The Ohio Independent Baptist, February 1961

GLAD AND YET CONCERNED l l ,, ~I.\ i ,, c Re. u.ul, tr 1,.,1 c,,c, c..,11 l,t tll.tt ,,c \ten t 111. ti \ll' ,,1tl1 rl1c .1 tl n.11 un" ' f bur he.'. ,1ltcr ,, h.tt t, ~ qe; ~ ·1 1 1 1' ,n1.. 1 1..1..) l.t~t [)c"'-crl'1 l1cr ! I , l1 \r"hc.·1 \\ cn1!--cr ot tl1e l <.)Otl11ll l \;& c., \ l~.1.,t ; c t hur1.. h ot (.).,k.l.1nd s.,11..l cl1at " 1· 1 , ,, • th<. l.1r~esr L<.1llcc. t1o n t h r , " 10" 1 e1111st. , i ,nk , S(..()tfer • high .... 1.. i,\l c.~ I rc.)~~hec· .,nd rel1~1ou t• l') vc l\ c. 1n tl1c cr1cnn1un1 ' B) that la t ,, " ; ,, t~ ·upi: ) , e- l1e n1can cl,c three year t ei 1.. i . 1nc.e the 1nt~1n1ou "tutiy onfer– enc.e 1n ( ' l , el.1nd ch.it urged che recogn1- c1on t Rei ~hi n.t. After reading the Dec. "" .1.nd J ._1.n 5 1 ue f the Chr1 tian Bea- cc.1n th.it ~ .1.re given O\.er to a report of the ['ttch eneral A en1bly of the CC, and rel'( re· 10 ne"· paper and othe: ma~a– z1 nes. " e are incl ined co agree " 'ith h im. Three vear after Cleveland they take for granted that Red China will soon be rec– ~gnized by the United ations if not by the U A. and they seem pleased to think that the churches " ·ill have the duty of p re– paring the American people for i t. Yes~ " 'e are glad we do not belong to that radical group. We have warned ever since " 'e went into the United ations that the day would come when we would be very sorry for 1t; but these men are hope· fully looking forward to the day when we will have to become as subservient to the as Georgia is to Washi ngton . What concerns us is which point of view will "'·io out. Unless we can p ray down a na– tional revi,·al of Bible Christiani ty, we fear these one-worlders will have their way-all the sooner now that Dean Rusk and the old Acheson crowd is going to dominate our state department . Even worse than the pink tinge at the CC assembly was the blatant u nbel ief that ,vas boldly flaunted in li terature and from the platform. D r. Theo. Gill was there to throw out all the old images of che ministry, the missionary, etc., and to install the new. ince he has publicly re– pudiated the virgin birth of Chr ist, we know " 'hat new images he wanted in– troduced. Others talked of an "open-ended Bible" to which new chapters should be added, or boldly said, "the old-time re– ligion was not fie to survive." Reti ring President Edwin T . Dahlberg had to hit back at us fundamentalists, and old Bishop Oxnam forgot his age and lambasted chose who have accused him of belonging co some 40 Red-tainted organizations. Dr. Weniger reports that the most blat– ant modernism did not shock any o f the delegates, but that they were shaken when Dr. Eugene Carson Blake chose the G race Episcopal Cathedral to preach chat Epis– copalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, and che G nited Church of Christ should hurry and form a united ..Reformed and Catholic Church," co which all denomi nations, in– cluding the Roman Catholic, should then be urged to unite. The shocki ng th ing was that he dared to say that Protestants must drop their demand that only Scrip– ture 1s author1tat1ve, and that more and more of them are recognuizing that "tra– di tion has a place." Naturally, the pastor. Bishop James A. Pike. applauded this sermon. Ten years a.go this convert from Catholicism still be- '11l l lievc I i11 the vi .. r•in t,i1 th of hrist, hut (1()\\ he- ,\ .~ ICC.\ \\lth the 5(Ctti ~- ll t S.\ys 1 c h.ts he<.()ll'\c n1 tH' (' l)10,1d t l1u1ch t o t,tkc in n1t1dcrn1s(s .,nd spc ,k \\ t 11 of atl1cists, lll<)rt l,)\\' t l1u 1 h t c> ,n, ttc n1t· n \"\'ith<)ll t <.."l"•s<..<ll'·d c1rd1 nnt ion int c> hi " r,ulpit, and n1ore hig h chur h to f.1vo1 the trend to- ,, .ird 1tholt ( lorn1s -all .1t the san1t t1n1t 1 o '" o nder he c.ot •ld ,vr1ce ~tn at t1cle on the d.1ngers of vot Ing fo r a Roman ( '.1 tl1oli c ~)re 1dcnt, and yet support Ken · nedy at the same t1n1e 1 Aren ' t you glacl you are not mixed up '\vtth tl1ac cro,vd? Or 1f some convention pastor gets co read this, don't you wish you could gee out of it? And yec we are profoundly disturbed. These gifted re– ligious chameleons have the open door to newspaper publici ty, and fundamen talists can hardly get in ten column inches a year. These are the ki nd of preachers invited to speak to students in our h igh schools and col leges and co the various kinds of service and communi ty clubs. These are the kind of men who had an open door to the ears of President Eisenhou r , and President Ken– nedy · is already on record as favoring them , Cathol ic though he may be. What can we Bible-bel ievers do to save Amer ica f rom selling out co the internationalists and bankrupting itself comp letely? What can we do to call out the many Bible-believers who are still in the National Council de– nom inations? What can we do to p romote a nation-wi de revival ? Never has there been such a challenge to prayer as there is t h is hour-or to a clear-rut testimony! Let us get busy in warning people everywhere , and in work– ing for the salvation of souls. Unsaved re– ligious people are blind. Only the H oly Spirit can awaken them and help them to see! ----- * Pray For Our New President! ----- * --- - FINDING OURSELVES IN THE MINISTRY A fter preaching forty years, it is easy to see where one could have done better. It takes some time for a young m inister to f ind himself and understand where God wants him. God leads us step by seep as a rule, and we are seldom g iven our march– ing orders u ntil we are ready to proceed . Ou r first call came as our pastor preach– ed on ten thousand communit ies in the USA that had no church , bu t it took sev– eral months before we were ready to say yes. The decision came out in a wheat field under a terrible thunder storm. Standing among the shocks, i t seeme:l as if the lightni ng was going to strike my u nsaved father ; and to save h im, I fell on my knees and promised co go wherever God migh t call , whether i t be into a pas– torate or across the sea. Sm ile if you wish, but that was the way God got a yes out of me. Seven years wen t by before God made the call more specific. I often p rayed t hat he would make the way more clear , but not until I was almost ready to go to seminary did he clearly answer . In the meantime m issionary speakers cold me that no one had the r ight to hear Fct 1uur>', 1961 the gos1 cl t,vi cc until .111 h.1d hc.1rd it <>n ee, ,lnd th,1t ,111 the ca ll l needed to the fc>rci gn field \.V,ts che need out there. 1 .. ikc n1os t ide.d ist ic y<>u ng pcOJ)lc I t bought st•c h 1casc>nin, n1ust be co1rcct and I beg.in to study panish with the idea o f go1n.~ to l\,fexico <>r South America. It ne, er occu t red t<J inc that if all were to actcpt such slr>gans, America \V<>tdd su 1- <lenly find itself without any l)astors and all the send 1ng chu rehes wou Id have to sl1u t down until my generation had died. Neither ,i1d ic occur to me to search the cr1ptures co see if it taught such extreme 1deas. Late in my senior year the long-sougl1c cal l came. I had been read1ng the modern– istic arguments of the Christian Century chat Modernism a nd Fundamental ism were two mutually exclusive rel igions, and the coun ter arguments of the W atchman-Ex· aminer that only the old fai th was true Christianity. More and more it seemed as if the Amer ican pulpit mus t be saved for the old-time gospel and that my p lace was here. I was so bu rdened along that line one Sunday afternoon that I could noc pre– pare my evening sermon. I knelt to wrestle the thing out in prayer, and sud– denly the room seemed to light up and the assurance came chat God wanted me here as a defender of the faith. I suppose the light was inward rather than out– ward1 bu r the exper ience was real . N ow I knew what my call ing was. CHOOSING A SEMINARY It isn't easy for a college senior to choose the right sch ool for his theological education . One professor urged me to go to Rochester or Crozer, where I would receive financial aid and 0 get the other side and be made stronger by it." An– other recommended the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. Boch were such extreme liberals that their recommenda· tions were warnings. I wanted my fai th strengthened, not ruined . Dr. Earle V. P ierce told me chat Kansas City Baptist Theological Seminary and N orthern Bap – tist at Chicago were good, fundamental schools. So far as I knew they were equal– ly good, so I chose Kansas City becaus~ it was in a sma ller ci ty and had a beautiful campus. It was not long until I began to suspect_ I had made a mistake. N orthern openly advertised itself as pre-m illennial in its position , and at Kansas City I could only find one professor who had the courage to disagree with the pre-dominant teach~ng of pose-millennialism. Besides, coming from the far north, I was shocked at the ..Southern" attitude I found among t he students. Father 's death called me home before the end of the year, and the next year I transferred to N orthern. In those days Northern was quite out– spoken against modernism in the conv~n– tion . It did not sign up for convention support un til my senior year. Terrible as the noise and dirt of the big city was, t he smoke and smog, I was qu ice happy there, and am still thankfu l for the traini ng I received. Yet I am thankful that as all the convention-related schools have become more and more loyal to 0 t he p rogram" and become increasi ngly careless as to the k ind of outside speakers they invite in, God has now raised up ful ly fundamental schools. Be sure you go where the Bible 1s