The Fundamentals
A Testimony to the Truth
* 'Tb the Law and to the Testimony” Isa iah 8:20,
Volume IX X t ( U - ~ - —
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FOREWORD The ninth volume of “T he F undamentals ” goes, like its predecessors, to English-speaking Protestant pastors, evangel- J*^ss^onar^es> theological professors, theological students, Y. M. C. A. secretaries, Y. W. C. A. secretaries, Sunday School superintendents, religious lay workers, and editors of religious publications throughout the earth. We send it out with thanks giving to God for the rich blessing which He has bestowed upon the former volumes, to which the earnest letters of thou sands of Christian men and women in almost every land bear witness, and we accompany it with our prayers. May the Lord use the carefully and prayerfully selected articles of this ninth volume to His glory and to the advancement of His cause, to the conversion of sinners, to the strengthening of the faith of earnest believers, and to the re-establishment in the truth of those who are wavering in their faith. We ask the thousands who have joined our Circle of Prayer and all earnest friends of “T he F undamentals ” to plead in faith with Him who heareth and answereth prayer, that His smile and blessing continue to rest upon the Two Christian Laymen whose consecration and liberality make possible the publication and the free distribution of these volumes, and that He lead and guide all who are connected with the great work. After earnest, prayerful consideration the Two Christian Laymen have decided that there shall be a change in the sending out of future issues of “THE FUNDAMENTALS.” The volumes will remain free to all classes of Christian workers, but they will be sent only to those making request for them in writing. A postcard is enclosed in this volume for the purpose. If you desire to receive future issues of these books free as heretofore, fill out PLAINLY the blank spaces of the card, place a postage stamp upon it and mail it to its address. If you fail to fill out and mail the card, your name will be dropped from our mailing list. All editorial correspondence should be addressed to “The Fundamentals,” 123 Huntington Place, Mt. Auburn, Cincin nati, Ohio, U. S. A. All business correspondence should be addressed to “Testi mony Publishing Company,” 808 La Salle Avenue, Chicaao III., U. S. A. y ’ (Signed), The Executive Secretary of The Fundamentals. (See Publishers’ Notice, Page 128.)
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE \ y \ . T he T rue C hurch ...... ............. ................................ 5 By the late Bishop Ryle. II. T he M osaic A uthorship of the P entateuch . . . 10 By Prof. George Frederick Wright, D. D., LL. D., Oberlin College, Oberliri, Ohio. T he W isdom of this W orld .................... By Rev. A. W. Pitzer, D. D., LL. D., Salem, Virginia. 22 „.xIV. H oly S cripture and M odern N egations .............. 31 By Prof. James Orr, D. D., United Free Church College, Glasgow, Scotland. *V . S alvation by G race ...................................... ..............48 By Rev. Thomas Spurgeon, London, England. VI. D ivine E fficacy of P rayer . ................................... 66 By Arthur T. Pierson. ■ Ai l l . W hat C hrist T eaches C oncerning F uture R etribution .......................... • • ........ ........... • • • °4 By Rev. Wm. C. Procter, F. Ph., Croydon, England. t ^ I I I . A M essage from M issions ........................................ 95 By Rev. Chas. A. Bowen, A. M., Ph. D., Olympia, Washington. a / IX . E ddyism : C ommonly C alled C hristian S cience . I l l By Rev. Maurice E. Wilson, D. D., Dayton, Ohio. -
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THE FUNDAMENTALS VOLUME IX
CHAPTER I THE TRUE CHURCH
BY THE LATE BISHOP RYLE Do you belong to the one true Church; to the Church out side of which there is no salvation ? I do not ask where you go on Sunday; I only ask, “Do you belong to the one true Church ?” Where is this one true Church? What is this one true Church like? What are the marks by which this one true Church may be known? You may well ask such questions. Give me your attention, and I will provide you with some answers. The one true Church is composed of all believers in the Lord Jesus. It is made up of all God’s elect—of all con verted men and women—of all true Christians. In whom soever we can discern the election of God the Father, the sprinkling of the blood of God the Son, the sanctifying work of God the Spirit, in that person we see a member of Christ’s true Church. I t is a Church of which all the members have the same marks. They are all born of the Spirit; they all possess “repentance towards God, faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ,” and holiness of life and conversation. They all hate sin, and they all love Christ. They worship differently and after various fashions; some worship with a form of prayer,
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The Fundamentals and some with none; some worship kneeling, and some stand ing; but they all worship with one heart. They are all led by one Spirit; they all build upon one foundation; they all draw their religion from one single Book—that is the Bible. They are all joined to one great center—that is Jesus Christ. They all even now can say with one heart, “Hallelujah” ; and they can all respond with one heart and voice, “Amen and Amen.” It is a Church which is dependent upon no ministers upon earth, however much it values those who preach the Gospel to its members. The life of its members does not hang upon church-membership, and baptism, and the Lord’s Supper— although they highly value these things, when they are to be had. But it has only one great Head—one Shepherd, one chief Bishop—and that is Jesus Christ. He alone, by His Spirit, admits the members of this Church, though ministers may show the door. Till He opens the door no man on earth can open it—neither bishops, nor presbyters, nor convocations, nor synods. Once let a man repent and believe the Gospel, and that moment he becomes a member of this Church. Like the penitent thief, he may have no opportunity of being baptized; but he has that which is far better than any water-baptism—the baptism of the Spirit. He may not be able to receive the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper; but he eats Christ’s body and drinks Christ’s blood by faith every day he lives, and no minister on earth can prevent him. He may be excommunicated by ordained men, and cut off from the outward ordinances of the professing Church; but all the ordained men in the world cannot shut him out of the true Church. It is a Church whose existence does not depend on forms, ceremonies, cathedrals, churches, chapels, pulpits, fonts, vest ments, organs, endowments, money, kings, governments, mag istrates, or any act of favor whatsoever from the hand of
