The Fundamentals - 1910: Vol.4

Testimony of Christ to the Old, Testament 69 to which we desire specially to direct attention are precisely of this nature. Are not these “independent declarations” ? “One jot or one tittle shall not pass,” etc.; “The Scripture cannot be broken;” “David in spirit calls him Lord;” “All things must be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concern­ ing Me.” Further, we may say as before, that if our Lord’s state­ ments—His obiter dicta, if you will—about the authorship of parts of Scripture give a measure of countenance to opinions which are standing in the way of both genuine scholarship and of faith, it is hard to see how they can be regarded as instances of a justifiable accommodation. It seems to us (may we reverently use the words) that in this case you cannot vindicate the Lord’s absolute truthfulness except by imputing to Him a degree of ignorance which would unfit Him for His office as permanent Teacher of the Church. Here is the dilemma for the radical critic—either he is agi­ tating the Church about trifles, or, if his views have the apologetical importance which he usually attributes to them, he is censuring the Lord’s discharge of His prophetic office ; for the allegation is that Christ’s words prove perplexing and misleading in regard to weighty issues which the progress of knowledge has obliged us to face. Surely we should be apprehensive of danger if we discover that views which claim our adhesion, on any grounds whatever, tend to depre­ ciate the wisdom of Him whom we call “Lord and Master,” upon whom the Spirit was bestowed “without measure,” and who “spake as never man spake.” I t is a great thing in this controversy to have the Lord on our side. Are, then, the Lord’s references to Moses and the law to be regarded as evidence that He believed the Pentateuch to be written by Moses, or should they be classed as instances of accommodation? When we take in cumulo all the pas­ sages in which the legislation of the Pentateuch and the

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