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(Editor's note: This column considers world events from the scriptural view. It is for the purpose of showing the imminent return of the Lord, and not for ascertaining the date of His return.)
Last summer the World Council of Churches called a conference in the capital of Sweden. If I remember correctly, China also sent representatives to the conference. The main organizers of the conference were so-called modernists. At the end of the conference, they issued a declaration which, though it mentioned the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, did not tell what the truth of the gospel is! The purpose of the conference was to unite all the churches of the world. Yet the conference did not affirm what we believe in. Cardinal doctrines such as the inspiration of the Bible, the virgin birth, the vicarious death for redemption, the gospel of the shedding of the blood, and the physical resurrection were, according to my knowledge, not mentioned at all. If some would mention these things, others in the meeting would ask them to sit down! Let us quote a portion of their declaration:
We are indeed thankful for the opportunity at this time to have so many churches to come together, to love one another, to exercise restraint, and to discuss many problems selflessly. We have seen the gospel of Christ practiced in the many facets of the human life, in commerce, in society, in politics, and in the urgent needs of the international community. In economics, we realize that the highest of all pursuits is in spiritual things, which should not be considered as less important than material things and the mechanization of industry. This is why we demand that spiritual things be given the highest right, the right to be helped. For this reason we are fighting for a free and full development of human rights.
In the name of the gospel, we attest to the fact that industrialization should not be for individual gains, but should be a service to society...There should be cooperation in place of mutual competition, so that capitalists and laborers can have industrialization as the common goal.
We went on to discuss moral and social problems, such as over-population, unemployment, decline of morality, drinking and its evil, and the cause of lawlessness. In the end we recognized the seriousness of these problems and realized that they cannot be solved by individuals, but must be a responsibility borne by society as a whole.
What they are saying is in the same principle as what the Society for the Promotion of Christianity says, which is to change the redemptive gospel of the Lord's shed blood to that of a research of problems of industrialization! This means that there is no need for a personal regeneration, and that as long as society is reformed, everything is all right! This is to try to take the Christian principle as leaven and to leaven the whole society! It is to improve this world for the purpose that sinners can live in it forever!
In these days, everywhere we hear people clamoring for church unity. Babylon the Great of Revelation 17 is about to appear. Alas, what is the use of talking about unity in outward forms if we neglect the scriptural principle? We are seeing the great whore being formed before our eyes. Those who truly love the Lord should come out (Rev. 18:4) and should wait for their rapture.
Next August a great conference will be held in Lausanne for all the churches in the whole world. All the Protestant churches will send delegates to this conference. This conference was initiated by the Reformed ______ Church in Cincinnati and has been held once every three years since 1910. The goal of this conference is to unite the churches of different countries. First it tries to unite the Protestant churches of all the countries. The Greek Orthodox Church is also helping this movement. There is news that the Roman Catholic Church was asked to join this conference also. In Geneva, Mr. ______ (a modernist) called the Roman Catholic Church "the mother church that includes all churches," and said that there is a "great movement of a return to Roman Catholicism" among the ______. Prior to the European War (World War I), Pope Pius X issued a statement that he was greatly interested in this movement and promised to pray for this movement. He said that for a long time he had hoped for the Protestant churches to be united with the mother church, the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1919 a delegation was sent to Rome. Pope Benedict XV received these guests courteously and thanked them for coming to him. However, the Pope told them that the Roman Catholic Church could not attend their conference. He said, "I am the descendant of St. Peter, and the representative of Christ. My greatest hope is that there will be one flock, with one shepherd." He referred to the Roman Catholic Church as the one flock, and to himself as the one shepherd! In these days men are trying to negotiate with the Pope again.
As students of prophecy, we realize that in the future all the churches will be united and will line up behind the Roman Catholic Church. At present, the tendency is already evident. Those who seek after the Lord honestly and who desire to keep the truth must not associate themselves with this movement.
(1) A new shipping company: A Jewish Forum Paper said that recently a new organization called the Palestinian Shipping Company has been formed. It has six commercial liners that will travel between New York, Haifa, and the Mediterranean Sea. The director of the company is William Jordan, the chairman of the American Shipping Association. The ships will bear the American flag and the Zionist flag as well.
(2) The return of the Jews: A certain Jewish organization claimed recently, "During the past six years, we have helped eighty thousand Jews to return to Palestine...They have been redeemed and are now in the work of redeeming many thousands and hundreds of thousands of other people. Because there were over eighty thousand who have migrated to Palestine during the past six years, one thousand Jews were able to leave Poland at one time and join the increasing crowd...Although eighty thousand is only one percent of the total Jewish population in Europe..yet this is only a beginning. Six years ago we could never have imagined that there could be three to four thousand Jews returning to Palestine every month. But now the fact is before our eyes!" The New Palestine News said, "July 21st of last year saw the greatest number of Jews returning from Poland to Palestine in one day. One thousand people migrated on that day to Palestine. In addition, six hundred others were preparing themselves to go." It is said that when they left, there was a big farewell party which expressed their zeal and desire to return to Palestine. All those who returned were filled with joy and satisfaction.
The London Christian Paper said, "In 1914 there were seventy thousand Jews in Palestine. Today, there are one hundred ten thousand. During the European War, Jews left Palestine by the thousands. Today, not only are the former deserted places filled, but new arrivals are pouring in like a flood...The recent return of the Jews was not only motivated by lofty nationalism, but was a result of the economic and political oppression in their respective countries. Last March, thirty-three hundred returned." Our Hope magazine in America said that within the past month over four thousand Jews returned, and that during the past five years the Jewish population increased by one percent.
