Truth Magazine

By Randy Blackaby

Perusing the new book shelf at the library the other day I came across a book entitled Healthy Divorce. That title started me thinking about the sad confusion about marriage, family, and children that exists in our country today.

The very idea that divorce  breaking up a family  can be “healthy” is contrary to everything we learn in the Bible and from practical experience.

In Malachi 2:16 we learn that God “hates divorce.” Jesus himself taught that divorce is sinful except when your spouse commits adultery (Matt. 5:31-32; 19:1-9).

In that latter Scripture, Jesus showed that it was God’s plan from the beginning that a man and woman live together for a lifetime and become as “one flesh” and not separate.

Contrary to popular thinking, this commandment was not devised as some sort of divinely imposed suffering. It is the wisdom of God that leads men and women to the best life in this world.

Let me present some evidence from our world to support this.

Each year in our country more than one million children experience a family break-up and 500,000 are born out of wedlock. As this phenomenon has increased, teen suicide has tripled and juvenile crime has become epidemic. Statistics show that 70 percent of juveniles in state reform institutions come from homes without both parents present.

Further, we see that five years after family break-ups, more than a third of children in those situations are experiencing significant mental depression. Girls in these situations are statistically at much higher risk of becoming promiscuous, getting married as teens, getting pregnant without benefit of marriage, and themselves eventually going through a divorce.

Children from broken homes are much more likely to have trouble academically in school and even to drop out. In two-parent families, about 30 percent of students are ranked as high achievers. In broken families, that figure is only about 17 percent.

Children in families with a woman as the head are twice as likely to receive mental health services. That isn’t a slam at mothers. It is evidence of the need for fathers in the home.

Divorced men have ten times the risk for psychiatric disorders requiring care and divorced women are five times at risk, compared to married men and women.

Knowing what God says and what a study of actual divorce results shows, I’m hard pressed to embrace the idea of “healthy divorce.”

What about you?

Guardian of Truth XLI: 3 p. 5
February 6, 1997

By Larry Ray Hafley

So inquired a headline in the Houston Chronicle (November 14, 1996, p. 18A). “Sam Nunn and William Bennett . . . teamed up . . . to launch a commission to study what they say are social pathologies that imperil society.

“Nunn, a … Democrat, and Bennett, a leading Republican voice on moral issues said they are alarmed by signs of a nation succumbing to drug abuse, crime, pornography, and family breakups, among other problems.”

.. America is the most powerful and affluent and enviable nation in the world,’ Bennett said. . . . `It is also true that America leads the world in rates of murder, violent crime, juvenile crime, divorce, abortion, children born out of wedlock and consumption of cocaine and other drugs. Something is wrong.’

Bennett and Nunn want a panel to find out “why so many social institutions  schools, churches, families  have seemingly fallen into disrepair.” Sadly, “They said they saw no obvious remedies” for the problems that imperil our nation.

Yes, “Something Is Wrong”

Surface problems have been identified. The signs and symptoms of the diseases that are eroding our society have been labeled. Too often, “panels” and “commissions” attack the surface, the signs, the symptoms. They do not reach the core, the base, the heart of the malady that is destroying America.

The central malignancy that ails us is that of the heart. “Out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23). An itinerant carpenter and preacher once said that “those things which proceed out of mouth come forth from the heart: and they defile the man. For out of the heart,” he said, “proceed” all the infirmities that corrupt individuals, undermine society, and threaten the nation (Matt. 15:18, 19). It is only after the heart is taught and trained that any disease can be treated and defeated.

As the heart is the root of man, so the hearth and home are the soul of society. For too long, the twin towers of heart and home have been indwelt by soulless spirits of unbridled lust and undisciplined “freedom.”

As the heart is the root of man, so the hearth and home are the soul of society. For too long, the twin towers of heart and home have been indwelt by soulless spirits of unbridled lust and undisciplined “freedom.” Indeed, “freedom” has been the cloak under which lust has satisfied and gratified its sensual self. But, as it was true three thousand years ago, so it is true today, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Fed, fat flesh, and starved, emaciated spirits encourage lust and endanger liberty.

