Page 5864 – Christianity Today (2024)

“To the gospels as a whole there is no known parallel or analogy.” So wrote Harold Riesenfeld, drawing attention to a commonplace of scholarship, but one whose significance is not always kept in mind. The evangelists evolved a completely new literary form. Why?

They did not write biographies. Biographies of great men are known from antiquity, but this is not the form of the Gospels. They omit too much for that to be true. There is no personal description of Jesus. Very little is said about his early years and nothing at all about the formative influences to which he was subjected. Even when we come to the time of his public ministry, the only period of Jesus’ life for which there is anything like complete information, there are huge gaps. Long ago F. C. Burkitt pointed out that at a minimum Jesus’ ministry must have lasted for four hundred days (it may have been much more) and we have information about what happened on perhaps forty. His teaching as it is recorded in the Gospels could all have been delivered in about six hours. T. W. Manson maintained that Jesus lived for thirty to forty years but about twenty-eight of them we know nothing at all. He held that we cannot fix with certainty one single chronological point in Jesus’ life.

Probably the best description of the Gospels is “passion narratives with long introductions.” Basically they are books about Jesus’ death on the cross and its associated events. They contain also a certain amount of introduction in which we learn important things about Jesus’ life and teaching.

None of them claims the title “Gospel.” Indeed, not until the end of the second century was this word used as a book title. Previously, and for that matter for some time afterwards, the word was applied to the four as a whole. To this day we call these books “The Gospel According to …,” thus bearing implicit testimony to the truth that there is but one Gospel.

There were other books that claimed the title “Gospel.” Some of them, like the “Infancy Gospels,” are frivolous accounts of what some members of the early Church thought the divine Christ might have done. Others, like the various Gnostic Gospels, were written with serious purposes. But they are so different from the canonical Gospels that they do not merit the same name. They are really accounts of Gnostic teaching, attributed to Jesus. The four canonical Gospels form a class of their own.

Perhaps the nearest we come to seeing “Gospel” as a title is in the opening words of Mark, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” At any rate the evangelist leaves us in no doubt that the Gospel is his theme. He goes on to report that, after the arrest of John the Baptist, “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel’ ” (Mark 1:14, 15). Jesus came to preach God’s Gospel, or good news, and Mark mentions some of the important points. In this respect the evangelists follow their Master. There would be little disagreement in current discussions with the contention that the evangelists were preachers. In their Gospels they record the Gospel as taught and lived by Jesus and preached by his apostles.

People who heard the Gospel preached would ask questions: “Who was this Jesus in whom we are asked to believe?” “What did he do?” “What did he say?” Jews would inquire about his forerunner and about his relation to the prophecies of the Old Testament generally.

The demand for faith in Jesus made information about him a necessity.

In recent discussions this does not seem to receive the attention it merits. There cannot be the slightest doubt that the first Christians demanded far-reaching faith in Jesus. They called on men to commit themselves to him so wholeheartedly that, if necessary, they would die for him. It is unreasonable to ask for such commitment to a Person of whom one knows nothing or next to nothing. Men do not give that kind of commitment without knowing to whom they give it.

Bultmann and some of his followers dismiss the quest for historical information about Jesus. If I understand them rightly, they hold that to look for such historical knowledge is to depart from simple faith and to rest instead on historical proof, a device of the natural man. But is this so? We may concede the point that final authority does not rest with the historian. The believer is not compelled to adjust his beliefs daily to comply with every new verdict of the contemporary historian. And to rest on the petty certainties of the natural man is not the Christian way.

But when this is said, we must add that faith is not credulity. Faith does not mean accepting uncritically whatever the preacher says about the divine Christ. Granted that we should not try to establish such a historical approach that we replace faith with scientific proof, it still remains that a mere credulity, resting on nothing, is not Christian faith. We cannot and we ought not to trust a person of whom we know nothing.

To use a simple illustration: when I went overseas I gave a legal friend a power of attorney to enable him to look after my affairs. Some time after I returned I discovered that I had forgotten to revoke it. At any time he could have gone down the street and emptied my bank account! But I was not troubled. I know my friend. I trust him. But if a stranger were to ask me to entrust the management of my affairs to him I would certainly refuse. I cannot trust a man I do not know. I may be optimistic about him, but I cannot trust him.

Some historical knowledge is necessary for genuine faith. It is this that the evolution of the gospel form points to. The men of the New Testament could have made (and did make) their theological points in other ways than writing Gospels. The epistle, for example, was a powerful means of teaching. Thus Romans has a strong exposition of the meaning of the cross, and (after a section on the place of Israel) it goes on to the life expected of a follower of Christ. In these two sections it takes up much the same position as the Gospels. But it is not a Gospel, and it does not take the place of the Gospels, for it does not contain historical information about Jesus.

When theological writing sits loose to the historicity of Jesus, as so much of it does today, it is false to essential Christianity. The daring thought of the New Testament is that God has committed himself to history. It is this that makes the Gospels so important. They record that part of history that matters. They enable us to have saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. As John puts it: “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).

The churches for the most part have left the inner city, but the rescue missions are still there—as they have been for 100 years. It was in October, 1872, in New York City that Irish immigrant Jerry McAuley, a converted ex-con from Sing Sing who relapsed into alcoholic binges five times before getting the victory, opened Helping Hand Mission, the nation’s first rescue mission. Today it is known as the McAuley Water Street Mission. The original ramshackle frame building on Water Street just below the Brooklyn Bridge was torn down a long time ago, but the work goes on in modern quarters on nearby Lafayette Street.

Last month the executive committee of the International Union of Gospel Missions (IUGM) and 200 friends of the McAuley Mission gathered in New York to observe the centennial. At a $12 prime-rib banquet in the Biltmore Hotel they talked about the good old days and how times have changed. In the early days there were reportedly seven murders a week on Water Street. Vice and drunkenness abounded, but Jerry McAuley stayed, befriending the fallen, leading many of them to Christ—and a better life. Later, during the twenty years that Sam Hadley ran the mission, records show that nearly 80,000 professed Christ. (Hadley had been converted from crime and alcoholism in another mission McAuley had founded.) During the Depression, the McAuley mission fed 176,000 men annually.

Nowadays there are fewer older men. “The welfare state takes care of them,” explained an IUGM official. Young people are often the ones now who show up in need of food, lodging, and medical care. (Until recently, the McAuley mission had an unusual outreach among Greenwich Village denizens. Rising crime in the area forced curtailment.) Decisions for Christ seem harder to come by, say many mission personnel.

“Times have changed, but the men who walk the street have not,” declared banquet keynoter David C. Morley, a psychiatrist. Hunger afflicts the young as well as the old, and loneliness stalks blacks as well as whites, he pointed out. He lamented the apathy of church people toward ministry in skid row. A lot of people stand around wanting a piece of the action but refuse to get involved in the filth and stench of need, he complained.

There were testimonies from men whose lives had been transformed by contact with the mission. One of them: a parolee who accepted Christ in 1964 and is now regional manager of an electronics firm. Another, Christian and Missionary Alliance minister Paul Mauche of Fort Lee, New Jersey, recalled how at age 19 he found the mission on a cold and wet December night in 1921. He received Christ after listening to several testimonies, and stayed on to work in the mission. Later he attended a Bible institute, then worked for years as a street evangelist before opening a mission in Fort Lee that later became a church.

Someone sketched a history of the movement. In 1877 Colonel and Mrs. George Clarke opened the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, apparently without direct ties to McAuley. About that same time Water Street convert William H. Smith opened a rescue mission in Auckland, New Zealand, the first overseas. Another was launched in London by temperance lecturer William Noble, who had studied the McAuley venture. The third U. S. mission was established in 1879 by street missionaries A. J. Rauliffson and his wife in New York’s Lower East Side; it is known today as the Bowery Mission. McAuley next founded the Cremorne Mission in a vice-ridden area uptown. By 1913 there were fifty missions and they formed the IUGM, which today has 350 members. About 100 other missions choose to stay out of the IUGM, mostly because of separatist stands.

Letters from well-wishers were read. “You reach the century mark at a time when your compassionate commitment to humanity is needed more than ever,” wrote President Nixon. Pastor Ernest T. Campbell of New York’s Riverside Church wrote: “In a day when it is becoming increasingly fashionable to blame outside forces for the evils that plague man’s life, Rescue Missions keep alive the importance of the human will and God’s ability to change life from within.”

In a meeting the next day, anniversary committee chairman Stephen E. Burger of the York (Pennsylvania) Rescue Mission warned his fellow IUGM mission leaders to shift with the winds of change, “or we’ll end up standing on the street corners ourselves.” He called for greater understanding of the effects of welfare, of the youth scene, and of the need of people to see reconciliation in action. “They’ve been lied to by government and business, so when they come to our churches and missions they don’t believe us either. We’ve got to show them.”

At 32, college-trained, and holding ordination in the Missionary Church, Burger represents a new breed of rescue-mission leaders. Many founders and heads of rescue missions are products of the movement. Generally, they have been out in front of churchmen for years in gut-level involvement with society. But some are inflexibly committed to a sermon-and-stew approach only. They tend to view industrial rehabilitation programs, professional counseling clinics, and literacy projects, for example, with suspicion.

Burger’s mission in York is typical of the IUGM’s progressive wing. Its operations include shelters for individuals and families, a children’s emergency home, a detoxification center, an industrial rehabilitation program, a youth center and travel camps, a free store, and care for the elderly. (Most cities and counties across America lack emergency child-care facilities and often look to rescue missions to fill the gap.) Jimmy Resh’s Hagerstown, Maryland, mission has built a $500,000 rehabilitation treatment center in a rural location. Clyde Murdock’s mission in Charlestown, West Virginia, operates an orphanage and recently constructed a high-rise building to house the elderly. And the St. Paul, Minnesota, rescue mission runs several Boys Clubs of America chapters. (See February 13, 1970, issue, page 41.)

State and federal funds are often available for certain programs, but most rescue-mission boards toe the church-state separation line and look for funds elsewhere.

There are other trends. Burger’s staffers press for spiritual decisions in “encounter group” sessions more often than in chapel. Emphasis is given to quality of relationship rather than numbers in dealing with ghetto youngsters. “It’s tough to get through to the inner-city kid,” says Asbury College graduate Terry Wilcox, Burger’s youth director. “He doesn’t trust you, so you have to spend a lot of time with him.” (In York and many other cities, most of the young people who come to the mission are black. A chronic problem is a shortage of qualified blacks to work with them.)

IUGM executive Emile Leger, a former insurance man, says the IUGM missions provide five million meals and 2.5 million lodgings annually. Nevertheless, souls—not soup—are still the prime concern. Last year, says Leger, 65,000 “of the nation’s least, last, and lost” found their way to Christ and a better life because of a helping hand in the inner city.

LETTUCE REACH OUT

The newest leaf on the prophetic ministry plant is lettuce outreach. Three ministerial students from the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary are at work in the Cincinnati area to promote the use of union lettuce. The seminarians were chosen by Catholic priest John Bank, head of the city’s United Farm Workers Union. Bank calls the work a “clinical education in prophetic ministry.”

To prepare for their course work (it’s supervised by seminary professor Hal Warehime), the students talked and visited with Chicano tomato-pickers. The men were assigned work with the Sisters of Charity, who are spearheading a boycott of non-union lettuce by Catholic institutions. Don’t buy lettuce unless the union’s black eagle emblem is stamped on it, they preach.

