Dr. L. Nelson Bell, Executive Editor ofCHRISTIANITY TODAY, spent 12 days in Korea last month as an official representative of the Board of World Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. Dr. Bell, a member of the board, along with Dr. S. Hugh Bradley, its Far East secretary, was commissioned to make the trip at the urgent request of his church’s Korean Mission to try to effect a reconciliation between rival factions of the Presbyterian Church in Korea. Dr. Bell said upon his return that such a reconciliation may be in the making. Here is his report:
Presbyterian church circles in America have been distressed over the growing crisis which has been developing within the Korean Presbyterian Church during the past year or more and which culminated in the adjournment of the Taejon General Assembly September 26. After three days of hopeless wrangling, the assembly had split. One faction reconstituted an assembly the following day and the other met separately two months later. Each claimed to be the legal assembly.
The cause of this split has been widely publicized in some circles in America as a struggle between conservative and liberal theological forces resulting from a basic departure from the faith by some missionaries now working in Korea.
I do not believe the basic problem to be doctrinal.
There is probably no church in the world more conservative in theology than the Korean Presbyterian Church. Presbyterian missionaries in Korea, moreover, have for generations been as one in their allegiance to the historic evangelical faith. They have just reaffirmed their conservative theology on the basis of the doctrinal statement signed by the board and trustees at Pyengyang Theological Seminary in 1920.
To this statement, which conforms to the Westminster Confession of Faith, these missionaries have added the following statement:
“It is our deep concern that faith in these historic affirmations be translated into consistent Christian living, for Christianity is not only faith in the Person and Work of Christ, but also a way of life proceeding from this faith, in which Christ has the pre-eminence in our personal lives and our relationship with others.”
What then is the issue, and why this serious schism?
I have been a member of a special team sent to Korea to seek the answers and to see if issues could be resolved. I participated in a number of meetings with representatives of the rival factions.
After some days, representatives of both sides were brought together. They unanimously agreed that a reuniting of the divided assembly is imperative. They set up a committee to issue a joint statement and proceeded to arrange dates for subsequent meetings to carry out plans for restoring broken bonds.
Because of this much-prayed-for development, to now go into some of the personalities involved and into some of the internal issues having to do with honesty and truthfulness (or the lack of it) would at this stage contribute nothing to help the situation and could well hinder the mediatorial and remedial efforts now in effect.
At the same time, because a very small minority group saw fit to invite Dr. Carl McIntire and a few followers to Korea to fan the flames of unrest and uncertainty and in so doing to widen the breach in the church, it seems imperative that the record be set straight for those who wish to know the facts.
For years the Korean Presbyterian Church has been a member of the World Council of Churches. Beginning more than a year ago the Koreans were told that the council is pro-Communist, and that it is dedicated to the spread of liberal theology and to establishment of a world church. Membership in the WCC makes a church pro-Communist, they were told, and any individual who defends membership in the WCC becomes a part of the world conspiracy and a part of the modernist apparatus.
In a land which has suffered so bitterly at the hands of Communists, where hundreds of ministers and tens of thousands of Christians have been martyred for their faith, such allegations and attributing of guilt by association become matters of deepest concern, even of life and death itself.
Because of wild assertions by McIntire and his followers the Korean Presbyterian Church (bitterly anti-Communist in attitude) is right now being subjected to police scrutiny in some areas.
It seems that a small splinter of hardcore extremists will reject reunification. This can prove a blessing. But, if misguided friends in America contribute funds to enable them to carry on their work, it will be like pouring oil on flames. The recipients of this money may use it, not to “defend the faith,” but to further their personal plans.
In Korea the recommendation of the Cleveland Study Conference that Red China be admitted to the United Nations and that it be given diplomatic recognition by the United States was an infuriating suggestion. Many of us agree. But this action of the Cleveland group has been attributed to the World Council in Korea, with resulting confusion and deep resentment.
I left Korea greatly encouraged, however. Men of genuine Christian spirit and with a love for their church are joining those from both factions to bring them together. For the sake of unity, those who have favored the WCC have readily agreed that the church should withdraw from it. But they have insisted that untrue accusations against the WCC be refuted.
Leaders of the women’s work in the church, and of the youth and Sunday School departments, are eager to see a reconciliation. A growing number of “neutrals” are pressing for accord as well.
There is a great spirit of prayer abroad. There are individuals who must repent and some may find it necessary to submit to discipline, although in a reunited church true revival will bring its own disciplinary action. The seminary, at the very “heart” of the church, must be reunited also. Many difficult tasks need to be faced.
The Korean church was born in a revival. From 1903 until 1907 there was such a mighty work of the Holy Spirit in the land that the entire Christian world was stirred. Down through the years, moreover, the church has been known for spiritual fervor and evangelistic zeal. But no church has suffered so, from wars, oppression, and—in some ways the most difficult of all—the demoralization which has come with liberation in the South. There have been the postwar problems of love for money, lowered moral and spiritual standards, and a seemingly abnormal desire for ecclesiastical position and power on the part of some.
But evident today is a deep sense of need, of repentance, and of prayer which can bring this great church her greatest and most fruitful period of service.
Nothing can contribute more to this happy outcome than the prayers of God’s people in America. In some measure the outcome rests in the hands of Christians in the homeland who pray for these brothers in Christ, for a cleansing and empowering work of the Holy Spirit in Korea today.
Decade of Destiny
The turning point in the life of singer Bill Carle came in 1950 when he knelt at a chair in the Los Angeles office of Youth for Christ International. Soon after his conversion, Carle, whose show business background was climaxed with a Metropolitan Opera contract offer, was singing from sacred scores which appealed to Christian teen-agers from coast to coast.
