Many evolutionists frankly declare that the purpose of evolution is to destroy belief in God, or his active control of his creation. Prof. H. F. Osborn, of N. Y., a leading evolutionist, says, “In truth, from the period of the earlier stages of Greek thought, man has been eager to discover some natural cause of evolution, and to abandon the idea of supernatural intervention in the order of nature.” Other evolutionists openly announce their antagonism to the Bible and Christianity. Clarence Darrow, in the Tenn. trial, called Christianity a “fool religion.”
Darwinism has been declared an attempt to eliminate God and all evidence of design and to substitute the old heathen doctrine of chance. With this announced purpose in view, we are not surprised to learn from Prof. J. H. Leuba that one-half the professors teaching it did not believe in God nor the immortality of the soul; and that there is a rapid increase in the number of students who have discarded Christianity as they progress in their course,—Freshmen, 15%; Juniors, 30%; Seniors, 40 to 45%. Children of Christian homes, taught to believe in God and Jesus Christ, are led into infidelity and atheism rapidly, as they progress in their course. It makes one shudder to think what the future will be, if atheism and infidelity are taught in the guise of science. And the statistics show that evolution is one of the most fruitful sources of unbelief. What the students are taught today, the world will believe tomorrow. How great the havoc caused by a comparatively few infidel or atheistic professors!
Dr. C. W. Elliott, a Unitarian, announced with apparently great glee, that already the young men and young women do not believe the story of the creation of Adam and Eve. The leaders of Bolshevist Russia said to Dr. Sherwood Eddy, with brutal frankness, “The Communist party, the only party allowed in Russia, is 100% atheistic. If a man believes in God, he can not be a member of the party.” Russia is an example of a country where atheism is taught in the public schools, and we are moving all too fast in the same direction. The Red Army shot to death 500,000 men in Russia. The horrors of the French Revolution may be outdone, if we do not awake to our danger. Russia is cursed with a doctrine offensive alike to the Christian, the Jew, the Mohammedan and even the deist. In America the same condition may be brought about, more stealthily and more effectually in the name of science. Indeed, the Russian atheists feel the necessity of adopting the American method as more effective. An Associated Press dispatch of Dec. 24, 1924, states that Zinovieff, a Soviet leader, admitted that the Communists had gone too far in their efforts to establish atheism by force, but he adds, “We shall pursue our attacks on Almighty God in due time, and in an appropriate manner. We are confident we shall subdue him in his empyrean. We shall fight him wherever he hides himself.... I have been informed that not only young Communists, but Boy Scouts, are mocking people who are religious. I have also been told that groups of Boy Scouts have even imprisoned whole congregations in church while they were worshipping! Our campaign against God and religion must be carried out in a pedagogic way, not by violence or force.” Do we want such a situation in America? We are drifting that way.
Evolution has no quarrel with atheism, agnosticism, modernism, or any other species of infidelity. Its quarrel is with Christianity and the Bible. Why should we wish to harmonize Christianity with evolution, when the theory can not possibly be true? Prof. Newman says, “Readings in Evolution,” p. 8, “Contrary to a widespread idea, evolution (in what sense?) is by no means incompatible with religion (Christianity?).... The majority of thoughtful theologians (whew!) of all creeds are in accord with the evolution idea.”
Dr. W. W. Keen says, “I believe in God and evolution.” An infidel, a deist, even a heathen can say that. To harmonize evolution with Christianity is quite a different problem. Prof. Coulter, of Chicago University, endeavors to show where “religion and evolution meet.” But the “religion” is the religion of the infidel, not of the Christian. How can a theory which denies the creation of Adam and Eve and any intervention and control by the Creator, be harmonized with Christianity?
Rev. F.E. Clark, President of the World C.E., says, “The Darwinian theory, whatever it may be called today, has doubtless unsettled many minds. A hazy agnosticism has often taken the place of strenuous belief.” He is in a position to know.
A beloved friend, president of a prominent college, an evolutionist and a modernist, in a letter to the writer, claimed that evolution is nearest the truth, and those who believe it are nearest to “Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.” If this is true, how many evolutionists are more spiritual, more earnest, and more successful on that account, in winning souls to Christ?
No doubt many have been made infidels and atheists. How many souls have been won to Christ by Osborn, Newman, Conklin, Darrow, Lull, Shull, Scott, Coulter, Metcalf, Kellogg, Nutting, Thompson, Castle, Chapin, and all other prominent evolutionists? If evolution is nearest the truth, the number of their converts to Christ should be greatly increased. We await the information, which we do not have at hand, to see if the contention of our friend is correct.
Mrs. Aimee Semple McPherson preaches daily in the Angelus Temple, Los Angeles, Cal., which seats 5300 people. Often standing room is at a premium. Many souls are saved (over 14,000 in 1924), and thousands are healed in answer to prayer. What a tremendous loss to humanity, if the gospel of Christ had not saved her from the infidelity and atheism of evolution! She writes as follows of her conversion: “The writer went to one of the services being held in my home town, by the Irish evangelist, Robert Semple, and entered the meeting practically an infidel, having studied Darwinism, atheistic theories until faith in God’s word was shaken. Never will those moments be forgotten. One could feel the power of God, the moment one entered the building. Such singing, hands uplifted, faces radiant, such Amens and Hallelujahs, such power and fervor back of every word that was spoken, such exaltation of the deity of Christ, the necessity and power of the atoning blood, the second Coming of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit to energize and get the believer ready for his coming, gripped and stirred the heart.... Never, never, can the writer forget that hallowed hour, when, kneeling by a Morris chair in the home of a friend, early in the morning, with uplifted arms, she prayed and felt for the first time, the tremendous inflowing power of the Holy Ghost.” Behold, the power of evolution to ruin, and of Christ to save!
Evolutionists are, as a rule, modernists; and modernists are evolutionists, and are reckless in their zeal to destroy the faith of the young committed to their care. We select the following 3 illustrations from a single article in the PRESBYTERIAN:
1. “A father sat in this office, a minister above middle life, his eyes full of tears, and his soul full of groans, as he told how he had sent his son, who had been an orderly Christian boy, to a supposedly Christian college. When the boy returned home, after graduation, he informed his father that through instruction received, he had lost his faith, and believed none of those things he had been taught at home. The father was so shocked and overcome he could make no reply, but asked his son to kneel and pray with him as they used to do. The son refused, and said he no longer believed in prayer.”
2. “A good Christian father desired to give his young daughter the best educational advantages. She planned to be a missionary. He sent her to a well-known college, considered Christian. This college had a Bible chair, but of the destructive, critical type. The young student absorbed what she was taught. She lost all reverence for the Bible and rejected it. She entirely lost her faith which she had learned from her father and mother. She gave up her mission plans, and developed into a Socialist. When about to graduate, she wrote her father frankly, that she had given up the faith he had taught her, and she was going to live with a man without marriage, as she did not believe in marriage; The father visited her and protested. She smiled and called him an old fogy. She only consented to marriage when threatened with the civil law.”
3. “Another case reported to us by another father:—His son, attending a so-called Christian college, reported that one of the professors declared that they and himself were hypocrites, because they attended chapel every morning where they were told that if they believed and did such things, they would some day go to another world and play on a harp. But if they did not, they would burn. This he declared was all bosh. Then he called attention to the teachings in the college, that man in his body developed from a lower animal, but that man had no soul.”
Yet some colleges and universities ask Christian people to give large sums, with no guarantee that evolution, infidelity and atheism will not be taught. Is it any wonder that Christian parents tremble while their sons and daughters run the gauntlet of infidel professors?
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