Truth Magazine

By Johnny and Nanette Stringer

On October 19, 1946, a teenaged couple were united in marriage at the Limestone County Courthouse, Athens, Alabama. O.C. and Frances had kept their intentions secret from all family members except O.C.’s brother Phares and Frances’ sister Connie, who were the only witnesses of the wedding.

Thus, this couple began to share a life of devoted service to the Lord. During the first years of their life together, they worked as sharecroppers raising cotton  once picking over 700 pounds in one day. In 1948 their first child, Nanette, was born. Their second, Gary, came along in 1952.

With the encouragement of A.J. Rollins, O.C. began preaching in 1953 for a little country church at Cool Springs, Tennessee. During the 30-45 minute drive to the assembly each Sunday, Frances, with Bible in hand, would help O.C. practice reciting passages so that he could quote them by memory in his sermon. This early practice was typical of the team approach they have always taken in meeting life’s challenges.

From 1954 to1956, O.C. preached for the churches at Cartwright and New Hope, Alabama, alternating between the two on Sundays, and having midweek services on Wednesday at one and Thursday at the other.

During the school year of 1955-56, O.C. drove the school bus from Rogersville to Athens Bible School, where he taught eighth-grade Bible. At the beginning of that year, Frances worked in the office at Athens Bible School. Then she suggested to brother Bennie Lee Fudge that O.C. could do her job as well as she could. Brother Fudge agreed, and this allowed her to stay home with Gary.

In 1956 the Birdwells left Alabama, moving to Marked Tree, Arkansas, where O.C. preached. To help make ends meet, they did odd jobs, including picking cotton and cleaning the church building. O.C. did some work in a dry goods store and Frances in a shirt factory. In addition, they gathered whatever was offered in other people’s gardens.

They moved to Alamo, Tennessee, in 1958. It was not long until O.C. was forced to take a firm stand against institutionalism, making it necessary to move to Lisbon, Ohio in 1959. From Lisbon they moved to Kansas City, Missouri in 1960, where they remained until 1964. Their third child, Alan, was born in 1960.

After moving to Barberton, Ohio in 1964, the Birdwells agreed to do the mailing of Truth Magazine, which was edited by Cecil Willis. They moved a plate-making ma-chine, an Addressograph machine, and all the records into their basement. Frances did the bookkeeping, and the whole family worked making address plates and addressing the magazines.

It was soon determined that a mail-order bookstore would help support the magazine. O.C. built shelves, bought some books, and began managing Truth Magazine Bookstore in the Birdwell basement. This arrangement continued until 1967, when the Birdwells moved to Columbia, Tennessee, and Truth Magazine Book-store was moved to Indiana. The Birdwell’s fourth child, Lisa, was born in 1966. In 1972 they suffered the heart-breaking loss of Gary through an industrial accident.

The Birdwells spent 1972-80 in Cullman, Alabama and 1980-84 in Taylors, South Carolina. Then in 1984, the Guardian of Truth Foundation asked O.C. to become the company’s business manager. The bookstore that the Birdwells had begun in their basement was now moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and they moved there to operate the store. Alan, being trained in accounting and finance, joined them in this work. While in Bowling Green, O.C. preached in Caneyville, Kentucky, then for the Three Springs Road church in Bowling Green.

Finally, in 1990, O.C. and Frances returned to their roots in North Alabama. After the Guardian of Truth Foundation purchased the CEI Bookstore in Athens, the Birdwells built a house on their farm near Rogersville and began operating the CEI store. O.C. continued to manage the Foundation’s business, working out of the Athens store.

Presently, they stay busy, working three days a week in the business and the rest of the time on the farm they love  raising registered Santa Gertrudas cattle, gardening, and taking care of their land. They derive much joy from five grandchildren: Cynthia (Stringer) Brewer, Ronald Stringer, Evan Crim, Alissa Crim, and Emily Birdwell. And there is another Crim on the way.

Through the years, O.C. and Frances Birdwell have been an example and an inspiration to all who know them, especially their children. They have demonstrated unwavering love and commitment to each other. Their children (including children-in-law) have learned from them and appreciate them for their love, generosity, and unfailing support.

This husband and wife are as devoted to each other as two people could be. We know that they are thankful for the 50 years they have had together, for they have been a blessing to each other; but many others are also thankful, for they have been a blessing to us also.

Fifty years is just a milestone that is passed as the marriage continues. The marriage will endure as long as they live, and we trust that will be for many more years.

Guardian of Truth XL: No. 24, p. 8-9
December 19, 1996

By Bill Crews

One morning in April of this year I listened to an interesting radio program. It was on one of the stations with an all-religious format. It was also a regular daily broad-cast by Jimmy Swaggart. A panel of three, Jimmy Swaggart, his wife, and one of Mr. Swaggart’s staff ministers, were discussing the subject of marriage, divorce, and remarriage.

(For those who have been wondering, yes Jimmy Swaggart is still active, but only at a small percentage of what he was before the fall of his vast religious empire. He was, a few years back, the most successful of all the famous “televangelists,” taking in the greatest amount of monetary donations. His fall came about when his carnal escapades with prostitutes were publicly exposed. Expelled from the “Assemblies of God,” he operates as an independent now. His Bible college has only a handful of students, whereas it once had about 1500 and was growing every semester. His “Family Worship Center,” with a seating capacity of 10,000 and once nearly full for every service, still has services conducted by himself, but with fewer services and far smaller audiences. Other religious bodies use it also, and it is rented for other functions. One large dormitory building, of about ten stories stands unfinished and decaying. Other buildings are leased out or empty. He still has some radio broadcasts and TV telecasts. Only a few flags fly on the flag poles that were once filled  one for every nation where he had radio and TV programs aired. Many lawsuits against him have been filed and settled; others are pending. His own home and the other two on the palatial grounds where they stand have been up for sale for some time. A shop-ping mall is going up on property he once owned. Yes he still solicits and receives donations, but he will never have a great religious empire again.)

Now, back to that radio program. Here are some of the views given or positions taken on it. (1) Matthew 19:3-9 gives fornication” (unlawful sexual intercourse) as a grounds for divorcing a guilty mate and then remarrying, but it does not apply to those who are not Christians. It only applies to those who have become Christians, and it only applies to their current marriage at the time oftheir conversion. (2) 1 Corinthians 7:15 provides some Christians with a second grounds for divorcing a mate and remarrying, namely, desertion by a mate who is not a Christian who leaves the Christian because of his/her religious profession and practice. (3) People out of Christ may marry, divorce, and remarry any number of times, but when they become Christians, then they are allowed no divorce and remarriage except according to the above two grounds. (4) And then they found a way to get around the restriction which they said Matthew 19:3-9 imposes on two Christians in a marriage. They “reasoned” that when a marriage between two Christians has been broken up for some other grounds, and both parties marry someone else, surely the new marriages in all cases (some of which may have gone on for years and involve new children) would not have to be dissolved. Yes, the parties have committed sin, but surely they could repent of their sins and be forgiven by God with-out having to dissolve their current marriages. A hypothetical case was given (which turned out to be quite common and real) of a married man and a married woman, both in the church choir, having an affair, divorcing their mates and marrying each other. They decided that after it was all done, the two could repent and be forgiven without having to separate. But they thought it best that they attend another church so as not to embarrass their former mates and make for an awkward situation in that church.

This shows how men and women can rationalize, and get around the word of God, and make it suit their purposes. But the most disturbing thing is that many who profess to be New Testament Christians, members of the Lord’s church, have reached all of these same conclusions. Reader friend, Matthew 19:3-9, which emphasizes what was God’s will “from the beginning,” still applies to all marriages and gives the only grounds that God recognizes for divorce and re-marriage. And 1 Corinthians 7:15 is not even addressing the subject of divorce and remarriage. Of course the Bible allows those whose mates have died to marry again (Rom. 7:2-3; 1 Cor. 7:39).

Rather than rationalizing and rendering meaningless some clear Bible passages, let’s get serious about informing the human race about the existence and sovereignty of God, his right to regulate the divine origin of marriage, and the divine regulations that govern marriage. With so many convinced that marriage is merely a social arrangement developed by the human race, having many forms, and properly subject to change, we have our work cut out for us. With so many thinking that it is all right for any man or woman to live together intimately without being married, that in many cases it might be a wise prelude to being married, that it’s perfectly permissible to get out of a marriage if you become dissatisfied with it, and that “same-sex marriages” (a ridiculous contradiction of terms) should be permitted, we certainly have our work cut out for us!

Before God every accountable human being has the responsibility of living a sexually pure life, of viewing all sex outside the context of a lawful marriage as sinful, and, if he chooses to marry, of selecting a marriage partner with the mutual determination to love, honor, and cherish until death separates them. The only step in life more serious than that of marriage is that of becoming a Christian.

