SOCIAL GOSPEL
THE PROBLEMS of man are monumental in scope and complexity. In essence, all such may be traced to the transgression of our first parents. There can, therefore, be no purely human cure thereto. That man can, through various programs and agencies, achieve Utopia with God's help is in brief the social gospel.
Some of its opponents commit the opposite error of inertia on the grounds that the gospel changes people and therefore people change conditions. Other things being equal, this is true. But other things are not equal. This theory does not take into account the terrible waste in human resources that six thousand years have effected.
Jesus rebuked the advocators of the social gospel by declaring that His kingdom is "not of this world." At the same time He overturned the postulates of the conservatives by healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and doing social work among the underprivileged. Many would have called Him a "do-gooder."
The Christian can and must applaud and support every righteous effort to relieve the oppressed. Jesus made it clear that the good deed done in His name to the poor is done unto Him. He identifies Himself with the neglected and requires no less than total effort for their uplift. It is no secret that governments have sometimes shown more sensitivity to human need than churches. It was not, is not, and never will be God's purpose that the church become a society of the "haves" standing in splendid isolation amid the "have-nots."
As Christian ministers, then, let us beware the leaven of the utopianist who believes that man may, through human effort, make this world a little heaven on earth. But let us in the name of Christ attack human misery as if we could.
E. E. C.
CLEAR LAKES
If you and I had been living in those days we would have undoubtedly considered this individual as a truly good man—honest, moral, full of gracious works. His environment was conducive to spiritual blessing. He was closely associated with a man of God. For almost a lifetime he witnessed Elisha's noble, devoted, and holy life. They had prayed together, studied the sacred scrolls, and ministered to the lonely and needy all around them. He had every advantage for his own soul in this privileged relationship.
Perhaps we could liken this man Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, to a beautiful lake that looks clear and clean. We cannot, however, see in the serene surface waters the sediment of mud and filth lying at the bottom. However, if one should take a long stick and agitate the water deep down at the bottom it would not be long until the clear surface of the lake would become dirty.
This could be a picture of Gehazi. Naaman wanted to pay for his healing but Elisha would have none of it. Poor Gehazi should have known better, but there was selfishness, greed, and covetousness down deep in his soul, and stirred by the stick of temptation, it soon colored his whole concept of right and robbed him of his judgment. He wanted those riches so badly he even lied to get them.
May there be no sediment of sin lying deep in our hearts waiting for some stirring of temptation to reach the secret recesses within us and thus contaminate the whole of our being. May we be pure all the way through. This should be our prayer every day if we are to be a truly clean channel through which God can pour His power and so accomplish a great work in these Iast days.
A. C. F.
"FALSE TEETH" PREACHERS
WHEN the sharing of truth and one's self coincide, listeners are convicted. When truth and self are distinct entities hearers are convinced that the speaker is merely reporting what someone else says or thinks. Someone likened them to "false teeth" preachers. Expanding the theme, we find at least two categories of "false teeth" preachers. One group thinks, but the results are neither practical nor applicable. The ideas presented have no constructive bearing on the soul of the preacher or the hearer. The second type, already referred to, are those who chew but don't swallow what others have studied and developed. The end result of the preaching of either type is the same. The congregation remains unimpressed, uninspired, and unmoved!
The apostle Paul's secret of success is summed up in the words of 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." Paul and truth were daily cemented by the glue of total surrender to Christ. He preached no doctrine that he did not live. Christ's power as a preacher is found in His statement "I am the . . . truth." Separation of truth from Christ was impossible. He was a giant monolithic structure of truth and life. He shook the world not by logic but by living. He was the only one who could legitimately cast the first stone.
The desperate need of the church today is men who not only know truth but daily live it.
J. R. S.
