MORAL RE ARMAMENT
deep trouble, he was able to bring the young man the cure he needed.” ** The six men to whom Frank Buchman wrote the letters of apology were the officials in the hospice that he had established. The literature of Moral Re-Armament has made this story the basis for some of the best writing of many of their able journalists. No doubt it did mean a spiritual upheaval for Frank Buchman but its im portance appears to be exaggerated out of all reason. An apology to those whom one has wronged, or believes he has wronged, is common enough in the lives of most Christians. To forgive and be forgiven is accepted as part of the Christian way of life. One is forced to the conclusion that he must have been a man of a terrific pride to have been affected so deeply by this act. Here again is established a pattern for the Group for the “ con fessing” and “ sharing” which became their regular techniques grew out of this Keswick incident. Garth Lean compares this experience of Buchman’s with that of Wesley in the upper room at Aldersgate, but there are vast differences in the kind of “ evangelism” to which the two men were led. Not long after this, Frank Buchman returned to the United States. Through the influence of John R. Mott and other friends, in 1909 he was appointed as YMCA secretary at Penn State University where he introduced some of his ideas into his Bible classes. These ideas were not wholly original. Frank Buchman was greatly in fluenced by such men as Wright, Drummond, Emil Brunner (later on), and the like, men who would in these times be termed “neo-orthodox” or “ liberal.” There is no evidence in any of the writings of Buchman or his followers that he or they had any extensive knowledge of the Word of God. From the outset, he placed no em phasis on doctrine. His views were wholly pragmatical. Truth was to be tested by action. Here is the fatal fault of Moral Re-armament. While it is completely true that sound living must follow sound teaching, the reverse is also true that sound living must have a basis in sound teaching. They cannot be separated. One is useless, power less, hypocritical without the other. Had Buchman, even in those earliest days, been a man of the Book, who laid a foundation in the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God upon which his “ young men” and his “ teams” could have built the superstructure of their Christian lives, the history of this organization would have been quite different, and they would not have wandered into the vagaries that characterize them after fifty years. We have nothing spiritual that has not come out of the Word of God and all our experiences as Chris tians must be checked by the Book. Frank Buchman de clared that Christianity was only of the w ill; that one **Used by permission of Christian Herald, 27 E. 39th, St., New York, 16, N.Y. From July 1961 issue. 17
THE OXFORD GROUP
BY DR. LOUIS T. TALBOT CHANCELLOR BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker