Eutychus and His Kin: April 29, 1957

THE S.T.D. AND D.S.T.

The brand new preacher in Mulchmanor Acres is young, learned and so self-conscious that he thought the bulletin notice, “D.S.T. begins next Sunday” should be corrected to get the letters of his doctor’s degree in right order.

His problems with Daylight Saving Time are only beginning. How should a young preacher walk four blocks through suburbia to a Sunday service at 7:30 p.m. D.S.T.? Should he ignore the roaring chorus of motor mowers? Does he have an appropriate greeting for Mrs. Wesley, who is painting garden furniture in the breezeway? As he passes Mr. John Knox and his son Calvin pulling the lawn-roller would it be best to appear wrapped in meditation?

I offered the obvious answer to his problem—drive the four blocks. Only a young minister would think of walking that far!

When that failed to satisfy him, I described the two usual plans for meeting D.S.T. (His doctor’s degree was in practical theology; you would think he would know that sort of thing. But his dissertation was on the pastoral theology of Chrysostom!)

Plan 1. Strategic retreat. Suburban gardeners are motorized, invincible. Cancel evening service immediately. Second stage: summer union services. Final stage: post on bulletin board, “Happy gardening! Will re-open for Harvest Home Service—Standard Time.” Preacher then dons putter pants, establishes good neighbor relations over picket fence.

Plan 2. United front subversion. Announce garden fete for June. Establish Sunday evening garden clinic in church social hall. Secure free movies from chemical companies: “Garden Sprays

and Fertilizers.” Stimulate rivalry in pulpit bouquets.

He seemed unimpressed. He did visit at the Wesley’s this week and I found they have invited the Knox’s to church with them next Sunday evening. This new pastor is preaching on the miracles of Jesus.

EUTYCHUS

U.N. TOWN MEETING

It is easy to compare the New England town meeting with the U. N., and then dismiss the latter as a failure.… But … early American democracy had the advantages of a common language and predominantly British culture.… The real tragedy of our time is not the U. N. as such, but the anarchy and insecurity of the nation-state system, which causes every member … including the United States to compromise the purposes of the U. N. Charter. The moral courage … required of us is to reckon with the tragic nature of world politics and to work from within the limitations imposed upon the U. N. rather than to scorn it.…

VERNON H. HOLLOWAY

Geneva, Ohio.

It is not the U. N. that is bringing the world to catastrophe, but the cold war, the passion of Israel and the Arabs and the many other passions of the nations. These forces are making the U. N. a weak instrument.… It is a marvel that the U. N. can do as much as it is doing. It needs our prayerful support.…

R. LEHMANN

St. Paul’s Evangelical and Reformed

Your remark that the New England Town Meeting had a “respect for law and for the rights of others … established upon a reverence for Almighty God” makes me think of the New England witchcraft trials.

We are living in a time of experimentation and learning in the matter of world government. Surely the U. N. is not the final word just as colonial government was not the final word, but please, let’s practice sympathy and understanding on a world-wide basis as well as on a community basis for we too have sinned and come short of the glory of God.…

W. THOMAS KEEFE

Minister of Christian Education

Central Presbyterian Church

Buffalo, N. Y.

For three years I lived in Maine and attended town meetings and found … a number of occasions on which “courtesy and common decency” were not evident.… If people who speak the same language, come out of the same culture and have the same basic religious influences can call each other names over the noise of chickens in a New England town meeting, it does not seem strange to me that people of different nations should sometimes resort to name calling when the issues are as great as the hydrogen bomb. In town meetings I have seen much that is good, but I have also seen times when there was irresponsibility, dishonesty and indecision.… Stop comparing the U. N. in practice with the New England Town Meeting in Theory.… Despite its failings the New England Town Meeting has been a constructive force. The same can certainly be said for the U. N.…

ALLAN MCGAW

Chesterland Baptist Church

Chesterland, Ohio

I have read your editorial: UN: Town Meeting? or Tragedy? with a great deal of interest and I am glad that you have selected the refusal of the U.N. to define aggression as significant. I wish to express my approval of your isolating … the reason why collective security will not work: the members of the United Nations will never agree upon a definition of an aggressor.… I fear the identification of UN with a New England town meeting, which you prove to be a false identification, is something that is being propagated by left wing influences in the hope that they can eventually make the UN a world government. A “town meeting of the nations” is a pleasant phrase which Americans will be inclined to accept.…

IRVING E. HOWARD

New York City

Your editorial on the U.N.… is also exactly the way I feel about it. I have been trying to keep faith in the U.N. ever since its organization, but today the road the U.N. is traveling seems to be farther away than ever from the principles upon which she was founded. Miltona, Minn.

JOHN W. OLSON

BEFORE AND NOT AFTER

Reading your article, “The Offense of the Blood” with interest and appreciation, I have found two errors in an otherwise “sound” presentation: you state that the Prayer of Humble Access, which you quote in part from the Book of Common Prayer, comes “after” Communion in the Liturgy of the Anglican Communion. In all Anglican Prayer Books it has always been placed before Communion; the 1662 English Book has it before the Consecration, but some subsequent Revisions in other Anglican provinces, including the American Church, place it just before the celebrant’s own Communion.… Further, you attribute “most humbly beseeching thee … and all other benefits of his Passion” to the Methodist Book of Discipline. The primary source for this is the Prayer of Consecration in the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Churches.

ROBERT E. EHRGOTT

Grace Church

Hinsdale, Ill.

THE FULL RICHNESS

In the discussion of “Current Religious Thought” (March 18) my characterization of neo-orthodox, orthodox and liberal views of Christ is somewhat abbreviated as cited from the article by Professor Branton under discussion. This abbreviation going back, I believe, to the original article, was entirely understandable, but I would like to quote in full the paragraph bearing on orthodoxy.

“The man Christ Jesus preached by the old orthodoxy is a supernatural figure, a God, or God himself. The truth of the incarnation is acknowledged but not taken with full seriousness. Again [i.e., as in the case of much neo-orthodoxy], Christ is preached, not Jesus Christ.”

The comment of your reviewer that “orthodoxy has not merely affirmed Christ to be God, but equally emphatically has affirmed his humanity” seems to me to be formally correct. My meaning was that in actuality orthodoxy often misses the full richness of the high doctrine by giving only formal recognition to the humanity of Christ. Where does this inadequacy appear? If I can give one example, it seems to me that the conservative critical approach to the Gospels, especially the Synoptic Gospels, tends to obscure the real sense which the early Church had that the power of God manifested itself in the Incarnation through weakness and that Christ “emptied himself.” I would be as fearful of subjectivity in the understanding of the Word and of the testimony of the Spirit as your reviewer, but I believe that the authority of the Word in its fulness is weakened by what seems to me to be a somewhat defensive approach to criticism.

AMOS N. WILDER

Cambridge, Mass.

Professor Wilder’s correction is most welcome. While my remark was pertinent to the truncated form in which the quotation appeared, it is impertinent and unfair to the true and full statement.

With respect to the conservative deemphasis on the Incarnation, as stated by Professor Wilder himself, I can admit that it is true only in a sense. Professor Wilder will not deny, I am sure, that the Church has always rightly felt that the deity of Jesus is far more significant than his humanity. But that is not to de-emphasize his humanity. To rate humanity second to divinity is no reflection on humanity, surely. At the same time, orthodoxy has insisted, articulately since Chalcedon, on the full (against the Apollinarians), distinct (against the Monophysites) and inseparable (against the Nestorians) human nature of Jesus Christ. So far as I have been able to see it has not been forgotten in the criticism of the synoptic gospels. Professor Wilder feels that it has; but, since he gives no examples, I am at a loss to know quite what he means. So far as I have been aware, Zahn, Warfield, Machen and Stonehouse have been as careful and objective New Testament critics as Harnack, Cadbury, Grant and Knox.

JOHN F. GERSTNER

Pittsburgh, Pa.

THE ETERNAL VERITIES

Mr. Kelso was not expressing the voice of the Presbyterian Church U. S. A. when he expressed “… no truck.…” Ministers who conform to the orthodox creed in our beloved church happen to be in the majority rather than in the minority as it has been falsely supposed. This note is just to keep the record straight.

JOHN N. DIGIACOMO

First Presbyterian Church

Augusta, Ill.

My impression is that you are endeavoring to keep some existant theology as a final formulation of spiritual truth and I feel that static orthodoxies as rigid as the Arctic ice are a menace to the Christian Gospel.…

ELMER W. ROY

First Presbyterian Church

El Monte, Calif.

Please keep us informed as to what disposition of the Thomas Kelso case the Presbytery of Pittsburgh makes.…

ROBERT L. VINING

Nottingham, Pa.

• CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S inquiry to The Presbytery of Pittsburgh has elicited this information:

In response to a previous inquiry I conveyed the information to you that the Presbytery placed the matter in the hands of its Committee on Ministerial Relations; and perhaps the best reply I can make to your present inquiry is that the Committee on Ministerial Relations continues to have the matter in hand, and can be expected to report from time to time to the Presbytery. One interim recommendation from the Committee, which is a matter of public knowledge in the Presbytery, is that the request that Rev. Mr. Kelso be installed as Associate Pastor of the church he is serving be tabled at this time.

JOHN K. BIBBY

General Presbyter

Presbytery of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Pa.

MINISTERIAL BREAKDOWNS

At the risk of creating the impression that we ministers don’t always agree in every important respect, I want to take issue with the author of Dear Charles (who is largely responsible for the recent furore): ministers don’t have to crack up. And Wesley Shrader himself knows why. It is because they should avoid the example of his fictional character, Charles Prince—who cracked up.

Ecclesiastical “success” may dangle its tempting allures before all of us, but it isn’t fair to generalize when the perils described relate largely to the temptation of “bigness.” Many of us, after all, are quite small. Yet, I hasten to add, the problem does exist. Some preachers are indeed cracking up. Consequently, everybody is becoming self-conscious about the allegedly inhuman load carried by today’s overburdened pastors.

In most circles, the general opinion prevails that the servant of the Lord is overloaded because the people of the Lord thoughtlessly add to his normal burden entirely too much that doesn’t pertain to the Lord’s business. If the general public would leave the poor man alone—one hears—and if his parishioners would refrain from getting themselves unnecessarily into his hair, he would be able to fulfill his primary ministry to the mutual advantage of all concerned.

Now all this may well be. And no doubt where there is smoke, can fire be far behind? But when I compare the routine schedule which allegedly ruptures staunch ministerial hearts with that of clergymen of my acquaintance (and with my own), I find little in common. Take one particular friend, for instance. He assures me that he does not average five or six funerals weekly and that his last wedding was nearly a month ago. He has three or four members in the hospital on any given day, but the sick are seldom so numerous that he cannot make his rounds within a reasonable time. His telephone rings occasionally at 2 A.M. but not every other night.

True, his evenings are mostly taken and he is keenly aware that his family suffers neglect, but he doesn’t have three or four conflicting engagements at the same time. Committees and boards take up their due proportion of his time but he doesn’t dash madly from one committee meeting to another. And although he certainly could use much more time for study, he manages to keep a few hours weekly to himself and still make himself available to those who want to see him—besides making those extra house calls that must be made.

What is his secret? Superman? By no means. He simply is not the minister of a small city of several thousand souls, boss of an administrative staff of a dozen or two, manager of a full-time cafeteria, janitor of a $3,000,000 plant, supervisor of eight choirs, principal speaker for thirty-six congregational organizations and presently trying to repair one hundred forty-one broken marriages.

He just is the pastor of a one-man congregation of maximum effective size: 600. And because he is not trying to hold down a job big enough for five or six full grown men, he and his congregation get along fine: they don’t have the feeling that they are being rude when they come to him with matters they fear he may think foolish, and he doesn’t go around cracking up.

An astute observer of the ecclesiastical scene once remarked that “the idea of a church of over 1,000 members may well have been invented by the Devil.” The observation no doubt has merit.… The complaint that ministers are being overworked often comes from ivory towers too big for anybody’s good. If a laboring man breaks down, after trying to hold down an eight-hour job as a mechanic, another eight-hour job as a welder and then pick up some extra money fixing cars at home in his spare time, he certainly should not complain that he cracked up because his family bothered him with too many demands. The illustration, however wild, applies to the problem at hand.

Furthermore, I don’t believe that today’s minister can retreat behind the comfortable theory that being about the Lord’s business requires one only to pray and preach—and the size of the listening audience doesn’t matter. There are too many personal consequences attendant a preaching ministry which involve the expenditure of time and effort. The preacher cannot avoid these if he is to be a pastor, which he cannot avoid being if he is fulfilling his ministry out of a good conscience, in the words of the Apostle to young Timothy.

For the conscientious pastor of a large church, there is little actual relief in hiring additional specialists for specific tasks. He still is the pastor in the eyes of his average member and each of these expects him to be his pastor although he readily acknowledges that no single man could minister to all. And it is the pastor who breaks down, not the minister of music who can set up his eight choirs and go home occasionally.

Moreover, what about the popular solution which compartmentalizes large congregations into smaller “cells” under the oversight of assistant or associate ministers? Doesn’t this set up wheels within wheels much like our larger universities with their sub-colleges? No doubt it does. And each little congregation busily preoccupies itself with its assigned portion of the affairs of the Kingdom, within the larger prototype of the City of God: a colony within a colony, fellowshiping with all others whose last names begin with A through G.

But there is little to support this as a desirable extension of the New Testament concept of Communion for mutual edification in the Lord and for service. The lonely member who comes looking for life-giving fellowship in the Body of Christ seldom gets the feeling that he, after all, really counts, except in the card-file of the Treasurer.

Another friend of mine, the pastor of a huge church, not long ago complained that he did not even know all of the men on his Board of Deacons. That should not have been a complaint: it should have been a confession in sackcloth and ashes. My friend further indicates that his calls never even catch up with the current emergencies: he only attends to those which simply cannot be ignored. I don’t see how he sleeps at night.

One or two things are going to happen to my friend. Either he will continue to try to make his limited capacities spread as far as possible, in which case he may well break down; or he will pat his conscience to sleep, perhaps by taking up so many denominational and civic responsibilities that he can say to his troubled soul that, after all, he is too busy about good things to have time for the innumerable little details of parish lives and loves.

It was the Apostle, I believe, who indicated that we could always expect to have with us the poor; silly women; and those men whose disruptive influences will give ministers the jitters to the end of time.

Each of us, therefore, must examine himself and accept his field of responsibility accordingly.

But I must bring this time-consuming monograph to an end. My doctor tells me that if I cannot find a way to reduce my load, I can expect to crack up.

G. AIKEN TAYLOR

First Presbyterian Church

Alexandria, La.

Political Pressures on Church in Philippines

WORLD NEWS

Christianity in the World Today

(Ellsworth Culver, foreign secretary for Orient Crusades and correspondent in the Philippines forCHRISTIANITY TODAY, closely observed developments in the wake of President Magsaysay’s shocking death. He has written the following special report containing instructive background and the shape of things to come—ED.)

More than 7,000 islands, in this archipelago, are spread over an area which is roughly the size of the area from Chicago to New Orleans, from Kansas City to Cleveland. Some 20,000,000 people occupy about 3,000 islands, the others being nonarable. If all the islands were compressed, the total area would be the size of Arizona and only 15 per cent of it under cultivation.

The island of Mindanao is the new frontier of the Philippines, with industrious people migrating from the north to the south. With this migration, many of the age-old restraints and social barriers are breaking down—particularly in the area of religion. Protestant missions find Mindanao an area of great opportunity for the Gospel.

Following the close of World War II, the Philippines were granted independence after being under the control of the United States since 1898. The first leader of the Commonwealth, President Quezon, was a great man who did much in helping to shape democratic principles for the young government.

Later, communist infiltration in the form of the Huks began to take control of the countryside. In 1950 the situation had deteriorated to such an extent that many feared an open revolution at any moment. It was then that President Quirino appointed a young Congressman, a former guerilla fighter by the name of Ramon Magsaysay, to the post of Defense Secretary. In the next three years, Magsaysay so successfully led the fight against the Huks, not only in open warfare but in resettlement of the dissidents in new land areas, that he broke the back of the Huk movement in the Philippines. It is estimated today that there are some 600 armed Huks, with some 25,000 sympathizers, who have retreated to remote mountain regions. A steady but little-publicized campaign is being waged against them by government forces.

As a result of his success in saving the country from the Huks, Magsaysay was acclaimed throughout the world. The next step was easy. He was elected President of the Philippines. It is difficult to imagine the popularity of this man in the Philippines; he was truly a man of the people.

The President’s fatal airplane accident occurred on the threshold of the 1957 national elections. Magsaysay had only one opponent, Senator Claro Recto, and everyone considered the contest to be an easy one for the popular President.

Now, however, the political climate has completely changed.

During his administration, Magsaysay definitely played politics with the Roman Catholic hierarchy. Three incidents took place which lost for him the support of the Protestants: (1) the banning of the Martin Luther film; (2) the bill establishing compulsory religious education in the public schools; and (3) the dedication of the Philippines to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the recent Eucharistic Congress.

It was on the issue of religious education where Protestants felt that Magsaysay had endangered the principle of religious freedom and democracy in the country. The Secretary of Education, Hernandez, was known to be a militant Roman Catholic, a Knight of Columbus. Hernandez perished with the President in the airplane crash on March 17.

Vice President Garcia, a liberal in his religious views, has taken over. A member of the “old guard,” which means that he is pro-American and anti-communist, Garcia inherits a difficult situation. He is not a strong administrator and does not have the popularity of the people. Most doubt that he can gain enough strength in the next few months to win a national election.

Two leading candidates are expected to be Senator Recto and Senator Jose Laurel, Sr.

Recto is known to be anti-Roman Catholic and is bitterly opposed by this church. Several outstanding leaders of the Protestant Church are backing his bid for the Presidency.

He has been accused of being anti-American and pro-communist. In an interview I had with him recently, Recto vigorously denied such charges as “pure concoction.” He feels that the U. S. State Department has been influenced against him by Carlos P. Romulo, Philippine Ambassador to the United States and Philippine representative on the United Nations’ Security Council. According to Recto, Romulo is not the Philippine ambassador to the United States but rather the American ambassador to the Philippines.

(Contrary to much public opinion in America, Romulo does not have great stature in the Philippines. The public has little interest in him, because of the fact that he is seldom in the country. Political leaders resent him, partly because of jealousy due to his world prominence and partly because of assertions that he is concentrating on improving his own resources in rich America.)

Laurel, also a member of the “old guard,” was provisional President during the Japanese occupation of the islands. Many feel he would make a good President.

From these speculations, it appears that the new President will be more liberal minded and will be able, perhaps, to stand against the pressure of the heirarchy in the Roman Catholic Church—an encouraging sign to evangelical Christianity in the Philippines.

Worth Quoting

“Be serious! Be earnest! Be little in your own eyes, and God will order all things well.”—John Wesley, in counseling fellow-minister. A hard-riding horseman himself, Wesley spurred on a circuit rider: “I am glad you are going into North Carolina; and why not into South Carolina, too?”

“Religion is a big story—big in terms of the number of readers who are directly touched by religion; big in terms of the intimacy between the reader and religion; big in terms of religion’s unique role in stabilizing and upgrading our local communities and undergirding our national way of life.”—C. A. McKnight, editor of Charlotte Observer in message to National Religious Publicity Council.

Wave Of Indignation

The United Church of Canada has called upon President Eisenhower and the National Council of Churches in the United States to stop “the shocking, sadistic character assassination” of innocent men by politicians and members of the U. S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee.

The plea was made in a statement issued after E. Herbert Norman, Canadian Ambassador to Egypt, and son of a former United Church missionary in Japan, had allegedly killed himself by leaping from the roof of a building in Cairo.

He was reported suffering from the strain of overwork and extreme depression over the reviewing of charges by the Senate subcommittee that he had once been a communist.

The statement said the old charge that Mr. Norman was a communist “had been thoroughly investigated by Canada’s External Affairs Department and by the U. S. State Department and he had been completely vindicated.”

(Virtually every foreign embassy and legation in Cairo was represented in the crowd that overflowed tiny St. Andrew’s Church of Scotland for the funeral of the Ambassador. The Rev. Roy A. Stewart, pastor, while paying tribute to the services of the deceased to his country and humanity, pointed out that Christianity could not condone such an act but neither did it give free rein for judgment.

(“We do well, in commiting the departed to God’s love and mercy, to look to our own standing in his sight,” he said.)

Control Of Colleges

A total of 744 of the 1,886 colleges and universities in the United States are controlled by religious groups, the U. S. Office of Education reported.

There are 474 Protestant colleges and universities, 265 Roman Catholic and five Jewish, the agency said.

An additional 481 are under private control but have no religious affiliation. Some 661 institutions of higher education are publicly controlled, including 282 municipal institutions, 360 state colleges and universities and 10 Federal institutions.

Co-educational institutions number 1,414, while 223 colleges enroll only men and 249 only women. About 500 are not fully accredited four-year colleges.

NAE Convention

“How do you go about putting on a prayer meeting?”

The question was asked by a reporter in the press room for the National Association of Evangelicals convention at Buffalo, New York. He was referring to the nationwide prayer meeting that night, when several hundred convention delegates would join spiritual forces with over 1,000 churches to pray for the Billy Graham New York Crusade.

Dr. Gerald B. Smith, church editor of the St. Paul Dispatch, who gave up part of his vacation and did a superb job of running the press room, provided an explanation. Later, the reporter looked on as various members of the group prayed, from 10:45 p.m. until about 2 a.m., that the Holy Spirit would take over each phase of the N. Y. campaign.

People: Words And Events

Camera on Congregation—Dr. Theodore H. Palmquist, pastor of Foundary Methodist Church, Washington, D. C., says he is thinking of buying a TV camera “to keep it turned” on his congregation all the time. After a recent telecast at his church, he remarked: “I was amazed at the difference it made … Nobody wanted to have a neighbor say ‘I saw you sleeping during the sermon.’ Why can’t we all behave as though the television cameras were turned on us? After all, God is with us any time we are at worship and isn’t what he sees more important than what the neighbors see?”

Address by President—President Eisenhower has tentatively accepted an invitation extended by Dr. Billy Graham to address the So. Presbyterian Men’s Convention at Miami in October. Dr. Graham also will speak.

Ministers Visit Congress—The number of ministers visiting Congress this session has been extremely high, compared to similar periods in other years. Several have been asked by the regular chaplains to give the opening prayers. Among those who have opened the Senate are Dr. Perry F. Webb, First Baptist Church, San Antonio, Texas; the Rev. William K. Penn, St. James Evangelical and Reformed Church, Haverton, Pa., and the Rev. Martin D’Arcy, Society of Jesus, London, England.

Razing of Landmark—“The Church Built From One Tree,” in Santa Rosa, Calif., will be torn down to make room for a city parking lot unless a campaign to raise $15,000 is successful. Built in 1873 from 78,000 feet of lumber cut out of a single giant redwood, the church was one of the few buildings to survive the 1906 earthquake. It was sold to the city by the First Baptist Church. The razing will start May 19 unless $15,000 is available to pay for moving it.

Clergymen and Surgeons—Physicians and clergymen are co-workers of God as a healing team with common goals and mutual concerns in their service to the sick. This was the consensus of a panel discussion on “The Impact of Religion on the Surgeon” at the 25th annual assembly of the Southeastern Surgical Congress at St. Petersburg, Fla. “There can be no doubt,” said Dr. R. L. Saunders of Memphis, Tenn., “that the impact of religion on the surgeon himself has a great influence on the patient. God is the one who can help the patient the most.”

Looking Ahead—An American-Dutch medical missionary in West Borneo and his wife have adopted the three-year-old son of a Dayak headhunter and hope he will become a Christian leader some day among his own people. Dr. John G. Breman, 51, sometimes called the Albert Schweitzer of West Borneo, nursed the boy back to health after he had been given up for dead by his father and witch doctors. The doctor is now in America raising funds for the hospital where he has worked for 30 years.

Handicapped Layman—Hugo Deffner, crippled Oklahoma City layman who conducted a one-man campaign to have architects design churches and public buildings with street-level entrances, has been named recipient of President Eisenhower’s trophy as “Handicapped Man of the Year.”

Bombardment in May—Balloons containing 250,000 portions of the Bible will be launched into Russia and satellite countries during the first two weeks in May by Billy James Hargis, Tulsa Evangelist. He says over 1,000,000 Bible portions have been floated into communist-dominated territories in the last four years.

Digest—Disciples of Christ to launch $5,000,000 campaign July 1 to expand Butler University’s School of Religion.… Oklahoma Governor Raymond Gary presented first Texas Baptist Sunday School Award of Recognition. A deacon, he recently opened mansion for cottage pray meeting.… Dr. Joseph Simonson, former Lutheran clergyman, resigns as U. S. Ambassador to Ethiopia.… Ground broken for new $1,000,000 Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board headquarters building at Richmond, Va.… Bishop Reuben H. Mueller, Indianapolis, United Brethren Church, elected president of General Commission on Chaplains and Armed Services Personnel.

Not much of a story in people praying for baptism of the Holy Spirit, the reporter figured. This prayer meeting may well have been the most important event at the schedule-jammed convention, which offered many excellent speakers.

‘The Whole Gospel’

The speaker asked a question at the Pre-evangelistic Conference, General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, U. S., in Birmingham, Ala., April 25–May 1:

“What was it that made Paul say ever afterwards, ‘… for necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I preach not the Gospel.’ ”

Then the speaker, Dr. John F. Anderson Jr., First Presbyterian Church, Dallas, Texas, submitted his case concerning the answer.

It is presented, in part:

“I submit to you that two inner drives made Paul the evangelist that he was. They are two sides of the same coin perhaps, yet two distinct thoughts that ever warned him to warn others.

“When Christ’s love became operative in his heart, he responded to that love by turning his whole being to pleasing the object of that love.… Paul took it personally when Jesus said, ‘Do you love me? Feed my sheep; If you love me keep my commandments; This is my commandment, that you love one another; Go into all the world and preach the gospel.’

“Paul believed it; let us say it: an unevangelistic Christian is a contradiction in terms. Christ gave his followers no choice.… There are only two kinds of people: those with him and those against him. There is only one kind of Christian; we are either a force for evangelism, really Christian, or we are still a field for evangelism, not yet Christian at all.

“… when the preacher really loves his Lord, it ‘sticks out all over.’ No one, hearing him preach, has the feeling that he has pulled his chair up to a fire that has gone out; the warmth radiates to every part of the congregation. When the session establishes this rapport of love, they do not have a committee on evangelism; they are a committee on evangelism!

“Dr. A. J. Gordon has testified, ‘I used to say, Lord, have compassion on this lost world. Then one day came his answer, I have had compassion. I gave my heart. Now you give yours.’ That is exactly what Paul did—exactly what we must do … We are evangelists first because we are controlled by Christ’s love.

“Paul was also filled with evangelistic fervor because he felt an obligation to men that compelled him. He felt a singular debt to all who had not heard, to all who were bound to ‘this body of death’ as he once had been … In the same spirit of his Saviour, whose earthly ministry exemplified the fact that he always had a mission for all and a message for each. Paul pushed on, never satisfied to rest on laurels.… He was tremendously concerned by what was happening to them, both here and hereafter. Nothing but the whole Gospel was strong enough medicine for such a malady.

“The church is always in danger of two heresies that stifle its evangelistic voice: a false idea of man and a false idea of God. Equally dangerous is it to say, ‘Man is all right’ or ‘God is all love.’ How simple is Satan’s snare! If there really is no such thing as sin, if man’s difficulty is nothing but lack of education or social adjustment or some other rationalistic nonsense, there is no need to alert the body of Christ. How strange that we fall for it.…

“Equally erroneous is the idea of God that paints him as a kindly and naive grandfather type that would not harm a hair of any of his mischievous charges. There is a dark line in God’s face, and fatal it is to forget it. God without his righteous holiness would not be God. In commenting on the fact that Christ clearly stated, ‘For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind (John 9:39),’ Dr. John Barlow in his forceful book, God So Loved, writes, ‘… the decisive fact to keep before us is not that Christ is our judge no less than our Saviour, but that he is our Judge in order that he may be our Saviour. The judgment of God is not outside the sphere of grace, but it is at its very heart. The God who was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, could not but judge sin if sin were ever to be fully forgiven, which is an entirely different matter from condoning it. Many a wrong is condoned which is never forgiven’ (page 49, Fleming H. Revell, Publishers, 1952).

“All of the seriousness of this whole Gospel explains what kept Paul going.

“This whole Gospel we must have if we would be the whole Christians that Christ would have. The very nature of our faith is that we must give it out or we will give it up. And we will give it out if we are controlled by the love of Christ above us and are concerned about the condition of men around us.”

The idea of importance was ably pinned down in the final convention address by Dr. J. C. McPheeters, president of Asbury Thelogical Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky.

He said, in part:

“The dropped stitch, the missing link, the lost chord in the modern church is emphasis upon the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit. We will not recover this lost heritage for the modern church in an agreement on theological terms concerning the experience of Pentecost but rather in an agreement upon the fact of the experience and the necessity … of being baptized with the Holy Ghost.

“I am not pleading for a sacrifice of theological conviction. We must maintain our theological convictions concerning Pentecost. But while maintaining our theological convictions, we should realize that others have come to a personal Pentecost over a theological highway which bears a different number than the one on which we are traveling.

“I came to my personal Pentecost over the highway of a Methodist theological terminology. However, I have known others who have come to a personal Pentecost over the highway of a Calvinistic terminology.

“Dr. Jesse O. Van Meter was for many years an outstanding leader in the Presbyterian church in the state of Kentucky. He was for 20 years president of the Lees Junior College at Jackson, Ky. After reaching the age of retirement, he accepted the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church in Wilmore, Ky.… He captivated the community within a short time.

“It was my high privilege to know Dr. Van Meter as an intimate, personal friend. I recall a conversation which I had with him one summer when he talked to me freely concerning a spiritual quest of his own heart. He said: ‘For some time I have had a deep concern for the baptist of the Holy Ghost. I have recently been reading the old authors on this subject, including Finney, Torrey and Moody. I have even spent some days in fasting and prayer. There is a great outreach in my heart for this spiritual enduement in my personal life.’ Six months had passed following that conversation, when I met Dr. Van Meter on the street in Wilmore. A new radiance and joy was reflected in his countenance as he greeted me.

“He said: ‘You will recall that last summer I confided to you concerning a spiritual quest.… My hunger was renewed within recent days. I had been praying and waiting upon the Lord daily for the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Two days ago while I was praying and meditating in the early morning, the inner voice said to me: ‘I am coming soon.’ Yesterday morning while I was praying, at 9 o’clock, the blessed comforter came in his mighty baptism. I am now rejoicing in the fullness of his Spirit.’ Tears of joy clouded my friend’s eyes in a rhapsody of praise. In quietude we prayed and praised God together on the street. Dr. Van Meter’s church was crowded to overflowing during the few remaining years of his ministry.…

“No group of God’s children holds a monopoly on the way to Pentecost, by virtue of a distinctive theological interpretation in order to unite together in a common bond of unity and prayer, for a mighty baptism with the Holy Ghost in our modern churches and for the spread of a great heaven-sent revival throughout the nation and around the world.”

Other convention highlights:

Dr. Paul P. Petticord, president of Western Evangelical Seminary, Portland, Oregon, re-elected to second one-year term as president of NAE. Dr. E. R. Bertermann of St. Louis, Mo., executive director of The Lutheran Hour, elected president of National Religious Broadcasters, Inc. Dr. J. Palmer Muntz, pastor of Cazenovia Park Baptist Church, Buffalo, named chairman of American section of World Evangelical Fellowship.

Resolutions: Strong stand taken against Federal aid to education.… U. S. Information Service (Voice of America) praised for “forward steps now being taken in the handling of religious information.”.… Recognition of Red China opposed on grounds “it would be unquestionably immoral and un-Christian.” … Billy Graham assured of “united prayerful support” in New York Crusade.

Suspension Of Aid

A request has been voiced that American economic aid to Spain and Colombia be stopped until the State Department “is convinced that religious liberty for all faiths has been restored.”

Dr. C. Stanley Lowell, associate executive director of Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in calling attention to millions of dollars in economic and technical aid going to both countries, stated:

“We concede that our aid should not be used as an instrument for political or economic domination of any country. It is not for us to tell a foreign government which receives our aid that it must establish religious liberty, but we do have a moral obligation to state our belief that it ought to establish religious liberty.”

Dr. Lowell charged that 200 Protestant schools have been closed in Colombia since 1948, some 47 Protestant churches have been destroyed by fire or dynamite and 77 Colombia Protestants “have been killed because of their religious faith.” He said many Protestant churches remain closed in Spain and that Protestants have been placed under civil disabilities there because of their religious beliefs.

British Isles News: April 29, 1957

Festival In Moscow

The Youth Department of the British Council of Churches has advised young people against participating in the communist-sponsored Youth Festival to be held in Moscow this summer.

Recent criticism has suggested that Christians, by refusing to take part in the Moscow festival, are losing an opportunity of witnessing to their faith and of creating a better understanding between Christianity and communism.

The Rev. O. Fielding Clarke, a member of the Christian Commission for the festival, claims that many young people, from Roman Catholics on the one hand to Quakers on the other, are ignoring the British Council of Churches and registering as delegates. He said, “Let the young people on both sides of the so-called Iron Curtain meet freely. A Christianity that has to be kept in cottonwool is of little value in the world today and had scant appeal to young men and women of spirit.”

Replying to this, the Rev. Howard H. Patey, secretary of the BCC Youth Department, said the major voluntary youth organizations in Britain have “warmly commended” the Youth Department statement and are agreed “it would serve no constructive purpose for any British youth organization to send representatives to this festival.” These organizations include the YMCA, the YWCA, Boy Scouts and Girl Guides Associations, National Boys and Mixed Clubs Associations.

F. C.

Problem In Ireland

The emigration of a number of young Presbyterian ministers to Canada since last summer has aroused much comment and concern as to the future of the ministry in Ireland.

Among reasons given for the emigration were the lack of opportunities in the smaller country congregations and the fact that many ministers had to live on inadequate salaries. Other ministers are considering the same action.

‘Bigness And Power’

Clergymen “should look inwardly … and see if we’re on the right track, if we’re emphasizing the right things,” according to Episcopal Bishop Dudley B. McNeil of Western Michigan.

He told the Grand Rapids Ministerial Association that one reason for the continuing “man-made catastrophes” might be that the Christian Church has come to worship “bigness and power” instead of fostering the “primary tenets of love and charity” laid down by Christ.

He added:

“Perhaps million-dollar churches, beautiful rooms, new parish houses, church secretaries and assistants are not the primary concern of Christ so much as that all men and women live the best possible Christian life.

“While we seem to be satisfied with the way things are, the amount of money and number of people we send to other areas of the world on missionary efforts are so small compared with what we spend to keep up our own standard of living that the results of missionary work are negligible.”

Calling upon Christians to “put first things first,” he said that, “if we believe it’s important to spread the doctrine of Christ, we should put an appropriate amount of time and money into doing that.”

Churches other than the Irish Presbyterian also have been affected to a lesser extent.

The supply of students for the ministry of the larger Protestant bodies continues to be substantial and the spiritual quality high.

The Board of Evangelism of the Methodist Church in America is sending a group of ministers to conduct a mission in Ireland next autumn. Arrangements are being made by the Irish Methodist Evangelistic Agency.

S. W. M.

Europe News: April 29, 1957

Revival Of Confession

The League of Reformed Churches in Germany has criticized what it said was a movement inside the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKID) toward a general revival of individual confession of sins.

A statement issued by the moderamen, or top management body, of the league said, “We must warn against the false view that the confession of sins to a preacher or another brother necessarily brings forth absolution by virtue of the confession itself or by virtue of a supernatural authority of the preacher.”

The Evangelical Church in Germany comprised Lutheran, Reformed and United Churches. The reformed League represents about 450,000 persons and embraces most of the country’s Reformed parishes.

The moderamen stated:

“It is not without reason that the fathers of the Reformation fought against auricular confession—against the priestly claim to power and judgment which manifested itself in the medieval practice of confession and against the false security which men drew from the priestly word, which was not the word of God.”

Individual confession was abolished by the Protestant Church in Germany around 1700. The practice was reintroduced formally in Bavaria in the middle of the 19th century but was observed only in isolated cases.

Birkeli Resigns

Dr. Fridtjov Birkeli has resigned as director of the Department of World Missions of the Lutheran World Federation to become general secretary of the Norwegian Missionary Society.

Balked By Sentiment

Popular sentiment has balked plans to tear down remains of the war-bombed Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

The church’s board of trustees approved the proposal, but changed the decision after their announced plans created a storm of protest. A communist East Berlin paper joined the clamor.

Trustees compromised by announcing they will retain the blackened 350-foot tower and probably erect a small church adjacent to it.

A symbol of postwar Berlin, the tower stands in the center of a traffic circle at one end of the Kurfuerstendamm, the city’s most popular shopping and hotel thoroughfare.

Known to Berliners as the Gedaechtniskirche, the Memorial Church was dedicated in 1897 to Kaiser Wilhelm I, who died in 1888. Mosaics in the west lobby depicting the Hohenzollern rulers surviyed the Allied air attacks which shattered the building on Nov. 23, 1943.

Church Offerings

Widespread consternation throughout the Christian community of Egypt greeted the “Fatwa” (legal opinion) by the government that collections should not be taken in churches or mosques.

Mosques do not take up a collection at weekly services.

The opinion said all contributions toward the support of such institutions should be systemized under the supervision of the Ministry of Social Affairs.

While a “Fatwa” does not carry the force of law, the announcement is interpreted as a prelude to the issuance of specific legislation. Observers cannot predict, however, how the government can reconcile such a step with the clear-cut guarantees in new Constitution with respect to free and unfettered worship. Christianity holds offerings to be an integral part of the total act of worship.

The announcement, according to Christian leaders, is but one more link in the chain of evidence which shows the determination of the present regime to restrict the freedom of minority religious groups, whether local or foreign.

Nigerian Broadcasts

A Baptist Clergyman has been named first chairman of the newly-formed Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He is Dr. J. T. Ayorinde, pastor of First Baptist Church, Lagos, and a vice president of the Baptist World Alliance.

His appointment has been hailed in Nigeria as an indication that the broadcasting corporation will encourage religious freedom.

“I see this as an opportunity to make a civic contribution,” said the 49-year-old former president of the Nigerian Baptist Convention (1950–1955).

Return To Egypt

Less than 48 hours after the announcement by the U. S. State Department that the five-month ban on Americans traveling to Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Israel had been lifted, wives and children of American diplomatic, business and missionary personnel began returning to Egypt—the land they had left so hastily when the fighting began last October.

Some 40 men, women and children of the American (United Presbyterian) Mission were expected to return on a single KLM flight from Europe. Together with others, on extended furloughs in the United States, these returnees have done much to relieve the pressure of work for those who did not evacuate or were permitted earlier returns.

Lifting of the ban was regarded as a healthy sign, looking forward to continued improvement of the political situation in the Middle East.

With expectations of a huge influx of tourists during the spring and summer, Israel has rushed plans to make the visitors more comfortable.

“Pent-up desires to visit the land of the Bible have been building up in America at a tremendous rate,” said Joseph Ilan, director of the Israel Government Tourist Office in New York.

Air lines are adding new equipment and more schedules to the run. Air-conditioned hotels are being opened and others are modernizing.

Sign In Capetown

Anglical authorities erected a sign on the steps of St. George’s Cathedral in Capetown:

“This cathedral is open to all men and women of all races to all services at all times.”

The cathedral is a stone’s throw from the House of Assembly which approved, upon its second reading, the Native Laws Amendment bill, giving the government the right to prohibit Africans from worshipping with whites.

The measure has been denounced by leaders of most major religious bodies in South Africa. Some served notice on the government that they will defy the bill if it becomes law.

Dr. Richard Ambrose Reeves, Anglican Bishop of Johannesburg, told parishioners they could not in good conscience obey such legislation.

The very Reverend T. J. Savage, Dean of Capetown, said the cathedral sign was “not put up as a protest against anything, but as a positive statement of where we stand and have stood in the past. It represents the policy of this church since 33 A.D. We thought it a good time to remind people of it.”

Far East News: April 29, 1957

Indonesia Crusade

The Rev. Dave Morken, well known evangelist in the Far East, will hold special meetings in four cities of Indonesia during May under sponsorship of Orient Crusades.

Many churches are uniting for the meetings. Working with the evangelist will be Norman Nelson, soloist. Roy Robertson of the Navigators will be in charge of follow-up work. Ais Pormes is secretary of the Indonesian committee.

Resurgence In Asia

A revival of every major religion of Asia is in process.

The changes taking place over the vast expanse, where over half the world’s population lives, have been described as “revolution.” These changes have to do not only with politics, but also with economics, culture and religion.

With the advent of the new independent nations—India, Pakistan, Burma, Indonesia, Vietnam and Korea—a renewed interest has naturally been manifested in culture and history. As the culture of these nations has been closely related to native religions, there has been a resurgence of religion in most lands.

In some sections where native religions have not been very active, they have been stimulated by the Christian Church—their revival, to some extend, has been in self-defense. Some branches of Buddhism in Japan have built auditoriums, where they have worship services similar to Christian practice. Shintoism also is showing rapid growth. In Formosa, where Buddhism has been somewhat decadent, there have been signs of new activity. A Buddhist church has been erected, with pews, a pulpit, organ, choir and Sunday School. The only observable difference in the building is that, instead of a cross on the roof, there is a swastika resting on a lotus flower.

Representatives of theological institutions in east Asia met in Bangkok recently and made plans for a study institute to be held at Singapore from July 1 to August 30. Because of the importance of understanding these native religions and the new developments taking place within them, the institute is to be devoted entirely to the study of such religions.

The Christian religion also is in the midst of a great expansion.

War Loss Claims

One hundred and two claims totaling $26,713,000 have been filed with the U. S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission by Roman Catholic, Protestant and non-Christian bodies asking compensation for war losses sustained in the Philippines.

Protestant groups filed 44 claims amounting to $3,508,000. Roman Catholic organizations filed 34 claims totaling $14,221,000.

A single claim of $6,002,000 was made by the Universal Theomanistic Association for the alleged death of 3,000 members.

Books

Book Briefs: April 29, 1957

Historical Apologetic

Thales to Dewey, a History of Philosophy, by G. H. Clark. Houghton Mifflin, 1957. $5.00.

A sound scholarly text on the History of Philosophy in the light of the Word of God has long been desired by Christian teachers and students. The present work by Professor Gordon H. Clark is admirably suited to meet this need. Solid scholarship and biblical faith appear in this volume, not in juxtaposition, but fused into a unified whole. Chapters five and eleven, titled respectively “The Patristic Period,” and “Contemporary Irrationalism,” are representative of the book as a whole in this important respect.

The discussion of the Patristic period opens with the drawing of a clear-cut contrast between Paganism and Christianity. A careful analysis of the logic of the terms “transcendent” and “immanent” serves to clarify the contrary opposition between Greek Immanentism and Hebrew Transcendence. The Scripture doctrines of Creation and Revelation stand out sharply against the background of Greek Philosophy even at its best in Platonism and Stoicism. Alleged resemblances between the latter philosophy and the New Testament are exposed as superficial and attempts to find Pauline theology in Paganism are weighed and found wanting. The cogent argument brought against the claim that Paul taught ascetic dualism is the apostle’s opposition to the heretics at Colossae who lived by the evil maxim “Touch not, taste not, handle not”. Equally pertinent in relation to the assertion that Paul was a mystic is the observation that Paul’s visions, unlike those of Plotinus, were full of subjects and predicates. “And the things known, the doctrines revealed are not echoes of Greek philosophy or mystery religions” (p. 194).

The distance between the first and the twentieth century may appear immense. Yet modern irrationalism re-enacts the “failure of nerve” that marked the closing centuries of antiquity. Professor Clark sketches the line of development from Hegel the last great Rationalist of modern times, to Marx and Kierkegaard on the one hand, and on the other, through French positivism to Pragmatism culminating in the Instrumentalism of John Dewey.

No attempt is made to present an exhaustive account of the development since Hegel. Any presentation of living philosophers is disclaimed, although an exception is made by way of a reference to the dialectical theology of Emil Brunner and its kinship with the atheistic Existentialism of Sartre and Heidegger. Heidegger, incidentally, disclaims this label which Sartre vaunts. A future edition of the book would be enriched by a fuller discussion of Existentialism as the most radical expression of Irrationalism. At the same time, many contemporary readers would appreciate some reference to a more rationalistic thinker, Ludwig Wittgenstein and the movements of linguistic analysis dependent on his work which exercise a predominant influence in the English speaking philosophical world today.

A sacrifice of breadth was no doubt required for the achievement of a measure of depth in a necessarily limited study of a number of difficult thinkers. Post-Hegelian German thought is illustrated by the views of Schopenhauer, Strauss and Feuerbach. In reference to Strauss, the mythologizing theory is timely in view of the discussion of de-mythologizing the New Testament stirred up recently by Bultmann under the influence of Heidegger’s philosophy. Unbelief can attach itself as readily to an irrationalist as to a rationalist philosophy.

More detailed treatment is reserved for Marx, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, as befits the stature and influence of these thinkers. Hegel’s dialectic with its repudiation of fixity in the world or in thought profoundly influenced the three notwithstanding their violent antagonism to Hegel’s rational absolute. Marx shares Hegel’s collectivism, which is anathema to Kierkegaard and also to Nietzsche, whose Superman is explained to be a type of superior individual such as Caesar of Napoleon. Marx and Nietzsche are avowedly anti-Christian, while Kierkegaard champions Christianity to the extent of condemning the established Church for its satisfaction with externals without the life of the cross. Yet Kierkegaard’s intensely Christian feeling embodied itself in the language of Hegel’s dialectic. The result was the extravagant identification of truth with subjectivity which has inspired dialectical theologians and existentialist philosophers in the twentieth century. The logical incongruity of such sceptical subjectivism is pointed out together with the religious consequence that an idol would be as satisfactory as God, if objective truth were indifferent in relation to subjective feeling. The critique of Kierkegaard’s subjectivism is an application of a general principle which Dr. Clark wields against every form of Scepticism. The principle is that as soon as Scepticism makes any assertion, it destroys itself, since its essence is the refusal to assert anything. Dialectical materialism is thus refuted by pointing out that if thought is the natural product of the brain, there is no reason to believe that ideas of dialectical materialism are more natural or more true than others. Nietzsche’s theory of evolutionary rationalism is disposed of by showing that if it is true, it must be false.

The logical law of non-contradiction likewise discredits Pragmatism as developed by James, Schiller and Dewey. Yet, the reader will find himself spared any sense of monotonous repetition. The same principle is variously applied in accordance with the variety of forms that irrationalist thought assumes and the argument is rendered charming by ironical turns, of which the remark that “solipsism is pragmatically indistinguishable from pragmatism” (p. 512) appears to be one of the most subtle instances.

The analysis of John Dewey’s philosophy is an appropriate termination to the work, not because of any reason for holding Dewey to be the ultimate in the history of philosophy, but rather because of the uncanny influence for evil that his philosophy has exercised in education. Dewey’s disciples have been superficial in comparison with their master, but Dewey himself, despite the delicacy of his dialectic, is as devoid of foundations that endure as any other irrationalist thinker.

This chapter reminds the reviewer of the late J. Gresham Machen’s analysis of the anti-intellectual character of modern liberalism in philosophy and religion. In professing Protestantism today, Modernism and Neo-orthodoxy alike rest on philosophical foundations which are destructive of the intellect. Conservative theology which subjects man’s reason to the authority of the infallible Word stands alone also in ascribing to the intellect its God-given dignity. The present volume, therefore, is no mere textbook of the history of philosophy. It is a masterpiece of historical apologetic for the faith once delivered to the saints.

WILLIAM YOUNG

Five Martyrs Of Acua

Through Gates of Splendor, by Elisabeth Elliot. Harper Brothers. $3.75.

“September, 1955, was the month in which Operation Auca really started, the month in which the Lord began to weave five separate threads into a single glowing fabric for His Own glory. Five men with widely differing personalities had come to Ecuador from the eastern United States, the West Coast and the Midwestern States. Representing three different faith missions, these men and their wives were one in their common belief in the Bible as the literal and supernatural and perfect word from God to man. Christ said ‘Go ye’; their answer was ‘Lord, send me.’ ”

So begins chapter nine in this moving portrayal of the lives of the five young missionary martyrs of Ecuador. Through the first eight chapters, Elisabeth Elliot (herself one of the five missionary widows) has skillfully traced the events in the lives of these consecrated young men that led up to this time when the “five scattered threads” began to draw together to form the picture that, in January, 1956, focused the attention of the world on a little sandy beach in Ecuador beside a river called the Curaray.

In the 10 chapters that follow she describes the careful, prayerful preparations leading up to the first personal contacts with the savage Aucas; the encouragement that came when the Aucas responded with gifts to the friendly overtures of the missionaries; and finally the “Silence” (chapter 18) of that fateful day when radio contact ceased.

Skillfully written, fast-moving, Through Gates of Splendor is more than just a book; it is a spiritual experience. Writing with dignity and restraint, never descending to a level of self-pity or excessive adulation, Mrs. Elliot draws on her own intimate knowledge of the details of Operation Auca, along with that of other widows, as well as the heart-outpourings from the diaries and letters of martyred missionaries Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming, Nate Saint and Roger Youderian. One almost feels that he stands “on holy ground” as he is allowed to look into the diaries—and indeed into the hearts—of these missionary heroes and see their devotion to Christ, their utter death to self, their compassionate desires to reach those who have never heard the Gospel.

Complete with 64 pages of pictures, sparkling with vivid descriptions of native speech, dress and customs, Through Gates of Splendor is 256 pages of engrossing reading. But always the reader is gripped with its deep spiritual message. Between its lines and behind its pages there seem to ring out five strong young voices with the words they sang only a few hours before they laid down their lives for Christ and the Aucas for whom He died:

“We rest on Thee, Our Shield

and our Defender,

Thine is the Battle, Thine

shall be the praise

When passing through the gates

of pearly splendor

Victors, we rest with Thee

through endless days.”

LARRY WARD

Fertile Ideas

Prayer and Life’s Highest, by Paul S. Rees. Eerdmans, 1956. $2.00.

The six chapters of this slender volume by the Pastor of the First Covenant Church of Minneapolis discuss prayers of the Apostle Paul under the headings of Mastery, Excellency, Consistency, Sanctity, Expectancy and Serenity. These are not ordinary devotional readings, designed to preface periods of prayer but solid materials which ought to be read and reread by those in quest of the deep things of the Spirit of God. Nearly every page suggests fertile ideas for sermons or discussions concerning prayer, but not in the neat outline form that can be utilized with scant preparation. Rather by suggesting fresh interpretations and applications, the chapters will stimulate the reader to further study by which he can develop his own exposition of these important topics. Though the reputation of Dr. Rees as a preacher and writer has long been an enviable one, this book even surpasses his usual excellence. It may well have taken form during the London crusade, when the author as special preacher to British pastors, witnessed anew the great power of prayer. At least it reflects a liberty and freedom that a pastor seldom enjoys to this degree within his own parish. A master in the use of the English language, Dr. Rees writes with facility and spiritual power, revealing a breadth of knowledge and penetrating insight into the best literature, both sacred and secular. The volume abounds with fresh and telling illustrations, choice quotations and exegetical and expository passages, all presented without the moralistic or didactic tone that mars so much writing in this field.

To indicate the intellectual and spiritual vigor of this book one paragraph is quoted from the initial chapter, dealing with the prayers of the apostle for the Ephesians:

“Prayer for masterful living—that’s what we have here. Prayer for Christians that they may find in Christ, since they cannot find it anywhere else, the ability to cope with life, to beat down the ‘principalities and power,’ to turn back the onrush of temptation, to outwit the machinations of the devil, to subdue and regulate the instinctual drives of human nature, to fasten to the Cross the false ego that so stubbornly resists its doom—what prayer for mastery this is!”

This is a book that should win an honored place in prayer literature. To the present reviewer, at least, it seems destined to become a classic and perhaps some day to be numbered with the writings of Alexander Whyte, Andrew Murray, A. J. Gordon and John Henry Jowett.

ERIC EDWIN PAULSON

Pulpit Master

500 Selected Sermons, by T. DeWitt Talmadge. Baker, 1956. $4.50.

A reading of the sermons of great pulpit masters of the past serves forcibly to remind us that timely preaching is always that preaching which is concerned with the timeless themes.

Though preached during a stirring period of great conflict and change, the sermons of T. DeWitt Talmadge still today seem to be speaking to our contemporary situation. Some of the themes of the sermons in this volume under review are “The Gospel of Health,” “Surgery without Pain,” “A Helpful Religion” and “The Dangers of Pessimism.” These sound almost like some of our “peace of mind” and “power of positive thinking” sermons today, yet they are all presented within the framework of real, solid, enduring theology.

