CHAPTER VII

A SUMMARY OF THE MAIN REASONS FOR BELIEVING THAT THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW CONTAIN GOD'S TRUE REVELATION

IN the Introduction to this Treatise it has been shown that there are certain criteria by which we should test any books which claim to contain a true Revelation. The honoured reader will have perceived, from what has been said in the preceding chapters, that the Bible satisfies those criteria. But we wish to make this still more clear and to sum up the proofs which prove it beyond the possibility of doubt.

1. In the first place, the Injil depicts for us in the Lord Jesus Christ the life and character of the one Holy and Perfect Man who ever lived on earth. Many nations have in their literature striven to draw an ideal picture of a Perfect Man. In some cases this account is quite fabulous, as in what the Hindu books tell us about Rama and Krishna. In others no doubt there is some historical foundation for the story, though legends have grown up about the person of the hero, as in the case of Buddha. But when we compare with Christ all the other great men that have ever lived on earth, and even all the heroes of romance, no one can assert a claim to equal Him in humility, goodness, gentleness, love, mercy, holiness, purity, justice, or in any other good attribute. As His character thus excels even the imaginary heroes of poets and romancers, it is evidently not the product of imagination or romance, but is true and real. The book which reveals Him to us must surely have been given us by God: that is to say, those who knew Him and have written

down their own knowledge of Him no doubt, in accordance with His promise (John xvi. 12, 13), received from God guidance and grace to enable them to bear true witness unto Him (Acts i. 8), in what they wrote as well as in what they said. The Lord Jesus Christ is His own proof.

"The¹ Sun has come as the proof of the Sun:
If thou seekest the proof of Him,
Turn not thy face from Him."

2. The perfect Revelation of God cannot be a Book, but must be a person: but the book which bears witness to that person and leads us to seek and find Him cannot possibly accomplish its task unless it have been composed under Divine guidance. Those who read the Bible prayerfully, intent with purpose of heart on discovering the truth, find that the Messiah, promised in the Old Testament and given in the New, is the theme of the whole Bible, which points to Him as the Saviour, the Word (كَلِمَة) of God, and hence the only person who can truly reveal God to man. By telling us of Him, of His character, conduct, life, death, resurrection, teaching, and promises, and of His unique revelation of God, the Injil solves the problem which had never before been solved, viz. How could the One True God become the Creator of the world and make Himself known to His creatures? Philosophers of old failed to discover an adequate solution of this problem, and so have those Jews who have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. Muslim theologians have not been more successful. For example, the Author of the Mizanu'l Mavazin (² (ميزان الموازين) says, "Every³