Truth Magazine

By Forrest D. Moyer

II. Godliness Is Profitable In All Ways

1. Godliness is profitable physically. The wise man pointed out the need of keeping this teaching by saying, “For length of days and years of life, and peace they will add to you” (Prov. 3:2). Wisdom says, “For by me your days will be multiplied, and years of life will be added to you” (9:11). One way by which godliness helps to prolong life is that it keeps us from dissipating morals and habits. Drugs, alcohol and immorality work to destroy the physical body. Godliness regulates our behavior so that we do not engage in “sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousals, drinking parties and abominable idolatries . . . excess of dissipation” (1 Pet. 4:34). Godliness bids us to “flee fornication” and youthful lusts.” It teaches me that my body is “a temple of the Holy Spirit” and that I must “glorify God in my body” (1 Cor. 6:18-20). 1 must present my body “as a living sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1). Thus, I will refrain from habits that are destructive to this body which belongs to God.

May I make an earnest plea to my brothers who use tobacco? It has been shown most emphatically that cigarette smoking is linked to lung cancer and heart disease. With every cigarette you are shortening your life by some fourteen minutes. Why do that which is taking precious minutes of service to God away from him? You will agree that suicide is sinful – it destroys God’s temple. But destroying the body by degrees is accomplishing the same thing over a period of time. If we can do something that will help us have longer time to serve him, let us do so. Remember, God does not demand anything of us in our serving him that will destroy our bodies. Godliness truly is profitable.

2. Godliness is profitable mentally. One of the outstanding benefits of Christ’s way is that it demands the use of the mind. He demands that we think, reason, understand, and believe. He teaches that our thought process controls our actions (Matt. 15:19-20). The reason so many are bound for Hell is that they “walk in the futility of their mind, being darkened in the understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of , their heart” (Eph. 4:17-18). Please observe the power of the mind in binding man in sin through this negative thinking. On the other hand the Christian is to program his thinking in a positive way: “. . . true . . . honorable . . . right . . . pure . . . lovely . . . good repute . . . let your mind dwell on these things” (Phil. 4:8). This is genuine “positive thinking” and it leads us to say with Paul, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (v. 13).

The proper use of our minds will lead us to search, to study his word, and to believe God. The Christian is one so “who by reason of use has his senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). For this reason “though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16). The intellect is a vital part of our service to him because service demands faith, and faith is a function of the intellect. Our faith grows by our hearing God’s word, and this, too, is a function of the mind. Therefore, we can say most emphatically that godliness is profitable mentally.

3. Godliness is profitable emotionally. Each one of us from time to time must face circumstances that tax us emotionally. That such is a national problem is seen in the large number of counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists who are constantly busy with emotionally disturbed people. This is not to suggest that qualified counselors do not serve a vital and needed purpose – they do. However, Jesus Christ offers to us an emotionally stable form of life. Godliness offers that which is psychologically sound from every standpoint. It offers a faith to sustain us. Jesus said to the apostles, “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me” (Jn. 14:1). He can help eliminate the troubled heart that we all have from time to time. I have sometimes bogged down in the slough of despondency. I have been at that low point where one feels that the world is against him. I have felt the sorrow of severed relationships that once were precious. I have cried out in anxiety because of my own sins. But “thanks be to God for his wonderful gift!” I can be free from all these fiery darts of Satan. He lifts me up from the pit!

a. Jesus can eliminate the guilty conscience. He urges us to come with confidence to the throne of mercy that we may find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:14-16). He tells us that the blood of Jesus is constantly there for the Christian so that as he repents and confesses his sins, he will have a continuing relationship with the Father (1 John 1:7-9). How precious it is to know that every sin of our past lives has been hidden in the depth of the sea of God’s forgetfulness. We do not have to lie down on our pillow at night with the guilt of any sin upon us. We can take all our sins to him and he will abundantly pardon.

b. Godliness also helps to eliminate worry from our lives. We have, perhaps, all worried about where the rent or the next bag of groceries would come from. We have worried about our health. We have worried about our children, and quite often, about myriads of insignificant things. Paul wrote, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7). As Jesus spoke in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, “Do not be anxious then, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink? or ‘With what shall we clothe ourselves?’ (Matt. 6:31) Instead, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and I ‘do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (v. 34). Only by a deep, abiding faith in God can we develop this armor against worry. John wrote, “this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith” (1 John 5:4). Certainly we can say that godliness is profitable emotionally.

c. Above all, we can say that godliness is profitable spiritually. As we have seen, godliness is profitable because it gives to us a faith to sustain us and the forgiveness of all sins. Godliness gives to us a God to serve. Jesus said, “Man Should not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). When man’s stomach is filled with food, when his body is enraptured with pleasure, there is still a longing of soul that nothing physical can satisfy. As Paul expressed it in our opening text, godliness “holds promise for the present life.” It is promise of the abundant life of which Jesus spoke, “I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly” (John 10:10). You can live an abundant life! But, friend, that life is only in Jesus Christ.

III. Godliness Is Profitable At All Times

1. Godliness is profitable for the everyday living of this present life. “But godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tim. 4:8). In writing to the Philippians, Paul spoke of three great attributes that every Christian ought to possess: joy, peace, and contentment. He tells us how to have all these traits. He tells us to “rejoice.” But he does not stop there. He tells us of the only relationship in which we can rejoice – “in the Lord.” There can be no genuine joy elsewhere. Nehemiah expressed it centuries ago when he said, “For the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). When we have the joy of the Lord in our lives, we are strong. Satan cannot rob us of our spirituality when it is guarded by joy. Just as a husband and wife who are truly happy with each other will not seek love elsewhere, even so one who knows the joy of Jesus will not seek the companionship of the devil.

He tells us how to have peace. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayers and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7). We pray with sincere faith in Jesus’ promises to us. Because we believe him, we believe that he will hear us. We believe that our sins are forgiven. We believe that he will never leave us nor forsake us so that we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid” (Heb. 13:5-6). In godliness we have “peace like a river.”

Paul tells us how to have contentment. He said, “For I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need” (Phil. 4:1112). What was the secret that Paul had learned? “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (v. 13). He had contentment through Jesus because he knew that “my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (v. 19). He knew that “if God be for us, who can be against us?”, and that ‘,all things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom. 8). Godliness brings joy, peace, and contentment into our lives. It is profitable for this present life.

2. Godliness is profitable for the life which is to come. It is only by godliness that I can be with God eternally. He has made it possible by his grace for me to have a right standing with him. I have the responsibility of maintaining that right standing by walking in the light and allowing the blood of Jesus to cleanse me of my sins. This “walking in the light” can be equated with godliness – the right attitude to God and to things divine. By God’s love and power, I can have eternal fellowship with him in Heaven. Peter describes our new dwelling place in 2 Peter 3:11-13. He shows that this present world is to be destroyed. Since it is to be destroyed, “what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God?” Please observe the demand for holy conduct and godliness on our part. By this kind of living in fellowship with him “according to his promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” Our new dwelling place beyond this earth is “an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:4-5). Therefore, godliness- will carry us through life and will help see us through the valley of the shadow of death. God will lead us safely through to the other side where we can hymn his praises forever while eternity rolls on and on.

After Paul had spoken of the need of godliness and that it is profitable in all ways, he said, “It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance” (1 Tim. 4:9). Let us rely on it; let us live by it. We will have a better life now and eternal life with Jesus in the new heavens and new earth. Our prayer is that the Father will grant us to live in all godliness before him all the days of our lives.

Guardian of Truth XXXII: 16, pp. 491-492
August 18, 1988

By Paul Blake

“Blessed are the dead which the In the Lord … that they may rest from their labors.”

It is my privilege to be allowed to remember, on paper, a gospel preacher who strongly influenced me to stand for truth and right. May all who were moved to faithful service by the example and teaching of brother Barney, express thanks to the Father in their very next prayer for such men as him.

Glenn O. Winland was born February 9, 1906 to James A. and Dorothy J. Winlond at Reader, West Virginia. A lifelong affinity for forming was acquired during his childhood. At age five, his father died and after his mother married John B. Whiteman, they moved to his very steep, hillside farm on Chiselfinger Ridge. At 11, they moved to a more profitable truck form on the fertile Ohio River bottom area at Steelton. In April of 1923, Glenn, being only 17, began working at the Windsor Power Plant (Ohio Power Company), near Beach Bottom. It was here that Glenn Winland was to receive the nickname that stuck with him for the rest of his life. It seems his co-workers felt he and his work partner bore a resemblance to “Barney & Sporkplug,” popular comic strip characters of that day. Although the nicknames were given in jest, “Barney” accepted his with humor and continued to use it. To this day, many express genuine surprise upon learning that “Barney” wasn’t really his name.

Laboring long and hard seemed to characterize Barney. Upon early retirement in 1960, he hod completed 46 years of work at the power plant. Since he was large and physically very strong, this job had never satisfied his need to expel energy. For 3 years he operated a dairy form ,at Triodelphia, beginning in the spring of 19A5. Next was the purchase of a Sohio service station/grocery store in Pleasant Grove, Ohio which he and the family operated for 10 years. At Pleasant Grove, he almost single handedly built a beautiful little meeting house for saints to assemble in. Earlier, he had had a large role in the restoration of two buildings – making fine meeting houses for Christians. He was a fully licensed auctioneer, a coon hunter, and a golfer. An avid Scrabble player, he would shun any game that even bore a remote similarity to gambling. Barney often told me that honest Christians should studiously avoid any practice, even in private recreation, that was questionable.

On June 20, 1927, Barney was united in marriage with Vaughn Rice In Now Martinsville, WV. It was Vaughn who was most responsible for Barney coming to know the Lord. He had been raised in the Methodist Church and was actually quite rebellious when she would even suggest that he attend worship with her. With help from her sister and brother-inlaw, Ruth and Byron Hudson, Vaughn finally talked Barney into attending a gospel meeting at the Wheeling church with brother Fred E. Dennis preaching. He heard the truth taught and was baptized into Christ by brother Dennis on March 29, 1934 in this, his very first meeting to attend. To the marriage union of Barney and Vaughn were born 3 children: Connie Beck, Joe, and Lois Brown. Connie and Lois both presently live in the Dayton, OH area where Connie is a faithful member of the West Carrollton church. Joe, a retired public school music teacher, travels about in an Airstream trailer helping congregations to improve their singing and teaching them new hymns. He is presently worshiping with the Wellsburg church while attending to the disposition of Barney’s estate.

Vaughn died in 1971 after 44 years of marriage. Barney married Lina Ritchea at Paden City, WV on July 21, 1972 and was devoted to her until her passing in January, 1984. The lost three years of Lino’s life, Barney was strenuously involved in attending to her physical needs and after her death was very lonesome. Therefore, later that year, having always enjoyed being a family man, he began searching for someone with whom to spend the lost few years of his life. He placed great emphasis on godliness as one of the qualities he was looking for in a wife. On August 6, 1984, Barney married Velma Stobart of Pomeroy, OH, with whom he resided until he became too ill to stay at home. Barney was privileged to have his lost two wedding ceremonies performed by, and in the home of, Weldon Warnock, his long time friend and fellow servant in the Lord.

Of chief importance in the life of brother Winland was his desire to serve God and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. According to Barney’s journal, he had worked with and preached meetings at over seventy different congregations in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Iowa. His first preaching appointment was at the Eight Mile Ridge Church of Christ on March 11, 1939 and his last was at the Westside Church of Christ in Pomeroy, Ohio on September 14, 1986, encompassing 47 years. Barney didn’t keep a “scorecard” of the number of people he baptized and restored to the kingdom; he believed the Lord would reward him according to his work. What we do have, are fond memories of how brother Winland touched our lives with the truth and motivated us to better service.

Barney was a big man and had a strong voice. Hard of hearing, elderly brethren, after hearing him preach for the first time, would often soy, “that was the first sermon I’ve heard in years.” When churches first began to install PA systems in their meeting houses, many of them would just leave theirs turned off when Barney came to preach – since he really didn’t need it; this was easier than trying to adjust out the “feedback” squeal!

The Wellsburg church has been a large part of Barney’s life, having served as part of the eldership twice: 1940-45 & and 1973-79. He was also their full-time located preacher from 1966 to 1969. His early Bible education was at the feet of such men as: Fred E. Dennis, Tom W. and George Butterfield, H.W. Bankes, Joe A. Taylor, H.M. Phillips, Clod Wallace and C.D. Plum to name just a few.

When the Institutional issues began to affect the OhioValley, Barney wasn’t easily persuaded that the dissension being caused was really necessary. Both Connie and Joe had tried to talk to him about these matters, but he wasn’t a man easily swayed. In 1966, Connie and her late husband, Al Beck, got her Dad to attend a meeting in Pisgah, OH where he heard brother Cecil Willis preach on “Specific and Generic Authority.” He returned home with a determination to find the truth on the matter and stand for It. Out of his own pocket, Barney paid to have brother Connie Adams come to Wellsburg In the fall of 1967 to preach a wook-ond meeting on the digressions. Shortly after that, the Wellsburg church cancelled all future meetings with known liberal preachers and has been standing for sound doctrine to this day.

One ovent that stands out in the minds of Christians in this area took place at the closing service of a gospel meeting, in the spring of 1969. Frank Higginbotham, in his last sermon, made mention of some who were going up and down the valley causing divisions in the Lord’s church with their preaching and he felt this should stop. Barney stood up after the lesson and in a kind but firm way stated that it was the digressions and innovations of liberal, modernistic thinking preachers and brethren which were causing divisions not the preaching of sound doctrine. This example of courage stirred a number of Christians in this valley to declare themselves on the Lord’s side.

Though all know Barney to be a man of conviction, I know him also to be a caring man. My first opportunity to meet brother Winland was on the occasion of my Interview for the work at Wellsburg. While Barney and I sat in the building that afternoon discussing the work, he spoke of the wayward and willfully negligent and began to cry in sadness over some who had recently died without repentance and about others who he feared might also. Among the lost words I heard him speak when I lost visited him in the personal care home in Racine, OH was concern for his children. Sandwiched in between were all the times he took me to visit the spiritually sick, trying to plead for them to open their eyes to the terminal plight of their soul. First and last, I believe Barney labored In the kingdom because he sincerely loved the souls of those he taught.

On September 16, 1986, Barney suffered a stroke that began the decline of his health. There was no warning – he had just plowed a field at his wife’s farm and was working on a broken steering shaft on the tractor when the stroke hit. With help, he made his way back to the house and later walked Into the hospital where, that night, he suffered another, more severe stroke. An early program of rehabilitation had him started back to his old self, but two additional strokes, congestive heart failure, and a few bouts with pneumonia kept him from recovering. On Sunday, June 5, 1988, brother Barney breathed his last breathe and went to his long home.

His funeral was conducted by Weldon Warnock, assisted by Mike Grushon and me. His son Joe led the congregational singing, using “Praise the Lord,”‘Where the Roses Never Fads,” and “Heaven Will Surely Be Worth It All.” He was interred beside the grove of his first wife, Vaughn, at Holly Memorial Gardens In Pleasant Grove, Ohio.

Barney leaves behind beloved family members and door friends who will remember him and smile about his worm, boisterous sense of humor. After ooting large meals In homes of his brethren, he would invariably say, “I feel just as good after those few bites as if I had eaten a whole meal.” But the bit of humor I will remember was his insistence that his initials G.O. actually spelled “GO!” and that he always intended to do it!

The ranks of the laborers in the vineyard have been diminished by one – lot us determine to stop up into his place. G.O. “Barney” Winland’s example will speak to us down through the years. What will ours say to those we leave behind in death?

“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them” (Rev. 14:13).

Guardian of Truth XXXII: 16, pp. 502-503
August 18, 1988

By Phil Roberts

Why have you suffered the things you have in your life? Ultimately, sin causes all suffering. We shy away from the stark reality of this answer, but it is the only answer that comes to us from the Bible.

1. Suffering as a Natural Consequence of Sin. Sometimes the connection between suffering and sin is clear to everybody. The homosexual who contracts AIDS or the promiscuous heterosexual who contracts a venereal disease knows that sin brings suffering. Likewise, the thief who gets caught or the drunk who loses his arm in a wreck suffers as a direct consequence of his actions. Such suffering is merely the natural consequence of the biological and social order of the world which God has created.

The book of Proverbs focuses on this moral order of God’s creation, and is, therefore, filled with warnings about the natural consequences of sin. “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? … Those who linger long over wine” (Prov. 23:29-30; cf. also 11:6,19; 12:13; 13:21; 21:7,25; 22:8,14; 24:30-34; 26:27; 28:10; 28:17-22).

2. Suffering as Punishment for Sin. But sometimes God sends direct punishment above and beyond the natural consequences of sin. The cases of Achan and his family, of Nadab and Abihu, and especially of Uzzah who was struck dead after touching the ark, come immediately to mind. And lest we think such divinely administered punishment was limited to the OT, remember the case of Ananias and Sapphira from the NT. Even men of God such as Moses and David suffered severe punishment for their sins. We realize, therefore, that some of the things we suffer in our fives may well be punishment from God. “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23).

But often the suffering we experience in this life is so far removed from the sin that precipitated it – so indirect – that we fail to see the connection. And the fact that suffering does not seem to be distributed among men in any reasonable relationship to their individual sinfulness causes us to doubt the connection altogether. We know sinners who are the picture of health and devout Christians who are eaten up with cancer. We have seen car wrecks where an innocent child was killed and the drunk who caused the wreck was unharmed (cf. Psa. 73:3-9). And we all know that most of our own sins have not been followed by an clear and immediate punishment (Eccl. 8:11).

So maybe some suffering comes as a result of sin, we say to ourselves, but surely not all suffering can be explained that way. And what about the blind man in John 9:1-2? Jesus said the blindness resulted neither from his own sins nor from his parents’ sins, as the disciples had supposed.

Well the case of the blind man should certainly warn us against oversimplified explanations of suffering. But if we use the case to try to prove that there is no connection between sin and suffering, we miss the point altogether. The fact is, those disciples had very good reason to suppose that somebody’s sin caused the man’s blindness. They knew from the Scriptures that David’s son had died because of the sin of his parents. And they could surely recall how Jesus himself had healed the paralytic with the words: “Your sins are forgiven” (Luke 5:20), and how he had told the lame man by the pool of Bethesda to “Go and sin no more lest a worse thing happen to you” (John 5:14; cf. also the implied connection in Jas. 5:15-16).

I repeat, therefore, the assertion that all suffering is caused by sin. But the case of the blind man reminds us that not all suffering can be explained by such a direct principle as the disciples tried to apply. Thus we must consider some of the more indirect ways in which sins brings suffering.

3. Suffering as a Member of a Sinful Group. When Achan sinned (Josh. 7), the whole nation suffered defeat in battle and thirty-six men were killed. When he was caught, his family was executed with him. Even godly men such as Daniel, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel suffered along with the rest of the nation during the Babylonian captivity. Sometimes we suffer because we are associated with other people who are sinners. Indeed, some suffering comes to all men simply because they are part of the sinful group known as the human race. But the more sinful the portion of the human race that we choose to associate with, the more intense our suffering may be. Think about the suffering that Lot brought on himself and his family when he pitched his tent toward Sodom (2 Pet. 2:7-8).

The ancient writer Augustine elaborated on this point as he sought to explain to early Christians why God would have allowed them to suffer along with the pagans when Rome was sacked by the Vandals in A.D. 410. He observed that, while they might have been personally innocent of the sins that had brought suffering to the whole population, they might still be held accountable in God’s eyes simply because they had not actively fought against the sins being committed by others, but had adopted a passive and too tolerant attitude tow” sin in others. How strongly have we opposed the growing immorality of our nation?

Augustine likewise suggested that we may have associated ourselves with the sins of the world around us more closely than we would like to admit inasmuch as we often envy the sinners around us and secretly desire to live as they do (cf. Prov. 24:1-2, 19-20). We may even choose to keep quiet about sin because we realize that we reap certain benefits even from sins committed by others. We don’t know how much Achan’s family knew about the theft of goods from Jericho, but I doubt that that was the first time he had sinned, and I suspect they were well aware of his sinful practices in general, and had chosen to look the other way and enjoy the benefits of his evil.

4. Suffering to Bring Repentance from Sin. C.S. Lewis said pain is the megaphone God shouts through when he really wants to get our attention. And sometimes it’s hard to get the attention of us sinners. Amos described a series of rive judgments – famine, drought, crop disease, plague, and destruction of cities – which God brought upon the children of Israel to get them to repent of their sins (Amos 4:6-11; cf. also Lev. 26:18-33). Such suffering is partly punishment and partly warning. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that whether such suffering is a punishment for sin on the one hand, or a warning to repent of sin on the other hand, depends mainly on how we respond to it. If we harden our hearts, it is just punishment. But if we are softened and repent, we have turned what might have been punishment into a gracious warning from our Father. “Whom the Lord loves, he chastens” (Heb. 12:6). Our suffering may even serve to warn others to turn from sin (Luke 13:1-5).

5. Suffering to Keep Usfrom Sin. God may also allow us to suffer just to enable us to resist temptations we will face in the future, or maybe even to keep us from being confronted by temptations greater than we can bear. God clearly told the Israelites that that was why he let them suffer hardship in the wilderness (Deut. 8:16-17). And Paul said that was why the Lord did not remove his thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12:7-10). Christ himself learned obedience by the things that he suffered (Heb. 5:8). James advises us to rejoice in suffering because such trials produce endurance, which in turn makes us “perfect and complete” (1:24; cf. 1 Pet. 4:14 also). And surely the perfection we attain through suffering includes the strength and self-discipline to resist future temptations.

Even the deaths of children in cases such as the infant son of David and Bathsheba and the son of the wicked Jeroboam may be partly explained as deliverance from sin. In fact, God specifically said that the son of Jeroboam was going to die because he was the only decent member of the family. He would get a decent burial and thus be delivered from the calamity that was about to overwhelm the rest of the royal house (1 Kings 14:12-16). This same principle is surely part of the explanation of the death of children when wicked nations such as the Canaanites were destroyed. Those children were, in a sense, being delivered from an inevitable life of sinful paganism.

In this same category we may even classify certain of the more trivial pains and sufferings that come to us in the normal course of daily life – pain from disease, for example, reminds us that we live in a corruptible, sin-cursed world in which all things will eventually pass away. We take warning not to trust in our own physical strength, but to look beyond this life.

6. Suffering Because of Someone Else’s Sin. Thus far we have considered suffering that is in some way tied to our own sin. But we know that sometimes the truly innocent do suffer. If you are prone to doubt this, just think how many I times you have caused an innocent person to suffer through your sins. Or consider the case of Naboth who suffered because of the sin of Ahab and Jezebel. Indeed, the more righteous we are the more we may expect to suffer through the sinfulness of others or even the opposition of Satan himself. The righteous man is an irritant to the world around him and that world rights back, trying either to conform him or to destroy him. Job suffered from the hand of Satan precisely because he was righteous. “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness” (Matt. 5:10, cf. especially 1 Pet. 2:19-24; 4:12-19).

