Authority of the Bible in Modern View

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 176, 15 October 1927, Page 1

Authority of the Bible in Modern View

Scriptural Writers Shared Belief of Times GRADUAL REVELATION " A LL the mistakes of the Church in its interpretation of the Bible are due to a mechanical adherence to the letter of the book, instead of a spiritual appropriation of the Biblical revelation as a transforming power.” Dr. John Dickie, professor of systematic theology at Knox College. Dunedin, stated this opinion in an address on “The Modern View of Biblical Authority” in St. David’s Church last evening. He outlined the view taught in all the Presbyterian theological schools in the Empire, with the exception of the Free Church College in Edinburgh, and also by the great Anglican divines, English Nonconformists and the great mass of representative theologians of the day. the: middle course Whatever opinion he expressed, said Dr. Dickie, he was open to a.ttack both from those to whom to speak of the “modern” view was to deny the authority of the Bible altogether and from those who held the other extreme, denying any present-day authority for the Bible. Both these views were intolerant of the middle course that harmonised them, though that course was more likely to approximate the truth. Both assumed that if there were a unique Divine revelation, one must have an inerrant record of it, but those who held the Bible a record inerrant found difficulty, in the face of facts, to defend their view to themselves, to say nothing of making a plausible explanation of it to others. The present theological view was that there was in the people of Israel a unique self-manifestation of God culminating in the advent of Christ and that this revelation was gradual and progressive as those to whom it was given were able to receive it. In all questions not relating to the work of the Holy Spirit, Biblical writers shared the ordinary opinions of their times. Christians had always Christianised the Bible and had never drawn the idea of God and of a true servant of God from such a story as that of Elisha and the she-bears that took the 42 children who taunted him of his bald head. The modern view was that this was frarkly a piece of folklore. SELF-REVELATION IN ISRAEL On the positive 3ide Dr. Dickie said that the Bible was the literary deposit of the self-revelation of God in the history of Israel and especially in Christ. It had not unity in structure or opinion and its supreme authority was the truly Christian element in it. Dr. Dickie concluded by showing that the testimony of Biblical writers to the authority of the Scriptures was corroborated by view’s reached independently on other grounds.