GROUND BREAKING
With this issue the undersigned begins a new rubric. The task of the writer will be to report and to comment on any important event which occurs in the world around us, in the nominal church world or more particularly in our Protestant Reformed Churches.
Permit the undersigned to become trite and say that I am happy that the Federation Board has placed its confidence in me. I say this because the task of reporting, commenting on and interpreting current events in question must be surveyed and judged very soon after the occurrence of these events. This often results in much misjudgment and misunderstanding.
Your writer shall always attempt to view all the events which we discuss through the “spectacles” of the Word of God as revealed in His Holy Scriptures. We hope that in this way our perspective may be broadened and that the perspective of Beacon Lights may also be enhanced.
We welcome the suggestions of our young people. You all know that Beacon Lights is your paper and that we are writing for you. If you have any particular topic of current nature that you should like to see discussed in our rubric, do no neglect to inform our Editor in Chief or the editor of this rubric. In this way we all profit and our young people’s magazine becomes the combined effort of many dedicated young people working together for the same cause.
No single event in the year 1959 incited more comment and more excitement that the visit of Premier Nikita Sergeyvich Khrushchev to the shores of these United States of America. “Churchmen”, scientists, labor leaders, politicians, diplomats, capitalists and industrialists all wiggled into the act as the world’s recognized “apostle” of communism announced and made his first appearance in the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”
All the media of communications; radio, television, the daily newspaper, and the leading news periodicals focused their attention upon and capitalized upon this seemingly earth-shaking event. The very atmosphere seemed supercharged as the Russians made a timely “moon-strike” and as the Russian premier made his appearance in our country.
Here was “Mr. K.”, a real, live Communist, a confessed atheist, an author of many communist purges, but he was not the fire-spitting demagogue most Americans had expected to see. Instead he was the congenial, Ukranian, proverb-uttering premier of the world’s largest country, who had come to the land of the capitalists to entertain and to be entertained.
Because of all that has been written and said about the relationship between the United States and Russia and the seeming conflict of ideologies, it is easy for us to be swept along with the prevailing current of thought. This current of thought would lead us to believe that Russia is the basically anti-Christian. It is against this wrong notion that I wish to caution you, dear youthful reader.
I know how easy it is for us to be misled into thinking that our country is basically Christian. All the textbooks written today posit this idea. The President issues a pious decree in which he advocates that all men everywhere pray that peace may prevail. This makes our nation look very wonderful.
Does the President’s decree necessarily indicate, however, that our country is a Christian nation? Besides, does he issue this decree with the intent that all men pray that the Lord’s will may be done or must man so pray that his desires and wishes are fulfilled and are foisted upon the divine will of our Sovereign God?
We are living in strange times. The church has never had it so good. It is very unusual that the church should be so free from persecution. It has become fashionable to go to church or at least belong to some church. Because of this fact it is not very difficult to call oneself a “Christian.”
Does the fact that there are many who call themselves Christians make our nation a Christian nation? Does the fact that we have a President who attends church on Sunday and invites Mr. Khrushchev to attend church with him make our nation a Christian nation? I suggest that it would be well for each of us to examine the church canons of the church in which President Eisenhower confesses his “faith.” In this way we can come to some basic understandings about the real convictions of our country’s leader.
It is an established axiom that the kingdoms of this world have no room for the Christ. They have no room for a Christ who has come to save lost, damnable sinners who are worthy of nothing else but hell. They have no room for a Christ who comes to save men who are totally depraved and incapable of doing any good. Neither the Marxian nor the “neo-capitalistic” system is interested in Christ of his cause.
Both of these systems are basically humanistic. They are man-centered. They aim to further the ideal of the modern man: “Make this world a better place to live.”
May I suggest that the leaders of this world and the leaders of our country have forsaken and cast out all that is fundamentally Christian. They have no room for THE CHRIST of the Scriptures.
They are anti-CHRIST.
The Tower of Babel is still being built.
Originally Published in:
Vol. 19 No. 7 October-November 1959