Signs of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 14. (4/2/1885)

Signs of the Times

Apr 2, 1885

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 2, 1885

Satan's Sophistry and Cunning.

By Mrs. E. G. White

THE position that it is of no consequence what men believe, is one of Satan's most successful deceptions. He knows that the truth, received in the love of it, sanctifies the soul of the receiver; therefore he is constantly seeking to substitute false theories, fables, another gospel. From the beginning, the servants of God have contended against false teachers, not merely as vicious men, but as inculcators of falsehoods that were fatal to the soul. Elijah, Jeremiah, Paul, firmly and fearlessly opposed those who were turning men from the word of God. That liberality which regards a correct religious faith as unimportant, found no favor with these holy defenders of the truth.

The vague and fanciful interpretations of Scripture, and the many conflicting theories concerning religious faith, that are found in the Christian world, are the work of our great adversary to so confuse minds that they shall not discern the truth. And the discord and division which exists among the churches of Christendom is in a great measure due to the prevailing custom of wresting the Scriptures to support a favorite theory. Instead of carefully studying God's word with humility of heart to obtain a knowledge of his will, many seek only to discover something odd or original.

In order to sustain erroneous doctrines or unchristian practices, they seize upon passages of Scripture separated from the context, perhaps quoting half of a single verse as proving their point, when the remaining portion would show the meaning to be quite the opposite. With the cunning of the serpent, they entrench themselves behind disconnected utterances construed to suit their carnal desires. Thus do many willfully pervert the word of God. Others, who have an active imagination, seize upon the figures and symbols of Holy Writ, interpret to suit their fancy, with little regard to the testimony of Scripture as its own interpreter, and then they present their vagaries as the teachings of God's word.

Whenever the study of the Scriptures is entered upon without a prayerful, humble, teachable spirit, the plainest and simplest as well as the most difficult passages will be wrested from their true meaning. The papal leaders select such portions of Scripture as best serve their purpose, interpret to suit themselves, and then present these to the people, while they deny them the privilege of studying the Bible, and understanding its sacred truths for themselves. Unless the whole Bible is given to the people just as it reads, it would be better for them not to have it at all.

The Bible was designed to be a guide to all who wish to become acquainted with the will of their Maker. God gave to men the sure word of prophecy; angels and even Christ himself came to make known to Daniel and John the things that must shortly come to pass. Those important matters that concern our salvation were not left involved in mystery. They were not revealed in such a way as to perplex and mislead the honest seeker after truth. Said the Lord by the prophet Habakkuk, "Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." The word of God is plain to all who study it with a prayerful heart. Every truly honest soul will come to the light of truth. "Light is sown for the righteous." No church can advance in holiness unless its members are earnestly seeking for truth as for hid treasure.

By the cry of liberality, men are blinded to the devices of their adversary, while he is all the time working steadily for the accomplishment of his object. As he succeeds in supplanting the word of truth by human speculations, the law of God is set aside, and the churches are under the bondage of sin while they claim to be free.

To many, scientific research has become a curse; their finite minds are so weak that they lose their balance. They cannot harmonize their views of science with Scripture statements, and they think that the Bible is to be tested by their standard of "science falsely so called." Thus they err from the faith, and are seduced by the devil. Men have endeavored to be wiser than their Creator; human philosophy has attempted to search out and explain mysteries which will never be revealed, through the eternal ages. If men would but search and understand what God has made known of himself and his purposes, they would obtain such a view of the glory, majesty, and power of Jehovah, that they would realize their own littleness, and would be content with that which has been revealed for themselves and their children.

It is a masterpiece of Satan's deceptions to keep the minds of men searching and conjecturing in regard to that which God has not made known, and which he does not intend that we shall understand. It was thus that Lucifer himself was cast out of Heaven. He became dissatisfied because all the secrets of God's purposes were not confided to him, and he entirely disregarded that which was revealed concerning his own work in the lofty position assigned him. By arousing the same discontent in the angels under his command, he caused their fall. Now he seeks to imbue the minds of men with the same spirit, and to lead them also to disregard the direct commands of God.

