p. 8 | Protestantism Drifting by G. B. Thompson

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 28, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 13.

Protestantism Drifting

By G. B. Thompson

III. Teaching in Our Schools

Nothing perhaps is the decadent condition of professed Protestantism more apparent than in the teaching and acceptance of the theories of "Higher Criticism," some of which were mentioned in the previous article. And instead of repudiating this new form of infidelity, it is endorsed by thousands; it is taught in the pulpit, colleges, and universities, and published in theological works. "Higher Criticism" declares that the text of the sacred Scripture is "seriously corrupt." The authorship of the various books, especially the historical part, is questioned, and their historical accuracy is denied. And these self-constituted critics of the sayings of the Almighty, put forth their claims as tho they were the shibboleth of all scholarships. While they have been working out and changing their conclusions, the spade of the explorer has been at work, and our museums contain tons of archeological specimens that stamp their verdict as false. "These records, chiseled in adamantine volumes, stamped in imperishable clay, painted in the darkness of the tombs, or cut on the mountainside, bring impartial, unimpeachable, and conclusive proof of the veracity of the Old Testament." But these learned critics are in no way abashed when their speculations have been shown to be wrong. They have set their faces like a flint to overthrow at all hazards the word of the Lord. They remind one of the Irish barrister, who, speaking in behalf of his client, said, "Your honor, if I am wrong on this proposition I have another equally conclusive."

Recently, after a personal investigation covering a considerable period of time, Mr. Harold Bolce has written a series of articles for the Cosmopolitan Magazine, setting forth in plain terms the character of the instruction which he finds is given to the thousands of students in Protestant colleges and universities. The editor of the Cosmopolitan sums up the findings of Mr. Bolce in the following stirring language:

What Mr. Bolce sets down here is of the most astounding character. Out of the curricula of American colleges a dynamic movement is upheaving ancient foundations, and promising a way for revolutionary thought and life. Those who are not in close touch with the great colleges of the country will be astonished to learn the creeds being fostered by the faculties of our great universities. In hundreds of class rooms it is being taught daily that the Decalogue is no more sacred than a syllabus; that the home as an institution is doomed; that there are no absolute evils; that immorality is simply an act in contravention of society's accepted standards; that democracy is a failure, and the Declaration of Independence only spectacular rhetoric; that the change from one religion to another is like getting a new hat; that moral precepts are passing shibboleths; that conceptions of right and wrong are as unstable as styles of dress; that wide stairways are open between social levels, but that to the climber children are encumbrances; that the sole effect of prolificacy is to fill tiny graves; and that there can be and are holier alliances without the marriage relation than within it. These are some of the revolutionary and sensational teachings submitted with academic warrant to the minds of hundreds of thousands of students in the United States. It is time that the public realized what is being taught to the youth of this country. "The social question to-day," says Disraeli, "is only a zephyr which rustles the leaves, but will soon become a hurricane." It is a dull ear that can not hear the mutterings of the coming storm.

This is a terrible arraignment. But to show that the conclusions of the learned editor of the Cosmopolitan are not overdrawn, I will quote a few of the statements which Mr. Bolce makes, some of which he credits to leading educators, not in Catholic schools, but in what are considered Protestant institutions.

Prof. Edwin I. Earp, of Syracuse (New York) University, was asked the question, "Do you believe that Moses got the Ten Commandments in the way the Scriptures tell?" He replied: "I do not. It is unscientific and absurd to imagine that God ever turned stone-mason and chiseled commandments on a rock."

History and criticism have made the Bible a new book, or rather a new collection of books, written, for the most part, we know not by what authors or at what dates, and put together, as a Bible, we know not on what principle. All the old landmarks, Moses, Solomon, Job, are gone, and a restless sea of criticism threatens to engulf religion with the records it adored.—Jacob Gould Schurman, President of Cornell University.

The notion that there is anything fundamentally correct implies the existence of a standard outside and above usage, and no such standard exists.—Prof. William G. Sumner, Yale University.

In the February (1910) number of the Cosmopolitan, Mr. Bolce, under the heading, "The Crusade Invisible," gives the result of his investigation in such Protestant schools as Bryn Mawr, Holyoke, Wellesley, Tulane University, and others, and lays bare the unbelief of those who are employed as instructors for the seventy thousand and more lady students. The articles have been prepared with the coöperation of presidents of universities. I have space to quote but a few of his statements:

And young women are coming out of college believing that it is absurd for humanity to stake its hope of salvation on much of what the Christian world has accepted as inspired writings.

They have been taught at the University of California, for example, to reject plans of salvation that can not be accepted by the reason, and at the University of Michigan that "the church must make up its mind whether the permanent elements of religion are to remain fettered, perhaps stultified, by hypotheses relevant to the fourth century, or are capable of plangent statement in terms of our contemporary outlook upon the world and life."

Mr. Bolce tells us further some of the things girls going from Christian homes to these institutions are taught:

The Bible is taught in the co-educational universities of the United States, but the character of that teaching will startle Christendom when the truth is known. The University of Michigan, for example, declares that the books of the Bible are a composite of myth and legend, in the form of epos, hero-saga, fable, proverb, precept, folk-lore, primitive custom, clan and domestic law, and rhapsody. It is further set forth that these are of various and dubious origin; that the texts have been edited and interpolated, "and often corrupted and marred by endless copying;" that the Scriptural writings were ascribed, as a rule, to men who never wrote them; that they are nearly all difficult to understand; and that it is preposterous to ask humanity to stake its hope of salvation upon such a book. And at Chicago and California it is contended that, to the scientific mind, there is no "historic certainty that Jesus ever lived."

Not only does science discount the authenticity of the Old Testament, but having placed a question mark after the name of Jesus, it proceeds to attack the veracity of the New Testament. Mr. Bolce continues:

Not content with discrediting the older history of Israel, the scholars proceed to cast doubt upon the more intimate New Testament. It is explained that, while scholars agree in the main, that the Old Testament stories must take their place with the Greek records of Theseus, Perseus, Jason, Hercules, and other heroes, many people still fondle the delusion that the New Testament is sound, and that, therefore, "the citadel of dogmatic Christianity" is inviolable.

It is with such infidel ideas as these that the great system of Protestantism is being poisoned.

These same critics have learned all they know under the influence of institutions built up through the influence of the very Book they criticized. This ought to inspire a degree of reverence for these ancient writings. It has been well said that if these critics had been born in any land where these Sacred Writings were unknown they would have been exposed in a field, drowned in a pond, or flung into the streets, before they had time to criticize anything; and only for the influence of the Book they find so full of mistakes, they might to-day have been howling and whirling in some circle of dervishes, or sitting besmeared on the banks of the Ganges, seeking purification and salvation amid the obscurities and idolatry of heathen lands. While many in these great Protestant bodies sigh over these abominations, and cry out against them, yet until the great body of Protestantism shall arise and repudiate such teaching she must be charged with endorsing them.

There is a tremendous gulf to be bridged between the "essence of Protestantism," as expressed in the Protest of the Princes in 1529, and the teaching of representative Protestant expositors of the present day.

We will notice this further in another article.