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Signs of the Times, Vol. 5, No. 19.

General Articles

Signs of the Times

May 8, 1879

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · May 8, 1879

General Articles.

By D. M. Canright

The Scripture Doctrine of a Future Life.--No. 17.

ELD. D. M. CANRIGHT.
THE OLD-TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA EXAMINED.
ALTHOUGH the books of the Apocrypha are not commonly regarded as being inspired, their testimony is important as showing the belief of the Jews at the time they were written. They are supposed to have been composed between the close of the writing of the Old Testament and the birth of Jesus. Having carefully examined them with reference to our subject, I will now quote the passages in them bearing upon this point. It will be seen that they very plainly teach the sleep of the dead, and destruction of the wicked, and the mortality of the soul.
Esdras comes first. Of the wicked he says: "In their unrighteousness also they shall perish." That which is immortal cannot perish.
Esdras clearly teaches the literal resurrection of the dead. 2 Esdras 2:16, 23: "And those that be dead will I raise up again from their places, and bring them out of the graves." "Wheresoever thou findest the dead, take them and bury them, and I will give thee the first place in my resurrection," said the Lord. Here we see the great care which the Jews always took to bury their dead, showing that they attached a great importance to the body. Also, the first resurrection is here spoken of. Verse 31: "Remember thy children that sleep; for I shall bring them out of the sides of the earth, and show mercy unto them." Here the dead are said to be asleep in the sides of the earth. Then they were not alive and awake at the same time. Then he goes on to tell of the end of the world, the coming of the Son of God, the redemption of the saints, &c., of whom he says, after they are crowned on Mount Zion, "These be they that have put off the mortal clothing, and put on the immortal, and have confessed the name of God." This agrees well with Paul's teaching, that immortality shall be put on at the resurrection. 1 Cor. 15.
He next speaks of the creation of Adam thus: Thou "gavest a body unto Adam without soul, which was the workmanship of thine hands, and didst breathe into him the breath of life, and he was made living before thee." 2 Esdras 3:5. Without soul, that is, without life. This was given him, not in the shape of an immortal soul, but by breathing into him the breath of life, which made him alive. Then he was a living soul, as in Gen. 2:7. He represents the graves as the chambers of souls where they are waiting the resurrection. 2 Esdras 4:41, 42: "And he said unto me, In the grave, the chambers of souls are like the womb of a woman; for like as a woman that travaileth maketh haste to escape the necessity of the travail: even so do these places haste to deliver those things that are committed unto them." Souls, then, are in the grave till the resurrection. Of course he could not believe that they were in Heaven at the same time.
In chapter 7, there are some very plain testimonies showing that man is mortal, that the wicked will perish, that the dead are asleep, &c. Verse 15 reads: "Now therefore, why disquietest thou thyself, seeing thou art but a corruptible man? and why art thou moved, whereas thou art but mortal?" Then man is not immortal. Verse 17: The Lord has ordained "that the ungodly should perish." Verse 32: "And the earth shall restore those that are asleep in her, and so shall the dust those that dwell in silence, and the secret places shall deliver those souls that were committed unto them." Men are asleep in silence in the earth. This is not their bodies only, but their souls are there too, waiting to be delivered up. He did not believe in eternal misery; for he says, verse 33: "And the Most High shall appear upon the seat of judgment, and misery shall pass away, and long suffering shall have an end." He plainly declares that there is no immortality yet; for it will begin at the Judgment. Verse 43-45: "But the day of doom shall be the end of this time, and the beginning of the immortality for to come, wherein corruption is past. . . . Then shall no man be able to save him that is destroyed, nor to oppress him that hath gotten the victory." When the saints have immortality, then the wicked are destroyed. To destroy is to "kill, to slay, to extirpate." "Destroyed: demolished, pulled down, ruined, annihilated," &c. Webster.
Verse 49: "For what profit is it unto us, if there be promised us an immortal time, whereas we have done the works that bring death?" Wicked works bring death. In this he agrees with Paul, "The wages of sin is death." To die is "to cease to live, to expire, to decease, to perish." This is not eternal misery; certainly.
