Truth Magazine

By Jim King

It is a fair rule of thumb to be at least suspicious of practices in the church which take their cue from practices in the world. I have employed this rule for some time while watching the migration of preachers from place to place. Since I am planning to “relocate” soon, the way in which preacher meets church and church meets preacher is of particular interest to me. And though relatively new to “full-time” preaching, I am being duly initiated.

As the secular working world is filled with hiring and firing, promotions and demotions, resumes and cover letters, so brethren have begun to use the same jargon. The preacher attempting to make a move will quickly encounter it. He soon discovers that the disciples are looking for that nebulous, but much sought after evangelist – “an older, mature man, with experience.” Indeed, this demand seems so widespread, it is enough to make one wish for wrinkles and covet gray hair. Though no Bible passage gives this qualification for an evangelist, each church certainly has the right to decide what qualifications they require. What is disturbing is the seemingly subjective way in which many go about the selection process.

Instead of viewing each preacher on his own merits, it seems customary to greet the inquirer with, “Send a resume.” And it appears that many churches with problems or without problems, with elders or without them, feel an insatiable urge to judge that resume mainly by how many years “experience” the preacher can legitimately claim. Never mind that age and maturity are not synonymous, nor experience a sure indication of ability. Rather, if a Timothy or a Titus cannot put down that magical number, let him find some less discriminating brethren with whom to work. Of course, one can always do as Paul did, and go into some area where the gospel is unknown, not building on another man’s foundation (Rom. 15:20). This approach has much to commend it. Yet it seems a shame that a younger man must pursue it by necessity, and not by choice.

It is especially interesting to note advertisements for “preachers needed.” The brethren usually ask for very little. Most simply request the wisdom of a Paul coupled with the eloquence of an Apollos, all wrapped in that all-inclusive phrase, “we desire an older, mature man, with experience.” Some wax bold, and insist that he rob other churches to do them service – that is, they inform him that he must bring his own support.

The difficulties mentioned here are really part of a larger problem – the whole system of preachers looking for churches and churches looking for preachers.. From search, to “try-out,” to selection, the entire process seems strange compared to first century standards. I find it hard to envision Peter and Paul vying for the “preaching job” at Jerusalem, or feverishly sending out resumes to Corinth and Antioch, hoping that their credentials will look good on paper. Surely there is a better way.

I make no pretense at having all the answers. But I believe certain actions would point us in the right direction. Let preachers appreciate the gravity of their work, and never think of themselves nor allow others to think of themselves as mere clergy juggling for positions with the most “desirable churches.” And let brethren initially be clear and forthright about what qualifications they seek in a preacher. If they require certain years of experience, regardless of a man’s capabilities, then let them say so at the beginning. This one courtesy could save much time, money, and inconvenience. And let churches refuse to be wedded to a concept that says a “mature” preacher is the panacea to all problems – problems that in some cases should have been dealt with by the elders long before.

Some congregations have made it a point to give younger men the chance to work among them and grow. May their tribe increase. Until a more objective, practical way is found for a preacher and a congregation to begin their work together, many preachers will yet hear that depressing request – send a resume.

Guardian of Truth XXXI: 19, p. 589
October 1, 1987

By Andy Alexander

There are times when we need to be silent and other times when we need to speak out. Our Lord, the master teacher, knew exactly how to handle every situation. In John 19:9-10, Jesus stood silently before Pilate, knowing that silence would bring about his crucifixion and the salvation of those who chose to obey him.

When faced by religious error, Jesus always spoke out and condemned the false teaching and the false teacher.

Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit (Matt. 15:13-14).

Jesus’ love for the sinner prompted him to teach truth at all times, whether the sinner wanted to hear it or not. In Matthew 19:16-26, Jesus taught the rich young ruler the truth about what he needed to do in order to be pleasing to God. The young ruler could not bear to give up his riches for Jesus, but this did not stop Jesus or cause him to alter his teaching to fit the situation and make the ruler feel comfortable about his particular sin. Jesus’ love for the sinner would not allow him to ignore sin and false teaching.

