p. 3 | Rejecting Revelation

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Dec 5, 1907

Rejecting Revelation

By Research

REJECTING the revelation which God has made of himself through his Son, made known in his Word, the wise men of this generation have set themselves up as seekers after God, trying to discover by research that which can be received only through revelation. To the old question, “Canst thou by searching find out God?” they are trying to give the affirmative answer, forgetting that the finite can not discover the infinite; and the result is that the god which they find is altogether such a one as themselves—a finite god, the deduction of a false science. This scientific god is not a person, in any proper sense of the term, but is designated as “an intelligent, creative, working Force,” co-existent with matter and discovered in the laboratory, a god limited by law and a synonym for “nature.” With such a conception of God as this there is no place in scientific religion for sin or its forgiveness, no place for a Son equal with the Father, no place for a vicarious sacrifice and an atoning work, and no place for such a sudden change in the order of things as would be involved in the personal coming of Christ—a change which would be entirely contrary to the observed order of things upon which the theory of evolution is based. In scientific religion “all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation,”—a fact which suggests that the modern religionist may after all be a last-day scoffer under another name. The religion of research demands no personal faith in Christ, but only an acknowledgment of “an intelligent, creative, working Force,” and such a submission to the working of this Force as is closely akin to fatalism. Such a religion is just as distinct from Christianity as are any of the grosser forms of heathenism. The true gospel comes “through revelation of Jesus Christ.”