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Book messages «Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 1) Vol. 02: The Word of the Cross»
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CHAPTER EIGHT

IS THE HIGHER CRITICISM OF MODERN THEOLOGY BELIEVABLE?

  The higher criticism is formulated by those who do not believe in the revelation of God. Since its founders hold this view, can a Christian follow these teachings?

  Christianity has only one book that reveals the Christian concept concerning God. This book is the Bible. The Bible is God's revelation. Saying that the Bible is fabricated and not the Word of God is equivalent to saying that God has never revealed Himself. If God has not revealed Himself, how can we know that there is a God and know the way to approach Him? When we were sinners, how did we know that believing in the Lord Jesus' vicarious death on the cross for us would result in our salvation? The Bible is God's revelation. When the higher critics say that the Bible is unreliable and deny the authenticity of its record, they deny the fact that God has revealed Himself to man. But if God has not revealed Himself, how can the higher critics know God and serve Him?

  The higher critics try to determine how much of the Bible is divinely inspired and how much is not. But they cannot come to a conclusive determination on the proportion of divine inspiration in the Bible. There are almost as many different conclusions about the Bible as there are critics! If the critics themselves cannot arrive at a common belief and judgment, how can they ask others to believe what they believe?

  They do not believe that the Bible is inerrant. They set up their own standard of measurement and consider that standard to be inerrant! The inerrancy of the Bible is changed to the inerrancy of their own standard. They say that certain passages are not authentic based on their own philosophy and standard of measurement. This clearly puts their philosophy and standard of measurement as the unique and inerrant guide. Are their philosophies reliable? Are their standards of measurement inerrant? Are Christ and the testimony of the Bible more reliable, or are human philosophies more reliable?

  The critics think that because they live in the twentieth century they know more than the Jewish historians who lived a few thousand years ago! The critics belong to the twentieth century, yet they think that they know the thoughts of men who lived a few thousand years ago and that they know the way God revealed Himself to these ancient men! They also think that the ancient writers have the same mentality as the critics, and that language itself has never changed! Is it true that ancient men were the same in their mentality? Is it true that there has never been a change in language?

  A professor at Trinity College in Foochow once said, "Someone conducted an examination of Napoleon according to the method of the higher critics, and they arrived at the conclusion that Napoleon never existed!" The minds of these critics are diametrically opposed to the declarations of the Lord Jesus. In order to build up their philosophy, these critics must first attack the Lord Jesus. There really are no facts to substantiate their theories; there are only suppositions! All the evidences in archeology stand as a testimony against their philosophy. Many of their suppositions have been proven to be false. For example, they say that written language was not widely used in Moses' time, but this has been proven to be false.

  Modern theologians try to remove the "obstacles" in the Bible that prevent men from believing according to their intellect. In so doing, they leave men without a Bible to believe in! If one portion of the Bible can be removed, all portions of the Bible can be removed. They reject the record of creation as recorded by Moses because the story of creation contradicts the theory of evolution. They reject the record of Jonah in the belly of the fish because it is too supernatural. They reject the record of the birth of the Lord Jesus through a virgin because it is too mysterious and hard to believe. As a result they conclude that He was merely the son of Joseph. Since resurrection is impossible, according to man, they have no other recourse but to keep Christ buried in the grave forever! If these "obstacles" are removed, will the Bible still be the Bible? But when the "obstacles" are removed this way, they create more obstacles. The obstacles which they create, that is, the problems they cannot solve, are often more numerous than the things they have tried to remove! Strictly speaking, modern theology is an offspring of evolution. It has never been proven and never can be proven. Darwinism is its father.

  The higher critics cannot help men to be saved, and they cannot help men to advance spiritually. "By their fruits you will recognize them" (Matt. 7:20). Other than being an enemy of God and blaspheming the God who authored the Bible, what achievements have the higher critics made in the world and the church? They do not lead people to Christ. On the contrary, they corrupt men's faith. This is the result of the work of the higher critics.

