Truth Magazine

By Tom Wheeler

When I look at Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary I find the following definition: “(1): sensitive mental or aesthetic perception, (2): a keen sense of what to do or say in order to maintain good relations with others or avoid offense” (page 1201).

This sounds good for surely I do not want to go around intentionally offending others. If I do not have good relations with others, I will have very few, if any, friends and will be unable to have a good influence upon others. This thinking has been carried to the extreme. Religious papers have been started with the purpose of not offending any-one. Some preachers have the reputation of being “positive preachers.” This generally means that anyone can listen to them without having his conscious pricked. They don’t call sin, sin, at least in understandable terms. Papers that take this stand and preachers that preach this way will be-come popular. The paper will probably have more subscriptions than any other. I have been told (by those who know much more about history than I do) that history proves that such a paper will always go liberal or into apostasy.

Babies have to be taught to go from milk to more nourishing food. Many of them would stay on milk until they died of milk anemia if the parents did not insist that they add other things to their diet. Many Christians are the same way. They say, “Give me something that sounds good.” “Give me something that will not cause me to feel bad.”

“I can read that paper and feel good about myself’ is heard even by those that should be eating the meat of the Word. “I can listen to that preacher and go away feeling uplifted.” Did you ever stop to consider that you need to be instructed instead of uplifted? Did you ever quit a sin that you felt good about? I never, never, quit a sin that I felt good about! I always felt good about quitting.

Would these people who want to “feel good about them-selves” appreciate what Jesus had to say in Matthew 23? Seven times Jesus said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” Jesus called them fools, blind serpents, and a generation of vipers. He told them plainly that they had killed the prophets. He told them that they wanted to be exalted before men. Jesus did express his concern for them in the latter part of the chapter, but I don’t think he said anything that would soothe the soft feeling of many among us today.

Paul’s instructions to the young preacher Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:1-4 and 2 Timothy 4:1-4, as well as other places, are very pointed. He did not mince words and did not instruct Timothy to preach so folks would feel good about themselves when they heard. 1 Timothy 4:1-4: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanks-giving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving” (KJV). 2 Timothy 4:1-4: “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in sea-son, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (KJV). Remember the charge that Paul gave to Timothy is pointed and specific. It has nothing to do with making everything palatable to the hearer.

“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3, KJV). The command to “earnestly contend for the faith” is a very strong command. Many times contending for the faith will not soothe the soft feelings of the hearers.

Lest I be misunderstood, let me say that we are not to be ugly and insulting .We are to be considerate of the other person and with love and humility strive to teach them the truth. The truth may be exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 23. I believe Jesus in Matthew 23 was being as humble and kind as he could be under the circumstances. I do not believe Paul was telling Timothy to intentionally insult anyone. Surely we can see from these passages and others that we are not to be goody-two-shoes in the face of error.

Love is emphasized throughout the Scriptures. We are to love God, the truth, and our fellow man, Christian or alien. Some would have us to believe that love would never cause someone to feel badly. The kind of love that most people think of would cause us to allow our best friend to die and go to hell in sin. For we should not say anything that would take away from their good feeling.

Ezekiel 33:7-9: “So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. When I say to the wicked, `O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul “(NKJV). I hear the term “watchdog” used in a very unkind language. The language is directed to elders, preachers, paper editors, and Bible class teachers who have the intestinal fortitude to teach the truth about error that is going on in the Lord’s church. I believe some folks ought to be ashamed for blaspheming both God and his servants in many of these criticisms. Hands of those who teach the truth should be held up, in spite of the fact that they may not smile every time that I think they should. Tact is being taught and emphasized in the denominational ecumenical movement until it is affecting those who claim to be servants in the Lord’s church. I am all for being as kind as one can be under the circumstances. However people are being condemned for telling the truth and others are being praised for being soft and not causing anyone to feel bad about their sins or false teachings.

When did the church have its greatest growth in modern history? Well, it was before TV. It was before the latest wave of materialism. It was before the ecumenical movement. It was before preachers stopped preaching about “hell” and calling it “hell.” It was before preachers began to be more concerned about “tact” than they were about their instructions from God and the people they were sup-posed to be teaching. It was also before preachers begin to read more from the writings of denominational authors (that do not know what to do to obey the gospel) than they do from the Bible and faithful brethren.

Guardian of Truth XL: 8 p. 14-15
April 18, 1996

By Dennis Gullege

Did you hear about the Baptist preacher recently who decided to cut his religious services down to 22 minutes and issued it as a challenge to see if people would be bold enough to “receive their religion in small doses.” He wanted to do for his preaching what McDonalds has done for food – make it fast! What this preacher proposes is nothing new, and he certainly is right up there with some of our brethren in his fascination for brevity.

The length of a sermon is purely a subjective matter. There is no right or wrong as to the time involved. The personal preferences of people get involved and everybody has his opinion about it. As far as opinions go one is about as good as another. It isn’t as though I haven’t given serious consideration to the ingredient of such, and here are my conclusions:

1. Leave out a lot of Scripture. Keep “opening and alleging,” preaching the Word, quoting and reading to a minimum.

2. Dispense with heart felt appeals for lost souls.

3. Don’t study.

4. Eliminate applications from Bible passages that might fit our time and situations in life. It might take a few minutes.

5. Quit calling them sermons and call them “nice little talks,” or better yet, “sermonettes.”

6. Forget boldness in the pulpit – you might be prompted to linger.

7. Never condemn sin! There is too much of that to deal with. For the sake of brevity you may just have to ignore it.

8. Minimize any concern for the disobedient and wayward persons in your audience. You might shed too many tears privately and too many words publicly in trying to reach them. And besides, people will be too busy studying their watches to hear what is said anyway.

9. Leave out any treatment of issues troubling the church. You might be perceived as being “negative,” and you might get bogged down in warning people.

10. Just have something to say instead of something you have to say. Try to squelch any feelings of earnestness about your task. Just get the job done quickly!

This is what I would have to recommend to my preaching brethren if they are to learn the art of the 15 minute sermon. However, it appears that many of them caught on years ago when you consider some of the ingredients above. All in all, it appears that more is left out of the sermon than put into it.

Guardian of Truth XL: 8 p. 13
April 18, 1996

 

By Harry Persaud

Paul wrote Philippians from the Roman jail where he was imprisoned for the gospel’s sake. He rejoiced in spite of much opposition and persecution because “Christ is preached” (Phil. 1:7, 18). Knowing his brethren at Philippi would suffer “the same conflict,” he taught them to be al-ways “in nothing terrified by your adversaries,” but rather, “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Phil. 1:28-30; 4:4). This great Christian considered it an honor to share with Christ in “the fellowship of his suffering” because it is a great honor to serve Christ and to spread the blessed gospel (Phil. 3:10).

I, too, rejoice greatly for the privilege of serving Christ and spreading the blessed gospel! God has been with me and my family in many ways, especially since I obeyed the gospel and began to preach it. I was born April 12, 1923 and married my wife on February 13, 1944. In this year of 1996, I am celebrating my wedding anniversary number fifty-two. Since my wife and I were born into a Hindu culture, our parents arranged our marriage without dating and other American customs. Our ancestors were from India but we were born in British Guiana (now called Guyana), South America. I was twenty and my wife thirteen when we married. During the Hindu wedding ceremony, the garment of the bride and the garment of the groom are literally tied together to symbolize joining in marriage. Then as the husband and bride walk forward, she follows behind him in symbolic recognition of his role as her guide and leader. Even the false religion of Hindu teaches that we are joined for life in marriage.

As we celebrate this 52nd anniversary of our marriage, we thank God for leading us out of the maze of false religions, including the Hindu, Roman Catholic, Baptist, and Jehovah’s Witness religions. Since I learned the true gospel of Christ and obeyed it in 1973, my wife and all of our children have also been saved by the gospel and added to Christ. Many people thought I was crazy to quit my good job and begin full-time preaching in 1976. We have faced many problems and much persecution, just as Paul said we would, but God has been with us through all of our trials. Truly, we rejoice in the Lord with the beloved brother Paul because of the great privilege of serving Christ!

Since 1981 I have been preaching full-time with the Church of Christ in Vauxhall near South Orange, New Jersey. There was no true church in this community when my family and I first came here. The church which now meets here is small and exists in a vast wasteland of sin, error, and false religions. This is not a reason to complain, be-cause God is giving us many opportunities to teach so many lost souls. I rejoice because of the help of my godly wife and children. Not only has my wife been faithful to me for fifty-two years, but also she is my faithful fellow-worker in the kingdom of God. She and our children are a great encouragement and a great help in the work of the Lord. My oldest son is our song leader, and the youngest often leads us at the Lord’s table.

I continue to rejoice for the help which I find in the Guardian of Truth magazine and its writers. When I published Ron Halbrook’s article on the pope in our area newspapers, the article borrowed from the Guardian of Truth, I had much good response as explained in the Guardian of Truth for December 21, 1995, pages 746-747. Therefore, I contacted him about the possibility of using more articles. He sent another article which he also sent to the Guardian of Truth entitled, “Perverted Religion: `An Empty Vine.- It had several parts discussing the truth of God’s Word in contrast to The Bible Perverted, Morality Perverted, Preaching Perverted, The Church Perverted, and Perverted Worship. He thought I might be able to use some parts a little at the time, but I felt it could have a greater impact as one article. Therefore, I put it all in The Star-Ledger for December 6, 1995 as a full page ad under our usual heading: “Let The Bible Speak, 1 Pet. 4:11.”

My follow-up article in the News-Record on December 14 further explained that the word of God is the seed of truth, giving the world the truth about New Testament Christians and the New Testament church. I pointed out that human churches are not planted by God and are unknown to the Bible, including the Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Mormon, and all others. The result is religious confusion, division, and delusion, including fake healers and the religious circus on TV. I urged all of these people to investigate the Bible and to search for the truth.

I was not disappointed at the results of these efforts! There have been the usual verbal attacks and abuse by people who are hostile to the truth, just as explained in the article of December 21, 1995 in the Guardian of Truth. One caller threatened to find a way to get rid of me. This does not discourage us because we rejoice to suffer with Christ like Paul and the early saints. Some people call to ask for more information because the truth seems new and strange to them. Since we came out of religious error, we realize there are many people who have never been taught the truth and someone must be willing to teach it. As a result of our full page ad on “Perverted Religion: `An Empty Vine,”‘ two Baptist families have visited our services and given us the opportunity to teach them the truth. Also, our hearts were tenderly touched by a letter we received from an 83-year-old lady, which opens the door for further teaching. The letter said, “Is it possible to get copies of your advertisement recently in The Star-Ledger? I’ve never seen anything so frankly explained as this enlightening article. I am Baptist.” The letter requested extra copies of the ad to mail to preachers and relatives!

The end of the story is this: Three precious souls have been baptized into Christ as a result of this newspaper article. We hope there will be more fruit to come. It is very hard to convert people in this area. We are rejoicing!

We shall continue to preach the truth in love and with great plainness of speech because the gospel of Christ is truly God’s power to save sinful souls (Eph. 4:15; 2 Cor. 3:12; Rom. 1:16). To those brethren who write articles in the Guardian of Truth, remember that I am always reading them to find material which can be used in whole or in part to help in spreading the gospel in New Jersey. When I consider my godly wife of fifty-two years, my children who serve the Lord, and my brethren who help me to spread the gospel, I forget about problems and persecution and remember the words of Paul: “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice!”

Please notice a correction to my article, “Sharing in the Defense of the Gospel,” Guardian of Truth, Dec. 21, 1995, on page 746. The first paragraph says I was born in “British Columbia (now Guiana),” but it should say “British Guiana (now Guyana).” This confusion occurred through a friend who helped with the typing of the article. People commonly confuse these two countries, and the change in the spelling of Guiana to Guyana adds to the confusion.

Guardian of Truth XL: 8 p. 10-11
April 18, 1996

By Connie W. Adams

God, as creator, has ultimate authority over everything created. Paul said on Mars Hill that “God made heaven and earth and all things therein”: and then concluded by saying “he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world”(Acts 17:24-31). When we say “God created” we must include Jesus Christ in that. “Let us make man” (Gen. 1:26) is in the plural. Elohim (God) is plural is form. “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:1-3). “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him” (Col. 1:16).

That “word” which was with God and was God, “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). “Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16). The greatest evidence for the existence of God is the fact that God came in the person of Jesus Christ. The historical Jesus can be explained on no other basis than the fact that he was divine, as he claimed to be. While he took upon himself the form of a servant, he did not give up the qualities which made him deity. He was “Immanuel, God with us” (Matt 1:22-23). Two things are of note in that statement. (1) He was “with us.” He dwelt, or tabernacled among men and they beheld his glory (John 1:14). In the flesh he was subjected to the experiences common to flesh. He “suffered in the flesh.” But (2) he was God in the flesh. He did not cease being deity. He was at once the “Son of man” and the “Son of God.”

The Promised Lawgiver

Peter said, “For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people” (Acts 3:22-23).

Peter was quoting Deuteronomy 18:18-19. No wonder on the mount of transfiguration the voice of the Father sounded and said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him” (Matt 17:5). And no wonder that when the three apostles with him heard this “they fell on their face, and were sore afraid” (v. 6). In Christ, the lawgiver had come and the challenge went forth, “Hear him.”

The Superior Spokesman

There is a progression in the book of Hebrews which begins in the first verse and reaches a climax in 12:25. “God, who at sundry times and divers manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son” (Heb. 1:1-2). What a blessing that the God who formed the world has spoken. The natural world testifies to his “eternal power and Godhood” (Rom. 1:20), but without God speaking to man, he could not know what direction God wanted him to take. How did God speak? He spoke to the fathers in direct terms, in dreams and visions. He spoke to the Israelites through prophets. They were often referred to as “My servants the prophets.” What a noble lot they were: Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and a number of lesser known men who faithfully spoke God’s word to the people of their time. But great as these were, none was equal to God’s spokesman in these last days.

Leaving the realm of human spokesmen and entering that of a heavenly sphere in which angels serve as divine messengers, even there, God’s spokesman now is far above all of these. The law of Moses was given by the “disposition of angels” (Acts 7:53). It was “the word spoken by angels” (Heb. 2:2). Whether Michael, Gabriel, or unnamed heavenly messengers, all diminish in grandeur when placed beside God’s spokesman for these last days. Never to an angel did the Father say “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee” (1:5). When he brought his Son into the world he said, “And let all the angels of God worship him” (1:6) It was the Father who said of the Son, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (1:8). It was of the Son that the Father said that when the world is ready to be folded up like a garment, God’s spokesman will remain the same. His years shall not fail (1:10-12). It is that same spokes-man who is now seated at the right hand of the Father (1:13). He has “all power in heaven and on earth” (Matt 28:18).

No wonder the warning is sounded about giving heed to what he said and not drifting away from it (2:1-4). Then in chapter 12:25, the climaxing appeal is made: “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh.” “God has spoken in his son.” Don’t refuse what he said! Such refusal comes at the peril of the soul. Jesus said, “Except ye believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). The Confirmed Word Jesus said “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not” (John 10:37). John said of the miracles of Christ which he recorded, “These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31). On Pentecost, Peter preached, “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs” (Acts 2:22).

It is not enough to declare Jesus Christ a good man, an able teacher, a noble philosopher. If he was not the Son of God, not the word made flesh, then he was a false prophet for he claimed all that and more. Good, noble teachers do not practice deception. Any philosophy built on deception and fraud is useless. No, my friends, Jesus Christ was Emmanuel – God with us. The creator condescended to live for awhile among the creatures. What he said will judge us in the last day, that day of judgment to which Paul referred in Athens and to which he connected the thought that “God made the heavens and earth and all things therein.”

“He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). You cannot refuse Christ and his word and still honor the creator of everything. (More To Come)

Guardian of Truth XL: 8 p. 3-4
April 18, 1996