Abstain from All Appearance of Evil

I realize that I Thessalonians 5:22 says, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” I would like for you to elaborate on the meaning of that verse. Is it right to watch something that is wrong to do? For example, on the television there are many shows and movies that contain sinful things. Is it right to watch them? Is it right to watch a movie in which a man is murdered? Is it right to watch a movie that contains cuss words? Is it right to watch a movie in which a man fights with another man? There are even cartoons that contain what some might consider violent. Even in the various comic books, violence is found. In sports violence is found in a way. Is it right to watch football, of course not putting it or anything else before God? Football contains football players running into one another. Some are even injured. Is it right to watch that? Would that be considered violent? Is it right to watch professional wrestling? Professional wrestling contains fights, brawls, and wrestling among the wrestlers. Sometimes they are injured. Professional wrestling, of course, is fake and the wrestlers do not intend to hurt one another usually and they are trained in their ability to wrestle one another as in a play of actors, yet professional wrestling contains wrestlers getting revenge on other wrestlers, wrestlers insulting one another, among other things. In professional wrestling’s matches, wrestler wrestles against wrestler, this could be considered violent by …

Rapture?

[Firm Foundation, Vol. 114, No. 11, November 1999, pp. 9-11] A young Christian mother came into my office with her two children and said, “Will you please explain to my children what the Rapture is?” Her children had been exposed to the Rapture through some of their friends and they were confused. Most of us have seen bumper stickers that refer to the Rapture, saying something to the effect “In Case of Rapture, This Car Will be Empty.” Those who have not been indoctrinated by the proponents of this doctrine scratch their heads in wonder. Denominational programs on television present the Rapture as a doctrine all should believe. Although there are variations in the belief about the Rapture, we will discuss the commonly held view. Not a Bible Subject Many are surprised to learn that the word Rapture is not in the Bible. It is not a Bible subject. The Scriptures say nothing about it. It is a concept that has been around for some time, popularized by Hal Lindsey in his book, The Late Great Planet Earth. According to the proponents of the theory, at the end of the “church age” Jesus will raise the righteous dead and take them, along with the righteous who are living, to a special place, presumably like heaven, for seven years where they will be given rewards and positions. That is supposed to be the Rapture — but there is no mention of anything like that in the Bible. Proponents of this mistaken idea teach that …

How can one Identify the New Testament Church?

One of my former students many years ago was in a tourist group that visited the site of the imprisonment of the beloved apostle John on the Isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. The lady custodian was explaining the shrine there that was erected in memory of John. He introduced himself to her as a minister. She asked him of which church he was a minister. He sincerely and innocently answered that he was a minister of the same church of which the apostle John was a minister. The lady was angered by his answer and hastily told him that the shrine was holy and sacred and she would not tolerate him or anyone else making a joke about it. She was going to have him arrested, but he made haste and left the scene! Every preacher of the church of Christ in the world is a minister of the same church of which the apostle John was a preacher! That is no joke! Many times I have asked individuals who were not members of the church of Christ if they would like to be a member of the same church of which Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James, Jude, Timothy and all other Christians mentioned in the New Testament were members. Through the centuries since these lived, there have been so many complex and confusing departures from the simplicity of New Testament teaching concerning Christ and his church that it is evidently very difficult for people to …

Hospitality

According to Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary the word hospitality means “: hospitable treatment, reception, or disposition.” The word hospitable means “1 a : given to generous and cordial reception of guests, b : promising or suggesting generous and cordial welcome, c : offering a pleasant or sustaining environment. 2 : readily receptive : open (hospitable to new ideas).”1 When we look at the various Greek helps to determine the definition for hospitality in biblical times, we find the word means basically the same thing. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words and Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon give the following definition for hospitality: “Lover of strangers,”2 “generous to guests.”3 A look at some examples of biblical hospitality and some of the customs of the Bible times enlightens us to the full scope of hospitality. Please note the following quote from The New Manners and Customs of Bible Times: Entertaining others to eat and to stay was important for the people of the Bible; the urge to give hospitality seems to have been rooted in their experience of nomadic life. Nomadic people are conscious of the loneliness of the desert and that the provision of food is often a matter of life and death. Because Esau was too weak to prepare a meal for himself after he had been hunting, his brother, Jacob, was able to extract the birthright from him (Genesis 25:29-34). Even an enemy could not be allowed to die of hunger. Paul wrote, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him” (Romans 12:20), and he was repeating what was always done among nomadic people.4 The following is an observation from Kittel: Strangeness produces mutual tension between …

