RELIGIOSITY
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away.
—II Tim. 3:5
4949 Downward Trend
We remember hearing a leader of one of the great evangelical missionary societies commenting on what seems to be the natural development of many an organization. He said, there is a man. The man creates a movement or a mission. The mission gradually becomes a machine. Finally the machine ends up being a monument. Only the power of God can prevent a Christian organization from becoming a monument to the man who under God brought it into being.
—Prairie Overcomer
4950 If Holy Spirit Pulls Off …
“If God called his Holy Spirit out of the world, about 95 percent of what we are doing would go on and we would brag about it.”
This blunt statement about church programs by Dr. Carl Bates of Amarillo, Texas, was coupled with an equally blunt question to ministers at the annual Baptist Statewide Conference on Evangelism in Columbia, S. C. : “What are you doing that you can’t get done unless the power of God falls on your ministry?”
4951 Goodness Not Godliness
Being good is not necessarily being godly. To be godly, though, is good.
A sociology textbook in my library provides an example of goodness that is unrelated to godliness. The author describes the high level of cultural morality that is found among the Cheyenne, a group of native Americans who once lived in central Minnesota and northern South Dakota. These people exhibited moderation, dignity, and generosity, and manifested an almost unbelievable degree of self-control. Parents loved their children and gave them a lot of affection without spoiling them. They also taught them ethical values at an early age, so that many of them became dedicated, self-sacrificing, and well-behaved human beings. Yet these Indians were not Christians.
—Our Daily Bread
4952 No Heart Religion
In a recent article published in the fall issue of University and titled “Why Doesn’t Johnny Laugh?” Professor Eric Goldman of Princeton implies what he calls the “creeping piety … which has now slithered its way to astounding popularity.” Such things as the dial-a-prayer plan of New York’s Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church and hit songs like “I’ve Got Religion,” “Big Fellow in the Sky,” and “The Fellow Upstairs” are among his horrible examples.
Leaving aside the question of in any way classing a well-meant prayer plan with current juke-box blasphemies, one wonders whether the professor may not have missed the point. For he goes on to say, “Our faces are straight, our thoughts are doggedly constructive, our ramparts are high and wide against the man who belly-laughs. The real menace to America is not communism at all. Sometimes I think we are just going to bore ourselves to death.”
—Christianity Today
4953 Quitting Church For The Tax
For the first time West German churches, both Protestant and Catholic, are losing members—fast. Until recently, members withdrew from church life but not from the church roll; congregations could still claim a huge membership though services were poorly attended. And all “paper” members were taxed through government channels, making the German church one of the wealthiest on the Continent. Both Protestant and Roman Catholic churches netted $1 billion a year.
But the new German Government has now added to the income tax a new, temporary tax of 10%. Some enterprising person discovered he could save himself the new tax by officially breaking with the church—which asked the same amount—and resignations, especially from industrial centers, began to pour in to church officials.
In Aachen, for example, about fifteen people quit the church daily during the last few months; in the heart of the Ruhr area, the exodus was twice that of last year.
—Jan J. Van Capelleveen
4954 Chaplain Gave Him World
A chaplain in San Quentin Prison wrote a book. In this work, the chaplain tells of visiting a man who had been confined to Death Row for nearly 11 months. This man—a neurotic and alcoholic—had strangled two women during a drunken orgy.
The chaplain talked with the condemned prisoner for at least 40 minutes. The two conversed about education, about art, about sports. But the prisoner went to his death with no invitation to God. Nonetheless, the chaplain found himself praying that God would receive the condemned man, found himself wondering if he had witnessed not only a case of retribution, but also a crucifixion.
One disturbing sentence in the chaplain’s account gleams with neon sharpness: “I haven’t mentioned religion.” Then he adds: “Perhaps it is not necessary to speak God’s words in order to serve His purpose. Just being there with Richard Cooper in his last moments may be enough to show him that no man is ever completely cast out, or completely alone.”
—Lon Woodrum
4955 Did Eichmann Really Believe?
In death Adolf Eichmann proved to be an enigma.
The 56-year-old former Nazi officer, who was convicted of playing “a central and decisive part” in the killing of six million Jews, was the first man to be hanged in the 14-year-old state of Israel.
To a small group who witnessed the execution at Ramleh Prison near Tel Aviv, he said, “Long Live Germany, long live Argentina, long live Austria. … I had to obey the laws of war and my flag.”
For a number of weeks before his death, Eichmann had been counseled by the Rev. William Hull of Winnepeg, pastor of an evangelical congregation in Jerusalem.
Just before he dropped through the gallows trapdoor, Eichmann told the witnesses in German, “After a short while, gentlemen, we shall all meet again. So is the fate of all men. I have lived believing in God and I die believing in God.” In reaffirming belief, Eichmann used a term employed by Nazis who had left the church but still professed a belief in God.
—Christianity Today
4956 Hitler’s Religiosity
Hitler knew how to dissemble. One had to look very closely at his terrible book Mein Kampf very carefully to see the cloven hoof beneath the angel’s luminous robes.
He made free use of the Christian vocabulary, talked about the blessing of the Almighty and the Christian confessions which would become the pillars of the new state; he rang bells and pulled out all the organ stops. He assumed the earnestness of a man who is utterly weighed down by historic responsibility. He handed out pious stories to the press, especially the church papers.
It was reported, for example, that he showed his tattered Bible to some deaconesses and declared that he drew the strength for his great work from the Word of God. He was able to introduce a pietistic timbre into his voice which caused many religious people to welcome him as a man sent from God. And a skilled propaganda machine saw to it that despite all the atrocities which were already happening and despite the rabid invasions of the Nazis in the churches, the rumor got around that the good Fuhrer knew nothing about these things.
—Helmut Thielicke
4957 “The Ancient Mariner”
Have you ever read “The Ancient Mariner”? I dare say you thought it one of the strangest imaginations ever put together, especially that part where the old mariner represents the corpses of all the dead men rising up to man the ship—dead men pulling the rope, dead men steering, dead men spreading sails. I thought what a strange idea that was.
But do you know, I have lived to see that time. I have gone into churches, and I have seen a dead man in the pulpit, a dead man as deacon, a dead man handling the plate, and dead men sitting to hear.
—C. H. Spurgeon
4958 William Booth Saw It
General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, defined it when he said: “I consider that the chief dangers which will confront the twentieth century will be:
Religion without the Holy Spirit
Christianity without Christ,
Forgiveness without regeneration
Morality without God and
Heaven without hell.”
—Sawdust Trail
4959 Epigram On Religiosity
• Some folks think if they wear their best clothes on Sunday they’re observing the Sabbath.
—E. C. Mckenzie
See also: Hypocrisy ; Worldliness ; Isa. 29:13; Jer. 7:9–10; Matt. 7:21; Rev. 2:9; 3:1.