THE RELEVANCE OF SPIRITUAL RENEWAL
As a boy, I grew up hearing and watching the late Batsell Barrett Baxter on Herald of Truth radio and television broadcasts. Even to a kid still in elementary school, Baxter was an engaging speaker. His seemingly flawless conversational speaking style, easily understood message, and obvious care and concern for the listener, served to make him a popular speaker in the 20th century.
The first and only time I heard Baxter preach, other than by radio or television, was in 1971. After completing undergraduate study at Harding College in 1970, providence afforded me the opportunity to return to the Harding campus the following year for the annual Bible Lectureship. The lectureship theme was “Faith in Conflict,” and Batsell Baxter, as a key note speaker, delivered a powerful lecture on the subject of renewal and restoration.
The relevance of renewal should be obvious to people. In his lecture Baxter observed: “When we drive into the heart of a great city, we are aware of old homes that once were grand in their appearances . . . but which now are cheap rooming houses, or maybe even slums. Time has changed them to . . . eyesores in the community. . . . Greatness is inevitably followed by decline. . . . We live in a world where disillusionment is all about us. . . . [I]n our world there is a constant need for renewal. . . . This recurring need for renewal has especially been seen in the realm of religion.”
Making the application of renewal to moral and spiritual matters, Baxter said, “God’s written word provides the means or the machinery for self-renewal. The Bible is a self-correcting device. . . . This means private Bible study and public instruction in the [S]criptures. . . . This is God’s means of our renewal.”
For many, life in America today, what is now the third decade of the 21st century, seems like a very unusual time. A recent Wall Street Journal editorial describes it as a time of “cultural erosion [that] will take years to repair”—a time in which we are seeing great “deficit . . . social and spiritual.” Citing a WSJ editorial may itself seem unusual when one is seeking to help people understand the need for moral and spiritual renewal. However, in this case it is a tip in the right direction as this unusual source identifies two of the leading causes of America’s current moral and spiritual cultural erosion are “family dysfunction and the decline of mediating institutions such as churches.”
A newspaper that began primarily for the purpose of covering business and financial news is now warning its readers of moral and spiritual erosion caused by the decline of the family and the church. One should pray that this is a sign of increased awareness of the relevance of the renewal of biblical values in the self, the family, the church, and the nation. Batsell Barrett Baxter was correct, and his following words remain relevant: “When man has drifted from the pattern, a reading of God’s inspired word leads him to see the true standard and encourages him to come back to the right way.” We pray that such spiritual renewal will occur in America—soon!