Jesus' Testament

By means of a “last will and testament,” men indicate the desired disposition of their property at death. The title page of the latter section of our Bibles reads, “The New Testament of Jesus Christ.” While uninspired publishers supplied this title page, the inspired text refers to itself as the will or testament of the Lord:

For where a testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him that made it. For a testament is of force where there hath been death: for it doth never avail while he that made it liveth (Hebrews 9:16–17, ASV).

The immediate context (vv. 11–15) makes it clear that the will/testament of the Christ is in view in the quoted verses.

 Several parallels exist between the making and execution of human wills and the making and execution of Jesus’ last will and testament:

• While living, one may dispose of his property as he desires. However, when he dies, if he has a will, his estate will be dispersed only to those named in the will and according to its conditions, if any. Jesus gave many blessings, including forgiveness of sins, on various conditions during His earthly life, but since He died, His written will prevails.
•  A will takes effect only when its maker dies. This fact is no less true of the Divine will of Jesus than of human wills (Heb. 9:16–17). Jesus referred to the blood He shed on Calvary as “my blood of the new testament” (Matthew 26:28, KJV), signaling that it would go into effect at His death. This fact coincides with Paul’s statement that at Jesus’ death on the cross, he took the Old Testament “out of the way, nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:14). It will be in effect as long as the world stands (Matthew 28:18–20).
• A person must be qualified to write a will. Human testators must have attained majority, be of sound mind, and not be influenced by coercion or by a mind-altering chemical substance. Jesus was qualified in every respect, possessing Divine wisdom and knowledge (John 12:49). He was not subject to coercion (John 10:17–18). None can invalidate His will. He declared, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).
• A new will voids all previous wills. While living, one may replace or revise a will several times, but at death, only the last one he made has legal standing. God gave a testament/covenant through Moses to Israel fifteen centuries before Jesus was born. However, God made a new covenant/testament for all mankind through His Son. He “took away” the first one in His death (Hebrews 10:8–9). Thus Jesus “nailed to the cross” the first testament’s authority (Colossians 2: 14). One finds true religion only in the New Testament, not in the old (Hebrews 1:1–3). Only the last will of the Lord is in force.
• One must meet the conditions of the will to be an heir. One does not inherit merely on the basis of desire, feelings, or belief that he should, but upon meeting the will’s provisions (Matthew 7:21–23). Only God’s children are heirs (Romans 8:17) of the inheritance that is “incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away” (I Peter 1:4). These are named in the “book of life” that will be opened at the “reading” of Jesus’ will, otherwise known as The Judgment (John 12:48; Revelation 20:11–15).

 The principal aim of each one of us should be to so submit to the will of the Christ that He will inscribe—and keep—our names in the book of life as beneficiaries of His Testament.

Dub McClish

Voices from the past…

“Unless we have a distinctive plea we have no right to exist. The day we become like the denominations around us, that day ends our right to exist as a distinct religious people. If we have a distinctive plea, in that consists our strength. I believe that our distinctive principles are made less prominent in our pulpit now than formerly. I do not mean that our preachers should be always on what is called ‘first principles.’ Very far from it. But I do mean that all our members should be deeply indoctrinated in the things that distinguish us from other religious peoples. The people should understand why they occupy the position they do. The better this is understood the more it will be appreciated, and the more firm and consistent will be the Christian life. When people are led to believe that sectarianism is about as good as New Testament Christianity their influence for the cause we plead is positively hurtful. Whenever we begin to curry favor with the sects and fawn upon them for recognition, we are certain to say but little about a plea that lays the axe at the root of the whole denominational tree. Whenever we begin to curry favor with the world, we are certain to fall in with the world’s notions, and adjust ourselves to the world’s ways. Hence much of that in which churches now indulge in the way of worldly amusements, carnal methods of raising money, the spirit of mere entertainment in the worship, etc., is due to the fact that they copy the sects, rather than the New Testament churches; and are filled with the spirit of the world, instead of the spirit of Christ.”

F. G. Allen (1926)

Marriage

Marriage is the highest and happiest of human relationships. It is the preserver of true love, the foundation of the home, and bulwark of society. Marriage began in the bowers of Eden under the bowers of Eden under the direction of Almighty God. Moses gave legal regulations on matters connected with marriage for the old dispensation. Christ endorsed marriage as it existed in the beginning for the Christian age and performed His first miracle at the wedding feast in Cana. Paul likens the relationship between Christ and His church to that of husband and wife.

There are three divine institutions in our world. (1) The home, (2) civil government, and (3) the church. The institution of marriage keeps the moral world in being and secures civilization. Without it, natural affection and amiableness would not exist, domestic education would become extinct, industry and economy would collapse, learning and refinement would expire, government sink into the gulf of anarchy, and man would be left to the precarious existence of the savage.

