Vol. 3, No. 7

August, 1966

An Old Sermon - Still Needed

We continue to present excerpts from "WHAT THE CHURCH MUST DO TO BE SAVED," a sermon by the Foy E. Wallace, Jr. of thirty years ago. ------------------------------- Under the "danger of modern Judaism" bro. Wallace comments: "We have always had neutrals. They are all alike. When the music controversy raged, the neutrals went with the digressives as their party increased and became large enough. If and when, if ever, the Boll party should become large enough, without the credentials of a prophet I predict that the neutrals among us will go with them just as the neutrals in the other fight went with the innovators. That is the history of it, and they are running true to form to date." Worldliness "We are living in an intensely secular age. There is an all-absorbing pursuit after the things of the world. The pulpit and the press are all subsidized by the secular spirit. Newspapers reek with crime; churches seethe with worldliness. The masses in the church and out of it are going to hell on the pleasure route. There are no danger signals anywhere to check the crazed victims of fun and frolic in their frenzied rush to the resorts of sin. Neon signs flicker "welcome" at places where red lanterns should swing "danger here -- keep out." The public mixed swimming resort is the nursery of promiscuous conduct. The salacious movie is the doorway through which the slime and slush of Hollywood gains entrance to our parlors. The dance is the preparatory school of prostitution. Cardplaying is the kindergarten for gambling. Liquor drinking and cigarette smoking are first steps in the course which blunts the moral and spiritual sense of boys and girls.		The woman or girl with a cigarette in one hand and a liquor glass in the other drops to zero in the eyes of any gentleman. The church that harbors all such within its membership ceases to be a spiritual power in any community. Preachers who refrain from preaching against these evils have either yielded to the line of least resistance or have been bribed by public sentiment or else popular practice has blunted their own spiritual perceptions. Thus merrily we roll along." Then, later in the sermon - "To Be Saved, The church must retrieve its spiritual life. New Testament discipline must be enforced. We must wage war on worldliness as well as on error. In short, the complete return to the New Testament standard in our attitude to error, in maintaining the peculiar features of the church of Christ, and in the rejuvenation of its spiritual life, is the only hope of salvation for the church in our secular and sectarian society. We must wage war on everything inimical to the essence of the gospel of Christ." --------------------------------- Such preaching is old-fashioned, unrealistic, maybe demagogic -- but it has a redeeming feature -- IT IS TRUE! 6 [Previous Article] [Next Article]

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