What Did Christ Do For Me?

I was walking down a hospital corridor by the stretcher of a man on whom I was to operate in a few minutes. Looking up into my face, he said: “Doctor, I was saved last night. My pastor came to see me and I accepted Christ.”

The anesthetist, head of the department, a man with little apparent concern for religion, overheard the remark. Following the operation, when all had left the doctors’ dressing room except this doctor, he asked: “Just what did that man mean when he said he was ‘saved’? How can Christ save anyone?”

Like so many of us laymen, he was confused by theological terms. Or perhaps he took Christianity as a matter of course without any idea as to its real meaning.

Knowing him well, I feared that he had been indifferent to Christ and his claims. He had an only son at the state university. I said: “I know your son is at the university and how keenly you are interested in him, his career and his welfare. Suppose that he got into serious trouble, and that on going down to see him you should find out that it was a situation where you could take responsibility for him and pay the full penalty yourself. How gladly you would do this for your boy! That, in one sense, is what Christ did for you, and for all the rest of us. Our lives are all messed up. We are guilty of multiplied sins against God, sins which demand judgment and punishment. But God has stepped in and intervened on our behalf in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ. He accomplished something we could not do for ourselves. He took the responsibility of our sin and paid the price himself on the Cross.”

That which Christ effected for us on the Cross is spoken of as the Atonement. This particular word appears only once in the New Testament (Romans 5:11) but the implications of the Atonement are found throughout the Old and New Testaments and are at the very heart of the Gospel message.

How can the Atonement be explained in terms we laymen can understand? I recently examined two books on the subject. One is so exhaustive and so couched in theological terms that it was not easy to follow. The other did not explain the Atonement: it explained it away. This danger besets modern theology.

The Atonement (at-one-ment) is the means, the procedure, by which sinful man is reconciled to a holy God. There are those who deny that any reconciliation between God and man is necessary, and affirm that God is a loving Heavenly Father and that man is simply to turn to him and he will be received and forgiven. The difficulty with this argument is that the God of love is also the God of holiness, and sin and the unpardoned sinner cannot come into his holy presence. Furthermore, the justice of God demands that sin be punished. Even sinful humans recognize this necessity. Man recognizes the validity of punishment and vicarious substitution whereby one individual may suffer for or pay the penalty for another.

It seems logical to turn to the Scriptures to see what they teach. It is here that we find the historical record about Christ, who he is and what he did.

An honest reading of the Bible leads to the inescapable conclusion that Christ died for our sins. He, the eternal Son of God, came into this world, lived a sinless life and died on the Cross to take upon himself the guilt and penalty of all sinners who believe.

Speaking to his disciples, our Lord referred to an incident that occurred in the wilderness many centuries previously. A bronze serpent had been placed on a pole and stricken men were told to look towards that uplifted serpent as a token of their faith in the saving power of God. Jesus said: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14, 15).

I know there are those who inveigh against the use of “proof texts,” but any layman—particularly one who is a lawyer and interested in and affected by the law—knows that precedents, decisions and judgments are constantly cited in court and are a part of a valid procedure. How much more have Christians the right to take the Bible and accept what it teaches by statements in multiplied places; these together constituting an overwhelming volume of evidence.

In 1 John 2:2 we read: “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” Now “propitiation” is not a common word and we laymen may wonder what it means. According to Webster it signifies, “to appease, to render favorable, to conciliate, to atone, to effect reconciliation,” etc. The Prophet Isaiah, speaking to Israel, made a statement which is valid today: “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isa. 59:2). Those who argue against the need of reconciliation to God through Christ’s atoning work simply evade the awfulness of sin on the one hand and the holiness of God on the other.

Isaiah recognized man’s need when he wrote: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities … and with his stripes we are healed.”(53:5), while the Apostle Peter confirmed this in these words: “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Pet. 2:24). The same thought is expressed many times and in many ways in the Scriptures. Man can reject this concept but in doing so he is rejecting the work of Christ and the Word of God.

“Christ redeemed me” is a familiar phrase. Christ did just that for us, paying the price to buy sinners back to himself.

There are many “theories” of the Atonement. It is popular today to say that no one theory does full justice to this truth. There are many phases of the Atonement and this side of eternity man will never know the depth and height and breadth of the love of God which made our redemption possible and effective. But when we try, with the frailties and limitations of the human mind, to describe the greatest of all Christian doctrines let us be careful that we do not explain it away.

“Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures,” affirms the Apostle Paul. This has been the heart of the Christian message down through the ages and the efficacy of his death was confirmed by the fact of his resurrection.

Sinful man needs redemption. God knows that need and has made full provision to meet it. In Christ on the Cross the need and the sinfulness of man is forever met. Here we see the grace and mercy of God united with His holiness and justice in one supreme act of atoning love.

L. NELSON BELL

- More from L. Nelson Bell

Cover Story

Eyes Front!

William M. Elliott, Jr.

“What is that to thee? follow thou me” (John 21:22).

A friend once asked Daniel Webster, “Mr. Webster, will you tell us the most important thought that ever occupied your mind?” The great statesman thought a moment, and then said, “The most important thought that ever occupied my mind was that of my individual responsibility to God.”

Now it was this truth—that a man has an individual responsibility to God entirely apart from his fellows—that Jesus was seeking to instill in Simon Peter’s mind that morning by the sea of Tiberias. After Jesus had served breakfast to the seven disciples there on the shore, he took Peter aside for a private conference. It was during this conversation that our Lord revealed to Peter that he would be called upon to suffer a martyr’s death, that he would die for the faith.

As the two men talked, John, “the beloved disciple,” came toward them. When Peter turned and saw his fellow disciple approaching, he said to Jesus: “Lord, and what shall this man do?” Then came the sharp rebuke which forms our text: “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.” In other words, “Mind your own business, Peter. What is in store for John is no affair of yours. Only see to it that my plan for you is carried out. I’ll take care of John.” You see, the Master was rebuking Peter for turning his mind away from his own private duty to idle and fruitless speculation about the fate of a companion.

Needed Rebuke

The big fisherman needed this rebuke, and so do many of us. One of the most important lessons which you and I have to learn is to get our eyes off other people, and tend to our own knitting—doing and being what God meant for us to do and to be. Strong in all of us is the tendency to watch the other fellow, and to contrast our situation with his. It is a common temptation, and, from a psychological point of view, a destructive habit. So many things that plague men’s lives grow in this soil—envy, discontent, resentment, self-pity. The offices of physicians and psychiatrists are full of unhappy, restless individuals who are frustrated and inhibited in this very thing.

It is a great day in a person’s life when he makes up his mind to be himself—to do his own work, to fill his own special niche, and to follow God’s unique plan for him. Only thus can he experience fulfillment and peace of mind. Emerson once wrote: “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself, for better, for worse as his portion.”

God had a work for Peter to do, and a work for John, because each of these men was unique, and it was this uniqueness which made the cause succeed. Peter could serve God’s cause best by simply being Peter. He would have fizzled at John’s work, as John would have failed at his. God’s will or plan is never the same for any two of us. The Divine Architect never hands down two sets of blueprints exactly alike. His plan for your life is not his plan for mine, and his plan for my life is not his plan for yours. But both are essential.

To Each His Gift

I wonder if you have noticed how much St. Paul emphasizes this truth in his epistles. Writing to the Christians in Corinth he says: “Men have different gifts.… There are different ways of serving God.… God works through different men in different ways, but it is the same God who achieves his purposes through them all” (1 Corinthians 12:4–6, Phillips translation). And writing to the Ephesians Paul said, “His gifts unto men are varied. Some He made Special Messengers, some prophets, some preachers of the Gospel. His gifts were made that Christians might be properly equipped for their service, that the whole Body might be built up” (Ephesians 4:11, 12, Phillips).

In Martin Luther and Philip Melanchton we have the Peter and John of the sixteenth century. Luther knew that in some respects he was not as gifted as Melanchton, but he also had the wisdom to see that he could do a job for the kingdom which Melanchton, with all his gracious endowments, could never do. He said: “I was born to be a rough controversialist. I clear the ground, pull up weeds, fill up ditches, and smooth the roads. But to build, to plan, to sow, to water, to adorn the country, belongs by the grace of God to Melanchton.” It was a great day for the Protestant Reformation, and for the kingdom, when Martin Luther was willing to be Luther in all the glory and power of his individuality.

God knows what he is doing when he hands to each of us a particular set of abilities, and if we determine to be somebody else, or demand that somebody else be just like us, we are hindering Christ’s purpose, and retarding his work.

All have a share in the beauty,

All have a part in the plan;

What does it matter which duty

Falls to the lot of a man?

Inhibiting Growth

This habit of watching others inhibits our spiritual growth and makes us less effective in our service for Christ. We who work hard in the church see others who are not working hard, and it disconcerts us. They seem worldly, indifferent and free. They assume little or no responsibility for the Christian cause. And, as we watch them, we begin to feel a little sorry for ourselves. We think our lot is hard, and that we are bearing a disproportionate share of the burden. As a result of this comparison, we grow tired of responsibility, and want to “throw in the sponge.” Why should I, we ask, carry such heavy and demanding loads, while others go scot free?

It is a familiar but dangerous mood. We are so busy wanting others to follow Christ faithfully that we do not settle down to the business of following him ourselves. Some horses have to have blinds on their bridles to keep them from distraction. Maybe we Christians need some such device if we are to have a consistent and undisturbed loyalty to Christ.

Another way in which this habit of looking at others hinders our spiritual growth is that as we see their weaknesses and failures we become satisfied with our own religious progress and become complacent Pharisees. The poor achievements of others become our standard instead of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. But Christ is our example and our ideal, not some limping, indifferent church member!

No Valid Excuse

This is a wonderful text too, for those people who say that they will not join the church or profess the Christian faith because they see certain professing Christians whose lives are imperfect. They say that they do not follow Christ because someone who professes to be religious has let them down. He has given such a poor demonstration of Christianity that they have been forced to turn from it in disgust. That is a familiar complaint of the irreligious, but I believe that Jesus would say to all such people, “What is that to thee? follow thou me!”

Some people never tire of talking about hypocrites in the church. What a stale dodge it is! Wrote Dean Chas. R. Brown of Yale, “You speak of religion to some man, and all he can think to say is some silly quibble.… You mention the church, and his mind is off like a rat to drag out some moth-eaten story about an unworthy deacon. You wish to show him the well that is deep, and he merely jumps up and down in the puddle of his own conceit to splash you with mud. How pitiful it is” (Finding Ourselves, Harper, p. 83).

Let me say a word about the contention that there are hypocrites in the church. The people who attend church regularly and take an active part in its fellowship are not playing the hypocrite. They are not pretending anything. They are confessing something. They are confessing that they need what religion and the church have to offer. The Christian church is not a display room for model Christians. If you think that it is, then you have a wrong conception of the church. The church is a spiritual hospital for people who know that they are sick, and are without hope in this life and in the next without the grace and power of God. Some may join the church to impress others and to gain a reputation for piety, but this can be true of only a few. I do not stand in this pulpit because I think that I am better than someone else, and I do not stand here because I have “arrived” spiritually. I am here because I think that this is where God wants me to be, and because I have some good news about him. As Paul said to the Corinthians, “we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord” (2 Cor. 4:5).

This line about hypocrites in the church is a common one, and is an excuse very helpful to the devil. He capitalized on it, plays it for everything it is worth. In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis makes quite a point of this. This book, you know, is a series of imaginary letters written by Screwtape, an elderly devil in hell, to his young nephew on earth whose name is Wormwood. Screwtape is coaching Wormwood on how to keep people out of heaven and get them into hell. In one of these letters the old devil is telling Wormwood that one of the best ways to get his man into hell is to encourage him to watch the people he meets in church. Here is what he says: “When he gets to his pew and looks around him he sees just that selection of his neighbors whom he has hitherto avoided. You want to lean pretty heavily on those neighbors. Make his mind flit to and fro between an expression like ‘the body of Christ’ and the actual faces in the next pew.… Work hard, then, on the disappointment or anti-climax which is certainly coming to the patient during his first few weeks as a churchman” (op. cit., pp. 16, 17).

We Must Answer

Shame upon us Christians that we do not more perfectly reflect Jesus Christ in our lives and conversation! May God in his mercy forgive us if we are ever the cause of another turning away from Christ and missing eternal life! But friend outside the church: this does not excuse you. What you say about certain church members may be true, but it will not weather the final judgment. When you come to stand before Christ he will not ask you how another believed or lived. There you must speak for yourself, and only for yourself. And this plea of yours about how others failed will be the lamest of all excuses.

Remember, God offers you his beauty and his glory, however much some of us may have missed it. As Leslie Weatherhead suggests, you don’t say, “Beethoven’s music is no good,” just because the girl next door murders his sonatas on the piano, do you? You don’t say, “I shall stop seeking health,” because you know a doctor who is sick, do you? Of course you don’t. Then why do you say, “I’m finished with Christianity because I know a preacher or a layman who is a humbug”? He may be, but why miss the salvation Christ offers—why lose the enrichment of personality and the inner peace and harmony which he offers—just because another has been such a poor example of what a Christian ought to be?

If some of us have missed what Christ came to give, why should you miss it? If you do not like some of the people in the church—if you are persuaded that we have tarnished the faith with unworthy lives, will you offer yourself for the Christian cause, and do the job right? If some of us have hurt the good name of Christianity, will you help to redeem it? If the church is not at all what you think it ought to be, will you come in and help to make it better?

“What is that to thee? follow thou me.”

Eyes front! Forward march!

William M. Elliott, Jr., is pastor of Highland Park Presbyterian Church and Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, South. He holds the A.B. degree from Park College, B.D. from Louisville Presbyterian Seminary, and Ph.D. from Edinburgh University. Davidson College has conferred the D.D., and Park College the L.H.D. Dr. Elliott is author of several books, among them For the Living of These Days and Lift High That Banner.

Chosen And Appointed Path

To know despair. To feel

The stark, blank hurt of her

Whose mother-love has spent

Itself upon a Judas.

To taste delight, as sire

Whose sun-kissed baby daughter

Laughs her infant ecstasy

Into his singing heart.

To have the joy of soul—

Clean maiden whose treasure springs

From bursting heart to golden song

Upon her wedding day.

To touch and clasp the pain

And burden of the bruised

And scattered multitudes

Who wander lost, and yearn.

To share the hope and fear

That stir and wrench and pull

Each human heart, and drive

From grasping earth to God.

“To laugh with them that laugh,

To weep with them that weep,”

To serve the Lord of Love

Among his hungry sheep.

JOE CARSON SMITH

- More from William M. Elliott, Jr.

Cover Story

Do We Want a Reformation?

Paul Woolley

Christians are constantly demanding a new Reformation of the Church. It would be surprising and pleasant if men of the stature of Luther and Calvin would suddenly appear, driving into our big American cities over the new turnpikes and turning the thoughts of the people to the commands of God. It is not, however, the idea of another Reformation that men need to have in mind. The first Reformation put the Bible into its proper place as the final authority for all Christians who are in the true lineage of Protestantism. Unless we are now willing to undo that work we do not need another Reformation.

God Irrelevant

God has become irrelevant to modern life. At least the majority of Americans think he has. That is the fact that the Church has to face and conquer. The conviction that God is irrelevant appeared in Western Europe as long ago as the twelfth century, but it was given tremendous impetus in the seventeenth century. Since the publication of Darwin’s The Origin of Species nearly one hundred years ago, the idea has conquered the Western world and is now the majority conviction. Science produces the marvels and the comforts of the current age and it does very well without God both here and in the Soviet Union.

There are still a few problems that do not yield immediately. One, for example, is juvenile delinquency; another is international and interracial hatred. A more serious one is the frenzy for comfort and amusement at the expense of serious accomplishment. David Riesman has pointed out how rapidly we are becoming an “other-directed” nation, a nation of people whose chief aim is to be like the crowd instead of being what each one knows he ought to be.

A basic reason for such herd behavior, clearly, is that most people do not know what they ought to be. That is where the Church has to find the way to come in. The Church has the job of showing the individual American either that science cannot get along without God or that man cannot get along with only science to provide for him.

The first job requires a discovery that the scientist will have to make for himself. It is only about a century ago that the majority of American scientists began to think they could get along without God. There are already signs that the attempt is not going to be permanently successful, but the revolution will not come overnight. Scientists of Christian conviction will ultimately have to furnish the answer by providing a science that is superior in its total conception to atheistic or agnostic science. One day it will be obvious that there are two basic varieties of science and that the former is superior to the latter.

The Church’S Job

In the meantime the second job—to show that man cannot get along with only science to provide for him—is facing the Church right now. How is it to be accomplished?

People have to come to know that they need something more than science before they will put any effort into getting it. The majority of Americans do not yet know that they need anything more. But people who have had some education are beginning to discover it. They are the ones who have been longest outside the Church. The Enlightenment of the eighteenth century had its most compelling effect upon the educated. For evidence, to save time, let us review only the American situation. The deism and skepticism of the eighteenth century made its greatest impact upon the people and the geographical regions with the most education. At about the time of the American Revolution the Christians in Harvard and Yale colleges could be counted on the fingers. Unitarianism began and had its greatest successes among the most highly educated. New England was its headquarters.

Mass Revivals

The mass revival movements of the nineteenth century, on the other hand, had their greatest influence among people of less education. The churches were most effective in that period among the same groups. These groups were kept, by and large, from mass skepticism for three generations longer.

Speaking in round terms, then, the highly educated section of the American population has had a century and a half of skepticism and uncertainty. It is the first to discover the results of such a diet. It is beginning to say that science is not enough.

The mass of the population, on the other hand, is reveling in the benefits of science. It has had less than a century of doubt and skepticism. Until recently it still retained ethical remnants from earlier ages of belief.

Is Science Enough?

There is now the beginning of a demand for a supplement to science. That is one of the factors which has started American church membership climbing within the past decade. That demand for a supplement to science is going to increase powerfully within the coming generation.

The all-important question is this: Is the Church going to provide an answer to this demand for something more than science? If it provides the answer, America may look forward to another period under God’s blessing. If the Church does not have the answer, America may expect the kind of decline which overtook the western Roman empire in the sixth and subsequent centuries.

People are showing the first signs of being ready to listen to the Church. Does the Church have something to say? Of course, it thinks that it does. But are people going to listen, or are they going to turn away in disgust?

A Look At History

History is of some use here. The times when the people listened to the Church most attentively have been two in number. The first was in the early Christian centuries when Christianity was first speaking in the world; the second was at the time of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. Why did people listen at these times?

In the first instance, the answer is not hard to discover. At that time a great many people in the Roman Empire (and elsewhere) were actually looking for a way of salvation. The testimony to that effect is rather overwhelming. There was a widespread sense of guilt and of the need to get rid of guilt. There was a widespread consciousness that pagan ethical principles were not satisfactory. Something better was needed. Pride, hatred and selfishness were not being adequately checked by pagan ethics. To these demands Christianity provided an answer that worked, and people became Christians in great numbers.

The situation in the sixteenth century was more complicated. Economic and political changes were more complex and their effects less easy to assess. The same two factors appear, however, that had appeared earlier. Luther was tremendously oppressed by a sense of guilt. He found a remedy for it. The corruptions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in ordinary life were exposed by the great preachers, Geiler of Strasbourg and Savonarola of Florence. The low state of the papal curia was obvious to anyone acquainted with it. Its ethical standards were ineffective.

Luther and Calvin proclaimed a remedy for guilt and for ethical corruption, and they were heard. For a time they were heard by the majority in Western Europe.

In both of these periods, then, people listened eagerly, and great masses of them accepted what they heard.

The Reformation Message

What did they hear and what did they accept? In both the early Christian period and during the Reformation it was the same: that men are guilty before God, that a way of salvation from guilt has been provided by God, that that way of salvation has a powerful ethical content adequate for the sins of pride, hatred and selfishness.

Is that message sufficient to secure attention at the present moment? The author believes that the answer is no. In both of the earlier periods there was a widespread sense of guilt. The truths that changed the face of Europe in those periods were based upon the validity of that sense of guilt.

Today there is no widespread sense of guilt. It does not exist to any appreciable degree among the highly educated who know that science is not enough. It does not exist among those who are swelling the church membership rolls. Obviously, it does not exist powerfully elsewhere. How then is the Church to meet the problem of the present age?

Today’S Key

The Church must begin where the people are. The key is this: people know that love and beauty exist and are powerful and that science has no adequate explanation for the existence of these realities. Science does not explain their meaning or their value. If the Church will point out patiently and repeatedly that the only ultimate source of love and beauty is God, some will listen. They are genuinely interested.

The revival of family life, the rise in the birth rate, the interest in liturgical worship, in painting and architecture as seen in the popular magazines, are genuine, if diverse, indications of this interest. People want to know who God is and what he is like. As they are pointed to the Scriptures as the reliable source of information about him, they will find that here is the source of unending love, of superlative beauty. But they will also find that God is holy and God is righteous. Gradually they will discover that love and beauty cannot develop except under the favor of God, and that that favor requires holiness. Holiness is attainable only when sin is dealt with.

Thus the time will arrive again, if God continues his patience toward this age, when sin must be faced as it was in previous ages of crisis. The sense of guilt will return. The message of salvation from guilt will once more be overwhelmingly needed.

The evangelical Church of today is missing its optunity because it does not have an adequate sense of timing. It must, if it is to be heard, preach God as the source of love and beauty and, for the moment, emphasize that message. The whole system of truth must be available, of course, but the proportion, the timing, is vital. The people who have been longest away from the Church will be the first to return. The time to reach them has arrived.

Paul Woolley has been Chairman of the Department of Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary since 1929. He holds the A.B. degree from Princeton University, and the Th.B. and Th.M. degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is Managing Editor of the Westminster Theological Journal.

- More from Paul Woolley

Cover Story

The Fate of Protestants in Colombia

Clyde W. Taylor

Part I

[Part II will appear in the next issue]

The last few months have witnessed a rash of denials by the Roman Catholic press that Protestants have been persecuted in Colombia during the last eight years. Outstanding dignitaries of the American hierarchy have simultaneously made trips to Latin America, returning with the same story, regardless of whether they stayed in Bogota six short days or traveled around the country. These developments have not only confused many Catholics (who wonder about so much denial of something that “never happened”) but also arouse many questions in the minds of Protestants. Notable articles are now appearing (cf. Time, September 23, 1957, and Presbyterian Life, September 21, 1957) to interpret the situation.

Here in brief is what has happened. In May of this year the military forces of Colombia overthrew the military dictator Rojas Pinilla and drove him from the country. This action by the military junta had the approval of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, despite the fact that a few months prior Rojas Pinilla still had the complete backing of the hierarchy. As soon as this new military junta took control of Colombia, it initiated a more normal and constitutional state of affairs. Simultaneously, articles began to appear with greater frequency in the Roman Catholic press in America denying religious persecution in Colombia.

Roman Catholic View

The first widely publicized article was printed in View Magazine of the Capuchin Fathers in New York in June. This in turn was reprinted in the press throughout Latin America, in the English Catholic press, and in La Prensa (Spanish daily printed in New York), apparently as the hierarchy’s official denial of charges of Roman Catholic persecution of Colombian Protestants:

For the last ten years there have been published all over the world news of religious persecution in Colombia. The Protestants are always the presumed victims, and the Catholics are always the presumed persecutors.… The dynamo of this prolific anti-Catholic propaganda is the Evangelical Confederation of Colombia, known by the abbreviation CEDEC in Spanish, which comprises 17 of the 27 Protestant groups in Colombia and represents about 12,000 of the 27,000 Protestants that there are there. The Anglicans, Episcopalians, Lutherans and Baptists have refused to join this so-called “Common Front” against Catholicism. The Baptists have stigmatized it as hypocritical and absolutely opposed to Protestant liberty.

In no case has the CEDEC demonstrated conclusively that the violence it said the Protestants have suffered was ever more than a local brawl between Evangelicals and Catholics, provoked by an offensive and at times violent proselytism. The demonstration that CEDEC would be unable to prove juridically its accusations is evident in the silence of the United Nations and in the indifference of our own Department of State.… Nevertheless, a sensationalist press will publish practically anything that can stir up agitation.

Analysis Of Charges

Let us look at some of these charges. The first charge is against the Evangelical Confederation of Colombia, which includes all but a few Protestant missionary agencies in Colombia. The Episcopalians in Colombia have no mission in the usual sense; they operate three or four chapels and practically all in attendance are foreigners. Lutherans and Baptists are not in CEDEC. But this refusal is due wholly to the fact that Baptists and Lutherans do not sign statements of faith, which membership in this organization requires. The Colombian Lutheran Mission states:

On several occasions we have availed ourselves of the services of the CEDEC legal office and have contributed regularly to the maintenance of the same in our common fight for religious freedom in Colombia.

As to the CEDEC news releases I am not aware that Lutherans in Colombia (or other informed persons treating impartially the facts of religious persecution in Colombia) have questioned the veracity and uprightness of the CEDEC News Service. I have seen no attempt to exaggerate. While it would be folly for anyone to claim infallibility in the accumulation and presentation of facts, it is my opinion that the CEDEC has on the whole succeeded in being consistently exact in reporting incidents of religious persecution in Colombia.

The article also says that Baptists have not only refused to join but they have stigmatized CEDEC. Officially Baptists have replied:

Baptists, though not actively participating in the CEDEC movement are in sympathy with its efforts to state clearly the Evangelical cause in Colombia.

Baptists do hereby reject the false charges as presented by the View magazine that “The Baptists have stigmatized it (CEDEC) as hypocritical and absolutely opposed to Protestant liberty.” Never has such a statement received our endorsement in Colombia, therefore, we must emphatically reject such a malicious attempt to misrepresent both Baptists and the CEDEC organization.

Colombian Baptists affirm that persecution of Evangelical groups under instigation of local Roman Catholic priests has for years caused much suffering and therefore we continue to register our protest against such persecution campaigns.

Of the 18 Protestant missionary societies of any importance in Colombia, 14 are members of CEDEC and three others cooperate. Of the 60,000 Protestants in Colombia, at least 90% are represented by CEDEC.

This View article then goes on to dismiss persecution as nothing but a local brawl between Evangelicals and Catholics. CEDEC has actually documented over 700 cases of violence where Protestants suffered. Our NAE Washington office also has complete reports on hundreds of these cases. It is true that these were all local affairs. There was no coordinated effort across Colombia in one day or one month to wipe out Protestants. But during this period 49 Protestant churches were totally or partially destroyed, 34 others confiscated (many of these are now serving as schools, offices of mayors, police and military barracks and have not been returned to Protestants). In an overwhelming number of cases mobs and attacks were either personally or indirectly led by local Roman Catholic priests.

What Is Persecution?

This brings us to ask, “What is persecution?” In the summer of 1956 while in Colombia, we were informed by Father Ospina of Javariana University, official mouthpiece of the hierarchy there, that persecution does not exist in Colombia—although he acknowledged religious violence, churches burned, people killed and that many had suffered. But, he said, “there can be no persecution unless the Church orders persecution.” Therefore, all that has gone on is not recognized as persecution. We prefer to use Webster’s definition that “to cause to suffer because of religious belief” is persecution. That’s exactly what has gone on in Colombia for nine years, with scores suffering death.

The article in View then asserts that CEDEC cannot prove these accusations in view of the silence of the United Nations. But this matter is not within the jurisdiction of the U.N. There would be no way to get these facts before the U.N. unless it were made a national matter and the delegates of the United States were to bring it up. View refers to the indifference of our own State Department. But the present Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, in a letter dated May 31, 1957 (at the very time the View article was printed), says:

As you know, we are extremely concerned with the problems confronting United States Protestants in Colombia, and we desire to do everything appropriate to find satisfactory solutions.

The State Department has in fact shown tremendous interest and has done everything within its purview to alleviate the religious problems and difficulties confronting Americans there. It has complete files, and knows that government personnel has also been involved. When the priest-led mob attacked the First Baptist Church in Bogota on December 22, 1951, the U. S. Ambassador, standing in the door of the church during the dedication service, was struck in the head with a piece of brick.

Memorandum To Senators

Before the recent change in Colombian government, the situation was so serious that the National Association of Evangelicals sent an individual memorandum in January, 1957, to members of the U. S. Senate. We received no contradiction of the facts in this document, and can guarantee their factuality:

On October 17, 1956, the Colombian Army entered south western Tolima to wipe out so-called guerrillas, (armed liberals, mostly all Catholics, many of whom have been marked for assassination). Reports indicate not one guerrilla was killed or captured, but several thousand Colombians, including the large Protestant congregation in Campo Hermoso, lost everything they owned and fled as refugees to the mountains. The army adopted the “scorched earth” policy, and ruined the homes and farms of these people.

