A Tale of Two Churches

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I was in Indiana last weekend "trying out." That part of Indiana has small churches of Christ all around it.  One of the local families was taking us around the countryside showing us the lay of the land.  They pulled up to this now defunct church building and began telling us about its demise over 80 years earlier. The people directly involved are now dead.  Most of them are buried in the cemetery across the road due west of the church building. What I am sharing below is taken from part of their family history.  (An unpublished manuscript.)  I have not edited it in any way except that I have added current pics of the two buildings of the little churches involved. And a few labeled comments below… 

This is not a great doctrinal treatise but how it was remembered in later years by a nine year old child… 

Bethany Church of Christ

How Liberal Churches Are Like The Federal Government

Today I was considering the course our nation has gone… from being among the richest nation in the world to being basically owned by the Chinese.  Today I was also considering the course of various churches in our community.  They have gone from being Bible based with eternity and godliness being their focus…  to shallow speaking shells whose children are fleeing from them….

And I asked "why?"

Because both entities have made the same mistake. Both thought they were smarter than God and ignored His precepts.  Both have gone down a road that had an “unknown price”  to pay for it.  Both are now finding out the price for their choices.  Such is the way of sin…..

Consider…

"For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order : if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either."   II Thessalonians 3:10

Noah, the Movie

Well.... We went to see “Noah”, the movie...

You can read the truth about Noah in Genesis 6-9.

The producers of the movie chose blasphemy over scripture. Noah is depicted as a demented fellow who can't figure out what God wants from him. He looks like (and his family considers him) to be a madman.

Genesis 6 “13 Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. 14 "Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood ; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 "This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 "You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top ; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 "Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven ; everything that is on the earth shall perish.”

Note that his instructions from God were specific and to the point. This torn fellow that cannot figure out what to do is a slander both on a godly man and the God who created him.

In the movie, rather than his sons taking wives on the ark... Shem gets a wife, Noah abandons Ham's prospective wife to be trampled (alienating Ham) and Shem’s wife has twin girls on the ark. This appears to allow for the other two sons to have wives and re-populate the earth (??) Noah, however, thinks his mandate is to murder his granddaughters to cause all of mankind to cease.

The Bible account is VERY, VERY different.

Genesis 6:18 "But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark -you and your sons and your wife, and your sons' wives with you.”

In the movie, Tubal Cain stows away on the ark for the duration with Ham’s help and tries to murder Noah while on the ark.  The fact of the flood and a few of the names are about all the story line has in common with scripture.

You expect Hollywood to ad-lib on a lot of gaps in dialogue etc. This time they chose to turn one of God's all-time favorite righteous people into little more than a madman. When God was speaking to Ezekiel He chose three men as the ultimate examples of righteousness… Noah was one of them. To make Noah into some sort of a murder- crazed psycho is blasphemy.

“even though Noah, Daniel and Job were in its midst, as I live," declares the Lord GOD, "they could not deliver either their son or their daughter. They would deliver only themselves by their righteousness." Ezekiel 14:20

They took what were very clear instructions given to Noah and had him groping around trying to figure it all out on his own. Note Genesis 6:22 “Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.”

They avoided using the word “God” and instead used the word “Creator” and demonstrated a very aggressive agnostic and environmentalist agenda. The movie clearly presents the fact that God destroyed the world because of man… but it seems to be because of physical, environmental pollution. However in scripture, God said it was because of sin.

It was just very, very bad. A Bible believing Christian is going to be angry when he leaves. Far from simply using poetic license… they made a deliberate attempt to undermine what the text actually reveals. They also purposely smeared the integrity of a godly, righteous man.

The only good thing that I can see coming from this movie is providing a Christian the opportunity to correct the slander leveled against one the most treasured stories of scripture.

Hi I am glad you stopped by our blog. These articles are from an emailing that we did several years ago.   Today most of our work is on facebook

You can follow my personal page on Facebook by clicking on this link    ...  

  Jerry Blount 

You can follow the postings on the congregation's page by clicking on this link....   

Las Vegas church of Christ 

If you wish to worship with us....

Las Vegas church of Christ

709 Dora Celeste

Las Vegas, NM 87701

Our meeting times are

10am Sunday morning for Bible study.

11am Sunday morning for the worship service.

6pm Wednesday evening for Midweek Bible study.

If you wish to contact me...

yakipreacher@gmail.com

Be well 

Jerry Blount

The Family Needs Grandma

“The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers: not given to much wine, teachers of good things: That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." (Titus 2:3-5)

In this passage, Paul identified the role of Grandma as a key stabilizing factor for a successful home.
This is the last line of defense as mapped out by Paul… Grandma! Today this is compounded by the fact that now, in many cases, Grandma hasn’t known marital success or a “settled life” either. I was born in 1955 and graduated in 1973. I was the product of a happy home, as were both my parents.

The hoary head (gray head) is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.  Proverbs 16:31

 Previous to my generation, divorce was unheard of. When I married, my Grandma started in lecturing me, “In our family, we marry for life!” She was right… She died with the man she had loved all her life. My mother, her daughter, died with the man… (my father) whom she had loved all her life. My father loved my mother till the day she died. With my generation, that presumption has collapsed. There are fewer and fewer of us left.

Note from the following chart that I was not alone. This situation of crumbling marriages and fragmented families has been in a state of decline though out my lifetime.

