“A Relaxed Holiday Crowd”

The Watchtower, June 15, 1954

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● 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.

Also in this issue

• Ancestor Worship—Its Folly
• Announcements
• Big Brazil Sees Expansion
• Brazil’s Religious Crisis
• Can Christians Change the World
• Check Your Memory
• Maintaining the Way of Favor
• Questions From Readers
• The Best of Manners
• The Revelation of Jesus Christ
• Who Converted
• ‘What You Sow You Will Reap’
• “Holy Horrors” and “Pious Junk”