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RICHARD LINDAMOOD
2700 GLENWAV
AVE,
CINCINNATI
4 OHlO
The
·
undamentals
estimony
Volume VIII
Compliments of
fwo Christian Laymen ·
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The Fundamentals
Testimony to the
Truth
'
4
To
the
aw
and to tlu
Tut imony"
Isat 'a i 8:20
Volume VIII
Compliments of
Two Christian La ymen
TESTIMONY PUBLISHING COMPANY
Not Inc.)
808 La Salle Ave., Chicago , Ill. , U. S. A. ·
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FOREWOR
With glad thanksgiving to God we send the eighth volume
of
THE FUNDAMENTALS to English-speaking Protestant
pastors, evangelists, missionaries, theological professors, theo-
. ' logical students, Y. M. C. A. secretaries, Y. W. C. A. secre
taries, Sunday School superintendents, religious lay workers,
and editors of religious publications, throughout the earth.
Like its precedessors, this volume goes out with the prayer
that, by the blessing of the Lord, the carefully and prayerfully
selected
articles which it contains may strengthen earnest be
lievers, may warn and re-establish in the truth those who are
wavering in
their
faith, and lead unrepentant sinners to con
viction of sin and to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The
Lord
has bles sed abundantly the former volumes of
THE FUNDAMENTALS and thousand s of earnest letters from
Christian men and women in almost every land bear witness to
the fact that He is using the consecrated efforts of His serv
ants to the advancement of His cause and to His glory. The
Circle of Prayer has again grown in numbers since we sent
out the seventh volume; and the work of
THE FUNDAMEN-
TALS and of the Committee to which the two Christian lay-
•n1en
have entrusted the editing and publishing of these books,
and the two Christian laymen then1selves are remembered
daily
by
the faithful members of this Circle of Prayer before
the throne of grace. May many others also join this Circle
of Prayer, and unite with its present members in earnest sup
plication that the truth may run and be glorified and the
needed world-wide revival of true religion may come.
We ask all the friends of THE FUNDAMENTALS'; for
special prayer tI?-at He who answers prayer may continue to
lead and guide in the undertaking, so that the good will even
of its enemie s and unfriendly critics be gained and that lasting
results may be accomplished to the glory of God and the
salvation of men.
All editorial correspondence should be addressed to The
Fundamentals,
I2J
Huntington Place, Mount Auburn, Cin
cinnati,
Ohio U. S. A.
Manuscripts
submitted
1.vithout
be·ing
requested will be
returned only if accompanied by retur1't
posjage.
All business correspondence should be addressed to Testi-
111,ony ublishing Company, 808 La Salle Avenue, Chicago,
Illinois, U. S. A.
( See Pub Iishers' Notice, Page 128.)
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CONTEN1 '
-
CHA.PT RR
PAGJl
I.
OLD TESTAMENT RITICISMANDNEW TESTAMEN
CHRISTIANITY
...............................
s
By Prof.
W.
H.
Griffith
Thomas,
D. D.,
Wycliffe College, Toronto, Canada.
II.
EVOLUTIONISMIN THE PULPIT ................
27
By
An .
Occupant of the Pew.
III.
DECADENCE F DARWINISM.......••••........
36
By Rev. Henry H. Beach,
Grand Junction , Colorado.
IV.
PAUL'S TESTIMONY OTHE DOCTRINEOF SrN ....
49
By Prof.
CHas. B.
Williams,
B. D.,
Ph. D.
Southwestern
Baptist
Theological Seminary ,
Fort
Worth,
Texas.
V.
THE SCIENCEOF CONVERSION... .. ....••......
64
By Rev. H. M. Sydenstricker, Ph.D.,
West Point, Mississippi.
VI.
THE DOCTRINAL ALUEOF THE FIRST CHAPTERS
OF GENESIS .......... . ............. . ,. . . .. 74
By Rev. Dyson Hague, M. A.,
Wycliffe College, Toronto, Canada.
VII.
THE KNOWLEDG OF Gan............... . .....
90
By
Rev. David Jame s Burrell, D. D.
LL.
D.,
Marble Collegiate Church , New York City, New York.
VIII.
P W
EACHTHE ORD ................. , ......
100
By the late Howard Crosby.
IX.
MORMONISM:TS ORIGIN CHARACTERISTICS,ND
ocTRINES
..................................
110
By Rev. R. G. McNiece, D. D.,
Salt Lake City, Utah.
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THE FUNDAMENTALS
VOLUME VIII
CHAPTER I
LD TESTA1vIENT CRITICISM AND NEW TESTA-
MENT
CHRISTIANITY
BY PROFESSOR W. H. GRIFFITH THOMAS, D. D.,
WYCLIFFE COLLEGE} 'l'ORONTO, CANADA
A large number of Christians feel con1pelled to demur to
the present attitude of many scholar s to the Scriptures of the
Old Testament. It is now being taught that the patriarchs of
Jewish history are not historic persons ; that the records con-
nected with Moses and the giving of the law on Sinai are
unhistorical ; that the story of the tabernacle in the wilderness
1 a fabricated history of the time of the Exile; that the
prophets cannot be ·relied on in their references to the ancient
history ·of thefr own people, or in their predictions of .the
future; that the writers of the New Testament, who assur -
edly believed in the records of the Old Testam ·ent, were mis-
takel). in the historical value they assigned to those records ;
that our Lord Ifimself, in His repeated references to the
Scriptures of His own nation, and in His assumption of the
Divine authority of those Scriptures, and of the reality of the
great names they record was only thinking and speaking as an
ordinary Jew of His day, and was as liable to error in matters
of history and of criticis1n as any of them were.
The present paper is intended to·give expression to some of
the questions that have arisen in the course of personal study,
in connectioJ,1 with collegiate work and also during severa l
years of ordin~ry pastoral ministry.
It
is often urged that
5
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•
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6
•
problems of Old T,estam,ent critici,.m ,are for experts alone ,
•
and
can only
be
decided
by
them.
We
venture
to question
th ,e
· correctness ,
of
this
view,
espe,cially
when
it
i,s
remem ,bered tl1at
tio
many
pe,opfe
experts means experts in
Hebrew
philology
only. By
all me,ans
let
us
have
all
possible expert
kn ,owl ,edge;
but, as
Biblical questions ar,e
complex,
and
involve
s,everal
considerations, we need expert
knowledge
in
archaeOlogy
history,
theology,
an9
even spiritual experience, a·s well as in
philology. Every available
factor
must be taken into account ,
and the object of the
present
paper is to
emphasize certain
elements which appear liable to be overlooked, or at least in-
•
•
sufficiently co,nsi ,dered.
We
do
not
question
for
an
instant the right of
Bibli.ca]
criticis ,m considered in itself. On the ,c,ontrary, ,it is a
necessity
f
· 11 h
h
B·bt
b . . ,,, .
h
r a
I w
o use
t e 1. · e
to
,e critics
1n
t ,e sens ,e
of ,c,on-
sta11tly
us ,ing their
judgment
on what ·is
before them.
What
i ·
called higl1er cr ·itici sm i.s,not
011ly
a
legitimate but
a necessar)
n1eth
1
od for
all
Christians ,, for by ·its use we ar,e,
able
to dis,cover
t he facts and
the · form of
the ·Old
Testament Scrip ,tures. Ou1·
hesitation, consequently, is not
int ,ended
to,ap
1
ply
to the method,
but to , wha t is believed to be an
illegitimate,
unscientific, ,and
ttnhistorical use of
it.
In fact, we base our objections
to
much
modern
·criticism
of the Old Testament on what
we
reg ,ard as
a proper use of a true higher criticism.
I.
IS TH -E TESTIMONY OF NINETEEN CENTURIES OF
CHRISTIA
HISTORY AND EXPERIENCE OF NO ACCOUNT
IN THIS QUESTION?
For nearly eighteen centuries
these
modern views of the
Old Testament were
not heard
of. Yet this is not to be
accounted
for
b
1
y
the
absence of
intellectua ·I power and .scholar
ship in the
1
Church. Men like Origen, Jerome, Augustine,
Thomas Aquinas, Erasmus, , Calv ·in,. Luther,
Melancthon,
to
say
nothing of
the English
Puritans
and other
_divines
of the
sevente ,enth century , were not intellectually weak or inert,
nor --
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ld Testament Criticis1n a·nd 1Viu Testament .Christianity
7
were they w4olly void of critical acu,men
wit~
reference to
Ho]y
Scripture. Yet
'they,
and the
whole Chttr ·ch with them,
never hesitated to accept the view of the Old
Testament
which
11.adcome down to th em, not only as a heritage fro
1
m Judai m,
but
as endorse
1
d by thie apo
1
st l,es. Omitting all reference
to
1
0t11·
Lord,
it
is not
open
to question that
th ,e views of St. Paul
a11d
St..
Peter
and St, John
a,bout t·he Old
T
1
estament w
1
e·re th ·e
vie,vs
1
of
the whol ,e Christian
Church until the
end
of the
eighteenth
century.
And, making every possible allowance for
the
lack of historical spirit and
of modern
critical methods ,
are we to
suppose that
the
whole Churcl1 for
centuries
never
exercis
1
ed its mind ,o.n such sub,jects ,as
the contents;history,
.and
authority of the Old
Te sta1nent? · . ·
Besides, this is a matt
1
er wh ich cannot b,e de
1
ci1ded
by intel
lectual criticism
alone.
Scripti1re
appeals
to conscience,
heart
and will, as
we,ll
as
to mind ; and the
Christian
consciousne
1
ss,
•
the
accumulated spiritual
experience of the
body of
Christ,
is
not t,o, be lightly
regar ·ded,
mitch le,ss set
aside,
unless
it
is
pr
1
oved to
be unwarranted by fact ,.
While we do not
say
that
'''what
is
new is
not true,
the
novelty
of
these modern critica]
views [ sh.ould
g.iv,e us
pause before we virtually set aside the
spiritual instinct of
centurie s
of Christian experience. ·
2. DOES THE NEW CRITICISM READILY AGREE WITH THE HIS-
TORICAL POSITI ·ON OF THE JEWISH NATION?
The Jewish nation is a fact in history , an
1
d its record is
given to us
in the
Old Testament ..
There is no
contemporary ·
literature to
checl< the
account
there
given, and
archaeology
affords us assis .tance on points of '
detail
only, not for any long
1
0r continttous p,eriod ,. This rec,ord of
Jewish
history
can be
proved to have remained the same for many centuries. Yet much
of modern criticism is compelled to reconstruct the his·tory of
the Jews on
several
important
points.
It involves, for ins,tance
a very different idea of the character of
the earliest
form of
Jewish religion from that seen in
the
Old Te,st.am
1
ent
as
it nqw
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8
The undamentals
tands; its views of the patriarchs are largely different from
the conceptions fou11d on the face of the Old Testament nar-
rative ;
its
views of Moses and David are essentially altered
from what we have before us in the Old Testament.
Now what is there in Jewish history to support all this re-
construc tion? Absolutely nothing . We see through the centuries
the great outstanding objective fact of the Jewish nat'ion, and
the Old Testament is at once the means and the record of their
national life. It rose with them, grew with them, and
it is to
the Jews alone we can look for the earliest testimony to the
Old Testament canon.
In face · of these facts, it is bare truth to say that the
·fundame ntal positions of modern Old Testament criticism
are utte:rly incompatible with the historic growth and position
of the Jewish people. Are we not right, therefore, to pause
before we accep~ thi s subjective reconstruction of history? Let
a~yone read Wellhausen's article on Israel in the Encyclo-
paedia Britannica, anc. then ask himself whether he recognize s
at all therein the story as given in the Old Testament.
3.
ARE 'FHE RESULTS OF THE MODERN VIEW OF THE OLD TESTA -
MENT REALLY ESTABLISHED?
It
is sometimes said that modern criticism is no longer a
matter of hypothesis ; it has entered the domain of fact s.
Principal George Adam Smith has gone so far as to say that
modern criticism has won its war against the traditional
theories. It only remains to fix the amount of the indemnity.
But is this really so? Can we assert that the results of modern
criticism are established facts? Indeed Dr. Smith has himself
admitted, since writing the above words, that there are ques-
tions still open which were supposed to be settled and closed
twenty years ago.
In the first place, is the P~.cessive literary analysi s of the
Pentateuch at all probable or even thinkable on literary
grounds? Let anyone work through a section of Genesis as
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given
by Dr. Drive1·
in his '·I ntroducti
1
on'',
and see whether
such a ,complex co1nbin,ation
0
1
£ autho rs is at\ all likely, or
whether,
even
if
likely, the
variou s
auth ,ors can now ·be dis
tinguished? ·
Is
no,t the
v-11ole
method far
to
1
0
purely subjective
tlo
be p1·obable and reli able?
F'urther, the critics are not agreed as· to the number of
d.0
cum
1
ents, , or as to
the
portion ,s to be ass .igne ,d to ,
ea
1
ch
auth ,o:-.
A simple
instance
of
tl1is
may be given. It is not
so
many years
ago when cr,itic·is:m w·as
content
to
say
that
I .sa.
,40-66, though
not
by
Isai ,ah·, was the worl< of one author, an unknown
proph
1
e·t of the Exile. But the most recent writers like Duhm,
Mac£ adyen and Wade consider these chapters to be the work of
•
two writers, and that the whole Boole of Is aiah (:from three
author~)
-did not r
1
eceive
it .s
present
form
until long aft .er
the
return from
the
Exile.
Tl1en.,
th
1
se
differences
in liter11·y analy·,is
inv·olv
1e
di.ff·er-
ences of interpretation and differences of d.ate, character, and
meaning of particular parts of the Old Testament. To prove
tl1is,. we ask attention to the following extracts from a review
of a work on Genesis by Pr
1
ofess,or Gunkel of Be1-1in.
a;'l1e
revie\\1 is by Professo ,r Andrew 1-Iarper of Melbourne, and
appeared in
the ''Critical
Review'' for January, 1902. Profes
sor Harper's own position would, we imagine, be rightly char•
acterized as generally favorable to
the
moderate positiOn of
the .critical movement. Hi s comments on Gunket ·ts book are,
therefore, . all
the
m
1
ore notewortl1y and
si,gnifi
1
cant.
''It will change the wl1ole
d~rection
of
the
conflict as
to
the
early books of the P
1
entatet1ch and Ieacl
it
int,o mo
1
re fruitful
1
directions,
for
it
has raised the
f
unda1nental
question whether
th,e narratives in
1
Genesis at·e
11ot
f,ar older t.l1an the authors of
tl1e
documents marked
J~
. P., a11d whether they are
not
faithful witnesses to the religion of Israel before prophetic
t
. '' ''H. 1 . ·11 . b 1
mes. - - ·1s ,cone us1on w1 , 111 many resp
1
ects, ,e we come to
tl1osewho have felt how incredible some of the ass
1
11mptions
of
th
1
e Kuenen-Wellhaus .en slchool of
1
cri·tic.s
are.''
•
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10
The F Undanientals
It will be obvious at a glance what an upsetting of current
conceptions in regard to the history of religion must follow if
, it be accepted. · ·
They are sufficient, if made good, to upset the whole ~f
the current reconstructions of the religion of Israel. To ·most
readers it
will be seen that he has in large part made them
good.
There can be no doubt that his book most skillfully begin s
a healthy and much-needed reaction. It should, therefore, ·be
read and welcomed by all students of the Old Te stamen t whose
. d
min s are open.
In view of Gunkel's position thus endorsed by Professor
Harper, is it fair to claim victory for the modern sr itical theo
ries of the Old Testament? When an able scholar like Pro
fessor Harper can speak of a new work as sufficient to upset
the whole of the current recon structions. of the religion of
Israel,
it
is surely premature to speak even in a .moment of
rhetorical enthusiasm, as Dr. George Adc\m Smith does, of.
victory and indemnity. Dr. Smith himself now admits
that Gunkel has overturned the Wellhausen theory of the
patriarchal narratives. And the same scholar has told us that
distinction in the use of the nan1e for God is too precarious
as the basis of arguments for distinctions of sources . For
ourselves we heartily endorse the words of an American
scholar when he says :
We are certain that there will be no final settlement of
Biblical questions on the basis of the higher criticism that is
now commonly called by that name. Many specific teaching s
of the system will doubtless abide. But so far forth as it goes
upon the asswnption that statements of fact in the Scripture s
are pretty generally false, so far forth it is incapable of estab
lishing genuinely permanent result s. * Sir W. Robertson
*Dr. G. A. Smith, Modern Criticism and the Preaching of the
Old Testament ,
p.
35.
Dr. Willis J. Beecher, in The Bible Student
and Teacher , January, 1904.
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Old Testament Criticism and New T stament Christianity 11
Nicoll, editor of the ''B ,ritish W eek],y ''
rema ,rked
1
quite
recent'ly
that the '''assu ,red results'' seem to be vanishing, that no on,e
really
knows what
they
are. ·
4. IS THE POSIT 'I0
1
N 0
1
F M
1
0D ,ERN CRITICISM REALLY COMP~TIBLE ·
WITH A BELIEF IN THE OLD TESTAMENT AS A
. . · DIVINE REVELATION ?
•
The problem before us is not m
1
erely literary, nor only his
torical; it is essentially religious, ,and the whole matter resolves
it,se],f
into ,
one ,
qu,est ,ion, Is the
Otd
'Test ,a111ent
the
recor
1
d
0
1
f
a
Divine revelation? This is the ultimate problem. It is admit
ted by b
1
oth sides to be almost impossib
1
le to
minimize
the
difference s be,tween the traditional and the modern views ef
the Old, Testatne ,nt. As a reviewer of n,,. George Adam
Smit ,1's
book,
''Modern
Criticism and the Preaching
of
_he
Old
T'estament'', rightly
says: · .
''The difference , is immense; ,
they
involve different con .- .
•
ce:ptions of tl1e r
1
elation of Go
1
d t
1
0 the .
wo1 fl
d ; different views
as
to
the , cour ,se of ,Israel's his
1
tory
1
the process of
revelation~
and the natur 1 of inspir .ation. We cannot be 'lifted _f·rom the
old to the n1w pos1tio11by the influence o,f a charming
Iit,erary
sty le, or
by
the force of the most enthusiastic eloquence.'' '*
In view
1
0£
this fundamental difference, the
question
of the
trustworthiness of the Old T
1
estament becomes a,cute and
· press1n,g.
,In Ord1r
to test this fairly and thoroughly,
l1.t u.s
,examine some of the statetnents made on behalf of ' the modern
•
Vle\V. ·
We may
consider first the i-ise and progress
of
religion in ·
Isr ,a,el. Dr.
G.
A. Sm~th
say·s:
' 'I t is, pla ,in,
then,
'tha't to what
ever heights th ,e
reli,gion
of Israel afterwards rose, it remained
before the age of the grea .t prophets not only similar to, but in
all respects above-m
1
entioned id,entical with, the general Semitie
religio ,n; which wasl not a monotheis ,m, but a
,polyt,heism
with
an opportunity for .monotheism at the heart of
it,
each
tribe
.
*''American Jour~aJ of Theology , Vol: VI., p.
114.
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12
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Tlie Funda ie itals
•
being attached to one god, as to their
particu ·lar
Lord and
..
F athe r.·'
1
*
Consider·
wI·1at
is mean .t
by
tl1e
phr lase,
'' in
all
respects
· abo,ve·-mention
1
ed
identical
with the
general Semiti·c religiont''
•
as
appli,ed
to the re.ligi
1
011
of
Isr ,ael
p
1
.revious to the
eigl1th. c
1
en•
tury
Bl.
C.
Can
this.
view be
fai1·ly deduced
from
th,e
Old
Testament as we n
1
ow
ha,re it.?
,Still more, is su,ch ·
a view
conceivable in the
light
of the several precedin ,g centuries of
God's special dealings with Israel? '\\'herein, on
this
assump
tion, consisted the uniq11eness of Is1·ael
f
ro1n
the
·time
of
Abraham
to
the
eig~1~11century · Br
C.?
We
may next take. the cha·racte ·r
of
the narratives
of
Gene
.sis. Th ,e real question
at
1ssu
1
e is the
hi.storic.al character.
Mod-
em criticis1n regar cls, the
alc count
in Genesi.s as
largel,y mythical
· ,and
legendary.
Yet
it is
certain
that the Jews
of the later
centuries
acc ep ttdd
the se
patriarchs
as
veritable
personages,
•
and the incidents associated
with
th~m as genuine history. ~t.
P·aul
and the
r,
ther New Testa1nent writers assuredly held
·the
sa111e
v·iew,.
If, t'h,en,
tl1
ey
are not
hi.st,orical,
su·rely
the
tru ·ths
empha sized .
by proph ,ets
1
and ap,os.tles
fro1n
the· ,patriarchal
stories
,are ,so
·far
\veakened .in th
1
eir
su.p
1
ports
Tak e,
,a,gain, th.e
l
1
egislatio11
which
in
the Pentateuch
is a.s
sociated with Moses, and almost invariably in.troduced
by
the
phr ase, ''The ·
Loi·d
sp.ake unto
Moses.'
1
Modern criticism
1·egards
this legislation as
unknown untiJ tl1e
Exile ,
or a
thou- .
sand years after the time of Moses. Is it
1ea·tty possible
to
accep
1
t
this asl
s.atisfactory? Ar
1
we to
.suppose
that ''The Lord .
spak~
to Moses'' is onl.y
.a well-known liter ,ary
d,evice intended
to
·invest
the
u~·te1·ance
with
greater
importance
,and
more
,solemn
sanction?
Thi ,s position,
together with
the general .ly
.
accepted view of
1nodern criticism
about the invention of Deu-
teronomy in the days of· Josiah ,[ can11ot 'be regarded as in
accordance with bis
1
torial f'act
or ethical
principle.
Canon D
1
river and Dr. G~A. Smith, it is true, strongly assert
*"Modern Criticism:',
p.
130
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ld Testa1nentCritici.s1n nd J.¥,w T estament Christianity 13
•
•
tlie compatibility of the new views with a belief in the
Divine
auth ,ority of the Old T·es.tament, and s,o far as they themselves
· are concerned we of cour s,e accept
their
stateme ·nts
e~
animo.
· But we wi,sh they
woul,d
,give
us
more clearly and definitely
than they
ha,~e
yet
done, the g1.
ounds
on
which
this compati·
b,ility may 'b,e said to re,st. To deny historicity , to correct date ,s
· by.
hundreds of years, to
reverse judgments
on which
a nation
has rested for
centuries, to trave ·rse
views
which l1ave been
the spiritual
sustenance of miilions,
and
the11
to
say that
all
this
is
consistent
with
the O ld
Testament being regar ,ded
as a
Divine
reyelation, ,
i,s, at least puzzlin ,g, and does not
afford
mental or moral satisfaction to many who do not dream of
•
questioning the bona fide S of scholars
\\?ho·
hold the
views
now
· criticized.
T he
extremes
to
which D·r. Cheyne has gone seem
t ) many the logical
0
1
utc,ome of
tl1e
principles with
which
mod ...
ern critic.ism, even of a
moderate type,
starts.
Facilis
descens·i,s
AV1e1 no
1
and ·we
sho1ild
lik
1
e to be shown the solid an-d logical
l1alting -place where those who refuse to go ,vith Cheyne think
tl1at
they and
we can sta .nd.
Sir W. Robe1·tson Nic
1
oll, commenting March 12, 1903, on a
sp
1
eech delivere ,d by ·the th
1
en Prime Minister of Great Br itain
· ( Mr.
Balfour) in
connection with
tiie
Bible
Society s Cen
tenary, made the following significant. remarks : 1 he immedi-
ate re~ults
of
critirisn1 are
in
a high
degree
disturbing. So
f.ar
· tl1ey have scarcel~,
been
understood
by the
average Christian.
But tl1e plain man who has been used to r·eceive everything in
the Bible. as a
veritable
Word Of Go
1
d
,cannot fa.ii
to
be
per
plexed,
and
deeply perplexed, wl1enhe is
told
that mucl1of
the
Old Testament and tl1e
New
is
unhis ·toric
1
al, and
when
he
1
is
asked to
accept the
statement tl1at
God reveals Himself by myth
and legend as well as by the truth, of fact •. Mr . Balfoltr must
surely
know that many of the
higher
critics hav
1
e c~t,sed
to
be
believers., More
t han twenty years
ago the presen t writer,
walking with Julius Wellhausen in the quaint streets of
Greifs,vald,
ventttred
to
asl{ him wl1ether,
if his
views
we1·e
l
1'
•
,
•
•
f
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1·4
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Tlie
Funda1n,ental.s
a,c,cepted,, the Bible co,uld
r,etain
its
pla,.ce in
the estimation of
the common people. 'I cannot see how that js possible,' was
the sad reply .''
It
is no mere question of how we may use the
01d
T,esta
ment for preaching, ·
or how
much is
left for use after 'the
critical views are accepted. But even o,t1r· preaching · will 'lack
•
a great deal of the note of c
1
ertitude. If we are to regard ,cer-
tain b,iographies as t1nhi,storical,
it
will not be ea,sy t
1
0
draw les
sons for con.duct, and
if
the
his,tor ,y
is
largely
leg,en
1
dary,
our
deductions about God's government and providence must be
essentially weal<ened. But the one. point
to
be faced is the
historic credibility of those parts of the Old 'Testament ques
tioned
by
modern criticism, and the historical and religious
value of th
1
e documents of ·tl1e Pentateuch. Meanwhile, we
ask
to
ha11ecle·ar , p·roof of th ,e comp
1
atihili ,ty
of the modern
views with
the
acc,eptance
of
the
01,d
Testament ,
as
the
record
of
a
Divine revelation. ·
5.
IS MODERN
CRITICISM BAS
1
ED ON A.
SOUND PHILOSOPHY SUCH
AS C.IlRI 1STIANS CAN ACCEPT?
••
•
~t
the
f
oundatio
1
n
of much mode ,rn thought is the philos ,o
phy
known as Idealism, ·w·hich, as
often .
int ,erp,rete
1
d, involves
,a
theory of the univers ,e that find,s no room for supernatura .1 i,n
terpositions
of
ainy kind.
The
great law of
the
univer ,se,
including the
physical,
mental, and moral
realms,
is said to
be ·
evolution, and though this doubtless pres
1
upposes an original
Creator, jt does not, on the theory now before us,, permit of
any subs.equent direct
intervention
of God during ·the process
of develop,men·t. This general
philosophical
princ Jlle
applied
to
1
histo ·ry
ha,s assur ,edly
influenced, jf it has
not al1nost
mould.ed,,
•
a
grea ,t
<leaI of
mod
1
ern c.riti.cism of the Old. Test ,ament.
It i.s
not urged that all wh
1
0
accept even the position of a moderate
criticism, ,go the full lepgth of th ,e extreme evolutionary
theory ; but there can be no reasonable do·tibt tha .t mo,st of the _
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evolutio
1
nary theory of all l1istory which tends to minimize Di-
vine inte ·rven ·tion in the affairs of the pe,ople of I .srael. It i.s
certainly correct to say that the presupposition
of
much pres- .
ent-day
critical
reasoning
is a denial of
the supernatural, and
especially of the p·redictive eie1nent in prophecy.
As to the th
1
eory of
evolution
·reg.arded as a.
process
,o,f un·in
terrupted
differentiation
of
existences, under purely natural
laws, and withot1t an)' Divi11e ntervention, , it will suffice to say
that
it
is
''not
proven ·,
in
the
sphere
of
natural science,
while in the real111sof history and l.iteratu .re it is palpably
false.
The
r ·e,cords of
history
and
1
0f literature reveal from
time to titne
the
great
fact
and factor of
personality,
the
reality of
person .al p
ower, and tl1is dete ·rminative
ele·m
1
ent
has
a
peculiar way 1f setti ·ng at naught all idealistic theories of a
purely ,natu .ral a.nd ur1if01·mprog1·e.ss
·in
his,to,·y a,nd let·ters ,. Th,e
lite1·ature
of today
is
not necessarily
higher
than that
pro
duce ·d in the p,ast; the history of the I.a.st ,centu ·ry is n
1
0,t in ev ,ery
way and alwa ,ys superio ,r to that of its predecessors. Even a
~'natur,alistic'' wri ·ter like Pro
1
fesso1· Pe1·cy Gardner testi .fie s to
the fact
and
forc ,e
of
perso ,na 'lity in
the
follo\ving remarkabl ,e
terms:
''There is, in fact, a great force in histo
1
ry
which is not, so
fa1· as we can judge, evolutional, a11d he law of which is vef)·
l1a1~dto trace the force of personality · and
chara
1
cter.'' Ancl
quite apart from such instan ,ces of personality as
have
arisen
·from
ti·me
t
1
0 time
through the
centu1·ies,
there is
1
on,e
Personal
ity
who has not yet been accounted for
by any
theory
of
evolu~
tion
the Person
of
Jesus
.of
Nazareth.
There
a1·e
sufficient
data in
current
Old
Testament criticism
to wjarran ·t the .statement that i.t proceeds from presuppo .siti
1
ons
..
concerning
the origins
of
history,
religion, and the Bible,
,vhich, in their essence, are subversive of belief in a Divi.ne
revelation. And such being the case, we naturally look with
0
rave suspicion
on results
derived
from so unsound a
philo-
ophical basis. ·
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16
•
The Fund aniental s
•
•
1
6·.. CAN PURELY NATURAf..1I ,STI
1
C PREMI :SE,S B,E ACCE rPTED WITH-
0 1UT COMING TO, PURELY NATURALISTIC CON ,CLUSIONS?
. I{uenen
and
W
e llhausen are ·
.ardmi,ttedly
accep
1
ted as,
r11a:stersby
our -1eading
Old
Tes ·ta1nent higher c1~itics in Eng~
land,
Sco tl a.nd,
and America, .and the 1·esults o·f their literar y
analysis of the
Pentateuch
are generally regarded as conclusive
· by their f()]toWers. On tl1e basis of this ~iterary dissectio n,
•
certain
conclus ·ions a·re
fo1·med .as
to
the chara
1
cter an
1
d
growth
of
Old
Testament
·religion, an
1
d,
as
a
res ttlt,
the
hist iory
of
t.he
Jews is
reconstructed.
The Book
of De11teronomy
is
said to
b,e.
1nainly,
if
not
·entirely,
a
pi;oduct.
of
·the reign
of
Josiah,
the
accounts of the tabernacle
an ,d worshi .p
are
of
exilic date;
monotheism
i11
Isra ,el was of late d.ate, and was the outcome
,of a growth from
po,lytheism;
and th,e present Book
of
Gene
sis reflects ·tl1e tho11ghts of
the
tin1e
of it s
composition
or com
pi.lation
in
or
nea1·
th ,e
elate
of
the
Exile.
Now it is kn ,own
tl1at
Kuenen
and
We l lhausen deny
the
supernatural element in
the Old
Testa1nen t.
This is
the p ,re
supposition
of
their
entire position. .
Will
anyo11e say
that it
does not materially affect their · conclu s,ions P And is there any
•
· saf·e or logical halting-g ·rouqd for those who accept S·O
many
of their premises? The extreme subjec tivity of Canon
Cheyne
ought not to be a surpri se to any who accept the main princi
p]es of modern higher criticism ;
it
is part of the logical out
come of the general po,sition. W ,e gladly distinguish between
-
-
the extremists and the 0
1
ther
schol .ars
who S·ee no incompati-
bility
between the acceptance of
many
of the literary and his
torical
principles
of
Kuenen and W ellhausen an:d a
belief
in
t.l1e
Divine
sou rce and authority of
tl1e
Old Testamente
But
'
we are bound
to add tl1at
th ·e ttnsatisfying
element in
tl1e
writings of moderate men like
Canon
Driver
and
]; rincipa~
· George Adam
Smith
is that, while
accepting so
n1uch of the
naturalism of the German schoo
1
l, they do not give us any
clea1~ assura11ce of t he ·t1·ength of the
fou·ndation
on which
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'
, .
Old
Testame it
Criticism nd New Testament Christianity 17
•
•
they rest and ask -us to rest. The tendency of their position
is certain ly towards a mini1nizing of th
1
e
s,uper11atural
in the
1
0 1d
Te stament. · . ·. ·
. Take, as one instance , the Messian ic element . In sp
1
te
•
of the universal belief of
J
,:vs and Christians in a person~·1
· Messiah, a belief derived
in
the
first
place solely from the:
•
Old Testament, and supported
fo ,r
Christians b,y the New,
modern criticism will not allow much cl,ear and undo
1
ubter
predicti on of
Him ..
Insight
into existing
conditions is
read.il.Y
granted
to th
1
e prophets
1
,
but they
are not
al.lowed
to have
h.a,d
much
foresight
into futt1re conditions connected with
the
Messiah.
Yet
Isaiah's glowing words remain, and demand
a fair, full exegesi s such as
they
do not get from many
modern scho .lar s~ Dr. , James We lls, of Glasgow, wrote in
the: ~'British Week1y', so1ne time ago of tl1e new
critici s111
n
thi s point:
''T he fea·r of p
1
red icti
1
0 11
in the
prope,r
sense
,of
the term
is ever hef
ore
its eyes.
It gladly
enlarge s on fore-shadowings,
a
1noral
historical
growth which reach
1
es its, culmination in
Christ; and anticip ,ation s
1
0£ the Spirit of Christ; but its
tendency is always to minimize the prophetic element
in . the
Old Test .ament~''
Ano ther example of t}1e te11dency of
moder11
criticism to
minimize and explain away th e
supernatural element
may be
give11from a book entitled, 'The Theology and Ethics of the
Hebrews,'' by Dr. Archibald Du ff, Professor in the Yorkshire
College, Brad£ ord., 'Thi s is
l1is·
.account
0
1
£
Moses, at the burn
ing bush:
' 'He was shepherding his sheep among the red granite
mountains. • • • The man
sat
at dawn by the stream, and
watched the fiery rock s. Yonder gleamed the level sunlight
ac1~oss the low growth. E,ach spine glistened against the
rising sun. The man wa s a poet , one fit for inspiration. He
felt that the dreams of his soul we re
tl1e
whisperings of his
•
•
•
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•
I
•
•
18
\
( p. 6.) This, at least, is, no·t t·he pr1ma f acie impre ssion
derived f'rom the account g·iven in 'Exod ·us .
•
One
more
illustratio ,n
may
·be,
given
of modern
critic al
methods of dealing with narratives of the Old
Testan1en t
•
which were evidently intended to b,e regarded as historical .
J,n the ''Internationa .1 Critical Comm.entary'' ,on
Numbe.rs,,
Dr..
