Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 21
May 1, 1969
NUMBER 1, PAGE 4-5a

"Tell It Like It Is"

Editorial

This is an age of tricky phrases. It was Robert Louis Stevenson who once remarked, "Man is a creature who lives not by bread alone, but principally by catchwords." We have heard them from politicians and statesmen, from demagogues and candidates, from sophisticates and illiterates. We have heard about "the new morality," about "situation ethics," "relevance," and "sensitivity," about "black power" and "love" till words tend to lose their meaning, and everything gets caught up in a meaningless mlange of verbosity.

We saw one man's perspective on "sensitivity" the other day. He opines that "sensitivity" should also mean "knowing how to stiffen up around people you don't like. Suppressing nasty thoughts. Being up tight around fascists. Holding babies with wet diapers. Keeping your thoughts to yourself when you want to. Not letting people know what you think of them when it won't do them or you any good." He has a point there.

But we have been thinking about that modern hippie slogan, "Tell it like it is." Well, why not? But if you really "tell it like it is," you will not only tell of slums and hunger and brutality and squalor, you will also tell of happiness and deep contentment, of blue skies and laughing children, of the breath-taking loveliness of the dogwoods in full bloom (as they are today in East Texas), of loyalty and honesty and purity. You will tell of happy homes in which love reigns supreme; you will speak of dedicated servants of God whose lives are as hauntingly beautiful as the song of a thrush in early morn, or as glorious as the soft after-glow of sunset behind the western hills. Yes, indeed, "tell it like it is" — but don't give a lop-sided, biased, nauseous picture of sordidness and corruption, and pretend that this is ALL of modern society.

If you are going to "tell it like it is," don't forget to tell of the love of Christ, of those countless thousands of martyrs through all the centuries who have lived (and died) in total dedication and submission to him. They have gone to the stake or bowed beneath the headsman's axe with a song in their hearts and often on their lips. Tell of these heroes of God who have "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies of aliens...others were tortured not accepting their deliverance...they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were slain with the sword: they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated..."

Of course there are sewers and garbage cans; there are crawling maggots, open sores, swollen stomachs on children dying of malnutrition. This is the world in which we live. There are rebels and malcontents, dead-beats and bums, thieves and murderers. But there are also children of God. There are those who walk in the midst of a perverse and evil generation, but are themselves neither perverse nor evil. They are the saints, the sanctified ones, the "born again" sons of God, who live in the world, but are not of the world. If one is to "tell it like it is," he can scarcely give a true picture of contemporary society without at least showing a little bit of what the gospel of Christ can do in a heart and with a life that obeys it. Our world has its slop-buckets; we can understand that fact, acknowledge it, and accept it — without bringing that slop-bucket into the dining room and setting it in the midst of the table with a dramatic flourish.

If we want realism, then let us be truly realistic — and "tell it like it is!" Man was hopelessly and eternally lost in sin; God sent his Son into the world to redeem him. And "If God is for us, who is against us?"

— F. Y. T.

Thanks — And A Reminder

Frankly, we have been disappointed by the limited response to the letter we sent out some thousands of our readers, asking if they REALLY care about the division among God's people — and if they are willing to try to do something about it.

Everywhere we go brethren lament the fact of division, and say that "somebody ought to do something" about it. Well, we are preparing to do that "something" by making an honest and forthright effort to reestablish some of the lines: of communication. But we need your help!! Probably a considerable number of you who received the letter thought you'd get around to sending in a few names, in time. Some of you have done so and we sincerely thank you; but some thousands of you have NOT done so. This is a good time to make up for lost time. May we hear from you?

F. Y. T.