The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-09-26
ress. and needlessly alarmed.

tAS ASCoBAitlOH OF the human element
IN the scriptures. We may well con-
Tor directly or indirectly it includes
the others. $ 4"
The old theory of a verbal inspired
scripture, Notwithstanding the error
OF 1T, may have served a good pur
pose in helping to preserve to us the
scripture III a%time when the learn
ing OF the age, and the powers Of gov
eminent threatened their. destruction,
but today there is no occasion for our
straining tho truth in defense of
truth or fearing the freest and full
est investigation Of the foundation of
our faith. s..,
There Is much unnecessary misun-
derstanding between liberal and CON
sentative scholars, owing to extreme
~ln1erences. II q man questions some
OF h old doctrines he Is. at once
branded as a rank higher critic, an
enemy OF the. scriptures, who Is at
tempting to rule the supernatural out
OF h universe. On the other hand, if
a brother is not quite ready to accept
the conclusions of modern scholars.
he is often spoken Of as an old fogy,
lacking In scholarship and a believer
in every ancient dogma The progress
Ttve is reminded of the diversity of
opinion among critical students, but
w. A@AA ~ ACAl1SiIluSL IIldI LHST6
IS just as great a difference of opin-
ion among conservative scholars. Much
unkind criticism might be avoided if
we would think and let think. re-
membering that 1t Is possible for a
brother to differ with us and yet
be honest in his opinion. zone man
esteemeth n thing above another,
another esteemeth every day alike,
let every man be fully persuaded in
his own mind ~
That tho scriptures were not verb
ally dictated word for word by the
Almighty. is evident from the variety
or style in the writings themselves.
A prominent conservative scholar re-
Gently remarked: Some think that
II all the writer's were alike inspired,
and that the inspiration extended to
their words, they must all possess the
same style, as if the Holy Spirit had
styles, rather does he use them all at
his pleasures' If he is right in this
then we have no good reason for sup
posing that David was a poet, or
Paul a. master in logic. The Holy
Spirit when speaking to David simply
used a. poetical style, and when
speaking through Paul, a logical style.
For anything we know, then, Paul
may have BEEN the poet and David the
log1cian. Again, speaking of the So
called discrepancies between the
statements of scripture. and the facts
Of natural science, he continues:
They do not exist between state
ments Of the bible and facts of science,
but between erroneous. interpretations
OF the bible and immature. conclusions
or science" Evidently Galileo's
THEORY of the movement. Of the earth
must therefore be an immature con-
clusion of science, for in the psalms
we read: THE earth also is. establish
ed that it cannot be moved" While
we do not endorse the church's action
IN requesting Calico to recant, lever
theless we give them credit for doing
the logical thing. These two citations
indicate the extremes to which men
ny trying to defend an i~ndefensible
dogma. DR.. Marcus Dods calls atten-
zion to the fact that Out of 275 quo
tat1ons from b old testament in the
new testament, 80 Of these differ from
both the Hebrew and. Greek old tesla
ment scriptures. This would indicate
that tho new testament writer's were
more interested in the sense Of scrip
ture than in its verbal accuracy. In
fact, 1t shows that, they gave, no
thought to verbal accuracy, whatever.
IT 1t a been. essential there is no
question but what the disciples would
agreed in quoting the g., Sayings
or Jesus. especially in his sermon. on
the nount and the Lords. prayer, but
we, no such verbal agreement. We
many such slight differences all
through tho scriptures, and while thew
are OF. no special concern one way or |
the other, still they: are incombatible |
with the old verbal theory of inspira-
In Genesis we read: "And of
every living thing Of. ali flesh, two OF |
every sort shalt Thou bring into the
ark," and again in Genesis we read:
every, clean beast shalt Thou take
thee by sevens the male and his
DR.. Washington GLADDEN.
commenting upon the attempt to har-
nonize these two passages says:
Some people say that perhaps the
lrst passage only meant that they
should. walk in two and two, others
say. that a. good many years had
between the giving. Of the. two
commands, Of which there is not a
particle of evidence, and we are left
o infer that in the meantime the Al
either forgot his first orders
n else changed his mind. In Second
Samuel 24:1, we are told that the. Lord
moved David to go number Isreal,
md in First Chronicles 21:1' we are
informed that Satan provoked David
o : number Isreal." Samuel then tells
Is thai. for this sin Of David the Lord
- AS"- o. LpCSS11S1lSG upOn ElETael ana
there, died of the people from Dan
ven to Beersheba Il $1,000 men, II. is I
atheq difficult for many: to believe !
hat David sinned when he obeyed {
'od's command. inc especially hard
9 believe that for the sin Of David !
he Lord destroyed 10000 innocent
len We would no justify such a
rocedure if engaged in by the state.
Ut would condemn 1t as an act of
0n6n yv-nI blk yti So THch,1 s--I,,4aI,a
~ or helpless women and babes In I
ne name Of Jehovah and at. his COM l
land, does not present God to mans t
1ought in a way calculated to call {
orth, his admiration and love. Under '
old Interpretation there was no {
scape, notwithstanding many have /
tempted to justify Jehovah in these t
lings, About the only way out of
1e difficulty is that once adopted by c
good old saint of God. who contend n
! that Christ spoke in the English q
Lnguage and who upon being in v
'rmed that Christ lived before there O
as an English language, that we r
'ould understand, bowed his head a t
loment, then raised it, triumphantly v
With man it is impossible. t
ut with God all things are possible" v
AS before stated, the greatest re- h
ant change in religious thought is t
lie recognition of a human element Ia Y
scriptures. BY that We do not t
that there are certain passages \
the bible wholly distinct from the e
,st that ara human and might easilv t,
, separated from the Divine, hut
lther that as the result OF the writ il
s mistaken philosophy of life and n
ature and God. they misinterpreted Il
le Tacts or history. They looked out, Il
) 1t We're, through colored glasses. Ii
facts c0ncarnipp the oI5 +a.a -