A Review of the Century - Glenn Conjurske
Abstract of a Sermon Preached on January 2, 2000
by Glenn Conjurske
Popular opinion has determined that the twentieth century has now ended. We hardly think so, for we begin counting with one, not with zero. With all the hubbub the world has had about zeroes, it must be obvious enough we are now at zero, not at one. The hundredth year is of course the last year of the century, not the first. But if I preached this next year, I would be thought a year too late. I yield therefore to popular opinion. For all practical purposes we are at the end of what the calendar marks as the twentieth century. The present year is not likely to change its course. I propose to direct your thoughts back over this century this morning.
The first thing we may remark concerning the twentieth century is that the world has changed more in this century than in all the preceding centuries combined. Those things which are commonplace today were never dreamed of a hundred years ago, nor two hundred, nor a thousand, nor two thousand, nor five thousand. Through sixty centuries the world continued pretty much as it was. There were no self-propelled vehicles, no electronic communications, no electric lighting or refrigeration, no machines but such as were worked by wind or water or muscles. Cows were milked by hand, wells dug by hand, water pumped or drawn by hand, wood sawed by hand, hay cut and stacked by hand. Most of the energies of the race went to procure the necessities of life. Wind, water, and even steam had been harnessed in some small degree, but the plain fact is, most men lacked the wealth required to own the inventions which harnessed them. The twentieth century has changed all that, but we cannot regard the change as anything very propitious. This century has put speed, luxury, and ease into the hands of almost everybody, and these things have destroyed the moral fiber of the whole race.
The harnessing of electricity is no doubt the single greatest change which has come about, and next to that the invention of the self-propelled vehicle. All this began in the preceding century, but it was left to the twentieth century for these things to prevail on the earth, and become commonplace. The railroad was common in the last century, but it was very limited. Its cars were confined to its tracks, which could not go everywhere, and most men could no more own a railroad engine then, than they now could a space ship. By means of the railroad and the steam ship, long-distance travel was rapid, but local travel was still as slow as it had been in Adam’s day. Automobiles existed, but most of the people in the world had never seen one.
Coupled with rapid travel, the century also made rapid communication common, and the effect of this has changed the face of the world entirely, and changed it very much for the worse. “Evil communications corrupt good manners,” and the close proximity of a large number of sinners of course greatly facilitates evil communications. Cities have always therefore been sinks of iniquity. The urban population has always been more corrupt than the rural. This is yet true to a small extent, but the fact is, electronic communications have turned the whole world into one vast city. Whatever evil there is in the world is communicated in a matter of seconds to every hamlet, every hillside, every household, by means of the radio and the television—-and now computers. Whatever filth is conceived in the minds of the song writers, the film makers, or the fashion designers is immediately spewed out over the whole nation, and the whole world.
Some years ago I read a book by John Roach Straton, called Fighting the Devil in Modern Babylon—-modern Babylon being New York City, where he was a pastor. The book was written in 1929. Straton was a Baptist, and one of the prominent leaders of Fundamentalism. He was a typical Fundamentalist, whose weapons were half spiritual and half carnal, and whose agenda was the gospel and patriotism. He complains that in his recent travels he had heard “the silly, sensuous songs from Broadway” being sung in a little hamlet in the mountains of North Carolina, and again in a home up in Canada. Now the culprit which brought about this state of things is rapid communication, and particularly the radio. Radio broadcasting began in 1920, and in the years which immediately followed the radio became a “standard household fixture” throughout the United States. This made the whole nation in effect one vast city. The morals of the whole nation are now under the thumb of Broadway and Hollywood, and other things as bad or worse, and the tool by which this control is exercised is electronic communications. So long as man is what he is, electronic communications will be evil communications, and their effect has been to draw the whole world into a maelstrom of iniquity. This is no theory now. I am speaking of facts.
The use of electricity and machines has also made possible automation and mass production, and these two things have flooded the earth with such sin as makes the sin of Sodom look like child’s play. Of Sodom we read in Ezekiel 16:49, “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.” Modern technology has made this look innocent enough. Who would be content with “fulness of bread” today? If you were to guarantee “fulness of bread” to modern America, you would be laughed to scorn. This would not be giving the people anything, but taking from them most of what they have. In Sodom the Lord saw “Pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness.” In America today he sees, “Pride, fulness of luxuries, and abundance of idleness.” Sodom had no eight-hour day, and it was enough for a man’s labor to secure fulness of bread, but machines and automation have made it possible for one man to produce what a thousand could in the past. There is no call for so much bread—-who would eat it?—-and man has therefore devoted all this excess energy to the production of luxuries, and these, in turn, increase his idleness. Every man now lives like a king, at ease, and immersed in pleasures and luxuries of every possible sort.
And make no mistake, this fulness of luxuries which prevails over “the developed world” has removed man farther from God than ever he was since the creation of the world. God tells us in James 2:5 that he has chosen the poor. The Lord tells us in Luke 4:18 that he was sent to preach the gospel to the poor, for they have an ear to hear it. If God were to send his Son into the world today, to preach the gospel to the poor, where could he send him? Not to America. The fact is this: modern technology, automation, and mass production have virtually eliminated the poor. And we care nothing for the rhetoric of the liberals in Washington. I could multiply my income by three, maybe four, and these soft-headed liberals would yet contend I was living in poverty. They love to speak of the millions of children in America who are living in poverty, but this is a lie from the devil. The god of this world knows very well that the poor are susceptible to the gospel, and therefore he will have no poor on the earth if he can help it. He will have the whole world living in the lap of luxury. This, by the way, ought to teach men who is the real father of all this modern technology, which has filled the world with such a profusion of luxuries, and practically eliminated poverty and hardship. “How hardly,” the Lord says, “shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” The devil knows this too, and nothing, therefore, could suit his purposes better than to fill the hands of the whole world with riches, and nothing could accomplish this better than modern technology.
