COMPARATIVE ECCLESIASTICS

At the Women’s Auxiliary Buffet, Pastor Weems, Dr. Ivy, and Dean Drinkwater were chatting as Weems finished a second slice of chocolate whipped cream cake. Studying the trio, I was reminded of the importance of Comparative Ecclesiastics, the psychosomatic study of atypical clergy. The following introductory descriptions are of value to research assistants, pulpit committees, and prospective ladies of the manse.

Ecclesiastics Ectomorphus. Solid supporter of church suppers, bake sales, teas. Often visits in the homes of his parish to encourage hospitality. A weighty opponent of asceticism. Prefers Genevan robe in pulpit (52, short). Jolly sermonettes a specialty.

Clericus Mesomorphus. Enthusiastic keystone of young men’s activities, notably at second base on the soft-ball team. Develops small group emphasis throughout the church year: bowling, basketball, tennis, golf in season. Muscular preaching with booming cross-nave volley. Casualties from handclasps at the door.

Doctorandus Endomorphus. His immortal sermons never die, they just fade away. He carries the groceries with a scholarly stoop and drives his vintage Packard with philosophic detachment. He can sometimes recall the name of a parishioner by associating him with a Continental scholar.

Predicandus Amorphus is all things to all men. An evangelicalliberal with leanings toward and away from neodoxy and paleoism. Heartily concurs in both sides of every argument—with minor reservations. Man of many deep convictions which last for days.

Your cooperation is invited in compiling profiles of other notable types. Studies are in progress on Tyranothesaurus Rex who hurls synonyms like thunderbolts and defies you to break into his conversation, and Dialecticus Non Dubitandum.

EUTYCHUS

THE GRAVECLOTHES

Hillyer Straton’s article on the resurrection of our Lord (Mar. 31 issue), on the whole, was very well done. For me, however, the paragraph about the napkin that had enwrapped the head of Jesus, left something to be desired.… What convinced John that Jesus had risen as he promised was the fact, obvious from their position, that no human hands had touched these graveclothes to empty or rearrange them. For the body indeed was gone. The physical remains had been transformed on the third day into that wonderful and incorruptible thing St. Paul called the “spiritual body.” But the linens still lay in the place where the head and torso of Jesus had rested. They had, however, collapsed from the weight of the spices. The Greek word translated “rolled up” in the Authorized Version and “wrapped together” in the Revised Version, used to describe their condition, does not mean that the linens had been folded and placed in piles. On the contrary, it means that as the linens collapsed they retained the annular, ringlike shape that had been given them by the use to which they had been put. Such a sight would indeed open the eyes of one who had the capacity for insight enjoyed by the Beloved Disciple.

So we read (John 20:8), John “saw, and believed.”

Wichita, Kan.

THE CROSS

Your editorial on “Preaching the Cross” (Mar. 17 issue): we distinguish between the fact and the philosophy of the Atonement.… By the Atonement as fact we understand the gracious work of the Lord Jesus for the blessing of men. All else is theory and mode of putting. One might well hold fast to the fact with all conviction and devotion, and at the same time find no acceptable theory.

Nobleton, Fla.

Your editorial … rates the highest comment of praise! May the all-sufficient grace of God lead you to give us more editorials of this sort!

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church

Vincennes, Ind.

In the Roman Catholic church the crucifix stands upon or over the altar. In this house, in every chapel, in every room there is a crucifix.… The Protestants are the ones who have removed the cross from the buildings and from their altars and from their homes.

The Order Of The Holy Cross

West Park, N. Y.

LIBERTARIANS

I wish to express my appreciation to you for … one of the finest magazines of its sort to which I have ever subscribed.… I feel compelled, however, to protest about … “Christ and the Libertarians” (Mar. 17 issue).… It seems to me to be a tragic mistake to interpret evangelical Christianity as being favorable to economic or political fascism. As a fundamentalist, I am convinced that the so-called “creeping socialism” of the New Deal was far closer to the Christianity of the Bible than anything set forth by those peculiar organizations to which Mr. Howard makes reference.

First Presbyterian Church

San Diego, Calif.

I take exception to Mr. Howard’s article. I have long been dissatisfied with the “social gospel” approach and cannot always agree with the National Council of Churches. I support the Spiritual Mobilization movement as a libertarian, and think that you have done that organization a grave injustice by allowing such an un-Christian, humanitarian, bigoted movement as the Christian Freedom Foundation to be compared with the high, spiritual, Christian purposes of Spiritual Mobilization!

Union Presbyterian Church

Lost Nation, Iowa

Christian Freedom Foundation has been called many things, but I think this is the first time we have been charged with humanitarianism! That label we accept! We are humanitarian! We believe in seeking the welfare of man—under God—and are convinced that the welfare of man is advanced better in a free society than in any kind of a socialistic system.

With that Spiritual Mobilization would agree also. In fact, the Christian Freedom Foundation and Spiritual Mobilization would agree on their political and economic views anyhow. The only difference, which I pointed out in the article in question, is a difference of emphasis. Christian Economics has been more biblical and evangelical. This is not to say that what Faith and Freedom has published has not been true. As a former writer for that publication, I certainly hope that was the case.

Christian Freedom Foundation, Inc.

New York, N. Y.

“Christ and the Libertarians” was of particular interest. It has always seemed to me that the Scripture as a whole upholds our so-called “American way of life”—private ownership of property, employer and employee, etc., rather than depending so much on government. The article brings out many factors of truth on the question.

Publisher

Martinsville Daily Reporter

Martinsville, Ind.

Inasmuch as there can be no genuine morality apart from the regenerating influence of the Holy Spirit, we conservatives should be in the forefront of a movement to restore freedom to our land, whether it be religious, political or economic.…

Chapelgate Lane Church

United Presbyterian

Baltimore, Md.

THE FINAL TEST

I wish to heartily commend L. Nelson Bell’s “Bricks Without Straw” (Mar. 17 issue). Dr. Bell’s contentions are profoundly true, … show up humanism for what it is and bound to do good.…

But … it is a fact … that fully 50 per cent of the membership of the churches … is worthless to the church.… Surely all of this is not due to modernism. So maybe Dr. Morrison and Chas. B. Templeton have something when they contend for a reformed evangelism. So give us a method that will be as good as the one on message and we will be twice grateful to you. Is it not true that the final test of a thing is the quality of its product?

Franklin, Ky.

It has become apparent that such papers as The Christian Century and Advance have adopted the belief that Christianity is a “corporate religion” of the kind criticized by L. Nelson Bell. The Congregationalist, which first appeared in February, 1958, under a name which for years was most highly honored in American religious journalism, is dedicated to the belief that “the church” is primarily a company of individuals who are disciples of the Lord Jesus.

National Association of Congregational Christian Churches in the U. S.

Melrose, Mass.

Conversion and church membership are not two steps but one. There is no “clear distinction” between them. The decision to receive Christ and the decision to be a part of the church are one.… Great weakness stems from those who claim the Faith but have never joined the church either in the technical or the broader sense of the phrase. Either act alone is incomplete.

First Baptist Church

Bonesteel, S. D.

FAITH AND PHYSICAL FORCE

There is something I want to say regarding “Catholics in the News” (Mar. 17 issue).… Having spent seven years in South America, traveling extensively in every country of that continent, I know that the church is the government, and when the church condemns for heresy, the state imposes the penalty prescribed by the church.

Their denial of persecutions of Protestants in Columbia are such rank falsehoods that in spite of their adroit duplicity, no well-informed person is fooled. You may be in possession of the following, but I pass it on to you anyway:

“The church has persecuted. Only a tyro in church history will deny that. One hundred and fifty years after Constantine the Donatists were persecuted, and sometimes put to death. Protestants were persecuted in France and Spain with the full approval of church authorities. We have always defended the persecution of the Huguenots and the Spanish Inquisition. Wherever and whenever there is honest catholicity, there will be a clear distinction drawn between truth and error, and catholicity and all forms of heresy. When she thinks it good to use physical force, she will use it. Will the Catholic Church give bond that she will not persecute at all? Will she guarantee freedom and equality of all churches and faiths? The Catholic Church gives no bonds for her good behaviour” (The Western Watchman [Roman Catholic], Dec. 24, 1908).

… The attitude of the Catholic Church toward Protestants is clearly and boldly stated. In view of this I am amazed that many of the so-called outstanding leaders of Protestantism, and especially those who are working so hard to bring about a union of all churches, are flirting with the Catholic Church authorities, making concession after concession, in their determined endeavor to bring that church into the union. And almost in the same breath they quibble about whether Seventh-day Adventists are to be classed as evangelicals or not!…

Eric Tracy, the Roman Catholic Archdeacon of Halifax, York, forecast that by the end of this century the Anglican Church (England) will no longer be an established church. I quote his words: “A nation with a predominantly Roman Catholic population will by then have the constitution of the country changed, so that the cathedrals and ancient parish churches are made over to the Roman Catholics; the king (or queen) of this country is crowned by a Roman Catholic prelate; and the Anglican Church and its clergy are deprived of the privileges that now belong to them as ministers of the establishment.”