Chapter 8:54-58: "Sorrows are passed, and in the end is showed the treasure of immortality. And, therefore, ask thou no more questions concerning the multitude of them that perish. For . . . they have trodden down his righteous, and said in their heart, that there is no God; yea, that knowing they must die." This is plain; in the end of the world immortality is given to the saints, while the sinners perish and die.
In chapter 9, Esdras is informed who shall be saved, and who shall be lost, and why. Verse 9: "They that have cast them [the saints] away despitefully shall dwell in torments." Verse 12. Those who have despised repentance, "the same must know it after death by pain." This teaches that the wicked shall be punished after death, severely, even with pain and torments; but it does not say eternal torments. Far from it, for it is immediately said, "There be many more of them which perish than of them which shall be saved." "Let the multitude perish, then, which was born in vain." Verses 15, 22. They perish in their torments.
In chapter 13, he has a view of the end of the world, and the coming of Christ in great power, while the wicked are gathered against him, as in Rev. 19. Fire, flame, sparks, and tempests, "fell with violence upon the multitude which was prepared to fight; and burned them up every one, so that upon a sudden of an innumerable multitude nothing was to be perceived, but only dust and smell of smoke." Verse 11. This is too clear and explicit to be misunderstood—the wicked are totally destroyed and reduced to dust. This shows what he means by perish. Verse 38: The Son "shall lay before them [the wicked nations] their evil thoughts, and the torments, which are like unto a flame: and he shall destroy them without labor by the law which is like unto fire."
Chapter 15:23, 26: "The fire is gone forth from his wrath, and hath consumed the foundations of the earth, and the sinners, like the straw that is kindled." "For the Lord knoweth all them that sin against him, and, therefore, delivereth he them unto death and destruction." This is in harmony with what he has before said. Fire shall consume the wicked like straw, and bring them to death and destruction.
The last testimony of Esdras on this subject is in chapter 16:61, where he describes the making of man. Does he give him an immortal soul? "He made man, and put his heart in the midst of the body, and gave him breath, life, and understanding." Not a word about the immortal soul, never dying soul, deathless spirit, eternal misery, spirit land, &c., in all his writings. On the contrary, he says that man in death is "asleep," "dwells in silence," shall be raised out of the sides of the earth, &c. Man is "mortal" and "corruptible." The wicked shall "perish," "be destroyed," "die," be "burned up," "consumed like straw," "misery shall pass away," and "suffering have an end." The saints shall "put on the immortal clothing," &c. Who can doubt what Esdras' faith was?
The next in order is the book of Tobit. He says but little on the subject, yet enough to show that he believed in the mortality of man. Chapter 3:6: He prays to God, "Now, therefore, deal with me as seemeth best unto thee, and command my spirit to be taken from me, that I may be dissolved, and become earth; for it is profitable for me to die rather than to live; because I have heard false reproaches and have much sorrow: command, therefore, that I may now be delivered out of this distress, and go into the everlasting place: turn not thy face away from me." When his spirit, or breath was taken from him, he expected to die, be dissolved, and become earth. He had no idea of going to Heaven. Chapter 4:10: He says, "Alms do deliver from death." So 12:9. This is all he says on the point.
Judith, the next book in order, has two valuable testimonies. Chapter 7:27: "For it is better for us to be made a spoil unto them [their enemies] than to die for thirst; for we will be his servants, that our souls may live, and not see the death of our infants before our eyes." They were closely besieged and were likely to famish. By yielding to their enemies, to serve them, they would not die for thirst, and their souls would live. So they believed that their souls would die with their bodies if they died. Not immortal, then. Chapter 16:17: "Woe to the nations that rise up against my kindred! the Lord Almighty will take vengeance of them in the day of Judgment, in putting fire and worms in their flesh; and they shall feel them and weep forever." 1. God reserves his vengeance for the wicked till the day of Judgment; then they are not punished before that time. 2. At the Judgment, God will put fire and worms in their flesh. This shows that they understood these terms literally. 3. Weeping forever does not necessarily mean eternally, as forever is often limited in its meaning. Jonah was in the whale's belly only three days, yet he called it forever. Chapter 2:6. So of many other cases in the Bible where forever means only a limited period.
