My Dear Turned-Off Brothers:
Theological reflection turns up in most unexpected places these days. Perusing the Berkeley Barb, the underground tabloid of California acidheads, I was confronted by the headline: “Did Jesus Turn On?” Stationed as I am on the frontier of contemporary theology, I could not avoid this article, especially since it claimed that “psychedelic or alchemic enlightenment may have supplied the mystic heart of Western religion with its life blood.”
Authors Thaddeus and Rita Ashby, recipients of a research grant to investigate LSD and creativity, assert that psychedelic plants are referred to in the Bible and that these may well have been responsible for many biblical events better described as LSD experiences. For example, the manna from heaven may have been “magic mushrooms.” And did the Israelites dig those crazy toadstools!
Our psychedelic theologues hypothesize that Jesus’ first contact with drugs came from the wise men’s myrrh. From this opiate he may have “graduated” to psychedelics. They further claim that Jesus probably had more than his share of natural LSD so that he was divinely “turned on in front” at birth. But Jesus’ superior endowment of natural LSD did not prevent him, they say, from “turning on artificially” by eating herbs and wild psychedelic flowers.
The Ashbys, however, would not have us think less of a prophet’s authority and visions now that we have a scientific explanation of alchemic inspiration. No, sir! After all, did not William James say, “We judge trees by their fruits, not by their fertilizer?”
Before you summarily turn from the acidhead school of theology, consider the service the psychedeliacs have rendered for the community of professional theologians. To men who have become weary playing games of theothanatology, linguistic scrabble, hist and myth, hip religion, and sacralization of the secular, the apostles of pot open up a new dimension of technicolored existential awareness. How can new theologians resist the experience of turning on?
Come to think of it, maybe I should begin packing for an LSD trip. Anybody know where I can find a wise man with some myrrh?
Wondering if this trip is necessary, EUTYCHUS III
The Easter Event
It was refreshing to read Klaas Runia’s article, “The Third Day He Rose Again” (Mar. 17). After all, what else is the basis of Christianity today?
PAUL KOCAK
St. John’s University
Collegeville, Minn.
There are two statements which do not seem to be in full accord with the generally strong, orthodox tone of the rest of the article. The author speaks of “the great day of the general resurrection, at the end of the ages.” Would it not be more in accord with the Scriptures to make the distinction our Lord made in John 5:29 between the “resurrection of life, and … the resurrection of condemnation”?…
He also says, “this new life comprises the whole man, soul and body.” Is this not contradicted by the inspired description in First Thessalonians 5:23, which says that “your whole spirit and soul and body” are to be preserved until the resurrection of the believer at the coming of the Lord?
F. W. HABERER
Detroit, Mich.
Dr. Runia made the assertion: “According to the Bible, when man dies, he dies with his whole being: body and soul.”
The biblical view does not appear to imply that death means the annihilation of all persons, i.e., the non-existence of both body and soul. Instead there seems to be an acceptance of physical death without a corresponding death of the soul or psyche.
C. DENNY FREESE
Carbondale, Ill.
Please convey to Dr. Runia my heartfelt appreciation of his Resurrection apologia.… Reprints should be made of it and sent to all ministers. It is a defense sorely needed in the neo-Platonic, religio-philosophical days in which we live.
WILLIAM G. WIRTH
Pasadena, Calif.
HELP! And please pardon my ignorance.
I have just read “The Third Day He Rose Again …” and three times find the word “kerygma.”
All my dictionaries including the New Century and Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language (Unabridged) failed me. On this point I feel like the eunuch who to Philip’s question, “Understandest thou what thou readest?” answered, “How can I, except some man should guide me?”
Can you help me?
CLARENCE D. KENNEDY
Berkshire Hills Baptist
Lee, Mass.
• Kerygma means the apostolic preaching, hence the content and/or proclamation of the Gospel.—ED.
Dr. Runia … states that “to use the terms ‘proofs’ and ‘based’ is not to take the resurrection out of the realm of faith and make it an event that everyone can verify on purely objective, scientific grounds. Such a verification is impossible for the simple reason that the appearances themselves belong to the realm of faith.” This is the same old diatribe that we have been forcefed for centuries; that we cannot have verification of the crucifixion and resurrection, but that it must be wholly accepted in faith.…
If we make an accurate, painstaking, and thorough study of the Gospels we find that they are true, and that a verification of the crucifixion and resurrection can be made on purely objective, scientific grounds.
I challenge the demythologizers and any others who wish to attempt it to disprove this fact.
DONALD L. MORSE
Portland, Me.
Well Worth The Price
For years I have been annoyed by having to throw away your magazine, for which I had not asked and which I found not worth reading. [See “New Circulation Policy,” Editorials, Mar. 17.]
But in the last year or two your magazine, it has seemed to me, has been greatly improved. I have found myself reading it more and more frequently and finding the reading worthwhile. Therefore I am sending my five dollars.
CHARLES THORNE
Mount Vernon, N.Y.
