Truth Magazine

By Irvin Himmel

The following was written by a noted scholar in the Presbyterian Church and tells the truth about the name Christian:

. . .It suggests at once to a Christian the name of his great Redeemer; the idea of our intimate relation to him; and the thought that we receive him as our chosen Leader, the source of our blessings, the author of our salvation, the fountain of our joys. It is the distinguishing name of all the redeemed. It is not that we belong to this or that denomination; it is not that our names are connected with high and illustrious ancestors; it is not that they are recorded in the books of heraldry; it is not that they stand high in courts, and among the gay, the fashionable, and the rich, that true honor is conferred on men. These are not the things that give distinction and peculiarity to the followers of the Redeemer. It is that they are Christians. This is their peculiar name; by this they are known; this at once suggests their character, their feelings, their doctrines, their hopes, their joys. This binds them all together – a name which rises above every other appellation; which unites in one the inhabitants of distant nations and tribes of men; which connects the extremes of society, and places them in most important respects on a common level; and which is a bond to unite in one family all those who love the Lord Jesus, though dwelling in different climes, speaking different languages, engaged in different pursuits of life, and occupying distant graves at death. He who lives according to the import of this name is the most blessed and eminent of mortals. This name shall be had in remembrance when the names of royalty shall be remembered no more, and when the appellations of nobility shall cease to amuse or to dazzle the world (Albert Barnes, commenting on Acts 11:26).

How strange it is that one would allow himself to be called a Presbyterian after acknowledging the truth about the name Christian. Indeed, the name Christian embraces all that ought to be included and excludes all that ought to be omitted. People wear religious names of human origin to designate that which they teach and practice that is not really Christian, and to distinguish themselves from others who have peculiarities that are not really Christian.

True Christianity is not hyphenated. We should all be Christians and Christians only, not Baptist-Christians, Presbyterian-Christians, Methodist-Christians, etc. The name Baptist covers what is peculiarly Baptist; the name Presbyterian covers what is distinctly Presbyterian; the name Mormon covers what is exclusively Mormon. Since the name Christian stands for all that is genuinely Christian, the wearing of human names indicates that one has accepted more than what is “of Christ.”

Let the Mormon lay aside his Mormonism, the Lutheran his Lutheranism, the Catholic his Catholicism, the Adventist his Adventism, the Methodist his Methodism, etc., and let us all take up and hold to what is manifestly “of Christ” and no more, then the name Christian will mean to us what it meant in apostolic times. Let us in fact be Christians, nothing more, nothing else, and nothing less. And let us exemplify what that worthy name implies in word and deed.

Guardian of Truth XXVII: 5, p. 147
March 3, 1983

By Raymond E. Harris

1. Alcohol is a thirty billion dollar ($30,000,000,000) a year business.

2. The liquor industry spends nine hundred million dollars ($900,000,000) for advertising yearly, mostly telling lies.

3. One of every four American teenagers is an alcoholic or problem drinker.

4. Alcohol is the number one cause of death for those between the ages of 15 and 24.

5. Alcohol is the number one cause of preventable birth defects.

6. Alcohol is the number one drug problem in America and advertising is the number one pusher.

7. Alcoholism causes an estimated loss of forty-three billion dollars ($43,000,000,000) annually to U.S. businesses due to absenteeism, failing health, welfare service cost, property damage and medical expense.

8. Sixty percent of Americans seeking treatment for depression are alcoholics.

9. The suicide rate for alcoholics is 58 times that of non drinkers.

10. Fifty percent of all fatal auto accidents (400 per week) are caused by those who have been drinking.

11. Alcoholics are seven times more likely to be divorced or separated.

12. Children of alcoholics are twice as likely to become alcoholics as those of non-drinkers.

13. Sixty five percent of all murders are committed by people who were drinking shortly before the act.

14. Sixty percent of all child abuse is committed by people who had been drinking.

Truly, “the finished product of the Brewers Art,” is seen in the poverty, disease, broken homes, wrecked lives, lost virtue, suicides, homicides and accidental deaths that result from drinking. Drunkenness is not a sickness; it is sin! Be not deceived, we will reap as we sow!

Guardian of Truth XXVII: 5, p. 146
March 3, 1983

By Earl E. Robertson

Often we talk about a legacy of some certain individual. But most of the time the subject has to do with material substance. I am persuaded that a spiritual legacy is of greater value than all of the material things in the world. All of us should be intently interested in leaving something worthwhile as we travel through this world. Fathers and mothers who are rich in this world’s goods and make provisions that their own children inherit it all, really have left nothing to their children if this is all they leave.

What could Herodias leave to Salome after having lived before her in wantonness and having instructed her as she did concerning John the Baptist (Matt. 14:1-12)? Just as Herodias had instructed her daughter to do wrong, others have done so too. It is said of Ahaziah, the son of Ahab (and perhaps his mother was Jezebel), “he also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab; for his mother was his counselor to do wickedly” (2 Chron. 22:3). The boy hardly had a chance in this world having such a background.

