What shall we do with the truth?

Therefore, O faithful Christian,

search for truth,

hear truth,

learn truth,

love truth,

speak the truth,

hold the truth,

defend the truth

till death.

- Jan Hus

Peter--a Christian who found the truth

Last Thursday I met a most interesting man after I spoke at the Pasquo Church of Christ (southwest of Nashville). I did not get his last name, but his first name was Peter. Peter and his wife are immigrants from Ukraine. Peter (in his forties) grew up in the former Soviet Union as a Baptist. Many of the Christians (members of the church) in the Soviet block had to become Baptists in order to continue to worship, even though they did not desert their beliefs. Our campaign groups met several such people in Belarus and Ukraine. These brethren knew the truth long before evangelists from America arrived in the early 1990s.

Peter, however, did not know about us. When he came to the United States, he came as a Baptist. By providence, he was late one evening coming home. He decided to stop at the nearest church on his route, and the nearest place was Pasquo Church of Christ.

Peter heard the truth being preached. He knew it when he heard it. He left the place he was worshiping and identified with Pasquo. The Baptist churches of USA weren't preaching and practicing the things he had been taught growing up. With great joy he has been attending the Pasquo Church of Christ ever since. I was delighted to meet him. (Contact Joe Spann at Pasquo for more information.) I have urged them to write Peter's story down to share with others.

People can learn and know the truth just by reading the Bible. I have been so intrigued with people like Peter who studied the Book and knew the truth when he heard it!

One prominent preacher among us has argued that people just reading the New Testament would not come to the conclusion that instrumental music was wrong. John Price, who wrote Old Light for New Worship, has disproved that claim.

The perspicuity of the Bible needs to be taught once again. The Bible is clear about much.

• The Lord only built one church, and it is pre-denominational and undenominational.
  
• God's grace is abundant, but works only when people repent.
• Baptism is still a burial in water for those who have been taught and penitently believe, not for unbelieving infants.
• Salvation still follows baptism.
• Christians in the New Testament sang in worship.
  
• It is never right to add or subtract to the teaching of God's Word.

Well, I am thankful for Peter's example. One can learn the truth on his own by a study of God's Word.

kindly,
Phil

A. T. Pate's advice

A. T. Pate is one of my fellow-instructors at Nashville School of Preaching. He is a prince of a man, a good friend, a great encourager, and a soldier in the Lord's army.

He spoke to us last night about what we should tell ourselves when we speak to ourselves. Everyone, after all, talks to himself. What is important, then, is what one says. He suggests that when we talk to ourselves, we should tell ourselves these four things:

(1) I know who I am.
As Christians, we are sons of the King, children of God, royal priests, a person of God's own possession, saints, and workers in the vineyard. Knowing who we are sets our minds on how we behave.

(2) I know where I am going.
As Christians our destiny is heaven. The Father has an inheritance for us there. Jesus went there to prepare a place just for us--a place that is without spot or blemish.

(3) I know how to get there.
The gospel is good news and is very simple and practical. Anyone can go to heaven, if he will simply obey the gospel. God's grace is wondrous and open to those who will respond to His love by obedience.

(4) I will take someone with me.
Preachers are in the recruiting business. We recruit people to be children of God, so that they can live with God forever and ever.

This is excellent self-talk for the preacher or for any soul-winning brother or sister. We thank our godly and good brother, A. T., for sharing this mindset with us.

kindly,
phil

Seven Things I Wish to Accomplish by Age 65

1. I wish to have preached the gospel of Christ to one billion people, including people on every continent and in every state of the United States. I pray God will allow me to be a voice for Him to a corrupt world.

2. I wish to have the ear and the confidence of the President of the United States of America, so that a voice for God may speak.

3. I wish to overcome the sin in my life and develop the spiritual disciplines that keep me focused on God’s purpose and will.

4. I wish to see college students and young adults everywhere convicted with the truth and zealous to share God’s will.

5. I wish to see the Bible return as the most influential moral, doctrinal, and spiritual document of our time.

6. I wish to develop some ground-breaking tools for evangelism and spiritual growth, so that those who have not entered a church building might nonetheless hear the gospel.

7. I wish to train thousands of men who desire to preach the gospel.

The pope has made quite a stir

Benedict XVI has issued a new document this week claiming his primacy as pope and the primacy of the Catholic Church.

The new document -- formulated as five questions and answers -- restates key sections of a 2000 text the pope wrote when he was prefect of the congregation, "Dominus Iesus," which riled Protestant and other Christian denominations because it said they were not true churches but merely ecclesial communities and therefore did not have the "means of salvation." The commentary repeated church teaching that says the Catholic Church "has the fullness of the means of salvation."

"Christ ‘established here on earth’ only one church," said the document, released as the pope vacations at a villa in Lorenzago di Cadore, in Italy’s Dolomite mountains. The other communities "cannot be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense" because they do not have apostolic succession -- the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ’s original apostles -- and therefore their priestly ordinations are not valid, it said.

The document said that Orthodox churches were indeed "churches" because they have apostolic succession and enjoyed "many elements of sanctification and of truth." But it said they do not recognize the primacy of the pope -- a defect, or a "wound" that harmed them, it said.

"This is obviously not compatible with the doctrine of primacy which, according to the Catholic faith, is an ‘internal constitutive principle’ of the very existence of a particular church," said a commentary from the congregation that accompanied the text.

Ratzinger is feeling his oats. He is predictably standing for his traditions and asserting his place of primacy in the world of Christianity.

The truth is. The pope can't save anybody. He has no holes in his hands. There is only one Savior and one Lord, and that is Jesus. The idea that there is apostolic succession is a fallacy beyond credibility. For those who would like to know about Peter being a pope, apostolic succession and other such matters, please take a look at:

http://www.god-answers.org/Online_Tools/books/Roman%20Catholicism.pdf

Did you know that Peter was married? That celibacy was not demanded for 300 years? That no one claimed to be a pope until 606 AD? That Catholics did not honor the apocrypha until the Council of Trent? that several popes excommunicated other popes? that the popes called each other's doctrines heresies?

Jesus is the only and only Lord of His church and the one and only Savior of the church. There is no other. The gospel is God's means of saving mankind, and the Lord himself adds the saved to His church. The church does not control salvation; the church is the saved (not the Savior).

The church of the New Testament is certainly very different from the Roman Catholic church. For my part, I am pledged to the church I can read about there, not to any other.

phil

The story of one of my students who came out of Pentecostalism

The Price of False Doctrine

By Douglas J. Brackbill

Many people have been taken in by false doctrine over the years, so this doesn’t make my story unique, unfortunately. However, I hope that in sharing my story it will help someone else from having to experience this firsthand, and show the pain and agony that false teaching can and does produce. All that I describe here was done in the name of religion and most times in the name of Jesus.

I was a young man who had an enormous thirst for the truth and knowledge very early in my life. My grandmother raised me for the majority of my young life (that is another story for another time). Every night she would read aloud a chapter of the Bible to me. I loved to hear her read, and the first real book I owned was a very large book of Bible stories. I learned to read from that Bible story book and the Bible. But my grandmother did not take me to church on Sunday, because the church was too far out of town and we did not have any way to go. My grandmother never owned a car or learned how to drive. In retrospect, I see that she used that as an excuse not to go. But on Sunday mornings we would get up and watch the “Gospel Singing Jubilee” and other TV religious shows like the “Lamp unto My Feet”. This is where my religious roots lie.

When I was around 12, the preacher of the church that we “belonged” to come around to talk to my grandmother, and asked why we didn’t go. My grandmother gave a myriad of reasons why she didn’t go, but I spoke up and said I’d love to go if I had a way. He said he would make sure I had a way to church. I began to attend “church” then. It was a holiness/Pentecostal denominational church that we “belonged to”. I loved to learn more about God and Jesus, and was quite intrigued to watch everyone “whoop, holler, jump up and down, and speak in tongues”. I wanted to learn more, so that I could do all that too. I studied the word, learned more and more, and at 13 obeyed the Gospel and was baptized. But I did not “get the Holy Ghost”. I began to wonder why I couldn’t speak in tongues though. I was told it would come in time.

It was around this time that the kindly old preacher moved on and we received a new preacher, a young man in his early twenties with his very nice young wife. This man saw the hunger in my eyes and took me under his wing. I was so happy to have a male role model in my spiritual life finally, and we began to study the Bible every time we could get together. He had a fire and zeal about him that was electrifying. When I would find a passage of scriptures that disagreed with some doctrine we had, I was told that “scripture was open to interpretation as the Holy Ghost gave men wisdom”. Being young and naiveté, I of course never questioned this. I carried my Bible to school every day, witnessed to everyone I met. I gave testimony during revivals and worship services, and began to preach to the youth of my church and others as opportunity arose. I sang in the choir and took part in every Christmas and Easter play we put on. I still hadn’t “gotten the Holy Ghost” yet, and kept asking why. My mentor told me to be patient and it would come in time. I would listen to everyone else in church “speak in tongues” and wonder why I couldn’t.

I then started mimicking those who were, and no one noticed. I would jibber and jabber the same way that everyone else did, and never did loose control of my speech or my body movements. But then, I kept wondering why I couldn’t really? I still thought that they were really able to speak in tongues, and there was something wrong with me. I wondered if it was because I had done something terrible in my life, or if it was I was the product of an affair between a married man and a separated woman. Or was I just too terrible to be saved. I was even told that a full scholarship would be made available to me to attend the college of this denomination after I graduated from high school to become a minister. I couldn’t tell anyone that I couldn’t speak in tongues, because they all had seen and heard me fake it. I was lying to everyone I truly cared about including God.

So at the age of 16, after preaching, teaching, and believing with all my heart that I wanted to spread God’s word, I thought that God had told me that I was too sinful to do that by His withholding of the Holy Ghost from me. I left the church, God, and everything else that went with it, feeling a failure and alone. There was a gaping hole in my life that nothing could fill.

I began my 20 years of “wandering in the wilderness”. During those years I smoked cigarettes, socially drank, cursed fashionably, and lived what the world would consider a fairly normal life. But I still had this gaping hole in my life. During this time I was married: had a son; was divorced (due to spousal adultery); remarried; and divorced again (due to spousal homosexual adultery).

Then the most wonderful thing happened to me. I met my beautiful wife. She is a member of the Lord’s church and her grandfather was a Gospel preacher. I began to attend worship with her, and began to listen to the Sunday school teacher’s lessons about Jesus, and grace, and Christian love. I had never heard about God’s love for me, only that I should obey what church leaders told me or I would burn in Hell. I began to read my Bible again, and really study His word. The Sunday school teacher was one of the elders of the congregation, and he gave me the “Hurt” Bible study series to take home and complete. I devoured this course, and wanted more. I spoke with this elder, and after we determined that my baptism was scriptural, I was restored and placed membership at the congregation I now attend.

I know now that in 2 Pet 1:20-21 we are told “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost”. Also, the “speaking in tongues” that the Pentecostals refer to is not the “speaking in unknown tongues” as they claim, but the “speaking in other tongues” referred to in Acts 2:4. They also ignore the verses 6-11 where all the languages are identified. Also, 1 Cor 14: 27-28 are also conviently overlooked as well. “If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.” The whole theology of the Pentecostal/holiness denomination is what I call a cookie cutter religion. They take the parts of the scripture that fit their beliefs and piecemeal them together into what they call sound doctrine.

All you need to know to “speak in tongues” is how to repeat the names of 4 or 5 oriental car names rapidly over and over, and you can “speak in tongues” as well as any Pentecostal preacher ever could. I was once told by an older preacher that I would be a real good revivalist because I could “cry, sweat, and shout” as well as anyone he had ever seen. I was 15 at the time. Are these really the qualifications of a good man of God?

Am I a bitter man? No I am not, but I do wish to help correct the error being taught by these charlatans in the name of truth. That is why 2 Tim 3: 16-17 are so important for sound doctrine. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” And remember that also in 2 Tim 4: 2-4 “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Now here I am, a faithful member of the brotherhood, and restored Christian, and a man who God has blessed with more than I could ever deserve. I have a beautiful Christian wife, five children (biology gave me a son 23 and a daughter 5, and God made special gifts of my daughter 21, son 17, and son 15). I have a wonderful set of in laws, a loving Christian family, a great position with a stable company, and have once again began studying to preach God’s Word, but this time I have the truth.

Amazing!

For some time I have been receiving emails from Mduduzi Sibeko of South Africa. He would write to ask Bible questions. He is a hard worker and needed a little help teaching some of his friends. I was glad to give him what I could.

Several days ago he called me on the phone, rather excited. Now I am slow of ear and it took a little bit for me to recognize that this was the same fellow who had been sending me emails. He was a friendly voice, and I don't get phone calls from South Africa everyday (in fact, this was a first!)

Mduduzi said, "Brother Phil, listen!" So I listened closely.

On the other end of the line was my own voice. He had gotten into the internet, discovered the television program and was listening to one of my sermons. He was so excited about finding the link, he just had to let me know. Wow!

So, here is a video file stored on a computer 100 feet from my desk, accessed being played in South Africa thousands of miles away. I am hearing him play the video on a phone call back across those thousands of miles. Amazing!

P.S. I hope all of you get excited about the television program that airs in middle Tennessee and south-central Kentucky over WNPX. You can also download our video files at:

http://www.tv.God-answers.org/

Aren't we living in amazing times?

Phil

Boy Scouts Face Eviction
Since 1928, the Boy Scouts of America's Cradle of Liberty Council has occupied rent-free headquarters in Philadelphia. But last week, the Philadelphia City Council passed a resolution to evict the Boy Scouts from their headquarters unless they back away from their homosexual exclusion policy. The resolution, according to CNS.com, would affect about 40,000 Pennsylvania Boy Scouts.

There is no limit to the vindictiveness of the self-serving. Let's take a proven program that promotes integrity and godliness (the Boy Scouts) and scrap it in order to accommodate the "politically correct" agenda. The politically correct crowd are bullies. They do not care about anyone who does not agree with them. They are willing to be politically correct with anyone but Christians and heterosexual monogamists.

Calling something politically correct does not make it so. To slap the boy scouts in order to defend gays is still hateful, vindictive and coercive--all the things the politically correct crowd hate. They have become what they hate! And they are too blind to see it.

Phil

He saw the temple from the garden

This picture was taken from the Garden of Gethsemane. Just to the right of the tree you can see the Muslim Dome of the Rock. When Jesus spent the night in this dark place, he could look across the Kidron and see the white, gleaming temple Herod had refurbished. It was in the same spot, the land of Moriah, where Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac, and where the Temple stood. You can see the olive trees in the lower right hand corner.

He had not long before that night predicted the fall of the city and the Temple. "Not one stone will be left upon another." How the Lord must have wept over Jerusalem and their rejection. "How often I wanted to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not."

As he spent the night praying to the Father, "not my will but Thine be done," I wonder if he dreaded not only the scourge and nails but also the way they would treat him. Perhaps in his heart, their rejection hurt worse.

He with the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame. He knew the terrible ordeal of the cross would not last forever, but living with believers who loved Him would last on and on. The joy set before him, the love He had for you and me, and His marvelously strong will to do the Father's will kept Him strong. I thank God that He was so strong and so determined to bear the cross for my sins, but I am so sorry he had to bear it.

Phil

Speaking in Tongues is Babbling

In a massive study of glossolalia from a linguistic perspective by Professor William J. Samarin of the University of Toronto's Department of Linguistics published after more than a decade of careful research, he rejected the view that glossolalia is xenoglossia, i.e. some foreign language that could be understood by another person who knew that language. Samarin concluded that glossolalia is a "pseudo-language." He defined glossolalia as "unintelligible babbling speech that exhibits superficial phonological similarity to language, without having consistent syntagmatic structure and that is not systematically derived from or related to known language." (William J. Samarin, "Variation and Variables in Religious Glossolalia," Language in Society, ed. Dell Haymes, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972 pgs. 121-130)
http://www.meta-religion.com/Linguistics/Glossolalia/contemporary_linguistic_study.htm

Hmmmm. Who would have guessed? Self-deception? See Jeremiah 23:16-40.

Phil

check out our new grand-daughter

Louise Jane Wilson,
born May 27, 2007
parents John and Laura Wilson
grandparents Phil and Jackie Sanders

7 lbs., 8 oz., 19 inches long

mother and baby are doing GREAT!

Check out this new website

Several dear friends have started a new website that I recommend. There are some excellent articles, outlines, and PowerPoint files dealing with a cappella music in the worship of the church. This website pleas for a cappella singing in worship to follow the model of the New Testament church. To learn more, go to:

http://www.foracappella.org

Great articles by Everett Ferguson, Howard Norton, Stafford North, and others are available for download.

kindly,
Phil

Evangelism Handbook available free

You can get a free copy of the evangelism handbook by going to the online tools section of

http://www.God-answers.org

This is a 200 page resource dealing with many aspects of evangelism and Biblical teaching.


You can also get the "Upon the Rock" Bible study series free at the same site.

kindly,
Phil

Aids and Additions

A recent comment made me want to say more about aids and additions. To liken church buildings (because they aren't mentioned in Scripture) to instrumental music (IM) in Christian worship (because it is not in Scripture) is a popular thing to do. But such a suggestion is like mixing apples and oranges. IM is like adding a fourth floor to the ark, when only three floors are specified. Church buildings are like the tools necessary to build the ark. One violates silence, while the other does not. Why? Because when instructions are specific, they should be fulfilled specifically; and when instructions are generic, they can be fulfilled by the use of the most expedient means.

We might use another illustration. Neither a tray nor a roast lamb was mentioned in the instructions for the Lord's supper. But adding roast lamb to the Supper is a violation of it, while putting the bread on a tray is expedient.

There is no mention of a baptistery in Scripture, but there is no violation of Scripture to use one. It is an expedient in the fulfillment of the instructions to baptize and to be baptized. But to add another mode of baptism (you can be immersed or sprinkled) is a violation of the specifics of the word baptism.

In generic instructions, God grants permission for expedients (the means to do what He has instructed); but when God gives specific instructions, the addition of other things is a violation of God's will. That is why the altar of Ahaz was so sinful and why Hezekiah took it away when he cleansed the temple.

Phil

God's Answers to Life's Questions

Each week, God's Answers to Life's Questions appears twice on WNPX (Nashville) to nearly 2.5 million viewers. If you do not live in the Middle Tennessee or the south-central parts of Kentucky, you can still view this program online at the sites below. We have now aired more than 100 programs. Much thanks must go to the elders at Concord Rd, to Jimmie Tullis, Chad Westmoreland, Glenn Gentry, Tommy Burnett, Mike Walker, James Hunter, Jessamyn Barrett, and John Smilor for their efforts in the production of this program.

We have also been picked up on an online radio-on-demand network. Current cities include Nashville (www.iNashvilleRadio.com), Pigeon Forge, Branson, Atlanta, Youngstown (OH) and Aurora (IL). We also have the internet affiliate ( www.iTRCRadio.com) and the Military Affiliate (www.iMilitaryRadio.us) .

Please pray for this effort. The above sites are audio only. The sites below show the actual television program.

www.tv.God-answers.org
digitalbiblestudy.com

I am a Christian but not a Campbellite

I often hear misinformed people call members of the church of Christ, "Campbellites." One critic recently has brought up that name and attached it to writers of the Spiritual Sword. He has labeled us as cultish and has noted that people who had contact with the American Restoration Movement were involved in the formation of cults in the early 1800s.

I am a member of the Lord's church. I love the Lord's church, because Jesus did. He loved it enough to be its head and Savior. He was willing to die for the church and adorned her as his bride (Acts 20:28; Eph. 1:22-23; 5:23-32).

I have never quite liked the labeling of our brethren as the American Restoration movement. While I believe in restoring the church to the beliefs and practices of the New Testament (restoration is actually doctrinal and practical repentance), I do not for one moment believe they were trying to start something new so much as they were trying to return to the teaching and practice of the New Testament.

This critic likes to single out those who believe that the silence of the Scriptures are to be respected, who hold to inspiration and inerrancy, who believe in doing Bible things in Bible ways, and calling Bible things by Bible name, as exclusive and thereby cultish.

By doing so, it seems clear he is either ignoring what the Bible itself instructs Christians to be and do or he lacks a good definition of a cult. Christ and his church are inherently exclusive. Those who do not believe can not please God and stand condemned (John 3:18; 2 Thess. 1:7-10; Heb. 11:6). This notion was recognized by the Restorationists, but the thought is fully Biblical. The church is to mark and avoid divisive heretics (Rom. 16:17; Tit. 3:9-11). Paul said that in the first century.

This critic does not seem to realize that brethren believe things because the Bible teaches them, not because the Campbells did. They don't seem to understand that people today can evaluate and judge the teachings of the Campbells just as they anyone else.

Neither Thomas nor Alexander Campbell had holes in their hands. Neither is my Lord; my Lord and Savior is Jesus Christ. Only to Jesus do I have allegiance. Only to his blood do I look.

The Scriptures that our sins are remitted at the time of baptism. I don't care what A Campbell believed in 1812 or in 1829. What he believed at either time does not determine the truth. What the Bible says determines the truth. The decision making factor in my mind has everything to do with Acts 2:38; 22:16; Rom. 6:3-7; Titus 3:3-7; John 3:3-7; and 1 Peter 3:21 but not A. Campbell.

I am not a "Church-of-Christer"; I am a Christian. I am not a "Church-of-Christ" preacher; I am a gospel preacher and a member of the body of Christ. I did not become a Christian to join the Campbells. I became a Christian out of love for my Lord Jesus.

Critics often say more about themselves than they do those whom they criticize. This critic loves to debate and deride others. Let him rant and deride. He only shows his own colors (Prov. 26:4).

Phil

The Exposed Truth

Dewayne Bryant and Focus Press have produced this wonderful new audio CD.

For the last several years, it seems like every time you hear the news, a new "truth" has been discovered about the Son of God. Should we be receiving updates on Jesus as often as we get updates for our computers, or is the public being sold a bad bill of goods.

In The Jesus Files, Dewayne gives a truthful picture of Jesus. His three presentations will help you answer many questions about what is being said in the media.

I hope you'll check with Focus Press and get this great audio CD. You can order it at:
www.focuspress.org

Dewayne is a fine scholar and has given us a valuable product.
kindly,
Phil

Postmodern Thinking

In Ross Rohde’s publication, Practical Considerations for Postmodern Sensitive Churches--A follow up to "The Gospel and Postmodernism", he lists what he believes are the behavioral characteristics of the Postmodern person.

• I’m looking for a truth that works for me.
• I can only try to see life from my own perspective; reality is too complex to understand it all.
• I’m interested in the values of my group and my community.
• I believe in being tolerant.
• I believe in letting others live like they want to.
• I don’t like it when people argue about how their group or beliefs are better.
• I want practical answers to life. I’m not drawn to idealistic schemes.
• I am suspicious of schemes that try to explain everything or give simplistic answers to complex questions.
• When people talk to me about these schemes I think of it as "noise" to be ignored.
• I like to have a group of close friends with which I share common values.
• I don’t like institutional religion.
• I do have a vague desire for non-institutional spirituality. But I don’t know how to find it.

A true Christian has a very different worldview. His presuppositions do not fall to culture but seek to please God.