This is a fair example of the aims and purposes of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, not merely for England, but for the United States, as well. Their aims and purposes as regards our educational institutions are only too apparent.…

Arlington, Calif.

THE ‘PURITANS’

“Sex and Smut on the Newsstands” (Feb. 17 issue) made me slightly ill—but not for the reason you think. But for these:

1. The magazines are sold openly; hence they must be legal; hence they come within the strict censorship laws that the powerful and holier-than-thou Puritans have foisted on us.

2. They are perforce “suggestive”—but not in an obscene sense—since they must abide by the blue laws. Hence they cannot deal adultly with sex. And let’s face it—sex is here to stay!—God-created … in every normal male.

3. Evidence of this is the wide acceptance of these magazines—which keeps them in business.

4. “Suggestive” features of these publications are, as mentioned, entirely due to the bluenoses. Attack these latter, rather than the symptoms, viz. “suggestive” mags.

5. If the powerful Puritans did not keep the U. S. in diapers (cf. the more enlightened European nations), there would be no need for males to search for information in these periodicals.

6. My hackles are raised by the reference to photos of the female body as “smutty.” The most beautiful thing the good Lord created is that same female body.

7. Notice authors of the article read “hundreds of the stories in those magazines.” Thus, by this time and according to their own reasoning, they must be utterly depraved. Hence their views are not to be respected by a normal person like myself.

But why go on? The Puritans, who live in constant fear that someone, somewhere may be enjoying sex, have lobbied through the strictest censorship. Now, they are freshly alarmed that red-blooded males may be enjoying the little they have allowed to trickle through.

New York, N. Y.

We who profess to be Christians must … realize that it has been through our inability to properly present our side that has furthered Satan’s reign. We as Christians must be able to meet every challenge and it is our God-granted duty to show why and how our way is the best and we must do this because … to legislate sin out of existence is an impossibility.

Memphis, Tenn.

BLUEPRINT OF MORE YALTAS?

An analysis of the current objectives of Soviet foreign policy.

The prime objective of current Soviet foreign policy is a summit conference. The communists are in the midst of a very strong campaign to force the United States into an international conference with Soviet leaders. The Soviet leaders have led the neutralist leaders to believe that the USSR might be willing to make concessions which would enhance the possibility of world peace. For this reason the neutralist leaders devote themselves wholeheartedly to the achievement of the sort of international conference the communist leaders desire. The United States, having suffered severe losses at Yalta and in almost every subsequent international conference, has been strong in its opposition. John Foster Dulles, as the Secretary of State, spelled out the United States position in a way that precluded misunderstanding.

Once the United States had taken a position, especially an uncompromising one, the Soviet Union called attention to this position, and suggested that in reality, it was the United States that actually blocked the path to peaceful co-existence. This touched off a very bitter attack on the United States in general and John Foster Dulles in particular. The British Labor Party, Canadian Liberals, and many of the socialist leaders of Europe denounced Dulles and the U. S. in terms almost as vehement as those of Khrushchev. Covert and overt socialists in the United States joined the drive in savage smear attacks on Mr. Dulles. In an all too frequent pattern the socialist parties lent their strength to the attainment of Soviet objectives in isolating the United States from all its allies in a futile effort to gain the sympathy and cooperation of the Soviet communists. The Soviets exude an air of reasonableness, and push the old program of the “front populaire”, while Western socialists devote all their strength to the achievement of the objectives of Soviet foreign policy. Khrushchev and the socialists become allies in the necessary task of painting John Foster Dulles in the blackest terms possible and isolating the United States from all sympathy and help.

When the pressure from America’s “allies” and well-wishers became irresistible, the United States was forced to alter its position and admitted the possibility of an international conference under certain conditions. In such a conference, the United States cannot fail to lose its shirt. For the two camps are Russia on the one side, and the United States and its “allies” on the other. England is the “ally” of the United States to exactly the same degree that the U. S. was England’s ally in the “Suez venture.” France is the U. S. “ally” to the same degree that the United States supports French interests in North Africa. Just as the United States has not hesitated to sacrifice British or French interests in the pursuance of its own objectives, so neither England or France hesitates to sacrifice American interests in an effort to purchase peace from the Russians.

The United States, with England and France and others as ostensible allies, is pitted on the one side against a united and determined Soviet delegation. Could anyone imagine that the United States could do any “hard bargaining” in this situation? Of course not; the inevitable result must be more Yaltas, and a further weakening of the United States, with its consequence, the strengthening of Russia.

Khrushchev wants an international conference because he knows it will produce more victories for Soviet foreign policy. He sorely needs these cheap and easy victories to balance against domestic difficulties in Russia. Communism’s disillusionment from within, and internal economic problems have so far baffled all attempts at solution. With cheap victories in foreign policy, Khrushchev can offer the plausible argument that at any rate he has successfully followed and duplicated Stalin’s foreign policy successes, and therefore deserves the support of all Russians, since there is no excuse for breaking up a winning combination. He also gains respect in the eyes of communists and communist sympathizers outside of Russia for having contributed to the growing strength of the fatherland of Communism.

There is little doubt but that American indifference, British and French sabotage, both based on an ignorance of the objectives of Soviet foreign policy which is inexcusable at this late date, will give to Khrushchev the victories he so sorely needs.

University of Washington

Seattle, Wash.

RELISHED OPPORTUNITIES

It seems that a great amount of correspondence that you receive is from theologians, pastors, and other religious adherents who relish in their opportunity to make public their refutations, negations and denials of the great fundamental tenets of Christianity.…

If these gentlemen would either accept, embrace and declare the great teachings that they deny and attempt to undo, or bow completely out admitting their agnosticism, Christianity, with access to modern communications and a purged fold, would surge ahead with an unequalled conquest in history since Pentecost.…

Sao Paulo, Brazil

I am enjoying reading CHRISTIANITY TODAY. The material is of a high standard and even the letters interesting, although not necessarily acceptable in viewpoint. One does not have to agree with another’s argument to appreciate that he might be correct or is as honest in his approach to the correct answer as we are.

I make one observation. One correspondent says, “I am a born-again Christian.” Now, what other kind is there? Surely if one is saved, he is born again. He is a Christian. If he is a Christian, he can only be such by being born again. A saved man is regenerated—there are no degrees. There may be some degree of consecration or holiness, but if he is born again, he is a Christian without any prefixes.

Toronto, Ont.

SPRING FASHION NOTE

The only truly appropriate garment for this current wicked and perverse generation would seem to be sackcloth and ashes. Our fashion designers have now given us “The Sack,” but where are the ashes?

Stuttgart, Germany

Orthodoxy is not an end but a means. As an end in itself it can be deadly; as a means to an end it leads the Christian into a full and glorious experience, not only of Christ as Saviour from sin but also of Christ as daily companion and Lord of life.

It is not enough to be orthodox in belief, for the Scriptures tell us that devils believe and tremble. They believe every essential doctrine of the Christian faith but remain devils.

During our Lord’s earthly ministry the most orthodox people with whom he had to deal were the Pharisees. But the most scathing denunciations to fall from the lips of the gentle Saviour were reserved for these men who knew the letter of the law but whose hearts and lives were so far from the truth.

Make no mistake: I believe the very heart of the Gospel centers in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I accept the Christ of the Scriptures—pre-existent with God, born of a virgin, truly God and truly man, the second person of the Trinity. I believe the record of his miracles. I believe his deity as presented to us in the Bible, that he was verily the Son of God. I believe he died on the Cross as a substitute for me and that by the shedding of his precious blood a way of cleansing and redemption was opened to all who would believe. I believe that the third day he arose again from the dead, that he had the same body although there were changes our finite minds can neither understand nor adequately explain. I believe that he ascended into heaven, sending the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, into the world to dwell in our hearts and to woo us to him. I believe he is surely coming again and that he will judge the quick and the dead and that he shall reign forever as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Believing all this without equivocation, I am convinced that if man’s faith and life stops at this point he will find himself in a most dangerous position, for, if orthodoxy of belief does not lead to Christian living it is a barren thing indeed, for Christian living is the fruit of a life redeemed by the Christ of Calvary.

The Bible is crystal clear in its affirmations that we are saved by the grace of God as he gives to us faith to believe and accept that which he has done for us through his Son. It is equally clear that none of this can be earned or deserved, that it is a matter of believing, not achieving, and that even the faith to believe is a work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

But the Bible is equally clear that not every one who says, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but rather those who do the will of God. It is his will that we shall live lives consistent with the faith we profess.

