By Lewis Willis
I receive a lot of things in the mail that I do not request. I do take the time to scan most of it. I recently received a paper edited by Alfred Mielke which I had not requested. It says it came from “Christ’s Church of Wis. Rapids, 1550 West Grand Ave., Wis. Rapids, Wis. 54494.” The first issue that I received asked, “CARS, ARE THEY FOR CHRISTIANS?” I must tell you candidly that I do not really know what Mielke’s position is on this question. It appears that he thinks that it is a sin for a Christian to own a car, But then, reading further, it seems that he condemn’s the sinful use of a car. This latter point, from his article, seems to be a possible objection to his position, which he has under consideration. I suppose it is not a good idea to review something that is not understandable, but I have some thoughts I would like to share. The reasons he
gives for a, car being sinful could be raised regarding numbers of questions, such as, “Is it a sin for Christians to publish papers such as his.” I have put his “reasons” why cars are sinful on the left and why his paper would be sinful for the same “reasons” on the right.
| CARS | RELIGIOUS PAPERS |
| 1. It has been proven to kill more people than anything else. | 1. Some papers have spiritually killed more people than anything. |
| 2. It causes more young men and women to go sexually wrong. | 2. Some papers cause more young men and women to go spiritually wrong. |
| 3. It is one of the prime causes of our unhealthy environment. | 3. Some papers are one of the prime causes of our unhealthy spiritual environment. |
| 4. It causes sin because of speeding and other law breaking actions. | 4. Some papers cause sin because of false doctrine and other law breaking actions. |
| 5. It has been shown to corrupt good morals. | 5. Some papers have been shown to corrupt good spirituality. |
| 6. It can cause pride and covetousness. | 6. Some papers can cause pride and covetousness. |
| 7. Because so many people sin with the car, we become hardened to sin. | 7. Because so many people sin with some papers, we become hardened to sin. |
| 8. Money used to buy the car could have been used to feed the poor. | 8. Money used to publish some papers could have been used to feed the poor. |
| 9. It is not a necessity, but a luxury that most of the world lives without, or can’t have.
With all these facts and more, how could any right thinking person not see the sins such an action of owning and driving a car can bring on our young and old alike? |
9. Papers are not a necessity, but a luxury that most of the world lives without, or can’t have.
With all these facts, and more, how could any right thinking person not see the sins such an action of owning and publishing a paper can bring on our young and old alike? |
Several years ago brethren in debate used to tell their opponents, “That which proves too much, proves nothing at all.” This gentlemen’s position proves too much.
If this were not bad enough, the next issue of his paper that he sent was designed to prove that women were to refrain from any sound at all during the worship. We have all known for some time that women are not permitted to preach (1Cor. 14:34-35). His point was that “keep silence” prohibits a woman from even singing in the worship. Paul taught us all to teach and admonish with singing (Col. 3:16), but this fellow is not going to permit women to do what Paul said, charging that such is a commandment of man. I wonder if it would be acceptable with him for a woman to confess her faith in Christ during the course of an assembly. If so, how can she confess “with the mouth” her faith in Christ, and remain silent at the same time? “That which proves too much. . . “
This entire matter illustrates for us once again how important it is that we not accept every doctrine we hear, but that we test them to determine if they are so (1 Jn. 4:1). Otherwise, we are in danger of following blind leaders all the way to the ditch (Matt. 15:14).
Guardian of Truth XXXVI: 13, p. 397
July 2, 1992