IT may be thought that there are a sufficient number of Periodicals in the market without adding one more to the extensive list. There are plenty no doubt, if they were all of the right kind. But are they? How many of them profess to stand by the Word of God as true and faithful in all its parts. And of those who profess to uphold the sacred Scriptures as inspired of God, how many believe and advocate the literal truth of the account of Creation as recorded therein? or the various descriptions given by them of the works of God as found in what is called Nature? Not one! At least, we know not of any.
Not a single Christian Editor who in the face of the so-called “Science’’ of the nineteenth century dare contend for the literal truth of the Bible text given at the heading of this paper ? We repeat it, we know of none. We know of many, and some loud in their profession that they believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God, who yet have declined to allow us, or our friends, to uphold in their columns the literal truth of the Bible in all its references to the material Creation. We deplore this fact; and hence the necessity has been laid upon us, with all our weakness, physically or numerically, to come to the rescue in The Flat Earth Review. God is able to use the weakest instrumentality to his own glory, and to the confusion of the enemies of his truth. Our trust is in God; and in the faithfulness of his Word, in all its teachings from Genesis to Revelation. Our {»otto is, Let God be true, though every man be a liar.
If Genesis is not to be relied upon, in its description of Creation, how shall we trust Exodus? If the Old Testament is not true, what will Become of the New? If the Creator, through his servants, the prophets has not correctly described his Works, how can we trust him for our salvation? As the great Teacher, who came from God, himself declared; “If ye believe not his (Moses) writings, how shall ye believe my words? They stand or fall together. Our Lord says so ; and every logical and candid mind must see it is so. We are prepared to accept the conclusion for we feel sure that no fact in nature is contrary to Bible teaching.
It is well-known that the teachings of modern Astronomy are opposed to the teachings of the Bible; but it is not so well understood that all known facts in nature are in harmony with Bible representations. Thomas Paine, in his so-called “ Age of Reason” says:
“ The two beliefs ”—Modern Astronomy and the Bible—“ cannot be held together in the same mind : he who thinks he believes both has thought very little of either.”
This witness is true here. But he makes the very common mistake of assuming, or supposing, that Astronomy must be true ; and hence he draws the unwarrantable conclusion that the Bible must be false. This is not “ reason, ” but assumption ; and is surely an unpardonable offence against good logic on the part of one who professes to “reason ” We call the attention of our sceptical friends to its inconclusiveness. Give us facts, or sound “ reasons ” based on facts, and we will listen to our opponents with attention; but it will be the province of The Earth Review to expose from time to time the flimsy pretexts for reason which so frequently are placed before us by those who oppose the Word of the living God on questions of Cosmology. We want the facts of Science, not
We want the facts of Science, not in its every varying theories and contradictions. For these facts we shall ever be glad to find room, in proportion to their importance and our space. But, we candidly confess at the outset that we do not know of any one fact in Nature which conflicts with the accounts of the Creation or Universe, as set forth in the Holy Scriptures. The God of Creation or of Nature, is the God of Revelation; and both these we believe to be in harmony.