The Pastor Is A Lady

At last a congregation in the Southern Baptist Convention has a woman as its pastor—a first for the 11.8-million-member denomination. But Mrs. Dreucillar Fordham, widowed pastor of the black Christ Temple Baptist Church in Harlem, wasn’t ordained a Southern Baptist.

Mrs. Fordham’s church applied for membership in the SBC a year ago and received a “watchcare” relationship, the first step toward affiliation with the SBC’s Metropolitan New York Baptist Association. Last month it was finalized. Local SBC missions superintendent Kenneth Lyle said the action was “highly significant” for the convention, but added that the New York association thought it “no big thing.”

Mrs. Fordham was ordained in 1942 by New York City’s New Hope Baptist Association and has been pastor of Christ Temple since 1953. Congregations affiliated with the SBC have ordained four women, none of whom has filled a Southern Baptist pastorate. Mrs. Fordham said that the slight opposition to her pastoral role within the denomination didn’t bother her, since she had already experienced much of that in the Progressive National Baptist Convention, with which her church is also associated.

Lyle characterized Mrs. Fordham as “a very gentle person who is deeply concerned about Harlem and reaching people for Christ.”

Religion In Transit

A federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled that college administrators cannot regulate length and style of students’ hair, but the ruling may apply to state-run schools only.

About 45 per cent of New York City’s high schoolers and 20 per cent of its junior high pupils use drugs regularly, according to a study commissioned by Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller. In five other large New York cities 25 per cent of the high schoolers are said to be users. Also mentioned: an “epidemic” of venereal diseases.

Religion—formerly the number one topic of interest in Minneapolis—is now number two after sports, reports a Twin City newspaper.

The 10,000-member American Church Union, a conservative Episcopal organization, came out against ordination of women to the priesthood. The Northern California Diocese of the Episcopal Church at its annual convention adopted a similar stance by a vote of 138–112. The issue is shaping up as a major concern for the Episcopal national convention next year.

Phoenix businessmen who bailed out the Arizona Ecumenical Council from bankruptcy a year ago refuse to give another cent. They are angry at the council’s alleged links to a farm workers’ campaign to recall the governor. Council officials deny they are involved.

If you’re over 65, you qualify for a 50 per cent discount in tuition at Columbia Union College, Takoma Park, Maryland, a Washington, D. C., suburb. The Seventh-day Adventist school is encouraging a growing trend among senior citizens to return to college.

Yale divinity graduate Robert Hamilton, 27, self-described “bi-sexual” pastor of a church for hom*osexuals in Cleveland, wants backing and money from the United Presbyterian Church, whose area officials say they are “undecided” about the request.

The twenty-year-old Baptist Bible College of Denver has expanded its graduate school offerings this fall to include a full three-year seminary program. The independent school serves congregations that deem the older Conservative Baptist Seminary of the same city as insufficiently orthodox.

Philadelphia Inquirer religion writer Andrew Wallace in a survey found that the routine pastoral visit to a parishioner’s home is going out of style in many church circles. Pastors are busier, and more laymen are helping out with such visitation.

The financially ailing National Council of Churches got a $100,000 shot in the arm from the Irwin-Sweeney-Miller Foundation of Columbus, Indiana.

More bad news for church activists trying to muster opposition to Gulf Oil’s operations in Angola. On the basis of on-site study, a Harvard University report concludes that sale of the school’s Gulf stock worth $16.4 million would have no effect in advancing black Angolan independence.

The Lutheran Church in America’s theological education unit wants unification of the LCA seminaries in Gettysburg and Philadelphia.

Due soon from the U. S. Supreme Court: important decisions on parochaid, abortion, and compulsory chapel attendance at the military academies. Meanwhile, the court has upheld Minnesota’s right to refuse to license a marriage between two men. And it refused to hear the appeal of Mrs. Billie McClure, formerly associated with the Salvation Army in Atlanta, thus avoiding entanglement in intrachurch policy.

DEATHS

IAN THOMAS RAMSEY, 57, Anglican bishop and a leading theologian of the Church of England; in London, of a heart attack.

EARL L. DOUGLASS, 85, Presbyterian clergyman and long-time editor of an annual commentary on the International Sunday-School Lessons; in Princeton, New Jersey.

After thirty controversial years, motive is dead. The magazine, cut loose last year by the United Methodist Church, devoted its final issue of 128 pages to furthering the cause of gay liberation.

A judicial commission of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (Southern) is investigating the action of a church in Cynthiana, Kentucky, that voted 98–62 for independence from the denomination.

Stoney Cooks and Rom Offenburger, top staffers of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, quit in protest against personnel cutbacks. The SCLC reported a deficit at its annual meeting.

An annual survey by Christian Life magazine shows the independent First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, to have the largest Sunday school in America (weekly average attendance: 5,917, with nearly half transported on the church’s seventy-six buses).

CBS television, following a storm of protests by Southern Baptists, told denomination officials it will not show “X” or “R” movies without editing out objectionable scenes.

Personalia

Presbyterian layman Donald E. Warner, a health expert and former space scientist, is the new director of the World Vision Relief Organization.

Philadelphia Baptist minister Leon Sullivan, founder of Opportunities Industrialization Center (it grew from an abandoned jail in 1964 into the nation’s leading privately sponsored anti-poverty program), was widely feted during national OIC day last month.

Mrs. Jeanette Ridlon Piccard, 77, has wanted to be an Episcopal priest ever since girlhood. Believing the church may soon allow ordination of women, she has entered an Episcopal seminary in New York.

Mrs. Helen Birch, a retired high school teacher, is the first woman to be elected moderator in the 266-year history of the Philadelphia Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church.

The Assemblies of God radio department is distributing a tract entitled, “God Had a Better Idea.” It contains the testimony of Harold C. MacDonald, a Ford Motor Company vice president.

World Scene

Spanish evangelicals, under the leadership of José Grau of Barcelona’s Central Bible Institute, are planning an Iberian Conference on Evangelism for next year.

The Vatican convened an interfaith conference last month, but the guests never showed up. Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist leaders had been invited.

New Guinea is in the grips of famine because of drought and crop failure, according to emergency requests received at Seventh-day Adventist headquarters in Washington, D. C.

South Africa has banned all performances of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. It emphasizes the crucifixion instead of the resurrection, complains a government official, and it would alienate further those who do not believe in Christ.

The Vatican ordered bishops in two dioceses in Holland to withdraw immediately as “gravely deficient” a new catechism for high schools that is critical of the church and reflects views of liberal theologians.

Anglican Archbishop Marcus Loane of Sydney sees in the Anglican-Roman Catholic Agreed Statement on the Eucharist encouragement for “biblically minded Catholics and Anglicans alike.” But the statement’s “lack of clarity” on the presence of Christ (Catholics can interpret it as transubstantiation) “is no service to the cause of truth,” he says in the first top-level Anglican comment on the statement.

United Nations official Robert Jackson says there is no evidence of starvation in Bangladesh, but he acknowledged that “malnutrition” exists.

The Christian Council of Tanzania, with leadership help from the Lutheran World Federation, will handle the resettlement of 15,000 Burundi refugees in central Tanzania.

More than 150,000 Polish Catholics gathered at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp to honor a priest who gave his life thirty-one years ago to save a fellow inmate. Concelebrants of a mass included John Cardinal Krol of Philadelphia, the first American Catholic prelate to visit inside the Soviet bloc, and Polish primate Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski.

Campus Crusade’s week-long Explo ’74 is expected to attract 300,000 to Seoul, Korea, in August of 1974, says Crusade director Bill Bright. He predicts students from 5,000 colleges and universities around the world will attend.

Christian Literature Crusade is setting up a program in Recife, Brazil, to prepare Brazilians for foreign missionary service.

The Gideons have raised $200,000 to distribute 500,000 Portuguese New Testaments in Brazil.

The Soviet newspaper Pravda in a front-page article calls for renewed efforts to stamp out religion. Communist party members and officials must stop attending religious services, it demands, and atheistic education of the young must be stepped up.

United Methodism’s youngest bishop, Onema Fama, 36, new leader of 122,000 Methodists in Zaire (formerly the Congo), says the top priorities for his church will be evangelism, education, and medical work.

Pope Paul VI says the Vatican is willing to renegotiate its forty-three-year-old agreement with the Italian government. The agreement, signed in 1929 by Pope Pius XI and Mussolini, ended the church’s temporal power in Italy but assured state recognition of canon laws.

A delegation of North Vietnamese Roman Catholics visiting Canada last month claimed they have had more religious freedom under the Communists than under the French and Japanese. “Only under socialism have we been allowed to practice our real faith,” contended Pierre Vu Thai Ho, identified as editor of a Catholic magazine. And, added a woman lawyer, Ho Chi Minh “was the kind of man Jesus Christ would have wanted us all to be.”

Protestant youths smashed their way into a Catholic church in Belfast, damaged religious objects, and set fire to the church hall.

Hundreds of Pentecostal Christians, many of them young people, have been jailed and their churches closed within the past year in Ethiopia. Leaders among the 176 delegates who attended the assembly of the United Bible Societies held recently in Addis Ababa (see following story) worked behind the scenes in an apparently vain attempt to secure their release. When the UBS delegates left the city, at least seventy Pentecostals were known to be in prison, while many others were out on bail. They were arrested on unsupported charges that ranged from immorality to occultism. Trials were scheduled last month, but the government had issued no confirmation or information on them late in the month.

UBS officials were able to piece together information from a variety of sources. The sources indicate that a revival broke out about eight years ago in the northern part of the country, led by a Finnish Pentecostal group in the city of Asmara. Ethiopian converts formed their own independent Pentecostal movement. They opened chapels in rented houses and ordained elders as they sought to build an indigenous church. Most of the converts were young people educated but poor.

The next step was to register with the government, as required by law of all religious groups, but official recognition was not granted. The number of converts increased, with as many as 1,000 attending charismatic conferences.

Opposition arose. In 1967, a crowd attacked a Sunday-morning gathering of the faithful in one city, injuring several and burning Bibles and hymnbooks. Police arrested some of the Pentecostals, including a few of the injured.

Leaders of the movement appealed to Emperor Haile Selassie, and he appointed an investigative commission. The accusers produced an allegedly hired witness with an infant purported to have been born in the chapel that had been attacked. This later proved to be a fabrication, it was reported, and the results of the inquiry were not made public.

In another appeal, the government security agency declined to recognize the movement on the grounds that public services might provoke further disturbances. The movement then submerged somewhat, although services were often conducted openly. Membership continued to grow, and young converted teachers in the public schools had a strong influence among their students. By 1971, the indigenous Pentecostals were established in every province of Ethiopia and had strong groups in the four largest urban centers.

In December, the security agency circulated a seven-point statement of charges, accusing the believers of widespread immorality, wearing long hair, abusing strangers, and stealing. Further, it said, the group preached that Christ would return in three years and that everybody should join the Pentecostals.

Leaders vehemently denied the charges, but many Ethiopians apparently believed the document. Some attended meetings out of curiosity and were themselves converted. Opponents tried to link the group to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose refusal to salute the flag and support the government has gained them wide disfavor. Hostility increased; there were more attacks, beatings, and arrests. After another appeal, the emperor reputedly rebuked security officers who had imprisoned and beaten believers in the town of Harrar. But when meetings began again at Harrar, more jail sentences and fines were handed down.

Upon subsequent appeals, Selassie is said to have asked for solid evidence to substantiate the seven-point document and to have appointed a new commission to review the situation. Still, no findings were released and no permission was granted to hold meetings.

In the absence of a permit the Pentecostals this year closed their chapel services and began meeting in homes. In August, about 275 were gathered on the grounds of an English nursing sister’s home when police broke up the meeting and jailed most of the participants. (Simultaneously, similar raids were apparently carried out elsewhere in the land.) They were charged with holding an unlawful meeting. The civil code prohibits more than five in a non-religious meeting. To no avail the believers insisted their meeting was religious. A few pleaded guilty and were fined, but the majority denied any wrongdoing and went to jail. Some lost their jobs as a result.

Several hundred Jehovah’s Witnesses were arrested at the same time; seven landowners bailed them out and hired a Christian attorney to defend them.

Many Ethiopian Pentecostals believe the opposition has been inspired by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which claims about 40 per cent of the population. One priest reportedly complained to a charismatic leader, “You are getting all the young people and leaving us with beggars and the aged.” And it is no secret that the Orthodox patriarch, Abuna Theophilos, views the movement as a threat; it is attracting large numbers of young people from Orthodoxy. It all amounts to an outcropping of the Jesus movement in Ethiopia.

An American Presbyterian layman, who recently visited Pentecostals in a women’s prison, said the believers there looked on their confinement as an opportunity to spread the Gospel among fellow prisoners who might not otherwise hear. They have formed a choir that sings nightly, he noted.

A close observer of the scene believes the situation will be resolved if the charismatic movement catches hold among the Orthodox in Ethiopia as it has in Egypt, where the movement is thriving with little public opposition.

Marriage, Swedish Style

Marriage seems to be going out of style in Sweden—and church leaders say it’s because belief also is passé. A study recently released by the state statistical bureau tells how bad the situation is.

Since 1966 the number of marriages has plummeted 35 per cent, and 1971 recorded the lowest number of marriages in a century. The sharp decrease is most evident in the age bracket of twenty-three to twenty-six. Bureau head Erland Hofsten says couples no longer consider marriage necessary. “Our love is so strong there’s no need) for a ring or a marriage certificate,” chant young couples.

But such a free-wheeling view of marriage causes problems for children (see July 7 issue, page 36), and Sweden’s legislators are concerned. For three years they have been at work on new marriage and divorce laws. A proposed law would make it more difficult for couples with children to get divorced than for those without any.

Superstar Over Israel

Jesus Christ Superstar is being filmed in the ancient Nabatean city of Avdat in the central Negev. The National Parks Authority provided the main-location site to the film company free of charge, along with Herodion (near Bethlehem) and the Beisan Roman theater, in hopes of attracting tourists and encouraging more foreign film-makers to come to Israel.

While there is uneasiness in Israel over Superstar’s popularity, no one would compare it to the offensive Oberammergau Passion Play. Israel’s national radio regularly features the heavy beat of “What’s the Buzz?” and the tender strains of “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.”

Still, the uneasiness is there, and some have moved to allay it now that the crews are on location, and especially because the film promises to get wide exposure in the theaters of the land—unlike the stage version. Reassurance came from Geoffrey Wigoder, Jerusalem Post writer on world Jewry and anti-Semitism, who wrote at length telling Israelis why they shouldn’t get uptight over it. There are problems in the stage version (Jews are portrayed as more violent than the Romans), but the film version promises to be more kosher, he assured his readers. Wigoder quoted from an assessment of Superstar made for the American-Jewish Committee: “It does not repeat the myth of the Jews as Christ-killers condemned by God for all time; it does not claim that all Jews of Jesus’ time knew him and forsook him.”

Besides, he notes hopefully, the film is being made in Israel (authorities have screened the script) and produced by Norman Jewison, who showed “an uncanny empathy” for the Jewish soul in Fiddler on the Roof.

DWIGHT L. BAKER

Zeal In New Zealand

There is talk of revival among New Zealand’s three million inhabitants. A series of Jesus festivals over the past few months culminated with a “march for Jesus” that was said to be the largest march in the nation’s history. More than 20,000 denominational people, Catholic Pentecostals, and counter-culture youth linked arms and sang outside Parliament in Wellington, the capital.

Prime Minister John Marshall, an active Presbyterian, joined other Christian leaders on the speakers’ platform and declared that “only through conversion” can lives—and the nation—be changed. Minutes later, 400 registered their decisions for Christ.

DAVID W. VIRTUE

Pakistan Tragedy

Gloom still hangs over much of the Christian community in Pakistan following the government take-over of nine Protestant and Catholic colleges and a serious incident of violence associated with it, according to a missionary source.

The Christian community numbers less than a million, but up to 10,000 at a time marched in peaceful protest in Lahore just prior to the nationalization move, said the source. But in Rawalpindi, about 2,000 Christians—mostly women—were marching from the century-old Gordon College (founded by United Presbyterians) to the President’s house two miles away when police stopped them. As their leaders discussed the situation with the police, the marchers sat along the road praying and singing.

Suddenly, the police attacked with tear gas, then began shooting, the source stated. The main leader was shot in the back and killed as he tried to quiet his people. Three others died and about fifty were injured. Many were jailed.

The police and press next day reported that the Christians had fired first, a charge denied by Christian leaders who were there. The turmoil has subsided, but tensions still run high.

The Christian colleges were founded at a time when no other colleges existed. Over the past two decades, noted the source, control of the schools was transferred to national Christians. At least 90 per cent of the students are Muslims.

Britain’S New Church

Britain’s first union across denominational lines occurred last month with the merger of the 175,000-member Congregational Church in England and Wales and the 60,000-member Presbyterian Church of England. They are now the United Reformed Church (URC).

The two churches began negotiating union in 1945, at times facing “hurdles in our path that seemed impossible to overcome.” URC moderator John Huxtable told the thousands crowding Westminster Abbey for the wedding ceremony and millions more watching on TV. (Huxtable was formerly the executive minister-secretary of the Congregational Church.)

Even now there are problems. Two dissenting Presbyterian churches have decided to form an outpost of the Church of Scotland, and some Congregationalists have formed a continuing Congregational association. Fewer than 20 per cent of the Congregationalists bothered to vote at all on the merger.

The URC is being urged by officials of other denominations to take the initiative in arranging multilateral union talks between others in the “Big Five”: Anglicans, Church of Scotland, Methodists, Baptists, and Catholics. “If the national communions in this country do not unite,” warned Huxtable, it will lead to a condition of confused impotence for the church.

DAVID COOMES

The New Rabbis

Israel has two new chief rabbis, outspoken Shlomo Goren, now head of the Ashkenazic Jews, and soft-spoken Ovadia Yosef, new leader of the Sephardic Jews.

Goren is a retired brigadier general, former army chaplain, and paratrooper, who won recognition for his helicopter front-hopping and for consecrating holy places as fast as the Israeli armies recaptured them during the 1967 Six-Day War. And he was the one who blew the shofar (ram’s horn) from the Wailing Wall at its recovery. He was Golda Meir’s choice for the top rabbinical post (most of the world’s Jews, nearly 84 per cent, are Ashkenazim).

Goren is also known for his stand against Israeli civil marriages and for his antagonism to “Christian-Jewish dialogue” (see August 25 issue, page 41). He said he did not intend to deviate “one iota” from ancient Jewish law.

Yosef’s goal is to “restore the rabbinate … to its former glory.” Less flamboyant than Goren, he got exposure when he ruled that slacks—previously outlawed—were less indecent than mini-skirts for Israeli army women.

The two rabbis (both of them defeated incumbents, a first in Israel’s rabbinic circles) have some hard problems to consider, problems left unsolved by their predecessors. Among these are civil marriage, divorce, conversion, and most difficult of all, the definition of a Jew. Goren seems confident that his tenure will bring solutions.

Objection Overruled

American missionary-evangelist Spiros Zodhiates, head of the American Mission to Greeks, was acquitted of charges of proselytism in a trial in Pyrgos, Greece, but was found guilty in another trial of making unauthorized appeals for funds. Both he and George Constantinidis, his embattled Greek associate (see June 9 issue, page 47, and August 11 issue, page 39), were sentenced to five months in jail. They are free pending appeal.

The charges were brought by Archimandrite Germanos Paraskevopulos of Pyros. He alleged that newspaper ads placed by Zodhiates sought to convert Greek Orthodox readers to Protestantism. The ads held that salvation was by faith alone, he complained, whereas Orthodoxy teaches that salvation is only in the Greek Orthodox Church and that sins must be confessed before an Orthodox priest. Arguments centered on what Orthodoxy really teaches.

Two Orthodox priests of the Patriarchate of Alexandria testified on behalf of Zodhiates. They revealed that two Greek Orthodox newspapers published in Cairo and Alexandria carried the ads. Both papers are financially supported by the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Alexandria, who would have intervened to forbid publication had he disagreed with their content, they argued.

A Pyrgos church official informed Patriarch Nicolaos of Alexandria about the priests’ testimony; the pair later received a registered letter dismissing them from service in the patriarchate.

It was the second time in three years that Zodhiates won anti-proselytism cases in Pyrgos. But in a succeeding trial, it was established that Constantinidis received a $4 donation from a Pyrgos evangelical in response to an ad appealing for funds for mission workers in West Irian, New Guinea. The archimandrite pointed to a law forbidding such public appeals without special permission from the Greek Ministry of Welfare. Zodhiates said he had never heard of the law before and pointed out that contributions had been received from other parts of Greece with no hassles from the government. Other journalists testified that they regularly publish such appeals without permission. The public prosecutor moved for acquittal, but the judge went ahead with sentencing.

Bible Breakthrough

A breakthrough in Bible distribution in Eastern Europe through official and legal channels was reported at the twenty-fifth anniversary meeting of the United Bible Societies in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A UBS regional secretary said Bible work had tripled in Eastern Europe in the past five years and is progressing without hindrance in all Iron Curtain countries except Albania. Modern speech versions are being prepared in Yugoslavia, Hungary, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia. Four translations are in process in the Soviet Union. Distribution is mainly through churches, but some bookstores are selling Bibles.

A total of 176 delegates from seventy countries attended the World Assembly, the UBS’s first. Emperor Haile Selassie, who brought greetings, was given a historical catalog listing the 1,399 languages into which at least one book of the Bible has been published.

A goal of distributing 500 million Bibles worldwide annually by 1980 was set. Another aim is to prepare Scripture selections for use in literacy programs in thirty-two new languages each year. Last year 181 million Bibles and portions were distributed throughout the world.

The UBS seeks to coordinate the program of fifty national Bible societies at work in more than 150 countries.

DECOURCY H. RAYNER

Brethren In Spain

Taking advantage of Spain’s new Law of Religious Liberty, delegates to the twenty-sixth annual meeting of the nation’s Plymouth Brethren booked a downtown Madrid theater for a public evangelistic rally. Well-known Brethren evangelist Fernando Vangioni of Argentina preached to a packed house, and more than one hundred prayed to receive Christ at the invitation. Many Scripture portions were distributed, and numerous Christian books were sold at the theater’s entrance.

It was an evangelistic first for the Brethren, Spain’s largest Protestant denomination (ninety-five churches with 120 full-time workers). Brethren assemblies sprouted throughout the northwest and northeast regions soon after the arrival of the first resident British missionaries in 1868, but groups date from 1836 in Madrid.

JOSE FLORÉS

Liberation—Still The Agenda

Since most of the sixth annual convention of the 800-member National Committee of Black Churchmen was closed to the press, there were few things for reporters to write about. Executive director J. Metz Rollins, Jr., said discussion centered on a re-evaluation of the committee’s role in the black liberation movement. Seattle Baptist pastor Gil Lloyd was elected president.

