Truth Magazine

By Cecil Willis

Today is January 1, 1976, the day many people make to themselves and others New Year’s Day resolutions and altruistic promises. In this brief article, instead of looking forward, we want to take a backward look. It is as important to consider how we have done as to romise ourselves how we are going to do.

Firstly, let me state that this completes five Volumes of Truth Magazine as a weekly. Allen Sommer, when he wrote the last article that closed the American Christian Review observed, “tempus sure do fugit,” a slight modification of the Latin for “time flies.” But it really does fly by quickly. A lot of hard work has gone into these five years of weekly issues.

Secondly, we want to thank Brother Jeffery Kingry for doing both the author and topical index that comprise this issue. Jeff had the misfortune of losing the indexes before he could mail them to us, and had to redo them completely. Consider what a task that was! To some of you, an Index issue is worthless. But to several hundred of you who keep your papers for future reference and study purposes, these index issues are the most important ones of all.

Thirdly, we might remind you that next year the paper will be printed on glossy pages again. This is possible because Economy Printing Concern of Berne, Indiana has spent many thousands of dollars purchasing and installing an oven which will dry the ink fast enough that we can use a glossy page. This should improve the appearance of the paper considerably.

Fourthly, we apologize for the lateness of this issue, but that has been occasioned by Brother Kingry’s losing the completed index. We have already turned in to the printer three of the January issues, but he is awaiting shipment of the paper upon which to run Truth Magazine. We can tell you that we are resolved to get published on schedule, and ask your pardon for the lateness of delivery. “Uncle Sam” deserves the lion’s share of the credit (?) for the lateness of delivery.

Fifthly, we think we have achieved a well-balanced paper this year. There are seven extra issues in this volume. We included these seven extra issues in Volume Nineteen in order to begin our volumes on a calendar basis. In Volume Nineteen there are more than 400 articles, written by 125 different men. Incidentally, if you think the paper should be improved, we invite you to submit your improved articles. We only can publish the articles that are sent to us. Sixty percent of the articles are written by men on our staff.

To give you some idea of the variety in this volume, we call attention to the following subjects and number of articles on that subject. There are 14 articles on Authority, 21 on Baptism, 8 on Baptist Doctrine, 30 Book Reviews, 4 on Calvinism, 39 on Christian Living, 46 on the Church, 38 reports from churches, 22 on Denominationalism, 5 on Discipline, 31 on Evangelism, 8 on Evidences, 15 on Faith, 7 on the Family, 12 on Fellowship, 8 on Grace, 6 on Heaven, 12 on Restoration History, 15 on the Holy Spirit, 24 on Christ, 8 on Jehovah’s Witnesses, 5 on Modesty, 11 on Obedience, 13 on Personal Work, 20 on Preachers and Preaching, 29 answering Bible questions, 15 on Salvation, 31 dealing expositorily with various passages, 16 on Teaching, and 17 on Bible Word Studies. If a paper can have wider diversification in one year, I hardly see how such would be possible.

We hope you will stay with us through Volume Twenty and thereafter, so long as the Lord shall tarry His return, and give us strength and the means to continue to publish Truth Magazine.

Truth Magazine XIX: 57, p. 898
December 18, 1975

By George Welsh Tyler

Of the approximately 175 Scriptural titles applied to Christ, “Counselor” is one that stands out. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; . . . and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” What a remarkable setting for this term “Counselor!” How much easier it is for men and even nations to accept Him as Savior and Redeemer than it is to accept and listen to Him as Counselor! It is that phase of Christ’s manifold character that we wish to present at this time.

