Modernism denies the divine inspiration and authority of the Scriptures; it denies that the Bible is of supernatural origin, and that its avowedly supernatural content is true. There are, of course, degrees of modernism; but such degrees are only degrees of boldness which mark the support of its naturalistic attitude, modernism denies the infallibility of Christ Who most clearly attests the inspiration of Scriptures. Here, too, the denial is by degrees; from the Kenosis theory to open Unitarianism. But it is all one in its object, namely, to discredit the testimony of Christ to the authority of Scripture.

In its determination to rid itself of an infallible opponent of its alleged "assured results", modernism denies the essential Deity of Christ, and in order to substantiate that denial, it repudiates the cardinal doctrine of the Virgin Birth of Jesus, reducing Him to the level of a man, it makes of Him at the best only an emasculated ideal. It seeks plausibly to magnify His character at the expense of His teaching which it thus strips of all authority. The logical corollary of all this is to reject the vicariousness of Christ's death, and the fact of His corporeal resurrection, with all the implications of these tremendous truths. Modernism repudiates the necessity of the new birth and assumes a weakly tolerant attitude toward sin, an attitude which involves at last an implicit, if not an explicit, denial of sin itself. To this is added a rejection of the doctrine of the personal return of the Lord Jesus, and with that a rejection of the whole body of Biblical eschatology.

Having rid itself thus of an infallible Christ, and of the infallible Book of which He is the Subject and Seal, modernism proceeds to work out for itself its own philosophy of human origin and destiny. Hence, it substitutes human reason for Divine Revelation, and the wisdom of man for the Word of God. As necessitated by such a philosophy it repudiates the humbling doctrine of man's fall and insists that man is evolved from a lower order; that he is ascending rather than descending the scale.

In fact, this philosophy removes all fixed objective standards, either of truth or of morals, and makes man a law unto himself. The principle of divine revelation being denied, and the principle of evolution being accepted as a universal law, nothing is fixed or stable, and nothing may certainly be known of the future. Hence, this present material existence is the only one of which we can be sure. This is no exaggeration. There are differences of degrees, for not all modernists have accepted the logical implications of modernism; but they are all on the way, and in due course will arrive at the stage known as Unitarianism, and that is but a way station far on the road that leads inevitably to Agnosticism.

Modernism, therefore, I venture to affirm, in the nature of the case is, and must be, out of agreement with the Christian faith at every point. But is it merely a neutral, innocuous, thing that robs only its willing dupes of peace and of life, but does no one else any harm? A tree is known by its fruits.