| JOHN WADDEY, EDITOR
Published by the Church of Christ, 12213 West Bell Road, Surprise, AZ 85374 Volume 1, Number 5
January 1, 2002 |
|
Table of Contents: 1. THE YEAR BEFORE US Another year has come and gone and we are among the fortunate ones who survived it. God, having placed in our hands a new year, expects us to use it to his honor and glory. Perhaps the following suggestions will be helpful as you embark on the new year of 2002. - Live for the day and those yet to come. Like Paul, "forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before... press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:13-14). Too much of life is wasted in looking back, regretting failures, mistakes and lost opportunities. Such accomplishes nothing and it robs us of the time and energy to be productive in the days we do have.
- Resolve to set your house in order, beginning today. Today is the beginning of the rest of your life. Make the most of it you can. From now on, put first things first.
- Remember your Creator (Eccle. 12:1). Love him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (Mk. 12:30). Demonstrate that love by seeking his will for your life. Search the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11) and then make every effort to obey them to the best of your ability (Matt.7:21).
- If you have not already, commit your life to Christ. Enlist in his sacred cause. Proudly take the name Christ and make his church a vital part of your daily life. Give it precedence over lodges, clubs, sports and recreation. While these may have some merit, none compare with Christ's church. When time comes to leave earth's realm it is to the church you will look to close the final chapter of your life and commend your soul to God.
- Do all the good you can to all the folks you can. At best we have only a few years left. Resolve to use every day to serve your fellow man. Jesus said, "Inasmuch as ye did it (good) unto one of these my brethren...ye did it unto me" (Matt. 25:40). Good done in the name of Christ is treasure laid up in heaven (Matt. 6:19-21).
- Pray without ceasing (I Thess. 5:17), thanking God for the blessings you have enjoyed and must have to survive even one day.
- Tell everyone you know about the marvelous Savior who has so enriched your life. Share with them the joy you have found in Christ...urge them to taste and see for themselves how good the Lord is (Ps. 34:8).
- Live in peace with God and man, relishing every hour and joyfully awaiting the day when he will call you home (II Pet. 3:14).
Give these suggestions a try and see what a wonderful year you will have in this marvelous new millennium. JHW "He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive
Christianity, will revolutionize the world..."
(Franklin). "All history is incomprehensible without Christ"
(Renan).  |
2. APOSTASY: IS IT A POSSIBILITY?
Our preachers use to frequently preach on the possibility of apostasy. In so doing they were addressing the popular false doctrine of Calvinism which says that once a person is saved, he cannot so sin as to lose his salvation. The question was easily answered, for Paul said to Christians who sought justification by the law, "Ye are severed from Christ...ye are fallen away from grace" (Gal. 5:4). Sadly, our generation does not hear many lessons on this important topic although such teaching is still needed.
We who preach and teach still need to address the possibility of apostasy.
We must consider the question, not just of individual Christians, but the possibility of congregations, Christian schools or even our brotherhood departing from our commitment to Christ. That commitment is to restore and practice the faith revealed in the New Testament. That commitment, many among us seem to have forgotten, or even have rejected, and some have embraced a new and different approach to serving God. That such can happen is affirmed by Paul in his warning to the elders of the church at Ephesus. "I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them" (Acts 20:29-30).
When the question of apostasy is raised, the liberals among us laugh. They brand those that pose such questions as dinosaurs. They accuse them of disrupting our brotherhood. They paint them as unscholarly bumpkins. They suggest that they really don't understand the restoration plea. But it is precisely those liberal minded brethren who are the promoters of changes that are departures from the old paths of the Bible. They would be disappointed if their plans were unmasked and thwarted by the discussion of the possibility of a widespread apostasy.
Those who are familiar with our history know without doubt that the potential for a general apostasy involving a majority of our preachers, congregations and schools is real. It happened to our brotherhood here in America at the end of the 19th century. The first manifestation of that apostasy was a movement to create a governing body to manage our mission efforts. They called it the American Christian Missionary Society. Next was an agitation to incorporate instrumental music into our song worship. Those who were the vocal agents of change in those efforts were generally the more sophisticated and erudite preachers from the large city churches. They persisted in their determination to have these extra Biblical things until division occurred.
So effective were they that upwards of 85 percent of our churches were lost.
A struggling handful was left, primarily in the South. David Lipscomb and a small band of fellow preachers waged a valiant battle to salvage and rebuild the shattered brotherhood. Today the heirs of those who abandoned the Biblical pattern are known as the Christian Church-Disciples of Christ. For the Disciples, the apostasy is complete. They bear little or no resemblance to the church of the Bible. Many of their leaders have publicly declared the attempt to restore the primitive faith as an unworkable failure.
We have many simple-minded brethren among us. They believe the Bible and respect its authority. They are happy to walk in the old paths, but they are naive. They open their pulpits to unsound men who are promoting and introducing strange ideas and practices among us. They support and promote schools that are seed beds of apostasy. They support and circulate publications of those who would preach a different gospel. They appoint such men to be elders and deacons. They remain silent when such are given classes to teach. They speak not when such men are considered for the pulpit. They can't bear to take a stand; to be found in opposition to error or to stand with a minority, or, God-forbid, to stand alone. One of the great needs of our people is for good, levelheaded men who know God's Will and have the fortitude to stand foursquare for it. Often one person can make the difference in the direction a congregation will travel. God sought for such an individual in Ezekiel's day. "I sought for a man among them, that should build up the wall, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none" (Ezek 22:30).
Like our brethren of a century past, we see standing before us the possibility of apostasy. May God help each of us respond with courage and conviction to defeat that possibility before it can do its evil work. We must be prepared to "fight the good fight of the faith" if we would lay hold on eternal life (I Tim. 6:12). JHW |
3. WOMEN AND LEADERSHIP We live in the midst of the Feminist Revolution. The champions of this social/political movement have challenged every traditional concept about the role of women in the home, society and the church. Without doubt some of the old ideas needed challenging. Some of the changes have been wholesome and beneficial. In two areas however, the goals of the feminists are in direct conflict with the will of God as revealed in the Bible. This poses no problem for most feminists since many of them reject God and Christ, and refuse to recognize the Scriptures as having any authority in their lives.
However, to those women who fear God and follow Jesus, who order their lives by the New Testament and hope to spend eternity in heaven, their liberties must conform to the divine plan.
In the realm of the family: God ordained that "wives be in subjection unto (their) own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church..." (Eph. 5:22-23). Husbands are expected to "love (their) wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for it."
For the church, God declares: "As in all the churches of the saints, let the women keep silence in the churches; for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but let them be in subjection, as also saith the law" (I Cor. 14:33-34). "Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection. But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness..." (I Tim. 2:11-12).
From these injunctions we learn that women are not allowed to fill leadership roles over men in the administration and public teaching of the church. Men are to be selected as elders (I Tim. 3:1-2). Men are to be the preachers, evangelists and teachers of the congregation.
This does not means that women have no role to fill in the life and teaching of the church. A woman can teach women and children (Tit. 2:4-5). She can be a leader among the women in their activities. But mixed classes of men and women are taught by men and public worship is conducted by men. In rare cases where no men are present, then women could do anything that needed to be done since they would not be exercising authority over men by so doing.
Such doctrine is anathema to committed feminists, but to women of God, it is truth and righteousness and must be accepted. Tragically, most of the denominations about us have capitulated to the noisy demands of the feminists. May God grant all of us the courage to stand faithful to his revealed will, even if the whole world rejects it. JHW |
4. ORIGINAL SIN?A reader asks, "Do we inherit Adam's sin." While this doctrine is widely held in both Catholic and Protestant circles one is surprised when he goes to the Bible and tries to find it there. It was Augustine ( 354-430 A.D.) who first promoted the idea that, "the fallen nature of Adam was transmitted biologically through sexual procreation." This became an established pillar of Catholic theology. Both Martin Luther and John Calvin kept this Catholic doctrine when they broke away from the Church of Rome and began their
Protestant Reformations. Thus it comes down to us today.
The Bible teaches us that Adam and Eve did sin against God and the consequence thereof was they were driven from their paradisiacal home and the presence of God. Also we are told that they forfeited their immortality and eventually experienced death. (Gen. 3:1-23). That which we inherit from Adam is explained by Paul in Rom. 5:12: "...as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death passed unto all men..." "For if by the trespass of the one the many died..." (5:15). While we are told that we inherit death, it does not say that we inherit the guilt of Adam's sin. Also, because of the sin of Adam and Eve, we inherit a universe that is under a curse (Gen. 3:17). "For the creation was subjected to vanity..." It is "under the bondage of corruption," "it
travaileth in pain" (Rom. 8:20-22). It too will one day perish (II Pet. 3:10).
As to sin, the Bible says, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die; the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father...the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." James writes "To him therefore that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (4:17). John says plainly, that "sin is transgression of the law" (I John 3:4). Thus the Biblical view is that sin is conduct or attitudes that are contrary to God's law or a failure to do what God expects of us. Each of us was born pure and innocent. That why Jesus said we must become like little children if we hope to enter his kingdom (Matt. 18:3). As we grew up we learned to do evil from those around us. Satan tempted us to do evil, even as he did Adam and Eve. We exercised our will power just as they did. When we did that which God has forbidden or when we failed to do that which he had told us to do we sinned. For that we are accountable and responsible (II Cor. 5:10). JHW "The sum and substance of the preparation needed for a coming eternity is
that you believe what the Bible tells you, and do what the Bible bids you"
(Chalmers). "Sin now; pay later." |
5. CATERPILLAR OR BUTTERFLY?
For most of us, nothing is more beautiful than a butterfly or more ugly than a caterpillar. We know that butterflies were once caterpillars, but a transformation has occurred. It is called metamorphosis, which is defined, "to change strikingly the appearance or character of; To change into a different physical form, especially by supernatural means" (Webster). God uses this very term to describe what must happen to us as his children. Paul writes, "Be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed."
The Greek term is metamorphous.
He then proceeds to tell us how we are changed from weak, ungodly sinners into strong, courageous men and women of God who are like Christ. "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind..." (Rom. 12:2). The change is first wrought within. We renew our mind by filling it with the knowledge of God's Word. Like some magic elixir, it goes to work to remake us. This gospel is called the "power of God unto salvation" (Rom. 1:16). So drastic will be the change that Christ described it as being "born again" (John 3:5). Your vices will give way to virtues. Your carnal thoughts and words will be replaced with things spiritual. People will look at you and say, "My but you have changed." They can't help but notice that you have been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). The caterpillar will have become a lovely butterfly. JHW |
6. A NOTE TO OUR READERS This journal is made possible by the generous support of fellow-Christians. If you find its message helpful and would like to see its circulation enlarged, send your contributions to the West Bell Road Church of Christ at the address below.
Please share the extra copy with someone. When you have finished reading your copy, pass it along to a brother or sister who would benefit from it. JHW "Christianity is the good man's text; his life, the illustration"
(J.P.Thompson). Christianity: Then and Now
Church of Christ
12213 W. Bell Rd. Ste. 211
Surprise, AZ 85374 |
