by Randal Matheny

This weekend I was down south in Porto Alegre giving the Total Transformation seminar. At the end of each seminar, I ask the participants to evaluate the material. One of the questions asks, "What principle, idea or biblical passage most helped you?"

One of the principles most cited is, "Let go of the past to embrace the future."

Our past is a double-edged knife. Perhaps it was very good, and we keep wishing that wonderful period of our life would return. Or perhaps our past was traumatic or difficult and we can't overcome the feelings or bitterness that still chains us.

Israel also had such moments. When the people returned from exile and began rebuilding the temple that had been destroyed some 70 years earlier, they overcame many difficulties. With God's blessing, they managed to lay the temple foundation. On that day, there was great celebration.

"And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid" (Ezra 3.11b, NASV).

It was a day of great rejoicing after such an important victory for the people spiritual life. But not everybody could join in the party.

"Yet many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' households, the old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, while many shouted aloud for joy" (v. 12).

The older members of the people remembered the glorious temple of Solomon -- and wept. The beginning of this new temple was modest. And they knew there would be no top quality finish like the former one. For the people were now weak, poor, and needy.

"... [T]he people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away" (v. 13).

Good thing the partying Jews made lots of noise, but there is a melancholy note to this verse. Though all should have been celebrating, the crying and rejoicing mixed together in the crowd.

It doesn't matter what you lost in your wonderful past. Tears will not turn back the clock. But they will keep you from celebration today's victories and the advances, small as they may be, of a richer spiritual life with the people of God.

Let go of the past, however good it was. Only in this way will you be able to rejoice in the present and embrace a promising future.

A May 7th article about antidepressants in the Washington Post online cited some interesting data. Pharmaceutical companies pursuing FDA approval of their antidepressant medications must provide data supporting the claimed benefits. A comparison of patients who are given the antidepressant versus a control group who are given placebos (sugar pills) is standard procedure.

According to the article, the majority of such studies in the past few decades has revealed two things - that antidepressants work, and that sugar pills work just as well, if not better. Many patients who received placebos showed results indistinguishable from those who received antidepressants. But when these patients were told, after the study, that they had been taking placebos, their condition quickly deteriorated.

Obviously, what we believe has an impact on how we feel. Further, what we believe has an impact on how we live. Jesus told Martha "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." Then He asked her the kicker - Martha, do you believe this?

That question is an appropriate one for our times as well. Remember what happened in the few years after Christ’s death? Paul and his companions “turned the world upside down”! He told the Colossians the gospel had been preached “in all creation under heaven”. David Lipscomb’s comment on this phenomenon was “It seems strange that the gospel had been preached among all the nations; but, if we consider the earnest character of the Christians, who gloried in persecutions and death for Christ's sake, it will not seem so strange. The greatest hindrance to the gospel in our day is the lukewarm and indifferent character of professed Christians.”

Think about it. How different would the world be today if our belief in the Great Physician was as motivating as those placebos mentioned earlier? Jesus told the Laodiceans to anoint their eyes with salve so that they could see their true condition. In the midst of material abundance, they were spiritually bankrupt. So here we are, in the most prosperous era in human history materially, and still we’re depressed in record numbers.

Where’s the joy so often mentioned in the New Testament, even in sometimes bitterly difficult circumstances? It is one of the fruits of the Spirit isn’t it? How many of our modern day maladies are really spiritual in nature? Perhaps we had better seek out some eye salve.

by G. A. Tidwell

“The times, they are a changing.” Bob Dylan’s observation of social upheaval in the 1960s describes the churches of Christ at the opening of the twenty-first century.

Worship is changing. Congregations bring in all manner of deviance, pandering to every selfish whim. Entertainment replaces reverence. Emotionalism replaces obedience. The spirit of this age replaces the Spirit of Grace.

Church government is changing. Freelance organizations misappropriate the work God intends for the church of Christ. Mercenary professionals usurp the divinely authorized assignments of pastor, deacon, and evangelist. Congregations become fraternal societies, existing to meet the needs of their members. They are no longer a fellowship of God’s people, gathered in obedience to His will.

A Time of War

The time is long past for us to be honest. Many organizations and individuals claim to serve the Lord’s church, but, in Gershwin’s phrase: “It ain’t necessarily so.” We need a reality check. It is time to ask pertinent questions and to expect clear answers. It is time to face our crisis, to divide truth from error, to unmask the frauds deceiving God’s people.

Already much error, previously carefully hidden, now openly affronts the brotherhood. If the pace of apostasy continues, the division will be complete within the next five years. While we do not rejoice in the falling away of those who were once our brethren, we rejoice in the purification of God’s church.

