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Our text for this morning as we look together at the Word of God is Matthew 16, verses 24 through 28...Matthew 16, verses 24 through 28.
Then said Jesus to His disciples, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it. For what does it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul, for the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels and then He shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, there are some standing here who shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom.
Now this passage strikes right at the heart of the matter of discipleship. We could entitle it, "Winning by losing: the paradox of discipleship."
It really strikes a death blow as well to the current trend that I see in Christianity. Much of contemporary Christianity and church life is bent on self‑centered, self‑circumferenced consumption. There are many people who wish to identify themselves with Jesus Christ. They wish to call themselves Christians and they're whole perspective toward it is that they are in it for what they can get out of it. Christianity has somehow been redefined as "get." And Jesus has been turned into a utilitarian genie, who must jump at our ever whim when we rub the magic lamp.
There are some among the charismatics, for example, who say that Jesus is here to make you healthy, wealthy and happy. And they tell us Jesus wants you well. Or, Jesus wants you rich. And if you aren't all those things, then you're not demanding your rights or you don't have enough faith to appropriate what's yours because Christianity is designed for you to get everything you need and want.
And even the fundamentalists and evangelicals through the years have been guilty of propagating a Jesus who is offered to men as a panacea for everything. Wouldn't you like to be happy? Wouldn't you like to have abundant life? Wouldn't you like to know peace? Wouldn't you like all your problems solved? It will make you a better salesman and a better athlete, etc., etc. And we advertise the "get" without the "give," the "gain" without the "pain."
And then there are the self‑esteem cultists and the self‑ image cultists who tell us that Jesus came to boost our self‑ esteem and our self‑image. They have fallen victim to the Narcissism, the self‑love of our contemporary society.
But I submit to you that to view coming to Jesus Christ as simply to get is to prostitute the divine intention. To come to Jesus Christ, yes, is to receive and keep on receiving forever and ever. But there's pain before the gain and there is a cross before the crown and there is suffering before the glory. And there is sacrifice before the reward. And I believe that's what our Lord is teaching us in this critical passage.
We are called to win by losing. That's the heart of discipleship. We are called to give up before we gain. It isn't as if Jesus had just said this for the first time. Back in chapter 10 He had told the same disciples the same thing in a little different terms, but the same lesson. For example, in 10:37, He said, "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me." In other words, you...you need to be willing to give that up. "He that love a son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after Me is not worthy of Me. He that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it."
But it isn't only Matthew that records this principle. Mark does as well. In chapter 10 and verse 21, Jesus beholding the rich young ruler loved him and said to him, "One thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatever thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come take up the cross and follow Me."
We find the same thing repeated at least three times, or four times, in the gospel of Luke. Luke gives us the very same teaching from our Lord. In chapter 14, verse 25, "There went great multitudes to Him and He turned and said to them, If any man come to Me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple."
And John wouldn't be left out either in this crucial lesson. And so we hear our Lord say in John 12, "Verily, verily I say unto you, except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal."
So, what you have here in Matthew 16 is an oft repeated principle. And I've only suggested maybe half of the places in the gospels where it appears, to say nothing of the myriad times it is rearticulated by the writers of the epistles. And even the Apostle Paul in the fourteenth chapter of Acts and verse 22 says, "It is with much tribulation that we enter the Kingdom."
You see, this was one of Jesus' recurring themes. There are some things that our Lord especially taught, some specially loved truths which He went back to again and again and again. We see them over and over in the Scripture. And we will never understand salvation and we will never understand discipleship unless we understand this principle...so oft repeated. The principle is winning by losing.
Now let's look at the text. And I want us to see as it unfolds for us, the principle, then the paradox, then the parousia and finally the preview. First of all, look at the principle as it's articulated in verse 24. "Then Jesus said unto His disciples, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me."
Now this isn't new to them. I just read you chapter 10 where He articulated that. And if you go earlier into Matthew, you will remember there's a passage where some would‑be disciples came along and Jesus said to them, in effect, "You're not coming on the right terms, the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." And we note from that passage that they didn't follow Him anymore.
He has talked about the sacrifice of discipleship. He has talked about the cost of discipleship. He has talked about the pain involved, the severed relationships, the hostility, the reproach, the rejection, the willingness to suffer. And here He reiterates it, this time to His disciples.
Why, if He's taught them before? Because it is clear to Him at this juncture that they have somehow missed the lesson. It's one thing to teach a lesson, it's something else to have it learned. And at this point, it is apparent that they haven't really learned it. And I'll show you why.
They were raised in the glory concept of Messiah. They expected the Messiah to arrive, overthrow the Roman yoke, dethrone the Herods, establish the Kingdom with all of its glory. And they were waiting all the while for that to happen. And it was very difficult for them to handle the fact that Jesus didn't seem to do that. And that even when He was given the opportunity to be made a king, He rejected it and fled from such attempt. And instead of the people falling at His feet, they misunderstood Him. And instead of the leaders who were the Messianic experts saying, "This is the one," they hated Him and sought to kill Him. And it didn't seem to be going the way they had been told it would.
But as they spent this two‑and‑a‑half years with Jesus up to this point, His miracles couldn't be explained humanly, His words couldn't be explained humanly, and they had come, finally, by the work of God in their hearts to the affirmation that in spite of what they saw not happening, He was in fact the Messiah. And so they were willing to wait until it happened. But if you look at verse 16, you see the affirmation of where they were. Peter speaking in reference to all of them, giving the consensus says, "Thou art the Christ the Messiah, the Son of the living God." And that's a great thing that they've finally come to. We know You're the Messiah, the Son of the living God, one in essence with God, the only God who lives, not a dumb idol. You are the Messiah.
In response to that, Jesus said in verse 18, "I will build My church and the gates of Hades‑‑which is death, that's simply a term used by the Hebrews for death‑‑and death will not hold it in, the gates of death. If they take My life, I will rise. If they take your lives, you will rise. If they martyr those in the church, they will rise for death itself, to say nothing of anything in life, cannot contain the power of the church." So, this is a glorious moment for them on the dusty road in Caesarea, Philippi and the northeastern most corner of Palestine, way away from all of the trouble. This is a great moment for them because they say You're the Messiah and He says "I'll build My church." And all they can see in those terms is it's coming, He's going to continue to collect His redeemed people and the gates of Hades aren't going to prevail.
And then He goes a step further in verse 19 and says to them, "And not only that, I'm going to give you the keys to the Kingdom. I'm going to give you the authority on earth for the Kingdom which is in heaven." And it literally says in the Greek, "Whatever you permit on earth shall have already been permitted in heaven. And whatever you forbid on earth shall have already been forbidden in heaven." In other words, you will act in behalf of heaven. When you say something is permitted, you're in agreement with heaven. When you say something is forbidden, you're in agreement with heaven. How so? Because heaven is in the process of revealing itself to you.
Back to verse 17. "You didn't learn it by flesh and blood but from the Father." And so here they're finding out that heaven is going to be revealing the truth and they will act in behalf of heaven as the authority one earth. And all they can see is the Messiah in His glory and the gates of hell not prevailing, and the assembled people being gathered and they with the authority and the keys and they see themselves as the heroes of the Kingdom. It's a great moment. They've waited a long time for this.
And then Jesus says in verse 21, "By the way, I have to go to Jerusalem to be killed." And they never heard the rest of the statement. All they heard was "be killed." "And Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him, saying, Hey, you're not in sync with the Messianic program. Be it far from me, Lord, this shall not be unto Thee." This can't be. "And He turned to him and He said, Get thee behind Me, Satan." You see, He recognized the attacker. Peter was just a tool. The attacker was Satan who had been trying to divert Him from the cross since the first temptation in the wilderness when he tried to get Him to take over the kingdoms of the world and miss the cross. He knew where it was coming from, it was the same old thing.
And then He makes this very important statement at the end of verse 23, it's a categorical statement, it puts this kind of attitude in a category. "You're an offense to Me, for you are thinking not the things that are of God but those that are of men." He says, "Peter, that offends Me because you're thinking the way men think." And how do men think? Men think about the gain without the pain, the crown without the cross, the glory without the suffering, the reward without the sacrifice. That's the way men think. And you're thinking like men think, not like God. God says the gain comes through the pain and the glory comes through the suffering. It has to. There's no other way because you cannot put God, whether incarnate in the Son or alive in the hearts of His people, in the midst of an anti‑God society without there being some suffering, without a reproach, without hostility. That's why 2 Timothy 3:12 says, "All that will live godly in this present age shall suffer persecution." And He says to Peter, you don't understand God's thinking, you put holiness in the midst of an unholy society and there has to be a reaction.
And so, because of the category at the end of verse 23 comes the teaching in verse 24. And it starts with the word "then." And "then" means right then. He says, I've got to get this straight with you, and right then He says to His disciples...and the other gospels tell us there was also a crowd collected as well. And He says, "Look, let's go back to that first lesson when I called you and told you to leave everything, your nets, your family, your livelihood, your life style, your home and come and follow Me and I would make you fishers of men. Let's go back to that original abandonment of everything to follow Me and let Me remind you that if any man will come after Me, he will deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me." There's no gain without pain.
Now, what does He mean "if any man will come after Me?" Basically just this, if you want to be a Christian, if you want to follow Jesus, if you want to be a disciple, if you want to come to Christ...it's an evangelistic word here. You say, "Well, then why is He giving it to the disciples?" Well, the evangelistic thrust goes to the multitude. But it also has a tremendous message to the disciples because it's easy for us having understood that total commitment to the Lordship of Christ and submission to Him when we got in, to eventually begin to try to take back some of our own rights. Have you noticed that? And follow our own will and do what we want and avoid the reproach and avoid the hostility and avoid the persecution and avoid the intimidation by just clamming up and not really representing Christ in the world, or by not understanding that this kind of thing is supposed to happen. And so, He says‑‑first of all‑‑this is not only a word for those who need to know how to come to Christ to start with, but this is a word for those who having come may have forgotten what they said they came for in the beginning. So if you come to follow Jesus Christ, you come on His terms.
And the disciples, like us, needed a reaffirmation of those terms. You know, even Christians...boy, one thing goes wrong in your life, you get a little flack over here, or over there, and some people start to disintegrate, like: What? Is God abandoning me? Not so.
Now, how do you come to Christ? How is a person...what is a person's attitude to be? In the saving transaction as a person comes to Christ, with what attitude must they come? Here it is, three things: self‑denial, cross bearing and loyal obedience. Verse 24, look at the first, self‑denial, "Let him deny himself...let him deny himself."
Now that's where it all starts. Now the word "deny" means to disown, let him disown himself. It could be translated, "Let him refuse any association or companionship with himself." Now you say, "That's hard, it's hard to refuse companionship with me because I'm always around when I'm around." And I understand that. Now He's not just talking about your self‑conscious self. What He's talking about is self as equal to the flesh.
In other words, you have to come to the point where you deny that you have the capacity to save yourself, or you as on your own have the capacity to be what God wants you to be. Or, frankly, you have in yourself the ability to be anything good at all. You've got to deny that. In order to come to Jesus Christ, you must affirm that there is in your flesh, Romans 7:18, dwelling no good thing. You can't please God in the flesh. You can't redeem yourself in the flesh. You can't be anything to speak of before God in the flesh. It is a selfless perspective that says I am nothing, I can contribute nothing to my worth. I can continue nothing to my redemption. And the self‑esteem cult that goes around saying we've got to build up people's self‑ esteem is taking them the opposite way that the message of the Bible does because the more you love yourself, the less likely you are to need a Savior.
As Peter, who denied Jesus Christ, said, "I know not the man," so must you say regarding yourself. I disown myself completely. That's the first essential in the Christian life. That's the way you come to Christ and that's the way we live. We go on denying our humanness, denying the expression of the flesh. You see, the heart must see itself in sin. The heart must see itself in damnation. The heart must see itself judged and condemned to hell and knowing that in itself it can do nothing to change that. In desperation, it reaches out and seeks a rescuer outside itself. And that rescuer is Jesus Christ. Self is cast away and Christ enters. "And so I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but...what?...Christ lives in me." It is subjecting oneself to the resources, subjecting oneself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in an utter rejection of self‑ sufficiency.
And I'm drawn again to that word of the Apostle Paul which we studied in our series on worship in which he says, "We are those who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh." That's the hard‑hitting message. You come to Christ, you come on His terms. What are His terms? Self‑denial. He said that.
As a refresher, go back to the fifth chapter of Matthew and let me give you this word from Jesus, the first sermon He ever preached, the greatest sermon on salvation ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount. And He lays out the right attitude for those who will enter the Kingdom in verse 3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom." The foundation of all virtue is to be poor in spirit. That is to be inwardly in poverty. How poor? Ptochos in the Greek. How poor is that? So poor you have to beg. So poor you have nothing, you can't earn a living, you can't gain it anyway, you have to beg for it. You are destitute. You have no way. You are humbled by your wretchedness. And you sit, as it were, as a beggar crying out for someone to give you something. You are that poor. You have nothing.
And so, the Lord says those who come into My Kingdom aren't those who think they're somebody, but those who know they're nobody and have no resource. Until you see we know how damned we are, we'll never appreciate how precious His forgiveness is. Until we know how utterly poor we are, we can't ever know how great His riches are. And it's out of the carcass that the honey comes. It's out of our deadness that life is born. And the term has to do with total poverty. And that's why, as we read this morning, the Psalmist said, "The Lord is near to those that are broken hearted and to those who are contrite, or crushed in their spirit." Out of resources.
Only desperate people come to God. The publican and the Pharisee in Luke 18 went into the temple. And the Pharisee says, "I thank Thee that I am not as other men, even as this publican. I tithe and I fast and I do all this." He had good self‑image. And then in the corner is this guy with his dead down on the ground, he won't even look up and he's pounding on his chest and he's saying, "O God, be merciful to me a sinner." He won't even look up. "And Jesus says, That man went home justified rather than the other."
You see, you come on these terms...when you have run out of resources, when you know you can't do anything about your sin, when you are bankrupt in your spirit. And that was the intention of the whole Old Testament, by the way. The whole law of God in the Old Testament is...is to show men how unsavable they are on their own terms, how irreconcilable they are to God, how unredeemable. So that when God comes in Christ, it is all of grace to the desperate sinner who in himself can do nothing. And that is the same word reiterated by Jesus throughout the Sermon on the Mount.
By the way, the "poor in spirit" also mourn in verse 4. Why? Because they're sorrowful over their condition. And they are meek in verse 5, humbled, nothing good in them. And they hunger and thirst for something they can't get because it isn't within their grasp but they know they must have it. And so they are utterly dependent on the one who gives life.
First, then, you come to Christ denying yourself. And that means you take Christ on His terms, not yours. The proud sinner wants Christ and his pleasure, Christ and his covetousness, Christ and his immorality, but you don't get Him on those terms. And then once you've come to Christ, Jesus is saying here it becomes a way of life to deny yourself. A happy way of life, admittedly, is it not? For I'm not happy when my self acts, I'm happy when the Spirit of God acts in me. Joy comes to me in obedience, in holiness.
Arthur Pink said, "Growth in grace is growth downward. It is the forming of a lower estimate of ourselves, it is a deepening realization of our nothingness. It is a heartfelt recognition that we are not worthy of the least of God's mercies."
That's why in Colossians 3:5 it says we have to commit suicide. We have to mortify our members that are on the earth. We have to put off, Ephesians 4:22 says, the old man, corrupted by lust.
So, self‑denial then is the way in and it becomes the life pattern. We say no to self and we say yes to the Spirit of God.
What does it mean to live a life of self‑denial, dying to self? What does that really mean? Have you ever thought about that? Think of it this way. When you are neglected, unforgiven, or when you are purposely set at naught and you sting and you hurt with the insult of that oversight, but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ, that is dying to self. When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed and your advice is disregarded and your opinions are ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself, you take it all patiently in loving silence, you're dying to self.
And when you lovingly and patiently bear any disgrace, any regularity, any annoyance, when you can stand face to face with folly and extravagance and spiritual insensitivity, and endure it as Jesus did, that is dying to self. When you are content with any food, any money, any clothing, any climate, any society, any solitude, any interruption by the will of God, that is dying to self. And when you never care to refer to yourself in conversation or record your own good works, or itch after commendation from others, and when you truly love to be unknown, that is dying to self. When you see your brother prosper and have his needs wondrously met, and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy and never question God, though your needs are greater and still unmet, that is dying to self. And when you can receive correction, and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and humbly admit inwardly as well as outwardly that he's right and find no resentment and no rebellion in your heart, that is dying to self.
Are you dead yet?
There's a second element here. "Take up his cross," He says. Dying to self is one thing, taking up the cross is another. What does that mean? Oh, I've heard such mystical things about that. And then I've heard the cross being all kinds of things...everybody from your mother‑in‑law to your wife to a cantankerous neighbor. What is the cross? What does it mean, "taking up your cross?" Very simple. I mean, it isn't even a scholarly problem here. It's very simple. It is the willingness to endure persecution, rejection, reproach, shame, suffering, even martyrdom for His sake. That's all.
You don't get mystical about the cross of Jesus Christ. The disciples aren't thinking of that. He hasn't died yet. They don't even know, are you ready for this?, that He's going to die on a cross. He hasn't said that yet. All He said in verse 21 is He's going to be killed, that's all. So they're not looking at some mystical apprehension of the cross of Jesus Christ. What are they thinking on that dusty road in Caesarea, Philippi, up on the plateau where the cool breezes blew and they could overlook the Galilee area, what are they thinking in that day 2,000 years ago when He says "take up His cross?"
I'll tell you what they're thinking. A hundred men had been crucified in that area, not much earlier than this very event. Something about 120 years before. Antiochus Epiphanes had crucified many Jews during the reign of the Greeks in the intertestamental period. And from a revolt following the death of Herod the Great, the Roman pro‑consul Varus crucified 2,000 Jews. Crucifixion was somewhat common in the Roman Empire, somewhat common in middle Asia, somewhat common in Egypt, somewhat common in Italy. They had seen crucifixions a lot. One historian estimates 30,000 crucifixions occurred around the time of Jesus Christ.
Now when He said, "Take up your cross," you know what they saw? They saw these poor sad condemned souls marching along the road with at least the cross beam of their own instrument of death strapped to their backs. That's what they thought of. To them the cross meant you're walking to death, you're moving toward your martyrdom. That's what it meant. And that's what the Lord is saying. You must perceive following Me as putting on the instrument of your own execution. Because the world is going to cut you off. Not all of you will die, not all of the twelve died, but many of them did, as martyrs. But you will bear reproach and you will be ridiculed if you live for Christ. That's what 2 Timothy 3 means, you'll suffer persecution. So that's what He's saying.
It means that when you come to Jesus Christ, you're willing to suffer the indignities of a condemned criminal in the service of Christ, if you're called on to do so. Now in our society in our day, it isn't as obviously pronounced to us. I mean, we're not being martyred for Christ, but there is still a reproach to bear. And if we walk after Jesus Christ in total devotion to Him, we'll set up reaction all around us. Self‑denial means that I will walk after Jesus Christ, I will identify myself with Him, I will name His name up to and including the point of death. Most of us say, "Oh boy, if I ever got to that point, I don't think I could handle it." But if you ever did, the Bible says in 1 Peter 4 that the Spirit of grace and glory would rest on you and you would have such an overwhelming sense of the dispensation of the grace of God by His blessed Spirit that you would find in the midst of your death great joy...great joy.
You see, those who come to Jesus Christ, come on His terms. You don't just sign on the dotted line, folks. You don't just stick your hand in the air. You come to the end of your self and you are so enamored and so desirous of the precious gift of salvation that He offers that you will sacrifice even your life. And then after you've received the gift...isn't it interesting how we back off from that original commitment? that's why He's reminding the disciples as well as instructing the crowd.
