"Criticism" involves finding fault with something or someone. The Lord Jesus warned His disciples about being critical of faults in others while being blind to even greater faults in themselves (Matthew 7:1-5). This is illustrated by a rather "smelly" story as follows:
Grandpa was sleeping in his chair. His grandchildren found some very ancient--very putrid limburger cheese, and gently stroked some of it on grandpa's mustache. When grandpa awoke he sniffed and grumbled, "This room stinks." He went into the kitchen and said, "And the kitchen stinks." He went outdoors and met Mr. Smith his neighbor and rudely remarked, "And you stink too!" Finally he shouted, "the whole world stinks!" The trouble, however, was right under grandpa's own nose. All he needed to do was "clean his own nose" and everything else would become sweet again. (Our Daily Bread, Radio Bible Class, 8/7/60)
Faults are like headlights on a car; those of others always seem more glaring than our own!
Bible Criticism takes place when UNBELIEVING men try to find fault with God’s Word. Such men set themselves up as JUDGES, and they make unfavorable remarks and judgments about the Bible. Instead of letting the Bible be their JUDGE (God’s Word pointing out their faults and showing where they are wrong--Hebrews 4:12-13), they try to JUDGE the Bible (by pointing out the so called "mistakes" and "faults" in the Bible). Someday these unbelievers will stand before the JUDGE OF ALL THE EARTH (Gen. 18:25) and they will realize that the Bible was right and they were wrong! They will be judged by the very WORD which they criticized (John 12:48).
Destructive Criticism is a description of the terrible harm unbelievers do when the ignore or deny the plain statements of Scripture and proudly think that they know more than God does. See the comments by William Jennings Bryan at the end of this chapter on Higher (Destructive) Criticism.
| Lower Criticism is that science which seeks to determine the correct text of ancient documents. This is also known as Textual Criticism. Higher Criticism deals with questions such as these: Who is the author of this document? What is the date when this document was written? Is this a unified document written by one author or is the document a composite work of more than one author which was at some time patched together and made to appear as one document? |
If you were to go to an average college or university in our country and take an introductory course on the Bible in the religion department, you might be shocked to hear your teacher say things like this (in fact, some of these things might even be taught in high school):
- "Moses did not write the first five books of the Bible."
- "Daniel did not write the book of Daniel."
- "The book of Isaiah was not written by one man, but by at least two men."
- "Paul did not write 1 Timothy and Peter did not write 2 Peter."
- "Adam and Eve are just symbolic figures. They were not historical persons. They never really lived on earth."
- "The account of Jonah and the whale is a nice story, but of course no such thing ever happened. It's impossible that a man could have survived inside of a whale."
- ETC. ETC.
Statements such as these are common examples of BIBLICAL CRITICISM, as unbelievers try to find fault with the AUTHORSHIP (the person God used to write the book--see 2 Peter 1:21), the DATE (the time when the book was written--see Hebrews 1:1), and the HISTORIC ACTUALITY (that the events described really happened and the people involved were real people who actually lived in history).
How can we find out who really wrote the books of the Bible? How can we learn when these books were written? How can we know for sure whether the events recorded in the Bible actually took place or not? Who truly knows the answers to these questions? Is there someone we can go to who is an AUTHORITY on the Bible? Is there someone who knows all the answers about the Bible? Is there someone who knows more about the Bible than anyone else? Who is the greatest AUTHORITY on the Bible? (circle the correct answer)
| a. the Pope | e. your parents |
| b. the Pastor | f. The Encyclopedia Britannica |
| c. your teacher in school | g. a Jewish Rabbi |
| d. a college professor | h. the Lord Jesus Christ |
The Lord Jesus Christ is perfectly qualified as the Bible’s greatest authority! Here’s why:
- He knows all things (He is omniscient).
- He is the Author of the Bible (it is His Word), and certainly no one knows more about a book than the author!
- Since He is the Eternal One, He is the world’s greatest historian! He is the great "I AM" who existed from eternity past, long before any of the Bible critics were ever born!
- He personally witnessed every event that is recorded in the Bible, because He is omnipresent.
- He is the God of truth, and thus we can trust whatever He says about the Bible. He has an amazing reputation for telling the truth (Titus 1:2).
- He is the God of Moses and Daniel and Isaiah and Peter and Paul and Jonah. He knows all about these men, and He knows all about the books which they wrote.
Let us now consider what some of the Bible critics have said about the Bible and then we will see what Christ our Authority has said. Whom will you believe, CHRIST or the CRITIC?
1. Moses did not write the first five books of the Bible.
Moses lived about 1500 B.C. and many Bible critics do not believe that the first five books of the Bible could have been written at such an early date. Therefore, they say that these books were written by several different authors and were finally compiled (put together) about 1000 years after the time of Moses. They believe that these first five books are made up of several documents and written by several authors and compiled hundreds of years after Moses died. What did the Lord Jesus say about this? See John 5:46-47; Luke 24:27,44; Mark 12:26 (compare Exodus 3:6).
2. The book of Isaiah was written by at least two different men.
Unbelieving "scholars" often say that the person who wrote the last half of the book of Isaiah (chapters 40-66) was different than the person who wrote the first half of the book (chapters 1-39). They refer to this unknown author as "Deutero-Isaiah" (the second Isaiah), and they say that he lived about 200 years after the time of the prophet Isaiah.
Why do they say such a thing? Here is one of the main reasons: In Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1 a man is mentioned by the name of CYRUS. Cyrus was a Persian king who lived in the second half of the 6th century, about 200 years after the time of the prophet Isaiah. How could Isaiah mention by name a king who was not even born yet and who would not be born until many years after Isaiah’s death? That would be like George Washington mentioning the name of the person who was elected President in 1980 or in 1984. It seems to these critics that the person who wrote about Cyrus must have lived in the days of Cyrus or even later.
These unbelievers overlook one important fact. The living God is able to declare "the _________ from the _____________________________" (Isaiah 46:10), and God knew all about Cyrus hundreds of years before this man was ever born! Thus we are not shocked when God mentions a person’s name and tells us all about him before he is ever born!
| "The edict of Cyrus as recorded by Ezra seemed to fit the picture of Isaiah's prophecies too well to be real, until a cylinder was found that confirmed this decree in all the important details." The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, by Josh McDowell, p. 381. God gave Isaiah this accurate information long before Cyrus was even born! |
NOTE: Mark 7:6 is a quotation of Isaiah 29:13 (the first part of Isaiah) and Matthew 8:17 is a quotation of Isaiah 53:4 (the second part of Isaiah) and the Bible says that Isaiah was the human author of both!
