Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 13
September 21, 1961
NUMBER 20, PAGE 8-9,14a

News And Views

Charles A. Holt, 4662 University Dr., Wichita Falls, Texas

Notes

Lee Gunter, who preaches for the Stevens Avenue church in Huntsville, Alabama, had to undergo serious surgery some weeks ago. He was in a critical condition for sometime. It is good to report that he is completely recovered and now is again going strong. He is a solid and sound preacher. He has some time for a couple of meetings this fall and some next year. If interested, write him at 1508 Stevens Avenue, N.E., in Huntsville It is good to see Eugene Britnell move to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he will labor with the Arch Street Church. This is the only sound church in that immediate area. Britnell will be a great help to them in waging the battle for truth that needs to be made there. Lewis Sharp has been with the Arch Street Church for several years and will continue with them. He will lend strength to the Cause. Britnell was with the Tuckerman, Arkansas, church for over seven years and did an outstanding work there. Let me urge all who have friends or relatives in Little Rock to send their name and address to Britnell so he can contact them. Address him at 1506 Arch Street A GOOD TRACT: Have you read "Medical Science and The Bible," by Curtis J. Torno, M.D.? He is a doctor and a deacon in the church at Red Bluff, (Pasadena) Texas. This is a neat, 22-page tract that treats of a vital subject. It is well-written and deserves a wide circulation. It sells for 10 per copy and 71 per copy in orders of ten or more. Order from Dixie Publishers, 4849 Lewis Drive, Port Arthur, Texas Tommy McClure is working with the church in El Dorado, Arkansas, which meets at 810 North Newton. He has been there for several weeks and the prospects look bright for a good, solid work. Of course, growth will be slow and hard. The church numbers thirteen members (five families, plus one lady whose husband is not a member). There is the possibility that one or two of these families will have to move elsewhere on account of their work. McClure receives $250 per month outside support, and this little group makes up the rest of his support (total of $100 per week), pays the house rent for McClure, rent on the meeting place and the other necessary expenses. This is a big load for so small a group. It makes it nearly impossible for them to turn any of their funds into the work there in carrying on the aggressive program of teaching that is needed. It would be very good if some church or churches elsewhere would take over the rest of McClure's support and relieve this group of that much burden so they can do some of the things otherwise that they need to do. Is there a church willing and able to do this? If so, please contact McClure, Rt. 3, Box 44, East Main Road, El Dorado, Arkansas This finds me in Portales, N. M., where I am assisting the University Drive Church in a short meeting. The meeting has gone well. David Taut is the preacher here and is doing a good work. I go next to Pittsburg, Texas.

An Era Of Modernism

The very foundation stones of the religion of Jesus Christ are being picked at. If the things stated in the Bible as facts are really not true, then the Bible is untrue; and if the Bible is not to be relied upon, there is no reliable evidence that there is a God. The Bible is the only source of revelation of God. All the rest is man's imagination. And if it depends upon imagination we might just as well accept the atheist's viewpoint. But thanks be to God he has not left us without revelation; he has given us the Bible; and upon it we can stand when all the puny efforts of atheists and religious modernists have been forgotten.

The Episcopalian Bishop of California has recently averred that he does not believe in the scriptural account of the virgin birth of Christ. It is no great wonder then that the local rector tried to uphold the theory of the evolution of man from lower animal life, in a discussion with this writer when some of his own young people asked about the scriptural account of creation in view of modern teachings concerning evolution. If we are not to accept as fact the scriptural account of creation, nor of the miraculous virgin birth of Jesus Christ, then why accept any of it? These religious infidels are producing more atheists than all the atheists and their work and all the skeptic teaching that is done in our secular schools. They are accepted as the last authority in religious and Biblical matters.

Following the precedent by Bishop Pike, a poll was taken of about a hundred divinity students in theological schools. The report is given in Redbook magazine, August, 1961. The poll included Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congregational and Lutheran. There were others represented but in groups too small for special mention.

"Only 44 per cent believe in the virgin birth of Christ," says the report. "Only 29 per cent believe there is a real heaven and hell. Only 46 per cent believe that Jesus ascended physically whole into heaven after his crucifixion," it continues.

From the above it is easy to see that the coming generation of preachers and their congregations will have nothing more than social and literary clubs. They are denying the divinity of Jesus. They have nothing to fear and nothing to gain in the future, with no heaven or hell in their religion. They believe that the resurrection and ascension of Christ is all a myth and hoax. So, what is left? Nothing but that they are intellectual animals; living for the material gain here. In their vain imagination they are no better than the ox that lives for his grain night and morning with a comfortable stall.

We have a fight to war; not so much against the 200 year old creeds of men, but against their disbelief in God and his Son. — Robert C. Welch.

* * *

Grider-Woods Debate Notes

Estimated average attendance each night was a conservative 925.

From all indications the debate resulted in victory for the truth.

Some are already announcing a change from Institutionalism to the truth.

Brother Woods' efforts seemed weak indeed as practically everybody present could sense his defeat.

Every sound gospel preacher in the area supported me.

H. A. Fincher openly identified himself with the institutional crowd.

Dewey Shaw tried to rescue Wood's lost cause with a pitiful prayer at the end of the debate.

The two Hazelips were on the fence as usual, but were leaning NINETY DEGREES toward Bardstown Road.

It is a good sound prediction that the institutional crowd will never debate again in Louisville.

And brother Woods served definite notice that he had no intention of debating me again anywhere!

Brother Woods and his moderator (Totty) edited one of the tapes and played parts of it back to the audience in an effort to rescue their lost cause.

G. K. Wallace and Gayle Oler sat on the stage with Woods and his moderator for a portion of the debate.

Brother Woods deliberately set the screen for his projector so I could not see his charts and refused to furnish me with a copy of them.

In all of my debates thus far, I have never seen a man so completely out of material as was brother Woods the last night of the debate.

Fifty to sixty preachers from all over the country came to support and encourage me.

It appeared that perhaps a dozen preachers were in attendance who supported Woods. (His effort was so incredibly poor that they hesitated to acknowledge that they were in his corner.)

We believe the "tide is turned" and the cause is saved in this section.

There is NOTHING we would change relative to the debate even if it were possible to do so.

I have never been as satisfied with my work in a discussion before. — A. C. Grider, via Reporter, Louisville, .Ky


Warning To Those Who Have Fellowship Halls

The following item appeared in one of our national magazines under the heading, "You Be the Judge." The case is based upon a 1960 Ohio case.

"Clara was injured at a bingo party in the church hall when a chair collapsed under her. She sued the church.

'While a church ordinarily is immune from suit for injuries suffered dulling its religious activities,' Clara's lawyer argued, 'bingo is hardly religious in nature. It is a business activity, and a church is responsible, like any other enterprise, for people who are hurt in such an activity.'

" 'Please, please, a charitable institution such as a church is not liable for injuries caused by negligence,' the church attorney replied. 'Even though the church may have been negligent, it can't be made to pay.'

"If you were the judge, would you make the church pay?

"The church had to pay. 'By conducting the game of bingo as a large-scale money-making proposition,' the court said, 'the church stepped out of its ordinary and accepted sphere and thereby lost the immunity .... accorded charitable and religious organizations .... ' "

The elders of the various congregations who throw their big dinners in their "Fellowship Halls" had better be sure that their furniture is in good shape or else they may find themselves with a law suit on their hands.

Eating, like bingo, "is hardly religious in nature," and it is beginning to be a popular thing today to commercialize such. Some "Churches of Christ" are charging from $1.50 to $2.50 per plate in order to raise money with which to finance the church.

Christian churches have their bazaars and pie sales and many other things, as well as the rest of the denominations. In order to be like the others around us, we fail to recognize the authority of Christ in the matter of raising money for the Lord's work, and follow in the steps of the denominational world.

The judge, in the case cited, has more sense than most of the brethren for he knew that such money-making propositions as bingo (as well as eating physical food) is not the church's ordinary and accepted sphere, and thereby loses the immunity .... accorded charitable and religious organizations.

If brethren are going to put the church in business — they better rework their furniture, and pray against food poisoning. — Harold Fite

"I Can't Make Him Mind!"

A mother came to a well known educator with the complaint, "I don't know what to do with my boy; he won't mind a word I say." "How old is he?" She replied, "He is four, going on five." The educator retorted, "If you can get along with him three or four years longer, the State will take him off your hands and try to make him mind. They have detention homes, reform schools, and later penitentiaries to help them make boys mind."

An ex-judge said that about 98% of the tens of thousands now in the penitentiaries of this country were boys whose mothers could not make them mind in the home. The educator questioned the mother if she ever punished the boy when he disobeyed. "Punish him I I don't believe in punishing children. Why it would nearly kill me to punish him." "And that," the man replied, "Is exactly your trouble. You are not willing to hurt yourself for the good of your boy."

"You allow your feelings to keep you from doing what needs to be done. You are too selfish. You think you are showing love for your boy, but genuine love is willing to suffer for the good of others. You think a whipping will hurt you, but it will help your boy. A diamond, to be of value, must be cut and ground and polished. There are many diamonds in the rough at San Quentin prison today just because they were not polished in the home.

"Every day some shame-faced mother with a broken heart and bowed head sits in a courtroom and hears the judge pronounce a sentence upon her son — she hears a judge making her son mind, the son she couldn't make mind. — Adapted from Shults-Lewis Children's Home Paper, via Riverside Reminder.

* * Another Dangerous Trend Appears

The question of the "college in the budget" of churches has been discussed for many years. Only a few churches have in recent years supported "our colleges" out of their treasury, and but few of the colleges have made direct appeals to churches to do so. But now one of our southern colleges is making a direct appeal to elders of churches in the southland to get busy and urge all members of their change to give liberally to the college by establishing an annual ELDERS CHRISTIAN EDUCATION EMPHASIS WEEK. No, this is not the "shades of sectarianism," it is the DARK SHADOWS of darker days ahead for the church of our Lord. Let those who think "institutionalism" is a harmless and dead issue think again, especially when the institution is a "Christian College" seeking support from churches. — Oaks Gowen, The Reminder.

Moving On!

From the Gospel Advocate, July 27, 1961: "The ladies' Bible class, with the permission of the elders, takes a contribution once a month for the Gospel Press, in a number of churches. A contribution is taken from the entire congregation once a month in some places by announcing in the Bulletin and from the pulpit before a certain Sunday every month I am not begging for me, but for Christ

Doctor Questions Santa Claus "Lies"

DENVER (UPI) — Dr. James Galvin, a Denver psychiatrist and director of institutions for Colorado, says it is a fortunate fact that most children are tough enough to become productive adults in spite of the lies that have been told them."

Galvin questions the wisdom of parental "lies" about Santa Claus bringing presents and stories about the Easter bunny.

He says a parent is not teaching his child reality as he knows it when he tells the child of 3, 4, 5, or 6 a lie — that Santa Claus will bring him presents — and then when he is 7 confess to him that the story is a lie. — The Southern Standard, via Plano, Ill., bulletin.