HALLOWEEN REFORMATION

Would you be interested in publishing my forthcoming pamphlet, Survival in a ‘Trick or Treat’ Raid? Halloween, it concludes, is not only here to stay, but will enjoy the same cancerous growth other American holidays have known.

First-aid is offered to stricken parents. Have you thought of sending your children out early to ring doorbells, so that their accumulated loot may be used for your free distribution?

Another suggestion for your readers: Wrapping candy corn in Gospel tracts can’t be the best way to bring a Christian witness at Halloween. Why not show old-fashioned Christian hospitality to charm the hoboes, clowns, and other rubber-faced baboons that appear for this junior shakedown?

Since writing this informative booklet I have been hearing more about “Reformation Day.” Apparently it was no accident that Martin Luther nailed up his ninety-five theses on the eve of All Saints’ Day. The indulgences Luther was attacking went on sale that day. Picture a priest posting anti-bingo placards on the eve of the annual parish carnival! Perhaps if we took Reformation Day more seriously we could awaken our neighbors from a misty reverence for Halloween as a ritual of the American Way of Life to a concern about the Gospel which is The Way of Life.

If Reformation Day only means staging successful rallies, however, the term should be used with apologies. Luther’s sense of timing was not that of an advertising executive but of a soldier. “Here I stand” … He challenged the lie with his life. His strong views are now discounted as products of his rude age. Modern ecclesiastical crusading moves in an atmosphere of sweetness and light. Martin Luther breathed the fire of love, which is quite different—love for deluded souls destroyed by a works religion, love for Jesus Christ in whose righteousness alone he was justified by grace. The Reformation was an onslaught of love on specific errors at the right time and place: The castle church door on All Saints’ eve.

Your humble scribe,

EUTYCHUS

DEUTERO-EUTYCHUS

Why not just sign Eutychus’s real name—Norman Vincent Peale?

A.D.E.

New York City

TRITO-EUTYCHUS

… You can’t keep it secret for long, so why don’t you say so now? Merv Rosell is your reticent scribe.…

D.T.

Los Angeles

HELLENIC INFLUENCE

… It reads to me as if you’ve hired Simeon Stylites on the side.…

A.R.

Wheaton, Ill.

GRAVITY IN THE PREACHER

Perhaps there is an element of peril in your feature “Preacher in the Red.” Through the years I have often called the attention of students and ministers to Brooks’ warning in his Yale Lectures … On page 58 he says: “Refrain from all joking about congregations, flocks, parish visits, the mishaps of the pulpit, or the makeshifts of the study. Such joking … takes the bloom off a young minister’s life.” Jowett wrote much the same.…

READER

Philadelphia, Pa.

• CHRISTIANITY TODAY endorses this counsel against pulpit entertainment. But it also finds virtue in the minister’s ability to laugh at himself when others discover that he shares their fallibility and discomposure.—ED.

UNEMBARRASSED PULPIT

… When a paper goes to laymen, it ought to stress the authority of the pulpit, not its fallibility.…

CONTRIBUTOR

Philadelphia, Pa.

FIFTY CENT WAGER

… The burden of proof rests on you: and the odds seem too long to make a $5 gamble the least bit attractive. 50c yes, but $5 no!

DONALD VISSCHER

Oxbow, N.Y.

THEOLOGIANS WANTED

I enclose my check … What we need today is a living, aggressive, Protestant, evangelical, theological magazine. Eliminate the preacher editors; maintain a staff of about a dozen theological men who know what they are talking about, one for each major field of Christian life.…

LEROY HENSEL

Cleveland, O.

BY WIRE

CONGRATULATIONS ON … A SPLENDID FIRST ISSUE

STANLEY HIGH

NEW YORK CITY

CONGRATULATIONS … TIMELY, NEWSWORTHY AND MEATY

GEORGE WILSON

MINNEAPOLIS

SPLENDID START … BE ASSURED OF CONTINUED PRAYERS IN THIS LARGE AND CRUCIAL MINISTRY

F.F.T.

PASADENA, CALIF.

CONGRATULATIONS, CHRISTIANITY TODAY … FIRST ISSUE HAS WARMTH, VITALITY AND DIGNITY … EXCELLENT START. KEEP IT UP.

WILLIAM BRUSSEAU

PASADENA, CALIF.

WESTMINSTER FILMS

FIRST MAIL BAG

Full of top-rate material for worthy use of one’s time … Some of the advertising seems a bit ‘Pathfinderish’ …

H.B.

Pasadena, Calif.

Faith is such a vital element in … mental survival stamina … You are dealing with the most decisive element in politics and diplomacy, as developments have shown.

EDWARD HUNTER

Port Washington, N.Y.

First issue is terrific. Just what we preachers need. It certainly meets a need in my study.

LAVERNE E. ROHRBAUGH

Biglerville, Pa.

Vol. 1, No. 1, arrived today and is two-thirds devoured now, with no complaints. I especially appreciate your Book of the Month department (so far).

K. MARTIN

Havelock, Ontario.

I quite approve the motive and attitude and plans of the magazine.

CHARLES ERNEST SCOTT

Philadelphia, Pa.

Long has evangelical Christianity needed a publication such as this.

PHIL JONES

Newberry, S.C.

And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16).

The majority of ministers face two problems in preparing sermons. The first is lack of time, because of the many demands made upon the average minister. The second is the scarcity of books for research. In this space each month CHRISTIANITY TODAY will provide the results of textual research to assist and to stimulate the busy minister in his preparation.

This is a simple but satisfactory Confession of Faith. We should always be ready to give an answer to those who would know what we believe on a matter so central as the person and nature of our Lord. A mistake on this point would involve all our religion in failure. If He is not to us the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed, and “the Son of the living God,” we know not Jesus aright.—C. H. SPURGEON.

We feel the force of it better in this and many passages of the Gospels, by using the Hebrew word Messiah. “Thou” is expressed in the Greek, and therefore emphatic.… The earliest disciples of Jesus, including Simon Peter, at once concluded that He was the Messiah (John 1:41, 49). But He proceeded to act so differently from what they had been reared to expect of the Messiah, that they would naturally become uncertain even as John felt in his prison. Again and again, however, some work or word would persuade them afresh.… We understand the importance of this confession when we hear a Jew of the present time announce his new-found conviction that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah.—JOHN J. BROADUS.

As was to be expected from his impetuous character, and personal superiority, as well as from the future standing already assigned him in John 1:42, Peter assumes the part of a spokesman, and in a decided and solemn manner declares Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Both elements combined, the work and the person constituted then, as they always do, the sum of the Christian confession. Compare Matthew 26:63; John 11:27, 20:31; Philippians 2:11; 1 John 2:22 ff.—H. A. W. MEYER.

