Truth Magazine

By Cecil Willis

A revelation is an “unveiling,” or “unfolding,” and divine revelation is God’s unveiling or unfolding of the truth regarding Himself in some manner and degree to the intelligence and heart of man. Only as He does thus unveil Himself does He become known to man. If such a God does exist, then it is reasonable to expect Him to reveal Himself to man. One would look for provision to be made for the preservation of the knowledge of the revelation in some permanent and authoritative form. This revelation preserved in a permanent and authoritative form is exactly what we have in the Bible.

Since God chose to reveal Himself to man, there must have been chosen some means of accomplishing this revelation. Thus God chose two means by which He would reveal Himself: (1) Natural Revelation; (2) Special Revelation. By “natural revelation” one simply means the knowledge of God that can be attained from a ‘study of nature itself. There are some things that you and I can learn about God without the Bible. David said, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament showeth his handiwork” (Ps. 19:1,2). Paul said, “For the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and divinity” (Rom. 1:20). But this is the summation of one’s knowledge of God that may be gained through the revelation of nature. One cannot learn of His will through nature. This must come by “special revelation.” One cannot learn how to become a Christian by looking at the heavens, although they do declare the glory of God. One could never learn the true nature of the church and of the necessity of being in it by looking at a tree or anything else in the natural realm. There is a limitation of the scope of natural revelation. Beyond this limit there must be some other type of revelation given. Natural revelation cannot satisfy the innermost craving that we have not only to know about God, but to get into living, personal relations of friendship and worship of Him. Something further must be given if mankind is to attain such a knowledge of God as to be able to render pure, spiritual, and intelligent worship to Him. Thus in order for God to make known fully His will to man, He chose to supplement natural revelation with a special supernatural revelation, namely the Bible.

The Bible is here! It has made claims to be the Word of God, and thus it is our purpose to investigate these claims. The Bible affirms its own ‘inspiration. “For I make known to you brethren, as touching the gospel which was preached by me, that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:11,12). “. . . and that from a babe thou hast known the sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work” (2 Tim. 3:15-17). “For no prophecy ever came by the will of man; but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). While the Bible affirms its own inspiration, one could not accept the Bible’s affirmation of its inspiration unless first of all there are reasons given forcing him to accept the Bible as an inspired book. It would be useless to try to prove to an atheist or an infidel that the Bible is inspired by quoting the Bible to him, for he does not believe the Bible. Thus one must try objectively to view the Bible and examine the evidences of its inspiration.

If you or I should have a piece of property and should make the assertion that there was oil on it, there would be but one way of knowing for sure. That would be to drill down into the earth there. We certainly would not go off somewhere else to do the drilling to determine if there was oil on our property. Now then, the Bible makes a claim, its inspiration, and the only sure way for us to know if it is right in making this claim is to drill into it and make testings.

Evidence: Content

The greatest single testimonial of the inspiration of the Bible is the Bible itself, not its own affirmation of its inspiration, but its content. When we view the Bible from the aspect of judging as to its inspiration, no greater argument can be made than the Bible itself makes. With all of the railing efforts of criticism-which chooses to call itself Higher Criticism – “there is one thing that it can never expunge from the Bible, and that is what we commonly speak of as the gospel-its continuous, coherent, self-attesting discovery to man of the mind of God regarding man himself, his sin, the guilt and ruin into which sin has plunged him, and over against that the method of a divine salvation, the outcome of a purpose of eternal love, wrought out in ages of progressive revelation, and culminating in the mission, life, death, atoning work, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ” (Orr, Revelation and Inspiration, p. 18). This wonderful message of the Bible will ever remain in it, and it alone is adequate to prove that the Bible is the Word of God. This message did not just accidentally happen. Somebody had to be the author of it. This author had to be either God or man, divine or human. With such a message as this gospel in our Bible, we then are as sure as we are of our own existence, that it was not man who put it there. It is too high for him; he could not attain to it. If man could not put it there, then only God remains and thus it was God who did it. The content of the Bible is its greatest single proof for its inspiration.

