by J.C. Ryle

As in J.C. Ryle's days, today the doctrine of inspiration continues to be attacked and many people struggle to know what to believe about it. No book has ever been written like the Bible, nor contains its extraordinary depths and richness in its contents. Under dictation, many men wrote the Bible over 1,500 years giving one account of man, one account of God, one account of the way of salvation, and one account of the human heart. Its uniqueness is well-worth meditating on.

The Doctrine of Inspiration

This is a question of supreme importance today. Ignorance or want of clear views about the subject is a worm at the root of much religion at the present time. Myriads of professing Christians are like men whose feet are on a quicksand, and whose heads are in a fog. They do not know what they believe about inspiration.

Inspiration rests on a collection of facts which no intelligent, educated and honest-minded man can pretend for a moment to disprove.

The Depth, Fullness, and Richness of the Bible

(i) It is a fact that there is an extraordinary depth, fullness and richness in the contents of the Bible which is supernatural and above man. There is a complete gulf between it and any other book that ever was written. It throws more light on a vast number of most important subjects than all the other books in the world put together. It boldly handles matters which are beyond the reach of man when left to himself. It treats of things which are mysterious and invisible—the soul, the world to come, and eternity, depths which man has no line to fathom.

All who have tried to write these things, without Bible light, have done little but show their own ignorance. They grope like the blind, they speculate, they guess, they generally make the darkness more visible, and land us in a region of uncertainty and doubt. The Bible alone gives a reasonable account of the beginning and end of the globe on which we live, a true picture of man, and just views of God. The Bible alone shows us a reasonable and satisfactory remedy for the spiritual wants and necessities of dying men, and meets the universal cravings of conscience by revealing a Saviour. The Bible alone explains the state of things which we see in the world around us. There are many things on earth which a natural man cannot explain. But the Bible makes it all clear. The Bible can tell him the whole world lieth in wickedness; that the prince of this world, the devil, is active; and that it is vain to look for perfection in the present order of things. The Bible will tell him that neither laws nor education can ever change men's hearts. The Bible will tell him that there is 'a good time' certainly coming, a time of perfect knowledge, perfect justice, perfect happiness, and perfect peace; but the Bible will tell him this time shall not be brought in by any power but that of Christ coming again, and for that second advent of Christ the Bible will tell him to prepare. Now all these are things which men could find nowhere except in the Scriptures. We have probably not the least idea how little we should know about these things if we had not the Bible. We hardly know the value of the air we breathe, and the sun which shines on us, because we have never known what it is to be without them. We do not value the truths on which I have been just now dwelling because we do not realise the darkness of men to whom these truths have not been revealed.

The Unity and Harmony of the Bible

(ii) It is another fact that there is an extraordinary unity and harmony in the contents of the Bible which is supernatural and above man. We all know how difficult it is to get a story told by any three persons, not living together, in which there are not some contradictions and discrepancies. But it is not so with the Bible. Here is a long book written by not fewer than thirty different persons. The writers were men of every rank and class in society. One was a lawgiver, one a warlike king, one a peaceful king. One had been brought up as a publican, another as a physician, another as a learned Pharisee, two as fishermen, several as priests. They lived at different periods, over a space of fifteen centuries, and the greater part of them never saw each other face to face. And yet there is a perfect harmony among all these writers. They all write as if they were under one dictation. They all tell the same story. They all give one account of man, one account of God, one account of the way of salvation, one account of the human heart. You see truth unfolding and developing as you go through the volume of their writings, but you never detect any real contradiction or contrariety of view.

Taken from The Religion of the Bible (London: Sovereign Grace Union, 1935), pp. 39-48. Published in Quarterly Record 538. Lightly edited for online publication in July 2023.