This is my paper for Church History class on the development of modern liberal theology and Arminian/ free will theology. It had to be written in a letter format, so I thought it would be neat, and fitting, to write it as a letter from B.B. Warfield, near his death, to Machen, regarding his concerns for Princeton, which was beginning to slip into liberalism around the time of his death in 1921.
REFORMATION
BIBLE COLLEGE
LETTER PAPER
PASSING OF THE
TORCH
CHURCH HISTORY
BY
THOMAS BOOHER
SANFORD, FLORIDA
APRIL, 2012
My dear friend and colleague,
There
is a churning in the pit of my stomach. My bones grow weak, and as I approach
seventy years of age, I cannot help but wonder with fear and trepidation what
the next seventy will hold. I write this letter as a passing of the torch from
me to you. Read carefully and take to heart what I have to say, and if the Lord
wills, you may be able to turn the tide and preserve reformed orthodoxy even at
this dark hour. The state of the church is declining, and has been for quite
some time, as you well know. Liberalism has a tendency to spew its deadly poison
through the hearts of unregenerate men, and the devil is propagating its
message widely and effectively. The 19th century brought great
upheaval and theological activity, and from my vantage point here in the early
20th century, I cannot say that it has resulted in much good.[1]
The great awakenings,
especially the second as it reached the less educated and filtered out west to
the frontiersman, have produced an emotionalism and individualism within the
hearts of Christians that tend toward compromise and devaluing of sound
thinking and true doctrine.[2]
Jonathan Edward’s own grandson, along with others, softened the Calvinist
theology of our Puritan forbears.[3]
This has produced a trickle-down effect that has turned Harvard and Yale to
liberalism.[4] Now
I fear, dear professor, for Princeton. I believe it is on the brink of following
that same seductive harlot toward rebellion against the great truths of God
revealed in His inerrant, inspired Word.[5]
Princeton’s motto from its inception has been, “piety of the heart and solid
learning.” When our first professor, Archibald Alexander, was inaugurated,
Samuel Miller said:
We have more reason to rejoice, and to
felicitate one another on the establishment of this seminary, than on the
achievement of a great national victory, or on making a splendid addition to
our national territory. It is the beginning, as we trust, of an extensive and
permanent system, from which blessings may flow to millions, while we are
sleeping in the dust.[6]
I have struggled
mightily during my tenure here at Princeton to make good Miller’s hope, but once
we have lost faith in an inspired Bible, we do not have anything on which to
hang our hats, we have no higher authority, and Princeton is on the brink of
crossing this point of no return.
Many liberal
scholars have searched, though in vain, for the historical Jesus, reducing our
Savior to nothing more than a great man who claimed to be a prophet.[7]
Likewise, source critics have sought to further undermine the inspiration,
reliability, and consistency of Scripture with their piecemeal documentary
hypothesis.[8] It
remains to be seen what legs Darwin’s theory of evolution may grow, and how the
liberals may use it to shred orthodoxy. Such have been the virulent nature of
the attacks against the Christian faith and God’s Word in the last century up
to our present time.
Then there is that
Charles Grandison Finney, who epitomizes the revivalist, emotionalist leaven
that is sickening our nation. Indeed, many of his followers in the last half
century have fallen into full-blown apostasy. The despicable heresy of sinless
perfectionism is prevalent among them, along with Socinianism and simple
moralism.[9]
Finney denied original sin, and fed the masses with the lie that they had
enough goodness in themselves to desire God and produce saving faith. The man
practically reduced the cross of Christ to nothing but a wonderful moral
example to follow, an encouragement rather than atonement![10]
As I have shown in one of my own books, Finney himself admits to producing
false converts by the droves:
I
was often instrumental in bringing Christians under great conviction, and into
a state of temporary repentance and faith . . . . [But] falling short of urging
them up to a point, where they would become so acquainted with Christ as to
abide in Him, they would of course soon relapse into their former state.[11]
This
simple appeal to the will and playing on the emotions can never replace real
conviction, and real salvific conviction only comes when the Holy Spirit moves
through the proclamation of the gospel. Finney, along with many others, has
abandoned the true gospel, blunting the sharp point of the Sword with
sentimentality and/or do it yourself bootstrap theology. In New England, there
is the burnt over district, again thanks largely to Finney. His mass hysteria
and whipping people into a frenzy has produced little to no lasting results,
evoking a highly skeptical, calloused response within the hearts of the people,
and I do not half blame them.[12]
Finney himself saw problems with his evangelism, which is in part why he gave
it up to try his hand at pastoring, then developing his doctrine of
perfectionism.[13] Yet,
others follow in his footsteps and continue to try and propagate his insidious evangelistic
methods. It is with much chagrin that I acknowledge he started out and was
actually ordained as a Presbyterian minister, claiming to adhere to the
Westminster Confession of Faith.[14]
That fact will be a blight against our denomination for quite some time.
