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Religion’s Future in View of Its Past

Part 20​—19th Century Onward—​Restoration Imminent!

“The best way to see divine light is to put out thy own candle.”​—Thomas Fuller, English physician and writer (1654-1734)

THE 19th century has been called one of the most vigorous periods of Christian history, ranking with the early centuries and with the Reformation years. The reasons for such an increase in religious awareness and activity are many and varied.

Author Kenneth S. Latourette lists 13 relevant factors, some of which were discussed in the previous issue of this magazine. He says that “never before in so brief a time had human society been changed so profoundly and in such a variety of ways.”

In the United States, the religious revival was clearly visible. For example, church membership rose from less than 10 percent of the population at the start of the century to almost 40 percent at the end of it. Sunday schools​—introduced in England in 1780—​grew in popularity. A reason for this was that, in contrast with Europe, the separation of Church and State in the United States barred religious instruction in public schools. In addition, dozens of denominational colleges and interdenominational Bible societies were founded, and during the first half of the century, at least 25 theological seminaries were established in the United States.

Meanwhile, on a global scale, Protestantism was becoming missionary-minded. British shoemaker and teacher William Carey had taken the lead in 1792 by publishing the book An Enquiry Into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. While serving in India as missionaries, Carey and his associates translated the Bible in full or in part into over 40 Indian and other Asian languages and dialects. The work that some of these early missionaries did in distributing Bibles is commendable.

The relatively new science of Biblical archaeology also gained in status during the last century. In 1799 French soldiers in Egypt discovered a slab of black basalt now called the Rosetta stone. It contained the same inscription written three times, twice in two different forms of Egyptian hieroglyphics and once in Greek. It thus proved invaluable in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. Soon thereafter Assyrian cuneiform writings were decoded as well. So when excavations began in Assyria and Egypt soon afterward, unearthed artifacts took on new meaning. Many Bible accounts were confirmed down to the smallest details.

Burning Their Own Candles

As religious interest grew, so also did the number of would-be reformers. However, it was obvious that not all were sincere. The aforementioned author Kenneth S. Latourette candidly admits that some of the new religious denominations “were born of envy, strife, and personal ambition.” But reformers burning candles of personal ambition could hardly be expected to be God’s choice for restoring true worship.

Amid this confusing flickering of individual candles, theological thinking was thrown into confusion. Higher criticism, mainly a product of German universities, reinterpreted the Scriptures in the light of “advanced” scientific thought. Higher critics viewed the Bible as little more than the record of Jewish religious experience. The authority of the Bible as being essential in determining the way of salvation was questioned, as was the wisdom of the moral standards it champions.

Higher criticism found ready support, particularly among Protestant clergymen. According to one report, by 1897 not a single faculty member of the 20 Protestant theological universities in Germany still held to the traditional views about writership of the Pentateuch or of the book of Isaiah.

A few years later, in 1902, a controversy over higher criticism arose at a conference of the General Assemblies of the Presbyterian Churches in Scotland. The Edinburgh Evening News reported: “According to the higher critics, . . . the Bible is a collection of mythical stories, from which a preacher may extract a few grains of ethical teaching just as a skilled moralist may extract a few grains of ethical teaching from ‘Æsop’s Fables.’” However, the paper then observed: “The working classes are not fools. They will not attend church to listen to men who themselves are living in a mental fog.”

A second article a few days later was even more blunt, commenting: “There is no use mincing matters. The Protestant church is an organized hypocrisy, and its leaders arrant humbugs. It is actually come to this that if the author of the ‘Age of Reason’ were alive today he would not be spoken of derisively as Tom Paine, the infidel, but the Rev. Thomas Paine, D. D., Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis, U[nited] F[ree] College, Glasgow. He would have no difficulty in preaching from a Protestant pulpit . . . [and] drawing a handsome salary as a professor of theology.”

A Religious Backlash

From its start, Protestantism stressed personal conversion and Christian experience, relied mainly on Scripture, and downgraded sacraments and tradition.

In the 1830’s and 1840’s, many Protestant Evangelicals began proclaiming the imminent second coming of Christ and with it the beginning of the Millennium. William Miller, a New York farmer, ventured that the second coming might take place about 1843. This millenarian movement helped lay the foundation for a more prominent and aggressive form of Evangelicalism that came to be known as Fundamentalism.

Fundamentalism was largely a backlash against the skepticism, freethinking, rationalism, and moral laxity that liberalized Protestantism had nourished. It later adopted its name from a series of 12 works entitled The Fundamentals, published from 1909 to 1912 by the Moody Bible Institute.

Fundamentalism, particularly in the United States, has become well-known through its effective radio and TV ministries, its Bible institutes, and its well-publicized and emotional revival meetings. Recently, however, its reputation has suffered under the financial and sexual improprieties of some of its most prominent leaders. It has also been criticized for its increased political activity, especially since the formation in 1979 of the Moral Majority, which was recently disbanded.

Fundamentalism, while claiming to defend the Bible, has also actually undermined its authority. One way it has done so is by a literal interpretation of texts that are clearly not meant to be taken literally. An example of this is the claim that, according to the Genesis account, the earth was created in 6 literal 24-hour days. Obviously, these were symbolic days of much longer duration. (Compare Genesis 2:3, 4; 2 Peter 3:8.) Other ways Fundamentalism undermines the Bible is by teaching unscriptural doctrines, such as eternal torment in hellfire, and at times by promoting standards of conduct other than those required by Scripture, such as forbidding the consumption of alcoholic beverages or the use of makeup by women. In these ways Fundamentalism has caused people to reject the Bible’s message as naive, unreasonable, and unscientific.

