CHRISTIAN ACADEMY IN JAPAN COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS
June 10, 1976 （the year I graduated from high school)
V.M. Springer
Text: 1 Chron. 24:10-12; Acts 17:22-31
Mr. Jones, Members of the Board and Faculty, Distinguished Guest, and Honored 1976 Class Graduates:
President Ford, when asked to speak last year to a High School graduating class, was given a mandate by his daughter Susan, a member of that class: “Keep it short; don’t talk about me; no jokes; don’t talk about how it was when you were young!” My daughter has given me a similar mandate, and I accept it.
This is a day when immorality, degeneracy, and corruption have come to light in the highest circles of public life. Just think of the spectacular scandals that have come to light in your own brief high school year. And pornography now assaults the eye and the ear daily in living color and earsplitting sound. How can one stay anchored to an invisible and holy God, and to a Saviour who departed this earthly scene over 1900 years ago. Let me give you three bedrock statements which have kept my immediate ancestors and myself anchored to that rock for a cumulative but overlapping total of more than 200 years.
I. GOD IS SOVEREIGN
Do you think that God has abducted His throne, and that the Devil has taken control of our universe? Then hear again a portion of tonight’s Scripture text: “Thine O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Tine; Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all.” I Chron. 29:11, 12. Or listen to the inspired utterances of the most powerful king of ancient days, as given in Dan. 4:35: “He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, ‘What doest Thou?’”
God’s sovereignty is absolute and irresistible. His is the right of the potter over the clay, and He is under no obligation to give an account of Himself to anyone. He has every right to bring into being a J. Paul Getty, or a widow possessing only two mites. He has the right to make the gardenia with its overpowering fragrance while the camellia has practically none at all. He it was Who placed the tasty mushroom and the poisonous toadstool in similiar surroundings. It was this omnipotent and sovereign God Who placed the lush Amazon basin and the arid Sahara desert on the same planet.
Seen from the view of the natural man, it might seem that God is unfair. To one He gives 5 talents; to another just one. He may put in the same family a handsome and healthy child, and a weak and sickly one. Some are born with great intellectual powers; others are born feeble-minded. Some are born leaders and rulers; others are born to serve and follow. Is this fair? When you look at these things with the eye of faith you can say in those beautiful words of Matt. 11:26, “Even so Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” That one statement changes the whole picture! God is sovereign! With that assurance I can live with myself in spite of all my imperfections.
II The Scriptures are Inerrant
In the preface to his recently published book, THE BATTLE FOR THE BIBLE, Dr. Harold Lindsell states, “I regard the subject of this book, biblical inerrancy, to be the most important theological topic of this age.” The forward to the book was written by Dr. Harold Ockenga, who writes, “Dr. Lindsell mentions that acceptance of inerrancy is the watershed of modern theological controversy. He is right in declaring that the attitude we have toward the trustworthiness of Scripture determines our later position, not only on faith, but also on practice. The evidence that those who surrender the doctrine of inerrancy inevitably move away from orthodoxy is indisputable.” This very timely book points out that there are many today who seek to divide the Scriptures into those portions that make men wise unto salvation and those that simply reflect the fallible thinking of their writers. Thus such men would say that “Scripture that does not involve matters of faith and practice is not infallible.” (pg. 116)
Let me here flatly state that I cannot conceive of a God who could create the worlds out of nothing and create man a living soul; but then couldn’t give a Bible we can rely on. Can you imagine such a God not being able to give us accurate statements of biology or chemistry or astronomy where He desired to?
In this Bicentennial Year of the United States of America let us go back for a look at the last days of George Washington, know as the father of his country. Quoting the Britannica Encyclopedia (1964 Ed.) we read, “On December 12, 1799 (Washington) exposed himself on horseback for several hours to cold and snow and, returning home exhausted was attacked late next day with quinsy or acute laryngitis. He was bled heavily four times--- his strength meanwhile rapidly sinking. He died at 10 P.M. on December 14 without pain or struggle.” But over 3000 years before, God had declared through Moses, in Lev. 17:11, “The life of the flesh is in the blood.” No wonder George Washington died without struggle – they had drained away his life’s blood. Not until the last century have scholars and medical man become aware of this great truth of the Scripture.
Or let us consider for a moment a man named Ptolemy, who lived in the 2nd century A.D. World Book Encyclopedia refers to him as one of the greatest astronomers and geographers of ancient times. And indeed he was. He published a 13-volume scientific work in which two volumes were dedicated to a listing of the stars with celestial latitude and longitude – all 1,022 of them! Back in Genesis, God had declared to Abraham, “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore.” But Abraham could hold in his two hands as many grains of sand as he could see stars in the sky. So it must have seemed strange even then to equate the number of stars to the number of grains of sand. Even 2,000 years later Ptolemy thought the number to be barely over a thousand. But then came the invention of the telescope, and scientists now estimate the number of stars to be 1028 or 10 octillion by American counting – that’s 10 with 27 zeros after it! Time does not permit me to go on in this vein, but you’re probably aware that scholars used to scoff at the biblical statement that the elements would one day melt in fervent heat – till the discovery of the atom bomb! Yes, our Scriptures as originally given by God are inerrant.
III Christ is Real
He really lived on this earth, died, rose again, and is coming back for His own. Further, He really cares about me – knows my needs – delights when I call on Him in sincerity. He is God; He never slumbers nor sleeps; so I can go to Him any hour of the day or night. And because He’s omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, I can commune with Him about everything – great or small – and know that He has time to listen. To know that He is always there has been a constant comfort to me since I believed on Him at the age of nine or ten.
Even when he doesn’t do things for me the way I want Him to, I find great comfort in the assurance that He knows what’s best for me, and that He loves me with an everlasting love. And how much better it is to have Him than to have all that this world has to offer.
Since April 1 of this year two billionaires have departed this life. Let me read to you of the last days of one and the attitude in life of the other, as quoted in TIME magazine and JAPAN TIMES. “On an orthopedic bed in a deep coma lay Howard Hughes, his emaciated, naked body covered only with a sheet. His skin was spotted with bedsores. Blood oozed from a swelling on the side of his head that had been cut open in a fall several months earlier. His blood pressure was barely recordable, his breathing was shallow, and he showed signs of severe dehydration. (Hughes) was in constant pain and developed an addiction to codeine. He refused to take medicine or eat properly. Hughes was a despotic, cranky patient who reduced his personal physicians to the status of mere valets.” This does not make the holding of wealth very attractive, does it? Or what about this article on J. Paul Getty, another billionaire, “Getty, a tall man with a perpetual hang dog expression, rarely smiled in public, and he cultivated a reputation for meanness. He installed pay telephones for guests at Sutton Place and once confessed to waiting outside a restaurant until a time when he did not have to pay a cover charge.”
Now by contrast hear the words of a widow of poor means, written at the age of 72 in a letter to her son, “I have so much of the land of plenty, and am surrounded by benefits, all I need to eat or wear or whatever. The girls are so good to me, and every wish I express they immediately try to fulfill. My sons write to me from afar such wonderful letters as well as giving me more than I deserve. I can pay my bills when they come due, have a comfortable home, and quite a few friends. What millionaires could have more? Most of all I have peace of mind because of my belief and trust in God, and the happy knowledge that my children likewise believe.” Oh the great contrast between exceedingly wealthy men without Christ and a humble woman, my Mother, to whom Christ is real and alive!
If you forget all else that took place tonight, let me beseech you to remember and believe through all your days these three things: God is sovereign; the Scriptures are inerrant; and Jesus Christ is real. Thank you.
GRADUATION PRAYER PROMISE FOR THE CLASS OF ‘76 based upon the Psalm for all seasons – Psalm 121 given by Bob Boardman
1. I will lift up my eyes to the hills—from where does my help come?
2. My help comes from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
3. HE will not suffer your foot to be moved: HE that keeps you will not slumber.
4. Behold, HE that keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5. The LORD is your Keeper; the LORD is your shade upon your right hand.
6. The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.
7. The LORD shall preserve you from all evil: HE shall preserve you soul.
8. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
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