“In school after school,” he observed, “I’ve noticed a lack of interest in the cause of freedom and a lack of concern for the great spiritual truths that the founding fathers wrote into our American way of life.”
The basso’s answer was to propose the gathering together in the nation’s capital of many thousands of Christian teen-agers. The idea would be not only to provide the cream of American youth with new inspiration and fresh challenge, but to dramatize for them their spiritual heritage and to demonstrate to the American public that the finest U. S. teen-agers are those who are dedicated Christians.
Last month Carle saw his dream come true before a capacity audience at the cavernous National Guard Armory in Washington. Stepping to the rostrum to welcome 9,300 registered delegates to the “Capital Teen Convention” was Dr. Roy McKeown, executive director of the convention and the man who as head of Los Angeles Youth for Christ had counseled Carle 10 years ago.
The three-day conclave, most ambitious undertaking in YFCI’s 15-year history, brought teen-agers from 48 states and 13 countries. For many the trip to Washington had been prefaced by long days and nights of car-washing, lawn-mowing, and baby-sitting as each raised his fare (those from the West Coast paid as much as $180 to attend).
Among registrants were 45 teen-agers from the hamlet of Wishram, Washington, which only has 300 young people in the entire town.
YFCI officials owed much local enthusiasm for the convention to directors of 400 Saturday night rallies held regularly not only on a small scale in hamlets like Wishram but before audiences of 1,500–2,000 and more in cities such as Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. The YFCI ministry which specializes in teen-age evangelism is currently active in 45 countries. (See “Has ‘Youth for Christ’ Grown Up” in the August 31, 1959, issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY.)
YFCI President Ted Engstrom, Taylor University graduate in journalism and a layman, keynoted the convention by tabbing the sixties as a “decade of destiny.”
“The answer to the world’s needs,” he said, “lies with you teen-agers.”
Vice President and Mrs. Richard M. Nixon had been listed as official “host and hostess” for the convention, but neither appeared. Nixon instead called upon Arthur S. Flemming, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to pinch-hit for him. Flemming delivered a 20-minute address as part of the convention’s “You and Your Country” day observance. His participation ruffled some evangelical tempers, for Flemming is viewed as “furthest on the left” in the Eisenhower cabinet.
A speech by President Bob Pierce of World Vision climaxed the second day’s activities which revolved on “You and Your World.”
Billy Graham, who started his evangelistic career with Youth for Christ as its first full-time, paid employee in 1945, concluded the convention with a challenge pegged on the third-day theme, “You and Your Tomorrow.”
Gospel Films, a YFCI affiliate, premiered “Monkey Business,” a 50-minute color production which seeks dramatically to counter the teaching of atheistic evolution.
The convention, though plagued by rain, was a remarkable achievement in logistics. Caterers served 80,000 meals in the armory in two and a half days. The youthful delegates were transported in 200 buses to and from their 25 hotels and on carefully-planned tours of the capital area. Much of the behind-the-scenes preparation was attributable to U. S. Senator Frank Carlson of Kansas, convention chairman, rally director Chuck Harwood (a New England sales executive for Heinz food packers) whose Northern Virginia Youth for Christ was host; and Danny Thomas, Los Angeles area motel operator who assisted in planning.
Washington residents, accustomed to trouble when high school parties converge on the capital in the spring, were unable to link a single unpleasantry with the YFCI conclave.
Some evangelical observers were uneasy over the jazzy overtones which pervaded much of the convention music. They praised the quality of the performers, coordinated under the able young hand of Thurlow Spurr, but challenged the tendency toward chord arrangements which seemed more appropriate to a night club.
McKeown predicted in dismissing the convention that “right now we are on the threshold of a world-wide teen revival.”
Engstrom tentatively announced that another “Capital Teen Convention” would be held in four years to reach a new crop of Christian high school students.
‘Frontier Forums’
Some 3,000 students from more than 100 countries assembled in Athens, Ohio, December 27-January 2, under the banner of the National Student Christian Federation. Their chief concern was social issues.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., took the occasion to announce plans for enlisting youth in a new “non-violent movement across the South” to promote integration.
King said the movement will utilize boycotts and “other means of non-cooperation,” though “just where and when I can’t say.”
Churches should “teach a world view,” he declared, “so that men realize we are engaged in a world struggle to make men spiritually one,” and “make it clear that racial segregation is morally evil.”
The assembly was the 18th in a quadrennial series heretofore sponsored by the Student Volunteer Movement. The new sponsor, the National Student Christian Federation, is related administratively to the National Council of Churches’ Division of Christian Education and was formed last year out of a merger between the SVM, the United Student Christian Council and Inter-Seminary Movement.
Featured in the seven-day meeting were “frontier forums” dealing with such topics as “new patterns of obedience in mission,” militant non-Christian faiths, new nationalisms, racial tensions, technological upheaval, communism and modern secularism.
‘Today’ in Boston
The Christmas morning service at Boston’s Park Street Church reached into millions of American homes. The service at the church, which is observing its 150th anniversary, was picked up live for transmission coast-to-coast as part of Dave Garroway’s “Today” program.
“Christ’s perfect life and sacrificial death on the cross procured redemption for you,” said Dr. Harold J. Ockenga, pastor, “fulfilling what the angel declared, ‘Thou shalt call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins.’
“This Christ will dwell in you when you believe on and receive him as your Saviour. Then the full experience of the Christmas message, ‘Peace on earth, good will to men.’ will be yours.”
