At Least The Dates Are Right
It is time we did something to beef up our church bulletins. Most of them are as exciting as a TWA timetable and not as accurate. By the end of the Lord’s Day, the bulletin has had it and is needed no more. What a waste of time, energy, and paper!
I suggest that the bulletin carry an educational column each week, listing the important historical events of that period. To help you get started, I append a list of important dates for February. I have worn out my bifocals poring over almanacs to discover this vital data, so I hope you appreciate it.
February 1, 1840—First U.S. college of dentistry chartered; Baltimore, Maryland. Its motto was: “Don’t cross your bridges until you get to them or the hand that feeds you may bite you.”
February 2, 1709—Alexander Selkirk rescued from Mas-a-Tierra Island. Daniel Defoe borrowed his story and wrote Robinson Crusoe, thus making footprints in the sands of time. Selkirk’s rescue may have happened on a Friday.
February 5, A.D. 251—Saint Agatha died in prison. She is the patron saint of nurses and bell makers, and all other persons who are at the end of their rope.
February 14, 1876—Elisha Gray tried to patent his telephone and was told Alexander Graham Bell had beaten him by a couple of hours. Gray sued and lost. Ma Bell was safely established. (“Ma Gray” just doesn’t sound right.)
February 17, 1771—René Théophile Hyacinthe Laënnec born. Who, you may ask, was he? None other than the inventor of the stethoscope. His first device was monaural—a foot-long wooden cylinder. (“Doctor, I have slivers in my chest …”) Then it became biaural (not stereo) with the addition of rubber tubes. Laënnec was devising a method to keep the chest-piece warm when he died. Too bad.
February 22, 1778—Rembrandt Peale was born. American painter. (With a name like Rembrandt, what else can you do?) Quit painting for eight years because the critics panned his work. (He had not read The Power of Positive Painting.) He thought his portrait of George Washington superior to that done by Gilbert Stuart, but nobody agreed with him. He made 76 copies of the portrait (that’s the spirit!) but all 77 have sunk into oblivion. So has Peale.
February 23, 1505—Columbus was granted a license to ride a mule in Spain. He was almost killed attaching the license. The mule ate him out of house and home; Columbus died in poverty the next year.
From time to time, I will publish additional lists of valuable dates. You may use these in your bulletin without cost. After all, if we can’t edify the saints, we can at least educate them.
EUTYCHUS X
Sex Course
My husband and I were amazed to find our alma mater, Anderson College, in the pages of your magazine in the article “The Sex Course at Anderson” [Nov. 21]. We assumed that the furor was all “within the family.”
Hopefully, Anderson College will not now retreat to the Dark Ages, but will continue to offer relevant courses taught by the best qualified professors. We hope it will continue to produce Christian men and women who are well informed and strong in their faith—people who will not view knowledge of both sides of an issue as a challenge to their basic beliefs—people who will comprehend that to understand is not necessarily to condone.
DEBORAH DOTY PARKER
Indianapolis, Ind.
I realize we are not the largest religious body in America, but many significant contributions have been made by the Church of God in its 100 years. Where were you when some of those things were happening? Now that we have this so-called scandal at the college, you are ready to give it front-page headlines and to make it appear a much bigger issue than it really is.
REV. RONALD E. CRUMP
First Church of God
Kokomo, Ind.
There was something positive about the whole mess, which can be well illustrated by the reaction of a lady in Anderson. She stated that at least now she knows that the Church of God movement is fundamental and conservative. She had thought all along that the liberal tendencies exemplified on campus were representative of the movement as a whole.
REV. DALYN D. HELBLING
South Douglas Church of God
Oklahoma City, Okla.
The article basically was accurate and objective. But in a way it missed the point. The sex course and explicit sex materials were used as a “window dressing” to call attention to the the theological erosion that allows any conservative group founded on the inerrancy of the Scriptures to permit teachings that disregard biblical injunctions. The thesis of my “Open Letter” was that resocialization by the use of secular humanism and/or religious humanism has no place on a Christian college campus.
REV. LEROY L. OESCH
Saint Andrew Church of God
Camden, S.C.
Kind Words Needed
Sara Cooke’s “It’s A Shame What We Do to the President” [Nov. 21] is appropriate. I’ve seen how American presidents visibly age while tackling a literally self-killing job, and then too often receive not thoughtful criticism, but scorn.
Compassion is needed. It seems to be a sad fact that those who support rarely speak up, yet those who denounce will. Regardless of political persuasion, we might do well, especially now, to acknowledge those traits so worthy of esteem in our former president—and tell him so.
ELIZABETH HODGES
Raleigh, N.C.
A Vote For Fiction
I was so pleased to see the excerpt from Bob Siegel’s book Alpha Centauri [Nov. 21]. Bravo! At last someone has seen the need for good Christian fiction and had the freedom of spirit to write this kind of book.
STEVEN BRAZIL
Albuquerque, N. Mex.
Not Leaving
Contrary to quotes attributed to me in “Roman Orgy on Film” [Oct. 24], I have never said nor have I written: “This magazine (or film) is leaving or we are leaving.” I do emphatically say, “This magazine (or film) is leaving or we are leaving. And we are not leaving.”
We (i.e., Christians … who treasure God’s gift of sex) can never leave. The very point is this: It’s the magazine or film that’s going to have to leave.
NEIL GALLAGHER
East Providence, R.I.
Christians And Schools
I was distressed by the seeming suggestion in your November 7 issue on higher education that future leaders of the church will come only from the Christian colleges.
To imply that students at secular colleges have little or no future in the leadership of the evangelical movement does a great disservice to both the students and the Christian parachurch organizations that are training them. Many of us love Jesus Christ just as much as any Bible college student. Please don’t be so quick to write us off.
CARL BRIGGS
Northwestern University
Evanston, Ill.
As much as I sympathize with the need for Christian education, I feel it is very naive to believe that we can accept and promote tax money for our institutions without running afoul of government control. An example is our day care/preschool programs here at Trinity Lutheran Church. People on public assistance can no longer attend here because we chose to have the children bring sack lunches (as most all of our children in the public school system here do) so that we could spend time in instruction and field trips rather than in the kitchen. Neither our attorneys nor Sen. Mark Hatfield were able to budge the bureaucracy at this point. Your comment that “the government should require institutions to meet certain academic and financial standards before their students could receive public grants” is exactly what will produce government control.
REV. JERALD N. FURGURSON
Trinity Lutheran Church
Gresham, Oreg.
The greatest challenge facing Christian colleges today is the singleness of purpose by which they seek to follow Christ. Survival, quality education, and excellence do not necessarily ensure disciples of Jesus. But, those three priorities do ensure the continuing existence of an institution (which for various reasons may have left its vision for existence). Christian colleges will only survive if they serve and minister to the people they touch in the name of Christ.
FRANK LYONS
Wayne, Pa.
Unfair Criticism
The author of Refiner’s Fire [Aug. 8) used the occasion of the Crystal Cathedral critique to criticize my theology. In previous interviews with CHRISTIANITY TODAY I have communicated where I am coming from theologically and what positions I hold, and how I handle the issues of repentance, the proclamation of the Cross, the Incarnation, and so on. I have explained what we are trying to do and the style, strategy, and theology behind the Crystal Cathedral. I did not ignore how we had positively proclaimed repentance. Now CT casts a serious question on my theological integrity in a column where I have no equal time.
ROBERT SCHULLER
Garden Grove, Calif.
A Becoming Act
I wish more space had been given in David Myers’s article on “Faith and Action” [Nov. 21] to the related concepts of habit and discipline. For instance, if one can discipline himself to form the habit of Bible reading, prayer, or acting in a Christian manner, then eventually he believes that it is a proper way to conduct himself.
DENNIS VATH
Duluth, Minn.
Growing Churches
Regarding C. Peter Wagner’s “Aiming at Church Growth” [Nov. 21], I must strenuously object to the purely statistical growth concept that has captivated the church. As I read the New Testament, the focus of concern for growth centers on character change, spirituality, the body growing into a holy temple. The reproductive aspect of growth occurs as a natural by-product of health in the church. The church is like a human body. If she is well nourished and loved without condition, she grows.
GARY LOOPER
Redeemer’s Fellowship
Dallas, Tex.
Nonresistance vs. the Just War
Never
It is significant that Mr. Drescher starts with Christology as opposed to Culver’s starting with the Old Testament. I am always amazed by the recourse evangelicals have to ancient Hebrew culture for solving the problems of contemporary Christianity. The Reformers would spin in their tombs.
STEPHEN GRUBER
Tulsa, Okla.
There can be no peaceful coexistence within a Christian’s life of the teaching of Jesus and doctrines of hate, prejudice, and exploitation. Once a war is started, and fear, national pride, and the hunger for revenge are aroused, it is unlikely Christians can halt it. But we can have a real effect in keeping the lust for war from developing within our own countries if we really want peace and will pray earnestly for it.
DALE NELSON
Ashland, Oreg.
God does want justice to prevail. But how does he work to change the unjust to the just? By physical coercion? Or by suffering love which allows itself to be rejected, even crucified? We are so concerned about achieving certain ends that we compromise the means to those ends. We compromise love for the sake of a “just war.” God is so concerned about the means that he appears to compromise the ends. He allows injustice to overtake his Son.
HAROLD MILLER
Corning, N.Y.
Has any church holding to the “just war” theory ever applied their guidelines and declared a war their nation was engaged in “unjustifiable”? To my knowledge, none ever has. Indeed, all have been declared “just” simply because the nation has said so. This reveals how nationally bound all churches are. Churches worldwide are more apt to obey the call of Caesar than of Christ.
DENNIS KUHNS
Harrisonburg, Va.
Jesus invited his disciples to self-sacrificing missions—speaking unwelcome truth, being struck in the face, but repeating the truth in courageous love, offering the “enemy” an additional opportunity to repent.
HENRY SHANK
Apple Creek, Ohio
The naive and unrealistic promotion of a just war hardly makes sense in a world where restraint would be tantamount to defeat and any major war consummate destruction of all humanity. Worse, though, it attributes no power to the Spirit of God as we know it in the Cross of Christ to win the victory through suffering. Believers in Jesus Christ must come to recognize that there really is no other power than the power of the Cross to redeem humanity. We must be ready to suffer in the same vicarious way Jesus did, if necessary, to assure the future.
HOWARD STEARNS
Burlington, Vt.
People to whom Jesus spoke had the diverse literature of the Old Testament. Jesus found therein some principles to be followed and some ideas that were not acceptable to him. The Old Testament is pre-Christian.
HUGH STODDARD
Auburn, Neb.
Revelation is progressive. The holy wars of national Israel are swallowed up in the spiritual warfare carried out by Abraham’s children of promise. Since Jesus, national warfare is as inappropriate for God’s people as animal sacrifice.
TERRY CHRISTLIEB
Lincoln, Neb.
Christology is often the dividing point in this issue. If one portrays Christ as the Savior of the world and excludes Jesus as Lord, then one could make the transition to a theology of just war. However, he is Our “authority for both belief and behavior.” The evangelical world is in dire need of hearing that message: following Jesus as the model and example for all of life. The call is for a sharpened Christology with focus on the ethic of Jesus for our lives. If our starting point is elsewhere, we have omitted the basic tenet of Christocentrism.
PHIL EBERSOLE
Harrisonburg, Va.
Though this reader applauds Professor Culver’s concern to expound the continuity of the Old and New Testaments, nevertheless it appears he settles for a Christology and an ecclesiology which both fail to reflect fully the glory of Jesus and the holiness of his church.
BRADLEY DAVIS
Newport, R.I.
Even though pacifism may be false, its opposite—the just war theory—is dangerous. Fallen creatures that we are, we are too liable to use the just war theory as an excuse to wage unnecessary wars, to wreak vengeance, and to build gigantic defense mechanisms at the expense of people’s true needs. So if a Christian is asked whether he is a pacifist or a believer in the just war theory, I believe the best answer he can give is, “I am a peacemaker.”
CLIFFORD WILLIAMS
Rochester, N.Y.
Mr. Culver, advocating the just war theory, gave us an Old Testament lesson and an essay on Augustine. Mr. Drescher, advocating biblical pacifism, gave us an exposition on Jesus Christ. To me the choice is clear.
JIM AMSTUTZ
Akron, Penn.
The issue is not worth debating until the following dilemma can be resolved: how can a soldier look down the barrel of a gun, tell the child of God at the other end that God loves him and so does he, and then blow his head off?
TIM GATTEN
London, Ontario, Canada
Readers Continue the Debate
Sometimes
To manifest his power, love, and justice, God has established the home, the church, and the state. Each has its distinct duties and obligations. The church’s obligation is love, not justice. It is not the prerogative of the church to destroy the murderer, but it most surely is the duty of the state. By the same token, it is not the responsibility of the state to love. It is the state’s obligation to maintain justice, so the innocent are protected from the guilty, and the church can fulfill its function of love.
DAVID NOEBEL
Manitou Springs, Colo.
John Dreschcr has spent too much time in the Gospels and not enough in the rest of the Word. We do not get a full picture of Jesus by studying his redemptive work. Then, he was the Lamb, but the Lion side of Jesus is revealed elsewhere. How could anyone read Revelation and call Jesus nonviolent?
NORMAN BEETLER
Wellington, Ohio
I have studied the Bible for over 60 years and have had to examine the matter of the legitimacy of military service to satisfy my own conscience. Mr. Drescher seems to confuse violence in war with personal hatred. Such hatred is possible, but it is not a necessary part of warfare. One can hardly hate someone whom he neither knows nor has seen. My own experience in war and my own observations do not indicate any particular cases of personal hatred.… Jesus told his disciples to sell their garments in order to provide themselves with swords. With his departure, they would have to protect themselves against criminal attack. The sword, a lethal weapon, has no useful purpose except for combat.
WILLIAM K. HARRISON, JR.
Lieutenant General, U.S.A. (Ret.)
Charlotte, N.C.
It defies all logic for persons who refuse to bear arms to inveigh against Christians to whom they owe their very existence. Their diatribes cannot be considered respectable or reasonable. The clear evidence of the Scripture upholds the propriety of the Christian to bear arms under lawful and appropriate circumstances.
PAUL TRIPLETT
West Allis, Wis.
Mr. Drescher does a lot of talking about Christ’s love, but he doesn’t mention a word about Christ’s holiness or justice. Is his Jesus the same Messiah who will personally slaughter thousands of soldiers in the Valley of Armageddon at his Second Coming with the breath of his mouth, so that the blood runs bridle-deep? Mr. Drescher splits love and war and makes them opposites. But if God is love, and Jesus is God the Son, then it was Christ (along with the Father and the Spirit) who ordered the Old Testament wars and gave physical, violent success to his troops! At his arrest, Christ reminded Peter that he had the right to annihilate his captors by calling down ten thousand angels. In this case, Christ waived the right of physical self-defense given him in the Law for he already knew the nature of his situation, and why he was about to die. He would not abort the Atonement in favor of self-defense, but self-defense was a legitmate option.
JOHN BROOKS
Scotch Plains, N.J.
There is a traumatic contrast between Bible principles relating to the conduct of an individual and to the state. Romans 12 repeats the pacifist ethic of the Sermon on the Mount because both are addressed to the individual citizen. Romans 13 presents a sharp contrast because it speaks of the responsibility of the state. Romans 12:19 forbids vengeance, while Romans 13:4 commands it. Paul distinguishes between governmental and personal ethics. Criminal aggression justifies the retributive justice of waging war.
ROLLIN P. KELLER
Modesto, Calif.
If all wars are evil and resistance to evil is evil, why not lay down all arms, discharge armed forces, and state, county, and city police? Next, release all prisoners, for without force you cannot capture or hold them. But this all flies in the face of sanity. Suicide for the pacifist and contrived martyrdom for the Christian would be most likely. Perhaps the alternative is a realistic view of a real world of good and evil in conflict.
EDWARD BUTLER
Cincinnati, Ohio
God is the one who puts up one nation and pulls down another and he may still use means to accomplish that end. One of those means may be war. Even though that war may be based on the wickedness of man, as it always is, it may still and does indeed accomplish the purposes of a holy God. The Christian view cannot ignore the fact of God’s sovereignty in these matters.
GLEN MILLER
Greencastle, Pa.
As pacifists are committed to the imitation of Christ, the question of whether their image of Christ is a true one, is crucial. Their image of Christ is that of a sheep, so to speak. However, there is another aspect in Christ, namely, an image which is “not like sheep.” If Christ had been “like sheep” throughout his public life, he would not have had so many enemies. A sheep-like image is true of Christ during his last two days. I believe this has to do with his unique mission as the suffering servant for the redemption of the world. In this regard Christ is absolutely unique. Pacifists’ imitation of Christ is selective, in that they ignore the Old Testament, whereas Christ held it with highest regard.
HAKYOO PARK
Mildmay, Ont., Canada
