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“The New Sects in New Zealand”

UNDER that heading Anglican Dean Chandler wrote in the Christchurch Star-Sun about what he called the new “vigorous sects.” Probably most readers could guess what group he particularly had in mind. “I received a letter,” he said, “from a reader who is much perplexed because one of her family has left her church and become a member of one of the ‘fancy religions’ bearing an American label. My correspondent is now being besieged by zealots who belong to this new sect and who display a knowledge of the Bible which far surpasses her own.”

Where had her teachers fallen short? Other statements in the article would give a clue: “Perhaps our most serious neglect is that of pastoral visitation, for as it is necessary for a shepherd to go around his flock continually, so it is necessary to find opportunity to discuss with our people vital problems that harass their minds and to rescue them from some of the heretical entanglements in which they are likely to be caught. Having said this, I am painfully conscious of my own neglect in this respect.”

Another point: “I am more than ever convinced that the printed word has got to supplement the spoken word to an ever increasing degree. If we wish our people to be strong in faith we have got to encourage them to read and study far more than they do at present. Only by that means can they be armed against the assault of those who would drag them from their moorings and leave them unanchored and tossing about on a sea of doubt and uncertainty.” Thus he admits that the church sermons have not gotten sufficient knowledge into their heads.

“By the way,” he says, “returning to the cult which I have singled out for special mention, it is interesting to note that it is a religion of the printed word, which word its devotees are required to sell, whereas Christianity, like Judaism from which it sprung, is intimately associated with buildings.” But the kind of first-century Christianity that Jesus and the apostles had was not associated with buildings, but with the people—in their homes, on the streets and in the market places.

He refers to the “danger of overemphasising the Old Testament to the detriment of the New,” while showing that too many of his people do not know a great deal about either. The solution? “Get back to the Bible.” Yet he complains about others helping the people to do that when he has fallen short. One New Zealand reader said: “These parsons complain at the progress of Jehovah’s witnesses and at the same time admit their own negligence in pastoral work. . . . Perhaps they are afraid to teach their people too much of their creeds because of the unanswerable questions the people would pose.” Those who stick to the Bible do not face this problem. Just ask Jehovah’s witnesses some Bible questions and find out for yourself!