Editorial
January, 1971
Volume 6, Number 1
One of the highlights of the 1970 annual meeting of the Brethren Revival Fellowship was a message by Olen B. Landes, entitled “Dangerous Trends in the Church of the Brethren.” That message is featured in this issue of the BRF Witness.
We believe that the trends outlined in Bro. Landes’ message are the factors contributing to the loss of membership and the decline in giving in the Church of the Brethren. Many churchgoers are tired of being told what they no longer need to believe. They are not impressed with the competition among churchmen to see who can administer the most shocking worship service. The deep cause of dissatisfaction in churches today is that people are not hearing the Word of God, and therefore are not being convicted of sin. In many places, moral lectures have taken the place of Gospel proclamation, social maneuvering has taken the place of evangelism, and group dynamics has taken the place of common Bible, study and prayer. The 1970 BRF annual meeting adopted a Resolution calling on the General Board and 1971 Annual Conference delegates to take steps toward reversing trends in the Brotherhood. A 30-minute taped interview with the BRF chairman discussing the Resolution (and BRF concerns in general), is available from the General Offices at Elgin for use in churches.
There is no official way to become a member of’ the BRF. One does not become a member by joining an organization. Membership is a spiritual unity among those who have similar concerns. If you want to be on our mailing list (or know of others who should be on the mailing list), please inform us. There is no cost. Let us know if there are areas of concern you feel should be lifted up.
Dangerous Trends in the Church of the Brethren
by Olen B. Landes
The meaning of the word “trend” is “general course,” “drift,” or “tendency.” I believe that the Church of the Brethren, the church of our forefathers, my church, can be compared to a rowboat in the middle of a stream, whose occupants are at case, luke-warm, self-complacent, gradually and unconsciously drifting down the stream to the waterfalls below, carried along by the drift and tendency of the times. The inspired writer to the Hebrew Christians (in the first chapter) endeavored to exalt and magnify the resurrected, glorified, preeminent Christ of God. And then he begins the second chapter with an admonition and warning: “We must therefore, pay all the more attention to what we have beard, lest we drift away” (Moffatt). The Church of the Brethren is in a period of transition. Most of us know where we have been, some of us know where we are now, but where we are going (or ought to go) we seemingly are not sure.
1. The first dangerous trend is our light treatment of the Bible as the inspired Word of God. It is being commonly taught today that much of the Old Testament is legendary and that the New Testament Epistles are not authoritative. Many of our brethren imply that the Bible is not the Word of God, but that it contains the Word of God. Last July, a year ago, I had a very unique experience. I was one of fifty who participated in the Third Theological Conference of the Church of the Brethren held at our Seminary. It was a week-long affair. We were divided into five groups of ten each. Five of the members of my group were pastors. Four of them were graduates of Bethany Biblical Seminary. One of them had been a student at Yale, a converted Methodist, and also a pastor in our denomination at this time. Another member was the president of one of our colleges. Still another member of my group was the head of the Bible department at one of our colleges, Another member was a student from Manchester College, and still another, a young mother of two children from Michigan. I entered into this conference with the admonition in my heart that the Apostle gave to the Christians at Philippi. I want to quote it as it is paraphrased by Phillips, “Live together in harmony, live together in love as though you had only one mind and one spirit between you. Never act from motives of rivalry or personal vanity but in humility. Think more of each other than you do of yourselves. None of you should think only of his own affairs, but should learn to see things from other people’s point of’ view.” And this is the spirit in which I entered into this Conference. It was a good experience, we had good communications although we were pretty far apart on many issues. When I would quote from one of the Prophets or one of the Epistles, they would cut me off saying, “We don’t want to hear Isaiah, we don’t want to hear Jeremiah, we don’t want to hear Paul, or Peter or John–we want to hear you.” I said, “Why? The scriptures are God-breathed, and they can speak better than I can.” But to the others in my group, the writers of the Bible were no more inspired than we are inspired today. Our founding fathers of the Church of the Brethren were almost unique in that they never formulated a formal creed. Rejecting the creed of man, they turned to the Bible for guidance and adopted the New Testament as their guide and rule of faith. They organized a church with no creed and with all ordinances as taught by Jesus and his followers as recorded in the New Testament.
Dr. Floyd Mallott, in an article appearing in a German Baptist periodical, writes, “I wish to record my judgment, that the only path of return for the Church of the Brethren from the verge of absorption into humanism, is to return to the ideal of a New Testament Church, with the apostolic writings as authoritative law, norm, and guide.” The Apostle wrote in his letter to Timothy, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” A later translation reads, “Every scripture is inspired by God.” The apostle Peter in his second letter declared that “No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation, for the prophecy came not in old times by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” Over 2500 times the Old Testament claims to be the Word of God and the New Testament makes the same claim sonic 500 times. Our tendency to follow man’s philosophy, in place of the Bible, is dangerous-one of our dangerous trends. We read in the Proverbs quoting from the Moffatt translation, “What man thinks a right course, may end up on the road to death.” We must, therefore, pay all the more attention to what we have heard lest we drift away.
2. Another dangerous trend I want to call to your attention, is prayerlessness. In a recent survey of one of the large well known theological colleges here In the United States, ninetythree percent of the students studying for the ministry said “I have no devotional life.” Now, brethren, they will become powerless preachers. They may be able to develop a strong pleasing personality and become elegant orators, but they will never be able to communicate God’s message to man because communication is supernatural (the work of the Holy Spirit) and the Spirit only comes to us in power through fervent heartfelt prayer and communication with God. And the Brethren are no exception here. The only devotions we had during the week of that Third Theological Conference of the Church of the Brethren, that is in my own immediate group (and I think this was true of many of the other groups), was guitar music and folk songs. Now guitar music and folk songs have their place, but should never take the place of our devotion and communion with God. And it didn’t turn me on very much for God. It appealed to the physical part of me, but it didn’t appeal to the spiritual part of me. This is one of our dangerous trends.
It is said that Mary Queen of Scots dreaded the prayers of John Knox more than an army of ten thousand men. St. James wrote, quoting from a later translation, “powerful is the heartfelt supplication of a righteous man.” Words uttered, are not prayer. God doesn’t merely answer the words; He answers the desires of the heart, and it is the heartfelt faithprayer that goes through and brings results. All the great characters of the Bible came to their greatness from an altar of prayer. I fear that we are losing much of the warm earnestness, and the fervor, of our forefathers. When I was just a boy I would kneel at the side of my father in the Old Garber Church (the first Church of the Brethren built in Virginia), while one of the, good brethren would pray so fervently and I would hear my father groan and sigh. I used to wonder what it meant. What’s this all about? I understand it now. My father was praying in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit was interceding, bearing petitions to the throne of grace, through sighs too deep for words (or “unspeakable yearnings’), as one of the later translations puts it. The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings. Another translation reads “unspeakable yearnings,” and still another, “sighs too deep for words.”
I’m reminded here of a story that my father used to tell of the late C. H. Spurgeon. He was showing a visiting friend through his church one Sunday morning just before the worship service began. He started in the balcony and finished up in the basement. And last of all as he led his friend to a large room located immediately under the pulpit–as he opened the door quietly, he said to his friend, I want to show you our power plant. And to his visiting friend’s amazement, he saw a large group of men and women on their knees engaged in fervent prayer in behalf of the worship service which was about to follow. Then as he closed the door quietly, he said “This is our power plant.” No wonder that great Baptist preacher could be regarded as the prince of preachers.
3. A third trend which I feel is dangerous is our careless treatment of the securities of our faith. I speak here of the inspiration of the Bible, the personality of the Holy Spirit, the virgin birth of Christ, the deity of Christ, the sin-pardoning value of His atonement, His resurrection from the tomb, His ascension, His personal and visible return, the. resurrection both of the just and of the unjust. These are the great securities of our Christian faith. And the Apostle in writing to the young minister Timothy admonished him to keep the securities of the faith in tact. Quoting from a later translation, “O Timotheus keep the securities of the faith in tact.” Another translation reads “Guard the truths entrusted to you.” The faith is a trust, a solemn sacred trust, placed into the hands of the people of God. And the Apostle Peter in his second letter in the second chapter says, “But there were false prophets also among the people even as there shall be false teachers among you who privately shall bring in damnable (or destructive) heresies.” A “heresy” is an unorthodox teaching tending to promote division and strife. I sat with men, intellectual giants, during the. Theological Conference who refute many of these securities of our faith. This is a dangerous trend. The Apostle Paul in meeting with the Ephesian elders for the last time, said, “For I know that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock; yea of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.”
