Truth Magazine

By Franklin Burns

“And when they had appointed for them elders in every church . . .” (Acts 14:23). The passage before us contains the earliest mention of the appointment of elders, yet these were by no means the first elders appointed. ‘Paul and Barnabas, when sent to Jerusalem with a contribution for the poor saints, delivered it to “the elders” (Acts 11:30). This shows that there were elders in the churches in Judea. Titus was left in Crete that he might set in order the things that were omitted, and appoint elders in every city (Titus 1:5). James took it for granted that the churches he addressed ordinarily had elders, by directing in his general epistle, that the sick should call for the elders of the church, to pray for them and anoint them with oil, with a view to their recovery (James 5:14). Several congregations that have been established for years still do not have elders. In view of Bible teaching on elders the situation points up the need for more serious concern in many places.

This is a curious situation, and is approximately equal to claiming that we have business but no managers, or organizations without leaders. Such things just do not happen, but are caused by sinful neglect (in all cases where qualified men exist but are not appointed, or where no effort is made to develop qualified men). Two equally bad situations exist among such churches: (1) Some such congregations have what we may call “acting elders,” whether or not we acknowledge the truth of their eldership. These congregations have men functioning as elders; it does not make a particle of difference (from a practical standpoint) if we give them the title elders or not. From a religious standpoint it does matter.

(2) In many churches, no one “takes hold” or “acts” on matters which need attention. Many functions of the local church are crippled or totally neglected. Try as we will, we cannot effectively get around troublesome passages such as Acts 14:23 and Titus 1:5. As usual the Bible condemns our arrangements whenever we try to do things our way rather than follow scriptural commands and examples.

Churches in the first situation described above have often had men who guided and oversaw the congregations down through the years. These men are elders (in practice) in every sense of the word, and sometimes good ones, too. Their leadership is accepted almost without question by the congregation. The only thing lacking is the formal acknowledgment that these men are elders and have been carrying ‘on the business of that high calling for years. Why are they not scripturally appointed and recognized? That is a good question, but unfortunately there is no ready answer. The simplest and most painful answer would most likely be the rebelliousness of the congregation and its stiff-necked determination not to give in to clear scriptural authority. The congregation has decided that elders are not needed and prefer to operate without them. They seem to think “we have always gotten along without appointing elders, so why should we do so now?” It would appear that the congregations in question do not consider 1 Pet. 5:2 to be very important and have agreed to ignore that and other annoying passages.

When we refuse to follow divine commands on the eldership, we are crippling the church and therefore depriving ourselves of the divine, plan for carrying out our primary mission: to carry the gospel to the world. All other functions of the church are impaired, too when God’s plan and wisdom are not respected. If a congregation has qualified men but no elders or is making no effort to develop them, then that congregation is to that extent in error.

Not only do we need to study this subject, a lot of us need to do something about it. How much longer can this or that congregation go hobbling along in direct disobedience to the Lord’s command? It is strange that we are so sensitive about some errors, and so willing to accept others with nonchalance. We would disfellowship a man for playing an instrument of music when we are singing praises to God. We are not nearly so excited about men taking over the flock and being “lords over God’s heritage” (1 Pet. 5:3) without any scriptural authority for their actions. ,When we encourage or allow men to “take hold” of positions and functions without the divine method of appointment, we are encouraging them to “take hold” also of authority beyond that intended by, God even for scriptural elders. In other words, such men are likely to become tyrants or dictators, as the sad experience of some churches show. The Lord has commanded that congregation’s be led by elders and has gone into detail as to the qualifications of such men. We can see and know those within our congregation who possess the traits that fit men to be overseers of God’s people.

What must an elder be? See 2 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-14. Those qualifications may displease and disappoint many of us. That is too bad, because the Lord provided them. As a people we always have a number of reasons ready to explain our shortcomings, and no doubt there are numerous explanations as to how a congregation can follow the Bible and still have ‘elders who are unseen and unknown. Nevertheless, He does not leave any convenient loop-holes. We must approach the study of these scriptures with the conviction that they are “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). We realize that an appeal to the scriptures for our authority carries very little weight with those who do not regard the scriptures as inspired of God, hence, our concern and efforts are directed toward those who receive “the word of the message not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God” (1 Thess. 2:13).

Truth Magazine XIX: 33, p. 514
June 26, 1975

By Jeffery Kingry

A wise man once said, “A man’s character is the sum of all the decisions he has made in his life.” When we discuss character, and what makes people what they are, we overlook this simple fact. Have you ever wondered why some people are nothing while folks from the same background somehow turn out to be just the opposite. I believe the answer lies not in man’s environment or his genetic makeup, but in each man himself.

