August 1924
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
477
EDIFICATION BY SHERWOOD EDDY . And now Sherwood Eddy has taken the young peo ple under his wing, and will not allow them to lose their faith. Recently in a message in a university cen ter, he gave utterance to the following as reported in the local press: “ BIBLE NOT TEXT BOOK, SAYS EDDY : World Has Paid Bitter Price for Trying to Believe Its Details: Too long lias the Bible been set up as a text book of law, science and everything else, and Christians have paid a bit ter price for trying to keep it as such, declared Sherwood Eddy Thursday evening to three thousand students and others meeting at St. Paul Methodist church. ‘There has been a conspiracy of silence,’ he declared. ‘If you try to make that book infallible in all matters, the world is doomed. I won’t have thousands of young people lose their faith because it is demanded that they accept some antiquated dogma derived from it.’ A misconception of the purpose of the Bible is the reason people try to make of it a repository of all exact knowledge, Mr. Eddy believes. Instead of taking it as filled with great moral truths, they draw theories of unessential mat ters from its obviously contradictory and ill-founded state ments, and then try to make all who would believe in the Bible believe in those theories. Storms of bitterness broke out when men claimed the world was round, that the sun revolves around the earth, that the law of gravity is truth, that the antiquity of the earth is measured by millions of years, and that evolution is a fact. Each time the church had to give way, and each time it lost converts to the faith. , Mr. Eddy asserted that he has just five fundamentals of religion that can not be shaken. These are that there is an inspired word of God, that there is a living Christ giving : eternal life, that the spirit of sacrifice and love are essen tials, and that there is a mode of life made known by Jesus. Such controversial matters as the virgin birth, blood atonement, bodily resurrection can well be dispensed with. They may be believed in or discredited individually, and no difference made. ‘Let us believe,’ said the speaker, ‘in the great essen tials.’ ” Wonderful, isn’t it? Mr. Eddy was not always so. He spoke once upon a time with a different message, like a number of other men we used to know who stood four-square upon God’s Word. But the tide has turned now, and it takes real men to stand. We have seen them toppling all around for a number of years. * Mr. Eddy also spoke some time ago in South Dakota, and a business man there has sent us a list of ques tions which he asked him, after his address, together with Mr. Eddy’s answers, as follows: “ Q. What became of the rib that God took from Adam? “ A. God never took it. “Q. Why does the Bible give the account then? “A. Because the people were ignorant in those days and they had to have some such story to satisfy their simple minds. “ Q. If the people as you say were ignorant in those days why is it that archaeologists have discovered works of art, etc. that prove that the civilization in some respects in the days of Moses far surpassed that of our day? “A. I didn’t know that they had. “ Q. If this account is not trustworthy what part of the Bible are we to believe, and what part are we to reject? “A. Any part that Jesus does not o. k. “Q. Did not Jesus o. k. Moses and the Prophets again and again? “ A. Well— yes, certain parts. I see you have the same idea that the Mohammedans have, that the Bible was handed down from heaven a finished book. “Q. You made the statement last night that it did not make any difference whether one believed in the Virgin Birth or not. Was Christ not true man and God? “A. Christ was true God and true man, but the Virgin Birth does not make any difference; if you want to believe
that it is all right, about half of my friends believe that He was, and the other half do not believe ifcr-—it does not make a bit of difference. “Q. If Christ was not Virgin-born how could He be the Son of God? “A. God merely put His Spirit upon Him. “Q. Does not the Bible teach that He was born of a virgin ? “A. Christ never taught it. “ Q. Who was the father of Jesus then? “A. Joseph. “Q. How do you account for Matthew 1:25? “ A. Oh you can’t- take that as proof, it cannot be veri fied. “ Q. In other words, the Bible is a myth? “ A. No, not exactly, certain parts of it are. “ Q. If that is the case how do we know but what we believe the wrong parts and reject the right? “ A. Believe any part that Jesus taught. “ Q. Did Jesus teach evolution? “ A. Yes, He, Jesus, said, I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. John 16:12 (this is his authority for evolution).” We ask the reader to candidly consider these state ments. Are these the words o f'an honest man? Are these the same lips that once gave forth the message of the Gospel in its fulness, and, if so, why the change? Alas, alas! think of the words “ politics” and “ pol ic y ” and you have the answer. Mr. Eddy is a sample of the leadership that is now wrecking the faith of hundreds of our young men and women, and paving the way to the eternal hell that, must inevitably be theirs. Let our prayers to God be “ reprove Mr. Eddy and all of his kind; bring them repentant to their knees, or else hinder them in their soul-destroying work. ’ ’ , BLATANT BLASPHEMY * “ War to the kn ife!” is the cry of the Modernists. The attacks upon the Bible and upon our Lord Jesus Christ, increase in venom. With many of them it is no longer, “ we suppose,” but “ we know.” The most audacious statements are made with seem ing malignity, and the most dangerous of these false teachers are in the pulpits of evangelical churches. The people are dazed by these men who are rushing into the daily press, airing their views, and announcing what they “ do not b e l i e v e . Mo s t of these men—and we speak advisedly—have never done any constructive work in their lives. Any miscreant can dynamite a building, but it takes intelligent effort to construct one. These Modernists slip into a church which has been built up by godly, self-sacrificing pastors and members, with sacrificial funds,—air their views and hoodwink the people. Most of them know but little of the Bible, and could be embarrassed by an ordinary Sunday School teacher with a few simple questions. Where are the laymen of the church? Why do they sit still and become a party to the grossest of all crimes—the wrecking of the faith of men and women? A Unitarian, preaching in a Presbyterian church recently said: “ When Jesus saw John the Baptist, He thought that he (John) was the Messiah, and therefore asked him to baptize Him. ” And there was not a man or woman present who was brave enough to rise up and defend the Lord or His Word. When will the people arouse to a consciousness of the peril that confronts us ? Love for their Lord, love for their children, respect for themselves, should move them. Millions of lives were laid down before we could have the Bible. Is it not worth while to stand for it
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