Eutychus and His Kin: November 5, 1971

POSTER TALK

The other day a neighbor boy, Jim Beard, arrived home from college. I came up the walk as he was unpacking his car.

“Hi, Jim,” I called.

“Be free!” he returned, making a “V” with two fingers and smiling broadly.

“I’m sure everyone wants to be free,” I said laughingly as I drew nearer.

His response was delayed as he lifted out his eight-hundred-dollar stereo set and carefully set it down on the driveway. Then he said, “Freedom is nothing else but a chance to do better.”

I was somewhat puzzled at that. “Are you suggesting that we are all in need of moral improvement?”

“Judge not that you be not judged,” he shot back as he leaned his golf cart against the side of the car.

I was having a little trouble following the train of thought so I took a nondirective tack. “You think we should live and let live.”

“To live is the rarest thing in the world,” he responded, beginning to unload his fifteen blue denim jackets. “Most people exist, that is all.”

“Well, perhaps you’re being a little too judgmental …”

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation,” he broke in seriously.

“What do you suggest as an antidote?” I asked. I was beginning to get the hang of being a straight man.

Lifting a three-foot stack of rock albums out of the trunk, he replied, “Through love one creates his own personality and helps others create theirs.”

“Well, I suppose everyone wants to feel loved and valued.”

“Everyone wants to be somebody: nobody wants to grow,” he replied, sitting down on one of three pieces of matched luggage and lighting a pipe.

Now I was in the full swing of my part.

“How would you characterize growth?” I asked.

“To grow is to change, and to have changed often is to have grown much.”

“Not bad,” I replied. “Is that your own?”

“Newman,” he said.

“Oh. And the others?”

“Camus, Jesus, Oscar Wilde, Thoreau, Anonymous, and Goethe.”

“I can see you’ve really been searching for the meaning of life in your two years in college. What answer did you find?”

“All around us for as far as the eye can see the universe holds together.”

“Eliot?” I guessed.

“Teilhard,” he replied with a frown.

“Are you still majoring in philosophy?”

“I quit!” he said somewhat gruffly.

“Muhammad Ali?” I asked.

“Jim Beard.”

“I see. You mean you’ve dropped out.”

“In a world of fugitives he who takes the opposite direction will appear to run away.”

“Chesterton?”

“Eliot.”

“Have you decided what you’re going to do?”

“Yes,” he answered. “You see, not to decide is to decide.”

“Harvey Cox,” I said knowingly. “What are your immediate plans?”

“I’m going to celebrate,” he replied with an expansive gesture.

“What are you celebrating?”

“I celebrate myself.…”

George Orwell taught us to beware of men who think in slogans and talk in bullets. He didn’t really need to add the last phrase.

TONGUES OR TRANSLATIONS?

Kudos on the four reviews of recent Bible translations (Books in Review, “Old Wine in New Bottles,” Oct. 8). O that we might have a reprieve for a decade—at least!—from this inundation of English translations! More money and effort would better be expended on the “Two Thousand Tongues to Go.”

I for one greatly appreciate the stupendous labors of Jay Green in making available to the general public the wealth of past and present orthodox volumes at unheard-of prices. May he be successful in opening a hundred of his book supermarkets. However, his KJ2 reveals, in my opinion, that his talents lie outside the field of Bible translation. What “bizarre-ities” the reviewer uncovered are no doubt in multiples of ten or greater and will combine to detract from orthodoxy on the open market. Let us pray that KJ2 will rest quietly in the library and museum.

Asst. Prof. of Philosophy

Tennessee State University

Nashville, Tenn.

GLOSSOLALIA—YESTERDAY AND TODAY

In “A Truce Proposal for the Tongues Controversy” (Oct. 8) Clark Pinnock and Grant Osborne mention my name after the following statement: “In addition, it is held that glossolalia, where it does appear in church history, arises in heterodox circles like the Montanists; therefore, it is concluded that the gift ceased after the canon was concluded …” (p. 7). What I actually did say (What About Tongue-Speaking, pp. 112, 113) is that the almost total absence of glossolalia from A.D. 100 to 1900 in the Church must give us pause, though I clearly conceded that the argument from history is not absolutely compelling (p. 113). The next sentence of the article states that some use First Corinthians 13:8 (“tongues shall cease”) to prove that glossolalia ceased in the early Christian centuries; I agree that this passage cannot be appealed to for this purpose (p. 106, n. 8).

While granting that I cannot be dogmatic on this point, I do have serious questions about whether the tongue-speaking which occurs in Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal circles today is the same thing as the gift of tongues described in the New Testament. My reasons for questioning this are as follows: (1) When claims are made for tongue-speaking which are not taught in Scripture (cf. pp. 8, 9 of the above-mentioned article), I must seriously question whether the activity called tongue-speaking today is the Spirit-inspired gift to which Paul refers. (2) The Scriptures do clearly teach that the so-called miraculous gifts of the Spirit, like tongues and healing, served to authenticate the Gospel and the apostles who brought that gospel (see Acts 14:3; 2 Cor. 12:12; Rom. 15:15–19, and Heb. 2:3–4). (3) There is no injunction in the New Testament for the continued exercise of the miraculous or spectacular gifts of the Spirit, whereas the Church is frequently enjoined to continue to exercise the non-miraculous gifts of the Spirit-like teaching, exhorting, ruling, giving, and showing mercy (compare Romans 15:19 with Romans 12:6–8; and note that in the Pastoral Epistles, where the qualifications of officebearers are given, no mention whatever is made of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit—see First Timothy 3:1–13 and Titus 1:5–9).

Calvin Theological Seminary

Grand Rapids, Mich.

Mr. Pinnock and Mr. Osborne appear to me to be suggesting not a “truce” but rather a complete surrender on the part of the non-glossolalist and a complete victory for the “tongue-talkers.” One is reminded of the words of Tryon Edwards, “Compromise is but the sacrifice of one right or good in the hope of retaining another, too often ending in the loss of both.” The article seems to say that we may become reasonable men by giving up our convictions.

Andrews Avenue Church of Christ

Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

OFF PITCH

[I was disappointed] that … you would … print a news article in which you demean television preacher Rex Humbard (“Edifice Rex: Grubstaking the Gospel,” Oct. 8). It seemed to me to be less than the normative Christian ethic for your writers and editors to obviously find fault with the business practices of this gentleman. You did not cite him for misappropriation of funds or charge him with swindling people who trust him. Yet the whole tone of the article was critical.

Whereas the main thrust of the article was to speak about Reverend Humbard’s expanding business involvement, the demeaning attitude in the article descended to belittling statements regarding his personal image and mannerisms. By no stretch of the imagination can your writer’s statement [about his Hawaiian TV special] be construed [as] complimentary.…

We take it for granted that your magazine will champion Billy Graham—the man, his message, and his methods. So do I. Let us also thank God for those who preach the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in a manner that is used of God to reach millions of people every week on television. You have acknowledged the fact that he is a fundamentalist. Thank God for that. Give proper praise or commendation to this man who, admittedly, uses folksy methods to reach millions of folks whom God loves with the message of redemption through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The First United Brethren Church

Peoria, Ill.

WITHOUT WELFARE

Thank you for “Careers With Christian Impact” (Sept. 24). I especially appreciated the emphasis regarding “sacred-secular” distinctions and the anticipated context of a career. I think a subsequent article could well be put forth in which the “two broad career categories” are spelled out more fully in terms of preparation, qualifications for tasks, and particularly strategic value in the effort of winning the world and/or influencing our culture in this day of change.… You say, “Paul left his tents … to become a missionary.” I would like to suggest that Paul may well have used his skills to support himself while preaching, in order to relieve the Church of undue financial burden and to make his preaching more independent, in effect, more freedom from fear of reprisal (1 Cor. 9:12). While Paul did not deny others this possibility of making a “living wage” in connection with their labors for Christ, he appears to have retained some means of support independent of the local churches which he served. In the absence of Social Security or welfare, many suggest Paul relied on his special skills in hours not spent furthering the Gospel more directly.

Bethel Church

Farmer City, Ill.

AWAY FROM THE TREND

I just want to say how much I appreciated the article “The New Paganism” (Sept. 24) by Gilbert Meilaender. 1 think it is time we call these religious writings and songs exactly what they are. The trend today seems to be to praise everything that has the name Jesus connected with it. The theology seems to be a secondary thing. We need more men who can discern error among the religious jargon and call it such.

First Baptist Church

Zeeland, Mich.

The haunting refrain in Superstar, “I really want to know,” suggests a hungry paganism, surely; and Jesus has a word to all who hunger. For the Christian the opera helps remove the docetic images with which we have been smothered in a rationalist era, helps reinforce our comprehension of how Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. And to the one for whom Christ is real now, and not just then, the dramatic replay of his agony and scourging is very moving! So I suggest the rock opera has something for Christian as well as pagan, plus some fine satire to shaft both Pharisee and secularist. I appreciated the article.

Dean of Faculty

George Fox College

Newberg, Ore.

Perhaps the greatest positive impact of Jesus Christ Superstar has been overlooked. Many more people are acquainted with the title, which has a sort of colloquial uplift, than they are with the inadequate theology of the piece. The title will be remembered long after the “new paganism” of the work is forgotten.

Calvary Baptist Church

Dallas, Tex.

A EUTYCHUS REVIVAL?

Evidently Eutychus’s tongue was in his cheek in “Electric Weltschmerz” (Sept. 24). Too bad. He might have used it to remind us of First Corinthians 6:19 and Second Corinthians 6:14–16. The trouble with pot smoking and “copulative verbs” is not that they are annoying, but that they blaspheme the Holy Spirit and make us less than Christian. The trouble is not that unbelievers sing songs of loneliness, hate, war, death, etc., but that they offer discredited palliatives. The trouble is not that yesterday’s songs were profound and today’s are shallow, but that unbelievers will always be with us and they will always write songs—some nonsensical, others affecting great truths.… Eutychus has again slumbered. Let’s pray the Apostle Paul will again revive him.

West Redding, Conn.

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