Even this side of the cross of Christ,
which itself should be the everlasting destruction of it, the
same dead formalism, an empty profession, has exalted itself,
and has been the bane of the profession of Christianity everywhere.
Very soon, unconverted men crept into the church and exalted
themselves in the place of Christ. Not finding the living presence
of Christ in the heart by living faith, they have ever since
sought to have the forms of Christianity supply the lack of His
presence, which alone can give meaning and life to these forms.
In this system of perverseness, regeneration
is through the form of baptism and even this by a mere sprinkling
of a few drops of water. The real presence of Christ is in the
form of the Lord's supper. The hope of salvation is in being
connected with a form of the church. And so on throughout the
whole list of the forms of Christianity, they have heaped upon
this, ten thousand inventions of their own in penances, pilgrimages,
traditions and hair- splitting distinctions.
And as of old and always with mere formalists,
the life is simply and continually the manifestation of the works
of the flesh--strife and contention, hypocrisy and iniquity,
persecution, spying, treachery, and every evil work. This is
the Papacy.
This evil spirit of a dead formalism,
however, has spread itself far beyond the bounds of the organized
Papacy. It is the bane of the profession of Christianity everywhere
today, and even the profession of the Christianity of the third
angel's message has not entirely escaped it. It is to be the
worldwide prevailing evil of the last days up to the very coming
of the Lord in glory in the clouds of heaven.
For "this know also, that in the
last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers
of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection,
truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers
of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers
of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness,
but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." 2 Tim.
3:1-5.
This all-prevailing form of godliness
without the power, and which even denies the power, is the dead
formalism against which we are to fight the good fight of living
faith. The living faith which is brought to the world in the
third angel's message is to save us from being swallowed up in
this worldwide sea of dead formalism.
How is it with you individually today?
Is yours a dead formalism or a living faith? Have you the form
of godliness without the power? Or have you by living faith the
living presence and power of the living Saviour in the heart,
giving divine meaning, life and joy to all the forms of worship
and of service which Christ has appointed and working the works
of God and manifesting the fruits of the Spirit in all the life?
Except as the means of finding Christ
the living Saviour in the word and the living faith of Him, even
this word itself can be turned to a dead formalism now as it
was of old when He was on the earth. He said to them then (Revised
Version), "Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that
in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness
of me. And ye will not come to me that ye may have life."
John 5:39, 40.
They thought to find eternal life in the
Scriptures without Christ; that is, by doing them themselves.
But "this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal
life, and this life is in His Son"--as we find Him in the
Scriptures and not in the words of the Scriptures without Him.
For they are they that testify of Him. This is their object.
Therefore, "he that hath the Son hath life, and he that
hath not the Son of God hath not life." 1 John 5:11, 12.
"True godliness elevates the thoughts
and actions; then the external forms of religion accord with
the Christian's internal purity; then those ceremonies required
in the service of God are not meaningless rites, like those of
the hypocritical Pharisees." --Spirit of Prophecy, vol.
ii., p. 219.
Bible Echo, February 4, 1895
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