Truth Magazine

By Louis J. Sharp

God always has had “messengers” to deliver his Word to the people. Each “messenger” is obligated to deliver God’s message  not his own. By the pen of inspiration, Paul wrote: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel; Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Gal. 1:6-10). Every individual must make a determination in reference to truth and error.

Frequently, when gospel preachers urge the necessity of obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ, a reluctant hearer seeks to shirk his responsibility by saying: “You are not my judge.” To this, I quickly retort, “No, I am not your judge, and for this I am forever grateful.” I am so happy that everyone will receive righteous judgment from him who judges all.

Yet, those who condemn the preacher for the message he delivers, themselves are guilty of condemning or judging. Self-righteously, they quote Jesus’ words: “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matt. 7:1). Evidently, they have not yet discovered that almost in the same breath, Jesus admonished, “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you” (v. 6). Also, “beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (v. 15). Again, “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them” (v. 20). Specifically, these admonitions demand some degree of judgment.

Jesus does condemn harsh, censorious judgment. We must never be guilty of this harmful practice. But, as Malcolm often says, “We are fruit inspectors.” “By their fruits ye shall know them.” A man who habitually lies may be called a liar. A woman who is a tale-bearer very properly is known as a gossiper. One who commits murder is a murderer, make no mistake about it. And the disobedient person, who has never obeyed the gospel of Christ, has not been added to the body of Christ (Acts 2:38, 47). Good people, this is not judging.

Like John, we “warn you to flee from the wrath to come. Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance” (Matt. 3:7-8).

Guardian of Truth XLI: 20 p. 7
October 16, 1997

By Johnie Edwards

Elvis Presley, known as the “King Of Roc ‘n’ Roll” died twenty years ago, August 16, 1977 at the age of 42. Graceland opened to tourists in 1982 and draws more than 700,000 visitors a year, according to a story in the Bloomington, Indiana Herald-Times on August 16, 1997. According to an article in Saturday, August 16, 1997 The New York Times, the Elvis Industry is a multimillion-dollar company with rights to dozen of products tied to Elvis Presley, from records to T-shirts. People are now making him a religious icon!

The First Presleyterian Church

USA Today carried a front page cover story on August 8-10, 1997 and made reference to “The First Presleyterian Church of Elvis The Divine.” The article further stated, “Already, academics study Elvis as a role model for the first stages of a new religion. Some suggest parallels between Elvis’ following and the early stages of major religions. There are parallels in the origins of Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism and the Elvis movement.”

This is exactly how human religious organizations get started. The USA To-day article also said, “Like any other m or religion, it will take on a life of its own after the historical players have left the building.” When folks revere a man too much, like they did Martin Luther or John Wesley, new churches begin.

If a “First Presleyterian Church” is started, it will be too late to be or even resemble the Lord’s church we read about in the New Testament. The Lord’s church began in Jerusalem (Zech. 1:16, Luke 24:46-47; Acts 2:5, 47) by men hearing and obeying gospel preaching concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This church that begins in Memphis, Tennessee will have it beginning at the wrong place to be the church of Christ Paul refers to in Romans 16:16.

Worship

No doubt the worship in this latest religion will be directed to Elvis Presley’s image as he is revered.

The Bible teaches us that we are not to worship men. When Peter went to Cornelius’ house, “. . . Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshiped him. But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man” (Acts 10:25-26). Here is a good example that teaches us that we are not to worship men.

God must be the object of our worship. As Jesus talked with the woman at the well, among other things, he said, “God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). God is to be worshiped, not men. As Jesus responded to the devil’s temptation to worship him, Jesus told us whom to worship, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matt. 4:10). As John fell be-fore the feet of an angel to worship, do you recall what the angel said to John? “Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not; for I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God” (Rev. 22:8-9).

Isn’t it strange that people are never content to just do as the Lord has directed, but want to create some new religion and some other object of worship than that pre-scribed on the pages of inspiration? Time will only tell how well this new religion and worship catches on!

Guardian of Truth XLI: 20 p. 16
October 16, 1997

By J.S. Smith

Premillennialism is a system of religious belief wherein the kingdom of Christ does not now exist, but will be established as an earthly nation in the future. Jesus will sit on the literal throne of David in the city of Jerusalem and physically rule the world.

Premillennialism is built on one highly untenable principle: that when Jesus was incarnated, he intended to establish that earthly kingdom, but the Jews would not let him. Premillennialists ironically argue that the Jews were anticipating an earthly kingdom and Jesus came to establish an earthly kingdom and so the Jews pre-vented him. That doesn’t even make for good nonsense. If Jesus were establishing the kind of kingdom they wanted, why would they stop him?

