Page 5938 – Christianity Today (2024)

“Kurvenreich” was a road sign that greeted us often in the Bavarian Alps. “Abundant in curves” is, in fact, not only a warning appropriate to some driving conditions; it is an especially apt descriptive of German theology. Americans compensate for neglected emphases in religion by establishing new cults; Germans, on the other hand, produce new systems of theology.

A decade after its first publication in German, Wolfhart Pannenberg’s Revelation as History has now appeared in both a hardback (1968) and a paperback (1969) translation under a Macmillan label. As contributor to and editor of the volume, Pannenberg with his theological colleagues explores some long-neglected routes on the excursionary winding road of neo-Protestant theology.

The evangelical value of Pannenberg’s view lies in his recognition, long overdue in neo-Protestant dogmatics, of the revelatory significance of universal history, as inclusive also of special redemptive events, and supremely of the resurrection of the crucified Jesus as a striking anticipation of God’s future eschatological revelation. Over against dialectical-existential theology, which misconceives revelation as a present encounter in the internal “historicity” of the self, Pannenberg preserves the external, historically factual mediation of divine revelation centering in Jesus’ resurrection as the event decisive for the future of both church history and world history. With Moltmann, Pannenberg therefore happily extricates contemporary theology a bit from some of the strangleholds of Kantian criticism, which disallowed any and all external divine revelation in nature and history.

The doctrine of revelation, Pannenberg concedes in Revelation as History, “must somehow be confirmed on the basis of the biblical witnesses if it is to be theologically justifiable.” Somewhere or other almost every neo-Protestant theologian sends up such a flag salute to the Bible, only to make a revolutionary departure from these self-same Scriptures. Pannenberg is no exception.

Pannenberg gives a notably non-biblical turn to his theology of revelation in his failure to identify revelation adequately as a rational category, and in his one-sided connection of divine self-disclosure solely with God’s future eschatological manifestation. Nowhere does Pannenberg give a definitive statement of the noetic or epistemic content of divine revelation. As with Moltmann, so with Pannenberg, the emphasis that the consummation or completion of revelation is future is made to relativize all pre-eschatological disclosure, save only for the anticipative historical event of Jesus’ resurrection. But, like Bultmann’s dass, this notable exception may require more contextual anchorage than Pannenberg allows if we are to avoid its loss as a myth.

In his book on Christology, Jesus—God and Man, Pannenberg tells us that the prophetic and apostolic statements about the nature of God are to be regarded not as universally valid knowledge of God-in-himself but as doxological affirmations in the language of worship. But valid knowledge of God, I should think, is indispensable in worship. When the Apostle Paul emphasized in Romans 1 that God reveals himself objectively to the minds of men, he added that God gave the Gentiles up to self-deceptions because they glorified him not as God; in brief, authentic knowledge is the alternative to vain imaginations (Rom. 1:20 f.). It is simply not Gnostic to view divine revelation as conveying ontological information about God, nor is it Hellenistic to see the revelation of the glory of God in incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth.

Pannenberg’s exposition of the nature of revelation seems influenced at times by Hegel, by Ritschl, and by Troeltsch. Ritschl’s special emphasis had been that while God is revealed only in his acts, it is not God-in-himself that we know; the work of Jesus (in Pannenberg, his crucifixion and resurrection), and not the person of Jesus as incarnate Logos, was for Ritschl the locus of revelation. Ritschl’s brighter students never could discover what the “thing” revealed in phenomena is, if it is not the “thing-in-itself”; accordingly, the historical influence of Jesus embellished by value-judgments became for them the heart of Christianity.

Pannenberg refuses to identify revelation one-sidedly with Jesus of Nazareth, as did Ritschl, but stresses that God is revealed in universal history; contrary to Hegelian idealism, however, which sees history as the logical unfolding of the Idea, Pannenberg holds that the apocalyptic reading of history grasps God’s universal plan anticipatively disclosed in the fate of Jesus. But nowhere do Pannenberg and his theological cohorts so spell out this plan that it becomes significant for the subsequent history of the nations; in fact, the whole approach to historical revelation seems in some passages, quite in deference to Troeltsch, to be given over to what is now often called modern historical consciousness. The historical character of revelation comes then to mean the dispensability of the supernatural as a category of interpretation, and God himself is assigned a history. Avoid deism we must, to be sure; but if God is other than man and nature, then the category of the supernatural remains indispensable.

Finally, a clear weakness of Pannenberg’s view is his assumption that historical events are self-explanatory, and that the category of revelation is to be detached from the Divine Word and associated wholly with external historical acts; prophets or apostles, accordingly, are not to be viewed in terms of “a mediator between what happens and the one who experiences it” (Revelation as History). This view is so contrary to the prophetic-apostolic understanding of revelation that it virtually nullifies much of what Pannenberg gains by his recognition of the externality of historical revelation. For the Divine Word not only strikingly precedes and prepares for some redemptive events (e.g., the Exodus) but is also sometimes given independently of them to God’s spokesmen who are chosen bearers of his promise or warning.

Pannenberg does less than justice to revelation as a unity of event and interpretation, and to the fact that both the past event and its interpretation are now mediated to us in Scripture alone. The meaning of the saving events is not self-evident but is illumined from above, and their normative objective interpretation is to be found only in the inspired Word.

CARL F. H. HENRY

Prague Peacemakers Fight Back

In the Asian hotel where I am currently sheltering from the burning of the noontide heat, I have been perusing a month-old English newspaper. Its correspondence columns provided a curious commentary on the Northern Ireland situation. “It will not be lost upon your readers,” said the writer of one letter, making doubly sure, “that that excellent body of adult-minded people, the atheists, are in no way connected with this latest example of Christian savagery and blood-letting.” This view of the Church Militant will greatly encourage those in that troubled province who want to get the violence off the streets and back into the Church, where it belongs.

But more than the above-mentioned E.B. of A.M.P. are concerned about man’s warlike tendencies. The recent communiques of the Prague-based Christian Peace Conference have been in their own way compelling reading. Their English usage, always dizzily unpredictable, has further suffered during the last two years as domestic squabbles have brought that body close to total disintegration.

Perhaps in an attempt to take the spotlight off internal difficulties, the latest press release I have seen harks back to the safer subject of analyzing the causes of World War II. Having doctored the fractured English, I take the key sentence to be saying: “Except for racism, which itself was dangerous enough to people, it was also the limitless anti-communism that created an atmosphere wherein all the most terrible crimes on humanity were possible.” (A Russian member at the WCC central committee’s last meeting, be it noted, confirmed that there was no racism in the USSR, a statement that agreeable group heard without demur.)

It is somehow reassuring to see the CPC back on familiar ground. Plugging the “limitless anti-communism” line leaves no room for that dangerous self-examination which of late has given such pain to the jovial metropolitan of Leningrad, who does not enliven WCC occasions to be treated scurvily in what is now virtually his own backyard.

That the CPC was rallying further could be seen in the indignant rebuke that, the press release recounts, was administered to the mayor of West Berlin. With unaccustomed brevity and clarity it said, “Stop repressing the protest of youth!” And if the mayor dared quibble about what was meant by repression of youth, no one was better qualified to tell him than those CPC executive members whose governments encourage dissidents abroad while suppressing them at home.

EUTYCHUS IV

Happy Reflections

I have received CHRISTIANITY TODAY since my college days in 1957. My responses to the magazine have ranged the gamut from utter disgust to rapturous delight. No article, however, has given me more hopefulness and happiness about evangelicalism than Frank Gaebelein’s “Reflections in Retrospect” (July 31). Evangelicals may yet come out of the dark forest of cultural, political, and social provincialism!

DAN R. ERWIN

Bethany Baptist Church

Boulder, Colo.

As one who has also passed the three-score-and-ten age limit, I very much appreciated the article by Dr. Gaebelein. I was especially interested in the significance he ascribes to the providence of God. This has also been a great and overshadowing factor in my experience.

(The Rev.) H. M. VEENSCHOTEN

Byron Center, Mich.

I enjoyed “The Idea of a Christian College” and “Reflections in Retrospect” very much. But, as I read the two pieces consecutively (doesn’t everyone read C.T. consecutively?), I found myself wishing that Arthur Holmes might have shared the blessing of that “unique course in creative writing” which has made Dr. Gaebelein’s literary efforts masterpieces of communication.

Are the silly syntax and specialized synonyms of scholarly articles perspectival manifestations of the world-viewishness that is “a self-conscious and self-critical commitment, an honesty that need not be ashamed?”

What Dr. Holmes has to say is much too good to be said in language I have to explain to my wife. Can’t we leave the word games to Spiro Agnew and Reader’s Digest?

C. WILLIAM SHAFFER

Highland Park

Evangelical Free Church

Columbus, Neb.

The Way To The Stars

I was much impressed by the two articles on apologetics by Millard J. Erickson (July 17 and 31). They seemed to me some of the most substantial and worthwhile material I have seen in this magazine for some time. I thoroughly agree with the author that the time has come to try to find our way—with God’s help—out of the seemingly meaningless, purely existential “slough of despair” in which we often find ourselves at present and look toward the guiding stars of God’s eternal moral and spiritual universe, particularly as expressed in history’s most unique and perfect character, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

DAVID E. ERIKSON

Fresno, Calif.

Vital Distinctions

Carl Henry’s comment in Footnotes (July 31) on Walter Hollenweger contains serious discrepancies which must be corrected. The distinction made by Dr. Hollenweger was not between those “interested mainly in evangelism and those interested primarily in the social implications of Christianity.” It was, rather, a distinction “between those who were primarily interested in the correct definition of salvation and those who were primarily interested in the world-and life-transforming effects of salvation.” Vital Christianity has always been interested in that difference.

EUGENE L. SMITH

Executive Secretary

World Council of Churches

New York, N.Y.

My comment on Dr. Hollenweger’s remarks grew out of a Philadelphia newspaper report of the Buck Hill Falls meeting by a competent religion reporter. I was so shocked to read as coming from Dr. Hollenweger a view so similar to that voiced by an ecumenical aide who sought to undercut the World Congress on Evangelism in Berlin that at the time I contacted the reporter, who checked his notes and was convinced of the accuracy of the report based on the prepared address and related comments by Dr. Hollenweger. I consider the remarks in this context a slur on American evangelicals who do not hop, skip, and jump to the ecumenical redefinition of ecumenism.

CARL F. H. HENRY

Professor of Theology

Eastern Baptist Seminary

Philadelphia, Pa.

Improving The Law

It was with some degree of surprise that I learned that the Lutheran Church in America has improved on God’s law regarding sex and marriage (“Marriage Covenant: Promises, Promises,” July 31).

It was with much assurance that I read the editorial and was relieved to know that it takes non-Lutheran theology and ethics to set Lutheran teaching in a biblical perspective again. Your emphasis on the publicly affirmed and contractually protected marriage commitment was greatly appreciated. What a small day for Lutheranism as a whole! What a great day for Christendom at large!

MYRON C. MALTZ

Redeemer Lutheran Church

Arkansas City, Kan.

A few weeks ago it was the Presbyterians, and now the Lutherans are getting into the act. When are some churchmen going to stop wasting their time dickering in committees on basic sexual mores when God has clearly spelled out the norm in the pages of Scripture?…

Maybe it is about time that some denominations quit forming resolutions, and started having marathon Bible reading sessions to discover what God has already declared in the areas they are attempting to rework.

CHUCK TOMPKINS

Dallas, Tex.

How To Answer Subversion

Your editorial “Subversion in the Church” (July 31) is indeed interesting but falls very far short of the point and misses the biblical answer.…

You say, “The tragedy is that the false teachers live off money that has been given to propagate what these teachers do not believe.” No, the tragedy is that these false teachers are so completely in control of denominational programs and are so well entrenched in the political machinery that they cannot be removed or replaced, and so they continue to spread their apostasy.

You suggest that orthodox believers should stay in the apostate-run denominations because “the churches [are] their churches, begun and nourished in orthodoxy.” Then you say, “However God’s people answer these questions.…” This is where you really miss the boat. It is not how God’s people answer these questions that matters; it is how God’s Word answers these questions that counts. God’s people should be encouraged to be obedient to God’s Word: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” (2 Cor. 6:17).

PHILLIP A. BASHAW

First Southern Methodist Church

Dallas, Tex.

The editorial touches on urgent and sensitive issues of concern to all of us who care about the vitality of orthodox Christianity. As I trust you are aware, however, the use of the term “subversion” lends itself to dangerous misunderstandings. History demonstrates that many of those appointed by the Holy Spirit, among them Jesus himself, have been condemned as subversives by the supposedly orthodox.…

Your warning against the church’s subversion both by those who reject responsibility for tradition and by those who subscribe to an introverted orthodoxy of formal assent alone is appropriate. More emphasis on the latter subversion, however, would present a better balanced picture of the sources of the Church’s decay. It might also hasten the day when committed members of the Body of Christ will speak the truth in love and in respect for the diversity of the Spirit’s gifts to the whole Church.

RICHARD J. NEUHAUS

Church of Saint John the Evangelist

Brooklyn, N.Y.

Fair Disadvantage?

I was very interested in your editorial comments on the fairness doctrine (July 31). While I agree with your concern about silencing people by government edict, I am also concerned about how you would propose to curb malicious and slanderous views on the air.

People who are unable to discriminate, or who do not have enough information, or who assume that when a man claims to speak for God he will naturally tell the truth, may be at a disadvantage. They may even be taken advantage of. It seems to me there is plenty of scriptural evidence for concern of those who are misused, manipulated, or misled. If this kind of activity is not to be stopped what do you propose?

HOWELL O. WILKINS

Wilmington District

Superintendent The United Methodist Church

Wilmington, Del.

Lutheran Watch

I would like to compliment Russell Chandler on his basic understanding of the differences in Lutheranism and his objective reporting (“Drawing Together or Pulling Apart,” July 17).…

I have felt for years that Lutheranism would eventually be divided into two main camps, conservative and liberal, and that this would take place after fellowship had been declared between LCA and Missouri or after mergers had taken place.

Now, however, it appears that LCA is in such a rush to get rid of all vestiges of orthodox Lutheranism that she is not going to wait around for Missouri “to see things her way” and may not even wait for ALC.

The disposition of the ordination of women by ALC this fall will go a long way in determining the future picture of the structure of Lutheranism in America. The passage of such a measure could be the first step between a merger of LCA and ALC and could very well result in the abrogation of fellowship between ALC and Missouri.

Needless to say, the next couple of years are going to be very interesting as well as decisive for Lutheranism. I am glad that C.T. will be around to report on them.

AL BOYSEN

Faith Lutheran Church

Tullahoma, Tenn.

Never before has hom*osexuality been so visible in this country, especially in entertainment and news reporting, and never before have hom*osexual groups been so militant. Because of increasing religious study of hom*osexuality and involvement of churches with hom*osexual causes, the news department ofCHRISTIANITY TODAYasked correspondent Robert Cleath to investigate. Here is his report:

People call the Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles the “gay” church. This doesn’t particularly please the 440-member congregation drawn overwhelmingly from the hom*osexual community. “We are a Christian church first, and hom*osexual second,” said its 56-year-old assistant minister, who prefers not to be identified lest his regular job in the “straight” world be jeopardized.

The congregation that packs Hollywood’s Encore Theater each Sunday was founded nearly two years ago by the Reverend Troy Perry, 29, former Baptist and Church of God of Prophecy pastor. It now has branches in San Francisco, San Diego, and Chicago, with others pending in Miami and Minneapolis-St. Paul. The congregations are ready to ratify a constitution for a new denomination, “The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.” And Metropolitan leaders plan to establish a two-year seminary for hom*osexual ministers.