Those who are unwilling to accept the plain, cutting truths of the Bible, are continually seeking for pleasing fables that will quiet their consciences. The less spiritual, self-denying, and humiliating the doctrines presented, the greater the favor with which they are received. These persons degrade the intellectual powers to serve their carnal desires. Too wise in their own conceit to search the word of God with contrition of soul and earnest prayer for divine guidance, they have no shield from delusion. Satan is ready to supply the heart's desire, and he palms off his deceptions in the place of truth. It was thus that the papacy gained its power over the minds of men; and by rejection of the truth because it involves a cross, Protestants are following the same path. All who neglect the word of God to study convenience and policy, that they may not be at variance with the world, will be left to receive damnable heresy for religious truth. The apostle Paul speaks of a class who "received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." He says of these, "For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." With such a warning before us, it behooves us to be on our guard as to what doctrines we receive.

Every conceivable form of error will be accepted by those who willfully reject the truth. Satan has different deceptions prepared to reach different minds; and some who look with horror upon one deception will readily receive another.

Among the most successful agencies of the great deceiver are the delusive doctrines and lying wonders of Spiritualism. Disguised as an angel of light, he spreads his net where least suspected. If men would but study the word of God with earnest prayer that they might understand its teachings, they would not be left in darkness to receive false doctrines. But as they reject the truth, they fall a prey to these deceptions.

Another dangerous heresy is the doctrine that denies the divinity of Christ. Men who have no experimental knowledge of Jesus, will yet assume an appearance of great wisdom, as though their judgment were beyond question, and boldly declare that the Son of God had no existence prior to his first advent to this world. This position directly contradicts the plainest statements of our Saviour concerning himself; yet it is received with favor by a large class who claim to believe the Scriptures. With such persons it is folly to argue. No argument, however conclusive, will convince those who reject the direct testimony of the Son of God. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Those who persistently cling to such errors, give evidence of their own ignorance of God and of his Son. Still another subtle and mischievous error

is the fast-spreading belief that Satan has no existence as a personal being; that the name is used in Scripture merely to represent men's evil thoughts and desires.

The teaching so widely echoed from popular pulpits, that the second advent of Christ is his coming to each individual at death, is a device to divert the minds of men from his personal coming in the clouds of heaven. For years Satan has thus been saying, "Behold, he is in the secret chambers;" and many souls have been lost by accepting this deception.

Again, worldly wisdom teaches that prayer is not essential. Men of science claim that there can be no real answer to prayer; that this would be a violation of law, a miracle, and that miracles have no existence. The universe, say they, is governed by fixed laws, and God himself does nothing contrary to these laws. Thus they represent God as bound by his own laws; as if the operation of divine laws could exclude divine freedom. Such teaching is opposed to the testimony of the Scriptures. Were not miracles wrought by Christ and his apostles? The same compassionate Saviour lives to-day, and he is as willing to listen to the prayer of faith as when he walked visibly among men. The natural co-operates with the supernatural. It is a part of God's plan to grant us, in answer to the prayer of faith, that which he would not bestow, did we not thus ask.

Innumerable are the erroneous doctrines and fanciful ideas that are obtaining among the churches of Christendom. It is impossible to estimate the evil results of removing one of the landmarks fixed by the word of God. Few who venture to do this, stop with the rejection of a single truth. The majority continue to set aside one after another of its principles, until they become actual infidels.

And this is the object which Satan seeks to accomplish. There is nothing that he desires more than to destroy confidence in God and in his word. Satan stands at the head of the great army of doubters, and he works to the utmost of his power to beguile souls into his ranks. It is becoming fashionable to doubt. There are many who seem to feel that it is a virtue to stand on the side of unbelief, skepticism, and infidelity. But underneath an appearance of candor and humility, it will be found that such persons are actuated by self-confidence and pride. It is a terrible thing to lose faith in God or in his word. Unbelief strengthens as it is encouraged. There is danger in even once giving expression to doubt; a seed is sown which produces a harvest of its kind. Satan will nourish the crop every moment. Those who allow themselves to talk of their doubts will find them constantly becoming more confirmed. God will never remove every occasion for doubt. He will never work a miracle to remove unbelief when he has given sufficient evidence for faith.

God looks with displeasure upon the self-sufficient and the unbelieving, who are ever doubting his promises and distrusting the assurance of his grace. They are unproductive trees that spread their dark branches far and wide, shutting away the sunlight from other plants, and causing them to droop and die under the chilling shadow. The life-work of these persons will appear as a never-ceasing witness against them. They are sowing seeds of doubt and skepticism that will yield an unfailing harvest.

The followers of Christ know little of the plots which Satan and his host are forming against them. But He who sitteth in the heavens will overrule all these devices for the accomplishment of his deep designs. The Lord permits his people to be subjected to the fiery ordeal of temptation, not because he takes pleasure in their distress and affliction, but because this process is essential to their final victory. He could not, consistently with his own glory, shield them from temptation; for the very object of the trial is to prepare them to resist all the allurements of evil.

Satan is well aware that the weakest soul who abides in Christ is more than a match for the hosts of darkness, and that, should he reveal himself openly, he would be met and resisted. Therefore he seeks to draw away the soldiers of the cross from their strong fortification, while he lies in ambush with his forces, ready to destroy all who venture upon his ground. No man is safe for a day or an hour without prayer. Especially should we entreat the Lord for wisdom to understand his word. Satan is an expert in quoting Scripture, placing his own interpretation upon passages by which he hopes to cause us to stumble. We should study the Bible with humility of heart, never losing sight of our dependence upon God. While we must constantly guard against the devices of Satan, we should pray in faith continually, "Lead us not into temptation."

PARAPHRASE OF PSALM XII.

By Editor

BY THE EDITOR.

1 HELP, Lord, the godly cease, the faithful fail; No truth is found among rebellious men. 2 Let not the men of flattering lips prevail, Who speak with double heart; their thoughts are vain. 3 O Lord, cut off the lips of flattery, And bring down low the stubborn tongues of pride, 4 Who claim a right to utter vanity, And have, with boastful words, the Lord denied. 5 Now will I rise to save the poor oppressed, And set him up in safety, saith the Lord. The sighing sufferer shall in me find rest, And they shall know the power of my word. 6 For all the words of God are pure and tried, As silver in a furnace purified. 7 Thou shalt, O Lord, preserve the needy poor, From this vain generation evermore. 8 The wicked we on every side descry, When vilest men are here exalted high.

Prophecy.

By men who could not read one of Apollo's oracles to save their lives, nor recite one of Isaiah's prophecies to save their souls, we are told that Apollo's oracles, no less than Isaiah's, were inspired. Could such persons be prevailed upon to read carefully any single prophetic book of Scripture, with the historic facts to which it refers, or even the briefest abridgment of these facts, such as that contained in Scott's, or the "Comprehensive Commentary," they would not thus expose their ignorance alike of heathen and Christian oracles.

The differences between them are too numerous to be easily enumerated. The oracles of the heathen are always sources of gain to their prophets. The ancient Pythoness must have a hecatomb, the writing medium a dollar, and the modern Pythoness of the platform a dime. But under the inspiration of God even a Balaam becomes honest, and the leprosy of Naaman marks the sordid Gehazi and his seed forever.

The oracles of the heathen are always immoral in their tendency. From the first spiritual communication through the serpent medium in the tree of knowledge, down to the last spiritual marriage rapped out by the oracle, they are all in favor of pride, ambition, lying, lust, and murder. The oracles of God begin with a prohibition of curiosity, pride, covetousness, and theft: "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." And they are uniformly of the same tenor, forbidding, reproving, threatening vice, and encouraging virtue, down to the last: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city; for without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie."

This last mark of falsehood belongs to all heathen oracles, from the first utterance by the serpent down to the last response rapped out by the medium. Take any one heathen oracle of which we have any definite account—and the number is very small—and you will find that, if it is not "as equivocal as Apollo," it is false. For instance, infidels very confidently refer to the augury of Vettius Valens, that, "if it be true, as historians say, that Romulus saw twelve vultures at the founding of Rome, that signified that it should exist twelve centuries." It very properly begins with an if, for the story of Romulus and the vultures is exceedingly apocryphal. But whether the story be false or no, the augury certainly is. If it refers to the material city then building, it was false. Brennus, the Gaul, burned it to the ground before it was four centuries old. If it prophesied the permanence of the political constitution, every school-boy knows that within twelve centuries

half a dozen revolutions falsified the augury. If it referred to the ultimate duration of the city of that name, or of the Roman people, it is self-evidently false; for now, after the lapse of twenty-six centuries, Rome is larger, its territory wider, and its people more numerous, than for centuries after Romulus saw the twelve vultures. Yet men who have read Roman history present Vettius Valens as a prophet. It is written, "He frustrateth the tokens of the liars."

But it is objected that "the prophecies of Scripture are as obscure as the oracles; are all wrapped up in symbolical language; that many of them have a double meaning; that no two interpreters are agreed as to the meaning of the unfulfilled predictions; and that no man can certainly foretell any future event by means of them." The objection proceeds on a total mistake of the nature and design of prophecy, which is not to unveil the future for the gratification of your curiosity, but to give you direction in your present duty; precisely the reverse of the oracles referred to, which proposed to tell their votaries what would happen, but rarely condescended to direct them how to behave themselves so that things might happen well. The larger part of the prophecies of Scripture is taken up with directions to men how to regulate their conduct, rather than with information how God means to regulate his. There is just as much of the latter as is sufficient to show us that the God who gave the Bible governs the world, and even that always urges the same moral lesson: "Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him, for he shall eat the fruit of his doings." "Woe to the wicked; it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him." Whenever a vision relates to what God will do in the distant future, it is dark and mysterious; but whenever any directions are given necessary for our immediate duty, then the vision is written and made plain on tables, "that he may run that readeth it." The possessors of a clearly engrossed title-deed have surely no reason to complain that the president has chosen that his seal appended to it shall consist of a device, which, by reason of its being hard to read and harder to imitate, secures both himself and them against forgery. The double meaning of some prophecies is a double check. So far from resembling the equivocalities of heathen oracles, by taking either of two opposite events for a fulfillment, they require both of two corresponding ones; and some prophecies, like a master key, open several successive events, and thus show that the same mind planned both locks and key. When the prediction is fulfilled, all mystery vanishes, and men see plainly that thus it was written—that is to say, men who look—for the man who will not open his eyes will never see anything that it concerns him to know. But the man who thinks that it concerns him so much to know what God will do with the world a hundred years after he is dead, that unless the prophecies of the Bible are all made plain to him, he will neither read God's word nor obey his law, may go on his own way. We expound no mysteries to such persons; for it is written, "None of the wicked shall understand."

As to the objection taken from the symbolical language of prophecy, and which seems to a number of our modern critics so weighty that they remove to the purely mythologic ground everything "couched in symbolical language," and account nothing to be prediction unless "literal history written in advance"—I would merely ask, How is it possible to reveal heavenly things to earth-born men but by earthly figures? Do you know a single word in your own, or any other language, to express a spiritual state or mental operation, that is not the name of some material state or physical operation, used symbolically? Heart, soul, spirit, idea, memory, imagination, inclination, etc., every one of them a figure of speech—a symbol. Nay, is there a letter in your own or in any other alphabet, that was not originally a picture of something? I demand to know in what way God or man could teach you to know anything you have never seen, but by either showing you a picture of it, or telling you what it is like? That is simply by type or symbol, and these are the only possible media of conveying heavenly truth, or future history, to our minds. When, therefore, the skeptic insists that prophecy be given literally in the style of history written in advance, he simply requires that God would make it utterly unintelligible.

