6
TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I NE S S
Our
M istie st
Weapon
By K, Owen While
U ) c ( / J ' < k A * J E
If you are concerned because no adequate defense against the atom bomb has been discovered, you will be encouraged by this reassuring message.
Satan and sin; with it, he protects himself from the assaults of temptation. We speak of it as living and powerful yet, strangely enough, we do not seem to believe it! We face the amazing spectacle of denomi nations, churches, organizations and individuals pro fessing to believe that the Bible, God’s Word, is eternal, unchanging, living and powerful, and yet neglecting and forsaking it for philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, human wisdom and experience. Back to the Bible From time to time the cry is raised, “Back to the Bible!” For many it is not a question of coming back to it, but simply of coming to it at all. Theoretically,1they believe in it; actually, they do not. They use it as a con venience to save time and effort. They use it to seek to prove their own theories. They use it to give a religious flavor to their messages. They use it to provide catchy phrases and unusual topics. They use it as a point of departure and never return to it. They use its words and profess to build upon it, but they know nothing of its power. Perhaps the saddest element of all is that many of these are sincerely seeking to serve the Lord. They simply do not know that there is “a more excellent way.” Preach the Word Preachers must come to the realization that they are not called to be eloquent, or original, or unique, or spectacular, but to “preach the Word.” The only great preacher is the preacher of the Word of God. The power is not in the preacher, but in the Word, and through the Spirit, who carries it to the heart of the hearer. In his b i o g r a p h y of D. L. Moody, Bush Aglow, Richard E. Day states that a woman in Brooklyn once said to Mr. Moody: "We have plenty of preaching in Brooklyn, but if you will tell us something about the Bible, it will be blessed to us.” - Moody accepted the challenge, prepared a simple Bible reading, and “the ravishingly sweet fires of God at once came down.” Moody himself is responsible for the statement: “A man cannot be convicted by any means save the Holy Spirit’s working through the Word.”
ECENTLY our scientists succeeded in unleashing and turning upon our foes the basic power of our universe—atomic force. The world is still reeling from the impact of it. The atomic bomb did more than to destroy two Japanese cities; it awakened people everywhere to the plain, yet awful truth that, unless the Lord intervenes, man has now within his grasp a weapon which literally can devastate the earth and blot out every living creature. This realization is all the more fearful when we consider the fact that the constant recurrence of war is clearly prophesied in the Scriptures. So long as men are unregenerate, so long as sin reigns in the hu man heart, so long as God is ignored and forgotten, just so long shall we have “wars and rumours of wars.” Surely we are hastening on toward the end of the age! Yet the days to come may show that the things which have happened are for “the furtherance ,of the Gospel.” New highways and skyways have been opened; jyast territories have been made available; progress has unlocked many doors long closed; the banner of the Cross may be planted where the flags of war have been unfurled. Atomic Energy Not the Greatest Force Many have spoken of the atomic bomb as the most destructive weapon ever conceived. This is true, but it is not our mightiest weapon. Our mightiest weapon is not material, but spiritual. Of necessity it must be so, “for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wicked ness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). Powerful as it is— two thousand times more powerful than any bomb previously devised—the atomic bomb is but a weak and puny thing compared to our mightiest weapon. The atomic energy thus released has been used for destruc tion, but our mightiest weapon is destructive only of evil and constructive only of good. Of course, I speak of ‘ the word of God which is living and powerful and sharper than any twoedged sword” (Heb. 4:12). Since it is twoedged, it is designed both for offense and de fense. With it, the believer attacks the strongholds of
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