Rising Tempo of Rome’s Demands

The year 1948 marked the beginning of a new epoch in the American history of the Roman Catholic Church and the beginning of a new epoch in American history itself. In November of that year the leaders of this powerful church undertook a drastic reorientation of their attitude toward the United States government. It was a change not of conviction but of strategy, not of direction but of pace; yet the new strategy and the new pace were so striking as to constitute in themselves a major change. The statement of the Bishops issued at that time will repay thoughtful reading by every American. These men serve notice that the vast power of their organization will henceforth be devoted to destroying the principle of Church-State separation.

When the Bishops sound the call to action, their language is clear. They say plainly that “Separation of Church and State has become the shibboleth of doctrinaire secularism.” They pledge themselves to “work peacefully, patiently and perseveringly” for its destruction. Thus, with a bold announcement supported by the cleverest of propaganda, this powerful church has set out to destroy the free position of the American churches.

Then And Now

This change in Roman Catholic strategy is expressed in the church’s attitude toward education. During much of the nineteenth century, its hierarchy was concerned to eliminate from the public schools every reference to God, the Bible and religion and to make the schools strictly secular institutions. Roman Catholics brought more than one hundred cases before the courts to achieve these objectives. I cite here but one of the hundred—that of People ex. rel. Ring v. Board of Education in Illinois. In this case Roman Catholics sought to eliminate Bible reading and devotional exercises from the public-school program. The court agreed with their contention that these practices did violate Church-State separation as expressed in the Constitution and ordered them discontinued.

Roman Catholics undertook to drive religion out of the schools not because they were atheistic or secularistic people, but because they were not powerful enough to determine the kind of religion to be taught. They preferred no religious teaching at all if they could not have Roman Catholic dogma. The provincial council of the Roman Catholic Church in Baltimore, 1840, imposed on priests the responsibility of seeing to it that Catholic children attending public schools did not participate in any religious exercises there. They were also to use their influence to prevent any such practices in the public schools.

The “secular public school” was in substantial part the achievement of the Roman Catholic Church. Today, however, this church has about-faced. Today it denounces the secular public school as “godless” and argues loudly for the return of religion to education. Today movements for the teaching of “moral and spiritual values” in the public schools, like the recent one in New York City, find the hierarchy in hearty endorsement. The change of front is due to one simple fact—the Roman hierarchy now feels strong enough to permeate any public-school moral and spiritual teaching with its own dogma, or to secure public funds for its own private, sectarian schools.

Toward A New Era

The 1948 pronouncement of the Roman Catholic Bishops pointed the way to a new era in American Church-State relations. As far as Rome was concerned, this pronouncement marked the end of the line for Church-State separation. The principle that had received grudging recognition from this group as long as it was a weak, ineffectual minority was now to be replaced by one more in keeping with the main line of Romanist tradition.

The resources of this powerful church were quickly marshaled for action. The Roman Church claims a membership of 33 million in the United States, which has become in the hands of the hierarchy a gigantic battering ram to breach the wall of separation. The adults in this membership comprise the “Catholic vote” of which we hear so much. There are, comparatively, not many Catholics holding high public office. This is actually a source of strength to the hierarchy since it is able to keep in perpetual intimidation the Protestant officeholders who fear nothing more than that the “Catholic vote” might be turned against them.

This political power is skillfully wielded to secure preferential treatment for the Roman Church. A good example is the nearly $1 million voted by the Eighty-fourth Congress to refurbish the Pope’s summer palace. The payment was for damages allegedly inflicted by American bombs upon a neutral power in World War II. The summer palace was not located in Vatican City, however, and the damage, according to impartial observers, was negligible. This subsidy to the Pope went through as a high-level, nonpartisan item. No one would have thought of voting against it. To do so might have offended the “Catholic vote.”

A far more serious matter was House Bill 6568, which was smuggled through the Senate in the confusion before adjournment of the Eighty-fourth Congress. This provides another $8 million plus for Roman Catholic activities in the Philippines. After the war, American lobbyists visited the Philippines and alerted Roman Catholic officials to the rich potential in “war services” and “war damages.” The church collected for services allegedly suffered to its installations. The Bishop of Zamboanga, the Archbishop of Jaro, the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul and the Knights of Columbus were among the Roman Catholic groups receiving generous grants. How many millions were paid is difficult for an outsider to determine.

The above mentioned act merely amended the law so that Archbishop Santos of Manila, whose “claims” had been rejected by the Commission, could get his millions along with the millions that had gone to his colleagues. Although the sum was “only $8 million,” it should be recalled that the Archbishop’s claims originally ran to $30 million. All of these claims will no doubt be revived, while others from the innumerable church orders will be added. All will be paid in time. Oh yes, there is a chance that the Protestants may qualify for about $30,000 under H. R. 6586.

The public schools of the Philippines received not one cent. Nor will they, because they lack a high-powered lobby and the unveiled threat of reprisal at the polls.

Sectarian Subsidies Unlimited

There have been other government subsidies to the Roman Church. The Hill-Burton Act, which authorized Federal grants to sectarian hospitals, has been a bonanza to this church. Under it the Roman Catholics have collected $112,039,000 for their institutions. Protestant institutions have received $23,118,000. Even the disparity of these figures does not tell the story. Close observers have noted the large proportion of the grants that have gone to Roman Catholic hospitals in the South. In Alabama alone, for example, this church has obtained $6 million for its hospitals. Baptist churches with a total adult membership about equal to the Roman Catholic have a conscientious objection to taking Federal funds. Only a pittance, therefore, has gone to this group. What is worse, businessmen have begun to refuse to contribute to Baptist hospital campaigns, asking, “Why don’t you get your money from the government the way the Catholics do?”

The Roman Church has found the Hill-Burton Act a marvelous means for penetrating the hitherto impervious Protestantism of the South. Handsome healing centers built with Federal funds serve as a strong means for the propagation of this faith.

The campaign to shift the cost of Roman Catholic sectarian schools to the American taxpayer bids fair to be as successful as the hospital program. The campaign began easily as fringe benefits were sought from the government—bus transportation, textbooks, health benefits, lunches and the like. More recently, as for example in the Bishop’s statement issued in November, 1955, there is insistence upon the “full right to be considered and dealt with as components of the American educational system.” This statement also claims for parochial-school pupils the same government aid that goes to public-school pupils.

A useful gimmick in softening the public for sectarian subsidies is the so-called “study” of education. Proposals for a “study” were slipped through the Connecticut legislature as a “noncontroversial” item. No sooner had the commission begun its work when there began a spate of press releases about how many children were in parochial schools, the proportion of the educational load being carried by the Roman Catholic Church, the “saving” thus effected to the taxpayer. Presently Roman Catholic leaders throughout the state joined in a well-directed chorus appealing for state subsidies. The demands were based on the commission’s “scientific study.”

During the past year the drive for tax support has developed yet a new twist. This is a demand that tuition payments to parochial schools be allowable income tax deductions. The fiftieth annual convention of the Knights of St. John meeting in Dayton, Ohio, and the Central Catholic Verein meeting in Wichita, Kansas, are among the many Roman Catholic groups that have appealed to Congress for this kind of “relief.” Thus a back-door assault on the public treasury keeps pace with the front-door demand.

In many communities where they are in the majority, Roman Catholics have simply taken over the public schools. They have staffed them with nuns and priests whose salaries, paid from state funds, go directly to their superior, without deductions. It took long and expensive litigations to clear up situations of this kind in Missouri, New Mexico and Kentucky. There are still numerous “trouble spots” all around the country. Last year in Indiana, for example, more than $2 million in tax funds went to “public schools” that were in effect parochial schools of the Roman Church. There are 152 garbed nuns teaching in the public schools of Kansas with their salaries going to their church.

A Major Decision

In simple justice it must be said that the Roman Catholic hierarchy is now within sight of its goal. Success has come even faster than its leaders dreamed. Many activities of this church are already receiving tax support. Hospitals, schools, orphanages and other “welfare programs” are in this category. Other activities receive sizable grants from community chests. The measure of this support is being constantly increased. The time is in sight when all the so-called “social service” activities of the Roman Church will be supported by tax funds collected by compulsion from citizens of all faiths.

The Protestants, if they are realistic, will see but two alternatives before them. One, they must accept the principle of government subsidies to churches—that is, the principle of plural establishment—and get into the scramble to get all they can for their own denomination. Or, two, they must stop kidding themselves with the false tolerance that plays into Rome’s hands, and battle to hold the line for Church-State separation.

The first of these alternatives—plural establishment—would have definite advantages over the “don’t look now” policy being presently followed by the Protestants. If the Protestants were to go all-out for government subsidies, they would probably be able to rectify the absurd inequities of the Hill-Burton grants. They must recognize, however, that in changing from the principle of voluntarism to the principle of official compulsion, they are taking a drastic step, which will have the most far-reaching consequences. Also, and this is a more practical matter, they are moving into competition with old hands at this business of obtaining political favors. It is a kind of competition that, because of their own predilections, the Protestants stand to lose.

Westerly, Rhode Island, is a tiny community that offers a good sample of the sort of thing we might expect under plural establishment. The Roman Catholics of Westerly, having developed their own schools to the point where certain public school buildings were no longer needed, proceeded to take them over for their own use. The town council voted them to the Roman Church at a purchase price of $1. The Methodists of Westerly were resentful as they saw these valuable properties falling to the Roman Catholics, one by one. They decided to get one for themselves. After working some wheels within wheels and getting help from Catholic citizens who believed in “fair play”—they were able to get one of the buildings for $1. Since their success, however, there has been a rash of such giveaways in Rhode Island. The recipient has been, in every instance, the Roman Catholic Church. Now that the principle has been accepted and “the Methodists are doing it too,” there is no restraint.

The worst feature of plural establishment, however, would be the extremity of its pluralism. Our culture would be hopelessly enclaved as 250 religious establishments or more threw themselves into the wild scramble for tax funds. The principal beneficiary would be the church that is prepared for an operation of this kind, a church that has, in fact, lived on state subsidies for many centuries.