Two persons, a man and a woman, who have chosen each other out of all others, with the design to be each other’s mutual comfort and care, have, in that action bound themselves to be loving, affable, discreet, forgiving, patient, and joyful, with respect to each other’s frailties and imperfections, to the end of their lives. Marriage is to have and to hold, for better or for worse, for rich or for poor, in sickness and in health, in prosperity and adversity, until death do them part. It is a solemn vow taken in the name of God.

1. Marriage is divine in origin. When one compares Genesis 2:24 with Matthew 19:4-5, he finds that it was God “who made them male and female” and it was God who said, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.” Marriage is honorable in all (Hebrews 13:4). Eunuchs by birth, surgery, or choice would not marry for obvious reasons (Matthew 19:11-12). Also, under certain conditions of great distress one might not wish to marry (I Corinthians 7:1, 26). But it is better to marry than to burn in passion (I Corinthians 7:9). God saw in Adam that “It was not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18).
2. Monogamic in form. This means married to one person or having only one Scriptural mate at a time (Matthew 19:5-6, 9; I Corinthians 7:3). In the Christian age polygamy or many wives, and polyandry, having many husbands are both wrong. Commune marriages practiced among some ... groups are also condemned by Jesus.
3. Companionate and procreative in design. “Let the husband render unto the wife her due: and likewise also the wife unto her husband” (I Corinthians 7:3; cf. 7:4-5). God told the first couple to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth (Genesis 2:28).
4. Mutual in obligation. The husband is to love the wife (Ephesians 5:25) and the wife is to love her husband (Titus 2:4). Man and woman are complements of each other and dependent upon each other.
5. The husband is the head of the wife. This is the way God set up marriage (Ephesians 5:22-24). We sometimes hear people joke that the husband is the head, but his wife is surely the neck that turns the head the way she wants! But the Bible is quite serious about the wife being in subjection unto her husband. To tamper with God’s order can bring serious consequences.
6. United by God. What God hath joined together let not man put asunder (Matthew 19:6). In God’s sight the marriage contract is final until broken by death or infidelity (Matthew 19:9; Romans 7:1-3). There is no marriage in heaven, says Jesus (Luke 20:27-40). This voids the Mormon doctrine of celestial marriage.
7. God wants Christian homes. This is where parents are obedient to God’s laws (II Peter 3:9; Matthew 7:21), and having been baptized into Christ (Galatians 3:26-27), are bringing up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4; Proverbs 22:6; Psalm 78:4; Genesis 18:19).

The sordid moral record of the world in general and America in particular is sad. Twenty five percent of American marriages wind up in the divorce courts. About one in twenty has some venereal disease. One out of six brides is an expectant mother before she gets to the marriage altar according to one journal. The obvious immodest dress of many women shows that while some dress to be chaste others may dress to be chased! There is a vast difference between the words. While parents shout for someone to do something to help the young people, the truth of the matter is that the responsibility is theirs and they need to face it. Parents need to provide opportunities for their children to be with other Christian young people so they will marry a Christian mate. Young people should date clean, pure and compatible partners. Before marriage ask yourself seriously if you are really ready for marriage, if you are mature enough, and is it love or infatuation?

The following entitled “A Recipe for Home” by an unknown author is fine. “First, get out the cooking utensils. You will need one husband, one wife, and children to suit yourself. Next, cream one cup of love until it is fluffy and mellow. Add one-half cup of tears and hardships and stir gently. Whip in a cup of joy; when smooth, add one teaspoon each of thoughtfulness, heartfelt tenderness and sympathy. Add one cup of ambition with two cups of Christianity. Bake in moderate oven, top with kindness, and serve repeatedly.”

Christ should be the Lord of our home and He is our ever present silent guest. To put marriage and the home on the right path, Christ should be the center: Christ at the marriage altar; Christ on the bridal journey; Christ when the new home is set up; Christ when the baby comes; Christ when the baby dies; Christ in the pinching times; Christ in the days of plenty; Christ for time; Christ for eternity, this is the secret of home.

J. Noel Meredith

Gospel Advocate (August 12, 1971)

Let God Do the Clapping

From time to time a question arises concerning the practice of clapping during our worship periods to show our approval of something said or done. This practice is, generally speaking, relatively new among churches of Christ. That fact within itself does not make the practice either right or wrong.  Neither does the fact that it is a practice borrowed by our denominational neighbors from the entertainment industry, and then by churches of Christ from our denominational neighbors. The rightness or wrongness of an act is determined, not by its antiquity or its novelty, not by who has or has not made it a practice, but by whether or not it is in harmony with the teaching of the New Testament.

Clapping during worship fits into the agenda of those who are trying to change the church. Some of them have made it plain that worship must be changed to make it more appealing to the worshiper.  Calvin Warpula wrote, “I also believe we should let individuals and congregations use the musical format they like without judging them.” Rubel Shelly said, “The tired, uninspiring event we call worship in traditional churches has to give away to the exhilarating experience of God that exhibits and nourishes life in the worshipers.” He also said in the same speech, “The church has got to change.  If it doesn't change, my kids are not going to stay with it.”

