A WORD for the TIMES
J.H. Sammis (1909)
Reprinted from a leaflet that was distributed in the tens of thousands in 1909—it is needed today more than ever!
HOW SOLEMNLY the Book of God warns against new and false doctrines. Jesus said, “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many,” Matthew 24:11. Peter said, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you,” 2 Peter 2:1. Paul, too, testified, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit,” Colossians 2:8, and again, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ,” 2 Corinthians 11:13. John also solemnly and tenderly warns, saying, “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists...” 1 John 2:18. So everywhere,
“THE SPIRIT SPEAKETH EXPRESSLY, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils,” 1 Timothy 4:1. These new doctrines are not necessarily opposed to good morals, attractive qualities of character, charitable deeds and a fair show of piety. For, says the apostle Paul, “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness,” 2 Corinthians 11:14-15. He even says that they shall have “a form of godliness,” 2 Timothy 3:5, and the Lord Jesus says that “if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect,” Matthew 24:24; and the apostle again warned to identify and “avoid” those who “by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple,” Romans 16:17-18. See how much they must resemble the true teaching if they endanger “the very elect”!
EVEN SIGNS AND WONDERS will be performed to seal the false doctrines. See 2 Thessalonians 2:9; Revelation 13:13-14. God will permit such things to be done to try men’s hearts whether they will heed His Word or not. Even the teachers themselves, being hoodwinked by the Devil, are described as “deceiving, and being deceived,” 2 Timothy 3:13. Therefore, no matter how good and attractive a new religion may be, no matter how genteel or even pious its votaries may be, no matter what miracles it may claim, we must not be deceived by it. It is not what teachings of Christ it may adopt and hold, but what of His teachings it denies, or ignores, that distinguishes a true faith from a false faith.
THE ESSENTIAL MARKS OF THE GOSPEL are these: the authority of the Bible, the deity of Christ, the efficacy of His blood for the justification of believers, the necessity of the new birth and salvation through faith by the free grace of God, apart from works, to whomsoever will. All false religions deny these, the very characteristics of revealed religion. The cornerstone of all is the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. The incarnation is the great fact and reason of history and salvation. The cardinal truth is “God was manifest in the flesh,” 1 Timothy 3:16. Those who deny this deny the rest. The “Latter-day Saints” (Mormons) deny it and make our Lord a polygamous man. Millennial Dawn denies it, teaching that Christ did not pre-exist as God and does not now exist as God. The Seventh-day Adventists deny it, by teaching no existence apart from the body, hence the Lord did not exist while His body lay in the tomb, in which case He could not be God, for God must exist always. Christian Science denies it by teaching that “God is all, and all is God,” denying, thereby, the unique deity of our Lord Jesus and teaching the manifest error that we are God. New Thought, Fellowship, Theosophy, Spiritism, etc., all join thus “to deny the Lord that bought them.” And though they should come as angels of light and bring “signs and lying wonders,” we must have nothing to do with them.
OUR SAFETY LIES ALONE IN THE OLD BOOK; “Thy Word is truth,” John 17:17. The Bible is a common-sense Book; you are a common-sense person. Read it for yourself. Do not read your notions into it nor those of any other person. You will soon see that its language, its teachings and its God-glorifying spirit are very different from those of any of the sects mentioned. It makes little of man and much of God. That is the opposite of all man-made Gospels, or woman-made either. Of the Lord Jesus Christ it is written, “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved,” Acts 4:12. The power of that name is in His deity. Christ is God: in that lies the power of His Word, the power and preciousness of His blood; and in that all our hope of overcoming the world; rising from among the dead, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; and finding salvation to the uttermost, Hebrews 7:25. It is because...
OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IS GOD INCARNATE, “declared to be the Son of God with power ... by the resurrection from the dead,” Romans 1:4, that His name must be preached in all the world as the only and almighty Saviour and Teacher of men. It is because He is both God and man in one that He can be, and is, the only Mediator. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” 1 Timothy 2:5, and there is and can be no other intercessor, Hebrews 7:25, between men and God but Himself. It is because He is both Son of God and Son of Man that there shall be no final triumph of His kingdom until He comes to subdue the enemy of God and man and to establish His universal rule in His own glorious person. “Then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory,” Matthew 25:31. Compare Acts 15:14-17; Luke 2:31-32; Acts 3:19-21; Revelation 20:4-5.
TAKE NO MAN’S WORD FOR IT. Read, forthwith, the gospel of John, the first eight chapters of Romans and the epistle to the Galatians, and see what God’s Word says of the Son of God, the blood of Christ, the grace of salvation through faith alone. “Let no man deceive you,” 1 John 3:7; “if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed,” Galatians 1:6-9.
I beg you to consider that if you hold to the old gospel as given in the Old Book, and followed in the old time, you cannot be condemned by Him who said, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” Ephesians 4:14; that “we have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts,” 2 Peter 1:19. “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law [that is, the whole Bible] till all be fulfilled,” Matthew 5:18, “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book,” Revelation 22:18-19. This applies to the whole Bible. See Deuteronomy 4:2; Joshua 1:7; Proverbs 30:6.
The test of saving truth is the Word of God, but equally important is the test of personal salvation. There are tests for gold, and tests for diamonds, and tests for more precious souls. No matter what your doctrine, or what your “ism,” unless you are walking in daily personal fellowship with the Father and the Son your hope is vain. Only by the Old Gospel can you know forgiveness of sin and experience Christ in you the hope of glory.
NOTE THE SUM OF THE MATTER
The Scriptures foretell the rise of false teachings.
These false teachings are so fair as to almost “deceive the very elect.”
There will also be accompanying “signs and wonders” that are intended to supposedly prove their truth.
The Word of God, however, warns us most solemnly and constantly against them.
The old gospel—the Old Book—must be itself the standard of the testing of all of these teachings.
What is contrary to, or negligent in its teachings, the Word of God detects and condemns.
Prayerfully compare the Bible with the doctrines, all that is said, the language with which it has been said and in what spirit it was spoken.
Do not let the new teachers explain the Book for you; use your own common sense and stand by the plain teachings, for your very life!
You cannot go wrong if you heed the old; you may, you surely will, if you follow the new.
There is nothing good in the new but what has been borrowed from and is already in the old—we simply need to heed and practice it.
This pamphlet is available in printed format from the Fundamental Evangelistic Association (FEA). See https://www.featoday.org/product/a-word-for-the-times/.