See, back in chapter 10 verse 24, He told the disciples, "Have you forgotten that a disciple is like his teacher and a servant is like his lord? And you're going to be like Me and you're going to be treated like Me." And He told them you're going to get persecuted. He said, in fact, to them in chapter 10, "I did not come to bring peace but a...what?...a sword, to set a man against his own household, his own family," and He goes down through all of that. There is hostility. There has to be when godliness invades ungodliness.
And yet there's a marvelous ambivalence because while on the one hand we are a rebuke and a reproach is borne by us in the world. At the same time, there is an incredible attractiveness to us, isn't there? But that's reserved for another passage.
The emphasis here is on the reproach. And the cross is the suffering that is ours because of a faithful connection to Jesus Christ. The thought here is magnificent. It is magnificent. It's as if you could see Jesus Christ going along the road to the cross, the Via Della Rosa(?), moving to His own execution, bearing on His back the cross upon which He will bear the sins of all the world. And in His train, millions of people, all with their cross, willing to take His reproach. Glorious scene.
No, you're not called to Christ to get the goodies. You're called to Christ to abandon yourself in service to Him. That's the essence of the epistles. It is this cross that marks the true disciple. You know, if you want a good test to separate the wheat from the tares, the tares are the one who are not willing to suffer the reproach for Christ. They won't pay the price.
By the way, Luke adds a wonderful word here. Luke doesn't just say, "take up his cross," Luke says, "take up his cross daily," every day...every day...every day. It's a way of life, folks, for us. The hymn writer said, "Must Jesus bear the cross alone? And all the world go free? No, there's a cross for everyone, there's a cross for me. The consecrated cross I'll bear, till death shall set me free. And then go home, my crown to wear, for there's a crown for me." That's what our Lord is teaching here.
The third ingredient in the principle of discipleship is loyal obedience. "And follow Me....and follow Me." The text literally says, "Let him be following Me." It's a way of life. It's a submissiveness to the Lordship of Christ that becomes a pattern of living. It can even relate to the word "to imitate." If we say we belong to Jesus, 1 John 2:6, we ought to walk as He walked, putting our feet in His footprints, loyal to the divine will. And that's what our Lord meant in Matthew 7 when He said, "It's not everyone who says Lord, Lord that enters My Kingdom but he that doeth the will of My Father." And so, the true disciple is marked then by self‑denial, cross bearing and loyal obedience. "If you," John 8:31 says, "continue in My Word, then are you My real disciple." It's a life pattern.
If you're going to take a trip, the first thing you do is say good‑bye; pick up your bags, second thing; proceed on your trip. Same thing here. You say good‑bye to self, pick up your burden‑‑your cross‑‑, follow in loyal obedience. That's getting on the way to God through Christ.
Now that brings us to the paradox in the next two verses. And this is just illustrative and expands off the principle. "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it." Now that's a simple message in that verse, very simple. Well, you say, "What's it saying?" Just this, whoever lives only to save his earthly physical life, whoever lives to preserve his ease and his comfort and his self‑indulgence, will lose his spiritual eternal soul. But whoever is willing to give up his earthly physical life, deny himself, bear the cross, follow in obedience to the Lordship of Christ will save his spiritual eternal soul.
In other words, you have a choice. You can go for it now and lose it forever. Or you can give it up now and gain it forever. That's the point. By the way, the word "life" there is the same as "soul" and the same as "self", it's the same idea. The terms may be different, the idea is the same. It's talking about yourself, your life, your soul, that inward part of you, that real you. You spend your life going for the gold right here and you're going to lose everything forever...forever.
There's a willingness to pay the price that may mean martyrdom, may mean humble self‑sacrificing death as in the case of Paul. It may mean sickness as the case of Epaphroditus, it can mean a lot of things. In our day it's not likely to be a martyrdom kind of thing, but if a person truly follows Jesus Christ, he abandons his own safety, his own security, his own ease, his own comfort, his own selfish indulgence, his own consumptive materialism, and he comes after Jesus Christ. And he may have to give up some things in this life. On the other hand, the Lord may pour other things on him. It isn't that you have to give it up, it's that you have to be willing to do that.
I remember the story of the man in the south on a plantation that had some black slaves. There was this one black slave who was always happy and excited and positive and singing. And no matter what you did to him, he never changed.
So, his master came down to him and said one day, "What have you got?" He said, "Well, I love the Lord Jesus Christ and He puts a song in my heart. He's forgiven my sin." And the man said, "I want what you have." He said, "All right. You go put on your white Sunday suit and you come down here and work in the mud with us and you can have it."
He said, "I wouldn't do that." And he rode away. He came back a little while later and he was haunted again by this man's life and he said, "Look, what do I have to do to have it?" He said, "You put on your white Sunday suit and you come down here and work in the mud with us and you can have it." And he rode off in a huff again.
Some weeks later he came back a third time and said, "Now listen, I want you to give it to me straight. Now what do I have to do to have what you have?" He said, "I told you what you have to do." And the man in desperation said, "I'll do it." And the slave said, "Then you don't have to do it."
I'm not saying God's going to make you be a martyr. I'm just saying that if you come to Jesus Christ on His terms, you'd be willing. That's what it says. Be willing to lose your life in His cause apart from the world to gain eternity, rather than spend your life trying to get it here and lose it forever.
Verse 26 strengthens the paradox that confirms the principle. "For what does a man profit," or literally, what use is it for a man, or of what aid is it, "if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" And here is the ultimate hyperbole. Let's say the guy gains the whole world. I mean, he gains every...he owns the globe and everything on it and he loses his soul. What's he got? He's got nothing. I mean, what's a dead man who owns everything? He's a dead man. And even worse, an eternally dead man.
Or, another way to look at it, verse 26, "What will a man give as an exchange, or with what will he buy his soul?" Let's say he owned the whole world, could he buy back his soul with it? No...no. You see, if you're going to throw your life away in this world, you will be bankrupt forever. But if you abandon your life and give it to Jesus Christ, you'll be rich forever. And He may just choose to pour out riches in this life as well.
And that leads us to the parousia, that's the word for "coming." We use it speak of the Second Coming and that's what verse 27 talks about. "For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels and then He shall render to every man according to his works." And what He's saying is, Look, you better decide what decision you're going to make because there's a day of accounting coming. There's a day when the judge is going to come. And you remember John 5 says that the Father has committed all judgment to the Son and He is coming to judge and He will be coming in the full radiant glory of God the Father manifesting and revealing that ultimate glory, along with angels who are the instruments of judgment. And then He will render to every man according to his works.
And it isn't a works salvation, but we will be rewarded and we will be judged on the basis of what we do because what we do will reveal what we are. This is the parousia, the coming, the appearing. The Son of Man shall come. And by the way, that "shall come" is not a simple future tense, it's stronger than that. It means He's about to come. You better get ready cause it's near. And this is the first indication of the Second Coming in the New Testament. So, boy, they are learning a lot this day...a lot. But He's coming in the glory of His Father. He's coming with His holy angels, the instruments of service and judgment. And He is going to render to every man, nobody will escape, the final accounting will be brought to bear on every individual life according to that life. As Psalm 62:17, "O Lord, Thou renderest to every man according to his work." And Romans 14:12 says, "So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God." That's the reckoning day, the balancing day. And God will look at works and He'll say, "There's a believer, I can tell by his works. It's the product of the Spirit. There's an unbeliever, I can tell by his works, they're the product of the flesh." Just like Romans 2, He judges by works. That's the objective criteria by which He can evaluate the subjective reality of the life.
And it's a two‑fold judgment. And here I think it's in general, it's not specific, it's general. Luke emphasizes the shame that will be there. And Luke seems to emphasize at that particular point the judgment on the ungodly. But you can see in this the general judgment of all of us. For example, the ungodly are going to come and they're going to be judged according to their works and sent to hell. And you and I when Jesus returns are going to have a judgment, too. And we'll be rewarded according to our works. And we'll receive crowns if we've been faithful. And so we're all caught up in this. So He's saying to the crowd, "You better come to Christ," in essence. "You better give your life away, take up your cross and follow Me because there's coming a day when if you don't you're going to be cast into judgment." And He's saying to the disciples, "You better be faithful to follow the path of self‑denial, cross bearing and loyal obedience, cause there's coming a time when you'll be rewarded." There is a martyr's crown, too, isn't there? And so, we look for judgment.
Now somebody might say, "You know, how do we know that's going to happen? I mean, how can we believe You're going to come in glory? We haven't seen any glory." You can imagine the disciples saying, "Boy, this is getting more depressing every day. I mean, no Kingdom. No nothing. Now He's going to die and not only is He going to die, we're going to die." See. I mean, they got into this deal just on cloud nine. I mean, we're...the Kingdom, man, we're going into the Kingdom. And James and John send their ma, "Hey, we want to be on the right and the left when this deal takes off." And now it's just getting very depressing. And now they're saying...the Lord's saying, "Well, there's coming a glory day...yeah, there's coming a day when the Son of Man will come with glory and His Kingdom with Him. It's a glorious day. And He'll render to every man and all the tables will be turned and all the equalizing will be done and all the equity will be laid down. There's coming that great glory day."
And you can just see them saying, "O man, how do we know that's going to happen? We haven't seen a glimpse of that." That takes us to verse 28, the preview. He says I'm going to give you a glimpse of it. I'm going to give you a sneak preview of the Second Coming. "Verily I say unto you, there are some standing here," some of you people standing right here, "who shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom."
Somebody says, "Man, there must be some old people around." Is that what it's saying? What is this? What do you mean they won't be dead until they see the Son of Man? This is the preview. If you want to know what it means, come back next week. This is a preview of the preview. But they got the message. They saw it and they knew they saw it and Peter writes in his epistle, "I was an eye‑witness of His majesty." He saw it. And you can see it, too, if you come back.
Now listen. The man who selfishly hugs life to himself, whose great overwhelming concern is ease and comfort and security and riches and prosperity and self‑indulgence, that man no matter how prosperous he may appear is an eternal pauper. The man who gives his life for Christ, the man who abandons self, may become a beggar, he may become a martyr, but he will be a prince with God forever. That's what it's saying. And only a fool struggles with that kind of choice.
But like those in Jeremiah's time, there are some who will forsake the fountain of living water and hew out broken cisterns that can't hold water at all. Let's bow in prayer.
Lord high and holy, meek and lowly, help us to learn the paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the crushed spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to really possess everything, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive. Lord, we know that we can't see the stars in the daytime but they're there. But when the night comes, they shine so brightly. Help us find Your light in our darkness, Your joy in our sorrow, Your grace in our sin, Your riches in our poverty and Your life in our death. We would be crucified so that we live, yet not us but Christ.
We pray for those who don't know You today, that they would open their hearts, they would say no to the passing world and yes to eternal life, that they would never think to purchase their soul with earthly gain or to profit if they were to gain the whole world and lose their soul. And, Father, for those Christians, help us to know that this is the way we came to You, destitute, desperate, without resource, begging, mourning, meek, hungering. And we affirmed Your Lordship in those days and we said we'd commit loyal obedience at any price, so hungry were we for salvation. May we be true to that commitment. And may we gladly, as Moses, be willing to bear the reproach of Christ rather than the pleasures of sin and the treasures of Egypt. Father, help us to be faithful disciples, self‑denying, cross bearing, loyally obedient, until we see Jesus face to face, to receive the crown given to those who bore the cross, a crown to be cast at His blessed feet. We thank You that He...He's coming and we know it because He gave us a glimpse of His Second Coming glory. And we have hope.
This article is also available and sold as a booklet.
This sermon series includes the following messages:
Please contact the publisher to obtain copies of this resource.Publisher Information


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
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(Photo by Ostrom)
Packing problems are encountered by the three choir tour man-agers
as they complete final plans for the spring tours beginning in the
middle of April. The tour managers are Bruce Carmen, college choir;
Paul Wedeking, male chorus; and Anita Bennett, women's choir.
Debate Team Holds Feb. 28 Convocation;
Larson, Nelson To Argue in Affirmative
"Resolved: That the non - communist nations
should establish an economic community" is the
question for college debate this year.
Sharon Larson and Lindy Nelson, Bethel's two
top debaters, will debate the negative against North-western
college of Minneapolis tomorrow night at 7
in room 105. Northwestern has been one of the best
teams in the area this year, winning both the Bradley
university and Concordia college debate tournaments.
Thursday morning Larson-Nelson will debate the
affirmative against the University of Minnesota team
that edged Bethel for first place in "8" division of
the Twin City league. The special convocation will
be a modification of a regular debate, shortened to
fit into the chapel period.
Thursday through Saturday the Bethel team, in-cluding
Larson, Nelson, Jim Keim and Fred Lund
will participate in the St. Thomas annual debate tour-ney.
After eight rounds of preliminaries there will
Nelson be four final rounds to determine the best team. Miss Larson
Bethel College Learning Resource Center the CLARION
Volume XXXIX—No. 16
Bethel College and Seminary, St. Paul, Minn. Tuesday, February 26, 1963
Choirs Present Concerts,
Prepare Tour Programs
Visits Sca
The 1963-1964 academic year will
be the 15th year of operation of
the Scandinavian seminar, a uni-que
program which provides the
American under-graduate or gradu-ate
with a year's living and learn-ing
experience in one of the Scan-dinavian
During the year, home stays and
short seminar courses are combin-ed
with an extended period of
residence and study in a Folke-hojskole,
an adult education cen-ter.
This combination brings the
students into very close content
with the life of the country.
Students are required to com-plete
an independent study pro-ject.
The curriculum of the Folke-hojskole
is confined mainly to lib-
Bible Studies
To Consider
Varied Topics
During the chapel hour tomor-row
and for the four succeeding
Wednesdays, excluding March 13
of Fine Arts week, the Bethel stu-dent
body, faculty and administra-tion
will meet in small groups at
various campus locations to study
the book of Colossians.
This series of Bible studies will
investigate and discuss such themes
as "The Person of Christ," "The
Work of Christ" and "Christian
Students living in college dormi-tories
will meet in their dormitory
wings under the direction of the
floor counselors, while off-campus
students have been requested to
form groups of eight to ten mem-bers
and will be assigned a meet'
ing place on campus.
Sponsored by the religious com-mittee
and the chapel and spiritual
life committee, these meetings
have been planned to provide a
spiritual experience which often
cannot be developed in a more
formal chapel service.
"In addition," stated Paul John-son,
religious committee chairman,
"it is hoped that this experience
will stimulate similar indigenous
programs to be carried on by
groups of interested persons after
the prescribed five sessions hays
been completed."
eral arts subjects with emphasis on
Scandinavian literature, language,
art, history and social studies, and
should, therefore, appeal to under-graduates
A great number of American col-leges
and universities have recog-nized
the Scandinavian seminar
and many have granted full aca-demic
credit for the year spent in
Scandinavia under the latter's aus-pices.
Costs for tuition, room and
board for the nine months, lan-guage
materials and transporta-tion
from New York to Copen-hagen,
is $1,780. A limited num-ber
of scholarships are awarded
each year to qualified applicants.
For information, write to: The
Scandinavian Seminar, 127 East
73rd Street, New York 21, New
Enactment of Public law 87-815,
Oct. 15, 1962, makes vocational re-habilitation
training available for
the first time to veterans who in-curred
a disability as a result of
service in the armed forces during
any period of service covered by
the Universal Military Training
and Service act.
Periods of service included are
(1) July 26, 1947, to June 26, 1950,
and (2) Feb. 1, 1955, to the pre-sent.
Those receiving compensation
from the government because of a
disability incurred during either
of these periods may apply for
vocational rehabilitation by con-tacting
the nearest Veterans ad-ministration
Applicants will be provided vo-cational
counseling to ascertain
what training they may need to
overcome any handicapping effects
of their disabilities and to assist
them in making a choice of a fu-ture
Veterans administration will pay
for books and tuition and a subsis-tence
allowance during the period
of training which may be needed
for this purpose.
Training will not be provided un-der
this act for veterans whose dis-
Opening the 1963 concert season
for Bethel choral groups, the male
chorus will appear Sunday, March
3, at 4 p.m. in the Dayton Avenue
Presbyterian church, St. Paul.
Under the direction of C. How-ard
Smith, the chorus will present
one section of their tour reper-toire,
in addition to Brahms' "Alto
Rhapsody" with guest soloist Anna
Newell Warren. Mrs. Warren will
be sharing the remainder of the
program with organist Glen War-ren.
ACCOMPANIED BY faculty rep-resentative,
Dr. Roy Dalton, the
38-member group will travel to
the Denver area for their spring
tour, April 11-21, with their home-coming
concert set for April 28
at Bethlehem Baptist church, Min-neapolis.
Contrasting classical and mo-dern
classical selections with
hymns and spirituals, their pro-gram
will also feature a brass
ensemble, quartets and soloist
Kent Lundholm. Assistant direc-tor
for the group is Ed Anthony,
a junior from Waukegan III. Paul
Wedeking is tour manager.
Leaving Bethel April 10, the col-lege
choir will make an extended
tour of the East coast before their
return on April 30. Their home
concert season begins March 17 at
Emmanuel Methodist church, Min-neapolis,
and concludes with a
homecoming concert in the field-house
on May 5.
ROBERT BERGLUND will direct
the 64-voice group in a concert of
varied selections featuring "Two
Cities" by Milhaud. Traveling with
the group, which has scheduled
concerts in ten states from Michi-gan
to New York to Washington,
D.C., will be faculty member Ger-ald
Assisting Mr. Berglund will be
student director, Bruce Leafblad,
a seminary junior from Wauke-gan,
III. Bruce Carmen, tour
abilities are rated at less than
thirty per cent unless they show
clearly that the disability caused a
pronounced employment handicap.
director, expressed his expecta-tion
of a rewarding tour, "not
only in the music itself, but in
the message it presents."
Scheduled to tour the Midwest
area from April 12-21 is the wo-men's
choir under the direction of
Julius Whitinger, chairman of the
music department. Their program
will feature works of such compos-ers
as Elger, Shaw, Grieg and
FIVE ADDITIONAL appearances
in the Twin Cities have been plan-ned
for the 51 members of this
"Communicating the Gospel
through Contemporary Song" indi-cates
the topic for the third in a
series of chapels on the great mu-sic
of the Church to be presented
March 8 at the regular chapel hour.
Presented by the Bethel college
department of music, these chapels
included a program on Bach and
Romantic music earlier in the year.
Project Notes
Mission Need
Five clocks, each representing a
conference mission field, have been
placed in the student center by the
World Missions fellowship as part
of its missionary prayer band em-phasis.
Beneath each of the clocks, the
organization has placed a rack of
current prayer requests obtained
through letters written to the mis-sionaries
by WMF prayer band
"These clocks have been made
available so that all may realize
the vital need of prayer support
for missionaries around the world,"
stated Brian Penny, chairman of
the project.
Each clock will register the time
of one foreign field and also list
the time difference between that
country and the United States.
The display was constructed by
Elvin Malcolm, Glen Hayne and
Jud Nelson.
choral group. Their season debut
will be March 10 at Elim Baptist
church, Minneapolis, and their
homecoming concert will be pre-sented
at Central Baptist church,
St. Paul, on April 28.
Nancy Gustafson, senior from
Deloit, Ia., is assistant director
of the group, and tour manager
is Anita Bennett.
Expenses for the tours will be
met through free-will of erings at
each concert, and any additional
funds have been designated for a
student scholarship fund.
