Page 6272 – Christianity Today (2024)

“Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her bed early this morning, an emptied bottle which had contained sleeping tablets on a table near by”.… The radio announcer went on to give some details about the finding of the body and then passed on to other news headlines.

One casual remark was overheard—made by a high-minded citizen—“Well, not much was lost.”

But a sober second thought brought this woman’s death into clearer focus: Everything was lost … salvation, an eternity with Christ, the possibilities of the influence of a godly life upon a generation at the crossroads.

But more than this woman’s influence and opportunities were lost. What about those responsible for an unwanted and unloved childhood? What of those who first sensing unusual physical attractiveness took advantage of her loneliness, ignorance and lack of any sense of values for their own selfish ends?

What about a nation in which millions made her a sex symbol? About producers, script writers and directors who contrived scenes and situations to exploit her childish, fragile beauty for personal fame and profit?

One Christian woman, hearing of Marilyn Monroe’s tragic death, remarked, “Poor kid, she never had a chance.”

After her death it was revealed that two weeks earlier Evangelist Billy Graham bad awakened in his hotel in Seattle with a burden to pray for her. A week later, in Los Angeles, this burden continued, and one of Mr. Graham’s associates tried to contact Miss Monroe through one of her agents only to be told, “Not now, maybe two weeks from now.”

Was the phone clutched in the lifeless hand a last and futile attempt to get help? Only God knows, and the motivation of this final act of a dying woman must be left to the One who is all-knowing and all-loving.

But America is still here, and the nude dead body of an exploited child, girl and woman is no longer a “sex symbol” but the symbol of men and women dead in trespasses and sins, all of whose lives lie naked and open to the One with whom all of us have to do.

Death is inevitable. Postpone it? Possibly. Evade it? Never.

Why then the shrug of the shoulders in the face of death? Why turn to the spiritually dead for hope or comfort? And, how useless any religion which fails to offer forgiveness of sins and an eternity with Christ!

Confronted with tragedies such as this some may smugly repeat, “The wages of sin is death,” even as they are confronted by the accusing finger of Truth—“Thou art the man!”

We write with feeling because we believe that America and her sex obsession stand judged before a holy and righteous God.

The body of Marilyn Monroe lay dead in a city morgue, no longer a symbol of sex but of death. Reams of copy have come out of Hollywood, and people in and out of the movie industry have expressed shock, sorrow and words of appreciation of this woman who did so much to contribute to the financial gains of her employers.

Before long Marilyn Monroe will be nothing but a name and a memory, receding as time inexorably moves on.

But even now there are other Marilyn Monroes in and out of the movies. The process of exploitation will go on unabated, and millions will continue to worship at the phallic altar because their eyes are blinded by the god of this world.

Even now there are other children, victims of parents who never wanted them, and once they came into the world, never provided for them.

What could be more pitiful than a child starved for love, home and a sense of security? What is more despicable than the base misuse of youth and young womanhood for gain?

Are not we as individual Christians, and the Church as an organization, often failing to meet the needs about us? Where is the community in which there are not those who need Christian love and compassion? Rare too is the place where there is not open or secret degradation of women for the gain of others.

And in every city and town our young people are confronted by “adult,” “realistic,” “frank” and “exciting” pictures which portray the entire gamut of filth—bawdiness, prostitution, hom*osexuality and other perversions. But we do nothing to stop this exploitation of man’s basest nature so that our youth now only too often looks on the perverse as the natural.

This writer protested the showing of one evil film in a city only to have the owner of the theatre write back that (1) he had to show what was sent him by the distributors, and (2) this was what people wanted, and he could prove it by the attendance of the “best people in town” when such films were shown.

What has this to do with the death of Marilyn Monroe? Just this: she was a symbol of the accepted values of our times. She was exploited by lustful men, greedy producers and by a public which cared for nothing more than cheap exposures—the more suggestive the circ*mstances the better.

Marilyn Monroe was a victim of this world—a victim of an age which has confused freedom and license, lust and love, and which worships at the altar of personal gain at any price.

Only a few days prior to her death a national magazine carried an article about her, evidently a taped interview, which was pathetic in its baring the facts of an unwanted and neglected childhood, of unrequited affection—a Christmas for instance, when the children in the family all received presents while she, kept there by a welfare agency, received nothing.

This article showed the longing of a soul for something better but which she never found. Money? Yes. “Fame” and pawing adulation? Yes. But with it all she knew she was being taken advantage of. There was always the realization that she was surrounded by selfishness and greed.

Had anybody ever spoken to Marilyn Monroe about her own soul? About Jesus Christ? About those things which last for eternity?

Perhaps some had, but the overwhelming evidence is that her eternal soul was forgotten while men sought to profit from her physical beauty.

Then, for nearly twenty-four hours a dead body lay unclaimed in the morgue—no longer profitable and only the shell of what had once been the home of an immortal soul.

The words of the Psalmist speak to us accusingly today: “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul” (Ps. 142:4).

One can but wonder whether some day this generation may not stand condemned for what it has done and is doing to the Marilyn Monroes who are burned, as moths, in the flames of commercialized lust.

Look, No Hands!

My duties as sidewalk superintendent have reached a new peak this summer. I have assumed virtually full responsibility for a library being built on my favorite campus. Unhampered by board fences, I have got right into the job. The workmen use a jovial signal when I begin an inspection tour; it’s rather like piping an admiral on deck. The skill of these men is astonishing. They wheel a barrow of cement past you on a narrow plank.

Steelworkers are great showmen. One girder jockey insisted on riding high with the beams and waving to the crane operator. “Look, no hands!”

But a crane’s claw can’t build a stone wall. Up against the steel beams stone masons now stand on their scaffolding, skillfully chipping rock. I’m glad. Part of the beauty of a stone building lies in the human touch. That touch has been given to almost every stone in the library by a stooped master mason who follows his men, smoothing a joint, resetting a stone—the heir of generations of artisans.

Pastor Peterson joined me on an inspection trip. He agreed that power construction could never give a building the charm of hand craftsmanship. “But the greatest building is made without hands,” he added. Sensing a sermon, I suggested we supervise the setting of a limestone column. He was not to be diverted.

“Solomon’s temple was built without a mason’s hammer; the stones were shaped at the quarry. Yet it was built with hands, and dedicated to the Lord who cannot dwell in a temple made with hands.”

“Is the temple made without hands the church?” I asked. I remembered a New Testament passage about living stones.

“Yes, but that is because the church is the body of Christ. He pronounced destruction on the temple made with hands, and by his resurrection he built another temple, not made with hands.

I had another question, but three tons of crushed rock happened to be delivered at that moment just where we stood.

Later I reflected that God’s house is handcrafted, too. The stone cut without hands is shaped by the hand of God. And the Builder’s hand is on every stone.

EUTYCHUS

A Time To Laugh

“God Made Me to Laugh” (July 6 issue) brings a welcome emphasis. There is too frequently a spurious solemnity connected with orthodox Christianity. We do tend to take ourselves too seriously.

Why must Mr. Redding confuse his point by lumping together so many diverse elements for his touch of lightness and laughter? People laugh for very different reasons, ranging from cruel derision to genial merriment. What has slapstick (“Let us play, er—pray”) have to do with bitter irony (Frost: “Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee and I’ll forgive Thy great big one on me.”)? What has either of these to do with the deep joy in the conversion of a degraded sinner?

Granted that our Lord knew real joy and manifested a wholesome and vigorous sense of humor, it is misleading to say: “She (life) flew at him in a tantrum, flung suffering in his face and hung him up to die. We do not keep back the tears. But he took life and taught it a thing or two. Nothing could destroy Christ’s good humor, for life tried everything.” Surely we are not to understand that Christ avoided all tears and anguish, and always wore a sunny smile. We are not entitled to conclude that it was in a light-hearted mood that Jesus cast out the money changers in the temple, rebuked the legalists, preached repentance and judgment to come. Human redemption was at the center of Christ’s intent. He was far from attempting to play tricks on life, ever in rosy good humor. Christ was not a cosmic clown.

Let there be genuine and spontaneous joy, yes exuberance, among those who know the Lord. It is part of our birthright. May God help us to puncture our stiff and stuffy ways. We need desperately to learn to laugh, but it does make a difference when and how and why we laugh.

ARTHUR W. KLEM

Wheaton College

Wheaton, Ill.

“God Made Me to Laugh” was good, but to picture our forefathers by writing, “Yesterday’s pilgrims didn’t dare to clown and Plymouth squeezed itself into a poker face,” and “the Calvinists were so afraid of sin’s consequences that they tried to wipe off every smile, put a stop to dancing and turned off the organ.” is not a concrete picture of them.…

Our fathers were deep with God. They stood amazed about his majesty and holiness. They lived on resurrection ground, and they saw plain when God’s Word tells us that a small minority are saved, and the throngs are marching night and day to hell.…

D. KORT

Oaklawn, Ill.

