WHERE IS THEIR “GOOD NEWS”?

Jesus Christ had a dynamic message for mankind, a message that God commissioned him to preach. It was really good news, the best news. As part of a sign of these “last days” Jesus foretold that “this good news of the kingdom” would be preached throughout the earth before the end came.​—2 Tim. 3:1-5; Matt. 24:14.

Is this dynamic good news being preached in the churches of Christendom? Dr. John Bennett, former president of New York’s Union Theological Seminary, admitted that “today’s sermons are often dull, unimaginative, ill-prepared and boring,” reports the Seattle “Post-Intelligencer.”

Then, the moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, Murdo Nicolson, stated: “We have got the greatest message in the world, but you would never know it from going inside a church.” This clergyman, the Windsor “Star” noted, “blames disenchantment with the church on the way the Bible’s message is being transmitted.”

Is it just a matter of the way the preaching is presented, or is it also a question of knowing what to preach and being filled with the zeal to preach? The Washington “Post” published this news report: “The 95 bishops of the United Methodist Church said today their denomination is caught up in a crisis of faith, with legions of clergy as well as laymen unable honestly to profess traditional Christian beliefs.”

Hans Küng, a leading Roman Catholic theologian who teaches in Germany, says of his church: “The church’s credibility is so low that we cannot imagine how this happened.” And, according to the St. Louis “Globe-Democrat,” East St. Louis priest Stanley Roth declared that the “diocesan priesthood is dead,” and added: “It cannot be reformed from within or without. It is an inoperable institution.” Catholic layman William Durbin answered that the priesthood and laity were “not dead, but in a pathological stupor, alive but leading a vegetable existence.”

Does all of that sound as if God is leading and backing these institutions where the “good news” is so sadly lacking?

WHAT DOES IT SHOW?

Ask yourself: Does all of the foregoing show any dynamic good news from God working through the churches? Or does it show just the opposite: that the churches are in a state of decay, confusion and crisis? The facts show that the ranks of clergymen, seminary students and laity are dwindling and they are not even certain of what the truth is.

And why not? Of religious leaders in ancient Israel, the prophet wrote: “They have rejected the very word of Jehovah, and what wisdom do they have?” (Jer. 8:9) God’s Son said of religious leaders of his generation: “It is in vain that they keep worshiping [God], because they teach commands of men as doctrines.” So if we find the same conditions today, we may be sure that the result will be just as it was in Jesus’ day: “Blind guides is what they are. If, then, a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”​—Matt. 15:6, 9, 14.

However, for a certainty there is a dynamic message, really “good news,” being preached throughout all the earth today. If not by the churches of Christendom, by whom then? Well, who is it that comes to your door telling you the same things that Jesus Christ taught? Who is sounding the warning of the near end of this ungodly system of things and of the coming in of God’s new order? Who upholds God’s standards of morality? Who refuses to become involved in worldly politics? Who regularly teaches adults the Bible and equips them to teach their children? Who gives evidence by their growth and spiritual prosperity that they have God’s backing? We trust that your reading the rest of this magazine will help to supply you with the logical answers.