the simple economic fact that in such division of wealth, the clever schemers in a short time would have most of the money back in their possession. The masses would be right back where they have been for centuries. Communism has failed in the past; is failing today wherever it is being tried; and will fail in the future because of the greed of the human heart. God’s Word declares: “The heart . . . is desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9). If “having things common” did not succeed even in the early church, as recorded in Acts 2, when men’s hearts had been changed by the working of the Holy Spirit in their lives, it is not difficult to imagine the consummate breakdown of equal distribution of wealth among unregenerate men. Taken by and large, regenerated men and women are the most honest, upright and respectable citi zens of any community, against evil, and for the right. Yet there is no perfection, and even Christians often fail miserably to live exemplary lives before their fellow-Christians, families and the world. Sin is indeed a desperate thing. It is indescribably heinous and its vile character is evident in myriad forms in every strata of society. Every law on the statute books is there because of sin in the human heart. Every court of justice in the land exists be cause of sin in the human heart. Every police officer is required because of the fact of sin in the human heart. Every padlock on every door in every home in the land is mute testimony to the fact of sin in the human heart. Hospitals, sanitariums, convalescent homes, jails, and prisons are all proofs of sin in the human heart. Whenever one turns and wherever one looks, he sees the result of this thing called sin. So it is the height of folly to try to deal with the problems of human nature without taking into consideration this evil which has a stranglehold on human beings everywhere. To orate about “changing society” and creating a Utopia without reckoning with the real problem of sin is like covering a cancer with adhesive tape and expecting it to go away. We are constantly warned against mentioning this awful word and the dreadful condition it describes. This called negative thinking, and is regarded as too somber, morose, frightening. We must think positively; we must go on endeavoring to cure the ills of society with a bit of patchwork here and another there. For two generations and more, the “do-gooders” have been forcing this senseless philosophy on the human race and continuing their merry, Pollyanna tune while men and women, without God, without hope, without salvation, continue on the road to hell, and conditions everywhere worsen day by day. We are getting nowhere with this idealistic approach and one would think the promoters of it would surely despair and give up eventually. Actually this is exactly what the Word of God predicted about the last days before the Lord Jesus Christ returns. Paul wrote of those who “have a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” and this is exactly what the “do-gooders” emphasize — their form of godliness. The power of the Gospel is still changing lives through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s Cross. The world has rejected that procedure entirely and as a result there is only way for it to go and that is the way to hell. That is exactly what the Bible says is the destination of those who follow this line of thinking. Thank God there is another way: it’s a narrow way, but it leads to life everlasting, and few there be that find it. But it is the way of the cross and it leads to our Heavenly Home. The question the moon mission has raised can be answered in one word: “Christ is all we need.”
Hallelujah Chariot Evelyn Hathaway tells the delightful story of her father, Andrew Hendricks, a minister in Los Angeles at the turn of the century. Here are Papa, Mamma, their five children, and the unusual assortment of people who rode in Papa’s beloved, elongated Model T—the Hallelujah Chariot. $4.95
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ItllOX BOX 1176* RICHMOND. VA. 2320«
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F I R S T T I M E IN PAPERBACK
hostage in DJAKARTA
The savage agony and in tense passion of a man stretched to the breaking point by the communists in Indonesia. 75o
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The moving autobiography of a man who built his life and multi million dollar corporation
on God’s precepts. 75o
A T YOUR BOOKSTORE MOODY PRESS • Chicago
5
OCTOBER, 1969
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