A Fatal Mistake by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 23, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 40.

A Fatal Mistake.

By Editor

At a recent meeting of the Congregational Club of Minnesota, President Northrop is reported as having read a paper on “The Church and Its Work,” in which he noted approvingly certain changes that are going on in the church. Speaking of church work in the future, he said: “Not the terrors of the law, but the love of God in Jesus Christ will be the burden of preaching designed to lead men to God. We have reached a point where Sinai has ceased to terrify.”

We are not disposed to dispute either of these statements. The truth of the last sentence is too palpable to be denied, and we have no reason to doubt that the prediction contained in the first will be fulfilled. But the Doctor is mistaken in supposing that we have only just now reached a point where the law has ceased to terrify. Eighteen hundred years ago Paul could say with truth: “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. . . . Destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace have they not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes.” Rom. 3:11-18. And the same condition of things had been noted by another writer more than a thousand years before. Indeed so long ago as the days of Noah, we read that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Gen. 6:5. They had no fear of the law, but it proved the worse for them at last. The fact that we have once more reached a point where men manifest equal indifference to the law is proof that the end is near. See Matt. 24:37.

And what is the church going to do in this crisis? The speaker above quoted says that “not the terrors of the law, but the love of God in Jesus Christ, will be the burden of preaching designed to lead men to God.” This we call a fatal mistake. Why?

Because it will utterly fail of its design. We find no authority in the Bible for such a course. Paul portrayed the terrible condition of the last days, and said: “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word.” 2 Tim. 4:1, 2. The Lord, also, speaking through the prophet to the ministers of the last days, said: “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” Isa. 58:1.

When the law is not preached, it is useless to speak of the love of God. How is God’s love manifested? “In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom. 5:8. Christ came to save men from their sins. Now suppose that a man does not feel that he is a sinner, how much appreciation can he have of the love of God in Christ? None at all. And in no other way can he know himself to be a sinner, and thus in need of the love of God in Christ, except by the preaching of the law; “for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Rom. 3:20. Without the terrors of the law before them, men will be as were the Jews, to whom Christ sadly said, “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” Why would they not come? Because, the law having been made void through their traditions, it had no terrors for them, and they were resting in carnal security. They felt no fear, consequently they cared not for the Saviour’s offer of succor.

It is sad to contemplate this state of things; to see the watchmen on the walls of Zion regard it as a something to be desired, that the people should not heed the voice of the law, which alone can drive them to Christ, when God declares that he will look only to those who “tremble” at his word. Isa. 66:2. Fatal delusion! Too soon the time will come when the sinners in Zion shall be afraid, and fearfulness shall surprise the hypocrites. Isa. 33:14. Then “they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” Isa. 2:19. But their fear will be too late, for the Lord said: “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh.” Prov. 1:24-26. Happy will it then be for those who will now be instructed to “serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.” Ps. 2:11.