Eutychus and His Kin: December 22, 1958

NEW YEAR BELLS

Dr. Samuel Jones of Second Church is eagerly anticipating the first stroke of the New Year. Over the traditional din of horns, whistles, shots and sirens will float the inaugural notes of the new Van Dyke Memorial Carillon in the church tower. The system is completely electronic, which in a way is a pity, but then bell ringing is an extinct art in exurbia. Jones himself has a romantic attachment to bells. He has replaced the manse doorbell with imported chimes so that each visitor is greeted with the conclusion of the 1812 Overture.

I imagine his dedicatory address on New Year’s Eve will ring the changes on bells. No doubt he will recite Poe’s poem in passing, allude to the bell ringing theme of his favorite mystery story (The Nine Tailors, by Dorothy Sayers), and recrack the Liberty Bell with resounding oratorical strokes. I just hope he doesn’t lapse into Tennyson’s “Ring out, wild bells” in conclusion.

We will all share his thrill when the midnight noise-making is overwhelmed by the majesty of the carillon. Bells are the voice of a former age, when the church spire marked the village, and there was solemn harmony even in the signal of alarm. This is the time of the siren, the shrieking howl of a maddened mechanical beast. Sirens on New Year’s Eve chill us with prospect of atomic war, but bells speak of peace.

Yet even before the bells were the trumpets. The trump of God heralded the Lord’s presence on Sinai, and the priests were to blow the trumpet of jubilee after the atonement in the fiftieth year. Our Lord declared the realization of the gospel jubilee in his own presence at the synagogue of Nazareth. The church needs trumpets and bells in the pulpit: the warning blast of impending judgment, when the trump of God shall sound; the joyful sound of eternal salvation in Christ’s finished work. The trumpet of the gospel herald has the urgency of an air-raid siren and the harmony of choirs of angels, for it calls not just to a new year but to the new heaven and earth. The jubilee liberty proclaimed in the text on the Liberty Bell is the liberty of sons of God.

THIRD YEAR THRESHOLD

To subscribe, two years ago, on your invitation to become a charter subscriber, was a work of faith. The idea of the projected publication sounded good, but how well would it work out? I felt that nothing much beyond the subscription price would be lost in accepting your invitation. When that initial subscription period was over, and time came to renew, it was no longer so questionable a venture. But after two years, CHRISTIANITY TODAY has become a necessity in my study. The wealth of material presented, the outlook, the reasoned approach to news events—all of these combine to make your periodical one of the best, if not the best, in the whole field of religious journalism. I am proud and happy that it was my privilege to be a charter subscriber, and determined that my subscription shall never lapse.

First Reformed Church

Randolph, Wisc.

This reader is pleased with the course that has been followed.

Evangelical Lutheran Theological Sem. Columbus, Ohio

I am an old man.… I read nothing but detective stories—except Theology Today (of which I am on the editorial board) and CHRISTIANITY TODAY.…

Princeton, N. J.

I’ve fought it long enough. I tried to be strong and resolute and say, “I don’t need another magazine!” But the trouble is: while there may be several magazines I get and don’t really read, I actually read CHRISTIANITY TODAY!”

Church of the Holy Spirit

Schenevus, N. Y.

That such a large percent of Christian leaders are reading with approval your magazine … augurs ill for the future of our religion. God’s purposes shall be carried out certainly. But whether in the end through the present kind of a church—which places more emphasis on theology than right living, on believing than doing, on faith than good works, and regarding communism as an enemy …, this may be very doubtful.

Lansing, Mich.

I am sending in my renewal to the finest Christian magazine in the United States. Its articles are intelligent, informative and truly biblical. I do not want to miss any number.

Newhall, Calif.

I have been tremendously pleased with CHRISTIANITY TODAY. I have longed, in England, for a paper of that type which combined scholarship with spirituality and loyalty to the Scriptures. I feel you just “hit it,” and am glad to note that you have many links across the ocean.

The Worldwide Evangelization Crusade

Fort Washington, Pa.

Please be advised that many thousands of lives are being transformed today without any “Gospel” preaching at all through groups like Alcoholics Anonymous. Simple belief in some kind of Higher Power able to rescue men is found sufficient. Moreover, such an approach is winning multitudes of thinking people who are only repelled by teaching they regard as an insult to intelligence.

Los Angeles, Calif.

May I say that CHRISTIANITY TODAY is the one periodical on my desk which seems to satisfy a need in my spiritual development. Avoiding the pitfalls of condemnatory extremist points of view the general tenor appears to “perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle” those who cherish the evangelical, biblical Christian faith. It is my hope that this influence will extend its helpful potential from the pulpit to the pew.

First Methodist Church

Onway Springs, Kan.

I’d be cheating my head and my heart should I fail to renew.… Thank God for CHRISTIANITY TODAY and “the resurgence of interest in evangelical Christianity.”

Wakefield, Va.

Disgusted with its whole point of view.

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

Burns, Ore.

It is superb!

St. Paul’s Episcopal

Medina, O.

If this is Christianity today, the apostasy of the church has reached its zenith. I refuse to believe it.…

Festus, Mo.

Often ministers are made to feel that they are antiquated and out-of-date if they hold to the foundational truths of historical Christianity. The liberalistic periodicals seek to give that impression. CHRISTIANITY TODAY makes plain that all educated, informed, scholarly men are not on the side of liberalism (infidelity). I feel that those who value the great truths of revealed religion ought to back this magazine.

Buffalo Avenue Baptist Church

Tampa, Fla.

In a day of spiritual confusion and infidelity it is a much needed trumpet with a certain sound.

Brooklyn, N. Y.

I appreciate the fact very much that at last a conservative, interdenominational religious periodical of good caliber has made its appearance that can be … appreciated by any religious man, no matter … what church denomination.… Today … it is … so imperative to stick to the … Word of God as we have it in the Bible. In civil affairs let men parade their knowledge and skill, but in holy things let them observe silence before the majesty of God. “I hate vain thoughts,” or as Luther gives this passage, “Ich hasse die Flattergesiter,” says the Psalmist (119:113).

Bonduel, Wisc.

It has been a great resource in providing answers to my college-age daughters, who have often felt that conservative Christians were too prone to award the blue ribbon to pious mediocrity. Your magazine, more than any other I know of, challenges its readers to be alert, intelligent, informed, dedicated and active in every area of life.

Minneapolis, Minn.

You are perfectly within your right to strive to restore some evangelical zeal into our somnolent, too intellectualized Protestant churches and to call us back to the Bible. But there is more than one definition of “evangelical” and of “biblical theology.” You seem to admit of but one—yours.

First Congregational Church

Chesterfield, Mass.

In a time when good Christian periodicals are scarce—acutely so in Australia, it is good to meet such a one as this.… While you set forth a strong, unequivocal evangelical front, you maintain a truly catholic spirit.

Strathmore Methodist Church

Essendon, Victoria, Australia

I find your paper interesting, impressive, and very instructive.

The Rectory

Newton Kyme, Yorkshire, England

With your emphasis on “old fashioned religion” and emotional experiences that accompany it, you are doing your best to make this dogmatic.… Then people … quarrel about the dogmas.… I’ve seen it … repeatedly, not only among Christians, but among socialists.

Utica, N. Y.

May I say that your magazine is wonderfully stimulating, challenging and inspirational for any Christian or non-Christian.

Student Dept., S. C. Baptist Conv.

Columbia, S. C.

While I find your periodical stimulating, I am also irritated often by the critical tone of many articles.… I have little sympathy for theological warfare, regardless of who are the contestants. I have found some Fundamentalists who were more modern than any Modernist and I have found some Modernists who were more fundamental than any Fundamentalist. What a man claims to believe is not as important as what he is.

The United Church of Canada

Port Stanley, Ont.

I continue to be impressed by the variety of articles, their high quality, and the irenic but forceful attitude expressed.

Nebreska Baptist State Convention

Omaha, Neb.

I read your magazine with great interest, and from time to time with not a little protest. This is all to the good, however; therefore I continue my subscription. For, as of this moment, I have not felt that I could equate all of my opinions with truth, nor have I come to that place in life where I can claim perfection in the purity of my motives.

First Methodist Church

Chowchilla, Calif.

Enclosed find payment for a two year subscription.… I do so as an unrepentant liberal because I need the constant reminder that those who differ from me basically can still be men of integrity and intelligence. I have found your articles to be consistently of a high level of scholarship. I should violate my own principles if I fail to recognize good wherever it is to be found.

Chicago, Ill.

Although I find myself sometimes in disagreement with your writings I am never in disagreement with the Christian spirit behind them. Let me say “thank you” both for stimulating my thinking and for reminding me that the liberals are not the only ones who admit that they have made mistakes in the past. Keep up the very fine work you are now doing.

Nettleton Methodist

Nettleton, Miss.

I received … a sample copy.… I do not take a publication which is distinctively conservative.… The articles on racial conflicts were better than those in many liberal publications which I have read and I think you are to be congratulated upon them.

The Methodist Ch., Beech Grove Charge

New Bern, N. C.

I cannot say I am in complete sympathy with “fundamentalism” as even so well described in your paper. Reinhold Niebuhr led me to know sin in my life more deep-rooted than I believed. But at that point, I began understanding Billy Graham! Mr. Niebuhr then went on to prove what he meant by sin in his book by the way he acted in the Christian Century. At that point Christian Century lost a liberal potential subscriber and CHRISTIANITY TODAY gains one.

Kewanna, Ind.

I am a modernist and a liberal … but I like to know what the other fellow thinks.

Winsted, Conn.

I think it is the greatest Christian periodical on the market.… I only wish it had more of a Wesleyan orientation.

President

Olivet Nazarene Col.

Kankakee, Ill.

Be assured that many of us consider CHRISTIANITY TODAY the most helpful magazine we receive.

