Studies in the Gospel Message
The subject of the Sabbath-school lesson for December 13 is, Taking Away the Real Presence. Christianity is Christ. It is not simply true that Christ is the central figure in Christianity, but he is the sum of Christianity. The gospel is “the gospel of God . . . concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” And the Christ of the gospel is the divine Son of God, who veiled his divinity with humanity, and “set up his tabernacle in the midst of our human encampment.” He was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, and in him divinity and humanity met. The purpose in this is thus stated: “All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” The Christ of the gospel is also “the Lamb of God, which beareth the sin of the world.” “He became the living sacrifice for a fallen world.” He was crucified, he was raised5from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and is now “a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” “Him did God exalt at his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.” And to-day “we have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” This is the Christ of the gospel, “the Lord’s Christ.” Any so-called gospel which does not set forth the divinity of Christ and his divine work in all these particulars with clearness and a power unto salvation from sin is simply a perversion of the gospel of Christ. Beware of such a false gospel. It is not “the everlasting gospel” which is to be preached “to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” We cannot be sure that people believe in the Christ of the gospel simply because they profess to believe the Bible, and express themselves in the language of the Bible. It makes a vast difference whether one comes to the Bible with his ideas of the gospel already formed from the writings of men or from his own reasonings, and uses the language of the Bible simply as a means of conveying to others his previously formed ideas, or whether he comes to the Bible with a mind free from human conceptions of God and Christ and the way of salvation, and permits the language of the Bible both to give him his ideas and also to provide the forms of expression through which these divinely revealed truths shall be imparted to others. In the former case we have man-made conceptions of the truth hiding themselves under God-given forms of the truth. This is the wolf in sheep’s clothing, and it is the most dangerous way in which error can be taught. By a confusion of terms, by an interpretation of Scripture which is mere sophistry, and by such an application of Bible texts as utterly disregards the context and the general tenor of the Scripture as a whole, the entire gospel is perverted, and the thoughts of men are put in the place of the thoughts of God. It is in this very way that “the Lord’s Christ” is shut out of the gospel, the church is deprived of her divine head, and Christianity becomes a mere system of human speculation; for Christ is “the Word of God,—God’s thought made audible,” and when the thoughts of men are substituted for the thoughts of God, then we have simply a human Christ, “a good man” in the place of the God-man. These are the methods which the papacy has employed through which to subvert the gospel, and to put man in the place of God. By this deceptive way of working it has taken away from the church the real presence of Christ, the continual One; and therefore, although it claims to be the only true church, “the mother and mistress of all churches,” the fountain and preserver of Christianity, it is in reality no church at all, but a mere human organization, the corrupter of pure Christianity. The Roman Catholic Church has not openly discarded the Bible, but it has put tradition above the Bible. “Tradition is to us more clear and safe.” In this way the word of God becomes subject to the mind of man, and thus ceases to be any longer the word of God. “The great error of the Romish church is found in the fact that the Bible is interpreted in the light of the opinions of the ‘fathers.’ . . . But the word of God is not thus to be interpreted. . . . The will and voice of finite man are not to be interpreted as the voice of God.” Having thus throttled the word of God so that it is no longer “quick and powerful,” the way was open for any kind of error which the human heart, inspired by Satan himself, could invent. The Roman Catholic Church does not professedly set aside Christ and his gospel, but it puts forward the pope as “Christ’s vicar and God’s vicegerent.” It teaches that “the pope is as God on earth.” The next and natural step after this blasphemous assumption is that the pope is given a place above God, and “the people think of the pope as the one God that has power over all things in earth and in heaven.” Thus God’s word no longer has authority in the church, and God in Christ is no longer the head of the church. All that is divine is taken away, and the gospel is no longer “the power of God unto salvation.” The Reformation of the sixteenth century was an effort to restore to the church that which had been taken away. The Bible was given to the people in their own language, and they were taught to read it as the voice of God to them. They were encouraged to fasten their faith directly upon Jesus Christ as the one only Mediator and Saviour, and by coming to God through him to “receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith” in Christ. As long as the Reformers held to the principles which they themselves laid down, there was a great power in their movement, and through their message souls were delivered from the bondage of sin. But when they or their successors began to depart from their own principles, then divisions sprang up, and different sects began to appear. All the great religious movements since the Reformation have been a more or less direct effort to return to the simple truths which were the power of that struggle for the restoration of the primitive gospel of salvation from sin through individual faith in Christ as a personal Saviour. Each one of these great movements has progressed with much promise of success up to a certain point, and then its purpose has been largely thwarted and its power sacrificed by harboring within itself, under one form or another, the very false principles which it started out to reform. A glance at the situation as it is in the religious world to-day will furnish satisfactory proof for these statements. Almost every one of the great Protestant denominations has largely ceased to be a powerful factor in reforming the evils which have threatened the life of Christianity because it has itself become so thoroughly permeated with the same evils. The so-called “higher criticism” has destroyed the faith of many in the word of God as a divine authority in the church, the merely human conception of Christ as a good man has taken away from many the real presence of God in Christ as a divine Saviour, and the different shades and phases of the doctrine of natural immortality have led many others into the mazes of Spiritualism, theosophy, and speculative philosophy (either openly or almost unconsciously), until the Protestantism of to-day has degenerated in many places into an image of the papacy,—a form of a genuine Christianity without its power. About half a century ago a people arose, who afterward took the name of Seventh-day Adventists, called out in the providence of God to do the final work of reform. They have been the messengers of light and truth to the world. They have held up the Bible, and the Bible alone, as a sufficient rule of faith and practice, and have taught a faith in Jesus Christ which would reveal itself in salvation from sin and in obedience to all the commandments of God. It has been a distinct call to a return to primitive Christianity as a preparation for the soon-coming Saviour. Need any one be surprised if Satan should make a determined effort to wreck this reform movement in the same way that he has attempted to overthrow all the others,—by introducing into it a leaven of false teaching which will rob the gospel message of its power to cope with the subtleties of a heathen philosophy under whatever guise they may appear? This power is found in the presence of a living Christ, who is present by his representative, the Holy Spirit. This blessing comes to us through the ministry of Christ, our high priest in the heavenly sanctuary. Any teaching which tends to weaken our faith in this very definite thing is a long step toward taking away6the real presence from us by substituting a human conception of the presence of God for the reality of his presence in Christ through the Holy Spirit. It is time that a warning note should be sounded within this denomination. It is no time now to exchange the simple but powerful truths of this message for a sort of spiritual philosophy. There is danger that the messengers shall lose their message, and be used to spread the very false principles which they started out to expose and overthrow. We need now to apply to every teaching, whether within or without the denomination, the divine test, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” Beware lest any one take away from you the real presence.