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and most important, as the process of revelation has been completed, the ministry of original teaching therefore has been replaced by the ministry of credited interpretation; Peter and his lawful successors have been vested, till the end of the ages, with the responsibility of vigilance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.

One of the powerful, highly-organized world movements today is the World Federation for Mental Health, born in 1948 during the International Congress on Mental Health in London. Since that time, this organization has maintained the closest possible relations with the World Health Organization and UNESCO. It has sparked far-reaching programs, including legislation, establishment of university chairs, training centers for psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers, publicity programs, the organization of smaller groups to propagandize and promote the cause, and the publication of literature for the use of its many complementary organizations. The smallest but best-known wing of this larger movement is the Community Mental Health Clinic, usually purported to be a local community-inspired organization.

That psychiatry has often brought immeasurable relief is the testimony of multitudes, but it is this very virtue which may blind the Church to the dangerous doctrines pronounced by leaders of the mental health movement. What has been so fruitful in the way of mental adjustment may blind people to certain trends that are the very antithesis of the principles of Christianity.

Organizational Moorings

To discover the true moorings of an organization, it is often necessary to use the methods of the psychiatrists themselves, i.e., to let the patient talk and probe into his childhood and resultant way of life. What is the philosophy from which this mental health movement has been born? What are the principles behind the program? If pursued to their logical conclusion, to what kind of peace will they lead us?

Dr. G. B. Chisholm, past president of the National Committee on Mental Hygiene in Canada, director general of WHO from 1948 to 1953, presently the president of the World Federation for Mental Health and vice president of the World Association for World Federalists, has provided at least a partial answer to these questions. He has been a spokesman for the cause before government officials on numerous occasions. In 1946 he delivered the William Alanson White Memorial Lectures in Washington, D. C. Excerpts from his speech will indicate his proposed solution:

At least three requirements are basic to any hope of permanent world peace. First—security, elimination of the occasion for valid fear of aggression.… Second—opportunity to live reasonably comfortably for all the people in the world on economic levels which do not vary too widely.… This is a simple matter of the redistribution of material.… It is probable that these first two requirements would make wars unnecessary for mature normal people without neurotic necessities.… All psychiatrists know where the symptoms come from. The burden of inferiority, guilt and fear we have all carried lies at the root of this failure to mature successfully.… Therefore the question we must ask ourselves is why the human race is so loaded down with these incubi and what can be done about it.…

This … puts the problem squarely up to psychiatry.… What basic psychological distortion can be found in every civilization?… There is—just one. The only … psychological force capable of producing these perversions is morality, the concept of right and wrong, the poison long ago described and warned against as ‘The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.’

… For many generations we have bowed our necks to the yoke of the conviction of sin. We have swallowed all manner of poisonous certainties fed us by our parents, our Sunday and day school teachers, our priests, and others with a vested interest in controlling us.…

The reinterpretation and eventual eradication of the concept of right and wrong which has been the basis of child training, the substitution of intelligent and rational thinking for faith in the certainties of the old people, these are the belated objectives of practically all effective psychotherapy. Would they not be legitimate objectives of original education?… With the other human sciences, psychiatry must now decide what is to be the immediate future of the human race. No one else can.

In response to this lecture, Henry A. Wallace, then Secretary of Commerce, correctly detected Chisholm’s amoral philosophy of psychiatry and commented: “Dr. Chisholm has definitely … risen above the realm of ‘morality’ in a Presbyterian sense.…”

To propagate his philosophy for world peace, Chisholm was not left to ordinary mission methods. He was aided by the machinery of government at the highest levels: he became the first director-general of WHO; he initiated a broad program which is now in motion throughout most of the United States; and some part of every tax dollar has been invested by the state and federal governments to promote his effort.

Rejecting Sin As A Myth

In 1957, Chisholm delivered the Bampton Lectures at Columbia University, which were published as Prescription for Survival. In his series he stated, “I think there is no doubt that this idea of sin creates much havoc in our relationships with other cultures, and that we should begin to think far more clearly and more extensively than we have in the past about it. We must remember that it is only in some cultures that sin exists. For instance, the Eskimos didn’t have this concept until quite recently. Now they have; they caught it from us” (p. 55).

If this concept were to prevail, the Church would do no mission work, mouths of evangelists should be muzzled, and Sunday Schools should either close their doors or became amoral and innocuous in their teachings. Yet Chisholm is quoted approvingly as “a psychiatrist of wide recognition” in The Interpreter’s Bible (p. 502).

But Chisholm is not the only authority of the mental health movement to advocate such a philosophy. The American Academy of Political and Social Science invited Dr. R. H. Dysinger of the National Institute of Mental Health to edit a special edition of their official publication The Annals (March, 1953) which he titled “Mental Health in the United States.” In the foreword Dysinger wrote: “This issue … was organized to accent the implications … of the various mental health problems.” Dr. John R. Seeley, asked by Dysinger to write on “Social Values, The Mental Health Movement, and Mental Health,” commented:

In the realm of value, or the ideal, the revolution is hardly well begun. Save for the obvious passing of the dominance of the one institution, the church, which formerly exerted almost undisputed sway in defining both what is and what ought to be the order of good, nothing is clear.… Into this power vacuum the mental health movement has been drawn.… With one foot in humanism and the other in science, it seeks to perform, and to a degree does perform, many if not most of the functions of the relinquishing institution.… Like the early church, the mental health movement unites and addresses itself to “all sorts and conditions of men,” so only they be “for” mental health as they were formerly for virtue and against sin … the movement occupies or seeks to occupy the heartland of the old territory.

Support Of Church Leaders

What is most amazing is that the leaders of the movement have the audacity to solicit the support of church leaders. One reason Christian ministers and laymen are persuaded to support the mental health movement, no doubt, is that source materials which lay bare its real credo are extremely limited and difficult to obtain.

Dr. Dysinger also invited a contribution from L. K. Frank, chairman of the Preparatory Commission for the International Congress on Mental Health in London in 1948. In the Annals, Frank writes, “As long as we believe that human nature is fixed … and accept the age-old conviction that man is depraved and prone to evil, our thinking and our efforts will be compromised if not wholly blocked …” (p. 168). In 1956 he wrote in the fall issue of Child Study that the notion that children are innately prone to wrong-doing, and that their childish impulses must be “submissively obedient to authority,” is outmoded by more modern concepts. He states that “society offered various rituals and sources for release, such as atonement, reassurance, strengthening and consolation in their churches. Today, many parents contrive to rear their children according to this historic pattern; but the child is growing up in a society where for many these rituals have lost most of their former efficacy.” Thus Frank affirms that the Church has lost her efficacy, and repudiates the instruction of our children under the pattern of biblical truth.

Dealing With Tensions

The most recent piece of literature offered by the National Association for Mental Health is titled “How to Deal with Your Tensions” by G. S. Stevenson. A paragraph on its philosophy strikes the keynote: “… faith in ourselves; faith in others; faith in the ability of each person to improve and grow; faith in the desire and the capacity of human beings to work out their problems cooperatively; faith in the essential decency of mankind.” Then the essay is given a “Christian blessing”: “As the Bible puts it, we are ‘members of one another.’ ” This sells the biblical message far short, and, moreover, quotes a statement out of context to legitimize its philosophy that to be mentally healthy and free of tensions one must become a humanist.

The First Amendment to the Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” But now Congress has appropriated millions of tax dollars for, and the state legislatures throughout the country have added millions more to, a movement which establishes a new faith and which opposes certain long-respected religious traditions in this country. Our government recognizes the rights of the Calvinist, Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran, and Baptist to educate his children according to his particular beliefs in day schools and Sunday Schools. If mental health succeeds, these programs will be history. The writings of mental health movement leaders imply that children belong not to the parents but to pseudoscientific humanists.

If we are not awake, this will happen under the shadow of our own steeples and with the support of our own tax dollars. For this movement has already reached gigantic proportions. General legislative principles for the execution of the master plan were introduced in the United States through the “Draft Act Governing the Commitment and Hospitalization of the Mentally Ill.” This act was presented in 1950 by the Federal Security Agency, now known as the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Over 30 state legislatures have adopted portions of the Draft Act, and all states have legislation on their agendas which will implement the total effect of the plan. Appropriate legislation is filtered from higher levels through the Governors’ conference and enters the state legislatures as administration bills. Since 1954, the National Governors’ Conference on Mental Health has concentrated on getting legislation passed in all 48 states.

The “Draft Act” is a skeleton bill for other legislation and offers the following definition of mental illness: “Mentally ill individual—an individual having a psychiatric or other disease which substantially impairs his mental health.” Combining “other disease” with the philosophy of the movement, one does not have to strain his imagination to see in what direction things are moving. Under the program, each state will provide “services to individuals, particularly children and adolescents, before they ever become patients in any sense of the term.”

The program is admittedly a preventive program and begins by treating the children. Educational facilities are being exploited for their propaganda and program. This is being done through the “production, purchase and distribution of mass educational media, such as pamphlets, films, reports, news bulletins, etc.” And, if the parents of children do not see the proper perspectives according to Michigan specialists, “Prevention here encompasses the implications of maternal separation.…” In plain language, this means, according to the Quarterly Journal on World Mental Health, that “… preventive health services are bound to interfere with individual liberty … and if they aim at mental as well as physical health they must be prepared to separate mothers from their children and to supervise the lives of people who would like to be let alone.”

Can The Church Be Heard?

In a fast moving world, which, since the sputniks, has shifted faith to science more than ever before, the Church must raise a loud voice to make herself heard. That voice must not give an uncertain sound. For the tensions of our day, there still stands the immovable Christ who charged the Church to be his witness. The message of that Church must be the eternal message of salvation by grace. The historic confessions must be unfolded anew. Our comfort in life and death is that we belong to a faithful Saviour, and our deepest purpose is to know God and enjoy him forever. Mental health proponents have missed the very burden of the word which sums up the entire message of the Church—“Gospel”; the Christian never sees his sin and guilt apart from the grace of God. Peacemakers are sons of God in Christ, and not those with “one foot in humanism and the other in science.”

A mental health clinic exists in my community. It crept in quietly with the support of Federal and State funds. After momentum was gained, it heralded the news that the clergy had pronounced a benediction upon its efforts and goals. This was untrue and is now being publicly challenged at the local level. Counseling? Yes. Psychology and psychiatry? To be sure. Organized humanistic tax-supported mental control? Absolutely not. Neither the evangelical church nor our nation can long endure if the mental health movement succeeds in charting our destiny.

Yet one cannot help but feel that the success of this movement is an indictment of the Church. Perhaps there is some truth in the claim of Albert Schweitzer that “the Church has lost her voice.” The world-wide attention which this mental health movement has been granted evidences the need for stability in these restive times. Such an organization as this should prod us to redouble our energies in the proclamation of the only hope of mankind before humanism under a governmental and scientific halo insidiously envelops us.

In Isaiah 26:3 we read, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee,” and Paul writes in Philippians 4:7, “And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” This aspect of the Gospel must receive renewed emphasis from our pulpits. Christian psychiatrists and psychologists must lead the way scientifically and clinically. And our national leaders must not fail to preserve our cherished freedoms lest the minds of men be enslaved to the self-appointed gods of mental health. If the Christian who is concerned with this area of life has lost his voice, it is not because he has lost his message. The redemptive work of Christ is sufficient unto all man’s needs. The evangel must not be snuffed out without a death struggle by the body of Christ.

Measurements

How poor, how paltry seems the goal

Of a missile’s little span,

When the heights of heaven may be scaled

By the prayers of man.

LESLIE SAVAGE CLARK

Arthur H. DeKruyter has been pastor of Western Springs Christian Reformed Church in Illinois since 1951. He holds the A.B. and Th.B. degrees from Calvin College Seminary, the Th.M. from Princeton Seminary, and has taken postgraduate studies at Edinburgh and Northwestern Universities.

In 1956 there appeared in Germany a Roman Catholic book by F. Richter dealing with two outstanding figures in the history of the Church, namely, Martin Luther and Ignatius Loyola. These two personalities were, in truth, inhabitants of two different worlds, and it is always dangerous to undertake a comparison of two such utterly different historical figures. But they did live in the same period and as such they had a common historical background.

Luther was born in 1483 and Loyola in 1491, and each of them experienced a definite, determining turning-point in his life, which in Luther led to the Reformation of 1517 and in Loyola to the establishment of the Society of Jesus. Luther became the Reformer, and Loyola the founder of the Jesuit order and the leader of the Counter-Reformation.

Both Luther and Loyola were occupied primarily with affairs of the Church, and Richter, the author of the book mentioned, points to the fact that the element of prayer and the reading of Holy Scripture had a large place in the life of both of these great men. And although the author is a Roman Catholic, he acknowledges that Luther had great ideals and ambitions and that he strove for these with remarkable enthusiasm and drive.

However, he does want to picture the antithesis of the two men and, specifically, he wants to defend Loyola over against the many critics who later arose to castigate the Jesuits and their morality, and in the course of his book, therefore, we find Loyola pictured the more brightly, while the shadows often fall over the picture of Luther. For no matter how well Luther may have intended, the conclusion comes to this, that he had destroyed the fundamentals of the Church.

What may have been good in Luther, says Richter, he had carried with him out of the Roman Catholic church. But this was wiped out through his rebellion, his attack upon the mystery of the Church; while in Ignatius the most noteworthy characteristic is exactly his great loyalty. From the time that he founded the Jesuit order in 1540, his whole life was spent in the service of the honor of God and the Church. Loyola strove for the restoration of the Church, which was shaken to its foundations by the Reformation, and he tried to find a new way of life for Christendom, for Christendom that should conquer the world. He became the man of complete and strict discipline, of total dedication, and to this Luther is pictured in sharp contrast as the man of the autonomy of conscience, from which idea later Protestantism has not been able to free itself.

None of this, indeed, is new, but it is certainly portrayed in a captivating manner by way of this contrast: Luther versus Loyola. The picture that is painted of Ignatius Loyola reminds us of other new contemporary studies, e.g., by Hugo Rahner, and whoever follows the trail of the spiritual exercises of Loyola in the new translations from the Spanish, once and again comes under the impression of the passionate inspirations that led him on the path to the Counter-Reformation.

But especially one is impressed with the fact that men could give such a varied form to the “soli deo gloria” that also played such a determining role in the life of Luther and Calvin. It has been within the acceptance of this “soli deo gloria” that the deep-running differences come to the fore.

The author of this book sees the important difference especially in the “revolution-idea” that he feels can be ascribed to the entire Reformation movement. And although he wishes to acknowledge that in the Reformers religious motives did indeed play a certain role, he does wish to point out that these motives were overshadowed and negated by their rebellion, by their attack on the great mystery, the Church, which is the creation of God and is not to be violated.

The consequences of this he sees in a tendency to self-destruction which he asserts he observes everywhere in Protestantism. According to him there is only one reason to account for this: the tearing apart of the body of Christ and through this the estrangement or dissipation of the enormous powers of Christ himself. This is a specifically Roman Catholic vision, that flows forth directly from their doctrine of the Church, in which, despite all the sins of the church, even of the popes, although not accepted as such, that also the Church—yes, exactly the Church—should stand under the discipline and normativity of the Word of God, under the scepter of the Head of the Church. And it is just at this point that ever again the great controversy between Rome and the Reformation comes into view, and to which issue both Luther and Calvin joined their weightiest protestations.

It will certainly amaze any reader of this book that it closes with a chapter on the subject of Luther and Loyola as forerunners toward unity. We ask ourselves immediately, both? Not alone Ignatius, but also Luther? Does here a new ecumenical insight break through the aforementioned contrast?

The answer to this question must be negative for we read that although both sought unity, the way in which Luther sought it was not to be attained. And thereupon the author makes a call for the unity of the West over against the antichrist-like dictator of the East, who makes it imperative that the Church should be one. This calls for complete “obedience.”

Whenever we think of the dangerous situation in which the world finds itself, we can understand the Roman Catholic call for speedy decision. But it is likewise plain that in this call to return to the mother church, nothing is decided and no single problem is solved. For if we are called to “obedience,” we must remember that it was exactly with obedience that the Reformation concerned itself. The pathetic thing in this historic break is that the Reformation does not acknowledge as a true and biblical obedience the Roman Catholic view, because it has no room for the permanent subjection of the entire Church under the discipline of the Gospel as an always-new divine command.

The only possible answer to the call for unity and obedience that we hear nowadays from the Roman Catholic side, must be a clear and unmistakable witness from Protestantism, in both word and deed, from which it will be clearly shown that the Reformation was not a matter of rebellion, but that it only wanted to bring back to mind the reality of the Church as it was described by the Apostle Paul (2 Cor. 10:5). Only in this way will it be possible to work for the unity of the Church and not to fear for the future. True, the overwhelming tensions in the world call for unity—but then unity in this sense, in which the word of the Apostle Paul comes to a daily reality in the entire Church, the Church under the sceptre of her only Lord.

Powerful Book

The Preacher’s Task and the Stone of Stumbling, by D. T. Niles, Harper, 1957. 125 pp., $2.00.

In this review I am doing what I have never before brought myself to do, viz., recommending a book for its vital message that contains theology with which I cannot possibly agree. The author is a thoroughgoing Universalist. He denies a historical Fall of any kind. He affirms that the Cross did not enable God to forgive sins, it was only the place where Christ “exposed” sin. But he has written the most powerful book on Gospel preaching, against a missionary background, that I have ever read. His heresies seldom appear and in almost every instance could have been left out without affecting either the theme or the continuity of the book. And I found myself saying, as I read it, O that someone could edit no more than three or four pages of lines throughout!

These are the Lyman Beecher lectures for 1956–57. They take as their text the scriptural references to the “stone of stumbling” and the “rock of offense.” Examining primarily the missionary task of the Church (and the author is a great-grandson of the first Tamil convert in Ceylon), these lectures deal with the objections of a Hindu, a Moslem and a Buddhist to the Gospel.

Jesus Christ, of course, is the stone of stumbling in every case, and men stumble because they must take him as he is and not as they would like to receive him. But men stumble over him for different reasons. The Hindu would like to fit Christ into his own culture. But Christ cannot be made ours, we must become his. The Muslim would accept Jesus as a prophet, not as incarnate God. But the nature of sin demands the Incarnation, though the Muslim (including many of us) would make sin something that man can himself correct. The Buddhist would accept Christian religious “disciplines,” but not its other-worldliness. Yet Christianity is not identical with its own practices of renunciation, prayer and morality, disciplines shared by the Buddhist. Christianity is not “religion,” it is Gospel: the Good News that in the Resurrection God is still among men and at man’s disposal.

This is a powerful book. Page follows page of ringing Christian apologetic as the author shows up the universal human tendencies to adapt Jesus to culture, to gloss over the reality of sin, and to avoid the reality of the Resurrection. He writes against the background of pagan religions. But the points that he makes are applicable in First Church, Main Street, U.S.A. Particularly stimulating is a chapter in which Niles evaluates various evangelistic philosophies—from those which view evangelism as an attempt to supplant the existing religion with Christianity, to those which present Jesus Christ from the point of reconception or adjustment to the existing religious climate.

How does Niles manage to be a fervent Christian apologist and, at the same time, a Universalist? He does it by one of the most interesting feats of gymnastics that I have seen in this day of theological gymnastics. Christ, evidently, is the only answer both for time and for eternity. Eternally, all men are his. In time, all men can become his and enjoy his benefits only by obeying the uncompromised Gospel.

Niles would take into the church a low-caste Hindu who knew only that Christians have no respect of persons, and then he would teach him that it is only in Jesus Christ that he will ever understand the reason why Christians are willing to forget his low caste. But as the man already belongs to Christ and, if he thereby truly accepts him, then he, too, will come to look upon others without respect of persons. Says the author, “We believe that it is essential for the Church to evangelize, but we don’t believe that it is essential for people to be evangelized.”

What a pity to spoil a good book like that!

G. AIKEN TAYLOR

All-Out Evangelism

Evangelism in a Changing America, by Jesse M. Bader, Bethany Press, 1957. $3.00.

After 12 years of practicing evangelism in pastorates in Kansas and Missouri, 12 years serving as secretary of evangelism for the Disciples of Christ denomination, and 25 years holding the position of secretary of evangelism for the Federal Council (now National Council) of Churches, Dr. Bader speaks with the “voice of experience” on evangelism.

He has given us a comprehensive, evangelical, enthusiastic and kindly book. He emphasizes the sinfulness of men, the power of the Word of God, the place of the Holy Spirit, the incarnation, atonement and resurrection of Christ, repentance, faith, the new birth, baptism, church membership, and the necessity of prayer and witnessing.

Believing that “evangelism is the church’s first business” and that “to evangelize is the greatest work in the world” (p. 13), Dr. Bader advocates all types of evangelism, revival meetings, educational evangelism, home evangelism, visitation evangelism, military evangelism, university campus evangelism, preaching missions, rescue missions, and especially personal evangelism. He has chapters on child, youth, and adult evangelism.

He thinks that the local church should go all-out for evangelism and world missions, and should cooperate fully with community, denominational and interdenominational evangelistic programs.

His book is quite statistical. He gives the latest statistics on population growth, the churches and denominations, statistics regarding children, youth, adults, radio, television, colleges, crime, liquor, comic books, war costs, and he makes them interesting.

The conservative Christian can find little to criticize in this book. He might think that Dr. Bader is too optimistic about the various phases of evangelism going on today and too enthusiastic about the National Council’s cooperative evangelism, but certainly there is vastly more to agree with and rejoice over than otherwise in this fine book.

FARIS D. WHITESELL

Christian Realism

Least of All Saints, by Grace Irwin, Eerdmans, 1957. 251 pp., $3.50.

“The novelist’s aim is not to tell a story, to entertain and touch our hearts, but to force us to think and understand the deep and hidden significance of events.” So wrote de Maupassant.

Measured by this standard, Miss Irwin has a contribution to literature. The reader is taken underground and shown why certain complex drives and forces in a human soul can create an anomoly, a paradox. Thus “the deep and hidden significance of events” is brought to light.

Andrew Connington, 29, a veteran of World War I, receives a call to a large city church. He is an intellectual snob, a resourceful pulpiteer, the product of a liberal theological seminary. Reacting against the shallow liberalism of the 1920s, he converts his pulpit into a sounding-board for evangelical doctrine of a scholarly order. His whole appeal is necessarily to the intellect, never to the conscience. Why should a person immersed in radical skepticism wish to set forth the case for historic Christianity? Or talk to his flock about “a Being who for him was non-existent?” The answer makes for stimulating reading.

It is not always that a Christian novelist develops a situation without sermonizing, a plot without preachment, a message without moralizing. But here is a writer who does just that. And she is refreshingly free from cliches and tired platitudes. She puts her story together with skill and facility, and builds her characters with compassion. One might wish she had polished her quoted sentences, a la Hemingway, with the unobtrusive “he said” or “she said” rather than the redundant “he agreed,” “he contributed,” “Andrew inquired,” “she took up,” “he interposed.” But this is a minor criticism. On the whole Miss Irwin has done much to help lift Christian fiction out of its deplorable rut. Certainly Least of All Saints ought to furnish an exhilarating challenge to the school of young Protestant writers.

There is romance too. Cecily is someone you know. She’s not the saccharine sweet type, the formal feminine profile without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but completely natural, and therefore believable.

And the last page has for you a unique twist. The fade-out which is quite surprising, is Christian realism at its best. With the touch of a Rembrandt, the writer has called into play the contrasting principles of light and shadow, and woven them into a scene that will live with you long after you put the book down.

HENRY W. CORAY

On Human Fear

Prescription for Anxiety, by Leslie D. Weatherhead, Abingdon, 1956. $2.50.

In an introductory note careful distinction is made between fear and anxiety. The author calls the first “a God-given response to danger,” a danger that is focal. On the other hand, anxiety comes when one feels terror and helplessness with no definite foci. “A patient with an anxiety neurosis feels afraid without being able to say what makes him afraid” (p. 16).

The book is written with a warm sympathy for human suffering, by one who has had much experience in pastoral counseling. The causes of anxiety are dealt with. The place of confession as a therapeutic means is given large place, and suggestions of what and how and when to confess.

Help from the spiritual world is shown to be available and this is the final stress of the book. It is assumed that if and when anxiety-ridden souls sense the “reality and ultimate friendliness of the spiritual world—the world all around us,” they will put themselves en rapport with the heaven that everywhere about them lies and find the grand solution to all unsolved problems by realizing that Someone has the solution and will take care of it for them.

Weatherhead of course believes that every man must bear his own burden. He is not so visionary as to say that all anxiety vanishes with complete commitment. But the general idea certainly is that everything becomes delightfully tolerable that still must be borne, and that if we commit it with the best of our understanding all unnamed fears will flee.

This book must be read with rare insight in order that one not fall ultimately into a slough of disillusionment. For a bitter fact of life is that there is no solution to the problems of anxiety outside of the gospel personally accepted and fully understood and constantly appropriated. If one is a discerning Christian he will find much in Weatherhead’s book that he can use, for the simple reason that in such a case he has the inner resources of the Holy Spirit. But the danger is that a person who is not yet born again will seek to employ these indicated spiritual panaceas and find they do not work.

To those who do not yet realize and live by that which Christ came to earth to give, this volume has no message. To those who are the Body of Christ the book may speak of their need of more constant commitment to the One all-sufficient to banish all sorts of fear.

WALTER VAIL WATSON

Modern View

Understanding the Old Testament, by Bernhard W. Anderson, Prentice-Hall, 1957. $7.95. Understanding the New Testament, by Howard Clark Lee and Franklin W. Young, Prentice-Hall, 1957. $7.95.

These handsome volumes, designed as textbooks for the college and seminary levels, present the modern view of the Bible as persuasively as style and technique can make possible. Embellished with numerous maps, charts, illustrations, etc., these sister books win half of the student’s mind by the mere force of their physical format and attractiveness. Liberals will naturally glory in the addition of these works to an extensive literature already existing on their side.

The conservative Christian and biblical scholar will receive these contributions with mixed emotions. He will admire the beauty of the casket and all of its external adornments, but will look loathingly at the corpse which it contains—the corpse of German rationalism of the nineteenth century now “touched up” and “colored” (as if still alive!) by American neo-orthodoxy.

