Theology

What Did Christ Do For Me?

L. Nelson Bell

I was walking down a hospital corridor by the stretcher of a man on whom I was to operate in a few minutes. Looking up into my face, he said: “Doctor, I was saved last night. My pastor came to see me and I accepted Christ.”

The anesthetist, head of the department, a man with little apparent concern for religion, overheard the remark. Following the operation, when all had left the doctors’ dressing room except this doctor, he asked: “Just what did that man mean when he said he was ‘saved’? How can Christ save anyone?”

Like so many of us laymen, he was confused by theological terms. Or perhaps he took Christianity as a matter of course without any idea as to its real meaning.

Knowing him well, I feared that he had been indifferent to Christ and his claims. He had an only son at the state university. I said: “I know your son is at the university and how keenly you are interested in him, his career and his welfare. Suppose that he got into serious trouble, and that on going down to see him you should find out that it was a situation where you could take responsibility for him and pay the full penalty yourself. How gladly you would do this for your boy! That, in one sense, is what Christ did for you, and for all the rest of us. Our lives are all messed up. We are guilty of multiplied sins against God, sins which demand judgment and punishment. But God has stepped in and intervened on our behalf in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ. He accomplished something we could not do for ourselves. He took the responsibility of our sin and paid the price himself on the Cross.”

That which Christ effected for us on the Cross is spoken of as the Atonement. This particular word appears only once in the New Testament (Romans 5:11) but the implications of the Atonement are found throughout the Old and New Testaments and are at the very heart of the Gospel message.

How can the Atonement be explained in terms we laymen can understand? I recently examined two books on the subject. One is so exhaustive and so couched in theological terms that it was not easy to follow. The other did not explain the Atonement: it explained it away. This danger besets modern theology.

The Atonement (at-one-ment) is the means, the procedure, by which sinful man is reconciled to a holy God. There are those who deny that any reconciliation between God and man is necessary, and affirm that God is a loving Heavenly Father and that man is simply to turn to him and he will be received and forgiven. The difficulty with this argument is that the God of love is also the God of holiness, and sin and the unpardoned sinner cannot come into his holy presence. Furthermore, the justice of God demands that sin be punished. Even sinful humans recognize this necessity. Man recognizes the validity of punishment and vicarious substitution whereby one individual may suffer for or pay the penalty for another.

It seems logical to turn to the Scriptures to see what they teach. It is here that we find the historical record about Christ, who he is and what he did.

An honest reading of the Bible leads to the inescapable conclusion that Christ died for our sins. He, the eternal Son of God, came into this world, lived a sinless life and died on the Cross to take upon himself the guilt and penalty of all sinners who believe.

Speaking to his disciples, our Lord referred to an incident that occurred in the wilderness many centuries previously. A bronze serpent had been placed on a pole and stricken men were told to look towards that uplifted serpent as a token of their faith in the saving power of God. Jesus said: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14, 15).

I know there are those who inveigh against the use of “proof texts,” but any layman—particularly one who is a lawyer and interested in and affected by the law—knows that precedents, decisions and judgments are constantly cited in court and are a part of a valid procedure. How much more have Christians the right to take the Bible and accept what it teaches by statements in multiplied places; these together constituting an overwhelming volume of evidence.

In 1 John 2:2 we read: “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” Now “propitiation” is not a common word and we laymen may wonder what it means. According to Webster it signifies, “to appease, to render favorable, to conciliate, to atone, to effect reconciliation,” etc. The Prophet Isaiah, speaking to Israel, made a statement which is valid today: “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isa. 59:2). Those who argue against the need of reconciliation to God through Christ’s atoning work simply evade the awfulness of sin on the one hand and the holiness of God on the other.

Isaiah recognized man’s need when he wrote: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities … and with his stripes we are healed.”(53:5), while the Apostle Peter confirmed this in these words: “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Pet. 2:24). The same thought is expressed many times and in many ways in the Scriptures. Man can reject this concept but in doing so he is rejecting the work of Christ and the Word of God.

“Christ redeemed me” is a familiar phrase. Christ did just that for us, paying the price to buy sinners back to himself.

There are many “theories” of the Atonement. It is popular today to say that no one theory does full justice to this truth. There are many phases of the Atonement and this side of eternity man will never know the depth and height and breadth of the love of God which made our redemption possible and effective. But when we try, with the frailties and limitations of the human mind, to describe the greatest of all Christian doctrines let us be careful that we do not explain it away.

“Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures,” affirms the Apostle Paul. This has been the heart of the Christian message down through the ages and the efficacy of his death was confirmed by the fact of his resurrection.

Sinful man needs redemption. God knows that need and has made full provision to meet it. In Christ on the Cross the need and the sinfulness of man is forever met. Here we see the grace and mercy of God united with His holiness and justice in one supreme act of atoning love.

L. NELSON BELL

Ideas

Protestant Purgatory

Inevitable logic compels those who deny the existence of an eternal hell to invent a temporary purgatory. The problem of unequal justice upon earth in relation to punishment and reward perplexes the mind that rejects the biblical revelation of the fashion of life to come. What must be done with those guilty of unrepented sin?

In a recent issue of a popular denominational magazine a writer asserted that we “have to rediscover the moral equivalent of hell.” His sense of justice recoiled at an equally cordial welcome in heaven for infamous men like Hitler and Stalin and saints like Paul and Augustine. In his own way, the above writer would solve the problem by proposing a consideration of “the redemptive and cleansing possibilities of hell.” The fires of this temporary hell are a “burning shame” and “searing regret,” a source of redemption, and, as such, a “Protestant” purgatory.

The horror of the Roman Catholic purgatory, however, should cause serious hesitancy in proposing as a moral equivalent of hell, the suggested temporary purgatory, for the satisfying of a sense of justice. Roman Catholics have been robbed of peace, consolation and hope, enjoyed by those who rest on the promises of Scripture. Roman Catholicism denies the infinitely meritorious sacrifice of Christ, and has insisted that the sinner make additional satisfaction for his sins. Only by enduring the painful, agonizing fires of purgatory can the half-pardoned sinner qualify himself for the favor of God. He must justify himself by fire, and to the torment which he endures is added the anguish of loved ones on earth who are driven to purchase candles and masses to buy his release. One shudders at the thought of what needless tortures the invention of a Protestant purgatory could bring.

Actually, limiting the torment of hell to soul and mental anguish does not lessen but rather increases suffering. Often the teaching of hell is rejected because the thought of literal fire is abhorrent. Yet, mental agony can cause more pain than a literal flame. The book of Proverbs states, “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?” Mental institutions are filled with broken spirits. A wounded conscience has caused more suicides than physical ills. Burning shame and searing regret intensify rather than soften the horror of purgatory.

The “Protestant” invention of a place to purge souls, of course, denies the necessity of the vicarious Atonement of Christ. If a “burning shame” and “searing regret” cleanse and prepare the soul for heaven, then the entrance of the Son of God into history was futile and vain. One may seriously question the wisdom and goodness of God in sending forth his Son to be born of a virgin and to die on Calvary’s Cross, if all that God needed to see in the soul of man was remorse and contrition. We must silence the prophetic voice of Isaiah who claimed that the Servant was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. We must hush John the Baptist’s declaration, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” We must still the message of Peter that we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot.

Part of the attempt to abolish the biblical eternal hell comes from a desire to vindicate the love of God. The assertion has been made that if love is love and God is God, heaven can’t be heaven until hell is empty. God, according to this view, is made to be something of a Moloch who demands his creatures to pass through fires of purgatory before reaching the golden shore. But those who reduce the being of God to love and ignore his justice are still on the sharp horns of a dilemma even with the invention of a temporary purgatory. If God’s justice does not demand full satisfaction for sin, what particular attribute of his demands remorse and contrition, activated by purging fires?

Classical liberal theology stressed the subjective element of the Atonement; its sole aim was the moral transformation of the sinner. The sight of the Cross, it was asserted, fills the sinner with remorse for his sin, impels him to repent, and places him upon the path of righteousness. (The crucifixion led one sinner, Judas, to hang himself.) A classic example of the effect of remorse and contrition is portrayed in the life of Martin Luther. He describes his experience by saying that at times he suffered such violent and hellish tortures that had they lasted even ten minutes he would have perished and his limbs would have turned to ashes. He painfully realized that he was utterly incapable of proper repentance and that his penitence did not achieve righteousness. He saw nothing worthy of salvation in his agonizing remorse, and it was his subjective experience that finally drove him to accept the objective righteousness offered in the Gospel. Luther found his justification, then, not by the fires of contrition and repentance but by the faith in God’s Son.

That personal repentance does not satisfy either the individual soul nor the holiness and justice of God was recognized by the theologian, Dr. McLeod Campbell. He found the atoning fact in the Lord’s sympathetic repentance for man. Since man was incapable of an adequate repentance, Christ drank the cup of repentance for him. This idea finds no correspondence in Scripture and does not satisfy the justice of God nor the awakened conscience. Repentance, personal or vicarious, does not answer justice either in the court of men or of God. The wounded conscience cries out for punishment of its sin or an adequate Atonement. Were Christ’s sympathetic repentance sufficient, of course, there would be no need of the fire of purgatory to activate repentance on the part of the sinner.

The important question in this matter is whether purgatorial fires would really actuate godly sorrow. Penitence merely to avoid the consequence of sin would not be considered genuine sorrow. Dives (Luke 16:19–31) has been pointed out by some writers as an example of the redemptive quality of hell. In hell, they assert, he developed great concern for his five brothers and pleaded that Lazarus be sent to warn them about the place of torment. But in truth, this was not love; it was a hellish artifice, placing responsibility for his incarceration upon God with the deceptive implication that he had not been sufficiently warned. Abraham informed him that his brothers had already had sufficient revelation concerning the life to come from Moses and the prophets. But Dives revealed an intransigent impenitence when he argued, “Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.” Abraham’s reply to him was that if they refused God’s revelation given to them through Moses and the prophets, nothing would move them to repentance. The entire story of Dives demonstrates sharply the futility of expecting genuine repentance in hell.

The day may come when some theologian will speak of the redemptive quality and transforming power of death. However, the logic of the continuity of mind and character of life here with that which one experiences hereafter is still generally conceded. The unconverted, impenitent sinner enters the next life in his unregenerate state. What, then, in this newly invented purgatory would lead the sinner to godly repentance, if upon earth the goodness of God did not lead him to that act? (cf. Rom. 2:4). Would torment induce the sinner to contrition? Liberal theologians have spoken scornfully of repentance motivated by fear of hell, and surely godly sorrow implies more than a desire to escape retribution. But if “searing regret” and “burning shame” are to define genuine repentance, the question remains whether remorse and the works of remorse constitute redemption.

The word “redemption” is often used in a loose and popular manner to signify “deliverance” without any reference to price, or to specific means by which deliverance is accomplished. Suggestion has been made that redemption may be obtained merely by an act of repentance. The term is so well defined in Scripture that the wrong use is inexcusable. Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon defines redemption as, “everywhere in N.T. metaph., viz., deliverance effected through the death of Christ from the retributive wrath of a holy God and the merited penalty of sin.” Webster’s New International Dictionary defines the word, “In Christianity, deliverance from the bondage and consequences of sin, especially as through the reconciliation (atonement) effected by Christ.”

Scriptures substantiate the above definitions by an overwhelming array of passages. “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood” (Rom. 3:24–25); “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13); “In whom we have redemption through his blood.…” (Eph. 1:7); “Who gave himself a ransom for all.…” (1 Tim. 2:6); “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity.…” (Titus 2:14); (cf. also, Col. 1:14; Heb. 9:12; 1 Pet. 1:18–19; Rev. 5:9). And who would deny the import of Christ’s own statement, “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28)? The idea of deliverance through ransom may be repugnant to some liberal theologians, but it is the clear Scriptural definition of redemption.

Under the providence of God, Luther delivered the church from the dogma of justification by works and re-established the doctrine of Christ’s infinitely meritorious work on Calvary’s cross. He vanquished the argument for purgatory with all its attending evils by nailing his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on that notable day, October 31, 1517. Now, 440 years later, children of the Reformation would establish a “Protestant” purgatory wherein redemption might again be wrought out through works of penitence! What can be the purpose, the value, in their refusing to proclaim the teachings of the Reformers, especially the truths that have come forth from the Word of God?

Christian Perspective In A Non-Christian World

There is an uncertainty in America today which is unusual. A people who have prided themselves on national progress and international prestige suddenly find themselves unsure in both categories. We have been known historically as a “Christian nation” endowed with unusual material and geographical advantages, but there now arises the grave question whether the very things of which we have boasted most might evaporate before our eyes.

In such a situation Christian perspective and conscience is desperately needed. To the Christian the clear question must be: What is right? Man has a primary responsibility to God and an equally inescapable duty to his fellow man. From the Christian perspective there can be no divorcing of the one from the other. The fact that the majority of individuals are devoid of Christian conscience makes the task of the Christian more difficult and also more imperative.

It can be safely said that most laws in America are compatible with the Christian concept; in fact, their basic philosophy stems from Judeo-Christian teachings. Our difficulty therefore is not in the laws of the land, but rather in how they are regarded on the one hand and how they are administered on the other. Right now a good deal is being said about the “law of the land” with reference to the race issue. But a host of other laws which also have bearing on citizens in their relationships to the government, and to each other, are accorded scant notice. The “fix” is a politically expedient way of evading laws, from the ticket for over-parking to a gross violation of tax laws. Racial discrimination is highlighted in Little Rock yet plagues every section of the country. A low view of the law, as such, seems ingrained in much of our citizenry.

To put it bluntly: our national life is at an alarmingly low spiritual and moral ebb. The very resurgence of an interest in religion seems to have stirred the forces of evil to even greater activity.

Now America finds herself out-distanced in a field of science where we thought we were well ahead. There is no use denying the fact that Russia’s successful launching of the first earth satellite was a major achievement and there is no denying the fact that it has served to lower American prestige around the world. Some captured German skill may have been used to make this artificial moon possible, but there the reasonable assumption remains that the satellite is largely the product of scientific developments we did not believe possible in Russia.

How should the Christian react to the present situation? From a personal standpoint he can say that he knows all things work together for good for all that belong to Christ, and hence these things cannot touch him. This is unquestionably the comfort and hope of the believer, so far as his personal problems are concerned. But, he also has a responsibility to others and this cannot be discharged by a detached approach.

In the international field the Christian has a responsibility which has not been discharged. As a Christian he should work for the evangelization of the world. As a citizen he should work for morality in our international relationships. The Christian can produce effective arguments to show that our recognition of Russia in 1931 was a grave mistake. Many who see no moral issue involved nevertheless can show that the advantages of such recognition accrued almost entirely to Russia and that she has increased in power, in territorial acquisition, and in international infiltration and intrigue ever since she received such recognition.

On the home front Christians have too often been savorless salt and hooded lamps. Conformity to worldly concepts and compromises with spiritual and moral issues has weakened the Christian testimony as effectively as did the compromise of Israel with the Canaanitish nations more than three thousand years ago.

For a generation there has been an increased emphasis on the influence of the Church as such. Both the Roman Catholic and the Protestant denominations, through their cooperative agencies, have laid increasing emphasis on legislation. In so doing have not Christians actually been led to shirk their responsibilities as citizens? There is reason to believe that the active voice of men who speak out as individuals on moral and spiritual issues and who exercise their influence through their vote actually contribute far more to good government and right living than those who lobby in the name of the Church. There is nothing wrong with a united voice for right, but there is something strangely compelling in the witness of Christian men who stand up and are counted as individuals expressing their plea for social righteousness.

The Christian perspective demands that we try to see things as God sees them and that, having sought the leading of the Holy Spirit, we exercise in every way possible our influence for that which is right. We have been shocked by blatant corruption in some labor unions. We stand appalled at the political power of unworthy characters. Our souls rise in righteous indignation and disgust when hate and prejudice erupt in violence against people because their skins are of a different color. All these evils stem from sin in the human heart. All of them demand the judgment of a righteous and holy God. But their cure is to be found in the redemption God has provided through his Son.

The key to our internal and international problems is to be found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The custodian of that truth is the believing Church. The agents of the message are Christians. This is a time when we need to look up and receive, surrender from within and believe, and then to go out and live and act by and in the power of him who redeemed us and offers salvation to all who will believe.

Public Relations And Religious Revival

The link between public relations and religion is under scrutiny. In the aftermath of Billy Graham’s New York campaign, many newly “promotion-conscious” forces are asking: “What can we learn from Billy Graham?” Some religious leaders are answering: “We can learn the profound importance of good public relations.”

The Church has no better “publicity gimmick” than evidence to the world that Jesus Christ is still actively working in human lives. No high pressure salesmanship shaped by the spirit of the times, no slick programing of public relations, no tricks of the advertising trade, no experienced mass manipulation, no engineering of human decision, can turn the sinner from the evil of his way to the Living God. Regeneration involves a supernatural rebirth. “No man can call Christ Lord except by the Spirit of God.” No mechanics can dispense with the Holy Spirit. Many observers disregard this real secret of effective mass evangelism. Public relations produces spectators, not saints. It is one thing to lay fingertips on glory, another to lay hold of new life.

The real question is, what does promotion and publicity “pull a crowd” for? Some promotion may attract to church participation; other promotion may compete against it. Does religious promotion narrow the gulf between men and the Living God? Does it lead men to the message of Christ’s death for sinners? The religious surge may bear us toward the one true God but it may deluge us with false gods as well.

Fortunately, today’s sober spiritual concerns are gaining respect on the part of the press, radio and television. Here again science may fulfill its role as the handmaid of theology to the glory of God. The Graham campaign in New York shrewdly appropriated many positive values of scientific communicative techniques.

Yet we must bear in mind certain irreducible differences between mass advertising and mass evangelism. Mass advertising tends to generalize individuals; its pressures are for conformity. Mass evangelism, on the other hand, aims to refine and sharpen uniqueness in view of individual decision and destiny. Because spiritual commitment often requires action contrary to prevailing social pressures, it would be an untenable generalization to recommend the ideal 20th century evangelist to be a public relations tycoon. Rather, the message of the effective evangelist may recommend and call the public relations tycoon of our era to repentance.

Some editors still apparently assume that an agnostic makes the best religion editor, or at least that the religious cause is best served if a reporter is not a committed believer. If such editors were covering the story of apostolic Christianity, they would have preferred Gamaliel (“Keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this … undertaking is of men, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them …” Acts 5:38), to Paul as an authoritative interpreter.

Measured in terms of modern promotional success stories, the New Testament evangelists and the apostles were perhaps far from ideal. But they told the truth at the cost of life itself; they spoke to man’s deepest needs in terms of the Christ.

A modern public relations staff would have advised Paul to “pull many of his punches,” but the apostle would have proved an exasperating client. He was more concerned with winning converts and serving Christ than with winning friends and influencing people. Whereas public relations aims to avoid all offense to customers it often exploits, the Gospel often is first a scandal to those it convicts and saves.

The Church must do more than appropriate the publicity opportunities of our age. By inspiring new forms and a loftier message, it must enable the very techniques and content of publicity to bring the avenues of promotion into the service of spiritual truth and righteousness. For too long secular promotion has borrowed great words and themes of Christianity to fill them with a secondary content that grieves spiritual sensitivities. Vocabulary of our religious heritage—Crucifixion, Atonement, Gethsemane, miracle, conversion, regeneration, etc.—has suffered from essentially secular trespassing. To restore to these terms their primary spiritual sense, and once again to sharpen man’s consciousness of God by them, is no easy task.

At the same time, the Church can learn much from the public relations world. This learning, however, comprises far more than the appropriation of valuable techniques and insights for mass communication. Public relations speaks simply and directly to the public; it aims for an immediate point-of-contact in the familiar vocabulary of the man in the street. Precisely this is how the Gospel of Jesus Christ first met the sinner. Jesus knew how to speak of water, bread and light as swift transitions to eternal spiritual concerns. The Gospel is superlative for its profundity in simplicity: it is good news, and that is what the modern man needs to hear. That “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,” is neither abstruse nor elusive in meaning. While so profound that all human philosophies are shallow alongside its depth of implication, the truth of the Gospel applied by the Holy Spirit is simple enough that it may gather the man in the street and his children into the fold of grace.

Eutychus and His Kin: October 28, 1957

Robert Ingram

SAINTS AND SPOOKS

On the eve of All Saints’ Day

The spooks and goblins play

And witches stir their brew;

For the balanced Middle Ages,

Before paying saints their wages,

Gave the devil his due.

This equitable spirit

Saved the treasury of merit

(Which no goblin or fey spirit

Could properly inherit)

While assuring the ghosts of a chance

For a lark in the dark and a dance.

We’re well past Middle Age

But spooks are still the rage:

The kids are keen for Halloween

And now demand a Horrorland

(On Channel Z, color TV).

From these ghouls which unnerve us,

What saints will preserve us?

For saints today are quite passe,

We have only the stars made by movie czars.

We adore the gun-slingers

And the well-modeled singers,

But no star in Hollywood

Need be holy, pure, or good—

What all-star cluster

Could pass all saints’ muster?

While a world without saints savors horror for fun

A weird witches’ sabbath has fiercely begun

And horror in earnest closes its shroud

On the vacant heart of the man in the crowd.

Neither celibate monks nor the profligate stars

(Though the saints filled their cells as the drunks crowd the bars)

Could redeem or release from that spirit unclean,

The Power of darkness, the Prince Halloween.

Only the Lord of the age drawing near,

The Prince of Life, has broken the fear

Of death and the prison of sin,

Conquered the strong man and entered in.

“The Prince of Darkness grim,

We tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure,

For lo! his doom is sure,

One little word shall fell him.”

So sings the ransomed sinner

whose heart no longer faints

For all who wait Christ’s coming

are called to be His saints.

In hope they speak the gospel’s word:

All saints’ day is the day of the Lord!

EUTYCHUS

GOD AND THE SCHOOLS

It is encouraging to have you print pieces like “Fourth R in American Education” by Renwick Harper Martin (Sept. 2 issue). However, it seems to me Mr. Martin’s thesis falls apart when he accepts the fallacy that it is only sectarian religious education which is opposed by our laws and court decisions.

Are we Christians unable to recognize that in the eyes of Roman civil law any religion is sectarian? Christianity itself is sectarian for a statist, a Jew, a Unitarian, an agnostic, a Buddhist or a Moslem: yet these people are part of our American legal system. This is the very proposition upon which even the mention of God in state schools has been forbidden by some court decisions.

The Bible itself is sectarian, and, with all sympathies with the evangelical position, it must be recognized that the very introduction of the Bible into schools is a sectarian procedure. The decisive point of this issue is that at which we agree it is all right to be religious, but all wrong to profess a religion. How can one go to church without going to a church? And how can a church escape being, in a true sense, sectarian?

St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church

Bellaire, Texas

In his “Fourth R” Renwick Martin works a familiar theme which is quite popular these days—that of the “godless” public school. Such articles persist in the libel of the public schools which charges them with responsibility for the current crime wave and … juvenile delinquency. No proof is ever offered for this monstrous allegation.…

Mr. Martin bases his charge on the bland assumption that if there were more religious education in the schools these conditions would not exist.… We know that in all sectarian day schools religious indoctrination is carried on.… Yet we have no proof that products of these schools are any more crime proof or any less delinquent than products of the public schools.…

The whole problem of moral behavior is obviously more complex than Mr. Martin suspects.… The author urges the Bible as the key to his solution. This is good, but Mr. Martin should be told that the great majority of our courts have upheld the legality of Bible reading in the public schools. These courts have repeatedly held that the Bible is not a sectarian book (for example: Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, and many others). Thirteen states actually require Bible reading in the schools, and five others specifically permit the practice. The picture Mr. Martin gives of government ruthlessly eliminating religion from the schools is simply not factual.

Mr. Martin feels that his own brand of religious teaching which is “non-sectarian” would be unobjectionable if carried on in public schools. The trouble is that everyone else thinks his brand is “non-sectarian” and just what ought to be taught. It is my own opinion that the only kind of religion worth teaching is sectarian religion. Yet this is just the kind (Mr. Martin’s included) that cannot be taught in public schools. This is not just a matter of law—it is a matter of practicability.

This is not to say that schools should be “godless” or that religion cannot be dealt with in any classroom. We cannot ignore God just because the building we are in happens to be publicly owned. Nevertheless, we must face the fact that if we want to preserve our one school system serving all creeds and teaching mutual respect, we shall have to leave the job of sectarian indoctrination to the home and the church. After all, why not? What is wrong with the home and the church?

Protestants and Other Americans

United for Separation of Church

and State, Washington, D. C.

Which is better, to have the average public school teacher read, without comment, a few verses of Scripture every morning, or plan for religious education of pupils at least an hour a week under consecrated Christians? For me I would choose the latter.

In 1922 the Hennepin County (Minnesota) Sunday School Association [prompted] leaders in St. Paul and Minneapolis to secure legal advice and to prepare a bill providing for Weekday Religious Education on released time from public schools … not to exceed three hours a week. This bill went through both houses in the state legislature with little or no opposition. Schools were begun in both cities during 1923–24. The system has grown by leaps and bounds. Churches, parents and public schools cooperated nicely. It was not at all uncommon for 100% of a given grade to be enrolled. A fulltime supervisor was employed. Teachers were paid by the hour. Juvenile delinquency was greatly reduced.

In Pittsburgh Dr. Ben Graham, Superintendent of Schools asked the religious leaders to plan a program of weekday religious instruction for high school students. Fifteen districts were organized, giving each church a chance to be represented. It was agreed that classes would be held in nearby churches, on school time and that students would receive credits toward graduation. Thousands of students have been enrolled. A fulltime member of the county staff directs the work.

Eighteen years of my ministry were given to religious education in Minneapolis and Pittsburgh. Weekday religious instruction does make for honesty and a better way of life.

Manchester, N. H.

WARMTH OF FAITH

The book review by R. V. G. Tasker dealing with the work of Rudolf Bultmann (Sept. 2 issue) calls, it seems to me, for clarification. The reviewer cites Ulrich Simon: “Can any reader take Bultmann’s ‘Jesus’ really seriously without hearing, so to speak, the threatening Horst Wessel Lied in the background?” A connection is established between the apparently negative aspect of much of Bultmann’s work and the “political tensions in Germany in the prewar years.” The writer cited says he is not “charging Bultmann with such excesses,” i.e., the Nazi attacks on the Church, but his statement is so ambiguous that an uninformed reader might well conclude that Bultmann’s views were dictated by social pressures of the time. Quite apart from the fact that the Jesus was published in 1926, Bultmann’s view of the historical Jesus roots in the modern critical movement and in his own work in form criticism dating back to 1921. If Simon and Tasker mean on the other hand that they think of the Nazi outlook as caused by rather than the cause of critical scepticism, they should say so clearly. As it is, the statement hits below the belt. If I can say a word from personal acquaintance with the great scholar, I would testify to his rugged personal integrity and to the warmth of his Christian faith and preaching.

Harvard Divinity School

Cambridge, Mass.

DEWEY AND WORSHIP

The review of Dr. Manford Gutzke’s book, John Dewey’s Thought (Sept. 16 issue) did not, in my estimation, do full justice to this work as a contribution to the field of religious education. I hold Dr. Gutzke and his work in high esteem and have had occasion both to discuss this book with him and to read it. I feel that I can comment on his work as we have both written on the same subject, he from the standpoint of John Dewey, I from the standpoint of John Calvin.

Dr. Gutzke seeks to establish validity for Dewey’s thought in the area of religious education from a true, evangelical standpoint. It is his thesis that the “preferred behavior patterns” of Dewey may have successful religious application. He notes that the church tends to associate “attitudes” of worship (folded hands) with the experience of meeting God in worship and he concludes that Dewey’s thought may provide guidance in the matter of establishing the best possible procedures within the best possible environment for the business of “training a child in the way he should go,” according to a true Christian epistemology.

If there is a fault in Dr. Gutzke’s writing (other than its difficulty to read) it is the implication which one senses rather than meets headon, that practices and procedures may, in themselves, be means of grace, whereas “preferred behavior patterns” can never be more than auxiliary, as a context to the use of the primary means of grace which is the Word.

First Presbyterian Church

Alexandria, La.

EVANGELISM FOLLOW-UP

Now that the Billy Graham Crusade is over, the intensive effort of the churches … to welcome those who committed themselves to Christ begins.

It is providential that this period of conservation comes at the beginning of the active church year. The months from September to Christmas are strategic, and the period from Christmas to Easter full of the greatest promise. So wide has been the influence of the New York meetings that churches far beyond their environs have a wonderful opportunity to share in their after effects … this fall and winter season.…

Because a similar period meant so much to the church I served in Philadelphia during and following the great Billy Sunday campaign in that city in 1915, I venture to … record a few of our experiences.…

Mr. Sunday’s Tabernacle Meetings covered the three months leading directly up to Easter. But many weeks before, from the beginning of our fall season, we had been preparing for them. During the meetings we rebuilt our weekly program to coordinate with the program of the Tabernacle. Consequently the church was ready to continue the effort along lines suitable to the situation. For example, the Wednesday evening prayer meetings which had been going on for months continued, so that the people who had chosen ours as their home church might be personally brought into our fellowship and warmly welcomed in our homes. Similar arrangements were made to receive them into the church school classes and the organizations for men, women and young people. A special welcome was planned in the Sunday services, deliberately avoiding, however, anything that would separate them into a distinct group. They were, from the beginning of their church experience, absorbed into the on-going life of the church.