Afterward, about one-third of the 150 clergymen and laymen attending staged a commemorative march from American Methodism’s first Methodist church, located on John Street in New York, to the site of the first African Methodist Episcopal church. Brooklyn A.M.E. Zion pastor Calvin B. Marshall recalled that 176 years earlier black founders of the A.M.E. church had left John Street to “find a place where they could worship God under their own vine and fig tree.” The black church is still struggling for the liberation of blacks, he asserted.

Rollins called on blacks to resist oppression “with whatever tool you have at hand.”

CHRISTMAS CHOICE

The United States Postal Service has again issued two Christmas stamps, one with a secular (Santa Claus) and one with a religious theme. The religious stamp depicts a detail from a National Gallery of Art painting, “Mary, Queen of Heaven,” by an unknown sixteenth-century painter. The print order calls for one billion stamps each, the largest ever for Christmas stamps or any other commemorative issue.

GLENN D. EVERETT

Singing In Our Church

Millions of television viewers know that God’s eye is on the sparrow because of a bubbling black woman who had all eyes on her at a testimonial-birthday dinner (she is 76) in Los Angeles last month. Accompanied by Billy Graham pianist Tedd Smith, Miss Ethel Waters sang the famous spiritual to the more than 1,000 wet-eyed attendants.

Among the guests were Billy Graham and his wife, Bop Hope, Hugh Downs, who served as master of ceremonies, Julie Harris, with whom the singer worked in Member of the Wedding, and Tricia Nixon Cox, representing the President and his family.

The tribute also marked Miss Waters’s sixty years in show business. Guests previewed Time to Run, a film of her life made by World Wide Pictures, an arm of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Organization.

Graham presented her with a silver plate engraved, “With love and appreciation for fifteen years of singing in our church.”

Learning The Hard Way

Oregon priest Emmet Harrington, director of education of the Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, learned the hard way about the way it is in the Catholic Church.

Harrington had released four doctrinal guideline booklets that, according to Archbishop Robert J. Dwyer, “did not conform to the doctrines of the church.” With that, the archbishop suspended the Catholic educator.

The offending pamphlets dealt with penance, baptism, confirmation, and communion. Dwyer said the booklet on baptism minimized the doctrine of original sin. The one on communion covered its aspect as a community meal but not as the sacrifice of Christ (the essence of the Mass), he asserted; it therefore minimized Catholic belief in the communion elements. As for the pamphlet on penance, the archbishop said it rejected the obligation for individual confession—contradicting a specific directive he had issued.

Dwyer reconsidered his decision after six days of conferences with Harrington and his staff. In a compromise statement the education director agreed to withdraw the controversial “source books” from circulation and to submit all future teaching materials first to the archbishop for approval.

One Million Watts

Application has been filed with the Federal Communications Commission by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) for permission to operate a one-million-watt shortwave radio station from a mountain on the island of Maui, Hawaii. If granted, it would be the most powerful privately owned shortwave station in the world, capable of covering most of the South Pacific and the Far East.

The FCC, however, has had a freeze on new applications for years because of a shortage of frequencies, the complicated technology involved, and the need for new rules, according to an FCC official. He says the new rules should be out by June. Frequencies are assigned through mutual agreement with other nations that have signed the International Radio Agreement. (The Communist-bloc nations have not signed.)

Currently there are only three private shortwave stations operating in the United States: WNYW, a Mormon station in Massachusetts beaming its programs to Europe; Far Eastern Broadcasting Company’s KGEA in Belmont, California, an evangelical missionary station; and WINB in Red Lion, Pennsylvania. The latter is owned by Bible Presbyterian minister John Norris of nearby York; it operates at 50,000 watts of power, beaming five hours of gospel and conservative political broadcasts daily to Africa and Europe. (Norris also owns WGCB of Red Lion, an AM station involved a few years ago in the Supreme Court’s landmark decision upholding the FCC’s “Fairness Doctrine.”)

The BGEA project has been on the drawing board for twelve years, said a spokesman. Building estimates exceed $2 million. A 1,100-acre site on the slopes of Mt. Kailili has already been acquired. If the facility is built, a curtain antenna will be suspended between two 500-foot towers on the property in order to radiate the million-watt signal. (The largest government-run stations operate at 250,000 watts.) Programming will include educational, news, and cultural broadcasts, as well as religious ones. Studios of KEIM will be used; it is a 5,000-watt AM station in Honolulu owned by evangelicals. Broadcasts will cover South Pacific islands never before reached by such a station, said the Graham spokesman.

In other radio matters, Moody Bible Institute has applied to the FCC for a license to operate a 100,000-watt educational FM station in southern Florida. WMUU-AM and WMUU-FM, operated by Bob Jones University, have refiled for license renewal (held up since 1969), claiming management is trying to hire blacks and increase minority-group programming. And a federal court upheld an FCC decision to withhold renewal from WXUR of Media, Pennsylvania, owned by Faith Seminary in suburban Philadelphia. The case’s central figure is controversial radio preacher Carl McIntire, Faith’s president and de facto station director.

GLENN D. EVERETT

Modest Ecumenism

Lutherans and Episcopalians have taken a “modest” step toward pulpit and altar fellowship. In a report released last month, theologians of both traditions unanimously recommended that intercommunion on the local level be initiated.

After three years of talks the nine Lutherans and nine Episcopalians stated that the two denominations are in essential agreement on the primacy and authority of the Bible, the doctrines of the two creeds, justification by grace through faith, baptism, and the apostolicity of the church, though the latter proved somewhat controversial. Traditionally, Episcopalians have doubted the validity of ordinations not performed by a bishop who was himself not ordained “in apostolic succession.”

Each side submitted a paper to the theological studies division of the Lutheran Council in the U. S. A. The Lutheran paper, signed by members representing the three major Lutheran bodies (the Lutheran Church in America, the American Lutheran Church, and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod), stated, “If we do not yet recommend complete altar and pulpit fellowship, we do believe that we have examined sufficient areas in sufficient depth, and have found sufficient agreement, to take the recommended modest steps.”

A Lutheran press spokesman said that intercommunion on the local level is happening now “and has been happening for some time, but it’s extralegal.” Each of the Lutheran presidents must decide how he wants to handle the report. “It will take convention action to make it official policy” of the three participating bodies, the spokesman said. He added that this will probably be “very easy to get for the LCA and the ALC, though Missouri might balk.”

Recommending intercommunion before all doctrinal matters have been considered is “not the tradition among Lutherans,” the theologians said. Indeed, this is the very problem raised by Missouri in discussing union or pulpit and altar fellowship with the LCA and the ALC. If intercommunion is “officially” accepted, it may appear that Lutherans can agree more easily with Episcopalians than with one another.

Many churches and mission boards, some with a tradition of church-state separation, may not care to admit it, but they are getting money from government agencies in both Canada and the United States to help fund overseas programs. There are strings attached: the church agencies must agree to use the money solely for development of needy countries and not for proselytism. It comes from the U. S. Agency for International Development (AID) and from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Some groups—World Vision, Christian Children’s Fund, and Lutheran World Relief—collect from both governments by having both Canadian and U. S. offices. World Vision, for instance, gets more than $1.4 million from the Canadian government plus another $250,000 in ocean freight subsidies from Washington.

Both governments demand that the grants be given to specific overseas development programs. Both require accountability, involving reams of paper work.

An AID official said his agency tries to safeguard the independence of each mission and church organization. “They may get into trouble with their constituency if they’re too involved with government,” he said. “We respect that and would never consciously try to jeopardize that independence.”

In the 1970–71 fiscal year, CIDA helped twenty-one religious organizations, including eleven distinctively evangelical groups. Among the aided are Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship ($30,000), The Evangelical Church ($50,000), Overseas Missionary Fellowship ($390,000), the Sudan Interior Mission ($615,000), and the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada ($1,400,000). Many U. S. groups receive food under the PL480 plan (a public law superseding the Food for Peace plan), ocean freight subsidies, and surplus government property at home and abroad. Agencies getting aid last year included the American Mission to the Greeks ($4,000), Christian Children’s Fund ($158,000), Mennonite Central Committee ($270,000), World Relief Commission of the National Association of Evangelicals ($1.1 million), and World Vision ($260,000).

Most aid is for programs in health, education, and agriculture in developing nations, explained the AID source. Africa, he said, is the target of the most highly organized programs, but Asia receives more money “primarily because of the vast amount of aid sent to Bangladesh.” Once the food (mostly grains) and supplies arrive at the designated country, the volunteer organizations are completely responsible for them. “They arrange for shipment inland, distribution, and conversion of grains into foods. And we have a very rigorous body of rules to account for every ounce. We have all kinds of audits.” Each group must also prepare financial statements once a year showing how much is spent overseas, and how much goes into administration.

To qualify for the money, church agencies must agree to a non-proselytizing rule. The government cash and supplies must not be used in conjunction with preaching or conversion but strictly within the development program. Most groups, noted the AID man, seem to conform. “There’s a very clear demarcation between the proselytizing and the relief services.”

Among the strong church-state separatist groups is the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Nevertheless, in the 1971 report of AID’s Voluntary Agencies Division, the church is listed as receiving more than one million dollars’ worth of donated food under PL480 plus another $400,000 in subsidized shipment of the food to the designated countries. The church’s $1.7 million government assistance amounts to nearly 40 per cent of its $4.6 million overseas aid funds.

In addition to receiving government cash for specific programs, many of the church agencies are also often hired by the government to run projects the government conceived and sponsors. The NAE’s World Relief Commission received $14,000 under this system of government contract in 1970, while the Christian Children’s Fund earned $158,000.

Biggest AID recipients are the Catholic Relief Services ($83 million), Church World Service of the National Council of Churches ($11.2 million), and Lutheran World Relief ($5.1 million). In Canada, CIDA’s biggest handout went to the Canadian Council of Churches, which represents most of the major non-Catholic churches. It amounted to approximately $12 million. Other big recipients were the Christian Children’s Fund of Canada ($1 million), the Mennonite Central Committee ($1 million), the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada ($1.4 million), and the Unitarian Service Committee of Canada ($1 million).

Most agencies also seek private contributions in addition to the AID and CIDA grants. While AID gives $200 million annually to non-governmental private agencies, about $325 million (including $200 million for Israel from American Jews) is raised in the private sector through fund-raising appeals, direct mail, and advertising. (CIDA gives approximately $9 million while another $35 million is raised privately.) Ostensibly, with such government help, more of the private donations can be used to pay staff salaries, purchase expensive headquarters equipment, and maintain modern office facilities.

Government aid is not limited to overseas work. In Canada, CIDA and other government bodies help with domestic programs too. In the United States, churches and home mission boards can receive financial aid through ACTION (the combined Peace Corps and Vista programs), the Office of Economic Opportunity, and the Department of Labor’s JOBS program. Again, aid is given only to designated non-proselytizing programs.

Few groups are willing to publicize the government handouts, mostly because of fears that church-state separatists may stop giving.

Private volunteer agencies—partially subsidized by government money—may soon be the major vehicle of American foreign aid. Government-sponsored aid projects are being curtailed in many countries as their capacity for self-development increases. Churches and church-related bodies, however, are still able to enter most countries with development programs. As a result, AID is planning to expand its grant program to private agencies. Churches and para-church agencies are among the groups most likely to receive the cash.

