Far East News: April 01, 1957

Philippine Outlook

Religious issues may play a big role in the November election of a president in the Philippine Republic, a country officially dedicated to the Order of the Sacred Heart a few months before the airplane crash in which President Ramon Magsaysay was killed.

Presidential aspirant Claro M. Recto is opposed by Catholics and backed by Protestant leaders.

The former Vice President, Carlos P. Garcia, who assumed duties of the high office shortly after the crash, is a graduate of Silliman University, a Presbyterian institution in Manila. He is a Catholic, however, as was his predecessor.

Secretary of Education Hernandez, strongly Catholic, also perished in the crash, which took 24 lives. Undersecretary of Education Martin Aguilar Jr., a logical choice for the vacant position, is a Protestant, and church observers are intensely interested in seeing who will get the key post.

President Magsaysay was a popular figure among both Catholics and Protestants. Nearly a half-million persons swarmed around Malacanan Palace when the body of the 49-year-old chief executive was brought from the Cebu Island mountainside.

“His fight against communism as one of democracy’s staunchest champions …,” said Philippine Ambassador to the United States, Carlos P. Romulo.

‘The Only Weapon’

Thirty missionaries, representing 24 different mission groups, agreed on the following statement of faith before issuing invitations to all missionaries in Japan for the 1959 Protestant Centennial Conference:

“We believe in the Bible as the fully inspired, infallible Word of God, the only rule of faith and practice.”

Words Of Warning

Christians in China who are permitted to communicate with the West are members of “show case” churches maintained by communists for propaganda purposes, Ambassador Hollington K. Tong of Nationalist China said recently.

The ambassador, speaking at a dinner commemorating the 155th anniversary of First Baptist Church in Washington, D. C., said most Christian groups in China continue to feel severe persecution.

Despite such reports, however, according to Japan Harvest, a 13-man Protestant Japanese delegation is making plans to visit Red China in April and May. The Rev. J. Asano, Japan Biblical Seminary professor and pastor of The Mitake Kyodan Church, will be the delegation leader.

The delegation will be in Red China for communism’s biggest holiday, the May Day Celebration.

Worth Quoting

“This is the day of the larger church, handsome buildings, plush furniture and costly appointments. I’m not against these things. I love them. I break the Tenth Commandment every time I go into one of those spacious ministers’ studies in our new churches. Then I have to remember how easy it is to insulate yourself from your neighbor, especially if he is on the poorer side of town. If we forget him and his work, we are judging ourselves and our ministry by the price tag.”—Rev. Homer R. Lane, Toronto, Canada.

“It is not a struggle merely of economic theories or forms of government or military power. The issue is the true nature of man. Either man is the creature whom the Psalmist describe as ‘a little lower than the angels’ crowned with glory and honor, holding ‘dominion over the works’ of his Creator; or man is a soulless animated machine to be enslaved, used and consumed by the state for its own glorification.…”—President Eisenhower.

Digest …

Zondervan Publishing House takes over book publishing business of Sword of the Lord Foundation April 1.… Over 50% of Milwaukee TV viewers watch premiere of “Martin Luther.”

$140,000 fund raised to restore historic Calvin Auditorium in Geneva, Switzerland.… Two leading Christian schools in Seoul, Korea—Chosun University and Severence Union Medical College—merge as Yonsei University. First president, Dr. L. George Paik.

Middle East News: April 01, 1957

Massive Radio Effort

Plans for the construction in the Near East of a 100,000-watt radio transmitter to beam programs to the Arabic-speaking world have been approved by the Near East Committee of the National Council of Churches.

To be built at a cost of $250,000, the station will be supported by cooperative Protestant foreign mission boards. With the exception of the Vatican radio, which equals the new station’s planned power, this reportedly will be the largest and most powerful venture in radio by any religious group.

The radio will be as powerful as the 100,000-watt Voice of America transmitters in the area. Like these, it will be short-wave, which carries much farther than medium and long-wave signals. Most home radios in Africa and the East—405,000 were licensed last year in Egypt alone—are equipped to receive short wave.

Exact location of the transmitter has not been determined.

Radio jamming by Russia, recently intensified in the area, will be a problem, but church engineers are optimistic after studying transmitting conditions in the Middle East.

The station’s programs will be educational and cultural as well as religious.

Dr. W. Burton Martin, executive secretary of the NCC’s RAVEMCCO (Radio, Audio-Visual Education, Mass Communications Committee), said programming will call for an eight-hour day, seven-day-a-week schedule. Included will be a family breakfast program, and programs for industrial workers, farmers and homemakers.

Bible study and daily devotions will be features in the schedule, but music, drama and light entertainment will have significant roles.

“Its influence will be invaluable in bringing the Christian message to new millions, while operating in the public interest,” said Dr. Martin.

Some American observers said they were not enthusiastic about the church putting on public service programs. Others expressed hope that evangelical voices, long familiar to world audiences as bearers of the Gospel, will not he bypassed.

Africa News: April 01, 1957

Doors Open Wider

Christian denominational mission leaders, once fearful of the path the new state of Ghana will take, now feel that self-government may mean wider open doors—with the stigma of “foreign imperialism” removed.

Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah said his country will continue to welcome missionaries. “We owe a lot to missionaries,” he stated.

The Prime Minister said his people were becoming Western in their outlook and had no intention of joining the Afro-Asian bloc of leftist countries.

In the flush of their first taste of political freedom, the jubilant people of Africa’s newest nation did not forget to thank God and the missionaries who brought the message. At the official Independence Week mass church service in the capital city, Accra, the Rev. Christian G. Baeta, chairman of the Christian Council of Ghana, told thousands of worshippers:

“Ghana’s independence enables her to do battle for God. We would dedicate ourselves and our new nation, all that we are and have, to the service of Almighty God, the giver of all. The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.”

Dr. Baeta, who is senior lecturer in theology at the School of Divinity, University of Ghana, paid tribute to the work of missionaries:

“Particularly would we remember with humble thanksgiving that noble army of missionaries of the Gospel who, in selfless devotion, penetrated the deepest recesses of our land and of the lives of its people, bringing in the light of God, the light by which we now live.”

In an interview with the African Challenge (140,000 circulation), Dr. Baeta stressed the need for Christian instruction in the young nation:

“The ordinary religious instruction given is very primitive. We teach people basic Bible stories, but little instruction is given on how to carry Christianity into practical life. Nobody else will give moral instruction so vital to a young nation. It remains for Christians to do this through literature.”

—W.H.F.

Threat By Church

The Capetown Presbyterian Church of South Africa intimated recently that it will resort to civil disobedience if proposed legislation is enacted giving the government control over church services attended by both Europeans and Africans.

In a statement read from pulpits in all churches of the denomination at Capetown, the presbytery declared that to bow to government control of multi-racial worship services would be to “disregard our Lord’s own words—‘my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.’ ”

The statement added:

“In the event, therefore, of the bill becoming law, it would be our solemn duty, while not unmindful of our obligations towards and respect of civil power, to take our stand on the words of Calvin: ‘We are subject to men who rule over us but subject only in the Lord. If they command anything against him, let us not pay least regard to it nor be moved by all the dignity they possess as magistrates—dignity to which no injury is done when it is subordinated to the special and truly supreme power of God.”

The proposed new law is incorporated in a section of the Native Laws Amendment Bill. It will require permission from the Minister of Native Affairs, Dr. H. F. Verwoerd, for multi-racial services in churches or other institutions established since 1938. The bill also has been opposed by the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist and Baptist churches and other religious groups.

Europe News: April 01, 1957

State Church Exit

The traditional State Church is on its way out in Europe, according to the president of the Baptist Union of Sweden.

Dr. Gunnar Westin, former dean of the theological faculty at Uppsala University, made the statement recently on a visit to Washington, D. C.

“A strong doctrine of Church and State separation is developing throughout Europe,” he said.

Dr. Westin, a member of the Baptist World Alliance executive committee, came to the United States last fall for a four-month lecture engagement at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. He also has lectured at other theological schools and will conclude the visit with lectures at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, the first week in April.

The Baptist leader said the State Church system which developed in Europe immediately following the Reformation was based on the theory that “government is responsible for the souls of its people.” It also grew out of the doctrine that church unity is essential to political unity, he said.

The Lutheran Church is the State Church of Sweden and other Scandinavian countries.

Study In Contrast

The United States has delivered $700,000,000 worth of equipment to the new German army, including 1,100 tanks and 1,000 military planes.

The Pocket Testament League is sending 50,000 copies of the Gospel of John.

‘Pact With Devil’

Communist newspapers in Germany’s East Zone accused Berlin’s Bishop Otto Dibelius of “entering into a pact with the devil” when he recently co-signed with the West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer as agreement providing for establishment of chaplaincy services for the new West German Army.

The pact will go into effect after approval by the synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany and the Bundestag, lower house of the West German Parliament.

Bishop Dibelius is chairman of the EKD Council. Roman Catholic chaplaincy for the new army has already been established under a Vatican-West German concordat.

The Soviet Zone press denounced the arrangement as an “un-Christian misuse of the Church” and “provocation of peace-loving forces within and outside the church.” It said that Christianity must not be “misused as a moral cement for a NATO army” and warned East German members of the EKD Synod that they could not “in good conscience” approve the treaty.

Ruling In Italy

Italy’s new Constitutional Court has ruled that public religious gatherings may be held without previous notice to the police.

The decision marked a victory for evangelical groups who had long sought to have the police regulation set aside.

In its ruling the court declared unconstitutional an article of the 1931 Public Security Law specifying that the police must be notified three days in advance of any religious assembly outside a recognized house of worship.

Some Italian and Protestant missionaries have run into trouble in recent years over interpretations of the law.

The Lost Chord of Evangelism

Christianity in the World Today

Dr. Billy Graham, in an address prepared for delivery April 3 at the 15th annual convention of the National Association of Evangelicals in Buffalo, New York, illustrates a major point on “the lost sincere compassion for sinners” with these words:

“Where are the tears for the lost? Where is our concern for men that are confused, frustrated, lost, sinful and destined for hell? At the moment, our New York campaign has been challenged by some extremists on two points.

“First, as to its sponsorship, I would like to make myself quite clear. I intend to go anywhere, sponsored by anybody, to preach the Gospel of Christ, if there are no strings attached to my message. I am sponsored by civic clubs, universities, ministerial associations and councils of churches all over the world. I intend to continue. Not one person in New York has even suggested or hinted as to what my message should be. It will be precisely the same message that I have preached all over the world. The centrality of my message will be Christ and Him crucified.

“Second, we have been challenged on what happens to the converts when the crusade is over. Apparently these brethren who make these statements have no faith in the Holy Spirit. The work of regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit. The work of follow up is the work of the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit that convicted them of sin and regenerated them is able to follow them. No group of ministers in any large city anywhere in the world agree on what constitutes a sound church. We do all we can in follow up, but ultimately they’re in the hands of the Holy Spirit. He is more than able. We have overwhelming evidence of how miraculously the Holy Spirit has led thousands who have come forward in the meetings to surrender their hearts to Christ.”

Other key points of Dr. Graham’s address, entitled “The Lost Chord of Evangelism,” are as follows:

“The lost sensibility to the majesty of God.

“We handle holy things too glibly and professionally. We need to sense the majesty and holiness of God, as did Isaiah, Moses and Daniel. If we could get a glimpse of God today we would fall on our faces, as did Peter, James and John at the transfiguration and as Paul did on the Damascus Road.

“The lost sense of God’s presence.

“Samson ‘wist not’ that the Lord had departed from him. Many of us have lost the sense of God’s presence and anointing. We no longer minister in the powers of the Holy Spirit. Our message has lost that certain something that is necessary for spiritual power.

“The lost sensitivity to personal ethics.

“The Christian should be the most ethical person in our society. His income tax returns should be the most honest. The Christian minister should lean over backwards in his honesty, truthfulness and personal decorum. In the complexities of the present-day world, it is easy to get careless.

“The lost simplicity of our love one to another.

“The one badge of Christian discipleship is not orthodoxy, but love. There is far more emphasis on love and unity among God’s people in the New Testament than there is on orthodoxy, as important as it is.

“The lost significance of the scope of the Church.

“We evangelicals sometimes set ourselves up as judges of another man’s relationship to God. We often think that a person is not a Christian unless he pronounces our shibboleths and cliches exactly the way we do. I have found born again Christians in the strangest places, under the oddest circumstances, who do not know our particular evangelical language. But their spirit witnesses to my spirit that they are truly sons of God. There is a great swing all over the world, within the Church, toward a more conservative theological position. The old terms, fundamentalism and liberalism, are now passe. The situation has radically changed, since the days of Machen, Riley and other defenders of the faith a generation ago.

