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#2.
"A Threefold Cord is not quickly broken" (Eccles. 4: 12).
pp. 185 - 187
Quite apart from the question of inspiration, we should expect that men like Peter and
Paul, when conscious that their days on earth drew to a close, would not trifle with truth,
nor waste precious opportunities, but that they would speak plainly of those things that
were of lasting importance. If this be expected of fallible men, how much more of the
Son of God Himself? If therefore we find that in the final scenes of their lives Peter, Paul
and the Lord Himself chose to emphasize the inspiration and integrity of the Scriptures,
we shall in that fact, possess a threefold testimony that will not quickly be broken by the
fleeting and fickle opinions of fallible critics.
PETER, when he wrote his second epistle, knew that the hour of his death drew near:
"Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ
hath showed me" (II Pet. 1: 14).
PAUL, when he wrote his second epistle to Timothy, knew that he had reached the
end of his earthly life.
"I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand" (II Tim. 4: 6).
CHRIST, when He prayed, as recorded in John 17:, knew that death drew near, for
He said:
"Father, the hour is come" (John 17: 1).
What is the testimony of these two great witnesses and that supreme Witness, to the
truth of the Scriptures?
PETER.--"No prophecy of the Scripture is of its own unfolding (idias epiluseos), for
the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost" (II Pet. 1: 20, 21).
Such is Peter's explicit testimony. He declared that he had not followed "cunningly
devised fables" (II Pet. 1: 16), and he endorsed as historic facts the flood in the days of
Noah, the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the deliverance of Lot, and
the record of Balaam and the dumb ass that spoke (II Pet. 2: 5, 6, 7, 15, 16).
To Peter, the words written in the Scriptures are "holy commandments" (II Pet. 2: 21),
whether written by prophets of old or apostles of the Lord and Saviour (II Pet. 3: 2).
Finally, he does not hesitate in the same epistle to include the epistles of Paul as part of
"the other scriptures" (II Pet. 3: 16).