108 The Fundamentals. truth. For whatever this so-called Divine element is, it ap pears to be quite consistent with defective argument, incorrect interpretation, if not what the average man would call forgery or falsification. I t is, in fact, revolutionary. To accept it the Christian will have to completely readjust his ideas of honor and honesty, of falsehood and misrepresentation. Men used to think that forgery was a crime, and falsification a sin. Pusey, in his great work on Daniel, said that “to write a book under the name of another and to give it out to be his is in any case a forgery, dishonest in itself and destructive of all trustworthi ness.” (Pusey, Lectures on Daniel, page 1.) But according to the Higher Critical position, all sorts of pseudonymous ma terial, and not a little of it believed to be true by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, is to be found in the Bible, and no ante cedent objection ought to be taken to it. Men used to think that inaccuracy would affect reliability and that proven inconsistencies would imperil credibility. But now it appears that there may not only be mistakes and errors on the part of copyists, but forgeries, intentional omis sions, and misinterpretations on the part of authors, and yet, marvelous to say, faith is not to be destroyed, but to be placed on a firmer foundation. (Sanday, page 122.) They have, according to Briggs, enthroned the Bible in a higher position than ever before. (Briggs, “The Bible, Church and Reason,” page 149.) Sanday admits that there is an element in the Pentateuch derived from Moses himself. An element! But he adds, “However much we may believe that there is a gen uine Mosaic foundation in the Pentateuch, it is difficult to lay the finger upon it, and to say with confidence, here Moses himself is speaking.” “The strictly Mosaic element in the Pentateuch must be indeterminate.” “We ought not, per haps, to use them (the visions of Ex. 3 and 33) without reserve for Moses himself” (pages 172-174-176). The ordi-
Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog