Truth Magazine

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

By Edward O. Bragwell, Sr.

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Cor 4:7).

The Lord purposely put his gospel “treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” These “vessels” were apparently the apostles. However, there is a principle here for all who preach publicly or privately. The Lord wanted attention to go to the treasure (the gospel) rather than the vessel (the preacher). So, he deposited it in plain earthen pottery. Yet, we spend so much of our time polishing and shining the vessel that too much attention is drawn away from the treasure itself.

Did you ever buy a child an expensive toy only to have him set the toy aside and have a ball with a box? It may be that many of us are doing more playing with the box than we would like to admit.

Paul wrote, “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God” (1 Cor. 2:1).

Faced with sagging interest, dwindling numbers and community rejection in many locales, brethren look for ways to turn things around. Just offering the bare “testimony of God” (the gospel) does not attract enough people. What are we to do? Elders, preachers, and other members wrestle with the problem. Shall we abandon the old gospel truth that we have believed and taught so long? Of course, not! That would be digression, even apostasy! If the meat is not appetizing, we just add spicy dressing to whet the appetite. If one will not buy the product in a plain wrapper, we will jazz up the packaging to grab attention.

So, before long brethren become more concerned with how their approach appeals to a certain age group, a certain educational level, or certain social class than they are in simply presenting the testimony of God and letting it have free course. Preachers are sought, not for being good Bible students, and their ability to share the fruits of their study, but their personal attraction to this or that age, social, economic or intellectual level. Preaching is measured more by its artistic value, entertainment rating and/or the appeal of its rhetorical style than by its biblical content. We can easily rationalize such catering to the fleshly side of man so long as we teach the truth. The problem is that we tend to draw more attention to the dressing and packaging than we do to the gospel itself. One should not detract from the gospel by wrapping it in a rude and crude package (presentation and personality). We have all seen this in some brotherhood “characters.” Neither should one want to wrap it in so pleasingly dynamic packaging that it overshadows the message itself.

Brethren would do well to carefully study Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians I and 2.

We must face the fact that the bare truth of the gospel plainly presented will turn many off. It is not what they are looking for. The Jews wanted a sign. The Greeks sought wisdom. Paul could have given them signs. He did at other times to confirm the word. He was no dummy. He was well-educated. If this would have gotten their attention, why not use it. After winning their attention, then he could have slipped the gospel in to them. He might have reached more of the noble and “better-class” (?) of people this way. Surely such would have been an asset to the church in its early stages.

Why not? It would have shifted attention and emphasis to the wrong place. It would have invited his hearers to place their faith in the wrong things. It would have taken glory away from the Lord (1:31).

The gospel is God’s power to save. It is a stand alone system. It does not need me to dress it up in excellency of speech or with enticing words of man’s wisdom. It doesn’t need the playing up of my dynamic personality (that one that I have been able to keep so effectively concealed) to run interference for it. In fact, Paul indicates that he made a determined effort to avoid dressing it up in any such garb. Such would probably have appealed to the immature (it still does), but the gospel unadorned by such has its own beauty and appeal “among those who are mature” (2:6).

If the Lord’s people will continue to present what the Bible teaches (and support men who will do so) to the world and to the church – unadorned by human wisdom and carnal appeal – souls will be saved. It will not appeal to every one in the community or in the church. It will save some of all classes of people. Their faith will stand in the power of God and not in the wisdom of men (2:5).

There is too much of “I am of Paul” and “I of Apollos” etc. without our encouraging it by using excellency of speech, dynamic personalities, or any other fleshly characteristic as the means of gaining, pacifying and holding members of the church.

Brethren often openly admit that they invite men for local work or gospel meetings because of their personal appeal to certain fleshly classes. He appeals to our young. He appeals to our elderly. He appeals to our singles. He appeals to our marrieds. He appeals to our educated. He appeals to our sports fans. He appeals to our affluent., He appeals to our sophisticated neighbors. On and on ad nauseam.

Brethren, the gospel simply presented convicts and appeals to the spiritually minded of all classes of humanity. It has its own power of persuasion by the sheer force of the truth of it. It has its own appeal to those who honestly consider it. We need to get back to using it as the drawing power. Study it, preach it, teach it, and point to it as the attraction rather than the personal and fleshly traits of brethren, We who preach would do well to project less of ourselves, seek to be less dynamic or dramatic, seek less to make a personal impression, study less rhetoric (developing excellency of speech) and spend more time with the Book, learning its contents and simply telling folks what it says so they can be saved and remain faithful to the Lord. We might even become less concerned with impressing folks with our oratory, rapport, wit and wisdom and more concerned that they clearly see the wisdom of God – the wisdom revealed in the Scriptures. If we could just preach so that people will exclaim, “What truth!” or “What a Savior!” rather than “What a preacher!” or “What a delivery!” then we will be coming closer to the kind of preaching that will get the job done that God wants done.

If we do this and leave the results to God, it will attract and keep all that God wants attracted and kept and “no flesh should glory in his presence” (1:29).

Guardian of Truth XXXI: 19, pp. 588-589
October 1, 1987

By Alex Ogden

Many good articles have appeared in publications such as this on the subject of abortion. Abortion has become a national tragedy, killing more than 18 million babies since January 22, 1973, when abortions were first made legal by the Supreme Court in the Roe vs. Wade decision. Several million are killed each year by abortion around the world.

In this article I will consider a form of abortion we hear little about but is much more tragic than the abortion legalized by the Supreme Court. I have reference to what I call spiritual abortion, or the destruction of those yet spiritually unborn. Whether we realize it or not, each of us who claims to be the child of God may have at one time or another performed a spiritual abortion by saying or doing something which closed the minds of the lost to the message of the gospel. We destroy whatever desire they may have for spiritual life and, therefore, contribute to their eternal death.

Just as the abortionist in the clinic makes use of various methods to destroy the unborn, as Christians we abort the spiritually unborn in different ways. Here are some of them:

An ungodly example. Peter tells us we are to live so that the world will be caused to glorify God (1 Pet. 2:11-12). If we live in any other way God will not be glorified but rather reproached. We may be a poor example in our language, hobbies, entertainment, attendance at church services or our involvement in spiritual matters in general. If we set an improper example, the lost will not glorify God and our efforts to convert them to Christ will be hindered if not destroyed.

Failing to see and heed opportunities to teach the gospel. Children of God should seek opportunities to teach the gospel but, because we so often set our attention on things of this life, those opportunities which come to us are never seen. This reminds me of trips to Florida as a kid playing “Bingo.” We would look for Volkswagon Bugs along the way and the first to say “Bingo” could count it. The first to spell bingo won. If we started talking about something else, however, a Bug could pass and no one notice. If you are looking for something, you must keep your mind on what you are looking for. We must not allow opportunities to teach the gospel to go unnoticed or unheeded. Let us seek opportunities to teach the truth, being ready to teach when the opportunity is found (1 Pet. 3:15).

Several methods that abort the spiritually unborn deal with our teaching.

Teaching false doctrine. If the lost are being taught things which do not conform to the word of God, they will not be brought to the new birth. Paul told the Colossian brethren the result of false teaching. He said, “Take heed lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (2:8). Error will not produce life but will make spoil of the one receiving it. In another place Paul stated that from false teaching “cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, wranglings of men corrupted in mind and bereft of the truth” (1 Tim. 6:3-5). If truth is not taught, the lost will remain in bondage to sin since it is the truth which sets us free (Jn. 8:31-34). Let us be careful to teach only what we know to be truth.

Bad attitudes. Occasionally our efforts to convert the lost will be destroyed by our attitudes. In working with the lost some seem to have the attitude they really do not care whether the lost obey the gospel or not and, therefore, do not really care about their lost souls. Our prospects should understand from the way we study with them that we are truly concerned for them and where they will spend eternity. If they sense we are there out of duty or some motive other than an interest in their soul, they are less likely to listen.

Another attitude we sometimes express is that we know everything and our prospect knows nothing. Granted, you likely know more about the truth than they, but if we reflect the attitude that we have all of the answers and our prospect can only come to an understanding of the truth through us, we have erred. We should enter such a study with the attitude that the Bible has all the answers and through a mutual study of the Bible we can both increase our understanding of God’s will for us.

Proper attitudes can only promote the process underway to convert your prospect. Bad attitudes can only hinder the process.

Trying to teach something you really do not know yourself. The effort to teach a lost friend or neighbor can be greatly damaged if we attempt to teach something we do not understand ourselves. This problem may be most common among new converts. They seem to be the most enthusiastic about teaching the gospel but they are the least prepared. Peter’s exhortation to “be ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you” (1 Pet. 3:15) involves, first, studying the word of God. You cannot be ready to give an answer if you haven’t spent time in study and preparation. If we are prepared, the prospect can only learn. If we are not ready, our prospect will not be convinced that what we are trying to say is true.

Trying to teach too much too fast. Some, in their eagerness to convert their prospect, have made the mistake of trying to push them to accept or do more than they were ready for. In the Parable of the Sower (Lk. 8:4-15) the good ground was that which had been cultivated or prepared to receive the seed. But who cultivated it? Did it cultivate itself?. Of course not. Did the seed cultivate it? All four types of ground described in the parable received the seed, but only the good ground brought forth fruit. Why? Because it had been prepared prior to the planting of the seed. The sower, or someone for the sower, prepared the ground for the reception of the seed. So from this parable we should learn the importance of first preparing our prospect before planting the seed of God’s word within them. If the proper preparations have first been made, their heart will be more receptive to the truth.

As the farmer patiently works days or even weeks just to prepare the ground to receive the seed, we also must be patient as we cultivate the heart of our prospect (2 Tim. 4:1-2).

Very little fruit comes from uncultivated ground. Let us be certain we do not try to harvest the fruit before the ground is even ready for the seed.

We could note other methods of this form of abortion but the point has been made: often we destroy the spiritually unborn by the things we say or do. Let us be keenly aware of our responsibility to bring the lost to Christ, but let us also be careful of what we say or do among the lost lest we become spiritual abortionists.

Guardian of Truth XXXI: 19, pp. 594-595
October 1, 1987