  Some men with equal or higher intelligence than these critics have pointed out the unreliability of their arguments. Modern scholarship has gradually overturned the authority of higher criticism. Many of the higher critics are unable to answer the challenges of books written by their opponents. A recently published book Is Higher Criticism Reasonable? was written by Dr. Wilson who came to China two years ago (1923). The higher critics have not been able to answer the challenges made in his book. The knowledge of one critic or the knowledge of all the critics combined are not enough to overturn the authenticity of the Bible! Dr. Wilson said, "We now acknowledge that the authenticity of the Old Testament cannot be overturned by any human knowledge that has been thus far acquired."

  The higher critics are only a disguised form of the devil who said, "Yea, hath God said?" (Gen. 3:1) All the facts of archeology disprove the theories of these critics. Dr. A. H. Sayce, a famous archaeologist once said,

  Archaeological finds based on scientific methods have removed the suppositions and judgments of the dogmatic critics. Without exaggeration, the discoveries of the archaeologists during the last thirty years have, with no exception, overturned the most trusted judgments of the literary critics, and they have also confirmed the reliability of our record, the Bible. The early use of the written language in the Near East for literature, the high standard of education at the time of Abraham and Moses, and the fine and detailed record of the Bible, have all been proven.

  If the Bible is a book fabricated by men, all the mistakes made by the copiers of the manuscripts should have been eliminated. There is no need to wait for the critics to find them out. If the Bible is not inspired by God, on what can we base our faith? Without the Bible as the basis of our faith, there is no ground to believe in the divine teaching as revealed in the Bible. The higher critics are purely materialistic because they have assigned all supernatural things to the category of the unbelievable.

  The history of the higher critics proves that they are the very ones that the Lord Jesus referred to in one of His stories: "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead" (Luke 16:31). The critics try to prove their own theories by quoting the Pentateuch. Then they begin to question the word of the prophets, suspecting that Isaiah was not written by one man, that Daniel was not written by Daniel, and that the story of Jonah is just an allegory. Finally, they doubt the words of the Gospels. They have not heard the words of Moses and the prophets, and they are not persuaded by Christ who rose from the dead!

  The critics say that they consider the writers of the Bible to be great human philosophers. Actually, they consider the writers to be the greatest liars and hypocrites! All the writers of the Bible have claimed that they were divinely inspired. If they were not inspired, as the critics claim, would not their lofty moral and spiritual standards condemn them to the deepest hell? Therefore, the Bible must either be God's Word or the devil's word. Does the devil disguise himself as an angel of light and teach others to worship God, hate the devil, know about regeneration, justification, and sanctification? Does the devil preach these words?

  The critics think that they are Christians and God's servants. Yet according to their philosophy, there is no revelation and no gospel. Does this not make the Bible a strange fairy tale? Is this what a Christian and a servant of God preaches?

  Since this is a present condition, we should "contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). Concerning those who are in doubt, we should "have mercy" on them (Jude 23), and should correct them in meekness, "if perhaps God may give them repentance unto the full knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. 2:25). Concerning unbelieving preachers, the Scripture has a clear teaching concerning how to deal with them: "If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not say to him, Rejoice!" (2 John 10). The danger facing the church today is that the truth is sacrificed in the effort to unite the different denominations. We believe in the fundamental truths and have no fellowship with those who believe in modern theology and higher criticism. The time has come for the Levites to be separated from the other twelve tribes. The time has come for preachers in China and Christians to rise up for God and declare their faith.

  It hurts my heart the most to see that so many leaders in the church are unclear about their faith. They think that modern theology and traditional theology are the same. They do not realize that they either belong to the modern camp or the traditional camp and that there is no middle ground between the two camps. It is, of course, bad to divide the church into denominations, but it is better for the denominations to remain than to sacrifice the truth for ecumenicity! The Lord Jesus is now being rejected by the ones who call themselves Christians and servants of God. Who is willing to stand with the Lord Jesus and be rejected? We would rather write books that no one reads than to oppose God's truth in an attempt to please the religious, social mentality. We would rather publish magazines that no one reads than to publish magazines that are an offense in God's eyes, which have thousands of subscribers. We would rather speak sermons that no one hears than to whitewash sinners, only to see them becoming sons of hell! "Whoever...does not doubt in his heart, but believes" (Mark 11:23). "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed" (John 20:29).

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