Is America Losing Her Cultural Distinctives?

“American civilization has not merely changed its inspiration and its character but its epoch as well.” Thus Andre Siegfried, one of the leading French humanists, describes the cultural revolution in the United States. For him “the epoch of the pioneer has been replaced by the epoch of the machine” (Andre Siegfried, Nations Have Souls, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1952, pp. 170–171). Siegfried has emphasized the obvious. He has brought into focus the everywhere-apparent emphasis upon material values—the trend toward “bigness”—the decline of the significance of the individual.

The Vision Of Life

Latent in his analysis is the thought that culture is not made up alone of what we see. It may also be found in what we dream. Culture, in the sense of life’s habits—one’s way of doing things from day to day—may vary greatly from land to land, from community to community, and even from family to family. But the real question to be fathomed is this, What is the vision of life that a people carry about in their heads? Do they think of themselves as playing a part in a dramatic conflict with forces unseen, or are they cogs, bars, endless belts in an ordered mechanized existence?

The distinctiveness of American culture lies in its “myth”—its vision of life. This picture of life is highly dramatic. It conceives of man as an individual, discreet, intelligent, purposive, active. He is part of the society yet separate from it. He possesses capacities that are comparable to his fellows but always manifests a singular uniqueness in their demonstration. He is limited by his companions, yet is not bound by them. He is buffeted by circumstances yet never defeated. He is the servant of nature and likewise its master. He is a “free” man and not a slave. He knows life in the sense of destiny and purpose.

Such a vision of life is unique. The source of its singularity is to be found in its inspiration. This is hardly in the presence of “free land” in America nor in the abundance of the natural resources of the region to which men came. Neither was it imbibed from the changing climate of this north temperate region. Rather, it is to be discovered in the religious symbolisms of the men and women who laid the cultural foundations of American society.

Puritan Influence

The early vision of life in America was strongly influenced by the Puritan. His “cultural myth” was biblically inspired. Living in a day when church and state placed great emphasis upon the principle of order and unity, the Puritan protested against the cultural dominance of these external forms. He raised his voice against this tendency to uniformity in life and boldly asserted that man was no longer to be cast in the time-honored mold of his culture. Man was to be a “free” personality who would rise dominant over his culture. The basis for such a vision? It was to be found in the biblical view of God’s redemptive work for man, and in the realization of the individual reality of this experience by an act of individual faith. Alan Simpson’s recent study, Puritanism in Old and New England (University of Chicago Press, 1955), has again brought to light the importance of this vision in the life of early Puritanism. From it came the dynamic which drove men to oppose the church, the crown, and every semblance of regimentation until men were made free.

The real basis of the Puritan protest has great meaning for our present predicament. What the Puritan saw was this, that man tends to project the cultural form of the present into the future by codifying it as natural law and by employing the organized forces of society to sustain it. This made man the creature of his culture, rather than the creator. It further tended to divorce him from the real source of cultural inspiration, namely, God, and to deprive every cultural form of its real meaning and intent. In opposition to this tendency the Puritan asserted again and again that God, alone, was lord of the conscience. This meant that man must be free to follow the dictates of his own conscience in matters of law and government as well as in religious practices and in ethics. It gave man a basis upon which to assert the value of the individual over against the values of the group. It is the source of the spirit of individualism in American culture. As such, it is most important to consider in approaching the cultural transition of our times.

A People Of Lip Service

America’s cultural problem today is the problem of a people who give lip service to a set of cultural distinctives—forms of expression, standards of life, visions of reality—which are cut off from their real essence. The transition has been slow and gradual. The concept of liberty, once grounded in the belief that man must he free for the worship of God in every phase of life, is now confused with a man’s right to express himself or some vague assumption that the public welfare will be advanced by a scarcity of legal limitation. The concept of equality, which founds its inspiration in the biblical view of man’s creation by an eternal God and man’s universal state of sin or rebellion against God, is now confounded with weights and measures of economic privilege or physical capacity. The concept of private property which was conceived as a gift or trust from God and, hence, subject to limited political control, is now viewed either as the sole bulwark against arbitrary political power (that is, a very poor substitute for God), or it is viewed as a mere matter of social convenience. The institution of the family, which was once looked upon as of divine ordination and, therefore, not subject to man’s tinkering, is now often accepted as a product of an evolving set of social relationships. The state, once conceived as an instrument of God’s justice is now decried as the instrument of man’s inhumanity to man.

How may we retain our cultural distinctiveness? The answer lies in our readiness to abandon our prophets of monism and our willingness to return to a view of culture which accepts the various orders of inspiration—the spiritual, the intellectual, the material—and place them in their proper relationship to one another in the reinterpretation of American life.

The Loss Of Balance

Cultural history in America exhibits an alarming tendency to lose that sense of balance in orders of values that is so essential to a healthful cultural life. Beginning with a vital cultural vision gleaned from the Bible and interpreted in the forms of the evangelical Christian tradition it soon began to lose its distinctiveness. Seventeenth century Puritanism with its wholesome balance of supernaturalism, rationalism, and observationalism, sat down to converse with its snake in the garden and lost its freedom to an incipient intellectualism. Roger Williams detected the transition in Massachusetts Bay and was driven into exile for his protests. It all came about in a manner quite common to men who desire to preserve a revolution through the deification of new forms of expression. In its effort to preserve the vision of the individual God-man relationship through a personal experience of saving faith, Puritanism created its own “golden chain of being”—the concept of “covenant”—to connect the transcendent with the imminent and thus to give order to this new vision of life. The concept of “covenant” viewed all of life on this earth as related to God through the Living Word, Jesus Christ, and through the inspired word, the Scriptures. These somewhat mystical forms had to be translated into concepts intellectually prehensible. Then followed the “federal theology,” the elaborate explanation of the meaning of the “covenant” concept. It brought to American culture a vision of life which has never been transcended. In it the individual was most important. All institutions were divinely ordained, but man had a coordinate responsibility for their projection and maintenance. He was given a sense of responsibility and a vision of destiny that linked him with the Eternal. But tragedy became imminent when the son of the Puritan began to worship this theological formulation which often smacked more of Plato in its manner of expression than of its biblical typology. The idea of “covenant” which was basically an idea of personal relationship and order, was reduced to a principle of uniformity, a law. The result was manifest in the eighteenth century preaching of New England which emphasized the rationality rather than the personal aspect of God’s dealing with men. To put it theologically, the “covenant of grace,” whereby God extended salvation to his elect, was by-passed for the “covenant of works—the rational explanation of God’s dealings with men as part of the whole order of nature. Man thereby lost his identity as a person, he became known only as part of a rationally conceived order of life. Man was no longer dominant over culture but had surrendered his spiritual and intellectual powers to its control. With the passing of the “covenant of grace” there was little justification for change.

Shift Of Sovereigns

It was against this transition in American culture that Jonathan Edwards thundered in the middle of the eighteenth century. Edwards was concerned that America should assert the supremacy of the will as over against the domination of the intellect. He was determined that the sovereignty of God should be restored to American culture in opposition to both the intellectualist and the romanticists. In spite of his valiant efforts eighteenth century rationalism in the form of Deism wrought significant alterations in the American cultural myth. God, the Creator, still remained as the author of all order and truth. But the “golden chain of being,” the mediator between God and man, was no longer Christ and the Scriptures. It was Nature, conceived in the ordered vision of Newton’s Principia. The scientific experiments of Franklin and the writings of Jefferson and his friends tended to reinforce, yes, even to deify this concept. There had been brought back into American culture the principle of uniformity under the guise of science.

It was in the light of such a vision that Jefferson stated the basic principles of the American creed. These great ideas of equality, rights, and happiness were traced to “Nature’s God,” not the God of nature. In so grounding them Jefferson laid the basis for our cultural confusion. The modern conflict with atheistic materialism has demonstrated that there can be no “scientific” justification for such concepts. Man cannot look upon them as intellectual abstractions alone; they must be accepted as divine imperatives that are essentially spiritual in nature and can be understood only in the light of a Divine Creator who is also a Divine Redeemer. This is what Jefferson left out. Since then we have been trying to shore up the foundations of our cultural forms with new types of scientifically drawn intellectual abstractions only to discover that they are insufficient.

Distinctives In Peril

From the vantage point of the mid-twentieth century it is now possible to see quite clearly what happened to American culture in the nineteenth. Transcendentalism sought to perpetuate a basis of uniformity in the cultural myth that was not dependent upon human experience. God, in Emerson’s concept of the “Over Soul,” would transcend finiteness and thus give stability to culture. But there was something lacking, the sense of tragedy, the presence of sin. The vision became optimistically rigid. There was no deviation from the path of progress in the pattern of change. This vision served to strengthen the American vision of destiny and to awaken the social conscience to the enormities of human slavery. But the dynamic of action for the reform movement which followed sprang from the vision of God and man which burst upon the American scene in the Finney revivals.

Simultaneously, another movement sought to restore the concept of grace, of needed change, in the American cultural myth. Having rejected the vision of revelational grace which moved the Puritan Jonathan Edwards, and Charles G. Finney to clamor for reform, the new prophet sought inspiration from the scientific doctrines of change which were then emerging. The evolutionary view of life—dialectical, survivalistic, or emergent—became the inspiration for the American dream. God became imminent in the very motion of matter. In fact, there was no need for any transcendent God or any absolute; all that was necessary was the ability to determine the trend of the motion. This would provide the oracle for man’s action, the vision for his dream.

It is quite obvious that this tendency to monize our cultural inspiration does violence to the basic constructs of knowledge itself. Long ago the Greeks laid it down that all knowledge deals with origins (being), behavior (becoming), and ends (telesis). Our latest cultural inspiration has been drawn from behavior, alone. We have tried to explain both origins and ends in terms of behavior. We have lost the sense of balance and completeness which comes when one recognizes that both origins and ends are to be interpreted in terms of revelational truth. This places our absolutes where they belong—in God. It saves us from the error of confusing our ideas about God with absolutes, that is, it places rational truth in its proper place—namely, as one form of understanding. Likewise, it helps us to recognize that the knowledge derived from experience is meaningful only as it demonstrates in a non-deductive manner the realities of the absolute.

The American cultural myth is a rich one because of its basic inspiration derived from the person of God. It is sound when rational truth is brought into conformity with this “heavenly vision.” It is real when it permits man to experiment and to learn more of life through the realm of experience. This balance of the spiritual, the intellectual, the experiential, is the genius of American culture. When we lose this balance and endeavor to project either the principle of order, rationality, or the principle of change, experience, as the basis of our culture, we lose the proper foundation for any sound cultural system. We then become slaves either to the “god” of our intellectual abstractions, or of our observational generalizations. We can know freedom in our culture only as a free God is posited as its base. Without this assumption America will continue to lose her cultural distinctives.

END

We Quote:

DANIEL A. POLING

Editor of “Christian Herald”

Why do we support Billy Graham and the New York Crusade? Because he speaks always for Jesus Christ, because always his message is Christ-centered, because always he preaches Jesus Christ as man’s only sufficient Savior, because always he is a proved open channel for the Holy Spirit, because always he honors the Bible as the inspired word of God, and because under his leadership the churches of our Protestant faith are united in a Crusade unequaled in the history of this vast city.… The negative critics of the Billy Graham Crusade and of mass evangelism ask the question: Did Billy Graham change London and Glasgow?… The records indicate that large numbers of the converts do stand fast. But if the final test be thus raised, what about the entire history of Christianity since St. Peter preached at Pentecost?… What about John Wesley and Dwight L. Moody and all those other humble but inspired men who went before or who have come since? Is not Christianity itself and all that is worthy in the ecumenical movement of our time, the direct result of evangelism, mass evangelism included?

S. Richey Kamm is Chairman of the Division of History and Social Science at Wheaton College in Illinois. He holds the A.B. degree from Greenville College, A.M. from University of Michigan, and Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania, and in 1952 was awarded the LL.D. degree by Seattle Pacific College.

- More from S. Richey Kamm

Review of Current Religious Thought: June 24, 1957

G. C. Berkouwer

When we reflect on the reality and the significance of the Church in the New Testament and on the place of the Church in the midst of the world, we quite naturally come into contact with the question of the relation between the Church and authority. This will be immediately evident if we reflect on the age-old controversy between the Reformation and Rome. It stands to reason, however, that this controversy also plays a role, albeit somewhat differently, when we take note of other discussions about the Church of Jesus Christ.

When the Reformation began, the reformers were sure that they did not intend to place over against the authority in the Church a church without authority. This is what the Roman Catholics affirmed more than once; they asserted that the Reformation refused to acknowledge the authority in the Church. The reformers, however, were convinced that they wanted not the way of less authority, but specifically of more authority, of genuine authority, of an authority which was really the authority of Christ himself.

A church without authority is a pitiable thing, because in that case it is forgotten that the Church is not something of us (our church), but that the important thing in the world is the Church of Jesus Christ, which he governs by his Word and Spirit. For this reason the controversy with Rome is also of significance in any reflection on the body of Christ.

Even those who reject the Roman Catholic view of the Church are thereby not at the end of the road but at the beginning. This becomes fully clear in the New Testament, that the essence of the Church becomes visible only in subjection of the entire Church in all of its aspects to her only Lord.

This existence of the Church is by no means a matter of course, but a permanent calling to which the Church has to subject itself day by day. However important the activity of the Church in the world may be, this activity is legitimate only if, in faith and love and obedience, she remains subject to the authority of her Head, Jesus Christ, as the New Testament says.

The Church may never appeal to the fact of her existence in the world. When Calvin fought the battle of the Church he recognized the significance of the councils, but he also reminded us that Christ would be in our midst only if we are gathered in his name.

The Church may never regard it as a matter of course that she is a church; she must be constantly in subjection to the sacred norm which determines her being. There is no authority of the Church of such a kind that there is no higher appeal, and Calvin reminds us of the danger that the Church may forget her origin and norm. The apostle Paul also warns about this when he says that the Antichrist will set up his throne in the temple of God (2 Thess. 2:4).

The above is no haughty criticism of the Church and it is not the language of the individualist; it is rather a compassionate concern for the Church of Jesus Christ, that she may continue to understand that her only wealth and fullness is that she is the body of Christ, that she may bow her head in submission to her Lord.

The Belgic Confession speaks of this in Article XXIX, when it states that the true Church rejects all things which are contrary to the Word of God and that she regards Jesus Christ as her only Head.

This was not first of all criticism of others, of other churches, but a reminder of the Church’s own ecclesiastical life. In the relation between the churches of the New Testament there is no reason for pharisaism; it is rather that criticism, also of others, is possible and worth-while only if the Church (every church) has first of all applied to herself this sacred norm. Then, in the way of real submission, the Church will be a witness of Christ in the world. Then her own ecclesiastical life will serve as a constant reminder as to what the Church really is and ought to be.

And that is also the meaning of the responsibility of the Church in the world. It will be dark in the Church if she regards her life as an organization, which simply happens to exist and which has gained a place for herself in the world. And if the voice of the only Shepherd is no longer heard in the Church, how will the world understand this voice?

The New Testament contains many different names for the Church of Jesus Christ: the Temple of God, the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ. And many songs of praise are heard about the Church: “that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:17–19).

But this wealth and universality of the one Christian Church throughout the world (with all the saints) will become a reality and a witness in the world every day anew, only if the Church understands what her calling is and how she can fulfill that calling. And she will be able to fulfill this task only if she remembers from day to day the word of the apostle Paul, which, although not using the word church, embraces the essence and activity of the Church, when he writes: “casting down imaginations, and every high thing, that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

Here is the touchstone of the Church of all ages and under all circumstances. Here is also the answer to the question whether the Church will really be a blessing in the world, which needs most of all to hear the voice of the only Shepherd.

- More from G. C. Berkouwer

Books

Book Briefs: June 24, 1957

Supplement Volumes

Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge; an Extension of the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. Editor-in-Chief, Lefferts A. Loetscher. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1955. 2 volumes. $15.00.

By adding these two volumes to the famous Schaff-Herzog, the publishers have performed a great service. A few years ago they reprinted the thirteen original volumes in an excellent format, with which the supplementary volumes are uniform. There is nothing in English to compare with this important encyclopedia. The price of the entire set of fifteen volumes is at present only $68.50.

It should he understood, however, that the two additional volumes do not stand alone. They are planned as a supplement. The original volumes, published in 1908–1912, have been reprinted unchanged; these two extra volumes seek to bring the original articles up to date by adding developments of the last forty years. In instances of new discoveries (Dead Sea Scrolls or Lachish Letters) the articles are fresh and complete in themselves. There are also other materials not touched upon in the earlier volumes. Nevertheless, perhaps half the articles give only partial information by way of additional details. We are told, for example, that such-and-such a scholar (who was treated more fully in the original work) died in 1918 and also published certain other books. The supplementary character of these articles needs to be emphasized, for there are instances where the reader will receive a misleading or even false impression if he turns only to the supplement without referring also to the original in volumes 1–13. An example is the article on the Westminster Assembly; if this alone were to be consulted by an inquirer he would be given no inkling that this Assembly had drawn up the notable Westminster Confession and Catechisms; he would gain the impression that it was an intolerant, abortive group which failed to accomplish much of importance. The article on Becket adds Roman Catholic sympathy; that on Charles I never mentions an armed Revolution; that on Henry VIII is gossipy and vague. To sum up this point; if only the two supplementary volumes are purchased the buyer should realize that at many places they do not profess to give a balanced account.

On the other hand, while the whole set should be obtained if possible, there is much to be said for the two extra volumes in themselves. There is a great body of strong, scholarly articles: Papyri, by Allen P. Wikgren; Archaeology, by W. F. Albright; Hittites, by H. G. Guterbock; Calvin, by John T. McNeill; Apostles’ Creed, by Robert M. Grant; Ras Shamra, by H. L. Ginsberg; Syriac Literature, by Arthur Voobus; Wyclif, by Matthew Spinka; and a vigorous and lucid advocacy of Crisis, the Theology of, by Paul L. Lehman. Perhaps the most honor among the contributors should go to Bruce M. Metzger. His articles are clear, informed, and of balanced judgment. As editor of the New Testament department he has supplied the most useful single group of articles in these volumes, such as: the 17-page Bible Versions; Bible Text (N.T.); Canon of Scripture (N.T.); N.T. Studies, Twentieth Century Trends in; and also Hymns in the Early Greek Church; Mystery Religions, and many more. Along with Dr. Metzger there is another scholar who has made an exceedingly valuable contribution, and that is Georges A. Barrois. He has written apparently at least 130 articles about Roman Catholicism, which come with authority from one who, now converted, was formerly a scholar and teacher in that communion. They are summed up in an article, Roman Catholic Church, but they cover separately such subjects as Assumption, Dogma of the; Concordats; Humani Generis (and other recent encyclicals); Implicit Faith; Marriage, Roman Catholic Laws on; Secrecy of the Confessional; Vows of Religion, and all manner of other Roman operations.

There are other excellent articles which may be evaluated in respect to the deficiencies and lack of balance in these two volumes. There is by no means general agreement as to Christian doctrine. The most widely different opinions are expressed. There is a striking contrast between the articles by Cornelius Van Til on Calvinism, Common Grace, and Covenant Theology, and the article God, by Holmes Rolston; the latter is not so much about the doctrine of God as about Barthian theology in general. One of the best features of these volumes is the article Liberalism, by Andrew K. Rule. It is an objective and devastating analysis. Liberalism in religion is shown to be the result of humanism, rationalism, naturalism and negative biblical criticism. And yet this very liberalism is exhibited in many other articles. Ovid R. Sellers says in the article Cultural and Social Conditions, Hebrew, that the Hebrews under Joshua brought “no art and no written literature” into Palestine. R. B. Y. Scott in his article on Daniel declares that the book comes “from the period of the Seleucids.” And Otto A. Piper says, in Myth in the N.T., that “the use of mythical terminology in the Bible is a necessary corollary of historical revelation. It does not detract from the truthfulness of its message.”

It may be asked, but what else should we expect in an encyclopedia which seeks to represent all views? It is true that contradictions must occur. But there is actually a failure to represent all views. This is most striking in the Old Testament articles. They exhibit an outspoken, almost uniform adherence to negative, naturalistic criticism. There is again and again at crucial points no reference to conservative scholars of the present day. It is only by the most diligent search that any reference may be found to such scholars. It is also remarkable that although Dr. Loetscher of Princeton is the editor-in-chief, there are no biographical notices of the Princeton authorities of the past generation, such as B. B. Warfield, Geerhardus Vos, C. W. Hodge, John D. Davis and Francis L. Patton or of the great Herman Bavinck whose Stone Lectures have recently been reprinted.

No doubt such inequalities are to be explained by the fact that independent departmental editors have had large powers in their choice of contributors. The New Testament department, under Dr. Metzger, is far more conservative than the Old Testament under Elmer E. Flack. The department of Systematic Theology, under Andrew K. Rule, contains a number of articles which can only be described as orthodox. Yet such is the multitude of opinions from dialectical theology and humanism and such is the frequency of mere expression of opinion rather than information, that these volumes must be characterized as very much a mixed bag.

There has been, apparently, a lack of overall policy and control, with consequent lack of proportion. There are numerous, lengthy articles about relatively obscure medieval mystics, while only short and inadequate articles appear on Aulen, Barth, Brunner, Bultmann, Niebuhr, Schweitzer and Tillich; and Kierkegaard receives no single article and no bibliography, although he is treated under such heads as Existentialism and Dialectical Theology. As for bibliographies, these supplementary volumes have failed to come up to the standard set by the earlier volumes. Dr. Metzger and certain others have been very full at this point but in many cases the bibliography is either lacking or exceedingly weak. There are articles on German cities, continuing the tradition of an originally German encyclopedia but none on American or British cities. In many instances there are biographical notices which give no indication whatsoever of the position, or viewpoint, of the person in question: this is true for Henry Sloane Coffin, C. S. Lewis, Clarence E. Macartney and Paul Tillich. To sum up again: there is a lack of relative proportion in these volumes. A comprehensive policy, clearly understood by all contributors, with constant exercise of editorial authority, is the only approach which can insure balance in an encyclopedic work.

ARTHUR W. KUSCHKE, JR.

Contemporary Liberalism

The Message of the Fourth Gospel, by Eric L. Titus. Abingdon Press, New York. $3.50.

This new commentary on the Gospel of John is a representative expression of contemporary liberalism written by the Professor of New Testament Literature at Southern California School of Theology in Los Angeles. The volume breathes the spirit of the new liberalism which tends to concern itself with biblical content. The Fourth Gospel is considered as an early second-century interpretation of Jesus, and it is assumed that the beloved disciple of the Fourth Gospel is not the Apostle John but one who is close to apostolic traditions. No supernatural inspiration was employed in the writing of the Fourth Gospel, according to the author, and at best it is historical fiction used as an interpretation of the life and ministry of Christ.

Key to the commentary are three chapters of introduction in which an elevenfold analysis of the literary techniques employed by John is presented. The commentary itself analyzes the gospel by sections, using these literary techniques. A serious attempt is made to determine the precise thought of the writer of the gospel in each section. It is assumed that the author of the gospel is “a popular religionist, not a philosopher” and that he is indebted principally to the synoptic gospels and the Pauline epistles for his sources of information.

Typical of the approach of this commentary is the suggestion that the story of the miracle of Cana in John 2 has its inspiration in the story of Pentecost in Acts 2 with the “good wine” of John 2:10 comparing with the “new wine” of Acts 2:13. A similar comparison is made between John 4 with its story of the Samaritan woman and the account of the gospel going to Samaria in Acts 8:5–25.

In illustrating John’s literary method, frequent reference is made to “literary opportunism,” “the use of individuals whose stupidity creates an opportunity for teaching,” “use of the dramatic technique,” and “use of words with double meaning.” For instance, “The Jews, Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman and the disciples all fulfill” the role of “stupid” persons described as “one of the most frequently employed devices” (p. 35). The author of the Fourth Gospel is described as “a literary opportunist” (p. 97). The story of Lazarus in John 11 is the product of the “creative mind” of the author of the gospel who decides to carry the story of Lazarus and the rich man who is in hell (Luke 16) one step further and to have Lazarus actually rise from the dead. In like manner, the prayer of Christ in John 17 is interpreted as actually a sermon of the writer of the gospel cast in the form of a prayer by Christ. The commentator also holds that John 21 was not part of the original gospel and like the pericope adulterae (7:53–8:11) was a later addition.

Though well-written and representative of contemporary liberal interpretation, this commentary is far removed from the evangelical conservative position. Its value to conservatives will be to inform them on recent liberal interpretation of the Fourth Gospel.

JOHN F. WALVOORD

Conservative View

Inspiration and Canonicity of the Bible, An Historical and Exegetical Study, by R. Laird Harris. Zondervan, Grand Rapids. $4.50.

Harris’ study, First Prizewinner in Zondervan’s Third Christian Textbook Contest, has a general interest as a commendable presentation of the conservative view affirming the verbal inspiration of the Bible. As such, it is an important work, in that it not only gives an able discussion of inspiration but devotes the major share of attention to the too often neglected matter of canonicity. Harris gives anew the older, and at present neglected, view of the fluid nature of the threefold classification of the Old Testament, law, prophets and writings, pointing out that originally this “division was not so rigid as is usually supposed” (p. 142), and that a twofold division into law and prophets has ancient testimony in its favor. More than that, “the entire collection could be called the word of ‘the prophets.’ Also the entire work could be called ‘the law’ ” (p. 144). Recognition of this fact has, Harris points out, considerable significance in establishing the conservative view of such books as Daniel, inasmuch as the critical construction of the development of the canon assumes the threefold division and gives a late date for the canon of the writings (p. 140).

Important also is Harris’ study of the relation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, first, to the problem of the divisions of the Old Testament (p. 171 f.), and, second, to the problem of the inspiration and canonicity of the Old Testament (p. 145 f).

Harris’ book is thus in the line of Gaussen, Green and other defenders of the orthodox position and ably so. And this is precisely its weakness. While scholars may disagree with the details and points of Harris’ argument, in the main they will recognize the calibre and ability of the book. Its shortcoming is that it is written in terms of the approach of a previous era, an able approach, but one failing to take into account two recent basic challenges raised by adversaries to the doctrine of inspiration. One is the problem of authority, and the other is the charge of circular reasoning which are basically the same. Harris briefly mentions and denies, without answering, the charge of circular reasoning (p. 45 f.). He shows no awareness of the important work in this area by Cornelius Van Til, not only in his introduction to the recent reprint of Warfield’s Inspiration and Authority of the Bible but in many other works. All reasoning is circular reasoning, but reasoning from God to God-given and God-created data has the validity of conformity to the nature of things. The opponents of inspiration reason from autonomous man’s reasons, through brute factuality which has no meaning other than man’s interpretation, back again to man’s basic presupposition. In other words, all reasoning moves in terms of its basic presupposition, either God or autonomous man, interpreting all reality in terms of the presupposition. The only way to answer the charge of circular reasoning is to challenge the authority of man and to expose the barren circularity of all his reasoning and to point out that Christian thinking has a full circle of meaning in that God as the creator is also the only interpreter of reality.

Until this frontal attack on the critics’ charges is made, the conservatives will be talking to themselves.

R. J. RUSHDOONY

Reformed Worship

Presbyterian Liturgies; Historical Sketches, by Charles W. Baird, Baker, Grand Rapids. $3.00.

Many contemporary Reformed theologians and pastors have acknowledged that in matters of worship, our churches have been conspicuously weak. Although attempts have Seen made to improve this condition, ignorance of liturgical worship is still great. Some think that if the church furnishings are moved around, responses added or the service “dressed up” in general, then the liturgical revival will have matured. Others resist any change at all and point with pride to the central pulpit as the symbol of non-liturgical worship.

A hundred years ago the first important American Reformed liturgical scholar, Charles Baird, published his history of Reformed worship. The present edition is a reprint of this important work. Although much has been written upon the subject since the appearance of the first edition, I know of no better introduction to the study of Reformed liturgical worship in the English language than this valuable little work.

The thesis of the book is clearly defined by the author in his introduction, “To ascertain from the history and teachings of the Presbyterian Church, what may be considered the proper theories of its worship, and to compare that ideal with our prevailing practice.” His secondary aim is “to demonstrate, first, that the principles of Presbyterians in no wise conflicts with the discretionary use of written forms; and secondly, that the practice of Presbyterian churches abundantly warrants the adoption and the use of such forms.”

The construction and usage of the various forms of worship on the continent and in Great Britain are carefully traced. The book leaves no doubt that the Presbyterian and Reformed churches possess a rich and copious devotional heritage in the liturgical forms and prayers of the past. The neglect of this heritage has not only divided the church but has robbed it of its theological witness in the services of worship.

Although Calvin may be quoted as opposed to “external discipline and ceremonies,” he nevertheless gave much time and thought to the order of service in the Reformed churches. In this attempt he did not innovate. He formulated a liturgy, “selon les coutumes de l’Eglise ancienne,” that is, according to the practice of the church in the first centuries of our calendar.

This book, therefore, commends itself as worthy of careful study and prayerful attention. The formulation of the services of worship in the family of Reformed churches would become a sloppy business if reverent thought were not given to the worship of the past. The order of worship cannot begin in a vacuum; it always begins in the concrete situation of the contemporary church. This contemporary church, however, has a definite history. The church is one holy catholic church throughout all ages. Consequently the past cannot be ignored. If in this we fear the tyranny of tradition, let us not forget that the local churches and the universal church stand in a relationship to all the saints of every age. Permit me to put it in the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians, “… with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.”

When this book was first published, it was welcomed by none other than Charles Hodge as a work worthy of study and consideration. Although he was not converted to the advisability of introducing liturgical worship, he did commend many of Baird’s recommendations.

Certainly every minister in a Reformed or Presbyterian Church ought to be acquainted with this book.

JAMES C. EELMAN

Medical Opinion

Some Thoughts on Faith Healing. Edited by Vincent Edmunds, M.D., M.R.C.P. and C. Gordon Scorer, M.B.E., M.A., M.D., F.R.C.S. Tyndale Press, London. 2s. 6d.

In Christian circles today—and not only amongst Christians who would be termed ‘Evangelicals’—there would seem to be a growing conviction that the Church is slowly and painfully recovering the gift of healing which was one of the marks of the apostolic age. It is contended that this gift was lost through the gradual weakening of faith, hope and love, and that the Spirit of God is showing the church of the 20th century how to recapture the gift. Stress is laid upon salvation as “wholeness”, affecting spirit and mind and body. It is unhesitatingly affirmed that faith should “give us as clear a title to the healing of our bodies as to the salvation of our souls.”

The writers of this valuable booklet are medical men who present the findings of a study group, consisting of Christian doctors, who have made a careful, sympathetic investigation into the thesis thus advanced and the facts which are adduced to support it. Over and over again they make it clear that if they question the validity of the claims sometimes made for individual faith-healers, if they are cautious in accepting the evidence for certain miraculous cures, this must not be “taken to imply any lessened conviction on their part that God has in the past caused, and can at any time cause miracles to happen.” These men, therefore, are not sceptics but reverent believers in a God who “can and does intervene as and when He pleases”.

But an examination—necessarily brief but not therefore careless or cursory—of, first, the Scriptures commonly quoted in favour of spiritual healing as the normal method of God’s working and, second, the history of the Church in the first three centuries and, finally, the claims made in many quarters today, leads these writers to certain tentative conclusions, which are stated with the moderation one would expect from trained investigators.

These are, briefly, that God normally works by ‘natural’ means, that miracles recorded in the Scriptures “occurred mostly during the epochs when God was giving a new and special revelation of himself in word and deed,” that such healing powers as were possessed by the apostles and other Christians (e.g. at Corinth) were not intended to be permanent in the Church and that a passage such as James 5:14,15 which illustrates the “privilege and duty of believing prayer” for sick Christians but cannot be adduced as justification for “healing missions” to which non-Christians are invited. It is emphasized that cases of the “spontaneous regression” of organic diseases such as malignant cancer are not unknown.

We commend this booklet particularly to all those whose minds are disturbed by the confident but baseless assumption that sickness is never “in the will of God” for the Christian.

FRANK HOUGHTON

Perfectionist Activity

Revivalism and Social Reform in Mid-19th Century America, by Timothy L. Smith. Abingdon Press, New York. $4.00.

This is an important work with major defects. Smith’s study, the major portions of which were the Brewer Prize Essay for 1955 for the American Society of Church History, attempts to show that the social gospel, the American doctrine of manifest destiny, feminism, Christian Socialism, abolitionism, church union, the emphasis on ethics over dogma and many other like movements had their origin in America from the Arminian and perfectionist revivalism of the mid-19th century. Smith gives emphasis to the urban leadership in revivalism and in this makes an important contribution to the subject. Revival was not essentially a frontier manifestation but urban in its leadership and having roots in the highest places in church life and educational and theological tradition. Moreover, he traces ably the extensive Unitarian support of revivalism, with major opposition coming from the Old School Calvinists. One of the most interesting and most important sections deals with the problem of slavery, wherein he traces the similarity of the church’s position, under the impact of revivalism, to Lincoln’s views (p. 201). The church’s seeming vacillation has often been caricatured, but Smith points out that for Christians the problem was not easily simplified. They could condemn slavery but still feel an obligation to love Christian slaveholders (p. 215). They could not readily decide between slavery and union; they felt a compulsion to oppose slavery and yet manifest a redeeming bond of peace, without sacrificing in their love of union the moral issues involved. Thus, like Lincoln, they were ready to condemn slavery and fight to preserve unity. Smith has made a major contribution in his discerning analysis of this dilemma.

