A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

e important Mennonite Brethren beliefs. Discipleship was supplanted by an overwhelming salvation emphasis in which conversion was seen most visibly as a personal experi- ence assuring eternal life. For some the actual event of con- version assumed such primacy that knowing the precise time and date of accepting Christ became confirmation of salva- tion. Evangelism, instead of being a call to a disciple relation- ship with Christ in the context of a believing community, de- generated to a rescue operation to assure people the benefit of a final heavenly destiny. Salvation, so easily obtained, be- came detached from a life of love, self-denial and service within the believing community and to a needy world. For several decades in the mid-twentieth century Mennonite Brethren found themselves torn between an emphasis on in- dividual salvation with its concern for devotionalism, and a focus on social service, social action and social justice. Allied with the Bible institute movement was the World Fundamentals Association, organized in 1919 under the lead- 192 IDENTITY AMID DIVERSITY* ership of William B, Riley, Harry Rimmer, Amo Gaebelein and others. It brought to evangelical Protestantism a preoccupa- tion with propositional truth, defending biblical inerrancy, a literal interpretation of creation, the virgin birth and physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, the substitutionary theory of atonement, and the imminent Second Coming. The public debates in the 1930s sponsored by the World Fundamentals Association gained a good hearing among Mennonite Brethren. Periodicals like The Sword of the Lord, edited by John ft Rice and the Defender, edited by Gerald Winrod, be- came household literature. Both promoted propositional truth and creedal doctrine so vigorously that the relational character of New Testament discipleship was overlooked. Previously foreign emphases on rigid creedal doctrine and apologetical systems to "prove" Scripture became increasingly dominant in Mennonite Brethren pulpits and classrooms. Their promi- nence came at the expense of Christ's central role in the life and character of the church.11 The influences of Biola, Moody and Northwestern were enlarged in the 1920s and 1930s by Prairie Bible Institute (Three Hills, Alberta) and Briercrest Bible Institute (Caronport, Saskatchewan). In later years Winnipeg Bible College (now Providence College and Seminary) moved into a position of prominence. The emphasis on missions and evangelism in the Bible in- stitutes had an awakening effect on Mennonite Brethren and accounted for much of the surge of missionary vi