impose his religious convictions upon an entire grammar school or an entire grammar school district by protesting the singing o f Christmas carols or the reading o f verses from the Bible, or the offering o f a prayer at the opening o f school sessions each morning? In this country where majority rule is supposed to prevail, it seems passing strange that one secularist, by voicing his particular religious convictions loudly enough, is able to close the mouths o f the vast majority who heartily disagree with him. The travesty o f it all is that this development in the religious life o f our country likely never would have taken on such propor tions had our great Protestant denominations and their theological seminaries remained true to the faith once for all delivered unto the saints. Always there have been isolated voices o f the secularist persuasion to be heard in every generation o f the past. But they become more and more prominent only as the church o f Jesus Christ becomes weak in its convictions and departs from the Word o f God. This is true today. And we have only ourselves to blame! I f only this eminent divine who has recently become professor o f religion at one o f our great universities, and evidently had his theological training in one o f our outstanding seminaries o f the land, and others like him would herald the great doctrines o f the Word o f God and warn against the rising tide o f secularism instead o f merely recognizing it and urging that we learn to live with it, perhaps the trend might be reversed and, once again, we should be able to move forward as a great Christian nation. But, alas, it could even be that he himself has merely a cloak o f the genuine old-time religious convictions which serves to hide his own secularist ideology. One suspects that this is true in many instances among religious leaders o f our country today. Thank God, voices that proclaim the great doctrines o f the Word o f God in all o f their authority, beauty and simplicity have not been completely stilled. There are Bible colleges and Christian colleges, today, as well as outstanding theological seminaries, which take their stand upon the Word o f God and boldly proclaim its truths centering around the great doctrine o f justification through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His atoning work on Calvary’s cross. In these days when changes occur so rapidly in theological circles, one dares not rely upon the stand taken by religious t r aining centers even a decade ago. Their message today may be something quite different from the message proclaimed by the same institution in years gone by. Bible-believing Christians everywhere would do well to make certain that their current interests and benevolences are directed toward those schools that today are standing firm on the historic doctrines o f the Word o f God. It is not what a school formerly believed and taught but what it believes and teaches to day which counts in the battle against all that is false. "Be strong. We are not here to play, to dream, to drift. We have hard work to do, loads to lift. Shun not the struggle, face it, ’tis God’s gift. Be strong!”
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For Better Understanding u s e . .. THE AMPLIFIED NEW TESTAMENT More than 750,000 in use! Cloth/ $3.95 Deluxe, maroon or white/ $6.95 Leather/ red or black/ $9.95 THE AMPLIFIED OLD TESTAMENT
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THE AMPLIFIED OLD TESTAMENT— PART ONE (GENESIS TO ESTHER) Coming January 1964 Published by Zondervan AVA ILABLE AT ALL BOOKSTORES
MARCH, 1963
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