Smith’s great weakness, however, is that he writes, not as an historian but as a professional genealogist, not to trace the history of the perfectionist revivalism in all its ramifications but only to give the pleasing lines of the family tree. Thus Smith disposes of the ungodly seed and the black sheep and assumes that perfectionist revivalism had only good seed. Source books and studies which point to the contrary are dismissed as bigoted or unrewarding. We are, for example, constantly warned against heeding or reading Old School Presbyterians and other Calvinists. He briefly recognizes in his preface (p. 7), that perfectionist revivalism, instead of being followed by the marriage supper, led to what Parrington has called the Great Barbecue, with good churchmen leading the vicious exploitation of a continent, but he says no more of this aspect. The sexual communism born of the same perfectionist revivalism is again overlooked in this genealogy. No note is made of the fact that perfectionist revivalism, denying the reality of sin in the redeemed, obliterated the old forms and restraints, as well as laws, and tried to re-order society in terms of perfection, i.e., sexual communism, socialism, equality of sexes, church union, etc. Moreover, in actual practice it often led to neglect of present realities, such as sin in their lives, they being now perfect, and sin in the elect United States. This blindness with regard to reality is seen in Finney’s Albany practice of pairing men and women for prayer, supposedly conducive to higher spirituality and certainly to enthusiasm.

Nowhere does Smith deal with the theological issues involved, i.e., a confusion of justification and sanctification, so that perfectionist activity became, in Blaikie’s words, a means “where men keep themselves in a justified state, and consequently justify themselves.” Blaikie’s Philosophy of Sectarianism (1854) Smith regards as “residual bigotry” and mocks him for belonging to a small church (p. 43), but Blaikie aptly criticized perfectionism for claiming to be for church union while creating further divisions, as witness the Campbellite history, and for placing minor “peculiarities as at par with the word of God.”

Smith’s study is further marred by blind prejudice against Calvinism. He is gentle and understanding of pro-slavery arguments and compromises in perfectionist and revival circles and harsh with Old School Presbyterians, impugning their motives. Old School Calvinists did not think a-millennially; they “spawned” their “variant of the beliefs which Miller’s demise had discredited” (p. 236), bad motives and associations being implied here. Their arguments are “fabrications” (p. 202), although at times “even the most orthodox of Old School men did not escape the tide of human sympathy” (p. 174); these men are “reactionary” (p. 166), and “dour” Warfield’s definitive study of Perfectionism is dismissed summarily (p. 238). He speaks of something being “as dry as Jonathan Edwards’ bones and just as sterile of saving compassion” (p. 92), revealing both bigotry himself as well as an ignorance of Edwards. He cites Toplady’s “Rock of Ages” (p. 113) as epitomizing the holiness movement, apparently unaware of Toplady’s militant Calvinism and hostility to perfectionism. He notes in passing the pragmatic and hedonistic element in perfectionism (p. 93) but says no more of it. He rejoices in the Unitarian role in perfectionist revival without seeing its essentially humanistic concern in perfectionism. He expects us to rejoice in this birth of the social gospel from the holiness movement, to accept the identification of the Kingdom of God with America and the fulfilled social gospel as a great result. It is not surprising that modernists today are so respectful of the perfectionist revivalism of the mid-19th century. But evangelical Christianity cannot hope for a true revival today unless it assesses the full nature of the movement Smith so uncritically portrays and frees itself from these sins.

R. J. RUSHDOONY

Far East News: June 24, 1957

Merger In India

Plans for the merger of Anglican and Protestant Churches in Northern India and Pakistan now provide for separate United Churches in the two countries rather than one for both of them.

The bodies contemplating union are the United Church of Northern India, the Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon (Anglican); the Methodist Church in Southern Asia, the British and Australian Methodist Missionary Societies, the Baptist Church in Northern India, the Church of the Brethren and the Disciples of Christ. Discussions are expected to continue until 1960 and the two United Churches may be inaugurated in 1961.

Campaign In Japan

Dr. E. Stanley Jones, 73-year-old American missionary and evangelist, recently completed a vigorous three-month campaign in Japan.

He addressed public meetings in 27 cities and conducted six ashrams (retreats). The meetings were attended by more than 23,000 persons. More than 10,000 signed decision cards.

Dr. Jones stressed a three-point program at the ashrams: (1) that a definite time be set aside for Bible reading and prayer every morning: (2) that prayer cells of from three to 12 persons, led by laymen, be organized in every community, and (3) that visitation evangelism be revitalized.

He left Japan for more work in India.

New Zealand News: June 24, 1957

Revival Nearer

A number of reports have reached America in recent months about an outstanding work in evangelism throughout New Zealand by Dr. J. Edwin Orr, internationally-known evangelist.CHRISTIANITY TODAYasked a special appraisal by Dr. E. M. Blaiklock, Professor of Classics, University College, Auckland. The appraisal follows—ED.

I do not propose to extend this report beyond the outer limits of personal experience. I do, however, feel competent to stress certain aspects of Dr. Orr’s work which a more factual account might disregard.

It is natural, perhaps, that I should first commend Dr. Orr as a students’ evangelist. Such preachers are a rare breed. Christian colleagues in universities and other institutions of learning will, I am sure, understand that relief with which a visitor is welcomed who can preach to a group of students with a clear understanding of their problems and prejudices, without embarrassed slurring of the essentials of the faith and without embarrassing the academic sponsors of his meeting with painful anecdote, arrogant dogmatism or irrelevance.

I have watched fairly closely Dr. Orr’s incidental work among the unions of the IVF (Inter-Varsity Fellowship) in this country, and could wish that it had been possible to use him more widely. He clearly understands students and knows how and where to win that contact with their thinking, which is the first requirement of effective preaching.

My own association with Dr. Orr was on the platform of the Ngaruawahia Convention. This interdenominational “Keswick” meets annually in a lovely place, rich in colonial history, at the junction of the Waipa and the Waikato Rivers.

The Convention is notable by any standards. Over 1,000 people gather for the major meetings, and as a past preacher at England’s Kewwick Convention, I can personally testify to the integrity of the message and the spiritual worth of Ngaruawahia’s annual effort. The peril, as critics of such work are prompt to point out, is shallow emotionalism and a fragile enthusiasm based on mass appeal and an over-charged atmosphere. On the occasions when I have served on such platforms, I have endeavored to relate my theme to Scripture, to encourage a biblical approach to devotion, to exalt the ethical, and to promote a deliberate examination of life and character in relation to the teaching of the New Testament.

It is my impression that Dr. Orr subscribes to the same principles. There is light and shade in his preaching; he is rich in relevant anecdote; but the solid biblical foundation on which he builds his appeal is always evident and ably laid. The response is heartening.

I should rank highly Dr. Orr’s work in the smaller and more closely knit communities. It is too often the fashion of leading preachers who visit this country to confine their ministry to what New Zealand calls “the four main centers,” in other words, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. These four cities strung down 800 miles of eastern seaboard have been well served and tend to be blase about organized evangelism. Like the Mild way team, Dr. Orr has paid some attention to the more needy and, in many ways, more fruitful field of the country towns.

I happen to have a personal interest in Dargaville, a dairy center some 100 miles north of Auckland. Many years ago I spoke on more than one occasion at the invitation of an ardent little evangelical group who kept up a firm testimony in the town. Dr. Orr reaped the later fruits of their witness. I have checked the details and find the story stimulating. There was active and expectant preparation, a large measure of cooperation among the churches and a wide public appeal. Dr. Orr aimed largely at consolidating the Christian witness and deepening the experience of the church people with a full discussion of sanctification. The limits of this column forbid repetition of the detail reported to me, but it was felt that the mission laid a firm foundation for future building.

That would be my summary of the whole. This country has never known revival, but this year’s events have brought it nearer!

New Zealand Vote

From June 14 to 24, all members of the Presbyterian, Methodist, Congregational Churches and the Associated Churches of Christ in New Zealand will vote on the “principle of church union.”

The last vote, held in 1948 and excluding the Church of Christ, showed a majority of three-fifths in favor of union. If the June vote favors union by “a substantial majority,” a definite basis will be prepared for a future vote.

Africa News: June 24, 1957

Important Race

Racing against the tide of secular civilizations sweeping into Africa, the Sudan Interior Mission is launching a new literature project aimed at reaching African tribes with periodicals in their languages.

The West African Field Council has announced plans for producing a series of illustrated, colorful gospel leaflets under the initials “VIP”—Vernacular Illustrated Publications for Africa.

“While our Christian magazine, African Challenge, has been reaching English-speaking literates all over the continent, we have felt the need of reaching Africans who are literate only in their own tribal languages,” said the Rev. R. J. Davis, West Africa Field Director. “Western materialism flooding into the English-speaking coastal areas has not yet overcome inherent interest in religion in non-English-speaking areas. We plan to reach entire tribes with the gospel in print before materialism and cults reach them.

W. H. F.

Spreading The Word

There are about 80 languages in which short passages or collections of passages have been published, but they are not customarily counted in the total.

Three complete Bibles were published for the first time last year in Bemba (spoken in North Rhodesia); Nimbi Ijo (Nigeria) and Marovo (Solomon Islands).

An estimated 1,000 languages and dialects have no written form.

All-Africa Meeting

Nigeria will be host to an all-Africa Church Conference in January, 1958.

The Conference, to be held in Ibadan, Western Nigeria, will have as its theme, “The Church in Changing Africa.” Three sessions daily, in addition to a morning worship service, will be held from January 10–18.

Preliminary plans were made at a meeting in Lagos of the Christian Council. The chairman was Sir Francis Ibiam, president of the Council.

Europe News: June 24, 1957

New Conference

A Conference of European Churches has been formed by representatives of Protestant churches in 10 countries of Eastern and Western Europe.

The action was taken at the close of a five-day meeting planned to promote closer relations between European churches. Many of the leading West European churches did not send delegates, however, because of the fear that the meeting in Denmark would have a political tinge.

The Conference will be headed by three co-chairmen: Dr. Heinrich Held, president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Rhineland, Germany; Dr. Egbert Emmen of the Netherlands Reformed Church; and Evangelical Lutheran Archbishop Jaan Kiviit of Estonia.

Invitations to join the Conference will be extended to the Church of England (Anglican) and the Lutheran Churches of Germany and the Scandinavian countries. In addition, spokesmen said attempts will be made to seek the cooperation of the World Council of Churches.

The German Evangelical Churches and the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany did not send delegates to the meetings. Neither were there any representatives of the Norwegian, Swedish and Danish Lutheran Churches. There were, however, large numbers of delegates from minority churches in Belgium, France, Italy, Greece and Yugoslavia.

Among the delegates were groups representing the Lutheran Churches of Hungary, Latvia, Estonia and Hungarian Reformed Church. These delegates appealed for cooperation between the Protestant churches of Western Europe and those behind the Iron Curtain.

1,000,000 Bibles

More than 1,000,000 Bibles and Scripture portions were distributed in Germany during 1956 by German Evangelical Bible societies.

Over 200,000 were produced by societies in the Soviet Zone. This was made possible largely by newsprint shipments from foreign churches.

The report was issued by the Association of Evangelical Bible Societies in Germany at a meeting in Stade. Largest of the societies is the Priligierte Wuerttembergische Bibelanstalt, which has circulated more than 37,000,000 Bibles and portions since its founding in 1812.

Samuel Mueller, secretary general of the association, said the most important event last year was the completion of a revised version of Luther’s translation of the New Testament. Written in modern language, the version takes into account recent finding of theological research.

Work on the translation, which will soon go into print, was launched about 30 years ago. The revision was approved by a special commission of the Evangelical Church in Germany and the Association of Evangelical Bible Societies.

The version currently in use was issued more than 60 years ago, with only minor changes made since then.

The Law Preached Before Love

Walter Winchell

“Like Wesley, I find that I must preach the law and judgment before I can preach grace and love.”

In line with his statement, Dr. Billy Graham devoted practically all of the first two weeks of the New York Crusade at Madison Square Garden to a series of sermons on the Ten Commandments.

“The Ten Commandments,” Dr. Graham said, “are the moral laws of God for the conduct of people. Some think they have been revoked. That is not true. Christ taught the law. They are still in effect today. God has not changed. People have changed.”

