What Does “Vox Populi, Vox Dei” Mean?

“The voice of the people is the voice of God,” is the translation of the ancient Latin expression serving as the title of this article. In a democracy such a sentiment sounds good. Especially does it soothe the ear in a society that is permeated with humanism.

When one examines God’s infallible Will, he immediately notices that most of the time most of the people are not in sympathy with the Truth of God. More than this is the fact that the Bible reveals that God’s people are very rarely content to remain submissive to His Will over any extended period of time. Just six chapters into the Bible and some 1500 years from the creation, God is pleased with only eight people out of the whole human race (Genesis 6:5-6).

Concerning God’s chosen people of the Old Testament, the Jews, God said of them at the time of the golden calf incident: “...I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiffnecked people” (Exodus 32:1-9).

Paul warned that some members of the church would conduct themselves according to the aforementioned phrase, with not a few elders and preachers in the lead (Acts 20:28-31; I Timothy 4:1ff; II Timothy 4:1-4)! Therefrom a great apostasy resulted; and there is not any indication that mankind, in the church or out of it, has changed. That is, man has yet to learn that the voice of the people is NOT the voice of God.

It is still true that the Bereans “...were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11; also see II Timothy 2:15). Yes, all of us have, do, and will continue to benefit from those who have gone before us in their studies. Surely no one is opposed to such benefits and blessings in the least; but that is not the point under consideration. My point is this: THE MAJORITY POSITION ON ANY SUBJECT DOES NOT IN AND OF ITSELF ALONE MAKE IT RIGHT! When the people understand this point they will know why the Bereans were called noble by God, and they will understand Acts 17:11.

"Vox Populi, vox Dei” is Satan’s formula and has no place among the faithful of God. Let us strive to make the voice of God the voice of the people. Our plea, therefore, is: “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God...” (I Peter 4:11); “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation...” (Romans 1:16); “But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1); and “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (I Thessalonians 5:21).

David P. Brown

Scripture Snaps - John 1:1-3

View fullsize

Scripture Snaps 2014 - John 1:1-3

Just Enough to Get By

It has been my observation that many in this world have fallen into the trap of doing just enough to get by. This usually happens when we try to squeeze too much in because of various demands on our time. Our lives are filled with obligations and sometime we find it hard to put all our effort into each aspect.  As a result, we tend to develop the bad habit of doing just enough to get by in all the areas of life.    

Some people begin this practice when in school. They find that minimal effort still allows them to get by since a “C” is still a passing grade. This practice may continue when these people grow up and become involved in business. They find they can be an average employee and still take home enough in a paycheck to get by.    These often gripe and complain about those who advance and wonder how they do it, but it rarely bothers them to the degree they do something about it other than gripe and complain.  After all, they still get their check at the end of the week. Others find that just a little effort will work in their marriage relationship.  These tend to take the other person within this relationship with them for granted while they continue to do just enough to get by. 

What I am curious about is where this type of outlook is taught or promoted within the Bible?  I am certain that exactly the opposite is taught within the Sacred Writ. We see in Ecclesiastes 9:10 how to approach any and all things with which we may occupy ourselves in this life. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”

The same idea is also conveyed by Christ in Mark 12:30 after one man recognized that Christ had answered him regarding what the first commandment of all was. Christ’s response was:  “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”

This previously had also been brought to the attention of Israel in Haggai 1:5-7 when the people of Israel had involved themselves in just enough to get by in the building of their own houses while allowing the house of God to lie in waste. “Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.  Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.”

Many of God’s people today are disappointing God in that they are trying to cheat the system by doing the least possible and expecting the best possible results. Don’t kid yourself into taking the Lord for granted or the commitment you made to God when you became His child. There is coming a day in which the Lord will separate folks into two groups.  One group will be those that put fort all their effort into serving God and doing His Will. These will be granted eternal rest and everlasting peace with God. However, the second group, those who made feeble attempts at service or tried to do just enough to get by will hear the words spoken by our Lord in Matthew 25:41:  “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”  

Are you willing to take a chance on your eternal destiny by doing what you consider to be just enough to get by, or are you going to  put yourself fully into your service to God and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling as the Philippian brethren were admonished to do in Philippians 2:12?   It is entirely your choice. Choose wisely.                                                                                                                            

Dennis Strickland

Salvation in the New Testament Is Ascribe to Eight Causes

We are said to be:

• “saved by grace” (Ephesians 2:5)
• “saved through his life” (Romans 5:9-10)
• “saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8; Acts 16:31)
• “saved by baptism” (I Peter 3:21)
• “by faith and baptism” (Mark 16:16)
• “By the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5)
• “By the gospel” (I Corinthians 15:1)
• “By calling upon the name of the Lord” and “by enduring to the end” (Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13; Matthew 10:22)

Why Am I Not a Christian?

