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Forthright Magazine
www.forthright.net
Straight to the Cross

COLUMN: Fidelity

First-Century Worship
by Mike Benson

Edward T. Dalhbert, minister for the Delmar
Baptist Church in St. Louis, Mo., visited the
Central church of Christ in that same city. In his
regular radio broadcast, "The Protestant Hour" on
station KFS, Mr. Dalhbert gave some impressions of
his visit with the Central congregation. Here is
an excerpt from his program:

"I had a very interesting experience Sunday when
I, myself, was not preaching. I walked to the
nearest church close to my home. Now, this church
is very different from my church. It is a church
that does not believe in church choirs...it does
not believe in any (mechanical) instruments of
music...there was not an organ or piano in the
entire building.

Now you say when you hear about a church like
that, 'Well, they must be queer, to introduce an
old-fashioned idea like that in...(our) century.'
But on the contrary, that was one of the most
inspiring services that I ever attended. The
church was crowded with a youthful congregation.
The singing lead by a well-trained young man with
great quietness and dignity - the singing was of
superb volume and praise to God. Until the time of
the sermon, the minister took no part in the
service. Eight capable young men read Scripture,
offered the prayers, gathered the contribution,
and even administered the Lord's Supper. It was a
perfect demonstration of the priesthood of
believers, and I felt myself virtually in the
fellowship of the First Century Church... I went
home inspired, saying to myself, 'It was good to
be in the house of the Lord today.'"

Good friend, churches of Christ (cf. Rom. 16:16)
all over the world, like the Central congregation,
wish to restore their worship to that which can be
read about in the New Testament (John 4:24; Col.
3:16; Matt. 26:26-29; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:1,2).
Their assemblies are simple, reverent and devoted
to the First Century pattern laid down in
Scripture.

Why not come and be with us this coming Lord's
Day? We'd love to have you!

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COLUMN: Hands-on Faith

You Can Start With The Passion of The Christ
by Barry Newton

A few weeks ago I was talking with someone who has
embraced an American Indian philosophy. He told me
all about sweat lodges and the symbolism involved
in them. He excitedly claimed that the trees and
the animals are our brothers. On the one hand, he
expressed his suspicion of Europeans and "their
religion" because of their track record. On the
other hand, he appeared to make an attempt to be
magnanimous and to build legitimacy for his Indian
philosophy by claiming that we are both working
for the betterment and healing of people. He said
he could accept me as being in a different path
toward the same goal.

While many people today might not share all of his
beliefs, I suspect that a large number of people
do evaluate just about everything based upon
whether it is broad-minded. Accordingly, I would
suspect that many would gravitate to his claim
that different religious paths can be equally
viable. As we dialogued, a number of thoughts and
questions cascaded through my mind. A couple of
these were:

"I wonder how my fellow Christians would have
responded to him?"

"How can I show this person, who is obviously
sincere, that true Christianity is not just
another philosophy of life among equals?"

At the onset, we should at least acknowledge what
the Scriptures claim. The message they were
intended to communicate do not permit a view of
Christ and serving him as simply being another
ethically beneficial philosophy among equals for
living life. You can start with the crucifixion of
Jesus.

Scripture claims that all the peoples of the world
are guilty and stand in need of being declared
righteous before God. And furthermore, there is
only one solution to this problem - Jesus' death
on the cross on our behalf and our subsequent
incorporation into Christ (Rom. 3:23-25).

The story of Jesus presented in the Bible is not a
tidy little message which can be contained in a
box that will sit nicely on a shelf as merely
being an equal among other religions. The gospel
calls people to respond to Jesus or be lost.
Clearly, the gospel's intended message is that
whether someone admits its truthfulness or not
will not alter the fact that Jesus is the only way
to the Father and our only hope (John 14:6; Acts
4:12).

But do these claims have any teeth? Are they
merely assertions or is this the way that things
really are? The shackles of merely being another
ethically viable philosophy fall off of containing
Jesus and his message by his resurrection from the
dead. This was God at work! His resurrection
verified that his death was indeed a sacrifice for
all of humanity. From a human perspective,
Christianity either rises above all other
religions or falls down to simply being another
humanly contrived path among equals depending upon
whether Christ historically rose from the dead.
The evidence reveals that the tomb was empty
Sunday morning, not because someone stole his body
but because death could not hold him. (See
www.sjchurchofchrist.org/redeemerlv.shtml)

Since the message proclaimed by Christ and about
Christ is reliable, all of humanity has a
responsibility to respond to it, since God will
judge the whole world by the One whom God raised
from the dead (Acts 17:30,31). What will matter
for my Indian friend, and for all other people one
day, is whether they have trusted in Jesus by
obeying the gospel.

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