Truth Magazine

By John F. Hughbanks

One of my favorite songs is “Here We are but Straying Pilgrims.” This song lends much encouragement and strength as we go on our road in this life, looking for the promised home for the faithful. The New Testament teaches that we are pilgrims and strangers in this land of ours. We are here only a short time and we are to influence as many as we can while living a godly life and while waiting for the promised reward.

Our path is sometimes dim and fearful as we go on our pilgrimage toward heaven. In. our journey, we often become weary and discouraged, but God has promised to defend us and he cheers us by his word. Hope and reassurance awaits the faithful of His number. Soon His number will have a home forever and God’s smile will gladden all our longing eyes, never again to see or feel pain and sorrow. It is a great blessing and privilege to be a pilgrim and sojourner in this life for our Lord.

We need to take heart that we aren’t the only sojourners in this land. The Bible speaks of many pilgrims in both the Old Testament and New Testament. Consider Genesis 12:10, when God told Abram to leave Haran and go to Canaan and sojourn there. In Hebrews 11:9 we see the New Testament record of it. Other examples are numerous in the Old Testament: Gen. 20:1; 21:34; 47:4; Lev. 18:26; 20:2; Lev. 25:40; Num. 15:15; Deut. 26:5; Judges 17:7; Ruth 1:1 ff. We might recall Exodus 6:1-5 when God spoke to Moses and said that He would deliver His people out of bondage and establish His covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, “the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers (v. 4).”

In John chapter 17, Jesus says that He had given His disciples the same words that the Father had given the Son. Jesus said, “. . . and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me (v. 8).” Jesus was a sojourner in a land that was predominantly unfriendly to him.

Since the Bible teaches that we are pilgrims and sojourners, let us consider how our lives ought to be. Some traits have to be in us so that we can be pleasing to God.

In 2 Peter 3:1, Peter said he wrote this epistle to stir up by way of remembrance their pure minds. So we must have a pure mind and not have it filled with ungodly thoughts and trash. You can’t flirt with the world and stay pure. A rather crude example, but one that illustrates the point is: “You run with goats, eventually you’ll smell like them.”

Jesus said in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” In the first letter to Timothy, Paul says the goal of their instruction is to love out of a pure heart (mind) (1 Tim. 1:5). Also, in 2 Timothy 2:22, Paul told Timothy to flee youthful lusts with a pure heart. In Titus 1:15, we are told nothing is pure to the undefiled but to pure people all things are pure. How many times have we seen people who only think filthy thoughts and curse God. Nothing to them is pure or honest. (Consider James 1:27; Hebrews 10:22.)

1 Peter 1:22 says, “Love one another with a pure heart.” Even if others hate and misuse you, you’re to love them anyway, because it is commanded of you (Matt. 5:10-12). A lot of problems in the church today wouldn’t be as bad as they are if brethren truly practiced love in the way Jesus describes it.

Another trait of a pilgrim is honesty. Romans 12:17 says to provide things honest in the sight of all men. Brethren, we can’t cheat or steal from our employer or the government and expect to be pleasing in the sight of God. When we are engaged in these sort of things we are cheating God and man, and lying to ourselves. In Philippians 4:8, Paul said, “Whatsoever things are honest; think on these things.” Again, how can you think on honest and pure things when you are involved in loose living, adultery, fornication, idolatry, hatred, envyings, drunkenness, backbiting, and other sins. As pilgrims, we need to be pure and honest and live for God or our pilgrimage will come to ruin at the judgment (Rev. 22:11-15; Rom. 13:13; 2 Cor. 13:7; 1 Thess. 4:12; Heb. 13:18; Luke 8:15).

Yet another trait of a pilgrim is that he is a working pilgrim. In I Cor. 15:58 we are told to be “steadfast, unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord as you know your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” Also consider 2 Thess. 3:13 which says, “But ye brethren, be not weary in well doing.”

Jesus gives us an example to good works. John 10:32 says that He did many good works. Again in Acts 10:38 we are told that Jesus healed those oppressed of the devil and went about doing good. Paul instructed the young evangelist Timothy to tell others to be rich in good works (1 Tim. 6:17-18). Jesus taught many parables about the importance of activity for pilgrims in this life. Some parables are the Talents and Pounds (Matt. 25:14-29; Luke 19:12-27), Laborers in the Vineyard (Matt. 20:11-15), Parable of two. Sons (Matt. 21:28-31), and the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree (Luke 13:6-9).

Notice in 1 Corinthians 3:6-9, that work was involved there. Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the increase.” There was a degree of work involved there. God will reward each by the work of each person’s labor. Man will not be rewarded by another man’s work. We as Christian pilgrims need to be active to reach as many souls as possible, it is our responsibility. It is something we can accomplish with God’s help and guidance.

Yet a final point to be considered is that life is a vapor and that life is short. There will be trials and tribulations and we need to face them and expect them. Job 14:1 says, “Man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.” Some people think Christians are above trials because they are children of God. (Read Acts 28 and 2 Cor. 11:24-28.)

Christians are taught to expect hardships! Peter made the statement, “When you do well, and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God.” James said in chapter 1 and verses 2 and 3 that hardships are for our benefit. Also the apostle Paul told Timothy, “You all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” That persecution could come in either the physical or mental realm today. But we must always remember that it’s only temporary and can’t be compared with the eternity of heaven (Rom. 8:17-18; Phil. 1:29).

We surely have fears today as Christians but God has given us His word to strengthen us by the examples of past pilgrims who have gone down the same paths. Since we’re pilgrims, let us keep our lives pure and honest and be a working people who look for that blessed hope (Tit. 2:13).

Guardian of Truth XXVII: 3, pp. 80-81
February 3, 1983

By Larry Ray Hafley

No disciple doubts or denies the necessity of edification. That Christians must be built up by the word of God that they may “grow up into him in all things” is beyond dispute or discussion (Eph. 4:12-16; 1 Pet. 2:2; Jas. 1:21). Much of the New Testament was written to the saved “that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God” (1 Tim. 3:15).

This is the process of all the natural realm. After the begettal and birth, there follows the long period of nurture and admonition. After the plowing and planting, there is care and cultivation to insure the harvest. Likewise, after the conviction and conversion of the sinner, there is confirmation and exhortation to evade temptation, endure tribulation and enjoy salvation (Matt. 28:20; Acts 2:42; 14:21, 22).

In all arrangements, organizations and institutions, whether human or Divine, there must be constant impartation of information to maintain strength and attain growth. However, when any society or company begins to feed on itself, it becomes a parasite sucking out its own life’s blood. It is as though one began to eat his own body for food and nourishment. He may temporarily feed himself, but the outcome is obvious. “But if ye bite and devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another” (Gal. 5:15).

Is this repulsive self cannibalizing occurring in the kingdom of God? A businessman recognizes the need for staff meetings, for internal reorganization and sales motivation, but if he spends his time waxing and polishing the store and his retail force and fails to attend to the consumer, he will die. If the business has too much refinement, too many inter-personnel memos, though all are designed to improve the company, and neglects the customer, the business will fail. Again, is this happening among the Lord’s people?

Not Now, Not Later, Not Ever

This is not the time, if there ever was such a time to turn and feast and focus our eyes upon an institutional body. The Jews did so. They could see a man healed, but they only wanted to debate the sabbath issue. They could connive and conspire and bribe and lie and put an innocent man to death, but they certainly did not want to be in the judgment hall at the wrong time, “lest they should be defiled” (Jn. 18:28). They could twist His words and with unashamed deceit and dishonesty attempt to discredit His mighty deeds, which they acknowledged as such (Jn. 11:47; 12:10, 11; Matt. 12:24; Acts 2:22), but they could not allow their victim to remain on the cross, “(for that sabbath day was an high day)” (Jn. 19:31).

Word studies and technical, critical examination and consideration of the word of truth are good, but we do not need to know how many angels can reside on the head of a pin. A nation needs arms. Let it produce swords, spears and shields. They must be kept in repair. They must be clean and shining, but they are for use on the enemy, not against one another. Who was it that originally said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand”? Hint: It was not Abraham Lincoln.

The United States was nearly destroyed by civil war. The kingdom of God will not be annihilated or exterminated, but if its citizens turn on one another in wrath, pride, envy and evil surmising, they will be cast out, spewed out, broken off and delivered unto Satan. Diotrephes, men, will not do it, but the One who rules “with a rod of iron,” and “with the sword of his mouth,” and Who walks “in the midst” of the churches will consume them.

Conclusion

The world, our friends, neighbors and relatives are perishing in the clutches of atheism, humanism, sensualism and denominationalism. In this land of Bibles and churches, ignorance, superstition and vain worship prevail. Churches of the Lord suffer from the influence of the world, from the evils the holy apostles and prophets warned us of (Acts 20:28-32; 2 Pet. 2:1, 2; Jude 3, 4). All of these errors, departures and sins must be opposed with meekness and fear. However, we cannot afford internal bickering, backbiting and contention in the name of contending for the faith. Wisdom and greatness in the kingdom of God’s dear Son are not determined by envy, strife and division. Jealousy and selfish ambition “descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish” (Jas. 3:15). “These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 19:21).

Guardian of Truth XXVII: 3, p. 79
February 3, 1983

By Dan Walters

“The law” in the book of Romans usually refers to the Law of Moses, but some brethren wish to interpret it as law in general. Paul says that Christians “are not under the law, but under grace?” (Rom. 6:15); this and similar passages are used to prove that we are not under any type of legal system. Some who believe this have also taught that those who lived before Moses had no law; that the only law given prior to Moses was the one law which God gave to Adam concerning the tree of knowledge. Romans 5:13 says, “For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not inputted when there is not law.” Some think that sin was not, therefore, imputed to the Patriarchs, and that those who lived under that system could not justly be held responsible for their evil deeds. Brother Bryan Vinson, Sr., rightly says that “the presence of sin in the world is here affirmed, but that it can be imputed where there is no law is denied. The conclusion, then, is that law existed, and coextensive with law was the existence of sin, because sin is transgression of law.” Lard holds that the word “law” here is “used to denote law, the breaking of which was to entail death.” Death had already entered the world through the sin of Adam, and men died physically as a result of this sin rather than by reason of their own sins.

It is important to show that the Patriarchs were not literally without law, anymore than we are literally without law today. Did God give any specific law to the Patriarchs which applied generally, rather than only to specific individuals, as in the command of God to Noah concerning the ark? A good proof that He did is found in Genesis 9:1-7. Here we have the following commands: (1) not to eat blood, (2) not to commit murder, (3) not to allow a murderer to live, and (4) to be fruitful and multiply. A history of that period indicates that there were other moral laws of which mankind was aware. Those who perished in the flood were punished because of their wickedness (Gen. 6:5). Those who died in Sodom and Gomorrah were punished because of their sin (Gen. 18:20). Sin, being a transgression of the law (1 John 3:4), they had to have law in order to transgress it. To make this doubly clear, 2 Peter 2:8 refers to the “unlawful deeds” of those in Sodom. Certainly nothing can be described as unlawful in the absence of law.

It is also held by some that the Gentiles, who lived at the same time that the Law of Moses was in effect for the Israelites, were literally without law. Romans 2:12 says, “For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law.” This verse refers to the Gentile world. Lard explains that the law the Gentiles had was in the form of tradition, and not in the form of direct revelation as was the case with the Jews. But they did have a form of law, and they were held responsible. A good example is the case of the people of Nineveh, described in the book of Jonah. They were Gentiles. Yet God held them responsible for their wickedness (1:2) and would have destroyed them, except they repented (3:10). In the book of Daniel, we find that King Nebuchadnezzar was accused of “sins” and “iniquities” and warned to “break off” these transgressions (Dan. 4:27). As a result of his sins, Nebuchadnezzar was condemned by God to live as an animal for a period of time designated as “seven times” (Dan. 4:28-37). This shows that, despite the fact that Gentiles were never subject to Moses’ law, they were subject to a moral law which proceeded from God. In fact all men since the creation have lived under law, though not under the law of Moses. Christians are freed from the legal system of Moses, which did not provide for remission of sins and therefore was the “law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:1), but they are still under a form of law. Thus it is correct to speak of the three dispensations as (1) the Patriarchal Law, (2) the Law of Moses, and (3) the Law of Christ.

Guardian of Truth XXVII: 3, p. 78
February 3, 1983

By Wayne S. Walker

We often talk about restoring primitive, New Testament Christianity. We are usually referring to the abandonment of denominationalism and the restoration of first-century patterns of mission, work, worship, organization, and message of the Lord’s church. This is a needed and noble effort. -“We speak where the Bible speaks and we are silent where the Bible is silent” should be a practice rather than just a motto. Congregations which make and actually try to keep this plea are often called sound or loyal, others being referred to by such terms as liberal; digressive or institutional. But there is more to first-century Christianity than a few outward forms, although these are important and without them all else would be vain.

