Written From Rome
313
would be in more danger from this evil than from the persecution of
her enemies. Again and again Paul warned the believers against these
false teachers. This peril, above all others, they must guard against;
[474]
for by receiving false teachers, they would open the door to errors
by which the enemy would dim the spiritual perceptions and shake
the confidence of those newly come to the faith of the gospel. Christ
was the standard by which they were to test the doctrines presented.
All that was not in harmony with His teachings they were to reject.
Christ crucified for sin, Christ risen from the dead, Christ ascended
on high—this was the science of salvation that they were to learn and
teach.
The warnings of the word of God regarding the perils surrounding
the Christian church belong to us today. As in the days of the apostles
men tried by tradition and philosophy to destroy faith in the Scriptures,
so today, by the pleasing sentiments of higher criticism, evolution,
spiritualism, theosophy, and pantheism, the enemy of righteousness is
seeking to lead souls into forbidden paths. To many the Bible is as a
lamp without oil, because they have turned their minds into channels
of speculative belief that bring misunderstanding and confusion. The
work of higher criticism, in dissecting, conjecturing, reconstructing,
is destroying faith in the Bible as a divine revelation. It is robbing
God’s word of power to control, uplift, and inspire human lives. By
spiritualism, multitudes are taught to believe that desire is the highest
law, that license is liberty, and that man is accountable only to himself.
The follower of Christ will meet with the “enticing words” against
which the apostle warned the Colossian believers. He will meet with
spiritualistic interpretations of the Scriptures, but he is not to accept
[475]
them. His voice is to be heard in clear affirmation of the eternal truths
of the Scriptures. Keeping his eyes fixed on Christ, he is to move
steadily forward in the path marked out, discarding all ideas that are
not in harmony with His teaching. The truth of God is to be the subject
for his contemplation and meditation. He is to regard the Bible as the
voice of God speaking directly to him. Thus he will find the wisdom
which is divine.
The knowledge of God as revealed in Christ is the knowledge
that all who are saved must have. This is the knowledge that works
transformation of character. Received into the life, it will re-create the