Two Israels

Today there are two Israels: (1) “Israel after the flesh” (1 Corinthians 10:18) and (2) Israel after “the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:6). This is true because “not all of those of Israel are Israel” (Romans 9:6). Those who reject Christ are the “Israel after the flesh,” and those who accept Christ are Israel after “the Spirit.” The “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) is the church which Jesus built (Matthew 16:18), including “the congregations of Galatia” (Galatians 1:2). In “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) is “neither Jew nor Greek,” for both are “united in Christ Jesus; and if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:28-29). There “is no distinction between the Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is over all, and is generous to all who call upon him” (Romans 10:12). However, someone asks, “Will not ‘all Israel,’ including ‘Israel after the flesh,’ be saved?” They will “if they do not continue in unbelief” (Romans 11:23, 26). Jesus came as a Jew (John 4:9), and tasted “death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9), but “his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11). Instead, in unbelief, him they “crucified” (Acts 4:10). It is painful that even today most of “Israel after the flesh” still rejects one of their own. In “the Israel of God,” however, there is “one new man of the two,” Jew and Gentile, with both being reconciled “to God in one body through the cross” (Ephesians 2:15-16). Does God …

How the Bible Came to Us

Many people are surprised to learn that the Bible, as we now have it, was not always in its present form. What was its original form, and how did it get to us today? Originally, the Scriptures consisted of a collection of sixty-six different documents written over a span of about 1,600 years. The Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew (some minor portions were in Aramaic) and the New Testament was composed in Greek. None of the original manuscripts survives. But there is a very good reason for this; likely, men would worship the inspired documents, instead of the God who gave them, were they still extant. That’s what happened with reference to the brazen serpent that Moses made in the Old Testament (see 2 Kings 18:4). But there is no cause for alarm simply because the original manuscripts are no longer available, because thousands of copies were made across the centuries. Here is an important historical note that helps put this matter in focus. The original manuscripts for the Greek classics, e.g., Homer, etc., vanished long ago, yet scholars are not in the least alarmed about that — because there are copies that have survived. The text of the Bible is available to us today by means of the science of “textural criticism,” i.e., a restoration of the original text based upon a collection of the sources at our disposal. Let me illustrate this with reference to the New Testament. There are three principal sources of data for …

A Prophecy of the Death of Jesus

Psalm 22 Introduction: Based upon certain evidence in the text, which we do not have the space to discuss here, we have long believed that Psalms numbers 22, 23, and 24 are a trilogy of Psalms concerning the death of Christ, his resurrection by the Shepherd who led him beside the still waters, and his ascension back into heaven where the multitudes recognize him as the King of glory. It may be that at one time all three of the Psalms were one, due to the fact that uninspired men divided our English Bibles into chapters and verses sometime about 1550 A.D. (Perhaps this can be more thoroughly discussed at a future time.) But that the Old Testament prophets saw beforehand the suffering of Jesus Christ, and the glory that would follow that suffering, as is affirmed in 1 Peter 1:11, simply cannot be denied. Two clear examples of this dual theme are found in Psalm 22, which focuses upon the death of Christ, and in Psalm 2 which speaks of the glorious honor that was bestowed upon Christ at the time of his resurrection. It is the first of these two psalms which we wish to study in this lesson. This Psalm is referred to as a “passional psalm,” meaning that it deals with the passionate suffering of Jesus Christ for the redemption of the world. It is said to have been written by David, and there is no strong evidence to prove that it was not. The New …

What Is Temptation?

Temptation is the process by which man is lured away from godly behavior. In the world in which we live, temptation is absolutely everywhere. We are tempted by inappropriate dress, inappropriate use of our time and inappropriate feelings. In short, we are tempted by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. How then does temptation actually work? The Bible tells us in James 1:13 that God does not tempt man. If this is the case, then why are we tempted? Why do we seek to do that which is contrary to the will of God? To put it simply, man is tempted by his own desires (James 1:14). The Bible also tells us that sin is pleasurable for a season (Hebrews 11:25). Like many things in our world, the temptation to sin is usually accompanied by a denial of its eventual cost. The Bible says that sin leads to death (James 1:15). How much easier it would be to resist temptation if every time we were in danger of sinning, a little warning would go off “Danger, danger, death ahead!” While this is an amusing imagination, the truth is we must train ourselves to have this very reaction. We need to understand how we are tempted to sin so we can better resist it. James 4:7 says that the devil will flee from us when we resist him. This promise from God is very precious in that it shows us that not …

Summary Observations

Beverage Alcohol When all is said and done, Scripture is still explicitly plain that alcoholic beverages are disapproved of God regarding its pleasurable consumption by mankind. That there was an intoxicating wine in antiquity is not denied. The Bible and early secular writers however are clear in their denunciation of such wine. (W.D. Jeffcoat, The Bible and “Social” Drinking, c. 1987, p. 35.) These two following verses summarize the biblical teaching about the pleasurable consumption of alcohol. “Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder” (Proverbs 23:31-32). “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!” (Habakkuk 2:15). Sober Rather than approving some degree of intoxication, the New Testament teaches sobriety. Christians are forbidden to surrender control of their faculties to drugs, inclusive of alcohol. “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:6-8). “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13). “But …

The Worth of My Soul

That man has a soul, or a spirit, or an inward man, cannot be denied by anyone who has ever read his Bible. That the soul, spirit or inward man is the part of us which shall live forever is also taught within the pages of the New Testament. Not only so, but Jesus taught us something very important about the value of the eternal soul of man when he asked, “For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26) These two questions were intended to be rhetorical by our Lord, and by asking them he was telling us something very important about that part of each of us that none of us has ever seen. The context in which Jesus asked these questions was his emphasis to his disciples that they were going  to have to be ready to forfeit, if necessary, their own souls in order to follow him and to carry out the work he had for them to do. In attempting to emphasize that if they lost everything this world had to offer but succeeded in saving their own souls by their service to him, they would be the better because the soul of just one of those disciples was worth more than all the world. Jesus was, no doubt, using a figure of speech here called a hyperbole, because no one that we know has …

The Lost Christ

Recently I noticed a bumper sticker that read, “If you have trouble finding Jesus, try looking for his mother.” I was reminded that Mariolatry is alive and well. My mind went back to that great sermon preached by brother N. B. Hardeman entitled, “The Lost Christ,” which appeared in volume two of Hardeman’s Tabernacle Sermons. In keeping with that sermon, I was reminded of a time when Jesus’ mother had trouble finding him. The account is in Luke 2:40-45, a passage rich with valuable instruction for the truth seeker. Of this brief passage the great Hardeman said, “This is a little story that gives an account of a mere incident, ordinarily considered; and yet I am certain within my own mind that it was not written just to tell us a little personal incident that occurred on one of their trips up to Jerusalem, but that in it there is both interest per se and also lessons possibly based upon that which may be of practical benefit and concern to those of us who now live and wheresoever the Bible shall be read” (pp. 112-113). The passage reads as follows: And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. When they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus …

Your Other Right!

The following account was related to the Editor, but to protect the innocent (as well as the guilty), the names of all parties are withheld. A preacher and his wife were visiting an Ohio town, in which the preacher was applying for the pulpit work with the local church. The preacher and his wife were lodging with one of the elders and his wife. As the elder and the preacher conversed into the night, their respective wives retired for the evening. Finally, the elder and the preacher also decided to retire for the night, at which time the elder advised the preacher that the room in which he was to sleep was at the top of the stairs on the right. The preacher promptly ascended the stairs and opened the first door on the left, whereupon he happened upon the elder’s wife standing there completely naked! By the way, the preacher didn’t get the job! [Editor’s Note: Preachers are invited to submit amusing incidents that have occurred over the years during their ministries for possible inclusion in the pages of Gospel Gazette Online. Someday, these stories may also be converted to book format.]

What Will Your Answer Be?

When one looks back over forty-five years of preaching, it is very difficult to choose just one particular occasion and say that it is the funniest thing that ever happened. But, one situation does come to mind that I have told often and will share with you. It happened during that part of the worship which should be very solemn, the offering of the invitation. Let me help you understand the setting. I was preaching in a small community, a suburb of a large city in Central Ohio. The little town was divided into two sections, old ___________ and new _________. The newer section of town was largely business surrounded by new housing developments. Among the businesses were several places where one could purchase alcoholic beverages. In fact, a real nuisance existed in the form of a real roadhouse, notorious for late night brawls which disturbed the peace and tranquility of the neighbors. So, an all out effort was being made to put a referendum on the ballot which would make all of the city “dry” as was the older section. One of our brethren, a deacon and a very prominent businessman in town was heading the drive. He was also on city council and was running for president of council. One Sunday I preached on The Sin Of Strong Drink. At the appropriate time I offered the invitation. Imagine standing before a congregation of 200 people and being led in What Will Your Answer Be?, the first line of which is, “Some day …

Traitors of the Bible

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Kings of the Bible

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Do Not Let the Left Hand Know the Right Hand

