The Testimony of the Bible Concerning the a.s.sumptions of Destructive Criticism.

by S. E. Wishard.

FOREWORD.

_This booklet is sent out To all Sabbath-school teachers, To the young people of the Christian churches, And to all believers in the living Word_.

The work of the destructive critics has been widely disseminated in current literature. Magazines, secular newspapers, and some religious papers are giving currency to these critical attacks on the Word of G.o.d.

The young people of our churches are exposed to the insidious poison of this skepticism. It comes to them under the guise of a broader and more liberal scholarship. They have neither the time nor the equipment to enter the field of criticism, nor is this work demanded of them.

While abler pens are meeting and answering the questions raised by destructive critics, something may be said that will clear away the fog produced by them and enable young Christians to come directly to the truth.

Hence this booklet is an attempt to "give G.o.d a chance" to have his say.

The testimony presented is on the divine plan of giving, "Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line," "lest we forget."

There has been no attempt to cover the whole ground of destructive criticism in the brief compa.s.s of this booklet. It will be enough to permit G.o.d to answer; hence, in the following pages he speaks for himself. We are content that his voice shall be heard.

S.E. WISHARD.

I. OUR ATt.i.tUDE TOWARD DESTRUCTIVE CRITICISM.

_"Be ye therefore followers of G.o.d, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us." Eph. v. 1, 2._

_"Be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men." 1 Thess. v. 14, 15._

_"He that believeth shall not make haste." Isa. xxviii. 16._

_"The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness." Psa. cxi. 7, 8._

_"My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." Isa, xlvi.

10._

The att.i.tude which G.o.d's people should a.s.sume toward destructive criticism has been questioned. It should certainly be a position of calm patience, that can deliberately weigh valid testimony, and abide by the decision of intelligent judgment. The history and life of the Church for nearly two thousand years should go for something. They are not to be swept away by the bluff, the egoism of what claims to be the only "Expert Scholarship."

There is no occasion for a panic. Truth that has been, and has builded n.o.ble, goodly life, is truth still, and ever will be. It is not a time for denunciation. The a.s.sumptions of the destructive critics are so enormous, so radically revolutionary, so directly aimed at vital truth, that one's heart is stirred. There is danger of yielding to the heat of a righteous indignation. It is not well to lose one's intellectual and moral poise, even in a contest involving the honor of G.o.d and the welfare of immortal souls. But "he that believeth shall not make haste."

The lovers of the Book that has safely pa.s.sed through every storm of antagonism that the Prince of Darkness could evoke, need not now be moved to hasty utterance. The eternal foundations of truth, like him who laid them, are "the same, yesterday, to-day and forever." The Book, with all its precious doctrines, is here to stay. It can not be destroyed.

Fire has not burned it, water has not quenched it, the edicts of tyrants and popes have not been able to break its power. The Church of G.o.d can calmly rest on "the word of G.o.d, which liveth and abideth forever." (1 Peter i. 23.) Hence we may calmly move on undisturbed in our work.

Further, our att.i.tude should be marked by an intelligent understanding of the question involved. It is not a question of fair, honest criticism, for the purpose of a deeper knowledge of G.o.d and his truth.

All reverent and helpful study of the Word of G.o.d is critical, and is the kind of criticism that the Book challenges. Our Lord invites it, and urges us to "search the Scriptures," which testify of him.

It is a.s.sumed by the rationalistic critics that we have entered a new era, that the Bible has never been studied until within recent years.

This is an a.s.sumption unworthy of scientific scholarship. Critics who have not sought to destroy the Word of G.o.d, but, by thorough investigation, to determine its claims, have been at work on the Scriptures in all the past, seeking to know the mind of the Spirit.

There is, and ever has been a legitimate study of the Bible. Hence, there are absolutely no grounds for the a.s.sumption of the rationalists.

The Church of Christ is not opposed to the application of the best methods and best scholarship in the investigation of revealed truth.

Indeed, the Protestant Church has ever been the mother of the highest education, and has had an open ear to the call of G.o.d--"Come, let us reason together."

It is well to understand that the poorly-concealed purpose of the school of higher critics is not to press the just and holy claims of G.o.d's Word on the human conscience, but to eliminate the supernatural from it. The Christian Church should understand this. If atheistic scientists can construct a universe without G.o.d, by evolutionary processes, and the critics can construct a Bible without the supernatural, "the wisdom of this world" will have pretty thoroughly disposed of G.o.d.

In the att.i.tude of the Church toward destructive criticism, sometimes called historical, or constructive, we must not fail to discover its bearing on the character of Christ. For the final conflict of all skepticism of every grade and quality is in reference to the person and work of Christ. The elimination of the supernatural from the Bible would be an invalidation of Christ's claims and testimony. It would place him before the world as a false teacher, a fraud, a charlatan. Loyalty to the Word, and to the Incarnate Word, demands, therefore, that we should clearly understand the end to which this rationalism is drifting. For Christ's testimony concerning the Old Testament Scriptures, which will be presented later in this discussion, is so thoroughly in conflict with the modern critical a.s.sumptions that it must be disposed of by those claiming expert scholarship. In the attempt to accomplish that feat, they put our Lord under such limitations as would rob him of his character as Teacher and Redeemer.

