Low Tide in the West

Low Tide In The West

Christianity Today’s fifty contributing editors have relayed their impressions of the spiritual situation in the West. This editorial survey gathers their convictions into focus.

Any absolute appraisal of the panoramic present runs the risk of revision tomorrow. When one plumb-lines the world of spirit and morality, intangibles multiply. Nonetheless, an inventory of the ethical and spiritual reserves is timely and proper at year-end, if only to shield men from needless despair or groundless optimism.

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Some observers fear that the refashioning religious revival must be rejected as substantially spurious, and even decidedly detrimental. Professor John H. Gerstner, of Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary, warns that the spiritual surge swirls about a show of shallowness in pulpit and pew. Full-orbed Bible doctrine is a refugee, while Liberalism, Neo-orthodoxy and truncated Fundamentalism are regnant. The doctrine of justification by faith alone, regarded by Luther as “the article by which the church stands or falls,” is widely disregarded. The result, he contends, is miserably disappointing: the church now influences society in inverse proportion to her numbers; immorality widens within the church with little effort at discipline; the will to suffer “for righteousness’ sake” is withering.

Professor Gordon H. Clark of Butler University finds no evidence of a revival. He points to “the flippancy and venom directed against biblical Christianity by the writers of college textbooks and the almost complete absence of specifically Christian teaching in the universities.” As always, he remarks, small groups and individuals “fight manfully against our present evil world,” but there seems to be “no trend away from socialism in politics, ecumenicalism in the church and antagonism to the word of God everywhere.”

General William K. Harrison, United Nations truce delegate in the Korean war, shares much the same mood: “The major part of the visible religious revival is superficial rather than deep, spurious rather than sincere.” Much of the widespread religiosity, the General thinks, is motivated by the search for security “in the world”; while it results from a realization of man’s inadequacy in our dangerous and lawless world, it remains a manifestation of the unregenerate self, involving no true repentence. C. Darby Fulton, executive secretary of the Board of World Missions, Presbyterian Church in the United States, voices misgivings over “the quality and depth” of spiritual concern. Aspects of it seem serenely superficial. Many nominal Christians understand little even of the cardinal doctrines of the church concerning God, sin and salvation; much preaching and believing fails to rise above the level of humanism; “a kind of baptized sociology” is often mistaken for Christianity; and “the zeal of the church to influence every aspect of life, commendable in itself, has sometimes risen no higher than a sort of partisanship in the political, economic, social and public issues of the day.”

From England and Scotland, likewise, storm warnings are sounded over the religious climate of the day. Dr. W. E. Sangster, president of the Methodist Union in Great Britain in 1950, states tersely: “There is no clear religious revival among us yet.” Professor Norman C. Hunt, of University of Edinburgh, reports in much the same vein from Scotland: “Undoubtedly the Graham crusades continue to bear fruit, and the churches have permanently benefited, but there is no indication of widespread spiritual renewal and turning back to God. I see few signs of real revival.”

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A negative preparation for revival is widely acknowledged. The Rev. Richard C. Halverson, of International Christian Leadership, sees the prodigal modern man, frustrated by the turn of world affairs, driven Godward by the sheer failure of alternatives. The futility of his pursuit of earthbound security (economic, social and political) has yielded a vague nostalgia for God. Dr. Harold John Ockenga, pastor of Boston’s Park Street Church, finds the disillusionment over secularism and materialism attended by an interest in religious reading and preaching, in prayer, in religion itself, and indeed in God and a theological solution to the problems of the day. Professor Roger Nicole of Gordon Divinity School discovers a sound basis for spiritual benefit in this frustration over man’s own attainments, since man’s despair of his own ability is one of the Holy Spirit’s preparatory works on the way to true conversion. But he warns that people in this mood often turn “to any kind of panacea that seems to proffer a solution,” and finds reason to doubt that they are genuinely reborn who under these circumstances alone profess interest in the Christian faith.

Although not too hopeful about the present state of affairs, Professor W. Stanford Reid of McGill University, in Canada, thinks man’s anxiety after two world wars and his depression into quasi-humility offer impressive parallels with the historical situation during the century preceding the Reformation. “That man is becoming more and more skeptical of the powers of his own reason, and more and more doubtful about his ability to attain to ultimate Truth through science, as is manifested by the writings of Planck, Dingle, Jeans and Eddington, is a significant indication of the present trend. Along with that, the fact that the intellectual or quasi-intellectual such as the university student is no longer committed to unrelieved scoffing at Christianity also shows that certain changes are taking place.” Professor Reid now teaches in a university where he started his undergraduate work, and reports that “the difference in attitude amongst students from the early 30’s compared with now is rather startling.”

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Conspicuously lacking, however, are signs of a corporate sense of divine dependence in national life either side of the Atlantic. The major orders of life, domestic, economic and political, are not firmly fastened to spiritual priorities. The American scene reflects a steadier emphasis on the indispensability of faith in God for the democratic way of life, but this seldom gains a specifically Christian exposition. In Britain, international tensions touching the Middle East have propelled the debate over state policy into prominent discussion of the standpoints of morality and political expediency. Public debate over Franco-British intervention in Egypt revolved around this issue, an indication that the corporate sense of right and wrong was not wholly submerged; churchmen of all denominations voiced protests, and many political Conservatives admitted to guilty consciences. Yet, Professor Hunt observes no sign that the critical international situation is shaping a sense of need of divine intervention. There has been no call to national prayer, and no leading statesman has called the nation to repentance and to dependence upon God.

The grades of society, as ordered levels, have scarcely been ruffled by the modern stirring of spirit. Speaking of Britain, Dr. Sangster remarks that “there is no obvious awakening among the masses of artisan workers whose whole leisure seems absorbed by football pools, television and other secular hobbies. Nor at this moment do the leaders of the churches see a clear way into this area of life.” The American scene, likewise, despite vigorous pulpit emphasis on the necessity of an active participation of laymen in Christian witness, reflects only a random return to a conviction of Christian vocation in the crafts and professions. Dr. Earl L. Douglass, editor of the Douglass Sunday School Lessons, stresses that multitudes remain unlifted by any spiritual upsurge. The interest in religion exists side by side with a rising crime wave, increased juvenile delinquency, increased liquor and alcohol consumption and gay living among the middle-aged. The current religious fad, he thinks, “may lead to a real religious revival later,” but it is as yet unattained. Mr. Halverson, noting that even the religious resurgence itself has a secular side, reflected in the earthy books, songs, motion pictures and even church attendance it produces, gives much the same verdict: “This is the opportunity for revival; it is not revival.” Dr. Paul S. Rees, of First Covenant Church, Minneapolis, observes that “church statistics in the United States may have little connection with the vigor of an informed and infectious Christian faith, but they do testify to the heightened prestige of the churches and the wistfulness, not to say nervousness, of modern Americans.”

While concurring that the revival of interest in religions “surely can be the first step in a revival of religion itself,” Dr. Samuel M. Shoemaker proposes that “rather than merely assessing from the side lines what is taking place, it seems to me we had all better go to work to turn the interest into true conversion.” What gives many of CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S contributing ediors cause for alarm is that many professing Christians, among them a phalanx of pastors, are themselves enmeshed in the temptations of the times. Some churches, eager to enlarge their numbers, are ignoring the basic requirements for membership.****“This shallowness of pastors who are looking for numerically large churches, financially huge income and statistically large records, militates against revival,” writes Dr. Oskenga. In Washington, D. C., a minister called to a church of 3650 members, told his congregation that he was unable to find a mailing address for 1000 of them and noted that his denomination is looking for addresses for 2½million names on its rolls.

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Professor Faris D. Whitesell of Northern Baptist Seminary asserts that “we are too much in the grip of material prosperity, too busy with gadgets and inconsequential chores, and too self-centered to give ourselves to that praying and personal witnessing which wins our neighbors. The spiritual-moral renewal has not yet gone deep; it is stirring the surface.” Dr. Geoffrey W. Bromiley of Edinburgh comments: “Much evangelistic work of the definite evangelical type is superficial in its results and Christians themselves are apathetic in all the things that ought to claim their attention and far too conformed to this world in outlook and standards.” Dr. Rees writes: “The shallowness of the spiritual stream within the churches themselves should concern us. Church membership means too little. Confusion as to the nature of the Gospel is too prevalent. It means a non-contagious witness by the people of the churches to the people of the world. Too great by far is the tendency to associate Christian life with the amenities of culture: economic success, social standing and ‘peace of mind’.”

Dr. Frank E. Gaebelein, headmaster of Stony Brook School, remarks that, “Alongside the hopeful signs of spiritual renewal, we must set the continuing materialism and moral softness of much of American life. So long as secularism pervades great areas of our education, so long as the shoddy ‘entertainment world’ dominates our recreation and so long as our way of life knows little of self denial, we must ask whether the current revival is deep as well as widespread.” The similar sentiment of Dr. Philip E. Hughes, voiced from London, is relevant far beyond his homeland: “The nationwide apathy, godlessness and materialism (not in a philosophical sense) present an alarming picture and the churches are doing little more than scratch the surface of the problem. Christians are themselves infected with the materialistic outlook, with the concern for comfort and security in this world, with complacency and lack of compassion for the multitudes that are as sheep without a shepherd.”

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While no widespread revival is conceded, a firm conviction prevails that the evangelical enterprise is gaining ground. The undoubted conversions which have accrued to the evangelistic thrust in the last decade seem to attest this. “Within this religious ferment,” in General Harrison’s words, “God has saved and is saving many thousands of persons from sin through personal faith in Jesus Christ.” Dr. Bromiley evaluates the Scottish situation in much the same mood of caution: “We have perhaps seen a first move of the tide, but it would be premature to be over-optimistic about either moral or spiritual renewal. Billy Graham made an impression which has left religion a talking point in wide circles—but my own assessment at the moment is not too hopeful. We have just begun to move in the right direction, perhaps, but we have a long way to go and have not gone far.” Wistfully, he adds, “things are better perhaps in the States.” “States-side,” Dr. Cary N. Weisiger III, of Mount Lebanon U.P. Church, Pittsburgh, evaluates events “at the grass-roots level as the beginning of a revival of the Christian religion. Many people are open to the teachings and claims of Christianity.” As Dr. Gaebelein puts it, “The Gospel is today receiving a wider and more ready hearing than ever before. Under the stress of world tragedy, there is an openness to Christian truth coupled with a response to vital doctrine that was not evident in the earlier years of the century.” Yet Dr. Gaebelein is hesitant in his appraisal: “Whether these facts constitute genuine revival is debatable.” On the Canadian scene, Professor Stanford Reid reports: “I would not like to suggest that there is a great religious revival just around the corner, for religious revivals do not come until there has been a much greater growth in humility and knowledge, but nevertheless, I do feel that it is in this direction we are headed. Only the Spirit of God, however, can make it effective.”

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Gratitude for the gains of the decade is, however, not absent. Always there is the flurry of recognition that the Graham campaigns have vindicated the legitimacy of mass evangelism in an age of unbelief, even though they may not yet represent a decisive breakthrough. Darby Fulton thinks that “much in the present spiritual awakening affords solid ground for encouragement.” He voices “apprehension that our Christian social concern today may be moving under the momentum of a spiritual motivation provided by a generation that had a deeper and more virile faith than ours, and that we are living on an ‘unearned spiritual increment’ that may exhaust itself in time unless it is replenished by a revival of faith in the cardinal doctrines of Christianity.” Yet the reality of spiritual-moral renewal in our day can be supported, he feels, by “the rapid increase in the number of churches, the substantial rise in church membership, better attendance at services of worship, more candidates for the ministry and Christian service, popular interest in religious themes and more active participation of the laity in the activities of the church.”

