Building Christian Homes

Christian homes do not just happen. They are built, and only built, by Christians, men and women who sense something of the beauty, the wonder and the responsibilities involved.

After the Creation the home was the first institution established in the divine economy. Since that time it has been the central unit of the social order.

In very large measure the character of the home determines the character of the nation. In the home young lives are bent, moulded and trained, and they are our citizens of tomorrow.

In Japan one sees dwarf trees, many of them representing birds, animals and even works of inanimate art. Nevertheless, they are living trees, dwarfed by a secret process, and their formations are determined by careful bending and pruning during the growing years. In like manner, whether for good or evil, the home is the place where the lives of children encounter those influences which in such large measure determine what kind of people they grow up to be.

When Hitler’s forces threatened the shores of England, Winston Churchill, that sturdy old warrior and incarnation of the Britain that was, announced to his people: “I have nothing to offer you but blood, and sweat, and tears.”

Building a Christian home can prove a battle, for Satan hates and fights against the efforts of those who would establish such an institution. Only consecrated parents know the blood and sweat and tears involved, for it means hard work, courage, steadfastness, sleepless hours, wrestling in prayer.

But they do not work alone.

A Christian home means first of all that Christ is the Lord of the home and that he has pre-eminence in the lives of those who live there.

Immediately after entering Westminster Abbey one notes the tomb of David Livingstone, located in the place of conspicuous honor by a nation that recognized his greatness and the contribution he had made in opening a continent for Christ.

What kind of a home did Livingstone come from? A biographer writes: “The home in which David Livingstone grew up was bright and happy, and presented a remarkable example of the domestic virtues. It was ruled by an industry that never lost an hour of the six days, and that welcomed and honored the day of rest; a thrift that made the most of everything, though it never got beyond the necessities of life; a self-restraint that admitted no stimulants within the door, and that faced bravely and steadily all the burdens of life; a love of books that showed the presence of a cultivated taste, with the fear of God that dignified the life which it moulded and controlled.”

Since that time great changes have taken place. No one would care to return to the rigorous living of even a century ago, but we should never forget that the marvelous gadgets which are a part of house-building today cannot of themselves turn that house into a home. The spiritual and moral values that make men and nations great are to be found within those individuals who turn to God for his divine blessing and help. Such values are an integral part of the Christian home.

In the Old Testament we read of the patriarchs that they “pitched their tents, digged a well and built an altar.” But today how many there are who pitch their tents and dig their wells but make no provision for the spirit! The altar is never built.

There are millions of houses scattered across America, many of them fabulous in their appointments for gracious living, but many of them are houses only, not homes.

A house is built with materials—brick, stone, wood, plaster, etc. It is made with things and furnished with things. A Christian home is built with faith in God—with love, unselfishness, consideration, patience, prayer, work and praise. It may be very humble; it may be a mansion.

Training children is one of the greatest privileges and responsibilities of parents, and Christians must never forget that no child has been trained properly until Christ is pre-eminent in his or her heart.

Christian training of children is a responsibility that cannot be faced too soon. Some time ago a woman asked a psychologist: “When should I start training my child?” “How old is he?” she was asked. “Five,” she replied. The psychologist said: “Madam, hurry home, you have already lost five years.”

But are we this wise? There are many who think young children are too young for instruction about the things of God. However, those who have tried it know that little ones avidly listen to Bible stories and absorb their implications, and at a very early age God and his Son become wonderfully real to them.

In a Christian home probably the greatest single influence on children is a realization that their parents want them to know Christ more than anything else in this world, and set such an example in their own lives. If Christ is given a secondary place in the life of parents, and in their ambitions for their children, the latter know it and no amount of talk can erase from their minds the fact that Christ is not first.

A Christian home should be the happiest place in the world. There one should find the right perspective toward life. Interesting books, carefully selected for adventure, instruction and cultural value, should be in the bookcase. Games, with the parents joining with their children in the fun, should form part of home life. Youthful friends should be made welcome, and profitable amusements can well be found away from the TV or outside influences.

The family altar, with daily prayer and Bible reading, is one place where children learn the difference between temporal and spiritual values and where the source of man’s ultimate responsibility is centered. Paul, writing to Timothy, said: “And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.” Happy are those children whose parents have done as much for them.

A Christian home is held together by the cement of love. As Edgar Guest so truly wrote: “It takes a heap o’ lovin’ to make a home.” This means love of God, of each other, of other people.

Some time ago a man observed a snake taking baby birds from a nest while the mother bird frantically tried to drive it away. The nest was across a stream where the observer could not render assistance and he could only say: “Oh mother, you built your nest too low.”

Only Christian homes are built high enough to protect all concerned. Only those homes where God is given his rightful place can so qualify for his promised protection.

A Christian home is built on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. It is instructed in the Word of God. It is sustained by the power of prayer and by a close walk with the Lord.

L. NELSON BELL

THIMK CONTEST

That THIMK! sign has tickled advertisers, who have thumk up a whole deck of ironic placards. Doc Bromyde, our druggist, showed me his stunning collection, from a supplier who keeps pharmaceuticals moving on the spoof.

Delighted to help you out—there’s the door.

I would like to compliment you on your work—when will you start?

Whistling home with my aspirin, I passed the illuminated board in front of the Gospel Tabernacle. In bold moveable letters was the message: Welcome, Friend. Sing and Smile and Pay. I stopped whistling, walked up on the lawn to investigate. An “r” was in the bottom of the sign case.

That was reassuring, but it set me to thimking. Sooner or later ecclesiastical thimkagrams will be on us. Remember the sign on the Third Street Church? A pedestrian is a married man with two cars and a teen-age daughter. That admirable bit of kerygma had been chosen by the sexton from a mimeographed treasury of gems kept with the alphabets for the sign board.

Since it was next to last on his list, there is a man who will go across the board with thimkagrams before the imk is dry on the first release he gets.

Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. That one has been popularized in sacred song and has a future as long as its past.

After much thought, I am pleased to announce a THIMK contest. No entry may be longer than ten words. Address them to THIMK, Eutychus! care of this magazine. The winners will receive a plaster plaque with the legend, “I thought!” Remember, Sharing pays, when you own the shares! Your contributions will raise the level of the abysmal. The losers will render even greater service toward killing this whole thing off.

And perhaps someone will think of a better source of bulletin board barbs.

EUTYCHUS

DIFFERENT FIELDS

Leitch’s review of Hebert’s book on Fundamentalism seems to me a typical piece of “playing on different fields,” a failure of joining issues with the author.

Hebert saw the possibility of discussion with conservative evangelicals. He stated at the beginning and the closing of the book that it lay in the spirit of Christian fellowship. Leitch took this to imply that fundamental issues are therefore to be ignored. Is this really so? For the point was just what these fundamentals are, and whether the differences in question, upon examination, are such as to preclude Christian fellowship, or friendly conversation.

This is why the claims of The Fundamentals were taken by Hebert seriously as an acceptable point of entry into the discussion. In comparison with them he stated what to him constituted the fundamentals of the Christian faith, to which evangelicals today might agree. On this basis one could hope to locate and define in an intelligible context the main question at issue. This is the question concerning the nature of biblical truth, and Hebert dealt with it at length, showing the strength and weakness of the high doctrine of Scriptures, and relating it to the evangelical ethos as a whole, which he also evaluated before he closed the discussion.

Is such an approach to the problem not reasonable and clear enough for the reviewer? Instead of giving his readers a semblance of the substance of the argument of the book, Leitch made it appear to be an incoherent mixture of false charges and minor issues, thereby dismissing it as making no contribution to the discussion in the main. This seems to me a convenient way to dodge the main issue Hebert raised so unmistakably in the book.

It is this: Does the doctrine of verbal inspiration (the mark of “Fundamentalism”) not involve a “materialistic” view of truth, or an intellectualistic conception of revelation? Can either of them be justified on biblical grounds? Finally, the question was also raised whether a high doctrine of Scriptures (mark of evangelicalism), like a high Christology, may not fall into the danger of monophysitism.

On such central questions our reviewer did not say a word, not a word of information even (except some vague reference to Warfield’s work in the past, and some kind of “Q.E.D.” in the future). Was the review meant to show that there is a set of rules that makes it impossible to play with a visitor even in the home field?

Divinity School

University of Chicago

• Dr. Leitch did acknowledge that certain of Father Hebert’s criticisms of Fundamentalism are well-founded. But he stated that while Hebert rightly posed the question of inspiration as central in the discussion of Fundamentalism, he misrepresented the fundamentalist doctrine of Scripture. Thus the real issues were not properly faced.—ED.

BAPTIST CHALLENGE

A move was made in 1957 when Southern Baptists entered New York City with organized work. Some are asking, “Why are Southern Baptists in New York?” There are a number of reasons.…

More than half the people of this vast metropolis of eight million souls are not connected with any church of any kind. It therefore constitutes a great mission field.

Though New York is not the world’s biggest city, in New York more different races impinge on each other than in any other city in the world; and Southern Baptists have an extensive program of ministry to racial groups.

In New York the housing pattern for the next 50 years is now being fixed. The city is engaged in a redevelopment program in which within the next five years thirty-five church buildings will be tom down and land cleared for huge housing projects. As this program proceeds, land is offered in these housing areas.… During the past three years such offers have been declined because denominations were not ready to act on them. Already Southern Baptists have been warmly welcomed by those who hope we can do something about the situation.…

Baptists have an historic witness to the fact that the church is a fellowship of New Testament believers and is not a sectional or a national thing. This was the emphasis of John Smyth in Holland 350 years ago. So Southern Baptists move into this area of need not as invaders but as allies with all who are seeking to promote the cause of Jesus Christ, believing “there is no competition between lighthouses.”

No other Baptist group is promoting a program of church-sponsored missions in greater New York and there are vast residential areas where Baptist churches of any kind are non-existent in the “world’s largest concentration of urban development.”

In their program to evangelize America and establish 30,000 churches and missions between now and 1964, Southern Baptists, as America’s fastest growing major denomination, believe they have an obligation to America’s major city.

Southern Baptist Chapel

New York City

Some of us might fear that Dr. Dawson is getting perilously near to wishful thinking when he says that our Convention is a “representative, deliberate” body. I’m a Southern Baptist but I could wish that our Convention were a little more that way.…

First Baptist Church

Independence, Virginia

CHRISTIANITY TODAY (Jan. 20 issue) had a number of encouraging articles … you are to be congratulated … especially for the editorials.…

In view of the considerable amount of energy, money and means put into religious effort, is it not time that we ask ourselves “What makes religion, especially Christianity ‘click’? Have we been going in the right direction?” …

It is refreshing to be told … that some are seeing the light … perhaps a little dimly, but nevertheless the tendency is in the direction of biblical theology. Let us pray earnestly that the tendency will reach flood tide before very long.…

I happen to be a member of a Southern Baptist church. The article “What Future for Southern Baptists?” made interesting reading. On second thought, however, its content gives little of which to boast.… When we consider our numerical membership of 8,750,000 we may feel strong, but we are not necessarily so when … in the past year the total contribution to missions was just over 14 million dollars, a per capita rate of about $1.60 per year. Many … denominations far exceed that.

Our goal is 30,000 more churches by 1964. Perhaps it would be better had we put the goal in terms of people, say 3 million people won to Christ or 100 for each of the new churches. While our Home Missions effort shows some vigor, our Foreign Missions effort involves only one missionary for each 8750 members. We might better set the figure at one missionary for each 875 members—small enough goal. Yet that would mean 10,000 missionaries. So it seems we have our work cut out for us, and that can be said of many another group.…

Washington, D.C.

SEPARATION, PENETRATION

Penetration is not the answer but separation.… We may not agree with all that separationists like McIntire, Rice, and others say, but they, like Luther and Calvin, are at least identifying the enemy and warning God’s people about him.…

First Bible Presbyterian Church

Woden, Iowa

When I read your editorial, “Theology, Evangelism, Ecumenism,” (Jan. 20 issue) … I knew I must write you. That is one of the finest, most pertinent editorials that I have ever read in a religious periodical.

Nazarene Theological Seminary

Kansas City, Mo.

EVANGELICAL RADIO

The report … entitled “Evangelical Broadcasting Outlook” (Jan. 6 issue) is most interesting. I particularly appreciated the attempt of the author to present a balanced view.…

I was somewhat disturbed … to see the biased reporting quoted from United Evangelical Action … involving Station WGY.… I took the opportunity to visit WGY to discuss the new policy with the management.

I found that they were not at all antagonistic to evangelical programs.…

It seems that this attitude on the part of many evangelicals is doing more harm toward disturbing their relations with the broadcasting industry than the things which they fearfully suspect on the part of other groups.…

The Evangelical Foundation

Philadelphia, Pa.

IN THE FACE OF DEATH

In a sense every patient that we meet is dying. That is the only really certain thing about our entire life, and in a special sense those who are without Christ are truly “dead men on furlough.” I feel that our basic attitude toward the living dead around us should be the same as our attitude toward the dying dead in the hospital.

For the Christian patient death is a great victory. It is our privilege as Christian physicians to enter into that wonderful encounter with Christ and help make the last mile a truly victorious one. And those who are at death’s door without Christ as Saviour and Lord must never pass through without some word from the Christian physician in attendance. Certainly God is capable of changing the heart of the patient dying in darkness just as he moved the dying thief on the cross and quickly translated him to paradise.

Grand Rapids, Mich.

May I submit several facts to supplement what was set forth re the believer’s death?

