The Bible, the Spirit of Prophecy, and the Church

Christ the Secret of Knowing the Word of God

Jesus highly revered and deeply loved the word of His Father. Centuries ago the sweet singer of Israel declared concerning Him, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” Psalm 40:8. BSPC 45.3

As in Jesus, who is both the Son of God and the Son of man, we see the divine and the human perfectly blended, so it is in the Sacred Word of Jehovah. Men speak, men declare the word, the message comes through lips of clay, but God is the Author; it is His word; men were the channels through whom the heavenly message was given. BSPC 45.4

This has been well expressed in an excellent article on inspiration in the New Analytical Indexed Bible, which reads as follows: BSPC 45.5

“We are not to assume that inspiration is operative apart from the human channel employed; that it disregards the qualities or characteristics of the one inspired and that he becomes a mere automaton. On the contrary, these very characteristics are employed so that John’s Gospel, for example, reflects the qualities of the man John and by the second Gospel we see that a wholly different type of man was used for that task. Paul’s Epistles are as different from Peter’s Epistles as the man Paul differs from the man Peter. Inspiration, so far from rendering unnecessary the characteristics of those who were inspired, uses them and the inspired message is stamped by the peculiarities of each. It is thus human and Divine.”—pages 11, 12. BSPC 45.6

This union of the divine and the human in the Scriptures of truth it is our privilege to study, but to enter into such a meditation, guided by the greatest Teacher, is another wonderful privilege. Arthur T. Pierson years ago remarked: BSPC 45.7

“The Inspired Written Word and the Eternal Living Word are forever inseparable. The Bible is Christ portrayed; Christ is the Bible fulfilled. One is the picture, the other is the person, but the features are the same and proclaim their identity.”—Knowing the Scriptures, p. 34. BSPC 46.1