Truth Magazine

By Cecil Willis

After several years of virtual brain-washing on “there is no pattern,” brethren in several areas have now taken upon the cliche, and are making use of it to the fullest. Brother A.C. Pullias, President of David Lipscomb College, published a booklet several years ago entitled, “Where There Is No Pattern.” It is hoped that those who have sown the seed of this “No Patternism” are now ready to gather in their harvest.

We have brethren that are fairly conservative on some things that are advocating that there is no pattern as to how churches may work together, that there is no pattern as to how to do benevolent work, and that there is no pattern as to how preachers are to be supported. They have just gone the first few yards down the long, tortuous, and devastating road of “No Patternism.” They have some rather difficult crooks and turns yet to negotiate. But unfortunately, once you have started down the road of “No Patternism,” it is difficult to right your course.

Brother Mack Langford, “new minister at the Collingwood, New Jersey congregation of saints in the Church of Christ,” has proceeded further down the road of “No Patternism” than some of his cohorts and contemporaries. But where he is now enables him to show where you have yet to go, if you are one of the “No Pattern Advocates,” or to enable you to see where your preacher is headed if he is one of the now popular “No Pattern” preachers. Brother Langford says:

Recent scholarship, German and American, has stated over and over that we know little about the first century Church, and there is no such thing as a final pattern for worship, polity and missions, yet we in the Church of Christ continue to insist that the New Testament is a blueprint which must be exactly reproduced. We think, or so it seems, that to recapture the way the early church did something is to recover the true faith. But this breeds a new legalism which would confine God’s grace and stifle freedom and openness.

How in the world can a man unburden his heart to the Lord and become open to love if he forever must be looking about, checking his posture and his words lest he step out of range of the hearing or favor of his deity, because he has deviated from the formula? It is time we have done with such neurotic compulsiveness (quoted from Riverside Church of Christ Weekly Bulletin, Wichita, Kansas, April 3, 1966).

You see, Brother Langford thinks there not only is no pattern for “missions” (which is the position of all our church supported orphan home, and sponsoring church defenders), but that there also is no pattern for worship or polity. According to him, we can worship any way we please, and organize the church in any fashion that pleases us. This is the logical path of “No Patternism,” brethren. The only difference between brother Langford and our institutional defenders is that Langford is more consistent. He is ready to junk not only the pattern for “missions,” but the pattern for church organization and worship as well.

Brother Langford has committed himself to a premise that is identical to that commitment of the Christian Church nearly one hundred years ago. There is no logical reason he now can give to stay in the church of Christ, rather than to join the Christian Church. And if he does like about a score of earlier, “No Pattern Advocates,” he will end up in the most liberal wing Christian Church.

But those mumbly and lack-courage brethren that want to travel along in the trails of bolder “No Pattern Advocates,” like the Christian Church and now brother Mack Langford, had better begin to stir up their courage. For they must also advocate his “No Pattern” doctrine in church organization and worship, as well as in “missions” or the work of the church, if they are going to be consistent. They have but two alternatives; to maintain their consistency and go the full route with Langford, Meyers, and others like them, or to maintain their inconsistency by maintaining there is no pattern as to how the work of the church is to be done, but remaining dogmatic that the pattern of worship or congregational polity must be maintained. It will be interesting to see which alternative they will choose.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Josh. 24:15), and continue to “build all things according to the pattern” (Heb. 8:5). (Excerpt from “Modernism of All Sorts,” Truth Magazine, Sept. 1966, p. 272.)

Guardian of Truth XXXIV: 13, p. 389
July 5, 1990

By Lester A. Doyle, Jr.

Jesus’ Prayer for Unity

In John 17, Jesus prayed for the unity of all his people in order that the whole world might come to believe in him and

obey him. In verses 20 through 23 Jesus said, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that you sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

The unity is best seen here this morning in this communion. The one thing we have in common that gives us unity is our Savior Jesus Christ, and his death on the cross that all our sins might be forgiven.

Undeserving as we are, Christ’s death has made us all one people, God’s family, his children.

Guardian of Truth XXXIV: 12, p. 374
June 21, 1990

By Donald P. Ames

Recently I sat down in the study to spend an afternoon getting out our weekly bulletin. I selected the material I thought would be effective to put therein, typed the stencils, justified the margins, proof-read them, made any necessary corrections, and then finished them to be ready to run off. I proceeded downstairs to the mimeograph room and ran off pages I and 4. 1 then flipped the pages over, changed the stencil, and proceeded with pages 2 and 3. About half way through, I glanced down and was shocked to see only white, blank pages coming out! (It seems I must have been about half asleep and had put the cover on the machine rather than the stencil, so naturally nothing was coming out. Sheepishly, I changed back to the stencil, and did the job correctly.)

As I rebuked myself for my stupidity, it also got me to thinking about this very article, and how much of our time and effort is for naught because we don’t really put forth the full effort necessary. For instance, how many congregations will decide to have a gospel meeting, select a “good preacher,” print up announcements to be passed out, run an ad in the local paper, etc. Then when the meeting gets here, members fail to mention it to their friends, fail to even bother to support it themselves, and maybe even complain about how “tired” they are? All that good effort, study, preaching, and expense for naught because we really weren’t that interested in a good meeting in the first place!

