Resisting Doubt
NP
1889
Formerly Undated Ms 155. Previously unpublished.
“The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18. Skepticism of truth is rapidly increasing. Infidelity is growing bold and defiant in the land among those who boast of intellectual greatness. 6LtMs, Ms 37, 1889, par. 1
The question is asked, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” [Luke 18:8.] There is no dearth of a certain quality of faith at the present time. One claims superior faith in this heresy; another claims faith in that error; but the faith that was once delivered to the saints will be rare. There is marked out in the Word of God a fierce conflict between truth and error, between sin and righteousness, and the principal features of Christianity will become rare, so that when the great day of the second advent of Christ shall be ushered in, the mass of mankind [will be] in the same condition of impenitence and unbelief as marked the inhabitants of the old world who were destroyed by a flood. 6LtMs, Ms 37, 1889, par. 2
Jesus describes the unbelief then prevailing. He says, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of man shall be revealed. They were eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, until the flood came and swept them all away. So shall it be when the Son of man shall be revealed” [See Luke 17:26-30]. 6LtMs, Ms 37, 1889, par. 3
When Christ shall come the second time, the world will be engaged in desperate revelry. We see the greatest peril to the truth in becoming skeptical. There are agents of Satan constantly at work to unsettle the faith of the youth in various ways. This is an age when unbelief in the truth prevails everywhere. From pulpits and press are heard in this liberal and corrupt age insinuations in a greater or less degree thrown out against Christianity. Sarcasms, sophistry, erroneous teachings, are met on every hand. 6LtMs, Ms 37, 1889, par. 4
Satan is sharp to devise. He adapts himself to the various circumstances and dispositions of those whom he seeks to entangle. He can gain influence with the illiterate by the coarse and hollow, senseless jest, and he comes to the educated with science, falsely so-called, which militates against the Bible; and the young in [the] community are surrounded with an atmosphere of temptation to lightly regard the Scriptures and the faith of their fathers. 6LtMs, Ms 37, 1889, par. 5
There are so large a number who do a great deal of boasting of their wisdom and their sharpness, while they are being deceived by the great adversary of souls and know not that their wisdom is foolishness. They are blind, and discern not that human wisdom is foolishness. They have a lofty opinion of the powers of their reason, and [believe] that they have strength of mind to discover the “fallacies,” as they call them, of divine mysteries. Satan all the time is weaving his entanglements about their feet, whispering his heresies continually in their unsanctified ears, and leading the minds of thousands to despise the blood of [the] atonement. 6LtMs, Ms 37, 1889, par. 6
Children of pious parents listen to the devil’s temptations, as did Adam and Eve in Eden, and win to themselves a heritage of shame and confusion. They turn from God their Maker and scorn His mercies. Better would it be for such had they never been born, for they help to swell the list of apostates under the black banner of the powers of darkness. 6LtMs, Ms 37, 1889, par. 7
Man, with all the learning he is able to gain, with all the wealth the world can bestow upon him, is ignorant and poor if he is not balanced with religious principles, and be [not] an heir of God and joint heir with Jesus Christ. 6LtMs, Ms 37, 1889, par. 8
Blame not Christianity if skeptics can start a hundred questions that you cannot answer; for it may be you are deficient in information. All these questions have been refuted again and again. There are things in the Scriptures hard to be understood and harder to be explained by many minds who have not drunk rich draughts frequently from the well of Bethlehem. A child may ask questions which the most learned cannot answer. 6LtMs, Ms 37, 1889, par. 9