DIALOGUE;
SKEPTICS; CHURCH: CURRENT CONDITION

Christians now chatter learnedly about things simple believers have always taken for granted. They are on the defensive, trying to prove things that a previous generation never doubted. We have allowed unbelievers to get us in a corner and have given them the advantage by permitting them to choose the time and place of encounter. We smart under the attack of the quasi-Christian unbeliever, and the nervous, self-conscious defense we make is called “the religious dialogue.”

Under the scornful attack of the religious critic real Christians who ought to know better are now “rethinking” their faith. Scarcely anything has escaped the analysts. With a Freudian microscope they examine everything: foreign missions, the Book of Genesis, the inspiration of the Scriptures, morals, all tried and proven methods, polygamy, liquor, sex, prayer—all have come in for inquisition by those who engage in the contemporary dialogue. Adoration has given way to celebration in the holy place, if indeed any holy place remains to this generation of confused Christians.

Ephesians 5:6; Colossians 2:8–9; 1 Timothy 6:20–21

Man: The Dwelling Place of God, 171, 172.