Truth Magazine

By Evan Blackmore

In the first two chapters of Galatians, Paul summarizes the story of his life. And what an amazing story it is. In his early years, Paul had persecuted the church of God, but then Jesus revealed Himself to Paul on the road to Damascus, commissioned him to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, and appointed him as an apostle.

Paul “did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19). All the same, he “did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me” (Gal. 1:16-1?). On the contrary, he traveled around from place to place, preaching the gospel; and for many years, he did not even set eyes on most of the other apostles. “I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; but only, they kept hearing, `He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.’ And they were glorifying God because of me” (Gal. 1:22-24).

“Then,” says Paul, “after an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem” (Gal. 2:1); and in Jerusalem he went privately to “those who were of reputation” within the church, and “submitted to them the gospel which I preach” (Gal. 2:2). I doubt whether we can fully appreciate how thrilling that moment must have been. Here were two groups of people who both claimed to have received, independently, a message which came directly from God. They had been hearing about each other for many years; but there had been virtually no direct contact between them. Now for the first time they were able to sit down and compare these two independent “messages from God.” Would there be any similarity between the two messages? And if so, how much similarity would there be? Even Paul says that he was afraid that, when he compared his gospel with the gospel preached by the Jerusalem apostles, he would discover “that I might be running, or had run, in vain” (Gal. 2:2). But, of course, his fears were groundless. The gospel which the Jerusalem apostles were preaching to the Jews, and the gospel which Paul was independently preaching to the Gentiles, were one and the same.

No doubt, whatever their fears, Peter and John and James and Paul had expected and hoped to find that they were preaching the same gospel. But can you imagine how they felt, whey. they finally found it out for certain? Can you imagine how much they must have been strengthened and encouraged in their faith, by knowing that other people had been, quite independently, preaching the same thing?

Well, if they felt that way, what did they do while they were together? i)id they spend their time comparing notes on the “things hard to understand” within the gospel? Or speculating about the things which God had not revealed to them at all? Did they talk about the precise way in which God and man were interrelated in Jesus, or the details of the mechanism by which the death of Jesus saved people from their sins, or the exact span of time left before the return of Christ?

We do not have a full record of the apostles’ conversation on that occasion. But we can be sure that subjects like the ones which I have listed were not uppermost in their minds as they talked together. “Those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me,” says Paul. “They only asked us to remember the poor – the very thing I also was eager to do” (Gal. 2:6,10).

That seems, perhaps, a very mundane and unglamourous topic for all these exalted apostles to be discussing. After all, their principal function as servants of Christ was the proclamation of the gospel, not the relief of the poor. The Jerusalem apostles could have brushed aside the subject by saying, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to worry about the poor” – but no, that was exactly what they were concerned about. And Paul could have brushed aside the subject by saying, “Christ did not send me to worry about the poor, but to preach the gospel” -but no, that was “the very thing I also was eager to do.”

The apostles could have constructed far more plausible excuses for neglecting the poor, than most of us can. Yet they did not construct those excuses. And neither should we. If it was important for the apostles, of all people, to “remember the poor,” then surely it is important for us to do so too.

Yet too often we find ourselves making excuses – much flimsier excuses than the apostles could have made. Too often we find ourselves wanting to do other things, and trying to justify doing what we really want to do, rather than inconveniencing ourselves by assisting the poor.

Let us look at four of those excuses.

(1) “There are no poor people nowadays.” Brethren, I do not know what the situation in America is like. But in Australia, even in very modern, affluent, highly-civilized, technologically-sophisticated large cities, there are still many people living in conditions of dire poverty and physical discomfort. And perhaps that is particularly so at the present time, with the current worldwide economic difficulties. Within the past year, I have seen men aged thirty-five or forty, employed in the same jobs for twenty years, who have lost their jobs when the business collapsed financially and who have then failed to find other jobs, because they have been competing against unemployed people half their age. I have seen women with small children, living in dingy unfurnished flats, who have been able to scrape together just enough money each week to afford either (a) the bare minimum of household furnishings necessary for hygienic living; or (b) transport to the nearest cheap shops; but not both. In many of these flats, the dishes must be washed before a meal as well as afterwards, because rats have crawled all over them between meals. I have seen a woman with five children (trying to escape and hide from a drunken and violent husband who injured the children regularly), forced to live in a single room with fourteen other people.