1. Is it because I am afraid of ridicule? “For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed...” (Luke 9:26).
2. Is it because of the inconsistencies of professing Christians? “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12).
3. Am I unwilling to give up all for Christ? “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).
4. Am I afraid I shall not be accepted? “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).
5. Is it for fear I am too great a sinner? “...the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (I John 1:7).
6. Is it for fear I shall not be able to hold out? “...he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6; see also I Corinthians 10:13).
7. Am I thinking that I will just do as well as I can and that God ought to be satisfied with that? “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).
8. Is it because I am postponing the matter without any definite reason? “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Proverbs 27:1).

Author Unknown

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

“Am I Therefore Become Your Enemy, Because I Tell You the Truth?”

Truth as defined by Webster is: “that which is true; that which accords with fact or reality; an established or verified fact, or principle.” Truth as defined by the Bible is the Word of God (John 17:17).

Paul, in his entreaty in Galatians 4, is making the brethren aware that “now after ye have known God,” some were turning from following God, and were turning back to the world. He went on to say, “I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.” Paul was letting them know of his concern for those who were once close to him. Then he makes this statement in Galatians 4:16, “Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” Paul was simply asking them if he had made an enemy out of them by pointing out, based on the truth of God’s Word, what they were doing wrong. No longer were they following the Truth, but they were turning again to “the weak and beggarly elements.”

So many times today, we see brethren who are doing as did the Galatians, they are turning from the Truth of God, and to keep from upsetting them, or hurting their feelings, we do not tell them the truth of their condition. Brethren, we are commanded in Galatians 6:1 that if we see a brother “overtaken in a fault,” or in other words, straying from the Truth, we are to try our best to restore him. Let’s look together at some areas that we are commanded to tell the Truth.

“Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the Truth” on what it takes to be saved? From the Word of God, we find by example, commandment, and by inference, that for a person to be saved, they must hear the Truth of God’s Word (Romans 10:17); they Believe that Word (Hebrews 11:6); they must repent of their sins (Luke 13:3); they must confess Christ as the Son of God (Matthew 10:32); they MUST be baptized in the name of Christ for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38; Mark 16:16; I Peter 3:21). Many want to try and be saved by other means and ways, but this is the Truth on what it takes to be saved and nothing else is acceptable.

“Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the Truth” on how you should live? As a child of God, we cannot live as we please. God has given us instructions on Christian living. We are to live faithfully unto death (Revelation 2:10); we are to live soberly, righteously, and godly (Titus 2:12); we are to put the kingdom of God and His righteousness first in our lives (Matthew 6:33); we are to abstain from the very appearance of evil (I Thessalonians 5:22); we are to avoid the works of the flesh, and put on the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:19-26); we are to add to our faith the Christian graces (II Peter 1:5-10); we are to pray without ceasing (I Thessalonians 5:17); we are to be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord (I Corinthians 15:58); and we are not to forsake the assembly (Hebrews 10:25). Brethren, this is the way we are to live to be pleasing to God, and nothing else is acceptable to Him.

“Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the Truth” that there is only one church? Ephesians 4:4 states, “There is one body,” and Colossians 1:18 lets us know that the body is the Church. This Church is the one that was prophesied by Isaiah and Daniel, and it is the one that the Lord promised to build (Matthew 16:16-18), and it is that one that came into existence on Pentecost, in Jerusalem, A.D. 33. It is to the Church that the Lord added to those “as should be saved,” and only those who are in this Church will be saved. Many would have you to believe that there are good “Christians” in the denominational bodies, but unless you are a part of the Body of Christ, you will not be saved based on the Truth found in God’s Word.

“Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the Truth” that a child of God can be lost? Contrary to popular belief, “once saved, always saved” is not in the Bible. In fact, we have numerous Scriptures which teach otherwise. One in particular is found in I Corinthians 10:12, “Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.” Peter, in his writings, encouraged us to “give diligence to make our calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall” (II Peter 1:11). The Bible over and over again encourages us to examine ourselves to be sure that we are remaining steadfast in the faith. Brethren, we can stumble and fall due to trials and temptations in our lives, and this is the Truth.

And finally, “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the Truth” on where we will be for all eternity? There are only two places prepared as a dwelling place for the souls of man after judgment. All that have ever lived will be in one of these two places. There is no middle ground, and there is no probation period of 1000 years as some teach. When we die, and the judgment comes, we will either be allowed to enter Heaven, that place of beautiful rest, ready for the “good and faithful servant” of the Lord, or we will be condemned to Hell, that place of torment “where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.” One is a place of eternal reward, while the other is a place of eternal punishment. There are many that think they have a spot reserved in Heaven just waiting for them, but what did our Lord say? “Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Where we live for all eternity is conditional, based on whether or not we have done God’s Will in this life, and that is the Truth.

Brethren and friends, to the best of my ability, using God’s Word as my guide I have told you the Truth. Now let me ask you “Am I therefore become your enemy?”

Danny L. Box