Further, Westcott doubted the Biblical account of miracles. Writing in his diary, August 11, 1847, Bishop Westcott penned:
"I never read an account of a miracle but I seem instinctively to feel its improbability, and discover some want of evidence in the account of it."1
Indeed, Westcott and Hort did not even believe the original autographs of the Scriptures were God inspired! Writing in their "Introduction", they impiously stated:2
"Little is gained by speculating as to the precise point at which such corruptions came in. They may be due to the original writer, or to his amanuensis if he wrote from dictation, or they may be due to one of the earliest transcribers." (emphasis author's)
WESTCOTT AND HORT'S INVOLVEMENT IN SPIRITISM
Westcott and Hort belonged to what Westcott's son referred to as "The Ghostly Guild." Westcott took a leading role in this society and its proceedings, the purpose of which was the investigation of ghosts and other supernatural appearances.3
They believed that such things existed. Concerning this society, Hort wrote to Rev. John Ellerton on December 29, 1851:
"Westcott, Gorham, C.B. Scott, Benson, Bradshaw, Lauard, etc., and I have started a society for the investigation of ghosts and all supernatural appearances and effects, being all disposed to believe that such things really exist, and ought to be discriminated from hoaxes and mere subjective disillusions."4
Such is spiritism and is absolutely forbidden by Scripture.
Westcott's son wrote of his father's communing with "saints" especially at a great cathedral at Petersburg where "there was much company."5
On that same page he wrote that his father said, in speaking of the chapel at Auckland Castle, it was "full" and that he was "not alone" in the darkness. He was, of course, communing with demonic spirits supposing that they were ghosts (the souls of men who had lived formerly). However, the Word of God clearly teaches that "familiar spirits" are demons impersonating people. They are not the spirits and/or souls of people who have lived previously.
Both of these men denied the deity of Christ Jesus and they denied the verbal plenary inspiration of Scripture. Moreover, Hort spent the last eight years of his life working with Westcott in translating the Books of Wisdom and Maccabees, two uninspired writings.
AN ASSESSMENT OF ERASMUS6
Erasmus was a "Christian" humanist, the illegitimate son of a Roman Catholic priest, and was himself an ordained priest. He taught Greek at Cambridge University from A.D. 1510 to 1514. He was not a "great" man of faith-but he was completely committed to the truth and reality of the Christian faith. Moreover, compared to Westcott and Hort (and a few others to be mentioned later)
1 A. Westcott, Life and letters of Brooks Foss Westcott, op. cit. Vol. I, p. 52.
2 Westcott and Hort, Introduction to the New Testament in the Original Greek, op. cit., p. 280.
3 A . Westcott, Life and Letters of Brooks Foss Westcott, op. cit. Vol. I, p.117.
4 A.F. Hort, Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, op. cit., Vol. I, p.211.
5 A. Westcott, Life and Letters of Brooks Foss Westcott, op. cit. Vol. I, p.312-313.
6. E.F. Hills, Believing Bible Study, (2nd ed., Des Moines, Iowa: Christian Research Press, 1977), pp. 189-194.
39
continued...