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The Bible belongs In this prime posi tion. Scripture Press materials, from their beginning 30 years ago, have had their roots deep in the Word of God. Terms such as "All-Bible,” “ Bible- centered,” and "Bible-based,” were originated at Scripture Press. The Bible has to stay where it is. B. The idea of SP materials as a living, growing tree is apt. Christ’s own life flows up through the trunk and branches and out to the Church. This is exactly what is happening. The "branches" are the NINE SUNDAY SCHOOL COURSES, providing corre lated lifetime Christian learning from birth to the Golden Years . . . FIVE TAKE-HOME PAPERS that demonstrate how to know and serve the living God in daily experience... the FOUR CHURCH TIME COURSES, offering to children from 2 to 11 worship and participation at their varying levels of understanding ... the SIX VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL COURSES, with their many spiritually stimulating activities ... the TRAINING HOUR YOUTH PROGRAMS, training today's teens for solid Christian living and leadership . . . and the THREE CAMP COURSES, offering to boys and girls 9 to 17 appeal, action, and appli cation. Scripture Press has been and still is the Standard-setter with Bible- based, Christ-centered, Departmentally Graded, and Pupil-related materialsl C. The symbol of fruit is a natural. The warm testimonials from Christian leaders in every continent as to the life- c h a n g in g e ffe ctive ne ss of these materials ... the astounding growth in the number of churches using S P materials . . . these are tangible evi dences of the blessing of God. And His blessing makes possible the continued production of hew and improved pub' iications... lessons <,. aids.
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T i n e K i n g s B u s i n e s s A PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES, INCORPORATED Louis T. Talbot, Chancellor • $. H. Sutherland, President • Ray A. Myers, Board Chairman M A Y , in the year of our Saviour Vol. 55, No. 5 Nineteen Hundred and Sixty-four Established 1910 Dedicated, to the spiritual development of the Christian home P M h m T H E JOY OF SUFFER ING — M . R. DeHaan .............................. 8 PER FO RM A N C E O R EX PERIENC E — Vanee Havner ..................... 10 M O D E R N IN T E L L E C T U A L ISM — H. H. Savage ........................... 12 A T R IBU T E T O M O D E R N M O TH E R S — W illiam Ward Ayer ....... 13 PO PU LA R C H R IS T IA N S — Spiros Zodhiates ................................ 14 H OW TO M A S T E R T EM P T A T IO N LeRoy Duggan ................... 15 T H E FUTURE G LO RY OF ISRA EL — Thomas M . Chalmers ......... 16 W A T C H Y O U R SH IB BO LETH S — W ilbur E. Nelson ................... 17 JUNG LE BASE FOR V E N E Z U E L A ................................................ 18 W H E N I W A S S IC K — Thomas W . Klewin ................................ 20 S IC K C H U R CH E S A N D A LOST M IS S IO N — Robert James St. Clair .......................................................... 22 EV ERYBODY M E A N S YO U .......................................................... 37 BE CAREFUL, SIS — Don Hillis .................................................... 40 teles M E SSAG E FROM T H E ED ITO R — Samuel H. Sutherland ............... 6 CU LT S C R IT IQ U E — Betty Bruechert .......................................... 24 DR. T A L BO T 'S QU EST ION BO X — Louis T. Talbot ..................... 26 T A L K IN G IT OVER — Clyde M . Narramore ................................ 28 PER SO N A L E V A N G E L ISM — Benjamin Weiss ............................ 29 BOOK R EV IEW S — Arnold D. Ehlert ............................................ 30 W O R LD N EW SG R A M S — James O. Henry .................................. 32 SC IE N C E A N D T H E BIBLE — Bolton Davidheiser ......................... 33 A L U M N I N EW S — Inex McGahey .............................................. 38
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M AY, 1964
Peoplein Rev. Vernon Mortenson, general di rector of The Evangelical Alliance Mission, has announced that Austria has been designated as the fifth European mission field of TEAM. Austria has a Protestant minority of less than ten percent and very little active evangelical witness. It has also been noted that the spiritual needs of almost one-quarter of the world’s population in China behind the Bamboo Curtain will have priority attention of TEAM’S Far East radio broadcasts. Inchon, Ko rea is the site for TEAM’S 50,000- watt radio station which is the only medium-wave station now covering the whole of northeast China, Man churia and Mongolia. Four hours of Mandarin Chinese programs pro duced by TEAM in their Taiwan studios are heard daily over HLKX. Many of these programs also are beamed over the Far East Broad casting Company stations in the Philippines and Okinawa into south ern and central China. Dr. J. Vernon McGee and Dr. S. Frank lin Logsdon will be among the speak
