholly supernatural. God is immanent in the world, but not in the same sense that He is the Personal Presence in the economy of revealed Truth. Nature, as governed by certain fixed physical and metaphysical laws, must be touched if not permeated by the supernatural. But God is transcendent as well as immanent, and the invisible world and all spiritual interventions must necessarily be supernatural, if they are to bear witness to the transcendent purpose of God. "Hence it follows that the introduction of man into this system of things was a supernatural intervention; and all revelations of the unseen in the constitution of his nature are supernatural; and all evidences of the presence and glory of God in the universe as seen by man are supernatural" (POPE, CCT, I, p. 62). God, as a free Personality, is not merely back of nature as its metaphysical ground, but over it, and free to work within it or upon it according to His pleasure. It is manifest, says St. Paul, that he is excepted which did put all things under him. In a preliminary way we may say, then, that an intervention of Divine Power in the established course of nature, beyond that of creaturely measure, is regarded as a Miracle; while the same intervention in the realm of knowledge is termed Prophecy. 

The intervention of God as a free Personal Being, is not a violation of law nor a suspension of it, but the introduction of a sufficient cause for any effect He would produce. Sheldon points out that the free working of men introduces effects into nature without destroying the integrity of the system, and the higher range of miracles 

 

These three credentials of Miracle, Prophecy and Inspiration ought to be united; they mutually give and receive strength and are strongest when combined. The miracle, of course, is most demonstrative to the extant generations of beholders, the prophecy only to the generations which come afterward. . . . . Inspiration embraces the two in one; it records the fact of the miracle, and as inspiration makes it present to every age; while as inspiration, its record of a prophecy makes the fulfillment as if it were already come or were already past to those who hear it.-POPE, Compendium of Christian Theology, I, p. 98.

 

has the same effect, so that the greatest miracle is as harmless as the least physical expression of man's free agency. As an illustration of the harmonious blending of the natural and supernatural, he calls attention to a man who may by his free choice cast a branch into a stream, which is immediately borne on in accordance with the laws of nature, though those laws might never have brought it into the stream. So also the physical effect of a miraculous work enters immediately into the stream of natural causes and is borne on by its ceaseless flow. Miracles, then, do not undermine nature, any more than the stream generates the effect or is turned aside by it (Cf. SHELDON, System of Christian Doctrine, p.106ff). 

 

Miracles are expressed in the Scriptures by a variety of terms. In his sermon on the Day of Pentecost Peter describes the Lord Jesus as a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you (Acts 2:22). Here are three words used to describe what we commonly term miracles, and the Apostle John uses a Fourth, that of "works." The first is dunamis (dunameiV), which signifies "powers" and looks more especially to the agency by which they were produced-which God did by Him. This power dwells in the Divine Messenger (Acts 6:8, 10:38, Rom. 15:19), and is that by which he is equipped of God for his mission. The word came later to mean "powers" in the plural, as separate exertions of power, and is translated "wonderful works" (Cf. Matt. 7:22). The second term is terata (terata), which denotes wonders, and has regard primarily to the effect produced on the' spectator. The astonishment with which the beholders were seized is frequently described by the evangelists in graphic terms. Origen points out that the term "wonders" is never applied to the miracles except in connection with some other name. They are constantly described as "signs and wonders" (Cf. Acts 14:3, Rom. 15:19, Matt. 24:24, Heb. 2:4). The third term semeia (shmeia) is that of signs. It has particular reference to their significance as the seals which God uses to authenticate the persons by whom they are wrought. These three terms, "wonders," "signs," and "powers" occur three times in connection with one another (Acts 2:22, II Cor. 13:12 and II Thess. 2:9) and are to be regarded as different aspects of the same work rather than different classes of works. This is illustrated in the healing of the paralytic (Mark 2:1, 2) which was a wonder for "they were all amazed"; it was a power, for at Christ's word the man took up his bed and went out before them all; it was a sign, for it was a token that One greater than man was among them, and was wrought that they might know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins (Cf. also I Kings 13:3, II Kings 1:10). The fourth term erga (erga), signifying works, occurs only in the Gospel of John. It occurs frequently in the words of Jesus himself as when He says, though ye believe not me, believe the works"; or again, if I had not done among them works which none other man did, they had not had sin (John 10:38, 15:24). Taken in connection with the deity of Christ, the term suggests that what men regarded as wonders requiring the exercise of mighty power, were in the estimation of the Lord himself simply works. They required no more exertion at His hands than that which was common or ordinary with Him as Divine. In this connection Trench says, "He must, out of the necessity of His higher being, bring forth these works, greater than man's. They are the periphery of that circle whereof He is the center. The great miracle is the Incarnation; all else, so to speak (Isaiah 9:6), are works of wonder; the only wonder would be if He did them not. The sun in the heavens is a wonder; but it is not a wonder that, being what it is, it rays forth effluences of light and heat. These miracles are the fruit after its kind which 

      

The Hebrew historian or prophet regarded miracles as only the emergence into sensible experience of that divine force which was all along, though invisibly, controlling the course of nature. SOUTHAMPTON, Place of Miracles, p. 18.  If we look at a conflagration through smoked glass, we see buildings collapsing, but we see no fire. So science sees results, but not the power which produces them; sees cause and effect, but does not see GEORGE ADAM SMITH, Isaiah 33:14.

 

the divine tree brings forth; and may, therefore, with deep truth, be styled the "works" of Christ with no further addition or explanation" (TRENCH, The Miracles, p. 6). Donne calls attention to the fact, also, that there is in every miracle a silent chiding of the world, and a tacit reprehension of them who require or need miracles. Did they serve no other purpose than to testify of the liberty of God, whose will, however habitually declared in nature, is yet above nature; were it only to break a link in the chain of cause and effect which otherwise we should substitute for God, and be brought thereby under 

 

The miracles, then, not being against nature, however they may be beside and beyond it, are in no respects slights cast upon its everyday workings; but rather when contemplated aright, are an honoring of these In the witness which they render to the source from which these all originally proceed, for Christ healing a sick man with His word, is in fact claiming in this to be the Lord and Author of all the healing powers which have exerted their beneficent influence on the bodies of men, and saying, "I will prove this fact, which you are ever losing sight of, that in me, the fontal power which goes forth in a thousand gradual cures resides and is manifested' on this occasion by only speaking a word and bringing back a man to perfect health"; not thus cutting off those other and more gradual healings from His person, but truly linking them to it. so when He multiplied the bread, when He changed -the water into wine, what does He but say, "It is I and no other, who by the sunshine and the shower, by the seedtime and the harvest, give food for the use of man; and you shall learn this, which you are evermore unthankfully forgetting, by witnessing for once or twice, or if not actually witnessing, yet having it rehearsed In your ears forever, how the essence of things are mine, how the bread grows In my hands, how the water, not drawn up into the vine, nor slowly transmuted into the juices of the grape, but simply at my bidding changes into wine. The children of this world sacrifice to their net, and burn Incense to their drag, but it is I who, giving you in a moment the draught of fishes which you yourselves had long labored for. In vain, will remind you who guides them through the ocean paths, and suffer you either to toil long and to take nothing, or to crown your labors with a rich and unexpected harvest of the season." Even the single miracle which wears an aspect of severity, that of the withered fig tree, speaks the same language, for in that the same gracious Lord is declaring, "The scourges are mine, wherewith I punish your sins, and summon you to repentance, continually miss their purpose altogether, or need to be repeated again and again; and this mainly because you see in them only the evil accidents of a blind nature; but I will show you that it is I and no other who smites the earth with a curse, who both can and do send these strokes for the punishing of the sins of men." And we can perceive how all this should have been necessary. For if in one sense the orderly workings of nature reveal the glory of God (Psalm 19:1-6) in another they hide that glory from our eyes; if they ought to make ;1s continually remember Him, yet there is danger that they may lead us to forget Him until this world around us shall prove not a translucent medium through which we behold Him, but a thick, impenetrable curtain, concealing Him wholly from our sight." -TRENCH, The Miracles, pp. 15, 16.

 

the iron chain of inexorable necessity, miracles would serve a great purpose in the religious life of mankind. 

