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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
The Fundamentals By Rev. David James Burrell, D. D. LL.D., Pastor of the Marble Collegiate Church, New York City
B ggN ONE of the darkest hours of David’s life, when III his faith in religion was being assailed like a bird gM in a storm of arrows, he lifted his eyes to the im- §El movable hills with this appeal, “In the Lord put I my trust. . . . If the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:1-3.) Well, what can they do? If there ever was a time for asking that question, it is just now; and our Lord answered it in his Parable of the Two Houses in Matthew 7:24-27: “Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.” It is the fashion of late to speak of Christians who stand for their faith as “Fundamentalists.” Thanks to unbeliev ers for that word! Fundamentalists? So be it. Believers are not building castles in the air. They may dream dreams and see visions, like Jacob at Bethel, but their dreams and visions are founded on the Word of God. The trees of Lebanon may yield to every wind that blows, but the foun dations of truth endure though the earth be removed and the mountains be cast into the midst of the sea. The Christian is Dynamic Because his Foundations are Static The fundamentals of Christian faith are not many, but they are fundamental: so much so that if they be removed the whole superstructure is as rickety and ramshackle as an outhouse floating in a freshei. We say, “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.” So far, so good; but the essentials come first, else, our boasted “liberty” and “charity” are empty words. What then does Paul mean by saying, “Leaving the prin ciples of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfec tion” ? Read on: “Not laying again the foundation of re pentance from dead works and of faith toward God.” (Heb. 6:1.) In other words, the principles of the Gospel are to be accepted at the outset and thenceforth to be “left” as facts settled once for all; not left as a wayward boy leaves his father’s house, but as a house in process of erection leaves the foundations set for it. Here is the secret of pro gress in character and usefulness. The Christian is dynamic because his foundations are static. His character rises like a growing superstructure on fundamentals that endure. If a mathematician were to insist on going back continually to prove the axioms he would never even cross the pons asino- rum. Some things must be regarded as settled “once for all.", God in Christ The first of our fundamentals is God in Christ. Observe: a man may be religious without being a Chris tian. The distinction is clear; religion is believing in God, while Christianity is believing in God as revealed in the per son of his only-begotten and well-beloved Son. (Read Paul’s addfess on Mars Hill, Acts 17:22-31). It is simply grotesque for one to call himself a Christian while rejecting the unequivocal and persistent claims of
Jesus not only of equality but of identity with God; as for example where he said to Philip (John 14: 9, 10), “Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me?” The only way for one who will not accept this claim is either to assume that Jesus was beside himself or to stand squarely with Caiaphas in saying, “He hath spoken blas phemy and is guilty of death.” There is in logic and com mon honesty no middle ground. He was an impostor or he was what he claimed to be. No end of futile efforts have been made to build some sort of church on Jesus as a mere man. Unitarianism, un der that name or any other, has always been as dead as a still-born child. This is because the average man is ad dicted to common sense. “Thus saith the Lord God, Be hold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious Cornerstone, a sure foundation, . . . the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.” (Isa. 28: 16, 17). The answer to Peter’s good confession, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” was this: “Upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matt. 16:18.) No less positive and unmistakable are Paul’s words to the church members of Corinth, “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 3:11-15.) The reason why our Lord said to His disciples, “Ye be lieve in God, believe also in Me” (John 1 4 :1 ), was because there is no approach to the Father except through Him. No amount of sophistry can explain away His words, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” (John 14:6.) In other words, Chris tianity is simply a personal relation of the believer with Christ; so that he can say, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” (2 Tim. 1:12.) The second of the fundamentals of our Christian faith is The Atonement of the Cross Sin is a universal fact: “for there is no difference; for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Any attempt to prove this, would be like carrying coals to New castle; everybody knows it. (Rom. 2:15.) Moreover, sin is a portentous fact, despite all recent ef forts of free-thinkers to reduce it to the insignificance of a harmless epidemic. It automatically separates the sinner from a holy God; for so it is written in the Law: “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” The reference, of course, is to spiritual death. Hell is anywhere away from God. Salvation by the same token is reconciliation with God. But how can a sinful man be reconciled with a holy God except by the removal of his sin? And how, in pursuance of justice, can sin be “removed” without expiation? And who is competent to expiate it? “There is no eye to pity and no arm to save!” This was the dire necessity that brought 'the only-begot ten Son out of “the glory which he had with the Father before the world was” to bear the penalty of our misdoing in his own body on the tree. The cry of a despairing race (Continued on Page 188)
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