“CHRISTIANITY’S MILLSTONE.”
By George H. Heald
“NEVERTHELESS when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8. The pertinency of this question is well attested by the growing disbelief in the Old Testament scriptures manifested by many Bible expositors. For instance, Goldwin Smith, a doctor of divinity, in an article in the December North American Review, characterizes the Old Testament as a millstone about the neck of Christianity. He says:— The history of every nation begins as a myth. . . . The figure of the patriarch Abraham, a typical sheikh, as well as the father of Israel, is exceptionally vivid, and his history is exceptionally dramatic. But to regard Abraham as a real founder, not only of a nation but of the church, and as the chosen medium of communication between God and man, sound criticism will no longer allow us. He quotes Canon Bonney’s denial of the authenticity of the story of creation, the flood, and the tower of Babel, and rightly adds:— With the historical character of the chapters relating to the creation, Canon Bonney must resign his belief in the fall of Adam; with his belief in the fall of Adam, he must surrender the doctrine of the atonement, as connected with that event, and thus relieve conscience of the strain put upon it in struggling to reconcile vicarious punishment with our sense of justice. He will also have to lay aside his belief in the serpent of temptation, and in the primeval personality of evil. And we may add, both the canon and the doctor will have to lay aside the authority of many New Testament statements. In fact, Dr. Smith himself says:— The evangelists, simple-minded, find in the sacred books of this nation prognostications of the character and mission of Jesus. No real and specific prediction of the advent of Jesus, or of any event in his life, can be produced from the books of the Old Testament. Let the New Testament speak for itself on this subject: “Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken; ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Luke 24:25-27. Dr. Smith calls the disciples simple-minded for finding “in the sacred books of their nation prognostications of the character and mission of Jesus.” Jesus calls these same disciples foolish, because they were slow to believe what the prophets had spoken; and he expounded unto them in “all the Scriptures [Old Testament, for there was no New then] the things concerning himself.” Evidently, the Saviour was “simple minded” enough to believe that these scriptures related to him; and one who doubts it is left with the alternative of impeaching the sincerity of Jesus or the veracity of Luke’s Gospel. To regard Abraham a mythical character, we must ignore the witness of the apostle Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans, to the Galatians, and the book of Hebrews, and James, and the Gospel of John. What are these words worth, if founded on a myth: “For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. . . . That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation?” Where is the “strong consolation” in that passage to one who believes Abraham to be a myth? The fact is that the New Testament stands or falls with the Old. Any argument against the authority of the Old applies with equal force against the New. We are not surprised that the wisdom of the nineteenth century finds the Old Testament record “imperfect,” “inaccurate,” “incredible.” “Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God.” (Call to mind in this connection the quotation above given, “and thus relieve conscience of the strain put upon it in struggling to reconcile vicarious punishment with our sense of justice.”) “For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.” “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory; which none of the princes of this world knew; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” Infidelity with a “D.D.” after it is as truly infidelity, and more dangerous, than infidelity prefixed by a “Col.” It was infidelity in high places in the church that crucified the Saviour. It will be infidelity in high places in the last days which will persecute the remnant church.