The Alternative

The alternative is clear. Protestants must face this challenge frankly at the political level. As the Roman Church moves toward state financing and toward those favors which are the precursor of establishment, Protestants must stand in resolute opposition. They must do this in good humor and brotherliness, but with unbending firmness. The Roman Catholic propaganda that softens the nation for official favors must be dispassionately exposed. Protestants must recognize that they are not promoting secularism when they insist that the Roman Catholic Church shall raise its funds the way other churches do, or when they insist that there shall be no official favors or preferments for any church.

Roman Catholicism in the United States has come a long way in a century and a half. At first, as a feeble minority it accepted Church-State separation. The principle seemed best in the circumstances. Now, as a powerful minority—united in the midst of a divided majority—it calls for the end of Church-State separation. It intimidates Congress, censors and silences opposition, collects vast sums from the public treasury and drives toward official recognition and establishment. If the Protestants do not unite in determined opposition to this drive, another decade will see the end of Church-State separation here. We shall have, to all practical effect, a religious establishment in a country whose Constitution forbids it. That establishment will be pluralistic—or otherwise.

After attending Asbury College and Duke and Yale universities, the Rev. C. Stanley Lowell invested a year with the Methodist temperance movement and then accepted assignments to Methodist parishes for 20 years. Since April, 1956, he has devoted full time to Protestants and Other Americans United, an organization corrective of sectarian encroachments on the American policy of separation of Church and State.

- More from C. Stanley Lowell

Cover Story

Christian Missions in Japan

L. Nelson Bell

There is grave need for a complete revaluation of Christian missions in Japan today. Post-war policies of the major Boards, the tremendous influx of independent and diverse new groups and, most of all, the sobering fact that after many decades of mission work the Christian Church in Japan has yet to make the impact so needed in that land, all combine to challenge to a new concept for spreading the gospel message, and of the Church itself.

The average Christian abroad does not have the remotest idea of what has taken place and is taking place now. He does not know what policies are now being pursued, nor of the cross-currents of conflicting opinions which have such far reaching effect for or against the evangelization of that great nation.

A Difficult Field

Japan has always been a difficult nation for Christian missions. An old culture; an advance civilization by Western standards; one of the highest literacy rates of any nation and deep rooted religious practices inherently antagonistic to the Christian faith, all of these and other factors combine to make imperative that the Gospel shall be presented in its simplicity and power and in a complete trust in the presence and work of the Holy Spirit.

Where Christian missions have been carried on depending on the uncompromised Gospel and its implementation by the Spirit there have been corresponding results. Where there has been a tendency to deviate from the historical evangelical concept of the Church and her message there has been a corresponding deviation in both quantity and quality of results. Theological liberalism has more adherents in Japan than is probably the case in any other mission field of the world.

While the combination of difficulties outlined above are real and ever present, they are complicated today by matters having to do with mission policy. On the one hand we have the determined effort of some of the major Boards in America to erect an ecumenical Church on a man-made foundation and to maintain it by hidden but not the less very real ecclesiastical and financial pressures. On the other hand we have an influx of a great number of independent and often diverse groups, far out numbering the old line denominations, but lacking both in missionary experience and often in an adequate doctrine of the Church.

Because of these conflicting interests and policies missionary work in Japan is confused and confusing. To face the problems will require a work of grace and an outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit on all concerned. This is an end not too much to pray for, nor to expect if Christians will act as Christians should. But rest assured, it will require a work God alone can do.

The Rise Of The Kyodan

One of the serious bones of contention today is the Kyodan or United Church of Japan. The history of its organization is of great significance. Just prior to the outbreak of World War II the Japanese government determined to insure full control of all religious forces. It passed a law naming conditions under which any religious body could secure official recognition and immunity from arbitrary police action. When Christian denominations began to apply for recognition they were first told that no applications from bodies with fewer than five thousand members would be accepted. Then when the smaller groups had formed unions among themselves to meet this requirement they were told that only one Protestant group would be recognized. Rather than be left without any legal status almost all united.

Not by the wildest stretch of imagination could such a union have taken place without extreme government pressure, although it is true that from the earliest days of Protestant Christianity in Japan many denominational leaders had been working for union. Their successors now used the government-given opportunity to the utmost. This government sponsored union was enthusiastically acclaimed in America. Most of the major mission Boards of North America decided to further it and set up the Inter-Board Committee, which agreed upon resumption of work in Japan to support only churches in the Kyodan. In this way the Japanese churches were faced with a dilemma—continue in the Kyodan and receive mission board support, or, as some felt impelled to do, follow the dictate of conscience and withdraw from this government-sponsored organization and find themselves without missionary support. That many were led to take the latter step is a tribute to their Christian convictions and courage.

Among the major denominations the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (South) took a much more liberal viewpoint. The mission and the Board agreed to cooperate with Japanese ministers and churches, formerly associated with the work of that Board, both inside and outside the Kyodan, regarding the choice as one for the Japanese themselves to make. Had all Boards taken this statesmanlike position the Kyodan would largely have disintegrated as it lacked the spiritual unity necessary for a genuinely ecumenical church.

It is true that some smaller groups never entered the Kyodan and immediately following V-J day many other elements withdrew and assumed their former identity: Episcopalians, Lutherans, elements of the Baptist groups, Friends, Nazarenes and others. Some former Presbyterians withdrew to establish the Reformed Church of Japan, others reestablished their identity as the Shin Nikki, or new Church of Japan.

Virtually A New Denomination

Today something less than half of the Christians in Japan are in Kyodan churches and they are made up largely of Methodists, Congregationalists and Presbyterians. The Committee of Cooperation, a group set up to administer the work of the Inter Board Committee and the Kyodan, is locating Methodist missionaries in fields developed by Presbyterian and Congregational missionaries.

Today to all intents and purposes the Kyodan has itself become a denomination. Strange to say, the ecumenicity and cooperation such a group should be expected to extend to others is lacking. Backed by the Inter-Board Committee and the Kyodan leadership, missionaries assigned to the Kyodan are not permitted to work with non-Kyodan ministers and churches. Where denominational differences existed before, differences which were often submerged in a spirit of Christian fellowship and love, an ecclesiastical wall has been set up.

Such a policy is an admission of weakness, not of strength, and it aggravates the already confused mission and church situation. Today there are some 143 Boards and Christian organizations working in Japan. Many of these groups are very small but some are large and are continuing to grow. The largest interdenominational group is T.E.A.M., The Evangelical Alliance Mission, with over 150 missionaries.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that 90 per cent of the 2400 Protestant missionaries came to Japan after World War II. This proportion of new missionaries, many from small and often divisive groups lacking both the wisdom of years and of experience, has created problems both in the realm of general policy and also, very often, with reference to an adequate concept of the Church itself.

An Impaired Witness

The Christian Church in Japan is weak; few of her leaders have the zeal and vision needed in a nationwide program. Tithing, to be found among the Seventh Day Adventists and to a lesser degree in the Reformed Church, is otherwise almost unknown. Japanese pastors are inadequately paid and this increases the power of those who dispense mission funds. The non-cooperative spirit of the Kyodan is largely matched by a similar attitude in many of the independent groups who in some cases are suspicious of each other and in others may join in a distrust of the older denominations.

The end result is a greatly impaired Christian witness in Japan, one totally inadequate to seize the opportunity and meet the desperate needs of that nation.

This is not a blanket criticism of any one group. Some of Japan’s finest Christians are in the Kyodan. Some of the most devoted missionaries from abroad are working in that group. Others of equal Christian faith, zeal and devotion are to be found in the noncooperating and independent groups. The Kyodan, with less than half of the church membership and only about one-fifth of the total missionary personnel working in Japan, has no right to arrogate to itself a priority it does not deserve. Nor do the other groups have the right to indulge in a wholesale condemnation of the Kyodan.

There is a desperate need today for some unifying influence in Japan, not directed towards a united ecclesiasticism but to a recognition of the fact that Japan needs Christ and that present personnel and policies are falling far short of the task.

Men inside and outside the Kyodan agree that the Billy Graham campaign of last March had a most wholesome effect on the church as a whole. But it was entirely too limited in time and scope. A nationwide campaign of gigantic proportions is needed. Japan is flooded with western movies and with propaganda of one kind or the other which presents western culture at its worst. This needs to be counteracted with the Christian message on a saturation basis. Christian films in large quantities, along with large sums spent in buying time on radio and TV networks, are needed to present the claims of Christ—not a mere system of ethics but the Gospel in all of its simplicity and power.

Many are convinced that some of the major mission Boards are missing the boat by maintaining a false ecumenicity which is doing harm to the Japanese Church, frustrating many missionaries who find themselves caught in the web of unrealism, and which is also drying up the source of giving, both in America and more important still, in the Japanese Church itself. There is a failure to measure up to the evangelistic need because of the channeling of missionary activities primarily into institutional work.

Missionary statesmanship at its very best is desperately needed, a statesmanship not now in evidence among the denominational Boards as a whole, the Japanese Christian leadership nor in the independent and interdenominational groups.

The effective evangelization of Japan is at stake, and the time for its accomplishment may not be indefinitely prolonged.

Preacher In The Red

TREMOR IN THE PULPIT

It was Easter Sunday morning in 1907, my third Easter in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church. I stood before my congregation in Venice Center, N. Y., to read the Scripture lesson, as found in Matthew 28. When I came to verse 4, instead of the inspired words, “And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men,” I heard myself say, “And for fear of him the shakers did quake.” Appalled, I quickly proceeded to correct my mistake by solemnly declaring, “For fear of him the Quakers did shake and became as dead men.”

By that time solemnity was at an end!—HOWARD S. BACON, Elbridge, N. Y., retired member of the Central New York Conference of the Methodist Church.

L. Nelson Bell, M.D., F.A.C.S., missionary in China for 25 years and for 15 years a successful surgeon in Asheville, N.C., is Executive Editor of Christianity Today. At present he is making a six weeks trip to Japan and Korea.

- More from L. Nelson Bell

Cover Story

The East German State: Has It Feet of Clay?

Harold B. Kuhn

The title “Democratic Republic” sounds nowhere more hollow than when applied to the present government of East Germany. Its rulers can scarcely be reassured by recent events in Hungary, where the instruments of power in the hands of the ruling elite have perforce been turned against the people in whose name they profess to rule. It is the purpose of this article to note some of the major features of this “Republic” and to seek to evaluate its points of strength and its areas of weakness.

