Magyar Egyház, 1966 (45. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1966-03-01 / 3. szám
8 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ from the grave which was so closely guarded with soldiers? Another question. How did these soldiers know that the disciples stole the body of Christ when they were asleep? What unfaithful soldiers who slept while on guard! The third question. Why would the disciples steal the body of Jessu? And if so, why did they say He had risen? What reason would they have for deceiving the whole world? Why were they willing to die a martyr’s death for a lie? They loved Jesus and they could not afford Him a better burying place — He was buried in a rich man’s tomb. The next question. Why did these disciples not return to their various occupations if the life of Jesus ended so hopelessly and tragically? What made these fearful men so fearless? Only one thing: Christ lives! The last question. How did it happen that the learned rabbi, Saul of Tarsus joined this group of unlearned people and left the faith of his fathers and became the greatest witness of the resurrection? He mentions that five hundred met with the living Christ and he could have said to the high priests and soldiers — “you can check the truth of this if you wish, there are many of them still alive.” This same Paul also said: “if there is no resurrection, then is our preaching in vain!” You high priests and your accomplices, the greatest liars in the history of the world, do you realize what you have done? You have robbed your own people of a Savior and a Messiah who came. How can you be satisfied with this, that the disciples have stolen the body of Jesus? Why did you not search for it? You surely can never rest until you have proven to history that Christ did not rise from the dead! You are of the dregs of society! You who tried to kill the history of the resurrection and steal from us the risen Christ and the faith of eternal life! I do not believe your lies but I believe this one thing — that the body of Christ was not in the grave. You high priests and soldiers prove it! The grave was empty and the empty grave is ours. We have proven the resurrection with the empty tomb and Christianity is built upon it. We never argue the fact that there is a god. We wholeheartedly believe it. Christ is risen! Why should we argue this fact? We point to the empty grave and though the whole world be against us we believe it and are willing to die for this faith. On this Easter day, fathers, mothers, older folks, be very careful that you do not steal the blessed faith of Easter from your children with your unbelief, with bad example and by neglecting the house of prayer. Tell the Easter story over and over again to those you love and believe the testimony of those who have met with the risen Christ! The risen Christ rebuked those who did not believe the ones who had seen Him after His resurrection. We wholeheartedly believe the eye-witnesses. We believe that because He lives, we shall live also! ON THE COVER Reproduced on the cover of this issue is — by permission of the artist — the painting "The Bread of Life" by Eva de Nagy. Eva de Nagy (Mrs. Paul Stuart of Elizabeth, N. J.), a prominent Hungarian born artist, uses her talent to interpret Biblical themes. Her painting "And Mary Pondered" was printed on the cover of the Christmas, 1965 issue of Magyar Egyház. ONE GREAT HOUR OF SHARING . . to make use of every opportunity to lessen the distress of the afflicted . . Dr. Zoltán Béky, president of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America and former bishop of our communion offered the prayer at the March 15 session of the U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. Our picture shows I. to r.: Edward J. Patten, congressman from New Jersey, John W. McCormack, Speaker of the House, Dr. Zoltán Beky and the Rev. Dr. Edward G. Latch, Acting Chaplain of the House. Roman Catholic-Protestant Dialogue In Austria A Joint Commission of the Evangelical and Roman Catholic Churches in Austria met in Vienna for the first time in January to begin coordination of inter-confessional discussion in Austria. Formation of this Commission is the first concrete result of an exchange of letters last year between Dr. G. May, Bishop of the Evangelical Church in Austria, and the Austrian Roman Catholic Conference of Bishops. Among representatives on the Commission are Archbishop Cardinal König, the Roman Catholic primate of Austria, and Superintendent Georg Traar, Oberkirchenrat Erich Wilhelm, and Professor Dr. Wilhelm Dantine, representing the Evangelical Church. It was emphasized at the first meeting that common services of worship should not be limited to experiments in special services for young people, but must become the concern of the whole Christian community. Future meeting of the Commission will consider the results of this year’s week of prayer for Christian unity, questions of Church participation in public functions, the problem of conditional baptism, and the revision of text books used in religious instruction in schools to make sure that they are written ‘in an ecumenical spirit’. In Switzerland The Executive of the Swiss Protestant Federation and the Conference of Roman Catholic bishops in Switzerland have appointed two commissions to conduct official discussions between the two Churches. The Chairman of the Roman Catholic commission is Prof. H. Stirnimann, Fribourg, his Protestant counterpart is Prof. Max Geiger, Basle. Discussions will be aimed at clearing away misunderstandings and increasing practical cooperation.