Studying the teachings of Christ we find they are packed with counsel for the saved and the unsaved, for young and old, for the rich and the poor, for the learned and the unlearned. I think it would be very interesting to tabulate the total recorded teachings of Christ to find out just how great a proportion is wise, kindly counsel. “Enter ye in at the straight gate.” “Be not wise in your own conceits.” “Be not anxious about the morrow,” “Work while it is day.” “Watch.” “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” “No man can serve two masters.” “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” “Judge not that ye be not judged.” “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” We have given a few examples to those who are out of the fold and to those who are within the fold. We might group Christ’s words as follows: (1) statements of facts, such as, “No one cometh unto the Father but by me;” (2) commands, such as, “Go ye into all the world,” etc.; (3) counsel, such as cited above; (4) promises, such as, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;” (5) warnings, such as, “Beware of false prophets.”

We must bear in mind that neither God nor Christ will ever force any man to obey even a positive command, much less follow counsel. Both are given, however, as I understand it, as guideposts, pointing the only way to safety and salvation! As the Son of the living God, Christ’s counsel cannot and dare not be ignored or overlooked. He stated the truth that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no one could come to God but by Him. This being true, His counsel cannot be ignored and must be followed by all men who would be saved, because it is the divine and authoritative pointing out of the Way, the Truth and the Life. To a lot of people it seems somewhat easier to recognize the necessity of obeying a positive command than for hearing arid heeding Christ’s counsel, yet both are given for exactly the same purpose; that is, as guides to the way, and only that way alone can lead to forgiveness, eternal life and heaven.

The Christian has two duties relative to the counsel of Christ. One is to lay this counsel before every possible misguided wanderer who is not in Christ. The other duty is to remember that Christ is not only Redeemer, but Counselor for every day and every relation in life. When Christians make use of the Christ as Counselor not only in moral decisions, but in business, in the home, in success and defeat, in marriage and in contemplated marriage, in pleasures and sorrows and even in their efforts to serve in Christian work, the sad errors which have pursued Christian lives and afflicted the church will mostly have been done away. Christ as Counselor in the home means the end of most heartbreaks and wrecks. Christ as Counselor, if permitted, would solve all church problems without heat, enmity and disruption.

We close with a word that needs to be strongly emphasized thousands of times in sermons and editorials. Oh, how the nations need Christ as Counselor when men shall sit down to determine their future and their multiplied millions of inhabitants! How can those who hold the lives of all the living and unborn generations in their hands be prevailed upon to seek the tender but sure-guiding hand of Christ, the Son of the living God? Christians, one and all, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, can pray earnestly every day that the chosen representatives of the nations shall choose to be willing and actually will seek the counsel and guidance of Him whose name is “Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

Truth Magazine XIX: 56, p. 893
December 11, 1975

By Warren E. Berkley

There can be little doubt that a substantial number of religious zealots view Christianity as something mysterious and incomprehensible. Perhaps the most convincing demonstration of this idea is the present “tongue speaking” movement.

Any perspective of this trend ought to begin by establishing the vast difference between the nature of modern day “tongue speaking” and that which was spoken in New Testament days. Tongue speaking in those days when the New Testament was in the process of being written was a gift of God given by the Holy Spirit to enable men to preach the Gospel in a tongue, or: language, which had not been learned by the speaker (see Luke 24:46-49; Acts 2 with special attention to verse 8).

It would be difficult to overestimate this single point! We might formulate our argument in the following logical pattern:

1. New Testament tongue speaking was the intelligent rendition of languages not learned by the speaker, but understood by the hearers (see passages cited above).

2. Modern “tongue speakers” utter some kind of nonsensical mumbo-jumbo (often called “ecstatic utterances”).

3. Conclusion: Modern “tongue speaking” is not the same as New Testament tongue speaking!

In the June 3, 1973 issue of The Pentecostal Evangel (claiming to be “a charismatic magazine,” and the “official organ of the Assemblies of God”), we found a poem revealing what may be the primary motivation behind this modern craze. The poem follows.

PRAYER IN TONGUES

Oh, sweet release which made my tongue

A captive in Thy hand,

And gave to me these words of praise

Which I don’t understand.

I cannot fathom how God works,

But one thing sure I know:

The pent-up pressures of a day

Dissolve within this flow.

