FREE WILL

One of the areas often hotly disputed in religion and philosophy is the question of human free will. Are human beings free moral agents? Do they have the inherent ability to choose to do certain things or not do those things? Do they have the power to obey or disobey God on their own volition? Many philosophies are deterministic in nature. By deterministic we refer to the idea that human beings have no real free will and that their actions are completely predetermined by forces outside of their control. Even in many religions, determinism is a central part of the belief system.

However, the doctrine of determinism is counter-intuitive, meaning that from the out-set it runs contrary to what common sense itself would seem to dictate. If every action by a human being is completely predetermined by outside forces acting independently from one’s own will, then no one could rightly be held accountable for any action. No one would be responsible for what they do. The very concept of justice runs counter to this conclusion. It is clearly false that people are not at all responsible for their actions. They most certainly are responsible and are held so by our own legal systems, which operate on the premise of personal responsibility to abide by the legal norms and statutes of society for the sake of stability, peace, and safety. This is fundamental to any orderly society. To hold people responsible is implicit in any legal system. This presupposes the ability of people to comply of their own free will with the laws of that society.

Also, the idea of determinism is self-defeating in that it implies that one cannot change one’s mind of his own accord. This contradicts the practice of teaching deterministic systems in religion or philosophy. Teach-ing implies the capacity for the one taught to learn, which implies some measure of control of will on his or her part. It is patently absurd to maintain that people ought to come to believe in the specific deterministic system while maintaining that it is impossible for them to do so of their own accord. When one holds to determinism, he implicitly admits the falsity of his position when he seeks to ration-ally convince others of its truth. If the system were true, then people would have to believe in it anyway. They would be compelled to do so by the predetermining power outside themselves to do so. So why spend time arguing for its truth? Why try to convince some-one that he really cannot be convinced of anything of himself? That would be an exercise in futility, if the system were really true.

The Bible teaches that man is a free moral agent. We have the innate ability to choose to obey God. “Choose you this day whom ye will serve,” proclaimed Joshua to the Hebrews in his farewell address (Josh. 24:15). Christianity is premised on the ability of “whosoever will” to come and drink of the waters of life (Revelation 22:17). The invitation of Christ is open to all (Matthew 11:28-30).

Daniel Denham

The Unity of the Church

The book of Psalms has been appropriately called “the hymn book of the Bible.”  There are more than twenty-five hundred verses in its one hundred and fifty chapters, and doubtless that many songs have been composed from them through the centuries and millenniums since their sentiments swelled the bosom of Israel's sweet singer.  Many of these verses were chanted in the worship of early Christians, and they will be sung in every generation wherever people are found worshiping God until we learn the “new song” in Heaven, “when all the redeemed singers get home.”

To rob our modern productions of the sentiments and psalms of David would be, indeed, to impoverish our worship of praise.

A SONG OF UNITY.  Psalm 133 is a song of unity, “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”  There is nothing more stifling and stultifying to the emotions of the soul than strife and division.  There is nothing more soothing and beneficent to the spirit than peace and unity.

Unity among brethren is like “the precious ointment upon the head,” in the psalmist’s refrain.  The Easterners perfumed with fragrant oil.  Unity perfumes the church and sweetens the atmosphere like the precious oil “than ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard:  that went down to the skirts of his garments.”

THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT.  Exhorting the brethren to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” Paul outlines, in Ephesians 4:4-6, the basis of unity. “There is one body, one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling:  one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”  The “unity of the spirit” is the unity the Spirit teaches, or that results when the Spirit’s Word is obeyed.

There is one God—unity in worship.  A divided worship cannot be rendered “in spirit and in truth.”  Wherever and whenever rendered, true worship must have the two elements—the right spirit and the right act; for God is one, and “seeketh such to be his worshipers.”

There is one Lord—unity in authority.  Human authority in religion is wrong.  Christ is Lord, and His Word only is authority.

There is one faith—unity in message.  The Spirit, which guided “into all truth,” does not impart conflicting messages.  The Gospel promotes unity; and where there is division, something else has been preached.

There is one baptism—unity in practice.  Modes of baptism!  We might as well talk about shades of white.  There is no such thing.

There is one body—unity in organization.  The church is one body.  It is impossible to have “spiritual unity” and “organic” division.  Unity is both spiritual and organic.

There is one Spirit and one hope—unity in life, in desire and expectation.

Thus, Paul outlines the only basis of unity.  Let the world cease their efforts toward amalgamations, federations, alliances, and unions, and adopt the divine standard and basis of unity—oneness in Christ.

THE PRAYER FOR UNITY.  The Lord's prayer in John 17:1-21 was an ardent petition for unity.  “May they all be one.”  Jesus praying for the unity of believers!  Yet, it has not touched the heart of those who are promoting denominationalism in the world, nor even of brethren who sow discord and stir factions in the church.  Denominationalism is the misrepresentation of Christianity—a horrid caricature—and the authors of perversions in religion are enemies of Christ, professing and even honestly thinking themselves to be His friends.

But “charity begins at home.”  We cannot with good grace preach unity and practice division. “I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (I Corinthians 1:10).  Paul’s beseechment should not only be our preachment, but also our practice.  The unity of Christians is the only hope of bringing the world to Christ.  Jesus knew it, and therefore prayed that “they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.”                                                              

Foy E. Wallace, Jr

The Basis of Acceptable Worship

“Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:22–24)

Truth is essential for all acceptable worship. God said is the basis of the Truth that must direct all acceptable worship (John 17:17). If one cannot know God without revelation (and he cannot), then it also follows that one cannot worship God acceptably without the Truth that comes by revelation. The Samaritans worshiped God, but it was not acceptable, because it was based on partial revelation. One’s worship must be spiritual, from man’s own spirit, and it must be as the Truth of the Gospel directs. God said is the basis of all acceptable worship. Some brethren today need to reconsider this fundamental Truth. This will stop some of the foolish and hurtful things that are taking place in worship today.

The Basis of All Acceptable Religious Experience

“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” (Jude 3)

Jude speaks of “contending for the faith”—that is, objective faith,written revelation, upon which one’s faith must rest. Any “religious experience” not based upon what God has said is false. One’s religious experience must be tested by what “God said,” not by what one thinks God says through a religious experience. Testing what God says by one’s religious experience today is the basis of false religion. Abraham had a religious experience, but it was based upon what “God said” (Genesis 22:1–13). Salvation is a religious experience, but it must be based upon what “God said.” Worship is a religious experience, but it must be based upon what “God said” (Acts 17). The Athenians were having a religious experience, but it was not acceptable unto God, because it was not based upon revelation. One can find people gathered everywhere in worship going through some kind of experience, but this does not mean that that experience is acceptable to God. Every religious experience one has must be in harmony with what the Bible teaches and must rest upon what “God said.”

When one has some kind of experience unknown to the Bible, that experience is false and deceptive and not accepted by God. It is time for men to turn back to the Bible and to find out what it teaches and then act upon it. The action then will be an experience, which harmonizes with what “God said.” This will be acceptable unto God. Nothing else is or can be.

Franklin Camp

THE "NOT-HOLE"

When you order a suit, do you say, “Don’t send sizes 32, 34, 36, 40, 42? And don’t send cotton, silk, rayon or leather?” Of course not! Instead you tell them what you want and that automatically eliminates the rest.

And yet people often do not understand this in religion. They say, “But God did not say NOT to use instrumental music in worship.” Or, God did not say, “He that is NOT baptized shall be lost.” Or, “He did not say NOT to gamble, or NOT to do the modern dances, etc.” Or, “He did not say NOT to smoke or chew tobacco.” Or, “He did not say NOT to use alcohol as a social beverage.” Or, “He did not say NOT to dress in immodest apparel and NOT to go mixed swimming.”

No, that is right, but he DID tell us WHAT He wanted (Ephesians 5:19; Mark 16:16; Ephesians 4:28; Galatians 5:19-24). God tells us to “abide” in the things which are taught in the Scriptures (II Timothy 3:14), and that “whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God” (II John 9). Let us resolve to do the exact will of God without addition or subtraction and without trying to pull anything in through the “NOT HOLE”!

-via "The Better Way," Spring, TX

The Unity of the Church

The book of Psalms has been appropriately called “the hymn book of the Bible.”  There are more than twenty-five hundred verses in its one hundred and fifty chapters, and doubtless that many songs have been composed from them through the centuries and millenniums since their sentiments swelled the bosom of Israel's sweet singer.  Many of these verses were chanted in the worship of early Christians, and they will be sung in every generation wherever people are found worshiping God until we learn the “new song” in Heaven, “when all the redeemed singers get home.”

