65
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
February 1930
Christianity or Religion? B y A rno C. G aebelein , D.D. Address delivered in the Bmle Institute o f Los Angeles
back with the report that they had at last found human beings, half animal, without any religious conception whatever. But when the missionary followed the explorer, he soon told a different story. Even the lowest cannibals worship something. Everywhere, in every continent, and in the isles of the sea we find religion. Nor is religion as found today among all races a recent thing. The very earliest records of the human race, such as the Sumerian inscriptions, and others, testify all of religious beliefs. The fact is, the older the records the stronger the religious sentiment engraven upon them. What, then, is the origin of this interesting religious phenomena? Where does it come from? How did it originate ? The Evolutionist tries to give an answer. But he can not answer anything. He tells us something like this: Man did not only pass through a physical process of evo- .lution, but he also experienced a mental evolution. He gradually acquired a conscience and then began to realize a need for his newly acquired soul. He started in reli gious conception at the lowest possible scale. They point to the religions of some of the savage races living today, those who are fetish worshipers. They claim they repre sent the first religious instinct of the race in the beginning, the religion of the cave man, which is absolutely untrue. Then, after man had worshiped an inanimate object, a piece of wood, a stone or something else, he learned some thing better. He began to worship the sun, the moon, the stars. He also received the conception of unseen spirits; he worshiped spirits, his ancestors and heroes. Then he invented different gods and saw their representation in different animals; and so he became a worshiper of ani mals. But he still advanced and through philosophers he received different views'; monotheism came into existence with certain tribal gods. Thus it is taught that the Hé- brews had a tribal god by the name of JeJjovah. Still re ligious beliefs advance and we find in this chain of devel opment our Christianity. Then they tell us that Christian ity is but a stepping stone, that it is not the final religion. A better one, more adapted to the needs of human prog ress, is yet to be discovered. If I read Modernism aright, this is its real goal: to displace true Christianity. But this evolutionistic argument is smashed hopelessly by the fact that the most ancient religions are the highest developed and are monotheistic. But what is the real origin o f religion? The Bible answers this question for us. The infallible Scriptures tell us that man did not originate in an indefinable slime- pit, but that he is the offspring of God, the direct creation of God! Though the Biblical account is brief, yet it is sufficient to assure us that our first parents knew God and had communion with Him. The first man possessed superior intelligence. He had knowledge as to the crea tion over which he was placed as lord. He gave names to all cattle, to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But something happened. Man, instead of climbing upward, fell downward. By disobedience he became a sinner, and alienated from his Maker. Fellowship with God was severed and the first man was expelled from the
“And he said unto them , Ye are from beneath ; I am from above ; ye are o f this world ; I am not o f this world .”—John 8 :23. EVER man spake like this man! No religious leader of the past ever advanced such an aston ishing claim. Why not? Because they were all from beneath; their systems were of the world. Nor will any future religious teacher make such a statement. He alone is from above ; He alone is not of this world. Therefore everything of Him self ; His Person, His life, His character, His words, and His works, must be supernatural. The question, Why did such a One •come into the world, who was not of it, who came from above? is an important one. Did He come to establish a new religion? We answer at once most emphatically, No ! He came for something infinitely greater than that. But this demands our most careful examination. The question is before us : “ Is Christianity a religion?” I. R eligion A nd I ts O rigin We have accustomed ourselves to call Christianity a religion. Are we right in calling Christianity a religion? The average man will say at once, of course Christianity is one of the religions of the world, and in saying so he places Christianity on the same level with Hinduism, Bud dhism, Zoroastrianism, and Islam. This1is a vital subject. Let us see first, “ What is> religion?” Many answers have been ventured; none of them wholly satisfying. Religion comes from the Latin religio. Even with the Romans this was a doubtful word. Cicero derived it from the verb religere, “ to gather up, to take up, to consider and ponder.” Seneca defined it by saying, “ Cognoscere Deum et imitari” —to know God and to imitate. It would take hours to follow all the definitions of religion found in the history of philosophy. We cannot quote the opinions of Kant, Fichte, Schleiermacher, and others. Nor can we mention the words of great theologians, about religion. The truth is, a satisfactory definition of religion is still lacking. One of the greatest scholars of comparative re ligion declared: “ With regard to religion itself it is ex tremely difficult to give a satisfying explanation.” Equally difficult is it to explain the origin o f religion. It is shrouded, for the philosopher and scientist, in mys tery. Yet religion is a universal instinct of thè human race. This religious instinct is confined exclusively to our race. Below man is the animal world; between the two, a gulf which can never be bridged. You can take a chimpanzee, teach him how to use a knife and fork, how to smoke a pipe or a cigarette, but you can never teach him to pray. He has no religious instinct. Above man are the angels, another world of beings. They worship; they praise; they are servants; but they know nothing of re ligion. Therefore I say only the human race has a re ligious instinct. It is universal. There has never lived on earth, even in the remotest past, a single tribe destitute of some kind of a religion. It is quite true that in years gone by, when explorers went into the unknown interiors of continents, when they discovered new races and tribes of men, they often came
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