HAVE NEW FOES RISEN AGAINST CHRIST? (12 OF 12)
Scripture: ECCLESIASTES 1:10
This content is part of a series.
Twelve Great Questions About Christ (Part 12 of 12)
Have New Foes Risen Against Christ?
Clarence E. Macartney
Eccles. 1:10
There is nothing new under the sun, especially, in the
way of unbelief. Of late there has been no little stir
in all our churches because of the expression of
certain opinions about the Bible and the Christian
faith. The newspapers are supposed to give their
readers what is new, and the prominent place which the
reports of these opinions about Christ and the Bible
occupy in the newspapers may have a tendency to create
the impression in the minds of the people that there
really is something new about these views, and that
the Christian Church is confronted by a new kind of
enemy, armed with a new and most dangerous weapon. But
if the ground of the alarm felt by earnest Christians
in our churches is that either new facts or new
opinions are now being used to break down faith, they
may relieve their minds of all anxiety. The words of
the wise man apply with particular appositeness to
what is popularly spoken of as "new" theology and
"modernism": In all of it, "is there a new thing
whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It has been
long ago in the ages which were before us."
The metempsychosis of error and heresy is a very
curious thing. When the error or false teaching has
been dead for generations, so long that the volumes
which entombed it are worm-eaten and the fierce
controversies which raged about it are deep in
oblivion, lo, the thing comes to life again! The ugly
chrysalis of unbelief is transformed into a brilliant
butterfly, after which the would-be doubters of the
day go in hot and eager pursuit. By-and-by they grow
weary in their pursuit, and the butterfly itself loses
its vitality as the brilliant colors fade from its
wings and it sinks back into the earth whence it came.
The new theologies and the new conceptions of
Christianity are new only to the age which ...
Have New Foes Risen Against Christ?
Clarence E. Macartney
Eccles. 1:10
There is nothing new under the sun, especially, in the
way of unbelief. Of late there has been no little stir
in all our churches because of the expression of
certain opinions about the Bible and the Christian
faith. The newspapers are supposed to give their
readers what is new, and the prominent place which the
reports of these opinions about Christ and the Bible
occupy in the newspapers may have a tendency to create
the impression in the minds of the people that there
really is something new about these views, and that
the Christian Church is confronted by a new kind of
enemy, armed with a new and most dangerous weapon. But
if the ground of the alarm felt by earnest Christians
in our churches is that either new facts or new
opinions are now being used to break down faith, they
may relieve their minds of all anxiety. The words of
the wise man apply with particular appositeness to
what is popularly spoken of as "new" theology and
"modernism": In all of it, "is there a new thing
whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It has been
long ago in the ages which were before us."
The metempsychosis of error and heresy is a very
curious thing. When the error or false teaching has
been dead for generations, so long that the volumes
which entombed it are worm-eaten and the fierce
controversies which raged about it are deep in
oblivion, lo, the thing comes to life again! The ugly
chrysalis of unbelief is transformed into a brilliant
butterfly, after which the would-be doubters of the
day go in hot and eager pursuit. By-and-by they grow
weary in their pursuit, and the butterfly itself loses
its vitality as the brilliant colors fade from its
wings and it sinks back into the earth whence it came.
The new theologies and the new conceptions of
Christianity are new only to the age which ...
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