Soviet Advantages

In installing the puppet regime in their zone of occupation, the Soviet rulers had three major points of possible advantage. First, they had at their disposal the large Junker estates, which most of the world agreed should be divided. Thus the land reform should have pleased the beneficiaries, and should have brought to the government a broad popular support from the peasants. This advantage was not pressed; crushing agricultural quotas discouraged the tillers of the land at the outset. More important still, the history of such “reforms” in Russia convinced the East German farmers that collectivization would follow in short order. This they have not wanted. Many are not waiting for it, for farmers make up a good portion of the refugees who leave the “Republic” at a rate of 1,000 per day.

The population of the seven Lander or provinces comprising the East German state has been traditionally socialistic. Thus the workers would not normally be opposed to the basic objectives of socialization. Yet the regime seems to have failed signally to enlist the loyalty of the workers, who for some uncanny reason are largely unmoved by socialist inventives. The barrage of agitative propaganda seems to annoy and disgust them, so that the new political orientation fails to “take” on them.

The intellectuals of this land have been traditionally tolerant of bureaucratic administration and generally responsive to official dictation and to state planning. Why, then, has the regime failed to win the general support of the intelligentsia?

Leaders in East Berlin official circles complain of the ideological indifference among the intellectual classes. Conversations with those who flee to the West reveal, however, that there is much active opposition to the dogmatism of Marxist science. As one trained physicist told the writer, he faced the choice of assenting to the dogmas stemming from dialectical materialism (at the expense of intellectual honesty) or of rejecting them and in consequence running afoul of the regime. He chose the latter alternative.

One cannot avoid the impression that the Communist party and the major classes of the East German population are separated by a lack of rapport. With the exception of the events of June, 1953, this has generally manifested itself in passive antagonism. Rulers and subjects appear in the form of two opponents in a battle of attrition, each determined to wear down the other.

Weaknesses Of Government

The causes underlying the weakness of the government of Pieck, Ulbrich, Grotewohl and others are numerous. The government began under the handicap of having been installed by a conqueror. It has never been able to make the smallest logical claim to rest upon the popular will. Indeed, its leaders seem to feel no need to establish such a base of support. They have, moreover, been embarrassed by their own pretension to sovereignty. At the demand of their Soviet masters, they have insisted that they headed a government which could make up its own mind. This prevented any candid statement to their subjects of precisely which powers remained in their hands and which were reserved to the Kremlin. This failure to take the people into its confidence has compelled the regime to bear the responsibility for the repressive acts and arbitrary decisions which, in part at least, have been imposed upon it from without.

A further feature tending to alienate the government from its citizens is the exactness with which it maintains the features which are part of the ritual of communist dictatorship. These are: rigid censorship of press and mails, constant internal espionage, senseless restrictions upon travel into and out of the country, the secret police and a brutal administration of the penal code. Most of these seem senseless to the outsider, while to the insider they bear no obvious relation to the achievement of the goals set by the rulers for the land.

Brute Force

The Party itself, hated by the masses, maintains itself in power by brute force. It rationalizes its position by posing, through endless propaganda media, as the agent of transformation, which promises a glorious tomorrow through planned and managed change. Conversations with refugees from all classes fail to support the view that this appeal finds much popular response.

The regime justifies its rigid control of the social and cultural life of the land upon this basis, namely, that it must discipline in order to reform. Propagandistic attacks upon the West as decadent continue monotonously. Life is designedly austere, and no major concessions are made to the demands of the masses for emotional relaxation, save such minor ones as the qualified tolerance of jazz and lipstick.

The governing clique lack much of the creative inspiration which their counterparts in the Soviet Union may at times experience. In Russia there is some measure of realism in the adaptation of measures to conditions in the land. In East Germany, on the other hand, the processes of the Kremlin are applied without creative imagination to a situation that is radically different. This creates an air of unreality, a feeling that the land is a stage upon which an unconvincing drama is being played. It is against this feeling of unreality that the instruments of official propaganda work with fervor and without great apparent success.

Impermanence Of Two Germanys

In the light of the foregoing factors, the East German government seems a strange combination of strength and weakness. It is difficult to weigh the one against the other. It is doubtful whether the East German officials expect their government to survive for long should Germany be reunited. This may account for their continued demands for recognition of their state, and for the pressure of Vice-Premier Otto Nuschke upon the Church of East Germany to acknowledge its permanence. These and similar actions bear witness to a possible doubt in their minds as to whether the impossible situation of two Germanys can long be maintained.

It is well known that East Germany is predominantly Protestant. The Evangelical (Protestant) Church has attracted wide attention for its courageous resistance to the encroachments of the regime. Dr. Jacob, Bishop of Cottbus, declared in Berlin last June that the Church would accept no compromise with atheism and would resist the “theoretical and material godlessness” that underlies the dialectical materialism to which the government professes such slavish adherence.

The Church in East Germany operates currently upon the basis of the agreement which Premier Grotewohl signed with Bishop Otto Dibelius on June 10, 1953. This agreement was secured by the prompt and courageous action of Bishop Dibelius and provided for a reduction of the many forms of harassment of the Church by Red officials. It promised, among other things, a review of the sentences of imprisoned pastors, relaxation of regulations upon public services and the readmission of youth expelled from schools because of church attendance.

A Secular Confirmation

The major thrust of the government’s attack upon the Church has been against the youth work, the Junge Gemeinde. At no point has the war of attrition against the Church been pursued with more ingenuity. Knowing the place which Church confirmation held in the mind of the German people, the regime introduced its own secularized version of confirmation, the Jugendweihe, or Youth Dedication. This is an impressive ceremony, urged upon all East German children “who wish to become loyal citizens” and arranged to coincide with the time of Church confirmation, generally during Holy Week.

Bishop Dibelius spoke promptly for the Church, condemning the Jugendweihe and laid down the general principle that a youth cannot participate in both Church confirmation and the state’s “youth dedication.” The outcome of the struggle is at this moment still in doubt. There can be no doubt that the long-range objective of the government is the destruction of the Christian Church. At present, the regime tolerates the Church, provided it “refuses to become a refuge for reactionary circles”—meaning that it may take no part in any movement to restore freedom to the people of East Germany.

The struggle for the minds of the youth continues. The F.J.D. (Free German Youth) compels its members (numbering some 2,000,000) to pledge to destroy “capitalist moral standards and superstition”; in other words, to obliterate the Christian religion and the ethics which it seeks to inculcate. Youth who refuse to participate in Youth Dedication are barred from universities and incur other serious handicaps.

The Weight Of Restrictions

It is difficult for the outsider to imagine the weight of restrictions under which the Church in East Germany operates. A pastor may not be transferred from one parish to another, save under most unusual circumstances. His income is less than that of common laborers, averaging about $30 a month. His children may not enter schools for higher education, and he and his family are in constant peril of arrest for some imaginary or real infraction of obscure bureaucratic regulations. This writer’s knowledge of these pastors indicates that they are overworked, tired, poorly paid but withal courageous in their determination to perform their duties in the fear of the Lord.

The larger ministry of the Church is curtailed in every way imaginable. A church may receive little or no help from the outside; it may export no funds whatsoever. While the supply of paper for atheistic literature is abundant, the publication of religious periodicals is rigidly controlled because of “paper shortages.” Home missions are rigidly curtailed; all but a handful of the Railway Missions ministering to the aged, the infirm and mothers traveling with children have recently been closed.

It is clear that the regime tolerates the Church solely because it finds her obliteration too costly. This toleration is a temporary expedient, until the older generation dies, and until a new generation can be trained in atheism. Meanwhile Vice-Premier Nuschke (a member of the Christian Democratic Union who is currently tolerated in the government) advises “a united front” and suggests that there is no time for controversy over religion or “other minor issues.”

A Light In The Night

Today the East German Church finds herself on the defensive in this conflict of wills with the State. She is the only significant bridge between her unhappy land and the free world. Within her tight frontiers, she is exerting an influence which is surprising when measured against her problems. There is reason to believe that as she cannot extend herself laterally, she is finding her own spiritual life deepened through her sufferings, and that as she can draw but little from the Church outside her frontiers, she is drawing more heavily from the resources of her Living Head.

In the meantime the people of East Germany live in their meager and monotonous world, while their rulers live in isolation from them in their own world of words and of perfectly coherent ideological dogmas. Many from all walks of life can bear the stifling and unreal atmosphere no longer. By the hundreds, these walk away, making their way to East Berlin, and thence across the border into the refugee installations in Free Berlin. Others cross the border temporarily, upon the pretext of visiting relatives, and spend a few cherished hours breathing the better air of the free world.

If and when Germany is reunited, and if the present government of East Germany is liquidated, the question of what legacy the regime will leave behind is a crucial one. One dares to hope that such a time will reveal that the East German Church has been largely significant in keeping alive the ideas and ideals of Christian civilization during the long night of communist rule.

We Quote:

ROBERT C. COOK

Director, Population Reference Bureau

In our finite world indefinite multiplication of people must eventually pass any possible optimum. Standing room only becomes a possibility in no very long time … In about 4½ centuries population density of the entire 52 million square miles of the earth’s land surface would be some 25,000 persons per square mile. That is the concentration on Manhattan Island today.… Considering how much desert, arctic, and mountain land is uninhabitable, it is not too soon to give serious consideration to the question of population optimum for this unexpansible planet.—in “The Population Bomb,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Vol. XII, No. 8 (Oct., 1956), p. 296.

LORD BOYD ORR

Director-General, FAO, from 1945 to 1948

Our immediate problem is the provision of food for say 5,000 million by 2,000 A.D. and possibly a further 2,000 million in the following twenty-five years.… The limit to food production is neither lack of knowledge nor physical obstacles of soil or climate. The limit is imposed by economic factors. The amount of any food a farmer produces is determined not by what is possible but by what he hopes to sell at a remunerative price.—in “Science and Hunger,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Vol. XII, No. 8 (Oct., 1956), pp. 309 f.

Dr. Harold B. Kuhn is Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Ky. Summer after summer he has carried on an educational and evangelistic ministry to Russian zone refugees in Germany. He holds the B.A. from John Fletcher College, and the S.T.M. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, and has pursued post-doctoral studies at University of Munich.