“But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:3-4). There was a custom in Palestine that had been observed many years ago, to which these verses may have reference. When concluding a bargain or when coming to a friendly agreement, the two individuals would extend the forefinger of their right hand and the forefinger of their left hand and hold them parallel to each other. They each would rub their two fingers together and speak the words ‘right, right’ or ‘together, together’ over and over. This practice was to show all around that they had come to a friendly agreement or completed a contract of some kind. This was done in the open so that all could see that each was happy with what they were doing. Thus, they had witnesses to the fact that they both agreed on whatever they were doing. It is not known if this custom was being done at the time of Christ. But if it were, it would help explain what Christ was saying in the above verses. Our alms to God are not to be done in a way that we make sure everyone sees what we are doing. Our alms to God are to be done quietly and in secret. We do not put on a show so that others are impressed or so …

Resist Satan When You Are Hungry

I am sure you have been very, very hungry before. It had probably been a long time since you had eaten anything. Your stomach was probably growling. You felt like there was a big empty space inside of you. If you live in the United States, this probably only happens when you have not eaten in several hours. If you live in many countries of the world, you may not have eaten in several days. Jesus can understand how hungry you are. One time he went for 40 days without eating (Matthew 4:1-4). Can you imagine how hungry he must have been? Satan knew how hungry he was. And, Satan was going to use the situation as a way to get Jesus to do wrong. Satan thought he could get Jesus to turn rocks into bread. He wanted Jesus to obey him rather than God the Father. But, Jesus would not do what Satan wanted. Jesus instead quoted Scripture to Satan. Jesus had studied the Scriptures and obeyed them. He was ready to answer Satan, even when it was very hard not to do what Satan wanted. When you are very hungry, you may be tempted to do something you should not. You may be tempted to get into food that your parents have told you to leave alone. Or, if you have gone for a very long time without eating, you may be tempted to steal food. This is wrong. That is what Satan wants you to do. Resist …

God Created the Skeletal System

“…dividing asunder of soul and spiritand of the joints and marrow…” (Hebrews 4:12) When the writer of the book of Hebrews penned these words under divine inspiration, he pointed out the very basic nature of the skeletal system that forms the foundation for our bodies. It was clear that it would take something very powerful to separate the soul from the spirit and the joints of the skeletal system from the marrow that is contained within the bones. We know that as these verses say, God’s Word is just such a powerful tool. Let’s spend just a few minutes looking at the marvelous creation that contains the joints and marrow, our skeletal system. The structural framework that supports our bodies is the skeletal system. It is composed of many different parts, but the main component is the bones. There are 206 bones, more or less, in the adult human body. In the newborn baby, they will have not yet grown together on to each other. This can be seen in what is called the “soft spot” or fontanels of the baby’s head. Each one of us might have extra bones or be missing a few, and there are people with more ribs than others, but males contrasted with females. We can have 12 or 13 pairs of ribs, but the only man to have one less rib was Adam because God removed it during surgery. So, today, men do not have one less rib than women. The bones are amazing …

God Created Cells That Make Waves

“Don’t make waves,” is a common saying to have someone not disturb the status quo of a particular situation. In the human body, there are places where you want waves to be made. Let’s look at waves with are necessary for life. The human body contains many amazingly different types of cells that carry on many unique functions. These cells are being studied to reveal the roles that they have in the body. Among some of the most interesting of these cells are those that control the rhythm of the movements needed within the body. The best examples of this are the heart cells and the cells of the digestive system. Let’s take a quick look at the rhythm makers of our bodies. In order for the heart to work efficiently, the muscle cells must operate in a coordinated fashion from the top to the bottom. To make this happen, the heart contains special cells that serve as the pacemaker for the rest of the muscles. These specialized rhythm keepers are located in the right atrium and are called the Sinoatrial Node or S-A Node. These cells initiate an electrical impulse that causes a contraction of the muscle cells surrounding them. This triggers an impulse that travels down other conductive cells into an area between the chambers of the heart called the Artir-Ventricular Node or A-V Node. The muscle contraction then occurs in a very fluid manner in the heart, allowing the heart to push the blood through it into …

Miracles in the Gospel of Mark

Before we can discuss the miracles of Jesus in the Gospel according to Mark, we must render a biblical definition for what we mean by miracles. Easton’s Bible Dictionary, in part, says a miracle is “an event in the external world brought about by the immediate agency or the simple volition of God, operating without the use of means capable of being discerned by the senses, and designed to authenticate the divine commission of a religious teacher and the truth of his message (John 2:18; Matt. 12:38).”1 The first definition in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary likewise represents the biblical sense in which the word miracle is used: “an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs.”2 Both of these definitions note that a miracle involves (1) divine intervention in the affairs of men, and (2) not the effect but the affect of the miracle is clearly discernible to mortal observers. Importantly, Easton’s also (3) denotes that a miracle has a purpose, namely to: (a) bring forth new revelation from God and (b) validate that message and its messenger. Incidentally, miracles and providence differ chiefly in that though they both derive from divine power and involve divine intervention, the former is designed to be observable whereas the latter is not open to inspection. The former may provide new revelation and proves something through its discernible evidence. The latter does not provide new revelation directly and because it is not discernible, it is not designed to prove anything. The purpose of miracles is concisely stated in Mark 16:20, “And they went forth, and preached every …

What’s On Your Mind?

