MIRTH AT CHRISTMAS

It is “the Season” again. Rudolf lights the way for many a fast buck, to the merry jingling of the cash register. From the money-changers of the Christmas Bazaar, indulging suburbia must buy junior’s affection with bribes of magnificent extravagance.

Scrooge’s Ghost of Christmas Future projected the old miser’s end with dismal detail, but he had no inkling of his own prospects. The poor spirit has inherited Marlowe’s chain of ledgers and cash boxes, lengthened by a century and the lead type of a million full page ads.

In part Dickens himself is to blame. Under the cellophane of our commercial Christmas is the lollipop of Dickensian sentimentality. Nostalgia for our lost childhood demands that we compensate for neglecting our children by spoiling them. We must have the same carols (whether they are incarnation hymns or folk songs doesn’t matter), the same customs (enshrined in ’Twas the Night Before Christmas), and the same scenes (a “White Christmas”). Commercialism has only exploited our sentimentality.

But it is all shattered by a scream of horror. For an old-fashioned Christmas we must forget Hungary, North Korea, and China.

Yet on the first Christmas the Christ was born in blood, and it was not long before the tyrant bathed all Bethlehem in blood to murder him. Jesus was the Man of Sorrow; his agony and death are not pitiable but awesome. “Weep not for me,” he said, for he came to die and in death to triumph over sin and evil. Christianity is realistic. It has nothing to do with simpering sentiment. The joy of the herald angels abides in horror and triumphs in death. In the raging fires of our time the sentimental Christmas tree dissolves in flame. Only one tree is not consumed: that cross of Christ by which the redeemed are brought to the tree of life in the paradise of God.

EUTYCHUS

PERILS OF INDEPENDENCY

Your “Perils of Independency” must have been written by some member of the National Council of Churches.… I am acquainted with members of many denominations and it is a fact that about 95% of them are living for the devil and not for the Lord Jesus Christ.… The all inclusive conglomeration called the National Council of Churches is nothing more than a tool of the devil shaping up for the reign of the antichrist. The modern denominational church is about as effective spiritually as any civil or social club.

C. A. BARKER

Harveyton, Ky.

I read your 90% blanket condemnation of Independency and I can only say that if you want organized deception why don’t you join the Roman Catholic church? Or do you feel that Protestantism should have its own peculiar brand? It’s not an external diversity that causes weakness but superficiality and internal lack of spirituality.… People want to be “church Christians” but not “born again” Christians, and therein lies real peril.

LEWIS F. FINKEL

Captain, USAF (DC)

Trenton, N.J.

… Brilliantly thoughtful editorial.… Congratulations on combining an enlightened mind with a warm, evangelical heart.

DONALD M. STINE

Fellow in English Bible

Princeton Theological Seminary

LOVE THOSE INDEPENDENTS

I am amazed that CHRISTIANITY TODAY, and so early in its life history, should run so caustic, well, so unloving an editorial against the Independents. It seems to me that the Independents of the seventeenth century were among the most godly men who have ever lived. Nor do I even follow the Christian Century in its diatribes against the Southern Baptists. And personal acquaintance does not lead me to call J. Oliver Buswell, Jr., a child of the devil.

Your editorial proceeds on the assumption that “If any teaching is clear in the New Testament, it is the teaching of the unity of the true body of Christ.” But the existence of Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Episcopalians gives the impression that if anything in unclear in the New Testament, it is the doctrine of ecclesiastical unity.

Rather than rant against Independency, could you not give us a calm exposition of the New Testament doctrine? Let us lovingly show the Baptists that they should be Presbyterians, if they wish to be true to the New Testament.

JONATHAN EDWARDS

Indianapolis, Ind.

AN OLD CHESTNUT

I was somewhat amused by the “Preacher in the Red” article in your present issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY. About fifty years ago there was an English clergyman at Oxford University, Spooner by name. He often, either by intent or accident, misplaced words in a very humorous manner. His expressions were called “Spoonerisms” and there was a small book containing a collection of these “sayings.” The origin of the one mentioned in your magazine dates back to the occasion. Dr. Spooner, attending service in the nave of his Church, and seeing someone in his family pew, said “Pardon me, my dear sir, but you are occupewing my pie.” On another occasion, while addressing a congregation of farmers of country folk, and intending to say “my dear sons of toil,” he actually said “my dear tons of soil.…” Many others evade my memory at this moment, but I thought Mr. Storey might be interested in the origin of his twisted expression—which we of Oxford would term “an old chestnut.”

F. ELLIOT BAKER

Louisville, Kentucky

It requires a lot of “faith” to believe your minister in the red.

GEORGE D. OWEN

Tarrytown, N. Y.

• CHRISTIANITY TODAY has been deluged by anecdotes from ruddy preachers attesting the perils of the pulpit ministry.—ED.

We are interested in sending approximately 140 one year subscriptions to my Men’s Bible Class. Could you send a card of notice, to each one, stating from whom the subscription comes?

What would the cost be?

HUGO WURDACK

St. Louis, Mo.

• Mr. Wurdack, and others like him, are taking the initiative in lifting evangelical reading habits. Information about special group subscription rates is available from CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S Circulation Department.—ED.

END

Songster Leads Drive

A new evangelistic drive has been launched in the Methodist Church by Dr. W. E. Sangster, former minister of famous Central Hall, Westminster, and now general secretary of the Methodist Home Mission Department.

Dr. Sangster, at a press conference in London, said he was devoting his energies to a “forward movement in evangelism” … which, he hoped, would bring about a “revival of sound religion” in the land.

He urged that Methodists ask themselves two questions: (1) Where as church people are we failing? and (2) How can we bridge the growing gulf between the Church and the masses?

He added:

“We are all agreed that the Church and the nation have drifted apart. There are no accurate statistics of the number of people associated with the churches in this country, but I am satisfied that 10 per cent would be an over-estimate. In America … the proportion is over 60 per cent.”

Dr. Sangster is planning a series of schools of evangelism in prinicpal cities of England between now and spring. At each school he will be accompanied by a team of four experts in different kinds of evangelism.

F.C.

Change Of Names

The Belgrade government has issued a new decree ordering all towns and villages in Yugoslavia with names of Christian origin to replace them with names of a communist association.

The decree was cited as an example of the Tito government’s continuing anti-religious policy.

‘Red Dean’ Attacked

Dr. Hewlett Johnson, the “Red Dean” of Canterbury, has been publicly accused of misrepresenting the facts in his criticisms of missionaries in China.

The dean, in answering a question from a Cambridge under-graduate group on why missionaries were forced to leave China, alleged that they had worn American service uniforms and had taken photographs of factories which might be of use to the enemies of China.

He was immediately challenged by Canon Mervyn Stockwood, Vicar of St. Mary the Great Church in Cambridge.

“The dean and I,” he said, “are both members of the Church of England, and some of the expelled missionaries were our brother members. The dean has made a disgraceful attack on them. He knows that they were devoted servants of China.”

Dean Johnson replied by saying his information came from a reliable source.

Canon Stockwood suggested the source might have been the communist Daily Worker, published in London.

Anglican Bishop Expelled

The Anglican Bishop in Egypt, Dr. Francis F. Johnston, has been expelled after serving there 40 years.

The bishop, who arrived in England with the Provost of Cairo Cathedral, said they were only two on a list of 60 senior members of the British community in Egypt who were ordered to leave the country within seven days.

Bishop Johnston said the expulsion order came as a complete shock. (The Egyptian government evidently was retaliating for the British-French attack).

The Church Missionary Society, largest Anglican society working overseas, reported a general deterioration in the Egyptian situation. Restrictions have been placed on the movements of missionaries, and two of its doctors have been taken off the Egyptian medical register, making it impossible for them to practice.

Family Books Revamped

Soviet Zone authorities have revamped family books in a new effort to lure young people from their religious loyalties, East German church officials reported.

The family books, traditionally issued in Germany to newly-wed couples, no longer provide space for entering church ceremonies—weddings, baptisms, confirmations and funerals. Instead, they include a double-page for “entries regarding participation in youth dedication ceremonies.”

Church leaders also charged that anti-religious indoctrination among members of the newly-created armed forces of the communist East German regime is being carried out with continued vigor.

Digest …

German evangelical foreign missionary personnel increased from 180 to 754 since end of World War II.… Dr. Jerzy Stachelski, member of United Polish Workers (Communist) Party, named head of Polish government’s Office for Religious Affairs.

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

Items For Congress

Strong resolutions urging passage of anti-liquor legislation by Congress were adopted at the National Temperance League board of directors meeting in Washington, D. C., Nov. 26–29.

U. S. lawmakers were asked to re-introduce and pass these measures:

Williams Bill HR-8000, banning sale and service of alcoholic beverages on airlines within continental United States. The bill passed the House at the last session. Adjournment killed it in the Senate.

Neely Bill S-313, with amendment suggested by Sen. Morse, making it compulsory that applicants for drivers licenses agree on chemical tests if they are involved in accidents. Refusal to do so will mean automatic revocation of their permit.

Langner Bill S-923 and Siler Bill HR-4627, banning liquor and beer advertising in interstate commerce.

Dr. Duke McCall, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, presided at the sessions, held at Calvary Baptist Church. The church’s Woodward Hall, site of the meetings, also was used for the founding of the Anti-Saloon League in 1895.

23,432 Missionaries

A record 23,432 Protestant missionaries are now serving abroad, compared to 11,289 in 1936 and 18,576 four years ago.

The Missionary Research Library, in releasing the totals, said some 280 boards and agencies in the United States and Canada, including over 60 that do not send personnel, received $130,000,000 to finance missionaries in 1955.

Digest of other findings in the survey:

Missionaries serving in 100 foreign countries—35 per cent in East, Southeast, and Southern Asia; 29 per cent in Africa, south of Sahara Desert; 26.5 per cent in Latin America.

India, despite efforts to discourage new missionaries, leads all countries with 2,127. Japan next, with 1,562; then Belgian Congo, with 1,195. China, once host to 4,492, now has one. He is the Rev. Paul Mackensen of United Lutheran Church in America, held by Communists in Shanghai prison.

Six of 10 are women. Fewer single women serving.

About 28 per cent ordained; 34 per cent four years ago.

More than 2,000 are physicians and nurses.… 43.5 per cent sponsored by boards and agencies in National Council of Churches. Slightly less than 20 per cent supported by Interdenominational Foreign Missions Assn.; 17.8 by Evangelical Foreign Missions Assn. Independent societies send 12.8 per cent, while Canadian boards send 3.1 per cent.

Most of increase since 1952 accounted for by evangelicals, independents and faith groups. Sent additional 4,170, compared to 631 by National Council. Older bodies now emphasize support of nationals.

Methodists send most—1,513. Seventh-day Adventists next with 1,272, followed by Presbyterian Church in U. S. A. (Northern) with 1,072 and Sudan Interior Mission (interdenominational) with 1,024.

Views On Armageddon

Foreign Correspondent William Stone-man, of the Chicago Daily News, stood at Armageddon, in Palestine, to describe “the sights and sounds of armies girding for war at this place of destiny.”

In questioning biblical spokesmen on the meaning of the Book of Revelation’s verses relating to Armageddon, the News came up with three views:

Allen P. Wikgren, chairman of the University of Chicago’s New Testament Department, said “the prophecy doesn’t even apply to future events, but to events already in history.”

The Rev. Francis L. Filas, S.J., of Loyola University, said “Catholic scholars generally agree that St. John’s writings of Armageddon apply to the clash between good and evil during all ages.”

The News then stated, without an attributable quote, that “some Bible scholars interpret these words literally and believe that this will be the terrible scene on the Day of Judgment. If these men are right, it is possible that Correspondent Stoncman … had a preview of Armageddon.”

Baptist Actions

• Georgia Baptists refuse to endorse decision of Supreme Court on racial segregation.… Alabama Baptists adopt “middle of the road” approach to problem.

• Mississippi Baptists approve $600,000 loan for their four colleges.… Resolution barring Negro students from attending Baptist schools and colleges defeated by North Carolina Baptists.

• Tennessee Baptists indorse committee report on race relations, but delete “acceptance” of Supreme Court decision.… Florida Baptists approve report that members guided by New Testament cannot join Ku Klux Klan or other “mob” groups “whose goal is to defeat and set aside the law of our land.”

Probe In Colombia

The Canadian Council of Churches has called on the World Council of Churches to send a two-man team into Colombia for on-the-spot investigation of reported persecution of Protestants there.

The call was made in a resolution voicing “deep apprehension and concern at the repression of religious groups and the denial of freedom of worship to some in Spain and Colombia.”

Alternative

The pastor of a Baptist church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been told by a county judge, “It looks like you’ll have to open a dance hall nearby to avoid the issuance of a beer license to a tavern across the street from the church.”

Oklahoma law restricts the operation of beer taverns near dance halls, but has no bars against taverns operating near schools or churches.

Morale On Formosa

Christianity is helping keep morale high among the Chinese on Formosa, according to the chief of chaplains for Nationalist China.

Dr. Wei-Ping Chen, visiting the United States on a tour sponsored by World Vision, Inc., is personal chaplain to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and pastor of a non-denominational church in Taipei.

“Before we came to Formosa from the mainland nine years ago,” he said, “one person out of every 1,000 was a Christian. This is still true on the mainland. But today, in Formosa, one person in every 100 is a member of some Christian denomination.”

Dr. Chen said many of the island’s social, business and political leaders are Christians, giving “the people of Formosa an added incentive for the fight against the Communists.

“Christianity helps keep our morale very high.”

He said the 5,500,000 Chinese on the island want to fight and go back to their homeland.

Olympic Services

The largest service ever organized by Protestants in the State of Victoria, Australia, was held in connection with the Olympic Games.

Thousands gathered at Como Park. More than 100 athletes took part. Guest speaker was the Rev. Gordon Powell, minister of St. Stephen’s Presbyterian Church in Sydney.

Another special service was led by the Rev. Robert E. Richards, world champion pole vaulter and former pastor of First Church of the Brethren at Long Beach, California.

Mr. Richards, 30, resigned his pastorate last year to devote more time to evangelistic work and to prepare himself for the Olympic Games.

Four Native Bishops

All four bishops of the Methodist Church in today’s India are natives.

The Rev. Mangal Singh of Delhi and the Rev. Gabriel Sundaram of Hyderabad City, Deccan, were recently elected bishops. They will succeed Bishop J. W. Pickett and Bishop Clement D. Rockey, two Americans who were missionaries in India.

Other bishops are John A. Subhan of Bombay and Shot K. Mondol of Hyderabad.

Digest …

Four New Zealand Protestant denominations to vote next June on union. Unique venture involves Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational Churches and Associated Church of Christ.

New Zealand Methodist Conference appoints woman as probationary minister for first time in its history.… Missionary Bishop (Episcopal) Norman S. Binsted of Philippines resigns, effective March 1, because of ill health.… Bishop Jose L. Valencia elected to third four-year term as head of Methodist Church of Philippines.

Report From Israel

The capitulation of the Egyptian forces in Gaza marked the culmination of eight long years of strife along the Israel-Egyptian border.

This tiny belt of land, home for 300,000 Arabs jammed cheek to jowl, extends inland as few as three miles in one place, with an over-all average of five.

The “strip” has been the training ground for the Egyptian fedayeen gangs which have been harassing and killing the civilian population of Israel since 1948. Israel’s roads have been mined under cover of darkness to claim the first victims who would drive by. Private cars and buses have been machine-gunned from the roadside. Grenades have been thrown through the windows of a synagogue while children were at prayer.

Neither the United Nations nor any combination of world powers have been able to prevent Egypt and brother Arab states from pursuing their undercover war against Israel.

In Colonel Nasser’s speeches, he has shouted to the world his intention of destroying Israel. He has successfully contravened United Nations’ rulings on the Suez Canal and, contrary to these rulings, has continued his blockade of Israeli shipping in the canal and the Gulf of Akaba. He has mortgaged the lifeblood of his people for a fantastic quantity of Russian arms—arms which he promised to use against Israel. Nasser’s propaganda machine has been oiled and operated by German Nazis since 1945. It is their desire to help Egypt finish in the Middle East what they failed to complete in Europe.

No country in the world can long endure under the tensions which the Arab states have caused to prevail in the Middle East. Israel has made appeal after appeal to talk peace with the Arabs. Such efforts have been consistently refused.

The United Nations truce supervision organization has been powerless to prevent the Arab raids into Israel. As a result of this impotence, Israel has been forced into the role of policeman. Her punishing attacks against the Arabs have always followed attacks against her own civilian population and have always been directed against military and not civilian establishments.

When it was made clear that Egypt would not stop her commando attacks against Israel, nor sit down at a peace table with her, Israel was compelled to eliminate the bases from which these attacks were made.

Israel is asking Egypt and the other Arab states for a final peace settlement in the Middle East. The world and the states concerned cannot afford to go back to the unworkable truce agreement which was neither a truce nor an agreement.

Israel must help in the resettlement of Arab refugees and compensate those Arabs whose lands have been expropriated. The Arabs, likewise, must cease their undeclared war and establish an era of peace and cooperation with Israel through which all of their peoples might have an abundant life—heretofore unknown in this part of the world.

D.C.O.

Report From Egypt

Egypt has tasted war before, but never in this same bitter way.

As a country bordering the combat area in World War I, she witnessed the comings and goings of Allied troops, warships and material. Red Cross trains brought in the wounded to be cared for in military hospitals established on her soil. World War II brought her still closer to the horrors and devastation of modern warfare. In addition to the same troop concentrations, Italian and German planes sent bombs thundering down on British bases. The chief annoyance was that many of the attacks spread far beyond strictly military objectives, resulting in much loss of Egyptian life and property. There was the consolation, however, that the Italians and Germans were striking primarily at Allied forces and had no particular quarrel with Egypt.

The population seemed devoid of apprehension over the consequences of a possible Allied defeat. To many, it made little real difference whether Britain, Italy or Germany held the upper hand in Egypt’s economy and politics.

When fighting with Israel broke out following the re-birth of that nation, there was a marked change of public feeling concerning this thing called “war.” Now it had become a matter of national concern. Fellow Arabs were being dispossessed. Their rich farmlands, orchards, businesses, bank accounts and homes were falling into the hands of an aggressive and ruthlessly efficient alien. Jubilation greeted the news of the Egyptian army’s first successes. A special postage stamp was issued to celebrate the victory at Gaza. National pride sky-rocketed. Subsequent failures and stalemates did little to diminish the new-found sense of “being.” After all, Egyptian soldiers had proved themselves.

The calamities which later befell them were attributed to traitors, who reportedly arranged the purchase of defective arms and ammunition. In the long truce which followed, there was implicit confidence in the revitalized army’s ability to handle any future encounter with Israel’s troops.

Then came November, 1956, and Egypt’s traditionally-bright skies and mild fall weather found little in common with the people’s mood. War had come in a horrible way. Normally complacent attitudes were cast into molds of bitterness, resentment and hatred. No longer was the war on some distant, hard-to-visualize battlefield. The issues had become real, near, vivid—thousands of refugees, the stinging presence of that Western implantation, “Israel,” the stubborn refusal of France and England to recognize the “facts of life” in Algeria and Cyprus, and the Suez Canal, admittedly due to be completely Egyptianized in 1968, becoming a casus belli because the event was pushed up to 1956.

The man-on-the-street began to realize what it means to have the enemy’s planes and panic propaganda directed at him. His understanding has taken in the meaning of the recently imposed defense tax, the frequent appeals for shock troops and guerrilla volunteers, the urgent pleas for blood-bank contributors. With every war news bulletin, with every crack of the heavy ack-ack guns and rumble of bombs, with each succeeding night of air-raid sirens and total blackout, his hatred of the Jews and scorn for the British and French has grown more deep-seated and bitter.

(Shocked by the sudden flight of many Americans, the Egyptians were quick to express their appreciation of those who chose to stay. Early suspicion that the United States must be secretly aiding and abetting the Anglo-French attack soon gave way to undisguised relief and satisfaction that such was not the case. Then came an evident feeling of impatience that America did not exert her authority to bring the aggressors to heel.)

“Israel, we can manage and understand,” was the remark of the average man. “They are congenital troublemakers; nevertheless, the combined power of the united Arab people can take care of them. But the British and French we did not consider so completely mad. Just what type of civilization do they think they represent? Founding members of United Nations, paragons of progress and culture, pace-setting exponents of Christianity, by what right or reason … or special privilege do they, as ‘great nations,’ sidestep the very U. N. laws and principles which they are so zealous to impose on the smaller nations?… Are these the superior types of humanity that we are supposed to emulate?… To us it is becoming more than ever evident that France and Britain are as bankrupt morally as they are politically and economically.

“They may eventually win this war and gain their evil, imperialistic objectives in Egypt, but they have utterly blasted every possibility of winning the trust and friendship of the people of the Middle East. What they are doing at this moment in history will never be forgotten, nor will the flame of hatred they have kindled in our hearts ever be extinguished.”

Reflecting upon words such as these, words heard and read daily, what can a western Christian think? Over a century of missionary work in this and neighboring lands has never, at the very best, been attended by large success among non-Christians. Quite apart from what they have done to help awaken and strengthen indigenous Christianity, foreign missionaries have rendered large service to the population as a whole through education, medical relief and social work. If nothing else, they have won a reputation for the West as humanitarians, kind-hearted servants of the public good, exporters of something more than the showy products of Detroit and Hollywood.

Western standards of fairplay and justice, Western concepts of honesty and integrity, Western crusades for human rights and freedoms, Western systems of equality and democratic processes—all these and more have won the respect of high and low. But that was true only until October. What was true in October was not necessarily true in November.

Have the labors, the dedication, the cost in human life and devotion been wiped out in an outbreak of violence over a 100-mile strip of waterway which happens to cut through Egyptian real estate? A full assessment cannot be made while jet planes zoom overhead and the fevers of patriotism and outraged pride still run high. But Western Christians will do well to keep right on thinking—deeply, searchingly. If the gains of a century, small though they be, are not to be irretrievably lost, what can be, what must be done?

Pray I must, and pray I will. But what more, under God, can I do to make Christ’s way the way of all mankind, and His spirit the motivating and regulating power in every heart?

W.A.M.

(This article was written for CHRISTIANITY TODAY by Bela Vassady, Th.D., formerly president of Reformed Theological Seminary, Dehrecan, Hungary, and now professor of Systematic Theology at the Theological Seminary of the Evangelical and Reformed Church, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.—ED.)

The recent tragedy of Hungary unfolded before our eyes. It would be foolish to think that it started only on October 23 of this year. Rather, its seeds were sown during World War II and its aftermath.

Caught In The Middle

The Hungarian nation, throughout its 1,000-year history, had been bound to the West by all cultural and spiritual ties. The Magyars even prided themselves on being “the easternmost rampart of the Christian West.” But during World War II they soon found themselves caught in the middle. First their Christianity was being attacked—in the form of Nazism—from precisely that Western area whose Christian civilization they had defended against Tartar and Turk. Then the tragic last year of the war plagued them. Their country and its capital city became a “no man’s land” between two fighting enemies: the German Nazis and the Russian Communists. And finally the whole nation was shut off from the West by a ruthlessly descending “iron curtain.”

At the end of 1945, though under Russian military occupation, the Magyars once more asserted their will to be free in a courageous political witness: they cast their ballots for the national democratic parties. The communist party received only a small percentage of the votes. But everything was in vain. Cut off from the West, they were reduced to the rank of another unwilling satellite.

Bread And Freedom

But even tyrants must die. They cannot endlessly detour around death and eternalize their dictatorship. Stalin’s death irresistibly gave rise to a “liberalization move,” which then was highly welcomed in Poland, and especially in Hungary. The students, the workers and the intellectuals started their peaceful demonstrations. Their demands could be summed up in three short words: bread and freedom. They wanted for themselves things which we in America simply take for granted: national independence and full sovereignty, free elections and a representative government, free press and free communication with all the countries of the world, a readjustment of wages and the assurance of the possibility of a decent human living; finally, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary in accordance with the peace treaty and “neutrality” in foreign politics.

