Truth Magazine

By Robert Wayne La Coste

As a young boy, my older brother and I raised pigeons. The first pair we ever had was a young female we had simply caught in a neighbor’s barn, and a much older male that we had had as a single pet for sometime. We really enjoyed watching them work, live and actually share life together. When the female laid three eggs, the male would take turns sitting on them as they both gathered straw in an effort to maintain a nest for their soon to be off-spring. Because of the male’s sire he had little trouble fighting off would be destroyers of the nest. No other pigeon was a match for him, and even the neighborhood cats thought twice before tangling wish this old fella.

One day upon returning from gathering straw the old bird entered the cage to only find the feathers of his mate scattered everywhere and the eggs drenched in blood. The eggs themselves were unharmed but the female was no where in sight. Some cat had enjoyed lunch. The old bird took his place on the ,three eggs and the next morning was found beak downward, motionless and still, not a mark on his body. He had literally grieved himself to death! Needless to say, this caused many a tear to flow from two young boy’s eyes, and it is an incident that shall not soon be forgotten by either of us.

These were just members of the animal kingdom which act solely upon instinct. They have no soul. They have no intellect. They have not the ability to reason, and yet in many instances they are wiser than those who posers these qualities. They care for their own, even unto death!

How it must grieve God to see those with whom he has given these qualities lost in sin. When Jesus was on earth, on one occasion he went and grieved over the city of Jerusalem saying, “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou which killesi the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen doeth gather her brood under her wings and ye would not . . . ” (Luke 13:34-35).

The same Jesus hanging on the cross in great grief and anguish implored, “My God, My God, why host thou forsaken me” (Matt. 27:46), and “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Being that Jesus’ body shed forth both “blood and water” (John 19:34), many physicians of true science comment that this is a biological change in the body which occurs when one dies in “great distress, anguish and mental grief.” In other words, we might conclude from this, that surely while Jesus was murdered, and his physical body suffered much, he too suffered inwardly. Suffered because God’s children the Jews would not hear his words; suffered because of the love which he had for them, but which they had not for him. Jesus died not only from great physical suffering but was actually grieved to death as well, grieved for the same ones for whom he had prayed, “Forgive them, they know not what they are doing.” How God the Father must have grieved that day, even as he did in the beginning when he had made man and man.was wicked and sinful, and “it repented the Lord that He had made man .and it grieved him at his heart” (Gen. 6:6). How it must grieve Him to see men today still wicked, and still in rebellion. Dear reader, let us not “grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (Eph. 4:30) but rather pay heed to his teachings and show forth love for him who first loved us (1 John 4:10).

Truth Magazine XIX: 48, p. 759
October 16, 1975

By Gordon J. Pennock

I once read an amusing story about a farmer who told his wife, as he tumbled into bed, “I’ll plow tomorrow.” “The next morning,” as the story goes, “he started to lubricate the tractor. But he needed oil, so he went to the shop to get it. On the way, he noticed that the chickens had not been fed. He started for the crib to get some corn, but he found some sacks there which reminded him that the potatoes needed sprouting. He headed toward the potato-pit. En route, he spotted the woodpile and remembered the shortage of kindling at the house. But he had to chop it first, and he had left his axe in the chicken coop. As he went for his axe, he met his wife who was feeding the pigs. With surprise, she asked, “Have you finished the plowing already?” “Finished?” the farmer bellowed, “I haven’t got time to get started!”

This story illustrates what happens to too many of us on too many days-especially preachers. We plan a day’s work, but then, we get an unexpected telephone caller or visitor who wants to discuss with us some personal problem or Bible question. And of course it is important that we do so. So the work that we planned must be set aside for the present. Or, it may be that we are informed of someone who is sick or hospitalized, so the planned activities must be postponed in favor of such missions of kindness and helpfulness. These interruptions are of course gladly and cheerfully accepted, because we recognize that priorities must always play a part in every plan.

