In This Issue

• “GO INTO ALL THE WORLD…”

• IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD

• FALLING INTO BELIEF

• PRAISE CHORUSES

• MORE INFORMATION...

“GO INTO ALL THE WORLD…”

After Jesus had risen from the dead, early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, but when she told His apostles the good news, they did not believe her. “After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either. Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.’ So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.” (Mark 16:12-20).

There are several things we will note briefly in these verses. First note that just as Jesus’ apostles had failed to believe that He would die, they also failed to believe He had returned from the dead. They had somehow discounted His promises in those matters, Mark 9:31; 10:34, etc. After His resurrection He appeared to Mary Magdalene, but they did not accept her testimony. He appeared to two other followers, but the rest of His disciples refused to take their word for it. John tells us that after Jesus appeared to the apostles, Thomas who was absent even refused to believe the word of his fellow apostles, John 20:24-25. So, when Jesus showed Himself to the apostles, the first thing He did was rebuke their unbelief.

Next, He commissioned them to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, with the assurance that those who believe the gospel and obey it in baptism will be saved—forgiven for their sins.

Then He promised them that if they truly believed, their preaching would be accompanied by miraculous signs and wonders. They would cast out demons, heal the sick, speak in foreign languages they had not known or studied, etc. These signs would be the evidence that God was with them in their efforts, and that their message was being divinely revealed. The apostle Paul would later refer to such miracles as “the signs of an apostle,” (2 Cor. 12:12).

After commissioning His apostles to preach the gospel in all the world, and promising that God would be with them in their work, Jesus ascended to heaven and took His rightful place at the right hand of God the Father. The apostles finally did truly believe and were obedient to their Lord. “And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs,” (Mark 16:20).

-Clarence R. Johnson

IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD

[Editor’s Note: In this issue we are using two related articles by Lawrence Kelley from the Lost River church bulletin, Bowling Green, KY. In reading the first article, “In the Year of Our Lord,” PLEASE note that brother Kelley uses such words and phrases as “Christian,” “Christian calendar,” “Christmas,” etc., accomodatively. Please don’t knit-pick his terminology to the extent of missing his point. –CRJ]

It seems that secularists understand the power of symbols far better than their Christian counterparts. We are reminded of this every year as efforts are made to replace such apparently unthreatening expressions as “Merry Christmas” with “Happy Holidays.”

Like Herod, the modern secularist recognizes Christ as a threat to his power and wants to remove every reference to His name in the public square. I find it funny that their alternative is no less “religious” than what they wish to replace. After all, our word “holiday” is just an alternate spelling for “Holy Day.” According to Samuel Johnson’s authoritative English Dictionary, the definitions of “holiday or Holy Day” include:

(1) The day of some ecclesiastical festival within Christendom;

(2) An anniversary feast day on the Christian liturgical calendar;

(3) A day of gaiety and joy in light of Gospel truth;

(4) A rare occurrence of God’s grace.

It is not my point here to address the issue of whether one should celebrate Christmas as Chrismas or not, but to show the extent to which Christian ideas, words, and symbols has penetrated western thought. It is so pervasive that when the secularist wishes to replace one Christian symbol he finds himself in the position of having to do so by using another. I find that quite funny not to mention deeply satisfying.

This brings me to the matter of the way we reckon time in the west. A Scythian named Dionysus who lived in Rome around 500 A.D. was the first to propose the change of calendar to mark the years since the Lord’s birth. He did well given the resources he had available, but was still off about 3-4 years. This means that we are actually approaching the year of our Lord 2,008.

This small error should not trouble us. The important thing is that the arrival of God in the flesh is acknowledged in our dating system as the central event in all of history. Everything either anticipates His coming B.C. or acknowledges His present reign A.D.

Secularists have recognized the potency of this Christian approach to reckoning time and sought any number of alternatives. These attempts to reconstitute the world by locating its central event somewhere other than in Christ are as futile as denying that the sun is at the center of our solar system.

Some Jews still seek to reckon time since creation – Anno Mundi: in the year of the world. As great as the original creation was, its glory is eclipsed by the greater glory of the new creation inaugurated by the Lord Jesus.

