Nothing to Offer by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 5, 1911

Nothing to Offer

By F. M. W.

WHAT have the critics of the Bible and of the Christian faith to offer for that which they would destroy? What power can they promise for holy living in this life? what hope for a life to come? Verily nothing. They proclaim a doctrine of negation, of criticism, of tearing down, and not of building up. Their criticism is destructive rather than constructive. The liberal theology, so-called, is an intellectualism, a religion of the head instead of the heart. It appeals to the fancy, but makes no appeal to the deeper well-springs of the life, leaving its advocates stranded and shipwrecked, with no faith in the Word of God, and but little if any faith in the existence and divine working of an infinite Creator.

That liberal theology has not thus far accomplished its full purposes, especially in corrupting the simplicity of faith possessed by the common people, one of its leading spokesmen asserts, according to the Literary Digest of February 25. Rev. Dr. Rittelmeyer, of Nuremberg, writes in the Christliche Welt:—

Let us ask honestly what results modern theology has attained practically. As far as the great masses of workingmen are concerned, practically nothing has been gained. They either do not understand it, or they distrust it. All the public discussions and popularization of modern critical views have not found any echo or sympathy among the ranks of the laboring people.

And how about the educated classes? It has long since been the boast and hobby of advanced theology that it, and it alone, will satisfy the religious longings of the educated man who has broken with the traditional dogma and doctrines of orthodox Christianity. But what are the actual facts in the case? It is a fact that there are a considerable number among the educated who thankfully confess that they can accept Christianity only in the form in which it is taught by the advanced theologian. But how exceedingly small this number is! A periodical like the Christliche Welt, the only paper of its kind, has not been able to secure more than five thousand subscribers, although its contributors are the most brilliant in the land of scholars and thinkers; while periodicals that are exponents of the older views are read by tens and even hundreds of thousands. There are whole classes of society among the educated who are antagonistic to liberal tendencies in religion. Among these are the officers in the army and the navy, practitioners of the technical arts and of engineering, and almost to a man the whole world of business. It is foolish to close our eyes to these facts.

It would be gratifying indeed if we could believe that the great flood of disguised infidelity which during the last few decades has swept into the great professed Christian church had in reality produced so little effect as this statement indicates. Many, we know, still stand true to the “faith once delivered to the saints” with respect to the acceptance of the great foundation principles of the plan of salvation and the inspiration of the Scriptures of truth. We rejoice that even in some degree the evil tide has been held back, as admitted by those who are desirous of pressing it forward. But the revelations of the last days will bring to light the terrible part which has been played by these religious skeptics in turning men away from God and leading them to trust in a savior of their own invention instead of the one Saviour of men. The seeds of doubt and skepticism which are being sown to-day by the higher critics and the advocates of liberal theology are honeycombing the professed church of Christ. Insidiously and silently, but none the less surely, are these doctrines destroying faith on the part of the masses in the very foundations of the Christian religion. They are as a silent leaven of evil which will result in transforming the mass. The end of it all will be the rejection of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of men, the discarding of the Scriptures of truth as the revelation of God, final destruction in the overwhelming flood at the last great day.

The cause of this failure of liberal theology is plainly pointed out by this disciple of the liberal school. He assigns some of the reasons as follows:—

One trouble is that modern theology has entirely grown out of criticism. Its weakness is intellectualism; it is a negative movement. We can understand the cry of the orthodox, that advanced theology is eliminating one thing after the other from our religious thought, and then asks, What is left? True, we answer, God is left. But is it not the case that the modern God-Father faith is generally a very weak and attenuated faith in a providence, and nothing more? And on this subject, too, we quarrel among ourselves, whether a God-Father troubles himself about little things only or about great things too, such as the forgiveness of sins. We do the same thing with Jesus. We speak of him as of a unique personality, as the highest revelation of the Father, and the like, but always connected with a certain skeptical undercurrent of thought; but we do not appreciate him in his deepest soul and in the great motives of his life. He is not for modern theology what he is for orthodoxy, the Saviour of the world and the Redeemer of mankind.

Commenting upon the frank admission of this apostle of Christian (?) infidelity, the Evangelische Lutherische Kirchenzeitung of Leipzig, says:—

The psychological and spiritual solution of Rittelmeyer’s problem is not so hard to find. The soul of man can not live on negations. To stir the soul there must be positive principles and epoch-making historical facts, such as are offered by the Scriptural teachings of Christ and his words. There can be religious life only where there is faith in him who is the truth and the life. Liberal theology has failed because it has nothing to offer.

When the Scriptures of truth are rejected as the expression of the divine will to the human family, man is left to the vain imaginings of his own mind. Human philosophy then becomes the standard of moral action, the basis of religious belief. But this philosophy has no God in its system, no hope to offer, no power to impart by which character may be changed. Its advocates become the sport and prey of their own mental revelings. Truly the wisdom of man is foolishness with God.

Dr. Parker, in the Life of Faith, speaks of the fruit borne by the Scriptures of truth in the lives of those who accept it in verity as the word of God. Such fruits as these can not be produced by any modern theology which would set aside or discount the divine origin or living power of the Word of God:—

There is one test to which I can not but submit every creed, every religion, every book. What kind of manhood has it produced? What sort of men did the old Bible grow? What of their aspirations, their service, their sacrifice? They were grand men. Perhaps narrow-minded, perhaps austere, perhaps conservative

but they were honorable, determined, self-sacrificing men. They were men who put themselves to a great deal of trouble for others. They gave away much money. They counted not their lives dear unto them. They liberated slaves, they smashed iniquitous monopolies, they founded missionary societies, they dared fire and sword, pestilence and cruelty. They had not the latest learning on the Pentateuch, Isaiah, and the Apocryphal books, but they gripped the Bible with a nerve of steel. They had immense and miracle-working faith. I believe in my heart that they were more self-sacrificing than many who laugh at their ignorance and condemn their narrowness. They believed in the literal inspiration of the Bible, in the immortality of the soul, in eternal punishment, in the atoning death of the Lord Jesus; and they cried after, if finally they might attain, the holiness of God. They were not critics, they were great workers; not grammarians, but generous givers; not pedants, but unsparing in benevolence and sacrifice. I judge every religion by the men it makes, and so judged, the Bible has no need to be ashamed of its stalwarts and its heroes.

Of himself the Holy One declares: “I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no savior.” No human savior will meet the needs of a lost race. No man-made system of social or religious ethics will accomplish the miracle of a changed life. In Christ and his gospel is our only hope. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greek seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.”

It is better to trust in the Lord and in his divine Word than to put confidence in men. Let us cling devoutly to the humble, trusting, childlike faith of the fathers.

F. M. W.