“When
about to leave his disciples, Jesus said to them, John, 14:26, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will
send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things
to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” The
Apostles were not to trust to their memories, to repeat what Jesus
had said to them; but all that he had said was to be dictated to
them by the Holy Ghost. And again, John, 14:13, “When he, the
Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth ; for he
shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall
he speak, and he will show you things to come.” After his
resurrection, Jesus Christ said to them, John 20:21, “Peace be
unto you ; as my Father has sent me, even so send I you.”. His last
words to them on earth were these, Acts, 1:8, “But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye
shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and
in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” Such were
the PROMISES given to the Apostles of what they were to receive, to
fit them for that great work in which they were about to engage. We
shall now hear their own DECLARATIONS in respect to their fulfillment.
On
the day of Pentecost, Acts 2:4, “They were all filled with the
Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave
them utterance.” On that occasion, when speaking in unknown
tongues, as was the case with others of the brethren in the churches,
1 Cor. 14:18, 28, they must have been inspired with every word they
spoke, as is asserted in the declaration, that “the Spirit gave
them utterance.” When, afterwards, having been brought before the
Jewish rulers, they had returned to their own company and prayed,
Acts 4:31, “The place was shaken where they were assembled
together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they
spake the word of God with boldness.” Paul begins his Epistles, by
designating himself an Apostle of Jesus Christ. Thus he declares his
apostolic character and commission from the Lord, by whom he was
qualified for his work. We see with what authority he afterwards
expresses himself: “Now unto him that is of power to stablish you
according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according
to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the
world began ; but now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the
prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made
known to all nations for the obedience of faith.”— “Though we,”
says the same Apostle, Galatians 1:8, “or an angel from heaven,
preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached
unto you, let him be accursed.”—“As we said before, so say I
now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye
have received, let him be accursed.”—“But I certify you,
brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it but by the
revelation of Jesus Christ.”— 1 Cor. 2:9, 10, “But as it is
written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into
the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.”—“
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom
teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth,” 1 Cor. 2:18. Here;
in making a general declaration of what he taught, both the matter
and the words are declared to be from God.* Again he says, 1 Cor. 2:15, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct
him 2 but we have the mind of Christ,” 1 Cor. 2:7, “We speak
the wisdom of God.” Eph. 3:4 “Whereby, when ye read, ye may
understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages
was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto
his holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit.” 2 Cor. 2:10, “To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also; for if I forgave
anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the
person of Christ,” 2 Cor. 13:2, 3, “If I come again I will not
spare, since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me.” In 1 Cor. 7:17, where some have rashly and ignorantly asserted that the
Apostle concludes with expressing a doubt whether he was inspired or
not, he says, “ so ordain I in all churches.” Such language,
which is precisely similar to that of Moses, Deut. 6:6, would have
been most presumptuous, unless he could have added, as he does a
little afterwards, 1 Cor. 14:36, “What? came the word of God out
from you? or came it unto you only? If any man think himself to be a
prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I
write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.” At the opening of
the same epistle Paul had said, “My speech and my preaching was not
with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the
Spirit and of power.”—“We speak the wisdom of God.” Could any
man have used such language unless he had been conscious that he was
speaking the words of God? 1 Thess. 2:13, “For this cause also
thank we God, without ceasing, be cause, when ye received the word of
God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but
(as it is in truth) the word of God.” 1 Thess. 4:8, “He,
therefore, that despiseth, despiseth not man but God, who hath also
given unto us his Holy Spirit.” 1 Pet. 1:12, “ Unto whom it was
revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the
things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached
the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which
things the an gels desire to look into.” 1 Peter 1:23, “Being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the
word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” 1 Pet. 1:25, “The
word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the
gospel is preached unto you.” In referring to the instruction which
they gave to the churches, the Apostles characterise it as their
“commandment,” and refer to it as equivalent to the authority of
the Holy Ghost, as in fact it was the same. Acts, 15:24, 28, “It
seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us.” Such is the inspiration
by which all the pen men of the Scriptures wrote, and God has pronounced the most solemn prohibitions against any attempt to add to, or to
take from, or to alter, his Word. These warnings are interspersed
through every part of the sacred volume; and each of them is equally
applicable to the whole of it.” - Robert Haldane, The Books of the
Old and New Testaments Proved to be Canonical, and Their Verbal
Inspiration Maintained and Defended
*
On this verse Macknight has the following note:— “Words taught by
the Holy Spirit.—From this we learn that as often as the Apostles
declared the doctrines of the gospel, the Spirit presented these
doctrines to their minds clothed in their own language; which indeed
is the only way in which the doctrines of the gospel could be
presented to their minds. For men are so accustomed to connect ideas
with words, that they always think in words. Wherefore, though the
language in which the Apostles delivered the doctrines of the gospel,
were really suggested to them by the Spirit, it was properly their
own style of language. This language in which the doctrines of the
gospel was revealed to the Apostles, and in which they delivered
these doctrines to the world, is what St Paul calls the form of
sound words, which Timothy had heard from him, and was to hold fast,
2 Tim. i. 18. Every one, therefore, ought to beware of altering or
wresting the inspired language of Scripture, in their expositions of
the articles of the Christian faith. Taylor, in the sixth chapter of
his key, at the end, explains the verse under consideration thus: —
'Which things we speak, not in philosophical terms of human invention,
but which the Spirit teacheth in the writings of the Old Testament':
and contends, that the Apostle's meaning is, that he expressed the
Christian privileges in the very same words and phrases, by which the
Spirit expressed the privileges of the Jewish church in the writings
of the Old Testament. But if the Spirit suggested these words and
phrases to the Jewish prophets, why might he not suggest to the
Apostles the words and phrases in which they communicated the gospel
revelation to the world? Especially as there are many discoveries in
the gospel which could not be expressed clearly, if at all, in the
words by which the prophets expressed the privilege of the Jewish
church. Besides, it is evident, that when the Apostles introduce into
their writings the words and phrases of the Jewish prophets, they
explain them in other words and phrases, which, no doubt, were
suggested to them by the Spirit.”
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