“The poor,” Jesus said, “you have with you always” (Matt. 26:11); and many centuries earlier, God had said the same thing to the children of Israel: “The poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, `You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land”‘ (Deut. 15:11).

Brethren, the sad truth is this. If we do not meet with poor people in our home towns, too often that is not because there are no poor people there, but rather because we ourselves are too well-to-do and too materially comfortable to come in contact with the poor people who are living within a mile of us.

(2) ” I cannot spare the money. ” This may sometimes be true. The widow who put all she owned into the treasury (Mark 12:41-44) would not have had much money to give to other people as poor as herself. But more often, we feel that we cannot spare the money because we are too attached to it, and to the comforts which it can buy. That was never Paul’s attitude. “If we have food and covering,” he said, “with these we shall be content” (1 Tim. 6:8).

“Whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth” (1 Jn. 3:17-18).

(3) “Most poor people do not deserve to be helped” This, again, may sometimes be true. But what if it is? Did any of us deserve to be helped by God, when we were spiritually poor?

Moses repeatedly exhorted the Israelites to look after the underprivileged people. And the same reason for doing so occurs again and again. “You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing” (Deut. 24:18; 10:17-19; Lev. 19:34).

God gives His sunshine and rain to righteous and unrighteous people alike, “expecting nothing in return” (Matt. 5:45; Luke 6:35). He even gave His Son to die for the sins of “the whole world,” including many people who would never accept Him (1 Jn. 2:2).

I do not mean that we should supply people with materials to continue sinning. If people are poor because they are spending their money on alcohol or gambling, I do not mean that we should give them more money to be spent in the same way. But we can still give them our time, our encouragement and our love, our help to stop drinking or gambling, our assistance with practical problems.

There is an old Marx Brothers movie which shows Harpo Marx strolling casually along a street. Suddenly an unkept, grubby-looking, obviously alcoholic beggar approaches him and says in a slurred, gravely voice: “Say, buddy, could you help me out? I’d like to get a cup of coffee.” Harpo looks at him, reaches down into his pocket, and produces a steaming hot, brimful cup of coffee (complete with saucer), which he gives to the beggar.

That is what our giving should be like. We may not always be able to give people what they want, but we can always gives them what they need.

(4) “The church is doing things to help poor Christians, ” Maybe so. But where does that leave the poor nonChristians? Each one of us, individually, has a responsibility in that area which no church can ever have.

Let me take an example. The church has a responsibility to care for “widows indeed” – widows who are faithful Christians, who are in need of (say) food or clothing or shelter, and who have no other means of support (1 Tim. 5:3-16). But what about all the widows who do not meet these criteria? What about widows who have not fixed their hope on God, widows who do not have a reputation for good works, widows who are gossips or busybodies? The teaching of the Bible is plain: such widows are not to be assisted by the church. But should we let them starve to death, simply because the church must not assist them?

I cannot expect the church to take over tasks which God has allocated to me as an individual Christian. The church must provide material help for saints in need, in order that all the members may function together within the body in the way that God planned (Rom. 15:26; 2 Cor. 8:4). But my individual responsibility as a Christian is far more extensive than that. “While we have opportunity,” every Christian is supposed to “do good to all men,” and not only “to those who are of the household of the faith,” although obviously he will be “especially” concerned about needy Christians (Gal. 6:10). As we have already seen, every Christian is supposed to do good to people who do not deserve his assistance (Luke 6:33).

If the only needy people being helped in my area are those Christians who receive assistance from the local congregation, I am failing in my individual responsibilities.

The apostle Paul – “often without food, in cold and exposure” though he was, laboring continually at his special task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles – was nevertheless “eager” to “remember the poor.” What excuse can we offer, when he offered none?

Truth Magazine XXIII: 32, pp. 522-523
August 16, 1979

By Earl Robertson

For Israel the alarm of war had sounded and shortly Assyria would swoop down “as an eagle against the house of the Lord.” God had raised up Josea to thunder the sure judgment of God against Israel “because they have transgressed and made princes with which God had nothing to do; they made idols with their silver and gold, but God would destroy them. The prophet said, “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it had no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up” (Hos. 8:7). Yes, Israel had sown the wind and God would see to it that she reaped the whirlwind! Paul says one reaps what one sows (Gal. 6:7).