One of the most effective instruments for bringing the men together had been instituted before the Tabernacle meetings began. The men of the church had established a pleasant Sunday afternoon to run from four to five o’clock. Those who “hit the trail” during the meetings were brought in and introduced and welcomed, and given opportunity to tell … what their decision had meant to them. Perhaps nothing meant more to the new converts, as well as to the men of the church.… After the Tabernacle meetings were over this gathering was continued for months and offered all kinds of opportunities for mutual fellowship. Similar plans were provided for other groups.

Certain facts stand out as I recall this vital period of Bethany Temple:

First, we religiously followed up the persons (whose commitment cards we had received) who had named our church as their preference. And we followed them up at once, and continued to keep in touch with them until we reached them. Second, we gave them an invitation to become communicant members of the church as soon as they could attend the communicant classes through which all new members were instructed. Special classes were held for children. Third, we made some person or family responsible for introducing the new members to the older members in their own neighborhoods, and keeping in touch with them in a friendly yet unobtrusive fashion for a few months. Officers of the church were assigned especially to this task. Fourth, we had a group system in the church which brought the families together at stated times. The new members were quickly drawn into these friendly home groups and as soon as possible the meetings were held in their homes. Fifth, the officers of the church, church school and organizations all kept their eyes open for tasks to which these new members could be assigned and timed.

This program continued over the years with the result that within a few years the converts from the Billy Sunday meetings had been completely integrated into the life of the church.

Bethany Temple received the cards of 108 persons who “hit the sawdust trail,” not counting many of our own members who went forward to reconsecrate themselves to Christ. During the two years following the meetings we received into our membership, from the families of these 108, a total of 450 people including the trail-hitters themselves.

The question is being asked concerning the converts from the Billy Graham Crusade, “Will they continue?” The answer will depend partly on the persons themselves, but to a large extent on the way they are received and built into the churches they join. If the churches, inspired by their devotion to Christ and their dependence upon the Holy Spirit, will faithfully seek to build these folks into a living church, they will stand.

I remained long enough at Bethany Temple to see the church do this very thing. When I left, at least a third of the teachers and officers of the church school and a goodly proportion of the active workers in our organizations, and many of the officers of the church, had been drawn from the ranks of those that came to us directly or indirectly through the Billy Sunday meetings. I can say truthfully that no event in the 14 years of my ministry in Philadelphia had such a vitalizing influence on the church as a whole as the Billy Sunday meetings and their aftermath through the years.

I must add a postscript. Two years after the Billy Sunday campaign I happened to be in the study of another minister, of a church not unlike our own in personnel and neighborhood. As the minister and I chatted together he caught me looking around at his bookcases. Atop one was a bunch of cards which he thought had caught my eye. He said, “I see you are looking at these cards; do you know what they are?” I said I had no idea. “Well,” he said, “those are the cards I received from the Billy Sunday meetings.” “What did you do with them?” I asked. “Do?” he replied; “why nothing.” I said, “Do you mean to say that you never followed them up?” “Certainly not,” he answered. “Such cards mean nothing, we never received a member into our church from that much publicized campaign.”

My heart ached for that man, and it does now. Of all the lost opportunities that I can personally remember over a lifetime in the ministry, that is still to me the most tragic. If you are a minister and have been in any way moved by the Billy Graham meetings, do not fail yourself, your church, these new converts and your Redeeming Lord.

Asheville, N. C.

• Dr. Ferry, now retired, was for many years pastor of the Bethany Temple Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia.—ED.

A YEAR’S READING

The only irritant and discordant note I have detected in your otherwise outstanding and commendable articles during a full year’s reading was sounded in your recent articles on RSV, which somehow did not satisfy, being negatively critical in part, and “damning with faint praise” in part. As a member of a conservative church-body’s committee, which for five or six years has critically studied the RSV, making careful comparisons with the original texts, I have come to George Eldon Ladd’s conclusions, viz. “Criticism, if any, must be directed to the revisers’ judgment, not to their theological presuppositions,” and “The charges have repeatedly been made that RSV reflects a liberal theological tendency and that the translators have misrepresented the original text in favor of lower theological positions. A critical study of RSV does not bear this out.” If the RSV is not perfect, it is, as Dr. Ladd declares at the close of his evaluation of the RSV NT (CT, July 8, p. 11), “the most useful translation we possess.” Then why, I wonder, has the good doctor “no zeal, in principle, to defend the RSV per se”? If the RSV is “the most useful translation we possess,” why not all help perfect it by sending valid criticisms with supporting evidence to the RSV Translators’ Committee for consideration, as my church through its committee plans to do? Valid criticisms and helpful suggestions are most welcome, I am sure. Unjustified criticism can only harm the critics and the good cause. I very much incline to agree with John M. Leggett Jr. (CT, August 19, p. 24).

St. Peter’s Lutheran Church

Shaker Heights, Ohio.

I am continually astonished at the success of CHRISTIANITY TODAY. You have done the impossible …

President

Belhaven College

Jackson, Miss.

This joins with many ministers, I believe, who have postponed too long writing you and commending you and yours for good editorship well done …

Calvary-Asbury (Meth.) Church

Sudlersville, Md.

“A Layman and His Faith” … attributes to Cardinal Newman the words of the Rev. Henry F. Lyte. It was Lyte, not Newman, who wrote those beautiful words of the hymn “Abide with Me.”

First Presbyterian Church

Dinuba, Calif.

I am a retired Methodist minister, having served for more than 40 years in the pastorate and the educational work of the Church. Since the first issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, I have been an appreciative reader … Your issue of Sept. 16 is the best.… In this number are more articles of great value to the Church of today, than I have ever found before in a single issue of any periodical.

Custer, Okla.

I have just finished re-reading some of the early pre-subscription issues.… This second encounter convinced me that I have missed more solid reading than I can afford, so please find check inclosed.

Blairsville, Pa.

For rural pastors like me, it keeps us up-to-date on spiritual trends and news.… It is written in very plain language.…

United Baptist Church

Island Falls, Me.

Barabbas, Annas and Pilate

Christianity in the World Today

One of Latin America’s most beloved poets, Ruben Dario, finishes an ode to Christopher Columbus with this sideswipe at the dictatorships and violence which have all too often characterized the volcanic republics south of the Rio Grande:

While Christ walks the streets, feeble and frail,

Barabbas flaunts his slaves and chariots.

Christopher Columbus, unhappy admiral,

Pray to God for the land which you discovered!

Barabbas today has not only his slaves and his chariots, but his tanks and jet fighters as well. Carnage in Cienfuegos, assassination in Guatemala, kidnaping in Trujillo, bombs in Buenos Aires—these are the order of the day in lands where people still prefer Barabbas to Jesus Christ.

Jesus himself was once tempted to use the methods of Barabbas to establish his kingdom. He could have achieved sudden and universal popularity if he had chosen to espouse the political cause of rebellion against Rome. Satan said to him in the desert, “All this power will I give thee … if thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.”

But instead of violence, Jesus chose the path of humiliation, love and sacrifice. He refused to endorse the methods of political banditry.

Much of Latin America today is in the hands of Barabbas. Its dictatorships have ranged from the benevolence of Guatemala’s liberal Ubico to the conservative egotism of Colombia’s Rojas Pinilla; from the comic-opera grandiosity of Trujillo in the Dominican “republic” to the demagoguery of Peron in Argentina; from sugar-rich Batista in Cuba to oil-rich Perez Jimenez in Venezuela. All have had this in common—they have climbed to power over the dead bodies of their compatriots in revolutions of varying ferocity.

Possibly the most dangerous manifestation of Barabbas in Latin America is the existence of a strong and organized Communism in nearly all of the lands to the south of us. Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina—nowhere in Latin America can one escape contact with Red agents and Marxist doctrines. This is not surprising to those who are familiar with the dead authoritarianism of the official church and the economic feudalism still prevailing as an integral part of Latin America’s Spanish heritage.

Ex-president Galo Plaza of Ecuador, referring to this double legacy of religious authoritarianism and economic feudalism, recently stated that it is a short step from these factors to dictatorship. He could have added, “and to Communism,” for coincidentally present in Latin America are all the other factors which provide fertile soil for the Marxist agitators—a rising spirit of nationalism, a phenomenal industrial boom, the emergence of labor as a political factor, and a careful cultivation of Latin minds by social reformers of the left. Add to these ingredients the fact that Latin America has not found spiritual satisfaction in Roman Catholicism, and you have a perfect hothouse for communistic insemination.

Although Romanism opposes Communism with all its strength, it has at the same time created the very conditions upon which the Red cause thrives. By its accumulation of superstition and formalism in Latin America, as well as by its indifference to the economic and social welfare of the masses, the church of Rome has not only defaulted as a possible solution to the rule of Barabbas—it has cultivated the very factors which have opened the doors to communist activity.

For the moment, in one form or another, Barabbas is firmly entrenched.

At the other end of the political spectrum in Latin America can be discerned the shadowy, black-robed form of clericalism. This is Annas, the sinister, scheming religionist, whose interests are more political than spritual. Twice a high priest, and patriarch of a high priestly family, his were the money changers whose tables Jesus indignantly overturned. Fattened by a lucrative temple revenue, Annas is more interested in cultivating the favor of secular rulers than in ministering to the spiritual needs of a hungry people. Religion with him is a profitable career, not a faith. Cynically, he plays the game of power politics.

Nowhere in the world today has Annas had the opportunities afforded by long and uncontested tenure as in Latin America. Recognition of Roman Catholicism as the official religion, compulsory religious education in the schools, education in many instances controlled by the priests, concordats with Rome, government patronage of cathedrals, churches and mission territories—for the centuries that have passed since the conquistadores first brought the sword and the crucifix together to the Hispanic New World, Romanism has been the unchallenged (although, paradoxically, frequently neglected) religion of Latin America.

That this religion is superficial more often than not, cannot be denied. In many instances the Indian idol has become the Roman saint, and the crucifix has thinly disguised the indigenous paganism of the Aztecs and the Incas. Nor is the Romanism of European vintage much more profound. Possibly as low as 10 or 15 per cent of the Catholics in Latin America are truly practicing their religion. Theirs is a faith of outward convenience and of social propriety. It goes no deeper. I have been told of one country where the masses are said to be the briefest in the world—ordinarily one priest preaches the sermon while another says the mass in order to hurry things up for the parishioners!

Rome itself considers Latin America an unchurched mission field. Foreign priests are pouring in. The Spanish-speaking lands may be nominally Catholic, but the hold of Catholicism is tenuous. The hand of Annas is weakening, his grip failing. And as he sees his onetime power slip, he struggles frantically to maintain a degree of political, if not spiritual, control over the Latin American hemisphere. This explains the persecutions in Colombia—the ecclesiastical pressures in Mexico—the political maneuvers of Rome in so many of the republics. But, Annas is fighting a losing battle.

Still another important figure on the Latin American scene is that of Pilate, the cultured, worldly-wise, liberal-minded procurator who by his spinelessness sent Christ to the Cross. Pilate knew better, but he tried to pacify Annas and his crowd—he compromised his ideals on the altar of expediency. And in this he symbolized the political liberalism of Latin America.

Evangelical Christianity owes a large debt to the liberals of Latin America—the Masons and the free-thinkers, the men who stood up to the Jesuits a generation or two ago and by the sheer weight of their intellect and conviction turned the political charters of their lands into liberal channels. Latin American liberalism produced great leaders and great educators, and opened the doors to Protestant missions.

But in the last generation, political liberalism, lacking a spiritual core, has sold itself down the river. Being devoid of religious and ethical content, it has yielded to expediency. And the average Latin American liberal today is married in the church to a Catholic girl, has his children baptized in the church, educates them in church schools, and when the pressure is on he sells short his liberal ideals.

If Pilate at one time seemed to be the great white hope of Latin America, he is now simply the foolish little man who tried to wash his hands of responsibility.

Revolution, clericalism and liberalism. In none of these has Latin America found the solution to her moral, spiritual and political problems. Revolution breeds violence. Clericalism nurtures bigotry. Liberalism spawns indifference. Neither Barabbas, nor Annas, nor Pilate has provided what Latin America wants and needs.

But the three men have one thing in common—nothing much was heard from any of them after Good Friday. They are definitely pre-Resurrection figures in the Holy Week pageant of our Lord’s Passion. Up through Good Friday they each had their following. But on Easter mom they were eclipsed and condemned by the shining glory of the Risen Lord.

This Reformation Day of 1957 finds us in the Holy Week of Latin America. Barabbas, Annas and Pilate are struggling for the Hispanic soul, while off to one side, a crown of thorns on his brow, stands the Lord Christ, the Eternal Son of God. For the moment he is a minority. He stands in apparent defeat. But the day will come—very soon—when he shall break asunder the bonds of death.

Humanly speaking, it is unlikely that the Reformation of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries will repeat itself in Europe. Catholic Italy is overshadowed by the Vatican. Catholic France is vitiated with the inroads of secularism. Elsewhere, Moscow is in control, but Latin America is different. In a climate of relative liberty, the Gospel of Christ has made tremendous advances. Already like the brightness which precedes the dawn, there are signs of an evangelical awakening.

If it please God, a glorious Resurrection Day is just ahead. For Latin America, Jesus Christ is the answer!

• This special interpretive article was written for CHRISTIANITY TODAY by W. Payton Roberts, staff correspondent. See also Dr. Taylor’s article in this issue.

People: Words And Events

Active Laymen—One of the largest laymen’s gatherings in recent history was held this month at Miami when the Presbyterian Men’s Conference drew almost 10,000. Among the speakers were Dr. Theodore F. Adams, President of the Baptist World Alliance, Dr. Billy Graham, Mr. Howard Butt, Jr., and the Rev. J. Marcellus Kik, Associate Editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

New Library—Princeton Theological Seminary in October dedicated its new Robert E. Speer Memorial Library, built at a cost of $1,700,000 and with a capacity of 400,000 books. It is said to house the largest and finest collection of theological books in the western hemisphere.

Lutheran Hour’s 25th—Lutherans celebrated the beginning of the 25th year of broadcasting the “Lutheran Hour” at a rally in Milwaukee recently, attended by 7,000 persons. The Lutheran Hour, of which the Rev. Oswald C. J. Hoffmann of New York is the speaker, is now heard over more than 1,250 network and independent stations around the world, and in 53 languages.

Leaving Gotham—Dr. John S. Wimbish will leave the pastorate of Calvary Baptist Church in New York at the end of the year, after seven and a half years of service there. A native of Georgia, Dr. Wimbish will return to the Southland to resume pastoral duties and evangelism within the Southern Baptist denomination.

Editorial Task—Emile Gabel, former editor of La Croix, Catholic daily published in Paris, told 400 delegates from 30 countries at the fifth World Congress of the Catholic Press at Vienna that Catholic journalists must not leave their readers in “editorial isolation.… to think out, in a vacuum, problems connected with current events,” but that they should discuss anything that concerns truth and justice and thus help to create informed Christians. “The Catholic press must propagate the teaching of the Gospels,” he said, “but this must not be done abstractly.”

