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REJECTING THE BIBLE

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Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 19, 1858

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 12, No. 14.

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REJECTING THE BIBLE.

By John Harvey Kellogg

THE Apostle calls a lack of faith "the sin that so easily besets us;" but without faith it is impossible to please God. Therefore Satan's great effort has always been to destroy confidence in the word of God. When the "Man of sin" arose, the Bible was denied the people, and declared to be "the foundation of all heresy." The Reformation brought the Bible to light, and placed it in the hands of the people, but the idea spread and prevailed that it was not sufficient without the addition of a creed, or articles of faith. Within a few years past some have been boldly advocating the Bible as a sufficient creed; and Satan is now busy to carry their minds beyond this important truth, to a belief that only a small part of the Bible is of any use: and this in direct contradiction of the New Testament, which refers to the Old Testament for its authority, and says that "All scripture" is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.
While lecturing before a church of the Christian denomination, last Spring, in northern Wisconsin, a brother in that church said that they were under obligation to receive the things then spoken because they were the teachings of the Bible, and their covenant bound them to receive what the Bible taught. At the close of the meeting another member denied that their covenant embraced the Bible, and affirmed that it acknowledged the New Testament only. The covenant was examined, and it was found that its basis was the Bible. This member then made the remark that he would not belong to a church that took the Bible for its rule!
To me these words sounded very singular coming from a professed Christian; and I hoped that the church would repudiate such an expression of anti-Bible bigotry. But by a letter lately received from that county I learn that the church was afterward called together and the majority voted to amend the covenant so that it would embrace only the New Testament. Thus "the Bible" was ruled out of the church.
Opposition to the Scriptures is gaining ground in the churches faster than we have realized. A few years since we could scarcely have believed that Methodists would now be teaching the abrogation of the Old Testament and its morality, or that Presbyterians would so soon turn antinomians. But such is the case. They have found that the only way to avoid the claims of the fourth commandment is to deny the claims of the entire Old Testament; and rather than to humble themselves before God and inthe sight of the world, they are taking this last fearful step. Truly the sins of Babylon are reaching unto heaven. Rev. xviii. J. H. W.