Plain Truth 1962 (Vol XXVII No 08) Aug - Lcgmn.com

W
WHY A CHURCH?
HAT a paradox. What confusion!
Almost no one seems to
know WHAT is a church, WHY
have a chur~h, and what the church is
supposed to accomplish, and yet chtl-rehgoing
is steadily increasing, and churchbuilding
is at an all time high!
Right now there is a new Protestant
cQurch finished somewhere in the United
Stares every 18 minutes! Hundreds of
"converts" make "decisions for Christ"
in huge evangelistic campaigns. Thousands
"join the church of their choice."
each week.
But something is wrong. Something
is miuing!
Churchmen say something really serious
is lacking in all [his religious fervor
of our modern age. They say the recurn
to religion is only skin deep!
What the Pastors Say
Why have a Church ? What is q ~ hurch? What PURPOSE
does it serve? Should YOU attend a Church? Read the plain
TRUTH from your Bible! It will siJ rprise you!
There are more Bibles in America
than people. Three million complete
Bibles are sold in the United States each
year, with 200 million already in circula·
tion. Church membership now stands at
a record-breaking 114,000,000 for all
faiths.
Church construction now approaches
the BILLION OOLLAR mark for the year,
with p10re [han 310,000 houses qf worship
in the country.
\let, poll·cakers and ministers are find·
ing the ~verage church-goer is a Bibli·
cal illiterate/ He noc only remains totally
IGNORANT of [he Bible, but he doesn'[
even kno~ WHY HE'S IN CHURCH!
Theologian Reinhold Neibuhr said,
"Religious faith is always put to the test
Py the crises of history." America's q~.
ligious faith is now being put to the test
-it's being weighed in the balances,
and FOUND WANTING!
A leading rectOr of a well-known
church in New York delivered a sermon
to his congregation, the condensation of
which was published in Reader's pigest.
He said, searching intO the real place of
religion in people's DAILY lives, "Durby
Garner Ted Armstrong
ing the week the church is a series of
promOtional, organizfl,tional and semicommercial
activities. .. "... it is
comrnon for many to think that nUlner·
ous activities are identical with religion.
To pay mortgages, CO build new parish
houses, to put on a drive for new mem·
bers, co hold bazaars, lun~hes, dinners,
and pake sales ..."
This sermon was thought to be so
applicable thac it received a prominent
place in Reader's Digest. The rector
showed how there is NO TRANSITION
between the Gospel and the weekday
lives of people!
And NO WONDER!
To MOST people, religion seems a confusing,
conflicting hodgepodge of vague,
"rheological" ideas, proclaimed in the
dim interior of a huge building in a
drab, uninspiring, dull monotone! Those
making a real sincere ATTEMPT to find
what is their purpose in life, WHERE
chey are going, and the real MEANING
of human life are soon disillusioned!
Instead, they find more questions than
answers, more doubt than faith, and find
themselves confused, perplexed by ir all.
Yes, NO WONDER! When the theologians
THEMSELVES are confused! In
an anicle entitled "The Agony of Religious
Doubt," it was admitted by one
rheologian that "PastOrs and laity are
... all playing a solemn game of 'Lets
Pretend.' ..
The article revealed that "'the min·
ister tells his confidants (hac he does not
believe the doctrines ... but would not
dare CO say so from the pulpit.' ''
A well-known theologian was quOted
in this shocking article as saying, "There
have been times, in the middle of a
service, when I have been assailed by
the maS[ appalling thoughrs. I find myself
saying: ' lJ7hat am 1 doing here?
Does this make any semel: 1/
Yes, UTILE WONDER many of the
laity are mixed up about the purpose of
the church today-when even the leaders
seem to be mixed up, in dOlebt, COrlftlsed,
perplexed!
One member of a Religio-Psychiatric
Clinic said, "Much of my work is coun·
seling ministers who get discouraged
and have doubts." Notice! DESPITE the
boom 01t the sur/ace, j[ has been ab·
soilltely PROVED and DOCUMENTED rhar
even the officers in churches are Biblical
illiterates!
1t was found many leaders were not
sure whether the Sermon on the Mount
was in the Old or New T estamenr! In
a poll conducted by a leading coundl of
churches, the most extensive survey
EVER raken of U.S. Protestantism, an
APPALLING degree of ignorance was re·
vealed. Many of tbose questioned didn't
know wherher the Psalms were in the
New or Old Testament, didn't know
which books comprised the Gospels, and
only a startling 35 % could 1lame the
first four books of the New Testament,
and FIFTY·FIVE PER CENT COULDN'T
NAME EVEN ONEl
What SHOCKING facts! While we
pro/eu religion, while we APPROPRIATE
the name of Christ, calling ourselves
'ICbristian," we totally IGNORE WHAT
HE SAID!
Crime and Violence as Usual
Meanwhile, with the burgeoning
surge of religion, it's business as usual,
cheating as usual, divorce as usual, and
crime as usual!
J. Edgar Hoover said we face the
TWIN enemies of Communism and
CRIME-placing Our national Crt me
problem on a par with the terrible threat
of world Communism wirh its sinister
plan for world conquest.
Sydney Harris, editOrializing concerning
our terrifying criminaliry, said, "The
most violent people on earrh are not the
'savage' tribes in the African Congo.
for no Other nation on earth has a WOrs{
record than rhe United Scates for murder,
manslaughter, rape, armed robbery,
sluggings, muggings, carnage on the
(Pleflse cOlltimte 011 ptlge 26)