Esther, the next book, is silent on this subject; but the Wisdom of Solomon has some decisive testimony. Chapter 1:11-13: "The mouth that belieth slayeth the soul. Seek not death in the error of your life; and pull not upon yourself destruction with the works of your hands. For God made not death; neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living." On this we remark, 1. The soul can be slain; hence it is not immortal. 2. Death and destruction will come upon the wicked. 3. God is not the author of death, nor has he pleasure in it.
Chapter 2:23, 24: "For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity. Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it." Man was made to be immortal. God designed that he should live eternally; but the devil led him into sin, which brought death upon the whole race; hence they are not now immortal. This is plainly his argument, and shows conclusively that he did not regard man as immortal. What follows in regard to the righteous shows that this position is correct; that the saints only will have immortality, and they not now, nor at death; for they rest in peace with a hope of immortality, till the time of their visitation, i. e., till the resurrection.
Chapter 3:1-7: "But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die; and their departure is taken for misery, and their going from us to be utter destruction; but they are in peace. For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. . . . And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble." They die, are in peace, with a hope full of immortality. Then, of course, they have not gotten immortality yet.
Chap. 4:18. He tells what shall be the end of the wicked: "They shall hereafter be a vile carcase, and a reproach among the dead forevermore." This does not look like eternal torment.
Chap. 7:1. "I myself also am a mortal man, like to all, and the offspring of him that was first made of the earth." This shows that, 1. He was mortal. 2. All are mortal; and 3. All men are made of earth. This cannot be mistaken,—man is wholly mortal.
Chap. 8:13, 17: "Moreover by the means of her [wisdom] I shall OBTAIN immortality, and leave behind me an everlasting memorial to them that come after me." "To be allied unto wisdom is immortality." Immortality may be obtained by wisdom; then, of course, without wisdom it cannot be had.
Chap. 9:14, 15: "For the thoughts of mortal men are miserable, and our devices are but uncertain. For the corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things." Here we see that the whole man is mortal, and not the body only, as some try to argue; for he says, "the thoughts of mortal men are miserable," &c. That which thinks is mortal. The last verse may be claimed as proof of the separate existence of the soul,—the corruptible body presseth down the soul. But the next phrase explains what is meant by the soul: it is the mind,—"and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind." The mind or thoughts he calls the soul. He does not say it is immortal, nor that it lives when the body dies.
Chap. 12:6. After mentioning several classes of sinners, he says it was God's will to destroy them, "and the parents that kill with their own hands souls destitute of help." He regarded souls as capable of being killed, hence mortal. In chap. 15:3, he says, that "to know thy [God's] power is the root of immortality." Verse 11. Of the idolater he says: "He knew not his Maker, and him that inspired into him an active soul, and breathed in a living spirit." We have seen already what he means by the soul: it is man's mind, thoughts, or life. "Breathed in a living spirit," is equivalent to "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." Gen. 2:7. It is this breath of life which makes man live; but neither breath nor body is alive unless united. It will be marked that he never calls it a deathless spirit, immortal spirit, or by any such term. In verse 17, of this same man as a whole he says, "For being mortal, he worketh a dead thing with wicked hands." The fact that man is mortal he often repeats. This closes the testimony of that book, which we consider decisive on the question before us.
The next book, Ecclesiasticus, written by Jesus the son of Sirach, about B. C. 200, is still more clear on the nature of man. Chap. 5:7. "Make no tarrying to turn to the Lord, and put not off from day to day; for suddenly shall the wrath of the Lord come forth, and in thy security thou shalt be destroyed and perish in the day of vengeance."
Chap. 6:4. "A wicked soul shall destroy him that hath it." So also Chap. 9:9. We know the meaning of perish and destroy. To put an end to a thing. They do not mean eternal torment.
