Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 102:407 (Jul 1945)
Article: Editorials
Author: Anonymous

---

BSac 102:407 (Jul 45) p. 257

Editorials

Faith or Fatalism

Years of unprecedented woe and war have brought out again the old cry of fatalism, What must be shall be, or a modern equivalent of the idea. Not knowing what a day might bring forth, men have gone into battle prepared to die “if their number was up.” And truly, without faith in Jesus Christ, how could they act otherwise? Any foundation except Him is no better than sand. Without Him they could produce nothing but a Stoic calm, at best. But is this the frame of mind most desirable?

In reality there is no reason for hopelessness and benumbing fear in the face of the unknown future. Not in the least, according to one who fought unending battles in a campaign longer and harder than anything in World War II. This man contended with the Devil and uncounted numbers of his unseen angels controlling the whole world. And doubtless not without many a defeat. Still, he also won many victories and knew the secret of overcoming in a world of swirling, occult powers. So his testimony is the most valuable on this subject. If he had to say in one breath, “For God’s sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter,” he also could exclaim, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us!” The foundation of solid rock on which he built his confidence is expressed in some other words of Romans 8: “All things work together for good to them that love God.” With such a footing beneath, he would confront every circumstance with questions like, “If God be for us, who can be against us? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”

Rough as the pathway of life might be for him, was it not much more rugged for Christ —and He was never

BSac 102:407 (Jul 45) p. 258

crushed? Foes had crucified Him, but God raised Him up and restored His life; friends might desert Him, but God never; bodily weakness could overcome, but God despatched angels with the needed relief; Satan would assault Him unmercifully, but God supplied the wisdom to parry the temptation. Why, then, should Paul worry? Was not Christ Himself within him, as his very life, the One to whom he was joined for eternity after a spiritual co-death and co-resurrection with Him and co-enthronement in heaven?

Perhaps the strongest reason that fatalism persists down through the centuries is the fact that it accords somewhat with truth. The Bible teaches that God is the author of all circumstances, including death, but a fatalistic philosophy counterfeits this by suggesting a cold determinism—when the fact of the matter is that God cannot be accounted heartless. Witness ...

visitor : : uid: ()