1989 Issue 4
When should a Christian call for the Elders to pray for him? What did James mean by these words? In order to answer this question we will have to consider the larger issue - How should a Christian respond to sickness, illness, and disease? This is a very sensitive issue, but a very practical and important one.
There are two extreme positions held by Christians. On the one hand, there are those who believe that it is not God's will for Christians to be sick at all; that Christ bore all our diseases in his death on the cross; and therefore, if we have enough faith, God will heal us of all our sicknesses now. Other Christians treat illness in purely physical terms. You go to the doctor, get your prescription filled, and eventually get well. They would not think of calling for the Elders, or even praying about it unless it were something serious.
"Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law." (Proverbs 29:18)
This proverb is clear enough, once we understand what Solomon meant by "vision;" The parallelism in this verse gives us the answer. Hebrew poetry is often comprised of couplets of sentences which clarify or contradict each other. In this verse "vision" parallels "law." In the Old Testament a yision was a means of divine revelation. The "law" was the divine revelation. So the proverb means: without a direct revelation from God concerning his will for us now and in the future, a people, nation, community or society will be unrestrained and ungovernable, and will perish. A society cannot maintain order, peace and prosperity unless it is founded on the revelation of God's will in his 'law," whether that society is a family, church or nation.
The Christian Sabbath: The First Day of the Week (The Day Changed: The Sabbath Preserved). The Continuing Obligation of the Sabbath.
Dear Ken Gentry,
I am unrepentant about my view of Gospel Greek, as I do not think I wrote of it 'contemptuously' but simply said that Koine had not the denotative accuracy of literary Greek; nor would one compare the Latin of the Jerome Bible with the Latin of Terence for clarity and fullness of meaning, any more than one might say that Henry James's English has an equal literary value with, say, Jack Kerouac's.
Nor did I say that Jesus rejected the OT itself, but, rather, that he rejected the 'way of the Law', the nit-picking legalism of the pharisaical tradition.
We now know the name of the American philosopher who helped President George Bush clarify his "new" position on firearms. A very reliable congressional source reports on a White House meeting where Bush said it was Jesse Jackson who helped him see the need to do something about "these guns." Bush ran on a pro-gun ticket a few months ago. Now his position on firearms is closer to the position of kinder and gentler New Age thinkers such as Ann Landers, who is on the board of Hand Gun Control, Inc. Barbara Bush, the new Rosalyn Carter, denies she had a hand in changing George's mind.
Therefore let us notice that it was God's will that false prophets should be rooted out from among his people. Now at first sight this Law seems overly strict. Is it fitting that a man should be punished so severely for speaking his mind? Isn't it a wonder that we can tolerate that someone be punished for speaking against a mortal man, yet find it in our hearts to let a man escape unpunished who has blasphemed the living God?
The subject of this paper is one of the deepest importance to our souls. That subject is the work of God the Holy Ghost. The solemn words of the text which heads this page demand the attention of all who believe the· Scriptures to be the living voice of God. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is NONE OF HIS."
It is probable that most of those into whose hands this paper will fall, have been baptized. And in what name were you baptized? It was "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
Blackboard Blackmail, by Suzanne Clark. Footstool Publications, 1988, P.O. Box 161021, Memphis, IN. 38186, $8.95. 218 pp. with index. Reviewed by the Rev. Byron Snapp, Headmaster of the Covenant Christian School in Cedar Bluff, Virginia.
Vanishing Manhood in America, by Weldon M. Hardenbrook, Thomas Nelson, Publishers. Reviewed by David E. Rockett, Financial Planner and Elder at the Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Forest, Mississippi.