He continued:

“Every person who ever lived, with the exception of Jesus Christ, has broken the Ten Commandments. Sin is a transgression of the law. The Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Ten Commandments are a mirror to show us how far short we fall in meeting God’s standards. And the mirror of our shortcomings drives us to the cross, where Christ paid the debt for sin. Forgiveness is found at the cross, and no other place, according to the Bible.”

Each night Dr. Graham discussed a particular commandment. Some of his comment was as follows:

“God says, ‘thou shalt have no other gods before me.’ You may not have any idols set up in your back yard, but there are idols in your life. Anything that comes before God is your idol. You spend more time reading the newspaper than you do reading the Bible. You spend more time in front of the television set than you spend in church. Idols have crowded God out of your life. You just don’t have time for him any more.

“Another commandment says ‘thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.’ You may not curse God, but you take his name in vain when you profess to be a Christian and don’t live like one. You take his name in vain when you defile your bodies, when you make vows and don’t keep them, when you pray and don’t believe God.

“The Bible says ‘honor thy father and thy mother.’ Young people today think this is old fashioned. God doesn’t think it is old fashioned. He commands that such respect be given.

“The Scriptures say ‘thou shalt not kill.’ You may not have broken this commandment with a gun or a knife, but you have broken it. If you have ever had hate in your heart, you are guilty. You can murder your own souls by denying or neglecting God. You can murder others by setting a bad example.

“A commandment says ‘thou shalt not commit adultery.’ You may not have committed the act, but the Bible says if you have ever looked on a person with lust in your heart you are just as guilty. A woman commits this sin when she deliberately dresses in such a way as to entice a man. Preachers have been silent for too long on the subject. America can be destroyed quicker by moral deterioration than by communism.

“The Bible says ‘thou shalt not steal.’ It isn’t necessary to use a gun in order to break this commandment. We rob God in tithes and offerings, in our daily devotions and in not observing the Lord’s Day as we should.

“God also says ‘thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.’ The disgrace of the Christian church today is that we don’t have love one for another. May God have mercy on the secular magazines that will murder a man’s reputation in order to print a sensational story. May God have mercy on the leaders of some Christian periodicals, who spend all of their time trying to expose other Christians.”

He added:

“All have broken these commandments. All have sinned, and death is the penalty, but Christ paid the debt when he died on the cross. If you will come to the cross, confess and renounce your sins, receive by faith the Lord Jesus and surrender your will to him, he will forgive and forget. You will become a new person in Christ. Then you begin to grow as a Christian when you read your Bible, spend time in prayer, witness and become active in your church.”

The response to such a presentation at Madison Square Garden is testimony to its effectiveness. In three weeks an estimated 15,000 persons left their seats to make decisions for Christ.

In another phase of the Crusade, the Rev. Tom Allan of Glasgow, Scotland, challenged ministers of the metropolitan area during a series of addresses.

Mr. Allan, leader of the “Tell Scotland Movement” and a man who built two small congregations into big ones within a short time, stated:

“The churches never will win young people by meeting them on the level of entertainment or recreation. This generation’s youth will have to be won on the serious level of sacrifice. They will give up certain things and will undertake difficult tasks if we ask them.

“Give people definite tasks and they will respond. This is particularly true of youth. In times of emergency young people come through with magnificent response. This was proved in the Battle of Britain. Today our young people are responding to the tremendous adventure the church can offer.

“What we are fighting against is partly the aftermath of world wars’ disillusion, the collapse of old conditions that people had supposed would last forever. Now there’s hunger for something real. We are living in a one-dimension world, a world of vast and unprecedented breadth but little or no height, a world where the divine dimension is no longer a reality. We want to bring back that dimension.

“What I have to tell the ministers here about what we are doing in Glasgow comes from a profound realization that we have barely touched the edges of what needs to be done. I believe that here and in Scotland and other parts of the world a spiritual revolution is on the way.

“People want it.”

Crusade Quotes

“The biggest disgrace in the Christian Church today in America is that we don’t love one another. Some professing Christians spend all their time trying to expose other Christians. The Bible says such people may be important in their own eyes, but to God they are tinkling cymbals.”—Billy Graham.

“Before the Crusade began I knew but one neighbor in our large building. Even though self-conscious about it, I went to each apartment and invited people to the meetings. Already three whole families have come to Christ. Our building isn’t the same.”—Testimony of an Apartment house “cliff dweller.”

“Billy Graham’s Crusade apparently has clicked. Midtown bookstores report the biggest demands for the Bible in years.”—Walter Winchell.

Cross Of Christ

Excerpts front baccalaureate sermon delivered at Roanoke College, Salem, Va., by Dr. William C. Robinson, Professor of Historical Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Ga.:

“The gospel is like a trumpet, ‘more powerful and penetrating when it does not follow the range of the scale but keeps to one penetrating note.’

“It is not a philosophy proved by the persuasive words of man’s wisdom, but a message from God to be attested and accepted … the good news of God’s great acts for our redemption needs … anything else is to empty the Cross of Christ of its power.

“Luther is sure that one does not need to shout or cry aloud in his preaching, for the power of the gospel is not in the lungs of a man but in the might of the Spirit.…

“The problems of life today are too great to be faced in the strength of puny man. God gives us power to meet the issues of life only when we stand upon the foundation he has laid. May we not turn from his testimony to the nostrums of men. Why should one forsake the fountains of living water for man-made cisterns which hold no true water? When we start with Christ as the foundation, the absolute, the subject, there are blessings for each issue in life. But when one takes up every popular project that culture offers, when he treats some great cause as God’s new Messiah before he relativizes Jesus Christ, everything is thrown out of order.

“Some have taken total abstinence, others pacifism, others economic collectivism, others racialism as their primary interest and treated Jesus Christ as secondary. Thus, one man decides that all use of force is wrong, and that if Jesus struck anyone with the whip of cords in cleansing the Temple, he will have nothing to do with Jesus. Another starts with current studies on the evils of alcoholism and concludes that Jesus was wrong in turning the water into wine. Then he undertakes to excuse Christ on the ground of some kind of kenotic theory. Jesus Christ is the Lord, the subject one who declines to be made the predicate for any human scheme.…

“The Christian Church has no commission to reverse the process. Take God’s way and his Spirit blesses it. Try to reverse God’s way and the Church becomes no longer the ambassador of God.… The ambassador of the living God preaches the LORDSHIP of Jesus Christ, the crucified.”

People: Words And Events

BUSY FATHER—A 73-year-old retired school teacher who has taught 5,000 students, reared four children and now works as a school-crossing patrolman and as a tutor for high school youngsters, has been named Texas Baptist Father of the Year. He is Ira Irving Isbell, a member of the Polytechnic Baptist Church, Fort Worth.

INVITATION DECLINED—Dr. Karl Barth, Swiss Protestant theologian, declined an invitation from the Warsaw Radio to broadcast his views on the possibility of an international agreement to ban nuclear weapons tests as the first step toward outlawing all weapons of mass destruction. “We are awaiting deeds, not discussions,” Dr. Barth replied. “Sincere and worthy of belief … will be that world power which, regardless of the attitude of the opposing side, will be the first to announce its firm renunciation of further nuclear weapons tests.”

NOBLE EXPERIMENT—In lieu of coffee breaks, more than 50 health department employees in Pueblo, Colo., have elected to hold twice-monthly 30-minute discussions with clerygmen of the different churches. The ministers will give a short presentation and then discuss with employees various problems affecting them or the community.

VALUABLE ESTATE —The Rev. John Garlick Scott, retired Episcopal rector who died recently, left an estate valued at $850,000 to a charitable foundation he established last fall. The William H., John G. and Emma Scott Foundation was created for religious, charitable and philanthropic purposes. It has no denominational restrictions.

NONSENSE—Talk of one great “universal church” was branded as nonsensical by the Rev. Murdoch Macphail, newly-elected moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland. “Our existing ecclesiastical organization,” he said, “may not be the final form of the visible Church on earth but a mechanical arrangement as proposed seems to be quite as unnatural as a world government.… Much theological nonsense has been written and spoken by those who advocate a universal Church.”

NEW BISHOP—The Reformed Episcopal Church elected its first new bishop since 1920 at the 35th triennial meeting of its General Council in Chicago. He is Dr. Henry Harris Trotter, 59, rector of St. Paul’s Reformed Episcopal Church, Oreland, Pa.

WAGING OPEN WAR—Dr. Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, has accused the Roman Catholic Church in Britain of waging an “open war” against the Church of England, “unlike its friendly counterpart on the Continent.” The Roman Catholics are waging an intensive campaign in Britain for new members.

APOLOGY DEMANDED—Pastors from 150 Southern California Disciples of Christ churches have demanded an apology from the Marine Corps for “irresponsible” statements “concerning some of our great religious leaders” made during the recent court martial of a marine private at Camp Pendleton. The private refused to accept a rifle after deciding he was a conscientious objector. Several Methodist clergymen, including Bishop Gerald H. Kennedy of Los Angeles, testified in his defense. During the trial Bishop Kennedy was called a “creep” by one member of the court martial, who was subsequently ousted for his off-duty comment. Another clergyman, the Rev. Eugene Wood of Oceanside, Calif., was forced to answer prosecution questions seeking to link Methodist agencies with communism.

EXCHANGE OF VIEWS—Georgia Presbyterian leaders called upon judicial and law enforcement agencies to stick to their business of rounding up and punishing law violators and to refrain from telling churches what they shall “preach or teach.” This was in reply to a presentment handed down by the DeKalp County Grand Jury which said, in effect, that preachers should pay more attention to preventing juvenile delinquency instead of “advocating race mixing.”

Southern Baptists

Dr. William A. Mueller, professor of systematic theology, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky., is the writer of the following special report on the recent annual meeting of Southern Baptists in Chicago:

More than 8,500 messengers and 5,000 visitors, representing nearly 9,000,000 Southern Baptists—the nation’s fastest growing major denomination—recorded many significant developments at the recent Convention in Chicago’s amphitheater.

President C. C. Warren insisted in his opening address that “it is not the policy of Southern Baptists to go as invaders anywhere. We prefer to be regarded as allies, but where there are large numbers of unsaved and unchurched people, we feel compelled to go to the limit of our ability in getting the message of salvation to them.”

Dr. Baker James Cauthen, Executive Secretary of the Foreign Mission Board, reported steady progress with regard to the world-wide expansion of Southern Baptist missionary work. Prior to 1948 Southern Baptists labored in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Ghana (Gold Coast), Hawaii, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Macao, Manchuria, Mexico, Nigeria, Paraguay, Roumania, Spain, Uruguay and Yugoslavia. Since January 1, 1948, when the Advance Program was launched, new mission posts have been opened in the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, Formosa, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Lebanon, Malaya, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Southern Rhodesia, Switzerland, Tanganyika, Thailand and Venezuela. Southern Baptists are presently working in 38 countries and territories. Their total missionary personnel on the foreign field is 1,113 and within the next five years it will reach 1,800.

While the 30,834 churches of the SBC gave $372,136,675 to all causes, their contribution to foreign missions amounted to $12,474,638, or $1.43 per member.

During 1956 the largest number of missionaries were appointed—121. In the decade between 1938–47 an average of 36 new missionaries were appointed, while from 1948–56, the first nine years of advance, an average of 85 people were sent to the field.

By 1964 Southern Baptists aim to establish 30,000 new churches. This goal has been set by the executive committee and the affiliated agencies of the Convention in order to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the establishment of United Baptist missions in 1814.