The Meaning Of “Christ”

The name Christ in Greek, Messiah in Hebrew, bearing as it does, the participial or adjective sense of anointed, was capable of being applied, and actually was applied, in the earlier parts of Scripture, to a variety of persons. Because the high priest was emphatically the anointed one at the first institution of the tabernacle worship, he is therefore called “the priest, the Christ” (Heb. hamschiach, Lev. 4:3). After the institution of the kingly office, and the setting apart of him who bore it by an act of consecration with oil, he became, in a peculiar sense, the Lord’s anointed, or the Christ of the Lord, as Saul is once and again designated by David (1 Sam. 12:3, 5). Hannah, however, at the close of her song of praise, has already given the word a loftier direction—not without respect, it may be, to the more immediate bearers of the royal dignity, but still more especially pointing to one who should gather into his person the highest powers and prerogatives associated with the chosen people, and give them a world-wide development; for she speaks of the Lord “exalting the horn of his Messiah” (anointed), so as, at the same time, to “judge the ends of the earth.” In Psalm 2, the Lord’s Christ is He who is God’s Son by way of eminence, and who receives the heritage of earth to its utmost bounds as His sure possession. In Daniel 9:25, 26, we find the term applies to the expected deliverer, without the article or any accompanying epithet, precisely as a proper name.—IMPERIAL BIBLE DICTIONARY.

The importance of this first express acknowledgement of Jesus as the Christ or the Messiah, even by His own chosen followers, arises from the fact that all his public actions hitherto implied a claim to that exalted character, and that in consequence the truth of this claim was essential to the proof, not only of His public mission but of His personal veracity. The claim itself had reference to the clear prediction of a Great Deliverer in the ancient prophecies, expressly called Messiah, or Anointed, both by David (Ps. 2:2) and by Daniel (9:25), and by implication so described in all the Scriptures which exhibit Him as filling the great theocratical offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, in which the previous incumbents only held His place till He should come, and to which they were set apart by unction, the appointed symbol of those spiritual gifts which fitted men for these high functions, and which He was to possess without measure. All this Jesus claimed, and all this Peter acknowledged Him to be, not only as a private individual when the truth was first suggested to him by his brother Andrew, but now as it were ex officio, in the name of all the twelve, and in response to an authoritative question from the Lord Himself.—J. A. ALEXANDER.

“Thou art the Christ,” the very person promised from the foundation of the world. Thou art “the Seed of the woman, in whom all nations are to be blessed”; the Shiloh that was to come, before that the sceptre should finally depart from Judah; “the Son of David, that shall reign over his kingdom for ever and ever.” Thou art He “of whom Moses and the prophets have written” so much, and in whom all that they have written shall be accomplished.—CHARLES SIMEON.

Christ was anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows; i.e., above those who possessed with Him a fellowship or similarity of office, as types of Himself. Aaron was anointed High Priest; Saul was anointed King; Elisha was anointed Prophet; Melchisedec, King and Priest; Moses, Priest and Prophet; David, King and Prophet; yet none was ever anointed to the union and comprehension of all these offices together, but the Christ of God.—HORAE SOLITARIAE.

The Son Of The Living God

Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God and that means He is a person of the same substance and nature with God. As man begets his like, so God begets His like, and He is His only begotten Son.—THOMAS GOODWIN.

The term “Son of God” was understood by the Jews as of so high an import, that when Jesus claimed that title, he was considered as affecting an equality with Jehovah, and actually “making himself God.” In this sense Peter acknowledged him to be, not a mere man, but infinitely above all created beings, “Emmanuel, God with us,” even “God over all, blessed for evermore.”—CHARLES SIMEON.

Peter calls Christ, who was the Son of man, the “Son of the living God”; not in that or on that account whereon he is the Son of man, but because he is peculiarly, in respect of another nature than that wherein he is the Son of man, the Son of the living God. And if Peter had intended no more in this assertion but only that he was one among the many sons of God, how doth he answer that question, “But whom say ye that I am?” being exceptive to what others said, who yet affirmed that he was a prophet, one come out from God, and favored of Him. It is evident that it is something much more noble and divine that is here affirmed by Him, in this solemn confession of him on whom the church is built.—JOHN OWEN.

In this confession, the conglomeration, or gathering together so many articles in the Greek set afore every word, is as so many stars that call us to behold this eminency of His sonship and generation. This emphasis on every word in that small sentence, “Thou art that Christ; that Son of that God, that living God”; the like indigitation is never used but for some special intent, according to the nature of the matter spoken of. It is observed by some that the article o huios, the Son, is given to none but to this Son; lo, here it is also put to every word besides, when His sonship is solemnly proclaimed.—THOMAS GOODWIN.

God is said to be the living God, in contradistinction from idol deities, and as the author of life and its blessings. See John 6:69; Acts 8:37; 9:20; 1 John 4:15; 5:5 … Peter’s confession was full, clear, and explicit, bringing out the two-fold nature of Christ as born of man, and yet the Son of God, as both human and divine—a view so much in advance of the Jewish conception of the Messiah that our Lord declares it to have been communicated to him by a revelation from heaven.—JOHN J. OWEN.

Practical Application

Beg of Christ that He would anoint Himself king in our hearts, and prophet and priest in our hearts, to do what He did, to know His will as a prophet, to rule in us as a king, and to stir up prayers in us as a priest.—RICHARD SIBBES.

Jesus our hope, is Jehovah’s Messiah. He became Jesus, assuming human flesh, for the sake of His people; and as Jesus, or the Saviour, was anointed or became Christ, to complete their salvation. What wonderful love is implied under this term to poor sinners! He was, and is and ever will be the anointed one for their sakes. With what joy and celerity did Andrew run to meet his brother Peter, and with what a beautiful abruptness did he tell him: We have found the Messiah! The message was too welcome to be locked up; and doubtless Andrew, like most other young converts, would have been glad to communicate what he knew, and impart what he felt, to all the world.—HORAE SOLITARIAE.

Hence learn we to renounce all kings, priests, and prophets, in comparison of Christ; He is a priest to redeem, and a prophet to teach and reveal the mysteries of God, and He is the king to execute all God’s decrees.—THOMAS GOODWIN.

With Peter let us confess that Jesus is our Prophet, Priest, and King. Let us acknowledge Him: “Thou art my Prophet, my infallible teacher; Thou art my Priest, who has made atonement for me; Thou art my King, to whom I will render obedience.” It is such a confession that constitutes a Christian.

When the Apostles went about proclaiming this confession, what happened? Christians were placed in prison; some were burned at the stake; some were thrown to lions; and some were crucified. The forces of Satan in all their hellish power sought to destroy the young Church. But the Church prevailed because she proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Prophet, Priest, and King of God. During the dark ages the Church began to revise Peter’s confession, in effect. Man was cast in the role of mediator between God and man; and man’s loyalty was to man. The Reformation rediscovered the confession of Peter and proclaimed it with triumph in spite of persecution. The Church today needs to rediscover the centrality of this great confession. Such a refocusing may well kindle the revival fire so long awaited.

Those who would make this confession sincerely must receive supernatural assistance. Jesus said to Peter, “Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.” No man has eyes to see this truth, till the veil is removed from his heart, and his understanding is enlightened by the Spirit of God. The Apostle John declared in his first Epistle, “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.”

Ministers Favor Eisenhower 8 To 1

A poll by CHRISTIANITY TODAY of representative Protestant clergymen from all sections of the United States revealed a strong preference for Eisenhower over Stevenson in the November election for the Presidency.

Tabulation of 1,474 postcards from ministers, selected at random among all denominations, showed the following results:

► Eisenhower—85 per cent.

► Stevenson—11 per cent.

► Undecided—4 per cent.

The Eisenhower-Nixon ticket was marked on 1,248 cards, with Stevenson-Kefauver favored on 160. Those undecided numbered 61. Only five ministers expressed their preference for a Prohibition candidate.

In marking their cards, the clergymen were asked to show “why” by checking any or all of seven reasons. The count came out as follows:

1. Personal stature of the candidates. Eisenhower, 1,017; Stevenson, 75.

2. Nominee of my political party. Eisenhower, 158; Stevenson, 34.

3. Party platform. Eisenhower, 201; Stevenson, 55.

4. Religious views of candidates. Eisenhower, 555; Stevenson, 13.

5. Attitude toward corruption in government. Eisenhower, 432; Stevenson, 24.

6. Moral and spiritual emphasis. Eisenhower, 854; Stevenson, 22.

7. Stand on racial desegregation. Eisenhower, 230; Stevenson, 19.

The poll total showed that 1,117 of those preferring Eisenhower this year also voted for him in 1952. He was favored by 105 who did not vote in 1952 and 28 announced they would switch their 1952 vote from Stevenson to Eisenhower. Stevenson’s total showed 97 of the 160 voted for him in 1952, with 41 planning to switch from Eisenhower.

In the undecided group of 66, 36 voted for Eisenhower in 1952 and 14 for Stevenson. The remaining 16 did not vote.

A breakdown of some of the major states listed the following counts, with the first figure for Eisenhower and the second for Stevenson:

► Alabama, 14–3; Arizona, 10–0; Arkansas, 16–0; California, 83–12; Colorado, 18–2; Florida, 29–6; Georgia, 18–9; Illinois, 133–22; Indiana, 41–2; Iowa, 35–3; Kansas, 31–3; Kentucky, 14–5; Louisiana, 11–1; Maine, 13–1; Maryland, 21–4; Massachusetts, 24–4; Michigan, 61–1; Minnesota, 31–0; New Jersey, 31–3; New York, 43–9; North Carolina, 49–6; Ohio, 61–8; Oklahoma, 23–4; Pennsylvania, 74–1; Tennessee, 28–2; Texas, 34–1; Virginia, 25–14; Wisconsin, 44–2.

Several ministers said they did not believe in voting, because of non-resistance and other reasons. One said “I pray that God might supply His man.”

A majority of the clergymen answered, in a variety of ways, this question on the poll card: “What specific change for the better in American affairs do you desire from your candidate if elected?”

Here is a sampling of the reasons:

For Eisenhower

► “Clean government. Work even more ardently for peace.” … “Lifting of the moral and spiritual life of the American people as a whole.” … “Less centralized national government.” … “Foreign and domestic policies consistent with Christian principles.” … “More emphasis on spiritual things.” … “Much stronger stand against Communism at home and abroad.” … “Back to sane, sensible, Constitutional government.” … “Stronger stand against labor unions. Less foreign spending.”

For Stevenson

► “Segregated schools. Better farm program.” … “Recognizing and honoring God, especially the Sabbath.” … “Stabilized farm income and protection for small business.” … “Improved foreign relations. Tax burden off those less able to pay. Lifting of draft.” … “Stronger hold on moral issues by the President and those who support him in his work.” … “Restoration to a position of real leadership in world affairs.” … “Less interference in state affairs by the Federal Government.”

President Eisenhower is a Presbyterian. Stevenson is a Unitarian, recently affiliated with the Presbyterians.

Strangely Hushed

The death of an American missionary pilot, shot down while dropping Scripture leaflets over a Mexican village, has been strangely hushed.

Secular news agencies have had little to say about the story because of the blind alleys and blank walls encountered in trying to run down the facts.

As far as can be determined, this is what happened:

On September 21, over one month ago, Ancel Allen, a missionary pilot, was shot down and killed in the crash of a small borrowed plane as he flew over the village of San Sebastian, dropping copies of the Gospel of John to villagers.

Allen was seen as he made three very low runs over the town. At the end of the third run, a volley of rifle shots was heard and the plane crash-landed beyond the town.

Native villagers, the first to arrive at the scene, carried off the pilot’s wrist watch, rings and other valuables. There was much speculation that he survived the landing and was killed by fanatics who objected to the Protestant propaganda. Several bullet holes were in the plane and the body.

Official versions of the crash minimized the possibility that the plane was shot down and emphasized the probability that it was overloaded.

A native of Ogden, Indiana, and a World War II Air Force veteran with 17 years of flying experience back of him, Allen had arrived in Mexico with his wife six weeks before. They were independent missionaries.

Mrs. Allen claimed the body on the day after the crash and burial was held in the nearby city of Toluca.

Other missionary pilots have lost their lives in Mexico before, but none have been shot down. Observers interpret the incident as a possible renewing of efforts by fanatics to stem the tide of missionary activity in Mexico.

—J.H.R.

Life In One Paragraph

W. G. B—Jr., 45, who said he was “born” into the Christian ministry and later served congregations in Washington, D. C. before making a fortune in California insurance, tearfully told police that his beautiful secretary was kissing him when he killed her.

CHRISTIANITY TODAYsubscribes to Religious News and Evangelical Press services.

Jerusalem + Judea + Samaria

Oil For Troubled Waters

Henry Martyn, noted missionary to India and first translator of the New Testament into the Persian language, was traveling from the Persian Gulf to the city of Shiraz in 1811 to perfect his version.

He made the following entry in his diary:

“We arrived at the foot of the mountains, at a place where we seemed to have discovered one of nature’s ulcers. A strong, suffocating smell of naphtha announced something more than ordinarily foul in the neighborhood. We saw a river. What flowed in it, it seemed difficult to say, whether it were water or green oil.”

