The Sure Foundation by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 26, 1910

The Sure Foundation

By C. M. S.

HE who introduced offense into heaven set up a foundation which God could not permit to endure. It was not composed of enduring material. Falsehood entered into every fiber, and only error could build upon it. “Every plant, which my Heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” “Affliction shall not rise up the second time.”

In view of the unalterable purpose of God to uproot and cast out of his universe all that partakes of the nature of that which brought offense into the universe, how important that we know his truth, and come into harmony with his purpose. Says Jesus: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Every error clung to breeds in us other errors, and binds us by just so much to the kingdom of darkness, which is built on error.

There is spreading through the world insidiously a doctrine, expressed in various forms, but based directly on that falsehood of Satan uttered in Eden, “Ye shall not surely die: . . . ye shall be as gods.” That false doctrine teaches that we are truly a part of God — not merely his workmanship, but a very part of his essential being. Journals are printed to propagate the teaching; myriads of books are published to expound the mysteries of the new faith; it is touching a responsive chord in the hearts of many, and building up a large following. “The divinity of humanity” has come to be a favorite phrase for the tongue of many a public speaker. But the philosophy for which that and kindred phrases stand, is the philosophy with which Satan overthrew man in Eden; and through that philosophy he proposes to continue the work of overthrowing humanity. Its remarkable revival at this time in so many different quarters of the earth is a sign

of the times. It is one of Satan’s last strenuous efforts to blind the eyes of the race.

In a journal called the Sun Worshipper, — not printed in India, Persia, Egypt, or the islands of the South Seas, but in the center of the United States of America, — that satanic philosophy is expounded. It teaches that man is his own savior; that in order to become free, he must learn to liberate himself; that he must find in himself the power to cure himself of sickness and sin; that everything has within itself the power of creation; and that “man is the highest expression of God.”

“Ye shall be as gods,” said Satan. Ye ‘are “the highest expression of God,” says this philosophy. In this not only is God’s Word utterly discredited; but the plan of redemption, all that God has done for man, is flatly denied, cast aside, trampled underfoot; and man is put in the place of God, to do for man that which God alone can do. This is man’s attempt to do in the earth what Satan attempted to do in heaven — exalt self. Satan said, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. . . . I will be like the Most High.” And man is allowing himself to be actuated by the same terrible ambition.

It is right to worship God; it is our duty so to do. But if God be inherently in us, if any part of us be God, then it would be right to worship ourselves; for in so doing we would be worshiping God. That false doctrine teaches, first, that God is in us inherently; that we are part divine, and therefore immortal. Then how logical to reason that in exalting and worshiping self, we are exalting and worshiping God. By that subtle falsehood — the divinity of humanity, God inherently in us — the worship of self takes the place of the true worship of God, and all that false and fatal system comes trailing after, overthrowing (in the minds of those blinded by it) the whole divine plan, making Christ’s life and sacrifice for us superfluous, and the Word of God “of none effect.”

That one subtle purpose has run through the work of Satan from the day he conspired against his Maker even to this present day, and will so continue until his last victim has been ensnared. His power over the minds of those who have not the mind of Christ will increase from day to day. The subtlety of his sophistry will continue to grow keener to the end. The rapid increase in the teachings of the philosophies of heathenism now proves that this is so. There has been an awakening among those false systems in the lands of their origin, and they have been rapidly spreading in lands that had not known them hitherto. They are winning their disastrous way wherever the power of God has not come in to dominate the life. The harvest of this world is rapidly getting ready for the sickle — the weeds as well as the wheat.

How gratifying it is to know that there is a defense set for the people of God; that there is a foundation on which we can rest down with the most comforting assurance. “The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his.” 2 Tim. 2: 19. It is time to seek God, to “watch unto prayer,” that the overspreading delusions of these last days may not reckon us among their victims. C. M. S.