THE FOLLY OF WISDOM by M. C. W.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 4, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 42.

THE FOLLY OF WISDOM.

By M. C. W.

THE following question and answer are from the Christian Union of October 17:—

"As the world was not created in six days, how could the Sabbath have been instituted by God on the ground that he had rested on the seventh day, as stated in the fourth commandment? Do you believe that the commandments and all the laws in the Pentateuch were given by God, or written by Moses? C. P. M."

"Many of them proceeded from Moses' successors, building onto his work, and so were only involved in, or developed from, what 'the Lord said to Moses.' What God said to Moses he probably communicated, as now to us, inwardly, by enlightening the mind and conscience to see truth and feel its imperativeness. The Sabbath is of divine appointment, 'made for man,' as Jesus says, required by the physical and moral nature which God made. That Moses should see this law written in our nature, and assign a fanciful reason for it, only shows that he was like the rest of us in being better able to see what is right than to give the reason for it."

We do not know why the journal from which the above is taken should have any faith in the Bible, or should call itself in any way "Christian." The above is out and out infidelity. If Moses assigned a "fanciful reason" for the institution of the Sabbath, knowing all the time that the only law for it is in man's physical nature, then Moses deliberately lied. And if he lied about that, what reason have we to believe anything he says about the flood, or Abraham, or the miracle of the manna, or the giving of the law, etc., etc.? When Moses said that God spake the law and wrote it on tables of stone, he deliberately told a falsehood; that is, Moses is guilty of all this if the Christian Union is right. And the record that the Lord talked with Moses face to face as to no other prophet, is a falsehood. What then of the words of Moses' prophecy in Deut. 18:15-19, which Peter applies to Christ. Acts 3:22, 23. Moses was correct as regards the person of the Prophet, was he wrong as regards his character? If Moses was a notorious liar, and that Prophet, which Peter says was Jesus, was like unto Moses, then what of Jesus' character. We do not know whether these editors realize the evil and inevitable conclusions which spring from such teaching or not, but it is a thousand times more pregnant of evil results than the rantings of Ingersoll or the metaphysics of Madame Blavatsky. Jesus says, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believed not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?" John 5:46, 47.

He who rejects Moses because he does not understand all he says, will reject Christ for the same reason. Such an one has his standard within himself, subject to all his whims and fancies, and "Christian" is but an empty name. Very profound may be the learning of the "higher critics," but it is, nevertheless, well to bear in mind the words of Jesus: "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." Matt. 11:25. M. C. W.