We need a vigorous voice that will have the respect of all within the framework of historic Protestant orthodoxy.
What course shall the nation take in the year to come? January—the beginning of a new year and the beginning of new political attempts to solve the nation’s problems—also calls us at CHRISTIANITY TODAY to the task of identifying to readers our purposes, our convictions, our place in the life of the churches.
It’s easy in the process of sifting, choosing, and editing to lose sight of one’s basic purposes. It’s also easy to assume that the reader knows what the magazine stands for. In this initial editorial of the new year we want first to look back at the vision that gave birth to CHRISTIANITY TODAY, and then ahead, so our readers and the community at large will know our purposes and how we hope to achieve them.
More than a quarter century ago many looked at the country’s religious leadership and reckoned that evangelicalism was an endangered species. At that time, however, Billy Graham wrote with great foresight of a vast groundswell of change he had noted: “There has been a tremendous shift in theological thinking in the church within the past ten years. We are also aware that there has been a great shift in opinion throughout America concerning God, the Bible, the church, and the need for spiritual awakening. We have seen great segments of the church shifting back towards the orthodox and evangelical positions while at the same time we have seen religion grow popular in every stratum of society. Thousands of young ministers are really in the evangelical camp in their theological thinking and evangelistic zeal.
“However, strange to say, some of our major denominations, church councils, and other organizations are directed by extreme liberals who actually do not represent the vast majority of ministers in this country. Why? As evangelicals, I am convinced, we are in the majority among both clergy and church members. However, we need a new strong vigorous voice to call us together that will have the respect of all evangelicals of all stripes within our major denominations. It has come to me with ever increasing conviction that one of our great needs is a religious magazine that will reach the clergy and lay leaders of every denomination, presenting the truth from that evangelical viewpoint.”
And so, under the able leadership of Carl F. H. Henry as editor and Nelson Bell as executive editor, Billy Graham launched a new magazine—CHRISTIANITY TODAY. Twenty-five years later it still pursues its original goal—to be an evangelical thought magazine for pastors and lay leaders of the church. From the first, CHRISTIANITY TODAY was not designed to be either a specialized journal for professional scholars or a family magazine. Approximately half the readers of CHRISTIANITY TODAY are pastors, associate pastors, or workers in the organized agencies of the church; the other half are likely to be lay people in positions of leadership in local churches. The magazine, therefore, has sought to meet the needs of all Christians who wish to think seriously about today’s theological, ethical, and social issues.
This central goal is further defined by five specific purposes:
1.To set forth in prophetic fashion the biblical and evangelical faith for our day. Our age has blurred the sharp line between two different positions: on one side is Christianity; on the other, a mix of Western culture, the good life as conceived by a pleasure-loving materialistic society, and uncritical patriotism. In its prime the older liberalism did not deceive evangelicals. They recognized it for what it was—another religion. However, our contemporary alternative to Christianity, American piety, is more deceptive. It is a Christian heresy; and too often, like a Trojan horse, it is welcomed into the evangelical church and conquers before the church is aware of its true nature. We can detect it by placing what goes by the name of Christianity before the bar of divine judgment as revealed in Holy Scripture. General culture, pleasure, and patriotism have some value, but not until refined in the fire of scriptural truth. The best defense of Christianity, its most appealing form to the person who has come to grips with his finite sinfulness, is simply a clear exposition of the central themes of orthodox biblical teaching. This CHRISTIANITY TODAY seeks to do.
2.To publish useful, reliable information to help evangelical leaders make intelligent decisions as to faith and work. Our Lord instructed church leaders to protect the flock of God against false teaching and lead them to maturity. But this requires not only a knowledge of the Bible but an accurate understanding of the complex world it must be applied to. By providing such an understanding, CHRISTIANITY TODAY seeks to assist pastors and lay people to become more intelligent, responsible, and contemporary leaders of the church.
3.To provide a forum in which evangelicals can work out solutions for current problems. In the dizzy whirl of contemporary events, Christians are threatened with future shock. Old structures don’t always fit the new categories. Many alternatives seem plausible, and all are defended with equal sincerity and, sometimes, with equal dogmatism. By presenting reasonable alternatives, carefully explained and supported by able Christian scholars, CHRISTIANITY TODAY helps church leaders assess the pros and cons of competing viewpoints. Leaders can work out intelligent, balanced applications of biblical revelation to a society becoming more and more pagan.
4.To serve as an instrument of change for society, for the church, and especially for its evangelical wing. Karl Marx said the point is not to understand the world but to change it. He was stating, perhaps unwittingly, a profound Christian truth. Christianity is not primarily a repository of divine truth. It is a force in the hands of God to change humans and, to some extent, the society in which they live.
CHRISTIANITY TODAY is sometimes characterized as too mainstream, too middle-of-the-road. But we are not seeking to carve editorial positions out of a safe middle ground. Rather, we aim to be radically biblical. Sometimes the Bible falls in the center; more often it does not. Biblical Christianity creates its own center of meaning, one that focuses on Christ and the gospel. From this dynamic center flow out cosmic rays that recreate, spark with life, and reshape all they touch. CHRISTIANITY TODAY seeks to be an instrument of change in the hands of God to renew man and to reorient him to the truly good life—not the secular counterfeit that passes for it.
5.To reflect with nonevangelicals on the true meaning of the gospel and its implications. A recent Gallup poll revealed that three times as many ministers read CHRISTIANITY TODAY as any other religious periodical. We are grateful and seek to minister to them also. Early in this century the fundamentalist variety of evangelicalism repulsed most liberals so that they could not conceive of evangelical Christianity as a live option. There were many reasons for this. In part, fundamentalism defined itself in terms of its liberal opposition and in the process departed somewhat from its biblical standard. It also lost the creativity of its noble heritage, and often offered tired solutions to pressing current problems. Worse yet, in the heat of strife it seldom displayed to its opponents any effective witness to the second greatest commandment of the Bible—love thy neighbor as thyself. It has only begun to recover from the dire consequences of this great reversal.
But many former liberals have come to see that liberalism is a road leading to irreligion. Many more were never attracted to liberalism, but simply could not stomach fundamentalism. To them we would humbly point out the nature of true biblical orthodoxy: plain biblical thinking. There we can both find our spiritual nourishment. Together we can draw our strength from our common heritage, an inerrant Bible that tells us the truth and witnesses to Christ and the gospel.
In seeking to achieve its goals, CHRISTIANITY TODAY finds itself strongly committed to the visible church. So was our Lord. We seek always to build up the church, never to tear it down. We are fast to defend it and slow to cast darts. If in light of Scripture we must criticize, we do so out of deep love and sadness, and then only when we believe the church in the long run will be better for it. Our motto is not all the news that’s fit to print, but all the news that is both true and helpful—though sometimes it may also hurt; and then we weep over it.
CHRISTIANITY TODAY is also committed to historic Protestant orthodoxy—not because it is historic or Protestant or orthodox—though we are grateful for our heritage. It is a helpful though fallible guide for life and thought. We are adamantly committed to historic orthodoxy because we are so convinced it is essentially right. E. J. Carnell, a Puritan of strong convictions, preferred the term “orthodoxy” to both “fundamentalism” and “evangelicalism” to describe his deepest commitments. J. O. Buswell, Jr., doughty separatist of the same era could tolerate “fundamentalism” (with careful definition) but likewise rejected “evangelicalism” as a fluid term with no generally accepted definition. Both opted for historic “orthodoxy” tested by the Bible. Here we, too, take our stand. We seek to be orthodox—devoutly biblical, thoroughly evangelical, and keenly evangelistic.
At CHRISTIANITY TODAY, we strive hard to keep secondary issues in the background. Officially we are not Lutheran, Reformed, Wesleyan, Arminian, or Pentecostal. We are not Presbyterian, Congregational, or Episcopalian. We do not insist upon any one view of the ordinances of the church. It is not that these matters are unimportant to us. Under different circumstances we should be willing and eager to defend our convictions on these matters. But that is not our calling. CHRISTIANITY TODAY is a magazine, not a church. It is called to a ministry of service to Christ within the framework of historic Protestant orthodoxy.
We believe Christians across the land are looking for leadership. We believe CHRISTIANITY TODAY can serve as a rallying flag for these believers.
Therefore, in this first issue of 1981, we hope you will join with us in this ministry of awesome importance for Christ and his church. Together we shall seek to understand this ministry better, to explain it more clearly, and to apply it boldly and effectively to our world in these closing decades of the twentieth century.