7. Suffering For the Good of Other Sinners. Sometimes the righteous man willingly suffers on behalf of others, even when he knows they are sinners. Joseph told his brothers that the things he had suffered had been for their good (Gen. 45:5). Paul rejoiced that his bonds had led to a more fervent proclamation of the gospel (Phil. 1:12-18). But, frankly, such a willingness to suffer on behalf of others is exceedingly rare (Rom. 5:7). We should be very reticent to explain our own suffering in this way. But, if and when we do suffer for others, we then become truly Christ-like (Col. 1:24).

8. Suffering to Glorify God. Whatever the cause of our suffering, we can transform it to a higher purpose if we patiently endure. We can show that the power of God is greater than the power of Satan. Indeed, we can use the suffering that comes from sin as an occasion to triumph over sin and thereby glorify God (1 Pet. 4:16).

9. One Who Suffered for Your Sin. We may suffer for the good of other sinners in many different ways. But our suffering can never bring about the forgiveness of other men’s sins, or even of our own. The Bible does not teach any doctrine of penance, or any treasury of merit acquired by suffering saints. But forgiveness of sins is exactly what the suffering and death of Christ accomplished for each one of us. “He himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (1 Pet. 2:24, cf. Isa. 53:4-12).

Guardian of Truth XXXII: 17, 515-516, 550
September 1, 1988

By Larry Ray Hafley

A newspaper article previewed and reviewed a television documentary produced by British film maker Anthony Thomas. In the course of the column, the following extract appears.

The documentary’s most astonishing moment comes when a First Baptist theologian insists that saintly Mother Teresa – who’s given her life to helping the sick — is doomed to hell unless she’s born again.

Thomas is dumbstruck: “Yet you, because you’re born-again, can commit any sin you want between now and your death and still go to heaven?”

“I thank the Lord every day for that,” the theologian says (The Indianapolis Star, April 6, 1988, p. 13- 19, by Steve Hall).

The first paragraph correctly represents the truth. Indeed, “Ye must be born again.” But what of “the saintly Mother Teresa,” and others like her, who devote their lives to casing the ills of humanity? Unselfish, sacrificing spirits expend their time, talent and money to soothe the souls and suffering of the downcast and downtrodden. Are they lost? Will their good works count for nothing? Is it possible that such wonderful people could be “doomed to hell”?

Yes, and here is why. Even benevolent people sin. Decent and devout people sin. No amount of good deeds can erase a single sin, and “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:23). “Mother Teresa” has sinned, and if she is to be saved, her sins must be forgiven. If she lives a thousand years and feeds, clothes and houses a billion people, she, with all mankind, must stand before the judgment bar of God Almighty and give account (2 Cor. 5: 10). If her sins have not been washed away by the blood of Christ, she will be lost. As proof thereof, observe:

(1) Jesus said, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name have done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt. 7:21-23).

(2) Cornelius was “a devout (note: “devout,” not depraved) man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway” (Acts 10:2). The “saintly centurion Cornelius,” like the esteemed “Mother Teresa … .. gave much alms to the people,” but, he, too, had sinned and needed to be saved (Acts 11:14). Though he was “a just man, and one that feareth God, and (was) of good report among all the nation” (Acts 10:22), still, he was “warned of God” to hear and heed the word of God in order that he might be saved.

Neither the acclaimed “Mother Teresa,” nor any other good and gracious individual, could be more highly praised than was Cornelius. But Cornelius, like all men, had sinned, and his sins required forgiveness.

(3) If virtuous deeds could save, the rich, young ruler would have been saved (Mk. 10:17-22). If generosity could save, Jesus did not need to die on the cross. All one would need to do is live a good, moral life, help his neighbor and be saved. There are atheists and idolaters who bless and benefit mankind. Do their good works save them? No, for they, too, have sinned. As sinners, they must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31).

Hence, the Baptists are correct. One must be born again if he is to be saved.

So What?

With the remarks above, few Baptists would disagree. So what is the problem? Where is the Baptist dilemma? Read again the second paragraph of the quotation, “Thomas is dumbstruck: ‘Yet you, because you’re born again, can commit any sin you want between now and your death and still go to heaven?'”

