Isaiah 45:21,22
There is no God else but me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not one of a number of theories and teachings and philosophies confronting the world. It is unique, it stand absolutely alone.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The Christian religion is a revealed religion, has its rise in heaven; it is a religion from above, given by inspiration of God, not [by] the learning of philosophers.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Systems of infidelity pass away like a dew-drop before the sun, for God says, “I am God, and beside me there is none else.” This Bible is the stone that shall break in powder philosophy; this is the mighty battering ram that shall dash all systems of philosophy in pieces.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: The Bible is not one book among many books. It is God’s Book, it is a unique Book, it is the Book, standing apart from all the others. We must emphasize this because it is the whole basis of the Christian faith.
Furthermore it seems clear to me that we have got to spell out much more clearly the whole notion of revelation…We have got exclude the notion that men have arrived the truth as a result of searching and thinking, or by means of philosophy. We must affirm that it is entirely given, that “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,” 2 Peter 1:21, or, as Paul is constantly reminding his readers, that his gospel is not his own: For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ, Galatians 1:12.
GEORGE SMEATON (1814-1889): One of the great and far-reaching questions raised among us is: Are we to take Scriptures as a supernatural production of the Holy Spirit? And are we to believe on the authority of Scripture as a Revelation? What was once deemed axiomatic is turned into a question for debate.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: What Paul calls “philosophy and vain deceit.” And never was there a time when the warning against that was more needed than the present time—philosophy and vain deceit. The question of ultimate authority, the basis on which we stand. Put in one phrase, perhaps we can put it like this: The question we have to ask ourselves is, ‘when we come to the Bible, do we come to discover whether it is true or not? Or, whether believing that it is true because it is the Word of God, are we only concerned about its meaning?’
RICHARD BAXTER (1615-1691): Common reason tells us that we must first have a general proof that Scripture is God’s Word, and argue [from] thence to the verity of the parts, and not begin with a particular proof of each part. It seems you would argue thus: This and that text of Scripture are true, therefore they are God’s Word. But reason telleth you that you should argue thus: This is God’s Word, therefore it is true.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Now there is a very good way of dividing this matter. Those who approach these things philosophically, they come to discover what is true here, and what isn’t true. They sit in judgment upon it. And they decide that certain things are not true, they reject them. That’s the danger of philosophy. We should come to the Bible knowing that it is true, and our only business is to try and discover the meaning. The moment you think that you can decide and determine what is true and what isn’t, you succumb to the wiles of the devil.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): This is precisely what the devil has been aiming at from the very beginning, and it is what he is aiming at now. He wants to remove from beneath our feet the solid rock of divine revelation, and to give us instead the sandy foundation of human authority.
GEORGE SMEATON: A surrender of Biblical Revelation is fatal.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: The ultimate problem is always the problem of authority. What is the ultimate authority with respect to truth? This is absolutely fundamental. According to the teaching of the Bible from beginning to end our supreme authority is God’s revelation. Here is the great watershed that determines a man’s whole position in these matters. We are either trusting entirely and exclusively to the revelation which God has been graciously pleased to give; or else ultimately we are trusting to our own ability, our own knowledge, our own understanding.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: We do not need evidences from man to prove the truth of God’s Word. That Word carries its own powerful evidences with it. To suppose that we require human testimony to prove that God’s Word is true, is to imply that man’s word is more valid, more trustworthy, more authoritative, than the Word of God…We call the special attention of the reader to this point. It concerns the integrity of Holy Scripture. The grand question is this, Is God’s Word sufficient or not? Do we really want man’s authority to make us sure that God has spoken? Far be the thought! This would be placing man’s word above God’s Word, and thus depriving us of the only solid ground on which our souls can lean.
C. H. SPURGEON: The truth of God we will maintain as the truth of God, and we shall not retain it because the philosophic mind consents to our doing so.
THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): In philosophy, man speaketh to us by the evidence of reason; in the Scripture, God speaketh to us by way of sovereign authority.
LORD SHAFTESBURY (1801-1885): Revelation is addressed to the heart, and not to the intellect.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: We speak because we have a revelation. The Bible does not provide us with a theory, a speculation, an attempt to arrive at truth.
C. H. SPURGEON: If the revelation of God were not enough for our faith, what could we add to it?
C. H. MACKINTOSH: I believe because God has spoken, Faith rests upon divine revelation, not on human feelings or human reasonings. “It is written” is quite sufficient for faith. It can do with nothing less, but it asks nothing more.
