Bell, Book and incense
The Matter Of Control
I was leafing through some textbooks of philosophy, on the trail of something different on the Renaissance, and in due time I came to Rogers. His History of Philosophy, published in 1932, is still good, though dated.
Rogers is very readable, and the first thing I knew I was reading all sorts of things I hadn’t set out to read. Pretty soon I had touched on the Renaissance, the Reformation, Bacon, Paracelsus, and Alchemy (alchemy is not a philosophy). The understatement of the week is that this particular period in history is a very interesting one, with its breakthrough from the Middle Ages into our own day.
What surprised me was to recognize for the first time (and I can’t think why it took me so long) that, although Bacon has always been looked upon as a kind of scientific thinker at the beginning of the new science, he wasn’t too scientific at that. His biographers seem to agree that his personal life was atrocious, and I suppose the best thing you can say for Bacon is that he was a typical Renaissance man living in Britain instead of Italy. He understood the fast buck, all the angles, and the infighting in high-level politics, and he was not above crossing up some of his friends as well as some of his enemies. It is true that he gave a few guidelines on how to be very careful in scientific pursuits, but the sum of the matter is that, in spite of giving us considerable help along the way, he was still running loose. Science, such as it was, in spite of Bacon’s concern about the “idols,” still had to be brought under control. Paracelsus and his alchemy were just another illustration of the same amazing scientific interest and amazing looseness.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to rethink the modern age—especially the theology—with a rerun of the Renaissance man and the Renaissance atmosphere. There is plenty of excitement around these days but not much control.
EUTYCHUS II
Keeping Up With The Joneses
It is hardly to be expected that Bob Jones University, with its strong emphasis upon obedience to the Word of God, would get a fair representation from CHRISTIANITY TODAY … upon whose editorial staff is Dr. Nelson Bell, Dr. Graham’s hysterical father-in-law, a man who is never hampered by facts or hindered by logic when he launches his vehement attacks upon those who refuse to burn incense before the shrine of his son-in-law.
However, what is surprising is that a magazine that prides itself upon its scholarship would publish so shallow an editorial as appeared on page 28 of your April 1 issue. It hardly behooves you in this editorial to attack fundamentalism as “an emotional mentality,” since it is very difficult to imagine anything more emotional and less logical than this editorial.
You refer to the President of Bob Jones University as “leading with his chin.” Now, Bob Jones University, in its opposition to Dr. Graham, leads with the Word of God. It is most significant that neither you nor any of the other defenders of Dr. Graham have ever been willing to face up to the Scriptures which we quote—Scriptures which condemn Dr. Graham’s friendship for and support of infidels and unbelievers and the turning of his converts back to false teachers.…
BOB JONES, JR.
President
Bob Jones University
Greenville, S. C.
I read with approval your fine editorial wherein you wrote … “We have no desire to embarrass Bob Jones University; its spokesmen are able to do that for themselves.”
And they most assuredly did embarrass themselves when they conferred a doctorate on … Governor George Wallace of Alabama!… How can such a “hard-shell” unchristian institution call itself Christian, when it supports a demagogue like Governor Wallace, refuses to admit Negroes, and has one of its Jones boys read a “mock prayer against Billy Graham”? The Joneses must have halitosis of the intellect!…
JOHN F. PALM
Port Charlotte, Fla.
The information contained in the article (News, Apr. 1 issue) about Bob Jones University was most revealing, and I believe will be helpful to a great many people.
No doubt you are aware that Bob Jones, Jr., labels anyone who disagrees with him as a “nut.” So, with your editorial, “A Regrettable Spectacle,” I believe I can say “Welcome Aboard”.…
A. WAYNE JOHNSON
Coordinator
MEN of the Church of God
Anderson, Ind.
Some years ago I began research on fundamentalism, which culminated in my highly acclaimed book on The Fundamentalist Movement (Mouton Co., the Hague and Paris, 1963). In my research I came across the repetitive claim of Bob Jones, Sr., that Bob Jones University could be accredited, but there was something in the school’s administrative policy which prevented the school from gaining accreditation. Bob Jones, Sr., made it appear as though the accrediting agencies were trying to control or dictate his school’s policies, which anyone who knows accrediting policies knows is not so. I was suspicious and explored this matter and discovered that Bob Jones University operates its school not much unlike a feudal lord on a socialistic basis.… I must say that most people would be surprised about the totalitarian type of regimentation the faculty and students must endure.
I wrote to Bob Jones, Sr. [who] … suggested that I come to the campus.… On the day I arrived … I was escorted into the business office and told that Bob Jones, Jr., had ordered that I be denied visiting privileges, even though I had a letter from his father to visit the campus. I was given fifteen minutes to leave the campus voluntarily or the police would be called to evict me.…
LOUIS GASPER
Los Angeles, Calif.
