S t r a n g e t h i n g s are being written and said these days even in evangelical circles. The itch to come up with new angles and novel ideas leads even Christians into wild remarks and untenable positions which cannot bear the light of calm and sober judgment. The times are so weird and fantastic that we need not be surprised when even good people are infected with the virus. Some come out with shocking overstatements just to be different or to get the ear of a fed-up generation. Basically, we are told, these men are sound but they employ such tricks to arouse interest and get attention. We doubt, however, that a man who is sound at heart will purposely utter unsound statements. “ Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” What is down in the well will come up in the bucket. A man unsound at heart may talk the language of truth to hide his error but we do not believe that a good man will deliberately speak evil. He will not abide inwardly in what is right and abound outwardly in what is wrong. There is a tendency in some quarters to play up the virtues of sinners and the vices of saints. Unbelievers are said to be more agreeable than the Lord’s people. One would gather that the saints are a bunch of crabs while non-Christians are a gracious sort, easy to deal with in business and far more pleasant socially. There may be some exceptions that prove the rule but I prefer Christians at their worst to unbelievers at their best. I have worked with churches for almost half a century and no one can do that without learning a lot about the strange doings of some Christians. Yet I can say that most of them have treated me better than I deserved. I would dread to be left on this earth with “ sinners only” after the church has been removed. I have often experienced the misery of living in a throng of worldlings in a city hotel and what a relief it was to get to God’s house on Sunday to a fellowship that speaks my language! When I was desper ately ill, I did not get cards and letters from unbelievers assuring me of their prayers. The nurse who sat by my bed on a critical night praying when she was not ministering to me was no worldling. I know that Christians have many faults and sinners some virtues but I do not look forward to getting away from the company of the re deemed for a happy season with this untoward genera tion. As in the Book of Malachi, one rejoices when he gets through the “Wherein” crowd to those “ who fear the Lord and think upon His Name.” Much is being written these days about separation from the world. One can understand how some writers can be almost irritated over the clannishness of Chris tians. We tend to enjoy our own company so much that we fail to minister to the world outside. Like a room ful of lighted lamps, we out-dazzle each other while a world in darkness needs our testimony. Lights are needed in dark places. “ They that be whole need not a physi cian, but they that are sick.” A display of garden seeds is attractive to look at, but those seeds must get out of pretty packages into the dirty ground and disintegrate if we are to have vegetables t o .eat. There is too much packaged Christianity and not enough planted Chris tianity. There is also the danger of impersonal testi mony. People can become so busy attending meetings of the Gospel Witnessing Association that they have no time to do any Gospel witnessing. We are not too impressed these days, however, with those who think we ought to be chummy with Sodom
and mix freely with Gomorrah. Of course theirs is the old argument that the end justifies the means. Lot mixed freely with Sodom and “ sat in the gate,” but he ended in disgrace. When in Rome, Paul did not do as the Romans. He was all things to all men that he might save some, but that has been stretched to cover practices Paul never would have endorsed, as his other writings prove. Most protagonists of the Jesuit doctrine concerning means and ends would never mind eating meat offered to idols. John Bunyan described the pilgrims at Vanity Fair in a way that sounds strange to us today: “ And as they wondered at their apparel, so they did likewise at their speech; for few could understand what they said. They naturally spoke the language of Canaan; but they that kept the Fair were men of this world. So that from one end of the Fair to the other, they seemed barbarians to each other.” Modern pilgrims of the faith and pro prietors of the Fair would hardly seem barbarians to each other. They are too much alike. God’s people are strangers and pilgrims in this world and while we are not to live cloistered lives or move through the world in Pharisaic religious superiority, that does not mean that we must run clear off the reservation in the other direction and lose our identity as Christians in identification with this age. When the Lord’s sheep are gray, all black sheep feel more comfortable. Many proposals about fraternizing with the ungodly may be bom of good intentions but they aid and abet the trend of the times that would reduce all mankind to one faceless mass in preparation for Antichrist. The subtle pressures will increase but the true Christian is always an angular misfit in a sinful generation. The fact that our Lord ate with publicans and sinners has been made to cover all sorts of dubious practices. The Christian who hobnobs with Sodom is more likely to become a Sodomite than to convert Sodom. We should be pleasant and friendly and helpful to all men and there are areas where we can mix and mingle within the framework of our faith but such associations may easily become fellowship. For this reason, churches are not moulding communities today half so much as com munities are moulding churches. An out-and-out Chris tian will never be accepted by this age. The modern religious hail-fellow-well-met is a far cry from Bunyan’s Pilgrim. Whatever the failings of the Old School, the new variety is not making much of a dent in modem society. The concessions we make in order to be acceptable offset the good we hoped to do. The means may cost more than the end is worth. The world hated our Lord and He assured us that it would hate us too. As the Master, so shall the servant be. Modern schemes to remove the reproach of the cross and make the saints popular will not convert Sodom and may disgrace Lot. Let us be done with queer angles and odd solutions to problems of Christian conduct. In this day of con formity they are part of the brainwashing process by which all lines are erased in a bland togetherness of church and world. Instead of more togetherness, we need more apartness. We cannot lift others if we stand on the same level. We are to have no fellowship with the un fruitful works of darkness but rather expose them by the contrast of godly living. Some old-fashioned Christians managed to achieve remarkable results by being clear- cut non-conformists transformed by the renewing of their minds. We have not improved upon them lately.
. . b l a c k s h e e p f e e l m o r e c o m f o r t a b l e . ”
9
OCTOBER, 1962
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