The theme for this open house day of the Theological University is “the Bible today.” There are good reasons for the selection of that theme. God’s Word today cannot at all be different from what it was before. Yet in the minds of many people the Bible today is not what it used to be. With respect to the acceptance of the Bible, an enormous change has taken place. In the minds of most people in the past, reference to the Bible was the same thing as reference to God’s Word. Presently a deep rift is perceived between those two. That which for centuries was accepted as Holy Scriptures has during the last century and a half become more and more regarded as an accumulation of human writings with varying backgrounds. Most people find their reason for this view in the so-called outcome of modern biblical scholarship.

The Bible exchanged for modern biblical scholarship⤒🔗

For many, the appeal to this modern scholarship seems justified. From the middle of the eighteenth century more and more biblical scholars began to consider the Scriptures to be human writings to which no special authority can be attributed. We could say that it was a “majority vote,” which downgraded the Bible to an ordinary book of religious people of an earlier era.

It began with the work of Semler in the eighteenth century. He began to treat the canon as if it were the result of human decisions. According to him the books of the Bible are not together because they are of the same nature, prophetic and inspired writings of the holy men of God. Rather, they were more or less accidentally rounded up, because the church of the third and fourth century had, through a process of selection, sorted those out that were most compatible with its theology and doctrine. Therefore it would be the task of the scholars to establish which of those documents in that ecclesiastical collection would presently still have meaning for the life of faith.

Thus the import of the Bible shifted. No longer was the Bible the highest authority over the people. Instead the people appointed themselves ruling authority over this book.

During the ensuing century things moved like an avalanche. One book after the other was moved out of the way. Why?

• Because it was put together from older sources, and thus not original.
• Because it represented only the views held within a certain movement in Israel or in the ancient church.
• Because it had erroneously been attributed to Isaiah or Paul. The more radical biblical scholars often had no books left at all which could have any religious authority.

As is often the case, some moderation set in. Most people in the twentieth century took up a position in the middle ground. Many claim that some elements of the Bible books are authentic and retain the initial authority of the prophet or the teacher, or of Jesus himself. Other elements, and in certain cases, entire Bible books, are second-rate. It would seem as though a compromise has been made. In reality, however, there has been no return to the acceptance of the Holy Scriptures. It remains the modern scholar who establishes to what extent the words of the Bible are of value.

This process of establishing things is anything but a scientific undertaking. That becomes apparent from the fact that no final agreement has been reached about the question which words of the Scriptures can be considered authoritative. The divisiveness among the modernist biblical scholars is many times greater than any discrepancies that may have existed among orthodox exegetes. But there is one doctrine that unites those divided scholars: that the Bible is a human book, subject to our judgment.

This view of the Scriptures is being propagated with an appeal to THE results of modern biblical research. This tends to impress people, or make them timid, as is often the case. During the last fifty years a torrent of popularized Bible criticism has flooded the congregations. This criticism was not contained inside the walls of the academy, but it reached the pulpits, the catechism classes, and religious instruction.

As a consequence, a new generation has grown up for whom the ill-defined authority of modern biblical scholarship puts more weight on the scales than the authority of the Bible itself.

Modern biblical scholarship in need of evaluation←⤒🔗

The result was that for many people the Bible is no longer what it used to be. The most drastic effect is that the body of biblical truth no longer seems to function. People are no longer impressed by an appeal to the Scriptures. Among many of the sons of man the awe for this holy book is on the decline.

In those circumstances it is urgently necessary that future theologians, ministers of the gospel and teachers of religion be trained in scientifically evaluating those alleged results of biblical scholarship. Future catechism teachers must not go forward toward their engagements with a blindfold on. They must be able to foster proper awe for the authority of the Scriptures by a responsible and capable refutation of the many kinds of criticisms that have been unleashed at the Bible. The conditions under which large parts of Christianity live will not remain isolated from the congregations that desire to hear God’s Word from the Scriptures.

Therefore, for a church that wishes not only to stay up to date, but also remain faithful to the truth, it is no excessive luxury to have a theological university where this criticism is itself tested for what it is worth.

Faith and modern views←⤒🔗

It would be a bad mistake if we were to think that the respect for the Bible is properly protected if we are well armed against the so-called Bible criticism. The church is not safe if behind defensive walls, with a sigh of relief it can be noted that within her midst the authority of the Scriptures is not contested. The entire battle around the Bible during the last 150 years, important as it may be, was really caused by something else. The essence of the whole struggle was not really in the theoretical realm where the attack on — or the defence of — the Bible takes place. In that respect the smoke of the gunpowder may also function as a smokescreen.

The Scriptures do not exist for themselves, but to proclaim the great deeds of God. One can defend the Bible, but the works of God must be praised and glorified. Those works are great and awesome, but for many today also not quite credible. Hidden behind much of the criticism of the Bible is a basic unbelief in God’s works and miracles.

If we go back to where modern Bible criticism began, we find that it did not start with the unscrambling of source documents. Before the modern analysis of the Bible and sources began to take hold, there was disbelief with regards to God’s works. The precursor of modern Bible criticism was Deism in England, which attributes creation to God, but not the daily upholding of all things. The forerunner of modern Bible criticism was the “aufklärung” in Germany, in which faith in miracles was abandoned as contrary to natural laws. Before the gospels were put on the cutting table, Strauss had, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, declared its stories to be improbable myths.

