Truth Magazine

By Lewis Willis

An absolutely captivating article was published in the Amarillo Daily News, Jan. 6, 1977. The potential challenges the imagination. The preacher for the First Christian Church in West Salem, Illinois, is terribly concerned over the lack of involvement in religious activities by young people. So, he has decided he will activate these teenagers. The youth program he has started is called “the God Squad.” To promote interest in the program, he has announced that the age group who brings the most visitors to their meetings will be given the opportunity to throw pies in his face! Why ,m he is even going to bake the pies himself. “I’ll put on a shower cap and apron, kneel and take the pies in succession right in the face. Then I’ll clean up and go to the pulpit for evening service.” Randy Whitehead, the 23-year-old preacher, explained, “it’s a contest to get more contact with Christ.” My first thought was he will establish far more contact with pie crust than he will with Christ. Furthermore, it required fire for the baker to complete making of pie crust, which establishes a suitable preparatory relationship with eternity.

You know, the possibilities of this promotion are staggering! Bowling in the sanctuary aisle; shuffleboard in the classroom annex; ski jumping off the roof; buffalo hunts on the parking lot; archery practice at the occupied pulpit; air rifles vs. street lights; high wire walking from the chandeliers. Imagine the spiritual “interest” such stunts would generate! The eyes of some of the liberal preachers among us must be lighting up when reading about this. What an asset around which to build the “Bus Ministry,” A reward of a trip to the local McDonald’s could not hold a light to some of these promotions. Why we could even call attention to the Church (?)! We might even get the attention of the Associated Press, like this fellow did.

Imagine the impact we would make on the world. Those outside of the Lord would have a solid perception of the blood-bought body of the Savior! For the first time in the lives of many, the eternal purpose of God would be fully understood. Surely nothing could accomplish this any faster than or better than flinging a chocolate pie in the preacher’s face. “A pie in the face” is a well-chosen complement to the “Pie in the Sky” concepts of modern denominationalism, almost wholly given to the Social Gospel philosophy that is permeating our society. It has even invaded the ranks of God’s people, and its influence is spreading rapidly. There seems t be no area of New Testament Christianity so sacred as to preclude the invasion of innovative ideas such as that of the young Illinois preacher. IT seems trite to say such in our modern age but it would not be altogether out-of-order if he and others would study the implications of Romans 1:16. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation . . . .” It is with the powerful message of the Gospel that we must build, and, build we must! But, if we use humanistic schemes like pie throwing (shades of Laurel and Hardy), it is “we” who are building and not the Lord. David wrote: “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it…” (Psa. 127:1). When the Lord determined to build His Church, He used the process of preaching the Gospel to build it (1 Cor. 1:21). It was effective then and it will be today.

One of the most alarming things about this entire concept is that it is occurring in a Christian Church. These are the folks who, in about 1850, decided to introduce the. “innocent” practice of mechanical instrumental music into the worship of the church. Look what they are doing now! It has frequently been said that when apostolic authority is abandoned and the gate to liberalism is opened, there is no way to close it. Satan then parades his wares into the apostate body to the cheers of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, they shall both fall in the ditch (Matt. 15:14). As this Christian Church preacher said, “The idea (of the pie throwing, lw) was enthusiastically endorsed by laughs and the stomping of feet.” Neither he nor his brethren could see well enough to detect the violation of the will and purpose of God which was being trampled upon. “I just can’t see anything wrong with it.” We’ve heard that before!

I am reminded of an interview Barbara Walters, the 5Million Dollar Woman of ABC News, conducted recently. She was talking with the woman who was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church. After discussing the expected shock involved in making a woman an Episcopal priest, the lady made a most unusual remark. She announced to the world that she was “not very religious.” To which one must add a hearty “Amen.” But, from the news release referred to in this article, she apparently is not the only one suffering from this disease!

Truth Magazine XXI: 48, pp. 764-765
December 8, 1977

By Grant B. Caldwell

With the coming of the “Pentecostal age” in today’s society, there has been an influx in the number of people claiming to do the miraculous. Of course, with this increase, there has also been an increase in the number of people who fail to do miracles. This is simple to explain in light of the fact that 1 Cor. 13 teaches beyond any doubt that miracles simply are not worked today. One looks at the pages of the word of God and he sees miracles like:

a. The creation

b. The flood

c. The Hebrew children in the fiery furnace

d. The healing of Naaman the leper

e. The deaf and dumb both heard and spake

f. Sight restored to the blind

g. Dismemberments healed

h. The permanently lame walked

i. The dead were raised

j. Etc., etc., etc., etc.

