Chapter V (v) — Higher Criticism and Modernism
1. The Bible and Christianity have been attacked and criticised in every age; and the form of attack has been fashioned by the state of the civilisation of that age. In their own day these attacks seemed formidable enough, but they have seldom outlasted the generation that produced them. In spite of all forms of criticism by atheists and other critics, Christianity has continued to progress steadily. The opposition of its enemies, instead of destroying it, has only served to root it more firmly. Their efforts have failed because they could not withstand the Life and Power which were working in the lives of all true believers. The attack of critics in modern times is known as Higher Criticism, or Modernism. It is possible that it does shake the faith of weak, nominal Christians who have no spiritual experience and life; but it can never cause any kind of harm to Reality, or to those who believe in Reality. On the other hand, it is a means of strength and progress to true believers, for, as a short-lived epidemic carries away the infected, who spread the disease, and so help it to work itself out, so the critics who spread their rationalistic disease will gradually pass away, and their disease will die with them.
2. The criticisms and objections of scholars are frequently dependent on their own guesses and speculations, rather than on real facts. It does not follow, because a critic is a scholar, that his criticism is always scholarly. It is often based on hypotheses and speculations and is therefore not worthy of acceptance. It is possible that some of their theories may be reflections of the light of heaven, but it is also possible that they may flash back the reflection of the fire of hell. Then, too, learned critics may quite often be entangled in their own error and illusions. Their very earthly wisdom and philosophy are sometimes a stumbling-block to their understanding of the deep spiritual meaning of the inspired writers of the Bible. They too often examine minutely the outer shell, that is to say the style, or the internal evidence for dates, or writers' traits, and leave unexamined the kernel, which is Reality. But how differently the real seeker after Reality approaches the Bible! He wishes only to be in communion with Reality, and it matters not to him when, or by whose hand, any Book or Gospel was written. He knows that he has here the Word of God, written by prophets and apostles as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter i. 21); the proof of whose truth is not based on history and logic because Truth is neither new nor old: it is eternal. Further, such a seeker for truth wants spiritual food and eternal life, and he cares not if he learns it from Moses, David, Isaiah or Jeremiah, or from Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. He wants Reality only, and in communion with Him he finds the life of his life, and finds always abiding satisfaction in Him.
3. To say that Christianity has been a failure in Europe and America and in the East is altogether foolish and mistaken, and is not based on experience. It is not Christianity that has failed, but it is those people who have not understood the heart of Christianity who have been failures.
In my travels in Europe, America and in Eastern countries, I have seen that people are so busy in their factories, and in their laboratories and libraries, that they have no time to receive the blessings of Christianity. Some of them even confessed to me that they had made their lives so complicated that they were tired of them. If any man becomes weak from not eating food, or dies from not drinking water, then can we say that food and water have been failures to him? Not at all! It is purely a matter of a man's indifference and neglect. And if a man dies without making use of the medicine that is at hand, then there is in this no proof that the medicine has been a failure. Without doubt those who have whole-heartedly accepted Christianity, and have received its blessings, have aroused the world from its sleep of death, and have done work for the Salvation of mankind the effect of which will remain for ever.
4. The work of labouring men keeps them in the open air, and their food, being simple things — such as flour, rice, milk and vegetables — they are usually healthy; but those who forsake these simple healthful foods for a rich and highly seasoned diet, and who shut themselves up in offices and in studies, are apt to suffer from indigestion and other maladies. In the same way men of simple faith eat simple spiritual food. They get their strength from God's Word, and from the Holy Spirit. They spend their lives in helping and uplifting others, and continue to live in perfect health, happiness and peace. But those are likely to suffer indigestion (i.e. doubt, unbelief, etc.) who leave this simple universal truth and reality, and make it into an involved and philosophical teaching. For this philosophical teaching, attractive and alluring as it may be, is yet over-rich as a spiritual food, and they themselves and others who eat it become sick and finally die, without ever enjoying the experience of fellowship with the Reality.
5. Among lawyers there are law-learned and educated criminals who for their own gain unlawfully use the law and injure their own and the public morality. For although they know their client to be guilty, yet by their clever use of the technicalities of the law they save him from his proper punishment, and thus encourage him to commit further crimes. Hence, instead of the reform of the guilty and the good of the State, these civilised and refined criminals secretly injure the community. So also there are criminals of Bible scholarship, who use their God-given ability and learning improperly. They seek not His glory nor the good of His people, but by unjust criticisms and uncalled-for objections they injure the peace of heart and spiritual life of believers, and become themselves the agents of destruction. Our Lord has said of such, "Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered" (Luke xi. 52).
6. Some critics, drawing a deduction from the parable of the Prodigal Son, say that no Mediator is necessary for our meeting with the Father, for the prodigal went straight to his father without a mediator. But they forget that the cases are not parallel. The prodigal had no need for a mediator because, before leaving the father, he had lived with him, and knew him well. There was no need for any one to tell him about the father. It was the experience of his father's fellowship alone which brought him home. Had he not had this, he could not have come back to the father without the help of a mediator. So too it is with the Christian, who, after having lived in fellowship with God, has for some reason or other gone astray into sin. The very barrenness of his life has at last forced him to remember his past Christian experience, and when in true repentance he comes back to the Father, he comes knowing that the Christ and the Father are one (John x. 30), and that he can come without any other mediator. But no other sinful man except the Christian who has strayed can know the Father, or go to Him without the mediation of Jesus (Matt. xi. 27; John xiv. 6).
The prodigal and his elder brother are alike in one respect: neither made a right or profitable use of his share, for while the younger brother squandered his share, the elder did not use his at all. So there are many Christians who, through carelessness, make no use of their riches in Christ, and get no profit from their God-given gifts and blessings.
7. Some critics hold that the Gospel writers were guilty of exaggeration in writing about Christ. Let us remember that Christ's disciples were mostly simple, uneducated fishermen, who had no special literary ability; and who, in their accounts of His life, instead of exaggerating did not even mention numberless real facts about Him. We can estimate their limited understanding from the fact that after three years of companionship with Him, and after having over and over again heard His life-giving words, they could not understand the meaning of His kingdom, nor of His rising from the dead after three days. Can we believe that such stupid men as these could, from their own imaginations, have added to the facts of His life? It is impossible to think so when we recollect that, in all nations and ages, all classes of people have been so influenced by the mere reading of His life-story that they have been completely changed, and have become new creatures. This story is the work of God alone, Who knowing the needs and cravings of men's hearts, has satisfied them. Besides this, if there had been in the disciples any literary ability, they would have arranged the subject-matter of the Gospel in more precise order, e.g. first the Life, Birth, Death, Resurrection and Ascension; second His Teaching and Parables; third His Supernatural Power and Miracles; and fourth their own experience and views of Him. But they could not do this, because in accordance with the guidance of God they tried, in their own simple way, without nicety of style and without attempting to add anything, to put the Reality before the world as they had had experience of Him (1 John i. 1-2).