Ninetenth and Twentieth Centurys

In Europe and America technological advancements during the nineteenth century were truly amazing. They had entered the century with horses as the main means of transportation on land, and wooden sailing ships on the oceans; at century's end they had trains and even automobiles and the oceans could now be crossed on self propelled vessels of steel. Telephones were in use, and electricity was being harnessed. There were many more dramatic advancements during the century.

In the nineteenth century Charles Darwin had published his Origin of Species. He was not the first to propose an evolutionary view of man, such views were thousands of years old, and had existed in various pagan systems, but Darwin was the first to put it into a scientific package. This was important to the nineteenth century, because the scientist was, by then, well on his way to becoming the determiner of truth for much of the European and American elite. Now with Darwin’s work in print, people knew that man would advance, and this, without the help of a god.

New ideas had also entered many of the churches. Creation and Biblical history did not agree with anthropology and other sciences, which were now attempting to explain things from a naturalistic (atheistic) view point. Many churches decided that in order to remain relevant they needed to line up with science, so creation and miracles were explained away, and a social gospel replaced the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As the twentieth century dawned, optimism in man reigned supreme. Men believed the sciences would soon conquer nature, and with the social gospel, replacing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, hunger and poverty would soon be a thing of the past. Progress was inevitable, and old Christian God was no longer needed.

The new optimism, however, soon vanished. During the twentieth century two world wars would kill tens of millions of peoples. Secular (atheistic/humanistic) religions like Communism, Anarchism, Fascism, Nazism, would murder tens of millions more. This most secular century in all of human history is also the bloodiest century in all of human history.

God will not be mocked; the western world entered the twentieth century mocking the God of Scripture. It has paid a very heavy price and, as we can see, it seems to have learned nothing.

We are in need of Christian Reformation. Christians need to apply the scriptures to all areas of life. Man has made great strides technologically, but morally and culturally we need to return to the Word of God for answers. If we do not turn to God and the Scriptures then, in this twenty-first century, our children may well witness a repeat of the horrors of the twentieth century or worse.

Soli Deo Gloria
Kenith