GERMAN RATIONALISM Exposed! - Part II
Plain Truth Magazine
April 1962
Volume: Vol XXVII, No.4
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GERMAN RATIONALISM Exposed! - Part II

This shocking second installment reveals proof that the God rejecting theories of Evolution, Nazism, and Communism were all inspired by the German Rationalists.

   OUT OF Germany was hatched a diabolical plot that has deceived millions.
   In the last eye-opening article we exposed to view the little-understood facts that the German Rationalists FALSELY ASSUMED the myths and superstitions of the Dark Ages were based upon the Bible. When they had proved these myths and superstitions to be false, they ASSUMED — without proof — that they had also proven the Bible to be false.
   We remember the one prime example these Rationalists hit upon was the error of the Egyptian Catholic monk, Cosmos Indicipleustes. He claimed that the earth was boxlike in shape and therefore flat. He misquoted Isaiah 40:22 to prove that the sun, moon and stars all revolved around the earth. He falsely reasoned that the hand of God moved stars, sun and moon around a flat earth. (Monfaucon, Collection Nova Patrum, Paris, 1706, vol. ii, pp. 188, 298, 299).
   The discovery of America by Columbus and the voyage of Magellan around the earth (1519) were a great shock to ignorant Middle Age professing Christians. They had been taught the superstition of a flat earth as the revelation of Jesus Christ and Scripture. Magellan's voyage around the world was obvious proof that the world was not flat but round! A strong undercurrent of skepticism developed.

Rationalists Revolt

   Rationalism began to develop ONLY in Germany after the Reformation because Germany was the only nation that had relative freedom of religion and thought. The development of wild speculative free thinking was held back for two hundred years in many other nations. Church leaders persecuted or killed those who dared express their opinions, but in Germany scholars were usually free to openly attack the ridiculous unscientific teachings of the Middle Ages. These teachings were utterly false pagan myths, ridiculous superstitions from the rank paganism of ancient Babylon. Yet these superstitions of the Middle Ages had been palmed off as the Revelation of God, the Holy Bible.
   These Rationalists, however, were NOT HONEST SCHOLARS. They did not read the Bible with an open mind to see what it actually said — to see for themselves whether or not the myths and superstitions were based upon the Bible. Because men of "learning" had proved that the earth was not flat, and that rotten meat did not spontaneously generate worms, the rationalists wanted to ASSUME that the Bible was also FALSE.
   They soon ignorantly concluded there was no God!
   German Rationalists freely ATTACKED all the established beliefs of the day with a deep conviction that all religion was absolutely false, absurd, weird, and base (Hurst, History of Rationalism, p. 27).
   Thus all truth, every book of the Bible, every doctrine of belief came under their vicious attacks. They REASONED that since they were the world's best educated men, it was their duty to save the world from the blindness and ignorance of religion.
   These Rationalists INVENTED geological ages which supposedly extended For millions of years to explain a creation without a Creator! They assumed twat-man,-his religion, and his civilization must have developed from the primitive to the complex without God.
   These "scholars" went so far as to openly announce their aim was to abolish the knowledge of God from the face of the earth.

Fifth Column in Education

   In 1835 the world-famous German Rationalist David Friedrich Strauss wrote The Life of Jesus. The author made his blasphemous claim: the only record given in the Gospels that was not a myth was the death of Christ (Poulet and Raemers, Church History, vol. ii, p. 613).
   Another famous German Rationalist, Ludwig Feuerbach, announced — with no evidence — that "the turning point of history will be the moment man becomes aware that the only God of man is man himself" (quoted by Henri deLubac, Atheist Humanist, p. 10).
   The atheist Bruno Bauer went one step further than Strauss. He dared without proof to write in 1840 that the Gospels were forgeries, that Jesus had never existed. He rationalized that Christ was a figment of the imagination of the early Christians, and that Christianity was a fraud (Skousen, The Naked Communist, p. 291).
   These and many others not mentioned have knowingly, deliberately taught without proof false theories calculated to wreck man's faith in the Creator who gives us every breath we breathe.
   By the 1840's the universities of Germany had become famous the world over as centers of this kind of learning. These universities were under the influence of such Rationalists as Semler, Thomasius, and the so-called Rationalist "divines" Bahrdt, W. A. Teller, Liifiler, Thiess, Henke, J. E. C. Schmidt, De Wette, Paulus, Wegscheider and Rohr (Hurst, pp. 25, 26).
   German parents sent their sons to the universities to be educated by these world-famous scholars. These parents had not the remotest idea that these great German universities were "hotbeds" of atheistic Rationalism.
   The young unsuspecting theology students who went to be taught about God, were met by the Rationalist professors who did not believe in God!! These men who were trying to destroy the knowledge of God and the Bible from the face of the earth cunningly planned to make atheists out of their young students (Hurst, p. 24-30).
   These young theologians soon graduated from German universities as agnostics or atheists, for they had blindly SWALLOWED the teachings of their Rationalist professors. They then became the ministers of the German churches. They shocked their congregations by preaching the very same Rationalism they had themselves been taught. What else had they to preach, since they had never heard the Word of God?
   They explained to their congregations that the world was much wiser than it had been in the days when the Protestant movement began, that the modern-day scientists and philosophers had discovered new truths. They subtly taught their congregations that all the Old Testament miracles were strictly myth or that they could be RATIONALLY and reasonably explained (Hurst, p. 29-30).
   Thus, the very leaders of the German church, the respected theologians, the acknowledged spiritual shepherds of the German churches rationalized away the inspiration of the Bible and the authority and the power of God over the lives of the people. Some of the German ministers were atheistic Rationalists who had deliberately become preachers in order to destroy the Church from within (Hurst, p. 25-27).
   These leading scholars of Germany taught that it was a mark of superstition to believe in a miraculous event. Anyone who still believed in the miracles of the Bible was to be "pitied by the learned and scorned by his equals" (Hurst, p. 211).

Rationalism Engulfs World

   Scholars in other nations began to develop other forms of Rationalism Men had been developing the theory of evolution, in one form or another, in an effort to explain a "creation" without a Creator, ever since Aristotle.
   The doctrine of evolution — still unproved and improvable — began to receive public attention when Treviranus theorized in 1802 that all forms of life had arisen by gradual development from some simple form (White, p. 62).
   Dr. Wells, in 1813, added to this theory by claiming that natural selection accounted for the varieties in the human race (White, p. 65).
   However, the Englishman Charles Darwin caused the tfieor4 of evolution to receive world-wide attention — when he published The Origin of Species, in 1959. Darwin added his concept of the survival of the fittest to the already well-developed theory of evolution (White, p. 67).
   Immediately Professor Sedgwick of Cambridge recognized Darwin's hidden purpose in his theory of evolution. He WARNED it would "make us independent of a Creator" (Clark, Darwin: Before and After, p. 96).
   Evolution soon became a fad in America and Britain. Educated classes soaked up the popular evolutionary writings of Spencer. The American public drank in this poison through novels, magazines, and newspapers.
   The purpose of the theory of evolution is to extend time and man so far back into the past that the account of Creation in Genesis would appear to be a myth. Scientists soon began to claim that man had lived on earth for tens of thousands to millions of years.
   Atheists know that if they can make the book of Genesis seem to be a myth, they can also make the rest of the Bible appear to be a fairy tale, made up of legends, poetry, and figurative language — picturing the superstitions of a dark, savage past.

How Rationalism Came to America

   A noted American authority says, "The answer is at hand. During the last four decades... our college men took postgraduate work in the German universities in order to equip themselves for teaching at home" (McPherson, The Crisis in Church and College, p. 44). They studied in the world-famous German Universities which were recognized throughout the world as centers of learning.
   In these institutions Americans and Englishmen were instructed by famous atheistic teachers of Rationalism, of materialistic evolution, and of destructive criticism of the Bible (McPherson, p. 44).
   One of their teachers was the world-famous German Rationalist, Wellhausen, who taught them "higher criticism." In 1878 he concocted his amazing documentary-historical "theory" of how to study the Bible. He deceived his students into believing that the Bible was made up of myth, legend and history, and that the task of the scholar was — rather than to "live by every word," to see how much of the Bible should be thrown away because it was myth and legend (Bloore, Alternative Views of the Bible, p. 11-17).
   The American scholars were instructed by their German masters to view the Genesis account of Creation, the Virgin Birth, Resurrection of Christ, the redemption through His blood, as mythological, something to be viewed with intellectual contempt (McPherson, p. 44, 45).
   These American and English students concluded that since these German — Rationalists were worldly famous, they must be — right. NOTHING could be further from the Truth.
   Armed with a Ph.D. the American scholars returned from the famous German Universities to SNEER at the great facts of Christianity now believed to be fit only for ignorant people of the far gone past. These returning scholars believed it to be their duty to emancipate their fellow Americans from the shackles of religion, just as their masters at Heidelberg, Bonn, Berlin, and Jena had done to their fellow Germans.
   German books on Rationalism, psychology, "philosophy, higher criticism, and Godless theology were translated into English and are today being used as textbooks in most American seminaries, colleges, and universities. This has been added to the growing American philosophy of materialism and Pragmatism and to English Naturalism, all of which are merely different forms of atheistic Rationalism.

Modern Theology

   Shocking though it may sound, modern theology is merely combination of German Rationalism, materialistic evolution, and higher criticism of the Bible as is now being taught in our American and British universities, colleges, and seminaries.
   Note this daring quote from an American college textbook: "The Biblical canon... had no right to rule over men. Man was the book's judge; the book was not man's judge. The Book must be measured by man's truth, man's conscience" (George Burman Foster, The Contribution of Critical Scholarship to Ministerial Efficiency, p. 740).
   It is a modern-day tragedy that our theologians have entirely lost the knowledge that the German Rationalists FALSELY ASSUMED that the superstitions of the Dark Ages were unscientific superstitions based upon the Bible. They are unwilling to learn that when those men of learning proved the superstitions of the Dark Ages to be false, they erroneously assumed the Bible also to be false.
   REMEMBER the early critics did not prove that the TRUTH of God's Word was false. They proved only that the lies and superstitions of the Middle Ages were what they are — lies and superstitions.

What Student Ministers Believe

   A distinguished public-opinion research firm, Louis Harris and Associates, RECENTLY interviewed students at eight theological schools, including YALE Divinity School, UNION Theological Seminary New York City, Baptist Theological Seminary, and Augsburg College Seminary in Minneapolis.
   They found the STARTLING fact that "only 1 per cent are convinced there will be a second coming of Jesus Christ" (Cosmopolitan, December, 1959)
   These researchers were astounded! These students idealized "human nature and elevated it to the realm of the Divine, while demoting God to the level of the human — a strange attitude!" A Congregationalist explained, "I believe that all of us are more godlike than we know. It's a matter of bringing it out."
   This implicit belief in human nature causes man to depend COMPLETELY upon himself. He then cannot realize the utter wretchedness of his own human nature — his own human reason. He can then see no real NEED for Christ to be his Savior — the only "name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
   These future ministers have been "duped" into doubting the trustworthiness of the Old Testament as history, the Inspiration of the Bible, the authority and the infallibility of God's Word. They doubt the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the second coming of Jesus Christ, the purpose, the authority of the Gospel of Christ. They doubt that we will be resurrected in the likeness of Christ's body. They do not believe there is a Devil, or Satan, as your Bible plainly states. They doubt the atonement of Jesus Christ for sin by the blood He shed (McPherson, Crisis in Church and College, p. 105).
   The graduates of our seminaries are teaching the same old German Rationalism they learned in college. Men have not changed. They teach the unsuspecting public the very same skepticism which they were taught in college by their atheistic and agnostic professors.

