| Highlights of Dawn | August 1952 |
Human Despair—Christian Hope
DR. NORMAN VINCENT PEALE, pastor of the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, said recently:
“This is probably the most nervous generation of Americans who ever lived. The patron saint of the Irish is St. Patrick; of the English, St. George. The patron saint of Americans is St. Vitus. … The American people are so tense and keyed up that it is impossible even to put them to sleep with a sermon. … That’s a sad situation.”
Many great truths have been spoken in jest, and this is certainly true of Dr. Peale’s analysis of the present attitude of the people of America—and he could just as appropriately have included the whole world. People are indeed nervous. And why shouldn’t they be? In many of our larger cities there are mock air raid alarms, and to get in practice for a future day of devastation all are expected to scurry for places of shelter; even school children are being put through drills calculated to teach them how best to escape death when destruction starts raining down from the skies.
Besides these ominous threats of physical destruction from the skies, the economics of the world are becoming more and more chaotic. In an alleged time of peace, billions of dollars are being spent in preparation for war. Labor is engaged in an all-out fight against capital, and capital against labor. Nearly all those outside of the United States are depending on Uncle Sam to keep them alive by grants of money for food, and to help them prepare for war. And there is really no prospect that these conditions will improve.
In this chaotic state of affairs in which all hearts are filled with fear as they look forward to the things coming upon the earth, churchmen of all denominations are lamenting the impotency of their position and confessing their inability to do anything to remedy the situation. Dr. Culbert C. Rutenber, professor of religion in Eastern Baptist Seminary, speaking recently in Chicago before 12,000 delegates of the American Baptist Convention, said:
“For the first time since Constantine the Great in the sixth century the church is not at home in its surroundings. Christianity has to shout to be heard at all, especially where masses are in revolt against the white man and his imperialism. There is no more restless group in all society than the Protestant clergy. The minister knows his local church does not really amount to much; the layman knows it too, and feels that there is more to Christianity than pulpit exhortation.”
Dating the present decline of church influence in the world as beginning about the close of the first World War, Dr. Rutenber said that the troubles besetting Christianity did not come suddenly, but gradually, and because the church failed to sense the warning of 1917 when Russia embraced atheism. He observed:
“The church should have girded itself for a showdown with the forces of hell; instead, it was asleep. Then fascism turned its back on Christianity and the church was still asleep. And now it is still asleep in its pleasant middle class surroundings, dreaming of the good old days when Christianity could be taken for granted.”
Speaking of what he called a “thin line of missionary heroes,” Dr. Rutenber said:
“They are members of a vanishing race. Formerly we had twice as many missionaries in the field as we have today. We could have more now if they could be found, for we have more money than qualified people.”
Methodist bishops, in an address read before the quadrennial conference of Methodists in San Francisco, while associating the decline of church influence with communism, declared that the church is faced with the necessity of dealing with a world which is in revolt against poverty, exploitation, and famine. Our real problem, they said, “turns out to be not communism, but revolution, and communism is a perverted and godless way of directing revolution to its own ends.”
While the outstanding church leaders of the various denominations may disagree slightly as to the meaning of the symptoms of a world sickness which is rapidly bringing about the death of the patient, they all know, and admit, that the situation is serious; so serious indeed, that they are unable to suggest a workable solution. Oh yes, they all have many “ifs”—“if” we could do this, and “if” so and so would only do that, they say, then conditions would rapidly improve. But nobody is able to remove these “ifs.”
Ordinarily we might expect the Catholic Church to be gloating over the failure of the Protestants, but they are cautiously silent along this line. Indeed, discussing the situation within their own family, so to speak, they also admit that they are in trouble. In a recent issue of the Catholic organ, America, it was reported that “far less than half the population of the Eternal City attends Sunday Mass regularly.” The editor tries to explain why this “lamentable” situation exists, but the fact remains that closest to the very seat of this powerful organization, which once boasted that Italy was one hundred percent Catholic, its “children,” in alarming proportions, are becoming unfaithful to the church. Many are turning to other ideologies, but millions are lapsing into an existence of hopeless despair.
To those who understand the divine plan of the ages, this gloomy outlook of the nominal church world is not at all surprising. Indeed, they see it as a fulfillment of prophecy—prophecy, that is, which foretold the failure of humanly constituted church organizations to convert the world and usher in an era of universal and lasting peace. One of the descriptive names prophetically given to nominal churchianity is “Babylon,” meaning confusion. In the prophecies in which this term is used, “Babylon” is represented as “fallen,” and the Lord’s consecrated people are urged to “come out of her” that they be “not partakers of her sins, and receive not of her plagues.”—Rev. 18:1-4
“Babylon” today is certainly being plagued. She is plagued with failure and fear, with helplessness and frustration. Adding to this dilemma is the fact that while many in the world are earnestly turning toward religion to find solace for their fears, the churches are unable to give them any genuine comfort. The only thing they can say is that if the whole world would only learn to “be good,” conditions would rapidly improve. Recognizing this, some are already turning to other sources to seek information concerning religion.