This “green oil” was to play a tremendous part in the political, economic and religious history of Iran (Persia) in the twentieth century. The presence of this bad-smelling naphtha in South Iran made it so necessary for the Allies to prevent the country from falling into Hitler’s hands during World War II. Nationalization of the oil industry in 1951 brought Iran before the eyes of the world and almost brought her to destruction. With this problem seemingly solved, an international group in South Iran is engaged in the production and distribution of the oil.

This year, another announcement captured the world’s interest. Drillers had struck oil in North Iran near the city of Qum, about 100 miles north of Teheran. Observers said the oil burst forth with a mighty roar, waking all the residents. For several weeks it was impossible to stop the guyser. Several oil lakes formed.

The new well, considered the largest in the world, can supply alone all the needs of Iran. More than ever, the envious eyes of neighbors have been turned toward the priceless treasures in the barren deserts of Iran.

An immediate effect of the discovery will be the change of Qum from just a shrine city to a booming oil town.

A large gilded dome covers the grave of one of the female descendants of Mohammed, and this place of pilgrimage for Shi’ite Moslems is visited every year by tens of thousands seeking healing and forgiveness. Qum also is the main center of theological training in Iran. Some 10,000 men are there preparing to become the preachers and teachers of Islam.

Shi’ite Moslems consider non-Moslems to be unclean. The religious people of Qum have been so devoted to their shrine that it has been very difficult for Christian missionaries to do any work in this “holy city.”

Now, however, the city will be overrun by oil men and a new opportunity may be given the Church to preach the Gospel of a Living Saviour in the city of a dead saint.

—W.M.M.

Garden Of Evangelism

A lovely Persian garden, located 10 miles from Teheran at the foot of the snow-capped Alborz Mountains, has been the ideal home for nine years of a summer school of evangelism.

Those who attend for three years and complete the nine-months course receive a diploma. Seventeen have graduated, but scores of others, unable to remain for the full course, have returned to their homes throughout Iran to serve Christ with greater devotion.

Five young men formed the latest graduating class. Two were Armenians, one was an Assyrian and two were sons of Moslem converts.

Christian workers assert:

“These little springs of spiritual life will be more important for the Kingdom of God than the great oil wells of Iran.”

Discovery Revealed

The discovery of what appears to be the first unopened royal tomb of the Hyksos period ever unearthed has been reported by Hebrew University archaeologists working in the area of the biblical town of Tel Hazor in northern Galilee.

The Hyksos, or “shepherd kings,” were the earliest invaders of Egypt, conquering it without a blow about 1685 B.C., according to Josephus, who also identified them as Israelites.

Hyksos and their people held sway over Egypt throughout the 15th–17th dynasties, approximately 511 years, until driven out by a rebellion. Some 240,000 of these desert people then migrated back to Judea, where they built Jerusalem.

Findings at the tomb have not been announced.

Digest …

► Site of Old Testament city of Gibeon found and water system excavated by seven American archaeologists.

Asia + Africa + Australasia

Buddhism Turns Worldly

After several months in office, the Ceylon government of Prime Minister Solomon W. R. D. Bandaranaike has calmed down from its extreme racialism.

The government, elected on a slogan of “Sinhalese Only,” set free a burst of Sinhalese nationalism which erupted into violence when the bill was debated and passed by Parliament.

“Sinhalese Only” was widely understood to mean that Sinhalese would be the official language, while Tamil and English would be relegated to a position of spoken vernaculars only. Friend and foe suspected the sincerity of Bandaranaike on the language problem, since he is one of the nation’s leading orators in English. The government recently has given discreet hints of fairer treatment for Tamil and English.

Bandaranaike came to power largely because he was supported by Buddhist priests, ayurvedic (native) physicians and village school teachers who knew only Sinhalese. The aim of the more active priests apparently is to turn Ceylon into a Buddhist state, in which government money will be used to promote Buddhist enterprises, with little or no money for Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. Buddhists however, strongly disapprove of any control by the government.

Ceylon’s burning question is this—can the present government keep the team of priests, village doctors and teachers moving forward after the carrot of “Sinhalese Only” has been removed? Trouble is anticipated.

Any revision of the status quo is an opportunity for a fresh proclamation of the Gospel. Never before have Christian pastors in Hindu areas of Ceylon had so little opposition to the preaching of the Gospel.

—W.R.H.

Scoffs From Clergy

Protestant clergymen in Hong Kong, who served for years as missionaries in China, scoffed at a statement reportedly made by Anglican Bishop K. H. Ting of Chekiang that he did “not know of a single Christian leader who was executed by the Chinese Communist government.”

Dr. Eugene L. Smith, vice president for foreign missions of the National Council of Churches, said recently in Washington that Bishop Ting made the statement to him at a meeting of the World Council of Churches’ central committee in Hungary last August.

Missionaries in Hong Kong said a number of Christian leaders were put to death in China as “counter-revolutionaries.” They charged this designation was employed by the Communists to “cover up” the fact that the Christians were executed for their religious activity.

A spokesman said “the Reds are putting on a smile campaign for the western world.”

“Some people are falling for it,” he said. “Meanwhile, Christianity is dying in China and being replaced by a new, political ‘thought-religion.’ ”

Slogan For Olympics

“You can’t win without Christ” will be the slogan for the Open Air Campaigners of Australia in their big evangelistic drive during the Olympic Games November 22 through December 8.

Said Chairman Harry McKeon:

“Melbourne will be flooded with visitors from the four corners of the earth—people from behind the Iron Curtain, people from behind the Bamboo Curtain—needy souls from lands where Gospel preaching is forbidden. These people, for several weeks, will be open to the message of salvation.”

Melbourne will be zoned and each day 12 Gospel vans will be taken by teams to various areas.

Several American organizations, including Gideons International, have provided great quantities of Bibles, Scripture portions and tracts for the campaign.

Digest …

► A shipload of Australian Methodists—360 of them—leave Sydney next June for an inspection tour of the church’s missions in the Pacific. Methodists working in the Fiji, Samoa and Tonga areas more than 100 years. Early missionaries ran risk of ending in the cooking pot.

► More than 1,300 Rhodesian Africans, members of religious group living in slum area at Port Elizabeth, ordered out of South Africa. Presence said “illegal.”

► Evangelical Fellowship of Ceylon, formed by laymen with support of women, takes Gospel to more than 400,000 with sound truck. Thousands of Scriptures distributed. Bible School for training of native evangelists recently started.

Britain And The Continent

New Drive By Old Church

The Synod of Waldensian Church, reported to be the oldest Protestant denomination in the world, has announced its interest in evangelization and cooperation.