A Time of Victory

Freedom from the corrupt elements of our fellowship provides freedom to be the church that is pleasing to God. In the grace of our Savior, we must restore obedience to Scripture. We must rebuild the broken walls of faith, following the revealed pattern of doctrine and practice.

In obedience to God, we will teach, work, and worship as Scripture commands. The Lord will be with us. War is often bitter, but victory in Christ makes the struggle worth the effort.

by Barry Newton

(Note: While Barry gets hooked up, here's a recent article of his I had up my sleeve. —Randal)

Long before Jesus hung on the cross, Job revealed through the assertion, "I know that my Redeemer lives," that he tenaciously clung to a personal hope for his future. Job 19:25 Unlike Job, whose confidence in God was based upon his expectation of what would transpire, our faith is based upon what God has already accomplished through Jesus.

Here is a sampling of some of the different types of reasons some have given for believing that the resurrection really happened. These are nuggets worth sharing in a postmodern world where lives have lost a single compelling focus to drift in a multitude of directions.

1. Women(!) found the tomb empty

At first glance the skeptic might query, "How can this be significant evidence for the resurrection unless you already believe the story is true?" But such a lighthearted dismissal is itself quickly spurned when the historical cultural facts are known.

In first century Jewish culture when the Gospels were written, women were not even considered credible witnesses in court. (Sorry about that, ladies.) If someone in that time and culture had wanted to fabricate the story of Jesus' resurrection, he would not have any motive for undermining this story by creating such embarrassing details as women finding the tomb empty, speaking with an angel and then conversing with Jesus. To have crafted a story where the primary witnesses were women would not have been persuasive to any skeptics in that day. Accordingly, because there was no motive for a writer to have written this unless this is what actually happened, the women's discovery of the empty tomb and their subsequent encounter with the risen Lord bears the stamp of historical authenticity, not legend.

There are also other "embarrassing" details which also reveal the historical genuineness of this story, such as some of disciples doubting that they were beholding the risen Lord. This evidence further separates the Gospels from fictitious propagandist legends.

2. Even if we were to retreat to the limited evidence that skeptics will accept, 1 Corinthians is too early for legendary material to have developed.

Even those who are antagonistic to accepting Scripture as God's message will admit that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. And what did Paul write? The apostle Paul wrote about eyewitnesses to the resurrection still being alive (as well as being an eyewitness himself) and practically invited his readers to go check it out! 1 Corinthians 15:5-8 What is significant about this is the date Paul wrote these things.

The general consensus based upon the evidence is that this letter was written between 55-57 A. D. In other words, this testimony concerning eyewitnesses to the resurrection was written down less than about 25 years following Jesus' death. Not only this, this letter stands as evidence of the message Paul had already been preaching for a number years. In other words, the letter of 1 Corinthians is historic evidence that the message that Jesus had risen from the grave was not fabricated decades after his death.* Is this significant?

Could not have Paul (or someone else) created this story at the time of his resurrection? How can proximity between the proclaiming of the message and the actual time of Jesus' death be significant? It is known from history that legends and grand embellishments develop around heroic figures only years after the eyewitnesses have died. Not only does the preaching of Jesus risen from the dead smash this characteristic of legendary development, the skeptic is invited to talk with the eyewitnesses!

3. Prior to Jesus birth, the resurrection of the Christ (Messiah) had been announced.

Drawing upon the words of David, Peter proclaimed to those standing before him that he had foretold of Christ's resurrection. Peter claimed that being a prophet, when David had prophesied that God would not allow His Holy One to see decay, he was not writing about himself but was pointing forward to the resurrection of Christ. Acts 2:22-36

The resurrection of Jesus was not an idea which Jesus' followers invented in order to cover over an embarrassing turn of events. Rather the news of this event had already been woven into the message of Scripture long before Jesus had even been born.

Conclusion

Can we seek the comfortable position of not offending anybody by claiming uncertainty? Paul does not permit us that luxury; he forces us to either accept the truthfulness of his message or denounce him a liar. 1 Corinthians 15:14-15

There is evidence embedded in history and Scripture which points in the same direction for those who are willing to take a hard, long look. Jesus is risen! We can know our Redeemer lives!

*Those of us who believe the Bible will point to Peter's sermon in Acts 2, which followed Jesus' resurrection by a mere 50 days, when for the first time Jesus was preached as being crucified and risen.

Forthright is privileged to welcome on board this happy ship Emmett Smith III. You can now read his full bio here.

Emmett will write on Sundays in the column "Understanding the Times." I'm really looking forward to it. He always has thoughtful and careful things to say.