Recently the American Federation of Labor Local in Milwaukee sent a lengthy request to the “Ford Foundation” asking that it use some of its millions in a research attempt to discover the true religion and thus be in a position to advise the people plainly on this important subject. How discouraging this must appear to organized churchianity! That laymen, representing thousands of the rank and file of the people of all denominations, should turn to a nonreligious institution for guidance in religious matters points up the extent to which confidence has been lost in the ability of the churches to serve as spiritual guides of the people.
There are some in the great denominational systems who hold vaguely to the promises of God concerning the ultimate triumph of true Christianity which is to be manifested in the establishment and reign of the kingdom of Christ. This came to light recently in connection with the decision of the “advisory commission” of the World Council of Churches to make “Christian hope” the theme of its conference in 1954. A report of the commission issued early in April suggested the second coming of Christ as a theme, but this was given up in the face of opposition by liberal churchmen who do not believe in the second coming. Even the less provocative theme of Christian hope is being subjected to severe criticism by baptized but unbelieving church leaders. However, some are coming to its defense. One of these is Henry E. Kolbe, who, writing in The Christian Century, said:
“The history that is ‘coming’ will be under the judgment of and lordship of the Christ that is ‘coming.’ Is that a paralyzing kind of despair, leading to defeatism and inaction, coming to terms with the claims of despotic men or governments? Or is it hope—an enlivening hope inspiring men to stand against despotism and causing them to go to preach the lordship of Christ and the coming of the kingdom?
“To a world filled with memories of Belsen and Buchenwald, of forced mass migrations of peoples, of slave camps and tortures; to a world which cannot forget Hamburg or Hiroshima or Nagasaki; to a world filled with fear of demoniac totalitarianism or the destructive power of the well named ‘hell-bomb’—to such a world is it despair or hope for the church to proclaim that whatever may come in the future, Christ also is coming, and that that future is in his hands? Can anything less than such a proclamation be meaningfully designated ‘Christian hope?’ “
Basically, Mr. Kolbe gets near to the real truth of the divine plan as it is set forth in the Scriptures, and we admire his courage in proclaiming the hope of the kingdom in the face of such overwhelming opposition. Let us hope that it will afford a ray of hope to some in “Babylon” who have not as yet fully succumbed to what he calls the “liberal tradition”—a polite description of atheism.
The return of Christ and the establishment of his kingdom is indeed the real hope of both the church and the world. Those who are earnestly and humbly watching the fulfillment of prophecy relating to these closing days of the present Gospel age recognize the signs which betoken the second presence of Christ as already begun. They see him executing the judgments of God against the nations and sinful institutions in general. They see him as the great “King” who is “marching on” to trample out “the vintage, where the grapes of wrath are stored.”
Yes, they see that Jehovah has already “set” his “King” upon his “holy hill of Zion,” and that he is dashing the nations to pieces as “a potter’s vessel.” (Ps. 2:6-9) We know, of course, that the individual work of judgment is still future; and so is Jesus’ kingship over and in the hearts of individuals still to come. His judgment and rulership over the nations are for the sole purpose of destroying “this present evil world,” and it is plainly evident that this work of destruction has already begun. The nations are angry, and this is one of the evidences that the “kingdom of the world has become our Lord’s and his Christ’s.”—Rev. 11:15,18, Diaglott
If Mr. Kolbe, even with a somewhat uncertain hope of the coming kingdom, and surrounded by colleagues who have no such hope at all, sees the urgency of preaching the message of the kingdom, how much more should we to whom the jubilee trumpet of world emancipation is sounding so clearly! Actually, there is no other vocation in life more worthwhile than being the ambassadors of earth’s new King—the “King of kings, and Lord of lords.”
There is much to be said in connection with proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom. It calls for the clearing up of all the misconceptions of the Gospel which have come down from the Dark Ages, such as the torture theory, the trinity dogma, the false notion that the church was commissioned to convert the world during the present Gospel age, and the glorious fact that there is to be a future opportunity to obtain salvation for all those who have not had a full opportunity in this life.
It is a wonderful story which we have to tell to the nations! and there are many opportunities for proclaiming this message of hope in a despairing world. Only those who know the plan of God are qualified to tell it clearly and effectively. The fact that it has been given to us to know “the mysteries of the kingdom of God” places a heavy responsibility upon us. May we meet that responsibility in the true Christian spirit of self-sacrifice, zeal, and fortitude, looking to our Lord for guidance and strength in every time of need.