Theology

Bible Text of the Month: Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23).

The distribution of rewards and punishments in the day of judgment will be in perfect agreement with the works of men; the righteous will be exalted to happiness; the wicked be doomed to misery. The Gospel makes no difference with respect to this: it provides relief for the penitent, but rather aggravates than removes the condemnation of the impenitent. But it opens to us an important fact: namely, that the punishment of the ungodly is the proper fruit and deserved recompence of their own works: whereas the reward bestowed upon the godly is a free unmerited gift of God for Christ’s sake.—CHARLES SIMEON.

Wages Of Sin

While the doctrine of eternal happiness is generally admitted, the eternity of future punishment is doubted by many. The declarations, however, of the Holy Scriptures respecting both are equally explicit. Concerning each of them the very same expressions are used. Owing to the hardness of their hearts, men are insensible to the great evil of sin. Hence the threatenings of future punishment, shock all their prejudices, and seem to them unjust, and such as never can be realized.—ROBERT HALDANE.

Sin is personified as man’s natural master (vv. 12, 14, 22), and he is represented as paying his subjects with death. This term, according to the apostle, does not seem to denote the annihilation of the sinner. To pay anyone is not to put him out of existence; it is rather to make him feel the painful consequences of his sin, to make him reap in the form of corruption what he has sown in the form of sin.—F. GODET.

The reason why death is the result of sin is, that sin deserves death. Death is due to it in justice. There is the same obligation in justice, that sin should be followed by death, as that the labourer should receive his wages. As it would be unjust, and therefore wrong, to defraud the labourer of his stipulated reward, so it would be unjust to allow sin to go unpunished. Those, therefore, who hope for pardon without an atonement, hope that God will in the end prove unjust.—CHARLES HODGE.

The punishment of that death which was the threatened penalty of the first transgression, will, according to Scripture, consist in the pains both of privation and suffering. Its subjects will not only be bereaved of all that is good, they will also be overwhelmed with all that is terrible. As the chief good of the creature is the enjoyment of the love of God, how great must be the punishment of being deprived of the sense of His love, and oppressed with the consciousness of His hatred!—ROBERT HALDANE.

Gift Of Eternal Life

Eternal life contains a great deal more than the two words, life plus eternity. Eternal life is not merely endless existence. It means endless life in its highest possible state of existence. It means that all that is piecemeal and temporary has passed away forever. It means that the absolutely perfect has come, that life has reached its highest altitude. It means that all the fulness and richness that this human vessel can receive of the goodness of God has been made ours.—R. E. GOLLADAY.

Eternal life comprehends all the blessings of the covenant of grace. The Scriptures make mention of it as the great end of the incarnation and sufferings of Christ.… The enjoyment of it is not confined to the future state; it commences in this world, when the believer not only obtains a title to immortal happiness, but is illuminated, sanctified, and comforted by the Spirit of Grace, and it will be perfected in the life to come.—JOHN DICK.

Llfe eternal—of which, all that we can say is but stammering, and all our knowledge and conceiting of it but ignorance, in regard of what it is: yet, so much we know or may know of it, as, if we knew aright, would certainly draw us more into desires and pursuit of it. The very name of life is sweet.… So happy, that there shall not be the smallest drop of any evil or bitterness in it, pure unmixed bliss; nothing present in it that is displeasing, nor anything wanting that is delightful; and everlasting, that when millions of years (if there were any such reckoning there) are rolled about, it shall be as far from ending as at the first.—BISHOP ROBERT LEIGHTON.

Of the nature of that glory of which the people of God shall be put in possession in the day of their redemption, we cannot form a clear and distinct idea.… Their blessedness will consist in a knowledge of God and His mysteries, a full and exquisite sense of His love, ineffable consolation, profound tranquillity of soul, a perfect concord and harmony of the soul with the body, and with all the powers of the soul among themselves; in one word, in an assemblage of all sorts of blessings.—ROBERT HALDANE.

Through Jesus Christ

Christ is the foundation of all spiritual life that is in us. He is the second Adam that conveyeth all that is spiritually good. “Because I live, you shall live also” (John 14:19). “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Christ came that we might have life, and that we might have abundance of life preserved for us, such abundance as he enjoyeth himself in the heavens.—RICHARD SIBBES.

Christ, God-man, Mediator, is the life, that eternal life, in respect of his threefold offices of king, priest, and prophet. As prophet, he is the life by way of revelation, discovering this eternal life to us; as priest, by way of impetration, procuring this eternal life for us; as king, by way of collation, conferring this eternal life on us. And as the fulness of water is dispensed by the sea to the earth, and the fulness of light is communicated by the sun to the air; so the fulness of grace and glory, of life, even eternal life, is conveyed by Christ to his church.—NATHANAEL HARDY.

Heaven is procurred, prepared, taken possession of, and retained, by means of the atonement. The blood of the covenant constitutes the title to its possession. The heavenly things themselves are purified with better sacrifices, than those by which the patterns of things in the heavens were purified. We have boldness to enter into the holiest of all only by the blood of Christ, and to the Lamb in the midst of the throne are the redeemed indebted for the permanency of their glory and bliss. Those immortal honors, those glorious hopes, those perennial enjoyments, which are imaged by crowns of glory, palms of victory, harps of gold, and rivers of life, have all their meritorious source in the cross.—WILLIAM SYMINGTON.

The Lord’s design is that His life may reappear anew in his people or be reproduced in them; and that there may be such a symphony, so to speak, that his people shall promote on earth the great object for which he lives in glory. The life of love and active service which he lived on earth is to be renewed and reproduced in all his people. And when we inquire how this is attained, we find that the tide of resurrection life flows into his people, in proportion as they keep before them His abasement, atoning death, and resurrection as the great themes of faith and the great springs of action.—GEORGE SMEATON.

If the greatest love hath been manifested in giving Christ to the world, then it follows that the greatest evil and wickedness is manifested in despising, slighting, and rejecting Christ. It is sad to abuse the love of God manifested in the least gift of providence; but to slight the richest displays of it, even that peerless gift, wherein God commends his love in the most astonishing manner, this is sin beyond description. Blush, O heavens, and be astonished, O earth; yea, be ye horribly afraid! No guilt like this.—JOHN FLAVEL.

Far East News: June 10, 1957

Reconciliation

For the first time since World War II a Japanese voice was heard over a Korean radio broadcast when HLKY, Korea’s first Christian station, used a taped rebroadcast of a service in Tokyo.

Delay in Korean reconciliation with Japan is understandable. The enmity is centuries old. In Japan tourists are still shown the great mound covering thousands of Korean noses and ears cut off and sent to Japan during the Hideyoshi invasion of 1592. Forty years of efficient but often brutal colonization (1905–1945) only whipped existing hatreds to white-hot heat. President Rhee was tortured by the Japanese when he was a young man.

Sharpest challenge yet given to Korea’s Christians on the necessity of reconciliation with their brother believers in Japan has come from an Ecumenical Youth Team touring the country under the auspices of the Korean Student Christian Federation.

Said Eliezer Mappanao of Manila, “The Japanese sinned against you, but that sin is past. Your sin is present. You have not forgiven.” When Korean students who had suffered bitterly under the conquerors questioned his right to speak thus, the young man vindicated himself very simply, “My father was killed by the Japanese without cause.” His plea that Korea’s Christians must take the initiative in forgiveness has stirred student thinking in city after city.

Membership of the Youth Team includes a Pakistani (the first ever to visit Korea other than diplomatic or military personnel), a Filipino, a Canadian missionary from Japan and an American college student now studying for one year at the University of Hong Kong.

—S. H. M.

People: Words And Events

Lost and Found—The California Senate, in a 20–7 vote, killed a bill to make “In God We Trust” the official state motto. Opponents said the bill would jeopardize the long-accepted but unofficial motto “Eureka,” which appears on the state seal. “Eureka,” which means “I have found it,” was put on the seal 100 years ago as a symbol of the discovery of gold in California.

The Wrong Key—A typist’s error in copying a Presidential proclamation led to an erroneous report in religious circles that President Eisenhower had designated the third Sunday in May for the 1958 celebration of Armed Forces Day. The observance will continue to fall on the third Saturday in May.

Morals and Money—Moral delinquency among U. S. airmen based overseas has been attributed, of all things, to an insufficient Air Force budget. Col. Harry J. Mrachek said the present indoctrination program is not sufficient to train airmen in the morals and customs of the foreign countries to which they are assigned.

Name Dropping—Alabama Baptist officials have demanded that the word “Baptist” be dropped by the Baptist Laymen of Alabama, a group of laymen organized for the avowed purpose of fostering white supremacy.

Bright New World—Twenty-two Roman Catholic members of the Moundsville (W. Va.) High School graduating class were barred by their principal from taking part in commencement exercises because they refused to attend baccalaureate services in a Protestant church. They sat at the exercises as spectators and the diplomas were given privately.

Age of Reasoning—Calle Parker Gates, 101, Jackson, Tenn., was awarded an honorary doctor of humanities degree by Lambuth College. Miss Gates, an 1873 graduate of Lambuth’s predecessor, the Methodist Memphis Conference Female Institute and a school teacher for 47 years, was honored for her service to the community.

“They’re just making me a doctor because I have lived so long,” she said. “In a few more years perhaps they’ll make me a Methodist bishop.” She will be 102 on July 3.

The Golden Orange—Anthony T. Rossi, builder of a $25,000,000 Florida citrus empire and a devout Baptist, relates his business success to his spiritual convictions—“God has always guided me, told me what to do and when to do it. He has used me for his purpose.”

Dancing on Campus—Action of the Wake Forest College trustees permitting dancing on the campus has led to threats of financial support withdrawal by individual churches. The college is a Southern Baptist institution. The action was supported, however, by the Cullom Ministerial Conference, comprising pre-ministerial students at the college, after a heated debate. “We have no right to impose our opinion on the student body as a whole,” the conference resolution said. It added that dancing is “a personal ethical matter which must be decided by each individual.”

Digest—Dr. Theodore F. Adams, president of Baptist World Alliance, recently suffered a heart attack, but is expected to recover “completely.” It may not even be necessary for him to curtail work, says his physician … Dr. Eric M. North retires as senior general secretary of the American Bible Society after 30 years service.… Dr. Ernest C. Colwell, vice president and dean of faculties of Emory University, Atlanta, Ga., elected first president of Southern California School of Theology.… Death claims Professor Emeritus Louis Berkhof, 83, first president of Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Mich. He wrote more than a score of books, among which were Systematic Theology, Manual of Christian Doctrine and Summary of Christian Doctrine.… Dr. Russell V. DeLong, Nazarene evangelist and author, elected president of Pasadena College, succeeding Dr. W. T. Purkister, who is going to the Nazarene Seminary, Kansas City.

Europe News: June 10, 1957

100Th Anniversary

The American Church in Paris, reported to be the first American chapel founded on foreign soil, marks its 100th anniversary this year.

Formed to serve the American colony in the French capital, the church is the oldest non-governmental American institution in Europe.

The present English Gothic structure, erected over the foundation of a tobacco warehouse on the Quai d’Orsy, was completed in 1931 at a cost of $1,000,000. It replaced the first chapel on the Rue de Berri, off the Champs Elysees. The building was called a chapel until 1883 when a French law prohibiting use of the “church” for a Protestant house of worship was repealed.

Co-Existence

Wladyslaw Gomulka, leader of the United Workers (Communist) Party, said in Warsaw that future relations between the government and the Roman Catholic Church in Poland will largely depend on the church “marching together with us.”

He spoke at the first full convention of the party since he was returned to leadership after Poland’s bloodless revolt against Soviet political domination last October.

Gomulka said the party believes that the “idealist outlook” of the Roman Catholic Church will exist for a long time side by side with the “materialistic outlook” of non-believers.

He added:

“We don’t prevent the church from marching in matters of faith along its road of Roman Catholic doctrine. The church should also recognize the fact that Poland has changed her former social system, that she is building socialism.

“In matters which are of vital concern for the interests of the people’s Poland and the nation, we want the church to march together with us along the Polish road. It is on this that the long-term shaping of relations between the people’s state and the church will largely depend.”

Britain News: June 10, 1957

Spiritual Cure

The real tragedy of Ireland lies in the fact that the 16th century European Reformation, which had such a gracious and beneficial influence in England and Scotland, never reached Ireland.

This is the opinion of the Rev. F. Rupert Gibson, superintendent of the Irish Mission of the Presbyterian Church.

In an address at Belfast, he said history might have been different if Irish settlers had been given the Bible in their own language.

The Irish problem, he said, is not political, but spiritual, and must have a spiritual cure.

“The teaching of the Bible could take the gun out of Irish politics,” he added.

Spiritual Ties

Under the tide of “Relations between Anglican and Presbyterian Churches,” a report has been issued by the Church of England (Anglican) and the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian).

Two smaller communions, the Episcopal Church of Scotland and the Presbyterian Church of England, collaborated in the study.

The report is the result of conversations of the four churches over a period of years with a view to creating closer spiritual ties. Emphasis in the talks has been placed on the removal of existing barriers and the reconciliation of differences rather than on formal church union.

Chief interest in the report lies in the proposal that the Presbyterian churches should adopt an order of bishops, chosen by each presbytery from its own membership, and that the Episcopal churches should introduce a system of lay eldership similar to the Scottish eldership.

The Bishop of Derby, Dr. A. E. J. Rawlinson, said the proposals probably will “starde” some people. If the recommendations are adopted, both the Church of England and the Church of Scotland will be called upon to make “radical changes” in their existing organizations “in the interest of fuller unity and fuller truth.”

It has been urged that no judgment be passed on the report until its proposals have been fully examined and discussed. Already, however, many voices have been raised against the chief proposal, especially in Scotland. The Rev. Tom Allan, leader of the “Tell Scodand” movement, is reported to have said that he opposes the plan. The Bishop of Brechin, Dr. Graham, of the Episcopal Church in Scotland, also is cautious. He remarked that the proposals must be allowed to “lie on the table” for some years to come.

—F. C.

South America News: June 10, 1957

Retreat In Ecuador

Effective cooperation between evangelical missions has highlighted Gospel work in Ecuador.

More than 175 missionaries, representing 13 organizations, furthered their cooperative efforts recently at the eighth annual Inter-Mission Fellowship Retreat in Quito. Speaker was the Rev. Larry Love of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

The Fellowship has spearheaded a youth camp effort with much spiritual success.

Ministers Stirred in Graham Crusade

WORLD NEWS

Christianity in the World Today

“This is like all the Christmases I have ever known rolled up into one.”

The expressive statement was made by a New York minister after the first week of Billy Graham’s Crusade at Madison Square Garden. He was stirred night after night as the Word of God reached deeply into the hearts of businessmen, show people, teen-agers, society matrons and derelicts.

Another minister, evidently in soul-searching thought, sat in the Garden one night long after the benediction had been pronounced. There had not been enough regular counselors to meet the need of the hundreds who had surged forward at the invitation, and he had volunteered his services in helping one to find Christ. It was a rich experience. As the lights flickered out all over the Garden, he sat off by himself—still thinking about it. And big tears ran from his eyes.

One clergyman, before the campaign began, determined that he was going to put everything he had into it and trust God for the blessings in his church. He organized a special bus every night and rejoiced each time on the return trip because some of the people who left with him returned with Christ. Another bus had to be added in the second week. He said new life had been abundantly added to his church.

The case histories of two churches in London have been repeated many times in New York. During the Harringay Crusade, a minister and his congregation did everything possible to cooperate. They made a house-to-house canvass of people in the parish and provided free transportation. The pastor said the membership of his church tripled as a result of the effort.

Another pastor in London was against the Harringay meetings from the start. The congregation did nothing. However, about 30 of the people who made decisions listed his church as their preference. He didn’t contact the 30 and made an effort to prove his point that the decisions were not real by stating that only about ten of them ever showed up for services. He said he had admitted about two families, but was pretty sure that one of these was dissatisfied.

“If doctors treated new-born babies like many ministers treat young Christians the mortality rate would be a shocking thing to behold,” remarked Mr. Graham in an appeal for New York clergymen to encourage them in Christian growth. “Babes in Christ grow strong by reading their Bibles daily, by spending time in prayer, by living and witnessing for Christ and by being faithful in their churches.”

Some ministers continue to object to the large and efficient organization, brought together from three continents in an effort to penetrate the heart of the world’s biggest city. One person wrote that he would have more respect for the ministry of Billy Graham if he preached in the streets.

The Charlotte Observer, in a recent issue, carried an editorial in answer to such attacks. It said:

“If Billy Graham needs any defense against those who object to his evangelistic work because they do not approve of his ‘organized methods,’ he can merely turn to St. Paul.

“When Paul decided to evangelize that den of iniquity, Ephesus, he did not go at once. Instead, he sent two advance agents, Aquila and Priscilla, who had had two years of hard experience in Corinth and before that in Rome. Their job was to organize the campaign and to soften up Ephesus for the main event when Paul arrived.

“They were helped by a brilliant young man from Alexandria named Apollos—the kind of orator who could make an audience eat out of his hand—who did much of the softening up work after Aquila and Priscilla corrected his doctrinal errors.

“Then came Paul, not alone, but accompanied by a team of tough professionals, Timothy, Luke and others, all of whom had been through the mill, fought with mobs and spent some days and nights in prison.

“From the names mentioned in the Epistles and in Acts in connection with the Ephesus campaign, it can be estimated that Paul had a team of about 20 persons, all experts, who knew their way around in the business of evangelism.

“So, if Billy Graham has too much organization, he has an excellent precedent.”

A prayer of the Graham team from the beginning has been that the impact of the Gospel on New York will spread over the nation and into all parts of the world. Already, little revival fires have been reported in several cities, mainly as a result of the prayer meetings being held for New York.

The spread received a big boost by nation-wide telecasts direct from Madison Square Garden over the ABC network. Mounting millions tuned in for the first two telecasts, with the Word of God reaching into more homes than ever before in history. The final two telecasts from 8 to 9 p.m. on succeeding Saturdays are expected to zoom the evangelist’s audience rating. A significant commentary, it seems, is that famed comedians who humor viewers away from the realities of life may be losing out in American homes.

But Billy Graham, who drives to the heart of realities with understandable sermons founded on “Thus saith the Lord,” is gaining momentum.

Television executives are a little puzzled about the phenomenon, and some of them don’t quite understand the answer offered by Mr. Graham:

“It isn’t a man. The people are hungry for God!”

Size Of Churches

A Presbyterian churchman has proposed that research be conducted to determine “how large a church can be and still be a community.”

Dr. Paul C. Payne of Philadelphia said a “searching study” should be made into the most effective size of churches “before we continue any further in piling up monster congregations.”

Dr. Payne, retiring general secretary of the Presbyterian (U. S. A.) Board of Christian Education, said the churches must find ways of giving “strange, hurrying, lonely throngs of people around us an experience of community in the impersonal faceless life of our great cities and suburbs.”

Some city churches, he observed, “are dying and deserving to die because they are making no effort to serve the neighborhood where they are situated.”

He deplored a tendency to “make church membership easy for fear of driving prospective members away.

“By making church membership easy, we turn our churches into warrens for spiritual rabbits, who want some magic formula guaranteed to save their tender skins, while braver souls who would take the church seriously find themselves baffled by the lack of challenge or by the little church chores assigned them.”

Evangelical Manual

The Youth Commission of the National Sunday School Association has prepared a manual entitled, “Scouting in Evangelical Churches.” Published in cooperation with the Boy Scouts of America, the manual may be obtained from NSSA, 542 S. Dearborn, Chicago, Ill.

Worth Quoting

“The early Church had power, not merely ideas. It produced results, not programs. God is seeking a Church and people today through whom he can pour a spiritual dynamic capable of transforming life.”—Dr. B. H. Pearson, Los Angeles.

“We see all around us the men and women to whom Christianity is little more than a socially acceptable hobby. They are perfectly nice people, in nice clothes, driving a nice car to a nice church on a nice Sunday. Secretly, they believe that Christ’s teaching is much too impractical for this mundane world—at least for six days a week. Sunday they’ll hear the sermon … Monday they’ll write their Congressman and ask him to cut out of the budget that portion devoted to health, education and welfare.”—Governor George M. Leader of Pennsylvania.

“From the year 1725 to 1729 I preached much, but saw no fruit of my labors.… From the year 1729 to 1734, laying a deeper foundation of repentance, I saw a little fruit … for I did not preach faith in the blood of the Covenant.… From 1734 to 1738 I saw more fruit of my preaching and visiting … than ever I had done before, though I know not if any of those who were outwardly reformed were inwardly and thoroughly converted to God.… From 1738 (year of prayer meeting in Aldersgate Street) to this time … the Word of God ran as fire among the stubble … multitudes are crying out, ‘What must we do to be saved?’ and afterwards witnessing, ‘By grace we are saved through faith.’—John Wesley, quoted by the Rev. Charles C. Ryan, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Church Sacrifice

Bishop Gerald Francis Burrill of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago told the annual diocesean convention that “evangelism in the Episcopal Church is being sacrificed to the needs of the program and the schedule of worship.”

The church that lacks evangelistic zeal, he warned, is in danger of “contracting spiritual hardening of the arteries.”

He added:

“Clergymen are so busy with routine that little time is left for reaching new people.… Our laity do not think of themselves as missionaries in their neighborhoods. Our underlying difficulty is our lack of concern for God’s commission for each one of us to seek out his brother.”

Merger Of Churches

The following special report was written by Dr. Robert J. Lamont, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Penna. and a contributing editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

The 169th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., held recently in Omaha, Nebraska, unanimously ratified the vote of every presbytery in favor of union with the United Presbyterian Church of America.

The 872 commissioners stood with bowed heads and prayed for God’s blessings on the action they had taken. If the U. P. General Assembly, meeting in June, approves, the union will be consummated at Pittsburgh in May, 1958.

Dr. Harold R. Martin, pastor of Second Presbyterian Church, Bloomington, Illinois, was elected moderator. A high spiritual note that characterized the meetings of the Assembly was sounded by Dr. Martin at the induction ceremonies when he said, “I am only a sinner saved by grace and I earnestly covet your prayers for the blessing of the Holy Spirit on the Church of Christ.”

“The Whole Gospel for the Whole World” was the Assembly theme.

As part of the long-range benevolence advance, the commissioners unanimously approved a $43,000,000 budget for 1958. This action committed the church to a benevolence goal of $54,000,000 by 1962. The step of faith brought forth the spontaneous singing of the Doxology by the Assembly in the packed Omaha Civic Auditorium. Stewardship of time and the tithe of substance was urged.

In an effort to keep its constituency and the public informed, the Assembly created the “Office of Information.” Dr. Murray S. Stedman was elected director.

Mrs. J. R. Salisbury of Kansas City, Missouri, president of the National Council of Presbyterian Women’s Organizations, which has a membership of over 625,000, told of the program of prayer, study, service and giving—world wide in its witness for Jesus Christ.

A truly significant paper, “The Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. and the Public Schools,” was presented by the Board of Christian Education after more than two years of research. Among other things, the report:

1. defines certain areas of common loyalties of the public school and church and expresses a strong conviction that Presbyterians must remain loyal to public education;

2. demands continuance of the traditional principle of separation of Church and State;

3. enunciates a policy limiting the promotion of Presbyterian parochial schools;

4. opposes the support of independent and parochial schools through the use of public funds;

5. maintains that the public school teacher is in a strategic role to exercise a keen sense of Christian vocation;

6. urgently requests Presbyterians in this country to work actively for the improved financial support of public schools.

The report was enthusiastically adopted.

A committee on the rewording of the Shorter Catechism recommended that the questions and answers on the Shorter Catechism remain unaltered.

The Assembly paid tribute to more than 2,800 national missionaries by receiving unanimously the report of the National Missions Board, which provides for college scholarship assistance for the children of national missionaries. A corporation was created to sell bonds in the amount of $10,000,000 to be used to finance on a loan basis new church development.

As part of the report of the Committee on Evangelism, prayer was offered for the blessing of God upon the Billy Graham Crusade in New York City. The Assembly telegraphed assurance of prayer and support to Dr. Graham.

The Board of Foreign Missions reported that the task of the Church had reached a crucial moment—brought about not by its failure but by its success in establishing indigenous churches in many lands. To facilitate the world mission and to cooperate with new churches, the Assembly voted to establish a commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations to succeed the present Board of Foreign Missions and the Permanent Commission on Interchurch Relations.

One could not help but be impressed by the dedication and the evangelical concern, not only by the board and agencies but by the commissioners themselves, as in prayerful democracy the Church was committed again to the “Whole Gospel for the Whole World.”

In Christ’s Name

Pressure to keep Christians from praying in Christ’s name at public meetings was denounced in a joint statement issued by the Greater Miami Ministerial Association and the Greater Miami Council of Churches.

The resolution said:

“We record herewith our profound disapproval of any such attempts to bind the conscience of any man or woman of any faith.

“We believe that such acts and attitudes are disruptive of the spirit of fair play, tolerance and understanding among our people and represent a denial of the principles of religious freedom and the right of free speech.”

The churchmen said any prayer offered in public or semi-public or private assembly should be “in accordance with the religious convictions of the person offering the prayer—whether he be Protestant, Catholic or Jew, or a representative of any other religious faith or sect.”

The resolution did not name any specific cases. But it said that “various pressures have been exerted in the public schools, in parent teachers association groups, in certain civic clubs and in a variety of public and semi-public functions where custom, tradition or the solemnity of the occasion indicate that prayer should be offered, to prescribe and proscribe the character of that prayer in a way that is an affront to the integrity of the minister’s or layman’s faith and a violation of his conscience.

“Specifically, Christian people have been requested, or forbidden, as the case may be, not to pray as Christians, sometimes upon pain of punishment, wherever it could be administered.”

In an accompanying explanation, the Rev. J. Wayte Fulton, Jr., president of the ministerial group, said some of the pressure has been the result of misunderstanding of how important it is for a Christian to pray in Christ’s name.

From 5 To 500

In the spring of 1857 groups from five Michigan communities—Grand Rapids, Polkton (Coopersville), Vriesland, Graafschaap and Noordeloos—withdrew from the Reformed Church of America and formed the beginning of the Christian Reformed denomination.

There were five churches, 750 people, and one minister, who traveled around in an ox cart.

Vern Boerman, writing in the Muskegon Chronicle, said Abraham Lincoln was campaigning to be a senator when the denomination was born.

The writer added:

“They were part of those Reformed Christians in the Netherlands who had suffered hardship because they protested against a State Church. They were part of those who came from the Old World land of dikes and windmills to America, the haven for people from many lands.

“In its century of existence the Christian Reformed denomination has had many forms of growth and change—from the Dutch language to English, modifying from a primarily Dutch church to one including Americans of many backgrounds, founding a church-supported college and seminary, establishing a system of domestic and foreign missions, working on neighborhood evangelism, sharing in the construction of Christian grade and high schools, establishing local and national radio broadcasts, publishing magazines, books and literature.

“Today, the Christian Reformed Church reaches from Nova Scotia to California, from Alaska to Florida. It embraces a quarter-million people in over 500 churches.”

Elaborate celebrations will mark the centennial observance.

Hoover’s Challenge

The following statement, concerning crime and church responsibility, was made especially for CHRISTIANITY TODAY by John Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation:

“Thoughtful citizens everywhere are alarmed over the continued upsurge in youthful lawlessness. Last year arrests of young people under 18 years increased 17.3 percent over the previous year in our cities. Population in the 10–17 age group increased less than three percent in the same period.

There are, of course, many causes contributing to juvenile delinquency, but one which I have repeatedly observed is the absence of individual moral character in our youth. Let us never forget that Christ emphasized the inherent worth of the individual. Teaching this fact is the joint responsibility of the home and church.

“Unfortunately, many homes today do not provide a standard of moral character as a guide to young people. We cannot ignore that our churches do not reach all young people and many of them have little familiarity with Christ’s teachings. Obviously, this presents a real challenge to our churches. The material richness and glitter of the life of our times provides many temptations for our youth. If they do not know Christ and the Word of God, and lack the standard for guidance, we can expect a continuing increase in the number of young people who are brought before the courts each year. When the Word of God is absent, chaos may enter young lives. Our churches must reach the youth of America.”

Missionary Alliance

Member churches and other supporting organizations of the Christian and Missionary Alliance contributed a record $3,718,668 for its work during 1956, an increase of $284,266 over 1945.

Of the total, $2,299,586 was spent to support the Alliance’s mission work.

These reports were made at the organization’s 60th annual meeting recently in Charlotte, N. C. More than 1,000 delegates attended.

President H. L. Turner of New York said the interdenominational agency sent 103 new missionaries into 22 foreign fields last year. He reported the total number of active missionaries abroad to be 786.

All The Answers

Before it tries to solve problems of society, psychiatry should first solve its own problems, Dr. Francis J. Braceland, president of the American Psychiatric Association, told the group convention in Chicago.

He stated:

“To attempt to pose all the answers to problems ranging from preventing international wars to bickering over back fences is to invite public discredit.… Psychiatry still can’t agree, for example, on whether mental illness is a chemical derangement of the body or an end result of emotional wounds in children.”

The likelihood, he added, “is that both the mind and the body are involved in the problem. And perhaps even these aren’t the whole story. Apparently the problem is wrapped up with man’s whole being, his higher aspirations, the meaning of his life, the understanding of himself and his place in the order of things.”

Spreading The Word

The number of languages and dialects into which at least one book of the Bible has been translated passed the 1,100-mark during 1956, The American Bible Society reported at its 141st annual meeting.

The entire Bible has been published in 210 languages and dialects; a complete Testament in an additional 270 and at least a book in 629.

Business Transaction

Three acts of Congress were necessary for the Acworth (Ga.) Methodist Church to buy seven acres of land from the Army Engineers Corps.

A bill was first introduced by Rep. Henderson H. Lanham (D.-Ga.) to give the Army Engineers permission to sell the land.

Congress approved the bill but the House and Senate quickly recalled the measure from President Eisenhower’s desk. The White House discovered that the bill erroneously specified 9,990 feet instead of 990 as the depth of the tract. Both Houses passed the measure again and sent it back to the President.

Eutychus and His Kin: June 10, 1957

COMMUNICATION

After a recent title bout someone asked Sugar Ray Robinson how far the knockout punch had traveled. “I don’t know,” asnwered the recrowned middleweight, “but he got the message somewhere!” The crack is not so classic as the champion’s left hook, but it has a future. It is made to order for all these talks about talking and should appear in a dozen commencement addresses.

Sugar Ray was only using the language of a communication-conscious age. Since our society is being reshaped by electronic means of communication, we cannot avoid the subject. With curious zeal, many people want to reduce everything to communication. Skeptics assure us that we have outgrown all talk about what is, and that we must be satisfied with the logical analysis of how we used to talk about it. T.V. surely demonstrates how much more we know about how than what to communicate!

The old liberalism believed that education would solve all problems. Today’s liberal has the same naive faith in communication. Communicate in print, at the conference table or on the psychiatrist’s couch, and conflicts will evaporate. The trouble is that the message, on delivery, is often a left hook to the chin!

Some preachers are far more ready to discuss communication than the Gospel to be communicated. The difference between heaven and hell becomes an exercise in semantics. By separating language from truth, men justify using expressions they no longer believe and at the same time deny that God can reveal his truth in human language.

Those who believe that God’s Word is truth need a new grip on “communication”—and revelation. But they must avoid the method of the wise man of Gotham, who decided he needed a better grip while hanging from a tree branch over the sea, and therefore let go to spit on his hands.

EUTYCHUS

SPIRIT OF FOREIGN POLICY

It seems to me that you have unnecessarily confused things in this time when there ought to be support of our President in what he is seeking to do for the peace of the world.… The President’s policy should be judged wholly on the basis of whether it is calculated to head off Communism and the communistic countries from making more trouble.…

EARLE V. PIERCE

Minneapolis, Minn.

I am enjoying … CHRISTIANITY TODAY and want especially to express appreciation for the editorial “The Spirit of Foreign Policy.” … I feel this is one of the most constructive and timely presentations I have come upon in a long time.

PAUL S. JAMES

The Baptist Tabernacle

Atlanta, Ga.

Congratulations on whoever wrote the editorial “The Spirit of Foreign Policy” …

JEROME DAVIS

West Haven, Conn.

Permit me to congratulate you on your splendid editorial “The Spirit of Foreign Policy” (April 29).… You certainly have hit the nail on the head.…

S. H. HALAJIAN

Los Angeles, Calif.

REFLECTIONS ON MARTYRDOM

In reply to “The Prayer of the Five Widows,” I was much disturbed.… To say that “… because God has done a tremendous thing in taking five of His choicest servants in this incipient stage, we are bold to expect tremendous answers to prayer in the future,” is to call God a murderer. God never desires that lives which are dedicated to him be taken in death.… Unnatural death is never in God’s plan but because of some sin of man.… It is not God’s will that the men lost their lives.… I would say to these wives, march on in silence and God will use and reward you.

