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The Origin and Permanent Value of the Old Testament by Charles Foster Kent
page 11 of 182 (06%)
divine messages contained in these chapters and their direct application
to life. Moreover, instead of presenting first the testimony and then
patiently pointing out the reasonableness and vital significance of the
newer conclusions, scholars sometimes, under the influence of their
convictions, made the fatal mistake of enunciating those conclusions
simply as dogmas.

[Sidenote: _Resulting loss of faith in the Old Testament_]

History demonstrates that established religions and churches always hold
tenaciously to old doctrines, and therefore regard new conclusions with
suspicion. This tendency is clearly illustrated in the experience of
Jesus; for with all his divine tact and convincing authority, he was not
able to win the leaders of Judaism to the acceptance of his
revolutionizing teachings. Yet one cannot escape the conviction that if
in this age of enlightenment and open-mindedness, the positive results
of modern scholarship had been presented first, this latest chapter in
God's revelation of himself to man would have been better understood and
appreciated by the leaders of the Church, and its fruits appropriated by
those whose interests are fixed on that which is of practical rather
than theoretical import. At least many open-minded people might have
been saved from the supreme error of writing, either consciously or
unconsciously, _Ichabod_ across the pages of their Old Testament.

[Sidenote: _Difficulties in understanding it_]

The third reason why the Old Testament has suffered temporary eclipse in
so many minds is more fundamental; it is because of the difficulties in
understanding it. The background of the New Testament is the Roman world
and a brief century with which we Western readers are well acquainted;
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