Biblical Significance of Mideast Turmoil

Christianity in the World Today

This summer’s developments in the Mideast captured the attention of the godly and godless the world over. The crisis held its greatest meaning, however, for evangelical Christians, who know that world history began near the eastern shore of the Mediterranean—and may well end there!

Current events in the Mideast have great significance if only because of this fact, that ancient Bible lands which originally supplied the setting for the decisive events of sacred history are once again providing the scene for potentially momentous happenings. In back of the mind of most informed individuals is the question: “Will this struggle degenerate into a nuclear war, heaping unparalleled destruction upon the earth?” Yet the true Christian aspects of the turmoil transcend in importance even the alarm over whether troop movements, bloody riots, and nationalistic political realignments will eventually trigger a third global conflict.

Evaluations Will Take Time

Precise determinations as to how the 1958 Mideast strife affects the Christian outlook may well be a long time coming. Few theologians, if any, were immediately willing to venture specific appraisals. By early this month the only representative church statement relating to the Mideast came from Dr. O. Frederick Nolde, director of the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, a joint agency of the World Council of Churches and the International Missionary Council. Nolde drafted the statement with five other ecumenical leaders “inspired by queries from Christian leaders all over the United States.” The 10-point statement made no attempt to deal with particulars. Aside from an assertion that “it is not essential to Western interests that the governments of the Middle East be ‘pro-Western,’ ” the remarks were non-committal on any new course of action. For example: “We in the churches should both support the principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of Middle Eastern nations and promote alertness to the extent to which the response of national governments falls below the needs and aspirations of their own people.”

Doubtless, though, theologians of many persuasions will become increasingly vocal as political realignments jell and sides are chosen. These may be some of the concerns which will guide thinking:

The welfare of Protestants caught in the struggle. Up through the first week of this month, there were no reports of any Protestant missionaries in the Mideast having been harmed or mistreated in the uprisings.

The effect political realignments will have on the work of the Gospel in Mideast lands. The facts are that present evangelical impact in the areas where Christianity had its roots amounts to little more than a drop in the bucket. Moslem domination could eliminate even this small impact, but concerted efforts against Christian advance at this stage can hardly be expected.

Lebanon Is Half And Half

Maronite Roman Catholics compose an overwhelming majority of the Christians who make Lebanon half-Christian, half-Moslem. President-elect Faud Shehab, like President Camille Chamoun, is a Maronite. The Shehab family, originally Moslem, reportedly became Maronite about the middle of the eighteenth century. Shehab has relatives among the Moslems and the Druses, a sect of Islam. A Moslem cousin, Khaled Shehab, once was premier. (Maronite Patriarch Paul Meouchi is the cousin of ex-President Bishara el-Khoury, whom Chamoun forced from office by coup d’etat in 1952.)

In Iraq, only about five per cent of the population can be considered Christian, using the term in its broadest sense. There are 210,000 Latin and Eastern Rite Catholics, plus some 90,000 Eastern Orthodox and about 2,000 Protestants. Modern Protestant efforts in Iraq date back only about 50 years.

The Moslem character of both Iraq and Jordan had focused on the Hashemite royal family, which is said to number Mohammed among its ancestors.

Correlation of modern Mideast geographical features with those of biblical times. Perhaps the most prominent biblical site associated with Iraq is the Garden of Eden. Almost directly north of Baghdad, near the Tigris River, lay the remains of the world’s oldest known village. In southeast Iraq stands the oldest temple known to man.

Lebanon’s most prominent biblical cities are Tyre and Saida, or Sidon, the latter having been the uppermost limit of Canaan. Both cities are mentioned many times through the Old and New Testaments.

Do present phenomena represent fulfilled biblical prophecy? Most prophecy discussions these days center on Israel, which in the early weeks of the 1958 Mideast crisis was a silent neighbor. Not until early August did the Jews become significantly involved. Almost immediately after the United States recognized the new government of Iraq, Israel said it was refusing to let British transport planes cut across its borders. The move cut off air supplies for British troops in Jordan. Some observers felt the Israel refusal was the result of Soviet pressure; others thought the little country was merely trying to assert its independence. Many scholars say Israel is the country to watch.

