Mark, Luke, or John, for Christ wrote not a word, either in the Gospels or the Epistles,

and as far as we know never spoke Greek. If it is fair for some to call us "Paulites," it

would be equally fair for us to call them "Matthewites," and in both cases Christ Himself

would only be heard through the written words of His servants. For our own part we

believe that the Gospels, and the Epistles, together with the rest of the Bible, are equally

inspired, and we hear the voice of the Son of God in O.T. Prophets (I Pet. 1: 11), the

Gospels, the Epistles and the Revelation. We believe that He Who is the Word speaks as

plainly from one book as another, and that the idea contained in the emphasized parts of

the extract above are radically wrong. We, too, from an entirely different aspect would

say, "Believe me, my dear brother, there is grave danger here."

It may be as well if we do read some of the Lord's Own words as recorded in the

Gospels, to discover something of His teaching relative to His ministry. In John 7: 16

the Lord says, "My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me." Again in 8: 28, "As

My Father hath taught Me, I speak these things." Again in 12: 49, "I have not spoken of

(ek = origin) Myself, but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment,

WHAT I SHOULD SPEAK." Again in 14: 24, "He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My

sayings; and the Word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me."

Finally in 17: 8, 14, "I have given them the words which Thou gavest Me. . . . I have

given them Thy Word."

If we really do heed the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, we shall see that,

marvellous as the fact may be, He spoke nothing which originated from Himself; every

word He uttered was the Word of God, with no added thought or idea of His Own.

While we gladly confess that the Lord Jesus Christ was the Word Himself made flesh,

that He is the real God (I John 5: 20), yet in obedience to His words we must say (as He

said) that they were not His words; consequently, when Moses spoke by the inspiration

of God, the value of the utterance was on exactly the same level as the words in the

Gospels, for both came from the same Author. When Isaiah spoke "Thus saith the Lord,"

the words were not his, but the One who sent him. When Paul spoke the Word of the

Lord it was not "Pauline" (if the Epistles are inspired Scripture), it is as the apostle

himself says, "not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the Word of God." We quite

realize the solemnity and the attractiveness of the words as spoken by the human lips of

the very Son of God, but we are likely to be ashamed of His testimony if we follow the

advice given above and read "especially the Gospels," for He has spoken since the words

recorded in the Gospels were uttered. Is it blindness that prevents our brethren from

seeing this? Is it deafness which prevents them from hearing the voice of the Son of God

after His resurrection?

Can anyone read Acts 26: 16-18 and say the Lord Jesus had not something to reveal

to men which it pleases Him to keep back while on earth, and to speak through the

apostle Paul from heaven? Does Acts 20: 24 tell us that Paul invented his gospel and

appointed himself to the ministry, or does it tell us that he received his ministry from the

Lord Jesus? If so, the Epistles are either inspired, and therefore the Word of God and of

Christ, or they are not, and therefore valueless. In the capacity of the "minister of the

circumcision" (Rom. 15: 8) the Lord Jesus said:--