When Russia placed the first man-made moons in orbit around the earth, she boastfully claimed the credit for her atheistic science. A poem from her magazine Krokodil said:
And here we have our Sputnik
No Secret: the newborn planet
Is modest about its size,
But this symbol of intellect and light
Is made by us, and not by the God
Of the Old Testament.
Some of her spokesmen twitted the Western nations for their lagging behind Russia in this field by suggesting that perhaps they needed to pray more; and East Germany's Communist newspaper Neues Deutschland proclaimed that their satellites proved that the earth is not at God's mercy. And a Russian magazine stated that the Communist Party is working to create conditions that will cause religion to vanish. Nor is this defiance of God, and self-deification, confined to Russia; it is becoming prevalent around the world and shows a distinct trend. Joseph Lewis, president of the Free-thinkers of America said that the new satellites had not broadcast any discovery of God and that man's science was making a mockery of the religions of earth. What egregious folly to think that they might locate God a few miles up, while distances in the heavens are measured in hundreds, thousands, and even millions of light years, only one of which is 6,000,000,000,000 miles.
Later, the United States Army placed two Explorer satellites in orbit; but the United States Navy had difficulty in shooting a Vanguard into space. After some unsuccessful attempts, their contractor, the Martin Company, made preparations for another launching. (And here another trend becomes evident.) This time, says the New York Times, "The gyroscopic guidance system in the Vanguard vehicle was supplemented by a specially installed device invoking Divine guidance. A St. Christopher medal was wired with great precision to the base of a gyroscope package in the second stage." In order to make such a change, a regular form had to be executed and signed by all of the engineers in charge of the various departments involved, and then sent higher for approval. The request for the change originated with an engineer, F. Paul Lipinski, a Roman Catholic, and was signed by eleven others, among them Catholics, Protestants, and Jews.
This event is in its way just as significant as the boastfulness of the Russians over their atheistic accomplishments. It marks another trend in the world today; it indicates the growth of religious superstition. This is to be seen in many places in the Western world. People flock to do homage to statues of the Virgin Mary, some of which are supposed to do cures, or have special powers, or shed tears at certain times. Thinking men would never have supposed that superstition would gain such a foothold in a Protestant United States as it has today. Since the Papal See decreed the dogma of Mary's bodily assumption into heaven, where they say she is now "the Queen of Heaven," the adoration of Mary has been widely accepted; and with it has been the rapid growth of many fantastic superstitions.
Take, for instance, this case of the affixing a medal of St. Christopher to a Vanguard vehicle for the "Addition of Divine Guidance." 'What utter folly! what blind superstition! what influence of Roman Catholicism (which claims an increase of about a million members a year in this country)! Who is this said St. Christopher? Any encyclopedia will give some information about him. Let us notice one of them:
"CHRISTOPHER, Saint (probably 3rd cent.), saint of the Roman Catholic and Greek churches, said to have lived in Syria and suffered martyrdom under the Emperor Decius (249-251). According to tradition he was 12 ft. tall and of prodigious strength. In the pride of his strength he would serve only the mightiest upon earth. While in the service of a king, seeing his master's dread of the devil, he became the devil's servant. One day, however, he saw the devil trembling before the image of Christ, and he resolved to serve Christ only, undertaking to carry Christian pilgrims across a river. One day Christ Himself came to him in the form of a child to be carried over, but the burden grew heavier and heavier, until it was almost too much for Christopher to reach the farther shore. 'Marvel not, Christopher,' said the child, 'for with me thou hast borne the sins of all the world.' St. Christopher (Gr. Christophorus, `Christ-bearer') is usually represented carrying the infant Christ and leaning on a great staff. The Greek Church celebrates his festival on May 9, the Roman Catholic on July 25."—Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia.
What pathetic nonsense! And yet otherwise sensible men and women invoke his help and guidance on journeys. He is the patron saint of travelers, and many automobile owners attach St. Christopher medals to their cars.
The Roman Catholic Book of Saints says of this "saint" that "around his memory have grown up many legends, the most beautiful of which" is the one of his carrying Christ as an infant across a river. And the Council of Trent (154563) of the Catholic Church affirmed that it is useful to invoke the saints on account of the benefits to be obtained from God through their intercession. Where is there any scriptural authority for praying to departed souls who at some time subsequent to their deaths were created saints by human canonization? Or where are we led by God to believe that we need the intercession of the soul of some departed man? Rather, we go direct to God by the Lord Jesus Christ. No human intermediary is required to gain access for us into the presence of God. Not any angel, or any man-made saint, or even the Virgin Mary, helps to gain a favorable hearing for us, for the Lord Himself said, "The Father Himself loveth you."
But superstition is on the rapid rise in the Western world, and this is a distinct sign that we are approaching the end of this dispensation. The Church of Rome is going to dominate the soon-to-berevived Roman Empire, and Protestantism is fast going down the road to join hand in-hand with Rome. The ecumenicalists in Protestantism are leading the way back to Rome. Soon the Lord will call saved ones from the vast profession of Christianity to be with Himself; and the great bodies of Catholicism and Protestantism which are left will quickly join hands to create "Babylon the Great," the "woman" who will ride the beast of the Roman Empire. (See Rev. 17.)
