Editorial Keynotes

A Clear Grasp of the Times

L.E.F. is editor of the Ministry.

Most of us as workers are,  by the very nature and circumstance of our work­aday tasks, so situated that it is difficult to view world developments as a whole. Not often are we placed where we can catch the full panorama in perspective. We are so pressed with the immediate responsibilities which devolve upon us in the local church, field, or institution with which we are con­nected, that our reading and observation is, by these very circumstances, largely confined to the line of work in which we are engaged and for which we are accountable—be it evan­gelistic, pastoral, teaching, departmental, or administrative.

Our sources of information are, all too often, restricted to a meager number of journals and a limited group of books. Comparatively few have opportunity for extensive travel and ob­servation, or the privilege of wide consulta­tion with other workers. Under such circum­stances, the things that impress and interest are too often but local and immediate in scope and effect, and our horizon line tends to be too constricted. Thus We sometimes fail to sense the world character of trends and de­velopments that have a vital bearing upon our understanding of the times, and our wit­ness to the world.

But while we toil away, each in his own lot and place, there are deep undercurrents in world affairs that are filled with a significance of which we should all be clearly aware. We are in the midst of forces that are titanic in proportion, and often demonic in origin. Un­less we understand them, we are not prepared properly to cope with them, or to give our message as we should. Back of many an outward local event lies an inner meaning which must be understood to be appreciated. It has to be sensed to be avoided or embraced, as the case may be. The forces of iniquity are coalescing on the one hand, and at the same time the increase of reverent knowledge is vindicating truth and reversing the prema­ture and presumptive dictums of the ungodly scholarship of a few decades back.

We need men of clear vision and special opportunity for observation to portray and interpret these paralleling developments and retrenchments for our brethren less favorably situated or trained; for back of particular episodes often lie a background of events that, taken in their totality, assume a major sig­nificance in the program of final events. These, our ablest and most experienced men should marshal and present for the benefit of all. They are imperative to our work.

Prophecy is fulfilling under our very eyes. The predicted, final developments are under way. These should be clearly perceived, and as clearly portrayed to others through our ministry. Therefore, the impressive and satis­fying archeological, scientific, historical, and astronomical vindication of truth, increasingly available, needs to be put into coordinated, factual form and released for the use of our public exponents in their contact and contest with the world. Summation and elucidation of those rapid movements in the religious, political, and social worlds, that are today drawing mankind inexorably toward the ap­proaching vortex, need periodically to appear from the men best equipped to set them forth. There is grave danger that we shall fail to sense how far and how fast these developments have progressed, and how far reaching is their import. As the appointed watchmen on Zion's walls, we need to sound a clear, certain, adequate note.

We must, therefore, draft men who are observing and understand the times to lead us in our study, our understanding, and our perceptions, that we may so shape our plans and emphases as to perform more adequately our allotted part in giving heaven's last mes­sage to the world and the church. We must be lifted from the local to the world aspect, and from immediate surface developments to the full sweep of events and their significance.

This, the Ministry, as our worker jour­nal, must help to bring about. To fulfill its bounden obligation to the ministry of this movement, this journal must be more vital, more practical, more indispensable than ever in the days to come.. And this, by the grace of God, it will attempt to do in this new year of 1940. It dare not plan on less, if it is to serve adequately in this momentous hour. We must move forward to a greater ministry for God and man.                                         

L. E. F.


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L.E.F. is editor of the Ministry.

January 1940

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