Miracles are commonly defined as manifestations of the supernatural which have their theater in the sphere of sense-perceptions. Fisher defines a miracle as an event which occurs in connection with religious teaching, and which the forces of nature, including the natural powers of man, cannot of themselves produce, and which must therefore be referred to a supernatural agency. Dorner's definition is similar: "Miracles," he says, "are sensuously cognizable events not comprehensible on the ground of causality of nature and the given system of nature' as such, but essentially on the ground of God's free action alone" (DORNER, System of Chr. Doct., Sect.55). 

We come now to a consideration of the nature of miracles as credentials, and to an examination as to wherein their value as evidences lies. We may say, in a general way, that revelation appeals to the whole body of evidence that God has interposed in human affairs; and that this evidence is so transcendent and extraordinary as to warrant a belief in the miraculous. Christian Faith, therefore, rests a strong claim on the fact that to the whole scope of Christianity, in both its preparatory stage and its perfect fulfillment, there attaches a series of miracles and signs and wonders which no candid person should deny. But in a more specific sense, their value 

 

A created universe which was in itself so perfectly organized that the entrance of the direct agency of God could not be admitted . would be a barrier for God, and consequently, as a creature, most imperfect.-RICHARD ROTRE.  Lotze, that great philosopher, whose influence is more potent now than at any other time In present thought, does not regard the universe as a plenum to which nothing can be added in the way of force. He looks upon the universe rather as a plastic organism to which new impulses can be imparted from him of whose thought and will it is an expression. These impulses, once imparted, abide in the organism and are therefore subject to its law. Though these impulses come from within, they come not from the finite mechanism, but from the immanent God. "He makes the possibility of the miracle depend upon the close and Intimate action and reaction between the world and the personal Absolute, In consequence of which the movements of the natural world are carried on only through the Absolute, with the possibility of a variation in the general course of things, according to the existing facts and the purpose of the Divine Governor" (Cf. STRONG, Systematic Theology, I, p. 123).

 

lies in the fact that they are an authentication of the messengers of God to their contemporaries. This seems -to be generally expected by men and was given expression by Nicodemus in the words, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man could do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him (John 3:2). Here, however, the sign precedes the teaching, while for later generations, the message is the more prominent and the attestation secondary. We must therefore include original miracles with other branches of evidence, and examine more particularly wherein their evidential values lie, this being commonly known as the criteria or test of miracles. 

 

Since miracles are signs intended to convey truth as well as to attest it, we may say First, that they must be an integral part of revelation itself. Their evidential value, important as it is, must never be regarded as secondary, and the divine impulse and the needs of men primary. In this sense there is not a miracle in Scripture that does not demonstrate either the power or the wisdom of God, His mercy or His justice. They are never regarded as mere portents, but always faithful to the character of God. Second, the missions which miracles authenticate must be worthy of God. Here again the miracles of the Bible meet every demand of a true credential. The earlier miracles were not only authentications of the messengers of God, but also of the dread name of Jehovah. The miracles of Moses and his economy attested at every critical hour that God reigned. This is equally true in the New Testament as in the older economy. The supreme miracle, however, is that of the Divine Person, which because of its importance must be considered as a separate credential. Third, as credentials, miracles must allow the application of proper criteria in the case of those who witnessed them, and must be supported by such evidence as their posterity may demand. Our Lord recognized this when He said, I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort and in secret have I said nothing (John 18:20). What was true of His words was equally true of His miracles. As to the historical evidences for posterity, there are no events which have been better substantiated, or more circumstantially attested than the whole range of central miracles. Of these the resurrection was crucial, the establishment of which assured all the rest. This was guaranteed by many infallible proofs, and believed by a large body of mentally sound and conscientious persons, many of whom sealed their faith with their blood. Again, the miracles are witnessed by their connection with public monuments. As the Passover was an abiding testimony to the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, so the Lord's day is an undeniable testimony to the resurrection of Christ. So also the Church as an institution is a perpetual memorial of Christ's life, death and resurrection, and has been so regarded from the earliest time to the present. Fourth, there is a credential or postulate which belongs to faith more specifically than to reason - that which regards the miracles as the economy of a supernatural order. This we have discussed in the opening paragraphs of this chapter. Two questions arise, First, the undeniable occurrence of what the Scripture terms "lying miracles" and which admit that these things are permitted for reasons too incomprehensible for us to understand. They are readily identified as being out of harmony with the character of God and are a stumbling block to those only whose faith does not recognize this clear distinction. We are commanded to try the spirits and John gives us the distinguishing test. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God; Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God; and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world (I John 4:2, 3). Here the test is ethical and spiritual. That which admits the incarnation as a divine revelation of God to man, and is in conformity with the spirit and purpose of Jesus Christ in His life among men, is of God. That which is out of harmony with character and works of Christ is not of God. This test is infallible. 