Christians, Lies, and Forwarding Emails

“But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak , they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”  Matthew 12:36

Have you noticed that “most” of the email forwards turn out to not be true? Is “most” too strong a word?   I have become concerned over the last few years that many of the friends that I call “brother” will lose their salvation over the lies they carelessly forward on the internet.

Otherwise godly, conscientious people seem to feel no responsibility in passing on very damaging things about “this or that.”  For example how many Christians who don’t like our president will pass on every smear that comes their way… “hoping” it is true?

Consider this… A liar makes you into a liar when you blindly hit the forward button.

Then someone considers you trustworthy and thinks that you wouldn’t lie… So they hit their forward button and you  have made them a liar. This time it is because they trusted you!  Then someone trusts them and so on.

An Open Letter to the Boy Scouts of America

From an ex- eagle scout.

To whom it may concern:
I had to think a while before I wrote this letter. As I have gotten older, I have learned not to act rashly. I have now thought through what I must do, but do not wish to do.

I became an eagle scout in the 1970s. My mom hung the picture of our area wide “Eagle court of honor” in her hallway with pride until the day she died. When my sons came of age I encouraged them to becomes scouts. One of them also made it all the way to the coveted rank of eagle.

I had looked forward to my grandsons following the same course… and the privilege of sharing Scouting with them.

One of my fondest memories with my sons was at Philmont scout camp. We camped on the top of a mountain. The next morning we literally walked in the clouds as they rolled along the ground. Together we “touched the sky.”

I and my two sons swore the following oath as a prerequisite to our becoming scouts…(Each in our own generation)

Boy Scout Oath or PromiseOn my honor, I will do my bestTo do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;To help other people at all times;To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.

Let’s see, the final point… the punch line of the oath that we swore, and you still post today has young men swearing to be… “MORALLY STRAIGHT!” How do you define “straight?” Even the homosexuals define “straight” the same way I do. Let’s see they use the words “gay” and “straight.”

You still post this oath… Did I miss something?

When a Nation Boos at its Creator

Did you see the appalling display recently at the democratic convention?  If you didn’t you should.  There have been several attempts to downplay it… but the reality of the world in which we live was rather vividly exposed.

 If you have any respect for Christianity at all, you need to listen to this. HERE's the link...

In a nutshell the Democratic party leaders have long been embarrassed by many things that Christianity has to say. The scriptures have been downplayed and an atheistic amorality has been slowly taking its place for many years. This time around they tried to eliminate the last mention of God in their platform document.  They tried to do it behind the scenes without anyone knowing.
 The same convention that tried to “dump” God also sponsored an Islamic Junah…

One Christian’s thoughts on Chik-fil-a, Sodom & Gomorrah, and The Culture War Currently Underway in the USA.

Over the last month we have seen in dramatic terms how intolerant evil is of good.  One man spoke of his faith in the Bible as the Word of God, and the traditional God given definition of marriage.  There were immediate calls for boycotts etc. against the entire company because of one man’s faith in God.
Here is his initial statement, the "Chick fil a Anti Gay Statement":

“I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say ‘we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage’ and I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about.”

Have you noticed how “intolerant” and vicious the “tolerance” movement is?  Have you noticed the vicious attacks that Christians regularly endure simply because they are Christians?  The fact is that the war between light and darkness has been going on since the Garden of Eden.

We have been an incredibly “blessed” nation as we have purposely submitted ourselves as a people to the God of heaven.  “In God we trust” has actually been the underpinnings of our society.

So… how does a “blessed” people become a “cursed” people?  Clearly if we embrace same sex marriage as we have already embraced infanticide we are one step further down the path to Sodom.

Sometimes we overlook the obvious.  This process of “blessed” to “cursed” has occurred many times in the history of the world. Israel was a “blessed” nation that became “cursed” multiple times.

Sodom was a “blessed” community as well. Consider Lot’s assessment…

America's First Contact with Islam

A nation whose single greatest influence was Christianity
makes “first contact” with the lands of Islam…
 

In practice America’s first contact with the lands of Islam came through their trading of slaves among other things while in the colonial stage.   The Islamic warriors could not hold the interior of Africa largely due to the geography of the interior.  Over time the interior of Africa became viewed as a virtually inexhaustible supply of slaves for the Islamic countries.   The slave markets buzzed and routes were established going east (to Arabia, Persia etc.) and west (to the Americas) on a huge scale.

 
Britain’s massive naval presence in the Mediterranean (and elsewhere) protected America for the most part from becoming slaves… though white slaves were highly prized especially in the harems.  Most of Islam’s white slaves were imported from the Islamic frontiers bordering Russia.

That all changed with the declaration of independence.  America was no longer under the protection of the British flag.  The Barbary States along the northern coast of Africa, Tripoli (AKA Libya) in particular began capturing and selling American ships back to the US on a massive scale.  This tribute money from “unbelievers” to avoid enslavement eventually reached the unbelievable sum of 20% of the entire US budget.

It appears that 10 of the first 11 Americans seized died in slavery. It took awhile for the Americans to take the threat seriously.  (It sounds a lot like today…)
 In 1787 alone eleven American vessels were plundered and 121 sailors were taken hostage. They demanded one million dollars in ransom from the fledgling democracy.  [source]

From Conception to Birth in the Womb, Visualized

Today’s offering is going to be very unique in our mailings.  I am simply going to give you a link to a secular video artist’s presentation of the growth of the human body. 

I have no idea of the man’s religious beliefs or his stand on abortion. He presents an incredible animation based on cat scans etc. No gross stuff, only the beauty of God’s creative work inside the womb...