If David A. Redding was attempting to emphasize the joyful side of the Christian life … he went too far afield. To attribute to God a sense of humor in creating creatures that are fitted to excite ridicule because of their grotesque appearance is to charge him with a vicious character. Scripture tells us that “God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” … It does not say, “Much of it was laughable.” … God did not make His creation to laugh at it, but to glorify Himself.…

REGINALD VOORHEES

The Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Omaha, Neb.

Trend And Tradition

I read with real interest and appreciation the article on our Jubilee Council in the June 8 issue (News). I do, however, deeply regret the statement … “CMA churches traditionally stress the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a ‘second definite work of grace.’”

The words “baptism of the Holy Spirit” cannot be found in the word of God. The use of this term leads many innocent and sincere people into confusion as they search for an emotional experience, which is wholly unscriptural. The Bible says we are to be “baptized with the Holy Ghost.” We are to be baptized into one body and we must then be continually “filled with the Holy Ghost.”

I also trust that the society, of which I am part, is not bound by tradition. God deliver us from tradition and make us biblical. I fully understand that in the early days of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, what you say may have been true, but today I find many who insist that the Bible teaches … a Spirit-filled life and not a second work of grace.

E. NIELSEN

First Alliance Church

Charlotte, N. C.

The statement regarding the CMA position on what you call a “second definite work of grace” might have been categorically true in Simpson’s day but the trend has been otherwise through the years. Those of us who champion Bible exposition over tradition point out that the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit is part of his saving work.

The presuppositions in 1 Corinthians 12:13 are important. The en heni pneumati (by one Spirit) reveals that the Holy Spirit is the agent which places us into the body of Christ. The eis hen soma (into one body) states the extent or end of the action. If a man is not baptized by the Spirit he is not in the body of Christ, hence, not a Christian.

ANDRE BUSTANOBY

Arlington Memorial Church

Arlington, Va.

Thank you for the excellent coverage given our Diamond Jubilee Council. I have enjoyed reading CHRISTIANITY TODAY from its inception, and have appreciated your fair and factual reporting of the current religious scene.

Please permit me to comment on two of your statements in reference to our council. First, concerning “a second definite work of grace.” As you well know, words and phrases tend to change in meaning through usage. We in the Alliance believe in “a crisis experience subsequent to regeneration” at which time, in response to a step of total surrender to Christ and an act of appropriating faith, Christ himself, in the person of the Holy Spirit, dwells in fullness in the believer. Thus our holiness is not in self-effort nor in the perfection of the flesh, but rather is the life of Christ himself, “I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me.”

Your reference to the few who attended the closing morning prayer service at the “appointed hour” implies that they were all who prayed. Actually there were scores who did meet in prayer during the period.

NATHAN BAILEY

President

The Christian and Mission Alliance

New York, N. Y.

Salvation And The Army

Your publication will, I am sure, welcome some comment from the National Office of The Salvation Army regarding the reference to The Salvation Army’s program for alcoholics in the communication from Hatfield (Eutychus, May 25 issue). I am, therefore, submitting the following information on behalf of our National Commander, Commissioner Norman S. Marshall.

In the United States, The Salvation Army operates 125 Men’s Social Service Centers, and 20 Harbor Light Centers (skid-row), installations where we endeavor to meet the needs of men.

We have a Service to Man program in operation in all of our Men’s Social Service Centers. The following is a quotation from our “Men’s Social Service Handbook of Standards, Principles and Policies”: “If a man’s body and mind are redeemed for society, if we have been able to lift him up from the waste heap of the world to a place of usefulness and productivity, we have performed a meritorious service. The men coming to these institutions are often steeped in sin, and bound by the strong chain of intemperance and moral evils. There is no hope or real help for them apart from the salvation of God.”

These fundamental purposes have not been altered. Other activities and techniques have been added. Case work techniques of interviewing, counselling and case recording, as well as group work techniques of group therapy, and leisure time programs are typical of these activities.

Many of our institutions have an “Alcoholics Anonymous” group organized and operated by the men within the Center and men, of their own choice, may attend the regularly scheduled meetings. This, however, is an additional activity by and for the men which in no way modifies our traditional evangelistic approach in the regularly scheduled meetings of each Center. Last year 4,525 converts were registered as a result of these meetings.

… the primary function of the Men’s Social Service Center is the rehabilitation and/or the spiritual regeneration of the man, and to aid him in regaining self-respect and acquiring such moral and spiritual principles of conduct and such habits of industry as to enable him to take his rightful place in society.

We assure our friends everywhere that the fundamentals have not changed; conversion and regeneration are necessary to salvation!

JOHN GRACE

Colonel

National Headquarters

The Salvation Army

New York, N. Y.

Delete ‘Diocesan’

In the May 11th issue … Review of Current Religious Thought … quoted an article written by an Episcopalian clergyman in a “Diocesan magazine.” It has been brought to my attention that this quotation came from the magazine “Trinity” published by the Blessed Trinity Society of Van Nuys.… This magazine is not a Diocesan magazine, but is published by a “group of dissidents” of the parish of St. Mark’s, Van Nuys, who, according to the Rector of that parish “is not related to our parish in any way.” The Bishop of the Diocese has stated in a letter to me “the Trinity magazine published by the Blessed Trinity Society of Van Nuys is not recognized by the Diocese and I do not know very much about their activities.”

FREDERICK C. HAMMOND

St. John’s Episcopal Church

San Bernardino, Calif.

The Name Stays

I still like your title (CHRISTIANITY TODAY) rather than that given you either by the Time headline writer (“Conservatism Today,” Religion section, July 13 issue) or by Karl Barth (“Christianity Yesterday”)!

PAUL S. JAMES

The Manhattan Baptist Church

New York, N.Y.

My congratulations to you all for the kudos in … Time.…

VIRGINIA MATSON

Libertyville, Ill.

Recently a competent psychiatrist observed: “These persons who come to me need an inner structure for their lives. They need an inner discipline that they themselves have accepted as having the authority of Reality. Anyone knows,” he continued, “that the Ten Commandments are the best set of rules ever given for an individual to structure his life upon. The problem,” he added, “is that too many people have learned the Ten Commandments and that too few have accepted them as the inner structure of their own living.”

This psychiatrist disclosed not only the weakness of distraught individuals who are coming to him for assistance. He disclosed also the weakness of an entire generation that is crumbling under the complex responsibilities of human relationships.

The genius of these ten life rules is that by them God through Moses replaced hundreds of laws with ten essential Life Principles that can more easily be remembered and accepted in the subconscious as a way of life. They have remained because they are based on reality; this is the way life is structured. The Ten Commandments are not arbitrary commands forced upon us; they are a revelation of Truth to be followed. If history is faltering today, it is not because the Ten Commandments have failed, but because civilization is disregarding its Life Principles.

“Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me.” We respond: “This was not spoken to our generation; Polytheism, after all, is not one of our problems!” But the commandment does indeed speak to us. It warns not only against revering something other than God; it says: “Thou shalt worship nothing less than God.” Too few people have penetrated to an experience of God himself; too many are worshiping something less than God. Until we discover reality, truth, and the ultimate in God, until we give ourselves even falteringly to the Spiritual Reality at the heart of the Universe, until we know and worship God personally and socially, life will fall apart and disintegrate under tensions too great for our own resolution.

“Thou Shalt Not Make Unto Thee Any Graven Image.” Again we respond: “This does not apply to us; nobody makes idols today!” The children of Israel felt the need of a God they could see and touch. Moses had found Reality in the inner voice of the Unseen in his desert experience. This dynamic reality he sought to share with his people. But as soon as his back was turned, they pitched in their golden ear-rings to make a golden calf. We do not bother to fashion an image; we just worship our gold without melting it! A minister recently observed he would shudder to see the outcome if large numbers of church members should suddenly be confronted with a clear choice between giving up God or giving up possessions. As a rule the alternatives are not put so bluntly; without knowing it, many church members have subconsciously already made the choice. Their commitments are not to God but to their possessions. On this basis they make their decisions, this basis is their pivot point of dedication, here they perform their empty rites of adoration. The commandment still stands: “Thou shalt not worship any material thing.”

“Thou Shalt Not Take The Name Of The Lord Thy God In Vain.” Last summer we drove along the Alaskan Highway for nearly 1,500 miles through a fascinating unsettled wilderness. Now and then we stopped at a lodge; often we found both men and women using profanity as a normal vehicle of conversation. This tendency comes to light wherever people are far removed, by distance or disposition, from the Church and from those symbols that keep alive and nurture a vital sense of the Holy. They are unconsciously cutting the connections God seeks to keep open between himself and them. This careless use of symbols that suggest the Infinite, the Eternal, the Everlasting Love and Power at the heart of the Universe actually denies the existence of anything above the human. Thereby people cancel what is sacred in their own experience; they blot out their own subconscious sensitivity to spiritual values; they accept life at an animal level and reject any awareness that raises life to new dimensions. When they come to pray, they have nothing left except carelessly used symbols. “Thou shalt not cancel in thy consciousness a sense of the Holy.”

