30 The Fundamentals I t has been pointed out that the Greek word rendered “discerner” in Hebrews 4:12, means literally “critic” (kriti— kos), and that this is its only occurrence in Scripture. How very significant is it that the designation “higher critics” has been assumed by that little coterie of men who claim to be able, by their own powers of literary discernment, to assign the dates of production of books and parts of books of Scrip- ture, to detect spurious passages, alleged interpolations, and the like, and to split up books into fragments, assigning bits to one imaginary author and other bits to another; whereas as a matter of fact, it is the Bible itself that is the “Critic” of men. This is in keeping with the subversive principles of this present evil age, wherein man is seeking to put himself in the place of God. This is “man’s day.” Man is now the critic of everything, and particularly of God’s Word. Of that he is a “higher critic.” There is, however, no external evidence to support the higher critical views as to the late origin of the Pentateuch, Daniel, the latter part of Isaiah, etc.; per contra every per- tinent discovery in the ruins of ancient cities corroborates the statements of Scripture. These theories rest entirely upon the alleged intuitive perceptions of sinful men, compassed about by infirmity, who claim to be able to pass infallibly upon the style and contents of each book of the Bible, to decide when it was written, by whom it could not have been written, and even to divide it up into various portions, assigning each to a different “source.” But high scholarship is not incompatible with belief in the full inspiration and accuracy of Scripture. Dean Burgon, one of the famous scholars of Oxford, says: “I must be content with repudiating, in the most unqual- ified way, the notion that a mistake of any kind whatever is consistent with the texture of a narrative inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.
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