Here is where Baptist doctrine is not consistent. Here is where it clouds and obscures truth. Here is where it repulses film makers, newspaper columnists and the general “run-of-the-mill, man-on-the-street” sinner. The Baptist does declare (and quite correctly, as noted) “that saintly Mother Teresa is doomed to hell unless she’s born again. ” But because he is born again, he “can commit any sin . . . and still go to heaven.” It is not a pretty picture. It is the Baptist dilemma.

Calvinian Baptist doctrine says one who is born again can commit any sin “from idolatry to murder” and still be saved. As the Baptist theologian said, “I thank the Lord every day for that.” Columnist, Steve Hall, sees the contradiction that dooms “Mother Teresa” to hell but delivers a born-again sinner to heaven.

It mocks the justice and righteousness of God. It affords occasion for the enemies of truth to blaspheme, and Mr. Hall does not neglect the opportunity to display the inconsistent doctrine in all its stark ugliness. Such a view hinders and suppresses the truth in unrighteousness and turns the grace of God into lasciviousness. The watching world is quick to seize the putrid carcass and parade it through the streets as a representation of the true grace of God. “This,” they shout, “is the theology of born-again Christianity. Do good and burn in hell if you are not born again, but once born again do evil and still go to heaven.” It is a tragic perversion of truth, but it concisely and correctly manifests the Baptist dilemma. And what shall we say to these things? Shall we.

(1) Slander those who point out the dilemma? Shall we say it is just another case of a heathen unbeliever trying to revile the faith of Christ? Shall we ignore the issue and condemn the media as a biased bunch of God haters whose damnation is just?

(2) Stay above such controversies and decry and deplore muckraking opportunists? Shall we smile broadly, wink often, and hope that sinners are unaware of such issues, and seek to convert them with the warm personality and general “feel goodishness”?

(3) Tell the truth? Shall we admit the position and acknowledge the unfavorable posture? Shall we then explain the difference between the truth and Baptist theology? Shall we candidly denounce Baptist doctrine and kindly replace it with the doctrine of Christ?

The world of unbelief is too shrewd to be fooled with the “good ol’ boy” approach. They see the maize and the mess of denominational dogmas, and they identify Christians with it. We are in the same lump; we are cut from the same cloth in the eyes of the world. So, the Baptist dilemma affects us. We must, therefore, admit, explain and clarify it. We must show the mocking world that the Bible does not teach such theology, that such dilemmas are those of false religion, not of the true not of the truth.

Brethren, evil and error cannot be answered with your best grin. Do not be deceived. A warm, vibrant, loving, smiling personality, by itself, is not the answer. Jim Bakker can beat anyone at that game. He can out-smile a possum. So, think not that good humor alone will win souls. Do not think that an upbeat, positive, enthusiastic attitude, by itself, will solve and surmount any challenge. Besides, Zig Ziglar and Robert Schuller have us all beat on that scale. Ziglar and Schuller are paramount “possibility thinkers,” and they will win that match. The world of unbelief sees through the thin veneer and facade of a superficial positive mental attitude. Yes, we must be happy and excited; we must look for the pure, the powerful and the positive, but we must also confront the dirty and the dangerous directly and decisively, “casting down imaginations (reasonings of men) and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge (the truth) of God” (2 Cor. 10:5).

The Simple Solution

The simple solution to the Baptist dilemma as posed in the newspaper article is found in Ezekiel 3. Read again the quotation at the beginning of this essay. With it in mind, read Ezekiel 3:20, “Again, when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.” Further, “But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and commiteth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die” (Ezek. 18:24).

In other words, if you are saved, but turn back to iniquity you will be lost (cf. 2 Pet. 2:20-22; Jude 5). That passage is consistent with the truth, justice and righteousness of God. It removes the stench and stigma of Baptist doctrine from the hands of unbelievers who would discredit the way of righteousness, and “I thank the Lord every day for that.”

Guardian of Truth XXXII: 16, pp. 485-486
August 18, 1988