HAST THOU FAITH?

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 8, 1877

In the question of our Lord: “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Luke 18: 8, the word “faith” is in the Greek preceded by the article (teen pistin), and hence some regard it as referring to something special. Dr. Campbell’s rendering is, “Will he find this belief in the land?” Wakefield reads, “Will he find such faith in this land?” And Dean Alford explains it as meaning “the unweariedness of entreaty which the widow showed.” That there will be, as this age draws to a close, a lack of strong, living faith in God, especially in the doctrine that Christ will come “speedily to avenge his own elect,” is not only taught in this passage but in several others. “The unbelief of man on the subject of both advents,” as Ryle observes, “is strikingly shown in the beginning of Isaiah 53 and of 2 Peter 3.”

We have been led to think of this text by the following item clipped from the Christian Union. It is a straw showing which way the wind of infidelity is blowing:—

“It is pitiful to remark the tone of blank, hopeless atheism—not mere skepticism or infidelity—that pervades the writings of many of the foremost writers for English periodicals. Not to mention the insulting blasphemies of Prof. Clifford, there are the dreary arguments of Mr. Greg to disprove the future life of the soul; the brilliant essays in which Mr. John Morley delights to distinguish himself by writing God with a small g; and the articles in which Mr. Leslie Stephen exults that ‘the hopes of believers point to dreamland,’ and boasts that unbelievers are ‘on the winning side.’ All the new monthly reviews contain more or less of this sort of stuff, but the Fortnightly Review frankly devotes itself to the propagation of it; and on our own side of the ocean the Popular Science Monthly, going aside from its professed object, seems endeavoring to abet this form of sectarianism to the best of its ability and courage.”

Bibles are, indeed, being numerously circulated and a profession of faith in Christ widely made, but as Ryle says again, “Where is the use, after all, of ignoring facts under our own eyes, facts in the world, facts in the churches, facts in the congregations we belong to, facts by our own doors and firesides? Where is faith to be seen? How many around us really believe what the Bible contains? How many live as if they believed that Christ died for them, and that there is a judgment, a heaven, and a hell? These are most painful and serious inquiries. But they demand and deserve an answer. Have we faith ourselves? If we have, let us bless God for it. It is a great thing to believe all the Bible. It is a matter for daily thankfulness if we feel our sins, and really trust in Jesus.” Should the Son of man come to-day, would he find faith in us?—Messiah’s Herald.