Impending Conflict—Its Causes
483
talent and learning to cavil at the Scriptures, and to spiritualize and
explain away their most important truths. Many ministers are teaching
their people, and many professors and teachers are instructing their
students, that the law of God has been changed or abrogated; and those
who regard its requirements as still valid, to be literally obeyed, are
thought to be deserving only of ridicule or contempt.
In rejecting the truth, men reject its Author. In trampling upon
the law of God, they deny the authority of the Lawgiver. It is as
easy to make an idol of false doctrines and theories as to fashion
an idol of wood or stone. By misrepresenting the attributes of God,
Satan leads men to conceive of him in a false character. With many,
a philosophical idol is enthroned in the place of Jehovah; while the
living God, as he is revealed in his Word, in Christ, and in the works
of creation, is worshiped by but few. Thousands deify nature, while
they deny the God of nature. Though in a different form, idolatry
exists in the Christian world today as verily as it existed among ancient
Israel in the days of Elijah. The god of many professedly wise men,
of philosophers, poets, politicians, journalists,—the god of polished
fashionable circles, of many colleges and universities, even of some
theological institutions,—is little better than Baal, the sun-god of
Phenicia.
No error accepted by the Christian world strikes more boldly
against the authority of Heaven, none is more directly opposed to
[584]
the dictates of reason, none is more pernicious in its results, than
the modern doctrine, so rapidly gaining ground, that God’s law is no
longer binding upon men. Every nation has its laws, which command
respect and obedience; no government could exist without them; and
can it be conceived that the Creator of the heavens and the earth has
no law to govern the beings he has made? Suppose that prominent
ministers were publicly to teach that the statutes which govern their
land and protect the rights of its citizens were not obligatory,—that
they restricted the liberties of the people, and therefore ought not to
be obeyed; how long would such men be tolerated in the pulpit? But
is it a graver offense to disregard the laws of States and nations than
to trample upon those divine precepts which are the foundation of all
government?
It would be far more consistent for nations to abolish their statutes,
and permit the people to do as they please, than for the Ruler of the