Truth Magazine

By Eric Norford

We hear about this subject almost every day in our lives. We may know of people who tried to commit suicide and failed; we know of some who tried and were successful. We may know of some in our family who has tried to take his life. We may even hear some of our friends or family talk about committing suicide.

Since 1960, the suicide rate is up 200% in our country. Suicide is the second greatest killer among teen-agers. TeenAge Magazine surveyed 1,022 13-19-year-olds to find out the reasons behind teenage depression that leads to suicide. School and environment ranked first with 76%; followed by girlfriend/boyfriend relations with 54%; family conflicts with 44%; friendships with 43%; and appearance with 40% responding that this caused their depression (the percentages do not add up to 100% because most all cited more than one reason for their depression). It seems that for many young people depression originates in the home, with 70% of teenage suicides coming from broken homes. Dr. Jeff Ezell says that “what these kids almost always suffer from is alack of self-esteem” (C. Titus Edwards, Guardian of Truth, February 7, 1985, 77).

Even adults commit suicide. Most of the problems are a result of depression that led them to take their life. They may be depressed be-cause of family problems at home, job or lack of one, feeling of unimportance to people, frustration … etc. All of these can lead one to contemplate this action and executing it on themselves.

The media play a powerful role in planting the seed. A good many singers today believe that the cure for depression is suicide. Their lyrics are full of words that center around that theme. Anyone listening intensively may begin to think about this and eventually commit suicide. John McCollum, a 19 year old, committed suicide in 1985 after listening to Ozzy Osbourn’s song, “Suicide Solution.” Two teenage girls in 1987 committed suicide after listening to Metallica’s “Fade To Black.” An estimated 600,000 teenagers attempt suicide annually and 5,000 succeed. Approximately 14 teenagers kill themselves every day.

We’ve seen the terrible statistics and we’ve heard about this problem every day, but we need to focus on what the Bible says about this subject.

The word suicide is never used in the Bible, but there are things revealed from God that show that suicide is wrong. Suicide is self-murder (Rom. 13:9).

In the beginning of creation, God made a special creation  man. He made man after his image (Gen. 1:27). The Scripture says, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). God was displeased when Cain took his brother Abel’s life (Gen. 4:8-12). It was God who said in Genesis 9:6, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” That principle still applies today, whether the murderer is an enemy, friend, or self. God hates murder, God hates the taking of a life that he created. Brethren, doesn’t God have the right to instruct us how to live Suicide .. . our life and to take care of it and not kill it? He certainly does.

Suicide stems from a lack of self control, which we are to maintain. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:27, “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection (i.e. in control, emphasis mine  REN): lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” There are many who lack self-control today. I am not naive to think that there are not Christians who have tried to commit suicide. We are to be temperate and we are to add that to knowledge (2 Pet. 1:6). We are to grow in the grace of Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 3:18).

What a terrible day it was when the Philistines defeated Israel. Saul was king and was defeated that day. His three sons were killed in battle and he was wounded, he re-quested that his armour bearer thrust the sword into him lest he be killed by the uncircumcised Philistines. His armour bearer would not, so Saul fell upon his own sword and his armour bearer did the same thing (1 Sam. 31:1-6). Saul thought the answer to his defeat was suicide, but it only created problems for him in eternity.

In the New Testament, when Paul and Silas were in prison for preaching the truth, a great earthquake shook the jail while they were singing and the doors were opened. The jailor, thinking that all the prisoners had escaped, drew out his word and would have killed himself, but Paul kept him from doing that by teaching him of Jesus (Acts 16:25-33). He turned this man’s despair into joy. He gave him a reason for living and meaning to his life.

Brethren and friends, Jesus Christ is the answer to life’s problems. First, you are somebody; you are important to God. God loves you! Don’t feel depressed, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:13). Second, don’t try to run away from life’s problems by committing suicide; rather, take responsibility and face the problem. Everybody faces problems, it is how we handle them that is important. Paul said, “Every man shall bear his own burden” (Gal. 6:5). Look for positive things when there are problems, find good in everything. Third, don’t worry about things beyond our control (Matt. 6:31-34). Worrying doesn’t do any good. Learn to live with things the way they are  everyone has to. Love yourself and who you are. Fourth, be cheerful and enjoy life (Eccl. 9:7-10; 1 Pet. 3:10-11). God wants us to. Fifth, never lose hope (Ps. 16:9).

God is on our side and will help anyone. Paul said in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.” God wants you to live your life for him, to do him service. The things of this life are not as important as going to heaven to live with God for eternity. As William J. Gaither said in his song, “Because I know he holds the future, And life is worth the living, just because He lives.” Suicide is not the answer, but Jesus Christ is!

Guardian of Truth XXXVIII: 4, p. 1
February 17, 1994

By Warren E. Berkley

“The parents have a right to say that no teacher paid by their money shall rob their children of faith in God and send them back to their homes skeptical, or infidels, or agnostics, or atheists.” William Jennings Bryan, testifying at the Scopes trials, Dayton, Tenn. July 16, 1925.

If the famous attorney could be here today and make only limited observations into the public school system, I think he would repeat what he said in 1925, and perhaps with more urgency. The secularism that is spreading in our society has found an ally in the public schools. This doesn’t mean that every school, teacher or educational official has been taken captive, but the influence of secularism in our schools (and through our schools) cannot be disputed.’ Evidence follows .. .

1. Humanism isn’t just a philosophy to provoke intellectual discussion.2 It has become a political agenda, championed by the liberal left and advanced by many educators. Humanists believe “that man is just as much a natural phenomenon as an animal or plant; that his body, mind and soul were not supernaturally created but are products of evolution, and that he is not under the control or guidance of any supernatural being or beings, but has to rely on himself and his own powers.”3 If those making curriculum and text book decisions hold to this view of man, don’t you think that will affect their work? What about class room teachers who are humanists? Consider, humanists have said that “the battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom, by the teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith. . . . The classroom will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new  the rotting corpse of Christianity … and the new found faith of humanism.”4

2. The Sex Education Movement is on the fast track, and proponents of these indiscreet curriculums have declared success in some states. Here in Texas we must constantly look over the shoulders of our state legislators, the lobbyists who try to purchase them, state and local school board members and the abortion advocacy groups such as Planned Parenthood. Educating children in sexuality, per se, is not the problem. The problems of secular influence become apparent when you start asking questions: [1] Who will teach my children? [2] What will my children be taught? [3] When will they be taught? [4] With whom will they be taught? [5] Can I opt my children out of the program? [6] Will the popular “mixed message” be the theme? “Don’t have sex, but if you do. . .?” [7] If “abstinence” is even brought up, what will the definition be? Another fearful dimension of the modern sex education agenda is the powerful homosexual lobby, and their intrusion into the school room. Consider, if state and local educational officials allow every culture, sub-culture, and interests group to have input into the sex education agenda, the militant gay rights leaders will be in line, right along with the conservative fundamentalists and family values people! It’s already happening, here in Texas and everywhere. If this agenda of perversion is implemented in the schools, homosexuality will be taught as an “alternate lifestyle,” and if your children are mature, articulate and courageous enough to state their objection, they will be labeled as guilty of the politically incorrect crime of homophobia. Anybody who expresses moral outrage or objection to the practice (sin) of homosexuality is  according to the politically correct pundits  homophobic. In some public universities, “Students who express disapproval of homosexuality are, under threat of expulsion, being required to take `sensitivity training’ to cure their ‘homophobia’.”’ (In a recent Andy Rooney column he spoke out: “. . .I disapprove of making condoms available to children because there may be a few boys or girls in the class who are sexually active. The only certain thing that all the talk about sex can do is promote more of it at a younger age.”6

3. Outcome-based Education (OBE) is one of the “politically correct” methods being discussed in circles of modern education reform. In some states, this has become nothing but a professional-sounding label for the same old secular agenda: getting in touch with your feelings, situation ethics, values clarification, subjectivist, affective development … and all this along with lowered academic standards, and  at tax payer expense!’

4. Social Services On Campus for “at risk” children is a growing trend. These “social service centers” are opening up for “business” on campuses all across the nation, taking schools further beyond their traditional academic roles. In some cases, semi-professionals are identifying children who are “at risk,” by applying standards that derive from their own secular agenda. School counselors and paraprofessionals in mental health are labeling children as “disadvantaged,” or “abused,” and in some cases the “evidence” is that the parents are using “inappropriate discipline”; that may mean that the discipline the parents are using is not what the secular, humanist mentality approves.

5. Multiculturalism. In some places, school children are being taught that street slang is just as good as proper English; social integration must take precedence over hard work and a free economy; and the fraudulent agenda and messages of some “minority groups” is part of the curriculum, all in the name of a newly created god, multiculturalism. Cultural assimilation has been elevated to a virtue at the expense of good education in many cases. “. . . Ethnic communities that are committed to preserving some of their cultural values and their heritage should be free to instill these values in their children  at home, at church, in the neighborhood. Surely it is not the office of public schools to promote separatism and heighten ethnic tensions.”‘

6. Re-writing history. In the effort to achieve cultural assimilation, some secularists are busy re-writing the history books  not to correct known error, but to indoctrinate. The revisionists are determined to use public schools as mediums for their activist agendas. Parents, beware!

7. Loss of Parental Oversight. Let me suggest that one thing parents need to look out for in public education is school officials and teachers intruding into areas tradition-ally reserved for parental oversight. The autonomy of parents is sometimes infringed by teachers who see them-selves as self-appointed social engineers and “mediums” who must usher in a new age. This was a heated issue during the term of William J. Bennett, early in his tenure as U.S. Secretary of Education. A Washington Post head-line said it all: “Education Chief Rapped for Supporting Parents.” The article said, “Some of the nation’s established organizers sharply criticized Education Secretary William J. Bennett . . . for his support of federal rules giving parents more control over `sensitive’ subject areas taught in public schools.”9 In some places, public schools may actually drive a wedge between children and parents (see Eph. 6:1-4).

8. Drug Education. Who would be opposed to drug prevention and education programs? We are not on a “witch hunt” when we ask, in regard to these programs, Who will teach it? What will they teach? Do the designers and leaders of the program have a secular, humanistic agenda? I fear that in some of these drug education programs, the students are getting the impression that the rightness or wrongness of drug use is a subjective matter  that it relates to physical danger and is a mental threat, but not necessarily morally wrong. Human potential psychology may be the hidden agenda in some of these projects.10

9. The Creation-Evolution issue is not over. And all the dinosaur hype may indirectly give more credibility to some of the atheistic theories of today’s secularists. “Pictures and replicas of dinosaurs automatically conjure up a false concept of pre-historic creatures which supposedly evolved 175-200 million years ago and became extinct 65 -70 million years ago, long before man came on the scene.’

10. New Age influence is everywhere: in entertainment, the media, retail commerce, politics and schools. New Age influence involves the deadly combination of subjective humanism and secular attitudes with the eastern, pagan concepts of deity. The August 1987 annual convention of The Association for Humanistic Psychology included  under the heading of Humanistic Education  a workshop titled, “Zen Buddhist Ethics and the Caring Classroom: The Application of Zen Buddhism to Educating Children.”12

What Can Parents Do?

Know Your Rights! “First is the power and rights of the parents. It is good constitutional law in our nation that the parents are the primary educators of their children. They have the right to safeguard the religion, the morals, the attitudes, the values, and the family privacy of their children.”13

“Re-double Your Efforts To Educate, Discipline and Influence Your Children At Home. Talk to your children about these things as soon as appropriate. Get help, use resources, and associate with other Christian parents facing the same threats. By all means, get serious about training your children in Biblical values.

“Be active in watching your state legislature, and don’t hesitate to communicate to them and initiate all the citizen input and influence that is legitimate. Much of what happens in your local school district is directly related to state mandates, regulations, standards, and pressures. You will need to watch and participate on the local (school board) level, but some things (like sex education) may be out of the control of the school board, because of state mandates. Before the next legislative session in your state, talk to your representative about these issues.

“Be a Christian, wear the whole armor of God, and spread the gospel everywhere, starting at home. ‘Education is a weapon, whose effect depends upon who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed’ (Josef Stalin).”

End Notes

1Secularism, as defined by Charles Colson (The Body 172): “As an adjective, the word secular means merely `of this world,’ or `of the present age.’ As a world-view, however, it becomes secularism, an ideology that places all emphasis on the here and now. The anthem of modern American secularism is captured in the beer commercial: `You only go around this way once, so grab for all the gusto you can.’ Or as the T-shirts proclaim, `Carpe diem’ Seize the day!  the ultimate existential expression.”

