| News and Views | September 1943 |
One Religion
“And the Lord shall be King over all the earth in that day there shall be one Lord, and His name one.”—Zechariah 14:9
THE bombing of Rome, followed by the ousting of Benito Mussolini as Dictator of Italy and the collapse of the Fascist party brought that ancient hub of the old Roman Empire more than ever into the public eye. It was at first hoped that Badoglio, the new head of the government under King Victor Emanuel, would ask for peace on the unconditional surrender terms of the United Nations, but he didn’t. He wanted Italy neutralized to save that fair land, the cradle of nominal churchianity, from the inevitable devastation resulting from its being the battle ground where a life-and-death struggle between the forces of Germany and the United Nations would be fought.
As students of the Bible, our chief interest in this development is not so much its political or nationalistic implications, although these are not without interest to those watching the fulfillment of prophecy. Nor is it possible to determine now what religious repercussions will follow in the wake of Italy’s invasion by the United Nations and the attempted defense put up by German troops. However, the historical background of Italy, and especially Rome, does snake anything that happens there of interest to Christians.
The teachings of Christianity reached Rome in the days of the Primitive church. While there is no definite historical proof, either sacred or secular, that the Apostle Peter ever visited Rome, yet we know that the Apostle Paul did. In fact, Paul was twice imprisoned in Rome, his second imprisonment terminating in death. This was in the days of the Pagan Roman Empire. As Christianity spread and its adherents became more numerous, some of the church’s worldly-minded leaders sought the favor of the state, and finally Rome adopted what was by then an apostate Christianity as the official religion of the state, and Pagan Rome became Papal Rome—the “Holy Roman Empire.”
For a thousand years and more—the Papal Millennium—Rome ruled Christendom in totalitarian style, politically and religiously. During all those hundreds of years there was but one recognized church in Europe. But it didn’t last—it couldn’t, because it was a unity enforced by the sword and by the tortures of the so-called Holy Inquisition.
Gradually Protestantism began to assert itself, and the professed church of Christ became divided. Protestant sects sprang into being in appalling numbers. About the middle of the 19th century an effort was made to halt this dividing up process by the formation of the Evangelical Alliance of the Protestant churches. Through this alliance the larger Protestant sects gave a measure of recognition to each other, agreeing that the members of any one of them had as good a chance to be saved as the members of any of the others. In a sense it was an agreement to disagree.
History records many religious unity movements, all of which have failed. One of the earliest of these was initiated by the decree of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He had an image erected as a symbol of the unity he hoped to establish in his realm, and commanded that all, especially the leaders of the people, should bow down and worship it. This was an ancient prototype of the later church-state systems of worship symbolically described in the Apocalypse as spiritual Babylon, and from which God’s true people are invited to separate themselves.—Revelation 18:4
The three Hebrews, Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego, servants of God in Nebuchadnezzar’s day, refused to bow the knee to Nebuchadnezzar’s image, just as thousands throughout this age have refused to worship God through the spiritually impure systems of church and state.
All the unity movements of history, however, have not been initiated by heathen nations. An ambitious effort to unify religious worship (more recent than the Evangelical Alliance) was the Parliament of Religions which convened in Chicago, Ill., in the summer of 1893. The purpose of this Parliament of Religions was set forth in the theme announced for discussion on the last day of the assembly, namely, “the religious union of the whole human family”—a more ambitious plan than that of the Evangelical Alliance. This religious union was to be accomplished through the recognition of “the elements of perfect religion as set forth in the different faiths.”
The Parliament was widely publicized, yet now, fifty years later, the world still remains religiously divided.
Present Efforts
The tragedies of the second world war in a generation, plus the rapid growth of irreligion, particularly in Russia and other parts of Europe, have again awakened the consciousness of outstanding church leaders of the world to the need of a solid front against growing evils, if organized religion is to be saved. Hence another unity movement is on foot. Archbishop McNicholas of Cincinnati, is reported as saying that the “danger of world chaos after the war should be anticipated now and churchmen should build a strong front against irreligion which is the source of practically all our current troubles.”
According to Religious News Service, “Churches want concrete representation at the future peace conference and are currently considering at least three proposals by which religion can make its influence felt in shaping the post-war order.” Religious News Service also reports that some Roman Catholic circles are suggesting that Pope Pius be invited to participate in peace table negotiations.
Jewish religious circles are also making their voice heard in this unity movement. The Rabbinical Assembly of America has authorized the appointment of a special committee to cooperate with other religious groups to the end that the voice of organized religion in the world may be heard in a recognized official capacity at the post-war peace conference.
Rev. Francis J.L. Beckman, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dubuque, Iowa, has said, “We join the Holy Father in praying that all men of good will collaborate ever more closely together in achieving during these difficult days an intimate, fruitful, effective, and practical meeting of minds on every phase of the forthcoming peace.”
