PINNEY. FROM MONKMEYER. N. Y.
The First Glimpse of the Statue of Liberty by One Entering America or Returning From a Trip Abroad, Produces a Thrill That Is Not Soon Forgotten. It Brings a Sense of Freedom and an Appreciation of Those Principles of Government Which Have Made Our Nation Great
2>
ROPHECIES of
RACE and RELIGION
By Lewis Harrison Christian
Author of Facing the Crisis, Modern Religious Trends, Pioneers and Builders, Sons of the North, etc.
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PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND COPYRIGHTED, 1944 BY
REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
TAKOMA PARK, WASHINGTON,
D.
C.
CONTENTS
Introduction	3
1.	The Temper of Mind Today .	5
2.	Spirit Forces Shaping World Events .	.11
3.	Ideologies That Spell Disaster	19
4.	Prophecies of Frenzied Propaganda and Race
Fanaticism.................................27
5.	Modern War on the Law of God .	.	33
6.	American Protestantism the Bulwark of
American Democracy .	...	39
7.	The Catholic Way to Peace .	47
8.	The Ecumenical Road to a New World .	.	63
9.	The Downfall of State-Church Religion	79
10.	The Road to Peace Is the Road of Personal Faith 91
Introduction
A
JL jL.S late as a decade ago the thinking of mankind was focused on the discoveries of science and the evolution of the state; today it is largely centered on the ambitions and problems of race and religion. Modern problems and Bible prophecies belong together. The problems, being a fulfillment of the prophecies, show the predictions to be true. Prophecies also make plain how the problems will be solved and what our attitude should be if we stand loyal to God and our country. Mankind never before faced as many intricate and far-reaching questions as today, and in no former age of human history have as many forecasts of Holy Writ been fulfilled as at this time.
There is with some a certain prejudice against prophecy. This is quite understandable. So many of the fads of our day, such as astrology and spiritism, thrive on what they call prophecies. Usually their predictions are a mere guess set forth for financial profit. We cannot know what lies ahead. With God, however, the future is as clear as the past. What God says about the future is more reliable than what man writes about the past or present. Hundreds of Bible prophecies, given centuries before their fulfillment, show this to be true.
In the following pages, when we write about religion we mean Christianity. When we speak of race and the new racialism, with all its implications, we are thinking only of the present race fanaticism overseas. The past is gone, yet always with us, and we cannot but enter the future. What will this future really be, this coming new order of which we hear so much? What will it bring our children? Will it be peace or war, plenty or poverty, freedom or world enslavement? In every survey of modern problems we find in the Bible an “answer from God.” Pessimism, defeatism, and rosy hopes built on fancies or wishful thinking are alike a snare. Faith for the future is a divine gift, and faith gives victory. In doctrine such a faith builds on the Bible as the inspired book of God. In life it is nourished by experience in the help of God. In this volume we cannot in detail explain the divine predictions mentioned. For a full exposition of them we refer the reader to the book Prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation, published by the publishers of this volume. With America now shaping the future, an understanding of these prophecies is indispensable.
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SOIB ELM AN SYNDICATE
The State of Mind Today Is Different. We Are Living in an Age That Breeds Fear and Hatred. The Prophetic Note in the Book of God Sounds Out the Martial Words, ’’The Nations Were Angry.” Fear, Hatred, and Anger Beget War
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CHAPTER ONE
The Temper of Mind Today
T
JLHE measure of an age is not in material things. It is not in government, education, or science, not even in morals or spiritual power alone, important as these are. The truest measure of an age is its state of mind. To be up to date in creative thinking we must really be two years ahead of today. We must, as it were, place ourselves outside and look in. We shall never understand our time unless we recognize that today the mind of man has changed. Mankind is moving from an age of skepticism into an age of superstition, a superstition that breeds fear and hatred.
One of the outstanding traits of Bible prophecy is its description of the mental state of men and nations in the latter days. The Saviour foretold that there would be a nervous, distressed state of mind, with a deep dread of the future. In His telling phrase He says that we would find “men’s hearts failing them for fear.” Luke 21:26. Christ here describes the mind of the individual. In the book of Revelation the apostle John, speaking of the political groupings of mankind in the latter days, says, “The nations were angry.” Revelation 11:18. Three other times in the same book he declares that mankind is intoxicated, and twice that man is drunken with the poison wine of Babylon—the false doctrines of church-and-state Christianity. In the Old Testament we see similar predictions concerning races that are drunken with the lust of power and driven by fear to flaming extremes. That the above prophecies are being fulfilled in the nervous, confused temper of mind
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Prophecies of Race and Religion
today, need scarcely be stated. We must always remember that to a large degree the leaders in the second World War were soldiers in the first, and that the soldiers of today were born of nervous mothers in the tension of World War I.
One outstanding trait of the present temper of mind is the tendency to change. Concerning this, Dr. Adolf Keller, of Geneva, Switzerland, writes as follows in his book Church and State on the European Continent:
“It is astounding to observe with what breathless rapidity Continental nations, men, habits, social systems, ideas, and ideals have changed in a few years and are still changing. If a map of the range of our age-long thoughts, of the deep currents of our feelings and instincts could be drawn, it would look as if the mighty white arrow of the Alps were flying in another direction, as if the streams were running on another side of the watershed to seek a new sea. Millions ‘have burnt what they adored and adore what they had burnt.’
“What is still more bewildering than any fall of thrones and rise of new states is the profound and mysterious transformation of our whole inner world, of the soul of the Continental peoples, of our self in its deepest needs and loftiest aspirations.
“There is no reservation, no holy ground which calls a halt to the avalanche of a new life-sentiment.”—Pages 19, 20.
He speaks later of “the soul of the Continent in the fever of revolution.”—Page 23.
Another very marked characteristic of our time is the confusion of thought, especially the confusion of moral ideals. There were two great tragedies in large sections of Europe after the first World War. One was the downfall of the church, and the other the revolt against the school. It has been said that both these institutions deserved their fate. If they did, their greatest weakness was that they had not trained people in moral ideas and in right thinking. We have all failed today in teaching our youth how to solve problems. We should give earnest attention to the responsibility of training the mind. The image of God is first the character and likeness of God in the soul. These, our gifts of mind and heart rather than mere knowledge, need to be exalted today. It is not munitions but mind that will shape the future.
The world now is all athrob with frenzied conflicting ideas. Old errors concerning the supremacy of the state or of the
The Temper of Mind Today
7
J. MUENCH
church, or other controversies about individual rights, have been revived, while new unheard-of issues and claims are being advanced. The human race is in great spiritual darkness. Mankind is led astray today by false doctrines, false philosophies, false sciences, and false interpretations of history. We have come into a trend of thinking that does not influence real living existence. Man has lost the gift of creative thought. One may almost say that today we have a thinking that solves nothing, serves nobody, and helps no one. Another very prominent trait of modern thinking is superficial doubting. “It is the fashion to depart from Christ and give place to skepticism.”
One of the most thoughtful writers on events of the past twenty-five years is Norman Angell. While many might disagree with some of his ideas, and especially on certain strictures he makes concerning the Versailles Treaty, his statements are always worthy of careful thought. In his book The Future of Victory he emphasizes the peril of the present state of mind as follows:
“The gravest fact in the history of the last ten years is not the fact of war; it is the temper of mind, the blindness of conduct on the part of millions, which alone, ultimately, explains our policies.
“We shall get nearer to the heart of our problem if, instead of asking perpetually ‘Who caused the war?’ and indicting ‘capitalists’
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Prophecies of Race and Religion
or Junkers, we ask the question: ‘What is the cause of that state of mind and temper in the millions which made them on the one side welcome war (as we allege of the German millions), or on the other side makes them acclaim, or impose, blockades, famines, “punitive” treaties of peace?’
“The war has left us a defective or perverted social sense, with a group of instincts and moralities that are disintegrating Western society, and will, unless checked, destroy it.”
The reader will notice that in the quotation above from Mr. Angell, we are asked to consider not only the state of mind but also the cause of such mental phenomena as mob thinking or mass mind or frenzied extreme views. The great cause of the present temper of human mind is that the human race has lost its divine anchor. The present drift away from God and faith in His Word has led us into a scattered thinking, without center and without any definite purpose.
I came from Japan through Siberia, to Moscow, and on to Poland, Berlin, and Western Europe in the summer of 1939. Nothing I saw was more outstanding or disturbing than the strange state of mind. I noticed the tension and hatred seen everywhere in Japan, and the feverish preparation for war. As I had often been in Russia before, I could not but observe the large-scale military preparation and the settled, deep hatred against the Germans. Those who at that time thought that Russia was not getting ready did not know Russia. There was great material advance over the early years after the revolution, and a fair abundance of goods. There was little outward tension, but all knew that Russia did not fear a fight and that she would call on the help of the church in this defense. This also happened later.
But when I came to Berlin and traveled over nearly all of Germany and Czechoslovakia shortly before the war broke, I met a manifestation of mind the like of which I had never seen, not even in the first war. Multitudes of Germans, of course, dreaded a coming war. They had an instinctive premonition that it would not go well with Germany. Others seemed all aflame with confidence of victory. However, the most striking trait about the German state of mind was its extreme nervous hatred and lust for revenge. This was so apparent that it almost seemed as if the people, while not
The Temper of Mind Today
9
insane or beside themselves, were so warped as to be utterly unbalanced. At one of the gatherings where I lectured, a German was present from Holland. He had held important church positions in Germany, and was trusted and beloved. In a late evening conversation where we met over twenty church leaders he stated:
“I am a German, and I can speak to you as being one of your own group. You have known me many years. I am not saying that you have lost your minds, but I do find that your whole thinking is so twisted that it is hardly normal. You have lived on frenzied, one-sided propaganda for months and years, and almost unknown to yourselves it has created feelings and ideas and ambitions here in Germany that our beloved country and people have never known before. I consider this condition of mind the greatest peril in Germany today.”
We would, however, deceive ourselves if we complacently fancied that this present confusion or hatred or nervous fear was confined to any one land or people. Though more outstanding in some parts of the earth than in others, it is really world wide. In fact there is danger that it will affect all of us more or less as individuals. German hatred was not content to get things righted—it wanted to conquer, not to correct. Today we not only need to exercise a careful self-control of our manner of thinking, but also need to beware lest we be overinfluenced by the excitement of others and by the inflammatory propaganda with which the very air seems charged. We can think of our age as a harvest or as a time of seed sowing. The latter view is the most instructive to all who reason from cause to effect. If we would know tomorrow we need but study the sowing of today. The present hysterical thinking and mental depression bode “nothing but mischief’ for the future. Hate or revenge never makes for good morale either in the nation or in the individual. Only the mind that is kept by the peace of God is truly balanced. The divine promise is that He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on God. The solace of religion is the best cure for the modern nervous mind.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS SERVICE
Throughout the History of Mankind The-e Have Been Many Who Have Idolized and Worshiped Men Almost as If They Were Gods. Earthly Government Are to Be Honored and Obeyed in Affairs Civil, Says the Good Book. In Matters of Religion, However, the God of Heaven Comes First. True Christians Make Conscientious Citizens
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CHAPTER TWO
Spirit Forces Shaping World Events
my way from Paris to London in June of 1939, I happened to meet a highly educated French journalist. His mind was tense with the dark omens of the coming conflict even then seen on every side. As we conversed he said:
“I was reared in the Christian faith. My mother read the New Testament to me and noted particularly the prophecies of Jesus in Matthew 24, and other chapters, concerning the misery and wars of what the Scriptures called The last days/ As a young man in the university, however, influenced by the prevailing unbelief, I gave up my faith in the Scriptures and became a skeptic. But as I now see world conditions my mind has gone back to what I learned in my childhood. I have read again, and so have come to believe, the Word of God. Two reasons have changed my mind from skepticism to Christianity. The first is that the very things Christ predicted are now seen in all the earth. Only God can truly prophesy; so fulfilled prophecies prove that the Bible is inspired. The second reason why I have come back into the faith may seem strange to you, but it is the result of my own meditation. I do not think that man is wise enough or even wicked enough to devise this new cruelty and bloody intolerance.
‘‘Look how the Jews are treated and how lovers of liberty in many lands today suffer. Man is not so evil and heartless that he could do this thing of himself, and he does not have
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Prophecies of Race and Religion
the mental ingenuity and skill to bring on the dreadful things that are happening today. I believe spirit powers educate, inspire, and harden the human race to such fearful conduct. And there are many with me who come more and more to believe in wicked spirit forces back of it all.”
This journalist was right. Many thoughtful people are led today to look behind the scenes, and to recognize the workings of uncanny, superhuman evil forces. In the Bible prophecies concerning the latter days, and especially concerning the great wars that are coming, culminating in the battle of Armageddon, we read:
“I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” Revelation 16:13, 14. In other scriptures concerning the great apostasy of religion in the latter days we are told that spirit powers will perform wonders, and that the evil one “deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.” Revelation 13:14.
We hear a great deal today about spirit intuition and its terrible carnage in modern warfare. Again and again we have been told that some of the bloodiest battles of World War II, in which literally hundreds of thousands of young men perished, were brought on by unseen influences from “the great beyond.” But much of this will not be fully known while the war is still in progress. There is in the Bible a remarkable prophecy concerning Lucifer, the author of sin. In Isaiah 14:12-24 the fall of this mighty angel is clearly described. In verses 16 and 17 we read as follows concerning his work of destruction: ‘‘Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof?” The great purpose of the devil in all wars is to murder as many people as possible, no matter which side wins.
Spirit Forces Shaping World Events
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Spirit Mediums and the Battle of the Marne
For the first World War the Battle of the Marne in September, 1914, was decisive. Even the Germans admit that they knew the war was hopeless when that battle was lost and they failed to take Paris. In Germany there have been many pamphlets of explanation on what is called the mystery of the Marne. The explanation usually accepted is that the general who commanded at the Marne was compelled by the higher officials, especially General von Moltke and Colonel Hentsch, to retreat just as victory seemed to be in sight.
General Ludendorff, so prominent in that war, has written quite fully on the Battle of the Marne, but we quote only from his pamphlet The Drama of Marne. General Ludendorff begins by saying that it is now a well-known fact that General Moltke, even long before the war, was an earnest student of occultism. He gives several instances from General Moltke’s own writings to show that this was so. He goes on to say that the wife of General Moltke was an outstanding spirit medium, and that she, together with another spiritist medium, Lisbeth Seidler, had told General Moltke even before the war of 1914 began that the Germans would lose the war. Lisbeth Seidler was the private nurse of Mrs. Moltke, and both of them invited other spirit mediums, such as the occultist Steiner from Coblenz, to meet with them. Their belief was that according to the theosophical idea of world evolution, which they in part had accepted, Germany was fated to lose the war.
One of the German leaders, General von Bonfart, states, “Many times I have heard General Moltke, with tears in his eyes and with trembling lips, say, ‘Everything we do is in vain, for we are fated anyway to lose the war.’ ” This, they said, had been decreed by higher powers than man. General Moltke also stated that he had read books by this Steiner, and that through this reading he had come to understand Nietzsche better than before. He also tells of a trip he made before the war up north of Norway, and how on that trip he and others were greatly taken up with spiritistic ideas and plans, and spent hours together in studying the great purposes of the spirits in the history of man.
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Prophecies of Race and Religion
Of the Battle of the Marne itself the story is as follows: On the morning of September 6, just as it seemed as though the Germans were winning the battle for Paris under the leadership of General von Kluck, Colonel Hentsch came with a message from General Moltke. He went first to one part of the army to the east and gave them the order to retreat. The next day he went over to the west side of the army and gave the people there the same command as coming from General Moltke. These generals did not want to obey the orders from headquarters. They said that it must be that General Moltke had a completely false understanding of the real situation, but Colonel Hentsch insisted that they were wrong, and that the orders were absolute that they should retreat. Concerning this even the official war communique in Germany was:
“The mighty world decisive conflict on the Marne was broken off. The German right wing, though it had already gained a victory, began to retreat, and though the whole army was utterly dum-founded at the thought of retreating when victory was within their grasp, there was nothing else to do but to obey orders from above."
I quote again from the German official report:
“At the Battle of Marne certain mysterious spirit powers were at work, the results of which will not be known until in later generations. Only as history goes into the details of this will we understand the true connection and results of these powers."
