T h e b e s t theological thinkers of the centuries declare that the eternal qualities of man are summed up in the soul. Man’s intelligence, man’s will, man’s purpose, man’s ability to overcome evil, man’s character, man’s con science, man’s knowledge of good and evil . . . man’s moral judgment and every other lofty asset or character ization that separates him from the beast and lifts him above the mere animal. “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Such was the challeng ing message of the pulpits of all evangelical Christian ity from Christ, and long before, until modem theolo gians, sociologists, and psychologists began to find in man’s earthly life something even more important than his eternal existence. Within a lifetime, I have come to see the “ Kingdom of God” move from within man, out into the material field, to where the church is far more concerned as to what man shall eat and drink than where he shall spend eternity. When Christ announced His “ great commission,” He was without doubt thinking of the eternal meaning of man’s soul.
For generations, after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the church had one central message. The gospel was the “ good news,” not about economics, political economy, sociology and racial relations. Why evangelical Christianity sought a substitute for the “ gospel of redeeming grace,” I have tried in vain to discover. It was this gospel that shook the Roman throne and astonished the Caesars, following Pentecost. Possibly the immediate needs of earthly man were demanding. At least, the early Christians were sorely tempted, and within a few generations from the resur rection of Jesus they began to hunger for the “ fleshpots of Egypt.” Then came the Protestant Reformation and the return of evangelical Christianity to original emphasis upon the soul of man, his eternal being. But as the years followed each other, the pendulum swung and time told its sordid story. Before the days of Wesley, Protestantism had already forgotten the Com mission that fell from the lips of the Master, just as He ascended. The clergy of Protestantism were back at the job of thinking of and attending to their bellies. They were expert fox hunters but their clerical robes did not hide
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TH E KING'S BUSINESS
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