Religious leaders of today will not debate their doctrine publicly or privately and their followers are just as apathetic as they are. The followers have little or no Bible knowledge; therefore, they are afraid to speak out, because they are not sure what they believe. The religious leaders know that if they speak out, their doctrine will be proved false when compared to the doctrine of Jesus. The false teachers in Matthew 22:46 were not “able to answer him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask him another question.” If their doctrine is shown to be false by controversy, they will then lose some followers who are interested in knowing the truth. More importantly, they will lose the money these followers were giving. The false teacher has everything to lose and nothing to gain by speaking out.

Our Lord was never silent when challenged on an issue. Chances are, your preacher is silent on any and every issue where his teaching contradicts the Word of God. He will not speak out for fear of the consequences and mistakenly calls this silence “love.” Is it “love” when we stand on the shore and watch someone drown without trying to save him? Is it then “love” when we see one lost in false teaching and stand silently by watching him sink into hell?

We can thank God that Jesus was not silent.

(The article by Andy Alexander entitled “Is Silence Golden?” is his first article for a religious journal and we are glad to have it published in the Guardian of Truth. Andy is thirty- three years old, is a faithful Christian, and is working toward the goal of giving his full time to the work of an evangelist. He is already a good Bible student and a competent speaker but plans to spend several more months in preparation before beginning full-time labors in the gospel. His father Charley is an elder here at West Columbia, and his brother Pete is also a faithful member in the church here. Andy’s convictions are firm and he is diligent about his duties on the job, in his family, and in the church here. It is a privilege to commend Andy to our readers. I believe he is typical of many young men who are preparing themselves as Bible class teachers, future elders, deacons, and evangelists. In a world of darkness, it is encouraging to see a good number of young married Christians who are striving to serve the Lord in every way possible from place to place. – Ron Halbrook, 654 Gray Street, West Columbia, Texas 77486.)

Guardian of Truth XXXI: 19, p. 587
October 1, 1987

By Stanton See

On a television program in May, 1987 the subject was discussed whether or not the large numbers of preachers who are falling away today is a fulfillment of 2 Timothy 3:1-5 and thus if we arc in the “last days” immediately preceding the second coming of Christ. Can we know if we are in the “last days” and if so, when did they start? Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” (emphasis mine, SS) Paul gives Timothy a description of the characteristics of the people who would be living in the “last days.” But notice that Paul tells Timothy to “turn away” from people with these characteristics. It does not take a scholar or really a person with a lot of intelligence to understand that if Timothy had to turn away from these types of people that would characterize the “last days” he had to have been living in the “last days” at some point in his lifetime. Therefore, we know that we have been in the “last days” for at least nineteen hundred years and that it does not just describe the characteristics of the people who would be living immediately preceding the second coming of Christ.

Another passage that helps us to know when the “last days” started is found in Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost. We read in Acts 2:16-17, “But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. “‘ Again it does not take a scholar to recognize that when Peter, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, states that what had happened in verses 1-4 was in fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy of the “last days” that Acts 2 is the beginning of the “last days.” Since Acts 2 is the beginning of the Christian Age and the “last days,” we can see that the expression “the last days” is referring to the Christian age that began on the Day of Pentecost and will last until the end of the world, not just to the days immediately preceding the second coming of Christ.

Another passage that will help us to know when the last days started is found in Hebrews 1:1-2. “God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.” This passage emphasizes the fact that ever since Jesus sealed his gospel with his death (Heb. 9:16-17) we have been in the “last days.” Again this shows that we have been in the “last days” for over nineteen hundred years.

This helps us to understand what Paul means by the expression “in latter times” in 1 Timothy 4:1. Paul states that “in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.” Paul is referring to the fact that at some point in the future, there will come a falling away which had already started during the lifetime of the apostles (2 Thess. 2:1-7). And as any casual student of church history knows, a failing away did take place after the apostles died in fulfillment of this passage.