Death is behind the believer, in that he has been identified with Christ in His death unto sin (Rom. 6, etc.).

The believer’s life is already beyond death, “for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3).

In that God “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6), for those in Christ the gap has already been bridged, and it is just as simple as Paul puts it: “Willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8).

Director

Deeper Life Publications

Warrenville, Ill.

PRESERVING THE BALANCES

I like the balance of learned articles and sermons. Each refreshes the other.…

First Church of God

Pocatello, Idaho

Without any reservation … your publication is the best periodical crossing my desk.

Menomonie Gospel Tabernacle

Menomonie, Wis.

It is one of the most … if not the most valuable magazine that comes to my desk.… Like especially your book reviews, your “Bible Book or Text of the month” …

La Paz, Bolivia

I do not have words to express the blessing it has been to me this last year. I have looked for twenty years for just this kind of help in the work of the pastorate.…

Second Baptist Church

Arkadelphia, Ark.

• CHRISTIANITY TODAY wishes to thank its fine family of subscribers, almost 30% of whom renewed their charter subscriptions before actual expiration date.—ED.

Top government leaders met recently in Washington’s Mayflower Hotel for the sixth Presidential Prayer Breakfast with delegates of International Council for Christian Leadership, sponsoring group.

Many Americans interpret this annual gathering as a wholesome recognition of the need for national dependence upon God.

Host this year of the event which brings together members of Cabinet, courts, and Congress, along with other leading government officials, was William C. Jones, owner-manager of W. C. Jones Intertype Service of Hollywood.

Due to a raspish cold, President Eisenhower was indisposed and unable to attend the breakfast. Senator Frank Carlson of Kansas, president of ICCL, presided, and taking part were Secretary of the Army Wilbur M. Brucker, Senator John Stennis (Miss.), Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, and Secretary of the Treasury Robert B. Anderson. A case of flu cancelled Texas Governor Price Daniel’s scheduled participation.

After Scripture reading, the main address was given by Charles E. Wilson, former head of the General Electric Co., now president of People-to-People Foundation, Inc.

Mr. Wilson noted that wrong has triumphed for a time in too many parts of the world. “But God has not abdicated.… It may even be that the world will have to suffer yet more before men feel as they should their utter dependence on God.” Toward a solution of world problems, Wilson offered facilities of his organization to arrange an international forum for the frank exchange of views, each participant speaking as a human being rather than as a member of a government-team.

Nixon Asks Dedication, Sacrifice

Vice President Richard Nixon held out hope that certain minimal clothing and housing standards for the peoples of the world may be met, and that the conference table rather than the battlefield could provide the arena for solution of the world’s problems. We will meet the challenge successfully, he said, provided “we have the same dedication to our principles, the same willingness to sacrifice, as have the Communists.”

ICCL’s two-day convention followed the breakfast. This organization promotes breakfast and luncheon groups among government, business, and industrial leaders in this country and abroad to apply Christian faith to daily life. While its international program has been predicated upon a rather broad theological base, it has attracted a nucleus of leaders aware that the world crisis is fundamentally spiritual, and that Christianity holds a decisive key. Re-elected president this year, was Judge Boyd Leedam, chairman of the National Labor Relations Board and former chief justice of the South Dakota Supreme Court.

In America, as elsewhere, the movement’s evangelical vitality depends somewhat upon its zone of operation. Primary emphasis falls upon personal devotion and spiritual growth rather than discussion and development of specific social programs.

Broad counsel prevailed, for example, in the luncheon address of Under Secretary of Commerce Walter Williams who found leadership in being informed, taking personal action, and doing all with humility. Christ was represented as “perhaps” the most humble of men, and Jews were enjoined to apply their own religion practically.

For Religion as Practical Force

Lt. Gen. M. H. Silverthorn, USMC (Ret’d.), stressing religion as a practical force, pointed up Joshua, Gideon and David as men through whom God worked. Four rules for modern-day men of God included church attendance, lay action, Bible study, and “to love mercy and walk humbly.”

Director of the Worldwide Evangelistic Crusade, Norman Grubb of England, next morning gave an inspiring devotional on the believer’s mystical union with Christ, its secret being found in receiving life from Christ by virtue of his sacrifice for us.

In panel talks that followed, Senator Carlson mentioned that Pope Pius had heard of his lay work with ICCL and had prayed God’s blessings on it.

Richard C. Halverson, Associate Executive Director of International Christian Leadership, spoke with fervor on the challenge of the Far East. Despite the multitude of religions there, he made clear that the Orient’s solitary hope is Christ. Vague beliefs in God are insufficient. Yet Asia, he emphasized, is largely without Christ. It is not really anti-American or anti-West; its greatest threat is not Communism but secularism. Personal evangelism by Asians is the sole hope for reaching the vast populations.

A German Bundestag member, G. A. Gedat, reported in similar vein for Africa, while communist agitators are widespread, the continent is more or less lost in secularism. The greatest missionary obstacles are the fighting among church groups in Africa and the lives of so-called Western “Christians” resident there. (From Finland came the report that the Finns fear Hollywood more than Moscow.)

At the international luncheon, Roland Michener, Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons, commented on the admirable relations between Canada and the United States, eminently desirable, inasmuch as in accordance with the doctrine of the brotherhood of men that “we’re all sons of God.” Lt. Gen. Clovis Byers reported from NATO headquarters in Paris that the leadership of Christ will enable continuation of the difficult fight against Communism.

The final evening brought another challenge to face international issues. Dr. Bob Pierce, president of World Vision, Inc., centered his challenge in individual response. God has allowed the present perils of history to bring mankind to an end of itself; each individual, if he would act vitally and significantly in the crisis, must surrender and “let God be God” in him. The fact that one can’t do everything is no excuse for not doing something.

Judd Points Up Problems

Congressman Walter H. Judd (Minn.) declared today’s challenge to be the same as the apostolic one—to be witnesses in all the world (Acts 1:8) and thus serve the world. Man has “a part of God in him” and survival is necessary if he is to grow into the image of Christ.

The big problem of free-world statesmanship today, continued Judd, is “how principled people can deal with unprincipled people and still keep their principles.” The international situation is fraught with dilemma. How can we support the West without losing the East? Russia will be on the way to victory if she can get us to abandon “God’s children in the satellites.”

Mr. Judd opposes a summit conference at the present time, pointing out it sometimes does hurt to talk, such as in the two years at Panmunjom while Russia developed the H bomb. Continued concessions by the West at these conferences amount not to peace but “surrender on the installment plan.” Open covenants are good but, Woodrow Wilson to the contrary, they should not be openly arrived at.

“Jerusalem’s destruction can be ours unless we awake,” Congressman Judd warned. Man’s physical needs are important but he is too sick to be patched up with superficial plaster. His need is nothing less than “the Cross and the Saviour.”