In Chap. 10:11, he states where a man goes when he dies, i. e., into the corruption of the grave: "For when a man is dead, he shall inherit creeping things, beasts, and worms." Chap. 14:16, 17: "Give, and take, and sanctify thy soul, for there is no seeking of dainties in the grave. All flesh waxeth old as a garment; for the covenant from the beginning is, Thou shalt die the death." This is too plain to need explanation.
Chap. 17 is much to the point, as it describes very minutely the creation of man, tells us in so many words that "he is not immortal," and tells his condition in death: "The Lord created man of the earth, and turned him into it again." Verse 1. It is man as a whole that is made of earth and goes into it again. Then he goes on to say that God made men "according to his image," verse 3, gave them "understanding," "speech," "counsel, and a tongue, and eyes, ears, and a heart," &c. Verses 5, 6. All parts of man's composition are mentioned, but nothing said about an immortal soul. Then he tells man's condition in death. Verses 27, 28: "Who shall praise the Most High in the grave, instead of them which live and give thanks? Thanksgiving perisheth from the dead, as from one that is not: the living and sound in heart shall praise the Lord." From this it is very plain that he thought that the dead were unconscious in the grave, and that they were not alive in Heaven praising God. But verse 30 settles the point as to what he thought of the nature of man: "For all things can not be in men, because the son of man is NOT immortal." Nothing could be plainer than this, showing that the Jews at that time did not believe in the immortality of man.
Chap. 21:2. The teeth of sin "are as the teeth of a lion, slaying the souls of men." Verse 9: "The congregation of the wicked is like tow wrapped together; and the end of them is a flame of fire to destroy them." This is a forcible illustration, showing the utter destruction of sinners. They shall be burned up like tow. Chap. 22:11: he says that the dead "hath lost the light" and "he is at rest." Chap. 36:9: "Let them perish that oppress the people." Chap. 38:23: "When the dead is at rest, let his remembrance rest; and be comforted for him, when his spirit is departed from him." Here again we have the dead at rest. "His spirit is departed from him," that is, his life or breath. Chap. 46:19, 20: Of Samuel he says, "And before his long sleep he made protestations," &c. This refers to Samuel's death, which is called his long sleep. This is the way the Bible always represents the death of the saints,—as asleep in the grave. In sleep there is no thought, no consciousness. Verse 20: "And after his death he prophesied, and showed the king his end, and lifted up his voice from the earth in prophecy, to blot out the wickedness of the people."
It may be claimed that this indicates that Samuel's soul was alive after his death. But such a position is untenable; for, 1. The previous verse unqualifiedly declares that Samuel was asleep. It does not affirm this of a part, the body, simply, but of the whole man, Samuel. 2. The same writer has frequently declared, as we have seen, that man is mortal, that he is not immortal, that the dead do not give thanks to God, &c. Hence this must be explained in harmony with those positive statements. An inference must never be allowed to contradict and outweigh a positive statement. At the best, only an inference can be drawn from this passage. 3. Nothing is said in the passage about the soul or spirit, much less about its living and knowing when the body is dead. 4. The same one that died, is the same one that prophesied after death,—"And after his death he prophesied," says the writer. Mark, it does not say, "After the death of his body his soul prophesied," but the same thing that died and slept also prophesied. 5. This language is spoken with reference to the witch of Endor's bringing up Samuel at the request of Saul, the king. 1 Sam. 28. By reference to that event, it will be seen that Samuel is represented as coming up out of the earth bodily, as being disquieted by it, &c. Hence our writer says, that "he showed the king [Saul] his end, and lifted up his voice from the earth." Manifestly he took it that Samuel did actually come up from the grave and talk with Saul. But this is far from showing that he thought Samuel's soul lived, and came back and prophesied, while his body was in the grave. That which was in the grave came up and talked. Chap. 48:5: Of Elijah he says, "Who didst raise up a dead man from death, and his soul from the place of the dead" (margin, grave). Then the souls of the dead are in the grave. Thus closes this writer's testimony.
