Ron Potter
Black people aided the colonies in their fight for freedom from England. But what happened to their rights?
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We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness … [Declaration of Independence, 1776].
The spirit of revolution had taken over colonial America. Revolutionary literature such as Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and John Locke’s Treatises of Government had inspired the hearts of thousands. Little did the freedom-loving colonists realize to what extent the enslaved sons and daughters of Africa were identifying with the revolutionary rhetoric.
On March 5, 1770, Sam Adams and his early American version of the “Weathermen” took to the streets of Boston in protest. As confrontation began between the British troops and the colonists, Crispus Attucks, a black former slave, was busy organizing the Bostonians. As Attucks and the mob of Bostonians approached the British troops, taunting them, the young and inexperienced soldiers lost control of the mob and opened fire. When the smoke cleared five men lay sprawled in the bloody snow—three dead, two mortally wounded. Crispus Attucks, who was “the first to defy and the first to die,” mistakenly thought that giving his life for American independence would result in his independence and that of his race.
Black slaves who had nothing to lose and everything to gain fought gallantly in the Revolutionary War. It is ironic that at the outset of the war General Washington had ordered that no blacks—slaves or freemen—could serve with his troops. This order was rescinded, however, when the British forces promised liberty to those slaves who would fight for the Empire.
Black people tried desperately to convince the American populace that they had as much right to liberty as anyone else. Phyllis Wheatley, Benjamin Bannecker, Prince Hall, Richard Allen, and scores of other blacks attempted to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Africans were equal to whites in mind and body. However, no amount of argumentation would persuade the slave-holding “founding fathers.” Years after American independence the ebony children of Africa would still be enslaved.
In light of the promise of liberty that has eluded black Americans for nearly three hundred years, what does the Bicentennial mean? Perhaps Frederick Douglass summed it up best when he stated some seventy-six years after the great Declaration:
What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license.… Go where you may … search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.
Suggested Bibliography
1. Bentley, William H., The National Black Evangelical Association: Reflections on the Evolution of a Concept of Ministry (2150 W. Madison, Chicago, 1974). The only historical interpretation of the NBEA in print today. Essential reading for those who want to know about black evangelism.
2. Cone, James H., Black Theology and Black Power (Seabury, 1969), A Black Theology of Liberation (Lippincott, 1970), and God of the Oppressed (Seabury, 1975). This “trilogy” by perhaps the most prolific black religious thinker today will give the reader an adequate understanding of contemporary black theology.
3. Franklin, John Hope, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Black Americans (Random, fourth edition, 1974). Perhaps the most comprehensive history of black Americans to date. “Must” reading.
4. Jordan, Winthrop D., The White Man’s Burden: Historical Origins of Racism in the United States (Oxford, 1974). Derived from Dr. Jordan’s classic work, White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro 1550–1812. Essential for understanding the historical antecedents of racism in America.
5. Lincoln, D. Eric, ed., The Black Experience in Religion (Doubleday, 1974). A splendid reference book on black religion, black theology, and black ecclesiology.
6. Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Grove, 1966). Very helpful for understanding the reasons behind black rage.
7. The Other Side, July-August, 1975 (Box 158, Savannah, Ohio 44874; 75¢). An issue devoted to “The New Black Evangelicals.” Presents the dynamics and issues of this new black Christian movement and its relation to the “young evangelicals.”
Ron Potter is director of the Grant Avenue Community Center in Plainfield, New Jersey.
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Last spring I conducted a seminar tour to Renaissance Italy. Europe was experiencing its seasonal rebirth; Christendom was celebrating Resurrection victory and Easter newness: everything conspired to reinforce the impact of that amazing epoch heralding the Reformation which John Addington Symonds referred to as “the fascination of a golden dream.” Our regular itinerary gave us Milan’s La Scala opera, the Byzantine magnificence of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, Petrarch’s home at Arqua, the breathtaking Giotto frescoes in Padua, and Florence over the Easter weekend. But an unscheduled theological “extra” was provided in the Renaissance capital: a dialogue of more than routine interest.
It was Easter Monday. On Easter day we had spent time with Riccardo Paul, who is carrying on valiant evangelical missionary work in Florence under the aegis of the Worldwide European Fellowship; then for two days we had made detailed visits to the Duomo, Ghiberti’s golden “doors of paradise” at the Baptistry of San Giovanni, Michelangelo’s David at the Uffizi, Santa Croce, and the house where Christian poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning lived.
Now, back at our pensione—once a Renaissance palace—we were assembled for one of my lectures. The subject: pre-Reformer Savonarola, who had been burned at the stake on May 23, 1498, and his ashes thrown into the Arno from the Ponte Vecchio. Just before the execution, the bishop declared: “I separate you from the Church Militant and from the Church Triumphant.” Replied Savonarola, in words worthy of Luther a generation later: “You may separate me from the Church Militant, but only God can separate me from the Church Triumphant.”
As may be evident, I am a Savonarola buff; but I recognize the friar’s inadequacies. In my lecture, I quoted his stinging Advent sermon of 1493, in which he condemned the luxury of the Roman church of his day and its indifference to the poor: “The first prelates … had fewer gold mitres and fewer chalices, for, indeed, what few they possessed were broken up to relieve the needs of the poor; whereas our prelates, for the sake of obtaining chalices, will rob the poor of their sole means of support.” I praised Savonarola for such “Law” preaching, but expressed regret that, unlike Luther, he had not been able to provide the positive counteractive: gospel preachment of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone. I emphasized that giving to the poor was no more Gospel than giving to the church: a man is saved not by anything he does but by what God has already done for him in Jesus Christ; and I noted that one of the greatest sources of weakness in the contemporary church is its confusion of social action with gospel proclamation.
As I spoke I noticed a scholarly fellow in the corner, trying (it appeared) to listen without seeming to listen. He looked like one of that perennial band of sabbatical Fulbright professors in rumpled tweeds studying everything from ancient Roman toilet graffiti to medieval entomology. Who did he turn out to be? A professor of systematic theology from the Garrett Theological Seminary (Evanston, Illinois; United Methodist; pretensions of being evangelical—I well remember my old acquaintance, the English Methodist Luther scholar Philip S. Watson, castigating his colleagues on that faculty for knowing little of Wesley or historic Methodist theology, to say nothing of Luther, whose Romans Commentary brought about Wesley’s conversion!). Needless to say, the professor (we’ll call him G, for Garrett) had not cared for my lecture. The following dialogue ensued:
G. Giving to the poor is not “Law.”
M. The proper distinction between Law and Gospel is, as Luther said, the distinguishing mark of the true Christian. We must never confuse justification and sanctification; all works are equally inadequate for salvation, no matter how socially beneficial they may be.
G. But works are a dimension of the Gospel.
M. “Dimension” is a current theological weasel-word; it implies a structural relationship. What structural relationship would permit works to contribute to salvation? Martin Luther King and company are entirely off base when they imply or suggest that serving the poor equals salvation.
G. Such unconscious works are saving; don’t you think they are done by God’s Spirit? Remember what Karl Rahner says about “secret Christians”—those who do God’s will though they may not realize it.
M. Like Nebuchadnezzar? Was Pilate saved because the Spirit led him to refuse to take down the superscription from the Cross? You are hopelessly confusing common grace with saving grace.
G. I reject that distinction; there are many good arguments against it.
M. And in behalf of it we have Luther, Calvin, and Scripture.
G. What about “giving a cup of water in Jesus’ name” (Matt. 25)?
M. Do you seriously think the passage means that one not knowing or accepting Christ is in a saving state because he does good from a loving motivation? What about Acts 4:12 (only the name of Jesus saves) and Romans 10:14 (how shall they hear without a preacher)? These passages can only be reconciled by the recognition that Matthew 25 speaks of Christians already saved by grace through faith who haven’t yet comprehended how their faith motivates them to do good works—who haven’t yet seen good works as the fruit of faith.
G. I don’t worry about reconciling Scripture. Do you really think the Bible presents a single, consistent theology?
M. Most definitely, the one Paul (Gal. 1:8) refers to when he says, “Though an angel from heaven—or a professor from Garrett?—preach any other Gospel than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”
G. Or a professor from your institution?
(Exeunt omnes.)
Present during my lecture were Pastor Paul and his gracious wife Laura. I thought of them—thirteen years in the barren, heartless, powerfully Communist mission field of Northern Italy. He had told me how hard it was for the two of them and their six children merely to survive the ethical dilemmas (for example, he was told that if he declared more than 60 per cent of his income for tax purposes he was crazy, for the government assumes everyone cheats and ups the declared income accordingly!).
His wife explained: “We want people here to see the difference in our lives. Then we can tell them about the Source of our strength and they will listen.”
Here were missionaries, like the apostolic company, whose very lives are predicated on the assumption that “secret Christians” don’t exist—that the Gospel must be preached in word. For them, as for the members of Savonarola’s Church Triumphant, God-honoring works are a fruit of faith, never a substitute for it.
JOHN WARWICK MONTGOMERY
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This issue gives voice to a segment of the black community. The writers cannot be said to be speaking for black Christians as a whole. But what you will read does portray what some of our black brethren are thinking and saying. Clarence Hilliard is an angry evangelical from Chicago who calls it as he sees it. Michael Haynes deals with the Boston busing impasse; he is a minister, a politician, and a board member of an evangelical college. The interview with John Perkins tells the story of one man’s pilgrimage against great odds. Finally, James Tinney describes black preaching style, one of the main differences between black and white worship services.
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The following account of a significant Christian youth gathering in Europe is based on reports filed by correspondents Robert P. Evans and Dale G. Vought, and on a dispatch by the Ecumenical Press Service.
