War Against the Truth A Christian Educator Reveals the Challenge Caused by the Increasing Apostasy Found in Formerly Christian Schools
by Dr. Gerald B. Stanton
H r. Sutherland, Mr. Myers, honored members of the faculty and fellow students: We are gathered here this morning as an institution dedi cated to the work and glory of our God and for the propagation of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Per sonally, I count it a signal honor to be associated with this great institu tion and to be a co-laborer with the other men and the ladies of the fac ulty in the training of lives and the building of testimonies. We are this morning—all of us, both faculty and students alike— called upon to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. If there were not battles to be fought, if there were not vic tories yet to be won, none of us would be here. We believe that our school exists because the kingdoms of this world have not yet become the kingdom of our Christ. Therefore, we dare not lay down our armor and we will not lay down our Sword. The Word of God which we be lieve and which is so dear to all of us clearly teaches us that in the latter days, perplexing, evil times shall come. Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Peter indicates it after this manner: “ False prophets . . . [shall be] among the people, false teachers who . . . privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them . . . and many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of” (2 Pet. 2 :1 ,2 ). Enemy Forces Abound Now we who are Christian soldiers believe that there is real wisdom in recognizing the enemy and the forces of the enemy and in knowing from what quarter an attack will come. We are living in days when sin is abounding on every side. We recog nize that, in spite of the claims of some amillennialists, here in this par ticular age Satan is not bound. We
know that, according to Scripture, in the latter days evil times shall come. We might well, then, expect Christianity to be under attack. We are not surprised when this attack comes out of such places as Nazi Ger many with its bitter hatred towards Judaism. We are not surprised when we see books coming from the Ger man press such as Jesus, the Greatest Enemy of Mankind. We are shocked, but yet we are not too much surprised when we hear blatant unbelievers, Convocation address given January 28, 1953, at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles by Dr. Stanton, Professor of Sys tematic Theology, Talbot Theological Seminary, as tape recorded and repro duced here at the request of President Sutherland. infidels, like Ingersoll, uttering their blasphemy against God. Ingersoll made this awful statement: “ The church for a thousand years has ex tinguished the torch of progress in the blood of Christ.” What a blasphemous thing to say; yet we are not sur prised when we see the attack pressed from such a source. However, we are surprised and dismayed when we see how the assault has shifted. Satan’s attack nowadays, it seems, is coming not so much from the atheist, not so much from the blasphemer and de nier of the faith such as Ingersoll, but the assault is now coming from formerly Christian institutions — in stitutions founded for the propagation of the gospel of Christ! These schools that once knew our Saviour are now the fountainheads of skepticism and unbelief and are pouring forth their atheism until the whole land has become contaminated. Some Educators Deny Gad Let me give you the source of just a few of these institutions—five in number. First, Yale University. Dr. Cyrus Northrop, in his book Two Centuries of Christian Activity in
Yale, said this: “ Yale College was founded by Christian ministers in the interest of education, but especially of religious education, in order that there might be an adequate supply of Christian ministers. . . For the first century no less than forty per cent of its graduates became ministers of the gospel.” Now what do we find today? We find that the Yale Uni versity press is publishing books which deny the very existence of God. We find lecturers who are outstand ing atheists, such as Prof. Montague of Columbia who said: “ Zeus and his cousin of old Judea [that is, Jesus] never were at all, except in night mare dreams, in the minds of their worshipers.” 1 Let us look at Smith College, which has been for years a famous college for young women. In the third article of the will of the founder of Smith College, Sophia Smith, we find these words: “ Sensible of what the Chris tian religion has done for myself, and believing that all education should *be for the glory of God and the good of man, I direct that the Holy Scriptures be daily and system atically read and studied in said col lege, and that all the discipline shall be pervaded by the spirit of evan gelical Christian religion.” However, since then we find men at Smith Col lege such as Prof. Barnes, in the chair of Historical Sociology, drilling the thousands of students who sit under him in his own hatred for Christianity. He has called upon them to surrender (1) the reality and deity of the Biblical God; (2) the unique ness and divinity of Jesus; and (3) the belief in immortality. Moreover, this professor at a formerly outstand ing Christian college says: that he is continued on page 29 1Wilbur Smith, "Therefore Stand," pp. 72-117, it the source for quotations used concerning the five colleges under exami nation.
8
THE KINC'S BUSINESS
Made with FlippingBook Online document