The population of China is so large that we do not consider these numbers very impressive. But to a place as small as the Jewish land, this number is not small. The fig tree has brought forth its shoot, and summer is near!
(3) The arrival of the new governor: The last governor was ______. The Jewish Forum Paper said that the new governor ______ has arrived in Jerusalem, and that there were a lot of officers at the welcome party that day. The director of Jerusalem affairs ______ first gave a speech in Arabic, which was later translated into Hebrew and English. Mr. ______ followed with a speech in response. The new governor swore his allegiance to the Palestinian Constitution that day.
(4) The rising cost of land in Palestine: The Hebrew Daily News in Jerusalem reported that buyers of land have increased day by day and were as numerous as the locusts. They based themselves in ______ and were gradually buying land within the city. This caused an upsurge in the price of the land. It is already difficult to secure an inch of land in Tel Aviv. The paper said that the price of land became shockingly high. Another news item reported that at present there are over two hundred thousand acres of land registered under Jewish names.
(5) Even the Jewish religion is modernized: We know that the Jews are the most conservative of all people. Their faith in the Old Testament is very firm. But now things have greatly changed! Just as some in Christianity have been deceived by Satan and have called themselves modernists, in the same way there are the same kind of people in Judaism. Recently, ______ wrote a book called The Liberated Liberal Judaism. He said that liberated Judaism recognizes the existence of God and the existence of man after death. Yet the book questioned why this kind of faith was not able to gain the heart of the young ones! It said that there is no such thing as a Messianic people. It is said that their tone echoes that of the Trinity Theological Seminary in New York.
Rabbi ______ thinks that there should be a "simplified Bible." He said that the unessential and repetitious parts should be removed. He also said that "the twentieth century Bible should recognize that divine revelation can be found everywhere in the world, and that the moral teachings of Buddha and Confucius and their deep devotion to God and man, should be included in the Bible, as an example of the brotherhood of all mankind."
Those who have not been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and who have not experienced the power of the Bible will, of course, consider many parts of the Bible "immaterial, unimportant, and repetitious." But what is it to us who love the truth? The Lord's Word is sweet as honey and precious as gold. How can we remove one word of it? If the Jews who return to their own country are now in such unbelief, no wonder that in the future they will make a covenant with Antichrist and will recognize him as king! Although they are now boasting of their intellectual capacity, from the Scripture we can see their end already!
The Jewish World said the following concerning the modernistic influence of Zionism and the true belief of Judaism: "The greatest and most urgent need of today is to try our best to plant Jews in Palestine who are proper in their faith. If there are a hundred places like ______ and ______, which are colonies of firm believers in Judaism, it will be of immeasurable value to the development of the proper religion."
In spite of this, orthodox Judaism does not believe that the Lord Jesus is the Christ! In the future they will also be deceived by Antichrist. We should pray much for the Jews. May the Lord deliver their souls, and may many of their "remnant" be kept in the great tribulation after we have been raptured by the Lord.
We have long conjectured that "the king of the north" (Dan. 11:28-end) would perhaps come from Russia. But we did not know how the Roman emperor would come to terms with the king of the north. The following fact may shed some light. The Italian dictator Mussolini has sent men to communicate with Russia in private. Although the matter is not yet apparent, and although there are yet many cover-ups, the matter is enough to cast much light on the situation. The Rome correspondent, Mr. ______ of the English Daily News, wrote on September 30, 1925: "Although I need no further proof than what I have already, which proofs for certain reasons I cannot fully reveal yet, since my last report I have received solid evidence of Mussolini communicating with Russia in private. Moscow is now trying its best to bring about a treaty between the two nations." Antichrist is about to appear! Lord, may we be raptured to heaven. Oh, how we desire this day to come soon!
For a number of years, we have been paying attention to the work of the Chinese Society for the Promotion of Christianity. I cannot help but issue warnings to the faithful children of God, so that they would know what to follow. The work of this Society is to prepare the way for the Chinese part of the great Babylon in Revelation 17. This Society does not preach the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It uses many beautiful spiritual terms to preach another gospel. It is pitiful that some true believers are deceived by it!
We have received its Christmas issue of the China for Christ magazine, and its publication The Family by the Family Committee. Reading these publications makes a person's heart ache. They say that the Lord Jesus was born to be an example for humanity. In the Christmas issue, not a single word was mentioned about the purpose of the Lord's coming to earth being to die for men and for the saving of men's souls, so that men may be saved from perdition and may receive eternal life. Its Family Committee promotes the so-called "three abstinences," abstinence from prostitution, abstinence from gambling, and abstinence from concubines. The first issue of The Family spoke much about these three things. But not once did it mention the Holy Spirit! Not once did it mention the cross! Can a man be saved by abstaining from prostitution, from gambling, and from having concubines? Are there only these three sins in this world? All these things are done because men do not understand the Bible and do not realize God's power! God says that man can never cause himself to abstain from anything. Everyone in the world is a sinner. Although outwardly a person may be very polished and very clean, nevertheless, this is not inward regeneration, and he is still a man of hell! We thank the Lord that He has sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins and has given us the Holy Spirit, so that we do not have to be condemned, but will have the newness of life and can go to heaven eventually. The ancient gospel is the only one that saves sinners and that removes sins!
Although these things expose their failure, we have to humble ourselves before God, because such things are done by those who call themselves the church. We should not be proud of ourselves; we should acknowledge our failures before God and should ask God to revive His own church and prepare the little flock who love Him faithfully to be ready for His coming. In these days men pay much attention to the social gospel that never bears any fruit. May God cause us to faithfully preach the gospel that saves sinners by the cross. Brothers, apostasy is increasing day by day, and we must not have a part in the sins of others.
