In Utter Dependence

Melbourne University Christian Union
(1930-2005)

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements
for the degree of Honours in Arts.

by Valerie Ting

During the twenties and thirties, following the Great War, the Christian Church
was swept by a tide of extreme liberal theology that acquired the term
“Modernism”. The historic Confessions of Faith became obsolete and biblical
doctrines such as the atoning death of Christ and the Second Coming were
denied. Other doctrines such as the deity of Christ and His bodily resurrection
were redefined in qualified terms. A sharp division between modernists and
evangelicals cut through the church, and between the two sides an underlying
sense of opposition existed. The root cause of this division was of course two
contrary views on the critical issues of the inspiration of the Scriptures from
which both their final authority and reliability in all matters of faith and conduct
were to be judged.

These words express the view of Bruce Lumsden, President of Melbourne University
Evangelical Union (MUEU) in 1938, but also the potency of the concern aroused by a
widespread perception of the state of the church among the founders and members of
MUEU in the first decade of its existence.2 Three-quarters of a century later, Melbourne
University Christian Union (MUCU) still has as an objective, ‘to uphold the fundamental
truths of the Christian faith as contained in the Bible.’

Click on the link in the box to download the full thesis.