Truth Magazine

By Larry Ray Hafley

Elders-have awesome tasks. They lead and feed the flock of God which is among them (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2). They rule the church, “taking the oversight thereof” (1 Them. 5:12; 1 Tim. 5:17; 1 Pet. 5:2). Among the many important duties of shepherds is keeping the flock together, maintaining its unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Acts 20:28-32). Some pastors, due to negligence or ignorance, court division. They may unknowingly incite strife and invite rebellion. Their request for trouble is seen when the church is untaught, uninformed, unchallenged, and undisciplined.

Untaught Members

An untrained, untaught flock will soon bolt, jump the fence, and eat loco weed, sneeze weed, and Johnson gram — that is, they will turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables unless the word is preached (2 Tim. 4:24). Elders are charged, not once but twice, to feed the flock (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2). It must be something they ought to do I If shepherds of literal sheep fed their flocks like some elders pastor or feed theirs, wool would be a scarce commodity.

Elders may feed by filling the trough full of meetings, classes and home studies, but they should not turn the entire burden of feeding over to others. When a preacher does all the teaching, there is error and danger. First, error comes in that elders are to teach. Secondly, danger develops due to the fact that a flock looks to those who actually feed and lead it and not to those who are supposed to do so. I may own some sheep. If I turn them over to a hired hand to nurture and admonish and step completely aside, when the shepherd says, “Let’s go to the back forty,” and I attempt to step in and say, “No, follow me over here,” they will follow him and not me, even though I am the official leader. Many sad eyed elders have turned over the flock to pastor preachers. Then when they sought to step in during a period of crisis and conflict, the church followed the preacher and the elders were abandoned to the wolves.

Uninformed Saints

Elders must keep the church informed. An unenlightened church is a seething source of potential strife. Overlords do not inform the church as to their plans, purposes or programs. Elders are not the CIA, the secret service portion of the church. Their deeds are not to be performed in a mysterious cloak and closet atmosphere. The saints should not only know what is “going on” but why it is “going on,” since they are the ones who should be integrally involved in the “goings on.”

The New Testament shows that churches, not just elderships, were informed of activities of common interest. The advances and successes and the frustrations and hindrances of the work of Christ should all be reported and recorded (Acts 14:27; Col. 4:7, 16; 1 Thess. 2:2). Let there be no questions arise due to a lack of information and there will be more patience and understanding when sticky situations and difficult decisions are encountered.

Unchallenged Brethren

Churches and individuals have different capacities. Depending upon their state and stage of growth in grace, brethren can be challenged to accept weightier works. Elders should cultivate maturity and envision the resultant ability to take on accelerated activity. A man may begin by lifting fifty pound weights on a regular basis, but six months later we would not expect him to be carrying the same poundage. He needs to “abound yet more and more.” So with churches. But how many elders challenge the church to flex their added muscles of spiritual strength? Periods of study and preparation must he followed by a proportionate increase in labors of love. The brethren may be fed and fattened on the good word of God, but, lest they grow listless and lethargic, they must work out their own salvation with greater demands of duty. A congregation filled with trained servants can become stale and discontent without a challenge of work. Elders, being elders, should know this. Challenge the church in every scriptural way.

Undisciplined Disciples

Discipline is done when the church is instructed in righteousness. When a congregation is properly taught, it is disciplined, for teaching is a form of discipline. However, when this fails, disorder is the result and the guilty must be dealt with (2 Thess. 3:6-15). Withdrawing from the disorderly is for the mutual benefit of the offender and the church. The disciple who walks disorderly is to be brought to shame and repentance “that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Cor. 5:5). This putting away “from among yourselves that wicked person” will remove the evil leaven that may leaven (corrupt) the whole lump (church).

Discipline, when administered with a proper spirit and in accordance with scriptural order, will cause others also to fear (Acts 5: 1-11; 1 Tim. 5: 20). A church that refuses to discipline the disorderly causes a callous disregard and disrespect for authority and a light view of sin to grow in their hearts. A congregation, with no fear of God in their eyes, will certainly not be led to submit themselves to their overseers as they are commanded to do (Heb. 13:17).

Conclusion: When a local body of Christ is left battered, bruised and bleeding in the aftermath of quarrels and division, the question is asked, “What was done to cause such alienation and bitterness?” The question, however, is often not, “What was done?” but rather it is, “What was left undone?” If bishops do not teach, inform, challenge and participate in discipline, they will wake up to find a scattered flock, a divided church, and sickly souls for which they “must give account.”

TRUTH MAGAZINE, XVI: 19, pp. 10-11
March 16, 1972

By Connie W. Adams

Weldon E. Warnock of Paden City, West Virginia will meet H. C. Vanderpool of Louisville, Kentucky in a debate in Louisville March 13, 14, 16 and 17. The discussion will be held in the Iriquois High School auditorium at 4615 Taylor Blvd. just south of Watterson Expressway.

