Excerpt from John and His Writings

There is a disposition at the present time with a certain class of writers to emphasize the dependence of John upon Paul, and these writers try to make it appear that the author of the Johannine books was a disciple of Paul even more fully than he was a disciple of Jesus. We believe that John always was a receptive soul and that he probably learned much from Paul, as from every other strong per sonality with whom he came into contact, but the supreme influence in all his more mature life was that of the Master. For the most part he was one of the quiet in the land, and he stood nearest to the Master, and he saw deepest into the Master's spirit and truth, and he meditated longest upon these things, and in the end he formulated more fully than any other the essentials of the new faith; and as far as he went we believe that he has spoken the final word in this field.

Paul was taught by the Spirit, but John had had the additional advantage of the three years of teaching by the Incarnate Lord. After Pentecost the Spirit of Jesus led him into all the truth. His personal experience and the history of the church taught him new significance and fresh result from many of his early memories of the Master's teaching and life. At last he was prepared to write the consummation of the New Testament revelation, the final residuum of the first century's experience in the origin and the development of Christian truth. After Peter had been crucified and Paul had been beheaded, John was left to carry on the work and to perfect the faith for an other entire generation in the church. What Jesus had taught in the first third of the century and what Peter and Paul had preached in the second third of the century John meditated upon through the last third of the century, and in this period he wrote the epistles, the Apocalypse, and the Gospel. They represent the highest reach of apostolic inspiration.

This book will be perfect anathema in the eyes of those who are accustomed to treat the Johannine literature as anonymous or pseudonymous, and to regard the contents of these books as composed mainly of such stufl as dreams are made of. We believe that the church tradition is vera cious and trustworthy which assigns the authorship of the five Johannine books to the apostle John. We believe that the fourth Gospel is no romance, to be interpreted either allegorically or rationalistically. We believe in its historical trustworthiness, and we follow the apostle John as our supreme authority both as to fact and to faith.

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