The Popular Worship of Faith
What is popular religion today? Why the materialism and unhappiness among so many religious people?
“THE ‘unknown God’ of Americans,” recently said noted theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, “seems to be faith itself.” What an enlightening comment on popular religion today!
It is this popular worship of faith that helps explain so much about the present troubles of mankind. It helps explain why America, for instance, is growing more materialistic at the very time it is becoming increasingly more religious. It explains why so many persons have not found the happiness they seek.
What is this popular worship of faith? It is religion that puts the emphasis on faith, not on the Bible, not on God or his will. A striking thing about this popular religion is that it is not limited to any special religious group; Protestants, Catholics and Jews in large numbers have come to worship at the shrine of faith. But do not these many persons speak of God?
“Of course, religious Americans speak of God and Christ,” writes Will Herberg in his noted work Protestant—Catholic—Jew, “but what they seem to regard as really redemptive is primarily religion, the ‘positive’ attitude of believing. It is this faith in faith, this religion that makes religion its own object, that is the outstanding characteristic of contemporary American religiosity. [Cleric] Daniel Poling’s formula: ‘I began saying in the morning two words, “I believe”—those two words with nothing added’ may be taken as the classic expression of this aspect of American faith.”
Will Herberg, who has made an extensive study of this worship of faith, also points to the popular book This I Believe, edited by Edward P. Morgan, as a well-known example. In this book one hundred “thoughtful men and women in all walks of life,” both professed Christians and Jews, make statements regarding what they believe. What is the faith they proclaim as being paramount in their life? Faith in an amazing variety of things, such as brotherhood, spiritual values, life, tolerance, freedom, democracy and faith in faith. Scarcely half of these prominent people even mention God. “Somehow their belief in God, and the God they believed in,” comments Herberg, “did not seem to be very central to whatever it was that they had in mind when they stood up to tell the world ‘This I Believe.’” The average churchgoing adherent of popular religion, Herberg observes, is not much different.
PRIMARILY FAITH IN FAITH
Popular religion, then, does not put stress on God but on faith itself, the so-called “magic of believing.” And the strange thing about it is that this positive attitude of believing is even represented as the Christian faith of the Bible! In God’s Psychiatry, Charles L. Allen writes: “I tell you that you can look into a future of peace and victory. ‘Only believe, only believe all things are possible, only believe!’ That is more than just a little chorus. It is the Christian faith.”
Among the Jewish exponents of this faith-in-faith religion is Rabbi Louis Binstock, who writes in The Power of Faith: “You, like everyone else, have access to a great storehouse of dynamic power on which you can draw. . . . That storehouse is Faith. . . . Not God. But—Faith.”
Because it is popular, religious groups of all kinds have adopted, in varying degrees, this form of worship. Go-to-church advertisements now usually stress faith, not God or the Bible. One such newspaper advertisement says: “Regular church attendance helps you build your own personal reserve of faith.” No mention was made of church attendance helping one learn and do the will of Jehovah, the Almighty God.
Small wonder that popular religion is hazy, foggy and that its adherents are hard put to define in precise terms what they believe.
WRONG MOTIVES
God’s Word, the Bible, tells us about the “one faith,” the true religion that Christ Jesus taught. (Eph. 4:5) At the core of this Biblical “one faith” are Jehovah God and his will. At Hebrews 10:9 the apostle Paul speaks of the mental attitude of Christ Jesus: “Look! I am come to do your will.” But in today’s popular religion it is not the will of God that is of prime importance; it is the will of the worshiper himself.
Speaking of the motives permeating popular religion, Will Herberg says: “Prosperity, success, and advancement in business are the obvious ends for which religion, or rather the religious attitude of ‘believing,’ is held to be useful. . . . The cult of faith takes two forms, which we might designate as introvert and extrovert. In its introvert form faith is trusted to bring mental health and ‘peace of mind,’ to dissipate anxiety and guilt, and to translate the soul to the blessed land of ‘normality’ and ‘self-acceptance.’ . . . Its extrovert form . . . is known as ‘positive thinking.’ ‘Positive thinking,’ thinking that is ‘affirmative’ and avoids the corrosions of ‘negativity’ and ‘skepticism,’ thinking that ‘has faith,’ is recommended as a powerful force in the world of struggle and achievement. Here again it is not so much faith in anything . . . that is supposed to confer this power—but just faith, the psychological attitude of having faith.”
What many persons are searching for, then, is not the divine will for man but a spiritual anodyne, something to relieve the pains and vexations of existence; or else they want a spiritual stimulant, something to spur them on to worldly success. As Dr. Clifford E. Barbour, president of Western Theological Seminary of Pittsburgh, puts it: “They want either a faith that will be a contributing factor to success in this life—a so-called enlightened self-interest—or a religious faith that is an escape from this life.” Roman Catholic Archbishop Patrick A. O’Boyle has declared that many persons are “turning to religion as they would to a benign sedative to soothe their minds and settle their nerves.”
What a vast number of churches are dispensing, instead of spiritual food, these spiritual sedatives! The word “success,” appearing in so much popular religion, does not refer to success in practicing true Christianity but success in whatever worldly attainment to which the worshiper aspires.
NO CRITICAL EXAMINATION
When motives are wrong and there is no heart-deep desire to learn and do the divine will, then it is not strange that we find this characteristic: an unwillingness to make a critical examination of one’s faith, testing it by the standard for judging religion, the Holy Bible.
God’s Word commands: “Make sure of all things.” (1 Thess. 5:21) But the followers of popular religion shy away from making the test for right belief. Why so? Possibly there is a fear of the responsibilities of true religion as found in the Bible. And as Will Herberg explains: “There is ordinarily no criticism of the ends themselves in terms of the ultimate loyalties of a God-centered faith, nor is there much concern about what the religion or the faith is all about, since it is not the content of the belief but the attitude of believing that is felt to be operative.”
This attitude could only lead to many false teachings. But no matter how many false doctrines there may be, this does not seem to disturb the sought-after peace of mind. A comment on this point appears in the Christian Herald of March, 1957, under the feature “Doctor Poling Answers Your Questions.” A troubled reader asks this question under the subheading “False Doctrines”: “I am greatly troubled by false doctrines. Someone tells me that there are 80 or more of these. Even though I know the Lord is my personal Saviour and have been firmly established in my faith these many years, I am all upset. How may I find firm foundations again?” The answer given the inquirer was this: “As to false doctrines, there may be 80 or there may be a thousand. I am sure they are quite beyond numbering, but since you know the Lord and have been within His grace all these years, surely you have the witness in your heart day by day. You have everything that is required for your peace of mind.”
NO SENSE OF JUDGMENT BEFORE GOD
With a willingness to put up with or risk false doctrines, it is not surprising that popular religion is marked by an absence of any judgment before the living and true God. Yet true religion, as taught by an apostle of Christ, is based on these principles: “We shall all stand before the judgment seat of God” and “Each of us will render an account for himself to God.”—Rom. 14:10, 12.
Adherents of the popular religion that stresses faith seem oblivious to the Biblical fact that “The true God himself will bring every sort of work into the judgment in relation to every hidden thing, as to whether it is good or bad.” (Eccl. 12:14) By stressing faith the idea of judgment before the Almighty is obscured. When God is mentioned it is hardly ever as the righteous Judge who will soon execute his judgment against this world; instead God is viewed as a friendly neighbor.
To many adherents of popular religion God is just a “Good Guy” or the “Man Upstairs.” “All sense of awe before the divine majesty, all sense of judgment before the divine holiness,” says Herberg, “is shut out; God is, in Jane Russell’s inimitable phrase, a ‘livin’ Doll.’ . . . Is this He of Whom we are told, ‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’ (Heb. 10:31)? The measure of how far contemporary American religiosity falls short of the authentic tradition of the Jewish-Christian faith is to be found in the chasm that separates Jane Russell’s ‘livin’ Doll’ from the living God of Scripture.”
