Truth Magazine

By Randy Blackaby

A perilous propensity to purge paternity from American life is leaving us a fatherless society and a host of long and short-term crises which we will be hard-pressed to fix.

Speculation about why a large cross-section of American children are growing up papa-less is varied. No doubt part of the answer is in the rejection of any morality beyond personal conscience. An over swing of the pendulum in feminism’s rush for independence is another possibility. And, men can’t escape responsibility either. The historic failure of many men to carry their paternal responsibilities beyond fertilization is undeniable.

But whatever the cause, statistics show illegitimacy to be a growing plague in the U.S. Census figures show a dramatic rise in these out-of-wedlock births, from 3 percent in 1950 to 4 percent in 1960 to nearly 16 percent in the early ’80s and now almost 25 percent in the ’90s.

These figures represent an overview of all groups and races in our country. A look at specific groups raises even more alarm and questions about causes. For instance: only don’t discourage illegitimacy but, in fact, facilitate it.

Few people in or out of government seem to want to sanction the adult participants in this moral degeneracy but our sympathy for the plight of the innocent babies born of this fornication has led to lifetime support of the mother and child. Fatherless children know little of a complete home and so they repeat the pattern in the next generation.

It is easily seen that the percentage of fatherless homes is growing in ever increasing leaps.

We are rapidly approaching the point where there will be no political solution. In our system of majority rule, the party of the misbegotten soon will have the votes to insist on the legitimization of illegitimacy. In the Afro-American population that majority already exists and whites quickly are moving toward the same.

 Among blacks, 67 percent of children are born out of wedlock.

The answer, therefore, probably won’t lie in political answers but in a rejuvenation or rebirth of Christian morality. As more and more of our population is made to suffer poverty, educational deprivation, absentee parents and the connected and increasing crime, drugs and unemployment, perhaps we’ll be able to see the truth and reason in God’s design of the home.

 Among Hispanics, the rate is 27 percent.

 And, among whites, the rate of illegitimacy is growing the fastest, from 10 percent in 1982 to 17 percent in 1992.

Unlike many other social problems that often are blamed on poverty, lack of education or other factors, American bastardy is growing in an environment of ever increasing sex education and prophylactic distribution.

It appears to be a conscious choice. It is not just a choice, as in the past, to participate in promiscuous sex, but a choice to produce children without marriage and usually without any plan to involve the male in the child’s rearing.

Without significant thought, American taxpayers underwrite and even encourage the expansion of this phenomenon through liberal welfare rules that not

That design calls for active and involved moms and dads who are faithful to one another and to their children. It defines the father as the primary provider and the mother as the primary keeper of the home.

It is true that there always will be families where this ideal can’t be achieved, whether because of the death of a spouse or because of infidelity. But the critical need today is to acknowledge that the biblical pattern for the family is the ideal and fundamental for a properly functioning society.

Our nation needs its fathers visible, responsible and active. Our children and our future depend upon it.

(Randy Blackaby is a former reporter, columnist, editorial writer and newspaper managing editor who now serves as minister for the Courtland Ave. Church of Christ in Kokomo.)

Guardian of Truth XXXVIII: 9, p. 
May 5, 1994

By Mike Willis

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18).

In our first article in this series, we emphasized that the Bible reveals the wrath of God just as certainly as it reveals his love. We need to learn what is revealed about God’s wrath just as certainly as we learn about his love. In the second article, we emphasized that the wrath of God is revealed against ungodliness. Ungodliness (asebeia) is that impiety that refuses to have God in its knowledge, becomes vain in its opinion about itself, and, while professing oneself to be wise, becomes a fool.

God’s wrath is also displayed against unrighteousness. “Righteousness” is justice  giving to both God and man what is their due. It is defined as “the state of him who is such as he ought to be… the condition acceptable to God. . . integrity, virtue, purity of life, uprightness, correctness in thinking, feeling, and acting” (Thayer 149). Unrighteousness is the opposite  the state of him who is not such as he ought to be. . . unacceptable to God. . . without integrity, purity of life, not upright, etc.

God’s Wrath Against Unrighteousness

Unrighteousness is the natural product of ungodliness. When men cast God out of their knowledge, there is no moral standard left for them. In his commentary on Romans, F. Godet wrote,

The moral sentiment in man is based on the conception of the holy God. To abandon the latter, is to paralyze the former. By honoring God we ennoble ourselves; by rejecting Him we infallibly ruin ourselves. Such, according to the apostle, is the relation between heathenism and moral corruption. Independent morality is not that of St. Paul (109).

We live in a society that has rejected God’s revelation as a moral standard for itself. It is searching for a moral basis for subjective morality. There is no morality independent of God.

When men turn away from God, God gives them up (Rom. 1:24,26,28). God withdraws his hand that restrains sin and allows sin to develop unabated. H.A.W. Meyer speaks of God’s giving men up as active judgment of his wrath. He wrote,

To the Apostle God is the living God, who does not passively permit the retributive consequences of fidelity or of apostasy  thus, as it were, letting them run their course, as an artificer does with his wheel work  but Himself, everywhere active, pervades and effectively develops the arrangements which He has made (62).

Godet comments on Meyer saying, “The law of history, in virtue of which the forsaking of God is followed among men by a parallel growth of immorality, is not a purely natural order of things; the power of God is active in the execution of his law” (107). When man has reached a certain degree of corruption, he can only be cured by the very excess of his own corruption. It is the only means to produce what all preceding appeals have failed to produce. Like the father of the prodigal son, God allows man to pursue his course of sin until it brings its own pig pen (see Luke 15:13). He judgment is this: “You dishonored me by rejecting me. I give you up to impurity that you may dishonor your own selves.”

God’s Wrath Against Homosexuality

As an example of how the rejection of God leads to the self-destruction of immorality, Paul continues:

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet (Rom. 1:26-27).

Ungodliness leads to moral depravity. Sensuality developed into homosexuality. The degradation of sin is a manifestation of God’s judgment against their ungodliness  their refusal to have God in their knowledge.

The politically correct position in the United States is to treat homosexuality as an alternate lifestyle. Homosexuality is not to be treated as a sin, a genetic mutation, or a mental illness. It is an alternate lifestyle that is just as correct as the monogamous marriage relationship of a man and woman. Anyone who believes differently has homophobia and must be watched lest he be guilty of a “hate crime.”

Regardless of what the moral judgments of those who have cast God out of their knowledge might be, the Lord said that homosexuality is:

1. An expression of sinful lust (1:24), dishonorable passion (vile affection, 1:26), and burning desire (1:27).

2. A departure from the natural relationship between a man and woman (1:26-27). Hence, it is contrary to nature.

3. Sexual uncleanness (1:24).

4. A dishonor to one’s body (1:24).

5. Equally wrong when practiced between two men or two women (1:26-27).

6. Disgraceful (1:27).

No amount of political rhetoric to secure a block of votes in a general election will change what God has spoken about homosexuality.

There is a “retribution” for homosexuality that is described as edei  “that recompense of their error which was meet” (1:27). The phrase refers to a retribution that is “necessary, there is a need of it; it behooves, is right and proper. . . . Rom. i.27 the recompense due by the Law of God” (Thayer 126). Long before AIDS became a modern problem for homosexuals, Moses E. Lard commented on this verse in his commentary on Romans:

It was a reward received in their persons  most likely a penalty in the form of disease which they suffered… . What the reward of their error was, which they received in themselves, we are not told. But from the nature of the crimes committed, we can hardly fail to conjecture it. The vices consisted in the grossest bodily abuse long continued. The result would be the worst form of those diseases which are known to follow such abuse (61).

The way of the transgressor is hard (Prov. 13:15). His way is hemmed with thorns and thistles to drive him back toward the path of righteousness.

What we are witnessing in the development of sexually transmitted diseases is God’s judgment of wrath against ungodliness and unrighteousness. Men are fighting his judgment, trying to find a cure to AIDS, venereal disease, gonorrhea, etc., because they are trying to preserve a lifestyle  a lifestyle that rejects God and does as one pleases, hedonism.

We take no pleasure in witnessing the suffering that this disease has brought t the human race. Especially are we sympathetic to its innocent victims. Nevertheless, we are not hesitant to proclaim that mans refusing to have God in his knowledge and turning aside to pursue his dishonorable and vile passions causes God to give up on him, resulting in this just retribution that is unsuitable to the sin.

One would hope that this retribution of sin would cause someone to turn away from his unrighteous and ungodly conduct and return to God. However the society is not ripe for revival just yet. The darkness of sin must yet become blacker.

Guardian of Truth XXXVIII: 9, p. 2
May 5, 1994

By Mike Thomas

There are many people who believe that baptism is not an essential part of salvation. To find the facts we must go to the Bible, the Word of God, and study it, to determine whether or not baptism is essential to salvation.

Baptism Is Essential To Salvation

Baptism always comes before salvation. Wherever the word baptism and the word salvation are mentioned in the same scripture, baptism will always come first. In Mark 16:16 we read, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but, he that believeth not shall be damned.” We can see from this verse that baptism was first mentioned, then came salvation. If a person is saved before baptism the scripture would have to read  “He that believeth and is saved shall be baptized.” But, in this verse, Jesus told the Apostles the proper order in which he wanted these things done. It is man who wants to twist this scripture to fit his needs. We need to simply do what the scriptures say and keep things in order. Belief plus baptism equals salvation!

Peter also recorded that baptism is essential to salvation when he wrote these words, “. . . when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us . . .” (1 Pet. 3:20-21). Just as Noah was saved by water, we are saved by baptism.

Baptism Was Commanded By Jesus

Just after Jesus had received all power from heaven, he sent the eleven apostles out to all the known world commanding them, to go and to teach all nations and to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost (Matt. 28:18-19). Mark records the same story in this manner, “… go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” Mk. 16:15-16). Note that He said, “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.”

In John the third chapter, we have the story of Nicodemus. Jesus told Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again.” Nicodemus asked the question, “How can a man be born when he is old?” (v. 4) Jesus explains to him, in verses 5 and 6, that this is not a fleshly birth. Jesus said, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Being born again of the water and of the Spirit, which is a reference to Bible baptism, is what brings one into the kingdom of God (Jn. 3:5). Peter was working under Jesus’ command of the Great Commission when he preached the powerful sermon in Acts 2, which pricked the Jew’s hearts and made the Jews ask the question, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:38) Peter told them plainly, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins . . .” (Acts 2:38). From reading this scripture how can someone say he has been saved, without being baptized, when baptism is what gives him the remission of sins? Think about it!

Again, working under the Great Commission, Peter commanded Cornelius and those with him to be baptized in the name of the Lord (Acts 10:47-48).

In Acts 9, Saul, whose name was later changed to Paul, was on the road to Damascus to persecute Christians when Jesus appeared unto him and asked him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 9:4) Saul trembling asked Jesus, “What wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:5) Jesus told Saul to go into the city of Damascus and, “it shall be told thee what thou must do” (Acts 9:6). In retelling his conversion in Acts 22, Paul came to the city and the preacher Ananias told Saul, “Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16). From these verses of scripture we can see that there is an act which one needs to obey before he can be saved. You must be baptized in order to have your sins washed away!

Baptism Is a Burial

Now that we have proven that baptism is essential, and was also commanded by Christ, we need to go to the scriptures to see what baptism necessitates.

1. Water  Matthew 3:11, “I indeed baptize you with water.”

2. Much Water John 3:23, “And John was baptizing in Aenon near to Salem, because there was much water there.”

3. Going To Water  Acts 8:36, “And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water; and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?”

4. Go Into Water Acts 8:38, “And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.”

5. Burial  Colossians 2:12, “Buried with him in baptism.” Romans 6:4, “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

6. Come Out of Water  Acts 8:39, “And when they were come up out of the water.”

Who Is A Proper Candidate?

1. One who has learned the will of God by reading or by hearing His word. The gospel is the good news of forgiveness through the blood of Jesus (cf. Rom. 3:23; 10:17; In. 6:45; Matt. 1:21).

2. One who believes in Jesus as the Son of God. Christ is the only way to God (cf. Acts 4:12; Heb. 11:6; Mk. 16:16; In. 8:24). Although faith is necessary, faith alone cannot save apart from obedience (cf. Jas. 2:17-26; Heb. 5:9).

3. One who has determined to turn from sin and surrender his life to Christ. Repentance is a must (cf. Lk. 13:3; Acts 2:38; 17:30).

4. One who has confessed his faith in Jesus, that He is the Son of God. A good example of this is found in Acts 8:37. Confession is with the mouth (Rom. 10:9-10).

Now, one comes to the act of baptism. Having thus died to sin and having buried the old man in the waters of baptism for the forgiveness of all past sins, one is added to Christ (cf. Rom. 6:3-4; 16-17; Mk. 16:15-16; Acts 2:38; 1 Pet. 3:21; Acts 10:48). Have you been baptized for the remission of your sins? It is essential to your salvation!

Guardian of Truth XXXVIII: 8, p. 16-17
April 21, 1994

By Jason Hosfield

The grace of God is a subject that the scriptures have a great deal to say about. It is a very significant part of God’s scheme of redemption. Without it, man has no hope for the future in eternity? What is grace? How is it manifested? What must man do to obtain it? I will attempt to answer these questions in this study.

What Is Grace?

In studying a Bible subject, it is very beneficial to know and understand what the word means. The word “grace” means “unmerited favor.” Webster defines grace as “spontaneous favor; mercy.” “Grace” comes from the Greek word charis which is translated “graciousness, loving-kindness, goodwill” (Vines). Thus, when we speak of grace, we mean favor that is bestowed on one who does not deserve or cannot earn it. With reference to God, it means the favor that God imparts to us in spite of our wicked behavior.

Man Needs Grace

Man is a sinner. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”(Rom. 3:23). Since all men have sinned, all men deserve to be punished for their sin. “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 3:23). You and I are both guilty of sin and worthy of death. No one can deny this: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 Jn. 1:8).

There is no way for man to save himself. “The way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23). There is nothing that man can do to earn his own salvation. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). Man can do all of the good works that he likes and still be lost in sin. It was said of Cornelius in Acts 10:2 that he was a “devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always.” Yet, he was not yet a saved man. He still needed to hear “words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved” (Acts 11:14). No matter how much good we do, we will remain lost in sin without the grace of God.

God’s Dual Nature

God has a dual nature in dealing with man: a just nature and a loving nature. Both of these natures are forever existent and one cannot be sacrificed for the other.

His just nature is described in Deuteronomy 32:4: “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” God’ s just nature cannot allow sin to go unpunished. 2 Peter 2:9 tells us that “the Lord knowth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.” We are further warned in 2 Thessalonians 1:9, that sinners will be “punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” God cannot allow sin to remain unchastened. God has no choice but to punish anyone who is guilty of sin.

God, however, has a second nature in dealing with sinful man: His loving nature. We are told in 2 Peter 3:9: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Although his righteousness cannot allow sin to go unpunished, he still loves us enough to want to save us. The only way for both of these to have been possible was for God to find a way to punish sin and still give man access to salvation. He accomplished this by bestowing His grace on man.

How God’s Grace Was Bestowed

God’s grace was given as a gift. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8). “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16). We are told further in Romans 5:8: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God sent Christ into the world, a man who lived a sinless life (1 Pet. 2:22), to bear the punishment of all of man’s sin, thus becoming our perfect sacrifice (Eph. 5:2). God’s grace demanded Christ’s shed blood, so that man could be saved from his sins. Speaking of Christ, Paul says in Ephesians 1:7: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (see also Rom. 3:23; 5:9; Col. 1:14). As a result of Christ suffering the punishment for our sins, we now have the means by which we can be saved.

What Must Man Do to Obtain Grace?

There are certain things that man must do to obtain God’s grace. This does not require guesswork on our part. God has revealed to us through His divine word what we are to do in order to partake of His grace.

We are not saved by the works of the old law. That law was fulfilled by Christ and nailed to the cross (Matt. 5:17; Col. 2:14). Romans 3:28 tells us: “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” We are not obligated to perform all of the sacrifices and offerings required in the law of Moses.

This is not to say that man need not do anything to obtain God’s grace. The exact opposite is so. Jesus told his Apostles in Mark 16:15-16: “. . . he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” Notice here that in order for one to be saved there are two things required: faith and obedience. The Lord said believe (faith) and be baptized (obedience). The Jews on Pentecost, in Acts 2:38, were told: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” They already believed, because verse 37 tells us that they were “pricked in their hearts” as a result of Peter’s preaching of the gospel. All that was left for them to do was to be obedient to the gospel. Obedience is necessary in order to obtain God’s grace. In 1 Thessalonians 1:8 we read that on the day of judgment Christ will punish those “that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Obedience to the gospel, which includes believing (Jn. 8:24), repenting of sin (Acts 17:30), confessing Christ (Rom. 10:9), and submitting to baptism (1 Pet. 3:21), is the only way for man to attain the grace of God.

What About the Grace-Fellowship Theory?

As with all Bible subjects, there is much controversy about the grace of God and how it remedies sin. The most prevalent of these is the grace-fellowship theory.

In a nutshell, the grace-fellowship theory teaches that the grace of God automatically covers sins committed in weakness and ignorance. Their desire is to unify such groups as the Christian Church, the Disciples of Christ, and others who call themselves the church of Christ, but teach such things as premillennialism, institutionalism and such like. They teach that the church is too “legalistic” in its doctrine. With respect to God’s grace, they contend that there is a “continuous flow of grace” that washes away sin immediately after it is committed, just as the blood continuously flows in our physical bodies and removes impurities.

The Bible plainly teaches, however, that once we obey the gospel that we are to strive diligently to avoid sin. The Bible was written that we may not sin (1 Jn. 2:1). Jesus told the woman caught in adultery to “go, and sin no more” (Jn. 8:11). Paul, in dealing with sin and grace, asked the question in Romans 6:1-2: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” When one obeys the gospel, he puts off the old man of sin and puts on the new man of righteousness (Col. 3:9-10). At the day of judgment, all those who have unforgiven sins will be punished (Rev. 21:8).

Conclusion

Man’s only hope for salvation is the grace of God. God sent his Son to bear the punishment for our sins, and gave us a means by which we can be saved. All man must do is believe the gospel, obey it, and live a faithful life (Rev. 2:10), and he will obtain that reward in Heaven promised to the faithful.

*Jason Hosfield is sixteen years old and a member of the Danville (IN) church.

Guardian of Truth XXXVIII: 8, p. 10-11
April 21, 1994