Dear Theological Pea-pickers:
In the bountiful harvest of new translations of Holy Scripture, there has never been one quite like The Cotton Patch Version of Paul’s Epistles by Dr. Clarence Jordan (Association, $2.25 paper). This cotton pickin’, chicken pluckin’ colloquial version moves the locale of Paul’s letters below the Mason-Dixon line and makes the Apostle a hard-hitting, warm-hearted converted Southerner. He addresses letters to Christians in Atlanta (I and II Corinthians), Birmingham (Ephesians), Selma (I and II Thessalonians), the Georgia Convention (Galatians), Washington (Romans), and the Alabaster African Church in Smithville, Alabama (Philippians). Admittedly strained, crude, and at times perhaps inaccurate, this translation of Paul’s ideas (not his words) is an attempt to take the Scripture “out of the stained-glassed sanctuary” and place it “under God’s skies where people are toiling and crying and wondering.”
New Testament scholar Jordan, founder of the inter-racial Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia, freely utilizes modern situations in the South to communicate appropriate mood and meaning. Jews and Gentiles are seen as whites and Negroes; the crucifixion becomes a lynching; “eating meat sacrificed to idols” is translated as “working on Sunday.” Occasionally Jordan puts rough words in Paul’s mouth: “So what are we advocating? ‘Let’s wallow in sin so more grace may pour forth?’ Hell, no! How can we who died in sin still live in it?” (Washington 6:1). He refers to “the Man of Tyranny, the damned bastard, who opposes and lords it over everything called God or sacred; in fact, he sits in God’s house and claims that he himself is God” (II Selma 2:5). Robust language, that’s what I like about the South!
The Cotton Patch has row upon row of passages that usually illuminate, sometimes irritate, but invariably captivate the reader. Here’s one I like: “Don’t get drunk on wine and carry on a lot of foolishness. Tank up on the Spirit and do your talking with hymns and songs and spirituals, singing and strumming in your hearts to the Lord” (Birmingham 5:18, 19).
Your KJV, RSV, or even Phillips’ translation will never be replaced by The Cotton Patch Version. But as a colloquial version of Paul’s epistles that combines savvy, humor, earthiness, and excitement—and despite its liberties with text and taste—it’s finger-lickin’ good.
EUTYCHUS III
It’s quittin’ time, y’all.
RESOURCES UNREALIZED
At first glance $27.8 million for the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention seems a fantastic sum for missions and is certainly praiseworthy (“Protestant Panorama,” News, Feb. 2). However, when I turned to “New Statistics from NCC,” I was forced to my knees to pray. The $27.8 million represents about $2.55 per member per year. This could easily be a goal for each month. What untapped and unmobilized resources for world evangelism!
DAVID DESGRANGES
Lamorlaye, France
DIRECTING ATTENTION
Lest your readers gain the impression from your editorial “Philosophers and the Faith” (Feb. 2) that the new Encyclopedia of Philosophy completely evades the influence of sound theological doctrine, their attention should be directed to the excellent entry on John Calvin by Professor Nicholas Wolter-storff of Calvin College.
RICHARD MOUW
Chicago, Ill.
NOT HIS ‘ILK’
I do not appreciate your reference to “hard-hitting evangelists of the Billy Sunday ilk” (“Bob Jones: He Bridged a Great Gap,” Feb. 2). Surely you could find a better word. The article is good.
GEORGE SAGEN
Dorris, Calif.
IT RINGS THE BELL
Lowell W. Raymond really “rang the bell” in his article, “For an Effective Ministry” (Jan. 19). And that in your magazine will undoubtedly bring a response—both pro and con! God bless you for letting that man write and “set the record straight.”
JOHN M. BERENTSCHOT
Central Baptist Church
Sacramento, Calif.
Mr. Raymond’s evaluation is valuable, and partially valid, but what he leaves unsaid, and what seems to come through between the lines is disturbing. We must admit that even in our seminaries we sometimes become overly concerned with the academics in contrast to the spiritual or practical nature of our work, but this is probably a reaction to what we have seen and heard for much of our life.…
The author states that the disciples never went to school, but that they “knew what they proclaimed, and they proclaimed it in the power of the Holy Spirit.” This is the problem with many ministers, that they do not know what they are proclaiming. Rather than presenting the critique he did, it might have been asked, “Is it necessary to divorce godliness and scholarship?” Part of the reason many students in the seminaries are choosing a teaching vocation rather than a pastoral ministry is that we have become convinced that most evangelical churches have no place for the man who wants to be both godly and a scholar. Godliness must come first, but godliness and scholarship are not antithetical. An effective ministry must combine both.
C. E. CERLING, JR.
Deerfield, Ill.
