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The Fundamentals. modified from time to time during the last century, it remains substantially the “critical” view of the Pentateuch. But it is open to two main objections, either of which would be fatal. It is inconsistent with the evidence. And it directly challenges the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ as a teacher; for one of the few undisputed facts in this controversy is that our Lord accredited the books of Moses as having divine authority. THE TRUE AND THE COUNTERFEIT. It may be well to deal first with the least important of these objections. And here we must distinguish between the true Higher Criticism and its counterfeit. The rationalistic “Higher Criticism,”,when putting the Pentateuch upon its trial, began with the verdict and then cast about to find the evidence; whereas, true criticism enters upon its inquiries with an open mind and pursues them without prejudice. The difference may be aptly illustrated by the position assumed by a typical French judge and by an ideal English judge in a criminal trial. The one aims at convicting the accused, the other at elucidating the truth. “The proper function of the Higher Criticism is to determine the origin, date, ,and literary structure of an an cient writing.” This is Professor Driver’s description of true criticism. But the aim of the counterfeit is to disprove the genuineness of the ancient writings. The justice of this state ment is established by the fact that Hebraists and theologians of the highest eminence,, whose investigation of the Penta teuch problem has convinced them of the genuineness of the books, are not recognized at all. In Britain, at least—and I am not competent to speak of Germany or America—no theologian of the first rank has adopted their “assured results.” But the judgment of such men as Pusey, Lightfoot and Salmon, not to speak of men who are still with us, they contemptuously ignore; for the ration alistic Higher Critic is not one who investigates the evidence, but one who accepts the verdict.
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