Truth Magazine

By Kenneth D. Sits

A few weeks ago, the number one ladies tennis player of the world, Monica Seles, was stabbed while playing in a tennis tournament in Germany. During a break between games, an unknown man ran out on to the court and stabbed her between the shoulder blades. This criminal was wrestled to the ground while Monica moaned in the center of the court at the net. Fortunately, Miss Seles will physically recover from her stab wound.

Why was Monica Seles stabbed? Has she been involved in some outrageous crime worthy of death? No! Has she been on the fringe end of some political or religious group, making people violent from controversial viewpoints? No! Monica is quite reserved, seemingly as harmless as a fly. The man who stabbed her told the media why he did it. He stabbed Miss Seles because he wanted Steffi Graf, the number two ladies tennis player of the world from Germany, to once again be the number one player. Can you believe that! This man was willing to kill Miss Seles for Miss Graf to be number one again. He was willing to kill in order to have what he wanted. I am sure that every superstar in modern athletics has been checking his back-side since this incident has occurred.

Friends, these kinds of incidents continue to escalate around the world. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:1-4, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (NKJV). When men turn their backs on God’s inspired Word and determine to live only for themselves, society deteriorates to the level of “every man out for himself.” When immorality runs unchecked, when standards are ignored, when “kill or be killed” is the motto of the day, death and destruction will always be the catastrophic result.

I have heard several people say, “Why has God given man all those laws? He must be a mean God, ordering people around like that!” Why you ask? To protect us from ourselves. Moses told the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6:24, “And the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is this day.” When man hates God and his laws of righteousness and morality, he often turns into a brutal, selfish, uncontrolled maniac who will have his way, regardless of who or what is standing in his way. What else could possibly explain the infamous L.A. riots last year? Over 50 people lost their lives because total selfishness and ungodliness was on parade.

When you consider that listing in 2 Timothy 3:1-4, you can find a lot of people who fit those wicked character descriptions. You don’t have to look very long to find many who live only to please their passions and pleasures. They have lost respect for authorities figures and reject the Bible as God’s word. Even within some churches of Christ, strife, contention and worldliness have become the order of the day. Paul told Timothy to turn away from such people (v. 5). The church of Christ must stand up against those who are filled with themselves, serving only them-selves. Jesus teaches us in Matthew 16:24, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow Me.” If people would follow after the King, society wouldn’t have to carry guns for self protection. It wouldn’t have prisons filled with rebellious, evil people. It wouldn’t have Monica Seles with a knife wound in her back.

That evening, most of the sportscasters that I saw seemed visibly shaken and unsettled by this incident. Steffi Graf went and saw Monica Seles in the hospital, obviously an emotional wreck over what happened. Many shake their heads and wonder what this world is coming to. Jesus has been trying to tell us for almost 2000 years. Isn’t it time that all of us take his words of heavenly wisdom to heart? Now is the time to examine ourselves in light of the wickedness revealed by Paul in 2 Timothy 3. How do we compare? It’s not too late to change with Jesus’ help.

Guardian of Truth XXXVII: 15, p. 11-12
August 5, 1993

By Connie W. Adams

A Baptist preacher in Pensacola, Florida has devised a compact 22 minute service to overcome what he calls “an outdated tradition.” An AP report date-lined Pensacola said, “In 22 minutes, Ford plans to deliver a sermon, lead hymn singing, read the scripture, say prayers and have his congregation out the door and on the way to the beach or wherever. To squeeze all that into 22 minutes, only two hymns will be sung and he will limit his sermon to 8 minutes.”

I doubt that the hymn “Take Time to Be Holy” will ever be included in this whirlwind service. This all reminds me of Jeroboam’s religion when he told the ten tribes which followed him, “It is too far for you to go to Jerusalem” and gave them altars at Dan and Bethel.

I had some reluctance in reporting this because I think I know some brethren who might think this is a great idea.

 

The Pie Ministry

The following item appeared in the Paragould, Arkansas paper recently:

“Center Hill Church of Christ has developed a unique program for welcoming visitors to the church.

“The People Involved in Evangelism (PIE) ministry is a ‘sweet outreach for visitors to the church’s worship services,’ said Michael Cox, pastor of the church. ‘The church was wanting to come up with an idea to show how much we cherish our visitors and the PIE ministry was born.’

“During each Sunday service, the names of all visitors are collected and teams of church members deliver fresh baked pies to the visitors on Tuesday evenings.

“Cox noted that the church is growing rapidly and the PIE ministry may be one reason why. ‘The PIE ministry is just one way that we show the love of Jesus to our community,’ said Cox.”

Would someone explain to me how baking and giving pies can be classified as “evangelism”? This is part of the social gospel concept of ministering to the whole man, this time including his sweet tooth. Read on.

 

African Christian Hospitals

This publication has a lead-in “Promoting Medical Evangelism” and then a subheading “Ministering to the Whole Man in Nigeria  Ghana.” This publication regularly reports on the activities of those referred to as “medical missionaries.” It tells of various churches who financially support doctors and nurses and who regularly fund medical clinics. Our institutional brethren have long supported church-related hospitals in foreign fields but have been slow to push from them here in the U.S.A. Why? If it promotes evangelism outside this country, then why would it not promote it here?

I am neither anti-pie nor anti-hospital care for the sick, but I sure do wonder where the passage is that authorizes the church to involve itself in ministering to either the medical or culinary needs of mankind.

Guardian of Truth XXXVII: 15, p. 3-4
August 5, 1993

By Walton Weaver

Two times in the New Testament the Holy Spirit is connected with fire. The first time is Matthew 3:11 where John the Baptist tells the Jews, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (NKJV, emphasis added).

Then in Acts 2:2-4 we read that as the apostles were waiting in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father (Acts 1:4), “suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one set upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (NKJV, emphasis added).

Let’s take a closer look at these two cases.

What Is The “Fire” In Matthew 3:11?

The reference to baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire (Matt. 3:11) has been an often discussed subject, but much disagreement has developed over the meaning of and fire, and exactly to whom the promise applies. The statement has been explained in the following ways.

1. Some have seen here a direct reference to the “fire” mentioned in Acts 2:3. One writer, for example, says, “This was literally fulfilled on the day of Pentecost,” and another, in almost the same words, wrote, “This prophecy was literally fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples in tongues of fire, Acts ii.3.”

2. Others have said that “fire” in this passage is an image of the Spirit’s purifying work upon the individual; that this is a figurative description of the Spirit’s consuming a person’s faults. To state it in a positive way, the terms “in fire” describe “the kindling, sanctifying fire of the Holy Ghost.”

3. Another view is that the “fire” here is “an experience that accompanies the Holy Ghost when he comes into the life of a person” “or, it is “an experience that flashes through the human body and causes one to feel happy and full of joy,” the “feeling that accompanies the Holy Ghost as he quickens the body he enters.”

4. Finally, the most common view (and what seems to me to be the correct one), is that “fire” in Matthew 3:11 is the fire of the last judgment into which the wicked will be cast.

We will now make a few observations on these different views:

(1) Little needs to be said about the view that the promise of “baptism in fire” of Matthew 3:11 was literally fulfilled in the reference to “fire” in Acts 2:3. The careful reader must have observed that there is no reference to literal fire in Acts 2:3; so how could John the Baptist’s statement about fire have been literally fulfilled on the day of Pentecost? The passage in Acts 2 says “cloven tongues like as fire” (KJV), or “divided tongues as fire” (NKJV).

McGarvey cites another reason why this interpretation is not possible. He says, “even if these tongues had been actual fire, their sitting on the heads of the apostles could not have been constituted a baptism of the apostles in fire.” It might also be remembered that Jesus did not add “with fire” to his promise of Holy Spirit baptism when he made it to his disciples (see Acts 1:4-5); nor do we have any mention of “tongues like fire” sitting on Cornelius and his household, yet Peter recognized this event as also being a fulfillment of Jesus promise (Acts 11:16).

(2) The second view makes the statement in Matthew 3:11 speak of only one baptism, a baptism in the Spirit. “In fire” is only added to give a description of the nature of the Spirit’s work. Those who hold this view see only one class of people receiving this promisei. e., they say the “you” who were to be baptized in Spirit and fire identifies only one class and one destiny. The fallacy of this position is that “you” in v. 11 takes into account both believing and unbelieving Jews. A mixed audience was being addressed when the promise was made. So “baptism in the Spirit” could refer to one class, the believing Jews, and “in fire” could refer to another class, the unbelieving and impenitent Jews. This approach takes into account the warning tone of the passage while the former view totally disregards it.

The context also favors the view that two classes are under consideration in v. 11. In v. 10 John has already divided the audience into two parties by his illustration of the fruitful and unfruitful trees. The one represents good men, the other evil men. In v. 12 the wheat and chaff are used for the same purpose. The pronoun “you” takes in both classes of men. John had already used the word “you” in an indefinite way when he said “I baptize you,” when in fact he had not baptized those in his audience.

Also the term “fire” is used in both vv. 10 and 12 to describe the fate of the wicked. In v. 12 it is called the “unquenchable fire.” We should not overlook the parallelism in the three sentences appearing in these three verses. “Fire” has the same meaning in verses 10, 11, and 12. For this reason, two baptisms are under consideration here, and two classes are to receive the baptisms. In other words, Spirit baptism and fire baptism are presented as opposites in this passage. They cannot be opposites and “fire” merely describe the manner of the Spirit’s work. “Fire” does not describe the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, but the condemnation of the wicked. As McGarvey says, “It is clearly the wicked who are to be baptized in fire, and the fulfillment of the prediction will be realized when they are cast into the lake of fire (Rev. xx.15.).”

(3) This third view hardly needs refutation. How would one go about trying to establish from Scripture that “fire” in Matthew 3:11 is the kind of “experience” and “feeling” the author quoted claims for it? No such attempt is made by him. All we have is his word on the matter; such a conclusion cannot be established from the word of God. This writer is simply reading his own “experience” back into this passage and into Acts 2:3 (he takes “fire” in both passages to refer to this kind of experience and feeling).

This same writer goes on to tell us that this experience “might be compared with a current of electricity that flashes through the body when a person contacts a wire that is charged lightly.” “The person so effected,” he says, “feels a tingling sensation. At times the body is jerked about quickly but with no painful feeling. It is rather a pleasant feeling that makes one happy or full of joy. At times only one member of the body is moved or jerked. Sometimes the hand, sometimes the foot or both feet in the holy dance.” How about that! Look what we have been missing by not understanding that “fire” in these passages promises this kind of “experience” for all who will truly believe! But if this were true, why does not the Bible speak of such “experience” when it de-scribes what happened when certain people were baptized in the Holy Spirit (i. e., in Acts 2 and 10)? Not one word is said about such an experience for either the apostles in Acts 2 or Cornelius and his household in Acts 10. They were baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues, but absolutely nothing is said about a baptism in “fire” or of such effects coming from Holy Spirit baptism as are described by this writer. Besides, we have shown in the above section that the tone of Matthew 3:11, as well as the context, shows that baptism in “fire” is the opposite of baptism in Spirit, and that baptism in fire is an act of condemnation and not something “felt by every one” baptized in Spirit.

(4) From what has already been said in our discussion of the first three views, it should be clear that this fourth view is the correct understanding of the baptism of fire mentioned in Matthew 3:11. The “fire” in this passage is the fire of the last judgment into which the wicked will be cast.

What Is The “Fire” In Acts 2:3?

We have already found it necessary to set aside the view that the “fire” in this passage is the same as the “fire” of Matthew 3:11. In the latter passage a literal fire is obviously meant, but here the language will not allow a literal fire. Luke unequivocally says, “cloven tongues like as of fire” (IQV). The word translated “cloven tongues” means tongues “distributing themselves,” or “parting asunder” (ASV; i. e., among the apostles); not a tongue-like, forked appearance in each case, as the term “cloven tongues” would no doubt be understood. The change from the plural (tongues) to the singular (it sat) supports this conclusion. At first the fire-like appearance was “in a single body, and then suddenly parted in this direction and that; so that a portion of it rested on each of those present” (Hackett). McGarvey concludes that the change from the plural to the singular was used “to indicate that not all, but only one of the tongues sat upon each apostle, the term distributed having already suggested the contemplation of them singly.”

One can easily see the symbolism involved in the fire-like tongue appearance over the heads of each of the apostles. They spoke in tongues, or languages (Acts 2:8, 11), they had never learned. The miraculous knowledge of the language each was speaking was being revealed to each of them by the Holy Spirit. The tongue shaped (though not “cloven”), fire-like flames symbolized the presence of the Spirit making known to them the language each was speaking. They were in fact immersed in the Spirit as Matthew 3:11 promised, and the “tongues like as of fire” that “sat upon each of them” was symbolical of what was happening to them as they were now speaking languages they had not before known. Nor could they have known them even now without this special revelation of the Spirit.

Guardian of Truth XXXVII: 15, p. 8-9
August 5, 1993

By Randy Reynolds

Parents, wouldn’t it be nice if our children could grow up in a bubble isolated from every evil influence? Wouldn’t it be great if they would somehow avoid hearing vulgar language and not be exposed to so much ungodliness via television and music? Obviously all parents who are striving to do that which is right fear the sinful influences that their children must face on a daily basis. And at times most parents have tried to plan and scheme (at least in their minds) how they can provide a perfect environment for their children so that they can be protected from facing the temptation of worldliness. However parents soon discover that this place called utopia that they are seeking for their children does not exist. It’s probably a good thing that it doesn’t because if it did we would raise children who are severely handicapped.

What Can We Do?

Since we cannot realistically remove all evil influences from their lives, as parents what can we do? How can we assist our children in making the right choices?

First and foremost in my estimation is your child’s home environment. What do they see at home? (“What have they seen in your house?” cf. 2 Kgs. 20:15; Isa. 39:34). If we want our children to follow the Lord then we must show them what it means to love the Lord and put him first in our lives. Far too often our children see that we are not as committed as we tell them that they must be. Parents, our children are not stupid! As a matter of fact they are very intelligent and very observant individuals. Thus, we must demonstrate for them the life that we would have them to live in service to the Lord. They need to see with their own eyes what serving the Lord is all about.

Second, parents we must retake control of our homes and our children. We are the ones whom God has placed in charge. Yet in many homes the children have assumed command. They tell their parents where they are going, what they are going to do and when they will be back. Solomon clearly tells us that children are not capable of making all of their own decisions (cf. Prov. 22:15). Parents, we are the ones that God has placed in charge in the homes. We must be the one who make the decisions for our children until they are old enough and mature enough to make them for themselves.

Third, instead of focusing on placing our children into that perfect environment we should be concentrating on how we will raise them to love the Lord in spite of the ungodliness that they must face. The Bible shares with us the fact that Timothy grew up in Lystra (Acts 16:1,2). Do a little research on this Asia Minor city when you have the time. When you do you’ll find that Timothy grew up in an environment where idol worship was prominent. Generally idol worshippers were more immoral than those who had no religion at all. These were people who stoned Paul until they thought he was dead (Acts 14:8,20). Are you interested in trading environments with Timothy? Not me!

How did Timothy grow up to be the devoted follower of the Lord that he was? He was taught right from wrong. He was instructed to choose good and reject evil (cf. Prov. 22:6; Rom. 12:9; 1 Pet. 3:8-16). And the indication from Acts 16:1 is that Timothy was instructed in the way of right in spite of his father. Timothy was blessed with a mother and grandmother who truly loved God and his word (2 Tim. 1:5).

Fourth, prayer must be important to us as parents. I would like to think that I could be a perfect parent. I would like to thank that my example, along with all of my instruction that I have rendered, has been flawless. but it certainly doesn’t take long for us to swallow our pride and admit that we made mistake as parents. This is one of many places where prayer becomes very important. My prayer has been and continues to be, “Father please help my children to turn out alright in spite of my many mistake as their father. Help them, Father, to see that even though 1 do make mistakes that l am willing to repent and try harder the next time. Father, help them to see past the flaws in my imperfect example. Give me the courage, strength and wisdom to do better and to raise them in harmony with your will.”

Fifth, parents your children are going to make mistakes. It will be important how we deal with their mistakes. Sometimes we deal with their mistakes. Sometimes we would like to become like the ostrich and bury our heads in the sand. But that won’t help them nor will it help correct the wrong that has been committed. And we need to learn that we cannot correct their wrongs for them. That is their responsibility. We can instruct and guide in matters, but it’s their responsibility. It won’t help our children one iota if we either turn our heads or take their blame. And let me quickly add to that thought by saying, if we don’t teach our children the important of repentance for wrongs committed then they will soon lose their sorrow for sin. Apart from the many good things that my children have done and the good deeds that they have performed that continue to make me proud of them in my eyes, their greatest achievement continues to be their sorrow for sin and their voluntary willingness to repent.

Sixth, when a child admits wrong and tries to do better it’s time for celebration. I have learned many things from the account of the lost son that is recorded for us in Luke 15:11-32. Yet for a while I freely admit my focus in this passage was on the actions of the son, how he left and came back. But now my attention has been directed toward the actions of the father. While it is evident that the father rightfully demanded that his son repent for his wrong doing, it is the father’s attitude and actions toward his repentant son that fascinate me most. He didn’t continue to scorn his son over his sinful actions. Why? In my appraisal, simply because he was totally absorbed in celebrating his return!

Perhaps we can find a place in this world for our children where humanistic, atheistic, ungodly and immoral ways do not permeate the society. But until we do we’ll have to do the best we can where we are.

Guardian of Truth XXXVII: 15, p. 10-11
August 5, 1993