year, Dallas Seminary will graduate 57 men. Joon Lew, M.D., Ph.D., recently re ceived World Vision’s 1964 Chris tian Service Award for his outstand ing work in conquering leprosy. Dr. Lew is one of the world’s leading campaigners in the battle against leprosy. He has been active in the fight for more than 25 years, and nearly a decade ago founded the Ko rean Leprosy Association. Through World Vision’s aid he established a skin clinic and directed the building of the Special Skin Clinic in Seoul. Dr. George L. Ford, executive vice president of the Winona Lake Bible Conference, Winona Lake, Indiana, has been granted the George Wash ington Meda l by the Freedom’s Foundation of Valley Forge for his convocation address “ The Law of Liberty in the Life of America,” de livered at Spring Arbor College, Spring Arbor, Michigan. The award winning address deals with the es tablishment of freedom through law in contrast to the tyranny that comes by the rule of man. It stresses the place of the law of God in the life of a nation and the special freedom enjoyed in America because of the spiritual foundations of American life. Dr. W illiam Graham Scroggie's book, A Guide to the Gospels, is the text for the first graduate-level corres pondence c ou r s e offered by the Moody Correspondence School, “ The Gospels.” “ The Gospels” has been prepared to give students a system atic study of the Gospel accounts. It begins with the background and syn thesis o f the Gospels and continues into an analytical and Christological study of the books. Those wishing to enroll must first make application with Moody Correspondence School in Chicago. Upon acceptance and payment of fees, study materials will be mailed. Dr. Paul E. Loth, president o f the Evangelical Teacher Training Asso ciation, has announced that E.T.T.A. membership has been increasing among liberal arts colleges and grad uate seminaries, and that Diploma requirements for graduates of Mem ber Schools have also been strength ened to assure standards of excel lence among those presenting the Courses in the Leadership Training program recommended by the Asso ciation. THE KING'S BUSINESS
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churches to participate in the delib erations. Missionary expansion will highlight the conclave as reports are given by several Conservative Bap tist missionaries representing ap proximately 600 workers of the Home and Foreign Societies serving in more than thirty areas around the world. Dr. Logsdon Dr. Clarence H. Didden, president of the Independent F u n d a m e n t a l
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Perhaps KING’S BUSINESS read ers might like to know a good place for good Chr i s t i an magazines, Sunday school papers, pamphlets, and what- have-you. I used to save them all and often reread many of them. One day it dawned on me that there would al ways be a fresh supply of reading ma terial, and it was no use being like the Dead Sea — constantly receiving, never giving. Now I roll them up in brown paper (grocery bags), mark them “ Sea Mail” and send them over seas to pen-friends and missionaries. They are all delighted with English reading material and read them till they fall apart. The mailing cost is small. In many nations the people will read anything. Why not our excess Christian material? “ The Lord gave the Word, great was the company of those that published it” (Psalm 68:11). Mrs. C. D. Brown, La Puente, California OTH ER CO V ER C O M M E N T S In regard to “ Anonymous from Selma, California” (February 1964 Reader Reaction) I would like to say that I can’t see withholding a magazine so designed to show forth God and sal vation through Christ because of a cov er. In these days how we need to avoid hair-splitting over trivialities. How we, as individuals before God, need an awareness of and carefulness against self deception. “ Finally brethren, what soever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatso ever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on THESE things.” Beverly J. Davis, Madera, California Just a word to let you know I receive THE KING’S BUSINESS and think it is one of the finest. I teach a Sunday school class and a training union, and this magazine along with many other fine Christian magazines that come to my home are appreciated. I enjoy read ing “ Reader Reaction.” However some times I can’t see why one would write a letter such as was in the February issue in regard to the magazine cov ers. Personally I think the covers are beautiful. I cut the pictures out and use them in the Beginners class and the Junior class too. People are so different. It’s hard to understand why one would sit down and write you and tell you that be cause of the covers of the magazine you have left God out. God bless you. Keep on publishing the truth, cover and all. Mrs. D. Weir, Dallas Texas
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L o ca te d on a w ood ed , 33 -acre campus, six miles northwest of Wheaton, Illinois .. . the Academy offers academic preparation for schools of higher education. Fully accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Second ary Schools, it provides for your son’s and daughter’s all-around de velopm ent-intellectual, spiritual, social and physical life. Write or phone today for admission end placement procedure—-Phone 231-0727 WHEATON ACADEMY, Dept. K54 Box 267 Wheaton, llliifois LOOKING FOR A CHRISTIAN SCHOOL? (Elementary and Secondary) Teachers — our placement office serves 200 schools Parents — our directory lists schools in 40 States NAT IONA L ASSOC IAT ION OF CHR IST IAN SCHOOLS Department K5 P.O. Box 28 Wheaton, Illinois CEYLON and IND IA GENERAL M ISS ION and Pakistan Christian Fellowship Our ministry includes CO R RESPOND EN C E COURSES in the vernacular Member I.F.M.A. Write for Free literature 107-K N. Hale Street, Wheaton, III. 60187
BY DR. SAMUEL H. SUTHERLAND P IP R E SID E N T , THE BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES, INC.
A Timely Warning by a Great American
tions "W ith the advent of spring and the following summer months, law enforcement can, with reasonable certainty, expect a 20-percent rise in forcible rapes and a large increase in sexual assaults and child molestations. Again, as in the past, police au thorities will muster their forces, issue and broadcast public warn ings, and take all possible precautions to stem this rising flood of perversion and rapacity, knowing all the while that their utmost efforts alone will not be enough. "A ll too often law enforcement is confronted with the de plorable results of a sex crime that might have been prevented by the proper instruction at home by parents, by prompt re porting of sexual deviates to police, and by realistic punishment of offenders by the courts. "There is little doubt that many sex crimes are the products THE KING 'S BUSINESS T *HE STATEMENT appearing below was published re- cently over the signature of J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau o f Investigation. It is being published with com ments because of its timeliness, pertinence and straight-from-the- shoulder warning to the American public (Christians included) as to the dangers confronting us. ''There are few crimes, if any, more brutal, more shocking, or more revolting to a civilized conscience than those committed by sexual degenerates. "Some months ago a young woman was brutally attacked and slain by a maniacal killer who repeatedly stabbed the victim with a knife and left her body wrapped in a transparent laundry bag. The perpetrator of this vicious crime had been convicted for rape 4 years previously and was out on parole at the time of the murder. "Another example involved the enticement of an 11-year-old boy by a strange man into an automobile. The young boy’s body was found 4 days later bearing evidence of severe sexual assault. The assailant was identified and readily admitted the crime. Be hind him lay a long, sordid record of perverted sexual behavior. Obviously, errors in evaluating the dangerousness of such deviates can result in the tragic waste of young life.
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of sick minds and that these minds are in dire need of treatment. It is sheer stupidity, however, to rely upon brief therapy and con finement to rehabilitate degraded sex criminals. Bulging police records on known repeaters and daily headlines on sex crimes are testimonials to the fallacy of such practice. Community protec tion demands the separation of these degenerates from society. "There is no shortage of theories on sex crime causation. Text books are filled with them. However, sex criminals for the most part strike knowingly and with deliberate intent. N o amount of maudlin rationalization can hide this fact. “ The real tragedy of sexual atrocities lies in the suffering of the innocent victims. Unfortunately, in many instances, the vic tim’s rights are never considered. The sexual degenerate, shielded by an array of technicalities and loopholes, bares his wrist for a light judicial pat and soon is free to resume his assaults, rapes, and murders.” — J. Edgar Hoover One of the most admired and most feared citizens of our country is the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Honorable J. Edgar Hoover. He is deeply respected by law- abiding citizens who are honestly desirous of seeing the laws of our land upheld and who believe that citizens have every right to all the protection that can possibly be thrown around them against the subversives, the vicious, the lawless and the criminal element of every type and stripe. He is greatly dreaded and thoroughly hated by the element of our beloved country who hold our laws in complete contempt and who have no regard for human life or the rights of others as they go about seeking to kill, maim, and in other ways wreak vengeance on a society which they hate and upon innocent individuals whom they victimize. One cannot but wonder at the attitude of many otherwise respectable individuals who attempt to discredit the word and work of J. Edgar Hoover and his splendid corps at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The society in which we live is at least, it seems, most precarious; one shudders to think what kind of society we would have if the soft sentimentalists should have their way entirely. W e as a people have stooped to a most deplorable level when there is evidenced more sympathy for rapists, thugs, murderers, sex deviates and other parasites on the body politic than is ex pressed for the innocent victims of the criminals. It is discourag ing to realize that more concern is expressed for the mobs and hoodlums who desecrate our flag and denounce the American way of life than for the faithful police who attempt to protect us. More sympathy is wasted on those who try to break up organized meetings of government officials as they seek to discover and deal with dangerous, subversive elements than on the peace officers who often must eject bodily law-breakers and rabble-rousers from such meetings at the risk of their lives and limbs. How such a perverted sense of decency and justice — such tolerance for lawlessness — has come about in our country passes under- Standing. (continued on page 35) MAY, 1964
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7
THE JOY OF SUFFERING
by Dr. M. R. DeHaan silence the devil, to glorify God, to make us like Jesus, to strengthen our faith, to purify our lives, to teach us patience, and to make us sympathetic, as well as to sepa rate us from the world. In this message we want to add a few more, although we realize that the list is inex haustible, the benefits that are derived from being chas tened of the Lord are truly without number. However, there is one that must needs be mentioned in this con nection. TO MAKE US AND KEEP US HUMBLE God wants His children humble. It was pride that caused the Devil to sin, it was pride that caused our first parents to fall. God hates pride. He exalts the humble, and so one of the purposes that must never be forgotten for which God places us in the fires of tribulation and test ing is that we may learn the most important and indis pensable lesson of Christian growth, namely humility. Probably the best example of this to be found in Scrip ture is the example of the apostle Paul himself. From the writings of Paul we notice that he was afflicted with some sort of a physical malady which he called a “ thorn in the flesh.” Many have been the guesses as to the nature of this malady and this weakness. Some have supposed that Paul had “ opthalmia” as a result of the blinding vision on the day of his conversion. Others be lieve that he was a hunch-back; some believe that he had an impediment of speech; still others would point qut that Paul was afflicted with malaria. We are not going to spend time in trying to determine which one of these is correct. We are interested rather in the rea son why the Lord permitted this fruitful servant of the Lord to suffer throughout the days of his whole life with this “ thorn in the flesh.” Now turning to Paul’s own account in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 12, Paul tells us that at a certain point in his Christian experience he had been caught up into Paradise, into the third heaven, and there he had received directly from God a revelation which had not been made known unto any other. Now this was a wonderful experience, but Paul who was the last one to claim perfection, and who recognized the fact that in him, that is in his flesh, there dwelt no good thing, knew that such an experience might easily be perverted to become the basis of vain glory and fleshly pride, and so he tells us in 2nd Corinthians 12:7: “And lest 1 should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the mes senger of Satan to buffet me, lest l should be ex alted above measure. “ For this thing l besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. THE KING 'S BUSINESS
I n t a k in g u p the matter of the ministry of suffering, we are to remember one primary, basic principle which ought never to be forgotten. It is pimply this — “whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.” If we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, we may expect that He is going to take an interest in our welfare, and since His purpose is to make us like unto Himself and to bring out of every believer the very best in fruitfulness and in service. He extends much labor upon us in order that we may become that which He desires. In Romans 8:28 we read: “ And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom He did foreknow, he also did predesti nate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren.” Romans 8:28-29. I have quoted both verses 28 and 29 because I believe that they are inseparable twins. God has placed these two verses together, and what God hath joined together let not man put asunder. Most Christians are familiar with Romans 8:28. Very few indeed would be able to quote the next verse, 29. However, Romans 8:28, without the next verse, is in complete. Romans 8:28 tells us that all things work together for good to those that love God, but the follow ing verse gives us the reason why God does extend his work and labor upon us. Whom He did foreknow He predestinated to become like His Son, Jesus Christ. When we realize how unlike His Son, Jesus Christ, most of us still are, we begin to recognize the necessity of much labor and much work and much toil in order to accomplish this purpose. In another passage of Scripture God says that He will not “withhold any good thing from them that walk uprightly before Him,” and if, in the providence of God, the best thing for us is trouble and tribulation and suffering, we must believe that a loving God will not withhold even that in order to make us what we ought to be. So remember, before we take up a number of other reasons why Christians suffer, that the normal path of the believer is one of tribulation, and Paul tells us that we must “ through much tribulation enter into the kingdom,” and so we may lay it down as a rule that if we do not suffer trouble and tribulation and persecution, it is because we either do not belong to the Lord, or we are worthless from the standpoint of fruit and service. Let us never forget, “whom the Lord loveth, He chas teneth.” In our past messages we have seen some of the pur poses for which God permits or sends upon us troubles and tribulation. Some of these we mentioned were fo
Christian friend, are we not just like that? We are only children in the faith. We are so limited in our under standing and in our reasoning, but we have a Heavenly Father who knows what is best for us, and so ofttimes we come to Him and we plead and pray and petition for something that we know we just can’t do without, something we cannot live without; it is the most precious thing in all our lives, and yet He says firmly and tenderly, “No, my child, I must refuse the petition. I cannot let you have this that you feel you need more than everything else in your life.” And while we cannot understand it now, I assure you that when, bye and bye, we meet Him face to face and reach the maturity of the children of God, we shall understand. “Not now but in the coming years, It may be in the better land, We’ll read the meaning of our tears, And then, thank God, we’ll understand.” TEACH US TO PRAY Just a word about another benefit of the ministry of suffering. I am- sure that thousands of you will respond to this