Truth Magazine

By Forrest D. Moyer

III. Some Things We Must Know

1. We must know God. In fact, those who do not know God are in the group of those who will be banished from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power (2 Thess. 1:7-9). Paul’s intent in his precisely logical presentation on Mars Hill was to produce the knowledge of God in order that man may “seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:22-30). It is a lack of knowledge of God that causes the bulk of the immorality in the world. Paul said that we are not to live “in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God” (1 Thess. 4:5). We can only come to know God through his revelation of himself in his word. True, in nature we can know that there is a supreme being, but we cannot know who he is or what his characteristics are. Only by divine revelation can we know God and that revelation is the Bible (1 Cor. 2:9-13). To know God, we must study his word. The proof of our knowing God is seen in our keeping his commandments. “And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected” (1 John 2:3-5).

2. We must know Jesus. Paul’s desire was to know him (Jesus) and the power of his resurrection (Phil. 3:10). John wrote, “Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:30-31). Thus, we come to know Jesus just as we come to know God -through the revelation that is given to us in the Bible. It is only by knowing Jesus that we can have the salvation that is made possible by his death, burial and resurrection. Paul tells us of the gospel which he preached “by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:1-4). We must know that Jesus was born of a virgin (Luke 1:26-38), that he did signs and wonders among the people (John 20:30-31), that he died for me, that he was raised for my justification (Rom. 4:25), that he ascended into Heaven to sit at God’s right hand where he reigns over his kingdom (Eph. 1:19-23; 1 Cor. 15:24-26) and ever lives to make reconciliation for the sins of his people (Heb. 7:25). When I come to know him, I win only want to love him and serve him as the King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16).

3. We must know the truth. Only by our knowing the truth can we be made free from sin (John 8:32). The reason that “the man of sin” could deceive so many people was that “they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Thess. 2:10). The reason that many people “go onward and abide not in the doctrine of Christ” (2 John 9) is that they often do not know the truth. If I love the truth, I will diligently seek to know it so that I can live by it.

The writer of the majestic Psalm 119 is a dynamic example to us of love for the truth of God’s word. As he uses the Hebrew alphabet to label each section, in practically every verse he uses a term that refers to the law of God. Observe:

v. 11: Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

v. 14: I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.

v. 16: I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.

v. 24: Thy testimonies also are my delight, and my counselors.

v. 47: I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.

v. 72: The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.

v. 97: O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.

v. 105: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

v. 140: Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.

Our need is to develop this same kind of love for the truth. Then we will diligently seek it.

4. I must know the truth about salvation. In very simple language Jesus sets forth his plan of salvation in such passages as Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-16, and Luke 24:47. We should have little trouble understanding it. It is tragic that these demagogues of religious theology have concocted ways of salvation that are not in God’s book and deceive the hearts of the simple with such teachings as “faith only,” “give your heart to Jesus as we pray, ” etc. Jesus teaches that we must hear the gospel, believe it, repent, and be baptized in order to be saved or receive the remission of sins. Not only did he set it forth very plainly, but we see it consistently in action in the book of Acts. In the second chapter Peter tells his inquiring listeners to “repent and be baptized for the remission of sins” (v. 38). In every case of conversion we see the same plan in operation. Now, I must know this truth in order to be saved. I cannot be scripturally baptized without knowing the purpose of that baptism (Col. 2:12). Knowing and obeying his truth will make me free from sin.

5. We must know how to live. The purpose of divine revelation is to teach us how to live our lives in this world. Paul wrote Timothy in order that men might “know how to behave themselves in the house of God” (1 Tim. 3:14-15). The Lord’s message teaches us to “live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world (Tit. 2:11-12). And “as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (1 Pet. 2:11-12). The character of God and of Jesus is revealed in the Bible. My goal is to become as God is. Therefore, I must know how to live and I can do that only as I know his truth.

6. We must know God’s promises. We five in a world where there are temptations, discouragements, and numerous hindrances to godly living. We need motivations to keep on living as God desires. Some of the greatest motivations are the “exceeding great and precious promises of God” (2 Pet. 1:4). When temptations come, when discouragements weigh heavy upon us, the promises of God will sustain us. He has said that he will never leave us (Heb. 13:5-6). He has said that “all things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom. 8:28). He has said that we will have a gloriously new body in Heaven (2 Cor. 5:1-2). He has promised eternal life (Tit. 1:2). When we know and believe these promises, we have the incentive to keep on keeping on. We have the positive assurance that our labor is not in vain in the Lord (I Cor. 15:58). Let us loam and rely on the promises of God.

IV. Our Knowledge Must Be Connected With Doing

Our reason for learning the truths of the Bible is not that we might be a “walking encyclopedia.” It is not that we might be a master at Bible trivia. We learn that we may do. Jesus said that the man who heard and would not do is like the foolish man who built his house on the sand (Matt. 7:24-28). James gives us the graphic picture of one who looks in the mirror and then forgets what he saw and then compares the forgetful hearer to such a foolish one (Jas. 1:22-25). We must be doers of the word. John tells us how we truly come to know God. He says, “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3). He goes on to say that a person who claimed to know and did not keep his commandments is a liar (v. 4). Our whole purpose in gaining the knowledge of God is to five as he wants us to live (1 Pet. 1:16).

Once again we look to the Psalmist as he spoke of applying truth to life in Psalms 119.

v. 33: Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end.

v. 34: Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

v. 112: I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway, even unto the end.

As a result of following God’s way we can say as the psalmist said: “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them” (v. 165). May we come to have the kind of knowledge in our hearts that will make us free and will keep us in the pathway of righteousness all the days of our lives.

Guardian of Truth XXXII: 22, pp. 682-693
November 17, 1988

By J. Wiley Adams

The above sentiment has been used by many sects and humanitarian groups with regard to physical necessities in poverty-ridden parts of the world where many are dying of hunger, disease, and the harsh treatment of atheistic governments in those areas of the world. It is truly good to save the children even if we cannot save the adults. Why not save both? But man does not five by bread alone. Here in our own wonderful land people are dying from spiritual malnutrition. They need the Word of God.

However, let us look within the ranks of the church of the Lord. Are we even doing so much as saving our children? Case after case can be cited of congregations where the young peopl-e-are not obeying the gospel when it is time for them to do so. Why is this? Surely many factors would be involved in this. But, I have noticed that in some cases the parents of such children have been extremely loose in emphasizing to children where the priorities He. They will let them go off on outings and miss services, go around with worldly friends and do nothing to correct the matter. In fact, if I may be bold, some parents who are church members let their children do what they Jolly well please. The inconsistency is seen in that they always insist on their going to kindergarten, elementary school, high school, boy scouts, little league, girl scouts. They let them go in mixed bathing and expose their bodies to the lusts of sensual people. They allow them to sit around the house or go out in the yard without enough on to wad a shotgun. Then they wonder why their boys get some girl in trouble and why sometimes girls get with child out of wedlock and then they wring their hands and moan, “What did I do wrong?” For one thing they did not heed the Scriptures or the advice of those who could see where all this was heading. It is too late to shut the barn door when the horse has already run off. Even when parents do all it is possible for them to do, it might not turn out as we had hoped. But Ephesians 6:1,4 teaches children to obey their parents and that parents are to teach their children the ways of the Lord.

As long as children are at home, enjoy the blessings afforded in that relationship as part of the family, parents not only have the responsibility but the right to determine the conditions that will prevail in that household as a condition of staying there. When they will not abide by the parental rules, including attending worship and putting spiritual things first, then they should be told to leave and given their walking papers. If the Law of Moses were stiff in effect such rebellious children would be put to death.

The bad thing is that parents cannot take correction any more than some of their children. No doubt, some will read this and be offended. So be it. It is high time for God’s people to know there are still a few of us who will tell it like it is. We need more who will do so. Preachers and elders, wherever you are – will you join us in a return to the old paths of frankness and boldness in the teaching of the gospel of Christ? Save the children? Indeed, let us do so as a condition of saving ourselves!

Guardian of Truth XXXII: 22, p. 680
November 17, 1988

By Lewis Willis

The book is entitled Dianetics, by L. Ron Hubbard. Not long ago I bought it in paperback form and primarily, nothing but curiosity motivated me. I found it to be one of the most difficult books to read that I have ever encountered and even now I wonder how it could have been a bestseller. I dug my way through about 125 pages of its total 600 pages and then laid it aside. However, if I fail to capture the point he is trying to make, I have found one point that serves my purposes well. I share that point with you.

For several months I have been fascinated by a book which I have seen advertised on almost every television channel I have watched. I wondered what it was all about. The name of the book did not offer any clues and the advertisements certainly did not answer my questions. It occurs to me that perhaps this is nothing but a new marketing technique. If many people have been as 1, the technique is working.

On page 69, Hubbard wrote, “Charles Darwin did his job well and the fundamental principles of evolution can be found in his and other works. The proposition on which Dianetics was originally entered was evolution.” Whatever Hubbard intends to say in his book, it will be said as an evolutionist. Imagine my surprise when he made one of the best arguments against evolution that I have seen in a long time.

Beginning on page 61 he had some things to say about the human brain. He compared it to a computer by analogy, observing, however, that the brain “is yet more fantastically capable than any computing machine ever constructed and infinitely more elaborate.” He said it could be called the “computational mind.” He observed that the brain, like a computer, “has its standard memory banks. . . . The various senses receive information and this information files straight into the standard memory banks” of the brain. He points out that there is a set of memory banks for every one of our senses which not only store information but cross indexes it with the other memory banks. Thus, what we see is recorded and cross-indexed with what we heard, thought, felt, etc.

For instance, if you step out on your lawn, your five senses go to work storing information. As you stand there you observe a car go by. Your brain stores your remembrance that you were standing in your lawn and cross-indexes this information with the fact that, at that time, you saw the car pass by. Not only does your brain store that information, it stores that you saw a red car, with four doors, occupied by two people, one of which was your neighbor, who just incidentally smiled and waved at you as he drove by. Your ears activate their storage banks, recording the sound of the car motor, the sound of the tires as they moved over the pavement, as well as the sound of one neighbor across the street mowing the lawn, while the children of another neighbor, were laughing and shouting as they played. Without realizing it, the memory banks of your sense of smell were activated to record the smell of your new mown grass, and perhaps the fertilizer which you had just applied, as well as the smell of your neighbor’s off burning lawn mower. It would be possible to go on and on with this kind of information, all of which we store in our brain. So, what is the point?

First, the point is that the human brain has the capacity to store all of this varied information! And, secondly, it has the capacity, under the right set of circumstances, to play back to us all of this data so that we can describe, in intricate detail, all that was observed at that normal, average, non-special moment in our long fife. A fifty year old man has fifty years of such information stored in his brain. And, there is stiff room in his storage banks for another fifty years of information if he should live that long. Thirdly, if the right set of circumstances exist, this scene which has been described above can be recalled in detail three hours, three years or thirty years after it occurs, without error!

The theory of evolution says that we human beings are in the evolutionary chain – albeit, at the very top of that chain. Whatever we are, they assert, it is the result of a series of blind-chance occurrences over billions of years. Thus, our marvelous brain, with its capacity to do what I have herein described, as well as millions of other things, according to the evolutionist, just happened! To a degree, the human mind is an accident, according to the theory!

It is impossible for me to accept the evolutionary hypothesis that says the human brain evolved, just as it is impossible for me to accept that the computer on which this article is being written is the result of blind chancel I would like to hear an evolutionist explain how either of these possibilities can occur. When he asked his brain to search its memory banks for a reasonable explanation, his brain could only reply, “no such data available.” Young people, if you do not remember all that is said in this article, at least remember, in general terms, the point which I have made.