What we must avoid is the upsetting of meaningful and important plans by trivial incidents or matters which are mundane and of but momentary value. An interesting Biblical lesson along this line may be drawn from the record in Luke 10, verses 38 through 42. While visiting in the home of Mary and Martha of Bethany, Jesus saw contrasting dispositions in these two women. While Mary “sat at the Lord’s feet and heard His word, . . . Martha was cumbered (distracted) about much serving.” Poor Martha! She was so concerned and preoccupied with the details of entertaining that she failed to take advantage of Jesus’ presence in her home by sitting down and listening to His word, like Mary did. And, thinking that what she was doing was so important, she felt unjustly treated by her sister and complained to Jesus about Mary’s indolence, as well as His apparent indifference toward it. He responded in words. which need to be heeded by all who are faced with the sometimes perplexing problem of priorities. He said, “Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful; for Mary hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Yes, it is also necessary for us to make careful evaluation and give proper priority to the many worthwhile demands upon our time. Surely, we will never have the time to do all the things which can and should be done. Consequently, we must use discrimination in choosing what we do. Like Martha, we need to be careful to choose “the good part” or that which is “needful.”

When we speak of priorities we refer to matters all of which may be proper but only of relative value when compared with others. It was in this vein that Jesus was speaking when He said: “Seek ye first his (God’s-GJP) kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things (food, drink and shelter) shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:33). Note, that Jesus did not say, seek ye only God’s kingdom and righteousness, but rather seek them first.

Jesus certainly knew as well as we do that man has certain physical needs which must be satisfied if he is to survive. Spending time and energy to provide for these needs is not only proper but a serious obligation, as spelled out in such passages as these: “If any (man) will not work, neither let him eat” (2 Thess. 3:10); again: “Let him (the Christian-GJP) labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have to give to him that hath need” (Eph. 4:28). Plans and provisions to supply these needs nevertheless become sinful whenever we allow them to subordinate and displace our obligations to God and the neglect of our spiritual needs.

Friend, let us keep our values unmixed and our priorities straight. Put God, His kingdom and His will, first in your life and everything else that is needful will be enjoyed as a bonus.

Truth Magazine XIX: 48, p. 757
October 16, 1975

By William V. Beasley

It has often and rightly been preached that the Holy Spirit bears witness “with” and not “to” the spirits of God’s children (Rom. 8:16). The Holy Spirit has given us God’s commandments (telling men how to become and be children of God) and the spirit of man, upon man’s learning the truth, can answer “Yea,” or “Nay.” The Spirit, through the writings of inspiration, revealed the words of Jesus, “. . . except ye believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). Our spirit can answer “Yes, I believe,” or “No, it is nothing to me.” The Holy Spirit has also revealed that man must repent (Luke 24:47; Acts 17:30), confess the name of Jesus (Matt. 1p:32; Rom. 10:10) and be baptized (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Gal. 3:27) in order to be saved. The spirit of man can answer “Yes, I’ve done these things; Hallelujah, I’m a child of God,” or it may answer, “What nonsense!”

Suppose for a moment that the wording in Romans 8:16 was “The Spirit beareth witness to our spirit . . .” Would this really make a great difference in what the verse says? I think not. If it so read, we should next ask, “How does the Spirit bear witness “to” someone or something?” The Bible tells us how the Holy Spirit bears witness “to” man: “And the Holy Spirit also beareth witness to us; for after he said . . . ” (See Heb. 10:15-17). The Holy Spirit bears witness “to” man the same way we have been preaching He bears witness “with our spirits,” i.e., through the word.

Truth Magazine XIX: 48, p. 756
October 16, 1975

By Roy E. Cogdill

When Paul wrote the Roman Letter and said to the Roman brethren, “The churches of Christ salute you,” he was talking about independent, autonomous, churches in their own locality. They were of the same faith and order. They had been planted by the preaching of the same doctrine, “The doctrine of Christ,” and where the same seed had been sown it produced always the same fruit. The same gospel produced the same kind of Christians and the same kind of churches wherever it was preached.