Howard Wells, 25, pastor to a hundred hom*ophiles¹hom*ophile literally means anyone sympathetic to hom*osexuals though the term is often used as a synonym for hom*osexual. who meet over a gay bar in San Francisco, said in an interview: “If regular churches would welcome hom*osexuals and their lovers to worship God with them, there would be no need for the Metropolitan Community Church. As long as a hom*osexual has no lover and pretends he’s straight, he can attend a liberal church but in a fundamentalist church they’ll kick him out.” In his ministry Wells emphasizes that “hom*osexuals have the same potential to develop a meaningful relationship with God as any others.”

Perry is also president of the Western hom*ophile Conference and a board member of the Council on Religion and the hom*ophile. The council, formed in 1964 after a police raid on a dance, includes many heterosexual clergy from mainline denominations.

The founding of the Metropolitan Community Church reflects both the growing willingness of hom*osexuals to assert themselves as a movement and a more relaxed attitude toward hom*osexuals by religious groups. Regional and national church bodies, especially the United Church of Christ, the Lutheran Church in America, and the Episcopal Church, have advocated more dialogue between hom*osexual and heterosexual groups.

The New York Times reported that there are perhaps as many as 200 churches across the country that are known to be congenial to hom*osexuals. A Roman Catholic parish in Minneapolis opened its facilities last January to FREE (Fight Repression of Erotic Expression), a hom*osexual group composed largely of students from the University of Minnesota.

hom*osexual delegates to the fifth annual North American Conference of hom*ophile Organizations met in Kansas City last year. As might be expected, all the religious participants at the convention advocated the new morality: there was no mention that hom*osexuality might be sinful or wrong, although some questioned whether it was the best way of life.

The Metropolitan Community Church has a twofold concern: to provide a church for unchurched hom*osexuals, most of whom have fled the “authoritarianism” of Roman Catholic and fundamentalist churches and to reform laws and customs that discriminate against hom*osexuals. Perry frequently presents the gay viewpoint on television talk shows and recently led a march for hom*osexual rights down Hollywood Boulevard. The church provides counseling and a “hot line” for the disturbed, seeks to get male hustlers off the streets, and looks with disdain on those who violate hom*osexual laws in public.

The church views hom*osexuality as a legitimate part of God’s creation—not as sin or sickness—and believes that the hom*osexual life style should be respected by society. Its hom*osexual ministers are far from hom*ogeneous in theology or even in their views of the basic cause of hom*osexuality. Perry, whose sermons are fundamentalistic in tone, considers hom*osexuality essentially genetic. His assistant minister, a former United Church of Christ and Evangelical Reformed minister liberal in theology, believes hom*osexuality comes from psychological conditioning. Both men were married and fathered two children before turning to the gay life.

Metropolitan Community Church leaders are little concerned with the Bible’s condemnation of hom*osexuality. “We have learned not to get hung up on the Bible,” said San Francisco’s Wells. He claimed that the Old Testament’s admonitions against hom*osexuality were due to Israel’s need to increase its population and hom*osexuality was detrimental to this objective. The Apostle Paul, writing about hom*osex-sexual practices in Romans, “was a man of his times reflecting the general attitude of the Jewish nation,” according to Wells. Said the assistant minister at the Los Angeles church: “Paul does not speak for Jesus Christ. There is nothing in the Gospels about hom*osexuality. We believe God is a loving Father who will not eliminate from the kingdom of God any practicing hom*osexual for departing from what is only an established social norm.”

Its pastors claim that the Metropolitan Church serves as a dating center for hom*osexuals in no greater way than a straight church does for heterosexuals. The denomination’s mother church in Los Angeles has a United Presbyterian-ordained youth director, and holds monthly dances for 13 to 20-year-old hom*osexuals. This year’s social high jinx for the whole church was a May Festival that crowned a king and queen. A lesbian in formal male attire was chosen king; the queen was a boy in drag who resembled comedienne Carol Burnett.

The church encourages hom*osexual “marriages” to deepen personal relationships and cut down on sexual promiscuity with its attendant psychological and venereal disease problems. Perry has performed approximately forty such “marriages”; only two have not survived so far (one joined hom*osexuals of different sexes for convenience). Prior to the wedding, the “couples” must give evidence of having known each other for six months and attend two counseling sessions. In the legally unrecognized ceremonies, the words “friend and spouse” are substituted for “husband and wife.”

A Sunday service at Metropolitan Community Church is similar to most Protestant services except that the sermon frequently focuses on the topics especially relevant to hom*osexuals. Although the congregation includes a sprinkling of limp-wrist stereotypes, leather-clad boys, colorfully frilled men, and Mack-trucklike women, the great majority are indistinguishable in appearance from a typical WASP congregation. Like those in straight churches, most who attend Metropolitan come with problems of all kinds in the hope that God, with a little help from his friends, will make his love known to them.

Christian Teachers: Making Crucial Contributions

Alumni of Christian colleges are superior in their achievements to graduates of secular institutions of comparable size because of the quality of their Christian commitment. So said the president of a leading evangelical college who previously was chancellor of one of the nation’s largest secular universities.

Dr. John W. Snyder, 45, head of Westmont College and formerly chancellor of the main Bloomington campus of Indiana University, said that Christian education must not be secular education with a Christian veneer, but rather must stress a Christian approach to problem solving marked by drive, determination, consistency, stability, and creativity.

Snyder made his remarks on his home campus in Santa Barbara, California, at the first national convention of the National Educators Fellowship. The meeting last month drew 200 evangelical teachers and administrators from public and private schools. Speakers, including scholar-evangelist J. Edwin Orr, Los Angeles City Attorney Roger Arneberg, and James Panoch of the Religious Instruction Association, discussed the crucial contribution that the Christian teacher can make in the current ferment of American education.

The fellowship, founded by retired Los Angeles high school principal Benjamin Weiss and psychologist Clyde Narramore, has 2,000 members and distributes materials on legal ways of including the biblical viewpoint in school curricula to 17,000 teachers annually. It will soon move to new headquarters in Pasadena, California.

Dr. Orr, an authority on the history of spiritual awakenings, asserted that school development has frequently been the fruit of evangelical awakenings. If a new spiritual awakening comes to America, it will probably emerge on the college campus, Orr said.

Panoch told the fellowship not to concentrate on prayer, petitions, and parties to change governmental policies based on Supreme Court findings on religion in the schools. Instead, he said, Christian educators should work on teaching units about the Bible that are clearly within the law. The courts, he stressed, have held that public schools may not sponsor the practice of religion but may sponsor the study of it.

Arneberg warned against “the great danger of our age … an easy tolerance.” He said Christian educators could be tolerant of many things, but not of falsehood or evil. “They will be tolerant even toward other moral standards but not toward those whose scandalous behavior is a disgrace to Christian morality.”

ROBERT L. CLEATH

Missionaries March On

The day of foreign missions is over—or so some spokesmen have been saying for several decades. Actually, the number of missionaries is up 15 per cent from a decade ago. Figures just released by the Missions Advanced Research and Communication Center show that more than 33,000 Protestant missionaries from North America are serving overseas (adding Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and other non-Protestants would greatly increase the total). This figure is down from two years ago, but whether the decrease indicates a new trend will not be known for a while.

The ninth edition of North American Protestant Ministries Overseas lists over 600 organizations. Of the missionaries, about 5,000 are serving under National Council of Churches member communions (down from 5,850 in 1962), and 11,800 are serving under member societies of the closely related Interdenominational and Evangelical Foreign Mission Associations (up from 8,000 in 1962). Another 3,000 missionaries, chiefly Adventists and Lutherans, are affiliated with the NCC though their denominations are not.

The largest agencies are the Southern Baptists, 2,564; Wycliffe Bible Translators, 1,762; Seventh-day Adventists, 1,426; United Methodists, 1,397; Sudan Interior Mission, 993; and The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM), 962.

Revival At The Racetrack

If the jockeys and bettors had put odds on the chances of Maryland’s Rosecroft Raceway being invaded by a couple thousand Bible-packing Christians, they might have set them at one in a thousand—with a confident chuckle.

But for fifteen consecutive nights last month the unthinkable happened. Crowds of Christians and curious seekers streamed past the cashiers’ and sellers’ booths to hear the Gospel preached by evangelist Paul Rader. It was the first time anything but horse races had ever been held there—a precedent upsetting some Christians as well as some racing enthusiasts.

The assault was the beginning of a long campaign directed at the 3.5 million people living in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Within the next two or more years, as many as fifteen such efforts are expected, forming the “Circle Cities Crusades.” Each is to be held on neutral ground—such as the raceway—to attract those who avoid churches.

The Rosecroft outreach drew one to two thousand a night (including blacks, a majority of young people, and 30 to 40 per cent non-Christians) and recorded about 200 new commitments to Christ.

Rader emphasizes the complete mobilization of local churches for evangelism, with over forty from twelve denominations in southern Prince Georges County working together on the Rosecroft crusade. It was the first time ministers of that area had met together.

Rader moved to Washington in 1968 to begin involving local churches in aggressive, united outreach to the capital. In contrast to two years ago, he now sees definite signs of spiritual awakening in the area.

The husky, broad-shouldered evangelist is not new to the business. From his days as a University of Minnesota football player until he came to Washington, Rader tackled the unsaved of the Minneapolis area. He took over his father’s Gospel Tabernacle there and ran it for about thirty years, traveling widely to preach. In a family of fiery preachers—such as his grandfather Daniel, the “fighting parson of the West”—Rader marks the eighth straight generation of ministers.

ANNE EGGEBROTEN

Lutheran Youth: Caring In The Wilderness

Naïvely they ventured into the wilderness, taking “Bread for the day” with them.

The wilderness was New York, where 15,000 mid-western high school students of the American Lutheran Church (ALC) gathered and dispersed daily in one of the most unconventional conventions ever held. The official business was “caring”—and most of the time was spent getting to understand people in the city through “walk/talk/listen tours” and visits to social agencies, child care centers, and drug rehabilitation homes. “We just go out and love people,” said Gerry Glaser, one of the young planners of the event.

The tangle of traffic, subways, skyscrapers, and slums was new and overwhelming to many, causing some culture shock. But the youths weren’t sent into the streets alone: after sharing Communion in large services in ten hotels, each group of ten was given a “Bread packet” with a Scripture for the day and modern parallels to it from literature and newspapers. These were used en route during appropriate moments, helping them to listen to God’s Word in each wilderness encounter.

This experiment in confronting the modern world with a Christian lifestyle was “like a decentralized Bible camp,” explained Jerry Pyle, chairman of the happening. “Being a servant of Jesus in this context gave us a whole different perspective on life.” Each person’s experiences were unique. Said Pyle: “This isn’t one convention, but 15,000 conventions.”

The “backstage” program in Madison Square Garden continued the theme “And We Say We Care” with attention to world problems of hunger, development, and ecology, and a focus on the cultures of Latin America, Asia, and Africa. The emphasis was on the problems and lives of the native people as expressed in their own words, dance, and music. The theme frequently became a question, demanding self-analysis that cut deeply into the lives of the young people gathered to listen.

Multi-media reigned. Slides flashed on two large screens while actors and dancers cavorted about the stage, narrators spoke, and background music fought for the foreground. At one point a Yoga expert had six members of the board of the Luther League doing headstands and breathing exercises on stage.

Folk singer Pete Seeger unleashed the full energy of the 15,000 teenagers when he sang, “If you want to get clear water, jump and shout,” to the tune, “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain.” Later, the Voices of Harlem set the audience wild with their hard-rock sound, completing the circle of communication for more than 4,000 teens who had been “caring” in Harlem.

The week was bracketed between worship services. Also, in daily Communion, in small groups, and in some speeches and songs, the “faith” side of the Gospel was heard. The emphasis, however, was on faith in action.

“Kids are questioning the insistence that the only way to witness is in words … with the idea that maybe it’s better to do a little listening before you start talking,” said the Reverend Wilfred Bockelman, an ALC information coordinator. “We are here to be exposed to the suffering world.”

ANNE EGGEBROTEN

Ark Search Strikes Snag

Scientists and equipment sent from America to Turkey in hopes of scaling Mount Ararat this summer and finding the remains of Noah’s Ark have been quietly returned to the United States. An official of the Arctic Institute of North America, which with the SEARCH Foundation of Washington, d. c., had applied to the Turkish government for permission to excavate, said efforts will be made to continue the archaeological effort next summer.

SEARCH spokesmen cautiously refused to comment until the team’s head, Ralph B. Lenton of the Arctic Institute, returned home early this month with “all the facts.” Several news accounts last month stated that Turkish authorities “categorically rejected” all requests by foreign groups to search for the biblical ship.

“The expeditions have become a political issue in Turkey,” reported newsman Sam Cohen from Istanbul. “In view of the critical public opinion at home and Russian sensitivity abroad, the Turkish government has preferred to put an end (at least for the time being) to them all. The government does not wish to attract criticism from the many who now claim that the purpose of the expeditions is something other than the discovery of Noah’s Ark and that Turkey is being ‘fooled’ by the CIA.”

Religion In Transit

Conclusions of an opinion poll by the Presbyterian (U.S.) Board of Education of the denomination’s laity, clergy, and professional staff: reunion with northern Presbyterians could succeed, PCUS merger with COCU will fail, pronouncements on social issues are favored, women are more liberal than men on these issues, few want a new confession, and hard-core opposition in the church is smaller than the board expected.

Lutheran church bodies in North America slipped to 9,233,216 members by the close of 1969, a loss of 16,058 for the year, the Lutheran Council in the USA reported.

The American Association of Theological Schools (AATS) favors making the Doctorate of Ministry (D. Min.) the basic professional degree for the ministry.… A new degree—the Master of Arts in Religion (M.A.R.)—will be offered at Asbury Seminary beginning this fall.

A more militant Southern Christian Leadership Conference will return to the nation’s capital next spring to continue the Poor People’s Campaign, vowed a fiery Ralph David Abernathy at the SCLC’s convention last month.

More than 1,700 students and staff members of Campus Crusade for Christ completed a five-week Bible course last month to equip them for work on the nation’s campuses. Included were 540 new staffers.

The Roman Catholic equivalent of the New English Bible will be published by twelve firms across the country beginning this month. The new translation—in modern English—is called the New American Bible. The project took twenty-five years.

U. S. postal inspectors more than doubled arrests of p*rnography dealers during the last fiscal year.… The Federal Communications Commission said public complaints against obscenity, profanity, and indecency on radio and TV programs during the last fiscal year were up more than 60 per cent from the previous year.

Gospel Light Publications has established a new division, International Center of Learning, to train people for Christian service.

Personalia

St. Herman of Alaska was officially elevated by nine bishops in Kodiak last month. The first American saint in Eastern Orthodox Christianity was canonized in four days of ceremonies around the coffin containing the remains of the missionary priest at a small wooden church overlooking the Gulf of Alaska.

Father Daniel J. Berrigan, the fugitive pacifist priest, began a three-year prison sentence four months late last month after the 49-year-old Jesuit—convicted last April of destroying draft records—was captured by FBI agents posing as bird watchers outside the Block Island, Rhode Island, home of attorney William Stringfellow and poet Anthony Towne.

New York attorney Charles C. Parlin, 72, was named president of the World Methodist Council, succeeding the late Bishop Odd Hagen of Sweden. Parlin is the first layman to head the federation of thirty-three Methodist groups in ninety countries.

Chaplain Roy M. Terry, a Methodist and a major general, became chief of Air Force chaplains August 1.

The Reverend Donald K. Drake has become president of Piedmont Bible College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.… Dr. Merlyn W. Northfelt was elected president of Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.

Martin H. Work, for twenty years a leading spokesman for conservative Roman Catholicism in his post as executive director of the National Council of Catholic Men, resigned to join the staff of conservative Archbishop James V. Casey of Denver.

Dr. Elmer Kraemer, managing editor of the Lutheran Witness Reporter, publication of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, resigned to head public relations for a St. Louis Lutheran Hospital.

The Carl McIntire Collection of biographical materials on the Michigan-born fundamentalist radio preacher and president of Shelton College in Cape May, New Jersey, is being established by the Historical Collections of the University of Michigan.

Dr. Joseph D. Duffey, a United Church of Christ clergyman and president of Americans for Democratic Action, won the Connecticut Democratic nomination for the U. S. Senate by a comfortable margin to face incumbent Senator Thomas Dodd and a Republican nominee this fall.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference reelected Dr. Ralph David Abernathy as its president at the thirteenth annual convention in Atlanta last month. The SCLC also attacked the FBI and lashed out at a Time article implying that SCLC founder Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had a “vigorous” extramarital sex life.

Cadet Cary Donham, 20, a West Point senior, has asked to be discharged as a conscientious objector—the first such request in the academy’s history.

Deaths

FREDERICK BROWN HARRIS, 87, former chaplain of the Senate for a record twenty-four years and retired pastor of historic Foundry United Methodist Church; in Washington, D.C., of a heart attack.

FRANK HIGGINBOTHAM,65, pioneer of International Christian Leadership in Maryland and founder of the Governor’s Prayer Breakfast there; in Washington, D. C., of a heart attack.

World Scene

Bishop Abel T. Muzorewa, the first African to head the United Methodist Church in Rhodesia, was banned August 18 from black tribal areas by the Ian Smith regime. The bishop was thus barred from about three-quarters of his church’s 35,000 members. Christian churches in Rhodesia are risking their existence to defy the new apartheid law enacted by Smith.

The Vatican and Yugoslavia announced last month that after an eighteen-year interruption, full diplomatic relations between the two had been resumed at the ambassadorial level. Cuba is the only other Communist country exchanging ambassadors with the Vatican.

Century Baptist Church in downtown Toronto, Canada, was sold for $90,000 and is now the meeting place for the Theosophical Society. The movement blends pantheism, Hindu mysticism, magic, and transmigration. Salvation is attaining release from the tiresome burden of reincarnations in this miserable world.

The Southern Asia (India) Central Conference of the United Methodist Church, formally known as the Methodist Church in Southern Asia, apparently will not go into the proposed Church of North India as had been expected. A special session of the Central Conference reportedly voted 106 to 48 against the plan of union. Six other denominations are involved in the merger plan, but the MCSA was to have provided almost half of the CNI’s anticipated 1.3 million members.

Members of the Amateur Radio Missionary Service, which has about 450 members handling communication needs for missionaries from a dozen fields, held its annual meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota. The majority of league members are evangelicals.

International Bible College in Moose Jaw is feeling the financial bite. The Church of God (Cleveland) school, operating in Saskatchewan for thirty years, will not open this fall unless needed money is forthcoming.

Up From Suffer-Age

Liberated women gathered all over the nation on August 26 to commemorate the winning of suffrage fifty years ago and to clamor for Senate passage of the equal rights amendment to the Constitution. In Lafayette Park in front of the White House, mini-skirted young girls heard gray-haired grandes dames of the movement describe being “dragged away in paddy wagons right in front of that house” while demonstrating for the right to vote.

Dr. Cynthia Wedel, president of the National Council of Churches, was among speakers who urged freedom and equality without false protectionism. Red, white, and blue balloons bobbed with the message “Women are on the way up!” as the rally ended with the singing of “This light that’s given me, I’m gonna let it shine.…”

Watts is a ten-block-square area in south central Los Angeles. But to most whites, it’s any place in the city where most of the Negroes live. Watts skyrocketed to fame during riots there in 1965.

South central Los Angeles is predominantly black—93 per cent—with a scattering of Mexican-Americans. Within this area there are 600,000 people and more than 500 churches—everything from the traditional denominations to a group called House of Prayers.

Whatever their architecture or style, to Edward V. Hill, pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Watts and one of the nation’s foremost Negro clergymen, these churches have great significance. Last January Hill helped found the World Christian Training Center, a unique organization created to renovate the spiritual atmosphere of ghettos.

“The Negro is a church-oriented person,” Hill explains. “Only 20 per cent of the people here do not attend church. The problem, therefore, is very dissimilar to the white community’s dilemma. There, getting people into the churches in the first place is difficult. Here, the problem is … what they should be doing—and aren’t—once they get there.”

The CTC, as the training center is called, evolved to train Negroes to be more evangelistic, more capable of teaching Bible studies and leading others to Christ, and more aware of both the demands and the abundance of the Christian life.

The commission of the CTC is threefold: Set your church on fire, win your block to Christ, and win your family. Its strategy is to recruit nuclei of persons out of local churches and neighborhoods and train them in witnessing, biblical fundamentals, and evangelism. Since Hill believes most people don’t really know Jesus, participants are given an in-depth course on the Person of Christ and a biblical analysis of salvation.

Next is a more personal step: helping individuals return to their churches and influence the people there to become soul winners. Hill puts it this way: “We are trying to teach one little spark to ignite a fire!”

The final section provides a program for personal evangelism on the trainee’s own block and within his family.

The center is presently staffed by four full-time members and twelve teachers—many of whom donate their time and efforts to the ghetto. Not all staff members are black, and they represent various denominations. Many white churches and other groups help support the center and its work.

Some in the Los Angeles area feel, however, that Hill is spreading himself too thin and that the ghetto revival may not get off the ground. “The potential … is there,” comments one Christian leader and editor of Los Angeles’ only Christian newspaper. “What Hill does … remains to be seen. You can’t be involved in thirty projects at one time and expect all of them to soar.” Helping to take up the leadership slack is Joe Ryan, a white minister of World Vision on special assignment to the CTC as its executive director.

“The only way black people are going to be won to Christ or turned on for him is through other black people,” remarks Hal Lindsey, a founder of a Christian group, the Light and Power Company. His organization, in Westwood near the UCLA campus, aids the CTC. “That’s why the CTC is so important,” Lindsey adds. “It gives blacks the training they need to reach other blacks.”

Hill, a close friend of Billy Graham and a renowned speaker and preacher himself, believes the CTC can lessen racial tension. “In Watts,” he notes, “we have white store owners, white policemen, white prostitutes, white insurance collectors. But there are no white Christians for the blacks to identify with.” Hill sees the CTC as a means of uniting black and white Christians and bridging that gap.

The CTC network, less than a year old, already is influencing Watts. When a person accepts Christ, the Christian who initially prayed with him gives the new Christian’s name and address to CTC headquarters, where a mature, well-trained Christian on the same block is located. He then begins Bible study and prayer with the new Christian. Hill explains the hoped-for chain reaction: “Where there was only one Christian on a block, there are now two. Those two immediately set up their own block ministry. Soon there will be three, four, five, until the entire block has been reached for Christ.”

As the ghettos go, so goes the world, Hill believes. The CTC is making significant strides toward bringing the ghettos up from their spiritual slump, turning them on to the Gospel, and working for harmony and peace among blacks and whites.

“We want people to know that there are rational, peace-loving blacks working among themselves to better their own lives and the national situation. And we want people to know that those blacks are Christians—God’s people,” stresses Hill. “When I get to heaven, I’d like to take all the people of the Los Angeles ghetto area with me.”

RITA KLEIN

Negro Churchmen Set Evangelism Congress

Black Baptist churchmen have been invited to attend a Congress on Evangelism in Kansas City, Missouri, September 15–17. Dr. Edward V. Hill, pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Los Angeles and congress director, announced the gathering last month. The congress will involve primarily churchmen from the National Baptist Convention of America, the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., and the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.

Pastors of other black churches in a six-state area, and some white ministers, also have been invited. Sessions will be held in St. Stephen’s Baptist Church where Dr. John Williams is pastor.

Scheduled speakers include Dr. Billy Graham and Graham team members Howard Jones and Walter Smyth, Dr. Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ, M. L. Scott, and C. A. W. Clark. The congress theme is “Training Men to Lead Men to Christ.”

All three of these black Baptist denominations were holding national conventions earlier this month; the Progressive National Baptists met in Kansas City.

Black Ministry Institute Rises From Conwell Center

An “Institute for Black Ministry” will replace the faltering urban center at the Philadelphia campus of Gordon-Conwell Seminary this fall. Increasing financial problems and stiffening requirements by the American Association of Theological Schools forced Gordon-Conwell officials to consider the shutdown of the Philadelphia facility last spring (see May 22 issue, page 36; also June 20, 1969, issue, page 32).

The new institute is due to open late this month with about eighty students; it will be black-run but open to non-blacks. The new school’s announced purpose is to “train men and women for Christian service from the perspective of the black experience.” The institute was formed by the 300-member Council of Black Clergy, headed by the Reverend Vaughn Eason, pastor of an African Methodist Episcopal Zion church in the city.

The new institute, to be headed by the Reverend Ronald Peters, a 1970 graduate of Gordon-Conwell Seminary, is said to be the first black religious school to surface in the current emphasis on distinctive contributions of black theology to the Church.

Gordon-Conwell is contributing $70,000 to the first year’s expenses of the new institute, according to president Harold Ockenga, who has been instrumental in the shift. The Gordon-Conwell board will continue to own the Philadelphia property, but it will be rented for $1 a year to a subsidiary board, according to seminary sources. The latter board will probably be composed of eight blacks and four whites. Eason said some faculty members for the Philadelphia school will be recruited from local black clergy.

Lyons Goes Full Circle

Catholic conservatives, badly bruised by recent developments within the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, scored a major victory last month by gaining full control of American Catholicism’s most influential newspaper, the National Register (circulation 112,000). The new owner is the Twin Circle Publishing Company of Culver City, California, producer of Twin Circle (circulation 105,000).

Sale of the 57-year-old weekly Register, which through the years gained a reputation for a moderately liberal editorial stance and a national readership far beyond its original diocese, was announced by Archbishop James V. Casey of Denver (at a reported price of $500,000). The sale was said not to affect the Register’s Denver and twenty-four other diocesan editions printed by the firm, but these editions have traditionally used columns and other editorial content originated by the national edition.

Twin Circle has been edited since its founding in 1967 by Father Daniel J. Lyons, known for his acid pen. Bankrolled by industrialist Patrick J. Frawley, who recently resigned executive positions with Schick-Eversharp and Technicolor, Twin Circle has been publishing the books and articles of Catholic conservatives who resent the church’s theological and sociological liberalism.

Twin Circle Publishing Company immediately announced it was moving its headquarters to Denver, renamed the paper the National Catholic Register, and put Dale Francis, former Twin Circle publisher, in charge as the Register’s editor-publisher. No sooner had Jesuit Lyons been named editor-publisher of Twin Circle, however, than Archbishop Robert Dwyer of Portland, Oregon, board president for both papers, asked for—and got—Lyons’s resignation.

The fuss stemmed from Lyons’s coverage of, and polemic editorials about, the California grape dispute for Twin Circle.¹In particular, Dwyer cited the refusal of Lyons to print Los Angeles archbishop Timothy Manning’s position on unionization of farm workers. Lyons charged that a committee of bishops negotiating with grape growers and pickers was fostering “compulsory unionism” and intended to organize all the farm workers in America. At month’s end it was still unclear whether Lyons would continue to have editorial duties beyond writing his weekly column for Twin Circle.

Meanwhile, Francis declared of the Register: “This is going to be a Catholic paper, and we might as well make that clear.… It will faithfully record what is happening but it will never consider the pronouncement of some obscure theologian as equal to what is said by the successor of Peter.”

How do you express nonconformity to the world but be involved in world need?

This has been the question for Mennonites since the former followers of Ulrich Zwingli founded the first Anabaptist congregation in 1525. And it is the compelling issue of the day for the younger generation of Mennonites that is wrestling with acculturation, non-resistance, the doctrine of separation of church and state, the social gospel, and evangelism.

“The church hierarchy is attempting to hold the line culturally, but youth are attempting to define their own identity—what it means to be one’s brother in the twentieth century,” said an under-25 spokesman for the (Old) Mennonite Church, the largest of the Mennonite bodies in the United States and Canada.¹Among the score of Mennonite bodies in the United States and Canada, the four largest are the (Old) Mennonite Church, with 94,755 baptized members; the General Conference Mennonite, 55,034; the Mennonite Brethren, 31,780; and the Old Order Amish Mennonites, 23,025. Altogether, the Mennonite movement has about 250,000 adherents in the United States and Canada and another 250,000 in the rest of the world. The very traditional, German-speaking, non-missionary-sending Amish are to be clearly distinguished from the other bodies. They are the unreconciled descendants of a division dating back to the 1690s in Switzerland. “Our parents are concerned we might be involved in the world,” continued Stuart Showalter, public relations director of Eastern Mennonite College, one of the denomination’s two college-seminary combinations. “We are concerned we might not be involved at the right point. Our parents were concerned we would be contaminated; we seek contamination and we seek to eliminate it.”

Mennonites have been in hot water over the church-state issue ever since they disagreed with Zwingli (and Calvin and Luther), maintaining that relationships between the government and established religion should be minimal. They have also insisted that only adult believers be baptized, repudiated the sacramental view of Communion, and plugged for the “simple faith” of the New Testament Church.

Their stand on these and other matters, such as the rejection of physical force, made the earliest Mennonites unpopular in Protestant and Catholic countries of Europe alike. After bloody and vicious persecution (5,000 Anabaptists were martyred in Europe in a ten-year period), a band of survivors fled to North Germany. They were led by a former Catholic priest named Menno Simons, from whom the Mennonites derived their name.

William Penn, Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, was instrumental in assisting Mennonite immigrants to settle there beginning in 1683. Waves of Mennonites came from Europe during the first three decades of the eighteenth century, and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is still the world’s largest and most varied Mennonite center. Some 43,600 adherents of the Mennonite community live there, according to a recent newspaper survey.

By general Protestant standards, Mennonite worship is plain, even austere. In theology, although there are differences between the various Mennonite branches, conservative and evangelical—if not fundamentalistic—doctrine prevails. Except in the most conservative wings, this theology is coupled with a strong social consciousness. “We found our stride in evangelicalism,” avers Dr. Myron Augsburger, president of Eastern Mennonite College and an internationally known evangelist (see story adjoining).

Mennonites are also strong in missions, having one of the highest ratios of missionaries to supporting members of any denominational family. A worldwide relief ministry is conducted through the Mennonite Central Committee, an inter-Mennonite service agency. Generous giving is required for such a small body to support this extensive work. (The average member of the Mennonite Church gave $151.78 last year, or 5.4 per cent of his income.)

Because the pattern has been for Mennonite ministers to make their living from secular work, very small congregations can subsist. Example: the twenty-seven-member Detroit (Michigan) Mennonite Church—the only one in the city—is self-supporting.

Mennonites lead the way among evangelicals in certain evangelism techniques. The Mennonite Broadcasting Institute (MBI) produces programs for 459 stations. Short, specialized programs dropped in the midst of secular programming—to catch the unchurched—have proven successful lately. “We get by the station’s gatekeeping of putting religious programs in religious time blocs, and we get by the built-in systems people have to turn religion off,” explained MBI’s head, Kenneth Weaver, in an interview. The programs, like the popular “Heart-to-Heart” homemaking broadcast (185 stations carry it) give the listener useful information for everyday living laced with a spiritual message.

Mennonite bookrack evangelism is unique among church programs. About twenty of the Mennonite Church’s district mission boards buy religious books and racks through the MBI at a hefty discount. The books are sold in 314 racks placed in places like supermarkets, variety and department stores, and airport concession stands. Last year more than 100,000 books were moved through this ministry.

Because Mennonites are opposed to all war, alternate programs to military service have become a Mennonite distinctive. Several of the most popular are the Teachers Abroad Program, a three-year assignment in underdeveloped countries; PAX, an overseas technical aid program in community development; and Voluntary Service, a program to serve minority groups and inner city needs in the United States.

Ironically, it was World War II that spurred the breakdown in the traditionally rigid Mennonite style of dress and general separation from the outside world. Alternate service for draft-age Mennonite men formed a beachhead to the outside, and higher education came to be more accepted. During the late forties and the fifties, Mennonite youth felt a “shade of embarrassment” and inferiority about their essentially rural background, according to David Augsburger, speaker on the Mennonite Hour. “Now, Mennonite youth are proud of their background,” he added.

