Truth Magazine

By Wallace H. Little

Note Jeff Kingry’s article, “Are Your Responsibilities `Corban?’ ” in Truth Magazine, Vol. XIX, No. 38, August 7, 1975, p. 13 beginning. He dealt with neglect of families by preachers who spend a good portion of their days away from home in meeting work, or become so involved in their work locally as to leave little time for their families. I want to put in some additional comments.

This applies to more than just preachers. Perhaps more than others, I was in a position to understand this. I was converted after spending 14 years in military service and continued therein another 14 years until my retirement in 1970. The military necessarily imposes restrictions on a man’s time, including periods of enforced separation from home and family. Over the years, my family has endured many. They were measured in weeks, sometimes months and once I was gone for a year. My wife and I understood and accepted these as necessary, but I could see the uncomfortable results on returning each time. In spite of her best efforts, she had additional problems, some generated simply because I was away, and others while normal, should never have been her lot to endure and solve. Since retirement, I have spent a minimum of time away because I have “seen the other side.”

This is not to disparage the importance of gospel meetings nor the urgency of taking the gospel of salvation to the lost wherever they might be. It is to say, while we have this responsibility, we also have the one of taking care of those God has entrusted into our keeping, and this is our primary concern.

Jeff made an excellent point and sounded a needed warning. We ought to pay heed to it.

Truth Magazine XIX: 55, p. 872
December 4, 1975

By Dennis L. Shaver

The title of this article may appear humorous. However, that which prompted such a title is not! For many years we have watched as some “professed” congregations of the Lord engage in unscriptural activities. When called into question about their practice many will state: “Where did God say not to?” This attitude shows them to be no better than any denominational with the same ideas toward the Word. I know this is heart-breaking to any faithful child of God. Most of these congregations will state, “We speak where the Bible speaks, and are silent where it is silent.” But, like the denominations around us, they say one thing and do another. Such is what I am writing about.

This article is not written to “pick apart” any one congregation, nor to find fault just for the purpose of finding fault. It is written because of the attitude some professed brethren have concerning the authority of God’s will. I am deeply concerned over many of the activities some of my brethren engage in. Whenever I talk to members of denominations I always ask them for book, chapter and verse. It seems that Christians would surely understand this question, and be glad to reply to it. Therefore, I simply want to ask the question, Why, and Where is the Authority?

The following is an advertisement for a “church of Christ” in this area. “On _______, following Bible study, we invite you to come and feast on the largest banana split in the world.” I guess I should be thankful they put study first and the banana split second. It is just this kind of promotion that concerns me. I have seen the denominations try to top one another in getting people to attend their church. I have even come to expect such behavior from them. But I did not expect such “goings on” within a church of our Lord. From what I have heard about this “banana split,” I assume the church is going to pay for it out of its treasury. I have only one question. Where does the Bible authorize such a practice? I am not asking for much, just one command, example, or necessary inference that would teach the church to use its treasury to buy a banana split. If this is such a good idea I wonder why the apostle Paul and other men of the New Testament did not use such “gimmicks” go teach the truth.

When people of God (Christians) quit asking for and looking for Bible authority in their practices, they are no better than a denomination. In New Testament times the gospel was for young and old alike. The apostle Paul taught that the power was the gospel (Rom. 1:16). I am truly sorry to see so many churches being concerned with drawing numbers. It seems as if many are no longer concerned with spiritual conversion to Christ. The day it takes a “Super Banana Split” to interest people in the gospel of Christ is the day I shall quit preaching. I have found that preaching the simple and pure gospel of Christ creates much interest. The reason is simple. It is something that is not heard very often. If individual Christians would spend more time in preaching to the lost, we would not have time to dream up such side shows as “banana splits.” Someone once said, “An idle brain is the devil’s workshop.” I am afraid that many of my brethren are too idle in the word of the Lord.

Truth Magazine XIX: 55, pp. 871-872
December 4, 1975

By James W. Adams

Worthy indeed of praise is the man who “thinks twice before he leaps.” Like unto him is the man in religion who does not commit himself to a position without thoroughly studying it first. But the man who continues to “study” (?) year after year without making up his mind concerning matters that are vital is either a fool or a coward. Note the following from Tillotson: “In matters of great concern, and which must be done, there is no surer argument of a weak mind than irresolution; to be undetermined, where the case is so plain, and the necessity so urgent; to be always intending . . . but never to find time to set about it: this is as if a man should put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day and night to another till he is starved and destroyed.”

Truth Magazine XIX: 55, p. 871
December 4, 1975

By Irvin Himmel

God has a family. All His children are in that family. He has no illegitimate spiritual offspring.

One does not enter the divine family by means of a physical birth. It is a new birth-a delivery preceded by a spiritual conception-that brings one into the household of heaven.

Jesus spoke of the new birth in a conversation with Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus was puzzled, thinking that Jesus meant a physical re-birth. “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus .explained, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” To help Nicodemus understand that the new birth is not fleshly, Jesus pointed out, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:3-7).

It is through the implanting of the word in the hearts of men that they are begotten. “Of, his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (Jas. 1:18). “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever . . . And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you” (1 Pet. 1:23-25).

When the gospel is received by an honest and good heart, the power of a new life generates a change in conduct. This is what the Bible calls repentance. The Spirit’s influence through the gospel leads the penitent person to confess with the mouth that Jesus is the Christ. Spiritual vitality is generated in the heart and life by the seed sown. That vital force coming from God through the gospel, the divine influence on the mind, prompts the individual to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. By baptism the delivery takes place. God’s family is entered. “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:26, 27).

God’s family is the church. The redeemed make up the church. Paul referred to the “house” or “household” of God as the “church of the living God” (1 Tim. 3:15). To be in the church is to be in the body of Christ. That body consists of the “called out.” All who have believed and obeyed the gospel are called out of Satan’s kingdom into the kingdom of God’s dear Son.

To speak of the redeemed as God’s family is to use a figure of speech. It is a beautiful figure. God is the Father, and all the faithful are related to each other as brethren. God’s children share in a common inheritance. The relationship is by the blood of Jesus, not by physical ties. That kinship calls for “brotherly love” (Heb. 13:1).

Sometimes people enter God’s family and afterward become rebellious, disobedient children. Paul taught that the “wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience” (Col. 3:6). God’s people forfeit their inheritance when they cease to walk by faith. The child of God who persists in sin breaks the fellowship that once existed. God blots names out of the book of life (Rev. 3:5; Ex. 32:33).

The following exhortation and warning is needed by all children of God: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of. you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God” (Heb. 3:13).

The fellowship of God’s family is conditional. “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:6, 7).

Truth Magazine XIX: 55, pp. 870-871
December 4, 1975