Is the Bible true'? That is the great issue in the world today, surpassing in importance all national and international questions. The Bible is either true or false it is either the Word of God or the work of man. If  the Bible is false, it is the greatest impostor that the world has ever known . . . .

As there can be no civilization without morals, and as morals rest upon religion, and religion upon God, the question whether the Bible is true or false is the supreme issue among men. As the Bible is the only book known to the Christian world whose authority depends upon inspiration, the degradation of the Bible leaves the Christian world without a standard of morals other than that upon which men can agree. As men's reasons do not lead them to the same conclusion, and as greed and self-interest often overthrow the reason, the fixing of any moral standard by agreement is impossible. If the Bible is overthrown, Christ ceases to he a Divine character, and His words, instead of being binding upon the conscience, can followed or discarded according as the individuals convenience may dictate.   

If, on the contrary, the Bible is true - infallible because divinely inspired, then all the books that man has written are as far below the Bible in importance as man is below God in wisdom. The only ground upon which infallibility or inerrancy can be predicated is that the Book is inspired. Man uninspired cannot describe with  absolute accuracy even that which has already happened ....

The Bible not only gives us history, and that, too, written in many cases long after the events transpired, but it gives us prophecy which was fulfilled centuries later. The language of the Bible cannot be explained by environment, for environment , in most instances, was entirely antagonistic. It cannot be explained by genius of the writers, for they were largely among the unlettered. The Bible could not have lived because of favouritism shown to it, because it has been more bitterly attacked than any other book ever written. The attacks upon it probably outnumbered the attacks made upon all other books combined, because it condemns man his face, charges him with being a sinner in need of a Saviour, indicts him as no other book does, holds up before hire the highest standard ever conceived, and threatens him as he is threatened nowhere else.

And yet the Book stands and its circulation increase. How shall we account for its vitality. its indestructibility? By its inspiration and by that alone. Those who accept the Bible as true, inerrant, and infallible believe that the original autograph manuscripts which, through copies, are reproduced in the Old and New Testaments, were true, and true because divinely inspired -- "holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter I :21). Because they were moved by the Holy Spirit. they spoke with accuracy and with the truth of God Himself . . . .

Orthodox Christians believe in plenary inspiration: that is, that all of the Bible was given by inspiration. They believe in verbal inspiration; that is, that the words used in the original manuscripts were the actual words of God as spoken by holy men of God "as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." They accept the Bible as true and divinely inspired, beginning with belief in God as Creator of all things, continuing Ruler of the universe which He made, and Heavenly Father to all His children. They believe that God is a personal God, who loves, and is interested in, all His creatures. They believe that He revealed His will unto men, and they accept the testimony of the writers of the Bible when they declare that the holy Ghost spoke through them or through those whom they quote ....

The real conflict to‑day is between those, on the one hand, who believe in God, in the Bible as the Word of God, and in Christ as the Son of God, and those, on the other hand, who believe in God but who believe that the Bible is inspired only in part - differing among themselves as to how much of it is inspired and as to what passages are inspired. The latter set up standards of their own, and there are nearly as many different standards as there are believers in partial inspiration. When they deny the infallibility of the Bible, they set up a standard that they regard either as infallible or as more trustworthy than the Bible itself. They really transfer the presumption of infallibility from the Bible to themselves, for either they say, "I believe this part of the Bible to he untrue because my own reason or my own judgment tells me that it is untrue:' or they say, "I believe it untrue because So-and-So, in whose judgment  I have confidence, tells me it is untrue." Whether one trusts in his own judgment as to the truthfulness of a passage, or trusts the judgment of someone else who denies the truthfulness of a passage, he is, in fact, trusting his own judgment because if he does not rely on his own judgment in rejecting the passage it is his own judgment that substitutes the authority of the individual selected by him for the authority of the Bible.

It need hardly he added that such a rejection of the Bible, however the objector tries to limit it, is equivalent to a total rejection of the Bible as an authority, because an authority which is subject to be overruled on any point on any subject by anybody who cares to take the responsibility of overruling it, ceases to be of real value . . . .