Words Matter: Evening Light

Photo by Regina Mansor on Unsplash

This is the third in an on-going series exploring the unique use of certain words and phrases within the Church of God. Learn more about this series HERE.

So far in this series, I have looked at a couple of words that we commonly use and/or avoid when describing ourselves. In this installment we are examining a phrase that goes back to our beginnings, but is rarely used today. In fact, I am quite certain that this may be new to some of my readers. Only those with deep roots in the Church of God will be familiar with it. This expression is nonetheless significant because it reveals much about the self-understanding of our founders, and gives us pause to reflect on how this has changed for us today.

“Evening Light” is a phrase that goes back to the very beginning of the Church of God movement. It is derived from Zechariah’s description of the Day of the Lord, which includes the metaphor, “at evening time it shall be light” (Zech 14:7 KJV). D. S. Warner used it to describe his own personal experience coming out of the darkness of sectarianism and into the full light of truth, and included it in this song of the same name:

Brighter days are sweetly dawning,
O the glory looms in sight!
For the cloudy day is waning,
And the evening light shall be light.

Lo! The ransomed are returning,
Robed in shining crystal white;
Leaping, shouting home to Zion,
Happy in the evening light.

Free from babel, in the Spirit,
Free to worship God aright;
Joy and gladness we’re receiving,
O how sweet this evening light!

This imagery persisted beyond Warner. For decades, it was frequently found in various other writings and songs as well, including the chorus of C. W. Naylor’s much beloved, “Once Again We Come”:

To Thy house, O Lord, with rejoicing we come,
For we know that we are Thine;
We will worship Thee in the Bible way,
As the evening light doth shine.

Furthermore, beginning in 1906, The Gospel Trumpet included the Zechariah reference on its masthead. Evening Light was a common way for us to describe our mission and vision.

Today, Evening Light is an anachronism, rarely used in our circles. Its only notable, consistent usage is by the faction that broke away from the larger movement in 1913 as part of the necktie controversy of the time. This group, often associated with Guthrie Oklahoma, now brands itself as the Church of God Evening Light.

So, what happened? Why is this phrase no longer a staple of our vocabulary?

It is important for us today to realize that Evening Light was not just a convenient, albeit biblical, label we attached to ourselves in some kind of marketing move. This was much more than a slogan. Our pioneers were convinced that what started in Beaver Dam, Indiana in October, 1881 was the fulfillment of Scripture. God was using this reformation to gather together the true Church of God in preparation for the imminent second coming of Jesus.

In other words, endemic to this phrase was a definite eschatological self-understanding that corresponded with American apocalypticism of the 19^th century, which included such influential movements as Dispensationalism and Adventism. The use of a church-historical framework was not new, and therefore easily adapted by those who “saw the church” for its final reform. They would point to Scripture references, especially Old Testament ones, to support the conviction that this was all part of God’s grand plan. Especially following the writings of F. G. Smith, many within the Church of God held this high view of our movement’s place within history.

I believe it is apparent that only a very small number among us still hold to this view that our movement is explicitly referenced in Scripture. Most would have no trouble affirming that we have a God-given calling within the global church, but would be uncomfortable with claims beyond that.

There are several reasons for this. Certainly, our approaches to biblical interpretation and eschatology have shifted in the last 145 years. Beyond that, however, there is a largely unspoken concession that despite the fervor of our founders, the high expectations for our movement have hardly been realized. Yes, we have contributed significantly to the Kingdom and the larger church, but not as the force that our Evening Light forebearers anticipated.

What should we make of this? Do we just write this off as an overzealous eschatology coming from an era of religious upheaval and quest for hope?

In reaction to the hermeneutic enthusiasm of our early pioneers, I do not want us to lose one of the positive features of their Evening Light vision. Regardless of whether they got everything right, we must admire the passion and focus they had for proclaiming the message of holiness and unity. For them, this was not just an abstract theological endeavor, but grounded in an urgent, God-given mandate to see the church be everything it was meant to be.

We may have swung the pendulum too far in the other direction. As I have written before, the Church of God has tended to drift away from its original mission and purpose; instead settling to blend into the larger world of American Evangelicalism. Consequently, many of our pastors and congregations rarely emphasize our distinctives.

There is much we can admire about and learn from the Church of God founders. Their fervent passion, identifying as the Evening Light, is one such example. One does not have to share their understanding of biblical timelines to appreciate the fact that the world and Christianity today continue in need of a reorientation around Christ. In these dark times, a new expression of Evening Light may be as relevant as ever.