The Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy of the 1920s

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Article #389

by Bill Nugent

The 1920s was a time of great drama and division in the United States and in many other nations around the world. In the US it was during prohibition which was the epitome of moral reform in which alcohol was banned. The country was seriously divided over prohibition and other issues. 

The most important issue that divided the nation was the fundamentalist versus modernist controversy.

Higher Criticism, Liberalism, Modernism

Early America was largely Bible believing, Evangelical Protestant.

However in the middle of the 19th century there arose higher criticism of the scriptures in Germany. Higher criticism is different from the traditional lower criticism of the Bible.

In lower criticism, the text of the scriptures are criticized mainly for minor spelling errors that entered the text as the manuscripts were copied over the centuries. Small spelling errors and other minor glosses crept in. There was also some dispute over authorship of some of the books of the Old and New Testaments. 

Higher criticism is different because it challenges and ultimately rejects the divine inspiration of the Bible. Higher criticism alleges that the Bible was of human origin. Higher critics believe the Bible simply reflects the story-telling of ancient Semitic culture. There was pushback against higher criticism in Britain and the United states. 

It’s interesting that higher criticism had its origin in Germany and the fundamentalist position had its main base in Britain. Just look at the course of those two Nations over the next 100 years after the mid-19th century. Germany lapsed into fascist government, militarism and genocide. Britain, by contrast, stood up to defend Christian civilization during World War II. 

In the 19th century, up until world war I, higher criticism was largely confined to academic people in the seminaries and universities. After world war I it exploded onto the scene in a very dramatic way and affected millions of churchgoers in Britain and the United states. Higher criticism is also called modernism and liberal theology

Evolution

Another movement that paralleled higher criticism and gave support to higher criticism was the theory of evolution. Evolution was also taught mainly in the universities among the elite who were able to send their children to college. In the 1880s only about 4% of American students went to high school and even fewer than that went on to college.

Wellhausen and Fosdick

Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918) was a major architect of higher criticism in Germany. He was essentially an unbeliever in the Bible. Wellhausen regarded the Bible as a collection of mere myths. 

Higher criticism crossed the Atlantic and came to America. It was promoted most notably in the US by the famous modernist preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969).

Fosdick was pastor of New York City’s First Presbyterian Church. He was forced to resign because of his higher criticism which is essentially unbelief. He was also a professor at Union Theological Seminary. After he left New York First Presbyterian he went on to start the famous Riverside Church in New York City. 

Modernist churches based their teaching, lifestyle and ministry in accordance with their view of the Bible as a book of myths. Isn’t it absurd to live by myths? If you really believe the Bible is a book of myths why don’t you just close your church and do something else on Sunday mornings? 

However, I think there’s something of a spark of conscience in the depths of the souls of the theologically liberal, higher critics. They still cling to Christ in a superficial way in spite of all their higher critical dismissal of the Bible. 

C.S. Lewis regarded liberal theology as absurd. In a discussion with a liberal theologian he told  the man that he should get a secular job because he didn’t have anything real to share as a minister.

In the United States, two champions of the fundamentals of the Christian faith were Charles Hodge and Benjamin Warfield of Princeton University. They stood boldly in defense of the Christian faith. Their teachings became known as the Princeton Theology

The Fundamentals

The doctrines of the fundamentalists were clarified and crystallized with the publication of a series of 12 pamphlets titled The Fundamentals published between 1910 and 1915.

The pamphlets were edited by A.C. Dixon and R.A. Torrey.

Two California oil millionaires named Lyman Stewart and Milton Stewart financed the distribution of the pamphlets to over a quarter of a million ministers and lay people.

The five points of fundamentalism that were taught in the pamphlets were:

1) The inerrancy of the Bible

2) The deity and virgin birth of Jesus

3) The substitutionary atonement of Jesus

4) The physical resurrection of Jesus

5) The bodily return of Jesus Christ to Earth.

Widespread Public Controversy

The controversy raged on and spilled out of the seminaries and universities into the popular culture and news media in the early 1920s.

The climax of the controversy was the famous monkey Scopes trial in Dayton Tennessee in July 1925. It was high drama in a courtroom that captivated the nation. News reporters swarmed the courtroom. Exhaustive details were splashed across the US in newspapers and even on that new medium called radio. Fundamentalists were derided as low class ignorant people.

