EVANGELICAL BIBLE LEAGUE

Evening Star, Issue 21719, 14 May 1934, Page 14

EVANGELICAL BIBLE LEAGUE

ANNUAL MEETING Tbe annual meeting of the Evangelical Bible League was held in St. Stephen’s Church, North Dunedin, on Thursday night, when there were about 250 people present, tbe Rev. Thomas Miller presiding. After prayer and the Binging of a hymn, Mr R. S. Crce Brown narrated the past activities ot the league. Mr George Buckley addressed the meeting. A solo was sung by Mr Romeril. A strong and representative council was elected, from which, at a subsequent meeting, an executive was appointed. The Rev. Thomas Miller then addressed tho gathering on ‘ The Witness of Christ to the Authority and Inerrancy of the Old Testament.’ in introducing his subject, Mr Miller pointed out that in ordinary walks of life men needed an infallible objective standard; the ganger on the railway his gauge, tho bricklayer his plumbline, tho sailor iris compass. Much more in moral and spiritual things did they need these, and they had it in the Bible, “ the only rule of faith and conduct.” By the new science of archseology longhtxried inscriptions, the ruins of ancient cities, etc., had been uncovered. These had touched the Bible at hundreds, if not thousands, of points, and at not one of these had the Bible, been proved erroneous, but at many of them the most “ assured results ” of criticism had been proved fallacious. Mr Miller mentioned particularly the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, verse 17, a passage in which many people imagined that Christ annulled or qualified the Old Testament by Uis repeated expression, “ But' 1 say unto you.” If such people had only noticed in verses 17 to 19 that Christ stressed the unchangeable inviolability of the Law, its authority and inerrancy, they would not have made this mistake. By the Law Christ sometimes meant the first five Books, and at other times the whole of the Old Testament. “ Think not,” He said, “ that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. .1 am not come to destroy but to fulfil. For verily 1 say unto you, till heaven aud earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law. till all be fulfilled.”

Our Lord’s subject here, as irequently elsewhere, was twofold and by way of contrast. On the one hand the authority and inerrancy of the Old Testament (verses 17-19), and on the other hand the errancy, tolly and even wickedness of the official teaching ol the Jewish rabbis- (verses 19-48). Thus in the case of the sixth commandment, “ Thou shalt not kill,” and ot the seventh, “ Thou shalt not commit adultery,” the rabbis saw only the forbidding” of an overt act, while Christ showed that in each case the commandment condemned the covert desire out of which the sinful act sprang. He brought to light the latent depth and meaning of these commandments. Anger and lasciviousness were the eggs from which were hatched -murder and adultery; they were these in embryo. in dealing with the subject of divorce Christ said, in verso 31: “It hath been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a bill of divorcement; but I say unto you. whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced cominitteth adultery.” Among the Jews the school of Shammai taught that divorce was justified only by prenuptial or post-nuptial uiicleaniiess. But the more lax school of Hillel taught in opposition that divorce was justified by “ incompatability of temper,” by any whim on the husband’s part, in the nineteenth chapter of iVlatthew both these parties approached Christ and asked His decision on this question, when He at once approved the stricter view. Then they asked: “ Why Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to send her away?” And He replied: “ Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it was not so.” The great law-giver of Athens said that he did not give the Athenians the best of ; laws, but only the best they were capable _ of receiving. This was what Moses did when he sought to mitigate the cruelty of ancient divorce by requiring that the husband should at least give his wife a writing which would show that she had been legally married. It was the best he could do. The fault was with the men, of Israel, not with Moses, nor with the law.

In the same way, in verses 33-37, Christ condemned the foolish, and wicked Jewish (and English) practice of uttering unmeaning oaths. Let your statement he a simple “ Yes ” or, “ No,” “ for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” In the words “an eye for an' eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” quoted from the twenty-first chapter of Exodus, the twenty-fourth verse, Aloses enunciated a principle for the public administration of justice. But the Jews' misapplied these words to sanction private revenge, am altogether different thing, and a prostitution of the law qf God. This is clear when we see that our Lord goes on to forbid retaliation for personal affronts. The principle also insisted with justice and mercy that the punishment should correspond to the crime. There should be equilibrium between the two. This basal principle was outraged in England a hundred years ago when a man was sentenced to transportation for life for snaring a rabbit. The last example which Christ adduces of Jewish corruption of the Old Testament is in verse 43: “Ye have heard that it hath been said: ‘ Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.’ But I say unto yon, love your enemies-. . .” The words: “ Thou shalt love thy neighbour ” are in the eighteenth verso ot the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus; but the words “ and hate thine enemy ” arc nowhere in ihc Old Testament. They are a rabbinical gloss. It was against these glosses onr Lord spoke. “ Nowhere in the Gospels did Christ annul or qualify the Old Testament, and, so far as I know, nowhere does the entire New Testament do so. If Christ he truly God, very God of very God, His unqualified authorisation of the Old .Testament should be enough for any Christian. ‘Ye call Ale Alaster and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am.’ 1 If it wore not so, 1 would have told you.’ ‘ Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law. till all be fulfilled.’ ”