A Congressional Record

FROM now until election time in November we will be hearing much about the accomplishments of Congress. The Republicans will be praising what has been done by their representatives, and the Democrats will be insisting that had it not been for the Republicans some really worthwhile laws would have been put on the statute books. But regardless of these claims and counter claims the offering of a significant prayer recently by the Senate chaplain is worthy of mention. It was not the ordinary sort of prayer that is offered in governmental circles, for the nature of it was such that should it be answered it would revolutionize the thinking of our lawmakers and go a long way toward solving the problems of the world. In this prayer the Rev. Peter Marshall said:

“O God our Father, we pray that the people of America, who have made such progress in material things, may now seek to grow in spiritual understanding, for we have improved means but not improved ends. … We need thy help to do something about the world’s true problems—the problem of lying, which is called propaganda; the problem of selfishness, which is called self-interest; the problem of greed, which is often called profit; the problem of license, disguising itself as liberty; the problem of lust, masquerading as love; the problem of materialism, the hook which is baited with security.”

Could it be that the association of Rev. Marshall with the United States Senate led him to the conclusion that propaganda is another name for lying; that the great cry for liberty by all parties is expressive largely of a pent-up desire for license to do anything which one’s fancy may dictate; and that the great desire for security evidences a lack of faith in God’s overruling care, a lack which is described by the term materialism? It would seem so.

Yet is it not true that this very lack of faith prevents the world from adopting a program of honesty and unselfishness which is suggested in this remarkable prayer? Are the governments of the world prepared to tell only the truth in their information services? The Rev. Marshall evidently thinks that even the propaganda of the United States Government is often tinctured with falsehood. When we consider the implications of this prayer, and reflect upon the great need for the moral and spiritual reform which it calls for, it helps us to realize that the only way it can be answered is through the establishment of Christ’s kingdom. And that kingdom will be established. It will be established upon the ruins of the present governments of earth—governments which are going into ruin because of the selfishness, materialism, deceit, and unrighteousness upon which they operate. The Rev. Marshall expressed the sentiments of Jesus’ prayer when he taught his disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

This Material World

SCIENCE continues its attempts to dig below the surface of the physical universe, and as it does, it turns up more and more mysterious matters. One of the latest of these is what has tentatively been called the “neutrino.” It is admitted that no one has ever seen neutrinos, nor any definite trace which they have left behind; nevertheless it is now considered certain that they exist. And just possibly, science agrees, they may turn out to be the most important things in the physical universe.

Neutrinos, it is thought, are perhaps two-thousandths the mass of an electron, and have no electrical charge by which they can be influenced electrically. They pass right through matter as if it were not there. Physicists have calculated that it would take a lead shield two hundred million million miles thick to stop speeding neutrinos. All of this is interesting, though still in the realm of theory.

As the scientists tell us about these wonderful discoveries it makes us realize how very much there is to this material world which cannot be seen with the naked eye. We are reminded in this connection of what the Bible tells us about the resurrection of Jesus, and of his ability to be present with his disciples without their being able to see him. The Bible tells us that on one occasion he entered the room where they were staying while the door was closed and locked. We still can’t explain how this was done, but with the knowledge that there are elements in the physical world that can pass through a heavy shield of lead, it is not hard to believe that the One who helped to create all things, hence would understand all the laws governing matter of every kind, would be able to accomplish feats which the Bible ascribes to Him. Faith, in other words, may have reason as a foundation.

Is America Becoming Catholic?

THE Roman Catholic Church in the United States is not standing still, reports Time magazine. The 1948 Official Catholic Directory shows that the number of Catholics in the United States increased 807,524 during 1947. The number of converts to Catholicism was record-breaking—a total of 115,214. This means that the increase by birth was something less than 700,000. These figures sound impressive, but the report does not reveal that the increase of membership in the church, both through births and conversions, has not kept pace with the increasing population of the country. In New York City alone, for example, the population has increased 1,000,000 since the close of the war. In other words, the Catholic Church in America is not becoming a larger minority.

