January 5

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January 5, 1066: Edward the Confessor, the only English king ever canonized a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, dies. Builder of Westminster Abbey, he was buried there January 6.

January 5, 1527: Swiss Anabaptist reformer Felix Manz is drowned in punishment for preaching adult baptism, becoming the first Protestant martyred by other Protestants (see issue 5: Anabaptists).

January 5, 1964: Roman Catholic Pope Paul VI and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras meet in Jerusalem, the first meeting of the two offices since 1439, more than half a millennium before (see issue 54: Eastern Orthodoxy).

Jungle Identity Crisis: Auca Country Revisited

Missionary work continues among the Aucas, the Ecuadorian Indians who, 24 years ago this month, killed five American missionaries: Jim Elliot, Peter Fleming, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, and Nate Saint. Assistant news editor John Maust recently visited the jungle clearing where Wycliffe Bible Translators began, and maintains its Auca outreach.

Al Meehan is navigating Wycliffe’s Helio Courier airplane through heavy rain-clouds en route to the jungle airstrip clearing that is Tiwaeno. Bad weather has delayed the 45-minute flight from Wycliffe’s jungle center of operations, Limón Cocha. Meehan seems relaxed, despite the fact that he is behind schedule.

He is among those whose lives were changed by the martyred missionaries. While a policeman in Baltimore, Maryland, Meehan read Russell Hitt’s biography of slain pilot Nate Saint and was inspired to attend Moody Bible Institute’s Aviation School. Now as a Wycliffe pilot in Ecuador, he makes deliveries of people and supplies to at least a dozen jungle airstrips.

Meehan eases the small craft into a landing pattern. The narrow, grassy clearing doubles as a soccer field, and Auca children interrupt their game long enough to back off. When the plane touches down, they chase after it like an errant ball.

Wycliffe personnel approach the plane. Translators Catherine Peeke and Rosi Jung expect a parcel of roofing nails for their new hut. Jim Yost, the bearded anthropological consultant, his wife Kathie, and three children, hope for mail. This time Meehan’s only shipment is an American journalist.

All seem happy to see Al, their airborne (and only) link to the outside. They wave as the plane takes off, then return to their work.

Mere mention of the word “Auca” creates vivid memories for many Christians. The Aucas’ killing of the five missionaries, so thoroughly documented in church basement movies and several biographies, led to this era’s most publicized missionary success story, in which Christianity crossed cultures and killers became church leaders.

Tiwaeno personnel are aware of the “Auca mystique.” However, they know more about slugging out a day-to-day, often lonely, ministry in the jungle. They are not missionaries in the formal, preaching sense. But their work contributes to the same goal of evangelization.

Auca culture and ministry have changed since Rachel Saint and Elisabeth Elliot established the Tiwaeno settlement in 1958. Yost says these Indians no longer are called Auca. The term means “savage” or “barbarian” in the Quichua Indian language. The tribe now goes by the less derogatory name “Waorani,” meaning, simply, “the people.”

Yost says the Indians have learned they are on the bottom of the Ecuadorian social strata—beneath the Hispanics, mestizos, Quichuas, and various other jungle Indian groups. “The Quichuas regard them [Waorani] as less than human,” says Yost, an off-and-on Tiwaeno resident since 1974.

The Waorani are in an identity crisis, common to primitive cultures that rush suddenly into the twentieth century. “These people want desperately to be accepted,” says Jung, who came to Tiwaeno in 1969 as a health worker. She and Catherine Peeke, who had done mostly linguistic analysis in periodic stays at Tiwaeno since 1962, have been doing translation work on their own ever since Rachel Saint returned to the United States a year ago for eye surgery.

Seeking cultural acceptance, the Waorani in many cases have abandoned time-honored social customs. An example is the Wao (the singular form, pronounced Wog) male, who greets the airplane.

A broad smile reaches almost to his ears, which are striking because of the large hole in each ear lobe. Like many other Waorani, he has removed the traditional ear ornaments, not realizing he may look just as conspicuous without them. He also has forsaken the traditional Waorani haircut, and style of undress. This friendly Wao wears a missionary-barrel “Six Million Dollar Man” T-shirt and gray shorts.

The first Waorani Christian, Dayuma, who moved from Tiwaeno several years ago to establish another airstrip clearing settlement nearby, has been leading the Waoranis into this new age. She and several other Waorani women had fled the spearing vendettas of their tribe more than 25 years ago. They returned to their people enthusiastic about the modern world and with a knowledge of the Quichua and Spanish languages. They also helped introduce Christianity.

They are “cultural brokers” for their people, says Yost, who recently completed a three-year anthropological study of the Waorani. (Such reports are required by the Ecuadorian government in its contract with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, Wycliffe’s sister organization, with administrative offices in the capital city, Quito.) Since the women are able to communicate with Quichua and Hispanic tradesmen, who have guns and other modern gadgets so desired now by the Waorani, the women have gained unprecedented influence in the tribe, says Yost. The Waorani previously had no formal leadership structures.

Yost regretfully admits that in some cases there have been abuses of that influence. In addition, he says, some Waorani have been confused into thinking that by becoming Christian, one becomes materially rich. These problems commonly confront missionaries working in primitive cultures, he says.

(Dayuma’s settlement, located near the “Palm Beach” massacre sight, has a trilingual government school. About 30 believers live there. She still helps with translation work, and earns a small income by cooking meals for the private tour groups that pass by the settlement as often as three times a month.)

SIL and other mission agencies sometimes have been criticized by foreign officials for wrecking native cultures. The Tiwaeno personnel say that Westernization was bound to reach the Waorani eventually. It is better that Christian workers, rather than exploitative oil companies, first expose the Indians to this culture, they say.

(At its administrative headquarters in Quito, SIL monitors the Ecuadorian press, from which some of the criticisms come. Staff worker Judy Maxwell noted a recent Colombian newspaper headline, which hinted at a link between Wycliffe founder Cameron Townsend and Jim Jones of People’s Temple.)

In a telephone interview, Rachel Saint defended the Summer Institute of Linguistics against the charges of “culture wrecking.” Since Wycliffe entered the scene, she said, the Waorani have stopped “burying people alive, throwing babies in the river, and the spearings,” she says. She questioned how anyone could call that “disrupting the culture.”

Saint, who with Dayuma completed a Waorani translation of the Gospel of Mark in 1965, said “I don’t know of any better method of preserving the culture than putting the language in written form.”

The Waorani’s adoption of Christianity for the most part has stopped the killings. (The last reported spearings were of oil company workers in 1977.) Yost notes that even today the church’s most effective appeal to the Waorani is its injunction “to stop killing one another.”

Two of the men who killed the five missionaries now are local church leaders. Tementa, son of one of the killers, is Catherine Peeke’s most accomplished translation helper. About 150 to 200 Waorani have been baptized—nearly a third of the 600-member tribe.

At suppertime, translators Peeke and Jung prepare a stew of rice, vegetables, and agouti, a jungle rodent with a chewy, earthy texture.

Then, by candlelight and over coffee with cookies, they discuss their work. There are few diversions at Tiwaeno: Jung’s only complaint is “too much sameness.” After a day’s translation work, they are too tired for recreation. They sometimes read a bit or listen to the short-wave radio before bedtime.

They describe problems with back translation. In this process, the women read a portion of Scripture in elementary Waorani, then ask their translation helpers to retell that same story in their own words.

The Waorani translation helpers so far have not understood. Eager to please the translators, they instead repeat back word for word, even imitating the women’s American accents and intonations. “We tell them to ‘tell it like your ancestors would,’ ” says Peeke, “but they still don’t understand.”

Peeke, 55, is one of Wycliffe’s most respected linguists. She recently finished a 40-page Waorani pedagogical grammar, of which Wycliffe printed 1,000 copies last summer.

At present she is working on a Waorani translation of Acts. Jung is translating stories about Joseph. So far, the only published Waorani Scripture is Mark. (Matthew is translated, but not yet published.)

Since many of the Waorani Christians have memorized all of Mark, some think “they know it all [about the Christian faith],” says Peeke. This has partly caused a declining interest in spiritual growth among the Waorani Christians, say the women. They complain that Waorani church leaders lack “spiritual hunger.”

The women are particularly concerned about the 80 or so “downriver Aucas,” a more primitive group living to the east of the 620-square-mile protectorate (akin to an American Indian reservation) in which most of the Waorani are located. For the most part, this group has not heard the gospel. (Ecuadorian Catholics have a small outreach in the area, however.) This group speared the first Waorani missionary, Toña.

Later the same evening, the Yosts are having a bedtime snack of bananas and raw peanuts. A former professor in the University of Colorado mountain recreation department, Yost is an outdoorsman and has thrived on the jungle life. His wife, Kathie, raised on an Iowa farm, has made comfortable the family’s thatched roof hut. She is helping at the settlement’s school, while Wycliffe’s literacy consultant, Pat Kelley, is away temporarily. The couple’s three children, Rochelle, 7; Natasha, 4; and Brandon, 2; have plenty of Indian playmates and probably speak the language better than their parents.

Yost has visited nearly every Waorani family in the protectorate. He records Waorani activities and family structure in a small notebook. He often lends his rifle to the Waorani men, who are noted for the breakneck pace of their hunting treks on the muddy, winding trails. His payment often is game, food for the Yost table.

Yost calls himself an “applied anthropologist,” saying that he uses his anthropological insights “to help these people maintain a sense of identity, self-esteem, and, more important, the ability to cope with the outside world without being dependent on outsiders like myself.”

Don Johnson, SIL’s Ecuadorian director, has taken steps to curtail the number of Christian “pilgrims” to Tiwaeno. Yost says it is none too soon. The well-meaning visitors probably do more harm than good, he says. Some of the “more sophisticated” Waorani, aware of the increasing number of tourists entering the Amazonian jungles, have the impression that he gets paid for bringing visitors to Tiwaeno, says Yost.

Despite these problems, the Waorani are a “neat people,” he says. Because their primitive culture compares to that in Bible times, they have a better capacity for understanding Scripture than American Christians, Yost says. Like the women, he believes it is important for the Waorani to have Scripture in their own language structure, without “cultural distortions.”

Once he stayed overnight in a Waorani hut where no white man previously had visited. Before retiring, the Indian host had washed Yost’s muddy feet, then dried them with wood shavings.

“He was trying to serve me … to make me more comfortable,” said Yost. “This was an act of total acceptance. The experience gave me a tremendous new view of the New Testament Scripture about foot washing.”

During the next two days, work continues as usual at Tiwaeno. When the journalist leaves, the Tiwaeno group knows there will be another article written about the Aucas. They expect to endure even more interviews, as the twenty-fifth anniversary of the killings approaches.

Some critics say that too much attention has been given to the Waorani—that equally important missionary work is being done in other Indian tribes. While that may be the case, perhaps the Waorani story is worth noting as representative of missionary dedication overall—a zeal that sometimes has ended in death.

Rosi Jung’s parting request is for prayer for the Waorani Christians. If only the people would exhibit a renewed hunger for Scripture, “we would walk on our heads to help them,” she says.

Culture

Bob Dylan Finds His Source

A call into the bars, into the streets, into the world, to repentance.

From the January 4, 1980, issue of Christianity Today:

There is little need to recount Scripture or to specify chapter and verse to substantiate the proposition that Slow Train is a Christian album. And while there may be inquiries about the surety of his commitment, Slow Train is testimony to Bob Dylan's completion into the Christian faith.

Slow Train Coming is more than a testimony to Bob Dylan's completion into the Christian faith: it is a call into the bars, into the streets, into the world, to repentance, to "the man on the cross … crucified for you. Believe in his power, that's about all you've got to do!" Bob, Jerry Wexler, and Barry Beckett have taken outreach and made it happen in the raw musical vernacular of the roadhouse.

Bob Dylan's credentials are impeccable. Who continually encouraged us to find the truth for ourselves, "Not to follow leaders" (not even himself,.in '"It Ain't Me, Babe")? Who suspected the status quo. the cool, the compromising ("Don't know which is worse, doin' your own thing or just bein' cool")? Who warned the complacent that the "times are a'changing," or cried for the realization of a mutual hope "blowin' in the wind"? Who painfully reexamined his talents and asked, "For whom does this prosper?" so that we might be strengthened in our own hope/thirst for righteousness'?

Not only as edification for the body, "Gotta Serve Somebody" must touch any listener just because it identifies so many of us: our jobs, our traits, our likes, our dislikes. How clearly in this context do we begin to see the single choice available at the bottom line: you cannot serve two masters.

As the blind lead the blind, the political activist has misread the reference to sheiks controlling America's power in Slow Train as a conservative political posture; it is, in fact, an accurate portrayal of the larger picture of world greed and man's subsequent dependence upon its luxuries and niceties as though they were life itself. Remember the line from Pogo: "We have met the enemy and he is us"? This is the ultimate war—the extension of our own battle for control in a situation that has been given to us. A man named Adam and a woman named Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and at once became "self-conscious," and hid from God. That seed of discontent and guilt has been passed down through the centuries and extruded through into defensive postures that bear no relation to turning the other cheek.

Juxtaposing seemingly unrelated characters and situations, Bob historically has spoken to us of a larger pursuit—a game bigger than local politics or the one-night stand. His John Wesley Harding album marked an adventurous step into the spiritual realm. And most Dylan aficionados are agreed that "My Back Pages" was the most revealing track from Another Side of Bob Dylan. It prophesied his dissatisfaction with himself and with goals that suddenly seemed too obvious and short-sighted. His search wound its way through his albums with occasional discoveries—like love, as revealed in a personal relationship.

Scriptural references were commonplace in Dylan songs, mostly Old Testament images. The allusions were rather strong, and there was no denying the power and authority of lines like "the first will be last," in "The Times They Are A'Changing."

Our Father is leading this musician into areas that are unreachable by the pastel-suited, bouffant-haired, highly stylized `"gospel singer." No one can fully recognize the diversity of gifts or talents within the body of Christ. Bob's new album is a special success: not only for him personally, as God will contrive to work through him as a person; but also musically, as it reaches for the shadows. It beseeches a decision from the hardest hearted, the one who is hardest to find, the outlaw—that one who never committed himself for fear of being hurt. It is an inspiration to all brothers and sisters. Remain in your station.

I'm sure some of the thinking behind the request for me to write about Bob Dylan's new album, "Slow Train Coming," was the assumption that because Bob and I shared the same times we must have shared the same space. Therefore, to provide the perspective in which to discuss this record. I must recount the Dylan-Stookey "relationship."

I met Bob in Greenwich Village in 1960, when he sang at the Gaslight, a coffee house (remember those?). His impact on me was considerable: the first night he was a singer of traditional ballads: the second night he was an innovator, using the folk idiom to speak in parables. Following his performance that second night, I asked him if he had heard of the counterfeit ticket scam that resulted in the sinking of the Bear Mountain Picnic vessel, when holders of all tickets (real or fake) boarded the ship, heedless of its capacity. The next night he returned with "Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues."

We had sporadic contact from 1961 to 1967. There was the Newport Folk Festival, where Bob's electric presentation was welcomed by a crowd thirsty for the perception and content in his music.

Then Woodstock, 1967: I'm looking for truth; Bob is recovering from a motorcycle accident. He graciously allows a friend and me into the house to ask questions of the universe. He is totally honest with me, kind—and suggests I do some Bible reading. Thanks, Bob.

1968, Dylan's movie time: I'm a seeker in monk's clothing, cavorting with Tiny Tim and Howard Alk and a winterscape. I end up on the cutting room floor.

Again 1968: Bob returns from the Holy Land; there is excitement in his voice. He has slides. I have slides. We have families. Some maybes are exchanged.

1974. I've moved to Maine. Bob passes through with the Rolling Thunder Review, close enough to attend. I don't.

People speak of the " Dylan enigma"; I see growth. The "basement tapes" are so scriptural I can't believe that everyone doesn't know who the Mighty Quinn is or in which "book" too much of nothing transpires.

1979. I hear a rumor: Dylan's a Christian. I hear of a personal encounter that speaks so eloquently of a changed heart I know the rumor must be true. I hear "Slow Train."

Musician Noel Paul Stookey is best known as Paul of Peter, Paul, and Mary, whose personal spiritual odyssey was described in Christianity Today's issue of May 19, 1978.

Related Elsewhere

Christianity Today's other articles on Bob Dylan include:

Watered-Down Love | Bob Dylan encountered Jesus in 1978, and that light has not entirely faded as he turns 60. By Steve Turner (May 24, 2001)

Bob Dylan: Still Blowin' in the Wind | Christianity Today reviews Dylan's work before the singer's conversion to Christianity. By Daniel J. Evearitt (Dec. 3, 1976)

Not Buying into the Subculture | Slow Train Coming reveals that Bob Dylan's quest for answers has been satisfied. By David Singer (Jan. 4, 1980)

Has Born-again Bob Dylan Returned to Judaism? | The singer's response to an Olympics ministry opportunity might settle the matter once for all. (Jan. 13, 1984)

Noel Paul Stookey's page offers information about the artist's touring schedule, recordings, and other projects.

Mending the Great Schism: The Pope Takes a Second Step

Roman Catholic-Eastern Orthodox rapprochement

Pope John Paul II’s muted visit to Turkey provided a marked contrast to the cheering crowds of his previous trips abroad. As much as possible, Turkish authorities turned the late November visit into a nonevent. But the long-term significance of what the pontiff called “my first ecumencial voyage” may be greater.

By meeting with Dimitrios I, the ecumenical patriarch of the Orthodox Church, John Paul launched the second phase in a process of reconciliation begun in 1964. The meeting then of Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem had ended nine centuries of total estrangement between the two branches of the church. A year later the mutual excommunications of the Great Schism in 1054 were rescinded.

Now that most of the bitterness has been buried, the theological differences must be dealt with. By going to Istanbul on the feast of Saint Andrew (elder brother of Peter and patron of the church of Constantinople) John Paul stressed his commitment to this dialogue.

Issues dividing the world’s 700 million Roman Catholics and the estimated 100 million within Eastern Orthodoxy are less than those separating them both from Protestantism, but still are formidable. During the Pope’s visit, Dimitrios announced formation of a 28-member joint theological commission to work at resolving them.

Among issues the commission will face at a first meeting expected this spring:

• The Nicene Creed formulation. The Orthodox cling to what they hold is the original wording, in which the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father.” Catholics add the words “and the Son.”

• Divorce. Catholics do not permit divorce. The Orthodox do on grounds of adultery.

• The papacy. The Orthodox are prepared to recognize the pope as first among equals, but not more than that. Catholics believe he has supremacy and, since 1870, have claimed infallibility for his formal teachings.

Areas of agreement or near agreement include the priesthood, emphasis on the importance of Mary, and the sacraments, including baptism and the eucharist.

John Paul and Dimitrios could not celebrate Communion together, however, since both churches are opposed to common Communion before full doctrinal accord has been achieved. Dimitrios attended as John Paul celebrated mass in Istanbul’s Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit. Then John Paul attended as Dimitrios celebrated a eucharistic service in the Orthodox Cathedral of Saint George.

Neither church expects that the mixed commission will resolve the differences quickly. But on his return to Rome, John Paul hinted at a timetable. “During the second millenium [of Christianity] our churches were rigid in their separation,” he said. “Now the third millenium of Christianity is at the gates. May the dawn of this millenium rise on a church which has full unity again.”

Venezula

Uniting for Evangelization in Booming Caracas

Petroleum-rich Venezuela recently struck a new deposit of a different kind: the uniting unction of the Holy Spirit. Evangelicals joined forces for a six-day National Congress on Evangelism coupled with a Luis Palau evangelistic crusade (“Family Festival”).

This was the first national congress for the 300,000-member Venezuelan evangelical church. It was conceived by five Venezuelan evangelical leaders who attended the Lausanne World Congress on Evangelization in 1974 and returned home with the desire to have a similar congress in Venezuela on a national scale. They invited Lausanne committee members to their country to encourage and amplify the vision for a united gathering.

Under the theme, “United for the Evangelization of Venezuela,” a local committee was organized and plans formulated for a nationwide meeting of evangelicals. What one observer termed “lamentably excessive denominational zeal” that had divided the church in the past was conquered as more than 1,500 churches agreed to sponsor the congress. The committee decided that it would not only study evangelism, but would engage in it as well by holding an evangelistic crusade in conjunction with the congress.

In the past there were only scattered attempts by the various denominations to work together. Campaigns such as “Evangelism in Depth” and a Billy Graham crusade were exceptions.

The double-billed event was successfully accomplished last November at the El Poliedro sports arena in Caracas, the republic’s capital and largest city with a population of three million.

Local believers traveled to every home in Caracas distributing over 600,000 tracts written by Palau. When evangelicals visited the chief member of the Venezuelan president’s cabinet, they learned that he listens to Palau’s radio program daily on Trans World Radio. This high-ranking government official pledged his support for the crusade and gave an enthusiastic greeting on the opening night.

Palau was interviewed the same night by three of Venezuela’s top reporters on a nationwide news program, “Meet the Press.” The reporters tried to corner Palau on tough theological questions, but eventually they discussed practical issues concerning Venezuelan families. The show’s ratings and reports from across the country revealed that the program had made a powerful impact for the gospel.

A key breakthrough for the evangelicals occurred the following morning when Palau and 75 church leaders joined Venezuelan President Luis Herrera Campíns and his aides for the nation’s first Presidential Prayer Breakfast. During a brief speech Palau said that nations and men who fear God will be blessed by him; then he turned to President Herrera and said, “God will bless you because today you have publicly honored him.”

Herrera, who took office in December 1978, responded, “I am pleased that this evangelical congress takes place near the beginning of my term. I am a practicing Catholic, but I am also the president of all Venezuelans. Our government constantly needs the prayers of the people.”

The next day the entire text of the president’s remarks was printed in the three largest Venezuelan newspapers.

The president of the local Bible society commented, “This is the greatest public exposure we evangelicals have ever had here. I am a third generation evangelical, and thank God for what he has brought to pass today.”

About 2,000 Christians came daily for the seminars, workshops, and Bible teaching in conjunction with the congress. The nightly crusade meetings with Palau reflected the high percentage of young people in the nation (63 percent of Venezuelans are under 20 years of age). First night attendance was 8,000 and it steadily increased; El Poliedro officials said the 13,500 seat arena was filled in excess of capacity with 15,000 on the final two nights.

The sports arena is nine miles beyond the city limits, but the distance wasn’t a problem for most of the Venezuelan believers and crusade attendees. Many people own automobiles in Venezuela, which has the continent’s highest average income. This fact reveals much about the country’s recent history. Prior to the 1920s Venezuela was one of South America’s poorest countries, but that quickly changed with the discovery of oil. Venezuelan cities today mirror the prosperity common among the exclusive club of oil-producing nations.

Rich oil reserves feed the government’s treasury, provide for the continent’s finest highways, help erect huge skyscrapers, and enhance the wealth of the few associated with petroleum.

Despite a growing middle class and the wealth brought to a few, thousands of Venezuelans live in crowded slums on the outskirts of the cities. Most of these people are unskilled workers from rural areas who came to the cities expecting to elevate their position in society. The discovery of oil, however, could not in itself satisfy the expectation of everyone caught up in the flight to the cities. (Although gasoline costs only 17¢ per gallon, a pair of pants costs $45.)

Miserable squatter shanties lean up against the high rise apartment complexes—a visual summary of the country’s social woes. Government funds, of which a major percentage is derived from the oil industry, have been allocated for social reform programs. But violence, labor strikes, and moral corruption currently are more visible than the government programs.

The 1,500 evangelical churches that sponsored the congress and Palau meetings believe a united, continuous, evangelistic effort can contribute powerfully to solving the country’s social woes.

Pastor Germán Nuñez, who presided over the congress, spent hours on his knees in prayer asking God to unite his people. Ruben Proetti, Argentine coordinator for the Palau Team, spent weeks directing the 1,500 churches toward a common evangelistic goal. The prayers and work were answered by the Spirit’s uniting power.

During the crusade meetings, 1,340 people made public Christian commitments. The evangelist preached on marriage, the life that triumphs, what Christ can offer young people, and true freedom. Judged Evangelical Free Church missionary Edward Blomberg, “Palau does not preach a cheap gospel. He understands this culture well, and he presses the claims of the Word of God.”

Broadcast media time is very expensive in Venezuela and the Palau Team was unable to saturate the country with radio and television broadcasts as they do during most of their crusades. However, the evangelist was interviewed by a number of radio and TV reporters. Palau said he was pleased with the recognition the media gave the congress and crusade.

Palau also spoke to 700 women at an afternoon tea sponsored by the congress. Wives of top government and military officials, as well as key businesswomen attended. A luncheon address by Palau drew 560 businessmen, high military figures, and a number of doctors and lawyers. At both affairs the evangelist gave an invitation and local businessmen and women involved with the congress are establishing further contact with those who indicated decisions.

Five hundred people took a biblical counseling course taught by Palau Team member Jim Williams. The response was so great that congress organizers asked Williams to return and teach the same course to another 1,500 local Christians.

BILL CONARD AND DAVID L. JONES

Dominican Republic

Student Power Erects White Barrios

The first night back at Wheaton College (Illinois), one girl looked at the steak on her plate and cried, as she remembered her Hispanic friends who did not have sufficient rice.

She was one of 60 Wheaton students who participated in a physically and emotionally exhausting relief program in the Dominican Republic. In their “Labor for Your Neighbor” project during Thanksgiving vacation, the students erected houses on the island, which suffered devastation by Hurricane David in early September. The storm left 1,500 persons dead and 80 percent of the housing in shambles.

The students planned simply to put their faith into action, but they returned attesting to new psychological and spiritual muscles. Observers have called the project a model for groups interested in similar relief projects.

The project began as fulfillment of a campaign promise. Larry Reed and Ted Moser, candidates for student government president and vice-president, ran on a platform of assisting the poor. “Our whole emphasis was for us to stop looking into ourselves, and start looking out into the world and seeing what we as students could do,” said Reed.

Once elected, the two had the opportunity to make good their pledge. Under their leadership, the Dominican project took shape. More than 250 students applied for the 60 positions available in the house-erecting effort.

A six-week fund drive netted over $80,000, with much of that earmarked for construction materials. The students purchased white, propylene houses, measuring 12-by-12½ feet. Sea Land Industries, an East coast firm, provided shipping for the housing materials, and the Christian Medical Society (CMS) donated plastic roof sheeting.

Prior to their departure, the students chose two construction locations: Jarabacoa, a town in the mountainous north central area of the country, and Nigua, a city located 20 miles southeast of the capital city, Santo Domingo.

The students received planning assistance from Wayne Bragg, director of the college’s Human Needs and Global Resources program, which has an internship program in Jarabacoa, and from John Shannon, CMS director in the Dominican Republic, who is based in Nigua. The men served as liaisons with Dominican government officials and local committees. Through their efforts, shipments arrived on schedule and were cleared through customs. (Some American students from Cleveland attempted earlier a similar project southeast of Santo Domingo, only to be frustrated by difficulties in clearing customs.)

But the students did most of the work themselves. They conducted fund raising projects that included a “radio-a-thon,” a work day, shop/save days at a local grocery store, and a mock kidnapping of Reed, whose ransom resulted in a $160 donation. (World Relief Corporation provided a $13,750 matching grant.)

Following their arrival on the island the students divided into Nigua and Jarabacoa work teams. The Nigua effort consisted of eight-person work groups: four Wheaton students and four Dominicans. Each Wheaton team had a person skilled in construction and another in the Spanish language. The local workers, who received rice and beans as pay, were part of a community cooperative that was formed by the Niguans prior to the students’ arrival.

The cooperative sold the plastic roofing sheets to local residents (the houses were donated). From the proceeds, the cooperative opened a bakery, which provided employment for six residents and sold bread at cheaper prices. The cooperative next wants to purchase chickens.

The cooperative “wanted to preserve recipients’ dignity by letting them pay for the sheeting,” said Moser, who headed the Nigua construction crew. “It was to be their [the Niguans’] project, and we made sure they did it becase we wanted the project to continue when we left,” he said.

The Jarabacoan relief project, carried out in a heavy rain most days, drew the attention of the Dominican press. A Santo Domingo reporter wrote, “In Jarabacoa, the student workers who rose with the sun and worked until nightfall, have spread their enthusiasm to community residents, including children who carry building materials to the sites.”

Local residents called it a “White Barrio” project, because of the gleaming white of the houses. The students, who were assisted by Richard Stone, of Food for the Hungry in Phoenix, Arizona, were named “adopted sons and daughters” in a resolution passed by the Jarabacoa municipal government.

During their project, the students erected 135 of the prefabricated houses, roofed 51 existing homes and two churches, and reconstructed a school building. An editorial in Santo Domingo’s Listin Diario newspaper suggested the Dominican government might take the same incentive to provide shelter for the island’s homeless. (Spring Arbor College in Michigan and Eastern College in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, were organizing for Dominican relief projects this month.)

Wheaton’s Dominican outreach has not ended. The student government expects to work with the Jarabacoans in setting up a cannery. The facility will preserve food that normally rots on the ground, and will provide jobs for the unemployed. In October, Wheaton students gave up their dining hall meals for a day to raise funds for the cannery project.

Several students after their return expressed a new respect for the Dominicans, who, though impoverished, gave food to show their gratitude. Some islanders perceived a message in the students’ lifestyle witness. A local resident commented, “Christ will arrive in our village tomorrow when you bring the houses.”

LOIS M. OTTAWAY

North American Scene

A new school of evangelism and world mission is planned for Asbury Theological Seminary. The purpose of the school, scheduled to open in fall 1981, is to train prospective and experienced missions personnel in the various disciplines of cross-cultural communication. The school will be named for the late E. Stanley Jones, pioneer missionary to India, and will offer masters and doctoral degree programs. About 800 persons attend the seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky; it is the ninth largest in North America.

Nine Scientologists were sentenced to jail last month for their roles in a conspiracy to steal government documents. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Richey, who had found the group guilty of the conspiracy charges, sentenced eight members of the group to four- or five-year prison terms and $10,000 fines each. Mary Sue Hubbard, wife of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, was considering an appeal of her sentence. Scientologist Sharon Thomas received the least severe sentence: six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The U.S. Supreme Court left open the possibility that the United Methodist Church as a denomination can be sued. It announced it will not block suits filed against the UMC by former tenants of Pacific Homes, a bankrupt chain of 14 retirement homes in Southern California, Arizona, and Hawaii that formerly were officially connected to the UMC’s Pacific and Southwest Conference. Former residents have filed lawsuits totaling over $400 million against the regional conference, the UMC’s Chicago-based central funding agency, and the denomination, alleging, among other things, breach of contract and fraud. Church lawyers have argued that under UMC connectional polity, the denomination cannot be held liable for actions of church-related agencies, many of which have relatively independent boards of trustees.

Christians prayed, tolled church bells, and sent Christmas cards to the American hostages as the Iranian crisis continued last month. Earl Lee, pastor of the 1,800-member First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, California, reported “an immense wave of support” in behalf of his son Gary, a U.S. State Department employee who was among the hostages in the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The pastor said he was “low key” in mentioning his son’s plight during Sunday worship. But because those services are recorded and sent into 85 countries as part of the church’s taping ministry concerned listeners sent the Lee family many letters of support, made telephone calls, and offered special prayer.

Mormonism and the Equal Rights Amendment don’t mix. Sonia Johnson, 43, founder of Mormons for ERA, said her excommunication last month from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was because of her ERA lobbying activities. A three-man bishops court in Sterling, Virginia, did not allow trial testimony regarding the ERA, but charged her with spreading false doctrine and working against church leadership. The Mormon church has opposed the ERA as a threat to traditional family structure and morality. The Mormons believe that if an excommunicated member does not repent and is not rebaptized, that person presumably will be eternally separated from family in the afterlife.

World Scene

An accrediting association for European Bible colleges and seminaries has been formed. At the founding meeting near Basel, Switzerland, in November, 23 schools became charter members. The aim of the European Evangelical Accrediting Association is to set internationally recognized academic, spiritual, and practical standards for theological schools that would coordinate with similar evangelical bodies elsewhere. The first officers and their schools: president, Edgar Schmid, director of Saint Chrischona, Switzerland; coordinator, Frederick Burklin, academic dean at Seeheim, West Germany; council chairman, Ludwig Rott of Weidenest, West Germany.

A substantial attack against unregistered Soviet Baptist churches appears to be in progress, according to Keston College, the British center for study of religion under Communism. Keston reports that Pastor Nikolai Baturin, a member of the Council of Evangelical Christian Baptists, was arrested in the Ukraine in November. He previously served 16 years in labor camps, completing his last sentence in 1976. After doing open pastoral work in his home region, Rostov, he had gone into hiding because of KGB harrassment. Another member of the executive body of the unregistered churches, Ivan Antonov of Kirovograd, was arrested earlier last fall, and faces charges of “parasitism.”

The Methodist minister who heads the Christian League of Southern Africa is being investigated by his denomination. The Methodist Church of Southern Africa has appointed a three-man committee to examine the activities of Fred Shaw; his group’s strong anticommunist, proapartheid, and anti-World Council of Churches line has roused the WCC ire. The WCC has charged that the league was secretly subsidized by the South African government’s now-disbanded Department of Information. Shaw says the league did not knowingly receive such funds but has refused to allow scrutiny of league accounts.

The Full Gospel Central Church of Seoul, Korea, celebrated the achievement of reaching its goal of 100,000 members in November. Founded 21 years ago, the church operates through more than 6,700 home cell units. Its current membership roster—largest ever recorded for a single congregation—is 100,930. Paul Yonggi Cho is pastor of the Assemblies of God congregation. Christian day schools also are booming in Seoul. One junior and senior high school has 6,000 students; another school has 4,000.

An evangelical relief agency consortium erected a 1,000-bed field hospital on the Cambodian border in just seven days in November. The hospital was erected in the SaKaeo camp in Thailand where an average of 50 Cambodians a day were dying. “After only four days of operation,” reported Jerry Ballard, executive director of World Relief, which coordinated the consortium effort, “the deaths plummeted to less than five.” Construction supervisor for the emergency task force was Gary Johnson, the 20-year-old, Thai-speaking son of Christian and Missionary Alliance missionaries. United Nations refugee officials, impressed with the feat, promptly contracted with the task force for construction of a second border camp and a holding center.

SIL/Wycliffe’s Uncle Cam: At 83 He Is Still Pioneering

Edward E. Plowman

163 languages to go in the Soviet Union

Soviet authorities helping to translate Scripture?

So far, the book of I John has been translated into five of the Soviet Union’s 168 minority languages, and negotiations are under way for more. Officials recently presented five copies of each language edition to the person who persuaded them to make the translations: William Cameron “Uncle Cam” Townsend, the 83-year-old founder of the Texas-based Summer Institute of Linguistics and its support arm, Wycliffe Bible Translators, with headquarters in southern California.

Townsend and his wife, Elaine, made 11 trips to the Soviet Union in as many years, spending a total of 24 months there in connection with the project. Whether the Soviets will permit printing and distribution of the Scripture portions is another matter; Townsend, however, is hopeful.

The Townsends returned from their latest Soviet visit in November, just in time to take part in a banquet in Washington, D.C., honoring SIL as the recipient of the annual International Literacy Award of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. The UNESCO award went to SIL for its work among 145 of the 700 languages in Papua New Guinea. Diplomats from a number of countries and members of Congress attended the banquet, which was hosted by Ambassador Benoit Bindzi of the United Republic of Cameroon. Bindzi, a Christian, declared SIL to be “one of the best gifts God has given to the illiterate world.”

SIL passed along a portion of their $5,000 award to the Papua New Guinea, government to use for literacy, said an SIL spokesman. (Townsend himself has received numerous awards from a string of Third World countries, including the highest awards given foreigners by Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, and the Philippines.)

SIL has 4,000 members working in 700 languages in 25 countries, and a 1979 budget of $23 million. Seventy percent of the workers are Americans; the remainder come primarily from Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and Britain. Additionally, SIL has provided linguistic training for thousands of missionaries from other organizations, though relatively few go on to devote full time to deciphering a language and reducing it to written form.

SIL workers go by twos to remote tribal areas, often staying 10 to 20 years in a single location, analyzing sounds and grammatical structures (in one Central American tribe, verbs have 100,000 conjugations; in another, men and women speak separate languages). An alphabet comes next, forming the basis for a dictionary and enabling people to read and write in the language into which they were born. The eventual goal: translation of Scripture. Modern technology, from helicopters to computers, has eased the task somewhat, but it still requires a lot of hard work and commitment. (Computer print-outs show that nearly 3,300 of the world’s 5,103 identified languages are without any portion of the Bible.)

Townsend dropped out of Occidental College in Los Angeles after only one year to volunteer for World War I, but he heard the missionary call and instead went to Guatemala in 1917 as a Bible salesman. There he saw Indians disadvantaged and suffering because of the language gap. Said one Indian to whom he tried to sell a Bible: “If your God is so smart, why can’t he speak my language?”

That did it. Townsend in 1919 joined the Dallas-based Central American Mission and became the first missionary to devote his efforts to translating the Bible into an Indian dialect. He married and spent the next 14 years in Guatemala. While there, he translated the New Testament into the difficult Cakchiquel tongue, mounted literacy campaigns, and founded five schools for bilingual instruction, a small hospital, a printing plant, and a Bible institute.

Tuberculosis felled Townsend in 1932, forcing him home to Los Angeles for a year’s rest. Meanwhile, CAM board members were divided over the wisdom of spending so much time on a minority language, and some shot down his vision of using airplanes in mission work. Townsend quietly withdrew from the mission. Following a visit among Mexican Indians, Townsend and coworkers in 1934 launched a summer course in linguistics to train missionaries for translation work. They dubbed the farmhouse site near Sulpher Springs, Arkansas, “Camp Wycliffe.” Only two students showed up, but it was the beginning of SIL. Courses are now held at a number of locations, with the main center at the University of Oklahoma.

At first, SIL missionaries concentrated on the Indians of Mexico, and Townsend spent most of 20 years there. The reform-minded humanitarian Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas (1934–1940) was favorably impressed by SIL’s work, and a friendship sprang up between him and Townsend. The missionary was enthusiastic when Mexico under Cárdenas chose a bilingual program of education for its more than 100 tribal minorities. After Cárdenas came under attack for expropriating, then nationalizing American oil companies, Townsend wrote a book exposing the “unscrupulous exploitations” of U.S. oil interests. The book. The Truth about Mexico’s Oil, sounds like a chapter out of the 1970s. Indeed, many mission observers say that Townsend was always ten or more years ahead of his time on everything.

Three years after Townsend’s wife Ermelia died in 1943, he married SIL support worker Elaine Mielka of Chicago, 20 years his junior. Cárdenas and his wife served as best man and matron of honor at the wedding. Cárdenas went on to receive the Lenin Peace Prize from Moscow, and it was Townsend’s friendship with Cárdenas that later got him into the Soviet Union. Townsend never preached in a single church in Mexico, yet he witnessed to the high and the mighty, say his colleagues.

Townsend spent several years in Peru, and later settled down in Waxhaw, North Carolina, the base for Jungle Aviation and Radio Service, which he also founded.

With-SIL experiencing steady growth in the hands of strong leadership, Townsend bowed out as general director in 1969 in order to pioneer in an area where he would not “step on the toes of any SIL leaders.” With the help of Mexican contacts, Townsend became acquainted with officials in the highly regarded linguistics section of Moscow’s Academy of Science. He and his wife were entertained in the homes of linguists, teachers, and librarians in cities scattered across 8 of the Soviet Union’s 15 republics. At least one family apparently converted to Christ as a result of the Townsend witness. He has given Russian-language Bibles to many of his Soviet friends. Uncannily, he persuaded academy officials to assign teams to translate a Scripture portion in the tongues of five minority groups in the Caucausus region.

“Others [in the Soviet Union] can’t believe the academy is helping,” Townsend commented in his tenor drawl to supporters back home. “They can’t believe it just like we can’t believe it.”

