My enthusiastic (and unsolicited!) endorsement of Barry Werth’s book, Banquet at Delmonico’s is prompted because it is so relevant to eschatology, the study of “last things.”

Christ and the apostles warned regularly that the latter days of history would be marked by, among other things, a departure from the faith.

Werth’s research into the spread of Darwinian philosophy sheds interesting light on this subject. In the 19th century, people generally believed the Bible is true. They accepted the Genesis accounts, and that logically led to belief in the rest of Scripture.

But when pseudo-scientists like Thomas Huxley and Herbert Spencer simply added their presupposition that the Bible isn’t true to science…well, the rush to apostasy in the Church really kicked-in.

One of the first accounts to go was the flood of Noah’s day. Clever evolutionists like Charles Lyell understood that the general public would never go for a full-blown frontal assault on the Bible. Rather, it must be suggested that the earth was simply “very old.”

Once that obstacle was overcome, over time, it could be suggested that Noah was myth and so was his flood. The new science of geology would fit that presupposition, thus ushering-in the concept of a very ancient Earth.

Clergymen like Henry Ward Beecher (and later, Harry Emerson Fosdick) helped popularize such attacks on the Bible.

From there, it was a short step to reducing the books of the prophets to myth, legend, embellishment, etc.

The early proponents of Darwin never produced any real evidence that the Bible isn’t true, but they were superb at marketing.

Today, especially in America, even though Bible prophecies are more compelling with each passing week…more people miss the fact.

That is a tribute to Darwin & Friends.