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The Glory of a Divine Power, April 14
Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness; that the man of God
may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.
2
Timothy 3:16, 17
, RV.
God has been pleased to communicate His truth to the world by human agencies,
and He Himself, by His Holy Spirit, qualified men and enabled them to do this
work. He guided the mind in the selection of what to speak and what to write. The
treasure was entrusted to earthen vessels, yet it is, nonetheless, from Heaven. The
testimony is conveyed through the imperfect expression of human language, yet it
is the testimony of God; and the obedient, believing child of God beholds in it the
glory of a divine power, full of grace and truth.
In His Word, God has committed to men the knowledge necessary for salvation.
The Holy Scriptures are to be accepted as an authoritative, infallible revelation of
His will. They are the standard of character, the revealer of doctrines, and the test of
experience....
Yet the fact that God has revealed His will to men through His Word has not
rendered needless the continued presence and guiding of the Holy Spirit. On the
contrary, the Spirit was promised by our Saviour, to open the Word to His servants,
to illuminate and apply its teachings. And since it was the Spirit of God that inspired
the Bible, it is impossible that the teaching of the Spirit should ever be contrary to
that of the Word.
The Spirit was not given—nor can it ever be bestowed—to supersede the Bible;
for the Scriptures explicitly state that the Word of God is the standard by which all
teaching and experience must be tested. Says the apostle John, “Believe not every
spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are
gone out into the world” (
1 John 4:1
). And Isaiah declares, “To the law and to the
testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in
them” (
Isaiah 8:20
)....
In harmony with the Word of God, His Spirit was to continue its work throughout
the period of the gospel dispensation. During the ages while the Scriptures of both
the Old and the New Testament were being given, the Holy Spirit did not cease to
communicate light to individual minds, apart from the revelations to be embodied
in the Sacred Canon. The Bible itself relates how, through the Holy Spirit, men
received warning, reproof, counsel, and instruction, in matters in no way relating to
the giving of the Scriptures. And mention is made of prophets in different ages, of
whose utterances nothing is recorded. In like manner, after the close of the canon of
the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit was still to continue its work, to enlighten, warn, and
comfort the children of God (
The Great Controversy, vi-viii
).
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