Page:Southern Presbyterian Journal, Volume 13.djvu/669

 we as a nation are in the gravest danger, for our nation's leaders are toying with the idea of projecting our national and international policy on the theory that there can be a peaceful co-existence with Russia and the Communist world conspiracy.

The Children of Israel entered Israel with certain definite commands from God. As long as they heeded God's commands their campaigns were successful. However, there arose a new philosophy which discarded God's way and settled for a policy of peaceful co-existence with the people of Caanan.

From the day God's chosen people set out on a program of compromise with the evil around them this compromise proved a snare which had its final culmination in the captivity.

"Peace" sounds so desirable and a "peaceful coexistence" seems so alluring that we are prone to forget the fatal compromise involved. At the same time we are closing our eyes to the inevitable day of reckoning, a reckoning which can mean the utter destruction of all that we hold dear in life.

One may hazily enjoy a peaceful co-existence close to a rattlesnake but a sudden strike can awaken us too late. A man might find himself in peaceful co-existence with a man-eating tiger, but only so long as the tiger delayed his meal.

The avowed program of Communism is world dominion. To this end they will compromise and delay, but never with a change of purpose. For this reason no matter of wishful thinking, no pious assumption that they have changed their ways, no head-in-the-sand philosophy that they may succumb to our childish hope for mutual respect will in any way cause them to relinquish their plans to conquer and rule the world.

This does not mean that we should go to war with the Communist world. But, had the Communist leaders been convinced that we would go to war if necessary and fight to win that war (which we did not do in Korea), their plans for aggression could have been set back a generation.

However, at the present time it is abundantly clear that they can make their advances in a "peaceful" way, here a little and there a little, along with a demoniacally clever campaign of international intrigue and internal subversion in every non-communist nation. Nothing is furthering this more than our willingness to consider a policy of "peaceful co-existence" with these enemies of God and man.

It is right that we should earnestly seek the Christian approach to this problem. What is the Christian approach? Has not Paul made it abundantly clear when he writes; "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?"

Nothing is more calculated to bring despair to the millions in Russia and China who long for deliverance from their evil rulers than to see America looking with favor on a policy of "peaceful co-existence" with Communism. It is to these people that the world will eventually look to overthrow this monstrous evil.

To that end our greatest single weapon - humanly speaking - is to refuse to recognize or do business with any Communist nation. This is not fanaticism, nor is it isolationism. Rather it is a recognition of Communism for what it really is and a clear and unequivocal refusal to have any part in a compromise with it.

Not only will the policy of "peaceful co-existence" calculated to do harm to undercover resistance in Communist countries, but it can also bring a fatal sense of false-security here at home. If Communism is something we can get along with abroad then why get alarmed when we learn of its infiltration into governmental agencies, labor movements, key industries and our great colleges and universities?

The Psalmist warns of the fatal steps involved in compromise with evil: "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful."

We are in grave danger of "walking" with the Communists, then "standing" with them and finally finding ourselves "sitting" in their unholy counsels. Some day a break will come. Will it take another Pearl Harbor to bring it about or shall we as a sovereign nation make the break ourselves—on our own terms and at our own determined time? __L. N. B.

When a discussion grows excited, there are two possible explanations. Excitement may indicate the topic is of great importance. Now, in this series of articles on the Westminster Confession every chapter so far has seemed of great importance; and free will is also a matter of importance, though it can hardly be of such importance as the previous chapter on Christ the Mediator. In the second place, excited discussion frequently indicates that the debaters are not sure of themselves. When contenders have neglected essential distinctions and have proceeded beyond their resources, the discussion can go on endlessly and without conclusions. As this has often been the case with discussions on free will, it would be wise to see exactly what the Confession says.

"God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty that is neither forced nor by any absolute necessity of nature determined to good or evil." Now, what does the Confession mean by natural liberty? Does a Presbyterian mean the same thing that a Romanist or an Arminian DECEMBER 22, 1954