King's Business - 1915-05

368 THE KING’S BUSINESS to leaders in different cities he was to visit. The first of these movements was conducted by the Destructive Criticism and New Theology party. Dr. Torrey’s first mission in-Great Britain was in Edinburgh, and he was ap­ proached by a leading niinister and asked,that he might say nothing against the Destructive Criticism. The promise was made if he would not, he would have the support of the leaders among the Destructive Critics as, well as the support of the more evangelical party. Dr. Torrey refused to consent to such a compromise, as he felt himself called of God to declare the whole counsel of God. From that, day on, he was relentlessly pursued, sometimes by secret attacks and sometimes by open attacks in the papers by those who had ac­ cepted the Destructive views of the Bible. Before he reached America to begin his campaign here, letters were written to different ministers in different cities, to induce them to oppose any evangelistic campaign that he might hold, and articles opposing his work appeared in some of the papers- controlled by the New Theology party. The second movement was carried on by the Seventh Day Adventists. They found it so difficult to answer the pamphlet which Dr. Torrey published on the Seventh Day question, that they constantly misrepresented him in their press, their tracts and in private letters, and sought in many ways to thwart the influence of his meetings. There has been a third movement of a similar character^ by a few in-- tensdy bigoted Postmillennarians. Dr. Torrey has been for many years a Premillennarian, and though he seldom preached on the question in his evan­ gelistic meetings, unless specially asked to do so, his premillennarian views are well known through his book, “What the Bible Teaches,” and more re­ cently through his book, “The Return of the Lord Jesus,” and several persons have put forth great efforts to prevent his being invited to hold union evangelistic meetings and to keep him out of such pulpits as they controlled. As far as is known, the ministers who were at the head of this movement were confined to one denomination, but that denomination as a whole has been very hearty through its bishops and many of its ministers in the support of Dr. Torrey’s work. It is probable that the present attack to which the above letter refers came from this source. Now as to the immediate question of the letter, viz., “The recent heretical teaching into which the Doctor has fallen very lately.” Dr. Torrey has not recently fallen into any “heretical teaching,” nor into any new teaching of any kind , heretical or orthodox. He holds and teaches exactly the same things today regarding the Return of our Ford , and regarding every other subject, that he did when he published his book, “What the Bible Teaches,” in 1898, seventeen years ago. His views on the Return of our Lord Jesus are found at length in that book, and the substance of everything that is in his more recent book is iff “What the Bible Teaches.” That book is founded upon a very careful study of the Bible in the original languages’, and Dr. Torrey'by his further study has found no reason for changing one single doctrine found ifi that book. The book is used as a text book in many institutions of various' denominations, for training min­ isters and Christian workers, both at home and abroad. It has been trans­ lated into several languages and has had the endorsement of recognized teachers of orthodoxy in many lands. So, the statement that Dr. Torrey “has fallen very lately into heretical

Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker