Outreach is a ministry of the
Forrest Park Church of Christ, Valdosta, Georgia. Our aim is to honor the Lord as we
faithfully handle His word. We welcome your response to articles contained in this
publication. As we search for truth, our minds cannot be closed. As we find truth, we
freely share it with all who will hear.
With this issue of Outreach, the Forrest Park Church of Christ in Valdosta, Georgia enters a new phase of ministry---that of the printed page. The congregation has converted their former parsonage into a complete print shop in which to produce millions of teaching leaflets for Central America in Spanish, and this new periodical in English. Outreach will be a quarterly teaching tabloid that will deal with relevant Biblical themes, and offer scripture studies into troubling questions. The church's aim is to uphold Christ and His word as the answer to the spiritual-moral ills of our times. The church recognizes her purpose for existence in this community as:
Outreach
is dedicated to this goal!Christ Is The Answer For The Problem Of Homosexuality
Pornography: Why Not Choose Decency?
God's Attitude Toward Abortion
Righteousness Exalts A Nation
By: Terry L. Broome
There has never been a time in history since the Garden of Eden when there was an absence of sin. Mankind repeatedly has made the same kinds of mistakes over and over, with only a few lessons learned ever being put to much use. There are many ancient lessons, however, that we would do well to remind ourselves of frequently. History demonstrates over and over again that, when mankind is left to himself, he goes the way of evil and unrighteousness. This is particularly distressful when we realize that God has promised his blessings to individuals and nations that walk in righteousness! "Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people." (Proverbs 14:34). "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." (Psalms 33:12). We must not forget the righteous foundations upon which our own nation was founded. The founders of our country understood the basis of the government which they were founding. The conscience of America declared that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..."
These unalienable rights were not granted by earthly law or by government. Any government that gives rights can certainly take them away. "Unalienable" rights are rights that no one can take from us. These were God-given rights! Our forefathers founded our country on God-given rights and God-given principles. They expressed "a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence." (Declaration of Independence).
The strength, integrity, character of our nation was developed through righteous precepts. Those who wish to suppress the voice of that righteousness today would do well to learn from history--that "sin is a reproach to any people." (Proverbs 14:34).
William Penn (1644-1718) stated: "If we are not governed by God, then we will be ruled by tyrants." A worldly mind-set has insisted that we be exposed to the rankest forms of anti-Godly "unrighteousness". Humanism, the New-Age Movement, Values Clarification, are merely new faces of an old game. Satan has played it for centuries. He's been swapping the price tags and calling "evil good, and good evil" since Genesis 3. In Isaiah 5:20-21 Jehovah pronounces "Woe" upon those who swap these values.
This issue of Outreach will deal with only three of the serious threats to our nationtoday: Pornography, Homosexuality, and Abortion. Personal righteousness is needed in each of these areas to save us from the ash heaps of ancient Ninevah (Zephaniah 2:13; Nahum 3:7); Babylon (Jeremiah 51:32-64; Isaiah 13:19-21); Tyre (Ezekiel 26:7-14); and Samaria (Micah 1:6; Hosea 13:16).
We need to restore respect for the Bible as God's inspired word and the sole guide for the answers to our spiritual ills. To this end we dedicate all future issues of Outreach.
Terry L. Broome is minister for the Forrest Park Church of Christ in Valdosta. He serves as editor of this Outreach publication. You may contact him or the church for further discussion on any of the matters addressed in this issue: Forrest Park Church of Christ, P.O. Box 2331, Valdosta, Georgia, 31604.
Christ Is The Answer For The Problem Of Homosexuality By: Charles White
It's past time that the formerly forbidden subject of homosexuality be seriously studied with the bright light of truth. Homosexuals argue that they only represent an "alternate life-style", and that there is nothing immoral about their conduct. Mainline institutional churches have either admitted homosexuals to their ministries or are seriously considering such a move. Entire communities from the west coast to Florida are known as homosexual havens. Aids is running rampant through our nation, and very little media attention is given to the fact that AIDS is generated by homosexual contact.
The Bible Is Not Silent
In Romans 1:20-32, the apostle Paul lists twenty-four moral sins, but he only goes into lurid detail with one - homosexuality: "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections; for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet." (Verses 26,27).
"Recompence of their error which was meet" - what is that?
"Recompence" means reward , and "meet" means suitable, or that which is due. When homosexuality became a "lifestyle" for these ancient people, they received in themselves the "reward that was due them." The vile affection produced a vile result in these ancient people. AIDS is one such vile result today.
These "vile affections" begin with a denial that God is the creator of all things, (Romans 1:20). When man makes a decision to deny the existence and power of God, his heart is darkened (verse 21), and "thinking themselves wise, they become fools" (verse 22).
The Scriptures Are Simple
The wise man will seek the simplicity of the scriptures, for therein is Christ's answer to the homosexual problem. Homosexuality is a sin, and those who so sin will not inherit the kingdom of God, (1 Cor. 6: 9-13). The kingdom of God is the church, (Matt. 16: 16-18; Mark 9:1; Acts 2:47), and practicing homosexuals are out of place in the church. "Sin is a transgression of God's law", (1 John 3:4), and the homosexual, like any other sinner, needs the saving power of the gospel, (Romans l:l6).
Christ Loves The Homosexual, Too
Not only does Christ love the homosexual, he died for him! The question is:
Will the homosexual love Christ to....
...hear the gospel's call to sinners (2 Thessalonians 2:l4; Romans l0:l0)
...believe in Jesus as the son of God (Hebrews ll:6)
...turn from the awful sin of sodomy (Luke l3:3,5)
<>...be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38)
Homosexuality is like any other sin, it can be forgiven if the sinner wants to be forgiven. And, like any other sin, it can take a person's life and fill it with unrighteousness. People are obsessed with sin and sin then possesses them.
A Serious Warning
"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient." (Romans 1:28).
Give up homosexuality and become a Christian!
Charles White is a former Assistant Coordinator and Evangelist of the Central America Mission Outreach of the Forrest Park Church of Christ in Valdosta, Georgia.
Pornography: Why Not Choose Decency? By: Robert L. Waggoner
Over the past forty years, Biblical values have sharply declined in our society while humanistic values have increased dramatically. Since the early 1950's there has been a proliferation of pornography, an increase of explicit sexual vulgarity in musical lyrics, and acceleration of profanity in speech, and a dramatic rise in all sorts of indecencies. Many Americans now seem unable to blush.
This shift in moral values has caught most Christians by surprise. Moreover, the typical Christian reaction seems to be that since these humanistic values are promoted by such powerful mediums as the press, radio, television, the recording industry, movies, public schools, VCR's, etc., there's not much an individual Christian can do. In despair, many seem to have passively thrown up their hands and resigned themselves to observation of these despicable indecencies as they pass by.
In fact, many who call themselves Christians often live no more decently than many who live by worldly standards. Such Christians need to repent. Paul told the Colossians to set their minds on things above (Colossians 3:1). He told the Philippians to think about those things which are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report (Philippians 4:8). To the Ephesians he wrote that those who are in Christ:
"should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to licentiousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as truth is in Jesus; that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness" (Ephesians 4:l7-24, NKJV).
Living decently, Christians must "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them" (Ephesians 5:11). Jesus expects his disciples to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13). those who are in the kingdom of heaven must be a leavening influence upon others for good. When Christians refuse to let their light shine, God is not glorified, the world becomes rotten, and Christians themselves may be likened to counterfeit salt-good for nothing but to be walked all over. The only acceptable course of action for soldiers of Christ is to stand together and fight for righteousness and decency
Whenever Christians oppose pornography and its corrupting influences, there are those who charge us with censorship while others claim we are denying their freedom of speech. Moreover, Christians will often be ridiculed as narrow-minded, oppressive, incompetent, and even backward and intolerant.
To those who charge us with censorship, we reply that we have no authority to censor. We do have the right and the responsibility to persuade people against filthy pictures and obscene language, and we have the right to appeal to the goodness of our fellow citizens, that we may band ourselves together to make and enforce laws against obscenities and indecencies for the good welfare of our community. That's not censorship, that's democracy.
To those who charge us with denying freedom of speech to whomever would express themselves with obscene words and pictures, we reply that while the First Amendment does grant freedom of speech, it does not grant freedom to speak or act indecently. Obscenity is no more protected under the First Amendment than is libel or slander. Whatever ideas and concepts one desires to speak are freely permitted in a democratic society, but such should be expressed in decency and wholesomeness.
To those who ridicule Christians as narrow-minded, oppressive, incompetent, backward, or intolerant, if they will listen to us, we appeal to Christian history. We firmly believe that the best, most noble, virtuous, and most productive and beneficial people in the history of humanity can be shown to have been those who have followed Biblical teachings.
Because Christians want good government and decent communities in which to live, then Christians cannot allow profanity, pornography, and other indecencies to continue unchecked. These things provide nothing noble, beneficial, or endearing to society. Rather, they produce evil. They corrupt manners and morals. They cause crime and vice. Wherever pornography and obscenity is allowed to flourish there is an increase in sexual immorality and violence. Crimes of rape, incest, prostitution, sexual abuse and molestation of children accelerate while personal safety declines.
Whenever only one person devours pornography and thereby distorts sexual reality for himself, he cannot escape the personal consequences to his own purity of character. Yet, as long as he harms no one else, his neighbors may be content to let him do as he pleases. However, whenever a large number of people in the community are consumed by pornography, they hurt not only themselves but their entire community. For its own preservation and safety, a righteous community must object to obscenities in its midst. Our founding fathers established this republic upon the premise that a nation's strength for self-government comes from the virtuous character of its citizens. When a community becomes more interested in protecting citizens' rights to indulge in vice than in promoting citizenship responsibilities and virtues, then that community (or nation) is doomed to moral decay and death. Should we not seek decency therefore not only for personal purity, but also for the good of our community?
Robert L. Waggoner is editor of "The Journal For Building Better Christian Home". He conducts seminars weekly throughout America. He works in association with the Houston Park Church of Christ, Selma, Alabama.
God's Attitude Toward Abortion By: Bert Thompson, Ph.D.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"
(Declaration of Independence).
Out of the trash heaps and fading relics of the past, our forefathers forged a nation built upon the time-honored concept that life was God-given, sacred, to be treasured, and above all, protected. "All men," we were promised, "are created equal." "All men," we were promised, "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." "All men," we were promised, could cherish as one of those unalienable rights, "life". "No person," we were promised, "shall be deprived of that life," without "due process of law." And all of this, we were promised, would we give to "our posterity"
WHAT life? WHAT posterity? WHAT "due process"? January 22, 1973 changed all of that. And seemingly changed it forever. On that fateful Monday nearly two decades ago, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in a 7-to-2 vote, that abortion--baby murder--should now be legalized and made available on-demand in every state of the United States of America. Such abortions, stated the Court's edict, could be performed up to and including the ninth month, with the doctor's permission, if the physical or mental health of the prospective mother was deemed "at-risk".
As a result of that evil decision on the part of a few ungodly men, multiplied millions have suffered. Our cherished constitution has been made a sham. Our "unalienable rights" have been stolen from us. We have been robbed of our promise of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as we sat quietly and indifferently by, looking on without so much as a whimper. Our guarantee to "life through due process" has been ignored by, and trampled underneath the feet of, the fornicators and murderers of our land. No longer are "all men created equal." No longer are all men possessed of "self-evident, unalienable rights". No longer may we say, as did the psalmist of old, "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward" (Psalms 127:3). Our "posterity" now lies dead, wrapped in plastic bags--from which protrude tiny arms, tiny legs, tiny heads, tiny faces--hidden in the bottom of dumpsters which sit forebodingly in dark alleys and dimly-lit walkways in every city in America.
While our own Supreme Court was outlawing the death penalty for hardened adult criminals, it was at the same time imposing that same penalty upon millions and millions who had never committed a single crime, or harmed a single hair on another person's head. Their only "crime" was that they had inadvertently--through no fault of their own--"inconvenienced" the fornicator. Their only "crime" was that they had arrived at a "bad time" for the married couple who had time to concentrate only on careers, condos, and cash. Their only "crime" was that they were unexpected, unwanted, and unloved. Yet for this "crime" they have been sentenced to death.
The victims of which we speak here are not hardened criminals. They are innocent, unborn human babies! And they are being murdered at the rate of 5,000 per day in our country! This year alone, we will slaughter more than 2,000,000 of them. Worldwide the number now stands at 55,000,000 per year being slain. Compared to these numbers, Pharaoh's extermination of the Hebrew baby boys was but a ripple on the ocean of time. We consider ourselves the intellectually elite in the world today. Yet we are in this instance no better than the worst mass murderers of history.
Biblical Injunctions
The Bible is clear in its testimony regarding murder. The sixth commandment was that "Thou shalt do no murder" (Exodus 20:13). If the fetus is human (living), and if it is deliberately terminated, then that constitutes willful and unauthorized destruction of a human life--murder.
How, then, does the Bible regard the unborn child? The following biblical facts will provide an answer to that question:
1. Jeremiah the prophet was told by God, "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou comest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee" (Jeremiah l:5). God knew the prophet even as Jeremiah was "in utero" (still in the womb). Further, God had already "sanctified" Jeremiah. If Jeremiah's mother had "aborted" the baby, she would have killed him whom God recognized as a living soul.
2. We have the same implication regarding Isaiah, who said, "Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken ye peoples, from afar; Jehovah hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name ...and now, saith Jehovah that formed me from the womb to be his servant" (Isaiah 49:1,5). Isaiah was already a person prior to his birth; he was already called by name.
3. Psalms 139:13-16 is one of the clearest biblical passages on this matter. David said:
"For thou didst form my inward parts; thou didst cover me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks unto thee: for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Wonderful are thy works; And that my soul knoweth right well. My frame was not hidden from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; and in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was none of them."
David, speaking through inspiration of the Holy Spirit, spoke of himself in the womb as a human being. Also see Psalms 51:5.
4. In the Old Testament, even the accidental termination of a pregnancy was a punishable crime. Consider Exodus 21:22--"If men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart, and yet no harm follows; he shall be surely fined, according as the woman's husband shall lay upon him...but if any harm follows, then thou shalt give life for life."The meaning of the passage is simply this. If the child is born prematurely as the result of this accident, but "no harm follows' (i.e. the child lives), then a fine is exacted. However, if "harm follows" (i.e. either mother or child die), then the guilty party is to be put to death. If God exacts such a punishment for the accidental death of an unborn child, what would He think today of the premeditated murder of millions of unborn infants?
5. The same understanding of the fetus as a child is found in the New Testament. In Luke 1:41,44, the Bible states (in speaking of Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist), that "the babe leaped in her womb." The word for "babe" in these passages is the Greek word "brephos", and is here used for an unborn fetus. The very same word is used in Luke 18:15 and Acts 17:19 for young or newborn children. It is also used in Luke 2:12,16 for the newborn Christ child. The word "brephos" can therefore refer to a young child, or a newborn infant, or an unborn fetus. In all cases, a human being must be under consideration, because the same exact word is used to describe all three.
How long will it take us to come to our senses? No nation can prosper that deliberately flaunts the law of God. "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people" (Proverbs 14:34). Somewhere there must be a prophet who can call this nation to repentance. Isaiah was charged by God, "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and declare unto my people their transgressions" (58:1). Where is our Isaiah? Who will stand among us to echo the words of Moses from the great long ago: "Cursed be he that taketh a bribe to slay an innocent person" (Deuteronomy 27:25)?
Bert Thompson is the founder and director of the Apologetic's Press Ministry in Montgomery, Alabama. He works in association with the Landmark Church of Christ, and teaches at the Alabama Christian School of Religion.
God's Part
The great love of God for man. (John 3:16) He gave Christ as our Savior. (Luke 19:10) Sent the Holy Spirit as a guide. (John 16:13) Gave the Gospel as "the power unto salvation. (Romans 1:16) Provided atonement by the blood of Christ. (Romans 5:9; Col. 1:14)
Man's Part
Hear the Gospel. (Romans 10:17; John 8:32) Believe the Gospel. (Hebrews 11:6; John 20:31) Repent of past sins. (Luke 13:3; Acts 17:30) Confess faith in Christ. (Romans 10:10; Matthew 10:32) Be baptized into Christ. (Gal. 3:27; Mk. 16:16; Acts 2:38) Be faithful unto death. (Revelation 2:10)
God Has Done His Part, Will You Do Yours?
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