The Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Rector of Calvary Church, New York. He has written a book " Realizing Religion." He says, " Hardly a page but what has upon it the thought or the actual words of William James, who did so much as a great scientist to give the world a reassuring feeling about religion in general " (" Realizing Religion," p. 8). William James is quoted in " Life Changers," by Harold Begbie, and in " For Sinners Only," by A. J. Russell, two journalists, who have produced their books with F. B.'s acquiescence. So we see this influence is strong in the movement.
What sort of teaching did William James, a Professor of Harvard University, put forth? We are told, "The whole trend of his argument went to prove that 'Conversion,' as we evangelical Christians understand it, is a natural phenomenon, and that, what we experience in the way of conviction of sin, conversion and subsequent spiritual blessing can be equally experienced by Mohammedan dervishes, Hindoo mystics and anyone outside of Christianity altogether" (The Group Movement." J. Gordon Logan). As a confirmation of this sadly necessary exposure, the disciple, Shoemaker, writing of " the wind bloweth where it listeth... so is everyone that is born of the Spirit " (John 3:88The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)), says, "Sometimes it will take a highly original turn, perhaps driving him, who had it, into the wilderness, out of doors where Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, St. Francis, George Fox and many others had to go " ("Realizing Religion," p. 45). One stares with utter amazement at this sentence. The blessed Lord Jesus bracketed between Buddha and Mohammed, men who founded heathen religions, fanatically opposed to Christianity—between Buddha, whose religion is polluted and debased by the immorality that goes on in its ten thousand temples as part of its religion; and Mohammed with his promise of a sensual paradise for the faithful!
With such influence at work we are not surprised to read, "Frank [Buchman] declines to accept the division of the world into two classes—saved and unsaved " (" For Sinners Only," p. 147).
Shoemaker has written a book, "If I be lifted up." He says:- " This book is about the Cross. It is in no sense a complete theology of the cross—not even as complete a theory as I believe in myself, and could write if there were time " (page 7). But it is not unreasonable to expect the central idea of the Cross to be emphasized in a book of 179 pages.
For an atoning work we need a spotless, sinless Savior, One who never swerved to the right hand or the left in doing God's will. We read, "He took His three intimates with Him, and in the Garden He fought out in terms, which it is not difficult for us to understand, the final unification of His own will with the will of God for the redemption of the world " (p. 93). To fight out the unification of His own will with the will of God suggests a struggle to do so. For His will not to have been at all times one with His Father's would have been sin. In this sentence, then, we have lost a perfect Savior, and a Savior not perfect is no Savior at all. True He said, " Not My will, but Thine, be done " (Luke 22:4242Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. (Luke 22:42)), but surely that did not indicate a struggle, but submission to His Father's will. Again we read, "Last night in Gethsemane He had struggled to keep His will poised toward the will of God, and He had succeeded (pp. 94, 95). Here we have the same thought. Surely if this were true we have lost the Savior. Again we read, "It was an awful temptation to Him to become a political liberator" (p. 104). Shocking words! Our Lord knew that the only way of blessing for poor sinful men was through His atoning death on the cross, so we read, " He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem " (Luke 9:5151And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, (Luke 9:51)). Blessed Savior, in the exquisite sensibilities of His spotless humanity, He shrank from the fiery ordeal that lay before Him, but in the perfection of that manhood He cried, "Not My will, but Thine, be done" (Luke 12:4242And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? (Luke 12:42)).
And what is Shoemaker's explanation of the three words uttered on the cross, "It is finished" (John 19:3030When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (John 19:30))? Surely here he ought to be clear as to meaning, that the work of atonement was completed, that our Lord had borne the fierce judgment of God against sin, and satisfied forever divine justice. In a book of 179 pages surely there is room for this explanation-the very central meaning of the cross.
Shoemaker says, "I think the thing which made Him say, ' It is finished,' was the knowledge that He had lived long enough to infect the world with a new principle" (p. 107). "He must have said to Himself, 'This little handful, the whole fruit of My labors, is the one hopeful society in the world, the only true ' initiates ' in the open secret of how to live, the vanguard of the new humanity. They got what I said. They saw the point. They dared to follow. They will carry on. 'It is finished!'" (p. 109). "It was not the suffering of Jesus which saved us: it was the way He carried us on His heart and went to Calvary for us " (p. 145).
Note Shoemaker here says, "It was not the suffering of Jesus which saved us." Scripture says, "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God " (1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18)). Which are we to believe? Shoemaker's statement is modernistic and anti-christian.
Again he writes, "This is the way in which suffering love goes on redeeming forever. By this means, I say it reverently, you and I may be wounded for their transgressions, and bruised for their iniquities: the chastisement of their peace may be upon us, and with our stripes, they may be healed" (p. 149). Shoemaker says he makes his statement "reverently." The truth is he makes it blasphemously. A book with such statements in it ought to be committed to the flames. It is a monstrous perversion of the truth.
In all these quotations we see how Shoemaker has no real understanding of the Cross. In writing a book of the size of 179 pages on the subject he is bound to speak of atonement, redemption, etc., did he really believe in them. But what shall be said of his utterly missing the meaning of " It is finished; " and his misunderstanding of the real atoning value of the Cross, in the judgment of God upon sin? He whittles away the true meaning of "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:4646And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)).
Again we read, "The individual in whom redemptiveness is most incarnated will receive the most unremitting blows of the world's scorn and hatred. Jesus before Pilate is the supreme image of this; but all His saints, and the wise of other folds, instance the same truth: Socrates drinking his hemlock, and Gandhi in prison for his own redemptiveness" (p. 144). Is it not shocking to put our Lord and the heathen Socrates and the agitator Gandhi in one category as "redemptiveness" being "most incarnated" in them?
Whilst there are some statements in Shoemaker's book, which are true, yet evidently he does not put the same value and meaning on the words, atonement, redemption, etc., as evangelical Christians do. And what he gives with one hand, he withdraws with the other. There is the trail of the serpent running through his book, modernism in all its destructive power to annihilate our true perception of our Lord and His atoning work on the cross.
Let us now come to the consideration of one or two prominent practices in the Oxford Group Movement.