A PERIODICAL FOR YOUNG AND OLD

DID GOD CREATE????

In my previous article, which was written about the subject of “Creation”, I rejected the idea that in this matter we should listen to the scientists instead of the Bible explanation. But can we then fully ignore what scientists claim in regarding the age of certain materials? Is it then not true that they have methods of determining the age of certain things?

Let me first say this — the methods developed by the scientists to determine the age of certain things are based on hypothesis (something assumed or supposed because it seems likely to be a true explanation). Some years ago a certain professor, who had written a book about how things came into existence (not agreeable to the way God’s Word tells us), spoke about his writings before a group of scientists. Later, in a private discussion, he was asked by another professor (who accepted the explanation of God’s Word) whether he was perfectly sure that his ideas were correct. He replied, “No, because my ideas are based on assumptions. It is possible, if my suppositions could be proven to be incorrect, that then I would have to change my mind and to retract my words.”

And frequently their assumptions prove to be wrong. I once read an article in a newspaper which told of a fish that was caught in the vicinity of South Africa. Scientists had assumed that the last fish of its kind had existed 30,000,000 years ago …. Some years ago a group of students at an English uneversity were punished because of a prank which they committed. Using certain materials they had made something which resembled the skull of a person who might have lived many years ago. Many scientists were very happy with this “find”, as they determined that its age was about 14,000 years. Triumphantly they used it as a proof that the Bible was not true in respect to the history of Adam and Eve as the first human beings. After some time the pranksters revealed that they were the producers of the skull because they wanted to prove that not all scientific statements are so well-based as some scientists would like us to believe. Their conduct caused a tremendous shock to those that had been so happy, those who preferred to follow the wisdom of the world rather than God’s Word. God made and makes the wisdom of the world foolishness. A wisdom which places itself beyond the wisdom revealed in and by God’s Son Jesus Christ and beyond God’s revelation in His Word is utter foolishness and wickedness.

Let us bow before our Maker and glorify God as the Creator of heaven and earth, the sea and all that inthem is. I do not believe that God put fossils and things on earth as a joke. I believe that God in His infinite wisdom and strength created all things to a development in one moment which in normal growth would have taken a much longer time. How did God create Adam and Eve? As babies? No, of course not. I am certain that if a physician could have checked the age of Adam and Eve the first day of their existence without knowing that they were just called into being, he would have said that their age was that of adults. How did God create the trees? Without fruit, as little trees which have just been planted in an orchard? No, the trees had fruit upon them. After creation, all human beings, animals, trees, and plants would need a period of growth in order to come to the same adulthood and maturity. If scientists say that certain materials need millions of years to develop into the state they are now found in, then I believe and say that God created them in this state in one moment. Their calculations can be correct, but the conclusions arrived at with these calculations, whereby they attempt to prove that certain materials are as old as these unbelieving scientists assume and assert, I wholeheartedly reject.

Personally I at one time suffered terribly for several years under doubts regarding the just-mentioned subject. I did not agree with the unbelieving thoughts which came time and again into my mind, but…. I could not get rid of them. Sometimes while I was preaching, these thoughts and doubts terrified me. One day I was compelled to read Genesis 1. I hesitated to do so because I feared my unbelieving thoughts; yet I did it, praying silently to the Lord for His help, and,… it pleased the Lord to deliver me from my doubts in teaching me by His Word how that He had created things as adults, as fruit-bearing trees, etc. Then the Lord granted me to find delight and rest in testifying with Paul: “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”

My prayer and hope is that the Lord may use this article to order our steps in His Word, to know the truth, and to be made free by it.

Your friend,

Rev. A. Elshout

18617 Cortner Avenue

Cerritos, California 90701

Bible Quiz

Dear Boys and Girls,

As I look at the calendar of October, I see a note on the 12th day of the month to show that it is Columbus Day. All of you, I am sure, know that Columbus sailed across the ocean many years ago to discover a new country. He and others like him were looking for adventure, honor, and riches. In the Bible we also read about a traveler who was looking for something. Paul tells us of him in Hebrews 11: 10, “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” He was writing about Abraham. That we may also learn to seek, not for honor and riches as the discoverers, but for “the kingdom of God and His righteousness”.

From the text mentioned above, I have chosen three words which will spell out the first letters of the answers to our quiz.

What was the name of the place called where a tower was being built, whose top was to reach unto heaven?

Where was Abraham’s home before he began to travel into Canaan?

Unto what country was Paul traveling when he suffered shipwreck?

Who pursued after Jacob when he had left him unawares?

Who, in fleeing from King Saul, escaped to the cave Adullam?

What city did Cain build, which he called after the name of his son?

In the sermon on the mount, upon what did the wise man build his house?

What was Noah commanded to make, which would be to the saving of his family and all kinds of living things? What king made an image of gold and set it up in Babylon, requiring that all men must bow down at certain times to worship it?

In what plain was this image set up?

On what mount did King Solomon build the house of the Lord?

In what did the mother of Moses put him when she could no longer hide him?

At what place in the travels of the children of Israel did Miriam die, and was also buried there?

To what place did the children of Israel come, where there were 12 wells of water and 70 palm trees?

What treasure city did the children of Israel build for Pharaoh while they were in bondage?

Answers to our September quiz are as follows:

Anna Luke 2:36–37

Bigthan Esther 2:21

Canaan Genesis 9:25

Dionysius Acts 17:34

Elah I Kings 16:8–10

Felix Acts 24:27

Goliath I Samuel 17

Hophni I Samuel 4

Ishmael Genesis 21 Judas

Iscariot John 12:4–6

Korah Numbers 16

Lot Genesis 19

Melchizedek Genesis 14:18–20

Nebuchadnezzar Daniel 4

Othniel Judges 3:9–11

Pekah II Kings 15:25

Rahab Joshua 2:1–6

During the past month answers to the quiz were received from the following boys and girls —

Sally Slotsema

Susan Slotsema

Steven Slotsema

Jim Van Giessen

Mike Mol

Leonard Mol

Joan Mol

Valerie Lugthart

Ken Lugthart

Louis De Maagd

George De Maagd

Marilyn De Maagd

Geri Moerdyk

Linda Kay Bleeker

James Bleeker

Betty Vander Waal

John Vander Waal

Tim Vander Waal

Kris Vander Male

Martha Vander Male

Mary Jean Vander Male

Lilly Ann Vander Male

Judy Elizabeth Sweetman

Janet Arlene Sweetman

Tunis Sweetman, Jr.

Joanne Beeke

Donna Lyn Zaremba

Esther Boonzaayer

Alice Moerdyk

Tom Blok

Cheryl Berman

Lillian Berman

Henry Rosendall

Case Schipper

Conrad Schipper

Billy Moerdyk (2)

Brian Zevenbergen

Jane Zevenbergen

Peter Zevenbergen

Cindy Erickson

Deanna Erickson

Jean Van Tilburg

Herbert Van Den Houten

Joan Van Zweden

John Van Zweden

Peter W. Kievit

Carolyn Heystek

John Van Wingerden (2)

Bill Van Wingerden (2)

Dianne Van Ravenswaay

Marilyn Van Ravenswaay

JoAnn Van Ravenswaay

Dave Verhey

Janice Kaat

Roger Kaat

Andrew Feyter

Denise Van Ravenswaay

Roelie Stapel

Rudolph Stapel

Henrietta Stapel

Brenda Van Oosterom

John W. Kamp

Thomas Kamp

Lynn Kamp

Joyce Kamp

Bill Boluyt

Joan Spaans

Dena Spaans

Gertrude Spaans

Nick Greendyk

Marcia Kros

Hans Kuperus

Arlene Kuperus

Faith Van Dyke

Frances Vander Meulen

Teresa Vander Meulen

Linda Mae Kamp

Ruth Meeuwse

Mike Meeuwse

Eleanor Meeuwse

Joe Van Woudenberg

Ed Van Woudenberg

Elisabeth Van Woudenberg

Mary Jean den Hoed

Marsha Koedam

Marian Grisnich

Gary Roozenboom

Tommy Greendyk

Wendy Grisnich

Rhonda Grisnich

Donna De Meester

Jane De Meester

William Berkenbush

Barbara Berkenbush

Corinne Van Veldhuizen

Arnold Van Veldhuizen

Joyce Van Veldhuizen

Christine Koppert (2)

Alice Koppert (2)

Peter Koppert (2)

Martin Oudshoorn

John Oudshoorn

Betty Van Unen

Cheryl Van Unen

Laurie Van Unen

Mike Van Unen

Nancy Kay Vande Stouwe

Jill Ripma

Billy Ripma

Julie Ripma

Sander de Jong

John Van Woudenberg

Judy Koedam

And now we will see what mail we have to answer —

BETTY VANDER WAAL — You have quite a few pets, Betty. How many cats and kittens did you have at one time? I suppose your brother was quite unhappy when his pet pigeon was killed. Can you tell me for what purpose pigeons were used in Bible days?

JOAN VAN ZWEDEN — We are all quite well, Joan. How are you getting along with your organ lessons? I imagine you can play quite a number of pieces. But to catch up with your cousin, you will have to do lots more practicing. Ten inches of rain is a lot of rain in one hour, isn’t it?

MARIAN GRISNICH — I was happy to hear from you again, Marian. How do you like British Columbia? I suppose it takes a while after you have moved before you learn to like it. Yes, your answers were all correct. You did real well.

BILLY VAN WINGERDEN — Is the new church finished, Billy? When will the dedication service be held? I am sure everyone is real happy with it. How long does it take you to cover your paper route? I imagine when the papers have quite a few pages, you have a real load.

JOHN, JOE, ED, AND ELIZABETH VAN WOUDENBERG — How did your cousin like it here in this country? Was it the first time he had made the trip? How are you getting along in school? I hope you are all happy that school days are here again.

SANDER DE JONG — You certainly did do a lot of travelling this year, Sander. You should hae lots of subjects to report on for school. Other boys and girls also wrote that the Banner of Truth for two months arrived at the same time. It must be strange not to receive any mail for several weeks.

ALICE KOPPERT — I think the post offices in Canada were well filled with mail by the time the strike ended. We hope that you will be getting the Banner of Truth regularly each month again. Say Hello to the family.

RHONDA GRISNICH — Does your uncle have a lot of cows, Rhonda? I think a farm always has interesting things to see and do. But there is always a lot of work to be done, too. Do you live near the zoo, or is it quite far from where you live?

WENDY GRISNICH — How do you like school, Wendy? Do you like your teachers? I suppose they keep you real busy every day. Do you ride the bus to school? You will have to write me about the things you do in school each day. Do you like to do the Bible quiz?

ROELIE STAPEL — Your answer regarding the word “Selah” was very good, Roelie. As you wrote, it is also found in the book of Habakkuk. Someone else wrote that it was also found in Proverbs, But this was not correct. Another question — can you tell me in which book of the Bible the name of God does not occur?

ANDREW FEYTER — suppose your grandfather and grandmother have gone back to the Netherlands again, Andrew. Did they enjoy their visit? Three months seems like quite a long time, but it goes by so quickly. I can imagine that Banff National Park has some wonderful scenery.

JOHN VAN ZWEDEN — How do you like the fourth grade, John? Each year seems just a little more difficult than the one before, doesn’t it? Did you have one of the mission calendars for the year 1968. I understand there will be one printed also for 1969.

PETER KIEVIT — That sounds like a fair exchange, Peter. I will see what I can do. I don’t know what happened to your name in that one issue. I was almost certain that you were one of those that hadn’t missed answering for quite a long time. But we make mistakes sometimes.

GARY ROOZENBOOM — Last month you asked me about Gog and Magog. There have been writers who feel that Magog is the country of Russia. Gog seems to imply a person rather than a country. Some of these passages are difficult to understand for those who are learned in the Scriptures. We will use your riddle this month —

A king in the Old Testament:

The first letter is in Adam,

But not in Eve.

The second letter is in Noah,

But not in Shem.

The third letter is in Gideon,

But not in Jephthah.

The fourth letter is in Abraham,

But not in Lot.

The fifth letter is in Isaac,

But not in Rebekkah.

The sixth letter is in Joseph,

But not in Benjamin.

The seventh letter is in Moses,

But not in Aaron.

The eighth letter is in Joshua,

But not in Caleb.

Who is he?

And this again completes our mail for this month. We hope that we may be spared until next month, and that we may hear from all of you again at that time. Many thanks for your many answers to our quiz. May the Lord remember us and our loved ones.

With love,
Your friend,
“Uncle Garret”

Missionary Corner

TIMOTHY MISSION FUND

During the month of August a total of $48.00 was received in gifts for our mission fund, which we gratefully acknowledge. A check in the amount of $100. was sent out in support of Miss Ann Herfst in Nigeria, leaving a balance of $55.40 at the end of August. We trust we may continue to receive your support for these causes, and that the Lord may bless you in your giving, for “he which soweth bountifully shall also reap bountifully”.

A number of acknowledgements have again been received for our financial support, but also a note of appreciation from Miss C. Tallach at the Mbuma Mission Hospital in Rhodesia for the issues fo our paper which are sent her each month. She explained that they were handed out to the teachers who could read and understand English, but also the simple articles are translated into their own language — Sin debele — for the older ones.

From Bethesda Clinic in Nigeria —

Dear friends,

Thank you very much for your letter of June 29 with enclosed check of $100.00.

You probably have heard about the building of huts at the compound. We were having so many patients lately needing to be admitted, that we didn’t know where to find a place for them anymore. For a while it seemed that we had our patients and their relatives sleeping on the floor in the clinic. It’s quite a sight — they just roll out their mats, lie down, and go to sleep. You can just imagine what it is like to make evening rounds with a flashlight in a situation like that. But the people did seem to have a good sleep through it all anyway.

We’re trying to solve the problem by building the huts which I mentioned. This is working out very well. Three of them are finished and occupied; the people are finishing the fourth one now. They have made nice beds using bamboo, and some of our T.B. patients have been making mats from a strong kind of grass to cover the beds. It looks really neat. Five beds can be placed in each hut, so this means there will be room for 16 patients. We are all very happy with it, and so are the patients. You can tell that they feel “at home” in these huts. The relatives have an opportunity to do the cooking for the patients underneath a grass shade. Cooking seems to go on practically all day. It’s typical Nigerian style.

We are having very heavy rainfalls at this time of the year. It is nice to have plenty of water, although driving is quite a problem now.

With many greetings from us all, Ann Herfst

From Mbuma Mission Hospital, Rhodesia —

Dear friends,

Almost a year has elapsed since I wrote you last. The months have quickly sped on their way, and, looking back over them, one feels that so little has been accomplished. Yet each day has seemed too short for all the duties requiring attention. There just is not the time for everything one would like to do.

I think that in my last letter I told you that a new wing was in the process of being built onto the hospital. This wing was completed towards the end of last year, and consists of a bright, airy, and spacious male ward holding 10 beds. You will remember only a few years ago that we had very few male patients. Not that there was less illness among the men, but that they were not at all keen on being hospitalized, probably due to fear and superstition. But over the years the number of male patients has been increasing. Just before the male ward was built, we would have 6 to 8 male patients, which was quite something at that time. They were nursed outside on the veranda of the children’s ward. Now that the male ward is in existence, the 10 beds are nearly always occupied, and often extra beds have to be squeezed into the ward to accomodate all those who come.

Recently more male patients have been showing an interest in the Gospel than do the female ones. I shall just write briefly about one of these men, but there are also many others whom we could mention as interested. One man who came to us suffering from a facial paralysis was really very depressed. His speech was affected and he had difficulty in eating and swallowing. I think he felt that his case was really a hopeless one. Treatment was commenced and recovery was slow, so that he was with us for several weeks. During this time he showed a growing interest in the Gospel, asking many questions about the way of salvation. We gave him a Bible which he read eagerly and frequently each day.

