THE ATTITUDE of our blessed Lord to the infinite
accuracy and
importance of the letter of God's written revelation is evident
from His statement in the Sermon on the Mount: "Verily, I am
saying to you, till heaven and earth pass by, one iota or one
ceriph may by no means pass by from the law till all should be
coming to pass" (Matt.5:18). Now the yod or iota is the
smallest letter in Hebrew, little more than an apostrophe in size,
and it looks somewhat like one. We have no letter so small in
English. On many words, if it should fall away, it would not
change the sense at all, only the grammar. Let us note that our
Lord does not say that no word of the law shall fail, or even no letter, but not even the smallest letter shall fail to be
fulfilled. Such is the infinite accuracy of the written Word.
But even this does not fully illustrate His extreme devotion
to the written record. Several pairs of letters in Hebrew are
almost exactly alike. They are distinguished only by a little horn
on one which is wanting on the other. Thus d has a little
projection where r is rounded. This ceriph was only a small part
of a letter. It is not that no word, or no letter, not even the
smallest shall pass by, but not the most minute point of any
significance, in God's inspired record may be overlooked, for all
shall be fulfilled. No human writing is like this. Like all of
God's works, its perfection extends to the minutest minutiae.
A parallel in the material world may help us to understand
this, for God's Word is a living organism,
and has the same perfection in detail that we find in nature. What
a marvelous help has the microscope been to the student! Most
wonderful of all, the more minutely God's handiwork is examined,
the more perfect it appears. And this is blessedly true of the
sacred text also. It will bear the most minute analysis. It will
reward the severest scrutiny. But, alas! scientists have far more
confidence in nature than even His saints have in nature's God. In
this era of unbelief there is a strong current of opposition to
the investigation of the jots and tittles of God's revelation. We
have standard expressions for indicating our disapproval of
"slavish literalism," "the worship of words," "unspiritual
interpretation," and many more.
I thank God that, very early in my career, there fell into my
hands a booklet entitled "The Necessity of Accuracy in the Study
of Holy Writ." In it a number of statements were examined which
had been put forth by an eminent theologian, purporting to show
the great lack of accuracy in the Bible. These were taken, one by
one, and in each ease the inaccuracy was shown to be due to the
theologian's carelessness. I was thrilled with the thought that we
have a Bible which would stand the most minute examination, and
determined to put it to the test and make full use of it if it
proved true. Ever after that, when a difficulty arose, I did not
run to commentaries or to lexicons, but I made a careful
examination of the text. It was not long ere I discovered the best
ways and means of doing this, and I began to make a spiritual
microscope to enable me to delve deeper into the exhaustless
riches of God's revelation. It has become the source of purest joy
and boundless satisfaction.
O that I could impress my readers with a sense of the
infinite accuracy of Holy Writ, and the unutterable satisfaction
and certainty which it imparts! Many cannot understand why I am so
positive on many points where others cannot come to clearness. The
reason is
simple. I stand on God's unshakable Word, perhaps on only a part
of a letter in it, but it gives me more confidence than if I had
all the faculties of all the universities in the world to support
me. Where others dimly discern mysteries, I behold gloriously
revealed secrets. Where some insist that God has put a veil I find
that He has torn it aside with His own hand, from the top to the
bottom. Where others feel that God must be a veiled prophet, I
have found Him fully revealed in His beloved Son.
How often have I tested the bare Word of God, and found it
utterly reliable! Questions have come up which have been debated
for centuries, and no satisfactory solution has been found.
Sometimes I have been tempted to fall back upon a commentary or
lexicon to save time. But it has proved a loss of time in
difficult cases, valuable as these works are for ordinary
information. Then I bowed my head before God's Word and
acknowledged that, since it is His revelation, it cannot be
contradictory, as it seemed to be. It cannot be double-tongued, as
men would have it be. One of the earliest investigations was the
subject of human destiny. This led to the study of the eons and
microscopic examination of the word and its phrases led to the
glorious confirmation of universal reconciliation, as well as
marvelous unfoldings of God's ways on the path to His glorious
goal. Then came the genealogies of our Lord, the chronology of the
passion week, the problem of evil, and, above all, the secrets of
the resurrection, of the evangel, and of this economy.
Almost every advance has been made by harmonizing the meaning
by the help of a concordance or by heeding the minute indications
which are usually deemed too unimportant to warrant investigation. For the last few years I have been especially impressed with the
need of distinguishing between such verbs as are indefinite, and
such as are incomplete. The lack of this distinction has held many an
honest seeker in distressing error. The consequences of ignoring this point, which is generally over-looked
in our translations, is very great indeed, even if the thing
itself seems obscure and unimportant to the very ones who need to
know it most. We hope to make it very clear to all in the Keyword
International edition.
Whoever speaks slightingly of the literal and the minute in
God's gracious Word thereby reveals the coldness of his heart and
the cloudiness of his head in relation to God's written
revelation. These are not merely symptoms of the prevailing
apostasy, but the ultimate cause. This is the source of the
withdrawal, and indicates the only radical cure. Only when we see
that God's oracles are minutely and literally perfect are we
really convinced of their inspiration, and content to trust our
all upon their declarations, and able to discern the truth which
they contain, and to reject the error with which men have
encrusted them. No jot, no tittle shall ever fail, for they
partake of the infinite perfection of their Author.