Customer Reviews

The Battle for the Bible

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

In this book, which I count as one of the five most influential I have ever read, Lindsell makes a compelling case for the essential nature of the doctrine of the inerrancy of the Bible. It is true that the term "inerrancy" is of relatively recent vintage; what is equally true is that people who have historically called themselves "Christians" would not have even given thought to the idea that the Bible contained error! Lindsell documents the truth of the "slippery slope", how in case after case, denominations which have abandoned the doctrine that the Bible is without error have slipped into a theological liberalism which has sapped their vitality and lessened their membership. Minus the truth "Thus saith the Lord", one's theology becomes grounded in one's own opinions and subjective judgments rather than the objective standard of Bible truth. Thus we see denominations which a couple of generations back stood for truth now debating the merits of marrying and/or ordaining homosexuals, supporting "abortion rights", etc. These are unthinkable to Christians who take the Bible at face value, but easily justifiable to those who have jettisoned inerrancy. Lindsell's book makes this case quite clearly. Lindsell also demonstrates that, at least at the time of his writing in the mid-70's, no denomination that had turned away from inerrancy had ever gone back; once the horse was out of the gate,so to speak, there would be no reining him in. It is significant that, since his writing of this book, the Southern Baptist Convention, spurred on by its truth, has effectively made this step back to Biblical orthodoxy. For a better understanding of what spurred this on, I wholeheartedly endorse The Battle for the Bible!

This book was published in 1976, I purchased my copy in 1982, but only read it this summer. My sentiments follow rather closely to those of bHarvey of Grove City, Pa., whose expansive review appeared October 29, 1998. I rank it four stars instead of five as I consider it more of a well done popular summary for the contemporary time rather than a scholarly classic work.

Though somewhat dated by its discussion of current events in the 1970s; nevertheless those events are still playing out. In the case of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod, it would now appear that conservative Bible believers have somewhat turned back the tide of skepticism and criticism of the Bible that had been increasingly prevalent in those denominations when the author published his book. If this conservative turn-around holds, it would indeed go against the historical trend of mainline protestant denominations having first abandoned the inerrancy and trustworthiness of Scripture, to be followed by the abandonment of other Christian doctrines and practices. Lindsell's central theme, that the abandonment of belief in an inerrant or trustworthy Bible leads to the gradual abandonment of other Christian doctrines, is strongly and correctly argued.

"The Battle for the Bible" begins by defining the problem in the last century with inerrancy verses errancy. The author's presupposition is that, whether errant or inerrant, our only source of Christianity is the Bible. The main doctrinal issues are covered in the first two chapters, the ninth, and the eleventh.

The third chapter gives many examples to prove that inerrancy was the normal view of the Church until about two centuries ago. Chapters four, five, and six cover the fate of the doctrine of inerrancy in the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, Southern Baptist Convention, and Fuller Theological Seminary. Chapter eight goes on to document some of the theological changes that occur once inerrancy has been abandoned. The author's point is, once inerrancy has been abandoned, apostacy will eventually follow.

These chapters may have more detail than most people need--however, chapters one, two, nine, and eleven are a very good defence of inerrancy.

I found Harold Lindsell's book to be fascinating looking back at his assessment of the crisis at hand. Considering now what took place in Southern Baptist life after this book was written, Lindsell's writings sound almost prophetic. Lindsell accurately recognizes that once infallibility is abandoned, it opens the doors for all sorts of other departures from the faith (25, 139). One only needs to look at the mainline denominations today and their embrace of sinful practices, inclusivistic views of the Gospel, or feministic approaches to worship to recognize the reality of which Lindsell spoke. He also aptly recognizes that defection from inerrancy tends to begin in the institutions (83, 133). Yet, the fault does not completely lie there. Too many arrive on those campuses "illiterate" on our doctrines making them an easy prey (134). Thus, part of the fault lies in the churches' failure to properly equip their young people. I wonder if that issue has been addressed. As I hear stories about the defection from the faith of students in the religion department in the religion departments of Christian colleges, I fear that the problem that Lindsell addressed still remains in our churches today, and as such the warning of his book still needs to be heard.