When I was a child a next door neighbor had a Japanese “pinball” machine. A lever was cocked and released and a small steel ball the size of a pea was launched up in the air to come clattering down, bouncing and careening off hundreds of little pins that changed the direction of the ball-till finally it came to rest in one of several cups placed about the interior of the machine. The object of the game was to hit the “jackpot” cup: the hardest cup to reach, right in the middle of the board, guarded on all sides by the pins of destiny. The “way” into the cup was barely large enough for the steel ball to pass. It would be no accident if the ball went in. We used to sit for hours, fascinated with the infinite variety of ways the ball would find to bounce down. On the rare occasion that the ball would hit the “jackpot” cup, we would painstakingly try to recreate the way that we had done it.

In a way, this is how life is. Only it is not the law of probability that determines whether we reach the “jackpot,” but the either-or choices we make day by day. The response we make to each decision we must make determines which way we are going to “bounce.” Every soul receives the same initial shot into the arena of life. All are confronted with the same “pins of destiny”: decisions that must be made. Life is lived a second at a time. Every man is confronted with choices-the responses of man to those choices makes him what he is. `Lot chose him all the plains of Jordan” (Gen. 13:11). Lot’s character was not fully formed when he stood with his uncle surveying the land seeking to make a choice where to pitch his tents. But the loss and sorrow he saw years later when his substance was destroyed, his wife dead, his sons and daughters gone, his youngest daughters corrupted and pregnant through incest, started when he made that first selfish decision to take the “best part” from Abraham. He chose the plain-he chose to pitch his tent towards Sodom-he chose to live in Sodom. Lot’s character developed in the opposite direction of Abraham.

Joshua knew the power of the right choice in determining character, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve” (Josh. 24:15)! Our day by day choices make us what we are. So often we see a young person who walks the edge of what is right. She begins to wear her skirt shorter, her makeup thicker, her sweater tighter. The choices are made, the character is formed and before long she is lost to the Lord and her-family. Any who have eyes to see have witnessed it. The young man who is silently sullen, who uses “little deceits” to conceal his actions from those who might rebuke him. His parents and brethren might jokingly chide him about his long hair or the hickey on his neck. They are hurt and wonder “why?” when he grows to be a man that has no use for morality or godly living.

Responsibility Is Respond-Abiiity

Jay Adams in his book Competent To Counsel noted, “What is responsibility? Responsibility is the ability to respond as God says man should respond to every life situation, in spite of difficulties.” God declares that every man will be judged according to his deeds whether they be good or evil. This implies respond-ability in man. Man cannot approach God with his sins and seek to justify them by minimizing them, by imputing them to others, by blaming environment or circumstances. Man is responsible. He doesn’t have to sin. Every man has the ability to make right choices according to God’s word. “There hath no temptation taken you but such is common to man: But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able: but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13).

Each time we make a decision to do evil we step away from God and bend our character in the direction of Satan. Very many steps in the wrong direction produces a character more like the Devil than God. In the church we see brethren that ignore such passages as Matt. 5:23, 24 and Matt. 18:11-17 and let their brethren die in sin. The responsible Christian goes to his brother to change his behavior. Brethren who ignore sin in their own lives or the lives of others will reap the eternal consequences. What we are, and what we will be is determined by the choices we make now. Do we stand with God, or do we stand alone. What is your choice?

Truth Magazine XIX: 32, pp. 509-510
June 19, 1975

By Daniel H. King

I heard the phrase that heads this article at a football game a few years ago. It was shouted by a fan (obviously cheering for the winning side) to a group of agitated fans who were bemoaning the outcome of the game. How apropos that little sentence was! Anyone who participates in or watches an athletic contest should be quite aware that both teams cannot win. Somebody must walk off the field a loser. And, if one cannot enter the contest with the intention of being a “good sport” whether they win or lose, then they ought to stay out of the contest. It’s a matter of mental preparation, not necessarily for defeat, but for the possibility of defeat and a resignation as to how one will act when mere possibility becomes reality. To put it in the words of the unwitting sage: “If you can’t stand the heat: then get out of the kitchen.” Kitchens get hot, and games have losers. Those are simple facts of life, and those who cannot cope with reality should not place themselves in positions where their genuineness will potentially manifest itself.