• I’m looking for the truth that sets me free, found in the words of Jesus (John 8:31-32).
• I can read the Scriptures and understand God’s will for my life (2 Tim. 3:16-17; Eph. 3:1-5; 5:17). I do not have to know everything to know something.
• I’m interested in the morals and teachings of Jesus Christ, which will be a blessing to me and will be the standard by which I am judged (Matthew 7:24-27; John 12:48).
• I am interested in loving and respecting all men, but loving others means teaching them God’s truth and warning them of moral and doctrinal errors (Gal. 1:6-9; 4:16; Eph. 4:15; 2 Tim. 2:24-26; James 5:19-20).
• I believe in evangelism and in teaching men to observe all things that the Lord teaches (Matt. 28:18-20).
• I don’t like it when people allow error to corrupt and divide churches (Rom. 16:17-18; Titus 3:10-11). While arrogance has no place in the life of a Christian who love others (1 Cor. 13:4), Christians must recognize the difference between obedience and disobedience (Matt. 7:24-27).
• I am suspicious of schemes that ignore God (Rom. 1:18-32).
• When people dismiss God and His will from their lives, their philosophies become empty and futile; and their hearts become hard (Ecclesiastes; Eph. 4:17-24).
• I feel so blessed to be part of a church family that shares a common faith, hope, and love.
• I love being part of the family of God, learning God’s will, hearing God’s voice in Scripture, and praising God from the heart.
• I am thankful that God has not left us without a witness but has given us His Son Jesus so that we may know Him (John 1:1-3, 14-18; 14:6-10; Heb. 1:1-3).

In Christian love,
Phil

The All-Sufficient Word

John MacArthur in his book, Thinking Biblically, argues:

In fact, to suggest that the Word of God alone is insufficient is to espouse the very opinion that lies at the heart of virtually every cult that pretends to be Christian. The one thing nearly all of them have in common is the belief that people need the Bible plus something else--the writings of some "enlightened" prophet or seer, the edicts of church tradition, or the conclusions of science and secular philosophy. So, to deny the sufficiency of Scripture is to espouse an age-old heresy. But Scripture consistently teaches the complete holiness of the believer is the work of the all-sufficient Word of God (cf. John 17:17). (25)

Those who argue that the silence of the Scripture is hardly prohibitive always seem to ignore the fact that the Scriptures are indeed all-sufficient, teaching Christians all they need to know spiritually for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3-4). If the whole truth (John 16:12, 13) and the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27) was given to the apostles and provided for us when the faith was once for all time delivered to the saints (Jude 3), then the one faith and the one gospel is a closed system. Since there are clear prohibitives against editing the revealed Word or teaching of Christ by addition or subtraction, it seems clear that departure from the all-sufficient Word leads to heresy.

Now this is what makes the silence of the Scripture prohibitive in regard to many things. We do not teach purgatory, because it is a later innovation and cannot be found in the all-sufficient covenant God made with Christians. We may right urge a prohibitive for sprinkling and for infant baptism on the same basis. We do not celebrate Christmas or Easter as a religious holiday for the same reasons. We deny the papacy and denominationalism because it is innovation. We infer (rightly) from Scripture that innovation denies the all-sufficiency of the text.

When instrumental music comes along, one brother, not finding any evidence in the Scripture for it in Christian worship, relied upon some type of direct guidance from the Holy Spirit. In his mind the Holy Spirit led him to believe it was all right to innovate, even though Jesus spoke against self-made religion (Matt. 15:8-14). John 16:13 teaches that the Holy Spirit did not speak on his own initiative. If this is the case, how is that the Holy Spirit is revealing in this 21st century what He did not reveal to the apostles? Either the man is self-deceived, thinking the Holy Spirit has given permission for the innovation of instrumental music in Christian worship, or the self-deceived apostles failed to fulfill the instructions of the Holy Spirit in the first century by not using them.

When God gave the instructions about worship and many other things in the first century, He gave the whole truth (John 16:12-13). Nothing was omitted--this is why we can know when people are adding or subtracting from the Word. Once all the truth was given and God hushed, there is never authority or need or approval for any man to add more. God does not need an editor.

What makes silence prohibitive? The all-sufficiency of the Word.

Phil

Removing Emotional Pain

One of my most favorite people in this whole world in Ron Wilkins, who developed the SFT Awareness ministry, sponsored by the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Lavergne, TN. He trains people with the skills they need to process emotional pain and break free from destructive, escape behaviors (addictions).

If you would like to know more about this ministry, which I believe is so vital, you may want to get the book, Removing Emotional Pain, by Ron. Ron trains hurting people who get involved in addictive, destructive, escape behaviors how to deal with the pain that creates the cycle causing the behavior. He is a man of hope giving "good news." His colleague, Gary Washer, is a sharp young man who has been Ron's student and now a teacher. The two men are worth their weight in gold in helping struggling outsiders to find the Lord.

To learn more go to:
www.removingemotionalpain.com

I am happy to recommend these two men who are doing a great job. They attend the Highland Heights congregation in Smyrna, which has grown from 600 to over 800 in the last few years. God bless them.

If you know of someone who needs help with an addictive behavior (anger, verbal abuse, internet pornography, sexual addictions, alcohol, drugs, etc), please contact Ron Wilkins, Gary Washer. They can help train you or your friend how to deal with the emotional pain, which is causing the problem.


Phil

Newness is no virtue, and oldness is no vice

John Piper's book, Don't Waste Your Life, has many fine things to say. I especially enjoyed this paragraph in the first chapter, where Piper shows the utterly futility of postmodern and existential thinking. He says of C. S. Lewis:

He has made me wary of chronological snobbery. That is, he
showed me that newness is no virtue and oldness is no vice. Truth
and beauty and goodness are not determined by when they exist.
Nothing is inferior for being old, and nothing is valuable for
being modern. This has freed me from the tyranny of novelty and
opened for me the wisdom of the ages. To this day I get most of
my soul-food from centuries ago. I thank God for Lewis’s compelling
demonstration of the obvious. (19)

So much of the postmodern quest for freedom smacks of this chronological snobbery. The elitists are smug in their self-satisfaction and so ready to see the faults of our restoration leaders who have gone before us; yet they remain blind to their own dilemmas. The very people who hate logic make arguments and reason. The very people who find the Scriptures errant still rely upon it for their arguments. They cite proof-texts against proof-texting. The very certainty on which some have grasped that there are no prohibitions in musical worship is the very certainty they also reject that one must not add or subtract from the instructions of God. With great swelling pride they infer and bind from Scripture that we should not infer and bind from Scripture. They settle for convenient truth. They manufacture it to suit their own agendas.

With Piper, we realize that absolute, objective Truth is outside of us. It is there whether people acknowledge it or not, whether people agree with it or not, and whether people like it or not. We can be sure of truth. Jesus promised that we could know it. The agnostic elitists who feel we must suspend judgment about our worship and our obedience to the gospel, because we cannot know the Truth or know enough of the Truth to have any confidence in the Message we preach are in the end disbelievers. It is easier to claim blindness than to make unpopular stands and so demonstrate faith.

The mature person does not shrink from discerning; the immature person does (Proverbs 22:3; 27:12; Hebrews 5:12-14). Those who hold fast to a cappella music are not the weaker brothers; they are the discerning brothers. And there is a difference. God has not been silent, and we must not fail to listen and heed. There is a virtue to rightly handling the word of Truth and to live pleasingly before God (2 Timothy 2:15; John 8:29). We should not think that God would expect us to handle rightly His Word and then make it so muddy that we must throw up our hands and suspend judgment about what the will of the Lord is (Eph. 5:15-17). It is not that God has failed to give us enough light on whether or not instrumental music is justified; it is just easier for some to claim blindness so they can do what they wish.

Phil Sanders

Preachers are the happiest

According to this article by Barbara Rose in the Chicago Tribune:

"The most satisfying jobs are mostly professions, especially those involving caring for, teaching and protecting others and creative pursuits," said Tom W. Smith, director of NORC's General Social Survey, a poll supported by the National Science Foundation.

The worker satisfaction study, set for release Tuesday, is based on data collected since 1988 on more than 27,500 randomly selected people.

For the most satisfied workers, intrinsic rewards are key, the study suggests.

"They're doing work they're very proud of, helping people," Smith said.

Clergy ranked by far the most satisfied and the most generally happy of 198 occupations.

Eighty-seven percent of clergy said they were "very satisfied" with their work, compared with an average 47 percent for all workers. Sixty-seven percent reported being "very happy," compared with an average 33 percent for all workers.

Jackson Carroll, Williams professor emeritus of religion and society at Duke Divinity School, found similarly high satisfaction when he studied Protestant and Catholic clergy, despite relatively modest salaries and long hours.

