the church in the hour of
CRISIS
' II ' h e S o n of God has declared that as this dispensa- tion draws to its end, the assaults against the faith once delivered to the saints w ill be made in His name and in the name of truth; that the perilous times of the church will not be because of the multipli cation of iniquity and sin, but because of the claims of a Christianity not inspired by the Spirit; a Chris tianity that in the name of Christ shall do many won derful works, wonderful enough to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect, but against whose deception the Lord has warned in earnest and unmeasured terms. He announces that at the close of this hour of grace and just before He descends to earth once more, the faith which He Himself inspired will have waned and fallen away. This preaching then which seeks to exalt human wisdom at the expense of the written W ord and makes use of the glamour of m odem scholarship to deceive even earnest men, is a sign that the Coming of the Lord draweth nigh; that He is coming to re pudiate the professing church as His witness in the world, take the true church to Himself, and then go to the effect: “ Come and enjoy our privileges, meet good friends, see what God can do for you.” Prophets fare badly in an age that prefers pep-talks with a dash of psychiatry. It was the false prophets of Jeremiah’s time who preached serenity while the Weeping Prophet was accused of not being good for the morale. Amy Carmichael wrote: “There is a false suavity about most that is being written in the land now. We are so afraid to offend, so afraid of stark truth, that we write delicately, not honestly. Our smoothness glides over souls. It does not spur them to action, even though they be Christians to whom the thought of the glory of God being given to another ought to be unendurable.” Such a time does not breed pulpit giants. We hear it said that these old worthies built their churches around themselves. It is an unfair allegation. God does not give His vision to a crowd. He gives it to a man and the crowd follows the man. People went to the Metropolitan Taber nacle to hear a man speak for God. “ How shall they hear without a preacher” we read, not “ How shall they hear without a brass band?” If preaching will not do it, nothing else will. “ There was a man sent from God whose name was John.” God raises up an individual, makes a preacher of him and then breaks the mold. The man who speaks for God does not merge into the fog around him. He will seem a misfit, angular, a nonconformist. The new school will smile in embarrassed tolerance when he speaks. He will not be affected by the fact that age and experience do not count for much today when a preacher is superannuated at forty. He will not keep silent and let youth take over entirely. Veterans have a right and an obligation to warn and to protest. We need youth to keep the church from going too slow, but we need age to keep it from running away.
forth in judgment against a materialistic and godless world. It is time, therefore, that the church should arouse. It is time that Christians should exalt the written W ord as never before. Let every church write over its doors and over its pulpit, “ Learn not to think above what is written.” Let the church make this written W ord the test of membership and fellowship, refusing to admit to full association any individual who repudiates its in tegrity, who does not accept its testimony. Let the church make submission to the written W ord a test of the pulpit, allowing no man to enter it who does not base his speech unqualifiedly upon an unabridged, “ Thus saith the Lord.” Let the Christians study the W ord as they never studied it before. Here on ly can the Christian meet the devil and overcome him. This was the method of the Son o f God. T o every assault of Satan He an swered, “ It is written.” This must be the method now. END The man who speaks for God will seem unsocial if he refuses to dine with Jeroboam or let his hair down with the priests of Bethel. If he would be a voice in the wilderness he had better spend some time there. Elijah said to Ahab, “ As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand.” Any man accustomed to living in God’s presence will not be intimidated by any dignitary of earth. He will not be impressed by current fads and trends. As Mordecai Ham put it, “The prophet flatters neither monarch nor mob. Paul was a strategist who thought out his strategy on the field of war and not in some Jerusalem war office where parchments and seal ing wax were more plentiful than experience and fore sight.” The devil, and some people, will see to it that the man who speaks for God has a rough time. Some will speak approvingly to his face and connive against him behind his back. In a day of prosperous churches and popular religion, mainly occupied with keeping every body busy and happy, he will sound like the voice of doom. Amaziah will bid Amos get back to the country where he belongs. The head of John the Baptist is not brought in on a charger these days, but there are newer ways of getting rid of prophets. There are more adroit ways of hushing up Elijah even though Jezebel may not frighten him into the wilderness. As with Ezekiel, people may compliment him but they will not do what he says. But whether they hear or whether they forbear, they shall know that a prophet has been among them. Jehoshaphat asked, “ Is there not here a prophet of the Lord BESIDES?” There was . . . and may there always be! END Rehoboam wrecked his career and his nation by follow ing the advice of youth untempered by the wisdom of age.
SEPTEMBER, 1960
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