“The lost separation from the world.

“There is danger among evangelicals of compromising with the mode of the day. The lines of separation from the world are no longer drawn. Our attitudes are becoming infected with the spirit of the times. We are in danger of surrendering to false standards. While we must not be legalistic, we must be separated from the world. Worldliness is not a few designated things, such as dancing, movies and drinking, but is a spirit that is invading our homes and our lives today through many other mediums. We need to issue a new call for separation, not only from the world, but unto God.”

The NAE, representing over 40 denominations and associations, announced plans for a united prayer effort on the evening of April 3 in behalf of Dr. Graham’s New York crusade. Cards displayed at the convention, state by state, carried the pledges of scores of churches to unite their midweek prayer services with the concentrated effort. The prayer session at Buffalo is to last through midnight.

“Demonstrating Oneness in Christ” was the tide of another major convention address, prepared for delivery by Dr. Paul P. Petticord, president of Western Evangelical Seminary, Portland, Oregon, and president of NAE.

Highlights are as follows:

“Evangelicals demonstrate oneness in Christ.

“In this our day we have on the one hand the martyrs who cannot compromise the evangelical Christian doctrine and on the other those who liberalize Christian truth by rationalizing themselves into a philosophical position that says, ‘I must retain my existence, regardless,’ or ‘I am better alive than dead.’

This sounds logical but it does not come from the lips of evangelical Christians … Since when are we so valuable to this modern generation that the entire Christian philosophy should be reversed from ‘He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it’ to ‘I shall gain my life through expediency’?

“Evangelicals lift a voice against this type of thinking which depends upon temporal values and social recognition rather than the security of the cross. They are very much aware that this type of philosophy had crept into the church, especially among the ministry, until one might say that one of the chief motives of the modern minister is ‘to get along.’ I call this ‘the sin of expediency.’ Rather than to insist upon a minister being called to deliver God’s message in judgment as well as love, mercy and peace, many ministers feel it is more important to preach only the ethical idealisms and to leave out the most important part of the Gospel, the plan of redemption. Kindred to this position is the attitude that a minister must not make negative statements concerning the basic sinful nature of man. To this, evangelicals must say that one must discern the evils of the day and follow the instruction of the Scriptures to call men to repentance and to warn them of the results of sin and the judgment of God.

“Evangelicals demonstrate oneness in organizational cooperation.

“To be a crusading movement means that evangelicals must have not only a spirit of discernment but also a vision of what God would have his children do in facing the evils of the day. Now this necessitates a struggle against certain forces that would oppose the message of evangelical Christianity. It is because of this opposition that evangelicals are sometimes labeled as divisive, intolerant conservatives. I think any student of the Scripture is convinced that Christ had many who opposed him because he discerned the evils of his day and was willing to lift his voice against sin and unbelief in a positive presentment of himself as the only Saviour who could free men from sin. The evangelical testimony has this same type of witness. It is not belligerent, caustic, arrogant or pretentious, but it is an expression of deepest sincerity.

“Evangelicals demonstrate ecumenicity.

“Wherever the unification of peoples has been imposed under terms of force or regimentation, culturally, politically, socially, educationally, morally or religiously, great new rifts soon open where least expected, dividing along natural ‘fault’ lines. The infinite variety of differences in man seems to challenge conformity. Yet the ideal of achieving the proper relationship of the many into a unified endeavor continues to challenge men everywhere. However, there is a Divine plan. We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.…

“In the doctrinal Lordship of Christ is the only true ecumenicity. It means first, a spiritual Kingdom or society, uniting ‘in one Spirit,’ every ‘born again’ person everywhere. But it means also a living expression of ‘love to God’ which is ‘loving others as oneself.’ A Christian is vitally concerned about and interested in the spiritual and social well-being of his fellow man. It is ever his passionate desire to make available to all people the blessing he himself enjoys in Christ. Wherever men have become Christians, the darkness and oppression of sin and greed have been lifted.

“Evangelical oneness, which is Christ’s kingdom, is a morally transformed body of individuals, each one of whom has experienced, in himself, the life of Christ. Evangelicals unite their strength to live out the principles of Christ, its Lord, in the midst of daily life. This is the demonstration of evangelical ecumenicity.

“Evangelicals demonstrate oneness in purpose.

“The evangelical Christian gives more than mental assent to truth and he is one who refuses to ameliorate or compromise by administrative or ecclesiastical manifestation the clear witness concerning salvation in Christ.… The chief purpose of the evangelical is to spread the message of redemption from sin through Christ. Because of this fact, convinced evangelicals are bound to go into all the world and preach the Gospel.”

Dr. Petticord said evangelical Christianity, as a crusading movement, should have an outreach for the immediate future in a united purpose of successful witness in the following seven fields of service ministry:

(1) A ministry of encouraging evangelical fellowship, (2) encouraging social and material benefits for mankind, (3) expressing a united evangelical voice before government, (4) encouraging evangelical broadcasters, (5) encouraging evangelical home missions expansion, (6) calling evangelicals to manifest the oneness of Pentecost and (7) calling all evangelicals to prayer.

“He added:

“Evangelical Christianity does not depend upon worldly political power or organization to survive one kind of culture or another. Roman and Grecian culture died and Christianity was virile. Barbarism overran Europe and still evangelical Christianity survived. It is through the power of prayer that men are able to survive and perpetuate their faith.

“It is an ‘other worldly’ allegiance depending upon a King of a spiritual kingdom that is the culture in which virile Christianity grows. So if the Lord tarries and if the old world order succumbs and a new order arises, evangelical Christianity, though under other banners, will survive.

“The power of Christianity has never depended upon numerical superiority nor does the evangelical Christianity today. Through the power of prayer, its influence is multiplied like the loaves and the fishes in the hands of Christ and the multitudes are fed.

“To this end, the National Association of Evangelicals calls evangelicals everywhere to prayer, imploring men and women to set aside everything else to do that which is most important. This is to intercede before God, understanding that it is ‘by my spirit saith the Lord’ that the Kingdom of God may come in the hearts of men, and that evangelical Christianity will become increasingly virile through importune prayer, and that our differences will be minimized in the reaffirmation of the great objectives of our common faith.

“Evangelicals are today demonstrating a greater oneness in Christ than ever before. May God grant that the witness will be clear, unequivocal and certain so that all men may know by the Holy Spirit that Christ is the way, the truth and the life and that no man can come unto the Father but by him.…”

Short, Short Story

Ohio state senators were on the floor discussing the addition of a prayer and meditation room at the Capitol in Columbus.

“More people are praying today than ever before,” said Senator Lowell Fess, who introduced the measure.

“How are you going to keep the lobbyists out of the prayer room?” asked Senator Arthur Blake.

“They will need it more than we will,” replied Senator Fess.

Intercreedal Program

The National Council of Churches has invited Roman Catholics and Jews to join in producing a weekly, nationwide television program to promote spiritual values without reference to specific religious beliefs.

The invitation was extended by the Board of Managers of the National Council of Churches’ Broadcasting and Film Commission at its annual meeting in New York City. The board acted on a proposal made by the Rev. S. Franklin Mack, the commission’s executive director.

According to the officials, the program will be aimed chiefly at the “unchurched and the indifferent.”

The three groups now share in turn a weekly half-hour program on the National Broadcasting Company. At present, the Sunday program is called “Frontiers of Faith” by the Protestants and Jews and “The Catholic Hour” by the Catholics.

A 1957 budget of $1,170,930 was adopted by the Board of Managers.

Rose Bowl Service

Dr. Norman C. Hunt, one of Great Britain’s outstanding educational and religious leaders, will address the ninth annual Easter Sunrise service on April 21 in the Rose Bowl at Pasadena, California.

Dr. Hunt, professor of the Department of Industry and Commerce at the University of Edinburgh, has written publications on personnel management and industrial relations that are highly regarded by business leaders. He spent three months in the United States at the invitation of the American government to survey facilitites for university education pertaining to business.

He is president-elect of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Great Britain, serves on the Scottish councils of a number of missionary societies and has been active in the Christian Endeavor movement.

Dr. Carl F. H. Henry, editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, will interpret the significance of the service to the Bowl and radio audience.

Scheduled to begin at 6 a.m., the hour-long service will include musical numbers by the Pacific Bible College Choir, the Congress Hall Band of the Salvation Army and the Westmont College male quartet. Hundreds of other volunteer workers will be engaged in various duties to make possible the service.

Missionary Privileges

H. R. Bill 872, which would permit missionaries to make purchases at armed services commissaries outside the United States, is almost certain to get an adverse report from the Defense Department.

Spokesmen for the Defense Department have indicated that such legislation would run into serious difficulties in a number of countries because of duty-exemption agreements with post exchanges. The officials pointed out, however, that present regulations make it possible for area commanders to extend the privileges to missionaries wherever possible.

Questions also have arisen as to whether such legislation could place the government in the position of assuming expenses which otherwise would be the responsibility of the churches or mission boards. In this case, the bill would clash with the principle of church and state separation.

Meanwhile, missionaries in a number of countries face tremendous financial difficulties because of official exchange rates. The Bolivian government recently, with U. S. support, established one official exchange. There had been two official rates, plus a free market. While one rate was as high as 13,000 bolivianos to the dollar, certain exports were traded as low as 190 bolivianos to the dollar. Under the new rate the American dollar brings about 7,500 bolivianos.

One mission reported that the buying of some essential items had to be stopped because “it is altogether impossible to pay the fantastic prices.”

‘Religion’ Ruling

The House Judiciary Committee has reversed itself and restored the word “religion” to the list of discriminations which a proposed Federal Civil Rights Commission would he empowered to investigate.

Earlier, the committee had dropped “religion” in an effort to make the bill less controversial. A bi-partisian group of Congressmen indicated, however, they would fight for an amendment to have it restored on the floor unless the committee reconsidered its decision.

Representative Lester Holtzman (D-N. Y.), a spokesman for the group, said the United States was settled “primarily as a refuge for the Pilgrim Fathers who suffered as a result of their religious beliefs and set out to find a new homeland where they could worship as they pleased.”

He said America “should not give mere lip service” to its ideal of religious freedom but “take concrete action in ensuring the protection of the exercise of these inalienable rights.”

34-Year-Old Broadcast Terminated

The 104-year-old First Methodist Church of Los Angeles, California, has asked the Federal Communications Commission to order a public hearing on the action of Radio Station KFAC in terminating a religious program that has been broadcasting every Sunday morning for 34 years.

A number of churches have received broadcast termination notices since the Broadcasting and Film Commission of the National Council of Churches adopted an advisory policy against the sale of time for religious programs, but practically all such churches were members of denominations not affiliated with the NCC. The denomination of First Methodist in L.A. is affiliated with the Council.

Asked to comment on the incident, the Rev. S. Franklin Mack, executive director of the NCC Broadcast and Film Commission, said, “we are not involved in the matter.”

The “Mother Church of Southern California Methodism” pioneered in broadcasting its Sunday morning service to shut-ins in 1923, when radio was in its infancy.

In a formal complaint to the FCC, Dr. J. Richard Sneed, minister of the church, said the Los Angeles Broadcasting Company, proprietors of the station, had informed him that “the First Methodist Church services on Sunday morning are completely incompatible with our program format.”

“We are gradually eliminating all religious programs and replacing them with musical programs,” the station said in advising the church that it would no longer be permitted to purchase time between 11 and 12 o’clock on Sunday morning and that no other time would be made available.

The church said it had been paying the regular commercial rate.

Dr. Sneed, in his petition to the FCC, declared:

“If your honorable Commission does not take immediate steps to investigate and review this entire problem, the broadcast of church services and other religious programs will be sacrificed completely to unadulterated commercialism.”

The church pointed out that prior to 1951 it had for 28 years purchased time for the broadcast of both its morning and evening services over KFAC. In 1951 the station asked the church to discontinue broadcast of its evening services and “at that time represented and warranted that KFAC would not disturb the continued broadcast of morning services.”

The church also informed the FCC that KFAC, in its application for regular three-year renewal of license in 1956, represented to the Commission that 1.9 per cent of its broadcast time was being devoted to religious services, whereas the station now proposes to eliminate all such broadcasts.

“America,” the church asserted, “is basically a religious-minded country,” and it is in the public interest that “all religious denominations” be permitted a fair amount of broadcast time.

The church asked that the FCC order a public hearing in the Los Angeles area to determine if the station meets its obligations as a broadcast licensee.

The bill, which the House Judiciary Committee is preparing, would set up a bi-partisian commission to investigate all cases in which there is discrimination because of “race, color, religion or national origin.”

Protest Withdrawn

The Action Committee for freedom of Religious Expression has withdrawn its request to the Federal Communications Commission for a public hearing on Chicago television station WGN-TV’s application for a license to operate a new and more powerful transmitter.

