Dear Bro. George,
I really enjoyed “Scenes in a Country Cemetery” in the August Tidings. The connection between the Christadelphians and President Johnson is a very interesting one, and I’m old enough to remember the expectations of many that “LBJ” would be in office when Christ returned.
Another reason I enjoyed the article was the reference to your grandmother, Jessie Hatcher. My father and his mother had spent a good deal of time on the Johnson ranch before coming to California in 1937. My grandmother had a fondness for “Sister Hatcher” and I remember her often speaking about her when I was a child. She once showed me a postcard with Lyndon Johnson’s picture on it that Jessie had sent to her, and it made a large impression on me that Christadelphians were somehow connected with the President. I believe I met your grandmother when she visited California in the 1960s.
Thank you for your hard work on a very important magazine for the brotherhood here in America.
Gordon Hensley (Simi Hills, CA)
Dear Bro. Gordon,
I remember very well the trip my grandmother made to California, when I was a youngster. She came back with all sorts of stories about sights she had seen, but especially about meeting so many wonderful brothers and sisters there.
And thank you, Bro. Gordon, for your article about Bro. Strathearn, a California pioneer of the Truth.
George
Did David deliberately “reason out” his sin?
Dear Bro. George,
Warmest greetings in Christ.
Much as I admire his writings, I’m afraid I must differ with the reasoning of Bro. Islip Collyer in his quotation from Conviction and Conduct [November issue, p. 518]. It’s true that David seemed to be swept up in the emotions of the moment when he sinned with Bathsheba, but his calculated cold-blooded scheme to get rid of Uriah is quite a different matter. He did “deliberately reason the matter out”, and he was rebuked accordingly. Nathan in 2 Samuel 12:9 says, “Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight?… because thou has despised me [God]… I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house”… and we know the rest.
The beauty of the example of David is that God was gracious and willing to accept his deep repentance, and was still willing to call him a man after his own heart. Through David’s humiliating exposure we can understand more fully the “sure mercies of David” and the words of Paul in Romans 5:6,7: “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”
Sincerely your sister,
Lois Webster (Kitchener-Waterloo, ON)
Dear Sis. Lois,
I believe you are right in your main point: even if, as seems quite reasonable, David did not “reason the matter out” before his sin with Bathsheba, it is plain that he did, later, reason out “cold-bloodedly” how to remove the difficult Uriah. And even for this, God could forgive — which is of course the true wonder of it all.
But to be fair to Bro. Collyer, let me quote the full sentence to which you referred. He wrote: “If David, previous to his transgression, had deliberately reasoned the matter out and concluded that since God had shown mercy in other cases, it might be worthwhile to undertake the risk of sinning, we should never have heard of him as an example of rectitude.” It seems to me that a key point in that rather lengthy sentence is at the beginning: “If David, previous to his transgression…” That suggests to me that Bro. Collyer had in mind the mental state of David before he fell into the first sin with Bathsheba, and not necessarily the other grievous sin midway through the whole process, i.e., the sin of murder for the purposes of covering up the first sin.
Still, God might forgive even some of the most deliberate sins, if there is the right sort of repentance (which God knows, but which we cannot determine for certain). So I say again, I do believe your main point is correct.
George
What is ours to know
Dear Bro. George,
“The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deu 29:29).
We don’t have to know about any previous worlds, cavemen’s bones, the timeline of the reordering of the earth, dinosaurs, origin of angels, etc. and etc. Nor the time and order of the Return of Christ. That he will reveal to his servants in due course, as promised.
Jean Wilson (Columbus, Gahanna, OH)
Letter from Jamaica
Dear brothers and sisters, Greetings in Jesus’ Name.
A few weeks ago I received a letter from a brother in the UK, and I want to share some of the things he showed me. I know these are surely signs of the times. We are nearing the end of time, when God will send His Son to claim His own. These are the days when men’s hearts will fail them in fear, for looking at the signs around us. For the elect’s sake these days will be shortened. Such things will not be strange to those who look for them, but they will be a big surprise to those who think otherwise. May the God of our fathers help us walk worthy of His calling, always.
I hope you can make out my writing, but I have been sick and my hand is not so steady. Pray for me. God be with us all and keep us in His care.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One