From Sinai to Calvary

Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969), an American Baptist Theologian.

In 1922 he wrote the following: From Sinai to Calvary – was ever a record of progressive revelation more plain or more convincing?

The development begins with:
“Jehovah disclosed in a thunderstorm on a desert mountain, and ends with Jesus saying: “God is Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth”;

It begins with a war-god leading his partisans to victory, and ends with men saying God is love, and he that abides in love abides in God and God in him;

It begins with a providential deity loving his tribe and hating its enemies, and it ends with the God of the whole universe worshipped by a great multitude, which no person could number, out every nation, and of all tribes and peoples and tongues;

It begins with a God who begins with the slaying of the Amalekites, both men and women, children and infants, and ends with a Father whose will is that none of these little ones should perish;

It begins with God’s people standing afar off from his lightning and praying that he might not speak to them lest they die, and ends with men going into the inner chambers, and, having shut the door, praying to their Father in secret”.

Claude Montefiore (1858-1938), a British Jewish Theologian
In 1927 wrote that such a list could be arranged, but so could be this:

From the Old Testament to New Testament – was there ever a record of retrogression more plain and more convincing?

It begins with:

“Have I any pleasure at all in the death of him that dieth?; it ends with, be gone from me ye doers of evil;

It begins with; the Lord is slow to anger and plenteous in mercy, it ends with, fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in Gehenna;

It begins with, I will deal with him that is contrite heart and revive him, it ends with, narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be who find it;

It begins with, I’ll not contend forever, I’ll not always be wroth, it ends with, depart ye cursed into everlasting fire;

It begins with, should I not have pity on Nineveh that great city? , it ends with, it will be more endurable for Sodom on the day of judgement than for that town;

It begins with, the Lord is good to all who call upon Him, it ends with, whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, there is no forgiveness whether in this world or the next;

It begins with, the Lord will wipe away every tear from their faces, He will destroy death forever, it ends with, they will be thrown into the furnace of fire and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”.
Motefiore conludes that this list is as misleading as Fosdick’s.