On October 13, 1956 Luis Arce, lay preacher of Buenavista, Caldas was murdered while working on his farm by several “police” because he was an active evangelical leader. His brother and a hired man were also killed because they were sympathizers with the evangelical views.

On September 29, 1956 Sr. Ramon Garcia, elder of the Presbyterian Church in Coloradas, near Cartago, Valle, was assassinated on a mountain trail between Los Coloradas and Cartago. Another evangelical, Sr. Gutierrez, was returning from the funeral of Sr. Garcia when a group of fanatics attacked and severely wounded him. Some 25 families of the Presbyterian Church had to abandon their homes and flee the area for fear of further violence.

Two American missionaries, Miss Ida Danielson (a veteran missionary 82 years old) and Miss Dorothy Hagerman were arrested in Quinchia, Caldas, July 15, 1956 and were charged with having Communist literature in their possession. The literature had been carried into their home by the same police officers who made the arrest. After being held in house arrest for two days, their case was turned over to the Colombian Secret Intelligence Service in Manizales. The ladies were arraigned before the Military Penal Court and had to spend two nights in the police barracks. After several weeks of harassment they were finally cleared by the Colombian government through the (active) intervention of the U. S. Embassy.

On July 9, 1956 at 2 a.m. an effort was made to burn four American missionaries alive in La Cumbre, Valle. Arsonists fired their house with gasoline. Several witnesses in sworn testimony named Father Millan as the instigator who planned the attack and hired four men to do it, with police cooperation. Perhaps the most serious of all is that more than 40 Protestant churches were closed by the Colombian government during 1956. This does not include any of the 49 churches which have been destroyed since 1948. The Colombian government based its action on an agreement with the Vatican which was concluded in 1953 and which gave the Catholic Church exclusive religious and educational rights in approximately 3/5 of the country. This agreement has been given precedence over a long standing treaty between Colombia and the United States which has been in force since 1846, with regard to their citizens and their right to live, move and practice their religion anywhere in either country.

In a subsequent memorandum issued August 28, 1957 we added:

On April 3, 1957, armed men, apparently belonging to the army, violated the Presbyterian chapel in Galilea, Tolima Department. They broke open the doors to the chapel and adjoining manse and that night slept in the two buildings. On leaving the next day they destroyed furnishings of the chapel, including cups and plates for serving Holy Communion, chairs, pews and tables. They burned hymn books and Bibles and broke a hole in the roof of the manse. Damages are estimated at 500 pesos. In 1952, the congregation experienced violence as follows: A short distance from the chapel the aggressors met Sr. Jose Noel Luna, a Ruling Elder of the congregation. They questioned him about his religious faith, and when he affirmed that he was a Protestant they stabbed him in the chest and left him in the road. Sr. Luna was able to crawl to a nearby house, where he died that same day (May 29, 1952).

On March 2, 1957, Protestants of San Carlos (Cordoba Department) were assembled in a service of Divine Worship under the direction of Sr. Jose C. Ayala, when they were interrupted by a Roman Catholic priest. The priest entered the service while the Protestants were praying, and in a loud voice questioned their right to assemble. The priest withdrew and sent in a policeman who stopped the meeting and ordered Sr. Ayala to accompany him to the police station. There he was directed to stop conducting Protestant religious services and threatened with arrest if he should be apprehended again. Sr. Jose Ayala is licensed by the Presbyterian Church in Colombia to preach the Gospel.

Two United States citizens were arrested in Ayapel, Colombia on June 4, 1957, and were charged with “being found in Catholic mission territory without authorization from the local priest.” Dennis Crespo, a missionary of the Latin America Mission in Colombia, and Fred Roberts, of Westminster Films, Pasadena, California, were traveling through Ayapel in the interests of a documentary film on the work of the mission. They stopped for the night in the home of Florencia viuda de Acevedo, an evangelical, when they were surprised by the appearance of Father Juan Valentin Cidres. The priest was accompanied by two national policemen armed with rifles. Father Valentin ordered the men to leave all their baggage in the house and they were conducted at gun point through the streets to the police station in the town of Ayapel. Arriving at the jail, the priest ordered the police to lock up the prisoners overnight and to fine them each fifty pesos (about eight dollars). “Your very presence is a form of Protestant propaganda,” he told them.

Early in May, 1957, at Victoria, Caldas, Colombia, a governing elder of the congregation was administering the Lord’s supper when the priest entered, knocked the wine out of his hand and insulted the group. Then the authorities arrived to help the priest and took the evangelicals to a school, where they were locked up. When they were set free after sunset a mob of fanatics was waiting, armed with clubs. Although beaten and bruised, they all managed to escape. Later the mob caught the 24-year-old Belarmina Tabares Alvarez, and obeying the priest’s orders “not to leave one Protestant alive,” they murdered her. Her broken body was found later in the waters of the Tasajo River.

March 31, 1957, evangelicals at La Cumbre, Colombia held a memorial service for missionaries John and Mary Dyck. While the service was going on, the loudspeaker on the Catholic church was blaring forth insults against the Protestants, with special reference to the memorial service. It was discovered that it was Father Millan, the local priest, who was broadcasting the anti-Protestant propaganda. As a result of his activity a mob was formed and plans were being made for action against the Protestants. Violence was averted only because one of the leaders, the city manager, was killed in an automobile accident and the mob was hurriedly dispersed. (The Dycks, Mennonite missionaries at Istmina, Choco, for the past eight years lost their lives in an airplane crash March 9.)

On March 9, 1957, the Inspector of Police of Bocachica, Cartagena (Bolivar Department), Sr. Policarpo Berrio, sealed the door of the house used for Protestant religious services and announced that the parish priest, Father Jose Cristin (an Italian), had ordered all Protestant meetings prohibited. Father Cristin and the Inspector announced that this measure was taken because the children of the Protestant families were attending Sunday school where they were learning doctrines contrary to the Roman Catholic religion. Thus, declared the priest, the children were being taught to oppose the government of Colombia.

Clyde W. Taylor directs the Office of Public Affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals and is the movement’s official spokesman to representatives of U. S. and foreign government in Washington, D. C. His office is best known for its worldwide crusade for religious freedom.

Legacy

Olympus fades, the Greeks and Romans

Are thundering no more.

Valkyries bring no heroes home

To grace Valhalla’s door.

Great Babylon, Tyre and Carthage

Lie in ancient dust

With many warriors and captains

Beneath earth’s aging crust.

The heart of man, the world’s warm altar,

Still glows and will arise

To worship God, Eternal Love,

In His own Paradise.

MARY LUCRETIA BARKER

- More from Clyde W. Taylor

Cover Story

Back to the Reformers

J. Theodore Mueller

“Back to Luther and Calvin!” Many readers will, no doubt, recall this striking slogan with which Karl Barth began his amazing career as a militant theologian about forty years ago. Though still greatly influenced by theological humanism, neo-Kantian negativism, Kierkegaardian existentialism, Ragazian religious socialism and other anti-biblical trends of his day; and though still under the spell of Ritschl and Schleiermacher, he judged it necessary to skip the whole century of bankrupt theology that lay behind him and return to the writings of Luther and Calvin to gain a firm footing for his dialectical methodology. With his strong Calvinist background and his assiduous study of Luther, he found that to recover a theology worth listening to he had to re-examine the fundamentals of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation and utilize basic religious premises which had largely been overlooked by later European theologians.

Today, when Barth has passed the age of seventy and has virtually flooded the religious book market with his pronunciamentos, we may well gauge the result of his new theological research. His type of theology, accepted in its major premises by Brunner, Thurneysen, Gogarten and many other followers, has been termed, quite expressively, “neo-orthodoxy.” But the new orthodoxy of the dialectical school is agreeable neither to liberals nor to conservatives. It is not new since it goes back to Kierkegaard, nor is it orthodox in the sense of the Protestant Reformation. For his theological insights and guidelines Barth went back neither to Luther nor to Calvin; and much less so did Brunner, whose theological orientation has been rather toward Anglo-Saxon liberalism.

The Failure Of Neo-Orthodoxy

That does not mean that Barth has not evinced some paramount religious emphases which wholesomely affected modern theological thought. He applied the dialectical method with great skill to demonstrate the “wholly-otherness,” or transcendence of God over against the humanists’ conceited and overbearing deification of reason. At the same time he proved finite man’s total helplessness in the realm of the spiritual. God is in heaven and man on earth. That means that God is so far removed from man as heaven is removed from earth. Therefore, even the greatest intellectual titans can never storm heaven and dethrone God despite all their frantic endeavors. On the contrary, sinful man must humbly and penitently put his trust in the sovereign God, though he cannot comprehend the transcendent Lord. He must have faith even if that faith means for him a jump into a vacuum. In that sense Barth, in his dialectical way, emphasized the reality and necessity of divine grace.

Basis Of Impact

In a world lost in theological nihilism and religious despair, these three basic truths readily received a hearing. There was something positive about them and what is more, there was something distinctively Calvinist in them. With the help of these three Genevan fundamentals Barth built up a religious system in which the dialectic method was decisive, but in which also theology became a religious philosophy. Its very method brought about the fall of neo-orthodoxy into heterodoxy. It turned Barthian theologizing back again into the old rationalizing liberal channels of which the world long before had become weary. It took from it its alleged newness and made it old in the sense that it was essentially only a repetition, though in another form, of what Schleiermacher, Ritschl, and Hermann, together with many others, had said before Barth. So also it turned Barthianism away from the orthodoxy of the Reformation, for it deprived Christendom of its message of the sola scriptura and the sola gratia. That may appear as a very severe indictment of neo-orthodoxy, and such indeed it is; nevertheless, it is true. Neo-orthodoxy, in the final analysis, has neither a sure, divine foundation on which the Christian believer may rest his faith, nor has it the infallible Biblical redemptive message on which the distressed penitent soul may firmly fix its hope of a sure salvation. Neo-orthodoxy ultimately has words only—learned words, unintelligible words, confusing words—with no clear and unmistakable meaning for those desiring assurance of salvation. In that sense Barthianism is a bit of theological Barnum.

Neo-Orthodoxy Has No Sola Scriptura

What the Reformers of the sixteenth century so earnestly contended for against the hopeless confusion of Romanism, was a firm divine foundation on which the believer might rest his faith. This they found in the Bible and only in the Bible. They discarded the Apocrypha as human writings, though Luther was ready to grant them the dignity of listing them as profitable reading for mature believers, which of course they are only in part. Luther also accepted the ancient church distinction of biblical homologumena and antilegomena, i.e., books universally acknowledged as of apostolic origin and such whose apostolic authorship was contested.

But both Wittenberg and Geneva attested with one accord that the canonical books of the Old and the New Testament are the divinely inspired Word of God and as such the objective divine truth and the divine infallible source and norm of faith and life. In this positive confession they followed the witness of Christ, his apostles and the post-apostolic Christian Church till the induration of Romanism at the Council of Trent and, in the Protestant area, till the blight of crass rationalism. Romanism added the Apocrypha and tradition to the biblical canon, while crass rationalism totally denied the divine inspiration and authority of the Scriptures. Both dethroned the Bible as the only divine and infallible source and norm of faith and life.

It Is Written

At the time when Christ, our divine Lord, was about his prophetic ministry, the Old Testament canon was complete, and that biblical canon was precisely the Old Testament which orthodox Jews and Christians use today, consisting of the Law and the Prophets, or to use the term employed in the synagogue, the Torah, the Nebiim, and the Ketubim. It is significant that both Christ and his chief Jewish opponents, the Pharisees, accepted the Old Testament Scriptures as God’s Word and, therefore, as divinely authoritative. In that sense our Lord quoted Gen. 1:27; 2:24 when, in Matt. 19:3ff., he rebuked the Pharisees because of their marital infidelity. Nor did these learned scribes contest these passages; they rather admitted them as fully valid to serve as proof texts. Even Satan, when tempting Jesus, submitted to the authoritative value of the Old Testament Scriptures which our Saviour quoted against him (Matt. 4:1ff). Precisely so, St. Paul quoted the Old Testament Scriptures as, for example, in his letter to the Galatians, where he cited them against the Judaizers in this defense of the sola fide. Nor did the Judaizers contest his Old Testament Scripture proof. They too accepted the Old Testament Scriptures as God’s infallible Word.

In the New Testament St. Paul quotes his own apostolic writings as “the commandment of the Lord” (1 Cor. 14:37). In Ephesians 2:20 he places the writings of the New Testament apostles of Christ on the same high authoritative level as those of the divinely inspired prophets of the Old Testament (2 Tim. 3:16), just as does St. Peter in 1 Pet. 1:10–12. Thus from the time of Christ and his apostles till the Romanist defection from Scripture and the rationalistic repudiation of Scripture, the Christian Church has always regarded the canonical books of the Old and the New Testament as the Word of God, and so as the divinely established source and norm of faith and life. Just so today thousands of Christian believers esteem the sacred Scriptures as God’s inspired Word and the objective divine truth upon which believers in Christ may safely rest their faith. To every Christian believer, for example, John 3:16 is the divinely inspired Word of God, not in the sense of Barthianism nor in that of Modernism, but in that of the Bible’s own teaching and testimony. And just that was the biblical viewpoint of the Protestant Reformation.

Where Neo-Orthodoxy Fails

It is claimed for Barthianism that it takes seriously what is meant by the “Word of God.” This statement of E. L. Allen in his brief overview of Barthian theology, A Guide to the Thought of Karl Barth (p. 10), has had the support also of conservative writers. According to Allen, Barth believes that “the Bible is the record of what God thinks about men, not of what men have thought about God” (ibid.). But he adds: “This return to Calvinism is not a return to Fundamentalism. The Word of God teaches us through the Bible, but is not bound thereto. God is free to speak as, when, and to whom he wills” (p. 13). “In the Bible we have the witness of the apostles of Jesus Christ and also, though in a somewhat different sense, that of the prophets: this is always a human witness and as such is never infallible, but is always conditioned by the circumstances of the time” (p. 14). Those who have read Barth’s voluminous works must admit that these statements correctly present Barth’s view of the Word of God. In fact, they are understatements rather than overstatements. Barth has repeatedly and emphatically favored the “murderous” method of the destructive higher critics. Let them tear the sacred Scriptures to pieces as much as they like, the Bible still remains the Word of God, not indeed in the objective sense of traditional Christian theology, but in the subjective sense of dialectical theology, namely inasmuch as God speaks to an individual through the fallible word of man, either in the Scriptures or outside them.