Scopes taught evolution in a high school classroom in violation of the law. He was put on trial and ultimately convicted and fined $100. 

The trial pitted William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925), a famous orator and three time presidential candidate (Democrat: 1896, 1900 and 1908), who aided the prosecution against famous lawyer Clarence Darrow who led the defense of Scopes.

Darrow tried to offer proof for evolution by fossil evidence. Much of the evidence for evolution presented by Darrow had to do with descriptions of fossils of alleged human ancestor ape-men.

I’ve written several Defending the Faith articles about alleged ape-to-human evolution. Creationist paleontologists have shown that all of the fossil skeletons of alleged ape-men are either fully ape or fully human. For example, Neanderthal is fully human. The famous fossil skeleton called “Lucy” is fully ape. The evolutionist denial of the historicity of the book of Genesis is at the heart of modernist theology.

Many of the reporters were evolutionists and were convinced that humans descended from apes. The popular media, including the famous H.L. Mencken, attacked Bryan and the fundamentalists mercilessly.

In the decades that followed, the modernists largely took over the seminaries in the mainline denominations. Modernist pastors taught their people that the Bible is not divine revelation. The liberal denominations such as The Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church USA, Evangelical Lutheran Church, United Methodist Church and the United Church of Christ lost so many people since the 1920s it’s no longer appropriate to call them “mainline.”.

The fundamentalists went on to found Bible institutes. Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and Bible institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA) are two well-known Conservative Christian Bible institutes. Hillsdale College in Michigan, Wheaton College in Illinois, Bob Jones University in Tennessee, Liberty University in Virginia and MorningStar University in South Carolina are conservative Christian universities that are thriving. The fundamentalists went on to win many souls to Christ. Fundamentalists now prefer to be called Evangelicals.

A Choice Between Two Paths 

There are several times in church history where two clear paths are presented to the people. In the first century it was Jesus or the Pharisees. In the time of the Protestant Reformation it was Luther or Erasmus. In the 1920s it was a choice between  fundamentalism which embraces the divine inspiration of the Bible and modernism which rejects the Bible. 

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants” (Deuteronomy 30 19 NASB).

“Choose you this day whom ye will serve . . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15).

The Holy Bible is Wholly True

 God has given us many assurances that His book, the Holy Bible is completely true. The Bible contains hundreds of prophecies that were written in its pages and have been fulfilled down through history. Jesus Christ came in fulfillment of hundreds of Messianic prophecies which were written in the Old Testament hundreds of years before He was born. 

The Old Testament prophets foretold that Christ, the Messiah of Israel, would suffer and die for the sins of the people. “All of us like sheep have gone astray; Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him” (Isaiah 53:6 NASB written over 700 years before Christ).

The Bible is also vindicated by archaeology. The Bible mentions many places and nations. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of places and artifacts that confirm the accuracy the Bible.

God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. God has provided for forgiveness of your sins through Jesus Christ who took the penalty of our sins upon Himself. Christ was sinless but He suffered and died for our sins. Christ was raised from the dead to offer forgiveness of sins to all who repent and call upon Him for salvation.

I invite you to turn to Christ today to receive forgiveness of sins. 

Steps to salvation:

Jesus said “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).

  • 1) Believe that God created you and loves you and sent the Messiah (Messiah is Hebrew for Christ) to redeem you.
  • 2) Believe that Jesus Christ came in fulfillment of over 300 Bible prophecies to die for you, to take upon Himself the penalty of your sins (Isaiah 53:5-6, John 6:29, Romans 4:5, First Peter 3:18).
  • 3) Turn from sin and call on the name of Jesus to receive forgiveness of sins (Romans 10:13).
  • 4) Receive Jesus as Savior and experience the new birth (John 1:12, Acts 2:38).
  • 5) Follow Jesus Christ as Lord (John 14:21).

Prayer to receive salvation:

“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer:

“Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner. I repent of my sins and I ask for your forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen.”

If you prayed this prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!



(C) 2016 William P. Nugent, permission granted to email or republish for Christian outreach.

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