Today and Tomorrow

 Maybe Erasmus (circa 1530s) is to blame as the one to first study the Bible in the light of history.  Or maybe St. Augustine. But by the late 1700s that approach to the Bible was beginning to catch on among scholars.

I first heard of it in the 1950s, and by then higher criticism was regarded by many Bible scholars and teachers of the Fundamentalist variety as a bane to what was by then described as lower criticism, the study of the Bible relying solely upon the text. Today, sixty some years later higher criticism has become the primary approach to the Bible by many scholars – who now call themselves “critical scholars” and has been expanded and compartmentalized into textual criticism, form criticism, redaction criticism, source criticism, literary criticism, and historical criticism, et al.

In the 1800s higher critics were particularly interested in searching history and the biblical texts for the “historical Jesus.”  Books and professional papers were written. Conferences were convened to focus upon one small topic, such as the synoptic problem or the redaction (editing) of the biblical text after the exile of the Jews in Babylon.

But it did not stop in the studies of scholars. In one form or another higher criticism changed the landscape for Christians and the church. It caused Christian scholars as well as Christians in the pews to look at the Bible differently. It became for many more a text to be studied rather than a text to be believed and embraced. Jesus, who has long been the topic of these critical approaches, became merely a man of the past, if he was a man at all, and not the Lord to be followed. And the Bible became of intellectual interest but not life transforming truth. Today the best known of these biblical scholars do not even claim to be Christians.

In this new world, pastors often become fixed on a historical critical approach to the Bible. They, like myself, were trained in the historical-grammatical method of biblical interpretation (exegesis), and Bible study and preaching became focused on the background history of the biblical narratives rather than on the God above them and who is revealed in them.

Sometimes personal devotional reading of the Bible was pushed out of their lives by the intellectual interests, and they became more and more detached from the Lord.

That is not to say the critical approaches to the Bible are not worthwhile. It is simply to say they do not feed the soul, and our lives can become spiritually starved if we feed only upon them. And we who preach and teach can starve our congregations if we feed them historical critical lunches rather than truth that is spiritually nourishing. Or if we feed them interesting facts in place of truth that leads to worship.

We, in fact, we seem to have left that aspect of our life as believers to the “worship team.” They lead in songs that are often worshipful – thank the Lord – but are limited by the style now in vogue of one truth repeated and repeated and repeated. True as that repeated phrase may be, it is not enough to sink our teeth into and our hearts around. What we need is biblical teaching that leads us to worship our awesome God and hymns that develop fully the truth about the God we worship.

As I have been writing this essay, my mind has strolled with Jesus over the hills of Galilee and through the streets of Jerusalem. I watched and listened. And I found little attention given to history. What I saw and heard was God revealed and demonstrated. I saw Jesus grow in the minds and hearts of people to the point they place their faith in  him as the Messiah and, in some way they can’t quite express, as God in the flesh. They fell on their knees in worship.

John was so deeply impressed by Jesus and by God whom John saw in him that he wrote his Gospel years later a prologue that explored that God-man connection so eloquently and so penetratingly that I today am moved to wonder and worship.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. 2 The Word was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. 5 And the light shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it.

Those moments when we dwell upon our incredible God are  increasingly rare in our experience at church. It is an indication of how significantly higher criticism has dumbed down our faith.  I long for the days of Charles Wesley and the truths he expressed in the songs he wrote:  

1 O for a thousand tongues to sing
my great Redeemer's praise,
the glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of his grace!

2 My gracious Master and my God,
assist me to proclaim,
to spread thro' all the earth abroad
the honors of your name.

3 Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
that bids our sorrows cease,
'tis music in the sinner's ears,
'tis life and health and peace.

4 He breaks the power of cancelled sin,
he sets the prisoner free;
his blood can make the foulest clean;
his blood availed for me.

5 To God all glory, praise, and love
be now and ever given
by saints below and saints above,
the Church in earth and heaven.

Congregational singing

These satisfy my heart.