To One Disturbed About the Higher Criticism

Doubts and Doubters

I have your letter, telling me about your anxiety since hearing your sister’s recital of her experiences. I feel very sorry that she has turned away so completely from the faith that but a little while ago made her so happy, and inspired her to such earnest helpfulness and usefulness. I have written her very frankly that the things she alleges are without foundation. I know all about the battle that is going on in Germany, in England, and also in this country concerning the person and work of Christ, concerning the Bible, both the Old and the New Testament.

The only way to live happily and to keep our feet on the rock in these days of skepticism and doubt is to rest upon the great fundamental truths, leaving all the uncertainties and all the questions in the hands of God. For some years the Christian world has been having a very serious time. I do not know how much you know of this, but in Germany especially, and also in Great Britain, there has been a vast amount of doubting on many questions. It has been the effort of certain scholars to overturn a large part of the New Testament. The great facts of Christianity have been disputed. Men are denying the resurrection of Christ. Then many are denying the teaching in Matthew and Luke of the virgin birth. In this country the battle is on. Almost all the religious periodicals, especially the more advanced ones, are discussing these questions with a great deal of earnestness. I am not afraid of this chaotic condition of thought regarding Christianity. It is to be expected. The whole matter of Biblical criticism in the last twenty years has tended to unsettle the faith of many people. But I am sure that we are coming out of it all by

H4 Intimate Letters on Personal Problems

and by into what may be called a new Christianity — not new in its great facts, but new in its traditional beliefs.

The safest way, therefore, for you and your sister, and for all of us who are not able to enter into the discussions of the scholars concerning these vital questions, is to keep our faith strong and simple concerning the person of Christ himself, and to cling to him with unwavering attachment, leaving all matters of particular beliefs and doctrines to be settled by and by, as they will ultimately be settled without doubt. Even if something has to be given up, we need not be afraid. The vital thing is that Christ is the Son of God, that he came to be the Saviour of the world, that if we receive him as our personal Saviour, and rest on him, we never shall be disappointed. This is enough for us to cling to. So long as we hold this belief nothing can destroy our faith and confidence. I have always said to people regarding the things they could not understand, and also the things they could not quite believe, that they are not required either to understand or to believe these things in order to be saved. If they will simply follow Christ as Saviour, Master, Friend, all will be well, and these perplexing questions, these mysteries, these difficulties of interpretation and belief, may be left outside entirely. Some day we shall understand, some day we shall know. We can afford to wait.

Let me advise you simply to stay by the old faith which has meant so much to you in the past, which has carried you through your troubles and difficulties, through your sorrows and cares, giving you peace, and blessing you so wonderfully. I may not say a word against your sister’s experience. I have stood by her through all her previous changes of opinion, trying to help her from time to time. I cannot help her now — no one can; but I am quite satisfied to wait, for I know perfectly well that she is right at heart, arid that, when these new opinions of hers have been thoroughly tested by her, she will abandon them, as she has abandoned other things in the past. She will come back with childlike belief to Jesus Christ as her Master and Saviour.

My advice to her is simply in a word — to put her trust in the personal Christ, and never waver for a moment. I do not see how anyone can waver in his faith in Christ when one has once known him. I am in the habit of saying that Christ and I are friends. There is no other friend in all the world who has been so real to me these many years as he has been. We live together, my Master and I; we talk together, we work together. I could as much doubt the existence of my own wife as the existence of Jesus Christ. I have not the slightest doubt, either, about his divine character, his power, his place in the world. I have heard all these things that your sister has heard, over and over and over and over again, and they have never shaken my faith for a single moment in the great fundamental truths of Christianity. I am not afraid of the higher criticism. I am not afraid of its results. If there happen to be portions of certain books that higher criticism proves to have been written by some different author, or at some different time, than I have supposed, it does not trouble me in the least. The Bible itself is true — all good men acknowledge this, and no one denies it. The fight is chiefly over dates and chronologies and authorships. When higher criticism attacks Jesus Christ, I turn to the Second Psalm, which tells about men plotting against Jehovah, who sits in the heavens and laughs. Whatever is true and is proved to be true is part of God’s revelation, and belongs to God’s kingdom, and will stand forever. People’s wrong opinions about scientific matters may be changed by the advancing sciences, but that never affects the truth, I can remember that my father was terribly shocked when reading books on geology, when they said that this world was not made in six little days. He thought that this was all heresy of the worst kind, almost athe-Doubts and Doubters lij

ism. But we have found since that science is always the handmaiden of divine truth. We did not understand things as we understand them now.

But I must not go into the matter. I want merely to quiet you with the confidence I have in my own heart. Jesus Christ is your truest Friend, and you may trust everything in his hands. You need never be afraid of the vaporings of any modern critics. Christ says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Accept this truth and be at peace.