Associate Professor Oliver Mogck
will introduce this program by giv-ing
a survey of contemporary sac-red
Glenna Gustin, Fern Anderson,
Ken Oberg, Fran Malmsten, Diane
Mogck, Kent Lundholm and Oliver
Mogck are the soloists accompan-ied
by Mary Bang, Leah Rogers,
Alyce Matheus and Andrea Rich-ardson.
A few of the numbers include
"Fight the Good Fight" by H. Le-
Roy Baumgartner; "The Greatest
of These is Love" by Roberta Bit-good;
and "Eternal Life" by Olive
According to Julius Whitinger,
department chairman, "The pur-pose
of this series is to present
some of the great classics in sacred
music, past and present, within
the framework of a worship ser-vice."
March 1 has been set as the
deadline for contributions to the
1963 COEVAL in the areas of mu-sic
and literature. Artwork is due
by March 15.
With an early April publication
date, COEVAL will contain stu-dent
work in poetry, short stories,
essays, sketches, photographs and
musical compositions.
All contributions should be
placed in P.O. 309 before the re-spective
Veterans Administration Provides
Scholarship Funds for Disabled
• ���
Chapel Includes Survey
Of Contemporary Music
Page 2
the CLARION Tuesday, February 26, 1963
Queries Seek to Uncover
Impetus for Scholarship
What is the true nature of the Bethel student? Can he
be described as aimless? What is his academic level? Can he
be challenged? Is he challenging? How does he interpret the
end or meaning of a college education?
Tonight the student senate will attempt a unique experi-ment
in catharsis, with faculty members and students present-ing
their views on "Academic Responsibility on Bethel's Cam-pus."
Indicative of a new approach to student government,
this venture promises to be an interesting, if not stimulating
evening of interaction on an issue of vital campus concern.
Indeed, is the student or the teacher responsible for
establishing or raising the academic level of the campus?
What impetus is there within the student body itself for
scholarship? Are scholars respected and encouraged? Are
students commended and rewarded for independent think-ing
and interpretative papers or for memorization and mere
assembly of related facts?
Is there an undue emphasis on extra-curricular activities?
Do they actually take precedence? What does the new student
expect upon enrolling at Bethel college? Is he usually satis-fied
or disappointed? How exemplary are upperclassmen and
graduates? How much interaction is there outside the class-room?
Or, just what does one find in a mature college exper-ience?
What is the teacher's responsibility? What effect do has-tily
prepared and dully read lectures of regurgitated texts
have on the academic level? Are any special teaching provi-sions
made for instructors enrolled in post-graduate programs?
Are Bethel professors making substantial contributions to their
fields, contributions that can convince the student that a cer-tain
discipline is vocationally exciting and worthwhile?
How much emphasis is placed on independent reading?
How much contact does the student have with source mater-ial?
How much stress is applied to structured objective tests
rather than to comprehensive essays? How much on form
rather than content? And are students encouraged to take
the initiative in class discussions or are they carefully steer-ed
toward desired conclusions?
What part do entrance requirements play in determining
academic level? And to what degree does the college have to
play baby-sitter to instill "correct" study habits in students?
When has a student safely matured enough to live and learn
by himself? Could class attendance requirements ever be com-pletely
dropped if an honor tradition were established? Is
such a tradition advisable?
What is the required h.p.r. in a major field for graduation?
Is it relatively high or low? What h.p.r. is necessary for con-
_ tinting studies at the school? How strictly is - it enforced? Is
complete freedom in intellectual searching allowed? Is it en-couraged?
Do denominational ties hinder true scholarship?
What is "true scholarship?"
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my camels... 7000 sheep
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(my insurance expires
the week previous.)
There's rumblings
among the servants
about unionizing►..
and NOW I think
I've got the Pox!
It's all enough
to make a
lose his
Lawrence Applies Letter of Law
In Examination of 'Civil Rights'
by Dean Woodard
THE NATURE OF FAITH—by Gerhard Ebe-ling.
Translated by Ronald Gregor Smith.
Philadelphia, Muhlenberg Press. 1961.
Perhaps I am overstating the
situation when I say that often
times I think I hear in the dis:
tance the death-knell of Evangeli-cal
orthodoxy. But, at times the
clanging sound seems terribly
Yet there appears to be plenty
of activity for an institution that
is supposed to be dying. Confer-ences,
festivals, rallies; laughter,
boistrous singing, dynamic preach-ing;
cynical old prophets preaching
in half empty churches; tough-minded
intellectuals mustering
every ounce of relevance they can
to bore students with their chal-lenges;
frothing, wild - eyed Kes-wickians
bellowing that what we
need is 'Revival r: what mean these
them. Maybe they are just 'clang-ing
cymbals' (in which case they
are only preliminary to the dole-ful
knell), or maybe they are bells
that are summoning us to come
and worship the "True and Living
Whatever the case might be,
Terhard Ebeling has something
to say to us. For one of the
symptoms of our supposed prob-lem
is a lack of clarity as to
what is our relationship to God.
Cutting quickly through to the
nature of Faith, Ebeling allows
Faith to be seen, not as an amal-gam
of propositions about God
which must be believed in spite of
their incredibility, but as a rela-tionship
to God, wherein we are
with God in the world. It is in the
light of Faith (this relationship
with God) that these doctrines take
on significance.
HAVING ESTABLISHED the
singularity of Faith, he undertakes
the task of making clear how all
of the important doctrines of
Christianity are not mere objects
of belief, but are essential for the
existence of Faith.
Holding Faith as the essence
of Christianity, he allows it to
be seen as it is illuminated by
Jesus—Faith in Christ, God, the
Word of God, the Holy Spirit,
Man, Justification, Love, the
Church, the World, Temptation
and Hope.
What appears ultimately is a
way of life that is primarily char-acterized
by Faith. Man, having
established by the Grace of God
(not out of any merit man might
have) a relationship to God in the
world and time, has been released
from the bondage of the past, made
free for the past and free to act
on behalf of others in the world
and free for the future.
THE MAN of Faith arises strong
and virile in the face of opposi-tion
and temptation. Having re-ceived
the proclamation with great
joy, he goes forth with joy, pro-claiming
that message to others.
This sounds Evangelical. How-ever,
I must warn the Evangeli-by
John Dischinger
Jack might have made a mistake
by limiting the Attorney General
job to the intelligence of the im-mediate
family. A figure to whom
little attention is usually paid
seems to have the ability to syn-chronize
civil rights and state's
David Lawrence accomplishes
this feat by observing the letter
rather than interpreting the "spir-it"
of the Constitution, and by en-closing
with quotation marks the
conventional conception of civil
"There has arisen in America
a cult which believes that the
spirit of the Constitution is more
by Judie Bergfalk
Tonight the New Friends of
Chamber music will present the
Julliard String quartet at 900 Mt.
Curve avenue, Minneapolis. The
program of Mozart, Beethoven and
Bartok will begin at 8:30 p.m. The
group will present a baroque en-semble
on March 8.
Minneapolis Civic orchestra will
perform tomorrow night at the St.
Paul campus student center and
at the main ballroom at Coffman
Memorial union, University of Min-nesota,
on Feb. 28. Both concerts
begin at 8:30 p.m.
FOR THEATRE lovers, the Mop-pet
players will present "The
Swineherd," based on Hans Chris-tian
Anderson's fairy tale of an
outwitted princess. Performances
are at 2 and 4 p.m. on March 2, 3,
9 and 10, and reservations are
T. S. Elliot's wcil-known "Mur
der in the Cathedral" will be pre-sented
at the University theatre in
Scott hall Feb. 28 through March
cal orthodox who would at-tempt
to read this book that he
may be disappointed with many
things that the author says.
Yet I would challenge anyone
who has felt the pangs of doubt
and dissatisfaction to grapple ser-iously
with Ebeling's arguments,
and above all to overlook points
of disagreement so as to be able
to see the crucial problem which
he has attempted to make trans-parent.
important than the letter of the
document . . .
"We see Presidents employing
federal troops whenever it is be-lieved
that violence may ensue in
any State . . ."
Before we can properly observe
the letter, however, we must rec-ognize
that our forefathers, "Rea-lizing
that our Republic was found-ed
by a group with conflicting in-terests
. . . conceived the idea of
separate states. Each state was to
be sovereign—endowed with the
right to govern itself within its
own area."
Now we can observe the letter
and denounce Mr. Kennedy for
punishing the citizen by forbid-
2. Performances are at 8 p.m. and
tickets are $1.75 each.
Through March 31, "500 Years
of Traditional Chinese Paintings,
15th-20th Century" will be dis-played
at the St. Paul Gallery and
School of Art.
AN EXHIBITION titled "Con-temporary
American Ceramics" at
University gallery in Northrup au-ditorium
will continue through
March 4. The display "Georges
Rouault — Printmaker" will run
through March 3. Rouault is con-sidered
by many to be the out-
(cont'd. on p. 3)
by Don Delich
It was my privilege, along with
Bethel students Bill Damberg and
Glenn Anderson and political sci-ence
professor Dr. Walfred Peter-son,
to attend the Washington sem-inar
on Federal service during the
week of Feb. 12-15 at Washington,
Sponsored by the National As-sociation
of Evangelicals, the prime
purpose of the seminar was to ac-quaint
interested students from
small colleges throughout the Uni-ted
States with the opportunities
for work in government service.
NAE IS a confederation support-ed
by about 28,000 evangelical
churches whose objective is to
lobby and influence Congressional
legislation involving moral issues,
and church-state relationships.
Earlier in the school year, Dr.
Clyde Taylor, secretary of pub-ding
the use of government funds
if any form of discrimination is
practiced in the selling, leasing,
or renting of property supported
therewith, and for handling "in-ternal
disorders" as if they were
We will support this by pointing
to our written Constitution. "For
it says plainly that no person shall
`be deprived of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of
law.' " And here we must forgive
David for not considering the
clause which preceded the "life,
liberty, or property" clause:
"No State shall make or enforce
any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citi-zens
of the United States." And
the clause which follows his ex-traction—"
nor (state) deny to any
person within its jurisdiction the
equal protection of the laws," for
we must remember that the found-ing
fathers intended the states to
be sovereign.
Thus, while working in the
interest of "civil rights" is "an
audacious usurpation of (Presi-dential)
power," working in the
interest of civil rights is keeping
the President from interfering
with "internal disorders."
Such creative thinking makes
one wish that Dave's article ap-peared
on the first instead of the
last page of his magazine.
lic affairs for the NAE, spoke at
a Bethel convocation_
This highlight in our second sem-ester
of being able to leave the
structured class schedule of a col-lege
campus for one week was
more than replaced by a busy itin-erary
of speakers, tours and other
MANY OF the government per-sonalities
who spoke at various
sessions emphasized the first-place
role that Christ plays in their lives
and their work. Among those who
were outspoken in presenting
a Christian application were:
Judge Boyd Leedom, a mem-ber
of the five-man National La-bor
Relations board; Miss Con-stance
Calenberg, a member in
(cont'd. on p. 3)
Was Week . .
Tuesday, Feb. 26
6 p m. "B" club. President's dining
6:45 p.m. Student senate discussion.
College auditorium.
7-9 p.m. Girls' intramurals. Fieldhouse.
Wednesday, Feb. 27
7 p.m. Debate: Northwestern vs. Bethel.
Room 105.
Boys' intramurals. Fieldhouse.
Thursday, Feb. 28
7:30 p.m. Senior class party. Fieldhouse.
Saturday, March 2
8 p.m. Social committee mixer. Field-house.
the CLARION
Published weekly during the academic year,
except during vacation and examination
periods, by the students of Bethel college
and seminary, St. Paul 1, Minn. Subscrip-tion
rate $3 per year.
Volume XX XIX
No. 16
Editor-in-Chief Dean Dahlquist
Associate Editor Dave Johnson
News Editor M rilynne Anderson
Feature Editor Karen Nelson
Sports Editor Bob Beckstrom
Copy Editor June Erickson
Photo Editor Elizabeth Carlson
Business Manager Bob Larson
Advertising Manager • • • • Marcia Daniels
Office Manager Judy Van Wambeke
Circulation Manager .... Lynne Demeter
Advisor Edward Avey
Opinions expressed in the CLARION do not
necessarily reflect the position of the college
or seminary.
Abe 31nbex:
Ebeling Describes Faith as Essence
Of Christian's Relationship with God
Seminar Participants Hear,
Meet Government Officials
(Photo by Ostrom)
Lyrical, poetical make-up of the subject is of basic interest to
Austra Ogulis, Bethel's guest artist-instructor. She is shown discussing
one of her drawings now on display in the seminary building with
Barbara Carlson.
Cottage Inn
Serving ...
Evening & Sunday
ecicteutaiwz Bapiest C644-cit
5501 Chicago Avenue South, Minneapolis
Sunday School 9:30
Morning Service 10:45
Evening Service 7:00
Rev. Ellis Eklof, Jr., Pastor
Student's Beauty Special
Shampoo, Wave and Style Cut
eekii)e eci,k4 'aIc#
1450 Frankson at Pascal Phone 646 - 1138
One block north of Midway Parkway
Students Visit
NAE Seminar
(cont'd. from p. 2)
the office of Secretary of State
Dean Rusk, whose charm and
beauty merited more than pass-ing
acknowledgement from even
Dr. Peterson; and Dr. Taylor of
Many other participants of the
seminar could be included in the
strong core of government people
who stand out as Christians in our
nation's capital.
TOURING AND sight-seeing also
occupied a large part of the sched-ule.
The Capitol building, the
House of Representatives, the Sen-ate,
the Supreme Court, the Li-brary
of Congress, the Treasury
building and other government
buildings were visited.
Our delegation from Minne-sota
was especially privileged to
have audiences with some of our
Congressmen, bringing them the
grievances of Bethel college.
We were also able to visit places
such as Arlington National ceme-tery,
the White house, Lincoln
memorial, Jefferson memorial, the
Smithsonian institute and others.
If the operation of our national
government intrigues you, save and
plan for next year's Washington
by Jud Nelson
Well-known Minneapolis artist,
Austra Ogulis, is currently exhibit-ing
a small collection of drawings
and water colors in the seminary
building. Mrs. Ogulis is presently
teaching a Monday night drawing
class on campus as guest artist-in-structor.
Originally from Latvia, Mrs. Ogu-lis
has exhibited in numerous art
shows in Europe and the United
IN LATVIA Mrs. Ogulis was an
art instructor and a member of
the Latvian and German Associa-tions
of Creative Artists.
Moving from her home country
in 1944, she started an art studio
and class in Germany, where she
met a sponsor from Minneapolis.
Now a permanent resident of
the Twin Cities, she has exhibited
at the Walker Art center, the Min-neapolis
Art institute and has had
several one-man shows, including
a painting exhibition at Bethel four
years ago.
HER WORK and interests, Mrs.
Ogulis states, find inspiration in
Mrs. Ogulis likes America because
it is constantly changing and grow-ing.
Life is growing, and thus art
is life in which an artist must de-velop
a relationship of under-standing
with the observer.
Perfection is the goal in art, al-though
a very elusive goal, and
these paintings demonstrate the
persistence of the search.
by Jim Spickelmier
Student senate will initiate a
series of discussions on campus
problem areas with the topic "Aca-demic
Responsibility on Bethel's
Campus." The meeting will be held
tonight at 7 in the college audi-torium.
The contention is that a college
community is initially and primar-ily
an academic community, and
whenever extra-curricular activi-ties,
sports or membership in other
organizations hamper a high level
of achievement in academic mat-
Tuesday, February 26, 1963
by Nancy Applequist
Among the seminars conducted
during Founders week, was the
English department's presentation
of four lecture-discussions on val-ues
of literature.
Instructors Bohlmeyer, Hein,
Avey and Tutton chose various
works and considered them with
respect to style, literary merit,
message and ultimate worth to
Christian readers.
OF PARTICULAR significance
to Christians and the problems
they face in choosing from modern
literature what will best help them
to understand the world around
them are the questions posed by
Miss Tutton's review of Sinclair
Lewis's Elmer Gantry.
The novel depicts the ruthless
ambitions of a young mid-western
Baptist minister in the 1920's—
his avarice, lasciviousness and con-tinual
exploration of fellow hu-man
As Elmer steadily works his way
up in the ecclesiastical hierarchy,
readers are given a devastatingly
biased portrayal of his sheer self-ishness
and the inhumanity of the
religious environment in which he
CONSTANTLY TREADING on
toes, forcing his boorish person-ality
on one and all, merrily ex-tricating
himself from countless
involvements with women, he is
not an appealing, sympathetic char-acter,
nor does he do the Ameri-can
evangelical effort any parti-cular
"Though referred to as a novel,"
Miss Tutton feels, "the book lacks
the characteristics, tightness of
plot, intensity of conflicts and de-velopment.
It is a loosely episodic
chronicle of one man's fanatical
grab for power through the evan-ters,
they are violating the nature
of college life and the committ-ment
of the student to such a life.
Dr. Ivan Fahs, Dave Johnson,
Earl Lemon, Dr. Walfred Peterson
and Miss Betty Tutton will pre-sent
this matter from the student's
and the faculty's perspective. This
panel will also answer student
questions and direct discussion.
the CLARION Page 3
gelical church, devoid of any ele-ment
of human tenderness."
The author sacrifices prosaic
quality in order to propagandize
how he felt about such religious
hypocrisy. In this respect the book
influences but fails to persuade
DISMISSING IT because of struc-tural
faults and lack of literary
"art," however, readers miss the
significance of parallels which can
be drawn to their own lives.
"The book is not particularly
well done," admits Miss Tutton.
"However," she warns, "it is un-wise
to dismiss it on the grounds
that its picture of evangelicalism
is inaccurate, acid and bitterly
"Though the author has perpe-trated
a deliberate half lie, his
work also contains half truths,
enough of reality to make worth-while
a careful consideration of its
"MOREOVER," she concludes,
"even more than pointing up the
church's weaknesses and minister-ial
inabilities, it makes each reader
aware in his own life of person-ality
traits like those of Elmer
"Each of us is beset to some
extent by ambition, desires for
power and a tendency to think
egotistically rather than altruisti-cally—
as Elmer Gantry so openly
displays these traits, we can see
something of ourselves in him."
For a Christian reader, desiring
to read with discernment those mo-dern
works which will broaden his
comprehension of world problems
and "enlighten" his compassion,
the social commentary of Elmer
Gantry has value.
It is not a book which presents
both sides of the church's prob-lems
unequivocally, nor would
reading it strengthen the faith of
the wavering.
But falling short of the mark as
literature and realism, Elmer Gan-try
still points up the hypocrisy
and unchecked ambition so char-acteristic
of our common human
(cont'd. from p. 2)
standing religious artist of the
twentieth century.
Catering especially to the cul-turally-
minded intellects and so-phisticates
are several coffee
houses in the Twin Cities. The out-standing
coffee house is Dudley
Rigg's Cafe Expresso on East Hen-nepin.
Brave New Workshop presents
satirical revues thrice-weekly, Feb-ruary's
show being "It'll Never
Work, George." The show satirizes
a wide range of presidential evils
from Mount Rushmore to the sec-ret
files of Secretary Freeman.
Performances are at 8 p.m. Sun-day
and 9 p.m. Tuesday and Wed-nesday.
Admission is $1.
ON OAK STREET, the Coffee
Break features authentic Negro
blues performed every Friday and
Saturday from 9:30 p.m. through
1:30 a.m. in a setting of dusty
wooden floors, fish nets and stain-ed
glass windows.
life itself. Creating with all the
various media, she is particularly
interested in the lyrical and poeti-cal
make-up of the subject, which
she explains as her impressions
and personal feelings toward the
She commented that "without
these feelings you have no artist.
When the viewer of abstract art
finally comes to the conclusion that
what he sees before him is purely
personal and intimate with the
artist, then he has finally found
the answer."
A comparison between her early
and later paintings shows a shift
from the impressionistic mode to
the modern abstract style. Char-coal,
oils and etchings stand out
as her favorites, and several
of these may be seen in the pre-sent
ON A RECENT Artists' Equity
trip to Paris, Rome, England and
London, Mrs. Ogulis became fur-ther
acquainted personally with
the international importance of ab-stract
In Europe there lingers the
spirit of a grandoise period, but
Instructor Ogulis Turns to Abstract Art
As Expression of Personal Inspiration
Senators, Faculty Discuss
Campus Academic Problem
Some have observed students
who are not satisfied to "just get
by" in sports or their contribution
to student activities, but who are
Several professors and students content with satisfying only the
have voiced the opinion that aca- basic requirements in their studies.
demic matters have been compris- Others feel that on a Christian
ed on our campus by excessive campus students should not be
extra-curricular involvement and satisfied with less than their best
student satisfaction with minimal performance, especially in their
levels of achievement. studies.
Elim Baptist Church
685 - 13th Avenue Northeast
Sunday School-9:45 a.m.
College Class
Morning Service—I 1:00 a.m.
Evening Chapel-7:00 p.m.
College-Business Fellowship-8:30 p.m.
Rev. Emmett V. Johnson, Pastor
Mr. Norman McLean, Ass't. Pastor
Department Presentation
Probes Christian Writing
: our
: Guilbcraft
fashion-styled frame
worn by
the ladies
they want
to admire
phone Fe 2-5681
719 Nicollet Ave.—Mpla.
(302 Wilmac Building)
by Bob Beckstrom
Playing the last basketball game of their college careers last Satur-day
night were seniors Dave Peterman, Lee Bajuniemi and Denny
Wahlstrom. Few would doubt that coach Jerry Healy has a real recruit-ing
problem on his hands with the loss of outstanding guards Peterman
and Bajuniemi, Gene Selander and George Palke notwithstanding.
Dave Peterman, starting slow this season and
finally exploding for 21 points against the North-western
Eagles, plays the kind of defense that makes
an opposing coach just shrug his shoulders at his
players during time outs. Visiting players, who remem-ber
coming into Bethel's fieldhouse with only a
traveling bag, discover that they don't go anywhere
without Dave Peterman.
His escorting service has changed the minds
of such consistently high scorers as Jack Povaser,
Walt Green and Don Wermager about touring the
Royal court. Moorhead's Don Wermager, fifth lead-ing
scorer in the Northern States College confer-ence,
could get only 16 points against Bethel, while Walt Green of
Northwestern had a most frustrating 12-point afternoon last week.
Offensively, Peterman had his best games of the season against
Northwestern (Minn.), 21 points; River Falls, 16 points; Wahpeton, 17
points; and Northland, 14 points. Playing in all 19 games this season,
he fouled out in only three games, a remarkable feat considering how
close he played his men.
Lee Bajuniemi's name is already legion in Bethel
basketball circles, for more reasons that its funny
spelling. Leading the team in scoring this season with
a 12.8 game average, Bajuniemi turned in 20-point
performance four times. The 5'7 1/2" co-captain also
collected 84 rebounds to place third in the final
statistics. His high game of 22 points against North-western
(Ia.) was the season scoring record until Don
Moore dumped in 23 in the final game against North-land.
Starting in all but one of the games this year,
Lee kept Bethel crowds excited and opponents'
crowds frustrated with his dribbling, passing, de-fense
and other assorted antics. Like Peterman, he lettered in his
sophomore year and has since been the assignment for opposing teams'
top offensive aces.
Denny Wahlstrom, whom Healy considers his best
#6 man, has come off the bench to score clutch baskets
all year long. No one has forgotten his game-tying
basket in the final seconds of the Sno-Daze game
which sent the contest into overtime, nor his eight-point
streak in the second quarter of the Founders
week game. With a 44% field goal average and an
83% free throw average he leads the team in both
North St. Paul Igaptist Church
2240 E. 15th Ave. — Hwy. 36
Sunday School 9:45 Evening Worship 7:00
Morning Worship 11:00 College Bible Class
Bethel students are always welcome
Minnesota Baptist Conference
Extension Churches
For information call
John H. Bergeson MI 4-9622 (Res. HU 9-1455)
(Photo by Ostrom)
Jumping high in the Northwestern game, Don Moore assists the
ball through the hoop for two of his 19 points. Looking on are Dave
Peterman (34) and Denny Wahlstrom (20).
Bethel's cagers split their final
two games of the season, over-powering
Northwestern (Minn.) 95-
65 and losing to Northland 83-78.
Starting the season slow, the Roy-als
featured a 4-4 mark over the
last half of the season.
Don Moore with 19 points led a
wide open Royal scoring attack
to an early 20-5 lead against North-western.
The victory, the Royal's
third straight and second straight
over Northwestern, highlighted the
annual Founders week activity.
paced by Walt Green's 12 points,
was never able to overcome a
Royal 48-29 halftime lead. Phil
Bolinder, with 14 points, and Jerry
Moulton and George Palke, each
with 13 points, contributed to the
Royal attack.
Doug Sprague scored 8 of his
10 points in the second half as
the Eagles closed the lead to
55-45 with 13 minutes left. Phil
Bolinder and Jerry Moulton,
however, sparked a Bethel surge
to their final 30 point victory.
Coach Jerry Healy substituted
freely throughout the game as one
Royal lineup averaged 6'5" with
ball handlers George Palke and
Gene Selander at guards. The 30
point margin was evidenced in the
statistics where Bethel outshot
(42 to 32%) and outrebounded
(70-31) the Eagles.
BETHEL TRAVELED to North-land
in the season's finale to lose
an 83-78 heartbreaker. Dave Peter-man's
clutch push shot tied the
game at 78-78 with 50 second left
Tuesday, February 26, 1963
but Bob Hammen's and Jack Po-vaser's
back to back scores put the
game out of reach.
Povaser set a new school scor-ing
record as he led Northland
to a 38-35 halftime lead. North-land
widened the spread to 55-
43 with seven minutes gone in
the second half but Moore and
Moulton, with 23 and 17 points
respectively, led the Royal come-back.
Don Moore, whose 23 points set
a Royal season scoring record,
B-Squad Downs
To Close Season
by Don Allison
Bethel's B-team closed out their
current cage season with a 49-46
triumph over Hamline university
last Monday evening at Hamline's
Coach Glader's group finished
the season with a 7-3 mark, los-ing
only to Macalester, Northwest-ern
and River Falls.
Freshman Jerry Moulton, hit-ting
at a snappy 47.6 per cent,
scored on ten field goals and
seven free throws. Mary Flodin
hit for seven and six point re-spectively.
The Royals, leading most of the
first half, went to the locker room
at half time trailing by two points
as Hamline led 26-24.
Bethel's tenacious defense and
Hamline's bad passing in the sec-
Barons Seek
Return Crown
In Volleyball
After completion of flag foot-ball,
cross country, table tennis,
badminton and basketball, the
Knights maintain a healthy lead in
the intramural point standings
with a total of 210.
In second place stand the Counts
with 173 points followed by the
Jesters, 168; Squires, 159; Semin-ary,
146; Peasants, 106; Pages,
103; Dukes, 98; Barons, 58; and
Faculty, 0.
Tomorrow begins the nine-game
round robin in volleyball. The
Knights play the Dukes, while the
Pages meet the Seminarians in the
7 p.m. game.
At 8 p.m. the Faculty encounter
the Squires, and the Counts play
the Barons. Peasants and Jesters
meet in the final game at 9 p.m.
Last year's champions, the Barons,
will be out to maintain their title.
Five more tournaments are left
in the second semester intramural
program. Handball begins March
12, followed by wrestling on March
25-29. Two events, softball and ten-nis,
have been scheduled for April,
and the program concludes May
11 with a track and field meet.
fouled out with 1:35 left. The game
was determined on the foul line
where Northland outshot the Roy-als
Next season's outlook is en-hanced
by the additions of Don
Moore and George Palke to the
Royal starting lineup. Even though
the Royals will be without the ser-vices
of Bajuniemi, Peterman and
Wahlstrom, the team will have a
powerful lineup as they try and
improve on this season's 5-14 re-cord.
Hamline 49-46
with 1-3 Record
and half accounted for the Royal's
eventual victory. Randy Johnson,
patrolling the boards, dragged
down 14 rebounds for Bethel.
Playing without the talents of
Ed Peterman and Jim Stanley
for the second semester, the B-team
managed to retain their
winning record with the addi-tion
of sophomore Bill Carlson
and freshman Flodin.
Bethel's shooting average for the
season was 35 per cent as compar-ed
to their opponent's 35.2 per
cent. The difference came at the
free throw line with the Royal's
62.5 per cent topping the oppon-ents'
56 per cent.
Harvey, Moulton, Peternian and
Paul Nelson were scoring stand-outs,
while Johnson and Nelson
handled the bulk of the rebound-ing.
All students . .
Have you considered
having a class ring?
Now's the time to order if
you want it before June
Order at .. .
Bethel Baohdlaite
Page 4
the CLARION
Faith Baptist Church
296 E. Cottage Avenue St. Paul
Sunday School 9:45 a.m. Youth Meetings 6 p.m.
Morning Worship I I a.m. Evangelistic Service 7 p.m.
Saturday Nite Youth Activity 6:30 p.m.
A Conservative Baptist church preaching
Christ crucified, risen and coming again
Dr. Robert Myrant, pastor 529 - 1170
Bethel Splits Final Two Games;
Moore Scores 23 at Northland
Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.


text:
My oldest, sitting in the passenger seat next to me, commented that she calls that music "epic music", the stuff that she listens to while she does her homework (courtesy of YouTube playlists).
I'm not going to dispute those descriptions, although I believe I'd refer to what Steff was looking for was music that stirs deep emotions in the soul.
