Watchman Archives

If we come as believers in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, we can easily learn His will for us. Believers are told that we must confess our faith in Him (Romans 10:10). We are also told to change our will away from the world and towards Christ in repentance of our sins and then be baptized for remission of our sins (Acts 2:38). Our lives are then to be directed by His will in all things commanded by Christ (Matthew 28:18-20). We never learn of Malchus obeying Christ despite the compassion shown. Will you ignore Christ’s gifts to you or will you obey Him? The healing He offers to you today is far greater than that received by Malchus.

The Word of God is plain and simple. We need to let it work in us. We need to be sure we are letting the world see Jesus in us when we tell them of Jesus. Otherwise our teaching is vain. No one wants to follow a person that does not live what they teach. The early disciples brought others to Christ by their way of life as well as the spoken word. Peter said an unbelieving mate can be converted by one’s way of life without a word being spoken.

I am sure I join with everyone in wishing for consensus of opinion on all matters in all churches. However, the material question here is this: Is consensus necessary in order for a church to act in any matter? We answer in the negative in light of the apostles’ actions in Acts 6:3. They decided first and then told the brethren their decision.

The one principle upon which we must stand is not difficult to know. It might be difficult to accomplish. Those not strong in the faith cannot achieve it. Those who love the Lord, must do it as honorable soldiers of Christ: 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” From this line of battle we must not be moved!

The teaching of the earth being created in millions of years instead of six literal (24 hour) days as the Bible teaches is false teaching and will overthrow the faith of many. Some scientists understand that the Bible teaches six literal (24 hour) days and that is one of the reasons they don’t believe the Bible. Unbelievers can understand the Bible better on this point of creation than some of our own brethren. This is a serious matter and what makes it even more serious are those who are willing to compromise the Bible on this matter. We need prayer and true study and dialogue on this matter.

Ron Lloyd dedicated his life to speaking the truth. A soldier has now fallen, and a good man rests from his labors. Yet, brother Lloyd’s influence remains. Through this letter, he being dead yet speaketh. In this day of compromise and accommodation, may faithful brethren everywhere be encouraged to stand for the truth.

We not only are lacking in knowledge of the Bible in our generation, we are also lacking in a respect for the teaching of God’s Word and a lack of willingness to stand up and be counted to defend the Truth and expose error! The Bible tells us “and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them; for the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of. But all things when they are reproved are made manifest by the light: for everything that is made manifest is light.” (Ephesians 5:11-13). We should take advantage of every medium of information which will help us determine the difference between light and darkness – including email and the internet. It is my plea that we will not let anyone discourage us from free and open investigation.

All we need is preaching coupled with good and faithful hearts. The combination is unbeatable. It is the only scriptural combination that works. Shall we follow the example of this foreigner’s conversion and learn to put things in their proper place? May God bless you as you “study to show your self approved unto God” (2 Timothy 2:15).

Hebrews 11:3 says “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.” The word “framed” comes from katartidzo which means “to make perfect,” “to furnish completely.” We must conclude that the universe, as God created it, was perfect for what He intended, even to declaring his power and divinity, Romans 1:18-23. The testimony of inspiration is that God only had to “speak” what He wanted and it happened. It was framed “by the word of God.” Genesis one simply records that “God said” and it was so.

The Catholic church has given the world a fundamental misunderstanding about sainthood and set it aside as a clerical award earned by works. The Bible makes no distinction between sainthood and simple discipleship. You can become a saint in life, but not in death.

Pablo se refiere al acto conyugal o matrimonial (vers. 2-5). Este mandamiento no solamente requiere que el acto se realice, sino que los dos, tanto la esposa como el marido, reciba plena satisfacción dentro de su matrimonio, y que no la busque con otra persona.

It is only when we hear “some preachers say” that “speaking the truth in love” means that we must avoid “negative preaching,” that we hear preachers rightly observe that “two-thirds” of Jeremiah 1:10 is “negative,” while “one-third” is “positive.” It is only when preaching that roots out, pulls down, destroys, and throws down is castigated as being harmful and contrary to the spirit of godly gospel preaching that we hear “some preachers” speak of the “two-thirds, one-third” equation.

Open doors are part of the basics of serving God. One who seeks them diligently and uses them faithfully will be blessed in his work. Continuing to seek them will cause one to be useful to God over the long term. Open doors are especially important when applied to the work of those in mission fields. Seeking them can be the difference between success and failure.

Obedience is the act of or an instance of obeying. The word, obey, is defined by Webster to mean: 1) to carry out the instructions or orders of, 2) submit to the control of… (another). Jesus said, in John 14:15, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” To obey Jesus is to obey the Father (Ephesians 6:6). Further, obedience to the Father and to Jesus involves obedience to Christ’s apostles as His spokesmen after His ascension into Heaven.

When we contrast the actions of Paul and Peter in Galatians 2:11-14, we see the difference between right and wrong judging. Peter acted through hypocrisy on this occasion and stood condemned. Paul rightly rebuked him for such hypocrisy. Paul could effectively do this because he was not acting with the same hypocrisy as was Peter.

Brother Ferrell Jenkins gave the above lecture in the Puckett auditorium as part of this year’s lecture series. This writer was in attendance to hear this lecture. Later that same evening, I had the opportunity to talk with Ferrell about it, differing with some of the things he had said. When the lecture was later transcribed I wrote an informal review of it which was circulated via e-mail. This review led to a brief exchange of posts with brother Jenkins via e-mail. In all of my dealings with Ferrell, Ferrell has been kind and I certainly have no axe to grind with him personally. It is simply a case of his speech deserving a more formal review because of its implications on matters troubling brethren today.

Bill, you say we ought not bite and devour one another. I agree. But, your use of Galatians 5:15 is faulty. If that passage is warning us not to put up a fight in defense of truth, then we can never stand for anything. If we don’t oppose errors and innovations then the errors and innovations will consume us. We will never stop the inroads of error and apostasy by sticking our heads in the sand and pretending they don’t exist.

The “Twenty-Eight Questions” were withdrawn because of strong opposition. Unfortunately, the principal authors never admitted such a document was wrong in its inception or use. As a result, in a conversation with one of the principal authors, I observed that if the tide of public opinion ever changed he would trot the questionnaire right back out and use it. Well we don’t have the questionnaire but we do have the 29th question and the principal authors of the “Twenty-Eight Questions” are co-signers of the “Open Letter.” Should we be surprised?

In spite of the fact that brother Hill Roberts has declared repeatedly that he will not discuss these matters with those of us who wrote and signed the Open Letter, he has recently posted another response on his web site to what has been written regarding his positions, and by this writer in particular. It appears that he will discuss them, but only on his terms, when and where he determines. Since we could not get him openly to debate these issues, we are happy to receive this response and have another opportunity to, in this limited sense at least, answer his quibbles and reply to the additional points he has made.

Based on study of textural analyses by men more skilled at it than I, it seems there is some textural uncertainty as to the geographic scope of that flood of the land. If the flood was limited to mankind’s region, that is wholly acceptable to some conservative Old Testament textural scholars.