CHAPTER XVII. THE RELATION OF BIBLICAL CRITICISM TO THE CHRIS TIAN FAITH. THE critical discussions which are rife in our times respecting the Bible, the authorship of its various books, and the historical value and doctrinal authority of their contents, make it important to consider the bearing of these inquiries and debates on the Christian Faith. What is the relation of the collection of writings which we call the Bible to the religion of Christ? How far is any particular doctrine on the subject of the Scriptures essential to a theoretical or to a practical reception of the gospel in its real import and just efficacy? Do the results of critical science imperil, or are they likely to imperil, the foundations on which Christianity, viewed as an experience of the soul, or as a body of beliefs concerning God and man, the life that now is, and the world hereafter, reposes? So much is clear at the outset, that our knowledge of the historical and doctrinal parts of Christianity is derived almost exclusively from the Bible. The same is true of our knowledge of the origin and growth of that entire religious system which is consummated in the work and teaching of Christ and of the apostles. It is not less plain, that the nutriment of Christian piety is derived chiefly from the pages of Sacred Scripture. The instrumentalities of human teaching, the activities of the Church in building up Christian character, and the rest of the manifold agencies through which the power of religion is kept alive in the individual and in society, draw their vitality from the Bible. The habit of resorting to the Bible for spiritual quickening and guidance is the indispensable condition of religious life among Christians. The practical proof of the inspiration of Holy Scripture-in some sense, which avails to distinguish this volume from all other books known to men-is found in this life-giving power that abides in it, and remains undiminished, from age to age, in all the mutations of literature, and amid the diverse types and advancing stages of culture and civilization. The general proposition, that the Bible is at once the fountain of spiritual light and life, the prime source of religious knowledge, and the rule of faith and of conduct among Christians, admits of no contradiction. But this general theorem does not cut off those special problems and distinctions which, with a view to precise definition and qualification, constitute biblical criticism, as that branch of study is now understood. The traditional views which were handed down from the Church of the fourth century, through the middle ages, uncritical to some extent as those views were in their inception, could not possibly shun the scrutiny of a more searching and scientific era of human development. The liberty of thought which the Reformation brought in was attended at the outset with a more discriminating and a more free handling of questions pertaining to the origin and character of the books of Scripture, as the example of Luther notably evinces. The separation of the Old Testament apocrypha from the canon was one result of this more bold and enlightened spirit of inquiry. The exigencies of controversy with the Roman Catholics begot, among Protestants of the next age, a more scrupulously conservative method of enunciating the doctrine respecting the inspiration of biblical books than the pioneers in the Protestant movement had adopted. The maxim, that "the Bible is the religion of Protestants," in opposition to the Tridentine principle of church authority, was so construed as to lay fetters upon the critical spirit among the Protestant theologians of the seventeenth century. More and more the rise of the scientific spirit- the spirit which pursues truth alone as its goal, casting aside every bias as tending to blind the eye, and sifting evidence with an unsparing rigor could not fail to affect this department of knowledge. More and more this spirit of candid, and exhaustive and fearless investigation, which is the legitimate child of the Protestant movement, insisted upon testing the prevalent impressions concerning the Bible and its various parts, by the strict rules that govern investigation in every other province. Literary criticism, which concerns itself with the authorship and date of the several books, with their real or alleged discrepancies, and with the correctness of the received text; natural and physical science, exploring the origin of the earth and of its inhabitants, and of the starry spheres above; historical and archæological study, exhuming relics of the past, and deciphering monuments of bygone ages, these branches of knowledge bring, each of them, conclusions of its own to be placed in juxtaposition and comparison with the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. Biblical criticism was something inevitable. It sprang up within the pale of the Church. Its most valuable contributions have been made by Christian scholars. It is true that disbelievers in the divine mission of Jesus, and even in the supernatural altogether, have sometimes devoted themselves to these inquiries. It is a blunder and an injustice, however, on the part of Christians, and a false boast on the part of their adversaries, when, on either side, it is affirmed that biblical criticism, and the certified results of it, are principally due to efforts springing up outside of the Church, among opposers of supernatural religion. Enough has been said respecting the exalted function of Scripture to preclude misapprehension when we proceed to remark that the Bible is one thing, and Christianity is another. The religion of Christ, in the right signification of these terms, is not to be confounded with the scriptures, even of the New Testament. The point of view from which the Bible, in its relation to Christianity, is looked on as the Koran appears to devout Mohammedans, is a mistaken one. The entire conception according to which the energies of the Divine Being, as exerted in the Christian revelation, are thought to have been concentrated on the production of a book, is a misconception, and one that is prolific of error. 1. The revelation of God which culminates in the gospel, so far from being a naked communication let down from the skies, is in and through a process of redemption. Redemption is an effect wrought in the souls of men and in human society. Christianity is a new spiritual creation in humanity. The product is "new creatures in Christ Jesus," a moral transformation of mankind. Jesus said to his disciples, “Ye are the light of the world. . . ye are the salt of the earth." From them was to go forth an illuminating, renovating power. Seeing their good works, attracted by their spirit, other men were to be brought to the Father. The brotherhood of Christian believers was the dwelling-place in which the living God made his abode: they wele his "house," as the temple was his house under the former dispensation.1 They are expressly declared to be the "temple" of God, in which his Spirit abides.2 The "pillar and ground of the truth"-that which upholds the truth in the world, and is like a foundation underneath it—is the Church. It is not said to be books which had been written, or which were to be written, but the community of faithful souls. A society had been brought into being, a people of God, with an open eye to discern spiritual things. A vinestock had been planted, the branches of which, if they did not dissever themselves, would bear fruit. - 2. Revelation is historical: the means of revelation are primarily the dealings of God with men. The revelation of God to the Hebrew people was made through the providential guidance and government which determined the course of their history. When the sacred writers as the authors of the Psalms, or inspired orators like the protomartyr Stephen-speak of divine revelation, they recount the ways in which God has led his people, the separation of Abraham, the disclosure of God in the history of the patriarchs who followed him, the manifestation of God in the deliverance from bondage in Egypt by the hand of Moses, in the leading of Israel through the wilderness, in the conquest of the land which they inhabited, in the various instances of national prosperity and national disaster which followed. Events had been so arranged, signal rewards had been so made to alternate with signal chastisements, that God was more and more brought home to their minds and hearts in his true character. The nations generally valued their divinities for the protection and help which 1 Heb. iii. 2, 5, x. 21; 1 Pet. iv. 17, cf. Ephes. ii. 22 |
