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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
February, 1935
F a s c is m ? G odless ! . Fascism, that despotic principle o f human government personified by Mussolini in Rome, even now is leavening many o f the most powerful nations o f the earth—with Italy, Germany, Turkey, and Japan in the lead. These “ three unclean spirits like frogs”—Socialism, Communism, and Fascism—are sure to clash and lock themselves in a death grapple for the mighty seats o f power in London and in Washington, which Democracy seems about to vacate. When the-gtiuggle is over, the Fascist will prob- ablvbe on topQ jFascism may be less morally “ unclean” than either So cialism or Communism, but it is not less godless. So far as the Lord God of Israel is concerned, Fascism is utterly godless*^. Notwithstanding some recent gestures toward to be deceived by honeyed words know that the Mussolinian dream still maintains: “ W e will make Rome, the city o f our spirit, the pulsating heart, the living soul o f the Impe rial Italy o f which we dream” (Mussolini, on the eve of his famous “march on Rome,” October, 1922): In Fascism, “ we are confronted at once with a State organization so absolute, so exclusive, as to leave no room for the church o f God, as a distinct and heavenly corporation with inviol able laws of her own” (The Dawn, London, February, 1933). Mussolini kneels at the altar o f the church of Rome? Very well! The “ harlot” shall ride the “ beast” (Rev. 17:3) ! Mussolini engraves a Bible on one o f his postage stamps and talks pleasingly to a Protestant mis sionary statesman? Very well! Mussolini is the world’s greatest political strategist. Let the great Italian dictator himself define his political philosophy— Fascism. This he recently did for the Italian Encyclopaedia. For Fascists, he writes: Life is serious, austere, religious [Italics ours]. All is in the State, and nothing human or spiritual exists or has any value outside the State. Thus Fascism is totalitarian. No individuals, groups, political parties, associations, syn dicates, or classes outside the State. . . . [The Fas cist State is a] spiritual force. Fascism does not only make laws and found institutions; but it’ educates and promotes spiritual life. ' It wishes to remake not the forms o f human life, but its content, the man, the char acter, the faith. This means nothing more nor less than that Fascism sets God aside and exalts the State above “ all that is called God, or that is worshipped” (2 Thess. 2 :4 ). This means a deified State which the true church o f our Lord Jesus Christ can never acknowledge, and that martyrs’ blood shall again cry unto the God o f heaven from the ground. Verily, Rome revives, and revived Rome demands that the Bride o f Christ shall play the harlot. The German Fascist, Herr Hoppe, leader o f the Hitler youth organization, makes bold to say: These days we must march on the rebels and summon all forces for the final battle against Christianity. Ger mans, free yourselves from the domination of priests, who are alien to our fort, and only deliver you up to Jewish exploitation. W e must fight in the true spirit of anti-Christ against the last remnant and heritage of Christianity in our northern race. Free yourselves from the Jewish-Christian conception of sinning, compassion, and loving your enemies. In all Fascist States, morality as well as religion is con tained only in the purely civic virtues. To the Fascist, the State is that which the one-time Chancellor o f Germany, Herr von Papen, calls “ the Holy German Reich, the Sacrum Imperium” (London Times, October 4, 1932). [Continued on page 54]
May, 1933). A professor returning from Russia says, in the Bible for China, February, 1933: “ Children wear blasphemous pictures o f Christ in cheap shoes. They carry clubs picturing Christ as a demon. The stores dis play pictures of Christ below which is written: ‘ See Me as I am’ ; and on the other side is the picture of a devil.” On Good Friday, 1930, a crucifix was erected in one o f the large squares o f Moscow. On that occasion, 300,000 children were assembled in the city. A line o f march past the crucifix began at nine in the morning and con tinued until three in the afternoon. The children who marched were in ranks four deep. As each four came in line with the crucifix, they were halted. Facing the image o f Christ, they were “ compelled to spit at it.” The New York World, cabled Stalin at Moscow, asking know o f any such ‘good Communists’ ; 'it is hardly likely that such exist; there is no reason for such in the ranks o f the Communist Party.” Any member of the party who baptizes or circumcises his child is immediately expelled. And, let none deceive himself into believing that the damning ravages o f Communism upon the souls o f men are confined to benighted Russia. They are world-wide and increase daily. It is not a Russian, but an English man, Mr. Middleton Murray, who has written the book, Necessity o f Communism, and exults: “ W e may unfeign- edly rejoice that Christianity is steadily losing ground in the modern world” (p. 23). Again, he comments: “ A dwindling number—a few hundred thousands at most— are believers in the supernatural and a life o f rewards and punishments after death. The church, in this country, has become an antiquarian survival” (p. 43). The blatant, disgusting forms o f the anti-God cru saders so well known to Russia are not so much in evidence in America as yet. However, the “ theophobia” in America is even more subtle and dangerous because those who are afflicted with its deadly leprous contagion frequently ap pear as angels o f light. It has become the fad and fashion o f our young intelligentsia, especially in our colleges and universities, to look upon their own cynical skepticism as an indication o f superior acumen. Dr. Fort Newton says: In Russia they destroy churches by atrocity. In America we do it more effectively by attrition—-by a deadening indifference. More churches in proportion to numbers, have been closed in our rural districts than in Russia—not by force, but by neglect and the swiftly changing conditions of life—dosed and nailed up. . . . Seventy millions o f our people have no connection with any church or synagogue. Only one child in four re ceives any religious instruction. Meanwhile, crime wave upon crime wave rolls in upon us, and now even the troughs between the waves have become flooded! God have mercy on the flippant masses o f American youth who “ have no gospel but a leer, a jeer, and a jug o f gin.” “ Our civilization cannot survive,” said President Woodrow Wilson, “ unless it be redeemed by religion.” What, then, is the outlook for man’s civilization when in the only lands that still hold out some hope to the continu ance o f Christian faith on the earth—England and Amer ica—we see the mighty anti-God frogs of hell’s blackest night creeping into the schools o f our children—yea, leav ing their slimy trails across our very pulpits, the last line for the defense o f faith ? A la s ! “ Saints who once talked with God now shiver around altars whose fires have gone out!”
him if there were not some good Communists out o f sym-^Wffith rnGod on the part o f the great Italian dictator, and pathy with the party’s regulation that all members must beMnowithstanding some reported expressed sympathies for atheists. The Communistic dictator replied: “ I do not the evangelical faith, those who do not allow themselves
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