Thump In The Night

The other night I was lying in bed with the lovely euphoria that comes over you when you’re tired and you’ve finally gotten settled in the perfect position with the pillow at just the right angle and you’re just beginning to slip into the arms of Morpheus.

“What’s that?” asked my wife, sitting up in bed.

“What’s what?” I said drowsily.

“That thumping.”

I was on the verge of giving the old comic-strip response, “Oh, it’s probably only a burglar.” But I decided future happiness lay down another road. So I replied, “It’s probably just the water pipes or something.”

“What would make water pipes thump?”

If there’s anything maddening it’s the female insistence on logic at midnight.

“I’ll go check,” I said with less than enthusiasm.

A complete round of the house turned up no satisfactory explanation. All the entrances were securely locked. As I climbed back into bed my wife asked, “Did you find anything?”

“Nothing.”

“Did you check everywhere?”

“Everywhere.”

“The laundry room?”

“Everywhere.”

“What do you think it was?”

“A playful poltergeist.”

“Be serious.”

“All right, but wouldn’t it be nice if we still believed in goblins? Then we could just ask the Lord to deliver us from goblins and ghosts and things that go bump in the night and go back to sleep.”

“I guess,” she said doubtfully.

Lying there trying to go back to sleep, I thought of all those nights when my sleep has been disturbed by something going bump in my soul.

Someone has commented that there are times in the middle of the night when he’d sell himself for a nickel and give three cents change. This 2 A.M.angst is perhaps primarily an affliction of the young adult, and most adult Christians have been through it at some time or times.

The Psalmist reminds us that those who dwell in the shelter of the Most High are not to fear the terror of the night. Jesus is Lord even at two in the morning.

EUTYCHUS V

GOOD THINKING

The two [September] issues of your magazine seem to me to be Christian magazine writing at its best. The writers are trained thinkers in science and theology and the Bible.… The necessity to reconcile “Genesis man” with science is so often put before the Christian. Robert Brow (“The Late-Date Genesis Man,” Sept. 15) turns this around.… I have just reread Lecomte du Nouy’s Human Destiny, and I think he has tried to do just that. The evolutionary scientist should face the fact that the real problem of man’s evolution is his moral and spiritual self.… The article on education (“Christian Schools: Whole Truth For Whole Persons”) is of the same caliber. Du Nouy’s chapters on education and instruction fit in so well with Lockerbie as I understand them both. Congratulations and good wishes for CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

THE REVEREND F. L. COLEMAN

Naugatuck, Conn.

PORTRAYING PAUL

I very much appreciated the brief but vivid description of the majestic Apostle Paul by John Pollock in your August 25 issue (“The Man From the Damascus Road”). Pollock is to be congratulated on the warmth and depth of his portraiture of Paul. Truly, “a well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one”—and Pollock achieves the former through the latter of Paul, who was totally yielded to the will of God.

Memphis, Tenn.

WALLACE E. JOHNSON

ONLY A MOMENT

I just finished reading the September 15 issue and it only takes a moment to say “thank you.” I have just finished a manuscript on the youth movement and related subjects—mainly the related subjects of the Canon, God-Language, and The Will of God.

I very much like the way Dr. Lindsell treated the Canon (“The Infallible Word,” Aug. 25 and Sept. 15).… The type of higher criticism of the last century is deadly, but a form of bibliolatry which assumes an anti-intellectual stance undermines, as well. That is why I recommend your magazine to everyone I know—it has a marvelous balance.

MERLE ALLISON JOHNSON

The United Methodist Church

Siloam Springs, Ark.

The points of philosophical and theological tension change from generation to generation and sometimes even more often than that, but the focal point of resolution is always, “What do you think of the Written Word?”

This brings up a related problem: What is an evangelical?… The answer … must go something like this: An evangelical is one who signs an evangelical statement of faith … plus. And it is the plus-factors which make the difference. What are the plus-factors?They include, among other things, one’s attitude and concern for the Written Word, the Person and Work of Christ as revealed in that Word, and biblical evangelism. And it is these attitudes and concerns together with the statement of faith that produce around the person and his institution a climate, a warmth, which make the difference between being or not being an evangelical.… The attitudes and concerns you expressed for “The Infallible Word” were so well put I felt I must add my comment and commendation. Thank you.

WARREN FILKIN

Dept. of Practical Theology

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Deerfield, Ill.

I have been an avid reader of CHRISTIANITY TODAY for several years, usually reading each issue cover to cover. Even though I consider most of the articles to be outstanding examples of contemporary evangelical scholarship, I want to comment on two articles in recent issues—“Contemporary Theology and ‘Church Material’” (Aug. 11) and “The Infallible Word” (Aug. 25, Sept. 15). Not only did they present the subject material in an understandable and scholarly manner; they were very helpful to me in two ways. First, they gave me a better understanding of the Bible and answered some of my questions about its authority, trustworthiness, etc., and second, they provided source material for a Christian leadership course I am teaching to the Sunday-school leadership in my church.

A regular feature of your magazine also deserves special comment. That is Dr. Bell’s column, “A Layman and His Faith.” Almost without exception I find his articles challenging, stimulating, and edifying. I usually clip them out to save for future reference and rereading.

Atlanta, Ga.

ROBERT C. RENCHER, JR.

THE LONG AND THE SHORT

With reference to the review of Speaking in Tongues by Felicitas D. Goodman (Sept. 29): again I am appalled at a so-called psychological study of speaking in tongues which is so long on conclusion and so short on scholarship. That anyone could draw such broad conclusions from such a limited sample … would astound any expert on statistics and polls. And that a university press would print such a study adds to the shock! And although I would like to think that all “practicing glossolalists” are well adjusted, this is just as fallacious as the rest of the conclusions. After all, those who speak in tongues are still very much human.…

If the good doctor would make a complete study, especially consulting missionaries, she would discover that many nationals who have never heard much less “learned or acquired” English do speak in tongues in English. And the marvel of it, as just explained to me by a missionary from Dahomey, is that nationals who have been trained to fear their gods receive the experience and speak in tongues of their love for God—in English!

CARL G. CONNER

First Assembly of God

Winston-Salem, N. C.

Dr. Goodman’s cases as listed in the review appear to me to be from other than “mainstream” glossolalists. William Samarin’s data (Tongues of Men and Angels, Oct. 13) is not disclosed. When he does deal with accounts of identified languages, only two are cited, and they are not cases in which the language was actually translated. With all of the cases I have heard of languages identified, the language is actually translatable. There is a wealth of literature available in which a “tongue” is identified. Although they are not technical publications, it seems reasonable to me that they are reliable resource documents for starting the required research. Letters to the authors to get names of the individuals involved would lead the researcher to interview and evaluate direct evidence of actual translations of tongues. I refer particularly to John L. Sherrill’s They Speak With Other Tongues. There are a number of instances recorded in his book of identification by translation. This is also true of Dennis J. Bennett’s book, Nine O’Clock in the Morning.

The reviewer of Dr. Goodman’s book points out two major conclusions. The first, that “glossolalia is learned or acquired from social and cultural environment,” is incorrect in my experience. Perhaps it is true of the areas she sampled, but again I cite some of the current publications which point out clearly that this is not the case—these languages are not learned, but given by the Lord. Read Face Up With a Miracle by Don Basham and A New Song by Pat Boone.

I appreciated Felicitas Goodman’s assurance that “practicing glossolalists are well adjusted people, who aside from speaking in tongues behave normally in their communities.” It is also with pleasure that I read William Samarin’s acceptance of “spiritual validity” in tongue speaking.

TED L. BRADSHAW

North Alfred Baptist Church

Alfred, Me.

ON THE EASTERN EDGE

Referring to your news item in the September 15 issue (Personalia), let me underline the importance of Nagaland,on the eastern edge of India, which Billy Graham will visit in November. It is the one state in India on its way to becoming substantially Christian. Of the total population of 409,824, 247,069 are Christians. The rest of the people seem likely to become Christians. In sharp contrast to the rest of India, most government administrators, legislators, judges, and professional men are Christians. American Christians may rejoice at the progress of the Gospel in this small but important part of Asia.

DONALD MCGAVRAN

Fuller Theological Seminary

Pasadena, Calif.

PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

The article “The Late-Date Genesis Man,” by Robert Brow (Sept. 15), calls attention to the speculations of Erich von Däniken, focuses attention on the serious problems of the earliest biblical periods, and makes some interesting suggestions.

First of all, one should not have to remark that Däniken’s fantastic theories are utterly groundless. The great pyramids of Egypt, though they are amazing constructions, did not take several hundred years to build.…

Secondly, the problems which Brow deals with are indeed quite serious issues which defy easy solution if one assumes the traditional doctrine that Adam was the physical progenitor of mankind. Brow’s proposal, while avoiding the problem of the very early dates set forth by anthropologists for the earliest hominids, relegates all Old Stone Age to New Stone Age “men” (down to 4000 B.C.)—with high levels of culture including art (cave paintings in Spain and in France, 10–15,000 B.C.), the development of agriculture and towns (Jericho, 7000 B.C.), and traits of magic and religion … to the status of pre-Adamic “animals.” The recently discovered Tasaday in the Philippines and some of the aborigines in New Guinea are tribes with Stone Age cultures who are nonetheless quite human.

Thirdly, the solution proposed by Brow overlooks the continuities of human culture from the Paleolithic through the Chalcolithic periods. His suggestion that the end of the Early Dynastic period (2250 B.C.) and the Old Kingdom of Egypt (2200 B.C.) may be related with a universal flood, which he dates to 2244 B.C., is wide of the mark. The Early Dynastic Sumerian period was ended by the new Akkadian dynasty, and the Old Kingdom of Egypt was ended by feudalistic decentralization and famine. The cataclysmic explosion of Thera has no bearing on this problem.

The problems of Adam’s date and his relation to anthropoid skeletons have been discussed in more detail by specialists in several issues of the Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation:

1. James M. Murk, “Evidence for a Late Pleistocene Creation of Man,” 17 (1965), 37–49.

2. George R. Horner, “The Bible and Human Evolution: Problems in the Classification and Change in Man,” 19 (1967), 105–11.

3. E. Pearce, “Proto-neolithic Adam and Recent Anthropology,” 23 (1971), 130–39.

4. George J. Jennings, “The Tasaday and the Problem of Social Evolution,” 24 (1972), 58–63.

EDWIN M. YAMAUCHI

History Department

Miami University

Oxford, Ohio

NO PLACE

I have been a reader of CHRISTIANITY TODAY for many years and have found some very helpful articles in it from time to time. I am now registering my disapproval of the comic section “What If …,” because many of the cartoons in it have made light of Bible truths. The cartoon in the September 29 issue about Potiphar’s wife and Joseph is vulgar, and has no place in a Christian magazine.

THE REVEREND L. J. KEELS

Ocala, Fla.

FESTIVAL DISSENT

As a participant in the Jesus Joy festival held last Labor Day I felt Cheryl Forbes’s news story “Jesus Joy Revisited” (Sept. 29) was unfair to Moishe Rosen.

She stated that when Rosen talked about “freedom for Soviet Jewry and the integrity of the borders for the state of Israel” the crowd lost interest. As a Gentile Christian sitting in the audience I feel that this statement is false. I was there and shouted my approval along with the crowd as Rosen spoke about Israel.

A Jewish person reading the story would undoubtedly feel that the crowd was cool or unsympathetic to Jewish people and Jewish causes, when in fact the crowd was pro-Israel and the Jewish people, cheering with enthusiasm as Moishe Rosen and Charles Russo spoke to these issues.

