Love That Soap
Thomas Babington Macaulay is responsible for these famous words: “The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.”
Spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and perhaps it takes a Puritan to know one; in any case, it takes a special kind of sympathy to appreciate the Puritan. Perry of Harvard has a wonderful book called Puritanism and Democracy which everyone should read before starting any outcries against “legalism” and “moralism” and “Pharisaism.” The Puritans built iron into the American way of life, and in so doing they were not exactly “reeds shaken by the wind.” Perry appreciates the ordered thrill the Puritan had when he “did the right thing.” His exercise in personal discipline gave him something of the same pleasure a man gets when he knocks a few seconds off the two-mile run.
The best thing to do with Macaulay’s word is to accept it and then glory in it. “The Puritan hated bear-baiting because it gave pleasure to the spectators.” Exactly. If he had any love for humanity at all and any sensitivity in spiritual things, he would find intolerable the disintegration that takes place in people when they enjoy cruelty. The Puritan had something that needs to be hammered back into our beloved American Way. Must we not condemn again the things that give the wrong kinds of pleasure for the wrong kinds of reasons? The Madison Avenue boys even want us to love soap and hair sprays.
The Holy Spirit of God is called the Spirit of Truth, and we are urged above measure to abide in the Truth. This is just not a live option among many interesting possibilities; the Puritans were right. There are things both false and cruel which we ought to learn to hate just because they do give some people pleasure.
EUTYCHUS II
The Holy Scriptures
You have done the cause of evangelical Christianity in our generation an invaluable service in reviewing and replying to Dewey Beegle’s book, “The Inspiration of Scripture” (April 26 issue). Many will attack you for it, but other thousands of us are deeply grateful to you for your fearless and scholarly stand for the integrity of God’s Word written.
California Lutheran Bible School
Los Angeles, Calif.
Congratulations on the way you handled Beegle’s position that the Bible is fallible. Frank but fair, your review and analysis of this old attack on the high view of the Bible’s inspiration was a first-rate job. Everyone who considers this issue should carefully study what you and others of like persuasion have written before jumping on the theological train whose destination is skepticism.
Church of Christ
Sikeston, Mo.
Why all the fuss about verbal inspiration? I’ve never met an ecumenist or liberal who didn’t believe in the verbal inspiration of “that they all may be one” (John 15:21).
First Presbyterian Church
Orange, N.J.
Overstating the quality of inspiration is a common evangelical failure, and understating it is a common liberal failure. The Scripture does not teach the absolute inerrancy of the autographs, nor mere sufficiency of errant extant Scriptures, but it does teach the practical religious inerrancy of extant Scriptures.
First Baptist Church
London, Ky.
That is the great issue that faces the churches today as it has faced the Christian church ever since the time of crass rationalism. Whatever CHRISTIANITY TODAY can do to make ministers and laymen see the Bible as God’s inspired, divine Word and so as the only source and norm of faith and life will make it a blessing for the present and the future.
Concordia Seminary
St. Louis, Mo.
I pray that CHRISTIANITY TODAY will continue to provide such painstaking articles in this day of theological drowsiness.
Editor
Moody Student
Chicago, Ill.
Since Dr. Beegle holds elder’s orders in this denomination it is with some distress that we learn of his repudiation of scriptural inerrancy, especially in view of his scholarly reputation.… This defection is most deplorable and should be lamented by all evangelical scholars as a tragedy rather than acclaimed and sensationalized.
First Free Methodist Church
Lockport, N.Y.
Upon reading your review … it occurs to me that Dr. Beegle is writing for the wrong cause. Since he advocates a wholesale removal of books from our Protestant Bible, he reminds me of an Orthodox Jew. Since he wishes us to add apocryphal books and “traditional” hymns, he reminds me of a Roman Catholic.
Lansdale, Pa.
My appreciation to you for your article reviewing Dewey Beegle’s book. For a young evangelical facing a Ph.D. program … and wrestling with the problems of inspiration, that was a fine help.
First Baptist Church
Thornbury, Ont.
Salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ, and is not dependent upon an impossible conception of the inspiration of the Scriptures. The Bible is God’s word to me, but it simply is not all verbally inspired by God. It has its human aspects and that means imperfection in spots.
St. Paul’s Evangelical and Reformed
Evansville, Ind.