The committee, formed to protest the cancellation by WGN-TV of a premiere telecast last December of the film “Martin Luther,” said the petition to the FCC was withdrawn in view of a scheduled showing of the movie by Station WBKB in Chicago.

“It now appears that the film will be telecast … April 23 at 10 p.m.,” the committee said. “The immediate goal of the Action Committee, which was to make this important film available to the people of Chicago, therefore, will have been achieved.”

The committee, which includes representatives of the National Council of Churches, major Lutheran bodies in the United States, and other Protestant groups, called the scheduled April 23 showing of the film “a substantial contribution to the cause of freedom … the threat to the freedom of religious expression represented by the action of WGN-TV in yielding to sectarian censorship demands has been repudiated by the broadcasting industry.”

Dr. Charles J. Anderson, midwest executive director of the National Association of Evangelicals, dissented from the committee’s decision to withdraw its petition.

He said:

“The issue is whether a medium of public information may submit freely to sectarian censorshop without censure from the public agency to which is entrusted the responsibility to see that it operates in the public interest.”

The Action Committee’s statement to the FCC noted that “any dereliction upon the part of WGN-TV cannot be cured by the deed of WBKB.”

Dr. John W. Harms, chairman of the committee, said his group will continue on a permanent basis to exercise “vigilance” against “sectarian censorship.”

Vatican Relations

“I don’t know!”

Vice President Richard M. Nixon made this reply when asked if he anticipated the eventual resumption of relations between the United States and the Vatican.

‘Therapy’ Appeal

The liquor industry, in a new bit of strategy, is planning to advertise liquor as a therapy for old people, claiming that it keeps them “spry and alert.”

“Liquor executives are scheming this new approach, believing it will boost consumption among adults over 40 enormously,” said Sen. Thomas C. Desmond, chairman of New York State’s committee on the problems of the aging.

None of the ads, presumably, will be placed in The Bowery, a New York area filled with “spry and alert” men of distinction who grew old long before their time.

The question was put to him after he had been received in private audience by Pope Pius XII.

“Personally,” said Mr. Nixon, “I can only hope for the continuation of the same good personal relations so far existing between the United States and the Holy See.” He said the topic was not discussed during his talk with the Pope.

Presidents Roosevelt and Truman maintained a personal envoy to Pope Pius, but the relationship ended when the envoy, Myron C. Taylor, resigned in January, 1950. President Truman’s nomination of General Mark Clark in 1952 to be U. S. Ambassador to the Vatican aroused so much opposition that General Clark asked his name be withdrawn.

Mr. Nixon, who is a Quaker, was received by the Pope after arriving in Rome from Libya, one of the nations in his African tour. The Vice President spent 25 minutes with the Pope, discussing problems of Africa, Asia and the “cold war.”

He also said he also had talked to the Pope about Palestine and the Holy Places but declined to reveal what was said. He remarked that “the Pope is very well informed and, at the same time, very concerned about the general situation in the Middle East.”

The Vice President delivered a personal message to Pope Pius from President Eisenhower.

Mrs. Nixon, a Methodist, joined her husband a few minutes before the Pope received the rest of the Vice Presidential party and newsmen in his library.

Church Merger

With 41 of 66 presbyteries on record, the vote of United Presbyterians at press time was 717 to 481 in favor of merger with the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A.

The voting is expected to be completed well before the General Assembly meeting in June.

In the vote of presbyteries, 29 favored the merger with 12 opposed, but the official count will be votes cast by the minister and one elder of each church. The issue will be decided by a simple majority.

A number of ministers opposed to the merger are not instructing church members for or against in the matter. There have been cases of elders voting for merger and ministers voting against it.

The General Assembly may study the results closely if the minority vote is large enough for possible disruptive pressure.

The Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., vote for merger was overwhelming.

The Men Speak

A proposal to ordain women as ruling elders and deacons in the Presbyterian Church, U. S. (Southern), approved by the denomination’s 1956 General Assembly, has been rejected by the presbyteries.

Dr. E. C. Scott, the church’s stated clerk, reported that 43 of the 85 presbyteries had voted against the proposal and 40 in favor, with no word from two presbyteries.

Approval by a majority of the presbyteries with subsequent favorable action by the General Assembly is required.

Delegates to the General Assembly, which met last June, voted 234 to 226 in favor of the proposal.

Code For Parents

A six-point code for parents of teenagers has been adopted by parents who are members of six churches in Manhasset, New York.

Titled “Principles for Parents,” it pledges them to chaperon parties held in their homes, not to serve alcoholic beverages to anyone else’s children and to discourage youngsters from going to homes where such beverages will be served.

The code also calls on parents to prevent party crashing, to make sure they know where their children are going and when they will return, to insist that their children respect the rights and property of others and the community and to bar unlawful driving after dark on junior drivers’ permits.

‘Discrimination’

An Eastern Orthodox clergyman has charged that New York City’s Committee on Slum Clearance is guilty of discrimination in excluding his church from plans for a $228,000,000 redevelopment of the Lincoln Square area.

The committee has denied the charge made by the Rev. Gregory R. P. Adair, pastor of the Cathedral of Our Saviour. Mr. Adair told a protest meeting held at his church that he intended to “call the bluff” of the committee.

The protest meeting was arranged by Americans United, a branch of Protestants and Other American United for Separation of Church and State.

Americans United is opposing the proposed resale by the city of properties within the area to St. Matthew’s Roman Catholic Church and to Fordham University, a Catholic school.

A taxpayers’ suit to bar the city from proceeding with the Lincoln Square Redevelopment Project was dismissed as “premature” by the State Supreme Court in February on the grounds that the Board of Estimate had not yet given final authorization for the plans.

Plaintiffs had maintained that the planned sale of 300,000 square feet of cleared slum land to Fordham University at $5 a square foot and the erection of a Catholic church and school on the property struck at Church-State separation.

Mr. Adair said provision had been made in the area for the Catholic institutions, which he asserted will benefit from markdowns subsidized by public funds, but that his request to be included had been rejected by the committee.

William S. Lebwohl, slum clearance director, said that Mr. Adair’s request came too late. He also went on record as saying that when the area is put up for resale, after the city acquires it, Mr. Adair’s church can bid for one of the plots against proposed sponsors, who have been negotiating construction details with the committee for more than a year.

Said Mr. Adair:

“I believe Mr. Moses [Robert Moses, chairman of the committee] will find some technicality for disqualifying us if we bid against St. Matthew’s Roman Catholic Church, Fordham University or any of the other sponsors he has virtually selected.”

The Presbyterian Church of the Good Shepherd, also in the project area, is to remain undisturbed. St. Cyprian’s Protestant Episcopal Church is slated for demolition and is not included in the redevelopment plan.

Off To Adventure

Sunday School and television have united in a planned curriculum for the first time.

The first national religious TV series produced expressly for children had its premiere on New York Station WPIX-TV in March.

Sponsored by the National Council of Churches, the series, called “Off to Adventure,” will tie in with the 1957 Protestant Sunday School theme—“the Indian American.”

The quarter-hour film programs show work done for Indian Americans by American Baptists, the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., the United Church of Canada, the Protestant Episcopal Church and the American Bible Society.

An estimated 200 stations are expected to carry the program by June. The New York premiere, on Sunday, March 17, was telecast at noon. Other telecast times around the nation will be decided by sponsoring church groups.

Tax Exemptions

Sixteen bills proposing income tax exemptions for tuition payments to private and parochial schools are pending in Congress.

The newest, introduced by Rep. Paul Fino (R-N. Y.) would provide tax exemption for the full tuition payment. Others would give full or partial exemption for college tuition only. One would classify all tuition payments to private elementary and secondary schools as charitable contributions.

The House Ways and Means Committee, to which all the measures have been referred, is expected to appoint a subcommittee to study the problem.

Religious Mail Rates

Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield has asked Congress for an increase in second and third class postage rates, but he urged that the present subsidized rates for mail of religious and non-profit organizations be left unchanged.

The rate for religious and non-profit periodicals entered as second class matter is one and one-half cent a pound. Other periodicals now pay two and one-half cents a pound. The Postmaster General asked for a zone rate schedule on second class that will raise these rates 60 per cent over a four-year period.

Religious and non-profit groups now mail circulars, bulletins and other bulk mail at one cent each. Other postal users pay one and one-half cents for mailings larger than 200 pieces and two cents on other third class matter.

This would be raised to two cents and two and one-half cents, respectively, under the proposed legislation.

Theology

Bible Book of the Month: The Gospel of Luke

The author of the Third Gospel was uniquely equipped to be the author of a book recording the history of the Great Physician in a reliable form. Although he was, according to his own declaration in Luke 1:1–4, no eyewitness of the gospel history, he had excellent opportunities to acquire all the authoritative information necessary for his two books, the Gospel of Luke and The Acts of the Apostles.

Authorship

The earliest Christian traditions unanimously declare that the author of Luke and Acts is “the beloved physician” of whom mention is made by the apostle Paul in Colossians 4:14, Philemon 24 and 2 Timothy 4:11. From these statements it is clear that Luke was with him while he was in captivity in Rome. This fits in excellently with the data of Acts. For according to Acts 16:10–17, 20:5–21:17 and 27:1–28:16 the author of Acts, after having accompanied Paul on several of his missionary journeys, stayed with him when he was taken to Rome as prisoner of the Roman Emperor.

According to Acts 1:1 the author of Acts is indeed also the author of the Gospel, for both are dedicated to a certain Theophilus and “the former treatise” to which he refers is manifestly the Third Gospel. The vocabulary, style and language of the Greek originals of Luke and Acts also conclusively prove that the tradition is correct in ascribing both books to the same author.

Knowing now that Luke was “the beloved physician” who accompanied Paul on long journeys (from Troas to Philippi, Acts, 16:10–17, about five years later from Philippi via Troas and Milete to Jerusalem, Acts 20:5–21:17, and finally from Caesaria to Rome, Acts 27:1–28:16) and who apparently stayed with him several years in Rome, we realize what excellent opportunities he had to obtain firsthand knowledge regarding the Gospel history.

Search For True Facts

Turning to the first four verses of the Third Gospel, we discover that Luke was well aware of his unique opportunity of discovering the true facts regarding Jesus Christ. And at the same time his statement in these first four verses, written in beautiful classic Greek, reveals the fact that Luke was deeply conscious of the tremendous responsibilities which rested upon him of being the author of such an important book.

He lived in times when to follow Jesus Christ was a matter of life and death. It thus was of the utmost importance that there should be absolute certainty regarding the facts on which his faith and that of his fellow-Christians were based. A man with his scientific outlook on life—one who witnessed so much of the “life and death” struggle between the early Christian Church and her Jewish and heathen opponents—he realized that only when the Christian faith is based on absolutely reliable facts will it be able to win its way in the world. He accordingly wrote to Theophilus, who was probably a well-educated and important person, that after he had from all available evidence “traced the course of all things accurately from the first,” he had decided to write a well-ordered account so that his reader “might know the certainty concerning the things wherein thou wast instructed” (1:3–4).

During the past more than one hundred years, Luke’s statement in 1:1 that many had already written accounts of the Gospel history by the time he decided to write his more comprehensive and well-ordered narrative was mostly not taken seriously enough. The idea reigned that while the Apostles lived, the spoken word was regarded as practically the only source for knowledge regarding the Gospel history. The truth of Luke’s statement has, however, recently been accentuated by the discovery of the Dead Sea Rolls. These ancient writings have proved beyond doubt that among religious Jewish circles of about the time of the beginning of our Christian era it was customary to have, apart from oral traditions, extensive written reports of what religious leaders said, did and experienced.

In this as well as in many other respects, modern investigations have revealed the remarkable historical trustworthiness of the writings of Luke. In fact there is, apart from other Bible authors, no other historian of antiquity who has been proved to be so remarkably reliable as the Greek physician, Luke, the author of our Third Gospel and Acts.

It is, indeed, the unique characteristic of our Christian faith that it is based not on speculations of theories but on definite historical facts. For spiritually we cannot live on uncertainties or half-truths. All other faiths and philosophic systems are the result of human speculations, and are only a manifestation of the vain struggle of those who try to find along their own roads the way to spiritual rest. In the Gospel of Luke, however, we have the historical account of how the living God in his redeeming grace through Jesus Christ entered into the life of mankind, seeking to save those that are lost.

A close study of the contents of the Third Gospel emphasizes the fact that Luke indeed had access to a very wide range of reliable written as well as oral sources of information. He definitely made extensive use of the Gospel of Mark which he knew to be a trustworthy account. He knew Mark personally (cf. Col. 4:10 and 14, and Philemon 24), and they most naturally would have discussed matters regarding the Gospel history.

