Jude, "a servant of Jesus Christ," turned from writing about our common salvation to exhort the believers "earnestly to contend for the faith once for all delivered unto the saints." For the Church of God was made the depositary and defender of that "precious faith:" it was to be "the pillar and ground (or stay) of the truth"-its defender against all the assaults of the enemy. But, alas, as Israel soon turned away from Jehovah who had redeemed them out of Egypt, so also an apostasy was prophesied of in the church. Among many such warnings we quote only the following:"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (?. Tim. 4:3). "But there were false prophets also among the people (Israel), even as there shall be false teachers among you (Christians), who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction" (2 Pet. 2:1).

In these two passages we have a most striking photograph of what is before us to-day, as the following account will manifest. This insidious apostasy from the faith spoken of by Jude, insinuated itself gradually into the Protestant Theological schools some three decades ago, then through the pulpits into the churches, and it now openly and boldly lifts its voice in council assembled. This open renunciation of the cardinal truths on which Christianity rests and which characterizes it from all other mere human religions, was made by the majority of the Northern Baptist Convention gathered at Indianapolis, Ind., in June of this year. Because of its immense significance we reproduce here at length the account of it as given in The North American of Philadelphia, of June 22d as follows:

This convention produced the first open test of strength between two forces which are contending for leadership in the Christian church.

While the first test has come in the Baptist communion, precisely the same cleavage is manifesting itself in other denominations. Among the clergy and members of these bodies there are held two conceptions of the Christian religion which their adherents consider irreconcilable. The one is called primitive, the other modern. The one is based upon super-naturalism, the other upon rationalism. The one requires absolute belief in a faith revealed through an inerrant Bible; the other seeks to harmonize itself with science and a developing civilization. The one holds that religion is essentially individual and static, the other that it is social and evolutionary- The one views it as a preparation for existence beyond the grave, the other as a means of bettering the world here.

Being purely a doctrinal conflict, it is totally absent from the Roman Catholic Church, the creed of which is defined by recognized authority. In the very nature of things, likewise, it does not appear among Universalists, Unitarians and others whose religious ideas are broadly liberal. But in the great evangelical denominations, such as the Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians, it is causing serious and sincere debate.

Doctrinal discussion, we are quite aware, is outside the province of a secular newspaper; such a journal has no right to uphold or question the religious beliefs of any person or group. Yet the Christian church is an institution which helps to mold the character of numberless individuals, to shape the structure of society, and to influence the policies of governments; and a controversy which may profoundly affect its future course is a legitimate subject for examination. It is unnecessary to assert that our statement of the case is intended to be strictly impartial. Our aim is simply to set forth the terms of the controversy which has divided many adherents of Christianity in their foundation beliefs; and so far as possible we shall do so by quoting representative opinions from each side.

During recent years there has been in the denominations mentioned a growing movement of resistance to what is termed "modernism" in Christian teaching in the pulpits and the colleges. This minority, which includes able theologians and devoted pastors, holds that there is a deplorable departure in the churches from the basic tenets of Christianity, with a pronounced tendency to minimize the authority of the Bible and to substitute for the doctrine of personal salvation a code of ethics and a program of social regeneration by human effort.

The adherents of this anti-modernist movement now have an inter-denominational association, and come together annually in a "conference on the fundamentals of the Christian faith." Its Baptist representatives, for the third time, assembled in advance of the recent church convention at Indianapolis. What made their attitude of interest as their formal effort to have the convention adopt a creed embodying their beliefs. Although they precipitated a warm debate, they failed in their object. The majority seemed to agree with the presiding officer-for the first time the chair at a great church assemblage was occupied by a woman-that "for us Baptists to have an official confession of faith would come perilously near to abandoning one of our fundamental principles.

The minority offered for adoption a statement of beliefs which was drawn up in New Hampshire in 1832, and is still used by many local churches, but it was rejected on the ground that the traditional right of each Baptist congregation to decide the details of its own creed must not be impaired. On motion of the pastor of the church which John D. Rockefeller attends, the convention affirmed instead "that the New Testament is the all-sufficient ground of faith and practice, and that we need no other."

But while this settled the issue at the convention, it left. untouched the real controversy, which is between irreconcilable interpretations of the same Scriptures. On one side are the Fundamentalists; on the other side are those whom their opponents call Radicals or Modernists or Rationalists, but who prefer to term themselves Liberals or Progressives; and each group considers the interpretations of the other to be fatally false.

The creed of the Fundamentalists is stated uncompromisingly by its adherents. The editor of a Baptist periodical puts it in these terms:

"We believe that the Bible is God's Word; that it was written by men divinely inspired, and that it has supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct. We believe its history, its miracles, its doctrines and it’s prophecies. We believe that Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, was conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary. We believe with the Apostle Peter that Jesus Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree. We believe in the visible return of our Lord to this earth."

"I know no Christ but the Christ of the Bible," declares the pastor of Tremont Temple, Boston. "Of His holy person seven essential facts are set forth therein. These are:His supernatural birth, His sinless life, His vicarious death, His bodily resurrection, His glorious ascension, His present indwelling of and lordship over the believer, and His triumphant return." It appears, therefore, that the main doctrines upon which the Fundamentalists insist and which their opponents either reject or subordinate are those teaching the supernatural birth, the vicarious atonement, the bodily resurrection and the impending visible return of Christ to the earth.