The Apostle James, rather than contradicting Paul’s strong assertions with reference to the just living by faith, simply shows the other side of the coin—that a saving faith will show itself in a saved life. As the body without the spirit is dead so a faith without commensurate works is also dead.

John the Baptist demanded that the Pharisees and Sadducees bring forth fruits consistent with the repentance they professed. Our Lord insisted that we who follow him should by good works bring honor and glory to his name.

It is hard for me to overstate my conviction with reference to certain essential doctrines of the Christian faith. There are such doctrines and they are essential because they have to do with what we believe about Christ, both as to his person and also his work of redemption. It is because of lack of conviction on these essential matters that so many have no saving faith or message. But the point of this article is to insist that unless the things we believe have eventuated into a new life in Christ there is something deadly wrong.

An orthodoxy which permits men to hate instead of love, to bear false witness instead of telling the truth, to rejoice in evil rather than to sorrow over it, to proclaim the sins and mistakes of brother Christians rather than to cover them in love, to assume a negative form of religion rather than a positive way of life in which Christ is made the center and his glory the objective: such an orthodoxy is a deadly thing and needs to be repented of in sackcloth and ashes.

Over the years there has been a great controversy over the content of the Christian faith. I believe that one of the great weaknesses of the Church today is her lack of concern as to what must be the heart of the Christian message, while she spends much of her energies in secondary matters.

At the same time, I believe the cause of Christ has suffered greatly at the hands of those who, proclaiming their orthodoxy to the skies, have shown themselves totally lacking in Christian love, courtesy and forbearance. The Apostle Paul writes: “And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, forbearing”; but how often we who regard orthodoxy as so important fail to heed this warning!

The fruits of the Spirit should be evident in the lives of the orthodox more than in any other people. Listen: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Does orthodoxy produce such fruit in your life? Does it in mine?

Is not the answer to this riddle that only an orthodoxy of belief which is anointed by and filled with the Holy Spirit is truly worth while?

Our Lord knew the Pharisees were versed in the law and careful about the keeping of its ceremonial requirements. But he likened them to sepulchres filled with dead men’s bones; to cups which had been washed on the outside but were filthy on the inside.

In our contention for the verities of the Christian faith let us be very sure that the faith we so loudly proclaim has really done something to our lives. Unless we are new creatures in Christ, showing something of his transforming and keeping power; something of his love and compassion; something of his concern for the needy as well as the lost; something of his patience and forbearance under provocation—unless others can see in us something of his likeness, then for God’s sake—and we say this with the deepest reverence—let us stop and examine our orthodoxy and see what manner of men we truly are.

Paul, that stalwart for orthodox belief, that great spokesman for man’s sinfulness and God’s complete provision for that sin, says in Romans 2:13, “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” Let us make sure that we have not simply heard with the ear and given an intellectual assent to divine truth, but let us never rest until the living Christ is both our Saviour from sin and the Lord of our daily lives.

(In an early issue we shall consider the dangers of liberalism.)

L. NELSON BELL

Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven (Acts 1:11).

In the ascension He becomes invisible not by a process of spiritualization or translation into deity. What happens is an exchange of place. He was on earth and he went to heaven. He went up from a specific place, the Mount of Olives, less than a mile from Jerusalem in the direction of Bethany. Before he separated from his disciples he blessed them. In an attitude of blessing he leaves the earth and goes up to heaven. Thus he had come, thus he had lived, and thus he now returned. He is himself the content of all the blessings of God, the achiever, the possessor, and the distributor of them all (Eph. 1:3).

The great future belongs to Jesus Christ and to his Church. This is the ultimate meaning of New Testament apocalyptic. Our Lord is the Coming One. When or how he shall come we know not; generations may have to run their course first, and in the end the Advent may be far other than we anticipate. But of one thing we are assured by our Christian faith: beyond the furthest limits of human history there is an age of fuller knowledge, larger power, more splendid achievements, a more perfect life, than the existing order can attain to. No progress of scientific discovery, no changes of social conditions, no system of education or politics or ethical principles, can abolish Pain or Death or Sin; only the faith of Christ can promise that Death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more; the first things are passed away … and there shall in no wise enter … anything unclean.

The chief thing to which the angels called the attention of the disciples, and ours should be directed, is the certainty of his second coming; for this is an event, which, although an object of dreadful expectation to the unbelieving and impenitent, is fraught with hope and joy to those who love and obey the truth. The person who shall appear, will be “that same Jesus who was taken up into heaven,” clothed with the same nature, sustaining the same relations to us, animated with the same love, and carrying on the same gracious design.… Oh! how joyful the meeting, so long promised, so eagerly expected! It will be the day of the gladness of his heart, to behold around him those for whom he died upon the cross, and has ever since ministered in heaven: it will be a source of ineffable felicity to them, to see him whose glory was the subject of their contemplations in this world, to be taken under his immediate care, to be admitted to the most intimate fellowship with him, and to know that no event shall ever separate them again.

Why Stand Gazing?

They need not stand gazing up skywards, said the two visitants. “This same Jesus” would indeed come back in the way in which he went—but the implication is that he would not appear again immediately. They had seen him go in cloud and glory; in cloud and glory he would return. But an interval was to elapse between his exaltation and parousia, and in that interval the possession of the Spirit was to be the pledge of the coming consummation of glory. Christ is ascended, but his abiding presence and energy fill the whole book of Acts, and the whole succeeding story of his people on earth.

F. F. BRUCE

There was something hard and chilling in the very form of address, “Ye men of Galilee”; not, “Ye satraps of the King of Kings,” nor “Ye captains in the mighty Victor’s host.” So then the glory had departed. They were humble fishermen and peasants still, simple inhabitants of a despised province, doomed to a life of vulgar toil and commonplace cares. A fit introduction this to the rebuke which follows, “Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?” “Face the stern realities of life at once. You have work to do, which will tax all your energies. There is this tremendous load of sin, under which mankind is sinking, and you are called to remove it; there is this dense cloud of ignorance, which shrouds the heavens from them, and you are charged to scatter it. There is a whole world to be conquered for Christ, and you must conquer it. What matter it to you when he will come—this very moment, tomorrow, next year, centuries hence? Cease to gaze up into heaven. Earth is the scene of your labors now; earth must be the center of your interests.”

J. B. LIGHTFOOT

According to the system of the Jews, there were three heavens;—the aerial heaven, which is the region of clouds and meteors; the starry heaven, in which the celestial luminaries are fixed; and the heaven of heavens, in which the throne of God is erected. Our Redeemer ascended above the two former, or the visible heavens, and entered into the latter, which is concealed from mortal eyes by an impenetrable veil. Where the highest heaven is seated we cannot tell; but, agreeably to an idea which seems to be natural because it is common, it is said to be above us; and hence his passage to it from this world is called an ascent. It is the place in which the glory of God, which is partially seen in his works, is fully revealed, angels and departed spirits of the just at present reside, and the redeemed, after the resurrection, will have their everlasting habitation.

JOHN DICK

In Like Manner

This same Jesus shall come again in his own person, clothed with this glorious body; this same Jesus, who came once to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, will appear a second time without sin. He who came once in disgrace to be judged, will come again in glory to judge. This same Jesus, who has given you a charge, will come again to call you to give account, how you have performed your trust.

THOMAS SCOTT

Our Lord ascended in human nature. The man Christ Jesus has left the earth, and entered into that invisible region of the universe where God sits on the throne of his majesty. To his followers, it is a source of high consolation to know, that he has not laid aside their nature, but retains it amidst his glory; because they can look up to him with confidence, in the full assurance of his sympathy, and see, in his exaltation, an earnest of their future glory.

JOHN DICK

Note the significant use of the name “Jesus,”—the name that speaks of his humanity, with all its tenderness and brotherhood. Note the triple recurrence of “heaven.” Note the emphasis laid on the parallel between the manner of departure and of return: “so,” “in like manner”; that is, in clouds (Rev. 1:7), corporeally, visibly. Note that they are not told that they shall see the return, as they have seen the ascension. The angels’ message was not to make them know the times and seasons, but to turn them from vain gazing into an empty heaven to strenuous work and to triumphant hope.

ALEXANDER MACLAREN

Christianity is a life of triumph because it is life in the risen Christ. And it is precious to know that each born-again person is marked by God himself for a glorious destiny—that is, “to be conformed to the image of his Son”; to be a living stone in that magnificent structure of pure gold which shall come forth as a “bride adorned for her husband”; and “that in the ages to come he will show us forth as tokens of his grace.”

Can we fully appreciate all that will be included in that day when we are shown forth before the heavenly host? May the blessed Holy Spirit take these truths and seal them to my own heart—and to yours—as our special blessing for this, another Mother’s Day.

The Saviour Without Room

It is still true that “Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34). It is two thousand years since God’s Son was on earth, proclaiming to all a way out of every difficulty. At his birth angels announced: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace.” But men of earth said: “No room for him in the inn.” Their attitude did not change with time, for we read in John 1:11. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” What a sad statement, yet how true today.

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” These words, spoken nearly two thousand years ago by the writer of Romans (10:1), today might well be upon the lips and planted deeply in the heart of every Christian.

When we sense the widespread confusion on the national and international scene, as well as in the minds of individuals, it behooves Christians to be much in prayer for the salvation of those who do not know Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.

Mothers In The Home

Christian mothers do not want Mother’s Day to be one of self-congratulation. It is a day for heart searching and for a new awareness of the vital role God has given us in the home, in the lives of our children, and in the life of the nation as a whole.

The resources of the Christian mother are limited solely by the love and grace of God. It is to him that she turns in prayer, not only for the strength needed for each day but also for blessings for her children. Through prayer there comes wisdom, understanding and grace. As our children sense our prayer lives they too learn the vital place of communion with our Heavenly Father.

The Bible is also our unswerving guide. How often in the silent watches of the night the precious promises of the Word become our stay and comfort! At early morn and at the close of day our children learn that man does not live by bread alone. When God and his Word are given their rightful place in the home it is then that we who are mothers have in some measure discharged our responsibility to those God has given us. Then, and only then, can we look at our children and at the future with confidence.

Morrow Coffee Graham (Mrs. William F. Graham), is the mother of evangelist Billy Graham. Her solicited Mother’s Day meditation comes from a heart yearning to reach those who do not know Christ. She resides in Charlotte, N. C.

A distinctive feature of Seventh-day Adventist teaching is the “heavenly sanctuary” doctrine. On the day after “the great disappointment” in 1844, Hiram Edson assertedly experienced a vision of heaven in which he saw Christ, the High Priest, entering the most holy place in heaven to cleanse it. Here then, of course, lay the readiest explanation for the failure of Christ to return to earth as had been expected by the Adventists.

What was the purpose of this supposed cleansing of the sanctuary in 1844? To learn this, the Adventists turned to the biblical account of the yearly day of Atonement, and found there, presumably in type, the explanation of this new phase of the ministry of Christ in behalf of sinners.

A passage from Mrs. White’s writings, reprinted by the Seventh-day Adventists in 1947, summarizes the meaning of this doctrine:

As the sins of the people were anciently transferred, in figure, to the earthly sanctuary by the blood of the sin offering, so our sins are, in fact, transferred to the heavenly sanctuary by the blood of Christ. And as the typical cleansing of the earthly was accomplished by the removal of the sins by which it had been polluted, so the actual cleansing of the heavenly is to be accomplished by the removal, or blotting out of the sins which are there recorded. This necessitates an examination of the books of record to determine who, through repentance of sin and faith in Christ, are entitled to the benefits of his atonement. The cleansing of the sanctuary, therefore, involves a work of investigative judgment. This work must be performed prior to the coming of Christ to redeem his people, for when he comes, his reward is with him to give to every man according to his works.

The Need For Buttressing

This passage is neither out of context nor unrepresentative of Adventist thought. Several matters here require attention. Something might well be said respecting the Adventist view of the time of Christ’s entering the most holy place. The New Testament informs us that in connection with his atoning work at Calvary, Christ entered once for all into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us, and a reading of the book of Hebrews alone ought to make this clear enough. It might be urged too that this whole system has based an idea of the Atonement around a precarious interpretation of a difficult prophetic theme, rather than deriving it from a treatment of those passages of Scripture which deal explicitly with the subject—certainly a most unfortunate way of dealing with the Bible. Lacking a special theory of this kind, who would ever have thought of understanding the Scriptures to teach that Christ “in 1844 entered the 2nd apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, and that he had a work to perform in the most holy before coming to this earth”?

The Investigative Judgment

But, most important, we must ask just what, in the Adventist view, is Christ doing in the most holy place in heaven? He is carrying on what is described as the investigative judgment, the purpose of which is to determine who, from among those sinners whose sins have been forgiven by faith in him, are entitled to the benefits of his atonement, and thus have their sins finally blotted out. The question that interests us here is, who are shown to be entitled to the benefits of the atoning work of Christ? The answer to this question is found in the writings of Mrs. White, who was assertedly given prophetic insight into these matters. This passage is also quoted in Questions on Doctrine, latest publication of the Adventists explaining their views to the public.

All who have truly repented of sin, it says, and by faith claimed the blood of Christ as their atoning sacrifice have had pardon entered against their names in the books of heaven. “As they have become partakers of the righteousness of Christ, and their characters are found to be in harmony with the law of God, their sins will be blotted out, and they themselves accounted worthy of eternal life.”

Now it must be emphasized that the Adventists do not say that salvation is through keeping the Commandments. In their view it is not possible for a sinner in his own strength to reach the stage where his character is found to be entirely in harmony with the Law of God. The situation is rather that Christ imparts his character to believers, as they allow him to, keeping the Law in and through them, that they may be found acceptable in the great assize. Moreover, the Adventists do not teach that any believer will keep the Law perfectly; continual cleansing from sin is necessary and is provided for; in their words, “When the name of a true child of God comes up in the judgment the record will reveal that every sin has been confessed”—that in itself, as Martin Luther would testify, is a large order—“that every sin has been confessed and has been forgiven.”

The Crucial Point

When we have given full weight to these reservations, however, it remains true that at the crucial point, the point at which the destiny of the sinner is forever settled, the righteousness of Christ is not the sole ground of his hope; it is the righteousness of Christ and, in some measure, his character which is the basis of his acceptance. Thus, at that moment when, in the view of Adventism, life and death hang in the balance, the appropriate word is not, after all, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.” For in Adventism at least one stitch in the saint’s celestial garment shall be of his own making. And if it is thus, then grace is no more grace.

Legalism And The Law

This brings us to the question of legalism. In the various books and pamphlets which oppose the Seventh-day Adventist movement, a prominent note is criticism of their legalism. That Adventism has elements of what is undoubtedly a real legalism, by which is meant that there is the note of salvation by character, has, I think, been demonstrated. It is also true that they are legalistic in the sense that they presume to legislate the details of Christian conduct beyond what the Scriptures require. An Adventist, for example, must not only forego the use of alcohol and tobacco, but is forbidden, under penalty of sin, to indulge in tea, coffee, ham, shrimp, lobster, clams, oysters, snails. Much of the anti-Adventist polemic, however, takes them to task for something which is not legalism at all, namely, for their affirmation of the perpetual and universal validity of the moral law as the standard of conduct which is pleasing to God. It is most distressing to read in Eternity magazine statements such as “[The Adventists] take a position, [to us very illogical] that the Ten Commandments are to be obeyed.…” But that Adventists so believe is no reason for barring them from evangelical fellowship. For it is not their honoring of the Law, but their wrong use of the Law, which constitutes their fatal error in understanding the way of life.

The Sabbath Question

Again, what of this matter of the Sabbath? In Adventism this question, of course, looms large. As worked out in the early days of the movement by Edson and Bates, afterwards with the help of the Whites, the “history” of it is that originally the Christian Church kept the seventh-day Sabbath. All too soon, however, the Church was corrupted from its primitive purity and, along with the rise of the papacy, a false Sunday sacredness came to be accepted. At last, during the reign of Constantine, Sunday was established by civil law as the Sabbath day. Thus for some 1500 years, the Church manifested its apostasy by keeping Sunday. Even the Reformers of the sixteenth century unwittingly gave the Pope his due by failing to recognize that the seventh day is the Sabbath.

With the beginning of this new phase of the ministry of Christ in the heavenly temple, however, the Church was to be recalled to obedience to the Commandments. Indeed, Mrs. White herself reported that she had been given a look inside the heavenly ark of the covenant, where the originals of the two tables of the Law are kept, and the Fourth Commandment appeared to glow more brightly than the others. This vision of course, did not originate the doctrine; as always, it simply “confirmed” it and pointed out erroneous ideas. The “real basis” for this teaching is found in the Bible; for the Fourth Commandment says that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and, further, the message of the third angel of Revelation 14, who, along with the other two are manifestly intended to describe the several phases of the Adventist movement, speaks of the “mark of the Beast” which again, by every “sound rule” of exegesis, is to be equated with worship on the first day. Thus the Seventh-day Adventists, being a commandment-keeping people, are the “real” remnant church and the rest of Christendom is Babylon. It is to be marked well, I realize, that Adventists acknowledge there are true believers in the apostate churches; not all have come to understand that by honoring the first day they are breaking the commandment; moreover, no one has yet received the mark because the Sunday Sabbath has not yet been made the universal law. (Perhaps the observation is unnecessary that it is small comfort to be told that what one does is the same thing as having the mark of the beast, but that as yet it has not been ineradicably graven on his forehead.)

