Masquerading in Religious Garb by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 20, 1911

Masquerading in Religious Garb

By F. M. W.

God is unchanged and unchangeable; he is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. His truth is as unchangeable as himself. In every age it has been the same. Plain, straightforward, undeviating, it has appeared always in its true character. It has had no resort to subterfuge or devious wanderings. Its power has been in its simplicity; its force in its directness. The last generation of men will be saved by the same gospel, and by compliance with the same conditions, which has brought salvation to the faithful of all the ages of the past.

The reverse is true of error. Its history is the exact opposite of the history of truth. Subtle and deceitful in its workings, it has assumed every character and changed to every hue, the better to accomplish its evil purposes. At times it has appeared in its true character, the bold, brazen, hateful thing that it is; at other times it has borrowed the livery of heaven, and masqueraded under the name of truth and virtue, the better to accomplish its wicked designs. The bitter, implacable foe of Christianity, it has not hesitated to assume that name when by so doing it could better accomplish its work. Its names have been legion, its assumed characters myriad. It has sought to suit its attacks against Christianity and its divine Author to the age and to the times.

The Scriptures of truth particularly forewarn us that in the last days of earth’s history the author of error will appear even as an angel of light in the carrying forward of his work. We have but to open our eyes and look out into the great world, to see the striking fulfilment of this statement. Through subtle insinuation and intrigue, professed Christianity itself has been honeycombed by the spirit of skepticism and infidelity. Of old, the infidel critic, in jesting, blatant speech, in scoff and invective, sought to heap ridicule upon divine revelation. Infidel France openly avowed her determination to put to death God’s two witnesses; but the last few decades have witnessed an adaptation of error better suited to the so-called intellectualism and esthetic culture of a later civilization.

Under the names of Higher Criticism and New Theology, professedly Christian in character, and with the avowed purpose of reducing historical and Scriptural research to its final solution. Our infidelity has invaded the church of God. Men of high Christian profession have set themselves, by the sowing of this evil seed, to prepare their congregations and listeners for what they conceive to be a higher Christian philosophy than was believed by the fathers. The baneful fruit of this teaching is beginning to appear; it is seen in a lessening of Christian faith, in a discarding of the old-time fundamentals of Scriptural truth, in a lowering of the moral standard, in the exaltation of a human Saviour, in the creation of a rapidly growing element of free-thinkers in the professed church of God, who are as truly infidel at heart as some of their cruder and more outspoken prototypes of the past.

Speaking of the character of this invasion, and of the legitimate fruits it has brought forth, the United Presbyterian of July 6, 1911, says:—

We like things new, and hear with open ears the most radical propositions in faith and religion as well as in science. The New Theology speaks of advance, of new thought, new standards, and new motives in life. It gains a hearing with those who have not been grounded in the old faith, and by its insistent claim to the inspiration of modern thought gains the assent of many who are without deep conviction in reference to divine truth.

It is difficult to define the tenets of the New Theology; for it uses old terms, but with new meanings. It professes loyalty to the Scriptures, but its definition of inspiration brings the sacred books nearly to the common level of great writers, a little earlier but not much above Shakespeare and Milton. “The Bible can no longer be isolated from other books, as was the habit in the old theology.” It speaks of the divinity of Jesus, but it is the divinity which they say is found in every one, a little better perhaps, but far below Deity. One of the most attractive teachings of the New Theology is its view of sin. It does not have the severe element of guilt and penalty following, but a weakness of the moral power; not a fall from the original holiness of creation in the image of God, but the present stage is the development of man from a lower ancestry, “the survival of the animal in man.”

Corresponding to this is the conception of salvation. It is not a work of God wrought out through the atonement, but a development of that which is already in us, a process going on through all the ages, and the atonement is in human suffering. Not regeneration, but development is the drift. In general, the New Theology lowers the conception of God as a person, loving and caring for and saving us, and of Christ as the eternal Son of God, truly God in our nature, divine and yet our brother; it also lowers the conception of man and of his destiny. It removes us from that close relation to God as our Father which the Holy Scriptures so clearly reveal.

The New Theology is not new; ages ago it was taught; in every age it has been proclaimed and received with gladness, because it takes away the deep sense

of guilt; but it does not save the world; it has no power to regenerate.

As is stated above, the New Theology is as old as the ages. It inquires, though perhaps in more polite form, in the words of Pharaoh: “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice? . . . I know not the Lord.” The effect of this teaching has been to take away the consciousness of sin, to darken men’s faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; and it will leave them stranded and shipwrecked amid the ruins of their own theories. In it there is no power to regenerate.

From these philosophies of man God calls us to return to the simple story of the cross; to Christ, the only Saviour of man; to the Word of God, the only divine revelation. Before its mysteries, human philosophy falls in insignificance; through its divine energy, and through it only, can a change be effected in the human heart; and through its power eventually will those who accept its teachings be saved, and error be forever overthrown. F. M. W.