555 Difficult Bible Questions Answered

2. Inspiration of the Bible.

The question is asked, "How can I know that the Bible is inspired?" Even in this late day, when the number of Christians has multiplied from a mere handful to four hundred and seventy millions, or fully one-fourth of the entire population of the globe, there are people who doubt the inspiration of the Bible. At different times during the last twenty centuries assaults have been made against the Sacred Book, which Gladstone termed the "Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture," but without avail. It has a firmer hold on the hearts of men than in any previous age. Mr. Moody, the greatest of American evangelists, was once asked whether he regarded the Bible as inspired, and his answer was brief and to the point: "I know the Bible is inspired," he said, "because it inspires me 1" There are countless thousands who will echo this answer and whose lives have been transformed by the same inspiration. Not only the great religious scholars, but the masters of secular literature regard the Bible as unapproachable in its high standard of expression, its magnificent imagery, the transcendent nobility of its rhetoric, the authority with which it appeals to the hearts of men, the universality of its application and the power it exercises over the souls of men. It bears within itself the evidence of inspiration, and wherever it is known and read and its precepts followed, its influence is uplifting and inspiring. The theory of inspiration does not exclude, but rather implies, human agency, however. "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." (II Peter 1:21).