A Matter of Timing

Clearly, what was needed was restoration, the restoration of true worship! But as Ecclesiastes 3:1 says: “For everything there is an appointed time.”

Back in the first century, Jesus reactivated true worship in the form of Christianity. Yet, he prophesied that there would be an apostasy. He said that true Christians, like wheat, and pseudo-Christians, like weeds, would “both grow together until the harvest.” At that time, angels would “collect the weeds and . . . burn them up,” while true Christians would be gathered into God’s favor. (Matthew 13:24-30, 37-43) In the latter half of the 19th century, the appointed time for this restoration of true worship was at the doors.

Charles Taze Russell was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1852, and even as a child, he manifested great interest in the Bible. In his early 20’s, he turned his attention from the family business to devote all his time to preaching. By 1916, when he died at the age of 64, he had reportedly preached more than 30,000 sermons and written books consisting of over 50,000 pages.

While recognizing the commendable work others had done in promoting the Bible, Russell realized that simply translating, printing, and distributing the Bible is not enough. So in 1879 he began publishing the magazine today known as The Watchtower. Its first issue said: “We are too much inclined to ask, What does my church say about any question, instead of What saith the Scriptures? Too much theology studied, and the Bible not enough. With the thought, then, that ‘The Scriptures are able to make us wise,’ that ‘the testimonies of the Lord are sure making wise the simple,’ let us examine.”

Today, having completed 110 years of uninterrupted publication, The Watchtower (now published in 106 languages and with a circulation in excess of 13 million copies per issue) continues to examine God’s Word. Millions of people have learned to appreciate the help that it provides in study, understanding, and application of what the Bible teaches.

Russell was unlike many of his reformation-minded contemporaries in that he did not preach a special approach to God, did not boast of divine visions or revelations, did not discover esoteric messages in the form of hidden books or otherwise, and never claimed to be able to heal the physically sick. Furthermore, he did not assert that he could interpret the Bible. As a willing instrument in divine hands, he resisted all temptations to allow “his own candle” to outshine divine light.

“It is the truth rather than its servant that should be honored and proclaimed,” Russell wrote in 1900, adding: “There is too much disposition to credit truth to the preacher, forgetful that all truth is of God, who uses one or another servant in its proclamation as it may please him.” This is the principal reason why writers and translators of Watch Tower publications, as well as members of the New World Bible Translation Committee, choose to remain anonymous.

God’s King Enthroned!

In the first century, John the Baptizer announced the imminent appearance of Jesus as God’s designated King. In the 19th century, the time had come to announce the imminent appearance of that King in heavenly power. Accordingly, in its March 1880 issue, Zion’s Watch Tower declared: “‘The Times of the Gentiles’ extend to 1914, and the heavenly kingdom will not have full sway till then.”

Thus, the group today known as Jehovah’s Witnesses went on public record well over a hundred years ago in making known that the year 1914 would mark the beginning of God’s Kingdom. The enthronement of God’s King was a preliminary step toward the final snuffing out of false religion’s flickering candle, so that it might no longer obscure divine light.

As the 19th century drew to a close, Christendom’s religion had no garments to identify itself as God’s servant. It deserved to be abandoned by God. Its time of judgment was drawing near. Learn more about this in our next issue.

[Box on page 18]

Some “Late-Arrival” Children of the Reformation

Church of Christ, Scientist: This religious movement is commonly known as Christian Science. It was founded in 1879 by Mary Baker Eddy, who was very health conscious. Her reportedly instantaneous recovery from a severe accident in 1866 convinced her that she had discovered the principles that enabled Jesus to heal the sick and raise the dead. Her 1875 book Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures teaches that the spiritual prevails over the physical, that sin, disease, death, and other negatives are illusions conquerable by knowledge of truth and positive thinking in harmony with Mind, meaning God.

Disciples of Christ: This church was formed in 1832 by restoration-minded American Presbyterians. Their slogan was: “Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent.” One reference work describes them as “highly tolerant in doctrinal and religious matters.” Members allowed politics to divide them seriously during the U.S. Civil War. In 1970 there were 118 denominations, including the Churches of Christ formed in 1906.

Salvation Army: William Booth founded this religious group that is organized along military lines. Booth entered the Methodist ministry in his early 20’s and became an independent evangelist in 1861. He and his wife established a preaching mission among the poor in London’s East End. The group’s name was changed in 1878 from Christian Mission to Salvation Army. The Salvation Army seeks to “save souls” by offering social help to the homeless, the hungry, the mistreated, the underprivileged.

Seventh-Day Adventists: This is the largest of some 200 Adventist denominations. Their name is based on belief in the second coming, or advent, of Christ. The Adventists stem from Baptist lay minister William Miller’s movement of the early 1840’s. Teaching that the Ten Commandments are still in force, Seventh-Day Adventists keep a literal Saturday sabbath. Some members attribute almost Biblical inspiration to the writings of Ellen Gould White, one of the group’s most influential leaders, who claimed she was illuminated by a series of divine visions.

[Picture on page 17]

The Rosetta stone has helped confirm the Bible’s truthfulness

[Credit Line]

Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum