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By Cox, Stan, on October 1st, 1999
The problems facing institutional churches are well chronicled. Some in the institutional churches have awakened to the need for strong and distinctive preaching in the face of “change agents” who have sought to destroy the divine hermeneutic, and replace it with a new “non-patternistic” one. Recently, while reading the April 1998 issue of The Spiritual Sword, I ran across a quote from Alan E. Highers in his editorial “What Is Happening in the Church?” It admits to what non-institutional preachers and writers have claimed for many years about our more liberal brethren. The quote came in the context of previous polemic struggles with the denominations.
“Unfortunately, just as the opposition had strengthened churches of Christ and had caused members to know what they believed and why, so the lack of opposition caused some to grow soft and indifferent. Without the opposition and frontal attacks, their interest in doctrinal preaching waned and so did their knowledge and understanding of the truth. As a result, doctrinal resolve weakened and many were left vulnerable to the influence of false teaching and error. We sowed the wind and today are reaping the whirlwind of thirty-five years of indistinct teaching among churches of Christ” (pg. 2, The Spiritual Sword, April 1998).
Of course, our viewpoint is somewhat different. In the 1940′s and 1950′s institutional issues threatened, and ultimately succeeded in dividing the people of God. The polemic struggle often was not with the denominations, but rather between brethren. As with the struggles with the denominations, truth had the upper hand. So, those who wished to retain their precious human institutions ceased debating (with few exceptions), and instead shifted their tactics to a more subtle attack upon non-institutional brethren. Instead of direct debate there were whispers shared about those “anti’s” and “orphan haters”; churches which were “dying on the vine.” The resultant inability and unwillingness to defend from the pattern of God’s word their man-made inventions led to the indistinct preaching mentioned above. The analogy of sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind is apropos. It is precisely because of such indistinct preaching that liberal churches are having to deal with the “change agents” and the so-called “new hermeneutic.” Continue reading » Editorial: Is Something “Happening” in the Church?
By Reeves, Bill, on September 1st, 1999
I. Introduction
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TREND = line of development, direction of movement, drift, swing. Key thought: move (away from one thing to another, whether good or bad). Along with trends (away from biblical to non-biblical) are associated fads, novelty, and innovation, with apostasy being the culmination of the movement.
A. The purpose of this study is to give a brief overview of major controversy from New Testament days until now, so that we can better be able to see the basic, underlying principles of error which are responsible for apostasy, division, and resultant innovations. By looking at the past we can see where modern change agents are headed. We can look at trends today and know to what ends they will lead those who follow them.
B. Rom. 15:4, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning”. We learn from the past.
Continue reading » Controversy in History
By Hafley, Larry Ray, on September 1st, 1999
In THE BAYTOWN SUN, 9/1/99, under the headline, “Christians must get back to the old paths,” Tim Cryer, “a lay minister at Victory Baptist Church,” commented as follows:
Jeremiah 6:16–”Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein.”
This great country is a mess today because Christians have traded in the old paths of old time religion for new paths that are not getting the job done. God said in the above verse to ask for the old way, for it is a good way, and walk in this way. The old ways are what made this the greatest nation in the world and is what made our churches Holy and different from the world. But sometime back in the 1960s, parents stopped passing down the old ways to their kids, and started giving them the new ways. Continue reading » Queries and Explications: A Baptist on Jeremiah 6:16
By Allen, Carl, on July 1st, 1999
For the first time since the fifties and sixties, an effort is being made to destroy the Church of Christ. The “liberals” have referred to a movement among them, and those who are directing the movement, as “Change Artists.” In a very real sense, we have many among the conservative cause who are also “Change Artists.”
“Institutionalism” moved many of our brethren out. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19). This caused a split in the Lord’s church.
Following that conflict, it has been advocated: (1) “Accentuate the positive, and eliminate the negative,” (2) “Preach the man and not the plan,” (3) “Preach Christ, and not the church.” All of these efforts were for the purpose of erecting a “straw man,” so they would not have to deal with the arguments against the issue. Continue reading » Apostasy
By Deaton, Steven, on February 1st, 1999
(The Gospel Guardian, Vol. 6, No. 43, March 10, 1955)
God often revealed His will to prophets through visions. Such was the case in Zechariah 1:18-21 when the prophet saw four horns. In answer to his question “What be these?” the Lord replied: “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” The word “horn” was used in the Old Testament as a symbol of power and often of destruction. Obviously, the horns of the prophet’s vision referred to the nations that had perplexed and scattered God’s people, Israel. In the same vision, the prophet is assured that these powers shall be justly punished for their havoc and destruction, for he is told that the four carpenters or smiths “are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it” (Zechariah 1:21). These horns had reference to nations, thus designating evil and harm to Israel from external forces. However, many of Israel’s troubles came from within. There were several “horns” or powers of destruction which ultimately led God’s family down the trail of sorrow and ruin. I am borrowing the expression from the prophet to use accomodatively, in order to bring out three points that show the reasons for Israel’s decline, and to show that these same features can produce harm and possible ruin in spiritual Israel, the church. It is in this sense that the expression “horns of destruction” is herein used. Continue reading » Voices from the Past: Horns of Destruction (Connie Adams)
By Deaton, Steven, on July 1st, 1998
The Gospel Guardian
Volume 12, Number 8 ~ June 23, 1960
Apostasies do not occur overnight. Their final results cannot be fully known during their process of growth and development. Apostasies require three elements: (1) A lack of knowledge of the will of God and a disrespect for the same; (2) The exaltation of human leaders and human pronouncements; (3) Time. Only after a wrong attitude toward God and his word has become prevalent, and enough time has elapsed for this attitude to manifest itself in departures from God’s will, can the full consequences begin to be seen and known. Apostasy results. Such has been the case, is presently true, and ever shall be. Many are the examples which stand as proof of these assertions. Continue reading » Voices from the Past: Trends Toward Apostasy (1) (Bill Cavender)
By Cox, Stan, on April 1st, 1998
“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.” Continue reading » Editorial: Thinking About the Church
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