Truth Magazine

By Robert Jackson

“Eye has not seen, or ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9)

These words from the pen of the beloved Paul are often spoken at funerals . This is due to the fact that many think Paul here is peaking of heaven. I am aware of the fact this would give much comfort to one who sorrows over the death of a loved one. There are many other Scriptures that tell us about heaven. However, it is my understanding, at this time, that Paul is not referring to the glories that believers well receive after death, but rather to the blessings that one enjoys now as a result of his love for God.

Let us observe the following:

Paul Was Speaking About His Message

As we examine the first five verses of this chapter, we note that Paul was speaking that the message of his preaching was a divine power. In verse one, he speaks of declaring to them the Testament of God. He declared unto them that Jesus was crucified. This message was not of human wisdom. The he follows in verse five that our faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. What then does it mean that our faith should be in the power of God? The power of God had to be revealed.

A Message Revealed

Looking at verse seven, we understand from Paul that the message he was presently delivering at one time was hidden. The truth about what God had prepared for those whom he loved had never been seen by the eye, ear, or heart of man. Now Paul informs us that the things not seen by the eye, heard by the heard, or thought of by the mind of man have now been revealed to us (the apostles) by the Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit of God knows the deep things of God. Since they have been revealed by the Spirit, we can now know the deep things of God. Listen to the words of Paul in the Ephesian letter. “How that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I wrote before a few words which when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)” (Eph. 3:3-4). When we leave these words of Paul, as he spoke them, it seems clear that what he is speaking about, when he said that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, and the heart of man had not thought of was that which had been revealed to them being the message, the gospel of Christ.

The Blessing Now

Let us not overlook the blessings that now come to those who love the Lord, the forgiveness of sins, to be called the sons of God, (Rom. 8:14) and the blessing of being a member of his church, the body now (1 Cor. 12:13), and the joy of serving the Lord. Let us be grateful for the blessing of Romans 8:28, and the blessing of prayer  the blessing that we can cast our care on him (1 Pet. 5).

Eye hath not seen, ear heard, nor the heart of man ever thought about the glorious gospel of Christ that was revealed by the Spirit. The gospel of Christ is the power of God (Rom. 1:16).

Guardian of Truth XLI: 4 p. 2
February 20, 1997

By Tom M. Roberts

If by character assassination, ignoring the truth, condemning as factional, or in some other way, the message of faithful men is silenced, it doesn’t change the truth of the gospel.

In ancient Oriental kingdoms, messengers who brought a monarch bad news sometimes suffered the penalty of death. Woe to the messenger who had to tell the king that his army had suffered defeat at the hands of the enemy, that a beloved family member had died, or that affairs of state were in turmoil. Absolute monarchs answered to no one for their actions and messengers could, and sometimes were, dispatched on the spot for being the bearer of bad tidings. Of course, killing the messenger did not change the message, but it gave the king an outlet for his fury.

Such events are not unknown in biblical accounts. Upon hearing that Saul and Jonathan were dead, David slew the messenger who brought the news. Of course, the extenuating circumstance on this occasion was that the messenger was an Amelakite who lied, claiming to have slain Saul at Saul’s request. It infuriated David that a pagan had dared to deal so with King Saul, saying, “How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?” (2 Sam. 1:14). The messenger paid with his life.

King Herod likewise cut off the head of John the Baptizer since John had boldly opposed the sinful marriage of Herod to Herodias, Philip’s wife. John stated: “It is not lawful for thee to have her” (Matt. 14:4). Though Herodias and her daughter were implicated in the plot to kill John, the ultimate power was Herod’s and he slew the messenger of God who condemned his sin. Again, killing John did not change the truth that he declared, but he was effectively silenced because of the message he delivered; the messenger paid with his life.

We Don’t Kill Messengers Today

Of course, we live in “kinder and gentler” days and messengers are not slain today when they deliver bad news. But messengers are not immune to ill treatment when a communication carries unfavorable tidings. There are more subtle, albeit effective, ways to vent one’s displeasure. These “civilized” methods of dispatching unwelcome messengers are even found among members of the church who do not like the truth of God. Gospel preachers have sometimes been on the receiving end of this “kinder and gentler” method of dealing with the messenger: fire the preacher, cut off his support, throw him out of the preacher’s house, and haul him over the coals in a business meeting. Paul was no stranger to ill-treatment by brethren, raising the question, “Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?” (Gal. 4:16). He stated that he had been in “perils often,” even among “false brethren” (2 Cor. 11:26). Paul understood the danger of being the bearer of bad news.

