p. 14 | The Danger of Pantheism

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 23, 1910

The Danger of Pantheism

SOME there are in every church who recognize the dangerous errors that are seeking to overthrow Christian faith to-day. Invasion of pantheistic ideas is causing uneasiness to those who still believe in the simplicity of Bible teaching regarding the personality of God. Naphtali Luccock, D. D., in an address before a general convention of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, sounds a warning note, as published in the Northwestern Christian Advocate of May 25:—

The church is threatened, at least among us, with a subtle invasion of pantheism. It comes in the guise of a benevolent philosophy, that would open our ark, and explain its contents to us. It starts out with the principle of monistic idealism, and would from this explain the universe. When it is through, we are robbed of a personal God. Atonement, we are told, is a splendid illustration of the altruism of a tremendously good man; conversion, a bracing of the will for moral endeavor; sanctification, progressive ethical culture; immorality, to be investigated by the psychical society; the resurrection, a harmless dream. Alas, the fire is out! It is said that a progressive philosopher of this sort, a theological professor, was explaining to an audience the conversion of St. Paul on the theory of a sunstroke. A Scotchman, who had gotten through at a Methodist altar and knew it, arose, and asked the privilege of making a suggestion. It was granted, and this was the suggestion: “When you return, professor, take your faculty and the students out in the sun, and leave them there a good while. This old world needs nothing so much as Pauline sunstrokes, when you consider all that has come out of that wonderful experience.”

It may be said of these theorists, in the words of the Lord Jesus: “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.” He whose heart has been touched by the power of divine grace, whose own soul has felt the influence of the Holy Spirit, knows that there is something more in conversion than the bracing of the will, and in sanctification than ethical culture. The gospel of the Lord Jesus still works effectually in the lives of those who will receive it in simple faith; and those who follow on to know the Lord Jesus Christ in the simplicity of that faith, after the revelation of his Word, will experience the power of the resurrection, and share the glories of immortality at last. The vain philosophies of men furnish a poor standard to live by, small solace in the hour of need, and will prove ineffectual as a passport to the life beyond.