Page 398 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

MODERNISM

Darwin, Hegel, and Marx led the movement to dethrone and tradition.”
God and replace Him with Man. Unregenerate Professor H.E.G. Paulus (1761-1851) of Heidelberg,
“Christian” professors in many European universities Germany, devised naturalistic explanations for Christ’s
and seminaries, having already rejected the Word of miracles during the first half of the nineteenth century.
God, gladly accepted the humanistic thinking of the day He claimed, for example, that Jesus did not walk on the
and set out to apply evolutionary philosophy to the water but was actually walking on the shore and in the
Bible and Christianity. mist and fog it only appeared that he was walking on the
The result was tragic: The Bible was brought down to water. Paulus claimed that Jesus did not die on the
the level of a mere human book, inspired only in the cross, but only swooned, and in the coolness of the
sense that Shakespeare’s writings were “inspired.” Jesus tomb revived, and after an earthquake moved the stone
Christ was brought down to the level of a mere man; he walked out and appeared to the disciples. (He did
good, perhaps, a great teacher, perhaps, but a mere man not explain how that a nearly dead man could convince
nonetheless the disciples that he was the resurrected Messiah.)
Modernism spread like ivy, which first sleeps, then Frederick Schleiermacher (1768-1834) of Halle,
creeps, then leaps. This is precisely what occurred with Germany, exalted experience and feeling over Bible
theological modernism. It began in a very insignificant doctrine. He used traditional Christian language but
way in the 18th century; it crept forward and expanded gave it a new definition. He emphasized the necessity of
its influence in the 19th; and then it leaped from knowing Christ through faith, but his “faith” did not
denomination to denomination and spread throughout mean believing the Bible as the infallible Word of God
the world in the 20th. It was introduced to American but referred merely to man’s own intuition or
denominations by men who studied in prestigious, consciousness. Schleiermacher did not consider
though apostate, European universities and by European historical biblical truth to be necessary to faith. By
professors and pastors who visited American schools divorcing faith from the objectivity of an infallible Bible,
and denominational churches. Schleiermacher made it possible for one to be an atheist
Nominal Christianity had paved the way for this and a Christian at the same time. Thus he could say,
apostasy. “With my intellect I am a philosopher, and with my
In Germany, the Lutheran state church was spiritually feelings quite a devout man; ay, more than that, a
powerless. The nation’s citizens were members of the Christian” (quoted by Daniel Edward, “Schleiermacher
church by the rite of infant baptism, but they were not Interpreted by Himself and the Men of His School,”
born again and the new birth was seldom preached. British and Foreign Evangelical Review, vol. 25, 1876, p.
A similar situation existed in England, though to a 609). Schleiermacher barred doctrinal preaching from
the pulpit (Iain Murray, Evangelicalism Divided, 2000, p.
lesser degree. The Church of England, which dominated 11). “Schleiermacher is correctly viewed as the chief
religious life, largely represented a nominal Christianity, source of the massive change which has occurred in the
but unlike in Germany, there was a stronger evangelical historic Protestant denominations during the last two
movement within the state church of England. There hundred years. ... In his separation of the intellectual
was also a stronger independent church movement content of Christianity (the objective biblical revelation)
apart from the state apparatus, as represented by from Christian ‘feeling’, Schleiermacher seemed to
Baptists, Methodists, Brethren, and others. Spiritual provide a means whereby the essence of Christianity
revivals had produced good fruit in England in the late could remain unaffected, no matter how much of the
18th and early 19th century Bible was rejected. Hostile criticism of Scripture need
Theological modernism arose in a day when heretical not therefore be seen as a threat to the ‘faith’ ...
philosophies and doctrines were on the increase. Christianity, it was concluded, could be successful
It was the age of “enlightenment” in which rationalism irrespective of whether Scripture were preserved as the
was positively encouraged by Frederick II, the Word of God, and this thought was the more appealing
“philosopher king,” who reigned over Prussia 46 years as the theological scholarship of the nineteenth century
(1740-1786). The “age of enlightenment” should be became increasingly destructive” (Iain Murray,
called the “age of unbelief.” Frederick was “a thorough Evangelicalism Divided). Schleiermacher paved the way
rationalist and patron of ‘free thought.’ The sight of a for the New Evangelical view that men can be genuine
cross, it was said, was enough to make him Christians and “love the Lord,” even though they reject
blaspheme” (Iain Murray, Evangelicalism Divided, p. 5). biblical doctrine. For this reason, Billy Graham can have
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary of 1934 correctly sweet fellowship with modernistic unbelievers and
defined “Enlightenment” as “shallow and pretentious Roman Catholic bishops and popes.
intellectualism, unreasonable contempt for authority

398 Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity