THE INTER-AMERICAN DIVISION
MESSENGER
Are We Measuring Up?
By EB. F. HACKMAN, President Inter-American Division
There is no getting around the fact
that the invention of the atomic bomb
and the unsettled political state of the
world are causing much anxiety today.
Nothing has ever happened since the
dawn of history which has occasioned
so much talk. Thousands of sermons
have been preached about the atomic
bomb. Magazines and newspapers have
issued volumes concerning the im-
minent destruction of the world. Every
one, from the highest to the lowest
has been impreseed by the publicity
given this subject. Consequently hu-
manity has literally been bombed out
of its complacency. Thousands lack-
ing hope have lapsed back into a
“what’s-the-use” attitude, but other
thousands are looking for a way out.
Ordinarily, when politicians fail,
we expect the church to point the
way out. But we have searched the
religious magazines in vain to find
one note of certainty and authority
as to what will take place in the future.
These times demand an authoritative
gospel, but where is the church, aside
from the Seventh-day Adventist church,
that is giving a decisive message for
these momentous hours? Where is the
Christian body that is living with
awareness as to what is taking place
in this old world of ours; and who
has a message of deliverance and hope
for mankind? All around us people
are asking questions. They want to
know the meaning of present-day
events. They are asking a lot of ques-
tions, but no one is giving them a
satisfactory answer. The silence of the
Christian church on these and other
vital questions, is pathetic.
It is true that now and then some
bold soul endeavors to point the way
out, but the attempt is both weak and
indecisive. Recently I was impressed
by an article which appeared in The
Christian Censary, entitled, “The
Churches, and World Government,”
which all too dearly illustrates the
hopeless confusion of the religious
world, and its ignorance of the true
purposes of God. While the editor
offers a concrete program of action,
yet it is pitiful how far he has missed
the mark. As I read this article the
Saviour's words came to my mind:
“Ye do err, not knowing the scrip-
tures.” Matt. 22:29.
I quote from the article as follows:
“The weakness of the churches today
—and they are pitifully weak when
it comes to exercising moral author-
ity—in large measure results from the
impression held by too many that they
are just picking at the edges of our
really vital problems; that where the
great issues are concerned they are
fumbling and palsied; that they ate
expending what energy they have on
marginal matters without much bear-
ing on the one issue which really
counts, namely, whether man is by
his folly to bring about his own
extermination.”
The editor then goes on to challenge
the churches: “What the churches
need, what all forms of organized
religion need, is 2 moral cause capable
of redeeming them from this charge
of being petty bodies fiddling about
with petty concerns. They need a
great moral crusade which will con-
vince their own members, as well as
the secular world, that they are engag-
ed in the most dangerous, the most
daring, and at the same time the most
necessary business on the earth. Where
are they to find out such a cause?”
Thus far, the editor has struck the
right note, but when he presented his
idea of a “great moral crusade,” he
missed the mark. What do you suppose
is his solution? He did not propose
a great campaign to save the lost!
Neither did he suggest that in view
of the shortness of time we should
set out to carry the gospel to all the
world. Far from it! He proposes that
the churches of the world shall im-
mediately institute a crusade to estab-
lish a wotld government. “Here,” he
says, “is a cause worthy of the best
they have to give! . . . Therefore the
determination to establish a federal
world government, Utopian as it now
appears, affords the churches their
most direct and certain means of re-
gaining moral authority in this mad
and doom-obsessed world.”
What these men have in the back
of their minds is a Super-State con-
trolled by a Super-Church. If this can
be achieved they believe they have the
answer to all of humanity's ills.
As | read this article to its close,
I said, “Thank God for the Advent
message! We have a program and an
objective, because we have followed
the word of God. The churches of
the world have no program because
they do not accept the prophecies of
God's word. This word clearly says
that this present world is hastening on
to destruction. It also reveals cleary
that God in His mercy will give one
last opportunity for mankind to accept
of salvation before the end comes. This
message has been entrusted to Seventh-
day Adventists. We are the people
of prophecy, who are charged with
the solemn obligation of carrying the
Vol. XXV
AUGUST, 1948
No. 6