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Sunday Sermon Outline
THE BIBLE CHURCH MOVEMENT – PART 2
The movement that we refer to as
the growth of “Bible Churches” or non-denominational assemblies of believers who
support certain specific teachings has its roots deep in the American
culture. Consideration of the
effects of the American revolution upon these
roots are worthy of our time. I.
The Enlightenment changed the perspective from the older European thinking to an
“American” viewpoint before and after the
American rejection of
British rule. 1. The Enlightenment moved attention away
from the older hierarchical models of rulership and more toward the power of human
choice. The Enlightenment was based
on the conviction that “through reason, man
could find knowledge and happiness”. It would feed the movement of
rationalism and the development of science. 2. With Enlightenment came challenges to
the both the civil and religious models of how man is to be ruled.
The Catholic model influenced
Episcopalian, Methodist,
and Lutheran church structure. These were the more “formal” churches
with much ritual. 3. With the Enlightenment came a more
egalitarian (and American) view of man that was expressed in the Presbyterian,
Baptist, Congregational and other religious groups use
of church authority. This was fed
by the emphasis upon the private priesthood of all believers (formal ritual was
not needed). 4. On a civil level, the American
revolution elevated individualism; this individualism
found expression in two avenues: religiously, it
focused on personal relationship with God
apart from hierarchical structure; poitically, it manifest itself in
“republicanism” (representation by citizen
elections). 5. Also playing into these changes would be
the “common sense philosophy” (sometimes
called “Scottish common sense”) that says the world consists
of real objects that exist in time and
space. We can understand and
navigate our way thru that reality.
It insisted that the common man could make as
good a judgment as the elite could
(democratized the mind). 6. Added to this would be the
widespread reading of the Bible that would follow the first and second spiritual
Great Awakenings that occurred in the 1700’s. Together, all this resulted in a)rejection
of hierarchical authority, b)rise in value of the individual, with a c)strong
focus on scriptural literacy and private viewpoint. How this impacted religious
American culture: 1) With the rejection of the models of
hierarchical authorities, the power to rule was seen as invested in more
“congregational” models of church structure. Fittingly, the Baptists,
Presbyterian and Congregational churches
experienced Page 2 phenomenal growth as large numbers of
British, Scottish and Welsh immigrants came to
well as greater religious liberty seen
in these denominations. But it also
left a vacuum of authority that was
filled by the scriptures themselves. 2) As the individual was seen as more
important and was empowered to cross over class distinctions, the
republican political ideal played itself into the religious view of
scripture. There was less need for
religious authorities to “interpret” the word of God and the view of a literal
(common or natural sense) meaning to scripture grew, giving the believer the
right to both read and use the Bible as he saw fit. He was not required to go to a religious
“leader” in order to understand or live the word of
God. 3) The strengths listed above that helped
serve to build the weakness of congregationalism
would foster sectarianism, and the common sense or literal view of scripture
would be used forcefully to defend slavery as
Biblical. 4) These weaknesses, followed by
the fracture of the Civil War, would change the religious culture in post-Civil
War deteriorating influences upon the American
churches and seminaries. |