Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

you."you."the power of the Spirit of God, those regeneratedmen and women who will shoulder the responsibilityof reformation and who will point the way for moralaction in our society.The blind cannot lead the blind. Only those alivewith the conviction that if ever a society is to comeinto being that will be most conducive to man's risingto his highest level of his God-given qualities of life,it must be built upon the foundation which God Himself has laid, which is Jesus Christ, can point theway. Without Him we have no constructive program.Without Him we have no pattern, no blue-print, nospecifications. Without Him it is darkness and deathfor the individual and it is chaos for the world.But with Christ there is hope. He came not tocondemn the world but that the world through Himmight be saved. He has a program for the individualand He has a program for society. It is one that callsfor right thinking and right acting. But instead ofright thinking and moral action it is so easy for usto substitute convenience, expediency or compromiseand then to assume that we have performed ourduty. And then there is the ever present danger ofour being confused or mis-led or of the issues beingclouded by the seepage from the false or faultyidealogies of the day. There are so many groups andmovements pressuring for this and for that and insisting that their only purpose is the elevation ofman and the protecting of his rights or perhaps thoseof the State and the saving of the world. But youknow, my friends, the Word of God says that theheart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked, andfurthermore, there are ways that seem right to aman that lead to death, and there are social ideaologiesand economic theories which promise liberationbut which lead to enslavement, and many there arewho are beguiled thereby.The Majority Not Necessarily RightNow we would not deny the rights which belongto groups. They have their place in our society andgroupexpression has its place. We are all membersof one group or another. Most of us belong to a particular church. We are associated with a certain denomination and with a certain congregation. And webelieve that the group to which we belong has theright to speak, has the right to declare its convictions, state its principles and proclaim its objectives.We also believe that we have the right to ask of anygroup this question, what does it stand for? Whatare its motives ? Whom or what does it represent ?A Galluppoll of two or three years ago revealsthe fact that 59% of the adult population of thiscountry admit that they drink alcoholic beverages70% of the men and 46% of the women indulge inthe use of such beverages either socially, regularlyor habitually. Although statistics reveal that at leastone out of every nine drinkers becomes an alcoholicand that we have in this country today one millionchronic alcoholics suffering from organic damage,three million additional alcoholics not yet organicallydamaged and another three million problem drinkers,yet we are told it is interfering with the rights of theindividual and of the majority group to which he belongs to try to curtail in any way his consumption ofalcohol. Here we are confronted with group pressurethe pressure of public opinion. The argument advanced is, of course, that ours is a republic in whichNovember 10, 1954the majority rules, and should not the majority inall things have what it wants ?But are there not issues in which a majoritymay be in the right? Surely in regard to the liquortraffic and other kindred evils we have the right,though we be in the minority, to ask this question ofthe majority: On the issue before us, is that forwhich you stand best for the uplifting of man ? Is ithelping to build that kind of society most conduciveto man's rising to the highest level of his God-givenqualities of life? Is this helping to bring into beingthe ideal society?The Ideal SocietyYou know our Lord Jesus Christ spoke aboutthat kind of society. He taught us to pray for it."Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as itis in heaven." He called it "The Kingdom of God."And that kingdom isn't confined to heaven. It reaches across two worlds. It has to do with the here andnow and it has to do with hereafter.But Jesus said you can't even see that kingdomunless you are born again. Can't even grasp it withthe mind. That kingdom makes no sense to a manuntil he has experienced the new birth. The LordJesus sent His disciples out to work for the buildingof a kingdom that doesn't make sense to the worldand which can't make sense to the world until a newbirth has been experienced and one has been givena new heart and a new mind and has become a newcreation in Jesus Christ. But for that supernaturalexperience a great evangelistic-educational programis called for. That, too, was taken into account by themaster. He said that the Holy Spirit would come andthat He would convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, but in doing this He wouldwork through men, and so it was that Christ commissioned His disciples and sent them out on a worldwide preaching, teaching mission, saying to them,"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizingthem in the name of the Father, and of the Son, andof the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe allthings whatsoever I have commandedChrist has given us a mandate. We are underDivine Commission. That is the authority back ofthe church. That is the authority back of the SabbathSchool. That is the authority back of our missionaryenterprises. That is the authority back of the workof national reformation and the Christianizing ofsociety and nations. We have a commission. We havea moral obligation. We have a tremendous duty toteach and educate. Christians are in a minority in theworld, but that does not remove the obligation. Instead it makes the obligation all the more urgent.It isn't just a matter of sitting back and letting themajority have what it wants. There is involved themoral obligation of teaching the majority what itought to want teaching "the all things whatsoeverI have commanded Until we do that our taskhas not been fulfilled.Our Responsibility Toward YouthThere are many groups which move in the otherdirection. Their purpose is to destroy the old pathsand to trample underfoot our moral standards andour Christian faith. Over against this we must havegroups pressuring for the right things for what isGod's wayfor what Christ has commanded. In this,we must be especially concerned about our youth.293