The Old Paths

Notes

That many are departing from the faith is evidenced by the numbers who are going off into Antinomianism, Spiritualism, Theosophy, Higher Criticism, New-thoughtism, Pantheism, Evolution, Christian Science, and other "isms" and false sciences which destroy faith in God, in the Bible, and in Christ as a personal and complete Saviour. The following from the Outlook of July 15, 1905, is an evidence of this: "There are many in these days to whom the message of the Church is nearly meaningless. To such as these the theological terms once in common use, such as atonement, redemption, regeneration, justification, sanctification, are as antiquated, artificial, empty, as the jargon of the alchemist or the astrologer. To them even the 'story of the cross,' as it is often told, sounds like a false appeal to the emotions, the misuse of the narrative of a noble death in an attempt to becloud the judgment."

There is much significance in the following statement in a farewell sermon delivered by a Baptist minister of Detroit, Mich., not long ago. Giving some advice to his congregation to guide them in the selection of his successor, he said: "Don't get a man who doesn't believe in the Deity."

For a summary of the false ideas concerning religion which are rapidly gaining ground everywhere, in contrast with the true, see answer to Question 13, in Lesson XI.