The Great Counterfeit

Many of us have had the humiliating experience of being taken in by an imposition of one kind or another. There have been times when we thought we were getting a bargain only to find the article purchased was far from what we thought.

We have been deceived by people and by things. We have enthusiastically followed some individual or movement only to find that we had been duped.

That “all that glitters is not gold” is discovered by some early in life; others take longer.

In other words, everyone has a streak of credulity which can be costly and even disastrous.

We believe Christians are today confronted with a monstrous counterfeit, a deception not recognized and for that reason all the more dangerous.

Christianity’s greatest counterfeit is not Communism, nor is it the religions of the world, in all of which there are obviously elements of good.

The great counterfeit—the thing against which we in the Church must guard lest it deceive us and those outside—is the substitution of humanitarianism for Christianity.

That against which we must guard is the equating of compassion for mankind and concern for physical and material welfare with Christianity itself.

Concern for the welfare of the body is right, a duty of the Christian; but it is no substitute for concern for the souls of men.

Concern for temporal comfort for self or for others is no substitute for a concern for the eternal verities.

And yet, all of these things are being equated with the Christian faith, and humanitarians are being called “Christians,” even though they may deny God or his Christ.

Humanism is basically a preoccupation with mankind here and now. Such concerns are valid, but unless they are kept in proper perspective, the meaning of the Christian faith can be lost in an emphasis which has nothing to do with Christ and his Cross.

When our Lord spoke to his disciples of his coming death in Jerusalem and subsequent resurrection, Peter rebuked him, only to be told that his concept of Christ’s mission was of Satan. Then Jesus laid down the principles by which man must live in this world: bear his cross—follow Him—be willing to lose his life within the holy will of God, all with a realization that it is not this life that is final but the one to come.

Within this context Jesus then said: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26).

Humanitarianism, humanism, and all which proceed therefrom can become man’s greatest stumbling block if confused with, or substituted for, Christianity itself.

Christ came into the world to open the way into eternity. He came abounding in love and concern for the welfare of those with whom he came in contact. His miracles are a continuing evidence of his concern for the physical and material welfare of those around him.

But such concerns were evidences of a far greater and deeper emphasis—man’s eternal destiny. Repeatedly our Lord said, or it was said of him, that he came into the world to save sinners; that he came to give eternal life; that his Kingdom is not of this world; that there is an infinite difference between the flesh and the spirit, between time and eternity, between secular and spiritual.

This being the case, the great counterfeit has to do with anything that blurs the distinction and that makes optional that which is imperative.

The great counterfeit is also manifested in the field of education. The increase in knowledge is beyond the human mind to grasp. But knowledge without wisdom is a menace, not a blessing. Only as God gives wisdom can man use knowledge wisely. And yet, even in the realm of so-called Christian education too often the emphasis is on the secular and literary at the expense of spiritual insights.

Again, the great counterfeit is seen in social emphases which cater almost solely to human welfare. For many, racial integration is equated with the Christian Gospel, despite the fact that purely monetary considerations may be involved. By this token the most “Christian” teams in the major leagues are those with the largest number of Negro players.

Within the Church, ecclesiastical unity and a monolithic organizational structure are often equated with “true Christianity,” a fetish being made of organization at the expense of doctrinal integrity. Again, the most “Christian” congregation or denomination is the one with the largest number of members, regardless of what those members believe or do not believe.

The basic problem has to do with the demand that there be “fruit” without reference to the spiritual tree from which alone good fruit can be a reality. It is not that man’s welfare is unimportant. Rather, it is failure to admit that man’s eternal welfare must come first and is bound up in the preaching and believing of the Gospel.

What shall it profit the world if every social evil is abolished, every political oppression abolished, every economic problem solved, every racial tension relieved—without at the same time a saving faith in the soul’s redemption effected for man on the Cross of Calvary?

True, there must be social concern. There must be the cup of cold water for the parched throat while the balm of God’s love is preached to the hungry heart. But without the Gospel of redemption for the sinner there is no Christianity, and all that may be substituted is but a counterfeit which perishes when testing comes.

“Benevolent moralism” may smooth the path of those caught up in the toils of this dying world. But by itself it is a tawdry counterfeit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ given as man’s only hope for eternity.

A thirsty woman came to the well of Samaria. She wanted water for herself and her household. Our Lord did not deny the necessity of actual water, but he said: “Every one who drinks of this water shall thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13, 14). Our Lord here put the temporal and eternal in their proper perspective. Christianity must do no less today.

Even within the Church many are led to think only of those things which meet human needs at the material level. What a travesty on Christianity! How subtle a counterfeit which makes men satisfied with stones instead of bread, with scorpions instead of fish, with water that perishes with the using rather than that spiritual well from which man may drink for life eternal.

We do not discount secular and material needs. But if we settle for these and these only, we have become victims of Satan’s masterpiece—the great counterfeit.

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