"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:   For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:4,5.

     Years ago, the school of higher criticism sprang up in Germany.   It, like all other subversive teaching, assumed a high and deceptive name.

     It would have been better named lower criticism, or the lowest criticism, for it hailed from the pit, where the temptation and fall of man came from.   It placed the devil's question mark after God's Word, "Yea hath God said?"   This is the beginning of higher criticism, Satan's word to Eve in the Garden.

     This school of criticism flourished in Germany, even before it crossed the English Channel to the British Isles, and before it spanned the Atlantic to America.

     This learned (?) school of guessers had a powerful ally in Charles Darwin, the modern inventor of the theory of evolution.

     This higher criticism began at the top in the higher institutions of learning and worked itself down and out into all lower schools of learning, and even among the common people and their children.

     Its baneful influence is now almost universal.   Wherever it goes and whatever garb it parades in, it is the same.   It changes not, it is the same devil that spoke in the Garden of Eden, questioning the authority of the Word of God.   It still says, "hath God said?"

     This denial of God's Word as authority, brought on Communism.   It came through the socialist, Carl Marx, and other German higher critics.   The Russian mind was prepared for it by the paganism and dead formality of the Russian Orthodox Church.   Few Russians knew anything about true Christianity and its principles.   So out of this modernism in Germany, always in company with the theory of evolution, sprang godless socialism and its half brother, Communism, which has become the menace of the world.

     These not only question God's Word, but go so far as to deny His existence.   This is the logical result of the theory of evolution and higher criticism.   Schooled in such an atmosphere of infidelity and Atheism, are we surprised that Germany produced such a lying man, man hater, and man destroying beast as Adolph Hitler?

     How, it may be asked, did such a dictator as Mussolini arise?   He was neither a higher critic nor an evolutionist?   The well-read man that he was, was no doubt familiar with these teachings, and much affected by them.

     For he, after studying to be a priest, became a socialist and Atheist.   There seems to be no doubt now, but that he was a devoted Catholic; a church which makes its members slaves to the church, rather than the truth which sets men free (John 8:32).

     Moreover. we know he belonged to a pagan system that has transferred the authority of God's Word from Christ the Lord, to the Pope and the Catholic church.   More error and twisted Scripture comes down through the Roman Catholic system, than any other on earth.   By denying the authority of God's Word and assuming authority themselves, the Catholics gave us the bloodiest and darkest age of the world.

     Out of this setting aside of the authority of God's Word, fifty million martyrs were burned at the stake.   Had they honored the authority of God's Word, instead of the tradition of men, not one of these innocent souls would have been murdered.   Yes, the trouble we find ourselves in today, is because God's Word has been set aside.

     What about heathen Japan; has she denied the authority of God's Word?   Yes, blasphemously so.   March 31, 1854, Commodore Perry forced open the doors of Japan to trade and missionary work.   It is said that Japan sent a committee to investigate the source of America's progress and development as a nation.   As an explanation the committee was given a New Testament, as the true secret of our progress and civilization.

     Upon returning to Japan, and reporting their findings to the Japanese government, all doors were thrown open-wide to missionaries.   For about twenty years, mission work began to flourish, as in no other nation on earth.   However, the devil never seems to sleep; where God begins to work, he thrusts in his counterfeit.

     Soon the land was flooded with agnosticism, Darwinism, and higher criticism, all a blatant denial of the authority of God's Word.   From that day to this, Japan has been the hardest mission field on earth.

     When I spent the summer of 1895 in Japan, the fact of modernistic missionaries there, was common talk.   After receiving all this godless literature, and a few modernistic missionaries to back it up, Japan said, we can get all the prosperity of western countries and their material wealth, without Christianity.   Yes, Japan had her chance and threw the gold overboard retaining only the dross.

     From that day to this she has denied the authority of God's Word and substituted demon worship for the worship of God.   Her millions of shrines and her emperor are her gods, and she is an inveterate hater of Christianity.