 

Second, there is the question of the continuation of miracles in the Church. To a faith, however, that views miracles as belonging to a supernatural economy, and God as an Infinite Personality over against a mere philosophical Absolute, or a metaphysical ground of Reality, there is no occasion for doubting that God, according to His good pleasure, may endow His servants with the gift of prophecy or of miracle. 

Prophecy as a Credential of Revelation. Prophecy, like miracle, is vitally connected with revelation. Unlike it, however, prophecy is cumulative in its evidential value, each fulfilled prediction becoming the basis for further prediction. As a credential, therefore, it is of the highest order. Prophecy may be defined as a declaration, a description, a representation, or a prediction of that which is beyond the power of human wisdom to discover. The primary meaning of the word is "forth-telling" by which is meant the declaration of the will of God without special reference to the time order. It is also used in the narrower sense of prediction or "foretelling," this latter being the meaning most commonly attached to it in ordinary speech. There are two Hebrew words applied to the prophets also. The earliest is that of seer, which carries with it the implication that the prophets received their messages through visions from the Lord. The second term is announcer, and directs the thought more to the message itself. This message, however, was not merely the expounding of the law already given, as was done by the priests, but a fresh utterance from the Lord, a supernatural and authoritative disclosure of divine truth. There is a reference to this distinction in I Samuel 3:1 where it is stated that the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was 

 

No divine act can contradict divine righteousness. By the verdict of the Bible, no impure wonder-worker has any claim to credence. All marvels, in proportion as they are not plainly linked with the holy ends, are properly subject to doubt, while those which are discovered to be antagonistic to moral interests are but lying wonders, products of human or diabolical fraud. In general it may be affirmed that an increased demand is placed upon testimony' in the measure that any supposed case of miracles fails to meet either of the two other tests.-SHELDON, System of Christian Doctrine, p. 107ff.

 

no open vision. Whether, therefore, a vision was presented to the interior eye of faith, or whether the truth was lodged in the understanding, the prophet in his utterance performed what in another domain would be called miracle, and what in the realm of prophecy is frequently termed a "miracle of knowledge." 

 

Prophecy as prediction is the divine impartation of future knowledge. It is plain from the whole' tenor of the Scriptures, that prophecy in this sense of foreannouncement was intended to be a permanent credential in the Church. God in speaking through Isaiah the prophet sanctions this form of credential. Remember the former things of old; he says, for I am God, and there is none else; I am God and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning or, futurity from the former time and from ancient times to the things that are not yet done (Isa. 46:9, 10). Our Lord gives the same sanction for the New Testament. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass ye might believe (John 14:29). But prediction itself follows certain well-defined principles. Dr. Pope in his excellent discussion of this subject calls attention to four of these laws of prophetic prediction. (1) Christ is its Supreme Subject. It is to Him that all the prophets give witness (Acts 10:43). "Nothing is more certain in the annals of mankind," he says, "than that a series of predictions runs through the ancient literature of the Jews which has had a most exact fulfillment in the advent and work of Jesus. This is the supreme credential of prophecy in revelation." (2) The Law of Progression. According to this principle, each age is under the sway of some governing prophecy, the accomplishment of which introduces a new order of prophetic expectation. Thus the first period of prophecy was from the protevangelium, which was the first prophecy with promise, to that of the exilic prophets, the theme being the gospel which binds time and eternity into one and commands the whole scope of redemption. The second prophetic period was from the exile to "the last days" or the "fullness of time," when all the prophecies were gathered up and fulfilled in Christ. Three things characterize the prophecy of this period, "the voice of the Son" (Heb. 1:2), the Atoning Blood (I Peter 1:11, 20), and "the Effusion of the Spirit" (Acts 2:17). With Christ the supreme fulfillment, a new age of prophecy begins, and to His second coming we now bear the same relation, as did the ancient Jews in their expectation of the Messiah. (3) The Law of Reserve, by which He has so ordered that in every prediction, and every cycle of predictions, sufficient truth is given to encourage hope and anticipation, and enough concealed to shut up the prediction to faith. "Every generation could rejoice in the fulfillment of the prophecies that had gone before concerning itself; but as to its own future it was under the sway of an indefinite hope. There is no exception to this law throughout the economy of prophecy" (Cf. POPE, CCT, I, p. 83). (4) Prophecy has been constituted a sigh to each succeeding generation. The books of the prophets furnish an inexhaustible fund of information and instruction apart from the predictive elements, and this makes it clear that prophecy was intended to be an abiding credential throughout the whole course of time. 

 

The Unique Personality of Christ. The supreme credential of Christianity is Christ. He is the Great Fulfillment of all prophecy. In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3). To Him also is given all power in heaven and in earth .(Matt. 28:18). In Him Revelation becomes essentially an organism of redemption. In His sacred presence, the sphere of miracle is immediately enlarged. His advent was a miracle, and His words and works, His life, death, resurrection and ascension were but a continuation of this one great miracle. In Him there is an immediate act of divine omnipotence and an immediate display of divine omniscience, both of which find their expression in the redemptive economy. Here it may be clearly seen that miracle is essential to redemption, and without it there can be no genuine Christian revelation. 

 

We may be permitted now to lift our discussion of miracles to a higher plane, and to consider them from a scriptural rather than a philosophical viewpoint. Since the evangelists could not record all the miracles of our Lord (John 20:30) a careful analysis shows that the recorded miracles were selected according to a twofold plan, First, their theandrical considerations as Pearson uses the term; and Second, for their evidential value. By the first is meant a consideration of miracles as the outflow of Christ's nature or as an influence radiating from His Person. The great miracle is the hypostatic union before which the miracles of nature pale into comparative insignificance. Hence the Evangelists regard the miracles of Christ as having their source in this hypostatic union. This is perhaps expressed most simply in the healing of the woman who touched the hem of Christ's garment and virtue went out from Him (Mark 5:30); and again when the whole multitude sought to touch him; for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all (Luke 6:19). The aim of the miracles was to manifest the glory of God, this being expressly stated in the first miracle of Cana in Galilee (John 2:11). The transfiguration revealed the majesty of Christ (Matt. 17:1-8, II Peter 1:16-18; the raising of Lazarus was for the inspiration of faith in His power (John 11:15); while the high priestly prayer of Jesus (John 17) has as its supreme purpose the glory of the Father (Cf. John 17:1, 4, 5, 6, 26). The miracles of Christ were a revelation also of His mercy, not merely as transitory and dissociated acts of sympathy, but the deep and abiding principle which characterizes the whole work of redemption. Both Irenaeus and Athanasius taught that the works of Christ were manifestations of the Divine Word, who in the beginning made all things, and who in the incarnation displayed His power over nature and man. These works include both a manifestation of the new life imparted to man, and a revelation of the character and purposes of God (Cf. John 1:14). We must therefore, regard the redemptive purpose of the miracles in the same light as the doctrine and life of the Eternal Son of God.   

 

In the second place, as indicated above, the miracles were selected for their evidential value. This follows naturally from the previous discussion. Referring again to the miracle of Cana, it is recorded that because of this the disciples believed in him. Jesus himself constantly referred to His works as evidences of His deity and His mission, declaring that they had greater value than the testimony of John the Baptist (John 20:31). While a few miracles have been selected and the details given more or less minutely, it must be borne in mind that for the people living in the time of Christ, the multitude of unrecorded miracles had great bearing on His mission. 