The writer of this article has a tract out on the subject of humanism, in English and Spanish; order from Guardian of Truth Bookstore. Also, The New Age Movement: A Biblical Perspective.

‘Quoted in The Battle For The Mind by Tim LaHaye 63. ‘From The Humanist Magazine, Jan./Feb. 1983.

‘Jeffrey Hart, “Not Just An Alternate Lifestyle,” McAllen Monitor, July 28, 1993, 6-D.

6 Andy Rooney, “Andy’s Startling Confession,” McAllen Monitor, Aug. 13, 1993.

‘For more research into OBE, write to CEE, Box 3200, Costa

Mesa, CA 92628, or call (714) 546-5931.

‘The Way Things Ought To Be, Rush Limbaugh 213.

‘The De-Valuing of America, William J. Bennett 46.

10For an excellent discussion of various drug education programs, see Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right From Wrong, William Kilpatrick, Simon & Schuster, 1992 (Chapter 2).

“Dinosaurs Attack Children!” Dick Blackford. Searching The Scriptures XXIX:11 [November, 1988], 252.

1 ‘The New Spirituality by Dave Hunt & T. A. McMahon, 43. “The Teaching Of Values In The Public Schools,” by Phyllis Schlafly, The Phyllis Schlafly Report, Oct. 1989.

Guardian of Truth XXXVIII: 3, p. 17-19
February 3, 1994

By Randy Blackaby

A rapidly growing segment of American children are growing up without parents. Not since the end of the Civil War has the United States had so many orphans. But today’s children have not lost their parents to the devastation of war but to radical feminism, humanism and a morally devoid secularism.

Divorce, bastardy and socialistic welfare, all condemned in the scriptures, have joined to so profoundly assault the home that the so-called “traditional” family has become the anomaly.

The secular view of divorce is that it is as often as not inevitable, completely normal and often good for everyone involved. Virtually all stigma and sanctions have been removed and divorces are treated like coldsa temporary discomfort to be “recovered” from in time.

About half of all marriages in this country today end in divorce.

Approximately 25 percent of all children born today will do so without the benefit of their parents being married. More than 60 percent of black children will face life as an illegitimate.

Socialistic programs have eliminated the perceived need for fathers because the economic support role that God assigned men (1 Thess. 3:6-15; 1 Tim. 5:8) has been supplanted by government welfare payments that encourage illegitimacy.

Biblical patterns for the family are scoffed at by feminists and other social radicals. There is talk of “redefining” the family. The word “choice” has become the euphemistic battle cry for those who would elevate personal selfishness to the same plane as moral standards.

The traditional or biblical family structure virtually has disappeared from television, replaced by images that seek to normalize the deviant. The last episode of “Murphy Brown” this year showed its star having a baby out of wedlock. The event was portrayed as wonderful and the absence of a father as irrelevant.

If we disregard for the moment the radical feminists who believe marriage is only a tool of male domination and focus on mainstream America we still find an all too popular consensus that marriage is not that important and that immorality is an anachronistic concept in the ’90s.

But God teaches that truth is unchanging (Ps. 100:5) and that man is not able to direct his own steps without divine guidance (Jer. 10:23). We are further taught that “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 14:12).

These biblical truths are powerfully supported by the social and moral results we are seeing in our nation as everyone does what is right in his own eyes.

Just look at what the destruction of the family has done for us.

Children in single parent homes are six times as likely to be poor as those in traditional families.

Children with only one parent are two to three times as likely to have emotional and behavioral problems.

Statistics show these same children to be more likely to drop out of school, get pregnant as teens, abuse drugs and be in trouble with the law.

Youngsters with only one parent or living in step families are much more likely to be victims of sexual abuse at the hands of boyfriends or step dads.

Numerous studies find that divorce has fueled the growth of an underclass. The numbers are astonishing. The pro-portion of children in poverty increased from 15 percent in 1970 to 20 percent in 1990. Half of single mothers live in poverty, compared to 10 percent of married couples with children.

The negative effects of ignoring God’s pattern are also seen in education, or the lack of it. Educational spending in constant 1980 dollars has more than doubled since 1960 but nearly every measure of school performance has dropped.