Understanding the Old Testament, for example, is simply a popular presentation of the critical view of the Bible associated with the names of Driver and Pfeiffer and their lesser satellites. Or, to put it another way, one will find here a condensation of the views set forth in Interpreter’s Bible. The author runs up and down the whole vocabulary of “higher criticism.” Such words as “colored” (pp. 31, 62, 130, 438), “borrowed” (pp. 90, 158, 453, 468, 472), “touched up” (pp. 145, 180, 218, 433, 478), “exaggerated” (pp. 45, 81, 83, 84, 295), etc., are applied quite freely to the history and literature of the Old Testament. The student will learn of the “legends,” “folklore,” “blunders,” “inaccuracies,” “embellishments,” “theological bias,” and “propaganda” which Dr. Anderson characteristically imputes to the biblical authors and their writings.

After sailing through the turbulent waters of Understanding the Old Testament our ship of faith finds no rest in the equally tempestuous billows of Lee-Young’s Understanding the New Testament. Here, surely, we ought to find some hope that is stedfast and sure! No, the Christian community becomes the ultimate authority in New Testament history and literature. It is that body that “creates” a story (pp. 90 f), or places something upon the lips of Jesus (p. 127), or reworks a tradition (pp. 163,165), or uses mythological language (p. 397).

The reading of these pages—over 1,000 in the two volumes—convinces us that the liberalism of neo-orthodoxy is just as destructive of the Bible’s authority and uniqueness as the older liberalism ever was. Nowhere in all these pages do we find the thought that the prophets and apostles were men who were inspired with an authoritative message from God which was recorded accurately in the sacred pages of Holy Writ. Rather, the Bible becomes in the hands of the Anderson-Lee-Young school a very fallible book which, perchance, contains a message somewhere from Deity. It will be difficult for this reviewer to understand how either of these Understandings will make the Bible more understandable, in its avowed supernatural features, to those young men and young women who, in our tragic times, are seeking for light and life in the only book that professes to be God’s final message to man.

WICK BROOMALL

Classic Treatment

Exposition of the Epistle of James, by Thomas Manton, Sovereign Grace Book Club. 454 pp., $4.50.

What Pusey is to the Minor Prophets and C.H.M. to the Pentateuch, so Manton is to the Epistle of James. This is a reprint, of course, as Dr. Manton did his writing during the seventeenth century, but it will be welcomed by any who like to collect the best.

The author writes, as may be expected, in the grand manner of the seventeenth century. And one occasionally wishes that he had managed to have his say in fewer words. But the material is rich and suggestive, especially from the homiletical standpoint.

As the Epistle of James, by the way, is the classic New Testament treatment of the place of works within the framework of faith, a pointed, suggestive exposition done in the modern manner is very much needed today. The implications of faith vs. works for modern theology are almost unlimited.

G. AIKEN TAYLOR

Thrilling Life Story

Dr. Sa’eed of Iran, by Jay M. Rasooli and Cady H. Allen, Grand Rapids International Publications, 1957. 189 pp., $2.95.

The word “thrilling” is much overused in our day, but there seems to be no other way to characterize the life story of this great servant of Christ. From the time he left the Moslem faith of his fathers to give his heart to Jesus Christ, this Kurdish doctor was almost constantly in the midst of difficulties and dangers, and the record of his deliverance from them makes great reading.

Dr. Sa’eed ministered to the high and to the lowly, and always seems to have borne a sweet witness for his Lord. His medical skill was in constant demand; his travels took him far and wide, and everywhere he went he ministered the Gospel of Christ in effective fashion. Although often threatened, and repeatedly in danger, he was strengthened by his simple faith in the Lord’s keeping power, and his life was a blessing to untold numbers.

Recognized for his medical and surgical proficiency, Dr. Sa’eed was respected by many great doctors, and he became friends with Sir William Osler and Dr. Harvey Cushing. He spent himself without limit in the service of Christ and of his fellow men, and his biography is certain to bring a challenge to many readers.

H. L. FENTON, JR.

Reverent Testimony

At the Foot of the Cross, by an imprisoned pastor behind the Iron Curtain, Augsburg, 1958. 210 pp., $3.00.

This book of Lenten meditations surveys the scenes and events of our Lord’s Passion from the viewpoint of a humble believer kneeling at the foot of the cross. It is written in the form of an informal monologue. The informality, however, is not of the irreverent and offensive kind which we encounter among many modern Christians. On the contrary, it simply bears witness to the remarkable spiritual intimacy which one friend shares with the Master.

Nevertheless, it is difficult to justify the lavish praise which attended the recent publication of this book. In commending it to the public, one well-known leader rated it the best selection for the Easter season that has crossed his desk in a decade. After reading it himself, this reviewer is not nearly that enthusiastic. This is not to say that the book is altogether void of value. Here and there one finds an occasional spark of fresh insight, especially in the places where the author makes the ancient persons and scenes contemporaneous with the present. But the real value of the book lies in its vibrant testimony to the fact that simple and sincere Christian faith and love are stronger than even the bars of a communist cell. Perhaps that, if little else, makes it worth reading.

RICHARD ALLEN BODEY

Has the current recession affected church giving? Have contributions fallen off with increased unemployment? If so, how much?

CHRISTIANITY TODAY asked its domestic correspondents for reports on fluctuations in local church treasuries.

The results of the nationwide poll showed no general pattern. The closest thing to a trend seemed to be notes of caution about future spending. Church boards were becoming a little more cautious about committing themselves to costly building programs. Individual members were not as willing to pledge amounts of money over an extended period.

Thirty Southern Baptist pastors were confronted with this question at a conference in Kansas City: “Is the recession apparent in your church offerings?”

Seven reported that their offerings were higher for the first three months of 1958 than they were for the first three months of 1957. Five of the seven said their offerings probably would have shown a larger increase if it were not for the recession. Five others reported their offerings about the same and expressed the belief they would be larger if it were not for the recession. Two reported their offerings were less, another decidedly less. The other ministers said the recession had not affected their offerings.

Of 12 churches polled in Los Angeles, all reported a drop in income this year ranging from 10 to 30 per cent.

Said the Rev. Clarence Forsberg, pastor of First Methodist Church of Eugene, Oregon:

“A number of our churches in the Northwest are receiving from $1,000 to $5,000 below a year ago.”

Some ministers observed that the pinch has been felt less in churches where there is emphasis on stewardship.

One church in Cincinnati reported that unusually bad weather coupled with a wave of influenza had a more adverse effect on receipts than did the recession.

The churches hardest hit, as expected, were in heavy industrial areas. Congregations composed mostly of white-collar workers were not as adversely affected as those with tradespeople. But psychological factors seemed to be at work to cut down spending in many regions. In South Carolina the economy leans largely upon the textile industry, which is more active than a year ago. Nevertheless, Dr. R. Archie Ellis, pastor of the 3500-member First Baptist Church of Columbia, said weekly contributions are down. He added that he did not think the income of the average member has been reduced, except for those depending on investments, but “I think they are scared.”

Many churches reported no noticeable dips in incomes. One such is the First Presbyterian Church of Oklahoma City, whose pastor adds, however, “The people are beginning to be a little bit cautious in making future plans for the church.” Members of a Seattle congregation reportedly were reluctant to sign pledges although they were continuing to give at a rate comparable to a corresponding period last year.

The administrative head of a national religious organization said he was ready to tighten belts for next year’s budget after noticing a drop in contributions.

There were notable exceptions to the reports on decreases in giving. Said the Rev. Paul Koenig, pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in St. Louis:

“Offerings are up 33 per cent over last year. In March, two weeks’ regular offerings were each over $5,000, the largest in the 100-year history of this pillar of St. Louis Lutheranism. Many others of the 80 Missouri Synod congregations in St. Louis report similar increases over last year. Many of the congregations attribute this to an all-out ‘every-member stewardship drive’ last fall which asked for annual sacrificial pledges. Apparently, church members have not been hit too much in the area by unemployment and are therefore keeping their pledges.”

A similar report came from the Rev. Paul G. Stephan, pastor of the Trinity Lutheran Church of Des Moines, Iowa:

“The contributions of our constituency are 25 per cent better this year than in 1957. We do not even use the word ‘recession’ in our congregation.”

Another exception was the 743-member Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Pittsburgh. Dr. K. C. Fraser reported that his congregation last month pledged to give $63,000 for foreign missions within the next year. The figure represents a $2,000 increase over similar pledges made at the same time in 1957 and overpaid by $680. Fraser said receipts for the church maintenance fund were holding steady in spite of some unemployment among members.

Dr. Luther P. Fincke of the Point Breeze Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh reported “no discernible effects.” The First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, Calif., is not noting “any real falling-off,” according to Dr. Robert Munger, pastor.

Wesleyan Tradition

In Cincinnati, a 10-member joint merger commission of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America and the Pilgrim Holiness Church voted to recommend union of the two denominations to their quadrennial general conferences.

