Letters

No Retreat

Regarding the articles on public education [“The Third Wave of School Reform,” Sept. 22]: Retreat no; we are charging in the other direction! While others teach children how to make a living, we teach them how to live. Thank you, Christian teachers and administrators for taking the Savior into the hostile environment of the public school. There are opportunities there—be bold. There are dangers there—be careful. This is no place for spiritual immaturity. An apple, then, for those who bravely follow the exhortation to raise up their children in the Lord.

Joseph M. Bridge

Bridger Valley Christian School

Lyman, Wyo.

Warhol: The Ultimate Consumer

Well done on Andy Warhol [“Hellfire of the Banalities,” Sept. 22]! It might be added that he not only portrayed Americans as consumers but was himself the ultimate of compulsive consumers. Through the years he purchased tons of art objects, collectibles, and bric-a-brac, most of which were warehoused without so much as the wrappings removed. Yes, we must admit that Andy reflected our consumer society, and we ought to be ashamed of what we see.

Rev. Orville Wolff

Fort Valley Evangelical Church

Fort Valley, Ga.

The essay on Andy Warhol’s art was two wasted pages. My sympathy goes out to those people who enjoy his strange creativity. However, I do not wish to read about it in CT.

Douglas Rumley

Camilla, Ga.

No Polarization Intended

The article “How Faith Works” [by S. Lewis Johnson, Sept. 22] unfortunately left a wrong impression. My views on the gospel in no way clash with the Westminster Confession. I am amazed that anyone could conclude that I was in any disagreement with the Confession, although I suggest that Scripture, not a Puritan creed, is the appropriate gauge of the ultimate correctness of our doctrine.

The article wrongly concluded that I have proposed a unique understanding of the gospel that deserves to be placed at an extreme pole from the radical view of Zane Hodges. Actually, I am heartily in agreement with the overall thrust of Johnson’s soteriology and even with the first five observations he makes at the conclusion of his article. His sixth, that it is wrong to insist on complete submission to God’s will as necessary for salvation, misses the intention of my terms and misrepresents what I mean. I’m not saying anything more than Jesus did when he called people to forsake all and follow him. Obviously, that calls for a complete surrender, though our surrender is always imperfectly manifest because of the flesh. When Johnson says a “total commitment of one’s life to Christ in all life’s details is impossible,” I wholeheartedly agree, though he makes it appear I don’t. I have no wish to be positioned as Hodges’s counterpart or seen as an extremist in the lordship debate. My purpose in writing The Gospel According to Jesus was simply to call the church to reexamine what Jesus teaches about salvation and reaffirm the historic view, not polarize Christians or invent my own view in opposition to another.

John MacArthur

Grace Community Church

Sun Valley, Calif.

After reading the article twice I rejoiced that I never attended seminary. For one to think he can come to Christ and make him Savior but decline his lordship is tantamount to a young man full of virility asking an attractive woman to be his lover but not his wife, but that in time he might accept her as his wife!

Bernie Smith

Bridging the Gap

Calgary, Alta., Canada

Having done such a fine job of defining and explaining critical terms pertaining to “lordship salvation,” one could only wish Johnson had done the same in regard to his mention of carnality (perhaps backsliding would have been a better word?).

Dave Couric

Duncanville, Tex.

I applaud your choice of S. Lewis Johnson to resolve the issue of faith and works as they relate to salvation. In blending sound exegesis with biblical and historical theology, he demonstrates that a balanced methodology lays the groundwork for a balanced theology. His conclusions steer us clear from viewing faith and works as antithetical doctrinal compartments. His scriptural observations bring to light the interrelatedness of these seemingly paradoxical themes.

George A. Till

Portland, Oreg.

Johnson’s presentation was a helpful exposition of evangelical theology for me, a Catholic reader, who is a staff member of an ecumenical magazine and a member of an ecumenical Christian community.

Some readers may have been disappointed that the article did not come down clearly on the side of obedience-in-action or of mere assent and trust (in vague terms) as being necessary for salvation. For reflection, here is a quote by the pioneering atomic physicist Niels Bohr: “The opposite of a true statement is a false statement, but the opposite of a profound truth can be another profound truth.”

Charles Wood

New Heaven New Earth

South Bend, Ind.

I found this article to be the most disgusting thing I have ever read in your magazine. It appears that the main attitude of our spiritual leaders is to prove that “I am right and you are wrong,” taking Scripture verses out of context, and applying the specific method of interpretation of each verse so that it takes on the meaning that is best suited to support the doctrine of each individual.

Daniel Heinrichs

Winnipeg, Man., Canada

How interesting that the article does not make any reference to James.

Paul C. Fretz

Marion, Pa.

The renewed controversy over lordship salvation is a healthy debate that the body of Christ would do well to prayerfully consider. Perhaps MacArthur has gone a step too far in his emphasis on absolute commitment, and Hodges may seem intent on demonstrating that “by grace are we saved through facts,” not “faith,” but these extremes might well serve to restore a more balanced perspective concerning personal evangelism.

Studies tell us that as many as 50 million people in the United States profess to be “born again,” yet there is no question that our nation is on the verge of moral bankruptcy. Perhaps in our zeal to get people to “pray the prayer” or walk the aisle, we are failing to clearly communicate the gospel—and its implications—so that unbelievers can properly evaluate the magnitude of a commitment to Christ. Virtually lost in this controversy is MacArthur’s urgent call for discipleship, an element of Christian nurture that is conspicuously absent in most churches.

Robert J. Tamasy

Christian Business Men’s

Committee, USA

Chattanooga, Tenn.

Thankful for Nothing

This being the season, I deliberately turned down the volume on “Monday Night Football” to reflect on the things I’m thankful for: a long holiday weekend coming up, reasonably good health, the letter from VISA explaining they had overcharged me.

The list might have grown, but the phone rang. It turned out to be a wrong number, which made me even more thankful—I didn’t really want to talk to anyone. And that set me to thinking: there are many things to be thankful for because they did not happen. This list was easy:

• Last week’s deacon’s meeting that was cancelled. I got to stay home and didn’t lose any arguments.

• Those times I was talking with someone in the church foyer whose name I couldn’t remember, and no friends approached so I didn’t have to introduce him.

• Not being audited by the IRS last year (or ever, for that matter—knock on wood).

• World War ID.

• The morning the Greek-language hobbyist missed Sunday school.

• The time no one brought eggplant souffle to the church potluck.

• The Rapture I’m ready and eager to go, but my CD matures next year and I was kinda planning on a trip to St. Petersburg with my wife.

• Our annual canoe trip. I wonder how many other couples celebrated when they learned the river was too low?

I shared my list with Maureen Smeltzer in Sunday-school class the following Sunday. She was only slightly amused. “I guess I can throw away my recipe for eggplant souffle!” she harrumphed.

Next year’s list is off and running.

EUTYCHUS

Distorted And Irresponsible?

The hatchet job done on Reconstructionism by Richard V. Pierard in his review of Dominion Theology, Blessing or Curse? [Books, Sept. 22] is what one would expect from a rank secularist, not from someone who names the name of Christ. It is obvious that Pierard has not seriously studied the numerous published articles, journals, and books of the reconstructionists. His representation of their position is distorted and imbalanced.

The most irresponsible part of the review is the totally unfounded and inflammatory accusation that anti-Semitism is “behind some of the beliefs of Reconstructionists.” I get the idea that if one does not hold to dispensational eschatology, then he is anti-Semitic, according to Pierard, House, Ice, and Lindsey. If this is the case, then there are a lot of other Christians besides reconstructionists who are anti-Semitic!

Rev. John R. Maphet

Church of the Savior

Williamsville, N.Y.

Special thanks to Tommy Ice and Wayne House for Dominion Theology, Blessing or Curse. Their views have set me free from feeling I had to embrace responsible action to stop abortion, homosexual inroads into society, and general societal decline. They have been helpful in putting the Old Testament Scriptures into proper perspective, full of nice stories but nothing I should get meaningful ethical instruction from. What a relief! I can once again enjoy my Scofield Reference Bible.

Rev. Joe Horevay

Christian Gathering

Cumberland, Md.

Thoughtful Insight

Thank you for “Star-spangled Clamor” [From the Executive Editor, Sept. 22]. The positions taken reflect thoughtful insight. I was reminded of the statement by E. J. Hobsbawn in The Age of Revolution 1789–1848: “In times of revolution nothing is more powerful than the fall of symbols.”

Culbreth Melton

Emmanuel College

Franklin Springs, Ga.

Solving Missionary Debt Problems

Thanks for the news article “Debts Pose Problems for Missions Candidates,” [Sept. 22]. You have done a service in highlighting this problem, as well as providing part of the solution if mission boards would only take heed.

Allow candidates as part of their outgoing expense account to raise money to pay off their educational debt. I know of a missionary who is finishing up his first year in the field with over $10,000 in excess outgoing expenses that he raised just sitting there. Yet when he started deputation, he had a guaranteed student loan debt of $7,500. Had not his father paid off the debt, it is doubtful that he would have been able to go to the field until it was reduced.

Today’s mission field calls for not only undergraduate training, but for graduate training, which makes the tool so much more effective. As one missiologist said when asked about graduate training, “Of course you should do it. You will be able to do twice the work in half the time.” It seems a small thing to me to have the mission board participate in the quality of the candidate by allowing his or her education debt reduction through the outgoing expense account.

Clyde Cook

President, Biola University

La Mirada, Calif.

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