Paul himself also would have had a very wide and accurate knowledge of the main facts regarding him in whose service he sacrificed everything—even his own life. Through his intimate contact with Paul, Luke would thus have learned much regarding the Gospel history. At Jerusalem, Caesarea and elsewhere Luke, with his enquiring type of nature and Hellenistic training and culture, most certainly would have made the best use of the unique opportunities to gather as much information as possible also from the original Apostles and other eyewitnesses of the life, death and triumph of him whom he had learned to adore and serve as the Savior of the world.

Comprehensive History

The result of all of this is that by the time Luke wrote the Gospel, he completely mastered his material. We note this in the fact that his Gospel gives the most extensive and comprehensive account of the history of Jesus—starting from the announcement of the birth of His forerunner (John the Baptist) and running right through to the resurrection and ascension. And in Acts, the sequel to his first “treatise,” he gives supplementary details regarding the forty days between the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and then relates the history of how the glorified, triumphant Savior through the Holy Spirit built his Church and used the Apostles and especially Paul to proclaim the glad tidings throughout so great a part of the Roman Empire.

Luke realized that there existed, especially among educated people of the time, an urgent desire for firmly established truth in the field of religion. The different philosophic schools of thought were contradicting each other, rested on mere speculative grounds and left unsatisfied the deepest spiritual needs of people. At the same time the popular pagan religions, with their gross immorality and superstitions, filled the serious minded and educated people with repugnance. Religious men like Luke and Theophilus thus yearned for reliable knowledge regarding things eternal and spiritual. So, Luke addresses himself to the many seekers after firmly established truth; and for all of us he has written his beautiful Gospel in such a way that we are also able “to know the glad tidings with full certainty.”

Aim Of Author

Although Luke had access to the best firsthand sources of information he did not write an ordinary detailed biography of our Lord. He had a definite purpose in mind and made use only of the information which served his purpose. This aim was to proclaim as clearly and as forcibly as possible (in the limited space available in a parchment roll) Jesus Christ as the all-sufficient and almighty Savior of the world. From the very start the light is focused on him. The history of John the Baptist and all other characters that appear in the Gospel narrative is related only because it points to the glorious fact that Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God who came to the world to save those who are lost.

Luke wrote his Gospel not merely to relate a beautiful story or to satisfy curiosity. His Gospel is a mighty and unequivocal proclamation of the glad tidings that God has indeed fulfilled his promises and has sent his only begotten Son to live, work, die and triumph as the divine Savior. As in no other Gospel we see how Jesus progressively revealed himself as Son of God and almighty Savior of all who take refuge to him. We see him exercising divine authority over nature, over the world of invisible spirits, over the human body and over the spirit of man. We see him even calling the dead back to life and using divine prerogative to forgive sins. We hear God the Father affirming that he is indeed his beloved Son who must be obeyed. And thus right through the Gospel we see Christ living and acting as the One who is indeed human and who entered into the deepest suffering on our behalf, but who is at the same time truly the Son of God and who is thus able to save not only Jews, but also Samaritans, pagans, publicans, sinners and outcasts as well as respectable people, the poor as well as the rich and women as well as men. Luke clearly shows that the redeeming work of Christ is of universal, all-embracing significance. Even the murderer on the cross was given the assurance of eternal salvation when he turned with repentance and faith to the dying Savior.

When this fact is clearly grasped—that Luke wrote his Gospel primarily to proclaim Christ as the one who entered human history to save them that are lost—it becomes apparent why Luke on the one hand left out many details which we would have liked him to mention and why on the other hand he has so much material not found in the other three Gospels. This truth also banishes the idea spread by so many negative critics that the Gospels contradict each other. Far from really contradicting each other, an unprejudiced study of Luke compared with the other Gospels reveals that each Gospel writer deliberately chose to relate certain details and to leave out others because they never intended to write ordinary biographies. On the contrary each, from a certain angle, proclaims the glad tidings of God’s salvation in and through his Son. Accordingly the four Gospels supplement each other and in a manifestly divine manner give, when taken together, a perfect and well-balanced picture of Jesus as our all-sufficient Lord and Savior.

Partial Bibliography

The following are some of the more important commentaries on the Gospel of Luke: J. M. Creed, The Gospel According to St. Luke (Macmillan, 1942); B. S. Eaton, The Gospel According to St. Luke (T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1926); A. J. Grieve, St. Luke in Peake’s Commentary (revised ed., Nelson, 1936); F. Godet, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (T. & T. Clark, 1879); Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, St. Luke in Critical and Explanatory Commentary on the Bible (Eerdmans, 1935); W. Manson, The Gospel of Luke (in The Moffatt New Testament Commentary, 1930); A. Plummer, Gospel According to St. Luke (5th ed., I.C.C., T. & T. Clark, 1922). J. NORVAL GELDENHUYS

(For a detailed discussion of points raised in the above, and for bibliographical details regarding an intensive study of the Third Gospel, readers are referred to: Commentary to the Gospel of Luke by J. Norval Geldenhuys, 3rd edition, 1956, Wm. B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids and Marshall, Morgan and Scott, Ltd., London. F. F. Bruce writes of this commentary, “I have much pleasure in commending this work to Bible students who appreciate a commentary which calls for time and thought, and not least to those who, like the author himself, are actively engaged in the ministry of the Word.”

Ideas

U N: Town Meeting? Or Tragedy?

U N: Town Meeting? Or Tragedy?

No tradition or practice is more cherished in American life than is the town meeting. It goes to the grass roots of American democracy and dates from the earliest days of the Pilgrims and the Puritans in New England. It is the finest flowering of direct democracy ever to appear in the long course of human history; and even though its institution and implications are not always observed or understood, its principles and prerogatives are jealously guarded by every true American.

No higher claim can be made for the United Nations Organization than that it is the “town meeting of the world.” The question is, therefore, the accuracy of that claim.

The town meeting arose in New England out of the necessity and privilege of self-government. It was the general assembly of all qualified voters in the town or township in which regulations and ordinances were established, taxes levied, appropriation voted and an executive committee of select men chosen to administer the will of the people. It was the privilege of every qualified citizen to speak, to vote and to be a candidate for office. The town meeting was a free assembly of free men for the welfare of all.

The observant de Tocqueville in his Democracy in America declared: “The native of New England is attached to his township because it is independent and free: his co-operation in its affairs insures his attachment to its interest; the well-being it affords him secures his affection; and its welfare is the aim of his ambition and of his future exertions: he takes a part in every occurrence in the place; he practices the art of government in the small sphere within his reach; he accustoms himself to those forms which can alone insure the steady progress of liberty; he imbibes their spirit; he acquires a taste for order, comprehends the union or the balance of powers, and collects clear practical notions on the nature of his duties and the extent of his rights.”

Outstanding among the basic elements of the town meeting are a half dozen or more factors indispensable to its effectiveness and continuance. There was of necessity a deep-seated sense of political responsibility on the part of the citizens; and in turn by their select men in the performance of their appointed duties. There was a pride in freedom and self-government, coupled with a public spirit and devotion to democracy and the public welfare.

Of course there was disagreement as to details of policy and practice; but from open debate it was evident that the best interest of the town as a whole was the concern of all. It was the duty of the moderator to see that the proceedings were conducted properly and with propriety, with courtesy and consideration for others. The debate was often spirited, even piquant, and spiced with humor; but personalities were decreased that principle might be increased.

The town meeting was the voice for all the people, voters and nonvoters alike. There was the common concept that freedom could exist only within the framework of law, and that the voice of the majority decided a given difference of opinion.

Of necessity there was honor, honesty and integrity; for any deviation from these on the part of some could be exposed by others to whom the facts were familiar. After differences had been discussed in detail the moderator called for a decision by the voters; and this was followed by action.

The town meeting represented a spontaneous, dynamic, living political reality for the citizens of that community. Should it become static or stilted, and begin to lack public interest and support, it might fall into the hands of avaricious and unprincipled men.

Underlying all of these considerations was the moral basis of the town meeting: a respect for law and for the rights of others, a sense of political responsibility and personal rectitude, all of which in turn were established upon a reverence for almighty God. In matters political, Daniel Webster is often better able to define terms than is Noah Webster; and we recall the former’s earnest and eloquent statement on The First Settlement of New England: “Our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits.”

Does the experience of the past eleven years affirm the right of the United Nations Organization to be considered “the town meeting of the world”? It does not seem that the record bears out that claim.

On some occasions and by some nations, especially the smaller ones, there has been a sense of political responsibility, but often the contrary has been the case. That the veto privilege in the Security Council has been flagrantly abused is apparent to every thoughtful observer of the United Nations. One recalls the apprehension of Trygve Lie when first Vyshinsky gave his first “Niet”: “This first, almost light-hearted use of the veto that I hoped would rarely be exercised by any of the great powers disturbed me as much as the violence of the debate on the Greek question. Although I did not then foresee the long succession of 50-odd Soviet vetoes cast during my term of office, the great majority for reasons no more substantial to Soviet interests and policy, here was another chilly forewarning of the ‘cold war’ to come—the clumsiness, the rigidity of position, the refusal to participate, even in nonessentials, in the give-and-take and the hammering out of acceptable compromises that are the very lifeblood of politics and diplomacy among the Western democracies.” (In the Cause of Peace, p. 34.)

Such irresponsibility has aroused the greatest dissatisfaction and disillusionment on the part of freedom-loving peoples the world over. As a result, can there be devotion to the UNO when it lacks the first principle of the town meeting?

Instead of discussion and debate to determine the best interests for humanity, these eleven years have seen the continued stubborn Soviet adherence to communist aims and objectives rather than any concern for the welfare of others. Again Trygve Lie: “It is therefore most unfortunate that the Soviet Union and its allies have already declared (1953) that they are unwilling to accept any changes. They have even objected to the collecting of documentary evidence and the presentation of a study of the Charter’s history. If that entirely negative position is maintained to the end, the world will have sad proof that the original adherence of these countries to the United Nations Organization was a matter of political expediency alone, without any continuing sense of responsibility to the needs of a growing world community.”

In the place of courtesy and common decency, evident in any town meeting, the debate in the UNO has been marked by vituperation and billingsgate as crude and coarse as could be found among the most debased elements of society. The frequent reference to “cannibals,” and “scum” and the abundance of similar Soviet cynicism are entirely unworthy of any organization, much less an alleged “town meeting of the world.”

Any town meeting is a proper place for honest debate and presentation of facts, but it is not a platform for propaganda. As early as 1947 Herbert Vere Evatt, Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, warned that there must be “exercise of restraint by all members in order to avoid mere propaganda statements, and the recognition of a duty to cooperate in the carrying out of decisions. This is essential to maintain the prestige of the United Nations as a deliberative body and to make its decisions effective” (The United Nations, p. 140). Even a cursory reading of the deliberations of the Security Council and the Assembly shows that the great bulk of Soviet statements are pure propaganda, without any relationship to principle or fact.

The customary communist use of the “Big Lie,” familiar to every student of foreign affairs, is nowhere more apparent than in the UNO. The experience of these eleven years has given illustrations without number, and apparently without limits as well, as to the immensity and absurdity of the “Lie”; but perhaps none is remembered more vividly than the germ warfare charges made by the Soviet delegation to counteract the evidence of atrocities committed by communist troops in Korea. The Big Lie, however, was less disturbing to thoughtful people than the unwillingness of twenty-two UN members to acquit the United States of the absurd charge of waging germ warfare, and the comment by the distinguished Indian president of the Assembly, who stated, “Very strange things happen in wartime, and sometimes the best people do them.”

In the place of honor, honesty and integrity that are intrinsic in the New England town meeting if it is to serve effectively the interests of the community, the proceedings of the UNO show frequently dishonesty, double-dealing and outright deceit. No organization can operate where suspicion of the integrity of its membership continues, and is justified.

The tragic indecision and consequent inactivity of the UNO, except on rare occasion, is in marked contrast to the decision and action of the typical New England town meeting. There have been crises when the majority of the UN members have risen to the challenge, as in Korea. But even there a leading world power was openly and avowedly on the side of the communist aggressors of North Korea, and the contribution of the UN to the common defense was by no means in proportion to the relative strength of its membership.

Among the most recent illustrations of UN indecisiveness was its inability to agree on a definition of aggression. Despite the fact that nearly twenty-four years earlier a committee of the League of Nations had begun discussions to the end of defining that term, and the responsibility had been carried on by a special committee of the UN, it was reported to the General Assembly on November 12, 1956, that: “In view of the obvious divergence of views, it was decided not to put any of the existing drafts to the vote.” Even in the glare of fires lighted in the Hungarian catastrophe of that very hour the UN did not have enough light and moral courage to define aggression!