Churches of Christ today can “sow the wind” just as ancient Israel did. They not only can, many of them are up to their necks doing it now. Announcing a bag of wind recently, a church of Christ in N.C. stated that church “has something good going on with Junior Worship. But now we have something happening on Feb. 4th that will turn good into great! Two, (2), Yes two junior worships!

In order to meet the needs of the age group 8-10, a second junior worship will be offered.” This reminds one of the early beginnings of the Christian Church and its “Junior Church and worship.” These brethren assume they know what the needs are of these 8-10 year old children and have set their sails on a course which will inevitably cause them to reap the whirlwind. They have no Bible authority for this action; but when churches leave God this much in conviction, what do they care whether the Bible teaches the practice or not. The wheels of divine judgment may grind slowly, but brethren, they do grind!

The Joy Bus Ministry, the Puppet Programs, and all the other gimmicks employed by liberal churches lead to Junior churches and Junior worship. There is no way to impede liberalisms progress by shouting from the housetops for Bible authorizing their new actions much less stop it. Why cannot the church today be just like the church of Christ was in the first century? If that early church knew the need to continue steadfastly in the apostles doctrine (Acts 2:42), why can’t the church today know the same need? Let it be as God made it.

Truth Magazine XXIII: 32, p. 521
August 16, 1979

By Bob Waldron

In our previous article, we studied the first temptation of Jesus wherein we learned that when we think of the necessities of life, the top of the list should be, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” This time we want to go to the pinnacle of the temple and learn another lesson from Jesus’ temptations.

“Then the devil taketh Him into the holy city, and he set Him on the pinnacle of the temple” (Matt. 4:5). If this pinnacle were the southern wall of the temple enclosure, then, according to Josephus, the wall was “vastly high” in elevation while the valley immediately below was “very deep, and its bottom could not be seen.” The exact location of the pinnacle is not important. A fall from such a height would be fatal. Imagine standing there looking down into the depths of the valley below. Satan says, “If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, `He shall give His angels charge concerning thee’: and, `On their hands they shall bear thee up, lest haply thou dash thy foot against a stone”‘ (Mt. 4:6). Is the true content of the temptation here the Sonship of Jesus? What does Jesus reply? “Again it is written, ‘Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God”‘ (Mt. 4:7). Jesus knew what Satan was tempting Him to do. Satan was trying to make Jesus show a lack of confidence in God.

As in His response to the first temptation, Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy, “Ye shall not tempt Jehovah your God, as ye tempted Him in Massah” (Deut. 6:16). Obviously Moses was reminding the Israelites of a former occasion when they had tried God. The time to which he referred happened within the first few weeks after the Israelites had left Egypt. The people were thirsty and murmured. God told Moses to smite the rock, and he did so, and water came forth. “And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the striving of the children of Israel, and because they tempted Jehovah, saying, `Is Jehovah among us, or not?”‘ (Exod. 17:7). The Israelites saw the plagues God brought upon Egypt. They saw God divide the waters of the Red Sea while His pillar of fire stood between the Israelites and the Egyptians. He had enabled Moses to sweeten the waters of Marah and had fed the children of Israel with manna, but these were not sufficient grounds for faith for the Israelites. God must needs continually prove Himself. This attitude is one of perpetual doubt, a spiritual vacuum. This is the attitude we see in people today when they can look upon the handiwork of God, behold His providential works, have an abundance of material things,’ a family, health, and then say, “You know, sometimes I wonder whether God really exists.” Tempting God in this manner is caused by a blindness which refuses to accept the evidence God has given to support faith and which continually asks for proof.

Satan was really attempting to get Jesus to express doubt as the Israelites had done before. “You say you are the Son of God. Well God said He would give His angels charge to guard you and to keep you from dashing your foot against a stone. Why not test God and see if He will?” Jesus, however, saw the trap and replied, “Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God.” If Jesus had done as Satan requested, He would have manifested a lack of confidence in God. If He, the Son of God, had manifested a lack of confidence in God, any grounds for our faith would have been totally destroyed.

We need to draw a practical lesson for ourselves. Let us not say, “I wish God would do something now to show that He really is.” How can we stand on the peak of God’s revelation, and see the path of redemption from the Garden of Eden until now, and observe the daily operation of God’s creation, and say, “Do something, God, so that I will know you are there”? “Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God.”