San Rafael, Calif.

MIRIAM SLEICHTER

UNSCIENTIFIC?

John W. Montgomery showed exactly that presuppositionalists are correct when he admitted to having “an especially powerful bias” which influenced his scientific views (“How Scientific Is Science?,” Current Religious Thought, Sept. 29). For presuppositionalists rightly say that every man has a world and life view that affects his thinking and actions.

Science can be done because we know that God created the earth and sustains it. Science done on any other basis must irrationally hold to abstract ideas of unity and diversity. This does not “reduce all science to metaphysics,” as Montgomery claims. Rather, it means that we scientifically move from the known to the unknown. We don’t “refuse to admit the sure reality of scientific discoveries,” but we point out that certain things are true and real (God, creation, revelation), and therefore, our science is meaningful.

Montgomery seems to want to start with the non-Christian’s irrational explanation of the world and to argue to the truth of the Bible. But until he starts with the biblical revelation which he knows is true, he is unscientific!

Roger W. Schmurr

San Diego, Calif.

ON LAW AND GRACE

I am saddened, not because I find fault with your ultimate aims, but because your philosophy undermines what should be the ultimate aim of the evangelical (“Assignment For Christian Citizens,” Editorials, Sept. 15). As an evangelical my … obligation is to proclaim the love of God in Christ Jesus, and that as a free gift, sure, firm, and worthy of my total trust.

And yet your suggestion that the evangelical work for the civic elimination of hom*osexuality, prostitution, abortion, etc., only reinforces the opinon that most unsaved persons have of Christ’s religion—that it is a religion that only tells them what they cannot do. I cry every time some fool, in the name of Christ, preaches Law to men who have not yet heard Grace.…

But even if this whole country was made up of people living in the grace of Christ, I would still find it incomprehensible that a person who takes his Bible seriously could pontificate against something like abortion. It would take a totally perverted hermeneutic to say abortion is always wrong—no questions.… Further, while I will be the first to concede that prostitution, hom*osexuality, p*rnography, etc., are proofs that we live in a sinful world, I must affirm that they are no more sinful than gossip or boasting.

Columbus, Ohio

RODNEY JUELL

I strongly agree that there is a desperate need for Christian political action of some kind in the United States today, because God’s creation ordinances cannot be fully realized without lawful human response.

God’s creation ordinances need to be obeyed in matters of abortion, hom*osexuality, p*rnography, drugs, and prostitution. They also speak to matters such as the pollution of air, water, and land by our industrialized society. They concern the economic system which demands technological development at the expense of pure air, water, and land. And they concern the political system which upholds our present techno-economic development. God’s creation ordinances concern man’s task and view of work and therefore labor-management relations.… Thus U. S. domestic policy requires revision and change. Economic and political exploitation of the material and human resources of other countries also comes within the scope of God’s creation ordinances. Thus the whole area of U. S. foreign policy and international relations must be re-evaluated. I am not anti-technology or anti-progress (when “progress” is biblically defined), but both technology and progress must be tempered by respect and obedience to God’s creation ordinances.

ROBERT J. EELLS

Executive Secretary

Christian Government Movement

Pittsburgh, Pa.

A LOT TO LEARN

Howard W. Ferrin’s article “Manipulation or Motivation? Skinner’s Utopia vs. Jesus’ Kingdom” (Sept. 29) reflects an unfortunate misunderstanding of Skinner’s claims and a lack of confidence in the totality of the biblical world-view.

1. Skinner has attempted on several occasions to elucidate the difference between operant behavior and Pavlov’s respondent behavior. Ferrin apparently equates the two concepts.

2. It is not really “revolutionary” or “explosive” that a man like Skinner who apparently does not claim Christianity should set forth the notion that “poor” behavior is a result of a defective (not bad) environment and that no judgment should be brought against those who behave in such an undesirable way. Indeed, it is important that we see this attitude as a natural and rational consequence of a set of non-theistic presuppositions.

3. Why should Ferrin be puzzled by Skinner’s claim that man, who is controlled by his environment, also constructs that environment? Such a concept is common to all of us when we “decide” to improve some aspect of our behavior, e.g., “quitting smoking.”

4. It is unfortunate that the author has chosen so many clearly non-Christian sources to assist in the attack. It would not be unreasonable to note that Bertrand Russell was somewhat less than a strong advocate of a thorough-going Christian philosophy.

Atlanta, Ga.

JOSEPH T. PAGE

Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson drew from a great reservoir of personal determination. It was not an ostentatious determination, yet it served to inspire a generation of blacks and whites alike. He was the first black person allowed into big-league baseball, and by July 1 of his starting year he was leading the league in most times getting hit by a pitcher. He endured abuse for years without rancor or revenge. Instead he paid continued tribute to baseball magnate Branch Rickey, who went out on a limb for Robinson to right a wrong. Rickey was a high-principled man who refused to go to ball games on Sunday.

Robinson did not live to see the day when discrimination would be eliminated in professional athletics. When he died last month, there were still no black managers in major-league baseball and no black quarterbacks in professional football.

Toward Truth In Retiring

There was an interesting by-product of the investigation into the inexcusable (though understandable) disobedience of General John Lavelle, former commander of American air forces in southeast Asia. The public learned that when Lavelle was retired he was officially declared 70 per cent disabled, even though he had passed a medical examination allowing him to continue piloting only a few months before and had subsequently suffered no injuries. Moreover, it was learned that this is a common practice. High-ranking officers who are physically fit are nevertheless considered more or less disabled upon retirement, so that the corresponding proportion of their retirement pay is tax-exempt.

If the pensions paid to retired government employees are low, then they should be raised honestly. The present system makes a mockery of thousands of GI’s who are genuinely and severely disabled. Many disabled veterans need much more assistance to enable them to adjust to civilian life than they are now receiving.

Until President Nixon took office, it had long been the practice to conceal the budget of the White House staff by putting speechwriters and others on the payroll of other government departments, while in fact they were working directly for the President and in his office buildings. The same desire for straight-forwardness in paying the White House staff needs to be shown in paying those who have retired from military service.

Hunting For A Touchstone

A statement over the signature of President Nixon calls on Americans “during the occasion of National Bible Week to make the teachings of the Bible the touchstone of their lives.” “Touchstone” is a good word in this context. It refers to a hard, black rock once widely used to test gold and silver. The metal and stone were rubbed together, and the color of a resulting streak on the touchstone showed the quality of the metal.

Similarly for Christians, the Scriptures when applied to their lives show true worth in the sight of God. Indeed, the Bible sets a standard not only for behavior but for truth itself. The test for what is right and valid and meaningful is found not in experience or utility, as so many today are suggesting, but in Scripture.

National Bible Week, sponsored by the interdenominational Laymen’s National Bible Committee, falls this year on November 19–26 (November 19 is Bible Sunday). While the Bible is the book for all seasons, this observance serves to focus greater attention upon it.

The President’s statement declares that “it is especially fitting that full opportunity be provided the young people of America to grow in appreciation of the Word of God.” We might add here that it is especially fitting because the temper of our times deposits on the minds of youth an assortment of competing claims about the essence and foundation of truth. There is considerable skepticism about the Bible, both direct and indirect. Some discount it simply because they do not want to believe, some because it does not jibe with the world as they have come to know it. The most subtle skepticism, however, is that which purports to assign the Bible an element of validity, but not in the most apparent realm: what seems false according to our normal perception is ultimately true, on another level of reality.

Each of these attitudes comes to the Bible with a prejudice, and we maintain that you cannot come to God’s revelation expecting it to conform to an outside mold.

From Wasteland To Purgatory

In a twist on Newton Minow’s well-known characterization of television as a “vast wasteland,” a recent article in Variety argues that to date the general public has had little reason to consider religious radio and TV programming anything more than a “vast purgatory.”

The author, Charles E. Reilly, Jr., can perhaps be forgiven for this bit of rhetorical overkill (after all, no one is obligated to watch any kind of TV) in the interests of surfacing his main point. And the point is that the Church is failing to tap much of the great potential of radio and television. “We know,” he says, “that it is from radio and television that the public gets its information and forms its judgments on toothpaste, automobiles, politics, society, other nations, the global village—on just about everything in God’s world but God.”

Mr. Reilly speaks with expertise. He is former director of the National Catholic Office for Radio and Television and a consultant to the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications. And while again he may be exaggerating somewhat in assigning to the electronic media so much influence, there is little doubt that Christians have been using precious little of what influence is available. He notes some exceptions:

The scene is brightened only occasionally by a cultural triumph from a religious agency or by one of the attractive programs served up by evangelists Billy Graham or Rex Humbard. Churchmen can well afford to look to Dr. Graham for lessons in media “knowhow.” His TV programs combine the good news with showmanship. They are professionally produced, well publicized and positioned in high viewership time periods. They are consistently successful presentations. Graham has the numbers to prove it.

Reilly says Christian underexposure is not simply the fault of church leaders. “The foundations are there,” he observes. “It is really a question of just how the Churches can implement the programs of involvement.” He thinks that non-clergy communications experts must be persuaded to accept a new and very personal obligation to “spread the good news.” “The challenge for church leadership is to bring a sense of mission into the everyday lives of broadcasters, newspapermen and women, and film executives,” he asserts.

Reilly is pretty much on target as far as he goes. He seems not to understand, however, that communication of the Gospel by the laity entails a great deal more than simply providing professional help for special church-sponsored productions. Ideally, the Christian message should permeate everything the layman does. If it doesn’t, something else does. And unfortunately, many lay church people are unwittingly or otherwise helping to promote alien ideologies. It is not that they fail to be involved; but that they are involved in the wrong thing. Jesus said that “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

The principle holds true for any vocation, but it is particularly crucial in communications. Even if you regard the electronic media as suitable only for entertainment, you must grant that some kind of message comes through. There are plenty of churchmen working in the field. What messages are they communicating?

Buy Now

“Neither a borrower nor a lender be,” one father advised his son. When Count Talleyrand (who managed to hold on to high government posts under Bourbon kings, the revolutionary government of the first French Republic, and the Emperor Napoleon) was forced by a temporary loss of favor in France to spend some time in the newly established United States, he immediately noticed the tremendous importance of commercial credit in this country. Talleyrand foresaw the development of a whole way of life based on credit, but probably not even he imagined the lengths to which it could and would go.

America makes personal consumer credit available more readily and in larger amounts than any other country in history. A good deal of America’s national prosperity is based on the availability and use of credit of this type. “Selling” credit has become a marketing specialty in its own right. Within the space of less than a week, one of our editors reports being offered, by telephone and letter, pre-Christmas personal consumer credit totaling thousands of dollars with various stores and financial institutions.

It would be foolish and reactionary to suggest that personal credit facilities should be discontinued, or that Christians should never use them. But in view of the great temptation that easy credit offers, particularly to young families with limited means but ballooning desires, this is certainly one area in which Christians should both preach and practice the time-honored counsel of moderation. Paul wrote in Philippians, “I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content.… I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want” (4:11, 12). Our way of life, including so much “unquestioned credit,” shields many of us from ever knowing want. And many modern Americans, Christians included, have not yet learned the lesson of being content in plenty.

Perhaps a bigger dose of self-discipline could help us achieve a contentment like Paul’s. Evangelical Christianity has long rejected asceticism and self-denial as ends in themselves, as though they were in themselves somehow pleasing to God. But it should not thereby overlook the fact that these practices can still be useful not only for hardening the body but also for training the spirit.

