Silencing God’s Voice by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 18, 1909

Silencing God’s Voice

By Editor

The acceptance of the hypothesis of evolution in place of the Biblical doctrine of special creation has resulted in the loss of belief in a personal God. This belief being fundamental in the whole scheme of Christianity, there has come a revolution in the whole range of Christian doctrine which is really equivalent to the substitution of a new religion for “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” The practical effect of this change is plainly exhibited in the views expressed concerning such calamities as formerly led men to entertain a wholesome fear of God and to forsake their sins. Instead of recognizing in these visitations the call of God to return to him with repentance and confession, they are explained to be the inevitable results of the working of natural laws, and as thus interpreted, they serve to make people forget God. This change of belief is acknowledged by The Nation (New York) of February 4, in an editorial, from which we quote:—

The flood of comment on the earthquake at Messina continues; yet in all that is said there is—as in the case of San Francisco—but little serious moralizing. We have the conventional expressions of pity and horror, we have generous responses to appeals for help; but we view the event with a scientific detachment which would have been impossible a century ago. Few persons speak of the hand of God; many, of the inexorable laws of nature. The difference indicates, we think, a far-reaching change in our attitude toward the universe. . . .

Can it be that the scientific spirit has robbed us of the old power to discern in the universe something besides the play of blind force on brute matter? Are we no longer plagued by misgivings as to the justice of the smoking sacrifice at Messina? This globe seems to have dwindled to a whirling clod of dirt in blank immensity. There are no vast unknown regions from which an angry God may launch his thunder-bolts. The chemical constituents of land and water, of plant and animal, are analyzed, ticketed, and pigeon-holed; we think we know the exact laws by which they combine, disintegrate, and recombine in myriad forms. There seems to be nothing that can surprise, perplex, awe, or terrify us; nothing that can make our pulse check at a sudden vision of eternity, and startle us out of our humdrum and sordid pursuits. We see in the present fleeting opportunity nothing immeasurably precious because within the hour the solid bases of the hills may heave like the sea, and hurl us on “the black infinite ash-heap of the dead.”

The condition as here described is truly alarming. The unproved assertions of science have shut God out of his universe, and reduced men to mere machines that are incapable of responding to the divine messages contained in storms, floods, famines, and earthquakes. Thus has the god of this world blinded the minds of the people of this generation, lest the glorious light of the last warning message should shine upon them. And all this is done under the appearance of imparting scientific certainties.

How urgent is the demand for the cry, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come”! O that this message might be speedily proclaimed “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power”! O that our own hearts might be more deeply moved with a true sense of the meaning of these repeated judgments, and that our zeal for hastening the coming of the kingdom might be greatly quickened!