The devil conceals his identity, of course, and calls all these developments by the name of progress, but long experience has taught me that wherever you see the term “progress,” you may be pretty sure the devil is behind it. It is the progress of the prodigal son, in his journey to the far country. It is precisely what the Bible calls “the course of this world,” and it is always farther and farther from God. And yet the old serpent is not content. He sees a whole nation with silver spoons in their mouths, and yet cries poverty! poverty! It isn’t true, though it would be well for the human race if it were.
But I turn from modern luxury to speak again of modern speed. Rapid travel and rapid communication have shrunk the size of the world, have made it possible for a few powerful individuals to control the thinking of the whole world, while they themselves are controlled by the devil. We know that it is the devil’s purpose to bring about one world government, and one world religion, with himself at the head of both of them. Both things were virtual impossibilities prior to the twentieth century, but by means of modern technology—-by means of the speed of modern travel and modern communications—-the devil has brought the whole world together, and developed a global outlook, and a global ideology. Ecumenicalism and internationalism are his two pet programs, by which he aims to bring about the final triumph of all his religious and political purposes. The watchword of ecumenicalism is love, and the watchword of internationalism peace, and by these two pleasing words the devil deceives the whole world—-for you may be sure that neither God nor truth have any place in either ecumenicalism or internationalism. These two programs will lead the world directly to the embrace of the Antichrist—-directly to the final triumph of all the devil’s sinister purposes for this world, of which he is the god.
But God is at work also, setting the stage for the final defeat of the devil and his kingdom. The twentieth century has witnessed the return of the Jews to Palestine. The Zionist movement began formally in 1897, and the Balfour Declaration of 1917 opened Palestine to the Jews, who have flocked to their homeland since that day. Israel became a state in 1948. After twenty centuries in which the Bible prophecies of the short-lived triumph and final defeat of the Antichrist could not be fulfilled, the stage is now set for the literal accomplishment of all. The only thing lacking is the temple of the Jews in Jerusalem, and that, we may be sure, will be erected in short order, so soon as God gives his nod for it. That temple will be built, and will no doubt be one of the great bones of contention in the last great war, which no “peace talks” or “land for peace” deals will ever prevent. There will be no peace till Israel gives up every inch of Palestine, and that Israel will never do. That war will come, when all the nations of the earth are gathered together against Jerusalem to battle. The growing, world-wide, devil-inspired antisemitism brings that war ever nearer. That antisemitism will prevail, even in America. I heard some years ago of a vote in the United Nations, on a point of dispute between Israel and her foes, and almost all the world voted against Israel. Only the United States voted with her. Britain abstained. That war will come, and the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. But then, at the darkest moment of her history, Israel will be delivered. The Lord himself shall go forth and fight against those nations, and his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives. The ungodly will be destroyed, the curse removed from the earth, and the righteous inherit the kingdom. These prophecies could not have been fulfilled at any previous time, when there was no Israel to fight against, but the stage is now set for the accomplishment of all, and it is the twentieth century which has set it.
The twentieth century has brought us to “the time of the end,” prophesied by Daniel 2500 years ago, and no doubt to the very brink of the end itself. “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” (Daniel 12:4). This is God’s description of “the time of the end,” and it is a perfect description of the present day. Running to and fro, by means of automobiles and airplanes, in a manner which the wildest imaginations could scarcely have conceived a mere century ago. Knowledge increased beyond what any man could have dreamed a century ago. Modern technology has brought all this about, but God foresaw it two and a half millenniums ago, and marked it as “the time of the end.”
It is high time, therefore, to wake up. It is time to work, and God knows there is plenty to be done. The progress of evil is almost breath-taking, while the church is so weak and languid and sleepy we can hardly tell if she is dead or alive, and so worldly as to be of little worth if she is alive. America used to be known as the land of revivals, but no revival has been seen here for nearly a century and a half. The nineteenth century was ushered in with a profusion of revivals. The twentieth century was ushered in with mass evangelism, but this was pronounced dead by the middle of the century. John R. Rice endeavored to revive it, but all he produced was a movement which made a multitude of brasen shields, and put them in the place of the shields of gold which had been lost. The twenty-first century comes to us with the population sunk in settled apathy, and immersed in reeking iniquity, from the President in the White House down to the bums in the streets.
But I am not without hope. God is yet willing to bestow the longed-for revival, and what’s more, he is yet able. I yet believe that “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” But then something depends upon “you.” I have not the slightest doubt that the church of the present day is the one grand hindrance to the work of the Lord. It is the one thing that stands in the way of revival. But the case is not hopeless. Let God find one church that is as holy and zealous as these evil days require, and revival may come today as well as two centuries ago. It may be that the twenty-first century will be ushered in with a great revival. Nay, it may yet be that the twentieth century will close with a great revival, for we have yet a year of this century in which to pray and labor. If we make it our business to be and to do as we ought, we will find that the power of God is just what it has always been.
Glenn Conjurske