ADYINGCHURCH ' I «HE story is -A- told of an artist who was e n g a g e d t o paint the pic ture of a dying church. Those who comm is sioned him an ticipated that he would portray a ramshackle old structure set in the midst of a neglected court overgrown with w e e d s , w i t h broken windows, and surrounded by a general air of decrepitude.
these doctrines. He said: “ If any one wants to know whether the Methodist Episcopal Church any longer believes those doctrines, let him examine the textbooks, many of them written by our bishops, and used in our Church supported schools. He will find every one of those doctrines denied.” And, with a full knowledge of what Dr. Oxnam believes, that Church made him a bishop, and the Federal Coun cil of Churches of Christ made him its president, and now the World Council o f Churches in America makes him its supreme head. As I write these words, on my desk before me lies a copy of The Christian Advocate (May 13, 1948). Herein is printed “ A summary of the episcopal address, read to the General Confer ence, April 28, by Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam.” The subject: “A Man Named Wesley Passed This Way.” From this address we quote: “Methodism is determined to preach a gospel that insists that all men are brothers and children of one Father, to whom final loyalty is due.” Then, without mincing my words, Methodism is determined to preach a lie; for, when the apostate sons of Judah said: “We have one Father, even God,” Jesus protested: “ If God were your Father, ye would love me . . . Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do” (John 8:41,44). Now be yond all controversy, “all men” do not love the Lord Jesus Christ; and, God is the Father only of those who love Christ. According to our Lord, the fatherhood of the devil is just as much a fact as the fatherhood of God. The contention of Christ in the 8th chapter of John is that those who deny the deity of Jesus Christ, are fathered by the devil. Modernists should not deny their paternity! From Dr. Oxnam’s address, again we quote: “ The supreme objective of the Church . . . is to make Christ regnant in the activities of man and o f society.” But, in the first council ever assembled in the' Christian Church (in Jerusalem, A.D. 46), the apostles declared that the supreme objective of the Church is to “ visit the Gentiles and take out of them a people for his name”—the salvation of in dividuals and not the socialization of the world. (See Acts 15). At the close of Dr. Oxnam’s mes sage, we read: “ The bishops con cluded: ‘Fifty-two years from now, when man has reached the year 2000 and has won, let us pray, the justice, the brotherhood and peace of his dreams, let us hope that the contribu tion of the people called Methodists may have been so significant that his- Page Eight
tory may proudly record, “A Man Named Wesley Passed This Way” ! But what must we think? If “ A Man Called Wesley Passed This Way,” —the way of The General Conference of The Methodist Church in 1948 —it is evident that while he may have “passed” he did not stop in! I fer vently wish that he had! Now, for absolutely unprejudiced testimony concerning John Wesley, it will be admitted, I think, that The Encyclopedia Brittanica can be trust ed as much as any other. It declares that Wesley was “ zealous for the re ligion of the Bible” and “ of the Prim itive Church.” It states that Wesley was grieved over his earlier ministry, saying: “ I preached much, but saw no fruit of my labor . . . And no wonder, for I did not preach faith in the blood of the covenant.” “Faith in the blood” ! What will these mod ernists say to that? The Brittanica further affirms that the red-letter day in Wesley’s life was May 24, 1738, when he attended a meeting where Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans was being read. Wesley said: “ I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me He had taken away my sins, even mine,' and saved me from the law of sin and death.” The so-called “ social gos pel,” so dear to the hearts of modern istic leaders today, doesn’t seem to have received much attention in the teaching of John Wesley. His itiner ant for preaching an individual salva tion to sinners, he said, “must not be altered till I am removed, and I hope it will remain till our Lord comes to reign on earth” ! (New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. XII, Page 308). “ Till our Lord comes to reign on earth” ! That phrase alone, uttered by John Wesley, had he stopped in on that assembly of Methodist bishops in 1948, would have created a perfect spasm! Ask Oxnam! How far, 0 how far, the great Methodist Church of 1948 has de parted from the Methodist Church of 1738! As Samuel came back to King Saul, how we wish that John Wesley could come back to these great relig ious councils today, very muchly Meth odist controlled. I would travel a long way to peek in on the scene! Either Bishop Oxnam is not honest, or he knows as little’ about what John Wes ley taught as he knows about what the Word of God teaches! Really, do these modernistic princes realize how utterly apostate John Wesley would consider them did he “pass this way?” When once this “ Holy Catholic Church” which these modernists en-
Instead the artist painted a picture of a stately building with expensive art-glass windows, a considerable ex panse of richly carved wood, a high pulpit, and comfortable pews. In the foyer, on a conspicuous corner of the wall, a box was fitted. Across the front of the box were the words, “ For Missions.” Over the little opening de signed to receive the contributions was a cobweb. There is a profound truth under neath the artistic satire. A church may be meeting in a glorious Gothic cathedral, and yet be in the throes of death. The actual life o f a church cannot be measured by the building in which the people meet. The marks of decay are upon a church which car ries upon its soul no burden because of the world’s need. —The Arkansas Baptist. vision, becomes a reality, then the great apostasy will have reached its fullness. It will be the final Babel— the great religious octopus upon which the wrath of God will be poured forth. Even now the ear of faith can hear “ a -mighty voice” crying from the highest heaven: “ Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and is become the habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird . . . Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues: for her sins have reached even unto heaven, and God hath re membered her iniquities” (Rev. 18:- 2-5,R.V.). T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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