I
G B. Gr ,ay, of M,ansfield College, Oxford, thus writes on
what he terms ' 't he prie stly section of t·l1e ·book'' ·: .
''For the
hist'?ry
of the Mo saic age the whole
sectio11
is
valueless. '''The historical imp1ession given
by
(P) of
the Mosaic a.ge is .altog ,ether unl1istorical , and much of th e
detail . . . can • . . • be demon str .ated to be entirely
unreal, or at least untru
1
e of th
1
e age in question.'' ''Thi s
history
·is,
fictiti ,ous,.''
These state1nents at once set
as,ide
the history containe d
in more than th ree-qttarters o.f the
whole
Book
of
Numbet· 's,
while as to the rest Dr. Gray 's verdict is
by
no means r,eas,sur
ing, and he clearly does not po,ssess mucl1 confidence in. even
tl1e small quant .ity that escapes his cond,emnation. The bra z.en
serpent is, said to be an inv,ention o,n the part o·f some
''wl 10
• •
had come unde ·r the higher proph
1
eti
1
c te.achi,ng'' be£ ore He ze-
kiah, and is meant '''to controve rt
tl1e
po,pular belie·f·,,
in
th e
l1ealing power of the serpent by ascribing, it to Jehovah. A
t
1
0 the story
1
0£ Ba.laam, Dr. Gray wrotes: .
''It may, indeed, contain other hi.storical features, such
as the name , o,f Balak, who may hav
1
e been an actual kin ,g of
Moab; but no mean .s at pre sent ex is,t for dis,tinguishing any
further between ·the historical or legendary elements and
those w·hich are · supp.lied by the creative facu ·tty a·nd
tl1
re.ligi,ous feeling of the writers.'' .
What . is any ordinary earnest Chri stian to make of all
these
St,ateme,nts?
The ,
writer
of th.e
Book o·f
Numbers evi
d,ently c,ompo sed what professes to b
1
e histo ·ry, and what he
meant to b,e read as history, and yet according to D,r. ·Gray
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the
Ch.ri.stian
Church
will re,qui1·e
very much mo
1
re
convin
1
cing
proofs before they can accept the critical position, and it
does no,t
faci:l,i.tate
our
ac.cept,ance
,o,f this
wbol.esale
proc ,ess
of invention
to. be
told
that it
is due to
'~the
creative fac111ty
and the ·r·eligious
feeling
of the
writers.
- As to the fact that so
many
of our British
and
American
''higl1er critics'' al e fir·m b.e]ieve·rs ·in the D'ivi·n.e
authority
of
the Old Testa1nent,
and
of a
Divi11e
revelation
embodied in
it,
we cannot but fee l
the
£,orce of
tl1e
words of the
late
Dr ..
W,. H . Green, ,of
Princeton:
''They who
have
themselves been
tho ,roughly
grounded
in the Christian
faith
may, by
a
happy
inc.ottsistency, hold fast
their
o·Id convictions, while
admitting
p,rincip ,les, rnetl1ods, a·nd conclusions that are logically .at war
with
them.
But
who can
be surpri s,ed if
others
shall with
stricter logic c·arry what h,as been th.us commended to them t<;>
its
legitimate conclusions
?''''
•
7. C'AN WE OVERL,OO,I{ THE EVIDENCE OF ARCHAEOLOGY?
•
It is well
k110
1
wn that during the last sixty
years
a vast
number of archaeological
dis.coveries
have been made in
Egypt,1 P'alestine ., Babylonia,
and Assyria.
Many of these
have
shed remarkable
Jight on
the histo rical feat ur es _of the
Ol
1
ci
Testament. A number of persons a·nd pe.riod.s have been
illttminated
by
these discoveries and are now seen with a
clearness which was befor ·e i1npos.sible.
. Now it is a .
simple
and yet
stri king
fact
that
not one of
these
di,sc,ovieries
during the whole of
this
tirn
1
e has given
any
support to the
distinctive featqr ·es
and
principles ,
of the highe.r
critical position, while, on the other hand, many of them have
afforded abundant
confirmation
of the traditional
and
con
s,ervative view of the Old
Testament.
.
Let
us
1
consider a
few
of
t'hese discoveries. Only
a little
over forty years a,go the cons
1
ervative '''Speaker's C01µ-
mentary'' actually
had to
take into consideration .the critical
arguments
t 'hen.
so
prevalent in
favor
of
the la.te
invention
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•
•
,
20
•
The Funlla nentals
..
of wr ,iting. This is
an
,argt1m
1
ent
whicl1
is
never
heard now
. . in critical circ'les. The change of attack is 1nost striking.
•
While fo
1
rty o,r
fifty
years ago
it
was argued that
Moses
cottld not
possibly
have had
sufficient
learning t
1
0 write the
Pentateuch, now it is argued as the resu lt of th.ese modern
discoveries [ that
11e w
1
ould have been
altogetl1er behind his
1
contempo1 . ries
if
l1e
l1ad
,no·t
bee,n able
to
write. Again, the
Babylonian [story of the flood agrees in 1on,g sections with
the account in
Ge,n,esis,, ,and
it
is, known
that the
Babylonian
version was in existence for ages before the , dates
assigned .
to
the
Gen ,e.sis
narrative
by the ·critical s,chool~ Pro
1
fessor
Sayce rightly calls
1
this a cr·ucia l test
1
0£ the
criti ,cal
positio
1
n,,
Th ,e historicity of the kings mentioned in Genes ·is 14 was
once seriously ques tione
1
d by
criticis ,n1,
but th .is is im.possible
today, for their
histo1·ical
character has been p,rov,ed beyo
1
nd
all question, and, in p,articular,
-t
is now known that the
A1nrapl1el of that cl1apte1·
sl
the H,amn1,urabi 0
1
£ the Monuments
. and a contempor ,ary
with Abraham .. T h
1
e
puzz 'ling
story of
Sar ,ah and
Ha ,gar
is a]so now seen to be in exact agr
1
eement
with ·Babylonian custom. Th
1
e11 again, the Egypt of Joseph
and Moses is tr ue to tl1e s1nallest details of the life of the
•
Egypt of that day
and
is
altogethe1·
different
from t'he
very
•
di·ff
erent
Egypt
of
later ages. Sargo
1
n, wl10 for
centu 't 'ies wa ,s
only
known
from
th ,e
one reference
to him in Isa.
20 :1, is
nqw
seen to hav
1
e been
0
1
lle: of
the most
important
kings of A,s
syria. An .d th ,e Aramaic 'language of Daniel and Ezra,
which
has so often be,e11 acct.1sed of 1ate.ness, is proved to be in
exact accor ;d with t'he Arama ·i,c
0
1
f
that
age,
as
sh,ov..n
by
the
Papyri discovered at
Elephan tine in
Egypt.
Now these, and ot.hers
like
tl1,en1,, are . tangible pr
1
oofs
w'hich can be verified by ordina ,ry pe,ople. Hebrew philology
is
beyond.
mo:st of us and is too su·bject ive for any convincing
argument to be based upon it, bu't 3:rch.aeology
1
0fI
1
ers an ob
jective method of putting historical theories ·t
1
0 the t·est. . --
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t
•
•
Old .Testament
Criti c·i sm
and New
Testa1:nent
Chr1;stianity 1
•
•
m
1
en,t is tha 't a number of leading ar
1
cl1aeologists \vho were
fo r1nerly in hearty agreement with the critical school, have
now abandoned this view and oppose
it.
As Sir Wil 'liam
Robertson Nic,o l ha .s forcibly said : ''The significant
iact
is that the great first-han d archaeologists as a rule do not .
j
trust the higher criticism. This means a great deal more
•
than can be put on paper to account for their doubt. It
means that they are
living in
an atmosphe1·e where argu
ments ·that flourish ,outside do not thrive.'' '
Profess .or
Fl inder s Petrie, the
great Eg-yptologist,
uttered
these words not long
ago:
' ' I have come to the conclusion
that there is a far mor ,e solid bas,is tl1an seems to he sup-
_posed by many critics . . . • I have not the slightest .
doubt that contemporary documents give a truly solid founda
tion
fo
1
·1~tl1e reco,rds1
contai ·ned in the
Pentateuch. ,) · . .
The
essential point is that some of these critical people support
from an a priori
basis instead
of wri ting
upon ascertained
facts. We should remember that writing at tl1e time of ttiie
Ex
1
odus was
as familiar as i,t
is
now. . • ,, Tl1e fac 't is
that it is hopeless for these people by means merely of v:erbal
criticism to succeed iq. solving al,l
1
difficu.lti,es that
,arise.' · ,
•
ARE THE VIEWS OF MODERN
CRITICISM CONSISTENT WITH
. THE
WITNESS
OF OUR LORD,
TO
TiiE
OLD
TESTAMENT?
The Christian Church
approacl1,es
the Old
Tes·tament
1nainly
and
predominantly
£1·omthe
standpoint
of th~ resur·
rection O'f ,c ·hrist,. We natural :ly ·inquire ·what our Ma .ster
thought of
the Old 1'"'estament,
for if
it comes
to
us
·\Vith
His authority, and we can discover His view of it, we
ot1gbt
to l
be satisfied .
..
. In the days of our Lord's life on earth one press ,ing ,ques
tion was, ''What think ye of the Christ?'' Another was,
W h t · ·
a
ts
written
,in
thie
Law
?
H
1
ow
·re,adest thou?''
Th
1
se
questions
are still
being raised
in
one £Orm
or another, and
•
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•
•
22
•
•
cent ,ers'', as they have well
been cal1ed
are Christ and the
Bible. .
The
two proble.ms,
r,eally re,solve
themslv ,es into ,
1
0
1
ne,
f'or
Christ and
th.e
Bibl.e are . inseparable. If we follow ·Christ,
He will
teach
us o.f
the Bible;
and
if we
study our
Bible,
it
will
point us to
c ·hrist.
Each is called the Word o·f Go
1
d.
Let us,
firs,t
o·f a11, 'be
qttite
1
clear
as
to
,our
meaning
of
our Lord .as ''The w ·ord of God. ''In the beginning was
tl1e Word.'' A
word
is an oral or visible
expr ,es.sion
0
1
f
an
invisible
thought.
The thought needs the
word
for its ex
JJression,
and
the word is
intended
to represent the
thought
-
accurately, even if not completely. We cannot in any degree
be sure of · the thought unless we can
be
sure
o·f
the
wor ·d.
Our Lord as the W ,ord, there£ ore, , is the perso ,nal and visible
expression of
the invisible God. (John 14; Heb. 1 :3.) We
believe that He is
a11
accurate
''expression''
of
God,
and
that
as, the Word He re,,eals God ·and ,c,011veys Go,d'S: Will to us
in
such
a way
as
to be
inerrant
and infallible. As
the
In
eamate Word He is infa.llible.
•
•
He
came, among other things, , to bear witness to
the
truth
(John 18 :37),
and
it is a
necessary outcome of this
purpose
tha .t He should be.ar infallible
witn ,ess.
He came to reveal
God and God's will, and this implies and requires special
1,nowledge. It demands that every assertion of His be true.
The Divine know]edge did not, because it could not, undergo
any change
by
the Incarnation. He
continued
to subsist in
the form
of
God even
while
He existed
in
the
fo,rm of
man.
(Phil .
2
:6. See
Dr. Gifford's
''The
Incarnation.'')
· In view of this position, we belie,re
that,
as Bishop Elli-
.
cott says (''Christus Comprobator'') we have a right to make
this
~ppeal
to the testimony of Christ to the Old Testament .
•
The place it occupied
in
His )ife
and ministry is
suffi.cie:nt
warrant . for referring to His use of it. It
is
well known
that,
as
far as the Old Testament
canon is
concerned, oitt
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Old Testament Criticistn and New Testa1nent Ch1ristianity
23
•
.
true of th
1
e Old Testament as a whole, is surety
tru .e
of these
parts to which our .Lord specific,ally ·refe rred.
Let
us be
clear,
however, as
to w·hat
we mean in making
this appeal. We do, no,t for an instant inten ,d thereby to
clos.e all possible cr·iticism ·of the Old Testament. T·here
are
~umbers
of questions
quite untouched by
anything our
Lord said, and there is consequently ampl ,e scope for
sober·,
necessary, and valuable criticism. But what we ·do say is,
. that
anything
in t.he Old Te :stament st.ated by our Lo
1
rd .as
a fac·t, or imp
1
lied as a fact, is, or ought to be,. t·hereby closed
for those who , hold Christ to be infallible. Criticism can do
anything · that ·is not
i·ncomp,ati'ble with
the st,atem ·ents of
our
Lord;
but where Christ has spoken, surely ''the matter
•
•
1s clo,s,ed.·'
_ at, then, is ou1·Lord's general view of the
Old
Testa
ment? There is, no doubt that His Old ·Te .stament was
practicaJ·ty, if no,t actually, th e s.ame a,s ottrs, and that He
regarded it as of Divine auth
1
ority,
as
the final court of ap
peal for a]] questiOns <..-onnected with it. The
way
in
which
He quotes it shows
tl1is.
To the Lord Jesus the Old Testa
ment was authoritative an
1
d final, because Divine ..
No one can go through the
Gospels
without
being
im-
pressed with the deep rever ·ence of our Lord for the Old
Testament, and with His constarit use of it in all matters of
religious
thought and lif e. His question, ''Have
ye
never
read?''
His
as.sertion, ''It
is_ written,'' His
testimony, ''Ye
earch the Scriptures (R. V), are plainly indicative of His
•
view o,f the Divine authority of the Old Testament as we
have
·i·t.
He sets His seal to ·its historicity and its rev
1
ela
tion of God. He supplements, but never supplants it. He
.a.mplifies
and modifi .es, but
never nt1llifies it. He fulfiJ.ls, i ..e.
fills full, but never makes void .
This general view is confirmed by His d
1
etailed references
·to the O·ld 1''estamen ·t. Co,nsi,de·r Hi ,s te,stimo
1
nie·s to ·the p·er-
•
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•
..
•
•
24
•
•
Ther ,e is
scar ,cely a. historical boo·k,
from
Genesis to
2 .
Chr 1onicles ., to which our Lord
docs not
ref
er;
while
it
i.
perhap s sig·ni.fi,cant
that
His
te stim ,ony
includ ,es
references to
every book of the Pentateuch, to Isaiah, to Jonah, to ·Daniel,
and to
miracle .s the ,
very
parts mo,,st called
in qu
1
esti,on
today .
Above all,
it
is
surely
of
the
deepest moment
that at
I-Iis
te1np·tation
He
s.hould
use
thr ,ee tin1es as the Wor ,d,
of God
the
book
about
which
there
has,
perhaps,
been most
contrqver sy
0
1
f
all. ·
Again, therefore, we say that everything to
which
Chris t
can be sa·i,d, on any h
1
onest
inte1·pretati.on, to have
referred
or which He used as a fact, is thereby sanctioned and sealed
· by
th ,e authority of our Infal lible Lor ,d.
''D
1
omint1s locu·tus
est; causa
finita
est. · ·
Nor
can ·
this position
be
turned
by the
statement
th,at
Christ
simply
ad ,opted
the
beliefs
of
His day
Without
neces
sar ily
sancti ,oning
them as, correct.
1
0f this there is
n
1
ot
the
slightest
proof·, but very n1uch to the contrary.
On
some
of
the most . impo i'tant
sub,jec·ts
1
0f
His
day
He went ,directly
against prevailing opinion. His teaching ab,out God,
about
righteousne ·ss,
about the Messia h,
abo11t
tradition,
ab9ut th e
Sabbath,
about
the
Samaritans, ab,out
women,
about
divorce ,
about the
b.aptism
of
John, w·ere diametrically
opposed to
that of the time. And
this opposition
was, deliberately
gr\0L1nded on the Old Testament which our Lor
1
d ch,arge ,d th
1
em
with
mis.interp1-eting.
The
one
and
only
question
of difference
between Him and
tl1e
Jews
as to
the Old Testament
was
tl1at of
interpret~tion. Not
a vest ige
of pr ,oof
can
be adduc ,ed
that He and they
differe .d
at
al,l
in
their gen .eral view
of its
•
]1istorical
charact ·er or
Divine atitho ,1·ity. If
the
.cu1·rent
Jewish
views
were
wrong,
can we think
our
Lord would
have been silent on a
matter
of such moment,
about
a
bo,ok
.
which
He cite,s
or alludes to ,over
four
hundred
times,
and
which He
made
His constant
topic in
'teachi·ng
,concerning
Himself? If th
1
e
Jews
were wrong, Jesus
either
kn
1
ew it,
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•
0 ,ld Testament Criti cis1nand N eu Testament C,hristiianity 25
or He did not. If He knew it, why did He not correct them
as in s:o many otl1er land
1
detailed instances? If I-le did not
lcnow
it
but I
,vill not finish.
Nor can t,his witness t
1
0 the Old T
1
estament be met b y
asserting that the limitation of our Lord s earthly life kept
Him within current
views
of the Old Testament which ne,ed
not ha,ve
be,en true views. This statement
ign,o,res
the ·
es
sential force of His personal
clai1n
to be the Word.
Qn m ore
,than
one o,ccasion
our Lord
claimed
to
speak
from God,
_and
that everything He said
had the Divine
war:
rant. Let us notice
careft1lly
what this
involves.
It is
some
ti:mes s,ai
1
d, that our Lord s kno
1
wledg e ,was limited , and tha ,t
He lived here as man, not as
God.
Suppose we grant t11is
for argument s sake. · Very well; ·as man He live,.d in God
an
1
d on God, a11d He claimed that everything He said a11tl
did was fr om God and thr
1
ough God. If,
then,
the limita-
•
t1ons were f ro m God,
,so
also were the, ul·te,rances; and, as
God s warrant
was cJaimed for
,every
one of these, they are
the1 . :fore
Divine and infallible. (John 5 :19; 5 :30; 7:13;
8 :26; ·12 :49; 14 :24; 17 :8.) Even though we grant to the
full a theory that wilt compel us to accept a temporary disuse
1
0
1
r non-us e lolf
the
£,u11ctions of
Deity
in
th
1
e ·
Per ,so11
of
our
Lord, yet tl1e words actually uttered as man are claimed
to be from God, , and the ref ore we hold them to
be
inf allibl ,e.
We rest, therefore, upon our Lord s personal claim to say
all and do all
by
th~ Fat her, from the Father, for the Fathe:ti.
· The ,r,e is,Iof course,, no
questio ·11
of partia l knowl
1
dge af t,er
the res·urrection,
when our Lord
was
manifestly
free
from
all limitations
of
earthly conditions. Yet it was after His
resurrection
also that
He
set Hi s seal to
t he Q,ld
Testament.
(Luke 24:44.) .
We co,nclud,e, t,ha t o,ur Lor ,d s pos
1
itive statements on
tl1e,
subject of the Old Testament are not to
be
rejected without
charging Him with error. .If, on these points, on which we
..
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•
•
,
•
,
26
The undanientats
•
what real com£ort can we have in accepting His higher teacl1-
. ing, where verification is
itnpo,ssible ?
We believe we are on
absolutely
safe gro ,und when
we say
that
what the Old Testa
ment was to our
.Lor
1
d,
it
mttst
b1 .and shall be to us.
•
•
•
CONCLUSION
I
•
•
We ask a car·efu] ,consideratio ·n of thes.e eight inquiries.
Taken separately, they carry ,veight, but taken together the y
have a cumttlative effect,. and should be seriously pondered
by all who
are
seek.ing
to know
the truth
on.
this
momentou s ·
subject. ·
We:may b
1
e perfectly sure that no criticism of
the
Old Tes
tament
will
ever be
a,ccep,ted by
the
Christian Church
as
a
.
whole,
whi ·ch
does not fu ll,y
satisfy
the f,ollowin,g
·conditi .ons:
· 1. It
·must
admit in
all
its as.su·mptions, . and take
fully
intor
considerat ion, the super n.atural element which differen -
tiates the Bible from all other books. ·
2. , It
must
be in
k,eepin.g
witl1
the enlightened spiritual
ex-
perience of the
saints
of God in all ages, and make an effectual
appeal to the piety , and spirit ual perception of those who
know
by
personal experience the power of the
Holy Ghost.
3.
It must
be
historically in
line
with the g enercrl tradi
tion
of Jewish history
and
the unique
position
of the
Hebrew
nation through the centuries.
4~ It :must be in unison with
that
,apostolic concep
1
tion ,of
the authority and inspiration of the Old Testament,
which
is so manif es,t
in the
New
Te stament.
Sf Above all, it must be in accordance with the universal
belie£ of the
Cl1ri:stian
Church
in
.our Lor
1
d s, infallibility as a
.Teacher~
and as the Word made flesh.
If and when
mo,dern higher
1
critici .sm can satisfy th,ese
requirements, it will not merely be accepted, but
will
com
mand
the u.niversal,
Jo,yal,
a nd even
e.nthus1asti
1
c
adhesion
of
all Christians. Until then, we wait, and also maintain our
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•
•
•
•
CHAPTER II
•
BY AN ,OCCUPANT Q,F THE , PEW
•
, Perhaps the most re1narkable
movement
in philosophic
thought that has occurred in any age was the rise and general ·
acceptan ,c,e by sci
1
entific circles . of the evo,]utionary theory ,as
p1~opounded
by Dar\vjn,
H1J,x]ey
and Spencer. It
w,as
remark
able that men of science, wl1ose peculiar boast it is that th.ey
deal only with estab lished facts, should have so readily de
parted from this rule and
accepted
a system . based upon
hypothesis only,. and which was; and is still after the lapse of
forty
years, without
a single
kncwn
fact to support
it.
Even
when allowance is made for the well-known
eagerness of
ma,ny sc,ientists to do away wi,th a,l]
dualism, ,
w'hich was Mr.
Darwin's aim,
if
was still remarkable that men of trained
in
tellect should have so promptly accepted at face value his two
principal works,
in which the expression, ''we
may well
sup
pose,, occurs over eight hundre .d tim ,es, as a basis for the argu
ment.
P'ure
suppos ,ition
ma,y·
answer as a
f,ounda·tion
for
f
a,n
cif ul sketches 1ike those of Jules Verne'~; but as ground .upon
,vhich
to base
a sober scientific
argument it appeais
to the
average man as l·ittle le,ss
·th lan
farci ,c,al. Why i't d'id not so
appear to the scient ific mind, the scientific
mind
may
perhaps
be ·able to explain. We
frankly
confess our
inability
to do so.
Still
1nore remarkable was the
fact
that so
manr
theolog-
•
1
ans and Christian 111inistcrsadopted the new philosophy and
were so ready to give up large portions of Holy Scripture beM
cause they could not be reconciled with it; inventing, as .a
~From ''Hera .]d and P'resbyt :e,r,,'' N'1,vember 22, 1911,
Ci~cio
n.ati, 0. We repr .int this excell ,ent paper as the remarkab ,le utter
ance of a Christian layman on
a most
important subject. Ed.
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•
•
..
•
•
•
•
28,
salve to conscience the doctrine that
''the
Bible was not in-
tended to teach science'', one of
those half-truths
that are
in.ore
misleading than
a
downright untruth.
In
this . way tl1e sto,ry of creation as given in Genesis w1s
set aside,
an ,d the whole boo ,k dis,credited ..
As Christ
cot1ld
not by any logical possibility be made a product of evolution
without an absolute denial of His
supernatural
birth and
His
Divine claims, a11dthe new birth, or creation, for man in Him
was open
t
1
0
the
same
objection,
th ·ese
trutl1s were either
ob-
scured, minimized, or totally neglect
1
ed .and even
1
denie ,d. To
such lengths were some .of the sworn
''defenders
of
the
faith
once delivered to the saints'' ready to go in order
to
avoid
being considered as hopelessly '' unscientific'' and ''behind the
ti1nes in scholar ship.
That
was twenty years ago or more.
But strange st of all is th ,e fact that a
few of
these
minis
ters 1
ar 'e still clinging
to tl1e ''gosp ,el
of
dirt,' · as
Carlyle
ap,tly
styled
it,
and are referring to it in a
w,ay
that indicates , a
belief on their part that such
reference is
still
evidence
of
•
up-to-date scholarship.
As early as 1889 P rofe ssor Virchow, of Berlin, admittedly
the ablest antbropologi s't of modern times, when summing up
the
results
of
inve stigations of this subject b
1
y himself and
other leading scientist s, covering a
per,iod
of twe11ty yea1·s,
declared: '.In
vain have the
I.inks which
should
bind
man
to
•
the monkey been sought; not a single one is there
to
show.
Th ·e so-called
proanth1·opos, who
should
exhibit this
link,
has
not been found. · No really learned man asserts that he has
•
seen him. · . . · .
P·erh,aps
some one may have seen him
in a dre.am,, but when awake he will never be ab1e to say that
he
has approach
1
ed him. Even the hope
of soon
discovering
. him
has departed ;
it
is hardJy
spo,ken of.''
Sl1ortly befor ,e
bis death, some ten years later, in an address before the Inter-
•
national Medical Society, he spoke to
the
same effect, and
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•
Evol utia1iisni in the Pitlpit
29
•
•
in total , ail,ure. The middle link has not been found ,and
U
1
ever
will b
e. ,,
•
•
That
the
Darwinian
theory of
descent
has
in the realms of
nature not ,a
single fact to confirm it is the rmequivocal testi
mony
of men as
distinguish ,ed in
their
resp ,ective departments
of ~cie~1tific
esearch,
a,s
Dr,. N.
S. Sl1aler
iof
Ha ,rvard
U
niver@
sity; Dr. Etheiidge, fossiologist of the
British Museum;
Prof.
L. S. Beale, of King's College, London; Prof. Fleischmann,
of Erlangen, and others. .
Says Dr. Etheridge: ''Nine-tenths
of
the talk of evolu
tionists is sl1eer nonsense, not founded on observation
and
wholly unsupported
by
fact. This museum is full
of
proofs,
of the utter falsity of their
views."
Professor
Beale asserts:
''There is no evidence that man has descended from, or is, or
Was, in
any
way specially
related to, any other
organism in .
n,a·tur ,e
thi,ou.gh
ev,oli1tion
or
by a11y oth
1
er process. In sup- ·
• •
port of all naturalistic conjectures con
1
ce1·0ing man's origin,
there is not at tl1is time a
shadow
of scientific
evidence.''
Professor Fleischmann sums up his estimate of the Dar
winian
th.eory of
the
descent of
man by affirming
that
''it
has
in the realms of nature not a single
fact
to
confirm
it. It · s
noit the result of scientific r
1
esearch, ·
but
purely the
pr ,oduct
of the
illlagination."
E,"en Pr
1
ofessor Haeckel admits i11 his
1
old age
that he
among all his c,ontemporarie s stands alone. ''Mos,t modern
,t,
·111vestigators,'' h,e co,nf
ess
1
es,
'~ha,re
con1e
to
th
1
e
c,011clusion
that the doctrine of evolution, and
particularly
Darwinianis1n~
•
18
an error arid can not he maintained.'' Touching l1is las,
i·e ..ffirmation of his
natu1·alistic
views, Dr.
A.
C. Dixon tell
tts
that
a scholarly man in Geneva said to him at the time
that
it was ''the
11oteof the
dying
swan,'
1
and Haeckel the
'~only
scientific man of eminence in Germany today who be
lieves in Darwinian evolution.''
Several · notable books bearing on this subject have ap
•
•
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•
•
30
The F1ndamentals
published by ScribnersJ en,titled,
''No l
S·truggle for , Existence;
No
N·atural
Selection,'' p·resents
an
array
o:f
facts in
s.upport
of
t'be
two assertion s
made in
this title,
and against
ev,olution,
whic 'h must carry conviction to any unprejudiced mind. An·
other to the
same
effect is by Prof.
L.
T.
Tow·11send, ntitled,
' 'Collaps
1
e of · Evolution.'' Still anothe .r, and we believe an
epoch-marking book, is from th
1
e· pen ,of
Prof.
E. Dennert,
'Ph, D., recently published in Germany, and entitled, ' 'At
t'he
D,cath
Bed
of
Darwinism. ·' ' A
perusal
of
this,
book
''leaves
no room for douh
1
t,''
1
as asserted in the preface
of
the Amer
ican
edition, ''about
the decadence of t he, Darwinian theory
in th
1
e highest ·
scientific
circles of Ger1nany. · And ou.ts,'de
of
Germany the same sentiment is shared generally
by
the lead
ers of scientific tl1ought.'' .
Thu s w·e see that, on the t estimo ,ny .of ·the great majority
o·f
the
ablest
of
its one -tim ,e leading advocates, the
·evolutio,n·
ary theo1·y is ·in artic·ulo mortis. Nay, more, it is ·a ready dead,
since the spirit ( t'he theory of natural selection) has long
since departed. Some of
its
f rjends
may
si·t about
the
r,e-
.. mains
i·ntentiy
·watching for some signs of · re11ewed
Jj,f
e, but
they watch
in
vain.
And
yet
there are
·ministe·rs
of the
Gospel
who, dis-
•
crediting the Bible r1arrative of
creation,
are Still basing argu-
ments upon the Darwini .an theory of the
origin
of
species ;
glib
1
ly ref 'e1ring to the time ,·when our ancest0
1
r·s we,re dwell
ers in t1·ees,'' and to their own ''desce ·nt fr
1
om monkeys·, tad~
poles and fis'h,'' ''a much higher conceptio·n of man's origin,'' '
accor ·ding
to
their refined tas ·te, than is that given in Gen
1
esis.
At, or a little before, the beginning of the decade just ended
this might have
p.assed
for
learned
talk about
t'h.e
''settled
re~
suits
of science''; but
today, amo
1
ng those
1
who
are
1
rea,lly
abreast o·f'
the movement of scientific thought,
it ·is
regarded
as merely echoing
in
this
g·enera,tion
the
al·ways
unp·roved and
now properly rejected speculations
1
0f
a dead and gone
ge11efa
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Evolittionis 11i n tlie Pitlpit
31
That amo,ng tho.se who mourn the
passing
of
evolution
t·11ereare some naturalists and iothers who clin,g to
it,
as said
by
Dr •. Goette,
the
eminent
Str3.sburg zoologist, ·
simply be
cause it
seems
to funiish
,a
much-desired mechanical explana-
t1on of purp:olsive, adapta ,tions, i.s not su·rpris.ing, since it
leaves
them
nothing but . the
hated alternative of
accepting
G·enesis with its personal God and creative acts ..
But when
we
c
1
onsider
that .the evolutionary
theory was
conce:ived in a.gno,sticislmJ and
born and
nt1r·tur ,ed in
i
1
nfide.lity;
that it is the backbone
of the
des ,tructive higher criticis1n
which has so viciou sly assailed both the integrity and authority
of the Scriptures; that it utterly fails in explaining what
Genesis makes so clear those trem iendous f ac.ts in huma,11
history a11d human nature, the pre senc ,e of ,evil and its
attend
ant suffering; that it off er·s notl1ing but a n
1
egative reply to
that
supreme que stion of the ages, I£ a
man die,
shall he
live again? that i·t, in £act, substitutes for a personal God
an infinite and eternal Ene1·gy which is without
moral
quaJ
ities or
positive
attributes, is
not wise, or .
good,
or merciful
or
j·ust; canniot lo
ve, or
hate,,
r·eward
1
or
punish ;
th,at it
1
de:nies
the personhlity of God and
man,
and presents them, together
with nature, as under
a
process of evolution which has
neither
beginning nor end ; and regards man as being simply a passing
form
of this universal Energy,
and
thus without free .
will,
moral responsibility, , or
immo1tality, it
becomes evident
to
every intelligent layman that .such a system can have no pos
sible
points of
contact with Christianity. He
may
well be
pardo ·ned
if
he views
witl1
a.stonishment ministers
of
·tl1e
~ospel still clinging to it, and harbors a doubt of either their
sincerity or sanity. · . .
· · If it he said that most ministers who accept evolution do
so only
in its
milder form,
the
supernaturalistic which permits
of belief in a personal God,
but
claims that evolution is His
method of working, man 3.nd nature being products of it, it
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naturalistic, necessitates ·the giving up
1
0f the account in
Genes,is., an,d
gen
1
eral,ly carries wit 'h it
a
belief ' that th,e
1
Bible
is
but a
his,tory
of'
th,e
evolution
of
the
religious
id,ea,
an1d
n,ot
what it everywhere claims to be, a Divine and supernatural
re~elation. Moreover,
it
is tha,t part of the system which
they
I
accept
(the , origin
of· specie.s,)
whi.ch has quietly ·
b,ut fir1nl
y
seen labeled and shelved as mer ,ely one of the
past
phases
of
. philosophic thought.
To
hold to
it
still is to subject
them-
selves to doubts in the
minds of
their
hearers
as
those
ex
pressed in r
1
egard ·to
the , 'hol,ders
of the naturalistic v_e,w
We are not
contending that ther
1
e
is
not a
sphere
in which
the law of
evolution
as
propound
1
ed by Mr.
Spencer is
oper
ative, On the contr ,ary,
w
1
e believe there i,s ; but as
said
by
Philip 1
Ma,uro,
it
is
''entirely
confin,ed
to
1
the
sphere of
th,e
activities of fallen man.'' It is a most
significant fact that
it
is from
this sphere
alo.ne
that Mr~ Spencer draws all his
ill.ust ,rati,ons, an
1
f
o:r
th,e
simple
relason t hat
1
0
1
t,side
of it in
all
God's great
universe,
so .far
as known, t.here is
not a
scintil1a
of
evidence that
the law
of
e\·olution is, or ever has been,
in
operation. This fact has been
tl1e
stumbling
stone
of the evo~
lutionists f t1om
h
1
e first.
All
Mr. Spencer's pompous ph1·ase~
ology about a primitive homo ,geneous mas ,s passing in
1
endless
,cycles
from the
''in1perceptible
to the
perceptible, and
back
again from
the
perceptible
to
tl1e imperceptible;'' and
f 1,.or
''indeterminate unif ,ormi ,ty to
deter1ninate
mult ·if'ormity, ' has
•
no more foundation in
actual
fact
than an
air c.astie or Gulli-
ver's
travels. ·
The limi,ts of this , arti ,cle for bid further ref ,erence to the
i,n,teresting ,fact-
evidence of
wl1ich is ,superabundant
and
convincing that
the
law of evolution is strictly confined to
the sphere of
human activities, save to note tl1at it
is
not,
as
so ·ma,ny :sup
1
pos ,e, a '·natural
law,', but i,s, to borrow a·
term
. from
D~. H'.