We are not alone in believing that evil spirits are at work in this present world struggle. I have seen and heard Der Fiihrer, and of his faith in unseen spirit guidance there is no doubt. After the United States entered the war a group of American writers, who were detained in Germany several months, agreed to gather their factual observations into a book. They had this to say: “There seemed to be some psychic drive behind Hitler’s making war, some subconscious compulsion.” Then aside from telling much about his connection with dark occult forces and methods, they sum up as follows:
“He is not a spiritualist in the common sense of the word, but he accepts the importance of occult influences. On one afternoon, shortly before the settlement of the Czech crisis, Hitler was not available to anyone for a period of three hours. A guard was posted outside his private rooms in the Reichschancellery. Hitler was closeted with his astrologers, consulting with them regarding the
Spirit Forces Shaping World Events
15
wisdom of the measures he was about to take.”—Frederick Oechsner, This Is the Enemy, p. 73.
Thus the great theologian, Karl Barth, writes in his book This Christian Cause:
“The enterprise of Adolf Hitler, with all its clatter and fireworks, and all its cunning and dynamic energy, is the enterprise of an evil spirit, which is apparently allowed its freedom for a time in order to test our faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and above all to test our obedience to that faith.”
In like manner Adolf Keller, in his excellent work Christian Europe Today, has this to say:
“In Germany even as early as 1933 I heard sober-minded Christians, remote from any kind of a medieval demonology, express the fear lest Germany had undergone a ‘magic influence’ reaching far beyond German boundaries. Those Christians who know, see no other protector than Christ the Master of demons, as the Bible shows Him to be, and are encouraged by Him to fight the forces of evil— God’s battle for the liberty of mankind. . . . The Church of faith, in Europe, being in the throes of such worldly demonic powers, is not afraid, because Christ, the light which shines in darkness, has overcome the world by the divine power manifested in His resurrection.”—Pages 139, 140.
However, we do not wish to stress the work of any one individual. One religious journal claims there are 100,000 spirit mediums, astrologers, and such like in America at this time. In the city of Philadelphia alone one million dollars a year is spent in fees to mediums. Several of our American universities, such as Duke or Pennsylvania, have immense endowments for psychical research—a refined form of spiritism. The proceedings of these societies for psychic research comprise more than a hundred volumes, not to mention scores and hundreds of other books published on this topic. Nearly every newsstand abounds with magazines on these occult subjects. Doctor Keller was right when he said, “The demonic element of the world is again seen,” and these wicked elements do indeed inflame the frenzied passions of mad minds.
Making Gods of Men
One of the strongest delusions of these evil spirits is to exalt men as Gods, worthy of absolute obedience and worship. When I came to Germany in 1939 I was greatly surprised to
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Prophecies of Race and Religion
find how many, many people seemed to think of their leader as a new messiah. I had heard of it and had seen signs of it as I traveled in Europe from 1933 to 1936, but by 1939 the idea had taken root, and in many circles seemed really to be believed. Many thoughtful men have called our attention to this sad revelation of worshiping man as though he were divinely led, and almost as though he were a god. Thus Leslie D. Weatherhead, a very thoughtful English preacher and writer, says in his book This Is the Victory:
“In 1935 district leader Becker said, ‘In later centuries, when one will have a true measure for things as they are today, it will be said, “Christ was great, but Adolf Hitler was greater.” ’ The Nazi Minister for Church Affairs said, The question of the divinity of Christ is ridiculous and unessential. A new authority, Adolf Hitler, has arisen as to what Christ and Christianity really are.’ ’’—Page 10.
No one will charge that the Lutheran Church leaders in Germany are given to extreme statements. Yet we find in the Evangelical Church Letter of June, 1936, concerning this deification, these words:
“In this connection we must make known to the Fixhrer and chancellor our uneasiness over the fact that he is often revered in form that is due to God alone. . . . He himself is vested with the dignity of the national priest, and even of the mediator between God and the dignity of the people.”
Divine Providence in Action
But we would fail completely to understand the factors behind the scenes in the war zones if we saw only the acts of wicked spirits or men. In human history the good has always been stronger than the evil. It may be noticed less clearly, as it works more in secret, but the forces of right never fail to win over those of wrong. Today in some countries overseas they speak of “the church within the churches,” meaning the true believers in the midst of the state churches. These children of faith today see the most marvelous care and guidance of God.
We need to observe the providence of God in present world events. What a providence it was, for instance, that the Nazi powers did not attack England in 1940 when they had a chance to succeed. What would have happened to this world
Spirit Forces Shaping World Events
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if the British Empire, which has stood as a protector of mankind for over a century, had been destroyed? What a providence, too, that the Japanese did not attack our own country before December 7, 1941, when we had had at least some time to prepare. But these are only a few of many tokens of God's guidance that we see constantly. Our soldiers are deeply impressed with this, and often speak of the help of the Lord when in special danger. Many returned missionaries, as they come back from their mission field, have beautiful stories to tell of God’s special help and keeping power.
In one of the cities that were bombed in this war a group of God's children, who were earnestly waiting for the return of Jesus, had their church on a high point in the town. As they gathered for service one Sabbath morning, the first great bombing of the city began. They leaned out of the windows in their hall and looked down upon the harbor as the docks were being torn to pieces. Soon the enemy planes began to enter the city; a great cathedral was destroyed, the main street was turned into piles of rubble, and the planes headed right up the boulevard that led to our church. Some advised that the members run down into the basement, but others said, “Let us kneel in prayer, for only God can save us.’’ Just as the planes were two blocks away, for some unknown reason they stopped their bombing, swung high over the house of God, and began bombing again five blocks beyond it. The worshipers all felt that they had seen the protection of God, and this instance, as well as many, many others, has created a new experience of that living faith that is so needful today.
EWING GALLOWAY. N. Y.
In Many Lands Today the Pillars of Freedom Have Been Destroyed. The Torch of Liberty Is Well-Nigh Extinguished. It Is Refreshing to Recall, However, That From the Earliest Days in America the Familiar Town Meeting Has Been an Outlet for the Expression and Will of the People. Today American Democracy Is Fighting Bravely to Uphold This Principle of Human Freedom. Free Speech, Freedom of Assembly, Freedom of the Press, Freedom of Worship
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CHAPTER THREE
Ideologies That Spell Disaster
c
v_>ERTAIN words today have wandered into a new meaning. Formerly “ideology” signified “the science of ideas” or even “visionary speculations,” but now it refers to propaganda ideas of race or country. We live in a time when the mind of mankind seems to be carried away with strange waves of erratic visions and ambitions. But in this multitude of corrosive ideas and ideals there are three great delusions that stand out, because they are especially used by the great enemy of mankind to destroy the pillars of freedom. Among these the most dangerous is the present attack on the sacred rights and duties of the individual.
The Divine Dignity of Man
In former decades certain churches emphasized strongly the fallen moral condition or “total depravity” of man. While it is true that man is a sinner, it is not true that the divine image in his soul has been entirely blotted out. Though he is a creature in revolt against his Creator, Christ as his Saviour restores all that Adam lost. The Scriptures teach that man was made in the image of God, and further, that the whole human race are the “offspring of God.” (Acts 17:29.) But these new delusions concerning the individual would rob us of our God-given heritage and our personal moral accountability and individual initiative. Those who hold these destructive ideas tell us:
“We have come to the end of the age of individualism in all its various forms and functions. This is especially true of individualism
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Prophecies of Race and Religion
as a law or principle, at least as a principle of our conscious knowledge and our religion or philosophy of the universe, and of that special way of life which marked and controlled the last century. The end is here now of that epoch in which each individual person seemed to possess a certain absolute autonomy and autarchy. The end too has come of everything connected with this view, or built upon this view of life, by which we mean a personal way of arranging life with conceptions of certain rights of personal liberty, and the conception of limited spheres of influence for the state, the capitalistic as well as the individual business, with all the various individual rights such as private ownership of property or private religion and personal education and views of life. The age into which we have come will be controlled by certain laws of life, built not on a diversity of national traits as we have had it in German history, but on a totalitarian national law of life. In harmony with this totalitarian conception we will build the state, the rights of man, religion, culture, business, education. The past individualism with its very diverse influences and results upon the nations left them without any definite form or objective, and instead of that foundation there will arise this new collective and united building.”—Ernst Krieck, Nation-socialisthsche Erziehung, p. 39.
Could words in long intricate sentences state more clearly than the above that man is but a cog in a wheel, with no choice of his own? How different from this is the Bible truth that man was made in the image of God—which is above all a soul image of mind and heart. (Genesis 1:26.) This still holds, for when sin entered, mankind was redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Thus each individual was made of great value. (1 Corinthians 6:20.)
Christ indeed regarded the personal life and welfare of His children so highly that He stated that whatever we did to them would be regarded in eternity as though we had done it unto Him. (Matthew 25:40.)
While we as individuals have a responsibility toward one another, we are to give the final and actual account of our lives to God alone. (Romans 14:10-12.)
These modern errors make all men slaves of the state or church, in spite of the fact that it never was God's plan that our lives should be ruled by the fear of men, or that we should be the servants of men. (1 Corinthians 7:21-23.)
Christ came to call every individual to a complete, personal freedom, and this liberty belongs alike to all individuals
Ideologies That Spell Disaster	21
of every race, government, or religious power. (John 8:32-36.)
The whole church has been called to liberty, and is not to be under the domination of any centralized authority within the church, nor of any state. We should earnestly beware of insidious attacks on personal duty and freedom. (Philippians 1:14; Galatians 5:1; 4:26.) It is taught even now that the individualism enjoyed by our fathers as a heritage of the democratic way of life, is not now possible, though we know that modern life with all its technique can and should develop an even more “rugged individualism” than was seen in past decades. The object of this propaganda against individual moral choice is to lessen our power to resist evil.
Bible prophecy concerning the latter days sets forth that when mankind shall be cruelly oppressed by haughty, arrogant rulers, the Lord will honor the individual as most costly to Him. “I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.” Isaiah 13:11, 12. We should strive to be worthy of our divine origin and think of ourselves personally as precious to God, under His care, and morally accountable to Him. It is wickedly false that—
“as a radical German thinker has maintained, ... in the present age there is but one direction in which anything can be successfully planned or intended. . . . The one direction is toward consistent mechanization, rationalization and technification of life as a single, monstrous, planned structure. . . . No matter what course we may think we are following, we infallibly revert to this one point of the compass. The world revolution is our fate.”—Hermann Rauschning, The Redemption of Democracy, pp. 19, 20.
Such sophistries would not only destroy democracy but blot out the image of God in heart and home.
The Revival of State Tyranny
All true followers of Christ will be loyal to their own country. Civil government is ordained of heaven as the “minister of God,” the servant of the Lord for the good of
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Prophecies of Race and Religion
mankind. Its purpose is to protect the individual citizen and preserve order. The Lord has not, however, revealed or commanded any one particular form of civil rule. Nowhere do the Scriptures indicate that a monarchy is better than a republic, or that a democratic state is the only right one. People, nations, countries, legal traditions, customs, and the structure of society differ. God has left the inhabitants of each land to work out their own form of government, be it by their own choice or by the strong might of some leader they feel forced to accept. The testimony of history is that nearly every ruler has been at times tyrannical and oppressive; yet even so, any form of government, no matter how inefficient or cruel, has been better than no government.
Although God has not commanded any specific kind of state, He has implanted in the human heart a love for liberty and an upsurge toward a higher and freer rule. This deep longing for liberty is found even in the hearts of the most backward races of men. It should always be remembered, too, that God never gave any single dictator or group of autocratic rulers the right to misuse their fellow men or to rob them of their God-given rights. Though often forgotten or denied now, it needs to be restated that it is a part of the birthright of every man to choose the country in which he wants to live and select the citizenship he prefers. When we consider some of these principles, it becomes self-evident that the form of government most pleasing to our Creator must be the one that helps its people to enjoy the largest share of happiness and opportunity. It is a fact, too, that the democratic way of life does do this very thing.
Some of the principles of American democracy are free speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of faith and worship, universal suffrage, majority rule, and right of trial by jury. Lincoln said, “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from that is no democracy.”
But in the last few decades certain un-American theories concerning the origin and right of governments have become popular. These are usually spoken of as the “totalitarian” philosophy. It is not that these ideas are new. They are only
Ideologies That Spell Disaster
23
a revival of the pagan ideas of the state as known in the an: dent world—the tyranny of old Egypt or Babylon, not to mention Greece and Rome.
The leaders of the totalitarian state strenuously deny that there is such a thing as independent initiative and personal, moral responsibility. They make the state supreme, and teach that the individual has no more separate existence than does a finger or a foot in the human body.
In making this claim they deny all moral and spiritual standards of divine origin and make their own laws and decrees supreme. The motto of this totalitarian government idea is, “Nothing against the state; nothing outside the state; everything for the state.” Only those who have actually seen these ideas in practice can grasp how all-inclusive they are and how completely they rob people of all liberty and life, even in the smallest details. In 1939 I visited in a city on the Rhine and saw how even worship was regimented. All mission giving or circulation of religious literature was forbidden. No church was permitted to print anything at all as a church, and even little prayer or spiritual gatherings were against the law. At elections all were not only commanded to vote but how to vote. In one place the state decided what newspaper each family was to take.
The Church of the Dark Ages
It is not alone in the civil affairs of mankind that we see a centralization of power by which small nations, having been crushed, disappear, and only a few large nations remain—and these under the rule of one man. This same tendency appears in the religious world. The old doctrine of a church separate from the state is disappearing, and new definitions of the church and its functions are pressing to the front. These ideas are, in fact, the old papal teaching of one strong central church in control of human society. Such a church union or federation would eliminate the small Christian bodies and give the religious control to one man or a small group—a World Council of Churches.
Right after World War I a German preacher, a doctor of theology, wrote a book entitled The Twentieth Century the
24
Prophecies of Race and Religion
Century of the Church. The book taught that just as the state had come to the forefront in the nineteenth century, so that we might almost speak of it as the century of the state, so the church would be made prominent in this century as the great factor for the good of man.
Some of these ideas of the church are so far-reaching that they will, if accepted, revolutionize the scope, sphere, and activity of the church. The church is turning to secular, worldly objectives to the neglect of spiritual work—from personal salvation to world rebuilding and the saving of society. There is said to be a need to revive the medieval church idea in order that the church may fulfill its mission for mankind. Concerning that Dr. William Temple, the Archbishop of Canterbury, writes:
“This rapid survey of history shows that the claim of the church today to be heard in relation to political and economic problems is no new usurpation, but a reassertion of a right once universally admitted and widely regarded.”—Christianity and Social Order, p. 9.
It is argued that the church should lead out in economic reforms, solve labor problems, settle strikes, and be the ruler and arbiter of society. That is what the church in the Medieval Ages was doing. It may sound plausible, but it will be the ruin of mankind. One potent reason for this desire and plan to return to the church of the Middle Ages is the prevailing pessimism and even defeatism in many religious circles.
Christ ordained His church to preach the gospel and save the lost. But the Bible does not state in any way that the mission of the church is to reconstruct the world through political reforms. Christ never urged His followers to seek influence in worldly affairs or to take part in politics. The work of the church is not to rule the world, and not even to guide the world, but to warn of its coming doom. The members of the church are in the world, but they are not of the world. That is, they do not belong to the world.
Christ took no part in settling civil questions or business matters. (Luke 12:13, 14.) It is God’s plan that the Christian church is not to unite with the world or any phase of the world, such as the state, politics, worldly education,
Ideologies That Spell Disaster
25
worldly pleasures, secret societies, or other forces in the world. Whenever a church unites with the state, it has broken its covenant relation with Christ and is untrue and apostate. The Scriptures represent such a church under the symbol of a sinful woman. In other countries like America, where church and state are separate, many churches have grown worldly, and although they have no direct state support they are under the influence of wealth, politics, or other forms of selfish power. In the latter days God will have a remnant church separate from the world and sanctified by accepting the full gospel message.
The Road to Persecution
The denial of individual freedom, the totalitarian state, and the social, economic, and political power of the great modern superchurch—these are the three great delusions mentioned in this chapter. They could, if accepted, lead only to cruel intolerance and oppression. They would grind down the poor, lower the status of women, despoil mankind of its freedom, and return the church of Christ to the catacombs. This is not theory, for they are already doing that very thing in some lands.
These trials are a sign that the end is near. I have personally seen a literal fulfillment of this prophecy of Jesus. ‘‘Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Mark 13:12, 13. But from the Saviour, too, we have the comforting words: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world/’ John 16:33.
