FEBRUARY, 1967
TO KEEP HOUSE, AND TO BE A JOYFUL MOTHER —Psalms 113.9
The Bible, too, stands constant in a changing world. The University of Cambridge, through its Press, is proud of the privilege of having printed the Bible for longer than any press in existence.
Someone once said that God couldn’t be everywhere, and so He made mothers. The world changes, and man reaches into space, but nothing changes the warm love of the one who keeps the house.
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Dedicated to the spiritual development of the Christian home T h e K i n g © B u s i n e s s A PUBLICATION OF BIOLA SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES Leult T. Talbot, Chancellor • S. H. Sutherland, President • Ray A. Myers, Board Chairman Vol. 58, No. 2 • FEBRUARY, in the year of our Lord 1967 • Established 1910 A r t i c le s WATCHING A NATION DIE — Bruce W. Dunn ............................... 10 HOW ARE YOU GETTING ALONG? — Vance Havner ................... 13 FOREIGN MISSIONS ON THE HOME FRONT — Edna Alger Gall .. 16 MEDIEVAL CHURCH HISTORY — James H. Christian ................... 17 DO YOU HEAR THE SERMON? — Richard Ruble ............................. 18 AMERICA'S DECLINING MORAL STANDARDS — J. Edgar Hoover 20 32 WAYS TO HELP IMPROVE YOUR SUNDAY SCHOOL — Mavis L. Weidman ............................................................................ 34 A STATEMENT TO SUBSCRIBERS .......................................................... 36 THE RHINO HAD NO EARS — Edward H. Arensen .......................... 39 ADOPTED GRANDMOTHER IN KOREA — Helen Emley Schmidt .. 40 IF I WERE THE DEVIL — Paul Harvey ................................................... 42 MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR — Samuel H. Sutherland ................... 8 DR. TALBOT'S QUESTION BOX — Louis T. Talbot .......................... 24 TALKING IT OVER — Clyde M. Narramore ......................................... 26 BOOK REVIEWS — Arnold D. Ehlert ..................................................... 28 SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE — Bolton Davidheiser ............................. 31 OVER A CUP OF COFFEE — Joyce Landorf ....................................... 32 JUNIOR KING'S BUSINESS ......................................................................... 52 C o l u m n s READER REACTION ........................................................................................ 4 PEOPLE IN THE NEWS .......... ..................................................................... 5 PRESENTING THE MESSAGE ..................................... .............................. 25 C o v e r Sunset on the coast, just north of Jenner, California. Photo by Robert F. Campbell. — A ll R ig h ts R e s e rv e d —
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FEBRUARY, 1967
Europe and the Holy Land
KB FOR SERVICEMEN Please renew my subscription for an other year. THE KING’S BUSINESS MAGAZINE has been a help to me in many ways this past year. I am sending some o f my back issues to my son aboard a destroyer in the South China Seas. It is my prayer that he and others that might read them will come to know Christ as their Sav iour. Phyllis Straub, Hayward, California ENJOY EDITORIALS Some magazines come to our home which are seldom read during months when we are particularly busy. Not so with THE KING’S BUSINESS! No matter how busy I am, I take time to sit down and devour it from cover to cover. What a wealth of spiritual up lift it brings! I always look forward to your edi torials, particularly. This month [De cember] the article by Dr. Vance Hav- ner was so very timely for Christians today, I just had to let you know how much I appreciate all of you at Biola and the way God is using you. Mrs. Willa Johnson, Garden Grove, California KB'S IN WEST AFRICA I am happy to report that many of our people subscribe to THE KING’S BUSINESS and, after they have read them with all the excellent articles printed therein, we collect them and send them to our missionary stations in Cameroons, West Africa, where read ing material is at a premium. Our missionaries distribute one page at a time to the students in the second ary schools and seminaries, and the young people guard each article with their lives! We also send other booklets and magazines but some of the best com ments have come to us concerning the KING’S BUSINESS. Rev. Kenneth L. Fischer, Pastor, Magnolia Baptist Church, Anaheim, California E d it o r ’ s N o t e : The KING’S BUSI NESS has a limited number of compli mentary subscriptions fo r churches. Pastors who are interested are invited to write and inquire concerning the possibility o f receiving one o f these subscriptions fo r your church. THE KING’S BUSINESS can also be re ceived by a church through the “ bun dle plan.” Considerable savings are possible through this plan. We invite you to write about this.