A resolution was adopted in favor of periodical meetings with the Methodist Church in Italy to examine the work of evangelization and closer cooperation.

The Waldensian Church originated from the twelfth century revival movement led by Peter Valdo, a merchant in Lyons, France. It spread across southern France, Switzerland and the northwest of Italy.

Today the Waldensian Church is the strongest Protestant denomination in Italy, with about 30,000 members, 95 churches and 60 ministers. The church has a number of hospitals, children’s homes, old people’s homes and a theological school in Rome. Missions have been set up in the Argentine, United States and Switzerland.

Discussions have been taking place for some time concerning a possible union of the Waldensian and Methodist churches in Italy.

‘Let Us Stick To It’

The Church of England’s ban against the remarriage of divorced persons has been upheld by Dr. Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury.

He told the Convocation of Canterbury it had been the practice of the Church for 20 years not to remarry divorced persons in churches.

“If we all agree that for practical purposes that is the only policy the Church can follow, then let us stick to it,” the Anglican Primate said.

A plea that parish priests be given more discretion in the handling of problems arising from remarriage after divorce was made by Dr. John L. Wilson, Bishop of Birmingham.

National Effort

A united evangelistic campaign for England in 1960 has been approved by the Free Church Federal Council.

The Rev. F. P. Copland Simmons, ex-moderator, said the original plan was to confine the campaign to the north of England, but that it had been expanded to embrace the entire country.

He said the effort would be reminiscent of the Simultaneous Mission organized by the Council in 1901.

Also discussed by the Council at a recent meeting was the creation of a United Free Church of England. “If we do not unite now,” said the Rev. Tom Bevan of the Seaham Methodist Circuit, “the day is not too far distant when the Free Churches will lose their sense of mission and drift into the Church of England.”

Reaction of the Free Church press was not enthusiastic. The Methodist Recorder said, “If the Free Churches have no more vitality than to drift into the Anglican Church through mere flabbiness, or to save the miserable remnants of their quaking souls, they would not be worth having as a gift.”

‘Verge Of Treachery’

Dr. Eivind Berggrav, retired Bishop of Oslo and former Primate of the State Lutheran Church in Norway, has called for a halt to the growing contacts between western churches and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Bishop Berggrav charged that the Russian Church “subordinates itself to a godless State.” He contended that western churchmen who participate in official visits to the Russian Church and join in its worship services “place themselves on the verge of treachery to Christian justice and faith.”

Words With Power …

► “The freedom of man is under attack today by three forces—communism, socialism and materialism—and any one can enslave human reason. To many, freedom means largely self-indulgence.”—The Most Rev. Philip M. Hannan, auxiliary Bishop of Washington, D. C.

► “Communists exceed us by their zeal and strong convictions. Today’s Christian has light but no heat. The materialist has heat but no light.”—Dr. Joseph L. Hromadka, Czech Protestant theologian.

► “Science is one agent that in the last three centuries has been showing that virgin birth is possible.”—Dr. Edward McGrady, former chief of the biological division of the Atomic Energy Commission at Oak Ridge, Tenn., and now president of the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn.

•

Church Climate Changes

Writing in his diocesan leaflet recently, Dr. William Greer, 54-year-old Bishop of Manchester, said:

“I am sometimes asked whether I see any signs of what is called a spiritual revival in England. I am sorry to say I do not; not after the manner in which the multitudes were turned from unbelief to faith in the days of John Wesley … What I do see is a slow but unmistakable return to the Church, or perhaps it would be better to say an increase in real church membership, since not a few of those I have in mind have never openly professed the Christian faith before.

“During the last few years, adult confirmations have substantially increased, and in most parishes congregations are noticeably larger.”

The change in the climate of British church life has been dated by most observers from the Billy Graham Greater London Crusade of 1954.

A new evangelistic spirit has been seen in all the churches. The Church of England recently set up a Commission on Evangelism, with the official backing of the Church Assembly.

Digest …

► Church of England and Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) representatives “made progress” in series of talks at Edinburgh on church unity. Fellowship discussions between two Churches instituted in 1932, suspended two years later and resumed in 1950.

► Two of four Protestant leaders, sentenced to life imprisonment by Bulgarian Communist Court in 1949, pardoned. Identified as the Rev. Vasil Ziapkov and the Rev. Nikola Mihailov.

► Church building in Soviet Zone of Germany at virtual standstill for lack of funds, reports Dr. Oskar Soehngen, vice president of Evangelical Union Church.

► Five-week advertising campaign to increase church attendance launched in Stockholm with large ads in all daily newspapers.

► Mothers in Polish village near Cracow boycott local school … no religious instruction.

► Bishop Otto Dibelius of Berlin, head of the Evangelical Church in Germany, invited to visit Communist China. Invitation extended by members of Chinese delegation at congress of East German Christian Democratic Union.

► Dr. John A. Mackay of Princeton, N. J., president of World Presbyterian Alliance, warns that “resurgent confessionalism” may develop in such a way as to “wreck” the ecumenical movement.

North And South America

Biggest News Story

The biggest religious news story today is that “prayer is at work in our nation,” United States District Judge Luther W. Youngdahl of Washington, D. C. asserted recently.

He said “hard-headed business men” and “political politicians” are making religion work in their every-day lives.

“Prayer is at work in the home, at the workbench, in the office, in the factory, and in our nation’s capital thousands are starting each day in the office with prayer.”

Many business and governmental leaders have come to see, he said, “that the real world crisis has a lot to do with human relations, and when you get to human relations you are on the thresh-hold of religion.

“Only a dedicated spirit to prayer and religious conviction in the lives of individual people will save this country and the world.”

Freedom Differences

Christianity faces an increasing threat from foreign “isms,” along with “creeping, insidious materialism,” Dr. Theodore F. Adams of Richmond, Va., president of the Baptist World Alliance, said in an address to 2,000 at the Festival of Faith, sponsored by the Greater Miami Council of Churches.

“If we win in the war of ideas, it will be by love, sacrifice and devotion to Christian principles,” he said.

Dr. Adams pointed out the difference between freedom of religion and freedom of worship. In Russia, he said, the public can worship in a limited number of churches, but had no freedom of religion.

“We live in a mixed-up world,” he said, “but Christ is the answer to all problems.”

$25,000,000 Budget

The 2,700,000-member United Lutheran Church in America is considering adoption of a record $25,000,000 budget, with recommendations to double its benevolent giving in 1958.

Delegates to the recent convention in Harrisburg, Pa., were asked to extend the continent-wide evangelism effort of the Church’s 4,400 congregations for the next two years with an additional budgetary cost of $135,000.

Opinion From Dulles

Clergymen should have more time to inform themselves on world problems, according to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.

