Some claim there is no God. Some claim that there is a God, but that this God has not told us what to do. Others claim that God has told us what to do, but that the Bible doesn't tell us everything God wants us to know. These claim that a human creed or a "private revelation" is needed in addition to the word of God. Some claim that the Bible is the word of God, but that we can't understand it, and that anything we want to do will make us acceptable children of God.

Now some brethren are claiming that God was very plain and specific relative to those things that make us a child of God, but from that point onward it is every man for himself. These are very "legalistic" about the plan of salvation, but think that we can worship and serve God as we please and have fellowship with all others who do the same.

After all appeals have been made to "higher learning;" after all theologians and philosophers have been quoted; after all the wise, the mighty, and the noble have, exhausted their combined human wisdom; and after those who insist on a "thus saith the Lord" have been judged as "judges" and labeled "legalists" -- the Bible still says: "... I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes; even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sigh" (Lk. 10:21); "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" (1 Cor. 1:20); "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." (Col. 2:8); "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Cor. 11:3).

Truth Magazine VIII: 5, p. 1 February 1964