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T H E K I N G ’ S
B U S I N E S S
October 1924
Lawlessness Rev. A. V. Kimmell, Pastor First Brethren Church, Whittier, California, and President of the Southern California Premillennial Association The members of the Southern California Premillennial Association, who were privileged to hear this address by Mr. Kimmell, were so deeply impressed with its timeliness and the need of arousing-Christians,to the seriousness of the situation confronting us as a nation, that they urgently requested its publication. Wè are glad to pass it on to the King’s Business Family
asked to underline the word which he believes describes the statement. Here is the viewpoint presented by some children: “It is NOT w ron g to steal from one who has secured his wealth dishonestly.” _ . “It is more honorable to have charge o f an office than to work at a trade.” “ Stupidity is more sinful than deceit. “Unnecessarily failin g to meet an appointment on time is NOT immoral and unchristian/* H H H ■ ¡■ H HHH| “Cheating a railroad is NOT so much a sin as cheating a person.” ' ,. . . . . . . “It is not the duty o f the pupil to call attention to the fact that the teacher has giveii him too high marks.” ____ "It Is true that IF A STOREKEEPER GIVES YOU TOO MUCH MONEY IT IS ALL RIGHT TO KEEP IT, BECAUSE HE WOULD PROBABLY DO THE SAME IE YOU PAID HIM TOO MUCH ” Here is a test made to see how children would cheat in examinations, a test so severe that it would strain the moral fibre o f even senior college students: “The children are given double sheets of paper, the under sheet being secretly Coated with wax that shows any change or correction. A set of questions and answers is w ritten on the blackboard and a map hung over the answers. The teacher, in this test, leaves the room while the children are w riting down their answers to the questions. A fter a certain length o f time the map, apparently by accident, falls from the black board and discloses the list of answers. The children, with no teacher In the room, have the opportunity to correct any errors they have made In their answers; they are given plenty o f time to yield to this temptation. In some of these tests 100 per cent of the children yielded.” Our reference to tbese tests does not indicate that we annrove of deliberate temptation, but they show the appal ling situation which confronts us. The number of murders and manslaughters is increasing so rapidly that figures gathered today have to be revised tomorrow, but in evangelistic travels in all parts of the United States, except the extreme south-east, I have found the story to be the same. Lawlessness Is on the Increase. Most people are trying to account for this on the ground of world-war conditions, thinking that when we get back to “ normalcy,” if we ever do, all will be well again. Don’t be an ostrich, stick your head in the sand and wait for the better days. The facts are that long before the last great war LAWLESSNESS was on the increase. The following report reaches back to the year 1890 and comes from a source highly authoritative: “A fter a year’s study of the crime situation the Committee of the American Bar Association fo r Law Enforcement declared in its 1922 report: FROM THE DATA AND OPINIONS OF EX PERTS WHICH TOUR COMMITTEE HAS BEEN ABLE TO GATHER—PARTICULARLY SINCE 1890—THERE HAS BEEN AND CONTINUES A WIDENING, DEEPENING TIDE OF LAW LESSNESS IN THIS COUNTRY.” Lawlessness is surely on the increase and one trembles to think of the day that is coming when all barriers will be removed and all restraint will be taken off and this flood of unrighteousness will sweep everything along. This will be declared to be the “ pessimistic view of a premillen- nialist,” but the wise men of the day, who are scoffing at the old time faith and the old fashioned church, and are clamoring for a “ new religion for this new day” had better take a square look at two passages of Scripture: (Continued on page 669)
IE are not dealing with a subject foreign to the Bible. It is true that the word “ lawless” is used but once and the word “lawlessness” does not appear at all, in the King James translation of the Scriptures, but there is a word frequently used which three hundred years ago meant “ lawlessness;” that, word is “ INIQUITY.” Eleven times in the New Testament where the word “ INIQUITY” is used it means “ lawlessness,” and once the word “Wicked” refers to “ the lawless one.’’ In order that we may have the subject clearly before us we will use three headings:— ¡(1) The Fact of Lawlessness, (2) The Cause of Lawlessness, (3) The Cure for Lawless ness. The Fact of Lawlessness . The Bible teaches the Fact of Lawlessness (Matt. 7 :23): “ And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me ye that work iniquity (lawlessness).” , It would be a waste of time to speak of the Fact of Law lessness were it not that the discussion of the other divi sions of the sermon demand it, for the knowledge of the conditions about us is yours as well as mine. They used to talk about a “ Crime Wave.’ ’ It is no longer a crime wave which sweeps through our cities and over our nations now and then, but' a regular deluge of crime engulfing every part of the world. This tidal wave, when statistically reported, tells an ugly tale. Crimes of every description have increased many hundred per cent in the last years. Juvenile delinquency has increased over two hundred per cent. Several months ago Sheriff Wm. I. Traeger of Los Angeles County, California, addressed a letter to the min isters of the county, two paragraphs of which I quote. "Do you know that the average age of the crim inal in Los Angeles County fifteen years ago was over forty-on e— and that today it is less than twenty-five? "What w ill it be in. another fifteen years?—We may only conjecture— but the trend of conditions is serious—unbeliev ably serious. Could you but see and know the things that to us are becom ing daily more commonplace your eyes would open wide with astonishment— almost unbelief— and it would make you think.” The Religion and Social Service pages of the Literary- Digest for March 15, 1924, show that this “ Tidal Wave“ has engulfed the youth of our country. We quote: “It is a pretty stirring indictment of our public-school system which W illiam G. Shepherd, journalist and author, presents in Good Housekeeping:. He tells us that the facts prove that there is no place in America to which a parent can send his chil dren— and keep them within the lim its of democracy—where they w ill receive instruction in religion* and morals. ‘Religion and morals, somehow, have dropped out along the road in our educational p rogress/ Tests show, we are told, that more than one-half o f our American school children w ill, under tempta tion, have an unethical outlook on life. They show more than this, that under temptation more than half o f them w ill cheat and lie and steal. These tests, we are told, were conducted scientifically. One o f them, known as the ‘True-False’ test, has been applied to thousands of children in the United States. A fter each statement given to a child to test its moral view point are printed the words ‘True, F a lse/ and the child is
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