Musings From Motor City
I am indebted to a Chicago seer for an insight into the nature of the unholy alliance between the Bible Banner and loyal brethren the country over. According to this scribe, in a recent number of Word and Work (Whose word and whose work?), it is characterized by "whims of the people," dominated by "self-appointed lords of orthodoxy," is little more than "playing the game," ridden with "big, influential preachers," possessive of "soft seats with big congregations that pay excellent salaries," boasts of dogmatic" preachers principally, is cold to "one of the greatest song directors in the brotherhood," brands its opponents "premillennialist," guilty of a super-duper caution "for fear of what the people will say," is guardian of a "black list" of proscribed preachers, has adherents who seize upon articles written by others and who are the guardians of the "orthodox opinions of the brotherhood," etc., etc.
According to the same "lock sit," unity meetings are "noble Christian efforts." Those who write against these are, in plain words, ignorant and gullible. Besides, we don't have the truth anyway. So why invite people "to come to us?" From anti-unity meeting articles Pharisaism literally drips." Do we need to search longer for the reason why so many who look for the "Rapture" are always bawled up on what is literal and what is figurative in the Bible? Words have lost their meaning if Pharisaism "literally" drips from anything. But more: Anybody who opposes error and marks those who cause divisions has quite forgotten the prayer of Christ that His disciples might be one. Those who contend for the old paths are, axiomatically, self-righteous. Bible Banner articles are motivated by a mad scramble to "get on the bandwagon": a few big, preachers crack the whips, while the little fellows submissively hop through the hoops.
It is refreshing to notice that Ralph Wilburn, as one of the voices crying in the material-kingdom wilderness, admits the impossibility of reconciliation of the divergent views. Still, there will remain preachers who will take no positive stand against Bollism, but will continue their pirouetting. Their antics would be amusing, if the implications weren't so somber.
Finally, those who believe the Bible Banner should be encouraged in its fight are as "those led about with a fishhook in their mouths," they are "time-servers and men pleasers," they are "double-minded and unstable," their whole bodies" are filled with darkness," they are "impure in heart," they are "political racketeers," "dictators," "political gamesters.' I wouldn't have believed such thoughts could have emanated from the stronghold of "brotherly love," the good old Word & Work itself, if I hadn't read them with my own eyes. Tsk! Tsk!
Indeed our heads are bloody,--after this: But still unbowed.