Take heart, timid Christian. The next time you’re persuaded to confront a backslider but don’t know where to begin, help is available. Thanks to the new Confronter’s Bible you need no longer hem and haw with cryptic references, subtle hints, or suggestive innuendoes about the error of his ways.
Like the Eschatology Bible, with all the rapture verses shaded in premillennial purple, and the Social Justice Bible, with all references that produce guilt accented in oppressive orange, the Confronter’s Bible contains a color-coordinated system highlighting verses on relevant themes: rebuking (passion pink), sins to be avoided (stop-sign red), straying from the straight and narrow (off-white).
An index assists the confronter in deciding the best way to approach the erring brother or sister. Should you confront via telephone? Only if the offender is over six feet. Should you meet in a restaurant? Only if it has three stars.
In the event the rebukee does not respond to your “speaking the truth in love,” try any of these suggested alternatives: pull his hair (Neh. 13:25), set his fields on fire (Judg. 15:5), call out the she-bears (2 Kings 2:24).
What more can be said about the Confronter’s Bible, except: Backsliders beware!
EUTYCHUS
South Africa’S Standards
If the racism of the South African government is so heinous, why has it produced blacks who are better fed, better clothed, and better educated than their counterparts elsewhere in Africa? [“The Rationalization of Racism,” Oct. 4]. Any analysis of the problems should not ignore the fact that most of the rest of Africa is increasingly a wasteland of starvation, corruption, and the denial of fundamental freedoms.
RAYMOND G. BARHAM
Pickering, Ont., Canada
Tv Prayer As A Way Of Life
A hearty “amen” to Lloyd Billingsley for “TV: Where the Girls Are Good Looking and the Good Guys Win,” [Oct. 4]. I, too, have wondered how the major networks have managed to ignore faith in America and the church—or portrayed Christians in such negative fashion.
I offer a new program for Billingsley’s consideration: NBC’s “Hell Town,” starring Robert Blake as a hard-boiled priest. It has the obligatory curvy scenery and beer drinking, but at least there is one strong character on TV who engages in prayer as a way of life!
KATHY GLOVER
Austin, Tex.
Here in Hollywood many industry people are coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ. We desperately need [Christian] producers and directors, men and women who are concerned about the dearth of godly entertainment who have the bucks and clout to do something about it. If we could get some wealthy evangelicals caught up in this vision I think we will see the first simple and honest portrayal of a Christian character in prime time.
I was struck by the total absence of “the ground of all being” of the medium—the commercial. Discussing the content of commercial television without recognizing it as a totalitarian technology devoted to the economic interests of those who make and sell things is a little like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
JERRY SWEERS
Claremont, Calif.
An Incredible Message
The recent Speaking Out, “Alcoholism Is Not a Disease” [Oct. 4], made me sick. As a member of AA’s Al Anon with a family member a recovering alcoholic, I find this message incredible. It sounds as if he never came near AA. Nothing I have ever come in contact with has a more spiritual basis. Why is calling alcoholism a disease any different than our Lord’s statement, “Which is easier—to say your sins are forgiven or to pick up your bed and walk?”?
ALZINA STONE DALE
Chicago, Ill.
Rescue Missions Help, Too
I read “The Homeless Poor” [Oct. 4] right away. What a sensitive and impressive article! Perhaps there is a reason for not including work being done by the rescue mission movement. Member missions of the International Union of Gospel Missions are doing an outstanding work in many cities. They have maintained a strong evangelistic ministry while providing for physical needs.
CHARLES A. GIFFORD
Right to Life Rescue Mission, Inc.
Pittsburgh, Pa.
The Inheritance Is Still Lost
In Dale Bruner’s “A Tale of Two Sons” [Oct. 4], he fails to mention one lesson the parable teaches: that the return of the prodigal son to the father’s house did not restore the lost inheritance. The father’s words to the older son, “All that I have is thine” (Luke 15:31), remind us that the younger son had already received and wasted his share of the estate. The prodigal who returns will be poorer for all eternity than if he had never gone to the far country.
L. A. HARTMAN
San Jose, Calif.
Morbid Or Healthy Attitudes?
I wonder what point Philip Yancey is trying to make in “The Optimists’ Shell Game” [Oct. 4]. His conclusion seems to be that liberals today tend to be “morbid minded” and conservatives “healthy minded.” He implies that this places today’s liberals in the company of yesterday’s conservatives. The apostle Paul said, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Morbid-minded? In the next breath Paul said, “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Healthy-minded? Yancey would do better to search Scripture for his answers.
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ROBERT H. GATES
Centerville, Mo.
Yancey judges liberals (political and religious) to be realists because they are concerned about South Africa—he says nothing about their favoring abortion. In contrast, he considers conservatives headless optimists, perhaps because of their fear of Soviet activity on a global scale. He freely mixes apples and oranges while indulging in logical fallacies in general and argument from silence in particular.
LLOYD F. DEAN
Community College of Rhode Island
Warwick, R.I.
Local Or National Interests?
Chuck Colson’s “Budget Cuts and Self-Denial” [Sept. 20] was right on target. It is indeed time that we in America give up our local interests for national ones. We must learn the same lesson in the church if we are going to reach our world for Christ. The church lacks vision to reach the lost when we become more concerned about what we want than what our world needs from us so we can share the gospel with them. Colson’s article goes to the heart of the issue.
REV. KENNETH E. HENES
Grand Traverse Church of Christ
Traverse City, Mich.
What amazed me was that Colson did not refer to military spending. The lowest estimate I have read of waste is about 20 percent. That is about 60 billion dollars annually. Let’s cut that out.
HOWELL O. WILKINS
District Superintendent
United Methodist Church
Easton, Md.
Vicarious Spirituality
I applaud Mark Roberts’s willingness to address the latest trend in Christianity [“Read All About It,” Sept. 20]. Vicarious spirituality is on the increase. Worse than the mere reading about experience—which has become a substitute for actual experience—is when spiritual literature is substituted for the original itself: the Bible. It is ironic that Roberts should fail to mention this more fatal trend.
BARBARA HUGHES
Columbus, Ohio
I believe there is a more sure way of obtaining the goal Roberts mentions: by aggressively witnessing for Christ Jesus our Lord.
JAMIE A. LITCHFIELD
Ooltewah, Tenn.
Not “Better Beethoven”
I have always appreciated the writings of Anthony Hoekema. His “Heaven: Not Just An Eternal Day Off” was no exception. He provides some good sermon material for the coming Advent season. I wish, however, in light of “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,” that he would have contented himself to remain with Bach rather than suggesting a “better Beethoven.”
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REV. WALTER D. OTTEN
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
Brookfield, Ill.
Hoekema pays lip service to God; but actually, in his view of heaven, God is secondary, not central, while man achieves prominence. Surely this suggests a serious deficiency in his understanding of heaven and in his theology.
M. A. MASTERS
Toronto, Ont., Canada
Hoekema’s references pertain only to our heaven, for no one has any sure information about the others. But the permanency of Jerusalem is assured. The presence of the glory of God will always be there. Most of the eschatological prophecies of Isaiah and the other prophets mention the everlastingness of Jerusalem. After Jesus has rid the world of corruption and delivered up the kingdom to God the Father shall come the eternal life that brings into view the New Jerusalem, so-called; not before.
THERON D. WILSON
Knoxville, Tenn.
Concrete Action
I want to compliment Paige Comstock Cunningham for her excellent and informative “Reversing Roe vs. Wade” [Sept. 20]. She seems to point toward concrete things we can do to end legalized abortion in our country.
MARK H. KILLINGER
Frederick, Md.
Why don’t you address the source of the problem behind the need for most abortions? Let’s face it, how many pastors are regularly teaching from the pulpit that when a man and woman become one in God’s eyes and create a child, both are responsible for that human being they created? It would appear we still accept a double human standard in which a man is permitted to sow his wild oats. Laws should be lobbied to insure that the man and woman are both responsible financially for supporting all of their offspring until they are of age. Abortion puts the onus on the woman. Conception holds the man as responsible as the woman.
MRS. MARILYN W. REED
Rio Vista, Calif.
Abortion was practiced before the decision and will be continued even if the decision is reversed. Christians must not be seduced into believing that morality can be legislated. Real change will result as individuals are confronted by individuals, in love, with the life-transforming claims of Jesus Christ.
REV. PHIL ELLROTT
First Baptist Church
Medford, Oreg.
Innocent, Until Guilty
Your three-part “special report” on Tony Campolo’s heretical or nonheretical status is quite good [Sept. 20]. I was relieved to witness CT spend time upholding the tradition of “innocent until proven guilty.” Another good man’s reputation saved—thank you.
BRYAN FOX
Los Angeles, Calif.
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