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Never-fo-be-forgotten is this out standing tour sponsored by Biola. Teacher will be Dr. Charles L. Feinberg, with hosts Dr. Samuel H. Sutherland and Mr. Al Sanders. Low cost of only SI095.00 from New York includes plete 21 days. Evangelical empha sis for the entire family.
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JUNE 5-26, 1967
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Billy Zeoli, , presid en t of Gospel Films, Inc. of Muskegon, Michigan, announced the release of the new 16mm color film entitled “ The Break ing Point.” He states that this film poses the question of how deeply the modern young family should be in volved in the program of the church, for it is at this point that the prob lems begin to arise. Breaking the
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A boy's loyalty and a father's Influence are frustrated by decisions in the home. A family visit to the Holy Land bring these into focus. norm of religious motion pictures, “ The Breaking Point” is surrounded and filmed in the historic and scenic beauty of Europe, reaching a climax on a back street in the city of Jeru salem. The film was produced by Christian Witness Productions, Inc. of Jacksonville, Florida, It is being released ex clu s iv e ly through the world-wide facilities of Gospel Films Inc. of Muskegon, Michigan. Mr. Juan Gonzalez Masso, coordinator of Literatura Evangelica para Amer ica Latina, states that the Third Congress on Gospel Communications will be held in Huampani, Peru, Sep tember 16-22, 1967. The Congress will bring together from all over Latin America radio and television specialists, book-store workers, edi tors, journalists, writers and others involved in the technical aspects of gospel communications. Workshops, teaching sessions, and others Will be directed by specialists in these areas. Mr. Ruben Lores, another member of the Commission, says: “ It will be a functional Congress for those in volved in gospel communications to discuss their present problems and projects for the future.” Dr. Leighton Ford completed the Greater Kalamazoo Crusade which ran for eight days at the Portage Northern High School Gymnasium, and finally at the Western Michigan Field House in Kalamazoo, Michigan. An associate of the world-famous
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FEBRUARY, 1967
evangelist, Billy Graham, Rev. Mr. Ford preached to a total of more than 34,000 people. It was reported that 420 persons came forward dur ing the crusade as a sign of a com mitment made to Christ. Miss Junette Johnson, hospital ad ministrator of the Alliance Convales cent Hospital, Glendale, California, reports that already they are receiv ing patients. Begun on April 4, the new $350,000.00 structure contains 46 beds.
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Rev. MacArthur consistent, weI
logical frame of reference and a carefully planned system for interpreting God's Word. My days at Talbot were the most significant of my life."
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Rev. John MacArthur MacArthur Memorial Bible Church Burbank, California
Rev. Guy McGarvey, general admin istrator of the Glendale Alliance Center, stated that the new facility completes a quadruple ministry of the Christian and Missionary Alli ance. The Missionary Colony, found ed in 1921 on the five-acre site, com prises missionary homes for fami lies on furlough, homes for retired missionaries and laymen, and the Suppes Memorial Home for the ag ing. Rev. Mr. McGarvey further stat ed that there has been a growing need for hospital care in the colony as well, and that this new hospital is the answer to this need. None of these ministries are confined only to Christian and Missionary Alliance members. Scripture Press of Glen Ellyn, Illinois reports that lessons for Nursery and Beginner departments are now being published in the French language. These materials include teachers’ manuals, pupils’ packets, and take- home papers. They are translated, published, and distributed by the Missionary Prayer and Literature Fellowship of Belgium, an evangeli cal organization publishing attrac tive literature in several European and African languages. It is reported that twenty percent of the world’s population speaks the French language. Consequently, a wide interest in these materials is anticipated. These F rench lessons provide much-needed Sunday school literature not only for France, Bel gium, Sw itzerland , and French- speaking Canada, but also for the two dozen African countries where French is the official or “ second” language. Scripture Press materials are now available or in preparation for use in 30 languages for more than eighty
