The Fundamentals: Volume 9, Chapter 3: The Wisdom of This World

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

CHAPTER 111

THE WISD ,OM OF THIS WORLD

BY REV. A .. W. PITZER, D. D., LL. D.,

SALEM, VIRGINIA

I

''There is, a g1 .. ow ·ing imp ,r,ession amo11g em.ine11·t private thinkers 'that Chri st ianity is losing its hold upo 1n men, and that the Church is a waning power; that the religious world is drifting from its moori ngs, and faith is becoming a tra-1dition of the past."

Tl1e above quotation is from an editorial in the most por-ular ne .wspaper published at the Cap .ital of the United State s.

If the faith of the Churc ·h is to stand in the wisdo 1m 0 1f' men, , then it will be the sport of every wind of doctrine, and be dr ·iven hithe :r and thither, according ·to the course of the pop­ular tide~ and if the Church has no better anchor than the wisdom of this world, then, indeed, will it drift from all its moorings, a11d be tos sed continually upon the seas of ceaseless speculation. But if faith is to stand, not in the wisdom of 1nen, but in the power of God, in the sure Word of Truth that liveth and abid e·th forever, then , like its Divine Author, it is and will be the sa.me yesterday, today, and forever . If faith be founded upon the Word of Eternal Truth, then the ·Church has a11 ,anchor sur e and stedfas t, enterin ,g into th,at within the veil.

One prophecy of Daniel is fulfilled : ''Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased''. The world has never witnessed a period o,f such incessant and inten se menta .J activity. Nature , in all her va st domains, in her atoms and her masses, has been searched with keenest scrutiny, and com­pelled to give up her wondrous secrets. Th .e microscope re~ vea]s wor11ds of order and beauty uns .een by t'he, 11nassisted

22

• • •

The Wisdom of this World 23

eye; while the tele scope sweeps the silent skies, and stars by the thousands and tens of thousands are discovered, and numbered~ and catalogued. The electric spark sends t9ought, in printed words, with lightning speed around the globe. The microphone magnifies sound until the spider 's walk across a window echoes as the tread of an armed 1nan. The phono­graph receives upon its shining metallic disc the words and tones of the -living speaker, and is able to reproduce thetn after a thousand years. All tongues, and tribe s, and nations are brought into daily and direct inte rcourse and fellowship. Time and space are no longer barriers between men, races, and empires. Even the Dark Continent, unexplored equatorial Africa, has been penetrated by the heroic and dauntless Stan­ley, from Zanzibar to Bomma; and the cannibal tribes of the l Tpper Livingstone are no longer unknown to the civilized world. And still men run to and fro, restless and dissatis­fied, crying for more light and more kn_owledge.

NO REAL CONFLICT BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE

The Christian does not look with dismay upon these re­searche s into Natu re, the se di scoveries of Science; on the con­trary, he hails with joy each new discovery as affording ad­oitional evidence of the wisdom, power, and goodness of God. Full well does he know that the facts written on the rock­leaves beneath, the star depths above, and the pages of In spira­tion, when properly understood and interpreted, will be found to be in exact and perfect accord , showing forth the glory of the Infinite Writer of them all. There is no controversy between the man of faith and the man of wisdom, provided each one acts in his proper sphere. There is not, and never has been, any real conflict between Religion and Science. There may be conflicts between interpretations of Scripture and interpretations of the facts of Nature; but what God has written in His Word never conflicts with what God has written in His creation.

24 The Fundame ntals

The scientific skeptic ism of thi s day ought to remember how much Science owes to Christian men-to men who be­lieved . in a personal God; who believed in His written Word, and in His .Son, Je sus Christ, the crucified and risen Re­deemer. What shall be said of the "pious Christian, ·Coper­nicus, consecrating his life to God, to Man, to Science ; who i::ioneered his way into the unknown universe, as the . great Columbu s of the heaven s? What of Chri stian Galileo, who, while teaching the facts of Science, also believed the truths of Scripture?" What of the leaders in all departments of human progress, immortal names familiar as household words - what of Bacon, and Kepler, and Newton, and Herschel, and Hugh 11iller? Or, later still, what of Chahners, McCosh, Mor se, Dawson, Southall, Cabell, LeConte, He nry, and hosts of others who lead the vanguard of the army of investigation and discovery in all the vast domain of human knowledge? The man of faith may point to these intellectual giants, and clai1n them as the humble disciples of the lowly Nazarene -· as firm believers in the written Word of God. They led the onward march of hu man thought, but bowed in devout adoration before a personal God. How dense a darkne ss would envelop the race were all the light kindled by Christian men bani shed from the horizon of human knowledge.

