An Immanent God and an Evolutionary Conception of the Bible
By Editor
It is plain that professed leaders of religious thought are being impelled by a satanic inspiration to write books which will undermine the confidence of the people in the authority of the Holy Scriptures, and which substitute a merely human philosophy for the fundamental truths of a Biblical Christianity. These books are being multiplied very rapidly, and those journals which advocate a liberal theology are recommending them to the reading public. It is the outbreaking of that infidelity which has been gathering strength for more than a quarter of a century, but which has been more or less successfully repressed until recently by the legacy of Christian faith from a past generation. All such restraint now, however, appears to have been cast aside. The flood-gates of infidelity are wide open. Our attention is called anew to this subject by the appearance of two books which voice in the most outspoken way the teachings of the new theology. One of these books bears the title “The Inward Light,” and is written by a prominent Congregational clergyman who is a lecturer at Andover Theological Seminary. His doctrine from which he develops his complete treatise upon the subject is summarized in his own words, as follows:— There is in every man light sufficient to disclose all the truth that is needed for the purposes of life; that light is from God who dwells in humanity as he is immanent in the universe; therefore the source of authority is to be found within the soul, and not in external authority of church or creed or book. Here we have in plain terms one of the logical and inevitable consequences of that modern interpretation and perversion of the Scriptural teaching of the omnipresence of God which is phrased in the expression “the immanent God.” This is the pantheistic conception of God which arises from so dwelling on “the universal, ever and everywhere, present immanence of God in nature and in man as to identify and confound God with creation.” These teachers reject the Biblical revelation of the fall of man, the entrance of sin, and the fact that there is another spirit “that now worketh in the children of disobedience,” and declare that God dwells in every man regardless of any question of repentance for sin and the acceptance of the way of salvation as revealed in the Scriptures. It is an easy step from this position to the conclusion that this is the primary and all-sufficient revelation of God to man, and then comes the teaching that the written revelation of God in the Bible is to be tested by the inward light which emanates from God in man. It only remains for Satan to take possession of minds thus deprived of that weapon with which Jesus met the arch-deceiver in the wilderness (“It is written”), and the inspiration of Satan will become “the inward light,” and then the fruit of the doctrine that “the source of authority is to be found within the soul” will be that Satan will be enthroned in the human heart and manifested in the life. What a pity that the wiles of the great adversary of souls are not perceived! The other book is entitled “The Use of the Scriptures in Theology,” and consists of a series of lectures recently delivered by Prof. William Newton Clarke, of Colgate University. It is claimed for this teacher that he “holds to an unusual degree the confidence of religious leaders of all schools and all churches,” and “his sincere Christian devoutness” is vouched for. In treating his subject it is declared that “he does not argue for a new view of the Bible, though he frequently states the newer view with a clearness which is in itself an argument; he considers rather the case for the historical or evolutionary conception of the Bible to be now beyond need of argument, and he proceeds to show what this means in the formulation of Christian doctrine and in ordinary Christian thinking.”4 What this evolutionary conception of the Bible really does mean, so far as Christian doctrine is concerned, is shown by the following summary of the results arrived at by this devout Christian lecturer, as given in The Independent:— When Dr. Clarke has finished with his argument, there is very much in the systematic theologies hitherto regnant that is absolutely obsolete, and much in the methods of handling the Bible by the ordinary minister that is no longer tolerable. The proof-text method is gone, and the dogma of an infallible doctrinal repository, equal in all its parts; the covenant theology is also put in limbo, and the theory of the imputation of another’s righteousness, also the expectation of Christ’s bodily return, and the idea of a general judgment, and all that has grown out of the application of altar terms and conceptions in the doctrine of salvation. After thus testifying that this lecturer has discarded some of the most vital and fundamental doctrines of Christianity, The Independent congratulates itself that “this final pronouncement of the breakdown of the old ways of treating the Bible is made, not by an agitator or an extremist, but by a warm-hearted Christian man.” According to this view it is not the work of an extremist, but rather of a genuine Christian to declare “absolutely obsolete,” such doctrines as the covenant with Abraham, righteousness by faith, a literal second advent of Christ, a general judgment, and all the typical teaching embodied in the sanctuary and its services. How much worse could an extremist do? Is any further evidence required to show that representative leaders of Protestant religious thought have utterly abandoned the ground gained at such cost in the Reformation of the sixteenth century? The authority of the Bible as the Word of God, and the belief that our acceptance with God depended upon the merits and righteousness of Christ imputed to us through our faith in him as “the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world,” were basic principles of that movement which liberated mind and conscience from the bondage of papal superstition. But now the modern idea of an immanent God and the evolutionary conception of the Bible have led to the rejection of these principles by the successors of the Reformers. What is the meaning of this modern apostasy?—It means the revival of the papacy. This is so clearly stated through the spirit of prophecy that we will quote two brief paragraphs:— In order for Satan to maintain his sway over men, and establish the authority of the papal usurper, he must keep them in ignorance of the Scriptures. The Bible would exalt God, and place finite men in their true position; therefore its sacred truths must be concealed and suppressed. This logic was adopted by the Roman Church. For hundreds of years the circulation of the Bible was prohibited. The people were forbidden to read it or to have it in their homes, and unprincipled priests and prelates interpreted its teachings to sustain their pretensions. . . . A day of great intellectual darkness has been shown to be favorable to the success of popery. It will yet be demonstrated that a day of great intellectual light is equally favorable for its success. In past ages, when men were without God’s Word, and without the knowledge of the truth, their eyes were blindfolded, and thousands were ensnared, not seeing the net spread for their feet. In this generation there are many whose eyes become dazzled by the glare of human speculations, “science falsely so called;” they discern not the net, and walk into it as readily as if blindfolded. . . . Thus the false science of the nineteenth century, which undermines faith in the Bible, will prove as successful in preparing the way for the acceptance of the papacy, with its pleasing forms, as did the withholding of knowledge in opening the way for its aggrandizement in the Dark Ages.—“Great Controversy,” pages 51, 572, 573. Recently we published the announcement of a Roman Catholic journal that the time had come to build a Catholic America. It is plain that professed Protestants are preparing the way for the accomplishment of this long-cherished purpose. And only in the light of the third angel’s message can these movements be understood. These things ought to arouse us to a holy zeal in behalf of this truth. How can we be slothful? How can we drift along in a Laodicean condition,—neither cold nor hot? How can we fall asleep on the enchanted ground? Awake! Awake!! We are under bonds to give the message of warning to the world. Those who neglect this duty are placing their own souls in peril. The infidelity of those who are unfaithful to their trust must quicken our faith and zeal. The truth must be proclaimed with a loud voice, and a standard must be raised to which the people can be called.