The first two nights Mr. Vanderpool will affirm salvation through faith before water baptism. The last two nights Brother Warnock will affirm that water baptism is essential to salvation.

These men met in debate in Bowling Green, Kentucky about two years ago, at which time agreement was made for a debate to be held in Louisville. The Manslick Road church in Louisville will endorse and support brother Warnock in the discussion. Mr. Vanderpool preaches for the Lyons Chapel Baptist Church in Louisville and they will support him. Both men are experienced in religious debate. W. T. Russell will moderate for Mr. Vanderpool and the writer will serve as moderator for brother Warnock.

A limited number of places to stay may he provided for out of town visitors. Write me at the above address. The debate will begin at 7:30 each night.

TRUTH MAGAZINE, XVI: 19, p. 9
March 16, 1972

By Leslie Diestelkamp

All of us quote the great commission frequently. Perhaps many of us do so without really recognizing the grave responsibility imposed. The apostles were to preach the gospel in all the world and they were to teach the converts to do the same. The obligation to preach Christ is not done “once for all time,” but it is a continuing duty for every generation. The magnitude of this obligation is emphasized by the ceaselessness of the reproductive system and by the endless number of souls that daily become accountable to God for their guilt. Furthermore, the terribleness of sin and the very high evaluation that God puts upon each soul should make us aware of our constant duty to preach the Word.

It is, then, the duty of each child of God to sow the good seed of the kingdom here, there and everywhere. This cannot be done by proxy. God will see no fruit in my life just because I had an uncle who preached the gospel for 33 years, nor because my grandmother may have sent money to a preacher who went to Africa two generations ago. I must participate, personally! And I may do this by teaching the lost myself and/or by helping support those who do go into the faraway fields of the world (Gal. 6: 6; Philemon 13, 14).

Furthermore, the real and singular mission of the whole church is to be “the pillar and support of truth” (I Tim. 3:15). Indeed, the church has other obligations (in benevolence, edification and worship) but its dynamic reason for existence is evangelism. We are not an identifiable entity for the purpose of “keeping house for the Lord” but rather that we may “offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (I Pet. 2:5). We must serve God by serving others, especially the lost of all the earth.

In the last two decades there has been a real awakening to the responsibility for world evangelism. Congregations that had never spent a dollar in a distant place have learned to send thousands of dollars around the world. Consequently, preachers have been able to go into the fields far and near. Twenty years ago, if a preacher determined to go into a foreign field he usually had to spend many months, traveling all over the country to secure money to go. Today most good men can raise such support without making one speech. We thank God that his Word has enlightened the minds, stirred the hearts and loosened the purse strings of Christians who now gladly become partners in evangelism across the oceans and around the world.

Naturally not all of God’s people have yet learned this lesson in sharing. Some churches can still only think of local needs. A few still may say, “One doesn’t have to get sea-sick to be faithful” (to which I reply, “Somebody does”). But happily, most congregations are awakening. The results, though not phenomenal, are rewarding and gratifying. God is glorified among multitudes who had previously never heard. Precious souls are saved everywhere. And, slowly, sometimes without proper zeal and wisdom, we are relentlessly pressing forward toward the ideal of a completely unselfish and altogether generous use of manpower and money in pursuit of the real objectives for which we are created in Christ Jesus.

Watch for another article in some later issue of this paper under the general heading of “World Evangelism” in which I hope to spell out some of the specific challenges that are ours today.

TRUTH MAGAZINE, XVI: 19, pp. 8-9
March 16, 1972

By Cecil Willis

For several years the liberal brethren have had a difficult time determining how the human institutions which they have foisted upon the church shall be directed. The Firm Foundation has maintained that these institutions must be under an eldership, while the Gospel Advocate has declared that they must not be under elders, but must be under a Board of Directors.

Some of the institutions have switched from one governing arrangement to another. For instance, the Maude Carpenter Home has been under elders, then under a board, and is now back under elders.

Guy N. Woods used to say, in his early debates, that if one board should attempt to oversee more than one home, it then would be comparable to the Missionary Society. But the Boles Home board has now for several years overseen both Boles Home and the separate Foster Home at Stephenville. But has Woods opposed this arrangement? If he has, his opposition has been overlooked by me.

Boles Home at first was under elders. Then they switched to a board. Then they started a second institution. Now they are separating the Foster Home from Bole8 Home. The Foster Home will now be overseen by a board of directors “approved” by the Graham Street church elders in Stephenville, but these directors live in several different cities.

Indeed, it must be a difficult chore to find a scriptural way to run an unscriptural organization!

TRUTH MAGAZINE, XVI: 19, p. 8
March 16, 1972