A Typical Example in One Country of Europe Where Propaganda Has Inflamed the People Into Frenzied Enthusiasm and Violent Demonstration, Demanding a War of Conquest
NTERNATIONAL NEWS SERVICE
CHAPTER FOUR
Prophecies of
Frenzied Propaganda and Race Fanaticism
P
-L ROPAGANDA is not the same as “the war of nerves/’ often called “the strategy of terror.” Those things are in part material and military, while propaganda* is mental. Its purpose, we are told, is to mold public opinion through information; in reality it misinforms and inflames. That is at least true of that modern propaganda which, after a small beginning during World War I, came out full-fledged with the rise of Fascism in the middle and late twenties. The Scriptures contain several predictions concerning this unusual mental phenomenon. But in applying these Bible outlines of the future we need to beware of mere fancy. Much is now written about Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38 and 39. Some even claim that the names of this latter-day prophecy point out the dictators of our days and venture many an idle guess about them. But the truth is that the prophecy of Gog and Magog will not be fulfilled till after the millennium. (Revelation 20:8.) This loose Bible guessing does much harm. During the Russian revolution some preachers began to teach that the red dragon of Revelation 12 was Bolshevism, as sovietism was then called. This folly of a few cost hundreds of believers their lives.
The terms of Bible prophecy are explained by the Bible itself. Thus the truths of the gospel are called “milk”—“the sincere milk of the Word.” 1 Peter 2:2. In like manner false doctrine is called “wine”—the wine of Babylon, apostate
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Prophecies of Race and Religion
state religion, whether Christian or pagan. (Revelation 18:3.) In other words, a cup or a drink in symbolic prophecy means certain teachings or ideas. Chapter 25 of Jeremiah contains the most detailed prophecy of the wars at the close of time found in the Scriptures; and these battles are represented as the result of drinking a wine cup of fury—the false war propaganda of our time—sent around to all nations.
“Thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me: Take the wine cup of this fury at My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at the Lord's hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had sent me.” “All the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Ye shall certainly drink.” Jeremiah 25:15-17, 26-28.
The result of this drinking is set forth in the same chapter:
“Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.” Jeremiah 25:32, 33.
In verse 31 this modern propaganda is spoken of as a “noise” that “shall come even to the ends of the earth.” The object of this frenzied, false propaganda the last two decades has been to stir the nations to war, as we have observed in Europe, and it always has had these marked characteristics: (1) It deifies a man, whether he be the head of a government as dictator or the head of a church as pope. The first time we noticed this was when we stood at the tomb of Lenin in 1922 and witnessed the immense crowds that came to see his embalmed body. (2) It always exalts an ideal, be it a civil state as Nazism, or church domination such as the Roman. (3) It influences hatred, builds up national vengeance, and tries even by war and conquest to promote the power of a certain church, race, or country. (4) And what is the most
Frenzied Propaganda and Race Fanaticism
29
dangerous, it seeks to control the education of its youth, and by special organization and training prepare them to defend and extend the ideals of their own people.
The present world revolution is indeed very largely the result of great political youth groups or movements. One of these is, or was, the Ballila youth in Italy, with a membership of over five million, half of them women. That movement is strongly military and intensely Catholic. Its motto is: “Listen, Obey, Fight.” The Hitler Jugend or Hitler youth of Germany are better known. They numbered at the beginning of this war nearly seven million men and women from seventeen years of age. They are devoted to their modern race theories and the fatherland with a fanatical zeal, and they hate as intensely the very idea of civil or religious liberty, and above all democratic government. They had had several courses of intensive training in Nazism, its morality, methods, and objectives, and were the strength of the German armies. The Consomal youth in Russia was an organization that numbered nearly ten million. Their principle methods and objectives were much the same as that of the two other youth movements, but their hatred of Nazism exceeds perhaps the nationalism and racialism of the others. The youth movements in Germany and Russia were very largely anti-Christian; the Italian, Roman Catholic. Millions of these youth were trained in the higher schools—many of them in the leading universities. In these larger training centers the education was skeptical and with a deep spirit of revolt against the old order of things. Both Nazism and communism are the fruitage of this revolutionary education, and nearly all of it was done in the name of modern science. The propaganda power of these youth groups has been tremendous.
Corrosive Ideas of Nation and Race
The Scriptures teach us that all mankind is of one blood. They recognize no superiority of certain sections over others. The Bible especially emphasizes that church members of every race and nation are one in Christ, thus constituting the only true world-wide brotherhood. This conception of
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Prophecies of Race and Religion
mankind is of the utmost importance. It brings equality of opportunity to all, with freedom and happiness. But the fact that people of all nations are equal before the Lord does not mean that all may not have a deeper love and loyalty for their own country, provided such feelings of devotion to their own land or nation do not lead them to hate, oppress, or injure others. We think that the question of national loyalty should be stressed and taught more clearly today than it is being taught in many religious centers.
In our day we hear much concerning the rights of citizens and the duties which governments owe to their people. That, too, is an important thing. Not enough is said, however, concerning the duties which we owe to the government under which we live. The Bible makes these duties very plain. We are instructed to pay our taxes without grumbling and to obey and honor magistrates as the servants of the Lord. We are warned against those who criticize or despise authority. The civil powers are ordained of God and are to be highly regarded. In every land the best Christians are the most loyal subjects. Social reform and political overturnings are not their work, and partisan politics should be shunned by all who follow Jesus, for it will never bring greater spiritual power to the Christian.
The question of loyalty merits a new study in America today. We find some who enjoy all the privileges of our Government, yet do not give their Government that full loyalty which it has a right to expect. With too many there is a divided loyalty. In our own country this evil has assumed a particular form. Many citizens of the United States have come from some country overseas. Millions of other Americans have parents or grandparents or earlier forefathers who came from Europe. Every citizen should make his country first. Citizenship implies an undivided loyalty to the principles and laws of the government involved.
In our day, however, a new nationalism, narrow, bigoted, proud, vindictive, and cruel, has become a world danger. Some large nations consider it their right to oppress others, and are even driven by love of lust or booty to conquer and destroy. This wicked nationalism of today is really the out-
Frenzied Propaganda and Race Fanaticism
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS PHOTOS
Typical Scenes in Two Countries of Europe Where the Youth Have Been Trained and Schooled in Race Theories to Hate the Very Idea of Civil and Religious Liberty, and Other Democratic Principles
growth of racial fanaticism. Its roots are deeper than nationalism and therefore stronger. Modern nationalism believes itself to be a superior race, with an unfettered right, and sometimes with a divine mission to subdue others. Usually it teaches two kinds of morality—one morality for the slaves, and the other for the masters. We grant that there are differences in race. Some have certain God-given endow-
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ments that others do not possess, but to a large extent these gifts are the result of environment far more than of blood or heredity. This racialism is a foe of freedom, both civil and religious. It denies not only national independence and sovereignty, but individual rights, personal initiative, and moral accountability. It glories in the idea of a pure race, though purity of race today does not exist either in the United States or in Europe.
It is appalling that such ideas of race can prevail in our civilized, enlightened times. There is no pure race.
“In more modern times the greatest achievements of civilization have occurred in regions of the greatest mixtures of types—Italy, France, Britain, and Germany, to mention only four nations. . . . In the highly complex populations of Britain or Germany the pure Nordic type, if it ever existed, is quite irrecoverable. . . . The violent racialism to be found in Europe today is a symptom of Europe’s exaggerated nationalism: it is an attempt to justify nationalism on a non-nationalist basis. . . . Science and the scientific spirit are in duty bound to point out the biological realities of the ethnic situation, and to refuse to lend sanction to the ‘racial’ absurdities and the ‘racial’ horrors perpetrated in the name of science. Racialism is a’ myth, and a dangerous myth. It is a cloak for selfish economic aims which in their uncloaked nakedness would look ugly enough.”—Julian Huxley, “Race” in Europe, pp. 27-32.
This struggle among races is foretold in the Bible as one of the most ominous perils of the last days. When Jesus spoke of wars and rumors of wars as signs of the second advent He declared that “nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” Matthew 24:7. Three times this same expression occurs in the New Testament. “Kingdom” is the political power; but “nation,” or as many translations say “people,” is race. True Christians do not accept these wicked feelings of race. This race hatred and pride is sowing the wind to reap the whirlwind. Unless checked and overcome, modern racialism will wreck mankind. Racialism cannot be destroyed by conquest, but it can be cured by the brotherhood spirit of Jesus.
“Where cross the crowded ways of life Where sound the cries of race and clan;
Above the noise of selfish strife We hear thy voice, O Son of man.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Modern War on the Law of God
T
X HESE shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them.” Revelation 17:14. The powers spoken of in the above text exist on earth today. If we desire to know them we need but study the book of Revelation anew. It has a message for this generation. True, some of the symbols and parables at first seem dark, but their lessons, when we meditate upon them, become clear. Indeed this book, which gives light on certain Old Testament prophecies, is its own expositor to those who search it with an earnest desire to be taught of God.
A large share of Revelation belongs to past ages, but nearIv a third of the book is yet future. In fact, from the thirteenth verse of the fourteenth chapter of Revelation, clear on to the very last verse of the book, it is all unfulfilled prophecy. Among these predictions no one needs more careful study than the seventeenth chapter. It reveals the future judgments of God upon some nations and religious powers and their attitude toward Christ and His true church. It deals not only with civil governments, but with worldly Christianity spoken of as Babylon, or a fallen woman.
War on God is war on His government, that is, His law, the ten commandments. When we speak of this war our minds turn to modern Russia. As I visited that country in 1922, or shortly after the great revolution, the attitude of many toward the church, or as they thought of it, toward the Christian religion, was evident to all. Leningrad, like
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2
E. H. BLASHFIELD. ARTIST
When Men and Nations Make War on the Government of God, They Are Coming in Conflict With His Law of Ten Command' ments. It Is Clearly Revealed in Divine Revelation That the Future Judgments of God Will Deal Not Only With Men but With Guilty Governments. Worldly Christianity Will Also Receive Stern Condemnation and Punishment. This War on Christ and His Church in Our Modern Age Is Clearly Foretold in the Book of Revelation. The Law of God Is "Holy, and Just, and Good.” We Do Well to Allow It to Be Written on the Tables of Our Hearts. The Great Test Between True and Counterfeit Christianity Will Be Over Obedience to the Commandments of God
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Modern War on the Law of God
35
Moscow and other cities in Russia, abounded with churches, and these large Orthodox cathedrals, as well as smaller chapels, had been attacked and often destroyed. St. Isaac's Cathedral in Leningrad, one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the whole country, had been made into an antireligion museum in which the church and its work, but especially the Holy Spirit, was ridiculed in blasphemous terms and pictures. The Kazan Cathedral in the city, which in many ways was even more beautiful than St. Isaac’s, was daily being desecrated by vulgar multitudes, in ways so rude that we cannot describe them. This same war on religion was seen even more clearly in Moscow.
Attack on the Ten Commandments
Present-day atheists are prone to deny the providence and reign of God rather than His existence. They recognize that their so-called war on God is an attack on His law, for those who attack the law of a government attack the government itself. In Russia I met a real surprise. I had been told that Russia was bitterly opposed to Christ. Though there was hatred of Him, yet it was often stated that Jesus of Nazareth really belonged to the proletarian class, and many were favorable to the “Carpenter of Nazareth,’’ as they called Him, and loved His teachings. On the other hand, they seemed to be possessed of a determined hatred of the ten commandments. As I mingled with the people and their leaders, I met great ridicule of the seventh commandment and matrimony. Their claim was that all women belong to all men, and all men to all women, and they positively stated that it was a physical impossibility for anyone to transgress the seventh commandment.
But their ridicule of the seventh commandment was exceeded by their contempt for the eighth commandment, ‘“Thou shalt not steal.” This, they said, was the foundation on which the idea of private property rights rested,. They opposed such property rights and said again and again that men could not steal from one another because all property was common and belonged to the state.
Being very strongly militaristic—perhaps more so than
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any nation on earth—they would not in any way accept the sixth commandment. They did not measure human life as we do, and had introduced the death penalty for smaller civil offenses against labor, such as hours of work and the like. They denied strongly both the existence and authority of a divine moral standard.
But while they carried on an attack against nearly all the ten commandments, they seemed to be especially opposed to the fourth commandment, which designates the weekly day of rest. They looked upon this as a sign of the church and religion, and they organized a regular warfare to get rid of the Sabbath commandment. They introduced, as is well known, the five-day week, changing it later to a six-day week. By this method and by forbidding anyone to print the regular seven-day-week calendar, they made it nearly impossible for people to find the true Sabbath and to observe it. It is gratifying that the present regime in Russia is now more tolerant toward religion. From what we have seen in Russia we feel assured that this trend toward freedom will increase.
In Central Europe the war on the law of God continues strong. The teaching of Nazism is that the state alone can give moral laws, and that everything the state commands is right. They hold that the laws of nature are to be regarded as the laws of God, and have introduced a new morality to supersede the Bible morality of the ten commandments, which they despise as Jewish. They write:
“The ten commandments and the moral principles laid down in Holy Scriptures do not suffice for the building up of society. It is not that we are aiming at a morality on a lower level, in order to suit our comfort, but that before us lies the goal of a Teutonic, a German morality which will rank higher than that of Christianity. This morality is grounded in the nature of men and in their very blood.”—Germany’s New Religion, p. 60.
“In National Socialism there are no ultimate, universal standards. -Right is defined as that which accords with the demands of the people's soul; law has no basis in an ethic binding upon man as man; what Germans wish is right, what Germans think is true; there is no transcendent God whose law is universal, whose love knows no favoritism and no limits. . . . Both Germany and Russia as represented by their governments have repudiated the moral standards and the moral sanctions upon which for a thousand years what we
Modfrn War on the Law of God	37
call the civilized world has rested.”—Micki.em, National Socialism, and Christianity, pp. 30, 31.
But we regret to say that this war on the moral law is by no means confined to the atheists or pagans of Europe. God’s holy law, the “decalogue of duties,” is not popular in our time. Even in Christian churches there is opposition to the ten commandments which Paul called “holy, and just, and good.”
That this war on Christ and His church in the last days is an attack on the law is clearly stated in the following prophecy: “The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 12:17. In this last controversy between true and counterfeit Christianity the great test will be obedience to the commandments of God. The issue is whether we shall obey the law of God or the human decrees of state or church. That test is on even now in many lands. A few months ago in the Nazi war zone a young businessman of really sterling qualities, and with a deep experience in the things of God, was ordered to do that which God has forbidden. The officers, in fact, admitted that what they required him to do was directly against the law of God. He stood his ground and refused to compromise by doing it just once as they suggested, and he was sentenced to die. This intolerance overseas among those who try to enslave mankind can be very cruel. But happy are the faithful ones who choose death rather than disobedience.
T. K. MARTIN
This Capitol Building in Washington, D. C., Houses the Men and Women Who Form the Legislative Branch of Our Republic. Under Our Form of Government the People Rule Through Their Chosen Representatives. In This Imposing Structure Laws Are Made to Govern the Commonwealth. All Laws, However, Must Be in Harmony With the Basic Law of the Land, Our Matchless Constitution
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CHAPTER SIX
American Protestantism the Bulwark of American Democracy
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalms 11:3. The present world struggle is an onslaught on deep-rooted fundamentals of life and society. For that reason we need to look well to the basic things of both church and state. One decisive question asked now is: Can American Protestantism save mankind from world enslavement? If this great stronghold of liberty fails, the liberty of the human race is doomed. Before I went to Europe to study as a young man, I had always thought that Protestantism overseas was the same as with us. But as I met it firsthand and began to understand European Protestantism I was terribly disillusioned. After the first World War, as I visited from country to country, living in three of them from two to eight years, it dawned on me how Protestantism, by uniting with the state, in nearly every land has really denied its fundamental principles.
Many have wondered why the American ideals of government by, of, and for the people do not seem to work in Europe. One main reason is this difference in religious ideals and order. Genuine Protestantism as the root and bulwark of civil and spiritual freedom, such as we enjoy in our democracy, is found only in the free churches of the United States. Their influence and work have been to develop true Americans of sound individual ideals and strength. This truth is well stated by a leading American editor and writer as
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Prophecies of Race and Religion
follows: “The church’s true job is to make the state better by making better the individuals who compose the state.” Much has been said by some churches against the American public schools because they do not teach religion and thereby develop citizens with integrity and strength of character. But it is not the state that has failed. It is the churches who have neglected that work and they ought to shoulder that failure. To teach religion in the schools of a state does not develop a sturdy, superior citizenship. Italy, Spain, and many other Catholic lands of poverty and distress have taught religion in their schools for many decades, but it surely did not bring prosperity or peace to those countries, as those who know them well can testify.
Many in Europe speak of our Government as secular, and give the impression that the founders of America were indifferent to religion, and even opposed it. Nothing could be further from the truth. That the early leaders of America were deeply religious, though leaving the individual conscience free in its choice of faith and worship, is seen in the early suggestion made for the design of our seal. In 1776 Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were members of a committee to draft a design for the national seal. Jefferson suggested a picture of the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire which guided Israel through the wilderness by day and by night. It seemed clear to him that divine guidance was needed by the American colonies in all their difficulties. Benjamin Franklin wanted another design which showed the children of Israel safely across the Red Sea and the Egyptian pursuers in the water. Franklin, like George Washington, believed that the providences attending the birth of this nation were so outstanding as to be miraculous. And all agreed on this motto for the seal, “Rebellion to Tyrants Is Obedience to God.”
