As we gaze on the great sea of humanity we notice it heaving and tossing in response to the volcanic storms that are raging underneath it. Elemental forces are at work all over the world, and primitive barbarism is threatening to displace the ordered living which civilization requires.
The root of all this unrest is to be found in the denial of the Father and the Son. It is the spirit of Antichrist abroad on the earth―the devil ruling in the place of God, and the councils of darkness swaying the destinies of man. Men are looking for the superman, and not to the God of all the earth.
The awful blasphemy that has led one nation to eliminate the Name of God from all its schools is spreading everywhere: “We be gods,” men cry, and then act as devils. The humanizing of God and the deification of man is the spirit of this age. The riot of self-will; everyone doing that which is right in their own eyes, leads to the awful menace of Bolshevism, which is the direct result of the materialism and modernism of the present day. There seems to be a collapse of moral energy in the world―the power to do evil is stronger than the desire to do right. The hidden forces of evil in the natural man which are to a certain extent repressed by the obligations of society, show themselves in a variety of ways — sometimes in the quieter forms of unbelief when human credulity is be fooled by so-called diviners, by false mediums, who are the mouthpieces of demons to the world; by charlatans who pretend to the gift of healing, by palmists, by fortune-tellers, by crystal-gazers, by wizards who pretend to hold mysteries of life and death in thrall, by the atheists who in their blasphemy speak of “somebody called God”―by the modernists or semi-atheists, as we may call them, who under the guise of religion, sow “doctrines of devils,” the denial of the Father and the Son, all over the world today. These false witnesses, garbed as Christian men, are the choicest emissaries of Satan, his chosen vessels to poison the minds of men with the specious sophistries of perdition. They not only speak of the. Saviour as a fallible man, but deny the inspiration of the Book that speaks of Him.
A Christian father told me an incident of his son’s life in a public school. At the Scripture class, the Book of Jonah, or a part of it, was read. The head master said to the class, “I suppose there is no one here who believes the story of Jonah and the whale? “The son of the father who told me, rose and said before all the class,” I do believe it sir.” The answer of the master was,” Then you must be a fool.”
Alas! for the boys of England taught by a modernist like this. But it is difficult for parents to find schools now which are not tainted with these abominable heresies.
These modernists many of them are men with little principle. They robe themselves as clergymen or ministers, and then deny all that they swore to maintain as truth. They still take the emoluments of their office, and use the opportunity thus given them to, Judas-like, sell their Lord to His enemies; and because these men are pleasant in their bearing, and have a suave and captivating manner, we are told that they must not be spoken hardly of, they must be dealt gently with, although “they crucify the blessed Lord afresh,” and deny the Lord who bought them. I say, shame on such cowardly reticence. Why should Christians be afraid to say what they think about the blasphemers, when they hold huge meetings to protest against their blasphemy? The Father and the Son, will not separate the man from his words in the day of judgment, unless he repents.
But to convene meetings in the spirit of compromise is worse than not having them at all, we think. We are told never to criticize, and least of all denounce, any who hold these views that are not fundamental. What does Paul say to such, and of such? “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men or God? or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”
These are the strong words of a man who was out and out for Christ. No compromise with Paul, when the honor of his Lord was questioned, but fierce and terrible denunciation against any who preached another gospel―let him be accursed. Brave Paul, you did not wear kid gloves in your conflict with Christ’s enemies, and use honeyed words to those who denied your Lord. You bare about in your body the marks of the Lord Jesus: scars of stones, and chains, and the tortures of the prison-house, all borne for Him, that made frail the body that contained the indomitable purpose of letting all men know the fervor of thy love for Christ. We hear thee say, Paul, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha” (accursed at the Lord’s coming). This is the picture of a first century man of God, and a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is our position towards the Lord Jesus Christ?
The result of the atheism and modernism abroad in the world today is educating men and women into Socialism — a growing force which “teaches and believes the folly that material comfort may come to all under the reign of an omnipotent and atheistic bureaucracy administering the affairs of State.” They build their theories on destruction, moral and spiritual, and are an unceasing menace to the nations of the world.” The atheist and the modernist work hand in hand.
All these things spring from the terrible unrest in the world today — a world that is deliberately trying to do without God and His Beloved Son. “The wicked are like the troubled sea, casting up mire and dirt,” and the world is full of the mire and dirt of an unrestful and wicked age. The great strikes that paralyze commerce are the outcome of the forces of the restless unbelief of men and women. The increasing love of pleasure and the desecration of the Lord’s Day are the terrible results of the materialism and modernism of these times. On Sundays we have the picture palaces and theaters open―bands playing in the parks, and concerts in the large halls. Sunday newspapers have an enormous circulation. All these things lead to a total neglect of the Word of God and a loosening of every moral bond.
It is the everlasting shame of Christendom that a large number of so-called Christians do not believe in the Christ of Scripture at all, and tens of thousands who do believe in Him are lukewarm, and prefer the ease of quiet living to the battlefields of service for their Lord.
If we want to help in God’s work we must face the evils, of which we have been speaking, in the power of God. How glorious to win souls for Jesus Christ day by day; to be true to Him in a world where He was crucified, and where He is denied now! How good to remember that Jesus is God―to be able to say:
“There is no other name but Thine,
Jehovah-Jesus, name Divine;
On which to rest for sins forgiven,
For peace with God, and hope of Heaven.”