| Highlights of Dawn | July 1957 |
Beset by Anxiety
BILLY GRAHAM’S New York City campaign got under way on May 15, with the usual huge crowds attending his meetings. Practically all the Greater New York City Protestant churches have participated in two years of preparation for this campaign, and only a handful of each congregation attending the Graham meetings means tremendous audiences. How many avowed sinners attend and, as a result, confess belief in Christ and a determination to follow in his steps, is another matter.
Nevertheless, the Billy Graham campaign is a big event, even for a city like New York, and it is claiming a great deal of attention, some favorable and some critical. In response to questions asked him by a newspaper reporter, Dr. John Sutherland Bonnell expressed optimism. He said, “People will talk about religion. They will listen and talk and discuss in bars and hotels and poolrooms. Some will approve. Some will condemn. But hostility is better for religion than indifference.”
This same clergyman, noting that there seems to be a general resurgence of religion in America, attributed the reason to what he called a “gnawing anxiety” with which most people are beset. He observed that it is an anxiety which “individuals cannot fathom,” and for this reason they are turning to religion for the answers. “This resurgence,” said Dr. Bonnell, who is pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, “is the greatest of opportunities for the churches.”
It is indeed a golden opportunity for the churches, but how many of the clergy know the answers any better than the man in the street? How many know the real cause of the chaotic world conditions which lie at the bottom of the anxiety which gnaws at the hearts of the people? Does Dr. Bonnell know? He did not so indicate in answers to the questions put to him by the newspaper reporter, Paul Phelan, of The New York Times. All he had to suggest was that the world be reminded, as he put it, that man does “not live by bread alone.” What he really meant by this was that since all the material good things of life might well be destroyed by hydrogen bombs, the people could be comforted by urging them to prepare for the next world.
After all, churchianity in general has nothing more than this to offer, for the leaders of religious thought have long since lost sight of God’s great plan to establish a world government that will bring peace and security and life to “all the families of the earth.” The Early Church believed this. They believed that the second presence of Christ would result in the setting up of just such a government, and that of “the increase” of this “government and peace” there would “be no end.”—Isa. 9:6,7
But soon after the apostles fell asleep in death this hope of a future kingdom began to fade, and eventually the church united with the state, and the combination was said to be Christ’s kingdom—Christendom. In the Reformation many revolted against this form of government, particularly the Founding Fathers of America; but in so doing they did not regain the hope that the promised kingdom of Christ would be established when he returned. A small minority did, but this minority is ignored today by the established churches.
What we can now look back upon as history, Jesus foretold in one of his parables—The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares. (Matt. 13:24-30,36-43) Tares are counterfeit wheat, so the illustration of the parable is that there would be true and counterfeit believers throughout the age. In explaining the parable Jesus refers to the “wheat” as the “children of the kingdom.” History reveals that men established what they called the kingdom of Christ, but that claim was false. For this reason the counterfeit has to be destroyed, and in the parable it is represented as being destroyed at the end of the age, in a symbolic “furnace of fire.”
In the Bible, fire symbolizes destructive trouble, and it is reasonable to conclude that even now the world is in that trouble, that “fire,” which is destroying all false religious claims, and the standards and systems which are built upon them. That is why “Christendom” is today so much on the defensive. The time was when the churches talked of converting the whole world to Christianity within the lifetime of the present generation. Now they are struggling desperately to hold their own in an increasingly chaotic world.
In the time when the churches were endeavoring to convert the world, they looked upon America as being a Christian country. Now they are happy to see a “resurgence of religion in America,” even though it is induced by the fear of destruction by hydrogen bombs. One good reason the churches do not have the answers that will satisfy the man in the street is that they are unable to explain what has happened to their own philosophies and plans. Perhaps we shouldn’t expect anything else from those whose cherished hopes and systems are in a “furnace of fire.”
Having lost sight of the great kingdom prospects held out in the Bible, the professed Christian religion of today has nothing that is greatly different to offer than have the heathen religions. They all encourage living a good life, in order that one might he happier after death. Each religion has its particular, even though vague, concept of life after death. There are variations also of just what constitutes proper living before one dies. These differences are being recognized by liberal groups of professed Christians as being very slight, hence the tendency to preach the philosophy that it does not make much difference what one believes, that the important thing is to live right.
