the wolf inside
by W ilbur Nelson ¡"M o r n in g Chapel H our”
from someone who apparently heard our broadcast and wanted to express his contempt for what we say. I use the word “ literature” loosely. It was a mass — and mess —of bad poetry, two-bit philosophy and little-boy impu dence toward God, the Gospel and the church, a shallow, shoddy collection of verbose junk, worthy of no use better than that of an obsolete mail order catalogue or the waste basket. If I were going to be an atheist, I wouldn’t waste my time, or that of anyone else, with that childish stuff. It doesn’t get within sight of anyone who has mature ideas or beliefs for or against God. I would, rather, work within the respectable walls of the church itself. I would water down the Gospel with polite insinuations; I would credit the writers of Scripture with deep sincerity but question their intellectual and scientific capacity to in terpret what they heard and saw in a way to be relevant and real to our enlightened age. I would admit the Bible to be the Word of God but declare it to be also the word of man and question anyone’s ability to determine which was which. I would preach Jesus as a brave revolutionary, a teacher beyond his times, a god-like man, a martyr who died for his ideals but not as a sacrifice for the sins of man. That would just about do it! I might not make out right, blatant atheists but I could so neutralize the faith of those who take what comes from the pulpit as Gospel that their religion would be as empty and impotent as though they had none. Now, how about you? What comes from your church’s pulpit? Is the Gospel or “ another gospel, which is not a Gospel?” Are you told that the Bible is true or merely beautiful, inspiring but not inspired, or, at least, not inerrant? Are you hearing that religion is “primarily living in harmonious relations with other people” or liv ing in harmonious relations with God, through Christ, first, and with people as a blessed result of this right re lationship with God? There are some things a Christian may or may not believe and still be a Christian. But there are some things one must believe, if he is to be a Christian. He must be lieve the Bible — all of it — is the inspired, inerrant Word of God; he must believe Jesus is the Son of God; he must believe, not only about Jesus Christ, but also he must believe on Him. That says it, in capsule form. Too short, you say? So is this: “ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever be- lieveth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Or this: “ He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on Him” (John 3:36). Beware of the wolf inside! Flee as a fox the man who dilutes or denies the truth of God while he poses as a minister of the Gospel! Doil’t give your support to a church which calls itself Christian and, at the same time, repudiates the Christian message and insults the Chris tian’s Saviour! And, remember, the fact that it is all done in a nice, pretty way, with “ good words and fair speech es,” makes it all the more diabolical!
I n 1785, a little book of forty-nine pages was published in London, called “ Baron Munchausen’s Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia.” It was the first of a series of volumes dedicated to what the sub-title of one called “ The Vice of Lying Properly Ex posed,” a remarkable medley of falsehood and fantasy, produced, not only by the original author, Rudolph Raspe, but also by anonymous writers with a flair for tall stories. The hero was always Baron Munchausen, with the result that the name has become synonymous with “ whopping lies.” Here is an example: While the baron was in a place of business (or, more probably, a tavern) a wolf attacked his horse, ate its way into its body, until the baron drove the wolf home harnessed in the skin of the horse. It is a lie, I know, but the preposterous story illus trates a fact -— the tragic fact of the perversion and cor ruption of the Gospel which is going on in churches, colleges, and seminaries which call themselves Christian. When I read of a so-called minister in one of America’s large denominations saying, “ I believe that God is the ordered existence of life, but I do not believe in a personal God, one to whom I can pray and ask for things,” — I know that he is being not only illogical and inconsistent but also insidious and, I think, immoral, speaking, as he does, from a church which was built on a belief in a personal God. He should, at least, get out of the pulpit to express such sickening sentiments. This spiritual sedition is nothing new, of course, Moses contended with it all the way from Egypt to Canaan, and his successors had more trouble because of it than all the “ ites” who assailed them. It is an ancient Satanic device. As a matter of fact, it was the weapon with which the Devil struck his first blow in the temptation in Eden —not an overt, open attack but a subtle, contemptuous question, softening the victim up for a direct, vicious assault. Paul was aware of its danger, too, as he counselled the elders of Ephesus: “ Take heed, to yourselves, and to all the flock . . . for I know this, that after my departing shall grievous (ferocious, Amp. N. T.) wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:28-30). In Galatians 1:6-9, Paul expressed his surprise and astonishment that the Galatians had turned renegade and embraced “ another Gospel, which is not another”— that is, it was another something, but not a Gospel. There is only one Gospel and what the Galatians were accept ing was only a distortion and caricature of that true Gos pel. The Apostle reproves the Galatians, in a spirit of ten derness and love, for their defection, but he speaks strongly of those who had led them astray. “ Let them be accursed,” he says, and heaven said “ Amen!” Better a millstone were hanged around one’s neck and that he be cast into the depth of the sea than to wear the robes of religion in polluting and destroying the faith of those who accept him as a minister of the Gospel. I received, recently, a package of atheistic literature
15
MAY, 1962
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