The Infallible Safe Way
by Colin Williamson, Evangelist, Central Church of Christ, Ocala, Florida
May 15, 2005
We really have something!
Jesus Go to HeavenBe Like
The Existence of God
Infidel -- Believer
Voltaire, Paine Paley -- Barnes
Volney, Pike Ramm -- Bales
Ingersol -- Lear Rimmer
Intelligent People do not agree…..How can I know?
Believer= Is good, Is happy - If right he gains God’s approval!
Infidel= "An awful experiment! It simply takes the risk of losing everything without the possibility of gaining anything for this world or the world to come."
Would you invest $10.000 in a business that at best could break-even?
Why does the foundation of the infidel fail in death? And the foundation of Christians hold in time of death?
SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENTS- better known by his pen name, MARK TWAIN(1835-1910)
"A myriad of men are born; they labor and sweat and struggle for bread; they squabble and scold and fight; they scramble for little mean advantages over each other. Age creeps upon them and infirmities follow; shame and humiliations bring down their prides and their vanities. Those they love are taken from them, and the joy of life is turned to aching grief. The burden of pain, care, and misery grows heavier year by year.
"At length ambition is dead, pride is dead, vanity is dead; longing for release is in their place. It comes at last--the only non-poisoned gift earth ever had for them—and they vanish from a world where they were of no consequence; where they achieved nothing, where they were a mistake and a failure and a foolishness; where they left no sign that they have existed—a world that will lament them a day and forget them forever."
(Autobiography, Vol. 2, p.37)
BERTRAND RUSSELL (1872-1970) "Why should you suppose I think it foolish to wish to see the people one is fond of? What else is there to make life tolerable? We stand on the shore of an ocean, crying to the night and the emptiness; sometimes a voice answers out of the darkness. But it is a voice of one drowning; and in a moment the silence returns." (Autobiography p. 287)
SOMERSET MAUGHAM (1874-1965) "When I look on my life…it seems to be strangely lacking in reality…it may be that my heart, having found rest nowhere, had some deep ancestral craving for God and immortality which my reason would have no truck with."
(The Chicago Daily News, January 26,1964)
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW (1856-1950)
"The silence to which I pinned my faith is bankrupt.. Its counsels which should have established the millennium have led directly to the suicide of the faith of millions of worshippers in the temples of a thousand creeds. And now they look at me and witness the great tragedy of an atheist who has lost his faith."
(Too True To Be Good)
The Apostle Paul
"For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them that love his appearing."
(2 Timothy 4:6-8)
The Name "Christian"
Many names in the religious world
Learned men called by different names
The name "Christian" honors Christ
None among believers in Christ object to the name "Christian"
"The most honorable which can be bestowed on a mortal."
Albert Barnes
"The Highest character which any human being can bear on earth and to receive it from God, as these appear to have done- How glorious the title."
Adam Clarke
"I pray you to leave my name alone, and call not yourselves "Lutherans" but Christians. Who is Luther? My doctrine is not mine. I have not been crucified for anyone. Paul would not let any call themselves after Paul, nor of Peter, but of Christ. How then, does it befit me, a miserable bag of dust and ashes, to give my name to the children of God! Cease, my friends to cling to these party names and distinctions. Away with all; and let us call ourselves only Christians after him from whom our doctrine comes."
Martin Luther
"It is that they are Christians. This is their peculiar name; by this they are known; this at once suggest their character, their feelings, their doctrines, their hopes, their joys. This binds them all together- a name which rises above every other appellation; which unites in one the inhabitants of distant nations and tribes of men; which connects the extremes of society, and places them in most important respects on a common level; and which is a bond to unite in one family all those who love the Lord Jesus, though dwelling in different climes, speaking different languages, engaging in different pursuits of life, and occupying distant graves at death. He who lives according to the import of this name is the most blessed and eminent of mortals. This name shall be had in remembrance when the royalty shall be remembered no more, and when the appellations of nobility shall cease to amuse or to dazzle the world."
Adam Clark
Baptism- Is it essential?
Is Baptism a command?
Is it right to obey a command of God?
Churches make it essential to church membership. (almost all churches do)
No hint of anyone being in the church in the New Testament without it.
If one is not baptized- Is he safe??
"Do not, I charge you, neglect one-half of the command! The gospel commission which we have received is this: "Go ye into the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."
This is the message as we find it, we did not insert the clause concerning baptism, neither dare we leave it out, or advise you to neglect it. I give you the very words of the saviour. Do not, therefore, divide the gospel command in order to throw half of it behind your back, but both believe and avow your belief and be added to the church."
Charles Spurgeon
Baptism- Sprinkling or
Immersion?
"The word "baptize" signifies to immerse
It is certain that immersion was the practice of the primitive church."
(John Calvin-Presbyterian)
"Buried with Him in baptism, alluding to the ancient order of baptizing by immersion." (Charles Wesley-Methodist)
"On this account I could wish that such as are baptized should be completely immersed into water according to the meaning of the word and the signification of the ordinance as also without doubt it was instituted by Christ."
