"Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the Truth?" --Galatians 4:16

"REVEREND"

Question: "I notice some folks address you as "reverend." I understand this term is used in only one place in the Bible and refers to God, (Psalm 111:9)"

Answer: The Lord "reverend" is used in Psalm 111:9, "Holy and Reverend is His (the Lord’s) name." It has come into common usage among the world to address a minister or preacher as "reverend." The Hebrew word "yare" is the word here translated "reverend," and it is used 242 times to translate the word "fear," 75 times "be afraid," 24 times "terrible," once "dread," twice "reverence", twice "fearful," three times "afraid," five times "dreadful," and several other variations of the above translations. The root meaning of the word is to "fear, or reverence" 1.) One’s parents (Leviticus 19:3),

2.) A leader (Joshua 4:14),

3.) The sanctuary (Leviticus 19:30),

4.) An oath (I Samuel 14:26}.

Leviticus 19:3 says, "Ye shall fear (reverence, hold reverend) every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths.... "

Read Joshua 14:4, "On that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared (reverenced) him, as they feared (reverenced) Moses, all the days of his life."

You cannot separate God, His Christ, His authority (whether invested in the husband, or the parents, or a civil leader, or God’s pastor) and His minister. They rise or all together. And some folks think of them together; and God looks upon them together.

Pastor Gueho of the First Baptist Church -Algiers, New Orleans,

HERESY AT LANDMARK BAPTIST CHURCH

"Know this: God will Health, Prosperity for all His family," so reads the sign in front of this Augusta Church.

There is a Scriptural difference between False Teachers and Heretics. Referring to the former, Peter makes the distinction calling their doctrines "damnable heresies" (II Peter 2:1) and whose judgment now of a long times lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." (verse 3) Hence, these do not belong to the Household of Faith.

The latter are such as may be "delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme." (I Timothy 1:20) Heretics who do not repent after the second admonition are to rejected knowing that "he is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself."

The Reason for such an article here is first, due to the prevalence of such heretical doctrine, and second, because such a doctrinal stand has been publicly made, and it needs be publicly rebuked. And may the grace of God be shed upon the Angel of this Church to repent lest on his account the name of God be blasphemed among the ungodly.

The first heresy here spoken of is that "God will Health...for all His family." Elisha is part of the family of God, yet he fell sick of his sickness whereof he died." (II Kings 13:14) Now if the phrase "for all His family" be interpreted to mean the Church exclusively, why was it then that when the Apostle Paul besought the Lord three times for the removal of the "thorn in his flesh," God answered saying "My grace is sufficient for thee?" (II Corinthians 12:7-9) Now, if someone object that no one knows just what this "thorn in Paul’s flesh" was, let me hasten to ask, "What difference does it make?" Whether this "thorn" be Mental, Emotional, Physical --or even Horticultural, what difference does it make? If God will Health, does He will Mental Health? or Emotional Health? What about Physical Health? or does God will all these.

The second Heresy promulgated by the sign before this church is that "God wills ...Prosperity for all His family." Has this man of God never read of the beggar Lazarus who died "and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom?" (Luke 16:22) Did not the Apostle Paul commend the inhabitants of Macedonia and Achaia for their contribution to the "poor saints" in Jerusalem? (Romans 15:26)

The message contained on this church sign ought to be given to the saints who through the ages have had unfriendly governments seize their property because they would not bow their knees to the state. Give it to the martyrs who through the ages have been "tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy): they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." --(Hebrews 11:335-38) Tell it to Stephen, and to the saints who today are behind the Iron Curtain.

Such doctrine is not only false, but is Unfriendly to the Gospel because it desires passage to the "Promised Land" without having to go through the "Wilderness." It will accept no Cross and will therefore receive no Crown.

This world is a "Vale of Tears," and Paul urges us to use it as not "abusing" it. (I Corinthians 7:31)

The message propagated by the Church is not to be one that rationalizes the spirit of Covetousness.

APRIL 1, 1703 --France. Marshal Montrevil, in command of the Royal troops, has been told of three hundred persons assembled for worship in a mill near Nismes. He hastens with a strong detachment of soldiers. Ordering the doors be forced open, he commands the worshippers be slaughtered on the spot. Not content with the slowness of the butchery, he orders the mill be set afire. All not murdered are burned to death --all except one girl, who is spared through the humanity of the Marshal’s lackey. Tomorrow, however, she will be hanged and her would-be deliverer will narrowly escape the same.

10, 1606 –England. The Royal Charter of Virginia will be granted today "...for the furtherance of so noble a work which may by the providence of Almighty God hereafter to the glory of the Divine Majesty the propagation of the Christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge of God, and may in time bring the infidels and savages living in those parts to human civility and to settle a quiet government.".

11, 1888 --England. Charles Haddon Spurgeon withdraws from the London Baptist Association which he has helped form in 1865. He has charged that in many churches and chapels, "The Atonement is scouted, the Inspiration of Scripture is derided, the Holy Spirit is degraded into an Influence, the Punishment of sin is turned into fiction, and the Resurrection into a Myth.... At the back of doctrinal falsehood comes a natural decline of spiritual life evidenced by a taste for questionable amusements and a weariness Of devotional meetings."

Augustine early learned a hatred for gossip and had inscribed upon his dining table: