Bible vs. Nature by H. F. C.

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 2, 1858

Bible vs. Nature.

By H. F. C.

WHAT do you think of the Bible, friend worldly-wise? "Why, I think it contains some very good principles; but to believe the whole of it would be most unreasonable. It presents such unjust ideas of God, showing him to be a God of fierce anger, cruel, delighting in bloodshed, commissioning his people to destroy whole nations, men, women, innocent children, and even the beasts, cattle and sheep belonging to these nations, which certainly could not have known wickedness. I cannot believe in such a God as that, or in a book that attributes such things to God—God is kind, merciful. He will not destroy his creatures. He is love."

So then you have not much confidence in the Bible, simply because, as you say, its account of God makes him, in his dealings with men sometimes to appear cruel and unkind? "I confess it." Well, suppose you lay aside the Bible; what book should we read to learn God truly in your estimation? "O, the book of Nature, most certainly—the God of Nature is not an angry, life destroying Being, he is a God of kindness and love."

I thought you would say so—your father's family are all great lovers of nature, I believe; you, I presume, have read the book of nature frequently, perhaps nearly through; but your manner of speaking makes me think you must have forgotten some part of the story. You recollect well, no doubt, what was said about its having a God, and about his omnipotence and wisdom; but do you remember its account of the God of nature, how that in A. D. 272 he left his people in Britain without food so that they ate the bark of trees; also in A. D. 310, so that 40,000 perished; and in Italy, that they devoured their own children; also A. D. 1124, so that the dead lay in the streets unburied? Do you remember that the God of nature destroyed in Constantinople, A. D. 717, by pestilence, 300,000 persons; also A. D. 1671, 200,000 more in like manner; and that by famine and plague he destroyed so many that the living could not bury them, A. D. 1077? Have you forgotten that among the Eastern nations, A. D. 1385, he cut off by a pestilence called the black death, 20,000,000? You must bear in mind also that the God of whom nature speaks has frequently shaken the earth and caused it to swallow up whole cities with their inhabitants, small and great.

Once, A. D. 357, in Asia, Macedonia, 150 cities and towns were destroyed, and human life past all calculation. A. D. 1005, for three months an earthquake's power was felt which was followed by pestilence, in which it is said one third of the human race died. These are some, but by no means all, of Nature's reports concerning the cruelty and severity of her God. Do you say, "Nature's God is not to be learned from these things." I reply, how else can we know her God except from her works, her exhibitions of his providential care? and judging from these things is not Nature's revelation of God manifold more unlovely, unmerciful, and severe than the Bible revelation of the same being? Yet, notwithstanding, your confidence in the book of nature is firm; how unreasonable then to reject the Bible for the same things which you allow in Nature. But you say, "Nature has another side to the picture." Very well, so has the Bible. The Bible is not all Moses and Moabites; Ahab and Amalekites—it is not all judgment, it is full of mercy; it is not all condemnation, it is full of pardon; it is not all Sinai, it has a Calvary; it is not all death, it has life; not all punishment, it has glorious, eternal rewards, without money and without price. Nature has suffering, toil and pain. It promises no relief, no rest, save in the grave. Nature promises death, but no life from the dead. Nature has work that must be done—it offers no reward beyond the grave. Nature blames the wicked and curses the good, favors the rich, oppresses the poor—ends all alike in the grave. In all these things she speaks of an unjust God, a God delighting in afflicting, and sparing of even small blessings.

Have you gained anything by choosing the God of Nature and rejecting the God of the Bible, friend worldly-wise? I think not. The Bible speaks of momentary or temporal suffering, storms and toil; but it also tells of eternal joy, rest and glory. It speaks of this world now, groaning and full of trouble. It tells of it by and by, renewed and full of God's glory. It reminds of death now, but promises to all who will accept by faith, life from the dead in the world to come—the earth renewed. Think of these things, my friend, and perhaps we'll talk again soon. [H. F. C.—World's Crisis.