In contrast to the forward-moving, dynamic development within the New England town meeting the course of UN action has been dominated by the stubborn, unyielding, strict-constructionist position of the Soviet Union. Even so optimistic a protagonist of the UN as Clark M. Eichelberger is compelled to state with sorrow: “The largest negative factor, of course, is the Soviet Union. The Soviet Government has been a strict constructionist; it has been the greatest defender of the text of the Charter, stripped of growth and development. It has declared illegal practically every step that has been taken to liberalize the United Nations.…”

Despite all these difficulties, which distinctly disbar the UNO from any possibility of being a “town meeting of the world,” the most disturbing is undoubtedly the lack of moral basis in that organization. Although a UN committee declared that “forced labor, employed for political coercion, or punishment for holding or expressing political views, plays a significant part in the national economy of the Soviet Union,” the UN Economic and Social Council would not identify the Soviet Union or any other country where slave labor exists.

The UN has been unwilling to hear evidence of communist atrocities involving at least thirty thousand war prisoners and civilians, including more than six thousand Americans (and the American delegation has not had the moral courage to press the issue). General Mark Clark’s report on the atrocities was never heard.

The list of moral cowardice and complicity grows longer with each session of the UN. Kashmir, Hungary and the long preliminary wrangle on Suez are but a few of the mountain peaks; no, rather, the pools of iniquity in the miasma of moral ineptitude and inaction.

Without a moral foundation of honesty, honor, integrity and willingness to work for the general welfare, the UN is building its tower of Babel on shifting sand stained with human blood. There is need to amend the Charter but even a greater need to mend the ways of the majority of its members. Courage is needed to replace the cunning of unprincipled men and cooperation rather than contemptuous criticism and vilification. There was wistfulness, and possibly wishful thinking, in President Eisenhower’s word to the United States Committee for United Nations Day (September 23, 1953) when he declared: “With all its defects, with all the failure that we can check up against it, it still represents man’s best organized hope to substitute the conference table for the battle field.”

Without moral courage, consistency and constancy, the best of hopes have no substance. Thus far the United Nations, instead of achieving the expected acclaim as “the town meeting of the world,” has been a tragedy in which the world, by the passion or limitations of its diplomats, is being brought to the brink of catastrophe.

Improving The Quality Of Religious Radio-TV

The discussion of religious radio-TV in recent years has mainly concerned the issue of fair assignment of network time to the respective Protestant constituencies. Debate over this issue gained heat when the National Council of Churches intensified its opposition to paid religious broadcasts, while seeking more sustaining or free time (some of it during priority hours) for the Council as the authoritative voice of American Protestantism. Now that this controversy has been aired, and the broadcasting industry has evidenced concern for a fair allotment of sustaining time, the problem will likely be worked out regionally and locally, rather than nationally. Religious forces in the community and the individual station managers will discuss the question of proportionate programming at the local level.

Spokesmen for the radio-TV industry have themselves emphasized that program interest is multiplied when there is a specific relationship to the particular community which the radio-TV station serves. As one station manager put it recently, the television station’s religious responsibility can best be met by the presentation of “local religious programs, conceived locally, produced locally, using local people and remaining in constant contact and consultation with representative bodies of the local spiritual community.”

This trend to local programming need not mark the absolute end of network schedules reflective of the major spiritual outlooks. But it does bring to the fore a problem fully as important as that of a fair distribution of time to the respective religious constituencies, the problem of effective radio-TV programming.

Evangelical broadcasts built around prominent personalities and dynamic preaching can undoubtedly maintain high network ratings. In the sphere of TV programming, however, evangelical effort has been mainly an independent, trial by error proceeding. The evangelicals have lacked the advantages of a national radio-TV commission with salaried leaders working cooperatively with the networks, and this has been their loss. Not that N.C.C. forces have come up with an infallible formula for successful TV presentations. Good programs of a religious nature are still at a premium, as program ratings will attest.

Evangelicals have neglected to give adequate corporate thought to the question, what is good religious programming? While the television industry has been growing to maturity, as one of the most influential mass media of the century, the evangelicals have not spent time in workshops and on basic research, as they ought, in order to use this new channel most effectively to the glory of God. A forward step in this direction has been made by National Religious Broadcasters, who are projecting a radio-TV clinic for the summer of 1958, in cooperation with a modern radio and television station in the Midwest.

The evangelical tradition has features that lend themselves uniquely to effective television programming. But there is a tendency to stop with vigorous preaching or striking musical combinations. The hierarchial churches have their symbolism and dress; the ritualistic churches, their rituals. Have evangelicals seriously inquired what moments in their services lend themselves most dramatically to television? Have they surveyed their resources for good religious programming, and interpreted them in high-level conference to the industry? Thanksgiving morning in the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, Easter Sunday in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena or a night in Madison Square Garden during the Billy Graham crusade—these are spectacles that hold a national interest. And there are many more.

The responsibility for good programming does not belong one-sidedly to the churches, however. Both in government and in the industry today there are highly placed officials who feel that the present prosperity can be utilized to encourage the networks to invest some resources in the effective implementation of religious programs. Once the question of free time allotments is equitably settled, and the various groups are invited within this framework to interpret to the networks their best program resources, the industry itself may well assign technical assistance to develop effective programming. If the churches can bring invisible spiritual and moral forces to the network, the industry can often suggest the best techniques for presenting them artfully. And the churches may well channel into the industry some of their youth with a vision for such vocational service, and may also well pray for the conversion of those who have professional talent but lack devotion to Christ. After all, a Gospel fitted for the television viewer is also superbly fit for the television crew.

Labor Racketeering And The American Worker

The revelations of corruption, vice and financial irresponsibility in one of the major unions have startled the nation and are bringing dismay to labor leaders in general and to the rank and file of honest and law abiding union members.

There was a time when labor as such was an underdog and when legislation was considered necessary to protect the legitimate rights of the working man. Gradually labor accumulated growing political power, and its leadership came to administer millions of dollars in funds.

Yet no controls such as those demanded of other responsible organizations were imposed on the unions. Because of this deference to labor, as in large measure responsible only to itself, the average member of a union soon found himself without an effective voice in controlling those at the top.

To his disappointment, and enlightenment, the American worker is learning that some labor leaders, who have carved their careers out of criticism of the way that big business allegedly exploits the workers, have degraded their own office and responsibility at the expense of the workers they profess to represent. Union members are learning a new truth: that organized labor too, and not management alone, holds within itself a potentiality for the irresponsible use of private power.

In recent years, union members have had to cope with the misuse of their own welfare funds by some union leaders. In the current Congressional expose of U.S. labor racketeering, which is scheduled to look beyond Portland to Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis and other cities, workers see some leaders already charged with entanglement, not simply in shady financial dealings, and the misuse of union funds for selfish gain, but in the seamy spheres of vice including gambling, prostitution and the alleged bribery of officials. In an hour when governmental leaders prize the virtues of democratic government, the nation has seen the sad spectacle, in the effort to get at the truth of union vice racketeering in Portland, of a mayor who flunked a lie detector test, and a district attorney who took refuge behind the Fifth Amendment.

The tempo of indignation is rising among reputable union leaders, who fear that the exposure of shaggy union leadership may reflect upon the unions as a whole. The fact is that the tolerance of such leadership, by leaders with a concern for integrity, has needlessly contributed to this shadow over the movement. And the sooner the unions are rid of labor racketeering, the better for the unions and for the nation. The thesis that big business was especially prone to the exploitation of the worker lay at the bottom of a good bit of pro-union legislation in recent decades. Today the time has come for legislation that will scrutinize union leadership with similar rigidity.

The tide of concern extends also to the rank and file of union membership. And it is high time union members evidence a concern for the preservation of the democratic process within the unions, and preserve the answerability of their leaders to their worker constituencies.

We agree with those in Congress who say that this investigation should not be used to destroy labor. But it is a sad day for the American worker, in his struggle against the fortunes of the Soviet worker, when he must reckon with a lack of democratic opportunities to choose representative leaders and to control his own funds. The time has come when the power accorded any group having a vital role in the nation’s life should carry with it a corresponding degree of public responsibility subject to the same checks and balances obtaining in business of any other kind.

Eutychus and His Kin: April 1, 1957

ALL FOOL’S DAY

April first is no longer honored by street urchins behind a wooden fence holding the string to a purse on the brick sidewalk. The string is now held by soap and vitamin companies and the pursegrabbing is done on television all year round. This new arrangement has many advantages, not only for the vanishing pedestrian but also for the TV contestants, who often keep the purse when the show is over.

In fact, today’s fool is usually a professional. In the Middle Ages any village idiot or dwarf could aspire to be the court jester, but the TV “fall guy” is no fool.

Where then is the fool population? One statistician projected P. T. Barnum’s estimate of one born every minute from the approximate time that famous statement was made through 1956, but since he had no data on the longevity of fools (of course there’s no fool like an old fool), his figure was inconclusive. (This statistician lost his life fording a river averaging 2 feet in depth.)

His work, however, suggests an un-imagined possibility. The fool population has not died out but taken over!

The last sentence is not foolishness. The Bible says a great deal about folly. The wisdom of this world is folly to God. The fool is not a man who merely makes a mistake. His whole perspective is wrong—hopelessly, ludicrously wrong.

In these days when “mal-adjustment” is a capital crime, Christians need a new grip on folly. The citizen of heaven has another perspective from the sages of this world. One or the other is a fool. The apostle was content to be a fool for Christ’s sake since the foolishness of the message of the cross is the saving wisdom of God. Perhaps we should think of All Fools Day as All Saint’s Day, to remember our calling!

EUTYCHUS

A GOOD COAT OF TAN

In a segregated church, what happens to one’s membership if he goes on vacation and comes back with a good coat of tan? Would he be suspended until his skin became white again? A woman spends good money to have kinks put in her hair. A colored friend tells me that his wife pays to have them taken out. Kinks or no kinks, what happens to her membership in a segregated church?

EATON R. BURROWS

Newfield, N. J.

THEOLOGIAN AND PULPIT

Is there a relationship between “the extreme verbosity which has come to characterize the writings of many modern theologians” (see CT, Nov. 12, p. 38) and the modern demand that sermons be brief and to the shut-down-after-20-minutes point? After 20 minutes of preaching (if it may come under that heading) most people are up in arms if they do not hear “Amen” from the pulpit. They wake up at the 20-minute mark, without falling out of a window … Perhaps the extreme verbosity of many modern theologians is a natural reaction to this demand of brevity in the pulpit … A sermon was once considered brief if it consumed only 45 minutes of time. Could it be that these long-winded two-hour pulpiteers have become our extremely verbose modern theologians? Is it as though they were now saying, “You drove me out of the pulpit, I’m taking refuge in my pen?”

KURT CARL HARTMANN

Pflugerville, Tex.

PRAYER AND THE PULPIT

I note a general lament about contemporary pulpit oratory—it’s “unauthoritarian.” … I agree.… I think I know the remedy, however, and am wondering why others haven’t suggested it before: the cell-group prayer fellowships.…

Already Prayer Revival Fellowships are breaking out on the West Coast. Armin Gesswein of Pasadena leads a conference on this cell-group plan at Mount Herman twice each year. Bob Munger of Berkeley assists and opens his church to ministers once a month for a general time of heart-searching and prayer. Cecil Osbom is circulating the idea that cell-groups revolutionize one’s spiritual life; his Burlingame church, already active, is growing by such a plan.…

WARREN LANMAN

First Baptist Church Orland, Calif.

REMORSE AND RECOGNITION

If recognition of Red China by U.S.A. must be refused on moral grounds, namely, that Red China has been an aggressor in Korea … then why should America not only recognize but also accept the Turkish government as an ally, granting it her moral and material support to the tune of more than a billion dollars, forgetting the awful fact that this ally had been and still is an international murderer? Did it not wipe out no less than one million and a half innocent Armenian men, women and children during the first World War? Nay, did it not commit unspeakable atrocities and barbarities against the Greek, Armenian and other innocent minorities in Istanbul and Smyrna as recently as on Sept. 6, 1955?

Certainly it is a Christian virtue to forgive one’s enemy if he repents and makes restitution for the injury he has caused. Has the Turk fulfilled that prime condition? The answer is, Never.… The Turk has shown no such remorse for the crimes he has committed not once but always. That is the real tragedy.

But what is a greater tragedy is that he has been accepted by civilized world and the so-called moral and Christian world as a respectable member and ally. As long as the West contradicts itself, sins against the principles of justice, ethics, morality it preaches so often, there shall be no peace in this old and tired and suffering world.

S. H. HALAJIAN

Los Angeles, Calif.

DELEGATIONS TO RED CHINA

Recently the delegation of Episcopalian clergy returned from Red China and startled the Australian public with their report of experiences and impressions. I was an active participant in the press controversy that developed.