Romans 1:21-32 and 2 Timothy 3:1-8 chronicle the elements besieging and besetting our nation. Nunn, Bennett, and their panel would do well to seek the wisdom that dealt with that wickedness. God is the doctor. His word is the remedy. Until men and nations turn to it, “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

It is sheer folly to decry the evils jeopardizing society on the one hand while government legalizes, funds, and promotes them with the other. In part, our society and government condones and encourages abortion, condoms avail-able at school, easy divorce, protection of the “rights” of pornographers to publish and peddle their product, restraints against the use of discipline, no condemnation of one’s sexual behavior, whether promiscuous fornication or perverted homosexuality, in the name of “privacy.” Yet, unless I am totally mistaken, these things are at the center of `the social pathologies (and behaviors) that imperil society” Nunn, Bennett, and their commission need to address this in-consistent feeding of the very things they say are destroying us.

As long as commissions and panels ignore the wisdom of God, and as long as they endorse government policies supporting that which they admit is imperiling society, I, like Nunn and Bennett, see “no obvious remedies” in sight.

Guardian of Truth XLI: 3 p. 7
February 6, 1997

By Harry R. Osborne

A few days ago, I listened to a man on television who was publicly criticizing people who publicly criticize others. Does something about that strike you as a little inconsistent? It reminded me of listening to the terrorists a few years ago who justified the killing of innocent people in another country to protest the killing of innocent people in their country. I never could figure out the basis of that reasoning. Simply stated, the problem is that some people live by one rule, but judge others by a more stringent rule than that imposed upon themselves. The Bible speaks of such a practice and clearly condemns it. Notice this warning given by the apostle Paul in Romans 2:1-3:

Therefore you are inexcusable, 0 man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, 0 man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?

In this context, the hypocrisy of the Jews is being examined by Paul. The Jews would have shouted “Amen” to the charges of sin Paul laid at the Gentiles’ feet in the first chapter. However, while they looked down their noses in disgust at the sinfulness of the Gentile world, the Jews were guilty of many of the same sins.

The Jews saw themselves as justified in their superior feelings because the law of Moses had been given to them. Even though they did not obey that law, they were proud of the fact that God had given it to them. Thus, Paul reminds them that hearing the law does not make one justified in the sight of God, but rather doing the law. The apostle sums up the state of such a people in this way:

Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written. For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision (Rom. 1:17-25).

Clearly, God condemned the Jews’ practice of judging the Gentiles by the standard of the law while refusing to live by that standard themselves. Such hypocrisy has al-ways caused the name of God to be blasphemed by those whose only view of the truth is through the lives of those professing to believe in God.

Jesus On Judging

It is the height of absurdity for us to condemn the wrong done by another when we are doing the same thing. Pointing our finger at another’s wrong will not excuse us from God’s judgment of our own wrong actions. Jesus had much the same thing to say about this in Matthew 7:3-5 when he said these words:

And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me remove the speck out of your eye”; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye.

The picture Jesus brings to our mind with this teaching is one in which each of us can readily see the absurdity. None of us wants a doctor with a 2. x 4 coming out of his eye to try removing a speck from our own eye. We would tell him to get his own eye problem fixed first. In the same way, if we are going to show the wrong in another’s actions, we must first correct our own.

This is the point Jesus makes in the previous two verses as well when he says, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you” (Matt. 7:1-2). Jesus is not saying that we should absolutely not judge by showing others about their wrongs. He is saying that we must avoid hypocritical judgment of others by condemning them while we are just as guilty, if not more so. In the same chapter, Jesus commands us to judge some to be false prophets by examining their lives (vv. 15-20). Such would not be possible if all judging is wrong.

Applying The Principle

It does the cause of Christ no small amount of harm when people with foul mouths and ungodly conduct take it upon themselves to instruct their fellow citizens about morality. The point may be true, but it is coming from the wrong source. Such actions make it appear that people who stand for Bible values are just a bunch of hypocrites.

The cause of Christ has suffered from a number of preachers who have taught the truth about various subjects, but failed to live them from day to day. Some have spoken in livid opposition to fornication and adultery only to practice such in their own lives. Some have proclaimed the truth regarding the need for personal honesty and integrity only to leave town with a load of unpaid debts to local merchants who came to view the church as a gathering of thieves. Such men need to correct their own lives before preaching to others.

The church of our Lord has been dealt untold damage by those who defend it as the one true church purchased by the blood of Christ, but manifest a half-hearted service as members of that body. When an outsider sees a member of the church going about his normal routine on Saturday and Monday, but “unable” to go to services on Sunday, they know how much that member really values the church. When a member of the church joins a group like the Masonic Lodge, alien sinners know that member does not really believe in only one way of salvation since Masonry teaches another.

Conclusion

When we contrast the actions of Paul and Peter in Galatians 2:11-14, we see the difference between right and wrong judging. Peter acted through hypocrisy on this occasion and stood condemned. Paul rightly rebuked him for such hypocrisy. Paul could effectively do this because he was not acting with the same hypocrisy as was Peter. Other cases in the New Testament show the same thing. We must oppose evil in the actions of others (1 Cor. 5:1-13). We must oppose the error taught by others and even name the false teacher (2 Tim. 2:16-18). However, we must be careful not to judge them while we are guilty of the same thing. This demands that we be constantly involved in self-examination (2 Cor. 13:5). It demands that each “be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). This we can do if we let our lives be guided and corrected each day by that word of truth.

Guardian of Truth XLI: 3 p. 14-15
February 6, 1997

By Dan King

He had forsaken the blood of Jesus that had cleansed him of his sins, and had returned to wallow in the mire of the world … He had forsaken the promise and prospect of heaven itself!

Life takes a great many sad turns. There are certainly some very disheartening moments that come our way. No doubt one of the saddest is when we lose a friend, with little hope of ever regaining him. This is the situation when Paul mentions in his second epistle to Timothy (4:10), “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.”

Demas was not just a good friend, he was before a faithful Christian brother and an associate in the minis-try of the gospel. He is mentioned elsewhere in Scripture as among those who traveled with Paul in his missionary journeying (Phile. 24; Col. 4:14). No doubt these men had worked closely together, had prayed together, laughed together, and wept together. Now Demas was gone. He had abandoned Paul and left him to his work alone. No doubt the Apostle felt a deep sense of emptiness when he left, the same feeling we all have when we are abandoned by someone about whom we care deeply. Too, he surely felt the inner craving to see him again  the identical yearning that we experience in the absence of friends of years gone by.

Unfortunately, Paul could not run after him. I believe he would have if it had been possible. But Demas had not merely left. He had “forsaken” Paul. And he had, in the course of doing so, not only forsaken Paul, but the Lord also. He had forsaken the church, which needed so desperately then, as it does now, able workers to share their talents in seeking the lost and encouraging the redeemed. He had forsaken the fellowship of saintly men and women. He had forsaken worship activities: his voice was not heard in the songs and hymns of praise, nor was his heart joined in the prayers of the people of God. He had forsaken the blood of Jesus that had cleansed him of his sins, and had returned to wallow in the mire of the world (2 Pet. 2:22). He had forsaken the promise and prospect of heaven itself! (I wonder now, looking back from his present perspective in eternity, if he thinks his grand transaction such a bargain as he did then?)

The Bible also defines the terms of his abandonment of the cause of Christ in the same verse: “having loved this present world. ” My curiosity is whetted at why this godly man chose to forsake Christ for “this present world.” Was he sick and tired of the persecutions leveled against the church and himself as one of its advocates? Undoubtedly he was, but did this cause him to leave? Was he fed up with the hardships of the work of preaching the Word? Was he tired of doing without; and had he made up his mind that he was going to get some of the material possessions that others had, and up till now he had done without? Could it have been the persistently low wages? Was he sick of the double standard that many brethren have for preachers? Was he tired of living in a “glass house” with everyone’s eyes on him? Was he fed up with the criticisms and petty “nitpicking” directed at him and his family by fellow Christians? Was it a woman? Had he met a girl who was for him “forbidden fruit” (the wife of another, or someone divorced with-out proper cause, etc.)?

It is interesting that Scripture does not give us the details or satisfy our curiosity on this matter. We are left wondering. But we would not be surprised to hear it was any of these things or even a combination of them. We have seen it played out so often under different circumstances and with different people as the main characters. Don’t permit yourself to be a Demas. The Lord’s people need you and will miss you if you go.

Guardian of Truth XLI: 3 p. 6
February 6, 1997