FALSE MILLENNIUMS
By
D. M. PANTON, M. A.
All counterfeit millenniums are necessarily built on a
denial of the true. An utterance of Dean Inge,
though somewhat extreme even for a Modernist, is typical of the radical
rejection of all Second Coming truth. "I do
not wish," he says. "entirely to
exclude the possibility that our Lord, in becoming man, may have been willing
to share, to some extent, the current popular illusions, both with regard to
the Messianic hope, and demoniacal possession. But this must certainly
not be stretched so far as to admit that
He fancied Himself filling the role of Daniel’s Son of man in the near
future. Such a notion would not be compatible with sanity, far less with
those attributes which all Christians believe Him to have possessed. The
‘pure eschatologist’ is only to be found in a lunatic asylum, and no one would
have taken this seriously in Judea any more than in London."* Thus,
on their own confession, the Kingdom of God must be set up by its modern
creators and not by the returning Lord; and as a matter of fact we find four (four is the earth number)
man-made millenniums offered us in the closing Age, - two Christian and two
pagan.
[* The Guardian, May 13, 1910.]
1. THE MODERNIST MILLENNIUM
AIM
The Modernist concentrates on the Christianization of civilization and
Society.
"The League of Nations," and the
Archbishop of Canterbury, at
METHOD
The
method expected to achieve the end is the ‘social
gospel’. Dr. R. F. Horton,
in a lecture, quoted Dr. Bruce Glashier’s words:
"Socialism consists, in truth, when finally
resolved, not in getting at all, but in giving; not in being served, but in
serving; not in selfishness, but in unselfishness; not in the desire to gain a
place of bliss in this world for one’s self and one’s family (that is the
individualist and capitalist aim), but in the desire to create an earthly
paradise for all." "That,"
cried Dr. Horton passionately, "is
Christianity! Why use the word ‘Socialism’?"*
[*The
Crusader, Mar. 12, 1920.]
SEQUEL
So
far from the Church being anywhere remotely near the goal, a Modernist, Dr. Parkes Cadman, assures us: "We
used to think that God was going to save the world by Methodism or
Congregationalism or Presbyterianism: the world will not be saved so in a
million years." And so little has been done in two thousand
years that
2. THE PAPAL MILLENNIUM
AIM
In
December, 1925, Pope Pius XI introduced a new Feast into the Catholic calendar
- "The Feast of Christ the King".
Quoting more than once God’s promise to our Lord of David’s Throne, the Papal
Encyclical displays "the Catholic Church, which is the kingdom of Christ on earth",
as "destined to be spread among all men and all
nations." "Oh, what happiness would be ours," exclaims the
Pope, "if all men, individuals, families, and
nations, would but let themselves be governed by Christ! ‘Then at
length,’ to use the words addressed by our predecessor, Pope Leo XIII,
twenty-five years ago to the Bishops of the Universal Church, ‘then at length
will many ills be cured; then will the law regain its former authority, peace
with all its blessings be restored. Men will sheathe their swords and lay
down their arms when all freely acknowledge and obey the authority of Christ,
and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the
Father’."
METHOD
The aim is to be achieved by
universal worship of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. "The whole world," says the Pope, is to "come together to venerate and adore Christ the King, hidden
under the Sacramental species. It
is by a divine inspiration that the people of Christ bring forth Jesus from his
silent hiding-place in the Church, and carry him in triumph through the streets
of the city, so that he whom men refused to receive
when he came unto his own, may now receive in full his kingly rights."
SEQUEL
3. THE COMMUNIST MILLENNIUM
AIM
The
Communist Millennium is all society organized as a common political, economic,
and religious unit controlled by ‘the dictation of the
proletariat.’ "It is only by such
external functions as the millions have in common," says the creed,
"their uniform and simultaneous movements, that
the many can be united in a higher unity; marching, keeping in step, shouting
‘hurrah’ in unison, festal singing in chorus, united attacks on the enemy,
these are the manifestations of life which are to give birth to the new and
superior type of humanity. Everything that divides the many from each
other, that fosters the illusion of the individual importance of man,
especially the ‘soul’, hinders this higher evolution, and must consequently be
destroyed. The ‘glorious external man’ is henceforward to take the place
of the inner man, organization is to be substituted
for the soul. For only the mechanically
organized has reality, strength, and permanence, mechanism alone is reliable;
only the ‘collective man’, freed from the evil of the soul, mechanically united
by external interests with all others, is strong. To him alone belongs
the empire of the future; only he will be able to reign therein ‘in the
millennium’."
METHOD
The
method is the creation of a gigantic, ruthless, all-controlling political and
industrial octopus deliberately crushing the soul to death by its arms.
"Awe-inspiring and in mighty pre-eminence, the mass confronts
the individual, for it possesses the ‘multiple strength’ of organization.
It, too, once consisted of many helpless individuals, all seemingly abandoned
to their blind ‘anarchical’ fate; but now, united into mass, they stand forth
powerful and feared; the secret of their strength is organization; there lies
hidden the new salvation by which man may become master of life.
Only in Russia has the final secret of this one possible salvation
been recognized, i.e., that it is not so much the development of the soul that
can lead humanity to a true re-birth, but that the end is rather to be reached
through the mechanical, external, and purely cumulative combination of all
individuals by means of organization."
SEQUEL
This
Frankenstein, this soulless monster, can only end in devouring its
creators. On the day of his death Danton cried:
"This time last year I had the Revolutionary
Tribunal instituted. I ask pardon for it of God and of men."
4. THE FASCIST MILLENNIUM
The
Fascist Millennium is purely a recreation of Roman Imperial power. "Our formula," says Signor Mussolini, "is: Everything within the State, nothing outside the State,
nothing against the State."
To Mr. Shaw Desmond,
Mussolini said:
"Within the next few years
METHOD
The
method of re-establishing the Pax Romana,
or Roman Millennium, is iron law. "What,"
asks Mussolini, "constitutes
the State? The police. All your codes, all
your doctrines, your ordinances are as naught if at a given moment ‘the police
by sheer physical force does not make felt the inescapable weight of law.
Woe to him who dares impugn the National Militia: the only answer he will get
will be a charge of lead."
SEQUEL
The
Fascist symbols are the Rods and the Axe, now enthroned beside the Royal Arms
on every official document throughout
FATAL FLAWS
1.
Every one of these Utopias is built over
the seething volcano of unregenerate human nature.
2.
Every one is an attempt to establish the
Kingdom without the King.
3.
Every one is in open defiance of the
known will of God as revealed in the prophecies of God.
4.
Not one has any kingdom for the dead, or
can break a single grave.
5.
Not one, where it has had full local
power, has ever established anything
remotely like the
6.
All lodge the origin of the Kingdom in this world, whereas our
Saviour said: "My Kingdom is not from thence."
7.
All unite in an explicit, deliberate,
and final refusal of the one fact which can alone produce the Kingdom - the
return of the King.
Come
forth out of thy royal chambers, O Prince of all the kings of the earth!
Put on the visible robes of Thy imperial majesty! Take up the unlimited
septre which the Almighty Father hath bequeathed thee! For
now the voice of thy Bride calls thee, and all
creation sighs to be renewed. -
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