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Mid-August 1932

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Mid-August 1932 n n co < Po ~L~CHRISTIA,\a!Y TODAY ~~04 ,~~v/ < =- ~ LL.. ~a:o- A PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL DEVOTED TO STATING/DEFENDING o III AND FURTHERING THE GOSPEL IN THE MODERN WORLD III SAMUEL G. CRAIG, Editor H. McALLISTER GRIFFrfHS, Managing Editor Published monthly by THE PRESBYTERIAN AND MID-AUGUST,1932 $1.00 A YEAR EVERYWHERE REFORMED PUBLISHING CO., Entered as second·da.. mailer May ii, 1931, at Vol. 3 No.4 th. Post Olfic. at Philadelphia, Po., under th. 501 Witherspoon Bldg., Phila., Pa. Act of March 3, 1879. The Securities of the Faith "0 Timothy, guard that which is com­ uttermost part of the earth." The since PAUL penned his epistles to mitted unto thee, turning away from significance of the word "deposit," as TIMOTHY when there was. greater need profane babblings and oppositions of used in this connection, has found al­ of reminding Christians, particularly the knowledge which is falsely so called; most classic expression in the oft-quoted ministers, that it is both their duty and which some professing have erred con­ words of a fifth century expositor, their wisdom to preserve "safe and un­ cerning the faith." VINCENT of LERINS. "vVhat is a de­ diminished" the deposit committed to N PAUL'S exhortation to TIMOTHY posit?", he asks; and answers: "It is their trust. An outstanding characteris­ I just cited, the phrase "that which something that is accredited to thee, not tic of Modernism (so-called) is its pro­ is committed unto thee" is a translation invented by thee; something thou hast nounced tendency to sit loosely to the of two Greek words that taken literally received, not that thou hast thought thought of the Gospel as a deposit, as a mean "the deposit." Hence PAUL here out; a result not of genius but of in­ faith once for all delivered, to be pre­ speaks of the Gospel as a body of divine struction; not of personal ownership, served inviolate at all cost. Modernists truth that had been committed to but of public tradition; a matter brought as a class deny that Christianity has a TIMOTHY as a trust and which as such to thee, not produced by thee, with re­ definite content of its own, given it he was under obligation to preserve in­ spect to which thou art bound to be not once and for all by CHRIST and His violate and pass on undiminished. an author, but a custodian, not an orig­ apostles, that remains essentially the MOFFAT translates, "0 TIMOTHEUS, inator, but a bearer, not a leader but a same through every change and chance keep the securities of the faith intact," follower." of time. The following statement is -a translation that has received added Perhaps there has never been a time typical: "VY e know of nothing that has point and relevancy in these recent days remained or can remain unchanged from the inception of the Christian faith as men have seen the earthly securities IN THIS ISSUE: on which they depended lose their value, down to the present. The Christianity not infrequently because of the unfaith­ Editorial Notes and Comments of yesterday was creative of the Chris­ tianity of today, but at the same time fulness of those to whom they had com­ Fundamentalism and Premillennialism 2 the Christianity of today is more and mitted them. "Amillennialism?" •..•........... 3 While it is only in PAUL'S latest somewhat other than the Christianity of epistles-commonly called the Pastoral Francis Turretin..... • 4 yesterday." The Modernist not only c. E. Edwards epistles, because addressed to TIMOTHY boasts that he does not believe as the and TITUS as shepherds of the flock­ Confessions of a Miser. • • . • . • . • 6 fathers believed (including the Apostolic that the Gospel is spoken of under the R. C. Tillinghast fathers) but he does not expect his figure of a deposit that has been en­ Syncretism. 7 children to believe as he believes. trusted to men (especially to officers of c. L. Richards Though he calls himself a Christian that the Church) yet the thought itself is Loneliness. • . • . • . 7 does not necessarily mean that the thing fundamental to the whole New Testa­ J. W.Robb he calls Christianity has any close re­ semblance to the thing PAUL charged ment representation. This appears when The Triumph and Fragrance of True it is seen that it is because the Gospel and FaithFul Preaching..... 8 TIMOTHY to faithfully preserve and to is a "deposit" that the primary function T. S. Armentrout conscientiously hand on to others. of the Church is to "witness." "Ye shall Notes on Biblical Exposition.. .. 