Premillennialists will concede that the prophecy of Daniel 2:36-44 pointed to a kingdom being instituted in the first century A.D., but submit that the fulfillment was postponed until such a time as the Jews could be converted en masse to Christ and allow him to take his throne. But for prophecy to be accurate, it cannot be postponed. I predicted in 1992 that the Atlanta Braves were a team of destiny and would win the World Series. Am I therefore accurate because my prediction was merely postponed until October 1995? Of course not; the uncooperative Toronto Blue Jays proved me wrong.

The point is simple and unavoidable: Either the kingdom was established as prophesied or the prophets were false, Jesus was a failure and God is impotent. The postponement theory is an apology for God’s supposed downfall.

Look more closely at Daniel 2 and see if it allows for a postponement. Daniel said that four great empires would rule the world until God’s kingdom was set up. He identified the first as that of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, to whom he spoke. Tracing Daniel’s prophecy from that point, the next empire was the Medo-Persian(539 B.C.), less splendid and unified, but larger and more enduring. The third nation to follow was the Greek of Alexander the Great (330 B.C.). Then came Daniel’s fourth empire, the Roman, stronger, brutal and unrefined. “And in the days of the these kings the God of heaven will set up his kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever” (Dan. 2:44).

There is no way around the conclusion that God’s kingdom would be established in the days of the Roman empire, the period in which Jesus lived. Either Daniel’s prophecy was fulfilled in that era or it failed. We have shown that postponement of its fulfillment is tantamount to failure.

But did Jesus fail to set up God’s kingdom? Or did he set up a kingdom of different quality than the Jews anticipated?

Soon after baptizing Jesus, John the immerser was executed for the lusty whim of Herod. To this, the Lord “began to preach and to say, `Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt. 4:17). It is undeniable that as Jesus began his ministry, he was under the impression that his messianic mission would succeed. He taught his early disciples to pray in Matthew 6:10 that the kingdom would come and instructed them in its gospel (Matt. 9:35).

In Matthew 10, he gave the twelve apostles supernatural powers and sent them into Judea to preach that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The Lord still thought its establishment was imminent.

Time and the Lord’s journeys brought him to Caesarea Philippi where he asked his disciples whom they thought he was. Peter confessed him as the Messiah, the one who was prophesied to institute the kingdom of God, and to him (and the other apostles, Matt. 18:18) was given the keys of the kingdom (Matt. 16:18-19). If the kingdom was not established in Peter’s lifetime, he carried those keys in his heart without ever using them. What a futile and pointless day was spent then in Caesarea Philippi!

But a short time later came the coup de grace. Matthew 16:21: “From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.”

Please understand it: from the very time that Jesus promised the keys of the kingdom to Peter, he began to sketch his impending crucifixion for them. If he were ever planning to establish an earthly kingdom with himself on its throne, death was sure to cramp those plans. Could it just be that this death would send him to a figurative throne over a spiritual kingdom?

Peter, fresh with the keys in his pocket, rebukes the Lord’s prophecy, thinking that death would prevent him from using those keys. Jesus, however, returns the rebuke, accusing Peter of being engrossed in the things of men, rather than God (Matt. 16:23). The Jewish/Premillennialist pre-occupation with putting Jesus on an earthly throne is labeled as self-serving and ungodly.

You can try to two-step around that promise all day long, but either Jesus knew what he was talking about or he is less than we think. The last of those early disciples would have died by A.D. 125 at the latest. If the kingdom did not come in their lifetimes, your Lord is a failure and only a dishonorable Premillennialist could continue to trust in him.

Of course, all Jesus predicted did happen. He entered the city of his demise upon a donkey to the sneers of the gentry and the cheers of the commoners. He was tried by the vindictive Jewish and Roman authorities and put to death on the cross. For the Jew, the fulfillment of the kingdom prophecy seemed to be postponed until the real Messiah came along. For the Premillennialist, the kingdom was postponed until the crown prince Jesus thinks it safe to emerge from his exile.

But, Peter, taking the keys of the kingdom out of his pocket and opening the door, teaches us better. “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ” (Acts 2:29-31). Reread the italicized words and keep looking for the kingdom. Christ sits on his throne, ruling a kingdom that transcends the lines of human treaties and boundaries. His kingdom is worldwide, claiming citizens in every corner of the globe, of every race, Jew or Gentile (Acts 10:34). “He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. 6:15).

His church, promised in the same context as the kingdom in Matthew 16, is no afterthought, the feeble grasp at power of a failed revolutionary. His church is that kingdom of prophecy, established in the midst of the fourth empire since Babylon, a kingdom “which shall never be destroyed” (Dan. 2:44), and “which the gates of Hades will not prevail against” (Matt. 16:18), and “which cannot be shaken” (Heb. 12:28). Citizens are constantly being conveyed into her (Col. 1:13), and she will be delivered back to God, not born, when the Lord returns (1 Cor. 15:24).

Don’t count Jesus as a failed crown prince in Jewish-imposed exile. Revere him as the true King he is and attain citizenship in the empire of the saved. For if Jesus failed the first time, what makes you think he can succeed the next?