- More from Harold B. Kuhn

Review of Current Religious Thought: December 24, 1956

William A. Mueller

That indefatigable searcher for facts, Wilbur M. Smith, reports some interesting findings in Moody Monthly (Aug., 1956). An analysis of the 29th volume of Who’s Who in America, that is, of pages 13–112, yields this result, namely that 30% of those listed indicated some religious affiliation. Of the 1650 biographical sketches 53 were of clergymen. “The list reveals more Episcopalians and Presbyterians than all the other denominations combined.” However, “by far the greater number of the more prominent educators, scientists and writers do not indicate any religious affiliation. The same goes for playwrights, musicians, radio and TV men.” What mean these figures? Has religion become peripheral among those who mould the American mind? Or are they merely too shy to disclose their deepest loyalties?

“All this, and Revival, too” thus runs an article in The Christian Herald (Sept., 1956) on the Sector Plan of the American Baptist Convention. This plan is helping the churches utilize their total resources in new communities. During the past five years more than 3000 churches, Baptists and other communions, have used the plan with remarkable results in spiritual growth and power.

Canon Wedel writes a welcome warning in The Journal of Religious Thought (Spring-Summer, 1955) on “The Meaning of the Church”:

The phenomenal growth of the Pentecostal ‘sects,’ which ignore, for a time at least, the call to erect Gothic shrines, could remind us of the fact that “Church” in the New Testament, meant first of all a people of God united by a common faith and the living presence of Christ as Holy Spirit and not by institutional ambitions.

Wedel decries the mania for pompous church buildings in America. Air-conditioning, luxurious appointments, expensive side chapels and streamlined nurseries are the order of the day. But can they ever be a substitute for what really matters in the house of God? Wedel speaks prophetically when he says that “the body of Christ is something more than genial sociability. It stands under the judgment of holiness.”

Cross Currents, a Catholic journal, contains a challenging article by Father Henri Dumery on “The Temptation to Do Good” (Winter, 1956). It is a serious and eloquent plea for full religous liberty. Read and ponder: “What faith finds is God Himself, and not dogmas”; or: “But we do not become believers by assimilating a theory, reciting a history or riveting together syllogisms”; or: “Faith does not recopy a formula, and it does not blindly underwrite a formula; Faith opens itself to a presence, it receives a new life, and is bound to a new significance of existence of history.” But what elates both mind and heart are words like these: “Only the belief that liberty of conscience is inalienable will re-establish true faith; with the correlative paradox of a sincere unbelief and an apparent incredulity which is faith within non-belief.”

Will some of the Catholic bishops in beautiful Spain take Father Dumery’s words to heart? This Catholic priest is absolutely opposed to any form of coercion against unbeliever, schismatic or heretic. Truth, argues Father Dumery, is always ready to hear St. Paul; it will refuse to listen to Torquemada.

Professor Bela Vassady, an exile from stricken Hungary, in an article in Theology Today (July, 1956) plows a deep furrow as he writes on “The Power of Christlike Living.” Over against the cults of assurance Vassady stresses the need of negative thinking in terms of the Gospel’s call for self-depreciation, self-denial, humility and repentance. But though we are summoned to lose our lives for Christ’s sake, this demand “is always embedded in the proclamation of a new, divine positiveness.” The bootstrap strategy of the cults of assurance, Vassady rightly maintains, cannot lastingly dissolve man’s feelings of loneliness, emptiness and insecurity. But where men experience by faith the divine pardon of their sins, wondrous powers of the spirit are being released. In view of man’s introvert face-saving, that is, bribing one’s own conscience or the ever present extrovert or manward face-saving—“the selling of lies, the playing up of vices for virtues in the sight of others,” or, what is by far the worst, Godward or vertical face-saving—“the most stupid as well as wicked act of man the sinner to strive to deceive God and to believe in the success of his Godward camouflage,” there is but one remedy, namely saving faith! Concludes Vassady: “Saving faith is just the reverse of the complex of facesaving. Whoever dies and is risen with the Lord is saved by faith, and no longer needs to take refuge in a technique of face-saving. The crisis of facing the loss of faith is by such a man again and again overcome by a voluntary act of face-renunciation in the sight of the Lord who died for him.” This is sound pastoral theology because these insights are rooted in God’s holy Word.

Writing on “The Literature of the Fulton Street Prayer Meeting” (Moody Monthly, Jan., 1957), Wilbur M. Smith is convinced that “the Revival of 1858 is the kind of revival America preeminently needs today: caused by a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God, on every city and hamlet, from the Atlantic to the Pacific; a time of contrition and confession of sin; a time when waves of prayer will sweep over our land; when noonday meetings will see greater audiences than Sunday morning services now see; when ministers with even few gifts well speak with new power never before known by them, and will see hundreds coming forward to receive Christ in an otherwise ordinary service. This could be more nation-wide than any religious movement ever known in America, if a great work of God results from the Billy Graham campaign in New York, and millions are allowed to see, watching televised services in their own homes, the mighty working of the Spirit of God bringing eternal life to those who are receiving Christ as their Saviour.”

Indeed! Be it so! The Lord’s arm is not shortened that he cannot revive his people and with them this great land of ours. Though we perceive it not, spiritual battles are going on in our midst. God’s Spirit is striving mightily with the minds of men. May we acknowledge Christ’s absolute Lordship in all of life, whether in school or shop, home or hearth, in national and international relations, or in our relations with our neighbours of another race. Sursuam corda! Lift up your hearts! Regem habemus! We have a King, His name is Immanuel, God with us, the herald and bringer of life, joy and grace.

- More from William A. Mueller

Book Briefs: December 24, 1956

The Second Coming

The Blessed Hope, by George Eldon Ladd. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1956. $3.00.

Dr. Ladd of Fuller Seminary has followed up his earlier book, Crucial Questions about the Kingdom of God, by dealing directly with a vital part of the believer’s faith: Just what is the Blessed Hope? “The central thesis of this book,” he says, “is that the Blessed Hope is the second coming of Jesus Christ and not a pretribulation rapture” (p. 11). He continues: “The Blessed Hope is not deliverance from the Tribulation; it is union with the Lord at His coming” (p. 12). He shows that this was the historic view of premillennialists until about 125 years ago when J. N. Darby and others introduced a belief in a pretribulation rapture. Chapter 2, “The Rise and Spread of Pretribulationism,” traces this belief in England and America down to the Scofield Bible but also notes that important premillennialists up to the present day have rejected it. There follows a biblical study of the passages dealing with the Blessed Hope, the Tribulation, the Rapture, the Resurrection, and there is found “no support for the idea that the return of Christ will be divided into two aspects—one before and one after the Tribulation” (p. 89), but rather that the Blessed Hope is that reunion with Christ which “occurs at the Revelation of Christ in glory” (p. 100).

With this aspect of the book not all will agree, but we think Dr. Ladd has proved his point. Perhaps he might have made it even stronger by showing that a correct exegesis of Daniel 9:27 declares Christ, not the Antichrist, to bring sacrifices to end in the midst of the 70th week, thus leaving no foundation for a supposed three and a half-year tribulation under the Antichrist or a supposed seven-year lapse between the rapture and the glorious appearing of the Lord.

This book, however, is not only directed against the idea of a separate rapture but it is also directed against the idea of the “any-moment” coming of Christ, and there the reviewer feels bound to take issue with Dr. Ladd. He argues that, since such events as the tribulation and the preaching of the Gospel in all the world have yet to be fulfilled, the Lord could not come now. The command to watch “cannot be used to prove an any-moment unexpected coming of Christ for which the believer is to watch, for the day of the Lord will come only after definite signs such as the Antichrist and the apostasy which will indicate that the end is near” (p. 109). It is “a false assumption,” he says, “that belief in the any-moment return of Christ is identical with a biblical attitude of expectancy” (p. 153). In a chapter entitled “Watch,” he examines scriptural passages such as Mark 13:33–37 and Luke 12:37–39, and concludes, “The point of the warning is that we cannot say it will be soon; we do not know when” (p. 116).

But the point of the warning in these passages is rather that since we do not know the time, therefore we cannot say it will be either soon or distant and we must always watch. It is just as wrong to say, “My Lord delays His coming” as it is to insist that He must come now. No doubt Dr. Ladd would agree to this. His terminology may be elastic. He says, “If we are awake and Christ comes today, we are ready. If we are awake and Christ does not come until tomorrow, we will still be ready” (p. 115). And yet, in his identification of the pretribulationist view with the any-moment view of our Lord’s coming, and his emphasis on those events which must first be fulfilled, and in repeated rejection of the any-moment coming (“the biblical teaching of watching is not the equivalent of watching for an any-moment of Christ,” p. 163) he gives the impression that our expectancy of the Lord’s return ought not to be such as to allow us to sing, “Jesus may come today.”

Of course, the great problem is just how it is possible to expect Christ to return at any time, even immediately, if we also believe that certain signs of his coming have not yet been fulfilled. The most difficult sign is perhaps the conversion of the Jews. If this outpouring of God’s grace must precede the appearing of Christ, must we not then postpone His coming or at least hold our expectancy in abeyance, until the Jews turn to him? No. In matters of prophecy we have to distinguish between events about which we can have a high level of assurance as to their specific fulfillment, such as the Resurrection and the Judgment, and those of a lower level such as the exact nature of the millennium. And firmly on the higher level of assurance is the joyful duty of watching at every moment for the coming of Christ, for we are told again and again in the plainest language always to be ready because we know not at what hour the Lord will come. On a lower level of assurance are the signs: the salvation of the Jews, antichrist, tribulation. They may be fulfilled or may have been fulfilled in another way than we would expect.

To reject the separate, secret rapture is not to reject the any-moment coming. The any-moment glorious appearing of Christ, whether now, soon, or distant, is in the reviewer’s estimation the Blessed Hope.

ARTHUR W. KUSCHKE, JR.

Not Orthodox

The Theology of Reinhold Niebuhr, by Hans Hofmann. Scribner’s, New York, 1956. $3.95.