Failures

Modern miracle workers simply cannot perform such feats. Their failings are in every area, except, possibly, in such cases where the malady is psychosomatic. In these cases, the people are cured of their problem solely because of their confidence in the one telling them that they are cured. Now we ask the question:

“Why can they not work miracles like the apostles worked and why do they fail so often?” They claim they can work such miracles, but fail with every attempt.

“Not Enough Faith”

They have a standard little adage they throw in whenever they fail, however, that is supposed to get the “heat” off of them. They say in reference to the one being healed, “He just did not have enough faith.” Notice: “He” did not have enough faith. What they mean by that is that the one being healed did not have enough confidence to think that they could be healed for some reason or another. What about little children that are too young to have faith in anyone or anything? What about the desperately ill who do not even know what is going on around them?

In the New Testament, there was only one case of failure in the performance of a miracle by a duly authorized miracle worker. There were cases where people failed who were not authorized (we believe that is why modern miracle workers fail), but only one instance of failure by a person authorized by the Lord to work miracles. That case is found in Matthew 17:14-21.

A man came to Jesus and said his lunatic son was vexed and had what we would probably call seizures of some sort or another. Christ admitted that it was demon possession that was at the root of the problem. The man said that he had taken the boy to the disciples and they could not cast out the demon. Jesus rebuked the devil and he departed from the boy. Now, here is a case of failure by those authorized to work miracles (Matt. 10:1). Whose fault is it? Certainly, we cannot blame the boy. How could he “have faith” at all? We cannot, either, blame the father for surely he thought they could do the job. What about the apostles? Well, they thought that they could do it and apparently were surprised when they could not. Who was to blame?

Whose Fault?

The apostles wanted an answer to that question and asked Jesus, “Why could not we cast him out?” Jesus replied by saying, “Because of your unbelief.” Whose unbelief? “Your unbelief!” Not the father, not the boy, not the nation, but the disciples. They failed and they were to blame.

But now we ask, “Why?” Did they not believe that they could do that miracle? Evidently, they had worked great number of miracles and had great success. In fact, this is one of the things specifically mentioned — the first thing mentioned — by Christ in Matt. 10:1. They believed they could work this miracle and went to do it. What was the matter with their faith?

Christ said, “For verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (verse 20). A grain of mustard seed is terribly small. Don’t you think they had that much confidence that they could do it? I do! Then why could they not do it? Because confidence in their ability to do it was not the point under consideration.

Faith from the Word

I want to suggest a passage, now, that maybe you will think is completely unrelated. In Romans 10:17, Paul said, “So then faith cometh of hearing and hearing by the word of God.” Faith comes by hearing God’s word, not simply by having confidence that we can do a thing. To illustrate: Christ was a great miracle worker (John 3:2). In John 2, Christ turned water into wine for the wedding feast He was attending. But, in Matt. 4:4, He refused to turn stones into bread. Why would he perform the former and refuse the later labeling it as a temptation from the devil? There was, in essence, no difference in the miracles, per se. Why did he make a difference?

He said, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of god.” Listen to that. The difference is in the mouth of God. Christ could not turn the stones into bread because he was not told to do that by the mouth of God. He turned the water into wine because it was what God wanted him to do. Christ could do what he did only when he heard it from the Father (John 5:19).

Must Have Authority

Now again, Romans 10:17 says, “Faith cometh of hearing and hearing by the word of God.” The ability to do anything before God comes from His willingness to allow it done. What, then, was the problem with their faith in Mtt. 17? I suggest that they simply did not know what the word of God was with regard to the matter under consideration. Christ said faith as a grain of mustard seed would remove mountains. That is, just a word from God is all it would take to remove a mountain. Not confidence in one’s ability (natural or transposed) to perform such a feat; but, authorization from God to do it – just a word, just a small word from God is all it would take, But nothing less than that would do.

He said in verse 21, “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” That is what was wrong with their faith. They simply did not know enough about the mind of God and how he cast out this kind of demon. The problem with their faith was in their understanding of the mind (or word) of God. And I suggest that is the problem in failures today. It is not in the confidence one has in Christ, the “faith healer,” or himself. It is the lack of authorization for the deed performed – a lack of understanding as to what the word of God teaches.

Thus, the problem is with the “healer” not with the one being healed. They cannot do it because they have no authorization from the word of God to do it. We ask that men get back to the New Testament. Become concerned with its teaching and not with the continuous display of the supernatural. Faith comes by hearing the word of God, and “We walk by faith and not by sight” (Rom. 10:17; 2 Cor. 5:7).