Evidence: Unity

A second argument for the inspiration of the Bible is its unity. It might be that one cannot possibly conceive of how an argument for the inspiration of the Bible can be drawn from its unity, but if we will but reflect for a few minutes concerning some of the conditions back of this argument, we will be able to see vividly the point. The Bible is not the product of one man, written at a single sitting, but it is the united effort of many men written over a long period of time. No less than forty great men had a part in the writing of the Bible. The reason we cannot know definitely is that we do not know exactly how many men had a part in the writing of the books of Kings and Chronicles. These men did not all sit down together and allocate a certain portion of the before-planned story to each man. Most of these men never saw each other. Many of these possibly never even saw the writings of the other. Job is the oldest book in the Bible in all probability. It seems to have been written approximately during the days of Abraham or almost two thousand years before Christ’s advent into the world. From the time that the book of Job was written until the last book of the New Testament, Revelation written about 95 A.D., was written a period of time of two thousand years elapsed. This book was written in at least three different languages at the time of its original production. There are at least half a hundred subjects discussed in this book, and yet there is perfect unity on every page.

Such a unity is the Bible that it is often necessary to have at least a working understanding of an entire book in order to get the meaning of just one isolated verse in another book. For example, some verses in the book of Hebrews would be completely non-intelligible were it not for the book of Leviticus. Or again, “For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7). Were it not for the twelfth chapter of Exodus this passage would have but little if any meaning to us. These books are all knit into one composite whole. There is perfect unity!

“Naturally, in light of these facts, prominence is given to the idea of “Organic unity’ in the Biblical religion as a mark of its origin in revelation. . . Apart from all theories about the Bible, the earnest student cannot but be struck by observing in how marked a degree it is a structural unity-has a beginning, a middle and an end” (Orr, Op. Cit. p. 16). “A like organic unity, combined with progressive development, it might be shown, reveals itself in doctrine” (Orr, Op. Cit. p. 17).

The Old and New Testaments cannot be separated logically, in spite of the fact that between the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, and the first of the New Testament, Matthew, there are five silent centuries. The first New Testament writer just begins where the Old Testament writer had ceased and continues the great theme of the redemption of mankind, which was in Jesus Christ.

Again we say that the unity of the Bible is an astonishing thing, and which shows us that under the circumstances, man could not have been its author. Oft times man will contradict himself several times in the matter of a few short pages, and the man does not live who does not contradict himself somewhere throughout his life. And yet the Bible remains a unity, so man could not be its author, and if not man, then only God remains. How could forty men, writing on at least fifty subjects, in at least three languages, and covering almost two thousand years, achieve a unity that is supernatural? We have the answer in the last word, supernatural. Only by God’s supervision over the minds of men through out the years in the giving of a special supernatural revelation could the unity which is supernatural have been achieved.

Evidence: Indestructibility

The third and final argument supporting the Christian’s faith in the Bible as being the Word of God is its indestructibility. It cannot be destroyed. Our Lord said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away” (Matt. 24:35). Peter reiterated the same’ great truth as he said, “For, all flesh is as grass, And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower falleth: But the word of the Lord abideth for ever” (1 Pet. 1:24,25).

It is not often that books long survive because of their very structure. They are made of very perishable material, but the Lord said that even though heaven and earth should pass away, His Word would still endure. Certainly then, He must have been speaking of something more than just the paper and ink that preserved the message. He was speaking of the message itself.

Not everyone throughout the annals of human history have had the warm view that you and I have toward the Bible. Man has not always sought to preserve the Bible. At one time during the Roman Empire’s reign, the Emperor, Domitian declared that all Bibles were to be destroyed, and that not only were the Bibles to be destroyed, but should there be one who should fail to destroy his copy of God’s Word, then he should therefore forfeit his own life. After this decree had been in effect for quite some time, Domitian proudly boasted that he had completely abolished the Word of God from the face of the earth. Many, many copies of the Bible had been burned, but not all. Constantine, the next ruler, after purporting to have been converted to Christianity, offered a substantial reward for anyone presenting him with a copy of the Bible. Note now, that this was in the same land in which Domitian had said he had completely destroyed the Word of God. In twenty-four hours there were brought fifty copies of the Bible to Constantine. This is but one example of its indestructibility. There are many others that could be cited. Not only have there been men who have given themselves in trying to abolish the Bible, but there also have been organizations, some professing to be religious, which have waged relentless wars against this wonderful Word. As the men, so must the organizations also, fall before the conquering powers of the Word of our Lord, for His Word “abideth forever.”

Won’t you then, dear friends, believe in, and obey, this book, the Bible that embodies this Word that will retain its distinction as the Book of Inspiration until the end of time!

Truth Magazine, XX:17, p. 3-4, 6
April 22, 1976

By Larry Ray Hafley

Question:

From Mexico: “Would you please comment on the following argument? If baptism is pouring out’ when the Spirit is the element (Acts 2:4, 17), then, baptism is pouring out” when water is the element.”

Reply:

This argument is fallacious because it rests upon the assumption that “pouring out” is baptism. It assumes what must be proven, i.e., that “pouring out” is baptism. Then, it “proves” that “pouring out” is baptism by that assumption.

The Meaning of Baptism

To baptize is to dip, to immerse, to plunge. Baptism is immersion. The element or substance into which an object is immersed is not inherent in the word “baptize.” One may be immersed, dipped, or baptized in water, fire, ink, or buttermilk. A figurative use of baptism is seen in such expressions as baptism of suffering, that is, overwhelmed, covered over with pain. A sports announcer once said that a quarterback was baptized in the opposing team’s defensive line.

Since baptism is immersion, any figurative use of that word should correspond with the original meaning of “baptize.” In Colossians 2:12 and Romans 6:4, Paul used the term “buried.” It is a figurative expression which harmonizes with the literal meaning of the word “baptize.” “In Romans 6:3, 4 is to be found a simile. Now, Webster says a simile is a ‘figure of speech by which one thing, action, or relation is likened or explicitly compared, often with as or like, to something of different kind or quality.’ The `something of different kind or quality’ in Romans 6:3, 4 is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ; the ‘action likened or explicitly compared’ is the sinner’s death to sin, his burial in baptism, and his resurrection to a new life, and incidently, the comparatives as and like are both used in the passage” (James R. Cope, Why Not To Baptize By Sprinkling, 60, 61). The figurative description of items emanating from the Holy Spirit, that is, being “poured out” from the Spirit, cannot refer to baptism since to “pour out” does not fit the real meaning of baptism. One employs a figurative use of a term based upon the genuine definition of the word. Thus, “burial” illustrates baptism, but “pouring out” does not. One does not determine the true meaning of a word by a figurative expression. Rather, the figures are used because of the definition. Figures of speech should not be used to define. That is what the argument our querist uses attempts to do.

A Quote From Franklin T. Puckett

“The `outpouring’ of the Holy Spirit is a favorite subject in many denominational pulpits. And the teaching that is heard on the subject is-well, the only word I can think of to describe it is the word preposterous. It is contended that the Holy Spirit himself, the third person of the Godhead was that which was `poured out.’ The idea that one could `pour out’ the divine person of the Godhead, just like one would pour water out of a pitcher, is beyond my ability to accept. And this certainly is not what Joel prophesied … (Joel 2:28-32).

“Peter gave a divine commentary on what Joel had said. The word `afterward,’ as Joel wrote it, means `in the last days’ as explained by Peter. Joel wrote, `I will pour out my Spirit,’ and Peter, being filled with that Spirit, explains that as `I will pour out of (or from) my, Spirit.’ It was not the Spirit himself that was poured out; but was something that was ‘of’ or ‘from’ the Spirit. That is what Joel is saying. The preposition puts the emphasis on the point of separation. The thing that was `poured out’ was something that was separated from the Spirit. It was not the Spirit himself, but was that which came from the Spirit” (Franklin T. Puckett, Vanguard Magazine, June 12, 1975, p. 7).

Truth Magazine, XX:17, p. 2
April 22, 1976

By Roland Worth, Jr.

There is nothing in the world that an excuse cannot be invented to defend. So it is not surprising that in our world of casual morals that there are a number of excuses made for ignoring the plain statements of Scripture. In some cases a little common sense will explode the argument; in other cases the Bible has already anticipated such arguments and attacked them.

“Everybody Is Doing It”

That is about as truthful as the myth of a generation or two ago that “Nobody does it.” The truth of the matter is that the standard of right and wrong is not found in a majority decision. Because an overwhelming majority of Germans hated Jews was it right for Hitler to murder six million of them? Though “everybody” was not personally involved in the crime, practically “everybody” thought nothing of being anti-Semitic.

The Bible expressly warns us against justifying our conduct by a corrupt majority. “You shall not follow a multitude to do evil . . . ” (Exodus 23:2). Christ warned us that because there is a great deal of evil in the world, love for Divine truth will tend to diminish, “And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:11-12).

“If You Haven’t Tried It, Don’t Knock It”

Life is far too short to do everything. We learn (if we are half as smart as we think we are) from the experiences of others!