‘Sensitive’ Security

Occasionally an editorial or article provokes vehement reactions from our readers. Recent examples are the editorial “Insecure Security” (July 28) and the follow-up article by Elgin Groseclose, “The Manna of Social Security” (Sept. 15). Most of the responses centered on the “lift Social Security gives.” One correspondent spoke of it as “a lifesaver for millions of retired people.” We do not deny that an effective system of social security is theoretically desirable and has become practically necessary—not least because, since it exists, people have come to depend on it. But we do deny that the present system is above criticism or incapable of being improved.

The indignant, sometimes almost frightened reactions to our criticism of the existing system remind us of the words of Professor Bror Rexed, head of the Swedish Directorate of Social Affairs: “Social welfare limits political action, because nobody will tolerate a threat to his benefits and the power of the Welfare State” (quoted by Roland Huntford in The New Totalitarians, Stein and Day, 1972). This is exactly what Sweden’s government wants, says Rexed. According to Huntford, in Sweden “social security … is the subject of obeisance by politicians, it is celebrated without end in the mass media as if it were some hallowed religious dogma that it was vital to assimilate for peace of mind.” Our mail suggests that in America, too, Social Security evokes an almost religious veneration. If we were disturbed at certain problems inherent in our present Social Security system, we are frankly alarmed at the many suggestions that it must remain above criticism, because, in effect, “nobody will tolerate a threat to his benefits and the power of the Welfare State.”

This is at bottom a religious issue, for the attempt to create an infallible security on earth easily slips over into a kind of idolatry. Let us not hesitate to take practical measures of social support for those not able to work, but let us beware of making such provision a hallowed dogma that is above criticism or correction. It is only God “who keeps faith for ever” (Ps. 146:6).

No Right To Be Born?

The state’s role in abortion underwent a new test in Maryland last month. A pregnant teen-ager who wanted to marry her boyfriend and bear the child ran away from home after her mother scheduled an abortion for her. Refused a marriage license because the boy is not yet eighteen, the girl, sixteen, was then put in jail and ordered by a court to undergo the abortion. Kent County circuit judge George B. Rasin, Jr., wrote in his decision, “The court does not believe it is in the interest of an unborn child to be born under these circ*mstances.” Thanks to the girl’s court-appointed attorney, Floyd Parks, who obtained an emergency hearing before an appeals court, Rasin’s decision was countermanded and the girl was ordered released from jail.

Since a Supreme Court decision earlier this year, it has been virtually impossible to execute anyone, even for the most vicious crime, anywhere in the United States. Yet here is a judge who feels he has the power to deprive an innocent, unborn child of life.

It is often argued that abortions ought to be lawful where necessary for the mental health of the mother. But what would have been the effect on this young woman? Obviously the state’s concern for “mental health” may be rather elastic. How long will it be before courts assume the right to determine that it is not “in the interest” of the invalid, the aged person, or the mentally handicapped to go on living?

Teachers In Turmoil

Hardly a soul goes into the teaching profession intent on getting rich. It is common knowledge that teachers join clergymen at the bottom of the professional salary heap—both still average less than $10,000. Until recent years, teachers took what they got and complained little. Now they are becoming very vociferous about what they feel they are entitled to, and we have a rash of strikes at the opening of every school year.

We wish there were some other way for teachers to air grievances effectively. But there is no denying that they have been left on the low end of the salary scale partly because they have not been as assertive as those in other vocations. They deserve a better deal. As long as we are committed to public education, we should recognize the great responsibility our teachers have and pay them accordingly. Especially in a society suffering as ours is from an epidemic of criminality, teachers need to be regarded as valuable practitioners of preventive medicine.

Toward Paradise Or Inferno?

A political campaign often arouses impossible hopes and unnecessary fears. Some hope that if a certain candidate is elected, he will usher in a wonderful new era; others fear he will plunge the nation, perhaps even the whole world, into darkness and destruction. As the consciousness of God’s power and of impending divine judgment has faded among Western peoples, the wildest hopes and fears have come to be attached to man-made promises and threats: those of science, technology, politics, medicine, psychology, and pollution, to name but a few.

A German evangelical scholar with a vast and detailed knowledge of the scene today speaks of all this as an “apocalyptic wave.” In an article in the German fortnightly Materialdienst, Dr. Kurt Hutten says that our age is one of “secularized eschatology.” Its visions of the future, whether glorious or gruesome, differ radically from the Bible’s in that they are completely independent of God—though often they count on the near-miraculous intervention of some hitherto unknown factor or powers. Among the glorious visions he mentions the world-wide “flying saucer” or UFO craze that began in 1947, promising the benevolent surveillance of a cosmic police force to protect man from some of his own worst tendencies. Other secular millennialists promise a wonderful future without the benefit of extraterrestrial aid: both Alan Tofler, in Future Shock, and Charles A. Reich, in The Greening of America, after portraying some of the immense crises that loom before us, promise a happy outcome.

Sometimes the secular millennialist’s vision of perfection looks suspiciously like a nightmare. Thus Burrhus F. Skinner’s recommendations for a world Beyond Freedom and Dignity imply such total and absolute control as to make us wonder at the coincidence that his first name is that of one of the Emperor Nero’s chief advisors.

Going beyond a secular apocalypse such as Skinner’s, which he somehow sees as a hopeful vision, many scientists frankly state that we are in the process of turning our earth into a poisoned hell. Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University has predicted that the planet may be completely uninhabitable by 1990; some others offer us only the hope that it will take a few decades longer. Jay W. Forrester of M. I. T. has computed seven “possible futures,” each of which runs into catastrophe sometime between 2020 and 2070.

What comfort is there for the Christian in all of this? He must reject the secularistic visions of a coming paradise as dangerous illusions. Anyone who takes the biblical view of man seriously knows better than to place any far-reaching hopes in human perfectability. The New Testament proclaims not an earthly paradise but the Kingdom of God. This kingdom will not be brought by men, whether scientists or politicians, but will arrive over their opposition and contrary to their calculations. The New Testament hope does not rest on the optimistic predictions of the first type of secular eschatology, and therefore it cannot be threatened by the second variety, which predicts not paradise on earth but total catastrophe. The New Testament promise in fact includes warnings of increasing turmoil, rebellion against God, and widespread destruction before his Kingdom comes.

Whether the this-worldly threats now being voiced by so many secular authors are in fact the next-to-last phase before the final, eschatological catastrophe is of course something we cannot say with assurance. In this unclear situation, Christians should beware of contributing to panic by adding to the predictions of doom, but must also avoid spreading an illusive tranquility by playing down the spiritual, political, and ecological crises of our age.

Up to a point, the Christian doctrine of the last things is more compatible with the secular prophecies of doom, for they agree that man is not about to solve his problems. Books like Charles Reich’s, by contrast, push optimism without evidence or even plausibility, and can rightly be called “opium for the people.” But the Christian, unlike the seers of secular apocalypses, knows there is more ahead of us than ecological or political catastrophe—there is the return of Jesus Christ.

Confident expectation of his return with power is the only message that can convincingly break through the gathering clouds of doom and destruction described by so many scientists and scholars. It is tragic that just when the ultimate failure of the most powerful and well-conceived secular visions is becoming evident, many churchmen are reducing the Christian message to a watery political hope.

Unless the Church can confidently point to one who can overcome the world and to his justice, it has nothing to offer a humanity fascinated and terrorized by increasingly realistic visions of approaching catastrophe. When a total breakdown of secularistic hopes threatens, it is not the time for the Church to serve up warmed-over dreams of human progress. Only the remnant of the Church that has not lost sight of the transcendent power of the personal God of revelation, the God who acts in history and is Lord of history, can offer real hope to frightened man.

No Longer Strangers

The sight of strangers in our midst—and the experience of being strangers ourselves—is no longer uncommon. The twentieth century has witnessed war, revolution, tyranny, and mass expulsion, and has also known the more benign but equally uprooting phenomenon of mass migrations of laborers. In the affluent nations, more and more people participate in mass tourism. Even when one is an invited or a paying guest, the sensation of being a stranger can be unpleasant and unsettling. The terms alienation and estrangement, though derived from words meaning nothing more sinister than “stranger” in the usual sense, have come to apply to deep psychological and spiritual problems.

Still more disturbing than being a stranger in a strange land is the sense of being a stranger in one’s own land, a feeling shared by members of many minority groups today. And even a majority may feel estranged. Indeed, does anyone really feel at home in this world?

Paul spoke to a similar sense of alienation and estrangement when he wrote to predominantly Gentile Christians in Ephesians. Almost exclusively little people, non-citizens in the Roman Empire, the Christians had little influence and almost no share in political power. The old, national varieties of paganism had lost their power to impart a sense of community, and the developing Gnostic religion told its adherents that the whole material world had been made by an alien power basically indifferent or hostile to man. This explains the tremendous sense of joy that came to these people when Paul told them, in effect, what the children’s hymn proclaims, “This is your Father’s world.”

Here lies the significance behind Paul’s singular association of two deeply theological evaluations of their pre-Christian condition, “having no hope and without God in the world,” with what might sound like a more tolerable estrangement, “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel” (Eph. 2:12). Paul knew that the deep sense of alienation required more to heal it than the message that we may be creatures of a Creator. Only Israel, God’s called and chosen people, stood in a child-parent relationship to the Creator. In Christ the Gentiles, a mixed multitude without any family claims, are grafted into the family stock of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Thus those who have received Christ are not merely, as it were, “naturalized citizens” of God’s universe, but “adopted children.” They belong not merely in the universe, as creatures, but to its Lord, as children.

In one sense, the Christian will always be a “stranger and a pilgrim” in the world, because the world order of this present age is hostile to God and to his people (John 15:18). But in a deeper sense, he knows that he alone can really feel at home in the Creation order, because he belongs to the household of the Creator. On the social, economic, political, and cultural level, we may find helpful measures to relieve, at least to some degree, the widespread sense of estrangement, but fundamentally it can be eliminated only when we learn that we are “no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone” (Eph. 2:19, 20). Only then can we really be “at home” in the world God has made, when we know that we can ultimately be “at home” with its Creator.

One of the familiar names for the Lord’s Supper is eucharist; another is communion. All Christians recognize the communion aspect of the ordinance, which has been observed in the congregation of Jesus Christ since its beginning (see Acts 2:42). But we are often less conscious of its eucharistic aspect. The Greek word eucharisteia was in use among Christians earlier than the Latin communio, simply because there were Greek-speaking congregations first. Today it has become a technical expression, so that we hardly remember its original meaning, “giving of thanks.” (A verbal form of the same word, eucharidzō, is in common use in modern Greek to mean “thank you.”)

As Christians we understand that, being sinners, we can have communion with a righteous God only through the atoning work of Christ. Therefore in the observance of communion, as Paul says, we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:26). We also understand that true communion or brotherhood between human beings is ultimately possible only because Christ has won forgiveness for human sin, which alienates us from one another as well as from God. But it seems less self-evident that Christians should call a ceremony representing what Christ has done for them thanksgiving.

In theory, thankfulness to God, unlike communion with him, should come easily to man. Philosophers of many nations have taught that reverence and gratitude toward God should flow naturally from man’s reason. But often it does not work out that way: Paul writes of the people of his own day, “Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God nor give thanks to him” (Rom. 1:21).

Man knows he did not make himself, and he experiences bounty and generosity in the gifts that nature bestows on him. Nowhere is this truer than in North America, where nature’s own rich gifts have been exploited and multiplied by technology to produce an abundance never before known by man. Yet thankfulness to God is not a marked characteristic of our individual or corporate life.