TRAIN TO SERV|| f l o r i n THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Offering B.fX, Th M and M.R.E degree» ■ H p O O Biola Ave., La Mirada, Cal ■ & M l8 L fehtberg - Dean, Th.D., PhD N E E D E D ! Used cars for use by Missionaries on furlough. In donating your used car for this worthwhile purpose, you will receive a tax-deductible receipt for top re tail value. ASSISTANCE IN MISSIONS, Inc. Box 551, Glendale, Calif. Phone (213) 245-9424
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foreign-speaking countries around the globe. Dr. Roy Zuck is Executive Director of the organization. Dr. Walter A. Warkentin, director of Hume Lake Christian Camps, re ports that with the close of the 1966 fiscal year, 10,511 campers were in attendance. Hume Lake Christian Camps are composed of three separate camps: Ponderosa for high school and col lege, Meadow Ranch for junior high, and Wagon Train for juniors, ages 8-11. Adult conferences were held in Lakeview Chapel. The average attendance per week during the summer varied from 700 to 900 campers. There were also 115 summer employees and 15 year- round staff members. Arthur M. Climenhaga, Executive Di rector of the National Association of Evangelicals, Wheaton, Illinois, announced at the World Congress on Evangelism a formal call to a year of special evan g e lis tic emphasis across the United States. He said his organization would develop work shops and training programs on a theology of evangelism and strate gies for it. A particular call was given to the forty-one constituent denominational members, to member churches, and to other member or ganizations of the NAE. An invita tion was extended to all evangelical Christians to join in the evangelism emphasis. HLKX, a fifty-thousand-watt-multi- lingual voice at Inchon, Korea, cele brated a full ten years on the air in December. HLKX began broadcasts on December 23, 1956. Since that time programs in Russian, Chinese, Korean, and English have gone out daily for sixteen hours over the mis sionary transmitter. HLKX has ob served its tenth anniversary with special Bible conferences for Korean believers. Norman Draper, tribal linguist of the Wycliffe Bible Translators, reports the stirrings of a genuine people’s movement toward Christianity in New Guinea villages. Draper, who has been at Wycliffe’s New Guinea base working on his translation of the Maprik New Testament, recent ly had a visit from some of the lead ers of this tribe. They told him of a meeting which had been held, rep resenting three v illag e s of this primitive area. Some eight hundred tribesmen were present to discuss their acceptance of a common goal to learn to read and write and to learn of Jesus Christ. The villages voted unanimously to cut loose from their ancestral worship so that they can now devote themselves to learn ing. FEBRUARY, 1967
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MOODY’S SCOFIELD B IBLE CORRESPONDENCE COURSE PROVEN B IB L E S T U D Y Gives you a comprehensive knowledge of entire Bible . . . modem learning tech niques in adult study. Ten college cred its. Certificate awarded. Over 30,000 have enrolled in Scofield course. 123 lessons in 6 cloth-bound textbooks. Please send me: □ Illustrated folder de scribing Scofield course. □ Catalog of 41 other courses. Name. Address Citv ----- Zone ----- State Moody Correspondence School 2KS7 820 N. LaSalle Street, Chicago 10, III. LUXURY 15 DAY Holy Land Tours All Expenses $761 from New York Air fare subject to gov't approval SCHEDULED JET DEPARTURES 7 DAY EUROPEAN EXTENSIONS AVAILABLE "See the stories of the Bible unfold before your eyes." W rite- CHRISTIAN TOURS Box 985, Wheaton, Illinois 60187
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BY OR. SAMUEL H. SUTHERLAND PRESIDENT, THE BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES, INC.