Every morning when we did the ward round he would thank us profusely for the treatment we were giving him and for the Word of God. Then he would end by saying, “May the Lord bless you in your work It is due to His mercy and goodness that I am becoming better.” He was a good influence in the ward and encouraged other patients to read the Bible, or the Gospels which each in-patient receives from us. When fit enough he loved to attend the church services.

The day arrived for his discharge. We were sorry he was going, and yet we could not keep him. He lives very far from here, and from any place of worship. He must have thought the Bible we gave him was only on loan, for he came to hand it back to us. However, we reassured him that we had given it to him for keeps. I explained that the Bible, one of many, was from a lady in the United States of America for free distribution. Oh, he was so delighted. His eyes lit up and a smile crossed his face as he expressed his thanks, and then said, “Oh, truly the Lord is good to me.”

A month or so later he sent a child to us with a letter, and enclosed was some money for the church collection. Here are some extracts, translated, from his letter:

“I hope you and the young sister are well. I would be very happy if you are well. What makes me so happy and so thankful, sister, is the Word of God which I brought back with me from Mbuma. My illness made me have a love toward God. I miss Mbuma and my desire is that when the Lord’s people kneel to pray that they would remember me in their prayers, and that the Lord would encompass (or strengthen) you and the young one to be a light that will shine in the darkness. ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”

We ask you to remember him and the many others, male and female, young and old, with whom we come in contact and to whom are given Bibles, Gospels, or Scripture Text Cards, at the Throne of Grace, that they would come to a true knowledge of their need of Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. And also to remember those who have been delivered from the kingdom of Satan, that they be kept “looking unto Jesus”. These people do not have the privileges of Christian homes and friends as we have, but ary living, perhaps one Christian person among hundreds of heathens, surrounded by the powers of evil, and Satan is more than cunning and very subtle.

Yours sincerely,

Catherine Tallach

(Due to space limitations we were able to print only a portion of her very interesting letter.)

EXCERPTS FROM YOUTH DAY ADDRESS

Teen agers today are often referred to as the “turned on” generation, the group that’s in the swing of things, and probably this is an accurate description of many of them. Most of you are better educated and informed than any other generation in the past. You attend high school and college to prepare yourself for your chosen vocation but in the process you learn many things about yourself, others, and the world around you. Those of you who do not go on to school are kept well-informed about current political, scientific, and religious developments through the mass media. Consequently, you are interested in and involved in everything that is happening around you. Many young people want to be up on everything. The boys want to drive the newest model cars; the girls want to wear the latest fashions. And members from both sexes want to know the top musical hits and take part in the latest fads.

In many respects our “so-called” Christian society resembles the pagan civilization to which Paul preached on his missionary journeys. Luke writes in Acts 17 that when Paul arrived in Athens the people were curious what this babbler would say. “For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing” (Acts 17:21). The Athenians were like the people of any twentieth century university town. They were in the first place intellectually orientated. The influence of the great classical scholars was still evident; Paul sensed this and therefore he presented the gospel message on a philosophical level. He even alludes to two lines of Greek poetry in his address. Athens was the city in which Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle had walked and taught their philosophical theories. And even in Paul’s time, two cults, the Epicureans and the Stoics, still centered there; they presumably were trying to win the minds of the young people to their way of thinking. Young people are always more receptive to new ideas and new ways of doing things.

