Plain Truth 1962 (Vol XXVII No 08) Aug - Lcgmn.com

Page 28
singleness of purpose, accomplishing the
WORK OF GOD on earth today. (I Cor.
12:28; Eph. 4:11).
WHAT Should the Church DO?
Bur what is the real PURPOSE behind
it all?
What is the REASON for a unified
body, well organized, following the
LAWS of God, receiving tbe admonitions
and corrections of its LIVING Head,
Jesus Christ, from His word?
WHAT SHOULD THE CHURCH DO?
The world doesn't have the answer!
When a well·known foundation and
theological seminary sent out question.
naires to 1,600 ministers, they found that
today's pascor is nor so much a preacher
(God said, "PREACH THE WORD!" (II
Tim. 4:2) as he is organizer, promoter,
financier, psychologist, adminisrraror,
emenainer, and socialite!
As one clergyman said, "We simply
cannot see where we are GOING in the
Church. Our churches are successful.
We gain more members, we have more
at church, we have bigger budgets, we
have more activities. But we can't see
thac we are making much of a difference
in our communities or in the lives of
the individual members of our com·
munities,"
The entrance requirements of some
modern churches, according ro a min·
ister, are ". . . like those of a social
club ... primarily excernal and they
provide status. , , ,"
What SHOULD the Church do? Keep
children off [he streets? Become a social
club? Build new buildings?
When a professor of sociology asked
a group of 368 persons who attended a
church in one western city the question,
"\'Vhat is rhe purpose or reason for the
being of ehe church?" one in six an·
swered, "TO worship God," while one in
three said, in different expressions, "To
evangelize non·Christians, co sustain
fellow Christians, promote community
morale, fight Communism, raise the
standard of living, reassure people in
a world of turmoil, help those 'wieh
problems ..." and so·on.
The findings of the survey were that
people frankly DO NOT KNOW WHY
THEY ATIEND CHURCH-and they DO
NOT KNOW WHY THE CHURCH EXISTS!
(Please co"Ii""e 0" page 43)
Tbe PLAIN TRUTH
~od
from the Editor
(Co,,'i,med from page 4)
15 :45·49) . Therefore, what God created
in ehe first Adam was not yet complete,
Man was made carnal, material-but he
was made to need ehe SPIRIT OF GOD.
W iehom this Ipiritual life from Goo,
man experiences a sense of emptiness-a
hunger and thirst for that which will
SATISFY.
The only thing thae will impan to
him this sense of saeisfaction, complete·
ness, abundance, is Goo's Spirit-God's
nature-Gad's FULLNESS. Yet his carnal
mind does not recognize that fact. Being
incompleee, lacking in the spiritual
waters and heavenly food-Gad's
Word-that would FILL him to satis·
faction, he has a gnawing soul·hunger
that leaves him miserable, empey, dis·
contented. He seeks to quench his thirse
and satisfy his soul·hunger in ehe inter·
ests and pursuits and pleasures of this
world.
This very lack within him-chis spir·
itual NEED--gives him an innate IN·
FERIORITY COMPLEX. He senses his IN·
FERIORITY, as compared to God-his
lack of what he was made to 1teed; but,
nm understanding what it is, he seeks co
quell the painful sense of inferiority
by conceit, and blowing up the ego-­
the SELF-with vanity and SELF·exal·
eation. This vanit,y, then, is a .substitute
for GOD and His Spirit-another god
before the true God.
Since, then, his group, his club, his
team, his parcy, his country, HIS WORLD,
is all a part of his EMPIRICAL SELF, he
exalts it, he loves it, he is loyal to itand
hostile co all opposing powers or
forces. And this, too, becomes a kind of
idolatry.
This world travels A WAY that is the
very antithesis of THE WAY of God.
Therefore, since THIS EVIL WORLD is a
part of the empirical SELF) the carnal
mind of man is hostile to God.' Do you
now see WHY?
Human nacure is SELF·LOVE. Yet this
love is 1I0t true love, bue LUST. The
SELF, as a local self or taken at its
August, 1962
widese expansion, is hOItile to God. It
has a contrary NATURE. It travels a dif·
ferent road. Ie is pare of a different
team, party, or group, or world, WAR·
RING against God and Gods' WAY. It is
wAR-and the SELF is lined up on ehe
side of THIS EVIL WORLD, against GOD!
And this is idolatry. Do you begin to
see why you need to repent of what
you are?
In this SUPREME WAR of all wars,
God Almighry will accept no terms of
PEACE bur UNCONDITIONAL SUR­
RENDER!
The world is the ENEMY of GOD. It
is hostile to GOD. les educators have not
retained GOD or His revealed knowledg:
in their curricula. les educational ap·
proach to knowledge is nm from [he
basis of God's revelation of origins, pur·
poses, causes and right ways, but from
opposite, conuary and false concepts.
les historians in their hostility to the
common enemy-GaD-have deliber·
ately rejected Biblical historic FACT,
such as the flood, the exodus, the crea·
tion.
les science, its medicine, its eco·
nomics, its political structures, its social
systems, its religions-ALL are hostile
toward, and contrary to THE TRUTH and
THE WAY of GOD!
But now look at the individual! Look
at YOU/ The SELF is part of [his evil
world of Satan. This world is part of
the empirical SELF. The very NATURE
in man is SELF·LOVE.
So by nature man loves HIS WORLD.
His nature is saturated with love for the
things that are AT WAR AGAINST GOD,
His love for, and sense of loyalty to·
ward his group, whether small or large,
means automatically a hOItile attitude
tOward whatever or whoever is opposed.
SO HUMAN NATURE automatically ex·
presses resentment, jealousy, malice,
spire, hatred, toward opposing parties,
whether within or without his world.
You see, Satan's world iI divided
against irself. A man hates sold iers of an
opposing army in war-yet those sol·
diers are a PART of the WHOLE world,
which he loves. Bue this love, again, is
actually LUST, for it is a love of the
empirical SELF!
1 said that before one can be can·
verred, he must REPENT of WHAT HE
IS, as well as what he has done. And