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May 1925
TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
T h e Limitations of Scholarship By Rev. David R. greed, D.D., LL.D . Professor of Homiletics in Western Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
We know The King’s Business Family will greatly appreciate Dr. Breed’s permission to publish this article, which appeared first in “The Presbyterian” and is now being distributed in tract form. Dr. Breed has been for many years an outstanding teacher and defender of the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God and has been a per sonal friend of the editor since the time, many years ago, when he placed his hands upon his head and ordained him to the ministry in the House of Hope Presbyterian Church, St. Paul, Minn.
books, research, investigation, and the like, • and that of experience, intuition, meditation and converse with the divine. So, then, those whose text-hook scholarship is deficient may often confidently say, “I know.#. Unbelieving scholar ship may attempt to convince them that they do not know and persuade them to recant, as it did with the man born blind, hut the believer will continue to answer as did the blind man, “One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.” II. Note again, that a certain so-called scholarship, instead of discovering and promoting truth, often prevents its dis covery and stands in the way of its promotion. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” So the apostle explains the loss of the knowledge of God. Again he says: “We speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, . . . which none of the rulers of this world hath known, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.” .... Jesus was grateful that his disciples had not the wisdom on which their rulers prided themselves. He thanked His Father for this. “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding and didst reveal them unto babes.” Note the same distinction that St. Paul made. “These things,” of which Jesus spake, were not taught his disciples, hut were “revealed” to them. I have heard it maintained that “heretics” deserve our sympathy rather than our condemnation, because they are generally “seekers after truth.” But the Bible does not say so. Indeed, it says, the very reverse. No doubt some who have been led astray and who may be called “heretics” are honestly seeking the truth. But the great majority of such are seeking rather to evade the truth, particularly that truth which condemns them as sinners, with no hope but in the blood of the Crucified. Paul says of the heathen world that “they refused to have God in their knowledge,” and that they “became vain in their reasonings and their senseless heart was darkened.” The whole trend of Scripture is in the same line. Infidelity is first of all willful perversity. We cannot expect, therefore, that such scholarship will do anything to help the cause of truth. It never has. It does not wish to do so. It desires rather to establish the truth of the unproven and erroneous. Paul says, “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie.” Yet I have heard it said that if evolution is ever shown to be false, it will not be by preachers and Sabbath-school teachers, but by evolutionists themselves. Perhaps this is true, so far as the evolutionists themselves are concerned. But meanwhile, there will be some devout evolutionists who will be concerned for the faith, and meanwhile many preachers and Sabbath-school teacher^ and others, who are (Continued on page 235)
THE LIMITATIONS OF SCHOLARSHIP WRITE this article for the sake of certain timid Christians who are well aware of the fact that they have little scholarship of their own and are con sequently quite apprehensive with regard to the outcome of the scholarship of others. They are alarmed at what appears to be the trend of religious thought at the present time, and fear lest the foundations of their Chris tian faith be shaken. I would attempt to quiet their alarms. Before proceeding, let me make this introductory remark: Scholarship is of two kinds, .constructive and destructive. Christianity owes much to constructive scholar ship. Its service of recent years has been great and con spicuous, and nothing which appears in this article is intended to belittle it or disparage it. Neither is it intended to reflect upon scholarship which is pursued for its own sake— the simple advancement of learning in various fields of thought. I. Let this be carefully noted to begin with, that scholarship never discovered any great spiritual truth, accompanying salvation, least of all any of the fundamental truths of the Christian system. There were many profound thinkers in classic and other lands, who gave careful and prolonged thought to religious subjects, but apart from the knowledge which they derived from fhe Scriptures, they remained in great uncertainty regarding spiritual truth. “The world through its wisdom knew not God.” Whatever may be one’s notion concerning the divine inspiration of the Bible, it- remains that all we hold of religious conviction that is worth holding is derived from it. And if we were today to be deprived of the Bible and our knowledge of its contents were to be forgotten, scholarship would be absolutely impotent to restore it, and satisfy the hunger of our souls. The Apostle Paul himself was a great scholar, hut he tes tified concerning the gospel which he preached, “That it is not after man, for neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, hut it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.” Such being the case, it is not possible for scholarship to discredit any revealed truth except to those who do not themselves embrace it. Those who have embraced it will continue to retain it, because it is received and retained by the soul in just the same manner as in the case of the Apostle Paul, though the miraculous element be lacking. It is the product of experience— a real, deep, convincing experience, promoted by the supernatural, and it cannot he set aside, therefore, by any process of reasoning whatsoever. Those who have enjoyed such an experience have a knowledge of the truth beyond all that scholarship can con vey to them and which scholarship cannot dislodge. And it is genuine knowledge. Yes, I may even say genuine scholar ship, for scholarship - is of two kinds, that' of learning—-
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