p. 2 | A Specimen Fool

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 26, 1915

A Specimen Fool

The Scriptures of Truth give us God's definition of a fool. “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” Under the above heading Dr. George S. Chadbourne, in Zion's Herald for March 31, gives an example of this class of fools in the words of a certain clergyman who, on the first Sunday after his ordination, expressed his view of God in the following language:—

For example, the faith that there is a personal God, a great Companion that watches over us, seems impossible today to many intelligent minds. Perhaps the word God will come to be understood to be a synonym of the word universe. It is natural, if not inevitable, that the infinite energy which actuates all things should be personified in common speech, and doubtless we shall continue to speak of God as a personal Father, even if we come to think that there is no God except the universe itself. Faith in the goodness of God becomes to the modern mind the conviction that the universe is such that human ideals are attainable. That conviction seems impregnable, though the Father God of Jesus suffer the fate of the numerous other God-conceptions that have retreated before the advancing light of human knowledge.

Although uttered by a professed Christian minister and from a Christian pulpit, these words express the rankest infidelity. They reveal in a measure the inroads which atheism is making in the great Christian church. It is sad to consider, but it is nevertheless true, that there are many other professed ministers of the gospel who have expressed similar sentiments, and who would approve this profession of disbelief in the actuality of God's existence. The avowal of such sentiments in the sight of God is counted foolishness, and in the last great day, when he arises to judge the inhabitants of the earth, the true estimate of these principles as compared with the principles of eternal truth will appear to all men. Let us patiently abide that day, in the meantime endeavoring to save our fellows from the great maelstrom of infidelity and of rejection of God.