The Silence of God by Sir Robert Anderson. Preface

The Silence of God By Sir Robert Anderson Preface IN response to appeals from various quarters this book is once again reissued. Its importance is enhanced by the vagaries of religious thought in our day, and notably by the growth of certain religious movements which claim to be accredited by "miraculous" spiritual manifestations. As the Epistle to the Hebrews teaches, certain great truths which are generally regarded as distinctively Christian were common to the Divine religion of Judaism upon which Christianity is based. And as the opening words of Romans remind us, "The gospel of God concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord" was "promised afore" in Hebrew prophecy. The most distinctive truth of the Christian revelation is Grace enthroned. And that truth was lost in the interval that elapsed between the close of the New Testament Canon and the era of the Patristic theologians. That He to whom the prerogative of judgment has been committed is now sitting upon the throne of God in grace, and that, as a consequence, all judicial and punitive action against human sin is in abeyance - deferred until the day of grace is over and the day of judgment dawns - this is a truth that will be sought for in vain in the standard theology of Christendom. "My gospel" the Apostle Paul calls it, for it was through him that this truth was revealed - not the gospel "promised afore," but "the preaching of Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began." Even among men, the wise and strong keep silence when they have said all they wish to say. And as this gospel of grace is the supreme revelation of Divine mercy to the world, the silence of heaven will remain unbroken until the Lord Jesus passes from the throne of grace to the throne of judgment. It is not that the Divine moral Government of the world is in abeyance. Still less is it that spiritual miracles have ceased. For in our day the gospel has achieved triumphs in heathendom which transcend anything recorded in the New Testament. Infidelity is thus confronted by miracles of a kind that give far surer proof of the presence and power of God than any miracle in the natural sphere could offer - hearts so entirely changed, and lives so thoroughly transformed, that fierce, brutal, and degraded savages have become humble, pure-living, and gracious. But the argument of these pages is that what may be called evidential miracles have no place in this "Christian dispensation." In the ages before Christ came, men may well have craved tokens of the action of a personal God. But in the ministry and death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, God has so plainly manifested not only His power, but His goodness and love toward man, that to grant evidential miracles now would be an acknowledgment that questions which have been for ever settled are still open. No one may limit what God will do in response to individual faith. But we may confidently assert that, in view of His supreme revelation in Christ, God will yield nothing to the petulant demands of unbelief. And that revelation supplies the key to the dual mystery of a silent heaven and the trials of the life of faith on earth. This foreword is given for the benefit of persons who skim a book instead of reading it.