"They look at their occupation as a calling," Carroll said. "A pastor does get called on to enter into some of the deepest moments of a person's life, celebrating a birth and sitting with people at times of illness or death. There's a lot of fulfillment."

Makes me glad I am a preacher!

Phil

Morning Line Program

Last Monday I appeared on Morning Line, a television program of NewsChannel5.com, discussing the charges made against the church as it relates to the Winkler trial. If you would like to see an 11-minute clip of the program, you can see it at:

www.newschannel5.com

Go to Morning Line. You may have to download a flash player to view the clip.

The whole tragedy of this shooting has left no winners. Certainly there is much in this matter we all wish were different, but our hearts and prayers go out to Dan and Dianne and to those precious children. We can only pray for God's love and blessing for them.

Phil

Parents Faith Matters to Kids

This is a very interesting story on Foxnews about the effects of religion on children. For those of us who have noticed children for many years, however, it is not a surprise. Faith in Christ makes a difference.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,268081,00.html

phil

Anonymous post to me

I received this anonymous post over the weekend:

Christ actually exists outside our little world of the Church of Christ. Do you believe that? We must make a decision as Christ Himself did that a sign on the door means nothing as it relates to our salvation.I would ask you to search your soul over this matter. The mere fact that in your "Interests" section of your bio you list "Church of Christ" is amazing to me. That is your interest? What about Christ, or the Church. But, to put your brand of church as your interest tells me that you desperately need to look outward.Please, let's prove Barna
wrong. Let's take actions that will ensure the Church of Christ will exist after the next 30 years. If we continue to be so inward focused, I too agree with Barna that the Church of Christ will be extinct after that time.

Anonymous comments are usually omitted; but this one needed a response.

I am a member of the "church of Christ," the church that belongs to Jesus and for which He shed His precious blood. I proudly note that it belongs to Him, since there are so many man-made churches and "designer" churches in our culture today. I do not regard the name "church of Christ" as denominational or a title. I regard it as descriptive of who we are as members of the body of Christ.

I do not find any Scriptural promise of blessing or salvation for those who are outside the body of Christ. They are strangers to the covenant (Eph. 2:11-12). The body of Christ as it appeared in the New Testament always manifested itself in discernible, organized, local congregations. The church Jesus built had one Lord, one gospel, one faith, and one baptism. It was pre-denominational and knew nothing of the human divisions created by denominationalism.

There is nothing outside the New Testament church, which holds any promise of salvation or the approval of God (Matt. 15:13).

As for Barna, I do not know what study you are citing where he predicts the extinction of the church of Christ. I, for one, don't buy his conclusion, if he indeed did say such a thing. The Lord's church is not going to be extinct, thank you very much.

As for what we are doing, please let me be a little foolish (as Paul was in 2 Corinthians). While there are struggles among us, I can point to numerous congregations of churches of Christ in several states that are faithful to the Lord and growing quite well. Programs such as World Bible School, Fishers of Men, Disaster Relief, DigitalBibleStudy.com, In Search of the Lord's Way (which is one of the top 3 religious programs on television in America), Focus Press, Apologetics Press, and many others, assure me that we aren't going to dry up and blow away (even though some wish we would).

As for me personally, I teach at Nashville School of preaching and at Regions University, because I believe in training preachers. I preach on television to a potential audience of 2.5. million twice weekly because I believe in evangelism. Our website at Concord Rd (http://www.God-answers.org ) had over 1.4 million hits from nearly 100 countries in the last year. Many of them downloaded the Evangelism Handbook of New Testament Christianity and many other free materials available there. Each month I write for Think magazine (http://focuspress.org) a magazine professionally done and reaching out to members of the church and beyond. I enjoy the privilege of writing for the Spiritual Sword quite often.

Concord Rd., the congregation where I serve, supports several missionaries in Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe. We are heavily involved in training preachers and students in three countries. It might interest folks to know that there are now as many churches of Christ in Sub-Sahara Africa as there are in the USA; and Rick Shur of WBS, who is a dear friend, tells me that India now has about as many churches of Christ as there are in the USA.

Just a month ago, I was with Augustine Tawiah and Gabriel Oppong in the Western Region of Ghana, where we visited several congregations of the Lord's church--most of which have not been in existence even ten years! We did not have time in three days to get around to all the churches. The congregations ranged in size from 30-120. Extinct? Nonsense!

Anyone who thinks I don't love the Lord Jesus doesn't know me. I love the church, because it is the bride of Christ, my Lord.

Phil

Besides the Point

I said on Monday, "There is not now, nor has there ever been in the last 2,000 years, one shred of evidence to support the use of instruments in the musical worship of the church." Apparently a brother has found exception to that in Revelation 15:2.

"And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands." (NASB)

This verse tells of a sea of glass mingled with fire, a beast with a number (666), and harps. Now this verse found in a highly figurative, apocalyptic context full of signs. We are supposed to ignore that context and suppose this is New Testament evidence that the early church worshiped with instruments of music.

To do this he must prove that the harps are literal not figurative.

To do this he must prove that what is done in heaven in worship should be a norm for church activity.

The argument about harps in heaven is both old and bad. We are supposed to believe the harps are literal and normative while the incense, the four beasts, the Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes, and the sea of glass mingled with fire are figurative.

If one were to make a serious argument justifying the instrument in the worship of the church, one would show a passage where the church was using it here on earth. One might also show a command or an inference that the church was actually to use it. He cannot point to it in Acts or one of the epistles. He must go to a figurative, apocalyptic text, which speaks of heaven and not what is happening in the church of that day. If one could have found the passage that approves the instrument in the worship of the church on earth, this issue would have been settled long ago. As it is, we are all still waiting. We have been for over a hundred years. All our brother can do is bring up old and bad arguments.

Now this brother has said there is not one shred of evidence in Scripture that the use of instruments of music in worship is sinful. This old, fallacious argument is merely a subterfuge. I am reminded of Jeremiah 7:31, which condemns some sinful acts of idolatry.

“They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind."

Our brother seems to think that unless a specific prohibition is found, that we cannot discern whether something is right or wrong. It didn't come into God's mind that men would burn their sons and daughters in the fire.

The absence of a prohibition is not a license. The reason there was no prohibition is because God told us what He wanted specifically. He wanted us to sing and make melody in our hearts, teach and admonish, and to offer up the fruit of our lips that praise his name. We know that. We know nothing of instruments commanded or used in the church. There is still no evidence. Had God wanted instruments, He would have told us. After all, He told David and Israel that he wanted them in the old covenant. But God is silent in the New. It was not in His mind to use instruments in Christian worship. He did not command it. Just as they presumptuously burned their kids at the high places in the valley of Hinnom, so people presumptuously worship today, doing things which God never commanded.

The absence of a prohibition is the New Testament is to be expected, when you think about it. There is no prohibition, because it was not happening.

In the end our brother, like Atchley, can only give us his opinion. An opinion is a guess in the absence of evidence. They want us to trust their presumptuous guess over the clear testimony of hundreds of years of early church history.

Their retort that we are not to judge when something is wrong is likewise flimsy and inconsistent. There is no specific prohibition of sprinkling, infant baptism, papal primacy, holy water, incense, gambling, or polygamy either. We judge these things wrong by taking heed of what God has positively told us. Mature Christians discern right from wrong from the study of the Word (Heb. 5:12-14); naive folks swallow anything (Prov. 14:15; 22:3; 27:12).

I choose to build my house on the rock of what I know (singing) not on the sand of someone else's guess (instrumental music). Jesus told the outcome of the rock theology and sand theology. I plan to listen.

kindly,
phil

Scholars take it back on Jesus family tomb

An interesting article about the feeling of scholars now on the Cameron/Jacobovici documentary. Thanks to my friend, Paul Goddard, of Memphis for sharing this link!

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1176152766396&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

The puddin didn't prove out.

Phil

Tampering with the Word of God

"But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God" (2 Cor. 4:2, ESV).