%
AN ENCOURAGING SIGN
|T is a l w a y s refreshing when one can read something o f an en couraging nature in connection with the religious situation which we find in the land today. Recently a newsletter entitled The Restorer has come to the desk o f the editor. It is a publica tion o f the organization known as "Presbyterian Lay Committee, Inc.” This first newsletter describes the nature o f the organiza tion and the purposes for which it was formed. It is made up o f a "band o f civic leaders long active in the United Presbyterian Church. Most are ruling elders.” The goal o f this committee is set forth to return the church, if God so ordains, from what appears to us to be a growing quest for secular power to its true mission o f preaching redemption. W e seek to enlist the help o f all who share our concern and who are willing to work inside their own churches to this holy end.” The five basic objectives are set forth as follows: " ( 1 ) To enlarge the emphasis on the teaching o f the Bible as the authoritative Word o f God in our seminaries and churches. (2 ) To urge the need for preaching the Gospel o f redemption with evangelical zeal and for regular Bible study and prayer. (3 ) T o encourage ministers and laymen alike, as led by the Ho ly Spirit, to become involved in the social, economic, and political problems o f our time and to assert their position publicly as Christian citizens on all such matters. (4 ) To discourage public pronouncements by the church as a cor porate body on political, social, and economic issues. (5 ) To pro vide an adequate and reliable source o f information for laymen on the issues being proposed for consideration at the General Assembly and other Judicatories in order to enable laymen to express an informal opinion.” This laymen’s organization recog nizes that "teachers in some United Presbyterian seminaries and preachers in some Presbyterian pulpits diminish the Bible by treat ing it as the imperfect work o f imperfect men. They dispute its divine inspiration; thus they throw doubt on the whole o f the Scripture including the virgin birth, the life, and even the exist ence o f Christ, the crucifixion and the resurrection. . . . W e be- THE KING'S BUSINESS
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lieve the Bible must be restored to its place as the authoritative and infallible Word o f God.” The Lay Committee is "concerned by growing pressures on the church to act as a corporate body in efforts to influence government and people in economic, social, and political affairs instead o f first converting men to Christian ity and then encouraging those men to fill their individual roles as Christians in civic affairs.” The committee further recognizes that "A church which conceives its mission as simply to improve the physical lack o f natural man abandons its primary mission to wit ness for God.” Headquarters are Presbyterian Lay Committee, Inc., Suite 1404, 200 5th Avenue, New York, N.Y., 10010. One may not agree whole-heartedly with all o f the objectives and /or purposes o f the organization, but it is encouraging to real ize that there is a group o f men who are sufficiently aware, alert, and concerned about the trends in the great Presbyterian church to do something about it in an organized manner. W e believe they deserve every encouragement. The Presbyterian Church through the centuries has wielded a most significant influence in the Christian life o f the English-speaking world and indeed in the great foreign missions programs throughout the entire world. It is tragic beyond words that the influence o f this Church should be so diverted and diluted today that its influence is being felt less and less in the area o f true evangelistic and evangelical circles. Instead, its influence is being more and more felt in social, politi cal, and civil areas o f our beloved land. It is the abiding convic tion o f many, many people that this great denomination has been taken over by those who are not true Presbyterians in their doctrines or convictions, and, what is vastly worse, are not true Christians in their doctrines or convictions. Instead, they are be traying the very cause o f Christ and the high and holy calling wherewith they were originally called and have stooped to posi tions o f vastly lesser significance, spending time in promoting causes and programs which are comparatively quite unimportant and relatively insignificant. It is good to try to help in the better ment o f social and economic conditions o f underprivileged peo ple, but it is also possible for the good to become the enemy o f the best. There are many organizations engaged in social service which are designed to carry on this sort o f a program. There is only one organization that has been commissioned to proclaim the everlasting Gospel that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried and arose again on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that all who put their trust in H im might not perish but have everlasting life. This is the job that the church has been called upon to perform, and anything less than this is prostituting the work o f the Gospel. It is tragic beyond words. I f the Presbyterian Lay Committee is able to enlist a suffi cient number o f enlightened laymen who unitedly will demand a cleaning-up o f the denominational seminaries and a weeding-out o f unfaithful ministers o f the Gospel; who will withhold their (continued on page 30)
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FEBRUARY, 1967
