W HEN SO MANY CHRISTIANS focus their attention on the same problem at the same time, the need for action must be urgent and ob vious. The church, the people of God in Christ’s mis sion, finds her mission hazy and her numbers immobil ized. In theory, at least, the church as a whole knows what she is about. There is no lack of study guides, based solidly on Scripture, defining the task of lay and cleri cal apostles. The church is Christ’s sanctuary to raise a united voice of praise and song to His glory. Through her ministry, forgiven sinners receive the revelation of God. By her hands, healing, clothing and feeding ex press compassion in His holy name. Hers is the pro phetic voice of His eternal Spirit crashing against all that hinders the enlargement of His Kingdom. The church is comfortable today. In a self-conscious, self-indulgent and too-comfortable world the church is not too inclined to stop and ask herself what she is singing. If Christ is pictured as a cheerful, middle- class Jewish gentleman who dispenses aspirins for everything from the spiritual blues to self-indulgent hangovers, what then can the words of the hymn mean? The Son of God goes forth to war, A kingly crown to gain; His blood-red banner streams afar; Who follows in His train? The Biblical picture is clear enough: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Paul spoke of total conflict between the armies of Christ and the entrenchment of evil: “ For though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” The Book of Acts shows us that the strongholds of evil and unbelief are willing to foster every device from riots to bloody persecutions to safeguard their power. The emissaries of evil are dressed as angels of light, but as a last resort the spirit of sin can be militant and savage. The senses of this generation still have not cleared from witnessing the nightmarish brutality of evil gone to seed. Not very often is the church willing to face the conflict in its realistic dimensions. To say that the church preaching “Christ is Lord”
is to state that the body needs its life- blpbd. To say that conformity with the world is a peril to the church is the understatement of all time. Con formity with the enemy is tantamount to total and unconditional surrender. Despite the courageous work of some churches on the spiritual frontiers, as a whole the church has been infiltrated. The difference between the church of Acts and the church of today is that one was Word-centered and the other is man-centered. When the Word of God is hindered, diluted or muf fled, we have the intolerable spiritual impasse and mor bid frustration that cause the viewing world to be cyn ical, and that smother the vitalities of the local congre gation. Then again, the church has not been true to its mes sage. It is not enough to say that neurosis is in the church because it is filled with neurotic persons. There are neurotics in every walk of life. The life of the church is far too complex for superficial analysis. The history of the church must be read to trace present man-cen tered trends. The church conforms to the world and takes into itself neurotic patterns in which neurotic per sons attempt to establish their defenses as realities. These conditions further confuse a man-centered church, producing further illnesses. Possibly our troubles began when the authority of the Word was undermined by destructive Biblical criti cism. Possibly the root cause is to be found in the mod ern temper that stultified the glorious atoning death and resurrection of our Lord by which lost men re ceive pardon and sonship from the hand of the eternal Creator. Possibly it is our confusion over the purpose of client-centered psychology in the pastor’s practices and theology. The minister comes to feel he must simply stand by the Lord’s people while they hit spontaneously on any conclusion in life and theology which gives them the most relief and comfort—whether or not it happens to be sound according to the absolute standards of the Word of God. Possibly in the midst of our fears we are like the apostles who fled to the refuge of status-seek ing, and inquired of the Lord if they might sit with Him in the highest positions of the Kingdom. Possibly by conforming to the world instead of being trans formed we took into our community of faith the social and political cleavages that deny faith. Possibly so much of the visible church has become part of the world
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THE KING 'S BUSINESS
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