Acculturation among Mennonite groups that had not previously accepted it picked up speed in the sixties. During the last five years, student attire at Eastern Mennonite College in Harrisonburg, Virginia, has changed drastically. “When you see the kids walk down the street in town now, you can’t tell any difference between them and non-Mennonites,” noted a young Mennonite.

Since the vogue of the peace movement and resistance to the draft, Mennonite youth have suddenly found that their centuries-old position grooves nicely with mainline young people. “Relating to race, social problems, and war has given us an appeal to a lot of people who feel this—plus a spiritual dimension with Christ—is lacking in their churches,” declares Dr. Myron Augsburger.

Although the trend is away from emphasis on dress (the cape dress and head covering for women and the plain coat for men), there is an ultra-traditional strand that opposes modernization. Some Mennonite congregations have withdrawn from their conferences over the issue, and others, like the West Valley District of the Virginia Conference of the Mennonite Church, appear to be near doing so.

“If you get rid of the bonnets, you can win these people,” a student once told Harry Brunk, 72, retired history professor at Eastern Mennonite. But, speaking of an evangelism effort in a high-rise apartment area of Ontario, Canada, the student later related: “We got rid of the bonnets and we aren’t winning them.”

Although arguments over dress appear to be one of the biggest hang-ups among Mennonites, the articulate younger brood sees the real issues elsewhere. This was well illustrated in the baccalaureate address given at Eastern Mennonite last May by Conrad G. Brunk, a Wheaton College graduate and former philosophy instructor at EMC. Said Brunk, 25, now assistant director of the National Service Board for Religious Objectors in Washington, D.C.:

“It is clear that the old form of nonconformity in mere outward appearance can no longer revitalize the church today—to return to it or to attempt to preserve the old forms would lead us to a certain institutional death.… Nonconformity in our age must be an active nonconformism that does not grow out of a sentimental adherence to mere tradition, but out of a renewed sensitivity to the needs of the world around us.… a witness that breaks through all the facades and niceties by which a society covers over its evils.”

RUSSELL CHANDLER

The Augsburgers: ‘Saints In Shoe Leather’

“It’s time for us to stop putting more saints in stained glass and start putting more in shoe leather.”

Dr. Myron Augsburger, noted evangelist and college president, was speaking to a crowd of 7,500 on the opening night of an eight-day interdenominational crusade last month in Hampton Roads Coliseum, Hampton, Virginia. He shared the platform with Negro evangelist Tom Skinner. In all, some 51,000 persons attended the meetings, which were backed by 200 area churches. About one-fourth of those who came were black. More than 400 decisions for Christ were registered.

Interdenominational evangelism is nothing new for Myron Augsburger, who, with his brother, David, is extending his reputation as a leading American spokesman for evangelicalism with a social conscience. For more than half his life Myron has been involved in both the educational program of Eastern Mennonite College—where five years ago at age 35 he became the school’s youngest president—and evangelistic campaigns in more than a dozen cities in the United States, Canada, and Jamaica. Six years ago he was the first Protestant to hold a city-wide campaign in Salt Lake City.

Of his latest crusade, Augsburger said during an interview in his high-ceilinged office at Eastern Mennonite College that he had insisted on major participation by a Negro speaker “to demonstrate the equality of the races rather than doing a lot of preaching about it.”

Augsburger’s preaching, which somewhat resembles that of his friend Dr. Billy Graham, and his firm commitment on social issues exemplify a life style that combines evangelistic zeal with concrete action. He, like most Mennonites, puts strong emphasis on pacifism and nonresistance.

Last winter his college put faith to work by raising $112,000 in one weekend to save a $1.4 million library project (see January 2 issue, page 40). Eastern Mennonite has almost doubled its student body, faculty, and assets since Augsburger took over the helm.

He has some help from another brother, Don, 44, one of the five Augsburger boys born and reared on a farm near Elida, Ohio. Don recently became director of student affairs at the college after a number of years in the pastorate. Fred, 49, is pastor of an integrated, inner-city congregation in Youngstown, Ohio. Only Dan, 37, followed their father’s footsteps on the soil. He is in farming and sales in Canton, Ohio.

David, 32, is known to millions by his voice. For the past nine years he has been the speaker on the “Mennonite Hour” and “The Way to Life,” heard on 128 radio stations around the world. Recently he originated a series of very brief, creative programs and radio-TV “spots” that have gained prime time on national networks.

David says their purpose is to move the hearer or viewer “from unawareness to awareness” and “plant little darts of Christian truth for the Holy Spirit to use.… It’s a total abuse of communication to move a man from ‘zero’ to conversion in fifteen minutes.” One of David’s pet projects, through organizations like the National Association of Evangelicals, the National Religious Broadcasters, and the International Christian Broadcasters, is to stimulate other evangelicals to develop similar programs.

Both David and Myron write books (David, four, Myron, seven); David’s most recent volumes, 70 X 7 (Moody) and Be All You Can Be (Creation House) were published last month.

Myron, who was ordained a Mennonite minister at age 20, received a B.D. from Goshen (Indiana) College and holds the master and doctor of theology degrees from Union Seminary in Richmond. He is a board member of the NAE and chairs the board of Inter-Church Evangelism of New Holland, Pennsylvania, an organization he founded.

David’s hobbies are painting and sculpture; Myron continues his father’s love for rare birds. He raises swans at the family farm, near Harrisonburg where he lives with his wife and three children. But popularity as a speaker and evangelist is depopulating his cygnet generation. “We only hatched four this year,” he said with a touch of sadness. “I was away too much.”

Evangelism Consultation

The first major evangelism conference for all Mennonites since 1530 will be held in Chicago April 13–16, 1972. Dr. Myron S. Augsburger, evangelist and president of Eastern Mennonite College in Harrisonburg, Virginia, announced the all-Mennonite Consultation on Evangelism last month. He is chairman of the consultation steering committee.

The gathering is an outgrowth of the Berlin and Minneapolis congresses on evangelism, Augsburger said. At least ten of the nation’s Mennonite denominations are expected to send representatives.

Augsburger said goals of the consultation include establishing a common ground among Mennonites for evangelism, and advancing the distinctiveness of Mennonite discipleship as a pattern for the “larger church.” “Many thoughtful evangelicals are urging us to speak up, to share our concepts of discipleship,” Augsburger added.

Echoes of a once-great movement sounded forth from 3,500 delegates to the sixteenth world convention of Christian Endeavor, held last month in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario.

Children and teen-agers joined their adult sponsors in early morning Bible studies, lively songfests, and inspirational services. In the evenings, they welcomed thousands of local people. The youths behaved relatively well, the only dissident note being an impromptu youth-led worship service that included criticism of older leaders.

The evangelically oriented convention program was essentially a greatly expanded version of the Sunday evening youth meeting, a church tradition that began with the founding of CE nearly ninety years ago. The conventions are a rich part of Christian Endeavor heritage; in earlier days such meetings were spectacular events, frequently attracting more than 50,000.

Christian Endeavor reached its peak about 1935. In recent years, however, there have been signs of a comeback. CE leaders see special opportunities among churches no longer getting adequate youth materials from their denominations.¹Despite CE’s basic orthodoxy, many evangelical denominations have shunned it in favor of their own youth organizations. Such evangelicals hold the movement theologically suspect because it is so often found in congregations of liberal, old-line denominations.

Much responsibility for reviving the movement rests with a genial, 45-year-old Pennsylvanian who recently became general secretary of the International Society of Christian Endeavor, the North American arm. (The global organizational unit is known as the World’s Christian Endeavor Union, and this year’s convention was a joint meeting.) The new administrator is the Reverend Charles W. Barner, who served for twenty-five years as a pastor in the small Evangelical Congregational Church and won a reputation as an effective youth leader. Barner says he twill seek to upgrade CE program materials and to infuse much more young blood into the movement’s leadership.

Christian Endeavor in North America has been encouraged by the success of many of its sister societies abroad. The German, National Union has been particularly strong. More than two dozen countries sent delegates to this year’s world convention in Canada.

Christian Endeavor’s fidelity to Scripture was again underscored. Leaders of the world unit adopted a resolution asserting that “the inspired objective and purpose of the movement remains unchanged. Whilst changing times and new problems call for new methods and appropriate measures to meet them, we believe that the real need of youth for a purposeful life can still be met as they come to know and serve the living Christ.”

Christian Endeavor began in 1881 over a batch of burned cookies. The Reverend Francis Edward Clark, minister of the Williston Congregational Church in Portland, Maine, drew up the original pledge, still used as the basis of membership. It read simply: Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for strength, I promise Him that I will strive to do whatever He would have me do.”

Clark penned the sentence in the manse one day and left it in the kitchen. His wife, unenthused on first reading it, gradually saw a potential. While she meditated the cookies burned, but a great movement was born. The Clarks organized the first CE society in their own church on February 2, 1881. The idea caught on remarkably, and within six years there were 7,000 societies around the world with a total membership approaching 500,000. Clark headed the movement until his death in 1927.

As the movement grew, a number of denominations began their own youth organizations, and this development ultimately put the damper on CE. Ecumenical leaders in the late forties sought to make the movement part of the National Council of Churches, but CE leaders felt the price would be the yielding of evangelical distinctives. The NCC went ahead with its own youth arm, only to see it die.

For its own survival in the lean years, Christian Endeavor owes much to the sacrificial efforts of Dr. Daniel A. Poling and Miss Phyllis I. Rike. Poling succeeded Clark as head of the movement and was active in it until his death in 1968 at the age of 83. Miss Rike has served in the CE headquarters office, now located in Columbus, Ohio, since 1941; she serves as executive secretary of the world unit and edits CE’s monthly periodical.

No one knows how many CE societies there are in the world today, or how many members. In North America, CE tends to be stronger in rural areas, but with some notable exceptions. Many black inner-city churches carry on active CE programs, and some evangelicals see here a potential instrument for much more effective ministries in ghetto areas. (Each church sets its own program.)

Dr. Clyde Meadows, 69, currently the world president of CE, sees the movement’s comeback among all age groups. The youths themselves seem to be showing the most interest. Adults, he says, are also responding in greater numbers.

Dr. F. Rupert Gibson, a Presbyterian clergyman from Northern Ireland who is vice-president of the world unit, feels CE must make some changes if it is to grow. “The kind of meeting or organizations which appealed to young people fifty or even twenty-five years ago no longer attract them,” he says. “We have to look around for a modern concept to put across the old fundamentals.”

Gibson also wants more young people in CE leadership (only one of the top executives elected at the convention is under 50).

Leighton Ford, speaker for the closing service of the convention, reminded delegates that “We can’t tie Christianity to seventeenth-century English, eighteenth century hymns, nineteenth-century architecture, or even twentieth-century crusades.”

DAVID E. KUCHARSKY

Reformed Families Unite

An association of 55 million members of 127 denominations in seventy nations was formally established in Nairobi, Kenya, last month. The new union, ten years in the making, was named the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (Presbyterian and Congregational). The merger brings together the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the International Congregational Council.

Ten North American denominations, including 8 million U.S. Protestants, are involved. The news section of CHRISTIANITY TODAY will carry a full report in the September 25 issue.

In this issue we present our Fall Book Forecast, a partial listing of titles to appear over the next few months. From the number of new books available one would never guess that our nation’s economy is in some kind of recession! In just the first six months of this year, 644 new religious volumes poured forth from the presses in this country; another 216 publications were new editions of old books. (These figures are only for those books that enter into the book trade; there are also a few good and many not-so-good titles regularly distributed through other channels.)

Most people who find reading a joy, or even a necessity, simply do not have time to read all they should. Good stewardship calls for purposeful reading of only the most worthwhile books and articles. But how does one sift discerningly through the deluge of titles on any topic to find the “best”?

An ideal way would be to punch some telephone number requesting the computer at the other end to supply the desired reading matter through some electronic gadget in one’s home. But that solution is still a long way off. In the meantime one has to make do with much more haphazard methods—choosing among books that are already around the house from gifts, inheritance, or purchases (often because the price was sharply reduced); borrowing books that a neighbor or fellow church member or fellow student happens to own. When it comes to buying books or borrowing them from libraries, recommendations, skillful (and, dare we say it?, occasionally deceptive) advertisem*nts, special bargains, and availability all combine in unpredictable ways to influence one’s choice.

To help the conscientious Christian be a little better equipped to decide what to read in the time available, CHRISTIANITY TODAY will begin publishing later this year a series of bibliographical articles. Each installment will cover some important topic of general interest to most Christians. Of course, commentaries, topical studies, and background guides on the Bible will be prominently featured. Books on the various topics of church history, theology, ethics, practical ministry, and the relation of Christianity to other fields or faiths will be further areas of emphasis.

When the series—which will appear about once a month—is finished, it will be somewhat revised (in the light of readers’ comments and new titles) and issued in book form, available at modest cost to our subscribers, old and new. Because of the steady stream of new titles and editions, the bibliography will need constant supplementing, and this we propose to do in our annual book survey issue each February. Hopefully, we will be able to revise the book every few years, utilizing these annual supplements.

The editors of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, as the bibliographies will indicate, recognize that there are different levels of approach to every question. A book on drug use that is most suitable for a teen-ager, for example, probably would not be the best book for his parents. And a pastoral counselor would no doubt want a more thorough and technical study than either parents or youth need. Similarly, Bible commentaries are written for different audiences. Therefore, we plan to annotate each title listed so that the bibliographies will be really valuable to all potential users.

However, we do not want to give the impression that we are offering a list of “approved,” wholly trustworthy books and that all others are to be shunned. This sort of “all good” or “all bad” approach is popular in some circles, especially among those boasting of their loyalty to the Bible. (Bibliographies reflecting this approach are readily available.) In reality, the elevation of some writings as being “safe” and “sound” has the tendency to give those interpretations of the Bible equal authority with the Word of God itself. We prefer to leave the ascription of infallibility, even though only implied, solely to the Scriptures.

For that reason, our proposed series of bibliographies will indicate what we consider of value even in books that have concepts with which we disagree. As an added service, we will also mention a few heavily promoted books that are not, in our view, worthwhile. All books, whether or not by men whose theologies approximate our own, are to be evaluated in the light of the Word of God and on the basis of their ability to help Christians better understand the teaching of the Scripture so that we may apply that teaching to our lives today.

Letting The President Drown

President Nixon’s now famous blooper—his saying that Charles Manson was “guilty of” when he intended to say that the self-styled radical was “charged with” several killings—has renewed concern about the isolation of the presidency.

Some tribal chieftains and national monarchs are considered so sacred that no mortal even dare touch their bodies. One of these kings had the misfortune of falling off his royal barge into the river, so the story goes, and naturally he drowned because no aide would risk putting hands on the king to rescue him. Attorney General Mitchell, who was standing right next to President Nixon during the news conference, later said he recognized at once that the President had made an error. Well, then, why didn’t he interrupt or speak up immediately after the President finished (and before newsmen could flee to their phones) to give Mr. Nixon a chance to set things straight? Mitchell’s reply: “It is not the proper posture for anybody to correct the President of the United States.” Better to let him drown!

If one of the closest friends of a president dare not give him a chance to correct himself over an obvious mistake, then presidents and those around them have allowed their exaltation to go entirely too far. What hope is there for presidential opinions to be challenged by ordinary advisors when mistakes can’t be mentioned even by confidantes? Peter may have had an important role among the apostles, but that did not keep Paul from publicly correcting him when he was wrong. We do not endorse those who show disrespect to the presidency. But neither do we feel that it serves either the President’s interest or the nation’s for him to be so exalted that he is beyond correction. If the Manson remark serves to desanctify the presidency a little and to embolden aides and advisors, then something useful will have resulted.

Missing Day or Missing Data?