The issues in the Mideast struggles were, from the beginning, largely political and economic. Religious ramifications were overlooked. Chiefs of states showed no alertness to the lessons of Mideast history. Policies were being predicated on vulnerable issues which failed to penetrate deeply into human nature. Still to be explored was the possibility of solutions on a theistic level. Yet to be realized, seemingly, was the fact that the principals are theists, and that this might provide a common ground for reconciliation. (The first Baghdad radio announcements following the coup began: “With the aid of God Almighty and the support of the people and the armed services, we have liberated …” King Hussein said he was guiding his country “with God’s help.”)

Was anyone about to come up with the answer? Republican Senator H. Alexander Smith of New Jersey said that only a return to God can restore America’s “moral leadership” in these distressing times.

Speaking on the floor of the Senate, Smith said that “the times call for a renewal of our faith and a new dedication to re-establish the moral leadership of a free America in the world.”

The “distressing world problems of today remind me that throughout our history, in times of national crisis, America has affirmed through its leaders that ‘God governs in the affairs of men,’ ” he said.

In quoting from Benjamin Franklin, Smith stressed that the spiritual heritage of the founding fathers “springs from the Declaration of Independence and its statement of basic moral and religious principles, which are rooted in the Judaeo-Christian tradition of human dignity and equality under God.”

Staff Additions

Dr. James DeForest Murch, for the past 13 years editor of United Evangelical Action, becomes managing editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, September 1.

On August 25, Clair C. Burcaw, New York textile sales executive, will become general business manager.

The new appointments were made under a staff expansion program which also provides for a full-time advertising manager, a post that will be filled by Charles Claus, who has been business and advertising manager.

Murch will fill the post vacant since April, 1957, when Larry Ward resigned as managing editor to join World Vision.

Murch holds the A.B. from Ohio University and the M.A. from the University of Cincinnati, plus an honoray doctorate from Northwest Christian College.

Prior to his association with United Evangelical Action, official organ of the National Association of Evangelicals, he was editorial secretary of Standard Publishing Company, Cincinnati.

An ordained Disciples of Christ minister, Murch is a past president of National Religious Broadcasters, National Sunday School Association, and Cincinnati Bible Seminary. He was also vice president of the World Christian Endeavor Union.

Murch has written a number of books, among them Cooperation Without Compromise, Studies in Christian Living, Christian Ministers Manual, Christian Education and the Local Church, and God Still Lives.

Burcaw, aside from wide business experience, especially in the textile field, is also an active Christian layman.

Preventive Legislation

“A reduction of 50 per cent in the problem of the drinking driver would mean the saving of more than 7,500 lives per year.”

Can the number of drinking drivers be cut in half? “I certainly think so … in a couple of years,” said William N. Plymat, president of Preferred Risk Mutual Insurance Company (which sells policies exclusively to non-drinkers).

Plymat proposed the means in talks to summer conferences of the National Committee for the Prevention of Alcoholism. His plan: Equip patrol cars with kits to detect alcohol on the breath of drivers; institute programs of surprise highway checks; deal with habitual offenders through a point system.

For God, Country

Who would ever have thought that Americans could win the average Russian’s heart by displaying superiority in a particular field? Yet the Soviet public has been captivated by visitors from the United States. And, even more remarkable, the Americans apparently getting the most attention in Moscow are outstanding lay Christians.

Take Brooks Hays, U. S. Congressman and Southern Baptist Convention president who was overwhelmed at his reception in Moscow’s First Baptist Church, or Van Cliburn, young Baptist musician who sang in the New York Crusade choir last summer, then went on to become a hero in the Russian capital by winning an international piano competition, not to mention American churchmen acclaimed enthusiastically in visits to the Soviet Union.

Last month, a 23-year-old California Negro won more attention than perhaps all the rest by performing a feat that the chief Russian track coach called “the greatest to occur in the world in any sport.” Rafer Johnson, who remembers October 29, 1953, as the spiritual turning point in his life, broke the world’s decathlon record in nine events and was promptly labeled by United Press International as the “greatest all-around athlete in history.”

Recognition of Johnson’s superlative athletic prowess came at a track and field meet between Americans and Russians at Moscow’s Lenin Stadium. He was reportedly mobbed by enthusiastic Russians after piling up 8302 points—288 more than the old record for the 10-event test.

Johnson joined the Kingsburg, California, Mission Covenant Church shortly after his conversion at a Youth for Christ banquet. Now a student at the University of California at Los Angeles, he works with Campus Crusade for Christ.

The American Tract Society in New York, in a new illustrated tract about Johnson, quotes him as saying:

“The championships and college teams will soon be forgotten, and the lights will go out; but the Christian team will live and the light will never dim, but will burn on and on.”

Church And State

Danger! Precedent! Such is the cry of Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which this summer voiced misgivings over such potential pace-setters as these:

—An order from the New York commissioner of hospitals forbidding a doctor to prescribe a contraceptive device for a Protestant woman. (“This is exactly the sort of thing that many people have come to fear in the prospect of a Roman Catholic candidate for president—that if elected he would use his official position to further a sectarian program rather than the best interests of all citizens of all faiths,” said POAU Associate Director C. Stanley Lowell. Replied a Catholic spokesman, “The issue at hand is whether the money of taxpayers, among whom are Catholics who believe that birth control violates natural and divine law, should be used for contraceptive fittings in public hospitals.)

—An Internal Revenue Service regulation exempting from federal taxation business activities conducted by religious orders “with sacerdotal functions.”

—Proposed excise tax exemptions in favor of sectarian educational institutions.

—Congressional bills which would subsidize school travel in the District of Columbia.

Rebuilding A Faculty

Trustees at Louisville’s Southern Baptist Theological Seminary have reinstated one of thirteen professors dismissed June 12 in a dispute with the administration.

Reinstatement of Dr. J. J. Owens, Old Testament professor and the only one of the thirteen to respond to a special trustee committee’s negotiation invitation, was made retroactive to the date of his dismissal.

It was announced that the other 12, if still unemployed, will receive salaries through January 31, “to assure that no financial hardship will be suffered.”

Since the dismissals, the seminary has added to its faculty Dr. Joseph A. Callaway of Furman University and C. Allyn Russell, teaching fellow at Boston University School of Theology.

Dr. Clyde T. Francisco, Old Testament professor, who was to have resigned his position to teach in Fort Worth, has decided to stay.

Minister Shortage

The interdenominational Ministers’ Council of Tuskegee, Alabama, “in an effort to face the problem of the dire shortage of ministers,” appointed a committee to study the matter and make recommendations.

Among the committee’s conclusions: “If the church is to face adequately the issues of our time, and if the influence of the Christian gospel is to be felt as these issues are resolved, it is essential that the “call” to Christian service be answered more often than it has been in recent years.”

Hostility Hit

Dr. John C. Bennett, dean of the faculty at Union Theological Seminary, suggest that Christians should take a less “rigid” attitude in their opposition to Communism.

He told some 450 delegates from 22 countries attending the eighth assembly of the International Congregational Council in Hartford, Connecticut, that perhaps it is time “to emphasize less than has been our practice opposition to communism and to stop the continuous expressions of national and religious hostility to Communists and Communist nations.”

Urging Christian churches to be “more sophisticated” about communism, Bennett said, however, they should not be misled by its “propaganda and its illusions.”

“They should not take so rigid an attitude that they cannot see that second generation Communists in Russia may become concerned chiefly about building their own country, that they may become less fanatical believers in their ideology and less a threat to the freedom of their neighbors.”

Bennett said he believed Christian churches in the West and in countries most vulnerable to communism “should continue to emphasize the conflicts between Christianity and communism.”

However, he continued, the churches should show more understanding toward the Russian fears of attack. These fears, he added, are “part a matter of dogma but are greatly strengthened by Western emphasis upon bases that surround the Soviet Union and by continuous expressions of hostility against that country.”

Other various meetings around the world produced these developments:

At New York City—Jehovah’s Witnesses from all over the world gathered at Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds in the biggest convention, religious or otherwise, that New York has ever seen. More than 150,000 delegates impressed New Yorkers with their orderliness. More than 250,000 persons attended closing meetings. Witnesses set a record of their own in the mass baptism of 7,136 converts at Orchard Beach in The Bronx. (The men wore white T-shirts and swimming trunks, the women one-piece bathing suits with straps.)

At Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England—A joint interim statement by representatives of the Church of England and the Methodist Church on closer relations between the two denominations brought sharp debate at the annual meeting of the Methodist Conference of Great Britain. The statement summarizing conversations held during the last two years suggested that unification of the ministries of the two churches might be accomplished by the Methodist Church’s acceptance of the historic episcopate.

At Silver Bay, New York—Pointing out that “there never has been a more difficult age than this for the church to carry out its mission,” Dr. Charles T. Leber told the annual NCC-sponsored Silver Bay Conference on the Christian World Mission that a “non-violent Christian revolution” is needed to shake up the complacency of Americans with regard to race, corruption, and the “worship” of material advances. Leber is general secretary of the Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations of the United Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A.

At Edmonton, Alberta—The 32nd triennial General Conference of the North American Baptist Church decided to put the denomination’s two educational institutions under one board of education.

At Frankfurt, Germany—The 13th World Christian Endeavor Convention, with 12,000 youth in attendance, resolved to increase social action activities.

At Louisville, Kentucky—The national convention of Gideons International was told that hotel and motel rooms in 46 states are completely “Bibled.” The 18,000-member Christian businessmen’s group is in its 50th year of Bible distribution ministry.

Canada

New Texts

In 1957, Dr. Lewis S. Beattie, formerly Ontario’s superintendent of secondary education, was appointed chairman of the Inter-Church Committee on Religious Education in province schools. Since then he has been working on a plan for promoting religious education in elementary and secondary schools. Cooperation came from principals of teachers’ colleges and ministers who teach religious education.

Part of the plan is the publication of new guide books aimed at centering on the life of Jesus Christ and presenting his personality as portrayed by the Gospel writers. Committee members were hoping to have some of the books ready for the resumption of classes this fall.

Beattie undertook the work because he said he felt that excluding religion from school curricula has often given the impression that religion is unimportant or unworthy of a place alongside other school subjects.

—T.W.H.

Royal Worship

Touring Princess Margaret worshiped at St. George’s in the Pines Anglican Church during a stopover at Banff, Alberta. The rector, the Rev. George A. S. Hollywood, said afterward:

“There is no doubt in my mind that the Princess is a sincere Christian.”

“She was sitting very close to me during the matins service,” he added, “joining in heartily in the hymns, many of which she sang from memory, and responding well in … the service.”

J.N.

South America

Auca Episode

What has happened to Dr. Robert Tremblay, the Montreal doctor who went into the Ecuadorian jungles to deal with savage Aucas? (See CHRISTIANITY TODAY, June 23, 1958.)

Last month, a group of Quechua Indians went down the Curaray River to check on Tremblay. Just below “Palm Beach,” where five American missionaries were slain, the Indians found the jungle house where he had set up headquarters. They said the house had been ransacked with furnishings strewn about outside. No sign of Tremblay.

Several days later, a Missionary Aviation Fellowship plane made a pass over the house confirming that “stuff was strewn all over the place outside.”

Said pilot Hobey Lowrance: “We found that all the (Auca) houses at four locations had been burned. And no people appeared.”

Missionaries who know the Aucas thus feared the worst, for after a killing these Indians customarily burn their houses and hide for a time. All the indications, however, were circumstantial.

Europe

Showdown Series

Continuing clergy arrests notwithstanding, church-state showdowns cropped up liberally behind the Iron Curtain this summer.

First the Hungarian government, in a roundabout way, ousted Bishop Lajos Ordass as head of the Southern District of the Hungarian Lutheran Church. The state, which claims the right to approve all key church appointments, said it has never recognized the resignation of Bishop Laszlo Dezsery in favor of Ordass, a staunch anti-Communist who took up the post during the 1956 Hungarian revolt. Dezsery is now reported to have also disclaimed the office.

Then the scene switched to Warsaw, where Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, Roman Catholic Primate of Poland, became the key figure in another church-state clash. Anti-state feelings among Catholics were stirred when Communist police raided a monastery and claimed to have seized literature which ridiculed the state. The question of whether the church or the state should distribute relief supplies from American Catholics added fuel to the controversy. Dr. Jerzy Sztachelski, minister of state for religious affairs, blamed Wyszynski for all the trouble, charging that the cardinal has been “inflaming relations between the church and the Polish state” ever since he visited the Vatican last year. A special church-state commission stepped in to try and ease the tensions.

Meanwhile, in East Berlin, an agreement was reported to have been established between the Soviet Zone government and Evangelical churches in East Germany to eliminate “disturbing factors” in church-state relations.

Forecast: Swedish Schism

A split within the Swedish state church looms if the country’s Lutheran hierarchy fails to veto a parliament-approved bill allowing ordination of women.

Last month 600 pastors and laymen led by Bishop Bo Giertz formed an organization to discourage the move for female clergy.

The bishop flatly predicted a split if the Lutheran Church Convocation allows the legislation to become effective. The convocation, which will meet in extraordinary session this fall, holds a veto power over bills affecting it.

—P. L.

End Of The Road?

The Free Church of Scotland’s official Monthly Record takes a dim view of a current move for closer ties between the Church of Scotland and the Church of England.

Proposed inter-communion, as suggested in a report referred by the Church of Scotland General Assembly to constituent presbyteries, “does not appear to have any doctrinal foundation,” the Monthly Record says.

“What is there to prevent both sides, here and now, from recognizing each other as brothers in Christ, working, each in his own domain, for the upbuilding of the Kingdom of Christ?” the publication asked. “Nothing, save empty, childish Episcopal pretensions!”

“But the long-term policy envisaged in the report … opens the door wide, not only to the Greek and Russian churches, but to Rome itself. And if this be the price we are asked to pay for a meager recognition by Anglicanism, can anyone doubt the cost of recognition at the hands of the Supreme Pontiff …? It would be, as it has always been, full and unconditional surrender. It is well, then, to recognize now that this is the end of the road we as Presbyterians are asked to launch out on.”

New Zealand

Broad Appraisal

Stirrings of new life mark the present religious situation in New Zealand. These movements sometimes interpret themselves, and frequently dissipate themselves, in such by-products as tithing campaigns.

Heretical sects have taken full advantage of easy money. With a background of national prosperity and disciplined giving characteristic of such groups, they have embarked upon building projects which have proved, in some cases, effective advertising. Notable is the huge and costly Mormon installation at Hamilton.

Exotic forms of Christianity have always exercised a fascination over the Maori people, and the Mormons in particular are presenting, and will increasingly present, a sharp challenge to the orthodox denominations which work with the native race. Personal evangelism by both Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses is reaching such proportions that churches can no longer rely on the common sense and rudimentary Bible knowledge of their rank and file to fortify those marked down by the door-to-door proselytizers. Some churches are realizing the need for clear and specific teaching to meet the challenge.

Add to this the general turning towards simple evangelism. An invitation has gone forth with wide backing to Billy Graham to visit New Zealand, which has never known a powerful religious revival. A party led by Dr. J. Edwin Orr found some response last year, but much cold conservatism and suspicion of evangelism. The representative nature of the invitation to Graham is expected to go far to break this down.

Orthodox scholarship, so reprehensively lagging a generation ago, is on its feet, and its results are beginning to penetrate the church. An evangelical renaissance is generally apparent. Revival, in short, seems nearer than New Zealand has ever seen it.

—E.M.B.

People: Words And Events

Deaths: Archbishop Michael, 66, head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in North and South America and a co-president of the World Council of Churches, in New York … Dr. Frank C. Goodman, 80, pioneer in religious broadcasting and one-time executive secretary of the National Religious Radio Department of the Federal Council of Churches, at Amityville, New York … Dr. O. W. Taylor, 73, Baptist and retired pastor, historian, and editor, in Nashville, Tennessee … the Rev. Clyde E. Heflin, 70, retired Presbyterian missionary-educator in the Philippines, in Wooster, Ohio … Miss Rose Ida Paden, 62, nurse-missionary to Chile, in Duarte, California.

Elections: To the board of trustees of Fuller Theological Seminary, Billy Graham … as president of the board of trustees of the Methodist Theological School in Ohio, Bishop Hazen G. Werner … as president of California Baptist College, Loyed R. Simmons … as moderator of the North American Baptist Church, Dr. John Wobig.

Appointments: As stated clerk and treasurer of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, U. S., Dr. James A. Millard, Jr. (accepted earlier call), effective July 25, 1959 … as treasurer of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, Martin E. Strieter … as president of Honolulu Christian College, Robert C. Loveless … as president of San Francisco Baptist Seminary, Dr. John R. Dunkin … as faculty members at Fuller Theological Seminary, Dr. Geoffrey W. Bromiley and Dr. Robert K. Bower … as associate executive secretary of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Gary Demarest … as circulation manager and news editor of the Pentecostal Evangel, the Rev. Harold Mintle … as secretary of the U. S. A. division, Council of the Evolution Protest Movement, Professor L. V. Cleveland.

Resignations: As chairman of the Board of Bishops of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, Dr. Ira D. Warner … as director of religious programming at Voice of America, the Rev. Jay Moore, to assist the production department of Good News Productions.

Award: In recognition of “outstanding contribution to evangelical Christianity,” Winona Lake School of Theology Alumni recognized Dr. S. A. Witner, past president, as outstanding alumnus of the year 1958.

Grants: To Wake Forest College, $6,400 from the Atomic Energy Commission for a nuclear research project … to Duke University, $10,000 from Lilly Endowment, Inc., for religion fellowships.

Expansion: Costing $1,275,000, planned by Concordia Theological Seminary, Springfield, Illinois.

Digest: Dr.J. Edwin Orr has accepted an invitation from the United Churches Committee in Ireland (composed of official nominees from Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and other church bodies) to conduct a series of teaching missions next spring … C. S. Lewis says he hopes to visit the United States, but “my duties at Cambridge will make it impossible for several years to come.” … Trips from major eastern cities are being arranged to Billy Graham’s crusade in Charlotte, North Carolina, which begins September 21 … Dr. Charles E. Fuller is inaugurating a simultaneous radio-mail “Explore and Discover” Bible study plan … Some part of the Bible has been published in 1127 languages and dialects, according to the American Bible Society … The Baptist seminary in Oslo, Norway, has a new set of buildings … The Peoples Church in Toronto reports a new high in missionary giving—$300,500 at this year’s missionary convention … Dr. and Mrs. Harold B. Kuhn were staff workers at a teen-agers convention held by the U. S. Army Chaplaincy Corps, European Command, at Berchtesgaden, Germany, last month … The Rev. Avery Dulles, son of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, is reportedly planning to finish theological studies in Rome. He has been studying at a Jesuit school near Muenster, Germany.… James Glisson, Baptist student-pastor, was granted a full pardon by Tennessee Governor Frank Clement after having been held in contempt of court for refusing to divulge information given him in confidence during counseling sessions.

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