Though these suggestions for a design were not accepted, they show how the fathers of our nation looked to God for help. Six years later, in 1782, the present seal, as it appears on the 1935 series of dollar bills, was chosen. When we look at such a bill we see that it depicts a pyramid unfinished. Thirteen—that number so definitely American—courses of
Protestantism the Bulwark of American Democracy 41
masonry are solidly laid, and hovering above in the glory is the completing capstone or cornerstone, with the All-seeing Eye symbolic of divine oversight and blessing. Above it is the Latin phrase which means, “He prospers our beginning,” and beneath, the Latin motto, which is translated, “A new order of the ages.” Thus America has from its beginning recognized that true democracy can prosper only when rooted in the Christian religion of genuine Protestantism. The foundations of freedom laid by our fathers will be maintained only as we preserve the faith of our fathers.
“O God, beneath Thy guiding hand Our exiled fathers crossed the sea;
And when they trod the wintry strand,
With prayer and praise they worshiped Thee.”
Liberty of conscience and separation of church and state are not atheism; these are Christian ideals clearly taught in the Bible. The early founders of our nation were believing men with a high regard for the worship of God and the rights of man. They objected not to Christianity but to the church tyranny of past ages and of other lands. They believed that the Lord designed America to be a nation where true liberty would be preserved, and where those oppressed by religious or civil despotism in other lands might live in peace and freedom.
That Protestantism is the root and strength of American democracy has well been stated by President Coolidge in his writings on religion and the limitation of law:
‘Our Government rests upon religion. It is from that source that we derive our reverence for truth and justice, for equalitv and liberty, and for the rights of mankind. Unless the people believe in these principles, they cannot believe in our Government. There are only two main theories of government in the world. One rests on righteousness, the other rests on force. One appeals to reason, the other appeals to the sword. One is exemplified in a republic, the other is represented by a despotism.
“The government of a country never gets ahead of the religion of a country. . . .
“In a republic the law reflects rather than makes the standard of conduct and the state of public opinion. Real reform does not begin with a law, it ends with a law. The attempt to dragoon the body when the need is to convince the soul, will end only in revolt.
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“Under the attempt to perform the impossible there sets in a general disintegration. When legislation fails, those who look upon it as a sovereign remedy simply cry out for more legislation.”— Liberty, Third Quarter, 1942, pp. 23, 24.
When we think of Protestantism as the strength and defense of freedom in America and the world, we are led to inquire whether we are true to the faith of our fathers and thus worthy of the trust committed to us by God. Sad to say, certain signs at this time reveal a serious departure from the original Protestant faith and life. Bible Protestantism is built on three fundamentals.
“The Bible, and the Bible Only”
In studying the religious thinking today, we must consider the standing of the Bible. In our day atheism and secularism from without, and modernism and liberal theology from within the church, have greatly weakened the faith of the multitude in the Bible.
“Professor John A. W. Haas says: ‘If, then, finally the authority of the message is gone, we are left without any authority, religion is adrift and optimism is a pure speculation. We are hastening through our modern liberalism into conditions of religious dissolution which no sentimentalist can deny.’ Professor Walter Scott Athearn, of Boston University, speaks of ‘the present tide of indifference, luxury, and commercial greed,’ and remarks: ‘We are fast drifting into a cultured paganism.’ ’’—John Horsch, Modern Religious Liberalism, 3d ed., revised, p. 116.
With the old-time faith in the Bible as an inspired book largely gone, the old-time doctrine of the dignity and freedom of man will lose its authority. Our American way of life, like every civilization of history, is the fruitage of faith; and when that faith begins to crumble, our way of life will decay.
Personal, Spiritual Experience
Our history is marked by great religious revivals like those of Whitefield, Miller, Moody, Finney, and others. The strength of our Government lies in the integrity and character of its citizens; and the source of such sturdy, rugged individual living was always religious. But today the former evangelism is seldom seen, and with us, as with those in Europe, religion is more and more becoming a matter of ritual and statistics,
Protestantism the Bulwark of American Democracy 43
H. M. LAMBERT
A Great Principle of American Protestantism Is the Complete Separation of Church and State. Here the Church Is Free and Communicants Can Worship Unmolested
Many devout leaders in the Protestant world overseas, as well as here, deeply deplore the present weakness and lack of genuine religion of the churches. Thus the well-known author of the book This Is the Victory says of the modern churches:
“Not Christianity at all? No, surely an enemy of Christianity more insidious than, say, communism. In Palestine in the first century, the greatest enemy of Christianity was religion. My opinion is that in Britain in the twentieth century one of the greatest enemies of Christianity is a religion called Christianity, which is a pale imitation of the real thing.”—Page 247.
There has come into the minds of many Christian leaders, as seen in their books and heard in their sermons, a spirit of
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pessimism and fear. Dr. Adolf Keller, of Switzerland, recently put out a book Five Minutes to Twelve. That was printed in 1938. I heard him say later, when he was lecturing in this country, that a new edition of that book would have to change the title and say, not Five Minutes to Twelve but Past Midnight. Of the churches of our day he writes as follows:
“A survey of organized Christianity made at Oxford and Edinburgh could easily show us that churches today are not only wiped out by force but are dying from many diseases. This is a sad sight of spiritual death, a ghastly field strewn with the bones of human ambition, egotism, nationalism, individualism, human idealism, and secularism, which in the very midst of present-day Christianity tries to create ‘churches’ but acquires only numerous sociological groups, schisms, and sects, because the Holy Spirit has been the sole ‘Church-builder’ since Pentecost.”—Page 99.
We could give almost endless quotations of this kind. Thus Andrew R. Osborn in his book Christianity in Peril, printed in 1942, has a chapter with the heading, “Outmoded Churches.” From this we quote the following brief sentences which illustrate fully his presentation:
‘‘The churches have lost their way, and they are in dire spiritual distress.” ‘‘The position seems to be that Christianity, although by no means dead, lacks the vitality of health.” ‘‘Sufficient has been said to show that a religious situation of extreme gravity has developed.” ‘‘A lady whose husband had died on the foreign field, and who was afterward engaged to work in the central office of her denomination, said she was troubled and even alarmed at the pessimism of so many ministers with whom her duties brought her into contact. Instead of expressing hope and planning for the future, they spoke constantly of discouragements, and looked to the future with apprehension. That statement was made several years ago. Since then the pessimism has increased rather than diminished.”—Pages 3, 6, 17, 7.
We are told by another author:
“A cynical paragraph has of late been making the rounds of the church press, credited to some anonymous ‘statistician,’ who says: ‘Five per cent of all church members do not exist, 10 per cent of them cannot be found; 25 per cent of them never go to church; 40 per cent never contribute a cent to the work of the church; 75 per cent never go to the midweek prayer service; 90 per cent do not have familv worship in their homes; 95 per cent never try to win a lost soul to Christ/ ”
Protestantism the Bulwark of American Democracy 45
We can understand the spirit of defeatism which seems to haunt many noble men in these churches though we do not share their pessimism. God lives, and He will send messages and trials to save and care for His own. Yet worldliness in the church is an alarming thing. Dead churches were always the bitter enemies of freedom. This leads us to the third great principle of American Protestantism.
A Total Separation of Church and State
Today there is danger in America that we render lip service to an ideal as a formula while we deny it in practice. We cannot tell in detail the alarming manner in which churches in America now turn to the civil power for help. Through religious legislation, such as Sunday laws, they seek the help of the law to get people to attend church. By many other means they desire money for their colleges and similar projects. We wish all would read that enlightening book American State Papers on Freedom in Religion just off the press. In reading this, every honest American patriot will feel surprised to learn what is really happening in our country to rob us of our liberties. What the future will bring is not for us to say, but from a human viewpoint many danger signals are seen.
The beginning of religious liberty in America should often be told—and retold. For long, dark centuries mankind, especially in Europe, had been scourged by religious persecution. Even in the American colonies it was at first a terrible blight. Then came a strong effort for real freedom. Before the thirteen colonies broke away from England in a political way, noble, far-seeing, and godly men had broken with the religious oppression of the past. It was not, as many say, the French Revolution that gave the world liberty. It was America, led by men like Washington, Jefferson, and others. And just as our country was the birthplace of real liberty for mankind, so it must ever remain its defender. If this land should ever give in to the constant clamor for religious legislation and sanction laws that will make persecution possible, then world-wide intolerance will once more be the sad lot of man. Many thoughtful Bible students look for an “image” of the former
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intolerant Christianity in the near future. Their conclusions are based on their understanding of Revelation 13 and other prophecies. They apply the first symbol of that chapter to the old world and the second symbol to the new.
This brings us back to the question: Will Protestantism be able to save mankind from world enslavement? The answer to that question must be that Protestantism can only do so if it is true to its original principles of freedom and righteousness. It was a terrible tragedy when the early apostolic church went into the great apostasy of the fourth and fifth centuries. It would be a yet darker tragedy, the blackest of all the ages, if Protestantism should deny its divinely imparted light, and lead mankind away from freedom back to intolerance and persecution. Other churches have done that thing in the past, so that we know it is possible; and it is time today that every Protestant in America study anew the true principles of the separation of church and state, and other great truths that are the strength of America. Surely the free Protestant churches of the United States can never join in any kind of federation or league with the enslaved Protestant state churches of Europe—not to mention the Roman church—without betraying the very spirit and truth of Protestantism. To do so would not only be a denial of American ideals and our democratic way of life; it would undermine one of the main pillars of our liberty. If American Protestantism should thus prove untrue to itself, American democracy must fail; and if American democracy fails, then human liberty will perish from the earth. In fact, every act of religious legislation, such as Sunday laws, is disloyalty to American freedom and a return to the old order of things in Europe.
“America, America! Triumphant thou shalt be,
Thy hills and vales shall echo the shouts of liberty;
Thy bards shall sing thy glory, thy prophets tell thy praise,
And all thy sons and daughters acclaim thy golden days.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Catholic Way To Peace
T
JL HERE is in this book no attack on the Roman church, or any other church. We believe there are honest children of God in all denominations, and our controversy is with policies and principles, not with persons. Too many in our day turn differences of religion into political contests. This only stirs up religious prejudice and strife—a thing that we should avoid, especially in the United States at this time, when all Americans must stand firmly knit together in our struggle for world freedom. Because of her intense political activity, thousands who long for spiritual guidance are now leaving the Catholic Church. In Europe we have seen them by the tens of thousands turn away from Rome to Christ in a living, personal faith. In a meeting at Munich, Germany, at a Sabbath morning church service, out of 1,800 present over 1,500 had come out of the Roman church within three years, preferring their High Priest in heaven to priests on earth.
We regret that a majority of those who “expose” and oppose the sins and errors of Romanism present the dangers of the Papacy to liberty largely as a political peril, when it is really a spiritual issue. With these more-or-less partisan, extreme, and crude onslaughts we have no part. In fact, the less we say about the “immoral lives of priests and nuns” the better. We are not concerned with the mistakes of an individual, but with the truth of the gospel of Christ. Out of love for their souls we should first seek to point Catholics to Jesus. On the other hand, we do not go along with those who, on a
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sort of “good Lord, good devil” policy seem to think that every church is right, and that the teachings of a church are a matter of indifference. On the contrary, we think it of the utmost consequence that men find and follow and stand for “the Bible, and the Bible only.” A church that builds on tradition may grow strong in the world, but it is always weak in God.
There are not many among non-Catholics who have studied the great peace plan and program of Rome. They seem unaware of the fact that for seventy years and more the popes have steadily worked for peace. It is perhaps not saying too much to assert that no other group has striven more earnestly for peace, as it conceives of peace, than has the modern Papacy. Some Protestants demand peace when the world is at peace, and war when the world is at war. Not so with the Papacy. It has never swerved from its great objective of world peace. If the reader will take time to read even such brief statements as the Catholic pamphlets A Peace Mosaic or The Permanent Peace Program of Pope Benedict XV, he will better realize that this is a true statement. If he has access to larger works, sucli as the very informative Catholic book Principles for Peace, authorized by Archbishop Stritch, of Chicago, he will be profoundly impressed, not only with the desire of Rome for peace, but with the specific road to peace that is chosen. For the Papacy has a definite peace method with well-defined objectives.
Some who read this may question the desire of the Papacy for lasting peace. They can refer, and with good reason, to the many, many wars that were provoked by the popes through the centuries, and, in fact, wars in which the papal armies took part. They can prove that the popes have given their blessing to one war or army after another, often calling the war a crusade. Not a few will remember how Benedict XV, during the first World War, urged both sides to cease fighting on conditions that would cause England and America, with the other Allies, to lose the war. This proposition by the pope was never answered by England, much to the chagrin of the papal Cardinal Francis Bourne in that country. The Allies agreed that Wilson should answer the pope and state why they refused his proposition. Wilson did this. To the
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papal note of 1917 for a negotiated peace in which the “belligerents were placed indiscriminately in the same category, and the continuation of the war was described as a useless slaughter," the President sent the following pointed reply:
“ ‘The object of this war is to deliver the free peoples of the world from the menace and the actual power of a vast military establishment controlled by an irresponsible government which, having secretly planned to dominate the world, proceeded to carry the plan out without regard either to the sacred obligations of treaty or the long-established practices and long-cherished principles of international action and honor; which chose its own time for the war; delivered its blow fiercely and suddenly; stopped at no barrier either of law or of mercy; swept a whole continent within the tide of blood, not the blood of soldiers only, but the blood of innocent women and children also, and of the helpless poor; and now stands balked, but not defeated, the enemy of four fifths of the world. This power is not the German people. It is the ruthless master of the German people. It is no business of ours how that great people came under its control or submitted to its temporary zest, to the domination of its purpose, but it is our business to see to it that the history of the rest of the world is no longer left to its handling. To deal with such a power by way of peace upon the plan proposed by His Holiness the Pope would, so far as we can see, involve a recuperation of the strength and renewal of the policy.’ Rome Behind the Great War, pp. 46, 47.
This reply is worth remembering now when the Pope is again asking for a negotiated peace.
Others who deny that the Papacy really desires peace bring up the question of Ethiopia. When Italy, in 1936, attacked that unhappy country, a war of cruel, unjust conquest, many higher church dignitaries in Italy, even bishops and archbishops, blessed the Italian armies.
The attitude of the pope toward that wicked war of conquest in Ethiopia is well stated in the book The Vatican and the War. This was written by an ardent admirer of Rome and is a most one-sided defense of the papal policy as to the war and peace. Again and again the writer lets the cat out of the bag by telling how the pope worked with Franco and Mussolini in destroying freedom both in Spain and Ethiopia. Thus he states that “Pius XI had realized that his pro-fascist attitude at the time of Italy’s conquest of Ethiopia had caused deep resentment," but he goes on to say:
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“The pontiff abstained from condemning Mussolini and left the Italian clergy free to co-operate with the Fascist Government. One of the reasons for this attitude—and perhaps the most important— was that the conquest of Ethiopia would open a new missionary field for the Roman Catholic Church. As a result, there were innumerable cases of clergymen, from the humble parish priest to cardinals, who made speeches in favor of the war. Among the outstanding examples, there was the one furnished by Cardinal Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster, of Milan, who went so far as to call the campaign a ‘Catholic Crusade.'...
“When Italy overran Ethiopia and the unequal struggle ended, the pope spoke on May 12, 1936, at the inauguration of the Catholic press exhibition and remarked that the event coincided with ‘the triumphal joy of a whole and great people over a peace which should be an effective contribution and a prelude to lasting peace in Europe and the world.’ "—Camille M. Cianfarra, The Vatican and the War, pp. 41-43.
When the pope regarded the destruction of freedom in Ethiopia as an “effective contribution and a prelude to lasting peace,” it must be clear to all what the pope means by peace.
We find a large number of honest men in America who deny the papal will to peace, and in proof of this they refer to the war of Spain in 1937 and 1938, and to the attitude of the Roman church toward that conflict. They tell us, and truly, that about 1930 Spain, for the first time in history, obtained a free democratic government that granted religious liberty to all. I visited Spain in the years after the first war, and I know that in less than six years, from about 1929 to 1935, more than 150,000 people in Spain embraced the Protestant faith and were baptized into Christ and were happy in God. But then the bloody war of oppression, helped by the Papacy, began, and Spain was deluged in blood. Nazi Germany and Catholic Italy were called in to help destroy freedom in Spain. After almost endless bloodshed and indescribable slaughter liberty was destroyed and the free government crushed. Thousands, even of Catholics, in America protested against this shameless crucifixion of freedom and the aid of the Roman church toward it. We grant that these are facts of history. Rome has done all this and more; yet we maintain that Rome really wants peace and is working for peace today—that is, such a peace as she favors.
