Eutychus and His Kin: January 4, 1960

THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS

In Philadelphia a police magistrate sobers up his daily haul of drunks with a big mirror on the station house wall. They don’t like what they see, and most of them are ready to take the pledge after one good look. If this mirror trick works, we can expect most of our metropolitan station houses to be renovated along the lines of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Anything to cut down on the hordes of smashed, schnoggered inebriates who clutter the magistrate’s blotter—more than 10,000 this year in the station which now has the mirror!

No doubt we will soon have some psychological studies on mirror therapy. Perhaps the psychoanalyst’s couch might be equipped with a mirror on the ceiling. Short of Cinemascope, there is nothing like a mirror to see yourself as others see you.

There seems to be one difficulty, however. Long before the station house had a mirror, most of the bars were lined with them. Somehow the mirror seems to work better when a hangover has made a man more reflective. The behavior of certain Hollywood citizens who have a maximum installation of bedroom mirrors suggests that plate glass alone is not the answer. If Narcissus had been furnished with modern mirrors he might have perished of self-love on the spot. The daily mirror reveals one’s least secret admirer.

There has been one substantial improvement on mirrors for spiritual therapy. The women who ministered at the door of the tent of meeting brought their brass mirrors to Moses, and he cast them into a laver, according to the pattern he received in the Mount. A mirror never flatters; a morning-after mirror may bring the truth of despair. But only a laver cleanses.

James exhorts us to look into the mirror of the Word, not as idle spectators, toying with a vanity glass, but as doers, obedient to the law of liberty. There is one mirror where a man may see himself as God sees him. The shock is greater than at the mirror in the station house. But God’s mirror is a laver where his sin is cleansed and where the reflected image at last is like Christ.

EUTYCHUS

CRITICS OF CRITICS

The article “Higher Critics and Forbidden Fruit” by Dr. Cyrus H. Gordon (Nov. 23 issue) was particularly stimulating. I was exposed to the JEDP biblical interpretation while in college where it was offered as the last word in biblical scholarship. I had misgivings about it then, for to my mind it destroyed the unity and authority of the Word. Dr. Gordon’s article is packed with evidence that the JEDP hypothesis was wrong. It is good to know that the Bible, in the light of discoveries made in archaeology and “taken on its own terms,” is coming to be viewed by more and more scholars as factual and authoritative.

PAUL L. SALANSKY

United Presbyterian Church

Reinbeck, Iowa

The popularity and general acceptability of this hypothesis accounts for the fact that so many current books and commentaries in recent decades have been basically committed to this theory.… Too often the serious and intelligent student of Scripture has been disheartened by the ambiguity of so-called “scholarly” division of the Bible into JEDP documents. It is high time that the layman is made to realize that this theory is not the consensus of all Old Testament scholars.

SAMUEL J. SCHULTZ

Wheaton College

Wheaton, Ill.

Surely a timely article by Dr. Cyrus Gordon on the absurdity of the higher critical position.… Dr. Fritsch in the new Layman’s Bible Commentary uses the JEDP junk, but soft-pedals it.

J. W. TALMAGE

Bellaire, Tex.

Your editorial on “Isaac and Rebekah” is brilliant satire. And, Cyrus Gordon has spoken simply and well on “Higher Critics and Forbidden Fruit.” The tragedy of it all is that these eminently sensible words on the integrity of Scripture had to come from the pen of an Orthodox Jew. We who name the name of Christ stand doubly condemned for our failure to speak with greater force in defense of his Word.

BELDEN MENKUS

Nashville, Tenn.

Your editorial “Isaac and Rebekah” … was satirical, and I suppose you meant for it to be. But I charge that you satirize a situation which in the main is not as you picture it.

EUGENE V. SMITH

Taylor, Neb.

SOMETHING OF WORTH

Thank you for the … article by Bishop Dibelius (Nov. 9 issue). I am glad that you are broad enough to print anything worthy, even by the European President of the World Council.

ANDREW W. BLACKWOOD

Philadelphia, Pa.

CHRISTIANITY AND PSYCHE

I appreciated the emphasis in your issue of November 9th on relations between Christianity and psychiatry. Your editorial and the articles which appeared on the subject reflected a deep understanding of the importance of the field and the need of those of us in the ministry to understand the power of our deep emotional life to influence our spiritual life.

GEORGE C. ANDERSON

Director

Academy of Religion and Mental Health

New York, N. Y.

I am convinced by experience that psychiatric principles applied in pastoral counseling will be the most rewarding ministry for any preacher.

… Naive pastors who are confronted by a saved individual who cannot release his own creativity due to emotional conflict must rationalize the situation thusly: “The abundant life is a post-mortal-life promise.” … Our most learned theologians could easily see that Jesus used counseling techniques in his very own person to person contacts.…

If the Gospel of most of our pastors is the all-sufficient panacea, and you really believe that, don’t check your congregation to see how many have had and still are seeking psychiatric help; it’ll destroy you. Why? The only answer you have left is that you have left out most of the Gospel!

Now I suggest that you take your pride and chuck it away. Destroy your self-image of the infallible pastor. Get yourself to some individual who will help you to know your personality structure. Study, restudy, think and apply knowledge more than you ever have before—and if you are man enough and intelligent enough, you might someday make a pastoral counselor.

NATHAN ALTHOFF

Morrison, Ill.