Institutional History Continues the Pattern

The wrath of the guilty against the messenger who exposes his guilt is still a viable force to be reckoned with in our time. No, those who preach the truth aren’t beheaded, thrust through with spears or stoned to death in the public square. But let us not be so naive as to believe that the anger of the evil-doer cannot find its outlet against the messenger in the twentieth (or twenty-first) century. During the institutional controversy of the 50s, the “yellow flag of quarantine” was an effective tool against many of God’s messengers. Meetings were canceled, whisper campaigns were conducted, reputations were ruined by name-calling (some charged as “orphan haters,” “church splitters,” and such like). Many who did not study the issues were influenced against truth by those who assassinated characters as readily as Herodias demanded the head of John. All of this was done “in the spirit of Jesus,” of course!

Messages and Messengers Today That Face Opposition

Every generation faces its own issues, its own controversies, its own forces of iniquity. In one generation it is called Gnosticism, in another institutionalism, in another doctrinal unity-in-diversity. However the titles are changed, the battle remains the same. The battle is truth versus error, law versus iniquity, right versus wrong. The actors on the stage change with each succeeding generation, but the plot remains the same. And one constant that is still with us is, “Kill the messenger.” Diotrephes threw some out of the church who received John’s letters (3 John 9-10). John was exiled (Rev. 1:9). We don’t have the custom of beheading people in our times and no one has been stoned to death like Stephen in centuries (Acts 7:58). But don’t think modem iniquity hasn’t developed effective means of dealing with those who preach the truth when it is “out of season” (2 Tim. 4:2).

The overwhelming iniquity of our age is that of compromise, of doctrinal unity-in-diversity, by which the unforgivable sin is to have conviction and stand opposed to error. It is a little recognized fact that unity-in-diversity, specifically relating to doctrinal matters, earlier taught by Carl Ketcherside and Leroy Garrett, and considered so radical at the time, has come of age and is quite acceptable among “sound” brethren today. Some brethren mistakenly believed that Carl Ketcherside was isolated, ridiculed and put to flight before he died. Nothing could be further from the truth! The New Hermeneutic Movement today is Carl’s unity-in-diversity gone up-town. A doctrine that was once scorned by many as illiterate has become the darling of the sophisticates as they use their Master’s and Doctorates from “brotherhood colleges” to encourage fellowship with denominations.

But compromise is not restricted to the ultra-liberals. New ammunition has been found “among us” by those who are turning a misuse of Romans 14 into the breeding ground for a unity-in-diversity that mirrors that of Carl Ketcherside. Used at the first to embrace those who would accept the “alien who would come to God” in unlawful marriages, Romans 14 is quickly being expanded to allow sinful beliefs and doctrines of every sort. Compromise with sin is the order of the day and woe to the messenger who has the conviction to speak out. Kill the messenger? Of course not. But please don’t think that just as effective methods are not available to silence those who would “preach the word.”

It is possible for the voice of gospel preachers to be stilled just as effectively (and politely) as in the days of the institutional apostasy. The “good of boy” system is still effective by which whispers and innuendoes ruin the reputation of faithful preachers. Brethren are quarantined today by inclusive, unpublished lists which, at the same time, exclude unwanted preachers. Those who raise the voice of opposition are ignored as they appeal to brethren for Bible studies. Careful and studious articles are condemned as “rash,” “shoot from the hip,” “knee-jerk” attacks by the very ones who refuse to meet and study issues. It is considered bad taste at the best and sinful at the worst to call names and identify those who advocate compromise. Tape recorders are outlawed from study sessions where compromise is taught lest some “troubler of Israel” get an insight to the material presented. Some are obliquely labeled as factional because their stand for truth is too open, too plain, too uncompromising.

The tongue can be as effective as a sword in such controversies. Faithful messengers of the Word have had their characters assailed as “brotherhood watchdogs,” “creed makers,” “meddlers in other men’s matters,” and “guardians of truth” so many times that even the innocent and naive are led to believe the lie. Such barbed comments are smilingly pronounced against brethren while they decry the mean spirit of the “name callers” and “busybodies.” Even while those who teach error are militant in their spread of compromise, they berate those who oppose them as “too militant.” Those who travel across continents to teach error attack those who write in papers such as this one as desiring to direct brotherhood affairs, to control the church universal.

Kill the messenger in the church today? Oh, we are much too polite for that. But this approach is just as deadly, lethal to a fault, and has the advantage of shedding no blood. And, sad to say, it is effective. Those who are guilty can stand in shocked dismay and claim innocence while they continue to spread error and refuse to study. They are the ones with the sweet spirit, who rise above controversy, who refuse to sully their hands in debate. Meanwhile, error continues its destructive march and compromise eats away at the heart of conviction.

The Message Is Not Changed

by Killing the Messenger

Stephen told those who were to stone him to death: “Ye stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it” (Acts 7:51-53). These words will face his murderers at the Judgment.

Herod must still hear the haunting echo of John saying, “It is not lawful for you to have her.”

The splash of the water could not wash away the guilt of Pilate even as he consented to the death of Jesus. Pilate is gone but the gospel remains.

And so will it be in our generation. If by character assassination, ignoring the truth, condemning as factional, or in some other way, the message of faithful men is silenced, it doesn’t change the truth of the gospel. Doctrinal unity-in-diversity is still compromise no matter if every voice of opposition is stilled. It remains comforting to know, even as Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matt. 24:35). You may kill the messenger, but you can’t stop the message.

Guardian of Truth XLI: 3 p. 16-18
February 6, 1997

By Carl McMurray

Sunday School Adult Quarterly took a national survey and compiled the following statistics. Although the survey was not taken specifically among our brotherhood, it nonetheless provides some interesting information since attitudes that are common in the world are often shared (to some extent) by New Testament Christians. It was found that among church members .. .

10% cannot be found,

20% don’t attend,

25% admit to not praying,

35% admit they never read their Bible,

40% don’t contribute financially,

60% never give to special efforts,

70% never assume any responsibility,

85% never invite another to worship, 95% never won another to Christ, yet,

100% expect to go to heaven.

There would seem to be some plain conclusions that we could draw from the above figures. Namely .. .

It is no wonder that our society is veering off course. Church members only comprise a percentage of the population, and over a third of them “never read their Bibles!” That means that over a third of them actually have no idea about the answers to some of the most important questions in this life (and the next) including questions like, “Am I really saved?”, or “What is really right and wrong?” They are being influenced on subjects like homosexuality, abortion, divorce and remarriage, and training children without really knowing what God says. Since they never study themselves, their beliefs are based purely upon what someone else tells them. I don’t know what you think, but that’s a little frightening to me. In addition to this though .. .

Over two-thirds of church members misunderstand God’s word. The Bible teaches God’s people not only how to be saved eternally, but how to live fully in this life. God speaks of how to handle my job, how to live with my fellow man (even when he’s not easy to live with), how to live under government authorities, and how to serve him in Christ’s church. If seventy percent “never assume any responsibility” in the church, that says they don’t understand what God is saying, because he places some responsibility on everyone. Of course, half this number have already stated that they never read their Bibles. They, admittedly, would not understand. But, another 35% are reading. The fact that they’re not involved says their reading is not doing them any good. They are not acting upon what they learn.

Kidding ourselves seems to be the popular pastime of most people in this country. The very book that we’re ignoring says, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!” (2 Cor. 13:5, NASV). We become offended if someone suggests that “I am not a Christian.” Yet is seems evident that a high percentage of us don’t even know what a “Christian” is. We don’t worship, we don’t talk with our Father, we don’t listen to his directions, we don’t assist in his work and we don’t even think it’s important enough to share with others. We’re trying to teach our children how to live and we don’t even know how to live ourselves. Yet, we all eagerly expect to go to heaven. To quote Al, from the popular TV show, Home Improvement, “I don’t think so, Tim.”

It’s past time to “get real.” We need to set time aside for personal devotion. It’s time to get involved. It’s time to study regularly, pray hard, find Christ’s church among all the compromising counterfeits and be part of it. I believe that our souls, the souls of our children, and the spirit that brought this nation to its once-great position are worth saving. But, it won’t happen as long as I keep letting Satan tell me, “I’m all right,” when I’m not! The apostle Paul say’s, “examine yourselves.” God bless your efforts.

Guardian of Truth XLI: 3 p. 21
February 6, 1997

By Steve Willis

Roman Pope OKs Darwin

This may be “old news,” to you, but it is the first time I’ve had a chance to remark on it. Our Medicine Hat News (Oct. 24, 1996) had the headline: “Pope OKs Darwin’s theory after 137 years.” The article from Reuters news service continued: “Pope John Paul has lent his support to the theory of evolution, proclaiming it compatible with Christian faith in a step welcomed by scientists but likely to disturb the religious right.

Questions were immediately raised about the translation of the Roman Pope’s statement. Our paper said, “The Pope’s recognition that evolution is `more than a theory’ while others were saying the official translation was `more than a hypothesis.’ Scientifically, there is a difference. A hypothesis is an assertion subject to verification; it is not yet proven. A theory is a system of assumptions, “accepted as right” until falsified. The hypothesis of Darwinism still has its critics among some evolutionists.