10 It is hardly necessary to say that be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and J. G. Machen PAUL'S passionate exhortation to TIM­ in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the News of the Church ••.••.•••••. , , , '. 13 OTHY was rooted in his conviction that 2 C H R I S TI A N rT Y T 0 DAY August, 1932 this deposit was possessed of supreme the first, but we deny the second. We falsely so called. All other knowledge worth. Other knowledge might be im­ should ever distinguish between the is valueless as compared with the inher­ portant, but not as compared with the voice of philosophy and science _and the ent preciousness of the gospel of the knowledge that had been entrusted to voices of the philosophers and the scien­ grace of GOD. him-a conviction that found its ulti­ tists.· The voices of the latter are dis­ The securities of the faith are the only mate explanation in the fact that it cordant, because they speak only half­ securities of long standing that have re­ alone gave the right answer to the ques­ truths. Not until that better day when mained at par through every change and tion, What must I do to be saved? Such they speak whole truths will it be pos­ chance of time. Though issued some two a conviction is unintelligible to one who sible to identify their voices with the thousand years ago they have the same has no consciousness of sin as pollution voice of philosophy and science. In the value and are paying the same dividends and guilt and no awareness of the pres­ meantime we should not permit our­ as when first issued. What is more, un­ ent life as standing in moral and organic selves to be u.nduly exercised over the ·like other securities, -they may be ob­ relation to the life to come; but it was fact that we are more or less at a loss tained by all without money and with­ basic to PAUL and through all the chang­ at times to reconcile the truths of the out price. Strangely enough, however, ing centuries it has remained basic to Gospel with alleged truths derived from they are ignored by multitudes who those who have had a historic right to other sources. The truths of the Gospel nevertheless are bending every effort to call themselves Christians. are revealed truths, independently evi­ obtain securities of such shifting value In the interest of guarding the deposit denced' as true. As such we may not as stocks and bonds and real estate. A PAUL warns TIMOTHY to avoid knowl­ only be sure that they constitute genuine partial explanation, at, least, is to be edge which is falsely so called. The war­ knowledge but that in the end it will ap­ found in the fact that today as truly as rant for this is obvious. Truth is a pear to all that these truths-both as in the days of PAUL the "oppositions of unity. What we profess in one field of regards their fact-content and their knowledge falsely so called" leads men knowledge inevitably affects what we truth-content--are indispensable arcs in to suppose that these securities are profess in other fields. Adopt a false the circle of truth. valueless; but to those who lay hold upon scientific or philosophic theory, and, if According to PAUL it is knowledge them by faith they pay dividends that we are at all consistent in our thinking, falsely so called not real knowledge, the prove that they have back of them both we will no longer be able to hold to the acceptance of which leads men to err the wisdom and the power of GOD, Gospel in its purity. Adopt a scientific concerning the truth as it is in JESUS Guaranteed by JESUS CHRIST Himself theory, for instance, that makes sin but CHRIST. This is not to deny, however, who abides the same yesterday, today a stage in the evolutionary process and that too great absorption even in whatis and forever we may be sure that what­ at once we lose interest in the Scrip­ rightly called knowledge may lead us to ever may prove true of earthly securities tural answer to the question, "What must err concerning the faith. Even the goo,d the securities of the faith cannot fail. I do to be saved?" Or adopt a philo­ is often the enemy of the best. Men may It is the primary duty of the church to sophic theory that precludes the belief and often do become so absorbed in their commend these securities to men every­ that GOD has intervened in a miraculous study of science, art, literature, business, where and that it may do so success­ manner for the salvation of mankind, economics, politics-and what not--as fully it is necessary to keep them intact and the Scriptural answer to this ques­ to become indifferent to things of greater -in other words that it proclaim the tion will seem to rest on no solid basis.
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