The Bible - 1890 Doctrines and Disciplines of The Salvation Army

1. What is the meaning of the word Bible?
It means The Book - that is, the Book of books; others are only books, but this is 'The Book.'

2. Explain what you mean when you say that the Bible is the Word of God
We mean that God has caused His mind on the subject of our deliverance, duty and destiny to be written and preserved in this volume, so that this book really contains the statement of His judgment and wil concerning humanity, and is, therefore, the Word of God, or the revelation of His mind on the subject.

3. How does the Bible reveal the mind of God?

• It contains a large number of messages sent directly by God to people, in bygone times, through the medium of the prophets and apostles, and indirectly, from them to us and all whom they may concern.
  
• The histories, biographies and facts of the Bible revealed exactly how God feels to people in similar circumstances, and are, therefore, a revelation of the mind of God.
  
• This is especially true of the life, death and teaching of Jesus Christ.
  
• The Bible is full of God's thoughts about all the possible conditions of people in time and eternity.
  
• It was written directly under the direction or inte inspiration of God's Spirit.
  "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but by holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." - 2 Peter 1:21

4. In what way did this direction or inspiration enable these men to write the Bible?
The Holy Spirit not only preserved these holy men from mistakes, and enabled them to write the exact truth concerning the facts they record, but also enabled them to communicate the mind and will of God to us.


5. What evidences have you to show that the Bible is Divine, beyond the claim to inspiration of the writers themselves?
The character of the book proves this:

• The prophecies it contains of events which came to pass hundreds of years after they were written.
• The miracles it records, performed by the writers and by others in conjunction with them.
• The high morality taught all through it.
• The claim made in it of its own inspiration.
• The revelation it makes of the future.
• The style of the book, so different to that of any other.
• The influence of the teaching of the book on all individuals and nations who have in any form accepted it.
• The book must have been written either by bad or by good men:
  - Bad men could not have written such a good book which so condemned them, here and hereafter, if they could.
  - Good men would not have written a book which they knew to be false, claiming all the time to be inspired by God.
  - Therefore it must have been written by good men, who were themselves the personal witnesses, in nearly all cases, of the wonderful miracles they record, any one of which is a sufficient and unanswerable argument for the divine origin of the whole.

6. Is the knowledge and belief of the words of the Bible taken alone sufficient for a man's salvation?
No! the Bible is but a means to an end. It is simply God's message to men, telling them that if they seek, trust and obey Him they shall be saved, sanctified and glorified.

7. How am I - a Salvation Army soldier - to make the best use of my Bible?

• Read it on your knees
• Read it a little at a time.
• Read it in faith, believing every word you read.
• Depend on the Holy Spirit to reveal the real meaning to your soul.
• Commit the most practical portions to memory.
• Explain what you read to the people in words, and with illustrations they can understand. 

8. Do not some people set a false value on the Bible?
Yes, some undervalue it, and, in consequence, neglect to read and be governed by its teaching; while others overestimate it by regarding it as the only way in which God speaks to people.

9. Does God communicate His will to people in any other way than through the written Word?
 Yes, He speaks directly to the heart by His Spirit, and by His Spirit also through one person to another.

10. How could you show this? 
In two ways:

• It has been His custom from the beginning to raise up prophets, who shall directly convey His wishes to people.
• The Savior promised that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, should be given to His people to lead them into all truth.
  'And I will pray to the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.' - John 14:16

11. Does this promise apply to us, and may we expect its fulfillment?
Certainly we may. The notion that the fulfillment of this promise was confined to apostolic times is one of the greatest mistakes ever made. It is therefore wrong and misleading to argue that we have no other way of ascertaining the mind of the Spirit concerning our own salvation, or our duty to our fellows, except through the written word. It is one great cause of so much tame experience in the knowledge of God, and so much lame effort to extend the kingdom of God. The living, active, positive agency of God is comparatively shut out of the world, and a dead book placed in its stead.

12. What authority has the Bible with the Army?
While we hold that God does, by His Spirit, speak as directly to His people in this age as in any other, still the Army does solemnly and most emphatically regard the Bible as the divinely authorized standard by which all other professed revelations are to be tried, and, if any professed revelations do not square to that standard,  such revelations are to be rejected as having no truth in them. Whatever is contrary to the teaching of this book must be considered false and thrown overboard.

'To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no ligt in them.' - Isaiah 8:20

"The Doctrines and Disciplines of The Salvation Army" The Salvation Army, 1890. Ref: John Waldron. The Salvationist and the Scriptures. NY: The Salvation Army, 1988.