Truth Magazine

By Lynn D. Headrick

The title of this article is the wording of the headline over Ann Landers’ column in the Birmingham Post Herald of May 17, 1990. Her column reads as follows:

Dear Ann Landers: if anyone has the slightest doubt that we are living in a totally different world today, I challenge them to browse through the stationery store on the corner and check out beautiful cards for all occasions with the following messages:

Best wishes to My Dear Mother and Her Husband.

Greetings to my Wonderful Stepson.

Many Happy Returns to Dad and His New Wife.

Holiday Wishes to My Former Grandparents. I divorced your grandson, not you.

Congratulations on a Great Divorce!

Happy Anniversary to My Former In-Laws Who are Still in My Heart.

Best wishes to My Former Husband on His Birthday.

Happy Fourth of July to My Live-In Sweetheart.

Congratulations on Your Marriage. This one is sure to work. The third time is always a charm.

Indeed, these messages on greeting cards mirror a great change in our society. As Ms. Landers says, “We are living in a totally different world today.” God spake to Moses concerning the people saying, “Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that is might be well with them, and with their children forever!” (Dent. 5:29) Things are not well in marriage relationships in our society because people do not keep God’s commandments which are for our good (Deut. 10:13).

Have ye not read, that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh? So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let man put asunder” (Matt. 19:4-6).

Commercial greeting card publishers will not publish a card which will not sell for a profit. There must be a demand for a card which congratulates one on what is termed a “Great Divorce!” How desperately we need to teach young people that marriage is to be entered into with the idea that they will remain together until death. When problems in the marriage relationship arise, the thinking should be toward settling them immediately and there should not be the idea of getting a divorce. God said, “I hate putting away” (Mal. 2:16).

There would be no demand for cards which congratulate mother on her new husband and father on his new wife if every mother would teach the younger women to love their husbands (Tit. 2) and do so by way of personal example. If every husband would love his wife (Eph. 5:28) he would never receive a card to congratulate him on his new wife.

Social workers, juvenile court judges, school teachers and administrators and, indeed, all who think about the well-being of children know that divorce has a traumatic effect upon children. If God’s laws were followed parents would stay together and love their children. As you read this article determine in your own mind that there will be absolutely no need for your having to purchase and send a card to a stepson or to former grandparents, or to former in-laws because you have been selfish and divorced your partner or because you have married someone with whom you have no scriptural right to live.

Even the casual observer knows that cards which send greetings to one’s live-in sweetheart are very marketable because of the great number of people who live in such a situation. Our society uses a polite term like “my live-in sweetheart” but God calls this sinful arrangement by the term “fornication.” May God help God-fearing young people to overcome any temptation to live in this manner. “Flee fornication” (1 Cor. 6:18) because it will cause the loss of your soul.

We need to teach, teach, and do some more teaching concerning God’s marriage laws. They are for our good. Much heartache is spared by doing the will of God. Brethren, uphold the hands of Bible class teachers, preachers, elders and faithful parents who teach the truth on marriage. Little children need to memorize John 3:16 and Acts 2:38 but now let us include Matthew 19:4-6. May God give us the courage to live above the world in all areas of life.

Guardian of Truth XXXIV: 21, pp. 641, 663
November 1, 1990

By Glenn Seaton

I for one have heard about all the quotes from psychologists and educators in preaching that I can stand. One elder told me, “We finally told our preacher that we wanted to hear less about the university and more about the Bible.” Later the same elders told me that his preaching really improved “for a few weeks.” Notice this point from Pulpit Helps:

Biblical truth is theocentric (God-centered) whereas psychological counseling systems are anthropocentric (man-centered). The focus of biblical truth is God. The focus of Psychology is self: self-esteem, self-worth, self-image, self-love, self-awareness, and self-actualization.

With centers of importance that are opposite (God or self) would you expect God’s will in believers’ lives to be helped, or hindered, by integrating the theories of psychological counseling systems with God’s Word?

The fact is that many preachers are simply not getting the job done. If you cut through all the Greek words and statistics and cute stories and motivation hype and psychology and university stories you’d find little Bible truth that will save a man’s soul or expose error. What a shame!

Guardian of Truth XXXIV: 21, p. 652
November 1, 1990

By Mike Willis

The deity of Christ has been under attack for centuries as modernists have methodically tried to remove supernaturalism from the Christian religion. The Christ of modernism is merely a man – a good man, but still only a man. The Christ of the Bible is the incarnation of God.

The Christ of Prophecy

The prophets who foretold the coming of the Messiah described him as more than a mere man. He is “God with us.” Here are some of the prophecies which emphasize the deity of the Messiah.

1. Isaiah 7-14. In foretelling the virgin birth, Isaiah describes the child to be born as “Immanuel.” Matthew explains the meaning of the Hebrew word to be “God with us.”

2. Isaiah 9:6. The child who was born of a virgin would be known as “Wonderful Counselor, The mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” The government of God’s kingdom would be placed upon his shoulder.

3. Micah 5:2. The Messiah who would enter human history as a baby born in Bethlehem is him “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

4. Psalm 2. In the second Psalm, the Messiah is represented as being so inseparably united with God that the heathen could not separate the Lord from his Anointed. The Lord promised to set his king upon his holy hill and said, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee” (2:7). The author of Hebrews refers this passage to Jesus showing his superiority to the angels: “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?” (1:6) The nations were commanded to “kiss the Son” in giving worship and honor to him.

5. Psalm 45. This psalm describes the marriage of the Messiah to his bride (the church). The Messiah is “fairer than the children of men” (45:2) and “most mighty” (45:3). To the Messiah, God said, “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows” (45:6-7). The author of Hebrews used this statement to attribute deity to Jesus in contrast to the angels (1:8).

6. Psalm 110. The reign of the promised Messiah is described in this psalm. The psalm opens, “The Lord, said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hands, until I make thine enemies thy footstool” (110:1). This statement was quoted by Jesus to confound the Jews who could not understand how the son of David could also be David’s Lord (Matt. 22:44). The Messiah is pictured as reigning in his kingdom, seated at the right hand of Jehovah God. His reign combines the office of priest and king, just like Melchizedek; his reign is everlasting, not being limited to a brief period of earth history. An everlasting dominion is possible only for an eternal Being.

7. Daniel 2:44. Writing during the Babylonian captivity, Daniel foresaw the establishment of the Lord’s kingdom during the days of the kings of the fourth kingdom (the Roman empire). The kingdom which the Messiah would establish “shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people . . . it shall stand for ever.” His everlasting dominion would include those from every nation.

8. Daniel 7.-13-14. In a later prophecy in the book, the prophet saw one “like the Son of man ascending with the clouds of heaven to the Ancient of days (a prophecy of the coronation of Jesus after his ascension into heaven). To this Son of man were given “dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”

9. Zechariah 13:7. This passage states that the Messiah is “the man that is my fellow,” describing him as the equal of the Lord of hosts.

From the testimony of the prophets, we can learn that the Messiah could not be merely a man. A man does not have the attributes necessitated by the descriptions of him as “God with us,” “The mighty God,” eternity, dominion over the entire world, and such like phrases. His humanity is also described in the Old Testament pointing us to the incarnation of God in human flesh.

The Birth of the Babe

Did Jesus leave his deity behind when he became flesh? That he did not leave his deity is seen from several lines of evidence.

1. Matthew 1:21-23. In Matthew’s birth narrative, the child born to Mary is no ordinary man produced by human generation. The child was conceived in Mary by the Holy Ghost and is Immanuel, “God with us.”

2. Luke’s record. Luke’s record of the birth of Jesus gives emphasis to the deity of Jesus. The babe born in Bethlehem was no ordinary child, like every other child. In announcing the work of John the Baptist to Zachariah, the angel foretold his work to prepare for the Messiah: “And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him (that is, the Lord their God, mw) in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (1:16-17). The “Lord their God” of Luke’s gospel is none other than Jesus. In studying the work of John the Baptist, we can see how he turned the hearts of men toward the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (cf. Jn. 1:29,36); he turned the hearts of men toward Jesus – the Lord their God.

When the Lord announced the birth of baby Jesus to Mary, he described the infant as the “Son of the highest” (1:32), the “holy thing” (1:35), and the “Son of God” (1:35). These words cannot be used to describe a mere human infant!

When Mary went to Elizabeth to confirm the announcement of the angel by the visible sign of the pregnancy of the aged barren woman, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost and described Mary as “the mother of my Lord” (1:43). The baby in Mary’s womb was Elizabeth’s Lord!

After the birth of John the Baptist, Zacharias was enabled to speak once again. In his prophecy, he spoke both of his son John the Baptist and the babe to born to Mary. He recognized Mary’s child as the “horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David” (1:69). When he turned to speak of John’s work, Zacharias said, “And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways.” Of course, John went before the face of Jesus to prepare the way for him.

When the baby was born, the angels in heaven announced to the shepherds of Israel that “a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” had been born (2:11). A multitude of the heavenly host sang praises to God at the birth of the child.

The birth narratives emphasize that the child born in Bethlehem was no ordinary child. He was the Lord’s Messiah, the Son of God, the Lord. To the mind of an humble Jew, such descriptions could not be given to a mere human being without being guilty of blasphemy. These descriptions must be understood to describe the deity of Christ, a deity which did not begin at some later point in his life but was there the moment of his birth. The miracles of Jesus’ humanity point us to his deity: he enters the world by one miracle (the virgin birth) and leaves it by another miracle (his ascension).

Guardian of Truth XXXIV: 21, pp. 642, 662-663
November 1, 1990

By Eric Norford

Gospel preachers in the 1990s will be faced with some unique challenges as well as some tremendous opportunities. Let us consider these things in this article.

The world markets are opening up more. We saw, in 1989, the Communist bloc in eastern Europe open up. The fences that separated these countries from the rest of the world came tumbling down. This opened the doors of opportunity to preach the gospel to that section of the world. The few Christians in China need to be built up and the gospel message needs to be carried to the billions of Chinese. The doors are opening up all over the world and our challenge is to take advantage of this wonderful blessing. Will we do it?

Doctrinal issues will continue to be a great challenge to our faith. We will continue to have to deal with our brethren and insist on doctrinal soundness. Abortion, which kills over 2 million babies a year, will be a volatile subject. The marriage-divorce-remarriage issue will not get better, as long as brethren continue to misinterpret and pervert Matthew 19:1-9 and 1 Corinthians 7. The social gospel will become more and more prevalent. World religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Janism, etc., will become more and more popular. These lifestyles are what people often want because of the allure of worldly pleasure. This will be difficult to deal with, but God’s word can put these doctrines to flight.

What will become of our children in the 1990s? Mothers will not be around the home, if present trends continue. In 1989, 51 percent of mothers worked outside the home. Children are often coming home to empty houses and finding themselves lonely and depressed. Empty moments cry out to be filled. Sooner or later television, drugs, ungodly music, or alcohol, become the parental crutch to the child and rebellion and anarchy become a lifestyle.

Our children will not be our children in school. Humanistic teaching is in the majority in every classroom. Situation ethics is the rule rather than the exception and the evidence for this is very clear. Rape, drugs, alcohol, premarital sex ‘ murder, rebellion, and suicide are all on the rise. What used to be unheard of, years ago, is even now, the status quo. Parental neglect and humanism can be the death of this nation. Parents must raise godly daughters. They must prepare them to be wives of elders and preachers and godly young men. They will raise sons who will proclaim the gospel. The schools will not do this, the home must fulfill its God-given roll. It is no wonder our nation is in a turmoil, we are often at fault for letting it happen by being silent and refusing to let our lights shine (Matt. 5:13-16). Children must be raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).

Technology has really taken off since the invention of the computer and now one can purchase one about the size of a small book. You can get the Bible on computer now. Many helps are available but we must guard against becoming lazy in our study. Another concern with technology is the possibility of altering the Bible more easily. The excuse many give is that times have changed and the Bible has become old-fashioned. The fact is that times will change but the Bible will always be the same. God’s law will always be true!

The greatest need of the 1990s will be to get back to old time preaching – preaching that rocked the hills and valleys of Kentucky and Ohio and rolled across the Roman Empire, preaching that convicts sinners to change their lives, preaching that will convict Christians to live godly lives and be separate from the world. If we can achieve this again the majority of problems among us can cease because we will want to serve God rather than man.

The great challenge of the 1990s can be overcome and the opportunities can be wonderful. But we will need faithful men who will stand on the grand word of God and roll up their sleeves and preach the word to dying men, without fear or favor.

May God give me strength to do his will.

Guardian of Truth XXXIV: 21, p. 647
November 1, 1990