E. V. HARGREAVES

Shasta Valley Methodist Parish

Mantague, Calif.

The martyrdom of five splendid men by the Auca Indians might … stir our thinking along these lines:

Arriving by plane, setting up tents and dressed as they were, these men appeared to be as much apostles of our culture and civilization as bearers of the Gospel.

Missionary work in Asia and Africa is today suffering greatly from this very thing.… Christ came down to our level and met us under our conditions. Is it not possible he would have both ministers and missionaries examine the instructions given to the twelve and the seventy before their tours (Lk. 9:3 ff. and 10:2 ff.)? These instructions made them live at the level and within the cultural limitations of the people to whom they were sent.

A. A. TUFFIN

St. Mary’s

Hayes, Kent, England

GIVING WAY TO ROME

Please, please … will you not misuse the term Catholic Church so consistently? So many people follow in using the term as pertaining to that branch of the Church which is properly termed The Roman Catholic Church. The practise of using the name Catholic as an exclusive right for those of the Roman fold is erroneously broadcast by that denomination and all the Protestants seem only too willing to give way to Rome in this regard except in some few cases. As a member of the Anglican Church of Canada I must point out that while we are a Protestant Body, and I can assure you probably the first Protestant Body (vide John Wycliffe 1320–1384), we are assuredly a Holy Catholic Church.…

CUTHBERT THOMAS

All Saints’

Cannington, Ontario

CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA

We have read with considerable interest the long editorial treatment on “Conversations with Chinese Christians” (Jan. 21 issue).… All of us can agree heartily in its comment on the inseparable bonds that exist among all Christians and the natural desire for fellowship with them across all barriers.

Reference is made in your editorial to agitation by “leading churchmen” for a delegation to visit Communist China.… We do not know of any general “agitation” or demand for such a visit by American churchmen. In fact, Dr. Mackay is the only leading American churchman we are aware of who has called for such an exchange of visits at this time.… It has been the opinion in the China Committee of the Division of Foreign Missions that for various reasons, the missionary forces do not feel that the American churches should propose such a visit at this time.

We are even more concerned, however, with the … position … that “liberal” churchmen in China have collaborated with the Communist government, and “evangelicals” have resisted government pressures and have subsequently suffered severe persecution.… A substantial portion of the Chinese church leaders who have been imprisoned are those who would be regarded as “liberals,” while a number of church leaders who are freely carrying on their work and who are intimately associated with the Three-Self Movement are well known fundamentalists.

We do not believe it is accurate to say, “the majority of evangelicals were reluctant to join up,” and “many of their churches have since been occupied or closed by the government.” Many Chinese churches were closed. So far as we know, not a single Protestant church in any of the cities has been closed. The churches that were closed were in the rural areas, where the bulk of church membership was conservative, usually during the period of land reform.… There is also incontrovertible evidence that a very large number of these churches have since been permitted to re-open.…

All of us have the deepest sympathy with Chinese Christians who have suffered for their convictions. We believe that their suffering has come about not because of their theological position as conservatives or liberals but because of unwillingness to yield or compromise their basic Christian convictions. It is untrue and unfair to take the categorical position, or to suggest, that “evangelicals” have by and large opposed the Communist government and have been persecuted and “liberals” have for the most part conformed and are in complete control of the church today.

Many of us who tried to work under Communism in China and who have vividly seen the pervasive influence and almost irresistible pressures of a totalitarian state, feel that it is not our place as American Christians to sit in judgment on Chinese Christians but rather to continue earnestly to pray, having in mind our own shortcomings, that God’s Holy Spirit may lead us and them into his perfect truth.

CLAUDE L. PERKINS, JR.

WALLACE C. MERWIN

China Comm.

Far Eastern Off.

Division of Foreign Missions

National Council of Churches

We have noted with interest the continued correspondence and articles regarding the Three-Self Movement church in China, and feel that one or two points should be re-emphasized.

First, some have the idea that we evangelicals have said that only the so-called liberal Protestants in China have cooperated with the Three-Self Movement church. We admit with deep regret that many of our strong evangelical leaders eventually aligned themselves with the Three-Self Movement church. It was said and emphasized in the original comment on this whole picture that at the start, when the Communists took over China, it was exclusively liberal churchmen who formed the Three-Self Movement church and then cooperated with the Communist government in putting pressure on church leaders all over China with the result that a number of strong evangelicals lined up with the Three-Self Movement church.

Whereas this is true, we are reliably informed that a majority of our evangelical leaders and churches, both rural and in the cities, have refused to cooperate with the Three-Self Movement church. Reports given us from inside China indicate that most of the persecution that has overtaken our Protestant pastors in China who have been conformed with the Three-Self Movement Church, has been instigated by that church. Although the reason given for the persecution has not been a religious reason, but rather a political offense of noncooperation with the State, the actual instigation was religious in most cases and not political.

There are two facts that I think we should point out. Without a doubt the Three-Self Movement Church represents formal Christianity today in China. The evangelicals on the other hand together with all those who have remained true to the faith, are members of the informal church which bases its entire faith and organization on their personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

The second thing is, that as far as we can see, the Three-Self Movement Church is but an extension of the Communist government which allows it a certain amount of freedom and probably will as long as it serves the general purposes of the government. We are convinced that it is being used as a political tool in the hands of a Communist regime which will exterminate it when its usefulness ceases.

CLYDE W. TAYLOR

Executive Secretary

Evangelical Foreign Mission Assn.

Washington, D.C.

BOOKS FOR SEMINARIES

If any seminary or Bible training school at home or abroad wishes to secure new copies of books I have written, the librarian should write me a letter, listing the titles of Blackwood hooks now on the library shelves. There are no strings attached. The books go out free, with postage paid. They are for use in the seminary library, not for the study of any individual.

ANDREW W. BLACKWOOD

Garden Court Apartments

Philadelphia 43, Pa.

Ideas

The Trumpet of the Lord

When the World Council of Churches at its Evanston assembly two years ago revived the theme of the Christian Hope, the religious world was given notice that Modernism’s disinterest in eschatology was undergoing wide revision. On all sides Protestant theological conversation turned with new zest to the theme of the end of the age.

This sixth decade continually confronts the human race with the threat of end-time. One tyrant’s lust for world power can advance the clock of history from the scientists’ “five minutes to twelve” to the moment when the Great Appraiser alone can assess the carnage. Little wonder that the human spirit feels driven to ask whether other options of end-time exist besides this one.

Ever since Christianity’s impact upon the West, successive generations have restudied the biblical doctrine of last things in times of conflict and crisis, while glossing over it in times of serenity and security. Historical circumstances and philosophical biases more than once have lulled the Christian community into the notion that Christ’s First Advent instituted a world so favorable that the Second Advent was dismissed as a distraction. Contemporary Protestantism registers an advance, therefore, in recognizing once more that eschatology is no mere pagan import into the Hebrew-Christian religion; that biblical prophetic revelation cannot be simply dismissed, but is an integral element in Hebrew-Christian revelation; that beyond the new order Hitler and Marx envisaged stands the new age already inaugurated by Jesus Christ.

The recent resort to eschatology differs considerably, however, from earlier approaches. The Church now lives in a world seeking the harmony of scientific and biblical images of reality. This yields a plurality of views, varying according to which philosophy of science is exalted. Equally important, different motives shape eschatological concerns of Christians under totalitarian rule and in the free world. Interest in the Christian doctrine of the future rises for the former from the shadows of religious persecution, if not from exposure to martyrdom for the Christian witness. Elsewhere the revival of eschatology finds much of its basis in quite other factors than missionary zeal. The sheer threat to material possessions, and the possibility of a general destruction of humanity through global warfare, is a major stimulus. Western Christendom runs the danger today of detaching eschatological interests from spiritual priorities, of subordinating them to the longing for material success and earthly security. Spared the experiences of suffering and persecution, American Christianity tends to turn its respite into an abnormal approach to last things.

Unless the Church properly turns her vision toward the future, she cannot properly face her problems in the present. The urgency of centering end-time reflection in the person and work of Jesus Christ is therefore apparent. Christ himself is the heartbeat of Christian hope. Beyond the when, and what, and where, and how, stands the who and the why. Rightly presented, eschatology always magnifies Christ.

Should the hydrogen bomb mushroom this earth to oblivion, the awesome climax of history is nonetheless assured. Mankind will survive the pulverizing heat of any atomic explosion. God will survive; the Ten Commandments will survive; the judgment throne of Christ will survive; and the blood of the Lamb will retain its power for all who have put their trust in him. Those billows of atomic dust will reveal Christ standing in the shadows, keeping watch above his own. This life and this world are not all there is. They are a prologue, a foreword—and the climax is yet to be revealed. Christ’s revelation and work are still to be completed. Neither man nor atoms shall frustrate the climax to which the Logos leads this world, as agent in its creation, preservation, redemption, sanctification and judgment.

If modernist theology neglected the Christian doctrine of the end, fundamentalist theology often cheapened and distorted it, thereby somewhat unwittingly provoking a reaction. Its failure has been twofold: concentrating theological interest on debatable issues rather than on the undebatable emphases of Scripture, and considering eschatology largely in terms of future events quite in isolation from the spiritual privileges of the present life.

Our generation, happily, is free of fanatical date setting reminiscent of the Munster excesses. Even the boldest prophetic teachers today are more cautious than a decade or two ago in the matter of identifying antichrists. Nonetheless, some fundamentalist Bible conferences and churches (perhaps a few Bible institutes also) would have to shut their doors were they to cease from eschatological polemics, their main stock in trade. The Church in the early chapters of Acts was a Hebrew-Christian Church, vibrant with eschatological hope, but Hebrew-Christian conferences today often disclose an imbalance of interests that apostolic Christianity would think strange. Quite apart from the dogmatic detailing of events, and from the tendency to major on disagreements and to minor on agreements, the fundamentalist exposition of eschatology has been prone to swerve from the person and work of Christ to an emphasis on times and seasons and programs as the center of the Christian hope. These extremes have brought the preaching of last things into disrepute, and in some quarters have led to suspicion of all eschatological interest.

The connection of eschatology with present-day problems has also been neglected. Assuredly there is to be a future climax of history, and this end is in the hands of Christ. But this end is also somehow within history itself, especially in sacred history. One fact that stands out clearly in the New Testament is that the weight of eschatological realities cannot be shifted wholly to the future. As the early Church knew from the outset (Acts 2:17, 2 Tim. 3:1, Heb. 1:2, 1 Pet. 1:20, 1 John 2:18), “the last days” are already in some sense dramatically underway. Christ as the end of history will impinge upon the present transcendently, but that consummation also has immanent anticipations. Yet “the last days” await their climax in the future. The outlines of the New Testament hope cannot be mythologized into mere picture presentations of the believer’s confidence in the final triumph of faith. Nor can they be dismissed as mere dramatizations of the believer’s “new being” in Christ in contrast with the old life. The biblical teaching of “the last days” requires a dramatic future course of events centered in the personal, visible return of Jesus Christ.

The conflict between amillennialism, postmillennialism and premillennialism turns largely on the manner of relating to history the immanent and transcendent manifestation of Christ. Dispensational premillennialism tended to lose the connection between the Second Advent and the Kingdom of God as a present reality; postmillennialism, in the secular evolutionary form it acquired in modernist circles, tended to detach the present Kingdom in history from any necessary dependence upon the Second Advent for its climax. While biblical theology depicts history as moving toward a goal, it does not locate its telos exclusively outside, nor inside, history. History is indeed eschatological; in some sense Christ’s Kingdom is already present, the Holy Spirit as its surging dynamic. But while the ‘eschaton’ has been advanced through Christ’s First Advent from the future to the present, we are not to rule out a transcendent future to which even this present must be related.

Modernist and fundamentalist theology, regrettably, reacted to extreme and objectionable statements of the connection of history to Christ its goal. There were varieties of the modernist view, of course, as of the fundamentalist, but two antithetic positions often contended for the mastery.

Modernism spoke in this mood of history itself as the enlarging Kingdom of God. As Wilfred Monod of the Divinity School of the University of Paris put it in 1902, “The supreme manifestation of Christ is subordinated to human liberty which is called to collaborate with his Spirit in order to make the Parousia possible.” The American “social gospel” was a reflection of this expectation that the Kingdom of God would reach its climax as humanity increasingly walks in the way of social, intellectual, moral and religious progress. The visible and personal Second Advent of Christ became tangential to the full manifestation of the Kingdom. The miseries of World War I punctured this optimism, and the agonies of World War II exploded it.

Fundamentalism, at least in its dispensational form, located the Kingdom only in the future; Kingdom-truth was millennium-truth. This one-sided future orientation of the Kingdom-teaching not only neglected vital elements of New Testament teaching about the present age, but it obscured the important emphasis of the Gospels that in the First Advent the Kingdom was already at hand in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. This detachment of Kingdom-teaching from the First Advent of Christ and from the Risen Lord’s ministry in this present age is now being widely challenged from the standpoint of fresh New Testament studies.

The New Testament sketches the revelation of the power of Jesus Christ in terms both of his future and present manifestation. It holds in view more than the personal and visible return of Christ, the resurrection of the body, the final judgment, the sanctification of believers in their conformity to the image of Christ; it stresses a fulfillment of life, a present sharing in the life fit for eternity, a shaping of the believer’s daily existence, in view of a distinctive relation in which the disciples of Christ now stand to their Redeemer. Since the Risen Christ is head of the body, believers united to the head in some vital sense have already passed through death and judgment, and are privileged to participate now in the spiritual realities of a resurrection life. Linked to Christ by the Holy Spirit, through whom the Lord reigns in the lives of his followers, the Church in some vital sense shares in advance, as an earnest of its future inheritance, certain distinctive powers and blessings of the age to come.

No exposition of coming events, however orthodox, can compensate for a neglect of these emphases of biblical theology so determinative of the ethical dynamic of Christian existence in this present age of grace. This phase of eschatology, no less than the next, develops what Christ does and expects of men. The climax of history involves a movement from this present work of Christ to its future work. An awareness of this will prevent the interest in eschatology from deteriorateing into a pious parroting of the phrase “the Lord may come today,” or into a mere quest for “inside information” about future events. For the believer’s whole attitude and conduct is to be enlivened by the great realities of the Christian hope. The early Church lived its daily life within this hope. All the troubles of life in this world provided for them an opportunity to detect Christ’s presence in their affairs, and to fix their eyes upon him as the Lord of history.

Eschatological sensitivity accounted for more than a deepening of moral achievement in the early Church; it also enlivened missionary interest and responsibility. And a renewed contemplation of the Christian hope will result in our day in the world proclamation of the Gospel to which Jesus assigned a divine priority. Any type of Second Coming teaching that dulls enlistment in the Great Commission is precluded by the New Testament itself. For, alongside the biblical interest in the events that herald the end of this age stands an unrelieved emphasis on the urgency of a global sounding of the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection for sinners.

This is not, as we have already made plain, the only valid interest in eschatological revelation. The New Testament itself has a fuller future look. The Christian minister bears the awesome responsibility of encouraging and comforting God’s people, caught in this generation’s uneasiness about a foreboding future, through an emphasis on the Lord’s triumph and return. It is a time for the pulpit to sound the promises of the Lord, to inspire Christ’s followers with a lively confidence in the blessed hope. The New Testament faces the rapidly approaching future as a series of great end-time events that enlarge this hope.

Prophetic preaching, unfortunately, often falls into disrepute through the neglect of biblical proportions, the elevation of secondaries to priority, the failure of many ministers to distinguish personal opinion in debatable areas from dogmatic teaching with a basis in revelation, and the fruitless quibbling over details. This tendency regrettably encourages multitudes of believers to seek categorical answers to questions to which even revelation may not provide a solution. One need not, however, fall into the contemporary quest for eschatological unity by dismissal of the literal truth of all prophetic pronouncements, and their comprehension merely as picture-images of the ineffable—a device which devoutly retains the vocabulary and sound of eschatological teaching but evaporates its content.

The Church needs to plant its feet again upon the rock of revealed truths in its exposition of the Christian hope. Thus in a troubled time the twentieth century Church can rise in new victory over all the times of dark despair that threaten its existence and effectiveness in the age between the Lord’s First and Second Advent. The Lord himself had warned that this period would be darkened by religious deception, by political disturbances, by natural disorders, yet he assured his disciples that even in this turn of events they could rely upon the outworking of the redemptive purpose of God that would reveal him at last as the judge of all mankind, the Savior of the Church, and the Lord of nature and history. Today this message belongs high in the list of pulpit priorities.

