p. 7 | WHERE IS THE CHURCH? by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 6, 1893

WHERE IS THE CHURCH?

By Editor

EVERY line of demarkation between the decent part of the world and the vast majority of the church is entirely obliterated, and it is impossible for the keenest eye to detect a particle of difference between them. Where this is written there is quite a gathering, two hundred or more, of nice, genteel, respectable people, most of them members of the church, and with scarcely an exception they have card parties evening after evening, take part in the voluptuous waltz, attend theaters, and some, ladies at that, openly talk of betting on horse races. These and other forms of worldliness they rush into with the greatest eagerness, without a qualm of conscience, without the slightest impression of impropriety in their conduct, nay, with a stare of surprise that anyone can be so "narrow" as to suppose that there can be anything in such amusements in the least unbecoming a Christian profession and walk.

Nor is this intense and thorough worldliness confined to any particular part of the country, or to any particular branch of the church. Protestants and Roman Catholics alike are "in the swim." Baptists, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, and all other denominations, are on the swift current and hurrying down the stream—whither? Very soon the great mass of professing Christians will need to read Carlyle’s famous essay, "Niagara and After." But it is useless to attempt an arrest of the descending torrent; it is folly to protest against the popular demand for pleasure; it is madness to talk of the exercise of ecclesiastical discipline to stay the evil. Thirty years ago the rod of authority was wielded with some degree of effectiveness in most of the churches to put down offenses less glaring by far than those committed at present ten thousand times every day, but it cannot be handled now, and will never be lifted up again. The church has not at all succeeded in converting the world, but the world has almost accomplished its work of converting the church.

Meanwhile there are 50,000,000 more in the United States than there were at the beginning of the century who are not yet saved. There are at the lowest calculation 250,000,000 more in the pagan and Mohammedan world, offset by a gain of 3,000,000 of professing Christians during the last hundred years. In other words, the growth of the nominal church does not begin to keep pace with the increase of the ungodly in our own country, nor with the frightful addition to the population of heathen lands. The salvation of one soul is worth all the expenditure of men and money needful to achieve the result, and if even one soul had not been saved, the obligation would have pressed with just as much force upon the conscience and heart of the true church to obey our Lord’s last command, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15. But let us not forget that so-called Christian England forced opium upon the unwilling Chinese at the cannon’s mouth, and that the so-called Christian United States, for every missionary sent to Africa, sends thousands of gallons of rum to brutalize and murder the natives.

But this, bad as it is, is not all, nor the worst. The church generally has lost her hold upon God’s word, and it is difficult to decide whether there is more infidelity within her gates, or among the avowed enemies of the Bible, who are seeking by bold blasphemy its overthrow. The higher critics boast that they have two hundred scholars on their side, and every one of these delights to pick the Scriptures to pieces, and to show to the common people that there is scarcely a chapter or verse in the Book that is trustworthy. They dig up their arguments against the authenticity and genuineness of its various parts, and their illustrations of its imaginary errors and mistakes, from the graves of Voltaire and Tom Paine, and then with a great show of learning parade them as their own. If these two blasphemers were infidels, it follows logically and unavoidably that the men who accept and reproduce their creed, or, rather, no creed, although they may be preachers and professors in theological seminaries, are also infidels, as much worse than Voltaire and Paine as a wolf in sheep’s clothing is more dangerous and detestable than a wolf in its native hide.

There are thousands of young men, professing Christians, who throw up their caps and loudly cheer Professor Briggs, Professor Harper, and, still stranger, Professor Drummond, whose stupendous folly and undisguised infidelity did not in the least check the enthusiasm of admiring crowds, that seemed to regard him as a prodigy of learning, in his recent tour through this country. In the inspired Scriptures we read that "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26); but this admired charlatan repeatedly and deliberately declares that we are made in the image, after the likeness, of, protoplasm, tadpole, and fish, from the last of these getting our ears. Every person of ordinary intelligence knows that men like Dawson, Owen, and Virchow, so far his superiors in science that he might consider it an honor to black their shoes, utterly scoff at his nonsense; but he was feted and followed by troops with whom his influence is "only evil continually." Alas for the church, when such a man is a recognized and respected leader of thought!

But so it is, and so it will be unto the end of the age, for "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." The description of the last days, given in the inspired word, is a vivid picture of our own passing days, when professing Christians shall be "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts." 2 Tim. 3:4–13. To say that it has always been so brings very small comfort, for it only proves that man from the beginning, at his best estate, has been a failure and a humbug, bent on going to the devil, in the face of the grace that seeks to save him. How anyone with his two eyes open can see in any verse of the Bible, in the history of the past, or in the outlook of the present, the faintest shining of hope that the sham, called the church, will ever convert the world to real Christianity, it is difficult to understand. It is far easier to understand the words of our Lord, "Many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." Matt. 24:11, 12.

It will scarcely be denied by persons of ordinary intelligence that his testimony as to the close of the present age is very unlike the preaching which encourages the delusive expectation of the triumph of the church, until a reign of righteousness shall be gradually introduced. As it was in the days of Noah and Lot, during a reign of unrighteousness, "even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." Luke 17:26–30. "When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8. "There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then [at such time] shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." Luke 21:25–27. It is not pleasant to contemplate such an end of boasted human achievements, and hence the great majority will not consider it for a moment, but prefer to go on blindly to a fancied result, that is far more flattering to the pride of the heart. It remains true, however, that ignorance, indifference, unbelief, open opposition, or even the opinion of the church, cannot in the least change "the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." 1 Peter 1:23. The church in its last state, marked by lukewarmness, pride, and blindness as to its real condition, is to be spued out of the mouth of our Lord. Rev. 3:16.—The Truth.