Mission Milestone—The 80th anniversary of the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago was celebrated recently. Known all over the world for its “Unshackled” radio program, the mission is a landmark in Chicago, and the second oldest city mission in America. It is currently engaged in an expansion program to cost $420,000.

Ethics in Public Office—A committee of 12, including 5 religious leaders, has been appointed by Governor Orville Freeman of Minnesota to study ethical and moral standards in state government. The governor said he would ask the committee—first of its kind in the country, according to one political scientist—to come up with recommendations to foster greater integrity in public office and better service to the people’s interests.

Publishing Progress—The nation’s largest denominational publisher, The Methodist Publishing House, founded in 1789, recently opened its new two-million-dollar headquarters building in Nashville. About 1,000 persons are employed in Methodist publishing activities in Nashville, and another 1,000 in the 14 branches of the organization.

Personality Stories—Two new books from the pen of George Burnham, News Editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, are being released this month. Prison is My Parish, the story of Park Tucker, Atlanta Penitentiary chaplain, has been published by Revell, and Billy Graham and the New York Crusade, by Mr. Burnham and Lee Fisher, is scheduled for release October 30 from Zondervan.

Only a Nickel—According to the Southern Baptist Handbook, “Mr. Average American” spends only 5¢ a day for religious and welfare causes. In contrast to this nickel, each day he spends 9¢ for tobacco, 15¢ for alcoholic Beverages, 22¢ for recreation, 58¢ for transportation including foreign travel, 59¢ for taxes, $1.12 for food and $2.30 for other household expenses such as rent, clothing, savings, medical and miscellaneous expense.

Conferences Prepare Far East Pastors

TOKYO, JAPAN—It is now regarded as evident, among Christian leaders of both East and West, that Asia will never be reached for Christ unless native pastors in their own countries do the job of evangelizing.

The time of the white missionary as an important factor is rapidly drawing to a close. No matter how appealing the foreigner’s message may be, and no matter how attractive his personality, it is still something packaged in America. Asians are looking to Asians for leadership.

Fierce tides of nationalism are rising in all the nations of the Far East, coupled with superior initiative of Communism in exploiting situations. The day has passed when an American can command respect simply because he is an American, but hordes of tourists, workers, government officials and church leaders, failing to recognize this, have pushed the public relations barometer to the storm stage.

Fully aware of the approaching new day, based on many years of experience in the Orient, Dr. Bob Pierce and his World Vision organization have been holding pastors’ conferences for the last three years. The big aim is to arouse the evangelistic zeal of pastors in the various countries, in order to leave behind a commanding voice for Christianity when the welcome mat is pulled from beneath the white man.

Outstanding speakers from America have been greatly used of God in the conferences, but each year there has been increased use of “team” speakers from the Far East. And it seems that delegates sit a little straighter in their seats and listen with greater concentration when an Asian is speaking.

An example of this was seen at the conference in Japan, attended by 800 pastors ranging from liberals to fundamentalists. Bishop Enrique C. Sobrepena of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, who serves as chairman of the East Asia Christian Conference, went to the rostrum. He told the ministers the same things, in effect, that they had heard many times from Western speakers, but he was an Asian speaking to Asians. He hit hard, in uncompromising language, on the main points found in Luke 4:18: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”

“This can only be done through Christ,” Bishop Sobrepena said, “and he is calling upon us as ministers in the great task of individual and world redemption. Those of us who would participate must be willing to bear our portion of the Cross like the great men of old—the Apostle Paul, Livingston and Carey. Sacrificial service is needed.”

In commenting on the significance of the pastors’ conferences, the Bishop said, “I think they have tremendous value. I don’t know of another agency in the Far East that could bring all the different factions together for fellowship, inspiration and instruction.”

Nothing should be detracted, however, from contributions made to the conferences by Dr. Pierce and his three principal associates from the United States and India. Their talented efforts were blessed of God, but they share the feeling that such unusual opportunities may not always be present.

Evaluations by three members of the team traveling with Dr. Pierce are as follows:

Dr. Paul S. Rees, pastor of First Covenant Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota:

“A ministry to ministers has an importance that may be described as geometric, since the effect of it runs so far and so rapidly. There is the sheer impressiveness of the number of ministers and church leaders who have attended the meetings. Not less than 3,500 in the first five! For another thing, there is the breadth of compass by which the conferences have been marked. In most cases, the whole gamut of Protestantism has been represented.

“Impressive also is the fact that these have been Asian leaders with whom we have been associated. Can anyone think of an area on this planet more strategically and crucially important for the Christian Church? From Indonesia on the south to Japan on the north, we have seen the breath of God blowing upon souls of his servants. And this has been as true when we were at grips with such preacher’s ‘shop’ as ‘How to Prepare a Sermon,’ as it has when we were seeking to define for ourselves as ministers that distinctive doctrine of ‘Grace’ that makes the Christian message ‘Gospel.’ ”

Dr. Richard C. Halverson, associate director of International Christian Leadership:

“The most significant aspect of the pastors’ conferences was what I would call ‘true ecumenity.’ Together in Christion fellowship were representatives of many divergent groups from the extremely informal, non-liturgical to the extremely formal and liturgical. There was a striking demonstration of unity and love in Christ among the delegates. In several instances, pastors were reconciled to those they had previously opposed and there was public admission of the reconciliation of groups.”

The Rt. Reverend Dr. Alexander Mar Theophilus, Bishop of the Mar Thoma Church, India:

“As Christian workers continue their work in their separate churches and congregations, they are liable to feel lonely and weak. Sometimes they may feel as Elijah felt—‘I alone am left.’ But in these conferences they come together in deep Christian fellowship around the Word, and realize the unity given in Jesus Christ. The deepening of their dedication and strengthening by the Holy Spirit has made them serve their congretions more effectively and be better pastors of their flocks. The need for evangelism in Asian countries, to be carried on by the Church in Asia, has been presented with greater force. Along with evangelism, the need was seen for witnessing to the love of Christ in acts of love in ministering to the needy in society by sacrificial service, and by the prophetic ministry in calling the nations to the will of God.”

Dr. Pierce: “The conferences have exceeded my greatest dream. We have seen men come together under the blood of Christ who had never before enjoyed fellowship. And we have seen them return to their cities, villages and jungle outposts with a new zeal for winning the lost. Entire tribes in mountain areas are being won for Christ by men of God who substitute action for programs. They have a simple belief—that God is who he says he is and will do what he says he will do. For all that is being accomplished, we must give God the credit. He is doing an unusual thing in Asia.”

A capsule review of the conferences, with the largest remaining to be held in Korea, is as follows:

Bandung, Java—597 registered. This was the first conference sponsored by World Vision in Indonesia, and marked the first time that various Protestant segments united for a common goal. In a church that evolved from a European background, there was a graciousness and drawing together by such groups as the Sundanese Church of Western Java, Christian Missionary Alliance Balanese, Assemblies of God and Chinese groups. Stiffness was broken down as the men ate, worshiped and prayed together. Now that the ministers have come to know one another, they will be offered more in the way of practical helps if a conference is held next year.

Cebu, Philippines—625 registered, representing an estimated 15 denominations. Since this was the third year of conferences in the Philippines, the format changed from the purely inspirational to practical counseling in particular problems—stewardship, homiletics and social responsibilities. Some ministers from remote islands journeyed as much as seven days to the conference.

Baguio, Philippines—811 registered, representing 33 denominations. Dr. Pierce felt this was the greatest and most fruitful conference he had ever held. The ministry of the Holy Spirit resulted in Bible-centered unity and love. A number of the leading clergymen in the Philippines came forward at a service in humble rededication of their lives. Twenty-five observers were present from the liturgical Philippine Catholic Church.

Poli, Formosa—600 registered. The largest group, by far, came from the Presbyterian Church, greatly in the majority in Formosa. An estimated 250 mountain pastors, many from aboriginal tribes, who were not Christians 12 years ago, were present. They received a larger view of the total church than they had known in their mountain areas. In the 12 years, more than 400 churches have opened in the mountains of Formosa as people go from tribe to tribe talking about Jesus Christ.

• The above report of religious conditions and perspectives in the Far East was written by George Burnham, News Editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, on tour with Dr. Bob Pierce and other American Christian leaders who have been conducting pastors’ conferences and evangelistic meetings in the Philippines, Formosa, Japan and Korea. After a brief vacation, Mr. Burnham will resume his duties on the news desk of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, with the November 25 issue. In the interim, the news department is being handled by Peter deVisser, Editorial Associate.

Baptist Jubilee Advance

A five-year program of evangelization, starting in 1959, is being planned by the major Baptist conventions of the United States and Canada, to climax in a Third Jubilee Celebration in 1964, commemorating the first national organization of Baptists in America, the General Missionary Convention, formed in Philadelphia in 1814. This cooperative effort, called the Baptist Jubilee Advance, is being sponsored by the American Baptist Convention, the Baptist Federation of Canada, the Baptist General Conference of America, the National Baptist Convention of America, the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., the North American Baptist General Conference, and the Southern Baptist Convention, with cooperation of the Baptist World Alliance. Baptists in 101 countries around the world will participate in the six-year celebration. A two-year program of preparation is now in progress.

Crusade Aftermath

The General Assembly of the Protestant Council of the City of New York has approved an expanded one-million-dollar program of evangelism, establishment of a Protestant chapel at New York’s International Airport, and has announced plans for a Crusade for Church Attendance the first three months of 1958. In addition, representatives of 31 denominations projected establishment of Protestant information centers in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Disciples Plan For Future; Change Name

(This special report was prepared forCHRISTIANITY TODAYby Dr. James DeForest Murch, prominent author and editor, ordained minister of the Disciples of Christ and a member of the Convention’s restudy commission and a director of the Disciples Historical Society.)

Christian unity—the traditional concern of the Disciples of Christ—was at the forefront of the 1957 Convention of that communion in Cleveland, Ohio, October 11–16. The Convention moved toward merger with the United Church of Christ (Congregational and Evangelical and Reformed) consummated in the same Cleveland Public Auditorium last June. It further strengthened ties with the ecumenical effort of the National Council and World Council of Churches.

This does not mean, however, that the 2,000,000 Disciples of Christ listed in the Convention’s Year Book and reported in the religious statistics of the USA are moving this same direction. The International Convention is prone to think of itself as “the mainstream” of the religious movement begun by Barton W. Stone, Thomas and Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott and Benjamin Franklin early in the nineteenth century, but it is in fact only one of three groups tracing spiritual ancestry to that source. The Church of Christ (opposed to the use of instrumental music in worship) now numbers better than 1,000,000. The so-called “independent churches,” strictly biblical and evangelical in faith, number over 1,000,000. This leaves the Convention proper with a constituency of less than 1,000,000. The 2,000,000 “right wing” of the movement has no relationship with the National Council or World Council of Churches and is completely opposed to any union with the United Church of Christ.

The International Convention, however, is an organization of tremendous influence, headed by men capable in ecclesiastical diplomacy though mostly liberal in theology. The ICDC includes in its organizational framework educational, missionary, benevolent and other agencies significant in American Protestantism. Many ecumenical leaders in the NCC and the WCC were at one time prominent in Disciple leadership and “earned their spurs” in the efficiently-operated machinery of the Convention or its agencies.

The Cleveland Convention gave much time to reports and future plans of these agencies. Its announced theme was “His Love—We Share,” dealing with the 1957–58 agency emphases upon missionary education and benevolence.

The United Christian Missionary Society, largest of the agencies, in a 17,000-word report told of the work of 254 missionaries and 2,093 national leaders in 11 mission fields. Its budget last year was around $5,000,000 and it is building a capital fund of $3,000,000.

Especially through the women’s work in local churches, the UCMS exerts great influence in minister placement and in interchurch and agency relationships. Because of this fact, and its “open membership” and ecumenical policies, it has long been the chief “bone of contention” alienating “independent churches” from International Convention support. These churches now have a missionary program of their own, giving $2,000,000 annually to support over 400 missionaries in over 20 foreign fields.

International Convention agencies which tend to unify the churches are the National Benevolent Association, The Pension Fund and the Board of Church Extension. NBA, supporting 10 homes for the aged and 7 homes for children, reported assets of some $10,000,000 with revenues for the year of $3,000,000. Pension Funds for ministers reported assets of $23,354,136. Church Extension board has, since its beginnings, loaned some $35,000,000 to assist churches in building projects. These boards are wisely administered without discrimination.

The Board of Higher Education serves 32 colleges, universities and seminaries (enrollment, 25,000 students), including such well-known institutions as Texas Christian, Drake, Butler, and Phillips University. In this area the constant battle between conversatives and liberals has given rise to more than 20 strictly evangelical Bible schools and colleges—institutions not recognized by the Board—but training more than half of the young men studying for the ministry among Christian churches.

The Disciples of Christ Historical Society, serving all wings of the movement, reported progress in the erection of its $1,000,000 Thomas W. Phillips Memorial library and museum in Nashville.

Fringe agencies, representing varied interests, held meetings at Cleveland. On the “right” the National Evangelistic Association, sounded a strong evangelical note. Dean E. G. Homrighausen of Princeton gave three challenging addresses. On the “left” the controversial Disciples Peace Fellowship and the Campbell Institute promoted extremely liberal social and theological views. While meeting the needs of minority groups, such gatherings had little effect on the Convention.

Resolutions processed by the Committee on Recommendations had to do with social concerns such as farm incomes, minimum wages, economic assistance programs, foreign trade, social welfare, United Nations, disarmament, immigration and refugees, race relations and capital punishment. Pronouncements followed the usual pattern set by the National Council, but all were prefaced by a modifying statement to the effect that “human pronouncements must not be confused with the will of God.” Resolutions on Christian unity committed the Convention to complete cooperation with the WCC and NCC in its ecumenical objectives and programs.

Most significant was the approval of a projected $25,000,000 fund for establishing 1,500 new churches in the next few years. Inter-agency rivalry over administration of this project is being ironed out, and “independents” and “schismatics” will be excluded.

There is a marked tendency toward centralization of authority in the Convention with potentially larger control over the agencies and the churches. At Cleveland the name of the Convention was changed from the International Convention of Disciples of Christ (Christian Churches) to the International Convention of Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ). Most of the local congregations bear the name Christian Church, not Disciples of Christ, and the action will eliminate much confusion. While the move was said to have no significance as to ecclesiastical structure or function, nevertheless many advocates of strictly congregational polity see a shift from a Convention of individual Disciples with agency service features to an eventual delegate convention officially representative of the churches and with growing powers over churches and agencies.

Most of the 8,000 registrants at Cleveland will prefer to remember the great assembly by the “Ecumenical Communion Service” on the Lord’s Day. The Convention had invited all Protestants in Cleveland to join them in the observance of the Lord’s Supper. A throng variously estimated at 10,000 or 15,000 partook of the bread and the wine together. Four hundred deacons from Greater Cleveland Christian churches served the emblems of the Lord’s death and suffering in just eight minutes. It was an impressive and soul-lifting service.