The delegation that visited the Episcopalian Church in Red China comprised three leading evangelicals, Howard Mowll, Archbishop of Sydney, Primate of Australia, Canon H. M. Arrowsmith, Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society in Australia and Canon Marcus Loane, Principal of Moore Theological College, several other Australian Bishops and an ecclesiastical newspaperman, Francis James, Editor of The Anglican, the newspaper with the largest circulation among Episcopalians in Australia.

The reports vary widely. That of Canon Arrowsmith has been the most favorable and has received the widest circulation in Evangelical circles; Archbishop Mowll has been generally favorable but less voluble while Canon Loane was unimpressed but has limited his critical report to a close circle of friends. Francis James has published a series of articles at once critical and sympathetic.

The report of Canon Arrowsmith is self-negating. He blithely reports as objective fact generalizations which can be nothing but Communist propaganda. Such broad statements as, “The majority of the Chinese people support the Communist Regime,” “The Communists have raised the living standards of the people,” “There is no civil war in China,” trip lightly from his pen.

By what strange and miraculous process did Canon Arrowsmith discover the emotional and mental attitudes of 600,000,000 Chinese people. He cannot speak the Chinese language—his contacts were with a highly selected and minute sample of the population. Those he did meet were at the mercy of a minutely controlled Communist press and radio for the basic national news. The assessment of public opinion is a highly technical process. Vast sums are spent in this country in an attempt to discover it. The minimum essential is a free press and free elections. Both of these are non-existent in Red China.…

Many less-publicized and less favorable aspects of Communist China were drawn from Archbishop Mowll through skillful questioning by the Rev. Malcolm Mackay, leading Presbyterian Minister of Sydney, Australia. Mr. Mackay was Secretary of the World Council of Churches in Australia and had the duty of arranging the tour of Hromodka, the Czechoslovakian pro-Communist member of the Executive of the World Council of Churches. He was appalled by the Communist utilization of the church for their sinister purpose. He obtained an insight into their motives and methods. Courteously yet insistently he elicited such information from Archbishop Mowll and Mrs. Mowll.

1. Everyone in China must register his religion. If he registers as a Christian he is under government pressure to attend church. The reason for this pressure became clear when Francis James reported that the preachers have to meet with the Communist government representative twice weekly to be instructed in the “Political Line” they must follow on Sunday in the services.

2. Everyone in China works very hard. The Mowlls specified from 7 A. M. till 8 P. M. six days a week. Both husband and wife work. Frequently they work in cities hundreds of miles apart. If it is absolutely essential that someone be home to care for the children, the government provides a nurse. This indicates a planned attack on family life. This is diametrically opposed to the Christian ethic. Archbishop Mowll attributes the willingness of the Chinese people to work such long hours in such intolerable conditions as an indication of their patriotic zeal. He apparently ignores the motivating power of the alternative of starvation. The State is the universal employer.

3. A few days prior to the arrival of the delegation in China, one of the Chinese Episcopalian bishops, Bishop Kimber Den, was released from prison. One of his Communist interrogators replaced him in his cell. This bishop had been in prison for nearly four years. He had been kept in solitary confinement. No charge had ever been laid against him. He had never been brought to trial. Under persistent interrogation he had confessed to receiving gold from a missionary. When he was released the Communist who had obtained this confession was jailed in his place. The delegation met him and he assured them his imprisonment had not been “religious persecution!” Francis James visited three Catholic Bishops in prison. They all told him that their imprisonment was utterly justified and expressed great affection for the Chinese Communist government.

4. All Chinese life is lived to the accompaniment of a ceaseless propaganda barrage from loudspeakers placed in every strategic location. The objective picture is appalling. It presents a people ruthlessly regimented; controlled in every detail of their lives, working frenziedly at industrialization while propaganda moulds the mass mind. This frightful tool is being forged by a small fanatical and highly efficient group avowedly dedicated to our conquest and destruction. Equally appalling was the equanimity and apparent approval with which the Primate of Australia disclosed these facts.

The Communist program for the Church is simple: (1) to enslave; (2) to utilize; (3) to destroy.

The process of enslavement is now complete. A hideous reign of terror developed following Communist conquest which decapitated the church of its independent leadership and cowed many Christians. How many Christians were murdered and tortured only eternity will reveal.

The Communist government then forced the churches into a union called the Three-Self Movement and appointed the leaders. Any group that would not join was persecuted and the leaders arrested for some alleged crime—never for their religious acts. One of the published aims of the Three-Self Movement is the promotion of the “World Peace Movement” and the “liberation” of Formosa. With the church leadership politically reliable the persecution ceased. Relative freedom of worship and preaching is allowed. The churches are filled, aided by government pressure; the preachers are favored economically and the delegations are invited who see full churches, with well-paid preachers who chant the refrain “All is well.” The naive are suitably impressed and return to serve the communist cause by their favorable reports.

The destruction of the church can be actively consummated at any time it has fulfilled its purpose. The passive destruction meanwhile continues by the alienation of the youth whose lives are so totally regimented that there is no time or place for church life.…

We are on the verge of a communist offensive with the church as the spearhead. Look for continuing pressure for mutual delegations of churchmen from China and all the free countries with glowingly favorable reports following the trips. Will a new “Red Dean” emerge from evangelical ranks? Will the church cooperate with the forces dedicated to its destruction?…

FRED C. SCHWARZ

Christian Anti-Communism Crusade

Long Beach, Calif.

POTPOURRI

It certainly does not “speak to my condition.”

W. N. WINTER

Baltimore, Md.

I don’t think your staff of amillennialists is half capable of interpreting current events in the light of the Bible.

H. EDWARD ROWE

Dallas, Tex.

With the exception of Billy Graham … and a few other names … I find few that I recognize as leaders in the front ranks who have something challenging and worth while to offer a needy people looking to the Church for guidance.

FRANKLIN E. SCHLUETER

Emmanuel Church Evangelical U. B.

Appleton, Wisconsin

It probably may serve to hasten the apostasy and assist in the dissolution of Christendom and the weakening and disintegration of Christian Civilization.

JAMES E. BENNET

New York, N.Y.

You have not yet rammed the dagger in the back of the World Council or the National Council, but it seems that you have it poised, ready to strike.

EUGENE SCHNEIDER

St. Marks Evangelical and Reformed

Milwaukee, Wis.

As a political Liberal and an orthodox Christian, I resent the fact that Protestantism has been historically identified with the middle classes and their bourgeois prejudices. Max Weber (Die Protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus) and R. H. Tawney (Religion and the Rise of Capitalism) have demonstrated that this is true.…

ROGER WILLIAMS

Louisville, Ky.

Is the theology of the 17th century to be the final theology of the Protestant church, as that of St. Thomas Aquinas is for the Roman Catholics?…

RAYMOND L. WALLACE

Calvary Presbyterian

Newark, N.J.

… Your strict adherence to so-called “orthodoxy” is but a political gesture calculated to secure your own souls within the walls of paradise, where you judge your saints of old to be.… Conservatism appears to me to enjoy almost as much life as the dead past.…

ROBERT A. BARNETT

First Presbyterian Church

Arlington, Va.

A publication that includes an article by Billy Graham in its first issue and one by Ernest G. Manning in its second is hardly to be taken seriously.

W. D. GANT

Anglican Parishes

Black Diamond, Alberta

Too many slow reading articles, and rusty and archaic language.

VERNON E. BERG, JR.

First Presbyterian Church

Titusville, N. J.

I found your magazine interesting … but none of the articles struck me as particularly vital or unique.

Bishop C. COOPER ROBINSON

Diocese of Moosonee

Schumacher, Ontario

… With your paper and the Reader’s Digest before me, I am afraid you are very much an adolescent nation, and such indications rather make us dying folk squirm in acute embarrassment. But what a nation you will be when your growing pains have ended!

WILLIAM HALL

Sheviocke Rectory

Torpoint, Cornwall, England

I cannot feel that a fundamentalist belief such as you stand for has any real contribution to make to evangelism today but is rather a stumbling block to it.… I think my attitude will be shared by many Church of Scotland ministers.

V. C. POGUE

The Manse of Carnock

Dunfermline, Scotland

… If you commence to become an organ for Billy Graham’s ideas, I believe your cause will eventually descend to that of a fundamentalist viewpoint, applauded only by a group of Southern Baptists and other radicals.…

JOHN WILKEY

The Methodist Church

Murrayville, Ill.

Reactionary rubbish.… Nauseating reading.… Send the balance to one of your Gospel Hall or Jehovah’s Witness brethren, but remove my name …

K. N. BRUETON

St. Paul’s Church

Jarvis, Ontario, Can.

Congratulations on “Those who do not speak well of you.” Please enter my subscription.

JOHN VAN PEURSEM

Zeeland, Mich.

I sent you a notice not to send me any more of such “junk.” Now, I want to make sincere apology.… After reading, I found I was entirely wrong.… Count me as one of your subscribers.…

C. V. GARDNER

Columbus, O.

Deep enough for us to pause and dig, but not so deep that we are lost.

JAMES R. ARTHUR

Pine St. Baptist Church

Milford, Mass.

We university people of a conservative theological inclination look with anticipation on a magazine that speaks to our level.…

ROBERT G. COLLMER

Hardin-Simmons University

Abilene, Tex.

… Warmest congratulations on bridging the gap between a heavy theological magazine beyond the vocabulary of most laymen, and a light evangelical periodical which all too often offers nothing in the way of “meat” to its readers.

D. O. ANDERSON

Toronto, Can.

It seems to have both ballast and balance at this needed level.

ARMIN R. GESSWEIN

Pasadena, Calif.

If this is the kind of publication you plan to put out, and if you can retain the standard you have set … it will be one of the best, if not the best, of all religious papers anywhere. Some will say that this field is now crowded. But it is not crowded in the area where Volume 1, began its work. May you succeed gloriously.

R. B. LAVENDER

First Methodist Church

Russellville, Ala.

… Greatly appreciate the historical, biblical, spiritual and theological value of your magazine.…

J. E. PURDIE

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Editorial quality is high, articles on the whole expertly written, subject matter fresh and provocative, and the overall format efficient and attractive.

GILBERT H. VIEIRA

Geneva Ave. Methodist Church

San Francisco, Calif.

Your very first issue displays a rich and deep biblical scholarship that may be able to bring present day Christendom out of its rut … Certainly a new challege is presenting itself to Fundamentalism since theological liberalism has already outlived its day and a new orthodoxy is about ready to hatch out on some unknown camp ground.

T. L. NUSSBAUM

Bergthal Mennonite Church

Corn, Oklahoma

It is encouraging to find the subjects I have been trying to preach about for 40 years being dealt with in such a scholarly and practical way. I hope now such thoughts are being published they may be more acceptable than I have found the spoken Word in my lonely pilgrimage.…

E. V. BRIDGER

Langley Burrell

Chippenham, Wilts, England

CORRECTION

I would like to correct a mistake in “Confusing Reports on Church in Red China.” Dr. Howard Mowll, Archbishop of Sydney, was not a member of the “Cambridge Seven” as he was not born when they went to China in 1885! He did not go to China until 1922, being consecrated assistant bishop on June 24th of that year and was appointed the bishop of the Diocese of West China in 1926.

His predecessor as bishop in West China was Bishop W. W. Cassels who was one of the Cambridge Seven, the others being C. T. Studd (my uncle), Stanley P. Smith, Dixon E. Hoste, Montague Beauchamp, Cecil Polhill-Turner and his brother, Arthur Polhill-Turner.

VEN. C. H. R. BRADSHAW

Archdeacon of Cariboo

Kamloops, B. C.

Cover Story

Offense of the Blood

J. Marcellus Kik

A preacher of prominence attended worship at a church known for its evangelical fervor. With evident distress and displeasure, he listened to a message on the atoning power of the blood of Christ. At the conclusion of the service the visitor said to the pastor, “My God is not the bloodthirsty God that you have pictured. My God is one of love and needs not to be appeased with blood. I have no respect for the God whom you worship.”

This remark, stated with deep feeling and sincerity, not only evidenced complete misunderstanding of the sense in which the evangelical preacher employed the term “blood” but also manifested an ignorance of the God revealed in Scripture. Knowledge of the Scriptures should have shown him that mere blood does not effect appeasement. The term was correctly used as defined by Christ, the apostles and the liturgies of the Church.

A similar misunderstanding was shown by some who followed Christ during his earthly ministry. Jesus startled listeners with the statement, “Except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you” (John 6:53). Certain disciples understood this in a literal, carnal sense. They were offended even as the visiting preacher was offended at the preaching of the blood. They called it a hard saying and left Christ.