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In this connection there is yet another question that some are asking. It is this: Is the Pope able to give us peace? Now we know that the policies of the popes the past one hundred years and more have often been most stupid, so that today the Pope really is weak by himself and cannot alone bring peace. He cannot, in fact, do this unless the Protestants in America help him, and yet our answer is that he is both willing and able to bring world peace, provided, of course, that mankind accepts his terms and agrees to a Catholic peace. It is, in fact, not the Pope only who wishes to give peace. The Papacy promises to give peace by restoring the old world order of the Dark Ages. The Axis powers, too, have wanted to bring in a new world order which they call an order of peace. Again and again they have sent out peace feelers, but the peace they offer would have been for multitudes “the peace of the cemetery,” or even worse, a peace of world enslavement. In a similar manner the Pope really desires peace, only it must be a peace made by his church.
The Peace Plan of the Pope
Right after the beginning of the present world revolution the Pope set forth five distinct points for a lasting peace. In their shorter form they are as follows:
1.	Guarantee every nation, large or small, the right to life and independence.
2.	Free the world from “the slavery of armaments.”
3.	Make effective international organizations created to solve the world's problems peacefully.
4.	Fulfill “the needs and just demands of nations, peoples, and ethnical minorities.”
5.	Provide observances by statesmen and peoples of Christian principles.
The peace points mentioned above appear fair and desirable until we study the provision of the fifth point. This sets forth that the peace must mean that statesmen and people will observe Christian principles. Just how this will appear to pagan nations in Asia, we do not know. It is more important to consider what it really means to us in Europe or America. By “Christian principles,” the Pope means Catholic
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principles, for they alone, we are told, are Christian, so that this peace that looks so harmless and desirable really involves a compulsory observance of the teachings and commandments of the Catholic Church. That this statement is not extreme will appear to all who remember that the Papacy still teaches and urges the union of church and state and that Rome get the power to enforce its own teachings on humanity. But such a peace would be a peace of the Middle Ages, or at least it would be an image of the church and state of the Middle Ages. It would turn back the clock of progress and destroy all true liberty. The present agitation in Catholic circles in North America against Protestant missions in South America, which missions they want to destroy, shows clearly enough what intolerance would prevail if the Papacy had power.
Papal Propaganda in America
In a deluge of Catholic newspaper articles, radio speeches, lecture and study courses, we witness today in America the largest religious propaganda our country has ever known. A continuous, persistent effort is being made to build up the Pope as a saint praying for peace. Again and again they emphasize what a marvelous, capable, and godly man he is. We are told that he spends hours and hours praying for peace. We are not acquainted with the Pope as a person, but we know the purpose of that kind of propaganda. It is not so much to exalt a man as to win victory for the Papacy. As a part of this propaganda for the papal peace, it is further said that to save America, America must become Catholic. This is often done in a camouflaged way by stressing the need of religion in America. Thus Our Sunday Visitor of October 13, 1940, states:
‘‘No civilization under the sun has ever achieved or maintained moral order without religion. From it a nation draws its strength. Religion is invaluable in the arduous task of converting the savage into a responsible and creditable citizen.”
Now that sounds good and true until we remember that it is the Catholic Church religion and it alone that is meant. In this connection, too, we call to mind the statement of Pope Leo XIII that what the Roman church has done for other
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countries she was ready and willing to do for America. We have seen with our own eyes what the Catholic Church has done for countries like Italy, Spain, Poland, etc. We know of the hatred among the working classes in those lands toward Rome; and we do not wonder at that deep opposition to the priest-rule of the Papacy so general in Europe. To understand this deep-seated hatred for the Roman church we have but to compare the high status of women, the happy homes, the schools, and the fine standard of living seen in Protestant lands, like Scandinavia, England, or America, with the misery and squalor of the above-named Catholic lands. Catholic religious teachings in their schools have not helped them, and would help us even less.
The Catholic and Nazi definitions of liberty are, in fact, the same, and both are a deceptive denial of freedom. The Nazis say: Liberty is freedom to do what the state commands. Rome says: Liberty is freedom to do right—but right as defined by the church, which means that liberty is freedom to obey the church. But that is not the liberty God gave man as free moral agents; indeed it is not freedom but thralldom. We must never forget that one peril that threatens us in America today is the trend to favor fascism or some other form of European way of life. We are not agitating against Europe, but we do most decidedly think that America should not look overseas for its ideals, in either church or state or labor problems, or home or individual life. The Pope is an Italian with Italian traditional customs and papal training. That may be what Italy wants, but it is not what America needs. We should follow the principles of our founding fathers and, like them, turn away from past European traditions and intolerance. How true the words of a genuine American poet—
“I know that Europe's wonderful, yet something seems to lack!
The past is too much with her, and the people turning back.
But the glory of the present is to make the future free—
We love our land for what she is and what she is to be."
The Pope at the Peace Table
Back in 1917 and 1918 constant propaganda tried to induce the nations to accept the pope at the coming peace table. We
WIDE WORLD PHOTOS
A Scene in Vatican City Where the Supreme Pontiff Is Shown Addressing a Large Concourse of People
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The Catholic Way to Peace	55
will quote only a few of the multitude of similar statements in the Catholic press.
“The only hope for true peace in the world today is in the Holy See.”—The Pilot (Cardinal O’Connell’s paper), Jan. 30, 1914.
“There is no other power now on earth that nations can turn to in the awful war which is devastating Europe.”—Indiana Catholic, Oct. 2, 1914.
“Today the pope is the only one in all of Europe who can bring about peace, and if men’s minds be not blinded, he will in time be the real peacemaker. The Hague peace meetings of the future without the pope, will be like Hamlet minus Hamlet himself.”—The Tablet, March 6, 1915.
In fact, so certain were many that the pope would be at the peace table of 1919 that some papers even printed pictures of the peace table with the pope at the head. However, he was not invited, and now we are told that the great reason why the Treaty of Versailles became, as is claimed, a breeder of World War II, was that the Papacy had no part in making it. In fact Catholics state that if the pope had been there, or at least if the treaty makers had accepted his advice, that treaty would have abolished war for all time. Notice this:
“But the treaty that followed was not just. If the peace treaty had followed the points suggested by the pope everyone would have been satisfied and wars would be no more.”—Right Rev. J. J. Burke, The Catholic at War, p. 102.
Does anyone really believe such an extravagant claim when it is directly contrary to the verdict of all true history?
In our day we are witnessing a similar propaganda for the Pope to become a member of this coming peace council, only it is more insistent now than it was after World War I. Of a multitude of quotations we can give only a few. In the first two paragraphs of the introduction to the Roman Catholic book Principles for Peace, Selections From Papal Documents, edited by Rev. H. C. Koenig, S.T.D., and authorized by Archbishop Stritch, of Chicago, the need of the Pope at the peace table is thus stated:
“At some future hour, known now only to God, a group of statesmen will take their places around a conference table and hammer out a treaty designed to settle the staggering problems of a world torn apart by years of bitter war. When that hour strikes, what role will
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the Pope play in forging that instrument which will decisively determine the character of the postwar world?
“Will the Pope remain a complete outsider, a mere bystander? In the Peace of Paris at the end of the last war, Benedict XV, by explicit provision of the secret Treaty of London, was deliberately excluded from having any voice in the peace settlement. The Treaty of Versailles, with all its short-sighted ineptness, can be laid squarely at the doorstep of self-sufficient secular statesmanship. Will the mind of the men of Versailles live again at the end of the present conflict? Or will their disastrous failure to achieve a lasting peace so chasten the leaders of the world that in the coming peace settlement the unique competence and vision and disinterestedness of the Pope will be allowed to help mold a document wiser than that signed in the Hall of Mirrors in 1919?’'—Page XV.
Another Catholic writer says:
“Beyond the presence of the supreme head of the Church at the peace table, the greatest hope for a moral voice among the civil powers will be the voice of the United States Government. In the harmony of these voices is our hope for justice to the peoples of the earth and for the preservation of the rights of the Catholic Church and for her children.”—Catholic Action, February, 1942.
From this last quotation it would appear that the presence of the United States at the peace table is not quite as necessary as that of the Pope. Again we read:
“ ‘The new era to follow the peace settlement, we fondly hope, will be marked by the moral forces symbolized by the Holy See and so ferventlv and providentially broadcast to the human race by the last five popes of imperishable memory.’—From Bishop Gannon’s Catholic Press Monthly Message.”—Ibid.
We have found almost numberless similar quotations, for there is not a week in which the press does not in some way urge that the Pope attend the coming peace meeting—where-ever that may be and when. One part of this effort to mold public opinion in America for the Papacy is to speak of Rome as the center of Christendom. One large daily even loves to call it a “Holy City.” This would be comic if it was not so pathetic thus to hoodwink Americans. 1 have visited and stayed in Rome a good bit—and if Rome is holy, Sodom was holy. The truth is that Rome is one of the largest centers of dishonest plots and intrigue in the world. But we will understand this whole papal peace and propaganda program better when we consider briefly certain Bible prophecies.
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Church Predictions Concerning War
Adventist Christians and others who believe the return of Jesus is near at hand have taught for years that wars were coming and that they were a sign of the end, when the kingdom of God would be established. Other large Protestant bodies have taught that a time of peace was at hand-arid that all wars would cease. The Catholics on the other hand predicted war and claimed that war was unavoidable, in order that men might see the need of re-establishing the temporal power of the pope. Thus the Catholic philosopher Dawson writes in his book The Judgment of the Nations:
“When in 1878 the pope declared that the human race was being hurried onwards to the verge of ruin, and warned society to prepare for the impending crisis before it was too late, his words made no impression on a civilization that was growing in material prosperity and still relatively stable. It is only during the last thirty years that the world has awaked to the reality of the dangers of which the Papacy has spoken so long.”—Page 7.
In fact, away back before the ’70’s, after the Papacy had lost its temporal dominion in Italy, and the pope had shut himself up as a prisoner in the Vatican, it was clearly taught that there would be war, and that only through great Continental wars would the Papacy be restored to power. Thus the famous English Cardinal Manning wrote:
“The nations of the world by forsaking God and His church have locked themselves in a mutual struggle out of which there is no issue but to destroy or be destroyed. They have suffered and encouraged Italy as a nation to commit sacrilege against Rome. They shall fall upon each other as the mountains, and shall be shaken by revolutions under their feet and be wasted by continual destruction and by blind fury and by the angel of the Lord.”—Sermons on Ecclesiastical Subiects, Vol. II, pp. 295. 297.
That is pretty strong language, and it states clearly enough that according to the papal view this present war has come because the nations turned from the Roman church and agreed in 1870 that the city of Rome should belong to the kingdom of Italv. Now when the Pope considers that as the cause of the war, what kind of peace could he be expected to make, except a peace that would re-establish another world domination by the Papacy? That is one reason why the Pope
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wants a negotiated peace, not a peace of victory by America and England. Everyone knows that for centuries the Papacy has been the enemy of England—the great defender of Protestantism and freedom.
Again we quote what Cardinal Manning wrote:
“ ‘It is good to be here in England. It is yours, right reverend fathers, to subjugate and subdue, to bend and to break the will of an Imperial race. You have a good commission to fulfill, and great is the prize for which you strive. England is the head of Protestantism, the center of its movements, the stronghold of its powers. Weakened in England, it is paralyzed everywhere; conquered in England, it is conquered throughout the world. Once overthrown here, it is but a war of detail. All the roads of the world meet in one point, and this point reached, the whole world is open to the Church’s will.’	Vol. I, pp. 166, 167.
For the same reason and in the same way the Papacy is against our American Constitution and democracy. That must not be forgotten if the Pope is to make peace. Cardinal Manning in 1874 declared significantly:
“Now when the nations have revolted and when they have dethroned as far as men can dethrone the vicar of Jesus Christ, and when they have made the occupation of the Holy City a part of international law, there is only one solution of the difficulty—a solution, I fear, impending—and that is the terrible scourge of Continental war, a war which will exceed the horrors of any of the wars of the first empire, and it is my firm conviction that, in spite of all obstacles, the vicar of Jesus Christ will be put again in his own rightful place. But that day will not be until his adversaries have crushed each other with mutual destruction.” “The nations of Europe are doomed to executive judgment upon each other.”— Tablet, Jan. 24, 1874.
This speech was made by Manning in London at a large meeting of the St. Sebastian League, the purpose of which was to have Rome returned to the pope. It was frequently applauded by the English Catholics present, and at the close there was “long and loud applause.”
Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, editor of the Methodist Times, gave some of his reminiscences of Cardinal Manning in these words:
“I was simply horrified at the calmness with which he declared that he would be willing to deluge the whole of Europe with blood in
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order to destroy the unity of Italy and recover the temporal power of the pope. He also expressed a conviction that the German Empire was very insecure and would probably be shattered in the course of the great war which he prophesied would destroy both the unity of Germany and the unity of Italy, in order to restore the pope to the throne of Rome.”—Methodist Times, Aug. 6, 1896.
Only a Papal Peace Can Be Durable
That the above assertion is really what Rome teaches appears from the statement which the Catholic Hierarchy of the United States sent to President Roosevelt in November, 1942. The press spoke highly of it, and emphasized that it was signed by the archbishops and bishops of America. From it we quote:
“Our country has been forced into the most devastating war of all time. This war, which is the absorbing interest of all the world, involves unquestionably the most important moral issue of today. Some nations are united in waging war to bring about a slave world. . . .
“In the discharge of our pastoral responsibility, we are gravely concerned about the world peace of tomorrow.
“Secularism cannot write a real and lasting peace. Its narrow vision does not encompass the whole man, it cannot evaluate the spirituality of the human soul and the supreme good of all mankind.
“Exploitation cannot write a real and lasting peace. Where greedy might and selfish expediency are made the substitutes of justice there can be no securely ordered world.
“Totalitarianism, whether nazi, communist, or fascist, cannot write a real and lasting peace. The state that usurps total power, by that very fact becomes a despot to its own people and a menace to the family of nations.
“The spirit of Christianity can write a real and lasting peace in justice and charity to all nations, even to those not Christian. . .
“We conclude by urging, again, unceasing prayers: the prayer of all prayers by priests, the Holy Mass; prayers addressed to the Blessed Virgin that she will intercede with her Divine Son for mercy on a war-blighted world. We ask that Tuesday, December eighth, the feast of the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Mother, the Patroness of our Country, be set aside as a special day of prayerful supplication. In its observance, the priests and faithful of every diocese will follow the timely instruction of their Bishop. We recommend the recitation of the Rosary in common, both in our churches and in our homes. . . .
“Signed by the members of the Administrative Board, N. C. W. C., in the name of the Bishops of the United States ."—National Catholic Welfare Conference News Service, Nov. 16, 1942.
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It is far worse than the general run of pious cant, for it is ' directly contrary to the teachings of Christ and His holy apostles to say that Mary is the “patroness of our country” and that prayers should be addressed to her. Such praying is not only vain but a deception from which our soldiers and others should be spared. Jesus asks us to pray to God in His name only. We believe in the “spirit of Christianity,” and we are certain this spirit can write a peace in “charity to all nations”—there is such a peace in the sermon on the mount—but we deny that it can write a “lasting” peace, for the simple reason that men will not permit it to last. The Treaty of Versailles was in many ways a good peace—in fact a charter ot treedom to millions in Europe—but the trouble with it was not in the peace but in the people. They applied it wrong or they tore it up. That is sure to be the difficulty again. Anyway, the idea that the Papacy can give a “lasting peace in justice” is contradicted by the history of a thousand years. There have been a score of Catholic peace treaties. The peace of the Congress of Vienna, 1815, was called a Catholic and Christian peace, and the same is true of dozens of other peace arrangements that have enslaved mankind. We regret to say it, but history compels the statement that pious phrases of proud bishops and priests have often been but a smokescreen to hide ambitious designs for power.
In the Catholic papers of America we find a constant, well-defined trend backward toward European ideals and outmoded ways of life. We need to watch and warn against the un-American and anti-Christian ideas constantly set forth in the Catholic press of our country, keeping in mind that the Roman church and press today are largely under the control of the Jesuits.
In the Catholic press propaganda for power in America we even find the old oft-repeated and easily refuted misstatement that Protestants are dependent on the Roman church for the Bible. Every person well-informed on that subject knows that it is utterly out of harmony with the facts of history to claim that the Bible would have been lost if it had not been for the church of Rome. Any such statement is quite misleading and creates prejudice.
