A Cause of Stumbling by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 26, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 16.

A Cause of Stumbling

By Editor

THAT which ought to stand for character and loyalty to Christ, is becoming a stumbling-block in these days of loose moralities and disregard of the Scriptures. Membership in a Christian church ought to mean either a measure of Christian character or an earnest striving for that goal. It means neither. The fact that so many in the great schools and universities are church-members or attend church services, means little or nothing.

Are they Bible believers; that is, of the Bible itself? or do they hold it as interpreted by the higher critics, by tradition, or merely because they were taught to believe it, and really do not know whether they believe it or not? Do they believe in the creative power of God in past and present? Do they believe in the virgin birth, the miraculous conception of Christ? Do they believe His miracles? Do they believe in His resurrection and what it means in vital Christian life, or have they lost it all in the nature worship of a yearly day? Do they believe in the regeneration of the soul through faith as a personal experience? The answers to the above and kindred questions are the determining factor, rather than church-membership or church affiliations.

There were devoted church-members in Ezekiel's day, who came and listened attentively to the prophet's words, and did them not.

John the Baptist found zealous church-members in his time, as did also Jesus, and who said, "We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man," yet these very ones put to death the Lord of Glory.

Martin Luther and John Wesley and other ardent reformers found church-members and faithful attendants on religious services galore in their days; but the test of the messages borne by God's witnesses revealed much chaff and little wheat.

The emphasizing of church-membership and church attendance to offset the charge of infidelity, as so many religious journals and writers are doing, will prove a stumbling-block, a hindrance, rather than a help, in the winning of souls to Christ. The Master wants character, loyalty. Mere membership stands for neither.