intimate subjects as 'sin', 'death', 'like', 'mind' and even 'body', that

most of the teaching we receive is couched in symbolic language, which if we

misinterpret as though it were intended to be understood literally, will but

deepen our confusion.  If such a consideration leads us to walk a little more

humbly, to hesitate when tempted to give an emphatic pronouncement upon

things 'too high' for us (Psa. 131), it will not lessen our appreciation or

reduce our scope, but rather will clarify our vision and eliminate many

Fifty -one years ago we wrote an article entitled, 'The Limitations of

Scripture'.  We believe the present reader would be interested in this early

attempt to recognize the fact that now we see through a glass darkly, and so

reprint it here.

'For I am conscious of nothing in myself, nevertheless am I not

justified ... So then do not judge anything before the time, until the

Lord shall come ... Learn in us the lesson of not letting your thoughts

go beyond the things that are written' (1 Cor. 4:4 -6).

We can imagine that some of our readers will read the title of this

article with some misgivings, and we hasten to explain our meaning so as to

avoid giving unnecessary pain or anxiety to those who love the Word of God.

To say what we do not mean will help us to make clear what we do mean

by the title.  We do not mean to suggest the slightest distrust in the Word

of God.  We rejoice to be able out of a full heart to say that we believe

'All Scripture is God -breathed'.  We believe that not only is Scripture

inspired in its general outline, but that divine inspiration extends to the

very language and choice of individual words and phrases.

What do we mean then by the limitations of Scripture?  We mean that the

Scriptures nowhere claim that they contain the record of all God's purposes

and ways, but that such glimpses of those unfathomable depths and infinite

heights are given us as our finite capabilities will allow.  If I turn to the

writings of men, I find that many of them deal with subjects which go

entirely beyond the inspired limits of Scripture.

Revelation starts with God as Creator, 'In (the) beginning God created

the heaven and the earth' (Gen. 1:1).  Man's theology is not content with

this, it must probe into that over which God has drawn a veil.  Man's

theology and philosophy come to us and say, 'God never had a beginning'.

Within the limits of human experience and reason, that which never had a

beginning does not exist!  In vain we attempt to conceive otherwise.  The

blessed fact we would point out is that God Himself has never burdened our

minds with such a statement.  He Who on earth could say, 'I have yet many

things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now', has, also, in the wider

scope of the complete Scriptures, given us just so much as we are capable of

understanding here.

Have we never felt, when searching the Scriptures upon some theme, the

desire for some further explanation which God has been pleased to withhold?

Is there no truth in the words of Zophar the Naamathite, 'Canst thou by

searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?'