Bush,n,ell, one of ' '
1
'u11nature~''' It is the law of
h11man progrf',SSapart from
God, and under
tl1e
leadership of
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If, as ·so111eas
ert
the clergyme11\Vho accepted the ·evolu
tionary theory were driven to it by fear of ridicule, or of not
being
thought
abreast
of
the
trend
of
moder11
thought,
it
•
was ·not
only cowardly on
their part, but grossly inconsistent
with their Christian profess ion. For e:ven a partial investiga
tion of the subject ·must have made clear to them that evolu-
• I _ _ l • 11,
t1on1smand
Christia11ity
are,
ess111tially, intensely ,antagon1s,t1c.
The pulpit efforts
of
some ministers
at reconciling
them would
be laughable from a logical standpoint were the issues involved
not so
serious and
the
effects
upon so1ne
of
their
unthinking
hearers not so deplorable. Certainly, schola1·shipcan no longer
be
pleaded as an excuse for clinging to Darwini sm ;
and,
in
the interest
of
common honesty, these men ought to either
drop their materiali sm or leave tl1e Cl1ristian pt1lpit. .
Among the surprises that await the layman who would
info1·m
himself on this
subject
is
the
fact
that
much
that
was
advanced
by
the leaders, including Mr.
Darwin himself,
in
suppiort o,f tl1e evolut~onary hypothes :is was
m,erely
tentative.
It was only the sma ller fry, the tninnow s and gudgeons, that
were cocksure of its truth, and
wl10
gor ,ged tl1e u,nwholesom~
food.
This may
be affirmed with
equa] truth of
a large part
of what is taught
by
the ablest of the higher critics • . Nor
is
the
reason for it hard to find. It becomes apparent imme·
diately one perceives how weak, unsatisfactory and illusive
tl1e evide11ceis that they offer in support of their destructive
theories ; evidence so insufficient and even trivial that, as said ·
by Sir Robert Anderso11,
it would be laughed
out
of any
cour t in Christen
1
dom. ·
The
layman, coming
to a
knowledge of this
fact,-
finds
his first feeling to be one of astonishment that men calling
themselves Christians can on grounds so frivolous repudiate
large parts of Scripture, and deliberately sow the seed of
unf aith in tl1e 111inds nd hearts of thou sands of their hea1·ers .
This is apt to be followed by one of indign~tion at ,the 101,v
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34
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mining the faith of the Cl1urch while accepting its pay. For
it
is noticeable that however great
tl1eir
1
change . of
attitt1cle
toward the
Scriptures
and
tl1e
doctrinal
standards
of
the
churches they are supposed to s
1
erve
1nay
be, no change is
ever
perceptible
in the attitude of these
gentlemen toward
the
acceptance of the salaries paid
by
the se
church
1
es.
And
this
despite the fact
that, accorcling
to their
ow11
witness of
them-
elves, tl1eir strong point is the
po ssess ion a11d
preaching of
a very superior ,quality
of ethics (
?) .
Indeed,
in li,stening to
them,
one ca11
hardly escaPe the
co11viction that
righteoitsnes
Jlersona1 · and civic, . wa s a
thing
almost
un~no,¥n before their .
advent ·
Certainly no one can
bla1ne
the
ordinary
individual who,
unskilled ·
in
the intellectual
subleties and plausible
sophistries
by which thes ,e
gentJe,men
seek to
just ,ify
their course,
finds
a feeling akin to
disgust
taking
possssion of
hin1
as
he listens
to th ,eir
talk
abqut
being governed
solely by
,a desire for
truth , in
their action ,s in tl1i,s. matter, and of
the
tenfold ·
greater
comfort, plea sure
and profit
they
derive from re,ad
ing their polychron1e Bibles; all of which, to his
untrained
anel practical mind, sounds like unmitigate ,d
pharisaical
cant.
It is like a man who, having take11 a \tvayall the foundation
t1nder
his,
l1ot1se
sa,~e
a· fe\\~
slencler prop s, lies down
in
it
de
c1a1·ing that he
doe s
o with a sense of security a.nd peace to,
which
he
had been a
stranger
b
1
ef ,ore.
Apparently the wild guesswork of a profligate and infidel
like Astruc, o·r
the
equally wild
pl1ilologicaJ
spectt1ations of
a skep tic like Welll1au sen, have 1nore weight with thes ,e S1el,,
e1·s
after
truth
than
has
the
thus , saith
the Lord
Jehovah
of the inspired propl1et , or the
testimqny
of
tl1e
Son of
God, an,d of His apostles. Moreov er, they s,,em to
coimpletely
ignore, and ·
to be utterly unable
to
te st ify from personal ex
perience to,
the
rege11e1·ati11g
ow ,er
of
the Holy
Spiri t
work
ing upon men s hea1·ts th r
1
ough the w·ord.
I
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Evo/1tt ionis1nin
the Pulpit
35
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had the courage of their convictions, and sense of honor
e11ot1gho co1npel
them
to
leave ·the
Christian
Church,
takit1g
with them those of their flocks who th.ink like
tl1em
and
,vish
to follow, for
they may
be
sure that
the pretty
little
amenities
of mo·rality and sociol,ogy which they have substituted for the
Gospel of regeneration can never
take
its place, or lead a ·
i11g1e o
t1]·
o·ut of
the
death and
darl<ness
of sin i11to the
life
and light tl1at
are
to be
found
in Christ
alon.e.
Meanwhile, a few naturalists, clothed in sackcloth, ma1·
sit
about
the
death
bed of
Materialism
as
mourners,
a11d
in
despair of
finding anytl1ing
else ·
to
fi11 he
niche in their temple
of lies left
vacant
by the removal
of their idol, may
on occa
s.i.on galvanize the 1~emains nto an
appea1·ance
of life. Thei1·
·clerical sympathizers~ too, 1nay ref use to read the deatl1 bul
letin already issued, or
to take
part in
t~
obsequies.
Never- .
theless, there can be no
reasonable doubt
in
any
inte11igent
1nind that Darwinism so far as it relates to man s origi11and
that of species in genera] is dead ; and a11who believe in a
personal God and
in
a
Divine revelation
may say
of
itt para
pl1rasing
Cusl1i s
answer
to King David: The philosophic
enemies o,f our Lord and
Ki11g,
and all of the isms that rise
against His ·tr11th, be as this dead ism,
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· CHAPTER III
•
>
•
· DECADENCE OF
DARWINISM
Y REV, H ENRY H. BEACH,
GRAND JUNCTION,
COLORADO
•
( Copyright, 1912, by
He11ry
H. Beach,)
•
•
•
•
I
•
This paper is not a disct1ssion
of
variations tying
withi 11
. the boundaries of
heredity ;
nor do we remember tl1at tl1e
Hebrew and
Greek Scriptures reveal
anything
on
that
sub-
ject; nor do we thinlc that it can be rationally discussed unti1
species and genus a.re defined. .
· Failure to condition spontaneous generation by sterilized
l1ay tea,, and a chronic inability to discover the missing link
have shaken the popularity of Darwinism.
Will
it recover?
Or
is
it
f
a:lling
into a
fixed condition of innocuous d.esuetude?
•
As a purely academic qt1est ion, who cares whether a
protoplastic cell, o,r an a1noeba, or a11 ascidian larva, was
his primordial progenitor? It does not grip us~ It is doubtful
. whether any purely academic question ever grips anybody.
But
the issue
between Darwinistn
and mankind is 11ot a
•
purely academic qttestion. ·
Half his life
1
Cl1a1·le Darwin was af rai
1
d of t.he re·p1·01cl1es
of Christia11s.,
I ·t \\1as something like t·he fear felt by anotl1er
Charles, of the reproacI1es of the Huguenots were he to
1
1
ons1nt
to
the assassination o,f
Coligny.
He
ref
1
ers
to it in
tl1e Introdu ,ction to the Descent of Man :
During
many
years I collected notes
on
the
origin ancl
descent of man,
wit ·hout
any intention
of
publislting
011
the
subject, but rather
with
the determination not to
publish ;
as I ·
thought
that
I should
thus
add to the
prejudice s
against
my· views~ ·
At the end of the book he says : I am a ware that the l
I
conclusion ..
arrived
at in this worl{ wi]I be
denominated
by
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Decadence o f
Darwi1iisnz
37
Some as highly irreligious ; bui he ,vho denounces them is
bo4nd to show why
it
is 1nore irreligious
to explain
the
origin of man as a distinct speci,es
by
descent fro1n some
lowly
form
througl1
the Jaws of variation
and
nat11ral
selec
tion, than to explain the birth of the individual thiough the
laws of ·ordinary reproduction.
He confessed his fear by protesting his innocence: ''I
hal'e done
notl1ing· only
explained . a choice between two
theories of
bringing
man into the world''. This way of
puttii:ig
it is .characteristic. I-le
often
refers t,o traversing the doctrine
of successive creations, as, the sum of his
offending.
rfhe
Prestidigitator calls special attention to one hand while be
works the trick with the ,
othe·r.
His apprehensions were
•
not altogeth
er groundless.
Pr
1
ofessor Haeckel was braver,
or,
mo·re
rash,
,vhen
lie
styl
ed
the
''Descent of Man'' as
''anti-Genesis'';
,vith
equal
truth and moderation he might have added,
anti-John,
anti
Hebrews and anti-Christ. The point to pierce the busi~e
and bosoms of men is a denial of the integrity and reliability
of tl1e
Word
of
God. We cannot depend on
the
Bible
to
show us ''how to go · to heaven'' if
it
misleads us as to ''how
tl1e heavens go'' regarding the origin, nature, . descent and
destiny of brutes and men, Darwinists
have
been
diggi11g
at
the foundations of society
and
souls ; and their powers
of ·
endurance are a
matter
of some mom
ent.
We venture to differentiate life and if we ,go too fat· a1·e
sure to be corrected : ·
l.
Vegetable life is
the
su1n of the forces which pervade
2. Brute life is the st.1m of the forces which pervade
conscious an,d thinks.
3. Huma ,n life is the u n o·f the f,orces whi,cl1 perva(le
•
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It is logical to assu1ne, until disp .roved, that these three
kinds of life t.ouch ea
1
ch otl1er, but n,ever merge. They · as ··
sociate as intimately as air and light, but are as ·far from
passing ·
fro1m
plants to brutes and from brutes to
men
as
i 'rom no
1
.-·being to being. ''By f1itl1 we
u11derstan,d
the age,s
to be set in order by the saying of God, in regard to the
. things ,
seen
n,ot
haying come out .
o,f
the 'things manif 'es
1
t''
(Heb. 11 :3). ·
. He who would
overtl1row Biblical
Christianity
e,xpect ,s
to t.ake the initiative. H
1
e· recognizes . that
there
is al,vays a
p~esutnption in favor of an existing institution; and has
always , been ,swift
t
1
0 open the battle,
. Professor
I-Iuxley,
in his article
on
1
evolution,
in the ninth
edition of th
1
e Britannica, has ably brou ,ght together th ie argu
ments for Darwinis1n; and we will foll ·ow his order.
GROWTI-I
•
Given a nucleated cell, and Darwinists have watcl1ed
the
•
process of generation from its beginning to birth, ''with the
best optical instruments' ·,. There have bee11 two theories.
The first theory is that
nothi 11g
new is, p1·oduced i11 the living
world; the
germs
f
ronri which
all
or·ganis1ns
have
developed
l1ave contained in miniatu1·e, and passed ort do,vn through
success i·ve generati .0
1
ns, a]l the e.ssenti .al organs of adults. To
get anything out of anything it mu st first be in it. This
is archaic. The ,second tl1eory is that evolution i,s progressive;
it results from so111etl1i11gn11ate in tl1ings, dynamic and pan
theistic. This
is
up to date.
All tha't
the
Dar ,wit1ists,
''witl,
th~ be.st
opt .ical
i11str11
1nents' ', have actually seen is g1·owth; b11t they have inf erred
a whole pantheon. Na.tural selectio n is tl1e s,upreme demiurge ;
•
exual selectio ,n an
1
d vari ,atio11 are su·bordinates. A 'billion
years ago there was
a
God, but He
immediately
disappeared.
I ·t wa,s 'Oe,c,essary to
1
l1ave Him then, to b,r·idge the g11lf be- 1
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Dec adence of Darwinism
39
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they called
it
evolution,
thinking
perhaps the
naa.1e might
prove ·useful, but we t·1~st not t ,o be b,lame
1
d for pref
1
erring
gro~th, for evolution is something of
a
harlequin, having
turned a complete
somersault
within a, hundred
y,ears ,
w hi]e
g1·owth. is univ ,ersally ac,l<:nowledged to
be a charac·ter
of
vegetable,
a11imal,
and
hwnan life.
In additio .n
to ,
finding
nat ,t1ral
g1·0
1
wth,
P·rof ·essor H11xley
claims the discovery of a te nde11cy
to assume a
definite
living
f9rtn .
This of
course
is ridicttlous. The sun rises
wi,th·
sufficient
regula ,rit.Y to
b,eco111e
a
striking phenomen on,
and we have discovered tend.en,cy
towards sunri ,se·s. Specu
lation is ·invoked ., bu.t speculation died with the great god
Pan when Jesus was
born.
Scientific observations are dumb,
excep ·t to
say
that .a·11God s c1·eatu1. s are fear
fully
an
1
d won-
der£ ully made. · .
LIKEN E:SSE,S ..
•
It
is settled
that low adult forms and embry,os
o,f higl1er
order
are
st1·iking1y· a1ike. An
embryonic reptile ·
passes
througl1 tl1e transformations of a fish~ and a man in tl1e
•
germ cannot be distinguished from any other mam~al. Here
' '
tl1eDarwinist
d.rops
his g,lass
and
j·u1nps at
tl1e
conclusi
1
on
that
all
creati ·ons, even vegetable s, are con, a11guined
brother s.
His microscope has failed him
and he
has forgotten the
ardent
astrono1ner who Saw ,strange tJuadr ttpeds in t he moon, until
he discovered the mouse nest in the telescope. Tl1e appar~
ent1y :si111ilarce]l,s a1,.e diff,eren,t. · The ,ottticome proves it.
One is ,a butterfly
and
the other
is
a whale.
In ,deed, Oscar
Hertwig
110,v
claims to ha·ve found the diffe1~ence s of tl1e ·
denozt ement in the cells themselves. Bttt it 1loes not matt
1
er.
Tl1e Darwinist has mistaken liken ess for proof of parentage ;
a,s
a
ma,tter of f a
1
ct
it
nev
1
er
prove s it.
P,arentage is 1nore
lil<:ely o .prove likeness. In either case the origin must first
be established and then the likene ss may illustrate
it.
- But recurring to the
differentiation
of
lif
1
e, as our
Maker
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40
The
Fitnda1ne1itals
•
•
an
1
d
1
0n brutes . consciousne~s and thought, a11d on all of us
that which preserve ,s out·
bodies
from deca.y and
causes
them
•
to gro-w:,it seems natural that, in tl1e holy of
holies
of
His
laboratory, He has constructed us with similar characte ·rs,
tt·anscie11tor
p,errnan ,ent. ·
But
the very
nomenclatut
1
e of evolution h.as
bee·n.
seduced
and C0
1
rrt1pted. Rever ·sion and
1
ru
1
diment must be
laid
a.w.ay
with phlogiston and caloric .. Tl1ere are no retreatin .gs
. or abortions in the D
1
ivine
eco11omy,
but God adjusts every
feature · to present and future conditions, ·and causes all to
march regu larly forward in the grand procession of
e·t·ernal
progr ·ess. .
But wh)i, it may he asked, are so
many
creatures b,tiilt on
the same plan
las,
for instance,
vertebrates?
The answer is
axio1natic.
The whole creation
is
divided into
vertebrata
•
and
invertebrata
becattse there 1nust in the nature of things,
be at
leas.t tWo
classes ; ,or boundless monotony or an eternal
•
1011eliness. But wl1y s,o ma11y
v,er tebrates?
Bec.ause t l1er
1
e
caln be but 0
1
ne
best
of a clas.s .and vertebr .ates are h
1
est. The
number redounds to the glory _of God, not the glory of evolu
tion~ This is kind
1
ergarten inst1--uction, but some seem to
•
•
1ntSS Jt.
• •
•
· But we st1bmi t a b·roade1· ·generalization. The whole
univers
1
e bears a
fa·mily
re seinb,lance. It is tl1e warm touch
of the M~ ·er,, and. His i1niver sal style.. Li,ght is truth, and
darkne ,ss is error. I-Ioli11essis pu1·itJ ,
and
sin is dirt . Phys•
icaJ birtl1 and g1·owth,
decay
and deatl1, typif y sp,i1·itual birth
and growth, decay and
1
death.
T,vo pictures hang side b
1
y
si
1
cle.
1
The
subjects
1
diff,er greatly
and
they differ ·in
size. Ffl1e
larger is
th
1
e
Dom ,es of th,e
Y
1
osemit
1
e
and . the
sma.1Ier Sun set
in.
California .
But
they
see.in strangely
alike.
The smaller must have
evolved
from
the larger.
So,me
Mahatma, an adept of
·the
Himalayas,
a·bte
,
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Decade ice of DatAwinism
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Nature ''s limit 'less netw ork of types and.
s,ymbols
and
resem blances is wondro us 1y beauti f ttl. It wakens the spi1it
of poe.tiy in the soul, but an
abse11t-m1nded
dreamer has gazed
and forgotten himself ., and is lost in a labyrinth of vagaries.
Darwinists have been turning the world over searching for
•
a co,mm,on fatherhood, b·ut th iey have found a 1ommo·n maker-
l1ood. An
Italian a
Dr. Barrago gave his book the title,
''Man, made : in the imag ·e of God, was also made in the
'
image of
an
ape'', and Mr. Darwin refers to it without dis-
approval, and the
bla sphem y
is
logical.
Darwinism degrades
· God and man. ,
RUDIMEN ·Ts
•
The Darwinian notion of rudime11ts is that they are
abortive reversions to ancestral types. erever one oi the
cult has heard of anything nearly or rem
1
otely
Ii.ke
rudiments,
or insta nce, Stanley Hall on rhythm , beati ng waves, ancestraJ
fish and dancing particul ar ly outside the bounds of heredity,
•
•
it
h.as
been grist
for
their mill. And yet they ha.rdly know '
Whe1e to · put the se st1·uctur es. If they claim
that ·
they are
absolt1teJy
useless
they
p
1
lace ·them ot1ts,ide the sce>peof natural
selection; and
if,
on
tl1e
other hand, they admit that they
se1ve
so1ne purpose ·
they admit
t11at
God may l1ave
1nade
t'hen,. Hux-
ley f
e]t the difficulty when he confessed ·
''It is almos t impossible to prove that
any
strttcture,
110,v
lever rudiment .ary,. is useless ; that _s. to say, that it plays no
part what ,ever in the economy; a11d if it is in the sli,ghtest
degree useful there is no rea son why, on the hypothesis of
direct creation, it should not have been. created.'' (Britan-
nica, Art. on E volution.) ·
May we add ·th ·at if Mr.
I-Iuxley
an ,d
Mr. Darwin
and I
and ·you have £ailed to discover the use of anytl1ing, ''there
is no ·reason why it should not have been
created''?
We
remember that 'We have not even defined life; that the most
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42
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know as little of its essence as of that of .matter. We may
as well be, modest .
Accepting
then the
dictum of
Professor Huxley
tl1a11
whom n,o one has ever been better qualified that it is almost
imposs,ible, to prov ,e the useless11ess of rudiments, we p,ass
the subject with the remarl< that, like lilcenesses, they are
a signet of the Almighty an
1
d a badge of His creatures
-not
ne,cessari],y of kinship, but of remoter 1·el1t io
1
ns. Tirie r e a,re
some
men
who
need
the
evidence of their
own
rudimentary
mammae to prove to them
that
they
belong to
the same race
wi th their
Wives
,a·n
1
d sl10
t1ld
,enclure
th
1
e s,ame
hardship s
and
do a little more work,
SELE CTIONS
•
Sexual selection, as the nan1,e
implie ,s,
is concerned witl1
pairing and reproduct ·ion;
bt1t
the Darwinian end in view,
like that of natural selecti ,on, is evolution. But
sexual
S
1
elec
tion fails to
1
discrimin .ate,
an,d
turn ,s out
degene-rat ,ion.
Fe1·al
and
unrege ,nerate
sexua l selec,tio,n is 1no1·e lust than love.
From hares to elephants wild tl1ings are blinded by jealoltsy
and ,cr ,azed by heat. Lil<:e the Jukes
family,
th,ey
drop their
young
by
the
highway.
We
do1nesticate
brutes
.and
plants
,ancl, with great care and skill, breed them for improved
po
1
ints; b
1
t we so,on tir1 and then d
1
ogs beco,me patial1s., cats
turn
vagabond s,,
potatoes
gro
1
w
small,
and
horses
,are
not
wo1·th catcl1ing and breaking. Cultivated apples never repeat
the ,ir p,arent trees ,, but nine l1un
1
dred and nine ty-nine
ti1nes
out of a
tl1ousand sit1k far
below
them. The loves
of tl1e
pla11ts ,
as Darwin s
whimsical
grandfather
called
them, are
disreputable, and even, to
thi s ci·vilized
day,
ht11nan
beings
•
need
to
be
re,str a,ine,d by
law
to
prevent
the1n fro1n C
ontracting
unhealthful alliances.
Wirien
th e
string
breaks the kite fall s~
Ages before the
tin1e
when Mr. Dar,vin drea,m,e
1
d that
in the din1 obscurity of the pas ·t we can se e that the early
progenitor of all the vertebr t must
have been
an aquatic
animal, provid
1
ed with
branchiae,
with the two Sexes
united
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Decade
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43
the same
individu ,al, with the
most importa11t or.gans
of
~he
body (
such as
brain
and heart) i1np
erf ectly
or not at
all
developed, and an
animal
'more like tl1e
larvae
of the
existing
mari~e
scidiatts
tl1a11
any other known
fot·tn'', God
macle
one
prot~plastic
ce11and disappeared. That cell
was a
vege
table, and, as all cells
are
,microscopic,
i11visible. It
was
also
hermaphroditic. It contained hairs and
rootlets, nuclei and
-nuclPo]i,
mother
stars
ana daughter stars,
grot1ping, advanc
ing
and
retreati11g',
as
if
dan cing quadrilles. And,
as the
story goes, tl1is one cell has be
1
en the father
and
motl1er
o·f
all living creatu1·es. Natural selection, aided
only by
sexttal
selection and accid ·ent, has evolved the .m,
b y
almost imper
ceptible
degrees.
E,vid.ently Da1·win and Wallace
follow ,ed
what they
thoL1gl1t
the line of least
resistance in
introducing
God before the
first living
ge1.
m,
for, other1A
ise,
there must have been
degene
ration to
.satisfy
present con,ditions ,.
Bttt
was
it no,t
an error
in
anothf
r
regard?
While
they were in
the
business
of
tllaking
gods,
it would have bee11
easy
to
have
allowed for~
thre~ne for plants, . one for brutes,
and
one
for
men.
-iobody was
looking.
They
migl1t.
have done
it, but,
as
it is,
tl1ere is a
dead lift at each
beginni11g.
' 'We
may
feel
sure,'' explain s
l\lfr.
Darwin,
''that
any
vari- ·
ation in the least degree .injuriou s ,¥,ould
be
rigidly
destroye 1.
This preservation of favorabJe iridividual
differences
and
variations, and ·the de,struction of tl1ose w'hicl1 are inj'11riotts,
I ha,,e called natural
selection
or the surviv~al of the fittest.
Variations neither
usefttl
nor
injuriou s \.vould
not
be affected
by
natu1.. 1
selectio11
and would be left
either
a flt1ctuating
eleme11t,
as
perhap s
we see in
certai n
polymorphic specie s,
or would
ultimately
become
fixed,
o,ving to
the natt11·e
of
· the
organism and
the nature
of
the
conditions''.
(''Origin
of
Species/' Vol. I, page 121.) Natural selection is
destrttc
tion and
pre 'servation. All
' 'injuriou s' '
differences and
varia- ·
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parts
preserved. N
atu ,ral death is th
1
e means o:f cl.es,truction;
· and generation, of
preservation, The favorable
alw,ays
· prove the stronger,
tl1e injurious
th
1
e
weaker ,.
Alth ,ough
sweetest
graces
and most resplendent virtues of
the
highest
type of · man
ar·e product ,s of natur ,al
S
ele·ction,
the,y a re
co·n-
ditioned promiscuously on l{illing the other fellow
and
pro -
•
1
creating
o,ne s
kin.cl.
The :killing
is ,done by acts of·
Goid ,
as express
companies
phr .ase
it, and
by hatred, envy, anger,
avarice, .sel.fishness, In the strugg ·e
for , e:xistence the ,
s·tronger
gloat over
the
s.lain while
poverty
of
spirit, meekness,
mercy
and
peace
1
die, unhonored a11dunsung.
B;y
these means
every
kind of organic being will eventually
gain
the
summit
of
finitud
1
e. It js imm
1
oral.
Professor Huxley make s a notable concession to truth and
s,anity when he says :
It
1s quite conceivable that every species tends to pr0r
duce
varieties of a limited nt1mber
,and
kind,
and
th,at
th·e
effect of natural selection is
t.o fav .or the
development of
so1ne
o~ th,ese,
while
·it op
1
po ses
the
·developm:ent
of
1
others
· along their
predetermined
lines
,of
modification. (Britan
njca.
Evolt
1
etion.
Taking
the
P1.
f ess
1
or s
la11guage
as ac-
. curate, he surrenders natt1ral selec·tion.
We
were
tau .ght
t l1at, it
wasl
as
·rcliabl
1
,as
gravitation, but if
we get
the
notion
that some species improve, some
are stationary
and some
deterior .ate, a,greeably with
heredity
and
env·i1·onm
1
ent,
we
have no further use for
it. To
sum up tl1e
case
for natural
•
selection:
( 1) It is, poor n1orals. A theory of· nature must be
id·eal
t
1
0
be
t1,.ue.
Natural
s
1
el
1
ection
is a
s,cheme
for the sur,.
•
vival of
the p,assionate and
the
violent, the destruction of
the
weak and
defe·11sel.es.s.,
To be true, b
1
lack
must
be white, and
¥.rrong must be right, and God an I van the
terrible ..
(2) l t,s as sumptions ar ,e f a lse,. It is fa1s
1
e
t·t1at
unlimited
attenuation of
the
steps
of
the
process,
and unlimited ·time for
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Decade1ice of Dar lv~nisrn
45
•
·Po
sible. ''Attenuation'' and ''t ime ' iVouldhave been but con-
•
ditions, not causes. They could prove 11othing.
It
is false
that in
tl1e struggle
for
existence the ''fittest''
survive.
The
''fittest'' is
an
ambigt.1ousword.
With
natural
selection it means
the
strongest and best armed.
They
do
not surv ive ; they degenerate and expire.
They
who bear.
arrns challenge attack. This providence may be penal or car-
r,ective.
It
is
false
that
man is
derived from
a
brute
and a br ute
from a vegetable. One of the forces
of
human life makes
for .
a recognition of God
arid
a consciousness ' of sin against
liim. This was not unfolded fro1n anthrol)oid apes, for
it
•
is
not in them. Brutes
are
distinguished from plants
by
self-consCiousness, and this was not developed ·from · plants,
for
it
is not in them.
•
(3) Natural selection is self~contradictory and impo s-
sible. Fifty years ago, Alfred Russel Wallace devised the
Scheme and wrote Charle s Darwin about it. Mr.
Datwin
PUblisl1ed
the plan. He afterwards refers
to
Mr • .Wallace
as having ''an innate genius for s.olvi11gdifficulties'' . . · (E>es--......
cent, p. 344.) rfwo years ago Mr. Wallace, in an address
at
tl1e
Dar\vin anniversary, before tl1e Royal Institution in
Lo11don, ref
erring
to
Professor
Haeckel
said :
. ''These unavailing efforts seem to lead us to the irr~sist
ible
conclusio11
that beyond and above all terrestrial agencies,
~ere is some great source of energy and guidance, which
1
n unknown ways pervades every form of organized life,
and
Which
,,re
ourselves are the ulti.mate and for,eordained out-
con1e''. ·
l
1
Tl1us an author of
the theo1·y, hin1self , a,dn1its
the
cont1·a
diction of claiming a
''selection', and denying
a selector.
n ,ISTRIBUTION
•
. The Darwinists assutne that because certain creatures live
tl<>wn limited areas, like the loth in South Amer.ica
ancl
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46
The
Fundament ·als
the ornithorynchus in Au stralia and Tasma11ia,
they
have
reached their pre sent abodes by
evolution
through fishes.
Let him
asst1me
it, but
we
beg for mercy to the man
on
the
street who sl1rinl<s from that 1n,ode of tran spor tati on and
believes tl1at they migl1t have been created in \Ve stern Asia,
dispersed by various possi ble means, wherever climati~ and
otl1er
c6ndit ·ion.s
we1·e favo1--b,le;
and
st1ffered
exti11ction,
ex
cep t
,vl1er,e we:
find .
them ; 01 . that tl1ey might have be·en cr,eated
where they are. . The ra·pid extinction of the Amer·ican b·i .on·
suggests the
p,os.sibility
of
extinction,
as a
factor of the
pr:oce.ss.
•
•
GE0
1
LOGICAL SUCCESS ION
1
•
Professor
Huxley addu ,ces only
one
more
argument-
successive geo]ogical forms. It must , he remarks,
suffice
in this place, to say that tl1e successive f 0
1
·rms of
the
Equine
1
type
have
be-en
fully worked
O·Ut,
w·h,ile
those
of
nearly
rail
the o·ther
ex:i.sting
types of Ungula ,te mammal .s and of
the
I
C arnivora have bee11
n,early
as
1
•
clos,el,y
fol1,ow·ed t hrough . the
Te1,.iary deposits . We l1ave a 1nisty re ·membrance of hav
ing met that Equus before,
and, somehow, ass,ociate l1im
with
po is asinoruni. Tl1e Professo ·r ·hangs his case ·On the
term successive succe ssive geological forms,. . He
con
fuses
it
with
sin1ilar ,
bu·t neither
is
o,ffensive.
Fossils and
Jiving forms belong in th
1
e same ·cat ,egory, but a radical dif
fe1~e11ceetw ,een successive £01·msbreaks the chain of evo-
lution.
If
the ungulate f os.sils are like living forms ., we
greet tl1en1 las old f riend .s, if unlik
1
we beg ·an intr ,oduction.
In either event
i·t
i.: not Darwinism, bu·t Don Ql1ixote at~
ta
1
cking
another wind .mill.
The actual origina ·tio11 of
1na11,
brute .s and p,lants,
from
one simple sit and lo,vest for111 of organic life, by natural
a11d Godless selections a11d varia tions , is the essence of Dar
\vinis1n. It is aclmitted and t1nclisputed
tl1at it
was first
definitely elaborated by Cl1arles R. Darwin, an ·d it stands or
..
fall s with Darwi11 expe1·iments and arguments, and the)
1
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ecadence of Da1 tvi1i1~sni
47
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n.1arvelouslyunscientific. Loui Agassiz, Lord Kelvin, and
Dr. Virchow 'having passed on, the outloo lc for experimental
cience
l1as been
look ing
dark; but suddenly
the
light is
breaking. Professor Gaston Bo11nier, of the Sorbonne, M.
de Cyon, and other . , l1ave ju st truck a th ri lling chord and
cientific Europe is awakening. Criticising
Mr
Dar,vin in
Poit1'*et
Co1itre
le Darwi,1iisme,
1\1.
,onnier says:
''Tl1e illustrious natur alist had no idea of the experi
n1 ntal method,'' and
l1e
adds tl1at he was imaginative and
careless in
l1is
observations. In
corroboration
of
this passing
by tl1e spilce-horn deer, tl1e aquatic bear and tl1e worn-off
l1uman tail, wl1ich all who are
familiar
with ''The Descent
of Man will recall t.ake,
fO·r i11sta11ce,
the following:
•
'' ome naturalists have maintained that all variation s
are
onnected with the act of sex ual reproduction ; but this is
ertainly an
error;
for I l1ave given, in another work, a
long
list of sporti ng p,lants, as they are called
by
gardeners ; that
is, of plants which have sttdde nly produced a single bud
with a new and some ti1ne widely different character from
that
of
the other buds
011 the ame
J)lant. These bud varia-
• •
t1ons,
as they may be called, can be propagated by grafts,
offsets, etc., and sometimes,
by
seed.'' (''Origin of Species,
Vol. I, p. 35.)
How could Mr. Darwin know that the seed from which
tl1e tree of the strange bud had grown had not been pollenized,
any number of generations previously, by the strange strain?
What would happen if vegetable and animal atavism not a
•
teversion t-0 ancestral type ,
but
latent generation, the wakinu
ancl
appearing
of a
strain as old,
it
may
be, as
the race,
improved or damaged, even to, the extent of freaks or
nonstrosities
should
be found to
accord with all
k11own
facts of the case, and to answer the hard questions for . whicli
Darwinism was devised?
Surely
the progression of
a
char
acter
beneatl1
tl1e surf
ace,
whether for one
year
or a
n1illion
- -as the temper of a father 11otdiscernib]e in a son bttt en1erDi~
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I
•
•
•
48
•
ing ir1 a grandson is as credible as reversion under
Similar
· conditions. Backing up
is
hardly
in harmony
with the
twen-
•
•
•
ti,eth
century. · ·
Tl1e
teaching
of
Darwinism, as
an approved science,
to
the
cl1ildren
and youth of the
schools
of the world is the
most deplorable feature of the whole
wretched
propaganda.
It
would
be difficult
to
fix
the
re sponsi bility of it.
D3.rwin
himself hesitated. Virchow · trie
1
d, nobly,
to
protect tl1e
primary schools of Germany. The burden of his lecture at
Munich is througho
1
ut a
caut .ion
against
eva ,ding
the
di stinc
tion between the
problematical and
the
proven ;
they
a1·e not
on the
same ·evid ,ential level.
H
1
e
woul.
d
tea,cht , he
said,
· evolution,
if it were only proven;
·it
is, as,
yet·, in the hypo-
thetical stage;
the audience ought to be . warned that
the
speculative is
only
the
possible,
no,t
actual
truth; that
it be
longs
to the region
of
belief, and riot
to
that
of
demonstration.
As long as a problem continues in the speculative stage,
it
·Would be mi.schievous t
1
0 teach it i11 ou·r school.s.