Learning From Adventism

I am convinced that any approach to this movement which views it as just another evangelical denomination is mistaken, and cannot help but bring about greater confusion in the Christian world than exists already. Nevertheless, we would be very unwise not to be willing to learn even from those who differ with us. There are several respects in which the Adventists can be our instructors. For one thing, I think that they can show us that we are wrong if we think that high standards are in themselves an impediment to the growth of a church or to its impact on a community in which it is located.

Every now and then one hears it remarked that a church which takes seriously a full-orbed confession of faith cannot but be at a disadvantage in competing with other groups in which there is no concern for sound doctrine. Consider, however, that in the eyes of the man on the street, the gate to full-fledged membership in the SDA church is considerably straiter than it is, as far as I know, to any other within the Christian tradition. For entrance into this church requires not only the knowledge and acceptance of its distinctive doctrines; not only agreement to forego the items of diet against which they legislate; but it requires further the honoring of Saturday, with attendant economic disadvantage and sometimes ridicule. On top of all this, it requires the payment to the local church of 10 per cent of one’s income plus regular offerings for the denominational program.

But this does not keep SDA from growing; on the contrary, it seems to afford them a rate of growth which compares favorably with that of most other groups, and, unlike most other groups, it assures them of a thoroughly committed and active constituency, and financial resources in abundance. This, of course, does not mean that we ought to make entrance into the church more difficult, certainly not more difficult than the Word of God requires; but it may well mean that if our impact is not what it should be, we ought to look elsewhere than to our purity for the reason.

And this brings me to a second and final observation; namely, that the Adventists can also instruct many who have an incomparably better theology that there is a distinction between the idea, as Robert Churchill has put it, of preaching in a place and preaching to a place. How do the Adventists preach to a place? In many ways, but the most significant is by training, and in some way or other setting on fire scores of lay workers in every area that they enter. Their zeal, though misguided, is astonishing in its fervency.

Over the past decade or so I have had contact in one way or another with dozens of workers connected with the Adventist movement: literature salesmen, lay preachers, house-to-house evangelists, and the like, each one of them convinced that his message was “present truth,” the only gospel that can bring hope and salvation to a confused and fearful age. As far as I know, however, with the exception of some of their foreign missionaries in Ethiopia, not one of these has been an ordained person fully supported by the church; they have been laboring men, housewives, students. Thus the Adventists have grasped, to a degree which few others have, the scriptural principle that every member is a witness, and have implemented that principle with remarkable success. Cannot we, and those to whom we minister, be provoked to jealousy by the Seventh-day Adventists, and, while there is yet opportunity, be up and doing?

Herbert S. Bird is on furlough from missionary duties in Eritrea, Ethiopia, where he has served since 1952. His A.B. degree is from Wheaton College and Th.B. from Westminster Theological Seminary, where he is taking graduate study.

Of all Christian denominations, the Roman Catholic church is the one that counts the most members in the world. She also possesses the most elaborated doctrinal structure and the strictest disciplinary organization. However, it is not the purpose of this article to argue whether numbers, for a religion, are an absolute title of pre-eminence, and whether the spiritual action of a church depends upon a centralized mechanical bureaucracy. I only intend to focus objectively Roman Catholicism just as it is and the impact it is making on Italy today.

What Rome Asserts

The Roman church claims to be the true and unique depository of Christ’s teaching and the matchless administrator of his saving power. To sustain these assertions, Rome states some fundamental points.

First, she affirms, as a matter of course, that any religious society, and the Christian Church in particular, ought to be visible. Secondly, that the sacred deposit of divine revelation was concluded with the death of the last Apostle.

Thirdly, and most important, as the process of revelation has been completed, the ministry of original teaching therefore has been replaced by the ministry of credited interpretation; Peter and his lawful successors have been vested, till the end of the ages, with the responsibility of vigilance (infallibly) for the conservation of the revealed deposit and the homogeneous discipline of Christian believers.

But unfortunately, having clothed the divine deposit with the rationalistic philosophy of Aristotle and Pelagius, the Roman church has turned the Christian faith from a dramatic mystery of salvation into an idyllic evolution, the attainment of which is a matter of ordinary administration of sacraments. This explains why Roman Catholicism, like an immense insurance company against the risks of after-death, has developed such an enormous religious discipline and practice today.

Moreover, being the heir of an age-long tradition which embraces nearly 2000 years of history, Rome, strong and proud of her incomparable past, looks with an imposing attitude and contempt on all separated Christian denominations. These, according to her, are condemned to wear out and disappear like drizzle; but for the time being they constitute a religious and social peril which must be fought. The Roman church is convinced that all movements that come out of the Reformation are Satanic lacerations of Christ’s seamless robe. They may search, in a mechanical way, for a common ground of approach. But, she admonishes, the reconstruction of Christian unity cannot be reached unless the dissident churches are prepared to pay the price of an unconditional surrender to the Roman religious teaching and ecclesiastical government.

Repression Of Free Inquiry

Now a position like this means that the Roman church has lost the vital force of a genuine evangelical experience. She thinks that her essential mission today is to keep jealously the patrimony accumulated through the ages past. Consequently, she conceives the task of her ministry primarily as one of vigilance and guardianship on positions to be defended at all costs. To this end she has created seminars, where the young candidates to priesthood are detached from any contact with the world and constrained into a training which gives a rigid orientation to their mind and soul. And in order to realize world uniformity to her theological teaching, the Vatican has created in Rome a flourishing garland of seminars for foreign students, almost one for each country, where young candidates of the whole world receive, from trustworthy Jesuit teachers, a theological training, safe from any free thinking, and nullifying to both personality and a sense of self-responsibility.

This authoritarian and inquisitional regime of ecclesiastical government has succeeded in avoiding further collective heresies and schisms. The last movement that attempted reform inside the Roman church was a so-called “Modernism”—which aimed at setting Catholicism free from the bonds of a heavy tradition. It was crushed by a Papal Encyclical Letter “Pascendi” in 1907, which marked the total excommunication of its leaders, outstanding among whom was the late Italian priest Ernesto Buonaiuti, a firm believer, an unforgettable teacher and author of countless books and writings on Bible doctrine, Church history, homiletics, research studies—all marked on the Vatican Index as forbidden literature.

In The Land Of The Vatican

By virtue of all her machinery and defense measures, we should conclude that everything goes smoothly within the Roman church, and that her position, especially in Italy, holds fast and is unshakeable. But a keen, objective examination of the situation reveals large zones of uncertainty. Officially, 99 per cent of Italians are Roman Catholic by birth. But how many of them live a religious life? How many believe earnestly the teachings and rites of their church? How many attend Mass regularly and how many of those who do partake personally of the divine service?

Italy is a land rich in sanctuaries. Multitudes of people flock to them, just as they flock excitedly to places where new “miracles” are said to have happened, or to the football grounds on Sunday afternoons. Religious processions draw big crowds. But does an inner, spiritual meaning elicit the interest of the people, or is it rather a spectacular manifestation?

The situation of the Roman Catholic church, in Italy at least, is not an unperilous one. An indication of the state of affairs may be exampled by the lack of candidates there are for priesthood. The younger generations feel no attraction whatsoever to the religious mission of the priest. Let us look at the situation in Rome, the center of Catholicism. Priests devoted to parochial life have been diminishing year after year. A century ago there were 58 parishes to care for 200,000 inhabitants, whereas, today the number is only 155 against two million inhabitants.

Secondly, the cultured Roman Catholics are aware that a vital lymph no more circulates within the mastodontic body of their church. To them the church seems to be an abstract symbol, different from the real and bureaucratic organization which governs by decrees and speaks through Encyclical Letters.

Thirdly, the Archbishop of Milan, Monsignor Montini, a candidate to Papacy, in launching recently a religious campaign in the metropolis of North Italy, said that in his diocese “God was being outraged, disregarded, rejected, silenced, unloved, ill-served and ill-prayed” and that his flock was living in “moral and spiritual apathy, laziness of corrupted habits, hate and strife among themselves.” To complete the picture, L’ltalia, a leading newspaper in the North, said on November 14, 1957: “A large portion of the people lies in spiritual torpidity.” And what was said for the North can be repeated for the Center and South.

Losses To Communism

Moreover, the Roman church, bound for centuries to earthly power, timid and hesitating before movements that seek the suppression of their privilege, seems to have linked her destiny to a conservative and backward cause.

The result is that at least a good third of Italians have lost religious faith, and have given their support to the materialistic doctrine of Communism. [The most recent figure places Communist Party membership in Italy at 1,700,000.—ED.] About another third, though not quite indifferent to religion, is at least anticlerical. Only the remaining third is composed of good Roman Catholics, and then only half of these attend Mass regularly.

