Eutychus and His Kin: December 13, 1985

Pastoral Computing

A friend of mine, the Reverend J. Bedrock Toalston, has always spent hours preparing his sermons, using nothing more sophisticated than a dull pencil and a pad of lined paper.

Now, Toalston’s board of deacons is primarily made up of successful businessmen, and it did not escape them that their pastor was slightly behind the times in his methodology.

“What he needs,” said the board chairman, “is a computer. Why, with a good word processor, he’ll be able to compose even better sermons in half the time. It wouldn’t surprise me but what he’d have enough time left over to take on the church cleaning chores.”

“And if we get him a spread sheet program,” chimed in the treasurer, “he could keep track of offerings and the accounts payable in the rest of the time he saves.”

So a computer was purchased. In no time at all, Reverend Toalston learned the difference between bytes and bits, RAM and ROM, log on and log off, floppy disks and hard disks.

The deacons beamed with anticipation when Toalston stepped behind the pulpit on the following Sunday, clutching a flawlessly neat printout.

However, their pastor launched into a recital of dull drivel that was interspersed with references not to the Bible, but to things like “Wordcomp Program 1.2 as revised in January 1983.” And in conclusion, instead of his usual pithy poem, he simply said something about “logging off.” And his face went blank.

An emergency meeting of the board was called immediately after the service. Following brief debate, the deacons voted unanimously to trade in the computer on an electric pencil sharpener.

EUTYCHUS

Colson: A Joy To Anticipate

Can it be that Charles Colson has become the George F. Will of evangelicalism? An every-other-issue basis with his insightful comments is a joy to anticipate.

MIKE WOMACK

Erwin, Tenn.

I wholeheartedly concur with Colson’s thesis that we as a nation are terribly prone to accept the ramblings of our national celebrities as truths [“Jane Fonda’s Farm Policies,” Oct. 18]. I notice, however, that in the attempt to catch the reader’s attention, CT reached into the same basket. The headline was bold with the name of a celebrity, one that has aroused the rancor of many in the past with her politics and “policies.”

REV. CHUCK PHILLIPS

Unity Baptist Church Fayette, Mo.

A Timely Voice

Thanks for Kelsey Menehan’s “Where Have All the Babies Gone?” [Oct. 18]. It is a timely voice when all we hear is the proabortionist’s clamor about the trauma of an “unwanted” pregnancy. It’s high time prolifers made the public aware of the agony of the infertile couple who is forced to play silent witness to the wanton destruction of the child they desperately desire but know they can never have.

CALVIN RICHTER

Wheaton, Ill.

I was appalled at the statement that adoption of a disabled, biracial, or older child is somehow “risky.” That does not square with the facts. I have several friends who, in the past decade, adopted children with skin or eye color different than their own. In each case, the adoption has been a happy, rewarding experience.

STEPHEN W. ANGELL

Nashville, Tenn.

No Need For Evangelism

Harold Brown’s article “Not Enough Children” (Oct. 18) raises some very disturbing misconceptions. First, he miscontexts Genesis 1:28 as a license or directive for modern Christian couples to become baby factories in the face of a world divinely created even in its limited resources. Second, he implies that Christians come into being merely by being born into “Christian” families. This is arch heresy in all evangelical and reformed confessions of faith. If one were automatically to become a Christian through birth, we would have no need for evangelism and evangelicals.

J. D. PATTERSON

Fresno, Calif.

Scripture says be fruitful and multiply, not be faithful and overrun! If Brown thinks we need more Christians in the world, why is he not writing about increasing our mission efforts?

JUDI FAHNESTOCK

Philadelphia, Pa.

It is my personal opinion that one prime reason evangelical Christian couples in the U.S. today do not put sufficient priority on having their own children, and having more than the stereotypical two children, is due to the endemic lack of biblical teaching and preaching about the nature of the covenant God has with his people. I cannot remember an article in your magazine that stresses the centrality of that covenant, and the consequent biblical doctrine of how children are a tangible expression of it.

REV. MARSHALL PIERSON

Church of the Master

Monroeville, Ohio

Gay—Or Not So Gay?

The guest editorial by Cornelius Plantinga was excellent [“The Justification of Rock Hudson,” Oct. 18]. May we in the evangelical community be people of the Book, characterized by holiness because the Bible so instructs, not because of fear of personal illness. May we also be people of compassion toward those who are so sinfully ill.

But why call homosexuals “gay”? They are not gay in any sense of the term. Because my name is in the phone book, I have received many late night “non-gay” phone calls from people on Chicago’s famous North Side. Should not the evangelical community strive for accuracy in language, especially when the secular community has abducted a previously fine name?

REV. ARTHUR EVANS GAY

South Park Church

Park Ridge, Ill.

