Truth Magazine

By Ron Halbrook

For the Truth’s sake, we should seek the lost. Many zealous religious people are among that number (Rom. 10:1-3) because they have not confessed the Deity of Jesus Christ. You must “confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus” by faith in him, to be saved (v.9). By faith, we must repent and be “baptized into Christ” (Gal. 3:26-27).

The Bible teaches us to “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,” and to confess him as, “My Lord and my God” (Jn. 20:31, 28). Among the lost who do not confess the Deity of Christ are the so-called “Jehovah’s Witnesses” (from a misuse of Isa. 43:10, where “my witnesses” are the Jews as a nation). Their special translation: The New World Translation, alters Jn. 1:1 (“the Word was God”) to read, “the Word was a god.” Eventually “the Word was made flesh” in Jesus Christ. (v.14). but Jehovah’s Witnesses claim “the Word” originated like angels by creation. So, God created “a god,” who came to earth as Jesus Christ. He, then, is not confessed as, “My Lord and my God,” but is only recognized as the crowning work of God’s creation.

Support is claimed from B. Wilson’s Emphatic Diaglott (1864), which gives an interlinear (line of Greek and line of English) and a translation. Jehovah’s Witnesses emphasize Wilson’s interlinear column but overlook his translation column, which says, “the Logos was God.”

We don’t have to know Greek grammar to go to heaven or to see the inconsistency of Wilson and the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ New World Translation. The Greek use of articles (“the” is an article) differs from English, and is complicated for us average folk. At any rate, “the” does not appear in Greek before “God” in the expression “the Word was God,” so Wilson set this off by using “a god” in his interlinear. New World Translation on this basis says, “the Word was a god.” In Greek there is no article before God in v.6 (“a man sent from God”), v.12 (“the sons of God”), v.13 (.”but of God”). Yet Wilson uses “God,” not “a god”, in those verses in his interlinear column. So his interlinear is inconsistent. His translation column consistently and properly uses “God” in vs. 1 (“the Logos was God”), 6,12, and 13.

New World Translation has the same inconsistency which Wilson’s interlinear has: “the Word was a god” in v.1 but “God” in vv. 6, 12, and 13. Isa. 43:10 positively denies the possibility that one “God” created “a god:” `before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.”God did not form “a god,” but the one Deity includes “the Father,. . . the Son, . . . the Holy Ghost” (Matt. 28:19). Even the New World Translation has Jesus blessing Thomas, and all others who will confess Him: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn. 20:28-29). Truly, “with the mouth confession is made unto salvation,” but, “if we deny Him, He also will deny us” (Rom. 10:10; 1 Tim. 2:12).

Truth Magazine XXI: 5, p. 66
February 3, 1977

By Larry Ray Hafley

“Mrs. (Gerald) Ford does not need our condemnation (for her widely publicized remarks about `affairs and abortion’); she needs our sympathy and our prayers in her behalf. We should pray that she would wake up to the need of sanctity of the home and proper example for our children. We should pray that she realize that sin is sin and needs to be forgiven” (John N. Ball, The Christian Standard, November 23, 1975; p. 8).

All of Mr. Ball’s statement is not quoted. He said many good things in his article. Indeed, there is nothing to disagree with except for one “small” factor that is a “large” part of the trouble with much preaching and teaching. Mr. Ball says Betty Ford “does not need our condemnation.” I beg to differ. She does need “our condemnation.” True, she needs sympathy and prayer. She needs love and understanding, but one cannot sympathize or pray or love or understand one out of darkness into light. This is done through doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness. Mrs. Ford is a big girl. She lives in the major leagues. Her words and actions have immeasurable effects and incalculable consequences. When she openly and unashamedly accepts illicit sexual activity, she needs condemnation and plenty of it. She is to be condemned for what she will not condemn.

But Mr. Ball’s words represent the spirit of the age. All agree that love and prayer are necessary. One should approach those overtaken in a fault in the attitude of humility and brotherly love, “in the spirit of meekness” (Gal. 6:1). The idea of many is that one can be loved and prayed out of perdition, if not “out of purgatory. “Do not call names.” “Do not condemn:” “Do not adamantly oppose that which you know to ‘be evil.” “Pray for it.” “Love it, and maybe it will go away.’ Sorry, but that is not the way it works. That is just part of the cure. A person must be loved and tenderly taught, but this does not minimize nor negate the. need for some plain, old condemnation. Betty Ford needs it, and so does every preacher who thinks sin and error can be loved prayed and sympathized out of existence.

Truth Magazine XXI: 4, p. 61
January 27, 1977

By Robert Wayne La Coste

(Editor’s Note: Let us apologize to Brother LaCoste for not getting this in print earlier. The material is somewhat dated inasmuch as streaking has somewhat waned. However, what he has said regarding nakedness is as apropos for 1977 as it was when it was written.)

It’s unbelievable at the behavior of some men in this world. A few short years ago, anyone who ran naked on the streets would have been thrown into jail for what the, law used to term as “indecent exposure.” Now it has a new title called “streaking” and can even be seen on television if you are of a mind to stay up that late. It appears to me that many people have lost sight of all that is decent, modest and virtuous. Surely the Bible does not teach that parts of the human body are impure and unholy, but the Bible surely teaches us that the body is to be clothed modestly whenever displayed publicly!

“I desire therefore that men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and disputing. In like manner, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefastness and sobriety” (1 Tim. 2:8-9). Now how does this picture compare with this ungodly, reprobated vulgarity called “streaking?” It is obvious that God does not consider the human body beautiful when displayed in public in the nude. Dear reader, the time for nudeness is in marriage (Heb. 13:4). The time for nudeness is when one must care for the physical needs of the body, its health and hygiene. Paul also wrote, “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:19-20). When one shows no concern for the will of God concerning the body, he sins! This Biblical evidence can not be denied.

Many people have told me, “Why, preacher, Adam and Eve were nude.” This is true (Gen. 2:25) However, after learning good from evil in partaking of the forbidden fruit, we read they were ashamed and “clothed themselves” (Gen. 3:7).When Moses saw many of Israel naked “unto their shame before their enemies, Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side” (Ex. 33:25). The point is: Public Nakedness and Shamefulness are related. God warned Israel, “Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea thy shame shall be seen” (Isa. 47:3).

You know dear reader, the Bible doesn’t tell us what kind of fruit was on the forbidden tree in the garden of Eden. Some have surmised that it was an apple, but the Bible just does not say. In away, perhaps it would be good if we knew. When Eve partook of it, she immediately realized she was naked and hid herself. If I thought for a moment that this would do any good, I would be for passing that fruit around again! But until people have respect for decency and morality, which the Bible affirms as being the will of God, they will continue to surprise us with their foolishness. We who love God’s word can do something about it! We can insist that stricter laws be passed forbidding these ungodly things. And most important, we can and should warn all about what God has said about the matter!

Truth Magazine XXI: 4, p. 61
January 27, 1977

By Irvin Himmel

Unlike other epistles which develop a central theme, the letter written by James covers a variety of subjects. The following statements bring the letter to a rather abrupt close:

“Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from depth, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”

Truth Is The Standard of Right

The above quotation from Jas. 5:19, 20 acknowledges that truth is our standard. Notice four facts about this truth:

(1) Jesus is its author. “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). What Moses taught was true, being from God, but Jesus is the source of the system of truth by which we receive the provisions of God’s grace.

(2) It frees and sanctifies. Jesus said, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8: 32). Our Lord, the embodiment of divine truth, prayed on behalf of His followers in this manner: “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth” (John 17:17).

(3) The apostles were guided into all of it. In John 16:12-14, Jesus promised the apostles that He would send the Holy Spirit, and He assured them that the Spirit would guide them “into all truth.” Peter afterward affirmed that he and the other apostles had been given “all things that pertain unto life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3). Since all truth was revealed through the apostles, that left nothing in the way of new truth to come later through Joseph Smith, Mary Baker Eddy, Ellen G. White, or Charles T. Russell and his successors of Watch Tower fame.

(4) It imparts life. “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures” (Jas. 1:18).

We cannot go to the law of Moses to learn the truth of which Jesus is the author. Nor do we find that truth in human creeds, the decrees of Popes, the traditions of the fathers, or by doing whatever seems right in our own eyes.

It Is Possible To Err From The Truth

James was concerned about brethren who “err from the truth.” God does not hold men to the truth by some irresistible compulsion (Read 2 Pet. 1:10). In various ways people stray from the truth.

(1) By turning their ears from the truth. Paul warned that men would gather about them teachers who would scratch their itching ears, “And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Tim. 4:3, 4).

(2) By failing to see the value of the truth. One may walk according to the truth for a time, then decide to leave the truth because he sees no real value in it. What we believe does make a difference. For example, one who believes there are apes in his family tree may begin acting like an ape.

(3) By deception. “But evil men and seducers shall Wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13). Peter warned of men who wrest the scriptures, cautioning his readers not to be led away with the error of the wicked (2 Pet, 3:16,17).

(4) By neglect. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation . , .?” (Heb. 2:3). “Take heed, brethren,, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God” (Heb. 3:12).

(5) By falling into sin. Some men and women never renounce the gospel in theory, but in practice they abandon the truth. Many have fallen into sin and are now wallowing in it.

Sinners Need To Be Converted

There are two classes of sinners: aliens (people who have never entered into covenant relationship with God) and erring brethren. James was addressing brethren in our text. “Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him . . . he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul . . . .”

The faithful have an obligation to the erring. Some who have erred will resent our admonitions, but others will profit by them. Our manner of approach is important (Gal. 6:1,2).

We often show eagerness to save our health, our reputation, our business, funds for old age, etc. Everyone’s first concern should be the saving of the soul. Jesus taught that the soul is more valuable than all the world (Matt. 16:26).

Death-eternal separation from God-is the penalty for sin. “For the wages of sin is death. . .” (Rom. 6:23). Some try to make sickness, or mental anguish, or possibly physical death the only punishment for sin. Others suppose that annihilation is the penalty. The Bible describes the punishment for sin as one’s being “cast into the lake of fire” which is “the second death” (Rev. 20:14, 15; 21:8). To save a soul from this terrible penalty is the great object of the statements of our text.

Truth Magazine XXI: 4, p. 60
January 27, 1977