(Martin Luther-Lutheran)
"Immersion was in all probability the way in which our blessed Saviour, and for certain the way which ancient Christians received their baptism." (Wall- Episcopalian)
"For thirteen hundred years was baptism an immersion of the person under water." (Brenner- Catholic)
"In baptism the baptized person is buried under the water. Christ submitted to be baptized, that is, to be buried under water." (Macknight- Presbyterian)
"It is certain that the word of our text, Romans 6:4, alludes to the manner of baptizing by immersion." ( Whitfield- Methodist)
Baptism-Sprinkling or
Immersion
Historians admit that nothing but immersion for hundreds of years.
Changed by "Clinical baptism" in the 1300’s-
Lexicographers-No question about "Baptizo"- became "baptism"
Why be troubled?- Be Safe
Once Saved- Always Saved
Question- Can fall?
Can’t fall?
Determine to live as close to Jesus as possible- have you lost anything if you were always secure?
But, suppose being secure in your faith that you could not fall causes you to be careless, and you were wrong.
What is the safe approach?
The Lord’s Supper-Every
First Day?
"And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread." Acts 20:7
"Now concerning the collection for the saints…….Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by in store…" 1 Corinthians 16:1,2
EVERY FIRST DAY FOR TAKING MONEY BUT NOT EVERY FIRST DAY FOR THE LORD’S SUPPER?
The Lord’s Supper-Every
First day?
"..the disciples came together TO break bread.." Acts 20:7
THE PURPOSE FOR COMING TOGETHER WAS TO BREAK BREAD.
"It ought to have been far otherwise. Every week at least, the table of the Lord should have been spread for Christian assemblies, and the promises declared by which, in partaking of it, we might be spiritually fed."
John Calvin
"I also advise the elders to administer the supper of the Lord on every Lord’s day."
John Wesley
"Weekly communion did not die with the apostles and their contemporaries. There is a cloud of witnesses to testify that they were kept up by succeeding Christians with great care and tenderness, for over two centuries. It is not necessary to swell pages with quotations. The fact is indisputable. Communion every Lord’s day was universal, and was preserved in the Greek church until the seventh century."
Music in the Church
Instrumental? - Vocal?
How could we know for certain that God approved instrumental music in church worship?
We would need a word from Him.
Has God revealed anything about music and worship to Him?
Music in the New Testament
SINGING IS AUTHORIZED, INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IS NOT
Matt 26:30
Acts 16:25
Rom.15:9
1 Cor. 14:15 ? ? ?
Eph. 5:19
Col. 3:16
Heb. 2:12, 13:15
James 5:13
John Calvin-One of the founders of the Presbyterian Church.
"Musical instruments in celebrating the praises of God would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting up of lamps, the restoration of the other shadows of the law. The Papists, therefore, have foolishly barrowed this, as well as many other things, from the Jews."
(John Calvin’s Commentary, 33rd Psalm)
John Wesley-Founder of the Methodist Church.
"I have no objection to instruments of music, in our chapels, provided, they are not heard nor seen."
(Clarke’s Commentary, Vol. IV p. 686)
Adam Clarke, A great Methodist commentator.
"Music as a science, I esteem and admire; but instruments of music in the house of God I abominate and abhor. This is the abuse of music; and here I register my protest against all such corruptions in the worship of the Author of Christianity."
(Clarke’s Commentary, Vol. IV, p. 686)
Martin Luther- Founder of the Lutheran Church
"The organ in the worship is the insignia of Baal."
( Martin Luther 1500s)
Charles Spurgeon, recognized as the greatest Baptist preacher that ever lived, preached for twenty years to thousands of people weekly in the Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle, London, England, did not have musical instruments in the worship. (M.C. Kurfees, Instrumental music in worship, p. 196)
"We do not need them. They would hinder rather than help our praise. Sing unto Him…..
We might as well pray by machinery as to praise by it."
(Charles Spurgeon-1800s)
"A Cappella"
The term comes from Old Italian and literally means ‘in the manner of the church or chapel’. Vocal music, singing without mechanical accompaniment, was the style of the church. The music that is often used in churches today may be the style of ancient Judaism; it may be the style of the theater; the dance hall or the rock concert. It is not the style of the church of the New Testament.
Worship without the instruments feels strange.
"We keep thinking that we’re the only ones who sing without instruments. To this day millions of Greek, Russian and Eastern Orthodox do not sing with instruments. We’re not in the minority, we’re in the majority. And everybody knows that."
F. LaGard Smith
There is a safe course!
Why do so many others not agree with you? They do agree that these practices and beliefs are right. They chose to believe that their practices will be accepted too. It is clear…..
Modern Churches are in as much conflict with their FOUNDERS and FOUNDATIONS AS THEY ARE WITH ME!
The Infallible Safe Way!
Believer - Hebrews 11:6
Christian - Acts 11:26
Baptized - Mark 16:16
Faithful - Hebrews 3:12
Lord’s Supper - Acts 20:7
Sing - Ephesians 5:19