GOD'S VOICE, OR THE HIGHER CRITIC.
A questioner asks the editor of the Outlook if God really spoke to the people of old, or if what we have been taught to believe as God's declarations to His people were merely the words of zealous religious men who believed they were speaking in accord with the mind of God. Replying to this question, the editor, who is a supporter of the “higher criticism,” replies, in the issue of June 28:— The phrase, “Thus saith the Lord,” is the common Hebrew formula of an authoritative declaration, and means simply the same as the modern preacher's phrase, “God knows that what I say is true.” The editor further declares that “the prophets themselves heard only the inner voice that we describe as the voice of conscience. It is only in conscience that a voice recognized as divine ever makes itself heard.” If this be true, then there is just as much evidence of inspiration in the utterances of the modern preachers as there is in the recorded words of the prophets which go to make up our Bible. Some hold that there are contradictions in the Bible, and have tried hard and long to prove that such is the case. But the veriest tyro in Biblical study would have no difficulty in showing contradictions, inconsistencies, variations from proved truth, unscientific statements, glaring misrepresentations of God's character, and perversions of fact, in such a bible as the accumulated utterances of modern theologians would be—modern theologians, especially, who are drifting so far away from the teachings of that Book of books which is the Word of God, the fountain of purity and truth and life. It is because of this drift away from God's Word that these contradictions and inconsistencies are so prevalent in the teachings of modern theologians. But the statement of the Outlook is not true. There is an infinite difference between “holy men of God” speaking “as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,” and modern religious teachers speaking what they believe to be true, especially when such teachers are teaching that what “holy men of God spake” aforetime was merely the outbreathings of their own finite convictions. They can not both be true. They can not both be the Word of God. If the “convictions” of the modern theologians are true, then the utterances of the “holy men of God” who spoke in times past “as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,” are not true; and the movings of the Spirit now contradict the movings of that same Spirit as manifest in the inspired writings. By such inconsistent teachings are the minds of the unstable to-day being turned away from God's Word and His truth. There is a studied and persistent attempt on the part of such teachers to undermine and shatter the Rock upon which the true church of God is builded. Some will even be convinced that that Rock has been undermined and toppled over into the abyss of everlasting darkness, or that it has been shattered into a million fragments and scattered to the ends of the universe on the winds of the “higher criticism;” just as Christian Science is teaching its devotees that things do not exist which are actually in evidence. The day is not far distant when such teachings will be put to the test—will be weighed in the balance of God's judgment—and will be found wanting; and that Rock of truth, the Word of God, which men thought they had undermined and shattered, will be seen then standing at the entrance of the Valley of Eden, the great El Capitan of the universe, sheer and white, unshattered and unshaken, and yet an impassable barrier to every one who has flung invectives at it or pummelled his little fist against its hoary and eternal base. There is one Rock of truth, and on that is builded the true church of the living God. That Rock is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Voice of the eternal Father, the Speaker of the words the prophets uttered. “Did God ever speak to man in an audible voice before the time of Christ?”—He did; and it was so intensely audible that those men besought Moses in these words: “Let not God speak with us, lest we die.” Ex. 20:19. In verse 22 the Lord Himself declares, “Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.” Again: “Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.” Ex. 19:19. The inspired record of this event reads: “These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them in two tables of stone.” Deut. 5:22. The world would fain forget that God ever spoke to man with an audible voice, especially when those audible words were the great, unchangeable law of His kingdom. But the record stands, and all who will may read it. There is also the record of Elijah's experience, when, standing in the mouth of the cave, he hearkened to the “still small voice” of the Lord, and the Lord gave him positive audible instructions in regard to his work. See 1 Kings 19:12–18. He talked with Abram concerning the destruction of the cities of the plain, and also concerning his heir and his inheritance. He spoke to Samuel when the wickedness of the sons of Eli made it impossible for the Lord to instruct them or carry on His work through them. We read in Heb. 1:1 that God “at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.” The higher critics teach us this means that those men “heard only the inner voice that we describe as the voice of conscience.” But the Bible declares that God spoke by the prophets. The Bible and the “higher critic” can not both be right. “Let God be true.” The Bible tells us that those men spoke “as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Peter 1:21. The “higher critic” teaches that they heard the inner voice of conscience, and spoke that. They can not7both be right. “Let God be true.” The “higher criticism” is infidelity's first lieutenant, and is doing perhaps more strenuous service than its captain himself in overthrowing the faith of those who are not rooted and grounded in the truth. It is nothing less than one of those marvelous workings of Satan that were to be so prevalent in the last days. “When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?”—Not if the “higher criticism” can prevent it. It will be scarce, but it will not be totally extinct. “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12. This is said of those who have faith. It will not be said of those who have been trying to destroy it.