We o·ttgl1t
not to
represent our
conjecture as a
certainty, nor our hypo
thesis as
a
doctrine. I-Iaeclcel, al,vays rash,
a.dvocated,
it.
As
tl1e;y
struggled, somebody lighted the fire ·. It was like
the burning
of
the temple at Jerusalem.
Titus ·
had is..uecl
an order to spare it, but a Roman
s,oldier ·
threw a .blazing
torch into a small window and tl1e w·hoie structure \Vas in
flames. It
was like the revenge
of the Pied Piper;of Hamlin
Town. It was Racl11elweeping for he1·
childrent and she
1
wo11ld
not
be comfo
1
rted,
because
they were not .
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CHAPTER I
•
PAU L'S TESTIM
1
0NY TO THE DO,CTRINE OF
SIN
•
BY PROFESSOR
F.
AS. B. WILLIAMSJ B. D.,
PH. D• ,
L ~
UTHWESTERN BAPTIST TH EOLOGI CAL SEMINARY, FORT
WORT.H,
TEXAS
•
Theodore Parker once sai,d : ''I seldom use the word
•
. in. The Christian doctrine of
sin
is
the
devil's own. I hate
it utterly''. His view of sin shaped his views as to the
person · of Christ, atonement, and salvation . . In fact, the sin
question is back of one's theology, soteriology, sociology,
evange lism, and ethics. One cannot hold a Scriptural view
of
God
and the plan of salvation without having a Scriptural
idea of sin. One cannot
proc laim
a true theory
of society
unless he, se,es the h.einousn,es ,of sin and its relation to all
ocial ills and disorders. No
man can
be a
su,coessful New
Testament evangeJ.i,st publi shing the Go,spel as ''the powei·
of
God
unto salvation to every one that .believeth'', unless he
has a:n adequate conception
Of
the e11ormityof sin. Nor can a
. rnan ho'ld a consistent theory of
ethics
or liv,e up
to the
highest
tandard ,of
morality,
unless h is gripped with a keen sense
of sin' s seductive nature. ·
SIN A FACT I
:r
fIUMAN HI 'fORY
•
Paul has an exten sive vocabulary · of tertn denoting sin
or sins., In the Epistle to the Roman s, wl1e1·e he elaborate ..
his
doctrine
of
sin,
he
use
ten
general
terms
for
si11
1. ·Apo.p-rla. (l1amartia), 58 times
in
all, 43 in Ro1nans,
t11ising of the tnark, in as, a principle . 2. .ApGprqµ o
(hamarteema), twice,
sin
as an act. 3. llo.pJ./3an1.~
11ara-
basis), five times, tra11sgression, literally walking along by
the line but not exactly according to it. 4. llgp,/.1 °°'~
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50
•
-(paraptoma), 15 times, literally a
falling,
lapse, deviation from
truth and uprightne ss (Thayer), translated
''trespass''
in
R.V. 5,.
·~8iKla (
adikia), 12 times, unrighteousne ss. 6.
JAat{3eut, ( asebeia), four times, ungodlines s, lacl<:of reverence
for God.
7. Avoµla
(anomia), lawles,sness, six time s.
8.
1
Ax.o.8cipala.
akatharsia), nine times,
uncleanness,
]ack of
purity. 9. IlapaKo:, (parakoee), twice, disobedience. 10.
IIAdV11
planee), fo
1
ur times, \'1andering, error.
Besides
these
general term s
f
o·r
sin
Paul uses,
many
specific
terms for various sins,, 21 of the_ge ei11g oun d in ·the cate.gory
of
Ro ,m. 1 :29-31. Twenty -one equals
thr
1
ee times
seven
,and
seems to express the idea of completeness
i11
sin reached by
the,
Gentil,es. It is
literally true
tha ·t
Pau·t
u,se:s S
1
cores of
terms denoting and describing variOus personal sins, sensual,
social, ethical, and religious. Is this not an
unmistakable
lex-
ical eviden.ce that the Apostle to the Gentiles
believed
in
sin
as a fact in ht1man history ?
Again, in all Paul's leading
epistles
he
deals with
sin in
the abstract or with sins
i11
the concrete. In Romans 1 :18-
3
:20, he diScusses the
f
ailµre of botl1 Jews and Gentiles to
attain righteou sness. Thes·e cl1apters constitute the most
graphic and
comprehensive
descripti9n of sin
found
in
Bib
lical, Greek, Roman,
or any,
literatur e. It
is
so
true
to
the
facts in
l1eathen life toda,y
tl1at modern
heathen
often ac
cuse Ch·ristian
miss,ionar ·ies
o·f w1·iting it a,fter they have
'ha1d
per sonal knowledge of their life and conduct .
In 1 Corintl1ians, gross sins are dealt witl1 envy, strife,
divisions, incest, litigation, adultery, fornication, drunkenne ·ss,
covetousn ,ess, ido'latry,
1
etc. In 2 Corinthi ,ans, some of the
same sins are condemned. In Galatians, he implies the failu1·e
of man to attain righteousnes ,s in mai11taining the thesis that
· no man is ,ju,s,t.ified by the
1
deeds of the law, bu- any man
may be j'ustified by simple faith in Cl11·ist esus (2 ·:14ff), a11d
mentions
the works
of
the flesh, ''forni
1
cation, uncleanness,
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Paul s Testimony to the Doctrine of Sin 51
recognizes that his readers were ' once dead in trespasses
and sins (2 : 1), and exhorts them to lay aside certain sins
(4 :25:ff). In Colossians, he does the same. In Philippians,
he says less about sin, or sins, but in 3 :3-9 he tells his ex
perience of failure to attain righteou sness with all his
ad
vantages of birth, training, culture, and circumstances. In
the pastoral epistles, he rebukes certain sins with
no
uncertain
voice.
PAUL'S EXPERIENCE THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROOF TO . HIM OF
HIS DOCTRINE OF SIN
Paul was a Pharisee. Righteousne .ss, or right relation
with God, was his religious goal. As a Phar isee he felt that
he
could and must , in himself, achieve righteousness
by
keep
ing the whole written and oral law. This kind of (sup
posable) righteousne ss he afterward describes and re
pudiates. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the
Spirit
of
God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no con
fidence in the flesh : though n1yself might have confidence_
even in the flesh : circumci sed the eighth day, of the stock
of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews;
as touching zeal, persecuting the church; as touching the
.righteou sness which is in the law, blameless. Howbeit, what
things were gain to me, these have counted loss for Christ.
Yea, verily, and count all things to be loss for the excellency
of the knowledgt of Christ Je sus my Lord; for whom
suffered
the
loss of all things and do count them but refuse,
that may gain Chri st and be found in Him, not having a
righteou sness of mine own, even that which is of the law,
but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness
Which is from God
by
faith (Phil. 3 :3-9, Am. Rev.).
His
experience as a Pharisee in trying to work out a
righteousness of his own showed him to be a moral and
religious failure. This experience he reflected in Rom.
7
:7-25
(So Origen, Tertullian , Chrysostom, Theodoret, and most
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52
Tlie F·unda11ietitals
•
•
modern New ·Testament scholars, though Augustine and a
few
modern N e,w
T
es·ta.ment
.scholars think th ·e
p
1
a.ssag
1
e·
ref
errs
•
· to the experience of · a Christian). '' Sin, finding occasion
thr ough
the
c
1
onunand1n
1
ent, 'beguiled
me
and
through it
slew
me . .• • • that through the conunandment sin might be-
• •
come'' (be shown to be) ''exceeding sinful.. For we know
hat , the
la,w
is
S,piritttal :·
but I am carnal, 1S
1
0·l
1
d under sin~
For that which I do I kn
1
6w not; for not what I wlould, that
·do
I
practise;
but
wl1at
I
hat e, that
I do . . .
Wretched
man that I am who shall deliver me out of the body of this
death r I thank God through Je s·us Christ our Lord . So
we
see,
tl1at
P'aul by his
experience
with
the
l:aw
wa.s
led
to
. ee that .
'"in
him ,
that is, i11
l1is flesl1, dwelt
no ,
good th ing; ''
that in bi~ mep-ibers is the sin principle enslaving him so
that
he
''is sold
und er .sin'', that
is,
under
the sway of this
sin
prin ,ciple.
He tl1ought ihe
law
could help
him to
be
righteou .s. All it could
,do w·ra,s
to S1how him his
helpless iness
as a sinner and drive hi1n in l1is d
1
espair to Christ as his
only Rescuer ''out of th e body 0£ this death''. All the
righteousness he could
achieve was
insufficient. Orily
God's
o\vn righteousness, given through faith
in
Christ Jesus,
could
sati sfy
the co,nscience o,f the awakened
sinner
or
be ac~eptable
to
God.
•
THE ORIGIN OF SIN
The apostle does not discuss the larger
problem,
th.e origin .
of sin in God's rnor·al universe. Whence
and how
did sin
originally enter the n1oral universe ? Paul does not under
take to
solve
this
problem.
Only
the r'elative
and
temporal
origin of sin, it s entrance into the human race on earth, not
its· absolute a11d ultimate ource , engages the thought of Paul~
But what is his
testimony
asl to
how and
wh
1
en sin
entered
. the human rac
1
e? TT·he class·ic pass
1
age
1
0n the sourrce o,f
human sin is Rom. 5 :12-21. Let us
1
C0
1
nside·r it. Pau .1 testifies
that
sin entered our ra
1
ce
in and
through the disobedience · of
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Paitl s Testim on,y to the D octrine of S in
53
in prin ciple] entered into the world, and death
by sin;
and so death passed
unto
all
men,
for that all sinned . • ·
as
throu gh one tr espass the jud gment came unto all
men
to
conden1nation • • for as through the one man's dis
obedience
1nan y
were made sinners ( Rom. S : 12, 18, 19).
In thi s parall elism between
Ada1n
and Christ, Pau l is seek
ing to show,
by
contrast, the excellence of grace and the
tran scendent blessednes s of the justified man in Christ H e
is not prim'arily discussing the origin of human
sin.
But
that does not depreciate his testimony. The fact that it is
an incidental and
not
a studied
testin1ony
makes
it
all the
more trustworthy and convincing.
Nor is Paul here simply voicing the thought of his unin
spired fellow-countrymen as to the entrance of sin into our
race. Dr. Ed ersheim says : So far as their opinions can
be gathered from their writ ings, the great doctrines of orig
inal sin and the sin£ulness of our whole nature were not
held by the ancient Rabbis . * Weber thu s summarized the
Jewish
view .
as expre ssed in the Talmud: By the Fall
man came under a curse, is guilty of death, and his right
relation to God is rendered difficult. More than this cannot
he said. Sin., to which the bent and leaning had alre ady
been planted by creation, had become a fact, 'the
evil
im
pulse' ( cor malignum, 4 E s. 3 :21) gained the mastery over
mankind, who can only resist it
by
the greate st effort s ; be
fore the Fall it had power over him, but no such ascendency .
t
The reader is referred to Wi sd. 2 :23ff, Eccl us. 25 :24 ( 33) ,
4 E s. 3 :7 21ff, Apoc. Baruch 17 3, 54 :15, 19, as expression s
of the Jewi sh view of the entrance of sin into the world and
the relation of Adam to the race in the transmission of
guilt.
One of these passages, Ecclu s. 25 :24 ( 33) the sin of the race
is traced back to Eve: from a woman was the beginn ing
of sin .
Life and Ti mes of Je sus the 1\1:ss iah , l. 165.
t Altsyn . T heo]., p . 216.
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54
•
The, Fundamentals
••
..
Observe tliat Paul goes beyond th,a statement of any un-
inspired
Jewisli writers ·
1.
In assertitig
tliat
A ,dam and not Eve is the
one
througli
whom sin e1itered into tltterace.
·
2 .
That, in some sense, when A dam
,sinned, all sinned',,
and in /itS
Sinii,ing
'a[l
fi.Jere 1fftadeJJ 1<a1 £CTT(t° 7aciv, S1:oo,d
down or constituted)
sinners:,~
(Rom.
5 :19). The ap,o,stle
here means
1
1
doubtless, ..l1,at all tl1e race was seminally in
.Ldam as its progenitor, and that Adam by the process of
heredity l1anded down to
1
his descendants
a de,p,raved
nature.
If e can scarcely mean that each . individual was actually in
pe1·son in
A,dam. If A
1
dam had 11otsinned and thus dep ,raved
and
cor t~pted
the fountain head of
the
race, the race itself
wottld not h,ave been the heir of sin and the reaper of its
fruits, , sorrow, pain, and deatl1.
3. That in
the
int1
1
oduction of sin into
thle
race by
,its
p,rogenitor the race itself was rendered lielpless to extricail e
itaelf from sin
a11d
de a,th. T'l1is th,e a,p
1
ost1e asserts
over anid
,over again and has a'lrea dy demonstrated be£ ore he
r,eaches,
the paralle lism betw
1
een Adam and Chri ,st. ''That every
mouth may be stopped and all the world brought under tl1e
judginent
of
God''; ''because by the works of the
law
shall
no flesh be justifi ,ed in I-Iis sight'' ( 3 :19, 20). ·
T'I-IE 'ESSEN
1
CE
AND
1
NATURE
OF
SIN
T11is brings us to ask, What constituted the essence or
core 0
1
£
sin, as Paul saw
it?
Modern evolutionists emphasize
• •
tl1e
ttpward tendency
of
al1 things, and
so
sin 1s regarded by
· them as merely
a step
in the
upwa1·d
progr ·ess
of
tl1e
ra
1
ce ;
that is,
sin
is ''good
in:~he making''. Christian
Scientists
go
st ill farther a,nd regard a'll pain and evil as merely imaginarJ
creatio ns Of abnonnai 1ninds.
~=
There is no actual evil, no
real pain, say they. Does either of these views find endorse-
1nent in Paul? It
mt1st
be noted that Patti nowhere gives
•
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Paul's ·Testitttony to the Doctrine of Sin
55
. t
•
•
a fonnal definition of sin~
But by
studying the terms
mostly
011
l1is pen we can detern1ine
his idea
of
si11.
He
uses
mostly
tl1e noun
dµ,apTla.
(hamartia),
58
times, from the
verb
Oµ.apTC:.vtu
hamartano), to miss the mark, to sin. To miss
what mark?
In
,classica·t Greek
it
means ''to mi,ss an
aim'',
''to err ' .in judgment or op,inion''. Witli Paul to sin
is
1
to
miss the
,ma,rk ETHICALLY an.d RELIGIOUSLY. Two, other
wo,rds use,d
by
Pa .ul s,h,ow u"s wh,at the ma,rk missed is :
d,8:1elB (
adikia
)1
unr ,ighteousness,
lack
of
conformity
tq
the will of
God; 1avoµla (an ,om.ia.),
,lawless ,nes ,s, failure to
act or live a
1
ccording
to
the
sta11dard.
of God's
Jaw.
So the
tnark missed is the Divine law .
Ilap0;{3aot,;
(parabasis),
transgression, emphasizes the same idea, failure to measure ,
up to the line of rigl1teousness laid down in th
1
e law.
On th-e
otlter hand,
si11 is
not mere.Zy
a
negation.
1t
is a.
Positive
qitality. It
is
a
'~fall''
(ITap 1rTwµa,
15
times).
This
is
graphica ·11y illustrated by P
1
au'l in
h:is desc ,ription O·f
- _he
Gentile
world's id
1
olatry, sensuality,
an
1
d
imm,orality
(Rom.
1 :1
1
8-32)
1
. ,
First, they
knew Go1d,
fo
1
r
I-le
taugl1t them
about
Himself
in
nature
,at1d in
c
1
ons,ci
1
ence (
1
:1,9,
20). Second1y,
t11ey ref used to
wors,hip
H im
as
Go1d,,
or
to
giv,e
thanks to
Iiim as
tl1e
Giv
1
er of
lall
good things (
1 :21) ,. Thirdly,
they
bega.n to
worship the creature ratl1,er than the Creator, then
gave
themselves
up to
idolatry
in a
descending scale,
wor
shipping
first human images, then those
of
birds,
then
those
of beasts
and
repti1es (1
:22-25). Fourthly,
this
wrong
idea
of
God
and
false relation to
Hi111
degraded
tl1em
into the
grossest sensuality and blackest immorality ( 1 :26-32). Is
tl1is progress of the ra
1
e·? If S·O, it is pr1ogress in th le un-
·f,olding, 0
1
f sin's cumulative po,w
1
er, and that
wl1ere
l1t1man
philosophy and culture were doing their utmost to stem the
ti,de of vice an
1
d
,cont,1·ibute to the advance .me,nt of human
government, thought, art, and ethics in the Roman Empire
-where flourished Heilenistic
c,ultt11Ne.
But Pau ,1 was convinced
J
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,
56
•
illumined and led as he was by the Divine Spirit, that the
sin principl ,e in men was not an upward . but a downwa1·d
tend ,ency,. a·nd
tl1at in
spite of all the,
philo,sophies, and
aJ.l,
culture and ethics, t·O train men in the upward way, i11tel
Ject.ually, aesthetically, sociall,y, and 1norally, ,s,till tl1ey were
•
•
carri ,ed on dow.n deeper and deeper in v·ice a.s, the,y forgot .
God and followed out the trend of their own thoughts and
desires .
That is,
if
sin
is a
link in
the
chain
of·
man's evolu- .
tion~ Pau ·1 would say it was a d.ow11ward and not an. upw,a·rd
step i11 tl1e long road of man's , development.
Let 11s ook at ano
1
th,er term ltsed by Paul to express God's
atti ·tude towa;rd sin.
'This
is
·the, t
1
er ·111
''w~ath'' ( JPY~),
occurring
20
times in Paul,s epistles~:. Thayer defines, this,
term thus : ''That in God which stands oppose,d
·to
ma·n's
disobedienc
1
e,
1
obduracy,
and sin, and
ma.nifests itsel·f in p·u.nish
ing
the
same.''t
That is,
sin
is
diametri.cally
opposite
to
the
eletne,it of holin.ess and righteoU-Sness tt
1
God s character,
and so
God' '.s rig·h·teous
character
r·evolts
at ·sin in ma·n an·d.
manifests this revulsion by punishing sin. This manifesta
tion of the Divine displeasure ,at s,in is n,ot spasmodic or ar- ·
bitrary. It
is the
natura .l
expressio
1
n
1
0£
a character that
loves
right and goodness. Because he does approve and love rigllt
and goodnes.s., He .must disapprove and hat
1
e unrigh teo.us11es
and evil. Tl1e spo,ntaaeous
expression
of this attitude , of
God's chafacter toward sin is '',vrath''. How l1einous and
eno1·mous
sin must be, if the loving an ,d gra,cions
God., in
whon1 Patti believe:s, thu .s hates and punis,hes it .Its nature
•
must be the opposite of those highe st attributes of , holi-
ness, righteousness, , love. . ·
Ta .ke another term used by Pau1,
v1r 8,1eo~
hupodikos),
guilty (R ,01n. 3 :19). Thayer thus defines this term: ''Unde1·
judgm ,en·t, one who ha.s, lost his suit; with la
dative
of p11·-
*This count follows Mot11to11and Geden, Concordance
Greek Testament) and excltt
1
des
I-Ieb.
fr ,om
Paul's epistles.
Gre:,k English Lexicon to New T ,estament ..
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on, debtor to
one, owing
atisfaction '.*
111
his passage it
· · is used with the dative of God (Oe.~) and
so ''all
the
world''
is
declared by
Patti
to
be
''uncler
;udgment of
God,
having lost its suit with God, owing satisfaction to God''
(and, it being
in1plied, not able
to render satisfaction to
l='J:i1n).
This
passage in1plies that
tlze
essence
.of sin
is
guilt .
Man by sin
is
under iudg1nent , under sentence .
He has come i,ito coi.irt with God, is found ta have broken
God s lazv,
a,id
so
·is
guilty a11d liable
t
1
p
1
unishme11t.
A sec
ondary
element in sin
is
implied in thi s term, the
helplessnes
of man in
in,
''owing
satisfaction
to God'', but not able to
render
it. ·
It must be noted that Pa itl thinks of
this
guilt as
havit1,g
l)lFFERENT DEGREES
accordi11,go the
light
against which
the
s-inner sins
(Rom. 2 :12-14). The Gentile
sins without
the
law,
that
is,
without
knowing
the
requiremen .ts of the
written ·
law, and
so
he perishes
without
the
law,
that
is,
without tl1e
severity specially provided for the transgressor in the written
law.
But
tl1e Jew,
who sin aaainst
the superior light of
Written 1·evelation, hall recei ve tl1e more severe penalty
Prescribed in the
written
law. 111ne11 are guilty of breaking
God's law,
b11t
the
di,ffe,rent
1·eal1ns of
law affot' d
different
?egrees of tight, and so
the
various transgressors are guilty
in
varying degree s, just a. there are different degrees
of mur
der
and 1nanslaughter,
accordino,
to the circumstance:-
and
m.otives
of tho se
guilty. . .
Paitl uses the term .sin to express three · phases of sin:
F1asT_.
he sin
principle,
or
sin in
the
abstr.oct.
He
.11ses
the. term more
of
ten in·
this
sense
than in
any other,. He
~ften personifies the
sin
principle, doubtless
because
l1e
be
lieves in the per sonal
Satan.
SECONDLY, by
i1nplicatioti
he
teaches
that man
is in
a state
of sin.
(Rom.
S
:18,
19.)
''All
lllen
unto ,condem11atio·n ' n1eans
that me11
are,
in a
state
af
condemnation guilty
of l)real<:inr.T
od's law,
and
therefore
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The
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•
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worthy of punishment. ''Made sinners' · signifies that man's
nature is essentially .sinfu l, and so man
may
be said to be
· u11der
the sin principle, or in
1
the state of sin (
though
this
phrase, in the state of sin, does not occur in Paul, bttt
first in theologians of a later age).
THIRDLY,
Paul uses
.several terms for sin which signify acts of sin. I-Iere he
views
it in the c
1
on
1
crete ,. Men forget
1
God, hate God, lie, stea l,
l,.:ill,coinmit adultery, hate parents, love self, etc., etc. In thi ··
sense he .sees the
st·r·ean1
of hun1an conduct which
is
only the
expression of the sin principle. .
RELATION OF THE LAW TO SIN
•
Does the law produce sin? Is the law sinful in that it
causes men to sin? Not at all, asserts Paul. ''What shall
we say then? Is the law sin?
God
forbid. Howbeit, I had
not
known sin, except through the
law:
for · I had not known
£oveting,
excep ,t
the
law
had said,
Thou
shalt not covet ; but
sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the command·
ment all manner of coveting; for apart from the law sin is
dead'',
etc., etc.
(Rom. 7 :7-14, R. V.)
Tl1e
following point
see1n
clearly expressed in this passage:
I.
The law is not the
real caus e
of man s
sin.
Not even
its severest demands
can be
charged with causing man's sin.
2. This
is
true,
because
th.e law is
essentially
holy,
righteous,
good ;
holy in
the
double sense
of
being
a
separate
order o,f being and conduct ordained by God and also requir
ing holiness, o,r the following of this separate order of being
· and conduct ; righteous in the sense of being the expression
of God's will and the standard of man's thoughts and ac~
. tions; good in the sense that
it
is ordained for benevolent
ends. It is also called ''spiritual'' in the sense that it
was
given
through God's Spirit
and
conduces to
spirit11ality
if
obeyed from the
right
n1otive.
·
3. B Ut this holy and righteous, good and spi1·it1.tal,aw
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59
•
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with the tenth commandment. He
would
not
have
co·veted
· if tl1e law l1ad not s,aid,1Thou shalt no
1
covet. T'he
Greek
'¥ford for
''0
1
ccasion'' (
df/,opµ~)
means
literally
''a base
of operatio .ns'' (Thayer). The sin principle makes the com-
1nand of God its headquarter ,s for a life-long can1paign of
struggle .in man, urgin ,g 11im to evil actions and deterring
him from good ones. There is something in man which re
volts f ron1 doi11g the thing demanded and inclines
him
to
do the thing
forbidden. . Hence,
the sin
principle,
using
this
tendency in man, and so, malcing the la
W
the
base
of
its ·
opera tions, becomes the ''occasion', to sinning.
•
4.
The
law
sho,ws the sinfulness of sin-shows
it
to
be
l1einous in its nature
and
deadly in
its
consequences. l' his
is what Paul intim.ated in Rom. 5 20 when he
said, ''the
law
ca1ne
in
besides
that the trespass might
abound''.
~he
lc1w
sho,ws
men
that
they
are failures in the matter
of achiev-
i11grighteousness ,,
5. Tlie law thus NEGATIVELY p·r1epar·e~ the way for
lead.,
i~g men to Christ as
tlieir only Rescuer. ''Wretched man
tl1at
I
am
I
Who shall deliver me out of the
body
of this
death? I thank
God
throtlgh Jesus Christ our Lord'' (Rom.
7 :24,
25).
The apostle was driven to despair as he
plunged
headlong into persecution and its enormous sins, but when he
1·eached the 1en.id of
his
own s,tre11gth h·e
looke.d up
and ac.-
cepted
delivera11ce
fr
1
01n th
1
e
risen
Christ. · ·
.
REI ..ATION OF THE FLESH TO S,IN
Pau l often uses
tl1e
te·rm ''flesh''
1.u p~) in co·ntr ,ast
With
the tern1 spirit . In
this
sense
flesh, according
to
Thayer,
111eans 'mere I1un1annatu1·e, the earthly natt1re of ·n1an apart
from · Divine
influence;
and tl1eref
ore
prone to sin and op
J)osed t·o God' ''. He rega1·ds the flesh ( occurring 84 times) as
the seat of the ·
sin prinCiple.
''In me, that ·is, in
my
flesh,
dwelleth no good thing'' (Rom. 7 :18). He d.oes not mean
to
deny
that sin as a gu.ilty
act rests on tl1e human will.
f-Ie
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TJie
Fitndamentals
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· always takes for granted hutnan freedom to choose. Yet
he
regards the
lower
nature
of
man
(his
sarx)
as the element
of weakne ss
and
c,orruption i.n
man, which furnishes a
fie.Id
for the oPeration of the sin principle. The law is the
1
BASE
of operations
(occasion),
but the flesh
is
the open FIELD
where the sin principle operates.
This
sin principle drags
the
higher man ( called ''the inner
man'', Rom.
7 :22, ''the
mind, or reason1 voii~ 7 :25,
or
more usually,
the
spirit)
down in,to the realm of
the
flesh and through the pass .ions,
appetites,
etc. (
Gal. 5 :16, Eph. 2 :3), Iea.ds
tl1e
whole man
•
•
into thoughts, acts,
and Courses
of
si11. . . ·
But we must hasten to
say
tliat ,Paul
does
not adopt the
Platonic lliew that matte r is, evil per se.
Paul does no.t think
of man's physical
structure as
being in itself sinful and his
spirit;
or soul, in itself as holy.
He
merely emphasizes the
serfdom of man under the sway of
the
sin principle on ac-
c,onnt of the weakness )of l1ur,1an flesh. Nor d,oes Pai l claiin
· that human reaso
1
n is fr 1e from sin because it app,-oves tJie
l aw of God. His expre ssion (Ro1n.
7
:25) ''I of myself witl1
•
the mind
[reason]
indeed serve [am
slave to]
tl1e law of
God
;
but
with the flesh the law
of sin'',
only emphasizes
the
· £act
of
struggle in man ;
that
the higher nature does ap-
prove the requirements of God's
law, though
it
cannot meet
those demands because of
the
slaver ,y of his lower nature
1
flesh) to tl1e sin principle. .
I
•
THE
CONSEQ
1
UENCES OF SIN
a:'his
point needs no prolonged discussion.
Paul
thinks of
death, with its train of antecedents, sorrow, pain and all kinds
.
of suffering, as the co,nsequence of sin.
This
means physical
as well as spiritual death, and the . latter ( separation of man
from
fellowship with God)
is
of prime
import
to
Paul. We
need
not
bring Paul into conflict with the claims of modern
natural scientists,
that
man
would have suffered phy sical
death had Adam never sinned.
The
only man that scientists
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Paul s Testi11io11yo the Doctri1ieof
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1
w is the mortal
man descended from
Adam
who sinned.
The ref ore
they
cannot
logically assert
that man would
have
di,ed had Adam not sinned. Nor need we saj' that
Baul's
cosmic
view
of ·sin, namely,
that the
entrance of the sin
principle into human life by Adam vitiated the wl1olecosmos,
that because of sin ''the
whole ·
creation groaneth and travailetl1
together in pain
until
now''
(Rom.
7
:22), is unscientific.
He here merely asserted
the
great fact that all cosmic
life,
plant,
animal,
and
human,
has
been
made to suffer
because
of the presence of sin
in
man. Who can
doubt it?
See
Rom. S :12-14, 21; 6 :21; 7 :1,Q; 8 :19-25; Eph. 2 :1, etc .
•
THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN
Paul regards
every
man as a
guilty sinner, however
great
may be his natural
or cultural advantages. He felt that he
had
the
greatest advantages
'fin
the flesh''
to
attain righteous-
•
. ness ( Phil. 3 :3-9), but he had miserably failed ( Rom.
7
:24).
Ther ,efore
all
men have fai,led
(Rom.
1 :18.-2
:29). , But
he is
not satisfied
with
a
mere experiential demonstration of
the
universality o:f
sin.
He likewi se bases
it
on
the
dictum of ·
Scripture (Rom. 3 :9-20). More than that he studied the
facts of hu ,man life, both Jewish and Gentil,e, and so by tl1e
inductive method is led
by the Spirit to declare ''by
the
,vorks , of the law
sl1all
no flesh be justified in f-Iis sight''
•
(Rom. 3
:20); ''All have
sinned
and
are coming short of
the
glory of God'' (Rom. 3 :23).
THE PERSISTENCE OF TI-IE SIN PRINCIPLE
· In Gal. 5:17, 18, Paul tells the Galatian Chri stians that
''tl1e
flesh
lusteth
against
the Spirit,
a11d
the Spirit
against
the
flesh;
for
these are
cont1·ary
the one
to
the otl1er,
that
ye
may
not
do the
things
that ye
would''. Lightfoot
says:
''It is
an
appeal
to their
own consciousness: Have
you
not
evidence of these two opposing principles in your own
hearts ?''*
The
Galati,an
Christians are
exhorted ta ''walk
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in ,the Spirit'' and let not the sin p
1
rinciple, which is not ut-
terly ·
vanq .uished in
the
flesh at
regeneration,
prevlail and
cover them ·in
def
eat and shame . This same pe1sistence of
the sin principl .e is describe
1
d in R
1
om.
1
8 :5-,9, w.here he surely
is describing the experience of believers. Then in Phil.
3
12·
14, he
allu,desl to
his
0 1wt1
Christian exp ·erience 'thu s: ''1
count not tha .t I have already obtainecl ; or am already made
perfect;
b
1
ut I
p
1
res 1 on if so
be that I
n1ay
lay hold
on tl1at
for which
also
I was laid hold on by Chris
1
t
.Jesus ,.
Bre ·thren,
I
lc,ount not
myself
yet
to
have laid l1old. . •
I
press on
toward . the .goal unto the prize
1
of
t.he
high calling of
1
God
in Christ Jesus''. Paul knew by experience that · the old
•
sin
principle still
pursued
h.im
and
that
011 .account o·f the
weaknes :s of th
1
e flesh he had not reached the ''goal'' '
of
prac
tical
righteousnes ,,.
Even
in
his old age ( 1 Tim. 1
:15)1 l 1e
br ,eaks
fortl1
in the co11sciousness of · his own
enormous
in
herent sinf ttlness: ''Faithful is tl1e
saying, a
1
n
1
d wort}1y , of all
acc
1
ept·ation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners; of
whom
am chief . Every Greek scl10Iar
kn.ows
that :in tl1e last clause, . ''I am'', both pronoun and verb being
exp ,res .sed an
1
d their ,order inv,erted, is emphatic. .Sin pu1·sued
the
great
and consecrated
apostle
·even .
down
·to
gray
hairs.
Sin is a
Napoleo11
c
1
onducting : his disturbing, destructive, and
death
hring1ng campaigns
e.v,en in
the Ch.ristian's lif
1
e. W,e
tnay, by the , grac~ of God and the help 0
1
f the Spirit, make
hin1 pris ,oner on E lba, but he will escape an
1
d continue till
life's latest breath to distract
our
minds
land
def eat our
h1oliest ,amb
1
.itions, Bu.t this . N apoleo11 ·in tl1e realm of our
religious ex.perience ·, like the Napo 'leon in .the
experie ,nce
of
Eu1·0pean kings and nation s,, shal l
1neet
his Wat
1
erloo .
•
•
•
S,IN FINALLY VANQUISHED IN CHRIST JESUS
•
Paul
has
thi.s
thought of conquest in 1nind
in
that unique
pa ssage, Rom.
S.
:12-21.
.The
conquest
o·f sin b
1
y
grace in
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Pa
1
ul,s
Testi,,,.atty to the
Doctrine
of
.Sin ,
63
handed down
by Adam
to
his
posterity. ''But
,vhere sin
abounded, grace abounded more exteedingly, that as sin
reigne,,d in
d
1
eath,
even so might
grace reign through
righteous- ·
ness un .to eternal life thr ,ough Jesus .Christ our Lord''. Tl1is
is the
apostle's
prean of
triumph as
he draws ·
the last
pen
str
1
ok,e in describ .ing the blesse .dness
1
0£ t.he justified man.
The first historic conquest of sin in
1
Christ was His con
ceptio11 without sin; tho·ugh born of a sinful woman, he.r
sinf'u] natur ·e
wa.s
not handed
down
to
Hi1n.
Tl1en
followed
victory after victory in those thirty silent years in which
He never
yielded
to a
singl·e
sinful
jmpulse; in
the wilderness
Stn1gg·le ·when in tha·t s·upren1e m,oment
He
sai
1
d, Get thee
hence, Satan; on Calvary when I-Ie meekly submitted to
the sufferings of lluman sin, in which submission He showecl
Himself above sin; , in the resurrection when deat ·h was de
feated an
1
d driven
f1·om
his own battle field,
the
grave,
while
fI .e
as the
Son of God arose
in triump1ri
and in
forty
days·
1
afte ,rwa1·d s,at down o·n the right l1and of the Father, to send
to
men the Spirit to apply
and
enforce His mediatorial work.
Then this conquest of
sin is
persona,lize ll n each believer.