Nazarene Theological Seminary

Kansas City, Mo.

CHRISTIANITY TODAY is one of the prime instruments used by God to lead me to take my theological training in an evangelical school.

Pasadena, Calif.

I think that you are combining sound scholarship with a conservative Christian point of view. It seems to me that this is something which is sorely needed by the Christian church today.

American Scientific Affiliation President

Mankato, Minn.

In my opinion, CHRISTIANITY TODAY is one of the brightest spots on the evangelical horizon. Your conservative approach, free from any “party line” is most helpful.

Moody Bible Institute

Chicago, Ill.

I always like to read “A Layman and his Faith” by L. Nelson Bell.… Because of a lack of higher education sometimes some articles are a little over my head but it is all so true to the Bible.

Bellefontaine, O.

Your magazine has been a tremendous spiritual blessing to me. It has a balance of material even including a touch of humor in “Preacher in the Red.”

First Baptist Ch.

Springfield, Ky.

I enjoy your stimulating articles and particularly “Eutychus and his kin.”

Chattanooga, Tenn.

I appreciate especially your scholarly and soundly evangelical approach as well as your policy of publishing letters from readers who are in complete disagreement with the evangelical viewpoint.

La Paz, Bolivia

Let us thank God for a national journal that sets forth and stands for the great historic doctrines of Christianity. May CHRISTIANITY TODAY never change its position nor compromise the teaching of the Bible.

The Mountain Christian Church

Bel Air, Md.

On the whole I find the articles profitable.… Why keep the layman tied to only what he hears from his pastor if he is intelligent enough to know the truth in reading?

Timmins, Ont.

Your paper suits me to a T—especially as it stands for the Truth, backs Billy Graham, gives interesting church news and has a number of features that makes it the most interesting religious paper that I have ever read. And I have read plenty, I assure you the last 80 years.

Presbyterian Sunday School Missions

Phoenix, Ariz.

During my long life of nearly 84 years I have read many religious journals. I consider CHRISTIANITY TODAY superior to all.

Campbellsville, Ky.

It is reassuring to read week after week articles of such importance as appear in CHRISTIANITY TODAY.… Many deal … with the implications of the faith for social concern.… The impression that they create is that God is the Lord of all life and not just a tiny fraction of it.

Calvary Baptist

Lowell, Mass.

Five religious journals come to my desk. CHRISTIANITY TODAY is the only one which we read from cover to cover. Its editorials and articles are courageous and timely. The editors avoid the ultras of conservatism and liberalism. Safe in theology, sane on social problems, it supplies a long-felt need in the field of religious journalism. Largely leaving local, temporary news to the daily papers, stories and pictures to the secular magazines, it provides a substantial and balanced mental and spiritual menu for normal Christian growth.… We hope it may soon be found on the desk of every Christian minister and leading layman in our country.

Townville, Pa.

LIMITS OF SCIENCE

(The following comment was submitted by request after a private discussion with the research physicist Dr. T. N. Panay on the subject of science and evolution.—ED.)

In the investigation of the ultimate structure of nature, theories are, as everywhere in science, a powerful and indispensable instrument. In the course of research we may occasionally develop a theory which seems very convincing, like Planck’s quantum theory (of quite mathematical character, however). But, generally, these theories are fictitious images—requiring only our knowledge of them, not our faith in them. They are very useful, nonetheless. They allow us to obtain new results and thereby improve those theories or replace them with better ones, still fictitious.

It seems that man, in his present phase, will never be able, by observation and theory, to unveil the true structure of nature. Consequently, it can be implied that the only way to know the truth about nature would be direct revelation by a being who possesses that true knowledge, if such a being were willing to give it to us and could do so, and provided we were able, in our present condition, to comprehend and assimilate such knowledge. Otherwise, advanced scientific considerations show that we cannot detect the intrinsic reality of nature, that is that we are under the limitations expressed in Ecclesiastes 3:10, 11, and that we are unlikely to achieve more than Aristotle sees possible in Metaphysics, Book alpha (II), 993a30–993b5.

If this is the situation with phenomena now at our disposal for observation and experimentation, the situation cannot very probably be better with the investigation of events of past history, which it is impossible to observe. Therefore, it seems that the right attitude toward the theory of evolution would be that its content should be learnt well and understood, and used to obtain results, if possible, but not believed to be necessarily true, and that the scientist should always be ready to substitute a new and better theory for the former. This should be the correct attitude merely on a scientific approach, even if the biblical account were not known.

On the other hand, the right scientific attitude toward the Scripture by one not believing in its authority should be that the probability that the statements of the Scripture be true cannot be considered to be zero; and that these statements should always be kept in mind lest a possible help thereby in some stage of scientific development be missed.

And one who believes in scriptural authority should be careful not to construe the text, under pretext of interpretation, as having a meaning not derived from the text with certainty; an interpretation should not be presented as the exclusively possible one, when it is only probable, and other probable interpretations have been or can be advanced as well.

Washington, D. C.

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.