9
watching a nation die
by Rev. Bruce W. Dunn
I BORROW THE t it l e , “Watching a Nation Die,” ' from an editorial in the Presbyterian Journal, by Dr. Nelson Bell, a Christian physician. There are many ways to die. One can die by dis ease, by starvation, by malnutrition, by suicide, by violence, by murder, by accident. However it comes, among the saddest deaths is that of a young boy or a young girl, perhaps in their teen age or younger, or in young adulthood. Their parents have brought them up through some testing times, have seen them through elementary school, high school, perhaps even college. Just about to move out into the stream of life with high hopes and great aspirations, suddenly they are cut off. It seems to me as we look out on our land of America today, we face that more saddening expe rience. Is not the U.S.A., one of the younger mem bers of the families of nations o f the world, with a very glorious and wonderful history, in the provi dence o f God? It has been so vital, so alive, so dynamic, so progressive, so wonderful in the way that it has risen to a position o f power, prestige, glory and might in the world, the envy of the na tions of the world. The plight in which we find our selves today has surrounding it this additional weight of sadness and grief as we see America in its relative youth approaching an hour when that young life could end! That person who sticks his head in the ground and will not face the seriousness of his disease is very unlikely to accept any real remedy that will help him. One of the first steps toward any kind of cure is to face the facts. I honestly believe that we are even now watching a nation die! What a sad story it is! Many share this opinion. I was inter ested to read in a late issue of U.S. News & World Report, the reprinting of an article written in the
Portland, Maine newspaper, by a woman writer. She begins: “Unless there is a change deep down in the American people, a genuine crusade against self-indulgence, immorality, public and private, then we are witnesses to the decline and fall of the American republic. Death on the highways, a pack a day, cheating from the top to bottom in our so ciety, get rich quick, breaking up of the family, altering foreign policies, reckless debt. These have destroyed nations before us. Why should we think we can take that path and change history?” “Watching a Nation Die 1” A theme like that will be greeted with ridicule in some quarters. People will point to this affluent society in which we live, the material blessings that are ours, the rather bright material prospects that seem to be just ahead, and they will say, “What are you talking about? We never had it so good.” When I hear that, I think of that great text in Revelation 3 :17 spoken to a church, to which God said, “ Thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” We are at this moment watching a nation die. This o f course presupposes a certain fact upon which most of us would agree. It is that the death or life of people or nations is in the hands of God. This we have lost sight of in the U.S.A. and in the world. The death or life of empires, kingdoms and nations does not depend simply upon economic fac tors, on the party in power, on the ingenuity or the wisdom of men, or the lack of it, although these factors certainly are present. Ultimately and finally, the destiny of nations and men is in the hands of God. How then do nations die? The same way that individuals die. They die by disease. Who can look
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out over U.S.A. today and not see that our whole society is a huge, cancerous sore! It seems to be spreading, and spreading, and spreading. What shall we say about the morality and the sex obsession which grips America today? Several years ago, sociologist Dr. Sorokin of Harvard Uni versity printed a little book called The American Sex Revolution. He makes no profession of being a Christian or churchman o f any sort. He comes out in the plainest of terms and says unless there is a change in America, we are doomed for the ash heap. No civilization, no empire, no nation, has sur vived obession with sex and impurity. They have never survived it and we never will. As we see it eating at the heart of America today, we are watch ing a nation die by disease. It’s on its death bed, because a holy God handles the destiny of nations. People and nations die from disease! Disease is eating the heart out of America. A Miami psycholo gist says sex is not a moral question. For answers, he says, you don’t turn to a body of absolutes. The criterion should not be: Is it morally right or wrong, but is it socially feasible? Is it personally healthy and rewarding; will it enrich you in life? He adds that this has become the view of many Protestant churchmen. He says that they are be ginning to feel the same way. “They are no longer shaking their finger because the boys and girls give in to natural biological urges and experiment a bit. They don’t say ‘stop, you’re wrong.’ They say, ‘Is it meaningful?’,” he insists. What kind of folly is this? I am very sure that in this sex-obsessed age in which we live, any red-blooded American pagan boy would certainly say, “ Sure, it’s meaningful!” , and continue on in his sinful way. He needs to hear the “Thou shalt not” of a holy God. Watching a nation die! I appeal to young people to stand by Christian standards o f morality. You’ll be a happier person because of it. Don’t be fooled by the low standards of today. When you indulge in pre-marital sex relations, you sin against God! You sin against yourself. You sin against your own body! Hold to the high standards set forth in the Word of God! Just because everybody is doing it doesn’t mean that it is right. Just about everybody is going to hell, too. But who wants to go there? No, you don’t say, “ Is it meaningful, is it socially feasible, is it personally rewarding?” Is it the will of God, or is it not ? That’s what counts! D e a t h b y S t a r v a t io n Then, again, men and nations can die by starva tion, by malnutrition. I suppose these ways of death are all related the one to the other because malnutrition and a wrong diet can make one an easy victim to diseases that kill. Would you say that America today has the right kind of diet? Our country is not being fed spiritually, in spite of there FEBRUARY, 1967
being more church members than ever before — millions of church members. America dies by star vation. The churches totter first and then the nation totters. We are only as strong as we are spiritually strong. The average church today gives you a lot of sweet nothings—book reviews, maybe a dance downstairs a couple times a year, — maybe lots of social life, but you won’t hear about a holy God. You won’t hear about judgment. You won’t hear about hell. You won’t hear that truth propounded in the Psalms that says, “ The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God.” No au thoritative Word of God binds men’s hearts any more as once it did. We have forgotten that we are dealing with a holy God, the Lord of history. We are dealing with a God who is not to be trifled with. Empires, na tions, and kingdoms have come and gone before us always by the sovereign act of God and by the weight of their own sins, and our position is no dif ferent. That which destroyed them will destroy us. We are on our death bed. D e a t h b y V io l e n c e You cannot only die by starvation; you can die by violence. It may be se£/-inflicted, or inflicted by someone else. Both of these are true, as we look out over America today. We are on the road to being victims of assassination nationally. In another sense, we are also on the road to committing sui cide! It seems to me that nothing gives more evidence of this than the appraisal of Communism that seems to hold weight today. I am absolutely ap palled and amazed at how naive many in high places in Washington can be today when it comes to this bitter, vicious, atheistic foe that is set to bury us. We seem unable to understand, even at this late hour, that Communism is a world conspir acy, is a world unity, and when the showdown comes, there’ll be no division between the Red China and the Soviet brand. I honestly believe that most suicides come as a result of some temporary mental imbalance. Our country today has evidences of an insanity present that is driving us down the brink to suicide. Make no mistake about the Soviet bear that would like to strangle us to death by taking over Latin America, and in time, I suppose, cut off our world markets and put people out of jobs at home, and be the cause of seething, boiling unrest in America. Appeasement, concessions, compromise, backing off, giving in : this is the order of the day. America may have gained a world of wealth but it has lost it« soul and strength! We’re scared to death. Around the world people think they can take our money with one hand and slap us in the face with the other. We talk of leadership, but apparently 11
aren’t giving any to anybody. We are on the suicide road. When Dr. Howard Kershner, head o f the Chris tian Freedom Foundation, was in London a year or two ago, a top official in the Communist govern ment said to him, “We’ll be over to finish the take over of America sooner than you think.” Says Dr. Kershner, “Note the words, ‘finish the take over’ . I came back to America with those words ringing in my ears, and I studied into the matter.” This Russian, who spoke to him, presides over a whole floor of a large government building in Moscow; 300 scholars work under his direction. They have all the important newspapers, journals, and books, published throughout the civilized world. They work on projects he assigns. Their reports become the basis of Soviet policy. Dr. Kershner said, “ I saw there every leading periodical and paper pub lished in America and other advanced countries.” At one point this Russian said to him, “You know as well as I that a mixed economy is not perma nent, and you have already mixed so much socialism with your formerly free economy that you cannot now avoid complete socialization. We do not have to urge you or fight you. We have only to sit here and wait until you voluntarily walk into our camp.” Said Mr. Kershner, “ I have said this myself on many occasions but I was surprised to see this Com munist leader accept the rapid socialization of America as indicating beyond doubt that we are headed toward Communism. He smiled at me self- assuredly as though he were perfectly confident that we were already in the trap.” D e a t h b y A c c id e n t There’s another way to die. Not only by insanity that leads to suicide, or by murder; you can die by accident. All is smiles and sunlight and happiness one moment and then a screeching of brakes and a grinding crash. Somebody is fatally or seriously in jured. How quickly it happens! Let us not think we have lots of time, because we don’t. Unexpect edly and suddenly, the death that we are now watching, will come to pass. Well, what can we do about all this? Must we just sit by with aching heart and sadness of soul and see a nation die? Let me suggest three possible courses of action. First, perhaps a deathly sick patient would be helped by a change of doctors. Unless we can get rid of the domination by the lib eral establishment of the present American political scene, we are doomed right now. We have men heading the delegations in the United Nations and elsewhere that have already made statements about internationalizing the Panama Canal and in ternationalizing this and neutralizing that and also who are for world government and the eventual giving up of our national sovereignty. Neutralize, internationalize, are despicable words. God is not