The Townsends have mixed feelings about life in the Soviet Union, but they are impressed by the educational system and the quality of children’s television, among other things. The pair visited a number of Soviet churches, but in accordance with longstanding practice followed elsewhere they did not give any talks. Townsend has a well-defined strategy for entry into difficult places that includes a sort of tentmaker-witness tactic.

In virtually all the countries where SIL works, it is with a government contract (no money involved) calling for linguistics work and translation of literature having high moral standards—including the Bible. In some countries anti-Americanism has combined with misunderstandings or mistaken notions of tribal protectionism, resulting in trouble—even ouster—for SIL workers. Yet in those very countries, tribal representatives and high government spokesmen alike have insisted that SIL is among the best friends the tribes have.

Argentina

Rosario Revisited: Less Rosy but Still Impressive

The 1976 Luis Palau crusade in Rosario, Argentina’s second largest city, was a first-of-a-kind event because of what had preceded it—an organized effort to plant new churches and church nucleii to absorb the expected converts (Dec. 17, 1976, issue, p. 33).

With 1.6 million inhabitants, metropolitan Rosario had less than 4,000 evangelicals in some 42 churches. Pastors from 20 of the churches attended a workshop 14 months before the crusade and identified the major obstacles to expansion: the pastors’ overcrowded schedules and the constraints of church building capacity. The solution agreed upon was for pastors to train laymen to establish functioning annexes (or house churches) in homes in unchurched parts of the city before the crusade. Sixty-seven annexes were projected at the workshop; 42 were in place at the time of the crusade. A year after the crusade, four annexes had been organized into churches, 23 others were still functioning, while 15 had disbanded.

Inevitably, the Rosario Plan has been closely scrutinized for its implication for mass evangelism and church growth.

At the time of the precrusade workshop the 20 participating churches had a combined membership of 1,799. Six months after the crusade they had grown to 2,564—a hefty 42.5 percent increase in 17 months.

Palau Team members reported more than 3,000 responses to the crusade invitations. Of these, they reported, 40 percent had been baptized and incorporated into a local church within a year of the crusade—an unprecedented figure.

These figures have been questioned, however. Last November the Rosario pastors met with members of the Palau Team for a joint review. Samuel Libert, a Rosario Baptist pastor and member of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, coordinated the meeting. Libert filed this report for CHRISTIANITY TODAY:

After reviewing the flood of literature published around the world about the Rosario Plan, leaders of the evangelical churches in Rosario met together several times to consider the reports and to reevaluate the 1976 crusade. I coordinated the new survey as a part of the study, “Reaching City Dwellers—Large Cities,” to be presented for analysis at the Consultation on World Evangelization to be held at Pattaya, Thailand, next June. The meetings were attended by qualified representatives of most of the main evangelical denominations.

The object was to make an honest interpretation of the statistics, to avoid semantic problems, and to correct some errors and misunderstandings. By invitation of the survey group, members of the Palau Team attended one of the meetings and explained their own analysis. They recognized, however, the need to begin new research and to define the meaning of expressions such as “house churches” or “silos,” often poorly translated into Spanish as “iglesicis” (“churches”), thus leading to inaccuracies in interpretation. The team members also reported that their statistics about such matters as follow-up, baptisms, and the respective percentages, were extrapolated for all 42 Rosario area churches from reports submitted by just 18 of them (the only ones that supplied the requested records).

The city’s evangelical leaders also reevaluated the Rosario Plan according to four criteria for evaluating evangelism suggested by George W. Peters, Dallas Theological Seminary missions professor, at the 1974 Lausanne Congress: (1) Has the evangelism effort brought renewal, revitalization, a new pulsation of the Holy Spirit to the local church communities? (2) Has the evangelism effort added new converts to the local churches? (The survey groups answered yes to both questions.) (3) Has the evangelism effort resulted in a movement or has it remained one great event in the community? (4) Has the evangelism effort facilitated the continued ministry of the local churches in the community? (The answer of the survey group to both of these questions: a strong movement began in a few churches, but most churches of the area reverted to their “status quo” mentality.)

This preliminary study revealed that crusade-related church growth occurred where there was potential for growth. Further research is needed, and both the Rosario survey group and the Palau Team are ready for a more penetrating analysis.

Deaths

The Prime Time Bishop Enters Eternity

American Catholicism lost its best known spokesperson last month, when Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, 84, died in his Manhattan home on December 9 after a long struggle against heart disease. Sheen, something of a patriarch of the electronic church, attracted millions of mass media followers long before the PTL or 700 Clubs.

Sheen spoke on three different television series, the most popular of which was “Life Is Worth Living” from 1951 to 1957. The show, which won an Emmy Award in 1952 and frequently outdrew such prime time entertainers as Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra, attracted a weekly audience estimated at 30 million.

Beginning in 1930, he spoke for 22 years on the NBC radio program, “The Catholic Hour.” The program at one time was carried on 118 NBC affiliates. He also wrote more than 60 books and edited a pair of magazines.

Sheen had open heart surgery in 1977 and last year had a pacemaker implanted. A subsequent relapse didn’t diminish his characteristic wit and turn of phrase: he told a reporter that “One advantage of the Lord throwing you on your back is that you face heaven.”

Ordained a priest in 1919, he later became bishop of the Rochester, New York, diocese. After his retirement in 1969, he was named titular archbishop of Newport, Wales. Sheen was buried in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, a place previously reserved only for those who led the archdiocese or the cathedral.

Sheen’s preaching crossed religious barriers; evangelical Protestants could have embraced his message as their own. Sheen personally introduced to Christianity such notables as former ambassador and congresswoman Claire Booth Luce, Communist Daily Newspaper editor Louis Budenz, and auto tycoon Henry Ford II.

In a CHRISTIANITY TODAY interview two years ago, Sheen stated his own preaching mission: “I have taken a resolution all the rest of my life to preach nothing but Christ and him crucified.”

Personalia

Walter Frank has retired as general director of Greater Europe Mission. After 19 years at the post, he becomes the agency’s director at large. Based in Carol Stream, Illinois, GEM now works on 13 European mission fields, with nine Bible institutes, one seminary, and a $6 million annual budget.

Pentecostal leader Charles Yates was elected president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, an umbrella agency of evangelical denominations and organizations representing roughly one million persons. Yates presently is general secretary of the Pentecostal Assemblies, Canada’s fastest growing denomination.

An evangelical has been appointed chaplain of the United States Military Academy. Richard P. Camp, Jr., a Wheaton College (Ill.) and Gordon Seminary graduate, will be directly responsible to the academy’s superintendent for all religious activity at West Point, which has four chapels. Camp, 43, a former local church pastor and Gordon Seminary dean of students, had been an assistant chaplain since 1973 and acting chaplain since last year, when James D. Ford left to become chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives.

- More from Edward E. Plowman

Book Briefs: January 4, 1980

What Has Theology To Do With Literature?

The Reflection of Theology in Literature: A Case Study in Theology and Culture, by William Mallard (Trinity University Press, 262 pp., $10.00), is reviewed by Marybeth Lake, associate editor of The Christian School Administrator and Teacher, and Larry M. Lake, English department chairman, Delaware County Christian School, Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

Literature can entertain, inform, persuade, and encourage. Its terse images can show unexpected relationships between ideas, systems, and cultures. In sermons, it can show divine thought applied to human frailty; in lectures, 50 words can do the work of 10,000. As part of the furnishings of the student’s mind, it can feed, clothe, civilize, and ennoble that mind.

While most of us are aware of literature’s qualities and employ it in our preaching, teaching, and study, we may have given too little serious thought to the principles underlying literature, and to the intimate relationships between literature and theology. In The Reflection of Theology in Literature, Mallard tries to trace these principles and to illustrate theories of reflected theology. He begins by discussing some technical distinctions about language and its uses of metaphor, symbol, and narrative, the way “art” works, and the development of a Christian aesthetic. In the second part he presents a theory of literary criticism that takes Western cultural history into account, and then shows the application of this theory to Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury and to Kafka’s The Trial. Finally, he applies these theories to narrative accounts of Christ, and summarizes his concepts of reflected theology. His basic assertion is that “theology is significantly ‘reflected’ in Western literature but that literature need not, and indeed usually does not, embody in its own medium the essential outlook of that theology. The reflection of theology in literature does provide literature a theological dimension that can be appropriately commented upon. But that dimension need not imply a confession of Christian faith, and even when it does, the literary work cannot directly pronounce that confession, but must let its own Active world speak for itself” (p. 110).

Mallard’s work is a significant approach to the study of theology and literature. The issues he comments upon, and the ways he studies them, should encourage further study in this field. But the book attempts to do too many things at once. Tackling metaphor, subject-object dilemma, Dante and the medieval poetic, Faulkner, Kafka, and the Gospels in 262 pages is overly ambitious. The Faulkner chapter, for example, is not so much a study of The Sound and the Fury as it is a stilted approach to it in Mallard’s terms. As accurately as Mallard’s theories may fit into Faulkner interpretation, the reader who is familiar with literary criticism and who expects a carefully crafted critical approach is left short-changed, feeling that he has walked into the final verdict of a trial without hearing the arguments.

We hope this book will encourage other scholars to study Mallard’s ideas and to devote complete and detailed studies to metaphor, to Faulkner, and to the other aspects of the theological interpretation of literature.

The Greatness Of Wilberforce

Wilberforce, by John Pollock (St. Martin’s, 1978, 368 pp., $16.95 hb), is reviewed by Richard V. Pierard, professor of history, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana.

William Wilberforce (1759–1833) is the best known of all the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century English evangelical social reformers. His achievement in bringing an end to the trans-Atlantic slave trade is legendary. Although for 150 years his life has been an inspiration to Christian social activists, the essence of his being has eluded biographers and he is as controversial today as he was then. The radical essayist William Hazlitt excoriated Wilberforce as a well-heeled hypocrite, saying that “he preaches vital Christianity to untutored savages; and tolerates its worst abuses in civilized states” (The Spirit of the Age, 1825). On the other hand, historian W. E. H. Lecky stated that “the unweary, unostentatious, and inglorious crusade of England against slavery may probably be regarded as among the three or four perfectly virtuous pages comprised in the history of nations” (History of European Morals, 1869).

The problem of understanding Wilberforce is complicated by the fact that his sons, Robert and Samuel, gathered many of his personal papers to form the basis of a five-volume Life (1838) and two-volume Correspondence (1840). Although it was unknown at the time, they took editorial liberties with his papers and left out material they felt was embarrassing or inappropriate. No substantial biography appeared until 1923 when Reginald Coupland, the distinguished scholar of British imperial history, published Wilberforce: A Narrative, but this did not go behind the traditional sources. The favorable image conveyed in these works came under fire by Eric Williams in Capitalism and Slavery (1944), an economic interpretation of abolition that renders the humanitarian impulse irrelevant, and by Ford K. Brown in Fathers of the Victorians: The Age of Wilberforce (1961), who views the entire evangelical reform enterprise virtually as a conspiratorial effort to impose puritanical religious control on British society.

A helpful move in breaking the impasse in 1974 was the publication of William Wilberforce by Robin Furneaux, Earl of Birkenhead. This work draws heavily upon the main unpublished collections of Wilberforce papers as well as the standard works, and provides a more favorable picture of him. John Pollock’s new study is a competitor to Furneaux’s, but comparatively speaking, it is the better of the two. Pollock, a Church of England minister and author of numerous biographies of prominent evangelicals, has carefully researched his subject and unearthed a remarkably wide range of Wilberforce materials.

From a well-to-do mercantile family, William Wilberforce decided early in life to embark upon a political career. At the age of 21 he was elected to the House of Commons and served there for 45 years. He was a person of enormous energy, but his health was gradually destroyed by opium, the standard medical remedy of the day.

In 1785 he underwent a profound Christian conversion, which Pollock describes better than Furneaux, and soon afterwards plunged into the cause to which he dedicated his life, the abolition of the slave trade. Fearlessly, he went up against one of the most powerful lobbies of the day, the West Indian planter interests. He argued that blacks were “human beings” and demanded that Parliament no longer withhold from them “the rights of human nature.” Beginning in 1788 he introduced abolition bills into the House of Commons that were repeatedly rejected, but his persistence was crowned with success in 1807.

Pollock effectively rebuts Williams’s explanation of abolitionist success by drawing upon the significant work of Roger Anstey, The Atlantic Slave Trade and British Abolition 1760–1810 (1975). His position could be reinforced by another study, which appeared as his went to press: Seymour Drescher, Econocide: British Slavery in the Era of Abolition (1977).

Wilberforce was also concerned about the condition of freed slaves as well as the quality of life in general in Africa, and three days before his death in 1833, he received the news of the fulfillment of his life’s ambition: a bill freeing all slaves in the British Empire had passed Commons.

The slavery question was not his sole passion. Other interests included combating poverty, Sabbath observance (to provide a day of rest for workers), reform of prisons and the penal code, Catholic emancipation, Christian foreign missionary work, and the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Underlying this was a concern for the “reformation of manners,” a term he used, which critics have singled out as evidence of Wilberforce’s Tory conservatism and hypocritical insensitivity to the needs and aspirations of England’s lower classes. He was accused of loving black slaves but doing nothing to aid the white “wage slaves.” He supported oppressive actions of the government, such as the Combination Acts banning labor organizations and the Six Acts limiting civil liberties.