Baruch 2:17, says: "Open thine eyes and behold; for the dead that are in the graves, whose souls (margin, Gr. spirit or life) are taken from their bodies, will give unto the Lord neither praise nor righteousness." Here again we see the same idea of the unconscious state of the dead. Chap. 4:1: "All they that keep it [the law] shall come to life; but such as leave it shall die." To die is to cease to live, to lose existence. This is the fate of the sinner.
Next follow four small books viz.: Song of the three Holy Children, History of Susanna, Destruction of Bel, and Prayer of Manasses. But there is no reference in either of them to our subject.
We now come to the Maccabees, which were probably written about 150 years before Christ. In 1 Mac. 2:63, we read of the sinner, "To-day he shall be lifted up, and to-morrow he shall not be found, because he is returned into his dust, and his thought is come to nothing." This clearly conveys the idea that he is entirely unconscious in the dust. In 2 Mac. 7, is related the remarkable case of a mother and seven sons, who suffered a most cruel martyrdom by their enemies, because they would not give up their religion and break the law. The seven sons were most cruelly tortured and slain before their mother's eyes. Each one tried to encourage and strengthen the others in their pains. If they had believed that their souls were immortal and would immediately go to Heaven, this was an excellent time for them to talk of that hope as an encouragement. But hear them: the second one said to his tormentor, "Thou like a fury takest us out of this present life, but the King of the world shall raise us up, who have died for his laws, unto everlasting life." When the third was brought, he put out his tongue and hand, and said, "These I had from Heaven; and for his laws I despise them; and from him I hope to receive them again." When the fourth was about to die, he said, "It is good, being put to death by men, to look for hope from God to be raised up again by him. As for thee, thou shalt have no resurrection to life." Then the mother said to her sons, "The Creator . . . will also of his own mercy give you breath and life again, as ye now regard not your own selves for his law's sake." When the last one was dying he said, "Our brethren, who now have suffered a short pain, are dead under God's covenant of everlasting life." Thus they all died. The hope of the resurrection from the dead was their only hope. This was what strengthened and encouraged them in all their sufferings. Not a word about going to Heaven, or any thing of the kind.
In Chap. 12:43-45, is a passage claimed by Catholics as proving the doctrine of purgatory. If it could be proved that the soul is immortal, and lives after the body dies, it would be quite a plausible proof that the Jews held the doctrine of purgatory. But as we have shown that they did not believe in these doctrines, this passage does not prove what is claimed for it. It reads thus: "And when he [Judas] had made a gathering throughout the company to the sum of two thousand drachms of silver, he sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin offering, doing therein very well and honestly, in that he was mindful of the resurrection. For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead. And also in that he perceived that there was great favor laid up for those that die godly, it was a holy and good thought. Whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin." There is no evidence here that the dead are conscious, but the reverse, as it all relates to the resurrection. It is said that all that was done for the dead would have been in vain if they had not hoped that they would rise again. Hence they did not expect that their offerings and prayers would benefit the dead till the resurrection. Then of course they did not believe that the dead were alive and conscious.
CONCLUSION.—Here, then, we have the whole testimony of the Apocrypha on the nature of man and punishment of the wicked. It seems to me to be overwhelmingly conclusive that the Jews at that time did not believe in the immortality of the soul nor in eternal misery. Not a word of either occurs in the whole Apocrypha; but it is often said that man is mortal; that the son of man is not immortal; that the dead are asleep; are at rest; that souls are in the grave; that souls can be killed, destroyed, slain, &c.; and that the wicked shall die, perish, be consumed, burned up like tow, destroyed, &c., &c. This harmonizes with the teachings of both the Old and New Testaments. There is no reliable evidence that any of the ancient Jews ever believed in the immortality of the soul.

"GEORGE NEWMARK'S HYMN."

LEAVE God to order all thy ways, And hope in him, whate'er betide; Thou'lt find him in the evil days An all sufficient strength and guide. Who trusts in God's unchanging love, Builds on the rock that naught can move.