At regeneration
the sin
principle is subdued by the Spirit in
·Christ · and the D
1
ivi:ne
nature
.so
im·planted
as
to
gu.arante
1
e
the complete conquest of sin. In the life of co11secration and
service th ie sin principle g o·e is down in defeat st.ep
by
step,
until in death whose sting is sin,. the believer triumphs in
1
Christ on the
last fie·l,d; he f
e
1
els. 1ri0
sting and
knows
the
strif 'e with the sin monst
1
er is, forever passed, and in
1
exul~
tatio ,n ·h·e receives . an al)
undant ent·ranc.e''
to the
ki11gdotn
of
gl
1
ory,
a,s
Paul trit1mphantly
r
1
eceived
it.
(Phil. 1
:21,
23;
2 Tin1. 4
:6-8.),
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,,.
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•
TI-IE S,CIENCE 0
1
F
CON\7ERSION
BY REV. H.
M.
SYDENSTRICKER., . PH ..
D.,
WEST POINT, MISSISSIPPI
1.
THE CASE STATED
•
•
•
•
•
.
•
The
penetration of scientific i11vestigation
into
the
erst
while unknown
regio11s
of
things
is one of the
wonders
of
the
age. All departments of creation are yielding up their secrets
to the searching eye of science. .
The ·causes of things are being sought
after,
not only in
the natural world, but in all realms as well, so that things
may
be brought more certainly and directly under the human will.
The
unseen
operations
by
which powerful
results
are
produced
are forced to yield and tell their secrets. New powers are
discovered in all
realms of investigation and subdued as
never
before to the service of man. Practically
everything is
reduced to science, and men are learning the how and tl1e
wberef
ore
of things physical, mental and spiritual. The better
these
things
are understood,
the more completely are we the
masters of ·the world for whOse subjection man was com-
missioned. ·
Now our inquiry is whether the
conversi on of
the human
souls
-the
divinely
wrought
new birth
lies
within
the
range
of scientific investigation. Can the operations of the Divine
•
forces and the divinely appointed means for the conversion of
•
a s,oul be
ma,de
to
1
yield.
to
s:cientific
research, so
that
we
can
produce results with the same degree of
certainty
as does . he
chemist in
his
laboratory? -Do the laws
of
cause
and
effect
operate
in
the spiritual realm as in the natural world, and can ·
we apply spiritual means and causes with the same degree of
•
certainty as in physical things
?
Can we get out of the rea lm
•
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The cien~e of ~onversion
65
of the uncertain and the vague in worki11g with hu1nan souls
and operate with absolt1te assurance of adequate and satis-
• •
factory
nesults
? .
In this
greatest
of all woiks, and
wliich
is practically com
mitt ,ed to man, has God leit us to absolute uncentainties as to
•
•
results? Is it not true that if the divinely ordained m,eans be
•
•
properly used the results can be obtained with the same scien-
tific certainty as in other thin.gs, and results also whieh are in
no sense spurious but the actual effect of efficient and properly
app
1
lied eauses
?
Are
not the
p,1·0mis,es
of
God
absolute,
and
do
not
many ,incidents
in the work and ,hist,ory of
tli,e
Church
demonstrate t1iat tne conversion of souls was the .direct result
of God-appointed and mall-applied means thereto, operated by:
purely scientific methods, althougl11he workers
had no
thought
of science in their work? Are we not b0und to obey s
laws in all scientifi~ operations in the physical world,
and
must
we not
scientifically Obey
His laws in
tl1e
higher
realm of
His
•
domain?
·2. THE Cl\SlE DIAGNOSED
•
A careful diagnosis of t:he case under consideration ·may
help us towards a scientific answer to our investigation. Eo
know the patient, and especially to know precisely the nature
of the disease, is of
printe
i1nportance
in the
successful
treat
ment of it. Otherwise, all treat1nent is mere gue~s-work.
Our
subject
in
this
inquiry is a degenerate human soul.
:Degenerate me~1ing an in het·ent u.n1·ighteousnessana an
innate
corruption that has
affected
every
fiber
and facul~y of the
human soul.
This
total depravity does not mean that man is
actually
and practically
as
mean
as
he is capable
of being,
but
it means that the total man is depraved in all of his parts, and
that he is born in that condition. .
.
rhis native degeneracy is of a twofold nature: First, it is a .
legal condemnation Clescending to every hu~an seul · froffl a
.
.
Justly condemned ancestry who represented and stood for tile
whole race in the government of (iod under tl1e
covenant of
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The Sc·ie1ice of
Coiiversi on
67
into a
real
child of God~ Not merely a son
of God, but an
actually born child, so that
by
birth he
becomes
an
heir
of God
and a joint-heir
with
Christ to a
heavenly
inheritan~e.
That the Divine power is sufficient fo,r s,uch an achievement
is not to be questioned for a
1noment.
But does the work fall
witl1in the range of scientific
investigation
and are the methods
to be used strictly scientific? Is the Divine method in applying
complete salvation to this
awfully
degenerate soul
really
scien-
tific? Is it supposable
that
God is
less
scientific
in
this the
Yer}r gr ,eatest
0
1
£
all His works . than He is in the lesser
tl1ings
in His gover .nment? Does I-Ie wo,rk by one set of laws in
the
natural
world, and
by
different laws, or no laws
at all,
in
tl1e
higher spiritual realm?
But j f
God is s,cientific if the conversion of the human
soul
is accomplished
by
scien,tific
methods ·
i't
fol ows
that the
Work is best do·ne when
1
done
by
God's meth
1
ods, if indeed
it
can be done at all in any oth ,er way. And if
1
Go,d's method is
s,cientific, l1as He a,dequately
revealed
to us, Hi .s metl1od
so
that
it
can be
certainly
and
successfully
used b.Yus
as
His , workers?
.
And if this reve 'lation is mad,e to us we dare not depart from
God's method,
whatever o,ther metl1ods
may be
sugg,ested.
For,
if
we depart ,from
tl1e
methods ,God has
given and
b,y
which
God Hiinself works,
ou,r
,;vork will b
1
e a failure entirely
01· the
resuJts will be inadequate and
spurious.
•
•
4. THE I\1EANS DISC
1
0VERED
God's proposition being stated and His metl1ods bei11g
scie·ntific, ·we must next discover the 1neans by \vhich the ,vork
is to be
accomplished. Let it
bre
remembered that in all things
pertaining to
man in both te1nporal and spiritual
matters
God
Wot"k by means, and
ust.1ally
through human agencies.
Bttt in the work of converting the human soul it is evident
that the means .are twofoldr First~ those means applied direct
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168
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on the part of
I
to
the soul from within ; and
second,
those
means applied from without through the senses by human
agencies and instrumentalities. It is a fact, however. that even
the means used directly on the part of God are at least in.part
applied through human agencies; so that the conversion . of
adult souls, so far as we are able to see, is ordinarily through
human inst1·umentali,ties.
Hence the means by whicl1 the l1uman soul is converted, or
•
born .into the
family
of' God, are :
( 1) The Divi11e Spirit, wl1ich is the alone Divine Agent,
and without wl1ich no soul, of infant or a,dult, can ever p,ass
from spiritual death to spiritual life. This Divine Spirit
operates how and where He pleases and with or without means
and ,agencies. .
. (2) The Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit,
reaching and quickening men's souls through
the
reasoning
-
.
and
emotional
faculties_
The
Word
is
effectual
0
1
nly as
.accom-
panied
by
the quickening power of the Spirit, while at the
same time it may be variously applied externally. ·
•
( 3) The benign
influence
of Christians, demonstrating
the reality and power and blessedness o,f the new life ,in tb.e
sottl
of the
1
conve .rted
man. ·
•
( 4) Real prayer, by which the regenerate .soul brings the
: unregenerate to the very feet of the Divine Saviour and
insistently implore s the Div·ine grace. ·
This faith is an absolute confidence in the ability of God and
in His purpose to acco,mplish
tI1e
work thro ,ugh the means then·
being
used, whenever the
conditions
thereto
ar~
complied
witl1. There can be no true faitl1 when the available means are
•
not used a'n
1
d the kno
1
w11 condit ,io
1
ns not complied with .
•
•
5.
THE MEANS APPLIED
Here is
where
the scienc
1
e of ·conversion is
es,pec,ially mani
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The
Scie ice
of Conversion
69
•
•
God s
way
is always scientific, and all things are best done
when we adhere most closely to God s ~
me ,thods.
The conver
sion of tl1e human soul is no excep tion to this rule.
We
can .
convert men most success£ ully when we adhere strictly to the
•
Divine science of
the worl{. ·
Our
f
ailttres are no ·doubt largely
due to our not complying with God s ways of doing the wo
1
rk.
We adhere strictly to
God s
la,v s in
growing
our crops.
1 11e Seed is first placed where the do
1
r1nant
lif
1
e powers a1·e
aroused and the seed caused to germinate. Af te1·wards follow
the blade, the stalk and
··he
mature
fruit.
No
l1uma11
power
01·
,visdom can
cl1ange
this
law
of
germination
and
.g1·owth.
So
•
tl1e
human soul being spiritually dea ,d is incapable
of
doing
a11ything toward s an awakening to a new life; ,
and
being als,o
• •
unable even to
will
to do su ,ch a
thing, it
is ·quite
evident that
the very
first th ·ing
essen ·tial is the direct applicati
1
on
of
the
1
life
givi11g power of
the
Divine
Spirit to the dormant soul. Thi s
life~giving touch prepares the soul for the effectual applic:ition
of all the
othe ·r
appo,int
1
ed means by which the
soul
is brought
into the realities and fullness of the new life~ But o,rdin ·ar
ily, if not
always,
the applicatio ·n
0
1
£. the
life-giving
,Sp·irit
tl1rough
httma n
agencies
is
in
answer to prayer somehow and
so111ewl1e1·e.
May it not
be true
that every soul born into the
l .ingdom of God is in ansvver to the sttp
1
plication of some
•
earne
t
1
Christian whos
1
e heart is as large
las
humanity
ai1d
Wl1os1 prayer
touches
every lost sot1l of man.
I-Ie11ce prayer is scientifically the first means and
the
p1·ime f01.
e
to
be applied
by the
tru
1
e Chr :istian
in pr ·oducing
the
conve1·sion
of a human soul. It is perfectly certain
that
nothing can be effectively done until · the Spirit is applied,
and the Spiri t is ordinarily given in a11swer to prayer -
tl1at
i , the quickening Spirit tl1at arouses the soul and prepares it
f
01·
tl1e
effectual application
of
other divinely
appo .inted
niean . We question
wl1ether
the Spirit
is
ever given with
out prayer where prayer is available, as in all otl1er ·things
human agencies are required when available.
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70
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The
Fundamenta ls
•
I
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· Sec-0nd to the
Spirit's
work, and along with it, is the ap·
. plication of the Word by which th
1
e soul of the hearer is
reached through
the
intellect, the reasoning
f
acuities being
I
· ar ,ous ,ed,
and through
them
the
appeal of
the G
1
ospel
is
farced
into the newly awakened conscience. Here all the
_?Owers
of
elo,quence and
reason and per:sua sion come into full play
and
are mad
1
e effectual in ·turning the eyes of the awak 1ened soul
to
the
cros s.
· Next, the awakened soul now becomes co-o,perative with
the
Divine
Spirit, and
with the
W
1
01·d and
wit'h ot,her external
means, and the result is belief in ·the Word on the
part
of
the aroused soul, and through the receivin ,g of the
word
there follows an actual, , per so,nal, livi ,ng faith . in the Christ
set
forth .
in
the Gosp ,el,
fo
1
llowed b,y outward confession,
ob,edience
and Chri ,sti,an service. ·
. Hence
the scientific order
of the
application
of the means
for the conversion .of a soul is : The prayer of the Church
and the Chri stian
worl<:r for
the applicatio ,n of the quickening
•
Spirit on the part of Go,d. The preaching of the Word and
the us
1
e o,f other ex te rnal , means. The r
1
espons ,iv
1
e and
CrOP
operative and receptive act of the sinner, no ,w made willing
by the Spirit ' of God. And th ,e whol,,y personal act of · fai ,th
· in Christ on the part
of the 'sinner
by
which
he
actually
receives by his o,wn volition the Saviour as set befo ,re hifl1,
confesses Him and become,s obedi
1
en't to H im as his Lord ,an1d
M,aste,r.,
6.
'TH E
C'ONDI'TIONS
IMPOS ED
•
•
•
•
. In al
1
l sci,entific
ope1ation1
the re are condit ions that
mu,st
be
complied with, otherwi se
the
re sttlt s
ar
1
e
ei.tl1
er
spurious ,
or disa strous. T,hi,s account s
f
01· the vast number o·f sp
1
ur,ious
conver sions and lapses in the
ch ttr cl1es.
Un scrup
1
ulous and
igno,rant men seeking after a display of nu mber s use all
· sorts
of
device s in all sorts of ways to prod t.1ce ap
1
par ,ent con
version s Just as well migh ,t the che ,mi st go into his labo,ratory
a11dhrow together any and all
sor ,ts
of chemicals
and
expect
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The Science of
Co iversion
71
correct and scientific r
esults. Correct results might acci-
•
dentally follow, but the almost inevitable results would be
poisons a11d explosions. Is not
the
same true
in
the un- ·
scriptural and unscientific methods used by
many
who pose
as expert conversionists in so many of the pseu o revivals
now so muc·h in
vo
gu.e
?
•
The co
1
nditions imposed f
01· tl1e
true co
1
nversion of souls
are both philosophic and scientific, and at the same time
supr
emely
gracious
and
benevolent, ever looking to the
highest good
of
all concerned, both to the soul that is being
save,d and the worker through
who-m
the
results
are accom-
plished. .
These conditions are imposed by God
Himself.
Hence He
· becomes responsible for tl1e results when the conditions are
•
real_y
fulfilled on
our p,art.
The
results
may not
alway s
he as we
may
calculate or
desi1·e,
but
they . wilt alway s
cor
respond to the Il1ean.s as
used.
I These conditio
1
ns ar
1
e twofold. On . the p
1
art of tl1e
1
Cht·is,-
tian worker in applying God s . means for the
salvation
of
men in God s ways. The danger here is in applying all
sorts of human means in any way whatever so as to
obtain
apparent results. Often we blame God directly or indirectly
for the poverty
and chara ,c·ter of the
results,
when
as a tnatter
of fact we have nev,er complied with ·God s conditions, which
are always natural, reasonable and scientific.
Second, ,on the part of tl1e sinner thes,e co·nditio11s apply,
b
ecause although
he is spiritually dead,
he
is.
intellectually
alive and morally a free agent, and
hence
respo
nsible
for l1is
conduct, including his unbelief and his r
eje ,ction of Christ as ·
his Saviour. He is respons ,ible for the opportunities
placed
before hitn, and consequently he is responsible for the con
ditions God has imposed for tl1e salvation of his sot1l. No
man,
in any
Gospel land at
least,
can truthfully a·nd con
sciintiously claim that he has
fully
met God s conditions for ·
his salvation and that God has rejected him, or that the results ·
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72
. he
F
u dat ie itals
•
•
•
.,
have not
been
adequat e and sci
1
entific: On tl1e other
hand,
no
Christian wor·ker ha,s a right to the God-promised results
u11tilhe has met the God-imp
1
ose
1
d conditions. A partial use
.of means ,, used in an
indiffet·ent
way
for
only a
limited
time,
is not scientific and is n.o~ meeting God s con
1
ditions. Tqis
i
true not only in the work of acttial soul-saving, but .
in
the
Christian life
as we,11. .
•
•
•
•
7
THE RESULTS OBTAINED
.The
re ,sults
obt ,ained
in the
conv
1
ersion
of
a 11t1man
soul
ai·e
equally scientific with
the means
used
thereto.
The primary result is a
neV\r
1nan. Not an old man macte
over, but ,a n.ew man,, pos.sessed of a
new
life and endowed
.
with
new an
1
d enlarged possibilities. A
.man with
,a ne,v
vision both of this
life
and
of
th,e
etern,al future.
A
1nan
•
inspired with a
ne,v
l1ope,
the
flukes .of
which
are
strttck
•
into the very thro ,ne o,f Go,d and wh.ich is a positive and
inaliena .b le tit le
to
an
inheritance
in
l1eaven,.
A man With
a positive perso11al
faith
in Chris,t..
A
faitl1
that
mak,es
•
Cl1rist
hi,s personal
possession
with
all
tl1at. Cl1rist is
and
,all
that He has and all that I-Ie has
1
done.
A man whose whole
,,-
.
l,ife is, reve .rsed
fro1n
the
s,ervice
,0
1
f
sin and self t·o
the · kind
and willing serv ice of
,Christ
as his
new
Master.
·That such a man
is
the
scientific
1·esult o,f
the means that
, have been app,lied goes withottt argt1ment. It ,is only
in
har
mony
with
the
gr·eat
law·s of
God that g
1
overn His kingdom
fro .m the com.bination of the most minute
chemi
1
cal atoms
.
to the swi11gof the sp,heres in His boundless universe,
First
of
all, life prodt1ces
lif
1
e o,f its
own
kind. · Hence
the life-giving touch of the D~vine Spirit impart s life of its
own kind to tl1e d,01·mant
sottl
a,n
1
d it become-s the
living
son
of
God,,
T .his result is as,
manife ,stly scient,ific
as can
be
found
in
all
nature.
The immortal
soul
already exists en
dowed
with
all
tl1e po,ssibilities of
a finite being, but the
eternal
life is
the scientific res
1
ult of the life-giving touch
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Tlie
se :etice
of
Con·version
73
•
of tl1.e Spirit of God~ It is in fact i1npossible that the result
be
otherwise. ·
Another result is the effect
produc
1
ed upon the will
of
the
convert. His will i,s renewed and is now in. h,armony with
tl1e Divine will,
a11d
t,hi s
i.s
produced by the action of the
Divine wil,l upon th
1
e
will of
the
sinner. Here again
the
Divine begets its likeness in the changed will of the con
ve1ted soul.
A
natural · and sci,entific result.
· Again, through the enlightening
and
persuading
power
of
the G~spel
t~e
sjnner 2s le,d to see the error of
his
way
and
the condition of his soul, and repentance of sins and faith
in Christ are . ·t ·he result. The man is outwardly con ,verted
and his whol1 life and service
revers 1,d. r11es,e
are again
the scient ,ific results of the
1nea11s
used accor ·ding to t:he
Divi~e order of things. That the se results do not always
follow the preaching of the
Word
may be largely due to
tl1·e fact
that
the means ,
ha,re been used amiss for the mere
•
grat .ification
of
the lust of the
worker, or
tha t
ot·her n,eces-
sary
means
have
been neglected, especially
prayer.
And the
•
reason wl1y so, many conversions are not genuine is due to
the fact that the.y
are
merely
exte1·nal
conversions, th
1
e result
,of
1
e·x·c·i·ting r,ant c,all
1
ed prea
1
ching the G.ospe·l, while pray
1
er
for the
i11ternal
wo ,rk
of
the
Spirit l1as
been
totally
ignored.
In tl1e
whole
process of
conversion
it is a fundamental
principle that
like begets
l~ke, and
means
produce
results
according
to, pu.r,ely
s,cientific
laws,, a,n,d if
the
·results ar
1
e
not scien tific they· are spu,rious, ,external and temporary. A
beautiful and
pointed
illust1·ation is
found
in
the
conversion
of tl1e
congregation
at
the house of Cornelius. The means
we1~e ,sed . th .ott.gh. unwittingly on thie part of men ,n the
scie11tific
order. Prayer, the Holy
Spirit,
the
·preached
Word; and the resu.lts were conversion,
confession
and Chris
tian service.
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,,
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CHAPTER VI
•
THE
1D0
1
CTRINAL , VALUE
0
1
F THE FIRST CHAPTERS OF GENESIS ·
•
•
•
BY
THE
RE.V.
DYSON
HAGUE, M. A.
VICAR OF THE CHURCH OF .THE EPIPHANY; PROFESSOR OF LIT-
•
URGICS, WYCLIFFE COLLEGE, TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA
The Boo
1
k of · Genesis is. in
many
res
1
pects the most im
portant book in the Bible. It
is
of
the
first ·importance
be-·
cause it answers ., .not exha .ustively, but sufficiently, ·the funda
men .tal qu,estio.ns o,£ th
1
e h·uman mi11d. It contains the first
authoritative information
given
to
the race
concerning thes~
questions of everlasting
interest :
the
Bein.g
of God ; th<
origin of the universe; the creation of man ; the origin of
the
souI ; the
fact
of
revelation ;
the
introduction
of sin;
the
p1·omise of salvation; .the pri1nitive division of the
hum,an
race; the
purpose of
the elected
people;
the
pre liminary
part
in the program of Christianity. In
one
word,
in
this inspired ·
volume of beginnings, we have the satisfactory explanation of
all . he sin and misery and contradiction now in this world, _and
.. .
the reason of the scheme of
re·demption. .
· Or;,
to put it in an
1
other way. Tl1e Boo
1
k
of Gene,sis is
.
the
seed
in which the plant of God's W
1
ord is enfolded. It
is the
starting point
of God's
gradually-unfolded plan
of
the a·ges. Genesis is the .Plinth of 'the pillar of the Divine
revelation. It is the root of the tree of the inspired Scrip
tures. It is the source of the stream of the holy writings
of the Bible. If
the
base
of
the
pillar
is removed,
the
pillar ·
falls. If th,e root of the tr ·e
1
e is cut out, the tree
will wit.her
•
and die. If the fountain head of the stream is cut off, the
stream
will
<;lryttp.
The Bible
asl a
wh,ol,e
is lil<e a chain
l1anging upon
two staples. The Book
of · ,Genesis is
the one
staple; the Book of Revelation is the other. Take away
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Doct1 i1zalValue of
First
Chapters of Genesis
7
•
•
•
either staple, the chain falls in confusion. If the first cl1ap
ters of Genesis are
unr ,eliable,, t~1e
revelation
o,f
the beginni11g
of the universe, the
0
1
rigin of the race, and
tl1e
reason of its
redemption are gone. , If the last cl1apters of Revela .tion are
displaced the consummation of all thi.ngs ·is unknown. 1£
•
you take away Genesis ., you have lost the explanation of
the first heaven, the first
earth,
the first Adam, and the ·fall.
·If you
take
away Revelation
you
have
lost the
completed trutl1
of the new heaven, and the new earth, man redeemed,
and the
se,con
1
d Adam , i.n P aradise
regai11ed.
Further: in the first chapters of the Book of Genesis,
you
h,ave the strong and sufficient foundation of the
Sltb
sequent developments of tl1e
kingdom
of God; the root-germ
,of all
Anthropology, . SoterioJogy,
Christology, Satanology, to
say nothing of the ancient and -modern prob ,lems of the mys
tery and culpability of sin,
tl1e
D·ivine ordinance of the
Lord s
Day,
the
unity
of the
race, and God s
establishment
of matrimony and
the
family life.
We assume from
the start
the I1istoricity of Genesis and
its Mosaic authorship. It was evidently accept .ed. by Ch.rist
the Infallible, our Lord and God, as historical, as one single ·
Cromposition, and
as the work .
of
Moses.
It wa,s (accepted
by .
Paul the inspired. It was accepted universally by the divinely
inspired leaders
of God s chosen people. ( S
1
ee Green
Higher Criticism of the Pentateuch. ) It has validated itself .
to
the universal
Cl1t1rch
h1. ugl1out the ages
by
its realism and
consistency, and
by wh,at
ha s bee11 inely termed its st1bjective
trutl1f
ttlness. We , postt1late especi .al1y
tI1e
historicity
of
the
first chapters. These are not only valuable, they
are
vital. .
They a1·e the esse·nce of G,en
1
esis. The Bo,ol<
1
of Genesis is
neither the work of a theori t or a tribal annalist.
It
is still
~ess the product of some anonymous compiler or co~pilers
in some unknowable era, of a serie s of myths, historic in form
httt. unhistoric in fact. Its op~ning is an apocalypse, a direct
revelation fro1n the God of al.I truth. Whether
it
was gi.ven
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76
.
The undamentals
•
•
in a
vision
or
otherwise, it would be impossible to say.
But
it is possible, f not ·pr·o,bable, that the sam,e Lord God, who
revealed to His serv ,ant as he was, in the
Spirit
on
th.e
Lord s
Day, tl1e apoc,alypse ,of ·tl1e l1u1na11lyunknown and unknowable
events , of n1an s
history
which
will
transpire
wl1en
this
heaven
and this · earth have pas sed away, would also have r1vealed
to His s
1
ervant, b,eing in the
Spirit,
the apocalypse of the
hu1nanly unknowable and unkn,own events
which
transpired
bef o·re this ea,rth s histo ,ry b,egan. It has b,een ass
1
erted that
. the
beginning
,and the
en1d of things a1·e
both
absolute]y hid1en
from science. Sc,i ence has to do with phenomena. It is
whe .re
science
must . conf es,s its
impoten ,ce
that
revelation
steps
in, and, , with the
auth .ority
of God, reveals those tl1ings that
are above it. The begin11ing of G,enes,is, theref ,ore, is a,
diVinely
inspired narrative of the
evenis
deemed
necessary
•
by
God
to
establish
the
f oundatio ,ns for
tl1e
Divine . Law
in
the spl1ere of human life, a11d to set forth the relation be
tween the, o,mn.ipotent Creator and the man. who fell, and the
race that was to be redeemed by t he incarnat ,on of I-Iis Son.
· The
Gern1an ra ,tionalistic
idea,
whJr-~ has
passed
over into
thousands of more or , less orthodox Lhris ·tian tn inds, is that
these earliest chapters
embody
ancient traditions of the
Se1n
itic-orlental mind. Others go farther,
and not
only deny thern
io be the product of the i-evereqt and religious mind of the
Hebrew, but assert they were .
imply
oriental legend s not
born from abov,e and of God but born in the East, and prob-
•
ab1y in p,agan Babyloni ,a.
We would therefore postulate
tl1e
following propo
1
sitions :
l. The Book of Genesis has no doctrinal value if it is
n
1
ot authoritativ ,e.
2., The Book of
Gen,esis
is
not authoritative
if it
is not
true. For
if
it is not
histo,ry,
it is not reliable; and if
it is
not revelation, it
i s
not authorit ,ative. .
3,. The Boole 0
1
f Genesis is not true if it. is no,t f rotn
God.
For if it.
is n,ot from
God,
it
is
not
i,nspired;
and
if it
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is not ins,pired, i t .Possess,es to 1:1s o
1
do
1
ctrinal value whatever .
4.. The . B
1
ook of
1
Ge11esisis not dire ,ct from God if it is
•
a
l1eter·o1
1
ene,ous
con1pilati
on
of
myt h
1
ol
0,gical
folkl
1
or,e
by
ttn-
kno\\ able writers ..
1
.5. If the Book of Genesi s is a legendary narr ,ative,
a11onymous, indefinitely er·roneotts, and the persons it de
scribed the mere mythical personifications of tribal genitts,
it is of .course not only non -authentic,
b·ecause
non -authen
ticate 1d,
but
an
insufficient
basi s
for
doctrine. The
resid11111n
of dubious truth, whicl1 might with varying degrees of consent
be extracted therefrom, could 11ever
be accepted as a founda-
•
tion for the superstructure o,f eternally trustwortl1y doctri ,ne,
fo
1
r it is an axiom that
tl1at
onl,y is of doctrin ,al value which
is
God s W ,ord.
Myt l1ical
and
legen ,dary
fi
1
ction, and S
1
till
l11ore,
1
err
1
on
1
eous a·nd 1nisleading t1·adit·io·n, are in·compa,tible
not only with the character
of
the
God of all truth, but with ·
the trt1tl1fulness, tr ·u.stw·ort hinesls, and ,absolute auth
1
0
1
rity of
th.e Wo ·1·d of
G,od. We
l1a.v,e
11ot ta lcen
for our credentials
cleverly invented myt hs . The
prin1a:ry
documents,.
if
there
W
1
1·esuch ,
were
C
1
llated and
revise
1
and re-written
by
Moses
by
inspiratio11 of God.
A
sentence in
Ma1·goli,outh s
Lines of Defence deserves
an atte11tive cons ,ideration today. We should have some op
portunity, said the Oxford profe ssor, of gauging the skill of
tho se 011 whose faith the old-fashioned . belief in the auth
1
en
ticity of Scripture has been abandoned . (p. 293.) One wou ld
perhaps prefet · to put the idea in thi s way. Our modern
Chri stians ,should have 1no1·e oppo·1·tunity not only of ap
praising the skill,
but of gauging also
the
spiritual qua lifi
~ations
0
1
£
a critical school that has been characterized
notori
ously
by
an
enthusiasm against the
miraculous,
~nd a precip ~
itate adoption of any conclusion from a rationalistic sottrce
which
1nilit,ates,
against the
historicity of Ge·nesis.
Christians are con
1
ceding too n1uchnowadays to the agnostic
scientist, and the rationalistic Hebraist, and are of ten to bla.me
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8
The
Fiindamentals
if they a11
o·w
them to ,go out
1
0£
tl1eir
specific provinces without
•
protest. Their assumptions ought to be watc.hed ,vith the ut-
·most vigilance and ,jealousy.
(See
Gladston ,e,
Th ·e
Impreg•
nable Rock of Holy Scriptur
1
e, pp. 62-83.)
But
to resu1ne.
The Book of Genesis is the
foundation
on which the superstructure of the Scriptures rests.
The
•
foundation
1
of
the f
oun
1
dation is the firs,t tl11·ee
chap
1
ters,
which
form in themselves a co:mp,let
1
e monograph
af ·revelation. And
of this final substru
1
cture the first three verses of the first
·chapter are the foundation. .
In th ,e first verse of Genesis in words of superna ·tural gran•
deur, we have
a
revelation of God as ·the
first CS.Use,
he Crea·
·tor
of the
universe , the world and man.
The
glorious Be:ing
of God comes forth ,
without
,explanation, and without apol
1
ogy1
It
is a
I evelation of the one, personal, living,
God. There
·is in the
ancient
p
1
l1ilosop
1
hic
cosmogony no trace of
the
•
idea of su
1
ch
a Being, still less
of
suc·h
a
Creator, for all ot her
systems began and ended with pantheis
1
tic, materialist .ic, 1or
hyloz
1
oistic c,0
1
nce·ptions. TI1e
Divine
W:ord stands u11ique in
declaring the absolut,e idea of the· J,iving God, witho ,ut att etnpt
a·t de1nonstration. The spirituality, infinity, omnipotence, sanc
tity of the Divine Being, all
,µ
,germ lie here. Nay mote.
The later an
1
d more fully 1·evealed d.octrin·e of the
1
u·nity of
God in the Trinity may be s,ai
1
d to lie here in g
1
erm also,
and
the last and deepest revelation to be involv,ed in first and
foremost.
The fact of
God in the
first
o,f Genesis is 11otgiven
as a dedu ,ction of reason or a philos ,ophic
,g
1
eneralization . . It
is a revelation. It is a revelation of that primary truth which
•
· is received
by
the universal human mind as a truth that needs
no proof, and is incapable of i t, but which being receiv,ed, is
ve1·ified to the int,e11igent
mi11d
by an irr
1
esis,t·ible
f
orc
1
e not
•
only with ontological and cosmological, but wi·th teleological
and moral arguments. Here ,ve have in this first verse of
Genesis,, not only a postul,ate apart from Rev
1
elatio ,n, but tl1ree
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11
Doctr·i ialValiec of
First
hapters of
Genesis
79
•
•
( 1) The Unity of God ; in contradictio ,n to all the poly
theisms and dualisms of ancient and modern pagan
philosopl1y.
(2) The Personality of God; in contradiction to
that
Pantheism whether materialistic or idealistic,
which
recognizes
God s imn1anence in the world, but denies His . transcendence.
For in all its
multitudi11ous
developments, pantheism. has this
•
peculiarity, that it denies the personality of God, and excludes
from the realm of lif-e the need
of
a
Mediator,
a
Sin-Bearer,
and
a
personal Saviour.
(3) The Omnipotence of God ; in contradiction, not ·
only to those debasing conceptions of the anthropomorphic dei
ties of the ancient world, but to all those man-made idols which
the millions of heathenism today adore. God made these starS .
and · suns,
wl1ich ma·n
in
his
1
infatuation fain
would
wor ,ship.
fh~s in contradiction to all human conceptiOns and hu
1nan
evoluti-ons,
there
stands forth
no
mere deistic
abstrac
tion, but the one, true, living and only God. He is named by
the name Elohim, the name of Divine Maj
1
esty, the Adorable
One, our Creator and Governor;
t11esame
God who in a few
Verses ·tater is
revealed
as
J hovah-Elol1im, Jehovah being the
Covenant name, .the God of
revela·tion
and grac
1
e, the Ev ,er ..
Existent
Lord, the
God
and
Fathe1·
of us all. (Green,
Unity
f
G
· 3·1 32 F B.b E ,,, 258 )
enes1s, pp.
1
, . ; _ ausset s 1 . _ ncy., p. .
,Qn ,e
1
0£ the
theories
of modernism is that
the
law
o,f
evo
lution can be traced through tl1e ible in the development of
the
i
1
dea of God. The develo pn1ent of tl1e idea of Go
1
d? Is
there
in the Scriptures any real
trace
of the development of the idea
of
God? There is .an expansive, and richer, and fuller revela
tion of the attributes and dealings and ways an,d workings of
God; but not of the idea of God. The God of Gen. 1 :1 is
. the God of Psa. 90; of Isa. 40 :28; of Heb. 1 :1 ; and Rev. 4 :11.
HJn the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Here in a sublime revelation is the doctrinal foundation of
the creation of the universe, and the co,ntradiction of the an ..
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80
, The
Funda11ientals
·,
•
•
cient and
n1odern
conceptions of the
eternity
of matter. God
•
only is eternal.
One can well
be]ieve
the
s,t,o.ry
of a Japanese
thin ,ke.r
who
took up a strange book, and with wonderment read the first
·senten~e: ''In the
begin11ing
God created the heaven and t·be'
e,arth.''
It struck
him
that
there was
mor.e pl1ilosophy
of a
theological character,
and
satisfying to the mind and sqt.1, in
tl1at .one
s,ente .nce than
in
.all the sacred
·books
of t'he orient.
Th ,at single sentence sep,arates th,e
Scriptures ,
from th
1
e
rest of human pro ,ductions.
