MIF 2:2 (Mar-Apr 1970)
Editorial
High above the town, against the blackness of a moonless sky, shone an illuminated cross. Its beam and cross-beam glowed like gems glistening on display. Its shimmering rays caught the eye; the bejewelled cross claimed attention. It was the embellished cross of Christendom. What a contrast to the upright pale or stake on which our Saviour died! He “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” the most depraved, shameful, ignominious and painful of all modes of death.
Christendom, like ancient Chaldea who used a T like cross as the symbol of its pagan god Tammuz, apparently feels that she must have a symbol. Christianity needs no smybol. Her faith is firmly anchored in the empty tomb, the evidence of ressurection, of victory over death. “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; … He was buried, and … rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” He was thus “declared to be the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.”
An old cathedral stood on the site of the present St. Paul’s in London. It perished in the great fire of 1666. After the fire the brilliant young architect, Christopher Wren, designed a new cathedral.
The first stone Wren picked up from the ruins of the old building bore a Latin inscription whose meaning is “I shall rise again.” The Lord Jesus declared, “I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself” (John 10:17-18).
Christian faith rests upon the empty tomb and Christian hope ascends from that same empty tomb. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him … The dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:14-18).
A visible cross and a tangible crucifix may appeal to the senses, but it is only the inerrant Word of God that provides a foundation for faith and hope.
“For ever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in Heaven” (Psa. 119:89).