Prophecy also takes on a new aspect when considered in direct relation to the unique personality of Christ. What earthly biography was ever preceded by such a preface as that furnished our Lord in the Messianic prophecies. For a thousand years, a picture was gradually unfolded of One who should be Son of man and Son of God; and who should within His unique personality manifest the full range of both divine and human attributes in glorious harmony. The rough outline given at the very gates of Eden was filled in by more than a 

 

Are the miracles, then, to occupy no place at all in the array of proofs for the certainty of the things which we have believed? On the contrary, a most important place. we should greatly miss them if they did not appear in sacred history, for they belong to the very idea of a Redeemer, which would remain most incomplete without them. We could not without having that idea infinitely weakened and impoverished, conceive of Him as not doing such works; and those to whom we presented Him might very well answer, "strange that one should come to deliver men from the bondage of nature which was crushing them, and yet Himself have been subject to its heaviest laws -Himself wonderful, and yet His appearance accompanied by no analogous wonders in nature - claiming to be the Life, and yet Himself helpless in the encounter with death; however much He promised In word, never realizing his promises Indeed; giving nothing in hand, no firstfruits of power, no pledges of greater things to come." And who would not feel that they had reason In this . . . . that He must show Himself, if He is to meet the wants of men, mighty not only in word but in work? When we object to the use often made of these works, it is only because they have been forcibly severed from the whole complex of Christ's life and doctrine; and presented to the contemplation of men apart from these; it is because when on His head are "many crowns," one only has been singled out In proof that He is King of kings and Lord of lords. The miracles have been spoken of as though they borrowed nothing from the truths which they confirmed (but those truths, everything) when Indeed both are held together in a blessed unity, in the Person of Him who spake the words and did the works.-TRENCH, The Miracles, pp. 73, 74.

 

hundred predictions uttered by men of all types and under varying circumstances of time and place. The psalmist describes Him as the Lord's Son to whom the heathen will be given as an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession (Psalm 2:7, 8). He will be a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek (Psalm 110:4). He shall judge the people with righteousness and the poor with judgment, and shall have dominion from sea to sea, and His name shall endure forever (Psalm 72:2, 8, 17). In glowing terms Isaiah declares that there shall come forth a rod out. of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:1-3). He should have as His mission, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house (Isaiah 42:7), words which Jesus applied to Himself in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:18-21). Jeremiah shared the same hope with the rest of the prophets and exclaimed, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (Jer. 23:5, 6). Micah and Zechariah give utterance to the prophecies which were used during the lifetime of Jesus on earth as evidences of prophetic prediction. 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). Rejoice greatly, 0 daughter of Zion; shout, 0 daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass (Zech. 9:9). It is Daniel, however, who gives us the picture of the majesty of Christ, and who prophesies of the kingdom beginning in Him and stretching on into the future when all things shall be put into subjection to Him and God be all in all. I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed (Dan. 7:13, 14). 

 

The wealth of Christ's person, however, transcends the predictions of prophecy. His historical manifestation exceeds in glory anything that the heart of men might conceive, or that perhaps the prophets themselves could fully comprehend, even when speaking under the inspiration. of the Spirit. One can but sympathize with Herman Shultz, who in commenting upon Isaiah 53 says, "The figure from which he starts is the actual historical figure of which he has so often spoken. But he is raised above himself. The figure which he beholds is embodied in an ideal figure in which he sees salvation accomplished, and all the riddles of the present solved. If it is true anywhere in the history of poetry and prophecy, it is true here, that the writer, being full of the Spirit, has said more than he himself meant to say, and more than he himself understood" (SCHULTZ, Old Testament Theology, II, pp. 431-433). That God should Himself create a living creature in His own image, a reflection of Himself is glorious; but that God himself in the Person of His Son should appear in the flesh and take upon Him the likeness of men transcends in glory all other manifestations human or divine. When we consider that the Incarnation was in itself redemptive as representing a new order of creation; and that it was provisional in its relation to the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension; and further, that to this glorious being was given the power of so transforming a sinful creature as to bring him into possession of the divine holiness, and so exalt a debased and groveling worm of the dust that he shall sit with Him on the throne of His majesty; then, this is not only indescribable but inconceivable. Yet here the glory of God and the glory of man are conjoined. In Him we find not only our calling's glorious hope, but in Him likewise are made the praise of His glory. 

