In This Issue

• DANGERS FACING THE CHURCH

• MILLIONS THEN LIVING ARE NOW DEAD!

• 10 REASONS THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ARE NOT THE CHURCH OF THE BIBLE

• IT’S NOT ABOUT US!

• MORE INFORMATION...

DANGERS FACING THE CHURCH

As preachers get older, they may be asked, “What dangers do you see facing the church?” Or, realizing they will not be around long and as a result of observation and trying to predict the future based on what has taken place, they may see a need to speak out along this line. My concept of the dangers facing the church will not be the same as others, but I will list a few concerns:

·There is not the distinctive preaching today that has characterized the past when the church was growing more. Many sermons are being preached that could be preached in most pulpits throughout the land. When Jesus and the apostles preached, the teaching was distinctive. If we do not have a distinctive message, we have no right to exist. If we do not include distinctive teaching, we will lose our identity. 

·We need to guard against getting away from Biblical book, chapter and verse preaching. This is what established the church on Pentecost and reestablished it in this country. Some preaching has very little Bible in it or the Bible may be cited to prove our contentions instead of opening up the scriptures and bringing out their meaning and making the application to our lives. I am concerned when preachers quote human authorities more than the word of God.

·There is a continuing danger our preachers will be considered a “professional” class. Earlier preachers were so committed to preaching, they preached even when they had to farm, teach school or work with their hands. They preached even when they were not supported. While preachers are not to get entangled in the affairs of this world and it is good that we have the time to pursue our studies, I wonder how many would preach if there was not a comfortable wage. I fear those in the pew will look at the preachers as professionals or experts whose word is to be taken without question instead of examining the scriptures to see whether what they are hearing is the truth. We may not use the terms, but there is a real danger of being “clergy and laity.”

·I caution against the effects of prosperity. It was easier for the church to maintain its purity when it had to struggle for survival. In past apostasies, there was first the increasing wealth among the members then changes followed. Moral standards were broadened. The preaching became less distinctive. When instrumental music and missionary societies were brought in, it was not the struggling rural congregations that brought them in even as it was not when the Herald of Truth and the Sponsoring Church were introduced. Congregations with an abundance may feel they can dictate what is to be preached and do whatever they decide. 

·My greatest concern is the control of congregations will be, to a great extent, outside the local congregation. In the past, institutions that began very small and dependent on congregations grew until they had great influence over congregations. Colleges that began as individual endeavors to assist parents in the education of their children grew until they essentially controlled the congregations with the preaching programs and convention-like lectureships telling the congregations how to conduct their Bible classes, how their elders were to function, how to do their evangelism and how to broaden the activities of the congregations. Preachers trained in the colleges urged the churches to support the colleges. One could not question the activities of the colleges without being looked on as a radical or anti. In much the same way, papers that began as individual efforts grew into organizations with a board of directors that thought they could determine the agenda and basis for soundness for preachers and congregations. It was such a paper as the Gospel Advocate in the 1950’s that set the agenda and sought to quarantine all who did not agree with their standard. I am amazed that many brethren appear to see no danger when a human institution is set up to fight institutionalism in the church, publish the brotherhood literature, brotherhood song book, brotherhood directory and set the brotherhood agenda and criteria for soundness. The more congregations are controlled by an outside organization, the more of a party or denomination they become. Is institutionalism in the church right or wrong? Do we really believe in the autonomy of the congregation? Do the elders of the local church have the oversight of the congregation or is this left up to presidents, professors, editors, writers and preachers? 

- Robert W. Goodman

MILLIONS THEN LIVING ARE NOW DEAD!

In 1918 the Jehovah Witnesses preached and published a book, "Millions Now Living Will Never Die." Ever since then they have, on several occasions, predicted the coming of Christ and the establishment of an earthly kingdom. The date from which their calculations were made was 1914.