Why all the fuss over biblical inspiration?… Let’s have less “rhetorical profuseness” over an issue that should have been dead and buried long ago. You might even give us a few more “Beegle samplers”!
Chaplain
The School of the Ozarks
Point Lookout, Mo.
The four-pronged attack upon Beegle’s loose stand will be quite helpful to crystallize some issues for evangelical thinking.
Gordon Divinity School
Beverly Farms, Mass.
What we see today are only seeds sown. It is in the next generation that the full fruit of this position becomes obvious. Then it is too late to do anything about it.
Gen. Sec.
International Fellowship of Evangelical Students
Lausanne, Switzerland
The doctrine of biblical inerrancy is dead—when will you take the corpse and bury it and face honestly what you must face? Rather than spend your time in clever rationalization to prove what cannot be proven, face the problem which has to be faced—the authority of Scripture in the light of an errant text.
Christ United Presbyterian Church
Mars, Pa.
I understand your concern for the Gospel, and for the souls of men, but one must live with his documents.
Danville, Ill.
Your major feature on Beegle’s treatise deserves to be added to your reprint list. A splendid critique. It certainly merits further circulation and digestion.
Miner Congregational Church
Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
The Warmed Heart
As a former student of the late Dr. George Croft Cell and with the signature of Bishop Francis John McConnell on my Certificate of Ordination into the Ministry of The Methodist Church I cannot but express my warm appreciation of the April 26 issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY. Norman V. Hope and A. Skevington Wood will make the hearts of your Methodist readers—and of many others as well, I hope—“strangely warmed” through the reading of their excellent articles regarding Aldersgate.
In another magazine which has carried a series on the subject of how certain minds have been changed, presumably for the better, in their religious pilgrimage, I noted how one such “pilgrim” paid a special tribute to his discovery of remarkable insights in the sermons of John Wesley, particularly their relevance to the problems of our modern age. Perhaps we Methodists ought to be equally interested in our religious heritage and to seek afresh the secret of the “warmed heart.”
Municipal University of Omaha
Omaha, Neb.
Your last [issue] is wonderful.
Oakland, Calif.
Church And State
The two articles and the editorial which discuss church-state issues (Apr. 26 issue) are incisive in dealing with the departure from “historic interpretation” and the acceptance of “a new interpretation which is still somewhat fluid”.…
J. Marcellus Kik is pointed, and I believe correct, in observing that the “thrust in the report’s introduction and appendices is even more revealing than the startling recommendations.” It is in these portions that the influence of the sociologist, the humanist, and the modern historian-redactor is evident.
Much of Christendom will be gravely concerned with the action taken by the 175th General Assembly, not the least of which is the Session of this church which studied the report and, with minor exceptions, rejected its findings!
GRENVILLE A. DAUN
First Presbyterian Church
Dupont, Wash.
I was specifically disappointed in reading the hyper-criticisms of the United Presbyterian Church and State Report. I say hyper-critical because no one looked for the good aspects in the report but only for what could be disliked.… Though few people see the necessity or the advantage of all the recommendations, many of the recommendations for reform are long overdue such as special privileges to the clergy and theological students and churches paying their share of taxes.
Sterling, Kan.
I was deeply disappointed.… All of these articles made the basic error of assuming that the nation whose government officially recognizes the sovereignty of God and promotes a religious atmosphere is “more Christian,” or at least “better” and more likely to escape the wrath of God, than the nation whose government divorces itself entirely from religion and concerns itself only with secular matters.…
From the viewpoint of the Christian a “religion in general” is … no better than no religion at all. Man is not saved just by subscribing to the sovereignty of God and practicing a “religion in general,” but only by accepting the doctrines of Christ.
Nor dare we suppose that by cultivating an atmosphere of “religion in general,” the government can at least be helpful to the cause of the Christian church. On the contrary, that will only be a hindrance. A “religion in general” is never friendly, but always hostile to the Christian faith.…
The sooner the government divorces itself entirely from religion and concerns itself only with secular matters, the better it will be. Then the Christians of our land will realize what they should have realized long ago: that they cannot and must not expect the government to support and promote the cause of Christ, but that it is entirely up to them to spread the Gospel whereby alone man can be saved. The Gospel will remain pure and retain its saving power only if it is proclaimed in its purity by those who have accepted it in faith. Herein lies the only hope for our nation and for the world.
Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church
East Cleveland, Ohio
Your issue has raised the warning flag. If the attempts to remove the Bible’s influence from every area of society but the Church and the attempts to undermine its authority within the Church are successful, we will slip back into the dark ages overnight. Seems I hear a trumpet sounding a call to prayer and revival before it is too late!
Oxford Baptist
Woodstock, Ont.
Your analysis of the Smith report was masterly.… Your magazine is an encouragement to the whole body of evangelicals.
United Presbyterian Church
Paterson, N.J.
I was glad for L. Nelson Bell’s article “A Secular State” for this reason. This is the direction that apostasy must go if the prophecies concerning the anti-Christ are to be fulfilled. It is in this submission and bowing down of the spiritual to the political that the anti-Christ, the political head, will rise. For if the Scriptures teach us anything, they teach us that he will be a political head, as opposed to a spiritual Head.
Again the Scriptures teach us that religion will be the handmaid, nay, even more, the prostitute of this political head.
The Dragerton Community Church
Dragerton, Utah
The Protevangelium
In regard to the review of The Torah, the Five Books of Moses by Jacob Jocz (Apr. 12 issue), the impression left concerning the work of the translator, Dr. Harry Orlinsky, is unfortunate in at least one instance. The problem of translating Genesis 3:15 is complex and can be met grammatically in at least two ways. The possibility chosen by Dr. Orlinsky, to translate zerah by “offspring” and the relative pronoun hu’ with “they,” can certainly be defended. The Hebrew noun zerah is a collective, singular in form, but either singular or plural in meaning. The translation “offspring” continues this grammatical ambiguity. Since the noun zerah is singular in form its relative also must be singular in form, hence hu’.
Whether this is the correct understanding theologically is irrelevant to the grammar of the problem (although I personally believe this passage is indeed, as traditional interpretation by the Christian church asserts, the protevangelium). The scholarship of Dr. Orlinsky should not be impugned for making a possible true translation. As a matter of fact, this is by no means as novel as Dr. Jocz seems to imply, however. It was known to Raschi, the medieval Jewish commentator, and was incorporated into the Soncino edition of the Parashoth and Haphtaroth of 1938, and is also the translation of Theophile J. Meek in The Bible, An American Translation, copyright 1931 by the University of Chicago.
I do not believe that CHRISTIANITY TODAY should leave the impression that the new Jewish Publication Society’s work is of slight or no value to Christian scholars. It is in this spirit that I write. The translation is well worth study even though one may not agree with all renderings. But then, that would be true if any group set out to make an absolutely authoritative translation for its own purposes.
Registrar
Luther Theological Seminary
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
To Reclaim And Retain
As almost a lifelong Southern Baptist (now Independent Baptist, affiliated with IFCA), I was very interested in the evaluation of present conditions in the Convention (News, Apr. 26 issue). In general it was quite accurate except in the tendency to minimize earlier influences of liberalism in the Convention. Also, Southern Baptists hardly “give financially in fantastic ways”; their per capita giving is lower than most denominations, despite an abnormal amount of emphasis on “stewardship” and the “cooperative program.” But I certainly share your concern that the Convention as a whole may even yet be reclaimed and retained for Christ-centered and Bible-centered Christianity.
Blacksburg, Va.
Catholicity
I just read the letter from Edwin S. Gault, conference secretary of the New York East Conference of The Methodist Church (Eutychus, Mar. 29 issue), and I want to apologize in the name of myself and many of my fellow Methodist ministers, for this man who breathes so little of the catholic spirit of John Wesley. I find in your magazine much that helps me as a minister and student, and for this I gratefully say, Thy heart being as my heart, give me thy hand.
Grace Methodist Church
West Palm Beach, Fla.
I greatly admire the catholic outreach of this evangelical paper, and its generally unbiased approach to all the many problems that beset the Christian church today.
The Rectory, Little Berkhamsted
Hertford, Herts, England
To The Gills, He’S Full
I am full to the gills of CT’s seeing a Communist under every bush, equating socialism and Communism, criticizing pacifism and social reform as exclusively the realm of the kingdom-of-God-on-earth liberal.… Are there not others like myself—conservative in religion, liberal in politics, pacifist in military persuasion, and active in attempts at social reform?…
Central Methodist College Biology Dept.