If these demands were the promptings of a “reactionary spirit” (as now charged by the Soviet Union and its puppet Hungarian government) then the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and all of us who believe in the promotion of basic human rights must be, indeed, nothing more than narrow-minded reactionaries.

The Unfettered Word

We venture to state that behind all these demands there lay one ultimate fact which then became a factor that irresistibly prompts to action. It could best be described in the words of Paul: “The Word of God is not fettered.” It cannot be fettered. And it has not been fettered in Hungary either during the last decade. The Christian Churches of Hungary, in their enforced captivity, have learned to augment the question of Hamlet somewhat like this: “To be or not to be spiritual satellites, that is our question!” They resisted—though passively, yet with a passivity that actuated their whole existence against the domesticating efforts of a totalitarian communist government. And in the last days of October they used the short period of freedom at their disposal to effect far-reaching changes in their very lives. They immediately proposed to hold new and free elections for all church posts occupied by officials who had received their appointments since 1948. They anticipated that church institutions, which had been banned, would be reopened. Christian youth work organizations were started again. The publication of a new religious journal, Reformacio, was considered and planned. The newly established National Christian Youth Federation appealed to the Christians of the world on November 3. Some of their dramatic words read as follows: “May God, who is the God of history, bless the efforts of our nation to build up an independent, free and neutral Hungary and may He enable us all to serve for reconciliation, peace and friendship among the nations.”

Lost!?

Two days later, choosing a Sunday morning for their attack, the Russian tanks crushed the insurgence of the whole Hungarian nation. At least 20,000 men, women and children were reported to have been killed in Budapest itself. “The Queen of the Danube” lies in ruins again—much more so than ever before. There can hardly be a family that did not lose a father, a mother, a brother or a sister. How true are Thomas Jefferson’s words: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots.…”

And now, those who survived are facing starvation, the freezing cold of winter and, perhaps worst of all, the possibility of deportation to Siberia. Many thousands, whole families, but especially young men and women, sought their refuge in the West. Once again the Hungarian nation is torn to pieces.

Torn to pieces—yet not lost. For the same thing that occurred in Hungary at the end of World War II will happen all over again: their physical survival will be followed by a new spiritual revival. Their churches will be packed much more than ever before (and according to reports of Western visitors, they were surely packed all the time); Bible study groups will continue to spring forth here, there and everywhere; the spiritual frontiers will be drawn in the very lives of the families; the communist indoctrination of the youth will be counterbalanced and weakened by the “faith of (their) fathers living still in spite of dungeon, fire and sword;” and they will be inspired much more than ever before by one great aspiration, expressed in the words of Prince Stephen Bocskay, their great liberty-fighter in the 17th century (whose sturdy figure can be seen together with the figures of great Reformers in Geneva on the Reformation Monument): “To live with God and unto God in a free country.”

Beachhead Or Bridge?

As neighbors of Soviet Russia, the Magyars have ventured to achieve the humanly impossible (at least for the time being): to secure political freedom and neutrality so that they could be a bridge linking the West to the East and the East to the West undisturbed. Now—at least temporarily—they are once more forced to be used as a beachhead by the communist world. But such a beachhead for the Soviets will again and anon prove to be even less reliable than quicksand.

The NBC television newsreel has recently shown some very moving pictures of the way in which Hungarian refugees managed to reach the Austrian border. One such case was especially dramatic.

At the very end of their exhausting flight the refugees came up against a deep, water-filled canal. There was no bridge any more. The Russians had long before dynamited it. With a swift and desperate ingenuity, the Hungarians pieced some treetrunks together so that they could serve as an improvised gangplank. But all this was good only to prop their feet against it; they could never have walked on it. Something more had to be done. Finally they stretched a wire over the “bridge,” and the breathtaking crossing began. Feeble old women and playfully agile children, while using the wobbling treetrunks as a foothold, grasped the wire with both hands and slowly but surely all reached the other side, the bank that meant haven and freedom to them.

The symbolism of this unique scene will certainly strike home to all of us. Churches in the communist East and the non-communist West must alike serve as bridges linking the East to the West and the West to the East. But such a linking is possible only if we all grasp the invisible wiring of faith, hope and love and again commit ourselves to God’s eternal Word, which alone has liberating power.

And so, too, the tragedy of Hungary can find its ultimate meaning only in this unfettered and liberating Word. To the Hungarian Christians, its very admonishment serves also as an encouraging word: “The Lord disciplines him whom He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives” (Heb. 12:6). And to us, Americans, Christians and non-Christians alike, who again were spared of any greater suffering, its fitly spoken message is something like this: “Do you think that these (Hungarians) were worse sinners … because they suffered thus? 1 tell you, no; but unless you repent you will likewise perish.”

The Book of the Acts should need no commendation to Christian preachers. The minister who wants to be sure that he stands in the true apostolic succession will turn to this book time and again. What was the message that the apostles preached, and how did they preach it? How did they adapt their presentation of the message to their varying congregations—Jewish, God-fearing and Gentile? What part did their personal experience of Christ play in their preaching? The preacher who looks for the answers to such questions as these in this book will certainly find it, and if he tests his own preaching in the light of that answer, he will know how far he falls short of the apostolic example.