“Remember The Sabbath Day, To Keep It Holy.” Hundreds of spectators recently attended an automobile race near our city on Sunday afternoon. Because of rain the race was stopped at the halfway mark. Frustrated at not getting to see the whole event, fans started a free-for-all fight. What shall we do with Sunday? What are our values? A day of rest and worship gives us a break in the burdensome routine, a day of pause, a day of quietness, of beginning again. This day is an opportunity for family fellowship, for getting close to the children, for thinking with our growing youth. It is a day to worship, to meditate on the Eternal, to know God inwardly. Why is it that we seem now to be working night and day to dispose of it? If we lose Sunday, we will lose our best opportunity for growth in grace, and lose our best incentive to instruct and deepen each succeeding generation in spiritual awareness. God does not need a Holy Day; we do.

“Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother.” How old-fashioned! Thirty years ago educators, philosophers, and psychologists told us not to restrain our children, but to let them express themselves. In these thirty years we have produced a generation of adults with little inner discipline, small respect for authority, slight appreciation of the truth, and with no solid inner resources for living. Because of our failure to inculcate basic principles of right and wrong individual life is breaking down all around us and human relations are going to pieces. “In sparing the rod, we raised up a beat generation.” Today, psychologists and educators tell us they were mistaken, that children do need and do expect an inner structure of life. We are told that fathers and mothers should learn from their own painful experiences and from the experience of the race; only by passing these discovered truths on to their offspring, and by launching their children at a higher level of life can civilization make progress. Parents are God’s teachers! “Honor thy father and thy mother.”

“Thou Shalt Not Kill.” Despite this specific life principle, we face the threat of atomic annihilation. No one seems wise enough to know the solution. By continued disobedience of life principles, humanity maneuvers itself every few years into a position where killing seems to be the least of the evils, as the way out of a dilemma. Our greatest failure has been the failure to relate life principles to God’s creative will. We have considered these principles to be accepted or rejected at our convenience. Not until the creature truly comprehends his definite responsibility to the Creator, will humanity overthrow this course of expediency toward self-destruction. We must realize clearly that obedience to life principles is obedience to God, and conversely that disobedience severs relationships with the very source of life and being. To understand and to accept the fact that there is an Authority in the Universe to whom we are responsible will once again restore individual experience and human relations to creative progress. “Thou shalt not kill” still stands; it is one of God’s assignments whose meaning we have not yet learned.

“Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery.” Today countless books of fiction expound adultery as their theme. They reveal the personal breakdown, the frustration, the shame, the misery of lost and bewildered children and whatever else stems from disobedience to a basic life principle. In reality God has so structured life and so ordered human passions that love finds its best fulfillment where the home has spiritual foundations, where husband and wife have made a covenant not only with each other, but also with God. Such an abiding union finds continuity in self-giving, in comradeship and in deep devotion, through joy and sorrow, in times of hardship or prosperity. Love strengthened with spiritual disciplines produces increased happiness and satisfaction, quite a different alternative to the tragedies portrayed in modern fiction. Someone has suggested that “sin is trying to get more out of life than there is in it!” Fulfillment issues from following life principles; short cuts lead only to mirage and disappointment. “You can do what is wrong; but you can’t make it work.”

“Thou Shalt Not Steal.” A leading journal indicates that many businesses in our country condone dishonest practices within their structure. Recent investigations tend to confirm this statement. “Thou shalt not steal” is another of those basic life principles whose denial destroys personal self-respect and undermines the integrity of the economic structure. Honesty is first learned by conscientiously handling one’s own small responsibilities until it becomes a way of life. Similarly, it is through continued trivial violations that dishonesty becomes the shaky foundation of individual living. This fact holds true for worker and employer alike. Taking advantage of the other person, even within legal bounds, leaves a wake of resentment, of bitterness and of a desire to get even, a spirit which breaks down good will and solid economy. Individuals and groups cannot continue to defy mathematics and expect to get the right answers. In these complex and intricate business dealings of modern society, the Christian is one who has imposed upon himself a sharp conscience at this point of honesty. With keen awareness of fundamental justice, he sees to it that his own personal and corporate dealings are fair. Thereby he experiences in himself a sense of integrity and contributes to the group a basis for mutual confidence.

“Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness.” Our universe was structured by Truth. By deceit therefore one is playing false with Reality; one is running against the grain of the universe. When advertising aims first at sales, and then at truth; when national treaties have some temporary advantage, rather than permanent covenant in view; when individuals say what brings personal gain, rather than what is true and factual—then the inner core of life and of human affairs is but a rope of sand. “He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not” is a good motto of tenacious integrity. In scientific laboratories we cannot play fast and loose with facts; neither can we play fast and loose with facts in a world where all the powers of science can be unleashed either for death or life, depending on how much trust can once more permeate human relations on both the individual and the international levels. Humanity cannot continue to do business unless sincerity and trustworthiness are accepted again as life principles.

Dewey’s Mother Goose

Jack and Jill

Went up the hill

Discouraged and disgusted:

Jack was cool

To public school

And Jill was maladjusted.

Old Mother Hubbard

Went to the cupboard

To fetch a pre-primer

For Hughie:

But Hughie said, “Nay,

I’m learning through play—

For I’m a disciple of Dewey.”

Little Jack Horner

Sat in a Corner

Reading a grade One book:

He toiled at page one

And when he got done He said,

“Oh, Oh, Oh!

Look, Look, Look!”

Vic, in Saturday Night

“Thou Shalt Not Covet.” In the last of the Ten Commandments, God penetrates human consciousness at the point of responsible motivation. Covetousness, envy, greed, and selfishness are what motivate most of life’s individual and corporate breakdown. When we want but are unwilling to work for what does not belong to us, when we hate a person or people because they possess something we do not have, when we want to get but not give to society, then personality fulfillment is blocked and human progress becomes impossible. Jesus stressed Love as the Basic Life Principle—love that shares rather than grabs; that works rather than devours; that serves rather than is served. Such a Life moves into ever higher dimensions of satisfying, creative relationships. Because covetousness poisons the whole creative structure of life, “Thou shalt not covet.”

“I Am Not Come To Destroy The Law, But To Fulfill It.” Here Jesus witnesses to the continuous need for recognized Life Principles. “Humanity cannot survive if it continues to do as it pleases.” Life principles, however, are not inherited; they are taught. Each individual must accept them as his personal Way of Life in relation to Reality and as the only structure wherein life works and finds fulfillment.

Yet while one can recognize and accept Life Principles one can also have a nervous breakdown by trying alone to fulfill perfectly what is impossible. When Christ declared, “I came to fulfill,” he revealed the vital continuous relationship that functions between the Redeemer and the redeemed, while we dare not lose sight of what God has already done for us at Calvary, neither dare we forget that God constantly works in his children. He empowers them progressively to fulfill in their lives what Christ is actually fulfilling in their inner experience. God is ever on our side, seeking to lift us to his side!

Superintendent, Asheville District

Methodist Church

North Carolina

Jean Cadier

Job 1:8

The Preacher

Jean Cadier has been since 1957 President of the Montpellier Theological Faculty and Seminary in France. Soldier in World War I, chaplain in World War II (he holds a double Croix de Guerre), he was ordained pastor in the French Reformed Church in 1924. He later became Professor of Systematic Theology at Montpellier, where he earned his D.D. Noted Calvinist scholar and President of the Conference of Churches in Latin Europe, his biography of Calvin is now also available in English.

The Text:

And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?

The Series

This is the eighth feature of our 1962 series in which CHRISTIANITY TODAY has presented messages from notable preachers of God’s Word from the Continent and the United Kingdom. Future issues will include sermons from the Rev. J. A. Motyer, Vice-Principal of Clifton Theological College, Bristol, England; and the Rev. James Philip, minister of Holyrood Abbey Church, Edinburgh.

In vivid and poetic language the Book of Job propounds the problem, the only, the unique problem which haunts the human mind—the problem of suffering. I say puts the problem, I do not mean solves it. For that is one of the characteristics of the Bible: it does not give answers, it is not a book of philosophy to banish our difficulties. In recounting the story of Job, it puts aside all the false solutions, the imperfect and unjust ones, those of the troublesome comforters, the solutions which explain suffering as being a chastisem*nt or an educating process.

For there is no solution—only the presence of the Sovereign God, saying out of the whirlwind, Who art thou, O man, to penetrate the deepest of my secrets? The Bible tells us over and over again that we are not asked to understand, but to believe, to trust, to hope against hope. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him …” (Job 13:15).

No solution, then, is offered. What we do have is another way of putting the question. The primary causes of events taking place on earth are not to be found in earthly things. They come from further off and belong to another order of realities than that of our human setting. They come from a mysterious background, away beyond our understanding, where what is at stake is God’s own victory, God’s own glory.

How many times has the question, “Why?” come to our minds at the report of sad news? Why this sudden death of a friend whose action seemed so necessary for God’s work? Why the illness of another, why the death of that child in an unforeseen accident? Why all these threats on our world still torn apart by recent unhealed wounds?

