|
|
Reformed.Faithweb.com
|
Jesus Christ said: "And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." |
Religious Deceivers
by Horatius Bonar
from "Prophetical Landmarks" 1876
The extent to which these are flourishing in our day is much overlooked. We have grown so familiar with strange opinions that we have almost ceased to notice them. Yet in all countries and in all churches these are springing up. Besides the great leaders of superstition in our day,
Romanists, Jesuits and Tractarians, there are the Unitarians, the Mormons, the Latter-Day Saints, the Swedenborgians, and such like, who are all saying, "Lo, here is Christ!" or "Lo, there!" Incredible and absurd as these systems are, they are believed in by thousands, who seem to be given over " to strong delusions that they should believe a lie."
There are many other sects of which we have only casual notices sometimes in the public journals. And then, in addition to these, there are sad heresies springing up around us in various forms, and indicating a restless, feverish state of mind, which must, ere long, issue in something more hideous and fatal. On the one hand, we have tradition subverting revelation, and making itself the standard of religious truth; on the other, we have reason doing precisely the same thing, and subjecting every doctrine to the interrogation, Is it reasonable ? Some deny the Godhead of the Son, because it seems unreasonable. Others deny the eternity of punishment, because it is unreasonable. Others deny the materiality of hell, because it is unreasonable. Others make away with election, because it is unreasonable. Thus reason, which is the tradition of the present, as thoroughly and as profanely sets aside Scripture has does the authority of the fathers, which is the tradition of the past.
And then there are proud attempts to soar above the morality of the Bible, not only the morality of the Old Testament, but also of the New. As Popery established a pretended purity far above that which the Bible commanded, "forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats; " so modern reason is engaged in devising and promulgating a new morality, professing a far nobler standard than that which God has enjoined. How many are almost ready to condemn the Bible, because it has not condemned war as a sin, and who, in their Peace Societies, are assuming a position and inculcating principles which the Bible never taught them! How many are equally ready to denounce the Bible, because it contains no denunciations against slavery; but calmly addresses both the master and the slave, saying, "Whatsoever good thing a man doeth, a same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free!" How many almost scoff at a Bible, because it inculcates no total-abstinence morality, but simply urges temperance as the Christian's duty! How many look with wonder or horror upon the cruelty of Scripture morality in countenancing, nay, commanding, the taking of life for life! How many look down contemptuously upon the weekly restraint of a Sabbath, proudly giving as their reason that they consider that every day should be dedicated to God! In what is all this to end ? Doubtless in something very disastrous. Man's morality must take the place of God's; nay, God himself be superseded in the government of His own world. Scripture must soon give way entirely before men who profess to have got up to a higher level, and attained a purer morality; a morality which antiquates and supersedes all that God has revealed.
The world is not yet prepared for the full proclamation of the principles thus given forth in the germ. But it may soon be so. The flood-gates cannot much longer resist the pressure; and what a deluge will that be which shall then issue forth upon the world! Is it not, then, by these things that " we know that it is the last time," and that " the end of all things is at hand ?"