Traditionally the mass Communion Service has been the high point of national gatherings of the Disciples for 100 years. As a people they have always maintained the Lord’s Supper as the center of their worship and observe it every Lord’s Day. Their open communion practice is based on the belief that the observance is an “ordinance of Christ” and is basically an experience of the individual Christian with his Lord.

The next Convention will be held in Saint Louis, Mo. Beginning in 1960 the gathering will be held biennially.

Dr. Granville T. Walker, minister of University Christian Church, Ft. Worth, Tex., was chosen president for 1958, succeeding Mr. John Rogers, a layman and outstanding business and civic leader of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Dr. Gaines M. Cook continues as Executive Secretary of the Convention.

Worth Quoting

“There is … something we can learn from Billy Graham. It is the profound importance of good public relations, competent publicity and efficient organization in conducting a religious campaign.… Billy Graham’s crusade was magnificently organized.… Crude commercialism? I don’t think so. The Graham office has conducted the campaign in dignified fashion. No blatant sensationalism. Public relations firms are tempted to sell religion as you might sell soap or toothpaste, but the Graham crusade was conducted in good taste.… It has often been said that if Saint Paul were living today, he would be a journalist. I rather think he would be a modern evangelist whose religious crusades would dwarf those of Billy Graham. He would employ the best modern techniques of publicity and promotion: direct mail, TV spots, doorbell ringing, etc. ‘Every scribe instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a householder who brings forth from his stockroom things new and old’ (Matt. 13:52).”—The Rev. John B. Sheerin, C.S.P., editor of the Catholic World, in “What Can Be Learned From Billy Graham?”

Theology

Bible Book of the Month: Exodus

David W. Kerr

No doubt many persons today who have never read the book of Exodus are familiar with the contents of its earlier chapters. Cecil B. DeMille is responsible for acquainting the public with one of the most important phases of biblical history through his production The Ten Commandments. Exodus, as its name indicates, is the story of the “going out” of the people of Israel from Egypt. As such, it is a book of redemption telling how God redeemed the Israelites from bondage to be a people for his own possession.

Analysis of Exodus cannot be based upon the present chapter divisions. After a brief introduction in the first six verses, the book may be divided into seven main sections as follows:

1. The sufferings of Israel in Egypt, 1:7 to 7:7.

2. The ten plagues upon Egypt, 7:8 to 13:16.

3. Deliverance by the power of God, 13:17 to 18:27.

4. The covenant at Mount Sinai, 19:1 to 24:18.

5. Directions for the tabernacle, chaps. 25 to 31.

6. The broken covenant renewed, 32:1 to 35:3.

7. Erection and dedication of the tabernacle, 35:4 to 40:38.

Some Bible students like to find in each book of the Bible a “key” verse which supposedly expresses the theme of the book. One should not suppose that biblical writers presented their themes in single verses, leaving their readers to discover in each case what the verse might be. In the case of Exodus, however, there is a rather general survey of the content and meaning of the book in Ex. 19:4–6:

“Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

Critical Storm Center

Exodus has been a storm center of discussion among critics for various reasons. There is a very prominent element of the miraculous and of what might be called special providence. Obviously the writer regarded many of the events he recorded as being the result of supernatural causes rather than purely natural ones. There were happenings which were above and perhaps even contrary to what may be called the course of nature. A number of modern writings on the subject of biblical history attempt to explain such matters as the crossing of the Red Sea, the bringing of water from the rock, the manna, and even the burning bush in terms of natural phenomena. Unfortunately the result is often to explain them away. A recent example of this is found in the Rand McNally Bible Atlas, by Emil G. Kraeling, a volume which in many other respects is attractive and useful.

In three places in Exodus (cf. 17:14, 24:4, 34:27) Moses is said to have made written records. One of these was a record of a conflict with the Amalekites. The others were records of the laws of the divine covenant. This is the first mention in the Bible of the writing of any portion of the Bible itself. Older literary criticism went so far as to deny that any part of the Pentateuch could be Mosaic. Today the situation is different. Dr. Bernhard W. Anderson has stated that “on the basis of recent studies of the form and content of laws in the Pentateuch, we can affirm with a high degree of probability that the Jewish tradition which traces the law back to Moses has a solid basis in historical fact” (Understanding the Old Testament, 1957, p. 55). To the writer of this article it seems just as unreasonable to suppose that Moses confined his writing to the few fragments of law which some scholars are willing to assign to him as it is to suppose that the Pentateuch as we have it came entirely from him. It is also reasonable to assume that the intimate knowledge of Egyptian customs and conditions displayed in Genesis and Exodus came from one who was “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.”

The attitude of literary criticism of Exodus has undergone another important change in the last two generations. Scholars who followed the leadership of Wellhausen maintained that the covenant between Israel and Jehovah (or Yahweh) originated only in the 7th century B. C. at the time of King Josiah. This view was upheld in this country as recently as 1941 and again in 1948 by Robt. Pfeiffer in his Introduction to the Old Testament. Archeological studies, however, have convinced others that the covenant relation marked the actual transition from tribalism to national consciousness under the leadership of Moses. The heart of the covenant, according to G. E. Mendenhall (Biblical Archeologist, vol. XVII, 2, May, 1954) was the Decalogue. It is gratifying that extra-Biblical evidence has been found to confirm the Biblical narrative.

Fruitful Preaching Source

Exodus has always been a fruitful source of preaching material. Several of the prophets draw upon the story of redemption to press home their own demands for reform and for a return to the covenant engagement. The Exodus provides a vital background for much of New Testament teaching. Augustine wrote one of the earlier Christian commentaries on the book. It would be difficult to count the books that have been written in various languages on the Ten Commandments alone, to say nothing of the many thousands of unpublished sermons which have been preached on them.

A noticeable feature of Exodus is its richness of revelation of the divine character. The purpose of God’s redeeming Israel is that they may know that he is Jehovah, the Lord. He is the God of the whole world, superior to the supposed gods of Egypt, who are discountenanced by the various plagues. God’s faithfulness to his covenant promises to the patriarchs and therefore, by implication, to all his covenants, is shown by his activity for his people. He is the God of justice, as indicated by his law. He is the God of compassion, the Father of all mercies, forgiving the iniquity of his penitent folk. He is the God who tabernacles with his people. The covenant name Jehovah (or Yahweh) is in itself a revelation. Whatever may be the theory of the scholar as to when this name first came into use, there is very general agreement that it is intended to convey to Israel a new understanding of their God. The student will find both the older and the more recent literature on this divine name a revealing study.

The Student’S Tools

For Exodus, as for Genesis, there are commentaries whose usefulness is retricted by their devotion to documentary hypotheses. Indeed, some of the most helpful literature is to be found not in commentaries but in other types of books. In the article on Genesis in Christianity Today (Mar. 4, 1957) several of these in the fields of archeology and Bible history were suggested. In the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia will be found discussions of some of the pertinent problems of the Exodus, such as the date and the numbers of the Israelites. Some of this material, however, is outdated by more recent findings in archeology. An older work which is enlightening in its content and devotional in style is Alfred Edersheim’s The Exodus and the Wanderings in the Wilderness.

Among the commentaries there will not be found as many separate works on Exodus as for some other Old Testament writings. Two of the older and more conservative works which commend themselves to the writer’s opinion are the work on Exodus in the Keil and Delitzsch series and that by F. C. Cook in The Speaker’s Bible Commentary. The outstanding modern work is, of course, the Interpreter’s Bible, in which the exegesis is done by J. C. Rylaarsdam and the exposition by J. E. Park. The work contains many conclusions with which the writer of this article cannot agree and it tends to fragmentize Exodus in what seems an unnecessary fashion. Nevertheless, there are many excellent insights into the meaning of the text and a wholesome recognition of the essential theological ideas which the reader should grasp.

For a good presentation of the various names of God found in the Old Testament, most of which are present in Exodus, the reader is advised to consult the recent volume by Herman Bavinck, The Doctrine of God, and the pertinent sections of Geerhardus Vos’ Biblical Theology.

The tabernacle and its services are regarded by the New Testament as foreshadowing the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. This has given rise to the study of typology through most of the period of the Christian church. Vos’ work mentioned above avoids most of the unwholesome extremes to which some writers have gone. A much more extensive study of the symbolism of the tabernacle is that of Patrick Fairbairn in his Typology of the Scriptures.

Exodus stands in close relation to the rest of the Bible. It is the story of the fulfilment of covenant promises made in Genesis. It is the record of deliverance which is celebrated in the Psalms, the historical books and the prophets. The temples of Solomon, of Ezra and of Herod all took their general design from that of the tabernacle described in Exodus. When John states “the Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us,” he reflects the language of Exodus, where God dwelt in the midst of his people. The assertion of Paul, “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us,” takes its meaning from the Passover feast as described in Exodus 12. The apostle Peter in 1 Peter 2:9 uses the precise words of Exodus 19:6 to describe the Christian church as the Israel of God. A great deal of the Epistle to the Hebrews is taken up with showing that the “ordinances of divine service” and the “earthly sanctuary” of the Old Testament were intended to foreshadow the saving work of Jesus Christ. He who is well acquainted with the Book of Exodus will have a deeper insight into the grace of God which brings salvation.

DAVID W. KERR

Books

Book Briefs: October 28, 1957

F. F. Bruce

Current Viewpoints

Contemporary Evangelical Thought, by Carl F. H. Henry, Ed., et al., Channel Press, New York. $5.00.

In this volume ten American scholars review the position of evangelical thought today in ten fields of study—the Old Testament, the New Testament, theology, ethics, apologetics, education, philosophy of history, philosophy of religion, science and religion, and evangelism and preaching. The editor points out in his preface that the writers have set two aims before them—to sketch the evangelical contribution to various fields of study, and also “to clarify present conservative thought on some of the crucial centers of Christian concern.”

It follows that the special interests and convictions of the writers find expression in their surveys; but this really adds to the value of their symposium. Thus Edward J. Young, who writes on the Old Testament, in commenting on the works of the Dutch scholar G. Ch. Aalders, confesses himself as sometimes “troubled by Aalders’ willingness to depart from traditional positions, particularly where such departure does not appear to be necessary.” No doubt, if this chapter had been written by Aalders or one of his pupils, a rather different emphasis might have appeared at this point. Again, those contributors who mention the redoubtable figure of Cornelius Van Til make it plain where they stand in relation to his challenging work; this is particularly true in the chapter entitled “Apologetics,” by Gordon H. Clark, in which we think we can detect the lingering echoes of a 13-year-old dispute. But this personal note is welcome; the writers are themselves involved in the issues with which they deal.

The editor himself writes the chapter on “Science and Religion”; one of the interesting features of this contribution is its shrewd evaluation of Bernard Ramm’s The Christian View of Science and Scripture—a volume which has created quite a stir throughout the English-speaking world.

To the reviewer, the chapters on the Old and New Testaments are of most immediate interest. Dr. Young pays generous tribute to the help which evangelical Old Testament students have received from the teaching of Cyrus H. Gordon and other Jewish scholars. On the other hand, he cannot agree that the modern revival of “biblical theology” among Christian scholars of the liberal wing represents a return to orthodoxy such as evangelicals could wholeheartedly welcome. This is an issue which deserves fuller discussion than the present review permits. Some readers may be surprised to find that the significance of the Qumran texts is not discussed under the Old Testament heading, but in Everett F. Harrison’s chapter on the New Testament. But this is as it should be, and Dr. Harrison’s discussion, though necessarily brief, is sound.

The writers pay attention to work that is being done in other English-speaking lands, and in the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavia. The reviewer appreciates the tribute paid to the publications of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship, and as a Scot he is delighted to find John Macleod’s Scottish Theology worthily appraised.

The whole volume presents ample evidence of the vitality of evangelical scholarship today.

A few slips have been noted, especially in the initials of authors’ names. John Urquhart’s surname is regularly misspelt “Urquhardt”; and Dr. Graham Scroggie is (unfortunately) twenty years older than he is made out to be on p. 84.

F. F. BRUCE

Macartney Memoir

Salute Thy Soul, by Clarence E. Macartney, Abingdon, 1957. $2.00.

Asking a small-town preacher to review a book by Clarence E. Macartney is akin to asking the football coach of a small Junior High School what he thinks of Michigan State’s offensive pattern. What can he say? Here is the prince of American Presbyterian preachers whose pulpit abilities were tested and blessed in three significant pulpits, in the classroom and on the lecture podium.

Dr. Oswald T. Allis, Macartney’s seminary classmate and friend of many years, has acceded to a deathbed request to see this volume through the press. So that voice which many of us heard in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and which was silenced by death in 1957, continues to speak the eternal gospel of Jesus Christ.

“Salute Thy Soul,” the title of the first sermon as well as of the book, is, as the publishers claim, “Macartney at his best.” Starting from his usual biblical text, he probes the soul in definition, life experience and salvation. The stirring drama, rich illustration, warm evangelism are all here. Other striking sermons in this collection include, “The Soul’s Arabia,” “When Jacob Saw the Wagons” and “The Solitude of Sin.”

I would prefer to describe this volume as “A Collection of Thirteen Sermons on Biblical Texts” rather than try to force all the sermons into the subject of the first. It is difficult to see how the sermons on “What About Angels” and “The Mystery of Christ” fit into the suggested theme except in the broadest possible sense.

Dr. Macartney took to himself the last word he gave his brother Robertson, who was leaving his bedside to preach in a nearby church: “Put all the Bible you can into it.”

FRANK A. LAWRENCE

Botanical Answers

All the Plants of the Bible, by Winifred Walker, Harper. 1957. $4.95.

Winifred Walker, internationally known botanical artist, provides plant lovers with accurate paintings of 114 Bible plants (in full-page black-and-white reproduction) and a wealth of informative comment on the flowers, fruits, trees, shrubs, grains, herbs and vegetables mentioned in Scripture.

CARL F. H. HENRY

Physicians And Faith

Faith and Medicine, by Andre Schlemmer, Tyndale, London. 2s, 6d.

The Limits of Medical Responsibility, by Arnold S. Aldis, Tyndale, London. 6d.

An English surgeon and a French physician, both of them earnest Christians, have produced booklets which, while addressed primarily to members of their own profession, are not without interest and value for others. Mr. Aldis shows how introduction of the National Health Service in Great Britain, the unprecedented advances in the whole field of medicine in recent years, and the partial undermining of Christian faith and Christian ethics combine to necessitate a re-examination of medical responsibilities. For instance, the doctor’s responsibility to the state, which provides his remuneration, ought not to be in conflict with his primary responsibility to the individual patient. Christian doctors must maintain the highest standards, and keep abreast of medical progress and discovery, despite demands that record-keeping and form-filling make upon their time.

