Higher Criticism by Earle Albert Rowell

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 28, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 25.

Higher Criticism

By Earle Albert Rowell

VIII. Some Fruits of Higher Criticism

THE cry of years past, "What think ye of Christ?" has changed into "What think ye of the Bible?" The demand comes with a sinister insinuation, pressed, not by the Tom Paines of to-day, but by theological professors, religious leaders, world-renowned Biblical scholars. The faith that nineteen hundred years ago was "once for all delivered unto the saints," is undergoing rapid disintegration in the crucible of their blasting criticism. "What think ye of Christ?" and "What think ye of the Bible?" are associated questions, two sides of the one great question which affects the title deeds of our eternal inheritance; and it behooves us to give it careful attention and prayerful thought.

Doubt or Fact

"And God spake all these words." Did He? Is His Word of supreme value, or must it be discounted according to the ever changing results of modern "scientific criticism"? Shall man's doubts take the place of God's facts? Shall we value lightly what Christ and His disciples valued supremely? Are the oracles of God to be cut up into simply fragmentary remains that are at best wofully human, and largely a piecing together of myths, legends, and even downright inventions calculated to deceive?

This uncompromising parent of atheism is an invention of Satan for the destruction of the unwary, and the leaders of it come as angels of light — "new light" they call it. This destructive teaching is heralded on the continent of Europe by such learned Bible professors and divines as Schmidel, Delitzsch, Riehm, Dillmann, Konig, Kittel, Kohlen, Strack, Oettli, Westphal, Orelli; and in Great Britain by Robertson Smith, G. A. Smith, Driver, Sandy, Cheyne, A. B. Davidson; and in America by Briggs, Ladd, Willet, James, Bowne, and others too numerous to mention, all professed believers in revealed religion!

Briggs, one of the leading Higher Critics in the United States, in his "Study of the Holy Scriptures," page 508, says: "It is safe to say that the Bible has become a new book to the modern scholar, as the result of all these historical studies and the researches of historical criticism. The material has been in large part sifted and scientifically arranged."

When subjected to the microscope of hostile criticism and looked at through the spectacles of "scientific doubt," it is indeed a "new book"! Higher Criticism is an attempt to account for the formation of the Bible according to the theory of evolution; and whatever the facts, the Bible must be hewed to pieces to fit this theory. Higher Criticism sheds upon the Bible the light from the sparks of their own kindling, and Higher Critics interpret it in the feeble glimmer of this flickering aid. As well might they use a candle to outshine the noonday sun!

Working Out Confusion

That their theories have resulted not only in no agreement, but in endless confusion, is evident from the lack of harmony among the critics themselves, which even a casual reading of their works makes irritatingly prominent. For instance, there is a difference of a thousand years as to the date of the Decalogue. The same psalms are placed nine hundred years apart by men of equal critical acumen. Duhm puts the Psalms only two hundred years B.C. And there is a divergence of eleven hundred years as to the composition of Job. This is the same as if one were unable to determine whether Columbus lived in the time of Constantine or was a contemporary of Queen Isabella! Such are some of the results of the boasted "scientific arrangement."

But while there is disagreement concerning the dates of the composition and the methods of its production, Briggs voices the unanimous sentiment of Higher Critics when he says: "We are obliged to admit that there are scientific errors in the Bible, errors of astronomy, of geology, of zoology, of botany, and of anthropology."

But that is by no means all, for "there are chronological, geographical, and other circumstantial inconsistencies and errors." — Id., page 627. And he sums up thus: "In all matters which come within the sphere of human observation, and which constitute the framework of divine instruction, errors may be found." — Id., page 634.

What Will the End Be?

The 119th Psalm, which Ruskin declared was one of the deepest compositions in the Bible and hence in the world, is declared by Duhm to be "the emptiest production that ever blackened paper!" Higher Criticism already claims that the "Bible history is fabricated and false from cover to cover, and usually a conscious and deliberate forgery, gangrened with error!" and yet says Briggs, "The work of historical criticism of Holy Scriptures has only begun its career." — "Study Holy Scriptures," page 531. If this is only the beginning, in the name of reason what will the end be?

The wonder is not that these things are said, but that they are advanced and defended by professed Christians, by the leaders of religious bodies. It is a serious question whether the avowed enemies of the Bible have ever said half the harsh things against it that its declared believers are now doing under the mantle of Higher Criticism.

When Voltaire made his famous boast that tho twelve men founded Christianity, one man would serve to overthrow it, he did not dream that the theological savants of Europe, Asia, and America would combine in the twentieth century to aid him in his nefarious design. Neither did Tom Paine imagine when he vauntingly "unchained his lion" the "Age of Reason" — which was to devour the Bible — that from the divinity schools of Asia, the theological universities of Europe, and the sectarian colleges of America, in the twentieth century, Roman Catholic priest and Protestant divine would join forces, whose sole object would be to attack, degrade, and revile the Bible in a manner that would have amazed Voltaire and made Paine stand aghast at the bolder infidelity of these modern doctors of divinity! Higher Criticism certainly makes strange bedfellows!

Shall He Find Faith?

Since the story of the curse is held to be only a voice from the realm of fable, redemption must necessarily be the decadent fruitage of a hydra-headed myth; and a fabulous redemption from a fabulous curse is effected only by a nebulous, mystical, and mythical Christ, the fabulous product of unscrupulous deceivers, imposed upon an ignorant and superstitious people in an age of darkness. This theory is so prevalent among Higher Critics, and is taught so assiduously, that among the laymen of the various churches theories of Christ are rife, conclusions diverse, and faith wavering.

It is no wonder that Christ, in looking down the stream of time to the present, said, "Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8.

It needs no argument to show that if these new teachings were believed by foreign missionaries, their work would become paralyzed, conversions would cease, and foreign missionary work would not only languish, but would go rapidly from apathy to stupor and from stupor to profound coma, from which only the live-wire truth of the impending second coming of Christ could arouse it.

But the devout Christian need not be alarmed at the boastings of Higher Criticism. All he needs to remember is that "Thy Word is truth" (John 17:17), and that no matter what the claims of this new "science falsely so called," nor how much like "an angel of light" its advocates, "the Scripture can not be broken." John 10:35. And when they approach him with their "scientifically arranged" Bible from which are eliminated the miracles as absurd, the fall as a fable, and Christ as a myth, he need only stand

firmly upon the words uttered by Christ upon a similar occasion to similar doubters, and say with Him: "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." Matt. 22:29.