HAVE WE RUN OUT OF STEAM?
by W. Carl Ketcherside

    Sometimes I wonder about Samson. He was one of the weakest men morally and one of the strongest physically of any man who ever lived. He could sleep with a Philistine harlot, or carry off the gates and bars of a Philistine city with the same gusto. The tragedy of his life was his association with the temptress, Delilah. He lied to her as she lied to him, until finally she wormed out of him the secret of his strength. He was sleeping with his head upon her knees when she cried out "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." He awakened and said, half to himself, "I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free." But the Book says, "And he did not know the Lord had left him." He was kind of childish in his powerlessness.

    It is then I am reminded of the people of God whom he has called. After many acts of divine daring they become entangled with the affairs of this life. They are asleep in the lap of the world. Finally, summoned from their stupor they try to shake themselves free as at other times in the past only to discover that God has withdrawn his power. One of the saddest things ever spoken about some who will come in the time of stress in the last days is that they will "Hold the form of religion but deny the power of it." Like an embalmed corpse the life and energy have fled. Like a petrified tree no fruit is borne. They are called men of corrupt minds and counterfeit faith. They are accused of being lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

    Without being meddlesome or unjustly accusative I think we can see the condition described prevalent upon every side today. In our preaching we lash out at the symptoms. We treat the infection by picking away at the pimples. But there is a deep inflammation which cannot be administered to on the surface. It is the result of the loss of the power of the Spirit. Until it is remedied nothing else will avail. What has happened, of course, is what always happens. We have identified the faith with the culture. It happened in Rome. It happened in Russia. It happened in England. Now it has happened in the United States.

    God is the chief deity for white middle-class Americans. He almost became the tutelar divinity of upper middle-class America, but the current recession, depression, or whatever it was, coupled with runaway inflation and high interest rates, knocked the "upper" off the designation. It was in the [text appears to be missing in the original. — eEditor] inhabitants of Indian villages whose land we were stealing, and placed black human beings on the auction block and sold them like cattle, into slavery which was sometimes worse than death. It is in the name of God that we still resent refugees from Vietnam, whose daughters American soldiers violated, worshiping at the same table with us. "Let them form their own church" is our self-righteous cry. And we think it strange that the body is paralyzed, impotent, unable to grow. It is a strange wonder it has endured as long as it has with its make-believe faith.

    Recently I have gone over the names of some of our "tribal heroes" who were in the minds of all in the 1950 era. Wherever you went men were telling of their exploits in debate. Brethren would sit on the front porch and guffaw as they recounted their quick sallies at some of the Baptists or Mormons who signed propositions. But you do not hear of them any more. They have vanished into the thin air of yesteryear. They have folded their tents like the Arabs and as silently stolen away. Some are still alive. They are no more in demand. Those who place them on their programs speak apologetically about owing them a little recognition because of the past. Once they were our party dragons, breathing out fire and smoke. Now they are seen to be mere crocodiles sleeping in the mud along the river. And the Baptists and Mormons are still growing greater in number.

    What has happened to write "Ichabod" over our lintels? We have run out of steam. And the reason is we denied the impetus and energy of the Holy Spirit. We have manufactured preachers wholly incapable of moving out into our kind of world. We have taught them to mechanically recite scripture by the page. We have given them the clever answers to make to Methodists and Pentecostals on some disputed point. In some cases we have converted them into robots, vainly repeating the sermon outlines they have inherited from professors, some of whom are still teaching from sets of notes they have used without alteration or change for twenty years. And we have sent them forth starry-eyed into congregations where the elders are engaged in power struggles, the members hardly speak to each other, and the community laughs at them behind their backs.

    I grew up in a small segment of "the restoration movement." The Apostolic Review was our link with one another. It was next to the Bible. Our enemies were the Gospel Advocate and Firm Foundation. Our particular version of "the Church of Christ" was the kingdom of heaven. Others were outside the pale. They were digressive, factionalists, disloyal, usurpers, and guilty of heresy. We were "the faithful" in spite of some of the moral lapses which occurred. Now I find myself grieved that I was betrayed by the party spirit. We were sure that if Paul came to our town, he would pass everyone else by and worship with us. I am no longer sure he would even have come to our town if his donkey had become lame at the city limits.

    I resent the fact that I was kept confined and unable to share the concepts of friends and neighbors, some of whom led lives which were a credit to those with whom we met each Sunday. It has become difficult to overcome the retardation I suffered by our attitude. But chiefly I resent the false propaganda to which I was subjected about the Holy Spirit. I grew up with the idea that the Spirit was "the word." A hundred times I have heard John 6:63 quoted. And a hundred times I have heard it misconstrued and misapplied. "It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit and life." In our naivete every time we see the word "spirit" we think of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was simply affirming that the words He spoke were spiritual words producing life, in contrast with the manna (which was the subject of the chapter) which the fathers ate, digested and all died.

    After I learned better about that, I was subjected to the idea that the Spirit operated only through the Word. If that is restricted to aliens from the kingdom, I agree that it is through the proclamation of the Good News. But I no longer believe it is true with the children of God. The Spirit even makes intercession for them with groanings which cannot even be uttered. The Spirit never violates the Word, but he is never trapped by it either. The fact is that the Spirit is not restricted or restrained by any idea, dogma, doctrine or concept of his work. But there is nothing to be gained from sitting around bemoaning the past. We would all do it differently if we had it to do over. But the time spent groaning about what has happened means that much less in which to make something happen in the future.

    Jesus told the Sadducees that they were wrong because they knew neither the scriptures nor the power of God. He made a distinction between the two. I make the same distinction. Paul declared that he imparted the message in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit. We conclude that the Spirit is the teacher and the words are the things taught. They are taught to those who possess the Spirit. It is high time for us to claim, accept and use the power of the Holy Spirit. Taking a purely negative position will do us no good. We will shrivel and die on the vine. Our efforts will become ineffective and unproductive.

    Like the seventy we need authority over all the power of the enemy. If we go forth clad only in our own strength we will succumb. We are too weak, too frail, too human. It is only when we depend upon "the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness on the right hand and on the left" that we shall be more than conquerors.

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    Man is not naturally a cynic; he wants pitifully to believe, in himself, in his future, in his community and in the nation in which he is a part. -- Louis Broomfield