We seek to keep our readers informed about crucial issues facing church leaders. We want to help them understand such issues, point out pros and cons on each side, and, when we can, provide the facts and biblical data to enable them to make wise decisions.

Few questions are more important to evangelical decision makers than the proper strategy for evangelism and church growth. Unfortunately, the “specialists” themselves provide conflicting advice. In the minds of some, at least, the issue appears to be a flat-out disagreement between the “church-growth people” and the “mass-evangelism people.” In this issue we present Randy Petersen’s analysis of the church-growth movement and its principles, a sociologist’s assessment of a scientifically conducted survey testing the results of a major mass-evangelism crusade, and responses from experts Donald McGavran, Win Arn, Vergil Gerber, and Terry Hulbert.

As we see it, it is not a clear case of either/or but of both/and. Mass evangelism does a great deal to build up the spiritual life and effectiveness of those who are already Christians. But to win the lost—those outside the church or uncommitted church members—mass evangelism is most effective when Christian people recognize their individual responsibility to share the gospel, and when local churches take seriously their duty to follow up mass evangelism by careful nurture of those who have made decisions during a campaign. That is why the Graham crusades stress training Christians in witnessing and personal work before a campaign and urge involved churches to follow up decision card signers afterward.

Church growth and mass evangelism cannot work against each other. They are complementary means to the end commanded by our Lord in his Great Commission: preach the gospel and make disciples. Real church growth, biblical style, not only reaches out for numbers of new members; it also patiently instructs those who are already members on how to become mature, reproducing Christians.

But read the articles for yourself. They will help you plan a strategy for your church.

The preoccupation with the question of death is one of the surprising elements of both private and public thinking in our time. Until two decades or so ago, discussion of death was regarded to be morbid, and thus to be shunned as taboo. Such discussion was as greatly to be avoided then as was the subject of sex in the Victorian and post-Victorian eras. The fascination the subject of death holds for current thought is therefore a remarkable phenomenon.

That a topic which touches an issue so vital to human thought should in so brief a time cease to be taboo and become, in turn, a subject of such fascination, certainly calls for explanation. It is my purpose here to explore the reasons for this shift—a shift so drastic that it has led to the production of a body of significant literature, and has developed as well a sort of “-ology,” with its own rationale, its own metaphysics.

Some find a possible model for the drastic shift from taboo to preoccupation in the thought of Rudolf Otto. Two generations ago he suggested that human beings, when faced by the numinous (read, transcendent), tend to respond in a dual manner: in fear and in fascination. To Otto, these two elements occur simultaneously.

Thanatologists (those developing the current literature concerning death) use this formula, with the modification that these elements of fear and fascination are only theoretically juxtaposed. This means that they may be (and usually arc) evident in series or in alternation. Thus seen, the model may have its merits.

Thoughtful persons have speculated concerning the roots of this newer and disciplinary approach to the phenomenon of such a radical shift of emphasis. Certainly revised definitions of death have played a part. We have come a long way from determining death by holding a watch crystal in front of the mouth or nose of a person thought to be dead. Today death is no longer determined—in most cases at least—by simple observation of a cessation of heart or lung activity.

The issue of “clinical death” is complex. Those who have been regarded hopelessly and even irreversibly comatose have been resuscitated, and by the use of “heroic” measures have been kept alive until vital signs are again sustained by the patient’s brain. This has opened up an entire new area for interrogation and analysis of recalled experiences of those thought to be dead. Technology thus has been responsible, in part at least, for the shift of emphasis.

Some feel that urbanization is a factor. Millions of urban dwellers have been shielded from seeing the death of animals or relatives, with the result (it is said) that they are led to a vicarious “viewing” of death through the medium of scientific or quasi-scientific investigations of death in terms of clinical methods.

Others have suggested that the shock to the public psyche, caused by the Holocaust or by the nuclear holocausts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has contributed to the recent preoccupation with human death. Closely linked may be the general uneasiness over “the balance of terror” as a pitiable basis for world security, with the resulting sense of the fragility of man’s life on our planet.

This form of explanation points more specifically to the existential stance, which permeates our society in the West far more deeply than we realize. Here thought is focused upon death as that which threatens to negate all of our values. Death is thus something to be personalized, “internalized,” and if possible, understood. Some find that explorations of alleged after-death experiences contribute to the existentialists’ hope to overcome existential despair and to “authenticate” their existence.

Two more factors have been advanced to explain the contemporary shift of emphasis vis-à-vis death. The first is the element of “pendulum effect,” that one extreme in emphasis usually leads to an opposite stance. We will leave it to the sociologists to evaluate this factor.

Another and final attempted explanation has been that the experiences of the “drug scene” have created a mood which welcomes out-of-body experiences of any kind. Some have felt themselves to be actually out of the body under heavy drug use. Such experience, it is said, results in an openness on the part of a segment of our population to postclinical death reports from those surviving such “death.” An explanation such as this can, of course, be only limited and partial.

The publication of On Death and Dying (1969), by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, was a landmark in the development of the literature of thanatology. Kübler-Ross is especially famous for her systematizing by stages of the attitudes of the dying. Her researches were continued by Raymond Moody, while further investigations were embodied in At the Hour of Death, by Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson (1977).

All who take the Christian message seriously should be interested in the phenomenon of death, including no doubt, researches into out-of-body experiences of those resuscitated after clinical death. These researches do, however, have a special interest for evangelicals, in that they bear vitally upon elements essential to the Christian understanding of what occurs to men and women after death.

Reports of such experiences follow two major models: the “radiant” or euphoric, and the “dark” and foreboding. The radiant types dominated most of the earlier reports, and included such elements as floating, instantaneous travel, light, warmth, meeting of departed loved ones, and a sense of peace and well-being.

More recently, Philip J. Swihart of the Midwest Colorado Mental Health Center, in his The Edge of Death (1978), and Maurice S. Rawlings of the Diagnostic Hospital in Chattanooga, in Beyond Death’s Door (1978), have recorded a series of “strange encounters” of the dark and sometimes terrifying kind. In these, those reporting speak of seeing a lake of fire, or abysmal darkness, or tormented persons driven to Sisyphus-type tasks by sinister figures, together with a fearful anticipation of judgment.

The latter writers feel that their findings are the more authentic because they are usually gained through interviews almost immediately following “death” and resuscitation. They also note that this darker form of experience is likely to be lost out of consciousness in a very short time. Thus, those who gather and publish data at leisure on out-of-body experiences seldom secure this type of report.

The implications for evangelicals of the discipline of thanatology emerge from the fact that the euphoric type of out-of-body experiences make better copy than the dark type and attract the attention of the religious media. It thus tends to shape the thinking of the majority who read or hear such materials. It is here that scriptural teachings concerning judgment and future punishment can be undermined.

If the two types can be presented in balance, they may serve to undergird the clear teaching of our Lord concerning the final division of mankind. If the bland and euphoric type is given prominence at the expense of the more “realistic” form, the universalism and the lethargy it cultivates may undermine and corrupt the gospel of grace.

HAROLD B. KUHN¹Dr. Kuhn is professor of philosophy of religion, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky.

If churches don’t wake up and do something, they may be headed for the day when the American government “will confine the free exercise of religion to the sanctuary, the synagogue, the sacristy, the narrow sanctum of worship and sacrament—the same parameters allowed religion in the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China.

A paranoid fundamentalist speaking?

Guess again. It was William P. Thompson, the highest-elected official (Stated Clerk) of the United Presbyterian Church and a top leader of the National Council of Churches.

His warning was issued in early February to more than 300 leaders representing an estimated 90 percent of organized American religion at an unprecedented conference on “Government Intervention in Religious Affairs.”

The two-day conference held in suburban Washington, D.C., and featuring as speakers some of the nation’s best legal defenders of religious freedom, was jointly sponsored by the NCC, the National Association of Evangelicals, the United States Catholic Conference, the Synagogue Council of America, the Lutheran Council in the U.S.A., and the Southern Baptist Convention. Attendance was by invitation only, but participants—a number of them battlescarred veterans of court conflicts with the government—included not only members of the sponsoring bodies but also representatives of such diverse groups as the liberal Unitarian-Universalist Association, the fundamentalist American Council of Christian Churches, the evangelical Christian Legal Society, World Vision International, and “new” religious groups like the legally embattled Church of Scientology, the Unification Church, the Worldwide Church of God, the Society for Krishna Consciousness, and The Way International.

As chairman of the conference, Thompson—himself a former lawyer—listed at the outset 17 actions by state and federal agencies that had troubled the sponsoring bodies in recent years. They included:

• Efforts to regulate fund-raising solicitations by religious bodies;

• Efforts to require religious groups to register with and report to government officials if they engage in any attempts to influence legislation (so-called lobbying disclosure laws);

• Efforts by the National Labor Relations Board to supervise elections for labor representation by lay teachers in Roman Catholic parochial schools (action since halted by the U.S. Supreme Court);

• The Internal Revenue Service’s definition of “integrated auxiliaries” that tend to separate church-related colleges and hospitals from the churches that sponsor them;

• Attempts by states to regulate the curriculum content and teacher qualifications in Christian schools (since halted by state courts in Ohio, Vermont, and Kentucky);

• Attempts by federal and state departments of labor to collect unemployment compensation taxes from church-related agencies that hitherto were, like churches, exempt;

• Imposition of federal requirements regarding coeducational sports, hygiene instruction, dormitories, and off-campus residence admissions on church-related colleges that had religious objections to mingling of the sexes in such ways;

• Efforts by several federal agencies to require church-related agencies and institutions, including theological seminaries, to report their employment and admissions statistics by race, Sex, and religion, even though they received no government funds, with threats to cut off such funds to those that did receive them unless, for instance, they hired staff from other religious backgrounds;

• Grand jury interrogation of church workers about internal affairs of churches;

• Placing of a church in receivership because of allegations by a few dissident members;

• Granting by courts of conservatorship orders to parents to obtain physical custody of [adult] children from unpopular religious movements for purposes of forcing them to abandon their allegiance thereto;

• Withdrawal of tax exemptions from various religious groups for failure to comply with “public policy”;

• Redefinition by the courts of ecclesiastical polity, so that hierarchical bodies are in effect rendered congregational in polity, and dispersed “connectional” bodies are deemed to be hierarchical, contrary to their own self-definition.

Commented Thompson; “No one of these developments, taken by itself, is sufficiently alarming to necessitate a convocation like this, and indeed some of them might be thought by some people to be justified. But the pattern that they form when viewed together is an alarming one …”

The conference, he said, was not called in a “spirit of panic or desperation,” or to launch a counterattack against the government on all fronts. Rather, he explained, it was to analyze what has been happening, listen to proposals, and then as individual bodies decide what to do as cases arise.

Thompson dismissed the notion that conspiratorial forces in government are working to stamp out religion, and he acknowledged that on occasion there are grounds “for justifiable governmental action,” a topic discussed in one of the many conference papers.

After listening to the speakers and discussion, the church executive returned to the podium in the closing session and issued a hang-tough call for what amounts to ecumenism, and no one seemed opposed, not even in private conversations. One fundamentalist leader, who asked not to be identified, said: “There are groups here whose beliefs I totally reject, but if we don’t stick together on these legal issues, we all may go under.”

“Important precedents,” declared Thompson, “are being set by the decisions made [by government] each day that can affect all of us far into the future.” He emphasized that such precedents often occur in cases involving nonmainstream groups because they are most “vulnerable,” and that larger, well-established bodies therefore ought to come to the rescue of such smaller groups. Religious groups, he said, should try to sift their defense efforts “into a common strategy and mutual reinforcement, lest we be picked off one by one.”

He called on the religious groups to spread the word among themselves when they are under government assault, to seek competent counsel before acting through “impulse, expediency, or inadvertence, in a way that cannot later be rectified except at great expense.” In some cases, he said, groups mistakenly moved to trial level without first contesting whether the government had a right to intervene at all. And, he said, some groups acquiesced when they should have resisted, and some fought when they should not have.

Thompson called on participants to stick together legally despite differences in viewpoint about beliefs. He cited as a case in point a current suit against the Roman Catholic church for its alleged political activities in opposition to abortion. The suit, among other things, seeks to deprive the church of its tax-exempt status. Even though there is disagreement on the issue of abortion, he said, it “does not mean we want to see that church or any other silenced, or that we will stand idly by when it is under attack for preaching and acting in support of what it believes to be the course of morality for all.”

The conference speakers presented case histories of church-and-state confrontations, discussed laws and regulations that affect religious bodies, and dispensed advice on how to deal with bureaucrats. Most counseled moderation in first contacts with the government, even though the threat to religious freedom is far more serious than is commonly perceived.

William Bentley Ball, a constitutional lawyer who has fought many religious cases, said that governmental intrusion sometimes is only a case of bureaucratic bungling, and that things can be cleared up quietly simply by informing officials of the correct rules and laws that apply.

Others among the 14 speakers included noted law professors Charles M. Whelen of Fordham and Laurence Tribe of Harvard, along with Dean M. Kelley, NCC Executive for Religious Liberty, who organized the conference.

In floor discussions, several black participants took issue with the concept that churches and church institutions should be exempt from government intervention when they have racist policies, even when those policies are allegedly based on Scripture. And Bishop Nathaniel Linsey of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church suggested that he could justify “some kind of intervention so that people can be liberated” from places like People’s Temple in Jonestown.

National Coalition for Better Television

Forces Combating Tv Smut Flex Their New Muscle

After causing the political establishment to take notice in the immediate past election, conservative religious forces are now turning their guns on not one but three giants: the national television networks. They are targeting what they consider the “gratuitous sex and violence” screened by the networks.

Partly because of the successful tangle with politics, television producers and sponsors are taking the new concentration very seriously. This time it features not only Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority, but the cooperation of more than 150 organizations representing an estimated three to five million people. The group, dubbed the National Coalition for Better Television (NCBT), crosses religious and secular lines: its board members include Roman Catholic Phyllis Schlafly, the antifeminist, as well as Ron Godwin, vice-president of Moral Majority.

Donald Wildmon, chairman of the NCBT board, is leader of the National Federation for Decency, a veteran television monitoring organization. He claims NCBT is the “largest such coalition ever put together.” But he emphasizes the coalition does not intend to use its numerical clout to censor television. Instead, it believes the networks should choose what they will program, the advertisers what they sponsor, and the viewers what they watch.

Moral Majority’s Godwin agrees. “There will be nothing done to embarrass any company. We’re not going to use pressure or smear anybody’s name,” he said. What the coalition will do is monitor the networks during March, April, and May.

Prepared forms were issued to between 400,000 and 450,000 monitors. Working in teams of two, they are monitoring separate programs on separate evenings one night a week for a month. Each team will record incidents of sex, violence, or profanity, noting the sponsors of the program and the amount of time sponsored.

It’s at the end of the three-month monitoring period that sponsors may feel pressure. At that time the coalition will select one or more sponsors and ask for a one-year boycott of their products.

In the past, Wildmon’s Federation for Decency has pressured sponsors of offensive programs and, said Wildmon, “There has been a considerable amount of money lost on programs.” He cited as an example CBS’s “Flesh and Blood,” a television film including an incestuous relationship. On that one, Wildmon said, CBS lost $5 million from worried sponsors.

Godwin hopes sponsors will get the word early and the coalition will not have to resort to boycotts and other pressure tactics. Just the same, he admitted NCBT is “really aimed at informing the public and sensitizing the public as to who is sponsoring what kinds of television.”

The sponsors and networks seem, in the coalition’s view, to bear the brunt of responsibility for substandard programming. But is the audience innocent?

Godwin admitted producers “perceive an appetite” for sex, violence, and profanity. “But, in point of truth, our phones are ringing off the hooks and we’re getting an enormous number of letters. There is a genuine groundswell of outrage,” he said.

Godwin compared viewers to the proverbial frog who slowly boils to death because he doesn’t realize the water he’s sitting in is constantly increasing in temperature: maybe the public now realizes television is boiling and wants to do something about it. Wildmon added, “If you show three programs with sex, violence, and profanity, one is going to be high-rated.”

Critics of such groups as NCBT believe these organizations stifle creativity and censor programming according to their “narrow” interests. Norman Lear, producer of the ground-breaking “All in the Family,” for instance, says he abhors the self-appointed television policemen. Godwin responds that the producers themselves represent “narrow” interests. Only about 300 writers and producers determine what appears on the networks, he said, adding that not just programs but commercials present a “teen-age view of sex.”

Lear also complains about commercials, commenting in the February Saturday Review that “TV is dumping its toxic waste” when it uses 15-year-old derrieres to sell jeans. But he does not comment on the programming itself, “because I simply do not watch enough TV to say.” That, the Review notes, may be the most indirectly condemnatory thing Lear could say: “When the busman uses trains, he may be telling us how safe buses are.”

The same Review article reports the alleged plans of Moral Majority to purchase a major share in one of the national networks, plans absolutely denied at Moral Majority headquarters. “Fiction,” said Cal Thomas, Moral Majority’s vice-president of communications, about the report. “We don’t have any plans now and there won’t be any plans” to buy a network. The aim, he said, is to influence, not own the networks.

The reactions of Lear and other producers (including Lee Rich of “Dallas”) may indicate a large-scale monitoring group like NCBT is feared, or at least respected, in Hollywood and New York. Wildmon certainly believes the coalition will change television: “In the future there will be programs you can sit down and enjoy with your family, without worrying if sex or violence or profanity will insult you.” He expects next season’s prime time schedule to include less of the sex-and-violence formula.

In the same Saturday Review article, an ABC executive agreed a massive boycott could affect programming. If such were successful, she said, “They’d be putting dresses on the girls in bikinis in a hurry.”

The bikinis may go, but what about the values of materialism, racism, and American chauvinism also apparent on television? Wildmon said these may be farther down the agenda, but “to begin with we want to keep it simple.” After all, said Godwin, “You can’t go after all the wolves in the forest every time.”

There are, nevertheless, many hunters pursuing the television wolves. The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal have commented negatively on TV morals, as has syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman. “Not just the right-wing and knee-jerk fanatics are fed up.” MM’s Thomas said.

It is the right wing, however, that is moving to mobilize serious action about the quality of television. And although Moral Majority is not leading, but only cooperating with NCBT, it is its election-earned power that is causing the television moguls to take notice.

“Moral Majority is not an election year phenomenon,” said Godwin. “We are gearing up for the long haul.”

RODNEY CLAPP

As President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia stepped out of his plane onto what is left of the war-ravaged Entebbe International Airport, he stopped a yard away from the outstretched arms of the newly reelected president of Uganda. Apollo Milton Obote. Instead of embracing. Kaunda went down on his knees—to pray for Uganda.

His host tearfully followed him to his knees. The huge throng of chanting, dancing Ugandans who had come to meet the Zambian leader were hushed to sudden silence and, with bowed heads and bent knees, joined their leaders in five minutes of intensely joyous worship.

When the scene was shown on television later that evening, tens of thousands of viewers in Uganda and neighboring countries also fell to their knees in prayer—not only for Uganda, but also in appreciation for the spontaneous public acknowledgment by the political leaders of God’s sovereignty over events in the region.

Kaunda came to Uganda on January 18 to join Presidents Daniel arap Moi of Kenya and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania in congratulating Obote and his fellow Ugandans on successfully returning their country to constitutional and democratic rule after nearly a decade of brutal military rule under General Idi Amin.

The leaders also came together to work out a regional plan to rehabilitate Uganda’s shattered economic and administrative structures. But at a public rally, the leaders addressed themselves to different but equally important casualties of the Amin era: public morality, devotion to national goals and interests, and national unity. They spoke of the importance of forgetting the painful recent past in order to build a viable future for the country.

Hope for Uganda is once again on the ascendant. The country’s natural beauty, rich cultural heritage, and vast economic potential of agricultural and mineral wealth caused the famous explorer and journalist Henry M. Stanley to christen it “the Pearl of Africa.” Indeed, Kenya and Tanzania were of interest to European missionaries and colonists only because they happened to lie between Uganda and the sea. Stanley drew a sharp contrast between the “blank, amorphous barbarism” of the Kenya and Tanzania areas and Uganda’s “civilization and order.” “Uganda,” said another missionary. Cardinal Lavigerie of the White Roman Catholic Fathers, “is like an orchid in a field of poison ivy.”

Hindsight tells quite a different story. One recent visitor to Kampala, a Nairobi journalist who accompanied President Moi, remarked to a Ugandan colleague that Uganda is still a paradise. “Oh yes, don’t we know it,” came the prompt answer. “That’s our problem: everyone wants a share of paradise. There will never be peace here.”

It is true that Uganda has known no peace in its short recorded history. The well-organized kingdoms the Europeans found on the northern shores of Lake Victoria had disciplined and well-trained armies on full-scale and permanent alert to attack neighboring kingdoms at every available opportunity.

When the Arabs and the French joined the British in the scramble for Uganda, the religious dimension became part of Uganda’s heritage of violence. Even after the British had firmly established their sovereignty over Uganda, the Muslims, Catholics, and Protestants continued the savage bloodletting. Uganda has thus given Africa her first 22 saints, canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1969 in the first-ever papal visit to Black Africa.

The saints are particularly dear to Ugandans: they literally could have called on the “legions” of their fighting men in the Catholic party to rescue them from the treacherous hands of the incumbent Baganda king, Kabaka Mwange. Although none of the religious parties had taught their followers the ways of peace, the personal faith of martyrs did. They died clenching their Bibles and singing hymns.

Curiously, the British had a remarkably peaceful rule over Uganda for the 50 years preceding independence, through a system of indirect rule, sharing power with the tribal kings. The constitution they negotiated with Obote at independence in 1962 partly continued the system, making kings constitutional rather than divine rulers. But Obote’s political program called for a strong, centralized, socialist, unitary, republican state. To destroy the kingdoms, he enlisted the support of army commander Idi Amin, who accomplished the task with ruthless efficiency. It was even easier for Amin to get rid of Obote, after the president’s unpopular move to destroy the kingdoms.

Consumed in a diabolical lust for power. Amin’s single political program was to keep himself at the State House. He accomplished this fairly easily by decreeing himself life president of Uganda, and then setting about defending his position by killing anybody he suspected of disliking the idea. In eight years, half a million Ugandans died. In eight years, not a single new school or health center, housing development or factory, had gone up in Uganda: the national wealth was devoted to supporting the rapidly expanding military establishment. To remove Amin from power cost Uganda and Tanzania another 50,000 lives.

The suffering of the churches at the hands of Amin reached its symbolic peak with the martyrdom of Anglican Archbishop Janan Luwum just before the Easter weekend of 1977. In probably the last public statement he ever made. Luwum read out a statement by Ugandan bishops who were meeting at the time in Kampala: “We believe in the life-giving love of Christ, we proclaim that love to all without fear—as Your Excellency [Amin] knows. We speak publicly and in private against all evil, all corruption, all misuse of power, all maltreatment of human beings. We rejoice in the truth, because truth builds up a nation, but we are determined to refuse all falsehood, all false accusations which damage the lives of our people.”

A few days later, Luwum was dead. But not the church of Uganda. Somehow, as persecution intensified, the Christian churches of Uganda grew in membership by leaps and bounds. It became difficult for them to receive aid from outside Uganda, yet the churches were never at any other time healthier financially than during the Amin era: local giving to the various churches went up between three-and fivefold. It was dangerous to attend church meetings, yet in such meetings throughout Uganda, there was standing room only. Uganda officially became an Islamic country and joined the Organization of Islamic States; yet the Uganda that Amin ruled quietly became Africa’s most Christianized country with an estimated 83 percent of the citizens declaring themselves to be Christian.

“But please don’t misunderstand the situation.” cautioned a leading Ugandan churchman speaking recently to a Nairobi journalist in Kampala. “We have Christians here. But the Christian church is severely damaged, not only as a community but also as an institution.”

Under Amin only two Christian church communities were legal: the Catholic church and the Anglican church. All other communities had to pick between the two for institutional affiliation, and those who did not like the arrangement were told to get out and had their properties confiscated. Amin fortunately did not have proper machinery for implementing his decrees and a number of communities continued business as usual with only a few cosmetic changes. But the new arrangements encouraged undiscipline and weakened structural and doctrinal unity in the churches. Liberation gave rise to Nairobi-style street-corner preaching, which is regarded as the major cause of the proliferation of independent churches in Kenya.

“Amin left the churches in pieces.” said the churchman. “We have to rebuild everything: new chains of command, training programs and institutions, publishing houses, social service programs, church buildings, and so on. As you can see. I have to get the toilet facilities at this office working again: they haven’t worked for seven years.” he said, as he rose quickly to drive more than a mile away to use one.

Later on, at the rally for the visiting presidents of Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia, the churchman broke down in tears as he heard Obote explain to his guests that the greatest casualty of the Amin era had been the sense of social responsibility. “As you see, we still have good, loving people; we have good traders, mechanics, teachers, churchmen, but we have lost our sense of being a nation, or working for one another.”

Obote then turned to his countrymen and spoke at length about the national philosophies of the countries led by his guests that had made those countries islands of peace and stability in a continent in turmoil: Zambia’s Christian humanism. Tanzania’s ujamaa spirit of selfless brotherhood, and Kenya’s harambee spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Uganda, it appeared, had become poison ivy in a field of orchids! “Pray for us,” Obote said as he bade farewell to his guests.

The Iran Hostages

How Kathryn Koob’S Faith Sustained Her As A Captive

“I felt from the very beginning that I would go free. I didn’t know whether it was going to be five days, five months, or 15 years, but I was pretty sure I was going to walk away from that place.”

That place—the U.S. Embassy in Tehran—separated hostage Kathryn Koob from freedom for 444 days, but it never separated her from the love of Christ. Her testimony to faith in God as a primary source of strength and comfort during captivity affirms a devotion that has been an integral part of her life.

Confirmation of her optimism about eventual release came from the Bible. “I received a promise verse,” she said, “when my Bible fell open to Psalm 118, verses 17 and 18: ‘I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.’ ” The passage sustained Koob throughout the monotonous days of confinement.

While she was confined, Koob said she perceived God as “agolden column, a pillar of support and strength. My day revolved around that golden column, and I looked to God as the source of everything.”

Her early days as a hostage were among the worst, especially the first terrifying 24 hours when “we didn’t know what was going on, we weren’t allowed to speak to anyone [at the embassy] and we had no accurate information” about what the militant students wanted. At the time of the takeover on November 4, 1979, Koob was conducting a routine staff meeting at the Iran-America Society, which she directed. When the seizure of the embassy was completed, Koob was escorted from the Iran-America Society and held on the embassy compound grounds. She recalls that before most of the other women hostages were released, they were all tied to chairs facing the wall in a large reception area of the ambassador’s residence. “We were not allowed to speak to each other … and we were not permitted to look at each other.”

But Koob had her Bible, and one day she spotted a church hymnal on an embassy bookshelf. The Iranian students gave her the book after she had convinced them the hymnal was not the same as her Bible. Following the release of all the other women, the two remaining women captives. Koob and Elizabeth Ann Swift, were separated from one another for four months, and had contact only with their militant caretakers.

“Approximately the second week in December, I suddenly realized that something that had always interested me was the life of contemplatives,” Koob recounts. “It’s always fascinated me, because I’ve wondered how people could live a life of silence. So I set up for myself a sort of contemplative order with a schedule of prayers for others, and devotions.”

She sang hymns to herself, memorized passages of Scripture, and spent time in prayer and meditation. “I tried to remember there were a lot of people in the world a lot worse off than I was. I was warm and dry and had plenty to eat.”

Her exercise of faith was built on a foundation of firm belief that “God gives us the strength to do what he asks us to do.” At home in Fairfax County, Virginia, Koob has been active with Lord of Life Lutheran Fellowship (American Lutheran). Her involvement in several congregations has included teaching Sunday school and singing in the choir. Koob, 42, grew up in a devout Lutheran family on a 200-acre Iowa farm. She graduated from Wartburg College, a Lutheran school in Waverly, Iowa. From 1958 to 1960, Koob served as a district parish worker for her denomination, assisting nine midwestern parishes in establishing new churches.

A mature faith shaped her attitude throughout the days in Iran. She made no “bargains” with God, but instead would wake up every morning and say, “Thank you for bringing me through the night. You’ve given me this day and I give it back to you.” Taking it one day at a time, she recalls, is “the only way you can do it.”

“I kept hoping it would go away tomorrow, and just kept working on today. That was very, very basic. What I learned when I was small kept me going.” One concept learned in childhood was an equanimity about death. A pastor told her when she was young that “when my eyes close in death, they open in heaven.” Although her certainty about release never left her, she said she was aware of the possibility of death, but felt no fear about it.

When Koob, along with many of the other hostages, appeared on television during a Christmas celebration in 1980, she sang a verse from “Away in a Manger.” Since her return, she said, she has been asked many times whether her choice of the third verse, which contains the phrase “Take us to heaven to live with Thee there,” indicated a state of depression. “I can’t imagine heaven being depressing under any circumstances,” she has replied. “I just wanted to share a prayer with the world, with the nation, and with my family, with my nieces and nephews.”

While depression never gripped her, there were times of frustration and disappointment. “I got discouraged and the waiting got long. I suppose the lowest point was January 1, 1980, and I don’t know why. Nothing particular happened. I suspect that perhaps it was because it was New Year’s, and we’d gone on for a month, and it seemed to me that everything had hardened.”

In March 1980, she was reunited with Ann Swift. They drew special strength from the New Testament promise of Matthew 18:20—“Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Koob laughed as she recalled, “We kept reminding him that we were two.”

Koob’s faith provided inspiration at home, too. In Fairfax County, her Lutheran church rallied with prayer support, letters, cards, and Sunday school projects. Koob’s sister, Mary Jane Engquist, is an active member of Lord of Life, and found her congregation “very supportive. They were there when we needed them.” Koob has received a huge volume of mail sent to her sister’s address, and much of it comments on her exemplary faith. “I’ve been going through her mail here,” Engquist said, “and many of the letters tell how Kate brought people back to Christ or reinforced their faith.”

Koob’s plans for the future include returning to the U.S. International Communication Agency (formerly U.S. Information Agency) in Washington. With regard to foreign assignments, she said, “I feel the same way I did when I came into the agency: don’t ask where the job is. Ask what the job is.” Previous foreign service assignments have taken her to three African countries and Romania.

While she is clearly not eager to return to Iran, she does not preclude the possibility of a visit there in the future. Koob thinks there is a future for Iran, “because Iran is an old, old civilization. It has a long history of fighting and unrest within itself, but I think there will be an Iran for a long time to come.”

Recognizing that her treatment was far better than most of the male hostages received, Koob believes the student militants “thought they were treating us very well, by their standards.” She didn’t hesitate to let them know that “we absolutely were appalled by the tactics they were using.” But one student told her just before the January 20 release, “We could have treated you a whole lot worse.”

The impact of the experience on her spiritual life crystallized for her the importance of Christian education at an early age. “Young people should have the opportunity and be required to do memory work.” she said. Lay leaders and pastors would do well to make sure that “very basic, simple concepts of Christian faith are understood.” As she wrote to a nephew in Florida, “Be sure and study your catechism, because you never know when it’s going to come in handy.”

BETH SPRING

Opposition

Assailants Gut Churches Of French Evangelicals

Early this year, in a matter of 24 hours, one evangelical church in Lyon, France, was destroyed and another vandalized. The first, related to The Evangelical Alliance Mission, was burned to the ground at night. The second, a Brethren assembly, was broken into and defaced on the following evening.

The TEAM-related church at Ecully, on the outskirts of Lyon, is a relatively young church, established in 1973. In 1977 the congregation bought and made interior alterations to a house overlooking the main road into the city. On the night of January 2, a neighbor was awakened at 4 A.M. by the sound of breaking glass. From her window she saw four men jump into a car and drive away. Through the closed shutters of the church building, she said, she could see flames dancing, and called the fire department. Fire fighters arrived on the scene only minutes later, but the blaze had already destroyed the building. Flames were so high it took more than an hour to contain them. The intense heat deformed even the building’s metal framework.

Police and fire department officials reported that the fire had been carefully planned. The French windows stood wide open; papers and books from the pastor’s study had been piled beneath the centrally located stairway and drenched with gasoline. Igniting this caused an explosion, breaking all the windows.

The Brethren assembly, situated a mile and a half away inside Lyon, meets in a hall on the ground level of an apartment building. The damage was less complete, but equally malicious. A side door had been forced open, books and papers in the church stacked high and set afire. The piano was smashed to pieces, chairs were broken, and armchairs slashed. The smoke-blackened walls bore a message in red paint, written by the vandals. It was a Bible verse in the translation used by the Jehovah’s Witnesses: “In the beginning was the Verb and the Verb was with God, and the Verb was a god.” The words “a god” were underlined. (The Louis Segond Bible, used currently by evangelicals in France, renders John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

While no one has come forward claiming responsibility, the police recognized a pattern of malicious attacks on evangelicals and set a constant watch on all evangelical churches in the Lyon area, of which there are about 15. No one blamed the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

A text, changed weekly, is posted on the exterior wall of the Ecully church, and is visible to motorists bound for Lyon. At the time of the fire it read: “Christ is King.” After the fire, the members chose a text to convey an attitude that extended to their enemies. The fire-blackened wall carried the words. “Jesus loves you.”

NOREEN VAJKO

World Scene

The Billy Graham crusades under way in Mexico received hostile advance press coverage. Writing in the January 28 issue of the popular magazine Impacto, Fernando Pineda urged that Graham be denied a visa. Graham’s mission, he said, is to preach a “vulgar and visceral anti-communism … to soften up his Protestant brethren so that they will not dare to object to the designs of our ‘neighbor’ regarding our natural resources.” He also claimed that Graham demanded an honorarium of 10 million pesos ($476,200). This was a fabrication: it has been Graham policy for decades to accept no local crusade funds as salary, honorarium, or gift.

Clergyman Ian Paisley is leading allies throughout Northern Ireland to protest a British “sellout” to the Irish Republic. The separatist Protestant member of Parliament is seeking to sidetrack so-far secret meetings between British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey with a show of strength. Meanwhile, the Presbyterian church in Ireland is sending an eight-person delegation to the United States in May to defend its stance to U.S. Presbyterians. Led by moderator Jack Weir, the delegation will attend the Houston annual meetings of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. and the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.

Two more leaders of the unregistered Baptist churches in the Soviet Union have been arrested, leaving only three members of its governing council at liberty. Alexi T. Kozorezov was arrested the day after Christmas, and his wife. Alexandra, president of the council of prisoners’ relatives, has gone into hiding. Dimitri V. Minyakov, a member of the executive body of the Council of Evangelical Baptist Churches, was arrested on January 21.

The Scriptures are news in Communist Europe. Items: The Roman Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia has obtained permission to print 100,000 copies of a recent Czech Bible translation (Protestants were allowed to print 60,000 copies in each of the last two years). Using paper and binding materials supplied by the United Bible Societies, the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate is printing 15,000 books of Psalms and 25,000 shorter Bibles this spring. There are no complete Bible commentaries in the Russian language, but the first volume in a translation of William Barclay’s commentary on the New Testament came off the press in January. Project sponsors—the Baptist World Alliance and the Mennonite Central Committee—have approached Soviet officials for permission to import the 17 volumes.

The World Council of Churches has ambitious plans for developing a new confession of the common faith of Christians. At a January meeting in Annecy. France, the WCC Faith and Order Commission decided to begin this process, which “will take us up to the end of the century.” by consolidating existing agreements among churches in the areas of baptism. Eucharist, and ministry. A study project on these topics—now almost complete—is to undergo final revision and be sent to denominations for consideration in 1982. The WCC hopes for official assent by 1984.

Zambia’s President Kenneth Kaunda has lashed out at mainstream churches in his country for criticism of the nation’s only political party, the United National Independence Party, and the government. What angered Kaunda were criticisms by a former bank official who was given generous space in the religious fortnightly newspaper, the National Mirror. Addressing former local government officials, Kaunda said that if something was wrong with the party, they should approach it directly instead of “hiding behind the Mirror.” The church, he said, is supposed to be the “shining mirror through which the nation could reflect itself. If this mirror gets cracked, how are we going to tell if we are alright or not?”

More Soviet Jews are bypassing Israel to come to the United States. Last year only about one-third of the 22,000 permitted to leave the Soviet Union chose to go to Israel. This trend concerns the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which works with American Jewish and Israeli agencies. It recently announced a new policy of providing counseling for Soviet Jews who, upon their arrival in Vienna, Austria, decide they don’t want to go to Israel. Unless they have close relatives elsewhere, the HIAS executive vice-president said in New York, ‘ “a conscientious and sensitive effort will be made to help them choose to go to Israel.”

Three British missionaries were set free in Iran last month. The Anglican missionaries had been held since August of last year on suspicion of espionage. The Ayatollah Mohammed Beheshti, head of the Iranian Supreme Court, ruled on February 18 that documents relating to their case had been forged. The three are Jean Waddell, former secretary to the exiled bishop of Iran, and John and Audrey Coleman.

Methodists in India gained autonomy from the United Methodist Church in the United States at its central conference in Madras in January, severing links that had existed for 125 years. The 150 delegates named their church the Methodist Church in India and elected two new bishops, expanding the total from four to six. UMC financial assistance will continue and it will maintain a fraternal relationship with its daughter church now come of age.

The strong nationalism of the Nagas, an ethnic grouping that straddles the India-Burma border, has given headaches to both central governments for a generation. Last summer some 2,000 Burmese Nagas fled across the border into India after other tribals attacked them and set fire to their villages. Churches on the India side mobilized, collecting funds and clothing for distribution and, in the process, winning a favorable hearing for the gospel from the predominantly animistic refugees.

Opportunity and manipulation are both revealed by letters received from Vietnam late last year. The Alliance Witness reports that one Ho Chi Minh city (formerly Saigon) church expected to surpass its 1980 goal of 1,500 new believers and 400 baptisms, but another, closed by authorities two years ago, has only been allowed to reopen with a pastor who often sides against the congregation’s spiritual leaders.

More than 60 Protestant and Roman Catholic churches have been reopened in China since September 1979. This figure, verified by the Chinese Coordination Center of World Evangelism, includes five Protestant churches known to have been reopened since last October. Also, a nationwide entrance examination for Nanking Union Seminary was held in December, a first step in training Protestant pastors for the official Three-Self Patriotic Movement.

North American Scene

Fearing too few votes for a constitutional amendment, abortion opponents in Congress are considering a “prolife bill” instead. The legislation would leave the Constitution untouched, but legally deem human life to “exist from conception.” The sponsors say abortion would then mean taking human life and could not be constitutionally protected. Critics call it “a backdoor attempt to amend the Constitution.” Senator Jesse Helms and Representatives Henry Hyde and Romano Mazzoli are sponsors of the bill. The strategy behind this move is simple. The constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority in each house—support that doesn’t exist. The new bill requires a simple majority, and sponsors believe they can achieve that.

The editor of the fundamentalist Sword of the Lord newspaper has refused to appear on a conference rostrum with Roman Catholic Phyllis Schlafly. Both antifeminist Schlafly and editor Curtis Hutson were to participate in the 1981 James Robison Bible Conference. Hutson said he could not appear with a Roman Catholic, since “the Catholic church does not accept the Bible as the inspired, inerrant Word of God.” Schlafly said she does believe in the Bible but declined to “respond in kind.”

“Protestant fundamentalist schools” are growing faster than any other elementary and secondary schools in the nation, according to Phi Delta Kappan, a journal for professional educators. One organization reported a 31 percent growth rate among evangelicals in the current school year. Critics of the schools have said they are growing because of racism, even labeling the institutions “segregation academies.” Phi Delta Kappan disputes that charge, and other observers list discouragement with public schools, decline of school discipline, and disbelief in “secular humanism” as the true factors behind growth.

Followers of Sun Myung Moon have not been popular in Accord, New York, where the Unification church has established a camp. Church officials say the camp is only for education, prayer, and recreation, but townspeople claim “Moonies” have been noisy and have done strange things at the camp. One resident said he sees “limp bodies” being carried out of it. Another said persons from the camp come into her grocery asking for help. Operators of the camp, meanwhile, accuse townspeople of equally strange deeds: two camp buildings have burned, a bomb has exploded, tires have been slashed, and rocks have been thrown at the campers.

The federal government should not promote sex education or prescribe contraceptives to teen-agers on Medicaid, thinks Richard Schweiker, the new secretary of health and human services. Schweiker said sex education is the role of the family and that doctors should not prescribe contraceptives to unmarried, teen-age patients covered by Medicaid. His opinions clash with those of the former secretary, Patricia Roberts Harris, who said the nation faced “disaster” if teen-agers were not educated about contraceptives.

Personalia

Waldron Scott has resigned as general secretary of the World Evangelical Fellowship, citing “compelling personal reasons.” He has held the position for six years. Wade T. Coggins, executive director of the Evangelical Foreign Missions Association, was appointed to fill the job for an interim period of one year. A search committee has been named to find a successor to Scott. During Scott’s tenure, the number of national fellowships in the worldwide organization has nearly doubled.

Raymond V. J. Windsor has been appointed principal at All Nations Christian College in England, effective in April 1982. A physician, he has been executive director of BMMF International, and a wide-ranging speaker on missions.

Tim LaHaye, author and educator, has resigned his pastorate at the 3,000-member Scott Memorial Baptist Church in El Cajon, California. LaHaye resigned to devote more time to his Family Life Seminars, weekend conferences on marriage and the family, and to step up his campaign against “secular humanism.” Reports that LaHaye will increase his involvement with Moral Majority are “totally in error,” he said, though he will continue as a board member. LaHaye is also chairman of Californians for Biblical Morality, an association of conservative California pastors.

James R. Graham (82), has retired as president of Christ’s College in Tanshui, Taiwan. Graham has been succeeded by David C. White, vice-president at the college and a Presbyterian Church in America missionary. Graham founded Chungyuan University in Chungli, as well as Christ’s College.

Vergil Gerber has resigned as executive director of the Evangelical Missions Information Service, in connection with his coming retirement as an active missionary with the Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society.

Jim Bakker, president of the PTL religious network and host of the PTL Club on television, and his wife have asked public school authorities to allow them to hire a tutor for their daughter, 10-year-old Tammy, rather than keep her in school. Bakker said the girl has been harrassed in classes because of her parents’ connection with PTL, and that she needs time to travel with the family. The Bakkers also have a son, Jamie, age five.

A comic book produced by a fundamentalist publisher named Jack Chick is causing an uproar among Roman Catholics. It purports to be the true story of a Jesuit priest named Alberto Rivera, who was raised and trained in a Spanish Jesuit seminary, and whose job was to infiltrate and destroy Protestant churches. The comic book, titled Alberto, says the reason Protestant churches don’t speak out against Catholism the way they should is that they are infiltrated by Jesuits.

The comic book has been so popular that Chick has published a sequel, Double Cross, which claims to be the true story of how the priest rescued his sister from a convent in England, where she was a nun, and where she was bleeding to death from flagellation and other mistreatment. The sequel also alleges that Kathryn Kuhlman was a secret agent of Rome and claims that Jim Jones, the leader of the Jonestown cult, was secretly a Jesuit.

Both magazines are saturated with anti-Catholic slurs and unsavory innuendo. The most astonishing charge is that the name of every Protestant is kept in a computer file in the Vatican, and that the Catholic church is preparing for a twentieth-century Inquisition.

The Catholic church is understandably upset. Its Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, based in Milwaukee, has asked the state attorney general’s office in California, where the magazines are published, to investigate Chick Publications for false advertising and consumer fraud. The attorney general’s office recently declined to do so.

Many Protestant bookstores carry small, comic-book-like Bible tracts published by Chick, as well as his earlier, full-size comics on Christian subjects. The Alberto magazine, however, has caused such a fuss that many bookstores have refused to sell it. To counteract that pressure. Chick published a special tract that he distributes free, in which he says Catholic propaganda teams pressure bookstore owners to remove Alberto, and that only a few “totally committed” gospel bookstores still dare to carry it.

A year ago, Alberto Rivera himself issued a sworn statement defending the allegations. He declared in part that, “Alberto is a true and actual account and I will face a court of law to prove the events actually took place.”

He may get his chance. This reporter’s investigation shows that not only was Rivera not a Jesuit priest, but also that he had two children during the time he claimed to be living a celibate life as a Jesuit. Neither, it seems, does he have a sister in England who was a nun. Rivera has been sought by police for writing bad checks in Hoboken, New Jersey, and for stealing a credit card in Florida. Those revelations taint the credibility of the fantastic stories Rivera tells in the comic books.

Alberto Rivera, also known as Alberto Romero, is a native of the Canary Islands. He has traveled widely and has been associated with numerous Christian organizations and churches, including several in California. He is being sued in a Los Angeles court at the present time by a man who said that Rivera, on behalf of the Hispanic Baptist Church which he started, borrowed $2,025 with which to invest in property, but never purchased the land. When the man asked for his money back, he received a receipt acknowledging his “contribution” of $2,025.

Just Who Is Jack Chick?

The small, comic-book-style Bible tracts published by Chick Publications are sold by the thousands in bookstores around the country, as are Chick’s larger, full-color comics that deal with decidedly unfunny topics. Among the subjects he targets are the occult, the theory of evolution, modern translations of the Bible, and all branches of Christianity except fundamentalism.

Jack Chick himself remains something of an enigma because he talks little with reporters. One reporter was able to reach him by telephone about the Alberto controversy: he stated he had never met a more godly man than Alberto Rivera. He said he knows Rivera’s story is true because he “prayed about it.” He also said he expects his own life to be ended by assassins.

His secretary recently discussed him briefly with a Los Angeles Times reporter. She described him as “mid-50ish” and a Baptist, and she said that Chick Publications is run for profit. According to the Times, he is a former illustrator for an aircraft company, and started drawing Bible illustrations years ago on his kitchen table.

The secretary said: “We have no ministers on our staff at all. We do have two who are research consultants.… He [Chick] is strictly an artist and publisher. He’s never been to a seminary or had Bible training, but he wanted to be a missionary years ago.” An official statement says that Jack Chick “experienced rebirth through Jesus Christ at age 24” and he developed “the ministry of Chick Publications as time passed.”

The Catholic church denies Rivera’s most important claim, that he was a priest. To substantiate the claim, the Alberto comic book carries a picture of an official-looking document from the Archbishopric of Madrid-Alcala in Spain, dated September 1967. It identifies Rivera as a priest and gives him permission to travel abroad in his ministry’. There is no other church documentation, such as an ordination certificate, shown in the book. An individual in California, who grew suspicious of Rivera in 1973, wrote to the archdiocese office in Madrid-Alcala to ask if Rivera were really a priest. The response was that no diocese in Spain had any record of Rivera as a priest. The archbishop’s office concluded that he was not a priest, and that the travel document, which was little more than a form letter, was “acquired by deceit and subterfuge” to enable Rivera to get a passport.

The sequel. Double Cross, devotes its first nine pages to a description of how Alberto flew to London and contacted an Anabaptist church, whose people helped him rescue his dying sister Maria from her convent. Actually, the person he contacted was not an Anabaptist, but Delmar Spurling of the Church of God of Prophecy. Spurling said in an interview that Rivera did not rescue his sister, because she wasn’t a nun but rather a maid working in a private London home.

Rivera claims to have numerous degrees, including a master’s in psychology and at least three doctorates, but he has provided documentation for none of them. He attended a seminary, the Seminario Biblico Latinoamericano in Costa Rica, with an acquaintance from his home town of Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands, but he did not graduate from the seminary.

