At the Tolling of the Bell by David R. Kenney
As a young boy, Iremember going to the church building with Grandpa to watch him toll that bell. It was a big deal! We would walk together up the road to the buildingat least an hour before services. Hewould prepare communion and do some things about the building while I lookedaround and waited for the big event. Whenthe time came, he would remove the rope from its clasp on the wall, examine hiswatch carefully, then begin pulling on the rope. I would listen for the ringing sound to beginand grow louder. I loved to open thefront door to hear the full sound of the tolling going out in the neighborhood. He rang the bell for three minutes solid, thenstopped, put the rope back in its clasp, then sit in the pew right next to therope in the back of the auditorium. Andthere we would sit there together in practical silence for several minutesbefore people would finally start to come in. Then, at the exact starting time, he would ring the bell again with asingle pull to let people know the services were commencing.
Twenty-four years he didthis faithfully—twice on Sundays, Wednesday nights, plus gospel meetings. This may seem like a minor thing to some, butto a young boy who admired the only grandfather he knew, it was anything butminor. Assuming he never missed aservice, and he rarely did, then he sat in that pew before ringing that bellfor three hours each week. That is 156hours a year and over 3,700 hours for the time they served as custodians. The time certainly adds up!
As time has gone by, severalmemories from my childhood have faded from my mind, but the importance of thetolling of the bell remains. What did thetolling of the bell really mean? At first one might say it just marked thetime as one hour before services and that services had begun. But it actually meant more than marking thetime. To the community it meant that thesaints were gathering to the designated place at their appointed time to joinin worshipping their God. That thesemen, women and children were going to offer songs of praise to their God,partake of their Lord and Savior’s memorial supper, bring their sacrificialofferings to further the gospel message to all those who will hear it, speak asa congregation to their Lord in prayer and hear God speak to them through amessage delivered from His Word. That isnot a minor thing, but I think Christians are being taken for granted (orworse) in our present day and age.
Consider what the tollingof the bell did not mean. No one in thecommunity had to worry about an act of violence, hatred or any crime comingfrom this group. They knew these peoplewere law abiding, honest and “neighborly”—a term that is fast fading from ourday, it seems. Each in the communityknew they were invited to services with the “tolling of the bell”. The community knew that if they really neededhelp, they could turn to this group who would lovingly tend to their crisis tothe best of their ability. They alsoknew that they would be taught the gospel, not out of hatred but out of loveand a desire to save them from eternal punishment awaiting those outside thechurch. No one who attended was perfect;however, those in the community knew that the gospel called for men to beperfected. They never had to worry aboutany malicious act from this group. Theyrespected these worshippers, even if they did not agree with them, and thetrust was mutual in that worshippers left their homes often unguarded with evendoors unlocked as they assembled for worship. In Laings, Ohio not a single complaint was made about the tolling of thebell!
In the Introduction of Evidence for God, edited by William A.Dembski and Micahel R. Licona, reports a disturbing trend:
“A2007 report by Tobin and Weinberg published by the Institute for Jewish andCommunity Research reveals that American faculty ‘overwhelmingly asserted theirdesire to see Christian influence lessened’ while being ‘far less critical andeven supportive of increasing Muslim religious influence in politics.’ They added that ‘it is interesting and evenperplexing to see a shared inclination among faculty atheists, those facultywith no religion, and those faculty for whom religion holds no importance: They defend the right of Muslims to expresstheir religious beliefs in American politics, while holding openly hostileviews of fundamentalist Christians.’ Andfor such faculty, any evangelical Christian is an unthinking bigot andtherefore a fundamentalist. Theresearches added ‘the most troubling finding in the survey’ was that Americanfaculty ‘feel less positively about Evangelicals than about any other religiousgroup.’”
It reminds me of the dayswhen Christians were openly persecuted by the Roman Empire. Christians, who had done nothing wrong, wereput to death simply for not swearing “Caesar is Lord” since this violated theirconfessed loyalty to the only true Lord and Potentate—Jesus the Christ. Pliny, the governor of Pontus and Bithynia,wrote Emperor Trajan about what to do with the growing “Christian menace”. Note carefully what Pliny testified ofChristians: “Theyasserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had beenthat they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and singresponsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, notto some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify theirtrust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this wasover, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake offood--but ordinary and innocent food. Even this, they affirmed, they had ceasedto do after my edict by which, in accordance with your instructions, I hadforbidden political associations. Accordingly, I judged it all the morenecessary to find out what the truth was by torturing two female slaves whowere called deaconesses. But I discovered nothing else but depraved, excessivesuperstition.” Trajan replied if Christians renounced their faith, servedtheir gods, then they should be spared. Only the ones who insisted on remaining Christians were to be actuallypunished. Imagine punishing citizens ofyour empire who committed no immorality, were law abiding for righteous laws,and paid taxes! Unfathomable!
We pray that we never seethe days of Trajan again; although the trends of our society give reason topause. May our communities continue tosee us assemble peacefully for worship with love in our hearts to all! May our communities know that indeed thereare a people who love and serve the Lord among them, and they are free to cometoo! May our communities never losesight of the blessings of Christians dwelling in our land. May the ringing out of the gospel message goforth and never cease in our beloved country! ----------------- This article orginally appeard in Gospel Advocate, Vol. 154, No. 4, April 2012, pp. 28-29.
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