p. 20 | Bible Knowledge by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 16, 1911

Bible Knowledge

By F. M. W.

THIS is an age of Bible distribution. In civilized countries the Bible is everywhere in evidence; but are Bible study and Bible knowledge keeping pace with Bible distribution? This is questionable. At least this is the view taken by the Catholic journal America in a late issue. Speaking of a recent test made among seventy-eight students in Ann Arbor, Mich., America says:—

“The test was not made offhand, but nearly an hour was allowed to write down the answers. The results were startling. One volunteered the valuable information that the Old Testament was written before Christ, the other was not; another affirmed that ‘the Old Testament represented Hebrew fable,’ while ‘the New dealt with historical characters.’ Another, again, that ‘the Old was composed largely of stories and proverbs which are not any longer believed to have actually happened.’ ‘By the law,’ said one wise youth, ‘is meant the laws given by Christ to his disciples, while the gospel simply means the Scriptures as taught to the people.’ We can quote only a few of the hundreds of other ridiculous replies. ‘The Gospels,’ for instance, ‘were the letters which St. Paul wrote to the churches.’ ‘The temple of Solomon was in Babylon.’ ‘Sinai was the place of the landing of the ark, or the mount from which Christ spoke.’ ‘Nazarene was the mother of Christ; Nazareth was his father.’ ‘Levi was a name applied to Jews who were small in stature compared with Leviathan, which meant large.’ ‘Levi was a Jewish male; Leviathan a woman.’ ‘The Isle of Patmos was the place where the children of Israel were fed in the wilderness.’ ‘Thou art the man,’ are words said by Judas to Christ, or by a prophet in his chariot teaching Christianity to the man at his side.’ ‘Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice,’ was said by Christ to one of the thieves hanging beside him in the crucifixion.’ ‘Abraham was called by God to preach the gospel.’ ‘Jacob’s ladder was a vision that Jacob had one night when he slept outdoors near a mountain, which looked like a pair of stairs.’ ‘The mess of pottage referred to the Lord’s supper.’ ‘Aaron’s rod brought the manna and doves to the ground when the tribes of Israel were without food.’ ‘The thirty pieces of silver’ were one of the parables,’ etc.”

Frontispiece, “Protestant Magazine,” Current Issue

America feels that the explanation for this is found in the fact that “the Reformers of the sixteenth century were deadly enemies of the Bible, though they professed to base their whole religion on it,” and that the final result has been the discarding of the Sacred Book. Protestants, of course, will be slow to accept this conclusion.

We question if the students of Catholic schools would be able to give even as intelligent answers as were given by the students in Ann Arbor. It is a sad fact that many of all classes to-day are losing their old-time veneration for the Scriptures of truth. It is a significant sign of the times in which we live. It indicates the growing spirit of indifference to God and of infidelity which is stealing in upon the world. The reason may be found in the general spiritual declension which exists everywhere, a declension affecting Catholics as well as Protestants, rather than in the cause assigned by America. F. M. W.