Wesley: Why the Bible Must Be a Divine Book

John Wesley's argument for the divine origin of the Bible:

The Bible must be the invention of either good men or angels, bad men or devils, or of God.

1. It could not be the invention of good men or angels, for they neither would nor could make a book, and tell lies all the time they were writing it, saying, "Thus saith the Lord," when it was their own invention.

2. It could not be the invention of bad men or devils, for they would not make a book which commands all duty, forbids all sin, and condemns their souls to hell to all eternity.

3. Therefore I draw this conclusion that the Bible must be given by divine inspiration.

--quoted in A. Skevington Wood, The Inextinguishable Blaze: Spiritual Renewal and Advance in the 18th Century, 228