Deep Roots

[Page 157]

     There are but two more issues of MISSION MESSENGER before the year closes, and we conclude the series of studies on those scriptures which have been wrested and contorted by apostles of schism in a desperate attempt to make it appear that the Father sanctions their slashing of His own family to shreds. All twelve of the papers for 1965 will then be gathered into an attractive clothbound volume entitled "The Twisted Scriptures." It will consist of 192 pages, fully indexed, and will be ready for mailing next March 1. Only 2000 copies will be printed and there will be no additional reprint. Advance orders are now being taken.

     It is time to announce our plan and purpose for next year. For a long time we have been trying to contain an inner compulsion that we should move into the broader field of spiritual confrontation created by current ecumenical thought. A great impact has been made in the recent past upon the thinking of many splinters of the restoration movement. Tremendous changes in attitude toward fellowship are being evidenced by many of the more thoughtful members of the non-instrument segment. Many dare not as yet openly affirm their altered views but a rapidly changing climate will allow them to do so in the not too distant future without being driven out by their immediate associates or being written up in orthodox journals.

     But we cannot wait until our brethren who are heirs of the restoration movement overcome their fears and begin to penetrate the world around them to bring the leaven once more into contact with the seething mass of mankind. The tide running toward unity must be taken at its flood. We are disturbed by the fact that those who profess faith in the spirit and ideal of restoration are talking only to themselves. The theological world knows nothing about our conviction and perhaps not even of our existence.

     When I mention my intention to the brethren most of them seek to discourage me in pursuing it. They mention that only those with great organizations or structures backing them can hope to accomplish anything at all. I refuse to believe this. The God whom I serve has not grown powerless. He can still conquer with the few as easily as with the many. I am convinced that He is a God of history and a history-making God and that He wants our contemporary culture to know the plea for unity based upon a recapture of the purpose of the Spirit. I have no right to ask others to do what I am afraid to try.

     My approach will be positive. I shall affirm my abundant faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the revelation of the thoughts of God. Each month I will devote the paper directly to encounter with one of the problems of this modern age as it affects our unity. At the end of 1966, the papers will be bound in a volume to be titled "Deep Roots." The name has been taken from Ephesians 3:17-19, which will form our motto for the whole year. "With deep roots and firm foundations, may you be strong to grasp, with all God's people, what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ, and to know it, though it is beyond knowledge."

     We trust that every one of our present readers, in anticipation, will subscribe for their friends and introduce them to this little paper "with a mission and a message." We think you'll like "Deep Roots."