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The Price of the Pope’s Peace
The Papacy desires peace and is able to make peace of its own kind and on its own terms if permitted so to do. What would be the price of such a peace arrangement? We shall know that if we know what the papal ideal for Europe and the world really is. Notice this:
“Christian Europe does not consist of separated and isolated nations. Christian Europe was one fair fabric, in which a family of nations was united together, culminating in the supreme authority of the Chief Pastor of the Christian world. ... It was Christian confederation having a high and supreme authority.”—Cardinal Manning, Independence of the Holy See, p. 89.
The papal ideal for peace and world order is mankind dominated by the Papacy.
We do not know what influence the Pope will have upon the coming peace. We are sure that the less he and his church and other churches have to do with that peace the better. Without any prejudice or malice toward Rome we are convinced both from the Bible and from history that a papal peace would be well-nigh the greatest catastrophe that could come upon the earth. It would stifle freedom and progress and return mankind to the bondage of the Dark Ages. It would lead to new revolutions and ruin. For the Papacy itself it would spell its final doom.
Both the French and Russian revolutions prove that mankind today will not be permanently oppressed by religious tyranny. The prophecies indicate that every priest-police totalitarian regime in our time will perish. (Revelation 18:21.) It is most significant how papal leaders even now defend reactionary forces which rob nations of their freedom. It is well known how Franco and his bloody helpers in Spain have destroyed democratic rule and religious freedom in that unhappy land. Yet even Archbishop Spellman, after a recent interview ^with Franco, calls him a “man loyal to his God, devoted to his country’s welfare.”—Catholic Digest, December, 1943. This shows again that it is unwise and dangerous to give churches a chance to rule in civil matters. Mankind prospers best when the churches attend to religion and the statesmen to matters of the state.
EWING GALLOWAY. N. Y.
What Shall Be Our Experience as We Travel Down the Road to a New World? Will It Be Filled With Bright Prospects for a Prosperous and Glorious Future? Many Will Desire in This New World a Happy Home in Some Peaceful Countryside. If We Want Freedom and Security, If These Ideals Are to Be Obtained and Realized, We Must Not Repeat the Mistakes of the Past or Go Back to the Days of the Middle Ages When the Church Controlled the State, or When the State Ruled the Church. We Must Continue on the Road Laid Out by the Founding Fathers of Our Fair Land—a Road That Keeps the Functions of Church
and State Forever Separate, and Yet Protects Them Both
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CHAPTER EIGHT
The Ecumenical Road to a New World
T
JL HE term “ecumenical” is a Greek word meaning “the habitable part of the earth,” and the so-called ecumenical movement is an effort to unite, at least in an outward way, all the Christian churches in the world. The movement in its present form is of recent origin. We live now in an age of large church councils, just as did Christianity in the fourth and fifth centuries while the Papacy was being established. The unity in spirit, love, and faith of all true Christians is most desirable. The last great prayer of Christ for His church was that all might be one as He and the Father are one. But while unity of heart and work among genuine believers is a great boon for spiritual life and fruitage, large federations or combinations of church bodies and leaders have always been a source of danger to both civil and religious freedom. That our deep longing for a lasting peace after this world revolution would bring forth certain peace plans and proposals which Americans ought to shun, might almost be expected.
Christ is the Prince of Peace, and His followers will daily pray and work for the cause of peace in the world. In their love, too, for the best world order possible, they will earnestly beware of every false road to peace. History proves that at times the peace made after a war does more harm than the war itself.
We cannot but be deeply concerned over the actual future line-up of forces and the shape of things to be. In this scanning of the future the churches in all lands ought to be
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foremost. We should study what we can do to help to relieve distress, to save sinners, and to build for the good of mankind. It is now of urgent importance that the church of Christ shall do faithfully its God-given work. It must face manfully its own great task and yet not allow itself to squander time and energy on things God never called it to perform.
The Churches After Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles in 1919, at the close of World War I, is the greatest historical milestone of this century. In a political sense it created a world which began to break when Hitler marched into Poland in 1939. But for the churches in general, and mission work overseas, this treaty meant more than many have recognized. The religious faith and life of millions had been deeply influenced by the great conflict of 1914-18. Within some churches a new spiritual life began. It was felt that the war was a call of God to repentance. Not a few believed that the war was a sign of a soon-coming Saviour. In America, about 1919 and 1920, a series of prophetic conferences was held, attended by many pastors and laymen.
Before long, however, ihe churches fell back to their former lukewarm indifference. Revival meetings slackened. Such unchristian fads as the Moral Rearmament theories of the Oxford groups flourished. In several lands, such as Denmark and Norway, Moral Rearmament was welcomed by hundreds of state-church preachers. Few saw its weakness as a modern form of righteousness by works—like the Pharisees in the days of Jesus.
The early twenties of this century were critical da vs for Christianity. Though a few godly leaders, like voices m the wilderness, called for repentance and a genuine spiritual rebirth, the great majority of ministers and members turned to carnal plans and policies. They trusted in numbers and organizations. With 650,000,000 Christians on earth; what power would they not have if united in a world church federation?
History makes plain that prosperity has always been more dangerous than persecution for the church of Christ. When
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there is liberty, and when the church grows strong in numbers, wealth, and worldly prestige, it is tempted to unite with the world. Sometimes people speak as though it were only in Europe, where union of church and state prevails, that churches grow worldly. But experience teaches that right here in our own country the world seeks the influence of the church, and the church seeks the support of the world almost as much, and in some ways more than overseas in the unfortunate state-church arrangement.
Few realize to what an extent in this country such large religious organizations as the Federal Council of Churches now devote their energies to secular pursuits. Many religious leaders and groups in America have protested against these worldly activities. One of these declares:
“The Federal Council of Churches is attempting to take charge of affairs of the civil government and is continually adding to its program of the auempted management of affairs which are distinctly nonreligious and outside of the mission of the church. It is undermining the teachings of Christ and the constitutional policy of the United States for die separation of the state and the church.”— Pastors, Politicians, Pacifists, p. 2.
When the millionaire Carnegie, in 1914, gave the Church Peace Union an endowment of $2,000,000, and other rich people helped even more, the churches secured money for their political propaganda and work.
The Tragic Mistake of Some Churches
This is a painful topic which we would never discuss if duty did not demand it. However, so many churches today seem to be turning into a new road—really a blind ally, untried by most of them. It was the road which the Roman church had been traveling, and which culminated in the French Revolution and Napoleon, when at the close of the eighteenth century, it was nearly “wounded to death." Revelation 13:3. It was also the road which the Russian Orthodox Church was on in 1917 as the revolution came down upon it as an avalanche of death. I can never forget what I then saw in Russia of knocked-down cathedrals, ragged priests, and broken-up religious schools. It is the road the churches take when they dabble in politics, mix in with the state for war or peace, or
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engage in other things of the world. Whenever a church of Christ, spoken of as His bride, joins the world in pleasure, business, or affairs of state, thus exchanging spiritual things for carnal, the Bible says it is “playing the harlot.” When Satan took Christ up into a high mountain and showed all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, he failed to overcome the Saviour, but he has succeeded better with the professed followers of the humble and lowly Jesus. If we understand our own feelings we are not in a mood to throw stones. The downward trend. in the churches is a heartrending subject.
A Worldly Church Unity Movement
The present almost universal attempt to unite the various Protestant churches with the Anglican and Orthodox churches is so well known that it does not need a detailed account. The movement began shortly after World War I, and is growing all the time. Today more than sixty-seven church organizations in America alone are behind this movement. Many prominent churchmen are visiting back and forth by air between America, England, and Switzerland concerning church unity and its power in the coming peace. As a result of a whole series of conferences, of which the one in Stockholm in 1925 and those in Edinburgh and Oxford in 1937 are the most prominent, we have today a fully organized world church council. We are told by Doctor Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, that “every day it becomes clearer that the root of political problems today is religious.” It is also pointed out that in Europe religion alone refused to yield and has had the power to hold the fortress of individual freedom against the present forces of destruction. This has led many to feel that Western civilization, being the fruitage of church and state Christianity, can only be saved by political Christianity, and for that reason the churches are organizing strongly to take part in all civil, business, and political questions.
It should be stated that the Anglican Church is very strong behind this movement for church unity and Christian peace. Recently in England such religious leaders as the Archbishop of York, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the bishop of Chi-
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Chester for the Anglican Church, William Patton for the International Missionary Council, Cardinal Hinsley for the Catholic Church, and other church leaders, issued a joint statement in favor of a political peace made by the churches. This present superchurch movement is spoken of as the greatest religious phenomenon, “the most notable event since the Reformation.” Of this the Catholic journal Columbia, of May, 1943, says:
“A tremendously important event took place in London May 28, 1942. The repercussions moved over England like the ripples made by a stone tossed in quiet waters. Even America has felt the vibrations in both religious and secular press. . . . This event was the formation of a joint committee of the Sword of the Spirit inaugurated by His Eminence Arthur Cardinal Hinsley and the Protestant Religion and Life, two movements working side by side to promote Christian co-operation. The success has been astonishing and has exceeded all expectations.”—Pages 18, 19.
In America this united effort of Catholics and Protestants to secure a political peace favorable to religion and the church has been discussed in many gatherings, the most outstanding of which was the church council in Delaware, Ohio, in March, 1942.
An Alliance With Rome
It is certainly strange to see how Protestant churches today are seeking the favor and help of the Papacy. Our forefathers thought of Rome as a church that had departed from the Lord, and refused to join in its worship and work. But today a great change has come. One would think that in this time of religious crisis every unholy compromise would be avoided. If ever we needed to stand stanchly for principle we do now. Surely we American Protestants ought to be on our guard, knowing that “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” It is not large numbers that are needed to defend our freedom; it is spiritual vision and courage. This new attitude toward the Papacy on the part of professed Protestants in America—so startling and destructive—began to come strongly to the front early in this century. As an instance of this we refer to an editorial entitled “The Pope’s Testament,” in that great magazine of those years, The Independent, of April 3, 1902:
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“While we have been growing kindlier toward Catholics and have been making more of the festivals of the Catholic Church, it seems as if Catholics were becoming more like us in preaching and practice. Of course, then, the Presbyterian Church is compelled to repeal the article of its Confession of Faith which declares that the pope of Rome is antichrist.
“And Protestants have no right to deny that the Church of Rome is a true church. It worships the same one God as the rest of us, and it holds to the same Saviour. It declares that its worship of the virgin and the saints is of a different kind from its worship of the triune God. We see the danger of such worship, but we see that they make less of saints than they used to, and that they make more of the distinction. To our view it is very foolish to ask a saint to intercede with God, when we can go directly to Him, and there is danger of idolatry; but it is not unchristian, any more than it is for a Protestant inquirer to ask his living friends to pray for him. The doctrine of purgatory seems to us unscriptural, but it is certainly not unchristian. Even we are beginning to think that we have taught more about the future world than we know. The practice of confession seems to us to be required when it should be only permitted; but it cannot be unchristian, and it has its good side. The supremacy of the pope seems to us a dangerous doctrine, but one can certainly be a good Christian and be a pope or a believer in popes Volume LIV, No. 2783, p. 830.
These are most significant statements, and they have been repeated by prominent Protestant leaders many times and in many forms since 1902. But what is the Catholic response to these overtures to Rome? As to that we are not left in doubt. Columbia, the journal quoted above, tells us in the same issue, May, 1943, that the attitude of Rome toward Protestants has now undergone a great change so as to be decidedly friendly to the idea of united action. We are told that one of “the significant points’’ in the pope’s encyclical, that is, his Christmas message of 1942, “was its salutation.” It was “something new and different.” “It was addressed not only to Catholics, but to Jews and Protestants,” and its opening words were, “My dear children of the whole world,” the Pope thus calling himself “the Father of poor humanity, the Good Shepherd, and the Wise Counselor of mankind.” “Pius asks the world to pray for peace and invites Protestants and Jews to join their Catholic brothers in the prayer.”
Indeed, we are informed that “the very next day after his election Pius XII extended the first of a long series of good-will
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gestures to those outside the true fold.” “On Christmas Eve, 1941, Pius XII gave to the world a very memorable message. It was not just a Christmas greeting. It was a very urgent call for collaboration. It might be considered the kernel of all his declarations on co-operation with non-Catholics.” The Pope stated that the united effort of Catholics and Protestants for peace “is a universal undertaking for the common good which requires the collaboration of all Christendom.” Now we believe in understanding and good will between the different churches as well as between Christians and Jews. The truth and spirit of Christ is the spirit of tolerance. Jesus said that He condemned no one, and all His true followers are opposed to bigotry and prejudice. But we do not favor ecclesiastical confederations and compromises made to gain power and prestige. Large church combinations with wealth and votes have always been a peril to religious freedom, and that is the danger we face today. American Protestants are sacrificing the most fundamental principles of the faith of their fathers to join hands with Rome. It is even urged that in the coming world-wide superchurch federation the Pope shall stand as the head.
“When Pope Pius XII, on Christmas Eve of 1939, announced his five-point program for such a peace, his leadership was accepted by Christians of all denominations. It is today the tie that unites Germans, and Frenchmen, Slavs, Italians, and Anglo-Saxons. Nowhere did these five points receive such enthusiastic and unanimous response as in Great Britain. In a move unprecedented for four centuries, the Anglican archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the moderator of the Free Church Federal Council, joined their names to that of Cardinal Hinsley, primate of the Catholic Church in England, to give public endorsement to the Pope's peace program. Since then, the general of the Salvation Army, representatives of the Unitarian Church, and the heads of churches in Armenia, Czechoslovakia, Holland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland have associated themselves with it in England. . . .
“Bishop Bell of Chichester, a high dignitary of the Anglican Church, added a most constructive suggestion to make this peace program practically effective. In his book Christianity and World Order he proposes the formation of a permanent Christian Consultative Body, at Rome itself or at some other place acceptable to the Holy See, over which the pope or his representative should preside, while certain of the great churches of the world—for example, the
This Figure Symbolizing Government Has Been Adapted From a Mural by Elihu Vedder. It Brings to Mind the Last Words of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, in Which the Great Emancipator Expressed the Hope That "Government of the People, by the People, for the People Shall Not Perish From the Earth”
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Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican confessions—would send their own accredited representatives.”—Prince Hubertus von Loewenstein, “Christian World Revolution,” Atlantic Monthly, January, 1942, p. 109.
This agitation for the Pope as head of a united Christendom has become so common and popular that Barth, the great Swiss theologian, has felt called upon to protest against it.
“But I believe that British Christians should follow the example of their government and take as little advantage of this permission as possible; and that they should not add to the number of fantastic plans for the future which are current today, by painting all sorts of Christian pictures of this kind, for instance, that of a great Christian World Conference under the presidency of the Roman Pope.”—Karl Barth, This Christian Cause.
In this connection every citizen of the United States needs to remember that the Papacy never has and never can believe in the American ideal of separation of church and state. While Rome makes the best of this plan in our country where Catholics are a minority, she teaches, and wherever possible practices, the union of church and state. Thus Pope Leo XIII “declares that the state must not only have a 'care for religion’ but recognize the true religion.” This means the form of religion professed by the Catholic Church. Should anyone doubt that this is the Catholic position, we refer him to the authorized book Catholic Principles of Politics, pages 313, 314, from which the above words are taken. It is heartening that many Catholics in America oppose this position of Rome, but it is deeply to be regretted that more and more Protestants seem to endorse the papal idea that the state should “make a public profession of religion.”
As just noted we are constantly witnessing today the attempts made by Protestants and other churches to unite with Rome. Again and again they have approached the Papacy and have asked the pope to send delegates to their conference, a thing he at first refused to do, but later permitted in part.
The Roman church has a definite program for the coming peace. Catholics wish to have the entire world-wide influence of the Roman church brought to bear on securing the peace they desire.
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The Basic Moral Law of the New World Order
They have another very distinct contribution for the peacemaking, as they view it, the basic moral law.