The person who presents this kind of argument to us will seldom want to go out and see what it’s like to kill someone in the heat of war. Nor is he likely to want to go out and let someone shoot at him for the pleasure of seeing what it’s like. Yet Winston Churchill once remarked that there is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at and be missed! A truly unique thrill! But not one that we would recommend to others on the grounds that “If you haven’t tried it, don’t knock it!”

If this kind of reasoning were true a man being tried for murder could say: “You have no business being on my jury because you’ve never killed a person.” Would his objection be valid? Why then should a person be considered right when he makes the same argument concerning morals? In one case a person has violated human law and in the other divine law. If we would not tolerate such reasoning in regard to human offenses how much less we should tolerate it as an excuse for violating the law of God!

“It’s None of Your Business”

First, it is God’s business by right of His creation of mankind.

Second, it is your parent’s business by right of the fact that they gave birth to you.

Third, it is a preacher’s concern because it affects your relationship to God.

So let’s not talk about whether it is someone else’s business. Instead, let us address the real issue: Whether you are doing the right thing in God’s sight.

“It Doesn’t Hurt Anyone”

I suppose that Adam could have said the same thing in the Garden. Yet because of his sin death entered the world and plagues us to this very day. So stop and think for a minute: Your action may set in motion a chain of circumstances far beyond your ability to imagine.

Furthermore, it does hurt someone: You! Sin separates from God (Isa. 59:2) and any immorality you commit places that much more distance between you and Him.

“I Love The Person”

Nothing derogatory is intended but I can’t help but recall the worldly-wise words of the lady I once knew who had been through three marriages: “There is no such thing as love at first sight; there is only lust at first sight.” If you stop to think about it that statement has a lot of truth in it. You may be sensually attracted to a person by their looks but to call that love is a wee bit misleading!

Furthermore, the question is not so much whether you love the person. The more important question is do you love Christ more? “If ye love me keep my commandments” (John 14:15) and among the commandments He taught was abstention from sexual immorality (Matt. 15: 15-20).

Conclusion

Don’t be conned by a smooth talker. You can put a beautiful label on a bottle of cyanide but it will kill you just the same when you drink it. The same it true of sin.

Truth Magazine, XX:16, p. 13-14
April 15, 1976

By Ron Halbrook

For the truth’s sake, we need to guard the tongue. “It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (Jas. 3:8). Every power for good is also a power for evil when misused. And, the tongue is a great power, either way it is used. “Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!” (v. 5). The tongue is used to “bless … God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be” (vv. 9-10).

Cursing, swearing, profanity, and vile speech of every kind have become the order of the day for many people. Such speech often uses the name of God in a degrading way, to strengthen cursing and profanity. And, generally, such speech expresses extreme bitterness, disgust, or a desire for harm toward another person (for some real or imagined injury). The speaker sometimes even directs such expressions toward himself (for some weakness or mistake he has made). All such speech shows a lack of respect for God, self, and others!

The solution is threefold. (1) We must exalt God in our hearts–“love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” (2) We must have a proper regard for ourselves. As spiritual beings, we are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). Man is the crowning work of God’s creation. God “made him a little lower than the angels, and halt crowned him with glory and honour” (Ps. 8:5). In view of his eternal destiny, man is of greater value than all material things combined. “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Matt. 16:26). (3) Just as we are to love (seek the good of) ourselves, we are to love others. “Thou shah love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matt. 22:39). Proper regard for God, self, and others stops vile speech of all descriptions.

“Polite” cursing and compromise with profanity are found in the form of euphemisms. Euphemisms are substitutes for direct cursing. To damn, in profanity, is to curse. Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (1975) defines “darn” and “darn” as “damn: a euphemism for the curse.” “fleck” is “an exclamation used as a euphemism for hell.” “Blamed” is “a substitute for damned.” Others include “gosh” (“euphemism for God”), “gee” (“euphemistic contraction of Jesus”), “golly” (“euphemism for God’), “doggone” (“an imprecation, or perhaps a euphemistic remodeling of God Damn”), and “confound” (“damned, a mild oath”).

Christians who love God, self, and others properly will avoid all such speech. Sinners need to obey the Gospel of Christ to be forgiven of such speech; they must believe in Christ, repent of sins, confess Jesus Christ, and be baptized in water for remission of sins (Acts 2:38; Mark 16:16, Rom. 10:10, 1 Pet. 3:21). “their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more,” God promises (Heb. 8:12).

Truth Magazine, XX:16, p. 11-12
April 16, 1976