THE SEVEN DEADLY SINNERS
Holding forth the word of life;
that I may rejoice in the day of Christ,
that I have not run in vain,
neither laboured in vain.
Philippians 2:16
Fight the good fight of faith,
lay hold on eternal life,
whereunto thou art also called,
and hast professed a good profession
before many witnesses.
1 Timothy 6:12
The 20th century has been the most astonishing in history. Amazing not only for its undoubted achievements (through the gracious providence of God), but also for its evil (through the grotesque activity of Satan). Two world wars (and a third, over Cuba, narrowly averted), devastation caused by H-bombs, other ghastly conflicts too numerous for a mention, a Holocaust, revolutions red in tooth and claw, and more recently attempted genocide in Africa and Kosovo – and if all that was insufficient, there were the monsters Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Tojo and Chairman Mao. These, you assume, were the seven deadly sinners. They were certainly sinners and deadly too, but no, not even them.
Does anyone ask why the 20th century has been so devilish? The answer is there for the looking; because of the lasting influence of seven deadlier sinners than those just referred to, who worked their spells during the period usually associated by Christians in Britain with blessings from above. Yes, the last century, when poisons were brewed in large quantities. What a crime, therefore, that hardly any of Britain’s 19th century brethren and sisters in Christ stood against what they knew would affect their Lord’s Gospel. That is the darker side of the romantic glow we have been presented with all our Christian lives, and still are by authors and publishers!
The Monstrous Seven, sorely in need of ‘new birth’ (John 16:13), were Satan’s instruments of warfare against the world, and particularly Christ’s Church. (1) HEGEL (1770-1831), for whom absolutes were obsolete and who substituted them with ‘relativity’; (2) DARWIN (1809-1882), whose ideas about the ‘evolution of the species’ now constitute Planet Earth’s official ‘religion’: (3) MARX ‘1818-1883|. a one-time student of Hegel, who hated God and considered all religious belief to be merely an ‘opiate for the people’; (4) KIERKEGAARD (1813-1855), who gave us ‘existentialism’ and the Now Society; (5) RITSCHL (1822-1889), and his ‘social gospel’, and thus turned many a pulpit into a political soapbox; (6) WELLHAUSEN (1844-1918), whose ‘higher criticism’ attacked the inerrancy and infallibility of the Scriptures; and (7) FREUD (1856-1939) whose influence (apart from other considerations) directed the guilty not to Christ, but to the psychiatrist; the couch taking preference over Calvary.
In other words, the movements led by these seven satanic representatives (and their numerous disciples since) are still waging war against the Sovereign God, his very existence (Marx), and the absolute truth he has revealed (Hegel). That is, his creative power (Darwin), his trustworthy Word (Wellhausen), his redeeming message (Ritschl and Freud), and his peoples’ relationship to eternal reality (Kierkegaard). And these devils, even from hell, still have the world by the throat.
Nevertheless, they have reminded the elect of their Lord’s all-important promise; that Satan and his forces have no chance of winning, the ‘gates of hell’ not being able to prevail against Christ’s true Church. (Matt.16:18) There is also a warning; that God’s people today MUST fight the battles of the Lord, and not in the name of ‘piety’ sit on fences, as most 19th century Christian Brits did – allowing this appalling situation to flourish.
Dr. Peter Trumper