Throughout the conference, leaders shared a profound concern, and voiced agreement that the Christian outlook is the world’s only hope. However, it was disconcerting, even distressing, to note the generous disagreement as to how the Christian outlook and the Christian hope were defined in the successive addresses and panel discussions. Dominant personalities tended to overshadow inconsistencies of thought. What held together ICCL’s rather disjunctive convention was not so much a common theological vision as a common sense of need and an uncommon measure of charity.—F. F.

Burden Of Truth

New impetus for resolving race conflicts in American life sparked the National Conference for Human Rights under auspices of the State of Pennsylvania and the United Steelworkers of America on Feb. 3 in Philadelphia. Some 200 leaders in business, labor and religious and community life heard Governor George M. Leader emphasize his state’s tradition of tolerance reaching back to William Penn, and Union President David J. McDonald’s grateful flourish that steel unions are free of racial tensions. Mr. McDonald voiced the ambition that the workshops of America may become the classrooms of democracy.

Participants premiered “Burden of Truth,” a film dramatizing the race problem, and urged its projection coast-to-coast through established organizations and institutions as a means of sensitizing American conscience. The 67-minute effort dramatizes racial evils, depicting a Negro who accepts the national emphasis on freedom and democracy but whose pattern of life is a shabby materialization.

A moving presentation, the film halts short of specific solutions, but expertly focuses the problem without narrowing it to the South. Its weakness is that in the main characters, college graduates of marked ability, American communities will not recognize the average Negro family in their midst. Nonetheless, it deals commendably with an evil which, numerically at least, is America’s biggest social problem of the day.

Although the film halted short of specific solutions, President McDonald did not withhold a particular program. He called on the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Chamber of Commerce and their local bodies to “speak out firmly and give their support for compliance with the Supreme Court’s ban on segregation, for fair practices in employment and in housing and in support of legislation which will guarantee all Americans equal protection under the law.” Then he outlined “what I believe to be labor’s role in this field.” In swift succession came particulars of a million-dollar-a-year scholarship reservoir to widen educational opportunities without regard to creed, color or origin; of labor representatives to NATO nations as ambassadors of good will; of a cooperative program with industry for upgrading qualified employees without race prejudice; of expanded opportunities for union leadership by minorities; of equal protection and justice for all citizens under the law; of support for federal aid and finance for additional aid to education and equal educational opportunities; of support for a program to abolish slums and provide low-cost and middle income homes.

Discussion groups followed addresses by Governor Leader, President McDonald and Joseph J. Morrow, personnel director of Pitney-Bowes Inc. Spokesmen were not content simply to consider means of extending the film’s use. Steel Union President McDonald’s connection of federal aid for education and housing with the discussion of racial integration was noted, as well as publicity given the conference as for the narrower purpose of integrating the Negro into the nation’s labor force (hence with a special eye to the South). If the film is to imply these particular solutions when shown throughout the land, one participant remarked, it holds “as much potential for dividing public sentiment as for unifying sentiment on the race problem.” Section leaders urged that the film not be attached to particular solutions, but that it be employed rather “to create a climate of local conviction” for challenging and meeting the problem.

In one section, Nelson Rockefeller emphasized that “the sense of national purpose” must be quickened if racial conflicts are really to be reselved. Dr. Clyde W. Taylor of National Association of Evangelicals reported his section’s conviction that emphasis on human duty must not be neglected alongside the emphasis on human rights. Dr. Carl F. H. Henry, editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, noted the “risk involved in facing this grave social evil apart from a firm interest in the larger problem of moral principles of permanent validity.” Even the interest in human rights “can be used” to promote specific organizations and programs, he cautioned, unless the nature of the moral order is clarified, and all men and social groups are viewed under God’s command and judgment.

From East To West

On the sixth ballot, electors of the California Episcopal Diocese chose as their next bishop coadjutor the Very Rev. James A. Pike, dean of New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Here is a biographical digest of the 44-year-old clergyman:

—Author, lawyer, television personality.

—Raised in Roman Catholicism, turned agnostic, subscribed to tenets of Protestant Episcopal Church a year before ordination.

—Married twice, the first union having ended after two years in ecclesiastical annulment.

—Former counsel for Securities and Exchange Commission, War Shipping Administration; one of the youngest men ever to practice before United States Supreme Court.

—Onetime chaplain and head of department of religion at Columbia University; taught at George Washington and Catholic universities.

—Schools attended include University of Santa Clara, UCLA, USC, Yale and Virginia, General and Union theological seminaries.

What Is Your Religion?

Proponents of religious census questions point to the results of a voluntary response survey as evidence of the value of such government polls.

The Census Bureau had already announced it would not include a question on religion affiliation in the 1960 census when it came up with figures gleaned from a sample survey made a year ago. The survey among 35,000 households in 330 areas across the country obtained answers to the question “What is your religion?” on a voluntary basis. It was the first time the bureau had asked such a question in a nationwide sampling. Church membership data previously had been secured by the bureau from religious organizations.

The new census report shows that of every three persons 14 years old and over in the United States, two regarded themselves as Protestant, and one out of every four as Roman Catholic.

The results indicated those who would refuse to answer the question on religious affiliation constitute only nine-tenths of one per cent of the population.

Statistics are estimates and include only persons 14 years old and over:

Protestants 79,000,000; Roman Catholics 30,700,000; Jewish 3,900,000; others 1,500,000; no religion 3,200,000.

Baptist 23,500,000; Methodist 16,700,000; Lutheran 8,400,000; Presbyterian 6,700,000.

About 83 per cent of the South was reported as Protestant, 69 per cent of the West, 69 per cent of the North Central region, and 42 per cent of the Northeast. The 45 per cent of Roman Catholics in the Northeast was the largest reported group in any region.

Because the survey sought out affiliation rather than church membership or even church attendance information, the results were not directly comparable to claims by denominations. The estimate cited for Methodists is nearly twice as high as that claimed by the denomination. The national Jewish estimate is about 10 per cent below that of official Jewish bodies.

Mixed marriages are much more common among Roman Catholics than among Protestants and Jews, but 94 per cent of couples are of the same faith. Catholic families are not larger than Protestant ones. A detailed report of the sample survey is available for 10¢ from the Bureau of the Census, Washington 25, D.C.

Time In Hand

National Religious Broadcasters are maneuvering to establish a headquarters office utilizing a full-time executive director.

Details of the move, the gospel program sponsors decided at their 15th annual convention in Washington, will be worked out at another NRB meeting to be held in conjunction with the National Association of Evangelicals convention in April.

The 120 delegates to the Washington conclave tussled anew with the problem of paid vs. free broadcasting. Some feared a trend to more radio time for music, news and sports, to the exclusion of gospel programs even when sponsors are willing to pay.

NRB opposes free time because too often it is meted out to the advantage of church councils unsympathetic to the evangelical cause.

