Vol. 16,  No. 10 December, 1979 EMPTY SLOGANS? The "liberals" are fighting their "liberals" or trying to find a new word for the Cross Roads (Gainesville, Fla.) culture, and someone brought me a packet of their Bulletins to read. No space here to describe the situation, but the nature of the arguments intrigued me. One deplored "Band-wagoning" (deciding who will win, then jumping on). Another facetiously remarked, "There are no liberals — only misunderstood deep thinkers!" And the ultra-liberal must have called the liberal a "fanatic" for he retaliated, "I have known a long time when you cannot answer someone, about the only thing left is ridicule. It usually is a sure sign of a weak case." It is amazing how many of the old slogans lived anew. "Bible things in Bible ways," and "We plead for local churches to organize according to the teachings of the N. T., and do their God-given work through the type of organization set forth in the N.T." Sounds so good it would be a shame to ask them to produce a little N.T. for their own brand of organization — and have everything suddenly become still. Wouldn't stay still long however. The cry of "fanatic" would break forth. A "cliché" is a trite, worn-out expression. Well, we all borrow ways of saying things. But repeating fine sounding affirmations of faith when we will not live by them; or attacking others with principles we will not apply to self; is a form of dishonesty. I put the papers away a bit sick at heart. Brethren, are we nothing more than empty slogan bearers? TWO GUEST ARTICLES THIS MONTH! As most of you know, I have spent the past four months teaching some upper division classes at Florida College. In one course on Hebrews emphasis was placed on research, and each student was required to write a paper on a subject suggested in the epistle. Many of the articles were exceptionally well done, and because such research provides assistance for church members who study the Bible for less academic reasons, two of the papers appear in this month's PLAIN TALK. Scott Mann's article came in early so I asked him to "boil it down" for P.T., and he did a fine job. Lack of time forced me to do the condensing on Scott Smelser's material, but much of his wording was retained. Welcome these young men — pages 6 and 7. It is great to be back in Texas and to continue association with the Oaks-West church. Our 1980 work plans will be published in January issue. [Previous Article] [Next Article]     Created on 4-April-2002 Page last updated