Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they
are doing (Luke 23:34, NIV,
1st of Jesus’ last 7 words).
Luke’s
research transformed his lifetime of tinkering medically with body mechanics.
The Beloved Greek Physician sits firmly hunched over a writing table, quietly reading
to himself: “I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning
… so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught” (Luke
1:3-4).
Peeking
over his shoulder, I note his greeting to Theophilus, a Roman official. This
cultured Gentile doctor-scientist has met a magnetic little Hebrew that we know
as the well-educated Christian Evangelist, Paul. Once known as Saul, Paul has serious
health issues, but details remain sketchy at best.
The
two men have bonded beyond normal doctor--patient relations and Luke has become
one of a few non-Jews converting to “The Way,” led by Paul the Jewish
Evangelist. A Tentmaker, Paul is a man with a contagious faith. He currently
serves as Luke’s mentor while Luke travels as Paul’s private physician and
traveling companion.
The beloved Dr. Luke has found a resource for life much superior to his Greek heritage. Excited at finding unprecedented entree to primitive sources of this little known Way of Jesus; Luke anxiously shares with Theophilus his carefully researched subject. He has interviewed available eyewitnesses and overcome the challenges for presenting an accurate, historical, and objective account of this truly humanitarian message and ministry of the Palestinian Jesus.
The beloved Dr. Luke has found a resource for life much superior to his Greek heritage. Excited at finding unprecedented entree to primitive sources of this little known Way of Jesus; Luke anxiously shares with Theophilus his carefully researched subject. He has interviewed available eyewitnesses and overcome the challenges for presenting an accurate, historical, and objective account of this truly humanitarian message and ministry of the Palestinian Jesus.
Even
those not convinced of Luke’s cause, appreciate his accuracy and eye for
detail. Using minimal oils, Luke creates a sparsely painted portrait revealing
both the unexpected death of Jesus and the apparent failure of his disciples.
His details add color as he chronicles the extraordinary life of this Jew. a
man in unique in dying on a Roman cross for non-criminal behavior, whose
peerless life propagates a relational faith that challenges followers to forgive
without being asked to forgive.
Luke
reveals Roman soldiers gambling for the only valuable item Jesus owned; a
seamless robe. He reveals authorities sneering at Jesus’ teachings. He reports
eyewitnesses watching life’s forces painfully dribble from the tortured body of
Jesus. People watched him endure deplorable humiliation in his suffering, climaxing
in a cruel crescendo of anguish and death. Luke details for Theophilus the witnesses
that heard him pray, “. . .Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they
are doing” (Luke 23:34-46, NASV).
Jesus’s
disciples could not have been any more surprised than the group of Hindu youth
George Buttrick described. For the very first time; they heard an account of Jesus’
Sermon on the Mount. “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you… do good to
them that hate you.”
Commenting
on this obvious contradiction in Jesus’ words, Buttrick wrote, “The signs of
pardon in nature and human nature are cloudy and few: not by them can we be
sure of pardon.”1
Human
experience rises and falls like the roller coaster at Mall of America, while
social scientists scrub away the “s” word and attempt to erase it from
society’s vocabulary of communicable words. Experts compound the problem by
converting individual and corporate failures into symptoms of the psyche,
denying any possible existence of a problem once called sin. Now victims rather
than offenders; we charge our medical-social community with the cure of our
diagnosed “diseases” and they reciprocate by translating our offenses into
psychiatric insights. This leaves us socially irresponsible and well
intentioned--guilt-free. concepts of a failed psycho-socio therapy.
Meantime,
our failed socio-psycho cure continues its assault. We struggle with flaws and
imperfections whose existence we disown and deny but remain unable to cure or
erase. At every turn, we stand nose to nose with poverty, pride, and prejudice,
and perversions. Tribal identities and
ethnic groupings assault and violate one another and we expand our vocabularies
to include ethnic cleansing and genocide as descriptive behaviors. Environmental
pollution threatens the garden we once believed God created. We stand and
declare corporately and individually school shootings “are not our fault!”
