Ask a poor ignorant man how he knows the sun shines. Ask a simple believer how he knows the Bible is the Word of God. He will tell you he has felt its power. Has not the Holy Spirit given you to feel the power of the Word of God? If God cannot make me know that it is He who speaks to me in His Word, who else can? 

   Were we merely to believe in the divine inspiration of the Scriptures from human testimony—be that testimony ever so powerful—it would not be faith at all. I believe what God says because He says it, not because of any human authority. If all the fathers who ever wrote, all the doctors who ever taught, all the councils that ever sat, all the angels in heaven and all the saints upon earth, were to agree in declaring the Bible is the Word of God and we were to believe on their testimony, it would not be divinely-given faith. On the other hand, were all to agree in declaring the Bible is not the Word of God, it could not for a moment shake our confidence in that peerless revelation. Fling back, dear friend, at once into the enemy’s teeth his foul and blasphemous suggestion and rest like a little child in the love and truth of that blessed One whom you have known for so many years. . . Finally, we have to remember that Holy Scripture is the voice of God and the written Word is the transcript of the living Word. It is only by the Holy Spirit’s teaching we can really understand Scripture, and He reveals its living depths to faith and need. Let us never forget this. 

Short Papers - C.H. Mackintosh