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The True Church
man. It has often lived on and continued when all these things have been taken from it; it has often been driven into the wilderness or into dens and caves of the earth, by those who ought to have been its friends. Its existence depends on nothing but the presence of Christ and His Spirit; and they being ever with it, the Church cannot die. This is the Church to which the Scriptural titles of present honor and privilege, and the promises of future glory, es pecially belong; this is the body of Christ; this is the flock of Christ; this is the household of faith and the family of God; this is God’s building, God’s foundation, and the tem ple of the Holy Ghost. This is the Church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven; this is the royal priest-, hood, the chosen generation, the peculiar people, the purchased possession, the habitation of God, the light of the world; the salt and the wheat of the earth ; this is the “Holy Catholic Church” of the Apostle’s Creed; this is the “One Catholic and Apostolic Church” of the Nicene Creed; this is that Church to which the Lord Jesus promises, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”, and to which He says, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matt. 16:18; 28:20). This is the only Church which possesses true unity. Its members are entirely agreed on all the weightier matters of religion, for they are all taught by one Spirit. About God, and Christ, and the Spirit, and sin, and their own hearts, and faith, and repentance, and necessity of holiness, and the value of the Bible, and the importance of prayer, and the resur rection, and judgment to come—about all these points they are of one mind. Take three or four of them, strangers to one another, from the remotest corners of the earth; examine them separately on these points; you will find them all of one judgment. This is the only Church which possesses true sanctity. Its members are all holy. They are not merely holy by profession,
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The Fundamentals holy in name, and holy in the judgment of charity; they are all holy in act, and deed, and reality, and life, and truth. They are all more or less conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. No unholy man belongs to this Church. This is the only Church which is truly catholic. It is not the Church of any one nation or people; its members are to be found in every part of the world where the Gospel is received and believed. It is not confined within the limits of any one country, or pent up within the pale of any par ticular forms or outward government. In it there is no difference between Jew and Greek, black man and white, Epis copalian and Presbyterian—but faith in Christ is all. Its mem bers will be gathered from north, and south, and east, and west, in the last day, and will be of every name and tongue— but all one in Jesus Christ. This is the only Church which is truly apostolic. It is built on the foundation laid by the Apostles, and holds the doctrines which they preached. The two grand objects at which its members aim are apostolic faith and apostolic practice; and they consider the man who talks of following the Apostles without possessing these two things to be no better than sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. This is the only Church which is certain to endure unto the end. Nothing can altogether overthrow and destroy it. Its members may be persecuted, oppressed, imprisoned, beaten, beheaded, burned; but the true Church is never altogether ex tinguished; it rises again from its afflictions; it lives on through fire and water. The Pharaohs, the Herods, the Neros, the bloody Marys, have labored in vain to put down this Church; they slay their thousands, and then pass away and go to their own place. The true Church outlives them all and sees them buried each in his turn. It is an anvil that has broken many a hammer in this world, and will break many a hammer still; it is a bush which, often burning, yet is not consumed.
The True Church 9 This is the Church which does the work of Christ upon earth. Its members are a little flock, and few in number, compared with the children of the world; one or two here, and two or three there. But these are they who shake the universe; these are they who change the fortunes of kingdoms by their prayers; these are they who are the active workers for spread ing the knowledge of pure religion and undefiled; these are the life-blood of a country, the shield, the defense, the stay and the support of any nation to which they belong. This is the Church which shall be truly glorious at the end. When all earthly glory is passed away then shall this Church be presented without spot before God the Father’s throne. Thrones, principalities, and powers upon earth shall come to nothing; but the Church of the first-born shall shine as the stars at the last, and be presented with joy before the Father’s throne, in the day of Christ’s appearing. When the Lord’s jewels are made up, and the manifestation of the sons of God takes place, one Church only will be named, and that is the Church of the elect. Reader, this is the true Church to which a man must be long, i f he would be saved. Till you belong to this, you are nothing better than a lost soul. You may have countless out ward privileges; you may enjoy great light, and knowledge —but if you do not belong to the body of Christ, your light, and knowledge, and privileges, will not save your soul. Men fancy if they join this church or that church, and become com municants, and go through certain forms, that all must be right with their souls. All were not Israel who were called Israel, and all are not members of Christ’s body who profess themselves Christians. Take notice, you may be a staunch Episcopalian, or Presbyterian, or Independent, or Baptist, or Wesleyan, or Plymouth Brother—and yet not belong to the true Church. And if you do not, it will be better at last if you had never been born.
CHAPTER II THE MOSAIC AUTHORSHIP OF THE PENTATEUCH BY PROFESSOR GEORGE FREDERICK WRIGHT, D. D., LL. D., OBERLIN COLLEGE, OBERLIN, OHIO During the last quarter of a century an influential school of critics has deluged the world with articles and volumes at tempting to prove that the Pentateuch did not originate dur ing the,time of Moses, and that most of the laws attributed to him did not come into existence until several centuries after his death, and many of them not till the time of Ezekiel. By these critics the patriarchs are relegated to the realm of myth or dim legend and the history of the Pentateuch generally is discredited. In answering these destructive contentions and defending the history which they discredit we can do no bet ter than to give a brief summary of the arguments of Mr. Harold M. Wiener, a young orthodox Jew, who is both a well established barrister in London, and a scholar of the widest attainments. What he has written upon the subject during the last ten years would fill a thousand octavo pages; while our condensation must be limited to less than twenty. In approach ing the subject it comes in place to consider I. THE BURDEN OF PROOF The Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch has until very recent times been accepted without question by both Jews and Christians.. Such acceptance, coming down to us in un broken line from the earliest times of which we have any information, gives it the support of what is called general consent, which, while perhaps not absolutely conclusive, com pels those who would discredit it to produce incontrovertible opposing evidence. But the evidence which the critics produce 10
The Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch 11 in this case is wholly circumstantial, consisting of inferences derived from a literary analysis of the documents and from the application of a discredited evolutionary theory concern ing the development of human institutions. II. FAILURE OF THE ARGUMENT FROM LITERARY ANALYSIS (a) Evidence of Textual Criticism. It is an instructive commentary upon the scholarly pre tensions of this whole school of critics that, without adequate examination of the facts, they have based their analysis of the Pentateuch upon the text which is found in our ordinary He brew Bibles. While the students of the New Testament have expended an immense amount of effort in the comparison of manuscripts, and versions, and quotations to determine the or iginal text, these Old Testament critics have done scarcely anything in that direction. This is certainly a most unscholar- ly proceeding, yet it is admitted to be the fact by a higher critic of no less eminence than Principal J. Skinner of Cam bridge, England, who has been compelled to write: I do not happen to know of any work which deals exhaustively with the subject, the determination of the original Hebrew texts from the critical standpoints.” Now the fact is that while the current Hebrew text, known as the Massoretic, was not established until about the seventh century A. D., we have abundant material with which to compare it and carry us back to that current a thou sand years nearer the time of the original composition of the books. (1) The Greek translation known as the Septua- gint was made from Hebrew manuscripts current two or three centuries before the Christian era. It is from this ver sion that most of the quotations in the New Testament are made. Of the 350 quotations from the Old Testament in the New, 300, while differing more or less from the Massoretic text,’do not differ materially from the Septuagint. (2) The
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The Fundamentals Samaritans early broke away from the Jews and began the transmission of a Hebrew text of the Pentateuch on an inde pendent line which has continued down to the present day. (3) Besides this three other Greek versions were made long before the establishment of the Massoretic text. The most important of these was one by Aquila, who was so punctilious that he transliterated the word Jehovah in the old Hebrew characters, instead of translating it by the Greek word mean ing Lord as was done in the Septuagint. (4) Early Syriac material often provides much information concerning the original Hebrew text. (5) The translation into Latin known as the Vulgate preceded the Massoretic text by some centuries, and was made by Jerome, who was noted as a Hebrew scholar. But Augustine thought it sacrilegious not to be content with the Septuagint. All this material furnishes ample ground for correcting in minor particulars the current Hebrew text; and this can be done on well established scientific principles which largely eliminate conjectural emendations. This argument has been elaborated by a number of scholars, notably by Dahse, one of the most brilliant of Germany’s younger scholars, first in the “Archiv fuer Religions-Wissenschaft” for 1903, pp. 305- 319, and again in an article which will appear in the “Neue Kirchliche Zeitschrift” for this year; and he is following up his attack on the critical theories with an important book entitled, “Textkritische Materialien zur Hexateuchfrage,'’ which will shortly be published in Germany. Although so long a time has elapsed since the publication of his first article on the subject, and in spite of the fact that it attracted world-wide attention and has often been referred to since, no German critic has yet produced an answer to it. In England and America Dr. Redpath and Mr. Wiener have driven home the argument. (See Wiener’s “Essays in Pentateuchal Crit icism”, and “Origin of the Pentateuch.” ) On bringing the light of this evidence to bear upon the
The Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch 13 subject some remarkable results are brought out, the most important of which relate to the very foundation upon which the theories concerning the fragmentary character, of the Pentateuch are based. The most prominent clue to the docu mentary division is derived from the supposed use by different writers of the two words, “Jehovah” and “Elohim,” to des ignate the deity. Jehovah was translated in the Septuagint by a word meaning “Lord”, which appears in our authorized version in capitalized form, “LORD.” The revisers of 1880, however, have simply transliterated the word, so that “Je hovah” usually appears in the revision wherever “LORD” ap peared in the authorized version. Elohim is everywhere trans lated by the general word for deity, “God.” Now the original critical division into documents was made on the supposition that several hundred years later than Moses there arose two schools of writers, one of which, in Judah, used the word “Jehovah” when they spoke of the deity, and the other, in the Northern Kingdom, “Elohim.” And so the critics came to designate one set of passages as belonging to the J document and the other to the E document. These they supposed had been cut up and pieced together by a later editor so as to make the existing continuous narrative. But when, as frequently occurred, one of these words is found in passages where it is thought the other word should have been used, it is supposed, wholly on theoretical grounds, that a mistake had been made by the editor, or, as they call him, the “redactor,” and so with no further ceremony the objec tion is arbitrarily removed without consulting the direct tex tual evidence. But upon comparing the early texts, versions, and quota tions it appears that the words, “Jehovah” and “Elohim, were so nearly synonymous that there was originally little uni formity in their use. Jehovah is the Jewish name of the deity, and Elohim the title. The use of the words is precisely like that of the English in referring to their king or the