The widely circulated story that a NASA computer “discovered” a day missing from history seems to be convincing many that scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland have verified the account in the book of Joshua that the sun stood still. The supply of doubting Thomases seems to be running short in the churches these days, and Christians are as convinced as if they had put their hand in the computer’s side.

This is definitely a case, however, not only of a missing day but also of missing evidence. Authorities at NASA have searched records and talked with everyone who might have been involved in the “research”—and are unable to discover any such activity. The story seems to exist only in the memory of one man, Harold Hill, a Baltimore engineer, who has “misplaced” the names and documentation. Other authorities such as John Read, a member of the technical staff of Hughes Aircraft and a vice-president of the Bible-Science Association, have written articles pointing up the scientific weakness in Hill’s story.

Circulating questionable stories as fact helps neither the Christian nor the non-Christian. The unbeliever who sees Christians swallow a hoax can justifiably label us credulous and naïve—and lump the story of Jesus Christ with the myths and frauds.

More appalling is the state of our faith revealed by our jumping at “computer proof” of the Bible’s accuracy. We don’t need IBM to tell us our God is Lord of heaven and earth. We know the Bible is true—and that it is intended to be the light for a man’s life, not a scientific document subject to confirmation by computer.

“Our God is rubbing their noses in His Truth,” a widely publicized Hill article concludes. Complete scientific proof for the existence of God cannot be adduced. For man to contrive such proofs is a mistake that may be compounded when the proof is based on man’s works instead of God’s.

U. S. Crime: Beyond The Law

Why did crime in the United States soar by an alarming 148 per cent during the 1960s? The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports for 1969, released last month, didn’t say. The documents were long on statistics and short on reasons. The somber news was that, though the rate of increase of serious crime in the United States tapered off last year, the crime rate, or number of crimes for each 100,000 persons, was 2,471 for 1969 compared to 2,234 in 1968. An average of nine serious crimes were committed in the nation each minute last year.

Rape rose 17 per cent over the previous year (the only category of serious crimes that had a larger percentage of increase for 1969 than for 1968), and burglary was the most frequently committed offense. Property valued at almost $2 billion was stolen as a result of 297,600 robberies, 1,949,800 burglaries, 3,812,000 larcenies, and 871,900 auto thefts.

Though J. Edgar Hoover’s report didn’t comment on causes of the dramatic rise in crime during the sixties, one group did draw some conclusions from its probe of the 1968 Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Acts that allocated $63 million for fiscal 1969 to improve law enforcement, justice, and correctional facilities in twelve states. The funds, said the Urban Coalition, largely went for police communications equipment and hardware. “Only negligible attention was given to … juvenile treatment, narcotics control, or court reform,” the coalition report said.

Some of the FBI’s statistics appear to corroborate these accusations. Between 1960 and 1969, police arrests of persons under eighteen increased 90 per cent, while the population of the young age group increased only 27 per cent. During that period, arrests for narcotics-law violations increased almost six times, primarily because of the involvement of the young.

Other figures show law enforcement agencies solved only 20 per cent of the serious crimes brought to their attention during 1969, a decline of 34 per cent since 1960. Smart criminals know they have only one chance in five of being caught and that of those arrested 35 per cent are not convicted. Further, figures back up those who say our penal institutions fail to deter criminals. A study of 18,567 offenders paroled in 1963 showed that 65 per cent had been rearrested by the end of last year; for those under twenty it was 74 per cent.

Growing permissiveness in American society during the sixties saw numerous leading clergymen—among other persons—openly defy laws they considered unjust. And a disrespect, pervasive in some circles, for police authority must also be blamed for the unusual increase in crime and criminal behavior. Doubtless the breakdown of American family life, discipline, and standards in the home is a root cause of the upsurge in lawbreaking. These underlying changes are of course beyond the immediate control of law enforcement agencies.

Amid the gloom, there was a flicker of hope last month in crime-ridden Washington, D.C., when it was announced that serious crime there in July of this year dropped 13 per cent from the rate of July, 1969. Mayor Walter E. Washington attributed the decrease to a greatly expanded police department, and a massive program for treating narcotics addiction.

Unfortunately, such measures only restrain actual and would-be offenders. We wish crime would fall away to nil because each man, woman, and young person obeyed God and loved his neighbor as himself. Such a notion is admittedly unrealistic because it ignores man’s sin—some original, some highly repetitious. Until God’s kingdom comes on earth, we can pray for a mighty spiritual revival. Where the Spirit of Christ is, there is love, peace, kindness, fidelity, tolerance, and self-control. Against these, there is no law.

Hitting The Trail

Labor Day in American life not only marks the end of summer; it also brings the time when aspirants for public office hit the campaign trail. This year some of the candidates got off to an early start. Last month, Arthur Goldberg, who hopes to capture the New York governorship from Nelson Rockefeller, carried a heavy backpack in a ten-mile New York State wilderness hike in the interest of conservation and anti-pollution.

Between now and election day, America will be inundated with the usual flood of political rhetoric, liberally sprinkled with promises of what the candidates did or can do for the people. We can anticipate plenty of smog, a good deal of bombast, charges, and countercharges, and a mixture of truth and falsehood. Traditionally this sort of talk has been part of the political scene, and the closer it gets to election day the rougher the language becomes.

As citizens it becomes Christians to exercise the right of franchise, choosing representatives selectively on the basis of merit rather than on the basis of political party. It may be that a vote for one man will be more a vote against his opponent, a choice between the lesser of two evils. Christians should not sit on their hands and criticize the system. They should get involved. They should find candidates they can support, work to elect them, and contribute to their campaign chests. On election day they should hit the polling places and behind closed curtains vote for conscience’s sake. This is democracy at work, and Christians have a stake in determining which way the country goes.

The Chain-Letter Gang

Members of the American clergy are being solicited to participate in the old chain-letter racket that has been declared illegal by Post Office authorities. Ministers are promised a return of $8,000 if they send $1 to the person whose name appears at the top of a list of four people. The victim then is supposed to eliminate the first name, place his own fourth on the list, and send copies of the letter to twenty friends. If he does this within twenty-four hours after receiving his letter, in twenty days he will receive 8,000 replies, each containing a dollar.

This shell game has been operating in various forms for a long time. Whoever started it again should be reported to the postal authorities, and anyone who receives such a letter should file it in the waste basket where it belongs. Of all people, ministers should be least gullible about this racket and least susceptible of trying to get something for nothing.

Blacks In Christian Colleges

Every Christian college is working its way through the knotty puzzlement of how to provide educational opportunities for black students who continue to constitute a minuscule group on most campuses. Sincere efforts have been thwarted and problems compounded by factors beyond the control of both whites and blacks. For one thing, the present supply of black college teachers is inadequate in the face of current demand. Many who are available end up holding lucrative posts in private schools or state institutions whose salaries the Christian colleges cannot equal.

The number of available black students is also limited, and institutions vie with one another to recruit young blacks. Again Christian colleges, with only meager scholarship funds for white or for black students, are caught in a bind—the secular institutions can outbid them in the effort to enroll black students. The problem is further complicated by pleas from black administrators of black institutions of higher learning not to raid their faculties of good personnel.

Inside magazine, published by the Evangelical Committee for Urban Ministries in Boston, recently printed speeches delivered at a conference on “The Black Student at the Christian College.” Some of the remarks were complimentary to Christian colleges; others were highly critical of them. The conference proposed no essentially new or novel actions, but it did reiterate the basic needs that do not require discussion so much as implementation. It is still up to Christian colleges to expedite what they assent to in principle but can attain only by hard work, imaginative thinking, and genuine perseverance. The black brethren challenge Christian colleges to

• Combat all forms of racism within their institutions;

• Find more effective means of recruiting black students;

• Hire black administrators, counselors, and faculty who can communicate with black students and deal effectively with their problems;

• Institute a tutorial program to assist incoming black students who have poor educational backgrounds;

• Aid black students financially by establishing more scholarship aid rather than offering work-study programs;

• Establish more black representation in chapel, convocation, and other programs.

The blacks have passed the ball; now let their white brethren run with it!

The Power Of p*rnography

The President’s Commission on p*rnography probably will report that p*rnography does not cause sex crimes or corrupt youngsters’ morals. Although the report will not be released officially until later this month, a first draft has been leaked to the press.

This preliminary report, still subject to revision and strongly opposed by some commission members, says: “There is no evidence to suggest that exposure of youngsters to p*rnography has a detrimental impact upon moral character, sexual orientation or attitudes.” It further states: “Research indicates that erotic materials do not contribute to the development of character defects, nor operate as a significant factor in anti-social behavior or in crime.”

The validity of these opinions is open to serious question. The commission was established only two years ago, a rather brief period in which to formulate such sweeping conclusions. We doubt that it is possible to evaluate adequately in that short time the effects of exposure to p*rnography on the development of moral character. Furthermore, the findings regarding p*rnography’s effects on youngsters were not based on actual study of those under eighteen because of sensitivity toward such investigations. Instead, the commission studied college students (who grew up before society became so openly exposed to p*rnography), feeling that that research would be valid for younger people. Moreover, tests of physical responses during prolonged exposure to p*rnographic material don’t really tell much about character development. Clergymen and psychologists who have counseled young people could tell more—and some have—about how even mild forms of p*rnography have proved to be a serious problem in character development.

Even if it could be shown that there is never any causal connection between sex crimes or moral corruption and p*rnography (and this is far from certain)—so what? At the very least, the ready availability of p*rnography indicates a flabby moral climate. Both the Scriptures and history tell us that the society that rebels against God’s plan for the proper use of sex faces in due time God’s judgment. This fact is vastly more important than the superficial two-year study of any commission. We hope legislators will give the commission’s report scant attention if the finished product turns out to be what the preliminary report suggests.

A Petition For The President

In all the years of history few empires have displayed the might of ancient Babylon. And few men have wielded the power of the Babylonian kings, Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar. Yet in a period of an hour Nebuchadnezzar became a madman and was driven from his throne to keep company with the beasts of the field. And Belshazzar and the Babylonian empire suddenly and surprisingly met their doom only hours after Daniel’s interpretation of the handwriting on the wall warned that both the king and his kingdom were finished.

Why did these things happen? Daniel gives the answer: “Thereby the living will know that the most high is sovereign in the kingdom of men: he gives the kingdom to whom he will and he may set over it the humblest of mankind” (Daniel 4:17 NEB). Isaiah expresses God’s sovereignty over the nations of earth in these words: “Why, to him nations are but drops from a bucket … all nations dwindle to nothing before him.…” (Isaiah 40:15, 17 NEB).

No nation has ever become so great or powerful that God cannot bring it down; no nation is so small that God cannot raise it to a place of power if he chooses. God has promised to bless and exalt the nation that honors and obeys him (Psalm 33:12, Proverbs 14:34). He also promises to judge the nations that forget him (Psalm 9:17).

By the grace of God, America is a powerful and prosperous nation. But many things about America reflect a lack of gratitude to God or concern to obey him. Certainly this is an hour in which the people of America need to gather together to pray for their nation—to thank God for his goodness, to repent of the evils that exist, to affirm allegiance to the will of God, and to seek the wisdom and strength to know and do his will.

We call upon President Nixon to exercise the privilege given him by Congress to set aside an annual day of prayer. And we respectfully request that it be announced long enough in advance of the date so that there might be ample publicity and preparation for it. Only with the help of God can America be a nation worthy of honor, and only as America genuinely honors and obeys God can we expect his continued blessings. The alternatives are frightening.

Here, once again, is the fall book forecast, a preview of volumes to be issued by publishers within the next few months. No attempt has been made to evaluate the books because only the titles are now available to us. An asterisk indicates titles that the publishers considered especially significant. A (p) following the author’s name indicates that the book is appearing in paperback or that a worthwhile title that has been in hardback is now coming out in paperback. Out-of-print books that are being reissued may also be listed.

AESTHETICS, ARCHITECTURE, MUSIC

PRAEGER:The Great Church of the Middle Ages by P. Kidson. YALE UNIVERSITY:The Craft of Dying by N. Lee Beaty.

APOLOGETICS, PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE

BAKER:Science and the Bible by B. Davidheiser and Christian Philosophy in the Twentieth Century by A. F. Holmes (p). BETHANY FELLOWSHIP:The Puzzle of Seventh Day Adventism and Questions in the Cults by W. Martin and Suicide of Christian Theology by J. W. Montgomery. CONCORDIA:Genes, Genesis, and Evolution by J. W. Klotz. EERDMANS: *God in the Dock by C. S. Lewis and Apologetics by J. K. S. Reid (p). GOOD NEWS: *Witchcraft, Warlocks, Astrology, Demons by L. Dolphin, Jr. (p). HARPER & Row: Quattlebaum’s Truth by M. Gross. HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON:Bodies in Revolt by T. L. Hanna. INTER-VARSITY:Teilhard de Chardin: An Analysis and Assessment by D. G. Jones. LIPPINCOTT:The Promise of Teilhard by P. Hefner and The Promise of Reinhold Niebuhr by G. Fackre. MOODY:The Future Life by R. Pache (p) and Set Forth Your Case (p) and Sola Scriptura by C. Pinnock. PHILOSOPHICAL LIBRARY:The Creation of Death and Life by R. H. King. SCRIBNERS:Existence and Love by W. Sadler, Jr. (p), and Insearch: Psychology and Religion by J. Hillman. WESTMINSTER:The Strange Silence of the Bible in the Church by J. D. Smart (p) and God, Why Did You Do That? by F. Sontag. ZONDERVAN: * Biology: A Search for Order in Complexity by J. N. Moore and H. Slusher, Science Returns to God by J. H. Jauncey (p), and Encounter in a Non Christian Era by J. B. Sanderson.

ARCHAEOLOGY

BETHANY FELLOWSHIP: *The Search for Noah’s Ark by J. W. Montgomery. GOOD NEWS: *Noah’s Ark by P. Dumas. MOODY: *Man and His Culture by R. L. Harris.

BIBLE COMMENTARIES AND DICTIONARIES

EERDMANS:Hosea and Malachi by J. B. Taylor (p) and Matthew by F. F. Bruce (p). HERALD:Greek Verbal Parsing by E. S. Han. MOODY:I and II Peter by I. L. Jensen (p), Galations by H. F. Vos, and Thessalonian Epistles by D. E. Hiebert (p). PRENTICE-HALL:History of the Pentateuch by B. Anderson. SCRIBNERS:Dictionary of Comparative Religion edited by S. G. F. Brandon. TYNDALE:I and II Thessalonians by R. Wolff. WESTMINSTER:*The New Westminster Dictionary of the Bible edited by H. S. Gehman. ZONDERVAN:Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah by J. A. Alexander, Revelation: An Exposition by D. G. Barnhouse, Concordance to the Septuagint, The World on Trial—Romans by R. DeHan, Greek New Testament Slidaverb Conjugation Chart by D. A. Peterson, An Exposition of Daniel, Volume 2, by W. A. Criswell, I Corinthians by F. Godet, I, II, III John by W. C. Vaughan, and The Epistles of John by W. E. Vine (p).

BIBLICAL STUDIES, General

ABINGDON:International Lesson Annual, 1971 edited by H. R. Weaver, The Shape of the Gospel by M.R. Abbey, Young Readers Book of Bible Stories by H. Doss, and From the Apple to the Moon by A. Vallotton. BAKER:The Summarized Bible by K. L. Brooks. EERDMANS:Words and the Word by K. Hamilton (p). GOSPEL LIGHT:What’s God Been Doing All this Time? by D. Hubbard (p). HERDER AND HERDER:The Bible: History and Culture of a People by E. Lessing. INTER-VARSITY:The Book That Speaks for Itself by R. M. Horn. LIPPINCOTT:Revolt Against the Faithful: A Biblical Case for Inspiration as Encounter by R.S. Alley. WARNER:Tools for Bible Study by G. Ramsey, Sr. YALE UNIVERSITY: *The Pamplona Bibles by F. Bucher. ZONDERVAN:Does God Still Guide? by J. S. Baxter, Word Pictures from the Bible by E. M. Blaiklock, All the Animals of the Bible Lands by G. S. Cansdale, All the Children of the Bible by H. Lockyer, and Design for Discipleship by J. D. Pentecost.