These “churches of Christ” were not only of the same faith and order, they were equal and each of them perfectly, completely, and sufficiently constituted the church of Christ. They were identified, and can be today wherever the gospel is preached, by the same designation, teaching, worship, organization, and work. But they were not federated into anything. They did not pool their resources and join themselves together either in a human organization or in an amalgamated relationship of any kind. No local church can delegate any part of its resources, work, or responsibility to another local church and have all of its independence, autonomy, and its sufficiency left. This is just as certain as the fact that it takes all of the parts to constitute the whole of anything. Give a part of the parts away and the whole does not remain. Even our “brain trust,” Roy Deaver and Tom Warren, would have to agree with that.

The organization that characterized these local churches of Christ was as simple and unpretentious as all other elements of the scheme of redemption. God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound and bring to nought them that are wise, indeed! (1 Cor. 1:27). We do not have to presume or guess about the organization of the church any more than we do about the plan of salvation or the simplicity of its worship.

In each congregation or church it was God’s order that there should be elders, a plurality of them (Acts 14:23). This divine order was for every church. If every church had an eldership in God’s divine arrangement, then no eldership had the oversight of anything that belonged to more than one congregation. The only jurisdiction that God ever gave any eldership is the oversight of one church. This is abundantly established by the divine injunctions; “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers” (Acts 20:28); and “The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed; feed the flock of God which is among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed; feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof” (1 Peter 5:1-2). This identified the elders who were to take the, oversight and it identified the flock which those elders were to oversee. When elders act in any other capacity, they are acting without authority (ultra wires) and are therefore guilty of lawlessness-“iniquity.”

Whenever any eldership anywhere plans a program of work, either in evangelism, benevolence, or edification, that involves in any way another congregation than the one which they are to “oversee,” they are acting without divine jurisdiction and therefore in defiance of divine authority. We believe with Brother E. R. Harper, of the Herald of Truth, when he said a good many years ago in the Tulsa Lectures, which are in print, that no congregation as the right to plan any kind of a program of work for which it is unable to pay. He does not agree with this now, but it is still the truth none the less. All such programs as present day “area rallies,” “area campaigns,” “area workshops,” “area conferences” or on a still bigger scale “brotherhood conferences or lectureships” are intercongregational activities and therefore bigger than God authorized anything to become. When congregations combine their resources, amalgamate their work, or centralize the oversight of their work under any arrangement, something bigger in the way of an organization than a local eldership is essential to direct it. Brethren may put it under an eldership, but when they do that eldership ceases to be a “local” eldership and becomes either an “area eldership” or a “brotherhood eldership.” This is just as disrespectful toward divine authority as it could be to form a human organization to do the work of the church.

This means that such programs as those promoted by the San Fernando Church, viz., The Valley-wide “Teacher’s Training Program,” or the Valley-wide “Women’s Meeting” are completely without New Testament sanction or authority. It means that any kind of “brotherhood wide” conference planned either by a local church or ‘by a “Christian College” is completely unscriptural. There is nothing wrong with people attending the services of a meeting held by another congregation when they are invited to it, Neither is there anything wrong with a meeting in which different speakers do the speaking or preaching. But when plans are made for a program to involve either the membership, resources or facilities of other congregations, someone has transgressed, and is exercising too much authority. It means also that a “brotherhood wide conference of preachers and elders” such as that recently held by the Herald of Truth Missionary Society in Abilene is as unscriptural as an “interdenominational ecumenical conference” and for the same reasons. It means that a “city wide or county wide conference” among the elders or “workshop” for them goes beyond (transgresses) the doctrine of Christ and therefore leaves God behind.

Ambitious elders thatr promote themselves into any such position establish of themselves a “hierarchy” just as certainly as if they were Roman Catholic Bishops. Give them time and they will grow into it. It also is true that “promoting preachers” who lead elders and congregations into such activity are worse than denominational pastors, they are parish priests and do not resemble either .in attitudes or work a plain Gospel preacher. Brethren, we should either practice “speaking where the Bible speaks and being silent where it is silent” or we should give up the claim and quit talking about it.

God’s organization in form includes “elders in every church,” “Saints, Bishops and Deacons” in the local church. In function it calls for the elders over the local church overseeing only the affairs of the local church and no more than that. When they take upon themselves any other function they pervert . God’s organization and that is just as sinful as changing the form of it.

Truth Magazine XIX: 48, pp. 755-756
October 16, 1975