CHAPTER PAGE I INSPIRATION, OR TO WHAT EXTENT IS THE BIBLE INSPIRED OF GOD? 11
II THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION OF GOD, OR THE GOD OF THE BIBLE AS DISTINGUISHED FROM THE GOD OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE GOD OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY 38
III THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION OF GOD—THE INFINITE PERFECTION AND UNITY OF GOD 56
VI THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 112
VII THE DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE FATHER, SON AND HOLY SPIRIT 144
VIII THE ATONEMENT: GOD'S DOCTRINE OF THE ATONEMENT VS. UNITARIAN AND CHRISTIAN SCIENCE DOCTRINES OF THE ATONEMENT 162
IX THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINE OF PROTESTANTISM: JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH 186
XII THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY OF JESUS AND OF OUR BODIES 245
_THE FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH_
THE FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
INSPIRATION, OR TO WHAT EXTENT IS THE BIBLE INSPIRED OF GOD?
"For no prophecy ever came by the will of man, but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit."—2 Pet. 1:21.
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."—2 Tim. 3:16, 17.
Our subject this morning is "The Inspiration of the Bible, or to What Extent Is the Bible Inspired of God?" The subject is of vital and fundamental importance. If we can make it clear that the writers of the various books of the Bible were inspired of God in a sense that no other men were ever inspired of God, that they were so gifted and taught and led and governed by the Holy Spirit in their utterances as recorded in the Bible, that they taught the truth and nothing but the truth, that their teachings were absolutely without error,—then we have in the Bible a court of final appeal and of infallible wisdom to which we can go to settle every question of doctrine or duty. But if the writers of the Bible were "inspired" only in the vague and uncertain sense that Shakespeare, Browning and many other men of genius were inspired, only inspired to the extent that their minds were made more keen to see the truth than ordinary men, but still only in such a way that they made mistakes, or chose the wrong word to express their thought, so that we must recast their thought by discovering, if we may, what the inspired thought back of the uninspired words was, then we are all at sea, in hopeless confusion, so that each generation must settle for itself what the Holy Spirit meant to say through the blundering reporters; and it is absolutely certain that no generation can determine with anything approximating accuracy what the Spirit meant, and so no generation can arrive at the truth, but simply promulgate blunders for the next and wiser generation to correct, to be corrected in turn by the next generation that follows it. Thank God that this latter subtle but popular doctrine can be proven to be utterly untrue!