The Bible, Not Tradition
By G. B. T.
IN the discussion of the Sabbath question and some other theological questions which have wrapped up in them that which vitally affects the church and man's relation to his Maker, appeal is not infrequently made to the fact that certain customs exist, have existed for ages, and have been believed by the majority of the people, among whom are the most devout and learned in the church. While this may be true, it is dangerous ground to occupy if our search is for truth. Had the Reformers taken this position, they would never have emerged from the midnight gloom of the Dark Ages, and cast off the shackles of error and superstition which had been welded upon them by popery. The question is not what men believe, but what they ought to believe; not what men say is truth, but what really is truth. This is not determined by the number who may believe a certain dogma, or the length of time it may have had its residence among men. Hoary hairs do not change a lie into the truth. Satan is quite old, but he is the devil still. The eminent historian, Gibbon, has well said:— “The theologian may indulge the pleasing task of describing religion as she descended from heaven arrayed in her native purity; a more melancholy duty is imposed upon the historian: he must discover the inevitable mixture of error and corruption which she contracted in a long residence upon earth among a weak and degenerate race of beings.”—“Gibbon, “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” preface. The apostle Paul tells us that the “mystery of iniquity” was already working in his day, and that the full development of the “man of sin” was only a question of time. This spiritual decline made its appearance in the early church, and many unscriptural notions were introduced. Killen says:— “In the interval between the days of the apostles and the conversion of Constantine, the Christian commonwealth changed its aspect. The bishop of Rome—a personage unknown to the writers of the New Testament—meanwhile rose into prominence, and at length took precedence of all other churchmen. Rites and ceremonies, of which neither Paul nor Peter ever heard, crept silently into use, and then claimed the rank of divine institutions.”—“Ancient Church,” preface. The apostasy culminated in the Papacy, which has been characterized as “the last, the most matured, the most subtle, the most skilfully contriven, and the most essentially diabolical form of idolatry which the world ever saw, or which, there is reason to believe, it ever will see.” Concerning the error and superstition of a certain period of papal history, Dr. J. A. Wylie says:— “By the most plausible pretexts and the most subtle devices was man led away from God, and taught to center all his hopes in himself. Faith was overthrown, and works were put in its room. The sacrifice of Christ was neglected, and man became his own savior. We trace the operation of this grand error in the superstitious and burdensome rites in which all holiness now began to be placed. Sanctification was no longer sought in a pure heart and a mind enlightened by divine truth, but in certain external rites, which were seldom either important or dignified. To nourish the passions and mortify the body was now the grand secret of holiness. “Pilgrimages were undertaken, and their merits were regulated by the length and the perils of the way, and the renown of the shrine visited. Penances were imposed, fasts were enjoined; and in proportion to the severity of the suffering and the rigor of the abstinence, was the efficacy of the act to atone for sin, and recommend to the favor of God. A mind debased by ignorance, and not unfrequently by vice, and a body emaciated by flagellations and fastings, was a sure sign of eminent sanctity. Piety no longer consisted in love to God and obedience to his will, but in the observance of the most frivolous ceremonies, to which there attached an extraordinary value and a mysterious influence. “To endow a convent or erect a cathedral was among the most illustrious deeds which one could perform. To possess a finger or a toe of a saint was a rare privilege; and the owner of so inestimable a treasure derived therefrom unspeakably more benefit than could possibly accrue from the possession of any moral or spiritual excellence, however exalted. Relics so precious were sought for with a perseverance and a zeal that set all difficulties at defiance; and what was so eagerly sought was in most cases happily found. “The caves of Egypt, the sands of Libya, and the deserts of Syria, were ransacked. The bones of dead men, and, if history may be credited, of the lower animals, were exhumed, were hawked over Christendom, and purchased at a high rate. They were worn as amulets, or enshrined in cabinets of silver and gold, and, being placed in cathedrals, were exhibited at stated times to the devout. “To abandon society, with the obligations it imposes and the duties it exacts, and to consume life in the midst of filth, indolence, and vice, was accounted an effort of uncommon holiness. To shirk the plow and the loom, and mount the wallet of the beggar,—to abscond from the ranks of honest industry, and fleece the laboring classes in predatory bands or as single sorners, was to be heroically self-denied and virtuous. Such holy men were rather unpleasantly common; for the West, as formerly the East, now began to swarm with monks and hermits. Such of the pagan sophists as lived to witness the rise of this superstition, no less amazed than indignant, pointed the keen shafts of their powerful satire against that filthy race, which had renounced the beautiful mythology of Greece and the martial gods of Rome, to fall prostrate before the bones and moldering relics of the dead.”—“The Papacy,” pp. 48, 49. Think of drinking from such a polluted fountain, or looking to this period, or any other, as the place to find truth! Casting aside all tradition and superstition, our appeal should be to God's Word. We must follow the light which shines from its sacred pages, rather than walk in the footsteps of the multitude, be they ever so pious or learned. Here we can drink from a pure fountain; its waters are uncontaminated by the sayings of men who followed their own vain imaginings. Here every rock in time's ocean is charted, and all the dangers and pitfalls of the way are pointed out. Ever and anon it points with unerring accuracy in the right direction. From the broken fountains of error it leads us to the cooling springs of truth. The unadulterated Word is the only safe test by which we can determine the truth. Taking the Bible as our sole guide, we shall find Jesus, and having found him, shall be guided into all truth.