Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-12-05
The Danger of Excessive Liberalism

|
The Rev. DR.. Charles F. Aked, a
clergyman of unquestioned orthodoxy,
explains thru the pages of one of the
/ popular magazines how an extreme
7 theory of literal inspiration" appliee
to the Bible may prove stumbling
block rather than drop of Christian
| ity. His frank words may prove of
value to those who are ready to think
| the Bible invalidated by a single prov
| en- error $50 long as the man in the
pulpit pretends that the Bible is in
| fallible. just SO long will the man on
/, the cars politely ignore it," writes DR.
Aked in Appleton's Magazine for Sep
| tember; and he goes on to show how
| inevitably certain amount of human
error must have crept into the text
| during the long centuries of copying
/ translating, and retranslating. When
we face the accepted facts of the case
he points out "the infalliDility of the
English Bible becomes an impossible
conception" Yet he finds the notion
still loosely floating about the churches
chat the Bible came down from heav-
| en-. clearly printed, nicely bound in
morocco, and gilt-edged, with book
marker against that text which has
been enormously made to declare thai
every scripture is inspired of God" The
result of this theory that even In the
English version every sentence. word
and punctuation mark is guaranteed
by the Holy Ghost is thus depicted:
"Men are told that the Bible is the
, infallible revelati ton of God to man,
and that its statements concerning God
and man are to be unhesitatingly &C
4, cepted as made upon the authority OF
God They turn to it's pages and they
find historical errors arithmetical mis-
takes, Inconsistencies. and manifold
contradictions and. what is far worse,
they find that the most horrible crimes
are committed by men who calmly
plead In justification of their terrible
+, misdeeds the imperturbable God said
/ The heart and conscience of man in
dignantly rebels against the represen-
tations of the Most High given in some
parts of the Bible. What happens?
Why. such men declare-are now de-
claring, and will in constantly increas :
ing numbers, and with constantly in
creasing force and boldness, declare
that they can have nothing to do with
, book whose errors a child can dis
cover and whose revelation of God
partakes at times of the nature OF
blasphemy against man. To such
| Bible-rejection has Bible-worship led!
But the Bible remains the noblest mon
ument of the religious genius of the
| race 1T preserves the words OF the
most truly inspired men of bygone
ages. 1t contains the record Of the
revelation of God. And it stands in
unapproachable majesty, as a volume,
the book of books, superior to all other
| and itself a literature not merely in
spired, but inspiring the literature OF
| the world"
| Again, turning to those books OF the
Bible which protestahism groups as
! apocryphal and which Roman Cathollc-
| ism accepts, Mr.. Aked continues:
"Men decided which books were
Bible and which We're not. They mao
no miraculous power, no miraculous m
formation, no miraculous commission.
They were men of like passions with
ourselves. Some were ADLER men than
we are, and more learned. Some were
neither so capable nor so well reao.
But they resolutely set themselves to
| consider problems, and they gave the
best solution they could hit upon BY
tact and insight and all the resources
of literary criticism open to them
| they sought, zealously and prayerful-
| ly. to define the place of the various