Don’t see the audio player? Click here.
In 1956, Dr. Billy Graham asked Carl Henry to be the first editor of a new magazine called Christianity Today. In taking the job, Dr. Henry said the magazine would focus on both personal and public issues because the church’s role in the earth was to struggle for just social structures as well as to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Dr. Henry died in 2003, but his ideas still percolate among serious-minded Christians. The Gospel of Christ is a whole message, for the whole person, for the whole world. That truth (found in Luke Chapter 3) is what John the Baptist preached as he introduced Jesus as Messiah. He said, “I baptize you with water; but someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.” John made it clear that by “chaff,” he meant hypocritical leaders who took advantage of others, who used unjust tactics to rip off the poor, and who leveled false accusations against the innocent. God’s people today boldly spread the truth of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, even as they promote justice and righteousness.