BIBLICAL STUDIES, Old Testament

BAKER:The Birth of a Kingdom, Studies in I and II Samuel and I Kings by J. Davis, The Book of Isaiah by C. T. Francisco (p), and Ezekiel, Prophecy of Hope by A. W. Blackwood. DOUBLEDAY:Readings from the Old Testament by M. H. Bro and Esther by C. Moore. FORTRESS:The Covenant Formulary: In Old Testament, Jewish, and Early Christian Writings by K. Baltzer. HERALD:Biblical Theology, Volume 1, by C. K. Lehman. KREGEL:Interlinear Hebrew-English Old Testament (Genesis-Exodus) by B. George Ricker and *Christology of the Old Testament and the Commentary on the Messianic Prediction by E. W. Hengstenberg. LOIZEAUX:Living Courageously: A Devotional Study of the Book of Daniel by J. Allen Blair (p). MOODY:Daniel: The Key to Bible Prophecy by J. F. Walvoord. TYNDALE:Living History of Israel by K. Taylor. WESTMINSTER:Ezekiel, A Commentary by W. Eichrodt. ZONDERVAN:A Survey of Israel’s History by L. Wood.

BIBLICAL STUDIES, New Testament

BAKER:Better Living Through Christ: Studies in the Book of Hebrews by J. H. Schaal (p). BEACON HILL:The Apostles in Action by J. B. Bryan (p) and My Lord, the Carpenter by Etta Nommensen (p). CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY:The Spirit-Paraclete in the Gospel of John by G. Johnston and Johannine Christology and the Early Church by T. E. Pollard. DOUBLEDAY:A Reader’s Introduction to the New Testament by A. H. Leitch, New Testament History by F. F. Bruce, Life of Jesus by W. Stringfellow and A. Towne, and Matthew by W. F. Albright and C. S. Mann. EERDMANS:Apostolic History and the Gospel by W. Ward Gasque and R. P. Martin. FORTRESS:Reimarus: Fragments edited by C. Talbert (p) and The Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth by W. Marxsen. HARPER & Row: Jesus and the Revolutionaries by O. Cullmann, Was Jesus Married? by W. A. Phipps, Paul by G. Bornkamm, and Passionate Apostle by R. L. Rubenstein. HERDER AND HERDER:In Hope of God’s Glory by C. H. Giblin. INTER-VARSITY:The Tests of Faith by J. A. Motyer. KREGEL:The Training of the Twelve by A. B. Bruce. LIPPINCOTT:Learning to Live from the Acts by E. Price. LOIZEAUX:The Epistle to the Hebrews: From Ritual to Reality by W. MacDonald. SCRIBNERS:Execution of Jesus by W. Wilson. TIDINGS:A Study Guide on the Teachings of Jesus by M. Stokes (p). WESTMINSTER:God’s Young Church (p) and And Jesus Said (p) by W. Barclay and The Gospel of John, A Commentary by R. Bultmann. ZONDERVAN:A Shorter Life of Christ by D. Guthrie (p), Trial and Death of Jesus Christ by J. Stalker (p), and The Layman’s Parallel New Testament (KJV, RSV, Amplified, Living New Testament).

BIOGRAPHY

BAKER: *Wandering Wheels by J. Houston and *Raw Edge of Courage by L. Thompson. BANNER OF TRUTH TRUST: *George Whitefield by A. Dallimore. DOUBLEDAY:My Story by O. Roberts with W. A. Robinson, *Born to Lose, Bound to Win by A. A. Allen with W. Wagner, and A Second Birthday by W. Stringfellow. FORTRESS:Coretta: The Story of Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr., by O. Vivian. HARCOURT, BRACE AND WORLD:Luther by R. Friedenthal. HOUGHTON MIFFLIN: *A Hidden Wholeness: The Visual World of Thomas Merton by J. Howard Griffin and T. Merton. SEABURY:The Alphabet of Grace by F. Beuchner. SHEED AND WARD:The Jewish Jesus by R. Aron. TYNDALE:Unhurried Chase by B. Carlson and I Talked with Spirits by V. Ernest. ZONDERVAN:Shadow of the Almighty by E. Elliot (p), Pulpit in the Shadows by F. Gage (p), Please Don’t Strike That Match! by F. Johnston, His Stubborn Love by J. Landorf, Mamma Was a Missionary by C. Ludwig (p), Another Hand On Mine by W. J. Peterson (p), and Black and Free by T. Skinner (p).

CHURCH HISTORY

ABINGDON:The Organization of the United Methodist Church by J. M. Tuell. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY:The Mission of the Church and the Propagation of the Faith edited by G. J. Cuming. CONCORDIA:The Church in a Changing World by M. Fousek. DIAL:Luther at Worms by J. Pelikan and The Albigensian Crusade by J. R. Strayer. DOUBLEDAY:The Myth of Christian Beginnings: History’s Impact on Belief by R. L. Wilken, Organizing to Beat the Devil: Methodism in the Making of America by C. W. Ferguson, and The Last Days of Luther by M. Ebon. EERDMANS:The Spirit of the Reformed Tradition by M. Eugene Osterhaven. FORTRESS:The Christian in Society IV, Volume 47: Luther’s Works edited by F. Sherman, Saints and Sinners: Men and Ideas in the Early Church by K. Aland (p), and The Religion of the Republic edited by E. A. Smith. HARPER & Row: The Big Little School by R. W. Lynn and E. Wright. HERDER AND HERDER:Church History in Future Perspective edited by R. Aubert. JOHN KNOX:Reformation Views of Church History by G. Williams. MOODY:Historic Patterns of Church Growth by H. R. Cook. PRENTICE-HALL:Historical Protestantism:—A Historical Introduction to Protestant Theology by W. Scott. YALE UNIVERSITY:The Evangelical Mind and the New School Presbyterian Experience by G. M. Marsden. ZONDERVAN:Story of the Christian Church by J. L. Hurlbut and A History of the Expansion of Christianity, seven volumes, by K. S. Latourette (p).

DEVOTIONAL

ABINGDON:Advent: A Calendar of Devotions, 1970 by D. F. Nyberg and Calendar of Faith and Flowers by R. Ikerman. BAKER:Dynamic Devotionals for Men by W. J. Krutza and The Adventiure of Becoming Parents by L. O. Caldwell. BEACON HILL:Every Day with the Psalms by M. Taylor. BETHANY FELLOWSHIP:Like a Dove Descending by I. Macpherson. CHRISTIAN LITERATURE CRUSADE: *Marching Orders for the End Battle by C. Ten Boom (p), Pray in the Spirit by A. Wallis (p), and Invasion of Wales by the Spirit by J. A. Stewart (p). CHRISTIAN PUBLICATIONS: *God Tells a Man Who Cares by A. W. Tozer. CONCORDIA:It’s Me, O Lord by A. Springsteen and Lutheran Book of Prayer.DOUBLEDAY:Who Am I, God? by M. Holmes. EERDMANS:First Book of Daily Readings by M. Lloyd Jones (p) and Christopher Fry by S. Wiersma. FORTRESS:City and Country by H. and M. Brokering and Prayers: Alone/Together by S. Kloss. GOSPEL LIGHT:The Listener by H. S. Vigeveno (p). HARPER & Row: Begin a New Life by H. H. Bro, The Future of the Christian by E. Trueblood, and Our Many Selves by E. O’Connor. HERALD: *Now Is the Time to Love by J. M. Drescher, The House by the Side of the Road by H. G. Brenneman, and *Meditations of a Modern Disciple by J. M. Drescher. HERDER AND HERDER:Our Prayer by L. Evely, We Are Future by L. Boros, and Reflections by C. Rivers. INTER-VARSITY: Ten Great Freedoms by E. Long. TIDINGS:Nearby by H. Kohn (p). TYNDALE:Out of My Mind by J. Bayly and Bride’s Book of Ideas by M. Palmer and E. Bowman. WARNER:Get the Message? by D. Harman and I’ll Walk Tomorrow! by R. Winter. ZONDERVAN:Alone at High Noon by E. Cailliet, Still Higher for His Highest by O. Chambers, Our Daily Walk by F. B. Meyer (p), and A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by W. P. Keller.

DRAMA, FICTION, POETRY

BIBLICAL RESEARCH:Hodge Podge by C. B. Hodge. EERDMANS:William Faulkner by M. Jarrett-Kerr (p), Marching Orders by O. Hartman (p), The Blue Mountains of China by R. Wiebe (p), Celebration by T. J. Carlisle, John Steinbeck by J. C. Pratt (p), and Ezra Pound by M. Montgomery. FORTRESS:“What Are We Going to Do with All These Rotting Fish?” and Seven Other Short Plays for Church and Community edited by N. Habel (p). GOOD NEWS:Intrigue in the High Court by T. Parks (p). GOSPEL LIGHT:Kid Stuff by E. Doan (p). HARPER & Row: The Rainbow Box by J. Pintauro and N. Laliberte. HERALD:Freedom from Bondageby A. Armour (p), The Sons of Adam by O. Eby, Strong Tower by M. Wall, The Broken Chalice by M. S. Augsburger, Anita’s Choice and Christmas for Holly by D. Hamilton, The Beggar’s Bible by L. A. Vernon, and Broken Barriers by O. Winger. HERDER AND HERDER:Prayers, Poems and Songs by H. Oosterhuis. JOHN KNOX:For Magi, Shepherds, and Us by A. H. Carter and R. O. Hodgell. LIPPINCOTT: *Monk Dawson by P. P. Read. SEABURY:God at Large by C. Walsh and The Way of the Wolf by M. Bell. SHEED AND WARD:The Theatre of Pilgrimage by E. Ferlita. WESTMINSTER:The Weight of a Leaf by M. Scovel. ZONDERVAN:Dimensions of Christian Writing by A. D. Bell and J. Merill (p), Inspiring Poems edited by C. B. Eavey (p), Red Like Mine by Y. Lehmann, Behold a Pale Horse by J. Musser, A House Full of Strangers by E. Mitson, God, I Like You by S. E. Wirt and C. Anderson, and In His Steps by C. Sheldon.

ECUMENICS, INTER-FAITH DIALOGUE

DOUBLEDAY: *Protestant Power and the Coming Revolution by W. Oursler and The New Religions by J. Needleman. EERDMANS:Where Are We Headed? by J. Lever. FORTRESS:Beyond Hatred edited by G. Moir. INTER-VARSITY:Christ and Comparative Religion by J. N. D. Anderson. MCGILL-QUEENS UNIVERSITY:Essays on Islam and on Comparative Religion by W. C. Smith. SCRIBNERS:“I and Thou”: A New Translation by W. Kaufmann. WESTMINSTER:Buddhism in Transition by D. K. Swearer (p) and Bishops and People edited by L. and A. Swidler.

ETHICAL, SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND CULTURAL STUDIES

ABINGDON:Look at the Family Now by H. G. Werner, *The Christian Response to the Sexual Revolution by D. R. Mace, Ethics and the New Medicine by H. L. Smith, The Academic Mysteryhouse by R. M. Holmes, Community Mental Health edited by H. J. Clinebell, Jr., A Society Ordained by God by J. T. Johnson, and Karl Barth and the Problem of War by J. H. Yoder. BAKER:Teeth on Edge by R. O. Fife (p) and Holy Triangle by J. Nederhood (p). BETHANY FELLOWSHIP:The Christian Family by L. Christenson and Christianity for the Tough Minded by J. W. Montgomery. CONCORDIA: *The Christian Encounters Drugs and Drug Abuse by J. Cassens. DIAL:The Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America by M. E. Marty. EERDMANS:For Blacks Only by S. Tucker and Culture of Poverty by A. Winter (p). FORTRESS:Adam’s Fractured Rib by M. Ermarth (p) and Celluloid and Symbols edited by J. C. Cooper and C. Skrade. HARPER & Row: Buddhism and Society by M. E. Spiro, Vedanta by C. Johnson, Nun … Witch … Playmate by H. W. Richardson, Political Expectation by P. Tillich, Responsible Freedom by L. H. DeWolf, and Rapping and Tripping by A. Rose. HERALD:The City by V. Miller (p). HERDER AND HERDER:Dimensions of Spirituality edited by C. Duquoc. HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON:The Golden Core of Religion by A. Skutch. INTER-VARSITY:Please Help Me! Please Love Me!: A Christian View of Contraception by W. Trobisch, *Modern Art and the Death of a Culture by H. R. Rookmaaker, and *Your God Is Too White by C. Salley and T. Behm. JOHN KNOX:Fifty Key Words: Sociology edited by D. Martin (p), The Constructive Revolutionary: Calvin and His Socio-Economic Impact by W. F. Graham, and *Subduing the Cosmos: Cybernetics and Man’s Future by K. Vaux. LIPPINCOTT: *Reparations: The Black Manifesto and Its Challenge to White America by A. Schuchter, *A Black Theology of Liberation by J. H. Cone, *Black Preaching by H. H. Mitchell, Congress and Conscience edited by J. B. Anderson, *How Black Is the Gospel? by T. Skinner, and The Unequal Yoke by R. V. Pierard. PILGRIM:The Movement Toward a New America by M. Goodman (p), Atrocities in Vietnam by E. S. Herman (p), The Fragmented Layman by T. Campbell and Y. f*ckuyama, Making Sexuality Human by W. N. Pittenger, and *When All Else Fails: Christian Arguments on Violent Revolution edited by the International Documentation Center on the Contemporary Church. PRENTICE-HALL: *God’s New Israel: Religious Interpretations of American Destiny by C. Cherry. SCRIBNERS: *This Little Planet edited by M. Hamilton. SCRIPTURE PRESS:Facing Today’s Questions—A Symposium (p). SHEED AND WARD:The War Within: Violence or Non-Violence in the Black Revolution by J. R. Ross and The Unknown God by I. Racz. SIMON AND SCHUSTER:Ramakrisha and His Disciples by C. Isherwood (p) and A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom edited by W. Perry. TYNDALE:Pollution and the Death of Man by F. Schaeffer and Hidden Art by E. Schaeffer. WESTMINSTER:The Turn Right by J. C. Cooper (p), Crucial Problems in Christian Perspective by H. H. Barnette (p), Christian Freedom in a Permissive Society by J. A. T. Robinson (p), Of Love and Of Suffering by R. E. Fitch (p), Messengers from the Dead by I. Halperin, and Organ Transplants by C. Lyons (p). ZONDERVAN: *Between Two Worlds—A Congressman’s Choice by J. B. Anderson, Words of Revolution by T. Skinner, Shock It to Me Doctor! by A. D. Dennison, The Christian Way of Death by G. Hunt, Our Children Are Our Best Friends by M. W. Lee, and On Being a Wife and Loving It by P. Bard and M. Johnson.

LITURGY, WORSHIP

ABINGDON:Ventures in Worship 2 edited by D. J. Randolph. EERDMANS:More Contemporary Prayers by C. Micklem. HERALD:Christian Worship by M. Lind.

MISSIONS, EVANGELISM, CHURCH OUTREACH

ABINGDON:Way to Go, Baby! by G. Langevin. BAKER:The Missionary Manifesto: Expository Messages on the Great Commission by G. C. Morgan (p) and Apostles of Denial by E. Gruss. BANNER OF TRUTH TRUST:Today’s Gospel—Authentic or Synthetic by W. Chantry (p). CHRISTIAN LITERATURE CRUSADE:Jesus Family in Communist China by D. V. Rees (p). CONCORDIA:The Power of Pure Stewardship by C. W. Berner. EERDMANS:Evangelism in the Early Church by M. Green, A Brief History of Islam by H. Boer (p), Planting of the Church in South Africa by J. Sales (p), Profit for the Lord by W. Danker (p), Chosen and Sent by T. Eastman (p), Church Growth in Japan by N. Braun (p), and Church Growth in Argentina by A. W. Enns (p). FORTRESS:Call to Mission by S. Neill, *Physician to the Mayas by E. Barton, and Blood, Sweat, and Love by C. T. Uehling (p). HARPER & Row: One Way to Change the World by L. Ford and Have Faith Without Fear by K. Wilson. INTER-VARSITY:The Mark of the Christian and *The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century by F. Schaeffer, One People: Laymen and Clergy in God’s Church by J. R. W. Stott, and Student Power in World Evangelism by D. M. Howard. JOHN KNOX:World Mission and World Communism edited by G. Hoffmann and W. Wille (p). SEABURY:My God is Real by D. Watson (p). TIDINGS:Encountering Christ by R. Main (p). TYNDALE:Transformed by H. Kooiman and How to Start a Neighborhood Bible Study by Kunz and Schell. WESTMINSTER:Beyond Revolution by T. C. Oden (p). ZONDERVAN: *A New Face for the Church by L. O. Richards.

PASTORAL THEOLOGY (PREACHING, COUNSELING, CHURCH ADMINISTRATION)

ABINGDON:Death Is All Right by G. H. Asquith, The Reconstruction of the Church by E. S. Jones, To Pray and to Grow by F. S. Wuellner, Professional Growth for Clergymen edited by R. C. Leslie and E. H. Mudd, and The Minister as Marriage Counselor by C. W. Stewart. BAKER:Homiletical Studies in the Gospels by H. F. J. Ellingsen, The New Testament Image of the Ministry by W. T. Purkiser (p), The Public Worship of God by J. R. P. Sclater (p), Kind Words for Sad Hearts by A. Bolding (p), Blessed Are Ye by F. B. Meyer (p), A Treasury of Inspiration: Illustrations, Quotations, Poems, and Selections and Speaker’s Source Book of Stories, Illustrations, Epigrams and Quotations by H. V. Prochnow (p). BEACON HILL:Happiness and Harmony in Marriage by W. S. Deal (p), Which Way? by J. G. Swank (p), The Teen She by E. Sutton (p), and The Teen He by P. Miller (p). DOUBLEDAY:Your Religion: Healthy or Neurotic by G. C. Anderson. EERDMANS:Conquering the Fear of Death by S. Zodhiates. FORTRESS:Getting Along with Difficult People by F. Schmitt (p), New Dimensions in Pastoral Care by W. E. Oates (p), and Interpretation and Imagination: The Preacher and Contemporary Literature by C. Rice (p). HERDER AND HERDER:Structures of the Church edited by T. J. Urresti and Sex: A Book for Teenagers by C. Murphy and L. Day. JOHN KNOX:Sex and the Now Generation by S. N. Jones (p). KREGEL:The New Directory for Baptist Churches by E. T. Hiscox. PILGRIM:Let’s Plan by J. C. DeBoer (p) and The Church as Moral Decision-Maker by J. M. Gustafson. SHEED AND WARD:Pastoral Psychology: New Trends in Theory and Practice by C. A. Weber. SIMON AND SCHUSTER:Children and Parents by F. J. Sheen. TIDINGS: Wide Horizons by H. Kohn (p). TYNDALE:How to Raise Your Parents by G. McLean, Parents, What’s Your Problem? by M. Carter, and Dare to Discipline by J. Dobson. WESTMINSTER:The Responsible Suburban Church by G. B. Noyce, Suffering Man, Loving God by J. Martin (p), New or Old? by E. C. Colwell (p), and When Religion Gets Sick by W. E. Oates (p). ZONDERVAN:Counseling Christian Parents by W. S. Deal (p) and A Dictionary of Illustrations by J. C. Hefley.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

BAKER:Children and Discipline in the Sunday School by W. Goodman (p), Modern Object Lessons by J. H. Sargent (p), Effective Object Lessons by J. A. Schofield, Jr. (p), Get in the Game by E. B. Allen (p), Inspiring Devotional Programs for Women’s Groups by L. T. Ammerman (p), Please Plan a Program by A. Bolding (p), Treasury of Story Talks for All Occasions by M. G. Gosselink (p), Peloubet’s Select Notes for 1971 edited by W. M. Smith, Children’s Church Handbook by J. P. Sullivan (p), Successful Church Libraries by E. L. Towns and C. Barber (p), How to Organize a Board of Christian Education by E. L. Towns (p), and Quickie Quizzes from the Bible by C. Vander Meer (p). BEACON HILL:Equipment That Helps You Teach and Using Bulletin Boards Effectively by J. Wienecke (p). CONCORDIA:Say and Do Love by J. T. Nickel and W. Schmidt. DOUBLEDAY:Christ Is God’s Middle Name: Talks with Children About God by E. S. and E. H. Fox and For Instance … Current Insights, Anecdotes, Quotations, Questions for Teachers, Ministers, Speakers and Discussion Leaders by D. T. Kauffman. EERDMANS:For Sinners Only by J. Eppinga (p). FORTRESS:Christian Education in a Secular Society edited by G. K. Wiencke (p) and Journeys with Jesus and Paul by G. Wilk. INTER-VARSITY:Learning to Be a Man and Learning to Be a Woman by K. G. Smith. JOHN KNOX:Adventures in Christian Living and Learning, Part II edited by D. Monroe (p) and Church Kindergarten Resource Book by J. Newbury (p). LIGHT AND LIFE:Arnold’s Commentary on the International Sunday School Lessons, January 1971–August 1971.PILGRIM:Values for Tomorrow’s Children by J. H. Westerhoff and The Language Gap and God by R. C. Miller. PRINCETON UNIVERSITY:The Study of Religion in Colleges and Universities edited by P. Ramsey and J. F. Wilson. SHEED AND WARD:Can Catholic Schools Survive? by A. M. Greeley and W. E. Brown. TYNDALE: *Taylor’s Bible Story Book by K. Taylor. ZONDERVAN:Can You Tell Me? by D. Korfker (p).

SERMONS

BAKER:Practical Sermon Outlines by J. B. Brown (p), Evangelistic Sermon Outlines by C. M. Pentz (p), Select Sermon Outlines and Bible Readings by F. E. Marsh (p), Shalom! The Biblical Concept of “Peace” by D. J. Harris (p), Voice of the Turtle by C. R. Hembree, The Roads of God by J. W. May (p), Calvary’s Cross by D. L. Moody and others (p), Great Sermons on the Resurrection by A. MacLaren and others (p), Jesus and His Contemporaries: Biographical Preaching from the Gospel of John by E. F. Harrison (p), Paul’s Joy in Christ by A. T. Robertson (p), Prepare to Meet God by L. R. Scarborough (p), Expository Outlines from I and II Corinthians by K. Rendell, Expository Messages on the New Birth by H. A. Hoyt, A Treasury of Great Sermons on the Death of Christ by W. M. Smith (p), and Treasury of Dwight L. Moody (p). BEACON HILL:Eight Days of Glory by L. H. Woodson (p). BIBLICAL RESEARCH:Getting Involved with Christ by C. B. Hodge. CHRISTIAN PUBLICATIONS:The Tozer Pulpit, Volume 3: Ten Sermons from the Gospel of John edited by G. B. Smith. CONCORDIA:A Sick World and the Healing Christ by H. T. Lindemann and 1971 Concordia Pulpit.EERDMANS:Religion Without Wrappings by D. H. C. Read. KREGEL:Illustrated Bible Studies by F. E. Marsh and The First Things of Jesus by J. Reid. ZONDERVAN:Simple Sermons for Midweek Services by W. H. Ford.

THEOLOGY

ABINGDON:There’s No Other Way by E. A. Fitzgerald and What’s Good About God? by H. Rupert. ARLINGTON HOUSE:Christianity and the Class Struggle by H. O. J. Brown and The Gods of Atheism by V. P. Miceli. BAKER:Spiritual Growth by A. W. Pink. BANNER OF TRUTH TRUST:Historical Theology by W. Cunningham. BEACON HILL: *Healing the Hurt of Man by J. G. Gould. EERDMANS:Sin by G. C. Berkouwer, Tradition Old and New by F. F. Bruce, Secular Christianity and God Who Acts by R. J. Blaikie (p), and Introducing Jacques Ellul by J. Holloway. FORTRESS:Basic Questions in Theology, Volume 1, by W. Pannenberg, Death and Life by H. Thielicke, and The Drama and the Symbols by G. Aulen. HARPER &Row: Ascent of the Mountain, Flight of the Dove by M. Novak and *Hope and Planning by J. Moltmann. HERALD:The People of God by R. Bender. HERDER AND HERDER:Reality, Language and Belief by L. Dewart, Pentecost Spirituality by R. T. Laube, Sacramentum Verbi by J. B. Bauer, and Sacramentum Mundi, Volume 6, by K. Rahner. HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON:The Theology of Karl Barth by H. U. von Balthasar, The Star of Redemption by F. Rosenzweig, and Jesus and Israel by J. Isaac. INTER-VARSITY:The Living God by R. T. France. JOHN KNOX:Erasmus: His Theology of the Sacraments by J. B. Payne and Christ the Crisis by F. Gogarten. KREGEL:The Triple Knowledge by H. Hoeksema. LOIZEAUX:Divine Sovereignty and Human Freedom by S. Fisk and The Trinity: Is the Doctrine Biblical? Is It Necessary? by R. A. and F. D. Harris. PHILOSOPHICAL LIBRARY:Tillichian Theology and Educational Philosophy by S. E. Lo. PILGRIM:The Theology of H. Richard Niebuhr by L. Hoedemaker (p) and Lincoln’s Religion by W. J. Wolf (p). SCRIBNERS:Theology of the New Testament by R. Bultmann. SEABURY:Prayer and Modern Man by J. Ellul and Strange Victory by G. Ireson. SHEED AND WARD:Dogma III: God and His Christ by M. Schmaus. TIDINGS:Horizons of Hope by H. Hoekendijk. TYNDALE:Israel Today by R. Wolff. WESTMINSTER:The Theology of Altizer by J. B. Cobb, Jr., and The Opaqueness of God by D. O. Woodyard (p). ZONDERVAN:The Holy Spirit and His Gifts by J. O. Sanders (p), Things Which Become Sound Doctrine by J. D. Pentecost (p), The Lamp of Prophecy by H. A. Ironside (p), and Jesus—Human and Divine by H. D. McDonald (p).

The Hegelian dialectic, as applied to the historiography of the origins of Christianity, is, as Oscar Cullmann has said, a scientific dogma from which we should free ourselves. We will be able to do so in all honesty, however, only if we are able to give genuine substance to our affirmation of the distinctiveness of biblical revelation.

In almost all modern scholarship dealing with the origins of Christianity, there seems to be a general acceptance of the dialectical thesis of two trends in primitive Christianity—a Jewish Christianity of the earliest time, located in Palestine, and a Gentile Christianity of later development, located outside Palestine in the environment of Hellenism. Here the previously mentioned article by Oscar Cullmann (“A New Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel,” Expository Times, October, 1959, p. 8) supports the view that the Hegelian schematization is not satisfactory. In the Fourth Gospel, Cullmann states, there are incontestably Hellenistic elements but at the same time these are “closely related precisely to those Jewish and Jewish-Christian currents which we know particularly well, thanks to the recent discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Thus Hellenization did not arise as a later type of Christianity. Rather, any Hellenistic elements found in the New Testament must have coexisted with the origins of Palestinian Christianity, where Palestinian Judaism itself was not so hom*ogeneous as we are sometimes tempted to believe.

In replying to those who have relativized the biblical revelation by the thesis that the New Testament has been influenced by pagan cults, we need to remember the following points:

1. Definite information about the doctrines and rites of the pagan cults in New Testament times is scantier than we would like, no doubt because of the secrecy to which the initiated were bound. Although the influence of these cults was widely diffused through the Roman Empire, literature is scarce.

2. The problem of chronology remains. It is often impossible to say for certain whether particular mystery rites or beliefs were contemporaneous with early Christianity or emerged later. It is wrong, therefore, to assume that Christianity imitated the mystery religions, when the opposite could just as well have been true.

3. Whereas the history-of-religions school unearthed invaluable information about the times surrounding the early Christian Church, James Moffatt has a point when in Grace in the New Testament he shows how Reitzenstein and Bousset, in reading back the main doctrines of the mystery religions into first-century Christianity, were in fact “more ingenious than convincing.”

4. The history-of-religions school tended to relativize Christian revelation by finding countless parallels in the surrounding cults of that day, but that has not been the only approach to this study. In Sweden, in the works of Nathan Soderblom (1903) and Einar Billing (1907), these same comparative methods have been used, not to relativize Christian revelation, but to emphasize the distinctiveness of early Christianity over against the non-Christian religions.

What impresses one about the New Testament message is its distinctive originality and not its similarity to the mythology of the mystery religions contemporaneous with the primitive Church. Although Christianity emerged in an environment from which it inherited a language and thought-forms, the essential message of the Church, the “kerygma,” was in conflict with the spirit of its day (cf. 1 Cor. 1:22, 23). Whatever thought-forms it needed to use, in whatsoever language or culture, the apostles were intent that the message was not to be accommodated or changed (cf. Gal. 1:6–9). The words of the language they were called upon to use in the missionary situation of the Hellenistic world were themselves filled with the new wine of this distinctive message of resurrection (Acts 17:18–21, 32–34).

There is in the New Testament an unmistakable dislike for the popular myths of the day. The early Church found itself in lively conflict with the polytheistic and syncretistic outlook of its contemporary world. This is borne out from the record itself, for in each of the five instances where “myth” is used in the New Testament, it is used with utter contempt and disdain (cf. 1 Tim. 1:4; 4:7; 2 Tim. 4:4; Tit. 1:13, 14; 2 Pet. 1:16). In First Timothy 4:6, “myth” is contrasted with “the words of faith and of good doctrine,” by which was meant the proclamation of the historic facts of the resurrection glory of Christ, as related by apostolic eyewitnesses and not in terms of sophisticated myths (2 Pet. 1:16). Giovanni Miegge writes, “The attitude of the New Testament writings towards myth reflects the contemptuously critical judgment of the popular philosophy and the rational literature of the time” (Gospel and Myth in the Thought of Rudolf Bultmann).

Dean Inge points out that the early Christians refused to come to any terms with the accommodating spirits of the syncretistic religions (1 Cor. 8:5 ff.). The lowly man of Galilee raised to glory would tolerate no rivals, for he was none other than “the only-begotten God” (“God” is used in many reliable texts of John 1:18). The fact that the early Christians refused to come to terms with the religions of their day is evidenced in the great persecutions. What impressed the heathen world was not that the Christian religion was so like their own but that it was so distinctively different.

In his article on “Myth” in Kittel’s Theological Dictionary, Gustav Stählin is in keeping with the whole tone of the dictionary when he stresses, by means of careful philosophical study and comparison, the originality of the categories of the New Testament thought, in contrast with Hellenism and contemporary Judaism. Although the study of the Gentile world throws considerable light on the background of the primitive Christian Church and the setting of the New Testament, H. J. Cadbury concludes that there is a noticeable “absence of traceable Gentile religious influence in the New Testament.” To this J. S. Stewart adds, “It is hard to see why the twentieth century should force upon the first and second centuries parallels which they themselves would not have recognised. Even the syncretizing pagan recognised in Christianity a new thing on the earth” (Man in Christ).

As Dr. John R. Mott has so ably expressed it:

It is proved that the more open-minded, thorough and honest we were in dealing with these non-Christian faiths, and the more just and generous we were, the higher Christ loomed in His absolute uniqueness, sufficiency and supremacy—as One other than the rest, strong among the weak, erect among the fallen, believing among the faithless, clean among the defiled, living among the dead—the fountain-head of vitality, the world’s Redeemer and lord of all [International Review of Missions, Jan., 1931, p. 105].

