“If the Foundations Be Destroyed”
“If the Foundations Be Destroyed”
“IF THE FOUNDATIONS BE DESTROYED”
Glenn L. Wallace “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalms 11:3). Are the foundations of our civilization crumbling’? There are many who profess to see signs in this age of the decay of our society and when called to our attention, these evidences are alarming indeed.
Gibbons gives the following reasons for the decline and fall of the ancient Roman Empire:
1. Rapid increase of divorce, with the undermining of the sanctity of the home, which is the basis of society.
2. Higher and higher taxes; the spending of public money for bread and celebrations.
3. The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal.
4. The building of gigantic armaments, when the real enemy was within; the decadence of the people.
5. The decay of religion; faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life and becoming impotent to guide it. A close look at the conditions that prevail in America will reveal a startling parallel with the conditions that prevailed in ancient Rome.
What Is Behind All Disorder?
Some say bad politics has brought us to our present condition, but what leads to bad politics? Poor economic conditions, concludes one. When some have plenty and others not enough, this leads to corrupt politics, but what makes a bad economic system? Vicious moral standards, and back of it all is the man with no spiritual footing.
Political Foundations Are Rotten
There are few statesmen left in the world, and our own nation is lacking in the type of men who were great leaders in the beginning of our national existence. The recent Kefauver Crim Investigating Committee reveals that positions can be purchased from the least county precinct to the governor’s chair. It is well known that corrupt political machines, with their bloc voting, have elected some of the highest officers of our land. It is alarming when the ordinary Christian, who should stand for the right, has no interest in good government, but will permit “poll tax dances” and other such efforts to draw out the type of citizen who will elect the poor leadership which has characterized our cities and nations in the past. There are many Christians who do not know the men who represent them in Washington, and most never think to contact them under any circumstances. Some Christians who reject the premillennial theory accept some of its conclusions when they reason that we should leave the political world for the Lord to reform at his second coming. Christians should have a keen interest in good government.
Economic Life Is Threatened
There was a day when every man’s “word was his bond.” A motto often heard in the past was: “An honest day’s pay for an honest work day.” All Christians formerly preached and practiced the slogan: “pay your debts.” All should believe with Paul: “Owe no man anything but love.” Instead of this practice, it is common for most Americans to owe every one and pay as few as possible. Labor threatens capital, and capital is in a death struggle with labor. James warns the employer and the man of wealth: “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth” (James 5:1-4).
Peter teaches the employee how he should serve his employer. “Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward” (1 Peter 2:18).
Moral Standards Have Been Lowered
The home, the foundation of civilization is not secure. Divorce which was once unpopular 'is now common, and many congregations have difficulty in finding enough teachers and helpers without using divorced people. Many counties in the state of Texas report more divorces issued yearly than marriage licenses. During January, 1951, Breckenridge, county seat of Stevens county, reported 12 marriage licenses issued and 14 divorces granted. No condition can create a worse citizen than a broken home. In such homes, fear, doubt, hatred, and uncertainty are born, and from such homes come the dwarfed men and women who make the leadership of our country.
Divorce is not just a problem in Hollywood and Reno alone. Thirty-five years ago, England and Wales had a divorce rate 1/5 as large as ours. Today, the divorce rate is one-half as large as ours. There was a fifty per cent increase in divorces after the second world war in every nation of the world, except Sweden and Switzerland, the only nations that were neutral in that conflict. As we face the prospects of another world war, what will the harvest of broken homes be? Our American social life is declining. Dancing has be^- come popular, and to lift up one’s voice in opposition is to immediately encounter the fury of the majority of people. A young lady in a large university, attended a dance at a fraternity house, and in telling her preacher about the dance, she said that the lights were turned low and the place became nothing more than a common brothel. Some of the best in our land are not much better. The source of our modern entertainments is Hollywood, “a dope-head’s playground,” and the hangout of some of the most degenerate characters in America. Hollywood is filled with sex-mad, pleasure seeking human swine, and this modern Sodom has more Fatty Arbuckles, Errol Flynns, Robert Mitchums and Ingrid Bergmans than any other city on the face of the earth.
Jimmie Fidler, Hollywood commentator, says, “More than one-third of all the features previewed in the past three months have been based on crime.” Ninety million people attend the movies each week, and the federal admission tax from theaters in one year amounts to $330,027,705.00. The movie industry is the pattern maker for America. It behooves Christian citizens to lift their voice in opposition to such a cesspool of iniquity. The Faith of Man Is Being Undermined
There is a mild wave of modernism sweeping the church of our Lord. Preachers and preaching are permitted in many pulpits that would have been thrown out but a few years ago. This modernism is first detected in the ridicule of gospel preaching. When a preacher has nothing but slurs for those who preach the gospel, and when he finds comfort only in the sectarian reasoning of such men as Fosdick and others of this type, it is evident that such a one has lost his footing. There are pulpits today that ignore gospel preaching, and some even have discarded the invitation song. Sinners, if they recognize such, are told to call at the “minister’s study” for information on how to “unite with the church.” It is not uncommon for whole meetings to be conducted without even the great commission of Christ being quoted. Personal experiences, dra-matic illustrations are offered in place of the conversions of the New Testament. In some meetings, more than fifty per cent of the sermons preached could find a hearty response in a sectarian meeting house. Such is modernism, and it is undermining the faith of thousands. Sensational methods are used to “jerk tears” and raise money for the Lord's work. To parade precious little babies before an audience as a means to move people to give is unscriptural and an unfair appeal to man’s heart. The voice of a little child singing from the pulpit may cause a tear to come to the eye, but it is unscriptural to use in converting either the sinner or a Christian to his duty. The modernists among us are those who contend that we shouM junk the past and launch out into the future on our own initiative. Some samples of their reasoning are the following: “Decisions can never be made once and for all,” Jude says: “Ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3). But these moderns would have “each generation agonizingly find its own way.” The modernist reveals himself when he says: “the restoration movement with, its reaction to rabid sectarianism can help us but little,” and “our ministers are better educated and the noise of sectarian strife is dying.” We are told to “strike out on a completely new trail today.” “Preach a Christ-centered gospel,” they say. “The church can’t save,” only Christ can bring salvation.” Can there be salvation out of the blood boughi church? “Travel the high road with the wings of love” and leave the “legalism of the low road for those who are without real spirituality.” “Preach a positive gospel,” and “make the duty of man clear, but don’t tell man what he should not do.” Their contradictory philosophy is revealed fa such reasoning. They warn gospel preachers: “'don’t say don’t.” Place a question mark after the name of a preacher whose vocabulary is filled with such expressions.
It is this new trail that many are seemingly determined to follow that will eventually lead the. church away from its foundations. God give us Christians who will stand upon the old Book and ask for the “old paths.” Such people will maintain high moral standards, and such people will deal fairly in the economic world, and finally such people will help to put our nation once again on a solid political foundation.