4. The fourth trend is negligence in observing the rules that have been set forth in the New Testament. We read in Paul’s second Letter to the young minister Timothy, “If any man takes part in an athletic contest, he gets no prize unless he obeys the rules. This is quoted from the Weymouth translation. We are spiritual athletes contending on the arena of this present world, for the crown of immortality. And I don’t believe we will ever reach the glory world unless we observe the simple rules that our Lord has set forth in His last will and testament. God has always required detailed obedience from his people both under the old and new convenant. Whenever his people took things into their own hands and disobeyed, they got into trouble and had to suffer for it. And as we run this great race for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, we are expected to observe the rules, just as those great athletes of Greece (who were contestants in the games) were expected to observe the rules of the race. Jesus said, “It is not everyone who keeps saying to me (quoting from Phillips; Lord, Lord, who will enter the kingdom of’ heaven, but the man who actually does my heavenly Father’s will.” I feel that we Brethren are becoming too careless about observing the rules set forth in the New Testament.
Take for example, the Upper Room service, a most unique and most impressive service. I feel sometimes that we are streamlining it to the place that it is no longer accomplishing the purpose for which our Lord designed it. I want to relate to you another experience I had about ten years ago. I was enroute to Southern California for a two-week preaching mission. I was on the train somewhere between Cincinnati and Chicago. I entered the dining car for breakfast, and when I entered the dining car I saw a rather distinguished-looking gentleman sitting at a table arranged for two people. I walked over to the vacant chair, and ask him if the chair was reserved. He said “No, sir,” and he invited me to sit down and join him in breakfast. I introduced myself, and he introduced himself as a movie producer. In fact, he was one of the producers of the picture “Ben Hur.” He said that lie usually flew, but for some reason he was riding the train this time. Now that was some combination wasn’t it? A Dunkard preacher eating breakfast with a movie producer. Well, Jesus ate with the publicans and sinners. And I’m reminded here of a statement made by an industrial chaplain in England. He said, “We preachers need to get on the factory floors where men work and sweat and swear.”
I wouldn’t take anything that I possess materially, for the experience I had there with that movie producer. I told him what my destination was, and what my mission was. And he wanted to know with what Church I was affiliated. I said the Church of the Brethren. lie had never heard of it. You don’t have to get very far from Virginia and Pennsylvania till you find people who have never heard of the Church of the Brethren. And he wanted to know something about the history of the Church of the Brethren, and what our faith and practice was. I related a little of the history of the Church of the Brethren and then I began with the fundamental evangelical doctrines and went right down the line including the New Testament ordinances and rites, the principles of the Gospel, what the church emphasized and what the Church opposed on Scriptural grounds. I found that he was well-versed in the Scriptures, and lie looked at me and said, “How do you observe the Communion service?” And I thought, “Now I’m in for a whipping here; he’s getting ready to ridicule me.” I explained to him just how we observed the Communion service. I went into detail explaining the order of the service. And then he said to me “Well, that’s the way the primitive church observed it; and I feel that it must be very fitting, and impressive, and meaningful, when it is observed in this way.”
Brethren, we have no apologies to make, for our faith and practice. We are streamlining some of these most solemn, most sacred, and most unique services far too much today. Not only are we laying aside some of our symbols, but we are drifting away from what they symbolize, and this is the serious thing. Maybe our fathers did overly emphasize the symbol at times. The symbol has no real significance in itself. It is what it signifies and symbolizes that gives to it its significance. It is only a means to assist us in attaining the results signified by it. I sometimes wonder, we criticize our fathers for having been too stringent–but I sometimes wonder if we are not guilty of the sin today, “It makes no difference.” And this is the tragedy, when we drift away from what the symbol signifies. We must, therefore, pay all the more attention to what we’ve heard, lest we drift away.
5. A fifth trend, a dangerous trend, is violation of the principles of the Gospel. Going to law, membership in secret oath-bound societies, and the taking of the oath, are hardly frowned upon by the Brethren today. The principle of nonresistance has suffered at the hands of the Brethren. There’s a tendency to drift from biblical nonresistance to religious pacifism. When the clouds of World War II were gathering, after returning from a special service held at the Garber Church regarding the war and what our position as Christians should be, I said to my father, “This is one principle that the Church of the Brethren will stand firmly upon.”
Let us analyze briefly the two positions of pacifism and nonresistance: Pacifists have confidence in a revolutionary upward progress of mankind. The pacifist ideal of a political order requires participation in political activities. He considers it necessary for him to work for a just world order. He urges disarmament; he lobbies among legislators; he aims to establish a new social order; he ignores the necessity of regeneration and relies largely on education and legislation to achieve his social and political ends. On the other hand, the believer in biblical nonresistance sees no possibility of reforming human nature apart from the grace of God. The nonresistant Christian believes that his allegiance with the higher kingdom forbids (or at least drastically limits) his participation in earthly government. He sees no chance of a just world-order unless and until men are born the second time. He makes a contribution to his government through godly and peaceable living rather than through direct political action. He works for spiritual regeneration through the new birth and seeks only the establishment of a Christian society within the church. He does not sanction violent or civil disobedience, but depends upon repentance and faith, and the power of prayer. He sees no way to realize a worldwide friendly society without the work and intervening grace of divine power. It is of more than passing significance that prior to 1910, nearly all references regarding the Church’s position on war, were to the position of nonresistance, while from this period on, reference was increasingly made to the peace position of the church. It was also about this time that the term “pacifist” came into being among the Brethren. A social gospel consciousness had developed in the church. It is clear that this change of emphasis among the Brethren on the question of nonresistance, came as a result of an optimistic view regarding society which the Brethren came to hold. They began to say that society could be redeemed by earthly methods, wars could be made to cease, men could be lifted from sin by political and educational means. Nonresistance was looked upon as a negative position. Pacifism with its emphasis upon the establishment of a newer more just social order became a positive doctrine.
Now brethren, what has been the result of all this? Statistics compiled by our denomination show that of those drafted into service during World War 11, 80.5% went directly into combatant military service, 11% were taken into noncombatant military service, while only 8.5% went into civilian public service. Our present Brethren service program is good. I’m behind our rehabilitation and relief program one hundred percent. We’re playing the part of the Good Samaritan pretty well, but this is not enough. We can heat the broken physically, but if we have failed to heal them spiritually, we have failed to accomplish the most important phase of our mission. The Good Samaritan, and the evangelist, should be one and the same person.
Next let us briefly observe our position on the principle of nonconformity. This subject has become out of date even within the Church of the Brethren. I don’t suppose any Gospel principle is being violated more by the Brethren today than the principle of nonconformity. We read in Jude the fourth and fifth verses, “For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of God into lasciviousness (worldliness in its lowest, most degraded sense) and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance (says he) though ye once knew this,, how that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed them that believed not.” The Church of the Brethren today is being affected by the new morality, the situation ethics, and so forth. We are now allowing supervised dancing in the social hall of the Mill Creek Church, my home church, which is the largest rural Church of the Brethren in our area. Many of us were almost stunned by what was made a part of the Communion service at our last Annual Conference. My good brother, Earle Fike, in one of his messages during a meeting at my home Church several years ago, compared us conservatives (for lack of a better term) to air old ’29 model Packard going, down the road. “Well, I want to straighten you out on this point brethren, the old 1929 model Packard had more durable and lasting qualities than the 1970 Ford Torino I drove tip here this morning. The Ford Torino is a lot nicer arid pleasing to look at, and it’s more comfortable, it has more speed; it handles nicer; but the durability isn’t there. The lasting qualities aren’t there.”
The Apostle wrote, in Ephesians 4, “This I say, therefore, and testify of the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of’ their mind, having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God.” The word “walk” here has a very extensive meaning. It includes all of our inward and outward motions, all our words, thoughts, and actions, and it is used many times in this Epistle. Walk in newness of life; walk circumspectly; walk in love arid purity; walk as children of light. The Goodspeed translation says, “Be very careful then about the way you live; do not act falsely, but like sensible men; think a thing through before you act upon it.” And again, the Apostle writing to the Christians at Rome, declared, “You must not adopt the customs of this world,” quoting from the Goodspeed translation. The word “adopt” means “to take by choice into your relationship.” He’s appealing to the Christians at Rome not to take into their relationship many of the moral arid social and religious customs of the world. Phillips translation reads, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your mind from within.” The world is trying to squeeze us into its own mold, and if we are not very careful it will squeeze the very life out of us. We could go on and on with this principle, but the time is failing us.
6. Another dangerous trend, the sixth one that I want to remind you of briefly, is the ecumenical movement. Now here I have mixed feelings. I’m a little undecided, brethren. I feet, however, that we should move cautiously at this point. A writer in Christianity Today says, “There seems to be a false hope for revitalization of the church and union of denominations. There is ample reason to doubt that this in itself will bring the awakening. It is not necessarily true that the more we get together the greater we will become.” In my humble judgment the final goal of the ecumenical movement is the merger of the various religious groups into one large ecclesiastical body which will result in the loss of our distinctive New Testament practices. Also, the centralization of authority and power will become more pronounced. The same writer says, “I doubt if renewal will occur before we become willing to give greater authority to local churches. Of course this means that the local church must exercise initiative and responsible leadership. Today in even the most self-governing minded congregations, there is a deplorable condition of headquarters-control. Programs and mission must be born of the Holy Spirit from within the local congregation if there’s to be an awakening of the old structure.”
Jesus prayed there in the seventeenth chapter of John that they “all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.” I feel that He was praying for the spiritual unity of the body of Christ–those who are faithful within the various religious groups of which Christ Himself is the head. I’m not sure that He had reference here to organic unity; I don’t know just how it would work. The Apostle also prays for the spiritual unity of the churches of Asia. According to the fourth chapter of Ephesians. “I then the prisoner (quoting from Weymouth) for the Lord’s sake entreat you to live and act as becomes those who have received the, call that you have received, with all lowliness of mind and unselfishness, and with patience, bearing with one another lovingly, earnestly striving to maintain in the uniting bond of peace, the unity given by the Spirit.”
7. Another dangerous trend in the Church of the Brethren is in higher education. Now I don’t mean to condemn higher education; I wish I had more knowledge, I think everyone should get all the knowledge he can get. But there is something more vital than knowledge. Knowledge is the plow; wisdom and spiritual understanding is the man behind the plow. And it seems that our higher education system has drifted into a type of atheistic intellectualism. Now if higher education was so vital to the welfare of the Christian church, I believe that Jesus would have selected twelve young scholars from the schools for the rabbis, to become the foundation pillars of the Christian Church. But He didn’t do this. The Apostle Paul had a highly trained technical mind, arid deep spiritual insight. He says, in writing to the Corinthians (quoting from Phillips), “For consider, what have the philosopher, the writer and the critic of this world to show for all their wisdom? Has not God made the wisdom of this world took foolish? For it was after the world in its wisdom had failed to know God, that he in his wisdom chose to save all who would believe by the ‘simple-mindedness’ of the gospel message.” Then in his letter to the Christians at Colosse, the second chapter, quoting again as Phillips paraphrases it, “Be careful that nobody spoils your faith through intellectualism or high-sounding nonsense. Such stuff is at best founded on men’s ideas of the nature of the world, and disregards Christ! Yet it is in him that God gives a full and complete expression of himself (within the physical limits that he set himself in Christ). Moreover, your own completeness is only realized in him (in Christ), who is the authority over all authorities, and the supreme power over all powers.
I want to relate briefly a little experience I had with Dr. Jay Curtis, one of the heads of the department of English at Madison College, which is a large state institution located in my home town. Dr. Curtis is a Southern Baptist, grew up in a Southern Baptist church in North Carolina. And while he was in my office transacting some business we got to talking about some other things. And he wanted to know something about the Church of the Brethren, what our faith and practice was, and what our order of service was. I told him as best I could, and then he said, “Well, I see we have some things in common.” Than he made a statement that shocked me. He said, “I don’t attend the local Baptist church very much; this intellectual philosophical preaching doesn’t satisfy my soul. Now I believe in the intellectual (said he); if I didn’t I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in. There’s an intellectual part of man and there’s a spiritual part and the one does not take the part of the other. And when I attend a worship service, I don’t go there to have the intellectual part of me stimulated or fed; I go there to have the spiritual part of me nurtured and fed, and this intellectual philosophical preaching just doesn’t do it. Now (he said) a man doesn’t have to use the best phraseology or the best grammar to hold my attention; if he’s got it in his heart and in his bones, he can communicate to me, and I can sit and listen to him.” And I’m reminded here of a story that Dr. John Bonnell related to his students at Princeton. D. L. Moody was once invited to preach at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City and there was a division among the elders as to whether he should be invited or not, but they invited him, and he came. During Moody’s opening remarks, he used the word “ain’t,” and in those days “ain’t” wasn’t in the dictionary. His tie was crooked and his collar was turned wrong; his audience became amused. They began to look at each other and smile and wink and laugh. Moody had lost his audience but he kept right on preaching his simple Gospel sermon on Daniel, and kept calling him Dan’l. By the time Moody was about half through his sermon, something happened to that congregation of people. It seemed as though another Voice began to speak. By the time D. L. Moody was finished preaching, that congregation was sitting on the edge of their seats listening to that other Voice; they could no longer hear Moody. Brethren, that’s communication; it’s supernatural, the work of the Holy Spirit; not by might nor by power (not by intellectual might or power, not by political might or power) but by my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts.
8. This leads to another danger or trend, very briefly–our over-rating of man and under-rating of Christ. I found this in the new Encounter Series that I’m teaching. I’m teaching an adult class, and one of the former series emphasized the image of man. Now my people, the easiest thing in the world for me, is to act like a man; it’s natural. I have the problem of getting Olen B. Landes to conform to the image of Christ; this is my problem. And this is the conflict going on within my life, and it went on in the life of the Apostle. It’s going on in the life of every Christian. The whole energy of my lower nature is set against the new divine and spiritual nature, while the whole power of the spiritual nature is contrary to my lower physical nature. “Here is the conflict” (says the Apostle Paul, quoting from a later translation), “and this is why you are not free to do what you want to do.” I can’t do everything that Olen B. Landes wants to do. And this requires effort to tone and mold my character after the beautiful character of Jesus, and to conform to the image of Christ–to “add to my saving faith, Christian manliness, and to Christian manliness a right understanding and to a right understanding self control, and to self control patient endurance, and to patient endurance godly reverence and to godly reverence a spirit of brotherhood, and to brotherhood, a spirit of love.” This is my problem–to conform to the image of Christ. This is what everyone of us should be striving to do.
9. Then in conclusion, the last dangerous trend I want to call to your attention, is the erection of magnificent church houses. I think we need to be cautious here. Some years ago I held a two-weeks meeting in one of the Eastern Pennsylvania congregations. We had a wonderful time together there; the church was filled every night; and the Elder and I visited in more than two hundred homes during that meeting. Two years ago while in a meeting at a neighboring congregation, we attended a funeral, a memorial service for one of the deacons of the church where I had held the earlier meeting. And they built a magnificent building, with a steeple that cost up into the thousands of dollars. Brethren, that steeple isn’t going to help feed the hungry or heal the broken in the world, nor is it going to attract one soul to Jesus Christ. I feel that this is a trend which is dangerous.
Your body is the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, under the New Testament. God no longer dwells in temples made with hands; that passed away with the Law. This building is only the meeting house where the church comes together for worship. And you are “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. In whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” That’s the church of which Christ is the head.
The basic reason for these trends in the Church of the Brethren, is our failure to firmly accept and to live by the New Testament as our guide and rule of faith. “We must, therefore, my brethren pay all the more attention to what we have heard lest we drift away. For if the divine word spoken by angels held good; if transgression and disobedience met with due punishment in every ease, how shall we escape the penalty of neglecting a salvation which was originally proclaimed by the Lord Himself and guaranteed to us by those that heard Him?” (Hebrews 2:13).
Editor’s note: When Bro. Landes delivered the above message, he made it clear, that while the, message may seem like a negative approach, he wants us to know that it is all meant constructively.