Departing From the Faith
By F. M. W.
IN every quarter we see a wide departure from the old-time faith. Doctrines of the Scripture that a few years ago were recognized as the very bulwarks of Christian faith are coming to be discarded, and that, too, by those who profess to be Christian teachers. Two years ago the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church had before it an appeal from some of the members of the presbytery of New York against the action of that presbytery in licensing young men who it was claimed denied some of the fundamental doctrines of the Scriptures. The assembly at that time clearly defined its position in harmony with its long-established faith in these doctrines. Again in 1911 the assembly, after considering certain publications made by two Drs. Brown connected with the New York presbytery, felt called upon to resolve:—11 - That the assembly reaffirms the doctrinal deliverances of the General Assembly of 1910, as interpreting the faith and doctrine of our church.
- That we admonish all ministers in our church to refrain from giving utterance to sentiments which unsettle the church and which are in conflict with the standards of the church.
It was the hope of many that this declaration of the General Assembly would go far toward settling these theological discussions which were troubling the church, but the coming assembly evidently has before it the same perplexing questions, and in view of the history of the past, under more aggravated conditions. A short time ago, during the Easter period, the New York presbytery licensed three students of the Union Seminary. These young men, it is affirmed, expressed open doubts as to the virgin birth, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and the raising of Lazarus. The editor of the Herald and Presbyter of April 17, 1912, quoting its New York correspondent, explains the action of the presbytery in these words:— It appeared to be the thought of the presbytery that the young men were right at heart, and will see things more clearly after they get out of their present philosophical fog.
The editor of this organ of Presbyterianism, however, dissents very strongly from this position of the New York presbytery, even as some of the members of the presbytery itself. The editor justly says:— The Presbyterian Church must stand by the doctrines of God's Word if it is to live and do its work. To admit men who deny these doctrines, in the hope that they may learn better, is as foolish as to admit wolves to the sheepfold with the hope that they will grow lamblike. Experience does not justify such a hope. How about the professors who taught them to deny these doctrines? Have they grown back to the truth? How about Prof. William Adams Brown, whose published views were called to the assembly's attention last year? Has he gotten out of the fog or grown out of his antagonism to the theology of the church and of the Bible? How about the churches to which these befogged young men are to minister?
It must not be forgotten that the New York presbytery licenses and ordains men, not for itself alone, but for the whole church, and that it is for the whole church to say whether it will keep open a door through which men who do not accept its doctrines are pushed into its ministry. There are indications that the New York presbytery is pushing on to its own dissolution. John Fox, D. D., a member of the New York presbytery, likewise very strongly dissents from this action of the body with which he is officially connected. In a communication to the Bible Student and Teacher for May and June, 1912, Dr. Fox truly declares:— How seriously this impugns the gospel story need not be argued. Once more the church, with pitying eyes, must look on this sorrowful spectacle of three attractive youths, trained in Christian families and the Christian church, but reduced, under the influence of the theological school in which they had been studying (Union Theological Seminary), to such a pitch of doubt that they could not truthfully at Christmas time sing or pray or preach the virgin birth; could not at a funeral console mourners with the story of Lazarus; could not at Easter or on any Lord's day say unqualifiedly, 'I believe that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the tomb by the power of God.' Yet knowing all this, the presbytery voted to license them. It would have been better to appoint a day of fasting and prayer for them and for ourselves.
As to the manner in which these young men may justly regard the action of the presbytery in giving them license to preach while holding such skeptical views in regard to the Scriptures of truth, Dr. Fox continues:— Not a word of caution or warning was uttered by the presbytery to their candidates. They might, naturally, infer that the presbytery regarded their errors as trifling, if, indeed, they were errors. Is our church ready to declare that its ministers and theological schools may, at their discretion, write not Credo, but Dubito, after every one of these articles in the Confession of Faith and every passage of Scripture which supports them?
If the members of the New York presbytery were the only ones holding such liberal and antichristian views regarding the qualifications for the Christian ministry there might be hope, but it is safe to say that their action will find many supporters and sympathizers not only among Presbyterians, but among Christian leaders of other so-called evangelical denominations as well. These young men doubted the miracles of the Old Testament, the accounts of the exodus as affirmed in the Pentateuch, the construction of the tabernacle according to the patterns given Moses in the mount, because, as Dr. Fox says, "they were at sea as to the inspiration of the Scriptures." "They doubted the raising of Lazarus because they could not trust the Gospel of John." In the shattering of their faith is seen the baneful effects of Higher Criticism regarding the Scriptures of truth. Verily we have reached the time when there is a departure from the faith once delivered to the saints. There is a letting down of the bars in the Christian church to open and avowed skepticism, a breaking up of confidence in the old foundations of Christian faith and doctrine. Can we wonder that the time has been reached in the history of the church when there is demanded a great message of reform. Apostate Christianity is seeking to make men drunken with the wine of her subtle philosophy. In the midst of the delusions on every hand, of the voices of false shepherds sounding from every quarter, God is erecting a standard of truth, an ensign for the nations, and around it will be gathered the true of heart, the loyal, faithful ones from every communion and from every nation. Let us prove faithful to the call of God to us, and in the midst of the gathering darkness prove light-bearers and life-savers to those wrecked upon the shoals of skepticism and unbelief.