Stone Crazy

Old fantasies die hard. Nevertheless there comes a time to admit that some of our most cherished dreams will always remain just that. That time has arrived for me. Painful as it is, I am ready to admit that only in my fantasies will I ever be a world-famous soft-shoe dancer or pull off history’s most accomplished jewel heist.

My soft-shoe fixation can probably be laid to some long-repressed childhood trauma. However, my interest in jewel thievery seems to be shared by a large segment of the population.

Tokapi and a half-dozen imitations have held audiences with bated breath hoping the thieves will successfully negotiate the hazards involved in copping a priceless gem. And, in fact, the history of many of the famous gems of the world is a trail of theft, intrigue, and murder.

This fascination with precious stones is not necessarily based on any appreciation of the stones themselves. I care nothing for gems in jewelry, and most cut and polished stones strike me as gauche. Yet the fascination is there.

Some strange chemistry seems always to have existed between men and precious minerals. The Romans had a regular science of gems that classified the nature and miraculous properties of these substances. The diamond gave strength in battle. The sapphire protected one against poverty, betrayal, eye diseases, and snake bite. The ruby ensured love and happiness. This “science” even carried over into the sixteenth century.

Today we are liberated from such superstition. Yet when you visit the gem collection of a large museum you will find people talking in the same whisper used in church on communion Sunday. And the history of some of the better-known gems is enough to make you think again about their magical reputations.

The famous Hope diamond was reputed to have been stolen from the eye of an Indian idol and thus to carry a curse.

It reached France in 1668 and eventually found its way into the possession of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, whose ultimate destiny could hardly be considered blessed. A Folies Bergères actress received the stone as a gift from a European prince and later lost her life at his hands. An American owner suffered the loss of her two children through fatal accidents. Her husband was afflicted with mental illness.

The gem now rests in the Smithsonian Institution. We shall await news from there, hoping for the best.

Despite our irrational fascination with polished bits of carbon or corundum or spodumene, the only gem substance that really determines our destiny is that pearl of great price for which we must sell everything—yet which costs nothing.

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EUTYCHUS V

PROTESTANTISM’S LAST SQUEEZE

Reading “Marjoe: Rapped in Celluloid” by Cheryl A. Forbes (Aug. 25), one wonders whether the whole present-day religious business is not going to drift into the very same direction: a hotch-potch of sour philosophy in combination with sick psychology and totally insufficient knowledge about the depth and demand of the Scriptures. And all this perpetrated upon ignorant and gullible masses, professionally preconditioned to either soporism or mass hysteria.

The saddest thing about the Marjoe Gortner affair is that, instead of showing some measure of modesty or repentance about his perverted deeds, he really manages to the very end to squeeze the very last dollar out of his shady religious adventures by finally re-enacting the whole thing, this time for the well-paying movie industry.

I am an elder of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and the more I come to think of it, the more I am convinced that present-day Protestantism has had its time. It appeals only to anti-intellectual and in fact mentally retarded behavior patterns and is not able to create potential saints any more. Looking at the Church’s history, I do not think it was intended that way! Don Mills, Ontario

BRUCE BOKHOUT

A PERMANENT PROOFTEXT?

Wayne Grudem may have prooftexted his friend Jerry right out of the seminary (“Letter to a Prospective Seminarian,” August 25.) “The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching” (2 Tim. 4:3). “These twelve Jesus sent out, charging them … ‘Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.… A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master … and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me’ ” (Matt. 10:5–42). Whatever seminary Jerry attends, I hope the first lesson he learns is that the Bible is not to be used as a proof-text to prove a human viewpoint.

Moravian

BERNARD E. MICHEL

Bethlehem, Pa.

Editor

DATED ASTONISHMENT

Mr. Brow’s attempt (“The Late-Date Genesis Man,” Sept. 15) at a harmony of the Scriptures with a system of theistic evolution is commendable and his approach stimulating. However, he introduces unnecessary problems into his system by the astonishing dates he gives for both the creation and the flood. Evangelical scholars long ago presented a case for the incompleteness in the Genesis genealogies allowing us to extend the dates of the early chapters of Genesis considerably (though not indefinitely). To suppose that man-like creatures before 3900 B.C. were not really men created in the image of God presents incredible problems for the historian. We have a clear record of civilization in Jericho going back before 7,000 B.C. Certainly he would not suggest that man’s non-human ancestors lived in villages. There are potteryusing people who have an advanced culture both in Egypt and in Mesopotamia long before his 3,900 B.C. creation date.

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ALAN DAN ORME

Department of History

The University of Georgia

Athens, Ga.

Brow’s article using traditional dates is most interesting. Some Chinese dates would supplement the Egyptian and Sumerian dates. The founder of the Hsia dynasty began his reign at 2205 B.C. (traditional date). Though some scholars doubt his existence, nevertheless, he was acclaimed as one who “cured” China of floods sometime before his reign. It is because of this accomplishment that the kingdom was given to him. Thus it seems that if a flood ever existed in China on a national level, it would be sometime prior to 2205 B.C., a date very close to Brow’s biblical flood of 2244 B.C. since it took a number of years to “cure” it in China.

Furthermore, legends tell Chinese folk that a Mr. Pung Cho lived up to 800 years of age in the time prior to the Hsia dynasty. Some coincidence for legends?

Chicago, Ill.

GEORGE SHEN

If Brow had dropped the word “hoary” in the third last sentence (“Those of us who take the Bible seriously should hasten to reexamine our … presuppositions”), his advice would have been more salutary. Furthermore, if he would have taken such advice to heart, he might never have written the article.

La Crosse, Wis.

PAUL E. NRRZ

I have been interested in a little noticed detail in Genesis by which the author adds information that suggests that the historicity of the book is more reliable than many critics want to admit.

Brow suggests a connection between the longevity of some of the patriarchs and the length of time needed to build some of the pyramids. It is an interesting project to make a graph showing how the lives of these ten antedeluvian patriarchs overlapped. A similar chart for the ten post-deluvian patriarchs is equally enlightening. Adam was alive during the lives of eight of the ten who preceded Noah. Chronologically speaking, he could have related the whole of his experiences to any one of them. Noah was a contemporary with six of the ten. Noah’s life continued after the flood to be a contemporary of nine generations. His death was just two years prior to the birth of Abraham.

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Regardless of the exact meaning of a chronological “year,” this evidence confirms the reliability of the record. It was not necessary to tell and retell the story of mankind before the beginning of written records more than three times for Abraham to have had the whole story.

(The Reverend) R. E. MCCLURE

Asheville, N. C.

It is unfortunate that Brow passed over the most crucial point in his article without so much as even a whole sentence devoted to it. Any reader can add the other numbers from the Bible and even look up some books on ancient history. But when Brow comes to the Egyptian sojourn, he simply mentions that it started with Abraham without any explanation of the problems associated with such a view. First, it says “the children of Israel resided in Egypt” 430 years, not the children of Terah. Second, the Hebrews (except Joseph) did not begin living in Egypt until Jacob moved there. Third, Brow mentions the Septuagint but gives no translation of the relevant passage for readers who do not have it and a reading knowledge of Greek. It seems simpler to me to move the dates back 214 years, with the flood at 2488 and Genesis man at 4114. If Brow has good reasons for his chronology, perhaps he could print an addendum.

Brockport, N. Y.

THOMAS W. NOONAN

Brow’s logic is very fine and makes me reconsider my own views. I contend that God created man, and the whole world at a point, and that man deteriorated into the cave-man after he disobeyed God’s law.

TIMOTHY JOHNSON

Cherry Avenue Christian Church

Charlottesville, Va.

TOO MANY QUESTIONS

The article “On Separating Sheep From Goats” by Duane H. Thebeau (Aug. 11) is an interesting piece of biblical exegesis. In the effort to lessen the impact of Christ’s parable of the Last Judgment, the author, for me at least, raises more questions than he solves. If “all the nations” gathered before the King on the day of judgment represent “those nations that lie beyond Israel, the so-called heathen,” how could they be judged and condemned because they did not recognize Christ in the person of those who were hungry, sick, and in prison? The severity of the judgment would seem to indicate some guilty rejection of the light. Again, if “the least of these, my brethren” refers only to those who believe in Christ and are his disciples, the field of helpful service is strictly limited. The Christian, then, should be very discriminating in the persons whom he seeks to help. If he hears of a man in prison, he would need to ascertain in advance whether or not he is a disciple of Christ. Otherwise, his service would have no Christian significance. The greatest problem of all, however, is the limitation the author’s interpretation places on Christ’s identity with suffering human beings. If Christ’s loving and compassionate identity is to be limited to those who believe on him and are his disciples, what are we to make of those great passages in the New Testament that reach out encircling arms to the whole world? “God so loved the world”—“the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”—“he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

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The New Testament gives Christ’s atonement a universal range, and all who will may come. His loving and compassionate identity with suffering humanity can be given no less a range. We do not need to soften the impact of the great parable of the Last Judgment in order to emphasize the evangelical requirements set forth so emphatically in other portions of the New Testament.

Asheville, N. C.

MARION A. BOGGS

WEAVING AND DECEIVING

Your editorial “Whose Freedom?” (July 28) is a masterpiece of fair and courageous reporting. It touches on the situation at our local Concordia Seminary precisely as it has developed over a period of years. Since my graduation (1914), I have maintained the doctrinal position of my church in a teaching and writing ministry of more than fifty years.

During the closing years of my ministry, I witnessed a gradual departure from our doctrinal position, and I have been deeply disturbed over the deception certain leaders have employed in an attempt to shelter errorists. The plight of those responsible for this situation reminds me of the couplet: “O, what a tangled web we weave/When first we practice to deceive!” This too is fair reporting.

St. Louis, Mo.

ARNOLD C. MUELLER

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