Church Under Fire

The cry for a new kind of Christianity.

Orley M. Berg is the Managing Editor of The Ministry. 

TODAY the Christian church is under fire. Voices from within and from without are demanding change. They insist that today's church is stale and irrelevant. The old-time religion is only for the curiosity shop. They say the church is obsolete and that there is little evidence of any impressive changes. Its orientation is toward the past, whereas the new generation is interested in the "now."

What these critics want is not a refur­bished Christianity but an entirely new Christianity. They cry out against a syn­thetic concoction tailored for youth but in­sist on a dynamic new structure of thought and faith.

All this has led to a drop in church at­tendance that, according to all indications, is due to plummet sharply during the next few years. This would be following the pat­tern of Europe. There, in the great citadel of the Reformation, scarcely more than 5 percent of the population go to church, and of these only a very few are of the younger generation.

Those who profess to read the hand­writing on the wall see the more radical young people dropping out and the church as a whole becoming little more than the preserve of kindly old bigots. At the same time, praise is heaped upon these "imagina­tive" theologians who raise their voices in protest and at the same time remain within the church. They are the bold and chal­lenging pastors who are not afraid to de­velop new programs or to "tell it like it is." This, it is declared, is a good sign. These tend to be the newsmakers. Unfortunately, however, in their opinion these are all too few. Most pastors choose to remain silent. They prefer not to rock the boat.

In a revolutionary generation, when change is everywhere, when to protest is to be "with it," and when God is said to be dead, it is little wonder that the church should be in for its share of ferment. It is caught up in an atmosphere of turbulence, turmoil, and tempest that decries the in­dividual who speaks a word in its defense.

Our great concern is how this spirit of the times may be related to or affect our own church. Is our church obsolete, geared only to the past? Does it look backward in­stead of forward? Is it failing to deliver a message to the "now" generation?

Those who are in the know say that to raise the question is to address ourselves to a timely issue and one that should give serious concern.

Whether the charges are justified, whether the church needs a complete over­haul or a replacement with a "dynamic new structure," as one writer puts it, re­volves upon one basic question. That question has to do with authority and its role. In fact, the whole many-sided revolution now taking place in our culture rests on a changed attitude toward authority. This is true in both the civil and the religious world.

One common denominator we find as we read through the many speeches, sermons, books, articles, and what have you, that laud the daring revolutionists is that all of them are for doing away with "all fixed patterns or flat truths or precise beliefs," as one popular writer expresses it.

This brings us to the crux of the matter. Howard Carson Blake, in an article com­menting on Bishop John Robinson's book Honest to God, says, "The central concep­tion of Christian ethics that runs through all the various expressions of the 'new morality' is a complete rejection of any di­vine sanction for any specific law, rule, or regulation."—Christianity Today, March 27, 1964.

A Concept Foreign to Us

This concept is utterly foreign to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Were it ever to be accepted, the very foundations of our structure would be torn away. It is in this very area of belief that our church has made a distinct contribution, insisting as it does on the divine inspiration of Holy Writ and the binding claims of God's holy law of ten commandments.

In the article just referred to, Dr. Blake, pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Weslaco, Texas, says significantly, "A good many modern theologians have been deeply impressed with the contrast between law and grace and have tried to reconstruct all of Christian ethics in terms of grace, with­out any law. In one form or another they end up with some variation on the theme that the only test for any action is whether or not it is inspired by love." And we might add, love often spelled l-u-s-t.

The ancient church, the nation of Israel, was to hold up a standard of righteousness before the people. That is also our -work. And the standards we are to uphold have come to us through divine revelation. They are based on eternal principles that are al­ways relevant. Furthermore, these princi­ples have been re-emphasized in these last days through the restoration of the gift of prophecy in the person of Ellen G. White.

The moment we begin to doubt the au­thority of the Scriptures or to question the relevancy of the messages of the servant of the Lord to the remnant church, that mo­ment we open the way for these subtleties of Satan that have invaded the popular churches.

The church we serve rests on divine au­thority. This is in striking contrast to the "new morality," which says that nothing of itself can be labeled as wrong. Every person, it declares, is to be his own judge as to whether a course of action is right or not. There is no absolute authority. The proponents of this philosophy make force­ful statements about love and freedom and justice. They emphasize Christ's concern for people and their needs. But they fail to see that the people's ultimate good and true love and freedom and justice can only be found when the life is brought into har­mony with the very principles of God's government as revealed through inspira­tion.

The answer to the question of right or wrong is not to be found in the query, "Is it meaningful?" but rather, "What does God say about it?" "How does it line up with divine counsel?" "What does the Spirit of Prophecy declare?" My heart is carnal, my personal judgment is faulty. I am not as wise as God. I need counsel and instruc­tion from another. And today we need the words of heavenly wisdom more than any people has ever needed them, for today Satan is using all the accumulated cunning, craft, and cleverness of the ages to deceive, divide, and conquer.

We would not quell the voice of honest dissent or muffle constructive criticism or retard the challenge to progress to new ideas, methods, procedures. But we raise a voice of warning against those expressions that cast doubt upon the divine inspiration of the Scriptures and the Spirit of Proph­ecy. These are the great and only bulwark we have against that which would detour our church from its true mission. As we hear voices everywhere clamoring for change, we must agree that some changes are needed. However, the greatest change must be a change to the counsels we have been given and not away from them. We need to go backward as well as forward. And in going backward to the Source of all wisdom we shall find that the instruction therein given is far more up to date than the most recently published works and far more relevant to the solving of today's com­plex problems.

Not Outdated

Ellen G. White addressed herself to the timeliness of her messages many times. Notice these words: "Time and trial have not made void the instruction given, but through years of suffering and self-sacrifice have established the truth of the testimony given. The instruction that was given in the early days of the message is to be held as safe instruction to follow in these its closing days." Then follows the warning: "Those who are indifferent to this light and instruction must not expect to escape the snares which we have been plainly told will cause the rejecters of light to stumble, and fall, and be snared, and be taken."—Selected Messages, book 1, p. 41.

Concerning these snares we read: "Satan is . . . constantly pressing in the spurious—to lead away from the truth. The very last deception of Satan will be to make of none effect the testimony of the Spirit of God... . Satan will work ingeniously, in different ways and through different agencies, to un­settle the confidence of God's remnant peo­ple in the true testimony."—Ibid., p. 48.

Again we read, "There will be a hatred kindled against the testimonies, which is satanic. The workings of Satan will be to unsettle the faith of the churches in them." —Ibid.

The message and mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church today is what it has always been. It is very true that times have changed. It is also true that we must keep up with the times. We must know how to meet this generation where they are. To secure this end there must be increased communication, more dialog, lest we an­swer only questions that are never asked. But in seeking to communicate and up­grade the church, let it never be at the expense of betraying or compromising our allegiance to this principle of authority. Let us never forget where the fount of wis­dom is to be found. We can never afford to substitute human values or judgments or philosophies for the unerring counsels of the Lord.

The "new morality" proclaimers ques­tion whether the church of today will sur­vive and whether it matters. As for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, it matters very much whether it survives. God is de­pending upon it to complete its God-given task. But whether it survives and the extent to which it fulfills its mission will depend upon its basic adherence to the divine coun­sels that must govern its actions.

The words spoken to ancient Israel are indeed relevant now: "Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; be­lieve his prophets, so shall ye prosper" (2 Chron. 20:20).

Orley M. Berg is the Managing Editor of The Ministry. 

December 1968

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