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The Fundamentals Americans to their president. In ordinary usage, “George V.”, the king,” and “King George” are synonymous in their mean ing. Similarly “Taft,” “the president,” and “President Taft” are used by Americans during his term of office to indicate an identical concept. So it was with the Hebrews. “Jehovah” was the name, “Elohim” the title, and “Jehovah Elohim”—Lord God—signified nothing more. Now on con sulting the evidence it appears that while in Genesis and the first three chapters of Exodus (where this clue was supposed to be most decisive) Jehovah occurs in the Hebrew text 148 times, in 118 of these places other texts have either Elohim or Jehovah Elohim. In the same section, while Elohim alone occurs 179 times in the Hebrew, in 49 of the passages one or the other designation takes its place; and in the second and third chapters of Genesis where the Hebrew text has Jehovah Elohim (LORD God) 23 times, there is only one passage in which all the texts are unanimous on this point. These facts, which are now amply verified, utterly de stroy the value of the clue which the higher critics have all along ostentatiously put forward to justify their division of the Pentateuch into conflicting E and J documents, and this the critics themselves are now compelled to admit. The only answer which they are able to give is in Dr. Skinner’s words that the analysis is correct even if the clue which led to it be false, adding “even if it were proved to be so altogether fallacious, it would not be the first time that a wrong clue has led to true results.” On further examination, in the light of present knowl edge (as Wiener and Dahse abundantly show), legitimate criticism removes a large number of the alleged difficulties which are put forward by higher critics and renders of no value many of the supposed clues to the various documents. We have space to notice but one or two of these. In the Massoretic text of Ex. 18: 6 we read that Jethro says to Moses, “I thy father-in-law Jethro am come,” while in the seventh
The Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch 15 verse it is said that Moses goes out to meet his father-in-law and that they exchange greetings and then come into the tent. But how could Jethro speak to Moses before they had had a meeting? The critics say that this confusion arises from the bungling patchwork of an editor who put two discordant accounts together without attempting to cover up the discrep ancy. But scientific textual criticism completely removes the difficulty. The Septuagint, the old Syriac version, and a copy of the Samaritan Pentateuch, instead of “I thy father-in- law jethro am come”, read, “And one said unto Moses, be hold thy father-in-law Jethro” comes. Here the corruption of a single letter in the Hebrew gives us “behold” in place of “I ”. When this is observed the objection disappears entirely. Again, in Gen. 39:20-22 Joseph is said to have been put into the prison “where the king’s prisoners were bound. . . . And the keeper of the prison” promoted him. But in chapter 40:2-4,7 it is said that he was “in ward of the house of the captain o f the guard . . . and the captain of the guard” pro moted Joseph. But this discrepancy disappears as soon as an effort is made to determine the original text. In Hebrew, “keeper of the prison” and “captain of the guard” both begin with the same word and in the passages where the “cap tain of the guard” causes trouble by its appearance, the Sep- luagint either omitted the phrase or read “keeper of the prison,” in one case being supported also by the Vulgate. In many other instances also, attention to the original text removes the difficulties which have been manufactured from apparent discrepancies in the narrative. (b) Delusions of Literary Analysis. But even on the assumption of the practical inerrancy of the Massoretic text the arguments against the Mosaic author ship of the Pentateuch drawn from the literary analysis are seen to be the result of misdirected scholarship, and to be ut terly fallacious. The long lists of words adduced as charac-
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The Fundamentals teristic of the writers to whom the various parts of the Pen tateuch are assigned are readily seen to be occasioned by the different objects aimed at in the portions from which the lists are made. Here, however, it is necessary to add that besides the E and J documents the critics suppose that Deuteronomy, which they designate “D”, is an independent literary production writ ten in the time of Josiah. Furthermore, the critics pretend to have discovered by their analysis another document which they call the Priestly Code and designate as “P”. This pro vides the groundwork of most of the narrative, and comprises the entire ceremonial portion of the law. This document, which, according to these critics did not come into existence till the time of Ezekiel, largely consists of special instructions to priests telling them how they were to perform the sacrifices and public ceremonials, and how they were to determine the character of contagious diseases and unsanitary conditions. Such instructions are necessarily made up largely of technical language such as is found in the libraries of lawyers and phy sicians, and it is easy enough to select from such literature a long list of words which are not to be found in contemporary literature dealing with the ordinary affairs of life and aiming directly at elevating the tone of morality and stimulating de votion to higher spiritual ends. Furthermore, an exhaustive examination (made by Chancellor Lias) of the entire list of words found in this P document attributed to the time of Ezekiel shows absolutely no indication of their belonging to an age later than that of Moses. The absurdity of the claims of the higher critics to having established the existence of different documents in the Pen tateuch by a literary analysis has been shown by a variety of examples. The late Professor C. M. Mead, the most influ ential of the American revisers of the translation of the Old Testament, in order to exhibit the fallacy of their procedure, took the Book of Romans and arbitrarily divided it into three
The Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch 17 parts, according as the words “Christ Jesus,” “Jesus, or “God” were used; and then by analysis showed that the lists of peculiar words characteristic of these three passages were even more remarkable than those drawn up by the destructive critics of the Pentateuch from the three leading fragments into which they had divided it. The argument from literary analysis after the methods of these critics would prove the composite character of the Epistle to the Romans as fully as that of the critics would prove the composite character of the Pentateuch. A distinguished scholar, Dr. Hayman, form erly head-master of Rugby, by a similar analysis demonstrated the composite character of Robert Burns’ little poem addressed to a mouse, half of which is in the purest English and the other half in the broadest Scotch dialect. By the same pro cess it would be easy to prove three Macaulays and three Miltons by selecting lists of words from the documents pre pared by them when holding high political offices and from their various prose and poetical writings. y m is u n d e r s t a n d in g lega l fo rm s an d t h e SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM Another source of fallacious reasoning into which these critics have fallen arises from a misunderstanding of the sacrificial system of the Mosaic law. The destructive critics assert that there was no central sanctuary in Palestine until several centuries after its occupation under Joshua, and that at a later period all sacrifices by the people were forbidden ex cept at the central place when offered by the priests, unless it was where there had been a special theophany. But these statements evince an entire misunderstanding or misrepresen tation of the facts. In what the critics reckon as the oldest documents (J and E) the people were required three times a year to present themselves with sacrifices and offerings “at the house of the Lord” (Ex. 34:26; 23:19). Before the building of the temple this “house of the Lord was at Shiloh”
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The Fundamentals (Josh. 18:1; Judges 18:31; 1 Sam. 2:24). The truth is that the destructive critics upon this point make a most humiliating mistake in repeatedly substituting “sanctuaries” for “altars,” assuming that since there was a plurality of altars in the time of the Judges there was therefore a plurality of sanctuaries. They have completely misunderstood the permission giv$n in Ex. 20:24: “An altar of earth thou shalt make unto Me and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen; in all places, A. V.; [in every place, R. V.], where I record My name I will come unto thee and I will bless thee. And if thou make Me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones.” In reading this pas sage we are likely to be misled by the erroneous translation. Where the revisers read in “every place” and the authorized version in “all places” the correct translation is “in all the place” or “in the whole place.” The word is in the singular number and has a definite article before it. The whole place referred to is Palestine, the Holy Land, where sacrifices such as the patriarchs had offered were always permitted to lay men, provided they made use only of an altar of earth or unhewn stones which was kept free from the adornments and accessories characteristic of heathen altars. These lay sac rifices were recognized in Deuteronomy as well as in Exodus. (Deut. 16:21.) But altars of earth or unhewn stone, often used for the nonce only and having no connection with a temple of any sort, are not houses of God and will not be come such on being called sanctuaries by critics several thou sand years after they have fallen out of use. In accordance with this command and permission the Jews have always limited their sacrifices to the land of Palestine. When exiled to foreign lands the Jews to this day have ceased to offer sacrifices. It is true that an experiment was made of setting up a sacrificial system in Egypt for a time by a certain portion of the exiles; but this was soon abandoned. Ultimately a synagogue system was established and worship
. The Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch 19 outside of Palestine was limited to prayer and the reading of Scriptures. But besides the lay sacrifices which were continued from the patriarchal times and guarded against perversion, there were two other classes of offerings established by statute; namely, those individual offerings which were brought to the “house of God” at the central place of worship and offered witji priestly assistance, and the national offerings described in Numbers 28ff. which were brought on behalf of the whole people and not of an individual. A failure to distinguish clearly between these three classes of sacrifices has led the crit ics into endless confusion, and error has arisen from their inability to understand legal terms and principles. The Pen tateuch is not mere literature, but it contains a legal code. It is a product of statesmanship consisting of three distinct elements which have always been recognized by lawgivers; namely, the civil, the moral, and the ceremonial, or what Wiener calls the “jural laws,” the “moral code” and “pro cedure.” The jural laws are those the infractions of which can be brought before a court, such as “Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor’s landmark.” But “Thou shalt love thy neigh bor as thyself” can be enforced only by public sentiment and Divine sanctions. The Book of Deuteronomy is largely oc cupied with the presentation of exhortations and motives, aiming to secure obedience to a higher moral code, and is in this largely followed by the prophets of the Old Dispensa tion and the preachers of the present day. The moral law sup plements the civil law. The ceremonial law consists of di rections to the priests for performing the various technical duties, and were of as little interest to the mass of people as are the legal and medical books of the present time. All these strata of the law were naturally and necessarily in ex istence at the same time. In putting them as successive strata, with the ceremonial law last, the critics have made an egre gious and misleading blunder.
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The Fundamentals IV. THE POSITIVE EVIDENCE
Before proceeding to give in conclusion a brief summary of the circumstantial evidence supporting the ordinary belief in the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch it is important to define the term. By it we do not mean that Moses wrote ail the Pentateuch with his own hand, or that there were no editorial additions made after his death. Moses was the au thor of the Pentateuchal Code, as Napoleon was of the code which goes under his name. Apparently the Book of Genesis is largely made up from existing documents, of which the history of the expedition of Amraphel in chapter 14 is a noted specimen; while the account of Moses’ death, and a few other passages are evidently later editorial additions. But these are not enough to affect the general proposition. The Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch is supported by the following, among other weighty considerations : 1. The Mosaic era was a literary epoch in the world’s history when such codes were common. It would have been strange if such a leader had not produced a code of laws. The Tel-el-Amarna tablets and the Code of Hammurabi testify to the literary habits of the time. 2. The Pentateuch so perfectly reflects the conditions in Egypt a t the period assigned to it that it is difficult to be lieve that it was a literary product of a later age. 3. Its representation of life in the wilderness is so perfect and so many of its laws are adapted only to that life that it is incredible that literary men a thousand years later should have imagined it. 4. The laws themselves bear indubitable marks of adapta tion to the stage of national development to which they are ascribed. It was the study of Maine’s works on ancient law that set Mr. Wiener out upon his re-investigation of the sub ject. 5. The little use that is made of the sanctions of a future
The Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch 21 life is, as Bishop Warburton ably argued, evidence of an early date and of a peculiar Divine effort to guard the Israelites against the contamination of Egyptian ideas upon the subject. 6. The omission of the hen from the lists of clean and unclean birds is incredible if these lists were made late in the nation’s history after that domestic fowl had been intro duced from India. 7. As Rev. A. C. Robinson showed in Volume VII of this series it is incredible that there should have been no intima tion in the Pentateuch of the existence of Jerusalem, or of the use of music in the liturgy, nor any use of the phrase, “Lord of Hosts,” unless the compilation had been completed before the time of David. 8. The subordination of the miraculous elements in the Pentateuch to the critical junctures in the nation’s develop ment is such as could be obtained only in genuine history. 9. The whole representation conforms to the true law of historical development. Nations do not rise by virtue of in herent resident forces, but through the struggles of great lead ers enlightened directly from on high or by contact with others who have already been enlightened. The defender of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch has no occasion to quail in presence of the critics who deny that authorship and discredit its history. He may boldly chal lenge their scholarship, deny their conclusions, resent their arrogance, and hold on to his confidence in the well authenti cated historical evidence which sufficed for those who first ac cepted it. Those who now at second hand are popularizing in periodicals, Sunday School lessons, and volumes of greater or less pretentions the errors of these critics must answer to their consciences as best they can, but they should be made to feel that they assume a heavy responsibility in putting themselves forward as leaders of the blind when they themselves are not able to see.
CHAPTER I I I THE WISDOM OF THIS WORLD BY REV. A. W. PITZER, D. D., LL. D., SALEM, VIRGINIA
“There is a growing impression among eminent private thinkers that Christianity is losing its hold upon men, and that the Church is a waning power; that the religious world is drifting from its moorings, and faith is becoming a tra dition of the past.” The above quotation is from an editorial in the most pop ular newspaper published at the Capital of the United States. If the faith of the Church is to stand in the wisdom of men, then it will be the sport of every wind of doctrine, and be driven hither and thither, according to the course of the pop ular tide; and if the Church has no better anchor than the wisdom of this world, then, indeed, will it drift from all its moorings, and be tossed continually upon the seas of ceaseless speculation. But if faith is to stand, not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God, in the sure Word of Truth that liveth and abideth forever, then, like its Divine Author, it is and will be the same yesterday, today, and forever. If faith be founded upon the Word of Eternal Truth, then the Church has an anchor sure and stedfast, entering into that within the veil. One prophecy of Daniel is fulfilled: “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased”. The world has never witnessed a period of such incessant and intense mental activity. Nature, in all her vast domains, in her atoms and her masses, has been searched with keenest scrutiny, and com pelled to give up her wondrous secrets. The microscope re veals worlds of order and beauty unseen by the unassisted 22
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The Wisdom of this World
eye; while the telescope sweeps the silent skies, and stars by the thousands and tens of thousands are discovered, and numbered, and catalogued. The electric spark sends thought, in printed words, with lightning speed around the globe. The microphone magnifies sound until the spider’s walk across a window echoes as the tread of an armed man. The phono graph receives upon its shining metallic disc the words and tones of the living speaker, and is able to reproduce them after a thousand years. All tongues, and tribes, and nations are brought into daily and direct intercourse and fellowship. Time and space are no longer barriers between men, races, and empires. Even the Dark Continent, unexplored equatorial Africa, has been penetrated by the heroic and dauntless Stan ley, from Zanzibar to Bomma; and the cannibal tribes of the Upper Livingstone are no longer unknown to the civilized world. And still men run to and fro, restless and dissatis fied, crying for more light and more knowledge. NO REAL CONFLICT BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE The Christian does not look with dismay upon these re searches into Nature, these discoveries of Science; on the con trary, he hails with joy each new discovery as affording ad ditional evidence of the wisdom, power, and goodness of God. Full well does he know that the facts written on the rock- leaves beneath, the star depths above, and the pages of Inspira tion, when properly understood and interpreted, will be found to be in exact and perfect accord, showing forth the glory of the Infinite Writer of them all. There is no controversy between the man of faith and the man of wisdom, -provided each one acts in his proper sphere. There is not, arid never has been, any real conflict between Religion and Science. There may be conflicts between interpretations of Scripture and interpretations of the facts of Nature; but what God has written in His Word never conflicts with what God has written in His creation.
