History Of The Church
Lesson 13: The 19^th Century World

Speaker: John Phillis
Date: December 8^th, 2004, Wednesday Evening Adult Bible Class

I know I said in our last lesson that we would begin our look at the Restoration tonight. Last time we spent the time looking at the religious landscape in America back in the latter part of the 18^th Century and into the 19^th Century to give us a feel for what was going on in this realm or religion. And we saw how that America became quite populated with denominational groups that were “transplanted,” so to speak, from the Old World, from England, to the New World. And then, we also saw that there was the rise of new religious groups, new denominations, and even some groups who were called—and continue to be referred to—as cults. That was where we finished up in our last lesson.

Again, I said we were going to begin looking at some specifics of the Restoration, but actually, there is some additional information that I would like to share with you to, once again, kind of set the scene—to sort of complete the picture of the landscape—and do this by looking at the 19^th Century world. We will look at some of the political, the social, and the economic issues that faced people in the 19^th Century world. The reason that we’re concentrating here is because this is the timeframe that gave rise to this Restoration Movement.

Now, there were actually—and we will look specifically at this beginning in our next lesson—there were actually some move and some actions that predated the Restoration Movement in the latter part of the 18^th Century, and we’ll talk about some individuals who had some influence there in our next lesson.

But, once again, we’re looking primarily here at the 19^th Century, the period of 1800 to 1900, and we want to have a good feel for exactly what things looked like, things that people were dealing with, the issues that people were facing. What were they thinking about? What were the things that they were doing in that day?

The 19^th Century has been termed the “age of ideologies.” There were indeed, just like in the 21^st Century, many things wrong with the society of this 19^th Century. The Industrial Revolution had arrived in force, bringing with it both problems and blessings. The blessings were, of course, quite numerous, and we reap the blessings today of that Industrial Revolution, such things as more rapid and dependable transportation and communication; production means and methods were drastically improved; and the people in the 19^th Century saw a dramatic rise in both the quantity and quality of goods that were available for them to purchase, mostly at a lower price than ever before. Well, while the Industrial Revolution brought handsome rewards to some, it also exacted a good bit of blood, sweat and tears from many others.

There developed, because of this Industrial Revolution, some political and social ideologies. There were those who were reformers, both religious reformers as well as secular reformers, who turned their attention to the evils that were seen that came about because of this industrialization and urbanization. Many of these reformers believed that the problems that were associated with the ills in society had to do with the disparity in the distribution of wealth and goods. Part of their thinking was that, to even that out would be a good thing, to make everyone more on an equal footing, to have people share in the wealth and the abundance more equally. Many who held such views were called socialists; we recognize that thinking today. And the most important socialist lived during the 19^th Century. His name was Karl Marx. He was born in 1818; he died in 1883. But he had a great deal of influence upon the world, and interestingly enough, while several of his writings came forth, like Das Kapital [also known as “Capital”], in the 19^th Century, much of his influence really was not felt until the dawn of the 20^th Century. Nevertheless, he was an important figure, and his ideas about socialism were advanced during this time.

Now, what does that have to do with our discussion? Well, socialism, particularly the Marxist form of socialism, really was mainly atheistic. Wherever these kinds of teachings, particularly the teachings of Marxism, have been put into effect religion has suffered. This thinking among the people that their problems—the problems associate with life, with living, and so on—were tied to their economic fortunes and that the remedy of their problems could also be taken care of by these economic forces is a little bit of the philosophy that exists in our day. You know, “the more you have the better off you are,” and, you know, that slogan that I’ve mentioned many times; I know you’ve heard it from other places as well: “He who dies with the most toys is the winner.” Well, that was the beginning of this kind of thinking.

The point is, the people who were thinking like this, thinking materialistically, were not thinking spiritually. And so, indeed, there was a profound effect which began to be seen upon religion.

To summarize, the Industrial Revolution, growing urbanization and the rise of new political ideologies such as socialism posed a threat to religion because they all suggested that the source of man’s troubles lay in his environment rather than in the spiritual realm. The result was that Western man came more and more to look for his salvation in political and economic panaceas rather than in religion.