The Book of the Acts was clearly written as the sequel to the Third Gospel, which is the “former treatise” referred to in Acts 1:1. This conclusion is not based simply on the fact that both works are dedicated to Theophilus, but on wider considerations of style, language and outlook. They were intended to circulate as two parts of one historical work, tracing the beginnings of Christianity from the birth of John the Baptist to Paul’s imprisonment in Rome. It has been suggested that the author projected a third part, in which the story would be carried on possibly to the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70; but this cannot be proved.

When the four Gospels began to be bound up together and to circulate as one collection, early in the second century, the two parts of this historical work were separated from each other. Part I was henceforth part of the fourfold Gospel, and Part II had to pursue a career of its own, under the title The Acts of the Apostles, which it acquired soon after the middle of the second century.

Pivot Book Of New Testament

But the necessity of pursuing a career of its own did not reduce its importance. On the contrary, it occupied an influential position as the pivot book of the New Testament (to use Harnack’s term). It provided the link between the two chief collections of canonical Christian literature—the fourfold Gospel and the Pauline epistles. It supplied at once the sequel to the fourfold Gospel and the historical background to the Pauline epistles. Nor did it only supply the historical background; it supplied most cogent evidence of the reality of Paul’s apostolic commission. A reader of the Pauline letters might conclude that they were written by a man who was anxious to assert his independent apostleship in the face of others who denied it; but how could he assess the validity of the arguments on the one side and on the other? If his only other source of information was the fourfold Gospel, he would find not the slightest reference to Paul there; and he might well believe that the weight of the evidence favored the arguments for the superior authority of those who were companions and apostles of our Lord in the days of His flesh. But no one could read the Acts without realizing that Paul was a genuine apostle of Christ, independently commissioned by Him, and proving by the “signs of an apostle” which accompanied his ministry the truth of his claim that he came in no way behind “the very chiefest apostles” (2 Cor. 12:11).

On the other hand, the Acts served another useful purpose in the second century by showing that Peter and the rest of the twelve were as truly apostles as Paul. When Marcion issued his challenge to the apostolic churches and maintained that all the apostles had corrupted the pure gospel of Christ except Paul, and that even his letters had to be purified from judaizing interpolations, this further value of the Acts came to be appreciated as it could not have been before.

First Century Work

Yet the Book of the Acts is no second-century production, reflecting an age when the antitheses of Paulinism and Judaizing Christianity had been reconciled in a more comprehensive unity. This was the view of the Tubingen theologians of last century, and it has found some advocates in more recent years; but to the historian and archeologist Acts has all the marks of a first-century work. Sir William Ramsay’s studies in this field may have gone out of fashion in many quarters (but not in all, as their recent reissue by a well-known publishing house indicates); but the solid basis which he provided for the first-century dating and high historical value of Acts can hardly be overthrown.

The traditional account is that this book, along with the “former treatise” was not only the work of a first-century author, but of a friend and companion of Paul’s. This account is well founded. It is supported by the most natural explanation of the three “we” sections of Acts—the sections which begin at Chs. 16:10; 20:5, and 27:1, three points where the narrative suddenly changes from the third person “they” and “them” to the first person “we” and “us”. For the most natural explanation of the threefold transition is that the narrator is adopting this unobtrusive means of informing his readers: “At this point I joined the party and was present at the incidents which follow.”

The traditional account goes further, and names the author: he was Luke, referred to on a few occasions by Paul as one of his companions (cf.Philem. 24; 2 Tim. 4:11), and described by him once as “the beloved physician” (Col. 4:14). A careful examination of Col. 4:10–14 indicates that Luke was a Gentile Christian; and the general outlook of the narrative of Acts suggests a Greek author rather than a Jewish one. A document from the later part of the second century makes Luke a native of Antioch in Syria—a highly probable statement. Luke plays such an insignificant part by name in the New Testament that the ascription to him of the Third Gospel and Acts is not likely to have been invented. If the medical element in the vocabulary of the two books can no longer be used to prove that they were written by a physician, it certainly retains considerable illustrative value.

Major And Minor Themes

The author is specially interested in tracing the rise of Gentile Christianity: he tells first how the good news was brought from Jerusalem to Antioch, and then how the chief apostle to the Gentiles carried it throughout the chief provinces of the eastern Roman Empire; at last he brings him to Rome, and ends his narrative with the picture of Paul in the imperial city, a prisoner indeed, but carrying on his apostolic witness to all his visitors under the very eyes of the praetorian guard, without let or hindrance. This picture is the climax of his insistence throughout that Christianity is no threat to imperial law and order—that, in fact, responsible officials in various provinces of the Empire had acknowledged the legality of the Gospel itself and of its messengers. Acts was surely written at a time when this apologetic emphasis was necessary, and Theophilus was probably typical of the more thoughtful members of the Roman upper middle-class who could be trusted to give an unprejudiced hearing to an informed account of the rise and progress of Christianity, instead of accepting the popular misrepresentations.

