Page 399 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

MODERNISM

F.C. Baur (1792-1860), founder of the Tuebingen flood of Noah’s day, God’s destruction of Sodom by fire
School of New Testament criticism (Tuebingen, from heaven, Lot’s wife turning to a pillar of salt, the
Germany), claimed that the Gospel of John was not judgments upon Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, the
written by the apostle and, in fact, was not written until account of Job’s suffering, and Jonah’s experience in the
170 A.D., and that only four of Paul’s Epistles were whale’s belly.
actually written by him. He argued that the New The translators of the Revised Standard Version of
Testament was merely the natural record of the early 1951 were modernists and their writings illustrate this
churches. Baur’s school was very influential in the attack. They represented most of the mainline
spread of modernism. Protestant denominations in America at the mid-point of
David F. Strauss (1808-1874), a pupil of F.C. Baur, the 20th century. Following are just a few examples of
“dismissed all the supernatural and messianic elements their modernistic thinking:
in the Gospels as myth.” In his book The Life of Jesus Clarence T. Craig: “Revelation has sometimes been
(1835-36) he boldly denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. understood to consist in a holy book. ... Even on
Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) popularized Christian soil it has sometimes been held that the books
existentialism in contrast to biblical absolutes. of the Bible were practically dictated to the writers
Everything is relative. Though little known in his through the Holy Spirit. ... I DO NOT THINK THAT THIS
lifetime beyond the borders of Denmark, his writings IS THE DISTINCTIVELY CHRISTIAN POSITION. ... The
later became influential through translations. For true Christian position is the Bible CONTAINS the record
instance, Robert Runcie, who was Archbishop of of revelation” (Craig, The Beginning of Christianity,
Canterbury from 1980 to 1990, said he was indebted to 1943, pp. 17, 18).
Kierkegaard’s idea “that religion had nothing to do with Millar Burrows: “We cannot take the Bible as a whole
the rational part of your mind.” Runcie said this showed and in every part as stating with divine authority what
him “a way in which I could hold together a we must believe and do” (Burrows, Outline of Biblical
f u n d a m e n t a l s k e p t i c i s m w i t h r e l i g i o u s Theology).
devotion” (Humphrey Carpenter, Robert Runcie: The Russell Bowie: “According to the ENTHUSIASTIC
Reluctant Archbishop, 1977, p. 88). TRADITIONS which had come down through the
The Graf-Wellhausen theory was named for Julius FOLKLORE of the people of Israel, Methuselah lived 969
Wellhausen (1844-1918) and Karl Heinrich Graf years” (Walter Russell Bowie, Great Men of the Bible,
(1815-1869). (Wellhausen published the Prolegomena to New York: Harper & Brothers, 1937, p. 1).
the History of Ancient Israel in 1878.) According to this Julius Bewer: “The dates and figures found in the first
theory, the Old Testament is not divine revelation but five books of the Bible turn out to be altogether
merely the record of the evolution of Israel’s religion. unreliable” (Bewer, The Literature of the Old Testament,
Wellhausen held “that Hebrew religion had undergone a 1940).
development from the primitive stories of nomadic
times to the elaborate, institutionalized ritualism of the Fleming James: “The narrative of calling down fire
period of the centuries before the birth of Christ” (The from heaven upon the soldiers sent to arrest him is
History of Christianity, Lion Publishing, 1977, p. 554). PLAINLY LEGENDARY. . . . What REALLY happened at
Wellhausen denied the historicity of Abraham, Noah, the Red Sea WE CAN NO LONGER KNOW” (James, The
and other Bible characters in the history of Israel. He Beginnings of Our Religion).
claimed that Israel did not know about Jehovah God Edgar Goodspeed: “The oldest of these elements [that
until Moses taught them this at Mt. Sinai. He claimed formed Genesis] was a Judean account of the nation’s
that the laws and the priestly system were not given by story from the beginning of the world to the conquest of
Moses but were developed after Israel was in Canaan Canaan by the tribes. ... BABYLONIAN MYTHS AND
and, in some cases, after the Babylonian exile; that most LEGENDS AND CANAANITE POPULAR TALES HE
of the Pentateuch was written during the days of Israel’s FREELY APPROPRIATED to his great purpose of
kings as a “pious fraud.” This theory has, in its ever- enforcing morality and the worship of one God.
changing forms, wielded vast influence in theological Sometimes crude old SUPERSTITIOUS IDEAS still cling
education in most denominations. to some of these. The writer of this ancient record was a
At the heart of theological modernism is AN ATTACK prophet ... He wrote his book about 850 B.C. in the
UPON THE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE. A central tenant Southern Kingdom of Judah. ... And IN THE CAPTIVITY
is the critical approach, which questions the traditional IN BABYLONIA THESE BOOKS [THE FIRST SIX BOOKS
authorship and historicity of the Pentateuch and other OF THE BIBLE] WERE COMBINED INTO A GREAT
parts of Scripture. The result is to question or openly COMPOSITE WORK of history and law ... So at last, not
deny Old Testament miracles such as the worldwide long after 400 B.C., arose the Hexateuch” (Goodspeed,

Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity 399