Truth Magazine

By Greg Gwin

It happened again just the other day. Someone called me a “Pharisee.” This religious name calling is the equivalent of being branded a Communist in politics, or a bigot in social matters. It is meant to draw instant negative response. The very notion of the Pharisees, based upon what we learn of them in the Scriptures, calls to mind things that we all despise. My immediate reaction is to deny the charge! Surely, I don’t want to be like the Pharisees.

Do you know why I was so accused? It was during a time of private Bible study with a “liberal” brother. I was stressing the importance of Bible authority. I was condemning any practice that could not be justified by a “thus saith the Lord.” I was demanding book, chapter, and verse for all that we do in service to God. And then he let me have it. Without any answer to my challenges, he hit me with that despicable title, “Pharisee.” I’m sure he expected me to surrender my position. After all, no one wants to be like the Pharisees.

But wait! What was wrong with the Pharisees anyway? They certainly received Jesus’ strongest condemnations, but why? Why would Jesus, in one brief address, call them “hypocrites,” “blind guides,” “fools,” “whited sepulchers,” and “serpents” (Matt. 23:1-33)? Why did they deserve all of this?

The same text (Matt. 23) gives us the answer. They would not do what they taught others to do (vv. 3,4). They did their religious works “to be seen of men” (vv. 5-7). They embezzled widow’s money (v. 14). They blatantly violated their oaths (vv. 16-22). They were merciless (v. 23). They gave the appearance of being devout, but their hearts were “full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (vv. 25-28).

Obviously, there was a lot wrong with the Pharisees. But, unless I am mistaken, the man who accused me of being like them had none of these things in mind. His complaint was that I, like the Pharisees, demanded strict, exact, and careful adherence to the things taught in God’s word. Is this wrong? Am I wrong? Were the Pharisees wrong in this regard.

We have noted that the Pharisees truly had their problems. And, additionally, we realize that they had erred in binding some of their own traditions, making them even more important than God’s commands (Matt. 15:1-9). But what about their insistence on a careful observance of the law was that wrong? Did Jesus rebuke them for stressing (at least in their teaching, if not in their practice) that the commands of God must be meticulously obeyed? No! In fact, Jesus said of them, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do” (Matt. 23:2,3). And concerning their punctilious practice of tithing even their garden herbs, Jesus said, “These ought ye to have done” (Matt. 23:23).

So then, are we wrong when we demand Bible authority for all we do? Have we “missed the boat” in calling for “book, chapter, and verse”? The answer is “no!” And that’s one place where the Pharisees weren’t wrong either!

Guardian of Truth XXXIII: 9, p. 269
May 4, 1989

By Sterling Collier

Every parent is aware of the reality that it is not an easy task to raise children. For the mother or father who says it is easy is letting someone else raise his children. Many words can be used to describe the time spent in his God-given responsibility – tender, frustrating, rewarding, perplexing, impossible, tearful and a variety of other words. We have times when we realize that soon they will be on their own and we have but little time left with them. There are other times when we don’t know if we will survive all those years till they are on their own.

In our busy world with all. of its demands upon our time we are hearing of spending “quality” time in certain ;~~. This means that we should make the most of the hours spent in our various pursuits. We should not waste time and opportunity on meaningless endeavors. But this necessitates that we have our priorities in place and not waste time on trivial matters and leave undone the important things. If you find yourself not having the time you would like to spend with your children and are concerned about using it wisely, may we suggest a few thoughts for your consideration.

Study God’s word with them. Without a doubt, this is the most important matter that can be taught to children, Many things they learn, they win outgrow. Some things they learn they may never use. Some things they are taught act as springboards to higher learning. But an education in the Bible is going to stay with them forever. It prepares them for this life, physical death and heaven. Could you possibly leave your children with a greater possession?

“And fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). Children have been given into the hands of parents to shape and form their minds and lives. The training that is most profitable to all children is based on what God desires all people to live by: his word. It gives them a true evaluation of this life, establishes their priorities and prepares them to meet God in the judgment.

Christians could do well to imitate the actions commanded by God to the children of Israel. Speaking of the laws of God, Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 6:7, “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up.” From getting up in the morning until the time we lie down at night and in all activities in between, teach children diligently the commands of God. Children should be taught and shown by example how to love the word of God and how to hate every false way.

One of the most effective tools of teaching used by Christ was the parable. By using physical and familiar examples, he was able to reveal spiritual truth to his. hearers. Parents could do well to take everyday experiences in their lives and use them to relate to their children about God and his word. From a young age teach them that God is the creator of heaven and earth. He has set in motion the laws that govern the universe and still controls it and cares for the soul of each person. This can be done as children begin to become aware of more, than just themselves.

Timothy is a good example of what a godly parent can achieve. “And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15). In 1:5 of that same epistle, Paul reminds him of the genuine faith that was in Timothy’s mother and grandmother. Timothy was a faithful worshiper of God.

Educate them about life. This is an area in which many modem parents have avoided their responsibility. They have turned this kind of teaching over to the “experts.” These “experts” may be atheists or agnostics. They may possess some religious background, or label themselves “Christians,” but more times than not they have drunk deeply from the well of human knowledge and philosophy. They take age old problems and try to solve them with modem solutions. I don’t speak of education in math, English and the like. I speak of life. I speak of how to handle problems that arise. Of the one standard of authority, the Bible, that they can turn to and have stability in their life. To teach them of the pitfalls of sin and the painful consequences they may have to beware because of sin. To teach them that God’s word determines right and wrong and not their own whims. Give them that anchor that will keep them safe through eternity.

We need to make our children aware of the devices of Satan and how with God’s help we can escape them. Our children need to know the joy of living a life pleasing to God. This they can learn by word and by example. Let parents demonstrate in their lives the things they are teaching their children, lest we become hypocrites in their eyes.

Parents, if your life has become so filled with other activities that you have little or no time for your children, you will regret it. Also you will answer for it. “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is his reward” (Psa. 127:3). How are you treating this blessing from God?

Guardian of Truth XXXIII: 9, p. 270
May 4, 1989

By David Townsley

Men usually think of Christ as a peacemaker and a comforter to the soul, which is certainly true, but we have not fully seen Christ if we fail to see him as a Disturber of Men as well. He says in Matthew 10:34-36: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother4n-law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. “

1. Christ preached a disturbing message: He disturbed the complacent, self-satisfied religious leaders among the Jews when he:

(1) Rebuked them for their teaching and practice of the traditions and commandments of men (Matt. 15:1-3; 16:6,12).

(2) Rebuked them for their prejudiced hearts (Matt. 13: 15).

(3) Rebuked them for their religious inconsistency (Matt. 23:1-4).

(4) Rebuked them for their exalted pride (Matt. 23:5-12).

(5) Pronounced a “woe’ upon them for taking “away the key of knowledge” (Lk. 11:52; Matt. 23:13).

(6) Pronounced a “woe” upon them for their religious pretense (Matt. 23:14,27-28).

(7) Pronounced a “woe” upon them for making proselytes to their opinions (Matt. 23:15).

(8) Pronounced a “woe” upon them for their having undone “the weightier matters of the law” (Matt. 23:23-24).

(9) Pronounced a “woe” upon them for their making “clean the outside of the cup and platter, but within they am full of extortion and excess” (Matt. 23:25-26).

2. When Jesus preached his disturbing message, openly rebuking and denouncing their sins, these leaders reacted in an ugly and violent manner.

(1) They called him names – a Samaritan (Jn. 9:48).

(2) They said he had a demon (Jn. 8:48).

(3) They claimed he performed miracles by the power of the devil (Matt. 12:22-24).

(4) They challenged his authority (Matt. 21:23-27).

(5) They took up stones and cast at him (Jn. 8:59).

(6) They accused him of blasphemy (Jn. 10:33).

(7) They sought to kill him (Jn. 7:1).

(8) They finally had him crucified (Matt. 26:3-4; 27:1-2,24-26,34-35).

3. Christ not only preached a disturbing message, he asked disturbing questions.

(1) “And if ye salute your brethren only, what do Ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so?”

(2) “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” (Matt. 7:3)

(3) “Whom do you say that I the Son of man am?” (Matt. 16:13)

(4) “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26)

(5) “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Lk. 6:46)

4. Christ not only preached a disturbing message and asked disturbing questions, he set disturbing standards.

A. His standard for the home.

1. His marriage law: He taught that it was God’s will from the beginning for one man to be married to one woman – a one flesh relationship that God has joined together and that man is not to put asunder (Matt. 19:4-6; Gen. 2:24). He intended for this to be a permanent relationship.

a. He taught that there is one reason for divorce and remarriage – fornication (Matt. 19:3-12 – only the innocent party has a right to divorce the guilty party for this reason and remarry).

2. A husband is: to be head of the wife (Eph. 5:23), to love his wife as his own body (Eph. 5:25,28-29), to provide for his family (1 Tim. 5:8), and to bring up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).

3. A wife is: to love her husband, to love her children, to be a keeper at home and obedient to her own husband (Tit. 2:3-5).

4. Children are: to obey and honor their parents (Eph. 6:1-2; Col. 3:20).

B. His standard for his disciples.

1. Christ and his church must come first with them (Matt. 6:33).

2. Christ must come before the family (Matt. 10:34-37).

3. They must love one another (Jn. 13:34-35).

4. They must correct their sins against one another (Matt. 5:23-24; 18:15-17).

C. His standard for worship: Worship is to be in spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:24). Worship that is not in spirit and in truth is vain worship (Matt. 5:9).

You can see from this short study that Christ is a disturber of men when they are in their sins. He came to seek and to save the lost (Lk. 19: 10). Men have to be disturbed about their sins before they will do anything about them, so Christ deliberately preached a disturbing message that he might turn them from their sins that they might be saved and serve him. Christ wants gospel preachers today to preach this same message so that people will be disturbed about their sins and turn from them to serve him (2 Tim. 4:2).

