Truth Magazine

By Luther Blackmon

“From this time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him” Quo. 6:66). Whatever opportunity they might have had for sharing His suffering, they forfeited. Whatever blessing might have come to them as ‘a result of following Him, they gave up. Their materialistic minds could not grasp the meaning of His teaching concerning the bread of life; their faith in him was not strong enough to overcome their ignorance until they might be taught the meaning of what He had said. So they turned away. And I think it is significant that the Bible says, “they walked no more with him.” Here is an air of finality. They never came back. But this is the way it happens more often than not. How many people have you ever known who walked with the Lord, enjoyed the forgiveness of sins, felt the protecting arm of love about them, and then turned back to walk in sin and indifference, who ever came back to stay? I am not referring to the person who is temporarily overcome by some weakness of the flesh. This happens to most people sometime in their Christian life. I am referring to the man or woman who knowing the truth turns back to the weak and beggarly elements of the world because he prefers the world to the company of Christ and His people. They seldom come back to stay. They may make a feeble effort or two, but generally they will grow more and more indifferent and cynical, until they simply cannot be touched. This is the person the Hebrew writer refers to when he said, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance . . .” (Heb. 6:4-6). Paul does not say that it is impossible for them to repent-but that it is impossible to get them to repent-that is-to bring them to the frame of mind required in one who repents.

You know, the Bible says that repentance is brought about by godly sorrow (2 Cor. 7:10). “Godly sorrow worketh repentance . . .” Until a person is brought to a realization of the nature of his sins against Almighty God, and finds in his heart a genuine regret and sorrow for those sins, he has not repented. A man might have any number of reasons to be sorry for the way he has lived, but that is not the sorrow that leads to repentance. When I was preaching at one of the churches in a certain area a hypocrite came to me and told me a pitiful tale of his sordid past. He was grieved, but he was grieved because his good wife had found out what a cheap imitation she had for a husband and was about to walk out on him. He didn’t want to lose her and his boy. He went through all the maneuvers of a man who had repented. He even took me with him to witness the fact that he had dropped the other woman. He got his marital affairs straightened out, and then he was through with me and the church. This fellow was sorry in more ways than one, but he never repented. Repentance is not something you do when it is convenient. Repentance is born in a human heart only when that person is convicted of the damning, blighting, ugliness of sin in his life, and when this conviction produces a sorrow so deep and real that he determines to forsake sin and place his aching and bleeding heart in the hands of a merciful Savior.

The person who thinks he can live in sin and plan to repent at some future date either does not know what repentance is or he thinks that God is a fool. Consider the presumption of a man who says, AI am having so much fun living in sin now, that I simply will not give it up; but some day in the future I will decide to be deeply sorry for what I am now doing.” The man who sets a future date to repent will find when that time comes that “there is no place in his heart for repentance.” And this applies to the man in the world who has not obeyed the gospel as well as the one who is a backslider. God is not a lackey that He should stand and wait for you to eat your fill at the devil’s table and throw Him the scraps.

Truth Magazine: XXI: 1, p. 2
January 6, 1977

By John McCort

The congregation for which I preach recently started a program of phone-in-evangelism which I personally feel will be a great asset to our work. In this article I would like to share with you some of the advantages of this method of preaching the gospel.

We purchased a Sanyo M139N Telephone Answering Device. This machine costs about $180. This device has message tapes which run from 30 seconds all the way up to 180 seconds depending on how long you want your message. 1, personally, am using the 120 second tape. I record a message about 100 seconds in length which leaves about 20 seconds for the caller to leave any comments, addresses, etc. at the end of the message. I merely turn the machine on after making my message and theoretically I could go on a two week vacation if I wanted to and the machine would take every call that came in.

The advantages and various applications of this approach are many. Most people are willing to give sixty seconds of their time to listen to a religious message; much more so than a 15-30 minute message. People probably use the phone more than any other electronic method of communication and thus the potential for reaching people is nearly unlimited. Phone-in-evangelism has several big advantages over radio evangelism. Radio evangelism chronically has very little feedback from the listener. If the listener has a question or comment to make they must sit down and write a letter which is not always convenient. Even with the phone-in, question and answer radio broadcasts, only a limited number of calls can be taken and seldom are names and addresses asked for or given. With the telephone answering device the caller can leave his name and phone number or any comments. This provides an easy, convenient, and accessible method of expressing an interest in religious matters. Also the caller can phone the message any time of the night or day whereas with radio work the listener must listen at a certain time each day which is not always possible.

The cost factor is a huge advantage. Once the answering device is purchased there is no cost except occasional service to the machine. Service contracts can be purchased for about $35 per year which is very reasonable considering that many of these devices handle 15,000 calls per year. The telephone company is dropping their monthly charge for approved telephone answering devices as of April, 1976. This charge normally was about $3.50 a month for hooking the machine into their lines.

Thus far we have been averaging about 200 calls a week. We had some business cards printed with the name of the program and the number to call, which incidentally, is the only form of advertising we have been using thus far. I use these cards extensively in doing hospital work. I have been changing the message about three times a week and will change it more often if the situation dictates it.

If you would like to see the literature on this machine just write: Earnest H. Greene, 1728 Main, Kansas City, Missouri 64108. I am sure he would be glad to give you any information you requested.

Truth Magazine, XX:26, p. 13-14
June 26, 1976

By Keith Sharp

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matt. 5:6).

My mother grew up on a ranch in Southwest Texas during the depression. My grandfather, Daddy Sprott, was always poor, but during those times they were desperately so. My mother, along with her seven brothers and sisters and my grandparents, made it through one winter on a wagon load of frijoles (beans) that Daddy Sprott bought from a Mexican in Uvalde, along with corn bread and the milk, butter and cream from one cow. They knew hunger as most people of my generation and younger have never experienced.

The Lord spoke of those who “hunger and thirst after righteousness.” What does this mean? How shall they be filled?

The original language is striking here.

“It is a rule of Greek grammar teat verbs: of hungering and thirsting are followed by the genitive case. The genitive case is the case which, in English, is expressed by the word of; of the man is the genitive case. The genitive which follows verbs of hungering and thirsting in Greek is called the partitive genitive, that is the genitive of the’ part. The idea is this. The Greek said, ‘I hunger for of bread.’ It was some bread he desired, not the whole loaf. The Greek said, ‘I thirst for of water.’ It was some water he desired, a drink of water, not all the water in the tank. But in this beatitude most unusually righteousness. is in the direct accusative, and not in the normal genitive. Now, when verbs of hungering and thirsting in Greek take the accusative instead of the genitive, the meaning is that the hunger and thirst is for the whole thing. To say I hunger for bread in the accusative means, I want the whole loaf. To say I thirst for water in the accusative means, I want the whole pitcher. Therefore the correct translation of this is:

” Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for the whole of righteousness, for complete righteousness.”1

As people in my mother’s childhood, only more so, the poor people in the time of Jesus were pitifully familiar with hunger and thirst. A hired hand in Palestine earned one Roman denarius (“penny,” KJV) for a day’s labor (cf. Matt. 20:1-2). It was worth about seventeen cents.2 Even if we allow for present inflation, that did not buy very much. These men had to work every day, or their families would go hungry. At best, they were always just a step ahead of real hunger. Meat was a luxury enjoyed only once a week.

In the dry Bible lands, people were familiar with real thirst. The hot desert wind blowing stinging sand into one’s face would create a terrible, throat-wrenching thirst.

The Lord did not speak of a little hunger pang to be met by a light snack. Nor did He refer to the half-hearted desire for a sip of tea. He rather spoke of a craving hunger and a driving thirst which a man would do anything to satisfy.

One of the basic reasons most people in our day refuse to obey the Gospel is that they do not “hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Many know what they should do, but they are simply not interested enough in salvation to do anything about it. They are careless of their lost condition. Others who are ignorant of the truth do not care enough to honestly, diligently study. To the Spirit’s tender invitation they respond, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season I will call for thee” (Acts 24:26).

We must be as the ancient psalmist:

“As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

“My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?” (Ps. 42:1-2; cf. 63:1).

As Paul, we must count the rightousness that comes through Christ more important than anything else in the world (Phil 3:7-9).

How are those who “hunger and thirst after righteous … filled”?

To be righteous is to be right in point of law, to be declared not guilty. Those who are “poor in spirit” recognize they are sinners, destitute of this righteousness. They “mourn” over their guilt. Those who “hunger and thirst after righteousness” have a craving desire to be right with God, to be declared “not guilty” and enjoy fellowship with their Maker.

One who desires something is filled when that which he craves is supplied. How is righteousness supplied? Righteousness is certainly not supplied by our own perfect obedience to God’s law. In the Roman letter Paul discussed this very problem. Of perfect obedience, he declared, “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:9-10). This is because “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

If we are to be right, our guilt must be removed by executive pardon (forgiveness) through the grace of the Lawgiver. God, by his grace, sent his Son as a propitiation for our sins, that we through him might receive the forgiveness of our sins by the sacrifice of his blood on the cross (Rom. 3:21-26′; 4:6-8). This plan of forgiveness, whereby we might be as spotlessly righteous as though we had never sinned, is the gospel (Rom. 1:16). Those who believe and obey the Gospel appropriate to themselves the forgiveness God has promised and become righteous by God’s mercy through their own obedient faith (Rom. 4:5; 6:17-18). This gospel fist began to be preached on the first Pentecost after the Lord’s resurrection, and on that very day the righteousness of the kingdom of Heaven was first granted to hungering and thirsting souls (Acts 2:37-41).

Dear, careless, sinner, are you not parched and weary in a baked “desert of sin”? Do you not hunger to be filled with the bread of righteousness from Heaven? The Master offers water, whereof, if a man drinks, he “shall never thirst” (Jn. 4:13-14). Jesus is “the bread of life,” and whoever comes to Him “shall never hunger” (Jn. 6:35). All who truly “hunger and thirst after righteousness” shall be filled abundantly by forgiveness 1hrought the Gospel (Matt. 7:7-11).

Why, then, dear sinner, will you perish miserably in hunger and thirst?

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

“Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is no bread? and you labor for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness” (Isa. 55:1-2).

“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:17).

FOOTNOTES

1 William Barclay. The Gospel of Matthew (Philadelphia, 1958), 1, 96.

2 John D. Davis, Davis Dictionary of the Bible (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1972), pp. 533-34.

Truth Magazine, XX:26; p. 11-12
June 24, 1976

By H. Edward McCaskill

I have been a reader of The Spiritual Sword, published by the Getwell church of Christ in Memphis and edited by my long time friend and former teacher, Thomas B. Warren, for a number of years. The material contained in this publication has been excellent and I have appreciated a host of timely and scriptural articles from Tom and his staff of writers.

Occasionally, however, Tom gets a bit overly zealous and takes a thrust at some he designates as “antis.” I assume, in the present usage, as he has in the past, he is referring to those of us who oppose the sponsoring church arrangement and church support of human institutions.

In the Volume 6, Number 3 issue, dated April of last year, Brother Warren says in as article entitled, “Skepticism is the Basic Issue Now,” “On the one hand, the men who uphold the `anti’ positions (I mean no unkindness in using this term) are men who believe in God and in the Bible as His inspired, inerrant, and authoritative word. They hold that truth is absolute (objective) and is attainable (can be learned). In all of this (and more) they are right. But, they disallowed what God has authorized (cf. Tim. 4:1-5) and thus caused great trouble to the church.”

I, for one, do not believe a simple statement such as the above, regardless of how kindly and graciously made should go unnoticed. Brother Warren’s magazine, to my knowledge, has not devoted an issue to an objective study of the “Institutional Controversy.” Nevertheless, statements of the above accuse those of us who have for almost a quarter of a century sought God’s authorization for the above mentioned endeavors of being the guilty ones of disturbing the Lord’s church. If God has authorized such then I, with all honesty and sincerity, want to know it.

Tom, it seems, has wilfully forgotten that he among others helped some of us to see the truth in the institutional controversy and the fallacy of false reasoning on these issues many years ago. For example, in a three part series of truth-setting articles that appeared in the Gospel Guardian, Volume 6, Numbers 3, 4, and 5, dated May 20, May 27, June 3, 1954 respectively, under the title, “Evasions of the Law of Rationalism”, he showed, in article 1, that the Herald of Truth sponsoring-type-arrangement and church support of human institutions such as Boles Home could not be defended on the basis of the say-so of some highly respected individual. In article 2 he showed that such could not be authorized on the basis of emotional appeal. Simply stated, the end does not justify the means. The third article, “Argumentum ad hominem” – argument to the man-stated, “Again, some brother writes an article in which he calls in question the principle of ‘cooperation’ involved in such things as the Herald of Truth! As an ‘answer’ to the arguments which were made, other brethren say, Oh, he is just as “anti.” He is not for real plans which really get the job of preaching done. You need pay no attention to what he says. . . . ” And further in closing his article Tom makes a timely appeal: “Brethren, may this sincere plea sink into good and honest hearts: let us grow spiritually to the point where our practices may be called in question without our making a personal attack upon the man who asked the questions.” Tom was right then even though he may have forgotten his appeal and has resorted to the same tactics he at one time abhorred. One would definitely surmise and conclude from a reading of these articles (and others that he wrote —- remember those two interesting fictitious characters Kareah and Jakim?). Later he changed and even debated the issues with Bro. Cecil Douthitt in Houston, and assisted others as a moderator in their discussions. Still, some of us have not been convinced with his “component parts-constituent elements” arguments establishing Biblical authority, nor appeals to emotion, or to name calling, nor to the words of highly respected men of the scripturalness of such arrangements under consideration.

Furthermore, if seeking Biblical authority through command, example, or necessary inference, has caused great trouble in the church then trouble shall continue. I will simply not accept the incrimination of Tom’s usage of Tim 4:1-5 and admit that I have “disallowed what God has authorized.” I am still waiting and willing and anxious to learn, after all these years, where God has allowed it.

Truth Magazine, XX:26, p. 11
June 24, 1976