The Scripture Cannot Be Broken

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 2 TIMOTHY 3:16–17

Torrey had once been a clever young critic of the Bible. He knew the arguments against it from the inside, and he had gone to Germany to hear them from their masters. That history gives weight to what he later taught about Scripture. He was not a man who had never looked at the questions. He was a man who had looked hard and come to the opposite conclusion. The first sermon in The Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Faith is on inspiration, and How to Succeed in the Christian Life has a chapter on difficulties in the Bible. Together they give his view of the Book.

What the Bible claims

Torrey framed the question sharply. Either the writers of Scripture were so taught and governed by the Holy Spirit that what they wrote was true and without error, or they were inspired only in the loose sense in which men of genius are said to be inspired. If the first, we have a final court of appeal on every question of doctrine and duty. If the second, we are at sea, and every generation must guess what the Spirit meant to say through fallible reporters.

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 PETER 1:21

He then set out what Scripture claims for itself. The Spirit’s work in prophets and apostles, he argued from 1 Corinthians 12, differed in kind and not merely in degree from His work in other believers. Truth hidden for ages was revealed to them. And the Spirit gave not only the thoughts but the words.

Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 1 CORINTHIANS 2:13

Torrey faced the obvious question: if the Spirit chose the words, why does Paul sound like Paul and John like John? His answer was that the Creator of human speech is quite able to use each writer’s own vocabulary and individuality in revealing His truth. The words are fully human and fully God’s. That is still the best short answer to the question.

Above all, Torrey pointed to the attitude of Jesus. The Lord treated the Old Testament as the Word of God, down to its smallest parts. The scripture, He said, cannot be broken.

For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. MATTHEW 5:18

Difficulties are to be expected

Torrey did not pretend there were no hard places in the Bible. “We have no desire to conceal the fact that these difficulties exist,” he wrote in How to Succeed in the Christian Life. He had seen young Christians whose faith went into eclipse for months because of them, and he wanted to help.

His first point was that difficulties are exactly what we should expect. The Bible is a revelation of the infinite God to finite and sinful people. If someone handed him a book as simple as the multiplication table and said it was God’s full revelation, he would not believe it.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. ISAIAH 55:8–9

Peter himself admitted that some things in Paul’s letters are hard to be understood.

As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. 2 PETER 3:16

His second point was that a difficulty does not disprove a doctrine. Every great scientific theory has faced objections that could not at first be answered, and has been rightly held because the positive evidence was strong. The fact that you cannot solve a difficulty does not prove it cannot be solved. Torrey liked to remind his readers of a beginner in algebra who, failing to solve a problem in half an hour, declared it insoluble.

How to handle them

His counsel on dealing with difficulties is some of the best practical advice he ever gave. Deal with them, he said, honestly, humbly, determinedly, fearlessly, patiently, scripturally and prayerfully.

Honestly: “If you cannot give a good honest explanation, do not attempt as yet to give any at all.” That sentence deserves to be better known. A forced answer does more harm than an honest I do not yet know.

Humbly: remember the limits of your own knowledge.

Determinedly: “The difficulties in the Bible are your heavenly Father’s challenge to you to set your brains to work.”

Fearlessly: you are not likely to find a difficulty that was not seen and faced centuries ago, and the Book still stands.

Patiently: lay a problem aside for a while, and come back to it.

Scripturally: let clear passages shed light on obscure ones, never the reverse.

And prayerfully. “It is wonderful how difficulties dissolve when one looks at them on his knees.”

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. PSALM 119:18

Where to read him with care

Torrey’s doctrine of Scripture is the historic doctrine of the church, and his practical counsel is sound. But the reader should be aware of the manner in which he argued.

He wrote in a hard-fought controversy, and it shows. He was prone to state the alternatives as starkly as possible: either the Bible is what it claims to be or it is an outrageous fraud. He could speak with contempt of critics, as though none of them had studied the Bible seriously. His confidence that almost every difficulty would yield to a little more study reflects the rationalist optimism of his age, which believed that evidence properly marshalled would settle every question.

A more patient reader today can hold Torrey’s conclusion firmly while admitting that some difficulties are genuinely hard, that honest scholars have wrestled with them for a lifetime, and that some may not be resolved this side of glory. That is not a weaker faith in Scripture. It is the humility Torrey himself recommended, and it rests on the same foundation: that the God who speaks in Scripture does not lie.

The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. DEUTERONOMY 29:29

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Ask yourself whether you treat the Bible as a final court of appeal, or as good advice to be taken when it suits you.

2. Write down one difficulty in the Bible that troubles you. Resolve to face it honestly, humbly and prayerfully rather than avoid it.

3. If someone asks you a question about the Bible that you cannot answer, practise saying honestly that you do not yet know, and offer to look into it together.

4. Spend time this week not on the difficulties of Scripture but on its glories. Read a chapter such as Isaiah 53 or John 17 slowly and with wonder.

5. Take one hard passage to God on your knees before you take it to a commentary.

A PRAYER

Lord God, You have spoken, and Your word is pure, like silver tried in a furnace. I thank You for the Scriptures.

Where I do not understand, give me honesty to admit it, humility to wait, and diligence to seek.

Keep me from pride in my questions and from fear of them. Let me come to hard places on my knees.

And let me not only defend Your Word but do it, for the glory of Jesus Christ, of whom it speaks. Amen.