 

The Witness of the Holy Spirit. The last and highest evidence of revelation is found in the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church, and His witness to sonship in the hearts of individuals. It must be constantly kept in mind that the Holy Spirit was not given to supersede Christ, but to enlarge and make more effective the work begun in the Incarnation. The spiritual Christ, or the Christ of the Holy Ghost, is not less personal than the historical Christ, nor is He less potent, but rather more potent than when tabernacling in the flesh. This our Lord himself conceded when He said to His disciples, I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! (Luke 12:50). In His farewell address, therefore, our Lord promises the Comforter to His disciples saying, It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you (John 16:7). This Comforter is the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father and testifies of Christ (John 15:26); He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8) and shall glorify Christ, speaking not of Himself, but receiving from Christ the things to be revealed to the disciples (John 16:14). 

 

The early Church recognized this testimony as its strongest evidence. Peter in his sermon at Pentecost declares, This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses, and follows this with his testimony concerning the Holy Ghost as the promise of the exalted Christ. This is stated with even greater clearness in his address to the council, where he declares that We are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost. whom God hath given to them that obey him (Acts 2:32, 33, 5:32). The Apostle Paul builds a strong argument upon the witness of the Holy Ghost, maintaining that the presence of unbelief as regards the Christian revelation is directly due to the rejection of the Spirit. He reminds the Corinthians that No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost (I Cor. 12:3). He declares further, that his preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that their faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God (I Cor. 2:3, 4). Here St. Paul bears witness to a principle which is found throughout the Scriptures, that the Christian revelation is a gift of God, bestowed in connection with the prudent and prayerful use of our human faculties. John in his first epistle cites the double witness of the human and the divine. He opens his epistle by referring to that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life (I John 1:1); but adds to this if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater (I John 5:9). As to the nature of this witness he says, it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth (I John 5:6). But close attention to the apostle's thought shows that not only the individual believer hath the witness in himself (I John 5:10); but that the Holy Spirit witnesses to the entire objective economy of salvation, both the water and the blood. The water evidently refers to Christ's baptism, by which He entered upon a new order of ministry and opened a new order of life to the believer; and the blood refers to the atonement by which full propitiation was made for the sins of the past. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews likewise bears witness to the objective work of Christ. But this man, he says, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us (Heb. 10:12-15). Here the Holy Spirit is regarded not in the specific sense as witnessing to the salvation of the individual believer, though this is included, but in the more general sense of attesting the truth of the atoning and intercessory work of Jesus Christ. The weight of this evidence as the writer regards it, and as the Church has ever received and borne witness to it, is best shown in the exhortation with which we close this discussion of the credentials of revelation. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven (Heb. 12:25, 26).

       

Works on prophecy are numerous. Ralston treats the subject under three main heads, (I) Prophecies in relation to the Jews; (II) Prophecies in relation to Nineveh, Babylon and Tyre; and (III) Messianic Prophecies. Watson states that there are more than one hundred references to the Messiah in the various prophecies, and discusses several of these at great length. Riehm in his work on Messianic Prophecy cites such references as I Kings 22:17-36 where it was predicted that Ahab and Josiah would be defeated by the Syrians; Isaiah 7:18-25; 8:5-7 that Rezin and Pekah would not succeed in taking Jerusalem; also Isaiah 7:18-25 where Assyria would afflict Judah; and the destruction of Sennacherib's army 14:24-27. Jeremiah predicted the overthrow of the Jewish kingdom (Jer. 5:15-18) and also the return after seventy years (Jer. 25:12). -A. KEITH, "Evidences from Prophecy" is one of the older but authoritative books on this subject. Another of the older and standard works is Home's "Introduction to the Scriptures" which has in the Appendix a large collection of the prophecies and their fulfillment.