I remember well that in conversation with Jehovah Witnesses, they told me that something big was to happen in 1967. That would have been fifty-three years since 1914; those millions living then were beginning to get old. If Jesus was to come in their lifetime, then time was getting short. Nothing happened in 1967!

The next prophecy I recall was 1975. That was sixty-one years after 1914. Infants in 1914 were then more than sixty years old in 1975, not to mention the age of those who were adults in 1914. If Jesus was to come while those millions lived then it had to be very soon! Nothing happened in 1975 either!

Time was running out on those millions who were alive in 1914. There were fewer and fewer of them as time passed.

But it didn't seem to discourage the Jehovah Witnesses; they continued to preach their false doctrine.

We have now come to the year 1996, eighty-two years since 1914! Everyone knows, including the Jehovah Witnesses, that there can't be very many of those millions from 1914 left. Even those born that year are now over eighty if they are still alive. As we approach the year 2000 the millions then living are now dead, and the prophecies for the Jehovah Witnesses is proven false both by the Bible and by history!

Time has necessitated that they change their doctrine. There was an article, "Apocalypse Later," in Newsweek magazine, December 1995 telling how they have now changed their teaching. What Bible students knew all along, and Jehovah Witnesses denied, they have now been forced to admit — "no one knows when Christ will come." They have been forced to abandon their doctrine about the coming of Christ because time simply ran out on them. The millions living then are now dead!

-Thomas Bunting, Guardian of Truth, April 4, 1996 

10 REASONS THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ARE NOT THE CHURCH OF THE BIBLE

1. They have an earthly headquarters in Brooklyn, NY (The church of the Bible has no earthly headquarters; only in heaven - Hebrews 12:22-23).

2. They have mistranslated parts of the Bible to further their particular doctrines (This is disingenuous).

3. They teach that man is now wholly mortal (The Bible teaches man now has a side that continues after death - Ecclesiastes 12:7).

4. They believe there is no hell or everlasting punishment (The Bible says there is - Matthew 25:46).

5. They teach the earth will never be destroyed (The Bible teaches otherwise - Matthew 24:35).

6. They claim the kingdom of God began in 1914 (The Bible claims it started in the 1st century - Colossians 1:13).

7. Their system of religion did not begin until the 19th century, originally called Russellites (True Christianity began in the 1st century).

8. They believe Jesus Christ was created (The Bible teaches He is eternal - Isaiah 9:6).

9. They claim only 144,000 people will go to heaven (The Bible teaches whoever desires to may go - Revelation 22:17).

10. Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe the Holy Spirit is a divine person (The Bible says that He is. He speaks - Revelation 2:29).

-Whit Sasser, Appleton, WI

IT’S NOT ABOUT US!

The underlying premise of much of what is called “contemporary worship” is that the added sparkle, lighting, theatrics, and jazzed up singing, clapping, and hand raising will give the worshiper a greater buzz, and he will go away all excited about what he got out of it.

A secondary premise is that such worship will draw more people. But this misses a fundamental principle of true worship.

It is not about us! It is about Him!

It is not directed to us, but to the God of all the universe. It must meet His approval, not that of an audience. God “seeks men to worship him in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24). “In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee” (Heb. 2:12). “Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Col. 3:16).

So the question(s) is not, “What did I get out of worship?” It is, “What did He get out of it? Was it done according to His will? Or did we add something He did not authorize? Was it offered from the heart, not only with zeal, but according to knowledge (Rom. 10:1-2)? Was it reverential? Did I come before Him with proper humility?” If what we offer as worship glorifies and honors the true object of our devotions, then we ought to be satisfied with it and it won’t matter whether or not it impressed others. 

God’s ways and thoughts are not ours, Isa. 55:8-9. Let’s stop trying to put jam on the unleavened bread so it won’t be so dry and spiking the fruit of the vine so we will get a buzz from it. It is just not about us anyhow.

–Connie Adams, Truth Magazine, Dec. 16, 2004

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