Educational failure obviously is not primarily a matter of insufficient investment but rather is based on emotional impairments brought about by the absence of parents and turmoil in the home. Schools now look more like emotional emergency rooms than instructional centers. Larger and larger investments of time and money are placed in stabilizing kids damaged by broken homes.

Not disconnected is the fact that teenage suicide has tripled in the past few years. In fact, while mortality figures for the U.S. population as a whole declined 23 percent in the 1960s and ’70s, death among white children 15-24 years old increased more than 16 percent. Death by homicide rose 232 percent. And the numbers among black children are worse.

Juvenile crime is skyrocketing and becoming more and more violent. Nationally, more than 70 percent of all juveniles in reform institutions are from fatherless homes.

“Children raised in virtual isolation from human beings, though physically intact, display few recognizable human behaviors,” concludes Barbara Dafoe Whitehead in an extensive article about the family in The Atlantic Monthly entitled “Dan Quayle Was Right.” We are seeing the truth of this every night in the news.

Weaker parent-child relationships are leaving latch-key kids more vulnerable to negative influences, ranging from the perversions they see on TV to the peer pressures of the gangs they join to fill the void in their orphan existence.

Whitehead points to the potential destabilization of our democratic society by these shifts away from biblical standards when she says, “The family is responsible for teaching lessons of independence, self-restraint, responsibility and right conduct, which are essential to a free, democratic society. If the family fails in these tasks, then the entire experiment in democratic self-rule is jeopardized.”

The secularists in our society are aware of all these tragic statistics, declines and decays. But they boldly assert that returning to biblical patterns is not the answer but rather more social tampering.

So you hear almost every day about the great need for “affordable daycare.” It is sadly ironic that just as the last of our old orphan homes are being phased out in favor of real (foster and adoptive) homes, the secularists are devising a new form of institutional care for a new kind of orphan.

But day care is doomed before it begins because the most critical determinant of child well-being is the bond between parent and child. God, of course, knows this and thus commanded both mothers and fathers how to do their respective and coordinated parts in raising children.

Urie Bronfenbrenner, a psychologist at Cornell University, has written that the essential requirement for healthy human development is that “someone has to be crazy about the kids.” God puts it even more simply in Titus 2. Mothers are to love their children and fathers are to rule and set the right example for them.

But the opponents of biblical standards keep the conflict alive by disavowing any connection between family structure or parental failures and the present problems of our youth.

Kenneth Keniston’s view, espoused in 1977 in “All Our Children,” is still as popular as ever. He wrote, “There is nothing to be gained by blaming ourselves and other individuals for family changes. We need to look instead to the broader economic and social forces that shape the experience of children and parents. Parents are not abdicatingthey are being dethroned, by forces they cannot influence, much less control.”

However, anyone who gives the American family a good examination today can see that selfishness (the root of all sin) lies at the heart of family destruction.

Divorce and remarriage are justified in the name of personal freedom and growth. Feminists abandon the home to seek personal fulfillment and achievement and status in the work place. Biblical morality is deemed too restrictive for individual happiness.

The concept of self-sacrifice for the benefit of others is virtually unknown in the secular society.

But if there is a silver lining in the battle between the gospel and secularism it is that God’s ways are glorified when the results are surveyed. By every measure of true individual and societal success and happiness, people were much better off (and are better off) when God’s design and rules for the family are observed. And, the misery we see devastating our nation’s families today is profound evidence that God knows better than we do how we ought to live.

“The secularists in our

society are aware of all these

tragic statistics, declines and

decays. But they boldly

assert that returning to

biblical patterns is not the

answer but rather more

social tampering.”

Guardian of Truth XXXVIII: 3, p. 7-8
February 3, 1994

By Connie W. Adams

Guy N. Woods

Guy N. Woods, well known author, debater, preacher and former editor of the Gospel Advocate recently passed away at the age of 85. He was laid to rest on December 11, 1993. Among his many debates there were at least three which had profound impact on the institutional division: the Porter-Woods Debate held in Paragould, Arkansas, the Cogdill-Woods Debate held in Birmingham, Alabama and the Grider-Woods Debate conducted in Louisville, Kentucky. These three discussions had far reaching effects in shaping the thinking of brethren on both sides of the controversy over sponsoring churches and church support of benevolent institutions.

