During the month of September 1924, Eric and D. P. Thomson spoke in public meetings, first in Scotland and later in England. Their last event was held in Kilmarnock, a large burgh of forty thousand people located about twenty miles southwest of Glasgow. Each and every one of the Protestant churches there took part in the event.
Later, D. P. wrote to his mother, saying,
Kilmarnock has been a great experience. It finishes on Sunday and promises to finish grandly. Never has there been a finer spirit among the team, and never have we enjoyed such inspirational fellowship. We have gained five new members, splendid fellows all. 500 men turned out to hear Eric Liddell on the opening Sunday, and 1300 to the mass meeting at night. We had six meetings daily. On the second Sunday night we had 1700 at the Mass Meeting—One innovation proved very successful—a late meeting for young fellows attending evening classes.[24]
After Kilmarnock, Eric and D. P. traveled to Glasgow to hold meetings at the Dundas Street Congregational Church, where James Liddell had been ordained so many years before. Between 450 and 600 people showed up each night of the campaign. Eric “steadily gained in confidence, in clarity of thought, and in preaching power,” D. P. penned in a letter home.[25]
Seminary began in October. In addition to Eric’s new studies, he continued to serve as Sunday school teacher at Morningside, remained president of the Young People’s Union, and honored his commitments to the weekend speaking events with D. P., which often included a pre-meeting race or rugby match.
The life of the seminary student, Eric had quickly learned, was one of discipline and devotion to God. To walk in the footsteps of the seminary professors was an important aspect of theological training. Mere head knowledge would not do.
Eric plunged headlong into the hermeneutical debate shaping the ecclesial landscape. He became familiar with Harry Emerson Fosdick’s theological writings. Fosdick was an American Baptist pastor who resided in New York and served at a Presbyterian church in Manhattan’s West Village. He’d become a leader in the rising controversial issue between fundamentalist and modernist theologians. The fundamentalist-modernist controversy had spilled over into multiple denominations and centered on how to interpret the Bible.
The modernists speculated that the Bible contained a certain amount of history, a kernel or husk of truth that had bloomed into myths, legends, and folklore. The fundamentalists argued that this way of thinking was a perilous road littered with potholes of presupposition. If the Bible were not infallible, that could mean that man had not been made in the image of God. Furthermore, miracles would be nonexistent; so much for Creation, the Virgin Birth, the deity of Christ, his resurrection, and his atonement for the world. To follow that path to its logical conclusion, the fundamentalists argued, would lead toward agnosticism and ultimately atheism.
Fundamentalists rejected the false impression that they employed an ignorant use of hermeneutics, the branch of knowledge dealing with interpretation. They defended only a literal interpretation of Scripture, where the context of each passage was king—poetry should be read as poetry, descriptive literature as descriptive, prescriptive as prescriptive. The limited range of possible interpretation meant that truth was apparent even in translation, so translations of the Bible could be confessed to be God’s infallible Word, speaking to his people in the nuances of language that he created for them to use.
And this debate shaped and reshaped Eric Liddell.
Ultimately, Eric endorsed primarily a literal interpretation of the Bible, even though many in the Congregationalist Church were drifting toward modernist thinking. Years later, while writing his own discipleship book about studying the Bible, he quoted a sermon by John Wesley: “If any doctrines within the whole compass of Christianity may be termed ‘fundamental,’ they are doubtless these two: . . . justification . . . relating to that great work which God does for us, in forgiving our sins . . . [and] the new birth . . . relating to the great work which God does in us, in renewing our fallen nature.”[26]
Eric took seriously the four disciplines of the seminarian—systematics, exegetics, history, and practical application. But every theologian gravitates to one, and Eric easily zeroed in on the practical discipline—simply conveying the gospel to people.
D. P. Thomson continued to arrange for speaking appointments for himself and Eric. In his campaign speeches with Thomson, Eric led with a subdued voice, offering a vivid picture of what a Christian life was like based on his own uniquely interesting experiences. Then Thomson followed up with a thunderous voice as the closer, calling those in the audience to commit their lives to Christ.
Although they were different in their approaches, Eric understood that much of the intense zealousness in Thomson’s message had been born out of pain. He’d lost a brother and five cousins in the tragedies of the Great War and was occasionally prone to despair.
D. P.’s drive was in knowing that time was of the essence. Therefore, he didn’t skirt around the issues in his messages or his emotional delivery.
D. P.’s one remaining brother, Robert, was equally passionate about evangelizing. Eric enjoyed Robert’s company greatly on those occasions when he joined them for campaigns.
For D. P., Eric’s continuing enthusiasm and his following brought great rejuvenation.
Although Eric understood D. P.’s fiery decision theology, he wrestled with reconciling the relationship between the law of God’s Word and the gospel as he slowly tried to work out how to strive under the law and yet, at the same time, be content to live under the gospel. His approach when speaking was to compare faith to common ordinary experiences he could easily draw upon, such as from the science lab or the sports field. “We are here to place before you the call and challenge of Jesus Christ,” he would say.
Many of us are missing something in life because we are after the second best. We are placing before you during