Truth Magazine XXIII: 32, pp. 520-521
August 16, 1979

By Jeffery Kingry

1 have been a science-fiction freak since 1 checked out my first novel from the library in 1953. Like everything else, there is good and bad SciFi. 1 try not to let the arrogant and godless humanism, or the laughable evolutionary suppositions spoil the story line. But, one of the advantages of fiction (whether it be fantasy or SciFi) is that it stimulates the imagination to visualize things that the senses have never felt. This is not a bad thing for a Christian. There is a great deal about what is recorded in the Bible that becomes most meaningful when given some mental flesh from an active imagery.

But, as a Christian 1 know that the truth is much more fantastic than anything man’s fancy can describe. The abiding theme repeated over and over in much SciFi is “Is there life beyond the earth’s bounds?” God’s revelation says “Yes!” There is the angelic host, a vast, innumerable body of created beings, who dwell in the heavens. An ancient race, as old as man, they have visited the earth regularly from the heavens for millenniums. They are a superior race to man, as man was created below them in God’s plan. Without sex, each individual is ancient in age as each was created in the beginning and still lives. They have the capability to take upon themselves human form, and have appeared to mortals as mere men on some occasions. Like man, they possess free-will, and in their spiritual and natural form are accompanied in their appearance upon earth with blinding and glorious heavenly light. Whether they dwell beyond the second heaven, or in a parallel spiritual universe to our own is problematical and not revealed. But they certainly do not dwell on earth.

Of course, they are not some form of evolved, superior intelligence so often described in SciFi, that come from other planets. They are much more special and unique than that, for they are the messengers and servants of the Lord of the Universe, and dwell in His presence. The modern man, secure and snug in his well-defined and “natural explanation” style universe will some day be shocked from his smug complacency by the Lord and His fiery, shining servants. Modern man seems to have lost his fear and awe of God. This scientific and highly technological world we live in has conquered space, distance, knowledge, and mind – or so they believe. Man is mocked in his wisdom by God. His highest attainments pale in the face of God and His hosts.

Close Encounters

Recently I went to see a movie called, “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.” The movie dealt with the first technological contact “of the third king” with beings from another planet. As a piece of fiction, it was very well done.

The story line, for this article is immaterial, but something happened at the end of the movie which was very illustrative. The world’s scientists have gathered at a specially prepared landing strip and outdoor laboratory beside an enormous basalt mountain in Wyoming. In the dead of night, the UFO’s come streaming across the sky in absolute silence and hover in formation just yards before the whirring cameras, rolling tape recorders, and humming computers. The scientists stare, impressed and excited, but still calm, assured, and confident. Contact is made, and the UFO’s speed away. Silence falls, tension builds, and then bigger, more complex UFO’s come pulsing in to hover close overhead the community of professional skeptics. This time the scientists fall back, somewhat frightened by the closeness of the UFO’s neon glaring craft. All their equipment begins to fly about in the magnetic fiefs of the UFO’s. Finally, even these UFO’s, impressive though they are, streak off into the night clouds. The men cheer, impressed with the technological abilities and power of these intelligent beings. Again, silence finally falls over the crowd as they look up into the heavens.

Then, suddenly, yet slowly, like an enormous sea-beast rising from murky water, one single UFO, bigger than the entire mountain it lay behind begins to rise with glowing light from behind the mountain, to glide noiselessly over the men and touch down one small point amongst them. The photography and special effects were excellent. The UFO resembled a fairy-tale city of towering spires and minarets, clusters and globes, shining with millions of lights like some kind of bizarre Christmas tree. The glow and intensity of the light made the men squint and don sunglasses to view its glare. Its size dwarfed the mountain, and its complexity and beauty boggled the mind. This huge mountain of light then settled down like a leaf wafted on the wind and rested effortlessly and silently before and above the awed men.

The scientists gaped, their eyes widened, some fell to their knees, while others cried, or ran hiding their face. In the theater the awe of the moment was felt, even though all realized it was but a movie. At that moment it came to me, “If you think this is something, wait till you see the real thing!”

The response of the men on the screen to the glory of a space ship as big as a mountain, and bright as a klieg light was typical. Their accomplishments and ability became somewhat puny in comparison. They were outclassed, outgunned, and over their head. They felt awe and fear. but, this was make-believe. It was conceived and produced by the mind of man. The mind came from God. Man’s glory does not compare with the glory of God.

