as incurably evil, and, secondly, in its despair as to the power of moral and spiritual forces to effect any change. The prophet in all ages has been quick to see evil and courageous in its condemnation, nor has he ever minimized its power. He has refused to cry, "Peace, peace," when there was no peace. But premillennial pessimism is not a mark of moral discernment or especial sensitiveness to sin. It is purely a dogmatic position. The first requirement of the premillennial scheme is the utter hopelessness of the present situation. The whole theory falls to the ground unless one holds that the world is evil and is constantly growing worse. "If we are mistaken as to the presence of a 'religious falling away,' then all hope and arguments of premillennialism dissolve in thin air," confesses one writer.

It is no wonder then that the pages of these writers are filled with pictures of the blackest hue. There is no effort at a moral estimate of the world, and moral discrimination is quite lacking. The matter is as superficial as the optimism which they so often condemn. A recent writer, for example, calls his volume Behold the Morning, and then takes over a third of its space for a catalog of evils of every kind, quoting at length with apparent satisfaction the opinion that "the entire race will be insane in a few centuries" (p. 27). One looks through these pages in vain for any real recognition of the forces of good that are at work. The references to temperance reform, philanthropy, social legislation, or humanitarian movements of any kind are uniformly critical, depreciatory, or simply scornful. The possi

1 Wimberly, Behold the Morning, p. 71; compare Prophetic Studies, p. 166.

bility of any Christian element in our civilization is scoffed at. "Our civilization was conceived in sin and born in iniquity. In Genesis 3 we have its conception, and in Genesis 4 its birth. Civilization took form when Cain, the rationalist and fratricide, 'went out from the presence of the Lord... and builded a city."""

As a matter of fact, the whole question for chiliasm is not one of what is, but of what must be. It rests back finally upon an ultra-Calvinistic conception of divine sovereignty. The world is evil and is growing worse because God has determined this as his plan. That plan is revealed in the Bible, and it is ours not to debate it but to accept it. God has said in the Bible that the world is to grow worse, and that decides it. The world itself is not now under God's control. "Satan is the arch enemy of God, and the world in this present evil age is in his "3 Since God has determined this as the course power. of events, we must not speak of the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit as a failure. If God had wished to save the world in this age (instead of only a limited number, the elect), then it would have come to pass.* Quite consistently the writer just quoted adds that it is a mistake to preach the gospel of the kingdom in this age or to pray for its extension. It is ours simply to ask God to "accomplish the number of (his) elect."

We come then to the peculiar situation that for premillennialism hopelessness becomes a mark of faith, and the discovery of evil a ground of encouragement. Paul's

Christian Workers Magazine, September, 1918.

3 Blackstone, Jesus is Coming, p. 143.

'Christian Workers Magazine, 1917, p. 278; compare Brookes, The Lord Cometh, pp. 317, 377.

word is reversed and we are summoned to rejoice over unrighteousness instead of with the truth, and by no means to believe all things or hope all things. It becomes a necessity to put the darkest construction upon all things as a support to this (assumed) divine plan. Dr. Nathanael West calls for a "treatise with full statistics of the Devil's missions" in order to "set the word of God in its true light." And this strange situation makes possible the words of Dr. R. A. Torrey written during the war: "As awful as conditions are across the water to-day, and as awful as they may become in our own country, the darker the night gets the lighter my heart gets." That is why premillennialism flourishes in times of greater distress (witness the late war), and why progress of the good is the severest blow to the theory.

But premillennialism is something more than a belief in the power of evil and a despair as to the present age. It means despair as to the power of spiritual forces to redeem this world: in other words, moral pessimism. Consider what those forces of redemption are upon which thoughtful Christian men rely to-day. We believe in the power of the truth, coming to us supremely in the gospel and showing us the will of God and the true life of man. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the living God dwelling in his world and working in the life of men. We believe that this life of God in man is showing itself in love and service, in the passion for righteousness and the spirit of brotherhood. We believe that these forces are working, and will work, through the organized life

The Thousand Years, p. 449.

• Christian Workers Magazine, 1917, p. 554.

of mankind in industry, in the state, and especially through the Church of Christ. But always our fundamental confidence is in the power of the truth as given in the gospel, and the power of the Spirit of God in human life. Upon these spiritual forces we rely.

Premillennialism declares that these spiritual forces cannot, or at least will not, save the world in this age or in any other. The failure of these forces is already apparent. "There is not a nation, or a country, or a parish, or a long-established congregation, where the devil has not more subjects than Christ." "If there were not some way beside the present religious propaganda for bringing in the kingdom of God, I could not believe in a scheme that has failed as this has and is cer

tainly failing."8 The church is constantly depicted in blackest colors, and W. E. Blackstone is mild in comparison with some others when he suggests that "it is almost ready to be spued out of the Master's mouth."

As to the state, not only are there no Christian nations but there can be none.10 As for the idea of a social Christianity, a spirit of righteousness leavening or molding society, that is absolutely rejected. "The uplift of society as a whole is a perversion of gospel salvation, which is purely individualistic." The leavening power of evil is insisted upon as strongly as the same power is denied to the good.

Here again the position is strictly dogmatic. It is

"Ryle, Second Coming, p. 40.

Wimberly, Behold the Morning, p. 210.

'Jesus is Coming, p. 95.

10 Christian Workers Magazine, 1917, p. 277. "Ibid., XVI, 396.

not that these forces have not saved the world; they cannot. It is the old apocalyptic idea of a history that has been mapped out in advance, with its program of epochs and events. The program for this age includes simply the saving of a number of the elect out of the wreck of the world. The work of the church and the effect of the gospel are strictly limited to this. The church that assumes to convert the world to Christ "proposes to itself a plan which already the mouth of God has declared to be false."12 The gospel "shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all nations;" this is the passage constantly cited, and always we are told that it does not mean converting or Christianizing the world. One looks in vain for any explanation of Matt. 28. 19, 20, where the command is to "make disciples of all the nations, . . . teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you." In brief, God has no intention of saving the world by spiritual means. The kingdom will not come, says A. C. Gaebelein flatly, in a spiritual way.' 13

PREMILLENNIAL MILITARISM

What, then, are the forces to which premillennialism appeals in its hope of a new world? It must be answered, the physical and external. It is essentially a militaristic scheme of salvation. What other alternative is there? There are only two forces available in the world. The one is ethical and spiritual, God's Spirit appealing by the truth and working through the mind and heart of man. The other is external and physical. There is 12 West, The Thousand Years, p. 279.

13 Harmony, p. 186.