p. 8 | Deceiving the World by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 24, 1912

Deceiving the World

By C. M. S.

It is at the risk of being considered narrow-minded, bigoted, and unintelligent that a man in these days rejects certain findings of “science” relative to geology, astronomy, and evolution, and holds to the Bible as his basis of belief. Some of the findings of science to which we refer are given space in some of the most widely read church papers of the world, as if it were the business of teachers and periodicals claiming to be Christian to set before the world in a commendatory way ideas directly at variance with the plainest teachings of the Bible.

One of these influential religious journals permits a college professor to declare through its columns the triumph of Darwinism over all that the wisest and best men of the past have believed, previous to this century; that the controversy over the “missing link” has been settled in favor of such a creature having existed; that the educated have espoused the evolution theory; and such believe that man has lived upon this earth tens of thousands of years.

This indicates plainly and forcibly the trend of modern thought, and the lack of faith on the part of the masses and many of the teachers of the masses. It is one of the sure indications that we are living in the time of the Lord’s preparation. “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” is one of the most pertinent questions that can be asked of this generation. It matters little that men who are indeed scientific men dispute the existence, at any time, of any such creature as that indicated by the term “missing link,” and dispute the correctness of many or most of the Darwinian hypotheses, uneasy religious teachers, writers, and speakers accept and spread abroad that antichristian doctrine until the faith of the masses is being severely shaken, and many are yielding to the claims of those theorizers.

These unproved theories are being rapidly incorporated into the text-books of schools and colleges, and the young are taught them along with pagan mythology. Is it any wonder that youth so schooled come to manhood and womanhood skeptics, agnostics, and infidels?

The pulpit, which should stand as an unyielding wall against the invasion of the citadel of truth by these hosts of error, is far from being a unit in the defense of truth. In fact, a large portion of the clergy might justly be charged with “giving aid and comfort to the enemy” in this particular matter. A minister in writing to one of the leading weeklies goes so far as to say that “if the preacher assumes, in an argument or appeal, that the stories in Genesis of the creation of the world and of man, of the temptation and fall, and of the deluge,” give us historical events, then the “intelligent and scholarly portion of his congregation lose their respect for the pulpit.” But the “respect” of such is not the pivot upon which the course of the minister of the gospel should turn. “To the word and to the testimony” should be his motto. Can he afford to throw aside the plain declarations of the

Word of God, and take his stand upon the theories of men, which have ever been at variance one with another? It is a question that each preacher, and each teacher, and each individual must decide for himself; and he must remember also that in the decision which he makes, he may be deciding not only the destiny of his own soul, but that of many another who may be influenced by his course to do as he does.

The world is being deceived; God has told us in his Word that the world would be deceived. That Word declares that strong delusions will come; they have come, and are continuing to come. The falsehoods that destroy souls are being expounded by the pulpit and through the press, and souls are deciding for eternity. “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” The agencies of Satan are doing all they can to make the answer No; but they who would meet Christ in peace must be able to answer Yes, and answer truly so.

C. M. S.