All Articles For Harbach Robert C

The Bible of modern Dispensationalism, of which C. I. Scofield was editor-in-chief, states in a footnote on Eph. 3:6 that “The mystery ‘hid in God’ was the divine purpose to make Jew and Gentile a wholly new thing, ‘the church, which is his (Christ’s) body’ . ..The revelation of this mystery, which was foretold but not explained by Christ (Mt. 16:18), was committed to Paul.

The most popular, but not the only, form of Premillennialism is known as Dispensationalism. It is a pseudo-hermeneutical system which claims to be the only correct method of interpreting the Scriptures. Its motto is, “Rightly dividing the Word of truth.” In the English-speaking world its origin may be traced back one hundred and thirty-five years to the Plymouth Brethren. It is called Brethrenism, Darbyism (after J.N. Darby) and, in this country, Scofieldianism. 

Continuing our examination of dispensationalism, we again call attention to Christ’s words, “I will build My church, ” and, this time, to the fact that they amount to the charter of the Christian church.

Modern liberal religion is a philosophy of ethics and morality. In fact, liberal interpretation makes ethics and morals of central importance in the shade of which stands religion, faith and practice. The biblical and theological religion of redemption is reduced to a social ethic, with Jesus Christ the paragon of ethicists. Not the saving power of God, but the spiritual competence of man is the important element in the modern gospel. It propagates a social gospel which concerns itself with the ethical problems of the present life. God and the world to come are matters of personal opinion.

A philosopher is supposed to have said, “Let me write the songs of a people, and I care not who makes their laws.” Most of the songs of the people of today are inspired of the devil. With his songs so popular, what does he care about “their laws?” They are completely his captives. Suppose the above quotation had been made by Pete Seeger, folk singer, identified as a member of the Communist Party by the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Annual Report for the Year 1961, p. 43. We would in that event have no trouble getting his drift.

The rationalistic school of biblical criticism claims that in and after the Protestant Reformation the development of biblical textual, literary and historical studies was not possible because of the doctrinal bias and intolerance of the Protestant theologians. Romanism also hampered advance in this direction with its canons of the Council of Trent (1546), which prohibited not only other shades of interpretation, but thought other than that already imposed by the church. So, both Romanism and Protestantism had contributed to intellectual stagnation.

2. Its Method and Result (cont’d). The facts available in the study of Scripture manuscripts do not warrant more than one author of Genesis. Nor does single authorship necessarily demand one single style of writing throughout. One author treating different subjects may very well reveal different styles appropriate to his themes. A university professor preparing a manuscript of a philosophy text-book writes in a style different from his successful efforts it poetry. A preacher’s pulpit style may be generally rhetorical, but his colloquial style, humorously practical.

The previous article dealt with “The Sign of Isaiah’s Son” (Isaiah 8:1-6), under the headings:  A. Foretelling Destruction of Confederated Syria and Israel by Assyria (1-4).  B. Revealing Desolations Made by Assyria in Israel and Judah (5-8).  1. The sin of distrust and misplaced trust on the part of Judah (5-6), and now, 

Recently many of us read an editorial in a “Reformed” publication concerning the preaching of Billy Graham. The article surprised, even shocked many of us, since it slighted a man thoroughly Reformed and came to the defense of one whose true colors are anything but of a Reformed hue. The item referred to did what is so commonly done with this modern prophet in religious circles today, namely, it sugarcoated him as a Fundamentalist next to whom any good Reformed man could be proud to stand. But it is at least extremely inaccurate, if not, false, to portray Billy Graham...

The Holy Scripture provides for a very clear and plain interpretation of itself. Difficulty, however, will arise if we do not observe that there are words and terms employed in Scripture which have variant shades of meaning. It may not therefore be insisted that each word in every instance of its occurrence has the same single meaning. Such a method of interpretation could easily produce false doctrine. Error would obtain, for example, if we invariably referred the word “flesh” to the physical body. Objectionable it would be also to translate the N.T.