In view of the fact that Christ, the Son of God and Himself True God, has established a religion which all men are bound to accept on peril of eternal damnation,{1} it must seem passing strange that Christianity itself should be divided into hundreds of different religious bodies, all of which disagree in doctrine, in government, and in the several means which they use for the sanctification of their members. Is it possible that Christ should have been so vague in His teaching and enactments as to prepare the way for this Bedlam of conflicting views? Or can it be admitted that He Himself directly originated all these different systems, mutually destructive though they are of one another? Surely neither view can be acceptable to one who sincerely believes that Christ is God. For as infinite truth and holiness, God cannot possibly be the author of false doctrines, such as are necessarily contained in the contradictory teachings of these various religious bodies. Truth is one even as God is one, and where two contradictory doctrines are advanced one of them must needs be false.
Yet obvious as this seems to be, the modern world utterly fails to grasp its significance. Time was when men would gladly die for the religion which they professed, and when they unhesitatingly condemned every religious system different from their own as irreconcilably opposed to the religion of Christ. But this uncompromising attitude is becoming more and more distasteful to the modern world. Not only civil, but dogmatic toleration as well, is to-day the watchword of nearly every denomination outside of the Catholic Church. Ostensibly this is the result of broadmindedness and brotherly love, but in reality it is neither more nor less than Religious Indifferentism. It has been stated, and appearances certainly bear out the statement, that four men out of every five are at heart utterly indifferent to any and every form of religious profession. Nominally they may still belong to some religious sect, but their adherence to that sect is no longer based upon the firm conviction that theirs, and theirs alone, is the true Church of Christ. Their religion has been despoiled of all dogma, and their worship is fast losing its definite form. Their profession of faith amounts simply to this, that a man ought to do what he thinks right and not worry about things unseen. They are Religious Indifferentists of the first water, and before long they will join the great army of unbelievers, whose name even now is legion.
This being the case, it is certainly worth our while to examine somewhat in detail the nature of Religious Indifferentism, and to point out the many fallacies and contradictions of this popular error. Of this there is all the more need as Religious Indifferentism is a disease to which fallen nature is very much predisposed. Although "the human soul," as Tertullian so pithily puts it, " is Christian by nature," yet it is a matter of daily observation that there are comparatively few persons who do not chafe under doctrinal restraint, and who would not naturally prefer to be a law unto themselves rather than be amenable to the unchangeable law of God. Hence when they read in books or hear in conversation that one religion is practically as good as another, that all are tending to the same God, that God is indifferent as to what form of faith a man follows, they readily dispense themselves in the most sacred obligations and in the end become indifferent to all doctrinal teaching, following in matters of faith and morals their own changeable judgment, until the whole question of religion becomes with them merely a question of taste.
In making this detailed examination, it seems preferable to view the question first from the standpoint of reason, as in many instances reason's verdict alone appeals to the men more or less infected with this fatal disease. This done, we shall lay the matter before the higher tribunal of supernatural revelation, so that we may hear from Christ's own mouth what judgment must be pronounced upon it as the final verdict.
{1} Mark XVI, 15, 16.