The Ohio Independent Baptist, March 1961

_M_ar_ch_,_19_6_1____________ TH_E_O_H_I_O_IN_D_EPENDENT BAPTIST Page Three ~~~~~-----------------------------=-:::£:.__:..:::.:: A Sonnet on the Cross By Ralph T. Nordlund To think that Christ must prove His love to men By His forgiveness from the cruel cross, · When sin' s rebellion, raging at a loss How best to show its hate, once and again Struck blows of savagery beyond our ken And scoffed at all His gentleness and grace! He answered with a prayer for all our race And left the verdict to th' historic pen! "He surely was the Son of God,' ' wrote Mark; "Ye killed the Price of Life," said Peter bold; "He first loved us," wrote John in retrospect . How can we read and tarry in the dark, H ow fail to trust God's love so oft re-told ? Atoning grace is plain - if we reflect! mentalists were unhappy. The reason, of course, was that they were free; and we were bound to a system where our annual meetings must always feature a social– gosp el liberal as well as a non-belligerant fundamentalist . H ow could we be happy in such a situation with II J ohn 9-11 in our Bibles? THE FIGHT BEGINS The Iowa Bapt:st R ecord was published in Pel la by my lead ing deacon, H . H. Sadler. Soon I began to help him cull ou t Baptist news from all the exchange magazines he got . Mose of them were la rgely promotional, but the W escern Re– corder o f Kentucky and the W ord and W ay of Missouri were in those days out– spoken against modernism and compro– mise. O ccasionally I wro te articles; and io '34 I was asked to wr ite the edito ria ls to see if we could start a clea n-up of the Iowa convention . Mr. Sadler owned the magazine and felt he had a rig ht to do tha t, not real izing how ma ny subscriptions h e would lose a nd how many letters of p ro test he would receive. I cold him from the start t hat it was too la te to refo rm even the state convention , le t alone the na tio na l; but he believed v, e could do it. So I took m y p lace as a repor ter a t the na t1o na l conventio n at Rochester , N .Y ., an d to ld how the p acifists had sto len the sh ow. Y et some o rganiza tional refor.ns had been passed and I was qui te happy and fel t a reform mighr be possible after all. O u r next step was to capture t he s tate mach i nery by the same pol itica l methods a l ittle cl ique of l ibera ls had used so long, and even Dr. Ander son seemed w ill ing to keep ou r schem e secret a nd side w1rh us - if we stayed loyal to the conventi on . W e ll , if some one had done it I 5 years earl ier , before the u ncom prom isi ng fundam e11r– al iscs 11ad Jefr, we m ight have succeeded, for \Vt easi ly Vvon the elecc1 on , but wl1t1r good did it do when che men we elected wou ld not stand under fire' In m y d ia ry for J uly D({ember 1 '34, I was 0 11 cl1<: mou n– tain peak as a µood, co<)JJCra cin14 reformer ; l,uc l)y che 11ext J u ly l was down in a va lJ ey of gloom! W l1yt Wel l, I l1ad seen n1y l1ero, Dr J>ier ce, corn J)r orni~e a c olorado S1)r1ngs 1atl1er chan I i~k a s tra teg ic defea t ; and l }1ad been disJ)laced l))' a •• ode1 nis r as tl1c edito1ial v.' r iter of the Ba1, ci~t l{ecord! Deacon Sadler had turned his paper over to the convention, and I was out ! Worse still, the state president and board I had h elped elect decided it was time to crack down o n no n-cooperating churches, a nd began with the little Corwith church which had once been closed and had turned its deed over to the convention . They o rdered i t to co-operate o r vacate its building . Pastor Albert Rust was a godly man who d id not believe in going to law, and so h e and a big maj ority of his people moved into a store building for services. Then the convention sued fo r the parsonage, which the church had built on sepa ra te g round and held in fee simple, for they wanted to prove in court that non-cooper– ating churches ceased to be: ~ aptist churches and must therefore forfeit their property. What was I to do as the leader of the convention fundamentalists? H ow could I persuade men to stay in the convention and fight to clean it up, if I would no t fi ght myself? Dr. Anderson had been very good to me, and had more than once of– fe red to help me gee a larger church when my work in P ella was done; but how could I fa il to pro test when he began taking away the sovereig n l i berties cf the ch urches? I both wro te and went persona lly to p lead with him to d rop this case, b ur it was u se– less. There was o nly one o ther thing I cou ld do - write a pamp hle t on the la test , up-to-date modernism I h ad been ga theri ng from the books a nd a rt icles o f the N BC leaders, and give ic to my deacon to print . Even if he refused, as I was sure he wou ld , he would read it and tell t he sta te se(retary w ha t I was p la n ni ng to do. I f tha t threat would no t h elp, no thi ng would . D eacon adler loved the cru rh a lmos t as mu ch as h e loved t he conventio n and kne,v I l1ad proven my case. He p ied with m e to try o nce mo re to win over rhe state board , wh ich by th is time had lose its test case a t o rw1th . I d rew up the only plan cha r cou ld possibl y help, in wl11 th the sta te board would publ 1c. ly repudi,ttc n1odern1 sn1 anJ adopt a confession all race officers and em1)loyees wou ld sign C) l course cl1ey turned it do\\ n, an<l 1n Apri l of · 36 r11y ' Re t l1inking tl1e N c>rtht:rn Iiap t1st c>nvent1 o n" \Ven t ou t to .111 s t ,t t( J>as to rs and l isted officcrs. In l\.l ,1} I gavL al l n1y J>clla people co1>ies and 1 rest:nced • • n1y res1gna r ion . ( () lllittll l ' l / lJ ll 1)<Jgt> f) ) The Ohio Independent Baptist Published Monthly by THE OHIO ASSOCIATION OF REGULAR BAPTIST CHURCHES Publication Office 153 South Jefferson, Berne, Ind. Editor RALPH T . NORDLUND 586 Maple Street Fostoria, Ohio Circulation Manager MRS. JOHN KAU1Z 45 19 Wellington Ave. Parma 34, Ohio Subscription Rate : Per si ng le copy _____________ $ .15 Per Year _________________ $2.00 DEADLINE FOR NEWS : 1 5th of each month Advertising Rate : Fe:- col umn inch ------------ $2 .00 Per hal f page -------------- $27.00 Per full page -------------- $50.00 Second class p os tage paid at Berne, Indiana. Postmaster : Please send form 3547 to The Ohio Independent Baptis t, 4 519 W ell i ngcon Ave., Parma 34, O hio. COUNCIL AND OFFICER Chawman Rev. Hall Dautel , 1209 Second St. Po r tsmouth, Ohio Secreta~ Rev. Adam A. Gal t pencer , Ohio Treas11rer Rev. T . Fred Hus ey 6 15 \'<lashing ton Ave 1les, Ohio j\ 1 lJJ l Of l-<I f) .)1111 . Rev Lynn Roger .., 85 1 Boyden N o r ch f1eld, Ohio )' o,,t/; Di,ector Re \. 1 lenn G ree11,, ootl 3 I S Kens1 ngron Pl.lt t Si)r I ng f 1eltl, Ol1io 0,IJer i\ l e ,11 be, J I ARI JO I IN J() l I ~\ LI A l) J1, \ \ ' \\' 11LE11·~ B -\1'\ C) S l Rl) l, l l l «~ I 111 R\