“If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city …”
-- Rev. 22:19
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Reverend Dr. Thomas De Witt Talmage (7 January 1832 - 12 April 1902) was an American Presbyterian preacher, clergyman and divine. One of the most prominent religious leaders in the United States during the mid-to late 19th century, equaled as a pulpit orator perhaps only by Henry Ward Beecher, he was also a well-known reformer in New York City and was often involved in crusades against vice and crime during the 1860s and 70s. To read full biography click here. |
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You see it is a very risky business, this changing of the Holy Scriptures.
A pulpit in New York has recently set forth the idea that the Scriptures ought to be expurgated (strained, distilled, purified), that portions of them are unfit to be read, and the inspiration of much of the Bible has been denied. Among other striking statements are these:
1. The book of Genesis is a tradition of creation, a successive layer of traditions thought out centuries before.
2. Moses’ mistakes about creation were the mistakes of his age.
3. That there are many systems of theology in the New Testament.
4. That Paul had all the notions of the rabbinical schools of his time.
5. That Job winds up his epilogue in genuine fairy-tale style.
6. That Revelation is a long array of misshapen progeny in the apocalyptic writings, tracing themselves back to Daniel.
7. That Revelation comes to a madman, or leaves him mad.
8. That what he calls the abominable lewdness of some things in the Old Testament is not fit to be read.
9. That it is an abominable misuse of the Bible to suppose the prophecies really foretell future events.
10. That the book of Daniel is not in the right place.
11. That Solomon’s Songs are not in the right place, and he seems to applaud the idea of someone who said that the book of Solomon’s Songs ought not to be in anyone’s hands under thirty years of age.
14. He intimates that he does not believe that Samson slew a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass.
15. That the whole Bible has been improperly chopped up into chapters and verses.
He does not believe the beginning of the Bible, and he does not believe the close of it, nor anything between as fully inspired of God, and he thinks the Book ought to be expurgated, and there are those who re-echo the same sentiment.
The Hypocrisy of Ministers Attacking The Bible!
Now, I believe in the largest liberty of discussion, and there are halls and opera houses and academies of music where the Bible and Christianity may be assaulted without interruption; but when a minister of the Gospel surrenders the faith of any denomination, his first plain, honest duty is to get out of it. What would you think of the clerk in a dry-goods store or a factory or a baking-house, who should go to criticizing the books of the firm and denouncing the behavior of the firm, still taking the salary of that firm and the support of that firm, and doing all his denunciation of the books of the firm under its cover? Certainly, a minister of the Gospel ought to be as honest with his denomination as a dry-goods clerk is honest with his employers.
The heinousness of finding fault with the Bible at this time by a Christian minister is most evident. In our day the Bible is assailed by scurrility, by misrepresentation, by infidel scientist, by all the vice of earth and all the venom of perdition, and at this particular time ministers of religion fall into line of criticism of the Word of God. Why, it makes me think of a ship in a September equinox, the waves dashing to the top of the smokestack, and the hatches fastened down and many prophesying the foundering of the steamer, and at that time some of the crew with axes and saws go down into the hold of the ship and try to saw off some of the planks and pry out some of the timbers because the timber did not come from the right forest! It does not seem commendable business for the crew to be helping the winds and storms outside with their axes and saws inside.
Now this old Gospel ship, (what with the roaring of earth and Hell around the stem and stern, and mutiny on deck,) is having a very rough voyage, but I have noticed that not one of the timbers has started, and the Captain says He will see it through. And I have noticed that keelson and counter-timber knee are built out of Lebanon cedar, and she is going to weather the gale, but no credit to those who make mutiny on deck.
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T. DeWitt Talmage (7 January 1832 - 12 April 1902), American Presbyterian preacher, clergyman and reformer
Reverend Dr. Thomas De Witt Talmage (7 January 1832 - 12 April 1902) was an American Presbyterian preacher, clergyman and divine. One of the most prominent religious leaders in the United States during the mid-to late 19th century, equaled as a pulpit orator perhaps only by Henry Ward Beecher, he was also a well-known reformer in New York City and was often involved in crusades against vice and crime during the 1860s and 70s. To read full biography click here. |
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