Religious Apathy and the Reason for It by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 17, 1912

Religious Apathy and the Reason for It

By C. M. S.

SOME TIME AGO THERE WAS PROPOUNDED BY A PROMINENT AND WIDELY READ MAGAZINE THIS QUESTION: “What books have had the greatest influence upon the thought of the nineteenth century?” Answers were published from G. Stanley Hall, president of Clark University; W. DeWitt Hyde, president of Bowdoin College; Arthur T. Hadley, president of Yale University; Henry van Dyke, professor of English literature at Princeton; Edward Everett Hale, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and James Bryce,—all men who are thoroughly conversant with the literature of the day, and who aim to be familiar with the prevailing thought of the people.

Each of the above named submitted a list of ten books which he considered had “had the greatest influence upon the thought of the nineteenth century.” It is a singular fact that, while each of these names books that are not named by the others, yet there is one book that they all agree must have a place among the ten. That book is the one which is the chief exponent of the evolution theory, the theory of man’s descent from the lower animals.

These men are not giving a list of what they consider the greatest books of the century, but a list of the books that have had the greatest influence upon the thought of the people of this century. Viewed in this light, their answers are significant indeed; and their unanimous decision in reference to that book is startling, to say the least. The influence which the learned theorist who wrote that book is exerting upon the people can not be estimated, but it is eating like a cancer into the religious life of the people of this generation. A careful and prayerful study of the Word of God, and a real experience in Christian life, would have armed the people against this insidious, undermining foe; but the people have neglected that armor, have neglected the study of the Word, held their Christian experience too lightly, allowed themselves to be lulled to sleep with pleasant words; and when this foe came in with its subtle insinuations, they were prepared to receive it as a friend.

At first they imagined that they could in some way hold to the theory of evolution and still be Christians, still believe the Bible. Thus disarmed, the enemy soon had them at his mercy, and they forsook the divine truth for the human theory, the temple of God for the slough of doubt. Unfamiliar with the use of that shield which would have quenched all the fiery darts of the enemy, they were vulnerable at every vital point. Doubt robbed them of the quickening power of a real Christian experience, and then merged into actual disbelief; and disbelief of God’s own account of the origin of life in the earth, set the muck-rakes of God’s accusers at work for the secret of life in the protoplasm and the ameba, and so developed that human invention the “missing link.” The propounding of great questions to which they could discover no answer, the discovery of phenomena which they could not explain, and the building of a false theory upon their unanswered problems and unexplained phenomena,—this was labeled “Science,” and familiarity with it was made a requisite of scholarship.

Then, by this class, ministers of the gospel were held to be behind the times

unless they could disbelieve God because they were not able to fathom all his secrets. It became “fashionable” to be an evolution theorist; it became “out of style” to have explicit confidence in God’s Word; and the fashionable pastor of the fashionable church yielded to the influence of his fashionable members, and “set the style” for many another whose foothold upon the Rock was already insecure. This is no fanciful linking of events in the popular drift toward clerical infidelity. It is the sorrowful setting forth of what has actually taken place, and is taking place now, in all parts of the country.

The church is in the wilderness of her great temptation. In too many cases she is yielding to Satan’s suggestion, and is trying to get the bread of life out of the stones of the desert. She breaks them open, finds a fossil, and discovers (?) that her Master’s record of creation is untrue. Eve found out in that same way that she could not die. Eve’s descendants are reaping now the sad fruit of her wonderful discovery. God told man in Eden, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Satan scoffed, and Eve doubted. God has told man the secret of his existence. Satan has scoffed again, and the fashionable church is doubting, and logical doubters are growing cold in church attendance.

Here is one of the chief secrets of the empty pew, the dry sermon, and the decay of spirituality in the churches; and that decay will increase, and the number of empty pews will increase, just in proportion as the theory of evolution supplants the truths of God’s Word in the minds and hearts of those who have called themselves Christians. It is the logical and inevitable outworking of such a program.

Evolution deals in fossils. The starfish forces open the shells of the mollusk, sucks out the life, and leaves the empty shell to fill with mud and form a fossil. That is what evolution is trying to do with Christianity. With many individual members of churches it is succeeding. They have been robbed of Christian life, spiritual vitality, and all they have left is the dead, fossilized form of what they once had been.

The man who has ceased to believe God’s Word can not be expected to put zeal and whole-heartedness into the worship of the One who indited that Word. The true believer expects to meet God in the place dedicated to his worship; but what incentive has the logical doubter for attendance at such a place? What incentive, then, has the evolutionist for attendance there? What heart has the “spiritual adviser” in his own spiritual advice, when he is fostering and propagating a theory which is diametrically opposed to the truths of God’s Word?

Satan planned his masterpiece of deception for this last generation upon the earth, and we are in that generation. In this thing, he has struck at the very root of true religion, belief in God’s Word, and thousands of casual, careless Christians are caught by the deception. We are told that they are men of the brightest minds; but they are minds which have submitted to the leading of God’s enemy—minds which are naturally bright, but which have given more attention to strange philosophies than to the truths of the religion which they professed. Therefore they became narrow toward God and broad toward every species of doubt and unbelief. Satan had a bright mind; but it did not insure for him loveliness of character, or truth or loyalty to the government of God.

But there will be those who will stand fast in the midst of this devastating flood, whose anchor will never drag, however turbulent the sea. These are they who have made a daily, thorough, prayerful study of God’s Holy Word, who have yielded to the leadings of God’s Holy Spirit, and have learned to feel and know their acceptance with him. “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind.” “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” “I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.”

The brightest minds of the world are dull when compared with that of the fallen “covering cherub,” and, consequently, unable alone to cope with his deceptions; but the mind that is fully submitted to the will of God has a shield which that enemy can never pierce. Through lack of that submission, thousands will go down to destruction; but the protection which such submission gives is within the grasp of the humblest soul upon the earth.

C. M. S.