Denial Of Objective Truth

When we ask how the fallible testimony of man can serve the believer as the Word of God, Barth’s reply is: “Through the fallible witness of man God speaks personally to us and claims us for his service” (p. 14). In C. E. Luthardt’s Kompendium der Dogmatik, the reviser and editor of the 13th edition, Dr. Robert Jelke, puts Barth’s view of the Word of God thus: “God’s word is his address to man (Gottes Wort ist das Angesprochenwerden des Menschen durch Gott). Jelke adds to this: “Barth’s definition deals alone with the formal aspect of God’s Word and totally excludes its content” (p. 53). This means that the fallible witness of the biblical writers becomes the Word of God to a person only when through it God impresses upon an individual his own special Word. And since God’s existential address is not limited to the Bible, he may approach a person through any other agency which he wishes to make for him the medium of his revelation. Barth thus removes from the Christian believer the Bible as the only objective divine truth and the sure foundation of his faith. Ultimately Barth’s theological system leads to an insecure subjectivism and so finally to the denial of all objective divine truth. Neo-orthodoxy does not have the sola scriptura of the Protestant Reformation, in spite of whatever it may declare to the contrary.

The Cry For Religious Certainty

This, then, is the first point at which neo-orthodoxy fails our despairing modern world, which cries out for religious certainty and full assurance of salvation. The Reformers of the sixteenth century declared the Holy Scriptures to be the inspired Word of God and so the objective divine truth. Of this divine truth, they held, the believer is made sure personally through the witness of the Holy Spirit. It has been said that while Luther taught that the Holy Spirit witnesses through the divine Word, Calvin’s claim was that he witnesses in connection with the divine Word. Ultimately both ascribed the certainty of salvation through faith in Christ to the Holy Spirit, working by or with the divine Word. Both accepted St. Paul’s words as true: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17). Both accepted as divinely true also Christ’s promise: “The Spirit … will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13).

It is therefore at this point that all who desire to help our truth-seeking world find certainty of salvation must go back to the Reformation. Let them preach the Word of God, as Holy Scripture sets it forth objectively and infallibly in its full truth, the divine Law for the knowledge of sin and the Gospel for the forgiveness of sin. Then they will assure our perishing world of the divine truth that is revealed in Christ Jesus for the salvation of sinners, for then the Holy Spirit will guide them into all truth. The searching soul, hungry for the divine truth and the assurance of his salvation, does not care what Schleiermacher thinks, or what Ritschl thinks, or what Fosdick thinks, or what Barth and Brunner think; he wants a surer foundation on which to rest his faith than the religious philosophy of men. By the guidance of the Holy Spirit he rests his faith only on the glorious Gospel promises of God as they are clearly stated in the divine, infallible sacred Scriptures, which are the inspired Word of God. Cornelius Van Til, after all, was right when he judged neo-orthodoxy to be a new form of liberalism, and he was supported in this view by Charles Clayton Morrison, as we shall show later. The dialectical theology of Karl Barth overthrows the sola scriptura of the Reformation as surely as does Modernism.

Neo-Orthodoxy Has No Sola Gratia

This proposition may be contested still more than the one that neo-orthodoxy has no sola scriptura. Barth, as has been said emphatically, has gone far to restore the doctrine of divine grace promulgated by the Protestant Reformation. In a way Barthianism has restored divine grace, but in the same breath it has also overthrown it; for it is the very essence of dialectical theologizing to say yes and no at the same time. By the paradox of yes and no the dialectic method seeks to establish the truth. But in theology one cannot say yes and no at the same time. Abelard tried it, and failed, and so all have failed who walked in his footsteps. The fact that Barth is unable to teach the sola gratia of the Protestant Reformation is clear from the fact that he does not accept the New Testament teaching of the Christ of the Scriptures. It is true that at various times he has shifted his emphases and modified his earlier pronouncements, but essentially the Barth of today is still the Barth of the Roemerbrief, for the fundamentals of the dialectic method have remained the same.

Vague On Atonement

In his book, The Doctrine of the Word of God, Barth makes the statement, “Jesus Christ is also the Rabbi of Nazareth, historically, so difficult to get information about, and when it is got, one whose activity is so easily a little commonplace alongside more than one founder of a religion and even alongside many representatives of his own religion” (p. 188). That Christ of Barth is certainly not the Christ of the Holy Scriptures who declared himself to be one with the Father, and the divine Saviour who laid down his life as a ransom for many. Again, when Barth speaks of Christ’s Atonement, his views are so vague and difficult to understand that Dr. Carl F. H. Henry (in The Protestant Dilemma) is justified in stating that “neo-supernaturalistic thought on the Atonement is a difficult study” (p. 159). Barth, for example, writes: “With the doctrine of the atonement we come to the real center … of dogmatics and church proclamation.… The Word of God and therefore God’s Son Jesus Christ as the Word of atonement is the sovereignty of God asserting itself all the more emphatically and gloriously against the opposition of man” (Dogmatics as a Function of the Teaching Church. 2. The Dogmatic Method, p. 882). The reader asks himself: What does that mean? Does it mean what St. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:18–21? If so, why does he not say it as clearly as St. Paul has said it?

Brunner Goes Farther

Brunner goes much farther in repudiating the Christian doctrine of Atonement when in The Mediator he writes: “The atonement is not history. The atonement, the expiation of human guilt, the covering of sin through his sacrifice, is not anything which can be conceived from the viewpoint of history. This event does not belong to the historical plane.… It would be absurd to say: in the year 30 the atonement of the world took place” (p. 504). The fact that Brunner totally rejects the Christian doctrine of Atonement in its biblical historical sense, is proved also by his rejection of Christ’s Resurrection as an event in history. He writes in The Mediator: “Whosoever asserts that the New Testament gives us a definite consistent account of the Resurrection is either ignorant or unconscientious” (p. 577). But Brunner, after all, is quite in accord with Barth on this point who writes in The Resurrection of the Dead: “This tomb may prove to be definitely closed or an empty tomb; it is really a matter of indifference. What avails the tomb, proved to be this or that, at Jerusalem in the year A. D. 30?” (p. 135).

But by denying Christ’s Atonement and Resurrection in the historical sense of Scripture and the Christian tradition, Barth and Brunner are unable to teach the sola gratia, i.e., the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Christ, in the sense of the Protestant Reformation. Without the actual, historical, atoning death of Christ and his triumphant Resurrection there is no divine grace for sinners and no assurance of their eternal salvation. To one who compares neo-orthodoxy and its unintelligible, contradictory pronouncements with the clear and simple Gospel message of Holy Scripture, it appears as a blasphemous mockery of the precious Gospel of Christ. (To such as look for a brief and simple, yet reliable guide to neo-orthodoxy we recommend Charles E. Tulga’s The Case Against Neo-Orthodoxy.)

Back To The Reformation

Karl Barth has not returned to the Reformation, but, using fundamentals stressed by the Reformers, has elaborated them into a new form of liberalism or rather into a new form of liberal religious philosophy. Charles Clayton Morrison stressed this fact years ago when he wrote in Christian Century: “To identify this new theological movement as a revival of the orthodoxy of the traditional creeds represents a failure to discern its most inward characteristics. It is true that neo-orthodoxy comes out at numerous points where orthodoxy came out, but it reaches its goal by routes with which the old orthodoxy was quite unfamiliar.… Virtually all the outstanding exponents of neo-orthodoxy came to their positions by way of liberalism. They were liberals before they were neo-orthodox” (June 7, 1950).

Neo-orthodoxy, with its inherent liberalism and its manifest departure from the Christian doctrine of Scripture and God’s grace in Christ Jesus, has no redeeming message for a world seeking assurance of salvation. But it does teach Christendom an important lesson. Modernism has no solution for the penitent person who cries out, “What must I do to be saved?” It has rejected both the divine Christ and his divine Gospel in toto. But neither can a halfway measure like neo-orthodoxy satisfy the pitiful cry of a sin-weary world, because what is halfway for Christ is not for him, but against him.

The One Solution

The only help for the world in its worst predicament lies in the preaching of Christ and him crucified and risen, a stumbling block to the Jew and stupidity to the Greek, but to all who believe, God’s power and God’s wisdom. Religious systems built up by men are bound to fail. But the Christ of Calvary and the open grave will never fail those who are weary and heavy-laden. That explains the continued existence of the believing “communion of saints.” That explains also the preaching of the pure saving Gospel of Christ by thousands of loyal followers of our Lord at all times. That explains lastly the many conversions and gains for church membership wherever the Gospel is preached today as St. Paul preached it and as our Lord himself preached it: the simple joyous message of man’s redemption and salvation by the atoning Christ, with all its stumbling blocks and absurdities for conceited human reason, but also with all its divine power to convince multitudes of truth-hungry and salvation-seeking souls that it is God’s wisdom. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matt. 24:35).

J. Theodore Mueller is a Lutheran scholar who served Concordia Seminary (Missouri Lutheran) for a generation as Professor of Systematic Theology and Exegesis. He began lectures at Concordia in 1920 and now, in his 72nd year, continues on modified service.

- More from J. Theodore Mueller

Cover Story

America’s Need: A New Protestant Awakening

By A Former Jesuit Trainee

The 440th anniversary of that memorable day when Martin Luther first posted his theses on the door of the church at Wittenberg and launched the Protestant Reformation is about to be observed.

For me the Reformation occurred not on October 31, 1517, but on a day in 1936 when I could no longer justify the discrepancy between Holy Scripture, the moral pronouncements of the Roman Catholic church itself, and Catholic dogma as it was being taught to me in a Jesuit seminary.

On the advice of a Father Superior who felt that I was not “physically and mentally strong enough” to become a priest, I was expelled from that seminary just a year before I was to have taken the final vows of ordination. Like many another student priest, I did not immediately break completely and become a Protestant. For nine years I found myself wandering in a nether world, coming to disbelieve more and more of the doctrines I had been taught from birth as a Catholic, but appalled by the thought that I should become a complete rebel and actually join a Protestant church. It was not until I was in the military service and met a wonderful Protestant chaplain that I finally made the decision that I ought to accept Christ and not merely compromise about him.

Personal Reformation

This Baptist chaplain counseled with me before my departure on a dangerous combat mission in Germany. He had no idea I was a former student priest. He knew only that I was deeply troubled. He was astonished when he learned that I had attended Catholic parochial schools, graduated from a Catholic college and studied three years in a Jesuit seminary. Then he told me how he himself had come to find Christ one day at a revival meeting when he, like I, had not been inside a church for several years and had lost all sense of contact with God. Under his inspiration I accepted the rite of baptism and for me, as it had been for Martin Luther, the break was at last complete.

For the last 12 years I have been active as a Protestant layman and have found that solace of spirit, that communion with Christ for which I yearned as a boy, for which I was prepared to dedicate my whole life as a priest, but which I could not find in the authoritarian dogmas of a creed which worships church more than Christ.

I look upon the Reformation today somewhat differently than those of my fellow Protestants who were born into the creed of Luther, Calvin, Knox, Wesley and other great Reformers. I have had to buy my freedom of conscience at a bitter price. I have come to my position as a Protestant by deep personal conviction.

Not A Matter Of Hate

While I deplore some of the materialistic, worldly influences within the Roman Catholic church, detest the cynicism and opportunism of many of the clerical politicians of the Vatican, I am not anti-Catholic. After all, there is much that is good in the Catholic church, many dedicated and selfless priests, brothers and nuns. There comes before my eyes the vision of my own saintly Irish grandmother saying the prayers of her Rosary and lighting a candle before the image of Mary at our parish church. I know that God has enfolded her into the eternal keeping of his love. I only hope that she can understand now why her favorite grandson could not become a priest as she fervently wished.

She and thousands of good Catholic worshipers like her are seeking God in the only way they have been taught and no church which has so many kindly, consecrated souls within it can be a totally bad institution. So I cannot hate the Catholic church, though I do criticize those who have led her into the path of pride, worldliness and a maze of Mariology that obscures the ethical and spiritual teachings of Jesus Christ.

From my vantage point as a Catholic who has become a Protestant, there are many misgivings which I have concerning the Protestant churches in America in relation to the Catholic church. I hope that I may speak candidly of some of them.

Protestants are the inheritors of a great tradition. I wonder if we realize how hard our Protestant forefathers had to fight for religious freedom, how bitterly they suffered in the Thirty Years War in Europe, and how hard they worked here in the frontier outposts of America, solely for the right to escape the dictates of Popes who said there was only one way to worship God. Today American Protestants take that inheritance of religious freedom for granted. Many of our Roman Catholic citizens take religious freedom for granted just as much, not realizing what clerical dictatorship really means.

Originally, America was a Protestant nation. Its Roman Catholic minority was very small. Today this is no longer true. In the last generation the number of Roman Catholics has doubled in the United States. Catholic church members now outnumber Protestant church members in 12 of our 48 states. They are a substantial and vocal minority in most of the rest. Since Archbishop Cicgonani came here as Papal Delegate in 1933, the number of Catholic dioceses and bishops has more than doubled and enrollment in Catholic schools tripled in the United States.

Roman Catholic leaders believe they have Protestantism on the run in America. They are confident as they read that 62 per cent of the children born in Connecticut last year were baptized Roman Catholics, that by sheer weight of outbreeding, as well as by more than 100,000 Protestant conversions each year (mostly in marriages), they will within another two generations (60 years) outnumber Protestants in all the populous industrial states, and in 200 years have a majority in every state.

Catholic Power Politics Explicit

Once Roman Catholics become a majority in an area, the church reaches out, as it always has, for control of the political state in order that the state’s power may be used to further the interest of the church. This has always been done and Catholics are taught as a matter of dogma that it is the duty of the State not to defend religious liberty, but to suppress it and support the church, for the church is a divinely ordained institution. This does not represent any secret conspiracy. It is plainly and explicitly taught in books of Catholic doctrine which are available to any Protestant to read.

We should not hate Catholics because they want to exterminate Protestantism by whatever means they can find to attain this objective, for they are taught that all Protestantism is a heresy, abominable in the sight of God, dividing Christ’s household. Catholics believe it will be for the spiritual welfare of Protestants themselves if they are led back to the chair of Peter, there to submit themselves to the Papal authority.

