The Proving of Israel, Ancient and Modern
By Percy Tilson Magan
It has been the fate of every Christian body to degenerate from the principles of its founders. Succeeding generations of every church have gradually lost the life, the power, and the godly energy and heroism of their forefathers in the faith. The life and deeds of the Roman Catholic Church of to-day are not as were the life and deeds of the apostles and members of the early Christian Church. There has been “a falling away”—a degenerating. Compare the Protestant denominations of our own times with the brave men and women who were their founders. Think of Wiclif, Huss, Jerome of Prague, Luther, Melancthon, Tyndale, Wesley, and Roger Williams. Then contrast what these men did and dared for the cross of Christ with what those professing to follow them, and who are named by their names, are doing to-day. Here also there has been “a falling away.” Seventh-day Adventists are confronted with the same danger of having “a falling away;” in fact, there has been a falling away on the part of many ever since the Minneapolis General Conference in 1888. At that time the precious light of righteousness by faith was given to enable us to do the work of the third angel’s message. The Holy Spirit was given not for an opiate, but for a stimulant—to stimulate work. By many, however, it has been taken as an opiate by which to avoid doing Christian work. There was a time when, if the question were asked at a camp-meeting, “How many know that their sins are forgiven, and that they are accepted of Jesus Christ?”—there was a time when, if this question were asked, it meant a great struggle for most Adventists to answer it in the affirmative. To-day a large per cent of almost any company of Adventists will answer that question in the affirmative without any struggle at all. But the answer in most cases means but little. It has degenerated into a form, a mere phrase of the lips. There is no living Christian experience beneath it. People are rocking themselves to sleep with the idea that if they simply say they believe their sins are forgiven, this constitutes righteousness by faith and acceptance with God. The precious gift of Christian liberty has degenerated with many into a wretched Shibboleth. The term “righteousness by faith” has become with some a sort of supposed miraculous password into the kingdom of God. “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works: can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
One period of Bible history illustrates this principle very clearly. The generation of Israel which went into the land of Canaan knew what it was to have a practical, working faith. They knew what it was to go out to war under the direction of the Lord of hosts. Once the Jordan was crossed, Canaan was entered, but not subdued. Within its borders dwelt a powerful race determined19to oppose the invasion of their territory. The various tribes, often at enmity with one another, were now knit together by a sense of the common danger. Fortresses scattered everywhere, “cities great and fenced up to heaven” helped to make their country well-nigh impregnable. When God gave the plan for the taking of Jericho, every man in that vast host, except Achan, carried it out to the letter; and in exactly seven days from the time that siege was laid, the city was in the hands of the besiegers. They were thoroughly drilled in the science of doing and daring in actual struggles and conflicts for the King of kings. This generation had a practical experience in warfare for God under the direction of the Lord himself. Besides this, they knew what it was to be hewed and trimmed and squared by the hand of the Most High. Experiences like that at Ai were not pleasant; but they cleansed, purified, and toughened the fiber of their characters. The victory at Beth-horon resulted in the subjection of southern Canaan. Then the tribes of northern Palestine allied themselves to resist the hard-fighting and all-conquering Joshua. But it was of no avail. He fell upon their camp near Lake Merom, and “the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them . . . until they left them none remaining.” City after city was taken, and Hazor, the stronghold of the confederacy, was burned. The war continued several years; but its close found Joshua the master of Canaan; “and the land rested from war.”