The deprecatory terminology used in the CT editorial is an injustice, and negatively affects the way this sexual minority can be ministered to. Such words rub salt into the open wounds of homosexual persons who have never experienced Christian healing. You imperil the efforts of Christians who wish to combat AIDS by working in ministries of reconciliation, hope, and a healthy, biblical response to human sexuality that will lead gay people on to new lives.

R. P. ELLENBERGER

Richmond, Ind.

I appreciate Plantinga’s admonishing on self-righteousness. It hit me like a sudden blast of cold water, which tells me I was well on my way to “Christian smugness.”

PAM GALASSO

Westerville, Ohio

The Anti-South Africa Bandwagon

I was disappointed to see CT jump on the anti-South African bandwagon [“The Rationalization of Racism,” Editorial, Oct. 4]. Much of the color-blind media have ignored the fact that while blacks in white-ruled Africa cannot vote, blacks and whites in most of black-ruled Africa cannot vote. I don’t see concert-aid money going to feed starving people in South Africa. Let’s look at the problems of South Africa in context of all of Africa.

MICK LANTIS

Manchester, Mich.

Questionable Tv Programming

Lloyd Billingsley’s “TV: Where the Girls Are Good Looking and the Good Guys Win” [Oct. 4] overlooked a salient point for subscribers of cable-access television services. Regardless of household agreed-upon censorship, the monthly fees are paid to all the participating networks. Thus, a Christian family is in the position of supporting questionable programming.

GILBERT A. WILSON, M.D.

Clovis, N.M.

I question Billingsley’s statement that“entertainment is a legitimate human need,” and his recommendation of “occasional escapism.” What Scripture could conceivably suggest such an idea? The closest I can come is Jesus telling his disciples to “Come to a quiet place and rest.” We see Jesus taking a break by going off alone to pray, not watching “Mork & Mindy.”

REV. DAVE COLES

Koinonia Church

Potsdam, N.Y.

A Romanian Transliteration

Randall L. Frame’s article “The Bible: The Year in Review” (Oct. 4) states, “Moldavian, a Soviet language spoken by three million people, received its first translation of the Bible.” Moldavian is simply the Romanian language. The “translation” just completed by the Stockholm-based institute for Bible translation is not a translation at all: it is the Romanian Bible transliterated in the Cyrillic script (Russian alphabet), which was imposed on three million Romanians when they were incorporated into the Soviet Union.

DR. JOSEPH TON

The Romanian Missionary Society

Wheaton, Ill.

Your article will help reduce the growing confusion surrounding the multiplicity of Bible versions and editions. Supplying impartial information about the Bible is a service we know many will find helpful.

REUBEN H. GUMS

Laymen’s National Bible Committee

New York, N.Y.

I would like to make one clarification about The New International Version Study Bible. This title was mistakenly attributed to a Scofield-Thompson Chain Reference package put out by B. B. Kirkbride Bible Company, one of several publishers who have issued study notes using the NIV translation. The New International Version Study Bible title belongs only to the study Bible just released by Zondervan, the only one prepared by the team of scholars most of whom were the NIV translators.

BRUCE E. RYSKAMP

Zondervan Bible Publishers

Grand Rapids, Mich.

Frame spoke of the joint effort by Tyndale House and CBN to sell “The Book,” and their advertising campaign to make the Bible more accessible. I first heard of “The Book” on TV only as a new readable translation. I found it in a bookstore, vacuum-sealed in plastic, with no mention of its scholarship or origin. Only after paying $9.95, plus tax, was I able to unwrap the paperback book and learn that it was a repackaging of The Living Bible, which I had recently bought in a padded-cover edition for $3.88. I daresay others felt betrayed at the hands of commercialism in the Christian marketplace.

REV. HAL EATON

Young’s Chapel Baptist Church

Mouth of Wilson, Va.

No reference was made to Computer Bibles International, Inc., whose New Testament of the Good News Bible is now on the market on two soft disks (with manual), soon to be followed by the GNB Old Testament and other Bibles.

LEWIS H. MILLER, JR.

Computer Bibles International, Inc.

Greenville, S.C.

I was disappointed that there was no mention of the progress being made to translate the Bible into Bengali, the world’s sixth-largest spoken language. Our mission has been working on a Standard Bengali Common Language translation since 1965. The New Testament was completed in 1977. The Old Testament translation project is about half-completed.

WILLIAM D. BARRICK

Ceres, Calif.

Timely, Insightful

I thought the article “Falwell Raises a Stir by Opposing Sanctions Against South Africa” [Oct. 4] was not only timely, but insightful. I’m tired of reading Christian magazines and watching Christian television where only right-wing opinions are stated. We are a black Christian family and know the issues, and to see continual one-sided reporting is appalling. It is so good to see a Christian magazine at least quoting black pastors, and black people in general.

EDNA W. SWILLEY

San Jose, Calif.

Drunkenness Or Alcoholism?

I was glad to note that “Alcoholism Is Not a Disease” does not necessarily reflect the views of CT. However, I do not consider the author a “responsible Christian,” since this article has the potential of preventing Christian alcoholics from reaching out for help they desperately need. Thomas equates drunkenness and alcoholism as one and the same. He obviously knows little about addiction and the difference between a person making a willful choice to get drunk (drunkenness—sin) and a person who has lost that choice and gets drunk (alcoholism—disease).

BOB BARTOSCH

Whittier, Calif.

I found a much more realistic and informative article, “Dying for a Drink,” in your May 17, 1985, issue.

HELEN VASILIOW

Ridgefield Park, N.J.

I just finished reading the book Dying for a Drink by Anderson Spickard, M.D., and Barbara Thompson. Please print a rebuttal to this awful article by an expert like Dr. Spickard.

JOANNE DYKE

Moscow, Pa.

Spickard and Thompson wrote the article referred to in the preceding letter.

—Eds.

A Corner On Orthodoxy

Thank you for the three-part article on the Tony Campolo controversy [Sept. 20]. Why do people who think they have the corner on orthodoxy tend to burn at the stake people who don’t fit into their box? I agree with those in the article who suggest that “theological heresy” is just the smoke screen that hides the real issue—Bill Bright’s discomfort in dealing with the lifestyle issues Tony preaches. Some people are so orthodox they haven’t moved for years. I sense Tony Campolo moving toward Jesus.

REV. MARVIN FRIESEN

First Baptist Church

Kailua, Hawaii

After reading the articles on Campolo I was disgusted that Christians are attacking fellow Christians. I think my cartoon speaks for itself.

DON FRYE

Kansas City, Mo.

Ct Institute’S Redaction Criticism: Readers Respond

As an evangelical who did dissertation work at the University of Aberdeen in the area of redaction criticism, I appreciated your informed discussion on this area [“Redaction Criticism: Is It Worth the Risk?” Oct. 18]. The panel presented the dangers, benefits, and limitations of this critical tool in a balanced fashion. I look forward to seeing you tackle other issues in a similar manner.

DARRELL L. BOCK

Dallas Theological Seminary

Dallas, Tex.

With dozens of topics you might have picked for such extensive treatment by so learned a panel, why waste so much time, energy, printer’s ink, and readers’ patience on a subject that one in a hundred will understand and three in a thousand will care anything about?

REV. EDWARD A. JOHNSON

Batesville, Ind.

Although the five New Testament scholars discussing the question did their best to persuade readers that it is indeed a valid, worthwhile discipline, I am not convinced. I get the uneasy feeling that redaction criticism is nothing more than neo-orthodox existential theology dressed up in fancy clothes.

MRS. MARTIN M. CASSITY

Scroggins, Tex.

I appreciate your informative treatment. I thought Robert Thomas’s analysis to be especially clear and helpful. But the [other] definitions didn’t agree. Thomas gives a more helpful four-point definition touching areas of selectivity, arrangement, modification, and creativity. A natural conclusion is that we should avoid so loose a term. But Scholer says it is accepted terminology in the international scholarly community. Is this not a problem?

As to the Gundry matter, he claimed other methodologies besides redaction criticism. But I urged that he not be judged by any alleged methodology, but by the results to which he came. If a man denies the reality of the wise men, the slaughter of the innocents, and so on, he does not believe the Bible to be true by any normal definition of truth. Gundry is capable and sincere; but his views were judged to be different from those the Evangelical Theological Society was founded to maintain.

R. LAIRD HARRIS

Professor Emeritus Covenant Seminary

Wilmington, Del.

Does not the whole matter of admissibility of redaction criticism turn on whether the process of inspiration can be truly understood on the level that it functioned in those who were used to write the Bible? It seems presumptuous to assume that the motivations and thought processes of those who were inspired of God to write the Scriptures are necessarily similar to those by which we would be moved if we were to try to produce similar compositions.

DAVID L. MOORE

Miami Beach, Fla.

Redaction criticism reminds me of knowing more and more about less and less until you know everything about nothing!

MRS. CORLIE GREY

Merritt Island, Fla.

One of the problems seems to be the use of the term “criticism,” which connotes to most people an attempt to find fault. Textual criticism finds the errors in the biblical texts, enabling us to get closer to the inspired originals. But redaction criticism seems to be looking for “errors” in the editing, calling into question the veracity of those originals. The dangerous presuppositions the forum participants warned of are inherent in the name.

TOM PITTMAN

Manhattan, Kan.

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