Text: "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me" (II Sam. 12:23b).

Unconverted men do evil on account of an evil heart, but when Christians hold to wrong opinions, it is often on account of an unsound theology. The reason many Christians have never understood the ghastly evil of aborticide (i.e. the deliberate taking of the life of an unborn child) is because they choose to believe that all children who die in infancy go to heaven. Yet, the fact remains that it is an act of callous murder.

What happens to a child who dies in infancy? After all, if God saves all the unborn, should we not abort all the unborn before they become accountable for their actions, and possibly may never be converted? But Scripture teaches no such thing! Children are conceived by sinners, and not by angels. Therefore, children are conceived in sin as the Psalmist testifies (Ps. 51:5).

The question that needs to be answered is, "Does God hold children responsible for their moral pollution by original sin? or, does God hold them responsible only for the sins they do when they come of age?" The answer is not a difficult one, and can be given in the form of another question: "Since death comes by sin (Rom. 5:12), do infants die?"

Children often die naturally, and are discarded in the womb. The natural expulsion from the womb of a dead child is known as an "abortion." Since unborn children frequently die naturally, it is obvious that God holds children accountable even for their pollution by original sin, and that He does it even before they have lived long enough to commit any sinful act themselves.

The writer is confident the reader knows the circumstances surrounding the text -how that David, the man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), was tempted when he was idle; how he committed adultery, and then exposed the husband of Bathsheba, Uriah the Hittite, to mortal danger; how he married Bathsheba when she was found with child; how that the child became gravely ill, and the man of God was stricken with guilt, and with grief, and with shame.

David fasted and prayed for the child to recover, but there are some things that God will not do for His people although they fast and pray; and the child died. The man of God rose up, he washed himself and ate. When asked for an explanation, he answered, "Now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me" (text)

The people of God have reason to rejoice on account of the text.

God has a covenant with His people that He will preserve their children although they die in infancy. But He has no such covenant with the people of this world. A baby rattlesnake is a rattlesnake nonetheless. Catherine and I have a son yet unseen who will meet us in glory. How do we know our first child, and which Catherine miscarried, was a son? because we prayed for a son.

But all children who die in infancy do not go to heaven. The children of unbelievers are left to die in their sins. These, like their parents, will suffer everlastingly (Matt. 25:46). Then, what a horrible evil is the deliberate taking of the life of a child yet in the womb for it sends the child of the unsaved to eternal torment.

It will be asked, "What about children of Christian parents who die after reaching the age when they can grasp what is right and what is wrong?" Then, the gospel of Christ comes into play, for children who at 3 or 4 years of age can recognize right and wrong, can also be taught the gospel, and their need to repent and come to the Saviour.

When children reach "The age of accountability," i.e. when they can grasp right and wrong, than another few comes into play: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, ha will not depart from it" (Prov. 22:6).

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Text: "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful (Ps. 1:1).

Charles Spurgeon: "When a text from the Word has been peculiarly precious to his heart, he will hear authenticity impugned, the translation disputed, or its Gospel reference denied." -(from Spurgeon’s statement explaining why he left the London Baptist Association)

The unthinkable has become reality: the skepticism and rationalism of yesterday’s modernist has found permanent lodging among Christian brethren.

Two definitions are in order. First, by the term "fundamentalism," I refer to the historic meaning. There are some who think that fundamentalism is the child of the 20^th century and is characterized by The Fundamentals, a set of 12 books of about 125 articles that appeared between 1910 and 1915. They were written by dozens of men among whom were A.T. Pierson, William Erdman, C.I. Schofield, and A.C. Gabelein. And, there are many today who believe that to be classified as a "fundamentalist" one must be Premillenialist. Such a view smacks of cultism, as well as of arrogance.

It is certain the News media has no comprehension what a Christian fundamentalist is. The secularist media compares Christian fundamentalism with Islamic Fundamentalism, and quite intentionally teaches Americans to be afraid of all Christian fundamentalists.

