Divine Inspiration Evident

In the Bible foreview of the history of 6,000 years no single instance can be indicated in which events have falsified the Divine program. This is a startling fact, and an unquestionable one. It foretells, of course, much that is still future, much that is not yet fulfilled; but as regards the 6, 000 years that have passed away, its anticipative outline is invariably correct.

Let it be noted, also, that the evidence of Divine inspiration afforded by this prophetic program is strictly cumulative; it grows in strength with each separate fulfillment. Some of these are on a small scale, as the birth of individuals; others on a vast one, as the history of Rome; some are national, others ecclesiastic, and others are political and international. Like all the works of God, they comprise infinite variety. We need both microscope and telescope to study them. They contain minute and astronomically accurate statements of chronology, which it requires some exact erudition to unravel, and they contain announcements so comprehensive that we must glance over all lands and ages to appreciate their truth. Their cumulative testimony is all the more irresistible. From various quarters, and from various epochs, these prophecies bring each its own witness that the mind which inspired it was omniscient Divine.

They are all, moreover, evidently the fruit of one and the same mind, for they unfold one plan. The Bible program is no mass of disconnected and unrelated predictions. There are many petals, but one flower; many cantos, but one grand epic; many chapters, but one book. These prophecies unfold one harmonious scheme for the redemption of the human race; they carry it steadily forward, through patriarchal, Levitical, and gospel economies, to ages to come, when its glorious issue shall be attained. There is no contrariety between one section and another; they form a consecutive series patriarchal, national, universal.

--Henry Grattan Guinness [Excerpted from The Divine Program of the World's History, Hodder & Stoughton in 1889]