In Talmadge’s heyday evolution and the new critical views of the Bible were to the fore in the thinking of the popular man. Talmadge took up his cudgels and went to work in behalf of the “splendors of orthodoxy.” How he fought the battle in his day is seen in such sermons in this volume as “The Monarch of Books,” “The Guess of Evolution,” “Revision of Creeds,” “Expurgation of the Scriptures” and “Slanders Against the Bible.” Something of his approach can be understood from these words with which he opened his sermon, “Splendors of Orthodoxy”:

A great London fog has come down upon some of the ministers and some of the churches in the shape of what is called ‘advanced thought’ in biblical interpretation. All of them, without any exception, deny the full inspiration of the Bible. Genesis is an allegory, and there are many myths in the Bible.

Still relevant to our day of revolution in biblical theology, is it not?

One of the great problems facing us today is the matter of communication. How shall we communicate the truth of God to modern man? The scholars are seeking to find a new vocabulary that can speak in the dimension of revelation. These sermons of Talmadge unveil the secret of communication. It is not in new words, but in preaching the old words in a down to earth, practical, everyday way that will help people. Rather than preaching in precise theological terms, Talmadge painted word pictures of truth that impressed themselves on the hearts of men.

T. DeWitt Talmadge was one of America’s most influential preachers around the turn of the century. He preached to great crowds in “The Central Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, N. Y. and millions more were reached through the printing of his sermons in the newspapers. Five hundred of his best sermons are now being printed in ten double volumes by Baker Book House so that Christians of today may be guided and inspired by the successful pulpit message and methods of this great preacher of the last century. This double volume III–IV contains 54 sermons of the series and the themes with which they deal are all very much to the fore in the Christian life of our day.

The rhetoric of this pulpit master loses something by being printed rather than preached, and the style is not what our newspaper type minds are used to, but these messages still have meat and will nourish us in our stirring times which are not so far removed from those of Talmadge.

W. G. FOSTER

Scholarly Commentaries

The Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians, by Lightfoot. Zondervan, $3.50. St. Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians, by Lightfoot. Zondervan, $3.50. St. Paid’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, by Lightfoot. Zondervan, $4.50.

Scholarly commentaries on the Greek text of the letters of the Apostle Paul are not being produced by British and American scholars today. Because of this the serious student of the Scriptures is forced to turn either to the works of German and Dutch scholars (if he is able) or to the works of past generations. It is to supply this latter type of demand that the Zondervan Publishing House has reprinted these three commentaries of the Cambridge scholar, J. B. Lightfoot.

Dr. Lightfoot was a colleague of the well-known New Testament scholars Westcott and Hort, and his commentaries in the “Macmillan Series” on the books of the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers have been in constant demand from the time they first appeared 90 years ago right down to our own day. In the books before us we have a good deal more than just a commentary, and this is perhaps what has made them so valuable to serious students. The questions of Introduction are made to live. Exactly who were the Galatians, where and in what condition was Paul when he wrote to the Philippians, what was the nature of the heresy at Colossae? Lightfoot’s style is energetic, arresting and lively as he considers these matters that in some commentaries are as dry as dust.

In the body of the commentaries there is full and ample discussion of the exegetical problems involved, and the thoroughness of the author’s acquaintance with the Greek classics, as well as the language of the New Testament, is soon apparent. If one is interested in knowing what the Greek text of the Apostle Paul says, he won’t find many who know and sympathize with the language and thought of the apostle better than Lightfoot.

But not the least interesting part of each commentary is the appendix where one finds in the Commentary on the Galatians two long dissertations, one on the Brethren of the Lord, and one on Paul’s relationships with Peter, James and John. In the Colossians and Philemon is an appendix on the Essenes and their relationship to Christianity, a subject that will be increasingly discussed in the light of the new knowledge of the Qumran community. And in the commentary on the Philippians there is a brief comment on the relations of Paul to the Stoic philosopher Seneca, and then a 90 page essay on, “The Christian Ministry.” This latter has been bound separately in past years and has been highly prized by those whose persuasion in matters of church polity is Episcopalian. It is definitely of a “low-church” character and could be read with profit by all those who seek light on the nature of the ministry and priesthood in the early church.

It should be clearly stated that Lightfoot’s commentaries are not of the homiletical, sermon-starter variety. But the student of the New Testament who is interested in knowing exactly what the Apostle Paul had to say will find these books invaluable.

JOSEPH C. HOLBROOK, JR.

Splendid Tool

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, translated and edited by W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich from W. Bauer’s Griechischdeutsches Worterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der ubrigen Urchristlichen Literatur 4th ed. 1952. University of Chicago Press, 1957. $14.00.

The publication of this lexicon will make a major contribution to the study of the Greek New Testament text among present-day scholars. For many centuries earnest students of the scriptures have felt compelled to go back to the original text to ascertain their true meaning. To do this the best possible tools are essential. Basic to the study of the Greek text is a sound lexicon. The older lexicons leaned heavily on the classical lexicons to find their meanings. But the inspired authors of the New Testament did not write in the same vein as the classical authors. The Greek of the New Testament is the language of the people, the so-called koine Greek of every-day life and usage.

Those contributing to this lexicon have availed themselves of the vast archeological discoveries which have thrown so much light on the meaning of New Testament Greek words. In addition to giving a competent translation of Walter Bauer’s Greek-German Lexicon, they have extended it and revised it. There has been some re-arrangement of entries, corrections and the inclusion of more irregular verb-forms—all to render this work a splendid tool for every student who wishes to “search the Scriptures” in the original.

STILES LESSLY

Practical Epistle

Make Your Faith Work, by Louis H. Evans. Revell, 1957. $2.50.

The Epistle of James is the least technical of all the Epistles. It is full of strong, practical sense and has a message for Christians of every degree of attainment. James insists that the Christian’s religion must show. There are certain marks by which people can recognize a Christian. With remarkable skill Dr. Evans shows us that if we want to be real followers of Christ, the Epistle to James is a good guide.

There are many theories as to the authorship of the Epistle of James. Dr. Evans is persuaded that the best evidence favors the view that the author was James, the brother of the Lord Jesus Christ. With this assumption, Dr. Evans writes,

If the brother of Jesus was the author—and we proceed on that well-established premise—then the Epistle he wrote becomes something more than merely interesting, for it contains the conclusions of a brother about a divine brother. What could be more intimate, more revealing? Brothers are always hypersensitive to what their own think and say about them. ‘What does your brother think of you?’ is a question that goes into your heart like a knife. So what James says about Jesus, about his faith and works, would go deep.

After the Resurrection James became an ardent believer in the deity of Christ. He served as the pastor of the Church at Jerusalem, and it was to him that the Christians of the day flocked for fellowship and counsel. James, says Dr. Evans, saw in the life of Christ not only a faith but a force. As a result of what he saw he has given us a practical way of living and realistic power to match the problems of the day.

The nine chapters in this book all deal with soul-searching questions. The topics are, “How Do You Face Life’s Trials?,” “Is Your Religion Words or Works?,” “Are You Prejudiced?,” “Is Your Tongue Converted?,” “Do You Own a Peaceful Heart?,” “Are You Conceited?,” “Is Your Money Converted?,” “Can Your Faith Heal?” and “Are You a Soul Winner?” The author tells us that if the reader can answer these questions in the proper way, then his brothers and family may catch the vision of the divine brother, too. Many a doubting Thomas may be arrested by the evidences of the reader’s Christian life, filled as it can be with workable, practical power.

While in no wise minimizing the value of the healing of the body, Dr. Evans shows in this book that men are far more interested in the healing of the body than in the healing of the soul. With this observation, he comments,

Would to God it were possible to arouse as much interest in the healing of a man’s soul as we have in the healing of his body! Regrettably, it has never been thus, in human society.… People flock to the spectacular. They come with little urging to pray in intercession for the healing of physical man. But suppose you tell these same people that ‘the prayer of faith will save the sick’ and inform them that you are using this word ‘save’ in a strictly spiritual sense—how many will flock together for such a purpose? To promise to heal the body brings crowds; to promise to save the soul brings a blank stare. We spend millions on hospitals, on medical research, on efforts to cure cancer, polio and tuberculosis—and who would not thank God for that? But in comparison we spend pennies for the cure and salvage of the human soul.

With a high sense of final values, Dr. Evans calls Christians to regain a Christian interest in the spiritual equation of human beings. To see what happens to the soul of man is of supreme importance in the mind of God.

Dr. Evans is a wise counsellor. His style is unpretentious and pungent. The inescapable conclusion that the reader reaches as he comes to the end of this book is that in all the major areas of human interest, the Christian faith works. This is evidence that no clever unbeliever can rule out of the court of honest judgment.

The pastor will find this book of value to make practical applications of the Gospel message. The layman will find inspiration to manifest his Christian life that it may exert an influence over those outside of the church.

JOHN R. RICHARDSON

Tools Or Crutches

Master Book of New Illustrations, by Walter B. Knight. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids. $6.95.

The publication of a volume of sermonic illustrations is always both an asset and a liability for the preacher. On the one hand, it provides him with a wide assortment of materials to which he can turn for the purpose of illuminating most any propositional truth of Scripture. And only an insignificant few would challenge the value of illustrations wisely selected and used with discretion. They add to the impact of a sermon and often make a lasting impression upon the minds of the audience, thus aiding the memory in recalling the principles they elucidate. On the other hand, a book of this kind by its very nature is a common storehouse. When employed by a large number of preachers the freshness of the materials is lost to congregations through repetition. For this reason certain classic illustrations have merited the label “canned.”

While insisting that the best illustrations are those which the preacher personally garners from a great variety of sources, we also admit the desirability of publications of this sort. Whether in an individual case they become tools or crutches depends entirely upon the manner in which they are used.

This is the second massive volume of illustrations to come from the pen of Mr. Knight. It consists of 760 double-columned pages. One finds it difficult to name any major topic overlooked by the author. The materials are arranged according to subjects, which in turn appear alphabetically. The one weakness at this point is the omission of an index with cross-references. Many illustrations admit of several applications, but, except in the few instances where Knight records them under several classifications, this factor has been neglected.

On the whole, the illustrations are lucid; however, occasionally one meets with obscurity and ambiguity. As for quality, one must allow the right of personal taste. In the opinion of the reviewer more than one-half of the materials are unsuitable. Some have long ago lost their novelty. Some seem pointless. Some are stereotyped. Many others lack polish, hut can be made effective if the minister rephrases them, drops old cliches and dresses them up in more dignified language. Notwithstanding these defects, preachers, teachers and Christian workers will profit from the purchase of this book. The ordinary layman will find inspiration, instruction and delight of soul in its pages. We therefore commend the author for his contribution to this field, a contribution horn of much reading and research.

RICHARD ALLEN BODEY

Challenging Call

James, Your Brother, by Lehman Strauss. Loizeaux Brothers, 1956. $3.00.

The warmly devotional and practical meditations on the Epistle of James in this recent book by Dr. Strauss provide a fresh and challenging call to Christian living. The Epistle of James is itself, of course, an eminently practical book which should be an unfailing stimulus to the performance of the duty which God requires of man. But to be best understood and most profitably used it should be interpreted in the context of the whole revelation that God has given us in the Scriptures. Dr. Strauss constantly endeavors to bring the light of other parts of the Bible to bear on the understanding of his text. A most welcome and wholesome feature of his approach is his high view of the Bible as the inspired and infallible Word of God and his consequent realization that the part has relevance to the whole and the whole to the part.

The author’s experience as both pastor and teacher has unquestionably made a contribution to the clarity, simplicity, directness and effectiveness of his presentation. He is concerned to reach his reader; he is not averse to addressing him in a warm-hearted, earnest, pastoral way; he labors that the practical Epistle of James may bring forth practical fruits in the reader’s faith and life.

The reviewer does not agree with all the positions taken in the book but is grateful for its devout and heartening summons to the service of our great God and Saviour.

JOHN H. SKILTON

Theology

Review of Current Religious Thought: April 29, 1957

John H. Gerstner

In the current issue of Pastoral Care attention is called to the centennial of the birth of Sigmund Freud (1856–1939). The Rev. Kenneth H. Rogers, Ph.D., tells something of the life of the famous Austrian Jewish psychoanalyst and his present significance for religion. Freud was a man of deep feeling who seldom revealed it, although control was often difficult for him. He was a good husband and an exemplary father of his six children. Professionally, he began as a neurologist and achieved distinction before he turned his attention to hypnotism in 1895. “This led to the use of the method of ‘free association’ as a cathartic technique in working with neurotic patients. The great turning-point came with Freud’s intuition that ‘free association’ was not really free, but determined in every possible respect.”

The above experience led to his first fundamental principle in psychoanalysis, namely, that all mental phenomena are completely determined. All abnormal behavior was but an inhibition or distortion of this normal deterministic pattern; this was his derivative second principle.

The nature of this psychological deterministic pattern as being oriented in the libido, which is usually taken as basically a sexual drive, has been regarded as uncongenial to Christian thought. Certainly Freud himself was hostile to religion. But Dr. Rogers feels that we may distinguish between the man and his method and use the latter for religious purposes. (One cannot help feeling that the religious Freudians are betraying a “sacred” trust of their dead master.) In any case, the enlightening article is rather provoking in not explaining quite what this area of cooperation between psychoanalysis and religion (especially Christianity) is. A system developed by an intelligent man who used it in lieu of, or against, religious theories, cannot now be taken captive by religion without some more convincing justification than is here given.

The question of the nature of God and gospel makes the brilliant analysis of the present trend to religion on college campuses, by Lewis W. Spitz (“Jerusalem and Athens: A Tale of Two Cities” in The Lutheran Scholar, January 1957) all the more intriguing. After a survey of considerable evidence of a return to religion in the colleges, Dr. Spitz warns: “There is, it should now be obvious, no cause for a premature celebration of Christendom over the return to religion on the campus. But therein lies the challenge.” A return to religion may be good, depending on what religion. The professor then makes some suggestions especially appealing to Lutheranism which he calls American Protestantism’s “secret weapon” (quoted from Professor Sidney Meade).

