Higher Criticism by Earle Albert Rowell

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 26, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 29.

Higher Criticism

By Earle Albert Rowell

XII. Higher Criticism and the Supernatural

FROM the material point of view this is an age of progress; from the social, an age of travel; from the intellectual, an age of science; from the medical, an age of hysteria; from the political, an age of democracy; from the judicial, an age of crime; from the commercial, an age of advertisement; from the social, an age of "publicomania;" and from the religious, an age of doubt.

Van Dyke comprehensively states the religious situation thus: "The questioning spirit of to-day everywhere asks for a reason, in the shape of a positive and scientific demonstration. When one is given, it asks for another; and when another is given, it asks for the reason for the reason. The laws of evidence, the principles of judgment, the evidence of history, the testimony of consciousness—all are called in question."—"Gospel for an Age of Doubt," page 8.

By the broad and liberal man is always meant the man who minimizes or flatly denies the miracles and all things supernatural. He disbelieves all evidence, however well attested, that contravenes his article of faith that "miracles do not happen." The Higher Critic, equally with the agnostic and infidel, is bound by his theory to reject as absurd all accounts of miracles, and endeavor to account for the recorded phenomena as either the delusions of a disordered mind, or the deliberate invention of a malicious deceiver.

While under the name of psychology scientists of the most "liberal" type are proclaiming marvels equal to the miracles of the Bible, they are bound by their materialistic dogma to deny the Bible miracles. They no longer regard the wonders of Spiritism as the vagary of a deluded mind, or the trickery of a charlatan, but they are accounted for as a manifestation of the power of the "subconscious mind," the "inner self," the "unfettered soul," etc.

The Fetters of the "Free Thinker"

Right here I take issue with those who boast that disbelief in the supernatural is any evidence of a "liberal mind," or a "free thinker." Since, as Gilbert Chesterton says, "a miracle is the liberty of God," those who discard the supernatural, not only bind God, but fetter themselves to a certain contracted creed, for they are not free to believe miracles. So instead of doubting miracles being an evidence of liberty of mind and freedom of thought, as the Higher Critics so loudly proclaim, it is just the reverse; for the man whose mind is ruled by adherence to a scientific pronouncement that he must teach in face of all contrary evidence, can not possibly be as liberal-minded as the man who has left his mind free to be impressed by the weight of any evidence. To claim as broad-minded a disbelief in miracles, is a delusion; for it is a hide-bound bigotry, propagated under the name of scientific freedom, in which vagueness of expression is taken for depth of thought, and learned phrases pass current for science.

The man who denies the supernatural, is neither liberal nor logical. For, the moment a man admits the existence of an Omnipotent Power, and then denies the possibility of a miracle, he has contradicted himself; for if he binds Omnipotent Power, it is obviously not omnipotent. The man in this case has conceived as absurd an idea as the man who asked what would happen if an irresistible force came in contact with an immovable body.

Those who accept the supernatural in the Bible do so because there is ample evidence for it. Those who deny it do so mainly because they have swallowed a creed, usually in the form of Evolution, whose very life is dependent upon the denial of miracle. Thus, it is the Christian who is broad-minded enough to accept all evidence; but it is the learned scientist, or arrogant philosopher, or doubting divine, who is so creed-bound he must refuse to give credence to all evidence tending to prove the fact of miracles. Thus it is the Christian who rebukes the skeptical scientist, and doubting philosopher, and infidelic theologian, as the narrow-minded thinker, when not the creed-bound bigot.

Renan says that "it is because they relate miracles that I say the Gospels are legends." This is the attitude taken by the majority of those Higher Critics who so glibly deny, in the name of Christianity, the foundation principles of Christianity, and who so arrogantly maintain, in the name of Christianity, principles that would absolutely annihilate Christianity.

Essence of Christianity—Supernaturalism

When we read of the creation of the earth, of the animals, and of man in God's image; when we are charmed with the account of the Exodus with its numerous attendant providences; when we marvel at the fulfilment of numberless prophecies, made hundreds and even thousands of years before the event; when we are awed by the divine mystery of the incarnation of Christ; when our hearts are thrilled by His grand, triumphant miracles, and our souls are enraptured by the accounts of His glorious ascension—when we read these things, we see that they are more than marvels and signs and deeds of power; that they are the very essence, the kernel, of the Bible. We see that to eliminate, as do the Higher Critics, these and many other of the so-called "impossible" or legendary accounts, would be to cast away Christianity entirely.

On nearly every page of the blessed Book we find in the accounts of the supernatural the comforting evidence of the care of our Father for His children. And to eliminate the supernatural would not only so mutilate the Bible that it would be impossible to recognize it as the "good news" of God to a fallen race, but would give us the uncaring, unloving god of the Agnostic philosophers, or the inconceivable, adamant "Unknowable" of Herbert Spencer.

The supernatural permeates every page of the Bible. It is present in every prayer, in every action of Christ, and it will be present in every hour of the Christian's life. Christianity without the supernatural is as impossible as Christianity without Christ.

Not only did Christ perform occasional miracles, but He performed them repeatedly, continuously, thousands of them. Matt. 4:24; 12:15; 15:30; 19:2; Mark 1:34; 3:10; Luke 6:17; 9:11. Not only that, but He gave similar power to the twelve and the seventy. In fact the supernatural is so essential to the life of Christianity and to the Christian, that the most surprising thing about Higher Criticism is the fact Higher Critics actually deny all the essential foundation truths of the Bible and yet stand in the pulpit and claim to be the only real exponents of true "up-to-date" Christianity.

A Babylon for the Honor of Their Name

Higher Critics themselves recognize the fact that they are entirely changing the face of Christianity; nay, they boast of it as their work, with the same pride manifested by Rome in claiming to have changed the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day of the week. Says W. J. Savage: "There never has been any fall of man, but there has been ascent from the beginning. . . . This one fact alone, logically carried out, compels a complete reconstruction of ALL the theological theories of the past; for there is NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THE DOCTRINES that enter into and make up the schemes that have been taught by the churches for hundreds of years that did not come into being as part of a plan to save man from the fall. If there has been no fall, . . . then all the doctrines which are logically a necessary part of this plan of salvation must be reconsidered."—"Religion for To-Day," page 28.

Since every part of the Bible has to do directly or indirectly with the salvation of man from the fall, it is evident what havoc Higher Criticism would make of the whole Bible, and how dry the few husks it would leave us.

To deny and discount the supernatural is both narrow-minded and unscientific; for as A. T. Robertson says, "After all, what we call the laws of nature are merely our notions or discoveries of God's ways, and these laws worked before we discovered them, as do many others that we have not yet found out."—"Life of Paul," page 41. The humble Christian, then, need feel no alarm at the onslaught on the Bible narratives of the supernatural, at the hands of theological professors, or ministerial infidels. Their attacks only make more evident to the child of God that those who have "tasted the good Word of God" (Heb. 6:5) can rest eternally sure and secure upon the fact that "the Word of our God shall stand forever." Isa. 40:8.