THE MISSION OF SUFFERING

The Revelation of God in Human Suffering, Wayne E. Oates. The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1959. $2.75.

Each chapter in this book treats of the Revelation of God in and through the context of a different aspect of human suffering.

Jesus’ ministry was addressed to a suffering people. During his ministry, Jesus pointed to his identity with human sufferers as evidence for the fact that the Messiah had come.

When John the Baptist sent his disciples to inquire, “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Jesus replied, “Go tell John what you hear and see: The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” Again in Mat. 25:31-40 Jesus taught that people would be rated according as they had or had not ministered in practical and physical ways to their suffering fellowmen.

Rarely do we think of the mission of suffering. Mr. Otis brings it, however, emphatically to our mind in the word of Luther to Frederich of Saxony who was seriously ill on September, 1519:

When . . . I learned . . . that your Lordship has been afflicted with a grave illness and that Christ has at the same time become ill in you . . . I cannot pretend that I do not hear the voice of Christ crying out to me from Your Lordship’s body and flesh saying, “Behold, I am sick.” This is so because such evils as illness . . . are not borne by us who are Christians but by Christ himself, our Lord and Savior, in whom we live, even as Christ plainly testifies . . . when he says, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

However, the revelation of God through human suffering is only to the “pure in Heart.” Notice those “blessed ones of the Father” mentioned above in the parable of the judging shepherd, did not do their good works to be seen of men. So complete was their abandon and so unconditional was their love for those for whom they cared that their left hand was unaware of what their right was doing. Surprisingly enough they asked the same question as the accursed ones: “Lord, when did we see thee. . .?”

Christian values are latent in and accrue from suffering; values not to be experienced through any other media. This revelation of God in and through our suffering binds us with all Christians in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, issues in a disciplined community, develops our spiritual maturity, and relates us to one another on basically essential terms.

In discussing the dignity of men we learn that the present crisis of the upsurging self-consciousness of the Oriental people, indirectly is the result of the Christian missionaries’ message. The message of the dignity of the person of Christ. Hence, they infer their own dignity because, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Jno. 3:16. The message actually got across. They were convinced that if the Creator of the Universe thought “that” much of them they were truly persons and not just nobodies.

It is difficult to perceive the immutability and justness of the laws of nature in the superficial environment of our machine age: one may be born, live and die without beholding nature in operation. Too, on our television screens and in the novels we read, well meaning writers and play-writes, through short-sightedness and mistake, bring virtue into distress under such circumstances as Providence, perhaps, never did nor will. Thereby they bring discouragements upon virtue, and even throw it into dispair. By this I mean, virtue is destroyed as an ideal to be attained in the lives of our people. These writers sometimes give to vice that success which it never had, nor will have, so long as God governs the world. In times such as these it is a pleasure to read a book that enhances God’s order and intensifies His Revelation. —Clint Evans

Jesus and Human Conflict. Henry A. Fast. Herald Press, Scottdale. Pennsylvania. 1959. $3.75.

The author, a Mennonite, is Professor of Bible and Christian Education at Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas. His book is a study of the attitude of Jesus, in an attempt to determine how His disciples should react to the problem of tension and aggression in every phase of life. The Sermon on the Mount is examined in the light of the political, revolutionary, and social movements of the time, which constituted the background and framework for its delivery. To the author’s credit it must be said that he does not arbitrarily lift passages out of the context, nor compile a list of isolated texts, to bolster a theory. He has produced a well-written, readable volume, filled with helpful material, even for those who may entertain alternative conclusions.

That you may see the moderate, measured approach employed in dealing with a controversial question we cite the following:

“The principle of nonresistance as seen in the perspective of the Gospel record is obviously not a fixed rule intended for literal legalistic application, allowing no variation, and specifically forbidding all use of force. It is rather a principle whose purpose is to point out a godlike spirit that can meet all kinds of provocation and aggression, not only without resentment and without resort to violence and retaliation, but also with a constructive, triumphant resourcefulness. It is a spirit that cannot be restricted to certain stereotyped methods of response. It will assert itself in ways adapted to the situation, but its ultimate purpose invariably is redemptive, the restoration of relations of truths, love, and fellowship.”

Here is another quote worth considering:

“That the principle of nonresistance is not a separate and independent doctrine in the teaching of Jesus is likewise apparent. It is not the center and key to His ethic. It is derived from and is the fruit of the principle of love, which in turn has its source in and acquires its meaning from the character and spirit of God as seen in Jesus.” —W. Carl Ketcherside

THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS

The Royal Priesthood, W. Carl Ketcherside. Mission Messenger, St. Louis, 1956.

The book is a plea for a restoration IN FACT of the primitive Christian concept of “the priesthood of all believers.” In the words of the author:

In the original church of God there was no distinction between clergy and laity. God’s clergy (portion or lot) consisted of God’s laity (people). Every member of the “laity” was a member of “the clergy” and vice versa … One “entered the ministry” by coming into the Christ …

The early church gathered around a table; the modern church sits before a pulpit. The Lord placed the table in the church so it could remember its debt to him; the clergy placed the pulpit in the church to bring it in debt to them. In the early church they all spoke one by one; today all the speaking is done by one. Then the spirit was kindled; now it is quenched. Then they claimed to love each other and talked about Jesus; now they claim to love Jesus and talk about each other. In those days all exerted an effort to exhort; now all must be exhorted to exert an effort …

The primitive disciples did not ask the world to come and get the gospel, they took it to them. They gathered to eat the Lord’s supper, then scattered to preach the Word … The whole earth was their auditorium, the thing at hand their pulpit.

Much of the irreverence, formality and cold ritual of these days is the result of a loss of significance of the priesthood of all believers …

Is the tendency toward a special clergy caste in the churches of the saints, a departure, to that degree, from the revelation of God as given by the apostles? When the saints, through love of ease or party ambition, create an exclusive ministerial order, do they surrender certain inalienable liberties which belong to all “in Christ?” Does the creation of the office of “the Minister,” “the Pastor,” “the Priest,” deprive Christians, to some extent, of the freedom to think, speak, and act under the mediatorship of Christ? Under our modern “Pastor System” are we actually free in Christ? Can the church function without “the Minister?” Will God’s plan work? What is it? These burning questions arc thoroughly discussed in the book.

The work is divided into two parts. The first section is a study of the whole subject of priesthood as taught in the Bible. The reason for religion and the necessity of the priesthood in an approach unto God. It traces the history of priesthood through the Patriarchal, and Jewish dispensations, and points out the culmination of God’s ideal in the Christian era which is designated as the “end of the ages.”

Originally every man was his own priest; his own mediator. At the altar he represented on approaching God in behalf of this other self —his sinful being. As peoples multiplied and families expanded, the oldest male member approached God in behalf of the others. Such a character was the patriarch Job (Job 1:5).

When every nation had chosen its gods, the God of heaven chose Him a nation. As a preparatory step He went to the land of Chaldea, and called a man whose father and grandfather were already idolaters. God promised to make of this man a “great nation.” However, it is near impossible to make a secure, stable nation out of nomads who are forever on the move. They know little or nothing of the arts and crafts and civil policy necessary for a thriving national existence. Thus in preparation for becoming a great nation the providence of God removed the posterity of Abraham temporarily from the promised land. They become slaves in the land of Egypt; the most advanced nation on earth in the arts, crafts, sciences, and in civil policy. This was a hard school but it prepared the seed of Abraham for the possession of the Canaan land. Hence, God “burnt out of their hearts the wanderlust which had been so much a part of their tribal existence, so that even when turned loose, they repeatedly tried to go back, choosing to endure slavery with its regular provisions of the fleshpots than a life in tents pitched in the wilderness.”

When the proper time came, God directed Moses to go as His ambassador to the proud and haughty court of Pharaoh. The freeing of the children of Israel ensued. However, the children of Israel had to be welded into a cohesive nation. The first essential was a constitution which would act as a rallying point. As you know, a high mountain served as God’s rostrum. From it, He made one of the most startling promises ever made. First God cited what He had done for them (Exo. 19:4) .. Then He declared, “Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a KINGDOM OF PRIESTS and a holy nation” (Exo. 19:5, 6). This implies God’s intention of making them a nation of sanctified people, each of whom might serve as a priest in his own right. Citizenship in the kingdom would constitute admission to the priesthood. God could speak and commune with each of them without an earthly mediator or intervening priest. All this was contingent. It was with rapt attention we followed through this section to the “golden age” of the Messiah; the priesthood of all believers.

The second section considers the arguments for a special priesthood to officiate for men “in things pertaining unto God.” Our author says, “The case for the clergy can best be presented by that great institution which resulted from its creation, and then did the most to perpetuate and justify it. If the Roman Church cannot successfully defend the right of a special clergy to exist, no other religious group need assume the task.”

Accordingly, an outstanding presentation of the subject of a special clergy by a modern scholar of the Roman Church was chosen. The title of which is, “The Priesthood—A Divine Institution.” —Clint Evans