The Destruction of Dagon

I received the following in my email this morning from Grace Gems. This was written in 1943! Imagine what A.W. Pink would write about today's "culture." My comments follow.

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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.
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When I read this and consider just how morally depraved our society is, I am reminded of the this passage of scripture:

But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
(Mat 24:37-38)

Apparently our society has not yet degenerated to the level that it was in the days before the flood, or else we would have already seen the Lord's return. Yet, we may only surmise that we are fast approaching it.

What is the answer? Do we throw up our hands, become giddy at the prospect that the debauchery of man signals the coming of our Lord? By all means, NO! We must hold the standard of righteousness. We must declare the principles of God's truth. Yet, we can take comfort in the fact that His Spirit will not forever strive with men. (Gen 6:3)

Maranatha! Even so, come, Lord Jesus.