We should assume that all of these various unity efforts are promoted by sincere motives to safeguard the well-being of mankind. Certainly, if organized religion, by having a voice at the forthcoming peace conference, could so influence the terms of peace as to make future war impossible, there would be few to raise a voice against it. While it is hoped that the intolerance of the past, displayed by those in positions of religious authority, might not now be repeated, yet it is well that Christians be on guard against any and all encroachments upon their religious liberty, which could follow in the wake of any unified efforts between church and state.
Religious convictions and emotions play odd pranks with human reasoning. Nebuchadnezzar felt fully justified in demanding universal worship of his image, and was willing to cast into the fiery furnace all those who did not bow the knee. Papacy, as we have seen, did not hesitate to burn at the stake those who refused to subscribe to its mandates. The Anglican church-state system of Great Britain did the same until modern times. Indeed, many of the founding fathers of America came to these shores to escape persecution in Europe by misguided worshipers of God.
Protestant church systems, though in many instances lacking civil power, have not hesitated to anathematize those who didn’t agree with them. While we thank God that such cruel religious persecution is a thing of the past, we should not be too sure. It would be one of the ironies of history if, after fighting for religious freedom, the peoples of the world should find they were not religiously free.
Poor man! Fallen and imperfect though he is, it is a tribute to his courage that he continues to do the best he can to rule himself. In the face of chaos, political and religious, he still courageously plans for, and will undertake to build, a brave new world. Jesus, the Founder of Christianity, however, had a different idea, to which He gave vivid expression by using the illustration that a wise man does not put new wine in old bottles, nor new patches on old garments.
The best man can do is to put his new ideas into the old framework of selfishness. He may do a fairly good job of patching up the old order and call it new, but the fabric of human selfishness upon which the patches are stuck will again give way, with the certainty that man’s so-called new order will be more chaotic than the old one.
This brings us back to Christian fundamentals, namely, that it is the God of heaven who will set up a Kingdom, not by enlisting the aid of outmoded and hopelessly divided organizations formed by man, but by ignoring them. While the rulers take counsel together and proclaim a confederacy, “He who sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.”—Psalms 2:1-9
God has His own King to administer the affairs of His Kingdom, hence, regardless of how successful the sincere efforts of world religionists may now be to delay the final failure of human wisdom, the true followers of the Master will continue to lay down their lives in His service, inspired with the hope of living and reigning with Him. They know that Christ’s Kingdom is not to be established through any effort of the church nominal courting the favor of civil powers, either at peace conferences or otherwise.
Following the first World War the League of Nations was enthusiastically hailed by many churchmen as the political expression of God’s Kingdom on earth. What a Kingdom! And how miserably it failed. Christians today realize that any similar effort to establish Christ’s Kingdom following this war will also fail, even as the union of church and state failed to maintain peace during the Dark Ages.
The chaotically divided condition of the world’s religions is not due to a desire of the people to have it so, as present unity efforts indicate. To the extent that religious worshipers use their reason, they must realize that, after all, there can be but one true God and Creator of the universe. Regardless of one’s faith, however, he hopes that his conception of God is the true one, even though he is unable to prove to his own satisfaction, or to the satisfaction of others, why the other fellow’s God is false.
Long centuries ago, when the Apostle Paul visited Athens, he found the people of that ancient Grecian city worshiping a multiplicity of gods, evidently with the hope that among all that great number one at least would be the true God. However, just in case the fertility of their human reasoning had, despite all their efforts, failed to conceive the real God, Paul found that they had an image erected and ascribed to the “unknown God.”
In the apostle’s sermon on Mars’ Hill, he calls attention to the many gods worshiped by the Athenians, and points out that he was there to reveal to them the unknown God whom they ignorantly worshiped. He assured the Athenians, nevertheless, that their ignorance and the ignorance of mankind in general concerning God was not to be lasting, nor was it to result to their eternal disadvantage, for he declared, their unknown God purposed a future time of enlightenment and judgment to be supervised by Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 26:9 shows that when the judgments of the Lord are abroad in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
Zephaniah 3:8,9, also gives us the assurance of a time coming when a pure, that is unmixed, message of truth will go out to all peoples, resulting in their all calling upon the name of the Lord to serve Him with “one consent.” Yes, there is a time coming when but one religion will be enthroned in the hearts of all mankind, a religion based upon a knowledge of the glory of God. This subject is of immediate concern today because the prophecies show clearly that the attaining of such a desirable religious setup in the world follows closely the present distress of nations.
Our text further affirms the fact that under the administration of Christ’s Kingdom there will be a universality of religious thought and devotion, and that all mankind will worship the one true God. Yes, “The Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day there shall be one Lord, and His name one.” (Zechariah 14:11) Zechariah’s prophecy indicates that the earthly headquarters of Messiah’s Kingdom will be at Jerusalem, and that the people of all nations will be required to recognize the authority emanating from there. An iron-rod rule will compel obedience at first, but through a divinely arranged program of education the people will learn to love their God and Benefactor, and will rejoice in the blessings that become theirs as they worship Him in spirit and in truth—the only kind of worship He accepts.—Isaiah 25:9