Protestants have to face the unpleasant fact that this is what the Roman Catholic church teaches concerning them. The Catholic clergy, whatever be their profession of tolerance and brotherhood, have as their one objective the ultimate conquest of Protestantism so that nowhere in America will there be a single Protestant church.

Protestant Apprehension

I think Protestants want to evade this unpleasant truth. I think, frankly, that they are afraid of the Roman Catholic church. They feel a chill run down their spines when they read the statistics of the growing Catholic population in the United States, frown when they see the tremendous expansion of Catholic schools (which now enroll one child out of every eight receiving education in America), and get a frustrated feeling when they see a neighbor boy signing a premarital agreement forever surrendering the religious freedom of his children in order to marry an attractive Catholic girl. But they are afraid to do anything about it.

Protestants can see what is happening as the emissaries of the Roman pontiff gradually eat into this bastion of religious freedom and convert it into a citadel of Catholic strength.

This is exactly what is happening on the 440th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. What are Protestants going to do about it? Protestants can’t look to the past in America for the answer. Too many of the actions that Protestants have taken in the past make them ashamed today. That is one reason they are so reluctant to do anything, afraid that they will slip back into evil ways that they would prefer to forget.

I know that Protestants would not want to return to the days when a shower of bricks greeted my Irish forebears as they held a St. Patrick’s Day parade on the streets of an American city. They don’t want to go back to the days only too recent when the Ku Klux Klan burned as many crosses on Catholic lawns as in Negro sections. I don’t remember with any relish the time when I applied for summer employment in a New Jersey resort town and was required to state my religion. When I wrote “Catholic” I saw the frown on the personnel manager’s face. That was a predominantly Methodist resort and Catholic boys weren’t welcome.

Can Protestants Meet The Challenge?

Can Protestants meet the Catholic challenge in America without resorting to imbecilic outbursts of violent personal prejudice that are self-defeating? I hope they can and I hope that Protestants can come to see both the need of combatting Roman Catholicism in our free America and the proper manner in which that contest for the minds and loyalty of Americans ought to be conducted.

One thing is clear to me. Protestants are sooner or later either going to have to stand up for their religious beliefs, or see themselves go down to defeat before the machinations and power of Rome. They are losing the fight for the minds and souls of America’s future generations today. Overconfident because they have long been a powerful majority, our Protestant churches seem to feel so secure that to carry the ideological battle to their adversary would be beneath them. They are smug and self-satisfied. The Roman Catholic church isn’t, and that is the difference in this contest at the present moment. That is why Catholicism is making such enormous gains in America.

Jesuit Strategy

The Roman Catholic church, whatever may be its other faults, is never lacking in shrewdness or in good strategists. If I may say so with a little “old school pride,” the Jesuits are the sharpest generals in this struggle for America’s future. The Jesuits have urged the Catholic church in America to label every criticism of the Roman Catholic church as “bigotry.” They pretend that anyone who would exhort Protestants to conduct a campaign to convert Catholics—as Catholics spend millions through the Knights of Columbus Bureau of Information to convert Protestants—is trying to start a religious war. And when their sensibilities are offended, knowing how much Protestants want peace and brotherhood, the Jesuits deliberately stir up bitter religious animosity so that Protestants will be frightened and lay off.

In this manner the Roman Catholic church uses the interfaith movement in the United States as a powerful defense for its own campaign against Protestantism. I have heard a prominent Jesuit scholar (Father Koerner of John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio) defend before a Catholic audience participation of the church in interfaith organizations on the ground that it pulls the teeth of Protestant opposition to Catholic doctrine, while Catholic laymen can be “steeled” against any subversion of their own beliefs by proper schooling in the “eternal truths” of their faith.

“Tolerance” And Timidity

It is a tragedy that Protestant leaders are permitting the Roman Catholic church to use “tolerance” as a sham with which to mask their own unremitting campaign of propaganda against Protestantism. Yet the Catholic church does use it so skilfully that any Protestant who criticizes the Catholic church seems to be doing something dirty. I make an appeal to my fellow Protestants on behalf of thousands of Americans who, like myself, were born and raised in the Roman Catholic church but who find its doctrines of Mariology and papal idolatry repugnant to the Scriptures, to common sense and to all concepts of democratic freedom. There are more such Catholic laymen—and even priests—than Protestants could have any means of suspecting. Why are they forsaken? Why is their very existence ignored? Why—except for Protestant timidity?

For nine years after I broke with Rome no Protestant church or minister made a move toward me. There was no agency working among ex-Catholics to give me answers for questions that perplexed me. I was simply an “unchurched” man. There are millions of nominal Catholics listed on the parish baptismal rolls today who haven’t been to Mass for years and who are willing to say openly that they do not believe the doctrines of their church, particularly her claim to be the sole repository of all truth. But they are ignored, even shunned, by Protestantism.

Freedom Demands Price

I remember how, after my voluntary baptism during the closing days of World War II, I asked the Army to recognize my new religious status by issuing me a new dogtag that said “Prot” instead of “Cath” to indicate which chaplain I wanted in case of disability or death. I had quite a battle to get it and during the course of it the Roman Catholic chaplain of our division came to me belligerently and asked who had been “tampering” with my faith! When he found out the Protestant chaplain had baptized me, there was an immediate vigorous complaint to headquarters and the Baptist chaplain was called on the carpet by his superior (also a Protestant) who explained that the military chaplaincy was not the place to engage in proselytizing! He seemed to regard it as an offense against religious tolerance and brotherhood for a Catholic to be converted to Protestantism. Yet Catholic chaplains were baptizing Protestant boys left and right, particularly on the eve of battle when the St. Christopher medals were so comforting.

Martin Luther was not afraid of Catholic power. He knew the wrath of Rome would descend upon his head when he posted his theses. You simply have to face that violent wrath if you are going to cross the Vatican’s path. I had to face it when I made my own stand, knowing it meant expulsion from seminary, an end to a cherished career, humiliation and disgrace at home. It has meant economic discrimination and personal abuse, ruptured family relationships that may never heal. I paid a terrible price for my freedom, years out of my life, and I’m still hounded and harassed by those who feel that I am a betrayer because I have left the church I once vowed to serve. I know other Catholics who have done the same, other students at my seminary, even a respected monsignor who ultimately had all he could take of Rome’s cynical power politics. They, too, have made the personal sacrifice for freedom.

Time For New Offensive

When Luther rang the tocsin bell, thousands of disillusioned Catholic believers of his day rallied to him. They came out of the church by the thousands—nuns, priests, monks, lay people. Early Protestantism didn’t hesitate to say exactly where, when, and how they thought the Pope had erred in interpreting the Bible. They did not hesitate to condemn the Vatican’s amoral politics, and its greed for gold. Thousands of Catholics listened and followed the Protestant Reformers. More thousands would have, had not the church used the power of the state to threaten with death all heretics within Italy, Spain and other areas. Only ruthless use of the sword saved Rome.

The Roman Catholic church in free America ought to be challenged by Protestants to defend her dogmas, particularly her bigoted assertion that she alone is the true church of Christ. The type of bigotry which is taught in Catholic parochial schools should be castigated as a positive subversion of America’s heritage of freedom—which it is.

If the Roman Catholic church were compelled to engage in debate in the free forum of ideas, if her communicants were regularly presented with the Protestant side of issues as well as the Catholic, she would soon be on the defensive.

The Catholic church can and is through its opposition to birth control outbreeding Protestants. It indoctrinates its young people so that if they marry Protestants the latter must sign away all rights to the children. It can thereby—and is—increasing its numbers. But it cannot indefinitely hold the minds of its adherents if they are given freedom of choice.

Make Reformation Real

Freedom of religion simply doesn’t exist for the average Roman Catholic in America today. If you think it does, you should see the pressure the church brings to bear upon any members who leave its fold or try to question its teachings. Every Catholic child, it is insisted, must be educated in a Catholic school. It is massive indoctrination, a process of education designed to make America in the future a Catholic country, utterly submissive and obedient to Rome. Yet Protestants are contributing more and more of their own tax dollars to the parochial schools!

The Protestant Reformation is more than an historical event. It has been in my own life, and in the lives of thousands of Catholics like me, a vivid and present event. We have broken away from the dictatorship of Rome and its false doctrines, its purchased Masses and ritual prayers, in this generation and in this country. Unless the Reformation confronts her with a continuous challenge, Rome will win the contest of the centuries. She has already succeeded in containing Protestantism and narrowing its influence. She has succeeded in pulling its teeth so that its challenging doctrines no longer reach the ears of her faithful adherents. Now she is beginning the slow, inexorable task of conquering it and forcing it into isolated pockets for ultimate destruction.

Rome would lose adherents by the millions in free America if she had to defend her dogmas. Thousands who will never know anything but a sterile service before a high altar in a mystical long-dead foreign tongue will never come to know Christ. They will only come to fear a church which damns them to thousands of years in an imaginary but vividly-described purgatory. Their souls may be lost to Christ entirely because they will drift away from that church, rejecting her ridiculous holy waters, indulgences, sacred wooden images, and other medieval superstitions. No other door is open to these Americans. No evangelist is calling them. No organization tries to help them. For lapsed Catholics, no challenging alternative to agnosticism is offered.

Results Would Benefit All

The Reformation must be born anew in America. Protestants—not throwing bricks or burning crosses—but nailing theses to church doors, are needed today to combat the spread of Catholic totalitarianism in free America. If the Catholic church faced such an intellectual challenge it would be good for her. She would learn to rely less on force and more on logic. And as events which followed the Reformation in Europe showed, under pressure she would reform herself. The Catholic church no longer burns Protestants at the stake as she once did; no longer openly sells indulgences for gold; no longer has a corrupt Borgia as sovereign Pope. She has made considerable progress and, if confronted with a serious challenge, would make more adjustments. Millions of Catholics who would remain loyal to their church as well as other millions of nominal Catholics who would leave it for a warmer, more vivid faith would benefit from a new Reformation in America.

Do Protestants dare to defend their faith and reassert its truths in the face of the certain fury of Rome? Only if they have the kind of courage and conviction to do so will they be worthy of their heritage. Only if they join the battle for America’s future being forced upon them by Rome will they preserve their heritage for their descendants.

The writer of this article is a former Roman Catholic Jesuit trainee. Christianity Today is assured of his identity, respects his plea for anonymity: “The power of the Catholic church to exact retribution upon its opponents is so great that I dare not sign my name to this article, for the employer for whom I work has Catholic customers and would be bound to feel the pressure of economic reprisal. If he were to stick by me, it would cost him thousands of dollars.”

- More from By A Former Jesuit Trainee

Review of Current Religious Thought: October 14, 1957

W. Stanford Reid

Although reference has already been made in these columns to the report of the joint Church of Scotland and Church of England committee on “Relations between Anglican and Presbyterian Churches,” it might be well if one took a second look, particularly as it is now possible to gain a little indication of some of the reactions to the report. Moreover, a somewhat more detailed study of the report itself makes it possible to raise certain interesting, and probably important, points.

Perhaps the most striking thing about the report is that there is a tendency to take doctrinal agreement more or less for granted. In Appendix I there is reproduced the statement of agreement of doctrine upon which the Committee of Representatives had found themselves at one in 1934. This document, despite the changes in the committee’s personnel and the many changes in the theological climate of opinion since that day, apparently was regarded as being still acceptable to both groups. The real point at issue was that of the episcopacy. Or more concretely: how could episcopacy and presbytery be reconciled and amalgamated?

The report indicates that the committee feels that it has solved this problem which for the last three centuries has caused so much division and conflict between Episcopalians and Presbyterians. The suggestion is that the Presbyterians should have elected permanent bishops ordained by bishops of the Church of England and presiding over the presbyteries. At the same time the Episcopal churches should give the laity more place in the councils of their body, thus meeting the demands of the Presbyterians that the Church should be seen as a “communion of believers,” rather than an hierarchical organization. Although the present writer would hate to give the impression of being biased, he must confess that he feels that the Presbyterian representatives have surrendered most of their position.

In one sense, however, this is not the most important aspect of the report. It is, rather, those things which do not appear in the report that would seem to raise some of the biggest problems. For instance, there is the big question of the identity of the Church of England referred to in the report. Is it the Church of England of the Thirty-Nine Articles, or of Pusey, Keble and their Anglo-Catholic successors? When reference is made to the sacraments, are they the seven of Thomas Aquinas, or the two of the New Testament and the Protestant Reformation? The very fact that the Church of England representatives have insisted so strongly on the office of bishop being established in Presbyterian churches seems to indicate that it is the Puseyite tradition which is dominant in the negotiations.

It would seem, therefore, that although there is a basic statement of agreed doctrine, doctrine has not really been taken seriously in the preparation of this report. For instance the question of the differences between a fundamentally sacramental church and a Reformed church do not seem to have been adequately considered. This appears, for instance, when one finds that continual reference is made to the local clergyman of the Church of England as a “parish priest” (pp. 16, 17), while the Presbyterian teaching elder is called a “minister” (p. 15). This would seem to indicate that whether both churches have bishops and lay elders or not, the Presbyterians and Anglicans would still be in truth very far apart. In other words, the so-called unity and intercommunion which they would enjoy would be only a facade and not one of faith which would seem to be the only valid basis of outward and visible unity.

That this will be partly overcome by the conferring of Apostolic Succession on the Presbyterians through the ordination of bishops by the Anglican or Scottish Episcopal prelates would seem agreed. But the very admission that such an ordination is necessary raises for the Presbyterians many more questions than it settles. What about the ordination of all the other Presbyterian ministers? How about the validity of the Presbyterian sacraments, administered by non-episcopally ordained elders? What about much of the Church of Scotland’s law which is based upon the decisions of General Assemblies who specifically rejected the idea of episcopacy?

Most fundamental of all is the question of truth. From the statements of the report itself and also of some of its advocates, one receives the impression that unity is the most important aspect of the Church’s existence. Obedience to the teaching and example of the New Testament on this basis falls into a secondary place. Consequently, one finds in reading through this report that all arrangements for bringing about intercommunion give the impression of being compromises of principle for the sake of external unity. Whether it is right or not to have bishops or lay elders is not discussed on the basis of biblical authority, but on the ground of bringing about a uniformity which seems to be primarily a matter of expediency.

