p. 7 | Moving Toward a Common End by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 27, 1911

Moving Toward a Common End

By C. M. S.

The cry for a world union against war between nations, and the cry for a world union against division in religion, are going up at the same time, and point to a common consummation.

There is no truly Christian heart but longs for the cessation of the bitter business of war, and none but longs for the unity in Christ of all who profess his name. In fact, Christ himself prayed to that end. But nowhere in his recorded teachings do we find warrant for the belief that the organic union of all professed Christendom was in his purpose, or would be accomplished under his direction. The direct teachings of his Word contradict any such idea. His kingdom is not to be ushered in by a universal cessation of hostilities between nations and a universal and voluntary unification of creeds; yet the political air is filled with prognostications of universal peace and international arbitration to bring it about; and the churches are loudly applauding the idea, while they work and plan for and predict the unification of Christendom in a common creed.

This movement for the political and religious unification of the world is one of the most striking developments of our times. Distinctively anti-Biblical, and yet declaredly in the interests of the Redeemer’s kingdom, it is the culminating anomaly and paradox of this dispensation. The wars of the nations fill more space than any other topic recorded in the nations’ histories. The science of war has become the most intensively cultivated of any of the sciences. Differences in denominational dogma have for centuries been regarded as insurmountable. Some sects have come into being out of motives of direct and vital antagonism to organizations with which their members had formerly been affiliated. Disunion was their mother, and of the spirit of disunion they were conceived.

Now, in our generation, comes the remarkable double program: first, that the nations shall learn war no more, shall abandon that business which brought them into being and maintained them as national entities, and become states in one world commonwealth, with an international supreme court over them all; and, second, that the churches of Christendom shall fling aside the differences which brought them into being, and unite

upon the basis of some common creed, and, necessarily, with some individual head.

It can thus be seen that when the nations of the world become states of one all-embracing commonwealth, with one supreme court over all, and when the hitherto warring creeds become a conglomerate fixed in one setting, the influence which will be dominant with that supreme court will be the influence which holds the largest place in the combination of the creeds. That influence will be Rome. Have we reason for such a prediction? Each can answer the question for himself by taking note of the influence exerted by that power to-day in the governments of earth. Who has the ear of presidents like the high officials of the Roman hierarchy? Who sits so high in judicial positions as Catholic judges? Whose jubilees are celebrated with such striking pomp and ceremony, and attended by so many of our national officials, as those of the cardinal of the Roman Church?

Every day there is a narrowing down of the chasm that so long has stood between Catholicism and the great so-called Protestant world. This tendency is being swiftly advanced by the all-embracing church federation movement. That movement, while having directly in view only the union of Protestant bodies, is bringing to light the fact that a strong sentiment exists and is growing for the union of Christendom in one religious body. This was strikingly illustrated but a few weeks ago by an action taken by an Episcopal conference, and by the manner also in which it was received and publicly commented upon by Cardinal Gibbons. Who will be the head of such a union is a problem not difficult of solution for the one who has made a study of those prophecies dealing particularly with the time of the end. And the cardinal himself boldly suggested who that head would be.

The patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, at Constantinople, has been carrying on an active propaganda to bring about the union of Christendom by uniting his own church “with those two grand and venerable offshoots of the Christian religion, the Roman and the Protestant churches.” A theological professor of the Greek Church has written a book advocating the same thing. In this he takes up the various points which divide these three bodies, and the points on which they may unite. He reaches the conclusion that all may come together on the Nicean Creed. This professor and the patriarch of the Greek Catholic Church urge the religious bodies named to study their own characteristics in fraternal charity, with a view to this union.

While this may not be the way in which the union will finally be accomplished, it certainly is significant in showing how the spirit of “confederacy” among religious bodies is being encouraged in various parts of the world. The desire for world union is in the air—and it must be in the air if the prophecy concerning the last days is to be fulfilled.

Concerning the proposal of the patriarch of the Greek Church, the Christian Work and Evangelist says:—

The genial spirit and honest intention of the patriarch and those who are with him are beyond question. . . . We are seeking unity and federation among Protestants. When shall we be as large-minded as this Greek patriarch, and include in our effort the churches of Rome and the East?

There is nothing that takes with this age like the cry of liberality and large-mindedness. It is that cry that is turning schools of theology into schools of infidelity; and the rapidity with which that change is now going on shows the power there is in that rallying cry. The strong drift of the popular tide toward church federation and the abolition of war will soon make manifest the fact that this movement is to find its culmination in the federation of Christendom. Protestantism and Catholicism will soon clasp hands across the gulf which has so long separated them. The prediction that they would do so was made years ago. We see now that movement well under way in which that prediction will find its fulfilment. Then will meet its fulfilment that scripture which reads, “And all the world wondered after the beast.”

The attempts to unite the nations under one supreme court, and the religions of Christendom under one leadership, are inspired by the same power, and point to the same great event. C. M. S.