Recent Solemn Providences.
As our readers have learned from the press, two solemn and terrible events occurred during the latter part of January; the one, destruction of 270 lives and much property by great and unprecedented avalanches of snow from the Swiss, Austrian and Italian Alpine mountains; and the other, the volcanic eruption of Mount Lamington, in New Guinea, from which flaming lava and clouds of gas-charged ashes are said to have killed over 5,000 natives and a number of Europeans. The news and details of these disasters, occurring almost simultaneously, and so far apart from one another, have startled and shocked millions of thoughtful people all over the world. Even the war in Korea, with its serious set-backs for United Nations forces, did not minimise in the minds of many, the peculiar, unexpected and devastating nature of the disasters by snow and volcanic eruption. We must have a scrupulous regard for the guidance which the Holy Scriptures afford in reviewing such events. Christians hold that such happenings are not separate from the divine superintendence of God in providence, as He brings to pass and permits the darkest events for the fulfilling of special purposes and the upholding of His own glory. David writes that, “The Lord is righteous in all his ways” (Psalm cxlv, 17); and poor Job, after losing children and property as the result of the sword, fire and a great wind, worshipped God and said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job i, 13-21). Then we are told that the Lord giveth snow like wool and that He casteth forth His ice like morsels, and that He sendeth out His Word and melteth them (see Psalm cxlvii). This is what happened in the region of the Alps; the temperature rose and snow melted on the surface, and the water thus produced ran down underneath the great masses of snow in places and created a watery base, causing these great masses to slide down the sides of mountains and valleys. This rise of temperature for a few days was most unusual in the Alps in January. But God sendeth out His Word and melteth them (Psalm cxlvii, 18). Then we read in Psalm civ, verse 32, “He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.” And these words surely appear to indicate the person and power by which the earthquake is originated and the volcanic eruption brought into activity. Jehovah “looketh” and he “toucheth.” Thus the Lord very evidently touched Mount Lamington, New Guinea, to which we have referred; and it erupted “like an atom bomb”; and as a woman survivor reported, a “jet black wall of burning smoke” was held by the wind just long enough for her to escape.
In these disasters, hundreds and thousands of lives have been cut short, and men, women and children suddenly ushered into eternity, and homes and whole villages wiped out. To what extent these calamities have been the judgments of God enveloping men—some professing the Christian religion and others heathen—we cannot take upon ourselves to say. We know the wickedness of the people of Sodom which procured for them the judgment of God’s wrath, manifested by fire and brimstone which destroyed them all. And although in this case, godly Lot was delivered; yet time and again true believers upon the Lord Jesus Christ have suffered as to their bodies and circumstances, and even unto death, in the midst of temporal judgments upon wicked men, communities and nations. Of course, these sufferings of the Lord’s people work together for their good under the all-wise government of their Covenant God. Death to such, although under solemn circumstances, means their entry into glory to be with Christ. To the impenitent sinner, death means eternal perdition. In closing this note, we would remind readers of three relevant Scriptures, viz., “Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Prov. xxvii, 1); “But except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke xiii, 3); and, “Prepare to meet thy God” (Amos iv, 12).
Eire’s True Attitude to Ulster.
In the English Churchman for 17th November, 1950, there appeared a report of a meeting at Enniskillen, when Miss Monica Farrel gave a lecture on “From Rome to Christ.” A Mr. Taylor, who presided, called attention to a statement made at Pettigo by Eire’s Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, that “a Protestant Religious Society had been driven out of Eire, and that when the border went, it would be driven out of the six Counties.” This is plain enough speaking by way of threatening action against active, organised Protestantism, now free to witness and work in Ulster; and should Partition end, then active Protestant Societies will be driven out of Ulster, if at all possible, by the Roman Catholic politicians of the South. This is the freedom and religious liberty which the Church of Rome calls upon men and nations to defend to-day. Yes, freedom for the Pope and priests to dominate the world, including Protestant Ulster. It is well that Eire’s Minister of Posts and Telegraphs confirms by his utterances the contention of Protestants, that no religious liberty can be expected when Rome rules, except for “enslaved” Roman Catholics.
Two Protesting Resolutions respecting World Council of Churches.
The Bible League Quarterly for January-March, 1951, publishes two resolutions, passed at a Congress of the International Council of Christian Churches, at Geneva, August, 1950. Before reading the resolutions, will readers note that the Council of Christian Churches holds to the Bible as the Inspired Word of God; and that the World Council of Churches includes Modernists, etc., and would embrace the Roman Catholic Church if that Church would be willing to join. The resolutions, which are a revelation and a warning, are as follows:—
1. Call to separate from Ecumenic, Totalitarian Councils.
WHEREAS the International Council of Christian Churches has learned with increasing concern of the mounting evidence of the attempt to control Missions and Missionaries by the International Missionary Council, the World Council of Churches and their member councils and affiliated bodies; and
WHEREAS some Mission fields have already been closed to evangelical Missions and missionaries and others are facing various other difficulties in which real religious liberty seems to be curbed improperly; and
WHEREAS, it is plain from the official published statements of both the World Council of Churches and the International Missionary Council that these organisations are striving together to bring into being the ecumenic ideal of one united Church, doctrinally indifferent to, or subversive of the true Gospel embracing Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Modernist and Fundamentalist Protestant Churches, which united Church if and when effected would completely suppress all religious liberty;
THEREFORE: The International Council of Christian Churches protests this control and urges
(a) All truly Bible-believing Missions and Churches now belonging to the World Council of Churches and the International Missionary Council and their member and affiliated bodies to sever all such connections and take their place among the bodies that are truly separated from unbelief and apostasy;
(b) All governments where these questions have arisen, or may arise, to place all Missions and Churches on an equal level in the matter of recognition of societies and of opportunity of preaching the Gospel.
- Resolution protesting the promotion of the Ecumenical movement by the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Be it resolved: That the International Council of Christian Churches strongly protests the promotion of the Ecumenic Movement by the British and Foreign Bible Society in its published literature and in its presence on National Church Councils in affiliation with International Missionary Council and the World Council; and, That a copy of this protest be sent to the British and Foreign Bible Society in London.