September 18, 2009 THE LITTLE FOXES THAT SPOIL THE VINES by Cornelius R. Stam Printer Friendly Version Many Christian people entertain the notion that apostasy from the truth begins with a denial of one or more of the fundamentals of the faith, such as the infallibility of the Bible, the deity of Christ, or the efficacy of His redemptive work. The moral aspect of apostasy, they suppose, comes about in much the same way. This view is not wholly correct, for apostasy generally begins, not with holding, but with condoning spiritual or moral error. Eve fell into sin, not by denying what God had said but by listening to Satan. In the Song of Solomon, the Shulamite damsel, doubtless quoting the words of Solomon, her beloved bridegroom, notes that the vineyards are in full blossom. Soon the grapes will be ripe for the marriage feast. But a danger threatens the harvest: "the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines." These must without fail be "taken," or caught (Song of Solomon 2:15). What a striking lesson we have here! How often God's people have stood at the threshold of great blessing, the refreshing odor of an abundant spiritual harvest in the air when, alas, all has been lost -- not through a frontal attack by the adversary, but by those wily little foxes that had been permitted to spoil the vines. Some doctrine or practice clearly unscriptural and subversive of spiritual blessing, had been condoned when, like the little foxes of Solomon's song, they should have been caught and disposed of. To the Reader: Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface: "It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles." We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.