Sound Teaching: Podcasts, Sermons & Articles by Stan CoxThe theme of this month’s Watchman is the subject of conversion. The dictionary tells us that conversion is a change. In a religious context, conversion is a change of faith, the acceptance of some new faith or standard of practice. What the theme authors have done this month is to take the accounts of four conversions: the 3,000 at Pentecost in Jerusalem, the Ethiopian Eunuch, Lydia, and the Philippian Jailor and show by the consistency of the actions which they took, that there is a singular standard by which men are converted to Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, in Romans 1:15-17, “So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’” The singular standard by which men are converted is the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation. It is that which must be preached in order for men to see the righteousness of God. If we will ever find justification, we must live by the faith that is the gospel of Christ.
(Editor’s Note: The following article by brother Hafley is the fourth and final in a series appearing in the January, February, March and April issues of Watchman Magazine. Each article consists of 3 sections [or smaller articles]. Combined, they systematically answer the Calvinist doctrines of Total Depravity and Individual Predestination. I commend them to you.)
(Section 1)
Editor’s note: What we have in this article is the response by Larry Ray Hafley to a Mr. Charles Ellis of the Baptist Church. If this were a formal debate, we would publish both sides of the discussion. However, this is not intended to be in such a format, even though Mr. Ellis is directed and quoted in the article. Our purpose in publishing this is to show the inadequacy of Baptist Doctrine in light of the Word of God. If there is a need for any of this article to be challenged, then we will deal with that as it occurs. We commend the article to you for your personal and private study. May God help us all to know His will and do it.
I. “How Can I Be Sure?”
Mr. Ellis is correct about two things. First, we can be sure that we have been saved. Jesus said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16). When we have done what the Lord said, we can know that we are saved (John 8:32). We can know that we have been forgiven of our past, or alien, sins. Obviously, if one may forget that he was forgiven, cleansed of his past sins, he must have known it to begin with, for one cannot forget what he has never known (2 Pet. 1:9). John wrote “that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1 John 5:13; Cf. 1:7; 2:3-5, 25). Second, feelings, indeed, may be deceitful. Jacob “felt,” believed, that Joseph was dead (Genesis 37:33-35). Joseph was alive. Jacob’s feelings that Joseph was dead did not make it so. Saul truly “thought” that he “ought” to persecute the name of Christ, the disciples of Christ (Acts 26:9-11). His feelings, his murdering of the saints “in all good conscience,” did not make it right (John 16:1-3; Acts 23:1; 1 Timothy 1:13).
Our Attitude and Practice Toward Error
Dennis C. Abernathy
ca. 1975
We all are aware, I am sure, that error is all around us. A very important question is: “What shall be my attitude and practice toward such?” Let us in this article use the example of the apostle Paul. We find him in the city of Athens waiting for his companions to join him. He had come there to escape opposition (Acts 17:13-15). Upon his arrival Paul found the city wholly given to idolatry (v. 16). In other words, Athens was full of idolatry. It is said that Athens had more idols and images than all the rest of Greece. That it was easier to find a god than a man in Athens.
There are so many directions we could go in covering the subject of influence, but we will concentrate on those areas which affect women the most. Whether we realize it or not, we are influencing someone every day of our lives. Let’s examine some of the ways we influence others.
First, right in our own homes. We certainly exert an influence on our husbands. Suppose year after year our husbands see the first day of the week pass by while we take that time to read our paper and pour over the great ads, or maybe we use that day to do our baking for the week ahead. After all, we reason, that’s the only free time we have. But, we’re showing where our priorities lie and what comes first in our lives. How can we think about teaching someone the truth when we fail to practice it ourselves? Paul said, in 1 Corinthians 7:16, “For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? … “ Also, Peter said, “Like wise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear” (1 Peter 3:1-2).
(The Apostle John and “Doctrine of Christ”)
(2 John 9-11)
This part of Watchman has been devoted to a study of difficult passages (“Solid Food”) recognizing that some passages are said by Peter to be “hard to understand” (2 Pet. 3:16). We are emphasizing that difficulty is not impossibility. Just as milk is for babes, meat is for mature adults and this process of growth is analogous to spiritual maturity. We are to “desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Pet. 2:2). At the same time, we are be “no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive, but, speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head, Christ” (Eph. 4:14-15). Growing up in Christ means attaining a “measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (v. 13), that of a mature Christian who has gone on to “perfection.”
A good friend of mine lent me the June, 1984 issue of National Geographic, which has a large section on ants. The main article in this section is well-written, lavishly illustrated, and downright fascinating. The author is clearly an expert on ants - and a firm believer in the general theory of evolution. In fact, he begins the essay by describing his efforts to find a rare Australian ant called Nothomyrmecia macrops, which he had hoped would prove to be a “missing link” between modern ants and their alleged primitive ancestors. As you are probably aware, scientists who believe in the general theory of evolution are always looking for “missing links”, because they have not yet found any hard physical evidence of the supposed evolution from primitive to complex forms of life. As it turned out, the Nothomyrmecia macrops proved to be yet another disappointment. Rather than providing a link between modern social ants and their alleged semi-social or solitary ancestors, this ant prove to be, in the author’s words, “fully social.”
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:3-6).
Even the most casual of Bible students is able to determine that the “us” of Ephesians 1, which as a group has been chosen “in Him before the foundation of the world”, has reference to the church of God which Christ “purchased with His own blood” (cf. Acts 20:28). Most Christians are able to give a concise definition of the term “church”, derived from the greek term “ekklesia”, and referring to the “called out” which are the people of God. Fundamental lessons we learn as babes in Christ allow us to identify the church built by Christ (Matthew 16:18), and to respect its grand design which had its origin in the mind of God “before the foundation of the world.”
Gospel preachers are the best friends gospel preachers have.
While it is true that a special bond exists between all Christians (Gal. 6:10), gospel preachers share labors, hopes, problems and experiences that only other preachers can understand. This is not to say that preachers are any better than other Christians. It is but to admit that there is a field of service peculiar to preachers of the word that none can understand unless one has filled the shoes of another preacher. Mothers can understand certain issues of life that single women have never known, creating a special bond between mothers. Medical doctors, coaches, teachers and certain professions have a bond that they share within their field because of the peculiar circumstances that make them what they are. Likewise, gospel preachers recognize their responsibilities, challenges and opportunities and relate to one another, knowing the trials, temptations and pitfalls that face each other. It is this commonality of service that makes one preacher sensitive to the needs and weaknesses of other preachers. Without lessening the brotherhood that exists between all Christians, gospel preachers need the relationship with other preachers to face the variety of challenges their work will thrust upon them.