Today many young people rebel against parental authority during their adolescence. Often times this rebellious inclination carries over into other spheres, especially when young people repudiate their early religious upbringing. They argue that the new scientific approach in examining things is far superior and much more accurate than the old-fashioned way their parents did things. The Bible was good enough for their folks, but it is too dull and simple for their “enlightened” minds; it doesn’t stimulate their thinking powers or their reasoning faculties. In fact, some young people even go so far as to say that if Biblical doctrines cannot be proven scientifically, if they cannot be visibly demonstrated under a microscope or examined in a test tube, they don’t want to waste their time on it. The various theories they learn in the classroom or pick up from their friends concerning the origin of man and the universe seem much more educated and rational than the Biblical description of these events. But my young friends, much of what you learn in school is merely speculative — theories based on man-made observations and hypotheses which are not verifiable scientifically either. And when these theories are examined closely, we often find many loopholes, inconsistencies, and missing links in their arguments.

Maybe your instructors are competent in their special areas, but this doesn’t mean that they are authorities in spiritual things. We must remember that man consists of both body and soul and that things which pertain to the soul are not rationally learned. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). God and His saving grace are not just intellectual concepts which we can grasp with our mind; Biblical truths must be spiritually discerned; they must be experienced and felt. God must reveal them to us by His Spirit. Paul writes in 1 Cor. 2:14 “But the natural man re-ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” This doesn’t mean, of course, that we may neglect reading the Word of God. We should study the Bible, for it is the means which the Lord has given us for our salvation. Furthermore, sometime in life you will meet someone who is of a different religious persuasion than you are or who has no church affiliations at all; then you’ll have to prove to them that your religious beliefs are Biblically founded. Paul told the Thessalonians to “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thess. 5:21). And Paul told the Bereans that they were more noble because they searched the Scriptures, proving whether or not the things he said were true. But we (like the Athenians) are often interested in religion only on an intellectual level; we don’t want to submit ourselves unto God’s ways. Although an intellectual assent to God’s word is good and admirable, it is nevertheless, not sufficient for salvation.

Now, your ministers and church instructors have experienced this spiritual exercise of God’s grace and power; thus they are competent to instruct you properly about matters concerning your spiritual welfare. So the least you can do is to be attentive and respect them, for what do they receive for all their labors in your behalf? Money? Prestige? Honor? No, you know yourself that often times church leaders receive much criticism and slander.

Besides being an intellectual city, Athens was also a “swinging” city; there was always something to do. The people would congregate in the agora to gossip and watch the various kinds of entertainments - tumblers, jugglers, mimes, magicians, dancers, and clowns. There were others who attended concerts and plays. Many participated in physical exercises at the gymnasia, for the Athenians were very athletically minded too. Others perverted the philosophy of Epicurus and indulged in all kinds of sensual pleasures. I suppose the Epicureans of Paul’s day are comparable to the hippies and new morality advocates of today. These people argue that one should not try to repress his lustful (concupiscent) desires, for a person will become pyschologically maladjusted if he doesn’t give free expression to his sexual drives. Thus the modern teenager shoves aside the traditional Puritanical morality of his for-bearers and follows the new morality of relativity — if one feels good after he has done something, it must be moral; if one feels bad after he has done something, it must be evil. Because of this “permissiveness”, more and more young people are clamoring for free love, free booze, and free drugs. Why? For the kicks they think these things will provide. Thus they first play around with sex for awhile, and when this no longer satisfies them, they turn to drugs and thus they proceed down the road to bestialism. And if it were not for the restraining grace of God, we would all degenerate to animals.

Many teenagers waste their time reading cheap, trashy books and periodicals and listen to “rock” music on the radio which appeals to their prurient desires. Young people, you must remember that those who publish these books and record these songs are not interested in your mental or spiritual well-being; they are only interested in making money off of you. And then there are those who experiment with hallucinatory drugs, LSD and other non-prescribed drugs, in order to expand their minds, but in reality they are only destroying both their bodies and souls. Do you think that those who indulge in all these sensual pleasures are always happy and content? A colleague of mine at the University of Nebraska is always throwing beer blasts, holding love-ins, and doing other immoral things. And yet she is so insecure, frustrated, and discontent. She has nothing to live for, no goal in life. A few weeks ago the doctors informed her that she had to have an operation for a stomach ailment. She came to my office, thinking she had cancer, and she said, “Gary, will you pray for me? I can’t pray.” Here was a religious sceptic asking for divine intervention and supernatural assistance in an emergency. And then it struck home how prayerless we are by nature, and how small man becomes when calamity comes. Young people, don’t endanger your soul for eternity. Prayerfully ask God to help you heed Paul’s advice to Timothy: “Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure” (1 Tim. 5:22).

And in the third place, the Athenians were outwardly a very religious people. Historians claim that there were more idols in Athens than in all of Greece together. Whenever they heard of a new god, they would erect a temple and altar in his honor. And if Paul were to visit our cities today, he would find just as many different religious sects as he found idols then. But with all their secular learning and formal religiosity, the Athenians had not learned to know the true God. For them this God did not exist, because they were spiritually dead. Neither does Christ exist for many of our modern church people. In this age of automation, technology, and seientism, we are learning more and more about everything, until we have learned nothing about anything, because God, the center and circumference of all real knowledge is comparatively unknown. Yet Proverbs teaches that the “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom.” Last December in Miami, Florida, delegates attending a policy meeting of the National Council of Churches were questioned about their religious beliefs. 33% had doubts about the existence of God; 31% had doubts about life after death; 36% had doubts about the divinity of Christ; and 75% had doubts about miracles as they are described in the Bible.

Only a few churches preach the true gospel any more. Most churches have become social clubs where people get together and discuss topics of current interest. Church leaders are primarily concerned with how to increase church attendance, how to raise money for community projects, and how to succeed in the Christian life. God is left out of the Church entirely. Church leaders are more interested in making man comfortable rather than making him feel uneasy about his sins and guilt. The church is trying to transform society through financial and economic aid; they are not interested in changing the hearts of men. Like the Stoics of Paul’s day, church leaders hope to establish a universal brotherhood on earth, but all attempts to create such an Utopia have utterly failed in the past.

Other churches still claim to preach the gospel, but their doctrines are mostly man-centered. They contend that man can through his own moral agency will his own destiny, that they can accept Christ’s offer of salvation. They seem to have forgotten that the Bible teaches the sovereignty of God and the free immoral agency of man. Christ said in John 5:40: “And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” Young friends, how thankful we should be that the Lord has preserved his truth in our congregations. During the American revolution, the French philosopher Voltaire observed that “Ere the beginning of the nineteenth century, Christianity will have disappeared from the earth.” Early in this century, Sigmund Freud described religion as an illusion; man, he assumed, would outgrow his need for it. And yet the Lord continues to maintain and extend his Church until this very moment.

Young people, what is your main goal in life? Is it to merely excel in worldly wisdom? Is it merely to indulge in sensual pleasures? Or is it to continue living as you are, practicing only an outward form of godliness? Paul said that the Lord would wink at the past ignorance of the pagan Athenians, but now since they had heard the gospel they were responsible and should repent. And the same admonition applies for us. Pray that the Lord will fill you with His Spirit; then you will be “turned off’ toward the world and can say with the poet of Psalm 119: “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to Thy word … With my whole heart have I sought Thee: O let me not wander from Thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee. I will delight myself in Thy statutes: I will not forget Thy word.”

(G.B.)

SPEAK THE TRUTH

When you’ve been guilty of a fault,
Oh, lie not to conceal it,
For it will happen soon or late
That something will reveal it.

And then, Whate’er the deed has been,
However great your trouble,
The faults, the sorrows, and the sin,
Will all be rendered double.

But when at once the truth you’ve told,

Away with all your saddness;

The sense of having done what’s right

Will fill your heart with gladness.

— Gospel Gleanings for Young People

ADDRESSES FOR TIMOTHY CORRESPONDENCE

Timothy Section

Thomas Moerdyk

1222 Vassar Drive

Kalamazoo, Michigan 49001

Timothy Mission Fund

c/o Miss Adriana Kievit

1121 North Westnedge Avenue

Kalamazoo, Michigan 49007

Timothy Bible Quiz

Garret J. Moerdyk

1104 Roseland Avenue

Kalamazoo, Michigan 49001

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