p. 5 | Christian Simplicity by L. A. S.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 25, 1902

Christian Simplicity

By L. A. S.

SUBTLETY is characteristic of error. Simplicity, on the other hand, is characteristic of truth.

This thought was expressed by the apostle Paul to the Corinthians. “I fear,” he wrote to them, “lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” 2 Cor. 11:3.

Lucifer himself, though “full of wisdom” and exalted next to God, was deceived by the subtlety of unrighteousness. At the beginning of his rebellion against God he was not “acquainted with the real nature of his feelings. . . . He did not see whither he was drifting.”—“Patriarchs and Prophets,” page 39. The angels who joined with him were deceived likewise. Id., page 38.

When Satan sought to deceive the human pair in Eden, he chose the serpent as the proper instrument of his purpose. Why?—Because “the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field.” Gen. 3:1. Through the serpent he worked upon the mind of Eve, and made her “see” things that were not so; and she ate of the forbidden fruit.

This deceitful subtlety has characterized the work of the “serpent” in all ages. He soon led the inhabitants of the world away from the simple worship of Jehovah into idolatry and the mysteries of pagan worship. This pagan system embodied a devious, dark philosophy, which led the mind into the realm of mystery under the pretense that only there could saving truth be found. It had its priests and its oracles,—men who professed to be in touch with the mysteries of the higher world, and through whom alone could the common people obtain knowledge from the gods. The worship of Egypt and of Babylon revealed this feature in a marked degree.

This mysticism is interwoven with every pagan system, and this it was that poisoned the stream of Christianity soon after the latter went forth in the conquering power that marked its progress in the days of the apostles. An advancing wave of worldliness overtook and mingled with the pure stream of Christian doctrine sent forth by the early disciples, and there grew up a system of “interpretation” of the Word of God, which, under the pretense of discovering the truth, perverted the truth of God until its light was altogether obscured. The “mystery of iniquity” was at work, and erelong there was built up the system of the papacy, in which pagan doctrines and philosophy were masked beneath Christian forms. The people were shut away from the light of the gospel of God, and were turned to the fables and speculations of men who posed as being the oracles of divine knowledge. The word and the wisdom of man were substituted in the place of the word and wisdom of God.

Outside of Christianity, we find religion to-day full of mystical doctrines which have a subtle power to lead the mind away from truth into endless mazes of philosophical speculation. We find every false system leading us into the realm of the occult, and taking us along darkened pathways where the sunlight of divine revelation has never shone. The Christian missionary to Asia encounters it in the heathen systems of that country. It is exemplified in Spiritualism, with its dark seances and mysterious phenomena, and its doctrines concerning the present and the hereafter. Behold also Christian Science, with its mystical philosophy of healing. It claims to be Scriptural, yet it has a subtlety that is not of divine truth. You cannot corner it with argument. It will retreat into the shadows whence it came, where it will defy all attempts to draw it forth. Expose its errors, and the Christian Scientist will say to you, O, you entirely misrepresent Christian Science; you do not understand what it teaches.

Beware of this false philosophy. Beware of the doctrine that clothes itself with subtlety. Seek rather the simplicity that is in Christ. Thank the Lord that one does not have to depart from simplicity to gain the saving knowledge of his truth.

L. A. S.