However, there still are controversies within churchianity, particularly between the Catholics and Protestants. This has flared into the open in connection with Billy Graham’s campaign in New York City. Catholics have been forbidden to attend his meetings. Nor are they permitted to listen to him over the radio or television. One reason given for this ban is that Graham preaches heresy in his insistence that there is no one denomination which is the true church of Christ. Father Kelly wrote:
Catholics should not tune in on Billy’s radio and television programs. So well constructed are his sermons, so interwoven is true and false doctrine, so forceful and persuasive in his delivery, that even a fairly well instructed Catholic may be deceived. For all Catholics, Billy is a danger to the faith.
That a ban has been placed upon Catholics against listening to Billy Graham is in principle nothing new on the part of the Catholic Church. Actually the same ban exists, and has existed for centuries, against listening to any exponent of religion other than Catholic. Catholics are, in fact, prohibited from reading the Bible unless it be an authorized Catholic version with its profuse explanatory notes. The claim is that only Catholics are able to interpret the Bible correctly. In the case of Billy Graham, it is simply that the Catholic Church has come out in the open and publicized the ban against Protestantism.
Can we expect that the Graham New York City “crusade” will greatly change the city for the better? Will crime diminish, and will some of the barrooms close? Will the memberships of the participating churches be increased? Statistics on the results of “crusades” in other cities suggest that the answer to these questions is in the negative.
Along this line it is interesting to note that while a resurgence of religion is being claimed for America, crime is also greatly on the increase. There are five million alcoholics, and nine and one-half billion dollars’ worth of liquor was consumed last year, and this amount is constantly increasing.
However, the outlook should not discourage us—not if we understand God’s plan for the conversion of the world. This plan has long since been lost sight of by churchianity. It is true that the world will be converted by the church in association with her Head, Christ Jesus—not the church in the flesh, but the true footstep followers of Jesus, raised from the dead in the “first resurrection,” and exalted to “glory and honor and immortality” with Christ.—Rom. 2:7
Meanwhile, God’s work in the earth is the calling out from the world of a “people for his name”; that is, those who are to be exalted with Christ and participate with him for a thousand years in the work of enlightening and blessing all mankind. (Acts 15:15-18) This work is not accomplished by preaching hell-fire in an effort to frighten people into accepting Christ. It is done by the proclamation of the truth concerning God’s great plan of the ages. We are happy in the realization that Gods Word and plan, when proclaimed in harmony with his purposes, will not return unto him void.—Isa. 55:8-11
CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA
In Charleston lives the oldest man in the United States to be drawing Social Security. He is one hundred and eighteen. Moses wrote, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be four-score years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” (Psalm 90:10) This limit of seventy or possibly eighty years is merely in the nature of a general average. Moses himself lived to be one hundred and twenty years old.
Prior to the Flood, when the human race was closer to the fountain of perfection as represented in father Adam, the average length of life was much greater. Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years. Methuselah, the oldest of them all, lived to the ripe old age of nine hundred and sixty-nine.
In Isaiah 65:20 we read that a time is coming when “there shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that bath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.” What this means is that those who then die at a hundred years of age will be mere infants compared to the length of time they could have lived had they been obedient to the laws of Christ’s kingdom. In ether words, as the text declares, if they die at a hundred years of age it will be because they are sinners.
Those who then accept Christ and obey the laws of his kingdom will never die. But they will not be on a humanly devised “Social Security” plan, as helpful as that is at the present time. However, the people will then be secure. This fact is symbolized in God’s promises by that well-known expression that every man shall then dwell under his own vine and fig tree. Then there will be none to make afraid.—Micah 4:4
SODOM AND GOMORRAH
A FRENCH archeologist believes he has discovered the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah, those ancient “cities of the plain,” as they are identified in the Bible. (Gen. 19:29) This discovery was in the general area where the famous Dead Sea Scrolls were accidentally found. If subsequent events prove his claim to be true, then another item of ancient history will have been confirmed.
A very interesting aspect of God’s plan of salvation is highlighted by the Bible’s several references to these wicked “cities of the plain.” They were destroyed by God because of their gross wickedness. Abraham’s nephew, Lot, lived in Sodom, and when he was told by the angels that they were commissioned to destroy the cities, he asked if they would refrain in the event a hundred righteous persons could be found in them. The angels agreed, and Abraham, continuing to press for mercy on account of his nephew Lot, finally reduced the possible number of righteous to ten; and still the angels agreed to save the cities.
