Bible vs. Infidelity by R. F. Cottrell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 17, 1864

Bible vs. Infidelity.

By R. F. Cottrell

It is evident from the predictions of the word of God and their fulfillment at the present time, that the great question upon which religionists are to take sides, and by which it will be discerned who they are that serve God and who not, is, whether the Bible shall stand or fall. Religious controversies are about to reach this culminating point; and even now the question is fairly before the minds of the people, as it never has been before. As Bible arguments are found to fail to support a favorite theory, the willful, carnal mind is ready to turn against the Bible itself to end the controversy; and so-called Spiritualism, with its deceptive wonders, has prepared the scheme and marked out the programme, and is inviting all who have a quarrel with the Bible to enter its lists.

Those who are unwilling to believe and obey the Bible as it reads, will soon take sides against it. Those who are breaking the commandments of God and are teaching men so, will soon resort to the knockdown argument of present revelations from the "spirit world." And it is quite a natural course that leads, step by step, to such a result. It is not common that men go over to utter apostasy at one grand leap; but it is accomplished a step at a time. To illustrate: A man finds himself keeping the wrong day for the Sabbath. His attention being called to it, he searches the Bible for the evidence of its change by divine authority, and finding none, he takes the position that the Sabbath commandment has passed away, and consequently that there is no Sabbath for this dispensation. But he cannot prove this unless he can abolish the whole code of ten commandments; and accordingly he takes this step. Now having rejected the only moral code given in the Bible, there is but one step more, and that a short one, and that is, wholly to reject the Bible. A short step, I say, for he that rejects its only perfect moral code, a code which is the very foundation of its authority and that of its divine Author, does virtually reject the whole. This is the point to which the question of the Sabbath and the law is tending. Those who oppose the Sabbath of the Bible are leading on and preparing their own minds and those of the people for this awfully deplorable result, with no less certainty than the magnetic needle will, when freed from disturbance, settle itself in the direction of the poles.

But there is another question of religious controversy—the question of the natural immortality of the soul—that is as surely leading to the same result, namely, the rejection of the Bible and the going over to Spiritualism. Indeed the grand object in the mission of Spiritualism is to settle this point, and prove, by its universal inspirations and present revelations, a doctrine which has no support in the word of God. Men are beginning to find that their appeals to the Bible to prove the natural immortality of man are in vain, as it is not there announced, but the contrary is as clearly taught as words can speak. The mystical interpretation, by which alone the popular theory is at present upheld, is doomed to fail and die, in the light of the Bible, which is shining more and more clearly upon the mind of the student and lover of the sacred word; and nothing will be more natural than for minds inordinately in love with a theory, and hating and despising a truth which they deem degrading to themselves, to reject that Book which sets before "mortal man" the hope of life and immortality through Christ alone; to be sought and obtained only by patient continuance in well-doing, and consigns those who fail to avail themselves of the gift of God, which is "eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord," to "utterly perish in their own corruption."

And how naturally appropriate it is that the great controversy of our fallen world—a controversy which was inaugurated by a declaration of man's immortality, namely, "Ye shall not surely die," uttered in bold contradiction of the word of our Creator—should reach its culminating point, and close upon the grand issue of man's natural immortality. The stubborn perseverance of the author of all rebellion is manifest in the fact that his last coup de main on earth—modern Spiritualism—is instituted for the express purpose of maintaining the first lie he uttered to our race, against the plain and pointed declarations of the word of God. But God's word will stand and the rebellion will be crushed.

Now those who are propping up the falling fabric of man's natural immortality, whether they know it or not, are giving their influence on the side of Satan, and are preparing the public mind for the last great deception of our Enemy—the "last ditch" wherein he has entrenched himself, in order to sell his own life and that of his numerous host as dearly as possible. Would to God that honest men could realize the tendency of the course they are pursuing, while they are contending for such an interpretation of the sacred word as is calculated to subvert and utterly overthrow it, in the minds of men, and thus forward the cause of Satan and retard the cause of truth. How little do they realize that they are joining hands with the Enemy to overthrow the truth and "drown men in destruction and perdition." But the word of the Most High will triumph; and those who have not willfully blinded themselves for selfish and worldly considerations, will escape the snare and array themselves on the side of the Bible.

Dear reader, you are called upon to make a decision for or against. Will you have the Bible? Then you must have it entire, with no jot or tittle abated from its holy commandments. And you must interpret it too in its most obvious sense; for in this sense it is a complete shield against the favorite doctrine of the Devil. And when you find from the Bible that you are a mortal, dying creature, humbly acknowledge it, and be willing to accept of immortality at the hand of Him who died that we might live? Who will be on the Lord's side? Who will cling to the revelation which he has given us, as those who "think they have" in it and in it alone, "eternal life." Be entreated to take your stand unhesitatingly and unflinchingly on the side of the Bible.

R. F. COTTRELL.