Dr. Schlemmer’s work covers more ground, giving clear scriptural teaching on “The Christian Life and the Body,” “Faith and the Care of the Body,” “Faith and Medical Science,” “Reverence for Life and Medical Vocation,” with a particularly useful final chapter on “Instinct, Reason, and Intuition.” Here and there one notes a remarkable identity of emphasis between the two booklets. “Knowledge alone is not enough,” says Mr. Aldis. “What we need is wisdom to use knowledge to the right ends. And wisdom depends not on cleverness, ingenuity, or technology; it depends on goodness and righteousness. This in its turn depends upon godliness and cannot long be divorced from it” (page 16). “It is necessary,” says Dr. Schlemmer, “for medical science to search, in addition to scientific knowledge, for wisdom, and to cultivate it” (page 57). And, like Mr. Aldis, he is convinced that this wisdom “must be derived from a source which is divinely given (i.e. God’s revelation) which is the guide and keeper of our reason as it pursues its search for wisdom.”

FRANK HOUGHTON

Sex And Marriage

The Intimate Life, by Norval Geldenhuys, Eerdmans. 96 pp., $1.50.

Described as “a practical, up-to-date handbook for engaged and newly married couples,” this little volume begins with a discussion of the Christian view of sex as a God-given good. It continues, to cover the importance of choosing the right life-partner, with special emphasis upon spiritual considerations. Then, following a frank chapter on the physical aspects of reproduction and coitus, the author treats of the mental and emotional attitudes that each partner to a marriage should develop towards the other in their life together.

Most of the remainder is devoted to birth-control from the standpoint of the fertile and sterile periods in a woman’s menstrual cycle. Elaborate charts and graphs accompany the clear presentation of this “natural” method of spacing children.

It is a good little book. Issued in a paperback edition, it would better suit ministers who are looking for something to give away.

G. AIKEN TAYLOR

Whitefield Distorted

George Whitefield, Wayfaring Witness, by Stuart C. Henry, Abingdon. $3.75.

It is regrettable that the first new book on Whitefield to appear in 30 years should leave the reader unable to decide whether the famous evangelist was a man of God or a cheap mountebank. Stating that “A strong case can be made for Whitefield as a devil or a saint” (p. 175), the author seems to feel that he fits somewhere between the two, but just where he does not know. The result is a hazy portrait, drawn in “warped perspective and untrue colour,” the very fault for which he criticizes Whitefield’s previous biographers (p. 175).

This failure to present a clear and true picture does not arise from a lack of source material. On the contrary, Dr. Henry, who is a professor at Southern Methodist University, has done an admirable job of preliminary research; he provides a bibliography of 186 entries and in the course of his text refers to his sources no less than 853 times. The difficulty lies rather in the deficient use of the material. The work of the true historian—the forming of an opinion only on the basis of amassing and analyzing all available evidence on any given phase of the subject—does not characterize this book, but almost every page produces some conclusion hurriedly drawn from fractional and often one-sided evidence; conflicting testimony is frequently ignored, and source material is referred to in a surface, prooftext fashion.

Scores of examples of this faulty practice might be cited. The author makes a case against Whitefield for his part in the “unconverted clergy” controversy in New England (p. 65), yet he completely ignores the extenuating circumstances which would force a revision of his judgment. The same is true of his charges concerning the extremes of emotion which characterized some phases of the revival (p. 64), and of his treatment of Whitefield’s attitude toward slavery. A full knowledge of the doctrinal controversy between Whitefield and Wesley is the sine qua non of understanding the man and his life, yet this book gives it but three fragmentary mentions (pp. 59, 79, 102). By the same process of snap judgment he accuses Whitefield of “an unbecoming pride of ignorance,” and “an arrogant hostility to learning” (p. 96); he stigmatizes him as “a theological cuttlefish” (p. 178), “an odd combination of humility and pride,” and one whose “success intoxicated him till his dying day” (p. 16). Statement after statement might thus be produced, containing the half truth and the untruth.

The book is most notable for what it leaves out. The wretched canards concocted by Unitarians, formalists, deists and atheists in their hatred of the man of God are introduced here, while the many testimonies to his goodness and greatness which came from a host of reliable witnesses among his contemporaries are almost all omitted. More than half of the book is given over to “The Message and How It Was Received,” yet amazing as it seems, that matchless effect of Whitefield’s preaching—the glorious conversion of thousands, and the resultant revival that transformed two nations—has no part in it. As a background to Whitefield’s life it must ever be borne in mind that he was in ill health and deeply in debt throughout almost all of his ministry, yet that is omitted too. There were many evidences of his regard for learning, his deep humility and his gracious love, but the reader looks in vain for them here. The passion to win souls and the fervor and warmth that were the main characteristics of his life, are nowhere found in this cold book. The author reveals no personal sympathy for Whitefield’s evangelicalism, as he reviews his theological position in a rather scoffing fashion.

In this reviewer’s opinion the work is but a sad caricature, which cannot fail to confuse the reader and bring reproach upon the memory of a holy, humble and mighty man of God.

ARNOLD A. DALLIMORE

Filing, Indexing Aid

Practical Study Methods for Student and Pastor, by Donald F. Rossin and Palmer Ruschke, D. F. Rossin Co., Minneapolis, 1956. $5.00.

Under a title that might mislead, here is a key to filing and indexing that makes an often complicated task appear simple. Thirty years’ experience, first in the pastorate and then in the production of filing aids, have given Donald F. Rossin a competence in this field that few could dispute. And the co-author, Palmer Ruschke, as a seminary student successfully adapted and promoted the materials and methods suggested in this book among seminary students and pastors. What we have here is not so much “study” methods as “filing and indexing” methods.

The author contends, and rightly so, that the pressures placed upon the minister today require him to use some sort of system of filing and indexing the materials he must use. It is just physically and mentally impossible to retain it all in one’s mind, and unless it is systematically filed, it is as good as lost. What minister would not warm to the idea of having more time for Bible study, auxiliary reading, family life, prayer and meditation, rest and recreation, service to his denomination and community? The authors make out a pretty convincing case for giving the minister this extra time if he will adopt the system detailed in this book.

First, they suggest a specially prepared loose-leaf pocket memo book that can be carried on one’s person at all times. Here can be kept a record of all addresses, appointments, sermon illustrations that occur to the pastor during the day, expense accounts, prospect lists, cards, etc. Then follows a chapter on the classification of materials read by the minister, using the Dewey decimal system. This is applied first to the storing of pamphlets, tracts, magazine articles, notes, etc., in a filing cabinet. The placement of tabs, use of colors and labeling are all explained. Then the Dewey system is applied to indexing what is read from one’s own library or the public sources. Thus the fruit of what one reads is not lost as memory fades.

The chapter on sermon mechanics is excellent and points the way both to systematic sermon preparation and preservation. Mr. Rossin has prepared a special series of cards and envelopes for use by ministers and explains how to use them. One of the unique features of this book is that the original owner of each copy has the privilege of writing to Minneapolis to receive free samples of the materials suggested. Then he can see for himself whether he and the system could work happily together.

As is to be expected, some suggestions will not meet every minister’s needs. For example, to have “five or ten ghost readers” reading periodicals and submitting reports on their reading gave the reviewer nightmares (p. 135). And he wonders, too, why 50 pages of a 175-page book had to be taken up with a large-print, double-spaced list of the Dewey decimal system classification numbers of every subject related to religion. This could have been easily compressed into one-third the space.

What about the poor harassed preacher who says he doesn’t even have time to get such a system started? This book has the answer. “Make it your hobby for a while.” Not a bad idea, if you don’t mind a hobby in your study.

J. C. HOLBROOK

Worthy Studies

The General Epistle of James, by R. V. G. Tasker, 7s.6d. and The Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians, by Leon Morris, 7s.6d., Tyndale Press, London, 1956. Published in U.S.A. by Eerdmans, Grand Rapids. $2.00.

These two volumes are the first numbers to appear of a series of Tyndale New Testament commentaries. Based on the Authorized Version, they are primarily intended for the general Christian reader. They are, however, by no means facile or superficial, but seek to give within their modest compass a thorough exegesis of the books and proper attention to the principal questions of introduction, criticism and text as they arise. They are convenient in size, fitting the pocket (unless its capacity is unusually limited), well bound and attractively printed.

Professor Tasker of the University of London, who is general editor of the series, inaugurates it with a commentary which it is almost an impertinence to praise. He quotes a sermon where this letter was referred to as “a collection of sermon-notes,” and throughout Prof. Tasker’s book one hears the earnest, compelling tones of the preacher whose words are always springing direct from the sacred text. One is irresistibly reminded of John Calvin, who is, indeed, not infrequently quoted. Fair consideration is given to points where the interpretation is disputed and variant readings are treated with the judiciousness that one expects from an eminent textual critic. Prof. Tasker wears his learning lightly and his study is a treasure of its kind.

There are all too few commentaries on the Thessalonian epistles which are both good and moderate in size: so the contribution of Dr. Morris (who is Vice-Principal of Ridley College, Melbourne) is much needed. His commentary is a thoroughly competent, workmanlike affair. In his introduction he sets out the principal views of the origin and date of the epistles and argues convincingly for their authenticity and present order. Even if some detect some lack of economy in words and a certain informality of style in the commentary itself, none can deny (far more important) it is marked by fairness, insight and evangelical warmth.

The Tyndale New Testament commentaries have started auspiciously and one must look forward to future volumes.

A. F. WALLS

• CORRECTION—The review of Theodore O. Wedel’s book, The Pulpit Rediscovers Theology (September 30 issue), incorrectly stated that this book was issued by Westminster Press. It should have credited Seabury Press, Greenwich, Conn., as the publisher.—ED.

Theology

Review of Current Religious Thought: October 28, 1957

G. C. Berkouwer

Two years ago there appeared a book that deserves more attention than it has hitherto received. This is the work of Antanas Maceina issued under the title, Das Geheimnis der Bosheit (The Secret of Evil). In this volume Maceina deals with the antichrist with reference to the Russian writer Solowjew’s tales attempting to account for evil in the world. Because he rejected an eternal dualism between good and evil, he was confronted with the question of the problem of evil in the world, and attempted therefore to supply an answer in his book on the antichrist.

The secret of evil is an expression that goes back to 2 Thessalonians 2, where Paul, in connection with the man of sin, speaks of the hiddenness of iniquity. The expression is used frequently to indicate the strange, mysterious character of evil. Maceina wishes to follow the trail of evil in history. He is gripped especially by the thought that the realm of the antichrist is the world of caricature. This realm wears the mask of the Church—and as one proceeds to follow this through, one goes from one thing to another. In this fashion the antichrist is described as the man of ethics, of morality, of decency and well doing, in short, as philanthropist. Naturally there lies in all of this an element of truth: there is a masquerade. But one must be careful of overstatement, as for instance when Maceina identifies the antichrist as the imitation of the new Jerusalem. According to the biblical message, the example of philanthropy does not fit very well, at least not in the case of believers (who of course also are people). But we acknowledge that there always lies in the antichrist something of the substitute, the disguise, of imitation, of caricature, even in the range of the wonders of the antichrist.

Now there is in this book one element that deserves our special attention. When Maceina speaks of the great falling away, he regards this falling away also as a purifying factor in the life of the Church of Jesus Christ, because in its smaller numbers it continues to strive throughout this trial. And in this connection he warns us against the human tendency to attach too much importance to the matter of numbers, to quantity, for the very reason that it is exactly the power of numbers that is the trademark of the realm of the antichrist. The Kingdom of God pays no attention to quantity, but to quality, and one must therefore protect himself from the temptation of numbers. And he expresses himself in such fashion that he makes clear that quantity is the false disguise of value.

He can, therefore, quite naturally point to all kinds of scriptural passages wherein there is warning against the overevaluation of numbers. These warnings are indeed many, and we think back on the census of David, and the band of Gideon in which there were “too many,” and it is exactly in comparison with these that we read in the Gospels about the “legion” of the power of darkness! Therefore Maceina points us to the dangerous cult or fad of numbers. But it is necessary to point out with emphasis that the Gospel also speaks of the value of “the many”. One can say that the preaching of the Gospel to all people is thus directed to the many. It certainly is not in vain that in the Revelation of John mention is made of the great throng which no one can number and which is gathered from all people and nations and tongues. That is an outlook that rests in the broadness and universality of the Gospel for the entire world. The Gospel seeks out the uttermost parts of the earth and that is exactly the perspective of Pentecost. Also in the many resides the blessing of the Gospel. And when one too quickly and too conveniently brings the great falling away in connection with the purification of the Church, which now in its small numbers can still press through in its striving over against massive forces, then one is certainly embarked upon a romantic path.

True, the Gospel gives us no opportunity to seek after numbers, but it does point us toward the riches of numbers for the Lord. We must not sing hymns of praise for individuals. That can only fall short of the doing justice to the great call of the Church to seek, with the harnessing of all possible power, the many in an uprooted world. Do we not read that Christ has given his life for many? Surely the power of God can in the Church’s times of need bring individuals (the persecuted) under God’s special protection, and one must never fear when numbers grow smaller, and we should never come under the suggestive spell of “legion.” Great numbers are no guarantee of value or truth. However, we must not, in juxtaposition to legion, glorify the few, as if there is an essential value in the few that we should desire small numbers. Much more should we look forward to the time when they shall come from all sides, as in the prophecy of Zechariah, where we read, “Thus saith the Lord of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is the Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.”

The throng which no one can number.… In the middle of this turmoiled world in which we live, we should not become confused about the value of numbers and the many. We cannot let the matter of the total be decisive, and where two or three are gathered in the name of the Lord, there he will be in the midst of them. But our prayer goes forth also to the many. For even though the power of darkness may have estranged the many and used the total to make an impression, we may never forget that the total remains God’s property. The many have their place in the apocalyptic vision. And upon the many focuses our calling, our expectation and our fervent prayers.

This review of live spiritual and moral issues debated in the secular and religious press of the day is prepared successively for CHRISTIANITY TODAY by four evangelical scholars: Professor W. Stanford Reid of Canada, Professor G. C. Berkouwer of the Netherlands, Professor John H. Gerstner of the United States and Dr. Philip E. Hughes of England.

Cover Story

I Believe: The Deity of Christ

Andrew W. Blackwood

For sixty years I have believed in the Deity of Christ. I was reared in an extremely conservative Covenanter-seceder home, where mother read her growing boys long sermons by Ralph Erskine, John Owen and other men of might. After college, with no liberal contacts, I went to Harvard. There I saw Unitarianism at its best, in Francis G. Peabody and other followers of William E. Channing (d. 1842). Out of meager resources I bought the Works of Channing. I wondered at his well-known sermon, “The Character of Christ,” but I did not accept his theory of our Lord’s person.

At Princeton Seminary the next year I learned the other side. By special permission I took Benjamin B. Warfield’s elective course on the Deity of Christ, and Geerhardus Vos, on the Epistle to the Hebrews. I look on them as intellectually the equals of my ablest professors of English at Harvard, and as two of the few real scholars whom I have come to know intimately. To them, and to Francis L. Patton, I owe much of my basic thinking about the Deity of Christ.

