Lehre und Wehre St. Louis, Missouri — September 1901, Seite 280

German transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

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280 Kirchlich-Zeitgeschichtliches.

tallies with this. If we do not, we lose our influence over them. Howeare
we going to teach Genesis — we who honestly wish to build up, and not tear
down, faith? Are we to have help from Tue Sunda School Nimes in present-
ing the newelight' that has broken from God's Word in the past few years?“
Dazu bemerkt der Herausgeber: „On the face of it, there does not seem to be
any practical difficulty in the study of the Bible story of creation and of the
later disclosures of science. Some of the wisest and strongest believers in
evolution have been the most devout lovers of the Bible. The correspond
ence of these nominally conflicting views is brought out in this issue of The
dundaꝝy School Nimes, and it is hoped that this is done in à way to increase
the knowledge and strengthen the faith of the believing student.“' In der
Erklärung zu 1 Mos. 1 heißt es dann auch vom ganzen Schöpfungsberichte: It is
à poetic picture of the evolution of nature, without any attempt at a scien-
titic description of physical events.“ Von der evolutionistischen Entwickelung
des Menschen wird gesagt: „In our time the inteérest turns especially on the
question of man's creation. Was it by a direct flat out of nothing, or from
some lower form of existence by a process called evolution? The narrative
has been often treated as though it said the former, but it does not. It rep-
resents it as an act of mediate creation from the dust of the ground.“ The
idea of such a mediate creation is thus distinctly sanctioned, and to a be-
liever in God as Creator an evolution can be nothing else than this. With
this the narrative in Genesis stops, and, if it be meant to teach us all the
scientific facts of the matter, then we must reject every kind of theory which
represents man as evolved through the successive stages of animal existence
as inconsistent with the inspired record. But is that the purpose of the nar-
rative? Calvin, referring to the work of the fourth day, says: Moses, speak-
ing to us by the Holy Spirit, did not treat of the heavenly luminaries as an
astronomer, but as it became a theologian, having regard to us rather than
to the stars.“ Is it unfair to make the same distinction as regards the work
of the sixth day, and to say that Genesis does not speak of the creation of
man as a biologist, but as a theologian, having regard to our religious wants,
and not to our scientifie curiosities?“ — So werden selbst die kümmerlichen bis⸗
herigen Reste göttlicher Wahrheiten aus den Sonntagsschulen der Secten verdrängt
durch den crassesten Unglauben und die klaren Worte der heiligen Schrift der evo⸗
lutionistischen Astronomie, Geologie und Biologie zu Liebe von gänzlich untüchtigen
Lehrern verdreht. Statt dem Unglauben, welchen die Staatsschulen den Kindern
als Resultate der Wissenschaft einprägen, entgegenzuwirken, drücken die Sonntags⸗
schulen demselben den Stempel göttlicher Wahrheit auf. Und dabei rühmt noch
„The Sunday School Times“ vom 20. Juli: „The modern Sunday school has
done more for the race than the family at its best estate.“ F. B.

Denselben groben Unglauben verbreitet der presbyterianische New Vork
Evangelist“ in seinen “„Sabbath School Lesson Helps“'. Auch in den Sonn⸗
tagsschulen — meint er — müsse die höhere Kritik, die neue Theologie,überality'
und „advanced thought““, zur Geltung kommen. Kühn wird denn auch in den
„Lesson Helps'' des „Evangelist“ behauptet, daß die ersten Capitel der Genesis
keinen historischen Werth haben; daß sie uns nur sagen, welche Vorstellungen die
Menschheit in ihrer Kindheit hatte; daß die Kirche einen großen Fehler begangen
habe, diese Abschnitte für geschichtlich auszugeben; daß auch die Geschichte vom
Sündenfall nicht Geschichte lehre, sondern geistliche Wahrheit; daß die Geschichte
von der „Apotheose“ des Enoch eine Mythe und die Geschichte von der Sündfluth

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