The Failure of Heathenism by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 27, 1906

The Failure of Heathenism

By Editor

Editorial

SOME confound the prophet with the message which the prophet bears. A true prophet is still a fallible being, but the message of the true prophet is infallible. A prophet may make mistakes in personal conduct, just as other individuals, but the Lord does not make mistakes in the messages which he sends. Some would be saved from confusion if they would bear in mind this simple distinction.

THE summer campaign has been a time of victory for this message. From all parts of the field have come the most encouraging reports. The Lord has visited his people, and has wrought salvation for them. A forward movement has been entered upon which will increase in power until it culminates in the revelation of our Lord himself “with power and great glory.” It is no time now to grow faint-hearted. The final and glorious triumph of this message is just at hand. “Go forward.”

The Failure of Heathenism

IN the light which has been shed upon the world through revelation there have been constructed systems of morals which have been made the foundation of false religions. The claim is then made that heathenism is just as good as Christianity—that the shadow is the same as the substance. The failure of heathenism is found in the lack of power to transform human nature and to impart the divine nature, so that divinity may be manifested in humanity. The glory of Christianity arises from the fact that “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,” thus uniting divinity with humanity in the person of Jesus the Son of God and the Son of man, and making possible the same union of the divine and human in every believer in Jesus. Thus it is that while dwelling bodily here upon the earth we may sit together with our Saviour in the heavenly places. Thus it is that heaven is brought down to earth. Thus it is that the power of the endless life is joined to our weakness, and we become “strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” He who professes to be a disciple of Christ, but depends upon his own power to attain to the standard of character held up in the Scriptures, will learn in his own experience what the failure of heathenism means. He who learns the mystery of godliness, and in whom the power of God works to overcome evil and to reveal the divine nature, will have a demonstration in his own experience of the difference between Christianity and heathenism. “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.”