A religious periodical entitled ‘Plain Truth” is being circulated throughout Australia, particularly in New South Wales and Victoria.
Some of the prophetic outline placed before readers appears to be in line with our own expectations. With certain doctrinal points we could also agree. However, when the general teaching of this publication is examined it is obvious that it does not present the whole truth according to the Scripture.
As a people devoted to the service of the One True God, we cannot either hold or countenance anything but the whole truth of God.
To mix truth and error is to court our destruction as the people of God. If we join ourselves to those who proclaim only part of God’s truth, then we shall most certainly invite Divine judgment for such action.
Justification for this stand is seen in the nation of Israel. Their apostasy from the truth of God was brought about by mixing the errors of the nations surrounding them with the word of truth received from the God of Abraham.
It is reported that some Christadelphians are regularly receiving the publication referred to above, at their own request, and further that they feel we should join with the people responsible for the publication, in their work.
We hope this report is untrue, but nevertheless we wish to give a very strong warning against mixing truth and error. If anyone has not the full doctrinal truth of the Scripture as a foundation, then he or she labours in vain.
The salvation of God is conditional upon our full obedience to all His requirements. Israel, when about to leave Egypt, could only be saved from the hand of the angel of death by the sprinkling of the blood of the slain lamb. We can be saved from eternal death only by being covered by the righteousness of Christ, who was slain as our Passover Lamb. His sacrifice was the anti-type of that which took place on the night of Israel’s departure from Egypt.
Israel’s salvation was not automatic. If the unblemished lamb was not slain and the blood thereof sprinkled over the door post and lintel of their homes, then the judgment of God would be upon them also.
Here is the great lesson we must heed. God has laid down the conditions upon which He will accept us. Any watering down of these requirements will not merely bring us into judgment, but will mean our eternal death.
Sabbath-keeping and tithing are useless as means of serving God today.
The Apostle Paul condemned those of his nation who would impose on the early Christians the necessity of keeping the Law. He rebuked his fellow apostle Peter for incorrect procedure on this score in regard to the Gentiles.
Israel could not keep the Law; it simply convicted them of sin and declared them guilty before God. The council at Jerusalem, dealing with the hotly debated question of the keeping of the Law, came to certain definite conclusions.
James in his memorable address stated clearly that only certain things were to be laid upon believers: -That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, from blood, and from things strangled and from fornication” (Acts 15. 29).
In this summary by James there is no mention of tithing or of Sabbath-keeping, and this surely was the time and place to mention such things if they were to be observed.
Further, Paul wrote in various epistles showing that the observance of days and feasts and sacrifices was no longer applicable to those who had come into Christ. “Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage”, was his advice. It is also our best advice today.
Various matters from the publication referred to will be dealt with in some detail in succeeding issues of the “Shield”.
Our strong exhortation meantime is that we hold fast to the whole truth of God: the only “plain” truth worth having.
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