Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 11, 1909

Disguised Infidelity

The spirit of infidelity which is pervading the teaching of many pulpits in the great churches is occasion for much concern. There are sober, serious-thinking men and women in every denomination who look with much concern at the inroads being made upon the Christian faith by the so-called higher criticism, evolution, etc. The editor of the Lutheran, in a recent number of that journal points out this danger that threatens the church. He says:—

The men who are saving souls to-day are not they who tell men that the Bible is full of myth and allegory and incorrect statements; but they who have searched the Scriptures to learn what the Spirit of God has to say to men about their estate both here and hereafter. They are the men who have less to say about science, evolution, sociology, and the absurdity of creeds, and more about man's sinful estate in the sight of God, his need of repentance, his need of grace and justification, and his hope of salvation in the blood of Christ that was shed on Calvary.

The chief difficulty with the church to-day is that too many of its leaders and teachers know a great deal about everything else except the one thing needful—how may I be at peace with God? They can furnish you with an array of learning on almost any subject that touches the circumference of God's truth, but do not grasp the meaning of Paul's words: “The natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.” They can preach many nice and new things about this life and this world; but have no uplifting message about the other world and eternal life. And yet these are the themes around which the Word of God revolves. They dissect the Scriptures; the fathers searched them. They seem more concerned to tell people what there is in the Bible that should be doubted; the fathers were intent to teach men what they must believe if they would be saved. They weigh the Scriptures in the balances of man's thinking; the fathers weighed them in the balances of God's thinking. Their range of knowledge about things in general is wider; but the knowledge of the fathers went deeper and touched the marrow of the gospel so that it became the power of God unto salvation. The truth is, there is an amount of loose thinking and teaching about the Bible to-day that is appalling.