Many sincere people are disturbed by the acids of modern thought which have eaten into the authority and undermined people’s confidence, not only in Government and family authority, but even greater authorities.
Men used to swear by the Bible and use the term ‘The Gospel truth’, but people have undermined men’s confidence in the Gospel and say, “how can we be sure that the Gospel is true, how can we be sure it’s authoritative”? It has to be scientifically screened first, demythologised is the term. Men used to have a respect for the authority of the church but now some have undermined the distinction between secular and sacred and have spoken of ‘religion less’ Christianity, and men have been made to feel that the church is not just irrelevant, but a positively dangerous organisation even opposing the Christian Gospel.
To add to all this, some people are trying to destroy the idea of a God out there beyond us, transcendent is the word, and have taught men to look for a god within themselves, man come of age, able to do without all that heavenly nonsense.
Now you can’t answer such penetrating doubts by shouting louder or banging the Bible a bit harder, or even by improving the church’s image. We have to see that the basic authority of God does not require our human protection. It’s not bolstered up in better institutions or in bigger laws of privilege,
When the New Testament speaks of Jesus it says that He spoke as one having authority and not as the scribes, for His authority was that of suffering love.