The Things Which Remain: An Address To Young Ministers — John Shaqi
The Things Which Remain: An Address To Young MinistersGoodsell, Daniel A. (Daniel Ayres)
Religion
The Things Which Remain: An Address To Young Ministers
Goodsell, Daniel A. (Daniel Ayres)
Theology, Doctrinal
There is always the question also, which I profess seems to be one not
easy of answer, whether the literary judgments as to style when men are
dealing with another language than their own, and especially with Greek
and Hebrew, can be as worthy of acceptance as their authors and many
others hold them to be; whether, in short, their opinions may not, like
those of experts in handwriting, come to be so colored by their
personality, or their interests, as to be of little evidential value.
On this point it seems to me that not enough allowance has been made by
these critics for the difference in style when men write familiarly or
didactically, or when they are engaged in narration or exhortation.
[Sidenote: Foundation of Belief Unsettled.]
Whatever may be the truth as to these matters, the present state of
faith is due to the unsettlement of the foundation of belief by
scientific and critical scholarship.
[Sidenote: A New Foundation to Emerge.]
This unsettlement, admitted on every hand with difference of opinion as
to extent, is either to increase until faith in Christianity, except as
an ethical and humanitarian system, is dead, or abide until faith
revives by a perception that the Church has maintained an erroneous
basis for faith and that a new and stronger one is emerging from the sea
of discussion. This last I believe to be the truth in the matter. I
hold, therefore, that faith is not dying, but suffering in some minds
from a kind of lunar eclipse, where a shadow diminishes, temporarily,
the radiance, but does not extinguish the planet itself.
[Sidenote: The Authority of the Scriptures Weakened.]
When we ask what foundation is weakened, the answer is: The authority of
the Scriptures as the sole rule of faith and practice. Some claim that
only a few of the books are genuine and almost none authentic. If this
is to be the final judgment of the learned and the sincere, it is plain
that we must seek another foundation for faith than the word of
Scripture. It is no more a "Thus saith the Lord" for us.
[Sidenote: Critics not yet Agreed.]
[Sidenote: Archaeology and the Bible.]
[Sidenote: Personal Standpoints.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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