(Editorial Paragraphs)
J.W. Deenick. Trowel & Sword. December 1971
Preamble: It is three years to the day that Pieter and I launched our new website, “Trowel & Sword Revisited” – (tsrevisited.com); a very basic website dedicated to republishing articles previously published in Trowel & Sword, the denominational magazine of the Christian Reformed Church of Australia, which ceased publication in December 2010. Our stated aim was, and still is, “To resurrect the writings of the pioneers of the CRCA, see what they had to say and adjust our thinking and our actions to carry forward their dreams and aspirations for this, our adopted nation. J.W. Deenick had much to say in this regard, this article being just one of many that he wrote in his time. Here he speaks of “Christian Radicalism”, but what do we understand by radicalism. The dictionary defines it simply as: ” …the beliefs or actions of people who advocate thorough or complete political or social reform”. As Christians, have we lost our way, or is Deenick’s search for Christian Radicalism ongoing?
In Search Of A Christian Radicalism
Antiwar protesters in Washington claim to have Jesus on their side and display a banner asking: Would Jesus carry a draft card?
Jesus People in Queensland turn their back on the conventional values of a materialistic society and prefer to live in communal brotherhoods in which all share their material commodities in loving concern and true Christian liberty.
Two long-haired young fellows unashamedly embrace enraptured by a choir’s singing of an anthem, while a whole row of people stand with their arms raised over their heads and a black minister gives the benediction. “I never thought I would see Presbyterians acting like this,” admits a surprised layman to a friend.
Malcolm Muggeridge, called by Peter Smark in the Australian an arrogant man notwithstanding his conversion to Christ, finally writes a humble book: “Something Beautiful For God’. It is about mother Theresa of Calcutta a Roman Catholic Sister who started in 1952 her house for the sick and the dying and who with the help of other Sisters picked up from the streets of Calcutta 23,000 people, fifty per cent of whom have died.
In Manhattan, New York, young people vigorously protest outside the theatre where the show is on that Jesus Christ is Lamb of God, and King of kings; the Hope of the world but not Superstar.
From these and from many other expressions of radicalism it is clear that particularly many young people are no longer prepared to take the present state of our Christian affairs for good enough and turn away with angry impatience from what they consider a dishonest compromise with materialism and convention.
In Different Directions
In their search for a Christian kind of radicalism the people concerned move in different directions. Some seek it specifically in a new expression of their religious experience. The traditional ways of expressing our faith have become sterile and cold; a great deal more fire and enthusiasm will be needed. Think of our church services and our hymns. We have sermons but no response; we sing hymns but on outdated and borrowed tunes; we pray but experience no miracles in answer to our prayers; we witness but there is no fire in our testimony. We need a radical change in the way in which we come together for the worship of God and in the way in which we worship God privately.
Some turn to the charismatic movement and expect a radical deliverance from the impediments and hindrances of the past in the experience of Spirit-baptism. The church service in which the Spirit is free to move seems the answer, at least for so long as the new found liberty does not itself settle down to an established pattern of its own. And in the atmosphere where miracles still happen the promise of Jesus that he makes ALL things new seems to be more tangibly evidenced.
Yet, others in search of the same radicalism are little impressed with the excitements of the pentecostal movement and look for the kind of Christian fellowship that they believe to find in the new Testament and in which the followers of Christ come together in homes and groups to exchange insights in the Word of God and spiritual experiences in the personal battle for holiness. For them the emphasis is on the practice of love in personal relationships. Jesus commandment that we love one another radically changes all human relations and it is in the personal application of the law of love and humility that God’s people begin to heal the sicknesses of a lost world.
For many however the renewal of their christian worship and of their personal spiritual experience is not nearly revolutionary enough if it does not lead to a radical change in social and political conditions. Christ makes us responsible for the people around us and the refugees in Pakistan are our neighbours as much as the drug addicts in the cities in which we live. Christian people cannot take the facts of war and hunger, of alcoholism and social inequality for granted. The least they can do is to protest against such evils and to refuse co-operation. If we hate war we must refuse to be drafted for it; if we hate social discrimination we must set up communities in which we do away with it; if we hate the spirit of materialism in which we have been brought up, we must stop living by its principles, running the rat-race for a better income, a better car, a better house, a better education for a better paid job. We must break away from it altogether and return to a simpler way of life.
Still, for again others the refusal to co-operate and the withdrawal to a simpler world of our own is too easy an escape from the battle and they understand the Word of God demands that Christians join in organised action for the radical reform of Christian thinking in all spheres of life and for a practical program of Christianisation, so that at least the Christian sector of the community may begin to live according to the principles of the Kingdom of God.
Is There An Answer?
There is no doubt a biblical answer; but there is no solution in the sense that ever in any sphere of life the Christian individual or the Christian community will succeed to attain to more than to a small beginning of holiness since even the holiest of men and the holiest of communities have only a small beginning of radical Christianity. It is this understanding of the Word of God (as found in answer 114 of the Heidelberg Catechism) which people refuse to accept and to live by.
The biblical answer is in itself not doubtful. The Lord Jesus expects a radical and at the same time a comprehensive renewal of our lives. A radical one, i.e. one that goes to the radix, the root of our being. But also a comprehensive one, i.e. a renewal that pertains to every part of our being. He makes ALL things new; and he makes them radically new. Yet, the bible gives us no hope that in this life the saints (as sinners) will attain to more than a beginning of holiness; and the closer they live to the Lord Jesus the better they understand the smallness of this beginning.
The problem then with most of our Christian radicals is that they are so dissatisfied with the limitations of their holiness (in itself a very sound and biblical dissatisfaction) that they surrender the comprehensiveness of Jesus’ claims in order to concentrate on one particular field of sanctification only in the hope that at least in one sphere of life they may obtain just a little more than a beginning of holiness. It seems a great deal easier to obtain a more significant measure of sanctification in one or two areas of personal or communal commitment to Christ than in every field of that commitment. But the danger of spiritual snobbery is immediately around the corner. There is far more wisdom in the 114th catechism answer which implies that true Christians begin with earnest desire to live not only according to some but according to ALL the commandments of God.
Christian radicalism cannot therefore be separated from comprehensiveness. Christian radicalism should be prepared to take all the commandments and all of life into account; the personal as well as communal aspects of life. Jesus Christ has something to say and to demand also about the life of nations and communities. Yet, Christian radicalism will have to be humble enough to recognise the limitations of holiness in this life; and it is here that many give up.
It seems so unrewarding to have to battle so hard for so little, for so small a beginning of holiness, for a Christian life, a Christian home, a Christian school, a Christian community that are never really a great success. There is nothing that we covet more than success. We need it in order to keep courage. And for the sake of success we limit the battle field. War is the issue. Sex is the problem. Smoking is the trouble. And we look for isolated successes in isolated fields. That keeps us going. We have something to show for our trouble.
But the radicalism of the Kingdom of God is the radicalism of the “Sermon on the Mount”, and of all of it.
It is always bitterly dissatisfied with the non-Christian as well as with the Christian world. It hates war as well as pornography; it hates the murder of unborn children as much as an educational system that leads nowhere in particular. It is a protest movement on all fronts. But it is more. It is a battle for the understanding of the will of God for our time. It is a crusade for consistent Christian thinking in the whole of life. It is beginning to do the will of Christ in all sorts of practical ways.
And Christian radicalism praises God for the miracle of any measure of victory in Calcutta and in Canberra.
J. W. DEENICK.
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