A False Philosophy

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Nov 12, 1903

A False Philosophy

UNDER the title, “The Cheerfulness of Death,” a physician contributes to The Outlook an article which illustrates how far men can with the utmost complacency substitute their own ideas for revealed truth, and how they can adopt as conclusions from their false premises views which are diametrically opposed to the whole import of Scripture teaching. The closing paragraph of the article reads as follows:—

If death, then, is not a painful, unpleasant process, and if it does for us so much, it should be, not the last enemy, but our best friend; not dreaded as the messenger of evil, but welcomed as a companion who will lead us into paths of pleasantness, and reveal to us the joys for which we have been longing all our lives. We should not speak of the terrors of death, but should feel in our very hearts the cheerfulness of death.

In its editorial comment upon this article The Outlook says:—

His article is one to be cut out, kept, recurred to. Especially is it to be commended to the thoughtful meditation of such as, to use the words of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, “through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” To such it ought to come as a deliverance from a needless and torturing fear.

All this agrees with the philosophy of Lord Bacon, who wrote, “Death is a friend of ours; and he that is not ready to entertain him, is not at home,” but it is utterly at variance with the whole tenor of the teaching of the Scriptures. Death came as the consequence of sin. “Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin.” “The wages of sin is death.” Neither sin nor its result, death, is a blessing to us. Sin is an enemy to be finally destroyed. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” By meeting and conquering death the Son of man gained the victory over “him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;” and through this gift of himself he is able to deliver “them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage,” but this does not make death a friend to us. An enemy whose prey is wrested from his grasp is not a friend.

The teachings of modern theology are amazing. While claiming to interpret the Bible to the people, it really sets aside the Bible, and substitutes the speculations and the reasonings of men. And so instead of exalting Jesus as the Saviour from sin and the conqueror of the last enemy, death, these false teachers assure lost sinners that the law of God, by which sin is known and condemned, has been abolished, and that death, the consequence of sin, is a friend. By such perversions of the gospel the world is being prepared for the crowning deception, when Satan will appear in person, and will be hailed as the coming Redeemer.

How much the world needs the simple truth as it is in Jesus! How greatly are those who have received the truth debtors to those who are in the darkness of error! Let the light of truth shine forth.