We can gather clear and definite ideas from the significant hieroglyphics of symbolic language, but the literalities of history written in advance would be worse to decipher than the arrow-headed inscriptions of Nineveh. Just imagine to yourself Alexander the Great reading Guizot, instead of Daniel; or Hildreth, as being less mysterious than Ezekiel; and meeting, for instance, such a record as this: "In the year of Christ 1847, the United States conquered Mexico, and annexed California." "In the year of Christ—what new Olympiad may that be?" he would say. "The United States" of course means the States of the Achæan League, but on what shore of the Euxine may Mexico and California be found?" What information could Aristotle gather from the record that, "In 1857, the Transatlantic Telegraph was in operation"? Could all the augurs in the seven-hilled city have expounded to Julius Caesar the famous dispatch, if intercepted in prophetic vision, "Sebastopol was evacuated last night, after enduring for three days an infernal fire of shot and shell"? Nay, to diminish the vista to even two or three centuries, what could Oliver Cromwell, aided by the whole Westminster Assembly, have made of a prophetic vision of a single newspaper paragraph of history written in advance, to inform them that, "Three companies of dragoons came down last night from Berwick to Southampton, by a special train, traveling fifty-four and one-half miles an hour, including stoppages, and embarked immediately on arrival. The fleet put to sea at noon, in the face of a full gale from the southwest"? Why, the intelligible part of this single paragraph would seem to them more impossible, and the unintelligible part more absurd, than all the mysterious symbols of the Apocalypse.—Fables of Infidelity.

Judgment to Come.

By Alexander Maclaren

FUTURE judgment is distinctly a part of the Christian revelation. Jesus Christ is to come in bodily form as he went away. All men are to be judged by him. That judgment is to be the destruction of opposing forces, the sweeping away of the carrion of moral evil. It is therefore distinctly a part of the message that is to be preached under penalty of the awful condemnation pronounced on the watchman who seeth the sword coming and gives no warning. It is not becoming to make such a solemn message the opportunity for pictorial rhetoric, which vulgarizes its greatness and weakens its power. But it is worse than an offense against taste, it is unfaithfulness to the "preaching which God bids us," treason to our King, to suppress the warning—"the day of our Lord cometh."

There are many temptations to put it in the background. Many of you do not want that kind of preaching. You want the gentle side of divine revelation. You say to us in fact, though not in words, "Prophecy to us smooth things. Tell us about the infinite love which wraps all mankind in its embrace. Speak to us of the Father God, who hateth nothing that he hath made. Magnify the mercy and gentleness and tenderness of Christ. Do not say anything about that other side. It is not in accordance with the tendencies of modern thought." So much the worse, then, for the tendencies of modern thought. I yield to no man in the ardor of my belief that the center of all revelation is the revelation of a God of infinite love, but I cannot forget that there is such a thing as the "terror of the Lord," and I dare not disguise my conviction that no preaching sounds every string in the manifold harp of God's truth which does not strike that note of warning of judgment to come.

Such suppression is unfaithfulness. If a traveler is about plunging into some gloomy jungle infested with wild beasts, he is a friend who sits by the wayside to warn him of his danger. Surely you would not call a signal-man unfeeling because he held out a red lamp when he knew that just around the curve beyond his cabin the rails were up, and that any train that reached the place would go over in horrid ruin; and surely that preaching is not justly charged with harshness which rings out the wholesome proclamation of a day of judgment when we shall give each account of ourselves to the divine-human Judge.

Be sure that judgment to come is no mere figure dressed up to frighten children, nor the product of blind superstition, but it is the inevitable issue of the righteousness of an all-ruling God. You have to face it, I have to face it, and so have all the sons of men. "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment." Betake yourselves, as poor sinful creatures who know something of the corruption of your own hearts, to that dear Christ who has died on the cross for you, and all that is obnoxious to the divine judgments will, by his transforming life breathed into you, be taken out of your hearts; and when that day of the Lord shall dawn, you, trusting in the sacrifice of him who is your Judge, will "have a song as when a holy solemnity is kept." Take Christ for your Saviour, and then when the vultures of judgment, with their mighty black pinions, are wheeling and circling in the sky, ready to pounce upon their prey, he will gather you, "as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings," and beneath their shadow you will be safe.—Rev. Dr. Alexander Maclaren.