The Protestant Witness

In this objective situation, the presence in Italy of a strong Protestant witness could acquire special value. Unfortunately, Roman Catholicism, being the State religion, and jealous of its monopoly, uses all its influential power and means in trying to hinder any progress of evangelicalism. And in this struggle she is associating the Protestants with Communists.

The fact remains, however, that Italy, officially a nation 99 per cent Roman Catholic, nurtures the strongest Communist Party in the West. The Communist Party polls over a third of the votes of the whole Italian constituency. We dare say that had it not been for the help of the United States, a country with a Protestant majority, Catholic Italy would have fallen under a communist regime after the Second World War, just as she fell into a Fascist dictatorship in 1922.

But, what could be expected from a people reared in the religious compromising teaching of the Jesuit school? Having displaced the original evangelical inspiration by a sterile and legalistic tradition, the Roman church today looks for political power much more than spiritual awakening. She seems unable to find her way into the soul and mind of the people because, in pursuing her dream of earthly power, she has neglected their needs.

What of the future? The Catholic church seems by now heavily anchored to her dogmas, founded upon a long heritage of philosophical thought, gorgeous rites and human traditions, and governed by an uncontrolled Holy See.

The historical hour that we are now going through, however, needs the overcoming impulse of a new life which only the Christ of the Gospels can provide. Perhaps we are at a turning point and the progress of evangelical churches in Italy may compel Rome to come to herself.

Deterioration Of Rome

Outwardly the Roman church seems today at her peak in power and political influence in Italy. But, as we have seen, there are dramatic signs of internal decomposition. Mediterranean history teaches us that all religions which fossilize into legal schemes and shut themselves inside the turris eburnea of their self-sufficiency, clog the liberty of the Spirit and are condemned to unavoidable decline. This is all the more true for Christianity.

Can we expect therefore a dissolving process inside the Roman church? This would be suggested by the predominance of her casuistry methods, the worldly behavior of her bureaucracy, the constant concern for merely external diplomatic success, which has largely been inspired by the Jesuits. Jesuitism as the backbone of Romanism has aimed at subduing the world not with God’s armor, but by its own worldly weapons, and has thus rendered the church dull and deaf to the superior requirements of the Kingdom of Heaven. Christian principles, therefore, have lost capacity to repel the invasion of paganism. It is hopeful, however, that the process of decomposition may contain in itself the germs of a future new birth.

Renato Tulli is a native of Italy. Long active in Italian government work, he is chief translator for the Chamber of Ministers. An evangelical Protestant, he has watched religious trends in that land with special interest in religious liberty.

On March 1, 1954, Billy Graham began his Greater London Crusade at Harringay Arena, continuing until May. A year later the All-Scotland Crusade took place in Glasgow, followed by a further week in London at Wembley Stadium. Four years gives sufficient perspective for an interim judgment. This article mainly concerns England, but Great Britain is so closely integrated that some of the comment may be read also for Scotland.

Without doubt there are many thousands of vigorous Christians today who four years ago were not so. An indication of their number is provided by the startling rise in British membership of the Scripture Union system of daily Bible reading, which was openly advocated by the crusade as an important feature of the follow-up. In the two years of 1954 and 1955, membership leaped by no less than 120,000—the figures being approximately 60,000 each year. Undoubtedly among the thousands who recorded decisions during the Crusades were many who knew not what they did; that was to be expected. Others, being linked to unsympathetic churches, lapsed through spiritual starvation. But the evidence is conclusive that a substantial proportion of those who came forward have grown into maturing Christians; where they were grafted to faithful praying churches the number is high indeed.

The population of Great Britain is 50 million. In the light of that, any figures must lead to sober reflection rather than shallow rejoicing. On the other hand, many of the Billy Graham converts have since brought others to Christ. The effect is cumulative. And since 1954 an impressive array of young men and women of all social levels, and older ones too, have dedicated themselves to full time service of the Gospel; 22 out of the 32 men ordained in the diocese of London in September 1957 were evangelicals, and comparable encouragement could be drawn from other denominations and from lay service.

Fellowship Of Believers

The Crusades made an appreciable contribution to the cause of church unity in England. Ministers and laymen of varied loyalties worked together in the central and local arrangements for the main services and the relays. They came to know one another and proved that whatever brave resolutions may be made by great conferences of church leaders, unity is best brought forward by fellowship in evangelism and prayer, and in mutual devotion to a common cause not artificially created, but of the Holy Spirit. In their parishes and pastorates individual ministers have received a new awareness of their aim and how to fulfill it. Too many ministers are caught in a whirl of unrewarding activity, working themselves to a high state of fatigue without reaping an appreciable harvest. Most of those who took part in the Crusades have cut through this indecisiveness; some have even discovered for the first time their true vocation.

Learning To Serve

Before 1954 a movement was gaining ground among lay people in business: the formation or expansion of Christian Unions. This received powerful impetus. New Christian Unions sprang up, others received access of strength, featuring what perhaps was the most significant contribution of the Crusades—the emphasis on the part that laymen must play in the evangelization of Britain. As a result of counselling classes, and of the experience of counselling, countless men and women have come to clearer understanding of their faith, while ministers have recognized as never before that their true power, under God, must lie in evoking and guiding the active service of their people, whom hitherto they regarded too often as a passive audience. Wherever a church has become progressively fuller—and there are many such—it is because their congregations have learned to serve.

Christianity Gains Momentum

The Crusades made religion a talking point. The student who remarked “It is as easy to talk about Billy Graham as the Cup Final,” was voicing an experience felt all over the country. Graham was news, and the subject of innumerable conversations which Christians could turn to profit. Religion is still news, though to a lesser extent.

A new vigor swept through the ranks of Christians. They are still a minority, but no longer on the defensive. It was a heartening experience to find the drudgery of maintaining a foothold transformed into the thrill of startling advance. The initiative has passed to the evangelicals. Twenty years ago their day seemed done; they were regarded as curious relics of an age long gone. Now they are on the move.

And, as never since the late nineteenth century, the Bible is again widely accepted as the Word of God. Modernism left a legacy; 20 years ago it took the form of a turmoil of active unbelief; today it is the apathy of ignorance. Theologians had begun the movement back to the Bible, but to the man in the street their voice was hesitant and uncertain. The Crusades returned the Bible to its proper place as the authoritative Word of God. Men are again prepared to accept and prove it as such, and to live by it, without agitating themselves on the exact chemistry of its structure.

For all this, there has not yet been national revival. In modern times a sensational opening of religious floodgates may not be likely; revival comes by the quiet but unmistakable advance, church by church, family by family, the impetus gaining momentum year by year. On a national scale, this has not happened.

Evangelicals are still a small minority, though the balance is steadily swinging in their favor. The full force of the Crusades and all that followed may not be seen for some years, when the increasing number of young people now entering Christian service have had time to make their mark. Yet revival might be with us now.

Abuse Of Evangelicals

One of the chief delaying factors has been the attitude of certain leaders of the Church of England, men of great prestige. In 1954 the Archbishop of Canterbury warmly commended Mr. Graham. Eighteen months later, however, Dr. Ramsey, then Bishop of Durham and now Archbishop of York, and Dr. Barry, Bishop of Southwell, took a strong stand against what they were pleased to call “fundamentalism.” This word, in England always a term of abuse, has been used freely against evangelicals, and at the time of Mr. Graham’s Mission in Cambridge University was the subject of a prominent correspondence in The Times. The denigrators had the haziest notion of the true position of conservative evangelicals, round whose necks were hung beliefs and attitudes which evangelicals repudiate.

The damage was done. In England, the established Church has an influence which scarcely can be conceived by those who live in a country where all the major denominations possess equality. For a lasting revival the Church of England must take the lead. And the “fundamentalists” bogey has frightened it. Many clergy and leading laymen who were beginning to see the Crusades and their consequences as God’s answer to the modern need have been deflected by the weight of contrary pronouncement.

The result is a continued hesitancy. On the one hand is a nation hungering for spiritual food, yet scornful of a religion which spends so much energy in argument and disagreement. On the other hand, an overworked clergy, a crippling shortage of workers, and too few recruits. The Church of England officially stated recently that “at least 600 new ordinations a year are needed just to meet the wastage; but many more are really needed to grasp present opportunities.”

Seek Graham’S Return

Can revival still come? A return visit of Billy Graham is essential. In the providence of God, Graham has the nation’s ear and, above all, can get Christians working together and give them a rallying point to which to bring those as yet outside. No one can now believe that a crusade draws away from the churches. It is, in the best sense, the most church-centered mass-evangelism in history.

The strategic point would probably be the Manchester-Liverpool area, heavily populated, easily accessible from other great cities of the Midlands, and approximately half way between London and Glasgow and thus at the Pole of Inaccessibility, so to speak, of the other two Crusades.

If Graham came back in 1960, he would undoubtedly be used by the Holy Spirit to bring the British nation a further increase of spiritual vigor. And if the archbishops and other leaders of the churches, whatever their personal outlook, would give him the right hand of fellowship and put their weight behind him in no ungrudging or carping manner, there would surely be, in God’s goodness, a mighty surge of faith.

The Rev. J. C. Pollock is Editor of The Churchman, quarterly journal of Anglican theology. He holds the M.A. degree from Trinity College, Cambridge, and is author of several books including The Cambridge Seven and The Road to Glory.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help … (Psalm 46:1).

Perhaps the finest of Luther’s great hymns is Ein feste Burg, “A Mighty Fortress.” Its majestic and thunderous proclamation of our faith is a singing symbol of the Reformation. Inspired by Psalm 46, Luther caught up in the hymn the very essence of faith, and the fervor and flavor of patriotism which he found in the Psalm. This Psalm had fortified Luther with courage to defy the whole system of ecclesiastical tyranny in his day, and his hymn has been the bugle call of our Protestant heritage. Before the mighty God and his marching hosts nothing can stand. Staerk calls this composition “the most glorious hymn of faith that ever was sung.”

Oliver Cromwell, aspiring to make England a place where God’s will reigned supreme, asked his followers to sing Luther’s great hymn. “That is a rare Psalm for a Christian,” said Cromwell. “ ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.’ If Pope and Spaniards and devil set themselves against us, yet in the name of the Lord, we shall destroy them. ‘The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.’ ”

Long ago in the fourteenth century when Sergius the hermit was leading his countrymen, and Tartar hordes were overrunning his land, this Psalm was a source of strength and courage. Over and over the godly hermit recited Psalm 46 and then led his revived men in a charge that drove the invaders back and brought ultimate victory.

Throughout the ages men have been stirred by the realization that the Eternal God is available to them and that nothing, literally nothing, can overwhelm or destroy a man when he lives in this faith.

Born In Hour Of Need

No wonder this Psalm is so lifting. It was born in an hour of gloom and danger and defeat. It contemplates the siege of Jerusalem by the armies of Sennacherib in the year 701 B. C. Sennacherib had driven his invincible armies across Palestine and held the ancient people of God bottled up behind the walls in Jerusalem. Fear and dread seized the people as they huddled helplessly behind the city walls. Soon the Assyrian battering rams would hammer at the walls until the Holy City would be no more. How could this people with their puny army stand up to the assault?

Jerusalem was not located on an ocean or a great river as were other ancient capital cities. Only the brook of Siloam flowed out of the temple rock “to make glad the people.” That was enough to assure the city against surrender by thirst; and the Psalmist sings about it, “There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God.”

When all the resources of the garrison have been estimated and set down, greater than every other factor is the knowledge that “God is in the midst of her.” And what a God he is! Not only is he the commander of the hosts in battle but he is the friend of the lonely and the comfort of the sorrowing. He has made a covenant between heaven and earth. No matter what happens, “God is in the midst of her.” The historic fact is that there then occurred the spectacular deliverance of the city, when Sennacherib lost 185,000 men and was forced to flee to his home in Assyria.

In that dramatic experience the Psalm was born. Hope lives. Despair and fear and gloom have been dispelled. God has demonstrated both his power and his love. Under the spell of this mighty deliverance, the author wants to inculcate in the people an abiding trust. He knows that God is dependable, that God is available, that God is unfailing—even in dark hours. He puts his trumpet to his lips and heralds this truth to the ages.

A Stupendous Assertion

The Psalm opens with the most important assertion a man can make; it begins: “God is …” This is the most stupendous affirmation a man can make. Make that claim: “God is,” … and all else falls in order.

Say “God is,” … and you have a clue to the universe.

Say “God is,” … and you can pray; for there is One to whom you can pray.

Say “God is” … and the moral law becomes the only rational basis for human conduct.

Say “God is,” … and the future holds no terror; it holds only triumph.

Say “God is,” … and, in an hour of need, you go on to say with the Psalmist: “God is our refuge and strength,” and in the end to shout: “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”

The assertion, “God is,” is the beginning of our way of life; it is the claim throughout our days; it is the triumphant exclamation at the end.

Psalm 46 is an abridgment of the thesis of the Bible—that “God is,” and that God is presiding over his universe and over his people, and that he and they are victorious. For the Bible begins where the Psalm begins: “In the beginning God.” Its whole theme is that God is in “the midst of” life, the God who entered life in Jesus Christ and who never forsakes his people, even in their wilfulness and sin. And the Bible comes to its finale with a crescendo about hosts who have come out of great tribulation, singing: “He shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah,” and a benediction, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.”

When you say “God is,” you have made the beginning which assures the victorious conclusion.

An old professor of mine uttered a sentence with which I have lived all my adult years. He probably was not aware of the uniqueness of the phrase. He meant so much to me that in my study his is the only photograph other than those of my family. One day, quite extemporaneously, he said, “Young men, I have found that the unconscious presuppositions of my childhood have become the philosophical conclusions of my mature manhood.”

The Christian faith has a philosophical basis; it is a rational way of life. But everyone has to begin by saying, “Lord, I believe.”

That is why we come to church, to establish us in the truth and in the way of life which proclaims that “God is …” That is why we Christians have (or should have) family prayers, that we may be fed at the source which says, “God is.” And we must pray day by day if we are to be strong in faith.

Tremendous Consequences

“God is.” When we say that, tremendous consequences follow. Then we can live each day and every day.

Years ago there was a half-breed guide on the Canadian border who escorted American fishermen to the most promising fishing areas. Although he signed his name only with an “X,” somewhere in his background he had been exposed to the idea that God made all things and that man’s happiness came in dedicating his life to him. Evidently this idea made an indelible image in his heart. Each morning he made a prayer something like this:

“God help me have a good day fishing. Help me be a good man, for Jesus. Amen.”

One day when the results were not good his employers twitted him about his prayer, “Well, Joe, your prayin’ didn’t pay off today. Look—only one measly little fish!”

“You wrong, friend,” said Joe, “Maybe no fish. But me no mad like you.” Then came a toothless smile that wrinkled his red-brown parchment face, “The trees still tall, the water clear. The sun still in sky. No fish today, more for catch tomorrow. God, he good. He give you, me, good day.”

Yes, the committing of our days to God, the sensing of his presence, and the assertion of faith in him make every day good—no matter what happens.

Because we say “God is” at all times, we go on to the triumphant succeeding phrases “God is—our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Too often this Psalm is heard only at funerals. It has valid meaning in times of sorrow or crisis only because we have learned to live with its truth every day. “God is our refuge and strength, and he is a very present help in time of trouble.” I have read this Psalm to men in battle and watched them go out strong in spirit.

Most Real In Sorrow

In times of sorrow God may be most real. One of my friends, Dr. Lowell Ditzen, is the distinguished pastor of the Reformed Church of Bronxville, New York. His mother, a lovely Christian, died when he was a boy, leaving him forever impressed by her radiant sense of life and God’s eternal presence. When Dr. Ditzen became an influential minister, his eight-year old daughter died following a bout with cancer. Later still his oldest son was killed accidentally. There in his own household the ultimate questions were asked. There was about this problem of death nothing abstract or theoretical, as might have appeared earlier in a classroom.

“The only answer that made sense,” said Dr. Ditzen, “was that amid all the mysteries and enigmas of life, one could see a purpose and a reason—at least a use for everything that existed or occurred. While in sorrow one could not say what the reason or use of a specific tragedy might be.” He could only say “God is.”

A friend came to sit with Lowell Ditzen and quietly, by the fireside, quoted the Scriptures;

“Deep calleth unto deep.”

“In all their affliction he was afflicted.”

“All things work together for good.”

“Underneath are the everlasting arms.”

These truths brought the necessary dimension to see that “God is …,” for “nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.”

One day when I was a boy, on a quiet, warm summer evening most of our family joined others of the village for a swim at the beach on the banks of the Monongahela River. One of my brothers, a rather athletic youngster of nine, had a great evening diving and swimming with some older men and boys with whom he was expected to return to our home. When the evening was spent and night was fallen he had not returned home. Inquiry in the neighborhood and elsewhere eliminated most clues to his whereabouts. In the early darkness a searching party went to the banks of the river and my brother’s dog led the men to a log where his clothes were found. Then began the diving and eventual recovery of his body from the water, and an unsolved mystery as to how it could have happened among so many people.

That evening of shock and grief brought to our home a simple minister who never served a large or distinguished church. But he sat there saying, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble …” And he was. Out of that assertion came a calm, confident, healing faith. Because there had been developed in other times the spiritual resources, there was sufficient faith for the valley of the shadow.