Among the high peaks of the Convention’s sessions was the brief address by Howard Butt of Texas on the Billy Graham Crusade in New York City. The messengers eagerly heard this speaker as he dramatically told of the wonders of God’s grace in the vast metropolis. Fraternal greetings were sent to Dr. Billy Graham, assuring him and his associates of the prayers of his fellow-Southern Baptists.

One of the most significant decisions made by Southern Baptists was the establishment of a new theological seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. Although Denver and Chicago were eloquently recommended as possible sites for a new seminary, the advocates of Kansas City won out. That city, it was argued, is well situated with regard to the five other seminaries. It is practically equi distant from Louisville’s Southern Seminary and Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, the two schools with the heaviest enrollment. In the four states of Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, and Oklahoma, Southern Baptists have 4,800 churches with 1,230,000 members who in 1956 gave a total of $40,000,000 to all Southern Baptist causes. There are 400 pre-ministerial students in the Southern Baptist colleges in Missouri alone, not to speak of more than three times that number in the other states of this area. The Convention voted $2,000,000 as the initial outlay for the new seminary.

The Christian Life Commission, headed by Congressman Brooks Hays, vigorously protested against continuing mistreatment of Negroes by segregationists and called on law-enforcing agencies to “bring to legal justice the perpetrators of these crimes.” Dr. Henley Barnette, Dean of Southern Baptist Seminary, spoke on behalf of the acceptance of the committee’s report. There was no time for discussion and, according to some observers, the presiding officer put the question without waiting for a second. On the last day of the Convention, 84 year old Dr. W. M. Nevins of Kentucky rose to attack the committee’s report and expressed resentment over the insinuation that “the philosophy of equal but separate treatment of Negroes” is labeled unchristian. His protest went unheard by the messengers of the Convention.

Southern Baptists often are best understood by what they vote down at their conventions. Thus, the proposal to enlarge the facilities of Ridgecrest and Glorietta assemblies so as to provide for a permanent meeting place of the Southern Baptist Convention was voted down. The cost of such a venture was thought to be prohibitive. Yet, the cost of holding a Convention at a place like Chicago is enormous. Another proposal to change the name of Southern Baptists to World-Wide Baptists was voted down with equal vigor.

Although Southern Baptists are now working in 46 states, they seem to be unwilling to reckon with that fact when it comes to changing of their name. James M. Bulman, North Carolina, tried in vain to have the Constitution of the SBC changed so as to safeguard the interests of the local church Dr. J. D. Grey, New Orleans, and former president of the Convention, helped defeat Bulman’s proposal. He pointed out that the present Constitution amply provided for the rights and freedom of local churches affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

Congressman Brooks Hays, Arkansas, was elected president of the SBC, being the first layman to head it in 12 years. Dr. W. Douglas Hudgins of Jackson, Miss., was elected first vice-president and Dr. Noel Taylor, Carbondale, Ill., second vice-president. Next year’s Convention sessions are to be held in Houston, Texas, with Dr. Robert E. Naylor of Fort Worth chosen as Convention preacher. The 1959 Southern Baptist Convention is to be held at Louisville, Ky., in connection with the centennial celebration of the establishment of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Worth Quoting

Quotes from Southern Baptist Convention speakers:

“We must give the people of the earth the Lord Jesus Christ to give direction to the material and cultural benefits we are giving them, else they will turn on us some day to destroy us.”—The Rev. George W. Cummings, associate director, Chaplains Commission, Atlanta, Ga.

“The devil would rather start a church fuss than sell a barrel of liquor.”—Dr. W. Ross Edwards, pastor, Swope Park Baptist Church, Kansas City, Mo.

“Churches have been ringing church bells when they should have been ringing door bells.”—Dr. E. Hermond Westmoreland, pastor, South Main Baptist Church, Houston, Texas.

“In 1950 when Southern Baptists last met here, there were six small Southern Baptist Churches in metropolitan Chicago; now there are 56, and there are 1,000 Southern Baptist churches in the Great Lakes area, and increasing at the rate of one new church every four days.”—Dr. Noel M. Taylor, executive secretary of Illinois Southern Baptist Convention.

“There are evidences that the world is on the verge of the greatest religious awakening in history.”—Dr. C. C. Warren, pastor, First Baptist Church, Charlotte, N. C., and retiring president of SBC.

—F. D. W.

American Baptists

The following is a special report of the American Baptist Convention’s Golden Anniversary, observed recently in Philadelphia. It was written forCHRISTIANITY TODAYby Dr. Harold L. Pickett Jr., pastor of Tremont Temple Baptist Church, Boston, Mass.

Dr. Harry Dillin, president of Linfield College, McMinnville, Oregon, and the Convention, in his presidential address challenged the denomination to undertake two progressive steps.

First, to authorize the Home Mission Society to borrow $3,000,000 for the purpose of building new churches, and second, to raise $7,500,000 during the next three years for Baptist higher education.

This program was enthusiastically adopted, but there was much corridor conversation concerning which schools were to be recipients of the money. The criterion for determining this, as stated by the motion, will be cooperation on the part of the institution with the American Baptist Convention. Since the word “cooperation” sometimes implies rather nebulous concepts, the question naturally follows: What is meant by the term? The Board of Education and Publication has been charged with the responsibility of answering this question. The answer, in my opinion, will determine the degree of the success of the campaign.

The most vexing problem confronting the Convention was the location of its headquarters. For several years it has been the opinion of delegates that a site should be selected where all cooperating agencies can be housed together. The General Council recommended by a 17 to 14 vote that property should be selected within a 50-mile radius of Chicago for this purpose. After lengthy debate, characterized by Christian consideration, the recommendation was accepted by an 84 majority. Protagonists for the Chicago site, feeling this was too small a majority, moved that the matter be reconsidered and referred back to the General Council. The council was instructed to appoint a commission to study the problem and bring a definite recommendation to the 1958 Convention in Cincinnati.

Professor James Wesley Ingles of Eastern Baptist College wrote and produced an historical pageant-drama entitled “From These Roots.” The spectacular production told the story of some 250 years of Baptist history in the United States. Staging, costuming, acting and music, furnished by the Eastern Baptist College choir, were outstanding. Every scene exalted Christ as the Savior and Lord of mankind.

American Baptists, renowned the world over for their mission zeal, evidenced their continuing concern for others by appointing 32 new foreign missionaries and 31 to serve on the various home fields. The commissioning service was a personal challenge of rededication for all missionaries and delegates.

The greatest concern evidenced by the discerning delegates was that American Baptists are not growing numerically. In an open-forum session, Dr. Cecil Osborne, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Burlingame, California gave the results of a questionnaire sent out to a large number of American Baptist pastors. Five basic reasons were seen for the lack of growth.

They are:

We are not producing enough pastors in our seminaries. Only one-third of the American Baptist pastors are educated in our own schools. The remaining two-thirds come from Bible schools, other denominational seminaries or no schools at all.

We have a status-quo mentality on the part of our leaders and our pastors.

We’re not building enough new churches.

We do not have a real sense of destiny. Ecumenicity is fine as far as it goes, but it is a poor substitute for true purposefulness.

We are lacking in personal spiritual vitality. Organization alone will not produce the desired growth.

In the discussion that followed, it was also suggested that too often American Baptists are theologically ambiguous. Southern Baptists, who are growing rapidly, were held up as an example. Your reporter has the temerity to suggest there is another reason for the lack of growth. We have failed in many of the churches in our Convention to develop a Christ centered, biblically based, evangelistic program. Without this type of New Testament evangelism, growth is an impossibility.

Southern California delegates were pleased by the Convention’s full recognition of California Baptist Theological Seminary, located in Covina, California. Evangelicals of the Convention were greatly encouraged by this action. This institution will make a profound spiritual contribution to the life of the Denomination because of its positive stand for the true New Testament Christianity.

Delegates and visitors heard an address by Dr. Billy Graham. After reporting briefly on the New York Crusade, Dr. Graham spoke about the need for evangelism in all areas of life. He said each professor in church-related colleges, regardless of his field, should be primarily concerned about the winning of his students to Christ. He pointed out that Wheaton College, with this emphasis, is attracting students in such numbers that 9,000 applicants had to be turned away last year. He challenged American Baptists to insist on a Christ-centered evangelistic emphasis on every one of its college campuses.

Dr. Clarence Cranford, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, D. C., was elected president of the Convention. An interesting note is that Congressman Brooks Hays, who belongs to the same church, was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention recently at Chicago. In bringing greetings from Southern Baptists, Congressman Hays said, in effect, “The fact that Dr. Cranford and I belong to the same church is symbolic of the way in which the two conventions will work together next year.”

A Challenge

The world population is increasing at the rate of 83 persons a minute, or about 5,000 an hour, and at the present rate will double by the end of this century, according to the United Nations Demographic Yearbook for 1956.

The yearbook estimated the world population now at 2,777,000,000. It said the population increases by about 43,000,000 a year.

- More from Walter Winchell

Theology

Bible Book of the Month: The Gospel of Mark

Ralph Earle

One of the great responsibilities of the preacher is to make the Bible come alive for his listeners. A careful study of the Gospel of Mark will help much in the fulfilment of that task.

The early church gave meager attention to this Gospel. Commentaries were written on the other three. But Victor of Antioch in the fifth century wrote that he had not discovered one commentary on Mark. Augustine and his successors held that Mark’s Gospel was merely an abbreviation of Matthew’s.

In the last century the tide has turned. It is now generally recognized that Mark was the first of the Gospels to be written and that Matthew and Luke used Mark. About ninety-five per cent of Mark’s material is in Matthew and/or Luke. Of the 661 verses in Mark the substance of all but 31 will be found in the other two Synoptics. Furthermore, in the order of events Matthew and Luke sometimes differ with each other but they never agree together against Mark. It is rather obvious that Mark’s Gospel furnishes the historical framework for the other two.

The Author

That John Mark was the author of the Third Gospel is questioned by very few scholars today. The tradition of the early church is unanimous on this point. It would be difficult to explain the assignment of authorship to a non-apostle except on the basis of reliable tradition.

The early fathers are also emphatic in saying that Mark derived his material from Peter. The statement of Papias (ca. A.D. 140) is well known. But it is echoed by a host of others. Justin Martyr (ca. A.D. 150) quotes from this Gospel as “Peter’s memoirs.” Irenaeus (ca. A.D. 185) says: “Mark the disciple and interpreter of Peter, also transmitted to us in writing what had been preached by Peter.” Quotations can be given from most of the patristic writers to support this view.

John Mark was probably too young to follow Jesus. But he started out with his cousin Barnabas and Paul on the first missionary journey. In spite of his unfortunate defection on that trip, he later made good and even won from Paul the accolade: “He is profitable to me for the ministry” (2 Tim. 4:11).

Characteristics

The Petrine background goes far to explain the outstanding characteristics of this shortest Gospel. Rapidity of action, vividness of detail, picturesqueness of description—they all reflect the personality of impulsive Peter.

No other Gospel moves so rapidly from one scene to another. While John’s Gospel gives us a studied portrait of the Master—the lines drawn with loving care by one who had lived long in close fellowship with his Lord—and Matthew and Luke present a series of colored slides, Mark’s Gospel is a motion picture film of the life of Christ. One can almost feel the rapid movement from place to place. This is accented by Mark’s favorite word euthys—“Immediately, straightway”—which occurs over forty times, as well as by the constant use of “and,” especially in the opening chapters. As Vincent so aptly puts it, “His narrative runs.”