It is this attitude which is now apparently causing considerable misgivings in certain circles, particularly in Scotland. A number of ministers of the Church of Scotland have been pointing out that since bishops, according to the Presbyterian view, are not of the essence of the Church, they do not see that they are necessary for true intercommunion. They believe that such desirable relations may be brought about simply by stressing the unity of all those who truly trust in Christ as Saviour and Lord. True intercommunion is best able to grow out of this soil.

Many are also worried lest this report shall cause strife and conflict within the churches involved. Possibly it may. While this is to be regretted, history has shown that often out of such controversy has come forth a deepening and intensification of the Church’s self-consciousness, and a better understanding of its responsibility to Christ its Lord. It is, therefore, to be hoped that even out of such differences of opinion that Christ will bring forth in the Church a deeper understanding of the true meaning of Christian unity and a revived interest in the proclamation of his unsearchable riches.

• With this issue, Dr. W. Stanford Reid, Associate Professor of History, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, joins the list of regular contributors to “Current Religious Thought” for Volume II of CHRISTIANITY TODAY.—ED.

This review of live spiritual and moral issues debated in the secular and religious press of the day is prepared successively for CHRISTIANITY TODAY by four evangelical scholars: Professor W. Stanford Reid of Canada, Professor G. C. Berkouwer of the Netherlands, Professor John H. Gerstner of the United States and Dr. Philip E. Hughes of England.

- More from W. Stanford Reid

Books

Book Briefs: October 14, 1957

William Sanford LaSor

Valuable Auxiliary

An Introduction to the Apocrypha, by Bruce M. Metzger, New York: Oxford, 1957. 274 pp., $4.00.

With the publication of the Revised Standard Version Apocrypha on September 30, 1957, there will doubtless be a new interest in the Apocrypha, and many will probably be asking questions about these little-known writings. Professor Metzger of Princeton Theological Seminary has prepared this volume, which appears simultaneously with the RSV Apocrypha, to introduce such persons to the works which might be described as biblical but noncanonical.

Chapters I–XV present the individual apocryphal books. In each case, Metzger gives a brief introduction, then sketches the content of the book, and closes with a discussion of relevant questions or implications. The author’s approach is in line with his frank statement, that he “does not regard the apocryphal books as part of the Bible; at the same time, he is convinced that they contain certain moral and religious insights of permanent value” (p. viii). The reader will enjoy the lucid manner in which the author presents his material, and will particularly appreciate Metzger’s ability to lift certain details into unforgettable prominence. For example, concerning Tobit he says, “Almost every family relationship is touched upon with natural grace and affection.… Even the boy’s dog goes along with Tobias on his journey.…” (p. 37). Again, with reference to the latter portion of the Wisdom of Solomon, he says, “whoever was responsible for the last half of the book unfortunately kept on writing long after he had anything fresh or important to say” (p. 70). A few samples of the text are included, including the splendid tribute to the physician found in Ecclesiasticus 38:12–14 (p. 83), which might well be hung on the walls of waiting rooms of Christian doctors. Metzger’s translation of a portion of the story of Susanna (Dan. 13:55, 59) brings out the play on words contained in the original: “Under a clove tree … the Lord will cleave you.… Under a yew tree … the Lord will hew you” (p. 111).

The balance of the book presents valuable discussions of the Apocrypha and the New Testament (with interesting parallels printed in parallel columns), a brief history of the Apocrypha, and their pervasive influence (with quotations from English literature, lines from sacred music, and a list of great works of art based on scenes from the Apocrypha, not to mention the influence of the Apocrypha on the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus)! Appendices include an account of the translations of the Apocrypha into English and a discussion of New Testament Apocrypha.

Some will ask, “What interest can the Christian have in these books?” Approximately 400 years separate the Old Testament from the New Testament. God was not inactive in that time. The apostles were the children of their age, and the Holy Spirit did not ignore that fact. The neo-orthodox may ignore the historical, but the evangelical Christian dare not! Metzger shows, in a clear and convincing way, that the Apocrypha help us to understand the life of first-century Jews in Palestine in broadly cultural, sociological and theological respects (p. 154). He singles out for specific discussion the development of the doctrines of the Messiah, the after-life, and angels and demons. At this point the present reviewer wishes the discussion could have been expanded—for this is certainly an important, and not-too-often recognized, truth.

Four pages of carefully selected and annotated bibliography, plus an index, makes the book of service to those who want to follow the reading of it with more careful study. This reviewer recommends the book cordially, and thanks the author for his care in preparing it.

WILLIAM SANFORD LASOR

Understanding Ezekiel

Ezekiel, the Man and His Message, by H. L. Ellison. Paternoster Press, London, 1956. 144 pp. 10s.6d.

The common English cold compelled your reviewer, some time ago, to spend a day or two in bed, and he took the opportunity of reading through the book of the prophet Ezekiel “at a sitting.” While this exercise had the effect of clarifying certain aspects of the book, much still remained obscure and he felt like the Ethiopian eunuch when he said, somewhat plaintively, “how can I understand, except some man should guide me?” What Philip was to the Ethiopian, Ellison may well prove himself to be to the one who, seeking further guidance in the understanding of Ezekiel, avails himself of this helpful commentary by the author of Men spake from God. Mr. Ellison writes clearly and cogently and the reader is made aware of alternative viewpoints where these differ from his own.

There is no index but the book is carefully arranged and follows a normal sequence, so that there is no real difficulty in tracing references. After an introductory section the author deals with the book of Ezekiel paragraph by paragraph and brings out the significance of the contents, particularly for the prophet’s own time but also where possible for our present generation and for the events still future.

Particular problems are dealt with, such as the whereabouts of Ezekiel when he uttered the opening prophecies in chapters 4 to 24, the prophet’s dumbness and his use of strange symbolic actions, as also the significance of the “New Temple” prophecy in chapters 40ff. But he also treats of wider issues such as the nature of the prophetic office itself. His discussion on “false prophets” is especially striking. “False prophets,” he says, were not always vicious; they must have included “godly men who either wished themselves into the body of the prophets instead of awaiting God’s call, or having been truly called by God found it easier to compromise with men than to give God’s message in all its stark unattractiveness” (p. 53). That touches us all in some measure. There is another valuable section on conditional prophecy (pp. 102ff).

Other points mentioned are the self-consistency of Scripture, the biblical doctrine of man, Israel and the Church, to name only a few. But the book’s chief contribution is undoubtedly its illuminating exposition of the actual text of Ezekiel for which Mr. Ellison is admirably equipped.

L. E. H. STEPHENS-HODGE

English Psychologists

Christian Essays in Psychiatry, by Philip Mairet, Ed., Philosophical Library, New York. $4.50.

Ten English theologians, psychiatrists and psychologists have combined, under the editorship of Philip Mairet, in this series of brief essays on the values possible in a proper liaison between psychiatry and the Christian faith, without sufficiently clarifying the distinction between the various points of view which characterize the omnibus distinctions inhereing in “Christianity.”

Mr. Mairet’s situation in the field of Christian psychology, as convener of the contributing group, is not made sufficiently clear to give any weight to the choice of the contributers as representative of Britishers expert in the field. However, some of them seem to be so located that they must qualify to speak as experts in the British economy. Judged on its common-sense merits the material is full of practical suggestions and should be of value in stimulating further reading in psychiatry.

The contributors are Methodist, Anglican and Roman Catholic, and one is evidently not religiously active. The most provocative paper is that of Erastus Evans, Methodist superintendent active in promoting pastoral psychiatry. He writes on the relation between religious attitude and psychological insight in the successive periods of life. In this he makes use of Jung’s adaptation of the Trinity idea to show how Father, Son and Holy Spirit can be suggestive of concepts found in infancy, when the child is under parental control; maturity, when the individual finds himself as a person and asserts himself free from father dominance; the age of wisdom in the latter years, when the individual has insights, suggestive of the illumination of the Holy Spirit. This was the one essay which included a concept which the others “could not assimilate.”

Other essays include one on current concepts in psychiatry, the religious development of the individual, treating individuals as individuals in psychiatry, theological and psychological aspects in guilt. Eve Lewis, educational psychologist, has a most interesting essay on the development of children’s religious attitudes. This will give some idea of the scope of the volume.

An advantage for the general public is relative freedom from psychiatric nomenclature, so that the book is very readable. It is informative on basic psycho-religious concepts, and is not polemic. What the reader will obtain from reading this brief volume will depend upon his familiarity with the nomenclature of the psychologist and even more upon his insights. A thoughtful person can hardly put the book down without resolving to read more on the subject.

The book contains a good digest of the views of Adler, Freud, Jung and Kretschmer, and enough explanation of the essential varieties of mental illness as they affect the psychiatrist’s techniques is presented provocatively. The basic distinctions between guilt as conceived by the theologian and the usual approach of the psychiatrist is handled by a Roman Catholic with discernment. The book’s chief value is in stimulating further reading in the vast field and in nicely summating some basic psychiatric concepts.

WALTER VAIL WATSON

Religious-Social Interaction

Protestant and Catholic, Religious and Social Interaction in an Industrial Community, by Kenneth W. Underwood, Beacon, 1957. $6.00.

This pioneer work in its field is a detailed objective and scientific sociological study of the interaction of the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches with each other and with political, economic, social and intellectual elements of culture in the daily life of an industrial community. The deep involvement of religious loyalties in the daily life of an urban culture and basic assumptions of these churches as to the nature of the church and society are described clearly.

This study grew out of the Roman Catholic opposition to a lecture on planned parenthood by Margaret Sanger in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in the fall of 1940 in the First Congregational Church. The lecture had to be held in a labor union hall because of the opposition and Protestant alarm over the success of the Roman Catholic Church in this instance prompted this study.

Underwood describes the incident in detail in the first part of the book in order to point up the importance of understanding the interaction of religion and life. The second part is devoted to a study of the role of the church in salvation, doctrines, worship, the authority of religious leadership, organization, money-raising techniques and methods of property-holding.

In each of these areas Protestant and Roman Catholic views are contrasted and their mutual interactions are set forth. A helpful appendix (pp. 386–389) charts the doctrinal differences of these bodies. The final section relates the influence of these churches in recreation, business, labor, politics, reform and ethnic groups in Holyoke which has in recent years become a dominant Roman Catholic community.

The author’s conclusions are less weighty than might have been expected in so objective and massive a study as this. Protestants, according to him, conceive the nature of community to be plurality and seek “vital diversity of religious and social groups” (p. 367), but the Roman Catholic Church views it in terms of acceptance of ecclesiastical authority in all areas of life even though it faces ethnic and class divisions within its own ranks.

Advanced degrees in journalism, sociology and theology have aided the author in keeping the book scientific and objective.

He has used only primary oral and written sources of information which he lists in a massive bibliography. The reader’s understanding is increased by full footnotes (which unfortunately are placed at the end of the book), an appendix on his methodology, helpful statistical tables and clear simple maps of Holyoke.

The book will appeal both to those interested in an exhaustive case study of sociology of religion and those who are interested in the practical problem of the relationship of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism in a democratic society. Those represented in the latter group may find themselves in disagreement with the apparent inclusivism of the author’s conclusions.

EARLE E. CAIRNS

Symposium Of One

Christianity and World Issues, by T. B. Maston, Macmillan, New York, 1957. $5.00.

In this century Christianity, the church and individual Christians have plenty of world issues with which to occupy their minds. Those discussed in this book include the effects of modern divorce on the family and the race problems in our country, but more space is given to economics and war.

The author’s opinions on these world issues are not always clearly stated. He sketches various views and rarely argues in favor of any one. The method makes use of frequent quotations: so and so said this; somebody else said that. This indirect method is pursued still further. For example, a quotation from John C. Bennett is used to give us Niebuhr’s position (p. 24), and “Norman Pittenger suggests (!) that someone has remarked …” (p. 307). Eventually this dependence upon other author’s assertions becomes wearisome. Does Dr. Maston accept the sentiments he quotes? Sometimes he does not; much of the time, one cannot tell.

Although no conclusion is discernible with respect to the problem of divorce as it confronts ministers who are asked to marry divorced persons, and although the author assumes without argument that certain procedures relative to the race problem are advantageous, his views on economics, communism and war can somewhat be guessed from the turns of expression and the favorable or unfavorable connotations of words.

Apparently he wants the church to reject both communism and laissez-faire capitalism. Communism, however, seems to be condemned more for its methods than for its aims. One senses a strain of embarrassment that communistic brutality should have received such widespread publicity.

True, the author condemns godless materialism; but planned economy whether in Russia or in the U.S.A. is merely a matter of degree. Free enterprise and its opposite are merely matters of labels (p. 143).

In fact, Christianity is a source of communism because it has a messianic eschatology and because it practiced communism in Jerusalem (p. 155); but there is no historic relation between the two (p. 156); yet the roots of modern communism go back to Christian communism (p. 157).

There is no adverse criticism of communistic economics—no criticism of the labor theory of value, or the theory of surplus value, and not much of a defense of private property. “There may not be a great deal of difference between the ultimate goal or hope of the Christian and the communist for society” (p. 184).

Since communism is so close to Christianity in aim, though drastically different in method, it would be wrong to engage in war to rescue the captive nations. The author is generally pacifistic. “A major duty of Christians is to do everything possible to support and strengthen” the United Nations (p. 266); and he seems to entertain the hope of world peace by human efforts without messianic intervention.

These are bare assertions without argument; no attempt is made to base them on the Bible. “War accomplishes nothing” (p. 288); at least modern war, as distinguished from the American Revolution and the Civil War, settles little, if anything (p. 289). Can we not therefore conclude that it would have been better to allow Hitler to conquer the world?

The great defect of the book, and the probable cause of its frequent inconclusiveness, is that no firm foundation of argument is selected. The opinions are impressionistic. They are not founded on scriptural revelation for no clear notion of the role of the Bible emerges. Several times the author appeals to “the centrality of the cross,” but the phrase remains ambiguous. “Can any crucifixion [including Christ’s?] be identified with the cross? No … The cross is a symbol of self-denying, suffering, redemptive love.… It means the giving of oneself in the interest or on behalf of others”(p. 338).

The cross! But where is Christ?

