6 /. spoke of man's developing religious experience rather than of God's Word to man; of man's quest for truth instead of God's revelation of truth; and ___<---0:E=·Jesus -- as a spiritual or religious pioneer rather than the final revel- atiort of God to man . Therefore, the Bible was robbed of its spiritual ori- gin, and its authority was subjected to secular historical criticism. Much of Protestantism which had previously rejected the authority of the Medieval Church for the authority of the Bible had now rejected all authority unless it could be verified in its own mind. The result of this modernistic trend produced devastating results within Protestantism. Liberals felt they must present Christianity in a way in- offensive to the scientific mind. Natural sin gave way to naturalism, and miracles were ruled out . The virgin birth of Christ was looked upon as an incredible event. Biblical regeneration was reduced to what could best be called religious education. Belief in the supernatural return of Christ gave way to utopian dreams of a perfect society that was to be produced by the works of man. The theory of evolution became, for the liberal, the law of the inevitable progress of the human race. The triumph of modern sci- ence gave man unlimited confidence in his own power and capability. The myth that education could solve man's problems became engrained in their thinking and was widely propagated. Liberalism was utopian in spirit; and before the turn of the twentieth century, it had gone unchastened and un- challenged by the judgement of history. Once it began, liberalism quickly penetrated the stronghold of trad- itional orthodoxy, capturing many of the older theological seminaries. It then filtered down to the pulpit, and then to the pew in many of the Prot- estant denominations . Its conquest began with a plea for "inclusivness" and "broadmindedness . " It ended with the fundamentalists being excluded from the seminaries they had endowed and from many of the denominations they had helped build. It became obvious that to the liberals the term
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