The wis,est
philosophy of
the
an
ci1nts,
Platonic-Aristote~ian
or G11ostic,
nev,er reached the point
that the wor ,Jd was created by ·Go1d. in
tl1e
s
1
ense of
abs,ol1Jte
creation. In no cos,mogo,ny outside of the Bible is there a
record of the , idea
·tl1at
God created the heaven arid the earth,
as an effort of His
will ,
and
the
fiat o,f His eter .nal, self-ex-
..
istent Personality. ,
Ex niliilo nihi l
fit
The highest point
reached
by their philosop 'hical specul .ations
wa.s·
a
kind of
at:omi
1
c
theory ; of
cosmic
atom s and
germs , an,d
eggs po
1
s,se,ssed
of some inexplicable
forces
of
develo.pm,ent;
out of which
t'he
pr ,esent
cosm,os was throttgh long
ages evolved~
Matter
was
al1nost. universally b
1
elieved to
h.ave,
exist ,ed
·from
eternity.
The Bib
1
l.e teaches
that
the universe
was not
causa sui
or
a
· mere ·passive
evo·lutio11
a£ His nature, , nor
a
mere transition
from one forn1 o·f'
being
to,
another,
f'·o,m ·rton-being to being.
but that
it
was a, direct
Ct 'eation
of the pe,rsonal, living,
wo1·k
ing God, who
c1Aeated
ll things out of nothing,.
but
the fiat
of His will, and the in:strttmentality of the
eter,nal
Logos. In
glori .ous contrast t,o
a,gi1o_t,c
science with i.ts lamentable creed,
''I believe that behin ,d and
above
and around the
phenomena
of matter and force remain .s the unsolved my·stery of the uni -
verse,'' the
Chris ,tian
holds
forth .hi,s triump ·hant solution,, ''I
believe
that
iii the
beginning God created the h.eaven and
tl1e
•
earth.'' ·,(John 1; 1-3; Heb. 1 :1; C'ol. 1 :16, The first verse
,of t'he
Bib,Je
is
a proof
tl1a,t
the Bo,ok is
of
G
1
od.
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And so with regard to the subsequent verses. Gene,sis
is
admittedly . not a
scientific
history. It
is a
narrative for man
lcind to show
that th.is
world was
made by God
for
the
habita
tion of man, and was
gradually
being fitted for
God s
chil
dren.
So in a series of successive creativ
1
e developments
from the
formless
chaos, containing in en1bryonic
conditi@n
all el
1
emental constituents, chemical and 1nechanical, air, earth,
fire,
and
water, the sublime process is recorded, according to
the Genesis narrative in tl1e fallowing order:
1. Th ,e creation
by
direct Divine act of
matter
in
its gas
eous, aqueous, terrestrial
and mineral
condition successively.
( Gen.
1
:1-10,; cf. Col. 1 :16;
Heb.
11
:3.) .
2. The
emergence
by
Divine creative
power
of the lowest
.
-
forms of sea and land
life ,.
(Gen. 1:11-13.)
3. The creation
by dir ,ect Divin
1
e act of ta ,rger forms of
life,
aq1:1atic
nd terrestrial;
the
great sea monsters
and gigan~
tic
rep,tiles
(the sheretjim and tanninim) . . (Dawson, Origin
of the World, .
p~
213; Gen. 1 :20-21.) . .
4. The emergence by Divine creative power of land ani
mals
of
higher organization,
herbivora · and
smaller
mammals
and carnivora.
(_Gen. 1
:24-25.)
5. And finally the creation
by
direct
Divine
act
1
0f
.man.
(Gen. 1
:26,
27.) Not first but last.
The
last for · which
the
first wa~ made, as Browning so finely puts it. Herein is the
compatability of Genesis
a11d
science,
for
this sublime order
is
just the
order
that
sotne
of
the f
oremOst of the
nineteenth
and twentieth century scientists have proclaimed. · It is re
inarkable, too, that the word for absolutely new creation is
only used
in
connection
with the
introduction
of
life. (
Gen.
•
1
:1,
2, 27.)
These
three points where the
idea
of absolute
creati
1
on
is
introdu
1
ced
are
t he
three
n1ain
points
at which
mod
ern
champions of evolution find
it impossible to
make their
•
connection.
· Next we have in thi ,s sub.lime
revelation
the doctrinal
foundation
£,or the beginning of
mankind. ,
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82
•
The
Fundamen i·als
•
Man was
1
creat
1
ed., not evolved. That is,
.he
,did not com
e
fr,om p
1
rotoplasmic .mud-mass, or sea. ooze bat·h.yb.ian, or by
. descent from fish
or
frog, or ·
ho
rse,
or
a.pe ;.
but
at
once,
d.irect,
full made, did. man co
1
me forth ·from God. When y·ou read
what som.e wr.iters, prof ess.e,dly r ,eligio,us, s·ay about :man
and
his be.s,tial origin
you.r
sho·ul,de,r.s,
uncons,ciously
droo1 ; yo.ur
head han,gs down; yoitr h·eart feels, sick, Your se·Jf . ·esp,ect
bas rec
1
eived a blow, When
y,ou r,ead
Gene:si.s,
your
s,hot11ders
strai .ghten, your · chest emerges. You feel p
1
r
1
0,ud to be
that
thing that is called .
man. .
up
goes ,.
your hear ·t, and.
up
goes
your head. The Bible stands openly against
tl1 e
evolutio·ll'
ary developme11t,o·f· man, and h .i:s gradual a,sc:eint ·thr,o,u,gh in#
,detin.ite aeons from the anima .l. Not a.gainst the id,ea
of .
the
1
development of the,
p'l.ans
of·
the
Creator in nature, or a
varia~
ti
1
on of species
by
means of
enviro,111nent
and p1ocesses
of
time.
T'hat is
seen
in
Gene.sis, a·n.d
throughout ·the B
1
ibl
1
e., and
•
in this world. Bt1t th.e Bible
,d,oes.
stand
plai .nly
ag,ainst that:
gari .s,h
th ,eory
tha·t
all
.species,·veg,eta'ble an
1
d
animal, have
o.rig
inated thr ,ough e:volutio,n
f roin
lower farms t11rough long na·t,
ural processes. T:he mater ·ialistic f,orm of thi ·s the:o·ry
to
the
Christian is mo .st offensive. It p,ractically
SUbstitutes
an
a·tt-en-·
•
g,en·d~ring pr.otop,la.smic call for th
1
e only and trµ ,e
1
God. But
. even
the
theis,tic-supernat ur .alisi'ic t.heory
is
1
opp
1
0,sed to
the
Bible
a11d
o .Scienc
1
e ·for these r,easo11s.
•
1. There i,s no such univ,ersal law ,0
1
f-development.
1
0lf
t'h·e contrary, scientifi.c
eviCtlence
is now
standing for det·eriora·
tion. The fl.ora and the fauna
0£ t·t1e
1ate,st p
1
eriod show
no
. trace ·of improveme·nt, .and
,ev,e·n
man,
proud
man, from t_be
bio
logical
,a·nd physi,ological standpo ·int
has gained nothing
t:o speak of from the ·dawn of '
histoi'·y.
The earliest .ar
1
chreolog
ical remains of Egyp,t, As,syria, Bab,yl.onia, s·how no ·trac,e of
slow emergence from barbarism .. That sp
1
ecies
can b1 arti
ficially improv ,ed is true , but that is not transmutati :on of sp
1
e~
\ cies. (.Dawson, ''Ori .git;
0
1
f
the Worl ,d,'' pp •.
22'7-2'77.)
1
•
2. N,o n.ew
t,ype
has ever be·en di.scovered.
Sc~ence is
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•
unive,rsally proclaiming the truth af
Gen,, l
:11,, 12,
21,
24, 2,5
''after his kind,'' ~'after their kind'' ; that is, species by species.
Geology with its five
hundred
or so species of ganoids
pro ..
•
claims the fact of
the
non-trans1nt1tation of
species. If
as
•
they say, the strata tell the story of
countless
aeons, , it i:s
strange that during those countles,s aeons the trilobite never
Produced anythin ,g but a trilobi 'te,
no1·
has ·the amn1onite ever
produced anything but an an1monite. The elaborat
1
ely a.rtifi
cial exception 1S
o,f n10,dern ,s,cience o,nly confirm the
rule. (
See ,
Townsend,. 'Collapse of Evolution.'')
•
, · 3.
Nor is the~e any
trace of
transmutation of
spec·ies .
Man develops £ram a single cell, ·and the
cell
of a monkey
•
is said to be indistinguishable from that
of
a man. But the
fact that
a
man cell d.evelops into
a man
and
the
monkey cell .
develops into a monkey, show ·s th·ere is. an
im,1neasurable
dif
ference
b1tween
them. And t.he
developmen .t.
from
a
cell into
la man has nothing whatever to do with the evolution of one
species into another. ''To science, species are practically un
changeable units'' ( ''
1
0rigin of the
1
World,'' p
1
•• 227). Man is
the
so1e
,s1pecies of
his
genus .
and the sole representative
of
'his
species.
The
abandonment
of ·
any original type is said
to
be
soon followed by the
comple·te extinctio
1
n
0
1
f
the family.
4. Nor has th
1
e.
missing
link
be·en found.
The
lat.e Rob
ert Etheridge of the British Mttseum, head of the geologicaJ
department, and one of the ablest of British paleontologists,
has said: ''In all
that
great museum there
is
not a particle of ·
evi
1
dence of tran smutation of species..
Ni.ne-tenths
of
the
talk
of evolutionists is not founded on observation, and is whol ly
Unsupported by ·facts.'' And Profe ,ssor Virchow is
1
said to have
declared with vehemence .rega di ng evolution: . ~'It's all non- ·
sense. Y
1
ou are as far as ever
you,
we.re
from
establishing
any
connection between man and the ,ape,.'' A great
gt1lf
is fixed
between the theory of evolution and the sublime statement of
Gen. 1 :26, 27
·
These verses give man his true place in the
Universe as
the
consummatio .n of creation. Made out
of the
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dust of the ground, and created on the same day with
the
highe st group of animals, man has physiological affinities with
the animal creation. But he was made in the image of God,
and therefore transcendently superior to any animal. Man
is a walker, the monkey is a climber, said the great French
scientist, De Quatrefage s, years ago. A man does a thou~
sand things every day that a monkey could not do if he
tried ten thousand year s. Man has the designing, controlling,
order ing, constructive, and governing faculties. Man has per
sonality, under standing , will, conscience. Man is fitted for
apprehending God, and for worshipping God. The Genesis
account
of
man is the only possible basis
of
revelation. The
revelation of fatherhood; of the beautiful, the true, the good;
of purity, of peace; is unthinkable to a horse, a dog, or a
monkey. The most civilized simian could have no affinity
with such ideas. There is no possibility of his conceiving
such conceptions, or of receiving them if revealed. It is,
moreover, the only rational basis for the doctrine of regen
eration in opposition to the idea of the evolution of the hu
man character, and of the great doctrine of the incarnation.
Man once made in the image of God, by the regenerating
power of the Holy Ghost is born again and made in the image
of
God the Son.
Further, we have in this sublime revelation
of
Genesis
the doctrinal foundation of-
1. The unity of the hutnan race.
2.
The fall of man.
3. The plan of redemption .
1.
With regard to the first, Sir William Dawson has said
that the Bible knows but one Adam. Adam was not a myth,
or an ethnic name. He was a veritabie man, made by God;
not an evolutionary developn1ent from some hairy anthropoid
in some imaginary continent of Lemuria. The Bible knows
but one species of man, one primitive pair. This is confitmed
by
the Lord Je sus Chri st in Matt.
19
:4. It is re-affirmed
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DOctrinal
Value
of
First Chapters of
Genesis 8,5
. .
by
Paul in Acts ·
17 :26,
whichever reading
may
be
take11,
and
in
Rom. 5 :12;
Cor. 15
:21,
47
49. Nor is there any
ground
for
supposing
that
the wo,rd Adam
is
used
in
a col
leCtive sense,
and
thu s
leave room
for
the hypotheses of
the
evolutionary development of a
large
number of human pairs.
All things in both physiology and ethnology, as well as in the
sciences, which bear on .the
subject,
confirm the idea of the
•
unity of the
human race. ( Saph:ir,
p.
206.)
2.
With regard to
the
f
a11
of
man. The foundation
of
all
Han1artology and
Anthropology lies in the first three chapter s of .
Ge11esis_
t te aches
us
that 1nan
·was
originally
created for com-
munio ,o with God, and
that
whether his personality was dichot
omistic
or
trichotomi stic,
he
was entirely fitted for personal,
in- .
telligent
fellowship
with .his
Maker,
and
was united ·with I-Iim
in
the bonds of lo ve
and
kno wledge.
Eve.ry
element
of the Bible
.
•
story recommends itself as a l1istoric
narrative.
Placed in
Eden
by his
God., with
a work to do,
and a trial-command,
tnan was potentially perfect, but with the possibility of fall,
Man
fell,
thot1gh
it was God's will
that
man
should
rise
fro1n
that human posse non peccari as a free agent into the Divine
non posse
peccarf.
(Augustine, ''De Civitate
Dei ,,
Book 22,
Chap.
30.)
Man fell
by
disobedience, and through the power
of a supernatural deceiver called
that
old serpent, the devil
and Satan, who from
Gen.
3 to Rev. 19 appears as· the im
placable enemy of the
hun1an
race, and the head of
tl1at
fallen
angel-band which abandon ,ed
through
the sin
of
pride tl1eir
first
principality. ·
This story is incomprehensible if only a myth. The great
•
Dutch theologian,
Van
Oosterzee says ,
''The
narrative
pre -
sents
itself
plainly as history. Such an historico-fantastic
clothing
of
a pure philosophic ·idea accords little with the
genuine
spirit of
Jewish antiquity. (Dog. ii, p. 403.)
· Still
more incomprehen sible is it, if
it
is merely an allegor y
wl1i.ch refers fruit serpent woman tree eating etc. to en-
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86
Tlie undamentals
\
•
is history. It~is treated as such h,y our Lord Jesus Christ,
•
who
surely
would not
1nistak-e
a
myth
for
history,
and
by St.
Paul, who hardly
built
Rom. 5, and 1 Cor.
15,,
on
cleverly
coin·
po,sed fables. It is the o,nly sat ·i.sfactory
expl.a.11ation
of the
. corruption of the race. From Adam's time death has reigned.
This story of the fall stands, moreover, as
a barrier
against
all Manicheism, and ag.ainst that Pelagianism which declares
· that man is not so bad after all, and d
1
erides the ,doct ·rine of
original sin which in all our Church confessions
disti11ctly
de ..
c1ares the possession by every one from birth of this sinfttl
nature. (See, e.g., Art. IX of .''Anglican Church.'') The pen-
alty and horror of sin, ·the corr11ption of our human nature,
and the hopelessness of our sinful estate ar~ things definitely
set
forth in the Holy Scripture, and are St.
Paul's
divinelyp
inspired deductions from this fact of the incoming of sin and
death thrott.gh the disobedience and fall of Adam, the original
he
1
ad of ·the l1uman race. Tl1e race is. in a sinf 'ul condition .
•
(Roni, 5 :12.) Manki .nd is a solidarity. As tl1e root of a tree
lives in s·t
1
em, branch, leaf and fruit; .s.o in Adam, as Anselm
· says, a person made nature sin£ul, in his post ,erity nature
made persons sinful. Or, as Pascal finely puts it, origina1
sin is folly in the sight of man, but
this
folly is wiser than all
•
,
the wisdom of man. Fo1· without it, who could have said ·
what
man is.
His
whole condition depends
upon
this imper-
ceptible
point. (
''Thoughts,'' ch. xiii-11.) This
Genesis
story
•
further is the
f
1
oundation
0
1
f
the Scriptur
1
e doc·trine of all
htt-
man resp,onsiblity, and accountability to God. A lowered
anthropology always means
a
~owered theology, for if man
was not
a direct
creatio :n
of G
1
od,
if
he
was
1
a
inere
i11direct
I
devel,opment, through .slow and painful p·ro,cess., of no· one
knows what, or l1ow, or wl1y, or when, or wl1ere, the main
spring of moral .ac,countability is gone. The
f
at ,alistic con
ception of man's personal and moral life is the deadly gift of
•
naturalistic ·evolution to our age, said Prof, D. A. Curtis re-
centJy. .
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Doctrinal Value of First hapters of Genesis ·
87
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.
3. With regard to our redemption, the third chapter of
·G,enesis is the basis of all Sot,eriology .If there Y{asno £,all,
· there wasl no conde1nnation, no separa .tion and no
ne,ed
1
0£
reconciliation. If
there was. n
1
0 need o,f
reconciliation, there
was no need of redemptio11; and . if there was no nee~ of r·e
demption, the Incarnation ,vas a superfluity, and the crucifixion
folly. ( Gal. 3 :21.) So closely does the apostle link the fall
,,
of Adam
and
the
deat h of
Christ, that ' ithout
Adam's fall
the science of theology is evacuated of its most salient feature,
•
tl1e a·tonement. If the first Adam was. not ma,de a livin,g 'Soul
and fell,. there was no rea son for the work of the Second
•
Man, the Lord from heaven. The rejection of the Genesis
•
story as a myth, tends to the reje .ction of the Gospel of salva-
tion. One of the chief
C
1
orner stones of the Christian doc
tr ,i11e s removed, if
th
1
e
historical
re,a1ity of
Adam and Eve
is
abandoned, for the
fall will
ever remain
as
tl1e
starting
point
of special revelation, of salvatio11by grace, and of the need of
personal regeneration. In it lies the germ of the entire apos-
tol.ic
Gospel. ·
Finally, we have in Gen. 2 the doctrinal foundation of
those great fundamentals, the necessity of labor, the Lord' s .
Day
of
rest,
the Divine
ordinance of matrimony, and the
home life of mankind. The weekly day of rest was .provided
for man by his God, and is planted in the very forefront of
revelation as a Divine ordinance, and so also is marriage an
1
d ·
the l10n1e. ,Our Lord J~st1s Christ en
1
dorses the Mo·saic s,tory
of tl1e creation of Adam and Eve, refers to it as the explana
tion of the Divine will 1·egar,ding divorce, and san
1
ctions by His
inf
a]lible
imprim
atur
that most
mo111entous
of
ethical ques
tions, monogamy. .Thus the great elem-ents of life as God
intended
it,
the
thr ,ee itniv ·ersal
f actor .s of happy, healthy,
..helpful life, la.w, labor, love, are laid down in the beginning
of God' s Book. · ·
•
Three other remarkable .
features
in. the first cl1apters oi ·
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The Funda nentals
The first is the assertion of the original unity of the lan
guage of the human race. (Gen. 11:1.) Max Muller, a fore
most ethnologist and philoiogist, declares that all our language s,
in spite of their diversities, must have originated in one con1-
1non source. ( See Saphir, Divine Unity, p. 206; Daw son,
Origin of the World, p. 286; Guinness, Divine Pro
gramme, p. 75.)
The second is that miracle of ethnological prophecy by Noah
in Gen. 9 :26, 27, in which we have foretold in a sublime epit
ome the three great divisions of the human race, and their
ultimate historic destinie s. The three great divisions, Ha
mitic, Shemitic, arid Japhetic, are the three ethnic group s into
which modern science has divided the human race. The fact s
of history have fulfilled what was fo~etold in Genesis four
thou sand years ago. The Hamitic nations, including . 'the
Chaldean, Babylonic, and Egyptian, have been degraded, pro
fane, and sensual. The Shemitic have been the religious with
1
the line of the coming Messiah. The Japhetic have been the
enlarging, and the dominant race s, including all the great
world monarchie s, both of the ancient and modern times, the
Grecian, Roman, Gothic, Celtic, Teutonic , British and Ameri
can, and by recent investigation and discovery , th~ races of
India, China, and Japan. Thu s Ham lost all empire centurie s
ago; Shem and his race acquir ed it ethically and spirituaPy
through the Prophet , Prie st and King , the Messiah; while
Japheth, in world-embrac ing enlargement and imperial su
premacy, has stood for industrial ., commercial, and politi cal
dominion.
The third is the gloriou s promi se given to Abraham, the
man to whom the God of glory appeared and in whose seed,
personal and incarnate, the whole world was to be blessed.
Abraham' s per sonality is the explanation of the monothei sm
of
the three greate st religion s in the world. He stands out in
majestic proportion, as Max 1'1uller says, as a figure, second
only to One in the whole world' s history. Apart from that
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D octrinal
Value
of F irst Chapters
,of Gene,sis·
89
•
•
p,1·ornise
the m,iracu1ous history of the Hebr
1
ew
,race is inex
p1icab1e. In him c,enter ,s,, and on him hangs, the c,entra1 fact
of the
who,Je
of
the
Old Te stament,
the
pr ,omise of t he S,a-
viour
and
His glorious salvation. ( Gen. 11 :3; 22 :18; Gal.
3:8-16.) · -
In an age, th
1
ere,for ·e, when the
1
cri·tics are waxing bo1d in
claiming settledness
fo.r
.the
assured results o·f their
hypothetic
eccentricities, Christian s should wax bolder in contending
earnestly for
the
as sured results
of
the revelation in
the open-
ing chapters of
Genesis. ·
The
attempt
o:f
modernism
to
save
the
supernatural
in
the second part of the Bible by mythicalizing
the super
natural
in the
first p,art, is
a.s
unwise
a,s it
is fatal. Ins ,tead
of lowering
tl1e
dominant of faith amidst the choru s
of
doubt,
and admitting
that
a chapter is doubtful
beca·use
some
doc-
·tr1naire
has questioned it, ,or a ·do,ct1·ine is les.s authentic be-
cause s.omebody
has flo,ated
an
unve1·ifi.able
h.ypothesi .s,
it
would
be
better to take our stand with such men as Romanes,
Lord Kelvin, Vire .how, and Liebig, i·n the ·ir ideas of a Creative
Power, and to side with Cuvier, the eminent French scientist,
who said that Mo,ses, while brought up in all the science
of Egypt, was superio :r to h.is .age, and has l,ef
t
us a cos
mogony, the exactitude of which verifies itself every day in
a
reasonable nianner; with Sir William Dawson,
the
eminent
•
Canadian scientist, who declared that Scripture in all its de-
tails contradicts no received result o·f science, but anticipates
ma.ny of its discove1·ies.;. with Prof ess
1
or D,ana, , the e1ninent ·
•
American scientist, who said, after examining the first chapters .
of Genesis as a geologist, I find it to be in perfect accord with
known science ; or, best of all, with Him who said, Had ybu
believed
Moses,
you would have believed Me, £or he wrote of
Me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you be-
1ieve My words?~ (John S :45, 46j)
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CHAPTER VII
THE
KNOWLEDGE
OF
GOD
BY
REV. DAVID JAMES BURRELL, . D.
D., LL. D.,
MINISTER OF THE MARBLE COLLEGIATE CHURCH, NEW YORK
CITY
The man who does not know God has not begun to live.
He may eat and drink, make merry, accumulate a fortune
or wear a crown; but he has not entered into that better life
of high hopes and noble purpo ses and aspirations which make
us worthy of our Divine birthright. For "this is life enternal,
to know God."
To put ourselves into just relati9ns with God is literally a
matter of life or death. All the ologies are worth mastering
but THEOLOGYs indispensab le. We must know God.
But where is He? "Oh, that I knew where · I might find
Him Behold, I go forward but He is not there, and back
~1ard but I cannot perceive I-Iim; on the left hand where He
doth work, but I cannot behold Him; He hideth Himself on
the right hand so that I cannot see Him " The horizons
recede as we approach them, and the darkness thickens as
we grope like blind men feeling their way along the wall.
There are three roads which are vainly trodden by multi:
tudes who pursue thi s holy quest. Each of them is marked,
"T his way to God"; .and ,each of them is a cul de sac or
blind alley, which leaves the soul still groping and crying,
"Oh, that I knew where I might find Him "
The first of these paths is Intuition
There are no natural atheists. All are born with an
in-
dwelling sense of God. We do not enter on conscious life
like the inferior orders; but "tra iling clouds of glory do we
come from God who is our horn
en
In regions of darkest
paganism there are traces of two innate convictions; namely,
00
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· a Divine birth and a sinful a]ienatiOn. Hence the universal ·
spirit of unrest so pathetically
expressed by Augustine:
''We
came forth from God, and. we shall be homesick ·until
we
re-
•
turn to· Hinri.''
No doubt there l1ave
been
some who, with no
Jight
but
t l1at wl1icI1shine·s along the pathway of Intuition, h.ave, made
the ·
acquaintance
of Go'd ;
but
the
vast
multitude
have simply ·
arrived at idolatry. They have made unto themselves gods
'''after t11e similitude of a man''; gods, like the Bro ,cken o,f
the Ha1·z mountains , p1·ojected on tl1e skies. An idol is a man
made god. It may be carved out of wood or conjured out
of the gray matter
of
tl1e brain; but a11 gods, whencesoever
. they co,me, are i,dols, except the one true God.
•
•
Tlie
second p thw y
of
tlie God-seekers is
Reason .
He,re we come upon the
p·hilosophers
and
thos ,e wh
1
0
travel
witl1 them, This also leads to disa·ppointment; as· it is writ- ·
ten, ''
1
The wor1.d
by
wisdom knew not God''.
The golden age of philosophy in Greece fo11owed close
•
on the decay of the Pantheon.. It was when the people had
lost confidence in their idols and the cry was heard, '~Great
•
Pan
is d,ead
I''
that
the
Groves ,and G.ardens an,d Painte ,d.
Porches
arose
on the hanks of the Ilyssus. The thoughtful
1nen who assumed th·e
na111e .Philosoplioi
that is, ''lovers of
wisdom'', were all seekers after God. The Stoics, Epicureans,
Cynics and Peripatetics all hoped
to
discover Him
by
the
light of reason. Ho,v vain the quest
When Sim.onides ,vas asked for a definition of
God, he
required some weeks for meditation and then
anSwered,
''The
mo1·e
I t·hink
of
Him, the
more
He
is
unl<n,own I The ·in
numerable , gods and altars of Athens had been laughed out
of court; and the r·esults of philosophic inquiry were reco·rded
on that other altar which
succ,eeded
them, ''To
the Unknov,n
. God'' ,~
•
• •
The stock 1n trad
1
e 0
1
f
the pht]o,,ophers of Athens was
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Se1 ises.; that is, of Natt11·a] Science, wl1ich reache ·s its con-
clusions on
the ·
evidence
of tl1e
physical senses.
This rules out faith, which is the
sixth sense
divinely
given to
men for the ·
apprehension ~f spiritual truths. To
undertal,e to
solve a11yof the grea ·t problems
which have to
.
do with .our spiri tu,a.1 life
by
th,e
testimony
o;f
the
fin_ger
tips
is to l1ave one s labor
£01·
one s . pains; since, in the nature
of
the
cas·e,. ,,·s,piritual
,thing s are
spirituall .Y discerned .
T·o1·.
undertake to grasp
a spiritual
fact
by
the
p hysical
senses
is as preposterous
as
it
woi1ld
be
to
insi.st
on
se,eing
with
the ears or
he·aring with
the eyes. Faith i.s
not. cr,edu1ity,
nor
is
i·t
unsubstantial, n
1
or is it
belie·ving witl1out ,evidence..
On the
contrary,
it is
both substantia l
an,d
evidential:
only
i·t
is the substance of . things
hoped
for, the evid,en
1
ce
of
t.hings
not seen .. To
reft1se
to · exercis ,e
this .sixth
sense or
. power of spiritual . apprehension
is
to
sl1ut oneself out
for-
ever £ om the
possibility of
appr
1
eh·e11ding
Go
1
d
~r·
a·ny
o,f
the great, intangible, but real
truths
which center ·in
Him.
Yet we are constant]y hearing, in certain quarters, of
the
in1portance of pttrsui11.g
ott r
theological studies
by the
scien-
tific method . With wl1at result? W ,e have a world of ·
facts , tl1ey say, and fro .m. the se facts,
by
the
inductive
pr ,ocess, we rn·ust arrive
.at
our
conclusio ,ns .
It
is
like
an
example in
Algebra:
God is the
unknow n term ; let
this , be
expr ·essed
by
x : th ,e p
1
ro
1
hl
1
em then ~s to resolve x into
known terms by th ,e use of a multitude of seen and tangible
facts. Can
it
be
done?
G·o on and pursue yo,ur research ,es
along
the line ,s
of
evolution, until back of cosn,os you come to chaos,[
an.cl
back
of
chaos
to the
nebula, and
ha,ck
of
tl1e
neb11]a
o
the
primordial germ; a·nd that last infini ·tesimal atom will loo~ up
at you
with
t he ,old
question
on its
lips,
as
loud
as ever
and
involving
.a probl .em
as deep
as wl1en ,you began,
1
Whence
ca1ne I? What is your answer? God? Call it
1
God
if
yo ,u
please; in fact, however, it is s.imply an impersonal indefinable,
inescapable something or
otl1,er which,
for l.ack of a
better
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94 The Fundamentals ·
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t,erm, is designated as a ''First
1
Cause'', h'ut which is infinitely
far ·from what is meant by a
perso11al
God. .
W 'elJ, then, s
1
hall the
quest be
given
up
?
Is
the universal
thought of God merely an ignis f atiius leading the hopef ttl
traveler into a r
1
eal111
f impenetr ,abie mists and shadows ?
Or
•
is there .still some way of finding , out God?
Yes,
there
is a foiirth road ·by w
lii ch we approacliRini; and
.
it is an liighway cast up by the King ,Hiinself. It is, calle~
Revelation , or tlie Unveiling.
•
Th.ere i,s an antecedent
pr ·esumption
in its
f lav,or;
to
wit,
that if there is a ,God anywhere in the universe He would not
Jea:ve us ~o gr
1
ope
QUr
way hopeles lsly
in
tl1e
dark towa,r·d Him, .
but would somewhere, somehow, unveil Himself to us,
· Well, her ·e ·is a Book, which claims to b
1
e Revelation. Of
all the books in the literature of the ages it is the only one that
claims to have been div·inely authorize
1
d and '',;v,ritten by holy ·
men as they were moved by the Spirit of God''.
It opens with tl1e words, ''In the begin11ing,God''; and pro
ceeds to set forth the tw
1
0 great doc,trines of Creat ,ion and
Providence. It affirms, on the on
1
e hand, that everything in the
universe ha ,s
its,
origin in
the
1
creative powe ,r
0
1
f
G,od.; and, 0
1
n
the other, , that everything is sustained
by
·the providence of
God. .
In these two doctrines we have the sum and
sub.stance
of
Bibl
1
e, truth. But
thi.s
is not all. In b
1
etwe
1
en tl1,e do,ctrines of
Creatio
1
n and Providence there walks, through all the co,rridors ·
of Holy 'Writ, a my s,terious Figure who is
the
foregleam of
anotl1er
revelation further on. At th~ outset this Figure
appears in the protev ,angel as the ''See ,d of Woman'•, who is
to come in the
fulln ,ess
of time
to ''bruise
the serpent's
hea,d'''.,
An
1
d He appears and re-appears, n,ow in
l{ingly
guise, again
as
a man of sorrows an.d acquainted . with gri ,ef, and again with
a.
name written on His ves.ture,
' 'Emmanu~l '',
which being inter-
•
preted is '' ,God ·with us''. ·
This Book, claiming to be the written Word of God, mal<es
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The Kno·wledge of
God
us acquainted
with
His
being,
personality a·nd
rnora·1 attri bu·tes ;
bttt it does not exhaust the theme. It leads us along· a road,
li,ghted
h.Y
visions
and prophecies,
untiJ
it
opens
into another
and
cl.earer
roa,d;
to
wit, The Incarnat ,e Word of God, .
And this fifth road t.he Inca-rnation is the way which all
tru th-seekers mi.is t·pursue
if
they would fina.lly arrive
at
a just
and sa·ving kn0:wledge of God.
I·t js he·re that we ·me·et Christ,
bringin lg
th
1
e mes
1
sage from
the
throne .. He comes
into
our
worl\d
with
t·he expi ess purpose
of making · God l<nown to us; as it is written, No man hath
seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son whi
1
ch is i~ the
bosom of .the
Father,
He
ha·th declared Him .
He is called the Word, because He is the mediu
1
m of con»-
•
mt1ni,cation be.tween the Infinit ,e and the finite ; as it is written,
In
the
beginning
wa.s
tl1e
Word,
and
the
Word
was with
God,
and the Word was
God ;
and the Word was. made
flesh
and
dwe,Jt among us :
th .at is
1
to s,ay,,
the In ,carnation .
is
1
the articula
tio·n of the s,peech
1
0f ,Gad.
In the Scripture s we have a. l.etter from
1
God; but in
the
•
Incarna tion, we have the coming down of God to
unveil Him,-
self befor·e us. ·
The sottl o,f sinf ul man is like a child lost among strangers,
wild-eyed , lips trembling, eyes
searchi11g
vain]y for a familiar
.face.
Al1, l1ere
t·he
motlier ,com.es
I Ahd the
child
is sobbi·ng
•
out its happiness on her breast. Cuddle doon,
my bairnie 1 ,
So is
it
when
the
sinner find.s Christ;
or
sh,all
we not rather
say, when Chri st, th,e seeking God, finds l1im?
If, th
1
en., we a,re ever to
1
Iea.rn the .ology it mu st be ,as di,s
cip1es,
sitting
in a
docile attitude
at
the
feet of
Cl1rist.
He,
a.s
the i11carn.ate Son, is our authoritative Teacher, What,
there£
ore , ha s He to
say about God?
- As to
Hi s
be·ing, He
has little
1
or nothing
to
say;
for
the
obvious rea son that God s being is the s11b·trattun of Christ ~
entire doctrine, with out which it
,vould
be as
insignificant
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teaching is postulated on the written Word, , o,f whic ,h He s,aid,
•
Search the Scriptures; for in them
ye
think
ye
have et
1
e1~nal
l
life; and they are they which testify of Me.
And
the moment
we turn from . tl1e I·ncar11ate Word t
1
0
the wri ·tten
Wor ,d, we
come ·upon the saying,
In
the beginning, God .
A.s to the moral att1·ibutes of God, the teach .ng of Jesus is
indUbitabiy
clear. God is a spirit , He says, and they that
· worship Him 1nust worship Him in spirit and in truth . It
11eed
scarc ,e1y
be said tl1at a. spirit,
t.hough invisible
and
impal
pable, is a real
s,elf-conscious
personality. The communion of
Jesus with this Spirit is that of one person with another. He
do,es,
not
s,p,ealc to
Law,
n,ot t
1
0
E·ne·r·gy, nor to, an ind 1
efinab]e
Something not
ou1~selves
that
maketl1
for right ,eousness , but
to One
with whon1
He is
on familiar terms. The only be
gotten Son which is in
t}ie b.0
so111 f the Father He hath de-
cla1·ed
Him . .
