The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

DanieL They sem to leave no place for 'Darius the Median.'... The Darius who from Daniel 5 : 31; 6: 1-28; etc.,wouId appear to have followed the last Babylonian king,and preceded Cgrus, see~ns not to exist, according to theinscril)tions."-"AF~ yl~ology : It8 Use and Abuse," pp. 37.38.Tlle fact is that Cyrus the braggart simply left Dariusout of his insciiptions; but Dr. Brown takes the prehistoricpagan record seriously and continues in a waycalculated to throw a Ziitle doubt upon the Bible:"Now here is a li~storicnl problem of the first order. Itneec15 110 nmplificat~on. The issue is clear. I do not knowwhat nilequate solution can be offered for the difficulty.The~e is sollie soluti011, under which the Bible will sufferno rl,~ili,agc, I ail1 sure, but to710 can tell us what it is?"A footnote tlirott-s a little more doubt upon the Bibleby suggesting that the whole boolr of Daniel is a legend:"A current nnsurcr [by a clergyman, of course] affirms theWATCI -I TOWERlegc~~di~ry chalactel. of the book of Dnn~el. But this is notenougl~ 'rbe origln of the legend is still to be explained."Extracts like tllcse d~splay the fact that "authorities", %.]shed to get rld of someone he would have him turnedwho have invested much m their training to read dl5~~lt100% in some remote corner of the labyrinth. So coninscriptionsand whose salaries dcpend on great reputations,prefer to rcga~d the monumental inscriptions asmore rc11ab1e tha11 the Bible. Such are some of the"defenders of tlie faith" in the modern tlieological seminancs,and it is ullder their leadership that are unwittinglycllrolled those that doubt. the Scripturally and historicallywell-provcd chronology of present truth.UNTRUSTWORTHINESS OF ARCHZEOLOGfSTSDr. Brown, houever, is more cautious than some ofthe more arclent Ss~yriologlrt~. 111 an address to youngthcolog~cnl ~ctndel~ts he, tlliugh a teacher of Assyriology,warus the studellts against the snisfue of archceology.We quote snatches of his address :"Scien tAc. advance. is through guesses, more-or less rash.. . . Assy~iology has its guesses. . . . Great and infectionseothus~asm, but a sad lack of cool Judgment and scholarlypat~ence. . . . Overl~aste in its employn~ent. . . . The ASnyriologiststhemselves have been guiity of many sins ofexcesskve 1,uste.. . . . The B~bltc:ll scholur has uot only, tohis own undoing, taken the hasty cwticlus~ons of tlle special-1x19, and worked them into his esposit~ons, but he lias him-self dr:lwv11 linsty couclusions from them. . . . There hasbee11 ill some quarters an u~iscen~ly vornc~ty; everything hasbee11 swallowed; the si~i~plest rules of critical inquiry havebeen forgotten. There has been bllnd trustlllr: to autllority,witflout weigtling it, aild a11 assuniptio~l of fact ulwn thenirrc s:~y so of soluc presuri~nbly l~oncst sc1iol:lr . . . ThereIs a wide difference between expectlug a cIlscovery andnuk~ng one . . . The Assynolog~sts, ~t lnust be ad~tirtted,date. . . . Tlie bhme-hule r'ktlier a slcnder hasls for tl~e~r\v\-orttl.\- tltiug IS that: tliere 112~s beer1 110 adequate cure toguard i~gainst mistakes. . . A eo~lrstt~n t and enforced shift-ing of ground. . . . Conduslons 1r111st not be jnmped at. . . .He 111ust not treat the hggotllecrs as an establ~shed fact,and hu~ld a dognatlc expositloti upon IL . . . They oughtto cleilliind that fact be shall~iy dist~nguislieti from guess;that drfi~~lte and i~itellig~blc l&lsons he arsigned for opinions. . . X colllplete list mould g\Tc us a secure chronologicalbasis for Assyrlan history. 111 fact, \+e 11.1ve 110 one completeList, but six or seven partla1 lists ovedapp~ng each other.have assunled. . . A respectable number of chro~~ologistsa brmk of forty-six years. . . . The vice of this methodof htludlu~lg the inscriptions lies here: that it involves apltlyiug fast-and-loose with well-attested historical docu-ments; hailing them eagerIy when they say at once wJmtyou want them to say, but d~screediting thenu wlth all yourmight wlien their utterances are troubIesoll~e to you. . . .unw~llfng to wait. . . not courngeous enough to be candid,"etc-Brow'# "Assyrio~ogy: Its Use and Abusey'.The foregoing are some of the varieties of unreliabilityin the presentation by "authorities" of the monumentalrecords of antiquity. They could not be muchworse. The Blble student following them is in a maze.He cannot tell what is true and whst false in theinscriptions themselves, nor can he tell whether the"authorities" me dealing honeatly and comientiouslywith him in their presentation of what in their opinionthey guess at or carelessly or \villfully misrepresent.DOUBTS, AND MORE DOUBTS-4n ancient kmg once built a great labyrinth ofintricate passages, and tradition has it that when hefu.smg were the passages that practically everyone starvedto death without hding the way out. Prehistoric paganchronology and "history" are a mental labyrinth 111which the believers of any other than present-trnthchronology find themselves. Every step of study bruigsnew problems which take long study for solution, ifthey can be solved at all, and the unfortunate stucleiltfinds himself "ever learning [something], and never ableto come to a knowledge of the tiutK'.--2 'l'imothy 3 : 7.As Dr. Brown says :"ASSJ-r-iology is not a mere licj to unlock ilools. It oiklsa \.ist auil eou~ghcated series of facts. It thlo\\s clear llsl~ton sollle things, a ~ pat d 21ni EtgAt ou otlle~h, t~r~d re\e:~ls dirt&outlrraes of yet others. If we put ourselres UI that l~gl~t, weniuat be u;illcn@ to see all at shows us. Amj lol logy 1s ilots~l~q)lp all interpreter that stands outslcle and explams ourB~bles to us. It ?nukes zts zoag into our BbbZe.?, and evennhile it suooths over some of the-old dlfflculties, it sollletilllestcnenrtirs new.ones tao bss troublesome. It is the 111~perntiveduty of those who study-most of all those whoirach, or expect to teach-the Blble, to recognize these newp~.ohleln% bn OR their grnwty a9ld far-reaching rmport. ...We uugl~t to be 10oking forward to a time, and preparlugfor it. wlien the average niembel.sliip of our churclies shallhare a l'211tll so full of Inring nerves and tnuscles that itwill hold itself upright betreath oven such searchifig ctaguiriesIdoubtsJ oo these. . . . CVlto~oe~~er undertakes to make useof Assyrrology in bellalf of tl~e Old Testaluellt cannot slruntlrem [the doubts thus created]."-"Assgriology : Its Use aridAbuse," PP. 29,30.This ideal of a church is s congregation of universitygraduates all learned and \vise (1 Corinthians 1 : 26-29),trained in archzology and able to overcome the doubturaised weekly by their pastor and, for salvation fromunbelief, trustiilg in the mental prowess of the infidelwolf in the pulpit before them. Blble students shouldnot begin study~ng matter based on pagan records, \nthoutseeing how far their course will lend them and bemgwilllng to go all the distance into unbelief and to payall the price the crown of glory for the faithful.But why should faithful believers, who have muchservice yet to rend- to their Master, worse than waste