Sword & Trowel 2020: Issue 1 


way of truly predicting future events; and denied that the four Gospels of the New Testament were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Many in the Free Church (and outside) felt that Smith’s article was deeply inconsistent with the inspi- ration and inerrancy of Scripture. As a result of the outcry, Smith’s views were investigated by the Col- lege Committee of the Free Church. Time would fail us to follow all the ins and outs of the next five years, as Smith’s church tore itself apart over what to make of his outspoken critical approach to the Bible. It was the great public spectacle and crisis of the day in Scotland for everyone who took any interest in the fortunes of Christian belief. The eyes of all, both within and without the Free Church, were on the Robertson Smith case, and the pamphlet warfare it provoked, as Professor Smith’s op- ponents and supporters weighed in against each other. At first, it looked as though every- thing had ended in a temperate but chastening judgement against Smith in the Free Church General Assem- bly of 1880. Although the Assembly ultimately decided to allow Smith to carry on teaching, he had to suffer an official rebuke and warning from the Assembly’s Moderator. Smith must no longer write in such a way as to undermine the church’s confidence in him as a Bible teacher. Smith seemed genuinely humbled by the judge- ment. It had, he confessed to the Assembly, been ‘a weighty lesson’. ‘I hope that by his grace, I shall not fail to learn by it.’ Yet almost immediately, further


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articles by Smith appeared in print, which were just as controversial as anything he had written up until then. His enemies were outraged; his friends were exasperated. Once again, the investigative and discipli- nary machinery of his church swung into action. This time, however, there was a fatal difference. The leading figure in the Free Church at that time was Robert Rainy, the Principal of the Free Church College in Edin- burgh. Rainy had an almost magnetic influence on other men, what you might call a charismatic (small ‘c’) personality. It has been claimed that no Presbyterian Church, in the histo- ry of Presbyterianism, has ever been so dominated by one man as the Free Church was by Robert Rainy.


Open to critical views of the Bible


Now Rainy, for reasons that are not entirely clear, was basically open- minded when it came to critical views of the Bible, and he believed the Free Church likewise should be open- minded. In the previous five years of the Robertson Smith drama, Rainy had supported Smith. This time, he turned on him. By his provocative and defiant actions, Robertson Smith was endangering the very cause that he and Rainy both believed in. And so this time round, Rainy decided that in order to save the cause, he must sacrifice the man. With Rainy turning his massive influence against him, Smith was doomed. In May 1881, the Free Church General Assembly dismissed Smith from his teaching position. To put it candidly and without frills, he was sacked. Even so, Higher


From Divine Revelation to Human Reason


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