The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-07-25
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B. schodde. ph, D., and Professor Epiphanius
WILSON. Ma. with an Introduction by Professor
lanes lame ~, :: Mggs, ID. Funk & Wagnalls COM
pany' four volumes, price ST. volume. sa
In his introduction, DR.. Riggs says:
He who has written "a critical life of
CHRIST, gone over with careful discus
sion the problems OF New Testament in
PRODUCTION. worked out with patient,
paAnstaking exegesis a'Biblical theology
OF the New Testament and as basis
1or al this work, has examined with
inmate criticism the text Of the Greek
itself as well as written commentaries
on most OF the New Testament books.
IS surely prepared to write such COM
mentaly as is now offered by translation
| to English readers
Probably DR.. Riggs intends to pay a
high compliment to the commentary Of
Or. Weiss, tho It is not clear. from the
above quotation that such is his mean
Ing. Be that as 1t may, one can hardly
help smiling at the logic of the quota
tion. Surely a man might have done all
| the work named by DR.. Riggs and yet
be altogether incompetent to produce a
great commentary There is an immense
amount of laborious, painstaking work
done by men Of small intellectual caliber,
4 and the product Of their labor is alto
gether commonplace. III.
From many points Of view Dr.. Weiss
work Is interesting. A few. only can be
| named. - S7> ~.
I First-He does not fear to assert his
faith In the supernatural, the miraculous,
whether it be In relation to the virgin
birth Of Jesus or the signs wrought by
Jesus and his disciples:
/ Second-Neither does he fear to assert
his faith in the traditional view Of the
authorship and dates Of the books Of the
New Testament. He has no doubt as to
the Johannine authorship of the fourth
gospel, and the three epistles and the
Apocalypse. sa7zEif = -.
| Third-He holds definitely by the doc
trine OF the vtcarious death or Jesus,
that its purpose was to- expiate human
guilt by offering himself as a substitute
In the place Of mankind, and thru such
substitution and expiration to lay the
foundation for the restoration Of man to
the life Of Righteousness thru faith,
:"For that Christ died for us, this GER
tainly Is a fact I - In the same
way 1t was a fact that he died for the
goddess who We're entirely undeserving OF
such a sacrifice of love
Fourth-Dr. Weiss also does not hest
tate to warn the world Of the impending
eternal ruin of the goddess rejectors OF
divine mercy In Jesus Christ For him
1 1t Is "fact that the gospel thru the
righteousness that it reveals can alone
bring to Jews and gentiles deliverance
from eternal destruction"
Il The book is clearly and simply written
The line Of thought is usually. easy te
follow, and, coming from Berlin, II
strongly suggests that the boastins Of 9
certain class of critics and their servile
followers that "the old faith Is hopeless
} ly gone is premature to say the least
It is becoming clearer: every day that al
the rage against the ':old faith has beer
in vain, and has only. made more clearly
manifest the great TACT, that the old faitl
IS the very eternal truth of God =, ...e
In the present writer's. thought thu
, work is open to a number Of objections
only three of which will be named.
First-The author does not furnish tn
grounds on which he, rests his conolu
sions, in many cases, in which one, ma:
readily differ from his view.
) second-The thought. in, some. in
stances, is confused, tho the author doe
not seem to be aware, of the fact. Thi
> | is observable in his Interpretation OF tn
sixth chapter OF TIE gospel Of John, a
also in. Romans. eighth and ninth chap
tiers, to mention nes others! In these In
stances the two great concepts.
Divine sovereignty and Human free
9 DOM meet It Is easy to- cover over, Q
4 refuse to saa--the difficulties belonging
to the relation Of these two concepts
e but ssrs sa liz SSss hessd a sa
: nifioancs as. far as We. can, than to pre-
8 tend We have solution where we hav
not. and by the limitation of our power
and our want of knowledge cannot hav
Il a. solution Still, it is so good to find
. breeze Of such sane Christian faith blow
= ing from Berlin that one can easily for
i give some -inperfectiens.
# Third-The third criticism to b
), named is, that It Is a great pity that tn
y price of the books will put them out c
i the reach Of thousands In whose home
. they would become literally the brea
l.. and water of eternal life. ~; ~, ~'
= Why can't Christian people make Pre-
:, vision for putting such books, In, tn
hands iof the public at q minimum price
= - w. r. X.