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"Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation.
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).
The word "moved" used by Peter is found in the record of the storm in Acts 27: 15
and 17, "we let her drive"; "and so were driven". The human element was set aside in
that driving storm, even as Peter testifies, the human will was not permitted to interfere
with the direct inspiration of the writers of Scripture. As a most blessed endorsement of
these two testimonies, is the undeniable attitude of the Saviour to the integrity and
authority of the Scriptures. At Bethlehem the Scriptures were fulfilled. At the cross, the
resurrection and the ascension, the Scriptures were proved to be true down to the veriest
detail. During the earthly ministry of the Son of God, He declared that it was impossible
to believe His teaching while repudiating the writings of Moses (John 5: 47), and
reaffirmed this in resurrection by "beginning at Moses and all the prophets"
(Luke 24: 47). Whatever difference there may be discernible between the aspect of
truth presented by Matthew and by John, by Peter and by Paul, they stand solidly by the
affirmation "All scripture is given by inspiration of God" and this must be recognized as
the basis of all the teaching set forth in The Berean Expositor or any of its publications.
As by faith we gaze at the cross of Christ, as we see indissolubly linked together the
finished WORK of Calvary and finished WORD of God, there we take our stand, and
with heart and life declare that our Saviour's Bible so far as the Old Testament is
concerned is our Bible, and that His deep reverence for the written Scriptures shall be our
continuous example. "Beginning at Moses", moreover, seems to suggest the only way in
which the present series of elementary studies should proceed, and accordingly with this
introduction we turn the reader's attention to some of the outstanding teaching of the
book of Genesis in our endeavour to set out some of the "First principles of the oracles of
God". The book of Genesis closes with a "coffin in Egypt". This can be no ordinary
book to justify so strange an ending. We catch something of the importance of this
reference by nothing that of all that might have been brought forward this is recorded of
Joseph in Heb. 11: 22. We believe our subsequent studies will reveal the reason for this
strange sequel.
"And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring
you out of this land unto the land which He sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and
ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years
old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt" (Gen. 50: 24-26).
The book of Genesis moves from Creation to New Creation, embodied in the
unfaltering hope of Joseph, even as the whole of the Bible moves from the Creation of
the heaven and the earth in the beginning to the new heaven and the new earth, wherein
sin, sorrow, death and the curse shall be "no more" (Rev. 21: 1, 4; 22: 3).
Here for the moment we stay, except to draw the reader's attention to a series of
articles which commenced in Volume XXXIV of The Berean Expositor which is
entitled "Time and Place" and which in Volume XXXVI, page 176 brings the