At Xenia Seminary I sat under a saint, William G. Moorehead. Later I came to know Theron H. Rice of Union Seminary, Richmond. From these two I learned that a seminary professor can do untold good without being a scholar. With them I approached the Deity of Christ through “the theology of the heart.” Not every scholar can be a saint, such as Charles Hodge, but I wish that every seminary had at least one professor who would show by radiance of life the practical meaning of Christ’s Deity.

As a parish minister I held to the “faith of my fathers,” but not without wavering about the resurrection of the body. In those days not every believer in Christ’s Deity held to certain other doctrines. One of the ablest pulpit masters in America, Charles E. Jefferson, put out a volume of doctrinal sermons, Things Fundamental (1903). In two able discourses he pleaded for belief in “The Deity of Jesus.” In two other chapters he presented “the new conception of the Scriptures.” In a generation when liberal ideas seemed likely to prevail, I gradually came out on the sunny side of faith in all the truths that accord with acceptance of Christ’s Deity.

A Test Of Beliefs

In 1929 my beliefs met a searching test. At the Grove City Bible Conference I spoke daily with two brilliant New Testament scholars, Archibald T. Robertson and J. Gresham Machen, each of whom held firmly to the Deity of Christ, and treated me kindly as a believer. One day while there I received a visit from two trustees of Princeton Seminary. The President, Dr. William McEwan, acted as spokesman. The other is still living, and no doubt can verify my recollections of the interview. To my amazement and delight it went much as follows:

“The Board of Trustees wishes you to become the professor of homiletics. Before you say anything, let me state the one condition. The board wishes your assurance that you adhere to the historic position of the seminary, doctrinally.” I answered that I did so adhere. I also explained that I thought the seminary ought to change its ways, practically, so as to train graduates for service as pastors and missionaries. On this basis I was elected, and from this position I have never consciously swerved. I refer especially to acceptance of Christ’s Deity.

At Princeton I met a good deal of suspicion on the part of nearby observers. So did my friends, Samuel M. Zwemer and John E. Kuizenga, who came about the same time, and on the same terms, doctrinally. Gradually those suspicions faded away, except for an occasional reminder that I was neither inspired nor infallible. Looking back, I wish that all of us who held to the Deity of Christ could have loved and trusted each other.

Let me now turn directly to my subject. Since “no man can bear witness to Christ and himself at the same time” (James Denney), I shall resort to plural pronouns. We evangelicals hold to the Deity of Christ for three reasons. First, and most important, we accept the teachings of Holy Scripture. Our Presbyterian Confession of Faith (VIII.2) witnesses to Christ as “the Son of God, the Second Person in the Trinity being very and eternal God, of one substance, and equal with the Father.” Despite the phraseology, abstract and mysterious, we believe this to be the testimony of Holy Scripture, in every part that deals with the person of our Lord. We also believe in his humanity.

Denying The Lord

Not every minister in high place now accepts this teaching. At Yale in 1955 a distinguished bishop of a major evangelical denomination delivered the Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching. In the midst of much sound material about God’s Good News came a paragraph that seems to have escaped public attention. The brilliant lecturer voiced dissent from a recent statement by the World Council about “Jesus as God.” That statement may have originated on the Continent, where the majority of leading theologians believe in Christ’s Deity. Not so the bishop.

The statement does not please me, and it seems far from satisfactory. I would much prefer to have it say that God was in Christ, for I believe that the testimony of the New Testament taken as a whole is against the doctrine of the deity of Christ, although I think it bears overwhelming witness to the divinity of Jesus (p. 125).

If this were the teaching of many New Testament scholars today, and if I had to follow them, I should exclaim: “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him!” Fortunately, we still have from other days such volumes as The Divinity of Our Lord and Saviour (1903), by H. P. Liddon; The Lord of Glory (1907, 1950) and The Person and Work of Christ (1950), both by B. B. Warfield; The Self-Disclosure of Jesus (1926, 1954), by Geerhardus Vos; The Divinity of Christ in the Gospel of John (1916), by A. T. Robertson; and The Person and Work of Christ (1908), by Nathan R. Wood.

More recent authors include Loraine Boettner, The Person of Christ (1943); Samuel G. Craig, Jesus of Yesterday and Today (1956); Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (1955); and William C. Robinson, Our Lord (1937, 1949). The list might also include well-known works by men not so strongly conservative. One of them, John M. Shaw, has a work on Christine Doctrine (1953). Among many other good things, a paragraph stresses Christ’s claims for himself:

In this claim of Jesus … we are confronted with nothing less than a moral problem of the gravest kind, a problem whose issue we can not evade with intellectual sincerity.… “Either Jesus was God, or He was not even a good man” (aut deus aut non bonus homo.) So the old Fathers formulated the alternative. And there is no escape from this inexorable dilemma.… “Either Jesus was a Deceiver, and was Himself deceived,” or “He was divine, God the Son incarnate” (p. 161).

Ground Of Belief

First of all, then, we believe in Christ’s Deity because we accept the teachings of Holy Scripture. Again, we believe because we find many confirmations in church history. Anyone familiar with the facts can make an experiment at home. Using as a guide Larourette, Schaff, or any other capable historian, make a chronological list of church leaders who have strongly believed in the Deity of Christ. Then compile another list of other leaders who have not bowed down to him as “very God of very God.” The first list we may call evangelical. The second we need not label, lest we seem to be casting stones.

A glance over the two lists will show that a vast array of saints and heroes have held to the Deity of Christ. Much the same conclusion will follow if one makes a list of first-class hymns that sound forth the glories of Christ as One whom we worship, as we worship no one save God. In another list put songs full of beauty, such as fill the pages of a typical hymnal among Unitarians. Neither of these experiments can prove the fact of Christ’s Deity. Belief in that high doctrine must rest on the revelation in Holy Scripture, and on the witness of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s soul. Still it is good to know that we who engage in the worship of Christ as God stand in the succession of the mightiest leaders of the Church and the noblest authors of hymns that the Church will never let die.

A third reason for accepting Christ’s Deity has to do with Christian experience. Fortunately, the doctrine does not depend on our acceptance. On the other hand, the value of the truth to any person or group does depend on the inner witness of the Holy Spirit, and on daily fellowship with the Christ of God. So if anyone ever begins to waver, let him come close to Christ in the written Word and hold fellowship with him in prayer. In his own time and way the Lord of Glory will make himself known as he did to doubting Thomas of old, so that the young Hebrew disciple exclaimed: “My Lord and my God!”

A Word To The Ministry

Now for a word to the young minister. At least once a year preach a sermon directly about the Deity of Christ. Do not argue, defend, or attack. Simply, clearly, and kindly set forth what some part of Holy Writ teaches about the person of our Lord. Make clear also what difference the truth ought to make in the life of the hearer. Because he believes in Christ’s Deity, the layman ought to trust the Redeemer for salvation from sin; follow him as Lord and Master; learn from him as Teacher and Guide; look to him as Divine Friend and Helper, and make ready to stand before him as Final Judge.

All this the layman will see clearly if he learns about Christ as One whom believers worship. As intelligent beings, created in the Father’s image, we worship no one but God. Why then do we adore Jesus Christ? To him we pray, as Stephen did when dying, because he believed in Christ’s Deity. With his last breath he uttered two prayers which he addressed to the Lord Jesus (Acts 7:59, 60). To Christ we now can pray, and worship him in holy song.

We know why Pliny the Younger (died c. 113 A.D.), not a believer, wrote about early Christians as gathering before daybreak to “sing in turn a hymn of praise to God.” In many of our noblest songs we too exult in the glories of our Redeemer. At Christmas with Charles Wesley we sing about the “new-born King”; “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; hail the incarnate Deity!” In May we adore “Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of all nature.” At the Lord’s Supper we “behold the wondrous Cross, on which the Prince of Glory died”.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast

Save in the death of Christ my God;

All the vain things that charm me most,

I sacrifice them to His blood.

Andrew W. Blackwood has a well-earned reputation as preacher, teacher, and author of books for preachers. He pastored Presbyterian churches for 17 years. In 1925 he began teaching. After five years as Professor of English Bible at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary, he became Professor of Homiletics at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1930 to 1950. Since 1950 he has been Professor of Preaching at Temple University School of Theology. This article is the first of a series by Protestant leaders on the theme, “I Believe.”

Cover Story

The Temptation of Relativism

G. C. Berkouwer

Christianity Today October 14, 1957

Every one at some time in his life encounters the problem of relativism. It is said that our own time is characteristically relativistic, that we do not dare to speak of absolutes. This has its good side. We recall the absolutism of certain totalitarian states, which also reminds us that not everything is relativized in our century. We live in a time when some things are illegitimately absolutized. But still the relativizing of life is a profound matter, playing a role in the reflections and the viewpoints of the Christian faith.

The Leveling Of Christianity

Not everyone is sensitive enough to be greatly bothered by it, but some are almost overwhelmed when they first meet the suggestive and intoxicating idea that the Christian faith is a subjective conviction which is on the same plane with other no less earnest convictions. This is not merely a contemporary phenomenon. It elbowed its way into the environment of the Christian Church centuries ago. It was the syncretism of an early age; later it was the problem of “the absoluteness of Christianity” raised by the History of Religion school in the nineteenth century. In the latter instance, the problem arose through extensive research into other religions, which uncovered a depth and wealth of thought and conceptions of deity in pagan religions. The sharp line between Christianity and other religions was erased, even though there was still talk of the superiority of Christianity. The religions—including Christianity—were compared on the same basis. The conclusion was drawn that Christianity was not the one true religion, but an example of the many religious currents, a special form of the general essence of universal religion.

This so-called essence of religion had, through innumerable circumstances, taken various forms, including Christianity. It may have been acknowledged that Christianity was a very special form, but still only one of the many forms which arose out of the essentially religious structure of the human heart. A religious a priori was conceived, to be added to the theoretical, ethical, and aesthetic a prioris of the human mind. In the varying circumstances of life this religious a priori was actualized and specialized into this or that particular form of religion. There was no cleavage between Christianity and the other religions. Scholars pointed to the strong convictions that existed in every religion, to common forms of religious practices, such as a defined way of religious communal life, prayers, sacrifices, worship, notions of immortality, and so on. It was said that we could not conclude that a religion is unique and special because of the existence of a specially strong conviction, since strong convictions prevailed in many religions, notably in Islam. Thus, a general relativism began to prevail through the comparison of religions.

The Loss Of Absoluteness

A clear example of this is seen in the so-called parliament of religions which was held in Chicago in 1893. There representatives of all religions joined together in the Lord’s Prayer. All religions were joined; none was absolute. From this resulted a sharp criticism of any religion which pretended to possess a unique character. Such a pretension was considered impossible in the light of research into both the various religions and the human spirit. Religion had been discovered to be a disposition so close to the essence of the human spirit that we needed no longer to be surprised at the universality of religion.

It is evident that in this conclusion we encounter what may well be the most profound question that has faced Christian faith. It could hardly be otherwise than that many would be deeply impressed once the results of the study of comparative religions were popularized. People would say: Yes, there is a Bible, but there is also a Koran and many other holy books. There is a Redeemer, but other religions also concentrate their ideas of redemption around a specific redeemer. Does not all this come forth from a single law of the human spirit? And, hence, is the Christian faith, is the Bible, actually unique? Such questions collided head-on with the confession of the Church. The Church was consequently criticized for trying to hold to her pretensions of absoluteness, a lost cause. The Church was not challenged to give up her religion, but to sacrifice her pretensions of the absoluteness of her religion.

The Lowering Of Missions

The proclamation of the Church was directly involved. The message with which she had gone into the world was not an appeal to the special value of the thoughts of church men, but a trumpet sound, an invitation, a calling to the one way of salvation. Now, the witness of the Church in her missions to the heathen was up for question. This facet of the problem came quickly to the attention of the advocates of comparative religion. Troeltsch wrote, in 1906, that the common conception of missions had to undergo a radical change. It would, he claimed, be thereafter impossible to understand missions as a deed of sympathetic Chrisianity going into a dark world where salvation was unknown, to free the people from corruption and doom by conversion to the living God. Troeltsch supported the idea of missions, but suspected that much missionary effort stemmed from an overestimate of the worth of Western culture, a culture which other peoples could well claim to be unnecessary for them; they could find their own ways to salvation without the unwelcome assistance of the Christian message and culture.

One may ask, then, why a Christian, church should be established in the East. Why not just as well a mosque in Paris?

The acceptance of the relativity of the Christian faith naturally produced a crisis in the missionary consciousness of the Church. Perhaps more accurately said, it brought a crippling of such consciousness. It may be possible to maintain missions on a cultural basis for a while, but in time the elan will die. This is the more evident as the cultural development of the non-Christian peoples proceeds, making it less and less possible to establish missions on the basis of one’s own cultural aristocracy.

The Lessening Of Man

This process of relativizing does not involve only the theology of the philosophy of religion. It involves man, who sees no way to avoid the vacuum of relativity. He begins to make comparisons of his own. An attitude like that of Pharaoh’s magicians begins to prevail in his heart. We recall how Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron: “When Pharaoh asks for a sign, take your staff and throw it on the ground before Pharaoh. It shall become a snake.” But when the sign was given, Pharaoh was not convinced. He called his wise men and magicians, but “the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents.” And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. He did not see in the signs a unique evidence of Israel’s God. They were relativized by what Egypt’s prophets could also do. The special character of a sign was removed from what Moses and Aaron did. The sign was not absolute, but relative. The same relativizing occurs later when Moses and Aaron threw a staff over the Nile and the Egyptians did the same. But finally the imitation of the Egyptians failed to work. Then Pharaoh’s magicians said to Pharoah: “This is the finger of God.”

This throws light on the process of relativizing. The absoluteness of God’s revelatory action for Israel in Egypt became irrefutably clear. Subsequently God led Israel out of the house of bondage by His mighty acts. Israel was under the impression of this; they were not long under the impression of the temporary parallel between Moses and Aaron and the magicians. But this is explained by the fact that the parallel was suddenly and demonstrably broken. Perhaps there are those who say that it would be convincing if, in the midst of the relativizing of Christianity, there were suddenly a special revelation that the Christian faith is after all something unique and absolute. But as long as this absoluteness is not clearly demonstrated, they will remain impressed with the certainties, convictions, intimations of immortality, and reverence within other religions, which make them parallel with Christianity. Thus they are tempted to go along with the current of relativity, a current which erases all exclamation marks and replaces them with question marks. This is hard; for it is frightful to live while questioning the ultimate.