Faith For Each Day

God is not a gimmick. He does not promise to save us pain, or sorrow, or death. He does something better! By taking that great step of faith each day, by saying “God is,” we find that “underneath are the everlasting arms” and he will never “leave us or forsake us.”

It is just as simple as that: God is. He is near. He is available. He is adequate. He knows us. He loves us. He gives moral reinforcement. He banishes fear. He gives power to suffer. He gives victory in death. For he is God. He is our Lord.

“The Lord is with us”—“The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth—Hallelujah!”

Edward L. R. Elson has been Minister of The National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D. C., for eleven years. President Eisenhower and other leaders high in the echelons of government are found in its pews. Dr. Elson has published One Moment with God and America’s Spiritual Recovery.

The return of our Lord is the New Testament hope. The story of the primitive fellowship begins with the promise that the Jesus who has been taken up shall return in the same manner as he went into heaven. Likewise the preaching of the early Church, preserved in Acts 2:35; 3:19–21; 10:42; 17:31, includes the testimony that he shall reign until he has overthrown all his enemies and returns as the Judge of the living and the dead.

Paul’s earliest account of his own preaching is that men turned from idols to serve the living God and to wait for his Son from heaven, the resurrected Lord who will save us from the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:10). The gospel of the death of Christ for our sins and his resurrection on the third day is the message which assures us of the resurrection of our departed loved ones at his coming in glory (1 Cor. 15; 1 Thess. 4:13–18). Moreover, Paul finds this hope in “a word of the Lord,” even as each of the four Gospels represents Jesus speaking of the coming of the Son of Man on the clouds for the resurrection and for judgment.

The more the first century records of Judaism, of John the Baptist, of the primitive Church, of Paul and of Jesus are studied the more certain grows the conviction that the coming of the Messiah in glory is integral to their thinking.

Christ’S Return An Event

As the advent of Jesus in Bethlehem was an event, indeed the event by which all other occurrences are dated, so his return to inaugurate the Kingdom in its manifest glory will be an event which will occur. Temporal terms, such as days and hours (Mk. 13:32; Phil. 1:6, 10) and times and seasons (Acts 1:7) are used in reference to it. It is to be preceded by events, such as the preaching of the Gospel to the nations and the appearing of the Man of Lawlessness, and accompanied or followed by other events such as the resurrection, the judgment and the new heavens and the new earth. The words used for it carry the same connotation. Both the verb and the noun translated reveal or unveil are used in connection both with the first and with the second coming (e.g. Luke 17:29–30; 1 Cor. 1:7; 2 Thess. 1:7; 1 Peter 1:7, 13). The epiphany or appearing of our Lord is used once of his first coming and elsewhere of his return (2 Thess. 2:8; Titus 2:13; 1 Tim. 6:14; 2 Tim. 1:8). The Greek word parousia is used of the state visit of an emperor and of an authoritative apostolic visitation (2 Cor. 10:10; Phil. 2:12). Accordingly, when Paul speaks of “the Epiphany of His Parousia” (2 Thess. 2:8), he means the manifested brightness of Christ’s arrival in his glory.

The New Testament Hope

The New Testament hope is the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christian hope is assurance based upon the promises of God, all of which are Yea and Amen in Christ. Since this hope is anchored in his resurrection as the pledge of ours at his return, therefore the resurrection of Jesus Christ, rather than some abstract doctrine of the immortality of the soul, is the proper theme for the Easter sermon.

Even the proclamation of the law, of sin and judgment, of the horrors of hell and the bliss of heaven can be void of saving grace. Luther testifies that he heard much such preaching in his youth, but that there was no Gospel in any of it.

Christian preaching is not a summons to meet some vague kind of a deity either now, at death or at judgment. The Old Testament word is, “O Israel, prepare to meet thy God.” In the New Testament, the God with whom we have to do in judgment is even clearer. The Father has committed all judgment to the Son because he became Son of man, meek and lowly in heart, living a life of faith, beset by trials, temptations and death which are our lot. Our encouragement in suffering humiliation and disappointment is that all judgment is in his nail-pierced hand. The Christian Gospel is a mighty call to the new Israel not to lament that our Lord has forgotten us in judgment (cf. Isa. 40:27; Rev. 6:10). As we believe to see the goodness of God in the land of the living, so our assurance in the ultimate assize is our faithful Saviour.

When I soar to worlds unknown

See Thee on Thy judgment throne,

Rock of ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee.

Roman Catholicism is preoccupied with purgatory; Neo-Protestantism is concerned with a gradual perfecting of the soul in a Kantian immortality. Yet the New Testament has remarkably few passages dealing explicitly with the state of a believer between death and the return of the Lord. Its focus is neither death nor the immortality of the soul, but the coming of Christ in his glory. The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was not written to satisfy the inquisitive, but to glorify him who humiliated himself for our salvation. The axes upon which it turns are his coming in pain and shame and his return in glory and power.

The Cross And The Crown

Likewise the Christian fellowship extends from the Twelve through the sacramental hosts who march down the centuries toward the blessed hope of the epiphany of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Church is a mighty trestle thrown over the raging cataract of time, its single arch resting upon two pillars, the one its fortress of faith, the other its anchor of hope. Or, to change the figure, the wings which bare it up amid the adversities of life are his cross and his crown.

In this fellowship with the Word of promise, the believer lives by contact with the risen Christ who invites him to share not only the blessings he won for his disciple in his first coming but also the powers of the coming age, foretastes of his second coming. As the waters of the sea are held between two mighty gravitations, the moon now drawing the waters to itself, and the earth now drawing them back again, to give us the ebbing and flowing tide by which our earth is kept clean and healthful, so the tides of Christian love move perpetually between the cross of Christ and the coming of Christ. We come from the resurrected One who calls us by his cross into his fellowship and we live unto him who comes for the consummation of all things. He is our confidence and our hope—now and then.

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness

My beauty are, my glorious dress;

Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,

With joy shall I lift up my head.

Bearing On Daily Life

Now because the return of our Lord is the New Testament hope, it is relevant to our life today. As the obedience of faith takes us back to the Crucified, and the gratitude of love bows our hearts to the Lord exalted, so the anticipations of hope are founded upon his coming. The Christian life, which begins at Jesus’ cross, continues by his unseen presence, and expects to meet him at his return, must become like his life. Thus when John undertook to guide the early Christians in the narrow way between the Scylla of antinomianism on the one side and the Charybdis of perfectionism on the other (1 John 1:6, 8), he used this hope as his guiding star (3:2–3).

Misuse Of Doctrine

No doubt, some men in Thessalonica misused the promise of his coming as an excuse for idleness—as did Montanists and Irvingites later—but the blessed hope called the Apostle to work day and night that he might support himself and others, and to decree, “if any will not work neither let him eat.”

The Christian hope is the sure anchor of the soul. It gives stability in the hour of adversity, steadfastness in persecution, comfort in mourning. Weighed beside the glory that be, even grievous burdens become light. Though put to manifold trials, we cherish a living hope that our faith, after it has been proved by fire, will redound to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:3–7).

In Philippians, chapter 2, the apostle has preserved an ancient creed or hymn celebrating the humiliation of Christ and the glory to which God has therefore exalted him. Here the mind of Christ is revealed as the love that looks out for the interests of others, the humility which takes the form of a slave, the obedience for the sake of others which leads all the way to the painful, shameful, accursed death of the Cross. Here in the ministry of Christ, God is revealed in all his moral sublimity. He who was in the form of God took the form of a servant that in that lowly form we might see the heart of God. God has highly exalted him who so loved, and humbled himself and obeyed; God has given him the Name which is above every name. When he comes in his glory every knee shall bow before him and every tongue confess that he is Lord. Everyone who is gladly stepping toward that grand finale is marching in the train of him who was loving and lowly and obedient. The marks of our Captain ought to be in his soldiers, the likeness of the King in the knights of his order.

Only he himself puts the matter still more concretely in his own portrayal of his coming in his glory (Matt. 25:31 f). Then he will recognize those who did good unto their neighbors and deny those who did it not for them. Neither the men on the right nor the men on the left suspected that in helping or in not helping the needy they were doing it unto the Lord. He has plainly told us that inasmuch as we do it unto one of the least of these, his brethren, we do it unto him. But even though he tells us we do not seem to take it in. On that great day we shall all speak in surprise. Some are surprised that in doing kind deeds they did it unto him. Others are shocked that the Lord should have been that neighbor whom they neglected. But here again love, kindness, consideration, helpfulness, the needs of others are the marks of those who belong to him who came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ranson for many. When we shall see him, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

William Childs Robinson is Professor of Historical Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary. He holds the Th.D. degree from Harvard University, and has pursued graduate studies at University of Basel. His books include Christ the Hope of Glory, Christ the Bread of Life and Peyton lectures.