substituted the social gospel for the cross, hu- manitarianism for God’s grace. When doctrine is denied, the way man lives is an abomination to the nostrils of God. But the panorama of the church age shows another characteristic of apostasy — that of the rise of religion. Whenever true doctrine was neg lected in practical daily living, dogma was empha sized for itself. There was organization but no life, knowledge but no obedience, a form of godliness but “denying the power thereof.” Ecclesiasticism therefore followed ethical erosion rather than com batted it. For instance, one of the chief causes for the rise of religion was Monasticism. In the third century, monks were bound in obedience to their superiors who in turn owed their allegiance to the pope. Coupled with this was an influx of pagans into the church so the leaders thought the liturgy should be materialized to make God seem more accessible to the barbarian worshippers. Venera tion of angels, saints, statues, relics and pictures was a logical outcome of this attitude. When the power of God is denied, something else must take its place. Ecclestiasticism received another boost from Scholasticism. This intellectual movement, devel oped between 1050 and 1350, was an attempt to rationalize theology in order to buttress faith by reason. These views, however, emphasized the church as a corporate institution at the expense of the freedom of the individual and led to the subordination of the individual to the institution. In the seventeenth century, Protestantism de veloped a new Scholasticism. This was particularly true among the Lutherans in Germany who became more interested in dogma than in the expression of doctrine in practical life. The result was a rational ism and formalism in religion, a cold orthodoxy. It is no wonder we face such perplexities today. The modern sects and cults with their destructive doctrines should not surprise those who have examined the apostate trends throughout the church age. Once blood-bought redemption is denied and God’s grace abandoned, inadequate or wrong ideas must be substituted and an organi zation established to teach them. When we turn to the world scene, this is exactly what we face today — false and counterfeit re ligions with destructive doctrines and people living as if there were no God at all. As is true in any age, the only hope aginst apostasy today is that found in Jesus Christ and the salvation He pro vides. A study of Satan’s techniques and the man ner in which we can combat twentieth-century apostasy will be examined next month. HB
by Lelio Sozzini and popularized by his nephew, Socinianism gained adherents at about 1600. These people viewed Christ as a man who obtained divin ity by His superior life. His deity, as well as the meaning of His death, was utterly denied. Al though this view began in Italy, it spread to Poland, Holland, England, and finally to America. Does not all of this have a familiar ring? Is not this what is happening in Christendom today? All of these ideas formed the basis of the Unitarian church as well as modern-day liberalism. Another characteristic of apostasy throughout the church age is the erosion of ethics. From the beginning, Christianity was a way of life; the sal vation it offered was a deliverance from sin. This salvation appeared not only in a hope of the future but also in an immediate moral change. The early Christians, to the astonishment of their neighbors, lived a strange new kind of life — a life of honesty, purity, unselfishness. All other types of life were excluded from the Christian community in the strictest way. From the beginning Christianity was a life. But doctrinal apostasy led to apostasy all across the board. Error in belief issued in error in be havior; a wrong creed meant a wrong conduct; apostate doctrine resulted in apostate duty. For instance, the view that matter was evil held by Gnosticism gave rise to the asceticism of Man- icheanism and Monasticism. Third-century Man- icheanism laid so much stress on the ascetic life that it looked upon the sex instinct as evil, and emphasized the superiority of the unmarried state. Monasticism began within the church, but later followers withdrew from society to live as hermits. These hermits then attracted others who looked to them for leadership and took up residence with them in nearby caves. Simeon Stylites, one of these hermit monks, tried to live for several months buried up to his neck in the ground. Later he decided to achieve holiness by sitting on top of a pole, spending thirty years on the top of a sixty- foot pillar near Antioch. Doesn’t this sound like a modern guru? Naturalistic evolution also led to an erosion of ethics. This view was popularized by Charles Dar win in 1859 in his book, Origin of the Species. He tried to argue that God had no part in the creation of man, but rather that man developed from lower forms of life. But this view is not only opposed to the biblical concept of the special crea tion by God, but it also did away with the idea of sin. It made sin merely the remnant of animal instinct in man and produced the idea that man could be reformed but did not need to be regener ated. Man could therefore live as he wanted, be yond any standards of God or anyone else. All of this is extremely relevant to our day. The trend of lust, lawlessness, and situation ethics has been set throughout the church age. Satan has
Dr. Edgar C. James, Director, The Graduate Division, Cal vary Bible College, Kansas City, Missouri.
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THE K IN G 'S BUSINESS
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