What can these anxious cares avail— These never ceasing moans and sighs? What can it help us to bewail Each painful moment as it flies? Our cross and trials do but press The harder for our bitterness.
Only your restless heart keep still, And wait in cheerful hope, content To take whate'er His gracious will, His all discerning love hath sent; Nor doubt our inmost wants are known To him who chose us for his own.
He knows when joyful hours are best; He sends them as he sees it meet; When thou hast borne its fiery test, And now art freed from all deceit, He comes to thee all unaware, And makes thee own his loving care.
Nor in the heat of pain and strife, Think God hath cast thee off unheard, Nor that the man whose prosperous life Thou enviest, is of him preferred; Time passes, and much change doth bring, And sees a bound to every thing.
All are alike before his face; 'Tis easy to our God most high To make the rich man poor and base, To give the poor man wealth and joy; True wonders still of him are wrought, Who setteth up, and brings to naught.
Sing, pray, and swerve not from his ways, But do thine own part faithfully; Trust his rich promises of grace, So shall it be fulfilled in thee; God never yet forsook at need, The soul that trusted him indeed. — From the German

The Geological Theory Contradictory to the Sacred History.

THE theory of the existence of the earth and its races through innumerable ages, is in direct antagonism with that part of the Mosaic record which defines the period of the creation, and if held to be true, renders the conclusion natural and unavoidable, that that record is not. And such, it is well known, is the result to which it carries great numbers of those to whom it is taught. Wherever advanced by a popular lecturer, and exhibited as a truth that is demonstrated by the strata of the earth, it will be found that it has left the impression very generally on the hearers that the Mosaic account of the creation is convicted of error; and thence cannot be regarded as having been written by inspiration. It has, indeed, been so boldly and speciously taught for many years in books, in laboratories, in lyceums, in popular lectures and sermons, that it has become a very common impression with the young that the first chapter of Genesis is mistaken and without authority.
But that inference, if adopted, cannot be restricted to that chapter. To pronounce the history there given a fiction, because of its representation that the heavens, the earth, and the sea and all that in them is, were created in six days, is to make it logically necessary to deny the inspiration of every other part of the book, and of the law that is associated with it; as that representation was expressly re-affirmed by the Most High himself at Sinai, incorporated in the law of the Sabbath, and presented as the reason of the consecration of that day to rest; and was renewed again to Moses, on delivering to him the tables on which it was written. "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Ex. 20: 11.
"Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed." Ex. 31: 16, 17. It is incredible that God should have thus with his own voice repeated that declaration on his revealing himself in glory to the Israelitish people at Sinai, and institution of the law, and graven it with his own finger on the tables of stone, if it was not true; if it were such a sheer and enormous error as modern geology represents. It is impossible from his rectitude. There would then have been no conceivable motive for founding the institution of the Sabbath on such a reason. As he had a perfect right to establish it, independently of the consideration whether he created the world and the vegetable and animal races in six days, or any other period, why should he offer his having accomplished it in six days, and rested the seventh, as the reason of his consecrating the seventh as a day of rest, unless he had actually wrought it in those six days? It is infinitely impossible that he should have renewed and ratified that declaration in so solemn a manner, and made it an element of his legislation that was forever to be kept before the eyes of mankind, if, as geology teaches, it is confuted by his natural works, that are equally open to their inspection; if the strataof the earth which they were soon to explore and read, contain a record which shows that the date of the creation was innumerable ages earlier. It would have been to overthrow his authority, instead of establishing it. If, then, as geology contends, the record on the table of the law is convicted of falsehood by another record which he has graven in ineffaceable characters on the strata of the earth, it is impossible that the law can have proceeded from him, and the whole system of legislation associated with it must, like the first chapter of Genesis, be rejected as a fiction. To suppose it can be otherwise, is to suppose that he has, in the most momentous act of his administration, proclaimed a falsehood which was soon to be detected by his creatures, and place them under an inevitable necessity of distrusting his truth, his uprightness, and his wisdom.
