I Kings 18:21 “ And Elijah came unto the people and said “How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal be god, then follow him…”
Fence straddling in religion is one of the greatest dangers of our day. Fence straddling is a political term, meaning the attempt to be on both sides of a question at the same time; or agreeing with one thing at one time and then with some diametrically opposite thing at another time.
In our religion, fence straddling is strictly forbidden. The Second Commandment, for example, says “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Jesus advised, “Ye cannot serve both God and mammon.” Yet many people act as if this mandate is too strict. The tolerance and broad-mindedness which marks our day, they claim, ameliorates and softens this sort of command.
“Every man has a right to his own view,” we hear. “A man's religion is his own private business.”
The fault with these thoughts about religious freedom lies in the fact that they lead to the belief that religion is unimportant. The average person becomes tolerant of the false worship of others simply because he doesn't think it very important or vital. There is no burning insistence upon the truth because there's a feeling that truth may be divided, or there may be two truths. That's typical fence straddling! It's mistaken thinking of the sort that has led our generation into peculiar compromises with untruths.
The two great heathen groups we meet in our everyday life are the Jews and the pagans. Both are present in large numbers in our communities. What about them? Do they have a right to their beliefs? Are they, perhaps, right in their beliefs?
What of the Jew, for instance? Obviously, he has a right to exist and believe as he wishes. That's part of our religious freedom. But is he right or wrong?
If we believe actually in Christ as what He claimed to be, the only Way and the true Saviour , then we must realize that the Jew is a lost and condemned creature, a heathen, ignorant of the true God. I remember a few years ago discussing with a Rabbi the relation between our faiths, he insisting that Judaism and Christianity were equals. I replied, “You have a perfect right to be wrong, but it would be wrong for me not to try to set you right!” Like Paul, we must desire that the Jews be saved. The only way to accomplish this desire is to teach them about Christ. It is wrong to straddle the fence and say that they have a fine, noble religion, equal to Christianity. Yet in the name of tolerance many Christians do exactly this.
The other heathen group we meet daily are the pagans. Some of them are nominal church members. They use the church for their weddings, baptisms, and funerals. They consider it utterly indecent to be buried without a prayer to God; yet they deem it perfectly proper to live without prayer or worship! They are a large group in our nation; for seventy million of our fellow Americans deem faith in Christ so unimportant that they are not even nominal members of any Christian Church! And even among the seventy million who are church members, many are actually pagans at heart.
In Catholic Chile, the Roman church has always claimed that 95% of the people were Catholics, 5% Protestant. Recently a census of the religion of the nation was made by the Chilean government, and when the figures were published they evoked a howl of anguish from the Roman Church. The census stated that 70% were unchurched , 25% Catholic, 5% Protestant! We must admit that such figures are true. In our own nation an accurate statistic would read 50% unchurched , 33% Protestant, 17% Catholic! And even among the church members, many are so very tolerant that religion means little to them, while others enjoy a part-time religion that allows one hour per week for God, while for the other 167 hours they live as if God did not exist!
This condition is not new. It has been repeated many times in history. In the Middle Ages, at the time of Christ, in the days of Elijah, during the life of Moses and at other crucial times fence-straddling has been the most popular form of religion. In Elijah's day it was very noticeable. The people worshipped God very nicely. They observed the chief feast days and respected the temple. But they also worshipped Baal, the nature god; and the Bull, the god of fertility; and the stars. They perhaps regarded it as a form of insurance. By worshipping four gods, one of them was likely to be the right one. What a modern sound that has! Trust God, but! Faith in science, or in morality, or in government, or in some other form of power is thrown in!
God doesn't stand for that kind of nonsense. We see His action in the story of Elijah, climaxed by the contest on Mount Carmel when the prophet faced the 450 priests of Baal. To bring to a head the indecision of the people, Elijah proposed that two altars be built, complete with firewood and a sacrifice. One would be an altar to Baal, the other to God. “The god that answereth by fire, let him be God!” proposed Elijah.
When the people agreed, the priests of Baal built up their altar, and laid upon it the sacrifice. Then they prayed, incanted, sang, danced, cried, leaped into the air, and called upon their god. The burning semi-tropical sun glared down upon them through the heat of noonday and the people watched. There was no answer. Then Elijah made fun of them. Perhaps their god was talking to somebody else, or out hunting, or on a trip, or taking a nap! The heathen priests redoubled their activity, and yelled and cut themselves until blood flowed. But there was no answer from Baal.
Toward evening Elijah called the people to him. At the hour of the evening sacrifice he constructed his altar to God and arranged upon it the bullock. Twelve stones in the altar represented the twelve tribes. The cries of the Baalites died down in despair. The slanting rays of the sun fell upon the altar of God. As Elijah knelt and prayed, a crackle of flame like lightning came from the sky and the fire of God fell upon the altar, sending skyward a roar of flame. Awed by the miracle, the people knelt and said, “The Lord, He is the God!”
