“A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of Communism.” So wrote Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx in their celebrated Communist Manifesto published in 1848. If that document were published today it would have to be amended to read: “A spectre is haunting the world—the spectre of Communism.” More than one billion souls have now come under the rule of Communist governments—one-third of the world’s population.

One of the notable characteristics of Marxist tyranny in every country where it has become securely established is its unflagging hostility to religion in every form, and especially to the Christian faith. This is not surprising since, working for human freedom, religion has ever been one of the strongest factors in history. Men and women who believe in God and his government of the world are not good material for any form of slavery. That is why all dictators who wish to make individual citizens subject to the dictatorship of the state, realize that first they must destroy or silence the Christian churches and ministers within their bounds.

The Marxist Cornerstone

This is how Lenin expressed himself on Marx’s dictum, “Religion is the opium of the people”:

“This dictum of Marx is the corner-stone of the entire Marxist world outlook concerning the problem of religion. All contemporary religions, churches and all types of religious organizations, Marxism forever looks upon as organs of bourgeois reaction serving to defend the exploitation and stultifying of the working class.” Lenin, Stalin, Malenkov, and now Khrushchev have steadfastly fashioned their attitude to religion by this statement. There has never been a softening of this rigid dictum except as the hand of Soviet leadership has been forced to relax its pressure.

Always there have been those observers of the Russian scene who assure us that Soviet opposition to religion was prompted by the unquestioned corruption of the Orthodox Church and especially by the fact that the church permitted itself to become a tool of tzarist tyranny. If only these leading Marxists could come to know some of the enlightened manifestations of our Western brand of Christianity, their attitude would undergo a decided change, say these observers.

A Mistaken Diagnosis

This, however, is a mistaken diagnosis. Some years ago Professor Julius F. Hecker, a native Russian and a teacher in a Soviet university, wrote these revealing words on the subject of religion:

There is a tendency among some writers on Communism to ignore the religious issue or to regard it a misunderstanding, interpreting Communist opposition to organized religion as an opposition to the abuses of religion but not to religion in its pure state. This is a great error. Communists, particularly Lenin, have always emphasized that reformed, modernized, socialized and every other improved religion is worse than the old Orthodox reactionary religion.…

Religion in every shape and form, and especially Christianity, is regarded by Communism as its archenemy.

Only once did Stalin ever relax his unrelenting opposition to Christianity, and then only when circumstances forced him to do so. When Hitler invaded Russia on June 22, 1941, he already had trained Orthodox priests standing ready to take over and operate the churches throughout the newly acquired territory. In addition, he broadcast in the Russian language that religion would soon be completely free throughout the Soviet Union. What a caricature of the truth Adolf Hitler, Liberator of Religion! At this moment 1,300 German pastors were behind bars in his own Reich. When Stalin learned that his people were going over to the enemy, he became frightened almost out of his wits and began to give a larger measure of freedom to the Russian churches. He sent his emissaries into the Russian mines, internment camps, and the frozen reaches of Siberia to ferret out almost-forgotten Orthodox priests and bring them back to newly opened churches. It might have fared ill with Stalin and his government had not the Metropolitan Nikolai come forward and urged the Russian people to rally to the motherland’s defense and rout the Nazi invaders.

Ever since these events the Soviet government has been more lenient with the Orthodox Church and its leadership, while at the same time steadily working to circumvent everything for which the church of Christ stands.

Stalin’s cynical attitude toward religion was revealed in 1942 when his government printed in English a beautifully bound book purporting to show the important place religion held in Russian life. This author was one of those who received a copy of the book. It was bound in sky-blue cloth, edged with gold, with many pages of artistically printed photographs. What gave the show away was a line of small print on the back page, bearing this information: “Put out by the Anti-religious Press of the U.S.S.R.” Several thousand of these had been posted before the censor discovered this unintentional blunder.

Turning The Tide

What can we Christians do to turn in our favor the tide that has been running with such strength toward Communism?

1. We should seek to recapture the spirit of first-century Christianity with its passionate proclamation of Christ’s inevitable triumph. Present-day Christians, by and large, have lost this note of conviction. Our leadership speaks with uncertain trumpets, and the masses of Christians are not preparing themselves for battle. We lack the spirit of confident militancy and are characterized by confusion, disunity, dubiety, and defeatism. It is the Communists who tell the world that the forces of history are on their side—that the wave of the future is sweeping them on to victory. It is the Communists who manifest confidence and tireless enthusiasm. They mean business. We do not. We plod wearily on—or merely mark time. It is the Communists who are sending out the greatest number of missionaries into all quarters of the globe, trained technicians who move into every vacuum that our apathy creates. We appear to lack both the will and the strategy of victory.

Where is that holy zeal that enabled the early Christians to vanquish the ancient gods of paganism and within three hundred years to lift the cross of the despised Galilean higher than Rome’s proud eagles?

Professor T. R. Glover, in an oft-quoted passage, puts the matter succinctly: the Christians “out lived,” “out died,” and “out thought” the pagans. They beat them all hollow in living, says Glover. Would to God that the same could be said today.

Christianity has not failed, but we have failed. Faith in their crucified but risen Lord freed all the true Christians of the fear of death and inspired them to stand defiantly before governors, magistrates, and kings. This spiritual dynamic saved the world once. By the grace of God it can save the world again.

2. We ought to choose carefully the battleground on which we will meet our adversary. Up to the present, Marxist strategists have induced us to meet them on their ground. Millions of Americans followed with absorbed attention the discussions that took place a few years ago between Mr. Khrushchev and representatives of our government and of American business. The Russian leader told us industrial production had made such unprecedented advances in so short a period in the Soviet Union that backward and uncommitted peoples, marvelling at this materialistic triumph, would cast in their lot with the Communists. In the foreseeable future, said the Russian leader, Marxism will win the whole world to its banner without recourse to war.

And what did our representatives say in reply? They talked of America’s materialistic might, her industrial strength, her monumental production, her high standard of living with comforts and luxuries undreamed of by any other people in history. An American government official remarked to Mr. Khrushchev that the strongest nation is the one “whose people are the best fed, the best clothed, and the best housed.” The Soviet leader could go back and report to his people that America is more materialistic than the Soviet Union.

Did that spokesman for the American people truly state our case? Was it the abundance of material things in this land that for more than a hundred years caused oppressed peoples all around the world to look to this nation as the champion of human freedom and the defender of the rights of man? Was it material resources and wealth upon which our forefathers laid the foundations of this great republic—or was it rather great moral and spiritual principles, from which we have drawn our strength through successive generations?

Why didn’t our representatives ask Mr. Khrushchev, in the hearing of all the world, when the Soviet government would be prepared to give to the Russian people and Soviet satellite nations the right to choose their own leaders and their own form of government? Why did they not ask him when he and his politbureau intended to fulfill Marx’s prophecy of the “withering away” of governmental tyranny—monopoly and political absolutism? The thing that Marx most feared was that the monopoly of the party would become the monopoly of a small oligarchy and the dictatorship of the oligarchy end in a tyrant who would become a kind of irresponsible and (in the case of Stalin) bloodthirsty monster, from whose decrees there could be no slightest hope of appeal.

We must remind the Russian people, and indeed all nations, that the Soviet system with its athestic absolutism denies man’s individuality before God. We must affirm and reaffirm those spiritual principles upon which Christian democracy rests: belief in the dignity and worth of every human being; in the priceless value of human freedom; in the brotherhood of man based upon the Fatherhood of God; in those inalienable rights of the individual that have come to us, not from the hand of a dictator but as the gift of the Creator when he fashioned man in his own image and likeness.

The great postulates of freedom must be proclaimed, not once or twice or even a score of times but hundreds of times, until they become deeply implanted in the conscience of mankind.

3. We must insure that in our own lives and in our national life we do not contradict the very precepts we proclaim. One of our truly urgent tasks is to close the gap between our profession of equal opportunity and justice for all classes and races within our own borders, and our too-frequent practical denials of these high ideals. The Communists are forcing us to become a better people.

A special responsibility rests upon Protestant Christianity, which in the past has so often provided the leadership for spiritual and social advance, to manifest once again its concern for the sacredness of personality and human rights. Our churches, in which millions of people assemble each week, may well become the spearhead of a new spiritual reformation that will combat and root out moral flabbiness manifested in a national obsession with sex, a low estimate of marital vows and fidelity, preoccupation with material success, failure to recognize the dignity of labor, and an inordinate love of pleasure and mass entertainment.

We have lost faith in ourselves and in those lofty national purposes that have ever been our inspiration and hope in the past because we have been losing faith in God and his providential ordering of the world. The leadership of mankind will not be secured simply by the possession of megaton bombs—though we must not relax our vigilance—but by the nation that is dedicated to moral and spiritual ends which are bigger and more important than itself and its material possessions. In the face of a resolute, dedicated, disciplined, God-fearing people, mountains of difficulty will become a plain across which they shall speed to their divinely appointed goal.

END

MISSION TO THE WORLD

There is a paramount need for distribution of Bibles and Christian literature not only to meet the needs and the yearnings of the uncommitted world but as well to meet the pagan propaganda in the vast amount of Communist literature which is everywhere being distributed. Without the truth being available, Communism in this way mobilizes the thinking and hearts of its victims.

Above all, what is needed today is a renewed and vital Christian faith. The Christian believes in individual worth and dignity and the sacredness of the human personality.

Mankind today faces a struggle between the forces of religion and irreligion, between the forces of good and the forces of evil in the terms of ultimate human destiny.

The strongest power we possess is the practice of the Christian religion with its cardinal tenets of love, dignity, humility, and faith.

The Communist challenge covers religious, social, political, economic, and military fronts, and lays a tremendous burden on those who believe in spiritual values.

Can it then be said that the day of the individual or group missionary effort is past?

Mass Christianity of the Christian nations does not “rub off” on others who need it. It depends on personal relationships between God and man—and between man and man. To meet man’s hunger and need it demands the constant reinforcement of the zeal of dedicated individuals. It is in this, more than in any other aspect, that Christianity differs from other religions. It is personal religion, a religion that must be enshrined in the soul as well as the mind—and that, for all practical purposes, means that it must be renewed again and again in each individual.

The missionary zeal of individual Christians is the hope there is for the bringing about of a better world in time to stem the tide of that other world force which is the very opposite of everything that is Christian—the ominous and ever-threatening tide of materialism, whose political arm is International Communism.

It is sometimes said that a world struggle is being waged for men’s minds, but it is more than that. It is a struggle for men’s souls. Therein lies the assurance of ultimate victory. Here and there Communism may for a time win the minds of men, but it can never win their souls. What the Man of Galilee came to tell the world two thousand years ago is the need of today.…

The world needs the acceptance of the fundamental principles which Christ gave to mankind to meet the problems of mankind. In this age, one of the watersheds of history, Christian men and women need courage re-inforced on faith, for all history shows that however evil may have triumphed over short periods of time, good has ultimately triumphed.

We need a renewed realization that “except the Lord build the house they labour in vain that build it.”

Believing this, I have constantly advocated the need for provision being made for a room for prayer and meditation in the Parliament Buildings, similar to that established by the United States Congress. The Prayer Room in Washington is only a small room 17 feet by 18 feet. Its overall concept is: “This nation under God.” The concept rests for its greatness on the open, massive Bible. It signifies the need for divine guidance and blessing. A similar room will shortly be available in Ottawa.—Prime Minister JOHN G. DIEFENBAKER of Canada in remarks to the assembly of the Baptist Federation of Canada.