As usual, Billy Graham’s supporters ignore the scriptural injunctions in the Word of God to “come out from among them and be ye separate”.… By the use of half-truths and carefully worded insinuations you have sought to create a bad image of one of our nation’s finest Christian institutions of learning.
REV. EDWIN S. ELOE
Calvary Baptist Church
Pontiac, Illinois
You completely obfuscated the issues involved in ecumenical (i.e., conservative-liberal) evangelism as raised by Dr. Bob Jones, Jr. Instead of carefully delineating the matter you committed the age-old fallacy of ad hominem by attacking both Bob Jones, Jr., and his son (honorary degrees, etc., never pointing out that Billy Graham also has an honorary as does Dr. John C. Bennett, president of the Union Theological Seminary, New York) and haymakering the university for its strong discipline, its posture on segregation, and its conservative stand both religiously and politically.
Bob Jones, Jr., simply doesn’t feel a Christian conservative should play religious footsy with: (1) liberals and modernists who not only deny our Lord’s deity, but also invariably continue to render aid and comfort to our Communist enemies and (2) institutions like the National Council of Churches, whose fifty-eight-year history involves modernism, pacifism, Wardism, Marxism, Communism, and the Lord only knows what else.
This doesn’t mean that we are not to pray for or speak to these unbelievers, only that we are not to make common spiritual cause with them, e.g., wishing them Godspeed or having them lead in prayer to their “eternal spirit who might or might not exist”.…
But then, you too must sense a paradox of sorts when on one hand you label the NCC’s position on Communist China “adrift on a Red Sea?” but on the other hand innocuously announce Dr. Graham’s forthcoming appearance and address before the National Council’s General Assembly in Miami, December 1966.…
DAVID A. NOEBEL
Christian Crusade
Tulsa, Okla.
Praise God for men like Dr. Bob Jones, Jr., and the university he represents. This truly is a fundamental university which is a rare thing in this day.…
You will not find a more loyal student body or alumni. Granted you have those students and alumni who have turned against the school, but the number is very small in comparison to those who are behind the school 100 per cent.
JUNE BROWN
Winona Lake, Ind.
I am truly amazed that you and Bob Jones University are bickering. It seems to me that you should have a much closer relationship to that organization than you would have with Dr. Graham. Your ultra-conservative positions seem to square much more with the super-ultra-conservative positions of BJU than they would with the more liberal conservative, Billy Graham.…
Keep up the fine work. Tear each other apart. Don’t you know that this aids the liberals. When you do it we don’t have to. We can save our energies and apply them toward making the Kingdom of God on earth a reality.
ROBERT R. ROBERTS
First Methodist Church
Tulare, Calif.
Adventist Advertising
We are very much surprised to see the Seventh-day Adventist Church radio ad of “The Voice of Prophecy” (Mar. 18 issue).
If you believe in the eternal punishment of the lost, how can you carry their ad?…
ROY DETWEILER
Logan, Ohio
Have the Seventh-day Adventists repudiated the teaching of their founder, Mrs. Ellen G. White?
If not, how do they rate even paid advertising space in CHRISTIANITY TODAY?
R. N. CULBERTSON
North Fort Myers, Fla.
Please set me straight. I always thought of [Seventh-day Adventists] as [teaching] a false gospel. They are law keepers for salvation.
GORDON H. FERRELL
Canal Winchester, Ohio
The Long And Short Of It
Re the article by Abram Miller Long, “Do Presbyterians Need a New Confession?” (Apr. 1 issue): Are the readers of CHRISTIANITY TODAY aware that the new confession teaches that Jesus Christ is God with man (Immanuel), that he is the Word of God incarnate, and that in him true humanity was realized once for all? That a picture of universal sin is set forth in terms of the imagery of Romans 1? That to refuse life from God is to be separated from God in death? That Christ took upon himself the judgment under which all men stand convicted, to bring men to repentance and new life? That God raised Jesus from the dead, vindicating him as Messiah and Lord? That those joined to Christ by faith are set right with God? That all who put their trust in Christ face judgment without fear? That natural revelation is described in terms of Romans 1 and Genesis 1 after the theme of First Corinthians 1? That covenant theology is defined and defended? That in the new birth the Spirit brings God’s forgiveness to men and initiates new life in Christ? That the struggle between sin and the new life in a man is summarized with strong overtones of Romans 7:13–23? That the preaching of the Gospel, in accord with Romans 10:14, 15, is the means by which saving grace is offered to the world? That the Church is equipped by God for its ministry of preaching and teaching by being given the Scriptures so that, in dependence on the Holy Spirit, man may be brought to accept and follow Christ? That God’s word is spoken to the Church today wherever the Scriptures are faithfully preached and attentively read? That Christ is Lord over all of creation in a plain statement with Calvinistic vision? That the Church’s action must match its preaching?… Is it with reason that I remember the answer in Luther’s catechism to the commandment on bearing false witness: “… and put the best construction on everything”?
