Faith Of Our Fathers
David Lipscomb
There can be but little doubt that to fall to discuss questions that come up in the lives of people amounts to a failure to maintain the truth and the right; and, in the present condition of mankind, not to contrast truth and error is to let truth fall into disuse, is to lose the distinction between truth and error and to grow into ignorance of the truth. Not to investigate and discuss truth is to forget truth. Man in the flesh is so constituted that, unless he is kept in constant reminder of the differences between truth and error, he, by virtue of his tendency to error, drifts away from truth and into error. We frequently wish error on a vital question would cease to present itself. We all desire this. Still, when the error ceases to excite discussion, the truth it lost sight of and men drift from it. Strange as it may appear, infidelity or active unbelief is a promoter of true and intelligent faith in God. It causes the investigation of those questions that lay at the foundation of faith in God, keeps them fresh before the mind and heart, and so keeps faith active and alive. Without this the fleshly appetites and desires would cause man to drift into infidelity. Oftentimes this infidelity shows itself in cold indifference. It is the more insidious and dangerous form of infidelity. It often permeates the whole church and affects men and women with luke-warmness and indifference that would be horrified at the idea of infidelity. Faith becomes often a mere prejudice, because it does not know the grounds on which it rests. Peter admonishes disciples thus: "Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts' and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." (I Peter 3:15.) A man ought to ask himself a reason for the hope that is in him; but the flesh is weak, "and much study is a weariness of the flesh," and, unless man is spurred by opposition, he fails to study and drifts into indifference and unbelief.
Gibbon, Hume, Paine, and Ingersoll, in their crusade against the Bible and Jesus Christ, have been promoters of an intelligent and active belief in the Bible and in the Lord Jesus Christ. God uses these enemies of truth to provoke a study of truth' on these vital questions.
He uses error and sin to stir up a study of the truth and the love and practice of virtue in men. After man and this earth have undergone the purifying process that the angels and heaven have undergone, truth and virtue may be maintained and practiced without the presence and friction of error to move them, but the time is not yet. "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." (Prov. 27:17.) The trees that are pleasant to the sight, and that are good for food, will not grow in the sin-polluted earth, save by rooting out the briers and thorns and watering with the sweat of the brow these plants of God's planting. Indeed, the whole order of nature and of God demands constant and watchful study and care and unceasing vigilance as the price of all that is good in nature and grace in the world. It is worse than folly to think of living in this world and enjoying the good of nature and of grace without a constant conflict with the forces of evil. They are placed here to call out, strengthen, and develop the good in man. Unless he confronts and overcomes them, he will never enjoy the true good.
While all this is true, there is much of evil that ought to be avoided in discussions among Christians. They ought to discuss questions among themselves; they ought to compare views and the results of their study, and thus help one another. A man who reads the Bible to and by himself does not gain the knowledge of it that he does when he reads it in connection with others, compares views, and engages in discussion. Under Jesus and the apostles, in the social meetings, in the meetings for the study of the scriptures and for worship, free discussion and investigation were encouraged, and the result was, an intelligent faith in Christ was developed among Christians.
Much of what passes for faith at this time is a mere prejudice, without knowing the reasons. It is a question worthy to be considered, whether or not this prejudice that rests upon no intelligent understanding of the reasons is faith at all. While the profession of Christianity is based on prejudice, and not intelligent faith, it is entirely unreliable, and is liable at any time to give place to infidelity. The reason for this is, prejudices grow out of surroundings and associations. When these change, then the prejudices are liable to change. Many a boy raised in a religious family may have strong prejudices for the family religion. If he has not been drilled to understand the reasons of his faith, when he changes his associations these prejudices often change; and when these change, he has nothing to hold him to the faith of his fathers, and he drifts into infidelity. Were his prejudices, even though they held him to observe church services, acceptable faith with God? Without faith it is impossible to please God. Prejudice or partiality because our fathers believed in certain things is not faith. Whatever excites inquiry, investigation, contention for truth, is an aid to faith and a helper of true virtue before God.
Much of the controversy in the name of religion and about religion is not true religious investigation. The man who comes to these questions ought to come with no desire of personal or party triumph; he should come to it seeking truth for truth's sake. "The truth shall make you free." The love of truth never makes a man misrepresent an opponent. Truth forbids all misrepresentation, and misrepresentation of a man's position is the worst kind of lying. To misrepresent a man's position or argument is not only to misrepresent him, but it injures all to whom the misrepresentation comes. It is especially fatal to him who misrepresents. Good meaning men are not so cautious in this matter as they should be. To misrepresent and falsify a man's position on a subject of vital importance to the soul is as much worse than to steal his property as the soul is above the earthly interests. Men ought to study the positions of those with whom they discuss, ought to seek to look at them from the standpoint of him who holds them, ought to put the best construction upon them and see how near they can bring them to the truth. It is only the most selfish and partisan spirit that puts the evil construction upon them and misrepresents them. Rules have been laid down by those who have studied these principles of discussion for eliciting truth. One rule is, consider your opponent as equally desirous of learning and maintaining truth as yourself; another is, no man shall be held responsible for the logical results of his position, further than he avows them. Oftentimes men forget this. They warp and twist a man's position and deduct from it some absurdity, and then charge this absurdity on the opponent. He justly feels he is wronged by this course, and the man who does it is justly charged with misrepresentation.
Let us cherish the proper spirit of investigation and controversy, but let us do it in a truth-loving and truth-seeking spirit, and let us not wrong others or make liars of ourselves by misrepresenting them.
— G. A., Nov. 3, 1898