It seems that impersonal benevolence, no matter how generous and how unmerited, does not automatically inspire gratitude in human breasts. Instead, we are quick to complain that others may have received more, or deserved it less. Our suspicious nature is anxious lest what is given today be taken away tomorrow.

With this as a background, we can understand why the proclaiming of the death of Christ is the foundation not only for communion but also for true and unfeigned thanksgiving. For even when one recognizes—as the pagans often did—that one owes a debt of gratitude to God or to “heaven,” how can one know how to pay it? It was an Old Testament prophet who asked, “Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil?” (Micah 6:7), but the same question must also have been in the minds of many a thoughtful pagan as he multiplied his sacrifices, never knowing what or how much the gods required, or whether indeed they could ever be satisfied by his destruction or non-utilization of what was presumably already theirs.

The thanksgiving that is acceptable in God’s sight—and therefore the only thanksgiving that is a meaningful expression of our gratitude to him—consists not in spectacular performances but in turning to him, accepting his gift of salvation, and offering ourselves to him. The Psalmist writes,

What shall I render to the LORD

for all his bounty to me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation

and call upon the name of the LORD,

I will pay my vows to the LORD,

in the presence of all his people [Ps. 116:12–14].

And so it is that Christ’s redemptive work is the foundation not only for communion but also for thanksgiving. Through the sacrifice of Christ, we can approach God with confidence that we will neither be destroyed nor exploited but accepted.

In a richly endowed nation such as ours, in a time of peace and apparently continuing prosperity, there is much for which even secular man ought to render grateful thanks to a higher power. But the human heart remains suspicious or greedy in the face of all generosity until it has itself been renewed by the grace of God. Thankfulness to the divinity is always appropriate, but no matter how profusely expressed, it remains no more than mere religious politeness unless it is exercised in its proper context—that of the atoning work of Christ. It is this accomplished work of redemption that enables us to approach God not ostentatiously, as a kind of religious lobby, but simply, as children to their Father.

Second of Two Parts

Reports from visitors on politically arranged tours that everybody is happy in the New China simply do not square with the fact that “freedom swimmers” by the thousands readily risk their lives to exchange the glories of Mao’s utopia for the thirty-five square feet of resettlement space that Hong Kong provides for each refugee. Most flee in fear of reprisal for their own extreme deeds in local situations during the Cultural Revolution.

China has currently become a funding “sales point” for evangelical enterprises. But veteran China-watchers disagree sharply over the range and depth of evangelical effort, and they question the propriety of some promotional claims. Remarkable reports have been dispersed, including estimates that perhaps millions of evangelical believers survive in China, and that the underground Christian population may number as high as one in forty. Some Christian workers directly accuse others of exaggerating evangelical penetration and potential in Mao’s China, while those so accused insist that their critics distort the facts and know better.

The journalist George N. Patterson, former missionary to China, contends that reports of mass conversions and baptisms in China, and of the smuggling in of hundreds of thousands of Bibles from Hong Kong, are spurious. Patterson argues that most of these Bibles, promotionally funded as destined for Red China, are stored instead in church and school basem*nts in Hong Kong and environs, and that reports of vast multitudes of secret believers are self-refuting.

The China Bible Fund, established in Kowloon by George and Ruth Fox Holmes, claims to have distributed 380,000 Scripture portions and Bibles in Chinese during the past nine years to churches and agencies promising to redistribute these solely to believers going into mainland China. The Fox Holmeses contend that these Bibles reach their target, carried by returning evangelical students and Christians visiting relatives, especially by church members in the New Territories who make periodic visits, or by seamen traveling to Shanghai and fishermen who sell their catch in Hong Kong for higher prices but have permits to buy victuals in ports along the mainland China coast.

Customs officials have sporadically intercepted these Bibles, or held them for later pickup at time of emigration. In one case, a customs inspector, clearing a Bible, identified himself as a Christian. In another instance a departing student found the customs official reading a Bible that had been confiscated at entry. How many Bibles get across the border, however, is a moot point. Many of the Bibles sent to pastors in the New Territories for redistribution were actually put to use locally in worship services and in extension churches or in evangelical schools. But the Fox Holmeses insist that used copies are more readily deployed into China than new copies. More recently 20,000 copies have been printed in the new Simplified Script. In the New Territories, where the traditional script is used and the newer versions therefore have no commercial value, many of these Bibles reportedly are stacked away in the churches. These, in any case, would have to go into Red China new and unused. Perhaps half the 500 cooperating pastors, when questioned, openly say, “Surely you know that Communists are on the watch, and that it is quite impossible to get Bibles into China.” The Fox Holmeses say that these workers are merely being secretive.

In any event, some Bibles have indubitably gotten into China, and the Communist hostility to Christianity justifies some risk ventures, however unsure the returns. In some cases where young people had earlier left a Bible and led their families to Christ, house churches are known to have begun.

For two years the Bible Society has sponsored a radio program from Hong Kong broadcasting the Bible at dictation speed in the new Simplified Script, hopeful that copyists are making good use of these materials on Chinese soil. Far East Broadcasting Company has for years broadcast many hours daily in five languages to the Chinese people. Interviews with refugees have confirmed that there is at least some hearing of evangelical programs.

Any overview of the Christian situation in China remains exasperatingly incomplete. There seems to be considerably more tolerance of Christians along the seacoast of East China facing Taiwan. Although church buildings cannot be used for services, believers there meet as groups for worship services and the Lord’s Supper, and various evangelical clusters are quite aware of one another’s activities. But elsewhere in China, followers of the Risen Lord face greater risks.

Not infrequently Chinese evangelical believers returning on visas for short visits will report the winning of some kinsman to Christ, and others find that some relative or other has in the interim found the Saviour. Yet one Hong Kong girl of nineteen, a devout Roman Catholic, told me that she had recently visited her father after eight years’ separation, and that she found nobody practicing Christianity privately or publicly and remains to be convinced of more encouraging reports by others. Some refugees who have run the border blockades say that only in some few cities have churches survived; these are scant in number and represent mergers of members from several earlier works. Since group evangelism is prohibited and new members are disallowed, even these colonies are officially condemned to a slow natural death.

It is of course possible that mainland China shelters many secret believers—but who can confidently tell what is secret? The situation will alter somewhat if Fox Holmes, who served thirty years ago as a British consul-general in one of the Chinese provinces, can actually persuade Mao’s government, as he hopes, to permit the printing of the Bible in mainland China so it will not be derogated as a foreign book. Not a few China-watchers consider this an idle dream for the present.

A remarkable discovery of the Asian Congress on Evangelism, held in Singapore in 1968, was the evident refusal of dispersed Chinese in Asia to yield mainland China to an atheistic future. Today, when slits are lengthening in the bamboo curtain, one wonders whether Christians have perhaps wearied in prayer at a moment when God may be manifesting his power in new and unforeseen ways. There are some reasons for bright hope, and nobody has summarized them better than a Lutheran missionary, Anders Hanson, who was born in China and has served in Hong Kong for quarter of a century since mainland doors closed. What argues for an ongoing Christian future in China, he contends, is, first, God’s provision for the survival of his cause in lands where the Gospel has struck many roots, and then the ingenuity of the Chinese themselves in preserving globally what they believe, and doing so on an underground and subculture basis.

The ability to think, to reason, is one of God’s greatest gifts to man. With this faculty he can apprehend God’s revelation of truth, search out the mysteries of the world in which we live, harness the forces of nature, and understand the laws that govern them; in so doing he can realize more and more of God’s wisdom, power, and glory and at the same time advance the art of living.

Imagination is the ability to form mental images, conceptions, or notions and to devise theories from which practical applications may proceed. New inventions result from a combination of known factors with unproven theories until there is worked out a device with a specific use. Many of the great discoveries in science are the result of vivid imaginations.

We all owe much to the imaginative quality of the mind, which delivers life from the static into the realm of continuing material progress.

There is an area, however, where the imagination becomes an offense to God, the source of sinful acts of every kind. Our Lord pinpoints the fruits of evil imaginations in these words: “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man” (Matt. 15:19, 20).

Prior to the Flood, evil imaginations had run riot, with devastating effect: “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). Has the present world progressed in this area? What is God’s estimate of the imaginations of men’s hearts today?

The Bible makes it plain that the imagination permitted to roam at will is a destroying demon. Fed by the inward fires of lust, avarice, jealousy, pride, and selfishness, it is, even for the true Christian, the last frontier to surrender to the cleansing and redemptive work of the living Christ.

We Christians are prone to rationalize ungoverned imaginations with the excuse that no one knows of these thoughts and they are therefore marginal in their importance and effect; but the God with whom we have to do searches and knows every thought and intent of the heart, every imagination of the mind, every evil desire we harbor and even revel in. “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7) brings little comfort to those who would rationalize evil imaginations, for we are confronted with an all-knowing God who sees us as we are and not as we would have him, or man, think us to be.

This is an area where every Christian needs to do some real heart-searching. Certainly some people allow their imaginations to run unbridled and overactive, to conjure up evil thoughts, desires, and plans. Others let their imaginations lead them into useless and often harmful worry. The psychosomatic diseases have their origin as imagined ills. A characteristic of our world today is the feeding of the imaginative faculties of the mind through evil or suggestive pictures, books, and other stimuli.

How many of us would be willing to stand before a camera able to produce a picture, not of our outward appearance, but of the thoughts of the heart?

How many of us would dare stand in a court of justice to be judged, not by our acts, but by our imaginations?

God does know our thoughts; he knows the wicked imaginations we so readily foster. The Bible makes it plain that these things are to be conquered, to be overcome, as truly as are the outward sins of the flesh. In Second Corinthians 10:5 we read, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

This is not a matter of self-reformation any more than is our personal salvation. The fourth verse of the passage just quoted tells us, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.”

There must be a conscious act of substitution. Paul spells this out with the utmost clarity: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Phil. 4:8).

David permitted a temptation to give birth to an evil imagination. This led to adultery and then to murder. Later, under deep conviction and with a penitent heart he prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Ps. 51:10). David realized that his sins needed forgiveness and also a change of heart, and the same is true for us today.

There is no doubt as to Christ’s willingness to forgive, nor is there any limit to his mercy. He has provided the cleansing power of his blood, shed on Calvary, the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit, and the indwelling presence of that same Spirit, our continuing help in time of temptation.

That we are prone to presume on God’s grace is a matter of unfortunate experience. Secure in the knowledge that we have been redeemed, we have the tendency to feel that the victory is won and the battle ended, losing sight of the fact that while redemption is a once-for-all experience, sanctification is an unending process of growth into the likeness of the One who has redeemed.

The channeling of the imagination into right paths is a part of spiritual growth, just as the transformation of ideals and behavior is also a part of the renewing of our minds so that we may prove without question or doubt that which is “good and acceptable and perfect” in the will of God for us.

To practice the presence of Christ and see his beauty involves both our wills and our faith. During World War II, a mother visiting her son in boot camp was distressed to see the “pin-up” pictures that decorated the walls of his room. She said nothing but on returning home sent him a copy of Hoffman’s picture of Christ in the temple. Because it came from his mother, he hung it on his wall to please her. Day by day the picture haunted him because it seemed so out of place.

Finally there came the day when every “pin-up” was removed and there remained only the portrayal of his Lord.

Evil imaginations are an affront to the one we claim as Saviour and Lord. They should be cast down as any other idols, and in their place He should reign alone.