The possibilities of counter-pressures by the evangelical constituency was suggested during a spirited question-and-answer session following an address to the convention by Harold E. Fellows, president of the National Association of Broadcasters (which with a membership of 2,000 radio and TV stations, plus all major networks, represents the voice of the broadcasting industry in the United States).

To be sure, there are pressures antagonistic to conservative theology. But could not public demand also constitute a pressure, one that could influence station managers to see evangelical broadcasts as desirable?

There was also the consideration that radio stations are business, that they are after programs which will bring maximum return on the dollar.

In some respects the problem came back down to the individual broadcaster. If he can gain a wide enough audience, he has a good case. And to do this, there may be the need for more effective programming, for higher standards of production, for even a greater sense of responsibility.

Working for NRB is a strong mutual feeling of determination. The tone of debate gave the impression that here was a force more than able to meet the problem. The decision to move ahead to fulltime headquarters offered evidence that the problem could be solved.

Europe

Ecumenical Decisions

The 12-member World Council of Churches Executive Committee has taken a significant step toward possible establishment of relations with the Russian Orthodox Church.

At a semi-annual meeting in London the committee agreed to a meeting between officials of the two groups in August. The action came at the suggestion of the Moscow Patriarchate, but no arrangements were announced as to the site of the proposed meeting.

Dr. Franklin Clark Fry, chairman of the Executive Committee, said “it is assumed that the meeting will be of the nature of a first exploratory consultation to exchange information and get acquainted.”

The Executive Committee’s action was in line with a previous decision of the World Council’s Central Committee approving “conversations” with the Russian church. Originally the conversations were scheduled for January, 1957, but they were delayed at the request of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Other committee business included a report from Dr. W. A. Visser’t Hooft, general secretary of the WCC, on the status of Protestant churches in Eastern Europe.

Forced resignation of Dr. Lajos Ordass as presiding bishop of the Hungarian Lutheran Church, said Dr. Visser ’t Hooft, is an example of increasing pressure from the communists. Dr. Ordass was at one time a member of the WCC’s Central Committee.

The general secretary characterized relations with the churches in Eastern Germany as “the most difficult problem of the last few months.” He cited recent refusals of the East German government to grant visas to churchmen to attend conferences in other countries.

The committee also (1) recommended to its Central Committee that the Third Assembly of the World Council of Churches scheduled for Ceylon in 1960, be delayed for one year “in order that churches and national Christian councils have more time to consider details of the World Council of Churches-International Missionary Council merger” and (2) decided that the Council’s proposed religious liberty study should be “worldwide.”

Japan

Bows Stir Christians

Japanese pastors in Kobe challenged the action of a school principal in teaching sixth grade pupils how to bow to Shinto.

The Christian Ministers Association of Kobe submitted a fully-documented protest to the Department of Education in Tokyo and to the Kobe Educational Committee.

The protest charged that the practice violated the Japanese Constitution. Pupils were taught the official act of worship to be performed on an excursion to the Shrine of Ise (Shinto), the protest said.

According to the protest, the ceremony was actually performed at the shrine by all except three Christian pupils who refused to bow.

The incident brought up the question of whether the government officially considers such shrines as religious or cultural. The protest claimed that shrines are legally considered religious.

The Rev. Teruichi Matsuda, pastor of the Nagata Reformed Church, spearheaded the protest. He followed up the action by personally confronting a Department of Education official, Iwao Utsumi, who reportedly refused to spell out the government’s attitude toward Shinto worship.

The pastors’ protest failed to win the support of the Japanese Association of Christian Schools, which indicated fear that resulting agitation would increase attendance at shrines.

Worth Quoting

“In spite of their great differences and widespread liberalism, the Protestant churches show promise of a doctrinal revival that is quite unique in American history. Their current interest in promoting religious education in the public schools, the success of the ecumenical movement in stemming the tide of sectarianism, the steady increase of church membership in conservative bodies, and the popularity of biblical evangelists like Billy Graham are symptomatic of an improvement which Catholics may honestly praise. For we realize that the more dogmatically vital is the atmosphere in which our people live, the more secure is their faith and the more will American Catholicism prosper.”—The Rev. John A. Hardon, S.J., Professor of Theology at at West Baden University, West Baden Springs, Indiana, in an address before the Society of Catholic College Teachers of Sacred Doctrine, in St. Louis.

“Dull, unexciting religion has emptied the churches of Europe since the beginning of this century and it will do it for you in America before the century closes unless you are very careful.

“The Bible says there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels over one sinner who repents. The modern church needs to ask God’s forgiveness that it has afforded Him so little cause for rejoicing.

“I have watched your country for a whole generation. I can see in the church life of America precisely the same symptoms I could see in the church life of my own country when I began my ministry (in 1924).

“We had better heed the voice of God.”—Dr. Norman G. Dunning, Warden of Haworth Hall, Kingston Upon Hull University, Lancashire, England, at preaching mission in the First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, S. C.

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).

What thrills us is that this first word of prayer that Jesus offered was not for himself. He did not ask for his own deliverance. He did not pray in that black hour for his loved ones, nor for his friends. He prayed for his enemies. He prayed for the soldiers and for the far more cruel churchmen who, having nailed him to the cross, were even then howling about him. It was around the bloody shoulders of these murderers that he flung the folds of this prayer.

As a man, he retains nothing but forgiveness and love. His whole life was an expression of love, and his death set the seal. This word points to his atoning and interceding love. Observe he does not pray for any forgiveness for himself. A fact impossible to account for, save on the ground that he was the Holy One of God.

That is humanity at its greatest. Men have their conceptions of human nature, and of what things make for greatness therein. These conceptions are very many and very varied. I submit that humanity has never been seen greater than in the Man Jesus, when he said, “Father, forgive them.” In the soul of Jesus there was no resentment, no anger, no lurking desire for punishment upon the men who were maltreating him.

As in numerous other instances, each of the Gospels gives only a few details from the story of the crucifixion and of Jesus’ suffering on the cross. Thus no Gospel gives all the words spoken by him on the cross and we have to take the accounts of all the four Gospels together in order to get a sufficiently full picture. Luke was the only one to record the prayer of the Crucified One for his enemies. It is in perfect agreement with Luke’s predilection throughout his Gospel to let the light fall as brightly as possible on Jesus’ illimitable love for sinners and the forgiveness of God, that he particularly recorded these words. And how this prayer of the Crucified Redeemer reveals not merely his wonderful self-forgetfulness, but also his magnanimity and his earnest longing that his persecutors should be given another chance to repent before the otherwise inevitable judgment is executed on their sins! Even as the gardener prayed to the owner of the vineyard to give the fig-tree a last chance, so Jesus in this prayer besought a last chance for the guilty people.

Father, Forgive Them

This simple prayer is astounding; all interpretation will leave much yet to add. The climax of suffering is now being reached, but the heart of Jesus is not submerged in this rising tide—he thinks of his enemies and of all those who have brought this flood of suffering upon him. One should dwell here on the whole Passion history and that it meant agony for Jesus. He might have prayed for justice and just retribution; but his love rises above his suffering, he prays for pardon for his enemies. Such love exceeds comprehension, yet reveals the source whence our redemption and pardon flow. “Father,” Jesus addressed God, speaking even now as the Son, as accepting filially all that his Father is letting come upon him. His Father is with him and hears his Son say “Father,” and what this Son now utters will meet full response in the Father’s heart, for he so loved the world that he sent his own Son to die for the world, and this dying is now at hand.

R. C. H. LENSKI

We cannot doubt, that at this time, when he was about to lay down his life for mankind, and when the act of crucifixion had taken place, and he was elevated on the cross, that the whole world of mankind filled his spiritual vision. The whole race were his crucifiers. The Roman soldiers were those who executed the deed. But all mankind were represented in that act, and shared by their own personal rebellion against God and his holy child Jesus, in the dreadful deed.

JOHN J. OWEN

We are shown here the efficacy of prayer. This Cross-intercession of Christ for his enemies met with a marked and definite answer. The answer is seen in the conversion of the three thousand souls on the Day of Pentecost. I base this conclusion on Acts 3:17 where the apostle Peter says, “And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.” It is to be noted that Peter uses the word “ignorance” which corresponds with our Lord’s “they know not what they do.” Here then is the divine explanation of the three thousand converted under a single sermon. It was not Peter’s eloquence which was the cause but the Saviour’s prayer.

ARTHUR W. PINK

Sin Of Ignorance

The persons for whom this prayer is offered cannot be the Roman soldiers, who are blindly executing the orders which they have received; it is certainly the Jews, who, by rejecting and slaying their Messiah, are smiting themselves with a mortal blow (John 2:19). It is therefore literally true, that in acting thus they know not what they do. The prayer of Jesus was granted in the forty years’ respite during which they were permitted, before perishing, to hear the apostolic preaching. The wrath of God might have been discharged upon them at the very moment.

F. GODET

It was argued by an acute Jew, that if Christ was truly Son of God his prayer would have been heard, and the Jews would not have been, as Christians admit they have been, punished for their sin. But this, like every other prayer, is offered on condition that its answer and fulfillment be in accordance with the divine order. It presents the sinner to God the Father as within the reach of pardon in view of Christ’s great sacrifice; it proffers that sacrifice in his death, and asks that pardon may be granted, in the resulting conditions of pardon. In order to that pardon, the sacrifice, the intercession, the Spirit of grace, and the sinner’s repentance and accepting faith, must all concur.

D. D. WHEDON

Under the Levitical economy God required that atonement should be made for sins of ignorance (Lev. 5:15, 16; Num. 15:22–25). Sin is always sin in the sight of God whether we are conscious of it or not. Sins of ignorance need atonement just as truly as do conscious sins. God is holy, and he will not lower his standard of righteousness to the level of our ignorance. As a matter of fact ignorance is more culpable now than it was in the days of Moses. We have no excuse for our ignorance. God had clearly and fully revealed his will. The Bible is in our hands, and we cannot plead ignorance of its contents except to condemn our laziness. God has spoken, and by his Word we shall be judged. And yet the fact remains that we are ignorant of many things, and the fault and blame are ours. And this does not minimize the enormity of our guilt.

ARTHUR W. PINK

Christian Freedom

The Christian Concept of Freedom, by Henry Stob, Grand Rapids International, 1957. 52 pp., $1.25.

This is an important book. It is a slender volume, but in it the author discusses an important topic in an excellent way. The author is professor of Ethics and Apologetics at Calvin Seminary. The book contains two lectures, “The Liberty of Man,” and “The Liberty of Conscience.”

The first lecture stresses the Christian concept of freedom as the means by which man may attain his true place in life “under God who made him and above the nature he is called upon to rule” (p. 32). The author states that “the Christian faith is the taproot of our civilization and by that token is the source of what we have come to regard as one of its most hallowed traditions, the tradition of freedom” (p. 15). Against this definition of freedom, Dr. Stob ably examines the failings of Greek humanism, mediaeval and renaissance philosophy, and Marxist materialism.

The secret of true freedom, says Dr. Stob, is an enigma to the secular mind. But the man of faith knows that freedom begins only when men bow in reverent obedience before God. Christians “bow at this one point and therefore are free at every other … free of nature and on an equality with men.” Dr. Stob continues, “That is why we are deaf to communism; we have no ear for economic determinism. That is why we resist to the death all tyranny; having given our allegiance to the King of Kings we count no man our master—neither the man on horseback, nor the … man in the mitred cap. We stand in awe neither of the man in the Cadillac nor of the man in overalls. We are not intimidated by academic nonsense, and we do not bow before the sacred cow of science. We are free men” (pp. 32–33).

While the first lecture deals with political and social freedom, the second is concerned with problems of the Christian conscience. “Conscience is nothing if not that through which man becomes aware of obligation,” writes Dr. Stob, but conscience does not tell us “what the nature of the Good is to which it is bound.” The Christian believes that a person cannot “in any uncritical sense let conscience be his guide.… It is the Word of God, specifically the Bible, which is the ultimate guide” (pp. 41–45, passim). The Bible commands us to love, “to leave no area of our life unsurrendered to our Lord, no duty to our fellows unfulfilled” (p. 47).

The Christian Concept of Freedom deserves widespread reading. Dr. Stob brings to the discussion of his timely topic both scholarly insight and historical understanding. The language is clear. Best of all, the discussion is drawn from and based on the Scriptures.

DICK L. VAN HALSEMA

Postwar British Theology

The Box and the Puppets, by Nathaniel Micklem, Geoffrey Bles, London, 1957. 13s/6d.

The reminiscences of the former principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, are full of interest for their self-disclosure of one who made a significant contribution to British theology. Of even greater interest is the light they throw on the religious life of English Nonconformity during the present century and on personalities past and present who helped to mould theological opinion.

Educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford, and subsequently at Mansfield College in the days of A. M. Fairbairn, W. B. Selbie, James Moffatt and J. Vernon Bartlet, Micklem became a “Nonconformist because of principle and not because of the seductive claims of contemporary Dissent.” His early years were academic rather than pastoral and in 1927 he was appointed to the New Testament Chair in Queens Theological College, Kingston, Ontario.

On returning to England four years later Micklem was shocked by the extent to which liberal theology had developed in his denomination. The Blackheath group led by Frank Lenwood (author of Jesus—Lord or Leader) had produced a statement of faith which they proposed to substitute for the old beliefs, and Micklem incurred the odium of being regarded as a reactionary by a considerable body of opinion in the Congregational church. “If the Congregational churches suffered more than most from the rationalism and anti-supernaturalism of the day, they were not alone.” While regarded as conservative by many, Micklem found himself defending Eric Roberts, a Baptist minister who in the early thirties was removed from his charge by the Baptist Union of Scotland for views hardly distinguishable from Unitarian. He considered the theology of liberalism of that time was inadequate to its faith.

It is significant that following the uncertainty of the early thirties a remarkable change took place, especially from 1937 onward, from which time candidates “seemed to have in the main a far clearer understanding and a far deeper experience of evangelical religion than their predecessors. I believe that my impression would be confirmed by other college principals in office then. I cannot account for this except as an unpredictable blowing of the Spirit.” In a slightly different context, the author later remarked, “The hope of the Free Churches lies under God in the men who since 1939 (roughly) have been entering the ministry.” And again, “Not all the changes have been wholly good; a reaction to ‘Fundamentalism’ in some quarters and in others a virtual repudiation of the Age of Reason are disquieting: but that there has been something like a new consciousness of the Gospel and a deepening grasp upon its implications in many places is not to be doubted.”

In short, Micklem largely typifies postwar British theology, disillusioned by the liberalism which sapped its vitality in the generation just past, and yet not sure of the ground to which it is inclined to return. It is altogether a refreshing autobiography with much to encourage thankfulness—and some things to regret.

S. W. MURRAY

Freedom And Christianity

God, Gold, and Government by Howard E. Kershner, Prentice-Hall, 1957. 146 pp. $2.95.

This book is an expansion of lectures the author gave at Fuller Theological Seminary in 1955 as part of the American Heritage Series. The subject matter is of paramount importance: the relationships between Christianity, on the one hand, and government and economic life on the other. Dr. Kershner, who is also the editor of Christian Economics and the president of the Christian Freedom Foundation, writes with great passion and evident sincerity, and has done a most commendable job in presenting his subject in a convincing and interesting manner. His book is full of good illustrations and excellent quotations.

Dr. Kershner is at his best in driving home the absolute necessity of having a truly honest and trusted monetary system. For Dr. Kershner, this is the gold standard. He lays a heavy charge on all governments and public servants who connive to steal a people’s substance and rob them of their confidence by “legal theft” and “legislative dishonesty.” The consequences of such monetary immorality he spells out most clearly, and his conclusion is hardly escapable, that we must restore the soundness of our dollar or face imminent danger of economic disaster.

His chapter on the virtues of the profit motive is fine. It will unfortunately mean more to a communist reader than to most of us. We take the profit motive for granted, perhaps to our peril. The communist cannot take it for granted, and he knows from sad experience how right Dr. Kershner is about it.

In some places Dr. Kershner has not written fully enough and is liable to considerable misinterpretation. For example, serious students of socialism and communism will probably feel that Dr. Kershner’s words about slum clearance do not by any means indicate an appreciation of what socialists and communists propose to do with the problem. And one might wish that Dr. Kershner had written more on the relationship of big corporations to Christianity.

It may not have been intentional on his part, and may in fact be quite contrary to what he really believes, but Dr. Kershner leaves the impression that, in his opinion, freedom, political and economic, came first, and afterward Christianity. If this is Dr. Kershner’s opinion, he is wrong. Difficult as it has been, Christianity has previously survived and grown without freedom, and can again, if need be. There can be Christianity without freedom. It was born among slaves and first appeared among the remote villages of a captive nation. But where have representative government, freedom and free-enterprise survived without Christianity?

For millions of people today, as well as in the past, there is not the conflict between obedience to God and obedience to the state which Dr. Kershner labors so heavily. And what of those for whom the voice of the state is, and always has been, the “voice of God?” And what of St. Paul’s injunction to Christians to “be subject to the higher powers?” “The powers that be are ordained of God,” says he. Dr. Kershner needs to outline much more clearly just what the relations between a Christian and his government should be, and what the relations between a Christian and his God should be also.

There is in vogue today a most amazing patronizing attitude toward Christianity, especially by the noncommunist West. It ought to be rejected, and such patronizing should be stopped. Christ does not need our patronage. Before us all he stands as the Judge. We may take comfort in the fact that our enemies are definitely anti-Christian, but we should err greatly if we allowed such comfort to becloud the fact that some of our own thinking and conduct may be anti-Christian also. For we are assured in Scripture, “There is no respect of persons with him.”

DAVID W. BAKER

Reference Work

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, edited by F. L. Cross, Oxford, 1957. 1,492 pp., $17.50

A new and comprehensive reference work, conceived and produced in accordance with the standards of the Oxford University Press, cannot be regarded as other than an event of major importance.

All who confess to an interest in the historical affairs and personalities of the Christian church will welcome the achievement of this Dictionary and will acknowledge their indebtedness to Professor Cross as the editorial designer and fashioner of so great a project. Regarding the scope of the volume, the editor offers the following remarks:

“If in the present work fuller attention has been paid to Western Christendom than to later Eastern Orthodoxy, to Christianity in Britain than to that of the Continent, to the events of the nineteenth century than to those of the tenth, this disproportion is only relative. In any case it may be presumed that the reader will welcome fuller information on matters at closer range.

“If on the other hand, to some readers outside Europe it seems that insufficient attention has been given to the non-European lands where Christianity is now firmly planted, it must be recalled that the church’s connection with Mediterranean and European countries is of far longer standing, and this fact is necessarily reflected in the subject-matter of a work in which the treatment is historical.”

The range of this work is extensive, the entries are concise and informative, and have been followed by bibliographies which, though not intended to be exhaustive, in some cases might with advantage have been more up to date. If there is a bias, it is certainly on the Roman Catholic rather than the Protestant side; and where scriptural questions are involved, it is on the critical rather than the conservative side. Inaccuracies may be detected here and there—for instance, the Church Association is spoken of as though still in existence as a separate entity, whereas in 1950 it was amalgamated with the National Church League (not mentioned) to form the Church Society (not mentioned.

But the value of this new Dictionary is beyond question. It will be consulted with pleasure and profit for years to come.

PHILIP EDGCUMBE HUGHES

Reality Of Hell

The Doctrine of Eternal Punishment by Harry Buis, Presbyterian and Reformed, Philadelphia, 1957. $2.75.

Here is a scholarly yet practical discussion of interest to any Christian who desires to mediate God’s Word to modern man. The subject of sin, punishment and hell vs. obedience, redemption and heaven is the theme of Divine revelation. First we have the choice, then the responsibility to proclaim the alternatives facing the human soul.

This subject is too lightly skipped over in most of our preaching and teaching today. And yet, in the words of Richard Baxter, “If the wrath of God be so light, why did the Son of God himself make so great a matter of it?”

