Haran Christians by George B. Thompson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Sep 19, 1912

Haran Christians

By George B. Thompson

G. B. THOMPSON

D. L. Moody once said, "I believe that there are a great many Christians who are what might be called 'Haran Christians.' They go to Haran, and there they stay. They only half obey. They are not out-and-out Christians."

The first call which came to Abraham to go "into the land of Canaan" was while he dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees. In obedience to this divine command he started. His father's family accompanied him as far as Haran. Here they stopped. Haran was not in Canaan. They had gone only part of the way. But Terah and his household "served other gods;" going to Canaan meant giving up all; this they were not willing to do. They sought to unite the worship of the true God with their idolatry. And as a result they never reached Canaan. And no more will we by doing as they did.

By and by affliction came. Terah, Abraham's father, died, and from the grave of his father, the divine call urged Abraham forward. With his household Abraham "went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came." But Nahor and his family refused to give up their home and all their idolatry, and remained at Haran. They missed Canaan.

To be a Haran Christian is really not to be a Christian. It is a compromise, a clinging to pet sins, some darling indulgences, a half-way surrender, a mingling of the true with the false, a vain effort to worship God and Mammon. This can not be done, any more than sweet water and bitter water can come from the same fountain, or grapes grow on thorn bushes. We can not be true soldiers under two flags at the same time.

A Haran Christian is never happy. No half-way experience is ever satisfying. It spoils this world, and fails to lay hold of the world to come. The food of Canaan will not commingle with the flesh-pots of Egypt. There is no concord between Christ and Belial. This is why so many professed Christians are gloomy and morose, downcast and discouraged, about ready to give up their hope, and with a captain of their own choosing return to Egypt, whence they came. Such are Haran Christians; only about half converted.

The appeal of God to a lost race is to "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." "So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he can not be my disciple." There is nothing half hearted about this; no going part of the way and then halting; no giving up some sins, and refusing to yield others that God has revealed through his Spirit; no mixing of God's word with human tradition, either old or new; no holding on to the world with one hand and trying to hold on to God with the other; it means giving both hands to God.

Haran Christians are weak in many ways. Doing their whole duty staggers them. When they pay tithe, they simply pay some, then stop. To ease their conscience, rather than to obey a great principle of love, they let the Lord have part of the price, while they rob the treasury of God of the rest. When an offering to God's cause is called for, if they give anything, it is but sparingly. They spend more for self, for needless adorning, for gifts for friends, than is placed in the treasury of Jehovah. Their efforts to bring the light of the gospel before the people are of the most feeble sort. They begin, do a little, then stop at Haran.

Of King Hezekiah it is written, "And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered." Well may every follower of Christ do the same. The end is approaching. The reward will soon be entered upon. Let none stop short of the prize,—at Haran as it were,—but go on and possess the heavenly Canaan.

Takoma Park, D. C.