The "experts" are logically driven to one of two conclusions: either that Christ did not know the facts of the Old Testament Scriptures, which he believed and was sent to teach, or, knowing the facts, he deemed it not important to teach them.

The first a.s.sumption puts our Savior on the basis of a fallible human teacher, and nothing more. The second a.s.sumption contradicts all the professions of the critics. For they affirm to-day that the professed discoveries of the mistaken views of the Bible are of the utmost importance, and as honest men they are in conscience obliged to make them known, while claiming that Christ did not make them known.

Shall we a.s.sume that these views, which they deem so important to-day, were of no importance when the Church of Christ first took form? We may ask, what estimate should we have of Christ, who, knowing his people were in error as to the authorship and origin of the Scriptures, would leave them in darkness for more than eighteen hundred years? Is it to be a.s.sumed that he would wait through the long centuries for the coming of critics to enlighten his people? That is what we are logically asked to accept at their hands. It is thus made clear that the issue of this conflict, as in all the past, is narrowed down to the person and character of our Savior. It is well to face the issue calmly, and with a clear understanding of what is pending. Did Christ know truth? Was he honest? Hence, the att.i.tude of the Church should be taken in view of the trend of modern critical discussion.

II. SHOULD REPLY BE MADE?

_"If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Psa. xi.

3._

_"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." 1 Thess. v. 21._

_"Buy the truth and sell it not." Prov. xxiii. 23._

_"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints." Jude 3._

_"Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle." 2 Thess. ii. 15._

_"I am set for the defense of the gospel." Paul, Phil. i. 17._

It is a question among earnest Christian men, who are busily engaged in the work of the Master, as to whether we should turn aside long enough to make reply to the destructive critics. It is affirmed that, as the Word of G.o.d has already pa.s.sed through all the attacks that have been made upon it, it will defend itself in the future as in the past--that our duty is to preach the gospel. Certainly the victories of the gospel are a n.o.ble defense of its truth and power to save. There should be no respite from this work. But there are vast mult.i.tudes of people that permit the critics to do their thinking for them. They are not well informed concerning the Scriptures, and consequently are not prepared to repel the attacks of skepticism, nor to reply to the specious arguments or positive a.s.sumptions of the critics. These mult.i.tudes are in danger of casting aside the Word of G.o.d, and missing the offer of eternal life.

The fact of the increased activity of the enemies of the truth must be known to Christian people. Their organized and persistent use of the press has gained for them a wide hearing. Shall the Christian people deny themselves this instrumentality of getting a hearing for G.o.d and his truth before the world? Would not silence be construed by the world as meaning that the cause dear to the heart of G.o.d's people is indefensible?

It should be known to all lovers of the truth that the skepticism widely sown by the destructive critics has entered the Protestant Church and many of our inst.i.tutions of learning.

"Read the utterances of representative men and teachers in her communion, who deny the Incarnation, repudiate vicarious sacrifice, make light of the story of the resurrection, and refine the risen Son of G.o.d into nothing more than the spirit and essence of truth; or, at most, the disembodied ghost of a man who called himself a Messiah, mistaken in his claims, but authoritative in his morals." (Rev. I.M. Holdeman.)

The author of this statement refers also to the fact that there are "modern professors of theology who convict the very prophets whom they hold up as exemplars of righteousness, of absolute literary fraud, and deliberate piracy." They "demonstrate with cool precision that the higher critics of to-day are better informed concerning the mistakes of Moses than was he who claimed that Moses wrote of him, and prove to their own satisfaction and the belief of many followers that Jesus Christ, our Lord, was limited in intelligence, and would, if he were here to-day, deny some of the statements he once so unqualifiedly made."

We may not shut our eyes to the fact that many of our colleges are more or less infected with this rationalistic criticism. Some of our theological professors have subst.i.tuted the theory of evolution for the Scriptural doctrine of creation by the Word of G.o.d. Our young men preparing for the work of the ministry are under the influence and instruction of some of these teachers here in our own country.

It is a matter for thanksgiving that we have literary and theological inst.i.tutions into which the destructive critics have never entered--inst.i.tutions that stand for the Word of G.o.d as given by the Holy Spirit, and believed in by G.o.d's servants in the past and to-day.

We do well to recognize the further fact concerning the effort to eliminate the supernatural from the Bible, that the work of the rationalists has permeated the literature of the day. In this age of reading fiction, that form of literature has become a convenient vehicle for taking everything out of the hands of Providence. It has become easy to leave G.o.d out of his universe and supplant him with the heroic in man. Hence, the literary appet.i.te, ever craving the human instead of the divine, turns away from the truth that confronts the conscience of the reader with G.o.d and his claims.