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Signs of the Times.
p. 80
"Yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled
them in condemning Him" (Acts 13: 27).
These tragic words come into mind when we read that Dr. E. W. Barnes, Bishop of
Birmingham, writes in his recent book that the stories of the Virgin Birth have "a pagan
background". Of the miracles he writes that man is naturally superstitious but science
has proved that nothing can happen contrary to observed sequences of the laws of nature;
and concerning the record of the crucifixion and of the resurrection he writes that myth
and marvel steadily become more in evidence as the story moves to the burial and
resurrection, and "we are in the domain of religious romance, not religious history".
Bishop Barnes, however, is unconsciously confirming the truth of Paul's epistle to
Timothy, where he says:
"The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine . . . . . and they shall
turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto myths" (II Tim. 4: 3, 4).
("The Rise of Christianity" by Dr. E. W. Barnes,
published on 24/3/47 by Longmans as reviewed in the "News Chronicle" of that date.)