neutral and neither ought we to be. There’s an old Gospel hymn, the chorus of which says, “What will you do with Jesus? neutral you cannot be.” When righteousness is involved, nobody can be neutral, — men or nations. You can’t be neutral when human freedom is at stake. When the liberty to preach the Gospel to tribes and nations that have never heard is at stake, you can’t be neutral. Secondly, you can pray and hope for a miracle. I’ve seen people doing that, too. Brokenhearted loved ones by the sick bed say, “ 0 God, 0 God, give us a miracle.” That’s about what we need. Let’s not discount that. Let’s not say, ‘God is not in the mira cle business.’ Don’t you forget i t ! God has saved na tions by a remnant of praying, believing people. England was ready to go the way of the French revolution when John Wesley was raised up in the providence of God and he preached in the church yards, in the fields, and stood on the tombstones and preached the Gospel of Christ and transformed England, and saved i t ! Seek the face of God. There’s a third suggestion I would make. Some times people at the gates of death are helped by a blood transfusion. New life comes in and the color comes back into the cheeks and sometimes the re covery is complete. Because the only people in America today that have the blood, the life to give, are the people of God. New life must move from the donor into the sick one—at a cost to one but as a gift to the other! The new life comes. This is the need in America today — more Christian people who will say, “Lord Jesus Christ, I give myself to Thee, for what You can do with me, to somehow put new life in our nation. It’ll cost me something but I’m ready to pay! I am going to witness for Christ. I’m going to speak the Gospel. I’m going to live a consistent Christian life. I’m going to speak up for the things that are right. I’d like to see our spir itual sights be raised. If it takes a blood transfu sion from me to do it, Jesus Christ, here I am.” That’s what we need. God says, “ If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sins. I will heal their land.” It’ll be done only as we do what that early Christian church did. They had no boards behind them; they had no finances. They had no organization; they were just a group of peo ple, that went out one by one and taught and preached Jesus Christ. And beatings and jails and threats couldn’t shut them up. They were fools for Christ! They were radicals, they were fanatics, they were out o f step with the age. They were ultras and extremists! But they transformed the world and upset the things that plague us now. The rem edy is the same, — God’s people giving America a blood transfusion. We watch a nation die; God help us to renew its life !
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T h is is a g r e a t d a y for “ getting along.” I do * not mean “ getting on.” That is another mat ter. A generation of frantic go-getters, kept going by stimulants and rested by sedatives, madly races on trying to get rich, to be popular, to be success ful. Before the family hearth-fire one evening some one said, “ I hear that So-and-so is getting on in the world.” From her rocking-chair, Grandmother asked, “Which world?” Most o f our getting on these days is in the wrong world. I am thinking of another matter, however. It is a great day for getting along with everything and everybody. Of course, to a reasonable extent one must learn how to live and work with people, to adapt and adjust and make such concessions for the common good as will not violate principles. But we have gone far beyond that. To get on nowadays one must be diplomat and politician, an oily opportunist, changing color on every back ground, merging black and white into a smudge of indefinite gray, talking out of both sides of the mouth, being everything to everybody. That sort of “ getting along” is indispensable to “ get ting on” toward prosperity and success. The trouble today, however, is that we are getting along with the wrong things and not get ting along where we should. For one thing, THE FREE WORLD IS TRYING TO GET ALONG WITH COMMUNISM. We call it “ peaceful co existence” , a term invented by the Communists themselves. We might as well try to get along with smallpox. If a gang of outlaws broke out of prison and began to infiltrate our community, we would hardly try to arrange a conference with them to talk things over and iron out our differences. Com munism is a world-wide satanic conspiracy of or ganized lawlessness that abides by no rules but its own. By negotiating with them we recognize them and confer upon them a dignity and a status due only to decent people. Where no honor is in herent none should be