The Bulletin
of the
Church of Christ at
New Georgia
Tim Johnson, editor
September 5, 2004
In
This Issue:
Thinking
about Applauding in Worship
by
Steve Klein
False
Doctrines Anticipated and Refuted
by
Bobby Graham
Where Do You Get Your Religion?
In the newspaper this past week, I noticed three different articles from the Associated Press concerning religion in America. The first was an article reporting on a new religion section being carried in Seventeen magazine -- which is a magazine focusing on pop culture for teenage girls. According to the article, "Seventeen has added a faith section that includes inspirational messages, personal stories of spiritual struggle and testimonials on issues ranging from prayer to gay teens who attend church." The second AP article told the story of John Vakulkskas, a Catholic priest who has devoted himself to ministering to traveling carnival workers (regardless of their faith). The third AP article was about a new book written by a Jewish scholar entitled "Life after Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion." The headline of the article pretty well caught the gist of the story. It read, "Leading Jewish scholar offers the latest on the afterlife."
If the Associated Press had the desire and manpower, it could probably provide us with a hundred similar stories everyday. America is a land where thousands upon thousands of different religious viewpoints are freely expressed, and Americans are a people who are free to pick and choose the viewpoints that suit them. The result of all of this freedom of religious expression, to put it bluntly, is that our nation is awash in a flood religious error.
Those who are writing and publishing the vast majority of religious material in our culture couldn't tell the truth of God from the menu at Shoney's. As it was in ancient Israel, so it is today. "Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood&ldots; Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD; So what wisdom do they have?" (Jeremiah 8:8-9).
The danger for the people of God who live in such a culture is that, unless we keep constant guard, we might find ourselves accepting smooth sounding falsehood because we "read it in a magazine," "got it in an e-mail," or "saw it on TV". As practical means of confronting this danger, may I offer the following suggestions:
1. Limit exposure to the religious influence of pop-culture. Frankly, we should all probably try to limit our exposure to a lot of pop-culture period, but especially to its expressions of religious ideas, whether in print, film or music. In other words, it's probably not a positive thing for a teenage girl who is a Christian to take Seventeen magazine, but if she does, she certainly does not need to be religiously reading its religion section. In essence, this is the same advice Paul gave Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:20 -- "O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge."
2. Spend more time in Bible study. God's word is the only completely trustworthy source of religious truth. It "is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Spending more time with it, can't help but benefit us.
3. Spend more time in conversation about spiritual things with those who believe and know the truth. If we're going to allow other humans to influence our religious thinking, we should choose men and women who share our love and respect for God. Jude encourages his readers to be involved in "building yourselves up on your most holy faith" (Jude 20). Paul wanted desperately to visit with the Christians in Rome, "that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me" (Romans 1:12). The thoughts and words of a fellow Christian whom we know and love should mean much more to us than the confused and confusing messages of those who do not stand for "the faith once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3).
by Steve Klein
An idea is true if it agrees with God's standard of truth revealed in the Bible, but false if it does not. It is fitting that we turn our atten-tion to the events in Jerusalem that occurred on the birthday of the church almost 2000 years ago to see that some of the cherished doctrines of men are just that - doctrines of men.
1. Baptism of the Holy Spirit Is for People in General. One could not prove such a contention from Acts 2 for several reasons. The promise of such baptism was directed to the apostles in Acts 1:4-5, not people generally. Secondly, the pronouns in Acts 2:1-4 referring to those baptized refer to apostles as their antecedent (noun for which pronouns are used), in 1:26. Thirdly, the cause of Jewish amazement in 2:7 was Galileans, and all apostles were from Galilee. Such could not be claimed, for the more numerous group some-times associated with baptism of the Holy Spirit.
2. Speaking in Tongues Involves Unintelligible Sounds. One would never have learned such from Acts 2 or from any other passage dealing with tongues. As in other cases, necessity forces someone to invent such doctrine to defend a practice. The tongues in Acts 2 were commonly spoken languages that were understood by the people gathered. (2:8,11)
3. "Last Days" Refers to Final Days before Second Coming. Peter applied Joel's prophecy from Joel 2:28-32 to the events of that very day. From such use of the prophecy it is evident that Pentecost was included in the "last days." Hebrews 1:2 shows that the whole Christian dispensation is meant by the term, for it is the time when God speaks through Christ.
4. Calling on Name of Lord Means Praying for Salvation. If this be true, and if it is true that this is all that God asks men to do for sal-vation, then Peter required too much, for he told them to repent and be baptized. In the verses after verse 21 Peter proceeded to show them how to call on the Lord's name. (22-38.) Matthew 7:21 and Luke 6:46 make it obvious that calling on the Lord involves more than men usually include in that expression.
5. The Holy Spirit Operates Directly on Sinners in Conversion. The Holy Spirit is not even mentioned as working directly on sinners in this chapter, although we know from early passages that He was guiding the apostles in their teaching (verse 4). The only work of the Spirit evident here is what He did by God's Word. In this case of conversion, the Word of the Spirit convicted the sinner of his sin, guided him into the way of salvation; and quickened him to spiritual life.
6. Man Can Do Nothing to Gain Salvation Lest He Add to God's Work in Christ at the Cross. From what is stated in the chapter, the Father, the Holy Spirit, and Peter did not know this. The Spirit directed Peter to instruct these people to do something - to repent and be baptized (v. 38), and to save themselves (v. 40). Such obedience does not represent inadequacy on the part of Christ's redemptive work either, but man's effort in faith to gain the promised blessings.
7. Baptism Represents an Outward Sign of an Inward Grace, or We Are Baptized Because We are Already Saved. If baptism shows anything, it shows faith and repentance. (2:38.) Both repentance and baptism were required for the same purpose, the remission of sins, not to show God had already remitted sins. .
8. God Never Commanded Baptism. If Peter's answer in 2:38 is not a declaration, a question, or an exclamation, it must be a command, given in answer to "What shall we do?"
9. People Should Join the Church of Their Choice. The Lord added the saved to His church. (2:47.) No case of conversion or experience of grace was presented, nor was a vote taken. God takes care of our salvation and church membership at the same time, as He did then.
By Bobby Graham