May I issue a strong warning … advising against the sending of any Christian to a psychiatrist or psychoanalyst? It is most important that further “rape of the mind” be prevented.… May I stress the importance of procuring and distributing copies of a brochure entitled Brainwashing (write Kenneth Goff, Box 116, Englewood, Colorado). This booklet gives in detail the horrible lectures of the late Beria, former Secret Police head among the Soviets. What they said they would do, they have done, right here in America, to an alarming extent. Inform yourselves of the way the Communists have infiltrated through the channels of psychiatry, social-work, law, and teaching. The deliberate, calculating methods used I know to be all too real. I have been victimized by these people, and I know what we are up against. Urge your membership to look to Jesus for Divine Healing.… The “psycho-political operatives” were especially instructed to work against all faith healers. I see no reason why the children of God should endure further persecution at the hands of Communists in this country.…

LILLIAN A. PETERSON

Portland, Ore.

CONVERSATION INVITED

I am presently making a study regarding the needs in the area of training mentally retarded children on a custodial basis, and am greatly interested in hearing from parents and others interested in this field.

THOMAS G. ATKINSON

Saint Andrew’s United Presbyterian

11401 East 47th St.

Kansas City, Mo.

HEIRS OF THE REFORMATION

I have been much impressed by articles in the issue of October 26. I especially am pleased with three articles, “American Protestantism: Does It Speak to the Nation?”, “The Essence of the Church,” and your editorial on “The Sons of the Reformation.”

W. H. GREEVER

Columbia, S. C.

I especially appreciated your emphasis (“The Sons of the Reformation”) on the fact that evangelicals rather than liberals or the neo-orthodox are the true heirs of the Reformation. Your pointing up so clearly the differences which Protestants have with Roman Catholics as well as what they have in common was most helpful.

EARLE E. CAIRNS

Wheaton College

Wheaton, Ill.

BOVINE BEWILDERMENT

Page 22 in your Oct. 26 number says Boniface VII issued a bull “Unum Sanctum.” It should of course be Boniface VIII and Unam Sanctam. This is a bad bull indeed! (Strange, but a papal bull is feminine!)

PAUL H. ROTH

Minneapolis, Minn.

A good Catholic is under the leadership of the priest, and a good priest is under the leadership of the cardinal, and a good cardinal is under the leadership of the pope and his influence.

Now the great question is, does this country want to come under the leadership of Rome? If [folk] are not loyal to their church and its doctrine, do we want [them] … in office? How can they be true to Rome and Washington at the same time?

J. D. FRISBEE

Andes, N. Y.

ANYWAY, NO LITIGATION

In reply to Eugene Ivy (Eutychus, Oct. 26 issue):

I started with anticipation

Reading through your dissertation

On Martin Luther’s separation

From the Roman situation.

But I must say in consternation,

Without a bit of hesitation,

There is no consubstantiation

Stemming from the Reformation.

You have roused my irritation

With your trite elucidation

On “days of church consolidation,”

And “worthies of the Reformation.”

I feel that you have separation

Of the mind, and dissipation

Of your supposéd education.

Yours, with infuriation,

WILLIAM J. MOULD

St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

Mt. Pleasant, S. C.

READY TO LIVE

In the October 12th issue … 25 scholars’ views of the most vital issues of the day are presented. I am not a scholar, but when I read the different views, I tried to express my own view in a few words—and here it is: What this world needs more than anything else is saints—great Christians filled with God’s Holy Spirit—men and women who are obeying God’s command—men on fire for Christ and his cause, ready to live for him who died for us. What we do not need is more theological champions—but men and women with eternity in view—saturated with the glory of another world—reflecting to a dying world that love that offered itself for us on Calvary’s cross.

JOHN BOLTEN, SR.

Andover, Mass.

FILM EVANGELISM

I just finished reading with a great deal of interest the editorial on page 20 (Oct. 12 issue). Dr. Smith … does not go far enough in covering the agencies which are furthering the Gospel. Naturally, we refer to his complete omission of films—especially evangelistic films.… We consistently have 400 to 500 recorded decisions for Christ each and every month of the year as a result of showing our films.

BRUNSON MOTLEY

World Wide Pictures

Hollywood, Calif.

NONPROFIT, NONCOMMERCIAL

Some may understand from your “Protestant Panorama” (September 28 issue) that Union Seminary anticipates operating a commercial broadcasting station.… The Seminary has no intention of operating its radio station on anything other than a nonprofit, noncommercial educational basis. The facts are that a $9,000.00 antenna given our station by Richmond Radio Station WRNL, will not operate in the educational part of the FM band. In order to use it, it was necessary for us to request of the FCC a frequency allocation in that part of the FM band that carries with it the right to operate commercially. However, we have never considered exercising that right, and to the best of my knowledge, shall not consider it.

ROBERT W. KIRKPATRICK

Union Theological Seminary

Richmond, Va.

IT’S AN IDEA

Now that the TV morals are under fire, would some move to drive beer and cigarette advertisers off TV be in order? Maybe CHRISTIANITY TODAY might lead a movement to get evangelical pastors to circulate protest petitions in their congregations. The undersigned would affirm that they would not listen to any program sponsored by beer or cigarette advertisers. Maybe other evangelical denominational and interdenominational publications will help promote it.

FARIS D. WHITESELL

Northern Baptist Theologcial Seminary

Chicago, Ill.

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