To rob our modern productions of the sentiments and psalms of David would be, indeed, to impoverish our worship of praise.

A SONG OF UNITY.  Psalm 133 is a song of unity, “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”  There is nothing more stifling and stultifying to the emotions of the soul than strife and division.  There is nothing more soothing and beneficent to the spirit than peace and unity.

Unity among brethren is like “the precious ointment upon the head,” in the psalmist’s refrain.  The Easterners perfumed with fragrant oil.  Unity perfumes the church and sweetens the atmosphere like the precious oil “than ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard:  that went down to the skirts of his garments.”

THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT.  Exhorting the brethren to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” Paul outlines, in Ephesians 4:4-6, the basis of unity. “There is one body, one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling:  one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”  The “unity of the spirit” is the unity the Spirit teaches, or that results when the Spirit’s Word is obeyed.

There is one God—unity in worship.  A divided worship cannot be rendered “in spirit and in truth.”  Wherever and whenever rendered, true worship must have the two elements—the right spirit and the right act; for God is one, and “seeketh such to be his worshipers.”

There is one Lord—unity in authority.  Human authority in religion is wrong.  Christ is Lord, and His Word only is authority.

There is one faith—unity in message.  The Spirit, which guided “into all truth,” does not impart conflicting messages.  The Gospel promotes unity; and where there is division, something else has been preached.

There is one baptism—unity in practice.  Modes of baptism!  We might as well talk about shades of white.  There is no such thing.

There is one body—unity in organization.  The church is one body.  It is impossible to have “spiritual unity” and “organic” division.  Unity is both spiritual and organic.

There is one Spirit and one hope—unity in life, in desire and expectation.

Thus, Paul outlines the only basis of unity.  Let the world cease their efforts toward amalgamations, federations, alliances, and unions, and adopt the divine standard and basis of unity—oneness in Christ.

THE PRAYER FOR UNITY.  The Lord's prayer in John 17:1-21 was an ardent petition for unity.  “May they all be one.”  Jesus praying for the unity of believers!  Yet, it has not touched the heart of those who are promoting denominationalism in the world, nor even of brethren who sow discord and stir factions in the church.  Denominationalism is the misrepresentation of Christianity—a horrid caricature—and the authors of perversions in religion are enemies of Christ, professing and even honestly thinking themselves to be His friends.

But “charity begins at home.”  We cannot with good grace preach unity and practice division. “I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (I Corinthians 1:10).  Paul’s beseechment should not only be our preachment, but also our practice.  The unity of Christians is the only hope of bringing the world to Christ.  Jesus knew it, and therefore prayed that “they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.”

Foy E. Wallace, Jr.

Our Second Religion

Sporting activities have been called the “second religion of America.” Whether it is the fast-break, jump shooting, and 3-point shots, or the 55-yard pass for the winning touchdown on the last play of the game, we love sports. It can be ice hockey or air hockey, but it still has its appeal. Hunting moose, elk, deer, quail, doves, and varmints (the four-legged kind) attracts a following. Fishing holes are sometimes marked by nearly as many fishers as fish. They can be the “boys of summer” that win it in the last inning or the sprinter who wins by a nose, but it makes no difference. Football, fishing, baseball, hunting, basketball, track — we love it all.

But, may we call a “time out” to consider a fairly common problem in light of the Bible? Sporting activities are not the second religion of some — collective sporting activities are the first religion to some. Some view sports as of the utmost value and concern in life. Sadly, even some professing to be children of the heavenly Father implicitly tell the God of heaven to “take a number (other than one) and we’ll be right with you after the last quarter.” Sports can be wholesome and good for all who participate or spectate, but Christians are careful to keep such activities in their proper place. The Bible still teaches, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33), and “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much more, as ye see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).

One brother, speaking to a preacher’s workshop, justified his son missing Wednesday evening services to play ball by asking the teen if he would be willing, come next week, to attend both the regular Wednesday evening services and an area Gospel meeting on Thursday night. Of course, if it is right for a Christian to miss worship assemblies and Bible class to participate in sports, does it not follow that all the brethren can miss the assemblies and classes to watch the ball game or other sporting activities? And, if we can “make up” forsaken assemblies like a student makes up a missed test, then surely we can justify shutting down the church building during the hottest part of the summer and do “make up” worship every night for a few weeks this Autumn.

