The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-01-27

Bible Interview this common sense
disciple and hear him say spin your
theory Of Bible inerrancy, Q Theologfan!
Il makes no difference to me what sort
of story, fact or fiction, il comes in.
so long as it is the truth my soul
needs. That I find in this dear old
Book, for that I love it. If ii has fall
ings, so have I: il is the closer to me
for it. One thing I know. il shows
NE the way TO God and no other vol
ume in all the world does that"
The second point made by Paul in
defining a revelation is conveyed in the
words unto u.s. A revelation is not
only word spoken by God but it is
| delivered directly to the individual
heart. In other words Revelation is
truth that finds it's attestatfon in mans
moral consciousness. Tt is not a prov
able think like a historic statement or
a scientific induction. The ultimate
judge of its truth or falsity is the in
dividual spirit. You and you alone
are the final arbiter of revealed truth.
! No man can authenticate it to you.
/ God makes His appeal direct to your
moral reason. and that finally decides.
/ This makes it possible for me to say
This is a revelation" while you may
not be able to agree. Paurs whole
argument in the first three chapters Of
| his first letter to the Corinthians was
based on this principle. You are
| babes" he said. You need milk: that
/ is, the easy things of the Gospel. When
you get older you will be able to digest
meat" This means that what were
revelations of God to Paul could not
yet be so considered by these weak Cor
inthian disciples. Therefore it is that
| Gods church holds unitarian Chris
tians and trinitarian Christians.
Here Paul laid down the great prin
ciple of progressive revelation. He
did it on the authority of Jesus who
said of the Old Testament II came not
to destroy but to fulfill" and then went
on at once to show that not a little Of
the Old Testament Interpretation of
Gods voice was imperfect and that
His work was to complete 1t. So He
exclaims ut was said, an eye for an
eve, and a tooth for a tooth; but / say
unto you resist not him that is evil"
There was time in this world when
the law of private vengeance was high
est justice between man and man, the
very foundation of social order, step
towards the realization of Gods hu-
man family. Mans understanding of
Gods voice, then, was faulty for he
was but q child. When Jesus came
He interpreted the divine message in
, its fulness. "a new commandment /
give unto you. that We love one anoth-
er, even as / have loved you Yet
1 even Jesus felt that the limitations of
the men of his day forbade his telling
\ I-F4
this pregnant sentence for his disciples
of all ages: 81 have yet many things to
say unto you, but ye cannot bear them
now Howbeit when He, the Spirit of
, Truth, is come, He shall guide you
into all the truth" He thus gloriously
Justified the noble declaration of our
fathers who in the covenants of their
: churches founded in New England
from 1920 to 1850 included such words
as these-'fWe covenant to walk to-
gether. >. both according to the present
l light that the Lord hath given US, as
2 also according to all further light
which He shall be pleased at any time
to- reach out unto rs of the Word by
: the goodness of His grace" That is
$ the sort of spirit which moved Pilgrim
2 and Puritan to found Gods country. y
= In the childhood of the race the
E tDivine Spirit sang it's lullaibies; only
the faintest hint of the God we know
was able to penetrate the tiny con-
sciousness of mankind We shall nno
: traces of these cradle songs in our
future study. Later on the meaning
of one rnonosyllable here, another there
was slowly, painfully grasped. Weary
/ centuries passed ere the Hebrew reach
S ed the high school stage under the
: Prophets of Israel. Certain truths
taught then like the axioms of mathe-
Ematics have never needed revision. one
of these is the mastery lesson of Goo
S the I Am. eternal, indivisible. single
supreme. We go to the Old Testament
prophets and not to Jesus for this
He wasted no time intoxicating tina
f which had been so brilliantly laugh
ages before. Finally the race reached
the university and was ready for tn
q Great Teacher. But he declared tina
e throughout the coming cons or adul
b life humanity must ever be more large
! ~ instructed by God. Prepare thel
to find in the Old Testament reveal
z lions misunderstood or but half heard
: imperfect glimpses of divine truth
,, every one to be tested by the con
seriousness or CHRIST, the very run
which He told His disciples to appl,
: to all disclosures purporting to be God
t made during the coming ages of time
s How true this world process is il
}, every life? Science never did a create
service than to make plain the fac
that every man lives over in epitom
Q the history of the race. He does thi
Y biologically. Intellectually. as a socia
. being and in religion. What is you
religious story? A progressive reveal
= ton of God. You had your fetish days
IS You also knew the time when God wa
o pictured in your mind as a giganti
. man in the sky. Now He dwells 4
your soul, the life Of your life, tn
great animating spirit all about yor
d God is cruel" cries the young mothe
4 weeping over her first born dead
: Twenty years later her tears may ia
upon the tiny shoe treasured so Ion
n or the ribbon enclosing the wisp Of hai1
" but now she sings God is love" an
r knows it, for God hath revealed it unit
: her
So we pass to PauTs third character