Some congregations mail out their bulletin (sorry, we at Emerson Ave. do not). The permit, mailing costs, work and effort amount to quite a bit. Still, some of the bulletins that cross my desk are so sloppy, crowded and poorly laid out that they simply slide into the trash, hardly even being looked at. Some are completely full of nothing but local assignments for the day’s activities (i.e., who’s to wait on the Lord’s table, who is the usher, etc.). Really now, why spend all that time and money to mail all that out to people who aren’t even going to be there, or maybe don’t even live anywhere around there? It takes up a lot of space, fills the pages; but is of no benefit to any but those in attendance. Why not fix an insert instead, then mail out a bulletin that can teach. Don’t make a lot of effort for naught. (And some bulletins are excellent – I can’t hardly wait to get them!)

Sadly, I still see many churches selecting good tracts and then not bothering to stamp the church’s address on them before putting them in the tract rack. So, after they have been removed, taken to work (school or some other location), read and set down, it is “anybody’s guess” where they came from. Someone picking one up and getting interested, could speculate for days as to where it came from and who is teaching such great truths, and never even come close to finding out. A lot of good teaching, expense, and opportunities gone for naught, because we fail to look beyond our tract rack or building.

But there are other things “for naught” to be considered also. Many times a class teacher will be busy planning the lesson all week for Sunday morning. Class begins, and some can’t “remember” where in the Bible the lesson was. Class books haven’t even been read, much less been filled out or being prepared to carry on an intelligent discussion about the class lesson. And then the late-comers trickle in and “don’t know where we are” or “what you are talking about.” And so we again review for their benefit. Yes, it is sad that all the work done to prepare a good lesson was for naught. So much more could be accomplished if we all tried to plan and cooperate better.

The preacher studies and plans his lessons to try to teach God’s word. He selects what he feels is needed and will help them in their studies and growth. And some will listen thank God for such. Some sleep or nod throughout the lesson. Some will whisper, visit, draw, or play with the kids (distracting often the very ones the preacher is trying to reach). The lesson is finished, and few may even remember the major points – a lot of work for naught.

I’m sure you also get the idea, can can make a lot of other applications of your own (and by the way this is not true of Emerson Ave., but I am speaking in generalities). If we are going to put forth the effort, let’s all join in and do our best to do it right so the intended goal may be achieved (Rom. 12:7-8). Let’s not let all the effort be “much ado for naught”!

Then again, as I think about it, another good lesson to come out of this incident might be one of inattention, or one on over-confidence. Now let me see. Hmm.

Guardian of Truth XXXIV: 12, p. 372
June 21, 1990

By Norman E. Fultz

Freedom! Liberty! Two words that stir deep emotions in the hearts of any oppressed or their sympathizers! With these words throngs can be mustered to support various causes or movements. The masses of marches from South Africa to Eastern Europe and even in Moscow lately have been crying out for more freedom – of movement, of expression, of economics, of personal enterprise. Great sacrifices have been made to attain or to maintain freedom for oneself or for others. The lovers of liberty will gladly risk life or limb. Patrick Henry’s immortal “Give me liberty or give me death” expresses the extreme importance attached to being free. The pages of history, both of the distant and more recent past, and that which is being currently written, recount the struggles of men to be free from various forms of oppression and bondage. And those who become the emancipators of those in bondage are destined for their place in the sun. But liberty once gained is not thereafter guaranteed without diligence on the part of the recipients. “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty” and diligent souls must keep watchful eyes for anything that would encroach.

There are many kinds of bondage – ignorance, superstition, political, psychological, fear, etc. But the greatest, because of its consequences, is spiritual bondage, the bondage of sin. “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin” (Jn. 8:34). “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).

With many, the word “sin” is outmoded as they seek to cast off all restraint and exult in being their own person, “free spirits.” Having listened to the hawkers of loose living (“Do your own thing … .. You only go around once, so get all the gusto you can get,” “If it feels good, do it”) and the evangelists of “alternate lifestyles” who were promising liberty, they have been brought into bondage (2 Pet. 2:18-19). The escape promised by alcohol and other drugs and the sexual revolution have instead become entrapments. The resulting addiction and life threatening diseases have become matters of national concern, but the problem is one of sin.

From this bondage, there is an Emancipator, a Deliverer – Jesus Christ. Of his own power to free Jesus said, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth, and the truth shall make you free… If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (Jn. 8:31-32,36). Paul admonished the Galatian saints, “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage” (Gal. 5:1).

While many of the areas of freedom demanding attention of mankind are worthy, the greatest freedom one can pursue is that freedom from spiritual bondage; for like godliness, it has promise of life that now is and of that which is to come (1 Tim. 4:8). Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (Jn. 10:10).

Friend, you need no longer be enslaved to sin. You can be delivered, set free in Christ! Paul reminded the Romans that “so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:3-4). And a bit later he exultantly declared, “God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Rom. 6:17). That freedom can be yours as well if you, like they, will obey the glorious gospel of Jesus. “Being then made free from sin” you will become “the servants of righteousness” (Rom. 6:18).

So, kind reader, as the grand old hymn invites:

If you are tired of the load of your sin,

Let Jesus come into your heart;

If you desire a new life to begin,

Let Jesus come into your heart.

And finally, let all who enjoy this freedom never cease in diligent effort to sound forth the good news of freedom in Christ.

Guardian of Truth XXXIV: 12, p. 371
June 21, 1990