The trend of our times is in the way of lawlessness—a bold disregard of the ten commandments and a reckless abandonment to sin. "Because of the prevalent disregard of God's law, the love of the great majority will grow cold." Matt. 24:12, Weymouth. It is repeatedly pointed out in the writings of the Spirit of prophecy that the underlying cause of the lawlessness that peculiarly marks ouigeneration is the teaching and preaching of antinornianism. Faced with the Sabbath of the Bible and the call to obedience, religious leaders "in a veritable delirium of folly" have taught that the ten commandments are a yoke of bondage, no longer binding upon the children of men.
The results of this subtle and satanic teaching are sad to contemplate. Society has disintegrated. Consciousness of sin has been lost. The foundations of faith have crumbled. Respect for the law of God has fled. But now there has come a strange reversal of feeling. The blatant boastfulness of the "new freedom," so often heard in the early years of the twentieth century, is no more. Fear has come—fear of a future that is dark with uncertainty. It is the frantic fear that is felt in a sinking ship, or a raging flood, or a burning building.
In this tragic hour, men are seeking a foundation for faith, and they cannot find this foundation in popular Protestantism. The very name Protestant stands for confusion, uncertainty, perplexity. Where shall men seek for unity and stability ? Some hear the word of truth, the message of certainty, as proclaimed by Seventh-day Adventists. Theirs is a Bible truth, a faith with foundations. But, oh, how few there are who hear l The multitudes turn, as prophecy has foretold, to the mystery church of the ages. The world is truly looking Rome-ward.
Why this gaze of the multitudes to the city of the seven hills? Eric T. Griebling, assistant professor of English at Kent State University, in the Catholic magazine America (Feb. 25, 1939), gives answer to this question. His article is entitled "A Wistful Protestant Looks at Catholicism," and it is a serious indictment of a Protestantism that has lost faith in the Bible, and drifts upon a sea of uncertainty. Note well the significance of this teacher's reasoning:
"The Protestant must feel acutely the lack of a spiritual home most strongly when he realizes that his church changes like money values. He cannot tell from one day to another what his church stands for. He cannot attempt a prediction of what interpretation his minister will place upon this doctrine or that tomorrow, for has he not changed frequently in the past ?
"Yesterday, the minister declared that the book of Genesis is to be interpreted in strict accordance with the letter of Scripture. Today, a new minister comes. He is fresh from a new school of theology, and he says that Genesis is not to be taken absolutely, but that it is only a fairy story from an ancient civilization. Tomorrow, today's minister goes on his way, and the new one will say that God Himself is not a Being who dispenses an even-handed justice to all men, but only a spirit, possibly no more than a vague feeling, possibly only a form of nervousness. Many Protestant sects have gone through exactly that cycle ; they have evolved from a one-sided interpretation of Holy Writ to a romantic escape from all religious responsibility.
"To millions of Protestants, the church has become purely a social institution. The choir, the young married people's class, the young men's clubs, have become—just clubs, which incidentally meet in a building theoretically devoted to the Lord. The Sunday school is often a mere debating society in which every neighborhood gossip's opinion is as good as the minister's—indeed better, if she happens to have money. The Sunday school teaches nothing, the church inspires nobody."—Page 487.
"As a university teacher, I have often been shocked by the ignorance of the professed Christian students regarding their own religion. Out of a class of thirty college freshmen, not more than ten will have anything but the vaguest notion of even the commoner stories in the Bible. Not ten could tell the story of Joseph and his brethren ; not five could name a dozen miracles performed by Jesus. The account of the creation, the story of Moses, the biographies of David, or Paul, or Christ Himself are subtleties beyond the average freshman's interest or understanding. But if anyone in the class knows anything about the Bible, he is sure to be a Catholic!"
Discussing next the source of strength lying behind Catholicism, the author continues:
"But every now and then someone in the procession toward mythical progress looks over his shoulder and sees towering behind and above him the timeless majesty of the Catholic Church. What is the secret of that institution? How can that Catholic Church remain so constant, so firm, so changeless in a world giddy with delusions of grandeur, urgent demands for immediate religious revolution, and spiritual delirium?"
"Just what is the source of strength behind Catholicism? Just why does the church with the cross on its spire rise above all others? just why does Catholic youth know answers which those from other folds never heard of ? I ask as one on the outside looking in, and this is what I seem to see :
"The shepherds have one concern, one interest, one passion—the flock. The strict obligation of celibacy places the Catholic priest in a position which the Protestant minister, however conscientious, can only envy. To the minister, the church is the deepest and greatest of many concerns ; to the priest, the church is all there is ! Whatever the Protestant minister may desire or wish, he must consider his family, and as he considers his family, his salary, house, motorcar, and the thousand nothings of the hour cannot help distracting him from his stewardship. The priest has only his flock. He lives only for them, or for his God through them."—Page 486.
"To the Protestant, every man's conscience is a sure guide for a life of virtue, but the most elementary psychology teaches that conscience is little more than a blend of desire plus the influence of the past.
"The Catholic need rely upon nothing within his own highly fallible spirit, but can rest his faith upon the church. If the Protestant's conscience seems to tell him something that is at variance with what he hears in church, conscience is presumed to be right. The Protestant, then, cannot know the security of reliance upon some power, some institution older, stronger than himself."—Page 487.
In the Bible, as proclaimed in its fullness and power by Seventh-day Adventists, is the answer to Professor Griebling and millions more who seek a foundation for faith. Truth never changes. God's law towers in majestic grandeur today even as in days of old. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Protestantism is in a pitiable plight because it has forsaken the word of the living God. Must a people in perplexity turn from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism—a system which exalts tradition above the Bible, and this a tradition that finds its source in the polluted streams of paganism? The answer is with those who rest their faith upon the word of God ! In the Bible there is security from the storms of doubt. Let us proclaim the truth with power while probation lingers for a dying world.