T H E SPHERE OF SCI ENCE

But let it be remembered tha t the l,Visdom of this World is for this w orld only- not for the world to come. Its proper sphere is the seen and tangible; the Her e and the Now, not the .Un seen, the Her ·eafter, the Eternal. The wisdom of man has pas sed out of its proper sphere when it invades the do­main of the Invisible and the Infinite; when it denies that the omnipresent personal Spirit can reveal to man that which the eye never saw, the ear never heard ,. and the heart 'never conceived. It has passed the boundary of the known, its only proper sphere, when it assume s to deny tha t the infinite God

•

•

•

• 25

ha .s rev ealed o,r can reveal Himself i11 His W 0 11·d, His S011,

I-1 i.s Spir~t. The tl1ings of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. .

We hav ,e th ·e right to deman .d of the Wi s.dam. of this World by what aut1101·ity it asserts tha ·t there is nothing above a11d apart from Nature, nothing in all the bot1ndless univer se except matter and forc ,e- Why shall we ,give up all th,at ma 11 t1olds dear at · the bi.dding of th ,e Wisdom of this World who se I1,igl1est, an,d best, an,d latest revelation is. ''a gr .av,e witho,ut a resurrectio11, and a un iverse ,vitho.ut a God'' l

THE Fl\ILURE OF EART I-ILY W ISDOM TO FIND · AND I{NOW GOD

The man of fait h does not affirm the u.selessnes,s ,of eartl1-ly wisdom, b·ut he does affi,rm that it has, ·utte ·rly failed 't 10 fi.nd· out a11d know the tr ·ue and Jiving God. How 1ever use·ful and valuab ·le the Wisdom of tl1is ·worl ,d may be in its appropr ·iate , sphere, it has never yet give11 to men that kn,owledge of God tlJ),on whi ,ch hi s s,ottl 1COl1l ,d res t in satisf a1ctio,n and peace. The World by Wisdom l1as nev 1er kno 1wn God. At no time, in no country, amo ng no people, has. man, by wisdom ,. ever b,een able to make God known to his fel'low men. vVithout th e Gospel of the . Lo 1rd .Jestts Christ, ·the tr ue and living God l1ad ev1er been tl1e ''Unknown God'' .

•

ANCIENT WISD0?v1 AND TIIE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD •

The wi se men of tl1is ge11e1·ation are not bacl{wa 1"d ·in boastin .g 0 1f the world,s present progress and wisdom, and yet the , history and ru ins of the 0 1ld world, before the coming of 0 1Ut ' Lor ,d, reveal evide ·nces, of a civilization that wi.11 bear a]] the light and test s of our d.ay.

Egypt, situated on the banks ,of that strange river whose so,urc ,e has be.en. discovered far off in the ev,er-flowing waters of the Victoria Lak e ::>,f ,equa torial Africa, speaks out to this self -satisfied genera tio n in J1er mun1mied kings, her silent Sphinx, her mat 1chless py11 an1ids . Egy.pt, tl1at co,uld lif ·t m,on~

(

..

J

..

26 The Fundamentals

ster stones four hundred feet in the air, and adjust them to a mathematical line and not vary half a hair's breadth; "that could paint on glass, grind gold to dust, embalm the body so as to make flesh immortal;" that built gigantic houses of stone that have outlived all nations and civilizations-this na­tion was wise in all the Wisdon1 of this World. And yet thi s grand old civilization lived and died in gross and utter ignor­ance of the one true and living God. The religion of the wisest men of On and Memphis "was N egritian fetishism, the lowest kind of Nature worship". The people bowed down and worshipped the Nile, the ox, the tree s, the hills, and "birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things". Egypt -had wise priests, her magnificent temples, her gorgeous wor ship; but alas! all was of the earth , earthy. She knew not God; and her wise men, J ann~s and J ambres, withstood Moses when he came to th em with a message from the Living One, in whom they lived and moved . and had their \being. No won­der that the people were "liar s and thieves, sensual and treach­erous;" with all their wisdom they knew not God.