Offsetting the gains in membership in America has been the loss of membership in many European countries; and where actual membership has not decreased, there has been a loss of full obedience to the church; as, for example, in Italy, where 8,000,000 defied the anathemas of the church by voting the communistic ticket in their last election. Wherever Communism spreads and the lands of the nobility and the church are divided among the peasants, confidence in the church begins to wane.

But the Catholic Church is not alone in its losing struggle to convert America and the world. The last hundred years have witnessed the most gigantic missionary efforts by all churches that were ever undertaken. But despite these efforts, while the number of Japanese, Chinese, and Hindus converted to Christ has increased, the heathen population of the world as a whole has more than doubled, and professed Christian countries have become almost entirely pagan and godless. High prelates of the Church of England, for instance, now admit that Great Britain is no longer a Christian country.

To all who think seriously, this raises an interesting question—in fact, it raises several questions. Does it mean that Christians have failed in what the Lord wanted them to do, and if so, does it mean that the Lord has failed to carry out his plan on behalf of the world? Or, if we conclude that it would be impossible for God to fail, does it mean that his professed people have had a mistaken understanding of what he wanted them to do? It is this last question that should be answered in the affirmative. The professed churches of Christ, both Catholic and Protestant, have indeed been undertaking to do something which God did not authorize, hence their mounting failures.

It is true that Jesus commanded his followers to go into all the world and preach the Gospel and to make disciples from among all nations, but it was not expected that all nations would by this method be converted to Christ. The Apostle James, speaking at the first church conference ever held—which was at Jerusalem a few years after the death and resurrection of Jesus—explained that the proclamation of the Gospel to Gentiles was for the purpose of gathering out from them a people to be associated with Christ as joint-heirs in his future kingdom—a “people for his name,” is the way the apostle states it. It was to be subsequent to this, he explained, that all the Gentiles would be given an opportunity to accept Christ and live.

There is much said in both the Old and New Testaments concerning the setting up of a divine rulership in the earth, in the hands of One whom the Scriptures designate as the Messiah and King of both Jews and Gentiles. Shortly after the twelve apostles appointed by Jesus died, the professed church of Christ began to get the idea that God wanted them to set up his kingdom for him, so gradually the church-state systems, first of Rome, and then of all Europe were formed. These were looked upon as Christ’s kingdom, established in fulfillment of the promises of the Bible; but in reality they were nothing more than counterfeits of that kingdom. Because of this they were doomed to failure—a failure of man-made institutions—not of the plan of God.

The real kingdom of God is yet to be manifested to the world. In that kingdom the ruler will be, not the corrupt civil governments of Europe, but Jesus, and associated with him those who throughout the present age have followed faithfully in his footsteps of sacrifice and suffering. These will share his kingdom glory, not because they have been either Protestants or Catholics, but because they have been obedient to the Word of God no matter what the cost may have been. There have been a few such faithful Christians in every part of the age, but they have, not been recognized by the world nor by worldly churches. Often they have been branded as heretics and persecuted. Some have been thrown to the lions, some have been burned at the stake, and others have suffered the horrors of the so-called “holy inquisition.” The world has despised and oft-times hated these faithful followers of Jesus, but God has loved and cared for them, and in the first resurrection they will be exalted to glory with Jesus, and will reign with him a thousand years.

During that thousand years the world will actually be converted to Christianity—and it will be a true conversion. Jesus will be accepted and honored as The Prince of Peace. This means that. God’s promises concerning a time when the nations will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruninghooks will come true. The earth will then be filled with a knowledge of the glory of God, and the people will learn to know him as a God of love.

How different that will be from erroneous conceptions of God which have come down to us from the Dark Ages! No longer will the people be told that God intends to torture unbelievers forever in a fiery hell. No longer will they be told that he intends to punish them in purgatory. Through the Prophet Isaiah the Lord tells us that the people’s fear toward him is “taught by the precept of men.” (Isa. 29:13) Human wisdom has erroneously decided that the only way to induce people to believe in Jesus and practice righteousness is to frighten them with the threat of hell-fire. Human wisdom has not yet learned that love is a more powerful influence than fear, that stony hearts melt under the warmth of the true Gospel of love, while millions are made atheists by the God-dishonoring teaching of eternal torment.

