ative. In his _Summary of Christian Faith_, 1905, Dr. H.E. Jacobs
gives the following presentation of the doctrine of predestination:
"Since God has not predestinated all that He has foreknown ('for all
that the perverse, wicked will of the devil and of men purposes and
desires to do and will do, God sees and knows before,' _ib._), but, in
His inexplicable will, has allowed a certain measure of freedom and
contingency in His creatures, and afforded them a degree of moral
responsibility, knowing from all eternity what will be the result of
their use of this trust, He also has determined how in every case their
decision and activity will be treated." "When, therefore, God has willed
that He will be determined in a certain decision by the free decision of
a creature, that freedom of the creature will certainly be guaranteed in
the result; but what in the exercise of this freedom the decision of the
creature will be, as well as the determination of His will concerning
it, He knows from all eternity, and makes His plans accordingly." "The
fulfilment or non-fulfilment of the proviso or condition is contained in
the foreknowledge which determined the free destination." (556 f.)
According to Jacobs, then, Predestination depends on the divine
foreknowledge of the use that man will make of the freedom with which
God has entrusted him. Plainly synergistic doctrine!

LIBERALISTIC TRENDS.

137. Rejecting Verbal Inspiration.--Even the doctrines of the verbal
inspiration and the complete inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures have been
assailed by prominent representatives of the General Council and the
_Lutheran Church Review_. Dr. H.E. Jacobs, in his introduction to
_Biblical Criticism_ (1903) by Dr. J.A.W. Haas, states: "It is,
therefore, the Word and not the words; the divine substance and not the
particular human form in which that substance is clothed; the divine
truth and not the human language, with all its limitations, which, in
accommodation to human finiteness, the Holy Spirit employs, that is
'the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.'" (18.)
"Nevertheless, the subordination of the words of Holy Scripture to the
Word in no way diminishes the need of the most reverent handling and the
most careful judgment of the words themselves when considered in the
place which they are intended to serve." (19.) "A text from Genesis and
one from John, one from the Psalms, and another from Romans, cannot
stand upon the sam