Truth Magazine

By Jackie Derrick

As faithful Christians who are striving to go to heaven, we are highly interested in knowing all that God expects of us and the works we will be held responsible for doing. One responsibility that I do not hear much preaching or teaching on is the command given to older women in Titus 2:3-6. Notice these instructions are not directed to Titus or the elders, but to the older women. I also do not see much concern from older Christian women in the form of actually taking an interest in young women to teach the things mentioned in these verses. Oh, I do see and hear disapproval from older women when they see conduct from young wives and mothers that indicates they need much guidance in properly fulfilling these roles.

For the aged women to have an y influence with the young women, they must be able to communicate with them. So many have reached the age when they need to be teaching the young women; and instead of developing lines of communication with them, the older women have settled into a rut with friends who are their same age or their immediate family circle and do not know how to even causally talk to the young women who are outside this circle. They should make every effort to make the young woman feel at ease with them and show that they are genuinely interested in them. Encourage them to be faithful as a Christian, wife and mother during those tender years when that young marriage needs nurturing and those small children are being modeled. Are you easily approached if some young women needs mature counsel? When young women seek other young women for advice and guidance, there is a very dangerous possibility that they may receive immature advice. The knowledge and wisdom that you may have, which comes from having lived and experienced the problems the young are struggling with at present, is so needed. Why would you not be interested enough to help?

Older women, you have never considered the command of God to teach the young women to apply to you. You may have assumed that you are responsible for only your own daughters, but can you not look around and recognize just how few of our young women are really prepared for being a wife and mother? This may be a failure on the part of the mothers of these young women, but it does not relieve you of the responsibility to do what you can.

It is sad when a woman has raised her family and looks around and decides that she should find a job to occupy her time or just settle back in a state of apathy now that her children are independent. To the contrary, this is the time to really be of service to others. Now there is time to visit the sick, encourage the discouraged and to “teach the young women,” whether in a Bible class in the local church or privately. Use that wisdom you have gained from serving God as a Christian, wife and mother all those years.

Notice the things Paul instructs the aged women to teach the young women. Love your husband, your children, and your home, as you serve your Lord. Do not resent your position as “help meet” to your husband and as a worker at home. Society causes young mothers who choose to be homemakers to feel inadequate, unfulfilled and less than intelligent. Perhaps husbands have failed to make them feel appreciated, and perhaps older women have failed to encourage them in this great work by assuring them that they have made the right choice. I have ad so many young mothers confide in me their feelings of inadequacy when they are women who have careers and have turned the raising of their children over to babysitters and daycare centers. Christians, this ought not to be! You can be assured that through society, the devil is at work in an attack to minimize these responsibilities that the Lord requires of young women. It is our duty to teach, admonish and encourage them as we do what we can to counteract this attack.

Also to be taught to young women is conduct and character that is “sober, discreet, chaste, good.” She is to have her desires and passions under control and have a well balanced state of mind as she is pure in heart and mind. One of the most dangerous activities a young homemaker can engage in that is destructive to her acquiring this noble character is to habitually fill her hours at home with the soap operas. The very nature and theme of these shows are demeaning to God’s laws concerning marriage, morals and woman’s role in the home. A young mother who raises her small children with soap operas flashing across the TV screen daily, need not wonder why that child grows up with no respect for God’s marriage laws and can so easily justify “living together” and all sorts of immortality that are portrayed as good and normal on these shows. A young woman cannot develop this character that is sober, woman cannot develop this character that is sober, discreet, chaste and good when she daily fills her mind with this kind of filth. Older woman, warn the young mothers and wives of this evil. Teach her to fill her mind with “things that are true, honest, pure, lovely and of good report” (Phil. 4:8).

The body of Christ is made up of individual Christians (brothers and sisters) sealed and cemented together by the blood of Christ. We are commanded to help each other as we grow to spiritual maturity and as we overcome temptations here on earth. Now brothers and sisters, how much of this helping the weaker and tempted have we done? Have we left the weakest and humblest ones to strive alone? When we do this, we have injured ourselves by neglecting God’s commands. We are prone to be disturbed when a congregation has existed for years without qualified elders. We should be disturbed! Something is wrong! We should also be disturbed when the older women are not teaching the young women “to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands.” A lack of elders to oversee the flock and a lack of aged women to teach the young women in a local congregation is indicative of failure.

Guardian of Truth XXIX: 7, pp. 203, 215
April 4, 1985

By C. Titus Edwards

Smoking – The No Good Habit

You can hardly have a lesson series for young people without sometime talking about smoking. Well,, sometime has come I The use of tobacco is nothing but a foul, filthy, disgusting, offensive habit. There just is not anything good to be said about itl

I know, that most of you will try it anyway (if you haven’t already) sometime between the ages of 9 and 14, and that about 68% of you will become regular smokers. But let me suggest that you carefully consider the advantages and disadvantages of smoking before you get into it. If you do, then you will obviously decide not to be a smoker.

Most people that smoke will admit that it is no good for them and that they would like to be able to quit. Do you know the best way to handle this problem? Don’t ever start smoking to begin with! One night on the Johnny Carson show, Tony Randall was trying to encourage Johnny to quit smoking. Johnny admitted that he had tried to do so in the past unsuccessfully. Johnny said that he knew he would be better off not to smoke and even made an appeal to his audience not ever to start. He made the point that most people started smoking when they were young. They did so to be big, or because other kids were trying it, or just because they were told not to. Johnny said that it was not worth it ever to begin smoking. These points are obvious, even from people of the world!

The Bible lays down three principles which tells me that smoking is wrong. First of all, smoking violates God’s laws on health and our bodies. We are to present our bodies as “a living sacrifice” (Rom. 12: 1), recognizing that it is the temple of the Holy Ghost and that we are to use it to glorify God (1 Cor. 6:19-20). Second, smoking violates God’s law on being mastered. We are to be temperate and in control, not overcome by bad habits (Gal. 5:23; 1 Cor. 9:25-27; 6:12). And third, smoking ruins a person’s influence. We are to be setting a good example for others to follow, letting people see Jesus in our lives (Phil. 2:15; Mt. 5:13-15). We should want not to smoke that we can serve God acceptably.

Is smoking harmful? Of course it is! That is why millions of people have quit smoking the last 10 years. The percentage of people who smoke is dropping, because of all of the research that has come out in the last 15 years showing how harmful it is. “Cigarette smoking not only causes 90% of all lung cancers, it also is the single most preventable cause of disease in America,” said Dr. Charles LeMaistre, president of the University of Texas System Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Why do you think that the U.S. government requires cigarette packages to carry this warning: “Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous To Your Health”? Heart diseases are the number one health problem and leading cause of death today. We know that smoking is one of the primary contributions to such. Nicotine is a poisonous alkaloid. Smoking is slow suicide!

If this isn’t enough to get you not to smoke, then I hope that your first puff turns you green and you get sicker than a dog! Maybe that will convince you to leave it alone! Isn’t it interesting, that when you’re young, you’re big if you smoke, but when you’re older, you’re big if you can quit? Remember, you don’t smoke – the cigarette does. You’re just the sucker!

Guardian of Truth XXIX: 7, p. 202
April 4, 1985

By Bill Cavender

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:3-5).

Every faithful child of God is an heir of God and has been promised eternal life by our Father. “And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life . . . in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before times eternal . . . the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 John 2:25; Tit. 1:2; Rom. 6:23). Our promised inheritance, which is in heaven in the presence of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and with the elect angels and all the redeemed of the ages, is “incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.” Our inheritance in heaven is imperishable, enduring forever, never decaying. It is pure. “It will not have been obtained by dishonesty, nor will it be held by fraud; it will not be such as will corrupt the soul, or tempt to extravagance, sensuality, and lust, as a rich inheritance often does here; it will be such that its eternal enjoyment will never tend in any manner to defile the heart” (Albert Barnes). It will ever be new and fresh, in all its original splendor and brilliance, brightness and beauty. That wonderful inheritance of the saints in light, in the presence of the Almighty Himself, in that land of fadeless day and in that city which lieth foursquare, will be revealed to us when Jesus comes again at the last day of time (Col. 1:14; Rev. 21:1-27; 22:1-20; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 2 Thess. 1:3-10).

Our entering into and upon such an inheritance is not only conditioned upon our becoming God’s children through faith, repentance and obedience in baptism, but also upon our being faithful to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ all our lifetimes. “We desire that every one of you do show the same diligence unto the fullness of hope even to the end: that ye be not sluggish, but imitators of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb. 6:11-12). The apostle Peter said, “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:5-11). The lazy, slothful, indifferent, ungodly, unfaithful child of God has no hope and no promise of the eternal inheritance (Matt. 25:31-36). It is reserved for those who are willing to suffer with Him and who are “kept by the power of God through faith” (Rom. 8:17; 1 Pet. 1:5). In this life we have a hundredfold of God’s blessings and in the world to come we have eternal life (Mark 10:28-30).

Are you God’s child and an heir of God? Are you preparing now for eternal life in heaven? Today, now, is the day of salvation (Heb. 3:13, 15; 4:7; 2 Cor. 6:2)!

Guardian of Truth XXIX: 7, p. 199
April 4, 1985

By Johnny Stringer

Unless he put away his spouse for the cause of fornication, the divorced person has no right to marry a second mate while his first spouse is still living. If he does so, he is guilty of adultery (Matt. 19:9; Lk. 16:18). The reason for this is that one who is divorced continues to be bound to his first spouse; they are bound to each other for as long as they both live (Rom. 7:2-3; 1 Cor. 7:39). Since he is bound to his first spouse, he commits adultery every time he has intercourse with his second spouse.

In order to be forgiven of this adultery, one must repent (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 8:22); hence, he must quit committing it; his adulterous relationship must be severed. Brethren, however, have propagated theories which make it unnecessary to sever adulterous marriages. Two of the most popular of these theories in the Lord’s church are identified with their most prominent proponents, E.C. Fuqua and Lloyd Moyer.

Fuqua’s Theory

Fuqua championed the theory that the alien sinner is not .under the law of God, hence not subject to God’s law on marriage. Consequently, he argued, no matter how many times one has divorced and remarried unscripturally, he can remain with whatever mate he is married to when he becomes a Christian; for God’s law did not apply to him when he was divorcing and remarrying as an alien. Here are his words:

I therefore boldly stated the World is in no sense under law to Christ but lives and breathes under self-made laws called Civil law . . . While in the World . . . they are not under Christian law, but are under civil law exclusively . . . the World is without law from God or Christ: the church alone is under Christ’s law . . . We have removed Marriage, as per Christ’s law to the Church, entirely from the World. It is God’s perfect marriage law in the church, for Matthew 19:9 states Christ’s law to His Church. It has no particle of reference to the World (Fliqua- Warren Debate).

Fuqua’s theory is false. Aliens are subject to God’s marriage law. If God’s marriage law did not apply to aliens, they could not be guilty of adultery and fornication, for these are violations of God’s marriage law. Yet, the Bible teaches that aliens are held accountable for these sins. The Corinthians had been guilty of them before their conversion (1 Cor. 6:9-11). Moreover, Paul spoke of fornicators of the world, as distinguished from brethren who were fornicators (1 Cor. 5:11).

While in Athens Paul said that all men everywhere were commanded to repent, because Christ would judge the world (Acts 17:30-31). This means that all men everywhere (including aliens) are required to cease disobedience to God’s law. They would not be required to repent, ceasing disobedience to God’s law, if they were not subject to God’s law.

