(Disclaimer: Some articles and links to articles published in this ezine may contain false doctrine. They are included due to some valuable content. The fact that they are printed here does not mean that we accept or endorse their doctrine. All writings of men, including ours, should be carefully compared to the New Testament writings.)
Visit the website of the Piedmont (Alabama) church of Christ, where you will find myriad links to valuable Bible study aids, plus free Bible Study Courses, via mail or online:
www.piedmontcoc.org/index.html.

Well here we are in 2008! In just 22 more years and 9 months my soul will be 100! It's time to do some serious reflecting on our lives in the kingdom of Christ. How many of us can say they have helped direct others to the kingdom, this past year? What can we say that we actually accomplished for our Saviour's church? Most of us can say, Oh, I've given a contribution every Lord's day. But is that it? Well, I've studied the Bible almost every day. Did we learn anything? Are we applying it? I don't think passive religion will help us much. If you will read your Bible 2 hours per day, you'll be all the way through it sometime in March. And you can read it again by the end of May. And if we try to apply all we read in there, we can be fruitful this year for the Lord. You can't spare 2 hours per day??

We need to pray a lot this year, and especially for our brethren in Kenya. We have brethren there who are putting their heart and soul into the work of the Lord. Now there is a lot of political violence going on which places their lives in danger and may cause them to have to slow down in their work in some instances. Pray for their safety and their successful efforts. Brother Benard Kagaga baptized 5 and restored 5 in their annual December Gospel Meetings at Kalamindi and Lieta. He deserves our gratitude and our help. We have so very many brothers and sisters in need and yet we are so complacent. I receive pleas almost weekly from brethren all over the world, who need financial help, books, tracts and articles to read and distribute. We sit here gaining weight, throwing out enough food to feed a family. It reminds me of the rich man and Lazarus. They ask for so little and we waste so much. I pray God's forgiveness for my negligence. The church is growing in Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania, Philippines, India, Nepal and other natiions where good men are doing so much with so little while we, with so much, flounder. If any of you wish to get involved in helping some of these brethren,regardless of how small, let me know. I can furnish you with a number of worthy causes, needing help badly. I would hate for God to ask me why I buried my talents into Certificates of Deposits or other such investments when our brethren struggle for survival.

Many will be angered over what they read in this article. I can give you statistics to show why. I do not intend to give my views on this matter but to give you what the Bible says about it which is all that matters. What I think, or you think, changes nothing from right to wrong, or wrong to right. The title shown above comes from scripture found in Hebrews 13:4 which says: "Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge."

Marriage is an institution ordained of God. After He had created Adam and Eve, here is what the inspired writer, speaking for God, said. “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24)

It was quite obvious in the beginning, that a man was to have but one wife, however, it was not long before some began to have multiple wives. Cain, the first born of Adam and Eve, fathered several children, one of which was named Lamech. Here is what the Bible says about him: “And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.” (Genesis 4:19)

We learn later under that law, King David, who the scriptures say was a man after God’s own heart, married several wives and his son, King Solomon, had the outrageous number of 700 wives and 300 concubines!

God gave Moses a law for the Israelites and He also allowed Moses the discretion to permit various things, some of which was not intended to be, such as multiple wives and divorce, etc. Here is what Jesus himself, said: “They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.” (Matthew 19:7-8)

This law was given to the Jewish nation to furnish them a ”schoolmaster” to bring them to Christ. Or furnish the lineage to Christ:: “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:24)

Which law was taken out of the way and nailed to the cross with our saviour. “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;” (Colossians 2:13-14)

Christians are no longer under the Old Testament Law but under the “perfect law of liberty“, in Jesus Christ: “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” (James 1:25)

Now, with that understood, we have to go to Jesus for our instructions and guidance. To confirm this statement read this: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;” (Hebrews 1:1-2)

Now back to our subject and allowing Jesus to guide us answering our questions. Marriage of man and woman is compared to Jesus and His church (church meaning His called out, His spiritual kingdom) in Ephesians 5:35 “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;”

And now we get to the really controversial part of our subject and the one which causes more strife and problems than any other. Read this portion where the Pharisees were tempting Jesus and hoping to ask Him questions He could not answer: “The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it” (Matthew 19:3-12)

There are other scriptures that will reinforce the above but are simply the same, worded slightly different. So, now you have that which the Bible says in reference to marriage. I will not argue with anyone about this because my thoughts are no better than your own. But now, let me give you some U. S. (2000 Census) statistics as to how these scriptures are observed or ignored.

(1) One fifth (20%) of marriages end in divorce within 5 years
(2) One third (33%) end in divorce in 10 years.
(3) About 43% end in separation or divorce within 15 years.
(4) about 11 million people live together without marriage including same-sex and opposite-sex.

Since these statistics are almost 8 years old, these numbers, perhaps in each category, may be much higher.

(Published in Searchwarp.com November 8, 2007)

For some time now, I have been sending you a few quotes from various evolutionists who grudgingly concede that they have no evidence on which to base their stand. So today, I want to give some more that seem to prove that many proponents of macroevolution and/or the "Big Bang" supposition, know that their teachings are fallacious.

(Dr. George Wald, evolutionist, Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University at Harvard, Nobel Prize winner in Biology.) "There are only two possibilities as to how life arose; one is spontaneous generation arising to evolution, the other is a supernatural creative act of God, there is no third possibility. Spontaneous generation that life arose from non-living matter was scientifically disproved 120 years ago by Louis Pasteur and others. That leaves us with only one possible conclusion, that life arose as a creative act of God. I will not accept that philosophically because I do not want to believe in God, therefore I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generation arising to evolution."

(Plus another of this same man)"Most modern biologists, having reviewed with satisfaction the downfall of the spontaneous generation hypothesis, yet unwilling to accept the alternative belief in special creation, are left with nothing."

(And still another, same man) "Evolution [is] a theory universally accepted not because it can be proven by logically coherent evidence to be true, but because the only alternative, special creation, is clearly incredible."

(British Zoologist, Mark Ridley; New Scientist 90:830 1981) "The gradual change of fossil species has never been part of the evidence for evolution. In the chapters on the fossil record in On the Origin of the Species, Darwin showed that the record was useless for testing between evolution and special creation because it has great gaps in it. The same argument still applies…In any case, no real evolutionist, whether gradualist or punctuationist, uses the fossil record as evidence in favor of the theory of evolution as opposed to special creation."

If your feet smell and your nose runs, you are built upside down?

It is a scientific fact that taller people sleep longer in bed?

Saying you have bad skin is a pore excuse?

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Household of Faith Ezine is published every two weeks beginning in September, 2001. Materials in this are gleaned and compiled by the editor, Joel Hendon. Our purpose is to help present items of interest to those who would learn more of God's word.

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Copyright © 2007 Joel Hendon