This confusion over words was already noted in the revised and updated Catholic Encyclopedia (1987). Under “Evolution” we find, “In the Catholic understanding, the theory of evolution, or transformation from lower forms of life through a sequence to human beings, remains a theory [or “hypothesis”?  spw]. However, should proof be eventually produced, the teaching of Genesis and its inspired narrative would remain, for it tells that the world was created for human beings and that human beings themselves came from God no matter what course was followed by divine wisdom in forming the human frame.” They would affirm “theistic evolution.”

Both the Encyclopedia and the Pope’s recent statement address the problem that if man evolved from lower forms, where did he get his soul? The newspaper reported, “The Pope made clear he regards the human soul to be of immediate divine creation and so not subject to the process.”

It seems the Pope did not wish to find the Roman Catholic church standing against “science” as it found it standing against Copernicus and Galileo many years ago. But, in this case, the science is still lacking. Why, just about the same time I read this article, I received a new book by Michael J. Behe: Darwin’s Black Box. The subtitle to the book is: “The biochemical challenge to evolution.” Behe would align himself among the evolutionists, but still says, “Despite comparing sequences and mathematical modeling, molecular evolution has never addressed the question of how complex structures came to be. In effect, the theory of Darwinian molecular evolution has not been published, and so it should perish” (p. 186). How ironic that the Roman Pope should now declare it more than a “hypothesis” (or “theory”).

No Thanks!

Our local paper reported that an 89-year old widow in London was holding a winning lottery ticket worth $2 mil-lion pounds. She has been holding it since May 1996 and plans to let the ticket expire after the 180-day time limit has passed in November. Why? “. . . she refuses to profit from the only wager [her husband] made in his life” (Medicine Hat News, Nov. 16, 1996).

A Cruel and Painful Death

Does a baby (fetus) feel pain when it is aborted? This question was addressed in Britain in October. The Commission of Inquiry into Fetal Sentience published its report with a recommendation: “… that fetuses be given adequate anesthesia prior to any medical treatment in utero. And since most abortions take place between the tenth and twentieth weeks, the commission also suggested that fetuses be given painkillers before being killed.”

Dr. Bernard Nathanson once supported abortions, and had written a textbook on abortion procedures. He has be-come a founder of the U.S. National Abortion Rights Action League, and is now a pm-life supporter and activist. Nathanson said, “In the 1980s, a Harvard fetologist discovered that injured fetuses release Substance Pat their nerve synapes by 12 weeks, and that means pain. They can’t experience it the way we do. We think about the source of our pain, while prenatal infants have only the reflexes to jerk away from it. But when they’re suffering dismemberment, they’re still human beings in pain” (Alberta Report, Nov. 11, 1996, p. 20).

Pictures Worth 13,000 Lives

One picture worth a thousand words? Nope, more than that. Shirley MacLaine salvaged photos from her home threatened by the wildfires in California. Remember when you read that she is a believer in reincarnation: “Childhood pictures and pictures of my life. Do you know how many pictures that is? Not just this life  I have pictures from 13,W0 lives” (Time, Nov. 4, 1996).

An Honest Man’s Duty to the Truth

Commenting on the acceptance of homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle, Norman Podhoretz argues that an honest man’s first duty is to the truth. He continues: “George Orwell said that we live in a time when the obvious needs constantly to be restated, and so, to restate what was once self-evident to everyone, including most homosexuals them-selves: men using one another as women constitutes a perversion. To my reconstructed mind, this is as true as ever; and so far as I am concerned, it would still be true even if gay sex no longer entailed the danger of infection and even if everything about it were legalized by all 50 states and ratified by all nine justices of the Supreme Court.

“If that should ever happen, and if I am still around when it does, I hope I will still have the strength to hold on to my own sense of the fundamental realities of life against the terrible distortions that have been introduced into the general understanding of those realities by the gay-rights movement and its supporters. For it is this that is mainly at stake here, and it is this that explains why the issue of homosexuality is of such great moment not just to the proportionately small number of practicing (sic) homosexuals, but to all the rest of us as well” (Commentary, November 1996).

Gay Men Leaders in Suicide

A report in Alberta Canada is believed to be the first to conclusively link homosexuality and youth suicide. The University of Calgary, “an internationally renowned center (sic) [of]. . . suicides,” conducted the random survey of 750 men between the ages of 18 and 27 in 1991-1992. They found “homosexual and bisexual males were 13.9 times more at risk of making a serious suicide attempt.” And that they were three times more likely to “try to harm them-selves.” And, “Celibate men who identified themselves at homosexuals were the most likely to try to harm or kill themselves” (Medicine Hat News, Oct. 2, 1996).

Tooth Fairy of the Gaps

Perhaps you’ve heard the expression “God of the gaps.” It has been used by those who would mock a creationist point of view by saying that when we cannot explain anything with science, we call upon God to fill in the gaps. I’m willing to admit there is a God who filled in the gaps, and provided everything else (non-gaps). The materialist believes there is no “God (or god) of the gaps”  everything is from material things. So whom do they call upon?

The tooth fairy of the gaps! I was reading about scientists who think they are finding planets around other stars. What they are finding are oscillations in the stars, and positing that large planets must be revolving around the stars causing the oscillations. Citing one difficult problem’s solution, explained by an unlikely “orbital inclination,” one astrophysicist said, “How many times can one use the orbital inclination argument? You’re only allowed to use the tooth fairy once or twice but not every time” (Discover, January 1997, p. 47).

So, they can use the tooth fairy to fill in the gaps, but I can’t use God? Gimme a break!

Frosty Reception in Canada

Though not all is, most think of Canada as the part of the Great White North. But according to a recent publication there is a “Frosty Reception” to “Christian Witness in Canada” (Context, Fall, 1996, p. 6ff). They report: “Is our Canadian social climate cold and inhospitable toward those committed to encouraging non-Christians to become Christians? Anyone who is not in touch with the times when planning Christian witness in Canada is likely to receive a cool reception.

“When someone says ‘my way is the right way’ or ‘my group is inherently better than your group’ they move into a zone that pushes the boundaries of mainstream Canadian culture. ‘People in this country [Canada  spw] have made a national hallmark out of our good intentions to be accepting towards others, to be respectful of differences between cultures, and to be non judgmental of those who take a contrary point of view.’

“It is, therefore, counter-culture among Canadians to agree with the statement: ‘I feel it is very important to en-courage non-Christians to become Christians.’ The comparison between those who strongly disagreed and those who strongly agreed to the statement paints a clear picture.”

… “Clearly, wherever you are in Canada, if you espouse traditional views around Christian witness you are going against the cultural mainstream. . . . These social dynamics could set some of God’s committed people up for both psychological and cultural intimidation.”

Text and graphs follow demonstrating this point. May I ask you to remember in your prayers the brethren who are assembling, preaching and teaching in Canada?

A Moment of Silence for .. .

Human Life International reported that as Istanbul made preparations to host the second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements in June, “untold numbers of stray cats and dogs were rounded up and killed to clean up the city. When the radical feminists and environmentalists heard of the slaughter they held a minute of silence in memory of the slain animals. According to the Family Planning Association of Turkey, one in three unborn children in Turkey is aborted. HLI dryly noted the UN delegates paid not such homage to these dead…” (Alberta Report, July 15, 1996).

How About Four REAL Moments of Silence

“Finally, it was a son. I felt as if I had plucked a star from the sky.”Ko Myung Ok, a South Korean woman who aborted four previous female babies (quote from “Verbatim” in Time, July 15, 1996, International Edition).

“Religious” Relic Found

“Atheists like to joke that if the various supposed pieces of the True Cross were collected the wood would be sufficient to build a house. But as Richard John Newhaus reports in the June/July First Things, evolutionists are not immune to awe in the presence of mementoes of the founder of their religion. ‘A stuffed finch was discovered in a dusty crate in the basement of the Museum of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. No ordinary stuffed finch, this. It was tagged by nobody less than Charles Darwin. Time magazine reports the excited yet reverent words in response to the great find. Clearly, for them it is a religious relic to be venerated. I’m sorry, it is not nice to mock the superstitions of simple believers” (Alberta Report, June 17, 1996).

To Be or Not to be … Punished

“Does an adult have the right to whip a child for a serious offense?” is the question being debated in Britain and Europe. A British court acquitted a step-father of charges of assault, after the boy was repeatedly caned for trying to stab his brother with a kitchen knife. That did not end the debate. The 12-year old boy won “preliminary clearance to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.” His claim is that the British government “failed to protect him from inhuman and degrading treatment.” This is being claimed as a victory for children’s rights by some. “The government, however, vowed that no matter what the outcome of the case, the right of British parents to determine how to discipline their children will not be compromised” (Time, September 23, 1996).

Guardian of Truth XLI: 3 p. 22-24
February 6, 1997