Truth Magazine

By Dan King

As a precaution against the possibility that he might be misunderstood on his views about man and his position relative to God’s law, (“as without law,” 9:21), in 1 Corinthians, Paul wrote: “being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ.” He wanted no one to get the impression that man was free from divine rule in his life. Although we have been made free from the bondage of keeping Moses’ law, yet we are still “under the law to Christ.”

One of the sins of man, as viewed from a Bible perspective, is his tendency to break from the yoke of divine law. Jesus portrayed the judgment as a day of great surprise, even of shock, to those who refused to be restricted by God’s government of their lives: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). In this same context, he isolated and identified their true crime, that of “iniquity” or “lawlessness” (anomia: a, negative, nomos, law).

As Christians, we are indeed “under the law to Christ.” Our decisions in life must be made in harmony with our king’s will, as he rules us through his law. However, we cannot think that we will be able to live out our lives without some amount of conflict, whether within or without, over this allegiance we have to Jesus. In many and varied ways our loyalty to him and his law is challenged as we make our journey from earth to heaven.

Here are some areas wherein the modern Christian must be on guard.

The Christian Must Not Submit Himself To Human Religious Laws

The world has always been peopled by religious tyrants who would lay claim to our obedience. Charles Manson, Jim Jones, and the Ayatolla Khomeini, are good examples of the most ruthless of such folk. But they come in kinder and gentler forms also. Paul said, “Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?” (Col. 2:20-22). Man-made religious laws and strictures which do not derive from the Bible, or which come out of the Old Testament (Gal. 5:1-4) can never properly be the law that directs our lives. Sacred Scripture is the only thing that is “profitable for doctrine, reproof, instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete.” (2 Tim. 3:16ff). We are under law to Christ!

The Christian Must Not Make His Human Family The Final Determinant In His Life

The Lord gave warning, knowing that the closeness and affection which properly exists within the family, can be taken too far: “I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matt. 10:35-37). We would hope that every family were set upon doing what is right and pleasing to God. But we know that it simply is not always that way. A family may be attached to a false religion, both by membership and by affection. If that is so, then the person who learns the truth must decide to do what he or she knows they must, regardless of what this may mean within the family. God is ultimately our Father, and Jesus Christ our elder brother. Faithful Christians everywhere are our spiritual family. We may hope that our physical family ultimately may come to know and obey the truth, but regardless of their decision, we know what ours must be. We are under law to Christ!

The Christian Must Not Permit Himself To Be Influenced By A Changing Moral Climate

The moral atmosphere in all of Western civilization is rapidly changing for the worse. Every day, it seems, sees some new and more disgusting move in the direction of evil within our society. The people around us have become progressively more lax in their attitudes about honesty, integrity, drugs, sexual license, homosexuality, etc. If we are not careful, we will also be infected by these changing mores of society. Let us re-member that God overthrew the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and others like them because of these very sins. Moreover, he cursed the Gentiles, and “gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves” and “unto vile affections” and “a reprobate mind” (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28). It would be very easy for us to yield to the temptation to go along with this change taking place in the thinking of our neighbors and friends. But remember: We are under law to Christ!

The Christian Will Not Allow Modern Man’s Loose Government Of Society To Set His Standards For Him

Another thing that is very rapidly changing about us are our laws. Several years ago murder, rape and crimes of violence were punished very harshly in this country. Today the liberalistic thinkers have taken over in our national and state governments. They control our court system, slap-ping the wrists of violent offenders and career criminals. We are afraid to walk the streets in many of our cities, and even feel unsafe in our homes, be-cause we know that these animalistic predators are free to roam and pillage almost at will. To the humanistic elites of our day these people are “poor, hapless victims of society” who de-serve almost endless opportunities at rehabilitation. To God-fearing men and women they are “mere brute beasts who deserve to be taken out and destroyed” (2 Pet. 2:12). The deeper issue is a true lack of respect for human life (Gen. 9:5, 6), and God, in whose image men are made (Gen. 1:27).

In a similar vein, the law has changed with respect to marriage and the family. Laws against adultery, fornication, homosexuality, etc., are rapidly disappearing. Homosexuals are being permitted to adopt children born of normal sexual relationships and raise them up in an environment which is an “abomination” in God’s sight. Divorce laws have become so loose, that families break apart upon every whim of two people. Couples with financial assets have to assume the possibility that they will divorce, and draw up “pre-nuptial” agreements to protect themselves in this likely event! Even members of the church in our time are given to excusing every divorced and remarried individual, ignoring the decree of the Lord Jesus: “Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery” (Matt. 19:9). The law of man and the Law of God, are sometimes at variance! Remember: We are under law to Christ!

Guardian of Truth XL: No. 16, p. 6-7
August 15, 1996

By Norman Midgette

“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools . . .” (Rom.1:22). It may not be the cool thing today to call someone a fool, but if God calls one a fool he is a fool. Fool, in this verse, is a translation of moraino, and you can probably tell what English word comes from that.

Three groups of people are called fools by God in Romans 1. They all became that way when they “refused to have God in their knowledge” (1:28). People who do this do not glorify God, or give him credit or thanks for anything (1:21). In the process of replacing God with their wisdom, “they exchange the truth of God for a lie” (1:25) and “hinder the truth” in every conceivable way through their unrighteousness (1:18). If God was to write a description of the Secular Humanist, as he exists in our day, he could not do a better job than he did 2000 years ago when he revealed Romans 1.

The Idolater/Humanist

The first group of fools is those who worship and serve the creature, rather than the Creator (1:25). Paul wrote, “they changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man …” (1:23). The god of the humanist is man. The gods of ancient idolaters were the images of birds and four-footed beasts, creeping things and some-times a man-like creature. The secular idolaters of today sweep away the stone images and enthrone themselves with their wisdom as the only god there is. They have a controlling grip on the world of education, entertainment, science, and many liberal and secular oriented religions and churches. Evolution is their sugar stick and social revisionism is their aim. Guard yourselves and your children against these fools. They parade in a veneer of wisdom and authority while their life’s work is a crumbling structure of unfounded theories and unprovable assumptions and as empty of truth as the rotting wooden statues of the ancient gods. Let ring in your ears this truth concerning the modern and ancient idolaters, “God gave them up” (1:24). See that you avoid their pride and arrogance also.

The Homosexual

The second group identified as fools by God is the morally reprehensible male and female homosexual. They gave themselves up to “vile passions” or “passions of dishonor” and according to 1:26, 27 they had control of and wilfully directed their life in that path. It is a hollow and baseless claim to try to justify this conduct with, “This is just the way I was born.” God says, “their women changed the natural use unto that which is against nature” (1:26). If you have no control over it you are not responsible for changing it. They had control and chose to change their role which was their’s by the design of their creation.

If one is called a fool by God because of his immoral homosexual conduct, what would one be who tries to justify that conduct as accept able and just an alternate normal lifestyle? Such thinking now permeates our society and our schools. Will your child be told by some teacher this year or next that a homosexual lifestyle is acceptable? Already the media defends it; the theater, television, and stage plays portray it as good and strongly ridicule any criticism of it. Such immorality of fools is self destructive in many ways but greater destruction will be inflicted by God. Look at the conclusion of verse 27. “And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working unseemliness, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error that was due.” God says they are fools and he “gave them up” (1:26). Be careful you do not fall victim to this conduct of thinking.

The Reprobate Mind

These are the fools whose general lifestyle is consistent with refusing “to have God in their knowledge” (1:28). When you look at the catalogue of activities engaged in by these people you have a clear picture of reprobate minds and of many in our generation. Isaiah warned, “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight!” (Isa. 5:20, 21). Just as a field, left on its own, becomes filled with weeds so does the mind of one who accepts no direction from God. Justice flounders, morality vanishes, righteousness is mocked and integrity and truthfulness become a bur-den. The criminal becomes the victim and the victim is forgotten. The covenant of marriage becomes a target for puns and frivolity, and the practice of children disobeying and trashing their parents becomes the plot of prime time sit-coms on television. In the reprobate mind the right of abortion on demand becomes law and a public prayer in our schools becomes criminal.

Here is more of the conduct of the fool with the repro-bate mind who refuses to have God in his knowledge. He is “. . . filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, with-out natural affection, unmerciful” (Rom. 1:29-31). Many in high and low places consider much of this conduct acceptable. Surely this is no surprise, because when God is erased from the picture who is left to set the standards of morality in society? The answer is, man, of course, and he is going to figure out as many ways as possible to give approval to what he wants to do. Those who are so foolish as to become entangled in this web of secular thinking should remember, “God gave them up.” One with a repro-bate mind is the enemy of God, then and now.

To escape this depraved lifestyle God gives his twofold plan for you in Romans 1:16, 17. The gospel must be believed and obeyed to save you from your past sins (1:16; 2 Thess. 1:7, 8). Then accept this gospel as the standard of righteousness for the rest of your life (1:17; Phil. 1:27).

Before you are two paths: the path of the fool and the path of the gospel. Only you can choose which you will take.

Guardian of Truth XL: No. 16, p. 3-4
August 15, 1996

By Gary D. Perry

It was a hot day in South Vietnam in the summer of 1968. I was a young infantry soldier who had been there for three weeks and was beginning only my second day in combat. It was early in the morning when we broke camp. My squad was the last to leave as we walked single file through the jungle. I was the last man until a more “experienced” young soldier came to me and said, “You haven’t been here long enough to bring up the rear, go ahead and move up the line.” So I yielded my position to him and moved until I was three men from the rear. A few minutes later, as we proceeded down a hillside, gunshots rang out. We all took cover and began returning fire. But it was too late the sniper was gone, he had accomplished his purpose. He had killed the last man in the squad.

At the time I was a scared 20-year-old with a whole year of war ahead of me. I found it hard to believe that this young man, who didn’t even know me, took my position and died in my place. As the year went by I had many other close calls and considered myself lucky to get home alive in July of 1969. Over the years I have tried not to think too much about the Vietnam War, but I thought I would al-ways remember the young man who died in my place. But now almost 30 years later I am ashamed to admit that I have for- of God, who died not only for me gotten his name.

There is another man, the Son of God, who died not only for me but for each one of us. “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but There is another man, the Son to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us …” (1 Thess. 5:9-10). We par-take of the Lord’s supper upon the first day of each week so we won’t forget him. As Jesus said, “this do in remembrance of me.” Even so there are many who do forget Jesus and what he did for them. Even when Jesus was here on earth some of his followers chose to forget him, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:66-68).

Likewise there are many to-day who were Christians, who have heard the words of eternal life and have gone back into the world. They have fallen away, they have forgotten Christ and what he did for them, ” . . . they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” (Heb. 6:6). Let us never forget “our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us,” “the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

Guardian of Truth XL: No. 15, p. 6
August 1, 1996

By Steve Wallace

In April of this year, Jay Horsley, along with his wife, Becky, and infant son, James, returned to the U.S. after living and working in Lithuania for more than two and a half years. Through his efforts and those of many others, there are now churches in two cities in that country and a single Christian in a third city, plus countless thousands have heard the gospel of our Lord. Much additional work has been accomplished in the areas of translating material into the Russian and Lithuanian languages, as well as in securing printers, interpreters, and other services necessary to the work there.

Our labors there have brought us into contact with many people who once seemed very distant, not only geographically, but culturally as well. We have met several young men who fought for the old Soviet Union in the war in Afghanistan. One sister was born in a place east of Siberia, her parents having been some of the many who were exiled from their own country by Stalin. Another brother used to work in a Gulag. Such people are living legacies to the Soviet period. Let us all thank God that we at last are able to teach the word of God in Lithuania and other countries formerly under the domination of the USSR!

We know what has happened in such countries with regards to the Lord’s work up to this point. We deal here with matters which ought to cause us all to think seriously about what will happen in the future. Two questions, asked by brethren there during the time of brother Horsley’s departure, should provide sufficient food for thought.

What Is Going to Happen Now?

Since the time people were first converted in Lithuania, all those who have worked there have tried not only to spread the gospel but to establish the converts. However, at this point there simply are not enough workers for the work that needs to be done. One cannot but fear for the spiritual well-being of our brethren there like Paul did for the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 3:1-2). There has already been at least one case in Eastern Europe where a whole church of about ten souls apostatized into denominationalism during such a time. The pull of the lusts of this world and false religion are as real today as they were in the first century (1 Pet. 2:11; Gal. 1:6-7). Further, one cannot help but fear for the future political well-being of this country.

Perhaps some of you have heard in the news that the Russian duma has called for a restoration of the borders of the Soviet Union. This might not have touched the average American but such is not the case in Lithuania. If the Russian duma vote became reality they would be within the borders of a new Russia. Further, I have before me an article from the May 9, 1996 Stars and Stripes with the headline, “Zhirinovsky vows to annex Baltics.” With such fearful possibilities looming in the future those who can act must act. Which brings us to the next question.

Who Is Going to Come?

While one might sense my sympathies in writing the above heading, it was brethren in Lithuania who asked this question. There is a very real desire on their part that the work of teaching them the gospel and evangelizing their country continue. This is also the desire of everyone who has worked in that country. (There have been over twenty such men up to this point.) The proposition of fulfilling this need is not very imposing from a logistical standpoint.

The changes that have come to Lithuania have brought many of the goods and groceries of western society to market there. One of the brethren in Vilnius has a flat which he is keeping open so that one moving there to work will have a place to live. As mentioned above, most logistical necessities for doing the work are already secured. Further, since this writer lives in Germany he can also lend a hand in helping someone get settled into the work there.

Sound men with desire to reach the lost and further establish young Christians are needed who will answer the above question. Everything is ready and the fields are white to the harvest. (Five have been baptized in Kaunas in the Spring 1996 effort there.) Can you come?

Conclusion

We know not when the Lord will come nor what the future holds. We know we have a message that lost men need to be told. An effectual door for work is open and sound men must go through. Search your heart, reflect on your talents; might one of those men be you?

 

Guardian of Truth XL: No. 15, p. 10
August 1, 1996