Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-05-29


of the Bible received concepts of divine truth,
which they were left to dress up in human
language. The Bible is therefore only the fall.
bic expression of divine truth. of which tho
concepts were impaired to the writer's by God.
As no one has ever seen or known those con-
cepts in their naked reality we can never be en-
tirely certain that the human authors of the
Bible received anything more than a fallible
impression of the truth. At all events. il the
divine inspiration did not extend TO the Ian
guage of the Bible then the revelation which
God made to the writer's persisted with them.
The record of that revelation, at least, is only
human and fallibe and the Scriptures are but
the human account Of the Word of God not
that Word itself. If so the Bible is only one of
the many good books which contain divine
truth and is not the book Of books which Chris
tians have always considered it to be.
Holding such views. DIR. Briggs naturally
enough teaches that the genuine text OF
Scripture may contain errors and he need find
no difficulty in holding that it must contain
errors since nothing human is free from error.
So after having pointed out a number of
cases of what he regards biblical errors DIR.
Briggs states Tin his defense. p 1l4): 1.-The
number of such instances as have given above
might be increased to an indefinite extent ex-
tending over large part Of the Old Testament
anil the New Testament"
DR.. Briggs teaches then that the number of
errors in tn, Bible, extending over large parts
of both Testaments, is very great. and the con-
nection clearly shows that he holds those errors
to be in the genuine text of Scrinture
These TEACHINGS. DR. Lampe maintained. were
in direct contrndiction tn the contestant
,,,n
>, ~
ine iuli inSPil"'ioh anu 'no eh'ire tru'nt"i-
ness Of the written Scripture is doctrine
which is clearly taught in the Bible itself, and
is to be received, like al other biblical doc
trines, for the reason that the Holy Scripture
teaches it. The doctrine is obtained from
Scripture by application of the strictest prin-
ciples Of exegesis and by the broadcast induc-
ton from all the revelant facts, statements,
claims and illusions of the Scripture in refer
ence to the subject: it is supported by the en-
tire evidence showing the New Testament
writer's to be Trustworthy teachers of Christian
doctrine. Ultimately this evidence rests on
the authority and trustworthiness OF Christ
Himself. for He refers us to them for His
statement of doctrine. assuring us that He
fitted the writer's by giving them the spirit OF
truth to guide them into all truth and 10 teach
them whatsoever He desired them to COM
municate.
This doctrine of the truthfulness of the
Scriptures due to their full inspiration as taught
in the Bible, has been held by the church of
Jesus Christ from New Testament times until
now Dr. Briggs has misunderstood the faith
Of the church on this point All the great his
toric names which he has cited in favor Of an
errant Bible are on record In defense OF the
CpPoI LII osen, So.on'e, august
dirines have Iait the;r test;r,onr +ho. a. 81
Bible is the inerrant word of God.
II il preposterous Mt this late doy 70 advance
the claim that insisting on the trutkrulness of
the Bible is tantamonnt to setting mn a new
test OF orthodoxy. The church has never be-