LENGTHENED CORDS: A BOOK ABOUT WORLD MISSIONS IN HONOR OF HENRY J. EVENHOUSE, edited by Roger S. Greenway. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1975. 384 pp., $9.95. Reviewed by the Rev. Jerome Julien, pastor of First Christian Reformed Church of Pella, Iowa.

Some thirty-one representatives of the Christian Reformed Church have pooled their abilities to make available this volume which honors Henry J. Evenhouse as he retires from serving as Executive Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions after twenty-three years. This volume seems to be somewhat unique in that ordinarily men honored with books such as this are those who have been busy theologizing. Happily an exception has been made in this case. Rev. Evenhouse has had a long, fruitful and significant impact on this very important area of church work: missions. The title for his volume comes from a text on which he often preached Isaiah 54:2. It beautifully expresses the development of Christian Reformed Foreign Missions under Rev. Evenhouse. Read the account of the growth of mission work during his term of office and you will see that this is true. The book introduces us to Rev. Evenhouse in the first section—though most of us need no introduction. We learn of his early life and the contribution of his Christian home to his later work. We learn of his activity as father and leader in the Church. The first section also contains a selection of letters bearing testimony of the Lord’s use of him. One of the letters which pays tribute to his labor is from then Vice-President Gerald Ford. The second section of the book introduces us to the various mission fields that Rev. Evenhouse has had in his oversight throughout his tenure in office. What a wealth of information has been gathered here! What an insight it was of the development of missions! Everyone who contributes to the mission fund ought to know how that money has been used. In no other place, to my knowledge, is there such a collection of information on our Christian Reformed Missions. The last section of the book contains essays— studies in missions. Essays on linguistics, medical missions, educational missions, missions to Islam, radio work and others all call for our thoughts and prayer. Missionary work today is not the same as it was in the days of the early ambassadors of the cross. A smaller world, political crosscurrents, technological advances all have made the work different. The Gospel remains the same but there are differences that young missionaries and the Church at home have to reckon with. These essays attempt to lay before us some of the issues with which we wrestle.

Not every reader will agree in total with every line of this work. I, too, struggled with the way certain ideas were formulated. However, this certainly ought not to mar the value of this book. It is more than a book in honor of a man. It is a book that directs our mind toward the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

There is one notable omission, however. Much is said about the need of missionary training—and its importance, too. But apart from reference to the Reformed Bible College in the historical section, there is no reference to RBC in terms of what it can do in the area of missionary training. It is sad that this omission was made because the RBC has made a great contribution to the work of missions in the Reformed tradition through its years of existence. If you do not acquire a copy of this book for yourself you must avail yourself of your church library copy. It will give some new insights into the work of missions. One more word: we praise the Lord for a man who would give so many years of his life to this great labor. He will be remembered for his dedication and love for the Lord. May he have many years of joy in retirement. And, may the work of missions continue to be carried on in the same dedicated fashion.     PRE-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICISM. A Survey of the proposed evidences by Edwin M, Yamauchi. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Grand Rapids, Mich. 208 pages, Price $7.95, Reviewed by Rev. Johan D, Tangelder, pastor of the Riverside Christian Reformed Church of Wellandport, Ontario. One of the most important issues facing New Testament scholarship today is the issue of Gnosticism. In the 1950s and 1960s, Pauline studies had been largely under the influence of the school of Bultmann. This school assumes that a large number of “transformed features of Gnosticism” are to be found in the letters of Paul. Bultmann also presupposes that the “Redeemer-myth” underlies the Gospel of John and that a considerable part of this gospel is not Christian in origin. Until the twentieth century, the traditional view of Gnosticism had been that presented in the writings of the Church fathers who viewed Gnosticism as a Christian heresy. The Bultmannian school, on the assumption that Gnosticism had developed before the rise of Christianity, views the New Testament itself as a stage in Gnosticism. Dr. Edwin Yamauchi, assistant professor of History at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, gives us a carefully researched, well-documented and thorough survey of the various recent searches into the origin of Gnosticism. His critique of the Bultmann school of thought is excellent. He demonstrates that Bultmann’s pre-Christian Gnosticism is but little more that an elaborate multi-storied, many-roomed house of cards, whose foundations have been shaken, some of whose structures need buttressing and others have collapse, leaving a mass of debris with but few solid timbers fit for use in Reconstruction” (pp. 184f.). The evidences which have been adduced to prove the priority of Gnosticism over Christianity have been weighed in this scholarly work and “found wanting” (p. 186). I heartily recommend this work to the students of the New Testament. With Yamauchi as a guide, students will be able to grasp and judge in a little more intelligent and productive manner the conflicting and at times bewildering “authoritative” assertions about Gnostic influences upon early Christianity.