TRUTH OF THE BIBLE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18234, 1 November 1933, Page 12

TRUTH OF THE BIBLE

TEACHING OF YOUTH RECENT REPORT ASSAILED The report of the commission on the ministry of the Church to youth, adopted at the recent Auckland Diocesan Synod, was assailed by speakers at a largo meeting in Scots Hall, Auckland, on Sunday. The report expressed the opinion that much Sunday school teaching had been obscure and obsolete, and that there was urgent need to introduce the new views about the meaning and significance of the Bible which modern study had made known. “Widespread disturbance has been caused by the adoption of this report,” said Dr. W. 11. Pettit, who presided. “There are many who believe that the only way to hold the young is to present the Bible as the wholly inspired Word of (Jod. We believe that the Bible needs iio apology, that no discovery of science lias ever affected the majesty of the Book, and that there is no need for any young person to feel that the Divine revelation and authority of the Bible has ever been shaken.” “It is no good just bewailing the fact that many young people are being taught destructive theology and evolution and other awful things,” said the Rev. J. F. A. S'timpson, of England. “Some of us may be old, but the other side is not getting it all its own way,” he added.' He said the attitude of the synod did not represent by any means the unanimous opinion of the Anglican Church, and he mentioned many noted Anglican churchmen, both clerical and lay, who had affirmed the infallibility and verbal inspiration of the Bible. “We must have some basis for our faith, fbr Christianity without authority would simply mean drifting without a pilot,” said Mr. H. Yolland, in claiming that the Reformation was based on the infallibility of Christ and the revelation of the Bible. “If there is no Word, we are left to guess among the philosophies and grope amid the darkness of speculation. Christianity is not merely a system of ethics, but a faith in Christ; and if this faith does not come to us based on His own Word, then it has no value for us to-day. Both Christ and the missionary apostles based their mission on this Old Testament which the commission s report would jettison.” “Our opponents say that we are obscurantists, trying to keep the light from our own little hiding places,” said the Rev. E. R. Harries. “We are not. All we want to do is to be sure that the light we admit is the light of truth and righteousness, and not someone’s halfpenny dip.” He reviewed recent discoveries by archaeologists in Palestine and said that in all instances they confirmed the. literal truth of the Biblical stories.