King's Business - 1930-08

401

T h e

K i n g ’ s

B u s i n e s s

August 1930

see the possibility o f commercializing this doctrine. Very soon after he began his work in Chicago thousands were flocking to him. His ambition knew no bounds. He became a healer, a seer, a self-ap­ pointed prophet—Elijah, the restorer, an apostle, a real. estate and business pro­ moter, an editor and publisher, and in every line he prospered for a time. As a leader of a flock he was an absolute des­ pot and dictator. In private life—charity demands that the curtain be drawn. Was he a messenger o f God, or was he a gi­ gantic fraud? Arthur Newcomb was closely associated with Dowie for eight years as editor of the Zion publications. He had opportunity to know the man thoroughly, as also the inner history of the movement that at one time bid fair to encircle the globe. He has. given a very lifelike picture, set in a somewhat novel­ ized form. Some things he says as to the power o f the man seem almost incredible. But after these glimpses into the inner life of “Zion,” one is ready for the tale of the decline and disaster that came after a few short years. Dowie led the way for a line of divine healing propagandists who have known how to capitalize the doctrine. His foundation was wrong. He came in­ evitably to spiritual, moral and financial bankruptcy. Those who follow in his train will come to a similar end in due time. 403 pages. Century Company. Cloth. Price $3.50. — o — • A History of Some Scientific Blunders B y G eorge M c C ready P rice In recent years, proud, imperialistic science has been demanding a clear track in every realm o f knowledge. Much has been made o f a supposed conflict between science and religion, and religion has been asked either to take a humble, subser­ vient position, or else bow itself out. For such a time as this Dr. Price comes with a worth while message. He disposes quickly of this dogma that science and re­ ligion are at war. He traces the history of scientific progress, not as an opponent of true science, but as one who knows the limitations o f science and the history of its blunders. In seventeen striking chap­ ters he deals with theories that were once counted surely settled but which are now wholly discarded. The chapters on “La­ marck and His Vagaries” and “ Charles Darwin and His Blunders” are especially fine. 138 pages. Revell Company. Cloth. Price $1.25. — o — The author o f this delightful series of talks with’ boys and girls shows tffelOrfn- derstanding o f the problems o f youth and suggests a solution for them. Each chap­ ter presents a practical lesson or a brief sermon. The style is simple, direct and gripping. The lessons are drawn from il­ lustrations known to the child, found in the Bible, in Nature, and in everyday ex­ perience, such as a left-handed man, an electric spark, an olive tree, the morning star, a cup found in a sack. We bespeak a wide reading for the book. Parents as well as children will greatly enjoy it. 147 pages. Revell Company. Cloth. Price $1.50. The Road of the Loving Heart B y G eorge H. M orrison , D.D.

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of the fundamentalist movement are scholarly and devout and that their the­ ology cannot be explained as mere tradi­ tionalism. He looks upon them as being one-sided men with “certain traits of close-mindedness,” These quotations indicate that while Dr. Brunner has, to a large extent, repudiated his Ritschlian foundations, he has not yet' arrived at orthodoxy. One great diffi­ culty seems to be that he does not hold a sound view of the Scriptures. He con­ fesses himself an “adherent to a rather radical school of Biblical criticism.” He does not accept the Gospel of John as ac­ curate history, and he thinks he finds legends in many parts o f the synoptic Gospels. There are other weaknesses in the book which compel the conclusion that while it is o f value as revealing the er­ rors o f modernism, it has not reached the goal o f orthodoxy. 118 pages. Chas. Scribner’s Sons. Cloth. Price $1.75. — o— Biblical Doctrines B y B enjamin B reckinridge W arfield Dr. Warfield was one of the greatest o f Calvinistic theologians of the last gen­ eration. He was a profound scholar, a writer with an interesting and almost bril­ liant style, an expert teacher, and a firm believer in the Word of God. In the first article of this book he deals with predes­ tination, and it would seem as if he had said all that can be said upon the subject from the Calvinistic point o f view. The chapters on redemption and the meaning of the death o f Christ are unanswerable. Every type of unorthodox interpretation o f the atonement is exhaustively investi­ gated and its defects and errors laid bare. The concluding chapters on “ The Proph­ ecies o f St. Paul” and “The Millennium and the Apocalypse” are not so satisfac­ tory to the present reviewer. Dr. Warfield took tike postmillenarian view of prophecy. It seems a bit surprising that one who was so consistent a literalist when studying other doctrines, should be so confirmed in his spiritualizing method when he dealt with the question o f the second coming of Christ. Those who hold the postmillen­ arian view or who can with charity ac­ cept Dr. Warfield’s book in spite of dif­ ferences o f opinion on this point, will find the volume o f great value. 665 pages. Oxford University Press. Cloth. Price $4.00. — o — Dowie, Anointed of the Lord B y A rthur N ewcomb John Alexander Dowie was one o f the strangest meteoric characters o f modern times. He suddenly appeared, about a generation ago, at a time when the doc­ trine o f divine healing was receiving a good deal o f attention. He was quick to

A Remarkable Biblical Discovery B y W illiam P hillips H all

The subtitle o f this book is “ ‘The Name’ o f God According to the Scrip­ tures.” The author has done well to em­ phasize the true significance o f the name “Lord” (kurios) as applied to Jesus. Be­ ginning with the statement that in Ex. 3 :14, IS, God revealed His essential name as I AM, usually represented in Hebrew by the letters YHVH and pointed with the vowels of Adonai, he proceeds to show that this name is translated kurios (Lord) in the LXX, and that it is then transferred to the New Testament in the quotations from the Old. He points out the further fact that the name kurios (Lord) is fre­ quently applied to Jesus Christ directly, as in the invocations of His Name, the speaking in the Name, the references to baptism, in the Name of the Lord, by the early Church. This, he rightly argues, is one of the strongest proofs that the dis­ ciples ascribed deity to Jesus. The re­ viewer cannot agree, however, that the contention is exactly a new “discovery” ; for this association o f the Old Testament name Jehovah with that of Jesus has been made before. Nor does he believe that the Old Testament Septuagint, the Syriac Peshitta, Codez Bezae, and the Douay Version have as great an evidential value as the author claims for them. Fortu­ nately, the argument that kurios (Lord) indicates diety when applied to Christ does not rest on the additional'references that may be adduced from these sources, there being abundant proof of this fact in the more valuable manuscripts and ver­ sions. 175 pages. American Tract So­ ciety, New York. Cloth. Price $1.50. — o — The Theology of Crisis B y H. E mil B runner Much has been made recently of the theological movement in Europe led by Karl Barth, H. Emil Brunner, and others, which seems to be a genuine reaction a g a i n s t rationalistic modernism. Dr. Brunner began as a Ritschlian and has evidently come to see the inadequacy of that theology. In this volume he shows that modernism, born out of Ritschlian- ism, is not Christianity. With emphasis he says, “A fundamentalist, possessed of a reasonably correct knowledge of Chris­ tianity, will have little difficulty in prov­ ing that the modernist teaches, under the label o f Christianity, a religion which has nothing in common with Christianity ex­ cept a few words, and that these words cover concepts which are irreconcilable with the content of Christian faith.” Yet Dr. Brunner is not by any means a funda­ mentalist. To him fundamentalism is “an imposing medieval form o f ortho­ doxy,” a sort o f petrified Christianity. However, he admits that many leaders

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