I note that complimentary subscriptions will be terminated during this year.
As one of the “more than 50,000 ministers who are paid subscribers” and one who is listed in your records as a charter subscriber, I heartily endorse your new policy.
STEWART B. SIMMS
First Baptist
Greer, S. C.
Enclosed you will find a check.… I would like to enter my subscription to CHRISTIANITY TODAY for one year and to obtain the New Testament which is offered with the new subscription.
I am grateful to you for having sent me CHRISTIANITY TODAY for the past few years. I have read it faithfully, for it has helped me to keep faithful to the Word and to maintain a biblical approach in my preaching, which is so greatly needed in these critical days when the authority of the Bible is ignored by so many within and without the Church.
PAUL E. RICKABAUGH
Dayspring Presbyterian
Yonkers, N. Y.
I hope your new policy of discontinuing free issues of CHRISTIANITY TODAY for pastors does not include distribution to seminaries. I attend Perkins School of Theology, SMU, and have noted that the fifty copies sent to us are picked up within two or three days. Your magazine keeps us informed of the conservative side of issues and provides a needed and welcome sounding board for evangelical Christianity. Please keep ’em coming.
GRANVILLE E. TYSON
Euless, Tex.
• We will continue to send bundles to theological seminaries.—ED.
A Schismatic Group
Your report that in Cameroun “a group of the pastors had walked out of their General Assembly, vowing to continue their denomination in defiance of a merger vote” (News, Mar. 3) is inaccurate. No merger has taken place in Cameroun, or been approved. The General Assembly did vote to continue preliminary union discussions, but this took place after the walkout, which occurred at the beginning of the assembly, after the election of a new stated clerk. The dissidents are not the continuing Presbyterian Church after a merger, as your report implies, but a schismatic group which has left the historic and continuing Presbyterian Church.
RICHARD C. ROWE
Presbyterian Fraternal Worker
Lausanne, Switzerland
‘Now’ And Then
While I was reading the editorial, “Reaching the ‘Now’ Generation” (Mar. 17), some thoughts on the subject popped into my mind. These thoughts are not in disagreement with the editorial opinion at all but rather in addition to it.
The early Church … did not make any such statement as, “For the person who is unreached by the Gospel before age twenty, the statistical chance of becoming a Christian is fractional.” They probably never heard of statistical chances and for that reason it didn’t bother them. So what did they do? In their ignorance of statistics and their knowledge of the work of Jesus Christ, they preached the Gospel to everybody alike, young or old.…
The early Church grew miraculously without a Sunday school, paid staff workers to concentrate on the “Now” generation, special evangelistic efforts to grade-school children, or radio and television programs. Not that there is a thing wrong with any of these but that there is evidently something lacking in today’s evangelistic thrust that was possessed by the primitive Christian evangelists in large quantities.
CHARLES H. OTTO
First Methodist
Haskell, Okla.
A careful study of the strategy of the New Testament churches will reveal, I think, that all age groups are reached best by giving priority to adults. To be sure, “today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders,” as you pointed out. The hope of the Church tomorrow does lie in reaching the “now generation.” But there will be no Church tomorrow unless today’s churches have strong leadership and adequate financial resources. These are supplied by adults.
C. FERRIS JORDAN
Nashville, Tenn.
[Your editorial] asked the question, “How can we reach young people?” You gave some worthy suggestions and concluded by stating, “Today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders, and they must be evangelized now.”
Our small Baptist church [is] located immediately adjacent to one of the large high schools of our city. We have a deep and settled conviction that God placed us here for a purpose.… We … are now constructing a building to serve the Christian education needs of our church, and also provide an adequate room for conducting one “seminary” class each period of the school day, or as many periods as seem advisable. Our master planning calls for remodeling our present chapel into a “seminary” building where we can operate a full Christian instruction program for the students of the high school.
ROBERT VANCE
Washington Heights Baptist
Ogden, Utah
The Third Force
I greatly appreciated “Reviewing the Restoration at Abilene” (Mar. 17). In gaining a complete view of the Restoration Movement today, it would be well to note the existence of a third force within the movement which exists on a middle ground between the International Convention Disciples of Christ and the Church of Christ. Some of them are known as Christian Churches and some are known as Churches of Christ. These churches have no organization beyond the elders of the local church, though they do support certain cooperative ventures.…
In the 1966 “Directory of the Ministry of the Undenominational Fellowship of Christian Churches and Churches of Christ,” published in behalf of the independents, there are some 4,516 churches in the United States and Canada listing a total estimated membership of 1,008,988.… I believe that this middle group will soon emerge as the largest of the three.
GARY K. DAVIS
Napa Valley Christian
Napa, Calif.
Your news report provides a very concise and objective view of current trends and developments in the Churches of Christ.… Personally, I think it is time that Churches of Christ come out of their isolationism and exert a greater influence on the religious world, especially the more conservative Bible-believing segment of Protestant Christendom.
TED CLINE
Church of Christ
Weatherford, Okla.
