p. 296 | WHY NOT? by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 20, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 19.

WHY NOT?

By Editor

We clip the following from the Congregationalist of March 21:—

“Dr Parker proposes, over his own name, a set of seven propositions for public discussion, the first of which is:—

“The total abolition, as final tests of orthodoxy, of all ecclesiastical creeds, standards, and catechisms, as largely responsible for the infidelity and the hypocrisy of the world.”

“Why not insert the word ‘Bibles’ after ‘and catechisms’? What is the use of scolding at the water when nothing is said about the spring from which it flows?”—Congregationalist, March 21, '89.

If the “creeds, standards, and catechisms” came from the Bible, there would be force in what the Congregationalist says; but the Bible cannot be held responsible for the conflicting creeds now dividing Christendom. That book teaches “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.” The creeds and standards no doubt contain Bible truth, but they also contain much error. They are like pure water contaminated and corrupted with foreign and poisonous substances. Many of them are unhealthful reservoirs, a long way off from the spring. Why not drink from the uncorrupted fountain? Why does the Congregationalist object to the Bible as a “final test”?