286
June 1930
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
Is There an Educational Oligarchy?
Is th e Sunday School Doomed ?
I S the Religious Educational Association claiming too much influence and power? Is it in the hands of men who are seeking to reduce Christianity to the level of ethnic religions of the world? Is it likely to become a menace instead of a blessing? Such questions are in the mind of the editor of the Western Recorder who writes: It is well known that the educational hegemony (1) has under its control and direction a vastly larger amount of money than was ever in the hands of a similar group in history. (2) It has the vast prestige which this gives. (3) It also holds in its hands the matchless prestige of education which has throughout our history been built up in America (a) by Chris tian backing, and (b) by the civil powers. The possession of such power and prestige by a small group may well cause concern, for it is painfully evident that this educational “oligarchy” claims the privilege of teaching anything under the sun. “The right to pursue the truth wherever it leads” is asserted, and so from pulpits and classrooms has come teaching which destroys faith in God, encourages disloyalty to the laws of the land, imperils the morals of the nation’s youth, and threatens the ultimate destruction of civilization. Protests against this soul-destroying type of “pursuit of truth” have been few and feeble. The unfortunate result is, as the Western Recorder puts it, that we “commit the destinies of the nation without restraint to the moulding of one small group of citizens, protecting them the while from answer ing to the rights of all other classes.” D ispensational Truth T HERE has recently been much animated and some times acrimonious debate about what is known as dispensational truth. After discounting the disagreements which are concerned with minor details and omitting such as are merely questions of terminology, the real issue is seen to be that which has long divided the premillenarian and the postmillenarian camps. The postmillenarian claims that the prophecies of the Olivet discourse of the Lord Jesus found their complete fulfilment in A.D. 70, and that the dispensationalism which puts the fulfilment in the future is a new thing, an invention of the “Plymouth Brethren.” Dr. A. C. Gaebelein replies to the postmillenarian view in an article which appears in booklet form called “Dis pensational Truth as Believed and Taught in the Second Century.”* He finds in the “Didache —the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” almost an exact parallel to the words of the Lord Jesus as given in Matthew 24. There are distinct references to the great tribulation, to apostasy, lawless ness, and false teaching in the last days, to the coming of Antichrist, to the resurrection of the righteous alone, etc. In short, a large part of the dispensational program to which there is now strenuous objection, is proved to have been taught and probably quite universally believed in the Church of the Second Century. A different and a perverted idea came in with the union of church and state, but as Dr. Gaebelein points out, the present■ revival of interest in the coming of Christ has led students back to the earliest statement of the doctrine. Dispensational truth, as thus understood, is not a recent invention.
P ROFESSOR CONRAD HENRY MOEHLMAN writes in The Crozer Quarterly, giving the startling information that in the ten years between 1916 and 1926 practically all denominations except the Southern Baptists had a smaller percentage of increase in Sunday-school pupils than in church members. Some have had a very decided and discouraging loss. He comments on the situa tion as follows : The attitude toward church membership seems to differ from the attitude toward attendance upon the Sunday school. The membership of churches may grow although their Sunday schools are disintegrating. Are we facing a growing indifference on the part of many members of Christian churches toward their religious educational programs ? Are they looking else where for their religious education? A pertinent question to ask Dr. Moehlman might be, Does the theological trend in the churches have anything to do with the lessening interest in the children’s welfare ? Is there any significance, in other words, in the fact that the Southern Baptists, who are perhaps the most conser vative large denominational group in the United States, had the best showing? Their increase in church mem bership was 30.1 per cent and in Sunday-school pupils 40.8 per cent. Missionary Subscriptions Through the generosity of some of the Lord’s stewards T h e K ing ’ s B usiness has been going to several hun dred missionaries and mission stations. The fund for that purpose is now exhausted. Who will give heed to the ac companying appeal? — o —
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