THE WORLD WANTS A RELIGIOUS TOUCH IN ITS SCHEMES

“Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us…therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not” (1 JOHN 3:1)

Every once in a while some churchman in an acute attack of conscience does penance in public for Christianity’s “failure” to furnish bold leadership for the world in this time of crisis.

 

Well, I am all for repentance if it is genuine, and I think the Church has failed, not by neglecting to provide leadership but by living too much like the world!

 

That, however, is not what the muddled churchman means when he bares his soul in public. Rather, he erroneously assumes that the Church of God has been left on earth to minister good hope and cheer to the world in such quantities that it can ignore God, reject Christ, glorify fallen human flesh and pursue its selfish ends in peace.

 

Church has received no such commission from her Lord. Further, the world has never shown much disposition to listen to the Church when she speaks in her true prophetic voice. The attitude of the world toward the true child of God is precisely the same as that of the citizens of Vanity Fair toward Christian and his companion: “Therefore they took them and beat them, and besmeared them with dirt, and put them into the cage, that they might be made a spectacle to all men.” Christian’s duty was not to “provide leadership” for Vanity Fair but to keep clean from its pollution and get out of it as fast as possible. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!

 

  1. W. Tozer