DISCOVERING 2+2
Addison Leitch’s question in “Signs of the Times” (Current Religious Thought, Jan. 19) (“Do we really believe that God is more interested in atheistic democracy than in atheistic communism?”) actually results from the simple adding together of two evangelical commonplaces—the materialistic threat from international or foreign communism, and that materialism which is home-grown within our own society. It may seem odd to compliment Leitch on having performed such a simple step, but when evangelical spokesmen can endlessly discuss two and two without arriving at four, the one who finally does so must be hailed as a new Columbus. (Pardon the shift of metaphor; it’s hard to locate the names of the first discoverers of arithmetic.) Perhaps a Vasco da Gama will come along and make some applications of Leitch’s suggestions which will revolutionize the political and international thinking of many evangelicals. But then, we evangelicals are at least as good as most people of our time at allowing any number of ideas to float around in our heads without affecting each other.
D. W. DOERKSEN
Madison, Wis.
VIEWS FROM E.T.S.
It seems to me that your summary (“Evangelicals Debate New Views,” News, Jan. 19) of the position I espoused at the recent meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in Toronto might create misunderstanding at two points.
First, in representing my position by saying “God ‘deliberately accommodated’ errors in non-theological and non-moral facets of biblical teaching …” there is the implication that I believe that there are errors in what the Bible teaches. This is emphatically not the case. My position is that the Bible is not setting forth teaching in its non-revelational aspects.
Second, to represent my position by the use of the word “errors” is to give it an emphasis which I do not intend. During the panel I voiced my great distaste for the use of this word. My only desire is to take cognizance of the fact that in non-revelational matters the biblical writers do speak as men of their time.
DANIEL P. FULLER
Dean
Fuller Theological Seminary
Pasadena, Calif.
A point of clarification, re CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S helpful report: while correct in reporting Dr. Daniel Fuller as contending for “errors in non-theological … facets of biblical teaching,” you should perhaps have added that he spoke explicitly as a visitor to the organization. All members of the Evangelical Theological Society resubscribe annually to the E.T.S. affirmation of the inerrancy of the biblical autographs; the society’s primary aim, in fact, is to witness to the trustworthiness of Scripture “in its entirety.”
J. BARTON PAYNE
Past president
Evangelical Theological Society
Wheaton College
Wheaton, Ill.
MORMON THEOLOGY LESSON
Since Professor Hoekema has treated details of Mormon theology (“Ten Questions to Ask the Mormons,” Jan. 19) with unusual accuracy, it is all the more important to expose misstatements of main issues.… As a teacher of New Testament for fifteen years in Mormon institutions, I see the following as the most serious misrepresentations:
First, the article is inexact in claiming that Mormonism denies the unique incarnation of Christ. Although Mormonism denies the unique premortal existence of Christ, its theology nevertheless portrays Christ as possessing the unique relationship of God’s chosen son even in that stage.
Second, the article is inaccurate in restricting the effect of Christ’s atonement to salvation from death. Latter-day Saint revelations teach clearly that good works without acceptance of Christ merit the second, not the highest, degree of glory.…
Third, the article is in error to neatly claim that works are determinative but “Christ’s atonement is not determinative” for Latter-day Saint salvation. Each is partly determinative, since Mormon revelation insists upon a Christian life as the proof of intention to accept Christ’s atonement.
RICHARD L. ANDERSON
Professor of History and Religion
Brigham Young University
Provo, Utah
CHRISTMAS IN BETHLEHEM
Let us sing glory and chant hymns that Bethlehem was still standing … for Christmas in Israel this year.… Your eagerness to report on Israel’s expectations (“Israel: Things to Come,” Dec. 22) should be followed up by a report on the actual facts of Christmas in that city. There were, according to an eyewitness account, less than 5,000 tourists in Bethlehem this year. This is less than the 20,000 that were in Bethlehem last year during the Western Christmas, and this is a great deal less than the 50,000 your information had predicted. Also, among these tourists were over 1,000 heavily armed policemen and soldiers.…
It is time for American Christians of all eschatological stripes to examine the present conditions more carefully than we have before. We are doing all parties here a disservice when we support the Zionist aggression here in the Middle East because it seems to fit our prophetic expectations. Our Lord said that he will come as a thief in the night, and all of us may find our most cherished ideas stolen by his coming. Once one takes away the propaganda and sentiment of this area, one can see the struggle of two nations for the land of Palestine. The West needs to know more about the Arab rights to this land.
DAVID BENTLEY
Amman, Jordan
NOT EITHER—OR
A clarification should be made concerning the announcement under “Church Panorama” (News, Jan. 19) that the Evangelical Free Church has endorsed Scripture Press curriculum as the denomination’s official departmental study course. The Evangelical Free Church has for over ten years endorsed the Gospel Light Publication study course for closely graded use and continues to do so, but as of April 1, the endorsement will extend to the Scripture Press curriculum.
KENNETH M. MEYER
Executive Secretary
Dept. of Christian Education
Evangelical Free Church of America
Minneapolis, Minn.
