Comment By Torchlight

Permissiveness approved

At the beginning of last year on this page we took stock of world conditions and found no comfort in the spiritual and moral state of mankind in general. During the year we had occasion to refer to further developments which are the inevitable outcome of modern man's increasing departure from the fear of God. Many are reaping a fearful harvest of sorrow from the permissiveness which is tolerated and accepted in modern society. In spite of this we continue to read in the daily Press statements by well-known persons which can only encourage further degeneration in public morality. One recent statement by a prominent public figure, whose name we forbear to mention, was that he did not see permissiveness as decadence because there was no absolute law on morality. He added, "My anxiety about permissiveness is not how far it will go, but how far it is going to swing back again". Such assertions do great harm to impressionable young people looking for guidance in the jungle of modern life.

The implications of the statements quoted above are indeed frightening. Apparently the divine moral code embodied in the Ten Commandments is without authority and may be ignored and our Lord's moral teaching can be similarly dismissed as unacceptable. If there is no absolute law on morality then we must either conclude that there is no God or that He has left man to drift aimlessly without map or compass.

Such statements by a prominent public personality who frequently poses as a leader of thought cause little stir and pass without serious challenge. This lends colour to the view of some students of history that only "a revival of religion" (as they term it) can save Western civilization from collapse. Whatever is meant by this term certain it is that the moral and spiritual decadence of modern society will only be arrested by a return to the fear of God, and a first step in that direction will be an acknowledgement of the authority of the Word of God.

"Holding to the faithful Word"

As indicated last month we intend, if the Lord will, to publish during 1971 a monthly series of articles under the general heading, Contending for the Faith. The first article in the series appears in this issue, commencing on page 2, and it will be followed next month by a paper entitled, "The authority of Scripture". The need to re-assess our spiritual heritage embodied in the Faith once for all delivered, and to re-affirm our faith in its authority, is continuous. In the permissive climate of this modern age this is a weighty challenge to God's people. We best serve our fellow-men and our fellow-believers not by going with the stream but by "holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching" (Titus 1:9). And this is no mere striving about words to no profit. The issues are crucial and far-reaching - "We are contending for our all".

Advice to Preachers

Those of us who enjoyed the reading of Spurgeon's Lectures to my students in early days can recommend to younger brethren the sound commonsense advice given to preachers in these lectures, which have been recently re-published. Of course, circumstances have changed since the days of that great preacher, but many of his pungent comments are worth re-emphasizing. Here is a short excerpt from his lecture, "The need for decision for the truth":

We have a fixed faith to preach, my brethren, and we are sent forth with a definite message from God. We are not left to fabricate the message as we go along. We are not sent forth by our Master with a general commission arranged on this fashion-"As you shall think in your heart and invent in your head, so preach. Keep abreast of the times. Whatever the people want to hear tell them that, and they shall be saved". Verily, we read not so. There is something definite in the Bible. It is not quite a lump of wax to be shaped at our will, or a roll of cloth to be cut according to the prevailing fashion. Your great thinkers evidently look upon the Scriptures as a box of letters for them to play with, and make what they like of, or a wizard's bottle, out of which they may pour anything they choose, from atheism to spiritualism. I am too old-fashioned to fall down and worship this theory. There is something told me in the Bible-told me for certain-not put before me with a "but" and a "perhaps", and an "if", and a "may be", and fifty thousand suspicions behind it, so that really the long and short of it is, that it may not be so at all; but revealed to me as infallible fact, which must be believed, the opposite of which is deadly error, and comes from the father of lies.

Well said! We can say, Amen, to that, and to much else in this lecture expressed in Spurgeon's inimitable style.

unknown | Jan 1971
Comment By Torchlight