BIBLE RELIGION by James White

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · April 8, 1880

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 15

BIBLE RELIGION.

By James White

AN APPEAL TO SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS.

WITH a deep sense of the want of Bible religion among our people generally, we appeal to our readers upon the subject. We are pained with existing wrongs among us, and what is really alarming is the fact that these evils are increasing, and that spiritual life is departing. It is true that but very few are leaving our ranks. This, however, can afford little consolation when it is evident that our people, as a body, are getting a stronger hold on this world, and in about the same ratio their hold on Heaven is growing feebler.

It is of no use to deny the fact that we are a backslidden people. God does not work with the proclamation of the present truth as in the earlier days of our cause. And the last message does not tell on the heart and life of converts as it did twenty years since. The increasing clearness and strength of our positions hold our people from renouncing the faith; but at the same time consecration to God and his cause is not maintained, and spiritual life is departing.

In this state of things the inquiry comes up, What shall be done? Where is the remedy? After prayerfully and carefully considering the matter, we are confident that God's Spirit has led our mind to take a clear and Scriptural view of the fearful evils that exist among us, and that Bible religion is the only remedy. In returning fully to the Lord and to his living word, is our only hope.

Bible religion is that which when carried out in the life accords with the teachings of the Sacred Scriptures. This, we affirm, is the only kind worth having. The Bible speaks of “our religion,” “the Jews’ religion,” “vain” religion, and of “pure religion, and undefiled before God.” The latter is what we mean by Bible religion. The principles set forth in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are pure principles. That religion which consists in actions and devotions which have their basis in these principles, is pure religion. And all who from the heart put forth such actions and devotions will attain to purity of life and character, and to a pure Heaven at last.

The apostle James speaks of pure religion and undefiled before God as though pure religion might be corrupted and defiled. And Peter speaks of those who “have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord,” and are again overcome. He states that it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness. And Paul in his epistle to Timothy, speaks of those who have “a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof.”

Bible religion is represented as being very rare in the last days, near the end, just prior to the second coming of Christ. “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Matt. 24:12, 13. Christ here speaks of his second coming and the end of the world. Therefore, just prior to that event there will be general apostasy, because of the abounding of iniquity in the professed churches of Christ. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” 1 Tim. 4:1, 2.

Bible religion will be extremely scarce at the time of the second advent of Christ. This idea is gathered from the parable of the importunate widow, and the significant inquiry of Christ, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:1–8. He will find faith in a few, as in the days of Noah, when God poured a flood of waters around the world to wash it from its pollution; or when he sent fire and brimstone upon the cities of the plain in the days of Lot. But with the masses it will also be as then.

The words of the divine Author of our holy religion must be regarded as the correct standard of pure religion. And it is our only safe course to receive the declarations of the Son of God as meaning all they say. It is risky beyond expression to discount on the teachings of Christ. And yet if his discourses to his disciples be received as meaning word for word what they say, they will unchristianize ninety-nine of every one hundred Protestant Christians of our time.

It is only by discounting heavily on the words of the Son of God that these professed Christians make themselves believe that they are the children of the Lord. Some discount ten per cent, others twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five, and not a few, in order to find any hope of Heaven, make the liberal discount on the words of Christ of ninety-nine per cent. But we solemnly believe that these persons are making a fearful mistake. And in the final settlement they will find out to their anguish that the only safe estimate of the words of the great Teacher, is one hundred per cent, or just what he says. Pure religion is Bible religion, or that religion which comes up to the standard of the testimony of the great Redeemer.

Bible religion is a power in the land. The popular religion of the day, with all its vain philosophy, is powerless to move the minds and hearts of the people. Worthless converts are the fruits of a worthless gospel. All else ceases to have power on the mind and heart of the sinner, to work a sound conversion, resulting in the exhibition of pure religion, excepting the word of God. The powerless condition of the popular churches is accounted for on the ground that their standard of religion falls far below the Bible standard.

And the conviction is pressing heavily on our mind that the answer to the inquiry, “Why do Seventh-day Adventists have no more power to move the world with the stirring truths they hold?” is found in the fact that they do not come up in their practical teachings, and in their lives and church discipline, to the plain teachings of Him whom they profess to follow. The time has fully come for an earnest appeal to the word of God. In that word is power. All else is powerless. Common sinners will be lost unless the word of God be laid upon their naked consciences. Popular professors will be lost unless the word be laid on their religious life, and the deception they are under be exposed. And Seventh-day Adventists are losing their love for the plain testimony from the Bible, and they must return to their first devotion and love for the word of God, or they will make the fatal mistake which others have made before them. J. W.