statement when I tell you that we never learn to pray, really pray, until we are in a place where there is nothing else left to do but pray. As long as we can help ourselves and make our own way, how often we neglect the ministry of prayer, but when there is nothing else left to do, how effectively we can pray. The greatest prayers I have ever known were the greatest sufferers, and the greatest strength in our ministry that we have ever experienced is the ministry of the thousands who can do little more than pray and write in and say, “We are praying for you.” REWARDS FOR SUFFERING While there are many other results of the ministry of suffering that we would love to call your attention to, time permits to give just one more, and that is that there is a special reward for suffering. As you know there are many rewards for Christian service, for soul winning, for looking for the coming of the Lord, and others, but the Lord has set aside a special crown, a special reward, for those that will suffer patiently for Him. Paul tells us in 2nd Timothy 2:12, “If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.” There is a special place of service and reigning and power and authority in the Kingdom to come for those who have been His patient sufferers here below. Peter tells us: “ Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: “But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Chrisfs sufferings: that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” I Peter 4:12-13. In Hebrews chapter 2, verse 10, we are told that Christ was made perfect through suffering. Someone has aptly said that, “Steel is iron plus fire. Soil is rock plus crushing. Linen is flax plus the comb that separates and the flail that pounds and the shuttle that weaves.” And our Christian life, if we are to be what God wants us to be, is faith plus suffering. It is God’s way of doing things. It is God’s own way of making us what we ought to be. God’s way is through the fire, and through the fire He will perfect us. “He sat by the fire of seven-fold heat, As he watched by the precious ore, And closer he bent with a searching gaze As he heated it more and more.”
“And he (that is, the Lord) said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. “ Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in re proaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in dis tresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” II Cor. 12:7-10. Very little need be added to these words of Paul. He is given the definite assurance from the Lord that this “ thorn in the flesh,” whatever it may have been, whether it was sickness, or weakness, or some other inability, some painful disease that limited him, and held him down, it was in order that he might not become proud and puffed up, but remain humble, for the moment a man loses his humility and becomes proud, God cannot use him any more. I wonder if we cannot apply this to our own hearts and to our own lives. Maybe the reason why the Lord does not allow us the relief that we pray for so definitely is because He knows that it would only be detrimental to us. It is well for us as believers to remember that God always answers prayer, but He does not always answer with a “ yes.” Sometimes in His in finite wisdom, His answer is “no” instead, because He knows what is best for us. I want to press this point home to those of you who are suffering and have been asking why God does not answer your prayers, in regard to your healing and your restoration. God does answer your prayers. He probably has not answered them in the way that you wanted; you have not prayed in His will; you have not made your prayer the prayer of the Saviour, “ Father, if it be Thy will, let this cup pass from Me.” Our prayers must be in the will of God, for the simple reason that God knows better what is good for us than we will ever know ourselves. Let me illustrate. Early in my Christian minis try I was called to apprehend a man who had gone insane. After we had captured him out in the field we found on him a loaded revolver and I returned it to the wife of the man who had gone temporarily insane, but she said, “ I don’t want the gun. You’d better keep it, doctor. I don’t want to see it any more.” And so I took the gun together with some of the shells and brought it to my home and placed it in one of the drawers of my desk and promptly forgot about it. Very thoughtless of me, of course, but I just forgot about it. Then as my boys grew up, I remember my son, Richard, just a lad of about five years, in rum maging through my study one day, came upon this re volver and the shells lying near it. I remember vividly how he came running to me with the revolver in one hand and with the shells in the other hand and looking up at me said, “Daddy, look what I found. May I have this? May I have this?” Now, of course, you who are parents know what I did. He prayed of me that he might have the gun, but quick as a flash I reached out my hand I took it away from him, looking first of all to see whether any shells had been placed in the magazine, and then took the shells away from him, and said, “No, No, Richard, you cannot have that gun under any circumstances. It’s too dangerous for you.” Did my son understand? He did not. He began to cry and plead and beg. There wasn’t a thing in all the world that day he wanted more than that beautiful shiny pistol. Nothing else counted. That was the one thing that he felt he could not do without. He must have it. But because I was a loving father, and even though he did not understand, I refused his peti tion. But I know now too that, now that he has grown up, he knows that the best thing for him, even though it caused him pain at the time, was my firm refusal and my answer, “no.”
9
M AY, 1964
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S o m e t im e ag o a l e a d in g magazine published a con densation of a book that turned out to be an amaz ing hoax. The author related horrible experiences he claimed to have endured under the German occupation of France during the Second World War. He deceived his publishers, he deceived a leading magazine, he de ceived the public. But the worst of it, someone said, was that he deceived himself; he pretended until he came to believe his own story. The old motto, ‘To be rather than to seem,” would have to be reversed to fit this generation. We prefer to seem rather than to be. It is the Age of Seeming. In the last days God will send delusion that men should believe a lie. We are being conditioned, it would appear, for that ultimate delusion. It is a day of make-believe, sham, sleight-of-hand, gobbledygook, trickery, imitation, simu lation, double-talk and ballyhoo. Politicians talk like statesmen and sinners act like saints. In Russia a gen eration brainwashed with lies lives with souls as barren as their faces are blank. The same paralysis of deception is at work over here in other forms. Getting ready for antichrist, men deceive and are being deceived. It gets over into religion. It is possible to pretend spiritual experience until we think it is real. I have read of a man who dreamed that he arrived in a town where almost nobody wore shoes. He came to an im pressive building on a corner and discovered that it was a shoe factory. When he expressed amazement, someone explained: “You don’t understand. We get to- gather here twice a week and sing about shoes and talk about shoes and raise money to send others out to tell about shoes but not many of us wear shoes.” The appli cation of that dream to our modem church life is too close to be comfortable. We gather each week to sing, talk and raise money to export a commodity of which we carry very little in stock. Form of Godliness There is “a form of godliness without the power there of,” a form without force, ritual without reality. Recently I sat in a pulpit and watched the congregation sing. They were singing a hymn loaded with Gospel dynamite. I couldn’t help saying to myself, “ If they knew what they were singing they couldn’t possibly look like that. If the hymn is not true in their lives, it should bring conviction and they should hang their heads in shame. If it is true in their experience they should be shaking the rafters with it.” But of course we are often unconscious when we sing at church, when we read the Scriptures, when we hear the sermon. Presently we get .up and go out the door from one world into another and never the twain do meet. As a church bulletin board recently declared, “Religion is too often not bread for daily use but cake for special occasions.” Phillips put it in one crisp sentence when he declared that Christianity once was an experience but has become a performance. Any man with discernment cannot help being shocked by the frightening unreality of trafficking in unfelt truth. One is reminded of what Gibbon wrote about the Greek scholars of the tenth century: “They held in their lifeless hands the riches of their fathers without inheriting the spirit which had created and im proved that sacred patrimony. They read, they praised, they compiled, but their languid souls seemed alike in capable of thought and action.” What would Gibbon say today about us and the way we handle the coinage of God s truth without knowing whose image and super scription is thereon? Something like this is the sad plight of Ephesus with out first love, Sardis with a reputation to be alive but dead, her works not fulfilled before God. We go through
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îj » î J3 wm I#*§*•••###*»•♦ m *-..**- Î| or experience m V a n c e H a v n e r 10 THE KING 'S BUSINESS the motions but the motive is gone. One of our magazines recently carried an article about the Israeli army. The author, an American brigadier-general, said that Israeli soldiers are unorthodox by many military standards, their appearance and equipment are not the best, but they can lick anything in sight because of their incom parable fighting spirit. Israel is perhaps the most patri otic nation on earth. Patriotism seems on its way out in America, thanks to subtle international influences. The Israeli army may not have a perfect set-up but what it lacks there it makes up in spirit. The general referred to Gideon’s band. That desperate three hundred had sub-standard equipment by all military rules, but they had the Spirit of the Lord and the sword of the Lord and that transformed them into an unbeatable spearhead of expendables. All Heads Do Not Count In the church today we have the biggest army ever if you count heads. We have the best barracks and the most up-to-date equipment. We never had more top brass in swivel chairs. We never had better maps and strategy. But while we sing, “Onward, Christian Sol diers,” most of us have to be conscripted to do any serv ice. If we followed Army rules, most of the Lord’s soldiers would be court-martialed or in the guard-house. Thousands are good only for a dress parade on Sunday morning and not too often at that. God’s people are “ an holy nation” but programs, per sonnel, paraphernalia and propaganda mean nothing if we have lost our heavenly patriotism. We have the set-up but we lack the spirit, not mere religious and sectarian enthusiasm which is. á whipped-up substitute, but the enduement from above which makes us “ fools for Christ’s sake.” This mechanical business of “playing church” is what our Lord called hypocrisy, play-acting. He used the word in describing the Pharisees who were the most religious people of His