Canright Appeals to the Fathers

Mr. Canright’s chief appeal on his Sunday-Lord’s day theory is to the Catholic Fathers, and he offers their testimony as a ground of faith for the Christian church. Regarding the reliability of these sources of Christian doctrine we wish to quote the following statements from recognized church leaders and, historians:DOF 144.3

“The Fathers of the second and third centuries were not regarded as safe guides even by their Christian contemporaries.... Tertullian, who, in point of learning, vigor, and genius, stands at the head of the Latin writers of this period, was connected with a party of gloomy fanatics. Origen, the most voluminous and erudite of the Greek Fathers, was excommunicated as a heretic. If we estimate these authors as they were appreciated by the early Church of Rome, we must pronounce their writings of little value. Tertullian, as a Montanist, was under the ban of the Roman bishop.... Origen was treated by the Roman Church as a man under sentence of excommunication....DOF 144.4

“Nothing can be more unsatisfactory, or rather childish, than the explanations of Holy Writ sometimes given by these ancient expositors.... Very few of the Fathers of this period were acquainted with Hebrew, so that, as a class, they were miserably qualified for the interpretation of the Scriptures. Even Origen himself must have had a very imperfect knowledge of the language of the Old Testament. In consequence of their literary deficiencies, the Fathers of the second and third centuries occasionally commit the most ridiculous blunders.”—Dr. William D. Killen, The Ancient Church, period 2, sec. 2, chap. 1, pars. 33, 34.DOF 145.1

“There are but few of them [the Fathers] whose pages are not rife with errors, errors of method, errors of fact, errors of history, of grammar, and even in doctrine. This is the language of simple truth, not of slighting disparagement.”—Archbishop F. W. Farrar, D. D., The History of Interpretation, pp. 162, 163.DOF 145.2

“The writings of the so-called Apostolic Fathers have unhappily, for the most part, come down to us in a condition very little worthy of confidence, partly because under the name of these men, so highly venerated in the church, writings were early forged for the purpose of giving authority to particular opinions or principles. And partly because their own writings which were extant, became interpolated in subservience to a Jewish hierarchical interest, which aimed to crush the free spirit of the gospel.”—Dr. Augustus Neander, General History of the Christian Religion and Church, vol. 1, Appendix, Sec. 4. “Notices of the More Eminent Church Teachers,” p. 657.DOF 145.3

“Books bearing venerable names-Clement, Dionysius, Isidore-were forged for the purpose of supplying authorities for opinions that lacked the sanction of antiquity.”—John Emfrich Edward Dalberg-Acton (R.C.), The History of Freedom, p. 513.DOF 146.1

“Several works ascribed to these Fathers, are known to be spurious; others are doubtful; and those which are generally received as genuine are not free from interpolations.”—Wharey, Sketches of Church History, First Century, p. 26.DOF 146.2

“But of these [the Fathers] we may safely state that there is not a truth in the most orthodox creed that cannot be proved by their authority nor a heresy that has disgraced the Romish Church, that may not challenge them as its abettors. In points of doctrine, their authority is with me, nothing. The word of God alone contains my creed.”—Dr. Adam Clarke, Comment on Proverbs 8.DOF 146.3

“When God’s word is by the Fathers expounded, construed, and glossed over, then, in my judgment, it is even as when one strains milk through a coal sack, which must needs spoil and make the milk black. God’s word of itself is pure, clean, bright, and clear; but through the doctrines, books, and writings of the Fathers, it is darkened, falsified, and spoiled.”—Martin Luther, Table Talk, p. 281.DOF 146.4