For all these questions which we have brought with us into this sanctuary, the spoken or secret “why” of our wretched hearts and all the whys of our human condition, the Book of Job has no answer. Such an answer, indeed, is impossible in our hapless human plight as unenlightened sinners, but it speaks to our situation as men of God, urges us to resist despair, resolutely to keep the faith which upholds God’s honor against the adversary.

What do we find in this book? Two dialogues: one in heaven, one on earth. The first is cast in the form of a very simple story—a challenge flung at God by Satan—a question thrown up by the Deceived as to whether God can find on earth a single man who does really love Him with disinterested love. Then follows the dialogue on earth where the cries and protests of a sufferer clash with the counsels and inquisitions of his “learned” friends. And we who have heard the first dialogue feel like saying to the pious visitors and their wounding words: “For heaven’s sake, keep quiet, you do not see the real issue, you’ve missed the whole point. This man who scrapes himself with a potsherd among the ashes is not a culprit whom divine justice has to chastise, but a defender of God’s honor. He is a confessor, an unshakable witness, a believer. One thing only is asked of him: to hold fast in the storm which strips and breaks him, and inflicts deadly physical wounds.

Let us look again at his life’s story: “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them” (1:6). Yes, Satan the rebel, Satan the proud, Satan the enemy—Satan the revolted son, whose wish is to dethrone his father, the Absalom coveting the kingship. “And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” “For the earth is my domain, my hunting-ground, my kingdom,” he might have added. “I walk on it as a master in a conquered territory. And all these men that thou didst put there to serve thee, it is I whom they serve, they are mine, they are my slaves, I lead them and they obey me.” That is in fact Satan’s claim: to expel God from this world, to possess the earth, to display his demonic power of destruction and of hatred, of corruption, of death. “I come from going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down in it.”

But God speaks: “Hast thou considered my servant Job?” Satan’s brow darkens, his arrogance is deflated. Yes, he has certainly noticed him. How could he help but notice him? A man who refuses to give in to evil like everybody else does, this man who resists him and who will obey God alone, this man who will have nothing to do with him. This man who checks his power. Indeed he has noticed him!

Thus do we learn, brethren, that we are not the only judges and spectators of our actions and of our lives. The latter are not, as it were, sufficient unto themselves. They are looked upon from somewhere, they are being noticed from above and from below, by angels and by men. They are for God or for Satan. They reflect a certain glory, God’s glory or Satan’s, a certain concern for God’s honor or for Satan’s, for God’s joy or for Satan’s. A single individual, loving and serving God, checks Satan’s power. What is at stake is greater than our own interest or any human interest—what is at stake is nothing less than the very glory of God.

The Challenge Of Satan

But Satan refuses to acknowledge defeat, and returns to the attack: “Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?… But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face” (1:10, 11). The gauntlet is thrown down. Satan pretends that Job’s love for God is not a true love, but an interested piety which would not resist the strain of ruin. In that case God would in fact have no worshiper whatsoever on earth. Love would not be loved. God would not be served for his own sake, but for reward only.

If Job gives up under the blows raining down on him, if he revolts or curses God, if Job’s love fails because God’s care of him seems to have been withdrawn, then Satan triumphs and God is vanquished. If Job remains faithful in the face of suffering, then the Enemy is confounded and God has won.

Job unknowingly is becoming, in the eyes of the heavenly onlookers, the champion for God’s honor and the defender of his glory. Could there be a stranger tournament? Job fights on God’s behalf, quite unaware of the tremendous issues at stake. Satan exhibits his confidence in the outcome: “We shall see if he does not curse thee to thy face” (Job 1:11, French version).

So it happens that grief and ruin strike Job. His riches, his children, his health, all in turns are taken away from him. Messengers come running to bring the dreadful news. Broken by grief, he bows down and worships: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Look at him now, sitting on a heap of ashes, devoured by “loathsome sores,” covered with dust—a wretched creature if ever there was one. He suffers, complains outrageously, roars under the crushing pain. But he does not doubt. And in the background of hidden causes, they wait expectantly. Invisible spectators wonder what will be the end of the struggle. Who will win? God or Satan? Love or revolt? Love for God, or for self? At last the fight is over—God has won!

The Continuing Conflict

Thus, brethren, behind our human acting there is a back stage where fights take place away beyond our understanding. We know neither the secrets nor the details thereof, we are actors in it without knowing the whole story. But this we do know, since the Bible tells us: our humble and patient faithfulness glorifies God. Who knows whether upon such inexplicable circ*mstances concerning our lives or the lives of our loved ones, God’s divine glory is not at stake!

When in our sorrowing lives we have counted up what can be attributed to our own responsibility, our own carelessness, or a physical incapacity, yet find, deep in our sorrow, an incomprehensible element for which we cannot account, let us think that this mysterious misfortune is a chapter in the continuous heavenly battle.

God must win, Satan and his numerous company must know that God is loved for himself, because he is the Father, he is loved apart from all the mercies or the blessings he grants us, he is loved even when we think ourselves forsaken by him, he is loved in the dark ordeal of suffering, even when he smites us. It must become evident, despite the tragic reality of our lives, that God is above health, riches, or even the physical presence of our loved ones. It must become evident that our faith stands over and above all separations, all anguish, all grief. Then will God be truly glorified.

For what brings glory to God is not only great external actions, enterprises of evangelism, the pouring out of charity or generosity. It is also the obscure labor of the never-failing faithfulness.

It may be that in that great day of complete revelation, when at last we will understand the secret of our destiny, we shall learn that the most shining jewels of our Lord’s crown have been polished by this slow process which pain exercises on the soul. We shall perhaps know why Adolphe Monod of the “Adieux” is greater than the Adolphe Monod of the powerful preaching in Lyons, Montauban or Paris; why Vinet praying at the bedside of his epileptic son, is greater than the Vinet of the articles in the “Semeur”; why Pascal of the “Pensees,” those sublime scribbles jotted down amid headaches, is greater than the Pascal of the “Provinciales.” We shall discover that a certain sick man, nailed to his bed of suffering for years, has done more for God’s cause than that preacher overflowing with activity and zeal.

What counts is that throughout the darkest night we should remain unyieldingly attached by faith to God, refusing despair at all costs. The tragedy of all human lives is but a small part of the tragedy of our enormous universe. God fights for his sovereignty, and he wants to banish Satan out of the world. He seeks among men instruments with which to effect his victory.

And lo, above the dark struggle, rises the sign of the Son of Man. The Christ of the pierced hands passes through our cities, our discussions, our business. He passes by, a new job, utterly dispossessed, forgotten, penniless, homeless, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, ready to face even the anguish of Calvary.

He has nothing. Yet his poverty blazons forth with a wonderful power. He is full with the fullness of God. In him Satan has no part whatever, for Christ has renounced all that would be a basis for the enemy’s maneuvers. He is completely selfless, and considers only the will of his Father. He passes by, calling men to leave all and follow God only, as he himself did. He shows the purpose of that suffering which tries to frighten us, tries to separate us from God, and make us believe that God is powerless, unjust or indifferent to our plight, or that he does not love us. Grief would inveigle us into joining the camp of the rebels, the doubters, the malcontents. Those who are close to us may say like Job’s wife: “Curse God and die.” Pious friends will crowd round and suggest that we look into our souls, and seek to convince us to espy in our tragedy a chastisem*nt or a divine forsaking.

It matters not, let us turn away to prayer. God is stronger than our grief, and above all our defeats. Of us he asks but one thing: that we remain trusting and strong, making constant affirmation of the many I knows of our Christian assurance, and with an unswerving obedience acknowledging him as Lord. Only thus can we witness to the total sovereignty of the Father upon the disputed battlefield of the world. Only thus shall we be instruments whereby the glory of God may burst forth in the heavenly places wherein mysterious battles are fought.

15 Gramercy Park

New York 10, N. Y.

American Association on Mental Deficiency

P. O. Box 96

Willimantic, Conn.

American Bible Society

450 Park Ave.

New York 22, N. Y.

(Braille recordings and other services)

American Foundation for the Blind

15 West 16th St.

New York 11, N. Y.

American Hearing Society

919 18th St., N. W.

Washington 6, D. C.

Association for the Aid of Crippled Children

345 East 46th St.

New York 17, N. Y.

Boy Scouts of America, Inc.

New Brunswick, N. J.

(Handbook on scouting for the handicapped)

Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind

2021 14th St., N. W.

Washington 9, D. C.

Council for Exceptional Children

National Education Association

1201 16th St., N. W.

Washington 6, D. C.

Department of Health, Education and Welfare

Office of Vocational Rehabilitation

330 Independence Ave, S. W.

Washington 25, D. C.

(Contact also welfare departments for individual states.)

Girl Scouts of the United States of America

820 Third Ave.

New York 22, N. Y.

(Handbook on scouting for the handicapped)

Hogg Foundation for Mental Health,

University of Texas

Austin 12, Texas

International Council for Exceptional Children

1201 16th St., N. W.

Washington 6, D. C.

John Milton Society

475 Riverside Drive

New York 27, N. Y.

(Free religious readings and recordings for the blind)

John Tracy Clinic

924 West 37th St.

Los Angeles, Cal.

(Home study course for parents of deaf children)

National Association for Gifted Children,

409 Clinton Springs Ave.

Cincinnati 17, Ohio

National Association for Mental Health

10 Columbus Circle

New York 19, N. Y.

National Association for Retarded Children

386 Park Ave, So.

New York 16, N. Y.

National Society for Crippled Children and Adults, Inc.

2023 West Ogden Ave,

Chicago 12, Ill.

The Problem Of Suffering

Biblical Selections

EPHESIANS—For the believer God has provided spiritual riches in this life and the next.

JOB—Criticized by friends who try to understand his troubles, a righteous man discovers that God’s purposes reach far beyond his own insights.

PSALMS—Man cries out his heart-need in times of trial and suffering and triumphantly witnesses to God’s deliverance.

ROMANS—Man, lost in a sin-darkened world, can find a blessed hope of eternal and joyful life in Jesus Christ, his Lord and Saviour.

General Selections

(The following represent some of many readings which portray psychological factors and resources available for the suffering Christian.)

DERHAM, A. MORGAN, The Mature Christian. Revell, 1961, 128 pages, $2.50. Biblical principles presented throughout the text will aid in understanding the chapter devoted to the problem of suffering.

EVANS, DALE, Angel Unaware. Revell, 1953, 63 pages, $1.25. A Christian mother portrays the sorrow, but also joy and spiritual growth for many, brought by her mongoloid daughter, Robin Elizabeth Rogers.

GOCKEL, HERMAN W., Answer to Anxiety. Concordia, 1961, 192 pages, $3. Here is effective sharing of many problems and solutions to encourage those who hunger for certainty and direction in a tragedy-filled world.

GOULOOZE, WILLIAM, Victory Over Suffering. Baker, 1949, 152 pages, $2. From his own experience in suffering through illness, the author gives suggestions for others.

LAUTERBACK, WILLIAM A., Ministering to the Sick. Concordia, 1955, 196 pages, $2. For the minister’s use, companionship in suffering is expressed in devotional prayers for sick-bed situations.

Mow, ANNA B., Say “Yes” to Life. Zondervan, 1961, 152 pages, $2.50. Those who know about being born into a new life may need help with its “growing pains” in shifting from self-life to Christ-life in today’s world.

PHILLIPS, J. B., Your God is Too Small. Macmillan, 1961, 126 pages, $1.10 (paperback edition). Crisis situations replace a childhood concept of God with one more proper and adequate to today’s need.

Understanding The Child

Books

(The following give aid concerning the exceptional child’s problems, potential, behavior and training, with suggestions for home and school.)

ABRAHAM, WILLARD, A Guide for the Study of Exceptional Children. Sargent, 1955, 263 pages, $3.50. With outlines, topics, selected articles and extensive bibliographies, a leader in the field describes from a practical, sympathetic viewpoint how to know and to teach exceptional children.

ABRAHAM, WILLARD, Common Sense About Gifted Children. Harper’s, 268 pages, $5. Living up to its title, this readable, well-documented volume presents a good, general introduction to the subject.

BOWERS, JOAN E. and others, Exceptional Children in Home, School and Community. Dent, 1960, 433 pages, $5. Four educators bring information about classification hazards, tests, and ways of helping various types of physically handicapped, mentally retarded, intellectually superior, and emotionally disturbed in this somewhat technical volume.

BRUMBAUGH, FLORENCE N. and BERNARD ROSHEO, Your Gifted Child. Holt, 1959, 182 pages, $3.75. The parent will find aid as he concentrates upon the suggestions offered, and notes the vivid picture of giftedness and its detection, the patterns of procedure which help and which hinder its development.

CRUICKSHANK, WILLIAM M. (ed.), Psychology of Exceptional Children and Youth. Prentice Hall, 1955, 594 pages, $8.65. This somewhat technical but readable book includes a chapter by Ruth Strang.

FRENCH, JOSEPH L., Educating the Gifted. Holt, 1959, 555 pages, $7.50 (text ed. $5.50). Carefully selected readings will help teachers to understand the educational research, programs, and procedures related to gifted children.

GARRETT, J. and E. LEVINE (eds.), Psychological Practices With the Physically Disabled. Columbia, 1962, 500 pages, $10. The psychological principles and techniques for rehabilitating the physically disabled are presented with professional flair.

PERRY, NATALIE, Teaching the Mentally Retarded Child. Columbia, 1960, 282 pages, $5. Detailed suggestions for guiding the child embrace points for self-care, self-expression, crafts, work, understanding of environment and group projects of interest to teachers in church and school.

STRANG, RUTH, Helping Your Gifted Child. Dutton, 1960, 270 pages, $4.50. Parents and teachers must recognize the gifted child and help him to understanding. Included in this basic readable book are an annoted bibliography and a list of suggested books for children.

Pamphlets and Bibliographies

(Recommended as an introduction to the field.)

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN, “Educating Children Who Are Gifted. A Study Guide,” 1958, 13 pages, $0.25. Annotated. Includes resource aids from the various states. Order from: AAUW, 1634 Eye St., N.W., Washington 6, D. C.

DEHAAN, ROBERT F., “Guidelines to Parents of Capable Youth,” 1961, 48 pages, $0.40. Helps parents see what they can do to help their children make better use of their abilities. Write to: Science Research Associates, Inc., 259 E. Erie St., Chicago 11, Ill., and enclose payment.

GOLDBERG, MIRIAM L. and ABRAHAM J. TANNENBAUM, “Acceleration and Enrichment Proposals for Education of Gifted Students”: A Cooperative Action Program for Curriculum Improvement. Procure this annotated bibliography from: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, National Education Association, 1201 16th St., N.W., Washington, D. C., by enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

UNITED STATES CHILDREN’S BUREAU, “Your Gifted Child,” 39 pages, $0.20. Practical, down-to-earth discussion about what parents need to know in living with a gifted child. Order from: Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C.

WISHIK, SAMUEL M., “How To Help Your Handicapped Child.” Public Affairs Pamphlet, #219, 28 pages, $0.25. A vivid, illustrated, interesting, brief description of the situation which a handicapped child brings to parents, and some helpful suggestions for dealing with it. Procure from: Public Affairs Pamphlets, 22 East 38th St., New York 16, N.Y.

The Ministry Of The Church

Books

(Since books listed are concerned with special needs of children and ways of meeting them, for information concerning the message and method in Christian education see note at end of this section.)

KEMP, CHARLES F., The Pastor and Community Resources. Bethany, 1960, 100 pages, $1.50. This pastor’s handbook provides lists and directories of national and community resources. It includes also spaces for adding local addresses.

KEMP, CHARLES F., The Church: The Gifted and Retarded Child. Bethany, 1958, 189 pages, $3.50. Two separate sections discuss gifted and retarded children, including existence and analysis of the problem, and suggestions for religious education and guidance.

PALMER, CHARLES E., The Church and the Exceptional Person. Abingdon, 1961, 174 pages, $1.75. This is a helpful guide for church leaders working with the physically, mentally or emotionally handicapped. Suggestions are given for locating them, for preparing teachers and materials to minister in special services—all by one long experienced in special education. This is a Standard Leadership Text of the National Council of Churches.

PETERSON, SIGURD D., Retarded Children: God’s Children. Westminster, 1960, 156 pages, $3. “Is the retarded person made in the image of God for God’s glory?” Based on more than four years of experience among 600 patients, the author’s concerned understanding and suggestions bring interest and wisdom to its content.

ROBERTS, GUY L., How The Church Can Help Where Delinquency Begins. John Knox, 1958, 151 pages, $1.50. Five children, some exceptional, are described, then the potential role the church must play as a salutary fellowship for them is thought-provokingly outlined.

ROBERTSON, JOSEPHINE, How To Help Through Understanding. Abingdon, 1961, 128 pages, $2.25. Terse, practical suggestions are given for showing kindness in many, varied relationships. Chapters on helping the handicapped and aiding those with heartaches, are especially pertinent.

ROLFSRUD, E. N., One to One. Augsburg, 1961, 116 pages, $2.50 (paper). This volume describes how a college boy discovers a church’s task in communicating the Gospel to the deaf and the blind.

Note: For books dealing with Christian education and hence for Christian training also for exceptional children, see titles under “Christian Education Library” (CHRISTIANITY TODAY, February 27, 1961) and “Departmental Library Titles” (CHRISTIANITY TODAY, August 28, 1961). Note especially these topics: Psychology and Christian Education, The Teaching Process, Evangelism and Christian Education, Christian Education in the Home, and The Christian Home.

Periodicals

AMACHER, PHYLLIS, “The Church School and the Handicapped Child,” International Journal of Religious Education. December 1960.

GREEVY, WILLIAM H., “Gifted Children Need Motivation,” Religious Education, September 1957.

GROENFELDT, J. S., “Church and Its Gifted Children,” International Journal of Religious Education. December 1959.

KEMP, CHARLES F., “Who are the Persons With Special Needs?” International Journal of Religious Education, February 1962. (This issue is devoted to “The Church’s Mission and Persons of Special Need.” The evangelical will supplement the spiritual message, in many cases, but will find in the 13 articles much to aid his church in its ministry.)

NEFF, HERBERT B., “Buried Talents: The Gifted Child in Church,” CHRISTIANITY TODAY, February 16, 1962.

Technical training of astronauts is relatively rapid. A youth’s development into manhood is a far longer, and yes, far more awesome process.

It begins with God’s creation of a life. It continues with the birth of a baby with potential either to bless or to curse his Maker, to fulfill or deny his responsibility to society.

Children are, indeed, an heritage of the Lord, and among a nation’s choicest resources. This treasure includes handicapped children—the mentally retarded as well as the physically limited. Too often the church has overlooked the crippled, epileptic, blind, deaf, spastic and other handicapped youngsters. Too long we have failed the mentally retarded of whom approximately 300,000 are born each year in the United States alone.

This treasure of human resources includes also the gifted child (I.Q. of 133 and above). Inadequate or improper direction and care often has short-circuited his abilities into assorted problems for himself and for others. All of these—handicapped and gifted—are named “exceptional” because they deserve special education for specific potential and needs.

Throughout the United States some 6,117,798 such exceptional children will need special education in 1963 according to estimates by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. (Statistics elsewhere around the world would, no doubt, be equally sobering.) These youngsters reach out for satisfying experiences in family, church, and community life. Not only parents, but pastors and lay leaders as well, must cultivate the means and methods whereby the exceptional can truly live to the glory of God.

While increasing numbers of churches are augmenting and adapting their work to meet the needs of the handicapped and gifted, many more need to show active concern. Here is a wide open door to an effectual ministry, one showing the perspective and power of the Gospel.

Such a ministry requires use of knowledge and understanding in specialized areas. Secular sources have contributed much information concerning exceptional children: it is not to be viewed askance. Physiological and other purely scientific data is essential to proper diagnosis, without which helpful mental, social, emotional, physical, and often even spiritual guidance of such boys and girls cannot proceed successfully. Special equipment may be needed, as well as materials and methods adapted to this learning and teaching. The church should be aware of the technical orientation and assistance offered by tax-supported and private agencies; assistance which she herself is in no position to provide, financially or otherwise.

Available materials concern themselves also with the parents and associates of exceptional children, they describe personal relationships in various environments. Instruction for preventing, as well as for recognizing and meeting problems in children is important, too. And in the church, no less than in society at large, both “normal” and exceptional persons often need help in acceptance of and respect for others, as individuals.

The attached bibliography is diverse in content and approach. Obviously, not all materials on the subject are of equal importance to all persons in all situations. Additional references could be cited, too, for an encouraging upturn in interest is apparent today.

The entire Bible emphasizes Christian training. The tabernacle had educational significance in its construction and in the worship activities which centered there. Priests stressed the educational element both in the requirements for the offerings and in the procedures followed. The prophets gave their children didactic names and used other educational methods. Jesus was universally addressed as teacher, and all three parts of the Great Commission emphasize teaching. Paul wrote 13 didactic letters, and the New Testament church included teachers as functionaries. So the biblical emphasis on teaching and training is evident. Educational principles deduced from the Bible are of special importance, and in this article we state some of them.

The Individual—A Living Soul

Some time ago a school of psychologists called Behaviorists developed in our nation. They stressed the idea that man is merely a physical organism and his development simply the result of stimulus and response. In other words, man is a material being only and there is no nonphysical element in his makeup. This puts him on the plane of animals and indicates that society can make of him anything it likes. His outcome is determined wholly by environment and conditioning. He is to be trained like any other animal.

The Bible regards man as a living soul. He is person as well as personality. In Genesis 2:7 we are told, “… God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” So he is both matter and spirit, or body and mind. Therefore he is to be dealt with not just as a physical organism but rather as a self-determining soul possessing both matter and mind. This puts his training on an entirely different level from that of animals.

Behaviorism has been largely replaced in education, but there are still mechanistic psychologies which would make all forms of activity mere functions of the physical and which consider that all behavior is physiologically determined. Opposed to these are the more commonly accepted psychologies which view man as dynamic or psychogenic: which see him as possessing dynamic forces. Unconscious, ego and super-ego interact to produce motivations and drives affecting or even determining conduct and behavior. These psychologies take full account of psychological structures and functions, but conceive of the individual as far more than these. The organismic or biosocial psychologies emphasize the self-other relationship, the individual as an interacting part of a social group. This relationship determines what the person will be. “Motivations are desires that arise in the interaction of the ego with his environment” (Cornelius Jaarsma, Human Development, Learning and Teaching, Eerdmans, 1961, p. 33.) There is, no doubt, some truth in all of these theories, but the biblical record presents a perspective adequate to all of life.

Training For Development

If what has been said is true it is necessary that from the beginning the child be given an environment offering right opportunities for growth. Unconscious influence has much to do in shaping life, and the person should have the proper surroundings from the start. Domestically, “proper” means a good home with loving and informed Christian parents. Educationally, it involves a good school system. Religiously, it calls for the right type of church with understanding of and provision for every individual. All of this is accentuated by the fact that the child has playing upon him many kinds of influences which may be used for good or harm. Radio and television are outstanding examples.

Whether saint or sinner, the individual becomes a growing personality by the various ways in which he reacts to his environment and the opportunities which it offers. An environment rich in opportunity will permit his development of potential abilities. Such development, in its very broadest meaning, is covered by the term “behavior.” There is a sense in which all that any form of education can do is to offer opportunities for learning. This is what the educator means when he speaks of “activities,” of “an enriched curriculum.” Personality grows and takes shape on the basis of choices made in reaction to the environmental opportunities.

The wholesome environment includes helpful teaching geared to the child’s ability and needs. The Bible wisely says: “Train up a child in the way he should go, And even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6, ASV). This emphasis is particularly applicable to the home and the church in the preschool period, in many ways the most formative one. It applies also to other years and agencies.

Benjamin Kidd was right when he stated that by inculcating the ideal any civilization could be changed in one generation. He mentioned Germany and Russia as two striking examples.

Teaching The Christian Truths

One of the serious problems confronting our nation is the extreme secularization of education. In the early days it was not so. Two of our states specifically set up public schools to teach people to read so they could read the Bible. Bible reading in public schools was often compulsory and prayers were frequently offered. The teachers in many instances were the ministers, or individuals examined and certified by them. Textbooks were permeated with biblical, religious, and doctrinal material, as we find in The New England Primer and The American Spelling Book, two famous texts.

Now times have changed. In one state the Supreme Court recently ruled that the Gideons could not put Bibles in class rooms. In another, trustees forbade young people’s having a voluntary prayer meeting in a vacant class room at noon. In yet another, pupils were forbidden to take their own Bibles into school. And in one city where McGuffey readers were used, authorities pasted paper over the name of God. So if children today are to get the biblical teachings needed they must get them at home, through the churches on Sundays, in released time classes during the week, or in Christian day schools. The most recent Supreme Court decision regarding prayer in the public school tends to confirm this.

Instruction Adapted To Needs

Since we are teaching to meet life needs rather than simply to transmit a body of truth, it is very evident that both material and method must be adapted to the ages, experiences and abilities of the pupils. As has been said: “We don’t teach lessons, we teach people.” The Scriptures will constitute the core of the curriculum but the learner’s maturity has much to do with the method employed, and something to do with the material used. Pupils’ experiences in life are closely related to the needs confronted and the materials selected. Therefore, we try to understand the problems faced at each period in life and use materials in the light of them.

All of this means graded aims, materials, and methods. The interest center approach will not be used with adults, nor the lecture method with children. For those too young to read, the use of pictures, objects, and stories is helpful. They may be effectively used with all ages. Since little children are naturally imitative and dramatic, the acting out of a lesson is a normal procedure for them. Adults prefer to discuss. Uniform lessons fit adults, but are not so suitable for children. The aim or major emphasis will vary: conversion may be the dominant aim at one stage and stewardship at another. Whether or not a teacher discusses all of the verses recommended by his teaching helps for use in a lesson is somewhat incidental. What he does stress should meet life needs. Regeneration is a basic life need for all.

An Adequate Response Important

Complete response of the total person is needed. A response based only on intellect may be too cold and barren. If too exclusively emotional, it may be superficial and temporal. If an act of will without thought or feeling, it is too mechanical. Many backslidings from the faith, and failures to meet pledges come when responses do not include the total self. There must be thought, feeling, and will if commitment is to be complete. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind …” (Luke 10:27).

So care should be exercised in our approach not to seek only an intellectual response, lest it prove barren. Neither should we be so emotional as to fail in swaying the intellect and will, and thus be superficial and temporal. Nor should the appeal be so exclusively volitional as to contain little or no thought and feeling. It may be better to have no response than an inadequate one. If one goes back on his promise, the last state is often worse than the first. Many atheists once made professions of faith. Response should contain thought, feeling, and will to be adequate and permanent. The Holy Spirit can guide the effective Christian teacher and produce such commitment in the lives of his pupils.

As these principles control our Christian training results should increasingly show a generation of people after the likeness of Christ. Well-rounded personalities will be developed with Christian character at the core of life, and evils that eat at the heart of our society will progressively be lessened.

Christian maturity is infinitely more than successful self-improvement! “Without me ye can do nothing.” Never were words more explicit, less ambiguous; and their source is unimpeachable!

Jesus could not have spoken more simply yet no words uttered by him are more profound. The Christian needs his Saviour as lungs need breath, the heart blood, the body energy. Without his Saviour the Christian is a cipher. All he needs he finds in Jesus Christ, all God offers is given in Jesus Christ. Without his Saviour the Christian has nothing, with Him he has everything.

Christian Maturity And A Person

This is not oversimplification, it is the deepest truth in Scripture, the distilled essence of all the Scriptures teach. Does the Christian need life? Jesus Christ is his life. Does he seek wisdom? In Jesus Christ are “stored up all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Does he long for righteousness? Christ has been made “our righteousness.” Does his soul hunger? Jesus Christ is the “true bread.” Is his spirit barren, arid? Jesus Christ is unto him a “fountain of living water.” God’s total resources for man’s total need have been made available in the person of Jesus Christ. These are not professional clichés, they are the truth of God. If by reason of thoughtless use they sound smug or pat or stereotyped, let the perfunctory handling be judged, not the words, for they are the very substance of Christian maturity. They are the key to effective Christian education.

Reduced to simplest terms the theme of the Bible is man’s failure to conform to the divine expectation and God’s provision to reclaim that cosmic default. The heart of this reclamation is the fact that God’s provision centers not in precepts, but in a Person. Man’s frightful loss is met and his duty to God realized when he is properly related to that Person. His failure is manifest, not so much by obvious vices but with far greater subtlety, by his aloofness to, if not total rejection of this Person who embodies the provision. He is perennially defeated, not because he disregards ethical precepts, but because he will not submit to the Person. Indeed, he not uncommonly employs conformity to certain precepts as self-justification for evading the Person. The Pharisees epitomized this self-deceiving, self-defeating practice, before his conversion the Apostle Paul himself being the supreme example. They boasted in the law not because they kept it, but because they possessed it. That which was intended to lead them to Christ (Rom. 10:4; Gal. 3:24) became their reason for rejecting him (Mark 7:6–9). Precepts became their besetting sin; they not only failed to produce spiritual maturity, they were the very basis for hostility to God.

Obviously, therefore, such hostility is aggravated rather than resolved by man’s efforts toward self-improvement and demands reconciliation through a radical adjustment which Jesus called being “born again.” Spiritual regeneration depends upon man’s recognition of his need, its solution in Jesus Christ, and a personal response of faith or acceptance; his spiritual growth depends upon a continuation of this relationship. Christian education must aim at the effectuation of this relationship and its preservation. Education, by whatever name, which perpetuates the illusion that man is able in and of himself to solve this problem not only tails, it is antagonistic to authentic Christian faith.

The conventional “image” of Christianity in our modern world is utterly contrary to New Testament truth. Christianity is conceived as primarily ethical, the Christian being a man doing his best to behave. To be respectable is to be Christian and vice-versa. It is widely accepted without question, both within and without the Church, that the distinction between a Christian and a non-Christian is one of degree, not of kind. In fact, it is commonly assumed that all Americans (all Westerners for that matter) save Jews, are Christian as distinguished from the “heathen” of primitive lands, and even this distinction is rapidly evaporating as civilization, equated with Christianity, spreads its veneer over the fast-changing world.

The assumption therefore is that man is perfectible in himself, that all the resources necessary are endemic in him, waiting only psychological inducements. When Christian education capitulates to this basic error, it defects to the fruitless effort of improving man simply by increasing his knowledge and making him more socially conscious and responsible. Emphasis is on his adjustment to his fellowman rather than on his reconciliation to God which is fundamental to life. Ignoring man’s eternal welfare (“if only in this life we have hope in Christ we are of all men most to be pitied”) it fails in its this-worldly goals as well, because it contributes to self-deification which is the root of the problem. The futility of so-called Christian education which is primarily a matter of ethical maturation is tragically apparent in the fact that in spite of a general increase of religious interest and church attendance, since World War II, there has been an inexorable moral disintegration.

Education As Relationship

Christianity issues in ethics but ethics is one of its effects rather than its goal. Christianity produces ethical man, but it is quite common for a man to be ethical though not Christian. Education which does not result in the ethical, socially responsible man is not true Christian education, but if it produces only the socially adjusted, ethical man, it is infinitely less than Christian. It is self-defeating and contrary to biblical faith for it pits man’s self-sufficiency against God’s grace.

Saul of Tarsus exceeded all his contemporaries in trying to be a man of righteousness; but his zealous, dedicated, single-minded struggle drove him farther and farther from his goal. Christ was his despised enemy, the Church a scourge to be obliterated, and he understood this very passion for righteousness to be Israel’s impasse: “I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened. For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Rom. 10:2–3, RSV). This is the congenital perversity at the root of the human dilemma, man seeking his own righteousness in violation of God’s order, man alienating himself from God by an imitation godliness which has the form but not the power. Education which espouses this counterfeit righteousness is the antithesis of Christian education.

Were the Apostle Paul opening a school for Christian growth it is not difficult to locate in his Epistles those principles which would comprise his philosophy of education. His prayers, for example, delineate the goals he would undoubtedly incorporate in the charter: “… that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead …” (Eph. 1:17–20, RSV). “… that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:16–19, RSV).

Paul’s curriculum would certainly reflect the revolutionary experience to which he testifies in Philippians 3:4–16. Where can be found a better statement of the purpose of Christian education than these words of the great apostle: “… I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death … one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:8–14, RSV).

In biblical perspective Christian education and the secular spirit are 180 degrees apart. Secularism believes that man’s best is adequate; Christian education begins with the fact that man’s best is less than the least God intended but that God in Christ has done for man what he is incapable of doing for himself. Secularism strives for self-realization, Christian education teaches self-denial unto Christ-realization. Secularism is self-improvement, Christian education is life transformation by the power of God. Secularism is man’s endeavoring to do his best, Christian education puts no confidence in human assets but schools the Christian to appropriate the inexhaustible reserve of grace in the Saviour.

This does not mean that Christian education is pessimistic about man. On the contrary it is optimistic in the ultimate; its norm is the perfect man, Jesus Christ. Effort at self-improvement leads alternately to the pride of success or the despair of failure, if it does not leave one on the plateau of mediocrity and indifference; whereas true Christian education cuts the tap root of pride and exploits failure as a means of leading one to more complete dependence upon the grace of God in Christ. Failure, frustration and defeat are never final, they are part of the tempering process, helping the Christian to be increasingly realistic about himself and about the resources of God. They do not lead the growing Christian into morbid introspection and preoccupation with self, they lead him to deeper insights into human nature in general, his own in particular, and increased dependence upon the indwelling Christ.

To be spiritually mature is to be Christ-confident, rather than self-confident. The mature Christian is a realist having been disillusioned in self enough to know that self-confidence is illusory whereas dependence upon Christ is fulfilling. As independence characterizes the adolescent, so the egocentric attitude is the hall mark of immaturity in adults; misnamed self-confidence, it is actually pride which is self-deification. Education not oriented in the Scriptures can produce the self-reliant, self-confident, self-contained man for whom self-disillusionment when it comes is often traumatic. Refusing to be mastered by Christ, he becomes a slave of the tyrant self and inevitably a victim of the realities of life. Genuine Christian education leads to the self-surrendered, Christ-managed man. He is invincible because the life he lives is not his own, it is literally the life of the Son of God dwelling in him. He is crucified with Christ yet he lives and the life he lives is Christ’s!

The authentic impact of Christianity in the world is infinitely more than the influence of man at his best, it is the power of God operative in the lives of those who know they need their Saviour, who have surrendered to his Lordship, and in whom and through whom he does the will of the Father on earth as it is in heaven. For this evidence of legitimate Christianity our modern world languishes.

“Jesus Christ is the true God of men, that is to say, of beings miserable and sinful. He is the center of everything and the object of everything; and he who does not know Him knows nothing of the order of the world, and nothing of himself. For not only do we not know God, otherwise than by Jesus Christ; we do not know ourselves otherwise than by Jesus Christ. In Him is all our virtue and all our felicity; apart from Him there is nothing but vice, misery, errors, clouds, despair, and we see only obscurity and confusion in the nature of God and in our own.”

Pascal, Pensées sur la Religion

“Allied to Thee our vital Head

We act, and grow, and thrive.

From Thee divided each is dead

When most he seems alive.”

Doddridge, Hymns Founded on

Texts in the Holy Scriptures.

