THE MISSION OF SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS.
The mission of Seventh-day Adventists in the world is to “contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” That faith is “the faith of Jesus.” It is the soul’s “Amen!” to every word of God. That faith is needed in our world to-day. “When the Son of man cometh,” said Jesus, “shall He find faith on the earth?” Taking a general view of the religious world, it would seem that faith is to-day well-nigh extinct. There was a time when Protestantism stood for the word of God, as against the traditions and decrees of Rome. To-day we are constantly reminded by leaders in the Protestant ranks that the old Protestant position has been abandoned, and there are but few who still contend for implicit belief of God’s written word. The word of God has been bound about with the limitations of the human mind, by men who profess to take that word as their rule of faith and practice, until so far as they are concerned, it is stripped of the qualities of omniscience and omnipotence, and made as human as are they themselves. Christianity, upon such a basis, is divested of all that is miraculous and superhuman, and hence of all power of salvation. The repudiation of the Bible by Protestants is a fact not overlooked by Roman Catholics. The New York Sun, which in religion speaks from the Catholic standpoint, calls attention to a recent sermon in that city by the Rev. Dr. Lorimer on “the present condition of thought in Protestantism.” We quote from the Sun:— “The rock on which Protestantism was built was belief in the absolute authority of the Bible. Now criticism of the Bible, which reduces it practically to a book of purely human authorship, and with the consequent inevitable imperfections of human knowledge, has entered into foremost schools of Protestant theology, and proceeds without restraint. Thus the miraculous element of the Bible is made to disappear, and with it passes away the foundation on which alone Christianity is based, for that, necessarily, is miraculous.” And, adds the Sun, “As Dr. Lorimer says, only the pope, only the Church of Rome, ‘comes to the front as the champion of the Bible against the destructive critics.’” Almost simultaneously with the penning of these words by the editor of the Sun, and in confirmation of them, a leading professor in Northwestern University, a Methodist institution, was giving utterance to the statement that “the dogma of the infallible Bible is the besetting sin and golden calf of the idolatrous worship of the churches,” and declaring that theologians must now “throw aside the dogma of an infallible Bible as completely and frankly as Protestants have thrown aside the dogma of an infallible pope.” The miracles of the Bible must, he said, be regarded as the product of “mere poetic fancy.” And here is another witness, who speaks almost simultaneously with this Methodist professor,—the editor of the Independent (New York City). Having been interrogated by the editor of the Western Recorder (Baptist), one of the few Protestant religious organs which still maintains the old Protestant attitude toward the Bible, as to whether “we are under obligation to believe whatever the Bible, fairly interpreted, teaches, and to do whatever the Bible, fairly interpreted, enjoins,” the editor of the Independent replies: “To this we give the ‘clear-cut’ answer, ‘No.’” And he continues:— “For example, to our literary sense the Bible, fairly interpreted, declares in its first chapter that the world was made in six days of the usual sort, with mornings and evenings. We are perfectly familiar with the evasions by which the plain meaning is explained away, but which never deceived such a scholar of good literary common sense as was Dr. Howard Crosby, who once told the present writer that he believed the world was made in six twenty-four-hour days because the Bible said so. We have no doubt the writer of Genesis so meant his language to be understood; and it was, in fact, generally so understood until the days of geology. But we do not believe that the world was made, nor that Adam or Eve was made, in the way described realistically in Genesis.” (Italics ours.) Another “example” cited by this Protestant authority is the following:— “The Bible, ‘fairly interpreted,’ seems to us to ‘enjoin’ women to keep silence in the churches. We can get no other fair interpretation out of Paul’s language. To our mind it is clear that women now have a right to speak and teach, and that the Holy Spirit in the Church has reversed what the Holy Spirit said through Paul. That is, if Dr. Eaton [editor of the Western Recorder] prefers, we set up our own private judgment against Paul’s inspiration; but ‘we think we have the Holy Spirit’ with us.” (Italics ours.) Fairly interpreted, then (to sum up the position here taken), the Bible is misleading; it does not (in places) mean what it says; it is even not to be understood as the writers meant their language to be understood. And further, what the Holy Spirit said at one time it may have reversed at another time; and the inspiration of the Scripture writings is sometimes less reliable than one’s own private judgment. And if this be true, so far from being an infallible guide to the Christian in faith and conduct, the Bible is one of the most unreliable books in existence. And this is the doctrine upon which the Protestantism of to-day is largely based; for we have cited but one or two of many witnesses who have testified to the same point; nor have they a reputation for extravagant views upon this subject. Is it any wonder, then, that years ago the time was ripe for a message from heaven calling men to repentance and a preparation for the coming of the Lord? or that to-day the time is ripe for the message, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen; come out of her, my people”? Is it any wonder that a people are being called out who will raise aloft the standard of faith in the word of God, and will establish a system of education different from that which instructs people in disbelief of the word of God? Without it, how is Protestantism to be preserved? for a fallible Bible affords no foundation for a system which protests against a fallible pope and a57fallible church council; and the foundation being gone, Protestantism itself is gone, in everything except the name, and only a clear field for the papacy remains. But the foundation is not gone; it “standeth sure,” and will remain unaffected by human efforts to discover flaws in its construction. And Protestantism remains, but its mantle has fallen upon Seventh-day Adventists. And as the light of Protestantism in other churches grows dim, Seventh-day Adventists must arise and shine. As the forces of nominal Protestantism fall back toward Rome, Seventh-day Adventists must make a movement forward. Others may join in the movement, but we must lead out. The word of God is to be exalted before the world; Jesus Christ, its author, is to be exalted; and a salvation is to be proclaimed which is altogether miraculous and above human powers of reason and comprehension. For this hour this people have come into the world. They must bridge over the black chasm of faithlessness between the world and God until the gospel work is done, and the time is reached when God shall arise in judgment to demonstrate that His word is indeed infallible.