The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1915-08-07

ing powers and faculty of speech, but
from the definite testimony of Scrip
ture which Identifies him with the
devil and Satan (Rev. 1879, 20:2).
There are many In these days who
say hat there Is no devil nor Satan,
but the wise understand and are gov
erned by the word of God in this
matter. Read especially Ephesians
6:12.
2. Its Nature. And he said unto
the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye
shall not eat of every tree of the
garden?" The denial of Gods word
is the essence of all sin. When Sa-
tan employed the interrogation point
in this case, it were equivalent to say
ing, God hath not spoken anything,
and If he hath done SO, who cares?"
Is not this, in the last analysis, what
every sin amounts to? Is 1t not
declaring that we have no authorita-
tive revelation of the divine will, and
if We have, "Who ia the Almighty,
that we should serve him." Nor Is
this the conviction and the boast
chiefly of our u~nregeuerate civiliza-
ton, but the teaching of some so
called pulpits under the blight of a ra-
tionalistic theology. Speaking of that
theology, one of its prominent expo
nents recently said, while recogniz-
ing the Bible as a unique record of
religious experience, it handles it as
freely and as critically as 1t would
any other book" This Is what ex-
plains the lawlessness characterizing
all classes of society today, and which
will continue to characterize them un-
til the lawless one himself has been
revealed.
8. Its object. God doth know that
in the day we eat thereof, then ye
shall be as God, knowing good and
evil" Aye! there's the rub! If the
nature of sin is the denial of Gods
word, the object of it is the dethrone-
ment of God altogether. 1t was by
pride that Satan himself fell, think
ing the godhead a prize to be grasped
at, and 1t was by pride In the same
direction that he dragged man down
after him. The raison d etre of sin.
so far as the race Is conscious of it,
Is the dedication of humanity. When
at the end of this age the lawless one
shall be revealed, he will be found
sitting in the temple of God, showing
that he himself is God QI Thes. 2:4).
But who Is the lawless one? He Is
simply humanity deifed in the con
crete. And the trend of the false the
ology just referred to is all in this di-
rection. Its starting point is belief
in the immanence of God and the es-
sential oneness of God and 1t
believes there is no real distinction
between humanity and deity. and that
our being is the same as Gods. How
much this sounds like an echo from
the garden of Eden!
4. Its Method. when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food,
and that it was pleasant to the eye,
and a tree to be desired to make
one wise" The method of sin is
threefold. l John 2:16 describes it
as the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life" 1t
was along this line that the second
Adam was tempted as well as the first
duke abb, and 1t is along this
line that Satan works with all of US.
He cares not whether he takes US
with a coarse sieve or a fine one. If
only he takes US. Some are over
come through the lower and baser ap-
petites of the body, the lust of the
flesh. Others are of a finer grade,
though still coarse, and are overcome
by the vain glory of the world, its spar
kle and beauty, its wealth and luxury,
it's fame and power, the lust of the
eye. But there is a third class, the
finest of all, over whom the flesh and
the world have little power, and with
whom the pride of life is the exalta-
ton of their own reason above the
revelation of God. These affect to
point out a new way to attain unto
highness that men seek, a g kind
of and a new approach unto right
eousness Is the desideratum they have
before them. They are philosophers
and scientists it may be; they are
reformers and r~eligionists, some are
honest and sincere in what they
teach, and clean and upright In their
lives. They fall from the high pima
Gle, but their end is the same, and
that of those who fall with them.
May God keep us true to the Bible
and his revealed word. and true to
Jesus Christ as the only and official
Savior of our souls.