God today has no law on marriage other than the law of Christ (Heb. 1:1-2) and His law applied to all men. He has been given authority over all, not just over the church; and all owe Him their obedience (Matt. 28:18; 1 Pet. 3:22; Phil. 2:9-11; Rev. 19:16). It is clear that His authority extends over alien sinners, even though they rebelliously refuse to submit to it. He rules supreme, and all who refuse to submit to His law will be held accountable (John 12:48; Rom. 2:6-9).

According to Romans 2:6-9, those who do not obey the truth will receive tribulation and anguish when Christ exercises His judgment; and Paul in that passage has reference to “every soul” (v. 9). Hence, every soul (including the alien) is responsible for obeying the truth. Since Jesus’ teaching on marriage and divorce is obviously part of the truth, it follows that every soul is responsible for obeying that teaching. If the alien is involved in a relationship which the truth of Jesus says is adulterous, he is guilty of sin and he cannot be forgiven unless he ends that relationship.

Moyer’s Theory

Lloyd Moyer propagated the theory that when one marries unscripturally, the first act of adultery with the second mate automatically dissolves the first marriage; hence, subsequent acts of intercourse are not adulterous, and the second marriage can, therefore, continue. Lest anyone think I am misrepresenting brother Moyer’s position, I cite his own words. In the Gospel Guardian (Aug. 22 and 29, 1963), he wrote:

The first marriage has been destroyed by the sin of fornication . . . Though adultery was committed when they first joined themselves together in intercourse because they were still the husband or wife of someone else, subsequent sexual intercourse between them is not adultery. They are no longer the husband or wife of someone else . . . And by this sin of adultery they cause their previous marriage to be dissolved . . . No marriage exists. Where no marriage exists, the parties may marry someone else . . . We have shown that by the very act of adultery the first marriage was defiled, adulterated, and therefore dissolved. Subsequent sexual intercourse would not be adultery. It would be simply a man and his wife cohabiting in the confines of marriage.

Then in his debate with Gene Frost, Moyer affirmed:

Though adultery was committed when they first joined themselves together in intercourse because they were still the husband or wife of someone else, subsequent sexual intercourse between them is not adultery. They are no longer the husband or wife of someone else. . . And by this sin of adultery they caused their previous marriage to be dissolved . . . Jesus shows . . . that fornication (illicit sexual intercourse) is that which dissolves a marriage.

Moyer’s theory means that if a man commits adultery and his wife does not know it, the adultery dissolves the marriage without her being aware of it; hence, she unknowingly continues to live with a man to whom she is not married! Moreover, the innocent party who knows of the adultery cannot simply forgive the guilty party and continue living with him, for they are no longer married. As Moyer said in his debate with Frost, “The innocent party may not cohabit with the guilty companion without taking a member of Christ and making him a member of an harlot. The innocent cannot knowingly participate on the ‘marriage bed’ which is defiled without becoming a party to the unholy union of three people becoming one flesh. ” Moyer continued to explain that in order for the innocent to continue living with the guilty, they must “make an agreement to live together again as husband and wife.” The legal aspect of the marriage, he says, is the only aspect of the marriage which is still intact and does not have to be re-established.

This theory is unscriptural. No where does the Bible teach that the act of adultery dissolves the first marriage. According to Jesus’ teaching, adultery gives the innocent party the right to divorce a spouse, but it does not itself sever the

marriage (Matt. 19:9).

Moyer’s theory is contrary to the clear teaching of Romans 7:2-3, which says, “For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth . . . So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress.” She is bound to her husband for as long as he lives, not just until she has intercourse with someone else. Even though a woman is married to another man, she is still bound to her first husband, so that her second marriage is adulterous. Since she is still bound to the first husband, she has no right to live with the second; she must end the adulterous relationship.

Conclusion

It is not at all easy to teach people who are in adulterous marriages that they must sever their marriages. No one finds it a pleasant duty. Consequently, many have found theories such as Fuqua’s and Moyer’s very attractive. We, however, must look to God’s word and accept what it says; and we, must reject all theories which are contrary to scriptural teaching, even though we might wish we could believe them.

Guardian of Truth XXIX: 7, pp. 200-201
April 4, 1985