We do what we do--because we are what we are.

[Blueridge Believer]

The breakdown and breakup of "Civilization"

(Arthur Pink, "The Destruction of Dagon" 1943)

The "march of progress" from 1920 onwards, was, if measured by the standards of righteousness and decency, steadily downwards. Those with the least sense of decency were determined to drag the whole of the rising generation, down into the gutter. An orgy of licentiousness was widely entered into. Night-clubs were multiplied, gambling spread like wild fire, and debauchery abounded on every side. The beaches lowered their bathing restrictions--and modesty became a thing of the past. Youth was allowed to have its fling, unrestrained.

The novels and magazines of the last decade have been filled with obscenities and blasphemies. A friend of ours in the publishing business recently wrote to us, "Today we have shops stacked with books which, had they been published when we were boys--the authors and publishers would have been put in jail!" Censorship has long since been reduced to a farce. The great majority of our children have their ideas formed by the pictures they saw at the "movies" and the debasing productions of a degenerate press. As a recent writer said, "The best-sellers of today, are often books whose morals are of the barnyard, whose language is of the sewer and whose ethics are of the pit!"

The breakdown and breakup of "Civilization" appears in such things as the decay of the sanctity of marriage--as evidenced by the multiplication of divorces, and the abandonment of large numbers of babies; juvenile delinquency and immorality among the young; the vandalism which is now so rife; such widespread pilfering--and the flimsy efforts of the authorities to deal with such evils! Thousands of culprits who ought to be sent to prison, are given nominal fines. Law and order is almost reduced to a farce!

We do what we do--because we are what we are. There is always a rigid consistency between character and conduct. The thin coating of "civilized" varnish has worn off, and twentieth-century character stands exposed.

 

[Scott1]

This shows that God's people have understood and lamented their culture's sin in every generation, as well as their individual sin.

Dispensationalism would say things are always at their worst, getting even worse, seemingly with God unable to do anything about it, the church powerless and everywhere falling. How could Mr. Pink have observed such immorality of culture in the 1920's (followed by depression, war, and somewhat of a moral rebound) when things are at their worst only now, in this generation? (the tendency of dispensationalism toward undue pessimissm, devoid somewhat of the power of God)

This kind of dispensational view gives rise to a "low view" of the church, a "high" view of man (able to evaluate all this, independently, almost omniscently), and a misunderstanding of the sovereignty of God. That also leads to all sorts of independent "end times" speculation, a veritable cottage industry amongst dispensationalists and the biblically uninformed.

Mr. Pink saw the immorality of his day but did not despair of his own assessment, instead he focused (and taught many of us) of a sovereign God, completely in control, working all things out according to the good pleasure of His will in His creation and amongst His creatures.

I find it comfortable to see the twin truths, the awfulness of sin, and the marvellousness of grace go hand-in-hand, side-by-side- in every generation.