Truth Magazine

By Lewis Willis

When I was a boy, our small-town Baptist church was as strong as garlic on moral questions. They op-posed divorce and remarriage for any cause. They opposed drunkenness. They opposed lying, cheating and stealing. It would have been insulting to those people to have even asked what they thought of homosexuality. Everybody would have known they were against it.

With this background knowledge of the Baptist church, I found it absolutely shocking to read in the Beacon Journal (3-3-92) that a Raleigh, North Carolina Baptist church was giving its approval to “gay nuptials.” By a nearly two-thirds majority, this Southern Baptist church “defied its parent church by voting to bless a gay union.” The preacher said, “We’re taking a stand toward a responsible expression of sexuality. . . It’s a stand of support toward persons who want to commit to a long-term monogamous relation-ship.” Therefore, two homosexual men will be “blessed” at a future service.

There are several things that I want to mention about this matter. The first is, the Law of God has not changed on this despicable sin since my childhood. God has always condemned the practice of homosexuality. Moses wrote the following in the book of Leviticus: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination” (18:22); “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them” (20:13). When it was time to write the New Testament, the Holy Spirit restated God’s opposition to this abomination. “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). The Apostle Paul said such unrighteous people would not inherit the Kingdom: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, or thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10).

There is no place in the Scriptures where God has changed his opposition to this sin. What we see here is a case of still another human denomination changing its position on the sin. To them, it will no longer be considered a sin. They voted and decided it was not a sin. I wonder, if it works with homosexuality, will the same process work with murder? Or stealing? Or adultery? Where is that passage of Scripture that says men can vote to change God’s Law? The Episcopalians thought they could do this, and now the Baptists are joining with them. It could only be a matter of time until sanctioned homosexuality will be Baptist church law — like it is among Episcopalians and Presbyterians. Who would have thought that even a single Baptist church would have taken this position? This illustrates what hap-pens when people abandon the Scriptures. The longer they act without scriptural authority, the farther they get from it. The story has been repeated too many times to even need proof.

Incidentally, some say homosexuals are born this way, and cannot change. There were homosexuals at Corinth who obeyed the Gospel. Paul would say, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). If homosexuals can’t change from their abominable life, how do you suppose the Corinthians managed to do so?

This is another of those efforts of men to justify themselves, while practicing that which God forbids. Try as men may, it just does not work! Though I am not a prophet, I predict that it will not be long before we start reading of the debate among Baptists over whether or not they will vote to ordain homosexuals into their ministry. Further-more, I predict that, like these other churches, those who oppose their ordination will lose!

Ladies and Gentlemen, if you are going to violate God’s Law about worship, work and organization of the church, how can you stop those who want to violate that law on a moral issue like homosexuality? The answer is, you can’t. The Baptists don’t know this yet, but they will learn — as all others have who have chosen to walk in that path of disobedience. A word of warning: It does not take an idea a long time to find its way from denominationalism into the Lord’s church. This same kind of shameful report will have to be written one of these days about us, unless we stand at the door of the Kingdom , with the sword of the Spirit, and fight to keep such sin from entering. Are you ready for that battle? Will you fight (1 Tim. 6:12)?

Other Sins Have Already Entered

I read in The Christian Chronicle (Vol. 49:3/March 1992), that two so-called “Christian” Colleges, operated by liberal churches of Christ, each need $1 million to prevent the loss of their accreditation. These colleges are said to be “sup-ported by churches of Christ.” One is “asking churches nationwide to contribute to a special drive on March 15.” I can remember when these liberals would neither ask for nor accept funds from church treasuries. But, not any more. There was no New Testament authority for the church to support educational institutions back then, and there is none now. If someone thinks he has that authority, let him show us the Scriptures! It is nothing but sin when the church acts without authority from its Head, Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18; 3:17).

No amount of supposed “good” that might come from such an enterprise, will cause the “sin” of it to be turned into righteousness. Those who insist on traveling this course, have abandoned God, and have been abandoned by him (2 Jn. 9-11). We must keep the church true to its mission! We must not involve it in things that are unauthorized. This, too, will be a “fight,” as it has been in the past. Are you ready for that battle? Will you fight (1 Tim. 6:12)? What is the difference between perverting the mission of the church, by having it support human institutions like colleges, and perverting its stand on homosexuality? Both have always been — and always will be — sin! We must never allow ourselves to be caught up in “perversion” — of any kind!

Guardian of Truth XXXVII: 4, p. 17-18
February 18, 1993

By Tom Roberts

The physical world which early Christians traversed in planting the gospel throughout the first century was vastly different than our world today. Religion, transportation, language, culture, and government were as different from our generation’s as night from day. Any consideration of the gospel age and the growth of truth in the Roman Empire is incomplete without reflection upon these differences and their impact on the early church. Luke, as an inspired historian, touches on many of these things while not pretending to be an unabridged, exhaustive recorder of those times.

The providence of God, however nebulous to us, was no doubt in evidence as the era of the gospel was predestined to be “in the days of those kings” (Dan. 2:44) and in the “fulness of time” (Gal. 4:4). Surely, it was no accident that a common language (Koine Greek) was spoken throughout the world, that Roman roads and a system of transportation existed empire-wide, that Jews had been dispersed throughout the world (taking with them the knowledge of Jehovah), and that Roman citizens (such as Paul and his companions) could travel freely across borders. The spread of the gospel was insured through personal conviction and the prevailing conditions, not, as our generation would like to believe, through mass media, institutional churches and Madison Avenue techniques of promotionalism. An analysis of New Testament times should help us to understand that current conditions, however different they are from the past, should not hinder us when we have the same personal conviction as early Christians. When we understand the ancient times in which the gospel flourished, we should be encouraged in our attempts to spread the message throughout our world. We find a number of interesting chronicles by Luke that are worthy of consideration.

Religion

America has not had a lot of experience with idolatry, to date. However, because of the influx of refugees from

Asia, we are seeing an increase of Oriental religions and a burgeoning idolatry. Most major cities now have temples with Buddhists, etc., that are promoting false gods. While we are experiencing something new in the United States, the Roman world was familiar with thousands of gods. As Paul saw firsthand in Athens (Acts 17), temples abounded to every conceivable deity and, lest one be overlooked, an altar with the inscription “to an unknown god,” existed. From the fraternal gods of the Romans and Greeks to the adopted gods of assimilated tribes, Rome had a panoply of altars. Even emperor worship flourished under the reign of some Caesars. These religious concepts affected every aspect of daily life and commerce. Idolatry condoned every form of immorality and early converts had to put away various forms of sexual impurity that were endorsed and encouraged by pagans. The gathering in Jerusalem (Acts 15) that received God’s acceptance of Gentiles into the church without Judaistic conformity, warned these converts to “abstain from the pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from what is strangled, and from blood” (v. 20). Early Christians would have been familiar with temples that promoted prostitution in their worship. Likewise, idolaters who were deprived of their commercial profit in the manufacture of silver Diana statues rioted against Paul in Ephesus (Acts 19) when truth clashed with this error. It is feared that Americans are just beginning to learn of the evils of idolatry and will see more of it in coming years. We need to be prepared to face this device of the Devil.

The early church was entirely Jewish (Acts 2) and continued so until Acts 10, with the conversion of the first Gen-tile, Cornelius. The church of today is disproportionately Gentile, with few Jews. Most Christians have not had any contact with modern Jews and would have to think twice about how to convince a Jew that Jesus is the Christ. Paul, however, made it his practice to visit the synagogues in every city to reason from “the law and the prophets” that Jesus was Christ (13:16-52). Only when the Jews blasphemed by their rejection did Paul turn to the Gentiles. A large portion of the New Testament epistles addresses the relation-ship between Jew, Gentile, the law of Moses and faith (Galatians, Hebrews, et al).

Transportation

When the prophet said, “How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things” (Rom. 10:15; Isa. 52:7), he probably did not have in mind the journeys of Paul. However, Paul’s feet made many steps in taking the gospel to the Roman world. Early Christians made do without modern automobiles, trains or planes. When the disciples were “scattered abroad” (Acts 8:4), they probably walked. Horses were used on occasion (Acts 23:23-24), sailing vessels spanned large bodies of water (13:4), but transportation was slow, dangerous and tortuous (27:14-44; 2 Cor. 11:25). The Roman Empire stretched west to east from Spain to India. Paul wrote that during the life-time of the apostles, the gospel “was preached in all creation under heaven” (Col. 1:23). This was possible, in large part, due to the Pax Romana, or Roman peace, that subdued the world. The famous Roman road system that spanned the empire, the safety of travel insured by garrisons of soldiers throughout the world, and connecting sailing vessels made it possible to reach every province. In this regard, Christians of the twentieth century and beyond should realize our advantage of rapid and safe travel to take the gospel to the whole world. Our globe is shrinking every day due to communication devices and swift transportation. Let us deter-mine to learn from Luke’s record and take advantage of these blessings to spread the news of truth. Our failure to convert the lost of our generation is not due to a lack of transportation facilities. Rather, we have taken the “go” out of the Great Commission and our lack of conviction makes us impotent when compared to our first century brethren. Perhaps we can learn what is meant by “how beautiful are the feet” when we put our feet into our neighbors’ houses with the gospel message.