The word tamper (doloo) occurs only twice in the Greek New Testament (2 Cor. 4:2 and in 1 Cor. 5:6, ms D). BDAG says it generally means "to beguile by craft, then: to make false through deception or distortion, falsify, adulterate" (256). The goal of tampering is to leave the impression the Word says something that it does not actually say. The person who uses God's word cunningly to advance his agenda is in Paul's eyes disgraceful and underhanded. We must not be ignorant of the devices Satan uses (2 Cor. 2:11).

John MacArthur provides this wonderful insight into Satan's devices in his book, The Truth War (40). I have adapted this from him.

One of Satan's devices follows a common pattern. Satan, first, loves to ask questions that create doubt in the Word of God. “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Gen. 3:2) Satan knew what God had said; he didn't want information but wanted Adam and Eve to change. Doubt is always the first step to apostasy.

Satan, second, contradicts what God says. "You shall surely not die" (3:4). Satan always wants people to know how much he knows. He knows things others don't know. He has the inside tract to what is really true. The desire to know His secrets, to be one of the elite, to buy into his arrogance, has led many unfortunate souls down the path to perdition. He is a liar and the father of lies (Jn 8:44). He will tell you what he thinks you want to hear. Eve was deceived by this lie; Adam was not. Adam knew that eating the fruit was wrong.

Satan, third, produces an alternate version of "truth." He said, "God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (3:5) The devil's alternate always has a mix of truth in with the error. There is enough truth to sound persuasive, but his message is full of misrepresentations and distortions. MacArthur says, "Add it all up and the bottom line is a big lie." The father of lies was a murderer from the beginning, and he is costing souls today with his half-truths and alternatives.

Satan has always pretended to be what he is not (2 Cor. 11:13-15). He wants everyone to believe he has a better way, that God is trying to fool you, and that God is not your friend but is cheating you out of something really good. His strategy is to get people to rely upon him for real "progress."

There simply is nothing better "out there" than New Testament Christianity. The entertainment religions don't have anything better than congregational singing in worship. The church growth experts don't have a plan (from sociology) better than preaching the truth in love. You can't improve on God's way or God's will. The subterfuge will always ask questions to create doubt, contradict, and provide an alternative. Don't fall for it.

Phil

A Great Issue of Spiritual Sword

I hope you will read the April issue of the Spiritual Sword, entitled, "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing." It contains a devastating rebuke and refutation of the current movement to get instruments of music into the worship of the church. Alan Highers has masterfully refuted most of the current arguments that appear to permit the use of instruments.

I hope every elder of the Richland Hills church will read this issue. They said that they spent years studying the issue of the instrument. By the course of action they have taken, I would suggest they studied poorly. The case made by their senior minister is full of fallacies and contradictions. His arguments are weak, and only the naive are fooled by them.

I hope and pray elders and preachers all over the brotherhood will read this issue and cease arguing over the matter. There is not now, nor has there ever been in the last 2,000 years, one shred of evidence to support the use of instruments in the musical worship of the church.

If Biblical truth has any importance to those who profess New Testament Christianity and if brotherly love is to continue, then let the advocates of this innovation and self-made religion cease from reviving this terrible division. It is the human practice that caused the division a century ago, and it is the insistence on having this innovation that is causing the division today. To suggest that we ought to be together again and overlook humanly devised worship is merely to defect to error from truth.

Those who claim to be ambassadors for unity are in reality recruiters for compromise. Before there can be unity, there must first be repentance of error. We plead with our instrumental brethren, if you are so bent on unity, to give up the instrument and self-made religion and to come back to a cappella worship--where we were before you demanded change. Only then can there be unity.

kindly,
Phil

Humble ambiguity and arrogant certainty!

I am reading John MacArthur's new book, The Truth War, wherein he tells of the need to fulfill the instructions of Jude 3 to contend earnestly for the faith. I recommend this book to all, understanding that it is written from and evangelical and Calvinist perspective. He makes many good points about the need for a militant Christianity rather than a sensuous accommodation to the culture of our time.

God's Word is eternally true, eternally binding, and eternally clear.

This book does a good job of describing the postmodern, Emerging Church movement. I found this criticism of the Emerging church quite revealing:

Christ's headship in the church is likewise being challenged by those in the Emerging Church movement who have suggested that Scripture is simply not clear enough to allow us to preach its truth with any degree of clarity, certainty, or conviction. Most would never come right out and deny that the Bible is the Word of God, but they accomplish exactly the same thing when they insist that no one has any right to say for sure what the Bible means. (155)

MacArthur notes that postmodernism has transformed doubt, uncertainty, and qualms about practically every teaching of Scripture into high virtue. Strong convictions plainly stated are invariably labeled "arrogance" by those who favor postmodern dialogue.

Postmodernism casts us on a sea of uncertainty and glorifies agnosticism as supposedly a virtuous "humility." Frankly, such humility is realistically simple faithlessness. No, I'm not suggesting that we ought to be "know-it-alls." But at the same time, can we not have the saving knowledge that sets us free? Is the promise of Jesus found in John 8:31-32 true? Not if you believe the postmodern, religiously-correct crowd.

We don't have to have perfect, infinite knowledge to know some things. As for our Christianity, we know God is right when He speaks. We believe Him. He, after all, does know it all and is perfect in knowledge. If He says so, then who are we to correct Him? He doesn't need our elite help. We need His. Proverbs 3:5 is true about life and true about "doctrine."

The call of our time is not to compromise but to faith in God's word. Believe it.

kindly,
phil

Can We Know Enough?

Rick Atchley and Bob Russell in their book, Together Again, argue for their unity on the basis of what we don't know. They place the instrument in the area of "disputable matters" (65), arguing that since Christians differ on the matter and Bible-believing brethren come to different conclusions, we should not divide over such matters (64).

If you think this argument through, Atchley and Russell are making an argument from ignorance or an argument from agnosticism. They say that in the light of the fact there is no specific prohibition of the instrument, we should not divide over the matter. We don't know enough from Scripture, since it is silent on the instrument, to make a ruling one way or the other--so let's accept both views as equally correct.

So, in the absence of what we know, we will discuss but make no judgments.

Are we really so ignorant? We know that:

• God wants us to sing (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16; Heb. 13:15)
• Christ wants His true disciples to abide in His Word (Jn 8:31-32; Mt. 7:21-27)
• Neither Christ nor the Holy Spirit ever acted on their own initiative with regard to the Word of God (Jn 12:48-50; 14:31; 16:12-13).
• Adding to the word of God is condemned (Mt 15:7-9; Gal. 1:6-9; 2 John 9-11)
• The unity for which Jesus prayed was first sanctified by truth (John 17:17-23)

We can know that it is wrong to act on a guess. Nadab and Abihu acted without authority; David and Uzzah acted without authority; Saul acted without authority at Gilgal; Ahaz acted without authority in adding an altar; and the Judaizers acted without authority in adding the Law to the Gospel. These examples are in the Scriptures for a reason, and they are for our learning (Rom. 15:4) so that we might have hope and not make the same mistakes. Are the Scriptures of the Old Testament never to reprove or correct us (2 Tim. 3:16-17)?

To say "we don't know enough about what God desires about music in worship, so we feel free to do as we wish" is bad business. It presumes the right to act on a guess. It is sand theology. I might just as well ignore all the positive things the Bible says about marriage and feel free to enter into a polygamous union (since there is no specific, New Testament prohibition of polygamy; by that I mean a specific "thou shalt not!" Interestingly, the same duo argue against drawing conclusions from inferences. Does God not imply and can we not infer a prohibition of polygamy from Romans 7:3 and 1 Corinthians 7:2?).

