110
The Fundamentals question here of having one without the other, that is, having faith without reason, for that is impossible. The question is, which is supreme? For some time I thought one could hold these views of the Old Testament and still retain his faith in evangelical Christianity. I found, however, that this could be done only by holding my philosophy in check and within certain limits. I t could not be rigorously applied to all things. Two supreme things could not exist in the mind at the same time. If my theories were supreme, then I was following human reason, not faith, and was a rationalist to that extent. I f the presuppositions of my religious faith were supreme and in accordance with the Biblical presuppositions and beliefs, then my philosophy must be held in abeyance. The funda mentals of our religious faith, as known in the Bible and his tory, are a belief in divine revelation, the miraculous birth, the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the God-Man. Insepa rable from these there is also the fact of a supernatural power in regeneration. The philosophy of the critics cannot consist ently make room for these. Thus the real question becomes one of authority, viz.: shall the scientific hypothesis be supreme in my thinking, or the presuppositions of the Chris tian faith? If I make my philosophical viewpoint supreme, then I am compelled to construe the Bible and Christianity through my theory and everything which may not fit into that theory must be rejected. This is the actual standpoint of the critic. His is a philosophical rather than a religious spirit. Such was Gnosticism in the early centuries. I t construed Christ and Christianity through the categories of a Graeco- Oriental philosophy and thus was compelled to reject some of the essentials of Christianity. Such was the Scholasticism of the Middle Ages, which construed Christianity through the categories of the Aristotelian Logic and the Neo-platonic Phi losophy. Such is the Higher Criticism which construes every thing through the hypothesis of evolution. The spirit of the movement is thus essentially scholastic and rationalistic.
y w
1 1 <»
4
►
-4
'
I |t*
I l> «*
►
» »
% >
*Sfr
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker