Selected Articles written by Kerry Duke, minister of the West End Church of Christ in Livingston, Tennessee.
The Indestructible Bible
In 168 B.C. the evil King Antiochus Epiphanes sent his soldiers to attack the city of Jerusalem. After they had slaughtered thousands of Jewish men, women, and children, they confiscated copies of the Old Testament and burned them. Jewish history states, "And when they had rent in pieces the books of the law which they found, they burned them with fire. And whosoever was found with any book of the testament, or if any consented to the law, the king's commandment was, that they should put him to death" (I Maccabees 1:56-57). But the king's decree did not get rid of the Scriptures. By the time Jesus came, Jerusalem had manly copies of the Word of God.
In the year 303 A.D. the Roman Emperor Diocletian commanded that "churches be leveled to the ground and the Scriptures be destroyed by fire" (Eusebius, Church History, 8.2). However, his rage against the Bible was futile. A few years after his death, Constantine became emperor and made Christianity the state religion. Although this religion was a corrupted form of the Christianity of the New Testament, the government was friendly to people who had the Scriptures.
William Tyndale translated the New Testament into English for the first time in 1526. Church authorities in England would not allow him to do this work there. He had to travel to Germany where he printed these New Testaments. These copies were smuggled in boats to England. Ten years later church officials arrested him and had him strangled and burned. But his work still lives. Many of the expressions in the King James Version of the New Testament are taken directly from Tyndale's translation.
Many Bibles were smuggled into the Soviet Union before the Iron Curtain fell. They are still being sent into Communist China. Passing out Bibles to people in public in countries like Iran and Yemen is considered a serious crime. A shipment of Bibles to the moderate Muslim country of Malaysia was stamped "For Christians Only" by port officials. Here in our own country four young people were arrested in Dearborn, Michigan for passing out part of the New Testament near a Muslim festival. The Ten Commandments have been taken out of courthouses and the Bible has been removed from many public schools, but the Word of God survives and prospers.
King Jehoiakim burned a copy of Jeremiah's writings in Jeremiah 36. Many like him have tried to destroy the Bible to no avail. Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Matt. 24:35).
-Kerry
Has the Dam Burst?
Have you ever wondered why God told the Israelites to destroy the people of Canaan? The Canaanites were very wicked people. These nations were full of the most heinous and disgusting vices imaginable: sodomy, pedophilia, bestiality, and even human sacrifices. Their sins are described in Leviticus chapters 18 and 20. Their wickedness made God sick. Here is what God said about them: "And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants" (Lev. 18:25). God ordered these people destroyed just like He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
In 1973, the same year that abortion was legalized, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. They began urging mental health professionals to regard this sin as normal. This change helped pave the way for this perversion to be marketed to the public as an "alternate lifestyle," to be taught in school as acceptable behavior, and to be presented to lawmakers as constituting marriage.
A recent meeting of one group of psychiatrists and other professionals shows how far some of these so-called experts are willing to take this thinking. Medical doctors and Ph.D.s from schools such as Johns Hopkins, the University of Texas, Harvard Medical School and others argued that the same change in attitude that occurred in 1973 toward homosexuality should also occur in regard to pedophilia! They have even invented a label that seeks to remove the detestable stigma associated with his behavior. Pedophiles, they say, should be referred to as "Minor-attracted persons" and should no longer be demonized by others. The idea of "wrong" should not be applied to this behavior, they urged.
Can human beings sink any lower? Now that sodomites have gained some public acceptance, pedophiles are demanding approval. What is to stop this from happening given the way our society reasons? If something as sinful as homosexuality is accepted, what is to keep child molesting from becoming legal? Conservative politicians tried to keep gay marriage from being legalized by saying it goes against the traditional practice of marriage. Why didn't they have the courage to say it is against the will of God? therein lies the problem. Even those on the right side of such issues are leaving God out when they try to settle these matters. Their moderate approach has only made our situation worse.
A few years ago someone asked pornography king Hugh Hefner about child pornography. He said children should not be victimized and should be protected from it. But if there is no God, or if the law of God is not absolute and knowable, then who is to say what is right or wrong—murder, incest, or sodomy? When men turn from God, every man becomes a law to himself. Every man does what is right in his eyes (Jud. 21:25). This is where many in our land are in their morals, and that is why our country is in the shape it is in. Thank God for the Christian people that honor the law of God, and thank Him for His longsuffering.
-Kerry
What Kind of Hero?
People love their heroes. Sadly, they often pick the wrong kind. In ancient Rome thousands would gather to watch gladiators fight to the death. Sometimes these condemned criminals and captives of war fought lions, tigers, and bears. Sometimes they fought each other. Soon the best contestants became stars. Citizens admired their courage and strength. Painters and sculptors portrayed their muscular physiques. Some carved toy figurines of champion gladiators. These men were as popular as today's best athletes. The coliseums that remain from this period show that these games were a huge business and a national pastime.
Some Christians spoke against these contests. They deplored this brutal amusement and condemned other Christians who went to these shows. They certainly did not understand a culture that idolized men who entertained crowds by killing.
Gunslingers in the old West became legendary. These men were famous for their nerves of steel and their lightning-fast draw. Some of the depictions of them in writings of the time were no doubt exaggerated. But the effect of these stories was the same in either case. They became heroes despite the fact that they were bad men and many were nothing but outlaws.
This fascination with gunfighters greatly disturbed Alexander Campbell. He worried about a nation founded on godly principles glamorizing rebellious men just because they were good at killing people with a pistol.
Men, especially young men, are prone to admire strength and courage in athletes. But how many of these athletes, especially at the professional level, are decent men, much less Christians? I remember talking to a Christian young man who played major league baseball for a while. He said many professional athletes live a very immoral life and there were just too many temptations. These competitors have amazing skills, but how many boys are taught to separate this ability from the behavior of these sports heroes?
Girls admire women who display beauty, fashion, and charm. Too often they idolize singers, actors, and television personalities. These idols usually have shallow thinking, no morals, and contempt for rules. Our society has turned these icons into millionaires while school teachers, policeman, and social workers are often underpaid.
The Bible is full of heroes. It has the greatest true stories of real men and real women. In it we read of Samson's strength and Benaiah's fighting skills. More importantly, we read about real heroes of faith like Abraham, Daniel, Paul, and especially Jesus. Boys and men need to love these stories and admire these men. Girls and women need to look to the godly examples of Sarah, Abigail, and Mary. These were real heroes.
-Kerry
Hope for Children
The devil is cunning. He knew years ago how to corrupt the home, the church, and the nation. He realized he would have to start training people when they are young to disrespect God and disbelieve the Bible. As the last century revealed, Satan found powerful people to help him.
John Dewey, who is called the father of modern education, said, "There is no God and there is no soul." Not surprisingly, he added that there is no such thing as "moral absolutes." Dewey uttered this nonsense in 1930. If many in education today hail him as the father of modern education, what does this say about them? What does this say about those who decide the direction of our schools?
Around the same time, another atheist made his intentions clear. C. F. Potter said, "Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every American school is a school of humanism." He boasted, "What can a theistic Sunday school's meeting for an hour once a week and teaching only a fraction of the children do to stem the tide of the five-day program of humanistic teaching?"
Through the persistence of these ungodly philosophers in the midst of people full of apathy, the devil has been quite successful. Textbooks that were once used in schools removed because they had many references to God and the Bible. Many Americans are not even aware that books like the New England Primer, McGuffey's Reader and the old "Blueback Spellers" were once standard texts in public schools. Now praying to God and reading the Bible at school are illegal. The ridiculous theory of evolution is now the standard doctrine being taught to precious little children, and the homosexual lifestyle is being taught to those impressionable souls as acceptable behavior.
Thank God for Christian public school teachers who have the courage to tell the truth in spite of what current textbooks say. Thank God we still have the freedom to have private schools or home schools. Thank God that many of us who were exposed to this anti-theistic agenda have the free will God gave us and are able to see through it.
The home is to be the primary school for the moral and spiritual training of children:
"And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up" (Deuteronomy 6:6-7).
How can we counteract a culture that is bent on driving our children and grandchildren away from God? How can parents overcome the influence of the world that threatens children on every hand? Teach them the Bible as much and as often as you can.
-Kerry
Something We Can All Do
Gratitude is a great virtue. The Israelites offered sacrifices, but God wanted more. He wanted them to come before Him with a thankful heart:
"I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills" (Psalm 50:8-10).
