THE FALLING AWAY by S.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 25, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 52.

THE FALLING AWAY.

By S.

According to the Word of God, there was to come, at a certain period in the history of the church, “a falling away.” Here is the announcement:

“That day [the day of Christ’s coming] shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” 2 Thess. 2:3.

That falling away was to occur prior to the second coming of Christ. Are there any indications now that we are in that time? Let us look to the facts. The great trend of pulpit teaching now is along the line of “civic righteousness,” whatever that may mean, and farther and farther away from the soul-stirring teachings of the true evangelist, the burden of whose heart is the salvation of souls. Sit down to-day in the luxuriously appointed church and listen to the words that roll from the tongue of the polished speaker, and it is not difficult to determine that you are not listening to the expression of Christ’s yearning pleading for the souls of men, but to the cold, comfortless philosophies of human wisdom.

What is the result of this, and what was the cause? We will look first to the result. The cold formalism of the pulpit philosophy finds its echo in the lives of those who drink it in from week to week, until the vitality of Christianity is quenched at the fountain-head, dies out of the heart, and leaves a form of clay where should have been the living, moving, burden-bearing man of God, a harvester, a shepherd. Then in the field where such a one should have carried on his work, weeds are growing, wolves are roving, and souls are perishing; while in many cases the house dedicated to the service of God has been given over regularly to feasting and pleasure. Dancing clubs and boxing clubs have been organized in the church, and dancing and the boxing bout have been carried on within the sacred edifice. While many have not gone to this extent, the influence which made such things possible has worked upon them also, lowering the tone of their Christian vitality, and hindering the work they might otherwise have done.

At a conference of a great religious body held in an Eastern State last year, the clause in the articles of church discipline which prohibits dancing, card-playing, and theater-going on the part of the members was ordered stricken out, and the editor of a great religious journal publicly declared that such an article of discipline never ought to have been adopted.

The members of a great church in Greater New York last year held a “progressive euchre party” in which 2,400 church-members took part, and in which the players played for some 250 prizes put up by the church giving the party. An admission fee was charged, and the gate money went into the coffers of the church.

In the same city at about the same time the members of a certain military post were invited to attend a certain church as a post, to give zest to a military speech which the pastor was to make. They were specially requested to appear in uniform wearing their side-arms, thus bringing into the service of the church the uniform of the deadly business of war and the weapons which take life, instead of the symbols of the warfare of the Prince of Peace, giving instead of taking life.

In the conduct of the individual member there is coming in more and more the idea of going with the world as far as we can, “in order to win them;” and the prime essential of keeping as close to Christ as possible thus comes to assume a secondary place, and finally to be covered up entirely by the policy of the world.

It was early in the present year that a certain western Sunday-school introduced the cake-walk as one of the features of an entertainment, and the superintendent induced one of the girls who took part in this ridiculous dance to appear in male attire, tho such was contrary to her wish. In speaking of the performance, this superintendent declared that dancing was now a legitimate part of the training of the young in connection with Biblical knowledge, and the old method of religious training he considered obsolete.

At about the same time a New York clergyman, dining with a fashionable club, indulged in the use of profanity while upholding the work of the missionaries in China, and then went on to declare that “clergymen were too highly specialized nowadays—so highly that a glass of wine or a cigar is denied them.” It was plainly evident that this clergyman did not so deny himself.

A well-known writer in the Gospel Message recently set forth seven causes for the great religious decline of the present time, among which were: the neglect of home religion and devotional meetings; the frenzy of pleasure in worldly amusements and the functions of a hypocritical and hollow-hearted society; the “amusement heresy and the cooking-stove apostasy;” the general and unprecedented prevalence of novel-reading, and the rehashing of novels in the pulpit; lodges and the craze of organizations in the church which lead to clannishness rather than to true Christianity; and the secular, sensational preaching of the day. This writer declares that “the less piety a church has, the more oysters, ice-cream, and fun it takes to run it, and the faster it ‘runs from God;’” and that is true; and these worldly “helps” were never more in evidence in fashionable church functions than they are just now.

The faster and farther the church follows after society, the faster and farther society follows after pleasures that are wholly carnal; and thus is accelerated that race away from God and into the arms of the pleasures and pitfalls of Satan. It is no wonder that our Lord, looking down through the ages to the time when He should come back to this earth, was led to ask, “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8. The question indicates that genuine faith will not be plentiful at that time, and the evidence that is accumulating before us is indicative of the same thing. The great mass of Christendom seems to have lost its hold on the arm of the Infinite, and to be leaning more and more heavily on the arm of the world. Even in theological schools, where young men are supposed to be fitted for the ministry, that bane of religion, the secret society, is encouraged and fostered; and evolution, the contradiction of God’s Word, is publicly espoused. The fashionable church has become a select club whose interest is almost wholly centered in itself and its own amusement, while warm love for God and His work is fast dying out. A chill is falling over the church like the chill that follows sunset. Evolution has taken the place of the Creator, and man is his own saviour. We are in the time of the last great falling away, which was to take place before the second coming of Christ.

The result of this teaching, this preaching, this cold formalism, this apostasy, is that the world is fast being snared and blinded for destruction by the powers that lie in wait for the souls of men. That is what there is in the course being taken to-day by very many of the congregations that bear the name of Christ. How are the signs fulfilling which teach us that His coming draweth nigh!