Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - July 16/61

Contributor - Rev. Jacob Dykstra

Title - What Do You Believe?

Topic - Beliefs

There is a desperate need today for convictions. The generation that knew what it believed and why, and, was convinced of the truth of their beliefs seems almost to have disappeared. The Christian faith for many today consists only in hazy notions about vague generalities. The content of their to faith has been lost. In an effort to be broad-minded, to be gracious toward another point of view, the Christian faith has often been spread so thinly that only a superficial shell remains of the "faith once committed unto the fathers".

This attitude has a basic relation to the mission of the church. Just what shall the message be of the Church of Christ to those who are of non-Christian religions ? The International Missionary Council which will confer in New Delhi in the Fall of this year will be considering just that issue: "What is the Mission of the Church ?" They will also be considering a merger with the World Council of Churches. Decisions made at this conference will be of world-wide significance to the Christian Church.

As Rev. Mr. Hogerwaard pointed out in the Oct. 1 issue of the "Pioneer", there is a theological position that holds that everyone can be saved after his own fashion by having the spirit of Christ as a Christian, a Moslem, or a Buddhist. He refers to an article in "The Observer", of the United Church of Canada, in which a Rev. Mr. Forrest argues this position, referring to Albert Schweitzer also as having reported finding the spirit of Christ among those who did not profess the name of Christ. In the same vein, the American theologians, Tillich and Niebuhr, shocked conservatives by announcing that there is no need to evangelize the Jews. They needn't believe in Christ. Their religion is sufficient as it stands. Others have advocated simply straining out the best in every religion. Many have imagined that Christianity is simply an added ingredient that those of non-Christian religions may add to their faith.

According to "Christianity Today", (April 24, 1961) a book has very recently come off the press "which may rock the Christian missionary venture afresh". It is an ecumenical symposium (a book written by various authors from various denominations) entitled The Theology of the Christian Mission. The article comments that wide theological differences appear ranging from first-rate Biblical theology, to some that is disappointing and some that is shockingly and Biblically objectionable.

Some of the most shocking and objectionable statements are made by Floyd H. Ross, who argues in the vein of Bultmann, that nearly all of the supernatural events recorded in the gospels are myths, that even the very claim that only in the name of Christ is there salvation, is pure myth. He argues that the Church has been overzealous in pointing men to salvation only in Christ and that we should recognize the possibility that "God's decisive act in the person of Christ" may also be experienced as reality in other modes -and under other names.

Already in 1938, especially in opposition to the view of W. E. Hocking, Dr. Hendrik Kraemer protested that the Christian faith cannot be looked at as only one religious expression among others. He raises the same issue in this symposium. The person of Jesus Christ creates "a basic discontinuity between Christian revelation and world religions." In other words, Jesus Christ is so far different in his person and work, that no other religion can stand on the same footing, admirable though their principles and teachings may be. Many in the Barthian school have argued that the Christian faith is not man reaching up toward God, but God reaching down toward man. The total "otherness" of the Christian religion, as a revealed religion, a revelation from God has been emphasized.

These are basic issues. Is there salvation outside of Christ ? Is a "good Moslem" just as much a candidate for heaven as one who believes that he stands justified before God because Christ has made perfect atonement for his sin on the cross? Is Jesus "one way among many?" Is His not the only name whereby we must be saved? Is He not the only way to the Father?" Can an ardent Communist be headed for the same eternal destiny as the ardent Christian? Can he who sincerely "does his best to live a good life for the benefit of mankind" inherit the Kingdom of God?

Not if the Scripture is to be our only rule of faith and practice. And certainly we are not followers of "cleverly devised myths", of , cunning fables", of "sly legends", but Christ is indeed the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, the ONE Mediator between God and man. Eye-witnesses have authentically reported his life and teachings, his death on the cross, his bodily resurrection, and God Himself has witnessed to the truth of that Christian faith. How we must rejoice that the foundation of the Church of Christ rests not on man but on God Himself, for only then will the gates of hell not prevail against the Church.

Let us have convictions. Let us know what we believe and why and what the foundation thereof is. Let us seek for peace and unity, but not at the expense of convictions. This is an age of "mergers" and certainly it is the will of Christ that the Church be unified in love and peace. Only let us be sure that it is the CHURCH that is unified. Let merger not be for the sake of merger. There must be a spiritual, biblical, theological basis for unity. Let us seek that unity, that Jesus is the Christ, and that only by faith in His atoning death is there salvation from the wrath to come. In this faith there is fellowship.

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