Guardian of Truth XL: No. 24, p. 5
December 19, 1996

By Andy Alexander

The Child Unborn

God cares for all the children who never see the light,

Who never experience sadness or feel the dark of night,

Who never smell the flowers or climb trees great and small,

Who never see the sun set or gaze at towers tall,

Who never feel the chilly wind or tread on snowy hill,

Who never hear the birds sing like other children will,

But they’ll see heaven’s glory the streets all paved in gold.

They will feel peace forever just like we all were told.

They’ll be there long before we will,

They’ll never feel the scorn.

These are the little souls of God who never will be born.

-Leah McJunkins

There has been a concerted effort among many of the politicians of our land to ban an abortion procedure called partial birth abortion. The abortionists call it an intact dilation and evacuation (IDE). The object that is intact is a baby. The baby is delivered alive, except for the head, then a pair of blunt scissors are inserted into the back of the baby’s skull and opened to expose the brain; then a high-powered suction tube is inserted into the baby’s skull and its brains are sucked out. If the baby’s head were to be moved just a matter of inches (just outside the birth canal), the legal procedure known as an abortion would be the criminal act of murder. Those supporting abortion insist that life does not begin until the actual birth of the child; therefore they reason that as long as the baby is in the womb it is not murder to kill it and remove it. However, in partial birth abortions, the baby is partially delivered, then murdered. Again, if the same procedure were carried out two or three inches from where it now occurs, it would be classified murder. It used to be, “if you can’t see it, it’s not murder!” Now, the idea is changed to “if you can’t see all of it, then it’s not murder!”

It’s a sad time in the history of a nation when discussion of such a topic is even taking place. This is the result of the hedonistic lifestyle that many Americans have chosen to lead. We do not want to accept responsibility for our actions or we want to eliminate the consequences of our sinful ways.

The Bible plainly teaches that the babe in the womb is a living being and recognized by God as an individual person. David said in Psalm 139:12-16:

For thou didst form my inward parts: Thou didst cover me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks unto thee; For I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Wonderful are thy works; And that my soul knoweth right well. My frame was not hidden from thee, When I was made in secret, And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.

To the prophet Jeremiah, God said, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee; I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jer. 1:4-5). Language could not be plainer, the babe in the womb is a living human being known by God and to willfully destroy it is murder. “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: For in the image of God made he man” (Gen. 9:6).

It is not just the wholesale slaughter of babies that is taking place. The present administration lifted a ban on fetal tissue research which Presidents Reagan and Bush both signed and up-held. This lifting of the ban has increased the pressure to perform partial birth abortions, because the older the aborted baby, the more value it is to those in research (“Cures From The Womb,” Article on Fetal Tissue Re-search, Newsweek Magazine, 2-22-93; 49-54). The number of these partial birth abortions during the last year of record was 17,000, a far cry from the number (300 to 400) that some politicians report.

Experiments on human beings takes place by those who do not believe in God or believe the fact that man is made in the image of God. Secular humanists and atheists pro-mote this type research as a means of making life better for those who are living. Baby tissue is particularly valuable to those in research who are looking for the elusive fountain of youth. Cell growth in babies is much more rapid than in adults and researchers are running experiments on aborted babies in an effort to discover why. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out why they want to know this secret.

Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, the world’s largest abortion promoter and provider, learned her humanistic ways from German philosophers in the early 1900s. These same philosophers likely had an influence on Adolph Hitler, one of the cruelest men that ever lived. Sanger, like Hitler, believed the way to achieve a utopian society was by weeding out the un-desirable, the poor and certain races deemed as unnecessary and a burden on society. (Grand Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood, a book by George Grant, contains much documentation.) It is not difficult to understand why abortionists do not want this type of information being distributed.

The gruesome and inhumane methods of murder they use to destroy life, and the use they make of the remains is enough to turn most people against such an evil. However, many Americans, and not a few Christians, are isolated from the carnage that takes place and believe that what they do not know cannot hurt them. But, God’s word teaches differently. Nations that destroy the innocent and do not up-hold the rights of the poor and less fortunate are headed for destruction. Ancient Israel was destroyed, not be-cause of a poor economy, but because of the innocent people who were abused and killed (2 Kgs. 21:16; Jer. 5:28-34).

Let us awake from sleep, get off our beds of ease, and teach those around us the principles of righteousness that can save the soul and preserve the nation (Eph. 5:14; Amos 6:1; Prov. 14:34).