In an address to the 13th Biennial Congress of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, he said:

“Moral principles are simple and can be easily stated, but applying these principles is immensely difficult. Those who guide us spiritually do not have the time to study these other (political) problems to determine the applicability of these principles to a given situation. It is easy to reach wrong judgments.”

Rodeo And Religion

The air was super-charged with respect for Roy Rogers and his wife, Dale Evans, at the state fair in Des Moines, Iowa, this year.

Never were so many thousands of people more silent and attentive as the popular parents encouraged families “to worship together, pray together, play together, and then stay together.”

Many children followed their sincere plea to attend Sunday School.

Digest …

► Radio stations in many parts of nation cancelling programs sponsored by evangelical groups. Dr. James DeForest Murch, president of National Religious Broadcasters, said action result of National Council of Churches’ statement opposing sale of air time. National Association of Evangelicals and NRB adopt resolution saying National Council “does not speak for all Christians of America.”

► Opening of mission field in Ethiopia approved by American Lutheran Church … General Commission of Chaplains to expand work among young adults in service.

► Protestant churches in America facing critical shortage of 25,000 ministers … Meditation and prayer room at United Nations headquarters being enlarged and beautified.

► Budget of $8,125,074 for 1957 adopted by Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board … Churches in America and Canada burning at rate of more than 12 a day. Large percentage of fires accidental … Twenty-five ministers from Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., conduct October preaching mission in Alaska …

► Jalopy raids, parties and simple witnessing paying off with thousands of decisions from Colorado to Pennsylvania. Called “Youth Missions to Youth.”

► Dr. Henry F. Schuh, president of American Lutheran Church, calls upon members to stop shunning political office. “There are those Christians who fail to think of themselves as salt. They prefer to be saints and withdraw from the problems of the world and operation of government … Salt only serves its purpose when its characteristics are used.”

► “Wonderful results” reported in Louisville Crusade of Billy Graham. Overflow attendances nightly, with thousands of decisions.

► Organ, used in Republican National Convention, donated to Mrs. Eisenhower. She, in turn, presented to Fitzsimons General Hospital, where President was treated after heart attack … New York Board of Education adopts statement providing for teaching of moral and spiritual ideals in New York City public schools … Judges and lawyers join in special service to pray for God’s blessings on New York’s courts of justice.

► Week-long Bible reading marathon conducted in Euclid Church at Cleveland, Ohio, for dedication of new $220,000 building. “They now see it as a complete book rather than a few favored passages,” said the Rev. Fred K. Bernlohr.

► Navigators sending largest missionary group overseas this fall and early spring, reports director Lorne Sanny … British and Foreign Bible Society distribute 361,355 volumes of Scripture in 74 languages in Canada during year.

Honest Criticism

The Triumph of Grace in the Theology of Karl Barth, by G. C. Berkouwer. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1956. $4.95.

The Triumph of Grace is a readable book, a veritable triumph of clarity in style and thought. Dutch barbarisms—the misplaced “already,” the excessive use of “over against,” the Germanic adjectival phrases, such as “the in Christ historically realized rejection of the chaos” (p. 249)—are infrequent. The thought proceeds without confusion. One always knows precisely what Berkouwer means. The obscurities are all Barth’s.

The theme of the volume opens with the question as to whether or not Barth has seriously altered his earlier theological views. Has there been a break in his thought, or is it continuous? Has he been won to optimism after a period of war-weary pessimism? Has he become more orthodox?

Through several chapters Berkouwer argues that while there have been variations in emphasis, and even one or two retractions of unfortunate phraseology, the triumph of God’s grace is the single and continuous motif.

With chapter eight Berkouwer’s criticism begins. As his exposition is marked with great care, so too his criticism is scrupulously honest and restrained. Barth’s paradoxical and even unintelligible language tempts an author to see contradictions where none may be. Or, possibly the contradictions are really there. But Berkouwer never presses minor difficulties. There are, however, some major questions.

With full acknowledgment of the fact that Barth espouses many biblical themes and is usually a more sober judge of the same than others of the neo-orthodox school, Berkouwer clearly states the general principle that an emphasis on grace does not ipso facto insure a fully Scriptural theology. Marcionism, Romanism, and antinomianism have also spoken of grace. Therefore, with respect to Barth one must ask: What sort of triumph does he proclaim? What is the enemy over which the triumph occurs? What are the means of the triumph? Four chapters are used to answer these questions.

If Barth says that grace triumphs over sin, one must note that for Barth sin is not defined in terms of divine law. Sin is pride or autonomy; it is absurd and inexplicable; it is the “No” which is the reverse side of God’s “Yes.” Sin is a mystery, not because we cannot explain it, but because it is “ontologically impossible.” Sin in the nature of the case cannot be; man cannot be godless; sin is a violation of the inviolable grace of God. When this view is combined with the theme of triumph, a triumph already complete, Berkouwer naturally asks whether Barth has not made the preaching of the Gospel useless and the struggle against sin empty.

Then too, the completeness of the triumph, in the emphatic terms Barth uses, leads to universalism. Yet Barth rejects universalism. At the same time he asserts that every man is both elect and reprobate. But if every man is both, and if all synergism is radically denied, how can universalism be logically avoided? Barth objects to the Remonstrants, who made redemption universal but limited grace’s effectiveness by a human cooperation. Yet, concludes Berkouwer, Barth has adopted a position that differs from the Remonstrants more in words than in thought. Barth, says Berkouwer, stands at the crossroads: either he should accept universalism and the uselessness of the Gospel, or he should reconsider his position on sin and election.

An appendix of 10 pages is added on the “Problem of Interpretation.” It is in effect a criticism of Professor Cornelius Van Til. In the words of Balthasar, Van Til’s interpretation of Barth is “completely grotesque.” Berkouwer adds that Van Til neglects “an elementary requirement of scholarship” with his “unwarranted interpretation.” And worse, Van Til expounds orthodoxy in such a way that “I cannot recognize the features of the real Reformed orthodoxy.” This reviewer shares Berkouwer’s evaluation of Van Til’s critical abilities, but on the points under discussion he cannot see that Van Til’s departures from the Reformed faith are quite so serious as Berkouwer seems to believe.

GORDON H. CLARK

Graham In Asia

To the Far Corners, by George Burnham. Revell, Westwood, N.J., 1956. $2.00.

This new book by George Burnham, converted Chattanooga newsman, is a stirring close-up of Billy Graham in action on his recent trip through India, Thailand, the Philippines, China, Formosa, Japan and Korea. Burnham’s on the-spot report is vivid, colorful, informing and full of action. As the reader travels swiftly with Billy and his party around the world, he receives the indelible impression that divine providence prepared the way and sustained the evangelist everywhere, that the Holy Spirit moved in a New Testament pattern, and that the simple preaching of the Word of God produced the same notable results in Asia as in other lands.