conferred. We executed Hitler’s henchmen and put out Tojo ’s gang, but now we do business with an outfit even more no torious. The first awful blunder was made when we recognized Soviet Russia in 1933. Communism is a cancer on the body of humanity and we do not peacefully co-exist with cancer. Such a malig nancy should be isolated, outlawed and quarantined by all peace-loving peoples. Trying to get along with it is morally to sanction it. There is no way to peacefully co-exist with godless anarchy on the loose. We cannot reconcile the irreconcilable. No truce is possible. “There is no substitute for victory.” This business of getting along with the wrong thing shows up in the church today. Just as Com munism has infiltrated the free world and seeks to undermine and overthrow our government, just so has unbelief crept into the church. Satan works
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FEBRUARY, 1967
more havoc as an angel of light than as a roaring lion. Liberalism and modernism have stolen schools and churches where once the Gospel sounded forth and have turned them into Ichabod Memorials, sad monuments to a glory now departed. The old fun damentalist-modernist controversy had its faults, but at least it brought the issue into the light. To day BELIEF IS TRYING TO GET ALONG WITH UNBELIEF. Religious bodies boast of including in their membership those who accept and those who deny cardinal doctrines of the faith. Some who call themselves conservatives heap scorn on fun damentalists but it is to be noticed that they have no condemnation for liberals. Two cannot walk together except they be agreed. A New Testament that bids us welcome no false teachers into our houses, reject heretics after the first and second admonition and let preachers of another gospel be damned, certainly offers no encouragement to believers to try getting along in faith and practice with unbelievers. We are to live peaceably with all men but not at the cost of convictions. Paul’s being all things to all men does not mean compromising the truth in order to have fellowship with those who deny it. The new appeasement and tolerance confers upon false teachers a status which is not theirs. There can be no peaceful co-existence with false doctrine. That has been tried in days past and where man tried to get along with heresy and have peace at any price, the flag of infidelity now flies. “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with un righteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? . . . or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” There is no “getting along” there! Furthermore, THE CHURCH IS TRYING TO GET ALONG WITH THE WORLD. This is an other impossibility. God calls it adultery. “ Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? who soever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4 :4 ). There can be no concord between Christ and Belial. “ If any man love the world, the love o f the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). We are strangers and pil grims here. “This world is our passage but not our portion.” “ This world is not your rest.” The Chris tian who sings: “There is no other way but the way of the cross”
must be prepared for the last verse: “Then I bid farewell to the way of the world, To walk in it nevermore.” The church has lost her pilgrim character and is trying to get along with a world system that is no friend of grace to help her on to God. Ever since Constantine joined the church and made it fashionable, this policy of peaceful co-existence with a pagan age has been popular but the true church and the world can never mix. We are in deed in the world though not of it and must indeed rub elbows with it. I am not speaking o f that brand of Pharisaism which is separated from sin ners but not from sin. Nor am I thinking merely of card-playing, dancing and a few other selected sins. I mean the lust o f the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life, all that pertains to this unregenerate humanity. Coming now to the individual Christian and his spiritual experience, we find all too often THE NEW NATURE TRYING TO GET ALONG WITH THE OLD. Here again there qan never be peaceful co-existence. “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom. 8 :7 ). The average Christian has never moved into the lib erty of the eighth chapter of Romans. Indeed one wonders whether most of them have ever reached even the seventh chapter for they are not trou bled about their defeated lives. Can the blessed ness of the eighth chapter be reached without something of the bitterness of the seventh? We came into this world with an old nature. When we were born again we received a new na ture. There can be no armistice between the two. But there can be victory through the Spirit. And “ there is no substitute for victory.” But the new man cannot “ get along” with the old. He is to put off the old man, not put up with him. The flesh is to be dealt with not by compromise but by cru cifixion. “ Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:14). That does not sound like getting along with old Adam. Somehow we have gotten the strange idea that as Christians it is our business to get along with everything and everybody. We are not public-re lations agents out to get the church and the world together. We have gotten them together to an alarming degree, at the cost of our power and tes timony. The Scriptures do not encourage such
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