The acquaintance, Plutarco Bonilla, a respected Christian leader in Latin America, said Rivera never finished high school and that he was in the seminary’s program for non-high school graduates. A letter from the school said he was expelled for “continual lying and defiance of seminary authority.” The known chronology of his life does not allow time for him to have achieved the academic status he claims. Kenneth Wishart, a California minister, once pressed Rivera about his degrees: Rivera said they came from a diploma mill in Colorado, but the place was not identified. Roland Rasmussen of the Faith Baptist Church in Canoga Park, California, also asked Rivera to substantiate some of his claims by submitting to a lie detector test. Rivera agreed; three times appointments were made for him, but all three times he failed to appear.

Although Rivera claims to have been raised and trained in a Spanish Jesuit seminary, his home town friend. Bonilla, said Rivera was living at one point with a woman in Costa Rica named Carmen Lydia Torres. (Alberto says Rivera was sent to Costa Rica to destroy a seminary and that a woman named Carmen was with him, posing as his girlfriend. The seminary was not named.)

Rivera later stated on an employment form that he and Torres were married in 1963. Their son, Juan, was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1964, while Rivera was working for the Christian Reformed Church there. Juan died in El Paso in July 1965, after his parents had fled New Jersey leaving numerous debts and a warrant for their arrest on bad check charges. The couple had two other children, Alberto and Luis Marx. The first two children were born during the time Alberto claimed to be a Jesuit priest in Spain.

In October 1967, Rivera went to work at the Church of God of Prophecy headquarters in Tennessee, and began collecting money for a college in Tarassa, Spain. When the Church of God of Prophecy wrote the college to ask if Rivera was authorized to receive donations for the college, it received a reply stating the college had given him a letter to collect funds only during the month of July. The college later discovered that while “he claimed to be a Catholic priest … he had never been one.” The college reported that he left debts he had acquired in the name of the parish of San Lorenzo, and that Spanish police were seeking him for “authentic swindles and cheats.” Finally, they said that no funds had ever reached the college from Rivera. In a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice, Charles Hawkins of the Church of God of Prophecy said Rivera’s bank had contacted them because he had written a check on a closed account.

A Put-up-or-shut-up Call

Our Sunday Visitor, a Catholic national newspaper, is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who can prove that certain specified charges made in Alberto are true. The editor of the paper, Richard McMunn, said Chick has dredged up anti-Catholic lies that have been around a long time.

“Significantly,” said McMunn, “his [Chick’s] market is not limited to America’s so-called Bible Belt, but from coast to coast people in all walks of life are flocking to Christian bookstores … to buy these pieces of trash. Even more amazing is the fact that many are indeed believing what they read.

… The sad thing is that Chick’s lies are so hard to refute. They are so huge and monstrous that Catholics can only respond that the charges are purely and simply false.”

In 1969, two arrest warrants were issued for him in Florida. One was for the theft of a BankAmericard: the criminal division of the Bank of America reports that he charged over two thousand dollars on the credit card. The second warrant was issued for unauthorized use of an automobile. Rivera abandoned the vehicle in Seattle, and went from there to southern California, where he started a number of organizations: the Agapesofia Oikoumene (described as a “liberation” center for priests, nuns. Jews, and Communists), the Catholic Apostolic Church, the Hispanic Baptist Church of Oxnard, and an organization called the Antichrist Information Center.

In the comic book, Alberto, Rivera said he finally came to the point where he no longer could do the work for which he had been trained by the Jesuits, and he publicly turned against the Catholic church. He was taken by church officials to a sanitarium in Barcelona used for “insane priests,” was put in a padded cell for days without food or water, and was given shock treatments. At that point, according to the comic book, he turned to Christ and became a genuine Christian. He was suddenly released from the sanitarium and left the Catholic church.

But his later accounts of his conversion are contradictory. While speaking at the Faith Baptist Church in Canoga Park, California, Rivera pinpointed his conversion as March 20, 1967, after three months in the sanitarium, and said he immediately defected from the Catholic church. Five months later, however, he gave a newspaper interview in his home town of Las Palmas, in which he was still promoting Catholicism. He said in the interview that he was doing ecumenical work for the Catholic church in Tarrassa, Spain, during the previous six months, from February to August of 1967. According to Alberto, he was in the sanitarium during that time.

Rivera, who now lives in California, was asked for an interview to discuss the discrepancies in his tale, but he posed so many restrictions before he would agree, that a legitimate interview was not possible. He did say that any wrongdoings prior to his conversion to Christ in 1967 were done under the orders of the Catholic church, and that any wrongdoings since his conversion are fabrications by conspirators.

The Presbyterian Permanent Judicial Commission

Kaseman’S Beliefs Ruled ‘Within Acceptable Range’

The Presbyterian Permanent Judicial Commission has decided Mansfield Kaseman’s understanding of Christ’s uniqueness adequately complies with the doctrinal guidelines of its denomination, the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Kaseman’s assertion that Jesus is not God. “God is God.” first stirred controversy in 1979.

It was then that Kaseman, already ordained in the United Church of Christ, applied to the United Presbyterian Church so he could copastor the Rockville, Maryland. United Church, a body associated with both the United Church of Christ and the United Presbyterian Church.

During the consideration of Kaseman’s application he was asked about the deity of Christ. Although he equivocated on the doctrine, the presbytery accepted Kaseman’s application. Conservatives filed a protest, which was heard at the judicial commission of the area synod.

The synod commission sent the case back to the presbytery for reexamination. The second examination was in March 1980, where, according to Time magazine. Kaseman said he affirmed the doctrine of the Trinity but was uncomfortable with creedal formulas. “Forme, the God worth knowing is found more in the quest for liberation than in the pursuit of orthodoxy,” he said. Kaseman also expressed doubts about the bodily resurrection of Christ, saying. “I believe in the resurrection without necessarily believing in the bodily resurrection.”

The presbytery approved Kaseman a second time by a three-to-one margin—similar to the vote on its first decision. Again there was an appeal, and in February the question went to the Permanent Judicial Commission.

The main force of the permanent commission’s decision was to buttress the authority of local presbyteries in accepting or rejecting pastoral candidates. In its written opinion it reaffirmed the “principle that we are not to substitute our own judgment” for that of the presbytery, “which is best able to judge.” The permanent commission concluded its responsibility was merely to determine if Kaseman’s statements were “within the acceptable range of interpretation” of the denominational confessions.

Before 1967, pastoral candidates were required to “receive and adopt” the Westminster Confession of 1647. After that date, however, they had only had to agree to be “instructed” and “continually guided” by the confessions of the denomination.

The permanent commission believed the presbytery hearing Kaseman was correct in deciding the minister’s beliefs were within the “acceptable range of interpretation.” It accepted the presbytery’s judgment that Kaseman affirmed the doctrines in question and that apparent differences in his answers were not denials of the doctrines.

The permanent commission also restated the United Presbyterian Church’s belief in both the “full deity and full humanity of Jesus Christ.” That may not appease conservatives in the embattled denomination. It has been rocked in recent years by the requirement that women be elected to local church offices and be eligible for ordination: at least 40 churches left the denomination in 1980, including the prestigious Tenth Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. Conservatives are already promising to push for orthodoxy at the denomination’s national assembly in May, and the convention will undoubtedly be tense and crucial to the denomination’s future.

RODNEY CLAPP

High School-age Evangelism

Youth Workers Create A Coordinating Body

More than 25 youth pastors from 11 states and representatives of parachurch youth ministries have formed a new association to coordinate evangelistic efforts among high schools. Organizers come from Baptist. Assemblies of God. Church of God, and independent churches, and from Shepherd Productions. Church Youth Development, Campus Crusade for Christ, Reach Out Ministries, and Moody Bible Institute.

“The National Network of Youth Ministries is the first of its kind,” explained Lamar Slay, director of training for Reach Out Ministries, Atlanta, and national coordinator of the new body.

The network wants to have local churches or parachurch groups accept responsibility for specific schools. This plan grew out of “The Forum,” comprised of youth workers and pastors who have been gathering annually since 1978 to discuss high school outreach strategies.

In addition to the national leaders, six regional coordinators will be named. The regions have been determined according to the areas where there are high concentrations of high school students.

Philadelphia UPCUSA Dropout

Tenth Presbyterian Picks New Denomination To Join

Tenth Presbyerian Church in Philadelphia, formerly a leading evangelical congregation in the United Presbyterian Church (UPCUSA), has joined the Reformed Presbyterian Church. Evangelical Synod (RPC).

It was like “being delivered from Egypt.” said Tenth’s pastor. James M. Boice, speaker on the radio “Bible Study Hour.” to an RPC official.

The Reformed Presbyterian Church. Evangelical Synod, is a conservative Presbyterian wing, formed in 1965 through the merger of two bodies, formerly known as the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America (General Synod) and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. The synod has 20.615 members in 164 congregations. It operates Covenant College in Chattanooga. Tennessee, and Covenant Theological Seminary in Saint Louis.

The congregation bolted the UPCUSA last spring over what it considers unbiblical mandates on church government and denominational ownership of local church property. Several other evangelical UPCUSA churches, some in the Philadelphia area, followed Tenth’s lead.

After months of deliberation. Tenth’s officers and congregation voted overwhelmingly in December to join the RPC. It is a small denomination nationally, but has several churches in Philadelphia. RPC views on doctrine and government were compatible with Tenth’s, except for the denominational ban on deaconesses. But RPC officials allowed the church’s current deaconesses to serve out theirterms, and Tenth officers said the church, while accepting the ban, will work to get it changed.

Hundreds of attendees—many coming to hear guest speaker Francis Schaeffer, also an RPC minister—crowded into every nook and corner of the church building on January 25, the day Tenth’s congregation and pastor were officially inducted into the RPC.

Schaeffer, founder of L’Abri Fellowship and an outspoken supporter of biblical infallibility, praised Tenth’s “courageous example” in choosing to adhere to biblical requirements rather than remain in UPCUSA. Christians must always defend the “purity of the visible church, not only in abstract, but also in practice, (being] orthodox in doctrine and community,” he said.

That standard requires withdrawal when a denomination fails to adhere to biblical absolutes, he said. But such an exodus is a last resort “when all else fails.”

Tenth’s problems with UPCUSA aren’t over. Last year the Philadelphia presbytery brought suit against the church, challenging its right to withdraw, claiming its property and names, and seeking to obtain the church’s membership lists. Briefs and counterbriefs have been filed with the courts and the case is not expected to come to trial for several months.

Objective Justification

Missouri Lutherans Clash Over Doctrinal Fine Point

Does Walter Maier, third vice-president of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, believe what good Lutherans are supposed to believe? It’s getting hard to keep track.

Last October, synod president J. A. O. Preus sent a letter to each of the 6,000 congregations in the 2.7-million-member body expressing doubts that Maier had a legitimately Lutheran view of one of its central doctrines, objective justification. Early in January, Preus, and the four other vice-presidents of the synod, decided he did not. In late January, the board of control at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne. Indiana, where Maier teaches, seemed to have reached an agreement with him, and Maier withdrew a study paper that caused the problem.

Now, however, the board has asked Maier to stop teaching his course in Romans—his specialty, and one that he has been teaching three or four times a year since 1965. Maier has agreed, and as of next fall, he will no longer teach the course.

In announcing the decision to remove Maier from his Romans course (his other teaching duties will continue), Robert Preus, the president of the seminary and brother of J. A. O. Preus, said, “We regret that uninformed armchair quarterbacks, pastors and laymen, have made an internal matter so public that we are compelled to make this statement.”

That was seen by all concerned as a slap at his brother about Maier. The doubts first came to light in 1976, according to J. A. O. Preus, who said he’s been trying ever since to get the seminary to resolve the matter. He said he decided to take it to the church because Maier is being talked about as a candidate to replace him when he resigns from the synodal presidency later this year.

According to Lutheran doctrine, objective justification teaches that apart from and prior to a sinner’s coming to faith in Christ, Ciod declared the world righteous because of Christ’s work on the cross. The doctrine is based on Romans 4:25; Romans 5, and 2 Corinthians 5:19. According to J. A. O. Preus. “Maier interprets Corinthians to say that God through Christ made it possible for man to be converted and thus reconciled to God. We say no, the reconciliation takes place in God, and not just in some men who come to faith.”

Preus continued: “He has rejected all three passages as teaching the doctrine of objective justification. Then he says. I do believe in the doctrine. Then we say, how can you reject the passages and accept the doctrine? He says he can accept it in the sense that Christ has redeemed the whole world, but that isn’t what the term means. It means God objectively declared the whole world righteous. It’s a forensic, declarative act. This he rejects, so we go round and round and round on it.”

Maier believes that it is possible to agree on a doctrine while differing on the interpretation of passages, and he has noted in past statements that a paper he wrote, which contributed to most of the fuss, was withdrawn by him from discussion, although he has not retracted the exegesis that went into the research. The paper was meant for discussion among the seminary faculty only, and was not to be released for general church use. Maier was not willing to be quoted directly, since he is in the middle of the dispute. Robert Preus, the seminary president, is on sabbatical leave and could not be reached. Maier is still in good standing as a professor at the seminary, and he strongly reiterates his belief in the doctrine of objective justification.

J. A. O. Preus takes a back seat to no one on the issue of doctrinal integrity. He was elected synod president in 1969 and set about ridding the body of liberal influences (Maier is not a liberal), most notably those at Concordia Seminary in Saint Louis, including its president, John H. Tietjen. Dissenters in the synod eventually formed a new wing of the church, the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches.

TOM MINNERY

Sects

The Way Founder Wierwille Announces Plan To Retire

Victor Paul Wierwille, founder and president of The Way International, has announced that he will retire on the fortieth anniversary of the movement, October 3, 1982. The former Evangelical and Reformed (now United Church of Christ) minister explained that he wants to be free to spend more time “traveling and teaching across the U.S. and abroad.”

Craig Martindale, 32, director of The Way Corps (a four-year training program involving 500 students at The Way College of Emporia, and additional groups of young people at facilities ir Indiana, Colorado, and New Mexico) has been named his successor. Wierwille’s son Donald, academic dean and vice-president for administration of the Kansas institution (although he resides at The Way headquarters near New Knoxville, Ohio), will continue as vice-president.

The younger Wierwille received an earned Doctor of Education degree from the University of Kansas last spring. Martindale, the president-elect, is a native of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and a graduate of the University of Kansas, where he excelled in football and academics and served as president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Baptist Student Union.

Observers believe that de facto leadership will remain in the hands of Wierwille, who has been named president emeritus and will serve the organization’s three-man board of trustees (which includes son Donald and Howard R. Allen, secretary-treasurer) in an advisory capacity.

Wierwille is the author of nine theological works, the most controversial of which is Jesus Christ Is Not God (1975). Just off the press is a ponderous (529 pages) volume, Jesus Christ Our Passover. His $100 Power for Abundant Living course enrolls hundreds of young people monthly. Questions are not permitted until completion of the 33-hour series of videotaped lectures by Wierwille, giving rise to charges of brainwashing by parents who complain that their children, since converting to The Way, have evidenced radical personality changes.

Because there is no formal membership in The Way, officials decline comment on the movement’s numerical strength, estimated at between 40,000 and 100,000. Press secretary Lonnell E. Johnson reported that 16,000 turned out for the Rock of Ages festival in New Knoxville last August, doubling 1975 attendance. “Twig Fellowships” (house churches) are scattered through all 50 states and 40 foreign countries, and 2,000 Word Over the World Ambassadors (missionary volunteers) are commissioned annually to take the Wierwille gospel to the ends of the earth. The Way’s rock group, Takit, has been concertizing across the nation, performing for high school assemblies and provoking angry protests and cancellations in some localities.

Adverse publicity also has been generated by the sect’s distribution of The Hoax of the Twentieth Century and The Myth of the Six Million. These books allege that the genocide of Jews by Hitler is apocryphal, and they evoke charges of anti-Semitism—vigorously denied by Wierwille. Further, alarm has been triggered by reports that disciples of The Way are being trained in the use of firearms and encouraged to bring guns to summer camps and conferences.

In addition to denial of the deity of Christ, and thus the Trinity. The Way deviations include rejection of the personality of the Holy Spirit, disbelief in the soul, insistence on tongues speaking, relegation of the Gospels to the Old Testament, and emphasis on the Epistles as the basis for faith and practice. In a December letter to followers. Wierwille decried “Christ-mass.” urging the word be stricken from their vocabulary. Instead, he said, “let’s wish one another a ‘Happy Household Holiday’.”

JOSEPH M. HOPKINS

Appointments

Koop For Surgeon General, Billings In At Education

C. Everett Koop, a devout and active evangelical, has been appointed deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and is expected to become surgeon general after passage of a bill lifting a technical ban against anyone aged over 64 years, 29 days, from holding the post.

The Philadelphia surgeon, known to his friends as “Chick,” has been considered for months (CT, Jan. 2, 1981, p. 54) by the Reagan administration as a top choice for the post. Weeks before the November election, Reagan staff members called Koop several times to ask if the surgeon, a conservative Republican, would accept the post if it were offered. “I told them I was available,” he said.

Besides Koop, Robert Billings, executive director of the Moral Majority, apparently will be named assistant secretary of education for nonpublic education, a tremendous victory for the religious right wing. Billings is a militant proponent of church school education, at a time when church schools in Mississippi are being pressed by the Internal Revenue Service to prove they are not racially discriminatory. Billings can be expected to fight on the inside against that kind of interference. His appointment is an apparent attempt to appease conservative groups who have been unhappy with many of Reagan’s top-level appointees so far. He is the founder of the National Christian Action Coalition, which concentrated on fighting the IRS on behalf of Christian schools.

Koop holds a number of honors for his medical contributions, including the French Legion of Honor, France’s highest civilian award, presented in 1980. Under his direction. Children’s Hospital attained international prominence for its advanced surgical techniques, and until 1977 he was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery. Yet by his own admission, he is “not the most popular physician in America.” The reason is his strong prolife stand. In 1979, he and evangelical philosopher Francis Schaeffer toured American cities with a film-lecture seminar entitled “Whatever Happened to the Human Race?” which discussed the moral, ethical, and biomedical issues involved with abortion, euthanasia, infanticide, and related subjects.

Announcement of Koop’s appointment brought criticism and opposition from some proabortion groups and supporters. Critics claimed he would use his post to espouse prolife views. But at a press conference, Koop noted that his views on abortion are no different from those of President Reagan or HHS Secretary Schweiker. To avoid any conflict of interest, though, he has resigned from all prolife groups of which he was a member.

Though known and respected within the international medical community, Koop achieved public acclaim in 1974 when, in a historic 10-hour operation at Children’s Hospital, he and his 23-member surgical team successfully separated Siamese twins born to a poor Dominican Republic couple. In 1975, he and his team again made headlines, when they successfully rebuilt the rib cage of a baby born with its heart outside its body.

He had planned to retire this June, after 40 years in medicine, but “I’ve found in every major transition in my life that my plans weren’t the Lord’s plans. Something would happen out of the blue, like this, to change them.”

He doesn’t regret it, though. “I wasn’t looking forward to retirement,” he said with a smile. “This may work me to death, but I’ll enjoy doing it.”

WILLIAM G. SHUSTER

Your radio or TV interview need not be a terrifying experience.

The likelihood of finding yourself as a guest on the electronic media today is increasing—and it is significant. You may have the opportunity to spread the message of Jesus Christ by proclaiming the activities of his church on the air. As a TV director who works primarily with nonprofessional, on-screen actors, and as a former on-the-air radio employee, allow me to pass along a few guidelines to help make you look and feel better on the air.

To begin with, learn some “media truths.” First, the listening audience is more discriminating than you think. They have been subliminally trained with highly polished advertising and programs.

Second, repetition helps the listener’s memory. Observe how repetition is used in professionally produced commercials.

Third, producers, directors, and interviewers welcome outside help. A good electronic media person will not decline additional or better organized information.

Keeping these concepts in mind, you can approach these media with a confident sound and appearance. You will know how to spur repetition of your message, and make the experience valuable and more memorable for both you and your broadcaster.

Sounding normal. You want to sound friendly and comfortable over radio: it is an “at home” medium. Here is an exercise that will help. Get an audio cassette recorder and tape yourself being interviewed. Your teen-age children or youth group could ask good questions. You’ll feel silly at first—but don’t quit. It is worthwhile to evaluate your microphone presence. Listen to the interview, then ask yourself these questions:

Were my answers direct and succinct?

Did I use many throw-away phrases or cliches? (“I’m happy you asked me that question …”)

If I were a listener, would this interest me?

How does the listener benefit from this interview?

Do I sound confident?

Go through this several times and iron out the problems. A word of caution: no one enjoys hearing his own voice, so don’t worry if you don’t like the sound you hear.

Keep in mind some additional hints. For example, avoid verbally verifying an interviewer’s remarks with “Uh-hum” and “I see” phrases. They make you sound nervous and clutter the interview. Make a note of the interviewer’s name and use it occasionally; this creates a friendly atmosphere. Remember, the listeners already accept the announcer, so when you’re his friend, you are their friend, too. If the call letters of the station are appropriate to use, do so—but only once or twice. After you have answered a question, be quiet. Do not feel compelled to fill any silence; let the interviewer do that. It is easy to put your foot in your mouth when you try to fill a gap!

Television is slightly different. You should follow the rules for radio, plus a few more. In a TV interview, talk to the interviewer unless you have been specifically asked to address a camera (a sermonette, for example). Cameras traditionally are eavesdroppers, and unless you stick to the rule, the audience will perceive an uncomfortable change from the norm. If you must talk to a camera, envision a friend’s face in the lens and talk to that person. Don’t be inhibited by a piece of glass.

During a TV interview, consider yourself always as “on.” Pay attention to your interviewer and don’t let your eyes wander around the studio. Viewers may think you are watching something more interesting than your discussion. Again, there is no reason to fear a moment of silence on the air; you need not answer questions the second after they are asked. A pause to reflect, or a brief rephrasing of the question, gives you time to think, and can express your concern for an accurate reply.

Concerning clothing for TV, if you wear nonclerical apparel, avoid small-patterned plaids, or shirts with numerous small lines. A pastel shirt is generally preferred to a white shirt. (The video engineer will appreciate you for that.) If you have comfortable contact lenses, wear them instead of glasses: your lighting will be better.

You will probably wear a microphone for TV, not sit in front of one. The most common TV mikes clip to your tie or hang around your neck. For the sake of appearance, tuck the cord under your jacket. If the floor director does not personally affix your mike, look for it on your chair. If you are on a news set, look for it under the desk where you sit.

Repeating your message. In an interview, it’s easiest to tack a reminder on the wrap-up. “Bill, we should remind our listeners that marriage counselor Reverend Tom Smith will speak at …”

If your appearance is for a particularly significant cause, make an innocent inquiry as to whether the station hopes to use portions of the interview on the news. You might give the producer an idea—but help him think it was his. You can also bring in typed announcements about your special event or services that are appropriate to read on the air. This is especially good for radio; many stations have “Community Calendar” types of bulletin board announcements. It will also pay to do some homework: call your local station(s) and ask how they prefer announcements they use on the air. Write the facts in a straightforward manner, perhaps beginning with a teaser: “Why not get out of the kitchen this Friday night and enjoy good friends and food at Good Shepherd Church …” Bring in versions of lengths varying from 10 to 30 seconds. Put the symbols ### below the end of the on-air copy. Underneath that write your name, address, and phone number, and the last usable date for the material.

Being a media friend. Obviously, the easier you make the broadcaster’s job, the more he will like you. Become adept at the medium and provide something interesting for his programming.

Your topic should relate to the community the station serves. It might be an out-of-town guest speaker at meetings open to the public; a community-wide project the church sponsors; or Boy Scout activities. Perhaps you are particularly skilled in marriage counseling or alcoholism rehabilitation. Let the broadcaster know you have something to offer and can share it.

A word of caution: broadcasters many times will shy away from plugging a particular church lest every church in town ask for radio time. That’s why it is necessary to focus on a community-oriented subject. You should let the broadcaster know the interview will not turn into a lecture or sermonette—which is something he may fear.

While we have only scratched the surface of what it takes to prepare to be a fine electronic media person, if you practice the above suggestions you will be pleased with the results in your confidence and in your communication ability.

SCOTT CARLBERG¹Mr. Carlberg is a video producer/director for Phillips Petroleum Company in Bartlesville. Oklahoma.

The cure is recovery of Bible exposition.

Nothing troubles me more in church today than our Christian superficiality. So few of us are “mature in Christ.” We deserve the rebukes Paul addressed to the Corinthians, for we are still babes when we should be adults, and need milk when we should be eating meat. While we rejoice at the astonishing statistics of church growth in some regions of the Third World, our euphoria should be tempered by the question of whether the growth is as deep as it is broad.

Observers differ in their diagnosis of the church’s malady. For myself. I have no doubt that the major cause is what Amos called “a famine of hearing the words of the Lord” (8:11). E. L. Dargan, in his famous two-volume History of Preaching, sees the phenomenon partly as cause, partly as effect. On the one hand, a decline of spiritual life “is commonly accompanied by a lifeless, formal, unfruitful preaching,” while on the other, “the great revivals of Christian history can most usually be traced to the work of the pulpit.”

True, greater problems face modern preachers than their predecessors: much of contemporary culture is unfriendly to preaching. If the antiauthority mood makes many people less willing to listen to authoritative proclamation, the cybernetics revolution and the addiction to television make people less able to listen to anything. In addition, the atmosphere of doubt and the loss of confidence in the gospel have undermined the morale of many preachers. Thus there is paralysis at both ends—in the speaking and in the hearing.

The gravity of this situation becomes plain when we reflect on the biblical story, for the prosperity of God’s people rose and fell according to their receptivity to his Word. Although his covenant with them was of his own initiative of grace, he yet hinged it on the condition “if you will obey my voice.” Consequently, we hear him constantly appealing to them to listen, and complaining when they refused to do so: “I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day: yet they did not listen to me.… but stiffened their neck.” These words are like a divine epitaph on the national grave. Similarly, in New Testament days Christ addressed his church through his apostles, instructing, admonishing, encouraging, and rebuking them. He still does. And the church’s spiritual health depends on its response. A live church is always a listening church, but a deaf church is dead: that is the unalterable principle.

This is not to say that there are prophets and apostles in the church today with an authority equivalent to that of the biblical prophets and apostles, but that the preacher is called faithfully to expound their message. As he does so, God speaks, and the Holy Spirit brings the written Word to life. Hence the tremendous need for the church to recover the ministry of expository preaching. Christian preaching is not the proud ventilation of human opinions: it is the humble exposition of God’s Word. Biblical expositors bring out of Scripture what is there; they refuse to thrust into the text what is not there. They pry open what appears closed, make plain what seems obscure, unravel what is knotted, and unfold what is tightly packed. In expository preaching the biblical text is neither a conventional introduction to a sermon on a largely different topic, nor a convenient peg on which to hang a ragbag of miscellaneous thoughts, but a master which dictates and controls what is said.

Exposition is not a synonym for exegesis, however. True biblical preaching goes beyond the elucidation of the text to its application. Indeed, the discipline of discovering a text’s original meaning is of little profit if we do not go on to discern its contemporary message. We have to ask of every Scripture not only “what did it mean?” but “what does it say?” Perhaps it is the failure to ask both these questions, and to persevere with the asking until the answers come, which is the greatest tragedy of current preaching. We evangelicals enjoy studying the text with a view to opening it up, but we are often weak in applying it to the realities of modern life. Our liberal colleagues, however, tend to make the opposite mistake. Their great concern is to relate to the modern world, but their message is less than fully biblical. Thus almost nobody is building bridges between the biblical world and the modern world, across the wide chasm of 2,000 years of changing culture. Yet preaching is essentially a bridgebuilding exercise. It is the exacting task of relating God’s Word to our world with an equal degree of faithfulness and relevance.

This earthing of the Word in the world is not optional. It is an obligation laid upon us by the kind of God we believe in, and by the way in which he has himself communicated with us, namely in Christ and in Scripture. In both he reached down to where the people were to whom he desired to disclose himself. He spoke in human language; he appeared in human flesh. Our bridges, too, must be firmly anchored on both sides of the cultural chasm, by refusing either to compromise the divine content of the message or to ignore the human context in which it has to be spoken. We have to plunge fearlessly into both worlds, ancient and modern, biblical and contemporary, and to listen attentively to both. Only then shall we understand what each is saying, and so discern the Spirit’s message to the present generation.

If we are to build bridges for the Word of God to penetrate the real world, we have to take seriously both the biblical text and the contemporary scene, and study both. We cannot afford to remain on either side of the cultural divide. To withdraw from the world into the Bible (which is escapism), or from the Bible into the world (which is conformity), will be fatal to our preaching ministry. Either mistake makes bridge building impossible and noncommunication inevitable. On the one hand, we preachers need to be as familiar with the Bible “as the housewife with her needle, the merchant with his ledger, the mariner with his ship” (Spurgeon). On the other, we have to grapple with the much more difficult—and usually less congenial—task of studying the modern world. We have to look and listen and read and watch television. We have to go to the theater and the movies (though selectively), because nothing mirrors comtemporary society more faithfully than the stage and the screen.

It has been a great help to me to have the stimulus of a reading group. Its members are intelligent young graduates (doctors, lawyers, teachers, architects, and others). We meet monthly when I am in London, having previously agreed to read the same book, or see the same play or movie. Then we spend a whole evening together, share our reactions, and seek to develop a Christian response.

As the nineteenth-century German theologian Tholuck said, “a sermon ought to have heaven for its father and the earth for its mother.” But if such sermons are to be born, heaven and earth have to meet in the preacher.

JOHN R. W. STOTT¹Mr. Stott is rector emeritus of All Souls Church, London, England.

Fresh Easter music that glorifies God, edifies the saints, and proclaims the gospel.

“What cantata shall we do this Easter?” is an almost annual question in churches. Cantatas are instant programs, constituting a complete concert within an average evening service. A good cantata achieves two major goals: spiritually it leads the congregation in worship, and provides a musical means of edification and evangelism; technically it can give a choir mired in routine material routinely performed a renewed sense of challenge and achievement.

Since most church music ministries operate with limited financial resources, expenditures for new music must be made with great care. Any cantata chosen should be not only of sufficient worth to merit later repeat performances, but also allow extraction of individual selections.

Unfortunately, too often the musical values of a work are subservient to production techniques. For example, quality of performance is frequently sacrificed to achieve some arbitrary, unusual choral formation. Promotion is sometimes directed toward surface, rather than service, considerations, making the appeal more of a public relations effort than genuine ministry. Such excesses have frequently resulted in disappointed and frustrated choirs and directors, who feel they have been manipulated for the sake of either profit or promotion.

In the past few years, a number of compositions have appeared which have stood well above the rest. All of the works here reviewed merit subsequent performances, provide material for general usage, and have a strong worship and musical impact upon people.

One of the finest recent Easter cantatas, and a rich worship experience, is Worthy Is the Lamb, by Don Wyrtzen, Lynne and Phil Brower (Zondervan). The death and resurrection of the Lamb of God is tied in with the story of a young Israelite boy who must kill his pet lamb for the first Passover. This moving cantata uses two narrators, one of whom portrays the mother of the grief-stricken lad, and has an especially exciting section on the Resurrection. Two selections are very effective with congregational participation: “Praise Be to the Father” and “I’ll Praise Your Name. Lord.”

Robert Russell Bennett, one of America’s acknowledged master arrangers, has composed a three-movement suite. The Easter Story (Lawson-Gould). Written in much the same style as his very popular Christmas suites, it weaves together many traditional Easter selections, and is most effective with full symphony orchestra.

The name of John W. Peterson has long been associated with new seasonal cantatas. In my opinion, his best is The Last Week (Zondervan), a day-by-day musical description of the main events from Palm Sunday to Easter. The setting of Isaiah 53:1–6, “He Was Wounded,” may well be his finest single choral composition and is equally effective at a Communion service or as a general anthem. In addition to the cantata’s solid scriptural treatment and lyrical melodic style, there are some truly dramatic moments, including a representation of the Crucifixion that retains a sense of awe and reverance while avoiding vague sentimentalism. Another cantata, written in much the same style and also following the day-by-day idea, is Rodger Strader’s Then Came Sunday (Good Life). The lengthy initial narration requires a strong and interesting voice. It is well arranged and orchestrated by Bob Krogstad.

We Have Seen the Lord, by Claude Bass (Word), tells the Easter story from the perspectives of those who saw the risen Savior. It is in a more classical style than most recent publications. Kurt Kaiser’s Just for You (Word), has several appropriate excerpts for Easter, particularly the central trilogy on the Crucifixion. “In His Love and In His Pity” is an especially haunting reflection on the depth of the love of Christ, with an insistent challenge to personal response. These excerpts have just been published in a separate extract.

Many cantatas can be strengthened by making judicious deletions. Also, the minister of music should not surrender his freedom of programming to a marketing strategy, no matter how subtle. An Easter concert creatively structured should be tailor-made to the abilities of the performers and the needs of the congregation.

Conductors who program their own Easter concerts are encouraged to draw from a variety of styles, from traditional Easter hymns to excerpts from great masterworks. For example, selections from parts II and III of Messiah would be appropriate. Handel himself never performed Messiah during the Christmas season, but often did so at Easter time. The Oxford Book of Carols (second ed., Oxford Univ. Press), contains an abundance of traditional Easter hymns. A number of these, plus other Easter hymns, spirituals, carols, and classical selections, were recorded by the Robert Shaw Chorale on RCA LM-1201 (out of print, but occasionally found in some record shops). An excellent alternative to Rameau’s “The Palms” is David H. Williams’s anthem, “Draw Nigh to Jerusalem” (H. W. Gray). First recorded over 25 years ago, it is still relatively little known. A rarely heard cantata for solo voice and organ is The Road to Emmaus, by Jaromir Weinberger, which requires an outstanding soprano and a good organist.

Major works should be considered, for some of the greatest cultural achievements of Western civilization have been musical messages on the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord. The music of J.S. Bach is especially outstanding. Many authorities consider his Saint Matthew Passion to be the pinnacle of Western culture, the deepest musical expression of the Christian faith. Bach was unusually sensitive to the meaning of Christ’s death and resurrection; he wrote much music on this subject, including the monumental Saint John Passion, the Easter Oratorio, and several cantatas. Of the latter, No. 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden (“Christ lay in the bonds of Death”) is perhaps the supreme cantata of all time, rarely approached, never surpassed. The text is a hymn by Luther. A phrase from the first verse perfectly captures the combination of exuberance and worship that characterize the entire cantata—“Now praise our God withsolemnglee.”

Finally, the fact that something is traditional does not mean it is no longer relevant. A work often enters the standard repertoire because it truly deserves repeated performances over many years. Such classics as Stainer’s Crucifixion and Dubois’s Seven Last Words retain their audience appeal largely because they express substantial spiritual truth with musical excellence.

Whether considering new or traditional music for Easter, choices should be based on the several criteria of scriptural fidelity, musical and textual originality, artistic craftsmanship, possible variety of use, personal musicianship, availability of personnel and resources, audience appeal, and projected length of interest. With such rigorous evaluation, even a small music budget can yield an exciting and meaningful repertoire, possibly even including a new Easter cantata that in a fresh way will glorify God, edify the saints, and proclaim the gospel.

RICHARD D. DINWIDDIE¹A church music specialist and conference speaker, Mr. Dinwiddie is director of choirs at First Presbyterian Church, Deerfield, Illinois.

As is always true, numerous books were published relating to New Testament studies during the past year. Nothing that has the appearance of being epoch making materialized, but a large number of substantial works were produced. Excellent studies of individual topics, with a stress on history and background, appeared. That the importance of the context within which the New Testament was written is receiving attention is a point to be noted. Commentaries also received attention, many of them new, and related to the Greek text. Far more numerous are reprints of older works—another point worthy of note. In all, it has been a good year for students of New Testament life and thought.

Significant Books

Five books were selected as “significant books for evangelicals.” They are significant not because they were necessarily written by or for evangelicals (although some were), but because evangelicals ought to read them for their own benefit—sometimes agreeing, sometimes disagreeing.

The Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Tyndale), under organizing editor J. D. Douglas and revision editor Norman Hillyer, is a magnificent three-volume work that will surely find a home in every evangelical’s library. The text is clearly written, up to date, cognizant of critical theories, yet true to the Bible as God’s Word and replete with helpful information. The color illustrations, maps, charts, graphs, and tables enhance the usefulness of the work immensely. This work is destined to become a standard that will be turned to often by students and ministers alike.

Jesus in Gethsemane (Paulist), by David M. Stanley, S.J., is an interesting and moving work combining immense scholarship and Christian piety. It is an intensive study of the early church’s reflections on the suffering of Jesus that never forgets it was for us he suffered, and challenges us to suffer also for him. It is deeply spiritual, yet it is done in the most rigorous possible fashion academically. Such a combination is rare. Evangelicals will not find all of Stanley’s conclusions acceptable, but the value of the work remains.

Galilee from Alexander the Great to Hadrian, 323 B.C.E. to 135 C.E. (Glazier/Univ. of Notre Dame), by Sean Freyne, was chosen for two reasons—one symbolic and one factual. Symbolically, it represents what ought to be done with background studies: here is a work that really lets history matter in the way it should. Factually, it is a monumental work. The painstaking research, careful analyses, and cautious conclusions make it a model to follow for others similarly launching out into new territories. It will prove invaluable to New Testament scholars. (For a review, see CT, Jan. 23, 1981).

The Two Horizons: New Testament Hermeneutics and Philosophical Description (Eerdmans), by Anthony C. Thisleton, is a dazzling work, whose erudition challenges the reader to the uttermost. The author’s treatment of Heidegger, Bultmann, Gadamer, and Wittgenstein, as well as his own profound insights, make this book one to be reckoned with. Those who would study hermeneutics will have to begin with Thisleton’s work. (See forthcoming review, CT, April 10. 1981.)

Christology in the Making (Westminster), by James Dunn, is an analysis of how the doctrine of the Incarnation developed in the early church. Dunn offers the hypothesis that it began to emerge when the exalted Christ was spoken of in terms drawn from the Wisdom imagery of pre-Christian Judaism, with Paul starting the process. Dunn also asserts that it is only in the fourth Gospel that one may properly speak of a doctrine of the Incarnation. Not everyone will agree with Dunn in every particular, but his book needs to be read. He combines immense erudition (notes and bibliography alone cover 136 pages) with deep Christian commitment. Those who would correct Dunn have their work cut out for them.

Introductory/Related Studies

There has been a good deal of scholarly activity in these areas during the last few years. It is apparent now that in order to understand the New Testament one must take into account the surrounding environment and events.

Archaeology/The Land.The Bible in Focus (Donors Inc., Box 65, Blackburn South 3130, Victoria, Australia), by Clem Clack, is a beautiful, multicolored photographic introduction to the land and the people of Palestine. The Holy Land (Oxford), by Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, and The Archaeology of New Testament Cities in Western Asia Minor (Baker), by Edwin Yamauchi, are very helpful books that add substantially to our knowledge of biblical archaeology. Digging Up the Bible (Morrow), by Moshe Pearlman, is a highly readable account of how the archaeological discoveries were made, from the pioneer diggers to the present day. Galilee from Alexander the Great to Hadrian. 323 B.C.E. to 135 C.E. (Glazier/Univ. of Notre Dame), by Sean Freyne, is the definitive work on this important locality and its inhabitants. Sinai and the Monastery of St. Catherine (Doubleday), by John Galy, is a large, magnificent volume concerning one of the world’s most famous monasteries. It cannot be too highly recommended for its sheer beauty and worth. Another opulent, illustrated volume is Armenian Art Treasures of Jerusalem (Caratzas), by Bezalel Narkiss and Michael Stone. Its art, maps, mosaics, and liturgical objects are strikingly beautiful and provide valuable insight into an early expression of Christianity.

New Testament Backgrounds. Dealing with Greek and Roman backgrounds are Alexander the Great and the Greeks: The Epigraphic Evidence (Univ. of Oklahoma), by A. J. Heisserer, a collection of texts, translations, and studies; Isis Among the Greeks and Romans (Harvard Univ. Press), by Friedrich Solmsen, a readable study of the diffusion of religion in the Mediterranean area; and Hellenistic Mystery Religions (Pickwick), by Richard Reitzenstein, a standard, if lop-sided, classic. Jewish life and thought are dealt with by the following: Herod Antipas (Zondervan), by Harold W. Hoehner, a major study now in paperback: Jewish Sects at the Time of Jesus (Fortress), by Marcel Simon, another standard work, now in its second paperback printing, and the Jewish People and Jesus Christ (Baker), by Jacob Jocz, a comprehensive study in a new edition of the relationship between church and synagogue. Texts and Testaments (Trinity Univ. Press), edited by Eugene March, is a diverse collection of critical essays on the Bible and the early church fathers, some of great value.

Linguistic Studies. A new paperback edition of The Englishman’s Greek Concordance of the New Testament, coded to Strong’s Concordance, has been made available by Baker Book House. The Meters of Greek and Latin Poetry (Univ. of Oklahoma), by James W. Halporn. Martin Ostwald, and Thomas Rosenmeyer, and Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times (Univ. of North Carolina), by George A. Kennedy, provide valuable classical information. The latter is a challenging and exhaustive study. Bruce Metzger continues to put us in his debt with New Testament Studies: Philological, Versional and Patristic (E. J. Brill).

Adolf Deissmann’s monumental Bible Studies, looking at the language, style, and nature of the Bible as illustrated by the papyri, has been reprinted by Alpha Publications. F. C. Conybeare and St. George Stock’s slender A Grammar of Septuagint Greek (Zondervan) is available again in paperback. Huber Drumwright has written a useful first-year grammar in An Introduction to New Testament Greek (Broadman). David Holly has produced, with prodigious effort, A Complete Categorized Greek-English New Testament Vocabulary (Baker) in which words, frequencies, grammatical aspects, distinctives, and more, are tabulated. W. H. Simcox’s two classics, The Writers of the New Testament: Their Style and Characteristics and The Language of the New Testament, have been reprinted by Alpha Publications.

Xavier Leon-Defour’s Dictionary of the New Testament (Harper & Row) is available in English (translated from the revised French edition). It is a major research tool for New Testament scholars. The Illustrated Bible Dictionary in three volumes (Tyndale), is a magnificently illustrated revision (under the direction of Norman Hillyer) of J. D. Douglas’s New Bible Dictionary. That work was called by W. F. Albright “the best one-volume Bible dictionary in the English language.” This new illustrated version is even better.

New Testament Introductions.The New Testament Writings: History, Literature, Interpretation (John Knox), by James N. Efird, is a moderately critical introduction stressing theological content as well as such matters as date and authorship. God Speaks in Jesus (St. Anthony Messenger Press), by Sister Blanche Twigg, is a conservative Roman Catholic journey through the New Testament. Guide to the New Testament (Morehouse-Barlow), by Alice Parmelee, is a slender book of introduction to the individual books of the New Testament. New printings of some older standards have also appeared, including The Heart of the New Testament (The Quality Press), by H. I. Hester; Understanding the Bible (Zondervan), by John Stott; and Introduction to the New Testament (Klock & Klock), by Theodor Zahn.

A very helpful work designed for students and scholars is A Bibliographical Guide to New Testament Research (JSOT Press, Dept, of Biblical Studies, Univ. of Sheffield. England), edited by R. T. France.

Hermeneutics. Three valuable new works have appeared in this area; all are worth reading in detail. The Language and Imagery of the Bible (Westminster), by G. B. Caird, looks at the linguistic distinctives of the Bible; The Two Horizons (Eerdmans), by Anthony Thiselton, analyzes the relation of philosophy to New Testament hermeneutics; and The Word’s Body (Univ. of Alabama), by Alla Bozarth-Campbell, is a creative essay developing an incarnational aesthetic of interpretation. The profound influence of Paul Ricoeur on contemporary hermeneutics is evidenced by Essays on Biblical Interpretation (Fortress), by Paul Ricoeur, edited with an introduction by Lewis S. Mudge. This is an excellent introductory text to his thought. The lengthy discussion of Bultmann is especially challenging.

Various Topics. Ralph P. Martin has analyzed the images of the church in New Testament times in The Family and the Fellowship (Eerdmans). Health and Healing (Handsel/Columbia Univ. Press), by John Wilkinson, is a careful examination of the New Testament evidence. John Knox’s New Foundation Theological Library series continues with New Testament Prophecy, by David Hill. It is a seminal work that will generate fruitful discussion. Those who appreciate Kenneth W. Clark will be delighted that E. J. Brill has published some of his scarcer pieces in The Gentile Bias and Other Essays. These essays cover everything from the posture of the ancient scribe to realized eschatology. James Dunn’s excellent and provocative Jesus and the Spirit (Westminster) is now available in paperback.

Christ

Kenneth Boa and William Proctor probe what the star of Bethlehem meant in The Return of the Star of Bethlehem (Doubleday-Galilee). It is traditional in viewpoint but up to date and prophetic in tone. Three new lives of Jesus appeared: And Still Is Ours Today (Seabury), by F. Washington Jarvis; This Jesus (InterVarsity), by David Day: and Rabboni (Revell), by W. Phillip Keller. They are all helpful, but Rabboni is the easiest to read. F. J. Sheed’s To Know Christ Jesus (Servant) is also a life of Jesus, now in paperback, that looks at Christ and how he relates to faith, prayer, doctrine, and worship. It is a classic study. Hans-Ruedi Weber draws valuable insight from Jesus’ life for us today in Jesus and the Children (John Knox). It is a scholarly, yet readable work. George MacDonald’s The Miracles of Our Lord (Harold Shaw) consists of meditations that encourage us to bring Christ into our lives in a new way. A. M. Hunter examines Christian existence as living in the kingdom of God in Christ and the Kingdom (Servant). As always. Hunter is clear and challenging. Jesus in Gethsemane (Paulist), by David M. Stanley, is a reverent, full-length, scholarly study of Jesus’ suffering and prayer. It is devoutly written and moving, even if rather technical.

Four books have appeared dealing with the resurrection of Jesus: Days of Glory (Servant), by Richard T. A. Murphy, is an orthodox, straightforward account of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ in New Testament Theology (Westminster), by John Frederick Jansen, begins with the resurrection as past event, then relates it to present and future; The Resurrection of Jesus (Baker), by Gary R. Habermas, is a “resurrection apologetic” set in the context of a rational theism; and The Miracle of Easter (Word), edited by Floyd Thatcher, is a collection of viewpoints ranging from James I. McCord to Fulton J. Sheen.

Several books appeared that attempt to relate Jesus and his teachings to our present existence. Christ in Your Life (Concordia), by Leslie Brandt, uses the medium of poetry to show what God’s good news can do for us. Knowing Christ (Moody), by S. Craig Glickman, offers glimpses of the Lord who changes our lives. The Incomparable Christ (Broadman), by Billy E. Simmons, examines the titles of Christ to demonstrate his character and power. Who’s Boss? (Victor Books), by Merrill C. Tenney, turns the questions of Jesus upon our lives in examination.

Several scholarly studies dealing with various aspects of the doctrine of Christ were also published. Michael Ramsey looks at the early church’s faith in Jesus and its legitimacy in Jesus and the Living Past (Oxford). An interesting collection of essays is: The Messiahship of Jesus: What Jews and Jewish Christians Say (Moody), edited by Arthur W. Kac. A detailed and comprehensive study is Son of Man: The Interpretation and Influence of Daniel 7 (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge), by Maurice Casey. Christology in the Making (Westminster), by James Dunn, is a thorough study of the origins of the doctrine of the Incarnation in the New Testament. Christ Proclaimed: Christology as Rhetoric (Paulist), by Frans Jozef van Beeck, is a challenging new approach to Christology that takes the Resurrection and the living presence of Christ in the Spirit as starting points.

Commentaries/Studies

The Synoptic Gospels. Several books deal with the Synoptics as a whole. The Growth of the Gospels (Paulist), by Neil J. McEleney, is an easy-to-follow primer arguing the priority of Mark. D. Moody Smith’s Interpreting the Gospels for Preaching (Fortress), is an attempt to use form and redaction criticism homiletically. It contains some helpful insights, but this method ought not to be overdone. Poverty and Expectation in the Gospels (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge), by David L. Mealand, is a thought-provoking study of the socioeconomic context of Jesus’ message. Documents for the Study of the Gospels (Collins), by David R. Cartlidge and David L. Dungan, is a diverse collection of documents, from Greek myths and Aesop’s fables to the dream of Scipio and the murder of Julius Caesar, which supposedly help in understanding the Gospels. Interesting as it is, it is difficult to see the relevancy of much of it.

Specific books dealing with Matthew are the following: The Mind of Matthew (Westminster), by R. E. O. White; Meet Your King (Victor), by Warren Wiersbe; The Gospel According to Matthew (Baker reprint), by J. A. Alexander; Gospel of Matthew (Kregel reprint), by David Thomas; Behold the King (Multnomah), by Stanley D. Toussaint; The Gospel of Matthew (Paulist), by Robert E. Obach and Albert Kirk: Preaching Through Matthew (Abingdon), by Robert E. Luccock; The Lord’s Prayer (AMG), by Spiros Zodhiates; The Sermon on the Mount (Multnomah), by J. Dwight Pentecost; and St. Matthew’s Earthquake (Servant), by Paul Hinnebusch, which deals with the themes of judgment and discipleship. Of these books, I found Pentecost and White to be quite instructive.

Fewer books deal with the Gospel of Mark, but the most challenging is History and Criticism of the Marcan Hypothesis (Mercer Univ./T. & T. Clark) by Hans-Herbert Stoldt. He asserts, “The Marcan hypothesis … is untenable.” This is a book to be reckoned with and all N. T. scholars will need to read it. J. A. Alexander’s commentary has been reprinted by both Klock & Klock and Baker Book House. Both I, Mark: A Personal Encounter (John Knox), by Carl Walters, Jr., and Mark: Traditions in Conflict (Fortress), by Theodore J. Weeden, attempt to explain the Gospel of Mark. Neither is wholly successful, but Walters seems to make better sense.

Savior of the World (InterVarsity), by Michael Wilcock, is a straightforward, simple commentary on Luke which will be helpful to college students or educated lay people.

John. E. W. Hengstenberg’s long out-of-print Commentary on the Gospel of St. John (two vols.) has again been made available by Klock & Klock. It is in many ways a fine commentary. More than translators will be helped by A Translator’s Handbook on the Gospel of John (United Bible Societies), by Barclay Newman and Eugene Nida. It is a verse-by-verse explanation of the content of the Gospel. Steve Harper has written a devotional study of John in A Fresh Start (David C. Cook). John (Michael Glazier), by James McPolin. S.J., is a Roman Catholic biblical-theological commentary. Following the Way: The Setting of John’s Gospel (Augsburg), by Bruce E. Schein, is a nicely illustrated, well-written, and highly informative work that sets the stage for understanding the Gospel. It should prove very useful.

Acts. Fortress Press has made Leander Keck and J. Louis Martyn’s fine collection of essays. Studies in Acts, available again. Its 19 studies are of abiding worth. Acts and the History of Earliest Christianity (Fortress), by Martin Hengel, is another challenging work. Hengel’s break with radical criticism and demonstration that Acts is, after all, historically reliable is a welcome move. Several commentaries have appeared: Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles (Klock & Klock reprint) by J. A. Alexander: Acts: The Birth of the Church (Revell), by E. M. Blaiklock: The Acts (Michael Glazier), by Jerome Crowe: Acts: An Exposition, Vol. III, Chapters 19–28 (Zondervan), by W. A. Criswell; Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles (Klock & Klock reprint), by P. J. Gloag; and Acts (InterVarsity, 38 DeMontfort St., Leicester LEI 7GP, U.K.), by I. Howard Marshall. Blaiklock and Marshall have done especially fine work.

Paul and His Letters. Several studies in Paul have been printed or reprinted recently. Paul: Mystic and Missionary (Orbis), by Bernard T. Smyth, is a thoughtful, provocative study. W. D. Davies’s monumental work. Paul and Rabbinic Judaism (Fortress), is now in its fourth edition, with a lengthy new preface. Paul and Power (Fortress), by Bengt Holmberg, looks at the structure of authority in the primitive church. Ronald F. Hock uses Paul’s tent making as a basis for analyzing The Social Context of Paul’s Ministry (Fortress). Two valuable works on community are: Paul’s Idea of Community (Eerdmans), by Robert Banks, and Pauline Partnership in Christ (Fortress), by J. Paul Sampley. Banks’s book is very well done. Moma Hooker writes A Preface to Paul (Oxford), arguing that Paul must be allowed to speak for himself.

Fritz Rienecker’s A Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament: Romans to Revelation (Zondervan) is now available. It is a concise word study of the second half of the N. T. and is especially helpful in the grammar it explains. J. B. Lightfoot’s Notes on the Epistles of Paul has been reprinted by Alpha Publications.

Romans, as always, attracts special interest. Broadman offers volume 20 of its Layman’s Bible Book Commentary, Romans, I Corinthians, by J. W. MacGorman. Other commentaries are: Romans (Michael Glazier), by Eugene H. Maly: Romans, two volumes (Christian Publications), by Don J. Kenyon; A Guide to Understanding Romans (Bethany Fellowship), by Harold J. Brokke: Romans (Augsburg), by Roy A. Harrisville; Commentary on Romans (Eerdmans), by Ernst Kasemann; and Exposition on the Epistle to the Romans (Cistercian Publications), by William of St. Thierry, translated by John Baptist Hasbrouck and edited by John D. Anderson. W. G. T. Shedd’s commentary has been reprinted by both Baker Book House and Klock & Klock. Of the recent books on Romans, Käsemann’s book cannot be neglected by scholars, and Harrisville offers stimulating reading as well.

Fans of William Hendricksen will be happy to see Romans: Chapters 1–8 (Baker). As always, it is a stimulating spiritual experience to read a Hendriksen work.

The following books have appeared on the Corinthian letters: I Corinthians (Michael Glazier), by Jerome Murphy-O Conner. O.P.; Believe and Behave (Sceptre), by Wilbur E. Nelson; The Love Life: 1 Corinthians 13 (Kregel), by W. Graham Scroggie; Commentary on First Corinthians (Klock & Klock), by T. C. Edwards: and Charles Hodge’s Exposition of First Corinthians and Exposition of Second Corinthians, both by Baker Book House. The Ministry of Reconciliation (Baker), by French L. Arrington, is an exposition of II Corinthians that shows great exegetical skills, but it is put in terms that are easy to understand.

The prison letters of Paul received a great deal of attention this last year. Reprints include: Robert Johnstone, Philippians (Klock & Klock): Charles Hodge, Ephesians (Baker): Alfred Plummer. Philippians (Revell): B. F. Westcott, Ephesians (Klock & Klock).

Martyn Lloyd-Jones continues his spiritually refreshing series on Ephesians, covering 3:1–21 in The Unsearchable Riches of Christ (Baker). John Stott writes as always with penetration and insight, in God’s New Society: The Message of Ephesians (InterVarsity).

Two shorter studies in Philippians are: Philippians: A Study Guide Commentary (Zondervan), by Howard F. Vos, and Philippians: The Believer’s Joy in Christ (Tyndale), by James T. Draper. Of a different sort is the New Century Bible Commentary. Philippians (Eerdmans), by Ralph P. Martin. It is a scholar’s and student’s commentary and will be prized by those who want exacting (and evangelical) exegetical work.

Colossians (Presbyterian & Reformed), by Gordon H. Clark, is a popular exposition, but it is marred by irrelevant and unnecessarily harsh asides such as “can anyone imagine Bella Abzug enjoying marriage—or her husband?” (p. 122). H. D. McDonald, Colossians and Philemon (Word.) and R. C. Lucas, Fulness and Freedom: The Message of Colossians and Philemon (InterVarsity), have also written popular works: both are deeply spiritual and challenging.

St. Paul’s Epistles to the Thessalonians, by George Milligan, has been reprinted by Fleming H. Revell as part of their Evangelical Masterworks, as well as by Klock & Klock.

Thomas Taylor’s 1619 Exposition of Titus has been made available again by Klock & Klock. Its style is dated, but it makes interesting reading. Luke and the Pastoral Epistles (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge), by Stephen G. Wilson, is a major work arguing, primarily on the basis of style and theme, that Luke is the author of the pastorals.

Hebrews. Klock & Klock has made two standard works available: Franz Delitzsch’s Hebrews and A. B. Bruce’s Hebrews. William Plummer’s 1872 work. Hebrews, has been reprinted by Baker Book House as part of their Great Summit Books series. Baker has also made available John Owen’s massive seven-volume An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews.

General/Johannine Letters. F. J. A. Hort’s exegetical works on James and I Peter (along with four other works) are available as Expository and Exegetical Studies (Klock & Klock). David Hubbard in The Book of James: Wisdom that Works (Word) offers practical advice from a practical epistle. The United Bible Societies continues its Helps for Translators series with A Translator’s Handbook on the First Letter from Peter, by Daniel C. Arichea and Eugene A. Nida. Ray Stedman’s popular Expository Studies in I John (Word) will delight those who want simple but meaty fare.

Revelation. Three books appeared in 1980 that defend a pretribulational interpretation of Revelation. Lehman Strauss’s Prophetic Mysteries Revealed (Loizeaux) looks primarily at the letters of Revelation 2–3, finding a three-fold meaning for each letter: local at the time, personal application, and prophetic of the seven ages of the church before the Rapture. Edgar James’s Day of the Lamb (Victor) gives a simple exposition of the entire book. Revelation: Drama of the Ages (Harvest House), by Herbert Lockyer, Sr., is a more extended commentary showing careful and extensive work in the text. It shows no acquaintance with contemporary scholarly discussion.

Three works take a more traditional view of Revelation. David J. Wieand sees in Revelation Visions of Glory (Brethren Press) that relate to our lives today. Songs of Heaven (Revell), by Robert Coleman, is a devotional study of the doxologies in Revelation. The Apocalypse (Michael Glazier), by Adela Yarbro Collins, sees Revelation as a symbolic depiction of the church’s combat with evil, concluding with God’s ultimate victory.

Books about the Old Testament continue to roll off presses in both the U.S. and abroad in large numbers—and that is good news. The current crop is again characterized by great variety in subject matter, theological perspective, and depth of insight.

Significant Books

It is always difficult to select which books should be designated the “most significant books of the year,” especially when the quality is often so nearly equal. Five were chosen, however, from several categories that should be on the “must” list for all evangelicals. This is not to say that evangelicals will agree with everything that is said in these books, but that they will profit by reading them.

Appearing last month just in time for inclusion in this survey, was the long-awaited, two-volume Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Moody). Edited by R. Laird Harris, Gleason Archer, and Bruce Waltke, the Wordbook contains the contributions of 46 evangelical Old Testament scholars. Less exhaustive than the multi volume Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament being published by Eerdmans, the Wordbook could prove to be of more practical help to students and pastors. Its entries include all the significant theological words of the Hebrew Bible. Further, every Old Testament word not chosen for essay treatment is listed with a one-line definition. Words from the same Hebrew root are both listed by root and cross listed in alphabetical order. An index correlates the numbers of the Hebrew words as given in Strong’s Concordance with the numbers as given in the Wordbook, making its contents readily accessible to the reader who knows little or no Hebrew. The bibliographies alone are worth the price of the two volumes. Despite numerous typographical errors (which doubtless will be corrected in future printings), the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament stands at the top of this year’s five most important books.

In second place is Michael O’Connor’s remarkable study of Hebrew Verse Structure (Eisenbrauns). It applies the tools of modern linguistic research to Old Testament poetry in a comprehensive way for the first time. Although somewhat technical, this important work is packed with all sorts of useful information. In addition to including a Scripture index at the end of the book, the author uses an internal cross-indexing system to help the reader quickly find relevant comments on the passage in question. Useful as well as a reference work for many of the most ancient poems in the Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Verse Structure is a landmark volume that will be required reading for students of Hebrew poetry.

Two unusually fine commentaries share third and fourth places on this list, both of them coming from the pens of Australian scholars. The latest addition to the New International Commentary on the Old Testament, J. A. Thompson’s The Book of Jeremiah (Eerdmans), rivals John Bright’s Anchor Bible commentary as the best in English on Jeremiah. Unlike Bright, Thompson follows the text in its canonical order. His highly competent treatment lends itself to use by scholars and teachers as well as for sermon preparation and personal study. Unwilling to commit himself on the question of who put the book of Jeremiah into its final form. Thompson is nevertheless certain it represents “the authentic history and preaching” of the prophet.

Australian Francis I. Andersen, in collaboration with David Noel Freedman, has produced the best critical commentary on Hosea (Doubleday) in the English language. Although Hosea contains many passages that are virtually unintelligible. Andersen and Freedman decided to stick to the Masoretic text while admitting that many textual problems remain unsolved. Hosca’s setting, in their judgment, is the eighth century for the most part, the initial compilation having taken place early in the seventh. Although the book’s final form was shaped during the Babylonian exile, there is very little evidence of altering of the text to update the material. This most recent addition to the Anchor Bible tends to be somewhat repetitive, but that is a minor point. Students of Old Testament prophecy will turn frequently to this book.

Rounding out the five best Old Testament books of 1980 is a slim paperback by Douglas Stuart, Old Testament Exegesis (Westminster). Helpful without being overly technical, its goal is to bring serious Old Testament exegesis back into the life of the average seminary student and working pastor. It explains the procedures and aims of exegesis, tells how to use the tools of exegesis, and emphasizes preaching and teaching values. Its excellent bibliographies are supplemented by four do’s and fourdon’ts in application at the very end of the volume.

Text And Language

John Kohlenberger is editor of The NIV Interlinear Hebrew-English Old Testament (Zondervan); the first volume covers Genesis through Deuteronomy. Although the book does not quite deliver what its introductory sections promise, it may nonetheless prove helpful to those who have minimal knowledge of Hebrew. Somewhat more useful as an aid to rapid reading of the Hebrew Bible is Volume 1 (also covering Genesis through Deuteronomy) of A Reader’s Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Zondervan), by Terry Armstrong, Douglas Busby, and Cyril Carr. Words that occur in the Old Testament 50 times or less are listed verse by verse in the order of their occurrence, and a well-written preface sets the parameters for using the book most effectively. Nelson’s Expository Dictionary of the Old Testament (Nelson), edited by William White, Jr., and the late Merrill Unger, assisted by 12 contributors, treats over 500 of the most important terms in the Hebrew Bible, arranged in alphabetical order by their English equivalents. Although marred by a large number of errors, repetitions, and contradictions, all of which fail to inspire confidence, it will be a helpful volume if used critically.

Erroll Rhodes’s translation of Ernst Wiirthwein’s fourth edition of his classic The Text of the Old Testament (Eerdmans) does for the Stuttgart Biblia Hebraica what Peter Ackroyd’s 1957 translation did for the third edition of Kittel’s. Although Rhodes’s translation is neither as felicitous nor accurate as Ackroyd’s, updating of footnotes and a discussion of the Qumran Cave II Psalms scroll are welcome. A few additional plates have been added and most of the plates are clearer than in the earlier edition, but numbers 32 and 34 are upside down—and number 4 has been printed backwards as well as upside down! Despite these flaws, however. Würthwein’s is still the best brief work available on the subject.

Introduction And Survey

Alice Parmelee’s moderately liberal Guide to the Old Testament and Apocrypha (Morehouse-Barlow) includes numerous little-known bits of information such as the origin of the word “mugwump” and the fact that General Allenby used Jonathan’s tactics to defeat the Turks at Michmash. A helpful appendix discusses “Prayer in the Old Testament and in the Apocrypha.” Opening the Old Testament (Christian Publications), by H. Robert Cowles, has 13 chapters and would be suitable for a Sunday school quarterly class format. W. Lee Humphrey’s Crisis and Story (Mayfield) introduces the Old Testament in terms of reshaping the basic Moses-Sinai and David-Zion accounts. Although intended as an introductory volume for college students, those readers should look first at a more traditional approach. Using a fascinating pastiche of quotations, photos, and commentary, Mark Link has produced a brief survey: These Stones Will Shout (revised edition; Argus Communications). The book adopts a polemic stance from the outset, and it is certainly questionable whether “most scholars agree” (page 21) with its somewhat liberal ideas.

In Highlights of the Bible: Genesis-Nehemiah (G/L Regal), Ray Stedman provides a topical summary overview for laymen of Genesis through Esther. Picking up where Stedman leaves off is William MacDonald’s Old Testament Digest (Walterick), a brief summary of Job through Malachi written from a pretribulational perspective. For some reason, the author decided to include a verse-by-verse paraphrase of the Song of Solomon.

Commentaries

As usual, commentaries constitute the largest single grouping in this year’s Old Testament selections. For the sake of convenience we have divided these into four subsections.

Pentateuch. The chief feature of Exploring Genesis (Moody), by John Phillips, is its overuse of alliteration, which is amply demonstrated in its 23-page outline of Genesis. When an author writes that Genesis “begins with a blaze of brightness in heaven and ends with a box of bones in Egypt” (page 379), alliteration has become an end in itself. For all that, however, the book has homiletical helps, interesting illustrations—and sometimes erroneous etymologies. Up from Chaos (Standard), by LeRoy Lawson, is a sketchy, 13-chapter commentary on selected Genesis passages. In How It All Began (G/L Regal). Ronald Youngblood offers a 13-chapter commentary for laymen on the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Harold Shaw Publishers has issued revised editions of two slender volumes entitled Genesis 1–25: Walking with God and Genesis 26–50: Called by God, both by Margaret Fromer and Sharrel Keyes, and intended for Bible study groups. In The Promises to the Fathers (Fortress), Claus Westermann looks into the preliterary history of the present patriarchal narratives as background in determining their theology. He distributes the Abrahamic promise narratives into six distinct motifs: descendants alone, the land alone, land and descendants together, a son alone, descendants and a son, and a blessing combined with various other promises.

Spiritual Greatness: Studies in Exodus (BMH) is a brief, 13-chapter laymen’s commentary by Tom Julien. It does not include the book of the covenant (chapters 21–23) or the chapters on the tabernacle (25–31; 35–40). Louis Goldberg has written a brief study guide and commentary on Leviticus (Zondervan), with questions at the end of each chapter. Longer and therefore more substantial is R. K. Harrison’s Leviticus (InterVarsity), the latest addition to the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries series. It attempts to make Leviticus clear in its original setting and relevant for today, and is especially helpful in relating holiness to obedience and faith. Hans Jochen Boecker’s Laws and the Administration of Justice in the Old Testament and Ancient East (Augsburg) is a fascinating analysis of the book of the covenant, the Law of Holiness (Leviticus 17–26), and Deuteronomy, against the background of ancient Near Eastern law (especially the Code of Hammurabi), stressing law as the basis of numerous theological concepts in Old Testament times. Moses and the Deuteronomist (Seabury), by Robert Polzin, which treats only Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Judges, emphasizes the priority of literary analysis of texts over historical analysis but takes the narrative aspects of the Deuteronomic history seriously.

Historical Books. James Noonan provides a laymen’s commentary on Ruth. For the Love of Man (Dorrance). Boaz is a Christ figure, redeeming Naomi’s debts and then redeeming Ruth from her precarious situation in society by marrying her. A worthy addition to the Anchor Bible is I Samuel (Doubleday) by P. Kyle McCarter, Jr. Although it goes too far in reconstructing I Samuel and denigrating the Masoretic text, it is instructive, meaty, and up-to-date. David (Christian Herald), by Norman Archer, gives equal time to the successes and failures of Israel’s greatest king. Practical, chatty comments on the life of Elijah are offered by William Petersen in Meet Me on the Mountain (Victor). In Understanding Chronicles One & Two (Walterick), John Heading surveys their contents with application to Christian worship and fellowship. Brief comments on selected chapters from Nehemiah with extended references to the potential for revival today are contained in When Revival Comes (Broadman), by Jack Taylor and O. S. Hawkins. Esther: Courage in Crisis (Victor), by Margaret Hess, is well researched and contains numerous helpful personal touches.

Poetry and Wisdom. Heading this section is Pottery, Poetry, and Prophecy (Eisenbrauns), by the prolific David Noel Freedman. It is a collection of recent articles (some of them already classics) on the poetry of the Hebrew Bible. The validity of Freedman’s emphasis on syllable counting remains debatable, but the essays themselves are nevertheless helpful and thought provoking. Mildred Tengbom gives insight and comfort from selected portions of Job in Sometimes I Hurt (Nelson). A cut above most brief commentaries in application as well as interpretation is Job Speaks to Us Today (John Knox), by the patriarch’s namesake, John Job. Stressing wisdom as a major Joban theme is My Servant Job (Baker), a topically oriented discussion guide by Morris Inch. Out of the Whirlwind (Baker), by Andrew Blackwood, Jr., is a brief but perceptive commentary for laymen first issued 20 years ago as Devotional Introduction to Job. Laura Pleming’s Triumph of Job (Robert H. Sommer) provides a flash of helpful insight here and there, but it also contains many decidedly unhelpful and erroneous statements.

Claus Westermann’s The Psalms (Augsburg) uses a modified form of Hermann Gunkel’s classification of the Psalms according to form and assumed life setting rather than proposed historical setting. Westermann redefines “thanksgiving” as “narrative/declarative praise” (generally voiced by individuals) and distinguishes it from “descriptive praise” (generally voiced by the congregation). Praise: A Matter of Life and Breath (Nelson), by Ronald Allen, is a thematic commentary on selected psalms, stressing praise as an important and neglected element in worship. Eugene Peterson offers A Year with the Psalms (Word), a series of 365 brief devotional thoughts and prayers covering the entire Psalter. Peterson is especially sensitive on Psalm 137:7–9, but the whole is quite satisfying devotionally. The Lord Is My Shepherd (Westminster), by well-known New Testament scholar William Barclay, was in progress at the time of his death and therefore never completed. Devotional as well as exegetical, it covers only five psalms (1, 2, 8, 19, 104). A reprint of a 1979 BMH book, The Perfect Shepherd (Baker), by John Davis, is a detailed commentary relating Psalm 23 to Davis’s experiences among modern Bedouin in the Middle East. A Thirst for God (Zondervan), by Sherwood Wirt, is a sensitive series of reflections on Psalms 42 and 43. Those looking for guidance in difficulty will find help here.

Prophets. Written for students and lay people, Yesterday’s Prophets for Today’s World (Broadman), by F. B. Huey, Jr., treats such questions as the conditional nature of some prophetic passages and the ways the New Testament handles Old Testament prophecies. The approach is topical rather than book by book. Robert Wilson, in Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel (Fortress), uses modern anthropological methodology to demonstrate that not all the prophets were related to their societies in the same way. His chapter on “Prophecy in the Ancient Near East” outside the Bible is one of the strong points of the book, and his stimulating analysis of what he calls “millenarian movements” will be of special interest to many evangelicals.

Published originally in German 60 years ago, August Pieper’s masterful exposition of Isaiah 40–66 has finally been translated into English as Isaiah II (Northwestern Publishing). He divides the latter part of Isaiah into three sections of nine chapters apiece and claims each section is composed of three triads of three chapters apiece. E. John Hamlin, who teaches in Singapore, has written Comfort My People (John Knox), a study guide to Isaiah 40–66 with application both to people living in the West and in the Third World. The Histories and Prophecies of Daniel (BMH), by Robert Culver, is a down-to-earth commentary that does not dodge difficult problems of interpretation, and also admits uncertainty where there are no ready solutions.

A Baker Book House reprint of The Twelve Minor Prophets, by Ebenezer Henderson, originally published in 1845, is an excellent example of a classical orthodox commentary, giving the state of the art as practiced more than a century ago. Henderson lashes out against double/multiple meanings in Scripture, and his exegesis of the messianic passages is crisp and satisfactory. Manford Gutzke’s Plain Talk on the Minor Prophets (Zondervan) is a brief survey of each prophet, with practical application for today. Jonah: Living in Rebellion (Tyndale), by James Draper, Jr., is a commentary based on the Living Bible and provides an alliterative outline in each of nine chapters. Denise Adler has written Jonah: Lessons in Obedience and Repentance (Tyndale), a short discussion guide with spaces in which to write answers to questions. Although lay oriented. Just Living by Faith (InterVarsity), by Andrew and Phyllis Le Peau and John Stewart, does not talk down to lay people from the scholar’s ivory tower. And it shows excellent understanding of Habakkuk and his message.

Concluding the survey of commentaries is a slim volume in the Study Bible Commentary series. Malachi (Zondervan). Its author, Charles Isbell, is a competent Old Testament scholar, who pleads for “a doctrine of inspiration that is broad enough to include all of the people who were involved in the making of the biblical books at every point along the line” (page 21). An excellent study of prophets (life and ministry) is Yesterday’s Prophets for Today’s World (Broadman), by F. B. Huey, Jr.

Archaeology And History

A survey of Israelite history for college-level courses, Israel in Ancient Near Eastern Setting (University Microfilms), by Christopher Hong, suffers from a certain imbalance because of its stress on Israel’s earlier history as opposed to the monarchy. It also tends to be overly polemic. Alice Parmelee, A History of the People of Israel (Morehouse-Barlow), offers a retelling of the history of Israel from the patriarchs to the present—from Abraham ben Terah to Menahem Begin. Wonders in the Midst (Standard Publishing), by Ward Patterson, is a brief, 13-chapter volume covering the historical period from Moses to Samuel. John Davis and John Whitcomb offer A History of Israel from Conquest to Exile (Baker), a revised composite of three earlier works (two by Davis, one by Whitcomb) originally published 10 years ago. Judging from the footnotes and bibliography, the revision did not include updating. Israel’s United Monarchy (Baker), by the late Leon Wood, is a massive and perceptive scholarly study of the reigns of Saul. David, and Solomon, with characteristic application from the heart of a pastor.

Kenneth Barker provides a brief introduction and bibliographical update to Israel and the Aramaeans of Damascus (Baker), a welcome reprint of a volume first published in 1957 by the late Merrill Unger. Scriptures, Sects and Visions (Collins/Fortress), by Michael Stone, is a survey of the intertestamental (“second temple”) period written from a Jewish perspective. The author stresses elements of continuity between the Israelites of the preexilic period and the Jews of the postexilic period. Martin Hengel, in Jews, Greeks and Barbarians (Fortress), concentrates on the political and social history of Palestine from Alexander the Great to Antiochus III, emphasizing the effects of Hellenization on the Jews of Palestine and the Diaspora. The Land of the Bible (Westminster), by Yohanan Aharoni, is a revised and enlarged paperback edition of this important historical geography, brought up to date by his friend and translator, Anson Rainey, after the author’s untimely death.

Theology

God at Work in Israel (Abingdon), by Gerhard von Rad, is an English translation of a 1974 volume of lectures delivered by the late Old Testament theologian. Written in nontechnical language, they consist of “critical paraphrases” of biblical passages and studies of biblical themes. As one might expect, they are extremely perceptive and thoroughly Christocentric. The Hebrew Republic (American Presbyterian Press), by E. C. Wines, is a reprint of a nineteenth-century volume. Originally published as Book II of Commentary on the Laws of the Ancient Hebrews, its thesis is that the American republic was established on the divine wisdom and eternal principles of truth and justice found in the laws of Moses, not on principles derived from Greek or Roman paganism. Millard Lind, a Mennonite author, has written Yahweh Is a Warrior (Herald), a theological treatment of Genesis through Kings (the so-called primary history). According to the author, the Old Testament teaches that the ultimate warrior is the Lord, downplays human might in warfare, and emphasizes divine intervention.

Liberating Limits (Word), by John Huffman. Jr., has 10 crisp, helpful chapters, one on each of the Ten Commandments. These are sandwiched in-between a thoughtful, introductory chapter and a concluding chapter that ties together everything in Christ in an unusually satisfying way. Meredith G. Kline has given us another thought-provoking book, Images of the Spirit (Baker). His thesis is that “the theophanic Glory was present at the creation and was the specific divine model or referent in view in the creating of man in the image of God” (page 13). Corporate Personality in Ancient Israel (Fortress) is a revised edition of a 1964 volume deriving from H. Wheeler Robinson’s seminal essays written in 1935–1937. Gene Tucker’s introduction asserts that “corporate responsibility” is a better explanation than “corporate personality” for the Old Testament phenomenon under consideration. Ronald Hals’s Grace and Faith in the Old Testament (Augsburg) is evangelical in presentation if not in presupposition. Hals insists that “the presentation of the grace of God in the Old Testament and the understanding of his people’s response of faith are essentially similar to the way the same two realities are described in the New Testament” (page 85).

Two volumes on messianism round out the theology sections. The Messiah Texts (Avon), by Raphael Patai, brings together a great deal of fascinating material about the Messiah from extra-biblical, traditional Jewish sources. Interestingly enough, it is arranged in such a way as to make it possible to see Jesus as its referent and/or fulfillment—though that is not what the author intends (for Patai, Jesus was “one of many Jews who claimed to be divinely inspired redeemers”). In Messianic Expectation in the Old Testament (Fortress), Joachim Becker nicely summarizes the various aspects of the problem of relating New Testament messianism with Old Testament restorative monarchism. Although written from a literary-critical and traditional-historical perspective, in its final chapter the book betrays its author’s basically Christian presupposition—that after all is said and done, Jesus Christ is the messianic theme of Holy Scripture.

Miscellany

Heading this section is 540 Little Known Facts About the Bible (Doubleday), edited by Robert Tuck. First published over a century ago as Biblical Things Not Generally Known, this welcome reprint is a quaint volume, providing fascinating information on biblical names, places, customs, traditions, and teachings. By contrast. The Book of the Bible (Morrow), by Eunice Riedel, Thomas Tracy, and Barbara Moskowitz, is a strange mixture of good insights and bad exegesis. Self-contradictory at numerous points, it is poorly edited and filled with cliches that sometimes border on blasphemy. An imaginative retelling of several Old Testament stories is offered in Peter Dickinson’s City of Gold (Pantheon). Though sometimes taking liberties with the biblical text, its style is engrossing and its original color illustrations are powerful.

In And They Took Themselves Wives (Harper & Row), David Bakan rewrites ancient history on the basis of the documentary hypothesis in an attempt to show that the earlier norms were matriarchal. His exotic methods of interpretation are nothing more than allegory at its worst (Noah was originally a female figure, baptism is salvation from drowning, and so on). Five Women, by Denis Adler, is a Tyndale House study guide that asks for answers to questions about the five women in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus. A series of personal reflections on Moses’ encounter with God as recorded in Exodus 33 and 34 is the subject of The Back of God (Tyndale), by Bill Austin. In Chosen Days (Doubleday), David Rosenberg celebrates eight Jewish festivals and holy days (including Holocaust Day in the modern period). He includes free renderings of the pertinent biblical passages as well as imaginative art work contributed by Leonard Baskin. Loosely organized around the Ten Commandments, Sabbatical Reflections (Fortress), by Brita Stendahl, contains a wealth of sensitive and personal insights.

The final volume in this survey is Reclaiming the Old Testament for the Christian Pulpit (John Knox), by Donald Gowan. It is a manual on the use of form and traditional-historical criticism as techniques for discovering what to preach from the Old Testament and how to preach it most effectively, and includes examples of brief sermons. Readers can learn a great deal about preaching from the Old Testament without buying into everything Gowan says.