Every chapter closes with direct quotations from Billy Graham’s diary. These reveal the dedication, spiritual drive, and mental alertness of the man. The reviewer was particularly impressed by the chapter, “Frightening Reaction,” which describes the threatening mob violence in the crowd of 40,000 people in Palamcottah, India, when one of the amplifiers failed. “Billy prayed, ‘Oh God, stop the noise; quiet the people now.’ Immediately a deathlike hush came on the crowd and it became the quietest, most reverent meeting we have had in India. It was like the breath of God had suddenly fallen” (p. 53). At the invitation 4,000 people surged forward when there were only 400 counselors to care for them.

The report of Billy’s interviews with Nehru of India, Madame and General Chiang Kai-shek, and Prime Minister Hatayoma of Japan, gives a better understanding of these leaders. Billy’s own reasons for his success, why he has not yet gone to Russia, why he thinks his ministry may be brief, and what he preaches are all given here.

F. D. WHITESELL

Intolerant

Religious Freedom in Spain, by J. D. Hughey, Jr. Broadman, Nashville, 1955. $3.00.

A discussion of religious freedom in Spain is in point precisely because it has been so frequently and significantly lacking in that country. The reason for opposition to religious freedom in Spain has not been an anti-religious feeling, but a strong concern for Catholic unity. This accounts for a kind of religious oppression in the name of religion.

Catholicism, with its claim to being the only church and the only authoritative teacher of truth, is in principle intolerant of all other religious institutions and teachings. It is successfully intolerant, however, only where it holds a large enough balance of political power to impose its own religious pattern on a people. In Spain the greatest measure of alliance between Catholic Church and State has been achieved, and it is here that Catholicism has obtained political preference to the prejudice of evangelical churches.

Dr. Hughey, Professor of Practical Theology at the Baptist Theological Seminary in Ruschlikon-Zurich, Switzerland, and for four years a missionary in Spain, gives a competent, thoroughly documented, and enlightening account of the changing fortunes of evangelical religion in this Catholic-dominated country. The origins of Catholic unity are traced to the reconquest of Spain from the Mohammedan Moors by Christians, a process which resulted in a fusion of religion and nationalism. Hughey traces developments through the rise of liberalism, the establishment of religious freedom in varying degrees, and periodic reaction, culminating in the current reaction under General Francisco Franco.

This story indicates that free-thinkers have been very active in the struggle for religious freedom, a fact which provides a Catholic argument against the granting of it. The enforcement of an official religion, however, will rather encourage irreligion. In any event, the Gospel of God cannot be bound, and even in Spain there is religious tolerance. This is no doubt the saving factor for Spain and even for Spanish Catholicism. Religious freedom, as Hughey observes, best serves a whole people, and best serves the cause of religion, including the Catholic.

GEORGE STOB

5,524 Greek Words

Greek-English Concordance to the New Testament, by J. B. Smith, Herald, Scot dale, Pennsylvania, 1955. $12.75.

The sub-title of this volume, “A Tabular and Statistical Greek-English Concordance Based on the King James Version with an English-Greek Index,” indicates rather clearly its functions and scope. As this description suggests, the volume, while basically a Greek concordance, has been prepared with the needs of English readers chiefly in view. The Index lists over 9,700 English translations of the 5,524 Greek words given in the Concordance, and by means of numbers which identify the tables where the Greek terms are found in the Concordance, makes it possible even for the reader of the New Testament who does not know any Greek to take advantage of the information supplied by the Concordance. That interest centers largely in the King James Version also appears from the fact that in the Concordance there is a tabulation of its various English renderings of the individual Greek words. The volume is also of value to the Greek scholar, however, because the tabular arrangement not only easily and quickly discloses the comprehensive use of a word, but also its frequency of usage and its distribution in the several books where it appears.

Most Greek scholars will regret the fact, however, that the Concordance has been based upon the Textus Receptus of the 16th century rather than upon a modern Greek Testament such as Nestle’s.

Students of the Bible who will make regular use of this Concordance will without doubt feel amply rewarded and will be grateful for the indefatigable labors of the author. No tool is more indispensable to the responsible and conscientious student of Scripture than a concordance. For concordances in general, and this one in particular, owe their origin to the conviction that sure results in the area of interpretation are possible only if linguistic usage is consulted. In the case of the study of the Bible the biblical usage is obviously of primary interest and pertinence. In this connection, moreover, it is often highly significant to distinguish the usage of one author from that of another and even the usage in one book from that of another of the same author. The question of the frequency of the usage of a particular word may also be meaningful as one considers the breadth of the basis provided for the consideration of the meaning of the term in any particular instance. The distinctive features of the Concordance of J. B. Smith, accordingly, add substantially to its usefulness as an aid to interpretation. Readers of the Greek New Testament as well as of the King James Version may use this volume to great advantage in acquiring a more exact knowledge of and even fresh insights into the meaning of Holy Scripture.

NED B. STONEHOUSE

Propitiation

The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, by Leon Morris. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1955. $3.50.

Central in Christian preaching both yesterday and today is the Cross. What is the message of the Cross? Modern biblical theology has raised questions which profoundly affect the preaching of the Cross. Does the biblical concept of the blood of Christ mean life shared or life sacrificed in death? Does the death of Christ effect only expiation of sin or does it also propitiate God? Can a God of love be also a God of wrath? Does reconciliation have to do only with man, or is there a sense in which God must be reconciled? Does justification involve a subjective element? If it is objective and forensic, can such a doctrine play an essential role in biblical theology?

The contemporary study of theology has suggested answers to these questions which deviate from the answers given by the Reformers and classical Protestant orthodoxy. Wrath is said to be unworthy of a loving God who has no need to be reconciled to men. Propitiation of deity is a pagan and therefore unchristian, or at best subchristian, concept. Christ’s death cannot be construed as sacrificial and propitiatory but as the outpouring of his life that men may share its blessings.

Here is a long-overdue study championing the traditional interpretation by the Vice-principal of Ridley College,

Melbourne, Australia. It is not, however, merely a remouthing of old shibboloths, but a fresh, competent linguistic and exegetical study which follows the method made familiar by Gerhard Kittel’s massive theological dictionary. Dr. Morris has already gained wide scholarly recognition in Great Britain by the publication of some of this material in The Expository Times, The Journal of Theological Studies, and The Evangelical Quarterly.

Of outstanding significance is the bearing of Morris’ study on the propitiatory character of Christ’s death. The exegetical conclusions of C. H. Dodd have so widely prevailed at this point that renditions of the K.J.V. and the A.V. at Romans 3:25 have been changed in the R.S.V. from “propitiation” to “expiation.” Probably the average layman is unaware that this change involved a basic divergence in the concept of God himself. Morris fully recognizes the merit of Dodd’s work in dissociating the biblical teaching from pagan ideas of “celestial bribery”; but he successfully demonstrates that Dodd has gone too far in eliminating any idea of propitiation. Morris employs the same technical, philological methodology as that used by Dodd in his influential The Bible and the Greeks. In fact, he demonstrates that Dodd’s conclusions are inadequate because his very methodology needs correction.

GEORGE E. LADD

Christian Existentialist

Kierkegaard Commentary, by T. H. Croxal. Harper, New York. $5.00.

Those interested in the thought of Soren Kierkegaard will find real help in Dr. Croxall’s book. He gives a lucid survey of the contents of Kierkegaard’s writings. The whole picture of the life and labor of the great “Christian Existentialist” stands out in bold relief in this work.

Croxall writes from the point of view of one who has deep sympathy with the object of his research. It is to be hoped that as thorough a study of Kierkegaard as that found in this book may soon be written by some one committed to the historic Christian faith. Something approaching this will soon be made available by the Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company. In a book to be titled Modern Thinkers, the evaluation of Kierkegaard’s philosophy by Prof. S. U. Zuidema, of the Free University of Amsterdam, will be made available to English readers. Meanwhile, we are grateful for Croxall’s book.

CORNELIUS VAN TIL

America’s and Europe’s religious journals, Catholic and Protestant, are today full of fascinating contents. On the whole, they deal constructively with crucial issues that confront the contemporary religious and secular mind. Naturally, many articles are controversial. We would not expect it otherwise in a broken world like ours. Sharp disagreements among thinkers are often the cutting edge of newly emerging ideas. It is both sobering and healthy when our Christian faith is subjected to intense scrutiny by friend and foe. The latter frequently stab us more awake than the former. Did not Jesus warn that “the children of the world are often wiser than the children of the light”?

Just now desegregation of public schools is uppermost in the American mind. Passion is running high, while Asia and Africa and our European and Latin American friends are probing the depths and range of our moral integrity. While all over our land revivals are in full swing, riots also agitate many of our communities. Where the apostle Paul preached there were, to be sure, often revival and riot side by side. But the riot grew out of the revival, that is, out of the preaching of the whole Gospel for the whole man. Our American community riots, however, seem utterly unrelated to the Gospel and its dynamic. Instead they erupt out of attitudes and traditions rooted in our sinful past.

Life magazine (Oct. 1, 1956) presents an article on the race issue by Billy Graham. The famous evangelist clearly focuses the problem in the context of the Christian’s love of God and neighbor:

The Bible requires neighbor-love alongside the love for God, and neighbor-love strikes far deeper than what usually passes today as ‘an end of segregation’ and ‘community integration’. The Christian layman must speak out against the social ills of our times, but he must be careful to speak with the voice of the biblical prophets and apostles and not in the spirit of secular and socializing views.

We are happy to note that Graham unequivocally states that “the Bible speaks strongly against race discrimination.” Woefully he admits that Christians as a whole have not been exemplary in their racial attitudes. “Indeed, it is the tragedy of 20th century Christianity … that such secular influences as military desegregation, sports and television have done more to combat racial prejudice than many churches.” True neighbor-love, Graham stresses, “flows from the regenerate life alone.” Yes, if Christians live in the power and spirit of the Gospel! No, if Christians, despite their professions, are bound by social mores and traditions which they all too easily identify with a Gospel falsely understood! Graham pleads for a recovery of the dynamic of the Holy Spirit, “the power that turns the social patterns upside down.” But before that power can become manifest, must we not seriously repent of all that has gone into our tragic racial situation in the United States? For none of us, north and south, is without guilt in this matter. Would that genuine repentance would sweep through our land for this evil thing that began in slavery and ends in debauching race riots! Then God, who is no respecter of persons, might heal our hurt.

The Baptist Student (April, 1956), a Southern Baptist journal, through Roy Eckhardt cries “Down With This New Religion!” What is that new religion? Answer: success story religion, juke box religion, Hooray religion! “There is nothing in true Christian faith to promise success.” Following Christ more often means hardness, a rugged road of self-denial, or even martyrdom. God is not the ally of our sinful or even idealistic ventures. He is not a means to human ends but we are to be means to His eternal ends. Well spoken!

The conversation between Jew and Christian is today in full swing. Think of Joseph Klausner, Hans Joachim Schoeps, Sholom Asch or Martin Buber, profound Jewish thinkers of our day who reveal a rapport with the deepest religious thinking in Christendom. This conversation must continue on ever higher levels.

A Christian believer may learn much, for instance, from an article by Robert Gordis in Judaism (Summer, 1955) under the title “The Temptation of Job: Tradition versus Experience.” The writer sets into sharp relief the tremendous conflict that raged in Job’s soul between accepted tradition of the group and personal experience of the individual. Job dared to challenge his accuser friends steeped as they were in a venerated tradition in which suffering inevitably was the consequence of sin. In the end of the struggle, Job is chastened and his friends see the light of new truth, namely that suffering may be part of our human discipline or a divine warning, lest we become too secure in our religious imaginations. And withal the mystery of faith remains. “What cannot be comprehended through reason must be embraced in love.”

Katsumi Matsumura in an article in The Japan Christian Quarterly (April, 1956) searchingly writes about “Christianity and Modern Thought in Japan.” The land of the rising sun is afflicted by “surplus of thought” rather than “poverty of thought.” The author points out that “the principal tendencies of thought in Japan are Marxism, existentialism, and nihilism,” but none of these has taken root to any depth. Chronic poverty encourages both resignation and revolutionary tendencies. The lack of persevering in any one way of thinking in modern Japan Matsumura sees as “the chief reason for the loss of faith of the common people.”

The Christian missionary in Japan must grapple with these thought currents and heed the author’s warning against the effort to evangelize quickly. Jesus might have aimed at the rapid spread of His Gospel in His own day. Instead He dealt patiently both with the many and the few. He was never in a hurry.

An encouraging note is found in an editorial in the Texas Standard of recent date: “The editor does not believe that Southern Baptists should affiliate with the National Council of Churches, but he does believe that most denominational bodies affiliated with it are Christian bodies.” Thank you, Dr. James, for this sensible word.

This review of live spiritual and moral issues debated in the secular and religious press of the day is prepared sucessively for CHRISTIANITY TODAY by four evangelical scholars: the Rev. Phillip Hughes of England, Prof. William Mueller of the United States, Prof. G. C. Berkouwer of the Netherlands, and Prof. John H. Gerstner of the United States.—ED.