Particularly important is the consistent way in which the New Testament endorsed its claims about Christ and the Gospel with direct reference to the Old Testament (cf. 1 Cor. 15:1–4).

Ethelbert Stauffer, in New Testament Theology, feels that the New Testament directs us along quite different lines from the conclusions of the history-of-religions school. He points out that although there are a few quotations from the Hellenistic literature in the New Testament, these are ornamental rather than fundamental. There are, furthermore, possible references to rabbinic literature and the Halacha and ideas characteristic of the Alexandrian Jew Philo. By contrast, however, the first thing that strikes one in the New Testament is the immense number of Old Testament quotations. The Old Testament is quoted as an authority of self-evident validity. Moreover, this appeal to the Old Testament grows rather than diminishes in the primitive Church.

What the New Testament writers read in the Old Testament became the starting-point for their own formulation of ideas. The Old Testament concepts of monotheism, creation, man, history, are all basic presuppositions that were accepted by contemporary Judaism and the Church alike. These became something already known and acknowledged, making Christ’s appearing to be in a very real sense “in the fullness of time.” Stauffer thus concludes that when theological concepts in the New Testament are not self-evident, we must turn first to the Old Testament to find their antecedents, and not to the heathen world.

The fact that the New Testament is dependent on the Old, while being a hermeneutical principle of basic importance, nevertheless raises the fundamental problem of semasiology.

Since the New Testament was written in Greek for people living in a Greek-speaking world, the reconstruction from the original Aramaic-speaking Palestinian situation and idiom in which Jesus lived must present problems. Undoubtedly the discovery of the Papyri has shed light on the interpretation of the New Testament. But such philological discoveries must be viewed in perspective, as one takes cognizance not only of the usage of the Greek and the Hellenistic world to which the message was addressed but also of the source of the message within the Hebrew-Aramaic context from which it came.

The real problem is how the Hebraic concepts could possibly be recast into Greek words and yet retain their original sense and meaning. Thorlief Boman deals with the problem of the Hebraic and Greek thought-forms in the New Testament in “The Problem of Ontology” (Current Issues in New Testament Interpretation, edited by W. Klassen and G. F. Snyder). He approaches the problem by looking at the two thought-patterns from a number of different angles:

1. Hebrews experienced the world through listening, whereas the Greeks did so through seeing.

2. Hebraic thought was dynamic, with the world in a state of movement in which God and man are active; the Greek thinking was static, with the search for Immutable Being.

3. The Hebrews lived in Time, with Space sinister; as the Greeks lived in Space in which Time was negative.

4. The Hebrew conceived of existence in terms of History; the Greeks considered existence as Nature.

5. Hebrew imagery was functional, instrumental, nonvisual; Greek imagery was optical and perceptible.

6. Hebrew thought was pragmatic, whereas Greek thought was idealistic.

To this one could add that the Hebrew conceived of knowledge in terms of morality, while the Greek viewed knowledge in terms of intellectualism.

It becames clear, then, that concepts and thought-forms of Hebrew and Greek mentalities are incommensurable and to a point contradictory. The dynamic way of thinking in Hebraic thought must have been difficult to comprehend from the Greek point of view. A classic example of this is found in “Dialogue Theatetus,” where Plato openly declared that he could not understand the teaching of Heracl*tus of Ephesus and that it would be necessary to invent a new language to express that teaching correctly. Notwithstanding these logically irreconcilable realms dividing the two languages, Cullmann’s point seems valid when he says that Hebraic thinking and Hellenistic thinking were already in collision at the beginning of Christianity, and not merely in the later ecclesiastical constructions of the New Testament writings and dogma, in which “hellenization” represents a decline from a pure, original Christianity. Boman agrees that the interplay of Hebrew and Greek is very early.

The Septuagint, in which we have the first comprehensive attempt at expressing Hebraic ideas through the medium of Greek words and formulas, seems helpful and important in this discussion. Like Judaism in its translation of the Old Testament, Christianity in its Semitic setting was committed in its missionary program to translate its message from one world into another. This would explain why the Christian writers accepted the Septuagint, for here they found that their work had in part already been done for them. Here was a translation in which the faith of the Old Testament had already been expressed in the Greek.

Their real problem was a missionary one, not unlike the task of Bible translation in our own day. Dr. Eugene A. Nida has pointed out that often a literal translation of the Bible into a heathen tongue conveys an entirely different meaning to the hearers than is intended. Thus a word in the idiom of the people must be introduced in order to convey the true meaning of the message at its very source. Although Greek ideas, words, and idioms were employed to convey the message, what is important is that during the period of the interplay of Hebrew and Greek thought, the Greek words were themselves filled with new theologicial intent, under the influence of the theological concepts embodied in the Hebrew words they were intended to represent. Thus, for example, hilaskesthai, normally used of man’s act in appeasing a god in the Hellenistic environment, already in the Septuagint was employed to represent kipper, in the sense of God’s act of expiation, in the Hebrew context. The translation had to convey the message as understood at its source.

All this is important, for it endorses the contention that the pursuit of the Hegelian dialectic is both false and unprofitable. The basic thesis is that the Hellenization of the message meant the departure from the original message. This the New Testament Church would surely not have tolerated.

Also important is the fact that the original gospel tradition did not arise merely in the mission preaching or in the communal instruction of the primitive Church. The Gospel is sui generis and has its sitz im leben in Jesus himself.

This thesis cuts clean across the Hegelian dialectic schematization. Bultmann, not unlike Wrede, contends that Jesus by no means considered himself as one with a unique divine commission. Bultmann’s study of the so-called forms in which the gospel traditions were handed down orally, before they were stabilized in writing in the Gospels as we have them today, led him to deep misgivings about the historicity of their content. These, he argued, presented Jesus not so much as he was but as the primitive Church came to believe him to be. It was a record of the faith of the Church rather than the facts of history.

This point of view has been challenged of late by Professor Harald Riesenfeld of Uppsala, in his study in the limits of Formgeschichte (The Gospel Tradition and Its Beginning). Riesenfeld’s thesis is that the gospel tradition originates in Jesus himself, and not merely in the Church’s understanding of him. It is the historical link between the Jesus of history and the proclamation of the Gospel by the Church that is missing in Bultmann’s approach. Riesenfeld points out that Jesus was a teacher, especially in his relation to his disciples. He gave them instruction, and in this we are reminded mutatis mutandis of the method of the Jewish rabbis. This implies that he taught his disciples, “and furthermore that he made them learn by heart.” Thus the apostles had a distinctive part in the transmission of the Gospel, which had its origin in Jesus himself. Birger Gerhardsson has substantiated this point of view (Memory and Manuscript).

Here we agree with Oscar Cullmann, who states: “An essential characteristic of the early Church’s faith in Christ was its conviction that Jesus believed Himself to be the divine Son of Man, the Servant of God.… The early Church believed in Christ’s messiahship only because it believed that Jesus believed Himself to be the Messiah. In this respect Bultmann’s faith in Christ is fundamentally different from that of the early Church” (The Christology of the New Testament), and again, “Jesus Himself, not the early Church, is the Source of the command to proclaim him the Messiah.” There is no reason why we should not believe that Jesus is the Messiah and thus share the convictions of the early Church, which have their origin in Jesus himself. The only thing to prevent us is our choosing to remain within the system of the Hegelian dialectic. But how could the primitive Church possibly have had a greater consciousness of Christ than Christ who gave it that consciousness?

An alternative to the Hegelian dialectic in biblical studies enables one to develop a method of addressing theological enquiry to the whole Bible, the Bible as a whole. Wingren has said that apart from the two exegetical systems of Old and New Testament “there ought to be a method of enquiry in which the Old and New Testaments are read together under the presupposition that there is a common factor expressed in both the ‘testaments,’ and therefore in the Bible (Creation and Law). This enables us to expound Scripture as a whole, without having to use one set of hermeneutical principles for the Old Testament and another for the New.

The real task of theology will not be a radical recasting of the fundamental categories of the Scriptures, as some urge on the grounds that our age cannot accept these categories. Granted, there must be a firm reiteration of the message of the Gospel in such a way that men will be able to understand it. But we need to remember that even in New Testament times this message was a “stumbling block” and “foolishness” to those who would not believe. If we break away from the underlying idea of the Hegelian dialectic, we will come to realize that if modern philosophical language cannot accept the word of Scripture, we are in no position to change the message to accommodate the spirit of the age. As Helmut Thielicke has said, where modern thinking is a revolt against God, then “even the terminology of the modern myths must make an act of repentance if it is to become a suitable vehicle for the kerygma.”

The problem may not always be that men do not understand the categories or the message; it may be that they choose not to know it. If Reinhold Niebuhr’s analysis is true, if there is in our time “a pride of power … which does not recognize the contingent and dependent character of its life and believes itself to be the author of its own existence, the judge of its own values, and the master of its own destiny” (The Nature and Destiny of Man), then we must accept the fact that this message will not always be acceptable.

The preaching of the Cross and the Resurrection was not acceptable in its original setting, nor has it been acceptable in any age where men chose not to believe. We must glory in the message itself, and may it please God through the preaching of this Word to save those who believe.

An Open Letter To Linda Kasabian

DEAR LINDA,

All I know about you is what I read in the papers of your testimony at the Sharon Tate murder trials. But I felt I just had to write. You’ve been in the public eye so much lately that I suppose it’s only natural that you’ve been on my mind.

Whatever else the long testimony about your teen years, about life with Charlie Manson and his “family,” and about the grisly murders at the actress’s mansion a year ago reveals, it shows that you are an impressionable young woman who has been seeking—desperately—to find the meaning of life and who you are. And to find God.

Truly, you’ve searched almost everywhere. You’ve tried drugs, sex, marriage, motherhood, “hip” philosophy, even brutality. And if your testimony can be believed (I for one am inclined to accept it), somewhere along the line you realized that none of these routes was leading you to the peace and fulfillment you craved.

Like you, I believe in visions. If you now believe you are an emissary from God sent to tell the world that Manson isn’t the Christ you once thought he was—but rather, “the devil” and a “false prophet,” then that latter vision is nearer the truth than the former one. Charlie talked about love, but he made you afraid. Perfect love, says the Bible, casts out fear. Charlie used to say, “Never ask why.” The Scriptures tell us “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Now you are free, physically, because you were the state’s star witness in a sensational trial that has gripped the nation for weeks. But you will be free—really free—from the bondage of sin, when you know the Truth. I want to tell you about that Truth, Linda—you and the many young people today who are trying to turn on to reality in a myriad myopic ways. You were close when you were “into the Jesus thing.” But the way to God isn’t through pills or pot, however pleasant the euphoric illusion. And it isn’t through a wild-eyed mystic who preaches love but practices hate, even if he does wear the long hair and beard often associated with the One with whom you confused him.

The Truth is Jesus Christ. Oh, you won’t find him in some head shop. And, like so many of your generation, you may have trouble finding him in a stained-glass sanctuary. You can learn about him in the Bible. He is alive and well, living in the the hearts of thousands who acknowledge him as Lord. He loves you with an eternal, undying love. He’s already at work in your heart. The tug you’ve been feeling is the Holy Spirit, telling you God wants you to be a member of his family. Christ wants your love in return. The moment you confess your sins to Christ, God will forgive you. Christ died for your sins, Linda—and mine. He can forgive the most heinous ones as easily as those “respectable” sins of “good church people.”

Charlie Manson was afraid of people with a different skin color, and he is charged with killing seven persons to start a race riot. Jesus Christ loved all men so much that he gave his life that everyone who believes in him may live forever.

There’s a choice of heroes, Linda. You decide. And when you’re free to do so, please help other young people to find the real Jesus Christ. He’s closer than they think!

In His love,

RUSSELL CHANDLER

If I have been walking closely with the Lord Jesus Christ, if I have been giving top priority to “the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” if I have been praying sincerely, “Thy will be done,” then I am a student at this college not primarily because I chose to come here but because God chose to have me do so.

God is sovereign. This means that he is at work in the affairs of men. In my affairs. He has a plan for my life, and that plan includes the college I am to attend. “He doeth according to his will … among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand.”

God’s plan is very complex; no human mind can begin to comprehend it all. We know, however, that it calls for the participation of human beings. The Bible suggests several aspects of the answer to my question, “Why am I at this school?”

For one thing, I am at this school because the Lord desires to receive a product to which he is entitled. He wants a fair return on his investment in this world. Recall Isaiah 5:1–7 and the analogy with the vineyard: God, the vineyard planter, is entitled to an abundant harvest of high quality.

Second, college provides a good milieu for God to work on me; like an artisan with crude material, he chisels and molds a personality that will be conformed to the image of his Son. As he goes about this business of making me like Jesus Christ, he will send a variety of experiences my way and expose me to diverse situations and people. There will be discouraging periods to strengthen my faithfulness, irritating situations to develop my patience, sorrows to help me lean on him for comfort, defeats to smash my pride, joys to remind me that all good things in life are from his hand.

But whatever comes my way this year, may I remember that if I am the Lord’s then everything fits into his purpose for my life. All things work together to fit into a plan for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Molding this raw material into the product of God’s design takes tune. His Holy Spirit does the work gradually (2 Cor. 3:18), and college years can be part of that process.

Third, God’s plan calls for me to be on this specific campus this year so that he can use me to help other Christians on campus—Christians who can be encouraged by my fellowship, supported by my prayers, comforted by my sympathy, strengthened by my association, and taught by my example and by my speaking, if I have that gift. May I keep my eyes open for at least one other Christian to join in reading God’s Word and praying, as we seek to become “rooted and built up in him and established in the faith” (Col. 2:7).

From the college component of God’s world at the present time, he apparently is receiving very little. There are two types of product he should be receiving: characters that are righteous and deeds that are good. We are tempted to examine our situations primarily from the perspective of “What do I get out of it?” The Bible teaches that we do well to ask, “What does God get out of it?” Numbers 28:1–8 describes the purpose of the continual burnt offering (which was the most frequent of the many types of offerings) as providing the Lord with a sweet-smelling savor. Hebrews 13:15 talks about our continual offering of praise to God. Applying these two passages to the question of the moment suggests that one reason I am in college is to produce good works as my offering to him—to bring him pleasure.

What are some of the qualities of life that will delight him? Honesty, integrity, truth, attention to his Word, diligent study in my classes, concern for the welfare of other people, service to the underprivileged (i.e., applying Luke 10:37 to those suffering from forces beyond their control). This is all part of loving him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving other people as much as I love myself.

God is entitled to receive such products from every part of his creation—including the college world. One reason he has placed me at this school is to be at least one branch that can bear good fruit in the college portion of his great vineyard.

Fourth, God will use me as a witness to non-believers. This college is a mission field. From here will go some of the future social, cultural, political, and economic leaders of our country and possibly some foreign countries. The college population of the United States and Canada now numbers several million, and includes thousands—both students and faculty—who are searching for purpose in life. Christians are convinced that they are hungry for the Bread of Life, for God himself as revealed in Jesus Christ.

Churches have a hard time getting through to college students. But they can be reached by Christian colleagues. This is where I might come in. The Lord may be calling me to serve on campus for a few years as a student who knows Jesus Christ in the midst of other students, a few of whom are yearning to know him. Early in the semester, I’ll write on my prayer list the name of at least one student, maybe a roommate or classmate, who does not claim to know Jesus Christ. I might add at least one of my professors also; profound as his knowledge may be in his academic field, if he isn’t personally related to Jesus Christ he is in spiritual darkness. Jesus said we are to be the “light of the world,” transmitters of his own spirit to a world in darkness. As a Christian student, I should take as my number-one priority for evangelism fellow students, my peers. The Lord uses students to bring other students to himself.

Fifth, I’m at this school this year to serve as one of the dwelling places for God’s spirit at this institution. Even if God is neglected in the classroom and in the rest of college life, the Holy Spirit is still here. May I be one of his residential points in this student body.—John W. Alexander, general director, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, Chicago, Illinois.