That Jesus will come “in the fullness of glory,” that on that “crowning day” he will receive “his own,” that “then shall the dead in Christ arise,” that saints and sinners will be parted “right and left,” that ours may be the generation when the saints “go without dying,” that believers must be ready and waiting, and must “haste to prepare the way,” that Christ returns “to reign victorious,” that “Satan’s dominion will then be o’er,” that Christ’s Kingdom “spread from shore to shore” is one wherein “Western empires own their Lord, and savage tribes attend his Word”—all this and more is a reflection of the final hope that survives in the familiar hymnody and song of the Church. If it is proper in the Church at worship, it is indispensable in pulpit proclamation. In many ecclesiastical quarters the sounding of the final hope is noised out by the clatter of the day, although the times are awesome enough to ask whether angelic hosts may be warming up the trumpet of the Lord.

We Quote:

D. M. BAILLIE

Late Professor of Systematic Theology, University of St. Andrews

I am convinced, and have long been convinced, that we ought to be preaching Christian doctrine much more than we are. I have sometimes said, during the last dozen years, that when I look back to the days of my regular pastoral ministry, one of the things I regret is that I did not more faithfully try to make my ministry a teaching ministry; and that if I had to begin again I would set myself to give more definite teaching from the pulpit … I am convinced that the preacher … ought also to be a teacher; and still more he must remember that what he has to preach is not simply whatever fancies or even whatever great thoughts come into his head, but the Christian message—and that really means Christian doctrine … I should like to suggest that our preaching of doctrine should be truly Biblical, not simply in the sense that we should be true to Bible teaching, but that as a matter of method in preaching we should let the doctrine spring out of the Bible.—In The Theology of the Sacraments, pp. 141 ff., published posthumously by Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1957.

Cover Story

Christ in Every-Day Life

L. Nelson Bell

Were you in church last Sunday? Perhaps so. But, important as it is, church attendance does not necessarily make one a Christian. Entirely too many church members act like Christians on Sunday and then go out to live for the devil the remainder of the week.

If Christianity is really worthwhile it must be something which transforms our lives seven days a week and twenty-four hours a day.

A grim prospect? Far from it. It can and should be a glorious experience which completely changes our perspective and our daily way of living.

At the moment what America needs is not more church members but more Christians. Church membership has been made entirely too easy and its meaning so superficial that it assumes the aspects of a respectible club with prepaid privileges in the Over-The-River-Burying-Society.

Confusion exists inside and outside the church because so many are mislabeled and further confusion comes because so few Christians really know what it is to yield to the Lordship of Jesus in daily living.

Within the church much time is spent trying to make non-Christians act like Christians, and outside the average worldling wonders what difference it makes anyway—if Christians live, act and talk like those who make no profession of knowing Christ.

However, this is being written to and for Christians, people who truly believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and their Savior from sin.

What a tragedy that so often we find ourselves completely defeated in the pressures of everyday life. In our hearts we know that we believe in Christ, but deep down inside we find little comfort because Christ means little in the place where we find ourselves six days a week. To this dilemma we speak, and toward its solution this is being written.

A long time ago Jesus said to his disciples: “For without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).

Within the compass of these seven words is found the cause of our trouble and also its cure.

The immediate and natural reaction is that this just isn’t so. We all know hundreds of men and women—doctors, lawyers, people in business, technicians, engineers, farmers—all of whom are successful and who make no pretense of being Christians or of taking Christ into their daily lives.

But wait a minute; what is success? Is it money, or popularity, or power, or expertness in some chosen field of endeavor? By the standards of the world these things constitute success but are the world’s standards valid? Will they last for eternity?

There is nothing more important than that we all should get a right perspective on life. That perspective is given by God, not by man. Man looks at the outside of man, while God looks at his heart; man thinks in terms of time, God thinks in terms of eternity. Speaking of material success our Lord says: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

Paul tells us that Christ has been laid as the one and eternal foundation, but that Christians may find themselves building on that foundation a very flimsy structure, one which will not withstand the coming fire-like testing (1 Cor. 3:11–15). This is an additional indication of our Lord’s meaning, that without Him we can do nothing which will last for eternity.

This being the case, how practical is our Christianity? Are we taking it into our every day lives? Into our homes? Our business? Our profession? If not there is something radically wrong. In this let us not try to fool ourselves. Rather let us sit down and take stock. Ask God to probe into our lives. Stock-taking may be embarrassing but it can also be very profitable.

Let us never forget that after becoming Christians we should live like Christians. Strange to say, if one asks the average church member whether he is a Christian he will receive some inane reply: “I hope so,” “I try to be” and so-forth. Ask a man whether he is married and he knows whether he is or not. A Christian should have similar assurance of his relationship with Christ.

J. B. Phillips, paraphrasing Paul’s statement, says that being a Christian is a matter of “believing, not achieving.” To many, Christianity is a matter of trying to do something to merit the title. But it just isn’t. We are Christians or not, depending on whether we trust in Christ as the Son of God and our Savior. This does not make us mature saints but it starts us in the right direction.

Having taken this step, what difference does Christ make in our daily lives? Well, there should be a complete change for we no longer have to walk blindly, we have Someone to go with us every moment of the day and night.

With Christ in our hearts we get an entirely new perspective; we begin to look at this world in the light of eternity; we commence to ask his guidance and help in decisions small and big; we find that we are no longer alone with our problems; we discover our interests and incentives change and we realize that we can talk with him any time and any place—and, he talks with us.

Obviously this has a very practical bearing on every phase of our lives, our home, our business, our social relationships, our recreation.

A Christian home, founded on faith in Christ, strengthened by daily prayer and study of the Bible and cemented by love is a little foretaste of Heaven. A home without Christ and all that he gives can be a sample of hell itself.

When we take Christ into our business something immediately happens—honesty, truthfulness and fairness take precedence over profits and become the basis on which profits are expected. Does this come as a shock? Just give him a try and one finds that he gives not only a clear conscience but also a sense of divine leading and blessing which cannot be measured in dollars and cents.

All of us have social contacts. They are inevitable and are desirable. When Christ controls our lives it makes such a difference that non-Christians will immediately sense it. Christians should be the happiest people in the world for they know where they stand now and where they will be for eternity. Love, consideration for others, courtesy, tact, patience—these and many other things should characterize the Christian as he comes in contact with others.

To make Christ the Lord of our lives means that we take him into our recreations and pleasures. He knows of these needs and wants us to enjoy life. The big difference for the Christian is that he really can have a good time. In all of this he will go only to those places and do those things in which he has a sense of the Lord’s presence and blessing.

If Christ is our Savior then he must be the Lord of our lives. It is high time we clarify our thinking along this line. He will not be our Savior on Sunday while we serve Satan the rest of the week.

Give him the green light in our hearts and lives.

He will do the rest.

Cover Story

The Spiritual Outlook in Belgium

W. W. Marichal

Belgium is a small kingdom of less than 9 million inhabitants. The history of this tiny land conditions its spiritual standing. For the nation has waged a constant struggle for independence against successive foreign invaders. French, English, Spanish, Dutch and German troops have occupied this territory during the centuries. This fact stands as the explanation of the typical Belgian mentality, expressed in deep attachment to freedom, nationally and individually, and in a spirit of vigor in all situations posing a threat to survival.

Reformation Stifled

On the other hand, Belgium suffered from religious tyranny so terrible that the Reformation was drowned in its own blood. Catholic and Spanish oppression, with the help of the Inquisition, caused many compatriots to give their lives for their faith and for their country. The famous “Gueux,” similar in their spiritual beliefs to the French “Huguenots” but different in their political aims, were obliged to fight on a double front-spiritual to save freedom of faith, material to win the battle for independence. Brussels in the sixteenth century was a free Calvinist republic for nine years, but was taken by Spanish troops and given back to Catholicism.

If the national revolution of 1830 at last gave Belgium its independence, by the same token it sacrificed to a foreign country, the Netherlands, the greatest part of the Protestant population. In 1831, when the Protestant churches of Belgium gathered into a Union of Churches, only eight congregations remained from all that had existed formerly.

