November, 1945
417
THE
IN THE NEWS
B I B L E
An Interpretation o f World Affairs in the Light
the Scriptures.
(J The literary field is fairly well filled with tales of heroism of the late war. Not a few of these accounts have a religious, slant. The first B-29 crewman ever to win the Con gressional, Medal of Honor was Sgt. Eugene Erwin. -He saved the life of every man in his plane by picking up in hjs own hands a phosphorüs smoke bomb which had become jammed in the bombchute. When he took hold of this bomb, it was burning at 1300° F. He .tucked it under his arm while he opened the window, and then threw it out. He is a Christian lad who continually talks about his Lord. He carries his New Testament and makes4good use of it. Here is an other example of the fact that a man’s strength is “as the strength of ten,” when he has the Lord Jesus on his side. ♦ tire Christian public has become in tensely interested in the outcome of this suit. It is a call for the concerted prayers of God’s people that He may give victory to the cause of righteous ness, and thereby honor His Name. ♦. (J The danger of ignorance of the Bi ble, and inability to rightly divide its truth, are often illustrated by the use that is made of certain passages by the unlearned, poor, and underprivi leged. A late incident has to do with a Holiness sect whose particular ob session appears to be the fondling of serpents. Taking their cue from the sixteenth chapter of Mark, where it is stated that the followers of Christ would be able to take-up deadly ser pents without harm (accidentally, of course), these people have almost descended to the status of serpent worshipers in their fanatical desire to prove that they are impervious to the venom. Recently, they broke into the news because of the publicity result ing from the death of one of their lay preachers Who was bitten by a rattle snake. It does s e e m that the average reader of the Word of God would re act in exactly the opposite manner in respect to reptiles. Throughout the Scriptures, a snake is accounted an accursed thing, to be abhorred; the serpent is even used as a type of the devil himself. Why any body of pro fessed believers would ever wish their faith to be connected with the hand ling of serpents is beyond ordinary comprehension. ♦ ^ It is common practice to blame all manner of wrong-doing upon Jews. Here is some interesting information from Prophecy magazine with refer ence to crime in our largest city. About one half of the Jewish popula tion of the United States resides in New York City; the last available fig ures (1941) indicate that the Jewish youth constituted but seven percent of offenders against the law in that city. In (New York state itself, the de linquents among Jewish youth were slightly over three percent of the to- tal number. When we have the facts before us, we find that the lying ru- mors with respect to the criminal tendencies of the Jews are largely anti-Semitic propaganda, and have no basis of truth. ♦ (J A glimpse into the religious world o f the future is given with the an nouncement that the Sudan Interior Mission is soon to begin the erection Of a powerful broadcasting station at Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. It will be fashioned after the plan of the emi nently successful HCJB of Latin Amer ica. This new Ethiopian station will b r o a d c a s t the Gospel in. many tongues. It may be argued that the natives do not possess radio receiving sets but, while this is true, there are figures to prove that in nearly every community there is at least one avail able set. This can be placed in the center of a village, and there may be the channel for the Word of God to reach many hearts. Perhaps the en tire complexion of missionary endeav or will be changed with the introduc tion of many similar radio stations. A sidelight on this matter is the com ing demand for missionaries well trained in the technique of radio broadcasting, and in the mechanics of radio equipment. ♦
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