Guardian of Truth XLI: 20 p. 8-9
October 16, 1997

By Jarrod Jacobs

We live in an age when people do not think they are responsible for their actions anymore. When someone is an alcoholic, they say that the person has a “disease” of some sort. Some very eager doctors are trying to find a “gay gene” in the systems of certain people. Many are in favor of distributing birth control to high school children, the purpose being to protect children from the consequences of their actions.

We have a great and terrible problem in this country with people refusing to take responsibility for their actions, and we need to put a stop to it. God said, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezek. 18:20). When we read words like this, we need to realize that each individual is responsible for his actions, no matter how great or stupid they may be.

Notice please that the drinking that was going on was in the same category as “lasciviousness,” “lusts,” and “abominable idolatries.” For one to drink alcoholic drinks was to “run” with “excess of riot”! Does this sound like God was sanctioning these things? Does it sound like God considers a person’s lack of control “a disease”? Friends, these things are a sin in the sight of God, and we must not be partakers of people’s evil deeds (2 John 11).

This mind set is nothing new. In the garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, God asks them what they have done. Notice the answers that are given. Adam says, “The woman whom thou gayest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat” (Gen. 3:12). When God looked to Eve, she said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat” (Gen. 3:13). Very simply, they were refusing to take responsibility for their actions !

Drinking Alcoholic Drinks

When we see someone who is drinking intoxicating drinks, we need to remember the words of Solomon when he said, “Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder” (Prov. 23:29-32). We need to remember what Peter said in 1 Peter 4:2-4.

That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine (passed out drunk, wino), revellings (wild drinking parties, drunken debauchery), banquetings (social drinking occasions, lit. “a drinking”), and abominable idolatries: Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you.

Homosexuality

In thinking about homosexuality, let us simply read what God has said over the years concerning this “lifestyle choice.” “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with woman-kind: it is abomination” (Lev. 18:22). Also, “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them” (Lev. 20:13). Does this sound like God approved of these peoples’ “lifestyle choice”? Please notice some New Testament passages that shed light on this subject. “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And like-wise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet” (Rom. 1:26-27). When he said it was “that which is against nature,” we know that you could search for the rest of your life and not find the elusive “gay gene” in a man or woman’s body!

No friends, God did not make anyone this way! Let us look on. Paul also said that this type of behavior was such that a person will not enter heaven if he is doing it (1 Cor. 6:9-10). He also said these things belong in the realm of the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21). This is not to say that a person who was a homosexual could not be saved. Clearly, the Corinthians had some that were homosexuals, but had since changed, obeyed the word of God, and were saved (1 Cor. 6:11). However, what we find today is a group of people who do not want to live up to their responsibilities, nor accept the consequences of their ungodly living. They claim that people who teach the truth are homophobes, or bigots who do not love them. What they need to realize is that the people who love them are the ones warning them of the wrath to come on them if they do not change!

The Distribution of Birth Control to

High School Students

In the case of distributing of birth control methods to unmarried teenagers, we see the very epitome of what we are talking about. Someone would say, “These teenagers are too young to be a daddy or mother.” This is true. The way for them to keep from being a parent before they have a chance to grow up is to instill our children with the values given in the Bible. The Hebrew writer said, “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Heb. 13:4). Young people and old people need to realize that without marriage, they belong in the realm of whoremongers and adulterers when they decide they are going to fulfill their sexual desire regardless of what God has said. God in the very beginning sanctioned that the husband and wife were to be “one flesh.” No one else (Gen. 2:24)! When people decide that they are going to live ungodly, they need to realize that there are consequences that they will have to endure!

One Who Dies in Their Sins

Let me also say that if one dies in his sins, it is his own fault. In an age where the Bible is available in book form, computer disk, tapes, etc., and in a country with the freedom that we enjoy to openly read and study God’s word, there is no excuse for one not knowing about God’s word! It is high time that we accepted our responsibilities and learn that God has a plan for us, and if we refuse to listen, it is our own fault. Paul said, “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power” (2 Thess. 1:7-9). Sadly, ignorance is no excuse for not obeying God’s will. Further, we read in Acts 17:30-31, “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”

What are you going to do? Will you accept your responsibilities? Will you stop looking to your mother and father and blaming them for your problems? Will you stop blaming the environment in which you live for the problems you must face?

Jesus said, “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). Here Jesus gives six references to the individual to obey him. With these words, it is not your parents’ fault that you are not a Christian. It is not your parents’ fault that you have sinned and fallen short in the past (Rom. 3:23). It is not your living conditions that keep you from obeying God. It is up to you. Accept your responsibilities and obey God by believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, by repenting of your sins, by confessing your faith, and by being baptized (John 8:24; Acts 17:30; Matt. 10:32; Mark 16:16). Accept your personal responsibilities and live faithfully for God to the very end (1 Cor. 15:58; Rev. 2:10).

Guardian of Truth XLI: 20 p. 20-21
October 16, 1997