Criticising the Preacher.

By The Lutheran

A PLAIN, earnest preacher entered the pulpit of a fashionable church, in which the hearers were supposed to exhort the minister to help them heavenward delicately. The preacher went right on, as was his duty, telling the people, not exactly rhetorically, but strictly according to the Holy Bible, that they were sinners against God, and in danger of hell. In the audience were a man and his wife—he irreligious, she a professor of religion. No sooner had they reached the pavement, at the close of the service, than she began a heartless criticism of the preacher and his sermon—how he was rough, unrefined, and lacked all the requisites which make the orator—the train of remark was kept up until it became noticeable that her husband made no reply. She turned and looked into his face. He was weeping—a convicted sinner.

Let parents beware what they say about the sermon or the preacher before their children, in whose hearts the word of God may be seeking a lodgment. Why pray in the morning for the conversion of sinners, and then, by cold criticism of the sermon, neutralize the very means by which it pleases God to save? Thoughtless comments at the dinner-table will do this far more effectually than all the profanity the children hear as they pass the drinking-saloons on their way to school. Parents, beware!—The Lutheran.

Wait on the Lord.

By Raymond F. Cottrell

"WAIT on the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord."

Our cause is with the Lord. He knows our case better than any other. Whatever takes place with us, if not by his direct and special providence, is nevertheless by his permission, and, if rightly received, will work for our good. Enemies may seek our harm; friends may be mistaken and err concerning us, but the Lord knows our cause and seeks not our harm, is not deceived or misled, but only seeks our good. It is always safe to wait for and trust in him. "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him."

Only wait patiently, and wrongs will be redressed and errors corrected. The Lord will direct those who truly trust in him. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand." Our every cause is in safe hands. The judgment will be right. "Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land." Truly, wait, keeping the Lord's way, and the reward is sure.

R. F. COTTRELL.

Roman Catholic "Freedom."

THE old story of your ox and my bull is repeated in the Romanist clamor for what they call "Freedom of Worship." They would not allow a Protestant to have a church or a school if they could prevent it. And here is a specimen or two of the way they allow freedom of worship to their own people. A pastor in the country writes to us:—

"About a year ago a woman came into my family as a servant. She was unable to read, knew nothing of the Bible, and was all her life in the Romish church. Of her own accord she came in to family worship, and loved to do so. Sometimes she would ask my wife the meaning of certain passages she heard from the Bible, expressed much interest in them, and said they did her good all day. After the lapse of several months she returned to the city for a visit. When she came back she appeared to be in much trouble. That evening she did not come in to worship; and I remarked to my wife, 'E. has been to see the priest.' The next day she informed my wife that the priest had positively forbidden her to attend family worship. She said that she told the priest 'that it did her much good, gave her all day something to think about.' He refused to yield in the least. And under the threatened inflictions of the penalties of the church, this poor woman was denied the 'freedom' of hearing the Bible read, and prayer offered to God.

"Near me lives a Roman Catholic woman. She had never seen a Bible in her father's house. Reading and hearing something of the Protestant faith, she procured a Bible. In a subsequent interview with the priest she informed him that she had a Bible. His reply was, 'The devil is in it; you must put it into the stove.' This she related to me herself."

Such facts as these are of constant occurrence. They will not be denied by any truthful priest. Freedom of worship is not allowed to the poorest person in the Romish communion. But they make the greatest possible outcry if their priests are not permitted to invade our unsectarian institutions to teach their doctrines. It makes all the difference in the world whether it is your ox or my bull that is hurt.—N. Y. Observer.

CHRISTIANITY, degraded or perverted into the service of this world, is found to be unfit to do even this world service.—Bishop Harris.

Continue reading: Constantine.—VI