No
longer able or willing to separate good from bad, right from wrong; wholesome and
healthy living no longer appear as viable option for whole nations. With hope
fleeing under the darkness of night, suicide provides a leading cause of death
among our young and restless. As our world turns about in its frantic search
for new meanings; we--the greatest nation in the world—find ourselves described
as “the bluebird trying to sing its song while sitting on the dung heap.”2
The
church stands with those attempting to push mediocrity aside and recover from a
culture more concerned with making money than morals and manners. I loved my
years as a pastor. I was privileged to watch high-achievers transition from
school to career, from graduate study into professional service, and seeing
them succeed. Yet, life always managed to find me and deliver a reality check
that confronted me with the necessity of helping another human being escape
from this success-oriented sewer of self-discovery.
I
found that answers to humanity’s deepest needs come only with the healing one
finds in rediscovering essential forgiveness as announced by Jesus from his
cross. His use of the word
reveals him as one that lived as no other man ever lived. In speaking
“forgiveness,” Jesus spoke as a Loyal Son conveying devotion to his beloved
father. He spoke to God as no man ever spoke to God before--as a Son to his
Heavenly Father. This unique bond between father and son reveals a deeply
moving, beautiful and mystical relationship that reminds us of our own excited
awe as expectant human fathers.
“I
know I could get better if my daddy was here,” whispered six-year-old Paula
from her hospital bed as she longed for dad’s comfort. When United Press heard
this story of a young Pennsylvania girl dying of leukemia, they jumped on the
airwaves and extended a hurry-up call for dad to come quickly from his work in
Washington, D. C.
This
God we wish we knew better was seen often in the lives of Old Testament
prophets. When the time was right, Jesus taught us to pray to “our Father in
heaven (cf. Hebrews 1:3). His life and ministry taught us, more than anything
else that God is more anxious to get acquainted with us than we are with him.
Through him, we learn to share our lives with God more openly. His suffering
and final words on the cross prompt us to conclude that in him we have the
clearest snapshot ever taken of God Almighty.
Gracie
was a preschooler when she began thinking about God. In Kindergarten, she
discovered “the everlasting arms” belonged to God rather than her father. Her
Sunday school teacher revealed God as the great all-seeing eye; consequently
Gracie demanded of dad: “What does God look like?” Dad scooped her up, wiped
her nose, and showed her a window box of blooming Begonias. He reminded her
they are as beautiful as they are because “God is in them.”
Later, Gracie discovered child-care books that suggested that according to educational experts she and her brother should have become juvenile delinquents or gibbering idiots. Ike took money from the church collection plate and was so soundly spanked he could not sit for hours. When Gracie told a lie, she discovered it was an abomination to the Lord, not just a budding imagination.
Gracie
recalled arriving early at a preaching engagement with her preacher-father. As
they climbed the hill, dad startled staid New Englanders arriving early by
announcing in his rich tenor voice, “For the Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth.”
Dad
stopped, grinned broadly, and confided to little Susie. “You know the first
thing I’m going to do when I get to heaven . . .? I’m going to stand up beside
the Almighty and fling out a few stars to the Lord … This,” wrote Grace Nies Fletcher, “is the
way my father introduced me to my best friend, the Almighty.”3
As
Gracie grew to adulthood, she enjoyed her relationship with her
preacher-father, just as much as Jesus enjoyed Joseph, his surrogate father, carpenter.
Like Jesus, Gracie grew into adulthood understanding a loving heavenly father.
Jesus
faithfully built bridges during his earthly ministry by repeatedly sharing in
the human issues of his earth-bound existence. When Peter later denied Jesus,
Judas betrayed him, and the multitude disowned him; his consolation came from the
heavenly Father whose will he had flawlessly pursued with the child-like
devotion of a loving son. No one ever spoke to God quite like Jesus.
Consequently,
Jesus accurately assessed our human inability to live only by the bread that
feeds our bodies. He knew experimentally and experientially that we find real
life only in the living bread that comes from the hand of God. Thus, Jesus
modeled a role for us to imitate, but we must willingly take the risks of faith
he recommended. He taught us by his example that it is our behavior that best reveals
the kind of God we worship and not our words. Jesus taught us nothing that he
did not first model; he talked nothing that he did not first practice. By
walking and talking with God in his personal daily life, Jesus revealed how we
can experience healthy and wholesome spirituality
Few
of us can point out the faults of others without stepping out from behind the
tree of our own failures. Not so with Jesus! Even his severest critics admitted
he was a “good man,” an acceptable teacher, and that he lived as no one else
ever lived. His word of forgiveness became as contemporary as the newspaper
detailing how an eleven year-old killer now learns at fifteen how to set goals
and study hard, in preparation for college.
“You’re
making great progress,” the Judge concluded, “but you know you’re going to have
to continue.” That same newspaper reported alleged drug sales, police
extortion, and the obscenity of political mud-slinging with lobbyists and
special interest groups parlaying fifteen million dollars into transforming
“the stork of wisdom and truth” into the “degenerate mating of money and
politics.”
“Father
… forgive …” meant far more than faltering tongues repeat; for Jesus’ life
displayed consistency of character that harmonized beliefs and behaviors into a
symphony of moral wholeness. The life of Jesus dramatized the kind of God Jesus
loved and served, a gracious and giving God who loves personally, powerfully, and
sacrificially.
We
cannot take Jesus seriously without discovering he neither condones nor
condemns our world. To the contrary, he elevated life’s most powerful motive
and initiated a singularly creative act of loving grace. He offers unequalled
acceptance, intending to transform the weakest of characters into wholesome and
healthy personalities fortified with rock-ribbed integrity, honor, and
strength.
Jewish
wisdom suggests that as a man thinks within himself, “so is he” (Proverbs 23:7
NASV). The preaching-teaching of Jesus grew out of the life he lived. He became
an honored prophet-preacher-teacher by integrating his own integrity. Said
another way, he practiced uprightness of character by walking the walk and
talking the talk. Whether talking, or walking, or both; Jesus lived his beliefs
and behaviors as one and the same.
No
wonder the disciples found no pretense; for Jesus recognized the needs of
others before satisfying his own. They saw him pursue private prayer with
assiduous consistency. They heard him speak without respect of persons,
recognizing neither master nor slave, neither superior nor inferior. They
accompanied him, watching him live without compromise. They observed his
submissiveness at all times, never detouring from life’s mission, and never
allowing his ministry and mission to become sidetracked or derailed by selfish
personal desires.
They
relished his winsomeness as he lived life to its fullest, always integrating
personality and practice into one powerful living package of human wholeness.
They never saw Jesus become a victim. They never heard him indulge himself at
the expense of another, or beg question of who he was with his heavenly Father.
They saw him avoid ego-tripping with undeviating consistency. They recognized
him as a superior model of everything he ever taught, and never detected any
selfishness or mediocrity.
It
was not by accident, or spoken loosely, that George Bernard Shaw left this
choice word when he allegedly announced that the last Christian known among us
died on a cross. As a man thinks, so is he. Yes, as a man thinks, he acts. As a
man thinks, therefore, he forgives.
Forgiveness
gives up lesser claims of recompense, revenge, and retaliation. It neither
condones nor condemns. It forgoes justice when it could rightfully claim it. It
shows mercy. It absolves unsparingly and forgets actively. Forgiveness differs
from the revenge that often haunts humanity. Revenge calls for avenging; it extends
broken relationships. Forgiveness repairs breaches and provides potential
restoration and healing that can repair and eliminate ruptures. Forgiveness
builds bridges rather than barriers.
Knowing
the king faced possible death, the Chaplain urged Frederick Wilhelm, King of
Prussia, to forgive his enemies. “Write to your Brother (unforgiveablest of
beings), after I am dead” Frederick instructed his wife, saying, “that I
forgave him.”
The
Chaplain suggested Wilhelm extend his forgiveness without delay, but the king
wisely replied, “No, after I am dead: that will be safer.”4 The
king, like many of us, recognized the weakness of his humanity.
We
judge others according to the thoughts of our own hearts, that being our
natural human response. Jesus recalled a certain Pharisee who raised his eyes
heavenward and thanked God he was not as other men. The man lacked any sense of
personal failure, felt no need of forgiveness, and knew no reason to forgive
another.
He
thought he had it all and saw no internal failure; thus, he refused to confess
any sin, failure, or weakness. He needed no forgiveness. Consequently, he
believed he had no sin and lost his capacity for developing nobility and
character.
Simultaneously,
one of Jewish society’s least appreciated--a despicable Publican, could find
nothing to his credit, in spite of his probable wealth and social position. He
dropped his eyes earthward, whispering a choked, but honest, confession. He viewed
himself honestly, for what he really was; he confessed his admitted failure and
allowed its goading to lift him up the elevator of “GRACE,” God’s Relentless Actions Confronting Everyone. He had it all!
We find it easier to build protective barriers than to build bridges, because we tend to act as we think. We lack the nerve to openly commit serious sin, but we often approve inexcusable behavior with our silent consent. Thus, it comes as no surprise when Robert Dugan, then Director of Public Affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals, tells us we should not be surprised at the increase of sex crimes.
We find it easier to build protective barriers than to build bridges, because we tend to act as we think. We lack the nerve to openly commit serious sin, but we often approve inexcusable behavior with our silent consent. Thus, it comes as no surprise when Robert Dugan, then Director of Public Affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals, tells us we should not be surprised at the increase of sex crimes.
As
long as society willingly tolerates pornography, Dugan insisted, “including
evangelical Christians … the incidence of rape, child molestation, and sex
abuse will grow.”5 Few of
us would actively commit a serious sexual sin, but we will not confront it. We allow
sex in our media advertising because it sells. We capitalize on it in our
journalism because it titillates a buying public.
We
would never think of attacking another person with a butcher knife, but we do
not think twice when shoving a trusting friend into the paper shredder of
criticism. We deliberately dodge tasks that need doing, but we verbally whittle
down to size people that annoy us by conscientiously completing their tasks.
Until
God can change how we think; he cannot change how we behave. It was the death of Jesus that exposed us to the utter necessity of
this thing we call forgiveness. Paul Scherer described three crosses on
that hill outside of Jerusalem. On one, he found a thief experiencing death - grinning,
hopeless, sterile, and taunting. On the opposite cross, he saw a thief
experiencing a ray of light that Scherer describes as a ray of sunshine
breaking through “to etch out of the shadows a face with a prayer on its lips
and a brooding glory in its eyes.”
Between the two, and dividing them this way from that--as different as heaven is from hell; Scherer announces “the Word of God, at its uttermost become deed!”6
Between the two, and dividing them this way from that--as different as heaven is from hell; Scherer announces “the Word of God, at its uttermost become deed!”6
“IF”
we agree that forgiveness is an essential word in our human vocabulary, we must
be confronted by the necessity of Jesus’ mission. In speaking forgiveness;
Jesus loved as no one of us ever loved. But, who of us needs his forgiveness?
The Jewish people? The Roman soldiers? The Jewish leaders that savagely crucified
him when unable to control him?
Converting
the institution of traditional Jewish Religion into waste rather than worship,
those established leaders destroyed the one-man good enough to brazenly
challenge their self-serving system by going about doing “good” in the name of an
omniscient God. They perjured themselves by perverting his message and his
ministry. They could not pronounce a death sentence, but they could charge him
with legal interference that required capital punishment via Rome. They could manipulate
the legal system and deliver him into the hands of the Roman Commander; rather
than punish him for what he was really guilty of … breaking Jewish tradition.
“Forgive
them,” Jesus reminds us. “Forgive them, for they do not know what they are
doing” (Luke 23:34).
The
rough-hewn cross given Jesus by the Romans, became the one thing truly his. But
if the cross was his “alone,” humanity is not saved. If the cross was only
“his” punishment, we are hardly worth saving.
Some
of the Roman soldiers obviously acted out of circumstantial evidence, which was
all they had, but they preferred to keep everything peaceful. They did not ask
for this ignoble task of executing Jesus; they simply did their job. They
preserved the justice demanded by rabbinical rabble-rousers although most of
them would have gladly traded duty in Palestine for most any place else. This
crossroads nation on the eastern Mediterranean was known as a hotbed for
radicals and counter-revolutionaries and they were by providence in the right
place at the wrong time.
Jewish
ignorance, on the other hand, was judicial. God had made himself known among
them from the days of the Exodus. When Moses led them away from Egypt’s
slavery, they challenged him with their contemptuous complaints, claiming to be
victims rather than victors. Rejecting the circumstances of their newly found
freedom, they blamed God for the difficulties required for maintaining their freedom.
They petulantly pouted, coveting the leeks and onions of former slave days and clamoring
cravenly at the sight of giants in the Promised Land. Here and there; a prophet
parted the clouds of God’s glory, but only a small remnant remained faithful to
God’s covenant.
When
Socrates died, the world realized its poverty.
When Jesus died; the wealth of the world increased profoundly, for his
death clarified humanity’s pretense as never before. It revealed sham and
infamy within human nature that loosened irresponsibly to act out at will.
Jesus, on the other hand, exposed the ultimate fact of true religion and
revealed a kind God who calls humanity to the divine bargaining table.
The
Christian faith reveals what no other does, a God who can forgive, and does
forgive. Jesus did not tolerate the wrongs of humanity passively, as we often
think. He confronted human behavior at its very worst, and chose to confront
and endure its effrontery with the power of love and positive purity. He
challenges our twenty-first century confronting us with an astounding truth, an
ultimate fact: when we quit dealing with
life God’s way, life quits holding together our way. Though other truths remain
relative; this absolute truth deserves our serious consideration!
Like
the Pharisee, our humanity rejoices because “I am not like other people.” It
was the Publican--the sinner--rather than the Pharisee, the legally moral man, nonetheless,
who experienced the hand of friendship from God. It was the Publican; the one
that cast his eyes down and prayed, “Forgive …” my prejudice, ill will, gossip,
self-righteousness and other trash that twists my life out of shape.
“Forgive
me” that I may see others through eyes of love, understanding, and
appreciation, rather than a heart filled with racial bigotry, ethnic
superiority, and the greed that drives consumers to acquire at any cost.
When
Merrell encountered a blocked prayer life; self-examination revealed behavior
that called him to apologize. Calling each person he had wronged, Merrell
confessed his wrong attitude and asked each for forgiveness. Able to pray once
more, the Lord’s Prayer brought new meaning to Merrell and when called to speak
at a Christian campus later, he shared his experience with the Dean of Students.
The
Dean suggested Merrell lead the students in that same prayer. Prayers began in
hushed tones but on reaching “Forgive us. . .” some students began weeping. Others
never completed the prayer. In the months following, numerous reports came back
detailing a reviving of faith. Prayer came alive in the lives of those students
when they realized their refusal to forgive another destroyed the bridge over
which they had to walk.
As
Jesus spoke it, forgiveness opens the door of truth and unlocks our
understanding. His word of forgiveness reveals God as The Reconciling Redeemer,
the great forgiver. God works through the cross to make selfish people
unselfish, treacherous people trustworthy, cruel people loving, foul people
clean and suffering people healthy. Nothing else, short of another miracle, can
do it and it all began at Calvary.
The
cross stands like an exclamation point, being more than a mechanical liturgy.
It extends a moral and spiritual invitation to us, inviting each of us to reconcile
with one another by first becoming reconciled to God.
Eating
meat and smoking cigarettes was contrary to his culture, but fifteen-year-old
Mahatma Gandhi chose to begin the practice. He felt terribly guilty and alone as
he committed these social “sins.” Finally; he surrendered them, signed his
confession and vowed never to do them again. He took his written confession to his
ailing father who watched his son’s progress with great pride.
“What
will father say,” Gandhi wondered? This question resolved itself when he saw
his father read his confession and watched his father’s face food with grief. “Oh,
Father, Never again shall I do such things” cried young Gandhi.
Without
looking at the weeping boy even once, the elder Gandhi slowly shredded the
paper in his hands, scattered the fluttering pieces across the floor, and fell
back on his cot with a groan. Gandhi later admitted that no punishment ever
hurt as much as the pain he felt while watching his father’s tears rolling down
his sunken cheeks. From that day forward, young Gandhi’s devotion to his father
remained unchecked.7
When
Gandhi later experienced the harsh bigotry separating the English-speaking
world from his people of color, he suggested that pious Christians offered
nothing “that the lives of men of other faiths had failed to give.”8
After reading the Bible about Jesus, Gandhi confided to another friend, “If
Christians would really live the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible,
all of India would be Christian …”
Evidence suggests forgiveness abundantly meets a universal human need, restoring bridges and reduces barriers. Whether Jewish pride, Roman ignorance, or mass apathy; it no longer matters. Some of us still repeat that age-old question the lawyer used to justify himself when Jesus told of the Good Samaritan. ”And who is my neighbor?” Especially is this true when we are blinded to the reality of our own deeds.
A
lady complained vigorously to her pastor about her many trials of life. As they
visited, he noticed the embroidery she had laid aside. “My, this is an ugly
piece of work,” he observed. “It is nothing but a tangle of threads.”
“But
Pastor, you’re looking at it from the wrong side,” she observed, turning it
over for him to inspect.
“That’s
right,” he admitted, “and so it is with God. He tries to help us turn life
right side up and see its true beauty.”
Looking
at life on the wrong side always results in seeing the tangles. The cross calls
us to turn life right side up and live it as we were meant to live. Love never
promised more mercy than at the cross. Forgiveness never became more
plentifully than at the cross. Selfishness never appeared more sinful than at
the cross. In bearing his cross; Jesus blended divine compassion and human
obedience into at-one-meant, and Easter resulted.
A
clear picture of Easter reveals a loving God building a bridge for a failing humanity.
Easter visualizes a good shepherd counting ninety-nine sheep but going out into
the night to find one still-lost sheep. It points to a loving father that stands
in his doorway scanning the horizon, yearning to fill his empty arms and aching
heart with a restored relationship with his prodigal son. He longs daily for
the day when “my boy” comes home and we can again live as family.
Easter
painted “Amazing Grace” in detailed color as it searched among slave traders
and guided a ship’s captain named Isaac Newton into harbor where he discovered
beauty, peace, and delight he never before experienced, and never more
beautifully expressed than in his classic hymn, “Amazing Grace.”
A
small aircraft left Newport, N. H. February 12 at 1600 hours. For the engineer
and two teachers this flight did not differ from any other. At 1619 hours,
Concord airport called for “Winds Aloft,” but only silence answered. When
nothing further came, a five-state alert sent the Civil Air Patrol, the Air
Force, the Air National Guard, and others into a furious search and rescue
action. The combined team systematically searched coastal waters and slogged
through twenty-inch snows on land.
Weekend
training missions became search parties, totaling five-hundred eighty-three
sorties with eleven-hundred twenty flying hours, or one plane flying eight
hours daily for one-hundred forty days. One hundred leads melted into oblivion,
but five months later--in July--the body of the pilot washed ashore on Long
Island Sound.
Somewhere
over the Sound, perhaps in a sudden squall; aircraft Tri-pacer N2705P finished
its course just minutes short of home. So it is with life. So it was with Jesus
on his cross, so we thought. But through his death, we now know he spoke a
clear word about God and a revealing word from God. It was a necessary word that we needed to hear.
Yes; even if it was only a word;, it was a word that spoke into existence the healing of broken promises, the restoration of shattered lives, and the transformation of squandered years into living joy. Roy Burkhart was right when he wrote, “If men could comprehend forgiveness, a generation of reborn men would evolve.”9
This one word from the cross provides the missing link in the divine chain and lifts us up-and-out of our abyss of hurts. Through this word we experience hope, happiness, and healing. Forgiveness brings beneficial acts of unprecedented love. It has resulted in an army of grateful men, women, boys, and girls across the centuries that have discovered failure needs never be final.
Finally: millions are living among us who have benefited enormously from this gracious and richly fulfilling life they currently live out in fulfillment of his word.
_____Yes; even if it was only a word;, it was a word that spoke into existence the healing of broken promises, the restoration of shattered lives, and the transformation of squandered years into living joy. Roy Burkhart was right when he wrote, “If men could comprehend forgiveness, a generation of reborn men would evolve.”9
This one word from the cross provides the missing link in the divine chain and lifts us up-and-out of our abyss of hurts. Through this word we experience hope, happiness, and healing. Forgiveness brings beneficial acts of unprecedented love. It has resulted in an army of grateful men, women, boys, and girls across the centuries that have discovered failure needs never be final.
Finally: millions are living among us who have benefited enormously from this gracious and richly fulfilling life they currently live out in fulfillment of his word.
1 George Arthur Buttrick, So We Believe, So We Pray. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1951), p. 93.
2 Op Cite, Menninger, p. 256.
3 Golden Moments of Religious Inspiration, ed. by Ruth M. Elmquist.
(New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1954), pp. 1926, “What Does God Look
Like?” by Grace Nies Fletcher.4 Op Cite, Buttrick, p. 100.
5 Donald E. Wildmon, The Case against Pornography. (Wheaton: Victor Books, A Division of Scripture Press Publications, Inc., 1986), p. 23.
6 Paul Scherer. The Interpreters Bible, George Arthur Buttrick, Ed. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, Vol. 8, 1952), p. 406.
7 Janette Eaton, Fighter Without a Sword. (New York: Wm. Morrow & Co., 1950), pp. 26-27.
8 Gandhi's Autobiography. The Story of My Experiment with Truth” by M. K. Gandhi. (Washington: Public Affairs Press, 1948), p. 172.
9 Roy Burkhart. The Secret of Life. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1950), p. 73.
_____
*From
Conclusions From the Cross, Warner, 2002
Available
as published at 24hourbooks.co
606-359-2064