GORDON H. CLARK

- More from William Sanford LaSor

Nae Marks 15 Years of Ecumenical Effort

NEWS

Christianity in the World Today

Marking a 15-year effort to frame an ecumenical movement on a creedal basis, National Association of Evangelicals observes NAE week, October 20–27. A fellowship and service organization, in a decade and a half the movement has gathered together scattered conservative groups, both denominations and churches, until it claims a membership of 2,000,000 and a service constituency of 10,000,000 evangelicals whose theological viewpoint is fundamental and conservative. Embraced in its cross section membership of conservative sympathies are groups ranging from Reformed Presbyterians, Free Will Baptists, Free Methodists and Wesleyan Methodists to Assemblies of God and Church of God, as well as several Mennonite, Friends and Pentecostal groups—altogether some 40 denominational bodies.

NAE leaders point out that their program has helped to give positive thrust and content to the evangelical center of American Protestantism; that it has helped to reverse the extreme fragmentation of the Protestant movement; that it has given the evangelical movement unity and voice it had lacked with the tendency of the Federal Council (later National Council of Churches) to liberal prospectives.

That their goal of a “united evangelicalism” is still far from achievement, NAE leaders readily admit. With 15 years’ pioneering and organizational effort behind, they disclose larger ambitions for the future, with a program of contact and enlistment of other religious and ecclesiastical bodies sharing the evangelical creedal viewpoint. To critics who complain that NAE represents a “least common denominator” in order to gather varying fundamentalist and evangelical groups into one basket, leaders exhibit their seven-point statement of faith, a requisite for NAE membership. (This includes belief in the Bible as the inspired, infallible, authoritative word of God; the eternal Trinity, the deity, virgin birth, sinlessness, miracles, vicarious and atoning death, the bodily resurrection, the ascension, and the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ; salvation by regeneration of the Holy Spirit, and the present ministry of the Holy Spirit; final resurrection and judgment; and the spiritual unity of all believers in Christ.)

Spiritual unity is cited as evidence of genuine ecumenical approach founded on the creedal statements given, rather than on the basis of mere organization. In criticism from both the fundamentalist right and the liberal left, NAE leaders find evidence that they have followed a balanced course, freeing the evangelical movement from the stigma of extreme fundamentalistic abuses, and guarding it from liberal and neo-orthodox wanderings.

In reaching its influential role in American church life, NAE has relied heavily upon various service commissions and affilated agencies, which serve a constituency much larger than official NAE membership. Besides national headquarters in Wheaton, Ill., the movement operates a public affairs office in Washington, D. C., a publications office in Cincinnati, Ohio, and seven regional offices throughout the country. Related organizations are National Association of Christian Schools, Evangelical Foreign Missions Association, National Religious Broadcasters, Inc., National Sunday School Association, Evangelical Youth, Inc., and commissions on educational institutions, evangelism and church extension, government chaplaincies, international relations, a laymen’s council, a purchasing agency, a women’s fellowship, world relief, and a spiritual life commission. All these efforts have used NAE influence to enlarge the evangelical center of the Protestant scene. Evangelical Foreign Missions Association (EFMA), for instance, formed in 1945, now claims to represent about 5,000 missionaries around the world, supplying numerous services. Other agencies, like those for radio and education, operate on the same active service principle.

Many of the 147 evangelical leaders who signed the first official call for an organizing conference at St. Louis in 1942 are still active in NAE leadership and its affiliated organizations, including Dr. Harold J. Ockenga of Park Street Church, Boston, first president. The presidency today is held by Paul P. Petticord, head of Western Evangelical Theological Seminary, Portland, Oregon.

Dr. George L. Ford, Executive Director of NAE, in a comment on the 15th anniversary’s ecumenical significance, had this to say:

“The NAE is a major contribution to true ecumenicity for it has brought together the conservative evangelical denominations, organizations and churches not attracted by other interchurch movements. By avoiding the extremes, the NAE provides a positive witness by demonstrating the spiritual unity of believers in Christ in line with Christ’s prayer, ‘That they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou has sent me and hast loved them, as Thou has loved me’ (John 17:23).

“The future of NAE lies in the strengthening of the positive spiritual witness of evangelicals in the world. This must include further expansion.… extension of service in other areas.… and encouragement of other truly evangelical denominations, churches and organizations to join in the spiritual witness.… NAE provides. The prospects for the work are now the brightest in the history of the organization.”

Churches in the NAE will mark Sunday, October 27, as NAE Sunday with special services and prayers.

Clean-Up Commission

First move in a nation-wide campaign against distribution and sale of pornographic literature has led in Washington, D. C., to formation of the Churchmen’s Commission for Decent Publications, supported from the outset by many denominational and interdenominational leaders.

Spurred to action by the multiplication of indecent and obscene publications, the commission caps a year’s preliminary effort by former Congressman O. K. Armstrong, prominent Baptist layman. Objectives are sixfold: Coordinating church, organizational and individual efforts to halt distribution and sale of indecent and obscene material; lifting standards of publication; encouraging literature expressive of the Judeo-Christian philosophy of sex morality; educating the public in the need for necessary federal, state and local laws; cooperating with local, state and national groups in law enforcement; assisting in the organization of effective regional groups.

Participants heard General Counsel Abe Goff of the U. S. Post Office department emphasize the importance of supportive community sentiment if postal authorities are to take effective injunctive action against “fake ‘art’ magazines and cheap ‘girlie’ magazines.” Goff pointed out that “while the main sale of such magazines is by newsstand, they acquire second class privileges (intended for educational and informational literature) for ‘an aura of respectibility.’ Mail carriers are then required at public expense to deliver corrupting material that most parents do not even want in their houses.”

Dr. Inman H. Douglass of the Christian Science Committee on Publications is national president. Others elected are Dr. A. C. Miller, of the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission, first vice president; Dr. Fred E. Reissig, director of the Washington, D. C., Council of Churches, second vice president; Dr. Clyde W. Taylor, secretary of affairs of National Association of Evangelicals, secretary; Dr. Carl F. H. Henry, editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, treasurer. A national advisory council of 50 members is to be announced. Chairmen of standing committees are: membership, the Rev. Don Gill; research, the Rev. Ralph A. Cannon; legislation, Dr. O. K. Armstrong; public relations, Glenn D. Everett; finance, the Rev. Roger Burgess; community organization, the Rev. A. D. Zahnheiser.

Churchmen heard Mrs. C. R. Addington of the Women’s Club of Coral Gables tell how she successfully spearheaded a statewide effort for a law that “took 16 of the most objectionable magazines” off the Florida newsstands. “We had to overcome a natural reticence to identify ourselves with a task that sometimes had an indelicate and even unladylike aura,” she remarked, “but we found courage when we sensed that the sacredness of the home and of family life is at stake.”

Chaplain Wallace M. Hale, chief of the training division for Army chaplains, urged that cure as well as punishment be kept in view. “We must change the attitude of people and provide a new motivation and respect for moral law if we are really to lick the problem.” He noted “a more serious search for dependable absolutes, and somewhat less interest in the broad areas of personal freedom” in American life. “We must evolve a general code and principles that have the support of the citizenry, but we cannot stop there,” he said, “but must spell out the tested truths applicable to man’s personal righteousness.” Other speakers shared his hope that the commission’s social action effort not decline to a mere reliance upon legislation of morality.

People: Words And Events

Crusade Windup—Dr. Billy Graham and his team returned to the New York area for a series of suburban evangelistic rallies the week of Sept. 25 to October 1, with meetings also in New Jersey and Connecticut. On Reformation Sunday, Oct. 27, a great closing rally for the New York Crusade and the follow-up program will be held at the Polo Grounds. Dr. Graham will speak at the service at 3 p.m.

Far East Crusade—George Burnham, News Editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, is in the Far East during October, as part of the World Vision team holding pastors’ conferences and evangelistic crusades in Java, Singapore, The Philippines, Formosa, Japan, and Korea. The Seoul Crusade closes on October 20. Members of the campaign team are Dr. Bob Pierce, Dr. Richard Halverson, Dr. Paul Rees, Bishop Alexander Theophilus of India, The Rev. Jose Yap and Bishop Sobrepena of the Philippines, Dr. F. Carlton Booth, and Norman Nelson.

Seminary Adjustment—Concordia Theological Seminary of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, opened the new academic year with approximately 550 students on campus. The liberal arts courses formerly taught at Concordia Seminary move this year to the new Concordia Senior College, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Thus, this year for the first time in its history, the seminary does not have an entering class. The revised curriculum will bring students to the seminary with a B.A. degree, and they will follow a four-year program (quarter system) of study, including one year of supervised practical work in a parish.

Spiritual Survey—A poll sponsored by the radio ministry of the North Syracuse Baptist Church, was conducted through the “Christ at Noon” exhibit at the New York State Fair. Motif of the booth was a huge question mark with the question, “Do You Have the Answer?” In response to the question, “Do you believe that there is a personal God?” 1763 replied yes, 81 no, 48 uncertain. To other questions, responses were: “Do you believe that the Bible is God’s message to man?”—1739 yes, 40 no, 29 uncertain. “Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?” 1737 yes, 32 no, 37 uncertain. Do you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins, rose again, and lives to be your personal Lord and Saviour?”—1757 yes, 36 no, 56 uncertain. Do you believe that you will go to heaven when you die?”—1183 yes, 76 no, 584 uncertain.

Lutheran Membership—A total membership in the Lutheran Churches of the United States and Canada increased to 7,618,000 in 1956, according to the National Lutheran Council. This was an increase of 3.3 percent which has been about the average yearly gain for the last ten years. The Lutherans represent the third largest Protestant denominational group in America, exceeded only by Baptists and Methodists. Largest single body of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, now numbering 2,152,000.

Accrediting Post—The Rev. Jared F. Gerig, president of the Missionary Church Association, has been named president of Fort Wayne Bible College, effective January 1, 1958, when he will succeed Dr. S. A. Witmer. Dr. Witmer will become executive secretary of the Accrediting Association of Bible Institutes and Bible Colleges.

Christian School Growth—Some 37,000 pupils are now enrolled in 137 day schools affiliated with the National Union of Christian Schools, it was reported at the group’s annual convention. John A. Vander Ark, director of the union, said the schools, sponsored chiefly by members of the Christian Reformed Church, are growing at the rate of 2,000 students a year. Ten new schools were developed each year during the last three years.

Baptist Brotherhood—More than 6,000 Baptist laymen from 40 states met recently in Oklahoma City at the First National Conference of Southern Baptist Men. The three-day conclave featured addresses and discussions on the theme, “Free Men Through the Ages.”

Wesley Hymn Sing—Hymn festivals to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Charles Wesley’s birth are being planned by Methodist churches throughout the country in December, as part of a worldwide Charles Wesley celebration, sponsored by the World Methodist Council. Charles was one of the greatest hymn writers in history and his brother John Wesley was the founder of Methodism.

Artist Honored

Warner Sallman, Chicago artist whose “Head of Christ” and other religious paintings are known the world over, was honored at a dinner in Washington on October 3, when he was presented the Upper Room award for world Christian fellowship. The award cited Sallman’s artistic leadership in “helping bridge the gap between denominations and bringing them closer in Christian fellowship.”

We Quote:

JOSEPH SITTLER

Professor, Federated Theological Faculty, University of Chicago

Enquiry into the nature of Christian worship of God has, particularly in North America, got to operate in a sphere of discourse already occupied. The name of the occupant, in very many of our congregations, is the psychology of worship. This strange roomer got into and established himself in the living room of church practice in roughly the following way: that people do worship God is an observable fact; and every fact is permeable to psychological enquiry. Psychology does not operate from hand to mouth; it has either open or unavowed presuppositions about the structure and dynamics of the psyche. If, then, in worship people are in some way or other in search of a relationship to the ineffable there must be ways which lubricate and ways which hinder this search. The human animal is influenced by setting, accompaniment, symbols, silence, the gravity of statement and response, the solidarity-producing impact of solemn music, etc. So it has happened that experts in worship have arisen among us. All assume that the purpose of public worship is to create a mood; and he is the most admirable as the leader of worship who has mastered finesse in the mood-setting devices made available by the application of psychological categories. Thence has flowed that considerable and melancholy river of counsel whereby one may learn how to organize an assault upon the cognitive and critical faculties of the mind, how to anesthetize into easy access the non-verbalized but dependable anxieties that roam about in the solitary and collective unconscious, and how to conduct a brain-washing under the presumed banner of the Holy Ghost.

That this is what worship means in thousands of congregations is certainly true; it is equally true that the Scriptures know nothing about such ideas. Where we are enjoined to be still and know that God is God, the presupposition is not that stillness is good and speech is bad—but rather that God is prior to man and all God-man relationships are out of joint if that is not acknowledged.—In an address on “The Shape of the Church’s Response in Worship,” North American Conference on Faith and Order, Sept. 6, 1957.

WALTER G. MUELDER

Dean, Boston University School of Theology

Another group of problems have to do with bureaucracy, or, as some prefer to say, the administrative top. The role of bureaucracy in churches is analogous to that in all institutions. Church bureaucrats dominate ecumenical discussions. Bureaucracy maximizes vocational security and promotes technical efficiency. Tenure, pensions, incremental salaries, regularized procedure for promotion are related to leadership control. Control, continuity, administrative discretion and rational order make for institutional efficiency. However, bureaucracy tends to separate the average member, the so-called layman, from the expert who holds the position of legitimate administrative authority.… [especially] when the ecclesiastical bureaucrat is also an ordained clergyman. Ecumenicity, the bureaucrat may forget, is a function of the whole church—not of its clerical and administrative top alone.

Though bureaucracy makes for rational efficiency and institutional security, it also tends to develop certain dysfunctions, such as: blindness to needed change; trained incapacity to sense new needs; inflexibility in applying skills and resources to changing conditions … etc. These dysfunctions are no respecters of denominational polities and apply to boards and agencies as well as to fundamental church structure.

The consequence of these dysfunctions is that the discipline once designed to assist efficiency becomes an intrinsic value, and loyalty to ultimate ideals on the part of subordinates is measured by obedience to superiors in the hierarchy of the institution. Bureaucracy thus breeds overconformity.—In an address on “Institutionalism in Relation to Unity and Disunity” at the World Council of Churches’ North American Faith and Order Conference.

Ministers Hear Graham

Fifteen hundred twenty-five New York ministers and friends gathered at 8:30 a.m. on September 24 to hear Billy Graham assess the New York Campaign. Optimism and gratitude pervaded the atmosphere as ministers greeted one another in New York’s largest ballroom, taxing its faciilties, interspersing their remarks with praise to the Lord for the great victory won.

