LETTERS: Perplexed parents of the God-man

What your writers had to say about “Jesus’ Perplexed Parents” [Dec. 11] is true; but I would add two points.

I used to wonder how the Omniscient One could be confused (as in Mark 5:30-32) until I realized that, in order to be “tested in every way, yet without sin,” his human understanding (as opposed to his divine wisdom) had to be capable of making mistakes. The God-man couldn’t sin or be mistaken about theological truths, but I believe he allowed himself to make prudential mistakes in order to teach us two things: that it’s not a sin to goof up or to admit that we need guidance.

So Mary’s intelligent, strong-willed son could argue with her at the temple (Luke 2) and at Cana (John 2), but he also followed her wishes. Even when he was an adult, Mary was still his mother. As for Joseph, he gave his stepson training in how to be a man as well as how to be a carpenter. And notice that Joseph, the poor carpenter who could only afford to sacrifice pigeons at the temple, is called “Son of David” before his stepson is (Matt. 1), because it is he who is the direct descendant of King David.

– Don Schenk

Allentown, Pa.

One of my best presents this year–or any year: Wendy Murray Zoba’s essay on the pierced soul of Mary. I had already been thinking of Mary: the only person present at both the birth and death of the Savior of the world, her son. Too privileged and too tragic for me to comprehend.

Then the essay came, and I could relate once more. Motherhood: joy, anxiety, frustration, discouragement, confusion, loyalty, perseverance, peace. What appeared to be rude behavior was in reality only what a loving and brilliant Jesus could design: the painful transition from her human son to her eternal Redeemer.

– Nancy Boothe

Wichita, Kans.

I’m a stone-cold, unemotional Yankee octogenarian. I just finished reading “A Sword Through Her Soul.” It took only two paragraphs to start tears, and I ended in sobs.

– Alma Browning

Rochester, N.H.

Luke tells us that, at age 12, Jesus was found “in the temple courts sitting among the teachers . . . everyone who heard him was amazed.” Mary and Joseph didn’t look for Jesus there because that “chat” was the equivalent of a child genius debating in the Supreme Court. Lifetime students waited years for permission to speak. Also, concerning Jesus’ distancing himself from his human family: Jesus began his ministry in Nazareth and, when his neighbors tried to kill him, he walked away. But his family could not. Nazareth was home to Mary and the brothers, and the potential for violence had been proven. The protective wall that Jesus placed between himself and his family seems difficult, but the encouragement of close ties could easily have resulted in their ostracism and/or death. In Acts 1:14 we see that the family understood, for “Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers” immediately joined in the birth of Christianity.

– Alma E. Blanton

Torrance, Calif.

TAYLOR AND THE PNBC

The article “The Pulpit King” by Edward Gilbreath [Dec. 11] contained a factual error. The statement that “[Gardner] Taylor and others went on to form the Progressive National Baptist Convention, which today has a membership of 2.5 million” is not supported by the historical data. While the “Taylor movement” within the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., was a precipitating factor in the formation of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Taylor was not the initiator or founder of the pnbc. That initiator and founder was Dr. L. Venchael Booth of Cincinnati, Ohio.

– William D. Booth

Hampton, Va.

UN NO SOURCE OF PEACE

In his December 11 editorial [“De-Demonizing the UN”], Robert A. Seiple lauded the United Nations while acknowledging some secondary imperfections such as financial waste, excessive bureaucracy, and “susceptibility to political manipulation.” He concluded that Christians should cease condemning the un and support it as a means to effect peace and reconciliation. He cited efforts by churches in Burundi as examples of what can be done.

His citation of Christian efforts, however, is not pertinent to the evaluation of the un. These activities are wonderful examples of Christianity in action.

Seiple’s position, although well-intentioned, is fundamentally flawed. The shortcomings he conceded well could be considered so serious as to render the un incapable of real and positive accomplishments. Furthermore, by any accounting, the majority of the 185 UN member countries do not have for their own people the freedoms with which we have been blessed in this country. If the un were to wax stronger as a world government, there is no reason to believe that it would establish on the international level those freedoms that are denied within the borders of most member countries. A world government based on nation states that are not free would likely restrict religious, political, and economic freedom.

We Christians should labor to spread the gospel, seeking to further the freedom and peace that come only from God, but the un is not a suitable vehicle for this.

– John M. Pafford

Midland, Mich.

To even remotely imply that Christians should abdicate to the UN the divine mandate to serve the world is the most dangerous of positions to endorse.

UN leadership has hardly looked to orthodox Christianity for advice–what with the un Convention on the Rights of the Child, the un Women’s Conference in Beijing, the discussion of levying taxes on the citizens of member nations, and all.

With all due respect to Mr. Seiple, it appears that the United Nations is doing a very effective job of “demonizing” itself.

Considering the utter inability of governments to successfully deal with the economic and social ills that plague their respective nations, it boggles the mind that some would still advocate turning to the most secular of international bodies for solutions to matters of the heart.

– Michael E. Row

Upland, Ind.

ISRAEL’S “BIBLICAL” BORDERS

I would like to see some scriptural evidence for the statement by Wes Pippert in “Slain Are the Peacemakers” [Editorial, Dec. 11] that King David never solidified the borders of ancient Israel to the limits that God promised Abraham. In 2 Samuel 8:3 it states that David recovered the border of Israel as far as the Euphrates, which is part of the border promised to Abraham’s descendants. Other passages all teach that God completely fulfilled his land promise to the descendants of Abraham.

