EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 183, 12 January 1915, Page 2

EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITY.

To the Editor, Sir, —I have been waiting to see if that lost document might turn up to save me from writing again, and also thought that some of the clergy might speak, hut so far neither. Vour statement of the Kgyptiau culture, etc., 7000 years ago I cannot agree with, as Bible chronology, which I have never heard disputed by the higher critics (I call them lower, as the higher critics have not given their verdict), only goes back 5!) IS years to Adam, the first Godcreated man, and a pre-Adaniic race I cannot believe in. Were there such, they would not be under the judgment of Adam's sin and fall, a* it is written: "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned,'' Ho. 5. xii; also "God hath made of one blood one nations of men," Acts 17, 28 Here we have one man and one blood. Adam's blood in the veins, and the sin from Adam in the heart, and death upon all. The Egyptians are not immune. The Bible has stood the test of centuries, and as a daily reader of it for the last :i2 years will adhere to and leave the theories of learned men to those who care to accept them. You say that it was only in the nineteenth century that the date you quoted was proved and it may be that in the 20(h it will bo upset, but the Bible truth will stand. The authors von mtole T am not familiar with, except Josephus, and there is nothing in his works that will help your argument in any way. As lam told in Jude 3to contend for (lie faith once delivered, etc., this T am now doing that others, likeminded. niav be helped. The faith embraces even thing from Genesis 1, to Revelation —I am etc., GEO. J. MACKIE, Waitara, .Tanuary 12.

H'tlr correspondent is to be congratulated mi his iiriii faith. Tim revelations of science tend rather to conlirm than to discredit the Scriptures, but it is entirely impossible to discuss in a newspaper 1,11<• great qeustion of whether the Old Testament is or is not chronologically accurate. One lias to bear in mind the circumstances under which that i book was compiled, and when. On tlie other h;iml, geologists have, after a long sir irs ol research, divided the (■xistowe (if tlir- earth into a number of periods, raeli of which covered many thousands of vear.s including two glacial periods separated by long intervals. The narrative in the Hook of lieliesis is unique in its portrayal of absolute and majestic omnipotence, no less than for the orderly sequence of the plan it unfolds, and, abov all, for the high ethical purpose underlying its disclosures. Its outlines closely follow the Assyrian legend deciphered by George. .Smith. Geologists and antiquarian researchers both agree as to the age of the world being many thousands of years beyond that covered by the generally accepted period as recorded in the Book of C!enesis. t.»ur correspondent cannot do better than study the scientific works relating to the question. They will not disturb bis faith, but will certainly enlarge his knowledge,—Ed.]