Vance Havner
Wandering in Wonderland
Can a man be a simple, humble, plain Christian today?
the real thing. Sunday morning crowds at church would not deceive Isaiah or Amos, and Paul fore warned us about a facade of godli ness without power. A ll the pitiful fleshly tricks to drum up interest b y contests and prizes are but a parody on the apos tolic church. W e are about to blow a fuse trying to sound as intellect ual as the modernists. And when a scientist says a good word for the Bible we go into raptures as though that settled it. Among the other wonders o f this new Looking-glass Land are the Re thinkers, Revaluators and Reap praisers of everything from inspira tion to the tribulation. One would think it a late date to be examining the foundations of our faith. Some theologians m ay need to be exam ined. And it need not be so disturb ing just because Martin Luther or some other worthy may have had his doubts as to the canonicity of a book or two in the Bible. The Bible does not stand or fall with any man. Every man stands or falls on his relation to the W ord of God. “ Let God be true but every man a liar.” And how tragic that Bible be lievers should fall into the subtle trap of arguing the tribulation so vehemently that we have little time to simply rejoice in the blessed hope! W e pilgrims are discussing the timetable and missing the scen- ery. And now comes a new tempest over worldliness and separation. A few fundamentalists w ith their rigid “ don’ts” come in for a blast ing. Most church members that I know are in no danger o f becoming
A lice In W onderland’s Lewis Car- roll wrote another book, A lice through th e Looking-glass. I liked to read it when I was a boy. Everything was backwards in Looking-glass: Land. When I survey the present-day evangelical situa tion I get the same impression that I used to have reading A lice’s ad ventures on the other side of the mirror. Pity any old-fashioned Christian who tries to put the puz zle together. He m ay end up like the Dutchman who said, “ Vot is all dis fussing about? I sure vould like to get into a good old Jesus meet ing.” Satan seems to have executed a master stroke b y enveloping us in general confusion. He is an artist in deception and “ while men slept” he has sowed a crop o f tares that on ly a few can distinguish from wheat. He would deceive, if it were possible, the very elect and never did the saints need so much grace for discernment to try the spirits whether they be o f God. Out of all this, two extremes have developed: some spend all their time with a microscope looking for error and lose the jo y of their sal vation; others trying to be gracious end up being gullible, like the H ollywood actress who explained her interest in astrology b y saying, “ I believe in everything a little bit.” Looking-glass Land is tame com pared to the religious menagerie today. A ll sorts of strange causes are championed. For a little publi city, men who ought to know better break into print with the wildest of statements. W e are supposed to be in a religious renaissance much of which m ay be a cheap substitute for
puritanical. A lot of ink could be used on the wilderness wanderers who would rather have Egypt’s melons than Canaan’s manna. Then, too, what about another crowd that one seldom hears men tioned, Christians who say they are living in the land but who have come to an armistice with the Phi listines and a truce with Gibeon? Certainly we need to get out into the world and let our light shine in a dark place. But a godless genera tion will have little truck w ith a real Christian, and how strangers and pilgrims can be hail-fellows- well-met and chummy w ith a pagan age is not set forth in the N ew Testament. Most of the efforts made today to clarify the issue of separation on ly confuse it and give false comfort to worldly-minded Christians. Obviously, t h e w a y o u t o f a stupor is not b y getting into a stew. Can a man be a simple, humble, plain Christian today? Our Lord said that we must be childlike if we would enter the kingdom. Too many are childish instead, children of the market place as our Lord called them, playing church instead of practicing and proclaiming the gospel. A child has a sense o f wonder. Gypsy Smith explained the secret of the freshness o f his ministry into the 80s by saying, “ I have never lost the wonder.” W e are in a battle of wits and a bustle of works in the church these days but some where amidst the wits and the works we have lost the wonder. And nothing on earth can be so dry, stale, flat and unprofitable as Chris tian work without the wonder, the
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