Restoration Review, Vol. 31, No. 2, February 1989

OUR CHANGING WORLD

This year is the 20th anniversary of Integrity, a magazine that has done much for more openness among our people. I was asked to submit an essay for the anniversary year on the changes that have occurred among the Restoration churches over the past two decades, which I believe you will appreciate reading. If you do not receive this journal, we heartily recommend it. The sub rate is a freewill donation, which can be made after you have read the paper for awhile. The address is Integrity, 2919 Lafayette Ave., Lansing, MI 48906.

There is evidence that some of our more open churches are not only more pragmatic but also more creative. What, for instance, might a church do about Super Bowl Sun-day? The Central Church of Christ in Irving, Texas, which may stand alone among our folk in describing itself as "An Ecumenical Fellowship," is not intimidated by the Super Bowl, even if it is played at the time of the evening service. They have a super-screen TV to which they invited the congregation to gather around and watch the big game, and they served super-sub sandwiches. They had a devotional at half-time. Childcare was provided. Now isn't that better than people staying home to see the game or coming to church out of duty and wishing they were seeing the game? However that is, I doff my hat to the Central church, for it is in many ways a super church. Oops! I almost said super bowl church!

Elmer Prout has served as a missionary to Japan for many years. In his Tachiba, a bulletin to American Christians, he wrote about the status of the emperor in Japan, which is of special interest now that the death of longtime emperor Hirohito might bring about change. Elmer reports that many Japanese believe the emperor system should be abolished. Others see the emperor as a symbolic figure, no more than what "In God We Trust" on coins means to Americans. Now it appears to be generally conceded that the emperor is only human and no longer deity, which was a condition of surrender following the war and is now in their Constitution. Elmer tells of Christians who recall the days of "emperor worship." The danger that Elmer sees is that the emperor symbolizes a religion that runs counter to the gospel of Christ. He notes that in a small rice paddy in the Imperial palace the emperor plants and harvests a rice crop each year, which fulfills his role as a priest and the center of ancestor worship. Another Christian minister in that country, a native Japanese, told me a few years back that he suspected that emperor worship would one day be reestablished and that Shintoism would be restored as the state religion. This would necessitate a change in the Constitution, which provides both for freedom of religion and a separation of church and state, which were required by the United States following the war.

The Disciples of Christ are having a problem over a resolution that has been submitted to their Commission on Theology. Commonly referred to as the "Jesus Resolution," it claims in essence that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation, with Acts 4:12 as the reference text: "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." In a recent essay in The Disciple John D. Willis, pastor of First Christian Church in Elsberry, Mo., refers to the resolution as a theological hot potato. He sees part of the problem in the fact that most Christians, including most Disciples, believe that there are some heathen and others who do not know Christ who will receive God's mercy. He also points to the Disciples' creedless tradition, noting that the resolution would limit the diverse interpretations of the nature of Christ. But he believes the Disciples would agree to "a central text" if it were the good confession in Mt. 16:16 ("You are the Christ, the Son of the living God"), which he says is the only creed his people have ever had.