Some of its principles infiltrate many of our textbooks. It is blatantly arrogant in our own country. It is vigorously being propagated in Japan. Yet this virus of communism is in the vitals of all nations, more or less. This makes a total of 830,000,000 people who are consistently exposed to anti-God propaganda. There are 630,000,000 people in Communist China. There are 200,000,000 people today in the Union of Soviet Republics. The Soviet Encyclopedia goes so far as to say that Jesus of Nazareth never existed. Communism is not simply anti-Christian, it is anti-God. I know that people grow weary of hearing this word, but we must face the facts. THE COMMUNIST THREATįirst, we must reckon with this hideous monster that has arisen in our century to threaten the liberties of man and challenge the whole free world, namely, communism. Attacks upon the Christian faith are being projected from almost every major area of life, even from the area of ecclesiasticism. Maritain has said, “It is not Europe alone, it is the world, it is the whole world which must now resolve the problem of civilization” ( The Twilight of Civilization, 1944, p. We must not see world conditions through the spectacles of some local, evangelically-active area, such as Southern California, or perhaps the church life of the Twin Cities. I am referring here to conditions in general. Though one confesses this with grief, all men-whether Christians or pagans, believers or scoffers-must recognize that the Christian faith is counting for less and less with the passing of each successive decade. Except for occasions such as baptisms, marriages, and funerals, the ordinary man has little contact with the church or its ministers.” Far more general is the attitude of almost complete indifference to religion and ignorance of its nature. In Russia, in Germany, in France, and in many of the central European and Balkan nations, Christianity is treated either with hatred or contempt. As Archbishop Garbett said in his notable work, In An Age of Revolution, “The advances made in scientific knowledge, the results of Biblical criticism, and the mental and spiritual disturbance caused by the wars, have shaken the traditional beliefs and customs.… There is more open and aggressive atheism than at any other period of human history. No one questions the fact that the Christian faith during the last 50 years has been under more terrific attack than at any time since the cessation of persecution in the early centuries. A million soldiers lost their lives, but the fortress held, and the brave French resistance gave rise to the motto, “They shall not pass.” So long as Verdun remained unconquered by the Germans, there was hope for the Allied cause, and, finally, the assurance of ultimate victory. During the First World War, the fortress of Verdun was fiercely attacked by the Germans, and for two years they threw division after division of troops against this pivotal defense of the Allies.
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