The commission said it found no “insuperable barriers” in the two churches’ doctrines or areas of operation which seemed to militate against a merger.

The Wesleyan denomination will hold its general conference at Fairmount, Indiana, in June of 1959; and the Pilgrim Holiness at Winona Lake, Indiana, this June.

A commission spokesman said that doctrinally the two bodies are both in the Wesleyan tradition of fundamental early Methodism. He said they have a combined membership of about 90,000 in 2,000 widely scattered congregations in the United States.

Conferees restricted their discussions to differences in church procedures important enough to influence denominational action in either body. They found that both denominations could save about $150,000 a year in operating expenses if they merged into one group.

The commission will recommend to the general conferences that they adopt as a uniting slogan: “Uniting for World Evangelism.”

Co-chairmen of the commission are Dr. W. H. Neff of Indianapolis, Indiana, general superintendent of the Pilgrim Holiness Church; and Dr. Roy S. Nicholson of Marion, Indiana, president of the Wesleyan Methodist Church.

Ratio Of Evangelism

It took an average of about 25 Methodists to win one new one in 1957.

Dr. George H. Jones, member of the Methodist General Board of Evangelism, came up with this “evangelistic ratio” after a study of membership statistics.

The Methodist Church added 378,031 new members during 1957. This figure divided into the total number of Methodists in the United States in 1956 results in a ratio of some 25 to one, meaning that on the average it took about 25 Methodists to win one new one.

Nae Meeting

The 16th annual convention of the National Association of Evangelicals meets in Chicago this week.

“Christ in you, the hope of glory” is the theme of the five-day conclave at the Hotel Sherman.

NAE President Paul P. Petticord’s keynote address will approach the subject, “True Ecumenicity.”

Billy Graham will be another featured speaker, along with Dr. Stephen Paine, Dr. Albert J. Lindsey, Dr. Robert G. Lee, Dr. J. Wilbur Smith, Dr. Harold John Ockenga, Dr. Herbert S. Mekeel, Dr. J. Edwin Orr, Dr. V. Raymond Edman, and Dr. R. L. Decker.

Two nights of prayer are planned under the leadership of the Rev. Armin Gesswein, chairman of the NAE Spiritual Life Commission.

Dr. Frederick C. Fowler is convention chairman.

Blasts Denounced

The blasting of a Miami synagogue’s school recreation center was denounced by Dr. Harold E. Buell, president of the Greater Miami Council of Churches.

“This violence and the apparent prejudice lying behind it gives a bad name to our city and area and damages the influence of American democracy abroad,” he said.

Temple Beth El’s annex was lifted off its foundation last month by about a dozen sticks of dynamite planted by unidentified persons. Damage was estimated at $30,000.

On the same day the Miami building was blasted, the Nashville Jewish Community Center in Tennessee was dynamited with damage estimated at $6,000.

Jewish leaders in Florida said they feared the twin bombings may have signalled the start of a nationwide terror campaign against the Jews.

Benjamin H. Chasin, national commander of the Jewish War Veterans, wired the governors of Florida and Tennessee and the United States attorney general urging federal-state teamwork to stamp out what he called a “conspiracy reaching across statelines.”

In Nashville, the Community Relations Conference urged all law enforcement agencies to make every effort to find and arrest those responsible for the Jewish center’s bombing.

CANADA

Contingent Aid

Premier W. A. C. Bennett of British Columbia indicated that the provincial government is willing to help ship the “Sons of Freedom” to Russia if there are assurances that the Doukhober dissidents will stay away for good.

A group of “Sons” recently returned from Russia with the report that their group would be welcome on Siberian farms. The sect, which time after time has balked at governmental authority, now wants British Columbia to pay the bill for their proposed move.

The premier made it clear that before the provincial government would give any such aid it would want assurance from the Dominion government that those moving “would lose their Canadian citizenship and not come back.”

The Question

If you had the opportunity to ask President Eisenhower one question, what would that question be?

Send your suggestion for such a query to the News Editor, CHRISTIANITY TODAY, 1014 Washington Building, Washington 5, D. C.

For New Churches

The United Church of Canada spent $14,000,000 to build 196 new churches and 85 manses in 1957, according to the annual report of Dr. M. C. Macdonald, secretary of the denomination’s board of home missions.

Macdonald said plans call for 178 new churches and 59 manses in 1958 at an estimated cost of $13,000,000.

He added that the United Church will need a minimum of 40 to 50 new churches annually to keep up with an expected Canadian population rise from 17,000,000 to 27,000,000 by 1975.

The church official called for more cooperation among religious workers “to guard against the frittering away of energy and missionary funds.”

EUROPE

A Catholic Majority

The Catholic People’s Party of The Netherlands emerged with a 250,000-vote majority over the Labor Party (Socialist) in elections last month for 590 seats in the eleven Dutch provincial legislatures, thus reversing the situation at the 1956 elections.

About 6,000,000 voters went to the polls to give the Catholic Party 190 seats as against 178 for the Labor Party. The Catholic group polled about 33 per cent of the votes as compared to about 29 per cent for its nearest rival.

In an interview between the official functions in connection with the state visit of Queen Elizabeth of England, Foreign Affairs Secretary J. M. A. H. Luns, a leader of the Catholic Party, said the returns showed that “the electorate is getting fed up with being too much mothered and directed” by the four-party government.

Ghetto-Church Pressure

The pressing problems of 15 million Protestants behind the Iron Curtain in Germany’s Eastern Zone are highlighted in a new report just published in Berlin (Evangelische Kirche Jenseits der Zonengrenze, by Gunter Jacob and Christian Berg, Verlag-Lettner, 52 pp.).

Hitler’s war on Russia and American political naivete has deeded over half the land mass of Germany to intense communistic indoctrination supported by the threat of the Red Army.

The Russians can hardly execute 15 million people, and yet religion is offensive to them. Their goal is to make the church a Ghetto church. Religion is thought of as a feeling within the “soul,” or to be restricted completely to the church building, and every effort to evangelize is efficiently cut off.

To produce this Ghetto-church (which the authors say was not difficult to produce in Russia with the decadent Orthodox church) and to weaken the German Evangelical church, several measures have been adopted. In some instances evidence of a good knowledge of Marxism, plus a spirit of dedication to it, are necessary for admittance into advanced education, thus preventing any education among Christians. The church money collected by the state—a custom in Europe—has been cut in half, and the church population willfully lowered so as to diminish even more the church’s financial resources. Any new building or repairing of present structures is either denied or made very difficult.

To intensify the difficulties for Christians, a program of dedication to Communism has been instituted to parallel confirmation, and house-to-house visitation is made to conscript young people to make this act of dedication.

Enormous changes of thought are observed among Christians. The traditions of 400 years now seem to be unworkable and are no longer recognized as New Testament teaching. Foremost in this regard are the concepts of a state church and a “people’s” church. The tradition of the church tax, collected by the government, is proving to be detrimental in the present situation. Separation of church and state is no longer regarded as an American peculiarity but a vital part of New Testament faith. The immense value of the American churches’ emphasis on stewardship of time and money, and participation of the entire church in the Christian witness is also being recognized and is having its effect.

One of the most difficult problems is that of the thousands who are fleeing the Eastern Zone for the West, among them many pastors. This is regarded by the authors of this report as high treachery. Their judgment is that God can build his Kingdom in East Germany, that God is greater than the Kremlin, and that the Gospel is still the power of God, and therefore, Christians must remain in the Eastern Zone and remain faithful to the Gospel and firm in their convictions of its power.

Certainly, for the Christian brethren who must live, work and serve in such adverse circumstances, life and witness is far from easy.

B.R.

AFRICA

Kibango Simon

Back in the 1930s a prophet movement sprang up in the Bas-Congo, owing its inception to a man who once professed Christian conversion, Kibango Simon. The movement was marked by a distinctly subversive tinge, forbidding its followers to pay head tax to the government.

Many Congolese left their employment, others abandoned fields they had been cultivating under government direction. Life became so dislocated that authorities moved in to arrest adherents, including Kibango Simon himself. Many were exiled and kept under restraint in localities far removed from their original homes.

Kibango Simon was exiled to Elisabethville, where he died some 12 years later. While there followed occasional murmurings, it appeared as if the movement were dead.

Now there is a recrudescence of Kibango-ism, or to call it by its new name, Kintwadi-ism. The revival is mostly limited to the Bakongo tribe in Lower Congo, Portuguese Angola and French Equatorial Africa.

The exponents of Kintwadi-ism claim that Kibango Simon is still alive and ranks with Jesus Christ as saviour of men. They meet in groups, sometimes with leaders who give way in the proceedings to anyone who thinks he has a special message to impart. They use the Kintwadi Bible or such portions of it as fit their own special ideas and have composed words of their own to Christian tunes. They have drawn a large part of their followers from Catholic and Protestant churches. Their meetings often follow a “holy roller” pattern, the leader winding up his service in ecstatic convulsion reminiscent of the ancient witchdoctor.

