Jo Bower's Blog

I don’t normally reprint something other people write, but Rev. Jones’ Victorious Living is now available for the Kindle, and I’m reading that and two other of his books again. A missionary in India during the early part of the twentieth century, he encountered the kind of non-religious society that has finally invaded our world. He was ahead of his time, and still speaks today. His devotion on the two views of Christ spoke to the current struggle I have on how to speak to people with whom we have no common point of God – connection So, here’s E. Stanley Jones’ Two Views of Christ.

Two Views of Christ

E. Stanley Jones

It is no weak Christ you have to do with, but a Christ of power. 1 Cor. 13: 3 (Moffatt translation)

Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. An now in these final days, He has spoken to us through his Son. Hebrews 1:1-2

            There are those who tell us that Christ is a spent force in humanity; that Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish satirist, was right when he stood at the Italian wayside crucifix and slowly shook his head, saying, “Poor fellow, you have had your day.” They say His day is over because He spoke to a simple age, but now we face a complicated, scientific time; that He was good, but not good enough – for us.

            On the other hand, there are those who feel (with the Carlyle of later years) that Christ’s day is just beginning. They affirm what has failed has been a miserable caricature and not the real thing. They point out that even the partial application of His teaching and spirit has been one thing that has kept the soul of humanity alive. This viewpoint says that when we expose ourselves to Him in simplicity and obedience, life is changed, lifted, renewed. It sees Him as the one truly unspent force, facing this age as the Great Contemporary and its Judge.

            Some people say conversion is an adolescent phenomenon that coincides with and is caused by the awakening of the sexual (We would say the basic instinct of needing to be loved. jb) instinct. Others say it is the result of mob-suggestion, easily induced and quickly fading. On the other hand, many affirm this change called conversion helps them control and redirect the powers of the sexual instinct and, far from being mob-suggestion, it helps them to cut across the purposes of both the mob and the self when they are wrong. To one, conversion is a worthless bubble, to the other, and egg of great value.

 E. Stanley Jones, Victorious Living

Abundant Life and The Way are also available in Kindle Format. All three are worth your time.