Alan Walker - Religion Emphasis Week (March 5, 1956)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
Moderator | (indistinct) coffee hour | 0:08 |
this afternoon at three o'clock, here at (indistinct). | 0:10 | |
Excuse me, it's in 208 Flowers Building. | 0:14 | |
I had to reread the (indistinct). | 0:18 | |
Following the coffee hour at three o'clock, | 0:19 | |
the panel this afternoon will be held at three thirty. | 0:22 | |
The topic at that time is Faith's Intellectual Difficulty. | 0:27 | |
As part of the panel, there will be a book display, | 0:32 | |
a sale of certain selective books, | 0:35 | |
which the book committee of (indistinct) has prepared. | 0:38 | |
One of the books, | 0:43 | |
which you will very likely be interested in, | 0:44 | |
is Doctor Walker's book, My Faith is Enough, | 0:46 | |
which will be on sale after the panel this afternoon, | 0:50 | |
in the Flowers Building. | 0:53 | |
And let me call your attention to the posters | 0:55 | |
that are distributed over the campus | 0:58 | |
for other announcements concerning religious (indistinct). | 1:00 | |
Last evening, I was talking with | 1:05 | |
one of Dr. Walker's colleagues | 1:07 | |
who was here visiting this week. | 1:10 | |
And we were referring to Dr. Walker's | 1:12 | |
unusually concise and precise manner | 1:14 | |
of handling the panel discussion on Sunday evening. | 1:18 | |
This worthy gentleman described Doctor Walker | 1:22 | |
as being a very ruggedly educated man. | 1:26 | |
And so now without further ado, I present to you | 1:30 | |
Doctor Alan Walker from Australia, | 1:32 | |
Her Majesty's very rugged subject. | 1:35 | |
(audience laughter) | 1:38 | |
(audience applause) | 1:40 | |
Dr. Walker | All right, we'll make it rugged | 1:51 |
and we'll barge straight in. | 1:53 | |
(audience laughter) | 1:55 | |
Dr. Walker | The subject is the answer to atheism. | 1:56 |
And the folk here at the table | 2:00 | |
suggest that if we have time, we may have some questions, | 2:02 | |
and I'd certainly readily wish that, if the clock permits. | 2:07 | |
I wonder in America, | 2:18 | |
do you know anything of the old-fashioned picture puzzle? | 2:21 | |
We still have in Australia, | 2:29 | |
sometimes printed in magazines and in books, | 2:31 | |
a picture of, shall we say, a winter scene in a garden, | 2:36 | |
with a tree standing stripped of its leaves. | 2:42 | |
The puzzle is to try and find | 2:46 | |
in the twigs and the branches of that tree, | 2:51 | |
the outline of a horse's head, or of the face of a man. | 2:56 | |
And so you take this puzzle, | 3:06 | |
and you peer at it and you turn it this way and that, | 3:08 | |
looking for this hidden tracing in the branches. | 3:12 | |
Presently, you see it. There it is, obviously. | 3:19 | |
The outline of that horse's head. | 3:24 | |
The tracing of the profile of a man. | 3:27 | |
From then on, whenever you pick up that picture puzzle, | 3:31 | |
you can't see anything else | 3:38 | |
but the pattern that you've already discovered, | 3:42 | |
whereas before it was so difficult to see it. | 3:44 | |
It seems to me that the fact of God is something like that. | 3:50 | |
Quite frankly, I find it hard to talk about | 3:57 | |
proving the existence of God, if such can be done. | 4:01 | |
It's almost like trying to explain why you always see | 4:06 | |
the horse's head in a picture. | 4:12 | |
Once you have discovered God, | 4:15 | |
it seems to me you see him everywhere. | 4:18 | |
That doesn't mean that one denies the difficulty | 4:24 | |
of that first discovery. | 4:27 | |
But once having found him, there he is. | 4:30 | |
Now, I of course today can't prove to you | 4:37 | |
the existence of God. | 4:43 | |
I can't give you completely, satisfyingly, | 4:45 | |
an intellectual answer to the problem of atheism. | 4:49 | |
For you see, God can't be treated as a thing can be treated. | 4:53 | |
We are under the tyranny | 5:01 | |
of scientific method in our civilization. | 5:02 | |
And we imagine that that which cannot | 5:06 | |
be scientifically analyzed and demonstrated | 5:09 | |
is somehow either non-existence or a lesser form of reality. | 5:13 | |
We forget, of course, that scientific analysis | 5:20 | |
is only one way by which truth may come to us. | 5:25 | |
There's so much that cannot be demonstrated | 5:29 | |
by a scientific method. | 5:34 | |
Not everything can be put in a test tube. | 5:38 | |
For example, I challenge any man in this room | 5:42 | |
to prove to me the existence of a memory | 5:45 | |
by scientific method. | 5:49 | |
I know sometimes we sing, I've seen a dream walking, | 5:52 | |
but none of us has seen a memory walking. | 5:56 | |
(audience laughter) | 5:58 | |
No, you can't prove to me by scientific method | 6:01 | |
something that happened to you | 6:06 | |
which exists in your memory yesterday, | 6:08 | |
which nobody else shared in. | 6:10 | |
But there it is. | 6:13 | |
And particularly when examinations come round, | 6:15 | |
by heavens you live by a memory, | 6:17 | |
and yet you can't scientifically prove | 6:20 | |
the existence of a memory. | 6:24 | |
Neither can God be placed in a test tube. | 6:28 | |
Incidentally, neither can the love man has for his wife, | 6:32 | |
nor a loveliness of a sunset. | 6:38 | |
No, let's be people who break | 6:42 | |
this silly tyranny of the test tube. | 6:45 | |
And let's say that scientific analysis | 6:48 | |
is only one way by which truth, reality, comes to us. | 6:51 | |
Well, having said that, | 6:59 | |
let me go on and give some suggestions | 7:01 | |
as to the reality of God. | 7:04 | |
Any one of these outlines that I would give | 7:08 | |
may seem inconclusive of itself. | 7:12 | |
Add them together, | 7:15 | |
I want to claim they make a pretty strong case | 7:17 | |
against the falsity of atheism. | 7:20 | |
First of all, there is, it seems to me, | 7:24 | |
an intellectual answer to atheism. | 7:28 | |
I propose atheism, disbelief in God, | 7:33 | |
really comes at us in two ways. | 7:38 | |
One of your American thinkers said some time ago, | 7:41 | |
science makes God progressively less essential. | 7:47 | |
Now he's really expressing this conviction | 7:53 | |
that's risen in our culture, that, well, after all, | 7:56 | |
many things that religion once did | 8:02 | |
and which fell within its area of activity | 8:04 | |
have been taken away from it. | 8:07 | |
Won't that process go on until, | 8:10 | |
just as education once belonged to the church, | 8:14 | |
and medical healing belonged to the church, | 8:17 | |
they've been cut off and become segments of our culture | 8:20 | |
and important segments on their own? | 8:24 | |
So step by step, everything that religion once met | 8:26 | |
will be met by other means in our advancements. | 8:30 | |
Now, I wonder, does that really bear analysis? | 8:36 | |
I would claim that the three basic human experiences | 8:41 | |
are pain, sin, and death. | 8:47 | |
And I would claim that modern man, | 8:54 | |
in spite of all of his advance, | 8:57 | |
when he encounters pain and sin and death, | 9:01 | |
stands as stripped and helpless as did primitive man. | 9:08 | |
Oh, I know we can deaden pain with chloroform. | 9:13 | |
I know with our psychology we can | 9:19 | |
give the twistings of our thinking and emotions a name. | 9:22 | |
That isn't always to explain them, | 9:26 | |
but we give them a name anyway, in psychological jargon. | 9:27 | |
When we face the fact of death, | 9:32 | |
we may be able to | 9:34 | |
make it easier to take by keeping us subdued and drugged, | 9:38 | |
but we still have to face it. | 9:43 | |
Has God become progressively less essential | 9:46 | |
in facing the problem of pain? | 9:50 | |
Not the endurance of it, but the fact of it. | 9:53 | |
Sin? Death? | 9:56 | |
I question whether the claim of a scientist | 10:01 | |
that God has become progressively less essential | 10:05 | |
on the deepest levels of human experience, | 10:08 | |
I question whether it can be substantiated. | 10:12 | |
Or, let's look frankly at this whole question | 10:17 | |
of the explanation of human existence. | 10:20 | |
If we were thoroughly logical, | 10:24 | |
ruthlessly logical in our thinking, | 10:27 | |
we'd come to this position. | 10:30 | |
That really there are only two possible explanations | 10:33 | |
of where the world has come from | 10:37 | |
and what is at the background of human life. | 10:39 | |
One explanation would go something like this. | 10:43 | |
Way back millions of years ago, | 10:46 | |
a piece of molten material broke away from the sun. | 10:47 | |
It sped through space | 10:50 | |
and for some quite accidental reason suddenly stopped. | 10:51 | |
And then it began to cool. | 10:55 | |
And again, for some quite accidental reason, | 10:56 | |
it reached just the temperature to sustain life, | 10:58 | |
and stopped cooling at that point. | 11:00 | |
And then through another series of fortuitous circumstances, | 11:02 | |
presently life, primitive life, | 11:05 | |
appeared on that planet which we now know as the earth. | 11:07 | |
And over a series of centuries, | 11:11 | |
of millions of years perhaps, | 11:14 | |
life developed from primitive forms | 11:15 | |
until it last man stepped on the scene. | 11:18 | |
And here we are, for no particular reason. | 11:20 | |
Just children of chimps. | 11:23 | |
And here we shall remain, | 11:26 | |
until there will be further changes in the heart of the sun. | 11:28 | |
It will increase in temperature and will become so hot | 11:30 | |
that everything on this earth will be shriveled up, | 11:33 | |
and the long mystery of existence will be over. | 11:35 | |
Just don't worry about it. | 11:39 | |
The last estimate is | 11:40 | |
it will happen in 53 billion years time. | 11:40 | |
But that's one possible explanation. | 11:43 | |
Another would go something like this. | 11:47 | |
Way back, millions of years ago, | 11:51 | |
a piece of molten material | 11:54 | |
probably did break away from the sun. | 11:55 | |
It sped through space and it stopped and began to cool, | 11:59 | |
but not because of chance, | 12:03 | |
but because God was in the process | 12:05 | |
of bringing his world into being. | 12:09 | |
Presently, primitive life appeared, the simplest forms, | 12:12 | |
moved forward until man stepped on the scene. | 12:17 | |
But not just by a process, as it were, of cause and effect. | 12:21 | |
For I deny that any man can explain a cabbage | 12:27 | |
by looking at a stone, or a rabbit by looking at a cabbage, | 12:29 | |
or a man by looking at a monkey. | 12:35 | |
There has come into this developing evolutionary story | 12:38 | |
a new fact, a new creative act of God, along that process. | 12:44 | |
And here we are. | 12:51 | |
Not children of chance, but children of God, | 12:53 | |
created with his intention and for his purposes. | 12:56 | |
And here we shall stay until at the end of time, | 13:00 | |
God in his own way, and for his own purposes again, | 13:03 | |
shall bring this whole mystery of existence to an end. | 13:07 | |
But at that time, | 13:12 | |
it will not be brought about by just physical changes. | 13:14 | |
Not by some silly fool blowing up the world | 13:17 | |
with a hydrogen bomb. | 13:19 | |
But it will be God, who began history, ending it. | 13:21 | |
And at that point, we shall be able to look back | 13:25 | |
and really realize how much God has loved the world. | 13:28 | |
Now I would claim that if you are logical, | 13:33 | |
you can't suggest to me any third possible explanation. | 13:36 | |
Either it's God or it's chance. | 13:41 | |
I don't know how you feel about it, | 13:47 | |
but I personally find the second of those explanations | 13:50 | |
far more intellectually satisfying than the first. | 13:54 | |
I believe this theistic conviction | 13:59 | |
answers more fundamental problems of the human mind, | 14:02 | |
ties up more ragged ends of human experience, | 14:07 | |
is more comprehensive in its range, | 14:10 | |
than any other explanation of life that you can give. | 14:13 | |
Now, I don't want to develop that further at the moment. | 14:21 | |
I haven't the time. | 14:23 | |
But I do ask you to be logical, | 14:24 | |
and to see that presently, you're cornered, | 14:29 | |
and you must say God or chance. | 14:32 | |
Some of us would say, | 14:38 | |
I believe in God, the father almighty, | 14:42 | |
maker of heaven and of Earth. | 14:46 | |
The second piece of evidence | 14:53 | |
that I think is worth putting on a list | 14:55 | |
is the testimony of many witnesses. | 14:59 | |
We used to sing a song, 50 million Frenchmen can't be wrong. | 15:03 | |
Well, they can be wrong. 50 million of anybody can be wrong. | 15:06 | |
But when over centuries of time, | 15:11 | |
men and women in all kinds of circumstances, | 15:15 | |
in all kinds of cultures, | 15:19 | |
have said steadily, I've seen God. | 15:21 | |
I question whether you can likely dispense | 15:26 | |
with that testimony. | 15:29 | |
Here is a Abraham, long ago, meeting God as he journeyed, | 15:32 | |
setting up his altars on his way. | 15:38 | |
Here is Moses, swinging around a mountain, | 15:42 | |
feeling he's on holy ground. | 15:47 | |
Here is Isaiah in a temple. | 15:50 | |
I saw the Lord, high and lifted up. | 15:52 | |
Here is a man like Saul of Tarsus, | 15:55 | |
on the road to Damascus, saying I heard a voice. | 15:58 | |
It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. | 16:03 | |
Or a man like, shall we say, | 16:07 | |
Augustine, walking in his garden. | 16:09 | |
Or a man such as (indistinct). | 16:12 | |
Or a man like John Wesley. | 16:15 | |
Or a man like William Temple, or Studdert Kennedy. | 16:18 | |
or Flynn of the Inland in Australia, | 16:21 | |
perhaps our greatest churchman. | 16:23 | |
All giving out of their experience an account of the moment | 16:26 | |
when they said, I met God. | 16:31 | |
As far as I'm concerned, | 16:36 | |
the supreme testimony at this point is Jesus Christ, | 16:39 | |
the finest and the fairest life, by common consent, | 16:45 | |
that was ever lived. | 16:48 | |
He whose purity causes all of us to drop our eyes before it. | 16:51 | |
He whose courage challenges us all. | 16:58 | |
This man, in good days and ill, | 17:02 | |
amid the acclaim of the people of Galilee. | 17:06 | |
And as he died, pain-wracked on a cross, | 17:08 | |
this man said steadily from beginning to end, | 17:11 | |
I see God. | 17:17 | |
To me, it's of tremendous significance | 17:20 | |
that the greatest life ever lived | 17:22 | |
was so sure of his father in heaven. | 17:25 | |
And I think of my own life. | 17:30 | |
And I can only echo the sentence of (indistinct) | 17:34 | |
when he said, | 17:39 | |
I have had experiences which materialism can't explain. | 17:41 | |
This testimony of many leads us to a third | 17:52 | |
step in our case. | 18:01 | |
It's in the evidence | 18:03 | |
of what has happened in lives that have said, I met God. | 18:05 | |
Some of you will remember that Marie and Pierre Curie | 18:12 | |
really found radium by seeing the effect of it. | 18:17 | |
Their instruments showed some element of which | 18:22 | |
they could not in anywhere else find an explanation of. | 18:28 | |
And so, because they discovered this effect of something | 18:34 | |
as yet unknown, they set to work and they searched, | 18:39 | |
and they went through their hundreds of experiments | 18:42 | |
seeking to isolate radium from pitch blend. | 18:45 | |
And in the end they found it, | 18:48 | |
and found it because an effect led them to the cause of it. | 18:50 | |
Here are lives in whom we see the effect of something. | 18:56 | |
Now, I know it's the fashion, | 19:06 | |
and has been for numbers of years, | 19:11 | |
to give varying names to the experience | 19:13 | |
that the Christian calls an experience of God. | 19:17 | |
I suppose our psychologists today | 19:21 | |
would still say in some senses, | 19:24 | |
why, this talk about God is the projection of your wishes. | 19:26 | |
It's the throwing onto the canvas of your mind, | 19:30 | |
of your optimism, of your hopes, of your desires. | 19:34 | |
Of course, he can't have it both ways. | 19:38 | |
I'd say that the person who has no belief in God, | 19:39 | |
he's merely projecting onto the canvas of his mind | 19:44 | |
his own despair and his own despondency. | 19:46 | |
At least we're about equal, anyway. | 19:48 | |
But there's something else. | 19:51 | |
It was a very famous occasion in the City Temple, London, | 19:55 | |
back at the end of last century, | 19:59 | |
where the famous Joseph Parker | 20:01 | |
referred to the then current way | 20:04 | |
of explaining Christian experience, | 20:07 | |
the fact of God in human lives. | 20:10 | |
It was a neurosis then. | 20:14 | |
And Saul of Tarsus, well really what he suffered | 20:16 | |
on the way to Damascus was an epileptic fit. | 20:19 | |
And so Joseph Parker one night referred to him. | 20:23 | |
And he began by reading the story of the Book of Acts. | 20:27 | |
And he read Saul, breathing out threatenings and cruelties | 20:31 | |
against the disciples of the Lord. | 20:37 | |
He read a sentence or two out of the stoning of Stephen. | 20:40 | |
And then he jumped the sections | 20:44 | |
and he just read the whole Saul prayer. | 20:46 | |
Then he made this comment. | 20:53 | |
Something has happened. Something obviously has happened. | 20:55 | |
It's brought to an end the man who could harbor murder, | 20:59 | |
and created a new man, and such a man. | 21:03 | |
What is it that's brought this result? | 21:06 | |
It's suggested it is epilepsy. | 21:09 | |
Then say I, fly on now, mighty epilepsy. | 21:12 | |
How do you explain the quality of just Christian martyrdom? | 21:22 | |
The Albert Schweitzer in the heart of Africa. | 21:29 | |
The quiet thousands of Christians | 21:32 | |
toiling in distant and near places, | 21:34 | |
in the slums of great cities, | 21:37 | |
and lonely places such as in the Australian outback. | 21:40 | |
How do you explain? | 21:45 | |
What if the explanation that the person gives | 21:49 | |
is the right one? | 21:53 | |
I've met God. But there's one other thing to be said. | 21:56 | |
We come to know God, | 22:04 | |
not in a sense, by intellectual argument, | 22:07 | |
but through commitment to him. | 22:10 | |
It's obvious to us, isn't it? | 22:14 | |
That we come to know a person in a very different way | 22:17 | |
from the way we come to know a thing, | 22:22 | |
You can take your piece of iron ore. | 22:26 | |
You can take your element and analyze it. | 22:29 | |
Put it under your microscope. You can deal with it. | 22:33 | |
There it is passing before you. | 22:35 | |
You cannot so come to know a person. | 22:40 | |
You don't put your wife under a microscope | 22:45 | |
and learn very much about her. | 22:47 | |
No, it's as you commit yourself to a person, | 22:51 | |
so you come to know that person. | 22:56 | |
You who are engaged or married will know. | 23:00 | |
You saw somebody, you were interested. | 23:03 | |
You looked from a distance. | 23:06 | |
The day came when you committed yourself to each other. | 23:08 | |
Will you marry me? And she said, yes. | 23:12 | |
And from that moment, knowledge began. | 23:15 | |
And it will continue in commitment. | 23:19 | |
And only as you give yourself to each other | 23:22 | |
do you really come to know each other. | 23:25 | |
A person is always discovered in that way. | 23:28 | |
And so it is with God. | 23:34 | |
You may sit in a study circle. You may take part in a panel. | 23:37 | |
You may argue with yourself or someone else, | 23:43 | |
but in the last analysis, | 23:47 | |
you can never know God while you treat him as a thing, | 23:49 | |
an object to be analyzed. | 23:54 | |
It is by commitment to him that you discover God. | 23:58 | |
It's as you begin to believe | 24:04 | |
and live as though there were a God, | 24:06 | |
that you find there is a God. | 24:10 | |
But you cannot find him on this side of commitment. | 24:14 | |
For God is a person. | 24:22 | |
He's much more than a person, | 24:24 | |
but he's not less than the highest category that we know. | 24:26 | |
And therefore, | 24:31 | |
the characteristics whereby we come to know a person | 24:33 | |
lie in this realm of religious discovery. | 24:37 | |
It is this, you know, that the great Albert Schweitzer, | 24:41 | |
missionary doctor to Africa, | 24:45 | |
stresses at the end of his famous book, | 24:46 | |
The Quest of the Historical Jesus. | 24:49 | |
The final paragraph reads like this. | 24:52 | |
He comes to us as one of old, unknown. | 24:57 | |
He speaks and sets us to the tasks which he has to fulfill | 25:02 | |
for our own time. | 25:08 | |
He commands. | 25:10 | |
And those who follow him, whether they be wise or simple, | 25:12 | |
shall learn in their own experience, who he is. | 25:19 | |
Now that's a tremendously discerning word. | 25:25 | |
He commands. | 25:30 | |
And those who follow shall learn in their own experience | 25:32 | |
who he is. | 25:42 | |
That's why, | 25:46 | |
if you want an answer to your fundamental religious problem, | 25:48 | |
is there a God? Who is he? | 25:54 | |
He can only be found. | 25:57 | |
Bringing all your mind, yes. Analyzing as best you can. | 26:00 | |
All that may build up in understanding of it. | 26:05 | |
But in the end, we reach the point | 26:09 | |
where without commitment, there can be no final discovery. | 26:14 | |
Quite frankly, | 26:22 | |
lots of us have talked about God long enough. | 26:24 | |
We've debated him sufficiently and we'll get no further, | 26:28 | |
until we begin to say some sentence like this. | 26:37 | |
I commit my life to thee, oh God. | 26:44 | |
Now we have a few moments, I think. Very few. | 26:54 | |
But if anyone desires some questions, | 26:57 | |
we'll do our best to answer them. | 26:59 | |
Moderator | If you have any questions, | 27:05 |
would you address them to Doctor Walker? | 27:06 | |
Male Speaker | I have a lot of things I'd like to say. | 27:11 |
I would like to request the privilege (indistinct). | 27:14 | |
Dr. Walker | I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. | 27:20 |
Male Speaker | May I please come | 27:22 |
to the center of the room? | 27:23 | |
Dr. Walker | Yes. | 27:24 |
Male Speaker | Thank you. | 27:25 |
Dr. Walker | But make it quick, will you? | 27:26 |
We've only got about five minutes | 27:27 | |
and we'd like two or three to come. | 27:28 | |
Give us a question if you can, or just a brief statement. | 27:30 | |
Male Speaker | A statement. I would prefer a question. | 27:34 |
You challenge anybody to demonstrate a memory. | 27:42 | |
I would like to suggest that a memory is not a thing, | 27:45 | |
but is an explanation for behavior. | 27:48 | |
You may suggest that God | 27:52 | |
is an explanation for something else. | 27:54 | |
All right, I'll put it in the same category, | 27:56 | |
both of them explanations. | 27:58 | |
You say there are only two explanations | 28:01 | |
of how life on this earth may have arisen. | 28:03 | |
I say there are not. Chance, God, okay. | 28:07 | |
If God is indeed an explanation, but how about this? | 28:11 | |
How about an explanation of basic physical laws? | 28:16 | |
That is that once something or other happened, | 28:19 | |
everything else had to happen, | 28:22 | |
according to way physical laws exist. | 28:23 | |
Not through chance. | 28:25 | |
There is a distinction I think, | 28:27 | |
between the operation of centrifugal force | 28:28 | |
and your chance. | 28:31 | |
Dr. Walker | Why centrifugal force? | 28:34 |
Male Speaker | What is it? | 28:35 |
Dr. Walker | Why centrifugal force? | 28:36 |
Not what is it. That's the wrong question. | 28:37 | |
Male Speaker | Why? | 28:39 |
Dr. Walker | Yeah. | 28:40 |
Male Speaker | What do you mean, why? | 28:41 |
Why does this universe contain a force | 28:42 | |
known as centrifugal force? | 28:46 | |
What else? | 28:49 | |
Dr. Walker | Why not the opposite of centrifugal force? | 28:51 |
Male Speaker | Why should the opposite exist? | 28:53 |
See, you can always (indistinct) anything and say, | 28:59 | |
why should that be? | 29:01 | |
But very often the person asking it has | 29:02 | |
no better explanation of why anything else should be. | 29:04 | |
This is the universe. We have it. | 29:07 | |
It may always have been here, for all we know, | 29:10 | |
always have existed. | 29:13 | |
We don't know that it didn't. | 29:15 | |
It may always have existed this way. | 29:16 | |
It may be the most reasonable way for it to exist. | 29:18 | |
Why should you expect anything else? | 29:21 | |
Dr. Walker | Right, now, if you've got a question, | 29:23 |
I mean, we've only got a couple of minutes and I think... | 29:24 | |
Male Speaker | Well, I just wanted to suggest | 29:27 |
that there was another explanation | 29:29 | |
for existence of life on this earth. | 29:30 | |
I would also like to say that | 29:33 | |
I think I knew my wife pretty well before I got married. | 29:34 | |
I don't think I had to commit myself to her to know her. | 29:37 | |
I don't think psychiatrists have to commit themselves | 29:40 | |
to their patients (indistinct) | 29:42 | |
in order to know their patients. | 29:44 | |
(indistinct) questions, | 29:47 | |
but I would like to suggest that this religion of ours | 29:49 | |
should be based upon something more substantial | 29:52 | |
than the arguments given today, | 29:56 | |
with due humility to you, sir. | 29:57 | |
Thank you. | 29:59 | |
Dr. Walker | Well, now another question. | 30:02 |
It's very interesting, of course, | 30:03 | |
that you noticed that the discussion | 30:05 | |
began a long way down the road. | 30:07 | |
It began talking about centrifugal force, | 30:10 | |
but it didn't go back to answer the basic questions of why. | 30:13 | |
Why? Chance? | 30:17 | |
Was it chance that you've got centrifugal force? | 30:18 | |
Or was it the creation of somebody | 30:21 | |
who patterned his world that way? | 30:23 | |
It's always my query, this kind of discussion, | 30:25 | |
which is really answering the work of the easier letter, | 30:29 | |
how. | 30:33 | |
Not going back to the base of things, which is why. | 30:34 | |
Therefore I hardly think it touches | 30:38 | |
the basic alternative that I gave. | 30:39 | |
Now, another question? Yes. | 30:41 | |
Male Speaker 2 | To me, it seems like you have a god | 30:43 |
that's a receptacle of unresolved problems. | 30:46 | |
(indistinct) Anything you can't solve... | 30:50 | |
That takes a lot of weight off. | 30:54 | |
I think that's what you have, | 30:55 | |
a receptacle of unsolved problems. | 30:57 | |
(throat clearing) | 31:07 | |
Male Speaker 3 | I've always wondered that | 31:09 |
the origin of the universe should be a starting point | 31:13 | |
for the intellectual proof of the existence of God. | 31:16 | |
Actually, the origin of the universe has always struck me | 31:20 | |
as being very irrelevant. | 31:23 | |
And I think that's one of the only | 31:26 | |
intellectually (indistinct) | 31:28 | |
theologians can really adduce. | 31:30 | |
That is, I doubt that there is any intellectual support | 31:37 | |
for the existence of God, | 31:39 | |
other than this predilection for writing N, | 31:42 | |
a name which accounts for that which we do not know. | 31:47 | |
Dr. Walker | I'd be inclined to agree with you. | 31:56 |
As I said at the first, | 31:57 | |
I don't think any one of the suggestions I made | 31:58 | |
are particularly strong themselves, | 32:02 | |
and the weakest of them is the first. | 32:04 | |
But in the chain of thinking, I think it has its place. | 32:06 | |
Moderator | I believe that we're going to have to | 32:12 |
call time on questioning. | 32:14 | |
If those of you who would like to ask Doctor Walker | 32:16 | |
further questions would come and speak to him afterwards. | 32:19 | |
I think we actually have a few additional programs. | 32:22 | |
(indistinct) | 32:25 | |
And then again, | 32:25 | |
I recall your attention to the panel this afternoon | 32:27 | |
that some of you might be interested in. | 32:28 | |
We are dismissed, sir. No further (indistinct). | 32:32 | |
Male Speaker 4 | Most gracious father, | 32:43 |
who withholdeth no good thing from thy children, | 32:46 | |
and in thy providence has brought us to this day of rest, | 32:50 | |
and of the renewal of the soul. | 32:55 | |
We give thee humble and hearty thanks | 32:58 | |
for the world which thou hast prepared | 33:01 | |
and furnished for our dwelling place | 33:05 | |
For the steadfast righteousness, | 33:08 | |
which suffers no evil thing to gain the mastery. | 33:11 | |
For the lives and examples of those | 33:16 | |
who were strangers and pilgrims, | 33:19 | |
and found the better inheritance in peace of soul | 33:23 | |
and joy in the holy spirit. | 33:28 | |
And above all, for the life, teaching, and sacrifice | 33:31 | |
of thy son, our savior Jesus Christ. | 33:37 | |
For the daily round of customary duties, | 33:43 | |
also we thank thee. | 33:47 | |
For our friends and kindred, and for that larger home, | 33:50 | |
which we find in the society of those seen and unseen | 33:54 | |
who have loved thee and served their brethren. | 34:00 | |
For the various prosperities that gladden us, | 34:05 | |
and for the disappointments which remind us | 34:08 | |
that here we have no abiding city. | 34:12 | |
We thank thee also | 34:16 | |
for the manifold ministries of thy helpful spirit, | 34:19 | |
for the joy that comes unbidden when our hearts are sad. | 34:24 | |
For the various encouragements that come unsought | 34:29 | |
when the way is long. | 34:33 | |
For the pain that comes unwelcomed when we fall from thee, | 34:37 | |
and for the assurance of unseen aids, | 34:43 | |
in every time of our need. | 34:47 | |
Oh God, who has given us light, | 34:52 | |
and who grieves because we have | 34:56 | |
so often loved the darkness better. | 34:58 | |
Thou has called us to follow that which is good, | 35:02 | |
and to flee from which is evil. | 35:06 | |
And thou knowest how hour after hour, day after day, | 35:10 | |
we have yielded to the temptations in our path, | 35:16 | |
have done that which thou has forbidden, | 35:21 | |
and have left undone the work thou has given us to do. | 35:24 | |
Forgive our folly and excess, our coldness to human sorrows, | 35:30 | |
our envy of those who prosper and are at ease, | 35:37 | |
our passion for the things of the moment | 35:43 | |
that perish in the grasping, | 35:46 | |
our indifference to those treasures of the spirit, | 35:50 | |
which are life and peace, | 35:54 | |
our neglect of thy wise and gracious laws. | 35:58 | |
And so change our hearts, | 36:04 | |
and turn all our desires into thyself, | 36:07 | |
that we may love that which thou provest | 36:11 | |
and do that that which thou commandest. | 36:15 | |
And with strength and resolution, | 36:19 | |
walk in uprightness and charity | 36:22 | |
to the serving of our brethren and the glory of thy name. | 36:26 | |
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 36:31 | |
Let us offer unto God our unison prayer of confession. | 36:40 | |
Let us pray. | 36:48 | |
(indistinct background speech) | 36:50 | |
Have mercy upon us, O God. | 36:52 | |
According to thy loving kindness, | 36:55 | |
according the multitude of thy tender mercies, | 36:58 | |
blot out our transgressions. | 37:02 | |
Wash us thoroughly from our iniquities, | 37:05 | |
and cleanse us from our sins. | 37:09 | |
For we acknowledge our transgressions, | 37:13 | |
and our sin is ever before us. | 37:17 | |
Create in us clean hearts, oh God, | 37:21 | |
and renew a right spirit within us. | 37:24 | |
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. | 37:29 | |
And now as our savior Christ have taught us, we pray. | 37:35 | |
Our father who art in heaven, hollowed be thy name. | 37:40 | |
Thy kingdom come, | 37:46 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 37:48 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 37:53 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 37:56 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 37:59 | |
And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. | 38:03 | |
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, | 38:09 | |
forever. Amen. | 38:14 | |
(indistinct background speech) | 38:18 | |
The Lord be with you and with thy spirit. Let us pray. | 38:20 | |
(pages turning) | 38:28 | |
Most gracious father, | 38:34 | |
who withholdeth no good thing from thy children, | 38:38 | |
and in thy providence has brought us to this day of rest | 38:42 | |
and of the renewal of the soul, | 38:47 | |
we give thee humble and hearty thanks | 38:50 | |
for the world which thou has prepared | 38:54 | |
and furnished for our dwelling place. | 38:57 | |
For the steadfast righteousness | 39:01 | |
which suffers no evil thing to gain the mastery. | 39:04 | |
For the lives and examples of those | 39:09 | |
who were strangers and pilgrims, | 39:12 | |
and found the better inheritance in peace of soul, | 39:16 | |
and joy in the holy spirit, | 39:21 | |
And above all, for the life, teaching, | 39:25 | |
and sacrifice of thy son, our savior Jesus Christ. | 39:30 | |
For the daily round of customary duties also, | 39:38 | |
we thank thee. | 39:42 | |
For friends and kindred. | 39:45 | |
And for that larger home, | 39:48 | |
which we find in the society of those seen and unseen, | 39:50 | |
who have loved thee and served their brethren. | 39:57 | |
For the various prosperities that gladden us, | 40:02 | |
and for all the disappointments | 40:05 | |
which remind us that here we have no abiding city. | 40:08 | |
We thank thee also for the manifold ministries | 40:13 | |
of thy helpful spirit. | 40:18 | |
For the joy that comes unbidden when our hearts are sad. | 40:21 | |
For the various encouragements that come unsought | 40:27 | |
when the day is long. | 40:31 | |
For the pain that comes unwelcomed | 40:34 | |
when we fall away from thee. | 40:37 | |
And for the assurance of unseen aids | 40:41 | |
in every time of our need., | 40:45 | |
Oh God, who has given us light, | 40:49 | |
and who grieves because we have so often | 40:53 | |
loved the darkness better. | 40:56 | |
Thou has called us to follow that which is good | 40:59 | |
and to flee from that which is evil. | 41:04 | |
And thou knowest how hour after hour, day after day, | 41:08 | |
we have yielded to the temptations in our path. | 41:15 | |
Have done that which thou has forbidden, | 41:20 | |
and have left undone the work thou has given us to do. | 41:23 | |
Forgive our folly and excess, | 41:29 | |
our coldness to human sorrows, | 41:33 | |
our envy of those who prosper and are at ease, | 41:37 | |
our passion for the things of the moment | 41:42 | |
that perish in the grasping, | 41:45 | |
our indifference to those treasures of the spirit, | 41:48 | |
which are life and peace, | 41:52 | |
our neglect of thy wise and gracious laws. | 41:56 | |
And so change our hearts | 42:01 | |
and turn all our desires unto thyself, | 42:04 | |
that we may love that which thou provest | 42:09 | |
and do that which thou commandest. | 42:13 | |
And with strength and resolution | 42:17 | |
walk in uprightness and charity, | 42:20 | |
to the serving of our brethren, and the glory of thy name. | 42:24 | |
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 42:30 | |
Oh Lord God, whose we are and whom we serve. | 42:38 | |
May the words of our lips and the spirit of our lives, | 42:45 | |
the meditations of our hearts and the gifts of our hands | 42:52 | |
be acceptable in thy sight. | 42:58 | |
We present our offerings in the name of the savior. | 43:02 | |
Amen. | 43:07 |
- | Hymn Two, second line. | 0:07 |
(organ music) | 0:11 | |
(choir singing) | 0:44 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:56 | |
- | (indistinct), we adore You, whose name is love, | 2:07 |
whose nature is compassion, | 2:11 | |
whose presence is joy, | 2:13 | |
whose word is true, | 2:15 | |
whose spirit is goodness. | 2:17 | |
(indistinct) | 2:19 | |
Whose will is peace, | 2:21 | |
whose service is perfect freedom | 2:22 | |
and the knowledge of (indistinct) eternal life. | 2:24 | |
Let's pray together. | 2:28 | |
Group | Our Father, who art in Heaven, | 2:31 |
hallowed be Thy name. | 2:33 | |
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, | 2:35 | |
on Earth as it is in Heaven. | 2:39 | |
Give us this day, our daily bread, | 2:42 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 2:45 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 2:48 | |
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, | 2:51 | |
for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, | 2:56 | |
now and forever. | 3:01 | |
Amen. | 3:02 | |
- | Before I introduce tonight's speaker, | 3:07 |
I would like to call your attention | 3:09 | |
to several of the events of the program (indistinct). | 3:11 | |
Tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 in the Union Ballroom, | 3:16 | |
flowers will be. | 3:20 | |
There will a panel discussion entitled | 3:24 | |
Faith: Intellectual Difficulty. | 3:25 | |
At that time, appropriate religious books will be sold, | 3:28 | |
and those books will also be on sale in both Communions | 3:32 | |
from 11:00 to 1:00 each day. | 3:35 | |
At five o'clock tomorrow afternoon in the University Chapel, | 3:38 | |
there will be a meditation period, | 3:42 | |
and tomorrow night at 7:30, Dr. Walker and (indistinct) | 3:44 | |
will be answering in a question box | 3:49 | |
some of the questions which you have asked. | 3:51 | |
And now, I would like to turn it over to Dr. Walker, | 3:55 | |
who has chosen for a meditation, God is My Adventure. | 3:58 | |
- | As you have heard, | 4:16 |
the theme for this vesper service | 4:18 | |
is God is My Adventure. | 4:20 | |
Standing at the heart of Christian belief | 4:26 | |
is the great doctrine of the Trinity. | 4:30 | |
I suppose, of all Christian affirmations, | 4:35 | |
it's the most difficult. | 4:39 | |
It's the one many of us just can't repeat yet | 4:42 | |
with our whole mind. | 4:47 | |
For me, some of the obscurity that surrounds | 4:50 | |
this tremendous assertion of the Christian faith | 4:54 | |
vanished in reading a book of Nathaniel McCollum's | 5:00 | |
What is the Faith? | 5:04 | |
He makes the point that the doctrine of the Trinity | 5:07 | |
isn't an explanation about God, | 5:12 | |
it's the statement of affect about Him. | 5:17 | |
It doesn't set out to show to us | 5:21 | |
how God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit | 5:26 | |
might be related one to the other. | 5:31 | |
It simply says if you are a Christian, | 5:34 | |
you are obliged to come to an understanding of God, | 5:40 | |
at least in these minimum terms of definition. | 5:46 | |
For, you see, this tremendous doctrine of the Trinity | 5:51 | |
has arisen not out of intellectual inquiry | 5:55 | |
so much as out of experience of God. | 5:59 | |
This is how men, over centuries of time, | 6:03 | |
have come to know God. | 6:08 | |
You see, | 6:11 | |
away in the distance, | 6:13 | |
men, as they contemplated the nature and the being of God, | 6:15 | |
they realized that, at least, He was Father and Creator | 6:19 | |
and Sustainer of the Universe. | 6:23 | |
They knew Him in those terms. | 6:25 | |
And then when Jesus came, | 6:29 | |
they had to say, at this one point in time, | 6:31 | |
God, in a unique way, broke into history, | 6:36 | |
crossed the thin line that divides God from His children, | 6:39 | |
dwelt among us at a place on the map | 6:44 | |
at a particular time in history. | 6:48 | |
And so man said, | 6:50 | |
"Well, we know God as One Who Came." | 6:53 | |
And then, as experience unfolded about Him, | 6:58 | |
they say, "My God isn't only a distant creator. | 7:02 | |
"He isn't only one who came at a point in history. | 7:05 | |
"He is a God who is in action now, | 7:10 | |
"whose spirit is at work on the plans of history, | 7:13 | |
"and in human consciousness. | 7:18 | |
"Therefore, the Holy Spirit, which is really to say, | 7:20 | |
"God is in action now, not an absentee being." | 7:26 | |
This, too, became part of man's experience of God. | 7:31 | |
And so the Church, seeking the formulae, as it were, | 7:36 | |
have a minimum definition of what God is | 7:40 | |
and what He is doing, | 7:44 | |
they came to this triune assumption. | 7:46 | |
Whatever else God is, He's much more than this, | 7:49 | |
but He's not less than this. | 7:51 | |
This is the iron ration of a Christian, as it were. | 7:52 | |
God is Creator. | 7:56 | |
God, as one who came and dwelt among us, | 7:58 | |
God who is in action today, | 8:02 | |
a living presence in His spirit. | 8:05 | |
Now, if we had time to talk together tonight and I said, | 8:09 | |
"What kind of a mental image do you carry | 8:13 | |
"of God the Father?", | 8:15 | |
I think you might be able to give me one. | 8:17 | |
I think if I said to you, | 8:21 | |
"What kind of image do you carry of Jesus, | 8:22 | |
"the Son of God?", that would be easier. | 8:26 | |
You'd see Him, splendid, matchless in His character, | 8:29 | |
or on His cross or standing beside His empty tomb, | 8:34 | |
radiant and glistening on Easter morning. | 8:37 | |
You'd have your mental picture. | 8:40 | |
God, the Holy Spirit. | 8:42 | |
Why, God, the Holy Ghost. | 8:45 | |
Why, the very word is (indistinct) | 8:48 | |
and substantial, isn't it? | 8:52 | |
Most of us find it much harder to carry | 8:54 | |
relevant mental pictures and to know what we mean | 8:58 | |
when we talk of God the Spirit. | 9:02 | |
And yet, | 9:06 | |
this faith in God, | 9:08 | |
whose spirit is in action today, | 9:10 | |
is of the very essence of the Christian religion. | 9:13 | |
In my country, 95% of the people, by a Gallop poll, | 9:18 | |
say they believe in God. | 9:24 | |
I question whether 25% of them would really believe | 9:27 | |
that God is a vivid reality now, | 9:31 | |
someone to be taken account of in every day, | 9:34 | |
somebody who impinges upon their life. | 9:37 | |
They haven't just this picture of God the Spirit | 9:41 | |
in action now. | 9:45 | |
I dare claim that the real religious problem | 9:49 | |
in lots of our minds | 9:52 | |
is that we haven't any real understanding | 9:54 | |
of an active God. | 9:58 | |
I wonder, then, in the few moments I have, | 10:02 | |
can I outline three or four ways in which I believe | 10:05 | |
God the Spirit is in action today? | 10:09 | |
Ways in which, if I may be a bit personal, | 10:14 | |
I've discovered Him as my adventure. | 10:17 | |
First of all, the New Testament makes the claim | 10:21 | |
that God, through His spirit, | 10:27 | |
is one who is the great creator. | 10:31 | |
Now, we have had Christ upon our brow, | 10:37 | |
the amazing crown of freedom. | 10:42 | |
God always works within the limits of the freedom | 10:45 | |
that He's given us. | 10:50 | |
But within those limits, He works. | 10:52 | |
His spirit is abroad in the Earth, | 10:56 | |
within human consciousness, | 11:00 | |
stimulating, suggesting, challenging, awakening, leading. | 11:03 | |
God is the great preparer. | 11:10 | |
You see, He has one characteristic | 11:15 | |
that's denied to you and me. | 11:18 | |
We have no interior access into the mind of another person, | 11:20 | |
but the Holy Spirit has. | 11:27 | |
He can enter our life, | 11:31 | |
not to coerce and cajole, | 11:33 | |
but to remind | 11:37 | |
and to awaken | 11:39 | |
and to challenge | 11:41 | |
and to lead. | 11:43 | |
God is the great preparer. | 11:46 | |
Now, He's at work in the vast affairs of history | 11:51 | |
as the great preparer. | 11:56 | |
I wonder what explanation you give | 11:59 | |
for the way in which, around the world, | 12:03 | |
at certain times in history, | 12:06 | |
ideas seemed to grip hosts of people's minds, | 12:10 | |
movements come almost like the surge of an ocean. | 12:16 | |
I wonder, could it be, that God is preparing | 12:23 | |
for something He has for us? | 12:28 | |
I wonder, for example, | 12:31 | |
is the yearning that's expressed around the world today | 12:34 | |
for freedom, political freedom, racial freedom, | 12:38 | |
I wonder, is this rising up for freedom, | 12:43 | |
I wonder, is it of God? | 12:46 | |
I wonder, is He preparing for another great advance, | 12:48 | |
another great gift of His spirit, when we're ready? | 12:52 | |
And what is this | 12:57 | |
cry from common people everywhere for peace? | 12:59 | |
Is it the machinations of the commoners? | 13:03 | |
What if it's God? | 13:06 | |
What if it's God who's tired of man's war-making? | 13:08 | |
And who is putting it into the common people of the Earth | 13:13 | |
that they're beginning to hate war with a great hatred, | 13:17 | |
so much so that no government now | 13:20 | |
can ever go into a war and assume it has | 13:23 | |
a united public opinion? | 13:26 | |
God's divided public opinion. | 13:28 | |
I believe He'll keep it divided. | 13:31 | |
I believe His spirit is possibly preparing us | 13:35 | |
for the great gift of world peace | 13:39 | |
that He might have for us. | 13:41 | |
Or economic justice, | 13:45 | |
the rising of Asia. | 13:47 | |
What if it's God who is preparing the Earth, | 13:49 | |
preparing man for further great gifts of His love? | 13:54 | |
For His love will allow | 13:59 | |
in the turbulences of our time, | 14:02 | |
the possibility that the Holy Spirit is at work. | 14:05 | |
Certainly, He's at work in our own hearts. | 14:11 | |
Have you had the experience where, | 14:18 | |
perhaps looking back over a period of time, | 14:20 | |
little things that have happened, | 14:23 | |
the twists in your affairs here or there, | 14:24 | |
suddenly, everything seems to fall into place, | 14:27 | |
and you've reached a position or something's happened to you | 14:31 | |
and all this seems to have prepared for it, | 14:34 | |
but you didn't consciously prepare for it. | 14:37 | |
But it's too sensible, it's too rational, | 14:41 | |
it's too patterned to be chance. | 14:43 | |
I suspect lots of us have had that kind of sense | 14:48 | |
of somebody, as though it were a parent. | 14:52 | |
You know, there's a magnificent illustration | 14:56 | |
in the life of John Wesley, | 14:58 | |
the founder of the Methodist Church. | 14:59 | |
John Wesley was Oxford don, | 15:02 | |
quietly going about his work as a scholar. | 15:05 | |
To the surprise of his friends, | 15:08 | |
he suddenly announced his resignation, | 15:10 | |
said he was coming here to America | 15:12 | |
to convert the red Indians. | 15:13 | |
Privately, he said he was coming to save his own soul. | 15:16 | |
He was a miserable failure in his task here. | 15:19 | |
He got on ship to go back again, | 15:21 | |
and halfway across the Atlantic, | 15:23 | |
the ship ran into a terrific storm | 15:25 | |
and it looked as though it was going to sink. | 15:26 | |
Wesley found himself frightened to die. | 15:28 | |
And in fear, he walked the boat. | 15:32 | |
He noticed a number of other Christians from Arabia. | 15:35 | |
Arabians from the heart of Germany. | 15:38 | |
They were quietly going about their business. | 15:41 | |
They were even heard singing at the height of the storm, | 15:43 | |
completely without fear, seemingly, of death. | 15:46 | |
And Wesley said, "What have they got that I haven't got?" | 15:49 | |
He got to London and he went along to St. Paul's Cathedral. | 15:54 | |
To his amazement, | 15:56 | |
he heard the choir singing the 130th Psalm, | 15:58 | |
"Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee." | 16:02 | |
Remember, the word depths in the Bible | 16:05 | |
is like our word, subconscious. | 16:07 | |
"Out of the subconscious do I cry unto Thee. | 16:08 | |
"Oh, Lord, hear my voice." | 16:11 | |
It seemed to match his conviction. | 16:14 | |
And then at a quarter to nine that night, | 16:17 | |
he slipped into a little room | 16:19 | |
in Oliver's Gate Street, London. | 16:21 | |
And there, at quarter to nine of the clock, | 16:22 | |
he said, "I felt my heart strangely warm toward God." | 16:26 | |
And this little man, without literally to throw | 16:31 | |
his leg across a horse, | 16:33 | |
they sent out to change him. | 16:35 | |
Looking back, he saw the meaning of | 16:38 | |
the frustration and the disappointment, | 16:40 | |
the stirring that came to him in Oxford, | 16:42 | |
the sending of York and himself across to America, | 16:45 | |
the happening on the boat, | 16:47 | |
the strange word that came at St. Paul's Cathedral. | 16:49 | |
He saw it as a pattern. | 16:51 | |
God, who was preparing | 16:54 | |
for a greater salvation than he'd had. | 16:58 | |
"God is my adventure," said the Christian. | 17:02 | |
And God is the great preparer. | 17:06 | |
And God is the guide of us all. | 17:13 | |
Do you remember how St. John's gospel talks of it so often, | 17:17 | |
giving us these sentences again and again? | 17:22 | |
The Holy Spirit and the Father will stand in my name, | 17:25 | |
shall teach you all things. | 17:29 | |
God is counselor and guide. | 17:31 | |
The Spirit in action in each time of history. | 17:35 | |
Why, Abraham setting out, not knowing where he was going. | 17:41 | |
Men like Jerry Meyer bearing witness | 17:46 | |
to the presence of God on his spirit, | 17:48 | |
who come to people like Saul who became Paul the Christian. | 17:53 | |
The evidence of God's counsel and guidance. | 17:58 | |
You know how the Jewish people as a whole spoke of it | 18:03 | |
as they wandered through desert, | 18:06 | |
the cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night | 18:07 | |
went before them to lead them. | 18:10 | |
Their expression in symbolic terms of the guidance of God. | 18:13 | |
God is a guide and a counselor. | 18:19 | |
If we would recognize it, we'd perhaps be more sensitive | 18:24 | |
to the gentle presence of His spirit that comes. | 18:28 | |
We wouldn't dare make a vital decision in our life | 18:31 | |
without reference to His great intelligence. | 18:34 | |
We'd often, perhaps, be led to quiet, otherwise missed, | 18:39 | |
if we were just obedient and we were listening. | 18:48 | |
I'll give a very vivid experience in my own life. | 18:51 | |
I have four little children, | 18:56 | |
and Christmas before last, | 18:59 | |
we went to an Australian seaside resort | 19:03 | |
for Christmas vacation. | 19:05 | |
And one rather windy, bleak afternoon, | 19:07 | |
three boys, 11, seven and four years of age | 19:12 | |
wanted to go for a swim. | 19:16 | |
And so I took them down to the beach | 19:18 | |
and to the rocks at the end of the beach | 19:19 | |
where there's a big pool carved out of the rocks. | 19:22 | |
We were only there alone where it was so cool, | 19:25 | |
and others seemed to want to swim. | 19:28 | |
And so we talked for awhile and then the elder boy said | 19:30 | |
as we stood at the edge of the pool, | 19:33 | |
"Daddy, I can swim the length of the pool. | 19:36 | |
"Watch me." | 19:37 | |
And so, he swam the length of the pool | 19:39 | |
and I walked along the rocks beside him. | 19:42 | |
He took quite the time, | 19:44 | |
and when he got to the other end and we stopped and talked, | 19:45 | |
and then I looked around. | 19:48 | |
The youngest little fellow, Christopher, was gone. | 19:50 | |
Something told me he was in the water, but where? | 19:55 | |
I rushed back, panic-stricken, | 19:59 | |
looked around where he might have gone in | 20:02 | |
just down from the steps there. | 20:04 | |
No sign of him. | 20:05 | |
Whatever could one do? | 20:07 | |
And then, just as clearly as I can indicate, | 20:09 | |
a voice seemed to come. | 20:12 | |
"There!" | 20:13 | |
Away at the farthest end in the deepest part of the barge, | 20:15 | |
I saw a little head just break the surface. | 20:20 | |
I don't know | 20:25 | |
whether it was the second, third time he was coming up, | 20:26 | |
panicked running to him, | 20:28 | |
or falling in and grabbing him, | 20:29 | |
getting the water out of him, he was all right. | 20:30 | |
Now you'll never convince me otherwise, | 20:35 | |
it was the moment that best (indistinct), | 20:38 | |
God, who is counselor and guide, | 20:42 | |
said, "There!" | 20:46 | |
And why not? | 20:49 | |
God loves Christopher more than I do. | 20:51 | |
He wants his life to find fulfillment, too. | 20:55 | |
I'm convinced that in many of the situations of our lives, | 21:01 | |
there is a guidance and there is a pressure. | 21:05 | |
If man notices, God's with us. | 21:10 | |
We're so often preoccupied, | 21:13 | |
so often losing His voice against all the other voices. | 21:16 | |
God is in action today | 21:22 | |
as guide, as counselor. | 21:25 | |
So then the New Testament gives us the promise | 21:32 | |
that God is strengthener. | 21:34 | |
When the Holy Spirit shall come, | 21:38 | |
He shall be strengthener. | 21:42 | |
This is our trust for the future. | 21:46 | |
How many times do we look into the future | 21:49 | |
and we're afraid? | 21:51 | |
We're afraid because of a miscalculation. | 21:53 | |
We imagine that that future, | 21:57 | |
which may hold failed circumstances for us, | 22:00 | |
testing circumstances, responsible circumstances, | 22:03 | |
that that future will be faced | 22:07 | |
in precisely the same strength that we posses now. | 22:10 | |
We leave out of our calculations the powers of God, | 22:15 | |
that at the moment of need, | 22:19 | |
not before and not after, but at the moment of need, | 22:21 | |
access of strength is available | 22:26 | |
to him who has faith and obedience. | 22:29 | |
There's a great story, you know, that came out the | 22:33 | |
Nazi occupation of Holland during the war. | 22:37 | |
In the Dutch Civil Service Department, | 22:40 | |
the head of their department, a Christian man, | 22:44 | |
one day received notice that the next day | 22:46 | |
he would be obliged to dismiss anyone on his staff | 22:49 | |
with Jewish blood in their veins. | 22:54 | |
He thought about it that night | 22:56 | |
and felt such discrimination | 22:58 | |
on the basis of the blood a man is supposed to have | 23:00 | |
in his veins | 23:03 | |
was completely alien to his faith. | 23:04 | |
Next morning, he entered | 23:07 | |
and in front of his staff, having called them together, | 23:08 | |
he tore up the instructions. | 23:11 | |
And then he said this, | 23:14 | |
"What my future will be, I know not. | 23:15 | |
"But I know that when my strength gives way, | 23:19 | |
"I may expect all strength | 23:22 | |
"through Him that does not leave a man | 23:25 | |
"in his greatest need." | 23:27 | |
Almost before he finished, the door opened. | 23:30 | |
The Gestapo took him away. | 23:32 | |
He was never heard of again. | 23:35 | |
The people who watched that incident | 23:37 | |
and heard of his faith and courage, | 23:39 | |
they were quite sure, as he said, | 23:41 | |
when his faith, his strength gave away, | 23:44 | |
all strength would be given | 23:49 | |
by Him who does not fail a man in his greatest need. | 23:51 | |
This our confidence in the future. | 23:57 | |
God, at the moment of need, | 24:00 | |
not before and not too late, | 24:03 | |
you can not hoard it, | 24:06 | |
you can not have any deep-freeze arrangements | 24:07 | |
in relation to God, | 24:09 | |
as you need, so you shall receive. | 24:12 | |
God is (indistinct). | 24:17 | |
But there's something else | 24:23 | |
that this Holy Spirit does for us. | 24:24 | |
He introduces us to Jesus Christ | 24:29 | |
as our Savior and our Lord and our friend. | 24:32 | |
You know, you can come to know Jesus Christ in two ways. | 24:39 | |
You can know Him as a person of history, | 24:46 | |
Jesus of Nazareth. | 24:50 | |
You can also come to know Him as Christ, | 24:54 | |
the living Lord and Savior, | 24:58 | |
whose spirit is in the world today. | 25:00 | |
Now, many of us never move from knowing Christ, | 25:06 | |
the Jesus of history, | 25:11 | |
to Christ as the Savior and living Lord in our lives. | 25:13 | |
Although He remains with us in some measure, | 25:19 | |
being of history, though, He's dead. | 25:23 | |
His voice comes down through it | 25:26 | |
because it was a great voice. | 25:28 | |
His memory abides because He left an amazing memory. | 25:29 | |
But, being of the past, He's dead. | 25:33 | |
But there are many others who know Christ | 25:39 | |
much more intimate in the immediate sense. | 25:42 | |
He is somebody who is a companion of their way. | 25:47 | |
He is, to the modern disciple, | 25:51 | |
just as He was to Peter and James and John | 25:54 | |
with the one exception that we modern disciples | 25:57 | |
can't see with our critical eyes. | 26:00 | |
In every other way, He is as He was then. | 26:02 | |
That's the meaning of the Resurrection. | 26:06 | |
It doesn't mean survival, it means victory. | 26:08 | |
It means that this Christ takes His place in relation to us | 26:12 | |
as a living fact of experience. | 26:17 | |
But, oh, you say, | 26:21 | |
how do you pass from knowing Jesus of history | 26:22 | |
to knowing Christ, the Savior, in this world? | 26:27 | |
Frankly, I don't know. | 26:32 | |
But there's a great sentence in the Book of Corinthians | 26:35 | |
that runs this way. | 26:39 | |
"No man can say Jesus is Lord | 26:41 | |
"except by the Holy Spirit." | 26:46 | |
There's a great promise implied in that text. | 26:51 | |
And if we may not know Jesus | 26:55 | |
as more than a man of history, | 26:58 | |
as Christ, as Lord, | 26:59 | |
if we may not know Him by our explanations to each other, | 27:01 | |
our groping attempts to tell at what He may mean | 27:06 | |
from one to another, | 27:09 | |
if we may not know Him, finally, that way, | 27:11 | |
there is a way in which we are able to know Him. | 27:15 | |
The Holy Spirit can reveal this mystery | 27:19 | |
and lead us into this experience, not of Jesus of history, | 27:24 | |
but Christ as Lord and Savior. | 27:30 | |
This is the great Christian miracle of every century. | 27:34 | |
Some of you know, at home in Australia, | 27:41 | |
we've been engaged in what's been called | 27:46 | |
the mission of the nation. | 27:49 | |
In the last three years, | 27:51 | |
I've seen thousands of people in our universities, | 27:52 | |
in our factories, in our churches and our halls | 27:57 | |
say that their lives have become assured | 28:02 | |
as they passed from an awareness of Jesus of history | 28:05 | |
to Christ as living Savior and Lord. | 28:10 | |
But I think of a young radio announcer | 28:13 | |
in the northern town of Bundaberg, | 28:17 | |
agnostic, cynical to all the Christian faith. | 28:19 | |
For a year, every week he had to present | 28:22 | |
our great radio program to go across the country. | 28:24 | |
Always, he smiled as he introduced it to his listeners. | 28:28 | |
Last Easter, at the end of our play, | 28:34 | |
in the quietness of his own studio, | 28:38 | |
he told us about the gift the power of Christ | 28:40 | |
made in his life. | 28:44 | |
He's changed. | 28:46 | |
He's coming to our church. | 28:48 | |
He's passed our preacher's examination. | 28:50 | |
He's a new man. | 28:52 | |
Or I think of the woman at (indistinct) | 28:56 | |
in the southern state of Queensland, | 29:00 | |
who tells how her marriage arrived around despondency, | 29:03 | |
reaching bottom. | 29:08 | |
It was actually in her search of mixing poisons, | 29:11 | |
she (indistinct). | 29:16 | |
At least out her witness came this evidence, | 29:18 | |
a radio playing hymns, | 29:22 | |
with the discovery of another solution | 29:24 | |
to her life's problems. | 29:27 | |
She came to see me a month ago, | 29:29 | |
and she has a (indistinct) association meeting | 29:31 | |
this evening. | 29:33 | |
Her marriage is all right. | 29:35 | |
She's back in the church, her life straightened out. | 29:37 | |
I know it was Christ the Savior at work. | 29:41 | |
Or one other. | 29:46 | |
We had a convention in Sydney, | 29:47 | |
over 3,000 young people that came from all over the land. | 29:49 | |
One of them was a young engineer, | 29:52 | |
a graduate of Millman University. | 29:54 | |
6'2", magnificent Australian. | 29:55 | |
He'd been up in northern Australia, | 29:59 | |
building a dam on the Atherton table lands, | 30:01 | |
120 men under him as he planned that small dam. | 30:03 | |
He came to our convention, and I don't know why he came. | 30:07 | |
He said, "I'd given Christianity away. | 30:09 | |
"I'd been brought up in a narrow, sectarian kind of home, | 30:11 | |
"always being taught that to be a Christian | 30:15 | |
"was to sign on the dotted line | 30:17 | |
"for a few narrow intellectual propositions. | 30:18 | |
"I'd given it away. | 30:22 | |
"In the last year up there, | 30:23 | |
"I lived the life of an escapist, | 30:24 | |
"played endless tennis | 30:26 | |
"and listened to endless gramophone records." | 30:28 | |
And he said, "I came to this convention, | 30:31 | |
"and one day, the thing clicked." | 30:33 | |
He said, "I suddenly realized that to be a Christian | 30:36 | |
"was not to be loyal to a set of intellectual propositions, | 30:41 | |
"but to be loyal to a person, | 30:47 | |
"a living person named Jesus Christ." | 30:49 | |
He said, "I'm going back. | 30:54 | |
"I won't live the life of an escapist." | 30:55 | |
In the last year, I know he hasn't. | 30:59 | |
He's counted on that table land in the north, | 31:02 | |
and he's learned the great secret that Christ | 31:07 | |
(mic scratching). | 31:10 | |
- | Oh, God, who has put a song in our hearts, | 31:24 |
we give Thee thanks for every voice that praises Thee, | 31:28 | |
the author of all things good, | 31:33 | |
for the sunlight which brings light to the world, | 31:36 | |
for everything that grows | 31:41 | |
and lifts its head towards Thy light, | 31:44 | |
for the stars in their courses | 31:48 | |
towards Thy light, | 31:52 | |
for the stars in their courses | 31:56 | |
proclaiming a divine hand in their order, | 31:58 | |
for or the kindness in human hearts than can not be crushed, | 32:03 | |
for the hopes which, though crushed, | 32:10 | |
arise eternally towards better things, | 32:14 | |
and for the deep down impulses of the soul | 32:18 | |
which set towards Thee. | 32:22 | |
We also offer our thanks to Thee this morning | 32:26 | |
for the dedicated laymen of Thy church, | 32:30 | |
for their unselfish giving of their time, | 32:34 | |
talents and sustenance, | 32:38 | |
for their leadership in church and church school, | 32:41 | |
and for the examples which they set | 32:45 | |
for their families and communities, | 32:47 | |
we give Thee thanks. | 32:50 | |
Above all, | 32:54 | |
we thank Thee for the light of the world, | 32:56 | |
our Savior, Jesus Christ, | 32:59 | |
for the battle he fought and the victory he won, | 33:02 | |
for His abiding presence in the world He loved, | 33:07 | |
and for the promise that all races and kingdoms | 33:11 | |
shall finally acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior. | 33:15 | |
Oh, God, | 33:21 | |
the shepherd of Thy people, | 33:23 | |
we beseech Thee mercilessly to look upon Thy church, | 33:26 | |
that by Thy great love and power, | 33:33 | |
it may be delivered from evil | 33:37 | |
and may enter into Thy service more and more. | 33:40 | |
Save us from self-righteousness and self-contempt, | 33:46 | |
and from the easy speech | 33:51 | |
of those who are not doers of the Word | 33:53 | |
but hearers only. | 33:56 | |
Save it from concern with its own increase, | 34:00 | |
rather than with the increase of justice, | 34:04 | |
mercy and truth. | 34:08 | |
Save it from the love of the glory that is of man, | 34:12 | |
that it may not defer to wealth and power | 34:17 | |
and so betray the welfare of the people. | 34:23 | |
Save it from pride of race or class, | 34:28 | |
less it dishonor Thee in contempt of our children, | 34:32 | |
and hinder the work of Christ. | 34:36 | |
Oh, renew Thy people with Thy truth and grace. | 34:41 | |
We humbly beseech Thee | 34:46 | |
that Thy church may fulfill its ancient mission | 34:49 | |
to preach good news to the poor, the sinful, | 34:53 | |
the despairing, | 34:58 | |
to set at liberty those who are oppressed | 35:00 | |
and to do all which may serve | 35:04 | |
and set forward Thy blessed kingdom. | 35:07 | |
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen. | 35:11 | |
Bestowed upon him life, health, family and friends. | 35:16 | |
Oh, there are too many for us to name. | 35:23 | |
I, (indistinct) in teaching | 35:27 | |
this quality is outreaching and bold, | 35:33 | |
that it believes in the future, | 35:37 | |
believes that every good life, | 35:40 | |
like every good road, leads somewhere. | 35:42 | |
The A stands for action. | 35:46 | |
Action is that quality | 35:53 | |
which believes in good works | 35:58 | |
as well as good deeds, | 35:59 | |
believes that we are to really be doers of the Word, | 36:04 | |
instead of hearers only. | 36:07 | |
N stands for now. | 36:11 | |
Christians seek to live like Christ now, | 36:14 | |
not tomorrow, | 36:17 | |
for they know that spiritual procrastination | 36:20 | |
is a vice and not a virtue. | 36:25 | |
That is, putting off good deeds til tomorrow | 36:28 | |
may cause the conscience not to know when tomorrow comes. | 36:32 | |
So let me suggest that the next time you want to | 36:39 | |
know how to tell a Christian or a non-Christian, | 36:46 | |
to just think of these qualities which I pointed out to you, | 36:52 | |
C for commitment, | 36:57 | |
H for humility, | 36:59 | |
R for righteousness, | 37:01 | |
I for integrity, | 37:03 | |
S for sharing, | 37:05 | |
T for thanksgiving, | 37:06 | |
I for intention, | 37:08 | |
A for action, | 37:10 | |
N for now. | 37:12 | |
And just as it takes the same nine letters each time | 37:13 | |
to spell this word, | 37:18 | |
so it takes at least these nine qualities | 37:20 | |
to make a Christian. | 37:23 | |
Let's pray. | 37:25 | |
Our Heavenly Father, | 37:28 | |
give us the strength to live the best we know, | 37:30 | |
and to be a follower of Christ. | 37:36 | |
Amen. | 37:40 | |
When you think of this word, Christian, | 37:43 | |
that you analyze and think of each of these qualities, | 37:46 | |
C for commitment, | 37:51 | |
H for humility, | 37:53 | |
R for righteousness, | 37:55 | |
I for integrity, | 37:57 | |
S for sharing, | 37:59 | |
T for thanksgiving, | 38:01 | |
I for intention, | 38:03 | |
A for action, | 38:05 | |
N for now. | 38:06 | |
And just as it takes the same nine letters | 38:09 | |
to spell this word each time, | 38:12 | |
so it takes at least these same nine qualities | 38:15 | |
to make a Christian. | 38:20 |