God already owned any material thing they could offer to Him. So what could they offer God that was truly special? He tells us in verse 14 of this psalm: "Offer unto God thanksgiving"!
Ingratitude is a heinous and far-reaching sin. When Paul listed vices that prevail in this age, he said that "men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy" (II Tim. 3:2). When he described Gentiles who left the knowledge of God and plunged into idolatry, homosexuality, and almost every sin imaginable, he said this dark journey began "because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful..." (Rom. 1:21). The habit of being unthankful is not an innocent oversight. Ingratitude is a failure to recognize God who gives us everything, and it rots a man's soul and life.
Everybody can find things to be thankful about. This is something we have to work at. No matter how little or how much we have and no matter how good or how bad our conditions are, we can find things to be thankful for if we try. Life is a mix of the good and the bad, so if we wait until everything is just right before we are thankful then we never will be. Paul said, "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content" (Phil. 4:11). Matthew Henry (1662-1714), a Bible commentator, went out one day and was robbed. When he got back home, he took his journal and wrote these words: "I think thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; and third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed."
Being thankful is a simple thing, but most people are not thankful. When Jesus healed ten lepers, only one came back to thank Him. The Lord asked, "Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?" ( Luke 17:17). Do any more than one out of ten today show gratitude? But if many today are unthankful, isn't this an opportunity for Christians to let their light shine? So many today whine and complain no matter how good their life is. They should be ashamed.
It is easy to appreciate blessings when we're about to lose them, and it is a challenge to remember not to take them for granted. Hezekiah cried and prayed to God when he thought he was going to die. But after he recovered from his sickness, he "rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up" (II Chron. 33:25). We need to remember the losses and the hardships we have experienced, not to burden ourselves with guilt or sorrow, but to keep our souls humble and grateful.
-Kerry
A Forum for Childcare
Why do parents abandon their own children? Last week lawmakers in Nebraska wrestled with this problem. Earlier this year they passed a safe haven law which allowed parents to leave a child at a licensed hospital without being prosecuted. But since the law did not put a limit on the unwanted child's age, parents were dropping off troublesome teenagers at hospitals, and some came from other states to take their children to these locations. So the Nebraska legislature revised the law to limit the age on an abandoned baby to 30 days.
Safe haven laws have been enacted in states to deal with the increasing incident of child abandonment. Sometimes called "Baby Moses Laws," they are designed to protect abandoned infants in exchange for granting the parent or parents freedom from prosecution for neglect. Of course, the situation with baby Moses was quite different. His mother put him in a little ark to save his life from a murdering king. She even watched from a distance to see who found him; she herself became his nurse (Exod. 2).
There was in the ancient city of Rome a vegetable market on a place called the forum Olitorium. When mothers wanted to abandon an infant, they would bring the baby to this forum and lay the child at the base of a column known as the Lactaria column. This location got its name from the state-provided wet nurses who were there to give care to these infants (Lacteria--lactate, lactose, etc.). The Greeks and Romans called abandonment of a baby "exposure," and the practice was common. Often an unwanted infant was left in a field to die. But even the idolatrous element of Rome had a human side that had pity on these helpless children. And, like today, the government funded the healthcare for them. But the law also said that whoever found an abandoned baby and raised the child had absolute authority over him and could declare him a slave. Some children became the victims of adults who intentionally crippled them to make them beggars. This practice, as well as exposure, still occurs today.
It is no wonder that Paul listed among the abominations of the heathen in Roman 1 the sin of being "without natural affection" (v. 31). Men and women produced children they didn't want, so they turned to abortion and exposure to get rid of them. Pagan religion had drained that culture of virtue. Secular philosophy had removed any basis for absolute right and wrong. The lust for wealth, pleasure, and power had intoxicated their souls. They had no respect for marriage and no use for children. Do we wonder why this great empire fell?
Many parents are shocked to hear about the ancient Lactaria column. They would not dream of leaving their children at a hospital in the middle of the night. But they will drop off their children at theaters to hear the worst profanity and to see fornication and perversion glamorized. They will abandon them before a television or computer where their young unsupervised minds absorb the filth of the world. They drop off their child at school and say, "Make him a good citizen." They take him to church and say, "Make him a good boy." Meanwhile, they pursue their busy life. God will hold them and the civilization they have created accountable for this negligence.
-Kerry