     Yes, be it known to the whole world today, that the prime cause of its chaos, war, and death, is the denial by the world of the authority of God's Word.   This very situation has been made clear to those who read God's Word, for over two thousand years.   "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;   Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron..." I Timothy 4:1,2.   This Scripture is being fulfilled at this very hour as never before.   Any doctrine that denies, distorts, or sets aside the authority of the Bible is a doctrine of devils.

     Today, the Muslims have as their goal, world domination; to convert the world to Islam and to institute Sharia law as the law of the land.   The modernistic counterfeits of Christianity have nothing to offer to stem this tide; having perverted the pure Word of God.   They claim that all religions are the same, and have the same benevolent goals for mankind.   That lie is disproved every time a Muslim child straps on a suicide vest and goes off to blow himself up in the service of allah.

     We have the solution in the pure Word of God.   Anytime anyone; Muslim, Shinto, Buddhist, or Atheist, reads or hears God's Word, and receives Christ as their Savior, they become a new creature.   Not only are they no longer a threat to us, but they have become a brother or sister in Christ.

     On the other hand, if an American walks into a Mosque, and pledges allegiance to allah, a lost person is just as lost as they have ever been.   "Jesus saith unto him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.'" John 14:6.   "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." John 17:17.

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     We are offering something not taught at most Bible Colleges; "How To" Classes; How to do a Wedding; How to do a Funeral; How to do Soulwinning; How to run an Attendance Campaign for Sunday School; How to start a New Church; How to start new Sunday School classes, etc.

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     REVIVAL--Cascade Missionary Baptist Church of Terrebonne, Oregon will be holding a revival meeting the last week in this month.   Elder Clyde Jones will be preaching the meeting.   Please remember this meeting in your prayers.   Pray that the Lord will bless in a mighty way and many souls will be saved and added unto the church, like on the day of Pentecost.

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FROM BODINE BAPTIST CHURCH

     We are looking forward to our colloquium which will be here soon, starting with the Wednesday evening service, 7:00 p.m., March 7 with veteran missionary to Germany, Brother Tom Hastings as our speaker and continuing Thursday, March 8 at 9:00 a.m. -with services all day including evening services at 7:00 p.m.   The friday services will begin at 9:00 a.m. and end with the noon meal.   Our plan is to have timely breaks during the meetings for refreshments and fellowship, with hot, delicious Oklahoma meals served Thursday and Friday.

     Those wishing to attend should first contact the church.   You can obtain contact information by clicking on the link above.

Letters To The Editor

     When I was a child, I remember my parents inviting everyone they came in contact with, to come to church.   Most of them declined politely, but I don't remember anyone claiming to be offended by it.   No, it seems that most people thought that it was a cordial thing to do.   Today, it seems, we spend most of our time trying to get church members to return to church.

     When I was a child, we did not have a lot of things that people believe to be necessary now.  We did not have a telephone, television, movie camera, computer or internet, and we had only one car.   Yet, every Sunday morning 10% went into the collection plate and the missions offering was quite generous.

     Today, every man woman and child in the family, has a mobile phone and it usually contains a camera that will take movies too, and they will swear that all of this is necessary.   Today you hear the fancy ring tones interrupting the services, and the collection plate returns as empty as when it went out.

     "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing..." Revelation 3:17   That "Nothing" that the luke warm church no longer has need of, seems to be the Kingdom of God.   Jesus said, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matthew 6:33.   Folks, if you would seek God's will in your life, you probably wouldn't have any desire for most of this junk, but if you had need of any thing, He would give it to you, and I promise you, you would be ever so much happier.

     Folks if you want to respond to something you have read in "Baptist Landmarks" please E-Mail your response to edit@BaptistLandmarks.org   Your response will be printed here.

     I would like to have a cartoon in each issue if possible.   If there is someone reading this paper who can draw cartoons that will cause us to laugh at the foolish things we sometimes do and cause us to think of how we could better serve our Savior, please E-Mail me and let me know.

     WILL YOU TAKE A POSITIVE STAND FOR LANDMARK DOCTRINES, HISTORIC BAPTIST INDEPENDENCE, AND DIRECT MISSION PRACTICE?   THEN, "LIKE" US ON FACEBOOK, AND SPREAD THE TRUTH, AS IT IS IN THE WORD OF GOD.

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