Impetus From Abroad

New Protestant churches and movements, as they exist today, issued from this nucleus of 1831. They received impetus from the arrival in Belgium of foreign representatives of various Christian denominations, such as the Belgian Gospel Mission, created immediately after World War I by Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Norton.

To get a true impression of what is going on today, several facts must be kept in view.

On one hand, the country is mainly Roman Catholic, political power being wielded by means of the Christian Social Party. On the other hand, a wide workers’ movement is represented in the Socialist Party, which provided the working classes with most of their liberties and possibilities of life and which is anticlerical, i.e., anti-Catholic. The different Protestant denominations stand in the middle, with no political position and often ignored by those who possess or seek to possess power and authority.

Influence Of Catholicism

This great Catholic majority is based on baptism. All baptized persons are considered by the Roman Catholic Church to be Catholic, whether they go to church or not, whether they lose faith or not, whether they become Protestant or not. A Catholic in a high position has declared, however, that among the Armed Forces, fifty per cent should be considered as Roman Catholic. Even that figure is excessive, in my opinion.

Many people in towns or industrial areas never go to church, even though in other sections everyone seems to attend because all social and economic life centers in the Roman Catholic Church. I know certain places in the north of the country where the church, the homes of the mine workers, the football ground and so on, all belong to the mine. The leaders of the mine are keen Roman Catholics. No vicar may remain in charge if he is a “left-side” man; indeed, he must be the man of the mine. In such a place it is very difficult for one born in Protestantism to live. It is even more difficult to turn to Protestantism if one is born Roman Catholic. In such an eventuality, one loses his job, then his house. The only alternative is to move elsewhere, if possible. In some parts of the country, the Catholic influence is still very deep. But in many others, where the socialist or liberal ideas are strong, this influence does not interfere very much with the social or economic life of the people.

No State Church

There is no state church in Belgium. The state recognizes three religions: Catholic, Protestant and Jewish. It pays the parish ministers, but forbids itself interference with the church’s life, doctrine, organization or action.

The seventeen Protestant denominations are set in the middle of this situation.

Protestant Federation

Six of these are of the normal Reformed tradition, being bound in the Protestant Federation of Belgium. These are:

Union of the Protestant Churches of Belgium. Organized on a Congregational pattern, it reflects a very wide autonomy of the local congregation, even in doctrine. Ministers are appointed by the state, which recognizes this church.

The Belgian Christian Missionary Church. Created about a century ago by Reformed ministers of the Swiss Church of the Vaux Canton, it is a free church (we may call it Presbyterian in pattern) turned to Gospel preaching and missionary work in Belgium.

The Methodist Church. Dependent on the European Conference, the Bishop of which resides in Switzerland.

The Baptist Church. The Reformed Churches (“Gereformeerde Kerken”). Calvinist Flemish Church.

Other denominations at work in Belgium include the Salvation Army; the Belgian Gospel Mission, based on fundamentalism; Seventh Day Adventists; Mennonites; Plymouth Brethren, divided into different branches; Pentacostal Church, or Assembly of God, divided into two main branches; Free Lutheran Church; Church of England; Church of Scotland; and various minor churches or denominations.

The contacts between these various churches differ in various locations. In Antwerp, for instance, nearly all of them organize every year a “Bible Day” which is very well attended. The annual week of prayer also gathers many denominations at special meetings. Ministers meet in their periodical gatherings; if some never come, others (in spite of differences of churches and even of doctrine) happily pray together.

Shift In Romanism

This general background perhaps prepares us for some remarks on the spiritual outlook in Belgium. We will say something about Catholicism first, and then about our own Protestant churches.

Two things must be noticed about the Catholic church.

The biblical movement now offers the Holy Scriptures to the laity. About twenty years ago the Bible was considered a Protestant book. Catholic editions were too expensive, and the clergy did not favor Bible knowledge by the common people. Since World War II the Maredsous Abbey, a well known Benedictine convent, has published a new translation of the Bible and has opened a wide campaign inviting people to read the Scriptures.

This excellent translation has some notes and comments that are compulsory in all Roman Catholic editions. It is published in French. Another edition also well known in Belgium is the Jerusalem edition. In many places the local priest carries on Bible studies, of course according to the official dogmas of Rome. This dogmatic position, which dictates interpretation, limits all liberty of comprehension.

Furthermore, Roman contacts with Protestant ministers are often allowed. A few years ago, for instance, a joint gathering was organized in Liege with a Reformed minister from France, an Orthodox priest and a Roman Catholic priest. Each speaker expressed his convictions about the division of Christianity and his opinions about future unity. The Roman Catholic bishop was present. A Belgian minister was once invited in the Roman Catholic University of Louvain to present the doctrine according to Karl Barth, and a very interesting discussion followed. But these developments do not change at all the basic situation, according to which the Church of Rome, regarding itself as the only Christian church in the world in agreement with Christ’s will, declares all others to be “heretics.” And from the Protestant side no compromise can be admitted with such false dogmas as the assumption of the virgin Mary or the infallibility of the Pope.

Outlook For Protestants

What is the spiritual outlook on the Protestant side in our day?

The division of Belgian Protestantism into different denominations makes it impossible to speak for all of them. Nevertheless, certain facts are clear. Great possibilities are now open for the preaching of the Gospel. Many Protestants have Catholic relatives and when they marry, for instance, these Catholics attend the ceremony. The same occurs for ceremonies of baptism, confirmation or funerals. I do not feel that a great conference in a large hall is the best method for exploiting this opportunity. Personal contact is far more efficient. A large number of Christians in our churches were formerly Roman Catholics and came to the Gospel through a personal witness.

The witness of laymen is greatly emphasized in our day. Gatherings of medical personnel, of lawyers, of businessmen and so on, are organized to think through our faith and its claims inside the professions. These meetings help lay members to bear witness where they live and work.

The preaching of the Gospel by radio and television has been organized by a special committee at the Protestant Churches Federation level. Against Roman Catholic resistance, this committee obtained four broadcast services annually and short weekly lectures.

The Protestant Military Chaplaincy leads an official church service on National Feast Day before the highest authorities of the Kingdom, military and civilian. This service is broadcast by the National Broadcasting Radio Station of Brussels. Many conversions follow these monthly services on the part of people who write and ask to receive the Gospel.

Special mention must be given to the Belgian Bible Society whose Gospel preachers go from door to door and from village to village, on foot, through all the country. Many meetings are held in homes and kitchens, and some discover the Lord in this way.

Theological Deficiency

But Protestantism in Belgium suffers from lack of fully prepared preachers, of men out of theological high school. A certain number of congregations are entirely without a minister. Those who love the Lord and think with sympathy about Belgium pray that God may call young people to his service. We lack men and financial resources to go ahead. Nevertheless, during the period between the two wars two new congregations have come into existence annually, showing the possibilities that lie before our churches.

Preacher In The Red

FROM THE FULLNESS OF THE HEART

A few days before the annual District Synod of the Methodist Church in the Barbados and Trinidad District, British West Indies, was due to meet, a particularly well attended Prayer Meeting was held in the local Methodist Church. It was my privilege to preside over this meeting.

Fervent prayers were offered for the work of the Synod and especially for its important task in the stationing of Ministers.

One good woman who had a reputation for her power in prayer addressed to the Lord a few general observations on the duties and responsibilities of the Synod, and continued; “Lord, thou knowest that thy servant, our Minister who now stands before us, is to attend the Synod. Perhaps the Synod will want to station him in some other circuit. If it be thy will, Lord, to leave him right here amongst us we shall say ‘AMEN’. But if it be thy will to send him somewhere else we shall say, ‘HALLELUJAH’.—The Rev. Ernest Griffin, Superintendent Minister, The Methodist Church, Wesley Manse, Croxton Road, Thetford, Norfolk, England.

Belgium’s population of 8,500,000 will play host to the world in 1958, when 48 countries will participate in the first World’s Fair since 1939. The dates will be April 17 to October 19. Facing each other across an esplanade will be the two largest exhibitions—representing the United States and the Soviet Union. Towering above both will be the theme structure, a 360-foot high Atonium, designed to show that mankind has the ability to mold the atomic age to the benefit of all nations. An estimated 25,000,000 visitors from around the world are expected. With such big plans in the making, Christianity Today submits the significant spiritual history of the small kingdom. The author is W. W. Marichal, Chaplain General of the Belgian Armed Forces and Protestant Chaplain in Chief, Christianity Today’s correspondent in that land.

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube