Magyar Egyház, 1993 (72. évfolyam, 1-5. szám)

1993-12-01 / 5. szám

I 10. oldal MAGYAR EGYHÁZ jokes. Some of them continued observing all the traditional British ways of their home country. Though it seemed ridiculous in primitive condi­tions, personal hygiene, shaving and taking a show­er every morning, having their meals at the exact time of the day, observing national holidays, pur­suing England’s favorite sports belonged to their defense mechanism. Defense against what? Against losing their identity and becoming like the natives of the colonies. Some members of the ruling staff, however, care­lessly neglected the lifestyle of their homeland. Their neglect resulted in losing their moral sensi­tivity, intellectual and cultural interests, even the care for their personal hygiene. In other words, they faded into their environment, became like the natives. Something similar can happen to us, Christians. Though we are not of this world, we live in this world. If we fail to maintain our close contact with the Lord, if our devotional life gets shallow, if we neglect the customs of God’s kingdom, we also can lose our identity. God’s Word warns us, “Do not be conformed to this world.” (Romand 12:2) Our beautiful country is in the process of aban­doning its Christian heritage. And lent pagan and Oriental cults sneak into our communities and ex­ercise a deteriorating impact on our society. On the other hand, undisguised atheism pronounces right and wrong as irrelevant concepts. If there is no God, we are not morally responsible. Without mor­al standards, moral relativism, and eventually, mor­al insanity sets in. It is this moral environment where we are called to qualify as elders in the church of Jesus Christ. It can happen only through our communion with Him, through our dedicated devotional life. CONFLICTS Personal/Inner Conflicts As elders, we may have two kinds of conflicts. One type is an inner, personal conflict, a divided loyalty. In that case, we ourselves are part of the problem. Prince Geza, the father of St. Steven, the first Christian king of Hungary said that he was rich enough to serve two gods. He meant Hadúr, the god of the pagan Hungarians, and Jesus Christ, the God of Christians, whom his son introduced to the country. Prince Jesus, however, the Son of the living God, said that “no one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” (Mat­thew 6:24) Jesus’ statement contained nothing new. He just referred to His Father’s earliest command­ment, “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 2:2) God has always required our exclusive and total loyalty. As we have mentioned, the seduction of Chris­tianity is rampant in our country. Cults and pagan religions battle for the minds and hearts of Chris­tians. Some of them show deceptively innocent fac­es, like astrology or transcendental meditation. Oth­ers, like the New Age movement or Satan worship betray their dangers more obviously. Between these two extremes, hundreds of others hide the vicious face of the devil. If any of the elders of Christ’s church is involved in and of the cults, sects, pagan religious organiza­tions besides regarding themselves as Christians, they have a civil war going on in their hearts and minds. Christianity does not tolerate any alien bed­fellows. The affiliation of Christians with cults in­duces an inner conflict. Eventually, that conflict will eat up anybody from the inside and will tip the scale of that person’s loyalty in favor of the cult and of hell. “See to it,” as we read in Colossians, “that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit according to human traditions, according to the rudiments of the world, and not according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8) Jesus Christ our chief Prophet, just like the prophet Elijah, calls us to decision, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” (1 Kings 18:21) The elders’ conference provided assistance by: a.) a list of tele-evangelists whose teachings are false, deceptive, and dangerous; especially those who teach the so-called “we are little gods” theolo­gy; b.) a list of major cults that cause inner con­flicts and tear Christians apart from Christ; c.) copies of the Heidelberg Catechism and the II Hel­vetic Confession (the latter with correction regard­ing doctrinal changes in the role of women in the ministry). The two lists may be available from the Presi­dent of the Presbyters’ Association; the readers may buy the creeds themselves. INTERPERSONAL CONFLICTS The other type of conflicts elders encounter are interpersonal conflicts, problems in general. In those cases, they should be part of the solution. Is perpetual peace our dream for congregational life? Can we find uninterrupted tranquility on earth at any place where people are together? That place must be the cemetery! Right? To prove a point in this context, let us probe into our spiritual life. We realize how unforgiving and resentful we are when somebody deeply hurts our feelings. We realize how much our left hand knows what our right hand does when somebody forgets to thank us for a good deed. We realize how short our temper is when somebody has a different opinion. We realize how envious we are when somebody’s grass is green­er than ours. Just as the cross of Jesus Christ was a place of conflict, yet the greatest solution for our

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