But even a few as ten righteous persons could not be found in these wicked cities, so they were destroyed. Thousands of years later, Jesus, in comparing the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah with certain cities of his day who rejected him, said that if the same mighty works had been done in those cities that he had performed in Israel they would have repented. He added that because of this it would be more tolerable for them in the day of judgment than for those who rejected him and his teachings.—Mark 6:11; Matt. 11:21,23
In speaking thus Jesus may well have had in mind a prophecy recorded in Ezekiel 16:44-63. This prophecy assures us that “Sodom and her daughters,” as well as Samaria and her daughters,” will return to their “former estate”; that is, they will be raised from the dead. At that time also, the prophecy reveals, the Jewish people will be resurrected and will be ashamed of their sins, more so than the people of Sodom and Samaria.
It will be thus more “tolerable,” or favorable, for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah because their sin was against much less light than was the sin of Israel in rejecting their Messiah. But in the judgment day all—both Jews and Gentiles—will be given an opportunity, through enlightenment, to turn to the Lord, obey the laws of the kingdom, and live forever. Let us thank God for his mercy and love!
PHILADELPHIA, PENN.
A REPORT from the “city of brotherly love” states that scientists will be able to create living matter in the laboratory, and from this “first, long step,” go on to control human characteristics and all life. The report adds that this laboratory control will give science and the world a “short cut” for bypassing the long evolutionary process in developing mankind.
This is not the visionary guess of irresponsible scientists, but a report prepared and presented to the American Philosophical Society by Dr. Wendell M. Stanley, Nobel Prize Winner, and director of the University of California’s virus laboratory. However, it is an indulgence in wishful thinking, for Dr. Stanley added that the laboratory production of living matter hinges on the solution of finding the specific structure of nucleic acid, which is the basic life substance, or so they think.
Scientists have been accomplishing wonderful things. They have even made it possible to destroy the entire human race, but we predict that their ambition to create life will never be realized, The secret of life will continue td be held a secret by the Creator, and to the divine Christ, to whom it will be entrusted for the purpose of restoring life during the “times of restitution of all things.” On Mars’ Hill Paul said concerning God, quoting the ancient poets, “In him we live, and move, and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) The scientists will never be able to change this.
We recoil at the possibility that the time would ever come when it could be said that “in science we live, and move, and have our being.” To, illustrate, there has been considerable experimenting with efforts to control the weather. Farmers in drought stricken sections of the country would like to be able to make it rain. As commendable as this might seem, others are very fearful lest these experiments prove successful; for, if weather could be controlled, who would have the final word as to what sort of weather would be best for all concerned?
But control of the weather would lead to only mild confusion as compared to what would happen if the scientists could, at will, produce life. What sort of organisms would they create through which their synthetic life would find expression? Perhaps we are a little pessimistic, but with the scientists replacing God in the field of creation, we can imagine the earth filled with all sorts of creature monstrosities. With such an outlook, it would probably be better if the scientists did, first of all, destroy God’s human creatures with their hydrogen bombs.
Seriously, though, we need not be concerned. The scientists have not yet discovered the secret of life, and never will, even though they imagine that they will. Scientists are expert in the field of imagination. They imagine that billions of years ago a substance they call protoplasm just happened to come to life. Marvelous! They are able today to manufacture protoplasm of exactly the same sort that they claim just happened to develop billions of years ago. And they can do almost anything they wish with their synthetic protoplasm except make it live. Their imagination rather discounts their own abilities.
The Scriptures declare that “the fear [reverence] of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Ps. 111:10; Prov. 9:10) Reverence for the Creator implies, first of all, a recognition of his existence as the Creator of all substance and life. The recognition of this should lead to humility in the handling of all created things in order that we might learn from them more about their Creator. How shortsighted and unwise it is to ignore God and assume to become creators of life.
We marvel at the “increase of knowledge” which has come to mankind in the prophetic “time of the end.” But how few have contributed to it have been aware that it has been possible, not because of their supposed brilliance, but because the Lord’s time had come for the overthrow of this “present evil world,” and that science and invention would be permitted to take a part in it. The fact that man’s boasted wisdom has already led to these chaotic conditions and will eventually result in the downfall of human institutions, has not yet taught the scientists a lesson.
But ultimately they will learn that even science could not save humanity from the result of its own sin and selfishness, that only Christ’s kingdom could do this. Then they will also learn that God is the source of all life, and that by obedience to his laws of righteousness humans may live forever. Thank God for a knowledge of his plans and purposes!