A “Higher” Criticism by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 15, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 15.

A “Higher” Criticism.

By Editor

A despatch from Chicago, February 20, says that Prof. William Duncan McMillan, of the University of Chicago, declared to his class: “Biblical chroniclers arranged the story of Adam and Eve from folk-lore, to explain the origin of man. There can be no doubt that Adam and Eve and their tempter—the serpent—never actually existed. The story can not be considered anything but a myth, evolved by the ancients to account for the presence of humans upon earth. The universally credited theory of evolution smashes the one-man-and-one-woman story. There never was a first man or a first woman.” And this, we presume, he wishes us to accept on his unsupported dicta or dreams. Of course, this sets aside the entire Bible, for it was our Lord Himself who said: “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me; for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?” The “universally credited theory of evolution” is a long way from universally received at the present time. There are still a great many men that prefer God for their Father rather than the tadpole, the monkey, or the ape. Still, we presume that it is but proper to give men the choice of their ancestry, in theory at least.