This is a matter of more than academic interest, since modern dispensationalists teach that God never fulfilled the land promise to Abraham; so they lobby the American government, running advertisements threatening politicians with the displeasure of 70,000,000 evangelicals if they do not give Israel the money needed to occupy more land in Palestine. Some evangelical leaders act as if they would gladly risk war in the Middle East in order to fulfill a prophecy that was already fulfilled 3,400 years ago.

– Thomas Williamson

Chicago, Ill.

A “SIMPLIFIED” REALITY

I am dismayed that Philip Yancey, from whom we have had so many sensitive, insightful reflections, has simplified the very complicated reality of contemporary family and social life into “A Tale of Two Sisters” [Dec. 11].

I am unimpressed that Joyce’s kids, products of a legalistic atmosphere, raise their own kids “in the faith.” What kind of authentic meaning can “faith” have when Joyce’s kids have not yet themselves experienced God as loving? What pleasure should we receive from knowing their marriages have held when we are told that affection is missing in their family relationships? I feel only sadness for this family.

Annette, on the other hand, tried to raise her children without legalism, and her kids have brought her heartaches. But we know little about the emotional resources Annette brought from her own childhood to the task of parenting, and we know nothing about her husband. At the very least, we must presume that a legalistic upbringing left its mark deep in Annette’s spirit, damaging her sense of self, leaving a residue of unexpressed feeling, all of which, in myriad ways, probably meant she was communicating much more than simple grace and forgiveness to her children.

To Yancey’s question, “Can we communicate the consequences of sin at the same time we offer a path to forgiveness?” I say: yes, of course we can. But we won’t begin to imagine that possibility until the toxic effects of generations of crabbed judgmentalism are washed out of our spiritual and theological systems, and we begin to move our understanding of God out of a moralistic and into a relational register.

– Doug Frank

Ashland, Oreg.

CATHOLICS AND “IDOLS”

– As a Roman Catholic and frequent reader of CT, I was appalled to read the story in the December 11 issue about one Sergio Van Helder repeatedly kicking and hitting the statue of Our Lady of Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil. As upsetting as that was, I was further incensed by the final sentence of Ted Olsen’s story: “[T]he Bible explicitly forbids the worship of idols and images.” The implication is that Catholics do so. Catholics are frequently the butt of this bugaboo by those either ignorant of Catholicism or blinded by bigotry. Von Helder seems to suffer from both. What is disconcerting is that CT thought it fit to get in its jab as well.

– Mark Plaiss

LaPorte, Ind.

GRAHAM’S CONVERSION

In his 1991 hardback first edition of “Prophet with Honor,” Billy Graham biographer William Martin reported the conversion of Graham as occurring both in 1934 (p. 219) and in 1935 (p. 52). In a “correction” published in the Fall 1993 issue of Evangelical Studies Bulletin, Martin asserted that the correct year was actually 1936. In his 1992 paperback edition, Martin consistently cited 1934. I see now in the November 13 issue of ct that he gives the date as 1933.

For those who may wish to know the correct year, follow the daily press accounts of Mordecai Ham’s 11-week revival as published in the Charlotte Observer–the correct year is 1934. The correct month was probably November. The day and the hour, no man knoweth.

– James Lutzweiler

Jamestown, N.C.

WYCLIFFE AND THE CIA: PART III

A response by Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett, the authors of “Thy Will be Done,” to “Wycliffe Denies CIA Connection” appeared in CT December 11. I would like to respond to the authors’ four statements. (1) In a statement to me (Dec. 11), Lawrence Montgomery says he was in the employ of National Air Communications Systems after he went on leave from SIL in 1961 to attempt to sell Helios to various governments and that he never received a cia paycheck. During the leave period he was not under supervision of sil and resigned completely from sil in April 1962. (2) Former SIL leaders in Ecuador report that airplane services were available to all without discrimination. SIL Ecuador did not knowingly collaborate with a Green Beret counterinsurgency survey. (3) In Vietnam, linguistic surveys were crucial to determine where linguistic, literacy, and translation programs were. Such academic materials were always made public and were not for purposes of collaboration with a Pentagon project. (4) At times Wycliffe members have remained silent in the face of grievous government actions in order to be able to continue their service to ethnic people.

Criticisms such as the above are what led Elizabeth Cobbs, author of “The Rich Neighbor Policy: Rockefeller and Kaiser in Brazil,” to write in “The Christian Century” (Nov. 1): “These criticisms suggest that sil should have been a human rights organization . . . and that Indians should never have been studied because new information can benefit the bad guys as well as the good guys.”

– Arthur Lightbody

Public Relations Officer

Wycliffe Bible Translators

Editor’s note: In the letter from Charlotte Dennett and Gerard Colby referred to above [ct, Dec. 11, 1995], Lawrence Montgomery was said to have taken a leave of absence from JAARS in 1981; the correct date is 1961.

Editor’s note II: When searching for a photograph of the late Richard C. Halverson, former Senate chaplain, for the January 8 Reflections page, we mistakenly pulled out a photo of former Wheaton College music professor Clayton Halvorsen, who is retired and currently living in Florida. Our apologies to all concerned.

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