Against this creed the Modernists or Liberals stand firmly. "We look upon it," declared one of them recently, "as the most insidious heresy that has ever attacked the Baptist communion. Every true Christian in the Baptist household must stand his ground for religious liberty." The editor of a Unitarian paper denounces the Fundamentalists as "a religious Ku Klux Klan," upholding doctrines "fabricated out of a benighted literalism," while a Universalist periodical deplores the movement as an attempt "to re-establish medieval orthodoxy, the dreary dogmas of the Dark Ages."

There is an extremely practical side to the doctrinal dispute so far as the Baptists are concerned, because the leadership in the church and its educational institutions is for the most part opposed to Fundamentalism, while many adherents of the minority group refuse on that ground to contribute to the support of these activities. "I would rather have my child under the care of the devil himself," declared a noted Baptist clergyman at the convention, "than under some of the teachers in our Baptist schools."

This issue arose only a few weeks ago at Crozer Theological Seminary, in Chester. Fundamentalists had presented a petition urging the dismissal of a clerical professor of church history upon the ground that he was teaching disregard of basic Christian doctrines. But the trustees decided that " the local Baptist church is the ultimate source to which the individual member is answerable for his doctrinal beliefs." They held, furthermore, that "the cause of truth and righteousness will be more surely advanced by guaranteeing liberty to interpret the Scriptures as a Christian conscience and competent scholarship may justify than by formulating a prescribed doctrinal statement to which conformity of opinion is demanded."

That the conflict will make itself felt in other denominations is widely predicted. "All the so-called evangelicals," says a Universalist paper, "are infected with Fundamentalism." An undenominational organ of the churches finds that "the Congregational and Presbyterian communions are considerably perturbed, and the Disciples even more bitterly torn than they, while up to this date the Methodists and Episcopalians are keeping the controversy in the bounds of fairly good order." On the other hand, a Methodist publication says:"We predict that by the time the next general conference arrives a doctrinal test will furnish one of the outstanding debates, and create a regrettable division."

The seriousness of the split is indicated in the candid utterances of various denominational periodicals. "Many sects," says The Lutheran, "have held fast to little points on the circumference of the Christian faith, and have lost their hold on the great center of Gospel truth." The Presbyterian, deplores the influence in the churches and colleges of preachers and teachers who "belittle, deny and oppose nearly all the fundamental facts of historic Christianity," a tendency which "has become infidelity of a type exceeding that held by Tom Paine and Bob Ingersoll."

The Baptist Watchman-Examiner declares:
"We had been drifting along, paying little attention to doctrinal questions. In high places of leadership among us were men who denied the miraculous birth of Christ, the vicarious atonement of Christ, the resurrection of Christ and the second coming of Christ. It became somebody's duty to call attention to this state of affairs. The new emphasis which has been given during the last two years to the fundamentals has been the greatest blessing that has come to our denomination in the last quarter of a century."

The controversy has developed a curious paradox. While the Fundamentalists are often called "orthodox" believers, most observers have derived the impression that the"modern" or "liberal" or "rationalized" conception of Christianity is to-day dominant in the churches, and is in practice the "orthodox" faith. Whether the attitude is acknowledged or not, belief in the miraculous or supernatural aspects of Christianity is widely deemed a form of heresy, or at best of sincere delusion. As popular pulpit themes, the doctrines stressed by the Fundamentalists have been largely displaced by current events, social, political and economic problems, and to a great extent are invoked only incidently to embellish homilies on everyday life and conduct. An ardent believer in Fundamentalism puts it this way:

"The modern endeavor is to bring the church down out of the clouds, place it on the level of human experience, meet present human needs in practical ways, and establish a system of natural, rational and universal ethics. Yet if this drift shall continue another ten years, if the repudiation of the Bible as the final and inerrant revelation of God for this age shall continue, we shall have not only a very modern Christianity, a Christianity without miracles, without even a hint of the supernatural, but a Christianity without spiritual power or moral authority, standing as a delinquent on the street corners, and amid the hurry and rush of more vital things begging permission simply to exist."

Such, dear Christian reader, is the present solemn condition in the churches at large. What Scripture has warned us of is being fulfilled before our eyes, and among those well-known to many of us:it is the "falling away" or apostasy from the faith, prior to the "revelation" or appearing of "the man of sin, the son of perdition"-the Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:3-8), which surely brings us very near to the Church's rapture, referred to in verses 1-3 of this same passage, and fully unfolded in 1 Thess. 4 :15-17.

"That the conflict will make itself felt in other denominations is widely predicted " says the article, with "a wide reaching cleavage" or division. This indeed is the only hope for a maintenance of truth by the minorities which still cling to the cardinal doctrines of Christianity, in spite of much worldliness and consequent weakness. Such a cleavage or wide-spread division in the churches is what the "Modernists" or "Liberals" wish to avoid, sure as they are that the minority will have to submit; and the enemy's cunning to this end is manifest in a "unanimous adoption of the New Testament as the all-sufficient ground of faith" while it openly rejects the statement of its cardinal truths, expressed in the New Hampshire confession! What hypocrisy and trickery! It will be easy enough to refute Paul and Peter and John as religious zealots, well-meaning and suited to their times, but impossible guides in this enlightened age. As an index to this and what is coming, the presiding officer or Moderator of the convention is a woman. Even now "social regeneration" is replacing personal salvation in the teaching of these Modernists.

Christians!-you who will hear the word of the Lord in all this, what does it tell you? "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the LORD, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Cor. 6:17, 18).
" ENDURING HARDNESS AS A GOOD SOLDIER OF JESUS CHRIST "