From the Mailbag

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20103, 23 March 1928, Page 6

From the Mailbag

i PROPHECY CRANKS •- !t ir Sir, —Tt is sur])ri>ing how absurd are ,f some of the statements that Bible theorists will make, in their desire ♦© popularise their ill-founded and arbi- -- trary notions of the predictive meann ing of various passages in the Old s Testament. Interpretations are read a into the Bible texts that no learned d rabbi or even orthodox clergyman n ever dreamed of in the past. e It never seems to occur to these imaginative theorists that their fanciful interpretations are utterly improvable and indicate that the inventors ’avc ( * more credulity than critical judgment. s There is not a grain of evidence cither ’ iu the Bible of in scientific researches that .supports the prepostcrious asser- ( lion that the British people are a conof the lost ten tribes of Israel. The origin of the British people can be traced to races that existed . in Europe’long prior to the absorption s of the Israelites by their Assyrian . conquerors. About 200 {Samaritans at a the present day are said to be all that | arc loft of the Israelites. It is absurd i indeed to claim that the British people o are groat, and imperialP because cy - observe the Sabbath, and the Jews - have been s nttered because they did t not change from their ancient seventh ’ day to the first day of the week. That the British pcopl. have high places of } the earth is due to their great natural qualities, which entitles them to govern 1 weaker peoples. Britain’s dominance • is not a reward for keeping the Sab--1 bath, as “J.H.H.” imagines, but in ' accordance with natural Jaw she is in very fact the fittest to rule. Britain is great not because s’ e Is ! said to be a Christian nation, for as a 1 matter of fact the Christian faith docs 1 not prevent her from looking after her national interests. Briti h statesmen ignore the Sermon on the Mount when it conflicts ith the nation’s policy towards other nations. Did not Archbishop AlcGee, of Peterborough. Eng* land, once rem : that a nation that tried to act up to the Sermon on the Mount would go o pieces in less tl.-u a week The Jews went down as a nation because they had not the wisdom to see that they were no match for the Homan Empire, and not because they rejected Jesus Christ and did i.ot change their Sabbath. Renan has observed that the alleged covenant between Yahveh and the Israelites was not acted up to by either of the parTo talk of God’s promises to the Israelites as applying to the British people of to-day is an outrage on common sense, and is calculated to bring the Bible into ridicule and descredit. A STUDENT OF HISTORY. Wanganui, Alarch 22.