Mr. Long compounds the unfortunate note of his article by choosing his interpretation of the Genesis account as the basis for his faith—and would [have it] the basis of my faith if he could arrange it. Haven’t we heard often enough the fallacious statement, “If this story is not true history, then the whole foundation of our faith is upset”?…
RICHARD H. BUBE
Stanford, Calif.
Dr. Abram Long’s attempt … to skewer the proposed confession … by charging with selected Bible passages in hand and shouting for a return to verbal realism is not so much to be praised as pitied. His understanding is narrow and exclusivist.… Small wonder, what with the constraints which Dr. Long has placed upon his own thinking, that his differences with the proposed confession are so sharp, and his protests so vociferous—and his contribution to the discussion of the confession so slight.
THEODORE H. SCOTT
Asst. Pastor
First Presbyterian Church
Rahway, N. J.
Exactly! As Dr. Long says so neatly: The proposed Presbyterian Confession of 1967 seeks to “adjust the North Star to suit the compass.” A beautifully apt expression!
Dr. Long could have gone on to say that the framers of that proposed confession, like liberals elsewhere in religion, in education, in politics, and in economics, no longer understand the difference between the North Star and the compass.
STEPHEN B. MILES
American Council on Correct Use of English in Politics
Falls City, Neb.
Correspondence Courses
This is to thank you for your fine editorial in the February 18 issue entitled “How to Make Adult Training Work.” I am in cordial agreement with your statement as to the general neglect in religious circles of the resources available in adult education.
It is with a sense of stewardship, therefore, that I write in response to your editorial. We may have the very kind of adult educational material for which many of your readers are searching.
The Seminary Extension Department represents the off-campus thrust of our six Southern Baptist seminaries. We channel a versatile and vital flow of instruction in Bible and related subjects to adults who desire study in depth for their own spiritual development and for a more vital witness to others.…
We provide courses in biblical, theological, historical, and practical fields of study. These are beamed to meet the needs of pastors lacking in formal seminary training, and laymen and women who want the benefits of study in depth and with discipline. We had 4,336 individual students enrolled last year.
Our work is done through extension centers and by correspondence. If any of your readers are interested, they may address their inquiries to the Seminary Extension Department, Post Office Box 1411, Nashville, Tennessee 37202.
RALPH A HERRING
Director
Seminary Extension
Nashville, Tenn.
Please Comment
Would you be willing to comment … on the item which appeared in the American Baptist Crusader (March, 1966)—“As the Editor Sees It.” It involves a letter received by Dr. Tuller [of the American Baptist Convention] concerning participation in the Consultation on Church Union:
“Anyone who would come into the Consultation as full participants at this point would have to be rather strongly committed to the agreements which we have reached so far.” These were generally defined as including (1) some form of the episcopacy (with recognition of apostolic succession); (2) baptism of both infants and adults by various methods; (3) a minimum common liturgy; and (4) the probability of some form of a creedal statement.
GEORGE WASHBURN
Middleboro, Mass.
• There are many varieties of dialogue. Some of them seek conformity to established prejudices, others simply seek light.—ED.
Dumb Protestants
The article “Is the Catholic Church Going Protestant?” (Mar. 18 issue) has an ulterior motive. I believe the whole Catholic Church would like Protestants to go for this idea so ably written by priest Eugene E. Ryan. He makes it sound like the Catholics don’t like it, but I’m sure they do. So many of the Protestants are so dumb that they will never really see underneath the conniving of the Catholics.…
LEO G. SIMMONS
Ottumwa, Iowa
Let me thank you for the articles in the March 18 issue, and particularly for your editorial, “Evangelicals in the Church of Rome.” It is very loving and discerning.…
BRADFORD YOUNG
Rector
Grace Church
Manchester, N. H.
Congratulations on your section of March 18 dealing with the papacy issues.
“The Protestant View” by Geoffrey W. Bromiley, with its ringing defense and studied statement of the Reformation position, is truly heartening in face of the misleading propaganda of Rome. The time is ripe for plain speaking.…
ARTHUR M. JEFFRIES
Lakeland, Fla.
I gather that you feel more warmly toward the Roman church than you do the NCC. To refer to Romanism in such glowing terms and contend that the changes taking place are “the work of the Holy Spirit” reveal a man who has been either deceived or sadly misinformed.…
CHARLES W. JOHNSTON
First Baptist
Watseka, Ill.
