co-existence basis? Besides, the choice of a “mixed marriage” is a frequent sign of immaturity itself. When a person marries into another faith it may be a flight, an escape from home or childhood ties. The marriage fails to achieve its goals for at least four reasons: (1) because of the great religious differ ences involved, (2) because of the emotional unfitness of the couple concerned that motivated them to seek each other, (3) because of the support that all surveys give to this view and (4) because God has said, “ Be not unequally yoked together.” He said this for your good ■— not so much for His! May God bless you, dear teenager. He will, if you will turn your life over to Him. Sunday, I voted to close the church; not intentionally nor maliciously, perhaps, but carelessly, thoughtlessly, indifferently, I voted. I voted to close its doors, that its wit ness and its t e s t i m o n y might be| stopped. I voted to close its open Bible; on its pulpit — the Bible that had been given us by years of struggle and by the blood of martyrs who died; that we might have it to read. “ I voted for our minister to stop' preaching the glorious truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I voted that the children of the Sunday School no longer be taught the Bible and no longer lift their tiny voices in singing. “ I voted for the voice of the choir and of the congregation to be stilled, and that they no longer sing in united praise. “ I voted for every missionary to be hailed home, every native worker sup ported by the church to stop preach ing, every hospital, every school and 'every dispensary in its foreign mis- Isionary fields to be closed. I voted that its colleges close their doors and no longer bother to train its youth for Christian service. “ I voted for every home missionary project to be abandoned, every influ- ience for good and right and for truth in our community to be curtailed and finally stopped. I voted for the dark ness of superstition, the degrading influence of sin, the blight of ignor-, ance and the curse of selfishness once' again to settle their damning load on the shoulders of an already overbur dened world. “ For you see, I could have gone, | and I should have gone, but I didn’t. I stayed away from church last Sun-; day.” Sign ed ---------------------------------------------------- - (CAN YOU SIGN THIS?) HOW DID YOU VOTE? L a s t
The Christian Home By Rev. Paul Bayles P a sto r, Centinela B ib le Church H aw thorn e, California
(fa t& o ííc Can you do that? This will please your partner. Of course, you’ll have to sign your children over to that church for training. Can you do that? Right now you’re so “ in love” ' you could do anything — but what about 5 years from now? You may decide just to forget all about church and Christ. Can you do that? You may even decide to attend your own churches separately. Does that sound like a happy or interesting arrange- | ment? Soon children will be born to you. Your partner will fear that if they die without being baptized into his church, they will be forever lost. This is an important doctrine to them. Without Roman Catholic baptism, no one, regardless of circumstances can be saved. You don’t believe that bap tism into the Roman Church is neces sary. Your church has no comparable ritual — what will you do? Give your child to Romanism or heartlessly let your partner live in terror? You now have a very complicated problem to face. Your children will become ob jects of heartache and bickering. What about his Sunday School train ing? W ill they go to public or to parochial schools? Your children will be tom by loyalties and forced to make choices they shouldn’t have to face. You see, your marriage is your children’s business too! What have you accomplished so far? You have proved only that you don’t really care what your church, your friends and God’s Word advise you. Your families and friends have been hurt. You and your partner are unhappy. Your children are caught in the middle of a tragic situation. You say, “What you have described only happens to the immature. We’re both broadminded. We’ll respect each other’s beliefs. Besides, religion isn’t so terribly important anymore.” When you say that, you’re over looking the real nature of Christian faith. Your faith isn’t just a set of beliefs that can be discarded. It’s a way of life to you. You are organi cally related to Christ and these things cannot be casually forgotten. It may be true that very sophisti cated couples can work out a system of co-existence to overcome this con flict. Do you want your marriage on a A C h r i s t i a n teenager reader asks, “Why can’t I marry a Roman Catholic?” I doubt that any Protestant Church has told you that you “ can’t.” But if you marry into the Roman Catholic Church, that church will tell you what you can and cannot do. Permit me to briefly describe the mar riage of a Protestant Christian to a Roman Catholic. In the intoxication of romantic love you will both declare, “We don’t care what our churches think. We have each other and that’s all we need.” This will sound so reassuring that you will repeat it over and over to gain courage. Unfortunately, this “ all we need is each other” feeling is temporary. The romance that tempor arily blinds you to good thinking disappears quite quickly after mar riage. You say, “Not us. We’re differ ent.” You’re not really different. In fact, this is what nearly every couple says. Every married couple must pass from this love-phase to a mature love that can build a home and share joys and sorrows. To have such a mature love, you must have many things in common, not the least of which is a mutual faith in Christ. Since you will not have this mutual relationship to Christ, you will agree not to discuss matters like church, God, and salvation. “After all,” you will say, “ I’ve had religion thrown at me all my life.” This agreement may keep the waters calm on the surface for awhile, but underneath, deep in your heart, storms will be tossing. You will begin to remember your Christian Endeavor pledges to keep quiet hour and church attendance. W ill you be able to keep' those pledges, or will you shrug them off because you made them while you were young? If you honorably decide to keep your promises to God, which Church will you attend — yours or your mate’s? You will decide to take turns. This will be very hard. Your mate will feel guilty about attending your church, because he was taught that this is a mortal sin. If he does attend with you, will his own church “ forgive” him and recognize him the next week? In his own church he will feel shame and guilt because he mar ried a Protestant. On the way home he will beg you to join his church. THE K IN G 'S BUSINESS 38
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