·The Con~ict Between Modernism and the Old Faith in England By John Horsch, Author "Modern Religious Liberalism"
----URING a recent visit to Lon– don I have noticed with satis– faction that the "Fundamen– talists" of Great Britain are bestirring themselves and are organiz– ing for aggressive work. That there is great need for such work cannot for a moment be doubted. In the writings of British theologians there is plenty of evidence of liberalizing tendencies. Higher criticism and unbelief as con– cerns the fundamental doctrines of the faith are in evidence in theological in– stitutions. The Student Christian Movement of England (originally Stu– dent Volunteers) has fallen prey to Modernism, as appears clearly from the literature issued by this organization. We shall here give only one pertinent quotation from a book for students which has recently come from their press: "We may perhaps in some things be driven to modify or to ignore certain views of Christ, e. g. in his theological or scientific statements w here they seem to conflict with His spirit or 'vith in– vestigated facts." In other words, on no field whatever, not even that of theology, is J esus con– sidered an authority. The writer of the book just mentioned obviously be– lieves that his own opinions on points of theology are more trustworthy than the teaching of our Lord-that he knows more about certain points of the Christian religion than did Christ him– self. And yet this writer is nominally a believer in and follower of Christ; he ls a leader in the Students' Christian Movement. How is this possible? How did it all come about? It may not be sticking to our text very closely to at– tempt an answer, but we _shall offer a few words about it. As concerns the final authority in matters of faith, the higher critics first attacked the genuineness of the Old Testament Scriptures. It mattered not, they said, if the Old Testament was no longer accepted as God's word, so long as the New Testament was trustworthy. Some years later they defended the opinion that not the New Testament as
a whole but Christ's own words only were authoritative. The question of authority was shifted from the New Testament Scriptures to the sayings of Christ. The next position taken by the Modernists was that Christ was mis– taken on points of science and history, but no one must question His words in so far as they have to do with religious and theological questions. Jesus was considered the greatest religious genius and no other man could be compared , with him as a religious and theological · authority. Now Modernists tell us that Jesus was in error even in His theology which means that it is dangerous to fol– low His word in preference to that of modern unbelief. Is not this an illus– tration of the addage, "Give the devil the little finger and he will take your hand?" It might be supposed that a "modern– ized" church, proclaiming that every m~n is his own authority in matters of faith, would attract the masses. But in England the church is clearly losing its grip on the people, its former in· fl.uence and power. On every hand there is complaint of decreasing church attendance; there is evident lack of in· terest. Those who had hoped that the discarding or the fundamentals of the faith would bring about a regeneration of the church, now assert that the re· jection of the old faith has not gone far enough; a more radical type. of liberalism, they think, may yet brrng new life into the church. But is not Protestantism losing to the same de· gree as it is modernized? Is it not, bY ignoring and denying the fundamentals of the faith, signing, as it were its o~n death warrant. Is not Roman CathollC· ism, despite its unscriptural teachings, prospering though it refuses to be modernized? d The religious situation in Englanh is additional proof that a church wbic stands for liberty a lone and considers questions of faith and doctrine of sec· ondary importance has no strong apt· ' 1 ·n fac, peal for the masses. A churc 1, 1 h0 loses her religious character, If 8
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker