Transplant

Now that heart-transplants have ceased to be a novelty, attention is being given to the possibility of transplanting brains. Bizarre as that may seem, certain bits of information have already been transferred from one organism to another. But for the rest, it still looks like only a wistful dream that the brain of an Einstein, say, could be bequeathed to somebody else at the time of death.

As a matter of fact, however, it is possible for us to fall heir to a mind that is far more massive than that of Einstein, and that is the mind of Christ. At the first synod following Pentecost, chairman James announced a decision by saying that it seemed good to the delegates “and to the Holy Spirit” to decide thus and so. This statement would have been the wildest presumption if it were not for the doctrine that Paul states categorically by saying, “We have the mind of Christ.”

When Paul ways this and similar truths, he is not just using pretty metaphors. He is declaring fact. Paul could not only exclaim that Christ was living in him (Gal. 2:20) but that Christ was thinking in him. At the time of his coronation the Lord Jesus poured out upon his people the perfect Spirit who had previously been given to him “without measure”: “the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding of knowledge and of might.”

This possession of the mind of Christ, however, is a variable thing. It is something that has to be worked at. The same Spirit who filled the incarnate Word is alive now in the written Word. And the primary means of developing the mind of Christ within our poor brains is by saturating ourselves with that living Scripture.

Passivity

Cecil DeBoer reminded that we glorify God by what we are as much as by what we do. God’s cause may be abetted more by a helpless martyr than by a Christian prime minister.

What is true of individuals is, of course, true of nations. Some time ago this column reported [Abraham] Kuyper’s thesis that Christian civilization follows the sun, and some day the Orient may be Christianized as Europe and America have been.

But there is another possibility, in keeping with the principle of Christian passivity versus serving God positively. Since Christ promised only that the gospel will be preached in the whole world for a witness, it is possible that in the case of the philosophical, “inactivistic, and introspective Orient” that God’s remnant in that half of the world is destined to bring “the honor of their nations” into the new Jerusalem via the low road of submissive suffering.

It is a fact that the Eastern world has already had as much initial evangelism as the West originally received; the big difference lies in the great disparity of external results. For example, in the early half of [the last] century every single home in Japan was given a copy of the Gospel. China, in the course of her long history, has had four distinct confrontations with the Good News. In each instance countless thousands responded positively, but in each instance they were smothered by the unbelieving majority. And the Bible, never void of result, promises in some instances to be only a savor of death unto death.

I pass on these thoughts to our historians, anthropologists, and other experts for further reflection. Meanwhile, let every one of us pray for brothers and sisters who are suffering right now in such places as behind the Bamboo Curtain, “as being ourselves bound with them.”

Neighbor

One of the most exciting experiences of my life was to become, along with a mortgage company, the owner of a piece of property on which our bungalow stands. But an even greater thrill was the discovery that my lot reaches down some 4,000 miles, which is a lot of real estate in anybody’s language. If anybody finds buried treasure in my “far forty” it will belong to me. Needless to say, this latter prospect does not keep me awake nights.

I had barely ceased feeling warm about the fact that my property reaches to the middle of the earth when the thought came to me that just as my ground is abutted on three sides by that which belongs to people whom I call neighbors in the basic sense of the word, so my invisible real estate is adjoined in the vertical direction by an unseen fellow-creature of God whose property meets mine at the center of the earth. As I say, I have not yet seen this neighbor. Reaching his property by the most direct route is, of course, physically impossible, and going by way of the surface is financially out of the question. But he’s there; I looked up his location on a globe.

In short, that person who is living half-way around the world (he or she happens to be sleeping as you read these lines; at least they ought to be) is very literally one of the neighbors that Jesus says I should love. Readers who know a little bit about geometry will point out that because of the particular shape that a sphere has, “my” property touches that of a great many more than that of just one or two people who happen to live directly down under my mini-acre. But the fact remains that no matter how numerous their number, I must be a neighbor to every one of them.

Specialist

An expert has been defined as a person who knows more and more about less and less until he finally knows everything about nothing. That requirement seems to be fast approaching, as the sum of human knowledge continues to double every dozen years.

It is no wonder that in order to keep somewhat abreast of this explosion, the teaching of more and more subjects, even on the lowest levels, is being entrusted to specialists. We take it for granted that music, for example, can be best taught to a number of grades or classes by one “professional” musician. The same is true of art and the new math.

It is high time the this specialized and professional approach were taken with the teaching of that basic subject in our Christian schools, Bible. Too often, in the very schools where the Sacred Book is the warrant for existence, instruction from its inspired pages is something of a sideline or after-thought to apparently more “solid” courses. This is not deliberate; when a given teacher must prepare lessons for the morrow in half a dozen different fields, you may be sure that “the Bible lesson” is about the last one to be glanced over, with the result that its communication becomes little more than a tiresome-told story with a devotional approach.

The Bible curriculum in our schools is currently coming in for some close scrutiny. It threatens to be scrutinized right out the door one of these days unless it receives some of the special attention given to art, music, and athletics. “Theology,” whether on the college or kindergarten level, deserves teachers who make the subject their primary business. They need not be ministers, or even seminary-trained, but they should be specialists.

Vocation

Editor’s Note: Although this was a sign of the times, being written in 1968 and about men, it is now applicable to both genders.

Next to one’s choice of a life-partner and confession of personal faith, the most important single decision in life is that of a vocation.

Statistics reveal that a large percentage of fellows follow in their fathers’ footsteps, which is understandable on a number of counts. It is equally easy to explain why the sons of men who own businesses should be especially prone to enter the same occupation. A minister’s son might be an avid admirer of his father’s high calling, but apart from inheriting some secondhand books he starts virtually from scratch if he wishes to become a clergyman himself. The same is true of countless other vocations. In the case of a businessman however, a son has the opportunity to step into and carry on a going enterprise. In fact, there are many businesses that scarcely are well established during the first generation, so that a son not only capitalizes on his father’s groundwork by succeeding him, but a great deal is lost if he does not choose to do so. It is no wonder then that often, in a dozen different, sometimes unconscious ways, pressure is brought to bear upon a businessman’s son to become what his father was before him, even though the lad may have no particular predilection for it or even adequate qualifications. In the latter case he makes everybody unhappy, for it is better that a non-relative takes over and builds acceptably on a hard-laid foundation than that an inept son, through no particular fault of his own, spoil the whole business.

So, to the growing number of businessmen amongst us–which includes such callings as farming–let me plead that you leave your children’s calling with the Lord, where it belongs. It is better that we should bend our knees about this matter than twist our children’s arms.