PROFESSOR DODS ON BIBLICAL CRITICISM

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4307, 16 March 1901, Page 4 (Supplement)

PROFESSOR DODS ON BIBLICAL CRITICISM

The first of a senes of lectures, on •■Christian Life and Thought in the Nineteenth Century” was delivered ui the United Free High Churcii, iv-iiu-burgh bv Professor Marciu Dods, uho>o subject was “The Bible and Criticism.” The lecturer said that if it were true that the study of Scripture had made no great growth during the past litty years, this was a tcamlai to »e wineperod iii corners and boirailcd in pnrate, not to be trumpeted on the housetops. Hapnily it might far more tru.y be said that' the past fifty years had done more to promote the understanding of tho New Testament than all other Christian half centuries put together. The keen scrutiny to which the New Testament had been subjected biui served to disclose little that could shake things, everything that could conform tilings. What was the infallible wo claimed for the Bible? Mas it in grammar, history, science, or what? Its infallibility must bo determined by its purpose, which w:m to exhibit Christ. Christ defines ihc Scriptures. “They are they which testify ol mo.” lu Christ wo had the supreme m; nitostation of God, and if Scripture gave us a sufficient knowledge, of Christ it accomplished its purpose. The Scriptures had infallibly led men to Christ, and I did so to-day—that was to say, they : had fulfilled the function which Const | ascribed to them. The two extreme ; positions are alike untenable, it was 1 impossible to maintain tho infallibility | of Scripture on tho ground of its literal accuracy- in every- one of its statements, ! and it was impossible to deny the mI fallibility of Scripture as a spiritual j guide on the ground that there were | joined in it certain chronological errors I and discrepancies.