Fallacies of the Higher Criticism. 57 and those to be accepted. If the higher criticism shall be adopted as the doctrine of the church, believers will be left in a distressing state of doubt and uncertainty concerning the narra tives of the four Gospels, and unbelievers will scoff and mock. A theory which leads to such wanderings of thought regard ing the supernatural in the Scriptures must be fallacious. God is not a God of confusion. Among the higher critics who accept some of the miracles there is a notable desire to discredit the virgin birth of our Lord, and their treatment of this event presents a good exam ple of the fallacies of reasoning by means of which they would abolish many of the other miracles. One feature of their argu ment may suffice as an exhibition of all. It is the search for parallels in the pagan mythologies. There are many instances in the pagan stories of the birth of men from human mothers and divine fathers, and the higher critics would create the impression that the writers who record the birth of Christ were influenced by these fables to emulate them, and thus to secure for Him the honor of a celestial paternity. It turns out, however, that these pagan fables do not in any case pre sent to us a virgin mother; the child is always the :product of commerce with a god who assumes a human form for the purpose. The despair of the higher critics in this hunt for events of the same kind is well illustrated by Cheyne,* who cites the record of the Babylonian king Sargon, about 3,800 B. C. This monarch represents himself as having “been born of a poor mother in secret, and as not knowing his father.” There have been many millions of such instances, but we do not think of the mothers as virgins. Nor does the Baby lonian story affirm that the mother of Sargon was a virgin, or even that his father was a god. It is plain that Sargon did not intend to claim a supernatural origin, for, after say ing that he “did not know his father,” he adds that “the brother of his father lived in the mountains.” I t was a case ♦“Bible Problems,” page 86.
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