The other day I attended a seminar for clergy sponsored by the Religious Department of the University of Lethbridge and an agency (of supporting clergy) called Inter-Faith. It’s not often that I attend such gatherings, for more often than not, they are a waste of time. But this one looked interesting, having as the overall theme, “Religion and Contemporary Society.” A number of the men teaching in the Religious Department at the University were to lecture on various aspects of this theme.
It was a most disappointing and distressing experience. By and large the lectures were a demonstration of the most thorough-going relativism. There just is no absolute truth or ultimate standard. We are all adrift on a sea of relativism and the best we can do is grasp at straws. Perhaps we may find a straw that gives a modicum of stability.
Now, of course, I hadn’t really expected much different, knowing what kind of society we live in and the secularism that is so prevalent at our public institutions of higher learning. But one always hopes that things aren‘t quite as bad as they appear to be, and he looks for a glimmer of light in the prevailing darkness. But it was not to be, sad to say.
The first speaker started out by saying that the “religious” courses were well attended, since students seek for some answers to the pressing problems of today. They are looking for certainty in a world of constant flux. He even went on to say that students won’t accept doubtful authority; they get turned off by a church which speaks with a vacillating voice. By and large, they felt the church had not given them the answers they were looking for, at least as they perceived it.
After this hopeful beginning, I was curious as to what the speaker would suggest as the solution to this problem. I listened to see what his standard of authority was, and how he would give direction to his students.
Alas, I listened in vain. He told us he taught the “facts” of Hinduism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism and Christianity. He tried to acquaint the students with the major world religions. But nowhere in his speech could I detect any firm criterion or standard as the basis of his teaching, a criterion by which he would analyze and evaluate the various religions.
Afterwards, during the question period, I asked him about this. I reminded him of what he had said at the beginning of his lecture (about students looking for authoritative answers) but added that I had missed any such answer in his presentation. I asked him what his ultimate standard was, and on what basis he could judge a thing to be right or wrong.
His answer was both honest and revealing: “Quite frankly,” he said, “I have no answer to that question.” “Perhaps,” he said, “there are no answers, only informed discussion.” We must accept the pluralistic nature of world-religions, and avoid or eliminate dogmatic conceptions. Students by and large don’t accept the special truth of the Christian religion; they want “tolerance” and openness to all. And the Professor was only too ready to accommodate. “The only other alternative,” he said, “is that we all be silent, say nothing.”
I pursued the matter a bit further. I countered by saying that that was not the way the Bible spoke. The Bible said that Jesus was the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Him. His was the only name under heaven by which men must be saved. Once again his reply was both typical and candid in its relativism: “That’s what you believe, but if I go to Thailand the Buddhist will tell me that he has the only truth.”
So there we are: stuck in a bog of relativism.
Later a Professor of Old Testament and Archeaology spoke about some of the old inscriptions that had been found in Palestine, including some portions of the Biblical text. He ended his speech by telling us why he thought such courses had relevance today. For one thing, since most Christian churches believe the Bible to be an inspired book, it is important to know what the original text actually says. Fair enough. But then he said; If we believe that God speaks to us today through this ancient literature, why can’t he also speak to us through ancient Hindu or Buddhist literature? Who is to say that God speaks only through the Old Testament scriptures? “Mind you,” he said, “I don’t have the answer to that question, but I’m just throwing it out as a question.”
So there we have “religion in our contemporary society.” There are many roads to heaven as there are many railroads to New York. You take your pick. But you have no right (nor does the Bible for that matter) to tell anyone else that his road is the wrong one.
Three closing comments; This conference once again impressed upon me the truth of I Corinthians 1:18–2:5. “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength” (1 :25, NIV). And since the natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit of God, proclamation rather than dialogue is the answer. The gospel alone is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.
Secondly, considering what is being taught in the universities across North America, is it any wonder that our society is the way it is? If there is no absolute truth, no final standard of what is right and wrong, why not have abortion on demand? Why not disobey those in authority? Indeed, the mystery of lawlessness is already at work (II Thessalonians 2:7).
Finally, we should be more convinced than ever of the necessity of Christian education, including that at the college and university level. It is sad that so many young people of our churches attend secular universities. Not only will they not receive a Biblical perspective on life and learning, but many of them will be lost to the faith altogether. For the influence of the university on our society and on the lives of individual students is enormous.
Jelle Tuininga is the pastor of the First Christian Reformed Church of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
The Message of the Torch & Trumpet and of the Outlook
A reader, Mr. Hans Overduin, a Calvin College student, provided us with a copy of a paper which he wrote for a course in the History of the Christian Reformed Church. Carrying the above title and a subtitle “the voice crying in the wilderness,” it is a comparison’ of the first years, the 1951 to 1953 issues, of our paper, then called Torch and Trumpet, with the 1981 and 1982 issues of the Outlook. In the early issues he noted the evident zeal for the Reformed doctrines and creeds and articles on creation, reprobation, the covenant the church, the infallibility of Scripture, an emphasis on Chnstlan education and on the antithesis between the Christian faith and worldly errors. In the issues of recent years he notice similarities—even in the Torch and’ Trumpet motif on the cover. Concerned about the same truth as the older issues were, he noted that there was difference in that the later paper focused attention on particular issues as well. He saw as two reasons for the change (1) that the Outlook is particularly concerned with the CRC and the issues facing it and (2) “that the Reformed Fellowship people have discovered that the Trojan horse is within the gates of the church . . . even within her highest courts.” “These two reasons make the Outlook speak much on matters like the CRC synod, women in office, the infallibility of Scripture and higher criticism, the authenticity of Genesis and Calvin College and Seminary. The antithesis is no longer only between the world and the Reformed community—but within the “Reformed” community, within the CRC. The writer noted the special attention given to the new seminary in Iowa (MARS)—between April, 1981, and April, 1982, at least seven articles dealing with it. He saw the connections between the magazine and the seminary as the result of their common stand for the same truths and their common aim “to save the Reformed heritage from the hands of the liberals.” He saw the later Outlooks showing the “growing polarization within Reformed circles and within the CRC in particular,” a division which the Outlook people see, not as occasioned by themselves, as IS sometimes alleged, but by the liberals. The crucial issue in this growing polarization is the new view of Scripture and its interpretation.
At the end of his paper the author raised a question about the future of the Christian Reformed Church. “If the ‘conservatives’ continue to be left on the back seat and taken for a ride where they do not want to go, then it seems to me that the future looks ominous. Secession will be inevitable for the Truth’s sake.
“If such should one day become the case, which may God forbid, no one will ever be able to say the Reformed Fellowship men did not give ample warning. I think that this study shows that during the last thirty years they have faithfully sounded the alarm.”
PDJ
Mood of the Mother Church as Others See Us
One of the exchange magazines which regularly keeps us abreast of what is happening in other parts of the world is Kerk lnformatie (Church Information) of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. The March, 1983 issue featured an article entitled “Revealing Journey in the United States Gives Point of Vancouver Agenda.” Above the title there appears the statement “Insanity Must Be Unmasked.” The writer, C. M. Boersma, a Reformed minister, is a staff member of the World Council of Churches in Geneva. He gives a firsthand report of an exciting but wearying three-week journey made along with others among churches and groups on the U.S. West coast, apparently in anticipation of this summer’s meeting of the World Council of Churches at Vancouver, British Columbia. Things sometimes became very tense because the Reader’s Digest and a popular TV program have been trying to place the ecumenical movement in a bad light.
Dismissing the World Council’s funding of weapons for guerillas as a “worn-out lie,” he attributes the criticism of it to a group who would use religion to support the politics of Reagan. This group wants to prevent the World Council from developing into a counterforce. The writer sees that possibility given in the council theme, “Jesus Christ, the Life of the World.”
In this captivating and terrible country that would like to be the most powerful in the world the writer saw the signs of death dramatically apparent. His team visited Lockheed, producer of airplanes and missiles to carry atomic weapons. The streams of money for this kind of development are accelerating with a 14 percent increase for defense.
An hour later they were in a church where old and gray people were waiting for their little packages of food, some revealing years of poverty, others showing their shame at being reduced to begging for their hungry families. Countless Americans are hungry, have no roof over head, wait in long lines in the cities for a little food. Their numbers increase daily. An economist with years of service in the Pentagon explained to the visitors how war industry creates unemployment and destroys the world’s resources and economy. The third world knew that long ago. The daily deaths from hunger silently speak. The hungry in the richest country in the world say the same thing .
Many Christians in the U.S., the visitor reports, discover that their society does not conform to the life which Christ brings and plead for the conversion of the soul of America which is in the clutches of power and materialism. His group aims to focus attention on this threatening death at the Vancouver World Council meeting. That meeting gives opportunity to join the Lord of life and unmask “this insanity,” to call for a radical conversion of our power systems and economic structures which daily attack our souls, destroy the bodies of thousands and threaten us all with death.
Dutch Church Priorities
Less dramatic than this single article but more significant of what is happening in these Netherlands churches is a casual glance at what the rest of this issue-or any other issue-of this official church paper reveals. The cover of this issue features a cartoon, half of it devoted to a machine, the other to green symbols of growing trees. We are told that these represent two ways of growing merger with the old state churches which should be by growth rather than by political machinery. An article is devoted to economic inequities especially with respect to the third world. Another deals with an inner-city fellowship church in Utrecht which celebrates the Lord’ s Supper for young and old each week. An article deals with practical ways of increasing cooperation between the merging denominations. Still another portrays old Profess or K. Dijk as more sympathetic to the feminist movement than one might expect. A chaplain writes of Lebanon; another minister writes of the church in Poland; a girl volunteer writes of her work with Amnesty International. An article deals with promotion of the peace movement by discussions. A two-page center spread with nine photographs portrays the regular work of an elder featuring, of course, a woman elder. A minister writes of the problems of the unemployed. An article focuses attention on the dictatorial government in the Phillipines and another deals with displaced people in Ghana. Attention is directed toward provisions for retired ministers. A back-page article pleads for toleration of differences, using as text “Have salt in yourselves and live at peace with one another.” Is it surprising that in a church which expresses such total preoccupation with social, political, and economic matters and such total unconcern about the central themes of the gospel, people must look elsewhere for the gospel? Is it not more than time that we, be it with regret, discontinue the farce of pretending to be “churches in ecclesiastical fellowship?” Perhaps more disturbing than our observing what is happening to the Reformed in the Netherlands is the unmistakable impression conveyed by our own official reports that, although their views are not yet carried to the sometimes ludicrous extreme of these Dutch writings, they clearly move in the same direction.
PDJ