day. They read the Scrip tures, went to worship, prayed in public, lived separated lives, kept the sabbath, tithed, compassed land and sea to make one proselyte, yet he declared that publicans and harlots would get to heaven before them. It is possi ble to do all that they did and still be only a Pharisee and a hypocrite. With the Pharisees, religion was a per formance, not an experience. They were more interested in doing than in being and they were so busy doing everything that they had no time to be anything. Some of us are growing more and more uneasy be cause our massive church machinery today is turning out a lot of twentieth-century Pharisees whose religion is a performance instead of an experience, who go through all the motions without the motive, who have the form of godliness without the power. Remember that “a form of godliness” does not mean mere formalism. A church may be very informal and a beehive of activity but still be a farce instead of a force. In this day of seeming, men try to pose as Christians and want to feel like Christians without being Chris tians. Theodore Roosevelt as a young man was tremen dously impressed by some lines that ran thus: “All that the old knights were without knowing it, This knight fain would know without being it.” Substitute “ saints” for “knights” and you have our problem today: all that the old saints were without knowing it, like Moses who wist not that his face shone, we today would like to know without being it. So we have religious posers, play-actors, living up to drama tized versions of themselves. The hollow ring of unreality in such business led one cynic to write: “They’re praising God on Sunday; MAY, 1964 They’ll be all right on Monday . . . It’s just a little habit they’ve acquired.” As another has put it, what began with a company of lay witnesses has become a professional pulpitism financed by lay spectators. What is cake for Sunday does not become bread for the week; it does not' get into our homes and shops and schools. It is a performance, not an experience. Some of us remember the jingle: “As Tommy Snooks and Bessie Brooks Were walking out one Sunday; Said Tommy Snooks to Bessie Brooks, ‘Tomorrow will be Monday.’ ” That is supposed to be a record low for inane con versation but I am not so sure. I have heard discussion for hours that said no more. Bridge clubs sit all after noon without making any more significant comment. But there is a real point in that little rhyme. It is a poor brand of Christianity that does not remember in church on Sunday morning that tomorrow will be Monday. The purpose of worship is to sanctify ourselves against tomorrow as the Bible puts it, to bring the vision from the sanctuary to the shop, from the clouds to the cobblestones, and apply the mystery to the misery of this humdrum world. God's Remnant But how are we going to change this unwieldy mixed multitude in church on Sunday morning from performance to experience? How are we going to bring them to wear shoes instead of merely singing and pray ing and talking about shoes? I have referred already to Gideon’s “ 300.” He began with 32,000 but God whittled it to 300 before Gideon had an effective fighting force. He got rid of 22,000 who were cowards and 9,700 who were careless and that left 300 who were competent. A similar process in our churches today would leave about the same proportion available for real service. But of course we are not interested in reducing our rolls nowadays. The average church promoter would raise Gideon’s original army to 50,000 by all means! However, it is not a matter of thinning out the crowd we have, so much as calling out from among them a Master’s minority who mean business, not a holier-than- thou clique of religious snobs but a dedicated band who have had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ and are out to know Him and to make Him known. Billy Graham said recently that if he were a pastor he would begin with a few men who would pay the price in time and effort. Our Lord at the door of the Laodicean church invites “ any man” to hear his voice and open the door. Dr. Torrey used to say that revival begins with a few church members getting thoroughly right with God, banding together in prayer, then going out to witness and work and win. When Mr. Moody was in Scotland’ the going was slow at first but he explained that you start a fire with a few pieces of little wood. We must begin today with a few who are willing to be God’s kindling wood and stir up the fire of God within them. Gideon’s band carried torches and we need some human fagots, burning and shining lights, aflame for God. I have seen somewhere this ad: “Wanted, wicks to bum out for God . . . oil and light supplied!” The price? Repentance, confession and forsaking of sin; reconciliation and restitution, getting right with people; separation from the world; total submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ; the filling of the Spirit. Out of all this will come love for the Lord for the brethren, for the lost, as God’s love is shed abroad in our hearts. Then we shall serve Him because we want to and we shall move from performance to experience. n V e x ’ * » the Old Gospel Modern Intellectualism vs. by Dr. H. H. Savage says, “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.” He may quote the Apostles’ Creed with his lips but to the majority of these “ lip service” devotees, God is about as real as Santa Claus, Cinderella, Pollyanna, or Alad din’s Lamp. Isn’t it about time that we get back to fundamentals, to realize that there is an all-powerful, and all-wise God, who must have a plan for everything in His universe, including mankind? and isn’t it about time that we conclude that if God has revealed Himself to mankind, it