Eutychus and His Kin: September 26, 1960

FOUNDATION AWARD

With the greatest pleasure we announce the first award of the Eutychus Foundation, a non-profit, non-endowed, unincorporated organization dedicated to the recovery of Good Humor in the Christian world. The noble prize-winner will be cited immediately after this brief message from the Foundation.

The trustees of Eutychus Foundation, J. J. Peterson, Eugene Ivy, Kurt Grundgelehrt, et al, wish to correct several misunderstandings that have already arisen with respect to our work. 1. We do not solicit funds. Door-to-door canvassers claiming to represent the Foundation should be given tracts, not money. Please do not send contributions either to CHRISTIANITY TODAY or to Hybrid, Nebraska. 2. We do not sell frozen custard or operate trucks, or bicycles with or without bells. It is true that our slightly anonymous founder likes ice cream and wears a bell on his academic cap, but the two have no connection, the latter being a medieval tradition associated with his office as fatuus magnificus. 3. Our repeated refusal to insert the word “clean” in our statement of purpose does not imply that we are opposed to Good Clean Humor, but only to redundancy. 4. We are a nonpolitical organization, supporting virtually all candidates for public office in appreciation of their vast, if unintentional contributions to the cause.

To borrow a phrase in an election year, we stand on the Threshold of a New Era in humor. Not a month ago, according to the press, a prominent clergyman called for more humor in a New York pulpit, and proceeded to meet the need with an engaging tale about his being locked out of his apartment in his underwear. Leaf through any copy of Manse Beautiful, or Better Churches and Parsonages, and note the ads for “365 More Snappy Pulpit Stories” and “Choice Chancel Chuckles.”

Our Eutychus Foundation Award is not presented to any of these comedian divines, however, but to a periodical that has made quite another contribution to Good Humor. The first Gold Pin goes to the editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY. Not the least of his services to Good Humor has been the policy of containment by which this column has been kept mercifully brief. The citation, however, reads: “for his love of the Good News, the message which dissolves pride in humble laughter and leads to joy through penitent tears.”

EUTYCHUS

MISSION AND MISSIONS

I am very much heartened by reading your … thought-provoking editorial “From ‘Mission’ to ‘Missions’ ” (Aug. 1 issue).

… [This and] Mr. F. Dale Bruner’s article are the two most creative and constructive pieces of writing on Christian missions that I have ever read.

MING C. CHAO

Flushing, N. Y.

The editorial “From ‘Mission’ to ‘Missions’ ” carries these words: “If history’s next major event is not the Lord’s return—which believers in every generation hopefully anticipate—then the Church’s task becomes more awesome than ever.”

Permit me to say just this: Unless the Church quickly recognizes that Christ is already with us and stops that constant looking over the horizon for relief, she will never do her task. No, Christ is not coming! If we believe what we preach, He is already here!

BOYD E. BONEBRAKE

The Mennonite Church

Deer Creek, Okla.

I cannot help but compliment you on your missionary zeal in wanting to bring the “message of salvation” to all men.… I am glad that you are concerned for the spiritual welfare of man, but I believe that the Gospel speaks also to the physical welfare.…

I am not saying that the Church should merely send some form of technical aid through a specialized personnel that are not dedicated to the service of the Lord, or to send those who are not able to bring the full Gospel along with their abilities to help their fellow man in his physical need. But I cannot comprehend the utterances of divine words of love to a sick or hungry crowd day after day, and take no concern for their physical welfare.…

You know, I wouldn’t doubt if Christ were here right now in his physical presence that He might even help some hungry people to contour farm.

RICHARD E. WRIGHT

New Philadelphia Moravian Church

Winston-Salem, N. C.

Your excellent paper was never finer than the current (Aug. 1) edition. It warmed my heart in a wonderful way, for I was raised in China in a missionary home and I spent my best eight years in Tanganyika Territory as a missionary doctor.

I must obey a whim which insists that I send a copy to each member of my denomination’s (Augustana Lutheran Church) Board of World Missions.…

J. B. FRIBERG

Minneapolis, Minn.

The August 1 issue—loaded with Christian missions—is excellent. I know no periodical anywhere that can touch this fortnightly for power-packed, pertinent information vital to the twentieth-century pulpit.… It is an indispensable aid to us preachers on the battle line.

STUART H. MERRIAM

First Presbyterian Church

Portsmouth, Va.

Before the Lord Jesus Christ there were more than 20 prophets which taught the divine truths when the people had gone astray. But the Christian churches are too stubborn and will not confess their failures in spite of threat of hell and near general judgment. They do not accept any prophet which the Lord has sent to us after His coming upon the earth. It is the question—how many clergymen have read the writings of such great prophets as Jakob Boehme, Emanuel Swedenborg and Jakob Lorber, … not to mention many others less significant. Before the Lord Jesus Christ, the Jewish priests stoned their prophets. The Christian clergies kill the prophets, keeping them in the grave of silence.

… It is the last time to turn to the buried prophets and learn from them that there is one God Jesus Christ who is the spiritual trinity of Love, Wisdom, Truth, and Power in one person. The Gentiles are mentally sound enough in order to understand that three persons never are one.

All missionary work must be changed in accordance with the writings of the above-mentioned prophets.

HERMAN MIERINS

Chatham, N. J.

One gets rather tired of the kind of thins Dr. Packer says about Protestant Missions policy “that indigenous churches should be given no more than colonial status in relation to the mother church” (Dec. 21 issue).

May I quote from Working His Purpose Out by the Rev. Edward Band, page 335. “In October, 1912, the Swatow Mission Council invited the Presbytery to take an important step towards the goal of an independent church by assuming the financial responsibility for its pastors, etc.…”

That was almost fifty years ago and there is no reason to think that the English Presbyterian Mission was unique in this policy of aiming at a goal of indedepence. From my own experience the statements in this paragraph are just not true.…

It is also a terribly sweeping statement: “… It is in the towns that resentment and suspicion of the mistionary movement are strongest.” It certainly is not true of Malaya.

R. A. ELDER

Johore Bahru, Malaya

HEIRS OF THE COVENANTERS

The letter from Mr. H. M. Weis, of Pensacola, Florida (Aug. 1 issue) caught my attention. It brought out so clearly the tragedy of churches that have wandered away from their moorings, that are floundering in a sea of relativism, that are trying to discuss and solve present-day man’s problems while disregarding God’s answer given to us 2,000 and more years ago. What Mr. Weis says is true—man’s nature and his problems have not changed much since the time of Christ. God is the same, man is the same, sin is the same; the Bible still is applicable. We need only to apply its ageless truths to 20th century problems.

I wish Mr. Weis could have visited our Adult Bible Class while travelling in the Southwest. It is my privilege to teach this class of alert and intelligent adults who study the Bible as the Word of God revealed, who love its truths, who apply its principles to their everyday lives, and who are hungry for more.

We are a part of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, General Synod, “Heirs of the Covenanters,” established in this country in 1774 and still proclaiming the faith once delivered to the saints.

HARRY H. MEINERS, JR.

General Secretary

Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, General Synod

Las Cruces, N. Mex.

It is extremely hard to understand why, with so many … capable Christian writers at work, the corporate Churches and their study material can be as far “off” as they are. As an officer and sometimes teacher in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., I feel this very keenly, especially in view of the fact that so many of your evangelically sound articles are written by Presbyterians. It is to be hoped that God wall use your magazine and other such influences to bring about a reformation in the thinking of the Churches.

NORMAN B. ASH

Oklahoma City, Okla.

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