MELODY OR MADNESS
I want to express my appreciation for your fine magazine for which I have recently subscribed. These articles are like a song in the night. I note the hand of good scholarship together with love and careful restraint, all of which make it acceptable to numbers of ministers of my faith.
CLAUDE A. BROWN
Poplar Methodist Church
Porterville, Calif.
When I read your magazine, it drives me mad.… What gets me is that, if you are trying to “sell” [Christianity], why don’t you?
I can tell you right now that I’d like to be sold on it, as I was brought up to believe in it, and I wish I could go back to age ten, twelve, fifteen, or even twenty-one. Your magazine would never sell me.…
If you want to talk to today’s people, you have to talk today’s language—unless, of course, you don’t want to talk to the kind of people Jesus was willing to talk to. (That ends in a preposition, but today’s people understand preposition endings. They aren’t a sin in my communications book!) … Nobody will convince me that God is dead. But if Christianity dies, it will suffocate in pomposity of its own making!
BARBARA BLANCHARD
The Daily Sentinel
Fairmont, Minn.
Letter From A Homosexual
A recent issue ofCHRISTIANITY TODAY(January 19) carried an editorial on “The Bible and the Homosexual,” calling for compassion for those who find themselves tempted to homosexual relations but reasserting the biblical strictures against any sexual act outside a heterosexual marriage. Among the letters of comment was this one from a Christian minister with acknowledged homosexual tendencies. It gives stirring evidence of the power of Jesus Christ to forgive sin, to cleanse of guilt, and to provide a continuing victory over sin through the working of the Holy Spirit.—ED.
I am a homosexual and a minister of the Gospel. This may be shooking to many people, but it is not so shocking to Jesus Christ. He has been all sufficient, not only to forgive me, but also to give me control over this problem. Still I am a homosexual.
The homosexual’s problem is very similar to the alchoholic’s. Although he never seems to overcome the temptation, he is able to withstand it through the power of God. A homosexual is usually considered to be one who practices sexual activity with someone of his own sex; but a person can have homosexual tendencies without ever committing a homosexual act. Many happily married men have these tendencies. They enjoy sexual relations with their wives but also have drives toward other men.
Homosexuality is a manifestation of the lust of the flesh, never, in my opinion, of the love set forth in the Word of God. Love binds two people together and is a manifestation of the love of God. The love of a man and a woman draws them together to become husband and wife, to be joined as one in sexual union. To try to fit people of the same sex into the biblical picture of marriage is impossible at every point. The sex act in marriage is the ultimate expression of love. The sex act performed apart from marriage falls short of this ultimate expression and leaves much to be desired. Often, if not always, it leaves both persons with a sense of guilt and lack of fulfillment. This is true of loveless marriages, of masturbation, and of homosexual activity.
The homosexual often falls into a life of constant searching for sexual fulfillment; but he doesn’t find it. He has sexual relations with many different people—many of whom he will never see again—and admits that there is no expression of love in the act. Two people might become emotionally attached to one another because of their similar problem, but this cannot be classified as love.
Legalizing homosexuality would only bring into the open what is now practiced by some behind closed doors and what is constantly suppressed by many others. Since practicing homosexuals are, I suspect, a small percentage of the total homosexual population, legalizing such activity would affect only a few of those bothered by the problem. And it would have little to do with the accompanying guilt.
Most male homosexuals are drawn to young men in their adolescence and early adulthood. To legalize homosexual activity—or give it church approval—would result in more aggressiveness of adults among youth. Many young people have participated in such acts with a sense of thrill in their first sexual act only to find themselves scarred in their sexual relationships in later life. A large number of adult-child sexual acts occur in what appear to be normal homes. Neither the children nor the adults ever reveal this activity. But the scars remain, and later the young people have difficulty adjusting to a God-given relationship in marriage.
Young homosexuals are often sent to reform schools, and there, in isolation with others of their own sex, their problem inevitably increases. Prisons are filled with homosexual activity.
Society looks with great disfavor on the practicing homosexual, and he moves from place to place, job to job. He is running, not only from society, but also from the lust within him. Finally he is discovered and condemned.
What is the solution? Only the forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ and constant deliverance through the Holy Spirit. The Word of God, in Romans 1:24–28, classifies homosexuality as sin—but by no means as the only or the gravest sin. It is listed among the sins of pride, boasting, gossiping, and others. Let us not condemn homosexuality any more—or less—than we would condemn the other sins in Romans 1.
The temptation to homosexual activity endured by many Christians is like the “thorn in the flesh” that constantly bothered Paul. This temptation has drawn me closer to God than any other, and I can attest to the sufficiency of his Holy Spirit to give constant deliverance.
I am a homosexual—but I am also a servant of the living Christ who experiences God’s forgiveness and deliverance. By the grace of God this temptation does not express itself, and I am victorious through Christ.