Cascading down the valleys of

My hungry, thirsting soul,

While washing me and cleansing me,

The waves of glory roll.

God’s Spirit is a fountainhead

Of love inside of me;

And as I pray in tongues, there wells

A gushing stream, set free.

-MARY MASON

This “tongue speaking” poet admits that she “cannot fathom how God works.” If she is like most pentecostal “tongue speakers” she is no doubt very dogmitic in her claim that her ecstatic utterances are a gift from God. In fact, she asserts within the poem that God gave her “these words of praise.” She cannot fathom how God works (even though God has revealed the truth about tongue speaking in the Bible), yet she is sure that what she has is a gift of the Spirit.

She is also sure that “the pent-up pressures of a day dissolve within this flow.” At this point we are made to wonder if “tongue speaking” is nothing more than an emotional outlet for those who are frustrated by the “daily grind.”

Another young lady (a Catholic pentecostal) . who claims to have uttered a “heavenly language” described her feelings as follows:

“There is a certain elation. Our Protestant brethren talk about `release,’ and I guess that is a pretty good way of saying it . . . Speaking In tongues leaves you physically refreshed. (Quoted from The Religion Reawakening in America, page 53).

Of course, there are any number of ways of releasing emotional tension: crying, laughing, digging in your garden, fishing, bicycling or playing a musical instrument. You may even find the nonsensical, mumbojumbo method to be the answer. But the kind of tongue speaking characteristic of the New Testament era was not just an emotional release! It was designed by God to facilitate the original proclamation of the Gospel; it is not for this age (1 Cor. 13:8-10)!

As Jimmy Jividen observes: “The present phenomenon of so-called `tongue speaking,’ like drugs, hyponosis and shock treatments, perhaps could be used under controlled situations by professionals to release anxiety and overcome inhibitions. It becomes error, however, when it is interpreted as being a special gift from God” (“Speaking in Tongues-From God or Man?” Article in Spiritual Sword, Vol. 4, No. 1, page 23).

There can be little doubt that anxiety and “pent-up pressures” need to be properly released. But let us not be guilty of claiming some gift God never promised to us. Emotional release is not worth the loss of one’s faith in Bible truth!

Truth Magazine XIX: 56, pp. 891-892
December 11, 1975

By John Wallace

In 1 Cor. 9:22, Paul said, “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” Paul tried to adapt his speech, mannerisms and way of living to be more acceptable to the different races of people he taught. Any successful gospel preacher must follow Paul’s example. In fact we are admonished by Paul’s own words, “Those things, which ye have both learned, and received and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you” (Phil. 4:9). I am convinced that many gospel preachers are not becoming all things to all men, when they go into other nations to hold gospel meetings and thus are “turning off” souls that could be won for the Master.

How would you feel if an Australian gospel preacher held a meeting for you and during the course of the meeting used only Australian facts and figures in his examples and analogies; if he did not know the name of your president, did not know how many states there are in the union, knew only the name of the one state in which he was presently preaching, made reference to only Australian history and Australian geography and Australian weather conditions and was completely unfamiliar with the United States. How many outsiders would he “turn off” because of his lack of knowledge of your country? How many would be offended by this “foreigner” who did not know or care enough to learn about the United States before he came for the meeting?

Perhaps, now you know how some Canadian outsider feels when an American preacher never uses Canadian facts and figures in his preaching examples. Time after time, meeting after meeting, preacher after preacher, I have heard it said, “I don’t know how it is in Canada, but down in our country it is this way, etc., etc.” American preacher friend, I love you and your great country, but you are not becoming a “Canadian” that you might win Canadians when you do not bone up on the knowledge of Canada before a meeting in our country so you can use appropriate examples and analogies.

To help any American preacher who is coming to Canada to preach in a gospel meeting, I will gladly send them a copy of the book, Quick Canadian Facts, The Canadian Pocket Encyclopedia-price $1.50.

Truth Magazine XIX: 56, p. 891
December 11, 1975