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The Higher Critic and God's Word

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 28, 1907

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 48.

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The Higher Critic and God's Word

By C. M. S.

WE see frequent evidence of the fact that the two chief aims of the Higher Criticism are to destroy faith in the Bible as the Word of God, and to destroy confidence in Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of mankind. Wherever public pronouncements are made by the advocates of this system of doubt, it is one or the other or both of these fundamental beliefs that are assailed.
At the twenty-fifth annual session of the Baptist Congress at Baltimore, Md., on November 12, one of the chief topics for discussion was the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus. From the press report we quote:—
The topic of the day—the “Virgin Birth”—was discussed under two heads: first, “What is the Basis?” and second, “Is It Essential to Christian Faith?” Rev. Dr. J. W. Phillips, of Binghamton, N. Y., strongly asserted that belief in the doctrine of the virgin birth was not essential in these times to a true Christian life, as Christ transcended his birth no matter in what manner he came into the world. Prof. John R. Slater, of Rochester, was warmly applauded when he declared that the doctrine of the virgin birth had nothing to do with the life of a Christian nor with his belief in Christ.
Other delegates spoke to the same effect. He who permits the Higher Criticism to destroy his faith in the Bible as the Word of God has no sure anchorage He has merely to set up his own judgment as to what is essential to a Christian life and discard everything else. The Higher Critic also declares that a belief in the miracles of the Bible is not essential, and he discards them. If there is anything plainly taught in the Bible, it is the virgin birth of Jesus. It is taught not only as a thing accomplished, but also as a thing to be accomplished; for we read in Isa. 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” The Higher Critics, in order to discredit the virgin birth of Christ, must take the ground that this scripture is not the word of God, or else that Christ did not fulfil that prophecy, and it is still unfulfilled. If he takes the latter ground, he must hold that we have no Saviour yet; for he who was to be born of a virgin was to be Immanuel—God with us—and was to “save his people from their sins.” If we have just grounds for disbelieving the Biblical record concerning the birth of Christ, we have the same grounds for disbelieving that there ever was any Christ at all, or any creation at all, any fall of man or need of a Redeemer, any deliverance from Egypt with the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan River, any translation of Elijah, any such happening as Daniel’s deliverance from the den of lions or the three Hebrews’ deliverance from the fiery furnace, any death of Jesus on the cross or his resurrection from the tomb and ascension on high, any plan of salvation or any need of one, any revelation of God to man or any need of that—in short, nothing at all beyond the grave. And that is infidelity. Admit the premise of the Higher Critics concerning what constitutes the Word of God and concerning the birth of Jesus, and it logically follows that there is nothing but the black goal of the unbeliever at the end of the race. With “ministers of the gospel” applauding such theories in their conventions and expounding them from their pulpits, we have certainly reached the time to which our Saviour alluded when he asked, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Infidelity has no need to conduct campaigns of “enlightenment” to-day. Its doctrines are being taught without expense to itself before audiences which its avowed exponents could not hope to address.
The result of this propaganda of doubt is sending men and women in three directions. Many are entering the fold of the Catholic Church; many are swelling the ranks of avowed infidelity; some few are finding their way into the truth of God for to-day. Knowing the tendency of modern teaching in this regard and the rapid increase of such teaching, it behooves those to whom God has committed his last message to be vigilant, valiant, and zealous in spreading it before the world, that those who believe God, whose hearts are loyal, may see and obey.C. M. S.