I would rather act on what I know than presume freedom in what I don't know. There really is a difference between building our houses on rock and on sand. Jesus wanted us to build on what we know, not build upon a guess.

kindly,

Phil

"Religion Degenerating into Music"

W. K. Pendleton was twice son-in-law of Alexander Campbell, and coeditor
of the Millennial Harbinger. He also succeeded Mr. Campbell as editor of the
Harbinger and president of Bethany College. He had an article in the Millennial
Harbinger, 1868, pages 36-42, "Religion Degenerating Into Music." W. K. Pendleton wrote this rather stinging piece about the introduction of the instrument into the worship of the church:


If the people will have an idol, music is perhaps as respectable a one as the
religious development of the nineteenth century can invent. We are not arguing
the relative merit of human inventions. We are denying that the Christian religion is, in any part--jot or tittle--a human invention at all. "Development" has nothing to do with it. It came from its divine Author perfect and complete, and the great work of the church is to hold the people to it; to protest, to remonstrate, to anathematize against anything that sets itself up beside it, till every imagination of man is crushed under its feet and withered by the breath of its nostrils. "Pure religion and undefiled"--sublimated into music! The sweet charities, that fall like heavenly dew upon the arid places of human woe--expired in screaming ecstasies of sound! 'Tis too impious. Better for the people, that some stern iconoclast should rise in the holy indignation of the old prophets, and break to pieces all the senseless organs and scatter all the godless choirs that desecrate our fashionable cathedrals, than that this fatal tendency to substitute a musical sentimentalism for a living Christianity should be allowed to go unrebuked until it has fixed itself, with the power of a fatal delusion, upon the habits and the credulity of the age. (Page 40.)

Time article on the Bible

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1601845-1,00.html
The above link to a Time Magazine article on using the Bible in school is well worth reading.

Phil

Key stats

http://www.christianitytoday.com/money/articles/keystatistics.html

Some really valuable insights and statistics can be found at the site above.

No impact

A March 2007 Gallup poll reported:

Our Easter research did not stop there. We werealso aware of the recent and controversial documentary by James Cameron, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus.”This documentary, recently aired on the DiscoveryChannel, investigated the supposed ossuary containing the skeletal remains of Jesus. While the Bible is very clear that Jesus died, was buried, and came back to life, we wanted to see how this documentary may affect the general public’s belief in the resurrection.

The research showed that 57 percent of the population either read about, heardabout, or watched this documentary. Familiarity with the documentary had no impact on the public view of the resurrection, as about 75 percent of both those with and without knowledge of the documentary believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ. It appears that belief in theresurrection neither drew them to watch the documentary nor influenced their belief.

http://www.namb.net/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=9qKILUOzEpH&b=1648583&ct=3710909

Well the proof is in the pudding, and Cameron's pudding is nothing to worry about.

Phil

Such is our folly..

In his excellent book, John Price quotes John Calvin, who is lamenting the natural progression to more and more departure once a departure from the truth has started:

Such is our folly, that when we are left at liberty, all we are able to do
is go astray. And then when once we have turned aside from the right path, there is no end to our wanderings, until we get buried under a multitude of superstition. (Necessity of Reforming the Church, 17)

Some seem all too blind to slippery slopes. They think little of the consequences of so slight an adjustment in policy. They think that just "bumping the boat" will have little affect on the direction. What's the harm in a little fun while we worship? What's the harm in a Saturday night rather than a Sunday morning? What's the harm in a little music?

I suppose the folks in Matthew 6 felt that way. What's the harm in a little paint on my face? What's the harm in praying before others? What's the harm in letting others know I give?

I can just imagine someone saying some of these things:

"If we can play the instrument, why can't we serve roast lamb on
the Lord's Table? If we can play the instrument, let us also burn incense, offer grain offerings, and dance before the Lord. Why not just become Jews? Jesus was a Jew. The apostles were Jews. What difference does it make whether we bring in God's approved worship under the Old Covenant? Perhaps we should build an altar like Ahaz and put it up front for our offerings?"

Open the door to more and more digression and departure from the simple teaching of the New Testament and we will come to be a church after our own imagination. How easily people justify their departures... How easily they justify their desires...

Phil

John Price's book on Music

John Price, Old Light on New Worship (Avinger, Texas: Simpson Publishing Co., 2005). ca $15.99.

Jeff Jenkins of Lewisburg, Texas, recommended this book; and I have been delighted to read it. There is much to commend within its pages. Price is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Rochester, NY and a graduate of Trinity Ministerial Academy. He has done a thorough job of presenting the Reformed view on music and describing the Regulative Principle (what we would call prohibitive silence). He is well-acquainted with John Girardeau's work (found in Foy E. Wallace's book and online). He has done a good job of looking into history.

I have only had a chance to glance at the book since I arrived home from Ghana and went to the office yesterday (Mon., 03/26). I ordered the book before I left. I am glad I did.

Price notes that Luther regarded IM as an indifferent matter, but his colleagues Carlstadt and Melanchthon certainly did oppose it as sinful. I had always heard Luther called IM an "ensign of Baal." The other leaders of the Reformation belileved that the truth of the gospel could only be upheld within the context of a "biblically ordered worship." (They could not see IM in Christian worship either.) The other reformation leaders believed the central issue was the restoration of pure and spiritual worship according to the New Testament." (94. See the footnote: Carlos M. N. Eire, War Against Idols [Cambride University Press, 1986], 2, 195-233).

Sounds like us. Zwingli based his arguments on Scriptural principles and said that "only what Christ has explicitly commanded in His word should be part of the worship of the church" (94). Zwingli specifically applied this to the use of musical instruments. "Everything which is added to the true institutions of Christ is an abuse." Amen and amen.

Of course, Zwingli went to far and also forbade vocal music. Fortunately his edict to Zurich did not become the norm, which was unaccompanied congregational singing.

The book has much to commend it. Since I have not read it all, I cannot give it an unqualified recommendation. Reader beware: eat the fish and throw the bones away. But by all means, eat the fish.

I am considering writing a book on the music God desires in Christian worship. Should I?

Phil

Out of Africa

Dewayne and I have come home from our 16-day trip to Kumasi, Ghana, West Africa, where we were teaching in Ghana Bible College. It was an exhausting trip with 95 degree, humid weather most days. The 60+ students we taught, however, made the trip very successful and meaningful.

Ghana celebrated its 50th Anniversary as a free country while we were there. They have made remarkable progress since my first trip there in 1999.

Ghana Bible College has doubled its number of students but is in serious financial need. It takes about $70,000 to $80,000 per year to run this wonderful school that trains preachers for that part of the world. They need your financial help. If you can do anything to help in this matter, please contact me.

God bless,
Phil

The Problems with the Lost Tomb

When Simcha Jacobovici and James Cameron get together to make a blockbuster, $4 million "documentary" about an old find and act like there is a radical, new, life-changing discovery of the bones of Jesus and his family, we must object with more than a little skepticism.

This tomb on Talpiot street, found in 1980 by Amos Kloner, with ten ossuaries (bone boxes) has been featured at the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem for several years. The fact that the boxes contain names similar to those in the early family of Jesus (Joseph, Mary, Jesus) is really not that odd. These were very popular names and are found on several ossuaries.

Richard Bauckman of St Andrews University released a catalog of Palestinian ossuaries in 2002. Among the top ten names for males were both Joseph and Jesus. There are a total of 45 ossuaries from this period with the name of Joseph, 22 with the name of Jesus, and 42 with the name of Mary or Mariam. When you consider that these names appear even more often in other settings, it should not surprise us to find an ossuary with "Jesus, son of Joseph" and a Mary in the collective tomb. Finding boxes with these names on it does not mean that the family of Jesus of Nazareth has been found; it means that a Jesus, a Joseph, and a Mary has been found. Whether this Joseph and this Mary were married is not certain. Whether Mariam (thought to be Mary Magdalene) is here the wife of Jesus is only speculation.

But there is DNA evidence! DNA tests were only taken of the residue found in the ossuaries of Jesus and Mariam; they found that they were not blood kin. Jacobovici presumes Jesus and Mariam were married, but how do we know that? Could she not have been the wife of one of the other men? Since we don't have any indisputable DNA from the Jesus of history, how do we know this is Jesus of Nazareth? We don't. Jacobovici is speculating. It is at best a guess, and considering the evidence, an impossible one.

Why Jerusalem? Poor Galileans had little money to buy an expensive gravesite in Jerusalem, 75 miles away. Since there is no embalming, the body of Joseph (who likely died in Nazareth) would be stinking by the time they got it there.

Joseph's family of origin came from Bethlehem not Jerusalem. He lived and worked in Nazareth. Why would he be buried in Jerusalem?

