Editorial

Human nature has not changed since the fall of Adam and Eve. No one likes to be wrong. When someone shows us we are wrong, the natural reaction is to become angry at our teacher. It has ever been thus. It happened even when God was directly involved.

When Cain’s sacrifice was rejected by God we are told that “Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.” In this case the LORD held a conversation with Cain and asked him, “Why are thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen ?” Of course God knew the answer but He was giving Cain an opportunity to answer for himself. Either Cain refused to answer God or else his answer is not recorded. The LORD continues speaking kindly to Cain and says, “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted ? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.” God was giving Cain an opportunity to change. But we do not like to change. Cain did not want to change. We would think that if the LORD spoke to us that surely we would change, but Cain did not.

One of the characteristics of being wrong is being angry. Cain did not want to change. His defense was to be angry. Jonah was angry. God asked Jonah “Doest thou well to be angry? Jonah replied quite boldly to God, “I do well to be angry, even unto death.” We might add that Jonah’s anger was more deep seated than merely the loss of shade from the gourd. Paul was angry. He was “not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which Stephen spake.” Rather than follow the wise teachings of Stephen, Paul was so angry that he cast his vote to kill Stephen and by his own admission, later said concerning the Christians, that “he was exceedingly mad against them.”

Human nature has not changed. These examples were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. When we find that we disagree with someone and we feel anger welling up within us, it should tell us to stop and examine ourselves. Do we do well to be angry! We usually can convince ourselves like Jonah did that “we do well to be angry” but we might be surprised to find that we are wrong to be so angry. If we are in the right, there is no need to be angry. Instead of being angry, we should feel pity and compassion for our opponent who is wrong. Since we are in the right and they are wrong, they need our help, not our anger. If it should turn out that we are in the wrong, how foolish to have been both angry and wrong!

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if people really listened and changed ? Wouldn’t it be grand if all followed the request of the Lord when he said, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Here God is asking us to sit down and to be reasonable even if our sins are red like crimson. If we should be this calm and reasonable when we are wrong, then certainly we should be this way when we are correct. This is why Paul exhorts us saying, “The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves.”

We need to remember this when we are trying to teach the truth to those who have held wrong doctrine all their lives. People do not change easily or quickly. Some never change. Whether they change or not, we must be gentle, patient and meek. When we are trying to teach someone that their soul is mortal, we need to be patient for they have always believed otherwise and do not unlearn wrong things quickly or easily. We need to keep on trying to teach them even though they oppose themselves. We keep hoping “Peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.”

If we adopt this principle with those who are outside the household of faith, then certainly we should be this way with those that are inside. We need to be extra loving, extra patient with those for whom Christ died. There is no room for anger here. If they are wrong we pray that God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. If they refuse to change then we pray that God will be merciful to them and forgive them. It is certain that we also are going to need the mercy of God or we are lost. Who is to say that their wrong is worse than some sin we have committed. We are not without sin.

Have we ever thought that there is a limit to God’s mercy? We sometimes talk about how unlimited His mercy is. We often quote the Psalm “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” While this is true, nevertheless the mercy of God is definitely limited. What is the limit of God’s mercy ? Jesus tells us. He says, ‘Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.” This means we are going to receive mercy only if we have been merciful; we are going to be forgiven only if we have forgiven, so each one of us is placing a limit on the mercy God is going to give us by the mercy we give to others.

“Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.”

There is an old saying that “we must stand for something or we will fall for anything.”

As Christadelphians we are often accused by the world of being narrow-minded and bigoted because we do not believe that sincerity is enough or that God will save all who call themselves Christians. We may get used to this but it still makes us feel sad when someone we like becomes unhappy with us because we stand up for what we believe.

We know to a slight degree how Jesus must have felt when he saw that many of his followers went back and followed him no more. This occurred after he had said some “hard sayings.” Sadly Jesus turned to his intimate group and said, “Will ye also go away?” Loveable Peter responded with the right answer, ‘to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”

Sometimes hard sayings have to be said, yet we are sorry when they alienate those we love. The alternative is to be soft and not say what needs saying or not standing for what we believe to be right. This is so unacceptable that we simply have to “bite the bullet”, so to speak, and make our stand lovingly but firmly.

This experience is well known to all Christadelphians. It sometimes will even divide families and the pain of seeing one go away is only slightly lessened by the fact that Jesus predicted that such things would occur for the truth’s sake and he blessed those who put him ahead of family and friends.

Is there any advice we can give or receive that will help us when we are trying to stand up for what we believe is right against opposition ? Well, first we need to be sure we have taken the matter to God in prayer and that we have asked Him to guide us. We need to have examined ourselves and our position to be sure that we are scripturally correct. We need to remember Paul’s advice that the “servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.”

We need to pray for those with whom we differ. It matters not whether they are in or out of the family of God. Prayer changes things. Jesus told us to pray even for our enemies so this would certainly apply to friends and relatives with whom we may be having a difference of opinion.

A great many problems simply would not exist if all involved were fervently praying for one another. Parties still might not agree but no one would be disagreeable. We should always keep our words sweet in case we later must eat them. As sincere as we know we are, we also are not perfect and we are all going to need forgiveness in order to be accepted by our Lord for whom we are making our stand.

So we should first pray that God will guide us as we attempt to stand for what we believe to be right. Secondly we should be gentle and patient with those that oppose us and finally we should be fervently praying for them. We firmly believe that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Moses had enemies who were so unhappy with him they wanted to stone him. In this instance God was willing to destroy Moses’ adversaries and make of Moses a great nation. Think of the temptation this would have been to a lesser man. Get rid of all opposition at once and become exalted as the father of a new nation and it would have been God’s will. Instead Moses approaches God in prayer for the people who want to kill him and pleads, “Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, according unto the greatness of thy mercy.” This prayer changed the whole course of history for “The LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word:”

God is as much in command now as He was then, so let us “cast our burden upon Him knowing He will comfort and sustain us.”

When Mordecai told Esther that she must make a stand before the king for her people she was reluctant to do so until he reminded her that perhaps this was the very reason she was the queen. His exact words were “who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this ?”

We often wonder why we are, where we are, when we are, and since God is not only ruling in the kingdoms of men but also in the midst of His ecclesias we believe that all things are in His hand and under His control.

Elsewhere in this issue of The Tidings is an article explaining the revisions that have been made in the reunion agreement submitted by our brethren from England.

Perhaps God has kept The Tidings going so that we could perform this service to the brotherhood. It is the only magazine in our fellowship printed on the north American Continent. Feelings run strong concerning reunion and division and many sincere brethren and sisters feel great emotions in opposite directions on such a subject as why we are separated from some of our brethren.

Surely every brother and sister wants reunion if in fact we can unite with those who are of the same mind. The age old question Amos asked has to be answered, “can two walk together except they be agreed ?”

The brethren on the reunion committee that have requested the changes that are explained in the article want reunion as much as anyone does, but not with those whose beliefs are different.

A series of true statements that two sides can agree on does not necessarily prove that they are of one mind. For example, if we were to ask a Trinitarian if he believes in one God, his answer will be yes. If we then asked him if he believed that Jesus was the son of God, he would continue to agree with us. It would not be until we asked a question such as “do you believe that God is greater than Jesus ?” that we would get disagreement.

Since we are seeking to unite with those who believe the same, it would appear that we need to have a document that would draw together those in agreement but preclude those who held a different point of view.

It is our prayer that those brethren and sisters who believe as we do concerning resurrectional responsibility will seek to unite with us. To those who believe different, we can only wish that they could become convinced in their own mind that there will be unbaptized rejectors at the resurrectional judgment seat of Christ. Until we are of one mind on this important first principle we can only suggest that we agree to differ.

The document that we agree on needs to clarify the issues so that all who agree to the statement are also in agreement in their beliefs.

We are thankful for all the brethren who have labored so long and hard for reunion. Truly God has sent us “some evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:”

“For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.”

These beautiful words of the wise man remind us that winter does not last forever and soon the flowers will be blooming again. Winter tells us of death, when the trees lose their leaves and stand stark naked, when bears hibernate and birds fly south. Winter will come as God has promised, for he said, “While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” Winter is sure but so is spring and summer that will be right behind it. While winter may be likened to death, spring certainly tells us of resurrection when things spring to life out of the ground and everything is fresh and new. In the Song of Solomon the bride is invited to come away with her Lord after the bleak winter is over.

Just as surely as spring will follow winter this year, just that surely will our Lord soon be inviting us to come away with him to that springtime of all spring-times when there shall be no more “death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.”

We can endure a lot when we know it is but for a short time. We can take the cold when we think that soon we will be warm, we can be hungry and accept it knowing that a good meal awaits us, we can endure severe pain when we realize that soon we will be well. It is only when there is no sign of relief that we become despondent and tend to give up. Many a person has perished only a few feet from safety simply because they gave up hope. Safety was there but they did not know it due to the darkness or fog or whatever. Hope is the thing that keeps us going and in the winter we know our hope is well founded when we long for the spring. Is our hope in Christ any less real than our assurance that spring follows winter? Surely he will come. He has promised to come and with his coming all our aches and pains, worries and problems can be swept away in a twinkling of an eye.

It was this ability that Jesus possessed of looking past the present into the future that sustained and bouyed him up so he could endure the cross and despise the shame.

Jesus would have us cultivate this same method of enduring the winters of our lives. God in a sense has provided us with special binoculars with which we can look right over the present and into the future. With the use of these special binoculars we can look into the future to the joy that is set before us. All the things around us are seen and are as temporary as the winter snow that will melt and pass away. The things we need to be focusing our attention on are the eternal things which are at present unseen by the world. It’s as though we are standing in a crowd of people who are all complaining and fretting about the cold and snow and here we are with our special binoculars looking right past this into the summer of warm sunshine and singing birds. The things around us do not bother us be­cause we can see beyond to the glories of the kingdom. These special binoculars through which we see into the future are the Bible. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. BUT God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.

Because of the wonderful hope we have we can cry out with Paul, “I will glory in my infirmities (the winters of our lives) that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Children are great imitators. They want to do what they see grown-ups do. Most of the toys they enjoy are replicas of things big people use. From toy telephones to tea sets, dolls, cars, and even play thermometers and hyperdermic needles, children love to pretend by copying adult actions.

Our little granddaughter is just 1¹/2 years old, and at that tender age she loves to type on her toy typewriter just like she sees her mother doing. Little girls like to imitate mommie, and little boys try to do the things they see their daddy do. Adults, and especially parents, have a great responsibility because others are watching and copying.

Much of our preaching about right living is lost if others observe us doing the opposite of what we say. We want to teach our children to always tell the truth, but if they observe one parent answering the phone and saying that someone is out when lie is in, the child will remember that more than a thousand lectures on telling the truth.

There is an old saying, “What you are is hollering so loud I can’t hear what you are saying.”

The practice of copying others is not limited to childhood. In fact, the clothing fashions of the world are built on the principle of imitation. Women discard perfectly good dresses and go out and buy new ones simply because everyone else is now wearing long skirts or pant suits or whatever else is now in style. Men are not immune to this desire to copy the “in” thing either. First neckties are wide, then they are narrow, and then wide again.

Since it is a normal thing to copy others, let us make sure that we choose with care those we copy. This is one of the problems of today. There is so much crime, so much loose living, and so little regard for what is right that more young people are copying the wrong things because they are so much more evident. One of the greatest curses of our age is the television because it visually popularizes and glorifies all the things God abhors. If little ones grow up watching their heroes do violent things is it any wonder we have so much juvenile delinquency?

Twice Paul exhorts the Corinthians to follow him. He says “Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ.” We must resist the temptation to follow those around us. Again Paul instructs the Corinthians and us saying “We dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”

If we compare ourselves with the world around us we may think that we are not so bad. Paul’s point is that we must compare ourselves to the perfect measure, to Christ. When we do this we all fall woefully short. This should cause us to be humble. Evidently some in Corinth became puffed up when they compared themselves with their worldly neighbors and began to commend themselves. Paul’s advice was “Not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord Commen­deth.” Let us seek the commendation of God by being followers of His dear son. Although we will fail to measure up to his standard, yet God’s mercy will make up our lack if we seek him with all our heart. If we try our best to follow Christ now, we have the promise that one day soon we shall be like him. As we often sing, “0 how rich the promise, what greater could our Father’s love prepare?”