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3 ways out
has used to keep him in bondage. The Discrepancy in Theory and Practice The average young Christian sel dom understands this and is fur ther confused by the discrepancy he finds between his continuous failings and the victorious life con stantly held up to him as a norm. Realizing that he is living a dual istic life, he withdraws into his own shell to fight his battles alone, and joins the group in their for mal and conventional religious ex pressions. These have a certain value for him, giving him a feel ing of group solidarity, but they often do not reflect realistically the true inner states of the individual members. With this, true Christian fellowship is broken, for communi cation on a meaningful spiritual level becomes impossible. Superfi cial communication is maintained, but the main element in “ Koino- nia” (Christian fellowship as un derstood in the early church) is lost. The resulting state of hypocrisy and superficiality has to be resolved. The solution, the attempt to inte grate the conflicting elements, may come in one of three ways: Three Ways Out DEAD ORTHODOXY. By developing a theology of complacency which avoids any spiritual travail man is encouraged to accept his lack of spiritual vitality. Any travail of the soul is interpreted as a lack of faith. This amounts to accept ing defeat as normal and leads in time to dead orthodoxy character ized by formalism, legalism and verbalism. Actually struggle in all life is inevitable, and even the Christian is faced with much of it. The struggles he faces, however, are meaningful and supported by faith, while those of the non-Chris tian are meaningless. It is not the tragedies of life themselves which are so significant as the attitudes with which they are accepted, the act of faith which in cheerful obe-
Total Commitment or Compromise? Out of this practical problem two main attitudes seem to emerge. On the one hand there are those who, having been powerfully tested by God, come out triumphantly and proclaim: Christianity is an “ either- or,” a total commitment and has no place for compromise. On the other hand, you have those who, faced with the impos sibility of living victoriously, feel compelled to advocate theological or practical modifications to this “ all or nothing” emphasis, if for no other reason than to escape the dualistic and hypocritical implica tions resulting from the conflict be tween belief and practice. And in the middle, we find our young Christian, anxious ■to live victori ously, yet, often finding it impos sible to move beyond Romans 7, finally accepting a solution which falls short of the victory ideal. The Functioning of Man's Inner Life God created man with a soul, an inner part which, like all organ isms, must he fed. The soul can not exist in a vacuum, hut must receive food from one of two pos sible sources: 1) The Spirit of God; 2) The Spirit of this world. These two spirits are engaged in mortal combat, and it is man himself who decides which source of nourish ment he will prefer. Now, the only way the Spirit of God can feed the soul is when man of his own free will renounces the food offered his soul by the Spirit of the world, which usually hap pens only after he has learned to recognize the destructive conse quences of this spirit and its sin ful nature. The answer to the Spir it of the world is not a legalistic sum of “ don’ts,” but is related to anything at all that has the poten tial of intruding between man and God. Conversely, if man is domi nated by the Spirit of God, there are many legalistic group “ don’ts” which do not apply to him if he is sensitive and willing to accept
About the Author Timothy Fetler is head of the philoso phy department at the Biola Bible College in Los Angeles and minister of music at the First Baptist Church in Fullerton. The son of an exiled Bussian missionary, he is a composer, conductor and linguist, speaking five languages fluently. He holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern Univ., is working on a second Ph.D. at USC and has taught at both of these universities. Other articles by Dr. Fetler include: “ C h ristian A p o lo g e t ic s and Modem Thought” (T he K ing ’ s B usiness , Septem ber 1953), “ Tozer, A Prophet for our Times” {His, December 1954), “ The Agnostic and Christ” (T he K ing ’ s B usi ness , August 1955), “ Beality and Christ” (T he K ing ’ s B usiness , March 1956). the guidance of the Spirit. Many spiritual people are led, however, to accept some of these group “ don’ts” for the sake of group sol idarity, quite apart from their spir itual implications. A total commitment to God has to be made, but an understanding of the full meaning of a total com mitment is seldom possible without some development by which man is thoroughly exposed to the limita tions of his own efforts. The will not being totally committed, how ever, throws man back on his own resources and insures his defeat, for God gives sufficient strength to meet any temptation only upon the total commitment o f the will, which in practice means doing all that is within man’s own potential to avoid sin. This total commitment does not defeat sin, but is the necessary prerequisite for sufficient power from God to insure victory over sin. Not that man will not fail occasionally, but he will be given victory over his particular besetting sin which has con s titu ted his “ Achilles’ heel,” and which Satan
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