MAN-CENTERED, NOT GOD-CENTERED
Right at the core of this faith-in-faith religion is the fact that it is man-centered, not God-centered. Thus it operates in just the opposite way from the Christianity of the Bible. When teaching his followers to pray, Christ Jesus placed Jehovah God, his name, his kingdom and his will, first: “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come. Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.” (Matt. 6:9, 10) But those who worship at the altar of faith say in effect: ‘Let my will come to pass with your help.’
One of the most apt descriptions of this man-centered popular religion was given by Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations: “Man is the beginning and end of the present-day American religiosity—God is made to serve, or rather to subserve man, to subserve his every purpose and enterprise whether it be economic prosperity, free enterprise, security, or peace of mind. God thus becomes an omnipotent servant, a universal bell-hop, to cater to man’s every caprice; faith becomes a sure-fire device to get what we petulantly and peevishly crave. This reduction of God from master to slave has reached its height, or rather its depth of blasphemy, in the cult of the Man Upstairs—the friendly neighbor-god who dwells in the apartment just above. Call on him any time—especially if you are feeling blue. He does not get the least bit upset with your faults and failings and, as for your sins, not only does he not remember them . . . but the very word and concept of sin have been abolished.”
CONSEQUENCES OF FALSE RELIGION
A man-centered religion is false religion, and false religion cannot save anyone when God destroys this evil world at the war of Armageddon, “at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels in a flaming fire, as he brings due punishment upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus. These very ones will pay the penalty of everlasting destruction.”—2 Thess. 1:7-9.
Thus today’s popular religion is without power to save anyone to everlasting life in God’s new world. The fact that such a religion cannot merit God’s approval is even admitted by some clergymen, such as cleric Ralph Sockman who said: “We tend to present God as our servant who brings us financial and social success rather than as our sovereign whom we serve. A self-centered, self-serving religion is not Scriptural and, however popular it may be at the moment, it cannot save us.”
Despite the admitted futility of this man-centered religion, it continues to be popular; and clergymen, despite protestations now and then, continue to dispense what is popular.
Ah, now we gain insight into why churchgoers have not found the happiness they seek. Only true religion, centering around the will of Almighty God, and resulting in right motive, right belief and right works can bring the peace of mind the Bible speaks of: “The peace of God that excels all thought will guard your hearts and your mental powers by means of Christ Jesus.”—Phil. 4:7.
Now we also see why crime increases despite rocketing numbers of churchgoers. Popular religion has not been a molding force in their lives; it has not brought about a change in their way of living. It has not given them guidance and power to “put away the old personality” and to “put on the new personality which was created according to God’s will.”—Eph. 4:22-24.
No wonder there is so much moral insensitivity among professedly religious people! No wonder so many persons, despite regular church attendance, operate in a moral vacuum! No wonder materialism has increased right along with the rising rate of church membership!
To climax its reprehensibility, popular religion has obscured the true worship of Jehovah, the true and living God. What folly to allow what is popular to obscure what is right and true! True religion will never be popular with this world, as Jesus plainly showed: “Go in through the narrow gate; because broad and spacious is the road leading off into destruction, and many are the ones going in through it; whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it.”—Matt. 7:13, 14.
True religion, the way to life, can be found. It is largely a matter of right heart condition. Do you sincerely desire to find the truth and to do the will of the true God? Then to his Word, the Bible, you must go. From this Book you must get your principles for living. Associate with those who practice the true religion of the Bible. Allow Jehovah’s witnesses, who have brought you this magazine, to assist you in taking “the road leading off into life.” Turn from the futile popular worship of faith to the life-preserving worship of Jehovah God; for, of a certainty, “the world is passing away and so is its desire, but he that does the will of God remains forever.”—1 John 2:17.