One of the sad things in the church today is that members no longer want to hear the disturbing message of Christ they “will not endure sound doctrine” (2 Tim. 4:3). They want to hear “fables” (2 Tim. 4:4) or a “felt-need gospel” that builds up their ego and deals with inter-personal relationships. They want a religion of entertainment and/or a positive message which soothes them in their sins. They want the preacher to preach “Peace, peace, when there is no peace” (Jer. 6:14)! The lust in the pew for such a message has given us preachers in the pulpit who will preach the kind of message they crave (2 Tim. 4:3) and many of God’s people “love to have it so” (Jer. 5:31)!

Brother preacher, is your preaching patterned after the preaching of Christ, the “Disturber of Men”? Or is your preaching simply the kind that satisfies the lust in the pew (2 Tim. 4:3-4)? Preaching that is patterned after the “Disturber of Men” will save men from hell! Preaching that satisfies the lusts of men will damn the preacher and those who hear him! Brother, could Christ preach where you worship?

Guardian of Truth XXXIII: 9, pp. 266-267
May 4, 1989

By Ron Halbrook

“Why not? Shouldn’t religion change with the times?”

Most people are shocked to learn that Jesus Christ did not give the world a religion of change! He alone is “the way, the truth, and the life.” He gave all men the one right way to the one true God – through one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” The unchanging Christ warned against “false prophets” who bring “divers and strange doctrines” (Jn. 14:6; Eph. 4:4-6; Heb. 13:8; Matt. 7:15).

To understand the issue of a woman bishop, we must first understand the church Jesus built with the shedding of his blood. When sinners believe Christ And are baptized into him, he saves them by his blood and adds them to his church (Matt. 16: IS; Acts 2:4.7; 20:28). He organized his people into local churches to do his work, and gave them a plan for each congregation to develop its own overseers or bishops – also called elders, pastors, and presbyters (Acts 14:23; 20:17,28). Also, he provided for evangelists or preachers to proclaim his word, but the preacher does not have the authority to oversee a local church like bishops or pastors do (Eph. 4:11).

The Lord ordained men to lead as bishops and to preach as evangelists. He did “not allow a woman to teach” or in any other way to “exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet” (1 Tim. 2:12, NAS). The work of bishops and of preachers involves the authority to lead the mixed assembly, which is not the woman’s role. To qualify for “the office of a bishop,” a person must be “the husband of one wife” and have children (1 Tim. 3:1-7). A godly woman can be the wife of a bishop and a great asset to the church, but the church of Christ has no female bishops.

There was no separated priesthood for clergy in the church Jesus built. Both mew and women were priests, a synonym for Christian or one who worships God (1 Pet. 2:5). A priest did not mean a preacher or a public leader. The modern idea of a formal or clerical “priesthood” distinct from other Christians was never authorized by Christ.

The Episcopal Church is a denomination with a national organization. A “bishop” presides over many local churches in a region called a diocese. Their preachers are a distinct clergy called “priests.” This denomination voted to allow female priests in 1976. Barbara Harris has now been “elected” as a bishop by the Boston diocese and the election ratified by a vote of the “standing committees” of the nation’s 118 dioceses. Mid-January 1989 marks the final step, confirmation by a majority of the Church’s 118 diocean bishops. Sounds like a political campaign, doesn’t it? She will be officially “consecrated” as a “suffragan (assistant) bishop,” something else not found in the Bible (Time, 26 Dec. 1988, p. 81; Houston Chronicle, 5 Jan. 1989, p. 7-A).

Harris is a divorced feminist and a social activist who wants practicing homosexuals to be priests and bishops. And why not? If God’s Word means nothing when it limits bishops to service in a local church, and dioceses can be organized; if the Bible’s limit of public leadership in the church to men means nothing, and women can be preachers and bishops; if the New Testament limit of the office of a bishop to married men means nothing, and bachelors, maidens, and divorcees can be bishops; then why should God’s prohibition against sexual perversion mean anything?

By such logic, those who practice the sin of polygamy can be Christians, those who desert their mates to enter adulterous marriages can be preachers, and homosexual perverts can be bishops. Unreasonable men hinder the truth when they lose respect for God’s Word and for the urgency of repentance, leaving sinners in polygamy, adultery, and homosexuality while promising them eternal life with God. “Be not deceived … .. they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21).

Women bishops – what difference does it make? There is no logical stopping place when we begin to compromise the authority, truthfulness, and steadfastness of God’s Word. Denominationalism, modernism, and liberalism breed the spirit of compromise. We must “ask for the old paths” of divine revelation in all things, “where is the good way, and walk therein,” if we would find true rest for our souls (Jer. 6:16). To serve God and save our souls, we must esteem all the precepts of God “concerning all things to be right” and “hate every false way” (Psa. 119:128).

Guardian of Truth XXXIII: 9, p. 265
May 4, 1989