Sub sequent to Egypt there aro se four great world pow­ers, following each other in succession, claiming and exercis,­ing universal dominion , and gathering unto themselves the civilization and glory of the known world-Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. Four kingdoms seen in dream by the great Nebuchadnezzar - the image with the head of gold, breast of silver, belly of brass, legs of iron, feet partly of iron and part of clay, and interpreted by Daniel as the four king­doms above named. But alas! not one or all of these nations ever attained unto that knowledge of God which is life 'eternal.

fhe bricks of Babylon, the purple of Tyre, the army of Xerxes, the conquests of Alexander, the legions of Rome, the poetry of Home r, the philo sophy of Socrates, the statues of Phidias, the orations of Cicero, the satires of Juvenal, the annals of Tacitus-these are the drifts from the waves of that ancient civilization, wise in all the \Visdom of this World;

The Wisdom of this World 27

these are the drifts still floating ,on the current of human his­tory as it m,oves on it.s majestic cours 1e to that eternity where time is not measlur ,e,d by days, and night ,.s, and weeks and years ; and to that infinity where space is not measured by islands, contine11ts and seas.

There were walls seventy f,eet hi.gh, on which war-ch ,ariots 1night be driven four abreast; there were l1angin,g gardens filled wit]1, fl1owers and b,irds l; ·there were t,emples o,f polished marble, overlaid with ivo14 y and gorld; the·re we·re statues so lif 'elike as almos ·t to speak ; ·there were higl1·ways, firm and hard, stretching fr ,om imperial Rome to all the ends of the known world; there were arches and aqueducts, fountain ,s and

'

ba,ths, p,a:inting a,nd poetry. But, a1,a.s ! upon that civilization 1night have . been wr·itten th,e inscription upon ·the, altar at Mars Hill, ''To the Unknown God''. It was all of this world, and of this wor 'ld only; it was outward, materia1, transient; it was earth1y, sensual, devilisl1.

Dr .. G.arbett, in his ''Dogmatic Faith'', says: ''With the sole ,exception of the knowledge o,f the true God, this old ,vor·ld carried human ,advancement to its highest pitch. . F ,or lt1stre of gen ·ius, brilliancy of wit, fertility 0 1£ imagination, dept 'h of thoug 'ht, artistic ta ste and sk·i1I, aesthetic sensibilities, and keen relish for plea.sur 1e, the latest period of l1eathen civi­lization has n1ever yet been excelled, perh ,aps never e,qua1ed 1

'~

An,d ye,t,. ,i·n the midst 1of all this,, vice and imm 1ora,]ity were .

well-nigh unive ·1·sal ; chastity was almost unl<:nown ; thousands ,c)f virgins were an11·ually devoted ·t,o prost ·itut ,ion in the· tern-

. p'les of the gods; the ]if e of a man was esteemed of less value than the life of ' a dog; sl,av,ery w,as uni .versa), and slaves were put to d,eath for th ,e most trivial causes ; m,en f 1oi1g]1t

with e,ach othe1· and with wil,d beasts in amp 1hitheatres, where d,a,inty Roman mat ·r·ons gazed with eager delight 11pon th 1e agonies of dying men, and turned their · thumbs down over the polished m,arb1e in token of th ,eir desire for more h1ood.

This old world with all its wisdom knew not God. In its

•

•

•

• ,.

•

28 The Fundatnentals

splendid Pantheons there were lords many and gods m~ny-.,;;;... g1ods of pain .ting and sta ,tuary, ,of poetry and eloquence, of war and revenge, of drunkenne ss and lust, but no true, holy and living God. And when the polisl1ed Paul p,reached unto tl1e wise men of Ath ens Jesus and the resurrection, they told him that he was a babbler, and a sette r forth of strange gods .

The m 1en of this civi1izatio11 worshipped and served ·the creature more than tl1e C1·eator; and for this cause God gave them up to vile and unnatural lusts and passio 1ns; they were filled with unri ghteou s11ess, fornication, wickednes ,s, covet­ousnes s, murder, ,de 1ceit, ma lignity withottt natural affection implacable, unmerciful. The unutterable vileness of this god­less wisdom is apparent in the fact tl1at even now there ar e rooms in some of its ·buried and exhumed cities into which no female is ever allowed to enter.

