A Modern Apostasy

Notes

A pantheistic god, instead of a personal God.\ A human Saviour, instead of a divine Saviour.\ Infallible scholarship, instead of an infallible Bible.\ "Modern thought," instead of a "Thus saith the Lord."\ A development of religious ideas from the human mind, instead of a revelation from God.\ The natural in all things, the supernatural in nothing.\ Reformation, instead of regeneration.\ Culture, instead of conversion.\ A change of environment, instead of a change of heart.\ The energy of the flesh, instead of prayer and faith.\ Interest in the secular, instead of zeal for religion.\ Nobody afraid of hell, and nobody caring much about heaven.\ Everybody coming out right anyhow, and nobody on the wrong track except those who cling to the faith once delivered to the saints.

Notes

The nature and extent of the modern apostasy from the original truths of Christianity may be seen from the following summary of the teaching of one of the prominent exponents of advanced theology. This summary was made for the Literary Digest, and printed in its issue of March 25, 1905. It is as follows:

"The religious consciousness of former generations was based on divine revelation. It laid emphasis on miracles and signs. Divinely given interpretation was held to be the real and indispensable object of a genuine faith, so that often enough the revealed Book became itself almost a God. This whole conception of revelation has now disappeared from religious thought; it was a product of religious reasoning under the form of an antique philosophy. No longer do heaven and earth stand opposite each other as two worlds. We do not now believe in a lower world of hell. There can no longer be any claim to a revelation in the old sense of the word, and the idea is not in harmony with the certain results of modern scientific research. It is beyond doubt that the investigations of science and of history, and the unprejudiced researches into the character of original Christianity, which have been going on for about seventy years without regard to dogmas and doctrines, have made religion something entirely different from what it had traditionally been supposed to be. It has been found, too, that Christ is a historical person, and that His activity and work can be plainly understood in the light of His day and surroundings. The historical Christ, without any signs and wonders, and without the later Christology, is what the religious consciousness of to-day must deal with. The deification of Christ has not stood the test of real historical investigation. Such great problems as those of creation, providence, prayer, and its hearing, and the personality of God, wear an entirely new aspect in the light of modern science. The new truths must be recognized in our pulpits and become a part of the religious instruction in the schools."

The wide-spread and growing tendency to use the power of the state to enforce religious observances, especially as seen in the efforts to secure Sunday legislation and the enforcement of Sunday laws, is one of the marked evidences of a falling away from the true principles of Protestantism. This indicates the influence of the principles of popery; and calls for the presentation of the message of reform concerning the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

"As Christ alone takes away sin, we can not do so by all our works. But good works follow redemption as surely as fruit appears upon a living tree."—Luther, "D'Aubigne History of the Reformation," Book II.