At first glance, Mission ‘76 seemed like a replay of the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization. The site, the spacious Palais de Beaulieu in Lausanne, Switzerland, was the same. Both events were attended by several thousand participants concerned about reaching the world for Christ. But contrasts with the 1974 congress soon became apparent, too.
Most of the roughly 3,000 persons who gathered at Lausanne during the last week of 1975 were young people, many were students, and they came from twenty countries on one continent. (The world congress in 1974 attracted 4,000 persons, the vast majority of them seasoned Christian leaders, from 150 lands on five continents and in Oceana.)
Northern Europeans dominated the registration list. There were large groups from England, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland, and the Scandinavian countries. Forty came from Finland. Most were housed in university dormitories, army barracks, and private homes. English and French were the main platform languages, with simultaneous translation into eight other tongues.
The event was sponsored by the European Student Missionary Association which maintains chapters at fifteen Bible institutes and colleges. Lending important support were Campus Crusade for Christ, Operation Mobilization, Youth for Christ, and Youth With a Mission.
While the plight of the millions in the Third World was a major concern to both the world congress in 1974 and the Mission ‘76 body, secularized Western society as a needy and strategic mission field got more attention at Mission ‘76 than at the 1974 gathering. France’s Yves Perrier and Germany’s Anton Schulte and Werner Burtlin, leading evangelicals in their countries, hammered home this theme.
Some leaders representing the Third World differed from certain views expressed by key speakers at the 1974 meeting. Opening speaker Luis Palau, an Argentine-born evangelist operating out of Mexico City (see December 19, 1975, issue, page 31), said that evangelism is more important than even food for the hungry, if the choice had to be made. In an interview, Palau told correspondent Robert P. Evans that much of what had been called in 1974 “the cultural imperialism of missionaries,” especially of missionaries in Latin America, was exaggeration.
News of the accidental death of African evangelical leader Byang Kato of Nigeria (see January 16 issue, page 30) reached Lausanne just before he was scheduled to arrive there as a speaker. Pastor Kassoum Keita of Mali at the last minute took his topic, “the lostness of man.” (Another scheduled speaker replaced earlier was Paul Little of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, who was killed in an auto accident in Canada last summer. Little had been one of Mission ‘76’s key advisors.)
India’s Akbar Abdul Haqq was among a group of speakers who presented a series of talks on the world’s great religions. Important regions of the world were examined by Britain’s Michael Griffiths of the Overseas Missionary Fellowship, Hector Espinoza of Mexico, Fouad Accad of Lebanon, and others.
One night the participants took to the streets in a witness march. Bearing banners and signs, they proceeded through the downtown area to the 700-year-old Lausanne Cathedral (see photo). Here they joined townspeople for a program of contemporary music and a message by evangelist Perrier. On the next night hundreds of the young people filled the aisles back at the meeting hall as Perrier called for dedication to service wherever the Lord might lead.
An international panel moderated by Paul Feuter of the United Bible Societies confronted young people with the realities of modern missionary work. Only 5 per cent of the missionary force is at work in non-Christian areas, the panelists pointed out. The majority, they said, are concentrated in regions where Christianity is already known. The sending of missionaries is still necessary, they affirmed, provided that those sent are familiar with the culture and socio-political climate in which they will work, that they are well trained, and that their coming has the approval of churches and local groups.
More than 100 missions and other outreach agencies sponsored display booths where the young people could get free literature and chat with missionaries and mission leaders. A book store did brisk business; thousands of volumes in a variety of languages were snatched up.
Correspondent Evans says that the Mission ‘76 youth missionary conference was the first such gathering held in Europe. It had its roots in the annual conferences organized by chapters of the Evangelical Student Missionary Association (ESMA), formed twenty years ago at the Greater Europe Mission’s European Bible Institute near Paris. Attendance at the ESMA conferences never numbered more than several hundred, and the programs were limited in scope.
Mission ‘76’s chief organizer was Eric Gay of Switzerland, a 1973 graduate of the European Bible Institute and a former ESMA president. Several years ago he recruited six other recent EBI alumni from three countries to help plan a continental conference patterned after Inter-Varsity’s triennial student missionary conventions at Urbana. One of the seven, Jane Balcomb of England, was sent to Urbana to pick up tips on planning, and the group studied the program and logistics of the 1974 Lausanne congress.
Although Gay and his friends acted in the name of ESMA, the student organization had no financial resources. Nevertheless, the organizers raised enough money to meet Mission ‘76’s $250,000 budget and to give an offering of more than $50,000 for missionary work throughout the world.
Gay—who hopes to become the first full-time ESMA representative in Europe—and his co-workers foresee the possibility of annual regional conferences in different parts of Europe, building up to an Urbana-like one every four years or so.
Farewell Again, Father Dimitri
The Soviets won’t leave Father Dimitri Dudko alone. Under pressure from the government, church officials transferred him in May, 1974, from the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow to the small rural parish of Kabanovo fifty miles away. Now he’s been removed from that church, too.
As pastor of St. Nicholas in Moscow, Dudko had attracted a large hearing for his sermons. In them he frequently called for spiritual renewal, and he often showed that Soviet life failed to measure up to biblical and moral norms. He also conducted packed-out question-and-answer sessions at the church. These were attended by many young people and intellectuals, including Alexander Solzhenitsyn on occasion (see June 7, 1974, issue, page 47).
After he was transferred under protest to Kabanovo, many young people traveled weekly from Moscow to hear him preach.
Dudko, 54, who spent eight years in labor camps under Stalin, told newsmen that his superiors gave no reason for his latest ouster. He said his sermons at Kabanovo dealt with religious themes and generally called on people to return to “a Christian way of life.”
The priest has asked Metropolitan Serafim of Moscow for a new parish, but he’s not holding his breath. There have been hints, says he, that his preaching days are over as far as the Soviet authorities are concerned.
Churches Ablaze
A lot of churches will catch on fire this year—literally. An average of one church, synagogue, or other religious building in the United States is destroyed by fire every five hours, and another is damaged, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Nearly half the fires occur at night and in cities of more than 50,000 population. Arson, defective heating equipment, and defective wiring are the chief causes. Most fires begin in storage areas and furnace rooms. Frequent safety checks, sprinklers, and alarm systems are key defense items, says Chicago clergyman David A. Works, who heads the religious-affairs division of the National Safety Council. Losses in church fires amount to some $30 million annually, he says.
Krishna Conscious
The Hare Krishna Temple of Toronto recently purchased a historic downtown evangelical church building for $400,000. Known as Avenue Road Church, it was packed in the 1940s by crowds thronging to hear the preaching of evangelist Charles Templeton. The Christian and Missionary Alliance acquired the building in 1948, but the congregation decided last year to relocate in suburbia. The Krishna people plunked down $150,000 and arranged for first and second mortgages with the CMA and a bank.
Krishna leaders also announced the return to the fold of Linda Epstein, who had been “deprogrammed” amid much publicity last year by cult foe Ted Patrick of San Diego. Miss Epstein told reporters that she had left Krishna Consciousness “under duress,” and that her parents had paid Patrick a fee of $2,000.
Meanwhile, the Krishna group has been winning important court battles, enabling followers to keep on soliciting donations in public buildings, notably airport terminals.
LESLIE K. TARR
Stopping The Siege
Churchmen played an important role in bringing to an end last month’s well-publicized twelve-day siege of a train in the Netherlands and sixteen-day siege of the Indonesian consulate in Amsterdam by South Moluccan terrorists. They persuaded the bands of young rebels to release their hostages and to surrender without further bloodshed (three hostages were killed aboard the train and one died when he leaped from the consulate).
The two key mediators between the terrorists and the authorities were Johannes Manusama, 62, a Rotterdam mathematics teacher, and Samuel Metiari, 58, pastor of a South Moluccan congregation in northern Holland.
Manusama is the Bible-reading president of the self-styled government-inexile of the Republic of the South Moluccas. There are an estimated 35,000 South Moluccans in the Netherlands. Many came as refugees after an abortive uprising to gain independence in 1950, when the Dutch ended their rule in the Indonesian archipelago. At that time the South Molucca islands—known also as Spice Islands—became part of Indonesia. Many South Moluccans are devout adherents of the Reformed faith, while the predominant religion of Indonesia is Islam.
The thirteen young men involved in the siege (six on the train and seven at the consulate) demanded help in getting an independent homeland for their people in exchange for release of the hostages (twenty-three on the train, twenty-five at the consulate).
The older generation for years has been praying for independence, commented an observer, and the young people have become impatient. Now, says he, they feel they must fight for their freedom.
Manusama and Metiari appealed frequently to the religious heritage of the youths over the days of negotiation. Toward the end, Bible reading, singing of psalms, prayers, and tears marked some of the sessions, with several of the hostages joining in.
The terrorists face long prison terms, some possibly for life.
Time Capsule
What item would you select for a Bicentennial time capsule to represent what Americans have become in 200 years?
That was the question asked of scores of “opinion moulders” by TWA Ambassador, the in-flight magazine of Trans World Airlines. The answers ranged from Bibles and credit cards to Watergate tapes and a “Peanuts” cartoon.
Evangelist Billy Graham chose an open Bible because, he wrote, “this reminds us first of all that our nation has deep spiritual roots in the soil of the Scripture. This nation was founded by God-fearing men and women who sought to build a nation on the foundation of God’s unchanging moral truths. Second, the open Bible is a challenge to us as we enter our third century—to rediscover the spiritual commitment and moral fiber that have helped build our nation.”
Singer Pat Boone also chose the Bible, but he specified a copy of the Living Bible paraphrase because “the printing and distribution of this book, in which America has taken the lead, is the single most important contribution America has made to the world.”
Well-known rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum chose the concept of democratic pluralism.
THE LONGEST SERMON
A few months ago Pastor Robert Marshall of the Birmingham Unitarian Church in suburban Detroit read in a church publication that a new record had been set in non-stop preaching. The previous record had been established in 1955 by independent preacher Clinton Locy, then in his sixties, in a West Richland, Washington, church basement. Locy’s sermon, blared to townspeople on loud speakers, lasted 48 hours and 18 minutes, according to the Guinness Book of Records. The paper Marshall was reading reported that Unitarian minister Robin Williamson of County Antrim in Northern Ireland had set a new Guinness record last July with a sermon lasting 60 hours and 25 minutes.
To Marshall, 55, a former bookseller, it was all a challenge. So, at 12:01 A.M. on New Year’s Day, a Thursday, he stepped to the pulpit and began preaching. He did not stop until 12:32 PM. on Saturday—60 hours and 31 minutes later, besting Williamson by six minutes. Or so it seemed. Marshall learned much later from a news service that he had been sort of victimized by a typographical error: Williamson’s sermon had lasted only 50 hours and 25 minutes, not 60.
Marshall’s 1,120-page (double-spaced) sermon was entitled “From Abraham to Augustine.” But he managed to complete only 850 pages, stopping somewhere in Acts. On hand when he stopped was a standing-room-only crowd of some 400 members of the 700-family congregation that he has served for fourteen years. They gave him a standing ovation. For more than an hour afterward they milled about, shaking hands and congratulating him. Many had manned an attendance-shift plan that provided Marshall with round-the-clock audiences—and with the necessary witnesses required by Guinness. His church board had debated the proposal for three months before granting him cautious approval.
The cleric in an interview described the post-sermon celebration as “almost a revival experience, as if the Holy Spirit had visited us.” It was, he added hastily, “a heart-warming affirmation of the human spirit.”
The last ten hours were the toughest, he stated. He said he experienced spatial disorientation (stationary objects appeared to move), and he had to keep asking his hearers if he was making sense (they said he was). “I kept dreaming while I was preaching,” he explained.
In accordance with the Guinness guidelines, Marshall took a five-minute break each hour. During some of the breaks his wife Doris and several friends led him around the church courtyard in subfreezing temperatures to help keep him awake. At the pulpit he consumed vitamin pills, raisins, throat lozenges, vegetable soup, and lots of orange juice and coffee. Part of the time he preached while perched on a stool.
When it was all over, he went to bed and slept from 3:00 P.M. Saturday until 8:00 A M. Sunday. Then he began packing for a sabbatical study leave at the University of Haifa in Israel.
EDWARD E. PLOWMAN
Religion In Transit
Evangelist Billy Graham’s bookAngels (Doubleday) for several weeks last month and this month ranked near the top on the non-fiction bestsellers’ lists published by Time and the New York Times (more than a million copies of the book are in print). Observers say it is rare for evangelical books to make such lists. Graham recently returned from a three-months tour around the world during which time he met with a number of heads of state and discussed world conditions. On New Year’s Eve he made a major television address on more than 300 stations, calling the nation to a year of prayer, humiliation, and fasting.
President Ford this month signed into law the Overseas Citizens Voting Rights Act, enabling an estimated 33,000 American missionaries and hundreds of thousands of other citizens working abroad to vote in federal elections. It provides that absentee ballots can be filed in the state of last residence, at the same time nullifying the past requirement of filing a declaration of intent to resume residence in a given state upon one’s return. The new law, which was before Congress for ten years, also prohibits income taxes from being levied on the basis of absentee voting.
If a minister’s congregation gives him rent-free housing as part of his pay, he doesn’t have to pay income tax on the rental value of the housing. If he dies, however, and his widow is allowed to stay in the rent-free house, she must declare its value as income and pay tax on it. Republican congressman John J. Duncan of Tennessee has introduced a bill that would enable such a widow to retain her church-provided housing tax-free. The U. S. Treasury department opposes it—and some tax officials are pressing for removal of housing exemptions from ministers.
Some overseas missionaries report they are victims of harassment and suspicion as a result of recent publicity of alleged links between the Central Intelligence Agency and certain mission personnel. They insist that most missionaries have never had such ties, and they would like to see the matter disappear from press notice. The United Methodist Board of Global Ministries meanwhile issued a stern warning, threatening to fire any missionary “knowingly engaged in intelligence activities.”
When the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver purchased the six-story Bankers Union Life Building in the city, church members discovered that one of the tenants was the Central Intelligence Agency, whose lease does not expire until next year. Protesters picketed the building and complained to archdiocesan leaders. A spokesman said existing leases would be honored but ruled out any working relationship between the church and the federal agency.
The clergy-deployment office of the Episcopal Church has contracted with Snelling and Snelling, a worldwide employment agency, to help clergymen find jobs outside the church. The move may be a first among denominations. Of seventy-eight applicants so far, fifty-one have obtained job offers. The Episcopal Church presently has a clergy surplus,and some priests simply feel they can be happier or more effective in a secular position. The number of ministers seeking work elsewhere is a growing problem for many denominations, says a Snelling and Snelling spokesman.
President M. G. “Pat” Robertson of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) announced plans to build a $23 million international headquarters and communications school to teach broadcasting to students from around the world. To be located at Virginia Beach, Virginia, it will include two large television studios, a satellite-transmitting facility, a 2,400-seat conference center, and a school of theology. CBN recently received a Distinguished Merit Citation from the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
Sign of the times: Evangelist Duane Pederson of Hollywood, California, changed the name of his organization from Jesus People International to International Christian Ministries “to create a wider base of operation.” Part of his time currently is spent in prison ministry.
Catholic Bishop Raymond A. Lucker, the newly appointed head of the Diocese of New Ulm, Minnesota, has declared himself: he’s part of the charismatic renewal. Spiritual renewal is the single most important need of the church, he told a newsman. “The Lord calls us to a deep conversion and to a faith in his word and response to his revelation,” he said.
A Pennsylvania superior court ruling last month left the state with no law governing or controlling smut. In overturning a 1973 conviction, it held that the state’s laws—based on a “community standards” provision—were unconstitutional and unenforceable. Earlier, a higher court okayed X-rated movies and a commercial photo studio featuring nude models.
Bishop Demetrius of Olympus, 65, the spiritual leader of Greek Orthodox churches in the Midwest, has retired.
The William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the Christian College Consortium, of Washington, D. C., an alliance of evangelical colleges, have jointly established the Christian University Press to publish books dealing with Christian thought.
Nearly half of the 10,000 persons who contacted Intercristo in 1975 were put in touch with Christian organizations having specific work opportunities, says an Intercristo spokesman. Based in Seattle, Intercristo serves as sort of a computerized bulletin board of Christian job opportunities for job seekers. Its toll-free number is 800-426-0507.
The twelve-member Board of Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church voted to increase the denomination’s four-year budget from $1.5 million to $3 million. Approval must be given at the church’s quadrennial conference in Chicago in May.
DEATHS
C. EWBANK TUCKER, 80, a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, attorney, and civil rights activist who backed President Nixon; in Louisville, Kentucky.
LESLIE D. WEATHERHEAD, 82, well-known British Methodist minister, pastor of London’s City Temple from 1936 to 1960, and author of more than thirty books, many of them on the relationship between religion and psychology; in London.
Personalia
New Testament professor Simon J. Kistemaker of Reformed Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, was elected president of the Evangelical Theological Society at the ETS annual meeting in Jackson. Edmund P. Clowney of Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia was elected vice-president and thus will probably succeed Kistemaker next year. More than 130 attended the meeting.
New bishop: Episcopal clergyman Martin Tilson, 53, was named to head the Diocese of Louisiana, succeeding the late Bishop Iveson Noland, killed in a plane crash last year.
Resigned: Larry Kehler, as editor of The Mennonite, the weekly periodical of the General Conference Mennonite Church published in Newton, Kansas. Effective August 31.
Evangelist Kathryn Kuhlman had a mitral valve replaced in open-heart surgery at the Tulsa General Hospital last month. Before operating, the surgical team held hands while Evangelist Oral Roberts prayed for them and touched them, according to a witness. Miss Kuhlman has had heart trouble since she was a child, says her secretary.
World Scene
A church version of the World Bank, the Ecumenical Development Cooperative Society, has been established in the Netherlands to provide capital for loans to churches in developing nations. The venture is headed by Cyril Bennett, financial secretary of the British Methodist Missionary Society.
Hans W. Florin, 47, an ecumenical media specialist of Hamburg, Germany, is the new general secretary of the World Association for Christian Communication.
A number of missionaries who formerly served in Cambodia and South Viet Nam are working in France among the many Indochina refugees there, and the French Evangelical Alliance has set up a fund to aid the displaced persons.
A record 64.8 million people visited famous shrines and Buddhist temples throughout Japan during the first three days of the new year to pray for good luck, according to Japanese police officials. They cite as reasons good weather and the national recession, which apparently caused many to turn to Shintoist and Buddhist deities for help.
The leading religious periodicals in Britain have suffered a loss of 500,000 in circulation in the past decade, according to a recent study. Only the Salvation Army’s War Cry showed an increase. Higher prices because of rising costs were blamed.
The world’s Jewish population is estimated at 14.2 million, according to the 1976 American Jewish Yearbook. Of these, 5.7 million live in the United States, 2.9 million are in Israel, and 2.7 million are Soviet citizens.
CHURCH POLL
Church attendance last year, according to a national Gallup Poll, remained at the same level as in the four previous years: 40 per cent of America’s adults and about 30 per cent of its young adults (age 18–29 years) attended church or synagogue services in a typical week. Young adult attendance declined from 40 per cent in the late 1960s. The 1975 figures reveal that 54 per cent of the nation’s Catholics and 38 per cent of its Protestants attended church during the test week, while 21 per cent of the Jews attended synagogue. Of the 71 per cent holding membership in a church or synagogue, only a little over half attended that week.
Twenty per cent of those polled said they had participated during that week in religious activities other than church services,” such as prayer group meetings, Bible reading classes, and the like.”
On another topic, a Scholastic magazine survey of teen-agers found that 86 per cent believe a religious ceremony is important to a marriage.
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On the surface, the United Methodist Church (UMC) appears to be in deep trouble. Recently released figures place current membership at 9.9 million—a loss of one million in the past seven years. Restructure years ago caused problems that still aren’t straightened out. These include a $1.4 million deficit for 1974 and 1975 by the important Board of Discipleship, budget-crunch layoffs, and disgruntled personnel. Last year the denomination was left without a general church-wide magazine when United Methodists Today was axed. (Subscriptions were declining—there were fewer than 140,000 at the end—and deficits were rising.) Controversies over doctrine and practice have been a source of distress for a number of the church’s 39,000 congregations.
But there are some bright sides to the situation. Average attendance at the main worship service is up (3.6 million nationwide), and total income for all purposes in the last fiscal year topped $1 billion, an increase of $74 million over the previous year. At the Board of Discipleship officials seem to be getting things under control. The UMC’s communication cause is being served well by the high-quality United Methodist Reporter, a national weekly newspaper published by the United Methodist Conferences of Texas. (Circulation is nearing 325,000.)
Several organized groups have been lobbying for doctrinal and policy reforms along evangelical lines. The reforms would affect curricula materials, emphases of program agencies, assumptions underlying missionary work, how money is spent, and the like. The best known of the reform groups is the so-called Good News Movement, based in Wilmore, Kentucky, home of Asbury Seminary, an evangelical Methodist school. A related group is the Evangelical Missions Council (EMC). They have scored some gains but the going is tough. Last year the denomination’s world mission unit broke off dialogue with the EMC, seeing no point in continuing the talks. So far, the evangelical lobbying has been low key enough to avoid widespread dissension throughout the church.
One issue that did cause an uproar was raised last year by the thirty-member United Methodist Council on Youth Ministry (UMCYM). The elected body drew up statements affirming homosexuality as a valid life style and sexual orientation, and it served notice that it would call on the church’s quadrennial conference in Portland this April to approve the ordination of avowed homosexuals. In the ensuing tumult and arm-twisting, the UMCYM members backed off from the ordination issue. At a meeting this month they said they would go along with a proposal to ask the 984 conference delegates instead to commission a study of human sexuality. But they also said they would request the conference to remove a clause from a statement of social principles passed at the 1972 conference in Atlanta. The clause: “we do not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this practice incompatible with Christian teaching.”
Observers say there is virtually no chance of the UMCYM purge attempt passing. Many state conferences have already reaffirmed that section of the social principles, and a survey shows that an overwhelming percentage of United Methodists oppose homosexual behavior.
Such controversial issues easily catch the notice of the press while significant spiritual events and trends go unreported. The result is that the public image of the church becomes distorted.
This is at least partly true of the UMC. Early this month, for example, 2,300 UMC leaders of evangelism from throughout the country, their spouses, and others interested in outreach gathered at the Philadelphia Sheraton for the United Methodist Congress on Evangelism, an event that is held every four or five years. No secular newspeople covered it.
The participants represented the broad mainstream of evangelicals in the UMC. Their singing was loud and joyful, and they frequently punctuated speeches with an “Amen” or “Hallelujah” or “Praise the Lord.” Nearly everyone attended the early morning Bible studies (in Acts) conducted by Presbyterian minister Lloyd Ogilvie. He spoke on the Holy Spirit’s role in evangelism. There were thirteen daily mini conferences. The one on the work of the Holy Spirit was jammed. Second in attendance was the one on local church evangelism.
“Something is happening; God is at work in our church.” Every day somebody volunteered an observation like that. “The renewal of the Holy Spirit within the United Methodist Church is not a dream but a reality,” declared evangelist Oral Roberts on the final night of the five-day congress. His comment drew enthusiastic response.
Among the main congress speakers was UMC evangelism staffer George H. Outen, 44, who has been nominated to head the denomination’s Board of Church and Society. Confirmation is expected next month. Many see the selection of Outen to run the social-action arm of the church as another sign of basic change, an attempt to provide a firmer biblical footing for the UMC’s social-action programs.
Outen, a black and one of the UMC’s outstanding preachers, speaks forthrightly of his “new birth” experience through personal faith in Christ. He comes down just as clearly and firmly on issues of social justice.
He sees three trends ahead in the UMC’s social-concern emphases: programs and priorities will begin at grassroots level, not at the top; they will be grounded in the Gospel “with Jesus as a frame of reference”; and they will have proper motivation (growing out of response to the Gospel).
At one point in his address Outen sparred with an earlier speaker, Bishop William R. Cannon of Atlanta, who filled in when President Ford sent word that he could not be the keynote speaker as planned. Cannon declared that evangelism should have top priority in church life. But he also suggested that polarization impedes pursuit of the priority. He criticized the present-day emphasis on racial and ethnic differences which, he charged, cause polarization. In this connection he denounced quota systems in hiring and placement, especially in the the church. Outen replied that he doesn’t like quota systems either, “but they are a necessity precisely because of our past and current sins.”
UMC evangelism executive Ross Whetstone in an interview agreed that tides of spiritual renewal are flowing in the church. He notes great interest in the Holy Spirit, some of it within the charismatic context, much of it not. This, he says, is due in part to the cultural shift going on, a move from the rational to the sensate, brought on by the electronic age and a depersonalized world. “People are searching for significant personal experiences,” he concludes.
Whetstone is identified as a charismatic himself, but not a hand-waving one. He has conducted a number of conferences, often with an emphasis on healing, “to help United Methodists come to terms with the charismatic movement and to help experience-oriented churchmen understand the more rational-oriented part of the denomination.” He warns against “the cult of goose-bump strokers who get latched onto a spiritual high and never get into the life of the world” and against the dangers of misunderstanding and divisiveness.
Whetstone and others distinguish between charismatics and classical Pentecostals. The latter teach that glossolalia is the sign of Spirit baptism, while many charismatics say it may be a sign. There are other gifts of the Spirit, not just tongues, says Robert Tuttle, a parish minister of evangelism. Discernment is a needed gift today, he says.
Oral Roberts, however, came close to declaring that tongues as a prayer language is for every Christian although the gift of tongues (for public ministry) is not. Much of his nearly two-hour address dealt with glossolalia.
Many individuals in the UMC are involved in Bible study groups and lay-witness campaigns. A number of ministers and leaders also point to another trend: an increasing number of local churches are devising ongoing programs of evangelistic outreach in their communities and are no longer relying simply on a yearly preaching mission to fulfill the Great Commission.
That, said an old-timer at the congress, is a sure sign that the United Methodist Church is coming back to life.
EDWARD E. PLOWMAN
VIEWS ON VIEWING
Many Americans are concerned about the moral drift of television programming, according to a TV Guide poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation of Princeton, New Jersey. The poll, involving more than 1,000 viewers, showed that 71 per cent feel too much violence is depicted, and that 54 per cent think there is too much emphasis on sex.
Last year TV executives established a “family viewing time” policy to prevent programming “inappropriate for viewing by a general family audience during the early evening hours.” This policy has been under attack by writers, actors, and producers who claim it is a form of censorship that has inhibited them. The TV Guide poll showed that 82 per cent of the viewers surveyed favor the policy while 7 per cent oppose it and 11 per cent have no opinion. But more than half of those polled had not known of the family viewing time and could not respond until pollsters told them what it is.
It is no secret that theological liberalism has fallen upon ho-hum times. Gone are the social-action crusades and mass demonstrations that provided a platform—and sometimes diversion—for many in the liberal camp. God has moved into the Secular City, and now there’s a growing sacred quarter that has helped to quiet the whole town. Many of the former liberal ideologists have settled down to rethink basic spiritual issues. Some even concede that not everything they formerly did in the name of God was necessarily of God. The charismatic movement, which has spread to liberal circles (including seminaries), has undone decades of demythologizing of Scripture. Conservative churches and schools are growing, and evangelicals are speaking out on the justice side of social concerns but, unlike many similarly minded liberals, from a solid biblical foundation.
A year ago a group of prominent theologians and other church leaders met at Hartford Seminary and hammered out an “Appeal for Theological Affirmation.” The Hartford paper identified and rejected thirteen “dangerous” trends in theology, including some pet premises of hard-core liberalism (see February 14, 1975, issue, page 53, and February 28 issue, page 32). The majority of the signers were themselves classified as liberals. In effect, they were saying there are limits to liberal theology, and here are the boundaries.
All of these developments distressed avant-grade types like Harvard’s Harvey Cox, well-known American Baptist theologian and author, and others who interpreted them as trends toward theological escapism. This month Cox and twenty other Boston theologians and church leaders struck back with a position paper of their own: “The Boston Affirmations.”
The four-page Boston statement amounts to a reaffirmation of the Church’s need to be involved socially—on liberal terms. “The living God is active in current struggles to bring a reign of justice, righteousness, love, and peace,” the paper begins. It goes on to show how God delivers from oppression through human instruments. Illustrations of such activity are drawn from the Church’s past. But, cautions the paper, “the question today is whether the heritage of this past can be sustained, preserved, and extended into the future.” It is gloomy about the answer: “Society as presently structured, piety as presently practiced, and the churches as presently preoccupied evoke profound doubts about the prospects.”
The paper sees “the transforming reality of God’s reign” in such “witnesses” as “the struggles of the poor to gain a share of the world’s wealth,” the “drive for ethnic dignity against racism,” the “endeavor by women to overcome sexist subordination,” and “the voices of citizens and political leaders who demand honesty.”
The signers assert that they “cannot stand with those secular cynics and religious spiritualizers who see in such witnesses no theology, no eschatalogical urgency, and no Godly promise or judgment.”
Those behind the Boston Affirmations are members of the Boston Industrial Mission Task Force, a social-action group formed in 1974. Social ethics professor Max Stackhouse of Andover Newton seminary did most of the editing.
Immediate reaction came from several framers of the Hartford statement, including Rutgers sociologist Peter Berger. “The Boston group wants to nail us down to a particular agenda which, broadly speaking, is a left-liberal agenda,” he observed. “It’s a very serious mistake to say that this is what Christians are to be concerned with.”
EDWARD E. PLOWMAN
African Unity
It is not unusual in Africa for church meetings to begin a little late, but there was an unusual reason for the late start of a worship service in Monrovia, Liberia, this month. The service in Zion Praise Baptist Church was a part of the program for the first full-term inauguration of Liberia’s president William Tolbert.
The service was delayed because Tolbert, who is also pastor of the church, was not there. It was an invitation-only affair, and the sanctuary was packed with political and ecclesiastical leaders as well as the diplomatic corps. While they waited, the rumor circulated that the president had gone to the airport to pick up the guest of honor. Among those waiting was a Southern Baptist pastor, William Self of Atlanta, Georgia, who was one President Ford’s special envoys to the inauguration.
Self said that the back door swung open an hour and a quarter after the stated starting time, and President Tolbert came in carrying his swagger-stick, which is topped by a carving of the head of Christ, and walked up the aisle to a chair beside the communion table.
The atmosphere was “electric” when his guests followed him to the front, Self told a reporter. The man he picked up at the airport was none other than Uganda’s Muslim president and the chairman of the Organization of African Unity, Idi Amin. The Ugandan field marshal, in military garb and with a pistol on each hip, took his place in a chair at the opposite end of the table from Tolbert.
After the opening liturgy, something else unusual happened in the Baptist pulpit from which Tolbert usually preaches. A robed Anglican priest, Burgess Carr, delivered the sermon. Carr is the controversial cleric who is general secretary and chief spokesman for the All-Africa Conference of Churches. He is also a Liberian.
Carr preached from Joel 2, and in the last half of his seventy-five-minute sermon gave his description of the “locusts” in contemporary African life. On his “locust” list were the elite, those practicing nepotism, those from outside who exploit Africans, rich business people (including blacks), and dictators. He called for personal integrity, morality, and hard work to restore the country after the ravages of the marauding insects.
In his conclusion, Carr conceded that his message might have sounded like a political speech to some in the audience. If that offended President Tolbert, he did not show it. Instead, he climbed up into the pulpit with Carr and embraced him while a university choir sang the concluding anthem. At a later state banquet, Carr was an honored guest.
Self, one of three Americans named to represent President Ford at the festivities, was at a loss to explain his appointment. The only explanation he could offer was that because of Tolbert’s international reputation as a Baptist preacher, the White House wanted to include a Baptist pastor from the United States in its delegation. (A few months earlier Self had visited President Park of Korea on a fact finding mission involving allegations of religious persecution.)
Tolbert is a past president of the Baptist World Alliance. When he first assumed the nation’s leadership upon the death of his predecessor, Evangelist Billy Graham was one of the special American envoys at the inauguration.
ARTHUR H. MATTHEWS
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The Negro Church Becomes The Black Church
If Christ Is the Answer, What Are the Questions?, by Tom Skinner (Zondervan, 1974, 219 pp., $2.95 pb), The Black Experience in Religion, edited by C. Eric Lincoln (Anchor/Doubleday, 1974, 369 pp., $3.95 pb), A Black Political Theology, by J. Deotis Roberts (Westminster, 1974, 238 pp., $3.95 pb), The Negro Church in America, by E. Franklin Frazier, plus The Black Church Since Frazier, by C. Eric Lincoln (Schocken, 1974, 216 pp., $2.95 pb), are reviewed by James S. Tinney, Ph.D. candidate in political science, Howard University, Washington, D. C.
The “Negro” church has died, says C. Eric Lincoln; and in its place there now exists the new “black” church, an unapologetic force determined to lead the fight for social and spiritual justice in America. As the “Negro” church was structured and conditioned by accommodationism, the new “black” church is undergirded by a sanctified belligerence.
To this basic premise all the writers here considered give assent, although their individual interpretations sometimes modify or expand this thesis slightly. Skinner, for instance, allows that the black church “has historically been the most powerful social institution” while emphasizing that it needs to be revolutionized further. Roberts views the black church as liberating its people and others only when it emphasizes reconciliation, and as such, he may be seen somewhere in transition between the old and new definitions. (His book also offers little that is new and is, for all practical purposes, a restatement of his earlier work, Liberation and Reconciliation. In no sense does it live up to its title claim to be “a black political theology”.
At any rate, Lincoln’s counterposing of the old and new formations of black religion should be viewed against the backdrop of Frazier’s 1964 work, The Negro Church in America. It is appropriate that Frazier is here reprinted and bound together with Lincoln’s updating and reassessment. Frazier, as long-time chairman of the Howard University Department of Sociology, became the earliest leading black sociologist (along with W. E. B. DuBois). Lincoln is chairman of the Department of Religious Studies at Fisk University.
Frazier is often criticized by the newer black sociologists for failing to recognize the continuity of the African past with modern Afro-American experience, and for being preoccupied with an assimilationist black middle class, as well as with so-called negative features he ascribed to black religion. These criticisms are aimed at the work reprinted here, among others; witness the following: “The Negro church and Negro religion have cast a shadow over the entire intellectual life of Negroes and have been responsible for the so-called backwardness of American Negroes.” It was Frazier who also predicted that the church would “crumble” as blacks became integrated into the larger society. Lincoln’s statement, then, that the “Negro” church has died may be viewed as recognition of the Frazier prophecy or as its contradiction (i.e., the continued resistance of white society has led to a more viable and resistant strain of black religion), depending on one’s point of view.
In The Black Church Since Frazier, Lincoln attempts to interpret how his mentor would have viewed the Black Power movement, the rise to prominence of the Nation of Islam (Black Muslims), and new trends in black religion.
The best overview of what black church scholars currently are thinking and emphasizing, however, is the anthology, The Black Experience in Religion, also compiled by Lincoln. More than two dozen articles from leading journals are reprinted under five general subject sections: black church structures and modes, black theology, black protest and the church, black cults and sects, and linkages to African and Caribbean religions.
Throughout this volume common conclusions are reached by most writers—a phenomenon that may seem all the more remarkable since nearly every major religious tradition is represented, including writers from those who labor in predominantly white denominations and those who do not. Some of the unified themes that constantly reappear include: (1) black religion is in contradistinction to white religion in that it is more humanistic, more biblical, and more dynamic, and is the only instrument capable of calling the nation to reform. (2) The black church holds a proper balance between individualism and community, the sacred and the secular, experience and tradition, rationality and emotional content, and social and spiritual salvation. (3) The genius of black religion lies with these movements that have remained closest to the masses and have not negated African survivalisms. (4) Black theology should emphasize the favored, but not exclusionary, position of blacks (some would add other oppressed classes or groups) as God’s choice people, and should functionally advance the causes of black social and political liberation.
The omission of Skinner from the Lincoln collection is most glaring since the book is otherwise very comprehensive in its representation. Although Skinner is located within the stream of black religion as interpreted in the Lincoln anthology, the collection does not include a black evangelical with an interdenominational ministry such as he. Indeed, it is almost impossible to talk about black theologizing or ministry without taking Skinner into account. For this reason, the latest Skinner book should be read hand-in-hand with the anthology for a more complete understanding. Its easy-to-read question-and-answer format also makes it more accessible to the average reader.
Biblical Studies In Tribute
New Testament Christianity For Africa and the World, edited by Mark Glasswell and Edward Fasholé-Luke (London: SPCK, 221 pp., £5.95), and Current Issues in Biblical and Patristic Interpretation, edited by Gerald Hawthorne (Eerdmans, 1975, 377 pp., $9.95), are reviewed by W. Ward Gasque, associate professor of New Testament, Regent College, Vancouver, Canada.
These two volumes of essays are dedicated to two scholars who probably have never met and who live in totally different parts of the world but who have, in many respects, had remarkably similar ministries. Each has been a pioneer in academic work, particularly in setting an example for students to follow when the immediate cultural context was not favorable to the intellectual enterprise.
Harry Sawyer, to whom the first volume is dedicated, is an African theologian—the first African theologian to be honored by a Festschrift—who has done as much as any man to lay a solid foundation for academic theology in West Africa (Sierra Leone). Merrill C. Tenney, recipient of the second, is an American who through long years of teaching, first at Gordon Divinity School and then at Wheaton College Graduate School, has probably done more to initiate two generations of North American evangelicals into the ways of biblical scholarship than any other man. As is clear from the writings of each, and also from the biographical appreciations and personal notes included in each collection, both Sawyer and Tenney are churchmen as well as scholars; and both have given themselves primarily to teaching and academic administration rather than research, though each has made significant contributions through his writings.
New Testament Christianity For Africa and the World contains eighteen essays on a wide variety of historical, biblical, and theological topics by European and African scholars. Among the more interesting ones related to the New Testament are “Nations in the New Testament” (N. A. Dahl), “Paul’s Speech on the Areopagus” (C. K. Barrett), and the superb “Interpreting Paul by Paul” (C. E. D. Moule). Of theological interest are “Justification by Faith in Modern Theology” (H. E. W. Turner) and “Towards a Theologia Africana” (K. A. Dickson), neither of them earthshaking but both full of common sense and acute observation.
