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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 14, No. 4. April 26, 1951

Christian Answer?

Christian Answer?

4. Well, has Christianity an answer? Yes it has; but there is no short cut to it, Christianity starts with God and His relationship with men. God has made man to do His will in this world. Because man is God's highest creation he has personality and with that, as an essential part of his being, free will either to co-operate with God and do His will in the the world or to reject that will. He has used his free will consistently against God's will. This has shown itself primarily in the sin of selfishness, so that man, instead of living a God-centred life of service to his fellow men, has chosen the jungle way of existence.

So Christianity says that first and foremost a man's life must be changed, so that he no longer lives a selfish life, selfish either for himself or for his class or group. Christianity claims that the redemptive act is through the action of God displayed in the Incarnation—the life, work, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the extension of that work in the Christian church.

We claim that this changed life lived in the redeemed society, the Church, will show itself not in selfishness but in love. This love is directed primarily to good and displays itself in the worship of God, the desire to please God, and the desire for the best possible good for our fellow men. This will lead us into all kinds of action. It will lead us primarily to go out and vigorously proclaim the Gospel of Salvation; and at the same time (because the Christian is a realist) it will lead us to try and work out Christian principles in the unconverted world around us. This will, in the context of our subject to-day, lead us to be unpopular with many groups and camps, because we will be striving for the Christian principles of unself-fishness, of community rather than group interests, of liberty and of sacrifice for the common good and you will find, if you pursue this course honestly, that one group will hail you as the willing tool of the navy-blue reactionaries, and that another group will denounce you as red revolutionaries. If that happens, never mind—there is hope for the Church if she becomes unpopular!