Professor F. F. Bruce of Sheffield University thinks the student situation in Britain, and to some the classroom also, reflects promise. “Since World War II there have been signs of a deeper seriousness and sense of responsibility, especially (but not exclusively) among young men who have served for some time in the armed forces. When evangelistic missions to students are arranged, there is a widespread willingness to listen to what the missioner has to say and a scarcely articulate hope that what he has to say may be the word they are waiting for. I regard as one of the most promising signs in this country the increasing number of fully committed Christian teachers who are recognizing their vocation to be the teaching of the Bible in our national schools.” Dr. Sangster also touches this trend: “The nearest thing we have in Britain to a religious awakening is at the universities. At all our universities the religious societies are doing well. This does not belong to one kind of churchmanship or one interpretation of the faith. The Christian religion as such is being examined afresh … and winning its way. The time has passed when intellectuals and pseudo-intellectuals looked upon Christianity as beneath contempt. It is fairly freely conceded in those circles today that a man can be intellectually respectable and a Christian.”

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Not only are there gains, even if modest, but there are hopeful omens. Dr. Weisiger finds one in “the gathering together in many churches of small groups of Christians for real fellowship based upon the Word of God and prayer.” Dr. Gaebelein cautions, however, against expectations within history which impose a secular rather than biblical prospect upon the mass movements of unregenerate men. “Any estimate of today’s spiritual climate must be measured by what Scripture teaches regarding God’s purpose in this age,” he writes. “If we believe, as the Bible plainly declares, that the divine plan is not world conversion but world evangelization, then we may see in the present religious situation revival to the extent that, in ever-increasing numbers, the sovereign God is calling out of the world a great multitude to be His own.”

Alongside hopeful anticipations, moreover, must be ranged the responsibilities of Christians in relation to the world needs of our day. General Harrison, nearing retirement in his military career, writes: “What a wonderful privilege have ministers of Christ to proclaim His Gospel, and what frightening responsibilities! May God give them grace to expound His truth in all its fullness and saving power.” And Professor Whitesell voices this uneasy plea: “We need more and better biblical preaching and biblical living. Our age needs more emphasis on repentance as a total life-reversal and dedication as total life commitment to Christ. I hope it does not take total war to bring us to the New Testament level of Christian experience.” The retreat from repentance, the neglected imperative of our age, is noted also in Dr. Douglass’ reply: “I am not deeply impressed with the present-day ‘revival’ of religion. It is good as far as it goes, in fact inspiring. But it lacks one thing—repentance. The present ‘interest’ in religion will evaporate unless there is a widespread soul-searching and earth-shaking repentance on the part of Christian believers.”

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The call to concerted commitment and conduct is spirited. “Thank God,” writes Dr. Shoemaker, “for the great voices that can speak to great crowds. But we need to supplement these with tens of thousands of ministers and laymen who have become contagious through their own deepened conversion, and have learned how to reach individuals and speak to congregations and groups about what Jesus Christ does to change human lives. They need to learn also (and it is a new art for many of them) how to draw together small companies for a time to study and consider the Christian faith, under competent leadership that does not talk too much, but draws the company into the conversation; then helps these people get into sustained groups which they lead themselves, and in which they grow and find inspiration for their daily work and their Christian witness.” Positive preparation for revival includes, in Dr. Ockenga’s words, “deeper consecration on the part of Christian people, united praying, believing and witnessing in the church, and a willingness to face spiritual shortcomings.… Unless greater heart-searching, introspection, inventory and dedication are manifested among church members, beginning with us pastors, we will not have revival and will miss our opportunity.” “I do not think,” writes Philip Hughes, “that the solution lies in more planning or organization, but rather in more prayer and devotion to Christ on the part of the Lord’s people. We need desperately to recapture the spirit of the Acts of the Apostles before we see and experience the same dynamic power as they knew. Then we shall prove once again the relevance of the simple elemental Gospel of Jesus Christ to the needs of our world today. But we must learn what it means to take up the Cross daily and follow Christ.”

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Mr. Halverson, International Christian Leadership, inquires soberingly whether the crest of opportunity may not already have subsided. The favorable conjuncture, he thinks, “is clearly on the wane, and if it is not exploited soon, the result will be that our ‘last state will be worse than the first.’ The faithful preaching and teaching of the Bible are the tragic missing ingredients in our twentieth century awakening. The one thing that will bring a ‘decisive turn’ if it is not too late already is a revival of biblical preaching, teaching, reading, studying and memorizing.” Dr. Weisiger develops the same theme: “The depth of spiritual penetration,” he says, “will depend entirely upon the extent to which the Bible is presented and appropriated as the authoritative word of God. Unless people begin to read the Bible, to study it, to memorize it, and to apply it to their problems, the revival will prove to be a passing mood, wistful but unfruitful.”

A summary statement may perhaps be sketched in the words of Professor Ned B. Stonehouse of Westminster Theological Seminary. He finds the resurgent religiosity not too different from that of Athens in the lap of paganism and needing still to be confronted by the Christian Gospel. In Dr. Stonehouse’s words, “The many evidences of an interest in religious things, as shown by the popularity of religious books, the utilization of religious themes in popular music, and especially the impact made by many preachers, are without doubt of great moment. To a large extent, however, all of this adds up in my judgment to the conclusion that this is a day of great opportunity rather than of extraordinary spiritual conquest. Paul found the Athenians very religious and seized upon this fact as a most significant ingredient of the man’s basic makeup to preach the Word. My best thought, therefore, is that, rather than dwelling upon the superficiality of the present response, we should find in the present phenomena encouraging points of contact for the proclamation of the Christian message.”

Christianity Today’s contributing editors, therefore, face the year ahead with an awareness that, while the name of Jesus Christ more often glides constructively into general conversation, it is still far removed from pre-eminence. No doubt a wave of evangelism is abroad in the world, and even a ripple of revival, but the spiritual current is still shallow; indeed, it is low tide in the West.

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A Dividing Gospel In A Deciding World

Only as the Gospel divides is its preaching effective. To many persons, this fact comes as a shock, but it cannot be otherwise. Christ came that there might be a Gospel to preach and he is still a stumbling stone to some and a rock of offense to others. The offense of the Cross is still with us.

How foolish to attempt to make Christianity popular with the world. It is the antithesis of the unregenerate world order. The more effectively Christ is preached, the more vigorous will be the opposition. Satan has not surrendered and the bitter warfare, the outcome of which was determined at the Cross, has yet to see its final denouement.

The Gospel divides between truth and error. Jesus is truth. The source of power in the Church is the truth which she proclaims. The Scriptures are truth and the Holy Spirit bears witness to that truth. It is inevitable that confrontation with truth divides between those who accept and reject it.

The Gospel message, God’s revealed truth, is still His power unto salvation to all who believe. The Apostle Paul affirms that its message is supernatural in origin and supernatural in its effect on those who hear and accept it.

Because it is supernatural in its origin it demands of those who hear it an act of faith, a submission of the will to one who is above all.

Decision to accept or reject is a point at which division occurs.

Ours is an age of tremendous achievement. Under these conditions, it is exceedingly difficult to admit that only those who have Christ in their hearts have light and that all others are groping in darkness. We worship at the shrine of the finite intellect, forgetting that it is a reverential fear of and trust in Almighty God which is the beginning of wisdom.

Walking in the darkness of an unregenerate worldly wisdom, men find themselves buffeted by the currents and cross-currents of pride, greed, lust, hate and other evidences of sin in the human heart, and stumble over these barriers to progress.

Once the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ shines upon the situation, not only the cause but also the cure of world disorder becomes apparent to those who emerge from spiritual blindness into God’s divine light.

Not for nought are we told that men love darkness more than light. It is a humiliating experience to see ourselves in the light of God’s holiness and from that experience many turn away.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ, received, believed and acted upon, clarifies man’s thinking on sin, on righteousness and on judgment to come. It is this message which makes clear the demarcation between that which is evil and that which is good. Purity becomes the enemy of impurity; love of hatred; generosity of greed; unselfishness of selfishness; compassion of indifference; humility of pride.

This conflict of the Gospel has been in evidence down through the ages. Our Lord said: “I came not to send peace, but a sword.” There is the inner conflict between right and wrong; there is ever-present struggle in the social order as a whole.

This devisive effect of the Gospel is no reason for pessimism. A Christian is not in a hopeless minority for God is with him.

Abraham Lincoln, when told by a friend: “I am sure that God is on our side,” replied: “My concern is that I may be on God’s side.”

Every individual is on one side or the other. Throughout the world the Gospel must be a dividing force. It is a message of love, of redemption, of hope and of action. It is also a message of judgment to come. A decision must be made—for or against.

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