p. 6 | A Present Danger by L. A. S.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 10, 1903

A Present Danger

By L. A. S.

The Lord does not ask any one to be a Christian independently of reason; he never treats man otherwise than as a reasoning being, for he himself endowed man with reason; but men are not to trust to reason for their salvation. Salvation comes through a higher source. The idea that everything pertaining to Christianity must be subjected to human reason, is a part of the old delusion that an individual must save himself. He who depends upon his reason alone is endeavoring to be his own savior. No man has any need of a Saviour who has that in him which will enable him to save himself.

The Word of God has been given to man for his salvation; but men have subjected that Word to their reason, and rejected as uninspired such portions of it as they saw fit. The Bible, they have said, is not itself the word of God, but it contains the word of God. They have accepted as inspired such portions of the Word as their reason approved, or as did not conflict with their ideas. That part is most readily accepted which is most nearly what they themselves would have written. Men are the most ready to accept a god which comes nearest to being like themselves.

But this is exactly the opposite of what men seeking for salvation ought to do. It must needs be that the Word of God should conflict with man's ideas; for man is human, all his faculties are limited, and his whole nature is perverted. He is not able by reason to find out God, or to discover the way of salvation, even were his nature unperverted. And a perverted nature distorts his views of right and truth, and gives a bias to his judgment. The reasoning faculties are very often employed not in an honest endeavor to discover the truth, but in the task of inventing a justification for the conclusion desired. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.” Spiritual truths must be received not through the channel of the carnal nature, but through the spiritual nature only.

And therefore, those who subject the Word of God to their reason, reject as uninspired the very portions which they most need to accept and incorporate into their lives. The very passages which are most contrary to their ideas are the ones which contain for them the most light and saving power. The Word of God, if it would save a man, must work in him not to confirm his own natural views of truth and duty, but to reveal to him and to teach him ways that are infinitely higher and different from his own. Salvation, to be salvation, must come from a source that is infinitely higher than the human.

The “higher criticism” rejects the narratives of the miracles. It declares that the miracles in the Bible record never could have happened; and the reason the higher critics think they never could have happened is that they are too unlike what we know of things that are natural. Anything so different from the ordinary course of affairs as that the earth should have been drowned by a flood, or that the Nile should have been turned to blood, or that the sun should have stood still in the heavens at the command of Joshua, or that Jonah should have been swallowed by a fish and cast out again alive, or that a dead person should be brought back to life, is considered to be unworthy of belief, for that reason. They are rejected as being a part of the revelation of God to man, because they reveal a God who is too unlike themselves. But the very God whom they need, the only God who can save them, must be altogether unlike themselves. The miracles are the very things which they most need to believe the very parts of God's Word which would bring to them salvation.

There can be no salvation without a miracle; for no miracle is greater than the miracle of the new birth. A god who cannot perform miracles cannot save; and without faith in the miraculous power of God there can be no new birth. Every true prayer to God for salvation is a prayer that he will perform a miracle. Hence in their rejection of the miraculous the higher critics reject salvation itself. They reject the very portions of God's Word which they most need to accept.

We may not belong to the higher critics who profess to know that portions of the Bible are not inspired, yet we may imitate their course by passing judgment upon the special instructions and reproofs which God is sending us through the spirit of prophecy. If we reject certain parts of these as being mere opinions, we may be sure that the portions we reject are the very ones that we most need to accept. God's ways are not our ways, else there would be no salvation for us. And the point in which his views differ most widely from ours, is the very point where we most need to be corrected.

Let us beware lest we fall into the error and the condemnation of those who would make God altogether such a one as themselves.

L. A. S.