What rejoicing there will be when the news is flashed around the globe that millions are daily turning to Christ, that nations are adopting the way of love instead of hate; and that the resources of the earth are being used to provide the blessings of life rather than the sinews of war. This is the bright prospect held out to us in the Word of God. Shall we not, then, continue to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

Poverty of the English Church

THERE are many trouble spots in this world of distress, such as Germany, Greece, Palestine, and China. What happens politically and internationally makes top news, but in addition to that which appears on the surface, other things are occurring which perhaps are more significant hi revealing the causes of world change than some of the items which make up the daily headlines. For example, the report of a financial crisis in the state church of England. This situation was publicized recently in connection with what is known as the Lambeth Conference—a conference which is attended by the bishops of the church from all over the world.

It has been eighteen years since the last Lambeth Conference was held. The outlook at that time for the church was very bright. There was, as the church then viewed matters, every prospect of a militant Christian revival, and the finances of the church enabled it to face the future as one of the richest church organizations in the world. But in the eighteen years since, the situation has changed radically, for this year the Lambeth Conference met against a background of crisis. Church membership has fallen off to an alarming degree, and the financial position of the church is desperate. The report reveals that the church faces a deficit of approximately five million dollars on a single year’s operation.

When we learned that the Laborite Government of Great Britain nationalized the railroads, few of us thought of it in terms of how it would affect the church, but now it is reported that this has cost the church nearly a million dollars a year in dividends. Now church leaders are telling the public bluntly, “The church is yours. It cannot go on serving you unless you are prepared to maintain it.” In reply to this a churchwarden in London expressing the viewpoint of many of the lay members of the church said,

“Why should the church call on the people before it puts its own house in order? First let the church’s income be shared equally among all the priests in a Christian way. Then we will give. Let the bishops hand over their palaces, forgo all income over five hundred pounds a year. … Skim the cream from the fat livings and use all this surplus to raise stipends, house the clergy properly, and put everything in order. Then, and only then, should church-goers be called upon to give more.”

News items of this sort are most revealing. They are important underlying causes of the world-shaking changes which are going on all around us, for they indicate that churchianity no longer holds a commanding position in the viewpoint and conduct of the people. This apparently is particularly true in Great Britain, a country which in the past has been among the world’s most religious, and where even today a state church nominally still exists. With this waning interest in churchianity an increasing loss of confidence is automatically developing in the moral and ethical standards of the church, both among individuals and in governmental circles. Thus a state of moral anarchy is developing throughout the whole world. In the Bible these moral and spiritual restraints are symbolized by the heavens, and Jesus said that at the time of his second presence the powers of the heavens would be shaken, and it is given to this generation to witness the fulfillment of this prophecy.

World Fight on Mental Illness

WORLD educators and scientists met in London in August for a world federation for mental health. This gathering was sponsored by the International Committee for Mental Hygiene, and the first meeting was held on August 11. Many leading United States educators, psychiatrists and sociologists attended the conference. This voluntary international body represents the first large world mobilization of all the forces concerned with mental health. Hundreds of delegates participated, representing thirty-seven nations.

The urgency for such a conference is revealed in statistics pertaining to the mentally ill. In America, for example, the most favored of all lands on the earth today, one out of every seventeen is psychotic, either confined in institutions or belonging in them. This represents a total of 8,000,000 persons suffering from some form of acute mental illness. These figures come from the office of the United States Surgeon General. One out of every ten persons, it is claimed, will spend some part of his life in a mental hospital, which means that 14,000,000 persons now living in the United States will be hospitalized for mental illness one time or another. Of all hospital patients in this country, half are in nervous or mental hospitals.