My first direct acquaintance with brother Woods was in 1960-61 when the elders of the church at Newbern, Tennessee asked me to handle the correspondence with brother Woods and with Roy E. Cogdill leading up to their second debate at Newbern, Tennessee in December, 1961. Later, while brother Woods was editor of the Gospel Advocate and I was editor of Searching the Scriptures we had a pleasant, though pointed at times, correspondence touching several matters of mutual interest. In his later years brother Woods was much concerned with the direction many of his brethren were taking and the speed with which they were moving away from the old paths. Many of the avant-garde institutional men regarded him as a relic of the past while many opposed to institutionalism consider him one of those who helped to open a flood-gate which he was powerless to close in his later years.

The mightiest of men are but mortal. Epic battles are fought by men who must die and then be judged by the God of all the earth who will do right. So, let us pass the time of our sojourning here in fear for all are drawing nearer to the ultimate appointment.

Medical Evangelism Seminar

On January 7 and 8, 1994 a “Medical Evangelism Seminar” was conducted at the Harvey Hotel in Dallas, Texas. This is an annual affair and remains one of the clearest evidences of the social gospel at work among many in the institutional movement among churches of Christ. This event was hosted by African Christian Hospitals Foundation. Reports were heard from representatives of various congregations who collect and disburse various medical supplies to clinics and hospitals in several countries which are staffed by people supported by churches of Christ. These hospitals, so far, are all overseas, but they are funded by U.S. churches. However, there was a group discussion on “U.S. Medical Missions” which listed Inner City, Dallas, Texas, Mexican Border, McAllen, Texas and Appalachia, Jellico, Tennessee.

One segment featured “Helping National Churches Establish Their Own Clinic.” Already, there are hospitals or other medical missions funded by churches in the U.S. which are located in Tanzania, East Africa, Nigeria, Guyana, Guatemala and Mexico, to name a few. There are others. This is all part of the notion that the church must minister to the whole man. The New Testament teaches that the church is a spiritual body whose primary role in the world is to preach the gospel to the lost and repair their souls for a heavenly reward (Jn. 18:36; Rom. 14:17; 1 Thess. 1:8-10). There are times when congregations must relieve those among them in need (1 Tim. 5:16; Acts 6). Sometimes congregations sent help to assist other congregations to relieve those of their own number for whom they could not provide (Acts 11:27-30; 2 Cor. 8:1-15).

I receive several publications from the more conservative institutional men but do not recall seeing anything from any of them in opposition to church funded hospitals and clinics. Do they, or do they not, oppose this social gospelism?

Consider The Source

It is often difficult to know when to respond to critics and when to ignore them. Critics help keep us humble. Constant praise might be pleasant to hear but it also tends to inflate egos. It might be a good idea to consider what critics have to say about us. Somewhere in it all there just might be a kernel of truth which will help us. But all critics are not well-motivated. Sometimes they are on a vendetta, or have some personal axe to grind. Some critics hope to promote them-selves by pulling down another. In such cases it is a good idea to consider the advice given years ago by a wise woman to her son. She said, “Son, if you get kicked by a mule, just consider the source.”

Thanks To Guardian Of Truth Staff

My first year of work as a writer for Guardian of Truth is now behind me. It was difficult to make the decision to close down the work of Searching The Scriptures. Thanks to so many who continue to tell us how much it is missed. I am thankful for the opportunity to write in Guardian of Truth and to serve in other ways in the operation in this publishing business. The entire staff has been congenial and our work together has been most pleasant. I have especially enjoyed the association with Mike Willis. All of us who write for this paper, or work behind the scenes, get our share of criticism. I am sure some is well-intentioned and deserved. But these are men of honor who love the truth and are set to defend it. I do not agree with everything which every writer says on every subject any more than I did when I edited Searching The Scriptures. I do not always like the way some things are said by some writers. Mike would likely say the same. These are strange times in our nation and among the people of the Lord. Winds of change bring mixed emotions. All changes are not bad. But some signal a cutting loose from scriptural moorings. When to say what, and how much to say about it, or allow to be said about it, is not always easy to decide. It is my judgment, for whatever it is worth, that Mike Willis is doing a good job in charting a course for this paper. I look forward to continued efforts to teach the word of God through this medium.

Guardian of Truth XXXVIII: 4, p. 3-4