The television program stated that the large number of preachers who are falling away could well be a fulfillment of 2 Timothy 3:1-5 and thus we could be in the “last days” immediately preceding the second coming of Christ. The fact that the conclusion was contrary to the plain teaching of the Scriptures emphasizes the need to be like the Bereans who “received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.”

Guardian of Truth XXXI: 19, p. 591
October 1, 1987

By Dan Walters

Jesus said that “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matt. 15:18). Our Lord is here teaching that one does not commit adultery merely because the opportunity presents itself, or because there is temptation, but because there is evil in the heart. The evil thought precedes the evil act. The problem of evil cannot be solved by a change of environment; only utopian idealists believe that it can. If a man is a thief, the answer is not to prevent him from handling money. Judas was a thief, and yet Christ continued to let him carry the money bag (John 12:6). If allowing someone else to act as treasurer would have changed the character of Judas, then Jesus would have certainly exercised that option. If a man has murder in his heart, the answer is not to forbid him all weapons. If a man is a habitual liar, the answer is not to prevent him from ever testifying in court.

All this should be self-evident, but several articles in the last year or two have emphasized avoidance of opportunity as the chief answer to the problem of preachers who commit adultery. Yes, it may sometimes be wise for a preacher to take his wife with him when visiting a single woman; that depends on the circumstances. But such a precaution should be somewhere near the bottom of the list of things to prevent the sin of fornication. One does not commit adultery without premeditation as one might accidentally violate the speed limit while going down hill and glancing away from the speedometer. The very nature of the act demands certain preparation and allows plenty of time for thought and for resisting temptation. If a man commits adultery, it is because he intends to commit adultery because he has allowed his heart to become filled with evil thoughts of adultery.

If a significant number of preachers have committed this sin in the recent past, it should stimulate us to inquire more deeply into the character of those we encourage and invite to preach in our churches. Perhaps a quick wit and a winning personality have governed our choice more than a strong character and a great faith. Preaching the gospel should be something a man is driven to do out of deep religious conviction. Have we been guilty of fostering the concept of preaching as an exciting and remunerative career for every young male Christian with the qualifications of a sewing machine salesman?

We have all known preachers in the past who have made a life work out of bringing reproach upon the church through the sin of adultery. One of the first preachers I have heard as a boy was of this kind. After each act of sin he would feign a nervous breakdown and thus escape responsibility. He preached all over the southwest, and if he is still alive, I doubt not that he is still up to his old tricks. Could this same man have found it so easy to obtain a place to preach if his sin had been that of bank robbery, or bootlegging, or murder?

Some brethren may think more lightly than they ought of the sin of adultery since it was committed by King David. Yes, David was, generally speaking, a good man, “a man after God’s own heart.” But consider the difference between David’s situation and ours. David lived in a spiritually dark period when God allowed, though he did not encourage, the practice of polygamy and of concubinage. David was an absolute monarch and knew that he could take just about any woman he desired into his harem. His loyalty was not pledged to any one woman to whom he was bound in a sacred one-to-one relationship. David lived and died long before the great teaching of the Holy Spirit that marriage typifies the relationship of Christ and the church.

To commit adultery today is not only to violate one specific command of God. It is also to break a sacred and public vow, to betray a marriage partner whom we should love as Christ loved the church and died for it, to deliberately debase a divine institution, and to desecrate our own body, the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is also to bring reproach upon the body of Christ and to trod underfoot the blood of the covenant. In spite of the teaching of some to the contrary, the Bible does teach that, though all sins condemn, there are some sins that are greater than others (John 19: 11). A child of God in the present dispensation who commits the sin of adultery must surely be committing one of the greater sins.

What is the answer to the problem of Christians who commit adultery? The answer must be to change the heart. When considering whether a church or an individual is “sound,” the emphasis must be shifted from the merely external to the internal as well. Moral character must be given the same weight today as it was given by our forefathers and as it was given by our Lord and his apostles. Our teaching, our exercise of discipline, and our choice of leadership must reflect a firm commitment to moral soundness.

Guardian of Truth XXXI: 19, p. 590
October 1, 1987