But perhaps the most stimulating are the articles devoted to the history of missions: “Missionary Vocation and the Ministry” (A. E Walls) and “The Missionary Expansion of Ecclesia Anglicana” (M. Warren), both containing incisive observations that, if noted, will provide valuable lessons for mission leaders even today. Finally, the essay in which Fasholé-Luke seeks to relate the ancestor veneration of African traditional religion to the Christian doctrine of the communion of saints will doubtless prove controversial; but it should not be dismissed out-of-hand since it advocates not the practice of baptizing a pagan doctrine but rather the seeking of a point of contact between the old customs and the new fellowship in Christ without compromising sound doctrine.
Current Issues in Biblical and Patristic Interpretation contains contributions by twenty-eight of Dr. Tenney’s former students, again treating a wide variety of biblical and theological subjects. With a few exceptions the essays are more technical than those contained in the Sawyer volume, and they are also generally longer. Among the notable contributions are the following. Historical: “The Development of the Concept of ‘Orthodoxy’ in Early Christianity” (R. A. Kraft) and “The Power of Giving and Receiving: Reciprocity in Hellenistic Benevolence” (S. C. Mott). Old Testament interpretation: “Were David’s Sons Really Priests?” (C. E. Armerding). Biblical theology: “The Weightier and Lighter Matters of the Law” (W. C. Kaiser), “The Deity of Christ in the Writings of Paul” (W. Elwell), and “The Holy Spirit in Galatians” (G. E. Ladd). New Testament criticism: “The Composition of Luke 9” (E. E. Ellis), “The Johannine Prologue and the Purpose of the Fourth Gospel” (E. J. Epp), “Bultmann’s Law of Increasing Distinctness” (L. R. Keylock), and “Literary Criteria in Life of Jesus Research” (R. N. Longenecker). New Testament exegesis: “Sins Within and Without: An Interpretation of 1 John 5:16–17” (D. M. Scholer) and “The Limits of Ecstasy: An Exegesis of 2 Corinthians 12:1–10” (R. P. Spittler). And finally, theology: “Charismatic Theology in the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus” (J. E. Stamm) and “Christology and ‘the Angel of the Lord’” (W. G. MacDonald). Unique among the contributions is a careful, even beautiful translation of the until recently little-known Paschal Homily of Melito, bishop of Sardis (d. ca. A.D 190), by the editor. This, in my view, is easily worth the price of the book and should be a part of any library. And there are other worthwhile contributions that I do not mention because of lack of space.
Two impressions stood out after I had read this thick and rather technical tome. Paramount of these is the impact one man can have on his students, and through them on the world. The twenty-eight contributors represent nearly that many different academic institutions, both Christian and secular, and serve in four countries. True, not all of them have followed their former teacher in all their later conclusions (but then Tenney has never been one to expect his pupils simply to repeat his opinions back to him), but each one has, in his own way, followed the teacher’s example of honesty and excellence. Secondly, I was impressed by the developing maturity of contemporary North American evangelical scholarship. Gone are the days when faithfulness to the Bible implied an anti-intellectual stance or an unscholarly obscurantism. And if this is so, Dr. Tenney, under God, is one of the people most responsible for the new situation.
Promising Beginning
The Southern Hill and the Land Beyond, by Pauline Davies (Eerdmans, 1975, 149 pp., $2.45 pb), is reviewed by Cheryl Forbes, assistant editor, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
This series of short stories or vignettes is tied together by an overall theme, the return of King Gerald. The author uses a picture-frame technique in the first and last stories. When the book begins, King Gerald reigns, his enemy comes, and he leaves. He returns at the end of the book.
As a unified, consistent story, the volume fails. Too many questions are left unanswered, too many details remain unexplained. What is King Gerald’s golden box? What happens to it after the enemy takes it? Why does the king suddenly leave? The first two vignettes are excellent first chapters to two different books—interesting, imaginative, and fantastical, with few allegorical overtones. I hope Davies takes at least one of these ideas and writes a full-length fantasy. She certainly has the ability.
Some of the other chapters work well as short stories, and in places remind me of some of George Macdonald’s best tales (which can be found in Gifts of the Child Christ, two volumes, also from Eerdmans). The best story in the book is the longest one, “Kerry and the Westels.” She describes her creation, the westels, simply and hauntingly. Davies successfully evokes an atmosphere aching with sadness.
Her too heavy use of allegory and explicit Christian doctrines at the end of the book weakens the ending. King Gerald descending in a mist, with his people dressed in white gowns and veils—he says, “The people have become my bride”—indicates a failure of imaginative power and a surrender to an easy resolution. With a little more thought and work Davies could have created new images for us.
Considering the inability of most Christian writers to produce acceptable fiction, I am pleased to recommend Davies’s first book. There are some fine things in it, with evidence that as she practices her art she should produce compelling and consistent fantasy.
The Riches Of Paul’S Thought
Paul: An Outline of His Theology, by Herman Ridderbos (Eerdmans, 1975, 587 pp., $12.95), is reviewed by William S. Smith, missionary of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, Patrocinio, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
What Professor Ridderbos did for the Synoptic Gospels in The Coming of the Kingdom he does for Paul’s epistles in this monumental study.
What is the key to Paul’s thought? The fact that in the death and resurrection of Christ, the history of salvation has been completed. In Christ the old world of “the flesh” has been replaced by the new creation of the Spirit. And since Christ is the second Adam—“the One” representing “the many”—all those “in Christ” or “with Christ” share in that new creation, now, already! The consummation, however, is still future, at the coming of Christ. Thus the Church now lives in tension between the “already” and the “not yet.” Along these Christological, eschatological lines, Ridderbos unfolds the various themes of Paul’s preaching. A few samples follow.
On Christ:
Without any doubt Christ is for him [Paul] the Son of God, not only in virtue of his revelation, but from before the foundation of the world, God, to be blessed forever. But as such he is from before the foundation of the world and to all eternity God-for-us. It is not the Godhead of Christ in itself, but that he is God and God’s Son for us which is the content and foundation even of the most profound of his Christological pronouncements [p. 77].
Thus no purely functional Christology, but no abstract ontological Christology either.
On sin and the law:
For Paul the striving of man to obtain his righteousness before God in the way of the works of the law is doomed to failure not only because man cannot come up to the fulfillment of the law as God requires it of him, but because it is already fundamentally sinful to wish to insure oneself righteousness and life; indeed this is the human sin par excellence. This insight, which one may surely call the foundation of Paul’s whole view of man outside Christ, can be characterized as a radically deepened concept of sin [p. 142].
What implications for evangelism!
On legalism:
Pauline Ethics has no place for the “legalistic” view of life in the sense that the law would cover all “cases” of the Christian life and the right use of the law would consist only in a logical particularizing of the individual pronouncements of the law.… Insight into the will of God for concrete life situations is no less dependent on faith in Christ, being led by the Spirit, and the inner renewal of man than on the knowledge of the law [p. 286].
On the ecumenical church:
For the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge are more than can be comprehended by one man, one church, and—we may add to this—one generation [p. 245].… Nor can one restrict this unity to the sphere of what is invisible and hidden [p. 394].
On solidarity with the world:
The thought is never that the same solidarity exists between believers and unbelievers as between believers and other believers. For the love that is of God cannot attain its end outside fellowship in and love for Christ (1 Cor. 16:22). For this reason the church, even when love of neighbor is demanded of it in its full scope, is always addressed on the ground of what is peculiar to it and not what it has in common with those “who are without”; and for the church the real purpose of the demonstration of wisdom, humanity, love toward others must always be that these may be won for Christ and that the name of God may be praised [p. 300].
On election:
What prompts Paul to hark back again and again to the divine purpose is not an abstract predestinarianism or reference back to God’s decrees as the final cause in the chain of events, but the designation of sovereign, divine grace as the sole motive of his work of redemption in history [p. 350].
On baptism and the supper: all the emphasis here falls not on some supposed symbolism, but on union with Christ and on real participation in the benefits of his sacrifice and resurrection.
Both of them … establish contact with the death of Christ—baptism as baptism-into-his death, the Supper as communion with the body and blood of Christ [p. 424].
In dealing with the riches of Pauline thought, Ridderbos achieves an admirable balance throughout; the phrases “on the one hand” and “on the other hand” recur again and again. Paul furnishes us with one instance after another of careful exegesis. (And we can never know what Paul wrote without knowing why he wrote it!) For Ridderbos the text of the New Testament is the authorized, apostolic tradition, and he bows before it even when it leads him to differ from his own Reformed tradition. Last of all, we see in this book how beautifully practical and pastoral “theology” can be.
Paul is not easy reading; the translation faithfully reflects the often long and complex sentences of the Dutch. I very much missed the italics used so extensively in the original. The title of the last chapter raises a question in either case, but might “The Lord’s Future” be less problematic than “The Future of the Lord”?
Our profound thanks to the author, translator—Dr. John Richard de Witt—and publisher (the price is only half that of the third Dutch edition!). May Paul, through Paul, continue to disturb and comfort the people of God!
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At an alumni meeting recently, a friend of mine told me about his greatest problem. He is the pastor of a large church in Los Angeles and, in addition to the regular weekly services, teaches five Bible-study groups. “I need at least twenty-five new illustrations each week just to stay afloat!” he confided.
Most pastors are dogged by the question, Where can I find timely, relevant illustrations? Books of illustrations are of little help. Their material is often dated, and at best they yield only one or two really usable stories.
But there are other more productive sources. Books in local college or public libraries contain a limitless supply of useful illustrative material. All we need to know is how to use these reference tools. Then, by setting aside time each week, we can draw what we need from these inexhaustible reservoirs of information. A little reflection on this factual data and we have our illustrations.
For a good source of current information, the New York Times Index is the place to look.
I will deal here with only two of these basic sources of material, the New York Times Index and Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS). Those desiring additional ideas might consult pages 253–56 of my book, The Minister’s Library (Baker, 1974), and note in particular how to use such works as The Annual Register of World Events and Facts on File. And those who need illustrative information for special occasions can read up on how to use The Book of Days, Famous First Facts, and other reference works dealing with the origin of the many events scattered throughout our calendar.
I use the New York Times Index for up-to-date, authoritative illustrations whenever I am preparing a sermon, getting ready to teach a Bible-study group, or writing an article. The Times boasts that if it does not record an event, “then it never happened.” Entries in the Index are arranged alphabetically by topic and are taken from the Late City edition of the paper—the edition that is microfilmed and becomes a part of the holdings of most institutional and public libraries. Each entry is accompanied by a synopsis of the article. Often the synopsis contains enough information that one need not look up the newspaper itself.
The sermonic use of current events has an appeal to listeners. They have a “handle” on this kind of information, because they have read about it in newspapers or news magazines or heard about it on TV.
Index sections on “heavy” topics like abortion, children, divorce, drugs, education, and marriage are overflowing with usable data, all there ready for us to take. In doing research for this article, I decided, however, to avoid these areas of great social concern and concentrate on more obscure subjects. I chose the danger of the commonplace.
Under “Accidents and Safety” in the Index, I found columns of facts, human-interest stories, and other information about the unheeded dangers that are all about us. These included not only incidents such as fires, pills inadvertently swallowed by youngsters, children getting hurt while playing in abandoned buildings or being asphyxiated in old refrigerators, but also information about the millions of dollars being spent in research by the Commission on Public Safety. But there was no mention in other parts of the Index of any special plans or commissions to safeguard the spiritual or moral well-being of our nation’s young people.
Included in the Index are statistical tables on topics such as alcoholism, crime, debt, divorce, family mobility, gambling, and population growth. In addition, in each annual volume there are capsule summaries of events that have taken place in the Middle East over the past twelve months—something that cannot fail to please those who preach on prophecy. And there is an abundance of material on sports, changes taking place in our life-style, the plight of minority groups, firms (“thumbnail” reviews), and so on.
The New York Times Index is published semi-monthly with annual cumulative volumes. It can become a most valuable resource tool for new illustrations.
A similar work is Public Affairs Information Service. PAIS contains entries on everything from abandonment to Zionism. Like the Index, it is arranged alphabetically by topic and is complete with information on all the issues of current concern. In contrast to the Index, the data in PAIS comes from books, pamphlets, reports of public and private agencies, and journals. In preparing this article I chose as topics old age and those themes that would highlight a series of messages on the Minor Prophets.
PAIS listed the kind of practical material one could use in challenging the members of a congregation with the needs of the elderly. Each entry carried a reference to a journal article or a publication. Most of the articles contained human-interest stories as well as a wealth of practical information on the everyday problems of the aged.
Anyone choosing to preach on the Minor Prophets will find his time spent with PAIS amply rewarded. PAIS is filled with information on social problems—the rich exploiting the poor, the perversion of justice, crime and corruption, and the like. Anyone who works with PAIS for an hour or two is likely to be ready to retrieve the writings of the Minor Prophets from the limbo to which modern neglect has confined them.
The Times boasts that if it didn’t record an event, it didn’t happen. Entries are arranged alphabetically by topic from the Late City edition. For facts and figures on a myriad of topics, look there.
PAIS is published weekly. There are cumulations of the material five times a year, and the fifth cumulation becomes the annual volume.
The New York Times Index and Public Affairs Information Service are available in nearly every institutional or public library. The material they offer is timely and readily accessible, and far more rewarding than even the latest book of illustrations!—CYRIL J. BARBER, director of the library, Rosemead Graduate School of Psychology, Rosemead, California.
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Michael E. Haynesis minister of Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts, and a black, native Bostonian. He serves as senior member of the Massachusetts Parole Board, and is on the board of Gordon college. He also served three terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
Busing is not the real issue in Boston, as I believe is also true in other sectors of our nation. Since I know the Boston situation personally, I will use it as my focal point.
First, the problem is racism. Certain minorities are not wanted, not liked, and/or feared. Many bugaboos, superstitions, and stereotypes have been resurrected, if they ever were dead, against blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities.
Second, some people have found the issues of integration and busing advantageous. Because of greed and overt political ambition, they are willing to exploit the school situation for their own self-aggrandizement and political advancement.
Third, too many flame-feeders wanted to keep the busing crisis alive because they have profited by it, particularly in overtime pay, while the situation remained heated. That is the economical issue.
Psychologically, the cost of busing cannot be measured: the drop-outs who ultimately may become wards of the state, on welfare or in prisons; the still birth of possible doctors, teachers, scientists, and useful citizens. Economically, it cost Boston in the first fourteen months some $25 million to correct this evil situation consciously and deliberately perpetuated by certain city fathers and mothers over the past decades. Some 1,800 police are diverted from other duties as they continue to maintain surveillance over children, school personnel, buses, and buildings. Over $7 million has been expended in police overtime to date. The outlay of public money continues to soar for additional school personnel, bus monitors, civilian school security people, and trouble-shooters.
For decades children in Boston and elsewhere have been bused without bitter opposition. And evangelical churches across the country are developing bus ministries. Old and young are bused across all kinds of neighborhood and town boundaries, in and out of color, caste, and class ghettoes to attend Sunday schools, worship services, and mid-week church programs. Why is that right and school busing for integration wrong?
Boston symbolizes part of the great tragedy of America. And we are celebrating “liberty and justice for all,” our Bicentennial. God forbid that because of our selfishness and innate hatreds, our unwillingness to love our neighbors as ourselves, our failure to recognize, redress, and rectify evils too long perpetrated and tolerated, our Bicentennial celebration becomes a death watch at the bedside of a sick, decaying nation that refused to do that which is right in the sight of God.
Ideas
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No other people in the world give as much to voluntary agencies, such as churches, as do citizens of the United States. The record is remarkable, and it is envied by the leaders of private causes in many other countries. This has been so from the earliest days of the nation. One of Alexis de Tocqueville’s best-known observations about early America was that its people “are forever forming associations.” Americans continue to support those associations generously, and some experts estimate that they contributed over $50 billion to private causes last year.
While the nation can point with gratitude to this record, danger signals have arisen. The Commission on Private Philanthropy and Public Needs hoisted some of these in a recently released report. John H. Filer, commission chairman, described as “alarming” the discovery that giving by individuals, as a proportion of personal income, has dropped 15 per cent in the last decade.
Churches and missionary societies are definitely feeling the pinch; they realize that something is happening to stifle the generosity of Americans. Belt-tightening is the general rule. Churches and broadly based missionary groups that have been able to maintain programs at the level of a few years ago are the exception, not the rule. Most have had to cut their programs back because of the declining purchasing power of the dollar even if their total income has remained steady. And many are getting fewer of those deflated dollars.
Many private and church-related organizations have in the past received substantial gifts of supplies and equipment as well as hard cash. The total value of these gifts too has been dwindling. An example is the contributions of pharmaceuticals to mission hospitals. Drug manufacturers were put at a disadvantage in this kind of giving when Congress passed the 1969 tax-reform law. They can no longer deduct the fair-market value of these contributions from their tax returns, and mission hospitals have suffered as a result.
Dire warnings continue to be heard that the government may soon decide no contributions are tax-deductible. If this happens, it will dry up many sources of charitable giving. Whether the churches would suffer as much initially as would colleges, hospitals, community agencies, and other private groups is debatable, but they would certainly be affected.
While we cannot endorse all the recommendations of the Filer Commission, we commend this group of American leaders for making the study, and for asking questions that need to be raised at this point in the nation’s life. People all across the country who are concerned about the support of their churches, schools, hospitals, and other private helping organizations should read the report.
As Americans reconsider these matters, they should ask again why they have been the world leaders in voluntary action. They should take a fresh look at the accomplishments of all the private organizations operating at national, state, and local levels. They should consider what would happen if all of these were to go out of business overnight. They should estimate how much it would cost governmental, tax-supported agencies to hire people to do the work that millions are now doing voluntarily.
The freedom to invest in causes close to one’s interests is an element in America’s strength. Americans who have supported the multitude of private causes have done so because of their personal interest in them. Take away the element of personal concern and interest and the contribution is often lost. And the people who have given money and materials have often given time and energy as well.
In the Church, experience shows that the giver who is personally acquainted with a cause and who prays for it regularly will give more. Moreover, the Christian who believes he is responsible to God for his stewardship should make it a point to know where his offerings go after they leave the collection plate.
When the tax-writing committees of Congress and other responsible leaders consider the Filer Commission’s recommendations, we hope the incentives to individuals to give generously will be strengthened instead of weakened. America has much to lose if these incentives are taken away. There are always objections, of course, that any tax deduction for religious rather than purely social contributions is a subsidy of religion by government. But there is little reason to claim that church-state separation has been breached on these grounds as long as the citizen is perfectly free to give to any religious group or to no group at all.
The United States can emerge from this Bicentennial year a greater, more benevolent nation if the government takes steps to encourage the support of voluntary organizations. It will suffer if the only solutions to national problems adopted in this two-hundredth anniversary year are those involving government action with tax dollars.
Persecution That Perseveres
Times have seldom been easy for evangelical Christians in Eastern Europe. The “happy” times of history have usually been those when there has been a slight let up in repression. The anniversary of one such bright spot in Hungarian Christianity will be observed next month, and it is an event that deserves the attention of modern Christians.
Twenty-three Protestant pastors and three teachers knelt on the deck of a Dutch ship in Naples harbor on February 11, 1676, after being freed from their chains. These Hungarian believers were all that were left of a group of about 400 leaders condemned to death over ten months earlier by King Leopold. The young ruler and his mentors decided that instead of killing the Protestants they would torture them, force them to march to Naples, and then sell them to be galley slaves.
The end of the survivors’ captivity was signaled by the arrival of the Dutch fleet under the command of Admiral Michael A. De Ruyter. Entering the harbor with full sail, his ships formed a semi-circle with guns facing the city and the Spanish galleys on which the pastors and teachers were enslaved. The Dutch naval hero demanded freedom for the men, and their chains were loosed. They joined in singing Psalms 46; 114, and 125 before they left the slave ships. When they were safely aboard a Dutch vessel they knelt to praise God in the words of Psalm 116. Their deliverance was an answer to their prayers and the appeals of evangelical leaders in several nations.
Admiral De Ruyter refused their thanks. He had been at sea fifty-eight years and had many victories to his credit. He told the Hungarians: “We are only instruments; give all the glory to God.… Of all my victories not one has caused me so much joy.” It was his crowning achievement; ten weeks later he was dead.
The pastors and teachers were unable to return home immediately, but the Hungarian king was beginning to feel the pressure of an aroused public opinion in Western Europe. The English and German rulers, as well as the Dutch, brought diplomatic pressure to bear. The Protestants were finally allowed to go home, but with restrictions.
Religious persecution is still a fact of life 300 years later in many parts of the world. Lamentably, little seems to have been learned from history. Organized ecumenicity, as represented in the World Council of Churches, has difficulty speaking a consistent word on behalf of oppressed believers in the last quarter of the twentieth century.
Excellence For The Prime
The so-called family hour, which runs from seven to nine each evening on commercial television, has been with us for half a season. It is the industry’s attempt to answer consumer pleas for less sex and violence on television. But the programs produced for this time-slot have been dismal, sterile and dull.
The failure of “Beacon Hill,” a spin-off of the award-winning public TV series “Upstairs, Downstairs” (a British import now in its third and, regrettably, final season), may have been due in part to the non-prime hour at which it had to be aired. “Beacon Hill” was the most ambitious night-time commercial TV venture to date. The acting was taut, the script was well-written, and the plot frequently dealt with serious, if not philosophical, questions. But they were questions the network considered inappropriate for “family” viewing.
The family-hour concept is artificial and ineffective, a shallow concession to consumers. Children can view more explicit sex and violence on soap operas any afternoon of the week than on programs after nine in the evening. Even the talk/news programs can give offense. Maureen and John Dean on a recent “Good Morning America” interview discussed the value of living together before marriage; Mrs. Dean gave advice on how a woman can get a man to marry her if he’s already living with her. Parts of the interview were then rerun on evening news programs. If that is the sort of programming to which people object, pressing the off-button appears to be the only solution.
Serious or “adult” subjects can be treated without salaciousness, as in the recent “George Sand” series on public TV’s “Masterpiece Theatre.” The immoral lives of nineteenth-century French artists were presented tastefully, and the ill results of such living were shown without apology.
The television industry has not found the key to good prime-time programming. It should take a close look at its far less flush but far more stylish neighbor. If artistic and moral excellence were the goals for commercial television as they are for its public counterpart, much of the problem would be solved.
Believers: In Good Hands
The biblical account of Hagar and Ishmael is a touching one. A young woman and her teen-age child are sent off with bread and a skin filled with water to perish in the wilderness. Abraham did this at the behest of Sarah, his wife, who had given birth to Isaac, the son of promise and the heir of his father. Sarah was jealous of Abraham’s son by Hagar, an Egyptian slave woman.
When the water was gone, Hagar put her son under a bush so she would not have to see him die. The lad wept aloud, and we are told that “God heard the voice of the child.” The angel of the Lord came to Hagar with the promise that Ishmael would become the father of a great nation. He also told her, “Hold him fast with your hand.” There is something beautiful in the scene: bereft of material resources but in response to God’s command, Hagar takes her son’s hand and holds it firmly. Reassurance must have filled his heart.
Many of us can remember a parent who held us by the hand at some troubling junction point of life. What strength came to us by that simple act! Hope rose in our hearts, and life suddenly seemed safe again. Is that not a true picture of God for the Christian today? All who belong to God by faith are held in the hollow of his hand.
Christians who have any doubts about this can lean heavily on the testimony of Jesus. He had told his disciples that he is the shepherd of the sheep and that the shepherd died to give life to the sheep. But some doubted whether he was really the Christ. They asked him, and his response was this: “My sheep hear my voice … and I give them eternal life … and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.” And then he added: “No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
Safe in the hands of Jesus and the Father! No one can snatch us out of their hands. There we are certain of provision for this life and for the life to come. We need not fear tomorrow, for all our tomorrows are in their hands also. And when those earthly tomorrows come to an end, we shall cross the river that separates time from eternity, still in good hands.
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Green lights blink in double eyecatching announcement. The name beside the lights can be read easily with eyes searching for confirmation of a specific destination—Beirut, Rome, Ankara, Tokyo, New York, London, Zurich, Chicago, Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, San Francisco, Houston, Amsterdam, Frankfurt. What can be read by watchful eyes is suddenly further confirmed as a deep voice announces in two or three languages the departure gate.
I observed this procedure for some hours recently. We were filming in an airport, and since my job was just to watch the crew’s coats and extra equipment, I had plenty of time to watch and think. Blink-blink, blink-blink, green signals pulling eyes to check the accuracy of plane number and seat assignments. People, people, people, of all nationalities, all races, all ages, all sizes and sorts—all with several things in common: their passports have been checked and are in order, their baggage has gone through the controls and has passed inspection, they have walked through the arch with the electric test declaring that they are not taking any forbidden weapons. They have fulfilled the requirements for going from where they are to another place. But can each one know, with absolute assurance, that he or she will reach that destination?
There are such things as storms, faulty motors, sabotage, and highjacking. Machines can fail, and human beings can fail, and enemies can succeed in destroying what they set out to destroy, so that the expected destinations are never reached.
The certainty of having a destination with a name, and a ticket, and the official permission to board a plane, is not a guarantee of arrival. The life jackets under the seats, the oxygen masks being demonstrated a few minutes after takeoff, emphasize the fact that no absolute guarantee is possible when one is depending upon man and machine.
Many people have troubled feelings about their destinations as they travel, whether for pleasure, or business, or in flight from wars or earthquake regions. However, far more universal is the recognition that there is another kind of “going” that everyone has to face, whether he or she packs a suitcase, buys a ticket, makes a plan, or not.
A five-year-old child of a woman in my Bible class here in Switzerland recently was in the bedroom with her little brother, three and a half, when he died choking, with croup. “Mother, Mother, he has gone! I’m alone! Philippe has gone!” Although she had never seen death before, this little girl recognized that Philippe had gone away. Where? What destination is ahead when people “go” in this way? Can one be absolutely sure of arriving there when the time comes to “go” out of the body, to somewhere else?
The Lord Jesus was speaking directly to that haunting fear when he said so clearly,
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also [John 14:1–3].
Don’t be fearful about the journey ahead; don’t worry about where you are going or how you are going to get there. If you believe in the first Person of the Trinity, God the Father, believe also in the Second Person of the Trinity, the One who came as a light into the world not only to die for people but to light the way to a certain destination. This One, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, provides the ticket, is himself the light, will guide our footsteps along the way, and is even now preparing a specific, definite mansion, a place for us who are on our way. He not only promises with the absolutely certain promise of God that he is preparing the place, but states that he himself will one day return to take us there in resurrected bodies.
Hebrews chapter eleven is speaking of those who have believed, and who are part of the family of the living God, and who desire a better country, a heavenly country. Is their desire a fanciful idea, wishful thinking? God states to them, and to us, in verse sixteen, “God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”
There is a certain destination ahead for all who have come through “The Lamb” into the family of the living God. That destination is a very real city, a place so definite that God can say that because of the existence of this place, he is not ashamed to be called the God of those who are expecting to go there, nor to be called the God of those who are suffering tribulations, persecutions, hardships, afflictions, weariness, pain. He is not ashamed to be called the God of those who are having a hard journey, because the destination is perfect and sure.
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple” (Psalm 19:7). When God makes a promise and declares a prophecy, even a “simple person” may be sure of the fulfilment of that promise or prophecy. God has what no human being has, the absolute power to fulfill his promises. When God states that there is a destination that is real, and also perfect, there is no doubt about its existence. When God explains the requirements for getting, there, and they are fulfilled, no storm or enemy can intervene and “hijack” or “kidnap.” God the Son is able to say,
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man [any created being] pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them to me, is greater than all; and no man [no created being] is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand [John 10:27–29],
God, who spoke to the Israelites concerning a land of brooks of water, a land of wheat and barley and vines, a land of oil olives and honey, a land where they would eat bread without scarceness (Deut. 8:7–9), also speaks of the destination ahead of us with just as much certainty in Hebrews 12:22, “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels.” John was describing a real destination when he said, “I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride for her husband … having the glory of God; and her light was like unto stone, clear as crystal” (Rev. 21:2, 11). This is an absolute destination, based on the promises of an absolute God.
What about the temporary “destinations,” our day-by-day “journey” through time and space in present history? Is there any assurance that the “now” is protected? Isaiah 52:12 gives assurance, as we step into the “next thing” whatever that is for you or for me, that the Lord who is preparing the future destination cares about the details of the now: “For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your reward.” He will go before, and be our rear guard, this One of whom we can say, “For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death” (Ps. 48:14).
EDITH SCHAEFFER