Language and Culture

It has already been noted that a common tongue made communication somewhat easier in New Testament times. Additionally, the gift of tongues and miraculous interpretation (Acts 2; 1 Cor. 13:10; et al) aided early Christians in reaching ethnic peoples. Luke recorded that the gospel reached “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (1:8). Paul anticipated reaching Spain (Rom. 15:24), having preached extensively in Asia Minor and Europe. Peter mentioned Babylon (1 Pet. 5:13, possibly symbolic). The gospel was preached to the people in towns and villages (14:21), large cities (Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Philippi, Athens, Corinth, Rome), and in jail cells (16:23-34), “publicly and from house to house” (Acts 20:20), to slaves, freemen, Roman citizens, and rulers (the Sanhedrin, Festus, Felix, Agrippa, Nero). People from all walks of life and cultures were taught. Some were pious (Lydia, faithful Jewish men and women in synagogues), others superstitious (Acts 17), flagrant sinners (the Corinthians: Acts 18; 1 Cor. 6:9ff), indifferent (Gallio, Acts 18:15), or rebellious (Stephen, Acts 7). The end result was a melding of Jew and Greek, male and female, bond andfree into one new man, the Christian (Acts 11:26). These from every type of culture and race, with every kind of tongue, were assimilated into the family of God and given a common heritage (20:32; 1 Cor. 1:10). We show a lack of faith in the gospel message when we do not permeate our society with the gospel message. Lacking a common tongue or miraculous gifts, we yet have translation and mass media facilities that overcome this handicap. Let us determine to use these media to reach every level of language and culture of our age and continue “to build up” (Acts 20:32; Eph. 4:11-16) the cause of Christ.

Government

Luke also recorded that the form of government in apostolic days was different from today. Beyond little doubt, it was much worse than anything we have known in America. Yet the gospel was able to flourish in spite of official government persecution.

Jewish officials (the Sanhedrin, Pharisees, Sadducees, priests and rulers) rejected Jesus as King from the very first and crucified him through the hands of the Roman officials (Acts 2:23). After the church was established, the ruling hierarchy of the Jews attempted to suppress the gospel and, while unable to execute capital punishment independent of Roman permission, inflicted much punishment on the saints. The apostles were imprisoned (4:1-3), threatened (5:17), and beaten (5:40). Stephen was stoned to death (7:60) and the church scattered through Saul’s persecution (8:3ff). James was killed by Herod (12:1ff) and Peter escaped only by divine help. At first indifferent to what they considered a sect of the Jews, the Romans were quite willing to pacify the Jews by joining in the persecution of Christians (25:9). Paul (who before had persecuted the church as Saul) was arrested and kept in a Roman prison at Caeserea for years. He had trials before the Sanhedrin (23:1ff), Felix (24:1-23), Festus (25:1-8), and Herod (26:1-29). Finally, knowing of plots to kill him, Paul had to appeal to Caesar (25:12; 26:32). Inspired history does not record this trial, but Paul speaks of his “first trial” (2 Tim. 4:16), probably before Nero. He expected a second one that would result in his death (2 Tim. 4:6) and secular history records a great onslaught by Rome as official government persecution tried to eradicate the church of Christ.

Rome is Gone — The Kingdom Remains

The message of Luke, viewed as a historian, is the same as those great prophets from ancient Israel. Isaiah (ch. 2), Joel (ch. 2) and Daniel (ch. 2) all taught that the God of heaven would establish a kingdom through the power of the Holy Spirit, in Jerusalem, in the days of Rome (fulfilled in Acts 2). The prophets testified that this kingdom would be eternal. Luke recorded the efforts of many to destroy the kingdom but showed how futile these efforts were. Rome no longer exists; the Lord’s church is spread throughout the world. God’s divine power has enabled truth to rise above different religions, cultures, languages and governments. Let us take heart in our own time and realize that God is with us as we struggle to preach the same saving message today as that preached nearly 2000 years ago. What we learn from history can help us face the future with renewed confidence and zeal.

Guardian of Truth XXXVII: 4, p. 10-11
February 18, 1993