Bethlen Évkönyv, 1993-1996 (Ligonier)
Dr. Eva M. Fabian: Qualifications, conflicts, compensations
maintain our close contract 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. ” (Romans 12:2.) Our beautiful country is in the process of abandoning its Christian heritage. Ancient pegan and Oriental cults sneak into our communities and exercise a deteriorating on our society. On the other hand, undisquised 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 despite 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 20:2-3.) God has always require our exclusive and total loyalty. As we have mentioned, the seduction of Christianity is rampart 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 140