But what I found interesting was a comment by Syp about how the pieces in the SWTOR soundtrack --Alderaan: The Throne was Steff's example of the sort of music she was aiming for-- are overly long and can be tedious at times.
If you've played the game, the piece's first minute is heard when Alderaan loads (and periodically when travelling), but you might not have heard the rest without consciously seeking the soundtrack out.
But you know what that piece reminds me of? Ottorino Respighi's The Pines of Rome. Oh, not in a "it sounds like" moment, but in how the piece uses the music to paint a picture. If you're not familiar with Pines of Rome, you probably have heard the Fantasia 2000 version of it:
Yeah, I know. It's the "flying whales" piece.
But the point is, both pieces paint a picture. Pines of Rome creates a musical poem of the pines found in certain areas of Rome, such as the Pines of the Appian Way, and Alderaan: the Throne does the same thing for the planet of Alderaan, its apparent refinement and beauty, but underneath its struggles with civil war.
SWTOR's soundtrack is a bit unique among MMO soundtracks in that individual pieces for classes and planets are often in the 5-6 minute range, far longer than traditional MMO pieces. You can find individual MMO pieces that match the SWTOR ones, such as The Sindorei and Forged in Blood from WoW (BC and Wrath, respectively), but they are the exception rather than the rule. And still, the only pieces that play out in their 5+ minute entirety while adventuring in the game world --that I'm aware of, anyway-- are The Sindorei and Totems of the Grizzlemaw (Wrath again). Even SWTOR will chop up bits and pieces of their soundtrack for use in game, figuring that the KISS principle is the best one.**
I suppose that it only makes sense that when you're playing a game as visually stimulating and interactive as an MMO, creating overly complex themes would be lost on the average game player. Hell, I play WoW with the soundtrack off, mainly because you get tired of hearing the same 30 second piece when in a battleground.*** But the design intent of an in-game MMO soundtrack can be completely different than that found in the MP3/iTunes/CD version of the same.
While in-game, a soundtrack supplements the visual and interactive aspects of the MMO, but once the game exits, a soundtrack would have to stand on its own. Some games, such as Guild Wars 2, have a bunch of short pieces that have great sound and beauty, and they excel at meshing with the game itself. Alone, however, they feel too short. There's an epic feel present, but nothing sustained beyond a minute or two for all but a few pieces. But SWTOR took a different tactic, and took 5-6 minute tone poems and cherry-picked themes from each one to use in-game. This may not sit well with some, but others would welcome it.
For example, when I was playing pieces off of YouTube for this post, my wife looked up from her perusal of the internet and asked what that piece I was playing was.
"'Alderaan: The Throne', from the Star Wars: The Old Republic Soundtrack," I replied. The piece was well into its third minute.
"I like it," she said.
I made a mental note of that, because the other piece that I've played of MMO soundtracks lately that she stopped me and actually asked about it was Forged in Blood. The piano sweeps of Forged in Blood give that piece a distinct modern feel, and that attracted her attention.
Does this mean that I prefer one MMO soundtrack methodology over another? Not really, but it does mean that composers and game houses are tinkering, trying things out, and stretching what it means to be an MMO soundtrack. There are parts of the SWTOR soundtrack that I hear and think that the composer was aiming for the wider classical audience, rather than just the MMO gamer crowd. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, because I as a gamer (and movie soundtrack buff) am increasingly tired of hearing from certain crowds how second rate the video game/movie compositions are.
But that's a topic for another post.
*See the sidebar for the link. If you like MMO music, give them a try. You know the principals involved: Syl from MMO Gypsy, Syp from Biobreak and Massively, and Steff from MMO Gamer Chick.
**KISS = Keep It Simple, Stupid. Come on, you really thought I was talking about these guys?
***That doesn't mean I play WoW without music, because there's often something running in the background. I personally will stream the Live365 channel Tears of Glory when playing WoW for the variety. Plus, I'm amused when I'm in Alterac Valley and suddenly the WoW cities' themes comes on.
EtA: Sorry, Shin. I can blame that it was almost midnight when I wrote that. Corrected.


text:
After news reports surfaced last week that Sofia Coppola is in talks to direct a live-action adaptation of "The Little Mermaid," media outlets and fans quickly began speculating that Emma Watson, who worked with Coppola on "The Bling Ring," would be an ideal candidate for the title role.
Now Watson, who is making the rounds promoting the biblical epic "Noah," has addressed the casting rumors.
At the "Noah" premiere in New York on Thursday, the 23-year-old actress told Variety she's a longtime fan of the 1989 Disney animated version of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. "I actually dressed up as Ariel for my 5th birthday," she said.
However, she hasn't so much as seen the script for the new movie. "I mean I'd have to read it first," Watson said, though she did add, "I love Sofia so much."
Watson was also asked about the rumors by VH1, and said they were "fiction … fiction for now."
The script for the new film is based on the original Andersen story, which is considerably darker than the beloved Disney musical. It is being rewritten by Caroline Thompson ("Edward Scissorhands") for Universal. Previous drafts were penned by Kelly Marcel ("Fifty Shades of Grey") and Abi Morgan ("Shame").


text:
you may think i am a the laziest ass around, but you are awfully wrong.
painfully wrong.
let me clear something.
see, the low frequency of posts is no coincidence, but out of my control and down to a really deep logic.
like mind-boggling super-duper life changing deep.
but i should add beeing deep has also side effects, it will make you watch 'showgirls', repeatedly every single day from now on till the end of your days and also you will feel the constant urge to dress up your cats in a fancy way.
but listen, its not the time to show any consideration as mommy has a point to proove here.
so here ist the truth if you can handle it:
i mulitplicate the posts of november 2010 with the square root of a number with 53 digits, subtract 2 and add 1. repeat 34 times.
everything makes perfect sense now.
i told you.
holo clutch: made for me by the gorgeous and talented crystal. thank you so much babe, i wear it every day!, top: topshop unique, velvet dungaree: topshop boutique, shoes: cheap monday


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Product Description
TMI Sport II Series Rear Seat Foam and Dark Red Upholstery without a Console for 1968 Coupe Mustangs with Standard Interior.
Replace the old, faded rear seat or upgrade your existing rear seat to match the front Sport II Series upholstery in your 1968 Coupe Mustang with Standard interior using TMI's brand new Sport II Series Seat Foam and Upholstery Set. This kit will re-use factory frames, but includes new Sport II rear seat foam with more aggressive side and leg bolsters, along with matching Sport II series Standard upholstery.
This rear seat upholstery set is perfect for your Mustang because it not only gives your seats a modern and aggressive feel to match your existing Sport II series front buckets, but also retains the original styling. This seat foam and upholstery set from TMI takes the flat rear bench seat in your Mustang and converts it to individual buckets.
Set Includes:
- Sport II Series Original Style Sierra Grain Vinyl Rear Seat Upholstery
- Sport II Series Rear Seat Foam with Aggressive Side and Leg Bolsters
This particular set of upholstery features original Sierra grain vinyl construction with Kiwi inserts. This kit does not include a console and is available in a large variety of factory color options.
*We recommend this set only if you already have Sport II Series upholstery. If you're looking to upgrade to both front and rear Sport II Series seats from TMI, then you should check out U155K-V.
TMI Products is an industry leader in Mustang upholstery, seat foam, consoles, door panels, headliners, and many other Mustang interior products. Each of their products is manufactured in the USA with attention paid to maintaining the highest quality, using the best materials available. With TMI, you know your Mustang is getting the best interior products on the market.
What are you waiting for? Order TMI's Sport II Series Rear Seat Foam and Upholstery without a Console for your 1968 Coupe Mustang with Standard Interior from CJ Pony Parts today!
Installation Instructions
Mustang Applications
This product will fit the following Mustang years:
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Lytro camera owners will be able to supplement their existing photos as well as new ones with a camera software update that allows slight adjustments in perspective, as well as nine 'live filter' modes that alter colour, focus, distortion and add special effects.
Our review of the Lytro light field camera
The Perspective Shift mode will apply to all existing Lytro photos, as well as any new photo that's taken, after the software update is released at the start of December. By using extra data that's captured by the camera that isn't used in the regular re-focusing mode, Perspective Shift lets photo viewers see additional angles within the frame:
Like Instagram on bath salts, Lytro's Live Filter modes aren't just sepia toning, colour boosts and a bit of fancy vignetting. The Line Art filter, for example, converts your photo into a cartoon drawing, but Lytro's light field capture comes into play with out-of-focus areas being 'drawn' less solidly.
Similarly, the Carnival mode distorts previously out-of-focus areas like a concave mirror:
The software revamp will come on December 4, delivered free through an update of the Lytro Desktop software.
Lytro's Live Filter modes are as follows:
Carnival: Twist and distort your picture as you refocus and change perspective as if you're in a funhouse of mirrors.
Crayon: Add a touch of colour to a monochrome version of your picture. Click to focus and add colour into your scene, or change your perspective and add colour back into your scene as you explore.
Glass: Put a sheet of virtual glass into your scene. Everything in front of where you click will be unchanged, and everything behind will appear to be behind a piece of frosted glass.
Line Art: Reduce your scene to a grayscale outline, seeing more detailed lines where you refocus.
Mosaic: Create a tiled mosaic in the out-of-focus parts of your scene as you click or change your perspective.
Blur+: Significantly enhance the amount of blur in the out-of-focus parts of your scene.
Pop: Make parts of your scene pop out with extra detail and vibrancy when those areas are clicked.
Film Noir: Add a moody and stylised black and white look to your pictures, with a little bit of extra detail and colour where you click.
8-Track: Bring back the '70s with this filter that adds an aged, vignetted look to your pictures. Click to un-age parts of your scene and see them come back to life.
Lytro founder Ren Ng is predictably excited by the software update: "By capturing the light field, the Lytro camera lets photographers achieve things that were never before possible.
"The first groundbreaking capability was focusing pictures after they were taken and now we are excited to offer Perspective Shift, which brings living pictures to life in an entirely new way."