The American Rationalist

   The American Rationalist, or Modernist, is teaching his own version of Rationalism — every bit as bold as that still being taught in modern-day Germany. For example, Rudolph Bultmann, who is now professor at Marburg, Germany, has started a world-wide discussion with his proposal to "demythologize" Christianity (See H. W. Bartsch, ed., Kerygma and Myth).
   Consider what a noted Bishop of California is teaching the gullible public. He recently startled many United States churchgoers when he declared that he does not believe the Biblical account of the virgin birth of Christ. "It is a PRIMITIVE religious myth," he says. Joseph, Mary's husband, was — he asserts with no proof — PROBABLY the physical father of Jesus (Redbook Magazine, August, 1959).
   Neither is the evolutionist to be ignored, for his philosophy permeates every facet of American life. The evolutionist teaches that "ALL THINGS are possible with man, but NOTHING is possible with God."
   Examine the forthright statement made by Bruce Koeman: "I believe in evolution and I am a SKEPTIC concerning a life beyond the grave. I am also a CRITIC of Biblical history..." (Los Angeles Examiner, 1961).
   An even more surprising statement was made by John B. Ison, 51, minister of the First Unitarian Church, Des Moines, who said: "We are a form of Life which, has become conscious of its will to live, groping brothers of the tadpole, the tree, the fern, and the amoeba: knowing not yet how we came to be what we are, nor why we are here, nor where we are going. We may be a freak of nature — a chemical accident — our lives having no meaning..."
   People are like sheep they want to believe what other famous men are believing. They have never been taught the simple rule: "Thy word is truth" (John 17:17).

Who Is to Blame?

   Louis Cassels of the United Press reports that "During the past half century or so... Biblical CRITICS have literally examined every word and phrase, trying to differentiate between historical fact and illustrative myth."
   Notice that no word is mentioned that men have been studying the Bible to learn how to live. They have been studying to learn HOW NOT to live.
   Because our theologians have departed from the knowledge of God as the All-powerful, CREATING Ruling God, they have lost the revealed knowledge that all truth, all wisdom, and all understanding come from God. When men no longer know that the LAW of God is to be OBEYED, there is nothing to restrain their actions. The result is chaos and lawlessness and wretchedness.
   Bishop Hazen G. Werner of Columbus, Ohio, recognized that something is wrong. He said, "We who are to overcome the world have been overcome by the world... (The Augusta Chronicle, September 29, 1961).

What Your Bible Says!

   The Apostle John plainly revealed why modern preachers are being overcome by the world when he asked, "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? John also said to the obedient Spirit-filled Christian: "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world" (I John 4:5, 4). But John also said of the modern-day preachers: "They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them" (I John 4:5).
   Bishop Gerald Kennedy of the Southern California-Arizona Methodist Conference said, "The blame falls upon as who are the religious leaders of this generation" (L. A. Examiner, December 6, 1959).
   Bishop Kennedy is not the first man who has recognized this fact. Over 2500 years ago Isaiah wrote: "The leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed" (Isa. 9:16).
   God condemns people who have allowed themselves to be deceived by such lies. He said, "Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have ' provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward" (Isa. 1:4).

Why God Will Punish Our People

   Again and again God reveals that in the end times He will punish all men until they come to know that God is God.
   Notice, "Mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am the Lord" (Ezekiel 7:4).
   God will punish this nation until we acknowledge that God is God: "And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and ye shall know that I am the Lord" (Ezek. 12:20).
   Your immediate future is of your own choosing.
   God says "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return. That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear" (Isa. 45:22, 23).
   God also says, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
   If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land" (Isa. 1:18-19). Yes, every knee is going to have to bow and confess that Jesus Christ is LORD.
   You will need to be willing to give up this world's Satanic philosophies, religions and false scientific theories and get back to God's Instruction Book for you — the Bible — and live abundantly "by every word" (Matt. 4:4). Read the following articles which will help you understand the Bible: WHY GOD IS NOT REAL to Most People, How to be an OVERCOMER, and The SEVEN KEYS to Understanding the Bible. These articles are absolutely free.
   The choice before you is Life — or Death — Eternal Life, or Eternal Death. God commands you, "THEREFORE CHOOSE LIFE that both thou and thy seed may live" (Deut 30:19).

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Plain Truth MagazineApril 1962Vol XXVII, No.4