Magyar Egyház, 1956 (35. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)

1956-11-01 / 11. szám

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

17

prophetic office, when we confess His name before men, and exalt and glorify Him in our lives. We share His priesthood when we offer ourselves, souls and bodies, a living sacrifice uto Him, and we share His kingship, when we manfully fight against sin, Satan, and his whole dominion here below, and afterward reign with Christ to all eternity.

One thing now remains to be said. Do you rightly bear the name of Christian? Do you believe in Jesus as the Christ? Do you acknowledge Him as your Teacher, your Priest, who gave Himself for your ransom, your King who has a right to your allegiance? Beware of taking that name, Christian, too readily upon your lips.

Last year, three young men were courtmartialed on the West Coast, because, having taken the oath of allegiance to the United States of America, and accepted its uniform, they went over to the enemy. They had to answer for their delinquency.

Everyone who assumes the name Christian has a like responsibility to stand by his Master, Christ — his prophet, Priest and King, through thick and thin. How are you acquitting yourself? Are you compromising in many ways with the enemy? Or are you bravely confessing His Name, offering yourself in His service, and manfully doing your duty to Him, your Christ?

CHARLES W. KRAHE

A PROTESTANT PRIMER ON

ROMAN CATHOLICISM

A New Book by Dr. di Domenica, a converted Catholic.

Rev. Angelo di Domenica, D. D., pastor of St. John’s Baptist Church (formerly Italian Baptist Church) of Philadelphia, Pa., has written a book on A Protestant Primer on Roman Catholicism. The book deals with the problem of mixed marriages and how to solve it. It sets forth the antenuptial contract which the Protestant party has to sign relative to the training of any offspring in the Catholic faith. It also reveals another imperative requirement which some Catholic Dioceses have adopted in forcing the Protestant party to receive a number of instructions on the Roman Catholic religion before the priest will be allowed to perform the marriage ceremony.

As both Protestants and Catholics, on the whole, are not fully acquainted with the doctrinal differences between the Dogmas and Traditions of the Roman Church over against the truth of the Bible, this book endeavors to show forth the gulf which separates them and tries to lead them to see the Gospel truth over the errors of the Roman Church.

Each chapter of the book is succeeded by a Catechetical lesson which serves to acquaint the Protestant not only with the position that the Catholics maintain in upholding the Roman Church Dogmas, Traditions, Doctrines and Practices, but furnishes him with the necessary material to refute their un-Biblical claims.

As a former Roman Catholic, but Baptist pastor for 52 years, working among his people with a Catholic background, Dr. di Domenica is in a position to deal with this subject with understanding of facts, based upon the experience of his long pastoral life.

The book, bound in cloth, will cost only $2.00. Write Osterhus Publishing House, 4500 W. Broadway, Minneapolis 22, Minnesota, U.S.A.

HUNGARIAN BISHOP ORDASS REHABILITATED

as an ai termath of the meeting of the Central committee of the World Council of Churches held in Hungary last summer, Bishop Lajos Ordass has been renaoiiitated by both the Hungarian State and tne Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hungary. Official word to tins effect was sent on October 11 to tne headquarters of the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva, Switzerland, by the Office of Church Affairs in the government of Hungary.

Wnen the World Council’s Central Committee met it Galyatető, Hungary, July 28 — August 5, two of its cnief officials joined in a movement for restoring Bishop Ordass to good standing. These were Dr. Franklin Clark Fry, who is both chairman of the World Council’s Central Committee and Vice-Chairman of the Lutheran World Federation, and Dr. W. A. Visser’t Hooft, general secretary of the World Council of Churches. The president of the Lutheran World Federation, Bishop Hans Lilje of Germany and its executive secretry, Dr. Carl E. Lund-Quist, were both in attendance at the meeting of the Central Committee and shared in the negotiations with Hungarian government officials. On August 4, the president of the Hungarian State Office for Church Affairs, Mr. Janos Horvath, authorized a statement that he would begin the process of rehabilitating Bishop Ordass. The communication which has now come to the Lutheran World Federation is official confirmation of the action which was foreshadowed at that time.

According to the communication from the Hungarian Office of Church Affairs, Bishop Ordass has been declared innocent and exonerated from all guilt. Subsequent to this action by the government, Bishop Ordass has been restored to good standing in the Church and it is expected that he will be given a chair as a theological professor. He has temporarily resigned his position as a bishop pending further clarification of his future work in the Church.

In commenting upon the significance of this development in Hungary, Dr. Samuel McCrea Cavert, executive secretary of the World Council of Churches in the U.S., said:

“The case of Bishop Ordass aroused world-wide attention when he was convicted in a civil court in 1948 on trumped-up charges of violating currency regulations. His real offense had been his resistance to the taking over of church schools by the communist state. After having been convicted by the civil court, he was deposed from his bishopric by the Church. He had previously been appointed a delegate to the first assembly of the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam in 1948, but the government would not allow him to attend.

“Prior to the meeting of the Central Committee in Hungary, there had been doubts in some quarters as to the wisdom of the World Council’s holding a meeting in a country behind the Iron Curtain. The misgiving was voiced that the meeting of the Central Committee might be exploited in unfortunate ways, instead of exerting an influence for greater freedom. The outcome of the Bishop Ordass case makes it clear that the World Council was able to bear a positive witness in Hungary.”