This is a painstaking and faithful interpretive summary of the theology of Reinhold Niebuhr, which traces its development from its earliest inception in his pastoral experiences in Detroit to its mature expression in The Nature and Destiny of Man and Faith and History. Hofmann uses a great number of quotations, often letting Niebuhr speak for himself.

Even though Niebuhr’s major works are readily accessible, a summarization is not out of place. An understanding of the background and development of Niebuhr’s thought is important, and this cannot be had by reading even his most systematic work. To get a rounded view without such an interpretive summary one would have to make a long and arduous study of a number of Niebuhr’s works.

Hofmann’s treatment is divided into four major sections: “The Beginning,” “Religion and Society,” “Sin as Man’s Severance of His Relatedness to God and Society,” and “Faith and Society as the Poles of the Original and True State of Man.” The treatment, therefore, revolves around the correlation of God, man, and society, in which man is the key link (pp. 91, 110). As Niebuhr sees it, the problem is not in God or in religion as such, nor is it in the external conditions of society. The problem lies first of all in man himself. Because of a disturbance of man’s relationship to God, his relation to society and society itself are disturbed (pp. 114, 236 et. al.).

The main source of difficulty is found in man as sinner (p. 113 f.). Hofmann believes that Niebuhr’s entire theology may be expounded around this theme. His book was originally published in Switzerland under the title, The Theology of Reinhold Niebuhr, in the Light of His Doctrine of Sin.

Sin is indeed a major theme in Niebuhr’s thought. In terms of it he has criticized some of the most cherished tenets of social and theological liberalism. But to look at Niebuhr’s position from the biblical point of view is to rejoice on the one hand that he recognizes sin at all and especially that he sees the spiritual nature of sin; and yet it is to regret on the other hand that he refuses to recognize, e.g., an actual pre-fall state and an historical fall. Looking at man here and now, Niebuhr says, without any concern for his historical origin or development, what tools do we need to interpret his present condition? The answer is that we need certain myths that have come to us in the Christian tradition: e.g., the fall and original sin. The Christian doctrines are myths, supra-scientific, imaginative expressions which must be taken seriously but not literally, which God has used for his revelation of himself and of the state of man. As with the other doctrines of the Christian faith, we have in Niebuhr’s view of sin a basic reconstruction of the biblical position.

The question of myth has been widely discussed lately, and the controversy is by no means closed. Very interesting is Hofmann’s comparison of the position of Niebuhr and Rudolf Bultmann, who is famous for his program of demythologization (p. 75 ff.). Niebuhr sees the supposed myths in the Scriptures as indispensable vehicles of divine revelation, while Bultmann finds the essential thing in the existential meaning underneath the form of mythical speech. But it is clear that Niebuhr is as radical as Bultmann in relegating biblical material to the realm of myth (cf. p. 92 f.). For both men such doctrines as the original sinless state, the fall, the preexistence of Christ, the doctrine of the two natures of Christ, the ascension, the session on God’s right hand, and His coming again in glory are myths and cannot be taken literally in any sense. Observing closely one sees that the current fray is a variation on the theme of supernaturalism versus anti-supernaturalism. Whatever remnants of supernaturalism might remain in Niebuhr (as Tillich claims), he is quite solidly anti-supernaturalistic.

With this in mind, it is noteworthy that Hofmann’s book is almost entirely free of criticism. In addition, we note that Hofmann has not fully laid bare the change of meaning that standard theological terms have undergone in Niebuhr’s thought. I would judge that while Hofmann has been faithful in his presentation, he has pictured Niebuhr as somewhat too orthodox, just because he has not always let Niebuhr’s terms be seen in their changed meaning. Niebuhr’s theology is indeed a modification of liberalism, but it is in no instance a return to orthodoxy.

ROBERT D. KNUDSEN

Wisdom Of Prophets

The Parables of the Old Testament, by Clarence E. Macartney. Baker, Grand Rapids Michigan. $2.00.

There is an abundance of material on the parables of the New Testament, but very little that deals with the parables of the Old Testament. In his research preparatory to the writing of this volume, Dr. Macartney discovered that neither in America nor in Great Britain could he find a single book that dealt with the parables of the Old Testament. In the preparation of this volume, therefore, he described his feeling as being similar to the experience of the men of the sixteenth century who sailed upon seas that never before had been cleft by the keel of a ship.

Dr. Macartney finds that the principal difference between the parables of Christ and those of the Old Testament consists in the fact that nearly all of the parables of our Lord taught spiritual truth that is timeless, whereas the parables of the Old Testament were messages for a special occasion. Despite this fact, the author maintains that the parables of the Old Testament teem with suggestions of truth, which are relevant for any age, and in many instances they may be made the vehicle of evangelical truth.

Included in this volume are two fables, the only ones in the Bible, that of the Trees and that of the Thistle and Cedar. The general purpose of the fable and parable is the same, said Dr. Macartney, to illustrate moral and spiritual truth by comparison with what actually transpires. But the fable differs from the parable in that in the fable the subjects of the mineral or vegetable or animal kingdom “feign to speak and act with human interest and passion.”

The content of this volume will provide biblical material that will be new and fresh to most congregations.

The nine chapters in this volume, as Dr. Macartney expresses it, represent the garnered wisdom of prophets, chroniclers, and seers, some of them known and some of them unknown, but all worthy of a better acquaintance.

Dr. Macartney has written scores of volumes, but it is doubtful if any contains the marked originality, vivid description and powerful presentation equal to this work produced in his earlier ministry and reprinted for readers of today.

JOHN R. RICHARDSON

Typology?

Devotional Studies of Old Testament Types, by Fred H. Wight. Moody, Chicago, 1956. $3.50.

Perhaps no area of biblical interpretation has suffered more acutely at the hands of the higher critics than Old Testament typology. The reviewer once sat under a seminary professor who hurled the typical approach wholesale to the rubbish heap of antiquated imaginations. Wight justifies the method by appealing to Jesus’ and Paul’s use of it, an observation that ought to silence all objections.

Discreetly the author, a Baptist minister, in his introduction first defines a type as “a person, thing or event in the Old Testament designed (underlining my own) to represent or prefigure some person, thing or event in the New Testament.” It is regrettable that his presentation of the subject in many instances repudiates that definition by confusing and equating analogies with types. We could illustrate at length for the examples are numerous, but several will suffice. All are taken from the chapter on I and II Samuel: “The Kingdom of Saul, a Type of the Self-Life”; “David at the Cave of Adullam, a Type of Christ Our Captain”; “Bringing the Ark to Jerusalem, a Type of Revival in the Church”; and “Mephibosheth, The Type of a Sinner Saved by Grace.” Parallels of this kind may be drawn by analogy, but they certainly do not belong to typology. Incidentally, this mode of exposition is largely responsible for bringing typology as such into disrepute.

Wight is at his best when he deals with characters who prefigure Christ, like Joseph and Moses, studies of interest and value. Elsewhere, however, he tends, even within the bounds of legitimate typology, to fanciful and exaggerated conclusions which bear reminiscences of Origen’s allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament and Augustine’s comments on the parables. This of course critically weakens the historical impact. He further forces certain features into his dispensational eschatology.

The book exhibits a tendency to needless repetition, at times a lack of correlation of points and occasional deceptive literalisms. Though solidly evangelical and loyal to the Scriptures as the fully-inspired Word of God, it is difficult to recommend this volume. It will confuse and mislead the theologically unoriented and prove too much of a surface study for preachers who will want to stretch their mental muscles with works like those of Fairbairn, Habershon and Baron.

RICHARD ALLEN BODEY

Perfumed, Beribboned

The Old Story of Salvation, by Sophia Lyon Fahs. Starr King and Beacon, Boston. $3.00.

It is evidently the author’s purpose in this book to retell the Story in the Bible (she would distinguish this from the story of the Bible) as a living narrative which may be found woven through the largely extraneous material from Genesis to Revelation; and then to discuss the meaning and significance of that story for the purposes of modern, liberal religion. The book is in two parts. The first is the aforementioned historical narrative and is a very fine, condensed Bible Story which includes, uncritically, the traditional theophanies, miracles, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, etc., to the end of the Revelation. The second part, which is the meat of the author’s writing is called “The Unanswered Question: ‘What is Truth?’ ” In this last 40% of the book, she offers her opinions on the religion which she believes may be found, not by mutilating the story, but by understanding it as a myth and fable. The result is a perfumed and beribboned Hegelian idealism in modern dress. Except that not even Hegel would have taken such liberties with traditional religious concepts.

The author, who has no evident use for orthodoxy, whether traditional or “new,” identifies herself with the Council of Liberal Churches. She explains, in a burst of confidence, that she developed her ideas while working with the boys and girls in the Church School of the Riverside Church of New York City.

One of the milder views she elaborates in the discussion section is the now familiar one, that the “original” Christian faith was “not what Jesus believed, but what the Christian church early came to believe about Jesus.” And the author believes that her’s is “not a study of history directly, but rather of a great tradition which has molded history.”

She feels that it is “crude reasoning” to present the death of Christ as an atonement. He died, essentially for the same reason that Socrates and Ghandi died, an ideal person going down in defeat, despised, rejected, his cause apparently lost. Moreover, Jesus never thought of himself as a Messiah, never sent out disciples to preach and baptize in His name, never would have claimed to be the only savior among the world’s saviors. One’s heart goes out to those boys and girls at the Riverside Church.

G. AIKEN TAYLOR

Popular Biography

By Faith Alone, by W. J. Kooiman. Philosophical, New York, 1955. $6.00.

It is not necessary for any reviewer to tell evangelical Christians how valuable Dr. Martin Luther, whose biography is ably and attractively presented in this excellent book, is for our present-day evangelical believers who adhere to salvation by faith in Christ without works. But there may be a need to introduce the readers to Professor Kooiman of the University of Amsterdam since he may not as yet be known to many evangelical Christians in America. To say it briefly, he is instructor of church history in the University of Amsterdam and is a most influential preacher and radio speaker in the Netherlands, whose interest in Luther is deep and inspiring. Believing that evangelical Christendom must hold to the doctrine of God’s free grace in Christ Jesus, he proclaims this precious doctrine with a conviction that stirs and enlivens those who listen to him. His Life of Martin Luther was written as a pastor who keeps in mind his parishioners, both young and old. In 1954 the reviewer read it in Holland in the original. Later, he read it in a German translation, and now he has read it in an English translation by Dr. Bertram Lee Woolf which is so masterfully done that no fault can be found with it. Dr. Kooiman’s biography of Luther is not scientific in the strict sense of the term, but rather is popular. Yet in accuracy, depth, and comprehensiveness, so far as Luther’s life and work are concerned, it is truly scientific within its scope. The reviewer recommends Kooiman’s By Faith Alone to all evangelical Christians and hopes that it will become as popular in the English-speaking countries as in the Netherlands and Germany.