must be found in the only Book that claims to be from God, and that Book is the Bible? And isn’t it about time that we leave the “wrong and shallow answers built on men’s thoughts and ideas, instead what Christ has said?” And isn’t it about time that we read with the eyes of our hearts, that no one can know God until he has been bom again? For this simple old gospel, repudiated by the majority of our modem intellectuals, has never been repudiated by God, because He, from the throne of heaven, is dealing with universal things, and with eternal verities, while pygmy men attempting to use a slide rule to tell this great God, “Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther.” Romans 3:23 declares: “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” You see, God Almighty does not agree with our modem intellec tuals in calling alcoholism a disease; He calls it sin. Nor does He agree with them in calling juvenile de linquency a rebellion against the social order; He calls it sin. Nor does He agree with them in stating that the end justifies the means, even though such a philosophy may lead into a crooked business deal; He calls it sin, S-I-N, sin. And there is only one way to deal with the sin question, and that is, according to I John 1:7, “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” But that promise cannot be applied until the sinner confesses his sin, puts his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as his sin bearer, and allows the Holy Spirit to come in and take possession of his life. Thus he is “bom again.” The Lord Jesus Christ has stated very clearly that there are only two ways along which mankind can travel. One way is a broad way, that leads through a wide gate, with an eternal, conscious existence in hell as its cul minating goal, “ and many there be which go in thereat.” The other way is a narrow way, that leads through a strait gate, that has eternal life as its culminating goal, “ and few there be that find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14). The Lord Jesus Christ also said, “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me, scat- tereth abroad” (Matthew 12:30). The Lord Jesus Christ also said, “That which is bom of the flesh is flesh; and that which is bom of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6-7). I still believe that the old Gospel has not lost its power, and that God is seeking to win out of this world a people for His name: a people who will look to the Lord Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life; and that no one can go to God’s heaven unless he has put his whole faith in Christ’s death upon the cross of Calvary. C o l o s s ia n s 2:8, “ Beware lest any man spoil you- through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tra dition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” We are living in an era here in the United States of a boasted superiority of intellectualism: where some seem to think that all the mysteries of life can be analyzed in the test tube: and where God Himself is subjected to the findings of the laboratory, or to a diagnostical investi gation on the couch of a psychologist. Yet in the final analysis, we have no greater knowledge of the basic meaning of our existence, and what to do about it, than the human family possessed nearly 2,000 years ago. Modem intellectualism has learned how to make destructive instruments so terrible as to be capable of destroying all life upon the earth: but we do not have enough common sense to bring about “peace on earth, and good will toward men.” Our modern intellectualism has learned how to increase the yield of farm products to a fabulous extent: but we do not have enough common decency to see to it that the 50% of the world’s popula tion has the food it requires. Instead, we pay the farmers NOT to raise food. Modem intellectualism can solve problems in elec tronics not even dreamed about a generation ago, yet we cannot solve juvenile delinquency, sex crimes, and an ever-decreasing sense of moral values. Modern in tellectualism can psychoanalyze this frustrated, aimless, dare-devil generation, and give some very convincing arguments for the solution of the problem of human be haviourism: but the volume of suicides still increase; the divorce courts are still jammed; and taxes have risen to the dangerous point of one-third of our national income. Modem intellectualism has added a few more years to our “ life expectancy,” with the result that we now face the danger of a bursting population which in 100 years may not leave standing room for all the people of the world. But we know no more about the basic meanings of our existence than we did 2,000 years ago. We still go back to Aristotle for the latest word on phil osophy, to ancient Egypt for the fundamentals of astron omy, to the scholars of the east for the axiomatic rules of all mathematics. We still have drunken orgies at New Year’s parties to compare with Pompeii, and still spend billions in gambling and the pursuit of corrupt pleasures. Our modem intellectualism can discover the rules of electricity, but cannot answer the question: “What is electricity?” and measure the power of gravitation, but cannot answer the question: “What is gravitation?” It can split the atom, but it cannot answer the question, “Whence does the atom get its power? and what keeps that tremendous energy of the electrons, neutrons and protons in their unceasing display of energy, even in what we refer to as inanimate objects?” We have not added one iota of information regarding the actual, un derlying basic reasons for, sources of, and directive principles of the universe in which we live. The Bible THE KING 'S BUSINESS 12
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