Theological Liberalism Invades Northern Baptist Convention
December 17, 2025
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061
866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
The following is excerpted from The History of the Churches from a Baptist Perspective, www.wayoflife.org -
Liberal theology permeated the Northern Baptists in the second half of the 19th century.
It began in Germany and spread to England and America. Fundamentally, it is an attack on the divine inspiration the Bible. Its guns were first aimed at the foundational books of the Bible. The devil knew that if he could destroy man’s confidence in the first books of the Bible, the authority of the whole would eventually be lost. Capitulation to Darwinian evolution destroyed the authority of the first chapters of the Bible. Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1857.
The authority of the rest of the Pentateuch was destroyed by “documentary theories” that claimed that it was not written by the historical Moses in the 15th century BC, but was compiled from multiple documents over a long period of time. The book of Deuteronomy was supposedly written in the 7th century BC by Jewish leaders during the reign of King Josiah. Proponents claim that the book of the law was not re-discovered as described in 2 Kings 22:8-20, but that it was written at that time to bring revival to the nation. Finally, according to this hypothesis, all of the parts of the Pentateuch were edited together in the 5th century BC, possibly by Ezra, to instruct Israel in the Babylonian Captivity and to unify them as a people. According to the documentary theory, the Pentateuch is a “pious fraud,” because the unknown men who wrote the Pentateuch allegedly had good intentions, even though what they were writing was not true. This would mean that the works are brazen lies. This is called the JEDP theory after the names of the supposed documents from which the Pentateuch was compiled--J (Jehovahist), E (Elohist), P (priestly), D (Deuteronomy). It was first popularized by Julius Wellhausen in his 1878 German publication Prolegomena to the History of Israel. This heresy appeared in the Encyclopedia Britannica entry on “Israel” in 1881 and thus spread among English-speaking people. The documentary theory has undergone continual revision as its various points have been disproved and as new theories have been proposed, but the fundamental view that the Pentateuch was not written by the historical Moses during the wilderness wandering is been retained. Theological liberalism eventually denied every fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith.
“Even before the turn of the twentieth century, the five Baptist seminaries in the North were showing signs of liberalism” (David Beale, In Pursuit of Purity, p. 175).
Henry Vedder is an example. He taught Baptist history at Crozer Theological Seminary from 1894 to 1926 and published 27 books on church history and theology, including A Short History of the Baptists. Of Christ’s substitutionary atonement, Vedder said, “Of all the slanders men have perpetrated against our Most High, this is positively the grossest, the most impudent, the most insulting” (cited from Baptist Fundamentals: Addresses at the Pre-Convention Conference, 1927).
Nels F.S. Ferré is another example. He taught theology at Andover Newton Theological School (1937-1950, 1957-1960) and denied practically every doctrine of the Christian faith, including Christ’s virgin birth, miracles, vicarious atonement, and bodily resurrection. In The Christian Understanding of God, Ferré wrote, “We have no way of knowing, even, that Jesus was sinless” (p. 186). On page 191 he blasphemously claimed that Mary was possibly impregnated by a Roman soldier. In The Sun and the Umbrella, Ferré said, “Jesus never was nor became God” (p. 112), and, “The use of the Bible as the final authority for Christian truth is idolatry” (p. 39), and, “Hinduism is good and wise” (p 117).
Another prominent Baptist liberal was George Foster who taught at the University of Chicago. In 1906, he published The Finality of the Christian Religion in which he claimed that “a God outside the cosmos is dead.” He hated a religion of “facts” and “authority.” He claimed that the divine inspiration of the Bible is “untrue historically and impossible psychologically.” He claimed that an intelligent man who believes the miraculous accounts of the Bible “can hardly know what intellectual honesty means.” He said the evidence does not support Christ’s bodily resurrection. His home church, Hyde Park Baptist, refused to retract his ordination or discipline him in any way.
Another example of liberalism in the Northern Baptist Convention was Harry Emerson Fosdick, who pastored Park Avenue Baptist Church in New York City. This was where John D. Rockefeller, Jr., had membership. Fosdick denied every fundamental doctrine of the faith, including Christ’s virgin birth and substitutionary atonement. In his 1918 book The Manhood of the Master, he denied that Jesus is God. In 1926, after a debate lasting almost five hours, the Northern Baptist Convention voted by a margin of about three to one not to evict Fosdick’s church for its modernism. In 1930, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., spent $10 million to build the Riverside Church in Manhattan for Fosdick, and it has continued to be one of the most liberal of churches. Pastor John Straton of Calvary Baptist Church in New York City rightly called Fosdick “a religious outlaw--the Jesse James of the theological world.”
Liberal theology permeated the Northern Baptists in the second half of the 19th century.
It began in Germany and spread to England and America. Fundamentally, it is an attack on the divine inspiration the Bible. Its guns were first aimed at the foundational books of the Bible. The devil knew that if he could destroy man’s confidence in the first books of the Bible, the authority of the whole would eventually be lost. Capitulation to Darwinian evolution destroyed the authority of the first chapters of the Bible. Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1857.
The authority of the rest of the Pentateuch was destroyed by “documentary theories” that claimed that it was not written by the historical Moses in the 15th century BC, but was compiled from multiple documents over a long period of time. The book of Deuteronomy was supposedly written in the 7th century BC by Jewish leaders during the reign of King Josiah. Proponents claim that the book of the law was not re-discovered as described in 2 Kings 22:8-20, but that it was written at that time to bring revival to the nation. Finally, according to this hypothesis, all of the parts of the Pentateuch were edited together in the 5th century BC, possibly by Ezra, to instruct Israel in the Babylonian Captivity and to unify them as a people. According to the documentary theory, the Pentateuch is a “pious fraud,” because the unknown men who wrote the Pentateuch allegedly had good intentions, even though what they were writing was not true. This would mean that the works are brazen lies. This is called the JEDP theory after the names of the supposed documents from which the Pentateuch was compiled--J (Jehovahist), E (Elohist), P (priestly), D (Deuteronomy). It was first popularized by Julius Wellhausen in his 1878 German publication Prolegomena to the History of Israel. This heresy appeared in the Encyclopedia Britannica entry on “Israel” in 1881 and thus spread among English-speaking people. The documentary theory has undergone continual revision as its various points have been disproved and as new theories have been proposed, but the fundamental view that the Pentateuch was not written by the historical Moses during the wilderness wandering is been retained. Theological liberalism eventually denied every fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith.
“Even before the turn of the twentieth century, the five Baptist seminaries in the North were showing signs of liberalism” (David Beale, In Pursuit of Purity, p. 175).
Henry Vedder is an example. He taught Baptist history at Crozer Theological Seminary from 1894 to 1926 and published 27 books on church history and theology, including A Short History of the Baptists. Of Christ’s substitutionary atonement, Vedder said, “Of all the slanders men have perpetrated against our Most High, this is positively the grossest, the most impudent, the most insulting” (cited from Baptist Fundamentals: Addresses at the Pre-Convention Conference, 1927).
Nels F.S. Ferré is another example. He taught theology at Andover Newton Theological School (1937-1950, 1957-1960) and denied practically every doctrine of the Christian faith, including Christ’s virgin birth, miracles, vicarious atonement, and bodily resurrection. In The Christian Understanding of God, Ferré wrote, “We have no way of knowing, even, that Jesus was sinless” (p. 186). On page 191 he blasphemously claimed that Mary was possibly impregnated by a Roman soldier. In The Sun and the Umbrella, Ferré said, “Jesus never was nor became God” (p. 112), and, “The use of the Bible as the final authority for Christian truth is idolatry” (p. 39), and, “Hinduism is good and wise” (p 117).
Another prominent Baptist liberal was George Foster who taught at the University of Chicago. In 1906, he published The Finality of the Christian Religion in which he claimed that “a God outside the cosmos is dead.” He hated a religion of “facts” and “authority.” He claimed that the divine inspiration of the Bible is “untrue historically and impossible psychologically.” He claimed that an intelligent man who believes the miraculous accounts of the Bible “can hardly know what intellectual honesty means.” He said the evidence does not support Christ’s bodily resurrection. His home church, Hyde Park Baptist, refused to retract his ordination or discipline him in any way.
Another example of liberalism in the Northern Baptist Convention was Harry Emerson Fosdick, who pastored Park Avenue Baptist Church in New York City. This was where John D. Rockefeller, Jr., had membership. Fosdick denied every fundamental doctrine of the faith, including Christ’s virgin birth and substitutionary atonement. In his 1918 book The Manhood of the Master, he denied that Jesus is God. In 1926, after a debate lasting almost five hours, the Northern Baptist Convention voted by a margin of about three to one not to evict Fosdick’s church for its modernism. In 1930, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., spent $10 million to build the Riverside Church in Manhattan for Fosdick, and it has continued to be one of the most liberal of churches. Pastor John Straton of Calvary Baptist Church in New York City rightly called Fosdick “a religious outlaw--the Jesse James of the theological world.”
