The Claims of the Scriptures
The writers either told the truth or else they did not. If they did not tell the truth about this [i.e. that they were writing by inspiration], then how can we put any confidence in anything else they said? Why should they desire to misrepresent the truth? If they did misrepresent the truth in their claims to inspiration, then they condemned themselves most severely. The apostle Peter’s second letter was written for the sole purpose of rebuking false prophets and deceivers. One could hardly find anything that even resembles it outside of Holy Writ. The apostle Paul often Warned his reader to “lie not one to another.” In the first chapter of Romans, he listed deceit as one of the deadly sins committed by the Gentiles, which caused God to “give them up unto a reprobate mind.” The beloved John Was very outspoken against those who misrepresent the truth. He tells how Jesus rebuked some of the Jews in strong language, thus: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the Way of truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof” (John 8:44). In Rev. 21:8 John writes: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and idolaters, and all liars. their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.” It is inconceivable that these men could write such bitter denunciations against all who misrepresent the truth when they themselves made false claims about the revelation which they gave to us.
L.R. Wilson
Life Line Printing and Book Co. 1948. Pages 11-12