1. The early Christians were a lot like Jesus, who had “not where to lay his head” (Lk. 9:58). Jesus did not own a home; He had to borrow a donkey to ride into Jerusalem; in fact, the only things we can assume He actually owned were the garments which were parted and gambled for at His crucifixion. And most of His followers were known for their relative poverty also (1 Cor. 1:26, 2 Cor. 8:2). Yet today, we seem many brethren more concerned with a nice house, a new car, modern conveniences, the latest clothing, etc., rather than the work of the church. Keeping up with the Jones has led a lot of so-called Christians to become merely church-goers; or even worse, nothing more than church-members (name on the roll). Of course, there is nothing wrong with having money, comforts, and a reasonable good life; but aren’t some of us overdoing it? We have a tendency to attach too much emphasis to material possessions nowadays (Mk. 10:23-25; 1 Tim. 6:6-10, 17). Worldliness is sapping the life out of the church.

2. First-century disciples “rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name” (Acts 5:41). These simple, humble, but dedicated and convicted people were willing to risk and, if necessary, lose security, property, limb, and even life for Christ’s sake. And yet we think we are “suffering above and beyond the call of duty” if our religion might cause the loss of some “friends,” the approval of our family, or the esteem of the social leaders in our area. As a result, several have become “ashamed of the gospel of Christ” (Rom. 1:16) in deed, even though they may not admit or even recognize it, as evidenced by their non-committal attitude. It is sometimes called “chameleon religion.” Many children of God (and sometimes even whole churches) have fallen into what might be called “Laodicean lethargy” because they are more concerned about building an image for themselves in the community than doing God’s will.

3. New Testament children of God, as well as those of earlier periods in our own nation, could always be identified because they lived “soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world” (Tit. 2:12). Although they did not strive to be “odd-balls” or non-conformists just for the sake of being eccentric, they were different even as Peter indicated in 1 Pet. 2:9-12. However, modern times have ushered in the “neo-Christian,” more tolerant and “open-minded” about sin than before. So now, Christians dress (or undress), curse, drink, smoke, fill their minds with smut, and divorce, etc., just like the world around them to the extent that it is next to impossible to tell who is the Christian and who is not by the way they live. Brethren, these things ought not so to be!

4. Followers of Christ in ancient times were known for their liberality in terms of giving. They were generous, benevolent, charitable. They even sold lands and other possessions in order to have the money, when it was needed, to give so the church could carry on its work (Acts 4:32-37). And they gave in other ways too – helping the needy, visiting the sick, etc. (Gal. 6:10, Jas. 1:27). One problem today is that elders do not have enough faith and foresight. Instead of planning a work (within reason, of course) and asking each member to give for it, thus providing a goal to be reached, they let things drift along on the basis of what they already have or have always done, taking care of only the bare essentials (i.e., paying the preacher and the bills) because “we don’t have enough money for anything else”; and then complain because the brethren don’t give more! How many of us have ever sold, given up, or gone without something so that we could give more? Sacrifice – we do not even know the meaning of the word in our prosperous and affluent society.

5. Primitive brethren also engaged in extensive “personal evangelism.” We are told that “daily, in the temple and at home, they ceased not to preach and to teach Jesus as Christ” (Acts 5:42). Even as persecution arose, “They that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). They did not leave this work to full-time preachers or a select few who were “trained” for it. Every Christian was an “evangelist” in one sense or another. And so far as we know, this is the only method by which the gospel was spread and the church increased in those days. How long has it been since you talked to someone about his soul? In spite of all the television shows, radio programs, newspaper articles, magazine advertisements, and bulletins we may use, the Lord’s church will never grow until every individual Christian fills himself so full of joy and God’s word that he will be driven to share the good news with others.

This is not to say that these qualities do not exist anymore today, that the church is failing. There are many devoted Christians; I know some of them. God’s people in this generation have great possibilities. But these trends seem to be developing among us as they have in every pervious era and I mention them only to warn us to be on guard. Unless each one of us has the kind of attitude displayed by the people of God of the first-century as revealed in the New Testament, we cannot be the kind of influence He wants us to be in this life, and we simply will not get to heaven.

Guardian of Truth XXVII: 3, p. 77
February 3, 1983