IF" AND "WHY | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 10, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 39.

"IF" AND "WHY."

If Christianity be not all that its Book tells us it is, it is nothing more than a system of "ethics" based on a lie.

If Jesus the Christ is not the Saviour He is said to be, He is an impostor.

If Christianity does not save man from sin and the disposition to sin, its beautiful sentiments lure but to deceive.

If the Bible is not the revealed Word of God to the world, it is worse than no message; "let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."

If Jesus the Christ does not save from sin by recreative power, there is no hope for the sinner. Evolution is as helpless to save as it was six thousand years ago, and as helpless to save here in America as in India.

If the Bible is not the Revealed Will of God, we have none; for there is none other which lifts above the human, save as the sentiment—not the power—has been borrowed.

Either Jesus Christ was a deceiver, a deceived one, or He was and is the Saviour of men. We can not accept a part of His teaching as divine and reject another part equally His. It is all or nothing. "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he can not be My disciple." "And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, can not be My disciple." "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away."

Thousands are halting before "ifs" to-day, raised by the infidelity of professed science and the unfaith of professed Christians. Looking to this time the prophet saw "multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision." The multitudes are there to-day undecided. Not long will they remain there; for undecision as regards Christ is decision against Him and all He will do for them.

Man stands to-day in the enemies' land, a slave of sin and selfishness and death. Christ comes down from above, stoops to conquer and save, and offers man righteousness and life and power if man will only believe.

"But will Christ do this?" "If He only would," and then indecision pauses. Christ has done it all, gave it all to every poor individual mortal when He gave Himself. He asks us to take it, to accept what He died to give you.

"I wish I knew." You may know. You may know. You may know. Here is His test; how simple it is. "If any man willeth to do His [God's] will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God, or whether I speak from Myself." There is Christ's test to you, to all, pure and simple. Yield your whole being to do God's will—to believe, to obey, to wait, to receive, keeping back nothing. You shall know.

Have you not tried sin long enough? What help has it been? What blessing has it brought? What satisfaction has it given? We need not answer. Sin is only and always an enemy. Then why not, why not accept the Saviour from sin?