The faith in modernism’s “today,” with its tangles of rationalism, and its all-explaining scientific method, has totally rejected the faith in the providence of an almighty God. Only after that was the criticism of the book unleashed.

From then on, it continued. Meanwhile, there appeared analyses of the books of the Bible that seem to prove that they were only human writings. But at bottom there is also today that heavy layer of unbelief in the works of God of which the Scriptures speak.

Today it seems absurd that God has made heaven and earth in six days. Who still dares to say that?

Today it seems an untenable position to maintain that God made woman out of man. Who would still seriously insist on that?

Today it seems difficult to accept that an axe floated on the water, or that Jesus walked on top of the waves.

Even though it is all written there, people cannot and will not believe those works of God. Thus, with or without biblical scholarship, a deep rift has grown between many people today and the works of God described in the Bible.

The incredible contents of the Bible←⤒🔗

This reminds me of the story about a Jewish boy who came from school and said that the teacher had told the story of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. “Just tell us what the teacher said about it,” asked the father. “O, well,” answered the boy, “the whole bunch of us had emigrated from Egypt to go to Palestine, and on our way we ended up at the Red Sea. There was no bridge, and the Egyptians were catching up. But Moses quickly organized an airlift, and in no time all the Jews were on the other side.” The father was rather shocked at this story, and he said: “That is impossible; the teacher couldn’t possibly have told it that way.” “True,” the boy said, “he didn't. But if I would tell you the way he did it, you would not believe it at all!”

There is more truth to this anecdote than the smile it causes would suggest. The story underlines that through the Bible, we collide with “today.” The sea is parted for dry ground in the Bible and in the story, which probably can be repeated in the downtown church, but in how many Christian schools do they still dare to teach it as history? Who dares to make room for faith and the Bible today? But the Bible forces us to completely reform our thinking and feeling.

We are called upon to leave our father’s house and kindred, to go out from what is called “today” and to behold the starry sky of God’s incredible works, which must move us.

The Scriptural shock effect←⤒🔗

The miracles of Jesus make us perceive that our idea of a self-contained world is invalid. We cannot see much further than the surface of viruses, bacteria, neuroses and psychoses, but there must be a much deeper world of demons and invisible powers. If we really do not want to know about angels and demons anymore in our world of “today,” we create an internal tension between ourselves and the Bible, with its history full of higher influences and powers.

The story of the miraculous creation of woman from Adam makes us aware that today’s discussion about the equality of man and woman and about the nature of marriage is incomplete.

The history of creation forces us to make a decision: either to believe God’s work, and see things entirely differently, or to let that work of God shrink into no more than a biblical story of ancient lore — but then our awe will soon shrivel up and our trust in the Holy Scriptures will be in crisis.

The account of the ascension makes us aware that our world view in this day and age of space travel has become very much narrowed down, and that very close to our time there is a world of different dimensions of which we have no knowledge. Just around the corner there is more than we see here. We only live in a side street of the cosmos! If we close our minds to that, if we do not want to know about this reality, it will be only a matter of time before the Bible will lose its shine and authority for us.

After all, the Bible makes a continuous attack on the points of view which are considered self-evident in the world of today. The Bible shakes up the roots of our human this-worldly culture. If we seal ourselves off from that, we end up locking the Bible up inside the Bible. The great works of God are locked up inside a bound volume to which lip service is brought, but the reality about God no longer penetrates our lives, no longer shakes the timbers of our inner selves.

The praise of God’s works today←⤒🔗

Therefore, if the mighty works of God do not overwhelm us, to occupy our minds, the intensive struggle with Bible criticism could still be doomed to failure. One who defends the Bible is not the conserver of an ancient heirloom. No, he attempts to keep the windows clear to offer a view on an incredibly rich world. This is what is at stake: this world of heaven and hell, this reality of God and angels. In our apostolic creed nothing is said about the Bible. But the first article starts with: “I believe in God the Father, the Almighty.”

The struggle against the Bible causes clouds of gunsmoke. But the real crisis of our times is hidden behind those clouds: the absence of a knowledge of God. When the apostle Paul fought unbelief regarding the resurrection among some Corinthians, he pointed out that Jesus was raised on the third day “according to the Scriptures,” (1 Corinthians 15:4), but further down in his argumentation he exclaimed,: “some have no knowledge of God!” He realized that an appeal to the Scriptures has little effect if the knowledge of God and of his power has eroded down or is lacking altogether. The apostle added that he said it to our shame.

We may be grateful for a university that desires to honour the integrity of the Scriptures. But let us also remember that this will only remain functional and profitable if among students, lecturers, parents, and church members the works of God are known, honoured and glorified.

“Bless the Lord, my soul and all that is within me, bless his holy name” — the Bible must be read with that song in heart and soul. It is not our times that offer the measure of all things; the works of God put our times in a different light. If the Bible does not make us live in a different present, then our own “today” will sooner or later tear that Bible out of our hands.

We find ourselves indeed with that Bible in an era of horizontal dimensions but the Bible itself is the last vertical structure, which points up unto heaven, to show us a world that soars far above the things of today.