And thus it goes through the centuries. until the Messiah announced and foreshadowed by the Prophets and Psalmists shall at last appear. The greatest revelation of God in the world! For He Himself appeared in the body of His Son; Christ is God, God in human form. He saved us. He inspires us, we are Jed to follow Him, we feel His fire burning within us, His pity. strengthening us, His dissatisfaction destroying us, but also His intercession saving us. Sure of victory, building solely upon His word, we go through work, scorn, grief, misery and death, for in Him we have the revealed word of God, and God never lies.
That_is my view of this ques. tion. The Word, especially for us of the Evangelical faith, has become everything on account of Tather: and Delitzsch, as a good theologian. should not forget that omr great Luther taught us to sing and believe: "Das Wort sie sallen lessen stern.? (The Word they must allow to stand).
It is self-evident that the Old Testament contains a large number of parts which are of purely human-historical character and not "God's revealed Word.'' These are purely historical descriptions of events of all sorts, which occur in the life of the people of Israel in the domain of politics, religion, morals and spiritual life.
For instance, the giving out of the Law on Mount Sinai can be looked upon. only symbolically as having been inspired by God, since Moses had to turn to a revival.f) Jaws perhaps known of old (possibly drawn from the Code of Hammurabi). in order to bring coherence and solidarity to the' framework of his people, which was loose and little capable of resistance. Here the historian may perhaps find a connexion, either in sense or words, with the laws of Hammurabi, the friend of Abraham, which may be logically right: that Ged had inspired Moses to act thus, and, to that extent, had revealed Himself to the people of Israel.
Therefore, my view is that our good professor should rather avoid introducing and treating of religion as such in his lectures before our association, }ut that he may continue, unhindered, to describe: whatever brings the religion, customs, and so on of the Babylonians and so on, into relation with the Old Testament.
As far as I am concerned, I am Yed by the above to the following (a) I believe in one only God.
(b) We men need. in order to teach Him, a Form, especially for our children.
(c) This Form has been, up to now, the Old Testament, as we now know it. This Form will be essentially changed by search, inscriptions and excavations; but that wil] cause no harm, nor will the fact that, thereby, much: of the halo of the Chosen People will disappear, cause any harm. The kernel and content remain always the same: God and His influence.
Religion was a result of science, but s the heart and being. his relations with God.
With heartiest thanks and many greetings. I remain always, Your sincere. friend, (Signed) Witwer T.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.