But that phrase has more applicability than just to kitchens and sports. It may also be applied to the Christian life. Many people become Christians thinking that the life of the Christian will be a proverbial “bowl of cherries,” with its, consummation in heaven. And, after a few short bouts with the devil and temptation they go down for the count. When they find out that living the Christian life is, in reality, a daily contest with the devil and evil and that the church is full of fallible human beings like themselves, then they head for the kitchen door- the heat is too much! People need to go into the Christian life with a realistic view of what it is and will be like. The chances for spiritual longevity will be so much better if this is the case. Temptation will not cease when we become Christians, in fact, it may even get worse. I would imagine if I were the devil that I would not spend a great deal of my precious time on the terribly wicked, instead I would center my attentions upon those who spurned my powers. However, the evil one cannot tempt beyond our ability to resist (1 Cor. 10:13), and he will be forced to flee if he is resisted (James 4:7). Instead of despairing at temptation, the child of God ought to heed the advice of James, “Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations; knowing that the proving of your faith worketh patience” (James 1:2,3). In addition, a healthy view of our fellow Christians will serve to make being a Christian more feasible. Very often we hear of people young in the faith being unsettled or even discouraged to the point of giving up, either by troubles in the church or by ungodly attitudes and actions on the part of those who ought to know and do better. Paul met immorality, hostility, division, hypocrisy, heresy, and personal rejection in the church at Corinth, yet the grand apostle was able to open his epistle with the words, “I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor. 1:4). Paul could have been overcome by the perversity of the Corinthians and thrown up his hands in despair. But he did not. He did his best to save their souls and his own and did not lose heart. Have any of us ever worshiped with brethren as spiritually bereft as the Corinthians? Even if we have, we still have no reason to give up and quit. Perhaps to worship elsewhere, and certainly to raise a cry in opposition to iniquity, but never to quit serving Christ. It is going to get hot in a kitchen, and it is going to be tough being a Christian, but we should neither give up cooking because of the heat, nor give up serving the Lord because it is sometimes hard.

Again, this pointed little maxim has its application for those of us who preach the gospel, as well. How many of us run into a little turbulence in a congregation, face hardship, or fail in some respect or another and throw up our hands in surrender? “I’ll just quit preaching. There are plenty of other ways to make a living without putting up with such and such.” Without mentioning the mercenary sound of such talk, we might simply recollect the veteran preacher Paul’s counsel to Timothy, “Be thou sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil thy ministry” (2 Tim. 4:5). No, preaching is not a picnic, and there are certainly times when the brethren can be a far cry from angelic, but that should not keep us from making due application of this admonition to ourselves. Little confidence should be placed in us as preachers if we are always crying, complaining, quitting, going to quit, or are constantly “on the limb” from trouble in churches where we have preached. If we cannot stand the heat, then we need to get out of the kitchen.

Truth Magazine XIX: 32, pp. 508-509
June 19, 1975

By Larry Ray Hafley

Question:

From Indiana: “Hebrews 11:5 states Enoch was translated that he should not see death, but Hebrews 11:13 states that all of these (I assume this to include Enoch also) died in faith. Could you possibly explain in your column this apparent contradiction?”

Reply:

Here is a case where an acknowledged assumption would make one verse cross another. So, why the assumption? The Hebrew writer says Enoch did not see death. He lists others who did-Abel, Noah, Abraham, Sara, Isaac, Jacob. Obviously, then, when he says “these all died in faith” he has reference to the ones who died and not to the exception which he himself lists.

Milligan’s Comments

Robert Milligan, in his commentary on Hebrews, addresses himself to this very question.

“. . . But of whom lea the Apostle here speak? Who are the `all’ who died in faith? Some, as Oecumenlua, Theophylact, and Prlmasius, think that our author refers here to the aforesaid faithful antediluvian Patriarchs, as well as to the postdlluvian. But in this they are manifestly to error. The context makes it quite obvious, that only Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob are included In this remark. They are the persons who received the promises (Gal. 3:161, and who might have returned to their fatherland had they been Inclined to do so. But they all preferred remaining as strangers and pilgrims to Cancan, because their hearts were set on the heavenly country into which they hoped to enter soon.

“Not having received the promises; What promises? Manifestly not the verbal promises; for these they did receive (Gal. 3:16): but the word `promises’ (epangVai) is used here to denote the things promised. These they did not receive during their earthly pilgrimage; they only saw them afar off, and `greeted them as the wanderer greets his longed-for home, even when be comes in sight of h at a distance; drawing to himself, as it were, magnetically and embracing, with inward love, that which is yet star off:” (Robert Milligan, Commentary on Hebrews, p. 400).

As Milligan suggests, Enoch was not a part of those who received the promises. Look at verse 15. “And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.” To whom does “they” refer? It does not include Enoch. He was not the one who was called out of Chaldea (Gen. 12:1-4; Heb. 11:8).

Conclusion

Admittedly, there are difficulties in some Biblical texts that we might not know as much about as we would like to know. However, let us remember that God is right, and His word is eternal. Let us be slow to charge those who were moved by the Spirit with writing error. We may unwittingly charge the Lord with mistakes in so doing. Examine, study, question and seek to learn more about what you do not understand. It is good that our querist has submitted this question, but let us all approach such questions with a deep reverence for the greatness of our God.

Truth Magazine XIX: 32, pp. 507-508

June 19, 1975