Although Mark’s Gospel is the shortest he often gives vivid details not mentioned by Matthew or Luke. Thus one can form a mental picture of the scenes in Christ’s life more fully and clearly by reading this Gospel. The looks and gestures of Jesus receive unusual attention. The preacher who wishes to make the Master stand alive before his audience will do well to look long at the Gospel of Mark.

While every good thing can be abused, there is a type of dramatic preaching which will add tremendous effectiveness and interest to anyone’s ministry. We do not mean stage props and artificial scenery. Nor do we refer to a sickly and sickening operatic performance in the pulpit. What we are saying is that if a preacher will read carefully Mark’s account, for instance, of the healing of the woman with a hemorrhage and the raising of Jairus’ daughter—spending hours filling in the background from the best commentaries and other reference works, and then meditating on the psychological reactions of the persons involved in the story—he will get an entirely new thrill in Bible study. Furthermore, the next Sunday morning his listeners will sit wide-eyed with amazement as the figure of Jesus among men becomes sharply vivid before them. If the writer may be allowed a word of testimony, that is exactly what happened in his first pastorate when he learned the simple secret of true dramatic preaching. By such means Calvary and Easter, for instance, can and should be made very real to our congregations and study groups.

Peter’s love for picturesque words found a permanent outlet in Mark’s Gospel. A keen observer of the out-of-doors, the big fisherman vividly portrayed the scenes of Jesus’ ministry to his hearers. In recounting the feeding of the five thousand he recalled how the people seated on the green grass of the hillside, dressed in bright Oriental garments of red and yellow, looked like “flower beds.” Mark is the only one who uses this term, as well as the only writer to mention the green grass. This is just one example of the many vivid touches in this Gospel.

Its Message

The first verse, which is the heading, hands us the key to unlock the message of the book. There it stands: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

In our critical age it has been customary to hold that John’s is the theological Gospel—and hence of no historical value—while the Synoptics, especially Mark, are primarily supposed to be history—whether authentic or not. But with the current revival of biblical theology a new insight has been gained. It is now commonly asserted that Mark’s purpose was basically theological rather than historical.

Even Liberals who deny the deity of Jesus admit freely that Mark’s Gospel teaches it clearly. While the inducing of belief in the deity of Jesus Christ is the avowed purpose of John’s Gospel (John 20:31), it is now apparent that Mark wrote with much the same objective. He was not interested in Jesus as just a historical figure but as Son of God and Saviour. In other words, Mark’s aim was theological rather than biographical.

In this connection it is of interest to note that one of the strongest passages on the Atonement is to be found in this Gospel (Matt. 20:28–Mk. 10:45). It reads: “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” The Greek word for “ransom” was used regularly for the redemption money paid to free a slave, as Deissmann has shown in his epochal work, Light from the Ancient East.

So the main emphasis of “ransom” is on redemption or deliverance. Also Moulton and Milligan in The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament Illustrated from the Papyri and other Non-Literary Sources have stated that in the first century “by far the commonest meaning of anti (for) is “instead of.” On that basis it may be asserted that this passage teaches the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. Certainly this Gospel is more than a mere chronicle of events. It is history interpreted—theologically.

Outline

The Gospel of Mark may be divided several ways. Since Mark presents Jesus as the “Servant of the Lord” one possible outline would be as follows: I. The Filial Servant (1:1–13); II. The Conquering Servant (1:14–13:37); III. The Suffering Servant (cc. 14–16). Perhaps a better outline would be: I. The Period of Preparation (1:1–13); II. The Galilean Ministry (1:14–9:50); III. The Perean Ministry (c. 10); IV. The Judean Ministry (cc. 11–13); V. The Passion Narrative (cc. 14–16).

As is the case with the other Gospels, Mark may be considered a drama of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The hero is presented to Roman readers as the great conqueror—over disease, death and demons. He alone could still the storm by two words uttered on the Lake of Galilee. Master of every situation he met, he fed the hungry multitude with five little barley biscuits and two small fish. He was the greatest Conqueror of all time.

Yet his friends misunderstood him and his enemies conspired against him. Finally came the climax in his crucifixion and burial. The one who offered himself as Messiah on Sunday morning was five days later condemned to death and hanged on a cross. The end had come.

But it was not the end—nor even the climax. The latter came in his resurrection, when he showed himself conqueror forever over death and hades. He stepped out of the grave into a new life—for all who would follow Him in eternal life, here and hereafter. So for the believer there is no end to “the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Mark, as he says (1:1), just records “the beginning of the gospel.”

Tools For Exposition

One of the best commentaries on Mark is A Practical Commentary on the Gospel According to St. Mark, by James Morison. Here one will find a thorough discussion of every passage and almost every phrase. Long out of print, it can sometimes be secured from used book stores.

As with all his works, Joseph Addison Alexander’s volume on Mark is rich in expositional and devotional material. Fortunately it has recently been reprinted. Among the better recent commentaries on the English text is Lenski’s Interpretation of St. Mark’s Gospel. In The Interpreter’s Bible the exegesis by F. C. Grant is meager and disappointing. But the exposition by Luccock is excellent. Here one finds fresh preaching material beamed to the problems and situations of our day. While the old standard commentaries are still unsurpassed for their presentation of the great principles of scriptural truth, the preacher should have a few recent commentaries to help him in making his applications pertinent. Incidentally, of course, the newer works are also needed to bring one up to date on matters of geography, chronology and archaeology, as well as on significant items of historical and textual criticism.

For a thorough study some commentaries on the Greek text are absolutely indispensable. The old standard work by Swete has been somewhat superseded by Vincent Taylor’s recent monumental volume, The Gospel According to St. Mark. It will be a long time before this is surpassed in thoroughness and scholarship.

Of more immediate value to the average preacher is Alfred Plummer’s volume in the Cambridge Greek Testament (new series). All of Plummer’s many commentaries are superior. A. B. Bruce writes on the synoptic Gospels in The Expositor’s Greek Testament. The present writer has found this set of five volumes to be the best single commentary series on the entire New Testament.

For a satisfactory study of any of the Gospels a harmony is needed. The best on the four Gospels is that by A. T. Robertson or the recent Gospel Records by A. C. Wieand. On the synoptic Gospels we recommend Gospel Parallels, published by Nelson.

RALPH EARLE

- More from Ralph Earle

Cover Story

Dare we Renew the Controversy?

The Editor

The Fundamentalist Reduction

Fundamentalism counteracted the modernistic philosophy of religion from the standpoint of supernaturalistic Christianity. Certain essentials that had come under special attack dictated its test for orthodoxy: the authority of Scripture, the deity of Christ, his virigin birth, substitutionary atonement, bodily resurrection and literal return. The temporary test of assent to these specific tenets served its purpose well, for fundamentalism thereby exposed unbelief by boring beneath evasive declarations about the Bible and the supernaturalness of Jesus.

Nonetheless, concentration on “the fundamentals” often displaced doctrinal responsibilities of the church in the wider dimensions of historic creeds and confessions of faith. Evangelical pulpits resounded with “the fundamentals” supplemented periodically with “the case against evolution.” The importance of other theological indispensables became tragically marginal. The norm by which liberal theology was gauged for soundness unhappily became the summary of fundamentalist doctrine. The inevitable result was a premium on creedal brevity. This, in turn, brought further dangers. The organic relationship of revelational truths was neglected. Complacency with fragmented doctrines meant increasing failure to comprehend the relationship of underlying theological principles. Individual doctrines were reduced to simple cliches, without much thought of their profounder systematic implications.

Twentieth Century Movement

The fundamentalist movement became a distinctly twentieth-century expression of Christianity, characterized increasingly by reaction against liberalism. While adhering to “the heart of the biblical gospel” (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:1–4) in evangelism and missions and Christian education, in its campaign against the so-called “social gospel” fundamentalism tended to narrow “the whole counsel of God” and felt little obligation to exhibit Christianity as a comprehensive world and life view. In becoming other-worldly in spirit, fundamentalism not only neglected the exposition of Christian philosophy and constructive personal and social ethics, but even became distrustful of such interests. Because it failed to relate the Christian revelation to the broad concerns of civilization and culture and narrowed the interests of religion to personal piety only, fundamentalism—to borrow Dr. G. Brillenburg Wurth’s phrase, ran the danger “of degenerating into a morbid and sickly enthusiasm” (“Theological Climate in America,”—Christianity Today [Feb. 18, 1957], p. 13). Beneath this pietistic tendency lay an uncritical antithesis between the heart and the head to which most fundamentalist educators and ministers subscribed their schools and their churches. This belittling of the intellect and the phrasing of religious experience primarily in terms of the emotional and volitional aspects of life is a tendency actually more in accord with the anti-metaphysical temper of modernistic theology than with biblical theology. Nevertheless, many fundamentalists uncritically followed this distinction despite their insistence on a core of objective spiritual knowledge. In his work on the history of philosophy, Thales to Dewey (Houghton-Mifflin, 1957), Gordon H. Clark criticizes Protestant liberalism as a caricature of historic Christianity, but indicates as well fundamentalism’s disparagement of intellect.

Areas Of Neglect

Fundamentalism lacked theological and historical perspective. Calvinism and Arminianism it embraced side by side, not alone in polemics against the secular climate of the day, but in an intentional moratorium on discussing doctrinal differences. The result was scant devotion to the dedicated enterprise of theological study and research. Impatience and disinterest deterred precise formulations of doctrinal details.

Fundamentalism neglected the production of great exegetical and theological literature and derived a borrowed academic strength from reprints of the theological classics of the past. This failure to produce scholarly books was due in part to the staggering task of carrying forward on traditional lines the Christian program of missions and evangelism bequeathed by the modernist defection. Another reason was modernism’s capture of strategic educational leadership and facilities, while fundamentalism, in its distrust of higher education, did little to encourage and support scholarly study.

Furthermore, fundamentalism veered at times to antidenominationalism rather than to interdenominationalism. Not content with the promotion of rival nondenominational, interdenominational and superdenominational fellowship and cooperation, it gravitated frequently into caustic criticism of denominational effort. The rift between fundamentalists and modernists be especially pronounced just after the First World War and reached its bitterest extreme during that decade. The devout effort to preserve the Christian churches from paganizing influences through a searching and scholarly analysis of the alternatives drifted into a reactionary current. The World Christian Fundamentals Association, formed in 1918, although carrying on a positive spiritual program of missions, evangelism, Bible conferences, Bible institutes and Christian colleges, nevertheless engaged more and more in vitriolic polemics.

Neglect of the doctrine of the Church, except in defining separation as a special area of concern, proved to be another vulnerable feature of the fundamentalist forces. This failure to elaborate the biblical doctrine of the Church comprehensively and convincingly not only contributes to the fragmenting spirit of the movement but actually hands the initiative to the ecumenical enterprise in defining the nature and relations of the churches. Whereas the ecumenical movement has busied itself with the question of the visible and invisible Church, the fundamentalist movement has often been preoccupied with distinguishing churches as vocal or silent against modernism.

Many fundamentalists, moreover, identified Christianity rigidly with premillennial dispensationalism. Some even were prone to label non-dispensationalists as incipient modernists. Doubtless the premillennial spirit was already in evidence in the very beginnings of the fundamentalist movement eighty years ago, when the Niagara Bible Conference in 1895 first proposed the “fivefold test” to determine ministerial attitudes toward the fundamentals. But it was not until after the First World War that fundamentalism became largely a premillennial enterprise.

