The Testimony of the Bible Concerning the Assumptions of Destructive Criticism | Page 7

and is so recognized again and again.
Nehemiah viii. 14 affirms again: "They found written in the law, which
the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should
dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month." Nehemiah quotes
this "command of the Lord by Moses" from Lev. xxiii. 39-42, which
was a fraud on the part of Nehemiah, if Moses was not the author of the
book. Again he says in the thirteenth chapter of Nehemiah and first
verse: "On that day they read in the book of Moses, in the audience of
the people"; but it was not the book of Moses if he had not written it,
but the book of another one of the "unknown" so frequently found (?)
in Scripture by our critics.

The book of Moses in which this last reference from Nehemiah is
written is the command that the "Ammonite and the Moabite should not
come into the congregation of God for ever," and is recorded in Deut.
xxiii. 3, 4.
But our critical friends inform us that Deuteronomy was not written
until after the captivity. Hence, the logic of their position is, that
Nehemiah attributes to Moses what he did not write, and proves
himself to be either ignorant of the truth or practicing a fraud upon the
people. We prefer the testimony of Nehemiah to that of the latter-day
critics.
It should be repeated that the prophets and inspired writers down to
Malachi reiterated their confidence in the Mosaic authorship of the
Pentateuch. And he, the last messenger of the Old Testament to Israel,
gave them this message from God: "Remember ye the law of Moses my
servant, which I commanded unto him" (Mal. iv. 4). Indeed, the entire
testimony of the Old Testament is in harmony with the positive
statements made in the Pentateuch, that Moses was commanded to
write, and that he actually and positively "wrote all the words of the
Lord" (Exod. xxiv. 4). There is not a word, syllable, hint, or shadow of
a hint assigning these five books of Moses to a later date or author.
The presumption, or guess, of the critics carries no weight in the face of
the testimony of the entire Old Testament that God commanded Moses
to write, and that he did write, the five books attributed to him.

IV. WERE CHRIST AND THE APOSTLES MISTAKEN?
_Christ said to his apostles:_
_"Ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea,
and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." Acts i. 8._
_"I speak the truth in Christ and lie not." Paul in 1 Tim. ii. 7._
_"Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the
dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth." The Apostle John in Rev.
i. 5._
_"We know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do
these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him," Nicodemus, in
John iii. 2._
_"If I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?" Christ, in John viii.
46._

_"I am the way, the truth and the life." Christ, in John xiv. 6._
The opinions and testimony of the apostles are certainly worth
something. They had three years of instruction under our Lord, and the
promise from him that the Holy Spirit should guide them into all truth.
(John xvi. 13.)
A study of the writers of the New Testament proves that they are in
absolute harmony with the writers of the Old Testament as to the
Mosaic authorship of the five books of the Pentateuch. Luke ii. 22
informs us that the mother of Jesus, "when the days of her purification
were accomplished according to the _law of Moses_," brought the child
"to present him to the Lord." This was done, according to Leviticus xii.
2-6, and accredits that book to Moses, and not to some imaginary
author.
The Apostle John informs us that "the law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John i, 17). If he has misled us
in reference to Moses and the law, can we trust him in reference to
grace and truth by Jesus Christ?
When Peter made his address to the people who were surprised at the
healing of the cripple, he said: "Moses truly said unto the fathers, A
prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren,"
(See Acts iii. 22.)
This saying of Moses is recorded in Deut xviii. 15, the contents of
which book are introduced to us in these words; "These be the words
which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness,
in the plain over against the Red Sea" (Deut.