READERS' EXCHANGE

 

Pat Boone’s New Song

Pat Boone’s “New Song” stirs my curiosity. I have long been dissatisfied with our attempts to bury the Holy Spirit on the Isle of Patmos along with the apostle John.—Massachusetts

Let My People Go!

I appreciate your stand on opinion and doctrine, on instrumental music, and on Pat Boone and his experience in the Holy Spirit. I still have much study to do on these and other subjects, but until I do, I want to love all of my brethren as much as I can. Already I am beginning to see that I don’t have to agree with you on every little jot and tittle before I can love you.—Abilene

We praise the Lord for your paper and especially for the latest issue containing Pat Boone’s story. But the first article on “The New Covenant” needs to be spread abroad. Our elders and preachers, as well as all the rest of us, need to read and understand what you are saying.—California

If you cannot send us extra copies of Pat Boone’s “My Search for Dynamic Reality” we would like to secure permission to reprint it.—New Mexico

Your articles in the Restoration Review are tremendous. Praise God! I am so glad that God is not leaving out the people in the Church of Christ in His outpouring of the Holy Spirit at this crucial time! We need Jesus so badly!—California

Please accept my appreciation and thanksgiving for your splendid little paper. It puts emphasis where I believe it is most needed: on true Christian love and the much neglected great Holy Spirit. However fine may be our rhetoric, or however meticulous our doctrinal details, we are still nothing without the absolute of love. May God bless and further your noble and needed work of reconciliation. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” Matt. 5:9.—Ohio

I have borrowed and read the May issue in which Pat Boone’s article “My Search for Dynamic Reality” appeared. I have some friends who do not believe that Pat really has experienced the talking in tongues, and I’d like some copies to give some of them. Pat Boone baptized our oldest daughter, and she has converted her husband to the “one way.” She can’t believe that Pat is sincere in what he now feels.—Tennessee

Brother Pat’s article is a beautiful testimony to his courage and love. I pray only that our brethren will see this love and share it rather than stumble over something with which they may disagree.—Chicago

I am really thrilled with your attitude, your willingness to give the other guy the benefit of the doubt (as Christ gave us the benefit of the certainty!), and your “open-arm” approach to fellowship... More and more I have the feeling that the Lord is trying to dissolve the barriers between people and bring us together in “the unity of the Spirit.”—Pat Boone

Preaching at the Vatican

An interesting news item tells of how one of our Church of Christ ministers in Rome stood up one day and preached in the Vatican. This was not at a public service as such, but to the crowd milling about in the vast expanses of St. Peter’s cathedral, many of them no doubt tourists. The reporter to the Firm Foundation tells us that the sermon was longer than Paul’s address on Mars Hill and that it was “the pure simple truth.” It also condemned some of the errors of Romanism, all the way from its gross claims about Mary to its bachelor bishops. The pope was also identified as the man of sin in 2 Thess. 2.

The reactions to this unusual incident are interesting. An American tourist, apparently a non-Roman Catholic, chided the preacher for his behavior, asking him if he had permission to do such a thing. “How would you like a priest coming into your place of worship to preach against your religion?,” asked the tourist.

A Baptist in the crowd approached the preacher, commending him for his courage and offering a donation.

Most noteworthy about the report was the absence of any reaction on the part of the officials or Vatican police. There was apparently no reaction from any Roman Catholic source. Did they allow the man to have his say, and to walk out unmolested? Was it that they simply did not care or paid no attention? It must have caused not even a ripple in the spacious chambers of St. Peter’s.

But what the Vatican ignored was to the preacher no doubt significant. He was once “a shy, reserved and timid soul,” the report reveals, but now his reputation for boldness is assured and he has made the columns of the Firm Foundation. And he can tell his grandchildren that he once preached in St. Peter’s.

Socrates would insist that unless there is also wisdom there can be no real courage. However I would take no honor from our brother, especially since I’ve pulled a few tricks like that myself; and it could well have taken something most of us do not have to get up in St. Peter’s and speak “the pure simple truth.” But how disconcerting it must be to be ignored. When I did things like that, they threw rocks at me and hauled me off to jail.

As I read this report I asked myself how it would look to a gracious, intelligent Roman Catholic leader. He would probably understand the conduct of the young preacher well enough, allowing that religious zeal sometimes takes this form. He would grant the sincerity of the man and perhaps insist that he should be allowed to have his say, even in St. Peter’s, so long as he does not become a nuisance. But I think he would be puzzled over the fact that the report would be published in our church press. If they would ignore it, why couldn’t we? What is so significant about it as to merit a full page write-up in a weekly organ?

And if our Roman Catholic friend were as gracious as many are he would be more critical of one of his own priests who would do something like that in the rotund corridors of Moody Coliseum during an ACC lectureship.

And of course our reaction would be the same as theirs was in Rome. We would pay no attention to him at all!