INFIDELITY: WORSHIPING SELF.
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
SUPPOSE I say that I believe the Word of God; but here is a text that I can not believe. Yet this text is a part of what is declared to be the Word of God. If I doubt this, how am I to determine that any other portion is the Word of God? If reason determines it, I am simply worshiping the result of my own reason, and this is idolatry. Therefore if I do not believe that this is the Word of God, do I really believe that any other word is the Word of God?—No; for it is all the same Word. If I think I believe another portion, then it is only my reason in which I believe. I can understand one portion, and what I can understand I will believe. Is not that a denial of God? It is saying that there is no being in this universe greater than I am; that I will not believe anything greater than my comprehension. If I believe one portion because it looks reasonable, and doubt another because it doesn't look reasonable, then reason is the guide of my life, and I am sitting in judgment on God. I am virtually saying that there is nothing of God that is greater than my reason. Then my faith in the Word of God is shown by my faith in any one text of that Word. If I do not believe that Word, I do not believe any of it. I may think I believe something else, but in that which I think I believe, I am simply putting myself in the place of God, and worshiping myself. I am putting my understanding in the place of God's, and what I think is God is only myself. This is a fact. This sort of thing is very common in the world, among professors of Christianity. One believes a text because it looks reasonable, and he can understand it, but that other he can not see. And yet he thinks he is not an infidel. "See what a large portion I do believe;" and yet he can not go beyond the range of his reason. That is to say that there is no God in the universe who can speak words beyond the range of his reason. His reason is held to be equal to God's, and even above it, because he sits in judgment on what God says. This is putting self above God. So, let us state it again: When we thought we believed the Bible, and doubted a portion of it, and thought we believed in God, who was the god we were really worshiping, thinking it was the true God?—Only self. That is the Papacy, pure and simple.