Worthy women like Eunice, Lois, Mary, Elizabeth, Phebe, and Dorcas are described in Proverbs 31. These women have a real legacy! Such is not accomplished without aim. Such cannot be achieved in one day; it takes a life time.

What are you and I leaving for the next generation? Will we be remembered like the above named women and Paul, Abel, John and others who gave all for that which is worth all? Or, shall we be remembered as fathers and mothers who did not give stress and emphasis to worthy things for our children? When we are gone will they remember us as being unfaithful to the Lord? Will they remember us as being unfaithful in attending services of the congregation? Will they remember us as being stingy with the Lord in both time and money? Will they remember us as Christians, real Christians? Will they remember us as people who really wanted the truth of God on all subjects? What are you leaving? What is your legacy? Don’t forget that dead men speak (Heb. 11:4). Quit making excuses and telling lies; become a worthy father or mother.

The next generation will be much better in its relationship to both God and man if the present generation will honor God and truth as the Bible instructs. Our lives will not have been spent in vain provided we do right; but if we fail, the next generation would be better off had we not lived!

Guardian of Truth XXVII: 5, p. 146
March 3, 1983

By Weldon E. Warnock

We are hearing a great deal about “collectivities.” That is a big word that might need defining for us country folks. I could not find it in the Bible, so I had to go to Webster’s dictionary for the meaning. Webster says that “collectivity” means “the quality or state of being collective.” That definition did not help a bit until I looked up “collective.” Webster defines that word to mean “of, as, or characteristic of a group; of or characteristic of individuals acting together; common to several or many; as, the collective effort of the students.” Now we can see what a collectivity is. It is individuals acting together.

But well-meaning brethren are telling us that individuals may not scripturally act together in teaching the word of God, other than in the local church. Such would be an unscriptural collectivity, we are told. It seems their objection is to the pooling of money of two or more individuals to teach the Bible. Apparently, they do not oppose the collective action of energy, labor and time – just money.

A brother may spend a whole week in research and in writing an article for a religious journal (a collectivity of workers and writers), but not a dime may be sent to the same religious journal to promote its welfare. Pshaw! This is the most convoluted logic I have ever seen. The sin becomes the collective action of money rather than the time and labor expended together.

You brethren who oppose individuals acting together to teach the Bible are going to have to quit using someone else’s journal to present your views on the scripturality of collectivities. You are utilizing an individual collectivity to oppose an individual collectivity. Some consistency! In fact, you must quit writing anything for anybody else’s religious paper in order not to violate your own rules. You must start your own paper, write all the articles, do all the work, and then you will have individual action. The only alterative to this is to write exclusively in church bulletins.

As to the scripturality of collective action of individuals teaching the Bible, the home is a good example of such. Both father and mother may work collectively to teach their children the word of God (Eph. 6:4; 2 Tim. 1:5; 3:15). In so doing, they may want to use a tutor or a Bible department of a high school or college in furthering their child’s knowledge of the Scriptures. While the child is studying science, history and English, he also has the opportunity to study about God and the Lord Jesus Christ. The school is a business – educational business – collectively working together in both secular and religious education. Of course, the “collectivity” brethren cannot agree with one another about the school. Some say the school wherein the Bible is taught is a collectivity and others say the school is not a collectivity. If the school is not a collectivity it is the biggest operation of everybody doing his own thing that I know anything about, anywhere.

We see collective action in the case of Aquila and Priscilla. When Apollos was erroneously preaching the baptism of John, Aquila and Priscilla “took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly” (Acts 18:26). This–was collective action. Paul and Silas engaged in collective activity in praying and singing together while they were in jail at Philippi (Acts 16:25). Peter and the six Jewish brethren were collectively involved when they went together to the house of Cornelius in order for Peter to preach the gospel. These examples should settle the matter, but they most likely won’t for some brethren who only see collective action when dollars and cents enter the picture, except when a debate is involved. The Jenkins- Willis Debate was conducted in an individual collective arrangement and the opposition to that has been as quiet as the thief in the night.

Brethren, the same passage that allows us to use our energies and time to work together in a collectivity is the same passage that allows us to use our money in the same work. I stand amazed at the number of issues that are continually created which alienate and polarize brethren. Some are afflicted with “issue-itis.” Seems like Romans 14 does not have a place anymore in our relationship and treatment of one another. All issues are made to appear to be the most emergent situation since the Jerusalem conference.

In the midst of some trying to crystalize every disagreement that arises among us (such as collectivities, Sunday night communion, weddings in the meetinghouse, Bible colleges, woman’s covering, women teachers and several other things), we have, to some degree, lost sight of the great and pressing need to preach the gospel to the lost.

Certainly, real and threatening issues to the faith must not be ignored, but every point of disagreement, regardless of how small it may be, does not deserve the limelight of our attention. The time is way past due that conservative brethren join hands in love and respect for one another and in the words of Jesus: “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest” (John 4:35).

Guardian of Truth XXVII: 5, p. 145
March 3, 1983