Truth Magazine

By Grant B. Caldwell

With the coming of the “Pentecostal age” in today’s society, there has been an influx in the number of people claiming to do the miraculous. Of course, with this increase, there has also been an increase in the number of people who fail to do miracles. This is simple to explain in light of the fact that 1 Cor. 13 teaches beyond any doubt that miracles simply are not worked today. One looks at the pages of the word of God and he sees miracles like:

a. The creation

b. The flood

c. The Hebrew children in the fiery furnace

d. The healing of Naaman the leper

e. The deaf and dumb both heard and spake

f. Sight restored to the blind

g. Dismemberments healed

h. The permanently lame walked

i. The dead were raised

j. Etc., etc., etc., etc.

Failures

Modern miracle workers simply cannot perform such feats. Their failings are in every area, except, possibly, in such cases where the malady is psychosomatic. In these cases, the people are cured of their problem solely because of their confidence in the one telling them that they are cured. Now we ask the question:

“Why can they not work miracles like the apostles worked and why do they fail so often?” They claim they can work such miracles, but fail with every attempt.

“Not Enough Faith”

They have a standard little adage they throw in whenever they fail, however, that is supposed to get the “heat” off of them. They say in reference to the one being healed, “He just did not have enough faith.” Notice: “He” did not have enough faith. What they mean by that is that the one being healed did not have enough confidence to think that they could be healed for some reason or another. What about little children that are too young to have faith in anyone or anything? What about the desperately ill who do not even know what is going on around them?

In the New Testament, there was only one case of failure in the performance of a miracle by a duly authorized miracle worker. There were cases where people failed who were not authorized (we believe that is why modern miracle workers fail), but only one instance of failure by a person authorized by the Lord to work miracles. That case is found in Matthew 17:14-21.

A man came to Jesus and said his lunatic son was vexed and had what we would probably call seizures of some sort or another. Christ admitted that it was demon possession that was at the root of the problem. The man said that he had taken the boy to the disciples and they could not cast out the demon. Jesus rebuked the devil and he departed from the boy. Now, here is a case of failure by those authorized to work miracles (Matt. 10:1). Whose fault is it? Certainly, we cannot blame the boy. How could he “have faith” at all? We cannot, either, blame the father for surely he thought they could do the job. What about the apostles? Well, they thought that they could do it and apparently were surprised when they could not. Who was to blame?

Whose Fault?

The apostles wanted an answer to that question and asked Jesus, “Why could not we cast him out?” Jesus replied by saying, “Because of your unbelief.” Whose unbelief? “Your unbelief!” Not the father, not the boy, not the nation, but the disciples. They failed and they were to blame.

But now we ask, “Why?” Did they not believe that they could do that miracle? Evidently, they had worked great number of miracles and had great success. In fact, this is one of the things specifically mentioned — the first thing mentioned — by Christ in Matt. 10:1. They believed they could work this miracle and went to do it. What was the matter with their faith?

Christ said, “For verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (verse 20). A grain of mustard seed is terribly small. Don’t you think they had that much confidence that they could do it? I do! Then why could they not do it? Because confidence in their ability to do it was not the point under consideration.

Faith from the Word

I want to suggest a passage, now, that maybe you will think is completely unrelated. In Romans 10:17, Paul said, “So then faith cometh of hearing and hearing by the word of God.” Faith comes by hearing God’s word, not simply by having confidence that we can do a thing. To illustrate: Christ was a great miracle worker (John 3:2). In John 2, Christ turned water into wine for the wedding feast He was attending. But, in Matt. 4:4, He refused to turn stones into bread. Why would he perform the former and refuse the later labeling it as a temptation from the devil? There was, in essence, no difference in the miracles, per se. Why did he make a difference?

He said, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of god.” Listen to that. The difference is in the mouth of God. Christ could not turn the stones into bread because he was not told to do that by the mouth of God. He turned the water into wine because it was what God wanted him to do. Christ could do what he did only when he heard it from the Father (John 5:19).

Must Have Authority

Now again, Romans 10:17 says, “Faith cometh of hearing and hearing by the word of God.” The ability to do anything before God comes from His willingness to allow it done. What, then, was the problem with their faith in Mtt. 17? I suggest that they simply did not know what the word of God was with regard to the matter under consideration. Christ said faith as a grain of mustard seed would remove mountains. That is, just a word from God is all it would take to remove a mountain. Not confidence in one’s ability (natural or transposed) to perform such a feat; but, authorization from God to do it – just a word, just a small word from God is all it would take, But nothing less than that would do.

He said in verse 21, “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” That is what was wrong with their faith. They simply did not know enough about the mind of God and how he cast out this kind of demon. The problem with their faith was in their understanding of the mind (or word) of God. And I suggest that is the problem in failures today. It is not in the confidence one has in Christ, the “faith healer,” or himself. It is the lack of authorization for the deed performed – a lack of understanding as to what the word of God teaches.

Thus, the problem is with the “healer” not with the one being healed. They cannot do it because they have no authorization from the word of God to do it. We ask that men get back to the New Testament. Become concerned with its teaching and not with the continuous display of the supernatural. Faith comes by hearing the word of God, and “We walk by faith and not by sight” (Rom. 10:17; 2 Cor. 5:7).

Truth Magazine XXI: 48, pp. 763-764
December 8, 1977

By Norman E. Fultz

By midweek, it was being reported that the eight-part, twelve-hour television novel, Roots, the Saga of An American Family, was the most watched television show of all time. Shown the last week of January, 1977, it ran for eight consecutive nights with the audience reportedly growing from night to night as viewers from the previous night told others and they joined the audience. Admitting a certain degree of intrigue with the chapters, I saw, and confessing an empathy with the plight of the hapless slaves, I nonetheless wondered if all owners and other “whites” were so cruel and devoid of the milk of human kindness, and all slaves so meek and mild as portrayed. But this article is not really intended as a review of what was apparently a “smash.” We have another thought in mind.

The Bible has much to say about roots, and there are some worthwhile lessons for us in what it says. The television series had to do with ancestral and geographical roots of the characters who were the subject of the story. Ancestral roots are given some attention in scripture as well. The prophetess Deborah was a root “out of Ephraim” whom God raised “against Amalek” (Judges 5:14; 4:5). Every genealogy is a tracing of one’s roots, and Jesus was a branch growing out of the root of Jesse (Isa. 11:1, 10; 53:2; Rom. 15:12; Rev. 5:5; 22:16). But let us turn our attention to our own roots, not of the fleshly ancestral, but of the spiritual.

The root is immensely important. A plant whose root is diseased will wither, become fruitless and die. Jesus impressed the importance of a good root in good soil in the parable of the sower. Of the man who receives the seed into stony places, though he hears and receives the word with joy, Jesus said, “Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended” (Mat. 13:21).

As the parable of the sower also illustrates, where the root is planted is important. Spiritually speaking, every man has roots. The wicked or evil person has roots (Job 18:5, 16). His roots are in the Devil (John 8:44), and the fruit he bears redounds to iniquity (Rom. 6:19-21). On the other hand, the root of the righteous (Prov. 12:3) is in Christ (Col. 2:6-7). He becomes as a tree planted by the rivers of water whose roots spread out broadly and deeply to take in nourishment and drink in the moisture (Psa. 1:1-3; Job 20:19). Not only does “the root of the righteous yield fruit” (Prov. 12:12), but he is able to stand while others wither in the heat and drought of adversity and misfortune. Jeremiah put it beautifully. “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit” (17:7-8).

The root of the wicked will dry up and his light will be put out (Job 18:5, 16). Those who cast away the law of the Lord, “their root shall be a rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust” for they were of those “that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isa. 5:24, 20).

But, friend, the plants of God will not be rooted up (Mat. 15:13). Where are your roots, in Christ or in the Devil? You can partake of the joy of hope of those who are rooted and grounded in Christ. In your faith, put Him on in baptism (Gal. 3:26-27). Become “rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith” (Col. 2:7).

Truth Magazine XXI: 48, pp. 762-763
December 8, 1977

By Roland Worth, Jr.

At this season of the year, it is good to take a minute or two of time to review some of the things we do not know about Christ’s birth. Among them are these facts:

(l) The year Christ was born in.

(2) The month He was born in.

(3) The day He was born.

(4) The specific location in Bethlehem of the birth.

(5) The number of ‘wise men.” (We know the number of presents they brought but not the number of people who brought the gifts.)

(6) What country or countries the “wise men” were from.

(7) What their racial or ethnic ancestry was.

(8) What their names were.

What we do not know about Christ’s birth has been the fertile breeding ground for tradition, tradition that Protestants have often unthinkingly adopted from the Roman Catholic Church that gave birth to it. Is it not rather odd that the very same people who will obstinately reject the Catholic tradition concerning Mary’s birth and life will adopt that same Church’s tradition concerning the details of Jesus’ birth?

Protestant friend, the next time you hear your preacher speak of the month or day or year in which Jesus was born, the next time you hear him refer to the number or country of origin of the “wise men,” take a little of your time, hand him your Bible and ask him to prove what He has said from the pulpit. You will quickly discover that He has no Scripture but only tradition to rely on.

If he attempts to dismiss your question with a remark such as “it doesn’t really matter” why not ask him, “What happened to our claim to be a Bible believing church?” At this point you are likely to be greeted with either indignation or a stony silence. Either way you will have the answer to your question: That instead of being part of a church that really accepts the Bible you are part of a church that has substituted Roman Catholic tradition for Scripture.

At that point we would urge you to seriously investigate the church of Christ, a church that refuses to accept Catholic tradition concerning the birth of Christ. There and there almost alone are you going to get away from the spiritual relics such as Christmas observance that Protestantism has inherited from Catholicism.

Truth Magazine XXI: 48, p. 762
December 8, 1977

By Irven Lee

False doctrines and practices in religion are condemned by several means in the Bible. Many are mentioned as being wrong in the sight of God and as being of such nature that they will prevent our inheriting the. kingdom. For example “All liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8. Read also 1 Cor. 6:9, 10; Gal. 5:19, 20; Col. 3:5-11). Even though many things are so specifically named and condemned, they are among the very common sins. Many people show little concern for the will of God.

There are many things just as certainly condemned by broad principles. We list a very few. “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may give to him that needeth” (Eph. 4:28). He does not here list all the good and acceptable occupations, but He does necessarily imply that some occupations are good and some are not.

“It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak” (Rom. 14:21). The eating of flesh evidently referred to the eating of animals whose blood had been sprinkled before some image or idol god. Almost the entire eighth chapter of First Corinthians is taken to emphasize this principle. This great chapter concludes with the words “if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend” (1 Cor. 8:13). The “nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak” makes it very evident that this has a very broad application.

Another way by which God condemns some things in spiritual matters is by saying absolutely nothing about them. The New Testament does not say. thou shalt not offer animal sacrifices, thou shaft not count beads in worship, or thou shaft not use an instrument of music in worship. It does not say that the church must not establish central national agencies to collect funds from churches and then disburse them under the guidance of the board of the society, or that the church must not build a banquet hall or play house under the name of a fellowship hall. Honest people who have not learned to respect the silence of the scriptures include any such practices as they desire and, in defense of the innovations, ask where the Bible says that we should not do this or that. They then further charge that we are making a law where God made none when we suggest that they are not scriptural. They are the ones who take the liberty to add a law to His perfect law of liberty.

The Holy Spirit made it clear through Peter that grace and peace are multiplied through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, and that His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through that knowledge (2 Peter 1:2-4). In other words He left nothing out of His perfect law that will help in our quest for life and godliness.

Many are the times that my brethren have pointed out that the inspired scriptures will furnish the man of God completely to every good work (2 Tim. 3:14-17). Are we forgetting this completeness of His revelation? The inspired writer of Hebrews took a few verses to effectively argue that Christ could not be our high priest without a necessary change of the law since Christ came of the tribe of Judah and Moses, in giving the law, said nothing concerning a priest of the tribe of Judah (Hebrews 7:11-14). It was not necessary for Moses to say that one of the tribe of Judah could not be a priest. One of the tribe of Judah was automatically eliminated because Moses said nothing about a man being a priest if he were of that tribe. It is very important for us to remember this principle. It would take a long freight train to carry all the Bible if it had been necessary for each writer to specify all the things that are unlawful every time he gave a law. Who could own such a book? Who could ever read it all? Think of how tedious it would be.

He gave us a perfect law that will give us all things that pertain to life and godliness and that will furnish us completely to every good work. He then said, “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son” (2 John 9). How could man over emphasize this teaching? What could be more dangerous to the unity of the church and to our spiritual welfare than to ignore this? We need to be silent where the Bible is silent.

Another inspired plea for us to stop where the Bible stops is in Rev. 22:18, 19. The Lord there warns that if we add to the word, He will add the plagues to us. It is important for us to do all that He commands for if we take away, He will take away our part out of the holy city. This passage would refer especially to the book of Revelation, but the ~ principle is repeated often throughout the Bible (See Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Prov. 30:6). Man is presumptuous to add a bit of his own human wisdom to try to improve God’s law.

God gives general laws that necessarily imply things that would make possible the carrying out of the general commandments. God told Noah to build an ark. Noah was not adding to God’s law when he used hammers and saws and all other necessary tools to carry out the command. We are not adding to God’s law when we have song books to be used in carrying out the command to sing. The songs are implied .in the command to sing. The meeting house is implied in the

command to meet. Things necessarily implied are not additions. People who preach on “where there is no pattern” in defending some unscriptural practice err grievously. Blind followers will fall into the ditch with them (Matt. 15:9, 13, 14).

For a thing to be expedient in spiritual matters it must expedite the carrying out of a law of God. God has not authorized the church to enter into the field of entertainment. Therefore the gymnasiums, ball fields and courts, etc., could not be scriptural expedients.

Truth Magazine XXI: 48, pp. 761-762
December 8, 1977