This matter is one of decisive importance. On what foundation in law will this new international world society be built? On what legal ideals or jurisprudence can pagans, Moslems, Catholics, Protestants unite? Here at home many preachers have claimed that the new order must be built upon the sermon on the mount. Others name the ten commandments as pillars of this new world. The Catholics advocate something else—“the natural moral law of all mankind.” Says the Columbia, May, 1943: “Will non-Catholics join with Catholics in solving the thorny problems facing the world today? Yes. Is there a common ground? Yes, the natural law.”—Page 19. In the recent encyclical of Pius XII entitled “Hie Mystical Body of Christ,” pages 9, 10, we read, “By the death of our Redeemer the New Testament took the place of the old law which had been abolished.” “On the cross . . . the old law died.” That is, the ten commandments are no longer to be the standard of moral law. In harmony with this we find in the booklet The Papal Peace Program, page 19, that there must be “a universal form of morality,” a “recognition of the moral code of natural law by the nations.” Columbia goes on to say that “this leads us back again to what we have already stated, namely, that the common ground for any collaboration between Catholics and non-Catholics ultimately rests on the natural law.”—Page 18. But what is this “natural moral law”? To that question the answer is that it is moral law as defined by the Papacy—that is, a Catholic world order based on Catholic doctrine and law. It is astounding beyond words that even leaders in the ecumenical movement agree to this cap-sheaf of all errors that “the moral law of nature” is to supersede the ten commandments of direct revelation as the basic moral law of the coming world order. In the magazine Christendom, winter number of 1944, the Catholics are praised because they have done more than have Protestants to advocate this natural-moral-law idea. One wonders what will happen to those Christians who prefer the literal ten commandments
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of the Bible to the natural morality of Thomas Aquinas and other Catholic philosophers and teachers. This is not an idle question. In a recent interfaith declaration of Jews, Protestants, and Catholics we read: “Moral law must govern world order.’’ That is good for God’s world order, provided we hold to the ten commandments as the moral law.
Protestant Suggestions for the Coming Peace
The object of the church unity movement embraces a number of points of vital concern to America. One of these is the idea now so commonly taught that all national sovereignties should be abolished, or at least greatly limited. On this we read:
“This system of dividing the surface of the earth among some sixty nations and allowing each to do what it pleases, has become as obsolete as the unregulated public utility. In fact, we ourselves, back in 1787, repudiated that system for our own continent/'— G. Bromley Oxnam (Methodist), in When Hostilities Cease, p. 19.
This idea that there be no complete national sovereignty was a leading doctrine in the Dark Ages. At that time the rulers of Europe were supposed to have received their right to rule from the Papacy, and their sovereignty extended only as far as the Papacy allowed. But do we want to introduce such a system at this time? Does anyone really think that liberty would be safer in America and our people happier if the United States surrendered in part its sovereignty to the control of Europe? Would that not be to return again to the former tyranny of earlier centuries against which America is in earnest protest? Yet this idea is very strongly taught bv both Catholic and Protestant churches today.
“The Oxford Conference, in analyzing what is wrong with the world of nations, said, ‘So far as the present evil is political, the heart of it is to be found in the claim of each national state to be judge in its own cause/
“The Executive Committee of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America said, on June 3, 1938, ‘No nation has a right to be a law unto itself, or the sole judge of its own cause. The claim to that right is the basis of the present anarchy in the community of nations/"—Roswell P. Barnes, A Christian Imperative, p. 31.
“A sovereign state, at the present time, claims the power to judge its own controversies, to enforce its own conception of its rights,
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CY LA TOUR & SON	H. A. ROBERTS
Real Peace Will Not Come to the World Through Force of Arms. It Comes Through Hearts Transformed by the Power of Love Shining From the Cross
to increase its armaments without limit, to treat its own nationals as it sees fit, and to regulate its economic life without regard to the effect of such regulations upon its neighbors. These attributes of sovereignty must be limited.”—Quoted by Federal Council of Churches in A Just and Durable Peace, p. 50.
What these limitations on sovereignty really mean is seen by the following:
(1) “ ‘Nations must renounce the claim to be the final judge in their controversies with other nations.’ ”	(2) “ ‘Nations must re-
nounce the use of force for their own purposes in relations with other nations, except in self-defense.’ ”	(3) “ ‘The right of nations to
maintain aggressive armaments-must be sacrificed.'” (4) “‘Nations must accept certain human and cultural rights in their constitutions and in international covenants.’ ”	(5) “ ‘Nations must recognize
that their right to regulate economic activities is not unlimited.’ ” —Ibid.
One World Government
Another point in this peace program of the churches now is that we are to have an international organization exercising world control. We all know that the pope has “proposed a Commonwealth of Nations as one of the conditions of a lasting peace.”—Charles O. Donnell, ed., The World Society, p. 44. That Rome desires this is quite understandable, for it is the very thing that gave her power and almost absolute dominion during the Dark Ages. A recent widely circulated Protestant publication gives in full detail the outlines of one world con-
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trol by one universal government. It is strange that some do not see not only that this idea is un-American but that it is complete surrender to the age-old Papal world order of medieval days. We rejoice to state that thousands of loyal Americans in all these churches earnestly protest this perilous work and program.
Yet there is no end to the quotations we could give which show that the churches today are agitating for an international world control with an international police army to enforce its demands. What, we ask, do the churches have to do with questions of this kind? Did Christ ever advocate any such theories or any theory of any kind for world control by the church? If the world is to have such an international police force, how large would it be? Would a million soldiers be sufficient? Who would pay and direct them? Another proposition in the church program for world peace is that the little nations are to cease to exist as independent countries. We consider this to be about the worst of all. Countries like Switzerland or Norway have meant much to the freedom of mankind. Are all these small nations to be abolished by the larger ones, and to be controlled by the nations that have a stronger army?
But we cannot present more of these plans and demands. What we have had is sufficient to indicate to thoughtful Americans, not only that the churches are very much out of harmony with God’s planning in all this political work, but that they have utterly broken with the old American policy and principle of the separation of church and state. The slogan now so often heard—“one world, one government, one church’’—may sound plausible and even beautiful, but it is a dangerous idea, for it destroys personal freedom and weakens individual duties and rights. It is indeed a Nazi doctrine in American clothes.
The Outlook for a Just and Durable Peace
In every land now there is a growing demand for a peace that will not make a third world war a certainty. It surely is needed. If people lived in the spirit of Christ, such a peace would come of itself, but we human beings are ourselves the
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chief hindrance to such a peace. The Scriptures nowhere teach that this earth or selfish man in his present state will ever see a reign of perfect peace. They do promise peace in the future kingdom of God in the new earth. When we look at the hatred between nations and within many countries, when we count up what the nations want, when we compare the contradictory ambitions of nations and races—then well might we despair and say that no peace can again be made. But we do not know the future. We do know that it is the duty of our nation and of every nation to make the best peace possible— and as loyal citizens we must not be blinded by any fanciful thinking of some preachers who have left the gospel of Christ and turned to politics.
It is most misleading to teach that “ecumenical Christianity constitutes the foundation of a new world order.” (See When Hostilities Cease, p. 115.) In the first place, ecumenical Christianity, as now defined, does not yet exist; and it cannot become a reality unless it includes the Catholic Church. But if you take in Romanism with its papal infallibility and the supremacy of Peter, where is your ecumenical church but in the bondage to Rome?
The Lord has given mankind His great peace charter, the ten commandments. Rock-founded in the moral nature of God, His law gives us the ten pillars on which to build. Let us magnify that law in life and word. In America at this time some churches are carrying on a strong educational program called The Mission for World Order, the purpose of which is to build up a strong moral foundation of public opinion in favor of a just peace. A large number of conventions have been held in nearly all the leading cities of the country, in which prominent speakers presented these topics. Some of these lectures, radio talks, study courses, and other literature may be helpful in creating public sentiment for peace. But beyond this educational work the churches should not go. For if they turn this work into political agitation and endeavor to shoulder the responsibility of making peace, who then will enforce that peace if not the churches who make it, and where will that end but in a religious despotism in the likeness of Papal Rome? The present agitation by some
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American churches is, in reality, work to which the churches were never called by Christ. It is certain to lead the churches to depend on political religion and state support rather than on the power of God.
The churches will give their best assistance in the coming political peacemaking if they keep their hands off. The more they meddle in politics the less useful they will be. There are in every nation wise statesmen who have the welfare of their people at heart. Let the generals make war. Let the rulers make peace. But let the churches preach Christ. We who are called to gospel work should attend to our calling. Let us exalt the moral law of God. Let us speak of the “judgment to come” and the final reward. Let us preach repentance and faith. Let us agitate for temperance, warn against impurity, and build up sturdy characters—a morale that rests on good morals. Let us instruct the youth, save the lost, and give ourselves unto prayer. Let us not, as servants of Christ, fail to set forth the danger to this country of Sunday laws and other legislation which will unite politics and religion, and bring on a union of church and state. Let us teach the old American idea of a free church in a free state.
Idle true church of Christ does not work with or through politics. It is neither racial, nationalistic, nor isolationist. Its vision is world wide and international. It thinks of mankind as members of one brotherhood, and it fosters a fellowship of believers without reference to color or clan. In this way the churches will do a thousand times more for a just peace than by political wire pulling and planning. After all, a durable peace does not depend so much on a written document as on the honest lives of loyal citizens. At this time we must give our all for God and for our native land.
The City of Hammerfest, in Norway. This Is the Northernmost City of This Scandinavian Land. The Insert Is of a State Church Located Not Far From This City. European Protestantism Is Tied in Various Ways to the State. Only in America Do Protestantism and Other Religious Faiths Operate Free From Secular Control. Therein Lies a Difference Between European and
American Protestantism
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CHAPTER NINE
The Downfall of State-Church Religion
A
iiT first sight the religious conditions of the world and the future outlook for the church appear complicated and confused. In reality they are most simple. Christendom is now divided into two distinct sections. On the one hand is a small group of earnest Bible Christians who in loving service for others walk with God and prepare for the return of Jesus. They are not all united in an organic way, but are found in every church and are often spoken of as “the church within the churches.” In the Scriptures God calls them “My people,” and urges them to depart from Babylon (Revelation 18:4)—that is, the large state churches. On the other hand is a wealthy multitude of professed believers with a nominal religion and worldly ambitions. These are organized into many churches, which churches now seek a universal church federation.
In studying the forces now molding human life in every land, we must place religion first. There is everywhere a return, after a fashion, to some kind of faith. Mankind today is taking stock anew of religion. The idea of fifty years ago that religion is weak and obsolete is itself obsolete. Statesmen, generals, and other rulers or leaders have come to see that religion’s ideals and convictions are a mighty force which they can use. Men everywhere have learned that religion is the most potent power to guide human conduct. But it is a political religion of military and world prestige which they desire.
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The Political Strength of State Religion
We grant that the strength of a church-and-state union has been a great factor in human history—not, however, for freedom and progress. For centuries the so-called “covenant between the throne and the altar" gave the church the police power and financial influence of the state, and it gave the state the moral support of the church. Too often, however, this unholy alliance was employed to hold the common people down in thralldom and ignorance. In the almost complete breakdown in Europe since 1939, state-church or political religion seems to have held the best. This apparent strength is deceiving many at this time. In looking for a power that will hold in the present storm and after, they are tempted to favor the old church-and-state arrangement. We see in Europe today that governments have changed, laws have been broken, rulers have been dethroned, while practically everything of the old order—money, business, education—has failed, except religion. In spite of the attacks made on both the Catholic and Protestant churches there, it has not been possible to destroy these religious organizations. Many priests or preachers have been or are in prison or concentration camps. Publishing houses and confessional schools have been closed; theological seminaries have been deprived of funds; charitable institutions have been hampered in their work; and foreign mission enterprise has been killed; yet religion holds. We honor these brave, unselfish men for their devotion, and yet their faith does not rest, as God intended it should, on the gospel alone but in a larger degree on the state. We see this clearly in some of the smaller, oppressed lands overseas. In fact, just how completely the modern state church considers itself founded upon and joined in with the state is now illustrated by the experience and statements of the church in Norway. When the Nazi leaders there wanted to separate the church from politics and the state, the Norwegian bishops refused, and declared that their church was founded on the state:
“The bishops of the Church of Norway, guided by their consciences and spurred on by the lack of clarity which surrounds them,
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see it as their clear duty to appeal to the authorities which today govern the life of the church and the state.
“After having consulted other Christians, the bishops on January 15, 1941, addressed a documented petition to the acting head of the department of church and education as follows:
“ ‘To the head of the department of church and education, acting Secretary Skancke:
“ ‘The very foundation of the Church of Norway rests on a definite constitutional relationship to the state, and on the assumption that the duty of the state and all departments of the government is to uphold righteousness and justice in accordance with the will of God. The Norwegian constitution states: “The evangelical Lutheran religion shall be the official religion of Norway.” It therefore is imperative and essential that the church should know clearly whether the state, which is also concerned with ecclesiastical matters, accepts and honors the legal and moral obligations contained in the Church’s articles of faith and in the Bible. Such assurance is essential to the very being of the church. . . .
“ ‘The attitude of the church, needless to say, is at all times governed by the basic principles outlined above: Norway’s constitution, the articles of faith, and the Bible.’ ’’—Norway’s Fighting Church, pp. 6, 7.
The reader will observe that these defenders of the state church, in pointing out its basic strength, placed the Bible last. Their church is “governed’’ by three “basic principles’—“Norway’s constitution, the articles of faith, and the Bible.’’ That is political religion, not Bible faith. That a state-church religion in a storm will hold stronger than other factors, such as a university, or labor unions, or business, does not prove it the remedy and refuge needed in the future. The truth is that a church without state support stands even stronger. No church in our age was ever exposed to an antireligious attack as strong and determined as was the Russian church during and after the revolution. Yet this war on God in Russia failed utterly to uproot religion or destroy the church.
“A Russian book has recently reached America in a shipment of a thousand copies. Since publishing is a Soviet monopoly, it could only have appeared with the permission and the active co-operation of the state. It is a deluxe edition, with copious illustrations, written by the official heads of the Russian church and designed to show that in the Soviet Union religion is alive and is tolerated. . . . Though we cannot fore-
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cast the future, we have every reason to say that the attempt to extirpate faith from the Russian spirit has failed, and that this failure has been recognized in Russia.”—Sir Bernard Pares, “Religion in Russia,” Foreign Affairs, July, 1943, p. 644. However, the religion that had power to hold in Russia was not state religion but an individual faith.
A One-Sided Presentation
When we speak of the present suffering state of churches overseas, we must, to be fair, mention another fact. For years now we have been listening to one-sided statements on behalf of the oppressed church in Russia and other parts of Europe.
We would not in any sense condone the cruelties of the onslaughts on the Orthodox Church during the Russian revolution. Neither would we excuse in any way the intolerant methods used by the Nazis the last ten years in endeavoring to break the power of the churches in Germany and near-by countries. Yet, a great deal said concerning these attacks on the churches omits an important fact. It is true that the old Orthodox Church in Russia suffered severely even after the revolution, and that noble men, like Archbishop Tikhon, were devoted to their church and country. It is also true that the methods employed by the Nazis against Christianity cannot be condemned too strongly. They have been intolerant, dishonest, and cruel beyond words, as we see in their treatment of brave men like Pastor Neumuller or Bishop Berggrav who stood stanchly for Christ and what they thought of as His church. But the devotion of these men in Russia, and later in Protestant countries, does not change the fact that both the Orthodox Church and the other churches, having become worldly and largely apostate, brought this retribution on themselves. Having been paid by the state, they had become an integral part of the government, so that when the government went down they shared its fate.
Few people, except the Russians themselves, can understand what a curse and blight the old Orthodox Church was upon that fair land. It had kept the people in such dense ignorance that less than 10 per cent could read and write. It helped the rich nobility grind down the poor in misery,
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squalor, and disease. The church had lost its power to influence the masses for good. The church was strongly opposed to progress by upholding higher standards of truth and purity. The priests profited by the superstitions of the masses, nourished as these were by deceptive relics in the houses of worship. It was a black chapter of the church.
While we do not for one moment compare the influence of the state churches in Central Europe with the degraded superstition of the Orthodox Church, yet it is a fact that both the Catholic and Protestant churches in Germany and surrounding countries before this war had lost their hold on the people. We need only remember the los von Rom movement in Austria and the mass agitation against the churches in Germany. They had grown wealthy and complacent, and were fond of music, art, pleasure, and a life of leisure. Many of the clergy were teaching unbelief. They dabbled in politics to an extent we can scarcely comprehend, and the church services many, many times were almost empty of spiritual comfort and instruction. They were churches indeed with ‘'a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” 2 Timothy 3:5.
