Truth Magazine

By Dan King

Jude, when he wrote his short epistle, was deterred from his original intention of writing about the “common salvation” (Jude 3), and forced to address the pressing issues raised by false teachers who were “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 4). After having introduced the problem in the early part of the letter, Jude offers a series of “these are” clauses which give different aspects of these heretics’ behavior. For example: “These are spots in your feasts of charity . . . clouds they are without water … trees whose fruit withereth . . . raging waves of the seas … wandering stars” (vv. 12-13). Each of these phrases tells us something about them, in each instance a disreputable quality of their way of life.

Near the end of this list, Jude says: “These are murmurers, complainers …” (v. 16). Clearly, then, the writer identifies these characteristics as descriptive of wicked men and women, and not of the righteous. Several thoughts are apparent in this text:

1. Good people were the objects of their murmuring and complaining. Those who stood for truth were made the target of their destructive complaints. Bible students will be aware that Moses and Aaron were often murmured against by people of this ilk: “And the people murmured against Moses, saying What shall we drink?” (Exod. 15:24); “And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness; and the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger …” (Exod. 16:2-3); “And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Where-fore is this that thou halt brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst” (Exod. 17:3). God’s severe displeasure at the people’s persistent murmuring and complaining is made plain after they challenged the leadership over entrance into the land. They feared that the land’s inhabitants were giants and that they could not overcome them. It was the last straw! The Lord pronounced a curse upon them: “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmuring of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me . . . Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me” (Num. 14:27, 29).

Jesus and his disciples were often the target of malicious murmuring and complaining. The leadership of the Jews rejected Jesus’ claims about himself and looked for reasons to destroy him. In the mean time, they sought excuses to accuse him of a whole host of things of which he was not guilty. They hung on his every word, looking for him to make a mistake. Behind the scenes of his teaching, whether in the synagogue or in the streets, they were ever there seeking to cause discontent. One such instance occurred after the selection of Matthew (Levi) the publican. Levi made a great feast and invited all his friends. Naturally, about the only friend a publican had was other publicans (Lk. 5:27ff.). So, he had them come out to meet Jesus. Luke records the public reaction: “But the scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?” (v. 30) This gave Jesus the opportunity to teach his lesson on why he had come: “They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (vv. 31-32). This is only one of the many cases recorded in the New Testament. Jesus was often the object of murmuring and complaining, even at times from his own disciples (cf. Lk. 15:2; 19:7; Jn. 6:41, 61; etc.).

2. Such criticism will come our way also. All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12), and one element of that persecution will come in the form of criticism. And, it may even come from members of the Lord’s church. Moses and Aaron were criticized by Israelites. Jesus and the disciples bore the brunt of criticism which came from within the Jewish community. The pagans paid them little heed at first. Jude deals with slander which comes from within the church itself. We ought not, therefore, be shocked that Satan is able to manipulate members of the church, at times, to his purpose of destroying the household of faith from within.

3. Such criticism can take the form of malicious lies. Jude accuses the “murmurers and complainers” of his day of making “hard speeches” (v. 15), of speaking “great swelling words” (v. 16), and of being “mockers” (v. 18). Such folk cannot be expected to have much respect for truth.

All sorts of rumors circulated about Christians in the first century. The emperor Nero accused them of burning Rome. The normal charge against them in the courts of law was “hatred of mankind.” They were accused of child murder; of drinking blood in their assemblies; of the blackest sins of adultery and fornication when they met in secretive assemblies at night. All these were malicious lies. Peter was struggling with this problem when he wrote his first letter: “Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evil-doers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ” (1 Pet. 3:16).

4. Such criticism must not be taken too seriously. It is natural for us to have hurt feelings when we are criticized. But we spend far too much of our time concerned with what someone may say about us, how they may criticize or second-guess us. It is certainly true that we may face some criticism in life, especially if we dare to step out of the rut of spiritual complacency or the long line of souls indifferent to the things that really matter in life. In fact, we ought to expect it  even expect that it will smart when it comes. But it ought not to deter us from our goal if that goal is worth reaching in the first place.

I remember reading a memorable quote from Theodore Roosevelt, who said: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.” Let us remain in the arena, in spite of whatever criticism may be directed our way. Remember, there have always been plenty of “murmurers and complainers,” but far too few out in the arena facing the fight!

Guardian of Truth XXXVIII: 11, p. 12-13
June 2, 1994

By Tim Mize

The cross of Christ brings home to us how poorly the world received him. They did not all welcome the words and works of Jesus Christ. There were some, for example, who did not appreciate him. His own home town, and even his own family at first, did not support him. Many others besides would not believe in him, support him, or other-wise appreciate what he was doing.

There were others, though, who not only did not appreciate Christ, but were suspicious of him. They were inclined to think the worst. Jesus, like many another soul that has marched to the beat of God’s word alone, was thought by those in power to be dangerous. His ways and words denounced the status quo, leading those who benefitted from it the most to feel threatened. Their initial suspicion finally led them to oppose Christ actively. They treated him as a hated enemy and, in the end, nailed him to a cross.

Thus the world received Jesus, and thus it receives his disciples as well. Indeed, thus it has received the servants of God from time immemorial. This should be no surprise. The world has trouble loving and appreciating its own. No wonder, then, that it cannot love and appreciate the outsiders among it, especially those whose very way of life exposes and challenges it. We who sincerely heed the call to “be not conformed to this world” (Rom. 12:2) should not be surprised when the world is not well pleased. “Marvelnot, my brethren, if the world hate you” (1 Jn. 3:13).

Those who are outside Christ won’t always appreciate you. They won’t always be fair with you. They might even resent you, even to the point of ridicule, physical abuse, or worse. To compound the hurt, this mistreatment can come from friends, neighbors, and even family. But it is just as Jesus said, “The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (Jn. 15:18).

Does this mean that the righteous will always be persecuted? No, for not even Christ was always persecuted. From time to time, however, and in varying degrees, hostility toward the faithful must be expected.

Does this mean that every persecuted person is righteous? By no means. Everyone, including ourselves, will be mistreated at times for causes unrelated to any discipleship to Christ. Persecution is no sign that one is in the right. Even the very wicked will be ill-treated at times.

By following Christ, however, we take upon ourselves a special suffering that we would not have had otherwise, when others mistreat us because of our faith. This is a truth that comes home to us as we survey the cross.

Guardian of Truth XXXVIII: 11, p. 5
June 2, 1994

By Randy Blackaby

As American society has drifted into a moral abyss where any effort to suggest standards is derided, the protest against pornography has been silenced.

But the graphic depiction of sexual perversion continues to rip away the moral underpinnings of our society, as evidenced in the increase in every form of sexual deviancy from rape and sodomy to incest and child abuse.

Courts sem unable to define pornography except by vague and vacillating “community standards” criteria. Pornography by has proliferated so extenstivelly that it often is not even recognized. This latter phenomenon has allowed the introduction of “soft” pornography to television and the living rooms of our nation.

Why is pornography such a threat to our well-being? The Bible gives us a subtle hint. “For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he,” said the writer of Proverbs 23:7.

Action always is proceeded by thought. Pornography visualizes a corrupt sexual activity, creates the desire to fulfill what the picturesand words project, and, finally, suggests that the behavior is not aberrant because here is someone in the picture doing the act and enjoying it.

Given enough pictures and graphic illustrations, the resistance of even a good conscience is worn down by the depiction of perversion as pleasurable and “normal.”

Evidence of this was present in the Final Report of the Attorney Generals Commission on Pornography, realese in 1986.

An incest victim testified, “The incest started at the age of 8. I did not understand any of it did not feel that was right. My dad would try to convince me that it was OK. He would find magazines with articles and/or pictures that would show fathers and daughters. . . He would say that if it was published in magazines that it had to be all right because magazines could not publish lies.”

A former prostitute told the Commission, “We were all introduced to prostitution through pornography. There were no exceptions in our group, and we were all under 18. Pornography was our textbook. We learned the tricks of the trade by men exposing usto pornography and us trying to mimic what we saw.”

Both the purveyors of pornography and the purchasers have defended obscenity by saying there are no real victims. But this is obviously untrue. Not only is the mind of the pornography purchaser by the trash but there are many more “innocent victims.”

Rape victims, children used as actors in X-rated films, and women and children sexually abused by people acting out what books and magazines and films have titillated them to are all real victims. And the women and children murdered after being sexually tormented are real, too.

The commission on pornography found that rapists are 15 times as likely as non-offenders to have had exposure to “hard-core” pornography during childhood or between 6 to 10 years of age.

One study not mentioned by the Commission but cited by journalist Michael J. McManus in his introduction to the Commission’s final report is worth attention. It cites interviews by the FBI of two dozen sex murderers in prison who had killed multiple times. Some 81 percent said their biggest sexual interest was in reading pornography. They acted out sex fantasies on real people. For example, Arthur Gary Bishop, convicted of sexually abusing and killing five young boys, said, “If pornographic material would have been unavailable to me in my early states, it is most probable that my sexual activities would not have escalated to the degree they did.”

He said pornography’s impact on him was “devastating … I am a homosexual pedophile convicted of murder and pornography was a determining factor in my downfall.”

Pornography is a serious threat to our morality and even our safety, as almost every evening’s newspaper and TV news reports confirm.

The problem no longer is a small one, either. It is not just a few perverts buying Playboy and Hustler magazines or dirty old men renting filthy flicks from the back room of the video store.

More and more, the material is showing up on television. In- the-bed sex scenes, comedies about masturbation and lesbianism and even sexual encounters with animals are routinely appearing on the tube these days.

Granted, they are presented in less offensive ways than harder pornography but the limits and boundaries are stretched farther each year so that most don’t see what is happening.

And that is the most serious danger in pornography. Repeated doses dull consciousness of what is being seen. What once was repulsive becomes normal, even accept-able through repeated exposure.

Typical today is an upside down logic that has our population screaming about the pollution of our air and water while the pollution of our minds is “protected” by law and any movement to control this form of pollution is decried as unconstitutional censorship.

If government and the judiciary are unable to tackle this problem, then individuals remain the last ditch of resistance and the only hope of reversing the slimy slide into sexual seduction.

Each of us can largely control what he sees and hears. We can control the TV and the movies, books and magazines we watch and read. We can monitor our children’s exposure so that they are not “accidentally” poisoned.

If we don’t, the statistics will continue to tell a tale of moral and physical death and decay in our society.

Guardian of Truth XXXVIII: 11, p. 1
June 2, 1994

By Dorris V. Rader

The bumper sticker on the car ahead of me read, “Lead, Follow, Or Move Out Of The Way.” You have no doubt had experiences on the highway, in which you would have loved to give this advice to someone not going anywhere in particular and hindering anyone else who would like to move along. In driving along the roads and highways, I am not a horn honker, and impatient kind of a person that allows these sightseers, and joy riders to work me into a frenzy or to elevate my blood pressure. However, I think we ought to get our indignation worked up somewhat when people become simply “blockers” on the road to heaven. Those who are not especially trying to go there and, hence, cannot lead anyone else, and will not follow those who seek to go, ought to simply move out of the way. Somehow, this message needs to be conveyed. God wants leaders and followers and there is no place for simply blocking the road.

That God calls for spiritual leadership among his people, no student of the Bible will surely try to deny. For the nation of Israel, the people of God under the Old Testament, God raised up Moses to be their leader (Exod. 3,4). He has always had his own plan for leadership of his people. In the time of Samuel , the people rejected God’s plan for judges and called for a king, to be like the nations about them (1 Sam. 8:5,19). When men want a different arrangement than God’s, they always have a perfectly good “reason” for not accepting his plan. But no movement can succeed and amount to much without proper leadership. The greater the movement, the more urgent the need for leadership. “Both the will of God and the nature of people attest to the necessity of leadership (Eph. 4:11-16; Acts 20:17-29,” wrote brother Glen Barnhart in Attitudes and Reactions to Congregational Problems, 50). Whether or not we understand that the nature of people demands leadership, we ought to know the plain teaching of the Word of God calls for the appointment of elders, bishops, pastors, or shepherds in every church (Acts 14:23).

Something is wanting until such is accomplished (Tit. 1:5). It did not take any great span of years in the early church for men to meet the qualifications which the Holy Spirit laid down for men to be appointed to such a role of leadership (see Acts 14:23). When there are men who meet the Holy Spirit’s qualifications, they ought to be appointed and thus supply that which is lacking. Just anybody will not do, because specific qualifications must be met (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Tit. 1:5-9). Those who do qualify ought to accept with a willing mind, the good work of leading and of watching for souls (Heb. 13:17). “If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work” (1 Tim. 3:1). This indicates it is a proper thing for one so qualified to desire the work. It is a tremendous responsibility, and should be so recognized, but God needs and wants leadership for his people. However, God did not intend that all be leaders. If all were leaders, where were the followers? If all are overseers, who are the overseen? Everyone cannot be a “chief.” Some have to be just Indians. There is no formal list of qualification given for followers, but surely there are some traits which must be evident in a follower. Basic among those traits is humility. That is, a recognition of one’s own lack of leadership traits, and therefore the need to be a follower of those whom the Holy Spirit says should be doing the leading. Also, one may simply need to recognize that he is a novice, or one lacking in experience and spiritual maturity that comes with time and development. This is certainly no reflection upon one. For, such is true of every person at a point in his spiritual development. But, whatever the reason may be that one is not suited for the leadership role, it takes humility to recognize it and accept the leadership role of those who are qualified. Paul admonished the Thessalonians to “know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves.” It seems significant to me, that as Paul tells these Christians how to be good followers, almost with the same stroke of his pen, he said, “be at peace among yourselves” (1 Thess.5:12-13). That indicates to me, that on this very matter there was not the peace and accord that ought to have been. Were some of them kicking at the idea of being followers? This is far too often the case. Some, while not qualified to be such leaders themselves, are neither content to follow nor to let peace prevail while qualified men lead. Too often they do not themselves provide the kind and quality of leadership God calls for, but spend much time obstructing those who could and would lead the flock of God aright. This does not mean that those designated leaders of the flock of God have all the wisdom and that they cannot benefit from the counsel and wisdom of others in the flock. They can and should benefit from feedback from others but somebody must have the leadership role. Where this is not the case, there is confusion and disarray within the flock.

Yes, the bumper sticker admonished to either lead, or follow or move out of the way. Do not simply obstruct. This is surely sound advice in spiritual matters. Now, it should go without saying, that none should blindly follow any man. The people of God who are to follow are likewise told to “prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thess. 5:21). Even those who heard and followed the apostles’ teaching were commended for receiving the word with a ready mind and searching the scriptures daily to see if the things they were taught were true (Acts 17:11). But, when leaders follow the Lord’s instructions in their leading, then others should follow. There is no justification for simply being a blocker, unless there is scriptural grounds that can be established for such. What our preferences, prejudices, or personal feelings may be, do not constitute scripture or a valid reason for blocking the road. As the bumper sticker said, either lead, follow or else move over out of the way! Remember, that in the judgment God is the one who will have the final word as to whether I have been a leader, a follower or simply a blocker, and a hinderer.

Guardian of Truth XXXVIII: 10, p. 18-19
May 19, 1994