The Outlook by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 28, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 42.

The Outlook

By Editor

"I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will look forth to see what He will speak with me."

AN ACKNOWLEDGED TRUTH.

In the prophetic word the Lord has very faithfully set before us the condition of the great professed Christian church in the last days. Apart from the fact that her backsliding and departure from God are foretold (Matt. 24:12-14; 2 Tim. 3:1-5), her divided state is expressed in various ways. Among the strongest terms used, indicative of her character in this respect, is "Babylon," the meaning of which is "confusion;" and confusion always comes from division. And the professed Christian church is certainly divided. We have the Greek Orthodox, the Roman Catholic, and the Protestant, hopelessly divided into many branches; and confusion worse confounded reigns in the chaos of religious beliefs, theories, creeds, politics, purposes, etc. Of one of the great threefold branches—Protestantism in America—the Independent recently thus spoke:—

"The division of our American Christendom is its sad reproach. Our Roman Catholic brethren never tire of declaring that they are Catholic, and that we who have inherited the unfortunate name Protestant are split into a hundred competing and conflicting sects. It is true that we are. Some of these sects recognize and fellowship each other in a limited way and others do not. Yet most of them are ready to admit that others beside themselves are true and regular Christian churches, and are willing to receive from them courteous messages at their national meetings. Yet these hundred and more denominations have no public, visible, formal bond of union; the Evangelical Alliance is hardly such. For all the world can see they are rivals, and such they very often are. They do not come together in towns, or cities, or counties, or States, or in the nature of affectionate fellowship and consultation. Their more Christian young people's societies may do so, but the churches do not. Now this attitude of scarce more than armed truce is simply wrong. It is a sin before God. It ought to be corrected."

If Roman Catholic prelates and priests studied the Bible and felt perfectly free to express their individual opinion of their studies, we presume they would differ as widely. They are kept together by a central power exerted through creed and anathema. But Protestants, having no central authority (for the Bible is such save with few, tradition and "science" being often preferred), divide and subdivide. There is a remedy for this division, but it will never come through the great churches. God would bring unity in his church by the everlasting Gospel, which bids us give glory to him instead of men. In the message of Rev. 14:6-12 is God's remedy for division. It unifies all who accept it.