The most subtle influences are now at work to make of no effect the provisions made for our salvation. Other generations have been characterized by their attacks on the Christian religion from the outside. The infidel, the atheist, the agnostic, and others have pursued a policy of denial of the foundations of revealed truth, and have come out in the open where the issue with the Christian religion was quite clearly defined. But we are face to face with the most gigantic battle Christianity has ever been called upon to wage, with the opposing forces of truth marching, not against, but with the Christian army, entrenched, not in fields of vantage ground across a line of deadly conflict, but in the Christian camp, marching under the banner of Jesus Christ.
The boldest attempt to strike Christianity its deathblow is being made by reason and so-called science, inside the very institutions which owe their existence to the Christian religion. In the class room, on the college campus, in student conferences and conventions, the facts of religion are challenged and brought before the judgment bar of reason and science, with no other recognized criterion of truth but one's own inner conception.
Recently it was my privilege to meet with a delegated group of Christian students selected by their fellow students because of their interest in foreign missions. State and private universities, colleges, and theological seminaries of the United States and Canada were represented, so it may be assumed that their questions and the answers offered reflect the attitude of the present generation of students.
The discussion group was led by an authority on comparative religions, Dr. Soper, of Duke University. The topics under discussion related to the problem of Christian missions as a duty resting upon the students of this generation. It was startling to me to see these youth so fully committed to the questionable premises occupied by so many professed religious leaders.
A few of the questions are noted here, and the trend of the discussions will follow in later articles.
Is Jesus Christ a way or the way?
Is a knowledge of the historic Christ essential to salvation?
Is there a criterion of truth?
Will all folks who are not saved go to hell?
What can Christ add to a life that cannot be gotten in any other way? What can we believe about inspiration in the light of modern knowledge?
Is it necessary to atone for sin?
Is salvation an intellectual attainment?
How can temptation to sin be successfully met?
All heathen and Christian religions have good rules of conduct.
What does Christianity furnish that cannot be gotten in any other way?
Glendale, Calif.