The author states quite clearly near the beginning of the book that he does not consider those who disagree with inerrancy to be apostate. However, growing up as I did in an SBC (Southern Baptist Convention) congregation back in the 70's and 80's, I know that this issue is one that was used by fundamentalists in the SBC as grounds for firing professors, trying to kick out moderate congregations, and eventually orchestrating a hostile takeover of the denomination. Consequently, more liberal members of the SBC (who liked to call themselves moderates) considered this more a battle over freedom and autonomy than a battle for or against the Bible.

The author tries to show that some form of inerrancy was generally accepted and therefore was never a hot topic for debate until about the 19th century. However, the reason it was never debated is essentially that nobody thought to debate it until then. While I happen to agree with a lot of what the author says, I don't think this argument will work with the more liberal crowd partly because of an unwillingness to apply the same kind of logic across the board. For example, many fundamentalists teach dispensationalism, which is generally recognized to be another 19th century invention. If you're going to ask people to reject historical-critical analysis on the basis that it wasn't invented until the 19th century, it would be only fair to throw out dispensationalism on the same grounds.

The author's secondary argument against the "errancy" viewpoint is that it ultimately leads to the rejection of other essential doctrines.

In my experience, what nearly got our SBC congregation kicked out was not what was taught about the Bible, but when they ordained women.

I think to a degree both the historical/critical method and the inerrancy doctrine have been used as tools to justify other beliefs and actions.

I take off a star for being one-sided, and another star because he often relies on secondary sources for his quotes.

Lindsell has done a fine job of documenting the various attacks on Biblical inerrancy/infallibility coming from within the church itself over the past hundred years or so. The book was written in 1976, so it is a bit dated, but still it is quite informative.

In doing so he raises unspoken questions that every Bible believer should ask and that he himself does not answer. Lindsell articulately and accurately reports that in every single case of a Christian denomination abandoning inerrancy, the move away from inerrancy was started by the denominational seminary(s) and/or denominational leaders or both. "In almost every case, unorthodoxy has its beginning in the theological seminaries" (Page 197, 9th printing). "Wherever liberalism has fought, it has won" (Page 207). "Probably 90 percent of the people in the [Southern Baptist] pews believe in biblical infallibility. But the infection of which I speak has been spreading steadiy in the convention and especially in its educational institutions" (Page 208).

So the question is: Why are the people who know the Bible best (seminary faculty and denominational leaders) the most likely not to believe it is inerrant?

This 1976 publication reads like prophecy in 2011, because Lindsell's predictions have largely come true. This book is about the incremental, but purposeful movement away from the belief in Biblical inerrancy, inspiration and infallibility. It is also about the unethical methods that those who do not believe in inerrancy have used to advance their axioms and it is about their blindly avoiding the arguments that refute their illogical position. I must say that this is a wonderful and fabulous book. It is also not hard to read. Harold Lindsell was a former Vice-President and professor at Fuller Theological Seminary (and served as professor at other seminaries as well). He was also a former editor of Christianity Today (not exactly a straight and narrow periodical these days). He addresses the movement of the Lutherans, the Baptists, Fuller Seminary, the Methodists, the Presbyterians and many other denominations, away from the truth of the infallible Bible by way of a number of case studies. Additionally, he traces the idea of inerrancy to the Bible itself and the battle over this issue over many, many years (back to the first century), although the main thrust of it is over the last 100 or so years. He also touches on the problem of higher textual criticism. He quotes many supporters of errancy in their own words. I highly recommend this book. It is very, very enlightening. My copy was a hardback.

Lindsell's book should be a immense interest to students of American Christianity. The book largely signals the beginning of the end for neo-evangelicalism and heralds the retreat of many evangelicals back to separatist fundamentalism. The substantive arguments, however, suffer from serious flaws. The author argues that foundationalism has been the normative means of biblical interpretation until the 1800s. Nevertheless, the epistemology underlying foundationalism did not exist before the early modern era. If viewed as a sort of "Fundamentalist Manifesto", the book makes more sense. It's a must read for those who want to understand the intellectual underpinnings of the religious right, which blossomed a few years after the publication of Lindsell's book.

This author predicted, with amazing accuracy, the direction that the Christian Church was moving in. His worst fears have been realized as less than 10% of Christians today believe in the inerracy of the Bible.

Battle for the Bible is a blueprint for fundamentalists to use in taking over a denomination. It is an important text in understanding the general rise of fundamentalism in America in the last 30 years of the 20th century, particularly the takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention with the subsequent purges of general membership, seminaries, and branches of the convention. Highly recommended for history of the church, fundamentalism, and baptist history.