Asj to Divine providence I-Ie speaks i11 no t1nce1·tain tone~
The God whom He unveils is in .and ·ove1~all. Out on the
hillsides H ,e bi ·ds t1s Consider tl1e lilies,, how tl1ey grow , and
assures : us that 0~1r Father, who eareth f or
tl1em,
will muct1
more
care
for us . In pursuance of
this
fact
He
encourages
us
to pray, saying, Ask and it shall
be
given you, seek
and
ye
sl1all
find,
knock -
and
it
sha]]
be
opened
unto
you .
Oh,
great
heart of the Infinite, quick to respond to our every cry
for
l1elp The doctrine of prayer, as taught by Jesus, is simplicity
itself. We are to run to God with our longings as children to
their parents;
For
if ye, being evil, know how to give
gooc1
gift ,s unto YOUr c.hiidren, how much mor
1
e sha.11you.r
Fatl1er
•
which is in heaven give good things to them
that
ask
Him''.
As to
th ,e moral attributes
of God the
tea
1
ching of
Jesus
is
not
only
clear but most emphatic; be
1
1use at this point it
toucl1es vitally our eternal welfare. The Divine holiness is
pr ,esented not so .much as .an a·tt·ribute as the condition
of
God s
being. It is the light emanating from I-Iis thr 1n
1
e, of whicl1
Christ is the supreme n1anif
estatio .n,
as He said, I am
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9
light
of
t·he
world' '' ;
and
this light must ever be reflected in
the life of
His dis.ci·ple.s,
.as He said, ''Ye a.re the ligl1t
of
the
world ; let your
light
so shine
before
men
that
they may see
your good works and glorify God''. This holiness is not merely
freedom
from moral
contamination; but
sucl1 a
se·nsit ·ive,
aver
sion to sin as makes it impossible for God to 100k with
com
plac1·ncy u·po,n any cre~·ture ,vl10 is defiled by
it.
Hence the
appeal . o the
cultivati ,on
of .a ho1y life; since '',vithout holiness
no
man
sha.lI
s·ee Go,d''.
Out of this
atm :os.phere
of
holiness
proceed two attributes
\vhi,ch, like op ·ening arms ,,
embr,ace
the world.
1
0ne of
th,em
is Justice, or regard for la\iv. No teacher · ever lived,
·11ot
even
.Mo,,e,s, wh·o emphasized as deeply as d.i,d Jesus t.he integrity of
the mo·ra.1 law. He de,fended not only the law its.elf but th
1
e
penalties affixed to its violation. The Deca1ogue is not so
sev,ere an arraignmen ·t
1
0£
sin
as the
S,ermo
1
n on the ,
Moun.t,
which rings with the inviolability of law.
The other of
the
1
outstretched arm :s is Love. The
fullne .ss
of D
1
ivine love is set
fo·rth
in the words of Jesus: ''When ye
pray sa.y, 'Our Fat .her', .,. It was wisely
obs.erve
1
d by Mad .ame
de .Stael that if Jesus had nev,er do,ne an)rthing in the w·orld
except
to
teach us
''Our Father''
He wo,uld h.ave
,conferred
·an
· inestimable boon upon a11 the children of men.
God~s love
is
manifest i.n the unceasing gifts of His providence; but its
crowning token is the grace of salvation : ''God so loved the
world that He g3.ve H is only begotten
Son
that whosoever
believeth in Him shou1d not perish but h.ave everlasting life''.
And the reconciliation between Love and Justice is found
at the
1
Cro.ss,
Here ''mercy
and
truth
are
me.t
togeth ,er ;
rigl1t
eousness and peace have kissed each other''. As law is s.acred
an,d
invio1able,
i.ts
pen .alty
m.ust b,e inflicted; it
must
be. inflict,e
1
d
e1the·r upon the male·£acto,r 01· upon some
com·petent
substitut e
who sha.11volunteer
to
st1ffer fqr
him.
It i,s
the only begotten
S,on who ,
vo]u·nteers,
sayi·ng, ''Here am I, send Me '' The justice ~
'of God is shown in the suff er ,ng inflicted upon His only begot-
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ten Son; and Hi ,s l,ove is corre ,spondingly shown in 'the
proffer
of all tl1e 'be].J.efits of that vicarious suffering to every one on
the
so,Je condition
of
faith. . ·
. It pleased God to vindicate Hi~ supre me maj ·esty before Iiis ,
an
1
cien·t peop ·te in the controversy on Carmel. All day the paga?3
p,riests assemb led at their altar cried, . ''O Baal, l1ear us'' : but
·t'here was no voice nor any that regarded. At evening tl1e
lone p
1
ro
1
pl1
et
of J
l1ovah
stood be s.ide his altar and calmly n1ade
l1is prayer, ''0 God of Israel, . let it be known tl1is day that
Thou a1·t God '' Was there any tI1at· r,egar 'ded?
Lo,
yonder
in t11e twilight sky a falling fleece of fire In awe-struclc
silence. t11e people saw it desc ,ending, lower ,and lower, until it
touched the sacrifice and cons11medit. The lo,gic of the argu
ment was ir1·esistible: they cried with one accor
1
d, ''Jehovah
i,s the Go,d '' .
The antitype and parallel of that great controversy is at
Calvary, ,vl1ete Christ, at once the ministering p
1
riest and the
sacrifice upo n tl1e alta1·, made I-Iis last prayer with hand s out
st ·retcl1ed upon
the cros .s ; and
the desce11di11g
ire consumed
14im as a wl1.0Ie burnt 0
1
ffering for the w,orld's sin. The logic,
here .also, is un ,answerable. In all the world
t'her ,e
is no
othe ·r
gospel
\Vl11cl1
dequately sets fortI1 the
Divi11e
love*
By
the
power of truth,
by
the trii1mph of
righteousness,
by
the
logic
of events, by the philosophy of history, by the blood of the
atonement, . let the world answ ,er, ''Our God is the God of
sa lvati o11; and th.ere is none otl1er beside Him ''
Tl1e fai lure of other religions and philosophies has been
•
grote ·squely pathetic: The irony of Elijah on C'armel is merely ·
•
an ecl10 of '
tl1e
D
1
ivine bttrs ,t
of
laughte ,r
out of
heaven
in
respons ,e to tl1ose who cry ,: ''Let us br
1
eak Hi ,s band asunder
and cast away I-Iis, cor
1
ds f r,o,m us ." He
th,at
si,tteth in the
I1eavens sha ll laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision. ·
Th ,e pantheo ·ns cr ,umble an ,d the pri
1
ests die; one altar remains,
to wit, tl1e cross on C'alvary. It is the sole altar and supreme
argum
1
ent of tl1e true God .
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CHAPTER
VIII
•
•
•
·PREACH THE WORD
•
•
One of the latest · njunctions of the aged
Paul,
just
before
his martyrdom, was that to Timo
1
thy, which constitutes tl1e
text of my address, Preach the Word. Thirty years of
Christian experience, fifteen years of aPostolic survey, and
th
1
e inspiration
of
the Holy Ghost, all spoke in
those words.
It was a command frolll heaven itself, no
1
t to
Timothy only,
but to
all
who fill the
·0
1
ffice of evan ,gelists or preachers in
th ,e
N
e W
Test.ament
Church, The order thus SUCcinctly
given, is a condensation of ,all that Paul had said to
Timothy
or to the Church on the subject ojf preaching .
The sound or h,ealthy doctrine on which he lays so much
StreSS, and
the
avoi
1
dan
1
c,e
0
1
f fables and
t.he
world s
wi,s1dom,
,ar
1
e both included in
this curt command.
There
has
been
a
tend
1
en
1
cy from the very beginning to con£ orm the doctrine
of Christ to the , philosop,hy of man, to fuse the two together,
and to show that all religion,s ha ·ve the . same Divin
1
e element
at th
1
eir roots. T :hi.s was seen in gnosticis ,mt in the Alexi-
andrian school of Clement and Origen, and in a score of
heresies that .sprang up within the later Church.
· The distinctive ,character of Christianity
has
displeased
the philo ,sophic
min
1
d,, and .
men
h,ave
sought :
to ·explain
aw aY
many
of its f eatu·res f ro·m
the standpoint
of
the
human cot1-
sciousness and
by
an appeal to the teachings of nature. These
efforts have certain marks in ·commo
1
n. They diminish the
heinousness of
sin, they exaggerate
the
p,owers
of
man,,
a11d
they suggest a
unif :or·mi.ty
of destiny. Sin
i,s a
d
1
efect,
perhaps
a disease , The defect can be supplied, the dise,ase can be
cured by human applications, the Divine help being
valuable
as encouragement to the human effort. High civilization and
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Preach the Wor
d
101
•
moral ref
1
orm are what man needs, an
1
d t.hes .e can be obtained
by the use of general principles common to our race, of which
Christianity is
only
one of
the for .ms.
It is natural and inevitable ti1at, with this teaching, the
written Wo
1
rd
o·f Go
1
d-should be ne,gl
1
ected, if n
1
ot ign
1
ored. No
one can
s,tudy
that Word and then ttse
it
for so broad and
indiscriminati ·ng a p·urpose. No one can study that
Word
an1d the -n be
contented
with ,a s11perficialpo1ish of
society,
and
a universal brotherhood founded upon such a scheme. Paul
s,aw this
tende ·ncy in
his
own day, and
he warns
t,he.
C.hurch
earnestly against it.
Beware,
is l1is, language Beware
lest
an,y
man spoil
you
through
phil ,osophy
and vain deceit,
after the tradjti ,on of
men.,
after
the
rudiments of the world,
and not after Christ ( Col. 2 :8) . The
evil prin
1
ciple is ever
at work. Hu .man , nature is ever
the
same.
The
Church is
a]ways
subject to
the
same ,efforts of human
nature
witl1in
itself to .remove tl1e
f,oundations of
grace and substitute the
inventions
of p·ride.
Whether i t ap·pear in the form of hier
archical assumption, or in the chara
1
cter of rational inquir ,y
and scientific r~search ., the evil principle hides,
mutilates,
or
Contr ,ad:icts the Ho,Jy Scripture. The [Scriptures, as they are,
with th
1
eir Divin
1
e claim and their uncompromising , teachings,
it cann
1
ot endure ,, and the ap,peal
to
1
.S,cripture
it
1
counts
las .
,a
m,ark of credulity and an exhibition of i,g11.orance.
One of the sa
1
dd
1
est sights in the Church of Christ is the
yiel,ding to this spirit of prid .e on the part . of the ordained
preachers of
the
Wo ·rd.
Many modern Timothys
·usii
the
pulpit for
dis,course .s
on
art
an
1
d literature ; ,others take the
opportttnity for the display of r hetoric and oratory; o,tl1ers
procJ,aim
an ethics
of ,expediency ; while Sti11 othe1·s seek
1
only
to tickle the ears
of
an audience that desires to be amused.
In all this you look in vain for the Go,spel.
Plato
or Aris
totle,
and ,
in
some cases Lt1.cian, ,
could have said it a11~
Churches are filled
by
a
1
pp
1
ealing to
1
carnal
1
desires and aesthetic
•
t,astes. Bri11iant oratory, scientific music, s
1
en,sational topics
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102
The Fundamentals
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•
and
·fas'hionable
pew holders, are the baits
to
lure people
in·to
the
churcl1es
1
and
a church is called
p
1
rosperous
as
these
wretched d
1
e·vices
succe
1
ed.
The
preacher
deligl1ts
to· get
him~
.self int ,o
the
11ewspap
1
er an
1
d he accom ·modates
his
preach ing
to the newspaper level. Sucl1 churches will, o,f course, have
worldly-mi ·nde,d.
0
1
ffi·cers
a·n.d
a. worldly~minded
membership,
while godly sou ls either flee from ' them, or else 1nrourn
in
secret, if the.y are not tl1emselv
1
es chilled by the lack of Go·spel
heat.
It
is
directly again st
all
this
that the holy
apostle utters
his clarion cry
down throug ·h the ages, ''Preach the Wo,rd.,'
What
is the
Woi'd?
It
i.s
n.ot man's philo sophy
n,or
man's
rhetoric. It is the Divine revelation. It is called '
the
Word
.
of
God,I be
1
cause
it is no·t of m.an. As God's , it has
both
authority and povver--g utho
1
rity to demand attention, and
power to
convert
and
save tl1e soul.
It is
not to
be
pounded
in ma11's n1,orta1 . n.or run into
1
man' ,s .mould. It is
not
to be·
•
•
twi sted and fitt
1
ed to n1an's preconceived
ideas. ·
It is not to ·
be filtered thro -ugh man's strainer, nor mixed with man's
conc
1
eits. It ·is.
1
God's and as ·(;-od' 's l
1
et
110
.n1an
d.a.re
add t
it, or take
from it,
or alt,er
it
in any way. The Lor
1
d Jesus
stands b y His cross, where He offered up tl1e sacii--
fice for si,n, ,and poin·ts b.ac.kward to t·he-
1
01d T,estan1ent,
and forward to the New, as alike the Word of God.
0£
t11e forme ,r
He
cries,
''S
1
earch
the Scriptttres'';
o
the latter He tell s }Iis
apost'les
that the · Paraclete
would
come a11d
teach them all things, and
tl1ey
shou ld bear
witness.
Thi s
Old
and N
1
ew Testament is one
reve.lation o·f
God one Bible one uner1·ing· rule of faith. Goc;Ih.as not
given us a
doubtful
and
deceitful
light
for
0
1
ur path.
He
has
not ,given tts a bundle of t.ruth and fabJe tied up
1
together~
He has not left us to our weak and ,discordant reason, and
thus made revelation sup,erfluous. He has given His people a
'"s,ure word d·f pro ,phec.y'' as the only reasonab
1
]e
guide ,for
I
. ou r wealc reason and o·ur sinful natures; and on this
sure
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Preach the Word
•
103
•
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Word is His Church built. The doctrines ,of grace have
. neithe ,r h11man origin
no,r
human support . They are alto
gether Divine,
and are
r
1
ec,eived
only
by
th
1
e
soul
th ,at
becomes.
partaker of
the Divine natute.
To
go:, there£
ore,
to
human
philosophy or to man s inne1· consciousness for · their con
firmation
01·
exp ,lanation, is
to go to the
sentenced criminal
•
to understand
tl1e
exce,llences of criminal law.
Tl1e
error
of e,r,ro
1
·r·s is the see~ing fo
1
r th
1
e
truths
of
religion ·from ma ,n.
It is, but the adaptatio ,n
of
religion to ,
the
carnal heart. It
is t·he essence
0
1
£
pride and
1.
ebellion ag,ainst
God.
Thousands
of tomes have , been Written by men who called themselves
•
Christia .n s,cholars and Chri sti,an p,hilosophers, wl1ich are but
·volumes of C
onf ,t1.ing n1etap,hysics
and . specious rationalizing
,from the
basis of
natural exper ien
1
c,e, ,and ,vl1ich hav
1
e under-
. mined fai ·th in the Wo ,rd o.f God, and utterly perve ·rted ·the
Gospel of
Christ.
Stud
1
ents
of
Christian
theology
waste
pr
1
ecious time
in studying the
works
of these
1
conceited thin k
ers, whose
nam
1
es
are lauded ,as. those of giants in the
Church,
while the y are ,corrupting
the
pulpit
and
secu larizin ,g
th
1
e pew.
•
, It is a favo1·ite cl1ar·g,e of
the
advocat es 0
1
f
this lo,osenes \s
that
we are worshipping a
Boal{.
Bibl ·iolatry
is
the
for
mi1dable
word. that
they cast at us.
But
we worship no book.
We
o
wo,rsh .ip, God who sent
the
Book, and
it
is no t.rue
worship,
of
1
G,od th,at sligl1ts
th
1
e
Bo
1
ol<:
whi1h H,e give,s.
I£
We
ho·nor God,
we s
hall
l1onor tl1e
W
01·d He
has ,
sent,
and
we .shall be jealous f or that Word, that not one ·jot or one ·
tittle of it be
1
disturbed by the vagaries of dreamers or · the
impio
1
u.s hands of
boas,tin,g
critics.
It
i,s the Word of Goel,
· an1d,1as
s,uch,
we
shall
not allo·w,
f
1
or a
moment,
the
specula- .
tions, imaginings, a·nd guesses of men,, ever ·
S
1
0
lea1·ned, to
weigh a feat her s weight against it. They have been con
victed
over and
over again of
grossest
fallacies in
their
hot
end.ea,vor to detract from the influ
1
ence of the ho1y ·Word,
and their
criticisms
have
returned upon th ·emselves to
thei1·
conf ·usion. What gros .s absttr ·dities
l1av.e
been
p,r·omulga.ted
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104
The Fundament als
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by
the se
learned enemies
of
R,evelation ·
Myth,
roman,ce, the
fiction
of poe
try,
,a
patchwork of tra
1
ditions, contradictory rec
ords,
pious
fraud,
these are
some of the labels -hat the strut
·ting pride of man has affixed to the
books
of the
Bible,
while ·
not
one of
his
sneei:s ha s been sustained in the light , of
honest criticism. No scientific truth has been found op--
•
posed, and no historic truth misstated, in all the sacred writ-
ings, f r0m Moses to
John.
The
most microscopic investiga
tio11s
have been made by the most
eager
and
learn ,ed enemies,
0£
the truth in order
to,
find some inaccuracy, but
not
one
has,
been discovered, except those
necessaril.y
res ,ulting from the
process of transcrip ·tion,
an,d
th
1
ose
imaginar ,y ones whic'h are
perf
e,ct,ly
re solv,able by ordinary common
s,en,se.
Apply thes,e
tes ,ts to the
Veda,s,
the Avesta, or the Koran, and the
c,on,ra ,st
is ove,rwhe1m1ng. These fairly bristle with -error and
f1lse- ·
hood, , but the Bible · comes
o~t fro,m t,he crucibl,e·
Witho~ ,t
spot,
•
as the pur ,e Word of
1
God. Men
just .
a,s learned a,s the
inimical critic ,s, and jus ,t as
thorou ,gh ,i:n
their
iriv,esltigation,
men known and
revered in the
world of
let.ter'S,1
h,ave accep,ted
the Bible ,, the
whole
Bible,
as,
the inerrant truth
0
1
f God,, I'f
the
verdict
of
the
inimical
critic s
,can,
be
tl1us
set
aside
in an
equally learned
1
Court, the 1
1
esult shows
that
their learning
· goes
for
nothing
in
th
1
e matter. ·
But far above all this te stimony to the letter is the wit
ness of millions who have found the joy unutterable , ,and the
· peac
1
e which pas ,se.th all understanding in the sacred Volume,
and who , are drawn to i·t as
a
child is drawn t,o
its
father,
without ques ,tion regarding
l1is
worth
and authority. They
never suppo se ( and the position is a
right
one) that the
fountain
that
refreshes their
soul
is defective or corrupt, but
they value its every drop a s a gift of the
Divine gr,ace.
They
go constantly to its bles sed waters and always derive strength ·
from the dra,u,gh,t. To
s,ucl1
the ca1·plng critics are as
u11-
wo,rthy 0£
regard as tho
1
se, who wou.l,d argue against the: sun
shine.
The
knowledge of the hear·t is a ,prof
ound,er
thinr.
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Preach the
Word 105
than
the ·k.nowled,ge
of
the head, and,
in
the Spirit--led dis
ciple, can
correct and rebuke the errors
of
the latter.
Now,
it
is this
holy
Word, thus spo
1
tless
and
thus
powerful
for
right ie,ousness .and
1
comfort, that t.he Christian preacher is
to pr ,each. The
preacher
is a procl ainie·r, a
herald,
no
t
a col·
legie prof ie,ssor or an
or(ginator of theories.
H
1
e has the Word
g.iven
.h,,.m,.
and
that
he , is to
proclaim. He
isl
not
to draw
from the wells of h·uman philosophy, but from the
stream
th,at
flows ·dir,ec·tly from the throne
1
0£ God. He is to tell the
peo,ple what God has s.ai.d. He is to hide 'himse·tf behind
his message, and to receive it equally with those he addresses. ·
Nor i.s tlie pre
acher ]he mouthpiece of a Church t
0
issite
ecclesiastical decrees a id fitlminate ec,clesiastical cenSt.Wes.
This is as fa·r from
preaching
the Word as the other. As ,a
herald of Chr ,ist, while
tl1,ere is
nothing bef
1
ore him
but
human
hear ,ts
and
consciences
to
appeal
to
1
,.
there ·
is nothing , behind
him but the revealed
W
or
1
d
0
1
f
God to utter and enforce.
All Church commands laid upon him as to his ·preaching are . .
as nothing
except
·as
they
are
1
conformed ·to
that
Wor
1
d.
He
is responsible as a
herald to
God
and not
to the
Churcl1t
He is God's he·rald and not
tl1
e·
Church' ,s.
The
same
rea ,son
that
f
o,rb,ids him . ro,m making th,e pe.ople' 's, approbation the
guide to his preaching wi.11 forbid him from m.a'king Church
authori .ty
the guide ..
He will be happy
to
please
both
peo.ple
and a11thorities,
but
he
cannot ·make that
pleasing a criterion
or standard. His duty is above all that. His allegiance is
higher.
IN THUS LIMITING HIMSELF T
1
0 THE PREACHING OF GOD'S
WORDJ THE , PREACHER IS NOT
1
CIRCUMSCRIBING
HIS POWER,
BUT ENLARGING IT. By the j:ealous
use
of ·
that
Word alone
he will accomplish f'ar more for
the
k·ingdom of Christ and
the salvation of men
than
by
mixing
human
expedients
with
the Word. H ·u·ma·n e·xpedients a·re very specious ,and
at
tractive,
and,
alas
many p,r·eachers
betake
themselve .s
to them.
They think
they
will ~tt ·ract th.e m.ultit .ude and fill up the pews
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106
The Fundamen tals
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f
and prOduce
a
larger rental;
and so they may,
but
these are
not the
objects
for
which the Lord
sent
out
His
heralds.
Success
is not
to
be reckoned
by
full
houses
and popular
applause,
but
by
convicted
and converted
hearts, and
b)f
the ,
strengthening of the
faith
and piety of God's people. A
· holier
life, a more
pronounced
separation
from
the
world,
a
stainless integrity
in
business
pursuits, a
Christly
devotion
to
the
interests
of
others,
a moie
thorough
know edge of the
Word these
are
the true signs
of
success which
the preacher
may justly
seek, even though he
wear
ho1nespttn
and his
people
meet
in
a
barn.
These
are
the
glorious
results
which
tl1e
conse ·crated soul wil,l p
1
ray £0
1
1·,
and in th
1
em .h,l will re-
•
j'<?icewith a pure ,r, holier joy tha ,n
that
wl1ich
c,omes
fr ·o·tn .
numbers, wealth, or popular admiration .
,
IF THE PREACHER PREACHES THE WORD ONLY, THEN BE
WILL TEAC:fI HIS J?EOPL,E
TO HANDLE THE
WORD
-to folloW
him
in his reading
and expounding to study
over
the
Scrip·
ture lesson
at, ho,me,
and to
p1ay its
blesse
1
d
truths into their
souls. A people will, in this
way, become
mighty in the
Script~tres; and he who is n1ighty in the Scriptures is a mighty
power
for Christ
and
salvati ,on, and
i:n l1i,
own sottl ,vi,l,l ha"·e
. a full experience of the power of Divine truth, deriving it
•
directly from its
source,
and
proving
how the entrance
of
· · God's
Word giveth light.
S'TILL
AGAIN,
IF
THE
PREACHER PREACH
THE
)VORD
ONLY,.
HE W'ILL . HIMSELF ' BE A DILIGE~TT STUDENT OF THE \V0
1
RD.. ·
He will
bathe
in God's
revelation
and be permeated by
it]
and so be proof against all the
shafts
of
ignorance
and con
ceit. He will become familiar with every detail of the sacred
history,
chronology, ethnology,
geography, prophecy, precept,
and doctrine., and will
take
nothing
at second
hand.
He
will not go t,o P
1
ope or Council, nor to Calvin or. Schleier
macher, to
kn,ow
what to preach, but his
de]igI1t
will
be
in
. the law of the Lord, and in I-Iis law will he meditate
day
and .
night ,. .
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''Preach .the W.ord '
•
I
It
is a
lamenta rb,Ie
fact,
that in
too many
of our
seminaries
where preachers are prepared for their work, the _Word of
God
is, not
taught,
but
in its
st
1
ea,d
the
philosophic
schemes [
of so-called
1
fathers
and great
divines,
ar
1
e
given
as the
basis of doctrinal belief. It is t rue, th,at the se sche,m
1
es are
brought to the Scripture for support, and texts are quoted in
their
defence.
It is tru .e also
tha,t ,S0
1
me. of tl1ese sch
1
emes
are consoi:iant with Scripture more or less. But, with thes ,e
admissions ,, the mistake still
exi ,sts, that the Word of God
plays a secondary part in the instruction. It is not ta .ught ;
that is, it is n.ot made th,e authoritative text-book. It is e-ven
sometimes introduc
1
ed as a, .subje
1
ct f,or critici sm,, land men ·
like Reuss and Robertson Smith are brought ·
n
as ·the cri tical
guides o,r, at least, helpers ,. As
if
a school of the prophets
was intended to examine tl1e credentia ls ,of God s Word, , and
not
tor
take it
humbly
and
grateft1lly
for
personal
t1se
a·nd
for
use before
the people.
S
1
ome th~ological schools nlight without
1
exaggeration be
called schools for turning beli
1
ever ,s into doubters. The
excuse, that men wh,o
ar ,e
going to be
prea ,chers sh,ould know
all
that is said
against
the credibility, genuineness ., and au
th1nticity of
the Scriptures, is
a
flimsy one. If th .at were
the object,
tl1ese objec·tions wo·ul
1
d b
1
e
consrdered
only
b1y way
of parenth ,esis, and the overwhelming
evidence
of the
Scrip
tures would b
1
e the ·main current of tho,ught; but this is not
the way it is ,clone,. On
the
c,ontrary,
t·he
obj ,ections are ,
magnified, and their a,uthors are commended to the stud ents
f
o,r their perusal, and ·the hint is of ten thrown out that con- ·
servat ,ive
views
0
1
f
the inspiration
of
God s
Word
a1·e
an
tiquated,
o,bsolete,
and ma rks of ignorance. We have ~hus,
in · he very places where, most of all, Ye should expect to
see the profound ,est rev ,erence
for God s
Word, ,
and
its
faith-
£
ul study
for the understan
1
ding ·0
1
f the Div·ine
will, the
ma
chinery for un
1
dermining the doctrin ,e of Scripture inspiration ,
and
author ,ity,
on
whi ,ch all Chris ,tian truth
rests, an,d that,
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The Fundamentals
too in the young minds which are being prepared to become
Christ s preachers to a sinful and dying world. It is a most
painful thought, and it becomes the Church of Jesus Christ
to arise to a sense of the evil, and to correct it before the ·
whole Church is poisoned by this insidious influence. ·
We wish our young Timothys to go out to their work with
the one controlling desire to put God s Word before the people
and to avoid questions ·and strifes of words which do not
minister to godly edifying, knowing that the power to con~
vert and edify is not the wisdom of man, but the power of
God.
In these days when so much is made of science, let them
leave science alone. All the knowledge of the material world,
which science deals in, has nothing to do with the soul s
salvation. That ·is in a different sphere altogether. While it
is in accordance with propriety that a p~eacher should have
a gene·ral acquaintance with life and things about him, w·hich
would include the main principles of natural science (which
is simply to say that he ought to be an educated man), yet
it
is not through material science that he is to teach heavenly
truths, nor is he to waste his time on protoplasm, bathybius,
and natural selection, into which and like sµbjects Satan
would gladly draw him, that he may not present the sub
jects of sin and the cross of Christ. If a preacher illustrate
Scripture doctrine from facts in the natural world, it is well.
He follows the Master s example. But i he puts the natural
world in its scientific aspects forward as the text of his
discourse, he is using a Bible of a very weak and uncertain
sort, and of which he knows very little, and he is making the
Word of God subordinate to his own inferences and guesses
from nature. Science and religion are too often spoken of
as if they occupied the same plane. Both those who say
they are antagonistic, and those who say they are at one,
equally talk of the two as on a level. You might as well
talk of bread-baking and religion as if they were co-ordinates.
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Preach
tlie
Word .
109
Of
1
Course there is a. connection between science and r·eligion.
So the1~e s between bread-baking and religi
1
on. The s·cientiiic
•
man
ought
to be religiou :s.
So
ought
the bread~baker~
Science
can furnish examples of God·,s wo
1
nders in natu ·re. So ca11
bread-baking. But such c,onnec ·tio~s cannot put the subjects
on the .same . levre].,
Sc.ience is m,er,ely· the study of matte ·r, an ex
1
amination
into natural sequence ,s; b,ttt what has that to do witl~ man's
imm.01·tal soul, and the W or ·d of God to that soul ? Who , .
dares ·to bring the latter down to the level
of
the
f
orme .r?
What has th·e: a.nalysis of any body and its division into
carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen to
do
with my eternal relation
t.o God as a responsible and si·nf ul being? Why mingle
things so utterly d·iverse
?
And yet this babble abo
1
ut science
and r,eligion (wh
1
ere science is always ever put fir ,st) is heard
•
•
ad naus.eam
from those
who
are
commissioned
to preach the
Word. Is this
Paul's . w.ay?
Is this
.John's way?
Is this
Christ's way
?
Then w·hy should it be the way o,f our ·modern
Timothys ? Science at its utmost reach can never touch the · ·
sphere of the soul's pressing wants. All its truths together
can make no impr
1
ession on a guilty conscience needing ·the
Divine p,ardon. Nature is as dumb as any of its own stones
in the matter of the soul's
salva ·tion.
Then
why
meddle with
i·t in the p
1
ulpit? Why bow to it. a.s a tea
1
cher? Why be
guilty of the blasphemy of putting it on a level with the Word
of God?
It is as preachers depart from that
Word
that their
preaching becomes barren and fruitless. The Divine Spirit
'Will
only accompany the Divine Word. His , mighty power
will act only in· His own way and
by
His own means. The
Wprd is
su·pernatural,
a.nd woe to the preacher
who leaves
••
the supernatural for the natural; who sets aside the sword
of the Spirit to use in its stead a blade o,f his own tempering
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CHAPTER IX
MORMONISM:
ITS
ORIGIN,
CHARACTERISTICS,
AND DOCTRINES
BY REV. R. G. MCNIECE, D. D.,
•
FOR T'\vVENTY YEARS PRIOR T0
1
1897,
PASTOR 0
1
F F~ST
PRESBlY·
TE,RIAN CHURCH, S1ALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
The writer has lived in Salt Lake City, the official head
quarters of
Mo,rmonism,
.for oVer thirty years, and he has irn~
proved the opportunity to secure a complete understanding o:f
the system. In the great Tab ,ernacle in Salt Lake City, during
a
whole
generation,
he
has heard Mormonism expounded
and def ended,
again and again, by its chief officials by
President Brigham Young, and President John ·Taylor, and
their successors, Wilford Woodruff, Lorenzo SnoW, and
Joseph F. Smith. In various Mormon meeting-houses, also,
front Idaho to Arizona, he has heard the system set forth
by many of its chief apostles, bishops, and elders .
F'urthermore, the writer has diligently studied the chief
o:fficiaJ
books of Mormonism, especially the ''Boo k of Mor ..
•
mon'', the
''Doctri ne and
Covenants'', ,
the
''Pearl of G:reat
Price'',
and,
supplementing these , the Mormon Catechism,
Elder
Robert's ''New Witness for
God'',
Professor Talmage's
''Lectures on the Articles of Faith' '', the works of Apostle
•
· Orson Pratt , Lucy Smith's ''History of the Proph~t Joseph'',
and
the
Autobiography of Joseph Smith. And besides he
has read a
great
mass of pamp ,hlets and
articles
by Mormon
officials. 1 he standpoint of
the
writer is that of friendly
sympathy and good-will toward the men and women a.mong
the common people in the Mormon ranks, whose sincerity
he has no desire to call in question. But since Mormonism
keeps from 1,500 to 2,000 missionaries Scattered up and down
the country, propagating
this
most erroneous
and
harmful sys-
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Mor1nonism: Its Origin and Do triii.es
•
ten1, organ .izing
Mormon
meetings,
a·n,d
separating , famities,
in the Eastern, Th1idd1e,Southern and Nortl1wes,tern . States,
pat .riotic and Ch.ristian people eve,rywhere n,eed to have a
clear idea of what M,or1nonism
1.
eally is, and tl1e shameful
way
in w.hich it disl1onors tl1e Bible and th·e Chri stian religion, so
that they
ca11
help to
pro ·tect their
own com111unities
fro1n the,
cttr se. And it .is imp,ossih1e
t,o·
understand its
cha1.
cter, with-
out ttnderstanding
its
origin, so l·et us consider
that
first. ·
•
T I-IE ORIGIN OF THE 110RM
1
0N SYSTEM
1..
As an organization
it is only eighty-two ye,ars old,
going back to April, 1830. About this ti111e, r a f,ew months
bef o,re, tl1e Bo·o,k of Morn1,on was publisl1ed ;, a11d on April
6tl1.,
1830., the Mormon Church \Vas
orga .11ized
·with six mem
bers, in Fayette, Seneca County, New Yo1·k. Notwit hstan ,d
ing the
1ong-continued
effort to. surround
this
origin with
gr
1
eat
1nystery, a11d various .
spectacular
firew
1
orks
from heaven,
as
1nanipul ,ated
by
Joseph Smith,
there
is no mystery about
it.
Tl1e period of eigl1ty-two years is not long
,enough to
take .
us back to the region of mystery.
2. Tlze two main s oitrces of its Origin: The first
sourc ·e
is a group of tl1r·ee
1
designing 1nen, wl10 p
1
ut tl1eir profane
wits
tog
1
ether t.o p,alm off on various commu11ities in N
1
ew
York, P
1
e·nnsylvania
an,d Oh.io,
this crude, bogus, man-made
system un(ler tl1e
garb of Cl1ristian ph1·aseol,ogy, in order
to deceive t·l1e unt11inl<ing.
P ,eop
1
le in general tl1ink o Josepl1 Smith as the one man
above al .. otl1ers ,~ho 01~iginatedtl1e
MortnO·t:J
Sy ,stem. But the
facts a.re
so.lid agai11st
sucl1
a
p
1
1·oposition.