The speakers’ table was occupied by the Graham team and the members of the Protestant Council of New York. Dr. Jesse M. Bader, for 27 years Secretary of the Department of Evangelism for the Federal Council of Churches, gave a ringing challenge to the ministers and recognized the two divisions of the campaign: First, the Crusade as held in Madison Square Garden; second, the personal visitation campaign scheduled October 20 to 27 in at least a thousand communities by teams of laymen under the direction of ministers from a thousand cooperating churches.

Dr. Bader declared that evangelism is an imperative, not an elective of the Church. He admonished that what Christ made primary the Church must not make secondary. His address gave ringing affirmation of the biblical program and basis for evangelism and a challenging appeal for participation. The personal calling campaign is to have the same purpose as the public Crusade, namely to win men to Jesus Christ, to reach out further, and to bring men to commitment to Christ. Dr. Bader declared that this could not be done unless the ministers were thoroughly committed to it. The ministers are the key men in the churches. If they are evangelistic, the people will be evangelistic. Hence, the success or failure of this undertaking rests with the ministers.

Preparation must be made for this campaign by sermons from the pulpit, prayer meetings of the people, advertising, gathering a prospect list, selecting workers, and beaming the whole church program to visitation evangelism. Thirty-five selected men representing different denominations will be assigned to as many districts. These selected men will meet with the ministers of each district from Monday until Friday, from 10:30 a.m. until 12:00 daily. They will spark the program and bring information which the pastors are to bring to their own people each night at the supper meeting before calling commences. Ministers were assured that if this is successful in New York it will be added to the Graham program of evangelism in every city the team visits.

Roger Hull, general chairman of the campaign, spoke briefly his appreciation of his privileged place of leadership, voicing thanksgiving to God. Beverly Shea, in his inimitable way, sang “I Know a Name.” Then Billy Graham spoke.

Dr. Graham expressed appreciation for all who came to this morning meeting, for their faithfulness, their energy expended and their cooperation. He pointed out that it was not properly called a Billy Graham campaign, for thousands participated by prayer, giving counseling, attending and advertising the meetings. Billy paid tribute to Dan Potter, Secretary of the Protestant Council, for unflagging faithfulness and enthusiasm, to all cooperating organizations, and to the unusual and sustained coop eration of the churches.

Graham then launched into his major address. He spoke of things that he had learned in the campaign.

The power of prayer. He acknowledged records of organized prayer meetings in 109 countries throughout the world. Persons like Madame Chiang Kai-shek organized prayer meetings sustained during the entire campaign. On Formosa all-night prayer meetings were held. On the farthest mission fields missionaries and native Christians were praying. He paid particular tribute to Mrs. Norman Vincent Peale who organized the prayer meetings among the women in New York City.

The power of faith. Graham paid tribute to the faith of members of the executive committees such as Ralph Nesbitt, John Sutherland Bonnell, John Wimbish, Erling C. Olsen and others. Their faith went beyond his and was justified in the results.

The power and authority of the Scriptures. He emphasized that the source of power in his preaching was a return to the Book which in his hand became as a flame of fire or as a hammer, according to the words of Jeremiah. Many people were converted by verses of Scripture which stuck in their minds after all else was forgotten. Writing their testimony they told of the power of the Scripture.

The influence of the Holy Spirit, who was there in a demonstration of power to convict, to reprove and to convert.

The power of Christ to change lives. Here Graham quoted numerous illustrations which were given to him from the testimonies received by individuals who were converted. Most effective of all was the influence of the television as a result of which over a million letters came in containing requests from hundreds of thousands of people for spiritual help. Some pastors had additions to their membership immediately after the television programs and others reported definite conversions.

Next, he emphasized that the harvest is ripe in New York City. Now is the time to reap for if we fail to reap at this moment, we may never get another opportunity. The tide of revival moves in and out and the tide is in just now in New York City. If the pastors utilize this, they hold in their hands the key to peace in the world. Ministers simply cannot go back to the same way of life. They have been shaken out of the old ruts and must not get back in them again.

Lastly, Graham emphasized that any large movement such as this Crusade would necessarily have its critics. Then he dealt individually with the criticisms which had come, none of which he treated as personal. He explained the necessity for statistics and great expenditures. He showed that 18 per cent of those responding with decisions had not been identified with any church and 30 per cent to 40 per cent were of people who did not attend church regularly. Graham also pointed out that it is not the province of an evangelist to deal with all the deep and profound problems related to Christianity. He humbly confessed that probably all would not agree with his theology, and that in some areas he might not be right, but that he stood upon the Bible.

H.J.O.

Goal For 1958

A goal of 475,000 converts for 1958 and a day of commitment to soul wining were announced by Dr. Leonard Sanderson, Secretary of Evangelism for the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The day of commitment will be Sunday, January 5, 1958. At that time members of 30,384 churches will be asked to sign cards pledging a personal attempt “to win non-Christians to Christ during the year.”

Hawaiian Lad

“Awaken ye islands of the far away sea!”

This prayer of a young Hawaiian who lived over 140 years ago was the theme of the annual meeting in Hilo of the 113 Congregational Christian Churches of the Territory of Hawaii.

Henry Opukahaia was remembered and honored as the lad who was responsible for the beginning of the mission story in Hawaii. In 1808, Opukahaia sailed for America. Here he was converted to Christianity. He died in 1818 in Cornwall, Conn., but not before he had impressed upon the officials of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions his people’s need.

After being commissioned in the famous Park Street Church of Boston, the first little band of missionaries sailed for Hawaii in 1819.

A highlight of the program this year was a pilgrimage to Opukahaia’s birthplace for the dedication of a memorial chapel.

An editorial in the Hilo-Tribune Herald entitled Tribute to Opukahaia said … he was instrumental in bequeathing to the islands a new and perpetual life, one that is constantly being marked by people of all races in a peaceful Hawaii.” The annual meeting also marked the 100th anniversary of the sailing of the Morning Star, first missionary ship to arrive in the islands to the south of the Hawaiian chain, the Micronesian Islands. In true New Testament fashion, the islanders of Hawaii, after hearing of Christ and his love went to the southern islands as missionaries.

Today, a new Morning Star carries Christian workers between the islands. This is the seventh one since the Micronesians first were told of Christ. The ship now in service is skippered by Miss Eleanor Wilson, an ABCFM missionary. Part of her support comes from the same historic Park Street Church in Boston.

The Hawaiian Evangelical Association of Congregational Christian Churches announced plans of a $1.5 million project for next year which will involve new buildings for the denomination’s headquarters. Plans call for a memorial building with a 600-seat auditorium, headquarters offices and offices for rent.

The session closed with the annual Festival of Choirs in which groups from the churches across the territory presented the great music for which the Hawaiian church is known. In 1958 the meeting will be held on Kauai Island.

Germany

Baptists In Germany

The first civilian American Baptist church in Germany has been organized at Kaiserlautern, with the Rev. Donald Scott McAlpine, formerly of New York and Washington, D. C., as pastor. Members of four U. S. Baptist conventions are presented in the membership, and services are in English.

New Zealand

Union Of Churches

A joint standing committee in New Zealand has issued a report in which the vote of four church groups favors the “principle” of union.

In the major body, the Presbyterian Church (76,005 members) voted three to one in favor of union, but one-third of the total membership did not vote.

The total and union vote percentage were heavier in other churches. In the Methodist church (28,679 members) 92 per cent of those voting favored union. The affirmative vote among Congregational churches and the Associated Churches of Christ were 88 and 94 per cent, respectively.

The matter now will go to the annual assemblies or conferences, meeting later in the year, to decide what steps, if any, should be taken as a result of the preliminary voting.

—R.S.M.

Theology

Bible Text of the Month: Isaiah 53:5

J. Gresham Machen

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).

If there is any one passage in the Old Testament which seems to the Christian heart to be a prophecy of the redeeming work of Christ, it is the matchless fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. We read it today, often even in preference to New Testament passages, as setting forth the atonement which our Lord made for the sins of others upon the cross. Never, says the simple Christian, was there a prophecy more gloriously plain.

Because of its clear-cut statement of the substitutionary atonement, it is a verse that is dear to every devout Christian heart. It begins with a glorious disjunction. The prophet has just set forth the erroneous view which men had held of the Servant. Now, however, he gives the real reason for the Servant’s suffering, “but he …” We, so the thought may be paraphrased, thought that God had smitten him because of his sins, but the real reason why he was smitten is found in the fact that he was wounded for our transgressions.

Our Transgressions

And it was all for our iniquities and for our transgressions. What else, we ask, can these words mean than that he suffered vicariously? Not merely with, but for others? By no exegesis is it possible to escape this conclusion. And there is nothing in the conclusion that need surprise us.

DAVID BARON

The reason for the Servant’s sufferings was, “our transgressions.” More is suggested now than sympathetic identification with other’s sorrows. This is an actual bearing of the consequences of sins which he had not committed, and that not merely as an innocent man may be overwhelmed by the flood of evil which has been let loose by others’ sins to sweep over the earth. The blow that wounds him is struck directly and solely at him. He is not entangled in a widespread calamity, but is the only victim. It is presupposed that all transgression leads to wounds and bruises; but the transgressions are done by us, and the wounds and bruises fall on him. Can the idea of vicarious sufferings be more plainly set forth?

ALEXANDER MACLAREN

He suffered the punishment of sin, but it was “the just in the room of the unjust.” This is the only principle which can harmonize the sufferings and death of the immaculately innocent, the absolutely perfect, incarnate Son of God, with the divine wisdom, righteousness, and benignity. It converts what appears the most unaccountable of all things—a piece of folly, injustice, and cruelty, on the part of the all-wise, the infinite holy, the infinitely benignant Jehovah—into the most glorious of all displays of his unsearchable wisdom, his eternal righteousness, and his exceedingly rich grace.

JOHN BROWN

Vicarious Suffering

There were no stronger expressions to be found in the language, to denote a violent and painful death. As min, with the passive, does not answer to the Greek hupo, but to apo, the meaning is not that it was our sins and iniquities that had pierced him through like swords, and crushed him like heavy burdens, but that he was pierced and crushed on account of our sins and iniquities. It was not his own sins and iniquities, but ours, which he had taken upon himself, that he might make atonement for them in our stead, that were the cause of his having to suffer so cruel and painful a death.

FRANZ DELITZSCH

The intensity of the Servant’s sufferings is brought home to our hearts by the accumulation of epithets. He was wounded as one who is pierced by a sharp sword; bruised as one who is stoned to death; beaten and with livid weals on his flesh. A background of unnamed persecutors is dimly seen. The description moves altogether in the region of physical violence, and that violence is more than a symbol.

ALEXANDER MACLAREN

Completeness And Intensity

This verse is a wonderfully complete representation of the sufferings of Jehovah’s righteous servant. It represents them as violent, severe, fatal, numerous, diversified, penal, vicarious, expiatory, saving, and reconciling. The great truth contained in it may be thus stated: the numerous, varied, violent, severe, fatal sufferings of the righteous servant of the Lord, were the endurance of those evils in which God expresses his displeasure at sin, in the room of those who had merited them; and were intended, and have been found effectual, for the expiation of guilt and the obtaining of salvation.

JOHN BROWN

There is no pardon for unexpiated sin; there is no expiation of sin, but in the Cross of Christ; and no saving virtue can come forth from that cross to the unbeliever. He who rejects Christ’s sacrifice must answer for his own sin. God marks his iniquity; he will make exaction for it; and who can stand where the incarnate Son stood? Who can bear what he bore? Be warned ere it be too late. You can neither merit the divine favor, nor bear the divine wrath.

JOHN BROWN

Our Peace

The chastisement of peace is not only that which tends to peace, but that by which peace is procured directly. It is not, to use the words of an extreme and zealous rationalist, a chastisement morally salutary for us, nor one which merely contributes to our safety, but, according to the parallelism, one which has accomplished our salvation, and in this way, that it was inflicted not on us but on him, so that we came off safe and uninjured. The application of the phrase to Christ, without express quotation, is of frequent occurrence in the New Testament (See Eph. 2:14–17; Col. 1:20, 21; Heb. 13:20).

J. A. ALEXANDER

Righteousness And Mercy

The forgiveness of sins is a question of righteousness as truly as of mercy. If God cannot forgive in righteousness, then he cannot forgive at all. If he were to forgive simply because he is compassionate, or because (being sovereign) he so wills it, or out of mere good nature, he would remove the very ground on which my conscience plants itself in all its moral operations. It behooves that the glory of his character and the rectitude of his government should suffer no eclipse, but, on the contrary, be demonstrated. But now light is thrown on the case—though still deep mystery remains—when it is said, “The chastisement of our peace was upon him.” Through his suffering for others, they obtain peace in the sense of reconcilement to God.

CULROSS

The spectacle of the Cross alienates many persons from Christ, when they consider what is presented to their eyes, and do not observe the object to be accomplished. But all offense is removed when we know that by his death our sins have been expiated, and salvation has been obtained for us.

JOHN CALVIN

- More from J. Gresham Machen

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Needed Rebuke

To Each His Gift

Inhibiting Growth

No Valid Excuse

We Must Answer

Chosen And Appointed Path

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God Irrelevant

The Church’S Job

Mass Revivals

Is Science Enough?

A Look At History

The Reformation Message

Today’S Key

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Roman Catholic View

Analysis Of Charges

What Is Persecution?

Memorandum To Senators

Legacy

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The Failure Of Neo-Orthodoxy

Basis Of Impact

Neo-Orthodoxy Has No Sola Scriptura

It Is Written

Where Neo-Orthodoxy Fails

Denial Of Objective Truth

The Cry For Religious Certainty

Neo-Orthodoxy Has No Sola Gratia

Vague On Atonement

Brunner Goes Farther

Back To The Reformation

The One Solution

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Personal Reformation

Not A Matter Of Hate

Catholic Power Politics Explicit

Protestant Apprehension

Can Protestants Meet The Challenge?

Jesuit Strategy

“Tolerance” And Timidity

Freedom Demands Price

Time For New Offensive

Make Reformation Real

Results Would Benefit All

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Valuable Auxiliary

Understanding Ezekiel

English Psychologists

Religious-Social Interaction

Symposium Of One

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Clean-Up Commission

People: Words And Events

Artist Honored

We Quote:

Ministers Hear Graham

Goal For 1958

Hawaiian Lad

Germany

Baptists In Germany

New Zealand

Union Of Churches

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Our Transgressions

Vicarious Suffering

Completeness And Intensity

Our Peace