Meetings at first were held only at night. Now the government has recognized the movement as a religion, permitting assemblies at any time.

The Bakongo tribe is probably the most nationalistic group in Congo. Its link with Kintwadi-ism may well give rise to a politico-religious movement.

J.M.

Evangelist Sentenced

A native evangelist on the Danish mission field in the Sudan was fined and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for having offended the Moslems by delivering a sermon on the words of Jesus: “No one cometh to the Father except by me.”

The evangelist has maintained that he said nothing hostile to the Moslem faith. He appealed the case.

Three African pastors were imprisoned at the same time, but were acquitted then filed law suits against a tribal chief for alleged slander and bad treatment in prison.

NEWS

Christianity in the World Today

Clothed in architecture of the next generation, the Brussels World’s Fair opens this week to display man’s greatest accomplishments. Within the 500 acres of “hanging roofs and walls” in Heysel Park is represented the utmost in human achievement. Theme of the first full-scale international exhibition of the nuclear era: “A declaration of faith in mankind’s ability to mold the atomic age to the ultimate advantage of all nations and peoples.”

Scientific advance sets the pattern of the fair, as symbolized by the already-famed Atomium which rises the equivalent of 30 stories above the ultra-modern roadway. For 25,000,000 fairgoers this model iron crystal magnified 150 billion times will likely be the feature they most remember, even if they are not whisked to the top-sphere restaurant by Europe’s fastest elevator or escalated between the displays of peaceful uses of atomic energy in the other spheres.

Situated in the shadow of this theme structure which speaks of technological mastery is an unimposing little building, pale blue trimmed in yellow, which represents world Protestantism. The Protestant Pavilion, in clean lines of brass, aluminum and glass, represents monumental determination, cooperation and foresight. Of the more than 200 buildings in the Brussels Fair, perhaps none represents such painstaking effort on the part of a comparative few.

All around, nations and organizations have tried to outdo each other. Superlatives will be in order during the next six months of the fair’s duration. The pace may well have been set by Baron Moens de Fernig, Belgium’s appointed commissioner general of the exhibition:

“Today, in countless areas of thought and action, human genius and creative vigor are responding to human needs. Everywhere, one finds evidence of man’s bounteous labor. How to examine this evidence anew—and to restore confidence in man’s capacity to create and prosper? The Belgian government, under the high patronage of His Majesty King Baudouin, has organized the most comprehensive moral and material stocktaking of man’s achievements ever undertaken.”

What are bounds for such keen international competition? There are hardly more bounds than those which the budgets of the individual countries themselves establish. But it is this limitation which works hard against the United States, which has only $15,000,000 to build and maintain “the largest circular building in the world with interior columns.” Across the street, the Soviet exhibit represents an outlay of some $50,000,000.

Amidst the man-made embellishments, nature will nevertheless have its place. Heysel Park’s ancient woodlands lend an appropriate backdrop to magnificent botanical garden displays, featuring more than two million individual plants.

Nor is the creativeness of man in arts omitted. The exhibit of original masterpieces of all ages and nations, on loan from galleries and collectors throughout the world, will comprise-what is described as the most comprehensive exhibit of the fine arts ever assembled under one roof. The world’s finest orchestras, opera, choral and theatrical groups will perform. There will be film festivals and ballets.

The first impression might be that this environment is no place for the Protestant Pavilion, which likely will be built and operated for less than a quarter of a million dollars, particularly in view of Catholic efforts. According to the World Council of Churches, this is the first international exhibition in which the Holy See has been represented in two distinct exhibits, both larger and more costly than the Protestant building, one representing the Church and the other the Vatican State.

This Sunday the Protestant Pavilion will be dedicated with services in four languages. The dedication will be the climax of many months of perseverance on the part of a tiny Protestant minority in Belgium (less than 100,000 in a population of about 8,500,000). The World Council is backing a drive to raise funds for the pavilion, but few outside of Belgium share the zeal of the Protestants there for their World’s Fair project.

Yet the Belgians, despite the lack of adequate support from fellow Protestants in other countries, have come up with an exhibit which as a physical plant not only compares favorably with others, but which has already won praise from architects. The chief architect of the fair has called the Protestant Pavilion one of the purest pieces of design in the entire exhibition. Credit for the design goes to M. Calame-Rosset, a Swiss who has been living in Belgium for most of his life.

In front of the building stands a 60-foot pylon topped with three crosses. The pavilion itself covers some 3,000 square feet and features a circular chapel (54 by 75 feet) and a rectangular exhibition hall (51 feet in diameter and 30 feet high). The chapel is furnished with a light oak communion table and a plain brass cross. A huge mosaic figure of Christ, made of natural hard stone by Swiss artist Peter Siebold, will hang free from the center wall and will be flanked by a second mosaic representing the people of the world.

Visitors may attend daily services in several languages. In the exhibition hall are displays of literature, inter-church aid, religious art, liturgy, evangelism and social work. Lectures and conferences will be held throughout the duration of the fair, after which the Belgians hope to move the building for use as a permanent church center.

An observer at this point could well ask: What is the message to be found at the Protestant Pavilion? What is the purpose of the exhibit and what is there to be communicated to the fairgoers? The theme of the Protestant exhibit is the new humanity, as seen in the light of Jesus Christ. This theme sets the hope of mankind in a context of supernatural grace, in contrast with the general theme of whole exhibition, with its accent on man’s ability. The optimistic notion that atomic power will be used automatically to the advantage of all nations and peoples is thus avoided. Yet there is no explicit contrast of the contemporary reliance on science with God’s not by might, not by power, but by my spirit. Nonetheless, Protestants seem not to be passive toward the general theme of the fair. Brussels offers an opportunity for a challenge, for a witness that goes beyond design and expense and display, for a chance to say that supreme confidence in the works of unredeemed man is not of God! Only as Protestantism articulates the modern man’s hope in Christ the Redeemer, will it reflect to fairgoers touring Europe the true spirit of the Reformation.

For whatever the pavilion is, much can be attributed to the inspiring leadership of the Rev. Peter Fagel, pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in Brussels. Largely because of Fagel’s vision, the one-fifth acre Protestant site was secured—and this largely on faith! The Federation of Protestant Churches of Belgium then appealed to Protestants elsewhere for help.

The project still is in dire financial straits. The World Council up until April 1 had only been able to collect half of its $100,000 responsibility. Among the donors have been the National Lutheran Council, $5,000; the Protestant Episcopal Church, $5,000; and the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the American Baptist Convention, $1,000 each. Fund-raising gimmicks have included a dance on the University of Maryland campus. Donors’ names will be listed on a Protestant Witness Roll to be delivered to the pavilion.

Protestants in other countries have helped in unusual ways. A church in Holland is lending an organ, while a Dutch firm supplied chairs. Five-color plexiglass windows have been imported from Switzerland. The aluminum walls were made in England, the floor tiles come from Italy and wall decorations from Germany.

The Christian witness at the 1958 World’s Fair will not be confined to the Protestant Pavilion. The Belgian Congo displays include portrayals of Protestant activities, as do the exhibits of Germany, Switzerland, Finland and Austria. The United Bible Societies have an exhibit all their own in a huge display board representing an open Bible as the focal point. The board will flash Bible verses in a pattern of electric lights in several languages. The Belgian Gospel Mission, a member of the Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association, has been readying thousands of pieces of literature for distribution to fairgoers.

Hands-Off Policy

At Shannon Airport in Dublin, ground hostesses for an Irish airline refused on moral grounds to handle a consignment of an American servicemen’s magazine intended for distribution to American troops en route to Germany.

The magazine carried four pictures of an American actress which the young women hostesses considered to be in bad taste.

New Post

With this issue, Peter deVisser ends a term of service as acting managing editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

Mr. deVisser has held the temporary editorial post since July, 1957. Prior to that he had been general manager of the Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, for many years.

He leaves Washington and returns to Grand Rapids to become director of publications at the Zondervan Publishing House. He will continue as CHRISTIANITY TODAY news correspondent in Grand Rapids.

Emphasis On Preaching

An English clergyman says that Anglican churches in Great Britain are again emphasizing preaching.

In a Minnesota address, the Rev. George B. Duncan said that there was a time when the sacraments were given the exalted place. But now, he said, that trend has been reversed and there is a much greater emphasis on the preaching of the Word of God.

Mr. Duncan, rector of an Anglican church in London, said the response to Bible preaching has been shown in his church where he has held two services each Sunday night “to get all the people in.”

He reported that the Keswick convention, devoted to Bible teaching, attracts more than 7,000 persons in Britain each July. He is a trustee of the convention and has been making a world tour in its behalf.

Addressing several hundred ministers and students in St. Paul, Duncan said “our job is to present to people what God has to say to men, rather than what we think about God.”

Worthy Of A Probe?