Smitl1
w.as igno-
1·ant and i lliter .ate , l1a1·dlyable to read until after he was a
grow ·n man. I-Ie kn,ew practically noth .ing abo.ut the Bible,
according to
l1i:s n1othe1·s
state1nent,
and there
is no·
subs.tan
tial evidence in his life and conduct that he e·ver had any re-
ligion in
11is
1eart. :
A
religiotts man ,
l1ovvev,er erratic l1e 1ni-gl1tbe who ha,d
•
•
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been trained in the Bible and in theology was needed to give
the bogus system some kind of religious setting. The only
man connected with the scheme from its very beginning long
before the public organization who had any such qualifications
was the Rev. Sidney Rigdon. About 1819 when 26 years of
age he was licensed to preach as a Baptist minister and in
1821
became pastor of a small Baptist church in Pittsburg.
He was an interesting speaker but very erratic and con
stantly presenting all sorts of wild and startling theories
which unsettled the people. In
1824
he was deposed from
the Baptist denomination because he was unwilling to work
in harmony w1th its leaders. About two years later he be .
came a minister of the Campbellite denomination and came
under the powerful influence of that strong man Alexander
Campbell who thoroughly indoctrinated him in all the doc
trines and views peculiar at that time to the denomination. But
Rigdon quarreled with Campbell and argued if the latter could
secure fame and authority for himself by organizing a new
church then he Rigdon could secure still greater fame and
authority by giving to the world both a new revelatio~ and
a new religion through the Book of Mormon.
The two unprincipled men who assisted Rigdon in work
ing out this scheme were Parley P. Pratt who after
wards became one of the twelve apostles and Joseph Smith.
Pratt furnished 1:he mental and moral audacity necessary to
pr0pagate such a dishonest scheme and Joseph Smith fur
nished the avaricious cunning which enabled him to so com ..
mercialize the whole affair that the great bulk of the financial
profit and of the ecclesiastical power fell into his hands.
He occupied a subordinate place only until Rigdon could
put the spurious Book of Mormon into its present shape.
But just as soon as the church was organized Joseph Smith
seized the reins of power rode rough-shod over everything
and everybody that stood in his way and did not lay down
the power until his death in June
1844.
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2.
The Mormon System is thoroughly anti-Christian.
While appropriating to itself Christian phra seology, and
New Testament names and forms,
it
perverts or denies
every fundamental doctrine of the Christian religion.
It
not only denies but ridicules the Christian doctrine
of
the
spirituality of
God,
and teaches the people that
He is a
big
man like Brigham Young. For Morn1onism teaches that Adatll
is the god of this world. It denies that Christ's atonement has
anything to do with our sins, but only with the sins of Adam.
To
get rid
of
our sins,
we
must wo
1
rk
out our-salvation through
the teachings, and form s, and ordinances
of
the Mormon
Church, with its multiplied baptisms for the dead.
3.
Mormonism is a deliberate counter/ eit of the Christian
religion int ended to deceive the ignorant.
It calls itself,
The Church of Jesus Chri st , a name to which it can lay no
claim. The term Church ,>
is
a Chri stian name· and belongs
alone to Chri stians- to those who are loyal to the Christian
Church, to Je sus Chri st as the Divine and only head of the
Church, and to
the Bible
as
the
supreme and only revelation
from God.
1)
Mormoni sm tries to palm off on the world a
coun ter
feit prophet in the person of Joseph Smith. He had all the
mark s of a counterfeit or false proph et, and not one of the
marks of a true prophet. In prophetic times, what were the
n1arks of a t rue prophet? In the first place, he was a man of
pure and upright life; he was noted for spirituality of n1ind,
so
that he could discern spiritual truth and teach it to other s. He
was loyal to God, everywhere and always, and he never made
merchandise of his prophetic office. Joseph Smith .was just
the very opposite of this. Instead of living a pure and upright
life, he was hnmoral and wicked, as we shall presently see. He
had no spirituality whatever , and he constantly made n1er
chandise of his pretended prophetic position, so that it secured
for him houses and lands, and valuable corner-lot s and lucra-
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Mormonism Its Origin and Doc·trines
115
•
tive offices, such as the
1
office
1
0£ mayor, municip,al magistrate,
municipal judge, lieutenant:_general o.f the .Nauvoo Legion,, and
the nominatio
1
n
to be president.
Th
1
e Mormon people have all9wed themselves to be gr
1
iev
ou,sly decei,ved by l1is Au·tobiograp,hy, written in 1838. H
1
e
tries t.o make out that ·when he was
fift
1
en, he was a
pio1us,
praying youth, greatly concerned about religion, and ·especially
t ro t1bled becau se there were so many religious , sects, he could
not tell which one
t
1
0 join.
Now
let
us
see what
J ,oseph .Smith s
imme.diate
neighbors
have to
1
s.ay
about hi~ charact~r. , Tl1er,e is no
lack o,£
evidence.
Josep~ Smith s f,ather and mother, with the other child·ren,
.removed fr ,om V,ermont to Paln1yra, Onta ·rio County, New
York ;
in
the summer of 1815,.
They were
fortune-telle ·rs,
dreamer s, vision-seers. The fat her was a money-digger, and
th·e ,son Joseph be
1
came f,amo,us all
thr
1
ough
that
region a.s a
money-digger. Young Joseph was about eleven years old at
thi s time, having been born in
Sharon,
Vermont ,, Pee. 23, 1805.
After two ·or three yea1·s they moved about three miles south
to
Manches,ter,
where they lived
up
to 1830. Take
fi·rst
the
. .esti.mony of
P omeroy ·Tucker,
edit ,or
of
the Wayn ,e
S.en
t.ine1,
at
Palmyra,
on wl1osep
1
ress the
first
e,ditio·n of
the
Book of Mormon was
p
rin ·ted. S
1
ays Mr.
Tucker: At
this
period [ £ram 1820 to 1830] in tl1,e ]ife a11dcareer of Joseph
Smith, Jr., or Joe Smith , as he wasl uriiversa~ly named, and
the
Smith
family,
they were
popularly regarde d
as
a.n illiterate,
whisky-drinking, irreligious race of people;
the
first named,
th
1
e chief subject of this biogr,aphy., being unanimously vo·ted
the laziest
and
most worthles ,s of the generation. . . . . He
could utter the most palpa~le exaggeration, o,r marv
1
elous
absLtr,dicy,
with
the utmos ·t apparent gravity .
( Origin, Ris
1
e
an~ -P·r·ogress
of
Mormonism , p. 16.) · .
In 1833 sixty-two r,esid
1
ents of Palmyra made affidavit, over
their own sign.a.tu res, to the following
st.at,ements :
We, the undersigned, ,have be,en acquainted with the Smith
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family for a number of years while they resided near this
place, and we have no hesitation in saying that we consider
them destitute of that moral char~cter which ought to entitle .
them to the confidence of .any community. • • Joseph
Smith, Sr., and his son Joseph, were, in particular, considered
entirely destitute of moral character and addicted to vicious
habits . There is much more evidence of a similar character.
(2) Mormonis1n tries to palm off on the world a counter·
feit Bible which it calls the Book of Mormon and sets forth
as a revelation from God, putting it on the same level with our
own Christian Bible, placing the two side by side in the Mor ..
mon pulpit. Now the Book of Mormon is simply a poor and
weak imitation of our English Bible-a lifeless counterfeit.
Where did the Book of Mormon come from?
· Let all that absurd, fictitious yarn of Joseph Smith, about
an angel disclosing to him the box ·hidden in the hill of
Cumorah, New York, on whose golden plates, in the reformed
Egyptian language, was contained the material out of w.hich he
translated the Book of Mormon-let all that be cut out as
having not a particle of foundation. There was no angel. The
only plates Joseph Sm ith ever dug ou t of the hill of Cumorah
or any other hill were put there by hin1 self or by one of his
agents.
While the literature in regard to the origin of the Book
of Mormon is quite voluminous, the real facts about its origin
can be stated in small compass. In
1808-09
the Rev. Solomon
Spaulding settled down as a citizen in the town of Conneaut,
in northeastern Ohio. He was a man of education, having
graduated · from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in
1785. He studied theology, and for a number of years was a
minister
of
one of the Christian den0minatiot1s in western New
York. He had given up preaching, and had settled down in
Conneaut as a business man, seeking to establish an iron
foundry.
Being fond of Bible literature and religious romance and
archaeology, he became interested in the many Indian mounds
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ii
in that region)
and
especially in
their
builders. Tl1is led him to
pt,an a r
1
eligious romance,
in w.hich
he
brought
a colony of the,
Lost Tribes from
J
rsuale1n
into this country, where
the,y,
developed into two
nations,
the N ephites and
tl1e
Lamanites, a
purely imaginary
people.
The Book of Mormon,
composed
of
fift ,een
1
different
books,
giv ·es an account
of their
wan
1
dering ,s,
hardships and battles.
The
records are alleged
to
have been
written on pJ-a,tes of b·rass. These plate:,
begin
to jingl,e on the
second page of the Boo.k of M
1
ormo
1
n,
.and
tl1ey
cont,inue
to
jingle until
they
are
finally sealed up
and hidden
away
in
the
hill
of
Cumorah, near
Pa ,lmyra, in 420
A.
D,.
Now there are t.en int ,elli,gent witnesses, who stated over
their affida.vit
in
1833, when the .subject was f r
1
esh
in miari,
tha,t about 1811-12, they heard Solomon Spaulding reading a
religious i,tory from the Manuscript Found , trying to show
that the American Indians are the descen
1
dants
1
0f
tl1e Lost
Tribes. They remembered
the
quaint phraseology, and the
queer
names,
Lehi,
Nephi,
Jarom,
Moroni,
and
the rest. The
expression, and it
came to
pass ,
occurred ·
so of ten, the
boys
n,ick-named Spaulding, 01 ,d
Con1e-to-Pass . When
the Book
of
Mormon was publishe
1
d these witnesses
identified a t
once
the queer
names
and
phraseology.
When Esquire Wright
heard the B,oo k of Mormon read in Conneaut he ex,claimed,
Old
Come-to-P ,a,ss has co,me
to
life again .
These witnesses
were John
Spaulding,
brother of Solomon, his wife
Martha
Spa .ulding,
Henry
Lake, ,
business
partner
of Solomon
Spaulding,
John N. Miller,
who worked
for Spaulding, . ·
Aaron Wright, Oliver
Smith,
and Naham Howa .rd, three
o,f Spaulding s neighbors, and Artemas Cunningham,
of
Geauga
1
County,
who
visited
Spaulding
in
,October, ,
1,811, to
co11ect a
1
debt. Spaulding showed h,im la story he was writing
about
the 10
st tribes.
Mr. Cunningham
,spent half the ni,ght
list,ening to the
.story.
When
the
Book of Mormon a·pp~ared
he
recognized
that
in
outline it ·was
the same
thing that Spauld
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118 .
The F unda1nentals
of Solomon Spaulding, and Mr. Joseph Miller, of Amity,
Pa.,
where Spaulding died.
The evidence clearly shows
that the Book of Mormon grew ·
out of Spaulding s story , but the defenders of Mormon1sn1
lose their mental balance whenever this subject is mentioned,
and they treat it dishonestly. They say: We have the
Spaulding manuscript in the Oberlin College Library, brought
back from Honolulu in
1884
by Presid .ent Fairchild, and there
is
no connection between it and the Book of Mormon . Cer-
tainly not. No person well informed about the history of Mor-
moni sm ever claimed that there is any connection. But why
say, . We have the Spaulding Manuscript ? All that the facts
warrant is, There is a Spaulding manuscript in Oberlin ,
and the possession of that manuscript will afford no help
to
the defenders of Mormonism against the plagiari sm of the
.book until they do one thing which they are unable to do;
namely, establish a general negative, and show that this manu-
script in Oberlin College Library is the only manuscript which
Solomon Spaulding ever wrote. This can not be done, for
there is conclusive evidence that he wrote three or four manu-
scripts, and one of them was the ''Manu script Found , which
he read to his neighbors, and which formed the basis of the
Book of Mormon. So when the champions of Mormonism
say: The Book of Mormon could not have grown out of the
Spaulding manuscript, for that manu script is in Oberlin, and
there is no connection between it and the Book of Mor.moo ,
they take a dishone st position by fal sely assurriing that this is .
the only manuscript Spaulding wrote, whereas there is positive
evidence that he wrote several manuscript s. The fact, there-
fore,
is established
by
abundant evidence
that the
Book
of
Mormon is a plagiarism from Spaulding)s religious romance.
Ju st
when Rigdon, Pratt, and Smith first met and con-
cocted the dishonest scheme of the buried plates is not alto-
gether clear, probably about
1827. A strenuous attempt has
been made to show that Rigdon and Pratt had no' knowledge
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Mormonism: I ts 01 .igin a11td
Doc trines 119
of th·e Book of Mormon un·til its publication, and they go
through the wretched farce of pretending to be convert
1
ed to
11ormoni sin after the Book of Mormon ha ,d be,en published,
wl1ich they say they knew not h·ing about before, althougl1
evidence sl1ows that they both had been in tl1e scheme to pub-
'lish it since 1827. Wha ·t,a S
1
et of deceivers f · · ·
The one important fact is the plagiari sm of the Book of
Mormon
f
ro·m the Sp
1
auiding ro,mance, entitled '''Ma .nttscript
Found''. It is not sp,ecially important to know
wh,o
edited
tl1e,
Spaul ding story, and developed it into the present Book of
-
Morn1on. · But all the evidence points to Sidney Rigdon, and
it points to no one else. The evide11ce shows the following
things : That a copy of the Spaulding manuscript was in the
printing offic,e of Patterson and Lambdin, in Pittsburg, f
1
or a
good while after 1814; that Rigdon and Lambdin were on
intimate t.e1~msrom
1818,
to
the
deat l1 of Lambdin in August,
1825 ;, th ,at more tl1an two
1
y,ears befor ,e ·the p.ublication of the
Boo'k
of Morn1011,
Rigdon had
spol<:en
o, several of his. friends
about tl1e comi11g publication of a b
1
ook
f
1·om golden , plat .es,
I
which ,¥ou 'ld pr
1
oduce a great religio
1
us revolution .. D
1
u1·ing
·tl1ese two , years Rig,don was pr ,each.ing wild an.d startling
doc·trine s, afterwards found in
the
Book of 1\tlormon.
Any 011e f.ami.liar with the pecttliar Campbellite doctrines
of that time
1
can
not
re ,a
1
d
f ,ar ,
into the Book of Mo1 'monwith·
out dis,covering that the author .had been. a C,ampbelli·te. His
''s ,peech beyvra,yeth'' him i11 the employment of p
1
l1raseology to
which l1e had become accusto1ned ,vhile associat,ed with the·
bretl1ren of tha,t denomination. Furtherm ,ore,
tl1e
bo
1
ok is f'ull ,of
Rigdon's own peculiar views. He deserves credit, however,
f
1
or n1a.king the Boo,k o,f Mor1no,n conden1·n tJo1ygamy, and for
conden1nin,g
it himself, whi
1
ch b1·ought him into sharp conflict
with both Joseph Smith and his successor, Brigham
YOung.
( 3) Mormonism imposes upon the people a counterfeit
priesthood
which it calls the ''Melchisedek and Aaronic priest- .
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priesthood~ There
was
one man
by
that name,
both
a
king
and
a priest, without p·rede
1
ccssor or suc
1
cessor, ,a·nd so chosen
as
a
type of the priesthood of the S
1
0,n
of God.
The
Aaroni ·c priest .. .
hood des,cended from ·father to son, in a marvelous way, for
forty-five generations, until a.JI priesthood was fulfilled in Je:s~s
Christ. Since the one perfect sacrifice · of Himself made by
OUr ,g.re·a, Hig}:liPrie ,st, Jesus , Christ, any person who pretends
to be
a priest and
claims the right
to
stand between us
and
God, is what o·ur Saviour calls a , thief and a, robber , WJtat
a bogus priesthood this pretended Morn1on priesthoo 1d is It . ·
,-has no more right to administer , the Christian ordi ·nances of
baptism and the Lord s Supper,
than
any other
group
1
of
unp ,rincipled men ,vho repudiate Jes ius Christ as, the Divine
Head of the Church, an
1
d. go through the blasphemous , fa,rce of
electing themselves ·members of the holy priesthood .,. And
yet ..
M.ormo·ns trem,b
le
a.t,
the dictat ,es
of
this
b
1
0,gus pr ,iesit.hood,
and fear to exer
1
cise the freedom of opinion which is their
r·ight. The · ,7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th Chapters of He,brews give
u,s
Divine instruction
as to
the . a
1
ct
that
all
priesthood
was
f
or
1
ever fulfil]ed, and came to an end in J,es,us Christ .
4.
Mormonism imposes·
upon
the people a counterfeit
group of apostles. .
-
It
re
1
q.uires
four tl1ings to
ma.ke
a. tru .e·
apo,stl,e:
First He must have been acqua ·inted
witl1
Jesus Ch·rist
•
bef
or1
Hi,s crucifixion. ·
Second
He must
have seen Christ after His resurrection
f
r
1
om the
1
dea
1
d.
•
·
Third
H ,e must have received his commission as an apostle
directly
f
ram
·Christ,
as Divine
Head of
th,e
Chur,ch.
· F ourt h
I-le must be [able
t·o
work
miracles
to show that
God
sent him.
So that
any
group of men
now who say they
ar
1
e apostles.
are simply will£ul deceivers, and the truth is· not in them.
T
1
HE DOCTRINES 0
1
F
THE
M:O·RMON •S,YST
1
EM
i\JJ
that has been said under the
preceding
1
division
about
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M
o,monism: Its
0 -igin and Doctrines 121
.
the char.a
1
cteristics of M
1
ormonism, has
been
a se~ing fo,rth of ·
its false and anti-Scriptural teachings on_the four important
s·ubjects of
prophecy,
revelation, Divine authority ·
0£
the
bogus
pries ithood, and the bo,gus
1
a.postle:,.
T·he
Mormon.
Chu,rch.does
not publish its peculiar teachings and beliefs. If i-t did, it
would g,ain no more converts ; it waits until its c,onverts are
thoroughly entrapped before its
peculiar
doctrines are
dis.. ·
cl,0
1
sed.. .Its whole
system
is carr .ied on.,
so
far as new converts
are concerned,
by
means
of ·the
most
systematic
dec
1
eption.
Its
missionaries wear black frock coats and white cravats so
t'ha·t
the people are deceived into supposing that
they are
Christian
i •
ministers.
In the Spring of 1844, when the Mormon Church was
being severely condemned all over the country
I
John Went
worth, who was publishing a p,aper in Chic-ago
1
~ asked Joseph
Smith to
.sitat ,e what
the Mormons believe, Smith and some of
his associates put their heads together, and sent
out thirteen
articles as a summary of Mormon belief. It is sin1plyanother
piece
of
deception, for these articles do no~
contain
one doc
trine peculiar to Mormonism, but are rather a summary of
doctrines held by the Christian denominations. And yet they
stand
today as representing lVIormon belief. When we come
to test the,se artic 'les by
the
official
books of M·ormo·nism,
we
find
they
are
thoroughly deeciving.
Let
us take up
the first
s·ix or , seven of these prctende ,d articles of belief, ind see how
misleading
they are. · .
''ARTICLE 1. WE
BELIEVE IN '
GOD
THE E'l~ERNAL FAT'HER,
AND IN BIS S,ON J 'ESU ;S
CHRI :ST,
AND IN T'HE BO 'LY GH0 1ST. '
1. B,y God
the
,eternal
Father,
the
Mo1·mon
fficials
mean
Adam. (For convenience we will use the following abbreviaM
tions: B. oi
M.
for Book of Mormon; D. & C., for Doctrine
and
1
Cov
1
enants; P. G. P.
fo·r
Pe·arl of Great Pri
1
c
1
e;
Co·mp.l for
Compe·ndium
1
0£
Mormon
Doctrine; Key,
for
Pratt's Key to
Th
1
eoJ.; J.of D. for
Journa] of Discourses
volumes of Mor-
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You ng taught tl1at Adam was p,ro,moted to be the god of this
world: He
{Adam)
is our Father and our God, and the only
·God with whom we l1ave to dot . -(J. of D., Vol. I, p. 50.)
2. T.his Adam-god
i.s
a polyg.amis·t. When our Fath
1
er
Adam came int·o the garden of Eden, he came into ,
i·t
with
a
celesi_ial body, and brought Eve. o,ne of his wives, with him ,.
(Brigham Young,
J.
of D., I,
5,0.) ·
•
3. The M·ormon officials teach that tho se who build up
-large polygamous
establishments
011
earth,
will
be promoted
to
be gods in the hea ven ly ,vorld, and will rule over kingdoms.
Take t.l1is heathen
teaching
of Josep .h Smith: God Hims.elf
was once .a.s we a1·e 110w, ,and :is .an. ex.alted Man [i.n
1
0·t:he1·
words,
simply
a big
Mormon]. . ; .
And
you
have
got
to
•
learn how to be gods yourselves, the same as all gods have
done before you .
(J.
o·f D. VI, 4; ·comp. 283 .)
4.
It
will be seen that Mormon ism b,elieves in many
gods. Are there more gods than one? Yes, many .
(Catechi sm~)
S. These gods con.tintt·e to have chil,dre.n for ,eve1·. Each
I
god. through his wife
or
wives, raises
up
a numerous family
of
sons and daughters, , . . . · for each father and motl1er
will
be
in
a
condition
to multiply forever
and
ever .
(The
Seer, 1, 37.) This is dire
1
ctly contrary to, our Saviour s ·teach
ing ·i·n J\dark 12 :25:
1
For wh ,i·n
they
shall
rise
from the dead,
they neither marry n,o,r .are given in marriage; but are as the
angels
which are
in
heaven . .
It see·ms
incredible
that such
di.s11011oring
heathe ·n.ish vi
1
e·ws
of
God,
the A1mighty
Creator and
Gover11or of the world,
should be
held and propagated in Christian America, by
an
organization calling itself The Church of
J s11s
Cht·ist of
La.tter ...Day
S
1
aints .
Paul s ·
statement in
Rom.
1 :2.l-2
1
4
see.ms
v,erified in them. ·
6. They teach that the Holy Spirit is
a
kind of ethereal ·
substance diffused through space. The purest , most refin.ed
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M ormo nism: Its Originand Doctrines
123
•
•
· ism, magnetism )
1
• • •
is
that
substance
called the
Holy
•
Spirit''. (Key,
p.
39.) . ·
How
refr ,eshing
to turn
to the
Divine Word
and
read
its
convincing
and authoritative teachings about God.
We read
in Gen,. 1 ;1 : ''In the
be,ginning
God created tl1e heaven and
the
earth''; ,
in
De·ut,. 6 4:
'''Hear ·
1
0 ·
Israel, the
Lo
1
rd our
God
is one Lo:rd'';
:in
Psa. 104
:1:
~'O Lor ,d
my God, Tl1ou art very
great .; Thou art clothed
with h
1
onor and majesty''; in Isa. 4.5 :5:
''I am the Lord, and there is none else''; in
John
:24: ''God is
a S
1
pirit, and they that worship Him must w·orship Him in spirit
and in truth'';
in John
14 :2
1
6:
''But
the C
1
omforte ,r, which
is th
1
e
Holy Gl1ost, wh,om th
1
e
Father
will
se·nd
in
My name,
He s,hall
teach
you
all things,
and
bring all things to,
your
remembrance
whatsoever I have said unto you''. Tl1e Holy
Spirit,
then, is
a Divine Person, and not an '' ·ethereal sttbstance' ''.
''ARTICLE
2,
WE BELIEVE THAT MEN WILL BE PUNISHED
FO.R. 'THEIR OWN SINS ,, AND NOT FOR ADAM'S . TRANS .GRESSIONS.''
But
that
is
very
1
diff
erent
from
l1olding tl1at Adam
did
not
transgress
the
law ~f
God. Here
is the teaching of the Mor
mo1n
1
Catechism: ''Was it
ne ,cessary
that Adam . should partake
of the
£,or
bidden
fruit?
Yes,
unless. he had
done so, he would
not have known good
and
evil
here,
neither
could
he
ha·ve
had
•
§ ''
mortal
posterity • ·
''Is
it
proper
·for
us
to consider the t.ransgression
of A.dam
and Ev
1
e as a gri,e·vous
calamity,
and that all mankind w,oul ,d
have
been
infini·tely more
happ
1
y
if the Fall ,
had n
1
ot occu .rried?
No, but we ought to consider
the
Fall of our first
parents
as
· one
of the
great
steps
to
eternal exa1tation
and happiness''.
(Catechism, Chapter 8.) What saith the S,criptures: ''I 'f we
say that w·e h.ave n,o
s:in, we
deceive
ourselves ,,
and 'the
truth
is,
not -in us'' (
1
John 1 :8).
''Wheref
O·r·e as by one man
[Adam]
.sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so
death
passed upon all men, for that a1I have
sinned''
(Rom.
5
:12).
'~For, th,e wag ,es of sin is
death; h'ut
the gift
of God is eternal
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''ARTICLE 3, WE BELIEV 'E THAT THROUGH THE ATONEMENT
•
OF JESUS CHRIST ALL MANKIND MAY BE SAVED, BY OBEDIENCE
TO
THE L,A
W1S
AND ORDINANCES
OF
THE ,
GOSPEL'
1
.
1. That is, the bogus Mo
1
rmon Gos,pel. According to the
official
teachings
of
Mormonism, who , was J
s,us
Christ? ' The
son of Adam-god and Mary. '' The Father has begotten him
in his own likeness. , He was not begotten of the Holy Ghost~
And who is the,Fatl1er? He is t·he first of the human
f
amily'
1
.
(Brigham
Young,
J.
of
D.,
I,
50.)
2. Christ is represente ,d as h,aving plural wives. ''We say
it was Je sus Christ who was married (at Cana to the Ma~ys .
. nd Mart .ha),
whe,·,eby
He could
see
His see:d be·£
1
re He
wa;s
c1·ucified'' (
Apostle 0. H ,yde,
Sermon). . .
''The at
1
on
1
ement
made
by
J ,esus Christ
brought .
about the
resurr ection from the dead, and restored life''. (B. of M. ·
Alma, 42 ::23.)
' '.Re,demp
1
tion from perso
1
nal
si·os can
o,nly
be
ootained tl1rough
obedience
to
th.e
requirements of the , ·Gospel
(Mormon c,eremonies] and a life of good works''. .
. '·Will all the people be damne ,d who, are not Latter -D,ay
Saints
? Yes,
an ,d ,a gre ,at many of
them
except they
repent
spee
1
di]y'' . ( Brigham Young, J.
of
D., I, 339.)
,Qur
Saviour
said: ''For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn
tlie wo,rld, but tl1at throttgh Him the world might b1 save,d'''
''ARTICLE 4. WE BELIEVE Tl-IAT THE FIRST PRINCIPLES AND
•
ORDINAN ,CES ,oF 'THE , BIBT-E ,A:RE :: First, Fai ·th in the Lo.r,d
Jesus Christ; Second, Repentance; Third, Baptism by Im
rn1rsion fo1· the Remission of Sins; Fo·urth, ·Laying on of
Hands for
tl1e
Gift
of
the Holy
Gl10st.''
1. ''The sectar ian doctrine o,f justifi
1
cat,ion by faith
alone
has exercised an influence f'or evil since the early days of
· Christianity''. (Talmage's Articles of Faith, p. 120.) Paul
says: ''For ye are all the children of G,od by faith in Jesus
1
Christ'' (Gal.
3:26). · .
2. ·How
to
obtain the
H,o1y Spir 'it:
''There
is a set
mod
1
e
by which this great gift ( the Holy ,Spirit) js c,onf erred upo
1
n
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Jtlormonism:
Its
1
rigin
and octrines 125,
•
•
mankind . • • the laying on of hands by men w'l10 have
themselves received
it,
an
1
d have been call
1
ed of Go
1
d and
ordain ,ed
to administer
it'', (
That means the
Mormon
priest
l1ood.) Our Saviour said : ''How much more shall your
•
Hea .venly
Father
give the Holy
Spirit
to them who ask Him .
The Holy Spirit, our Saviour teaches, is given in answer to
prayer, and is not dependent on the priesthood of the Mormon
Churcl1, or an,y
other church.
''ARTICLE
5.
'\J'E BELIEVE THAT
A
MAN MUST BE
C'ALLED
OF
GOD BY PROPHECY, AND
BY
TH ,E
LAYING
1Q~
1
0F HAND 1S, .BY
.
THOSE WHO ARE IN AUTHORITY, TO
PREACH
THE GOSPEL AND
•
•
ADMINISTER IN THE
1
0RD'INANCES THEREOF.wt,
Accordi .ng to Mormonis m,, the only persons wh,o ha.ve a.ny
right to administer the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's
Suppe r are
the
representative s of the Mormon priesthood. It
unchurches
all
the
Chri s,tian
den,omi11ations,
.and
impudently ,
claims ·
that
the
Mormo,n Church
is
tl1e
only true church;
wh 1ereas
it
is not a church .at ,all in th,e New T
1
estament sense,,
,and has no more authority than Do,vie had, or Mrs. Eddy. Its
priesthood is bogus in its origin and its autl1ority. They are
what ,our Saviour call ,s
''thieve ,s
and
1.
obbers''. . ·
•
Paul
says
in Eph. 4:11, 12:
''And
He
[Christ] gave
son1e
apo,st1es an,d
some
p
1
r·ophet.s ;,
and s,om,e evange'lists ; a.nd some
pastors and teachers; for the perfecting ·of the saints, for the
work of the ministry, fo
1
r
the
edifying
o,f the
body of
Cl1rist.'''
. ''ARTICLE 6.
WE
BEf-'IE, rE IN T'H .E SAME ORGANIZATION
THAT EXISTED IN THE PRIMITIVE CBURCHJ· NAMELY, APOSTLES,
PROPHETS, PASTORS, TEACHERS, EVANGE 'LISTS, ETC.''
We have
shown
'that
it
is
impossible
for men to, be true
apostle s no'1v. Nor is
tl1ere
any warrant in the New
Testa
ment for S'UCh bogus officials as th
1
e ''First
Pre .sid,ency
,of th ,e,
Church'' , with its two Counsellors, or for the
''High
1
C·ouncil_',
with its despotic methods ..
The Mormon
Churcl1 p
1
ronounc
1
es damnation upon
1
Chris,
tian believers who receive baptism
fr ,om the hands of
Christian
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126
The undamentals
ministers. Any person who shall be so wicked as to receive
a holy ordinance of the Gospel from the ministers of these ·
apostate [Christian] churches, will be sent down to hell with
them unless he repents of the unholy and impious act . ( The
Seer, Vols. 1 & 2, p. 255.) Our Saviour said to His disciples,
and to all who should become His disciples to the end of time,
in Matt. 28 :19: Go,ye therefore and teach all nations, baptiz
ing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost .
• A RTICLE
7.
WE BELIEVE IN THE GIFT OF TON GUES.,
PROPHECX, VISIONS ., HEALING, INTERPRETATION OF ...ONGUES.
ARTICLE 8. WE BELIEVE THE BIBLE TO BE THE WORD OF
GOD, SO FAR AS IT IS CORRECTLY TRANSLATED_,' WE ALSO BEL IEVE
THE BOOK OF MORMON TO BE THE WORD OF GOD.
L The prie sthood can 1nake additional Scriptures: Wil- ·
ford Woodruff is a prophet, and he can make
Scriptures as good as those in the Bible . (Apostle .J. W.
Taylor, Conference, Salt Lake, April S; '97.) The living
oracles [pretended priestly revelations] are worth more to the
Latter -Day Saints than all the Bibles . (Apostle M W. Mer
rill, Conference, Salt Lake, Oct., '97.)
2. Paul tells us, on the other hand, in 2 Tim. 3 :16, that
all genuine Scripture is given by inspiration of God .
The disgusting doctrine of plural marriage is omitted from
these Articles of Faith. But it still stands in the Book of
Doctrine and Covenants as a revelati on from God to be
observed under pain of eternal damnation. Yet as Mrs . Orson
Pratt said: This pretended revelation was simply a dishonest
trick on the part of Joseph Smith to cloak over h~s own wicked
and immoral life, and to keep the peace in his hou sehold .
It will be seen that the Mormon people are required to accept
the pretended revelation sanctioning plural marriage, on pain
of eternal damnation , from ·the following quotation from this
bogus revelation which still stands in their official book; ·
For .behold
I
reveal unto you a new and an everlasting
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M
ormonis·11i ~
ts Origin and
Doctrines
•
127
covenant;
and
if yo
1
ti
~bi,de not tha~
covenant
then ar·e you
dan1ned : for
no 011ecan reject this covenant and be permitted
to ent~r
int
1
0
My
glory. ·. • •
And again, as
pertaining to
the llaw of the Priesth .ood,
if
a11y
man esp,ou.se a vi.rgi·n and
de·sire to espouse anotl1er, and the first give .her consent; and
if he espouse the second ,and they are virgins and have V
1
owed
.
to no other . 1nan, theri h~ is justified; for he canno ,t
1
commit
adultery with that that belongeth unto him and to none Clse;
and if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he can-
not commit
a.dultery,
f·or
they
b
1
el.ong
ttnto
him; and
they
are
give11 unto hin1;
therefore
is he justified:'' (''Doctrine an,d
Covenants, chap. 132.) .
N,ow, what is this but a depr
1
a,red and cunnin ,g bribe to ·
every kind of social imn1orality? And that has .been its direct
result for two gene1ations, with the
iniquity
still going on.
It is difficult fo
1
r any one to study this . Mormon system as a
wl1ole, wit.hout
co,ming
to
t l1
e
C
1
o·n
1
c·1usion
'tl1at
the1·e
is, som,e-
thing in it beyond the power of man,
sometl1ing positively
Sata11ic.
And does it not
s,eem to be a
reproach
on
the Chris·
tian churche s of tl1is country that, af te.r ei,ghty years,
sucl1 a
system of downright heatl1enism should still hold the people of
one of the great states of the West in absolute bondag
1
e, and
through its
hierarchical
powert
by means of
colo,niZation,
be
able to influence t·h.e election of senators ,.and
representative ls
in
Congress from five other
states?
This latter fact makes it a
na,tional and not a local
probl ,e1n.
The one
im,portant
thing to
be
done
is to double
tl1e Cl1ristian
missionary forces in Utah,
in order to bring deliverance to those who are in bondage .
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