But many would ask why the advance of Christianity had so regularly been attended by serious disorders, if it was such a law-abiding movement. Luke has his answer to this question: sometimes the Gospel threatened vested property interests, and therefore aroused the hostility of people like the owners of the fortune telling slave-girl at Philippi and the silversmiths of Ephesus; but more often the disorders were stirred up by the leaders of Jewish communities in the various places to which the Gospel came. They were unwilling to accept it themselves, and stirred up riots to try to prevent others from accepting too. So, alongside the major theme of the book, the progressive acceptance of the Gospel by Gentiles, there runs a minor theme, its progressive rejection by the bulk of the Jewish people. And if the major theme reaches its climax in Acts 28:30–31, the minor theme reaches its climax in the verses immediately preceding, where a prolonged disputation between Paul and the Roman Jews is concluded with his quotation of Isaiah 6:9–10 and his announcement that the Gentiles will receive the salvation which the Jews refuse.

The transition from the early days of the Jerusalem church to the Gospel’s forward movement is provided in Chs. 6 and 7 by the story of Stephen. Not only does this story introduce us for the first time to the young man Saul (Acts 7:58); not only did the persecution which followed Stephen’s death drive out many Christians from Jerusalem to carry the Gospel as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch (Acts 11:19); but the very character of Stephen’s distinctive ministry and the terms of his defence foreshadow the church’s Gentile mission. It is remarkable how many of the dominant themes of the New Testament find incipient expression in Stephen’s speech.

Dr. A. T. Pierson wrote a series of studies in Acts which he entitled The Acts of the Holy Spirit. This might well have been the title of the book itself. For the emphasis on the person and activity of the Holy Spirit is even more basic to the book than its apologetic insistence. Right at the beginning of the book, the risen Lord promises the baptism of the Spirit to His followers (Ch. 1:5, 8), and this promise is fulfilled for Jewish believers in Ch. 2, and for Gentile believers in Ch. 10. The apostles and other Christian leaders (like Stephen and Philip) not only preach in the power of the Spirit, but their movements are under His direction; they are witnesses to Christ, but the Spirit is the primary Witness, whose testimony confirms theirs (Acts 5:32).

Thus, in the ministry of Paul in particular, we find a noteworthy combination of the Spirit’s guidance with long-range strategic planning. And there is no suggestion that the two are incompatible. Even if Paul was making for Ephesus when the Spirit diverted him in Acts 16:6–7, the route which he was obliged to take was vindicated from the standpoint of long-term Christian strategy, for it meant that he evangelized the circumference of a circle running through the lands east and west of the Aegean Sea before he settled down for nearly three years in Ephesus, at the centre of that circle, and carried on a more effective campaign of evangelization than would have been possible at the earlier date.

The book may be divided into six sections: (1) The Birth of the Church (Chs. 1–5); (2) Persecution leads to Expansion (Chs. 6:1–9:31); (3) The Acts of Peter and the Beginnings of the Gentile Mission (Chs. 9:32–12:25); (4) Antioch becomes a Missionary Church (Chs. 13:1–16:5); (5) The Evangelization of the Aegean Shores (Chs. 16:6–19:41); (6) How Paul realized his Hope of seeing Rome (Chs. 20:1–28:31).

Tool For Exposition

As I write this, I survey a lengthy array of commentaries on my shelves, many of which I have found of great use in my own attempts to expound the Book of the Acts. The five encyclopaedic volumes entitled The Beginnings of Christianity, edited by Foakes Jackson and Kirsopp Lake (Macmillan, 1920–33), are indispensable to the student, though the preacher who reads CHRISTIANITY TODAY will wish to replace its general liberal emphasis by something more positive. R. B. Rackham’s commentary, The Acts of the Apostles, published in the “Westminster Commentaries” in 1902, is still one of the best expositions of the English text. R. J. Knowling’s commentary on the Greek text in the “Expositor’s Greek Testament” (1900) remains a work of high value. A more homiletic treatment is provided in such works as The Preacher’s Homiletic Commentary: Acts, by Thomas Whitelaw (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1896), C. J. Vaughan, The Church of the First Days Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles (Macmillan, 1890), and G. Campbell Morgan, The Acts of the Apostles (recently reprinted). From another angle, the recent Lowell Lectures by Dr. Henry J. Cadbury, The Book of Acts in History (Harper, 1955), throw the light of the latest research on the historical worth of Acts, providing a worthy sequel to Sir William Ramsay’s St. Paul the Traveller (14th edition, London, 1920).

F. F. BRUCE

The Editors commend in addition to the commentaries mentioned above The Book of the Acts, by F. F. Bruce in the New International Commentary on the New Testament (1954). Not without cause the statement has been made: “The best major commentary on Acts that has appeared in the last fifty years.—EDS.