"The Philosophy Of Fear"
A progressive (!) element in the church today likes to THINK BIG. Not content with the simple organizational structure which God gave the church; they would like to see the whole brotherhood function through a few sponsoring churches, or through various societies or agencies specializing in education, benevolence, finances, etc. Such a thing as serving God according to one's ability is much too tame for these brethren; and we should not be too surprised to learn that they have given the parable of the talents a special slant.
"This parable," says the marching brother, parroting a sectarian commentator, "demonstrates the futility of the philosophy of fear." And then, he may elaborate something like this: "The one-talent man was afraid, just like the Antis today. They are afraid to do right for fear of doing wrong, afraid of Million-for-Manhattan projects, -" and so, on and on.
The fearful shall have their part in the lake that burns with fire — side by side with the liars; (Rev. 21:8) and we should live so that we can not be classified with either group. The one talent man was fearful — this is certainly true; and perhaps this may be called the philosophy of fear. He feared to use his own talent, however; and it was for this that he was condemned. Our modern institutional brethren seem to think the one talent man should have assumed the oversight of a five talent project, pressured the five and two talent men into supporting this assumed project, and should have chided them with being "fearful" if they refused to "cooperate". Let us repeat, it was his own talent the one-talent man refused to use, and this failure to serve "according to his ability" brought about his downfall.
We wonder if some "philosophy of fear" causes brethren to pervert the Word of God in their effort to overcome congregations that are content to serve God according to their ability?