Page 316 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

INSPIRATION

that the full authority of Scripture is completely the evangelical world. Almost all of the literature which
undercut” (The Great Evangelical Disaster, p. 44). is produced in the evangelical world today falls into this
A more recent exposure of the corruption of doctrine category. In the October 1985 issue of Christianity
in the Evangelical world is found in No Place for Truth: Today, (the very popular and probably most influential
or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology? by David voice of evangelicals in America), a symposium on Bible
F. Wells, Professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological criticism was featured. The articles were written by
Seminary. Time magazine described Well’s book as “a scholars from several evangelical seminaries. Not one of
stinging indictment of evangelicalism’s theological the participants in that symposium in Christianity Today
corruption.” Though Wells is himself a committed New was prepared to reject higher criticism. All came to its
Evangelical, he properly identifies Evangelicalism’s chief defense. IT BECAME EVIDENT THAT ALL THE
problem as its repudiation of biblical separation and its SCHOLARS FROM THE LEADING SEMINARIES IN THIS
accommodation with the world: COUNTRY HELD TO A FORM OF HIGHER CRITICISM.
“Fundamentalism always had an air of embattlement These men claim to believe that the Bible is the Word
about it, of being an island in a sea of unremitting of God. At the same time they adopt higher critical
hostility. Evangelicalism has reacted against this sense methods in the explanation of the Scriptures. This has
of psychological isolation. It has lowered the become so common in evangelical circles that IT IS
barricades. It is open to the world. The great sin of ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND AN EVANGELICAL
Fundamentalism is to compromise; the great sin in PROFESSOR IN THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS OF OUR
evangelicalism is to be narrow” (emphasis added) LAND AND ABROAD WHO STILL HOLDS
(David Wells, No Place for Truth, p. 129). UNCOMPROMISINGLY TO THE DOCTRINE OF THE
Wells also made a telling statement that INFALLIBLE INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. The
acknowledges precisely where the New Evangelical insidious danger is that higher criticism is promoted by
world is today: those who claim to believe in infallible inspiration
“But in between these far shores [Anglo-Catholicism (Herman Hanko, The Battle for the Bible, pp. 2, 3).
and Fundamentalism] lie the choppy waters that most [Hanko’s book should not be confused with Harold
evangelicals now ply with their boats, and here the Lindsell’s book by that same name.]
winds of modernity blow with disconcerting force,
fragmenting what it means to be evangelical. This is The author of the above critique is a professor at the
because evangelicals have allowed their confessional Protestant Reformed Seminary, Grandville, Michigan.
center to dissipate” (p. 128). Let me give a specific example of this of the
I believe a clear case can be established connecting hundreds that i could give from my files.
Evangelicalism’s apostasy with its acceptance of the Bruce Metzger, who is frequently cited as an
critical text and its versions. The Fundamentalist who “evangelical” scholar, is one of the most renowned
defends the modern versions joins hands with textual critics, and he has spoken in forums which are as
Modernists and New Evangelicals, because this has long theologically diverse as the National Council of
been their position and they are the ones doing the vast Churches, the Roman Catholic Church, and even those
majority of the “scholarly” writing on this subject. which profess to be Evangelical, such as Dallas
Pastor Mark Buch of Vancouver, British Columbia, Theological Seminary, the Congress on Biblical
who was involved in the Fundamentalist movement Exposition, and Tennessee Temple Seminary. Metzger
beginning in the 1930s, gives this testimony to wrote the notes to the Reader’s Digest Condensed Bible
Evangelicalism’s corruption: and co-edited the New Oxford Annotated Bible: Revised
“[Evangelicalism] today has fallen away from the old Standard Version.
faith and this is not the case of an exception among The following description of the Pentateuch from
them, it is common and general. They no longer these two sources is the approach typically taken today
believe in the veracity, the verbal inspiration of the by scholars of all perspectives:
Holy Bible and they have gone a whoring after all sorts
of innovations and foolishness in order to fill their “The Old Testament may be described as the literary
churches...” (Buch, In Defence of the Authorized Version, expression of the religious life of ancient Israel. ... The
1977, p. 33). Israelites were more history-conscious than any other
Consider this summary of the downgrade of the people in the ancient world. Probably as early as the
time of David and Solomon, out of a matrix of myth,
doctrine of inspiration by today’s Evangelical leaders: legend, and history, there had appeared the earliest
My main concern is with those who profess to believe written form of the story of the saving acts of God from
that the Bible is the Word of God and yet by, what I can Creation to the conquest of the Promised Land, an
only call surreptitious and devious means, deny it. This account which later in modified form became a part of
is, surprisingly enough, a position that is taken widely in Scripture. But it was to be a long time before the idea

316 Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity