A History of Christian Doctrine #3 - Online Christian Library

A History of Christian Doctrine
Associated with Liberalism was higher criticism of
the Bible, in which scholars studied the Bible as they did
uninspired literature. 196 They analyzed the total historical
situation of the biblical books, including dating, verification
and writing of history (historical criticism). They also
studied the structure and style of the books (literary criticism)
and the literary sources and composition of the
books (source criticism). Some of them investigated the
presumed process by which oral tradition moved from
stage to stage, became modified, and was finally incorporated
in Scripture (tradition criticism).
While some study of this sort is necessary for a full
understanding of the biblical text, and while these methods
did yield some positive, productive results, many
scholars employed them in a way that undermined the
Bible’s message. They typically denied the miracles of the
Bible, questioned the accuracy of biblical accounts, and
disagreed with what the Bible said about itself. This type
of destructive criticism of Scripture developed in the
nineteenth century in Germany with F. C. Baur, David
Strauss, Julius Wellhausen, and the Tübingen school, but
it came to full fruition in the twentieth century.
In the view of conservative Christians then and now,
Liberalism actually cut the heart out of Christianity. It
undermined or destroyed essential biblical doctrines such
as the deity of Jesus Christ, the Atonement, justification
by faith in Jesus Christ, and the new birth. Nevertheless,
to a greater or lesser extent, its ideas became predominant
in mainstream European and American Protestantism.
Liberalism provoked a sharp counterattack from people
who accepted the Bible as the infallible, inerrant
170