Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 27

The Inquiry Necessary

The Inquiry Necessary.

But I pause for a moment to answer a grave question. "What," it may be asked," do you expect to gain from unsettling people's minds on this subject?—what practical good can come of the critical examination of the Bible which you recommend? "This opens a wide question, and I can only just glance at it in passing, though before I conclude I shall have to refer to it again.

I might content myself with the reply that what I propose is necessary in order to really put us in possession of the Bible, and to enable us to properly use it. The arbitrary assertion that it is all alike true, inspired, and infallible, the word of God, and not the words of men, turns the Bible into a hopeless puzzle, and takes all reality, pathos, and beauty out of it. The assertion, on the other hand, that it is a precious record of the varying thoughts of men, of the struggles, hopes, fears, trusts, and doubts of men, floods it with meaning, and fills it with reality. It then for the first time takes its place as a part of the wonderful history of the race, and becomes indeed "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." Besides, the Bible is notoriously page 7 Burdened with so-called "difficulties," that have become such only because of this unnatural way of treating the Bible as a perfect book. Contradictions and errors there are in the Bible, and we need to be put into honest relationship with these. We do not want to have them denied and explained away, we want them recognized and explained. We want to know the history of these contradictions and errors: and this is possible if we will only treat the Bible in a proper way, as a book with a history. We shall see that contradictions and errors are to be expected in such a book, and we shall be able to see how they arose: nay more the contradictions and the errors will have a value all their own. But the way is stopped, and the whole thing is put upon a false basis and in an artificial light, the moment infallibility is claimed. More and more is the Bible being disparaged and flung aside for no fault of its own, but only because of the absurd claims made on its behalf.

It is important, too, to proceed with this inquiry, for the sake of vindicating the character of God Himself, to whom the most dreadful things are attributed. Why should our Heavenly Father be made responsible for the horrible proceedings imputed to Jehovah by the Bible? The fact is that this inquiry, inspired as it is by reverence for a just and holy God, is in the highest sense necessary and religious.

Then, as a matter of fact, belief in the infallibility of the Bible has stood in the way of progress; has given the sanction of a supposed divine attestation to all kind of errors; has bolstered up obsolete statutes, and perpetuated antiquated delusions, and made honest inquiry seem sinful or presumptuous. But if the Bible were seen to be what it really is, mankind would feel more free to bring reason and conscience into active play, and everything would be judged on its merits.

But perhaps the gravest evil connected with belief in the infallibility of the Bible is that Religion is thus daily brought more and more into collision with the intellect, the moral sense, and even the religious reverence of mankind. Indeed, I have no hesitation in saying that unless we can rescue the Bible from the hands of blind Bible worshipers, and present it in a sober and rational way to the world, the intellectual and moral revolt against it will become a peril to Christianity itself.