1 Timothy 4:13-16 In our fast-paced, gotta-be-there-in-a-hurry, should-have-been-done-yesterday world, few take time to think deeply about spiritual things. Life goes by in a blur and we just try to hold on without getting run over. It makes for shallow, superficial lives. The Bible commands us to meditate upon the Word (1 Timothy 4:15). What is meditation? In Eastern mysticism, Yoga and Transcendental Meditation, meditation refers to a passive state of “emptying the mind.” In the Bible, meditation is active. It involves concentration, alertness and energy. The Old Testament word muse is a synonym for “meditate.” It literally means to “mutter” as when working on a problem (cf. Hannah, 1 Samuel 1:12-16). The word meditate is used only twice in the New Testament (here; Luke 21:14). The verb (meletao1) means, “to attend to” (A-S) or “imagine” (Strong). A more vivid definition is “to revolve in the mind” (like a display in a jewelry store). In 4:14, Paul says to Timothy, “Don’t be careless about the gift2 you received.” In 4:15 he says, “Be constantly careful about these things.” The English word meditation literally means, “to be in the midst of something” (just the opposite of mystic withdrawal). The second clause of 4:15, “Give thyself wholly to them,” literally reads, “Be in these things” (Acts 6:4; 1 Corinthians 16:15; 2 Corinthians 8:5; Titus 2:14), and could be paraphrased “be absorbed in them.” Upon what should Christians meditate? Our thoughts will be filled with something (cf. sports, boy/girlfriend, spouse, making money, grandchildren). What are my free-time (daydreaming) thoughts about during an average …

The Lost Coin

Luke 15:8-10 Introduction The parable of the Lost Coin is the second illustration of a three-part parable that was introduced in the preceding chapter. The sub-parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Prodigal Son (or the Lost Son) were spoken in a single discourse by Jesus to a single audience. Together, they form the response of Jesus to his critics, the Pharisees and the scribes (Luke 15:2). The catalyst for the unfavorable review by those religious leaders was the popularity Jesus enjoyed among Israel’s spiritual untouchables, namely “the publicans and sinners” (Luke 15:1-2). . . . the basic thrust of the parable of the lost coin concerns our attitude toward the sinner, viz., the value we place on a sinner is revealed by how diligently we search for them and by how we rejoice at their conversion!1 Like Jesus Christ, the primitive church pursued sinners. Even more, the first century church (and indeed it is the same in every generation) was comprised of sinners (1 Cor. 6:9-11). “The church of the first century was not afraid to come in contact with sinners, teach them the gospel and welcome them into their fellowships when they repented.”2 Understanding somewhat the perceived value of the lost coin and surroundings in which it was lost contribute immeasurably to the word picture to which Jesus resorted in this parable. The paragraph by Neil R. Lightfoot which follows provides that necessary insight into the parable of the Lost Coin. The coin specified by Luke was a Greek drachma, which was almost the equivalent of …

Which Soil?

Jesus was a teacher of rare ability. At the close of the Sermon of the Mount, Matthew tells us: “… the people were astonished at this doctrine: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (Matthew 7:28-29). On another occasion, temple guards dispatched to arrest him returned empty-handed. They defended their failure by saying, “Never man spake like this man” (John 7:46). He was especially effective in his use of parables. One of his most familiar parables was that of the “Sower and the Seed” (Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23; Mark 4:3-8, 13-20; Luke 8:5-8, 11-15). The seed represented the Word of God, and the soils stood for the hearts of men (Luke 8:11). Obviously, the productivity of the seed is determined by the type of soil in which it is planted. The same can be said regarding the Word of God. The impact of the Word is determined by the nature of the heart in which it enters. In the parable, Jesus identified four types of soil (hearts) — the wayside, the rocky, the thorny and the good. All of us can see ourselves somewhere in the parable. The wayside represents those hearts which are hardened by sin (Hebrews 3:8, 13). There are some among us who have completely closed our minds to the Gospel. They refuse to give the Lord a fair hearing. They will not examine the evidence. Their ears are stopped. Their eyes are shut. Their minds are closed. Their hearts are hardened. Remember, the …