SOME SAMPLES OF ITS ALLEGED INACCURACIES.
Before closing our remarks on “the Old Testament,” it may be well to look at some samples of its alleged inaccuracies.
We say alleged inaccuracies, because to upright souls who wait on God to be taught by His Spirit, what many of the learned of this world think to be contradictory or incorrect, they find to be full of blessing when rightly understood. No doubt errors in copying with the pen accidentally crept in; verbal errors, too, in translation from one language into another; but the preservation of the Scriptures as they are, is of itself a standing miracle, and distinctly marks the guardian care of God. But supposing in our present version there are some few verbal inaccuracies, they by no means touch the great lines of truth as to creation, redemption, and glory in and through our Lord Jesus Christ, which are so prominently and fully set forth. Let us look at some of the supposed discrepancies.
Living Souls
One of the commonest statements made by the opposers of the truth is, that as all other living and moving creatures are said to have living souls as well as man, there is therefore no more proof of a man having an immortal existence than brutes. Now the answer is plain and unquestionable. Brutes have living souls as a part of their creation, concerning which God said, “Let the waters bring forth,” or, “Let the earth bring forth;” whereas God formed man of the dust of the ground, and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 1:20, 24, 30; 2:7). Thus man was not only unlike every other creature in that he was created in the image of God, but he “became a living soul” by God’s in-breathing. Hence his immortality; hence his existence after death. If he dies in his sins, after death is judgment. His body only is spoken of as mortal.
We must not, however, confound immortality with eternal life. Eternal life is by our being associated with Christ the Saviour by faith; and thus receiving the gift of eternal life. “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:11, 12).
First and Second Chapters of Genesis
A very old attack of rationalists as to these chapters giving two accounts of the creation, and contradicting each other, has lately been revived, and largely published. The perfection of the two chapters are wholly unperceived by them; so true is it, that “the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:11). The truth is, that in the first section of the book of Genesis, which extends to the end of the third verse of the second chapter, we have God’s work and His rest (Gen. 1:1-2:3). God only (Elohim) is spoken of all through. It is not God giving us an account of everything He created, for angels and other heavenly beings are not there included; but it is God giving us as much as He judged best for our profit and blessing. After the general statement in the first verse, Genesis 1:1, the second verse (Gen. 1:2) shows us the chaotic state the earth was in when God began to form the present heaven and earth for man. Between the first and second verses, a considerable time may have elapsed, and vast changes have taken place, so as to account for geological discoveries; for the earth, not the heaven, was without form, and void. The earth, no doubt, when created, must have been perfect. “As for God, His way is perfect.”
In the first chapter it is God making everything for man’s comfort and blessing day after day, on the sixth day forming man, and on the seventh day resting because all was finished. God is mentioned in this section about thirty times; but in the second chapter we have not simply God (Elohim), but all through it is the Lord God (Jehovah Elohim). Why is this? Because it treats of man’s relationship with God. Now relationship is formed, God reveals Himself as Jehovah God.
Unlike the first chapter, it is not here God giving a consecutive account of what He made in six days, and then rested; but this chapter enters into details more in moral order than in a consecutive style, and very especially occupies us with Jehovah Elohim’s thoughts and ways with “the first man.” He is long afterward spoken of in Scripture as “the first man,” and this chapter is authenticated by being quoted from in that he “was made a living soul” (1 Cor. 15:45). Genesis 2 informs us, that “Jehovah God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” He was to till the ground; He might eat of every tree except “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” and if he did eat of it, death would be the result. As he was created to have dominion over every living creature on earth, Jehovah Elohim brought them to him to name them; and whatever he called them, that was the name thereof.
(Continued and to be continued)