JOHN THEODORE MUELLER

News about North and South America: December 24, 1956

‘Deep Divisions’

Cutting the Gospel “down to a size that fits” into our culture has resulted in “one of the deep dilemmas facing contemporary overseas mission work.”

In expressing this opinion at the annual meeting of the National Council of Churches’ Division of Foreign Missions, Dr. Eugene L. Smith of New York, chairman of the division’s executive board, charged that Protestant theology in the United States has been moulded by “our fabulous and unmatched prosperity.”

The official, in his address to some 300 representatives of 45 Protestant denominations at the five-day conference in Buck Hill Falls, Pennsylvania, stated:

“To the very degree we become successful, influential and established, we move away from the radical and, therefore, disturbing elements of Christian truth. We expurgate the Gospel of those elements which embarrass us by their radicalism, their grandeur or their terrifying purity.…

“By preaching a culturally-rooted Christianity, many have been guilty of theological parochialism at its arrogant worst. From such aggressive blindness, the Church has suffered deeply, and there have developed some of the deep divisions within Christianity.”

Charging that contemporary preaching often smacks of “obscurantism” and “lack of clarity,” he said ministers frequently feed their congregations “theological half-truths” and fail to preach “the whole Gospel” in terms that can be understood by the average man.

Dr. Roy G. Ross, general secretary of the Council, said Christianity in the Far East was hampered by Protestant divisiveness and an awakened new missionary zeal on the part of other religions.

Much of the divisiveness in Asia was attributed to “sect groups.”

Referring to a mass resurgence of Buddhism in the Far East, he said Buddhists “plan to train and send missionaries throughout the world.”

Dr. Leslie E. Cooke of Geneva, Switzerland, director of the Council’s Division of Inter-church Aid and Service to Refugees, said “the new independence of overseas churches established through western missionary activities does not mean they no longer need our help, but it does require the development of new patterns of assistance.”

He said a “significant part” in determining the new strategy for missions may be played by the growing program of inter-church aid in which Christians of one nation share funds and material goods with those of other nations in times of emergency.

Dr. Cooke emphasized, however, that inter-church aid can never be a substitute for missions.

Deadline For Ministers

Most ministers will forfeit their coverage rights under Social Security if they fail to file application forms by April 15, 1957.

The only clergymen not faced with the deadline are those already covered and those who became ministers after January 1, 1955. New ministers have at least two years after their ordination.

Under changes made in the Social Security Law by Congress in 1954, ministers for the first time can be covered. But each minister must decide whether he wants to be covered.

The coverage will be as a self-employed person, even though he receives a salary from the congregation. Each must file by April 15 a report of earnings to the Internal Revenue Service, along with the regular income tax form. A Social Security tax of three per cent will be paid on earnings up to $4,200. The tax will increase to 33/8 per cent for 1957.

Churches and institutions are not involved or obligated in any way. Many churches, however, are adding the cost of the tax to the salaries of ministers.

God Is Good

A young woman missionary, who helplessly watched her baby son slowly freeze to death and later saw hope ebb for the safety of her missing husband, will continue evangelistic work among the nomadic Indians of a lonely sub-Arctic outpost.

The husband, Albert Kelly, 26, serving with the Central Alaskan Mission, disappeared in a skiff while seeking help after his family was marooned on a desolate island in Glena Bay. His wife, Vera, 25, was later rescued from a rocky beach with her daughter, Rebecca, 3.

They had been without food or shelter for four days and nights. Nearby lay the frozen body of four-month-old Thomas, a victim of starvation and the bitter Alaskan cold.

Mrs. Kelly, recuperating in a hospital, said:

“My husband may be dead. My baby is dead. But I still have my faith in God. Despite everything, God has been good to us and I want to continue in His service.”

Inauguration Decanters

President Dwight Eisenhower has pulled the plug on plans of distillers to promote the sale of whiskey in special inauguration bottles listing the names of all U. S. Presidents.

Gerald Morgan, special counsel to the President, sent a protest to Judge William C. Bryant, Ohio liquor director, resulting in sales of the decanters being stopped there.

Clayton M. Wallace, executive director of the National Temperance League, said he had been informed that Morgan’s letter to Judge Bryant stated, “The President wished it known that he had not been asked to give his consent to his name appearing on the bottle, and that he had not given such consent.”

Assembly Line Art

“The most callous people in the country are making cheap church art by the tons; the most devoted people are sitting in front of it every Sunday, and somebody is taking in the cash at the expense of good art and good people.”

So said artist Siegfried Reinhardt while in Des Moines, Iowa, to judge a religious art competition. A teacher of advanced painting at Washington University, St. Louis, he assailed what he called a “cultural delinquency” in American church art and urged wider use of original paintings in churches.

Christian Athletes

A Fellowship of Christian Athletes is flexing physical and spiritual muscles for a big job in American cities.

Talks are planned before high school and college audiences by a star-studded lineup of speakers, including such noted athletes as Donn Moomaw, All-America football player at U. C. L. A.; Otto Graham, retired quarterback of Cleveland Browns; Robin Roberts, pitcher with Philadelphia Phillies; Doak Walker, former All-American and all-pro in football; Carl Erskine, no-hit pitcher with Brooklyn Dodgers, and others.

In a four-day conference at Estes Park, Colorado, this year the athletes gave tips to several hundred young men on how to play well and live right. Remarked Moomaw, regarded as one of the greatest linebackers in the history of football:

“You are either on the team of God, or you’re off. There is no in between … no second team. If you’re on God’s team, Jesus Christ is your coach and quarterback and you follow Him.”

The athletes have received a number of requests to appear in schools throughout the country. A few of the city fathers, however, added provisions that the talks be about God in general and not Jesus Christ in particular.

FCA directors have adopted a policy against the acceptance of invitations where members are not free to witness for Christ.

The decision, in addition to the conviction of members, was influenced by such remarks as the following from a track speedster at Michigan University:

“I’ve just realized I’ve been trying to lead a Christian life without Jesus Christ. It can’t be done.”

CHRISTIANITY TODAYis a subscriber to Religious News Service, Evangelical Press Service and Washington Religious Report Newsletter.

Not In Vain

The killing of five American missionaries by Auca Indians in Ecuador last January had a direct effect in the volunteering of some 2,000 young persons for foreign missions work.

This report was made by the Rev. Robert B. Savage, program director of radio station HCJB at Quito, Ecuador. He said he heard of the volunteers through the ministers of various congregations.

Digest …

► Dr. Arthur R. McKay, 38, pastor of First Presbyterian, Binghamton, New York, appointed president of McCormick Theological Seminary.… American Bible Society plans 225 translations of Gospels into new languages in next quarter century.

► Southern Baptist Convention announces goal of 425,000 converts for 1957. Denomination baptized 416,867 in 1955.… 100,000 new Protestant churches seen as need in next 20 years.

► Methodist Church increases membership to new high of 9,444,820.

► Missionary radio station HCJB celebrates 25th anniversary.… U. S. tobacco acreage allotment cut 175,000 acres for 1957.…

► Howard A. Hermansen, associate pastor of Moody Church for 10 years, resigns. No future plans announced.… 1957 budget of $13,290,000 adopted by General Board for National Council of Churches—including $7,636,000 for relief, rehabilitation and world missions.

► Presbyterian Church in U. S. A., with record budget of $9,112,398 for overseas missionary work, votes to dissolve three missions in India so work can merge with United Church of Northern India.

► Dr. V. Raymond Edman, president of Wheaton College, and Mrs. Edman plan to spend some of Christmas holidays in Ecuador with missionaries and the five missionary widows. As missionary in Ecuador, Dr. Edman was smitten with fever and once given up for dead. This will be Mrs. Edman’s first trip back in 25 years.

► Dr. Powhatan W. James, biographer and son-in-law of the famed preacher, George W. Truett, dies in Dallas, at 76.

Britain and the Continent News: December 24, 1956

Slaves Of Devil

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Geoffrey Fisher, has denounced the rulers of Russia as being “to a unique degree the instruments and slaves of the devil.”

In his most outspoken attack on Russian communism, he declared that the Soviets had become known throughout the world as the universal enemy of mankind.

Dr. Fisher, speaking in support of the Lord Mayor’s fund for Hungarian refugees at a meeting in Albert Hall, London, said:

“Today we stand amazed before an act of government altogether evil, with no admixture of any good purpose or any worthy of decent motive, utterly empty of any spark of human kindness, a total denial of freedom and God.

“Because the rulers of Russia have expelled God from their belief, they are able to violate and outrage not only all the laws of God but all the hopes and aspirations of the human spirit. Having left themselves nothing to worship but themselves, they have become to a unique degree the instruments and slaves of the devil.

“It is just here, in this extremity of evil power, that the glory of Christ, Saviour of the world, shines out in its purest. It is when Christian people find themselves impotent, scourged and crucified before an unveiled manifestation of evil that they best learn the power of Christ, of His sufferings and of His resurrection.

“Hungary’s sufferings are not in vain. The Soviet government is known throughout the world as never before to be the universal enemy of mankind. Her own action has disrupted communism in the West and discredited it in the East. The despots of Russia have found their circle of adherents on whom they can rely much smaller than they supposed. They know there are only two choices before them: desperate action or defeat.”

A minute’s silence was observed after the Archbishop’s speech, in honor of Hungarian martyrs and refugees. Resolutions were passed calling for the immediate return of deported Hungarians, the introduction of United Nations observers into Hungary and the holding of free elections.

F.C.

Surge In Norway

Thousands of new members were brought into churches during an intensive week-long evangelism campaign conducted simultaneously in Oslo and Stavanger.