American Protestants would welcome an investigation into Colombian persecution as suggested by the Jesuits’ America, says Dr. Stewart W. Herman, executive director of the Lutheran World Federation’s committee on Latin America.

A recent editorial in the national Catholic weekly proposed that a team of social scientists be appointed to make such an inquiry, possibly financed by a large foundation.

Dr. Herman said this could serve both “to establish the facts in the case and bring about better working relations” between Protestants and Roman Catholics in Columbia. “There is no doubt that Protestant elements would welcome this sort of impartial investigation being suggested … (it) would provide greater spiritual and educational benefits.”

People: Words And Events

Appointments: As Chief of Naval Chaplains, Rear Admiral George A. Rosso, Catholic, effective in June; as director of the Department of Evangelism in the United Lutheran Church in America, the Rev. J. Bruce Weaver; as superintendent of Central Methodist Mission in Sydney, Australia, Dr. Alan Walker; as general secretary of the International Society of Christian Endeavor, Harold E. Westerhoff.

Deaths: The Rev. William C. Tapper, 53, executive secretary of the Baptist General Conference in America, in Chicago; Judge John J. Parker, 72, senior judge of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and chairman of the general sponsoring committee for next fall’s Billy Graham Crusade in Charlotte, North Carolina, in Washington.

Crusade: Six days of evangelistic meetings held by evangelist Oral Roberts on Long Island with overflow crowds.

Index: Of a major portion of the Dead Sea scrolls, printed in New York by an IBM electronic computer. Some 30,000 words from the scrolls were transferred to punch cards and arranged systematically.

Grant: To Taylor University, $8,000 from the Atomic Energy Commission to establish radioisotope training program.

Buildings: A new headquarters for the Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society and the Conservative Baptist Home Mission Society, at Wheaton, Illinois, to be erected this year; ground already broken for a new headquarters for Church of the Brethren in Elgin, Illinois, to cost $1,500,000, ready for occupancy in a year.

Denial: Of accreditation by North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools to Christian High School of Holland, Michigan, reportedly because no shop or cooking courses are offered.

Abstinence: Observed by 21 Negro congregations in Washington with day-long church services as a boycott of department stores which have not opened sales jobs to Negroes.

God On A Stamp

Vatican art provides the religious motif for a new three-cent postage stamp.

The new American stamp, which commemorates the International Geophysical Year, will be issued in Chicago May 31. “The Creation of Man,” a masterpiece fresco by Michelangelo, is incorporated into its design. The Michelangelo fresco appears on the ceiling panel in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.

Expert philatelists say this is the first time God has actually been portrayed on a postage stamp.

This week, the Old North Church (Episcopal) of Boston becomes the first church ever to be pictured on an official cancellation for United States mail. A cancellation that will incorporate a view of the church and its famous belfry will be used on all first-day covers for the 25-cent stamp picturing Paul Revere, to be issued in Boston Friday, April 18.

Merger Advances

The Joint Commission on Lutheran Unity hopes to woo more churches into its merger plan as the result of a new agreement which would bar pastors from lodge membership.

The commission announced at a meeting in Chicago last month that it would recommend a provision in the constitution of four merging Lutheran churches that would require ministers to stay out of secret societies.

Commissioners also ironed out a thorny problem of seminary supervision and set a target date for submitting a merger constitution and by-laws to the United Lutheran Church in America and the Augustana, Finnish Evangelical Lutheran and American Evangelical Lutheran churches.

Governing documents for the merged body will be submitted to the 1960 conventions of constituent churches. The merged church would have nearly three million members in six thousand congregations and would be the largest Lutheran body in the United States.

Personal Inquiries

CHRISTIANITY TODAY inquired into the current projects of some noted religious personalities. Here is a report on their latest doings:

Professor Karl Barth, 72, is striving to finish his Dogmatics. His travels and lectures are at a minimum. Barth’s home is in Basel, Switzerland.

Professor Emil Brunner, recovered from a stroke, is readying the third volume of his work on Christian doctrine (this one on the Church). Brunner lives in Zurich, Switzerland.

Warner E. Sallman, Christian artist, is completing a mural for the Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines. The mural, 8 feet high and 12 feet wide, depicts a scene from Mark 2:1–12, with more than 70 people represented.

The Bay Crusade

More than 3,000 cottage prayer groups are meeting regularly in behalf of evangelist Billy Graham’s San Francisco Bay Cities Crusade opening April 27.

Some 5,000 counsellors are in training, the most ever recruited for a Graham campaign. Cooperating churches number 1200.

Six of the evangelist’s Saturday night rallies at the Cow Palace will be televised nationally over the American Broadcasting Company network.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is reported planning Spanish translations of the weekly radio program, “Hour of Decision.”

The Rev. Rogilio Archilla, Spanish interpreter for Graham in the evangelist’s recent Latin American meetings, said he had accepted a tentative request to translate and deliver the “Hour of Decision” sermons to a potential audience of 150,000,000 in Latin America, Spain, the Philippines and other Spanish-speaking areas of the world.

Mr. Graham has agreed to come to New York in September for a week-long evangelistic campaign among the city’s Spanish-speaking population, “if we in New York can get together for it,” Archilla said. He added that the Fraternity of Spanish-speaking Protestant Ministers of New York City has decided to go ahead with preparatory work for such a campaign. Archilla is pastor of the Spanish congregation of DeWitt Church in the lower East Side of Manhattan. He is a native of Puerto Rico who came to New York in 1929.

NOW BOOKING!

My tired blood tingled as I read the prospectus from the Rev. Don Hillis, who claims to be the world-wide director of the All Saints’ Tourist Agency. Hawaii, Europe, Mexico, or around the world!

Sympathetic Mr. Hillis has sensed my spring weariness. He writes: “You need our Caribbean tour with a splendid group of overworked Christians like yourself. The highly privileged three hundred saints whom we accept will relax for fourteen days aboard our luxury liner S.S.S. Pedro for a mere total of $120,000. They will be privileged to spend another $20,000 for sight-seeing and souvenirs.… Our time-payment plan makes this convenient and easy.

“Our exclusive Holy Land tour will fulfill your dreams of being a Crusader. Once you have seen Gordon’s Calvary, the victorious Christian life will become an everyday experience. Why should not you, too, carry a camera through the hills of Judea and fill a bottle from the Sea of Galilee? Think of sharing the missionary task of the Church by covering your shoes with dust from the very roads on which Paul fled forward with the Gospel!

“Please do not worry about the several million dollars spent every year for this kind of thing. The Lord has other people who will give to world evangelism. After all, your $1,000 would hardly support a missionary for a year …”

You have made your point, Mr. Hillis. I will stop regretting that I do not have the funds to join the ecclesia tourans, and make a spring contribution to missionary travel instead. But take heart, brother; there have been missionaries who were once tourists at heart. Perhaps, seeing the need of the world, Christian tourists may yet become missionaries.

SDA AND THE EVANGELICALS

Do the differences between the SDA’s and conservative Christians generally approximate those between Lutherans, Baptists, Presbyterians which, though serious enough, do not make impossible according to each other some degree of recognition as churches of Jesus Christ? Ought we to rejoice when we hear of Adventist successes, and look upon them as indications that the kingdom of Satan is being destroyed and the Kingdom of grace advanced? Or do we have here but one more foe that we must face?

SDA’s teaching and program cannot be understood very well apart from the historical origins. In 1816 one William Miller, a farmer in the northeastern part of New York, having been converted from deism to orthodox Christianity, began to apply himself with earnestness to the study of Scripture. His particular interest was prophecy, especially Daniel 8:14: “Until 2300 days then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” For him, the starting point was 457 B.C.; thus 1843 or thereabouts would see the return of the Lord. Well, 1843 and 1844 came and went, and nothing happened. It would have been the expected thing for the Millerite movement to have died a natural death. But the great day of disappointment had hardly passed before an event occurred which led directly to the founding of the SDA denomination. The report became current that an Adventist leader, Hiram Edson, had seen a vision that the sanctuary to be cleansed according to Daniel 8:14 was not an earthly sanctuary at all, but the original holy of holies in heaven. The prophetic period had indeed ended. But instead of our High Priest coming out of the Most Holy to come to this earth, he entered the second apartment of the sanctuary to perform a work that must precede his coming to earth.

At this time another development contributed a second distinctive feature: the introduction of the seventh day Sabbath largely through the influence of Captain Joseph Bates of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Thus the movement came to be known as Sabbatarian Adventism.

