Ellet J. Waggoner
The Present Truth : January 23, 1896
On all sides the Bible is being discredited. Of the attacks of professed infidels, and of the so-called Higher Critics, we need not speak, because they are so open and undisguised that people may be on their guard. But the most dangerous assault upon the Bible is that which makes it secondary to Christ or the Holy Spirit, so that people unconsciously set the Word of God aside while imagining that they are doing superior homage to Him who gave the Word.
An instance of this, which is becoming deplorably common among Christian people, is found in the reply of the New York Independent to the taunt of a Catholic paper in regard to its acceptance of the Bible as the only rule of faith. It said: —
“When did the Independent ever say that the Bible is the sole and only rule of faith? We believe that our Lord said that He would give His Spirit “which shall lead you into all truth.” We regard the teaching of the Holy Spirit as a rule of faith.”
Such is the looseness with which the Bible is now held, that most people would doubtless see in this only a tribute to the Holy Spirit instead of the disparagement of the Word of God. Let us see what the Bible says about the matter.
In the first place, it is positively stated that the Bible came only by the Spirit. “The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:21).
Not only so, but the Holy Spirit was in all cases the speaker, so that the Bible is the language of the Holy Spirit, and of none other. Thus the sweet Psalmist of Israel said, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was in my tongue” (2 Sam. 23:2).
With this agrees the words of the Apostle Peter, when he spoke of the Scripture “which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spoke before concerning Judas” (Acts 1:16). Also the words “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith” (1 Tim. 4:1).
When Christ promised the disciples the Spirit in His absence, He said: “When He is come He will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8, R.V). The first work of the Spirit is to convict of sin. But by what means? —By “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Eph. 6:17), “For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). “By the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20), because “the law is spiritual” (Rom. 7:14).