“SUPPLEMENT YOUR FAITH” (Part Seven)

Bob Myhan

n order to continue being "partakers of the divine nature" we must "make every effort to supplement...steadfastness with brotherly affection" (2 Peter 1:4-6, ESV). This is "the fraternal or family affection the Christian has for his fellow Christians. It is the love that recognizes the difference between the church and the world, between the followers of Christ and [the followers] of the devil" (James M. Tolle: The Christian Graces, p.57).

aving "brotherly affection" means not having a respect of persons—showing affection to certain brethren while withholding it from others (James 2:1-9). We should therefore not limit demonstrations of affection to those in certain age groups or to those with certain personality types or to those with certain outside interests or to those in a certain income bracket or to those with a certain level of formal education.

aving “brotherly affection” means stressing spiritual, rather than material, and physical commonalities. The Lord's people are enormously diverse generationally, temperamentally, culturally, economically and intellectually; however, we have the same faith (2 Peter 1:1), the same spiritual blessings (Eph. 1:3-14), the same hope (1 Peter 1:3,4), the same Benefactor (1 John 3:1), the same salvation (Jude 3), the same Savior (Eph. 5:23), the same love for the Lord (1 Peter 1:8) and the same persecutions (2 Tim. 3:12).

aving "brotherly affection" means demonstrating discipleship to one another. This is to be done in a number of ways: speaking kindly one to another (Eph. 4:31; Col. 4:6), returning good for evil to one another (1 Peter 3:8,9), respecting one another’s conscience (Rom. 14:13,21; 1 Cor. 8:9,13), preferring one another in matters of judgment (Rom. 12:10; Phil. 2:3,4), assisting one another in time of need (Rom. 12:13; Gal. 6:2), sharing one another's grief (Rom. 12:15; 1 Cor. 12:24-26), restoring one another (Gal. 6:1; James 5:19,20) and just plain following the "golden rule" (Matt. 7:12).

o you, dear reader, have this fraternal affection for the brethren? Do you demonstrate it in these and similar acts? (If not, please notice Matt. 25:31-46.) &

WILL YOU PLEASE STAND?

Guest Writer: Randy Cavender

t times a song leader will say to the audience, “If it is convenient for you, will you please stand?” Now I understand that it will not be convenient for some to stand while singing a song, but when it comes to spiritual matters some professed Christians will not stand up for the Lord unless it is beneficial for them. Let us therefore examine what the Bible teaches concerning this subject of “standing.”

irst of all, the Bible teaches that we should stand for the truth. Paul states, “Stand therefore; having girded your waist with truth” (Eph. 6:14). The truth is God’s word (John 17:17). One must stand the way God instructs. This means we must refuse the ways of men. Standing in the truth of the gospel is the most important thing one can do!

econdly, one must do all he can do to stand! “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (Eph. 6:13). Sometimes that might not be convenient, and may require extra effort; nevertheless we must stand. Are you doing all you can to stand for the Lord?

inally, one should be proud to stand for our Lord. When I was in high school I was in the marching band. As we practiced for our marching performance, we would stand tall and proud—proud of our school, our athletic teams, and what we were doing. Brethren, we should be proud to be children of God and stand for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

rethren, have you stood up for Christ? If not, will you please stand? “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13). & [Via Hardie’s Chapel Herald]

WHY SOME DON’T BELIEVE #3

Guest Writer: Bill Walton

ome people do not believe in God, Christ, and the Bible because they are overly impressed with science and scientists.

ut the fact is science does not have the answer to the ultimate questions of life. And some within the ranks of the religious skeptics in the scientific com­munity have been candid enough to admit it.

n his book, Until The Sun Dies, Dr. Robert Jastrow says, "The universe and everything that has happened in it since the beginning of time are a grand effect without a known cause." He says, "In science, as in the Bible, the world begins with an act of creation. That view has not always been by scientists. Only as a result of the most recent discoveries can we say with a fair degree of confidence that the world has not existed forever; that it began abruptly, without apparent cause, in a blinding event that defies scientific explanation.”

nd, concerning life in the universe, he says, “At present, science has no satisfactory answer to the question of the origin of life on the earth.” And he admits, “The chemical origin of life is held by scientists as an article of faith without proof.”

hose who are prone to accept without question the unproven theories and dogmatic pronouncements of skeptical scientists need to be reminded that scientists have been proven wrong many times. In the middle of the last century the French Academy of Science listed more than fifty instances of conflict be­tween the Bible and acceptable scientific thought. The French Academy of Science has since been proven wrong in every instance.

t is also a fact that scientists can be as blind, prejudiced, and unreasonable as anyone. In the Moody-Lovell debate on the existence of God, Frank Lovell, a scientist and skeptic, admitted he could not disprove that there is a God. But he said he would not believe in God even if it could be proven that Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day after his burial. When asked what kind of evidence it would take to convince him of the existence of God, he said: “If an or­derly sequence of numbers were discovered in the permutations of Pi, that might cause me to believe in God.”

nd listen to this candid admission from Niles Eldridge: “We paleontologists have said that the history of life supports (the theory of gradual adaptive change), all the while really knowing that it does not.”

nd then we have this from Stephen Jay Gould: “We can tell tales of improvement for some groups, but in honest moments we must admit that the history of complex life is more a story of multifarious variation about a set of basic designs than a sage of accumulating excellence.”

nd here is a candid and enlighten­ing observation from Fred Hoyle, an astrophysicist, in his book, The Intelligent Universe. “Orthodox scientists are more concerned with preventing a return to the religious excesses of the past than in looking forward to the truth [and this concern] has dominated scientific thought throughout the past century.”

                         hat is proven to be true is true. But nothing has ever been proven to be true that contradicted the Bible. Nothing. And many will lose their souls for blindly trusting in false science and biased scientists. & [Via Biblical Perspective]