More than 50,000 homes in 61 parishes were visited by laymen during the drive. Overflow crowds, the majority without previous church affiliation, filled the churches in a series of special services at the conclusion of the effort.

Similar campaigns are planned in other sections of the country.

Abiding Results

Rumors have circulated during recent months that lasting results of the 1955 Billy Graham Crusade in Glasgow, Scotland, proved negligible.

Some have stated there has been a decided fall away in church attendance since the campaign.

But Dr. John Highet, lecturer in sociology at Glasgow University, said such rumors have been found to be groundless. After a census of church attendance in Glasgow, he presented figures showing that church attendance and membership have risen.

Dr. Highet said nearly 6,000 more people were attending church in Glasgow a year after Graham’s departure.

The Christian, a widely-read magazine, pointed out that such statistics provide one significant result but do not tell the whole story.

“The fruitfulness of the crusade,” said the Christian, “is manifest still in many ways that do not lend themselves to statistics. It is seen in its influence on ministers and lay preachers who have been stirred up to make their preaching more evangelistic, in the quickening of spiritual life in churches that supported the crusade, in a deepened prayer spirit and in many young lives that responded to the call for service.”

‘Deeper Meaning’

East German Christmas parties, by order of the Communist Soviet Labor Unions Association, expressed the “new deeper meaning Christmas has in the Workers and Peasants’ Republic.”

Christmas songs and poems were restricted to those telling of the “democratic unity of Germany, peace, friendship and a prosperous socialist future.”

Plays featured “only such themes as the possibilities of a peaceful use of atomic energy and the discovery of outer space.”

The directive said Christmas festivities “quelled the working people’s joy of life” because they were “rooted in mysticism and promoted superstition.”

Famed Church Rebuilt

St. Mary’s Church, Islington, in North London, described as “The Cathedral of Evangelism” before being wrecked by Nazi bombs in 1940, was reopened this month.

A plaque was unveiled, bearing the inscription, “Destroyed by war—Restored by faith.”

Many well known evangelicals have served the parish during the last 200 years. Charles Wesley was at one time a curate of Islington. The present vicar is the Rev. Maurice Wood, a gifted preacher and evangelist.

For well over a century, the Vicar of Islington has arranged an annual conference for evangelical clergymen of the Church of England. The 123rd conference will take place January 8.

Freedom In Italy

A bill has been submitted to the Italian Parliament concerning the free exercise of religious rights and government relations with non-Catholic denominations.

Non-Catholic bodies in Italy are ruled by the restrictive laws enacted in 1929 and 1930 under the Fascist Regime—a sharp contrast with the Republican Constitution of 1948.

The new bill provides that “the exercise of religious rights by the evangelical religious confessions, their members and institutions should be recognized according to the terms, modes and limits appropriately established by the Constitution.”

Strange Broadcast

A church organ in Blackpool, England, startled parishioners when it “broadcast” a BBC weather report during a service.

Investigators found that a piece of wire had dropped among the tubes and caused the instrument to pick up radio signals.

Digest …

► Dr. George Otto Simms, 46, elected Anglican Archbishop of Dublin. Formerly Bishop of Cork.… Soviet Zone city of Rostock designated 1957 “City of Church Reconstruction” by Evangelical Church in Germany. Only three of city’s Protestant churches survived war without damage.

► Evangelical Church of Germany opens center at Mainz-Kastel to train Protestant ministers for pastoral work in industrial areas.… Dan Piatt, European director for Navigators, reports opening of fourth Christian Servicemen’s Center at Bitburg. Others at Naples, Wiesbaden and Kaiserslautern.

Africa + Asia + Australia News: December 24, 1956

A Buddhist State?

A number of prominent Buddhists in Ceylon, some with political ambitions, constituted themselves “The Buddhist Commission of Inquiry” two and one-half years ago. This year, the group made its report, entitled “The Betrayal of Buddhism.”

As expected, it proved to be a highly partisan document, re-writing the “good old” (Buddhist) days of Ceylon’s history in a manner which no modern historian could approve. But the document proved illuminating as a mirror of racialist views.

The Buddhist re-write of history said that the Buddhist kings of Ceylon had a superb kingdom which was completely spoiled when the Portuguese invaded in 1505, followed by the Dutch and finally by the British in 1795. “The Betrayal” pointed the way back to the palmy days before foreign rule began.

(Some have pointed out that Singalese rule was at its lowest ebb when the Portuguese came. When foreign rule ceased in 1947, Ceylon was a state at peace, with its security founded on the rule of law. Its welfare government gave citizens a widespread system of education and medical care).

Modern Buddhists, bitten by excessive nationalism, dream about another kind of state. As outlined in “The Betrayal,” all religious and charitable bodies should be required to pay income taxes—except Buddhist temples and their lands. This exception, it was explained, would serve as compensation for losses suffered by Buddhist institutions due to foreign conquest.

Other recommendations: A representative Buddhist Council should care for the Buddhist religion; the capital should be moved from Colombo in order to get away from undesirable foreign influences such as horse racing, which should be banned.

The greatest concern to the Christian Church was the commission’s recommendations that within two years all schools be run by the government. A majority of Protestant churches in Ceylon are more or less dependent for support upon the staffs of nearby schools. Any religion, however, which wishes to run a private school can do so at its own expense and with all pupils of its own faith.

In any state school, if the pupils are 51 per cent or more of one faith, the head of the school must be of that faith. The teachers of any particular faith must be in proportion to the number of students in the school of that belief. Coeducation is forbidden.

Finally, the group recommended that it be a punishable offense to seek conversion of a person under 21 in any school.

The number of such fanatical Buddhists does not seem to be large, and Christian leaders do not expect the report to become law. They do feel, however, that the days of denominational schools (tax-supported, at present) are numbered.

Hindu Praises

Nine prominent Indian Hindu leaders, in a joint statement at Madras, praised the work of Christian missionaries and assailed charges made against foreign missions by some state government groups.

The Hindu leaders said, “It is not our experience that they seek to undermine patriotic or national loyalties.”

This charge was brought against missionaries in July by the Madhya Pradesh government.

Among the signers of the joint statement were Jadunath Sarkar, former vice chancellor of Calcutta University; B. V. Narayana Reddy, general manager of the Bank of Mysore; Dr. P. Subbarayan, former chief minister of Madras and now a member of parliament; and Teja Singh, retired chief justice of the Punjab High Court.

Church Merger

A proposed merger of Anglican and Protestant churches in northern India and Pakistan has been approved by the 12th General Assembly of the United Church of North India.

Five bodies are involved. They are the United Church of North India, the Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon (Anglican); the Methodist Church in southern Asia, the British and Australian Methodist missionary societies and a Baptist Church of British Commonwealth origin.

The plan will be presented by the negotiating committee to the churches involved after the committee’s next meeting in April, 1957. If approved, the union will be known as the Church of North India and Pakistan.

The United Church of North India was formed from American Congregational, Evangelical and Reformed groups, British and American Presbyterian bodies and United Church of Canada mission congregations. It has a membership of over 400,000.

Hong Kong Rallies

An estimated 2,500 conversions resulted at more than 200 rallies attended by 75,000 during a two-week Baptist evangelistic crusade in Hong Kong and nearby Macao.

The campaign, sponsored by the Foreign Missions Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, was the first of its kind in the area.

Speakers included three from the United States, two from Formosa, two from Japan and one from Thailand. American speakers were Dr. Forrest C. Feezor, executive secretary of the Baptist General Convention of Texas; Dr. J. Howard Williams, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and Dr. Ralph Herring, pastor of First Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Clubbings On Bus

Brutal treatment by Egyptian secret police was described by an expelled Australian chaplain after his arrest in Suez.

The Rev. William Robert Tyler, chaplain of the Seamen’s Mission at Port Said, stated:

“Eighteen of us were put into a bus and we were made to sit with coats over our heads. After a while, one of the guards, who must have been a hefty fellow, went along the gangway of the bus and clubbed us all at the back of the head with a rifle butt.”

New Translations

The Wycliffe Translators plan to send teams into Papua and the Australian Trust Territory of New Guinea—a territory with hundreds of languages and few Scriptures.

The latest government list names 471 languages in Papua and Australian New Guinea. Two of these have the whole Bible; 10 have the entire New Testament and 39 have some lesser portion of the Bible. This leaves 420 languages with no part of the Scriptures. Most of the languages have not been reduced to writing.

Digest …

► American missionaries take over work of two British mission groups in Egypt. Personnel placed under house arrest.… Rt. Rev. Kimber Den, former Anglican Bishop of Chekiang, China, released and “publicly exonerated” after four years as prisoner of Reds.

Jerusalem + Judea + Samaria News: December 24, 1956

Stone Age Burial

The first Natufian burial ground has been unearthed about 15 miles north of the Sea of Galilee.

French archaeologist Jean Perrot made the discovery at Mallaha, near Lake Huleh, while conducting excavations for the Israeli Department of Antiquities.

The Stone Age cemetery belonged to the Natufian hunting-fishing civilization of the Mesolithic culture. Isolated Natufian tombs have been found before, but this was the first reported discovery of a burial ground.

The cemetery surrounded a chieftain’s tomb, which consisted of a circular pit about 16½ feet in diameter. The walls were of solid clay, covered with red ochre. The pit was covered by a circular stone pavement, surmounted by a low wall. Inside the pit was a second pavement, about 20 inches below the surface, with a fireplace. Under this pavement, seven skeletons were found, each wearing shell and bone necklaces.

Found in the center was the skeleton of the chief. The hip bones had been extracted, the feet tied and large stones placed on the shoulders—apparently to immobilize the spirit of the dead chief.

Indications were that several women and children were sacrificed when the chief was buried.

Sermons Banned

Religious sermons over the state broadcasting station have been banned by the Lebanese government.

Both Christian and Moslem services were affected. The order stated that services will be limited to the reading of the Bible or Koran, prayers and liturgy.

The ban followed a sermon by Sheik ShafikYamout, chief justice of the Lebanese Moslem religious courts, from the Grand Mosque of el-Emary. His sermon criticized the Lebanese authorities for lack of full support to Egypt and Syria and for not severing diplomatic relations with Great Britain and France.

Protests Ignored in Consecration of Philippines

Despite vigorous Protestant protests, the Philippines this month became the third nation in the world to be officially consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

President Ramon Magsaysay, in solemnly dedicating the Filipino people at the Second National Eucharistic Congress, prayed that Christ will “take under His strong and Self-giving protection … all government agencies whose cooperation is essential for the progress and prosperity of our republic.”

(Spain and Ecuador, the only other nations consecrated to the Sacred Heart, have been the scenes of many official oppressive measures against Protestants.)

The late President Manuel Quezon had requested that all references to the President or Philippine government be eliminated from the program of the First Congress to keep from indicating an official participation of the government in the ceremonies.

Quezon wrote to the Archbishop of Manila:

“I hope I am a good practical Catholic. As such in my individual capacity there is nothing that I shall not be glad to do to give added solemnity to the celebration of the Eucharistic Congress. But as President of the Philippines I’m not in the position to do what your program calls for.”

Evangelical church leaders, prior to the congress, protested without success against Catholic domination of political, social and religious life in the country as a violation of the Constitution.

The Rev. Jose A. Yap, executive secretary of the Philippine Federation of Christian Churches, in a statement at that time said, “It appears the President is yielding to the pressure of the Catholic hierarchy.” Dr. Gumersindo Garcia, respected Protestant lay leader, expressed the fear that the trend toward union of church and state “will endanger democracy here.”

Filipinos are more receptive today to the Gospel than at any period in the history of the Protestant Church, according to evangelicals.

(Earlier this year, Dr. Billy Graham addressed 40,000 at a night service in Manila and saw over 5,000 walk onto the track at Rizal Memorial Stadium to make decisions for Jesus Christ. This was the largest response seen on the evangelist’s world tour. By comparison, when he addressed 120,000 at London’s Wembley Stadium in 1954, there were 2,500 decisions. In Manila, Dr. Graham faced the only organized church opposition on the world tour. A Catholic spokesman urged the people not to attend to guard against getting “confused” in their faith.)

Freedom In Israel

Donn C. Odell, correspondent for CHRISTIANITY TODAY in Israel and graduate student at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has been denied a visa renewal and will be forced to return to the United States immediately unless Israeli officials rescind their action.

The visa refusal, evidently caused by Odell’s status as magazine correspondent and former association with the Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society, touched off the following reactions:

* Discrimination against Christian activity was strongly denied by the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D. C. Vice-Consul Baruch Barak said “Christian missionaries are given all possible help in Israel.” He stated, emphatically, that visas were never denied because of missionary activity.

* The U. S. State Department said it was “looking into” Odell’s case, and a number of similar situations.

* A Christian source in Jerusalem, who will not be named in view of possible deviations in the Israeli policy, said: “Irsael does not grant (new) visas for missionaries. If any Christian comes to Israel as a tourist or under any type of visa and is suspected of engaging in missionary work, his visa is revoked and he must leave the country.”

The source continued:

“The Post Office maintains a file on every Christian in Israel who is suspected of missionary activity. Both incoming and outgoing mail is heavily censored and excerpts from correspondence which may indicate such activity are transcribed and placed in the individual’s file. In some cases, the suspect person is followed by government agents to further confirm his activities. When his visa comes up for renewal, the contents of his file provide evidence against him.”

In looking at mail censorship from Israel’s point of view, however, he had this to say:

“This act is necessary and justified on at least two counts. The Arab states still consider themselves to be at war with Israel. There are Arabs living here who are suspected of passing military information to the Arab governments by means of mail to neutral countries. Thus, on the one hand, censorship is carried out to prevent Arab espionage. On the other hand, certain foreign missions in Israel are believed to be pro-Arab, even though they are attempting to work with Jews. Inasmuch as Christianity is looked upon as a religion which seeks the end of Judaism, all Christians, and especially missionaries, are watched very closely.”

Donn Odell found Christ while he was in the Navy and later dedicated his life to missionary service. After graduating from Fuller Theological Seminary, he departed for Israel in 1955 with his wife, the former Ruth Kerr, and their three children. After working for some time, he resigned from the missionary organization on the field and enrolled for graduate work at the Hebrew University in order to learn more about the sociological problems of the people.

With the recent outbreak of war in the Middle East, Mrs. Odell and the children went to Naples, Italy, while Donn remained.

A well-qualified Christian observer in Israel pointed out the following:

“Jews have suffered during centuries of prejudice, hatred and slaughter under the Roman Church and Protestants and they have a pathological fear of the ‘cross.’

“With this background, Israel is violently anti-missions. Those mission organizations which existed under the British Mandate are permitted to continue functioning, but under considerable restrictions.

“Unfortunately, the history of mission groups is stained with jealousy and frequent feuding over converts, doctrine and ecclesiology. This un-Christlike attitude has served to further negate an already-weakened witness.

“Christians have entered Israel with organizational banners flying—Baptists, Nazarenes, Pentecostals, Seventh Day Adventists, ad infinitum. All use the name Christian and all call themselves missionaries. But before they have time to define these terms to the Jews, they already have three strikes against them. To the Jews, these words and these people represent the hated instruments of their oppression.

“There are a number of fine Christians in Israel who are genuinely attempting to do a work for Christ, but the traditional mission approach has failed and there is little likelihood of its succeeding in the future.

“It is difficult to realize that there is any other alternative to Jewish evangelism than professional missionary activity. The Jews cannot be categorized with the pagans of Africa, India, or China. They, for the most part, take the missionaries in their midst at face value, without a long history of bloody slaughter at the hands of Christians. A missionary in Israel has no face value. He is an intruder, with no objective but to eliminate Judaism through any means of conversion available to him.… We can only realize that this condition exists and search for a new point of beginning in our relations to the Jews. It cannot be done by pouring more dollars into Jewish missions. To send money to a converted Jew in Israel is the quickest way of making him an outcast in his own society. He then becomes a paid foreign missionary and thus the worst kind of traitor. More often than not, he becomes spoiled through this easy money and leans more heavily on his monthly check than is either healthy or expedient … Nor would 10,000 new missionaries in Israel be the answer. Even if this were possible, their inability to present a united front would further confirm to the Jews the inadequacy of Christ.…

“The long-run work of evangelism in Israel must be done by young, intelligent Hebrew-Christians who are trained in a secular profession. They must love Israel and their brothers enough to … work there, raise and educate their children and prove their undivided loyalty to the people and nation. They should not represent any mission society, either Jewish or Gentile.

“Intheir own communities, as Jews and loyal Israelis, they should live a simple, loving witness for Christ. If they have no connection with foreign missions and do not propose a union with foreign Protestants, their witness will be heard as coming from Jews who believe that Jesus is truly their Messiah and who stand to gain no material benefits from their belief in Him. As one or two are added to the body of Christ, they can meet together for worship and Bible study. They need not organize a church in the American sense of the word, but can consider themselves to be a church.

“There are a number of ‘secret believers’ in Israel. They are isolated and stand pretty much alone. They need leadership, comfort and encouragement, but it must come from within their own group. The immigrant Hebrew-Christians could provide the necessary leadership, but they must be patient and willing to plan for the long run. Such action lacks glamour and demands great sacrifice.

“American Christians must realize that Jewish evangelism begins with love—not dollars.”

Worth Quoting

“Intellectual development is rudderless at best and dangerous at worst when isolated from moral convictions and personal commitments that are religious in character.”—Dr. Liston Pope, dean of Yale University Divinity School.

“What America needs more than railway extension, western irrigation, low tariff, a bigger cotton crop or a larger wheat crop, is a revival of religion. The kind that father and mother used to have. A religion that counted it good business to take time for family worship each morning right in the middle of wheat harvest. A religion that prompted them to quit work a half hour earlier on Wednesday so that the whole family could get ready to go to prayer meeting.”—Wall Street Journal.

“Because they despise the Church, the Communists continually attempt to infiltrate unsuspecting religious organizations. What better cloak of legitimacy can be found for their programs than to present them as the offerings of clergymen and churches? The strategy of the Communists to get others to front for them and do their dirty work cannot be underestimated.”—J. Edgar Hoover, chief of the U. S. FBI.

“A lot of people who travel 100 miles an hour and endanger the lives of others would be plain shocked if you told them they are just as bad morally as the man who steals money out of a safe.”—Governor John F. Simms of New Mexico.

Interesting Face

America’s top calendar artists agreed that Dr. Albert Schweitzer, noted medical missionary, has the “most interesting face in the world.”

Runners-up were President Eisenhower, Arturo Toscannini, symphony conductor and Frank Lloyd Wright, architect. Marilyn Monroe, the film actress, was near the bottom of the list.

Deaths Hit College

The second faculty death in two years has brought mourning to the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Dr. Henry Zylstra, professor of English, died recently of a heart attack while serving abroad as visiting professor in literature at the Free University of Amsterdam. He was in his 40’s.

Dr. Cecil DeBoer, 54, professor of philosophy, died suddenly last year.

The kingdom of God is near.

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Then And Now

Toward A New Era

Sectarian Subsidies Unlimited

A Major Decision

The Alternative

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A Difficult Field

The Rise Of The Kyodan

Virtually A New Denomination

An Impaired Witness

Preacher In The Red

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Soviet Advantages

Weaknesses Of Government

Brute Force

Impermanence Of Two Germanys

A Secular Confirmation

The Weight Of Restrictions

A Light In The Night

We Quote:

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The Second Coming

Not Orthodox

Wisdom Of Prophets

Typology?

Perfumed, Beribboned

Popular Biography

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‘Deep Divisions’

Deadline For Ministers

God Is Good

Inauguration Decanters

Assembly Line Art

Christian Athletes

Not In Vain

Digest …

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Slaves Of Devil

Surge In Norway

Abiding Results

‘Deeper Meaning’

Famed Church Rebuilt

Freedom In Italy

Strange Broadcast

Digest …

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A Buddhist State?

Hindu Praises

Church Merger

Hong Kong Rallies

Clubbings On Bus

New Translations

Digest …

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Stone Age Burial

Sermons Banned

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Freedom In Israel

Worth Quoting

Interesting Face

Deaths Hit College

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