War Against the Truth
by Dr. Gerald B. Stanton Part two of the convocation address by Dr. Stanton, Professor of Systematic Theoloyy , Talbot Theoloyieal Seminary. In this searehiny article, a Christian educator reveals the challenye caused by increasiny apostasy found in Christian schools
IT ot only do we have before us this 1 tragic unbelief and apostasy in our 1 schools, but also we see across this country a tragic ignorance of the things of God. Not too long ago at Harvard University, in a Shakespeare class in Macbeth, a student was read ing and asked his professor, “What does Golgotha mean? I have never heard that word before.” The pro fessor said, “ Do you not know what we mean by Calvary?” and the stu dent said, “ Now there’s another word that I have never heard before.” The professor, in his amazement that somebody should become a senior at Harvard and never have heard of Calvary bowed his head and said, The class is dismissed! Fairly recently, a Christian woman entered a post office with a small package containing a New Testament, intending to mail it overseas to a soldier boy. The clerk asked what was in the package, and, hearing that it was a New Testament, said, “And what is that?” “Why the New Testa ment, of course, is part of the Bible.” He seemed not to know what the Bible was, and then he said, “ Do they call it the New Testament be cause somebody just wrote it?” Ignorant of Bible Let me mention to you what was told me recently by a librarian. She said that in one of the libraries over which she had direction, a young col lege woman came to her with a book that she had selected from the shelf at random. Bringing the book to the librarian she said, “ Here, I have found a book. Its name seems to be the H olly Bibble. What book is that? I have never seen it before.”
tions. I trust you will write these things upon the tables of your heart and think upon them often. God-Placed Emphasis The first proposition is this: God puts the emphasis upon this Book! God puts the emphasis upon His Word and other things being equal, He blesses most those who love it and know it the best. Now look with me into the Word of God and see those that God greatly used and blessed. Take a look at Mary, the mother of our Lord. She was a godly woman; we know that from her life. We know it also from this fact: When the angel came unto Mary and presented to her that wonderful truth that she was about to become the mother of our Lord; the mother of the Messianic King, there burst from within Mary a spontaneous psalm of praise. Ten verses in the King James Version, and yet in those ten brief verses we have twenty-three distinct allusions or quotations from the Old Testament. I ask you, friends, which one of us here, spontaneously, on a moment’s notice, could take twenty-three verses of Scripture that we have memorized and blend them together into one psalm of praise unto our God? Evidently Mary was deeply rooted and steeped in the Word of God, the Old Testament, which was all that they had in her day. Read the second chapter of Jonah. Peruse, if you will, the address of Stephen. Read the sermons of Peter and the other men of God and you will find that these were men of like passions such as we are, and-yet they were greatly used of God be cause they made the fountainhead of continued on page 26
Recently, a grade school teacher speaking to her class of children asked them this question: “Do you know what the name Jesus Christ means?” Nobody seemed to have an answer, until finally one little boy spoke up and said, “Why, teacher, don’t you know that that’s a swear word?” Appalling Conditions Now why do I bring to your atten tion these appalling conditions, not from far off India nor from darkened Africa, but from formerly Christian (but now rapidly becoming apostate, pagan) America? Why do I bring you these realistic pictures of the spiritual dearth of our country? Like many of you, I have traveled this country; I have felt the spiritual pulse of our land; I have seen much of its need; I have spoken to scores, to hundreds of students, and have heard their difficulties and their doubts. I have been in the churches and seen the people, who as hungry sheep looked up and were not fed!. I tell you, friends, we are living in desperate days, and the Lord warns us of days such as these. Now we must realize, you and I, and each one of us, that we are commissioned to carry the life-giving message of the gospel of oUr Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ unto this barren, thirsty land in which we live. Therefore I trust this morning, before these facts that I have given you, that we will be serious and consider our responsi bility. To you therefore as the stu dent body of these four schools, The Bible Institute, The B i o l a Bible Col lege, The School of Missionary Med icine and the Talbot Theological Sem inary—to you I give three proposi
8
TH E KING'S BUSINESS
Made with FlippingBook HTML5