A missionary said one time that the Devil never laughs so heartily as when he can get Christians fighting on the wrong front, for then he has the main field to himself. You could hardly find a better description of what has been happening to Christianity in its struggle with Communism. We have been fighting too many secondary battles and we have too often lost sight of the main conflict. I believe that Communism is not primarily economics or politics, but religion. I believe that a false religion can be overthrown only by true religion. I believe that in this contemporary struggle—the most serious we have faced in a thousand years—we shall win or lose according to the strength or weakness of our Christian faith.

If the struggle is merely political, then we may expect the State Department to save us. If it is economic, we may trust the National Association of Manufacturers to lead us. If it is military, then the Pentagon will give the orders. But if it is essentially a spiritual and moral conflict, then the Christian church must be held responsible for the outcome.

In Russia, I observed so many signs of a rival religion that it was frightening. The State becomes God, and the secular rites take the place of the holy sacraments. A materialistic, earthly paradise is substituted for the kingdom of God, and individualism is original sin. There is zeal, loyalty bordering on the fanatical, and a sense of purpose and unity. I can still hear a young guide saying earnestly to me, “If my English were better and I had more time, I could convince you that the future is ours.” And that future is to be a materialistic paradise.

I am not too worried about Communism as a political system, although it has won some notable victories. But I believe democracy can outlast it and that men who have known freedom will not long endure tyranny. Communism as an economic system has certain undeniable strengths, but in the long run, the victory will go to free enterprise, and even Communism itself—its theory to the contrary—makes concessions in that direction. The scientific and military advances made by the Soviets are astounding, but I have faith in our brains and ability to more than hold our own in this rivalry.

My chief concern is the enthusiasm, the unity, the willingness to sacrifice, the sense of purpose, the puritanism, and the faith in the future which mark Communism. In such a fight there can be no quick, decisive victory, and the struggle must be waged in the daily life of men. This is the first century again, and the Christian church faces strong, entrenched, vigorous foes. This is A.D. 312 with Christians seeking desperately for another Constantine and a vision of the flaming cross in the sky as the promise of victory. It is A.D. 732 with a longing for another Charles Martel and another victory at Tours. But we must not wait for salvation from warriors, and the churches must gird themselves to take the offensive. For we shall not win with a continuation of our defensive tactics. It is time to hurl Christianity’s challenge straight at Communism and invade its strongholds. While it will sound naїve to many, I believe our defense must be worship and our offense must be evangelism.

Raising A Banner

We begin with God, for he is our refuge and our hope. Unless we understand this and act upon our understanding, we have no adequate protection against Communism’s advance, and we have no basis for destroying it. The real battle cry is sounded every Sunday morning when a congregation of Christians stand together and proclaim, “We believe in God the Father Almighty.…” This is no perfunctory, unimportant act, but the raising of the banner and the blowing of the trumpet.

For against tyranny with its attempt to control our souls, “a mighty fortress is our God.” How wonderful is the testimony of the Psalms and how inspiring is the example of Israel! God is a hiding place, and no matter how fierce the pagan attacks, we find our safety in him.

God is not only a fortress but he is an invader. He comes into human life through the Law, the Prophets, and the Word. But he comes primarily in Jesus Christ our Lord, and he enters every phase of human life and experience. He moves through men into the center of the evil condition. The history of Christianity has been a story of invasion—of going into all the world. We are not a people called upon to merely defend what we value and build the big barns for our increase. We are to enter a new kingdom and claim the whole world—yes, and outer space—for the King.

It is now time for the Christian church to get off dead center and move the civilization which it has created into an affirmative mood. We have sulked in our tents long enough while fearfully whining about our problems. No nation, including Soviet Russia, is to be out of bounds so far as our offensive is concerned. We have seen what life becomes without God, and we have watched a world sink into despair in its pride and hatred. Communism is a judgment against us. Now, on an aggressive spiritual basis, we must sound again the cry of the Crusades: “God wills it.” When Isaiah said “the crooked ways shall be made straight,” he did not imply this was to be done by a government committee. This is the Church’s task, and only Christianity can challenge atheistic Communism at its most vulnerable point.

In the year 1944, the Yugoslav leader Milovan Djilas visited Moscow and consulted with Stalin. He notes in a recent book (Conversation with Stalin, Harcourt, Brace and World) that the doctrinaire Communists had been shocked to discover that in the crisis the people turned to the Church. It was the great statements of faith that reached their hearts with freshness and vigor. The government propaganda slogans seemed tired and stale in comparison. The words that set men on their feet and start them marching are always words about God.

Our ally is the human spirit, and strangely enough, it has been the Communists themselves who have shown us this truth. Their successes have not been attained by outproducing us or by contributing more to the underdeveloped nations. They have put more emphasis on hope, and they have shown a keen perception of the truth that man does not live by bread alone, even when he is hungry, although this denies their theory.

We have done a poor job in telling the world the kind of society we have built in America. It is easy to paint a dark picture of our failures, which, so far as it goes, may be true. But what free men have accomplished in establishing individual dignity and social responsibility in this country is one of the greatest stories ever told. It is not merely coincidental that this fruit has ripened on the Reformation tree. If the masses of men seek participation and recognition, then our attack must be on a system that sees them merely as servants of the State. Our promise is not only that men may sit under their own vine and fig tree, but that they may live in a society which recognizes that every man has the right to equal justice and equal status before the law.

What are the uncommitted people seeking? Primarily, I believe, they seek recognition as free nations and free persons. They want a better economic life for themselves and their families, but they are breathing the heady air of liberty. So they make mistakes and often seem amazingly unaware of obligations. But the revolutions have been inspired by the Gospel, and Christian teaching has certainly been subversive from the viewpoint of police states like Angola and Mozambique. But as far as propaganda power is concerned, the Christian Gospel makes the Communist promises about as alluring as ten cents’ worth of cold potatoes. The great answer for those who are hoping to be somebody is in the One who came to give us life. As John says, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God” (1:12, RSV).

In the face of an almost universal drive for independence and freedom, Christianity challenges the sentimental basis on which this drive too often rests. The people under colonial domination have often assumed that the removal of the outside powers will give them freedom. It has not worked that way, and we watch small nations trade an imported tyranny for a domestic one. The Communist doctrine is that freedom comes when one class is substituted for another, as if virtue were an economic affair. A visit behind the Iron Curtain reveals a sullen, sad, proletarian atmosphere that is as different from the free societies of the West as darkness from light. All men are sinners, as the Bible makes clear, and all men are the victims of a lust for power. Only the democratic doctrine that no man is good enough to be trusted with unchecked power over another will ever establish a free society. And this stems out of the Church’s doctrine that each man is of final importance but all men sin.

It has never seemed more obvious to me than just now that the conflict is spiritual and religious. No single concentration of physical power will protect us. We have to make clear to ourselves and to the enemy that our faith in God revealed through Jesus Christ has brought us through crises as great as this one. The Christian faith changes men, creates new societies, and lifts them to new moral heights. It is that power which sustains us in the perilous fight. For no matter what the immediate future may be, we know that the ultimate triumph is in God and in Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. This faith is the assurance that even Communism’s successes are but steps toward its ultimate failure, while even our own setbacks are but incidents along the road to final victory.

END

The American people have been buoyed up by Khrushchev’s backdown in Cuba and by the apparent split between China and Russia.

This may be false security. An official high in the Kennedy administration told me, “This could possibly be a trap to lull us to sleep again while the Communists consolidate their positions, heal their differences, and plan new strategy for world domination.”

Who would have thought three years ago that Russian generals would command a well-armed and well-disciplined army only 90 miles from American shores? Who would have thought that the four-power government of Berlin would be split by a wall, or that American troops would be fighting in a Southeast Asian war, or that China would dare to attack neutralist India?

I have just returned from touring most of the countries of Latin America, where we encountered some harsh facts. Castro’s agents are busy everywhere, and in some places such as Venezuela and Guatemala they have resorted to terrorism. I was in Latin America during the Cuban crisis, and I found leaders were not so much afraid of the rocket and missile bases as they were of the continued Communist subversion activities.

Few of the articles which I have seen lately have emphasized one very important point. In spite of a few recent reverses, the Communists have been winning during the last 15 years. This is the unvarnished truth, and it is time we faced it squarely. It is difficult for us Americans sitting in the quietness of our living rooms watching television to comprehend what has been taking place in other parts of the world. Because of America’s heritage of political freedom and our long-standing respect for constitutional law, both of them by-products of the Christian faith, we have thus far been spared the chaos and confusion that Communism has engendered in many parts of the world.

From my vantage point of world travel, the view is far from encouraging. During the past few years I have talked to a number of Communist leaders in several parts of the world. I am convinced that we face a titanic, self-confident movement that may never take “No” for an answer, that in its drive toward world domination it has little intention of stopping or giving up. While there may be a vast difference between the Soviet and Chinese brands of Communism, yet when the chips are down they will probably be united. The thing that unites them is their ultimate goal of building a kingdom on earth without God. They plan to build a world totally unlike anything history has ever known. Their methods of obtaining this goal may differ, but their objective remains the same. During the past few years, when the free world finally struck back after a long series of aggravations in such places as Guatemala, Berlin, Korea, and even Cuba, the Communist machine has merely paused, regrouped, and started using other tactics. They have often used smiles—employed “peace”—which led to Western relaxation, only to frown suddenly and resume aggression. These situations have not upset the table of conquest; they have only slowed the pace of operation temporarily.

We of the free world can discuss, we can debate, we can suggest, we can appease, we can exchange notes, we can beat our breasts, we can analyze our failures, we can issue ultimatums, but not a single one of these things has managed to halt the Red Tide during the past 20 years.

When we seek summit meetings to reduce international tensions, we realize the Communists have little intention of making concessions unless it is to their advantage to do so. We have also learned from sad experience that they do not tell the truth. Mr. Gromyko sat in Mr. Kennedy’s office and brazenly told him there were no offensive weapons in Cuba when American intelligence already had proof that there were.

When we try to increase mutual understanding through the churches, we often find our Christian efforts treated like imperialist propaganda. A European bishop and respected leader in the ecumenical movement told me that the World Council of Churches has become in measure one more theater of conflict in the cold war. This was certainly evident both at New Delhi and at the Central Committee’s recent discussion of the Ghana problem in Paris. The World Council finds it difficult to rebuke the Communist world for fear of “offending” the churches in Eastern Europe.

Thus at every turn Western man finds himself frustrated in his efforts to maintain his freedom and identity in the oncoming tide. His appeals to reason are lost in the verbal avalanche that sweeps from the other side. His outlays for needy neighbors are often used to turn these neighbors against him. The words “freedom” and “democracy” and their defense have become confused by the other side’s use of the same terms to explain its plan of enslavement. Very little seems to work.

In the face of such a juggernaut what shall we do?

Searching The Future

Many Bible students are beginning to search the Scriptures anew in terms of eschatology. Dr. Markus Barth of the University of Chicago recently startled a chapel audience at Harvard University with an address on “The Second Coming of Christ.”