But the foundations were not yet complete. Without the introduction of what is referred to as the “Spirit of prophecy”—by which the Church that was to be born would not only enjoy counsel and direction, but possess an authoritative witness to the correctness of its teachings—SDA would never have flourished to the degree that it has. This was accomplished through a young woman, Ellen Harmon, later Mrs. James White, of Portland, Maine. She had been an ardent Millerite follower and like many others had been grievously disappointed. But in December, 1844, she reportedly experienced a vision, one of over 100 to follow during her lifetime. This vision was to the effect that the Adventist movement, in regarding the seventh month as the end of the 2300 years of Daniel’s prophecy, had been right all the time. After some months the Sabbatarian Adventists with their sanctuary position came to believe that the spirit of prophecy had reappeared in the ministry of Mrs. White. Conferences were held over a period of years to formulate the doctrines of the movement. The record shows that when the discussions became tense or confused, Mrs. White would be shown the truth of the matter and would bid the contenders to yield their errors. Not only at meetings of the Adventist leadership but on many occasions some word from heaven would be forthcoming through her; these revelations consisted not only of decisions on doctrinal issues but of practical counsel for the church’s faith and life—even including a deliverance on the subject of the propriety of the use of salt in the diet.…

Throughout her life, Mrs. White considered herself to be the recipient of special revelations from God. A fair question is, How does this relate to the doctrine of Holy Scripture? The Adventists deny vigorously that they regard Mrs. White’s writings as an addition to Scripture. In their latest doctrinal formulation they write that the Bible is the sole rule of faith and practice. In the same document, however, they confess that the “prophetic gift … was manifested to the SDA Church in the work and writings of Ellen G. White.”

In explanation of this apparent contradiction, the Adventists take the position that Mrs. White’s writings are in the class of the prophetic utterances of such people as Iddo the Seer and Silas and the four daughters of Philip, all of whom prophesied but whose words were either not recorded or not included in the Bible if they were. They add that the “spirit of prophecy counsels” are an aid to a fuller, clearer understanding of the Bible; that Mrs. White’s writings do not give them their doctrines; they simply confirm or broaden the concept or point out erroneous ideas that already existed.

But is not the contradiction a real one after all? If we reflect upon the people in whose ministry the Adventists find a parallel to the work of Mrs. White, we find that although for reasons known only to God their prophetic utterances were never inscripturated, their messages were none the less the word of the Lord, and just as authoritative to those for whom they were intended as the canonical Scriptures are to the Church universal. And when Mrs. White says of her writings, “It is God and not an erring mortal who has spoken,” and the SDA church says that the gift of prophecy was manifested in her life and ministry, is any other conclusion possible than that her writings are in a real sense to be equated with Holy Scripture?

The fact of the matter is that a number of things in Mrs. White’s writings are extra-Biblical, e.g. various details of the boyhood of Jesus. But even if this were not the case, is the statement of the Adventists that these writings simply confirm doctrines and point out erroneous ideas intended to reassure those of different theological persuasion? Is it not evident that this is no mean gift? Indeed, does the church of Rome say much more for the Pope himself than that he confirms doctrines and points out erroneous ideas?

If it is fair, as I believe it is, to charge SDA with admitting additional revelations to the place of authority which the Church is to accord only to the Word of God, this in itself is a sufficient reason for regarding the movement as having departed quite radically from a soundly Christian position.… Are we at liberty to look upon it as something less than deadly error to add to the Word of God?

American Evangelical Mission

Senafe, Eritrea, E. Africa

We certainly have no fears as to the outcome of the current re-evaluation of our evangelical standing, so long as the investigators have the moral and intellectual dignity to reject for documentation the dog-eared philippics of the self-vindicating ex-Adventists.

Reseda, Calif.

“HEAD OF CHRIST”

What a perfect description of Sallman’s “Head” by calling it “A pretty picture of a woman with a curling beard who has just come from the beauty parlor with a halo shampoo” (Roth, Mar. 3 issue). Allow me to add a hearty AMEN!! As a former student of art I agree that it is commercially designed to make money.

It seems strange to me that we wish to “see” a likeness of the man-God that we are to worship in spirit and truth. If Jesus wanted us to know what he looked like he would have left a photograph.…

First Baptist Church

Henrietta, Mo.

I was first attracted to his picture because the manliness of it was in direct contrast to so much of the church bulletin art that, by color and line alike, picture a “milk-sop” Christ. I could say the same thing in relation to much of “classic” art.

Art appreciation can be helpful, even in the field of “religious art.” However, I think it’s particularly true here that the gauge is whether or not the art either speaks to, or speaks for, the beholder. This criterion, in this field, is as applicable to “orthodoxy” in art as it is to Functionalism.

In going back to read Dr. Roth’s article … I must disagree sharply with the basis for part of his criticism.… The “Halo treatment.” … I’m all for realism, but can portrayals of Jesus be adequate only if the pictured Christ is literally lousy? Valuing each individual as a distinctive creation of the Creator, wouldn’t Jesus have been concerned with plain hygiene and cleanliness?

North Congregational Church

New Hartford, Conn.

What a far cry from “Christian” were the criticisms of Sallman’s Head of Christ.

Until Roth, Jayne, Steele and Ortlip can come forth with a better painting that will inspire Protestants and Catholics the world over, let them be silent.

Woodstock, Ill.

Do you not think that … Roth’s statement concerning Mr. Sallman’s painting, Head of Christ, was crude?

Fairbanks, Alaska

I think Sallman’s “Head of Christ” is very evangelical Christian art. I have had visions of our Lord Jesus Christ and his painting is a very close resemblance.

San Francisco, Calif.

While Dr. Roth limits his discussion to painting, the general aesthetic principles implied may be carried over into other fields of art, for example sculpture and music. Accepting the author’s definition of painting (and we may imply sculpture) as “some kind of patterned arrangement of space,” we ask ourselves, are the landscape paintings of the Japanese and Chinese any less beautiful works of art (for they do reflect, do they not, God’s creation) than the landscapes of Corot simply because they fall outside the pale of Christian tradition? Is the Hermes of Praxitiles any less marvellous a sculpture than Michelangelo’s David, or the Athenean Parthenon less marvelous architecturally than St. Peter’s? And what will be the verdict of the symphonies of Mozart and Beethoven, to cite a small example, because they are not “religious” music, per se?

I submit, rather, that sound and line are subject only to the interpretation given them by men. In music, the examples of “secular” music converted into religious usage are too numerous to mention.… I challenge Dr. Roth, or anyone, to label a work of art as “sacred” or “secular” apart from its usage.

El Camino College, Calif.

The question posed relative to authentic, evangelical, biblical art is a good one and I personally welcome such an airing. To me it reacts as a stimulant to clearer and deeper thinking and I hope my future work will manifest benefits gathered from this.

May God richly bless you and your work is my prayer.

Chicago, Ill.

LINCOLN’S BAPTISM

I was disappointed to find … (in) Settle’s article (Feb. 3 issue) … no mention of the fact that Abraham Lincoln was immersed and became a member of a Disciples of Christ Church.

John O’Kane, a minister of the Disciples of Christ in the Springfield, Illinois, area actually baptized Abraham Lincoln. As Mr. O’Kane relates it: “On the night before Lincoln was to be baptized his wife cried all night. The matter was deferred as she thought, but soon after Lincoln and I took a buggy-ride. I baptized him in a creek near Springfield. We changed to dry clothing and returned to the city, and by his request I placed his name on the church book. He lived and died a member of the Church of Christ.”

This record has wide circulation among the Disciples of Christ. It has appeared from time to time in a number of local church publications.

First Christian Church

Lemoyne, Pa.

MORE ON THE REPUBLIC

Just a note to tell you how grateful I am to you for … “Can We Salvage the Republic?” (Mar. 3 issue). This is one of the best pieces of writing on the state of contemporary life I have seen in a long time. It is strong in substance, penetrating in its analysis, and yet it holds out the great hope of the gospel.

The National Presbyterian Church

Washington, D. C.

I believe the title could be said … “How Can We Salvage England?” The condition of our church and state are at a very low ebb spiritually. Crime is on the increase from youth to old age. The welfare state has become a social disease. Greed and grab and the lust for money and power is common knowledge. Material prosperity at the heavy cost of national deterioration.

“When nations perish in their sins, ‘tis in the Church the leprosy begins.” The open Bible is the weapon of the Church’s warfare. A spiritual revival of teaching and doctrines of the Reformation.

Milford-on-Sea, England

DETOUR

As a reader of Christianity Today I should like to say that I am not convinced that Carl McIntire is in the wrong track. He may detour at times, but who doesn’t?!!

Fairmont, Neb.

HELP FOR CLERGY

Regarding the ministers’ replies to the challenge of the sick and dying (Feb. 3 issue) my heart cried out with the poet:

Where is that spirit, Lord, which dwelt

In Abram’s breast, and sealed in Thine?

Which made Paul’s heart with sorrow melt,

And glow with energy divine?

By and large I wondered who needed the most help—the patient or the clergy. I agree that it would be hard to give the exact responses or approach we would make in a hypothetical situation, but what seemed lacking was a basic message.

Seventh-day Adventist Seminary

Washington, D. C.

The “Symposium” is one of the most inspiring articles I have ever read, and will go first to my own doctor, and then to two young friends just starting their medical careers.

Clifford Vicarage

Hereford, England