Speaking of Lutheranism reminds us of a strong statement that this theology, though it has sometimes adopted episcopal government, has never regarded it as essential (Ragnar Askmark, “The Lutheran Church and Episcopal Succession” in The Lutheran World, September 1956). At the same time the Episcopal Church organ, Living Voice, gives notice that the Church of South India is in danger precisely because it is apparently playing free and loose with this essential of the church (April 7, 1957). “A warning that the Episcopal Church is faced with decisions that might well lead to serious rifts was expressed by the Rev. Canon Albert J. du Bois, executive director of the American Church Union. Canon du Bois … said he was referring specifically to recommendations concerning the relationship of the Church to the pan-Protestant Church of South India.…” In the ensuing report, evidence of departure from the Episcopal view of the bishopric plus laxity in doctrine are the chief grounds of the present anxiety. [The Ordinal of the Book of Common Prayer requires unequivocal adherence to Christian doctrine, belief in Catholic sacramental doctrine and belief in Catholic Orders—requirements which the C.S.I. ministry did not fulfill.] Canon du Bois said his criticism was offered along the lines of the purpose of the ACU “to uphold the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Episcopal Church; to extend the knowledge of the Catholic faith and practice of the Church,” and “to maintain unimpaired the position of the Episcopal Church as an integral part of the whole Catholic Church of Christ.”

These two notes, a Lutheran insistence on the dispensability of episcopal order and an Episcopalian insistence on its indispensability, point up the fact that the acids of modernity have not eaten away this ancient bone of contention.

- More from John H. Gerstner

Cover Story

Twentieth-Century Scientists and the Resurrection of Christ

Wilbur M. Smith

Today no first-rate scientist believes in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, according to H. L. Mencken, late literary critic and often blasphemous commentator on the Christian faith. Doubtless many people in our country really suppose this to be the case. How rarely indeed is a leading contemporary scientist identified with any clear declaration of his Christian belief! As teachers and ministers know, even many young people firm in their faith in Christ are asking, “Do any great scientists of our day believe the verities of the Christian revelation?”

Importance Of Scientific Faith

The reason that the faith of scientists in relation to the cardinal Christian truths is so pre-eminently important—more so even than that of historians, economists or legislators—is that the world today is more and more controlled by pure and applied science, for in this realm great discoveries are taking place. Men cannot deny that scientists are pursuing truth in their specialized investigations, and that they are, as it were, attempting to ascertain facts. Although scientists themselves are, in the main, men of humble spirit, seldom claiming even semi-omniscience, the general public tends to confer on them a final authority in any field in which they express an opinion. If, then, our contemporary scientists, who in these past few years have brought forth a new and revolutionary understanding of nature and whose investigations the Western powers are underwriting with billions of dollars, are known to be men who reject the basic truths gathered around the person of Christ, as set forth in the New Testament, the common people are encouraged to relax their confidence in the supernatural elements of the Christian faith.

The only way to determine what modern scientists actually believe is to let them express their views over their own names. Common opinion, guesses, the writings of one man here and another man there, will not give us an accurate statistical analysis of the faith of our scientists.

I secured the names of those who have attained in the biological and physical sciences a reputation justifying their inclusion in the current volume of Who’s Who in America. Since the last edition of American Men of Science lists 44,000 men of professional standing working in the physical sciences, and 25,000 in the biological sciences, it was impossible for one person to address an inquiry to 69,000 men and women. Recognizing that some outstanding scientists do not appear in the current volume of Who’s Who in America, I addressed my inquiry not only to those persons included in that volume but also to members of the National Academy of Sciences listed in the preceding volume of Who’s Who but not in the current one.

An Unmistakable Inquiry

The subject of the resurrection of Christ was chosen for the inquiry because of its definiteness and also its pre-eminent importance in relation to other Christian doctrines. A man’s views on the subject of immortality of the soul would not in any way reveal his relationship to the Christian faith. To ask if one believes in the inspiration of the Scriptures is at once to raise the question, what is meant by inspiration—and one has little reason to expect a scientist to define the term. A question regarding belief in the deity of Christ would be too indefinite, since some would doubtless reply in the affirmative, acknowledging the deity of Christ—and of every man. The bodily resurrection of Christ—whether or not one believes in it—is set forth in the New Testament as a specific historical event, taking place at a certain time in a certain place; it involves a specific individual and the phenomenon of an objective reality that could be touched and seen (Luke 24:39,40; cf. 1 John 1:1–3).

The names of those working in the biological and physical sciences listed in the 1956–1957 volume of Who’s Who number 606. I did not write to Unitarians or Universalists, whose replies would certainly be in the negative; likewise the three Mormons, two agnostics, one liberal and one member of the Ethical Culture Society. Scientists of Jewish faith, insofar as this could be determined from their names and place of education (there were 37), were excluded. Excluding the 62 members of these groups, letters were sent to 544 scientists (with stamped, self-addressed return envelopes). Notices came that seven of the men had died since the current Who’s Who was published; five had moved, with forwarding addresses unknown; eleven were out of town. This left 521 men from whom replies could be expected.

Preliminary Observations

The examination of Who’s Who in America disclosed three rather surprising facts. First, not one individual out of these six hundred men and women indicated an affiliation with the Christian Science Church. Second, although a large number of Jews surely are laboring in these fields, not one indicates in his biographical summary that he is of the Hebrew faith. Is there no leading Jewish scientist in this company, we must ask, who wishes to be identified as a faithful attendant at the synagogue and as a believer in the Old Testament Scriptures? Finally, although 144 of these men and women indicated membership in some Protestant church, only twelve gave affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church. This paucity of Roman Catholics in the front ranks of modern science has been frequently discussed by others and is recognized as a problem by Catholic writers today.

Before revealing the results of the survey made for CHRISTIANITY TODAY, it may be well to speak briefly of a poll of younger scientists reported in Fortune (June, 1954) in the article on “The Young Scientist.” One hundred and four of the leading young men of science in America were sent questionnaires covering a number of subjects, including personal religious convictions. The statistics indicate that although 5 per cent of the parents of these men were of the Roman Catholic faith, none of the present generation wishes to be so identified; although 29 per cent of the parents were more or less inclined to the Jewish faith, only 9 per cent of the sons are so disposed today; 53 per cent of the parents had Protestant convictions, but only 23 per cent of their sons would claim the same. Most striking of all, while only 8 per cent of the parents were said to be agnostics or atheists, 45 per cent of the sons so declared themselves.

Four Out Of Five Waver

Of the 521 potential replies to my inquiry, 228 replies have been received (a few continue to arrive daily). They include 36 affirmations of faith in the resurrection and 192 non-affirmations. This latter group falls into three classes: 142 of these scientists state definitely that they do not believe in the resurrection of Christ; 28 indicate that they do not wish to express an opinion; and 23 say that they do not know whether or not Christ rose from the dead. The ratio then is about four non-affirmations to one affirmation. In other words, only one out of five of the leading scientists in these fields believes in the bodily resurrection of Christ.

Unbelief In The Churches

The most surprising aspect is the acknowledged lack of faith in the resurrection of Christ on the part of scientists who claim membership in some Protestant evangelical denomination. Of the 521 scientists, 144 indicated affiliation with some Protestant church. From these 144, 88 replies have thus far been received; 7 say they do not know if Christ rose from the dead; 12 do not wish to give an opinion; 41 do not believe; and 28 do believe in the resurrection—or one out of three. The following table presents an analysis of these figures by denominations.

In view of the extreme liberal views of many Congregationalists and the infiltration of modernism in the Methodist Church, the majority of denials from men in these denominations was no surprise. But it was somewhat astonishing to find as many Episcopalians denying the resurrection as professing to believe it and more Baptists and Presbyterians rejecting it than affirming it. One cannot help but wonder how men can unite with churches whose creeds or historic confessions bear clear testimony to the bodily resurrection of Christ, while they disbelieve what their sacred traditions affirm. Undoubtedly this means that many clergymen are receiving into their churches members who do not embrace the essentials of the Christian faith, and also, in turn, that many of the clergy themselves do not believe in the resurrection.

The Command To Witness

The New Testament repeatedly enjoins Christians to bear witness that Christ rose from the dead. In referring to his death and resurrection, Jesus reminded his disciples, “Ye are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:48). To this truth of our Lord’s resurrection the Apostle Peter witnessed on the Day of Pentecost, “This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all are witnesses” (Acts 2:32). Again and again when the apostles were brought before the Sanhedrin, and when Paul stood before various rulers of his day, they gave glad and emphatic testimony to the historic reality of the resurrection (Acts 3:15, 5:32; 10:39; 26:23). The Apostle Paul assured men of salvation if they confessed with their mouth the Lord Jesus and believed in their heart “that God raised him from the dead” (Rom. 10:9).

No matter how many more believers are hidden in this group of American scientists, it is profoundly disturbing that only 36 scientists of a total of 521 leaders in the biological and physical sciences are willing to be counted in this year of our Lord 1957 as gladly affirming their faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

A well-known scientist who repudiated the doctrine of Christ’s resurrection wrote boldly: “I have no hesitation in telling you my own position in regard to the ‘basic New Testament truth’ of the ‘bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ,’ for I have no interest in concealing my belief.” If this is the way unbelievers feel, so much more ought believers to be bold in proclaiming their faith. The Christian Church today needs a great surge of testimony to the resurrection, for without this the Church of our day of unbelief will appear beggarly alongside the early Church, of which we read: “With great power gave the apostles their witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33).

Confronted with this appalling mass of unbelief by highly trained men devoting their lives to the exploration of natural phenomena, a Christian believer must have a heavy heart. Yet there is no reason for a believer to waver in his own faith because of it.

Relevant Observations

In the first place, the replies give no evidence that the scientists who deny the resurrection have carefully examined the New Testament historical records which describe the event. Most of these men frankly confess that they have not given the subject serious consideration. Even those who profess to be Christians and active members of Protestant churches, yet disbelieve Christ’s resurrection, do not indicate that they have ever studied the evidence for the historicity of this event.

A second significant observation, and a corollary of the first, is that not one of these men offers any theory to explain away the New Testament confidence in the resurrection. One physicist did imply that he could believe there was a resuscitation of life, but of course this is not resurrection, as he himself admitted, and he did not couple the remark with a denial of Jesus’ death on the cross. Not one unbelieving scientist felt constrained to give a rational explanation of the Christian faith in the resurrection.

The third interesting fact is that the greater number, about 60 per cent, expressed themselves almost reverently in referring to Jesus Christ. I shall quote from two letters:

“I have only a modest familiarity with the story of the life of Jesus as it has come down to us. To me his message of brotherly love is of paramount importance. That this message should have come from a human conceived and nurtured in the natural way gives me courage to attempt in some small measure to follow his example. Whatever one may believe about immortality, we can be certain of one thing, Jesus lives on in the minds of men. He still has a tremendous influence on their actions.”

“To my mind the subtle and profound emotional meaning of the Bible story is not destroyed by questioning its literal truth. We are surely still actively participating in the personality and teaching of Christ; so he is in a real sense resurrected in each of us. To me this has much more religious meaning than the truth or falsity of the stories and myths that have been built up around his name.… I stand in awe of the wonder of the infinite. Awe and worship are allied.”

Teaching And Miracles Linked

When a man says that the teachings of Jesus set forth, even for men of the twentieth century, the highest code known to humanity, it must be emphasized that these very teachings of Jesus include much more than the laws of ethical conduct. Over and over again our Lord taught that he would rise from the dead (Matt. 16:21, 17:23), and his enemies did not forget this as the hour of his trial approached (compare John 2:19–22 with Matt. 26:61,62; 27:40). On one occasion when such a prediction was made, we read, “There arose a division again among the Jews because of these words” (John 10:17,18).

No respectable hermeneutical principle exists whereby the ethical teachings of Jesus can be separated from his teachings concerning himself—his deity, his vicarious death, his resurrection, his ascension and future return. If he claimed he would rise from the dead, and did not, either he was tragically self-deceived, in which case the trustworthiness of the remainder of his teachings is suspect, or he knew that he would not arise, but attempted to secure disciples by claiming that he would, in which case he was a deceiver of others—and in all the replies to my inquiry, no modern scientist has ventured to call Jesus a deceiver! How one wishes that this fine group of men, daily pondering evidence with such great care, would seriously consider the witness of Christ’s teachings to his resurrection and contemplate the consequences of rejecting either.

Worldly Wisdom And Unbelief

The New Testament provides no basis for any expectation that the majority of the intellectual leaders of any age will be believers in the great truths of the Christian faith. Indeed, our Lord himself asked, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). The New Testament tells us that, in regard to spiritual things, the mind of unregenerate man is “darkened” (Rom. 1:21; Eph. 4:18). In the second chapter of First Corinthians Paul develops the theme that the natural man receiveth not the things of God. A condition of world-wide deception and apostasy at the end of this age is frequently set forth in the Pauline Epistles (2 Thess. 2:10–12; 1 Tim. 4:1–3; 2 Tim. 4:3,4).