Guardian of Truth XL: No. 24, p. 6-7
December 19, 1996

By Connie W. Adams

Correction

In the August 1, 1996 Guardian of Truth, I had an article entitled “To My Brethren in the Philippines.” In that article I referred to some speeches made by Jerry F. Bassett in the Philippines, as indicated in his report concerning his work there.

In these speeches, he made use of an article I wrote years ago entitled “Let My Conscience Be Your Guide.” A letter from brother Bassett indicates he feels that I have misrepresented him on the following matters:

(1) He denies that he preached his convictions on the subject of marriage, divorce, and remarriage but rather reacted to speeches others had made that were critical of his position. He says that the speeches he made were designed to focus on how brethren could work together while disagreed over these and other matters.

(2) He states also that he has never applied Romans 14 to the issue of how brethren can maintain fellowship while disagreeing on marriage, divorce, and remarriage. He states that he believes Romans 14 deals with matters that are indifferent with God.

The purpose of my article was to distance myself from the position which brother Bassett holds on the marriage question which position is well known from his book and from two public debates on the subject. It was not my intention to misrepresent him in any respect.

Some Training Needed

It is evident that some brethren, preachers included, need to learn how to dismiss a congregation in prayer at the end of a service. Usually the congregation has been standing during an invitation, closing remarks, and a final song. Or it may be that there was some public response to the invitation and the service was happily lengthened for that reason. That is not the time to hold the congregation with a marathon prayer that repeats everything from former prayers in the meeting. It is no time for an oration. Webster defines the word “dismiss”: “1. to permit or cause to leave.” It does not mean to hold on or delay. Good judgment ought to have some part in this. It is often hard on older people to stand that long. It is also difficult for parents struggling with small children. There is something to be said for prayer which serves the needs of the occasion. Giving thanks for the bread or the fruit of the vine should be just that. Dismissal ought to be dismissal. Don’t brethren have training classes anymore?

Refreshing

In a recent meeting at the El Bethel congregation near Shelbyville, Tennessee where Donnie V. Rader preaches, there were two young men who told me matter-of-factly that they intend to be gospel preachers. I was told there were others there who have made the same determination. It used to be commonplace to find one or two young men in nearly every congregation who had set their sights on preaching. That has become a very rare thing. How refreshing to hear bright, young men confidently state that they have that as their goal. “Preach the word … in season and out of season” (2 Tim. 4:2).

That Rock from Mars

A small rock which has been judged by some to be a part of a meteor from Mars created a great deal of excitement in the scientific community and in the press. It is suggested that the rock contained possible traces of sub-stances that are necessary to the origin of life. One newspaper editor in Texas said this discovery had “rocked” the religious world with its belief in a divine creation. Well now, let’s suppose that rock did fall from Mars. And let’s suppose there is evidence from it that life exists on Mars, or at least did so at one time. If we grant all of that, I have a question. Where did that life come from? Did it evolve or was it created? That puts us right back where we have been for a long time. Was it “in the beginning God” or “in the beginning Nothing”?

Paul had something to say about this sort of thing: “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Rom. 1:22).

To Our Critics

If any of the writers for this paper are teaching error, please be kind enough to point that out for our good and for the good of all. Calling us a bunch of rascals will notget the job done. I cannot speak for any other writer but myself, but I can tell you that as long as God lets me live and maintain the strength necessary for the task, I intend to teach what I confidently believe to be the truth and to oppose what I confidently believe to be error regardless of who teaches it, or how unpopular such opposition might be. I have never thought of conducting a poll, or “feeling the pulse of the brethren” before doing so. If we falsely charge the motives of some brother, then please point that out. But please don’t make such a charge when it is not so. There have been numerous emotional speeches, and some articles decrying the evil treatment administered to an “aged warrior.” Some of those who parrot that don’t know any better. They have acted with confidence in those who told them so. But there are some men still repeating this lie who know better. It is one thing to challenge what a brother is teaching in a public forum whether he is young or old, and quite another to question his integrity. Those of you who are still spreading this falsehood, please take note of the fact that I and others who write for this pa-per (and a number of others who do not write for this paper) have challenged the teaching of a well respected and venerable brother on the subject of marriage, divorce, and remarriage, but we have not ever questioned his integrity. It would lessen tensions considerably if that simple distinction would be made and if those who have made such charges would have the kindness to apologize for it. While they are at it, they could also consider ceasing to indict the character and integrity of those of us who write for this publication. Then there are those who know all about it but say they have not read the paper for years. Amazing!

Guardian of Truth XL: No. 24, p. 3-4
December 19, 1996