Naturally the proportion of mental cases in other countries, especially those which have suffered most from the ravages of war, is far greater. Many of those who attended the London conference in August believe that this condition of things has much to do with the increasing misunderstanding among world powers, hence is a potent contributing factor leading to war. They have hope that some way will be found to apply the science of psychiatry in the realm of world diplomacy and thus assist the various nations to obtain a better understanding of one another. This is indeed a noble objective, and one for which we can all wish success.

Surely the world is in need of the services of the Great Physician, the One whom the Scriptures declare will heal all diseases. It is odd, though, that so many, even among the so-called thinkers, still continue blindly to insist that the world is steadily progressing to ever greater heights of culture and civilization, when the facts are that within another hundred years or so at the present rate of disintegration, almost the entire race will be insane. Surely the theory of human evolution does not hold out much hope for the world today!

And this emphasizes again that the only hope for the world is the establishment of Christ’s kingdom. According to the prophecies of the Bible the time has come for just that to occur, not by human effort, but by divine intervention and power. That kingdom, according to God’s own promises, will solve all the problems of distressed humanity, including that of mental illness. To appreciate fully the beauty of this divine plan for the human race it, is essential to accept the scriptural fact of man’s fall into sin and death, the redemptive work of Christ, and God’s plan to restore the human race to its lost edenic estate through the administration of Christ’s kingdom.

Peacetime Conscription

ONE of the laws passed by the last session of Congress will have more serious consequences for hundreds of thousands of the nation’s young men than the high cost of living. We refer to peace-time conscription. Having helped to fight two global wars in order to prevent European dictatorship from fastening its fangs upon America, millions of American people are shocked that European militarism is now beginning to encroach upon us in the form of peacetime conscription.

But despite this step backward in the path of liberty, the nature of the new conscription law bears eloquent testimony to the fact that United States lawmakers still recognize that their votes in the passing legislation should not be construed as an attempt to impose a dictatorship over the consciences of men, for the law provides for the deferment of genuine conscientious objectors. In this respect, however, the law is slightly different from the wartime draft, in that only those who are conscientiously opposed to war due to their belief in a Supreme Being whose laws governing human conduct supersede the laws of men are exempted. There are many in this country who are conscientiously opposed to war on humanitarian and ethical grounds alone, but these will not be deferred by the new law as it now stands.

Regardless of our own views on the matter of participating in war, we can’t help being thankful that in America a Supreme Being and Ruler of the universe and his right to dictate the course of human behavior is given recognition by our lawmakers. This is not true of most other countries of the world. In communist Russia prior to the last war, some such provision was made in the law governing conscription, but early in the war the Russian government announced that it had been abolished because no one took advantage of it. If this were really true, it means that the youth of Russia had been so thoroughly trained in the idea that the state was supreme that the possibility of an authority higher than the state seemed unthinkable.

In Hitler’s Germany, however, no such provision was ever made, with the result that thousands died under his ruthless dictatorship rather than participate in a campaign of legalized killing called war. The example set by these young Christians of Germany, showing their willingness to stand up before a firing squad and be shot to death, serves well to disprove the allegation of some that men claim conscientious objections to war simply to escape the dangers of war. This could be true of some; nevertheless, there are thousands of Americans today, who, like their Christian brethren in Germany during the war, would rather spill their own blood in defense of conscience than do anything which would assist in taking the lives of other human beings. Our lawmakers are to be congratulated for giving recognition to these heroes of conscience. It means that in these United States we have one of the best governments existing in the world today.

But those who believe in the existence of a Supreme Being, and believe the promises recorded in his Word, look forward to the establishment of a government in this world which will be much better. The Prophet Isaiah foretold its coming, and revealed that Jesus would be its Head. Concerning it he wrote that of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end—that is, it will embrace all nations. The Prophet Micah assures us that under the administration of that government men shall learn war no more, and that the resources of the earth now being diverted into channels of war, or the preparation for war, will be used in peaceful pursuits, that they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks.

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