Jesus explained that literal drinking of his blood would not issue into eternal life. There must be a partaking of it in a spiritual way. He called attention to the fact that the Spirit quickeneth and that the words which he spoke are spirit and life (John 6:63). The flesh and blood represented the suffering and death of Jesus. To eat his flesh and drink his blood is to appropriate by faith the expiation wrought by the sufferings and death of Christ. That blood signified atonement Christ himself clearly indicates in the institution of the Lord’s Supper. He said, “Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:28).

The eating of flesh and drinking of blood are employed in the sixth chapter of John interchangeably with believing. In verse 35, Christ declared that he was the bread of life, and those who came to him and believed on him would never hunger nor thirst. He concludes his teaching on that theme in verse 64 by saying, “But there are some of you that believe not.” Such belief involves, of course, the realization that Christ’s violent death on Calvary’s cross was as a substitute for the guilty sinner. The sinner partakes of that death by eating his flesh and drinking his blood in faith. When a man believes on Christ he partakes of the flesh and blood of Christ. It is not a gross, carnal eating and drinking but a spiritual partaking by faith that effects eternal life.

Apostolic Witness

Apostolic preaching and teaching place particular stress on the blood of Christ as significant for salvation. Paul writes, “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself” (Col. 1:20). The blood of the cross effects reconciliation. Paul goes on to say that those who were alienated from God and enemies were reconciled in the body of Christ’s flesh through death and were thus presented to God holy, without blemish and unreprovable (Col. 1:21, 22). Thus the blood, which is a vivid symbol of Christ’s violent death on the cross, restores harmony between sinful man and the holy God. No one can doubt Paul’s clear statement that for him the blood accomplishes salvation for the believer.

The classic apostolic passage is 1 Peter 1:18, 19, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold.… but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” Peter calls attention to the paschal lamb that was slain for atonement of the sins of the Israelites. What the sacrificial lamb indicated to worshippers of the ancient Temple, the death of Christ indicated to believers within the Christian Church. To the Apostle the blood of Jesus Christ was exceedingly precious for it assured him of redemption.

The author of Hebrews, in the ninth chapter, portrays Christ as offering his blood in the presence of God in the heavenly tabernacle. Under the law the High Priest made such an offering with the blood of animals to make atonement for sinning Israelites. This analogy between the blood of Christ and the blood of animals does not oblige us to suppose that Christ, upon his ascension into heaven, literally sprinkled his own blood in the presence of God; but it gives us most assuredly to understand that his entrance into the heavenly Holy of Holies is attended with true effect corresponding to the earthly ministry of the High Priest. Blood sprinkled on the mercy seat of the Temple typified the blood of Christ presented to God in the heavenly Temple. Both signified atonement.

John uses blood in a metaphorical sense when he declares in the first chapter of his first Epistle that the blood of Jesus cleanseth us from all sin. Blood in a natural way would stain and defile. John also uses blood in a figurative way in the seventh chapter of Revelation where he points to the great multitude of those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. No one would suppose a literal washing in the blood of the Lamb. The important significance is that the death of Jesus, of which blood is the symbol, effectively removes the guilt of sin.

Blood stands for more than just the physical suffering and death of Christ. Isaiah in his classic fifty-third chapter indicates that the Servant’s soul was made an offering for sin and that his soul would be in travail for the justification of many (Isa. 53:10, 11). Gethsemane reveals that his soul was exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death (Matt. 26:38). In agony of soul his sweat became as it were great drops of blood (Luke 22:44). Those who limit the significance of the blood to physical suffering and death little realize the agony Christ endured nor the price paid for redemption.

The New Testament abounds with passages on the blood of Christ: “blood of the new covenant for remission of sin” (Matt. 26:28); “this cup is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20); “the church purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28); “propitiation through faith in his blood” (Rom. 3:25; “justified by his blood” (Rom. 5:9); “communion of the blood of Christ” (1 Cor. 10:16); “redemption through his blood” (Eph. 1:7); “made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:13); “washed us from our sins in his own blood” (Rev. 1:5); “redeemed us to God by thy blood” (Rev. 4:9); “overcame him by the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 12:11).

Blood, the New Testament reveals, vividly symbolizes remission of sin, ransom, propitiation, justification, redemption, cleansing and victory. Blood brings to mind the expiatory sacrifices of the ancient Temple that were types of the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary’s cross. Blood witnesses to the violent death experienced by the Lord. Blood speaks of suffering of body and soul of the Redeemer. Blood testifies of life poured out in behalf of sinners, for life is in the blood (Lev. 17:14). The whole Bible witnesses that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins (Heb. 9:22).

Liturgies Of The Church

Central in the liturgy of every Christian church is the order for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Scattered through such orders are scriptural statements: “Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us; unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood”; “for as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come”; “the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work”; “the cup of blessing which we bless is the communion of the blood of Christ.” These are but a few passages familiar to all who read the liturgy.

The very heart, however, of the Lord’s Supper is found in the words used as the elements are consecrated and distributed. Take, eat: this is my body which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. This speaks of death and the purpose of it. The central thought is the remembrance of the body broken for the believer. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. This speaks of the design of blood: the remission of sins.

An amazing contradiction is the preacher who abhors the preaching of the blood in the pulpit yet proclaims it in the Lord’s Supper. Though some try to make the primary purpose of the sacrament to be that of a display of Christian unity, yet the very heart of the communion order manifests the union of man with God in and through the broken body and shed blood of the Lord. The very action of eating the bread and drinking the wine declares the partaking (communion) of the broken body and shed blood. The true believer suffers death in Christ.

Beautifully phrased and rich in scriptural meaning is the prayer after communion in the liturgy of the Protestant Episcopal Church, “Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us.” Also scripturally expressed is the prayer in the Book of Discipline of the Methodist Church, “most humbly beseeching Thee to grant, that, by the merits and death of Thy Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in His blood, we and thy whole Church may obtain forgiveness of our sins and all other benefits of His Passion.”

Gross misrepresentation of Scripture appears in the accusation that the blood of Christ is the means of inclining God to be conciliatory and merciful. Scripture does not teach this. Blood is not the cause but results from God’s love and mercy. Love provides the means by which the just and holy God can forgive the guilty sinner. “Herein is love,” states the apostle, “not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Paul echoes this truth when he writes that “God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Love precedes the shed blood. Love provided the sacrificial lamb.

Those who refuse to preach the blood of Christ deny the symbol which truly represents atonement, propitiation and redemption. They deny that which so vividly reveals the sufferings of the Lord. They remove the heart from the Lord’s Supper. They rob the church of eloquent witness of the love of God. Without blood what is the Gospel?

For a generation, since 1921, J. Theodore Mueller has served Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, as Professor of Systematic Theology and Exegesis. Although he nears his 72nd birthday, his teaching career is not yet over, and he continues on modified faculty service.

Cover Story

Luther’s Doctrine of the Atonement

J. Theodore Mueller

In 1930 Professor Gustaf Aulen published his condensed Olaus Petri Lectures, first delivered at the University of Uppsala and then in Germany, on “The Three Chief Types of the Christian Atonement Concept” (Die drei Haupttypen des christlichen Versoehnungsgedanken, in Zeitschrift fur systematische Theologie, pp. 501–538). Ever since, the question has been asked whether the learned Swedish theologian has accurately and correctly presented the “three chief types of the Atonement,” and Luther’s doctrine of the Atonement in particular.

In many respects the modern Christian world owes Aulen, and the whole Lundensian, or Swedish, school of theology as well, a vote of thanks for reviving interest in the study of Christian doctrine, especially that of the Protestant Reformation. Through the investigations and publications of the Swedish school, the sola gratia of Wittenberg and Geneva has once more been made the object of careful study both in Europe and in America, so that this articulus fundamentalissimus of Christendom has had a new chance to assert itself over against the Pelagianism of modern Liberalism.

In English-speaking countries Aulen’s monograph on the three types of the Atonement has become favorably known through A. G. Herbert’s excellent translation, published under the title Christus Victor, which first appeared in England in 1931 and then again in an “American edition” in 1951.

Aulen’s Three Types

The three types of the Atonement that Aulen delineates not only in Christus Victor, but also in many of his other works, in particular in his Christian Dogmatics—known among English-speaking students as The Faith of the Christian Church (Muhlenberg Press, 1945)—are: the patristic, or “classical”; the Latin, or objective (Anselmic); the subjective, or humanistic (Abelardian).

According to Aulen, Martin Luther, following the New Testament and the Church Fathers, espoused the patristic, or “classical,” view. The central thought of this view is that the satisfaction, or Atonement, was made by God and not merely to God, and that it consisted primarily in Christ’s conquest of man’s spiritual enemies: Satan, sin, death and hell. In Christ Jesus, God has proved himself the triumphant Victor over these powerful enemies, from which sinful man was freed through the death of his incarnate Son.

Aulen admits that Luther uses certain typical phrases of the Latin, or Anselmic type, especially merit and satisfaction, though in a quite new and different sense. But the use of these terms, he contends, has led to confusion, in particular to the complete misapprehension that Luther’s teaching of the Atonement belongs to the Latin type (Christus Victor, American ed., pp. 101–122).

Aulen states, in criticizing the view of Anselm of Canterbury, pre-eminent champion of the Latin type of the Atonement, that Anselm, in presenting Christ’s Atonement in his work Cur Deus Homo, starts from the idea of penance, and not from that of agape, or divine love. He concedes that Anselm presents the Atonement, in a sense, as God’s work, since he is the sovereign Author of the plan of redemption. However, according to Aulen, Anselm holds that the actual offering of the satisfaction was made by Christ as man, or from man’s side. In Anselm’s view, therefore, the connection between the Incarnation and the Atonement is not nearly so plain as in the Church Fathers. On the other hand, the order of divine justice is rigidly maintained so that the doctrine becomes juridical (op. cit., pp. 81–100).

Aulen, moreover, asserts that although Luther consistently taught the patristic, or classical, view of the Atonement, his contemporaries and successors, from Melanchthon down to the Lutheran Confessions and the Lutheran dogmaticians of the seventeenth century, went back to the Latin, or Anselmic, type of the Atonement. Misunderstanding his great teacher and friend, Master Philip, in the controversy with Andrew Osiander on the question whether justification is a forensic or a medical act, i.e., whether God for Christ’s sake declares the believer righteous or makes him righteous by the infusion of his essential righteousness through the indwelling Christ, fixed the lines of the accepted Lutheran doctrine and returned to a thoroughly legalistic outlook.

The doctrine of the Atonement in Lutheran orthodoxy was thus dominated, according to Aulen, by the satisfaction of God’s justice. The Lutherans differed from Anselm in emphasizing also Christ’s active obedience, since as our Substitute he put himself under the Law and fulfilled all righteousness for us. Anselm, on the other hand, had centered Christ’s atoning work in his passive obedience, or in his vicarious, sacrificial death (ibid., pp. 123–142).

Humanist View Not Relevant

In this study we are not interested in the so-called subjective, or humanistic (Abelardian), view of the Atonement, of which Aulen states correctly that it was prepared by the Pietists and developed by the Enlightenment. From the latter, it was taken, by way of Schleiermacher, Ritschl and others, into the modern liberal view of the Atonement, though with more or less modification (ibid., pp. 133 ff.). Much more, of course, might be said of Aulen’s presentation of the so-called three chief types of the Atonement, but what has been said may serve as a brief overview of his theory.

Narrow Appraisal Of Luther

Our chief concern here is with Aulen’s description of Luther’s doctrine of the Atonement. As an informed student scrutinizes Aulen’s learned discussion of the subject, he will find himself confronted with a number of important questions. Aulen’s treatise will appear rather one-sided and biased. He evidently has selected certain emphases from which he elaborates his system of evaluating the various types of the Atonement. That is true, in the first place, with regard to Holy Scripture, in particular to the New Testament, which in its many statements on Christ’s redemptive work certainly teaches far more on the Atonement than what Aulen says it does. That is true also of Luther’s doctrine of the Atonement. The Wittenberg Reformer most assuredly speaks of Christ’s atoning work in terms of the Latin, or Anselmic, type; and he uses these terms in exactly the same sense as did the erudite scholar of Canterbury.

Then, too, Aulen scarcely envisions Anselm’s doctrine of the Atonement in its whole scope and purport. Here also he selects certain criteria which he depicts too narrowly, without taking into consideration the Anselmic viewpoints in their entirety.

Luther And The Biblical View

Again, Aulen has failed to observe that Luther never attempted to do what he himself does, namely, elaborate a scientific statement of the doctrine of the Atonement with nice distinctions and subtle analyses. Rather, Luther taught the doctrine as it is set forth in Scripture in plain expressions, which the people could well understand and which his opponents could not misunderstand. Indeed, at times Luther used rather crude illustrations with only one thought in mind, namely, to show that Christ is our true Sacrifice and Savior, in whom alone we have redemption and salvation. This method Luther pursued in his lectures, sermons, hymns, biblical expositions and learned treatises. He applied the divine truth as it best suited his special purpose, always trying to show his hearers and readers what Scripture, as the inspired Word of God, reveals to us.

From Anselm To Luther

Nevertheless, Luther does not contradict himself. He states triumphantly in his entire teaching that Christ, the God-man, as our Substitute overcame Satan, sin, death and hell; but that he did this by laying down his life as a ransom for our sins. Essentially, therefore, Luther’s doctrine of the Atonement does not differ from that of Anselm, though he treats it primarily from God’s love in Christ Jesus, so that his viewpoint is decidedly evangelical.

Benjamin B. Warfield certainly states the matter correctly when he says that “no one before Luther had spoken with the clarity, depth, or breadth which characterized his references to Christ as our deliverer from the guilt of sin, and then, because from the guilt of sin, also from all that is evil, since all that is evil springs from sin” (“Atonement,” in New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Vol. I, p. 350, Funk and Wagnalls, New York, 1908).

Very apt also is the judgment of J. L. Neve on this point: “In criticism [of Aulen’s three types] it must be said that Aulen’s view tends to underrate the religious significance of the Anselmic doctrine of Christ’s work as an expiation for human guilt. He likewise seems to miss Luther’s true view. The Reformer did not one-sidedly follow the Greek fathers. His own teaching is a wholesome synthesis of the best that is contained in both the teachings of the patristic age and the Middle Ages (A History of Christian Thought, Vol. II, p. 186, Muhlenburg Press, Philadelphia, 1946).

In his articles on Anselm of Canterbury and the Atonement, referred to above, Dr. Warfield remarks incidentally that Anselm, by his presentation of the doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ, has furnished essentially the church doctrine for all Christendom.

Up to the time of Anselm the doctrine of the Atonement had never been developed in any organized, or systematic, form. From Anselm, Luther later took the doctrine to fill it with a truly evangelical content. On this point Professor C. E. Luthardt writes truly: “Thus the chief thoughts of the Anselmic theory ever more and more, though with biblical modifications, became the general view of the Church … especially the concurrence of divine justice and grace, the satisfaction, and the vicarious bearing of punishment [Strafteiden].These form the substratum also of the [teaching of the] Church of the Reformation” (Kompendium der Dogmatik, 13. Auflage, p. 289 f., Verlag von Doerffling & Franke, Leipzig, 1933).

What has been said of the one-sidedness of Aulen’s treatment of the three chief types does not mean that he willfully tried to misrepresent the three views or that he failed to study the matter carefully. His is rather a scholar’s attempt at classifying teachings, in a scientific way, from a viewpoint that frequently proved too narrow.

Seeberg On Luther’S View

In his immortal work Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte (A. Deichentsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Leipzig, 1933), Professor Reinhold Seeberg devotes the entire volume IV1 to the discussion of Luther’s doctrine (Die Lehre Luthers), and here he treats with great thoroughness Luther’s doctrine of the Atonement. The student of his Dogmengeschichte may, of course, not agree with Dr. Seeberg on every detail; but, on the whole, the learned author has conscientiously tried to present to his readers what the Wittenberg Reformer actually taught with regard to Christ’s atoning work. Seeberg’s presentation contains no attempt at Systembildung, since Luther himself, being an expositor of Scripture rather than a systematician in the modern sense, attempted no systematization of this or any other doctrine of the Christian faith.

Professor Seeberg treats the doctrine of the Atonement as presented by Luther, in the main, from the two aspects of satisfaction and reconciliation. That is to say, in summary, that Christ, as our divine-human Substitute, willingly rendered to God full satisfaction for our sins and that he made amends for our transgression of the divine Law by keeping it for us. By this work of satisfaction he secured an objective and universal reconciliation between the holy and righteous God and sinful and condemned man. God freely grants this perfect righteousness of Christ, the Savior of the world, to man through the means of grace, the Word and the sacraments, so that all who, through the operation of the Holy Spirit, believe and accept the divine consoling word of reconciliation (the Gospel) are reconciled to God, for they have received and are in possession of forgiveness of sins and life everlasting, not indeed by human merit but by God’s grace through faith in Christ.

This comforting Gospel teaching of Luther, as Seeberg shows, already appears from his explanation of the Second Article in his Small Catechism, where he says: “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own, and live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, even as He is risen from the dead, lives, and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true” (Weimar ed., 30. 1, 296; Dogmengeschichte IV1, p. 237).

According to Luther, therefore, as Seeberg points out, Christ has become by his sacrificial satisfaction our Redeemer and Lord, our Priest and Mediator (W 33,101), our Atoner and Intercessor (W 46,94). Luther teaches not only that Christ reconciled the world to God (W 27,105; 29,578), but also that through Christ’s satisfaction God became reconciled to the sinful world (30. 1,9; 20,399). Christ’s redeeming work ended with his triumphant resurrection, which is the beginning of his gracious rule as the risen Lord among men (W 10.1. 1,135 ff.). His vicarious suffering and death were the sacrifice that was rendered to God for our reconciliation and remission of sins. By his resurrection he was exalted to the Session on the right hand of the Father and so through the Gospel to his victorious rule over his elect saints, for whom he makes constant intercession. The purpose of Christ’s redemptive work was to gather sinners into his kingdom of salvation and to renew and bless them through his Holy Spirit. But this purpose he could not have accomplished unless he had first appeased God’s wrath over sin and made satisfaction to God for our condemning transgressions.

In support of this summary statement of Luther’s doctrine of the Atonement, Seeberg quotes from Luther, among others, this following clear and comforting declaration of his faith:

But now God found for this evil [man’s sin] a counsel and he determined that He would send into the world Christ, His own Son, in order that He might shed His blood and die so that He might make satisfaction for [man’s] sin and remove it; and that then the Holy Spirit should enter the hearts [of men] to make those who unwillingly and under coercion did the works of the Law, such as are ready to keep the divine Law without any coercion out of a joyous heart.… Thus God has put away the sins of all men who believe in Christ so that henceforth it is impossible that those can continue in sin that have [accepted] this Savior, who has taken all sins upon Himself and wiped them out [W 12,544].

Satisfaction Necessary

Luther was an ardent defender of the sola gratia, and he continually inculcated in his hearers faith in God’s free and universal grace. Nevertheless, according to Luther, God’s free and forgiving grace presupposes that satisfaction had to be made (by Christ) for man’s sin. Remission of sin could not be granted free of charge, that is, without any satisfaction of God’s justice, or righteousness; for there is no room for divine mercy and grace to work over and in us … but first his righteousness had to be satisfied most perfectly (Matt. 5:18) (W 10.1. 1,121).

It was Luther’s conviction, anchored in Scripture, that God could not justify, or declare righteous, guilty man by any arbitrary imputation (of forgiveness); otherwise Christ’s vicarious suffering and death would have been unnecessary (W 10.1. 1,468 f.). He writes, for example: “If God’s wrath is to be removed from me, and I am to obtain grace and forgiveness, it must be earned by payment [abverdienen] from Him, for God cannot be merciful and gracious over against sin nor can He remove [His] wrath and punishment, unless that has been paid for, or compensation has been made” (W 2,137; 12,544).

This payment, or satisfaction, Christ, in obedience to his Father and in loving service of lost mankind, has rendered to God by his suffering and death (W 1,270; 2,146,691). In willingly doing this, Christ purposed to redeem sinners for his kingdom and to exercise over them as their Lord his redeeming dominion of grace (W 2,97). Christ’s dominion embraces redemption, remission of sins, peace and righteousness (W 37,49; 30.1.1,90; 33,500; 46,44). He rules by the power of his Holy Spirit through the Gospel of the remission of sins (W 19,163).

Shield From God’S Wrath

Luther thus writes: “We should look upon Christ’s kingdom as a beautiful, large cloud, or as a cover which is drawn over us everywhere and veils and guards us against God’s wrath; indeed, as a large and wide heaven in which there shines nothing but grace and forgiveness, and so fills all things that, compared with it, all sins are but as a little drop compared with the large and wide ocean” (W 18,206; 36,367). This is a brief overview of Luther’s doctrine of Christ’s atoning work.

The Wittenberg Reformer never tired of stressing the thought that God’s grace and pardon had to be purchased, and that this was accomplished by what Christ did and suffered for us. He admits that God indeed could have helped lost and condemned mankind in another way had he so willed. But the fact is that God did not will another way (W 52,379). Luther, therefore, criticizes Ockham severely for speculating on the possibility of divine pardon without redemption, or atonement, for then Christ would have done His work “foolishly” and “unnecessarily” (W 10.1.1,468).

On this point Luther writes: “Now, however, He [Christ] took our place and for our sakes He permitted the Law, sin, and death to fall upon Himself” (W 36, 693). Again: “As a Priest He placed Himself between God the the sinners and offered Himself up to God as a sacrifice” (W 40.1, 298 f.). Or: “He has paid for our guilt and made amends for it so that we are rid of it” (W 47,113; 33,310). “In His tender, innocent heart He had to feel God’s wrath and judgment against sin. He had to taste for us eternal death and damnation; in short, He had to suffer what a condemned sinner deserves and has to suffer eternally” (W 45,240). “Let no man think of reconciling God … for God over against man is always the Justifier and Giver” (W 43,607). “God is reconciled through only one and a very unique offering, namely, Christ’s self-sacrifice in death in order that the wrath of God might be appeased and sin might be forgiven, after His wrath has been removed so that we may have grace and remission of sins” (W 8,442; 44,468). “Thus Christ has reconciled the Father for us and earned for us grace. To this we must hold, for He is our constant Mediator and Intercessor, who pledges His perfect holiness and His good conscience for us” (W 36,366).

Christ Our Substitute

In short, according to Luther, Christ is our Substitute. “He is a true sinner, who never committed any sin and yet became guilty of all of them” (W 27,109; 2,692). “But as Christ has freed us from God’s wrath, so also He has redeemed us from the power of the devil, sin, and death. The devil wrongly seized Christ, whose deity was concealed by His humanity, just as the fishhook is concealed by the worm. But the fishhook tore open Satan’s belly so that he had to throw up what he had swallowed” (W 46,556.560; 47,80; 40.1,417). To understand this somewhat crude illustration we must bear in mind Luther’s eager desire to render clear to the common man of his day, against the errors of the Roman Mass, Christ’s perfect redemption from sin, death and the devil. Luther himself stemmed from common stock, and it was in the main for Hans and Grete, representatives of the common people, that he expounded the Holy Scriptures.

Luther went beyond Anselm in teaching that Christ’s fulfillment of the divene Law was vicarious, or substitutionary. He often uses the expression that Christ has put himself under the Law for us, for which as proof he quotes Galatians 4:4,5 (“made under the law”). He found great comfort in the divine truth that Christ kept the Law for him, which he himself had transgressed. He writes, for example: “There stands the Man who has accomplished it! To Him I cleave, for He has fulfilled the Law for me and He graciously grants me His fulfillment” (Erlangen ed., 15,58). Despite his mercy, so Luther teaches, God nevertheless demands that satisfaction must be made for sin and his honor and justice be compensated. In his mercy he sent Christ who in our place procured that satisfaction for us (ibid., 15,385).

Such excerpts from Luther’s writings might be quoted endlessly, for Christ’s merit and satisfaction are central in his evangelical theology. Essentially, therefore, there is no difference between Luther and Anselm in their teaching of Christ’s atoning work. Both use the same terms emphasizing the propitiatory and objective character of the Atonement. Practically, the only real difference between Luther and Anselm is that the Wittenberg Reformer stressed also the active obedience of Christ, or his vicarious fulfillment of the divine Law, whereas Anselm centered his atoning work in his death on the cross. In this also Luther often centers his doctrine of the Atonement, for the vicarious propitiatory death of our Lord was the culmination of his willing obedience to his Father’s will. After all, according to Luther, there is only one atoning obedience of Christ, though it has two aspects, which after all are one: for us transgressors he kept the divine Law, which we had broken; for us transgressors he suffered and died to make satisfaction for our sins.

Such is Luther’s classic view of the Atonement. It is classic because it is scriptural. It may be summed up in the words: He died for us. That is what the Church Fathers believed; that is what Anselm believed; that is what Luther believed; that is what all true Christians believe. And that is what Aulen believes, if indeed he, as a Lutheran, accepts Luther’s Small Catechism; for that, and that only, is the faith of the Christian Church.

The Rev. J. Marcellus Kik, Associate Editor of Christianity Today, served as minister in the Presbyterian Church in Canada and the Reformed Church in America. He is author of Matthew Twenty-four, Revelation Twenty, and Voices from Heaven and Hell.

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