“A Relaxed Holiday Crowd”

● Christendom’s churches have become so self-satisfied that nothing short of a “spiritual atomic bomb” will shatter the “complacency.” This was the recent statement of Dr. John Sutherland Bonnell, pastor of New York’s Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. Revealingly, the pastor declared that “in a time of world-shaking revolution, the church’s membership acts as though the whole world were basking in ease and safety. We still sing ‘like a mighty army moves the church of God,’ but the discipline and urgency pictured by these words is wholly lacking.” Then the pastor exclaimed: “The church today resembles a relaxed holiday crowd much more than an army on the march.” (New York Times, March 1, 1954) True, but soon the holiday will be over. Armageddon comes on apace and will catch these so-called “Christians” sleepily relaxing, as Christ’s apostle foretold.—1 Thess. 5:2, 6.