Millions of church-members and thousands of preachers are numbered among these antichristian organizations of Freemasonry, Christian Science, Spiritualism, etc., etc., gathered together under the influence of the spirits of devils working miracles, mighty signs, and wonders. On the other hand, the churches are filled with persons who in spirit are nothing but skeptics and infidels. Said T. De Witt Talmage on one occasion, "There is a mighty host in the Christian church, positively professing Christianity, who do not believe the Bible, out and out, in and in, from the first word of the first verse of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, down to the last word of the last verse of the last chapter of the Book of Revelation." Is it any wonder that such is the case when a large number of the preachers themselves are in reality skeptics? A newspaper clipping before me contains the following, uttered on March 28, 1905, by the Rev. B.A. Green, pastor of the First Baptist Church, of Evanstown, Ill., before about a hundred of his fellow ministers: "All the truth in the world is not contained in one book, nor in books of theology, God was too big for one temple and he is also too big for one book. God is everywhere. His truth is found in all good books. The pastor of to-day should read the modern psychology and modern literature, especially the works of fiction which deal with religious or social phases of modern life." A large portion of the sectarian ministry reject entirely the Mosaic account of the creation, and accept instead the modern theory of evolution.
The following quotation is from the Rev. Minton J. Savage, pastor of the Church of the Messiah, New York, N.Y., who is an acknowledged leader in the "higher criticism." This was in answer to an attack made on the higher critics by a convention of the American Bible League.
"The men who are leading in the higher criticism of the Bible and who are now being assailed so bitterly by the American Bible League, are representative scholars of the world, scientific thinkers, leaders, teachers, who have given us a new universe, a new conception of God, a new idea concerning the origin and nature of man. They are not seeking to support or to undermine anything. They are seeking for the truth as the only sacred thing on earth.
"I would like to consider what this book is about over which all this controversy is raging. It is really not one book, but sixty-six small volumes. They were written during a period of nearly a thousand years, in different countries, by different people. The first book was written about eight hundred years before Christ. The first five books of the Bible were written between five and six hundred years before Christ. The historical books tell us about the day of Judges, then of Kings, the wars of Israel, until the time of captivity. Then the book of Job, purely anonymous, and no one knows who wrote it. Then the book of the Psalms, the hymn-book of the people of Israel, and the books of the prophets. It would be more proper to call them preachers, for they make no effort to foretell anything, but merely told the people that if they followed certain lines of conduct certain things would happen.
"No book was placed in the Bible by anything that claimed to be divine authority. No law concerning the Biblical canon was ever issued by the church earlier than the sixteenth century and that changed nothing; it simply recognized what had come to be a fact. These books drifted together and came to be bound as one, by force of gravity, by common consent, and there are one or two books in the New Testament which scholars could miss without feeling any the poorer.
"Nobody, then, is assaulting the Bible, for the simple reason that the Bible as such has never made any claim. The Bible does not claim to be inspired; it does not claim to be infallible. No writer of one book is authorized to speak for the author of any other book. One verse is sometimes referred to as meaning something. The writer of the last book in the Bible utters a curse against anybody who should presume to add to or take from the words of that book. He does not say that the book is infallible; he simple curses anybody that interferes with it, as Shakespeare uttered a curse against anybody who interfered with his bones. I suppose that God might have given us an infallible book, if he had chosen, and if he had given us such a book he would have made us sure that it was infallible."
"If I were compelled to believe that God holds me responsible for Adam's sin and that the immense majority of the world is doomed to everlasting torment, and that only a selected few here and there are to enter eternal felicity, I might bow my head and accept it, but I could not rejoice in it. It is barbarous. Men who try to make us accept such dogmas are the real infidels of the world, and it is infidelity which they are creating—infidelity a hundred times worse than that which they call by the name. If you would blot out every Bible in the world to-day you would not even endanger its life, nor would you destroy religion." From The Toledo News-Bee, May 14, 1904.
All these allied powers of wickedness in conflict with the few of God's saints who serve him acceptably, constitute the battle of Armageddon—that battle of the last great day. It is not a literal collecting of armies nor a literal conflict, but a fierce battle between truth and error. The outward indications are that the enemies of God will triumph; but let us remember that it is destined to "end in the victory of Him unto whom triumph belongs." Fire will come down from God out of heaven and devour them. This symbol is doubtless taken from the circumstance of Elijah where he commanded fire to come down and destroy his enemies; and it will be as with such an overthrow that the powers of wickedness shall meet their doom in that last great day of God Almighty.