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The Fundamentals The scientific skepticism of this day ought to remember how much Science owes to Christian men—to men who be lieved in a personal God; who believed in His written Word, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, the crucified , and risen Re deemer. What shall be said of the “pious Christian, Coper nicus, consecrating his life to God, to Man, to Science; who pioneered his way into the unknown universe, as the great Columbus of the heavens? What of Christian Galileo, who, while teaching the facts of Science, also believed the truths of Scripture? What of the leaders in all departments of human progress, immortal names familiar as household words_what of Bacon, and Kepler, and Newton, and Herschel, and Hugh Miller? Or, later still, what of Chalmers, McCosh, Morse, Dawson, Southall, Cabell, LeConte, Henry, and hosts of others who lead the vanguard of the army of investigation and discovery in all the vast domain of human knowledge? The man of faith may point to these intellectual giants, and claim them as the humble disciples of the lowly Nazarene as firm believers in the written Word of God. They led the onward march of human thought, but bowed in devout adoration before a personal God. How dense a darkness would envelop the race were all the light kindled by Christian men banished from the horizon of human knowledge. THE SPHERE OF SCIENCE But let it be remembered that the Wisdom of this World is for this world only —not for the world to come. Its proper sphere is the seen and tangible; the Here and the Now, not the Unseen, the Hereafter, the Eternal. The wisdom of man has passed out of its proper sphere when it invades the do main of the Invisible and the Infinite; when it denies that the omnipresent personal Spirit can reveal to man that which the eye never saw, the ear never heard, and the heart never conceived. It has passed the boundary of the known, its only proper sphere, when it assumes to deny that the infinite God
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The Wisdom of this World
has revealed or can reveal Himself in His Word, His Son, His Spirit. The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. We have the right to demand of the Wisdom of this World by what authority it asserts that there is nothing above and apart from Nature, nothing in all the boundless universe except matter and force. Why shall we give up all that man holds dear at the bidding of the Wisdom of this World whose highest, and best, and latest revelation is “a grave without a resurrection, and a universe without a God” ! THE FAILURE OF EARTHLY WISDOM TO FIND AND KNOW GOD The man of faith does not affirm the uselessness of earth ly wisdom, but he does affirm that it has utterly failed to find out and know the true and living God. However useful and valuable the Wisdom of this World may be in its appropriate sphere, it has never yet given to men that knowledge of God upon which his soul could rest in satisfaction and peace. I The World by Wisdom has never known God. At no time, in no country, among no people, has man, by wisdom, ever been able to make God known to his fellow men. Without the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the true and living God had ever .been the “Unknown God”. a n c i e n t w isdom a n d t h e kn ow l ed g e o f god The wise men of this generation are not backward in boasting of the world’s present progress and wisdom, and yet the history and ruins of the old world, before the coming of our Lord, reveal evidences of a civilization that will bear all the light and tests of our day. Egypt, situated on the banks of that strange river whose, source has been discovered far off in the ever-flowing waters of the Victoria Lake of equatorial Africa, speaks out to this self-satisfied generation in her mummied kings, her silent Sphinx, her matchless pyramids. Egypt, that could lift nion-
26 The Fundamentals ster stones four hundred feet in the air, and adjust them to a mathematical line and not vary half a hair’s breadth; “that could paint on glass, grind gold to dust, embalm the body so as to make flesh immortal;” that built gigantic houses of stone that have outlived all nations and civilizations—this na tion was wise in all the Wisdom of this World. And yet this grand old civilization lived and died in gross and utter ignor ance of the one true and living God. The religion of the wisest men of On and Memphis “was Negritian fetishism, the lowest kind of Nature worship”. The people bowed down and worshipped the Nile, the ox, the trees, the hills, and “birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things”. Egypt had wise priests, her magnificent temples, her gorgeous worship; but alas! all was of the earth, earthy. She knew not God; and her wise men, Jannes and Jambres, withstood Moses when he came to them with a message from the Living One, in whom they lived and moved, and had their being. No won der that the people were “liars and thieves, sensual and treach erous;” with all their wisdom they knew not God. Subsequent to Egypt there arose four great world pow ers, following each other in succession, claiming and exercis ing universal dominion, and gathering unto themselves the civilization and glory of the known world—Babylon, Persia, Greece arid Rome. Four kingdoms seen in dream by the great Nebuchadnezzar — the image with the head of gold, breast of silver, belly of brass, legs of iron, feet partly of iron and part of clay, and interpreted by Daniel as the four king doms above named. But alas! not one or all of these nations ever attained unto that knowledge of God which is life eternal. The bricks of Babylon, the purple of Tyre, the army of Xerxes, the conquests of Alexander, the legions of Rome, the poetry of Homer, the philosophy of Socrates, the statues of Phidias, the orations of Cicero, the satires of Juvenal, the annals of Tacitus—these are the drifts from the waves of that ancient civilization, wise in all the Wisdom of this World;
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The Wisdom of this World