Truth Magazine XXI: 48, pp. 763-764
December 8, 1977

By Norman E. Fultz

By midweek, it was being reported that the eight-part, twelve-hour television novel, Roots, the Saga of An American Family, was the most watched television show of all time. Shown the last week of January, 1977, it ran for eight consecutive nights with the audience reportedly growing from night to night as viewers from the previous night told others and they joined the audience. Admitting a certain degree of intrigue with the chapters, I saw, and confessing an empathy with the plight of the hapless slaves, I nonetheless wondered if all owners and other “whites” were so cruel and devoid of the milk of human kindness, and all slaves so meek and mild as portrayed. But this article is not really intended as a review of what was apparently a “smash.” We have another thought in mind.

The Bible has much to say about roots, and there are some worthwhile lessons for us in what it says. The television series had to do with ancestral and geographical roots of the characters who were the subject of the story. Ancestral roots are given some attention in scripture as well. The prophetess Deborah was a root “out of Ephraim” whom God raised “against Amalek” (Judges 5:14; 4:5). Every genealogy is a tracing of one’s roots, and Jesus was a branch growing out of the root of Jesse (Isa. 11:1, 10; 53:2; Rom. 15:12; Rev. 5:5; 22:16). But let us turn our attention to our own roots, not of the fleshly ancestral, but of the spiritual.

The root is immensely important. A plant whose root is diseased will wither, become fruitless and die. Jesus impressed the importance of a good root in good soil in the parable of the sower. Of the man who receives the seed into stony places, though he hears and receives the word with joy, Jesus said, “Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended” (Mat. 13:21).

As the parable of the sower also illustrates, where the root is planted is important. Spiritually speaking, every man has roots. The wicked or evil person has roots (Job 18:5, 16). His roots are in the Devil (John 8:44), and the fruit he bears redounds to iniquity (Rom. 6:19-21). On the other hand, the root of the righteous (Prov. 12:3) is in Christ (Col. 2:6-7). He becomes as a tree planted by the rivers of water whose roots spread out broadly and deeply to take in nourishment and drink in the moisture (Psa. 1:1-3; Job 20:19). Not only does “the root of the righteous yield fruit” (Prov. 12:12), but he is able to stand while others wither in the heat and drought of adversity and misfortune. Jeremiah put it beautifully. “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit” (17:7-8).

The root of the wicked will dry up and his light will be put out (Job 18:5, 16). Those who cast away the law of the Lord, “their root shall be a rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust” for they were of those “that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isa. 5:24, 20).

But, friend, the plants of God will not be rooted up (Mat. 15:13). Where are your roots, in Christ or in the Devil? You can partake of the joy of hope of those who are rooted and grounded in Christ. In your faith, put Him on in baptism (Gal. 3:26-27). Become “rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith” (Col. 2:7).

Truth Magazine XXI: 48, pp. 762-763
December 8, 1977

By Roland Worth, Jr.

At this season of the year, it is good to take a minute or two of time to review some of the things we do not know about Christ’s birth. Among them are these facts:

(l) The year Christ was born in.

(2) The month He was born in.

(3) The day He was born.

(4) The specific location in Bethlehem of the birth.

(5) The number of ‘wise men.” (We know the number of presents they brought but not the number of people who brought the gifts.)

(6) What country or countries the “wise men” were from.

(7) What their racial or ethnic ancestry was.

(8) What their names were.

What we do not know about Christ’s birth has been the fertile breeding ground for tradition, tradition that Protestants have often unthinkingly adopted from the Roman Catholic Church that gave birth to it. Is it not rather odd that the very same people who will obstinately reject the Catholic tradition concerning Mary’s birth and life will adopt that same Church’s tradition concerning the details of Jesus’ birth?

Protestant friend, the next time you hear your preacher speak of the month or day or year in which Jesus was born, the next time you hear him refer to the number or country of origin of the “wise men,” take a little of your time, hand him your Bible and ask him to prove what He has said from the pulpit. You will quickly discover that He has no Scripture but only tradition to rely on.

If he attempts to dismiss your question with a remark such as “it doesn’t really matter” why not ask him, “What happened to our claim to be a Bible believing church?” At this point you are likely to be greeted with either indignation or a stony silence. Either way you will have the answer to your question: That instead of being part of a church that really accepts the Bible you are part of a church that has substituted Roman Catholic tradition for Scripture.

At that point we would urge you to seriously investigate the church of Christ, a church that refuses to accept Catholic tradition concerning the birth of Christ. There and there almost alone are you going to get away from the spiritual relics such as Christmas observance that Protestantism has inherited from Catholicism.

Truth Magazine XXI: 48, p. 762
December 8, 1977