These fundamentalist features—neglect of the organic interrelations of theology, of the bearing of the Christian revelation upon culture and social life, and of the broader outlines of the doctrine of the Church—exacted a costly historical toll. When the classic liberal theology was at last overtaken by an inevitable judgment and collapsed, fundamentalism, with its uncompromised regard for the authority of Scripture, saw the theological initiative pass not back to the evangelical forces but rather to neo-orthodoxy, a movement fearless to criticize liberalism in terms of both internal philosophical and external biblical points of view. However unsatisfactorily its principles of the theology of the Word and of the witness of Scripture were applied, neo-orthodoxy nonetheless earnestly and aggressively produced a vigorous commentary and dogmatic literature.

A Classic Heritage

In surveying fundamentalism’s eighty-year life cycle, one must regret today’s contrast to an earlier stature of positive, profound influence. At one time fundamentalism displayed a breadth and concept of theological and philosophical perspective, a devotion to scholarly theological enterprise not characteristic of the present movement. The twelve-volume set, The Fundamentals, distributed to the ministry in 1909 as the gift of two evangelical lay leaders, and reaching ultimately a circulation of three million copies, illustrates the fact. A cursory examination of the booklets discloses many evidences of evangelical strength. Here one finds polemic without bitterness, and a concentration upon great issues besides evangelism and missions, important as these are.

James Orr of Glasgow discusses the virgin birth of Christ in the opening article of Volume One. He enriched the evangelical outlook on both sides of the Atlantic both through significant books and as general editor of The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Benjamin B. Warfield, one of America’s ablest exegetical scholars, wrote the second article, on Christ’s deity. His meticulous theological works still serve the evangelical cause. The third essay, “The Purposes of the Incarnation,” is by G. Campbell Morgan, one of the finest Bible expositors of the past generation. It is noteworthy that both postmillennialists and premillennialists supplied opening articles, united in an evangelical witness to the person and work of Christ. Today’s fundamentalist movement, in its present reactionary position and mood, could hardly rally the participation of such representative and distinguished scholars and leaders as the contributors to The Fundamentals. With A. C. Dixon and R. A. Torrey as editors, the participants (besides those already named) included W. H. Griffith Thomas, Melvin Grove Kyle, William G. Moorehead, Handley C. G. Moule, E. Y. Mullins, George L. Robinson, and George Frederick Wright, among others.

High View Of Scripture

No sense of pressure or panic shifts their whole emphasis to the inspiration of the Bible, important as this theme was for contributors like Orr and Warfield, who even prepared separate books on this subject. An article on higher criticism, near the end of the first volume, carefully avoids blanket condemnation of higher criticism as such, and in fact vindicates a positive role for higher as well as for lower criticism. This first volume, indeed, does not end without a resounding emphasis on “the authority and authenticity of the Holy Scriptures,” a conviction infusing the entire series. All the contributors believed that the sacred Hebrew-Christian writings must be referred to a special divine activity of revelation and inspiration; all emphasized that in matters of doctrine Scripture is the only reliable and authoritative canon. Yet they were not required to agree “jot and tittle” in their expositions of inspiration, as anyone familiar with the writings only of Orr and Warfield will recognize at once. The fundamentalist movement’s later uniformity and rigidity in formulating inspiration resulted from reliance upon cliches more than upon a readiness to define its fuller doctrinal implications. This development contributed needlessly to liberalism’s prevailing misunderstanding of the evangelical view of Scripture.

Only uncritical and unrepresentative expositions, however, supplied the slightest basis for ascribing to fundamentalists such straw views as belief in a specially inspired King James Version, or in the veritable divine dictation of Scripture. Truly representative fundamentalist expositions, while upholding the normative and trustworthy character of Scripture, refuse to sketch divine inspiration in terms of sheer dictation. The contributors to The Fundamentals, however, retained creative liberty to expound the witness of Scripture to its own inspiration. No premium, of course, rested on disagreement and difference. But Scripture ever remained the conspicuous final authority by which fundamentalist expositions were to be governed and judged. The older apologists appealed confidently to the lordship of Christ and to the witness of the Spirit, being less inclined than recent evangelical thought to rest everything on the bare inerrancy of Scripture. This did not imply their displacement of objective revelation by subjective considerations, for fundamentalism has always resisted modernism’s substitution of immediate for mediated revelation. But whether the self-authenticating character of an inspired and authoritative Scripture is derivable from objective indications alone, or whether this self-authenticating character involves also the witness of Christ by the Spirit, was the issue in debate. The older apologetic was less hesitant to begin with Christ—not because it sought to detach Christology from bibliology, but because it sensed the danger that biblicism might seem to ascribe superiority to some principle other than the Christological.

The Larger Perspective

Something of the earlier fundamentalist range and perspective comes from a hasty glance at other volumes in The Fundamentals series. The second book, in support of biblical as against critical views, sweeps into the field of archaeology and closes with a doctrinal essay on justification by faith. An article on inspiration, which begins the third volume, is followed by the testimony of a seminary professor who has rejected his earlier concessions to negative criticism. Between these chapters are essays on the moral glory of Christ, on Christ’s revelation of the fatherhood of God and on the significance of Christian experience. Other volumes present science and Christian faith, the weaknesses of Darwinism, the knowledge of God, the Holy Spirit, sin and judgment, the science of conversion, the nature of regeneration, salvation by grace, the nature of the Church, the efficacy of prayer, the sanctity of the Lord’s day, the Christian use of money, Christianity and socialism, competitive cults and religious movements like Christian Science, Mormonism, Millennial Dawnism, Spiritualism and Roman Catholicism. The essays indubitably differ in quality, but when one recalls that The Fundamentals sought a rather general reading audience, the series creditably reflects a scholarly competence, a refreshing range of interest, an application of biblical Christianity to the wider problems of life and culture and an avoidance of restrictions and negations frequently associated with fundamentalism in our times. A delightful absence of caustic apologetics and polemics pervades these writings. Restraint is shown toward men of dissimilar views; no attempt is made to depreciate their abilities and skills.

Christianity And Science

In the matter of Christianity and science, the early fundamentalists quite carefully avoided a dogmatic dismissal of the whole scientific enterprise as perverse speculation. Contributors to The Fundamentals doubtless agreed on the inadequacy of any explanation of the universe and man in merely evolutionary terms; in this respect they anticipated the dangers of the naturalistic-communistic view of life better than those apostles of “Divine immanence” who merely baptized evolutionary theory with a capital E. Genesis the early fundamentalists regarded as an inspired account of beginnings; they deplored its dismissal as legendary and mythical. Some contributors more than others deferred to scientific opinion in supplementing the creation narrative. The message of The Fundamentals centers in the great affirmations of the creation narratives. Its support of Christian supernaturalism is wary of whatever threatens biblical theism, and it is certainly not proevolutionary. At the same time the writers are neither suspicious nor distrustful of science. They are open to the facts, but unconvinced that all the facts have been introduced.

Fundamentalists questioned the factuality of development rather than exposing the inadequacy of evolution. This disposition, to exclude scientific explanations, rather than to evaluate their adequacy, has maneuvered fundamentalism repeatedly into a tardy and retarded awareness of the constantly changing scientific scene. Some fundamentalist popularizers boldly disparaged scientific studies as a whole, using sarcasm and ridicule to reinforce their deficiency of logic. More cautious spirits, however, refused to dogmatize against every possibility of development in nature, and inclined to agnosticism rather than to skepticism in relationship to evolutionary theory. Some evangelicals in America requested of science only that it refrain from tampering with the reality of the supernatural, with the role of transcendent divine power in creating the graded levels of life and the essential uniqueness of man. They did not feel called upon to exclude a scientific supplementation of the Genesis account of beginnings. The main thrust of the fundamentalist interest in science, however, had become mainly anti-evolutionary. Nature as a divine laboratory in which men may read the plan and thought of God and science as a sphere of divine vocation where Christian young people may facilitate the control of nature to man’s purposes under God were all but lost as motivating concepts.

Decline Of Dignity

Outside conservative theological circles, especially among unchurched people and among members of many liberal churches, the word “fundamentalism” became a term of reproach. Secular newspapers and magazines use it today, quite in the Fosdickian spirit, as a badge of obscurantism. This is less than fair to the traditions of the movement as a whole. To dismiss the fundamentalist as an obscurantist is a strategy often appropriated by those hostile to belief in the supernatural. It gains credibility in liberal circles through the reactionary spirit of some present fundamentalist groups who seem to align themselves against higher education, science and cultural interests.

Such reactionary tendencies in fundamentalism, therefore, caused men of profound biblical loyalties to hesitate to identify themselves with the movement as such. Aware of the undesirable connotations of the term fundamentalism, they prefer to be called conservatives or evangelicals. Already by 1923, when Machen wrote his penetrating critique of modernism, Christianity and Liberalism, men of his theological acumen preferred to call themselves evangelicals.

The real bankruptcy of fundamentalism has resulted not so much from a reactionary spirit—lamentable as this was—as from a harsh temperament, a spirit of lovelessness and strife contributed by much of its leadership in the recent past. One of the ironies of contemporary church history is that the more fundamentalists stressed separation from apostasy as a theme in their churches, the more a spirit of lovelessness seemed to prevail. The theological conflict with liberalism deteriorated into an attack upon organizations and personalities. This condemnation, in turn, grew to include conservative churchmen and churches not ready to align with separatist movements. It widened still further to abuse of evangelicals unhappy with the spirit of independency in such groups as the American Council of Churches and the International Council of Christian Churches. Then came internal debate and division among separatist fundamentalists within the American Council. More recently, the evangelistic ministry of Billy Graham and of other evangelical leaders, and efforts whose disapproval of liberalism and advocacy of conservative Christianity are beyond dispute, have become the target of bitter volubility.

This character of fundamentalism as a temperament, and not primarily fundamentalism as a theology, has brought the movement into contemporary discredit. Doubtless it is unfair to impute this mood of rancor and negation to the entire fundamentalist movement. Historically, fundamentalism was a theological position; only gradually did the movement come to signify a mood and disposition as well. Its early leadership reflected balance and ballast, and less of born bast and battle. Only later did a divisive disposition show itself, plunging the evangelical movement into internal conflict.

The recrudescence of fundamentalism during the Second World War involved a diversification within the movement. On one side were those eager to detach the great theological affirmations from a recent negative reactionary spirit and to strengthen constructive theological and ecclesiastical activity; on the other, those who add to reactionary spirit by multiplying divisions and by disowning brethren in the former category. The first group insists that fundamentalists of the latter definition are severing themselves from the spirit of historic evangelical Christianity; the second group claims that evangelicals of the former category are making a subtle retreat to a compromised fundamentalism.

Call To Repentance

By mid-century, fundamentalism obviously signified a temperament as fully as a theology. Despite its belligerency, many evangelicals courageously stayed with fundamentalism, remembering rather its contribution to Christianity’s age-old battle against unbelief. Others, however, weary of the spirit of strife, wrote off a pugnacious leadership with the declaration that “fundamentalism is dead.” None, it should be noted, showed the same courage and earnestness in calling fundamentalism to judgment and repentance as did Barth and Brunner in approaching classic liberalism. Should evangelical leaders as candidly admit the excesses of fundamentalism as have neo-orthodox leaders relative to the prevailing liberalism? They dare not do less. The growing revulsion toward the fundamentalist temperament is but one evidence that orthodoxy is being chastened in our day. A renewal of biblical Christianity will involve not only a restoration of the fundamentals, but also a revival of fundamentalists imbued with a new mind set and a new method in ecclesiastical life.

If modernism stands discredited as a perversion of the scriptural theology, certainly fundamentalism in this contemporary expression stands discredited as a perversion of the biblical spirit.

TO BE CONTINUED

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