In 1899 Professor A. H. Strong (Christ in Creation, p. 7) echoed what many intellectual leaders at the turn of the century were saying: “All nature is a series of symbols setting forth the hidden truth of God.… The world is virtually the thought of Christ made intelligible by the constant will of Christ. Nature is the omnipresent Christ manifesting God to creatures.” Today the idealistic and personalistic moods no longer dominate science. Men are not proclaiming nuclear fission as a revelation of God to modern science. Men are not being drawn nearer to God by this increased mastery of natural phenomena. No longer can we say, as did Frederick Leete in his interesting work, Christianity in Science (New York, 1928, p. 186): “Is it not a striking tribute to Christianity that the countries named as being the centers and mediums of scientific advancement are precisely those in which Christianity is most completely domiciled, and where its influence is at its maximum? It is possible to go further and to maintain the thesis that the degree of scientific progress made by each particular nation compares almost exactly with the type and grade of its religious development.”

Men Of Science Who Believe

While acknowledgments of faith in the resurrection among scientists were comparatively few, their communications nonetheless bear a priceless and powerful testimony to this supernatural event of nineteen centuries ago. Although it is not possible to quote each of these letters, I shall refer to four or five, to reflect something of this faith implicit in the minds and hearts of some men in the forefront of contemporary science.

An extended positive reply came from Dr. Howard H. M. Bowman, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1917; Professor of Biology at Toledo (Ohio) University since 1919 and Director of the Pre-Medical Division there since 1947; author of a number of books and member of many scientific societies. A member of the Episcopal Church, Dr. Bowman is an Anglo-Catholic.

He remarks, refreshingly: “Our two priests are devoted and self-sacrificing pastors, and I know of no one in the parish who holds anything but the central orthodox beliefs, and I think all of us firmly believe in every article of the Nicene and Apostles’ Creed. As a biologist, I cannot explain this mystery, nor would I attempt to do so. I have complete faith in the testimony of the biblical witnesses as set forth in the New Testament.”

From the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, Dr. Harold M. Morse writes: “I do so believe, as did John von Newmann, my colleague who died about ten days ago.”

The Director of the Alabama Museum of Natural History at University, Alabama, Dr. Walter B. Jones, responded in part, “Of course I believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ. I am an elder in the First Presbyterian Church here in Tuscaloosa.”

Note must also be made of the clear affirmation of the Nobel prizeman Victor F. Hess, Ph.D. (University of Vienna), former Professor of Physics at the Universities of Vienna and Innsbruck, Austria, Professor of Physics at Fordham University since 1938 and Research Associate of Carnegie Institute of Washington since 1940. Recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1936 for the discovery of cosmic rays, he is author of a number of books in this particular field of science. One of the greatest physiologists of our generation is Dr. A. C. Ivy, of the Department of Chemical Science of the University of Illinois (Chicago Campus), who served as head of the Division of Physiology and Pharmacology at Northwestern University from 1926–1946 and then as Professor of Physiology in Chicago Professional Colleges, 1946–1953. President of the American Physiological Society from 1939–1949 and author of many scientific articles, his words are wholesome:

“I believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. As you say, this is a ‘personal matter,’ but I am not ashamed to let the world know what I believe, and that I can intellectually defend my belief.… I cannot prove this belief as I can prove certain scientific facts in my library which one hundred years ago were almost as mysterious as the resurrection of Jesus Christ. On the basis of historical evidence of existing biological knowledge, the scientist who is true to the philosophy of science can doubt the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, but he cannot deny it. Because to do so means that he can prove that it did not occur. I can only say that present-day biological science cannot resurrect a body that has been dead and entombed for three days. To deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the basis of what biology now knows is to manifest an unscientific attitude according to my philosophy of the true scientific attitude.”

A Call To Christian Colors

Whatever a poll of scientists, or of any other vocational group, might reveal, the voluminous literature of unbelief requires the Christian Church to defend the resurrection of Jesus Christ against every foe, every contrary theory and every respectable argument.

We may give God thanks that no weapon has ever been forged, and that none ever will be, to destroy rational confidence in the historical records of this epochal and predicted event. The resurrection of Christ is the very citadel of the Christian faith. This is the doctrine that turned the world upside down in the first century, that lifted Christianity preeminently above Judaism and the pagan religions of the Mediterranean world. If this goes, so must almost everything else that is vital and unique in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ: “If Christ be not risen, then is your faith vain” (1 Cor. 15:17). Who can repudiate the resurrection and at the same time profess confidence in the absolute authority of Christ’s teachings? Virtually everyone who has abandoned belief in the resurrection has simultaneously disavowed Christ’s virgin birth. If Christ did not rise from the dead, there is no seal upon the divine acceptance of his vicarious atonement as adequate for our salvation.

Let Christian ministers become aware of a divinely given responsibility for so schooling their congregations in the great unshakable facts relating to Christ’s resurrection, and so training their Sunday School teachers and workers among high school and college students, that they stand ready to meet every argument against this truth. Multitudes of Christian people who accept the resurrection are unable to give a reason for that hope which is within them. The Apostle Paul says that we are to “advance” the Gospel, to push on into the unoccupied territorities where the Gospel is not believed.

Someone should prepare a message directed especially to our contemporary scientists, clearly and logically setting forth the evidences for the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, beginning with a brief examination of the dependability of the New Testament documents. I believe that many scientists do not accept Christ’s resurrection as fact because they have never seriously considered the evidence. Christians may well say to these, and to others, “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead?” (Acts 26:8).

Preacher In The Red

A SWEET VOICED DOCTOR

I had accepted an invitation to conduct an evangelistic meeting in a town on the Western edge of our Assembly. The Director of Music of the High School was an elder in the church and a brother of the pastor. Together they had prepared a rather elaborate musical program for the opening service. Besides a violin ensemble, there was an anthem, a quartet, a duet and a very sweet bass solo by a big handsome doctor of the town.

The friendly young pastor then proceeded to give me an over-eulogistic introduction. I felt impelled to make some response. I said, “This is the sweetest musical introduction to a meeting I have ever experienced. You are certainly fortunate in having such talent in your church. While the doctor was singing, I kept thinking how I’d like to have such a doctor for my own private physician.”

Hand went to mouth in an ill-concealed snicker over the congregation. As I stopped in wondering confusion, the pastor said, “Mr. Gray, he is a veterinarian!”—W. BRISTOW GRAY, Brownwood, Texas.

For each report by a minister of the Gospel of an embarrassing moment in his life, CHRISTIANITY TODAY will pay $5 (upon publication). To be acceptable, anecdotes must narrate factually a personal experience, and must be previously unpublished. Contributions should not exceed 250 words, should be typed double-spaced, and bear the writer’s name and address. Upon acceptance, such contributions become the property of CHRISTIANITY TODAY. Address letters to: Preacher in the Red, CHRISTIANITY TODAY,. Suite 1014 Washington Building, Washington, D.C.

Wilbur M. Smith has been editor of Peloubet’s Select Sunday School Notes on the International Sunday School Lesson since 1945 and is author of a dozen books. Formerly a member of the faculty of Moody Bible Institute, he is now Professor of English Bible at Fuller Theological Seminary.

- More from Wilbur M. Smith

Cover Story

Propitiation

Roger Nicole

Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines “to propitiate” as “to appease and render favorable.” This word or its derivatives appears only three times in the King James version:

Romans 3:25, “… whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood …”

1 John 2:2, “He is the propitiation for our sins …”

1 John 4:10, “… God sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

The equivalent Greek word hilasmos and its cognates, however, appear some eight times in the New Testament and as often as 221 times in the Septuagint.

Pagan Use Of Terms

These words are not found exclusively in sacred literature but are fairly common in both classical and Hellenistic Greek. When used as religious terms in a heathen context, they are ordinarily charged with various unfortunate connotations, due to the pagan conception of the nature of the gods and of their relationship to man. We may mention the following:

1. The gods were viewed as very whimsical and temperamental beings who easily took offense and whose favor had to be curried by special gifts and sacrifices. Their good will could be bought by a “process of celestial bribery”, as Leon Morris terms it (Expository Times, LXII [May 1951], 227).

2. This appeasement was seldom conceived in a moral context. The need for satisfaction was not grounded in ethical considerations but rather in the arbitrary whims and tantrums of the gods.

3. There was little if any correlation between the gravity of the offense committed and the importance or value of the propitiatory offering.

4. In some instances the transaction was morally objectionable, occasionally revolting, as in the case of human sacrifices or of sacred prostitution.

It may be a matter of some surprise that the Septuagint translators and the New Testament authors could have seen fit to use words so heavily freighted with unfavorable connotations and apply them to the lofty conceptions of the Hebrew-Christian revelation. In this connection it may be well to remember that the sacred writers and translators had to use a mortgaged vocabulary, which they had to redeem and elevate in order to proclaim the sublime truths of the divine message. The words “God”, “faith”, “salvation”, “cross” and many others are examples of this very general process of regeneration of the language, by which common and even base words were instilled with new life and nobility in the pages of Holy Writ.

A Profound Difference

The profound difference between the biblical and the pagan usages of propitiation was emphasized by C. H. Dodd in a noted article in the Journal of Theological Studies (XXXII [1931], 352–360). He called special attention to the fact that in the biblical context God is often the subject of the action, the very one who provides the means of restoring the sinner to favor. In this Dodd’s conclusions, while not startlingly original, may scarcely be called in question. However, Dodd went so far in this direction as to set forth the thesis that in the biblical language the idea of “pacifying the displeasure of the Deity” is absent and that the translations “expiate”, “cleanse”, “forgive” should be substituted for “propitiate”. The last-named word would thus be eliminated from the English Bible.

Relevant Observations

A detailed discussion of C. H. Dodd’s position may be found elsewhere (cf. Leon Morris, op. cit. and The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, 1955, pp. 125–185; also R. Nicole, “C. H. Dodd and the Doctrine of Propitiation,” The Westminster Theological Journal, XVII [May, 1955], 117–157). We must confine ourselves here to the following observations.

1. While certain modifications in the circumstantial connotations of the words may well be assumed, it is very difficult to believe that the essential meaning of appeasement could have been systematically banished in Scripture. If such had been the intention of the Septuagint translators and of the New Testament writers one can scarcely see why they would have failed to choose other terms, terms which would have expressed rather than obscured their thought. The view that they could use hilasmos and its cognates without meaning propitiation is just as unlikely as the surmise that modern writers would use “propitiation” when they wish to avoid any connotation of appeasement!

2. While certain scholars have endorsed C. H. Dodd’s conclusions, many others can be listed in support of the traditional position. In the very recent English translation of Bauer’s monumental Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1957), the meaning of “propitiation” predominates (cf. pp. 275, 376).

3. The substitute renderings “expiate”, “purify”, are less specific than “propitiate”, “placate”. Yet sooner or later the question must arise: “Who demands expiation or purification, and why?” If the answer be “God does, in the exercise of His righteousness,” we are back to the traditional view, entirely consonant with the carefully avoided term “propitiation”. If the answer be “Man does, for the satisfaction of his own moral needs,” we are faced with a view of salvation which is so greatly at variance with the biblical conception on so many points that one is truly surprised to see its upholders attempt to harmonize their position with Scripture or to try to explain away the implications of just one term like propitiation.

4. The thoughts of the demands of divine justice and of the wrath of God against sin and the sinners are extremely prevalent in Scripture. According to Leon Morris, the latter concept is met in over 580 occurrences in the Old Testament alone (The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, p. 131). While in the New Testament this theme may be less frequently brought to the fore, when this is done, it is in terms perhaps even more emphatic than in the Old Testament. This will be at once apparent if one reflects upon the statements of Jesus on the misery of the lost in the other world. To attempt to by-pass this great mass of evidence is to do manifest injustice to the divine revelation. Furthermore, by undercutting God’s justice, holiness and utter abhorrence of sin, one undermines and brings into jeopardy the whole moral nature of God. Yea, even the love of God, far from being enhanced in this process, becomes degraded to a sentimental complacency, unworthy of any being with true moral fibre.

5. It is important to emphasize at this point that opponents frequently, and upholders occasionally, misconstrue the Christian idea of propitiation. This is the case when propitiation is conceived as a turning of God’s wrath into love, rather than the provision of his love in order that his wrath may be averted in full consistency with his moral nature. This is the case when propitiation is caricatured as in intervention of the compassionate Christ to shield the helpless sinner against the vengeful blows of God the Father, who, as a bloodthirsty tyrant, delights in the suffering and destruction of his creature. Conceivably, some occasional insufficiently guarded language on the part of conservative preachers and writers may have tended to accredit such lamentably inaccurate misapprehensions. It behooves the evangelical believer, however, to react with utmost vigor against such distortions, and to proclaim in its unsullied beauty the biblical doctrine of propitiation as the gracious provision made by God himself whereby the effects of his righteous anger against sin may be averted and the sinner may receive the blessings of his paternal love without infringement on his holiness and moral government. In this concept, far from having a disparagement of God’s love, we may perceive the very triumph of it: love of the Father, who gave his son for the redemption of man (John 3:16); love of the Son, who shed his precious blood for the remission of sins (Matt. 26:28, Rom. 5:8); love of the Holy Spirit, through whom the priceless offering was made (Heb. 9:14), and who applies its benefits to the redeemed. To borrow a phrase from an able Roman Catholic exponent of substitutionary atonement, the propitiatory sacrifice of Jesus Christ is “the invention and the triumph of the infinite love” of the triune God (cf. A. Medebielle, “Expiation.” L. Pirot, ed. Supplement au Dictionnaire de la Bible, III, 259).

Roger Nicole holds the Licence d’enseignement es Lettres Classiques (M.A.) from the Sorbonne (Paris) and a Th.D. degree from Gordon Divinity School. He is former president of Evangelical Theological Society. Since 1945 he has been Professor of Theology at Gordon Divinity School. He is presently preparing a volume on the doctrine of the atonement.

We Quote:

MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK

First Lady of Free China

The meaning of the Resurrection is Faith Triumphant, the Pledge Redeemed, The Cross Vindicated. Without Resurrection the Church would have died with the dispersal of the disciples there and then after the Crucifixion. With Resurrection the Christian Church marches forward toward Victory. This is what we see when we look forward from Calvary. What we took to be the shadow of death haunting our Lord from Bethlehem to Calvary proves to be, in the end, the Light of Life.—In an Easter message of hope to Chinese Christians in Formosa.

F. W. DILLISTONE

Dean of Liverpool Cathedral

Here is the Light which integrates all other lights.… Here is the Word which fulfils all other words.… He is the image of the God Who had never been seen by mortal eye. He is the Word of the God Whose actual voice had never been heard by mortal ear.—In Christianity and Communication, p. 47.

- More from Roger Nicole

Cover Story

Understanding Calvary

Harold John Ockenga

And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken (Luke 18:34).

I have a wonderful text. It opens up the counsels of the Trinity, the mysteries of redemption and the glories of heaven. Would I had the tongue of an angel to declare it. It is the truth of redemption by the cross. It, not the virgin birth, not the miracles of Christ, not the second coming of the Lord, is the very center of the Christian message (1 Cor. 1:23; 2:2).

Calvary was plainly foretold by Jesus, repeatedly and understandably. Yet the apostles did not grasp what he said. A strange incomprehensibility rested upon these disciples so that they could not understand plain language. Luke 9:31 says of Moses and Elias, “Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem”; Luke 9:51 says, “When the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem”; and now we have this plain statement of Luke 18:31–34. Matthew is just as plain in his record of the statements of Jesus concerning the inevitability of Calvary (Matt. 16:21; 17:12b; 17:22, 23: 20:18, 19). In spite of these clear statements, the disciples did not understand.

Calvary was foreseen and foretold by the prophets. No doubt is left by the writers of the Old Testament concerning the suffering servant of the Lord, the Messiah. Every sacrifice according to the law looked forward to this; the precepts concerning blood anticipated this; the Passover and the Day of Atonement forshadowed this; Psalm 22 and Psalm 69 described the sufferings of the Messiah; Isaiah 52:12 to 53:11 delineated these sufferings; Daniel 9:26 and Zachariah 13:6, 7 referred to it; yet no one in the time of Jesus understood the Old Testament prophecies concerning the suffering servant in the Messianic sense. Only at a later time did some of the Jewish rabbis teach that there would be a suffering Messiah (Messiah ben Joseph) and a triumphant Messiah (Messiah ben Judah). Not even the prophets themselves understood what they wrote (1 Pet. 1:10). The fact that the prophets searched to ascertain the meaning of their own prophecies which the Spirit revealed unto them is evidence that it was given to them by revelation. But this in itself is a proof that they did not understand Calvary.

Calvary was foreordained of God, and yet our text says that the meaning of Calvary was hid from the apostles. Did God deliberately hide it from them? If so, why? Was the hiding of this due to their own blindness because of sin, or was it a blindness sent from God? It was hid from them for several reasons: First, that God’s eternal plan might be fulfilled, namely, to make Christ Jesus our substitute in the satisfaction of the law. From eternity God the Father decreed the death of Jesus on the cross. He was the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. Second, it was hid that men through wicked hands might slay the Prince of Life. Peter declared that if they had known the identity of Jesus, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Their decision was an independent one, but it was embraced in the plan of God. Third, it was hid from them that God might turn their evil actions to good. God’s love matched man’s sin. The fall of the Jews was to be the riches of the nations, and it was embraced for this purpose.

Why They Couldn’t Understand Calvary

Luke declares that this was “hid from them.” A veil was over their eyes so that they could not understand. It is strange about our capacity to understand. This capacity changes with different ages. What you could not grasp as a child, or as a youth, you now may understand. At one time you did not understand the value of music and you refused to have any part of it, but now you understand and regret your decision. At one time you did not understand the value of financial thrift and resultant security; now you understand and regret your prodigality of youth. Once you did not understand fidelity in human relationships, but now you understand and possibly with deep regret.

When the Lord told his disciples of his impending suffering, crucifixion and death, understanding was hidden from them. Peter cried, “Far be it from thee, Lord.” He could not believe that Christ would be delivered up, mocked, shamefully treated, scourged and killed. For this reason he attempted to defend Christ in the garden of Gethsemane for he did not understand the inevitability of Calvary.

Calvary was hidden from those who put him to death. For this reason Christ prayed, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” Pilate asked him, “Art Thou a king?” and when he condemned him to be scourged and crucified, he did so in ignorance. The Pharisees cried, “Come down from the cross,” but they did not understand why he could not come down. The soldiers and the thief mocked him and ridiculed him because they did not understand the meaning of his claims.

Only God the Father and Christ understood what was occurring on Calvary, with the possible exception of Mary of Bethany, who broke her alabaster box against the day of his burying and also of the penitent thief who caught a glimpse of heaven when he was on the cross and asked to be remembered.

The understanding of Calvary was granted to the apostles through the postresurrection interpretation by Christ and through Pentecost. As the resurrected Christ explained the necessity of his sufferings from the law, the Psalms and the prophets, their eyes were opened and their hearts burned within them. When the Holy Ghost came upon them at Pentecost and they were guided into the fullness of truth, all the strands of truth fell together into an harmonious whole. From that time on the apostles were in unanimous agreement on the necessity of the death and resurrection of Christ which constituted the Gospel.

Calvary can be understood and known only by regenerate persons (1 Cor. 2:14). Because of this, men do not understand Calvary today. For God to die on a cross seems ridiculous to the unregenerate. Natural reason cannot comprehend this. It wants to earn salvation. But these things are hidden from the wise and prudent and revealed unto babes. The human mind must be renewed in regeneration by the Holy Spirit if it is to understand Calvary. With such regeneration the problems concerning the cross vanish from the human mind. Students who are filled with questions concerning the goodness of God, predestination and freedom, the problem of human suffering, the dual nature of Christ, the understanding of the Trinity find that when their central question is answered, many of their other questions disappear. In my own Christian counseling I listen to the problem or the question that an inquirer has and then I turn the conversation to Calvary and the knowledge of salvation. Once this question is settled, it is easy to face other questions. When a person is regenerate, the mystery is no longer hidden but open.

How Believers Understand Calvary

Calvary must be understood in the framework of theology. There is a Divine reason for the cross. The cross must be understood in the light of God’s justice. The Bible declares that God spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all (Rom. 8:32), that Christ Jesus “abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances … that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby” (Eph. 2:15, 16), and that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself” (2 Cor. 5:19). Justice had to be satisfied and God reconciled. What this meant is beyond description and understanding of man. Holiness is an attribute of God. Holiness in motion against sin is wrath. This wrath of God was expended upon Christ on Calvary.

Mercy is an attribute of God. Because God loved, he was moved with compassion and mercy so that he gave his son, he sacrificed himself, and he suffered an indescribable anguish in the place of those he loved. Love found a way which could not be found by justice or by wisdom.

Wisdom is an attribute of God. Wisdom dictated that justice and mercy, holiness and goodness should both be satisfied and it found a way for them to meet in the cross (Psa. 85:10). There was no other way for such reconciliation, atonement and mediation than Calvary. If there had been, Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me,” would have been answered by the removal of Calvary. When Jesus cried, “it is finished,” all the demands of the attributes of God which had been affected by sin were satisfied.

Believers give to the cross a great significance in experience. This experience is threefold. First, the cross is the way of salvation. It is the only way to come to God, the only means of salvation, the only bridge from sinful man to holy God. Thus, it is emphasized in the law, the Psalms, the prophets, the Gospels and the epistles. It is the essence of the Gospel which is presented throughout the entire Bible.

The second way of experiencing the cross is for sanctification or victory of Christian life. The believer accepts the cross as the means of his dying to the old man. He takes his position with Christ as crucified to the old nature and the motions of sin. By faith he reckons himself to be dead. Once the believer so accepts the cross, he may then be united with Christ in resurrection life. By the Spirit he is quickened and seated with Christ in heavenly places. Thus, the resurrected, glorified, reigning Christ may release the Spirit in the life of the crucified and resurrected believer, producing all the fruit of the Spirit which makes the believer like unto Christ.

The third meaning of the cross in Christian experience is as a way of service or of living. The principle was set down by the Lord Jesus when He said, “Except a com of wheat fall to the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit.” The cross must become a constant way of life. The believer must voluntarily accept his position of self-denial, sacrifice and service for Christ’s sake. Insofar as he does this, he shall bear fruit, for “he that loses his life for my sake shall find it.” Only as the believer voluntarily follows the pattern laid down by Christ in his acceptance of crucifixion, is he able to effectively serve the Lord.

What Can Never Be Known Of Calvary

Though there is much that the believer understands about Calvary, there is much he will never understand. Christians will never know the depths of suffering which Christ Jesus endured on the cross. We know that he tasted death (Heb. 2:14), and what a death it was. No believer will ever die the kind of death that Jesus died upon the cross. We know that he endured the curse of the broken law (Gal. 3:13) and that that curse will never rest upon the believer. We know that he carried the wrath of God which was holiness in motion against the sin of humanity held back and dammed up through the ages and then released to overwhelm Christ Jesus on the cross (Rom. 3:25, 26). It was this that overwhelmed Christ and broke his heart. No believer will ever be able to understand the depths of such suffering through which Christ passed.

We can never know the full mystery of what occurred on Calvary. Remembering that Jesus was the pre-existing Son of God whose goings were from old, even from everlasting, that he was with the Father from eternity, that he was the creator of the world, we cannot help but wonder what happened when he cried, “My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” What happened in the Trinity at that moment? What happened in the two natures of Christ when he suffered the wrath of God in our place? How did God die on the cross? How did he take death into himself? If he had not done these things, how could the atonement have been made efficacious for the believers? When will the human mind ever understand this, and where shall we ever find language to express this? This mystery can never be known and will always cause us to fall down and worship before the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.

We shall never know the fulness of redemption wrought by Jesus on the cross. This is suggested to us in the Scripture, and we may apprehend more of it when we get to heaven, but we certainly cannot know it now. What is included in “being able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge” (Eph. 3:18, 19)? In Calvary God exhausted himself, and it is impossible for a finite being to fully comprehend this action of an infinite being.

Witness Of The Disciples

But let’s ask these same disciples who did not understand when Jesus told them of Calvary what they now understand about it.

How about you, Peter? What do you understand about Calvary?

“I saw them take him away from Caiaphas’ hall when I was offended because he did not accept my defense of him by force. It seems incredible, impossible that I did not stand with him in that hour, but I did not understand. But now I know. I know that it was the Prince of Life they crucified. They ‘denied the Holy One and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted … and killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised up from the dead.’ I know that we are redeemed with his precious blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world. I know that he his own self bare our sins in his body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes we are healed. I know that Christ hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit. I know that Calvary was the means to life.”

And how about you, John? You were very close to Christ. What do you think of Calvary now?

“I stood with Jesus through it all: through the trial in Caiaphas’ hall, through the suffering on the Gabbatha and through the agony of the cross. It was all so dark and confusing that I did not understand. Then, on the resurrection day, when he appeared to us and explained it, saying that it behooved Christ to suffer, and rise from the dead the third day: that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, I began to understand. Now I know that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin and that the evidence of love is not that we love him but that he loved us and gave himself as a propitiation on our behalf. Now I look forward to the day when I shall stand with that throng, a glimpse of which I was granted, and shall cry, ‘Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.’ ”

How about you, Paul. Do you understand the cross?

“Once I did not. Once I hated the Nazarene and I persecuted his followers for worshipping him as God because this was blasphemy. Once I stood by and watched men stone Stephen to death. Once I was crucifying the Son of God afresh. But one day I saw him: saw him in glory, saw him as he revealed himself to me with his wounds as I traveled on the road to Damascus. Now I know. I do not know him any longer after the flesh, but after the spirit. Now I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Now, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. For now I know that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, and has committed unto us the Gospel of reconciliation.”

My friend, do you understand Calvary? Is Calvary a mystery to you? Are your eyes veiled? If you have seen him with the eyes of faith as he was crucified for you, the veil has been taken away and you understand. If not, pray at this season that you may have your eyes opened, that you may see the necessity of Calvary, that you may see what God has suffered for you, that you may understand the cross.

Harold John Ockenga is pastor of the famed Park Street Church in Boston, where he has ministered since 1936. After receiving the A.B. degree from Taylor University in 1927, he attended Princeton and Westminister seminaries, and holds a Th.B. from Westminster, A.M. and Ph.D. from University of Pittsburgh and numerous honorary degrees. He is author of Protestant Preaching in Lent, The Church in God and other works. He is presently chairman of the board of Christianity Today.

- More from Harold John Ockenga

The kingdom of God is near.

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Importance Of Scientific Faith

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Unbelief In The Churches

The Command To Witness

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Teaching And Miracles Linked

Worldly Wisdom And Unbelief

Men Of Science Who Believe

A Call To Christian Colors

Preacher In The Red

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Pagan Use Of Terms

A Profound Difference

Relevant Observations

We Quote:

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Why They Couldn’t Understand Calvary

How Believers Understand Calvary

What Can Never Be Known Of Calvary

Witness Of The Disciples

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