I remember spending a week end in Berlin in 1929. On Sunday morning I went to one of the largest of the Protestant church cathedrals in that country. It might be considered the center of the Protestant church in Germany. It was a joy to listen to the beautiful German of the highly educated minister. But the attendance was small, and the sermon had as little of the gospel as any sermon I ever heard. In fact, it was a political speech. His subject was “The Parable of the Good Samaritan.” We were told that the man who fell among thieves was the German nation after Versailles. The robbers were those who made the treaty. The priest who walked by without looking was Great Britain, and the Levite who stopped to see the poor man lying stricken by the roadside, but who then hurried on without helping him, was America. As we listened we began to wonder who the good Samaritan was, and were told that he was the Aryan race and the old Germanic ideals. If this had been a small church, or a rare instance, we would not now mention it, but it is a fair
E. S. KENNEDY. ARTIST
The History of Church-and-State Union in the Various Governments of Earth Has Always Been One of Intimidation and Persecution. No Power on Earth Has the Moral Right to Come Between a Citizen and His God. Our Illustration Depicts the Persecution of a Huguenot Family Made to Suffer Unjustly. These French Protestants of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries Were Made to Feel All Too Often the Iron Heel of a Religio-Political Power. Thousands Were Put to Death for Their Faith, While Others Sought Refuge in the New World. Such Is the Fruit of a "Covenant Between the Throne and the Altar"
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sign of the fact that Protestantism in Europe had become largely a political religion.
The Spiritual Weakness of State Religion
The apparent strength of state religion is always a deception that ends in ruin. While it has elements of strength, it cannot but be a source of moral and spiritual weakness. T here has never yet been union of church and state in any country where it did not sooner or later result in persecution. No people in the world is more freedom-loving than the Norwegians, and no state church perhaps, unless it be the Holland or the Danish, is more liberal than the church in Norway, and yet its record of persecution is a dark one. In the early years of the nineteenth century a great religious revival came to Norway. The leader of this was a peasant, H. N. Hauge, a very remarkable man. After his quiet conversion through the influence of some layman, lie entered upon a great missionary crusade. The man had real gifts as a preacher and writer and even in business ways. He stirred the whole country. Thou sands were led to a living faith in Christ, and a new life quickened the entire nation, much the same as the Wesleyan revival in England half a century earlier. Hauge did not leave the state church and did not organize a separate denomination, but he protested strongly against the lack of piety and faith of his day. From the very first he was cruelly persecuted by the state-church preachers. Finally he was imprisoned and at last sent to the state prison in Oslo, where he languished for ten long years, or until he was utterly broken in health. This is only one of numberless illustrations showing how state churches persecuted the true children of God. If we would have religious freedom, the only safety is a total separation of church and state.
Pomp and Pride in Modern Church Worship
Christ lived the simple life. So did all the apostles. The early church had no elaborate ritual. Like a pure maiden, who needs no artificial adorning of paint and jewelry, she held fast her first love for her Master. Said the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:2, 3: “I am jealous over you with godly
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jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” Where the faith and love of Christ are, there too is the “simplicity” that is in Christ. The first Christians had the cross of Jesus in their lives, not on their churches or clothes. There is not the slightest reason to believe that the ministers of the apostolic church had a special garb or that they ever wore special costly robes or raiment for any service. These outward luxuries are a sign of inward poverty of spirit; and the more any church departs from the Lord, the more it' seeks to entertain rather than to warn mankind. The purpose of pomp and ritual is to please men, not to save them.
One deep disappointment after World War I was that outside of Russia we had no outstanding religious revival anywhere. We were told during the war that at the close of the struggle great spiritual awakenings would be seen—that the new longing after God on the part of the soldiers would help on this. World leaders, such as Lloyd George and others, seeing the need of religion urged it. But, alas, it did not come. The churches, instead of leading in soul-stirring calls of God to repentance, organized and promoted one world council after another to build a superchurch for world reconstruction. That same thing is repeated today. We hear much about the prayer life of the soldiers, their love of “reality in religion,” and “no atheists in the foxholes.” Some of this is genuine. The soldiers do seek God. Men wax eloquent in describing the return to religion and the coming spiritual upsurge. But the churches, forgetting revival or lacking its power, hold great conventions or councils on political peace and plans for a new world. The old-time evangelism and revival, such as Moody or Spurgeon knew, seem a thing of the past.
Another most discouraging sign in modern religion is a tendency to outward forms and ceremony. This has been painfully evident in the large world conferences of the present Church Unity Movement. Doctor Leiper gives the following account of luxurious display in the Oxford Conference in his challenging book World Chaos or World Christianity, page 1:
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“Standing on the broad front steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, early on the evening of July 29, 1937, I witnessed a scene which not even a hardened sightseer would soon forget. Up the slope from Ludgate Circus streamed a great company of people. . . .
“A hush of expectancy, and all eyes turn toward the approaching procession. First comes a coach magnificent in red lacquer and gold, in which ride the formal attendants of the lord mayor of London; the lord mayor himself, wearing his robes of office and sitting in his splendid state coach. The prime minister of England follows on foot, and after him march the leaders of the churches of forty-five lands, a company in colorful ecclesiastical costume, in gowns and hoods and sashes fashioned after the tastes and traditions of all parts of the globe.”
We thought of this as we read again the Bible description, in graphic, symbolic words, of a worldly church controlling the civil power:
“He carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: and upon her forehead was a name written MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.” Revelation 17:3-6.
The Babylon of Prophecy
Every student of Revelation knows how often we find the name “Babylon” in that prophecy. The meaning of the term is not hard to find. In the old rabbinical writings of the Jews the term “Babylon” is used to designate the pagan city of Rome. All through Asia Minor during the lifetime of John, the apostle, Babylon was the symbolic name given to Rome. Accordingly we find a consensus of ancient interpreters that “Babylon must be understood as the equivalent to Rome.” In other words, Babylon is a symbol of false or apostate religion. Babylon in Revelation is said to be a “great city” and a fallen “woman.” In the symbolic words of Scripture both “city” and “woman” signify a church. Of this woman we read that the kings of the earth have “committed fornication” with her. In other words, Babylon is the unholy alliance called union
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of church and state, or political religion. When we study the history of churches that have lost their first love and departed from the truth and life of Christ to join the world, we discover four clear steps or stages.
The Road of Apostasy
The first of these steps is that the early zeal of the church begins to wane. The spirit, customs, and pleasures of the world become popular in the church, while sins and evil fashions are excused. The second step comes on as the church increases in members and wealth, and seeks and obtains worldly prestige and political power. Popular ministers preach for applause and politicians compete for the church vote. The third step is a period in which the church, having given civil rulers her support, in turn obtains favors and assistance from the state in oppressing those who oppose her and hinder her work. Strong and confident in the might of civil power, she uses that power to persecute dissenters. The fourth and last * stage is when, as a persecuting church (though she never admits there is persecution), she becomes an enemy of freedom and of the common people, especially the poor. This tyranny creates a deep hatred among the multitudes against the church and leads to the revolt of the masses—and the downfall of the church. This is what happened to the Papacy in Europe toward the close of the eighteenth century during the French Revolution, and to the Orthodox Church in the early part of this century during the Russian Revolution.
There are in Revelation two predictions regarding Babylon, the fulfillment of which is now close at hand. The first of these is that a short glory period will come to large churches in this age. The kings of the earth will decide to support Babylon. “These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.” “For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill His will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.” Revelation 17:13, 17. Babylon will say in her heart, “I sit a queen, and am no widow [as she was for some years] and shall see no sorrow.” Revelation 18:7. The second prophecy is that this time of apparent church domination and power,
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which she has sought in the name of peace, will end in disaster. For the same kings that gave her power will turn against her and “hate” Babylon and “make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.” Revelation 17:16.
Of this complete downfall of political church-and-state religion and the civilization it has produced we read this startling account:
“Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: the merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.
“And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.” Revelation 18:8-19.
When I visited Russia right after the revolution and observed what had come upon the Orthodox Church, I certainly saw a partial fulfillment of the above predictions. But a far larger fulfillment is at hand when the great churches that have joined in “Universal Christian Council” to impose their peace and power upon mankind will meet their doom. Just
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how or by what means the destruction of Babylon will be accomplished is thus described: “A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.” Revelation 18:21. Notice that Babylon will be thrown down “with violence,” that is, by revolutions and lawlessness. Now these prophecies, like many Bible predictions, are conditional. If the churches in our age would humble themselves before God in true penitence, if they would separate themselves from the world and abstain from political activity and legislation, if they would give heed to God’s warning message, they would save themselves. The words of Christ as He wept over Jerusalem apply here: “If thou hadst known even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” Luke 19:42.
At this time God is earnestly imploring His people not to unite with the world and not to accept or depend on political power. We feel certain that honest believers in every church will respond to this divine appeal and protest against religious legislation by the state, and state politics in the church. Today, as of old, God, who seeks for these faithful ones, will say, “Yet I have left Me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.” 1 Kings 19:18. God is building His own world order today—a kingdom without sin—and it will stand forever and enjoy a lasting and durable* peace.
CHAPTER TEN
The Road to Peace Is the Road of Personal Faith
It happened out in Spokane, Washington, some weeks after Pearl Harbor. I wanted to cross a crowded street, one of those wider corners down near the post office. The green light came on, but people waited for a row of Army trucks to pass. We all stood and looked at the paper headlines about Bataan and Corregidor. A kindly middle-aged woman with a strong, noble face watched intently with the rest of us and, turning to me, half whispered, “I have a boy out there in the Philippines, maybe at Bataan. He was my youngest, and it seems but yesterday that he was in our high school in the football team. Now he is out there—and what will happen?”
“Yes,” I replied, “so you have given your baby boy for the cause of freedom.”
“Well,” she answered, “I have one more boy in the service, and both of them overseas. I wish I knew where they are. It is hard not to know, but it must be best that way, and we should be glad to help. In fact,” she continued, “I now have sixteen of my relatives serving, two sons, ten nephews, and four other relatives, two of them from Canada, up near Calgary, as a letter told me yesterday. They are brave boys, and I love the Canadians, for I once lived in Canada. I think of these young men night and day, and you know I would almost rather have them buried out there than return as helpless cripples. I wonder if such thoughts are wrong.”
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“The ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressor shall fall therein Ho sea 14:9.
The ways of the Lord are the only plan That suffice in this crisis hour of man—
The reign of Christ and His royal law,
Man’s paradise home that the prophets saw.
The ways of the Lord, not the fads of men,
Will save us when Jesus shall come again To weigh our lives and to choose His own,
With the world at the bar of His judgment throne.
The ways of the Lord are the truth of God,
The advent message the world abroad,
For all the nations on earth must hear,
The kingdom of God is drawing near.
The ways of the Lord always start within,
Among those who by faith are saved from sin. They follow Christ and do others good And keep His Word as His children should.
The ways of the Lord do not end on earth Like some world order of human birth;
They lead to the city of God instead,
With Jesus the light of the road ahead.
The Road to Peace Is the Road of Personal Faith 93
She, like me, was away from her home town, and as she looked a bit troubled, I said, “You need faith in God. You must learn to pray.”
“Oh,” she replied, “I am glad to hear a man, a stranger, say that right here with all these listening. So few people today think of God and His help. Many of my friends worry while their boys are in the service, and go to pieces when word comes that they are missing. I do pray, for I know God. I feel that He has sent a strong angel with each of my dear boys, and that this angel never leaves them. Ralph, my husband, is a good man, but he doesn’t have the comfort of Jesus, and the lack of that makes it hard for him. He can’t get help for his work on our place, and he hates the Germans and Japanese, and says things that sometimes make me smile and sometimes make me shudder. But calling them names doesn’t do any good. Our real refuge is trusting in Jesus all the time and talking with Him as though we saw Him. When they left, I gave each of my boys a Bible and marked over fifty texts for them to read. Jesus knows what is best, and I told my boys to be brave soldiers and do all they can for our country.”
Just then the green light came on again, and she was lost in the crowd.
The above is not a fanciful tale, but a real experience. There are millions of “mothers of men” in our land, and fathers too, with loved ones in the service, but few have learned the lesson which this woman seemed to know so well. Her words “the comfort of Jesus” stayed by me. It is really this comfort, born of faith, that is needed today. We hear a great deal about political religion and nominal religion. The world is full of that, and it has little help today. What is needed now is a faith for living, a firm trust in the presence and guidance and deliverance of God. Only such a personal faith gives the strength needed.
What is that great dynamic force and mainspring of human life? It is faith—faith in God, faith in the right, faith in others, faith in ourselves. Faith is the secret of real strength. Faith begets enthusiasm, faith compels courage, faith gives power to endure, faith turns defeat into victory. Men can rob the rich, defeat the strong, and fool the wise; but faith is invincible.
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This faith rests on the Bible, the Word of God, as a daily living experience. It knows by individual experiment that the words of the Lord are true. This personal trust in the promises of the Lord will be needed even more in the years after the war than today. It is an experience that must grow in our hearts.
Genuine Bible faith is resigned to the wTill of God and reaches beyond this world and this life into God’s kingdom and the return of Jesus now near at hand. Faith gives strength not only to live but to die. To all of us this preparation for the great hereafter is urgent. Soldiers in war naturally think of death. One of them tells his feelings in these touching lines:
“It ain’t as I thinks ’E’ll keep me safe While the other boys goes down,
And it ain’t as I wants to leave this earth And wear an ’ero’s crown.
It ain’t for that as I says my prayers When I goes to the attack;
But I pray that whatever comes my way,
I may never turn my back.
I leaves the matter o’ life and death To the Lord as knows what’s best,
And I pray that I still may play the man Whether I turns east or west.
So grant me, God, to do my bit,
And then, if I must turn west,
I’ll be unashamed when my name is named,
And I’ll find a soldier’s rest.’’
Faith, like thinking or memory or conscience, is a part of every human heritage. Children always believe; only when deceived do they begin to doubt. By faith we do not mean deep theological problems, but simple believing and trusting. Not that this faith belittles doctrine, but it translates doctrine into experience. Faith is one of those basic factors in life that is to be experienced rather than explained. Faith is not theory. Faith is not feeling. Faith is a full surrender of one’s life to God. It is taking the Lord at His word. Some people say that they cannot believe, when they mean that they cannot understand. But we believe hundreds of things we do not understand. The root of faith is not knowledge, but love. All
H. A. ROBERTS
What a Wonderful Privilege in an Hour Like the Present to Turn to the Living Word of God. If We Make It a Practice, Feeding Daily Upon the Bread of Life and Drinking in Its Precious Promises, Our Faith Will Become Genuine and Steadfast. Such an Experience Will Help Us Weather the Storms of Life Successfully and Bring Victory and Salvation
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who love God will have faith in God. Faith, too, is largely a matter of choice. God’s truth is so clear that all who will to believe can believe.
Faith in God begets communion with God. We walk with the Lord by faith. But communion with God always leads to fellowship with the children of the Lord. “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.” 1 John 1:7. Personal religion is heart religion and home religion. But it also leads to definite church relationship. The spirit of personal religion is not to separate ourselves and walk alone, but to unite ourselves with the true church of Christ. We need this spiritual fellowship, this world-wide brotherhood of the children of God. It deepens our love and cheers our hope to join heart to heart with others of like faith in the service of Christ. Church membership and true sanctification belong together.
Faith in God, in eternity, in the unseen, in a divine revelation, and in the guidance of Providence is the supreme need of young and old at this time. Without that faith mankind is wrecked, and without that individual trust no one today can survive. We are living in a tornado of violence. This upheaval of barbarism has come because men have drifted away from a living, personal faith. If we weather the storm, if we would help others, if we would be ready for eternity, we must “have faith in God”—faith which rests in Christ as a personal' Saviour, who satisfies every longing of our heart. Someday the Papacy will break, and other forms of political religion will perish, but “they that trust in the Lord . . . abideth forever.” Psalms 125:1.
“ Tear thou not for I am with thee.’
Not the obstacles I see,
But the all victorious wisdom
Of the One who walks with me;
Not the weakness of my forces,
But the strength of His supply;
Not my meager, frail resources,
But the guidance of His eye.”
H. M. LAMBERT
The Church Has a Duty in the World, but It Is Not Called to Settle the Problems
of Politics
I SALUTE THE FLAG!
By Weldon Taylor Hammond
I am a Christian. I gloriously rejoice in the liberty wherewith Christ has made me free. Yet this soul freedom from the bondage and shackles of sin does not lessen, but greatly increases, my gratitude for the national freedom which I enjoy under the Stars and Stripes.
I salute the flag! This I deem not an act of worship, hut a mark of becoming respect for the noble principles to which our founding fathers dedicated their lives; namely, a free press, freedom of speech, and the inalienable right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience. These heaven-bom ideals of just and equitable government, vouchsafed in the Federal Constitution, have built and maintained our great American democracy—to the wonder and amazement of teeming millions—so that these United States rank without a peer in the history of nations.
The Star-Spangled Banner is but an emblem of the God-given rights of mankind to civil and religious liberty, which this grand republic has solemnly pledged itself ever to uphold. Gazing proudly upon this beautiful herald of freedom, with a thankful heart for the manifold blessings of its benign rule, I am constrained to exultingly shout—
“LONG MAY IT WAVE!”