Religion in America
Bible Said To Bring Personal
Message If Studied Properly
Br LOUIS CASSELS
UPI Correspondent
A pastor once startled his
congregation by asking:
"How many of you would
like to receive a personal mes
sage from God to guide you
in dealing with your prob
lems and help you make sense
out of life?"
After some hesitation, near
ly every hand was raised.
"Very well," said the pas
tor. "1'H tell you where you
can find such a message."
i He reached into the pulpit
and heid up a Bible.
"You may have to read this
book fairly extensively before
you encounter the message
that is addressed especially to
, you," he said.
1 "But I can guarantee that
' i! you read it faithfully, God
will speak to you through it,
just as genuinely and person
ally as if He had sent you a
telegram."
Basic Fact
That pastor was neither a
fanatic nor a fundamentalist.
He was trying to communi
cate a basic fact of Christian
experience, on which there is
a striking degree of agree
ment among liberals and con
servatives, Protestants and
Catholics, a n c i e n t church
lathers and modern theolo-
; gians.
' "The Bible not only tells us
how God sought His people in
the past; it is also a means by
which He seeks us out today,"
nays Prof. Robert McAfee
Brown of Stanford University.
"Not only are God's demands
and promises brought home
to us, but God Himself speaks
to us as we take the Bible
seriously. It is for this rea
son that we speak of the Bi
ble as 'the word of God.
Have No Answer -
Why God the Holy Spirit
should choose to communicate
with men through the pages
of the anciant book which con
tains a little bit of every
thing, from authentic history
to folk myths and from sub
lime hymns of praise to pas
sionately erotic love poems,
is a question that Christians
cannot answer. They can
only affirm that it happens,
and invite skeptics to try for
themselves whether it be so.
Some people unfortunately
try to reduce the great mys
tery to an absurd kind of
magic. They open the Bible
at random, stab their fingers
at a verse, and expect there
in to find God's instant "an
swer" to whatever is trou
bling them at that moment.
The notion that divine guid
ance is dispensed in such a
mechanical, penny-in-the-slot
manner is an insult to God
and puts the Bible on a par
with a ouija board.
Less blasphemous, but
equally ineffective, is the cas
ual kind of "Scripture-nibbling"
in which the reader
jumps around from one part
of the Bible to another, with
out plan or purpose, reading
perhaps a psalm tonight, a
chapter from one of the Gos
pels tomorrow night, and one
of St. Paul's letters next week
or next month.
Must Be Studied
Dr. Frederick C. Grant, a
leading Biblical scholar of the
Episcopal Church, says that
those who would hear "the
voice of the Lord speaking
through the Scriptures" must
be willing not merely to read
that Bible, but to study it,
seriously and systematically.
"We are frequently advised
to read the Bible with our
own personal needs in mind,
and to look for answers to our
private questions," says Dr.
Grant. "This is good as far it
goes ... but better still is the
advice to study the Bible ob
jectively, and write down
what it teaches, summarizing
the thought in our own lan
guage but without regard
first of all to our own sub
jective needs.
"Let the great passages fix
themselves in our memory.
Let them stay there perma
nently like bright beacons,
launching their powerful
shafts of light upon life's
problems our own and
everyone's as they illumine
new ones, now another dark
area of human life. This we
should do first, making sure
that the meaning we derive
from the text is the one that
Is really there and not our
private wishful substitute.
"Following such a method,
we discover that the Bible
does 'speak to our condition'
and meet our needs, not just
occasionally, or when some
emergency arises, but contin
ually." The foregoing advice is
from Dr. Grant s superb little
book, "How to Read the Bi
ble," which is now available
In a Collier paperback (at 95
cents).
Hulteng Named To Alumni Honors List
Eu;?ne John L. Hulteng,
dean of the University of Ore
gon school of journalism, has
been named to an honors list
for distinguished alumni of
Columbia university's gradu
ate school of journalism.
The honors list was chosen
from names submitted by
alumni-at-large and approved
by the 50th nniversary com
mittee of the graduate school
of journalism. .
Medford
Tribune
SECTION B
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