p. 11 | Modern Salvation by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 15, 1911

Modern Salvation

By C. M. S.

The Christian Register of May 25, in an editorial under the above heading, deals with the old-time religion and gospel in a very free-handed manner, and furnishes its own substitute for both. We quote some expressions from the editorial, in order that our readers may judge of the wide gulf fixed between religion and salvation as the advocates of the Higher Criticism see it, and the same things as they are set forth in the Word of God:—

We may justly speak of the present opinions concerning the duty of a church or a minister or any Christian as modern. The old idea of salvation from an eternal hell has dropped out of every field of calculation, unless it be that of a few professed revivalists. Many of these, even, are preaching a more rational view of duty as it touches our common business, our social life, and our home life,—and these as constituting the chief end of man. Salvation consists in doing those things which bear upon the present life and the present world.

Speaking of the sermon on the mount, and its lack of application to the people and conditions of our day, the editor says:—

We are surely not compelled to perpetuate the conception of God as a king, nor are we compelled to pray for a seat at the right hand of the King. This is a republican age, and there is nothing whatever in our religious nature to forbid us conceiving the future society as a democracy. With this change goes out the whole thought of judgment days and eternal torment; that is, the torment inflicted by a monarch on his rebellious subjects.

Of the same order is the following:—

We have no call to vision our eternity in a New Jerusalem.

The modern means of salvation, as invented by human beings, naturally elevates the human to an important place in the work of accomplishing man's salvation, and so we read again:—

When we turn to Christian activities, we need not be surprised to find these also modernized. It must not alarm us in this active age to find less praying to God to help us to do the right thing, and to make us over with new hearts and an increased decision to help God,—an enlarged appreciation of man's ability.

Of course there is in the above an entire misrepresentation of the purpose of gospel work. Nowhere does the Word teach that the business of our Lord's commissioned representatives is to teach men how to escape an eternal hell, or that eternal torment is the portion of the unsaved. It does teach that eternal death will be the portion of all who persist in disobedience and disloyalty to the government of Heaven. True it is that many who are to-day attempting “revival” work are basing it on socialism, economics, and home life, so that the “salvation” which they preach “consists in doing those things which bear upon the present life and the present world.” While helpfulness and a proper regard for one another's rights is good, yet that is not salvation in any legitimate meaning of the term. If that were salvation, we would be saved by our own works and in our own name; but the Word declares that “there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” And, do the best we can, handicapped by sin and sinful flesh, we know that “there is none that doeth good, no, not one;” we are still “unprofitable servants.” There is some meaning to salvation as set forth in the Bible. “Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” But “salvation,” as interpreted by the modernizer of religion, may mean anything which he desires it to mean; and through the multitudinous applications that are made of the word, it comes to mean nothing at all. Salvation takes hold of the idea of being saved from something; but the Protestant modernist does not admit that there has been any “fall of man,” and therefore sees no necessity for a Saviour. It necessarily follows that salvation, to him, can not mean being saved from the consequences of the fall; so he gives it a meaning that will harmonize with his disbelief.

The inability of the modernizer of religion to comprehend the gospel and the plan of the divine government is perhaps nowhere better illustrated than in the second quotation above. It is impossible to find words to express adequately one's astonishment while reading such utterances. Can men who believe in God, in a divine government, really believe that the government of the universe must be altered to harmonize with the changing

political views of men and with the evanescent forms of human government? What does it matter if this is “a republican age”? That can not alter God's government, nor change the purpose of Heaven toward man. Is it true that “there is nothing whatever in our religious nature to forbid us conceiving the future society as a democracy”? Our belief in the Word of God ought to forbid it. There is no uncertainty about the declarations of Inspiration upon that point. One of the last statements of the Bible should settle that matter for every loyal Christian. Speaking of the earth after sin and sinners have been cleansed out of it, and “the future society” has been established upon it, the revelator says: “And there shall be no curse any more: and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein: and his servants shall serve him.” Rev. 22:3.

More than that, we read the Saviour's own words to this effect: “Ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power.” Mark 14:62. Luke records it: “From henceforth shall the Son of man be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” Luke 22:69. “Christ Jesus, . . . who is at the right hand of God.” Rom. 8:34. “Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.” Col. 3:1. Now, concerning those who are saved (in the sense in which salvation is used in the Bible), our Lord himself says: “He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne.” Rev. 3:21. Of course, we are not “compelled to pray for a seat at the right hand of the King.” We are not compelled to be there at all. The gospel of Christ has no compulsion in it. But there will be those who will love their King so much that they will be inexpressibly glad to sit in any place he may appoint for them. And those who are there finally will be those who accepted the salvation which he proffered, who were with him much in prayer on the earth, and who were glad to make their being there a subject of prayer.

Says the editor again, in the same extract: “With this change goes out the whole thought of judgment days,” etc. But the Word declares that “he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness.” Acts 17:31. Again: “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment.” Heb. 9:27. Then whom shall we believe, the divine Word or the modernizer of religion? Which shall we accept, religion as God-given and exemplified in the life and teachings of Jesus, or religion as modernized, socialized, and devitalized?

The possessor of modernized religion has “no call to vision his eternity in a New Jerusalem.” Why not? Surely there is nothing better. Concerning that we read: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God: and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away. And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” Rev. 21:1-5. Can man imagine a more delectable place in which to spend an eternity? a better place for “future society”? or better society than will be there? It will be better than any of us deserve.

The editorial says, however, that “we have no call to vision our eternity in a New Jerusalem.” We certainly will “have no call to” if we refuse to accept Jesus Christ as our full and complete Saviour. There will be many, very many, who will “have no call” to spend eternity there. But they will be unable to say that they never had a call; for we read: “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:14. It is a sad and terrible truth that, although the last gospel call goes to all the world, millions will find, when the tragedy of sin closes, that their refusal of the call puts them finally in the place where it can be said they “have no call” to be inside the New Jerusalem. That is, it is not their place; they have chosen to spend eternity elsewhere, and definite assignments have been made. Those adjudged righteous, through the blood of the Lamb, inherit the place prepared for them; and those who have refused Jesus Christ as their Saviour from sin and all its consequences go down into the blackness of everlasting death.

Our Saviour was our pattern in prayer as well as in labor. He spent much time in prayer. What was wise and necessary for him can not be foolish and unessential for us. He declared also, “I can of mine own self do nothing.” Yet the editorial in question says it must not alarm us if we find less praying to God to help us in this active age and an enlarged appreciation of man's ability. But there is the real danger; there is where the trouble lies. Christ prayed much—man is praying little and will pray less. Christ did not set himself up as one who could do great things of himself—man is coming to have “an enlarged appreciation” of his own ability.

This whole program of the modernizers of religion is out of joint with God's plan and with true religion. It is another gospel, even such a gospel as the apostle Paul anathematized. It is one of those delusions of death, which leave despairing and ruined souls in the wake of its progress, and in its own progress is fulfilling the prophecies of the Book which it would modernize and discard.

C. M. S.