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The Fundamentals use for it? No! It neither helps us in life nor comforts us in death; it will not judge us in the world to come. For our Biblical faith we do not need either the encomiums of men, nor the approbation of a few poor sinners. We will not attempt to improve the Scriptures and adapt them to our liking, but we will believe them. We will not criticize them, but we will ourselves be directed by them. We will not exer cise authority over them, but we will obey them. We will trust Him who is the way, the truth, and the life. His word shall make us free. Respice finem , “consider the end”—that is what even the Romans said. True rationalism adjudges all things from the standpoint of eternity; and it asks of every religion, What can you do for me with regard to the great beyond? What does this Biblical criticism offer us here? Only fog and mist, or, at best, an endless state of indecision, some- thing impersonal and inactive, just like its god, whose very nature is inconceivable. “Eternal life,” writes one of these modernists, “is only the infinitely weak vestige of the present life.” ( ! ) Here also the maxim proves itself true, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Just as for our present life this criticism offers us no consolation, no forgiveness of sins, no deliverance from “the fear of death, through which we are all our lifetime subject to bondage,” so also it knows nothing respecting the great beyond—nothing with regard to that new heaven and new earth wherein righteousness shall dwell, nothing with regard to that golden city which shines with eternal light, nothing with regard to a God who wipes away all tears from our eyes. It is utterly ignorant of the glory of God, and on that account it stands condemned. “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:68, 69). And He answered, “Behold, I come quickly : hold that fast which thou hast; that no man take thy crown” (Rev. 3:11).
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