Although Pollock could have done more to refute Ford Brown on this point, he does show that Wilberforce sincerely felt moral deficiencies lay at the root of crime and poverty. If the “manners” or “morals” of people in England were reformed, the environment which produced these ills could be improved. His call for reform was aimed at high-born gentlemen who lived above the law, as well as the poor. Wilberforce was a founder of the “Bettering Society” (1796), which aimed at investigating scientifically the problems of poverty and working for relief and improvements in living conditions.

Wilberforce believed that the way to liberty and happiness was the education of the poor, an increase in the number of deeply devoted clergymen, and rejection of violent change. He wanted reform, not revolution. Happier times would come if the British Constitution and the rule of law were preserved, even if this required temporary repression of the civil liberties of some. Pollock is correct in inferring that his social views should not be harshly judged by those in the more enlightened twentieth century. Wilberforce clearly was not a cynical or hypocritical man, and his desires for the spiritual and material well-being of all people arose from a deep sense of Christian compassion and love.

Nothing was more genuine than his Christianity. Thus, he provides an excellent model for every Christian active in public life. He loved the Bible and he worked to strengthen his spiritual stamina by rigorous self-examination in light of the Scriptures. From his inward experience with Christ came the external expression of joy and vitality that so impressed those around him. At the same time he brought not only his appetites but his politics under the control of Christ.

Reading this excellent biography of Wilberforce should stimulate us to encourage and uphold in prayer those Christians who have been called to public service. It should also remind us that they are not above error and that their political endeavors, although dedicated to Christ, may be influenced by the defects of the culture in which we live and thus stand in need of correction.

A New Look At Pentecostalism

Vision of the Disinherited, by Robert M. Anderson (Oxford, 334 pp., $15.95), is reviewed by Harold Hunter, Pasadena, California.

Oxford University Press continues its important contribution to evangelical self-understanding with the publication of Robert M. Anderson’s Columbia University doctoral dissertation. Vision of the Disinherited concentrates on the formation and early development of classical Pentecostalism in the U.S. Some treasured accounts of prominent Pentecostal events have undergone reconstruction as a result of Anderson’s mature work with original sources. Perhaps most notable are the rightful corrections of the embellished accounts of the formulation of Spirit-baptism theology by C. F. Parham’s Bethel Bible College and the Azusa Street Revival, which under the leadership of W. J. Seymour made the theology a worldwide phenomenon.

Anderson patiently corrects a variety of errors found in W. J. Hollenweger’s seminal work, The Pentecostals, but also verifies a central concern of Hollenweger by demonstrating the eventual division of Pentecostal organizations along ethnic lines. Vinson Synan’s central thesis in The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement is questioned by demonstrating the importance of Keswick theology in forming the Pentecostal movement. A. J. Tomlinson is given a positive appraisal not found in many current works, and Tomlinson is cited as proof that the Church of God (Cleveland) did not develop a Pentecostal pneumatology in 1896.

Brevity and selected readings combine to produce an inadequate historical, theological, and psychological study of tongues-speech. Perhaps Anderson’s challenge to the Pentecostals will stimulate someone to offer a verifiable record of xenolalia (i.e., a human language not learned by mechanical means by the spokesperson—Anderson calls it xenoglossy).

Anderson’s appraisal of Oneness Pentecostalism is more complete than most published studies to date, but he does not properly account for the relationship of Pentecostal hermeneutics in the origin of Oneness theology. Anderson also emphasizes the Pentecostal rejection of historic Protestant churches, but he minimizes the lack of concern by mainline churches to build bridges. Further, there are at least four notable facets of the Pentecostal movement that Anderson plays down: (1) they did have a meaningful ministry to a number of Americans; (2) their rightful emphasis on biblical existentialism was responsible, when exaggerated, for some errors, but these miscalculations may not have been appreciably greater than those of their contemporaries; (3) they cannot rightly be accused of having had a low social consciousness, since they were, as Anderson notes, from the lower strata of the socio-economic ladder; (4) their preoccupation with the hereafter did not deny importance to life here and now, but to them simply gave it a different meaning than to many around them.

Perhaps a major concern to the Christian community beyond Pentecostalism will be the underlying thesis that one may account for Pentecostal theology on the basis of sociological factors. Anderson accepts the Pentecostals’ claim to have reduplicated much of original Christianity, but suggests that the primitive theology common to both is but a naive adaptation to sociological conditions. One must ask if it is not possible for the socially disinherited to adhere to an expression of the gospel that is legitimate even if it is not congruent with nineteenth-century liberalism.

Ellul’S Spiritual Burden

The Betrayal of the West, by Jacques Ellul (Seabury, 1978, 207 pp., $9.95), is reviewed by Harold O. J. Brown, associate professor of theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois.

Ellul, one of the outstanding thinkers in the Reformed, Calvinistic tradition, is also one of the most prolific serious writers of our age. In a series of books—some representing purely secular scholarship, others distinctively Christian in their analyses—he has drawn a fascinating and frightening picture of the modern world, particularly, but not limited to the West and its technology. Ellul is one of the very few intellectuals of stature who can clearly distinguish evil as evil regardless of the color of the party tie it wears—whether the red and black of Fascism or the red of Marxism. It was Ellul who pointed out that the chief moral distinction between Nazism and Communism is the fact that Hitler lost, while Stalin won.

For those already familiar with Ellul’s works, The Betrayal of the West will offer no surprises. Its main theme is Ellul’s contention that Christian civilization, for all its faults, has virtues, too—both in being civilization and in being Christian. Because Ellul has never hesitated to denounce white racism, capitalistic exploitation, and Western colonialism, he deserves an attentive hearing when he points to equal, or sometimes even greater blemishes on the other side of the fence. He reintroduces his concept of the “interesting” and “uninteresting” poor. (The “interesting” poor are those the communications media and the intellectuals care about, usually those whose causes run counter to the interests of Western nations or Christendom in general.) The poor whose interests do not coincide with those of the Marxists, left-wing intellectuals, or currently fashionable Third World interests he calls the “truly poor.” They are left to suffer and die in their misery; their sufferings are not news—Tibetans, Cambodians, Sudanese Christians—who knows them?

The West, in part through Christianity, in part through secular reason, has made some very remarkable contributions to human freedom. It is not surprising that the tyrants denigrate the West and label its achievements illusions or fraud. What is surprising is the way in which Western intellectuals, political leaders, and to a large extent both liberal and conservative Christians join in repudiating and maligning their own heritage and in preparing the way for the triumph of what the late General Charles de Gaulle called “the most odious tyranny ever to befall mankind.”

Ellul is a pessimist, at least as far as this present world is concerned. However, since a large part of his pessimism is based on his analysis of the weakness of character and spiritual treachery that he sees as characterizing Christians in the West, his analysis does leave open at least one avenue for hope. Ellul does not expect it himself; but is it not at least possible that European and American Christians may recover their values and courage in time to change the course of world events?

Ellul is probably the most important Christian political thinker active today. The Betrayal of the West offers a good introduction to his spiritual burden. It is a book to be read with care; I hope that readers, listening to his warnings, will be shocked into an honest response, and into demonstrating the courage of their professed convictions, rather than being merely beaten into submission.

The Politicization Of The Gospel

Christianity and the World Order, by Edward Norman (Oxford, 1978, 98 pp., $3.95 pb), is reviewed by W. Stanford Reid, professor emeritus of history, Univeristy of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

This volume presents the Reith Lectures on the BBC for the year 1978. The author is dean of Peterhouse and lecturer in history at the University of Cambridge, England, who has also written a number of works on the history of Ireland and England in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The present work represents six radio lectures, which were subsequently published in the BBC paper, The Listener, and which now appear in book form.

The general theme of the work is what the author would call “the politicization of the gospel” in the contemporary world. He points out in no uncertain terms that the gospel today has ceased in many quarters to be a message of forgiveness by the grace of God in Jesus Christ; instead, it has become a sort of religious endorsement of liberal or socialist ideologies. Rather than bringing politics under the influence and control of the Christian gospel, he contends, many of the leading churchmen of today have been willing to accept secular ideologies as being the core of the gospel, with the result that the Christian message is one of social reform and, in the extreme, of armed rebellion and murder.

The author’s search of basic source materials provided the evidence for his position. His initial attack is upon the World Council of Churches and its program. He points to the fact that many avowed socialists are in control of the WCC’s bureaucracy, some of whom are far to the left—even in the Communist camp. He indicates that as a result the WCC frequently pushes for the support of groups who are in fact financed and controlled from Moscow. In the following chapter, Norman continues with an analysis of what is going on in Africa and South America, whose situations may differ, but where the same ideological claims for Christianity are being made. His indictment, supported by copious footnotes, certainly cannot but lead the reader to render a verdict of “guilty” to the charges he makes against the ecclesiastics who are attempting to make Christianity a political ideology.

In the concluding chapter Norman sets forth what he feels is the essence of Christianity, i. e., the indwelling Christ. He issues a call for the church to return to the Christianity portrayed in Scripture, and to make men realize that among all the attempts to prop up or change human systems, the final answer is in God’s control over history, and man’s ultimate responsibility and hope is not in temporal, secular idealism, but in the eternal presence of the sovereign God.

This is a very instructive, if not frightening, piece of work. There are, however, two problems that arise. The first is in the last chapter’s treatment of Christianity itself. It is somewhat difficult to grasp firmly what Norman means by “the indwelling Christ.” No mention is made of sin or reconciliation. The other problem is that an impression is created that the whole visible church is given over to the proclamation of a secular ideology with a Christian veneer. No mention is made of evangelicals who are opposed to this type of thinking, and who are carrying on mission work by preaching the biblical doctrines of the Christian faith. Along with this, he also seems to feel that Christianity should have nothing to do with social and political problems There is a danger in that Christians may receive from this the impression that since they are “not of the world,” they have no responsibility for their neighbors’ economic, social, and political difficulties.

But apart from these questions, the book is well worth reading as it gives some idea of where much of the church’s effort and money is going today.

The Biblical Scope of the Christian Mission

John R.W. Stott

We see in Scripture the reflections of our own prejudice rather than the disturbing message …

The Christian mission is inconceivable without the Christian Scriptures. It is the Bible that supplies the mandate, the inspiration, the direction, and the power for our witness and service in the world. Without the Bible we would have neither the authority nor the inclination to engage in Christian mission. With the Bible, on the other hand, we are stripped of every excuse for opting out of it.

Above all, we need the wholesome wholeness of the biblical perspective. Only the Bible can correct our skewed vision, redress our imbalance, broaden our narrow interests, and liberate us from the petty preoccupations in which we imprison ourselves. Consider the breadth of biblical mission.

First, the Bible relates to the whole world. It is true that Scripture lays much emphasis on God’s covenant of grace, and on his steadfast love for his covenant people. Yet Yahweh, the God of Israel, is no tribal deity like Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, and Milcom, the god of the Ammonites. He is the living God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the Ruler of the nations, and the Lord of history. So even in the Old Testament, in which God’s judgment on the nations is pronounced, the salvation of the nations is also promised. Johannes Blauw was doubtless correct in his book, The Missionary Nature of the Church (1962), that the Old Testament perspective was not so much one of “mission” (Israel going out to win the nations) as of “universalism” (the nations being included one day). He added that a “centripetal missionary consciousness” (the nations flowing to Jerusalem) was replaced by a “centrifugal missionary activity” (the disciples going out to the nations) only after the Resurrection when “all authority” in heaven and on earth was given to the risen Lord Jesus.

Once this biblical emphasis has gripped our minds, we shall find it impossible to stay in our cozy little ecclesiastical nests. The Bible is hostile to narrow parochialism. It flings us out into God’s world. It gives us a new global consciousness.

Secondly, the Bible presents the whole gospel. We must, therefore, allow the Bible to correct our evangelical reductionism. I have two particular tendencies in mind. The first is to keep looking for what is sometimes called “the irreducible minimum of the gospel.” Of course we have a responsibility to make the gospel as simple and straightforward as we can; the Holy Spirit is not the author of muddle and confusion. It is “when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it” that the devil comes and snatches it away (Matt. 13:19). But to simplify the gospel and to reduce it are two different processes. Who wants an “irreducibly minimum gospel” when the apostle Paul declared “the whole counsel of God” and on that account could affirm his innocence of his hearers’ blood (Acts 20:26, 27)? We need to soak our minds in the full biblical gospel from creation to consummation.

Our other tendency is to fix the gospel in terms congenial to our own culture and resist the desire of other Christians to restate the same biblical gospel, but in terms more meaningful to their culture. We have to liberate the gospel from both reductionist and cultural bondage. For it is the gospel itself, the biblical good news in its glorious fulness, which is God’s power for salvation to every believer. To tamper with the gospel either by shrinkage or by overlay is to weaken its saving power.

Thirdly, the Bible summons us to a whole mission. “Holistic” is the popular modern word for this concept, although I confess I have always found the term harsh in sound and ugly in aspect. Yet I guess it is correct in meaning. For if “atomistic” is the tendency to reduce a whole to its parts, “holistic” is the tendency to unite the parts into a whole.

Now there are many possible ways of stating and defending the wholeness of the mission to which God summons us in the Bible. One way derives from his own character (that he is the God of social justice as well as of personal salvation), another comes from the nature of the human beings he has made (that the neighbor we are to love and serve is a physical and social as well as a spiritual person), a third is from the concept of salvation or the kingdom of God (which combines total blessing with total demand, and insists that saving faith always expresses itself in serving love), a fourth arises from the model of Christ’s mission (that he combined words and works in his public ministry, his works embodying his words and his words interpreting his works), and a fifth proceeds from the responsibility of the church (that it is to be the world’s salt and light). Wherever we look, then—at God or Christ, at human beings, salvation, or the church—we see this healthy fusion of soul and body, word and deed, faith and works, witness and service, light and salt, the individual and the community, evangelism and social action. We must not separate what God has joined.

Fourthly, the Bible addresses the whole church, each local manifestation of it and each individual member of it. That the local church is to be a mission community is, according to the New Testament, plain beyond doubt. A good example is the Thessalonian church. Consider the sequence of events Paul outlines in the first chapter of his letter: “our gospel came to you” (v. 5) so that “you received the word” (v. 6), and then “the word of the Lord sounded forth from you” (v. 8). Thus, the gospel came to you, you received it, and you passed it on. In consequence, it came to others, who received it, and passed it on. This is the way God means the good news to spread: from church to church.

Moreover, the gospel “is at work in you believers” (2:13). It changed their lives. They turned from dead idols to serve the living God and to wait for his Son from heaven (1:9, 10). So complete was their transformation that it was not only “the word of the Lord” which sounded forth from them, but the news of their “faith in God” (1:8). They embodied the gospel; Paul assumed that every church member would be involved in this transformation and therefore in this mission.

The whole church taking the whole gospel on a whole mission to the whole world. Nobody can read the Bible and miss this “wholesome wholeness” of the Christian mission in its four dimensions. And yet, some of us manage to do that very thing. Such are our personal and cultural blind spots that we tend to see in Scripture the reflections of our own prejudice rather than the disturbing message of God. It has been so down the Christian centuries, and still is today. The most diligent readers of the Bible are not necessarily the most conscientious doers of its message. We need then to pray, both for ourselves and for others, that God will break through our defensive system in such an irresistible incursion that he causes us to hear, to grasp, and to obey.

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

- More from John R.W. Stott

Refiner’s Fire: Bob Dylan Finds His Source

A call into the bars, into the streets, into the world, to repentance.

There is little need to recount Scripture or to specify chapter and verse to substantiate the proposition that “Slow Train” is a Christian album. And while there may be inquiries about the surety of his commitment. “Slow Train” is testimony to Bob Dylan’s completion into the Christian faith.

“Slow Train Coming” is more than a testimony to Bob Dylan’s completion into the Christian faith: it is a call into the bars, into the streets, into the world, to repentance, to “the man on the cross … crucified for you. Believe in his power, that’s about all you’ve got to do!” Bob, Jerry Wexler, and Barry Beckett have taken outreach and made it happen in the raw musical vernacular of the roadhouse.

Bob Dylan’s credentials are impeccable. Who continually encouraged us to find the truth for ourselves, “Not to follow leaders” (not even himself, in “It Ain’t Me, Babe”)? Who suspected the status quo, the cool, the compromising (“Don’t know which is worse, doin’ your own thing or just bein’ cool”)? Who warned the complacent that the “times are a changing,” or cried for the realization of a mutual hope “blowin’ in the wind”? Who painfully reexamined his talents and asked, “For whom does this prosper?” so that we might be strengthened in our own hope/thirst for righteousness?

Not only as edification for the body, “Gotta Serve Somebody” must touch any listener just because it identifies so many of us: our jobs, our traits, our likes, our dislikes. How clearly in this context do we begin to see the single choice available at the bottom line: you cannot serve two masters.

As the blind lead the blind, the political activist has misread the reference to sheiks controlling America’s power in “Slow Train” as a conservative political posture; it is, in fact, an accurate portrayal of the larger picture of world greed and man’s subsequent dependence upon its luxuries and niceties as though they were life itself. Remember the line from Pogo: “We have met the enemy and he is us”? This is the ultimate war—the extension of our own battle for control in a situation that has been given to us. A man named Adam and a woman named Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and at once became “self-conscious,” and hid from God. That seed of discontent and guilt has been passed down through the centuries and extruded through into defensive postures that bear no relation to turning the other cheek.

Juxtaposing seemingly unrelated characters and situations. Bob historically has spoken to us of a larger pursuit—a game bigger than local politics or the one-night stand. His John Wesley Harding album marked an adventurous step into the spiritual realm. And most Dylan officianadoes are agreed that “My Back Pages” was the most revealing track from “Another Side of Bob Dylan.” It prophesied his dissatisfaction with himself and with goals that suddenly seemed too obvious and short-sighted. His search wound its way through his albums with occasional discoveries—like love, as revealed in a personal relationship.

I’m sure some of the thinking behind the request for me to write about Bob Dylan’s new album. “Slow Train Coming,” was the assumption that because Bob and I shared the same times we must have shared the same space. Therefore, to provide the perspective in which to discuss this record, I must recount the Dylan-Stookey “relationship.”

I met Bob in Greenwich Village in 1960, when he sang at the Gaslight, a coffee house (remember those?). His impact on me was considerable: the first night he was a singer of traditional ballads; the second night he was an innovator, using the folk idiom to speak in parables. Following his performance that second night, I asked him if he had heard of the counterfeit ticket scam that resulted in the sinking of the Bear Mountain Picnic vessel, when holders of all tickets (real or fake) boarded the ship, heedless of its capacity. The next night he returned with “Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues.”

We had sporadic contact from 1961 to 1967. There was the Newport Folk Festival, where Bob’s electric presentation was welcomed by a crowd thirsty for the perception and content in his music.

Then Woodstock, 1967: I’m looking for truth; Bob is recovering from a motorcycle accident. He graciously allows a friend and me into the house to ask questions of the universe. He is totally honest with me, kind—and suggests I do some Bible reading. Thanks, Bob.

1968, Dylan’s movie time: I’m a seeker in monk’s clothing, cavorting with Tiny Tim and Howard Alk and a winterscape. I end up on the cutting room floor.

Again 1968: Bob returns from the Holy Land: there is excitement in his voice. He has slides. I have slides. We have families. Some maybes are exchanged.

1974. I’ve moved to Maine. Bob passes through with the Rolling Thunder Review, close enough to attend. I don’t.

People speak of the “Dylan enigma”; I see growth. The “basement tapes” are so scriptural I can’t believe that everyone doesn’t know who the Mighty Quinn is or in which “book” too much of nothing transpires.

1979. I hear a rumor: Dylan’s a Christian. I hear of a personal encounter that speaks so eloquently of a changed heart I know the rumor must be true. I hear “Slow Train.”

NOEL PAUL STOOKEY

Scriptural references were commonplace in Dylan songs, mostly Old Testament images. The allusions were rather strong, and there was no denying the power and authority of lines like “the first will be last,” in “The Times They Are A’Changing.”

Our Father is leading this musician into areas that are unreachable by the pastel-suited, bouffant-haired, highly stylized “gospel singer.” No one can fully recognize the diversity of gifts or talents within the body of Christ. Bob’s new album is a special success: not only for him personally, as God will contrive to work through him as a person; but also musically, as it reaches for the shadows. It beseeches a decision from the hardest hearted, the one who is hardest to find, the outlaw—that one who never committed himself for fear of being hurt. It is an inspiration to all brothers and sisters. Remain in your station.

NOEL PAUL STOOKEY

Musician Noel Paul Stookey heads Neworld, a recording and animation studio in South Blue Hill, Maine. He is best known as Paul of Peter, Paul, and Mary, whose personal spiritual odyssey was described in CHRISTIANITY TODAY’s issue of May 19, 1978.

Not Buying into the Subculture

Yes, it’s true. Singer and songwriter Bob Dylan is professing Jesus Christ as Lord. He is doing it quietly through his new album, “Slow Train Coming.” Like most of what he does publicly, he is keeping the message foremost, disdaining the subculture’s cult of conquered heroes and forsaking the notoriety of the born-again “club.” He remains true to the prophetic posture that has earned him the respect and attention of his peers in the popular music arena.

Many of the songs he has written were made popular through the musical talents of others (for example, Stookey notes the significance of Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” but it was Stookey’s own group, Peter, Paul, and Mary, that propelled that ballad into the ratings).

It is the sage-like message of Dylan’s lyrics, the thoughtful, conscious, driven critiques of shallow dehumanizing vogues and bandwagon motifs to which victims and victimizers alike have responded. Dylan’s uncompromised sensitivity and courage leave him free to name the self-debasing methods with which Americans have dulled their collective consciences in pursuit of prosperity, power, and the materialistic version of the “American dream.”

But before “Slow Train Coming,” no roots anchored his apocalyptic appraisals of the answers. Dylan could clearly see the light and the human nakedness illuminated by that light, but he was either unable or unwilling to acknowledge its source. While he sang of the rampant frivolity and foolishness of human endeavors, his songs still sought for meaning.

In “Slow Train Coming” that quest has been satisfied. Rolling Stone magazine, not wanting to disown Dylan, labeled the album “artistically ambiguous,” apparently ignoring stanzas like “There’s a man on a cross and he they crucified for you. / Believe in his power, that’s about all you’ve got to do.” And, to make it personal, he sings, “What you’ve given me today is worth more than I can pay / And no matter what they say, I believe in you.”

The album begins with the only alternatives open to each of us, reciting a litany of personality types and professions set with the refrain, “Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” In the album’s love song he reiterates, “Now this spiritual warfare, flesh and blood breakin’ down, / You either got faith or you got unbelief and there ain’t no neutral ground.” Dylan takes clear cues from Scripture about Satan’s active involvement in our depravity: “The enemy is subtle, how be it we’re deceived / When the truth is in our hearts and we still don’t believe. / Shine your light, shine your light on me. / You know I just can’t make it by myself, I’m a little too blind to see.”

Throughout the record there runs a theme of “Gonna change my way of thinkin’, bring myself a different set of rules, / Gonna put my best foot forward and stop bein’ influenced by fools.” He identifies the fools as “my so-called friends” who “have fallen under a spell, / They look me squarely in the eye and they say, well, all is well.”

The title song previews the coming judgment. “Can’t help but wonder what’s happening to my companions, are they lost or are they found? / Are there earthly principles they are goin’ to have to abandon?” He then alludes to Revelation 9:6: “Can they imagine the dark ages that will fall from on high / When men will beg God to kill them and they won’t be able to die.” “Slow Train Coming” is not only about the end times, nor does it only point to personal judgment; God’s judgment and man’s sin are keyed to current conditions. “All that foreign oil controlling American soil,” and, “Sheiks walkin’ around like kings … deciding America’s future from Amsterdam and Paris … people starving’ and thirstin’, grain elevators are burstin’ ”

Perhaps the most refreshing quality of this, Dylan’s first postconversion album, is that he has not bought into the Christian subculture’s status quo. His gift to us remains his once-removed prophetic insight. He is able to see the sticky sweet personalization puffery of some segments of American Christianity: “Spiritual advisers and gurus to guide your every mood. / Instant inner peace in every step you take, got to be a prude … / Do you ever wonder just what God requires? / You think he’s just an errand boy to satisfy your wandering desires” is sung in the context of “adulterers in churches, pornography in schools, / You got gangsters in power and lawbreakers makin’ rules. / When you gonna wake up? When you gonna wake up? / Strengthen the things that remain.”

Dylan has packed the album with a plethora of human foibles and fantasies, all cloaked in the latest societal garb (there is at least one with which each of us can identify) and exposed in the searing light of biblical metaphor. He at once shows us who we are and calls us to “the man who died a criminal’s death.”

The voice and especially the music are in the best Dylan style. But they are only the vehicles to carry a message that goes beyond the searching of an earlier quest for the source of all answers.

DAVID SINGER

The Road from Urbana

Edward R. Dayton

How can we help more get from here to there?

This month thousands of students are returning to their campuses from the Inter-Varsity triennial missionary convention at Urbana, Illinois. They came from all over the United States and Canada, as well as from other countries of the world. They came from Christian homes and non-Christian homes, from strong churches and weak churches, from many denominational and independent groups. At the convention thousands of them made a spiritual commitment; for many, it was a commitment to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.

The convention came at an opportune time, because a new wind is blowing, a wind of the Holy Spirit that promises to bring a new world consciousness to North American evangelicals. Young people are responding to the Spirit’s moving, and their response at Urbana was one indication of this. On many campuses students are banding together to study world needs, to pray for missionaries, to think about forming their own missionary teams, and to consider what it takes today to prepare for and actually launch a missionary career.

At Urbana, of course, there was a vivid demonstration of youth’s missionary enthusiasm. There were also many opportunities to counsel with missionaries and to take preparatory workshops on the wide variety of missionary vocations available. Meanwhile, there is a deep desire on the part of educators, missions leaders, and pastors to cultivate this enthusiasm, and to help young people face realistically how long the journey is from campus to mission field.

The students themselves in many cases will need to take the initiative to follow through on what they learned at Urbana. Those just beginning their education, as well as those in various graduate level institutions, will not find a clearly marked route to missions involvement. This is because schools differ in philosophies and programs, and missions agencies themselves have a variety of requirements in terms of education and experience. In addition, some young people grow up in churches with little or no missions vision, while others have the advantage of continual missions exposure and teaching in their churches.

Beginning at the level of the local church, we cannot assume that a young person with an interest in missions is convinced of the importance of placing his spiritual roots in the church. Therefore, the road to a missionary career must begin with membership and involvement in a local fellowship. Because of the unique temporary nature of college life, students and churches often find it useful to recognize two church homes. Many churches in college communities offer associate memberships to students.

The vital point here is that Christian young people need the support and encouragement of a local body of believers. When it comes to developing missions interest, a young person can gain much from regular counsel with someone on the pastoral staff, or with a wise layman who has both a passion for and an understanding of the missionary situation.

In this supporting, instructive context it is important for students and church leaders alike to have as their objective the opportunity to discover and develop one’s spiritual gifts. The local church offers the best proving ground for a subsequent career in missions. It may be while the young person is thus involved there will come the time when a definite commitment to a missionary career will be made. Neither young people nor church and missions leaders should be too hasty about this. There is always the chance that someone will volunteer out of enthusiasm, or even guilt, and in many cases such persons do not last long on the field.

On the other hand, in some cases students expect God to guide them rather mystically, without any concerted attempt on their part to ascertain God’s will regarding a possible missionary vocation. They may assume God somehow will get them to the field if they answer the “call.”

In such situations, counsel is needed to direct them to apply the same hard thinking to missions as they would to any other profession. They need to canvass the options, count the cost, survey the fields, read missionary literature, and get together with a missions study group on their campus. They will need the consistent cooperation and supervision of pastors and missionaries. Local church missions committees can help by taking such young people under their care and acting as the bridge between them and missions agencies.

During these crucial years between education and career, young people need constant guidance, because many who respond to missions enthusiasm fall by the wayside when they realize how tough it is to get to the field, fully prepared, trained, and qualified. Of course, the fires of spiritual zeal must be continually stoked—so that obedience to Christ remains foremost—but in addition, church and missions leaders will find it extremely valuable to raise certain basic questions along the way. I have outlined certain essential ones as follows:

1. Academic training. The right kind of undergraduate and graduate training is essential in missions preparation. This begins with the initial choice of an institution. But in many cases—because students today respond to Christ at various points in their college careers—changes have to be made. Wise, patient, loving counsel is needed. Sometimes it is assumed that if a missions career lies ahead, one should switch from a state university to a Bible institute or college, or perhaps to a Christian liberal arts college. This is not necessarily true.

Many missionary opportunities require graduates with the highest professional training. This should be the primary concern: What is required for me to do the job God wants me to do overseas? It is not a question of studying in a Christian atmosphere. On the other hand, young people need to know they cannot skimp on Bible training. They need to make allowance in their planning for at least a year of concentrated Bible study. Of course, if the missions vocation involves Bible and theology overseas, then one needs to plan for a full graduate course in those disciplines.

Mission boards also recognize that academic preparation in the social sciences is extremely valuable. Therefore, practical counsel for young people thinking about missions will include planning specific courses of study beyond the requirements of the student’s major field. In this category would come courses in sociology, communications, and anthropology. Many Christian graduate schools also offer master’s degrees in missiology, the science of missions.

2. Practical experience. Hand-in-glove with academic training must come actual experience in various Christian ministries. There is unlimited opportunity for youth today in this regard. The potential missionary cannot assume he is prepared when he receives his college or graduate degree. Local church leaders may find that students are too tied down to take on a heavy ministry assignment during the school year. For that reason, many churches provide special summer projects for witnessing, evangelism, teaching, and outreach in camps, migrant communities, and retirement centers.

The best part of practical experience is that which is gained with persons of a different culture. Here is where a summer overseas assignment has been of such great help to young people. Thousands are involved in many such projects. One need not go overseas, however. Central cities in the U.S. sorely need compassionate, courageous young people. Working in such places will often be an invaluable proving ground.

Again, young people need guidance in finding such opportunities. They also need financial support, because many take full-time summer jobs to pay college bills. Churches can help by setting aside special funds for student summer missionaries. The need is for planned and supervised experiences in various Christian ministries, to coincide with educational preparation.

3. Choosing a missionary vocation. There are two aspects to this difficult decision. One is the part of the world, the other is the sending agency. When these two matters are considered, the young person will find that his own vocational goals are being clarified. If one wants to teach overseas, for example, the choice is determined by countries where such opportunities exist and agencies that have such institutions. One cannot teach theology in Iran, but there are many graduate level institutions in other countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

The young missionary enthusiast needs to be prepared for the fact that adjustments are more often the rule than the exception. Flexibility and versatility are called for overseas, plus a willingness to start with less than the instant fulfillment of one’s career dreams. Young people are encultured with the American aggressiveness that in many cases doesn’t work overseas. Church and missions leaders recognize this as a potential problem and discuss it in their counseling of potential missionaries.

Many students start by looking at exact needs overseas. For one who wants to be a pioneer evangelist, this means studying everything you can find about people never reached with the gospel, and learning what it will take to accomplish that goal and start a church. Many young people think the world has already been evangelized and wrongly assume the whole task of missions today is either a mopping up exercise, or a job of training people in overseas churches.

After discovering specific needs among the unreached, as well as among the churches, the young person looks at various missions agencies. (In some cases, the process begins with the missions agency, which then informs the young person about needs overseas and the educational and practical preparation required.)

Here is where careful nurture is required, because young people are easily bewildered by the missions apparatus. If the Urbana convention proves anything, it is that the choice of a mission board is complicated by the fact that there are so many of them, both denominational and independent. The young person whose missionary call has been confirmed in the context of his church will find that the missions committee can give guidance about agencies that conform to the church’s doctrinal standards and financial policies. Those students who are not so fortunate have to start by writing across the country to dozens of missions agencies, and then studying their doctrines and policies. In such cases, the help of a pastor or an experienced layman is invaluable.

At this point, students need to be counseled toward looking at the big picture of missions. Education and experience are being gained, the church and the missions agencies are assisting and encouraging. In the process, the student will gain a clearer understanding of what the call to a missionary career involves: the continual refreshment and guidance of the Holy Spirit; dependence on God for physical and material needs; financial and prayer support at home; adjustment to culture overseas; willingness to work alongside national brothers and sisters, not as their superior but as a learner first, and always as a colaborer.

The more exposure a prospective missionary can have to veteran missionaries, the better. The more articles and books on missions studied, the more realistic will be an individual’s knowledge of missions. Youthful enthusiasm must be undergirded by hard-nosed realism. For example, if a young person has an emotional antipathy toward foreign languages, he or she ought to be warned that effectiveness as a missionary will be determined in large measure by language skills. For many missionaries, their careers began with two to four years of diligent language study. Many others, having been shifted from one country to another, find themselves learning a second language and taking four years to do it.

There is no excuse for church and missions leaders to give young people the impression that after something like an Urbana experience it’s a short, sweet, exciting trip to a missionary career. Rather, it may take from six to ten years of intense study and training. Even then, the best missionaries continue to study on furloughs and many take graduate degrees in such areas as missions, anthropology, or linguistics.

In the meantime, a student may find his interest waning. He may question or doubt God’s call when he finds out what is expected of him. He may decide he’s not up to it, and quit. That may not be a tragedy. On the other hand, it is a setback to Christ’s global cause when a young person is deflected from overseas service because church, school, and missions leaders have not taken the time and interest to work patiently, step by step, in giving educational, practical, and career guidance. The needs overseas are so pressing, and the interest among young people so growing, that adjustments need to be made in looking at the entire process of leading a college sophomore to a place of effective missionary service.

Working together, churches, educational institutions, and missions agencies can give the needed counsel and support. Much time and adequate financial resources will be required. But perhaps the chief requirement is priority. If young people’s missionary vision and interest are surging, where is the missionary vocation in the scale of priorities held by pastors, church leaders, and educators? To the degree that these persons are convinced God wants young people involved overseas, we will see more and more of them get there.

Books And Agencies For Those Considering A Missionary Career

BOOKS:

Stop the World, I Want to Get On. C. Peter Wagner (Regal).

Passport to Missions. W. Guy Henderson (Broadman).

The Making of a Missionary. J. Herbert Kane (Baker).

What in the World Is God Doing? Ted W. Engstrom (Word).

You Can Tell the World, a Mission Reader. James E. Berney (ed.) (InterVarsity).

World Missions Today. Terry Hulbert (Evangelical Teacher Training Association).

So That’s What Missions Is All About. Wade T. Coggins (Moody).

Winds of Change in the Christian Mission. J. Herbert Kane (Moody).

Give Up Your Small Ambitions. Michael Griffiths (InterVarsity).

Everything You Want to Know about the Mission Field. Charles Troutman (InterVarsity).

Myths about Missions. Horace L. Fenton (InterVarsity).

Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow. C. Peter Wagner (Regal).

What Color Is Your Parachute? Richard Bolles (Ten Speed Press).

You Can So Get from Here to There. Edward R. Dayton (MARC).

American Cultural Patterns: A Cross-cultural Perspective. Edward C. Stewart (SIETAR, 107 MIB, University of Pittsburgh).

Language Acquisition. Made Practical. Thomas and Betty Sue Brewster (Lingua House).

The Gift Within You. Ray Stedman (Regal).

Discover Your Spiritual Gift and Use It. Richard Yohn (Tyndale).

AGENCIES:

Intercristo, P.O. Box 9323, Seattle, WA 98109.

Christian Service Corps, 1509 16th Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20036.

Evangelical Missions Information Service, P.O. Box 794, Wheaton, IL 60187.

Missions Advanced Research and Communication Center, 919 West Huntington Drive, Monrovia, CA 91016.

Association of Church Missions Committees, 1021 East Walnut Street, Suite 202, Pasadena, CA 91106.

Evangelical Foreign Missions Association, 1430 K Street, N.W., Washington. DC 20005.

Carl F. H. Henry, first editor of Christianity Today, is lecturer at large for World Vision International. An author of many books, he lives in Arlington, Virginia.

- More from Edward R. Dayton

An Agenda for the 1980s

Billy Graham

Today’s spiritual vacuum should be the greatest fact of our time.

Few speak optimistically about the 1980s. This is understandable; the threats to peace and stability are so numerous that many believe only a miracle will prevent a serious crisis. On almost every front—political, economic, social, ecological—our world seems close to the breaking point. Think of the chaos that would come to the industrial nations if, for instance, the flow of oil were cut off. The list of potential disasters lurking around the corner of the 1980s is almost endless. George Orwell’s 1984 seems frighteningly close.

No one knows, of course, what the 1980s will really bring to our nation and world. Only time will tell if the decade holds some cataclysmic event that will rock our civilization (and others as well); but few observers discount the possibility.

Yet for Christians this issue is only part of a greater question: Will we, as Christians, be up to the challenges of the 1980s—whatever they may be? If our sovereign Lord allows us another decade before Christ comes again, will we be able to look back in ten years and say honestly that we have been “good and faithful servants”? As the Apostle Peter says, speaking of the transitory nature of this world and the imminent second coming of Christ, “In view of the fact that all these things are to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be?” (2 Peter 3:11, Phillips).

At root, the answer should be the same as always: We must be God’s people, faithful to him in every circumstance, no matter how difficult. No one has ever found it easy to be a true disciple of Christ; every age poses its temptations to divert us from the path of faithfulness. Sometimes these burst upon us blatantly; sometimes they slip up subtly. The Christian appreciates this if he reads his Bible because “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12, NIV).

The Christian also knows, both from the Bible and church history, that Satan’s assaults take different forms in different generations. And he knows the church’s opportunities differ in different times. So Christians today must always be alert, asking what specific challenges and opportunities await us as we face a new decade.

What, then, must be the agenda for those of us who are evangelical Christians in the 1980s? To answer that let us look at three questions.

What Sort of World Will We Face?

We would be presumptuous to act as if we knew in detail what the world will be like. Nevertheless, barring major upheavals, we can suggest broad outlines by projecting into the future some of today’s significant trends. Five seem helpful.

1. Great problems will continue to afflict the world. The growing interdependence of nations means that problems once affecting only a few now affect virtually everyone on the planet. Problems tend to become magnified; a domino effect has set in, so that a revolution in Iran or a crop failure in the American Midwest now have serious worldwide repercussions.

These problems will inevitably affect the church. Take, for example, the worldwide economic situation. Few economists believe inflation will disappear soon, and some suggest it will become a permanent fixture on the world scene. No church can build a new building without considering this. No mission board can make long-range plans without allowing for it. No parachurch organization or Christian school can undertake massive expansion without thinking carefully about world economic problems. Many groups are already feeling the pinch, and some may even go out of existence in the 1980s through indifference to economic conditions. The temptation may well beset us to resort to unspiritual gimmicks and unscriptural methods of raising money.

2. The decade will see staggering scientific and technological change. We hear of advances in such areas as medicine and electronics almost every day, and we can expect that trend to continue. Whether countries will always utilize such advances for beneficial purposes is, of course, a different question. And we may wonder whether scientists can solve some of the critical intractable problems we face; but the advance of exotic new discoveries and inventions will surely continue into the 1980s.

Again, evangelicals must be alert to developments that affect our work in the world. Recently I helped dedicate the new facilities of a Christian broadcasting network. I was amazed at the sophisticated equipment, some of the finest in the broadcasting industry. While we must not be dazzled by technology, we must be ready to use every means God gives us to proclaim the gospel. We must also be aware of the ethical issues that accompany the application of certain scientific discoveries, and be ready to give moral guidance to a world that easily succumbs to the manipulation of the many by the few, sometimes in the name of progress.

3. We should remember that a large part of our world continues to drift toward secularism. Large sections of Europe have become virtually secular in outlook, with empty cathedrals standing as monuments to a faith almost completely relegated to the past. In our own nation we see encouraging signs of revival, with countless people coming to faith in Christ; at the same time, secular humanism is still the dominant philosophy. Wheat and tares are growing, almost flourishing, side by side.

The secular mentality is not always openly hostile to religion; it simply leaves God out of life. Our national institutions—education, for example—often exhibit a strong bias against Christian convictions. Charitable deductions and tax exemption for religious organizations will probably continue under fire in the 1980s because of the prevailing secular mentality. Along different lines, the moral decline accompanying our secular trend shows few signs of leveling off. Tolerance toward such patterns of behavior as homosexuality, unmarried couples living together, casual drug use, and numerous other social customs, will probably grow. I am convinced, however, that such behavior also wreaks inevitable havoc in the personalities of many. Will Christians be prepared to minister compassionately to those who have bought the lie of secular promises and reaped the bitter fruit of such experiences?

4. The massive resurgence of militant religions is another factor in the world of the 1980s that moves directly counter to the secularizing trend. I suspect that such movements are only vaguely comprehended in the West, but they are one of the most important facts of our time. I disagree with those who suggest that this represents merely a last desperate but futile attempt by doomed and dying faiths to grasp new life. Militant religions are on the march, and may well become aggressively evangelistic in this decade. I can only imagine what the use of petrodollars to support religious movements might accomplish. Christian missions in the 1980s must cope strategically with resurgent non-Christian religions.

The 1980s therefore may also see an upsurge in religious persecution of Christians. This will not come from militant non-Christian religions alone. As has been true often in church history, secular states can also be savagely anti-Christian. We should never forget that Satan often directs his attacks at areas that have been especially noted for spiritual victories. Uganda experienced great revival, but Satan still used political chaos to persecute God’s people. No nation, including our own, can ever assume it is immune from the persecution of true believers—even by the state.

5. I want to register my enthusiasm about the world of the 1980s: it will offer vast opportunity for Christians. Partly I am convinced of this because as long as we are on this earth God gives us opportunities to serve him. Who of us can say we have seized even one-tenth of those he has already given us? But I believe the 1980s could be a time of special harvest, one of the greatest in the history of the church, if we rise to the challenge.

We could easily concentrate on the problems. But we must ask, what has the chaotic condition of the world done to people today? We can summarize the answer in one sentence: It has brought countless people to the end of their spiritual rope. Many have run out of answers, and are desperately casting about for something that will bring inner peace, stability, and assurance. I see an unprecedented spiritual hunger today, a restlessness of spirit that can only be satisfied in Jesus Christ. The massive outpouring of emotion and interest during the visit of Pope John Paul II to the United States is but one evidence of the spiritual hunger that characterizes our world.

To evangelical Christians, today’s spiritual vacuum should be the greatest fact of our time. Having tried everything except Christ, modern men and women will yield either to despair or to Christ. Like Paul, God is sending us “to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:18).

What Will Face Evangelicalism Internally?

Especially in the United States the decade of the 1970s brought a new fact to the evangelical movement: prominence. Who would have guessed several decades ago that Time would proclaim one year in the 1970s as “The Year of the Evangelicals”? Who would have suspected evangelicals would become a major and highly visible movement in America? Evangelicalism is now playing an increasingly prominent role in many denominations and interdenominational agencies. But will this visibility continue and become even sharper in the decade ahead? A discussion of this question must be on the agenda of evangelicals.

Prominence has it advantages, but it also brings a new set of problems, ones we must determine to face. Two seem particularly important.

First, prominence means we are in the public eye, so our faults, our shallowness, our moral failure, our inconsistency—will also be in the public eye. The moral or financial indiscretions of a prominent television preacher or the racism of a supposedly evangelical denomination now may make Newsweek or CBS Evening News. In such a situation the cause of Christ suffers. Ever since my own ministry became widely publicized I have been constantly afraid I would say or do something that would bring disrepute to the cause of Christ. I believe every Christian, especially one in a position of leadership, must be sensitive to this problem.

Second, evangelical prominence confronts us with temptations for which we may not be fully prepared. Chief among these is the temptation to preserve that prominence even at the risk of compromise. Instead of being a prophetic voice boldly declaring the clear Word of God to our secular society, we are instead tempted to become bland and innocuous, knowing that the world does not like prophets who challenge its cherished unbeliefs.

Or again, we may be tempted to use prominence for the wrong purposes. I am concerned, for example, about those who would use present evangelical visibility to pursue solely political goals, be they conservative or liberal. The issue of how Christians should exercise political influence is complex, I know. Individual evangelicals should be active in the political arena, and I am thankful for those who have sensed a special calling to politics. However, I agree with the insight of Pope John Paul II that many clergy in becoming involved with political and social affairs have lost their spiritual impact. Somehow they failed to bring the Scriptures to bear on the issues they faced. This mistake has often been made, I believe, by theological liberals, and we must be careful not to fall into the same pattern. We must be committed to the priorities God has given us in his Word, and be faithful in carrying out the mission he gives his people. I have personally discovered many traps and pressures that would divert me from proclaiming the gospel, and absorb me in things that might be good but are not my calling from God.

Yet, having said that, I must add that evangelical visibility is also an opportunity to be heard. The new prominence of evangelicals has given us significant access to the mass media, and as a result many people listen to what we have to say. Will we use this visibility for God’s glory in the coming decade?

The internal situation of evangelicals also involves other issues. For example, there are disturbing signs that internal dissension could blunt the force of our witness. Sometimes this dissension is over nonessentials. Evangelicalism is, after all, a very loosely-knit movement, which means that whatever unity we have can be rather fragile. One of Satan’s strategies in any time of renewal is to divide believers and divert their energies from attacking the kingdom of darkness to attacking each other. We must have room to disagree honestly on some issues, and some matters we can settle only by thorough discussion. But Scripture commands us always to be “speaking the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15), and warns us repeatedly against unwarranted bickering and fighting. Sometimes we differ because we fail to recognize that God has given different gifts to different people, and even to different organizations. He has raised up some specifically for evangelism, or teaching, or other ministries, and they would be wrong to broaden their activities beyond God’s call. Individuals and organizations alike constantly face the danger of being diverted from the specific and unique ministry God has given them.

We should consider one other possible trend within the evangelical movement in the coming ten years. Evangelicals from widely varied backgrounds have the possibility of a new unity. When I was a boy, Christians from my background had little to do with those from different religious backgrounds, such as Lutherans, Pentecostals, and Plymouth Brethren. Now, of course, I find close fellowship with many from those backgrounds. Evangelicals are discovering one another, regardless of labels. This is happening not just in America but in other nations.

Evangelicals are also discovering they have much in common with those from more diverse backgrounds. Many are joining in Bible studies and prayer meetings with those from Roman Catholic and Orthodox backgrounds, and are discovering that God is at work in those communions as well. In an age when the ecumenical movement of the last decade has met with a yawn from many church members, evangelicals during the 1980s may prove to be in the forefront of truly biblical ecumenical activity. They may well seek new ways to express this spirit of unity, including possible formation or revitalizing of national and international fellowships.

What Witness Must We Bear in the 1980s?

The church’s mission to the world includes both proclamation and service. The subject of our witness must always be the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, given in the power of the Spirit. The gospel does not change; it is the Good News “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3–4). This is the kerygma, the proclamation, God has given us—a proclamation solidly rooted in historical fact. We also are called within the church “to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27, KJV), to the end that “we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves.… Instead … we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ” (Eph. 4:14–15, NIV).

At the same time, the circumstances of each age play a part in determining the way we bear our witness to Christ. As we approach the 1980s, what sort of witness must we bear, if the world is to hear our message?

First, it must be a proclamation and service marked by integrity of life. The world has always correctly demanded that our words be backed by our lives, but today it places an even greater premium on this. One reason is the higher visibility of evangelical Christians. Another is that in our age talk is cheap. Each day the average person is bombarded with an incredible variety of messages through the mass media—messages to which most people pay little attention. In a pluralistic society, also, people have come to suspect that one religious viewpoint is about as good as another. But a life that is different—a life marked by purity and integrity, refusing to fall apart when circumstances are less than perfect—will command the attention of people who are weary of words and want something that works. As Peter, echoing the Sermon on the Mount, says, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us” (1 Peter 2:12).

The genuineness of our life in Christ must extend to every area of our personal and public lives. God is not honored by a Christian businessman who deals unfairly with his employees or cannot be trusted in a business deal. God is not honored by a Christian employee who is a clock watcher, grudgingly doing the bare minimum to keep a job. God is not honored by a Christian student who cheats or studies with a lazy mind. God is not honored by the breakup of a Christian marriage, something happening in evangelical circles too often today.

Second, our proclamation and service must be marked by compassion. Job said, “Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). I recently heard someone say, “Life is cruel to young people today.” He meant that so many promises of happiness and security are made on the condition that a young person follow a certain path. Yet those paths are too often dead ends, cruelly destroying the hopes of those who follow them. No matter where we look we see pain. Often it is physical suffering, brought about by hunger and sickness. Sometimes it is psychological and spiritual suffering, bringing despair because of sin. Many people live lives filled with fear of the future, of failure, of death. Others are caught in the agony of loneliness. This February I will be conducting university-wide missions at Oxford and Cambridge. Student committees have asked me to be sure to speak on the subject of loneliness. Recently I spoke on television about loneliness and received more mail about this message than for virtually any other television message I have ever preached. One of our leading political commentators said recently that loneliness will be a major political issue in the 1980s.

God calls the Christian to show compassion. Our example is Christ himself, who looked out at the people of his day and “had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36). Like Paul, we must inwardly sense that “Christ’s love compels us” (2 Cor. 5:14).

This gives the context for concern about our world’s great social problems. Injustice is not God’s will, nor does he wish millions to starve while nations spend $400,000,000,000 on armaments annually. Historically, evangelicals have been in the forefront of the great social movements that have shaped civilization for the better. In recent decades we have sometimes lost sight of that, but now we are learning again what it means in practical terms to have compassion on those who suffer. That does not mean social action is our sole or even primary calling, but it does mean that we are called to deal with human needs of all kinds with compassion in the name of Jesus Christ. The pendulum here tends to swing toward extremes, and we find it difficult to keep a proper balance. We can become so involved in either the social or the redemptive aspect of our mission that we lose sight of the other responsibility. Recently I received a letter from a well-known evangelist on another continent. God had greatly used him, but he confessed he has become so wrapped up in the social problems of his troubled nation that he was no longer being effective in the special work God had called him to.

Is it not true that the Christian has a special opportunity to sense the deepest dimension to human suffering? Our greatest problem is sin. Man is alienated from God, his Creator, and his agony of spirit bears vivid witness to this. If we are marked with the love and compassion of Christ, we will always keep before us the sobering fact that we live in a world under God’s judgment. We could conceivably bring about a somewhat more just society and reduce suffering, but it would be an eternal tragedy if we failed to give humanity what it needs most—salvation and new life in Christ. It is precisely because we have Christ’s love and compassion that we will not be satisfied with temporary solutions to eternal problems. The suffering we see all around us is only a shadow of the eternal separation from God that is the destiny of those outside Christ.

This is why if we are truly filled with God’s love we will seek to be clear and open in our verbal witness. Our words must be backed by our deeds, but our deeds without our words are not enough. Christ healed the sick and fed the hungry, but he also came preaching and teaching. The gospel is a message to be communicated and understood before it can be accepted or rejected.

That has always been true, but if anything, we will need to be even clearer in our verbal witness in the 1980s. We cannot assume that people in our pluralistic and secular society know what we mean when we talk about Christ. The average person even within the organized church today often has little understanding of the facts of the gospel. We have not communicated the gospel unless our hearers have understood, no matter how many words we have spoken.

Last, our witness in the 1980s must be marked not only by integrity and compassion, but also by a vision for the whole world.

Christ has never rescinded the Great Commission, but still commands us: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19–20, NIV). God’s plan embraces the whole world. Christ came because God loves not just Americans, or Jews, or Westerners, or those for whom we feel an affinity; in dying, Christ “purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9). Whether it is the “world” of a foreign country, or the “world” of our business, or the “world” of ethnic groups in our cities, we are commanded by our Lord to declare his gospel.

An Awesome Responsibility

Out of the great 1910 Edinburgh missionary conference came the cry, “The evangelization of the world in this generation.” Seven decades have passed and the task is not done. Every generation needs to be evangelized, of course, but this has never been accomplished completely. And yet, if ever it was possible to fulfill the Great Commission, it is in this new decade of the twentieth century. Perhaps our cry today should be, “The evangelization of the world before 2000.”

The day of the missionary is far from over. Strategies and methods may change, but we will never reach vast areas of the world for Christ unless people are willing to give themselves to the task of cross-cultural missions. American evangelicals have an awesome responsibility before God to spread the gospel of Christ. Where are the men and women who will yield themselves to God, willing to be his instruments to the ends of the earth?

Surely the 1980s will pose problems. But for the Christian there is no more exciting time to be alive! God is at work in our world, calling men and women in every nation to follow him. And he would remind us how glorious is our calling to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

Through Scripture he would remind us that the greatest glory is yet to come. We are “aliens and strangers on earth”; “he has prepared a city” for those who are his (Heb. 11:13, 16). Someday Christ will come again, and our labor will be over. But meanwhile, we are to be faithful—faithful to God, and to his Word.

Donald Grey Barnhouse was once asked what he would do if he knew Christ was returning tomorrow. He replied that he would do what he had planned. He knew he was doing God’s will, and that was all that mattered. Whatever the 1980s hold for us, God calls us to be one thing: faithful. We must commit all that we are to him at the beginning of this new decade, with confidence in the one who said, “Surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Carl F. H. Henry, first editor of Christianity Today, is lecturer at large for World Vision International. An author of many books, he lives in Arlington, Virginia.

- More from Billy Graham

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