772
T H E
K I N G ’ S
B U S I N E S S
December 1924
Scholarship is Agreed? Rev. Keith L. Brooks Superintendent, Correspondence School, Bible Institute of Los Angeles
HERE are thousands of young people today who are completely carried away with that much over worked phrase, “ Scholarship is agreed.” It nevervoccurs to them to ask, “What scholar ship?” They have not awakened to the fact that the nomen clature of skepticism is deliberately trying to monopolize the word “scholarship,” which it has no right to do. “ Scholarship” never has been agreed, and is not agreed today. There is no foolishness under heaven that has not at some time or other, been given out to the world in the name of “ science” and “ scholarship.” “ A scholar” is one who has studied. “ A scientist” is one who classifies evi dence and forms opinions concerning it. A good ,neighbor said to the writer, speaking of her pas tor, who is an avowed higher critic, “ But he is a highly educated man, and he knows.” Educatedjfgyes, but in what? He has informed himself on the prevalent theories of evolution, speculations of German critics, and the ration alism of the day. Paine, Voltaire and Ingersoll were called “ educated” men. The outstanding defenders of orthodoxy have been and are today men who have had the best o f educational advantages. . Scientists are Not Agreed When representatives of one particular school of scien tists assemble and issue a statement to the press that athe istic evolution is proven) and that the Bible is a collection of myths, hundreds of young people are carried off their feet because “ Science” has spoken. But,— what science? Sci ence is simply classified knowledge,— evidence that has been accumulated and made available in the human search for truth. Scientists are not agreed. Associations of sci entists are apt to be more interested in propagating their particular theories than in examining the evidence produced by other scientists of equal repute against them. The very fact that scientific textbooks differ so widely, and that all of them have to be discarded sooner or later, indi cates that it is possible for reputable scientists to draw con clusions from the evidence that prove entirely erroneous under the test of time. There is no reason to believe that the textbooks of today will be more enduring than those of the past. Truly Great Scientists are Modest The only truly great scientists are those who confess how little they know in view of the fact that what they are ignorant of is immense. The greatest of them is not, nor are all of them together, capable of grasping all the facts. Many a great thinker has come to the place where he has had to admit that he had acquired just enough knowledge to discover his own boundless ignorance. We need not then be scared by any self-asserted “ final scholarship.” Many a man who has bound his soul to mere scholarship has thrown away the key to happiness and heaven. Human knowledge is very often the parent of doubt, and doubt invariably leads to looseness and misery of life. Knowledge therefore may be the worst of folly unless it can somehow be directed along safe lines. We must have something more solid than the guesses of men. This leads us to the question: Can we have any sure knowl edge of eternal realities,:—of -God, the universe, the soul,
salvation, the future? Are we left to the conflicting opin ions of various schools of thought? Biblical Classification of Scholars The Bible divides all scholarship into two classes. First, n^fhere is the wisdom of this world, the product of the nat ural mind,, which ever tries to explain things apart from any revelation from God. Of this knowledge we have the following statements: It is^ transitory (1 Cor. 13:8). It exalts itself against the knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10:5; 1 Cor. 1:21). It often perverts morals (Isa. 47:10). It is foolishness with God (1-Con. 3:19), and God will bring it to naught (Isa. 29:14; 1 Cor. 1:19-20). Of its adherents, the Bible declares they are “ ever learn ing, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. 3:7). They, are wise in their own conceit (Prov. 26:12) ; unduly puffed up (1 Cor. 8 :1 ); glory in their wis dom (Jer. 9:23-24); declare that scholarship is all on their side (Jer. 8 : 8 ); becloud issues: by the use of many words (Job 38j2); utter knowledge that is vain (Job 15:2). Of their end, we are told that a day is coming when they will be utterly dismayed (Jer. 8:9) and the Lord will show their knowledge to have been mere silliness (Isa. 44:24-25). Human history surely abundantly corroborates these asser tions, for again and again the theories of the worldly wise have been exploded and they have been taken in their own craftiness (Job 5:13). The second class of thinkers are those who humbly con fess the limitations of the natural man, seek illumination from God, and find in His ¡Word a revelation of certain fundamental truths, through the acceptance of which they come to have an experimental knowledge of Him by the operation of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God, once possessing a man, begins to teach him what valuation to place upon knowledge derived from the world; how to interpret it and “ use it aright” (Prov. 15:2). This knowl edge has its beginning in the fear of the Lord (Prov. 1 :7), in acknowledging the utter foolishness of man’s guesses (1 Cor. 3:18) and in humbly asking wisdom from God (Jas. 1:5). The Divine Illumination The Bible tells us that the Spirit of God quickens the natural intellect to apprehend divine things which the mind of man unaided could not know (1 Cor. 2:7-12). The nat ural man, however complete in his natural faculties of mind, cannot receive the impulse and illumination of the Spirit, for this intelligence must be given from above. It cannot be evolved out of the natural intellect (1 Cor. 2:14). Jesus Christ spoke of the wisdom hidden from the wise but revealed to trusting babes (Matt. 11:25). This under standing is not held forth as a prize for scholars only, but for all who are lowly in heart. Reason demands the existence of a Supreme Being who is “ the God of all wisdom.” Reason calls upon us to seek from Him as the final source of perfect knowledge, such disclosures as He may be pleased to make. We have never known of a man who sought wisdom in this way who did not come sooner or later to accept the Scriptures as the divine (Continued on page 826)
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