The question marks are not taken away with a new voluntary decision to attribute absoluteness to Christianity. It would be a stout-hearted decision to regain a sure foundation in this world. But it does not work this way with the Christian faith; Christ will not thus be served. We do not find our way out by desperately writing exclamation marks over the question marks. The New Testament is clear that faith in the absoluteness of Christianity is not a decision of flesh and blood, not even when it is a stout-hearted decision. It also tells us that the apostles went forth into a syncretistic world possessed of many gods, without question marks after their witness to the one Redeemer. But their exclamation marks were pure gifts. They knew that they did not have them because they could prove precisely and convincingly for themselves the absoluteness of their faith. Neither were they the results of raw courage, but of human decision. Nor did they go with a kind of conviction that Jesus Christ was a superior Redeemer, but one among the many redeemers who were preached in the world. It did not work that way. It cannot work that way today.

The Light Of Light

It is, as it was for Paul, a struggle against flesh and blood, a struggle that only Jesus Christ can win for us through the Holy Spirit. There will be temptations to object to the idea that our faith in Christ does not arise from flesh and blood. It is not self-evident that we should seek our certainty in him alone, in the most exclusive way. Yet, it is in that way alone that we can overcome the temptation to relativize our faith. It is profoundly remarkable that a man may know and maintain this as a treasure, that Jesus Christ is not preached by us as one way, but as the way, and that we can find in him everything needful. Yet, this is the way that he walked among his own people. “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” He said this after Thomas complained that he did not know the way. Thomas looked for a humanly possible way. But Jesus turned his eyes suddenly in another direction: I am the Way.

The disciples had enough difficulty along that Way, and they soon had no more reserves within themselves to draw from. They left it all to him. But when the Spirit of Christ was poured out, everything was changed. “Now must everything, everything change.” And it was changed. There was a trumpet sounded over the world. And the hearing of the sound was saturated with blessing. From our human sentiments, we would rather first be convinced with rational certainty. We would rather first make certain that the sound of the trumpet is clear, and whether there may not also be other compelling trumpet sounds in the world. We would rather be certain of ourselves. But the amazing thing is that the further we go along this way, the further away the mystery of Christ fades from sight.

No one ever came to faith this way. The closer he may seem to have come in his search for proof, the further away he actually walked. He may hear the message of Christ, but he wishes first to examine it. He hears that Christ first asks his question, but he demands that his own questions be answered first. But as he puts his questions to the fore, Christ’s question is tabled. Christ’s Word and Christ’s question are not enough. He hesitates uncertainly, as did Phillip, who heard Jesus and was impressed, but still reserved a feeling of unrest and uncertainty: “Show us the Father and it is enough.” Christ answered: “Have I been so long with you and have you not known me? He who hath seen me hath seen the Father.”

Only presumption would lead us to say that we understand fully what Christ meant. There are many thick volumes about it; the Church has stuttered when it has spoken about the Son and the Father. It has spoken of “Light of Light.” And he who can comprehend it, let him comprehend it. But if we cannot comprehend it with our rational understanding, the absolute answer of Christ to Phillip still stands. “You have seen the Father,” Jesus said. The answer sets everything in a wonderful light. When John the Baptist, imprisoned, had doubts, he did not ask questions of the Pharisees and Sadducees. He sent his disciples to Jesus. And he received his answer: “Blessed is the man who is not offended in me.” A new benediction! Who seeks more than this, seeks something less. It is on this way alone that the problem of the way on which men need never wander is solved.

G. C. Berkouwer is Professor of Systematic Theology at Free University of Amsterdam. He is author of many books, most notably, Studies in Dogmatics, five volumes of which have been translated into English, with thirteen in preparation. His most recent work is The Triumph of Grace in The Theology of Karl Barth.

The Iron Gate

God—

From whose peaceful heaven We have wandered

Into our own creation of disquietude

Let us see again that gate of iron

Through which by purging

We may yet regain the nobleness of peace. Contain us

That our tears may flow for others

And the flowing not release our pain

Until we love them unto God again.

LOREN K. DAVIDSON

Cover Story

The Place of the Layman

Tom Allan

It is generally accepted that the effective propagation of the Faith in the secular world depends ultimately on the witness of the layman. The idea of the apostolate of the laity is being eagerly examined by the Church in every country and in all denominations, and its far-reaching implications for the work of evangelism are beginning to be recognized even in those churches where the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers has not been central.

This concern for the apostolate of the laity has resulted in the emergence of a multitude of movements ranging from breakfast clubs for senators and congressmen in Washington, D. C., to the significant work of the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey, Switzerland. The Protestant Professional Associations in France, the Evangelical Academies in Germany, the Zoe-Aktines movement in Greece, the Church and World Institute in Holland—all of these movements have a common object, the development of effective lay witness in the secular world.

Difficulties In The Way

For the parish minister, engaged in the hard and often unrewarding tasks of congregational and parochial work, it is at once stimulating and disheartening to read of these movements. He accepts implicitly the idea of the lay apostolate: but all too often he finds it impossible to translate the idea into practice in his own parish. The difficulties in the way are enormous, and in most writings on the subject these difficulties are either by-passed or disregarded.

At the outset, he is faced with the simple problem of finding laymen in his own congregation who have any real grasp of their responsibility for witness in the secular world. The laity have been called “the unemployed of the Church,” and there are several factors contributing to their state of unemployment. But the most important one is the “clericalism” of the Church. Even in the Church of Scotland which, with its Presbyterian order, theoretically recognizes the place of the layman in the conduct of its affairs, the voice of the layman is seldom heard, and very little opportunity is afforded him to exercise any kind of “non-pastoral” ministry. And the layman has not only come to accept this kind of clericalism as part of the natural ordering of the Church’s life; he is also most reluctant to welcome a change. In his mind the minister’s duties have become clear-cut and well defined, and the ordinary layman is content to leave it at that.

There is another difficulty which the parish minister finds at the local level. He may have about him a small group of people who realize their responsibility as Christians for active service in the work of the Church and positive witness in their daily vocations, but who feel that they do not possess the equipment to undertake it. Particularly in Scotland, where we are traditionally reticent in speaking about our own personal faith, and where such personal confession is regarded as exhibitionism, does this difficulty make itself felt.

These things have been brought home to me in the last few years in visiting scores of churches in different parts of the country seeking to enlist volunteers for local missions of visitation. Time and again I have found myself speaking to people who had literally never thought of such work as a possible field of service. Visitation is the minister’s job, or, in certain circumstances, the elders’. And if, at the end of an evening of question and discussion and appeal, a handful of people might be prepared to admit that it was their responsibility, they hesitated at the thought of speaking to another person about the Faith.

In my own congregation these initial difficulties had been overcome. A group of lay people had emerged, representative of the whole congregation, and honestly committed to the work of evangelism within their own parish and to the business of “witnessing to their faith in their daily vocations.” But it was precisely at this point that the real issues of the lay apostolate made themselves felt, both within the church, and more particularly within the experience of the layman himself. It is hard enough to find laymen prepared to work out their salvation in terms of daily life. It is much harder to face the real implications of Christian witness, and offer the sincere layman guidance and direction and support in his attempt to take his religion out of the ghetto of the Church into the squalor and hostility of the market place. Perhaps the professional Christians, the ministers and theologians, would be less glib in their advocacy of the lay apostolate if they had more practical experience of trying to live the Christian life in a single room in a slum tenement, or as a riveter’s mate in a Clyde shipyard.

To Be Or To Act?

One of the most penetrating studies of the laymen’s part that has recently appeared is in Jacques Ellul’s book, The Presence of the Kingdom. M. Ellul is Professor of Law at Bordeaux University, and the manner of his own conversation to the Faith qualifies him to speak with authority on his theme—the communication of the gospel in a secular world, and the duties and demands which this world lays upon the Christian. He writes: “In reality, today the theologian has nothing to say to the world, because there are no laymen in our churches; because, on the one hand there is the minister, who does not know the situation in the world, and on the other hand, there are ‘laymen,’ who are very careful to keep their faith and their life in different compartments, or who try to escape from this dilemma by concentrating on ethics. Theological truth has no point of contact with the world … (and) God uses material means—in other words, he acts by his spirit through human instruments. Now it is this human instrument that our churches lack: that is why, when the gospel is preached, its message no longer reaches the world.”

M. Ellul goes on to examine the character of the situation which is to be addressed. He entertains no illusions about the modern world, regards it as “the domain of Satan,” and sees man dominated and controlled by facts—technics, the State, production. He then asks his question: What does it mean to be a Christian in this situation? And his answer to that question is of supreme importance for anyone who is concerned with the lay apostolate.

In a sentence he sums up his attitude: “For Christians … what actually matters, in practice, is ‘to be’ and not ‘to act.’ ” With tremendous insight he deals with the modern obsession for action, particularly as it manifests itself in the Church, and exposes its inadequacy. Christian living is the first responsibility; and this “being” takes the form of a threefold awareness: the true meaning of our neighbor, “the brother for whom Christ died”; of the event, “the intervention of one fact in the course of life, of history, of development … which includes within itself the meaning of all the development of the past, and significance for the future”; and of the frontier which exists between the profane and the sacred, the limit set to human pretensions by God. Given this awareness, a new style of life will emerge for the Christian, lived in tension between the secular world and theology, and creating a genuine point of contact for the communication of the gospel.

It is idle to speak of the lay apostolate to men and women who have no first-hand knowledge of the meaning of the Christian experience. So much of the Church’s well-intentioned effort to enlist its laymen goes for nothing because it is concerned with action and organization, and not with what Ellul calls “being.” In Scotland the most widespread attempts to work out the meaning of the lay apostolate have been undertaken at the level of Youth Fellowships, and in the past few years we have seen the development of a number of Christian “action groups” among young people. Theoretically these action groups are necessary and inevitable if the idea of the lay apostolate is to be taken seriously. But so often—at least in my own experience—they have broken down after a year or two mainly because the demands of Christian action were being superimposed on young people who neither understood nor accepted the presuppositions on which Christian conduct is based. A vague and inarticulate identification with Christianity is not a sure enough foundation for building a Christian life. Something more is needed before we have any right to launch the layman into the tension of bearing a Christian witness in a hostile world. The pre-condition of Christian action is that “being” of which Ellul has written, the conscious and personal appropriation of Christ which leads to a new “style of life,” and which in turn makes Christian action not only meaningful but possible.

Personal Involvement

In other words, before there is any hope of seeing the emergence of a genuine lay apostolate within our Church we have to begin at the true point of departure. Christianity is an intensely personal religion, and a man cannot be a Christian by proxy. We have arrived at the paradoxical situation of eagerly seeking a lay apostolate within our churches and finding it hard to produce anything but a tiny handful of laymen who see any point in the apostolate. It is easy enough to find well-meaning people in our churches who will provide tea or organize a concert for the lodging-houses. But if anyone is needed to give a ten-minute address or lead in prayer we have to go to the mission halls or the Christian Brethren.

Of course we can rationalize our failure in this regard by pointing to the subjectivism of evangelical religion, or by pointing to the dichotomy between its profession and its practice. But most of us know that we are rationalizing, and that the lay apostolate will never be anything but a pious hope unless we are prepared to recognize that Christian action which does not emerge out of a personal faith is a contradiction in terms.

Concern For The World

I have tried to point out that there is a fundamental truth in evangelical religion which it is necessary to preserve. Equally I am convinced that its inevitable “personalism” has to be guarded against. Too often the concern for individual salvation meant a complete indifference to the Church, and a retreat from the actual world in which men earn their bread. Henri Perrin, in his book, Priest-Workmen in Germany, tells how he met thirty young Seminarians, eager, enthusiastic, dreaming of conquering the world. But he writes of them: “Often, spiritually meant simply holding on to certain pious practices—‘my’ prayers, ‘my’ interior life—and led to a tendency to cut themselves off, to be always on the defensive against their environment, to remain in their shell. You would have thought that they had nothing to offer the world dying beside them—as if they were beaten and flattened out by the life seething round them.” The evangelical Christian so often lives in this kind of vacuum, and fails to recognize the relevance of the Faith for his daily life.

Explosive And Revolutionary

The whole idea of the apostolate of the laity is explosive and revolutionary, and confronts us with a threefold challenge.

First of all, it compels us to wrestle with the supremely difficult task of leading men and women to a point of decision in which the Faith becomes a personal possession. This is by no means to say that the only valid conversion is the sudden, emotional, “time-and-place” conversion associated with revival meetings, although that may be the path along which many of our best laymen will come. It is not important that a man can say that in such a place and at such a time he became a Christian. It is supremely important that any man who is expected to bear a Christian witness should know beyond any shadow of a peradventure where he stands now. He should be a man for whom penitence and faith are not merely theological terms, but an expression of his own experience of God. No distinctive Christian witness is possible without it.

The idea of the lay apostolate presents us with an inescapable challenge, in the second place, because if it is taken seriously it will mean upheaval and revolution within the conventional framework of the Church’s life. The group which emerges to seek a true Christian solidarity, to be an oasis within our parched Church, will find itself in inevitable conflict with those who are content with things as they are, and who set their face against any change in the ordered and traditional pattern. Such a group will not find an outlet for its energies, a sphere in which to express itself, in the routine of mothers’ meetings, men’s clubs and dramatic clubs which go to make up the weekday activities of any normal congregation. “Only a revolution within the churches,” writes Canon Collins, “a revolution of thought and outlook and of the whole setup can make them effective instruments in God’s hands for the evangelizing of this country: and only Christians who are revolutionary in thought and outlook and their way of life can hope to be effective evangelists today.” Wherever a cell or group for lay witness comes into being within a church it will involve tension and conflict. And that is the price we have to pay for taking the lay apostolate seriously.

New Methods Needed

The third challenge of the lay apostolate is perhaps the most difficult of all. When this group of people comes forward, drawn from different backgrounds and types, to explore the demands of Christian discipleship, it becomes immediately evident that new methods of instruction and training and new levels of Christian fellowship have to be explored if we are to keep faith with the layman. What happens, for example, when a business man with a family discovers that his business methods can no longer be squared with his new standards of judgment? What happens when a girl feels compelled to give up her job because she cannot obey the instructions of her employer and remain true to her faith? What are the determining factors for a man employed in a shipyard or a woman struggling to bring up a family in a one-room tenement house?

The lay apostolate may possess tremendous possibilities for the propagation of the Faith in a secular world. Let us also be assured that, if we allow it to become anything more than an idea in the mind of the professional theologians, it will lead us into unsuspected conflict. But for the Church, as for the individual, the point of conflict is the point of growth.

Tom Allan served the Church of Scotland as field organizer of the “Tell Scotland” Movement. Since September, 1955, he has been minister of St. George’s-Tron, Glasgow. He was executive chairman of the Billy Graham All-Scotland Crusade, and assisted with the Graham campaign in New York City. The material on “The Place of the Layman” is an abridgment of a chapter in his book The Face of My Parish, used by permission of Harper & Brothers, publishers of a new American edition.

Soul Searching

A soldier with no zest for fighting,

A poet with no zeal for writing,

An architect without a plan:

The prototype of modern man.

JOHN COOPER

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