Mission Volume 13 | Issue 8 Article 1 2-1980 Mission: Vol. 13, No. 8 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/missionjournal Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Christianity Commons, Missions and World Christianity Commons, Practical Theology Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation (1980) "Mission: Vol. 13, No. 8," Mission: Vol. 13 : Iss. 8 , Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/missionjournal/vol13/iss8/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Stone-Campbell Archival Journals at Digital Commons @ ACU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mission by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ ACU. v. l ),tfõ VOLUME 13, NUMBER ..TO EXPLORE THOROUGHLY THE SCRIPTURES AND FEBRUARY 1980 ÏHEIR MEANING . TO UNDERSTAND AS FULLY AS POSSIBLE THE WORLD IN WHICH THE CHURCH LIVES AND HAS HER MISSION... TO PROVIDE A VEHICLE FOR COMMUNICATING THE MEANING OF GOD'S WORD TO OUR CONTEMPORARY WORLD.'' -EDITORIAL POLICY STATEMENT. JULY, 1967 CONTENTS Page TH E TRUTH THAT MAKES US FREE From the Editor 3 WE'VE SOLD THE FARM ! J By Robert Meyers 6 FROM MAGIC TO MYSTERY z By LeVerne Metz I É THE ORDEAL OF COMPASSION f By Leonard Allen 10 o THE TIMES REALLY ARE A CHANGIN' ? By Allen Holden, Jr. 15 SURE-FIRE RELIGION By William J. Cook, Jr. 19 BOOKS:SILENCE By Bobbie Lee Holley 20 Reviewed by Steven Spidell MALACHI AND THE BORED CONGREGATION By Lana Wisenbaker 21 EDITOR RICHARD HUGHES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR BOBBIE LEE HOLLEY BUSINESS MANAGER LAJUANA BURGESS EDITORIAL SECRETARY JANICE HUGHES a Mission Journal (352880) is published monthly by Mission Journal, lnc. Annual $10, three years $20, five years $30. Annual student rate $5. Bundle and bound volume rates on request. Single copies $1 . Second class postage pard at Austin, Texas and at additional mailing off ices. POSTI'/ASTER: Send address changes to Mission Journal, 11223 Henge Drive, Austin, Texas 78759, which is also the address to be used for circulation and bookkeeping correspondence. Editorial Off ices: 2071 Adolphus, Springf ield, Missouri 65807. The Truth That Makes LJs Free FROM THE EDITOR It is relatively easy to believe cognitive propositions about Jesuso or the church, or the nature of New Testament worship. lndeed, "the devils believed and trembled." But none oÍ that is taith. Faith is far more difficult, for faith requires, first of all, accepting ourselves for who and what we really are. And tñis is extraordinarily difficult. And then laith involves accepting the fact that God loves us, in spite of ourselves. fhis is more difticult still. "There's one thing this class has really made Further, some of these religions-lslam for me wonder about," remarked the freshman on example-make the same truth claims for them- the last day of a class dealing with world religions selves that Christians make for themselves, at the university where I teach. "How do we know namely, that their religion is the one, final, we're right?" absolute religious truth. It was a good question. This is the background to the student's Further, given the context, it was a distinctly question. modern question that would never have been I took her question as, in itself, an act of raised before the last one hundred years. Prior faith. In her own way, she seemed to be saying, to the extensive contact of Christians with the "I believe; help my unbelief!" And she set me to non-Christian religions that occured in the late thinking on what faith really is, after all. nineteenth century, the freshman's question, Faith. Such a little word. And yet, how big "How do we know we're right?," might have and profound. For it is in the context of faith been raised by a Baptist up against a Presb¡erian, that we discover the humanness of ourselves and by a Christian/Disciple contesting a Methodist, the infinite majesty of God. or by a Catholic vis-a-vis'a Lutheran. Those In fact, so long as we are mortals, faith is our were the days when these matters, and these destiny. All of us walk by faith all the time. We questions, were all in the family. must. If we were gods, things would be But now in these latter daYs, we have different. But we are not. We are people. And discovered-and sometimes the discovery has that is the difference that makes all the come as a rude awakening-that there are other difference. religious families-Buddhists, Hindus,r ¿¡d The contrast some people pose between Moslems, for example-with their own set of "people of faith" and "people of reason," or beliefs and their own sacred scriptures, and with "people of faith" and "people of science," is precious little common ground with the Judeo- simply a false dichotomy. This was the Christian world in which the rest of us live and dichotomy Freud posed years ago when he wrote move and have our being. his little book on religion: The Future of an Illusion. remains-so long as we remain human-tenta- Religion is illusion, F-reud said in essence, tive, partial, and fragmentary. because religion clemands faith. People wish for It is this aspect of ourselves that makes the a god, then believe in the god for which they New Testament proclamation of the grace of wish. But now that mankind has entered into the God such wonderfully good news. If it were age of reason and science, we should dispense essential to my salvation that my knowlcdge of' with such nonsense, and walk by what we the infinite God, and of his ways and means with cognitively know, not by that for which we wish humankind, be complete and completely and then believe. accurate, then I would never be saved. For while But in his affirmation of reason and science, I err in living, I also err in thinking. This is an Freud was unable to escape the dimension of inescapable, unavoidable, and inevitable faith. His faith was not in God; it was in science, consequence of being human. In fact, for Freud, science was god-the god But being human, while far from perfect, is who would bring sanity and peace and rationality by no means a dead end. Even when we yield to to the world in which we live. But the utter pride and pretend to perfect knowledge, even failure of science to fulfill Freud's hopes reveals then more clearly than anything else that his hopes for science were of the dimension of faith and God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great not knowledge. love with which he loved us, even when we Man has always wanted to know and to be were dead through our trespasses, made us certain, for if we could know and be certain, we alive together with Christ . For by grace would not be insecure. But uncertainty and you have been saved through faith; and this insecurity are of the essence of human life. If I is not your own doing, it is the gift of were certain, and secure through my certainty, I God.... would hardly be human. This, clearly, is the Ephesians 2:4-5,8 message of Genesis 3: Adam and Eve sought to escape their humanity through knowing. But God's response was, When we know the truth about ourseryes - you are dust, that we err - and the truth about God - and to dust you shall return. that He sayes and forgives - then we are Genesis 3: l9 suddenly liberated and cut loose f rom pre" occupation with ourseryes, trom out This also is the message of Job. prctensions, and trom wearing the deceptive Where were you when I laid the and seductive masks that obscure who we foundation of the earth? rcally are. Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements surely you know! . Have you entered into the springs ol'the sea, This is no Christian relativism. Far from it. or walkecl in the recesses ol'the deep? When Paul asked if we are "to continue in sin Have the gates of death been revealed to you, that grace may abound" and then answered, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? "By no means!" (Rom. 6:1), his meaning Have you com¡:rehended the expanse of the doubtless includes the question, "Are we to earth'l continue in misunderstandings and imperfect Declare, if you know all this. knowledge that grace may abound?" And again, Job 3B:4-5, 16-lB his answer is, "By no means. " To admit to misunderstandings is not a license for misunderstandings. To admit to But Job did not know. Nor do we know. The flawed thinking is not justification for flarved human experience is one of believing, hoping, thinking. To own up to misapprehensions and and trusting. We speak of knowing, but our errant interpretations is not to condone these knowledge is never final or absolute. It things, Far from it. Rather, to admit to mis- 4 understandings, flawed thinking, misapprehen- nature of l.lew 'l'esl¿rment worshii-1. Incleed, "lhe sions, and errant interpretations is [o admit to deviis believed and trcmblecl." Ilut none ol'that being human. It is the first stc¡r toward giving up is faith. Faith is far rnore dil'ficult, for faith pretensions and becoming real. requires, first of all, accepting ourselves for who But where can we go for succor when we have and what we really are.