If you research the web site, you will see that the "scholars" behind this film end up denying the resurrection and the ascension. They suggest the story behind the story is that the disciples stole the body of Jesus from the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea and buried him again at the Talpiot family site.

How did they get the body past the guards (Mt. 27:65)?

Why did they leave the grave clothes (John 20:6)?

How did they keep it a secret from Jesus' brothers James and Jude, who died beleiving in a resurrection?

The whole idea is preposterous! It ignores the history given by eyewitnesses in the New Testament to embrace the wide-eyed, fantasy find of a bunch of filmmakers who admit they are not scholars.

This supposed find is as bogus as can be.

Phil

The Lost Tomb of Jesus???? Give me a break!

mms://65.23.21.189/20070228.asf
copy and paste this link into your web browser to view our response

This appeared on Tennessean.com Tuesday 2/27/07
Published: Tuesday, 02/27/07
BRENTWOOD — Phil Sanders, minister of Concord Road Church of Christ and Dewayne Bryant, an archaeologist and deacon at the church, will present a response tomorrow night to a filmmaker who claims to have discovered the tomb and bones of Jesus.
Filmmaker James Cameron and the Discovery Channel on March 4 will present “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” a documentary claiming that the Talipot tomb, opened in 1980, contained several ossuaries containing the bones of Jesus and his family.
The film calls into question the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus, suggests that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, and that Jesus had a son named Judah. To back up their claims the filmmaker appealed to DNA evidence and statistical analysis.
The program by Sanders and Bryan in response to the claims starts at 7 p.m. Wednesday at 7:00 PM at the church, located at 8221 Concord Road in Brentwood.
Bryant is a PhD candidate at Regions University and has more than 130 hours in graduate studies related to archaeology and the Old Testament. He currently teaches courses in archaeology and the Old Testament at Regions University in Montgomery, Ala. Bryant writes a monthly column for Think magazine, based in Brentwood and travels widely speaking to churches on topics relating to archaeology and the Bible.Sanders has an earned doctorate in Biblical studies and serves as an instructor at Nashville School of Preaching and Regions University, where he teaches courses related to the Passion of the Christ and Christian Evidences. Sanders appears weekly on a television program in the Nashville area and writes for Think magazine.

If you want to know about Jihad...

http://www.terrorismawareness.org/files/WANTKAJ.pdf

You may want to download Robert Spencer's brochure.
Also see this short film about the matter:

http://www.terrorismawareness.org/know-about-jihad/

Be informed.

Phil

Chocolate Chip Ice Cream or Cherry Pie

As a child my favorite dessert was my grandmother's cherry pie (actually it was cobbler, but the only difference is the pan). Later in life I discovered Braum's Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, which I must have on every trip back to my home state of Oklahoma. Then, there is momma's apple pie, and Jackie's cakes--so delicious.

Sometimes life is like choosing between the several very wonderful things. Many are wonderful, delicious, and heart-warming with memories. I wish I could have them all, but that is not possible. The hardest decisions are not necessarily between good and evil but between what seems to be two equally-good choices.

The work of ministry is often that way. I love it all. I love the study. I love the people. I love the preaching and teaching. I love the writing. I love the challenge. I love seeing souls saved. I love life.

The problem is if I choose this, I can't also choose that. There is, after all, only one of me.

When I can't decide on my own, I just leave it in God's hands and do my best. God will see to the rest. I belong to Him..

Phil

Don't Be Ashamed to Be a Christian

We have been told there is too much baggage with the name "church of Christ," so we need to change our name to something with less baggage. The assumption is that if we change the name of the congregation, then we can avoid having that baggage. It does not seem to occur to those seeking such change that the names they come up with appears to have the baggage of a start-up, community church, more tied to the personality of the preacher than with some belief. Hmmm.

If I went to a Catholic church, I would expect Catholics to worship like Catholics. If I went into a synagogue, I would expect to see Jews worshiping like Jews. If I went to a Mormon tabernacle, I would expect to see Mormons singing their songs in the style in which they have become accustomed. Why then is it some are ashamed that we are a cappella? Why do some feel that we are odd to worship without accompaniment? Can we not simply be who we are without apology or strategizing that if we don't change, we'll be left behind?

The reasoning of the church in the 1870s was that if we don't upgrade and progress in religion like the denominations around us, we'll not be able to appeal to the community around us. Many of our brethren did "progress" beyond the common practice of a cappella music to be like the religionists (nations) around them and put in a melodeon or organ. They sacrificed the sacred way to appeal to the common. The constant drumbeat of "we must change to grow" fills the progressive media today--as if no one had ever heard that before. (This generation--unfamiliar with our history--hasn't heard it, and the gullible clamor for change.)

They sell the nonsensical notion that the restoration plea divides, so we must change and be like everyone around us. We must jettison the truth to continue on our journey of growth.

But those who did not jettison the truth or embrace the instrument back when it seemed change was the answer for everything stayed the course; and a century later we are nearly eight times larger. Others who followed path of compromise ended up a century later affirming almost nothing. They could not even say that Jesus was the only way to heaven in 1989, lest they hurt their interfaith talks (the vote in Cincinnati showed a very divided group). They thought, "Let's be open, and the world will beat a path to our door." They ended up looking wimpy and losing members rapidly.

Who wants to unite with a people who are ashamed of who they are and what they believe?

Let us stop apologizing for believing the truth! for obeying the Lord! We need some Shadrachs, Meshachs, and Abednegos today who will do what is right whatever the cost! Instead our self-proclaimed church growth "experts" continue to beat a drum of compromise and confusion. Christianity does not call us to be wimps or to "take back what we believe" simply because others don't agree.

Identity crisis?

Do we have an identity crisis in churches of Christ? Some do. Elijah knew who he was, because he believed in God. Those Israelites at Carmel who hesitated between two opinions either did not know who they were or were afraid to admit it. Their fear created the crisis. They were the ones who kept their mouths shut until the fire came down. Would to God some fire would come down today to wake up our brethren!

Why an identity crisis? Because shallow preachers of compromise have been allowed to usurp elders and churches and create doubt in the truth of the gospel and replace it with their imitation of evangelicalism. They have laughed at us and mocked us ceaselessly, and we kept silent. It did not matter that what they said was false and showed their own confusion and shame. We not only kept silent, we invited them to speak again and again to our kids and infect them with their compromise. When godly men and women did speak up, they were called legalistic and dismissed as troublemakers. Elijah the troublemaker?

They were ashamed before their denominational friends, ashamed of our doctrines and practices, and ashamed to speak the truth. We let their insecurity and shame become ours, when we kept silent. We let the wolves speak to our children and desensitize them to what is true and right, just as they did over a century ago. We found it fashionable to be casual (rather than holy) with our faith and presume upon the grace of God with our morals and doctrine. In our insipid and compromised state, we lacked the ability to make an impact on the communities around us. The very things these wolves told us we "must do to grow" robbed us of the power of our message.

There is no identity crisis with those who believe the truth of the gospel. There is an identity crisis with those who hearts long to be what they are not. When they long to be like the religions around them and to remake churches of Christ in their own desires, they create confusion and insecurity.

Part of maturing is learning to accept who you are, Whose you are, and what you are. Do we really need permission to be the people of God? Jesus is crying out for His people to stand up and be who they are. Let's quit listening to a bunch of compromising wimps (religious fashion experts) and start listening to the Lord. Instead of wearing what they call the fashion of the year, let's put back on the armor of God.

Phil

Watch out for the Bank scam!!

You probably get warnings to never, never, never, NEVER give your personal information to anyone for any reason. Well, pay attention.

My local bank, I thought, had a message for me to update my information. Since it came in a secured area and was in the message center of the bank, I figured it was important for me to update. Wrong, wrong, WRONG. The identity thieves sent over $3,000 of my money via a wire service to who knows where.

Now I'll get the money back and will go through a little grief, but my bank and the card company will be defrauded because of my moment of confusion.

Banks never, never, NEVER ask for this kind of information online or in any other way. Once an account is opened, it does not go through occasional updates. So, don't get suckered and give info to anybody online for any reason. Never, never, NEVER.

Nuff said.

Foolish Phil