Guardian of Truth XXXII: 22, p. 681
November 17, 1988

By Connie W. Adams

For many years some have advocated that the alien sinner is not under law to Christ and therefore what the Lord taught on marriage, divorce and remarriage does not apply to such an alien. According to this view, the teaching of the Lord on this subject only becomes applicable to him when he enters the kingdom. How many wives he may have had and for what reason he put them away none of that matters. The “blotting out of sin” forgives all of this and grants the right for the sinner to abide in his calling and keep whatever wife he has (whether number two, three, ten or fifteen). In other words, baptism washes away wives.

It is certainly true that when God forgives the sinner he does not hold him accountable any more for the wrong done. But does baptism sanctify an unholy relationship? The Colossians had “lived” in fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness prior to their conversion (Col. 3:5). That was their state of living. Question: When they repented of their sins and were buried with Christ, did he cut off their sins? Col. 2: 11- 13 says that he did. Did he sanctify a state of fornication and the other listed sins of Col. 3:5? Did not repentance require severance from all such practices? Did baptism sanctify covetousness?

But, it is argued, these alien sinners were not subject to the law of Christ on marriage, or any other subject. There are several things wrong with this position.

(1) If the alien sinner is not subject to the law of Christ, then why preach the gospel to him? Jesus required that the gospel be preached to every creature in all the world (Mk. 16:15-16). Why do that, if they are not amenable to it?

(2) If the alien sinner is not subject to the law of Christ, then how did he get to be a sinner in the first place? Does God have two different laws in operation at the same time? Sin is a transgression of the law. But what law?

(3) This position robs repentance of its fruit. Repentance requires a change of mind which results in a change of conduct. John preached, “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance” (Matt. 3:8). According to this idea, what was adultery before baptism is no longer adultery. One of the basic issues in this whole controversy is the nature of repentance.

(4) The notion under review assumes that marriage is a church ordinance; that is,’the Lord’s will on the subject does not affect one until he becomes a member of the church. But God ordained marriage in the garden of Eden, not in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.

(5) This position soothes the consciences of those in adulterous marriages, and makes them think all is Well when they are still in adultery. It thus contributes to an already frightening disregard for the permanency of the marriage bond.

I made these specific objections to James D. Bales several years ago when he sent me a copy of his manuscript for the book Not Under Bondage and requested a critique of the material. He thanked me for my comments, made some changes in his manuscript in an attempt to strengthen his argument, and published the book anyhow.

For a number of years, my esteemed brother, Homer Hailey, has taken essentially the same position on this subject as brother Bales. For the most part, he has been content to hold his view as a private opinion and not press it in his public teaching. But he told me personally that he thought Bales “has the truth on this.” I told him I certainly did not think so. But now, our highly respected brother is openly preaching this. In a sermon of over two hours at Belen, New Mexico, he made the most definite statement of his position to date. He also stated that he had preached on it not long before that in California, all that while he had been disposed not to say much about it in the past, that he intended to be more outspoken on the matter in the future.

That is cause for alarm. No man of this generation has been held in any higher regard than he. It was my good fortune to study under him in the late 1940’s and early 19501s. Through the years since, our paths have crossed a number of times and we have spoken several times on the same meeting or lecture programs. He was a wise counselor to me at a very critical point in my life when the exciting call of show business put me in a temporary dilemma. It was he who excited my interest in the study of prophets. But he also taught me, and a host of others, not to think of men “above that which is written” (1 Cor. 4:6). It is now time to apply that in the case of our beloved brother. What he is saying is welcomed with open arms by some who are in unscriptural marriages. They will be lulled into a false sense of security. Souls are at stake. This position is already contributing to a weakening of the moral fiber of congregations where it is advocated. There are already signs that his increased militance on the subject has emboldened some others to start circulating materials advancing this cause. The age, knowledge and experience, not to mention the fact that so many stand in awe of this good brother, only adds to the seriousness of the problem. I earnestly entreat my friend (I hope, as a father), to back off, take a good look at this position and its consequences and the potential for all-out war it portends.

It is a time to watch and pray, a time to keep our armor on and our swords sharpened and ready. (Quoted from Searching The Scriptures, September 1988).

Guardian of Truth XXXII: 22, p. 688
November 17, 1988