The question that many students of the Bible are asking is simply this: Are the present days of crisis prophesied in Scripture? Even a casual investigation would seem to indicate that the Bible warns of a time of turmoil and trouble such as the world has never known. A predicted period of crisis was the burden of Christ’s prophetic ministry. He even ventured so far in the Olivet discourse as to look ahead through the centuries and mark out the major movements that would transpire throughout the entire age of the Church. As one theologian summarized His words:

“The age would start with bitter persecution of His followers. There would be wars and commotions, but this would be no indication of the imminence of the end. The age would conclude with the return of the Son of Man with power and great glory.”

Christ warned the disciples not to be deceived; he exhorted them to possess their souls in patience, and when certain predicted events came to pass to look up, knowing that their redemption was drawing nigh. In this same passage Jesus warned against our “hearts being overcharged with surfeiting.” He urged us to be ever watching and praying. He indicated that “those who become involved with the sin of the present order will neither watch nor pray, and their spiritual senses will be overtaken with sluggishness. They will be unable to peer through the darkness of the midnight and catch the first faint glimmer of dawn.” There is no doubt in my mind that the great upheavals predicted at the climax of history will be preceded by certain manifestations that indicate their nearness. Spiritual Christians who search the Scriptures will be able to read the signs of the times.

Up to now the Church—particularly in the United States—has tended to live in a dream world. I find that the Church on the rim of the Communist world is far more “aware” than we are.

Are we perhaps under the spell of some diabolical spiritual power? There is an unmistakable mystery in all this. The Bible speaks of the “mystery of iniquity,” and the power of antichrist. Could it be that our apathy is a strategy of those principalities and powers that war against the souls of men? The Scriptures teach, “Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved … for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie” (2 Thess. 2:10b, 11).

Could it be that Communism is some vast judgment that God will allow to fall on the West for the deep moral rot that has infected almost every country? Will history repeat itself? Concerning Israel, who had rejected the truth and gone into immorality and idolatry, 2 Chronicles 36 says: “God sent his messenger the prophet to warn the people because of his great love for them, but they mocked the messenger of God, despised his word, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy.” Therefore “he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees.” In other words, God allowed a great pagan king to bring judgment upon his own people. Jesus said, “To whom much is given, much is required.” The English-speaking world and Western Europe have had far more spiritual light than any other nations in the world’s history. Except for a dedicated minority, we are rejecting that light intellectually and morally.

Events of the present hour should shock the Church into renewed dedication and vigorous action. It is reported that on the day that the Bolshevik Revolution began in Russia, church leaders in Moscow were wrangling over what color to paint the walls of a certain cathedral.

Loss Of Initiative

My second observation concerning Communism and the present world crisis is this: It seems to me that in the face of materialism’s appalling gains the Church has retreated into a defensive position. Some of us have panicked as we have viewed with horror the rise and spread of the anti-God colossus of materialism at home and of Communism abroad. So we have become defenders rather than crusaders. We are on the defensive rather than the offensive. I personally think we have spent far too much time in apologetics, and not enough in declaration. The early Church did not defend the faith; they propagated it. Christ needs no defense. He needs to be proclaimed! He needs to be exemplified in human personality. He needs to be lived!

This genius marked the early Church. They took Jesus’ words literally: “And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men nigh unto me.”

Rome was the “Moscow” of Christ’s day, and the goal of Roman imperialism was to bring the world under its dominion. In many ways, of course, Communism cannot be compared to Rome. For one thing, Communism has all the modern psychological techniques of “brainwashing.” It also has modern weapons whereby a relative few can control an entire nation. (Only 3 per cent of the people of the Soviet Union are Communists.) Despite the tyranny of Rome, however, I read no speeches in the Bible by Peter, John, or Paul against the political regime of their day. They preached Christ and they preached Christ alone. They declared his Lordship and his Redeemership, and did it within the context of a tyranny that eventually imprisoned and killed them. Their powerful Christian thrust was shortly to shatter the Roman imperial colossus, and to inaugurate the Christian era.

We are living in one of the most challenging periods of history. It has been my privilege to preach the Gospel in every part of the world, and in every area I have found dedicated followers of Jesus Christ. I have seen thousands of all races and speaking many languages march forward on every continent to receive Christ as Saviour. This age is a great time to be alive. These are days of unusual opportunity. Never before have we had such wonderful tools for propagating the faith.

Dwight L. Moody once said: “I look upon this world as a wrecked vessel. Its ruin is getting nearer and nearer. God said to me: ‘Moody, here is a lifeboat; … rescue as many as you can before the crash comes.’ ”

The Lord Of History

Another thing we must remember is that Christ is the Lord of history. “He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” The calendar cannot contain him. Nothing takes him by surprise! Kingdoms are shattered, nations crumble, systems fall in the wake of him who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He shall have the final word, the final reign, the final glory, and the final judgment! Nothing, not even the gates of hell, can prevent his triumph.

Even today, in the Soviet Union, Jesus Christ is causing trouble! Newsweek recently reported: “American church leaders have been returning from the Soviet Union with reports of unexpected vitality in Russian religious worship. But the trend may be a fleeting one. The Communist party announced last week an accelerated drive against religion, including a major campaign for the popularization of atheism.”

The atheistic regime is disturbed by the undercurrent of Christian belief that persists despite redoubled efforts to stamp Christ out of the people’s conscience. Thus, by asserting his mastery of the present, Christ again vindicates his Lordship of history.

Until the day of his final victory and consummation there will be many upheavals and wars and rumors of wars. The Church may undergo persecution to an extent and with an intensity the world has never known. It is not impossible that the tide of Communism and materialism now sweeping the world may be motivated by the winds of divine judgment. In turn, however, God’s judgment will also descend upon the world of atheism, materialism, and worldliness. If the Scriptures are clear at all they are certainly clear on this point: “The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ.”

The Holy Spirit has kept me from the horrible abyss of thinking that man by his own accomplishment would bring all things to perfection. Instead, the Bible teaches that left to himself, sinful man will bring about all the disasters announced in its pages. It could well be that the weaknesses of the West, together with the failure of the Church, have made possible the strength of Communism.

The Christian posture should be one not of defense, but of preparation for “that day.” These should be days of personal rededication; of retreat into the closet of prayer; of girding our children for days of possible persecution because of their faith. I personally find myself studying far less for sermon preparation these days and more for devotional purposes, and pray that I may be worthy to suffer for Him if he so decrees.

The Church needs to develop an atmosphere in which martyrs are made. As Lester DeKoster has said, “The church’s whispers must become shouts; her lethargy must become enthusiasm; and her subdued light must become a beacon set upon the hilltops of the world.”

While she still has opportunity, the Church should evangelize with new vigor and call nations to repentance from sin to avert the coming crisis. The progress of history is not inevitable. Not even the progress of judgment is inevitable. When God decided to judge Nineveh, he sent Jonah to preach repentance. Nineveh repented of her sin and judgment was spared. Said Isaiah the prophet: “Except the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.”

When and in what measure judgment shall fall will be determined by the depth of the Church’s dedication to her Lord. Can we say that the Church as it exists in the United States is made up of God’s people? Are we the ones of whom the Scripture declares: “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” (Rev. 12:11)?

END

ULTIMATE GOAL—Communists—in all countries—oppose religion because they do not recognize any authority beyond the human.… The [Soviet] regime tolerates a limited number of open churches. But there is no doubt that this toleration is a temporary expedient, and that the ultimate goal is to eliminate religion as a force in the Communist society.—“Religion Survives Against Heavy Odds in the U.S.S.R.,” Senior Scholastic, January 10, 1962, p. 20.

MOSCOW’S METHOD—In its over-all attempt to destroy the Catholic Church, the Communist regime of Walter Ulbricht is sedulously imitating the methods of his mentors and protectors in Moscow. First of all, pressure is exerted to deprive the Church of its most precious prerogatives: to instruct the faithful in the teachings of Jesus Christ, to maintain religious schools.… Finally, Communist regimes try to establish dissident “national churches,” which they manipulate brazenly in their all-out attempt to eradicate religion.—WALTER DUSHNYCK, “The Catholic Church in East Germany Today,” The Catholic World, April, 1962, p. 14.

COMMUNIST MISSION—Communism in American churches has gone shockingly far!… In 1942 I was ordered by the Party to maintain strong ties with the Baptist church.… I discovered that in Boston the Party had … a special subversive cell of hardened, disciplined, trained agents of Stalin, men who were ministers …!—HERBERT A. PHILBRICK, “The Communists Are after Your Church!,” Christian Herald.

FBI UNDERCOVER AGENT—Mrs. Brown also contributed information relating to the infiltration of church organizations and the use of such organizations for fund-raising, propaganda, and recruiting purposes.—Synopsis, “Communist Activities in the Cleveland, Ohio, Area,” Hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities, June 4 and 5, 1962.

MASKING ITS FACE—The Party is today engaged in a systematic program to infiltrate American religious groups.… The Party’s objectives are several: 1. To gain “respectability”: “… a church is the best front we can have”.… 2. To provide an opportunity for the subtle dissemination of communist propaganda.… 3. To make contact with youth.… 4. To exploit the church in the Party’s day-to-day agitational program.… 5. To enlarge the area of Party contacts.… 6. To influence clergymen.… If he can, by conversion, influence, or trickery, be made to support the communist program once or a few times or many times, the Party gains.… The church, in communist eyes, is an “enemy” institution to be infiltrated, subverted, and bent to serve Party aims.—J. EDGAR HOOVER, Masters of Deceit, Henry Holt & Co., 1958, pp. 325 f.

In Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism, a textbook prepared by Soviet scholars in Moscow and currently being used by members of the Communist Party, U.S.A., this statement appears:

Materialists do not expect aid from supernatural forces. Their faith is in man, in his ability to transform the world by his own efforts and make it worthy of himself.

Here, in essence, is a basic appeal of Communism—a powerfully deceptive yet attractive appeal—that Communism realizes the true dignity of man, enables him to reach the pinnacles of spiritual achievement not possible in any other way. The word “spiritual” is often used by Communist writers, as, for example, when the same textbook states:

In the proletariat the Marxist world outlook has found its material weapon, just as the proletariat has found in Marxism its spiritual weapon.

This Communist emphasis that Marxism-Leninism realizes the dignity of man is a constant refrain of Party literature. “The dominant characteristics of the Communist man,” one Party organ states, “will be an all-embracing humanity and comradeship, a higher sense of freedom, personal initiative and a creative approach to life.” Another Party writer proclaims that Communism “for the first time … gave man the realization of his dignity and intellect.” Nikita Khrushchev, speaking about the Program adopted last year by the Twenty-second Congress of the Russian Communist Party, stated:

The Program is permeated from beginning to end with one aim—“Everything for the sake of man, everything for the benefit of man.”

This exaltation of man, that is, Communist Man, as he allegedly will be trained by the Party, gives a dynamic power to Communism—a power which we overlook at our peril.

Why does it work to the advantage of the Communists? Because the Party, utilizing this appeal, claims—very falsely—that it is working for the welfare of the individual man, woman, and child. “The Communist Party … champions the … interests of the workers, farmers, the Negro people and all others who labor by hand and brain …,” proclaims the latest Party constitution. Party leaders tirelessly assert that Communism takes its stand to end the exploitation of man by man, of class by class, of group by group. “One who is a Communist does not easily affirm that he belongs among the great and millions-strong army of the known and the unknown Communists who … have organized the poor and down-trodden, the oppressed and the despised, the hated and the vilified … who have led in the building of magnificent societies, infinitely better than those they replaced, in one-third the globe. To count oneself part of this most noble and sacred company is no small thing.”

This theme in jingled even in the “poem” of a Chinese “revolutionary” writer who proclaims:

I walk through the street in fetters,

My aspiration becomes even loftier.

I risked a prisoner’s fate,

That workers and peasants may be free.

In this false appeal, the Communists are confronting-directly and openly—our religious traditions. Though the Party proclaims, in open propaganda in this country, that it has no quarrel with religion, it is in actuality saying: “Look, churchmen, you proclaim that you desire to help the poor, the underprivileged, the unhappy. You say that you want to see man grow in nobility. But what have you done? Nothing but make his lot even more miserable. Don’t you know that religion is based on superstition and folk tales? The Church is an inextricable thread in the fabric of capitalism, doomed to destruction along with that debased culture. You are not helping man, but actually degrading him. Admit that religion is an opiate, mere ‘spiritual gin,’ obscuring rather than solving the problems of human existence, making man weak and timid, instead of strong and vigorous.”

Whereas Western bourgeois ideology is caught in a desperate crisis of disbelief in man and the future of civilization, the Marxist-Leninist world outlook inspires a desire to work for noble social ideals.

Here is the measure of the Communist thrust against the Church today. Here is the fanaticism of the Chinese Communist poet who wrote:

The enemy can only cut off our heads,

He cannot shake our faith,

For the doctrine we hold

Is the truth of the universe.

Or the Party poet who proclaimed:

We are young Bolsheviks,

Everything about us is like iron and steel:

Our thinking,

Our speech,

Our discipline!

The Plight Of Communist Man

Perhaps, however, that young poet, in his Communist enthusiasm, unwittingly betrays the inner meaning of the Marxist-Leninist exaltation of man when he uses the words “everything about us is like iron and steel.” For, indeed, if we look penetratingly at the Communist profession of faith in man, in its alleged concern for the plight of the human personality, we find a ghastly chamber of clanking iron and rusty steel. Communism, in actuality, is completely uninterested in man as an individual, as a living entity, as a child of God. The tragic irony of this mid-twentieth century decade is the heart-rending dichotomy between the vaunted claims of Communism to exalt man and its actual relentless and perverse subjugation of him to inhuman tyranny, with millions of men, women, and children behind the Iron Curtain being encased in a Communist strait jacket of conformity, meaninglessness, and spiritual impotence, all in the name of making man the master of his fate!

Here is the Communist confrontation of the Christian church. Communism is a false secular religion. As such, it is attempting to expropriate the outgoing love, concern, and humanitarianism which, over the years, have been the inner heart of the Christian faith. Though bitterly atheistic, Communism claims to bring to a higher degree of perfection basic moral principles than does the Church! In the name of love it is forging chains of hate; in the name of humanitarianism it is fashioning inhumanity; in the name of freedom it is imposing tyranny.

Actually, both in Communist theory and Communist practice, man is viewed not as an exalted but as a servile creature. The Soviet authors of Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism, in a discussion of materialism and idealism, say: “Man is only a particle of multiform nature.” “What has raised him high above the level of the animal world?” ask the authors. The answer is explicit—and herein lies the true Communist conception of man: “His life and labor as a member of society.”

Under Communism man is not an individual, a child of God, endowed with certain inalienable rights, who can make a distinctive contribution to society, who is sacred because he bears the Divine Image.

No, this “particle of multiform nature” assumes value because “it” exists as a member of society, as a part of the collective, as a part of the larger social mass. The Communist thinks of man not as an entity with respect within himself, but only as a tool. What can he contribute to the ongoing ambitions of the state? What can he produce? And how fast? How can he help the revolutionary cause? What can he do to carry out the will of the Party? He is a utilitarian statistic, a production gauge.

Hence, Communism treats man as a thing rather than a person; as a material substance to be indoctrinated, manipulated, and directed for the revolutionary movement rather than as an individual with inherent dignity of his own.

This leads to tyranny. Communist policies of state are determined not by what is good for the individual, but by what is paramount for the state; not in terms of what can be done to increase the creative power of the citizen as a child of God, but in terms of how that person can best advance the interests of the Party. Communism is not genuinely interested in the inner feelings of man—his loves, his fears, his hopes. Sympathy is considered a weakness; sentiment, a bourgeois “hangover.” The true Communist Man is one who puts aside “childish” things, such as personal interests, and labors obediently for the state. The “morality” of Communism demands that the individual give unstintingly of his time, talents, and energy, never asking how he personally will benefit:

A Party member should unreservedly submit to the interests of the Party. He should be strict with himself and public-spirited and should have no personal aims or considerations.

Under Communism the fight is always against what is called “individualism”—the tendency of the individual to think and act in his own personal interests rather than those of the Party. The Communists, asserts Ho Chi Minh, President of North Viet Nam, in a lecture recently reprinted in Political Affairs, organ of the Communist Party, U.S.A., must always “come to grips with the enemy within: individualism.”

The Church’S Great Task

The Church today has a vital responsibility in unmasking the false pretensions of Communism to be the exalter of man, the source of the ennobling virtues of love, justice, and humanitarianism. A demonic secular morality, clothed with phrases stolen from our Judaic-Christian heritage, must not be allowed to pose as the spiritual fount of man’s hopes, dreams, and aspirations. More than any other institution, the Church is in a position to rip aside this false posture, to expose these Communist teachings for what they really are—a swindle of incredible proportions.

At this Christmas season, we might ask, “What can Christians do to answer the false claim that only in dialectical materialism can man find the true grandeur of his spirit?”

1. Know what you believe as a Christian. Far too many church members today are not sufficiently cognizant of what they believe as Christians. The Communists know for what they stand. Do we as Christians?

2. Attend church and Sunday school regularly. Make worship and the study of God’s Word a part of your daily life.

3. Be a personal witness for your faith. In Communism, we are facing a dynamic, dedicated ideology. “To sacrifice … even one’s life without the slightest hesitation and even with a feeling of happiness, for the cause of the Party … is the highest manifestation of Communist ethics.” Christians must live as men of God, standing firm on their beliefs, making their lives shine in the service of the Creator.

4. Take seriously the Christian mission of love, justice, and truth, which is the inner heart of the Gospel’s teachings. By our prayers, our personal witness, our daily lives, we should make the light of the Church shine so brightly that the false pretensions of Communism to represent these virtues will wither away.

5. Live that optimism and hope which are inherent in the Christian faith. The Communists are geared for a long fight. “We clearly understand that the cause of Communism is a ‘100-year great task.’ We must fulfill the great mission which historical evolution has devolved upon us.” Christians have a faith which gives strength, courage, and vision. Never must they allow the fanaticism of the Communists to surpass their own dedication and evangelism.

Reporting to the Twenty-second Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev proclaimed—with great enthusiasm—that the Communists were “storming the skies”—“in the figurative and in the literal sense of the word.”

Yes, “storming the skies” they are—not only by Sputniks but by denying the Supreme Creator of all the universe.

But in this defiance, they are writing their own epitaphs—the doom of tyranny and inhumanity.

Here is our hope—and our challenge.

END

The ecumenical structure, if it is to have any solidity, must be built on a sound theological basis. Of this fact we have fittingly been reminded by two distinguished European theologians, Bishop Gustav Aulén and Professor Wilhelm Niesel, in books which have appeared in recent months. The voices of these scholars will command not only respect but also, it is to be hoped, response, for their approach is one of depth as they earnestly address themselves to the present ecumenical situation. The value of their contributions is enhanced by candor in analysis coupled always with charity of temper. The cause of unity is never well served by theological double-talk or evasion of doctrinal issues.

In his book Reformation and Catholicity, Bishop Aulén emphasizes that “the Reformation confession, like that of the ancient church, is a defence of the biblical confession of Christ. Its biblical character is obvious and unquestionable.” It is true that, in contrast to the Nicene Creed, the Reformation confession does not enjoy universal recognition. Is it not presumptuous, then, to designate it as a principal Christian confession? Bishop Aulén replies that the claim is justified “on the basis that it stands in positive agreement with the confession of the ancient church and especially with that of the New Testament.” Indeed, he contends that these “three chief confessions of Christendom” are in reality one: “They are all confessions of Christ as Kyrios.”

He points out that the appeal to the authority of Scripture on the part of the Reformation was nothing new, but was in fact “in line with the constant practice of the Christian church through the centuries.” That the Reformation returned the Bible to its central place in the life of the Church was due to “its clear conception of the Word as a means of grace.” This necessarily involved the restoration of preaching to its rightful function as “a means of grace.”

So far from the transmission of grace being dependent on episcopally conferred orders (valued though they may otherwise be), the Word and the Sacrament do not lose their power if these are lacking. “They have their validity in themselves”; for “it is not the office of the ministry that makes the means of grace a means of grace, but rather it is the means of grace which enables the ministry to function according to the commission and authority of Christ.” Christ, Bishop Aulén explains, “is not and cannot be tied down to any one form of ordination to the ministerial office.”

“There is no such thing as an impartial study of denominations,” Professor Niesel observes in his book Reformed Symbolics: A Comparison of Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism. “Ecumenical thinking,” he maintains, “far from making everything relative, requires each of us to take seriously the truth which has found him and to speak frankly about it to the others.” Thus, he sees his task as essentially a critical one: “We must ask the denominations how they respect the Gospel entrusted to them, how they relate themselves to it, and how they communicate it.”

Important in this connection is his insistence that “the Church is a mission or it is nothing at all.” “It stands here on earth in Christ’s stead. Not that the Church itself has to accomplish, extend, or complete His work. It has all been done already by Christ Himself. It is finished. What the Church has to do is to proclaim this news ‘to all men.’ ” On this the Church’s very existence and survival depend, for “the Church is the congregation of those who hear and accept God’s Word.”

Dr. Niesel speaks of “the great scandal caused by the inability of Christendom to sit down together at the Lord’s table”—in large part occasioned by particular theories of ministerial validity, sacramental grace, and “apostolic succession.” But he hopefully asks: “Can unity still be impossible when men submit together to the Word of Scripture?”

Bishop Aulén refers to the common devotional services which are a regular part of ecumenical meetings as having “more than anything else revealed an inner fellowship which no confessional boundaries are able to destroy”; but he calls attention also to the “deep schism” that is apparent at these same gatherings: “Nothing can emphasize more forcefully or more accusingly manifest this schism than the fact that fellowship is broken off at the Table of the Lord.” Recent developments within the ecumenical movement lead one to expect that this scandal will prove to be more rather than less intractable in the future.

How can this impasse be overcome? Certainly, as has been suggested, only by submission to the Word of Scripture. But that submission itself is not a human act. It results from the working of the sovereign Holy Spirit in the hearts of men. And therefore what is needed, and what we should constantly pray for, is a powerful movement of God’s Spirit over the troubled face of Christendom. This will assuredly unite Christians in the truth of the Gospel and also in the fellowship of the Lord’s table.

Because of the respectability and complacency and cheapness of the profession of Christ in our Western world, it may perhaps be that this experience will be recaptured by the Church only in circumstances of persecution. This was the case with Wilhelm Niesel and his fellow believers in Hitler’s Germany when the crushing pressure of the Nazi tyranny closed in from all sides against the Church. It was in these circumstances that representatives of the churches met at Barmen in May, 1934, and drew up the memorable Barmen Theological Declaration. As Dr. Niesel explains, however, this gathering was not concerned with the theoretical formulation of doctrine: “it was concerned rather to testify that in that treacherous time it had heard out of Holy Scripture the voice of the Good Shepherd.”

Barmen was essentially a declaration of the faith which had become so precious—and so crucial—for those who professed it. It was not a matter of bargaining or apology: those present were arrested by “the truth which proves its power in life and in death.” Face to face with this, they were confronted by God himself, present in power in their midst. They “knew that they stood in the presence of this God; they listened to Him and were therefore His people. So in Barmen, and always whenever Christ comes on the scene, it was a question of faith and obedience. At Barmen then there was no negotiating with opponents in order to reach a theological compromise. The faith was simply confessed to them.” We too need to know that inner compulsion which caused the Apostles to declare: “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).

THE WORLD SINCE 1945—The world has been in global conflict—using the term to include political, economic, psychological and military strife—ever since 1945, and there have been about 30 limited or small shooting affrays since World War II. Some of the present ones—notably in Vietnam and on the Indian-Chinese frontier—are sizable campaigns.… The current crisis could add other shooting episodes to this list. There are already points of extreme tension, unsolved political problems, divided countries all over the world. There are any number of scenarios that could be imagined that might raise the curtain on battle of one sort or another.—HANSON W. BALDWIN, The New York Times.

RECENT HEADLINES—“Soviets Rush Cuba Bases; U.S. Warns of War”—The Detroit Free Press. “Soviet Ships With Missiles; K’s Choice—War or Peace”—New York Herald Tribune. “Chinese Batter India in ‘Undeclared War’ ”—The Boston Herald. “The Congo: Again the Bombs Fall”—New York Herald Tribune. “India: The Undeclared War Becomes Hotter”—Los Angeles Times.

REPORT FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA—The grim, “unofficial” war in Viet Nam is opening up and will soon become more like a full scale military operation. Both sides will be wheeling heavier weapons into the area. American soldiers will be getting more and more involved in the actual fighting.—PETER ANDREWS, Los Angeles Herald Examiner.

NO PEACE PRIZE—There will be no Nobel Peace Prize for 1962. In making this announcement, the Norwegian parliamentary committee in charge of the award has refrained from offering any explanation, but none is really necessary. After all, one has only to take a quick look around the world to find reason in abundance for the committee’s decision to wait for a more propitious time to bestow the honor on a person worthy of it. Certainly, as far as 1962 is concerned, wars and rumors of wars, big and little, actual and potential, continue to abound throughout the globe.—The Sunday Star (Washington, D.C.).

STATISTICS ON VETERANS—The United States has about 22½ million veterans, of which 15.2 million served in World War II.—Topeka Sunday Capital-Journal. About 40 per cent of the population is made up of veterans’ families.… Since World War II, one out of every five Americans 18 years or older has served in the armed forces.—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

THE END OF WAR—Once upon a time it was called Armistice Day.… And then the word “Armistice” became a mockery.… The holiday became Veterans Day, as if we had finally gotten around to believing something Plato wrote three centuries before the birth of Christ: “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”—Columnist BOB CONSIDINE.

AN INDISTINCT LINE—The line between war and peace grows somewhat confused in these times. Technically we remain at peace. But what is the meaning of peace to more than 30 Americans killed by Communist gunfire in Southeast Asia, or to a U-2 pilot shot down over Cuba, or to a rifleman on duty at the Berlin Wall?—Boston Traveler.

FADING MEMORIES—Veterans’ Day, its deep meaning long since lost in the continuity of wars, will be generally “business as usual”.… This trend away from the necessary solemn observance of a day of tribute to the nation’s heroic war dead is regrettable.—The Idaho Sunday Statesman.

HEROES AND HORSES—Some have asked whether the Armistice of November 11, 1918, that was to end wars, is still a valid occasion for a holiday. Others have questioned the advisability of another holiday in November. But no one could quarrel with yesterday … a three-day, post-seasonal vacation. Summer came back.… What’s more [it] was the occasion of the eleventh running of the Washington D.C. International at Laurel.… The band played that stirring national anthem, the Marseillaise, and the crowd which had lost its money on the three American horses came through with a resounding cheer.—Columnist GEORGE KENNEDY, The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.).

POSSIBILITY AMIDST PERIL—These are, as recent events have again reminded us, perilous times—more perilous, perhaps, than any since the Black Death of the Middle Ages.… In such peril there is also hope. The agony of the A-bomb menace is that it comes at a time when it is technologically possible for humanity to build a world of security, plenty and justice. It is such a world that wise and well-governed states must seek; and this is the central task of the United Nations.—The New York Times.

AN IMPERFECT WORLD—In the past 17 years, with varying degrees of success, the U.N. moral and physical presence has achieved at least five other important separations among the powers that might well have meant general war.… We would like to live unafraid and give our children a chance. But it is a risky thing even to be born these days and the prognosis is dangerous. We live in an imperfect world perfectly equipped for self-destruction, and the U.N. is an imperfect instrument in protecting us from this.—HENRY J. TAYLOR, New York World-Telegram.

THE ROAD AHEAD—Now we have got in front of us a long time of great danger. The removal of missiles from Cuba is a tactical victory, but only a tactical victory—perhaps even a strategic defeat.… We are almost certainly heading for a series of international crises, any one of which can be worse than the one before it. We must school our nerves and hearts for whatever is to come. We must prepare ourselves to live with deep trouble, and to live with frustration, and to live with despair. If we do that well enough, we cannot be defeated finally.—NICK B. WILLIAMS, Editor, Los Angeles Times.

ANY MOMENT POSSIBILITY—Nuclear war may start “at any moment by accident, miscalculation, or madness.”—President JOHN F. KENNEDY to United Nations in 1961.

The Power Of God In The Church Today

Begin now to make ready for as many people in church the 11 weeks after Easter as the 11 weeks before. To that end prepare to preach from “the most exciting book in the New Testament.” Meantime live with the Acts of the Holy Spirit. On points of difficulty consult such a commentary as R. B. Rackham’s, but let the main stress fall on study of the Bible book, by paragraphs, with prayer for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

On the Lord’s Day after Easter introduce the book. “The Holy Spirit as Power in This Church” (1:8). Power—Personal—Practical—Through Prayer. Near the end lead the hearer to resolve that following a listing in the bulletin he will read a few chapters every week, including the passage for the coming sermon. Topic given; passage not known. Later topics; no text in advance.

“The Christian Secret of Courage” (4:13a). In the most perilous city on earth, courage by a former coward! “The Forgiveness of Deadly Wrongs” (7:60), like “the sins that crucified Jesus,” and unconfessed. “He prayed for them that did the wrong; who follows in his train?”

“The Spirit’s Guidance in Personal Work” (8:29). The Spirit Chooses the Soul-Winner—Singles Out the Man to Be Won—Brings Them Together—Guides the Conversation—Leads to Acceptance of Christ. “The Conversion of Public Enemy Number One” (9:31).

“The Christian Remedy for Race Prejudice” (10:34). In Bible days race prejudice ran riot. I. The Spirit Takes Race Prejudice out of a Roman Army Captain. II. Out of a Jewish Christian Minister. III. Out of Their Social Relations. IV. Out of Their Public Worship. V. And Leads to a Second Pentecost.

“An Unexpected Case of Answered Prayer” (12:16). I. An Exciting Case of Need for Prayer. II. A Hearty Response to a Call for Prayer. III. A Blessed Answer to United Prayer. IV. Amazing Incredulity about Answered Prayer.

“The Conversion of a Hardened Sinner” (16:31). A man of middle age, strong and capable, transformed between dusk and dawn. How? Through a tremendous, crashing experience. I. This Conversion Begins with a Desire to Be Saved. II. Comes Through Personal Acceptance of Christ. III. Leads to Acts of Mercy. IV. Issues in Baptism and Church Membership. With the converted business woman and jailer as the first members, the congregation grows in grace.

“The Deepening of Christian Experience” (19:2). I. Christian Experience Begins with Being Born Again. II. Persons Born Again Need to Grow in Grace. Like those early believers, through no fault of their own, many church members lack power, joy, and radiance. III. They Need Personal, Transforming Experience of the Holy Spirit. Like Paul, guide them to the Spirit as God’s way to deeper experience.

“How to Have a Clean Conscience” (24:16). Everyone has a conscience. Everyone here longs to keep it clean. How? Many a well-educated man has used the case method in college, but never has found in the Acts the inspired collection of cases in the meaning of a Christian life here today.

I. The Apostle Has a Clean Conscience. This God-given power shows the right from the wrong. Impels, but does not compel, a man to do the right. Approves when he does the right; rebukes when he does the wrong. II. The Politician Felix Shows What It Means to Have an Unclean Conscience. Like an unclean watch, or automobile motor, an unclean conscience cannot do what God made it to do. Is there any hope for a person with an unclean conscience?

III. The Gospel Shows How to Get a Clean Conscience. Paul serves as a living example of what the blood of Christ does with a conscience befouled by sin. IV. Better still, the Apostle Shows How to Keep Your Conscience Clean. At the Cross through Bible-reading and prayer keep your conscience clean. Like Paul, exercise it every day. Otherwise it may suffer from fatty degeneration.

James Stalker well says that a man who can not preach to the conscience can not preach. If any Christian would learn how to preach, as well as what, and why, let him live with this Bible book, in prayer. Now for a few inferences, each of them from the Acts, and obvious.

1. This Bible book affords inexhaustible materials for a course of practical, inspiring sermons after Easter. 2. Any paragraph, or little cluster of paragraphs, provides more than enough biblical materials for a sermon. Why complicate the message by looking elsewhere? 3. If the minister keeps to his passage he can weekly show a layman how to read the Bible at home, prayerfully. 4. Such a hearer continues to grow in knowledge of God and in His grace. 5. So does the minister who keeps close to the Book and to the people, because he wishes to keep close to God. Man of God, are you growing? (See the author’s book, The Growing Minister, Abingdon Press, 1960.)

ANDREW W. BLACKWOOD

Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him (Acts 12:5).

The introduction has to do with persecution, nothing new in a local church. This our Lord has led believers to expect. The sermon deals with a case of persecution, where a foremost minister suffers and the home church prays. The first of four main ideas: In a time of persecution,

I. The Home Church Prays. Note here the contrast. Peter in prison asleep, not on a Beautyrest mattress, but on a stone floor in a sleeping bag, while chained with two soldiers. He has prayed. He knows that his times are in God’s hands and that “he giveth his beloved sleep.” Now look at the home church the same night, on bended knees before God, praying for Peter.

II. The Home Church Believes. Not in prayer, but in God! These church folk know that King Herod has killed James, and that Peter may come next. But still they trust God, for what we do not know. Doubtless they leave all that in the hands of God, who loves both Peter and the local church at prayer.

III. The Home Church Prevails. While they are on their knees praying for Peter, to their amazement they hear him knocking at the gate. We know little about those prayers, but we learn anew that God delights to answer collective prayer, especially in a time of persecution.

IV. The Home Church Prospers, with “soul prosperity.” Because of persecution? No! Because of united prayer! In times of intense persecution the Church has her largest growth, but only if she prays. When the Church is the pawn of a welfare state, the Church grows weak. This does not mean that we should become self-appointed martyrs, but that in America the Church may have to drink the bitter cup of persecution, so as to lay hold of God’s untold power, released through united prayer.

Near the end of the sermon comes the sole illustration. It has to do with what the minister recently beheld in Korea. At 5:00 A.M. in winter, and 4:30 in summer, a thousand believers come together in a church to sing and pray, quite informally but with no disorder. Five times the city has been overrun in battle. Now the church is stronger than ever before. Why? Because that church prays, most of all in a time of persecution.

The conclusion has to do with how God blesses a home church that prays.—Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Oklahoma City.

… He is a chosen vessel unto me (Acts 9:15b).

In the Apostle, God shows how He calls and equips a church leader. In every case the Lord works differently. Even so, his way with Paul teaches much today.

I. God’s Choice of Paul. A. A unique background: a Jew by birth and rearing; a Roman by citizenship and custom; a Greek by environment and culture. “All things to all men.”

B. A unique equipment: an unimposing body; a strong intellect; even stronger emotions; a keen conscience; a mighty will, for self or God, for bad or good.

C. A unique experience: God-defying; God-transformed; Christ-centered. “For me to live is Christ.”

II. Lessons from God’s Choice. A. For leadership He chooses only a prepared vessel. His ways are not our ways. He alone knows the heart. For what are you preparing yourself?

B. God crowns his choice with his grace. He waits to do wonders with an earthen vessel he has cleansed. An earthen vessel means one with flaws, but in his hands, ready for service.

C. God uses a leader where the Kingdom needs him most. For Paul that meant peril, toil, and pain, even martyrdom. God alone should determine your lot, and your life from day to day.

Do you believe that in the little and in the large your life should be a plan of God? Paul never dreamed that his place would be so vast as we now know it to have been. Leave all such things in the hands of God. When he honors you by a call, delight to do his holy will. Herein lies the Christian secret of being a good leader, or a good follower, “in Christ.”—From The Evangel of the Strait Gate, 1916, pp. 224–34.

Dedicated to assisting the clergy in the preparation of sermons, the feature titled The Minister’s Workshop appears in the first issue of each month. The section’s introductory essay is contributed alternately by Dr. Andrew W. Blackwood and Dr. Paul S. Rees. The feature includes, also, Dr. Blackwood’s abridgments of expository-topical sermons, outlines of significant messages by great preachers of the past, and outlines or abridgments of messages presented by expository preachers of our own time.—ED.

They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and in the fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and the prayers (Acts 2:42).

Under God, the hope for still better days in our beloved church depends largely on our ideals. Here as a congregation we can learn much from the Book of Acts. In Jerusalem the home church rose to wondrous heights, largely because of her ideals, which came from God. The list here is incomplete.

I. The Pulpit Teaching. After persons become believers they need instruction from the pulpit. It comes best as a vital part of worship, and centers in Christ, not least in his cross.

II. The Happy Family. As members of God’s redeemed family, believers enjoy each other because of all they have in common. Their fellowship centers in Christ. Him they gladly serve, and by mingling with each other they continue to grow more and more like Him.

III. The Holy Communion. Such believers look on the Lord’s Supper as earth’s nearest approach to heaven. Here they enjoy the real presence of their Lord. In him they hold loving fellowship with the saints assembled, with other believers around the world, and with the redeemed in glory, What a mystery! Ah, yes, but “a mystery of light”!

IV. The Daily Prayers. Like oppressed Christians in Korea today, those first-century believers showed their loyalty to the Redeemer by their daily prayers. In the house of worship, at the family altar, and in private devotions they learned to know him better, to love him more, and to become more like him. Then they went forth to do the Redeemer’s holy and perfect will, gladly and well, for his dear sake.—From The Way Everlasting, 1911, pp. 101–12.

Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God (Acts 27:25a; read vv. 23–25).

Here is the world’s most famous description of a storm at sea. Also, one of the most striking chapters in the Bible, strangely neglected in sermons. The chapter shows how by faith a landsman leads a shipload of storm-tossed sailors and soldiers to escape from a watery grave.

I. Trust Amid a Storm. In mid-winter a storm at sea causes strong men either to fear or have faith. Practical faith means trust in the Living Christ: as One who is here—One who knows—One who cares—One who is able. Able to do what? To deliver from death, and from fear. What else does our old earth need now?

II. Night After Night. Fourteen days and nights! With no way of lighting the old wooden tub in which those men sailed! Every hour the terror mounted. But not with Paul. He alone prayed. When the storm broke and while it raged, he prayed to God, who alone could hear. When the storm subsided he prayed so that all on board would look to God for deliverance.

III. Prayer for Others. “Lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.” Prayer for others too terror-stricken to pray for themselves, even if they had known how to pray at all. For a later example, read the life of Alexander Duff, brilliant missionary to India. On his first voyage, during a storm the ship went down. On the shore he gathered together the survivors, read a part of Psalm 107, and led in a service of thanksgiving for deliverance from death.

IV. When the Ship Goes Down. When the Titantic went down (Apr. 14, 1912), many on board were lost. But because of the apostle’s faith in the Living Christ, all those men long ago were spared. Some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship, they all escaped safe to land.

Once in Washington, D. C., T. De Witt Talmage used these closing words in a message about being saved in time of storm. Fifty years later a dying widow told me how that sermon had blessed her and her husband through all their years, when more than one ship had gone down with all their worldly goods.

However faulty the interpretation, thank God for a message that for 50 years served a home as a guiding star through all sorts of storms! Better still, while the sun is shining and the south wind is purring, put your own trust in the hands that once were pierced. Even while the storm rages, with Paul look up to the Living Christ and pray for others.

Through The Skull Of A Wild Pig

Lord of the Flies, by William Golding (Capricorn Books, 1959, 256 pp., paper, $1.25), is reviewed by William H. Anderson, Jr., Minister, United Presbyterian Church of the Redeemer, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Just about everyone missed this book when it was first published in England in 1954 as a first novel by an unknown writer. Now Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye has been succeeded as collegiate reading by this novel by William Golding. Golding has since had several other novels published, but as yet nothing that measures up to Lord of the Flies has appeared.

This novel has much to say to Christians, but it is not religious fiction. The imaginative story tells of the fate of a group of young boys, ranging in age from five to twelve, cast loose on an uninhabited island as a consequence of World War III. The chief characters are Ralph, the civilized leader; Piggy, the intellectual; Simon, the mystic; Jack, the savage leader; and Roger, Jack’s right-hand man. For the most part the rest of the boys are merely the mass of people. The narrative is an account of the change in the group from a civilized reasonable society to a savage tribe. In the course of this change, the intellectual Piggy and the mystic Simon are cruelly killed by the boys under the brutal leadership of Jack. The title comes from a mystical experience of Simon’s where the Lord of the Flies (the Hebrew Ba’alzevuv, Lord of Insects, the devil) speaks through the skull of a wild pig.

The concealed basic wildness which emerges whenever human nature is faced by a threat to itself is the theme of the book. Although there is no overtly sexual passage, yet the picture of human nature presented here is far more terrible and bestial than that in any other modern writing. The sales-provoking sexual passages of most modern novels seem like innocent boys-will-be-boys alongside the cruelty depicted in this fable.

Golding derives his view of human nature from the modern disciplines of sociology, anthropology, and psychology. His purpose in the story is to present man as man. The Christian faith presents man as savage in full revolt against God. Golding’s viewpoint is not based on the Christian viewpoint, but it does help the Christian to understand the depth of human depravity.

Lord of the Flies has value for the Christian leader in several ways. First, it points out the current pessimistic view of human nature. Second, the fact that it appeals to college students has something to say about the students themselves. Third, the reading of this short, well-written novel is an emotional experience.

The average reader may find it profitable to lead the seven-page comment by E. L. Epstein in the back of the Capricorn edition of the novel before he reads the story. The symbolism and philosophy of the novel are to some extent explained.

WILLIAM H. ANDERSON, JR.

With A Master Touch

The Spreading Flame, by F. F. Bruce (Eerdmans, 1961, 432 pp., $5), is reviewed by John H. Kromminga, President and Professor of Historical Theology, Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

This excellent work, covering the history of the Christian church to the seventh century, is already familiar to many readers through an earlier edition. The new edition is improved in format, but unchanged in content. Occasional bits of humor enliven the narrative; but the charm of the book does not depend on this. It results rather from the happy combination of a thorough mastery of the subject with excellent English style. Anyone but the most unlettered—who couldn’t care less—will be able to read this book with profit. And anyone but a rarely learned scholar has something to learn from it.

With a true scholar’s sensitivity for significant detail, Dr. Bruce writes a story which moves surely toward understanding of the history of the Church. Someone might judge that he is most at home in the early period of his subject, and another might wonder whether the space devoted to the spread of Christianity in the British Isles is not a bit out of proportion to the rest of the narrative. But these are hardly criticisms. If anything, they serve to underscore the fine contributions made by the book as a whole.

The author shows a ready familiarity with the original sources as well as the principal scholarly controversies. When controversial questions are touched upon, Dr. Bruce consistently adopts positions in keeping with the convictions of conservative theology. But he defends these with learned and cogent argument, rather than bombast. If there is ever any justification for the left-handed compliment “scholarly though conservative,” it is not in connection with this book. Scholarly it is and conservative too, but on such a solid foundation and in such an admirable spirit as to warm the heart and enlighten the mind of any lover of the church of Jesus Christ.

JOHN H. KROMMINGA

Analysis Of Method

Pastoral Evangelism, by Samuel Southard (Broadman, 1962, 198 pp., $3.75), is reviewed by H. Cornell Goerner, Secretary for Africa, Europe, and the Near East, Foreign Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention.

In a hard-hitting, thoroughly practical study of ways of winning individuals to Christian commitment, Professor Southard of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary gets right down to cases. The heart of his book is an analysis of reports of 200 actual interviews held by pastors with prospects for conversion. The author analyzes these interviews and points out what is wrong and what right in the evangelist’s method.

Southard exposes the shallowness of the method of outlining “the plan of salvation” and seeking mere verbal assent to a simple theological proposition. He reveals the personal dynamics involved in genuine conversion and gives valuable guidance in the variety of methods by which a pastor (or layman) who is genuinely concerned about the person with whom he is dealing may lead him to an attitude in which the Holy Spirit can do the work of conversion.

Southard contrasts “instant conversion” with “personal conversion.” He is critical of revivalism, but does not reject revivals as a valid technique when properly handled. Included is a sympathetic yet penetrating critique of Billy Graham.

The book is sound in theology, warm in evangelistic fervor, and keen in psychological insight. It points the way toward sane and effective evangelism, which should result in a higher percentage of truly transformed lives than did much of the evangelism of the past half century.

H. CORNELL GOERNER

The Church’S Give And Take

The Church as a Social Institution, by David O. Moberg (Prentice-Hall, 1962, 569 pp., $10), is reviewed by T. Minnema, Assistant Professor of Bible, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The Church stands in a twofold relation to society. On the one hand it participates in society and in consequence is shaped by it. Social forces play a significant role in giving form to the Church. On the other hand, the Church is more than a social product. Pentecost, the inauguration of the New Testament Church, was not a consequence of social development. It was an event produced by the Spirit of God, whose presence means that the Church is not only an institution formed by social forces, but itself a force able to transform society.

The author of this book is well aware of the Church’s twofold relation to society. He is committed to the faith that the Church is able to transform society through the power of God, and also he rightly emphasizes that to transform society the Church must have “an understanding of the kind of world in which man lives, the changes occurring in that world, and the limitations imposed by the institutional organization, activities, norms, facilities, and personnel of the Church. It must appreciate its unique role in the midst of a highly complex civilization” (p. 518).

The book begins with the Church as it is found in the “highly complex civilization” of our day. This means no one particular church, but the Church as a universal institution which includes “all of organized religion, its values, patterns of relationship between persons and groups, and accomplishments in society” (p. 22). In brief, the author has taken upon himself the huge task of analyzing a very complex social institution, all of organized religion, within the complex context of modern civilization.

What at the outset seems so nebulously confusing, the author reduces to a well-ordered approach. After a clarifying introduction, a compilation of statistics on religion is presented and interpreted. With these statistics significant trends in the composition of the Church are indicated according to population movements. The dimension of social values in American religion is given special treatment by way of noting similarities and differences in value systems within American religion. A separate section analyzes the individuality of religious bodies through the use of typological classifications. Here Troeltsch’s church-sect typology is used with modifications. A large part of the book is devoted to the social functions of the Church. This includes a study of both the favorable and unfavorable social consequences derived from organized religion, and of how organized religion relates itself to such other social institutions as the family and government. The final subjects singled out for special attention are social psychology as it manifests itself in organized religion and the professional religious leadership of today.

Reading for Perspective

CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S REVIEW EDITORS CALL ATTENTION TO THESE NEW TITLES:

★ The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, edited by Charles F. Pfeiffer and Everett F. Harrison (Moody, $11.95). Entirely new, one-volume, phrase-by-phrase exposition of the entire Bible by 49 American conservative scholars.

★ The Literature of Communism in America, by Robert F. Delaney (Catholic University of America Press, $6.50). A selected bibliography of pro- and anti-Communist literature, chiefly from American authors. Over 1,700 entries.

★ Christianity and Barthianism, by Cornelius Van Til (Presbyterian and Reformed, $6.95). The author deplores Barthian theology as “man-centered Protestantism” or “higher humanism” that springs from fatal compromise with modern immanentistic philosophy.

This book offers much to anyone who is seriously interested in a better understanding of the concrete social situation of American religion. In certain instances one may very well challenge the author’s interpretation of data. For example, the following conclusion seems rather hastily drawn: presbyterian church polity “can be traced back to aristocratic tendencies in the history of presbyterian bodies and to an emphasis upon theological doctrines of the sacred character and educationally developed talents of the clergy” (p. 62).

But here is a work that contributes much to a better understanding of the society which the Church must convict of sin, and call to repentance. To convict our present society of its significant sins and to call it to a significant repentance require much knowledge of modern life. This book helps to provide such knowledge.

T. MINNEMA

The Impact Went Where?

The Impact of American Religious Liberalism, by Kenneth Cauthen (Harper & Row, 1962, 290 pp., $6), is reviewed by James Daane, Editorial Associate, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

Theological orthodoxy (chiefly Calvinistic) was dominant in America for 150 years, and in 1875 was still dominant in almost every Protestant theological center. Fifteen years later, says Cauthen, it had all but disappeared because of its failure to seek reconciliation between Christ and culture. Liberalism displaced it and flourished, for it realized that the theological enterprise in every generation moves between Christ and culture. It set about to retain the Christian faith by adjusting it to the new knowledge netted by the natural and historical sciences, so that a man could be Christian and yet intellectually honest in the modern world.

Cauthen, particularly in the theologies of eight representatives of American liberalism, uncovers three motifs demanded by modern knowledge and accepted by liberalism for the reshaping of the Christian faith. First, God is continuous with, and thus immanent in, the world; second, man is autonomous in the sense that not the Bible but he himself through critical reflection on experience determines what is authentic knowledge of God; and third, all nature and history are of an evolutionary character. Liberalism came in a variety of types, but all, asserts Cauthen, were shaped by these motifs which led them to the common tenet that divine revelation must be construed within the terms of a world that is a closed but expanding system.

It is precisely at this point that Cauthen detects a line of continuity between liberalism and post-liberal theology, namely, neoorthodoxy. Although the latter regards God as transcendent and regards revelation as an inbreak into the world, it nonetheless, says Cauthen, retains the world as a closed system and revelation as something historically conditioned, for it defines revelation as Geschichte, not Historie, that is, as tangential to, but not as identical with, history. From this stems the neoorthodox contention that nothing in history is the revelation or Word of God, and the consideration that the Bible is subject to historical criticism while the revelation itself is untouched by it. This, asserts Cauthen, is the legacy bequeathed by liberalism and inherited by neoorthodoxy.

To my knowledge this is the best book yet written on the history of theological liberalism in America. Although Cauthen no longer accepts his boyhood teaching that “liberal” is a “bad word,” he is critical as well as sympathetic in his presentation of liberalism. Not a little of the value of his book derives from its raising the question of a line of continuity between liberalism and neoorthodoxy, particularly on the matter of the historical character of revelation.

It is in his evaluation that Cauthen’s liberal sympathies triumph over his objectivity. There doubtless is a strain of similarity running from liberalism through neoorthodoxy. The latter is definitely post-liberal, not only in point of time but in its understanding of the current central theological issue. Barth’s theology, for example, is indeed a theology of Revelation. But is not the similarity so largely formal (particularly in view of neoorthodoxy’s transcendence of God) and the differences and discontinuities between liberalism and neoorthodoxy so great (in such matters as the radical character of man’s sin, his absolute need of grace, and the unique deity of Jesus Christ) that one could with as much validity argue that neoorthodoxy is in the tradition of orthodoxy as in that of liberalism? Neoorthodoxy has been affected both positively and negatively by liberalism, but too facile attempts to place neoorthodoxy in the special lineage of liberalism appear as not very objective attempts to salvage some glory for a liberalism which at this date has but little.

Furthermore, Cauthen’s admission that World War II and its aftermath have shown that liberalism was too optimistic about man’s moral goodness and perfectibility, and too optimistic about the world’s movement toward perfection—is this not a confession that ill conceals its reluctance? Do we need a yet more horrible display of the demonic in human life and history to bring us to the frank admission that liberalism was on some crucial doctrines not merely “too optimistic” but dead wrong?

One final observation about Cauthen’s evaluation. Cauthen divides liberalism into Evangelical Liberalism, which, he says, sought to retain the historic Christian faith by adjusting it to the demands of modern culture, and Modernistic Liberalism, which, he says, was secular and humanistic and rejected revelation, while seeking to retain certain desirable teachings of Christianity. Since each type is classified as liberalism, and each is said to be informed by the above-mentioned three motifs, is there not greater evidence of a continuous line of theological tradition running from what he calls Evangelical Liberalism to Modernistic Liberalism, than there is for such a line between liberalism and neoorthodoxy?

Although I cannot break forth into high praise for the author’s evaluation, I can do so for the book for, among other things, it challenges the reader—whether liberal, orthodox, or neoorthodox—by putting its finger on the central theological issue of our time: the historical character of revelation.

JAMES DAANE

Toynbee’S Vision

America and the World Revolution and Other Lectures, by Arnold J. Toynbee (Oxford, 1962, 231 pp., $4.75), is reviewed by Lee M. Nash, Professor of History and Dean, Cascade College, Portland, Oregon.

When Arnold Toynbee comments on current world affairs, his reputation as a brilliant, controversial historian and prophet never fails to win him an interested hearing. Here he offers his most complete analysis yet of our present discontents, together with solutions of sorts and muted prophecies.

Though in 1776 America sparked a continuing world movement for human rights, says Toynbee, her recent preoccupation with wealth has made her a counter-revolutionary power. Americans dramatized this transformation by their hostility to the Bolshevik Revolution and its sequels, solely because Communism threatened their pocketbooks. Now the more idealistic Soviet Union has stepped nobly into the gap and provides the inspiration for social justice crusades around the world. There is hope for America to “rejoin” her own revolution only if her people will eschew materialism and ally themselves again with the angels and the justice-seekers.

All of this by turn pricks the conscience and tries the patience. The conscience, because of the small compassion shown by us affluent Christians toward those of the world who have not. The patience, because one dislikes being told that ruthless, opportunistic exponents of a doctrinaire dialectical materialism are today’s true spiritual prophets of human dignity. Only naïveté, however sophisticated, could assert this, and could imply further that the ideological conflict over Communism is meaningless. Then when Toynbee soberly labels Judaism and Christianity “Communism’s parent religions,” one’s hands fly up in historical horror—until he begins to suspect that he has been baited all the while.

Atomic genocide, Toynbee concludes, is the ultimate danger, and not even the Soviets, nor America, nor certainly intolerant Christianity, can save us from it. Our last best hope lies in a new world-state such as those that rescued past civilizations, and we should all join the search for its architect. This new Augustus or Liu P’ang will likely be a Hindu or Buddhist from a neutral Asiatic country, and we should submit to his dictates, however distasteful, when he appears.

Thus it is evident that Toynbee’s attitude toward the future role of the United States has altered fundamentally since 1954. Then, as revealed clearly in volume ten of his Study of History, it was America that he hoped would usher in the universal state.

LEE M. NASH

Anglicanism And The Mass

Eucharistic Sacrifice, the addresses given at the Oxford Conference of Evangelical Churchmen in 1961 (Church Book Room Press, London, 1962, 157 pp., 8s. 6d.), is reviewed by Roger T. Beckwith, Chaplain, Tyndale Hall, Bristol, England.

Since the mid-seventeenth century there have been those in the Church of England who have been dissatisfied with the doctrine of eucharistic sacrifice expressed in the Anglican formularies. This doctrine is the common Protestant and New Testament doctrine that in the Holy Communion the same sacrifice is offered as in all other Christian services, viz., the sacrifice of thanksgiving. With the Oxford Movement there was a further development, and Anglo-Catholic teaching has closely approximated to the Roman doctrine of the mass, though it has often compromised the atonement even more seriously. Through the overseas branches of the Anglican communion, Anglo-Catholics have carried this teaching all over the world, and by discarding the Thirty-nine Articles and revising the Book of Common Prayer have made it in many of these branches the standard belief. Now, under the influence of the ecumenical movement, it is spreading far outside the Anglican communion. In this context, seven well-known clergymen of the Church of England, including a bishop, a university professor, and several theological-college tutors, have endeavored by this volume to call a halt. It is undoubtedly an important work. Its defects are mainly due to the circumstances of its origin. Some ground is covered twice, other ground hardly at all. The contributions are of unequal value: those by J. I. Packer and R. J. Coates are masterly, and others contain important matter, while one hardly deserves the permanence of print. Moreover, the book is more successful in stating what the relationship between Christ’s sacrifice and the Holy Communion is not, than in stating what it is. But the fact remains that this is one of the first scholarly works of modern times (and the most important to date) in which evangelical Anglicans have attempted to show that the Anglo-Catholic doctrine of eucharistic sacrifice is un-Anglican and un-Christian, and to put something better in its place.

ROGER T. BECKWITH

He Tasted Grace

The Early Life of Howell Harris, by Richard Bennett, translated by Gomer M. Roberts (Banner of Truth Trust, 1962, 190 pp., 10s. 6d.), is reviewed by Murdo A. MacLeod, Minister, Free Church of Scotland, Tarbert, Argyll, Scotland.

The subject of this book is perhaps unknown to most Christians, yet in his own day his name was bracketed with such giants as George Whitefield and Daniel Rowlands; an eminent authority on eighteenth-century Wales wrote of him: “It is difficult to believe that Howell Harris was not the greatest Welshman of his century.” In the opinion of another, “very few men have so deeply and so permanently influenced the religious life of the Principality [of Wales] as Howell Harris.” From a historical viewpoint, therefore, this book deserves attention, but it is as a spiritual autobiography that it enthralls. The author makes his own comments few and lets Harris speak for himself as in diaries and letters he unfolds his spiritual pilgrimage from unbelief through Arminianism to Calvinism. After he had experienced the grace of God for himself, it became his burning passion to lead others into the same experience. The accounts of his itineraries as he preached up and down Wales leave one wondering how his physical frame endured the strain he imposed upon it. Undoubtedly Harris was of an ecstatic and mercurial temperament, and his experience must not be taken as normative. Nevertheless, in his devotion to his Saviour, enjoyment of His presence, and usefulness in His service, we can only long to be like him.

MURDO A. MACLEOD

Source Number One

Armageddon Around the Corner, A Report on Jehovah’s Witnesses, by William J. Whalen (John Day, 1962, 249 pp., illustrated, $4.75), is reviewed by John H. Gerstner, Professor of Church History, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The author is a Roman Catholic layman who is also an assistant professor-editor at Purdue University. As such, he combines the scholar’s flair for facts, especially statistical in this case, and the editor’s nose for human interest. It is not surprising that he has produced a book for the religious best-seller lists.

We believe that book review critics have an obligation to evaluate a book according to its own genre and intended purpose. If we forgot that, we could observe that there are certain over-simplifications and jumps to conclusions, some lack of theological penetration, and the like. But if this book is judged, as it ought to be, according to its own type, it is an excellent volume. It is one of the most interesting books we have ever read on any of the sects. For ministers who are preparing a sermon, in distinction from writing a research paper, Armageddon Around the Corner will be source number one.

We might add that one incidental achievement of the book is Mr. Whalen’s keeping his temper under severe provocation. The Witnesses are opposed to nothing more than organized Christianity and no form of organized Christianity more than Roman Catholicism. Many a scathing denunciation of Rome is included here without the author’s batting an eye.

JOHN H. GERSTNER

Book Briefs

The Ghetto Game: Racial Conflicts in the City, by Dennis Clark (Sheed & Ward, 1962, 245 pp., $4). Author argues that there are no such homogeneous creatures as New Yorkers or Angelenos. Every city is said to be a patchwork of ghettos, and the author presents the rules according to which they function.

Don’t Park Here, by Paul Erb (Herald Press, Scottsdale, Pa., 1962, 182 pp., $3). A collection of essays on the Christian life, originally published as editorials in the Gospel Herald, the denominational periodical of the Mennonite Church.

The Future Is Upon Us, by Roy L. Smith (Abingdon, 1962, 252 pp., $3.50). Circling around the subject of Communism the author arouses Americans to their peculiar times and critical problems.

Peake’s Commentary on the Bible, edited by Matthew Black and H. H. Rowley (Thomas Nelson, 1962, 1200 pp., $15). Revised and reset, this critical commentary of 40 years ago has taken on more conservative features while its understanding of the Bible’s inspiration remains unsure.

The Oxford Concise Concordance to the Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible, compiled by Bruce M. Metzger and Isobel M. Metzger (Oxford, 1962, 158 pp., $2). Well done; specifically for use with RSV.

John’s Wonderful Gospel, by Ivor Powell (Zondervan. 1962, 446 pp., $6.95). Light, but sprightly devotional, sermonic comment.

Theology and Church, by Karl Barth, translated by Louise Pettibone Smith (Harper & Row, 1962, 358 pp., $6). The shorter writings of Barth from the year 1920 to 1928. With a fine introduction by T. F. Torrance.

The Methods and Experience of Psychoanalysis, by Albert Görres (Sheed & Ward, 1962, 300 pp., $4.50). A discussion of psychoanalysis by an author who agrees with Freud that he (Freud) discovered neither a fortune nor a farthing, but a lump of ore containing some precious metal.

Vatican Impressions, edited by Francis Sweeney, S.J. (Sheed & Ward, 1962, 266 pp., $5.95). Vignettes of the Vatican through the years; gathered from the writings of Henry James, Longfellow, Graham Greene, Hugh Walpole, Eric Sevareid, Goethe, and many others.

Paperbacks

The Story of America’s Religions, by Hartzell Spence (Abingdon, 1962, 258 pp., $1.50). Story of 14 religious faiths in America by the author of One Foot In Heaven; articles first appeared in Look magazine.

Christianity and Communism Today, by John C. Bennett (Association, 1962, 188 pp., $1.50). Author rejects Communism both as a faith and as a political-sociological ideology but holds to the possibility that Communism in a given state may be so modified as to make coexistence possible. A somewhat altered and revised version of its first 1948 printing.

A Study of History, Volumes IV, V, and VI, by Arnold J. Toynbee (Oxford; 1962; 672, 720, and 640 pp., $2.65, $2.75, and $2.45). In Volume IV the famous historian discusses the breakdown of civilizations; in Volumes V and VI, the disintegrations of civilizations.

OFFENSE OF THE CROSS—U. S. postal officials acknowledge they rejected a proposed design for the special Christmas stamp on grounds that it suggested a cross. One of five designs said to have been considered but turned down, it showed a candle burning in a window framed by a wreath. The window panes resembled a cross. Said a Religious News Service report: “Rejection of the design emphasized the fact that no religious symbol, or apparent religious symbol, will be permitted on the Christmas stamps which the department expects to issue each year to encourage use of first class mail for Christmas greetings.” The design chosen for 1962 shows a simple holly wreath and two tapers.

PROTESTANT PANORAMA—Ground was broken for multi-million-dollar Protestant Center at New York World’s Fair grounds. When completed in 1964, the center will include a memorial court for Protestant pioneers, a theater for showing gospel films on wide screen, and a children’s center—as well as exhibit space for a number of denominational and independent religious organizations.

A national cooperative agency for Lutheran archivists, librarians, and historians was formed in Chicago last month with about 100 charter members from various Lutheran synods.

An eight-part series on the history of spiritual awakenings will be featured by NBC Radio on its “Faith in Action” program beginning January 6. The new series was prepared in cooperation with the National Association of Evangelicals.

Christian Outreach, Inc., two-year-old evangelical organization, plans “specialized ministry to those churches interested in experimenting in a ‘depth’ program and in the training of a core of lay leadership.”

A new Lutheran cathedral is being built in Skalholt, Iceland, and is scheduled to be consecrated next summer. Skalholt was the seat of the first bishop of Iceland from A.D. 1050 to 1080. Some 166,000 Icelanders—about 90 per cent of the national population—are Lutherans.

Average church attendance in Finland “is no higher than three per cent,” according to a report appearing in The Northern Ecumenical Institute’s Church News. The report said a comprehensive statistical investigation showed church attendance falling below one per cent in some areas.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION—A proposal to merge the Gettysburg and Philadelphia seminaries of the Lutheran Church in America has apparently been stalled. Negotiations between the schools were broken off after participants were unable to reach agreement.

Baylor University, largest Southern Baptist school, may soon be desegregated. Trustees named a committee to study the race question, and faculty members adopted a resolution favoring integration.

American Baptist Theological Seminary, whose Nashville campus is operated jointly by the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., and the Southern Baptist Convention, was granted associate membership in the Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges. The seminary educates Negro Baptist ministers and church workers.

A $225,000 classroom and administration building was dedicated at Talbot Theological Seminary, La Mirada, California. The seminary is affiliated with the Bible Institute of Los Angeles.

MISCELLANY—Members of the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies will press for a governmental census of all religious groups in 1966. A government representative declared at the ASARB’s annual convention last month that such a census will be taken if religious groups reflect enough desire. A complete census of all American religious bodies has not been made since 1936. A survey was taken in 1946, but results were never published.

A pre-dawn blast at the famed 70-year-old Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City shattered a door and 11 windows. Police said they found a pencil-scrawled inscription on a temple wall, “Viva Castro,” but were not sure that this had any connection with the explosion.

An Ecumenical World Center for Liturgical Studies will be built on a 20-acre site at Boca Raton, Florida, sponsored by the school foundation of the Episcopal Diocese of South Florida and by the International Ecumenical Committee for Promoting Liturgical Research and Renewal. Some $1,000,000 will he spent for buildings and $7,000,000 for an endowment fund.

Ontario’s Roman Catholic bishops are asking the provincial legislature to enable them to operate a tax-supported high-school system and to receive more tax aid for other types of parochial schools. The United Church of Canada issued a protest, declaring that the request “cannot be justified in law or public interest.”

Another Roman Catholic bishop and three priests—all French-born—were deported from Haiti last month. A pillaging charge against the bishop apparently referred to the destruction of a voodoo temple and voodoo charms. All were accused of disrespect toward government officials. In all, three bishops and nine priests have been forced out of Haiti since 1959.

Dr. Richard R. Roseveare, Anglican bishop of Accra, arrived back in Ghana exactly three months after he was expelled from the country for criticizing the government-sponsored Young Pioneers movement. He was recently given permission by President Kwame Nkrumah to return to his diocese.

PERSONALIA—Dr. Louis F. Gough inaugurated third president of Warner Pacific College, Portland, Oregon. The college is sponsored by the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana).

The Rev. Raymond J. Davis named general director of Sudan Interior Mission, world’s largest interdenominational missionary society with nearly 1,300 missionaries serving in ten African nations. Davis succeeds the Rev. Albert D. Helser, who retired last July on reaching the SIM’s 65-year age limit for executive officers.

Dr. Harold H. Etling elected president of National Sunday School Association.

The Rev. Walter L. King of Finleyville, Pennsylvania, was acquitted of a criminal libel charge resulting from the printing and circulating of a bogus Knights of Columbus oath. King, minister of the Nazarene Bible Church (not affiliated with the Church of the Nazarene), was ordered to pay costs of his prosecution.

WORTH QUOTING—“We have too soon taken for granted the idea that communism is something we must live with indefinitely.”—Dr. Douglas E. Jackson, professor at Perkins School of Theology, at a Methodist seminar in Indianapolis.

“It has long been my conviction that there is nothing that outsiders find more annoying and repellent in our papers than the refusal to concede any Catholic wrong-doing.”—Msgr. John Tracy Ellis.

“Could it be that the most awesome military might ever assembled would in the end become the most tremendous missionary force the Christian church ever had?”—Richard R. Potter, in a Link article citing the spiritual potential of 1,398,000 American service people abroad.

Deaths

DR. NED B. STONEHOUSE, 60, faculty dean of Westminster Theological Seminary, biographer of the late J. Gresham Machen, and editor of a nine-volume New Testament commentary; at his Glenside, Pennsylvania, home. He was a Contributing Editor to CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

DR. PHILIP A. SWARTZ, 73, onetime secretary of the Federal Council of Churches; in New Fairfield, Connecticut.

DR. WILLIAM MCMASTER, 87, president emeritus of Mount Union College (Methodist); in Coral Gables, Florida.

DR. D. M. NELSON, 82, president emeritus of Mississippi College (Baptist); in Clinton, Mississippi.

WALTER A. RYAN, 57, unfrocked Catholic priest whose wife filed a $2,375,000 civil suit against the Roman Catholic Church charging that he had been “forcibly removed to monasteries”; in San Francisco.

BILL CARLE, 57, noted Gospel singer, following a heart attack; in St. Louis.