Strange
as it may sound, God has used the World War to expose liberalism’s lies and the
futility of its optimism about the human condition.[15]
It is a shame it took something as horrid as a world war with millions of lives
lost to repaint the liberal’s fairytale into the tragedy that our world and
condition really is. God may have used this destruction to uproot the tares and
fertilize the soil. Perhaps now, after so much pain, while human depravity is imprinted
so blackly on people’s conscience, the masses will be open to hearing the good
news of a Savior from sin. Perhaps there is a ray of light, perhaps the tide is
turning, and a passageway has been opened that can stem the threats of
liberalism and free will theology, and a robust, biblical, evangelistic
Calvinism can make headway once again.
But
that task is left to you, and those who remain faithful at Princeton, dear
Machen. I am frail, but a shadow of my former self. Soon the Lord will be
taking me home, this dark night of my soul will at last be at peace, the joy of
the Lord will be upon me in full, and I will understand God’s purpose in our
present predicament, and give Him the glory for it.
May
the Lord grant you strength and courage to do all His holy will,
B.B. Warfield
New
Words Used
All definitions are from www.merriam-webster.com
1.) Trepidation:
a nervous or fearful feeling of uncertain agitation; apprehension
2.) Forbears:
Ancestor, Forefather
3.) Trickle-down:
relating to or being an effect caused gradually by remote or indirect
influences
4.) Piecemeal:
done, made, or accomplished piece by piece or in a fragmentary way
5.) Virulent:
marked by a rapid, severe, and destructive course
[1] Justo
L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Present
Day, Prince Press ed ed. (Oxford: Prince Press, 1999), 293
[2] Ibid.,
245
[3] Professor
Adamson, “The 19th Century Church and Theology in America” (lecture, Reformation
Bible College, Sanford, FL, April 26, 2012).
[4]
Ibid.
[5] Michael
Horton, “The Truthfulness of Scripture,” Modern Reformation,
March/April 2010, 26-29http://www.modernreformation.org/default.php?page=articledisplay&var1=ArtRead&var2=1126&var3=main (accessed
April 26, 2012).
[6] Professor
Adamson, “The 19th Century Church and Theology in America” (lecture,
Reformation Bible College, Sanford, FL, April 26, 2012).
[7] Justo
L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Present
Day, Prince Press ed ed. (Oxford: Prince Press, 1999), 292
[8] Professor
Adamson, “20th Century Protestantism (Christianity and Liberalism)” (lecture,
Reformation Bible College, Sanford, FL, April 26, 2012).
[9] Phil
Johnson, “A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing,” Spurgeon Archive, http://www.spurgeon.org/...phil/articles/finney.htm(accessed
April 26, 2012).
[10]
Ibid.
[11]
Ibid.
[12]
Ibid.
[13]
Ibid.
[14] Phil
Johnson, “A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing,” Spurgeon Archive, http://www.spurgeon.org/...phil/articles/finney.htm(accessed
April 26, 2012).
[15] Professor
Adamson, “20th Century Protestantism (Christianity and Liberalism)” (lecture,
Reformation Bible College, Sanford, FL, April 26, 2012).
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