I thought, as I sat watching these awe-struck men kneeling before the bright lights of a UFO from another planet of the words of David, “Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honor and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain . . . who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind: who maketh his angels’ spirits; his ministers a flaming fire” (Psa. 104). It was interesting that the approach of the UFO’s in the clouds was a special effect lifted from the movie The Ten Commandments.

God Is Light And In Him Is No Darkness

I have, like many I feel sure, grown accustomed to our God. Close to Him in prayer, His grandeur is subdued in the words “My Father . . . .” Even the sun, moon, and stars can be taken for granted in their majestic orbits. But, there have been certain moments in man’s history when the glory of God shone through from the eternal heavens, and shone upon men’s faces with an unearthly light. The vision of God’s presence upon His throne has brought strong men like the prophet Isaiah quaking to hide his face in the dirt. He cried out when seeing the shining presence of the King of kings “Woe is me! I am undone! I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: For mine eyes have seen the King!”

Elijah was taken into the presence of God by a chariot of blazing fire, that left the earth in a whirlwind. Elisha never forgot the glory of that moment, and the experience so marked him that “when the sons of the prophets saw him they said The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha, and they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him” (2 Kings 2:11, 15). An invisible army of these same bright and shining chariots, which blazed like fire, filled the mountains about Jerusalem, protecting it from the Syrians (2 Kings 6:13-17).

Paul was blinded by the glory of the “great light” which shone forth from heaven when Jesus of Nazareth confronted him on his way to Damascus (Acts 9). The man, trembling and astonished, fell to the earth in awe and fear.

John, in the final revelation, was taken by angels in the spirit into the very presence of God (Rev. 1:1, 10). He saw the Lord, as Daniel had seen him centuries before, “Whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool; His throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as a burning fire” (Dan. 7:9). The Lord’s feet shone with a metallic brilliance, like a piece of finely polished brass. They glowed in the heavenly light, with the orange-red light of metal in a furnace (Rev. 1:15). Around his waist his garment was drawn with a cord of gold. His voice called out to John and fell upon his ears with all the power and strength of crashing surf in a storm, a mighty waterfall, or a raging river. He glowed with a white purity of light no man could replicate in physical cloth (Mk. 9:2, 3). As men without exception had done before him, John fell to his face like a man dead, and trembled with fear.

Man’s best efforts to awe another can but elicit the “ahh’s” of wide-eyed people in movie theaters. The reality of God’s glory, and what it portends for us is at once awe-filled, fearsome, exciting, and humbling. A fairy city of light? It is but a mere product of man’s ingenuity, shone upon a screen.

But, in every man’s life, there will come a day when each will stand before the Ancient of Days, the Lord of Lords, the Lord of Glory, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Alpha and Omega, Creator of the Universe, Designer and Maker of man and angel, the Omnipotent, Omniscient, Eternal God, and answer. “Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess, every one of us shall give an account of himself before God.” In that presence, we like all others will fall and say, “O woe is me! I am undone!” Our imaginations are stunted and dull, and seldom stimulated to such glory.

Tonight, look at the stars, contemplate the heavens, and imagine your Lord coming with His universe full of angels, converging upon the earth in their flaming brilliance out of every corner of the heavens to take you home. The sky will ignite in the fervent heat and light, as we are changed instantly, in the twinkling of an eye into an, equally glorious body of light, and rise to the heavens to meet Him in the air. Our new heavens and earth will center in a city of light greater than this earth, without physical bounds. The structure of it will be with precious stone, metal, and wood. An existence with no sorrow, pain, or loss. It will be a place where Christian and O.T. men of faith alike will look into the face of deity. It may not be a city – or gold or precious material – or light as we know it – but it will be real. It will be as different as the flower is from the seed. It will be as glorious as the sun above the earth, and the stars in the sky. But, it will be real, and it will happen in your life.

Meditate upon the glory of God and His promises for you. Cold shivers run down the spine, and tears to the eye. It brings the Christian back to this world with excitement and sobriety as he begins to see the world in its true perspective: “I write to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and savior . . . the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men . . . . The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness . . . . Wherefore beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless, and account that the longsuffering of our Lord is for our salvation” (2 Pet. 3).

We all need a bit of awe and excitement. Meditating upon God and His judgment will bring each Christian closer to the richness of life promised in Him.

Truth Magazine XXIII: 32, pp. 518-520
August 16, 1979