This author has done a masterful piece of research and has assembled chronologically the best thought on this subject from the Old Testament, the inter-testamental period, New Testament, pre-Reformation, the Reformation and on up to date. He includes the present-day conservative position, and discussions on infant salvation and damnation, on the heathen who have not heard the Gospel, and on the denials by the cults. He discusses Annihilationism, Universalism and the historic Christian doctrine held by our denominations.

There is abundant quotation material here for preaching, and some good theological word-study and exegesis. Here are some quotations. Augustine confessed, “Thy right hand was continually ready to pluck me out of the mire, and to wash me thoroughly, and I knew it not; nor did anything call me back from a yet deeper gulf of carnal pleasures, but the fear of death and of thy judgment to come; which, amid all my changes, never departed my breast.”

“Is not God then also merciful?” asks the Heidelberg Catechism; and it answers, “God is indeed merciful, but also just, therefore his justice requires that sin committed against the most high majesty of God be also punished with extreme, that is, with everlasting punishment of body and soul.”

He who knows and trusts his Bible understands that Jesus the lover of our souls is the person responsible for this doctrine. “He is the being with whom all opponents of this theological tenet are in conflict. Neither the Christian church, nor the Christian ministry are the authors of it,” says the author.

Bishop John Ryle of Liverpool said, “Let others hold their peace about hell if they will—I dare not do so. I see it plainly in Scripture, and I must speak of it. I fear that thousands are on that broad road that leads to it, and I would fain arouse them to a sense of the peril before them.”

Present-day conservative theology holds that “Hell is a reality, but the concepts such as fire must be taken symbolically, as symbols of a very real and very serious spiritual fact. The liberal fails to understand our position when he thinks we take these symbols literally. On the other hand, the ultra-conservative literalist must be made to understand that we have in no way abandoned the belief in eternal punishment when we advocate such a symbolical interpretation.”

ROBERT W. YOUNG

The abundance of literature on the subject shows a great interest today in the thought and actions of the “sects.” Before we take a brief look at recent books and articles on this subject it is quite necessary to define the word as we are using it. There is wide difference among writers on the meaning of “sect,” with resulting confusion. This confusion we would avoid, even though we have little hope of convincing everyone of our definition of the word.

“Sect” is often used, by Roman Catholic writers and others, as equivalent to denomination, in distinction from “church.” This is consistent with Roman theory that allows there is but one true church, namely the Roman. Liberal Protestant writers sometimes use the word “sect” in approximately the same sense as the Roman church uses it, though for exactly the opposite reason. Thus, Rome sometimes designates all non-Roman denominations as sects because she believes herself to have the sole right to being called a church; while some liberals apply the word to virtually all Christian denominations because they think that none of them is really more entitled to the term “church” than another.

Evangelicals generally use “sect” when referring to those Christian denominations not regarded as evangelical. They generally believe that there are many denominations which are entitled to the designation “church,” and so freely apply that term to them. Those which do not hold to evangelical principles are not usually called churches at all, but sects or cults.

If it is asked what is essential to being an evangelical church, the answer is usually forthright. Being evangelical is holding to evangelical or fundamental principles, especially the deity of Christ and his atonement.

The most interesting thing presently occurring in the world of churches and sects is the controversy concerning the classification of the Seventh-day Adventists. This group, since it came into being about a century ago, has usually been treated as a sect rather than a church by evangelicals. The Adventists today are contending vigorously that they are truly evangelical. They appear to want to be so regarded. And what is more interesting than this is that many evangelicals are now contending that they ought to be so regarded. But, on the other hand, many believe that the old classification as sect should not be changed. We shall not discuss that matter here, since CHRISTIANITY TODAY proposes soon to present an article by Prof. Harold Lindsell on this whole question. Sufficient to note here, by way of anticipation, that Donald Grey Barnhouse, Walter Martin and others (cf. editorial in Eternity, Sept., 1956, and elsewhere) are calling for a re-evaluation of the SDA’s, while E. B. Jones and others believe that they are as deserving their sectarian classification as ever (Sword of the Lord, Aug. 2, 1957). Just this week the new volume, Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrines, has reached my desk. It begins: “This book came into being to meet a definite need. Interest concerning Seventh-day Adventist belief and work has increased as the movement has grown. But in recent years especially, there seems to be a desire on the part of many non-Adventists for a clearer understanding of our teachings and objectives.” This book is the 720-page Adventist answer to the question whether it ought to be thought of as a sect or a fellow evangelical denomination.

Perhaps the most recent effort to assay all the sects appeared in January. It is the work of the faculty of the Presbyterian Seminary in Louisville, (The Church Faces the Isms, edited by Arnold B. Rhodes). This volume ventures on a somewhat broader field than most works of this variety. Thus it includes chapters on Roman Catholicism, Communism, Dispensationalism, and Fundamentalism, as well as Totalitarianism, Racism, Secularism and other themes.

Walter Martin is probably the most productive evangelical scholar writing in this field. J. K. Van Baalen’s Chaos of Cults continues as the standard evangelical work. Nelson is currently publishing the Why I Am series and we note that Senator Wallace F. Bennett’s Why I Am a Mormon is to appear in April. Leo Rosten has edited A Guide to the Religions of America (1955); this volume includes discussion by representatives of various denominations as well as adherents of the sects; it gives convenient summaries of membership, doctrines, clergy in the appendices, as well as results of a number of interesting public opinion polls. For studies based on firsthand observations and written in a popular nontechnical and nontheological style, Marcus Bach’s several volumes in this area are in a class by themselves. Charles S. Braden, too, occasionally gives studies, such as the one on Father Divine, which were based on observation as well as reading. His They Also Believe and other works are somewhat liberal in their slant but are distinctly significant from the social, theological and historical angle. F. E. Mayer’s The Religious Bodies of America has interesting studies of the sects as well as other religious bodies and is especially strong from the standpoint of theological exposition and evaluation.

Time forbids mention of many works in addition to those above in the general field. Besides the general works many significant special studies are appearing. Among the most important is the account of Jehovah’s Witnesses by the former member, W. J. Schnell (Thirty Years a Watch Tower Slave). In a most interesting fashion he traces his association with this group in Germany and through the United States until his withdrawal. In addition to its value as a personal account, the book reveals uncommon observations about the doctrinal developments and governmental changes in this sect.

The religious periodicals have by no means neglected the sects. One of the most interesting series is found in Interpretation (1956). Professor Bruce Metzger in “Jehovah’s Witnesses and Jesus Christ” (Theology Today, April, 1953) subjects to thorough refutation the standard passages to which the Witnesses appeal in support of their rejection of the deity of Christ.

Much more could be said about sects. Enough has been mentioned to show that the Church is indeed “facing the isms.” From this “facing” at least two good things may be expected. First, the Church herself may more thoroughly learn the Gospel entrusted to her as she seeks to give these zealots a reason for the hope that is in her. And, second, some of the persons who have been led astray following gospels that are no Gospel may be won back to the bosom of the evangelical Church, the Church of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.