Editorial Keynotes

He decided trend, on the part of some, toward a softening of our witness as concerns the Papacy, would, were it to gain sufficient headway, be fraught with gravest consequences. This mas­terpiece of perversion is the most powerful factor, next to the truth of God itself, operating among and dominating the centuries. The mighty conflict of the Ref­ormation today, and it has been so back through ormation period was a head-on collision of truth with the mystery of iniquity. If men had soft-pedaled, trimmed, modified for expediency's sake then, as some are now prone to do, there would have bi en no fundamental Reformation, and the dea,h grip of apostate domination would have been ir­remediably fastened upon humanity. But God ruled, and overruled, otherwise.

Some, drawing their historical information from papal sources, now incline to minimize the past iniquities of the Papacy and gloss over her sinister record, and to belittle the noble achievements of the Reformation, ques­tioning its propriety and depreciating or deprecating its achievements. But such an attitude is gross error. Such a view is a compromise that obscures and sacrifices prin­ciple. It sells out to the adversary, and will bring ruin and retrenchment, should it ever prevail. This is unthinkable. It must not, cannot, be.

ItoThis last-day, fundamental gospel movement s in direct and inescapable opposition to such an anti-Christian system. There can be no lawful compromise in the face of such clashing principles. There must be no silence in the light of our commissioned warning. There must be a conflict to the bitter end. Yet this tendency of which we write—this policy of toning down our divinely commissioned wit­ness concerning the Papacy, of soft-pedaling its character, its grim history, its full identifica­tion in prophecy, and its destined conflict with the remnant movement—is seeking to obtrude itself upon the church. The reasons can be discovered. One, in addition to those we would naturally list,—and over which we may well ponder,—lies in the studied avoidance of cer­tain disputed areas in our prophetic exposition, with a consequent diminishing of certainty that bears its inevitable fruitage.

The divinely commissioned message of the ministry of this last-day gospel movement, symbolized by the angelic heraldry of Revela­tion 14, was neither chosen nor devised by ourselves. This divine syllabus, as an analysis of the world situation, and a disclosure of the divine remedy, was not conceived by man. It is God's destined message to humanity for this final hour, devised in the wisdom of God and the councils of eternity, perfectly and ade­qu. rely to meet the issues of the race in this last hour of human history and religious apos­tasy.

Anything else or anything less will prove inadequate, and will bring upon the diverter and substituter the inescapable condemnation of God. The clean-cut issues are forgotten, modified, or obscured only at gravest peril, and involve the most serious responsibility. God holds us accountable for faithfully and ade­quately heralding this divinely appointed mes­sage. There will be a fearful accounting for those who fail. This we should never forget.

Our commission is twofold, having a positive and a negative aspect. It comprises and com­bines both an appeal and a warning. It offers salvation, and warns rejecters of destruction. The issues and involvements of this commis­sion are the gravest in the annals of man­kind. We are to proclaim anew the everlast­ing, changeless, and unchanged provisions of the full gospel, which have been perverted, ob­scured, and distorted through the course ot the centuries, chiefly by that great apostate.: power, posing as a church, which is the subject of minute prophetic description both by Old! and New Testament prophets.

We are to restore completely the original apostolic gospel message. We are to go back: far beyond the Reformation return, which was; but partial, for it soon became sadly bedimmed and arrested. We are to restore the original gospel message and faith, and to expose the great instrument of apostasy, her devices, and her achievements. Silence here means unfaith­fulness to Heaven's trust. We should study, anew our great commission.                          

L. E. F.