[Biblemat] B> Gospel Observer 11/11/07
tedwards at onemain.com
tedwards at onemain.com
Fri Nov 23 14:02:28 CST 2007
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THE GOSPEL OBSERVER
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"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching
them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19,20).
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November 11, 2007
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Contents:
1) Have Ye Not Read? (Hoyt H. Houchen)
2) Theistic Evolution -- Denial of the Record (Jim R. Everett)
3) Why We Sing and Do Not Play (Robert F. Turner)
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-1-
Have Ye Not Read?
by Hoyt H. Houchen
Question: Please explain Isaiah 45:7 where God says, "I create
evil." Does not only good come from God?
Reply: We read in Isaiah 45:7: "I form the light, and create
darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I am Jehovah, that doeth
all these things." This verse raises the question: did God actually
create only good?
God's original creation was very good (Gen. 1:31). Also, we are
told that God "cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempteth
no man" (Jas. 1:13). Since God is moral (sinless), moral evil is
contrary to His very nature. God, then, does not create moral evil.
In what sense does God create evil? The NASB translates Isaiah
45:7: "The one forming light and creating darkness, causing
well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all this."
The word rendered by the NASB, "calamity," is the Hebrew word rah,
which basically means "evil" (either moral or misfortune evil). God
is addressing Cyrus (v. 1), the Medo-Persian king who was later to
"subdue kingdoms." Specifically, he would capture Babylon because
of the wickedness that prevailed in that city. God was using Cyrus
as His instrument to inflict this punishment. The prophecy was
uttered more than a hundred years before Cyrus was born, but it was
all literally fulfilled. So, in view of the meaning of the Hebrew
word in the verse, and the context of the verse, the word "evil"
which God creates refers to the calamities as punishment upon
wicked nations. God, therefore, does not create moral evil, but
calamities or misfortunes come upon man as a result of his sin (see
Ezek. 18:20; Rom. 5:12; 6:23; Jas. 1:14,15).
There are instances in the Old Testament when God brought
calamity upon people as a result of their moral evil or wickedness.
Because of wickedness, God destroyed the earth with water, sparing
only Noah and his family (Gen. 6:5-8). God afflicted the Egyptians
with ten plagues because of the hardness of Pharaoh's heart (Ex.
7-12). God smote the Philistines with a great discomfiture and
tumors while the ark of the covenant was among them (1 Sam. 5:9).
Hell is created by God for those who are disobedient to His will
(Matt. 25:41; 2 Thess. 1:7-9; Rev. 21:8; etc.) These are examples
of evil which God created -- calamity, adversity, misfortune -- all
punishment as a result of moral evil. He did not create the moral
evil. God created man a free moral agent. When man violates God's
moral law, it is man, not God who is responsible for moral evil.
In 1 Samuel 16:14, we are told, "Now the Spirit of Jehovah
departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from Jehovah troubled him."
This verse has posed a problem for some in that they assume that
this is a cause of moral evil coming directly from God. But
actually, Saul's sin broke fellowship with God, and God allowed the
evil spirit to trouble him. Again, this serves as an example of the
evil consequences that come upon those guilty of sin or moral evil.
The same truth is illustrated again in Saul's case (1 Sam. 18:10).
God is the author of moral law and He is also the author of
consequences which follow because of the violation of that law (1
Jn. 3:4).
Not all physical disasters today such as floods, tornadoes and
earthquakes are due to sin (Lk. 13:1-5). Christians suffer in such
calamities along with the wicked. Neither is it to be supposed that
all suffering or affliction is the result of sin (see Jn. 9:2). In
fact, Christians may suffer affliction as a means of chastisement
(Heb. 12:7-9). Persecution is an example (2 Tim. 3:12).
Chastisement of Christians should motivate them to greater faith.
We all suffer misfortunes in life -- illness, disappointments, loss
of loved ones and many more, but the Christian looks forward to
heaven where none of these exist. Men do often blame God for
consequences which result from their moral evil.
A simple solution is not always found for the problem of evil
in the world, but we do know that God does not create moral evil
and we can always be assured that whatever God does is right and in
harmony with His moral character (Gen. 18:25).
