Eutychus and His Kin: February 18, 1983

By Their Reviews You Will Know Them

While browsing among the used books in a local bookstore, I discovered an early edition of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. In the back were pasted some of the reviews published in various religious periodicals. I quote here just a selection.

The Fundamentalist Journal: Without agreeing with everything the author writes, we feel the book has a message. Had Goldilocks remained separated, she would not have endangered her life. Her going to sleep instead of fleeing is a warning to our youth who are constantly being lulled to sleep by intellectualism, neoevangelicalism, and other false teachings.

Bibliotheca Sacra: An exciting tale built around the number three (i.e., three bears, three chairs, three bowls of soup, three beds). The bears are a definite allusion to Daniel 7 and Revelation 13. The presence of lukewarm soup indicates that the events take place during the Laodicean age. The fact that the author has Goldilocks escape danger indicates his or her belief in the pretribulation rapture of the church. We suggest that in the next edition the author include a chart of the forest and the floor plan of the house.

Sojourners: This apparently innocent story is obviously a cover-up for an insidious “tract for the times” that promotes disrespect for other people’s property. How a well-to-do girl could take food away from poor creatures, and then (feeling no guilt whatsoever) go to sleep, is beyond us. Such is the social conscience of the church today!

Moody Monthly: A clever presentation of hospitality, good manners, and family oneness, depicted by three lovable bears. We have arranged for Dr. John MacArthur to bring out an annotated version as well as a series of seven films. Puppets will also be available. Highly recommended for Sunday school, VBS, and Awana Clubs.

… and they lived happily ever after.

EUTYCHUS

Alarming News

Your news article on the dialogue between evangelicals and Jews [Dec. 17] is alarming. Evangelical leaders seem willing to seek common ground apart from Jesus Christ. The apostles struggled to prove to the Jews that “this Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 9:22). They were willing to suffer persecution for this essential truth. Further, the epitome of God’s love is in giving his Son (John 3:16). Now we see eminent leaders of the evangelical community finding satisfaction in common ground apart from Jesus Christ. Were the apostles just too narrow? Is there a better love to display than the love of God which finds its expression in Christ? What objective could possibly be so desirable as to warrant keeping the Lord Jesus Christ in the closet?

One of the evangelical participants returned to our area and boldly asserted that it is possible to be saved apart from a New Testament knowledge of Jesus Christ. Our mandate is to set forth Christ in word and deed, but never to deny Christ even as a temporary measure to gain some perceived “greater good.”

JOHN M. CUSTIS

Gresham, Oreg.

What Does It Mean?

Now that we have a “surprising agreement” by the Council on Biblical Inerrancy on hermeneutics [“What the Bible Means,” Dec. 17], we must ask what it means, especially when it sidesteps crucial issues.

One wonders whether consistency wasn’t sacrificed to some shibboleths. How can one affirm that “each biblical text is single, definite, and fixed” in its meaning, that this meaning is to be found according to its literal sense (“the grammatical-historical sense, that is, the meaning the writer expressed”), and that “the single meaning of a prophet’s words includes, but is not restricted to, the understanding of those words by the prophet”? Once one says the meaning is more than what the author or writer of the text understood, have we not broken through the chrysalis of the grammatical-historical sense and moved toward at least a limited “fusion” of horizons?

REV. DAVID A. FRASER

Hermitage Presbyterian Church

Hermitage, Tenn.

Future “Classics”

Seldom do I note the author’s name, but I diligently read the contents of the articles. However, this past year three features so moved me that I had to be cognizant of the author. Surprise! They all were by Walter Wangerin, Jr. This brother knows how to weave a plot and tell the story masterfully, while drawing the reader’s response both emotionally and spiritually. I think, also, that his writings will have a certain significance many years from now, should the Lord tarry. They have the potential of becoming “classics.”

STEVEN R. MADSEN

Sibley, Iowa

Walter Wangerin’s poetic prose (or prosaic poetry?) is a refreshing oasis among the more academic articles and a most effective conductor for the insightful and sensitive thinking he generates. It distinguishes him, not just as a skilled craftsman of words, but as a remarkable man of God.

RUSS SPRADLIN

Buena Park, Calif.

How Could That Be?

On the first Christmas the angels proclaimed: “… on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). In his article, “Peace: At Times a Sword and Fire” [Dec. 17], Billy Graham mistakenly suggests that Matthew 10:34 (“I did not come to bring peace, but a sword”) contradicts the angels’ announcement. The Matthew passage uses the word “sword” as a synonym for “divide.” In fact, the corresponding passage in Luke 12:51 actually uses the word “division.” If we say that Matthew 10:34 justifies Christian participation in military service and interpret that verse in the context in which it is written, then we will have to conclude that in this passage the Bible is telling us to declare war against the members of our own family!

LEONARD NOLT

Boise, Idaho

One Way To Righteousness

I was deeply dismayed by the editorial “It’s Too Soon to Quit!” [Dec. 17]. The Carl F. H. Henry quote used and the tenor of the entire editorial are so ladened with enlightenment thinking that I wonder why those battling “secular humanism” have not turned their wrath on them. Where in the Scriptures does it say, “evangelicals, and especially fundamentalists, were (are) going to ‘make America once more a righteous nation’ ”? I have always understood that the only way to true righteousness and justification is through the blood of Jesus Christ, not the efforts of men.

Once we accept that God’s grace is the only way to righteousness, then we as Christians can be free to participate in matters of social justice, not as acts of redemption, but, as Barth called them, “parabolic” actions that give witness to the glory of God. I would hope these efforts toward social justice would not be seen as an end in themselves but as a reflection of God’s mercy and justice toward us.

ERIC L. OLSON

Ashland, Oreg.

I think after reading the sixth chapter of Matthew that the School Prayer Amendment would more likely allow our children to pray as the hypocrites do. I am convinced after reading this chapter in Matthew that our communication with God cannot be interrupted by any person or court of law.

WILBERT HILL

Downey, Calif.

The impetus for writing this letter was the statement, “The unemployment rate, the President’s economic program, and defense spending all but eclipsed the social issues on election day.” If these are not social issues, I do not know what are.

Since CT has a long tradition as defender of biblical authority, I urge you to look to the Bible. I ask you to show me where prayer in public schools is a social issue in the Bible. When I read of social issues being raised and/or challenged in the Scriptures, I read of such issues as poverty and the misuse of wealth, oppression, or dependence on military might instead of on God. The Old Testament prophets spoke out on these issues and many proclaimed that these are preferred over all the sacrifices or religious practices the people could muster. Even such an important issue as abortion does not receive the attention that these issues receive.

REV. JIM GOODE

Saint Peter’s United Church

Osgood, Ind.

If evangelicals were really concerned for the unborn they would be throwing their political weight behind the freeze campaign, for unless the arms race ends soon, with its diversion of funds from social programs to nuclear weapons, there will be no more children, born or unborn, to worry about.

So, yes, let us as evangelicals get more involved politically. But in doing so let us concentrate our efforts where they are needed most.

REV. JOHN HUBERS

Hawthorne Reformed Church

Hawthorne, N.Y.

Temper! Temper!

Once I got so mad at CT that I thought of taking the time to count the number of times the word “evangelical” appeared in the issue, and then suggest that you rename the magazine “Evangelicals Today.” You seem to use that word more than Christian.

BOB BEVERLEY

Pawling, N.Y.

Mortality Rate

As an actuary I could not believe that Handel was at age 56 “two decades beyond the normal life expectancy of his day” [“Messiah: Behind the Scenes of Handel’s Masterpiece,” Dec. 17].

Using an appropriate mortality table, I found that the expectation of life at birth was about 39 years. Infant mortality in the eighteenth century was very high. But expectation of life at birth is not a true picture of how long people lived in Handel’s era.

For example, if one lived through childhood to age 5, the expected remaining lifetime was about 51 years. If one lived to adulthood (say 16), the expected remaining lifetime was about 44 years. Having lived to age 56 the expected remaining lifetime was about 17 years.

My conclusion: Handel’s longevity was not as unusual for his era as Dinwiddie would lead me to believe. Among the adult population, a person aged 56 or older was not that uncommon.

JAMES MILES

Indianapolis, Ind.

Subscription Cost Justified

Thank you for Walter Elwell’s essay “We Act—Therefore We Believe?” [Nov. 26]. This one column has justified my cost of receiving the magazine for perhaps five years.

If you ever reprint the article—and that isn’t a bad idea—perhaps you will be willing to consider dropping the question mark. When we flee, we become frightened; when we hit, we become angry; when we act loving, we love; when we act out our faith, we believe.

ASHLEY HALE

Lake San Marcos, Calif.

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