Truth Magazine

By John A. Smith

Pre-marital Sexual Abstinence Offers True Freedom!

The wisdom of pre-marital sexual abstinence can be seen in the world around us. In it we find a powerful confirmation of the wisdom of God’s law. God’s prohibition was not issued to be mean or deprive the unmarried of pleasure. It was given to make life better and full of pleasant satisfaction.

Pre-marital sexual abstinence offers true freedom from many things which are not in the young person’s best interest.

1. Freedom from unwanted, unplanned pregnancies.

a. 90% of girls who are sexually active without the use of some form of contraception will become pregnant within 1 year. (I do not mean by this to endorse the use of birth control as an alternative to chastity.)

b. 85% of teenage boys who father a child will eventually abandon mother and child.

c. Pregnant and parenting teens are less likely to obtain a high school degree or its equivalent.

d. Babies born to teenage mothers are 2 1/2 times more likely to die in the first year of life than those born to women in their twenties.

Clearly God knew what he was talking about! David had to struggle with just such a consequence (2 Sam. 11-12). When he had an affair with Bathsheba, he had no intention for a long term relationship. Sexual activity had become addictive. The momentary pleasure of this “one night stand” brought a life time of grief (2 Sam. 12:10-14).

But not everyone who is sexually active outside of marriage will get pregnant. If you avoid this physical consequence is it OK? Think again!

2. Freedom from sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS.

a. 12 million new cases of STD are reported annually in the U.S. Many of them won’t kill you, but you won’t kill them either. They will be with you for life. A STD caught before marriage could present a serious health threat to one’s spouse.

b. If current rates continue one in four Americans between the ages of 15 and 55 will eventually acquire a STD.

c. Since the “sexual revolution” the number of known STDs has risen from 5 to more than 27.

d. If global predictions are correct there may be as many as 50 to 100 million AIDS infected persons in the world (Dr. Otis Bowen, Secretary of Health and Human Services).

e. Dr. C. Everett Koop observed that nothing was more frightening to him than the “specter of AIDS in the future of public health.”

f. Symptoms may be dormant for 7 years or more. Many people who are infected and carriers do not know that they have the disease.

g. AIDS infection is not limited to the homosexual population. It is spreading most rapidly among heterosexuals.

“Good understanding gains favor, but the way of the unfaithful is hard” (Prov. 13:15). “The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them” (Prov. 11:3). “He who keeps the commandment keeps his soul, but he who is careless of his ways will die” (Prov. 19:16). Clearly, God knew what he was talking about.

But not everyone who is sexually active outside of marriage will get a STD or AIDS. If this consequence is avoided, is it OK? Think again.

3. Free from the pressure to marry before you are ready.

a. Sexual relations create a bond between the partners that, when mistaken for genuine love, fools the young couple into believing that the relationship is deeper than it really is.

b. Builds a relationship on an emotional bond which can easily be faulty.

4. Freedom from the guilt, self-doubt, disappointment, worry and ruined reputation often associated with premarital sexual activity.

a. Guilt is one consequence of pre-marital sexual activity which may last longer than any other.

b. Casual sex without deep-rooted committed love proves to be damaging to one’s self-image.

c. No pill or device can guard your mind against the terror of self -accusation.

After his affair with Bathsheba, David had a terrifying experience with the guilt. He became physically and emotionally sick. Describing his condition, David said, “There is no soundness in my flesh because of your anger, nor is there any health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me . . . I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are full of inflammation, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and severely broken; I groan because of the turmoil of my heart” (Psa. 38:1-8).

These few consequences only begin to address the issue. Imagine sitting across the dinner table and having to tell your parents that you are pregnant, or having to tell your girl friend’s father that she’s pregnant and you’re the father. Shattered dreams and innocence lost never to be regained are not the consequences which get publicity, but are consequences that often linger long into adulthood.

Pre-marital sexual abstinence offers the young person the opportunity to experience the better things in life.

1. Freedom to be in control of your own life.

2. Freedom to experience fuller communication in dating relationships.

3. Freedom to develop greater respect for yourself.

4. Freedom to have greater trust in marriage.

Guardian of Truth XXXV: 9, pp. 266-267
May 2, 1991

By Steve Wolfgang

Footnote: Peggy Noonan, What I Saw At the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era (New York: Random House/Ballantine Books, 1990, 1991), pp. 23-24.

Peggy Noonan is a former newswriter for Dan Rather on CBS Radio News who in 1984 became a speech writer for Ronald Reagan and, later, George Bush. She wrote some of the more memorable speeches delivered by Presidents Reagan and Bush, including the Reagan speech at Pointe du Hoc in Normandy in 1984, the January 1986 speech following the space shuttle “Challenger” disaster, as well as George Bush’s nomination acceptance and Inaugural addresses.

Although not a “religious” book, it contains some enlightening passages about issues where politics and religion frequently intersect, and provides some insight into the often anti-religious bias of our public news media. I offer several of these passages for your consideration, and hope you will profit from them as I did.

CBS, like all the networks, all media, was shaped in part by a certain political spirit.

My peers at the network, the writers and producers in their late twenties and thirties, thought of themselves as modern people trying to be fair.

There are conservatives over here and wild lefties over there – and us, the sane people, in the middle. If you made up a list of political questions – should we raise taxes to narrow the deficit; should abortion be banned; should a morning prayer be allowed in the schools; should arms control be our first foreign-policy priority? most of them would vote yes, no, no, yes.

And they would see these not as liberal positions but as decent, intelligent positions. They also thought their views were utterly in line with those of the majority of Americans. In a way that’s what’s at the heart of our modern political disputes, a disagreement over where the mainstream is and what “normal” is, politically and culturally. I think a lot of the young people at the networks didn’t really know what normal was in America, and I hold this view because after working six years in broadcasting and three in New York, I no longer knew what normal was.

A small example. Once I wrote a radio script in which I led into a story by saying, “This Sunday morning you’ll probably be home reading the papers or out at brunch with friends, but Joe Smith will be. . . ” A middle-aged editor listened as he walked by the studio and approached me afterward. “Peggy, a small point but maybe not so insignificant: This Sunday morning most Americans will be at church.”

He was, of course, correct. But I forgot. I wasn’t at church on Sunday mornings, I was in a restaurant on Columbus Avenue eating mushroom omelets and reading the Arts and Leisure section of The New York Times.

Guardian of Truth XXXV: 9, p. 267
May 2, 1991

By W.R. Jones

As the Women’s Movement grows in the world about us it is having its effect on some ladies in the church. I was recently confronted with this question by a Christian who worships with a congregation where sisters attending business meetings is a fairly common practice. I am told they attend and speak out concerning their views. The first thing this practice tells me is that sisters who attend and so exercise themselves do not properly understand their role in the kingdom or they have no respect for God’s &vine arrangement. The second thing this practice tells me is that brethren who allow it are either poorly informed of women’s role in the New Testament or they have lost their courage to speak against such conduct. In either case it is an indicator of spiritual decline.

On the basis of what I see and hear, I fear some ladies in the church think the Women’s Movement as seen in the world has liberated them from the role assigned by our Lord in the New Testament. We must Dot judge the church by the standards of the world. I freely admit that faithful sisters in the congregation have a right to know what the church is trying to accomplish. I would readily listen to and respect their sound counsel. But this can be effectively accomplished without women pushing themselves into a “leadership” position in church decisions.

I do not question the “value” of faithful women in Christ Jesus. Dorcas assisted the needy (Acts 9:36). Priscilla and her husband taught a young preacher in the right way (Acts 18:18). Phebe and Mary were commended for their assistance to Paul in the gospel (Rom. 16:1,6).

Women were waiting in prayer following the ascension of Jesus (Acts 1:14). In Philippians 4:3 Paul said, “Help those women who labored with me in the gospel.” As a young preacher I kept preaching appointments where there would have been no congregation, except for the faithful sisters. I have won battles for truth on some occasions only because faithful women backed me. Godly women have done much to encourage, mold and shape me, for a half-century of effective preaching, Don’t try to tell me they are not valuable. But the truth remains, the Lord did not put them in places of leadership. Men and women are equal in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:28), but they are not equal in their role assignments. Women were not assigned leadership responsibilities in kingdom matters.

What Can a Woman Do in the Worship?

She can do anything a man can do – except take the lead. She can sing, pray, commune, contribute and study – anything but take the lead. Women’s rights to equality in worship is not to be questioned. But dominion over and teaching men publicly is forbidden. Why is this so? 1. God so commanded (1 Cor. 14:23-35). 2. Adam was first created, then Eve (1 Tim. 2:13). There was no woman among the apostles, the seventy, elders, deacons, preachers and evangelists in the New Testament. But, women must not feel badly about this. They have been vindicated by the Lord. The word “mother” has elevated her above all in another role (v. 15).

Yet, a sister may ask, “Is there nothing else for me? Can I do nothing but quietly sit in the assembly and praise God?” If this were all, it would still be an honor, but God has not limited your duties to simply that.

Woman and Her Work in the Church Daily

Women are commanded to teach. But, what about 1 Timothy 2:12? Of course, she is not to usurp authority. She is not to push her way into the lead. Older women are to teach the younger. They are to teach the younger women to be good wives (Tit. 2:3-5). They are permitted to teach privately (Acts 18:26). Sisters can teach classes of children or other women. They can teach their neighbors. Many individuals, male and female, have been converted by women. Women would do the church a great service if they would teach our young ladies to be proper wives for elders, deacons and preachers. You can’t believe how many elders, deacons and especially preachers I have known whose labor was greatly hindered by a wife whose heart and conduct was not in his work. Sisters, you can visit the sick and shut-ins at home or in the hospital, help the needy, and like Dorcas, you could even make a garment.

Female Christians, ask yourselves these questions. 1. Am I an asset or a liability in the church? 2. Am I a help or a hindrance to the work? 3. Do I add strength and character to the church? 4. Is my daily life an influence for good? 5. Am I daily growing in grace and knowledge? 6. Have I led anyone to Christ? Am I even trying? 7. By my attendance and interest am I giving encouragement to the young converts and the unsaved?

Let me proudly say, “God bless our righteous women!”

Guardian of Truth XXXV: 9, p. 265
May 2, 1991

By Andy Alexander

Must Be Right on Christian Living

In order to be the right church, the church must teach what the Bible teaches on Christian living. The church must attempt to persuade its members to follow the Bible in their everyday living and it must also discipline those who disobey (Tit. 2:11-12; Jas. 1:27; 2 Thess. 3:6-15). The church which teaches what the Bible teaches on Christian living and strives to enforce that teaching is right, because the Bible is right and that’s what the Bible teaches. It could be right on this point, yet wrong in its worship or wrong in its teaching concerning the conditions of membership and this would make it the wrong church.

Must Be Right In Name

Christ built the church, is the head of it, the Savior of it and responsible for adding those who obey the gospel to it (Eph. 1:22-23; 5:23; Matt. 16:15; Acts 2:47). So what name should the church wear? Since the Bible is right, what does the Bible say? We see it called the church, the church of God, the churches of God, and the churches of Christ (Acts 2:47; 1 Cor. 1:2; 11:16; Rom. 16:16). These are not titles given to the church, but simply expressions of ownership. In the broad sense, speaking of all the saved it is called the church. When speaking of it in terms of different local congregations “church” is used in the plural form.

Denominations of men wear differing titles based upon different teachings, different creeds, and different practices. There is no such division in the New Testament church. In fact, division is condemned (1 Cor. 1:10-13). The church that wears a Bible name is right on that point. It may be wrong elsewhere in its doctrine and practices, but it is right on that point.

Must Be Right In Its Organization

The Bible teaches that local congregations are independent bodies. They are to manage their own affairs and to be organized as God instructs in his word. Each local congregation is to have its own elders, deacons, and members (Acts 14:23; 20:28; Phil. 1:1). The church which teaches this plan and strives to be organized in this way is right on this point. In order to be the right church, it must be right on all of these points.

Must Be Right In Its Benevolent and Missionary Work

It is the duty of the church to help poor saints and preach the gospel to the world (Acts 11:27-30; 1 Cor. 16:1-2; Phil. 4:10-18). The church may be right in name, organization, its teaching on Christian living, worship, and conditions of membership, but if it does not make a scriptural effort to help poor saints and preach the gospel to the world – it lacks that much being right.

What the Bible Teaches Is Right

The church which does what the Bible teaches is right, because the Bible is right! The church which leaves off some of the Bible’s teaching or adds to what the Bible teaches is wrong. It may be right on some points, but in order to be the right church it must be right on all these points. We must learn to keep our own opinions out of the matter and listen to God.

Study your Bible. Examine what you are doing. Is what you are teaching, supporting, and practicing found in the Bible? If not, then obey the gospel and identify yourself with a congregation which follows the Bible completely. The church of Christ is following the Bible as its one and only guide. If we are failing, then point out our faults, even if its just one point. We want to go to heaven and the only way is to follow the Bible.

Guardian of Truth XXXV: 9, p. 263
May 2, 1991