The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1950-03-16

quite simple: The church is kept
alive by faith What is Christian
faith, the faith Of the church? A
study of the Scripture for this
week, or a broader search through
the New Testament from end to
end, will convince any impartial
reader of the falsehood Of some Of
the notions about what Christian
faith is.
Some have claimed that it is
nothing but faith in the Fatherhood
Of God and the brotherhood Of man.
Let the reader try to find this In
the New Testament II he can.
II you had said this to an early
Christian, he would have replied
along this line: That is just the
problem-how can we become sons
Of God? How can men achieve
brotherhood? Others tell US that
faith Is belief In q series Of doc
trines.
Let the reader search the
New Testament and see II he
can find there anything about
faith In . creed. Sometimes
this notion takes another form
that faith originally was .
belief that Jesus beliefs were
true; In other words, that
faith Is accepting the religion
Of Jesus"
Now the church from the begin
ming believed that Jesus thoughts
were true thoughts; but faith was
never 4 simple secondhand &C.
ceptance Of any ones creed, not
even that Of Jesus. The faith we
find in the New Testament is none
Of these things Still less is it faith
In the saints, in Mary. or in an
''infallible" church.
Faith: Not About, But In =.
THE FAITH that broke out in
= glorious light in those early
days Of the CHURCH, and has con-
dnued shining down through the
centuries, was not belief about any
thing or anybody. II was belief IN
Some One; and that Some One was
Jesus Christ.
There II . simply astonishing
variety Of ways in which he 10
spoken Of In the New Testament.
He 10 Son Of Man. he Il teacher
and healer. he 10 the first-born Of
many brothers: he 10 Priest and
Sacrifice. he = the Precipitation. the
Reconcilsr Of men to God; he IL
Master and Lord. he II the Word
that u. what God has to say to u;
he Il the Son Of God. he sits on the
throne Of the universe, he will
Judge every man.
To put it quite bluntly. the church
believed (and still believes) In
supernatural Christ and not only
in a human Jesus. They believed
in him as teacher, as the Teacher
indeed; but not merely as one
whose teachings had been inter.
rupted by an untimely death. They
did not play down" his death, on
the contrary they played it up.
Christ crucified for Us Is a.
ways strongly In their minds.
But they were far from leaving
him - II were on . crucifix.
Any form Of Christianity that
thinks Of Jesus chiefly as a Christ.
mas baby; or starry-eyed ideal.
list; or as pathetic figure hanging
on a crucifix is perversion Of
New Testament ways Of thought.
Everywhere in the center is the
Christ who was dead and is alive
forevermore."
There Is No Other
n YOUNG MOSLEM who became
"A Christian and is very happy
about it, was asked what 1t was
that changed him. for Moslems are
hard to change. II was not an argu-
ment, he said. it was the lives of
some missionaries in Iran whom he
knew.
He wanted what they had-it
was as simple as that. And he
went on to say this: christian
ity doesn't have much In theol-
ogy that Mohammedanism
doesn't have. There ID Just one
thing Christianity has that we
didn't have, nor anything nke
Il: Jesus Christ"