HOW TO REFUTE INFIDELITY

HOW TO REFUTE INFIDELITY

Atheism, or the entire and absolute denial of a Supreme Being, is not the great subject to be encountered in this day, nor is it the subject controverted in the Bible. But the revelation of God according to His nature is on every hand opposed. Man has turned to his own mind for ideas and forms of the Great Unseen, instead of to God’s works in creation, when there was nothing else - that is, no written revelation; and this reluctance on the part of man to learn God simply from Himself was made still more apparent when revelation came in.

The simple fact is that man in the pride of his own mind, whether he be pagan or christian by profession, prefers the creations and theories of his mind to any form of communication which is entirely independent of himself. This is the real cause of man’s reluctance to learn God or to receive a revelation, and it is the source of all infidelity. Hence the closer and more definite the ^[p. 255] revelation, the more the natural mind is opposed to it, because it is the more distinctly compelled to accept as true what is entirely outside of itself.

Very early the worshipping of idols came in: “They... served other gods”. Idols are the invention of the human mind to represent the Supreme Being, instead of acquiring a knowledge of Him from His own works: “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools”. Here idolatry came in. Then came the word of God to Abram, as the only guide for him on the earth. Man is not left to the works of God to reveal Him; but the spoken word of God is the only absolute guide. Hence infidelity is not now simply a disregard of the works of God, but of the word of God; and the effort of the enemy, and ready acting of the mind, is to divert us from the greater, the word, as well as from the other, the works; and this often by corrupting it. When the word of God was given, then, I repeat, infidelity in a new and more intense form appeared. The more distinct and the more conclusive the revelation of God, the more determined was the opposition to it. It was, as it were, the struggle of desperation. In many ways the children of Abraham evaded the claims and counsels of the word of God. It was not mixed with faith in them that heard it, they believed not. They were not infidels in the full meaning of the term, but they were unbelievers. An unbeliever more aptly describes the cavillers of the present day. They do not altogether deny the existence of God, or set up idols exclusively, but they are not subject to the Scriptures, in simple faith that they are written by the inspiration of God. The infidelity is characterised by the revelation given, and ^[p. 256] to which it is opposed. There are three kinds of revelation - the works of creation, the word of God, and God manifest in the flesh. Infidelity is more daring in proportion as the testimony against it is greater; that is, the more distinctly man is left without excuse, the stronger the evidence, the more violent and obstinate is the resistance. So that the infidelity in the christian era is the greatest of all, for then the revelation is most palpable and inescapable, even as the Jews were more culpable in their unbelief than the heathen. The more the revelation demands credence from its very nature, the more is the natural enmity of man’s heart provoked to resist it. Hence the only way to refute infidelity is to insist on the great present evidences of the greatest revelation given, namely, God manifest in the flesh. Now that God has fully revealed Himself in His Son, He, according to the greatness of Himself, subjects His grace to a test. He says, “He that believeth... hath everlasting life”. Faith obtains possession of the blessing. The revelation is for man’s blessing, and the man that tests it is assured of it as he does so. “When he beheld... he lived”. The moment the prodigal makes trial of his father’s heart, he finds it far more towards him than his necessity required.

In the gospel narrative the great theme is the evidence given by Christ that He is God manifest in the flesh, and that He reveals God by relieving man of the misery in which he is found. The way He refutes all infidelity is by setting forth the superhuman benefits He effects for man. He attracted man by the way He despoiled Satan of his armour, and the full relief He vouchsafed to man from each and every one of his sufferings here. Is it a fact that the Man Jesus did really give specimens of His power and interest in man as are recorded in the gospel narrative? The writers of the narrative must have been, as has been before alleged, extraordinary men, not to be accounted for in any way or by any rule known to us, if they, the authors and propagators of the ^[p. 257] most perfect morality, were basely and wantonly the most untruthful of men; for such they were if the miracles recorded by them in such minute detail were not true. What object or motive could the most moral men, who suffered death for their testimony, have in recording positive untruths with all the detail of incontrovertible facts? The simplest and the only possible solution of the question, ‘Are they real?’ is the answer, ‘Most assuredly’; there can be no other answer. And this answer, I maintain, is confirmed, and ought to be more corroborated every day by the repetition of these selfsame miracles, not in the form in which they are recorded in the gospels, that is, not in cases of bodily suffering, but in their great moral antitypes. Cannot the power of Christ nowadays dislodge the evil spirit; exchange the fever, the natural excitement, for the calm assiduity of service; the leprosy, the outward taint, for a complete regeneration? Can it not impart to the powerless occupant of a couch, figuratively speaking, or anyone suffering from any other moral weakness, immense alleviation, perfect release and power to do all things, so that the forgiveness assured to the conscience in secret is authorised to the public by the possession and use of the greatest and most unexpected power? It is not simply by acts of power that Christ seeks to win the belief of man and refute his unbelief, but by acts of the most important service to man; and hence He never does a great act apart from some signal benefit to man. The miracles are not exhibitions of His greatness, but acts of mercy, because of the need of man. I know no act of His that was done as a proof of His power which was not connected with, or required in the first instance on account of man. That is, it was man’s need that was the motive cause for the exercise of His power, and not any wish or thought of magnifying Himself. He addressed Himself to man, and set Himself to draw the heart of man back in confidence to God, and this surely He accomplished whenever the eye of the soul was enlightened.

^[p. 258] But He did more than use His power to relieve man of every class of misery, as is recorded in the early chapters of Mark. He places man by His power in another condition here, as we read in Mark 5; the sufferer is not only relieved, but there is a link established between Himself and the relieved one; while in the latter the most manifest change in manner and life is to be seen and read of all. The demoniac, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, besought Him that he might be with Him. The incurable invalid who had spent all her living on physicians, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, is not only completely cured, but she is received into a relationship to Himself and a condition of soul heretofore entirely unknown to her. So also, when all human hope is over, where death has occurred, He says, “Talitha cumi” (I say unto thee, Arise). Thus, in the gospel narrative, the work of Christ embraces and reaches unto the resurrection from the dead, by Him who had in detail proved His ability and readiness to remove every suffering which afflicted man, from the incursion of Satan and all the consequences of sin, unto death, the judgment of God, borne by Christ Himself. He not only proved that He could relieve man of every misery, the consequence of sin, but He was made sin for us, and bore our sins in His own body on the tree.

But this is not all. Though there are not now the same kind of miracles as testimony of the goodness of God, there are even greater works in a moral way. The grace of Christ now transforms the man in mind and heart, more distinctly and perfectly than he was relieved of disease and bodily suffering by Christ’s hand when He was on earth. Hence, the greater works now, since His ascension to the right hand of the Father, are the true evidences of His power here, and by them, seen in us practically, the infidelity of the hour can be refuted. The lame beggar - morally - elevated, walking and leaping and praising God, is incontrovertible evidence ^[p. 259] of the mighty power of God in His goodness and grace to me, and that “there is none other name... given among men, whereby we must be saved”.