These statements suggest that worship must please the worshiper. They ignore the fact that worship is designed to honor God. When the design of worship is to entertain the worshiper, we expect those being entertained to show their approval by clapping.

There is the same authority for clapping in Christian worship as there is for playing a piano or organ. It is doing something for which there is no divine authority. Furthermore, those among our brethren who first started clapping in worship are the same ones who have stretched the tent of fellowship over the denominational world, and who will not say those who use the instrument in worship sin in so doing. While clapping has now caught on with some who are otherwise, it should be remembered that hand clapping in worship was originally borrowed from the denominations by some who believe those in the denominations have God’s approval.

It would be admitted by most that clapping the hands in worship does not in any way add to the dignity and solemnity of the occasion. It does not do honor to God; we honor Him by doing what He has told us to do in worship, and He has not told us to clap.

It is also a fact that, until recent years, it was considered in bad taste to applaud any religious activity. If you think otherwise, consult the books by Emily Post, whose name for many years was synonymous with etiquette.

Who is being applauded when there is hand clapping in worship? Are those who clap their hands doing so to honor God? If so, they are seeking to honor God in some way He has not authorized instead of as He has directed. “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). II John 9 says, “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.  He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.” It will be admitted by all that we can abide in the doctrine of Christ without ever having a round of applause in any of our worship assemblies.

If hand clapping is something of value in our worship, then why didn't God prescribe it? Could it be that those who initiated this practice think they have thought of something God overlooked? Or did God simply not know of its great value?  Brethren with such wisdom would do well to read I Corinthians 3:18-20: “Let no man deceive himself.  If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.  For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.  And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”

Those really interested in the peace and harmony of the church will not insist on clapping in worship. They themselves will agree that clapping is not necessary in order to have Scriptural worship. They will acknowledge also that clapping is not an act God has prescribed. Therefore, they must confess they can worship Scripturally and conscientiously without applauding. In love for those who conscientiously oppose it, and in the interest of peace and harmony, it should be omitted.

Occasionally one will be heard to say that hand clapping is no different from saying, Amen. But there is one slight difference: saying, “Amen” is authorized in Scripture. I Corinthians 14-16, “Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?”

Where is the verse which mentions clapping hands in worship?

I would emphasize that I am not one who is opposed to change, provided the change is in harmony with the Will of God, and provided the change will be an improvement. However, if we are to improve our worship, it will not be by adding other acts, but by improving the worshipers.

If there is to be applause in connection with our worship, let it be by God; he is the only audience.  All of us are participants.

Bobby Duncan

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.

Instrumental Music - What Others Have Said

• “The organ in the worship is the insignia of Baal” (Martin Luther).
• “I have no objection to instruments of music in our worship, provided they are neither seen nor heard” (John Wesley, Methodist). 
• “There can be no doubt that originally the music of the divine service was everywhere entirely of a vocal nature” (Emil Nauman, The History of Music).
• “I presume to all spiritually-minded Christians, such aid [mechanical instruments of music] would be as a cow bell in a concert” (Alexander Campbell).
• “What a degradation to supplant the intelligent song of the whole congregation by the theatical prettiness of a quartet, bellows, and pipes! We might as well pray by machinery as praise by it” (Charles H. Spurgeon, Baptist).
• “The custom of organ accompaniment did not become general among Protestants until the eighteenth century” (The New Shaff-Herzogg Encyclopedia). 
• “I am an old man, and I here declare that I never knew them to be productive of any good in the worship of God, and have reason to believe that they are productive of much evil. Music as a science I esteem and admire, but instrumental music in the house of God I abominate and abhor” (Adam Clarke, Methodist Commentator). 
• “David formerly sang songs, also today we sing hymns. He had a lyre with lifeless strings, the church has a lyre with living strings. Our tongues are the strings of the lyre with a different tone indeed but much more in accordance with piety” (Chrysostom, 381 A.D.).
• “The use of music was not received in the Christian churches, as it was among the Jew, in their infant state, but only the use of plain song” (Justin Martyr, 139 A. D.). 
• “While the pagan melodies were always sung to an instrumental accompaniment, the church chant was exclusively vocal” (Edward Dickinson, History of Music).

Author Unknown

“CHRISTIAN” FOOTBALL!!

Quarterback Sneak – Church members quietly leaving during the invitation.

Half Time – The period between Sunday School and worship when many choose to leave.

Bench warmer – Those who DO NOT sing, pray, work, or apparently do anything but sit.

Staying in the Pocket – What happens to a lot of money that should be given to the Lord’s work.

Two minute Warning – The point at which you realize the sermon is almost over and begin to gather up your children and belongings.

Trap Play – You’re called on to pray and are asleep.

End Run – Getting out of church quickly, without speaking to any visitors or fellow members.

Flex Defense – The ability to allow absolutely nothing said during the sermon to affect your life.

Half_back Option – The decision of 50% of the congregation not to return for the evening service.

Blitz – The rush for the restaurants following the closing prayer.

Author Unknown