Nor does that conclusion terminate at this point. If that announcement from Sinai, and ratification of the history of the creation given in Genesis, is held to be a fiction, it must of necessity lead to the rejection of the whole Pentateuch as a fabrication. If, without any conceivable motive, and against every consideration that would govern a wise and holy being, a misrepresentation so stupendous, and so sure to be detected and exposed is incorporated in the decalogue itself, both as it is represented to have been pronounced by the Almighty Lawgiver, and written by him on the tables of stone, what certainty can be felt that any of the other recitals or declarations are not equally false? If no trust is to be placed in the awful attestations which God is represented to have given to that part of the law, no other attestations which he is said to have given to the other enactments and institutions can be entitled to reliance. Neither visible theophanies, audible voices, miracles, nor prophecies, which are declared to have attended the communication of commands, and to have shown that they were from him, can yield them any corroboration. Indeed, it would be absolutely incredible that the whole was not in an equal measure a fabrication.
But the rejection of the Pentateuch as false in its claims to a divine origin and authority, would necessarily draw after it the rejection also of all the other books of the Old Testament; for they all recognize the truth of the Pentateuch, and proceed on its histories, enactments, and institutions, as verities. They exhibit the Israelitish nation as sustaining that relation to God which the Pentateuch represents; and the priesthood, the sacrifices, the covenants, the promises, and the whole system of laws, as instituted by God, as that record relates. If they are not his work, it is impossible that the other should be. But their rejection draws after it also as necessarily the rejection of the New Testament; for the latter ratifies, in the fullest manner, the great historical statements, enactments, and religious institutions of the former, and it is on them that the work of redemption which it reveals is founded. If the Mosaic history of the creation and fall, the destruction of the ancient world, the adoption of the Israelites as a peculiar people, their deliverance from Egypt, the proclamation of the law at Sinai, the institution of the priesthood, sacrifices and rites of worship, and the interpositions, commands, and revelations that are recorded by the prophets that followed, are not from God, it is impossible that the New Testament can be, which everywhere recognizes them as realities, and is dependent on them for its truth and propriety.
The whole Bible as a revelation, thus stands or falls with the first chapter of Genesis. This intimate connection with other parts of the word of God, is, in a great degree, peculiar to that record of the creation. The histories, narratives, and even enactments of many other chapters might be supposed to be supposititious, without necessarily destroying the credibility of the inspiration of the remainder. But the subversion of this, from its incorporation in the law of Sinai, necessarily carries with it the subversion of all that follows.
These considerations sufficiently show, that the contradiction which the modern theory of geology presents to the record of the creation by Moses, naturally leads those who assent to it, to regard that record as erroneous, and prepares the way for a distrust and rejection of the whole Bible. The skepticism which it is known to excite and foster, is not gratuitous and causeless, but the logical result of such an impeachment of that part of the word of God, which is the foundation of all the rest. The question, therefore, between the Bible and that theory, is one of the utmost interest. It is the question whether Christianity is credible and true, or whether it is contradicted and convicted of falsehood by the material works of the Creator. If it cannot be vindicated from the impeachment offered by the geological theory, it cannot be vindicated at all; but skepticism is unavoidable, and nothing is left for those who would consistent, but to adopt and propagate it. The subject is entitled, therefore, to the most serious consideration of all believers in revelation, and especially of the ministers of the gospel, whose office it is to teach and enforce the doctrines, laws, promises, and predictions of the Scriptures as communications from God. They cannot, rationally, satisfy themselves with mere presumptions, vague hopes, or undefined impressions, that the Bible is God's word, although it may be contradicted by his works. They cannot consistently act as his ministers, unless they can defend it from this imputation, and show that it is entitled to be received as a divine revelation. They cannot fulfill their duty to those of their people who have been betrayed into skepticism, or are in danger of becoming its victims, unless able to point out the fallacies and errors of the system which impeaches it, and show that the works of God, instead of confuting or contravening it, are both in perfect harmony with it, and offer it the most clear and ample corroboration.—Geognosy, by D. N. Lord.
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