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Sunday Sermon Outline
THE
Review: 3 principle things come out of the War
of Independence and the years following the establishing of our Constitution
that may seen as “roots” of the American Bible church movement: strong
individualism, opposition to old hierarchies and a strong Bible focus with
literal meanings seen as appropriate. I.
Civil War and its spiritual aftermath- the
North- “Christianity is opposed to
treating people as slaves by its general tenor and
teaching.” South- “Where in scripture does it
forbid slavery?” When the south lost, they viewed
it as punishment from God for their mistreatment of slaves, not because they
practiced slavery. With both groups
professing to follow the Bible literally and in conflict, some began to
question whether any scripture should be taken so
literally and authoritatively. II.
Inroads by other groups distracted from scripture being
viewed literally
and essentially as God’s word. 1)
EVOLUTION-
Charles Darwin’s book, “Origin of the Species” came out
in 1859 and challenged the Genesis
account of Creation. While science
was developing wonderfully, yet it now offered
an alternative view of the origin of man. 2)
RATIONALISM- as a post-Enlightenment stage,
to a philosophy that maximized
empirical knowledge and man’s mind to conceive new ideas. Germany was at the forefront of this
development. 3)
SOCIALISM
– Karl Marx had produced DAS KAPITAL in 1848,
arguing the failure of capitalism (evidenced
by the abuse of industrial workers) and the increase of governmental
control of the means of production and a sharing of wealth. Marx and his henchmen proposed man was
merely an item of economic production
(materialism) with no spiritual value. 4) RISE OF NEW CULTS- (1) the Mormonism
comes out of Joseph Smith’s claim
that from 1820-27, he received a series of visions in
(2) William Miller taught the world
would end March of 1843, which influenced Samuel Snow in his development of 7th Day
Adventism. In turn,
Ellen G. White claimed visions that occurred in 1843 becoming their
spokesperson. (3) Mary Baker Eddy claims healing in 1862
by Phineas Quimby; adopting
much of his teaching with Christian
Science beginning about 1867. Page 2 (4) Disaffected 7th Day
Adventists, led by Charles T.Russell organize
the Jehovah
Witnesses in 1870’s with the “Watchtower Tract Society” in
1881. 5) Influx of large numbers
of Roman Catholics and a lesser number
of Jews. This would provide significant voting
blocs for election of officials in large cities causing a backlash
against Catholicism. Many of the
Jews were from Eastern European countries and settled in
clothing, diamond and theatre
industries. III. Growth of
liberalism and idealism – disillusioned by the
events of the Civil War and with skepticism
as to a literal interpretation of the Bible, a serious theological drift began
with seminaries struggling to adjust. Some seminaries began to adopt more
impressionistic and liberal views of scripture influenced by the teaching of
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Albrecht Ritschl (1822-1889), and Fredrich Schleiermacher
(1768-1834) where scripture was no longer seen as
the revealed will of God. Before the Civil War, there
had been apostasy in the form of Unitarianism in areas of
and emphasized “virtues” of the
Christian life, exalting human consciousness (direct
intuition) and avoiding the theology of sin, redemption and forgiveness. It would influence an idealism expressed
in Samuel T.Coleridge, Ralph
Emerson and Henry Thoreau which moved the
focus to a much more subjective “experience” of God than revealed doctrine.
Next week we shall visit the
American “Restoration” movement and the significant leaders of American
evangelicalism in the late 1800’s that would prepare the way for the rise of
fundamentalism. |