these are the drifts still floating on the current of human his tory as it moves on its majestic course tc that eternity where time is not measured by days and nights, and weeks and years; and to that infinity where space is not measured by islands, continents and seas. There were walls seventy feet high, on which war-chariots might be driven four abreast; there were hanging gardens filled with flowers and birds; there were temples of polished marble, overlaid with ivory and gold; there were statues so lifelike as almost to speak; there were highways, firm and hard, stretching from imperial Rome to all the ends of the known world; there were arches and aqueducts, fountains and baths, painting and poetry. But, alas! upon that civilization might have been written the inscription upon the altar at Mars Hill, “To the Unknown God”. It was all of this world, and of this world only; it was outward, material, transient; it was earthly, sensual, devilish. Dr. Garbett, in his “Dogmatic Faith”, says: “With the sole exception of the knowledge of the true God, this old world carried human advancement to its highest pitch. For lustre of genius, brilliancy of wit, fertility of imagination, depth of thought, artistic taste and skill, aesthetic sensibilities, and keen relish for pleasure, the latest period of heathen civi lization has never yet been excelled, perhaps never equaled”. And yet, in the midst of all this, vice and immorality were well-nigh universal; chastity was almost unknown; thousands of virgins were annually devoted to prostitution in the tem ples of the gods; the life of a man was esteemed of less value than the life of a dog; slavery was universal, and slaves were put to death for the most trivial causes; men fought with each other and with wild beasts in amphitheatres, where dainty Roman matrons gazed with eager delight upon the agonies of dying men, and turned their thumbs down over the polished marble in token of their desire for more blood. This old world with all its wisdom knew not God. In its
28 The Fundamentals splendid Pantheons there were lords many and gods many— gods of painting and statuary, of poetry and eloquence, of war and revenge, of drunkenness and lust, but no true, holy and living God. And when the polished Paul preached unto the wise men of Athens Jesus and the resurrection, they told him that he was a babbler, and a setter forth of strange gods. The men of this civilization worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator; and for this cause God gave them up to vile and unnatural lusts and passions; they were filled with unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covet ousness, murder, deceit, malignity—without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. The unutterable vileness of this god less wisdom is apparent in the fact that even now there are rooms in some of its buried and exhumed cities, into which no female is ever allowed to enter. “And so this ancient society perished of its own inherent rottenness. Its enormous, all pervading, universal vice sapped the foundation of virtue. The mass was corrupt to its very core. Its strength perished by the, mere exhaustion of its vices.” Godlessness and vice, irreligion and immorality, went hand in hand, as they always do, until the people, having lost all knowledge of God, lost also all shame and virtue; and this splendid civilization of this old world perished of its own hopeless and helpless corruption. The less the people knew of God, the viler and more debased did they become. MODERN WISDOM^ FAILURE TO FIND GOD The world of our day claims to have grown greatly wiser in the last nineteen centuries, but still it knows not God; nor will it, apart from His Word and His Son, ever know Him. Ring out the old battle-cry, the foolishness of God is wiser than men; this conflict will never cease; perish the craven, who having undertaken to fight for Jehovah and His Christ, is appalled at the war drums of the enemy. Let the godless
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The Wisdom of this World
astronomer sweep the skies with his glass, and count and classify 270,000 stars, and then come and tell us that he neither saw nor heard of any personal God in all the infinitude of space; let the scientific smatterer gravely inform intelligent men that faith in God must now give place to knowledge of nature and her laws; let the atheistic materialist tell us that he has searched the boundless universe, and found no intel ligent Spirit, but only matter and force; let the brazen blas phemer proclaim that Moses is a liar, Jesus an impostor, and man’s immortality a delusion; to one and all we say—these things are almost as old as the human race; this godless creed was held by men wiser than you, long before you were born ; it was held by the wise men of the ancient world in the days of its highest civilization; it is held now by the cannibal tribes- of Ureega, Manyema, and Bengala, in the dark places of the earth, filled with the habitations of cruelty; you are simply asking us to go back to the times when the world by wisdom knew not God; and the race has had enough and more than enough of this godless wisdom; if Christ the Crucified cannot save us, then indeed are we doomed and damned forever. THE DEMAND OF MODERN “ WISE MEN” The wise men of this world, filled with philosophy falsely so-called, ask, first, that we give up the miracles of the Old Testament; then the imprecatory Psalms; then the “immoral parts” of the Scriptures; then, the “vindictive and bloody laws of Moses;” then Moses himself; then, all the prophets; then, the miracles of the New Testament; then, the Apocalypse, then, the doctrine of eternal retribution; then, the Holy Ghost; then, Inspiration; then, Jesus Christ; then God Himself this is the modest demand of the unbelieving wisdom of our day and generation; this substituting “knowledge of nature for faith in God”—this is “progress” ; this is “advanced thought” —and so the race is left, its “grave without a resurrection”, its “universe without a God,” its sin without a Saviour.
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