JESUS IN THE WORLD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21515, 12 June 1933, Page 10

JESUS IN THE WORLD

PRE-EMINENT INFLUENCE

HISTORY VERSUS MYTH "Jesus Christ," was the subject of an address delivered in the Town Hall concert chamber yesterday afternoon in pursuance of the winter series organised by the Council of Christian Congregations. The Ven. Archdeacon Mac Murray presided and the lecturer was the Rt. Rev. D. D. Scott, Moderator of the Prebyterian General Assembly. Attempts had been made in recent times to throw doubts upon the historical existence of Jesus and to account for Him by extreme use of the myth theory, said Mr. Scott. Some of the later writers on this theme, including J. M. Robertson and W. B. Smith, rojected historical evidence so completely as to put their own impartiality in doubt. Their object was to show Jesus as the name of a divinity, not a real person. However, a recent investigation of the evidence by a leading American orientalist, G. F. Mooro, had overthrown the myth argument. The New Testament stood out as substantially an apostolic document, enshrining the views of Jesus' contemporaries. The element of myth in it was very small, consisting probably of a few such passages as the one which states that at the crucifixion the bodies of the saints arose and appeared to many in Jerusalem. There were two assertions which could bo accepted without question. The first was that there was no parallel to the influence of Jesus over the minds and hearts of men. Western civilisation was what it was because He had lived in Palestine. To Him it owed the universal belief in one beneficent God. The second was that there was a great deal that might be believed about Him without hesitation —many of the chief incidents in the narratives of His life and also the main content of His teaching.