''An ·d so this ancient society perisl1ed of it s o,N'n inherent rottenness'" Its enormous, all per vading, u11iversal vice sap 1ped the foundation of virtue. The mass was c1orrupt to its very core. Its l strength perished by th 1e mere exhaustion of its vices.t' Godlessness and vice, irreligion and immorality, went l1and in l1and, as the,y alwaJ'S do, until the people, having lost all knowledge of God, lost also all shame and virtue; and this splendid civilization of this old world perished of its own hopeless and helpless corruption. 1~·11e less the peo 1ple knew of God, the viler and m1ore 1debased did they become.

MODERN WISDOM'S FAILURE TO FIND GOD

The wor]d of our day claims to have grown greatly wiser in the last nineteen centuries, but still it knows not God; nor ,viii it, apart from His Word and His Son, ever know Him. Ring out the old battle-cry, the foolishness of God is wiser than n1en ; this conflict will never cease ; p.erish the craven, who having undertaken to fight for Jehovah and His Chris£, is appall ed at t·J1e w·ar drum 1s of the enemy. Let the godte1ss

•

•

The Wt'.sdom of this World 29

astronomer sweep the skies with his glass, and count and classify 270,000 stars, and then come and tell us that he neither saw nor heard of any personal God in all the infinitude of space; let the scientific smatterer gravely inform intelligent men that faith in God must now give place to knowledge of nature and her laws; let the atheistic 1naterialist tell us that he has searched the boundless universe, and found no intel­ligent Spirit, but only matter and force; let the brazen blas­phemer proclaim that Moses is a liar, Jesus an in1postor, and man's immortality a delusion; to one and all we say-these things are ahnost as old as the human race; this godless creed was held by men wiser than you, long before you were born; it was held by the wise men of the ancient world in the days of its highest civilization ; it is held now by the cannibal tribes of Ureega, Manyema, and Bengala, in the dark places of tfte earth, filled with the habitations of cruelty; you are simply asking us to go back to the times when the \ivorld by wisdom knew not God; and the race has had enough and more than enough of this godless wisdom; if Chri st the Crucified cannot save us, then indeed are we doomed and damned forever.

THE DEMAND OF MODERN "WISE MEN "

The wise men of this world, fiiled with philosophy falsely so-called, ask, first, that we give up the miracles of the Old Testame nt; then the imprecatory Psalms; then the "immoral parts" of the Scriptures; then, the "vindictive and bloody laws of Moses;" then Moses himself; then , all the prophets; then, the miracles of the New Testament; then, the Apocalypse; then, the doctrine of eternal retribution; then, the Holy Ghost; then, Inspiration; then, Jesus Christ; then God Himse lf -this is the modest demand of the unbelieving wisdom of our day and generation; this substituting "knowledge of nature for faith in God"-this is "progress"; this is "advanced thought" -and so the race is left, its "grave without a resurrection", its "universe without a God,'' it in without a Saviour.

•

•

30

Thoug ·htful me ·n understand well t·h,,a.t the objective po.iJ1t of a11 tl1es,e infide'l a·ttacks is the Cross and the Crucified. Shall we give up the blood a11d its cl,ea nsing and peace-giving power · at the ·behest of boasting unb 11eli·ef? Sh .all we cea,,se to preach Christ and Him crucified because now, as of old, He i.s a stu1nb]ing-blo 1ck to the Jew, a foolishne ss to the Greek? Shal 'l we no Jonger preach Je sus and the re .surrection bee.a use tl1e· wise men of modern Athens sc,ornfully aslc, ''What do these . babblers sav ?'' The ans,wer co1nes to us ,echoed down t·he .., ages; it comes from patriarchs and prophets, from a.postles and n1artyrs . ;, fr ,om. saint .s of at·1 ages a.nd all lands who have endured all the evils and all the miseri ,es that the m .. :ilignity of men and devils could inflict. ·Go as.k them if the Gospel is true, if it is tl1e power of Go,d unto salvation, if the Crucified i,s strong to save; and f ·rom Roman amphith 1eatre ·.s a11d 1cata­combs, , from the ,dens and caves ,of the earth, from jails an ,d gibbets, from faggots and flames and furnaces; from India and Gr~enland, from C'hina and Japan, from C,eylo1n and 11adagascar, from the island s of the ocean, from the blood ­,vashed millions who have go,ne up to glory and to, God, the.re shall c.om·e t.his answer: ''We .know who ·m we have believed. Christ ,crucified is the wi sdom of God and . the power of God unto salvation'' '·

•

•

...

•

-,