On October 24, 1793, the Jacobin-controlled national convention in France changed the calendar by marking the French revolution as the centerpiece of all history. The French are always up to something but unlike their bread, their dating system didn’t catch on. It surrendered to the Christian calendar 13 years later.

More recently an academic fad has begun marking time before and after the “Common Era” (BCE, CE). It seems that “Before Christ” and “In the Year of Our Lord” was just too much to take. So what event does these breakers with tradition mark as the pivot point in world history? Well, it’s still the birth of Christ. CE 1 is the equivalent of AD 1. Here again they want to deny His position, but the numbers still point to the incarnation of the Son of God. Jesus is Lord and this undeniable fact will be woven into the fabric of His creation to the end of the world. The secularists keep banging away, but they only break their hammers. The anvil remains.

–Lawrence Kelley, Lost River church bulletin, Bowling Green, KY

FALLING INTO BELIEF

I learned earlier this month that well-known English philosopher and naturalist Antony Flew has become a theist of sorts. Not a Christian yet, but he says the evidence for an intelligent designer is overwhelming. Nature alone cannot account for everything being as it is.

Does this mean that we should expect a mass exodus of pointy-heads fleeing from the citadel of atheism and naturalism? Probably not. It is more likely they will redouble their efforts to prevent more apostasies.

One writer pointed out that Flew’s defection will most likely serve to inflame the prophets of naturalism to pound their pulpits harder than ever. They will most surely warn their congregants of the dire consequences of turning away from the old paths charted by their great apostle and high priest Charlie Darwin.

Before the last battle, when the citadel of unbelief comes crashing down (2 Cor. 10:4-5) we should expect their voices to become even more shrill and their attacks more frequent.

Get ready people, the cry for a revival of that good old anti-religion is about to come ringing through the land.

–Lawrence Kelley, Lost River church bulletin, Bowling Green, KY

PRAISE CHORUSES

[Editor’s Note: This editor knows relatively little about these “praise choruses” described in the following article, but we feel our readers may do well to consider the writer’s reflections. Also, as in one article we used last week, we are not enamored with such expressions as "congregations of the Lord's church" which seems to imply a big (universal) church made up of little (local) churches. We'd prefer to say something like, “local congregations of God's people”. -CRJ]

There is a new verbal style of songs becoming very popular in congregations of the Lord’s church. They are known as “Praise Choruses.” Praise choruses have been popular in the Pentecostal and Fundamental environments for quite some time now. They were first picked up and used at our Bible camps and youth rallies. From there they moved to our colleges and have now found their way into our assemblies.

Just because a song might have a new verbal style that we have not “traditionally” used in the church or just because the denominational world might have first used a certain verbal style of music does not make it wrong. By the same token, just because a new verbal style of music is popular and different doesn’t make it right. What makes something right or wrong is whether or not it is in compliance with scripture.

The verbal song style takes one central phrase and repeats it over and over and over again. It is like a mantra in yoga or Buddhism. It amounts to nothing more than “vain repetition” which Jesus condemned, Matt. 6:7. Repeating phrases over and over again does not teach nor admonish, Col. 3:16. Those who use this verbal style of song are not worshipping “in truth,” John 4:14 because this style of song is in violation of scripture.

The following is an amusing and excellent example of this type of song. I don’t know who wrote it, but he really got it right.

As the story goes, an old farmer went into the city one weekend and attended the big city church. He came home and his wife asked him how it was. “Well,” said the farmer, “It was good. They did something different, however. They sang praise choruses instead of hymns.” “Praise choruses,” said his wife. “What are those?” “Oh, they’re okay. They are sort of like hymns, only different,” said the farmer.

“Well, what’s the difference?” asked the wife. The farmer replied, “Well, it’s like this. If I were to say to you, ‘Martha, the cows are in the corn,’ well, that would be a hymn. If on the other hand, I was to say to you, ‘Martha, Martha, Martha, Oh Martha, MARTHA, MARTHA, the cows, the cows, the big cows, the brown cows, the black cows, the white cows, the black and white cows, the COWS, COWS, COWS, are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn,” well, that would be a praise chorus.”

-Brock Hartwigsen, Banner of Truth

MORE INFORMATION...