Awards For Best Sermons On Human Destiny

Universalism with its profoundly unbiblical thesis that all men are already saved is sweeping Protestantism. To arouse active concern over this distorted “gospel” which cuts the nerve both of evangelism and missions, CHRISTIANITY TODAY announces a stimulating venture. More than $1,000 will be awarded for relevant sermons (abridged to 2,500 words in written form) that (1) expose the fallacies of this contemporary movement and (2) faithfully expound the biblical revelation of man’s final destiny and the ground and conditions of his redemption. Selection of winners will be by CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S editorial readers, whose decisions will be final. First, second and third place awards of $500, $250, and $125, respectively, will be paid upon publication of the sermons. The editors reserve the right to publish two additional manuscripts selected for fourth and fifth place awards of $75 each. All rights to winning manuscripts become magazine property.

All entries must be original sermons actually preached to a congregation sometime during 1962. Two typewritten, double-spaced copies of each submitted sermon should be postmarked to the Washington office of CHRISTIANITY TODAY no later than December 31, 1962. No manuscript will be returned unless a self-addressed, stamped envelope accompanies the entry. Attached to each sermon (both copies) should be a cover page giving the contributor’s name, address, and present station of service.

Is it possible to be biblical, yet realistic and relevant? This is a crucial and haunting question which demands honest confrontation by those engaged in Christian education. We cannot escape it, either by ignoring it, or by quickly and glibly answering in the affirmative, as if the question presents no real problem worthy of careful consideration.

The fact is that there are many who have answered the question negatively. As a consequence they are essentially “post-biblical” in their approach to Christian education. To be sure, they make use of certain broad biblical ideas which are deemed valuable, such as the fact that God is Creator, or that Jesus’ life represents the ideal for humanity. But they do not make a vital mastery of the Bible their ideal. For they are convinced that placing the Bible at the center of Christian education means turning back the clock to the prescientific world of the first century or of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It means, as they see it, betraying historic developments not only in the physical sciences but also in the human sciences, that is, in anthropology, psychology, sociology, and philosophy. To their minds such an idea also means turning our backs on the burning personal and social problems of our day. They hold that the hydrogen-space age is vastly different from that of the Bible, and that we cannot hope to deal with its challenges and threats within a biblical focus.

Fortunately, even in such an approach more biblical ideas are utilized than is consciously realized either by the educators or the educated. Essentially, however, this approach resorts to moralizing, psychologizing, culturing, analyzing, socializing, legalizing, and philosophizing. The result is a natural, common sense theology which is often sound as far as human wisdom goes and is frequently not unbiblical. For who can say that discourses on the appreciation of nature and of art, or on the requisites for mental health, or on the conditions for happy family life are opposed to the Scriptures? But such discourses may well be nonbiblical, in so far as they are based primarily on the word of man. They frequently do not reflect what is essential and distinctive to the biblical faith, and are serviceable equally to non-Christian and Christian. What is lacking is the Pauline concept that whatever is done must be done unto the Lord, with all that such an injunction means and implies.

The Bible And Relevance

Those of us who are biblically concerned are all too quick to point out these deficiencies without at the same time appreciating the values of such an approach. For it embodies a highly commendable desire that Christianity speak decisively to our times. It also bespeaks a judgment, namely, that those who are committed to the primacy of the Bible in Christian education have either failed to relate it to contemporary life, or have done so in such a way as to emerge with vague panaceas which do not really speak to its problems, or with religious, ethical, political, social views which are not distinctively different from the views of those to whom the Bible is unknown. If the study of the Bible leads us to turn our backs on this world, because this world is hopeless and our concern is for the next, or if it results in naïve prescriptions such as the view that prayer solves all problems, or if it issues in basically the same positions and practices with respect to race, nationalism, business and labor ethics, education, politics, marriage, peace and nuclear war, and life under God as those have who do not focus on the Bible, then the question is whether we are right in insisting on the indispensability of the Scriptures in Christian education and in devoting our time and energies to giving the Bible a central place in it. Wisdom is justified by her children. The wisdom of a bibliocentric approach to Christian education will be justified if it makes a vital difference in life, both in its Godward and its manward aspects. The biblical focus will be vindicated if it is shown to be distinctive and indispensable in wrestling with the most pressing problems of the twentieth century.

Such is our task. It is demanding but not impossible, with God’s help. To perform it we must avoid two pitfalls: that of being relevant but nonbiblical, and that of being seemingly biblical but nonrelevant. To steer such a course requires in turn two concerns as regards the use of the Bible: our attitude toward the Bible, and our techniques in its use.

A Proper Attitude

A proper biblical attitude will combine in delicate balance the spirit of conservation and of adaptation. It is our difficult obligation to discover what is essentially and uniquely biblical, and especially what is essentially and uniquely Christian as revealed in the New Testament, and we must conserve its values at all costs, while at the same time adapting ourselves to the changing knowledge and needs of men. In brief, we must find the present, living Word in the past, written Word. For history has amply shown that the failure either to conserve or to adapt has the same result: the Bible no longer has a radical and controlling influence on life. And if the Bible does not speak to life, then whether one’s orientation is biblical or nonbiblical is of no real consequence. The issue is whether the Bible makes a difference! And if it is to make a difference, we must remain in the presence of two worlds: the biblical world and ours. We cannot use the Bible in the twentieth century in the same way as we would use it if we were living in the first century. We do live in a different world. We must adapt to our world while still conserving what is distinctively biblical, else we defeat our purpose.

In order to implement this basic attitude, we need to develop sound and profound study techniques. Two key words come to mind in this connection: penetrate and relate. It is necessary to penetrate beneath the surface of biblical language, statements, and propositions to the experience of God in Christ which is revealed there and which may be realized here and now. It is also necessary to relate such experience to the issues and opportunities of our own times so as to relive it in the twentieth century.

The ability to penetrate beneath the surface of Scripture hinges on the ability to note carefully the crucial words, facts, and relationships of scriptural passages, to ask probing questions about our findings, and to provide at least some profound answers to our questions.

The crux of the matter lies in developing the Socratic art of questioning. The Platonic dialogue Laches, which, incidentally, is worth reading in this connection, tells us how Socrates, when confronted by those who claimed to be courageous, insisted on asking, “What is courage?” And he refused to be satisfied with the superficial concepts of courage extant in his time. He insisted on careful and profound definitions. Like him, we too need to insist on such definitions of biblical language and experiences. The great danger is that a so-called biblical, Christian education will result in the mere parroting of biblical expressions as if they have some inherent magical value, even though they cannot be expressed in contemporary, living language. Too many people who have supposedly received a biblical education are like the woman who thought she had arrived and took it upon herself to criticize a teacher for not having discussed the new birth in a certain connection; but when she was asked, “What is the new birth?,” she replied, “You know, the new birth!” She did not recognize the essence of the experience simply because certain phrases were not used. Such an example could be multiplied many times. We should learn from it to be careful not to equate biblical symbols with biblical realities. When we study the new birth, we must teach our people to ask: What is the new birth? How does it occur? When? Who is born again? Why is it necessary for eternal life? What does it assume and imply? And we must help them not be satisfied with superficial answers. We must teach people to be unrelenting and scrupulous in their pursuit of answers to such questions.

Having penetrated the surface of biblical language, it is then our task to learn how to relate our findings to our day. This process involves several aspects.

Timeless Truths

The first is the decision as to whether the truths we find are timeless in their value and therefore capable of being related to our times. For the Bible contains certain elements which are culturally conditioned and which therefore should not be transferred to a different culture. Most of us would hold that Paul’s exhortation that women wear veils in church (1 Cor. 11) is of this sort. To discover which truths are time-bound we need to gain an intimate acquaintance with the historical background of the Bible and to learn to compare it with our own day to find what cultural differences exist if any. In order to find supracultural truths we must become adept at finding those basic biblical principles which are concretized in Scripture. This takes us back to the need to probe Scripture in depth as a means of discovering truths which are most fundamental and relevant.

Beyond this it is necessary to become well acquainted with the contemporary problems and actually to bring to bear our Christian convictions upon them. It is at this point that the instrumentalism of John Dewey proves helpful by suggesting the problem and project approaches to the learning process. It would be salutary to begin a substantial number of our Bible lessons with the discussion in depth of a present-day issue to which a Scriptural passage is related, and then to find how the passage speaks to that issue. Such an approach provides excellent preparation for projects which are designed to provide an opportunity for putting into effect what is learned. One suspects that it is at this point where the use of the Bible meets its acid test. Maybe what we really need is less biblical sermonizing and discussion, and more biblical practice. And this practice needs to extend beyond the usual “city mission” application of the Christian gospel, as good as that may be. It needs to cover the whole of life.

To accomplish these goals biblical education must involve a constant, long-range approach. A sporadic, hit-and-miss approach may do more harm than good. Further, an effective approach will actively engage members of the group in thoughtful study and in conscientious implementation. There are no shortcuts to the kind of Bible study which makes a difference.

A challenge faces those of us who steadfastly claim that the Bible is an indispensable means of grace. The Scriptures themselves outline the challenge: shall we be true prophets or pseudo-prophets? The pseudo-prophets described in Scripture claimed to speak in behalf of God, but they spoke the false words of man which could not meet the test of their times. On the other hand, the true prophets heard the living God speak, and they spoke genuinely in his behalf to the problems of their day. They were true to God and they were true to their times. We can do no less as we use the Bible in Christian education.