Modernism is just infidelity in a new dress, advancing with a friendly air, as if to help a worn-out Christendom to regain its prestige, but its proffered friendship is as wicked,-we say it advisedly and with premeditation-as the kiss with which Judas saluted Christ. A dark, foul, hypocritical kiss was that of Judas, the darkest bit of treachery this world has ever seen.
Judas betrayed the living Word, the Christ of God; Modernism has betrayed the written Word, the Holy Scriptures, without which we cannot know the living Word.
It has sapped the spiritual life of the church of God; it has destroyed evangelistic effort; it has emasculated Christian living; it has increased the flood of worldliness which is swamping the Christian profession on every hand.
No wonder the complaint is that fewer and fewer attend churches and chapels, and that worldly methods are adopted, whereby to attract the masses, that rival the theater, the cinema, and the variety show. The notices on church-boards to-day would shock our grandfathers beyond measure. Whist Drives, Dramatic Entertainments, Dances, etc., etc., are being used liberally in the vain attempt to hold the masses, but they are not being held, at least for Christ and His cause. They are being held to swell the apostasy, long foretold by Scripture, and now arriving with gigantic strides.
Meanwhile, wherever faithful men, gifted of God and called by Him to the ministry, preach, they can get hearers who listen eagerly to their evangel of hope and certitude.
A young man, speaking of the Modernists, said to his mother:- " If the professors can persuade me that what they say about the Bible is true, then overboard goes the whole thing for me. I can't believe it in bits."
Alas! they did persuade him, and he became a leading lawyer without a vestige of religion about him
A newspaper man took one year in a theological college with an idea of becoming a minister. He got influenced by Modernism, lost all faith in the Bible, and finally drifted out into an utterly godless life and so died.
A young lady, led away by a friend, was overwhelmed by a great sorrow; when her sister tried to comfort her, her despairing cry was, "I would give much to believe God's Word as you do. But take that text you have just quoted, how do I know God ever said it? It may be only an interpolation, as so many are said to be."
Professor Huxley, who certainly was not biased in favor of the Bible, in his life written by his son, is said to have spoken thus of Higher Criticism:- " If Satan had wished to devise the best means of discrediting Revelation ' he could not have done better." LIFE, vol. 2, p. 118.
As to the leaders in Modernism, did they gain in faith and peace of soul by their criticisms?
Wellhausen, as we have seen, could not believe in the Old Testament inspiration, or else, he said, it would make God a party to the fraud.
Dr. Marcus Dods, a thorough-going Higher Critic, confessed plainly at the end of his life:- "I am a backslider." "I take no interest in prayer."
He confessed that he had not prayed for years, and he died under a spiritual cloud. Poor, unhappy man!
Dr. A. B. Bruce, a compeer of Dr. Marcus Dods, and described by him as "the greatest pioneer of our time in theological thought," died we are told, without a single Christian conviction.
Dr. Cheyne, a leading Higher Critic, died a Bahaist, that is a sort of Mohammedan.
When we come to general statements how damning is the indictment.
The missionary principal of a leading Theological College in India writes as follows:- " We make no secret of our desire to send out men trained in modern scientific method of Bible study."
This means in all the unfounded and unholy speculations of Modernism. Replying to the charge that their students lost their zeal and evangelistic fervor under the teaching of this college the reply was made:- " We confess that we are well content that our young men should lose that frothy enthusiasm which lacks any solid basis, and which cannot stand the strain of new and strange conditions."
The above extracts are taken from " The Ravages of Higher Criticism in the Indian Mission Field."
The English Churchman (July 20th, 1922, pages 348), reports that one of the leading Home Secretaries of a well-known Missionary Society said that ninety percent of their Educational Missionaries in India held the advanced views of the Higher Critics. The high percentage is appalling.
Kanzo Uchimura, editor of a Tokio magazine entitled " Bible Study," writes:—"Time was when we sent our sons and daughters to America and Europe, that they might grow in faith and be established in it. Time is when we are afraid of sending our children abroad, for many went away as good Christians and returned home as reprobates and apostates. It must needs be that offense come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh."
When such a rebuke comes from a heathen land, it is high time for every true Christian to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.
That Modernism is rife is not surprising, for it is all foretold in Scripture and is only another proof of its inspiration. We read:- "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." (2 Tim. 4:3, 43For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:3‑4)).
How true this is to the letter. And yet while we know that the rising tide of apostasy will continue to flow stronger and stronger till Antichrist, the man of sin, will appear, we know that it means for the true believer the imminent return of the Lord to catch away His Church " in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye."
Of course, Satan would never make the headway he is doing did he not work subtly. How subtly he works is seen in the fact that many Modernists are honestly believing they are serving God and His truth, though they must be terribly blinded to think so.
Again Scripture points this out. We read: " But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." (2 Tim. 3:1313But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:13)).
Modernists are evil men because they are doing terribly evil work, and seducers because they seduce from the right understanding of Scripture. They wax worse and worse as we have seen. The next generation will surely begin where the last generation leaves off.
Deceiving they certainly are, but they themselves are deceived. This explains how they may honestly be doing the devil's work, but this only makes them the more dangerous. What an awakening lies before them!
For instance, in reading Peake's Commentary there are many eloquent and beautiful passages extolling the Lord Jesus and His work, but mixed up with these passages are others which entirely nullify them.
It is as if a band of workmen should arrange that half their number should undermine the foundation of a building, whilst the other half should distract attention by beautifying the upper part of the building, till the awful crash should take place, and the building collapse.
Or to change the simile. Here is a glass of pure water. Into it is put by malicious hands a few drops of deadly poison. If the mixture is drunk, certain death must ensue.
Of what use is it to expatiate on the amount of water as compared with the few drops of poison, and to assure the individual who holds the glass in his hand, that he will be all the better for drinking it? This is exactly what Modernism is doing. No words are too strong for indignantly condemning this fiendish work.
We extract the following from " The Ravages of Higher Criticism in the Indian Mission Field." A missionary living south of Madras writes- " I attended a lecture given to non-Christian Indian students by one of the foremost leaders among missionaries in India. In this lecture he pictured the so-called development of religious thought from early times; and he taught and advocated the modem theory of religious Evolution. He warned his hearers that, as their religion, was merely a narrow and racial religion, it would not survive. He told them that ere long, there would be a World
Federation of Religions, and that only such universal religions as Buddhism, Mahommedanism, and Christianity would survive. He impressed upon his audience that he was in full sympathy with all religions, and that he had been privileged to worship with Jews, Mahommedans, Unitarians, Theosophists, Brahmo-Samajists, and others; and that he would also worship with Hindus if their ceremonial custom would only allow him to do so. He laid special emphasis upon the point that, the missionaries are not in India to convert them to Christianity, but to make of them better Hindus, better Mahommedans, and better Buddhists."
Could anything lay bare in its utter repulsiveness the length to which Modernism can take a man? To worship with Jews, who spit in the face of Christ to this very hour; with Unitarians, who deny His Godhead and atoning death; with heathen religions with their idol worship and unspeakable immoralities connected with their temple services, is indeed utter apostasy. Such a missionary may for purposes of his own, retain the name of Christian, but not a shred of real Christianity has he got.