Side by side with this increasing tide of superstition, another thing is also growing; it is that which is symbolized in the Russian atheistic self glorification of man. Man is on the march to climax his greatness. Intellectual genius is not bringing him closer to God, but is making for his own deification. He is as Adam in the Garden of Eden, aspiring to be as God (Gen. 3); and, as man at the "tower of Babel," nothing seems to be restrained from him which he imagines to do (Gen. 10). Infidelity, agnosticism, and atheism flourish side by side with maturing superstition. Eventually the two will come into conflict, and what a sad spectacle it will be for this poor world! During those seven years after the Lord calls His people home to be with Himself, and before He comes back with them to reign, these two opposing forces will meet head-on.
At that time the ten united kings of the Roman Empire with their violent and wicked head will turn against the amalgamated apostate church and "shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put it 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." Rev. 17:16, 17. Not that conditions on earth will improve when the false profession (left after the true believers are called home) is destroyed by man, for then wickedness will fully ripen. Man will be deified and actually rise up in rebellion against God. The crowning act of this defiance will take place when the Western apostate world will actually try to use implements of war to fight against Christ when He comes in glory to the earth. He will destroy those rebels with the sword of His mouth and with the brightness of His coming.
Little do people today sense where the advance of superstition is leading the Western world (to the overthrow of even the outward form of religion), nor where atheistic science, which is thriving side by side with hollow superstition, will end—in the consuming judgments when the Lord comes to take vengeance on His rejecters—"on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thess. 1:8.
The information on the St. Christopher medal came to us from New York; and the following information, which points up the working of the same two principles, came to us from Canada:
(Translated extracts from "Objectif" which is edited by the Commissariat General of the Government for the World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958.)
" 'And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name.' These words, spoken by the builders of the Tower of Babel, could well serve as a motto for all who are preparing for the Brussels Universal and International Exhibition. We also are building a city, a city with pavilions; we are raising a tower, whose design is unique and of great height; we too, are seeking to make us a name. So it was in the Bible. But we shall be careful not to pursue the comparison, for it is certain that we shall finish our work, and it shall be crowned with success. It is concentrated on MAN, the essence of all things" (p. 11).
Here it is in their own words—MAN is their center essence of all things. They fully believe that nothing which they have imagined will be beyond their attainment. Little do they realize that the time is not far off when all "the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low." God hates pride, and the pride of the creature would lift itself up above its Creator. God will smash all the proud works of men, and "the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day." (Isa. 2:17.) But as the end approaches, God is allowing man's independence and wickedness to rise to unprecedented heights. That is a principle with God. He bears long with evil, but there comes a point beyond which His patience cannot go; He must and will judge men's wickedness and haughtiness.
Men need only read ancient history to see that all the great cities of the past ages fell; but infidelity, which rejects God's firm decree about this world, now thinks that men are building something enduring.
Another paragraph from "Objectif" sets forth the place which religion with superstition has alongside of man's pride and self-exaltation. On page 15, we read:
"Then, there is the support of a thousand year old state like the Holy See, which has never before in the whole course of its history taken part as a Sovereign State in an International Exhibition. The Brussels 1958 Exhibition owes this victory to the very spirit that moves it, to its special theme which is also unique in the annals of International Exhibitions. Under the sign of MAN in the search for international understanding, and with the desire to the spreading of a new humanism of a new age. The Vatican pavilion will be situated in the very heart of the Foreign Sections. It is called: 'The City of God.' The whole Catholic Church is participating—47 countries collaborating."
Here they are side by side again—Communism, infidelity, atheism, secularism, humanism, and man's self-exaltation, in the same exhibit with the very essence of superstition—that which is heading up for "Babylon the Great" on the one hand, and that which will utterly destroy her, on the other. Rev. 17 and 18 tell the same story. The two philosophies are going to meet head-on in the not-too-distant future. The one will destroy the other, with the survivor of the two (the secular, God-defying power) to be dashed "in pieces like a potter's vessel." (Psalm 2 and Rev. 19:11-21.)
Well may we bewail this poor world in the plaintive words of Scripture: "0 that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their later end!" Deut. 32:29. And the second Psalm, which describes how the Lord Jesus will break the whole world system to pieces, closes with this voice of wisdom: "Be wise now therefore, 0 ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little."
Here are two more extracts from the Belgian Exhibition bulletin:
"The building of the new world in which MAN is the keystone of the Arch." p. 21. "To embellish the life of MAN
- We aim at humanization with conditions worthy of MAN." p. 23. What must God think as He looks down and beholds estranged man getting ready for his own deification? Surely "the end of all things
is at hand." May we watch and be sober. May we keep a clear perspective and not be deceived by men's claims or their present achievements.
We would recommend that the readers secure copies of our pamphlet, "Toward the Man or Toward the Woman," by C. H. Brown, which outlines these two trends we have mentioned. And with the principles of the Word of God before us, we shall be able to trace these trends and stand aloof from both the one and the other. The consciousness of such pronounced trends should cause us to look up with daily anticipation of hearing His shout and being called to meet Him in the air.
"He is coming as the Bridegroom,
Coming to unfold at last
The great secret of His purpose, Mystery of ages past.
And the Bride, to her is granted,
In His beauty then to shine,
As in rapture she exclaimeth,
`I am His and He is mine.'
Oh, what joy that marriage union,
Mystery of love divine!
Sweet to sing in all its fullness,
`I am His, and He is mine.' "