THE SUNDAY
MORNINGCIRCUS
BY Forrest L. Keener (CB)
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:
for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one
that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the
Greek." Rom. 1:16.
"For I determined not to know any thing among
you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." I Cor. 2:2.
These are wonderful verses, one of them outlines
the work of the gospel, and the other, the work and
attitude of the gospel preacher. It seems that in
both analysis and result there is a great gulf be-
tween then and now: This difference is not only
apparent in the purpose of the preacher, but in the
power of his proclamation. Now you may argue,
"But our church won and baptized X number of
'converts' just last month". I answer, there is an
eternity's difference in salvation and the modern
"profession racket" that sees 95 per cent of its
"converts" back in the same old sin within a year.
Every honest heart that is not gripped by the
power of darkness has to be grieved with the sham
of today's "evangelism". We hear reports of
thousands saved in city after city across America,
yet most of those churches do not grow except in
direct proportion to the increase in the value of
what they give away, or the popularity of the
clowns who entertain them. Beside this is the sad
fact that while enough people are acclaimed
"saved" in many cities to change its very
personality, the consumption of booze, the crime
rate and the erosion of morality all continue to
skyrocket. Could it be that the great numbers of
professions result from the techniques of men, not
the power of the gospel, and that the great crowds
that gather in many places are the result of recrea-
tion and not regeneration? I am sure that this not
only could be, but is the case.PREVAILING CIRCUS ATTRACTIONS I could not, in many times this space, title all the
spiritual perversions running rampant today, but to
name a few, we will start with entertainers. There
are the "gospel singers". They range from hillbilly
to hippie. Then there are the dog and pony shows,
the karate shows and ex-everything from stripper
to dope addict.
Another great attraction to the flesh is the
"contest". These range from competition in bring-
ing visitors to church to contests in "winning
souls". There are also preaching contests. Can you
imagine anything so sacred being put on display?
Churches compete for attendance, the loser paying
and the winner collecting something, just like down
at ye ole pool hall or at the race track. This works
marvelously, because it perfectly relates to the
flesh in at least two ways, lust and emulation. Any
child can he enticed to "visit" or "witness" if the
potential reward is a new bicycle, trip to the ski
slopes or a wrist watch. In this, he need not labor
patiently in faith, trusting God to give the increase
in due season and the reward at Christ's return. He
can see the "increase" Sunday and have the
reward in a couple of weeks or months at the most.
For the contestants with richer tastes, the "ante
can be upped" to motorcycles and upward. One
"Baptist Church" (If you can call it that and
brother I do not.) gave away a new Chevrolet some
years ago. For years Baptists have condemned
Catholics for selling indulgences and raffling off
cars. I still do, but brother if there is any difference
this old ignorant country boy needs an explanation.
In addition to lust, the contest and prize thing
works well because of emulation. In Gal. 5:19 - 21a
we read that the works of the flesh are adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, etc. Most
of these words we are familiar with as far as defini-
tion is concerned. But do you know what emulation
means[?] According to both Strong's Exhaustive
Concordance and Webster's Dictionary, the word
means desire or ambition to equal or surpass
another, or rivalry. For a synonym you are
instructed by Webster to see competition. Accord-
ing to the Holy Spirit in Gal. 5:20, it is a work of the
flesh and is categorized with idolatry, witchcraft,
adultery, murder, etc. Think of this the next time
you start or enter a "Sunday School Contest".
Another very successful and common Sunday
morning circus act is the classroom ventriloquist.
As far as I know the New Testament has nothing to
say about this. But did you know the Old Testa-
ment does. The term familiar spirit appears ten
times in the Old Testament. Every time it comes
from the Hebrew word owb, pronounced obe, it
means a necromancer or ventriloquist. It is equated
in the Bible with witchcraft and the penalty is
death. Now I know that these people are not trying
to indulge in witchcraft. But ask yourself, is it
comely before God to toy with such things?AN IMITATION GOSPEL The problem is that men have forgotten or do not
believe that the gospel of Christ is the power of
God unto salvation, and not only so, but the only
means by which God will save. They thus conclude
that we have the right as preachers and teachers,
indeed the responsibility to develop techniques of
presentation that make the gospel more under-
standable, more acceptable and more attractive to
the world. They have forgotten the words of John
6:63, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh
profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit, and they are life." There has from
this vain philosophy arisen an imitation gospel. It
ranges from a form with vague similarities to the
gospel to messages with remarkable likenesses in
almost every detail. All of these forms, however,
has one thing in common. They are imitations, and
not the gospel. Since this gospel is imitation the
product has to be the same. It is tragic but true that
many young men spend three or four years in Bible
schools and yes, even Baptist Bible schools and
come out unable to preach the gospel. They can
preach circles around it, but not the gospel. They
can do a good job preaching commitment, conse-
cration, separation, dispensation, prophecy, histo-
ry and speculations, but not the gospel. Some of
these men often do nothing while others of the
same flavor build "Great Churches" which fall
apart at the seams months after if not weeks before
this "great man of God" moves on to a greater
work.THE FLAWS OF THEIR MESSAGE What makes this an imitation gospel? Well it
must somehow resemble all of the ingredients of
the gospel and yet not be the real thing. First, sin is
dealt with only in respect to men's condemnation.
In other words, where the gospel states that Christ
died for our sins, which truth is the seed-bed of the
true gospel, this vital truth is just touched and man
is hurried off to see what sin does to him. He is
then taught that sin is to be dealt with, or has been
dealt with, basically to prevent his condemnation.
He is not shown by God's law the extreme
sinfulness of sin or its nature to offend a Holy God.
He is not shown the holy justice of God in con-
demning sinners, but is assured that God has done
all He possibly can to let them off the hook and is
now biting His nails until they do "their part". It is
therefore, not sin that they are to flee from, but
sin's condemnation. This is a false gospel, a sham,
and a shame.
The second great area of flaw in this false
message is what it is designed to do. The content of
the gospel is that Christ died for our sins, that He
was buried and that He rose again for our
justification. (I Cor. 15:1-4) Herein are few words,
but many truths. The intent of the gospel is to
bring men to repentance toward God and faith
toward Jesus Christ. (Acts 20:21). These in-
separable graces are imparted totally through
grace, by the Holy Spirit through regeneration and
are implemented only by the preaching of the
gospel. The false messenger, however, can settle
for much less than this. He is looking for
profession, commitment, decision, etc. and his
message is geared to secure them. Since the intent
of this message is different, the content and
emphasis of the message is different. Even though
to most people it seems essentially the same, it is
as false as a three dollar bill. The terrible result of
this is a great many people doing their thing
religious style in their own particular flavor. It may
range from separated Christian activity to modern-
istic "Christian activity." All of it, however, is
alike in this respect, it is a product of the flesh and
is worthless in God's sight.AFTER THE CIRCUS Have you ever noticed that most people act a
little insane around a circus, they ride crazy rides,
spend their money foolishly and seem to float with
the current of activity. On the other hand, when the
music stops, the lights go out and the tents are
removed, we feel something like a combination of
sympathy and contempt as we watch the debris
blow across the grounds. We realize that nothing
has really been done. No lives were really changed,
no problems were solved and no broken hearts
really mended. The crowd was just drawn aside
from self for a little while and they must return to
what they were, indeed to what they are. So it is
with religious circus acts. So long as the circus
continues all is exciting, but let the noise subside
and both the performer and the entertained are left
empty and disappointed.THE NEW BIRTH On the other hand, when the true gospel is
preached, without the circus, it will do nothing
more and nothing less than what God ordains. Men
will be truly saved, for that is God's purpose in the
gospel. Few false professors will be enticed for the
gospel will repel them. Professions will be fewer,
but after all, what good are they anyhow if they are
not real? The gospel will result in salvation, the
new birth and nothing else will. Let us then become
very sensitive to the accuracy of our message and
leave the results strictly to God. Let us not be
ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God unto
salvation and if a circus was needed to make it
effective, God would have instructed us as to its
use. Get out of the circus and into a church where
the gospel is counted sufficient to do what God
purposes.
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