Fayette, Mo.
Down With The Moderator!
Mr. Hughes’s “moderate episcopacy” (Current Religious Thought, Apr. 26 issue) makes as much sense to me as a “moderate creed,” “moderate sacraments,” and a “moderate Bible.”
Saint Barnabas Church
Omaha, Neb.
A Farewell To Life
One of your readers calls attention to the fact that some of the works of Langston Hughes are recommended in a publication of the National Council of Churches (Eutychus, Apr. 12 issue). Lest we forget who Mr. Hughes is—he’s the fellow who, as a member of the Revolutionary Writers Federation (a Moscow-based authors’ group) wrote a poem titled “Goodbye, Christ,” in which these lines occur:
Goodbye,
Christ Jesus Lord God Jehova,
Beat it on away from here now.
Make way for a new guy with no religion at all—
A real guy named
Marx Communist Lenin Peasant Stalin Worker ME—
I said, ME!…
And step on the gas, Christ!
Move!
Friends of Mr. Hughes have sought to explain that he was merely “quoting” a hypothetical Communist—an apologia which seems hardly tenable in view of Hughes’s long list of Red-front affiliations.
Sea Cliff, N.Y.
Reminder Of Siberia
Re “Moscow: Peasants Bid for Religious Freedom” (News, Jan. 18 issue):
Our efforts, it seems to me, are having very little tangible effect and I am at a loss as to what further to do.… We can not give up on the project; yet if every living Christian does not realize this problem as being a personal responsibility of his, our voice will be lost in the wind, and our friends in Siberia, undoubtedly praying night and day to God for help, will soon lose faith that there are any Christians in the world but themselves in their desolation.
Chairman
Russian Refugee Committee
Hollywood, Calif.
Opposed To Double Costs
In “Federal Aid and Control Are Like Love and Marriage” (Editorial, Mar. 15 issue) you state: “Most Protestants gladly pay for whatever sectarian education their children get, and do not expect to assess the general taxpayer for this private rather than public education. If public funds are used to subsidize sectarian schools, the program will discriminate against public education and penalize the citizenry in general.”
I am one of thousands of parents sending children to schools which I suppose you would call sectarian: they are Protestant, parent-controlled schools, operating independently of church organization. Already now we are compelled by the state to meet all the standards set for public schools. It is true that in this area federal control might supersede state control, but right now we are far from independent as far as control of educational standards, and so forth, is concerned. What is more, the Catholic and Protestant schools in the Netherlands have flourished under federal control and support for many years now. You are on the one hand ignoring the control already exercised by the state over private schools and, on the other hand, seeing dangers which could materialize from many other directions as well.
Further: my taxes are used to pay for the education of many public school children. Grand and beautiful buildings with all kinds of frills go up on every hand while we who pay the way for our children as well as that of the public school children scratch to meet these double costs. I know of numerous parents who have denied themselves for years such basic necessities as decent transportation or even indoor plumbing—yes, even going into debt which it will take years to repay—because they are convinced that it is their Christian duty to stop ignoring God in the day by day education of their children.… If my school must meet state standards, why is it not entitled to just as much money per pupil as the public school?… The Catholic has had enough perception to recognize the need of having all his education oriented to his faith.… Just how would it “discriminate against public education” if public school parents were obliged to carry the whole cost of their children’s education? We Christian school parents are not asking for anything extra; we are simply asking that we be given our fair share.…
Christian Reformed Church
New Era, Mich.
Grizzled Edwin Collier
In your March 15 issue, I read, “Court Weighs Religious Exercises”: “… balding Leonard J. Kerpelman … greying Francis B. Burch … tall attorney … white-haired Thomas B. Finan … red-haired Henry W. Sawyer … youthful-looking Deputy Attorney General.…”
Would you kindly inform me and your other readers of the precise significance of these tonsorial and anatomical details? Could they be a subtle form of the argumentum ad hominem or were you having a nightmare in which you dreamed you were The New Yorker?
Yours stockily-built, grizzled, bespectacled, and sincerely,
East Falls, Pa.
• Our scribes over-succeeded in letting CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S readers know they were getting a colorful, first-hand report.—ED.
