April 1924
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
203:
Jekÿll and Hyde Theologians Rev. G. W. McPherson, Yonkers, N. Y.
A portion of a sermon in a series under the general topic, “Radicalism Unmasked” preached by Dr. McPherson in the Old Tent Evangel, New York City, and printed in his booklet entitled, “The Virgin Birth.” is not possible, as a psychological explanation of :he type of character displayed in the realm of ‘Modern religion,” that the honored mothers of sur rationalists read Jekyll and Hyde during the days of their maternity, and thus produced these double characters,— these apparent saints, yet real perverters of the truth. No, that is not the explanation. It is rather found in the character of the training our young men receive in many of our colleges and theological seminaries. I knew the teacher— the late Dr. W. N. Clarke—who shaped the think ing of Dr. Fosdick. I studied theology for three years un der Dr. Clarke, in the same seminary where Dr. Fosdick was a student, and, fortunately, I knew my Bible sufficiently, before I knew Clarke, to be qualified to discern rational ism when I met it. The fountain heads of our present-day education— the college and seminary— constitute our problem. . You ought to know that these modernists can talk unc- tiously about the meek and lowly Jesus, the love of God, human brotherhood, the glory of character, and all that. Similarly Ingersoll also was wont to eulogize character while he would cut its tap-root. They have imbibed the ethical spirit of Christianity, and while they continually handle “the Word of God deceitfully,” yet they veneer their false teaching by the use of our Christian terms, which they have stolen, and in which they have put a new content, so that they almost “deceive the very elect.” Dr. Fosdick has even gone so far as to call the fundamental truths of our holy religion, as the Virgin Birth, the Atonement, the Reseurrection, etc., only the “dead-line around the Chris tian Church.” The Rationalists’ Objective But what is the objective that Dr. Fosdick and the ration alists have in view? It is generally believed that this move ment is strongly supported by a well-known financial mag nate, who is backing it in most of the leading denomina tions, in the Y. M. C. A., and Y. W. C. A., in subsidized educational institutions and press, and through timid and active servants on mission and church boards. What is their objective? First, it is the uniting of Protestantism; second, the uniting of Christendom— Roman, Greek, and Protestant; and third, the establishing of a universal brotherhood— the federation of the world—when all class hatred and strife will have ceased, and the race will have found itself finally evolved into the millennium. In short, it is a great “Church Trust” that this financial magnate and the “descendants from the jungle” have in view. Well, if this is their objective, does it not seem that their attack upon fundamental Christian truths is suicidal to its attainment? Would it not appear that a defense of the great truths of the Bible would tend to accelerate the much desired Christian unity for which saints of God earnestly pray? Dr. Fosdick charges the orthodox people with turning the “churches into cock-pits,” because they would “contend earnestly for the faith.” But evidently thinks that by his attacks upon the inspiration of the Bible, the Virgin Birth
of Christ, the Atonement and other fundamental Christian truths, he is healing the breaches in Protestantism and bringing a glorious unity in sight! That is like a neighbor professing a passionate love for peace and good fellowship in his neighborhood while placing dynamite beneath the homes in his block. Dr. Fosdick is attacking the Bible, its miracles, Saviour, etc., while crying “unity,” “fellowship,” “brotherhood,” “love!” “Consistency thou art a jewel.”" Let us hope that the rationalists will soon learn that “Truth crushed to earth will rise again.” If the above financial magnate would reveal a fraction of the same shrewdness in his agitation for church union that he and his associates have shown in creating a mo nopoly of business, they would quickly change their tactics. But having rejected the Word of God it is a humble path to return to the truth. Will the rationalists repent and re turn? The modernists have done more in recent years to retard the movement toward Protestant solidarity than has any force or set in all the history of the Christian Church. The first great step towardChurch union is an acknowledg ment of the Bible as the veritable Word of God. Here the Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic and ninety per cent of the Protestant churches stand. The rationalists are a di visive, destructive element. They cannot succeed. Unity can only be attained as a result of absolute loyalty to Jesus Christ. Crown Him as Lord and Saviour, and honor and submit to His infallible Word, and the first long step will have been taken toward a true Christian fellowship and brotherhood. But fulminating in pulpits and press and uni versities for a new Christian brotherhood, while kindling fires of discord in the churches and educational institutions by their attacks upon the Bible is not the road on which to reach so great a goal. God will see to it that true pro gress in that direction shall not be made by a rationalistic propaganda. Bishop Warren A Candler of Atlanta, in the Florida Christian Advocate, says: “Dr. Fosdick is a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation, and in 1919 he published in the Atlantic Monthly an article fiercely attacking the orthodox churches and predicting their revolution or overthrow by the soldiers as soon as the heroic boys were returned from France. His friend and associate, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., had published a similar paper in the Saturday Evening Post of February 9th, 1918, under the caption: ‘The Christian Church. What of Its Future?’ and broadcasted it over the land in pamphlet form ‘with the compliments’ of the opulent author. The predictions of Dr. Fosdick and Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., have utterly failed. The soldiers who were Christians, and survived the war, have gone to work in the church as afore time. If any change is noticeable it is their increased zeal and confident faith. The churches which these two pro phets assured the public would have to abandon their creed or perish have done neither, but are more prosperous than ever. Having failed as a prophet, Dr. Fosdick returns as a ‘sapper and miner’ to the task of overthrowing the orthodox Christianity of our country. As a Baptist preacher he ful minates from a Presbyterian pulpit his radical utterances. Well, he can succeed no better in his present plan than he did as a prophet. Once the people and preachers know who he is and what he is up to, the danger from anything he has said or may say will have passed.” A Common Canard Exposed But Dr. Fosdick declares that the scholarship of the world is on the side of the rationalists, and that those who (Continued on Page 252)
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