Bible classes and worship assemblies in some places take a tremendous nose dive in attendance because some brethren worship at the idol of sporting activities. We cannot help but wonder though how important our sporting achievements will seem when we stand before God in judgment. Suddenly the “one that got away” will be insignificant and the state championship trophy will provide as much comfort as a crash helmet to a kamikaze pilot.

I like sporting activities. I have played organized sports. I try to instruct my children in sports. But when the church is working, meeting in assemblies, or studying in Bible classes, my family needs to be present, promoting the work, exhorting the brethren, and receiving exhortation: “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” (I Timothy 4:8).

Lynn Parker

True Religion Isn't "Mysterious"

There is an idea in the world that religion is a mysterious affair and therefore cannot be understood. Because of this belief, there has arisen an erroneous principle in religious teaching with respect to man's salvation. It is thought that since it is a mysterious affair, man cannot understand God's plan for saving men and hence he has to wait and pray for the direct operation of the Holy Spirit to come into his heart and remove this mystery and destroy the "Adamic sin" that has blighted his life, and the proof of all this is "his feelings" in the matter. In other words, he will know when he is saved and when the mystery has been revealed by the way he "feels."

This is either true or it is not and it should interest all of us to know just what the mystery was that was connected with the salvation of the world. That the above idea is wrong, I am certain and that we may be able to arrive at the proper understanding of what this mystery is, I am confident. In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, he gives an explanation concerning the mystery of religion that becomes the hope of the world and especially of the Gentiles. In his explanation lies the entire principle of man's salvation and the "how it is to be brought about." Hear the letter as Paul gave it: "For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him." (Ephesians 3:1-12). From this reading it is clear that there was a time when all this was a mystery to men but now it has been revealed. To whom was this a mystery? To us or to those before Paul's day of preaching? Paul says, "which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men." Not in our age, but in other ages this was a mystery. This question then arises: "Why is it not a mystery to us today?" Hear the answer given by Paul: "How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ." It is plain to see that the reason for its not being mysterious now is that Paul had this mystery revealed to him from heaven and he in turn wrote it down that if we will read we may also know what that mystery was in other ages.

Just what is a mystery, anyway? It is anything we do not understand, but when it is explained the "mystery" part of it is gone. With this plain statement by Paul that he received this mystery and then wrote it that as we read we may understand what it is, how do we become so confused in matters of religion as to think it is all yet draped with mysterious utterances so that no man can understand, much less be able to teach others? Because of the above theory we are told we have to wait for the Holy Spirit, in some supernatural way, to operate upon us and reveal to us, in this mysterious manner, but they did not believe it was important to follow God's instructions. They did not believe God and they paid the price for their unbelief. "And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord" (Leviticus 10:2).After the kingdom was divided upon the death of Solomon, the northern king, Jereboam erected an altar in violation of God's law and a young prophet was sent from God to cry against the altar (1 Kings 13). God told the young prophet not to eat or drink while he was there, nor to return by the way he went. But an old prophet lied to the young prophet and he believed the lie. Consequently, he lost his life. Did the young prophet believe in God? Indeed! But, sadly, he did not believe God, choosing rather to believe the lie of the old prophet. James tells us that the demons believe in God (James 2:19). But they do not believe God.

Most folks in denominations will tell you they believe in God, but when it comes to teaching the truth, it is obvious that they do not believe God. The Lord said one must be baptized to be saved (Mark 16:16) but denominational folks say that isn't so. Neither do they believe God in His prescribed manner of worship. For instance, God commands us to sing in worship to Him (Ephesians 5:19), but denominations just don't believe God and so they add mechanical instruments of music which God has not commanded.

Doing things our own way instead of God's is no different than what Nadab and Abihu did in offering strange fire before the Lord. They "did their own thing." They believed in God, but did not believe God. When we are commanded to sing and then add mechanical instruments, do you really think we believe God? Friends, you may believe in God — that He exists and gave His Son to die for us — but if you are not willing to do as He has commanded in the New Testament you do not believe God.

E. R. Harper