The ancient miracle teaches us many lessons today. Standing out among them is the demand of the Lord that we choose definitely. We must change the “both-and” to “either-or.” It can't be both God and something else. It must be either God or mammon! And God has the power to enforce a choice.
Old Israel liked “both-and.” They worshipped God and Baal. When Moses climbed the mountain they made a golden calf, but not to renounce God. They said “We will worship both this and Jehovah.” Even today the “both-and” process appeals to the mind of men. We never renounce God. We are never without religion. We are very religious. We worship God on Sunday, Baal the rest of the week. We accept God's law, but we add our own to it.
This sort of fence-straddling is abominable in the sight of the Lord. Jesus called it impossible. No man, He said, can serve two masters. “He that is not for me is against me.” But Jesus is speaking in unpopular terms when he demands such whole-hearted allegiance. The craze for insurance applies in religion, too, and most men prefer to keep more than one iron in the fire.
The kind of human faith that tries to steer along between differing beliefs eventually comes to grief. Like the ancient mariners who were forced to sail between Scylla and Charybdis , it is in a most uncomfortable position. God demands a choice.
We must, for example, choose for or against Christ. God testified that Jesus was His own beloved Son, with all power on earth, to be accepted and followed. No irresolution is allowable. Either God's testimony is true or it is an awful lie. Jesus must either be crowned or crucified. If He is God's Son, He deserves to be crowned. If He is not, it is logical to crucify Him. Is there any other choice?
The same kind of choice faces men in regard to the Bible. Either it is true, or it is a lie. If the record is false, it deserves to be rejected. But if it is true, it has complete authority to speak to our lives. The choice is a dreadful one. Another dilemma confronts men in the matter of the church. Too often men turn to it in a time of crisis, and damn it by their indifference the rest of the time. If it is God's institution, set up on earth to preserve and propagate the Word and the Sacraments, we cannot waver in our attitude toward it. We must be either for or against. We cannot be both for and against.
There's an old test that stems from Elijah's day in regard to these vital decisions. “The god that answers by fire, let him be god.” Even today, we can test the validity of God's purposes by the test of fire. But it is a critical test and one that requires honesty of purpose and sincerity of heart on the part of all who make it. God still answers by fire.
The fire of God burns in the Bible. Any one can build an altar, but only God can send a flame to light the sacrifice upon it. Any one can write a book, and many people do. But it takes God to make it live and abide and change lives. The best sellers of one day are forgotten the next. Could you name the most popular book of twenty years ago? Fifty years? Human writings like meteors across the sky flash briefly and then burn out. But the fire of God burns in the Bible.
The fire of God burns in morality. Any one can draw up a code of morals, and many do. It was a popular pastime a few years ago to publish new sets of ten commandments , brought “up to date.” But few if any of those fashionable codes had the power to influence men and to change lives. Only God can burn into the hearts of men to change hate into love, passion and lust into holiness, indifference into zeal. There's no substitute for this kind of holy fire.
In world affairs, too, the fire of God is needed. Men write noble treaties, plan great social programs for the advancement of civilization. They run their little course and lead into ever greater conflicts. The best of intentions fail. After the first World War, the beautiful Belgian library at Louvain lay in ruins. The walls were crumbled, the books destroyed. As a sign of great good-will, the school children of America made gifts to rebuild and refurnish the lovely library. It was a lovely gift, reflecting the high purpose of the people. When the second World War came along, Louvain again became a battle ground. The German advance damaged the library, and the American counter-attack finished it, leveling to the ground again this lofty ideal. The best purposes of men come to nought . Only God can fire the hearts of men and nations with lasting peace.
It's true also in the individual hearts of men. They are filled with sin and evil by the very nature of things. No human passion can cauterize them. Only the fire of God can burn out the sin and set them afire with purposeful faith.
These facts bring us back to our central theme. Our need is not religion. There are plenty of religions flourishing among us, most of them false. Religion alone can lead us a million miles away from the worship of the God and Father of Jesus Christ. Our need is to choose, for we see the fire of God again.
A powerful streamlined train thundered through the blackness of a winter night at a speed near one hundred miles per hour. Its cheerfully shining windows streaked along the countryside, with hundreds of passengers inside. A few miles ahead a bridge had been torn loose from its moorings by a raging flood. Word of the danger flashed to a signalman in his tower, but he took no action and as the streamliner flashed past the light was still green. A moment later there was a fearful wreck as the train plunged into the swirling flood waters. Many were killed. In later trials, the signalman was held responsible. Yet he had done nothing. In a time of crisis, he simply chose to remain neutral and to wash his hands of the affair, like Pontius Pilate.
In every life, there comes a time of crisis and choice, a time when neutrality is doom. No man can serve two masters, nor can he serve God and mammon. God demands of us all that we choose the right and serve devotedly in fearless faith.