-- Via Guardian of Truth XXXI: 4, p. 101, February 19, 1987
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-2-
Theistic Evolution --
Denial Of The Record
by Jim R. Everett
Atheistic evolution is an unscientific hypothesis because it
affirms that life came from nothing. Theistic evolution is an
unwarranted compromise and a denial of the record of creation
(Genesis 1-2). No man can believe the Bible to be God's absolute
truth while accepting evolution as man's explanation of how God
created. The difference between "atheistic evolution" and "theistic
evolution" is the acceptance by theists that God gave the first
spark of life -- from that point on, the theories are basically the
same.
Certainly, there can be no objection to men studying "how" God
created man as long as he recognizes a difference between
"creation" and "evolution." The first two chapters of Genesis do
not give a detailed discourse on "how" God created. However,
theories that deny the simple record of Genesis cannot be accepted.
I believe that the modern-day theory called "theistic evolution"
denies some very simple, fundamental facts; therefore, it must be
rejected.
For instance, God said, "Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness," and then the record states, "God created man in his
own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female
created he them" (Genesis 1:26a, 27). How is man made in the
likeness of God? It is not the body likeness, because God has no
physical body (John 4:23-24). And, it cannot be mere physical life,
for animals and trees have life. It must be spirit likeness,
because God is spirit. How could man have been "made in God's
image," if he simply evolved from lower animals? At what point in
the so-called "evolutionary" process did man not posses the image
of God and then evolve into God's likeness? Theistic evolutionists
have to affirm that there is no difference between lower animals
and man. This denies the record of creation.
The theistic evolutionist, while claiming to believe in God and
evolution at the same time, finds himself beset by many problems.
If he truly believes in God, he must accept the word of God as
being true. But the account in Genesis 1:26-27, contradicts the
theory of evolution. What are his choices? He must fault the
Genesis record of creation or he must deny the essential claims of
evolution. If he denies the Genesis record, he cannot be a true
believer in God and His authority. If he denies the "evolving"
atheistic evolution postulates, he cannot be an evolutionist.
Atheistic evolution denies the existence of God -- theistic
evolution denies the authority and power of God. There is no
difference in the consequences of the two!
-- Via Bulletin from the Cedar Park church of Christ
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-3-
Why We Sing
and Do Not Play
by Robert F. Turner
True Christians are committed to the principle that Christ is
their king, and that their worship and service to Him must be
authorized in His word. They believe they have no right to "speak
where He has not spoken" (GOD'S WORK IN GOD'S WAY); hence, seek to
answer religious questions by citing divine will.
We are not under the Old Testament (2 Cor. 3:11-18) nor is our
worship determined by figurative descriptions of heaven (Rev.
14:2); so David's harp and heavenly "voices" have no bearing upon
our subject. We are concerned with New Testament authority for
music in worship, and here present all passages that deal with this
subject. Perhaps you can decide why we sing and do not play.
Matt. 26:30, "when they had sung a hymn"
Mark 14:26, "when they had sung a hymn"
Acts 16:25, "prayed, and sang praises unto God"
Rom. 15:9, "confess to thee...and sing unto thy name"
1 Cor. 14:15, "Sing with the spirit, and...understanding"
Eph. 5:19, "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns, and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the
Lord."
Col. 3:16, "teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the
Lord."
Heb. 2:12, "in the midst of the church will I sing"
Jas. 5:13, "Is any merry? let him sing psalms"
To avoid the force of these passages some appeal to PSALLO, the
Greek word translated "sing" ("making melody" Eph. 5:19) because in
earlier Greek it meant to "pluck, twang, as the strings of a harp,
or carpenter's chalk line." But its N.T. meaning was "sing" as the
translators testify. Further, if it does mean "play a harp," ALL
worshipers would have to do so in order to obey these commands. No
"psalloing" would be acceptable without the instrument.
Appeals to popularity, love of the arts, church traditions,
etc., fall far short of providing divine authority for instrumental
music in the worship. Secular history points to 666 A.D. as the
date for the first use of mechanical music in worship by church
authority -- and that is far from God's way.
Our plea, with reference to mechanical music in worship, is
exactly like that for congregational independence and recognition
of the work of the church. We believe divine authority is
established by precept, approved example, and necessary inference.
The only safe course is within these bounds.
-- Via Plain Talk, August 1964
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MYRTLE STREET CHURCH OF CHRIST
1022 Myrtle Street
Denham Springs, LA 70726
(225) 664-8208
Sunday: 9:15 AM, 10:00 AM, 4:00 PM
Wednesday: 7:00 PM
evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (225) 667-4520
e-mail: tedwards at onemain.com
web site: http://home.onemain.com/~tedwards/go
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