In the early 1700’s, George Whitefield spoke of the "fundamentals of the faith." Therefore, I use the term "fundamentalism" in this historic context to speak of all who contend for the faith once delivered to the saints, including both the doctrines, and the practice of personal godliness. Only those people who seek to live a life obedient to the will of God as revealed in the Scriptures are able to give evidence that they are true believers.

Some Calvinists do not like to be labeled as "fundamentalists" because they have accepted the false notion that a fundamentalist is an Arminian, i.e. a religious humanist.

Pat Robertson has openly admitted he is not a fundamentalist, and has openly accused all who are with being ignorant, but Bible believers have never accepted him either. Let him lie down with the Roman Catholics!

Second, by the term "higher criticism," I refer to that arrogant attitude of attempting to explain what some feel the All-Wise God had trouble saying in the Scripture, or, what He had difficulty in preserving there. How many there are among us who esteem themselves to be scholars, and to have mastered the Greek text because they have spent 4 or 5 years studying it! Such people "think of themselves more highly than they ought to think" (Rom. 12:3). It is a truism that "knowledge puffeth up" (II Cor. 8:1).

Two things are necessary in order to accurately understand the Bible, and, which are therefore necessary to accurately translate the Bible: scholarship and godliness. In this day of apostasy, who, except for the most audacious, believes himself to be so qualified!

This haughtiness is prevalent in undergraduate Bible students, but it is nearly universal among those who have had graduate studies. There are probably not a half dozen men in the world who have not emerged from graduate school without an unhealthy view of Scripture.

The Nestle-Aland and the Westcott and Hort Greek texts divide words, phrases, and even whole verses of Scripture into 4 groupings. 1.) With the letter "A", textual critics denote the text is "virtually certain" (emphasis ours). 2.) With the letter "B", they indicate there is some degree of doubt as to the accuracy of the text. With the letter "C", the critics mean there is considerable doubt as to the accuracy of the text. And, with the latter "D", the textual critics express a high degree of doubt concerning the accuracy of the text. This is simple modernism, yet it is found in nearly every Bible school.

Fundamentalists still profess to believe the Bible is the Word of God, but with many, their words are hollow, for they believe that verses such as Matt. 23:14 -"Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation" --were not in the original manuscripts, but were "probably" added by a sleepy copyist.

They deal in probabilities, and traffic in uncertainties, and in doubts. They cast their aspersions upon the very Word of God, and flout their scholarship before the Almighty. Although they profess to believe in the preservation of the Word of God, they are not certain they even have the Word of God.

Bob Ross is the editor of Pilgrim Publications. He has been greatly used of God in republishing the works of Charles Spurgeon. The saints of God will forever be indebted to him. However, it appears as though Bob Ross is on a crusade to discredit the King James Version of the Bible. His efforts have resulted in his impugning the authority and the veracity of the Bible. I have been silent for too long, partly because I have been amazed at the number of good men who continue to do obeisance to him.

Bob Ross also edits a quarterly called The Baptist Biblical Heritage. Every issue is an attack upon the King James Version, as well as upon the people who believe it is the Word of God. In the most recent edition (Vol. V, No. 1 April, 1994), a letter was printed that reads as follows:

Dear Mr. Ross a friend of mine gave me some of your literature about the mistakes in the Bible, and I wanted to thank you for helping me to find the truth. I had several Bibles around the house and studied them often, but I have always wandered about some of the mistakes in them. The Church that I use to go to always told us that there was no mistakes in the Bible but would’n talk much about it. But after reading your papers I can see that they were wrong. I truly want to thank you for opening my eyes. After reading your papers about the Bible I want and gathered up all my Bibles and throwed them in the trash. I also

quite my church. I feel like a new person; a free person. I passed the papers on to some of my friends.

How horrendous! What scandal!

Let us suppose the letter is a fraud, and that someone was attempting to "set up" Bob Ross; yet, humanly speaking, how many people who have been investigating the gospel may have been scandalized by true Christians who have served as stumblingblocks? How serious a thing it is to be held responsible for another’s stumbling! One thing is certain: textual criticism ministers questions rather than godly edification (I Tim 1:4). Therefore, such study is destructive.

Mr. Ross attempts to answer the letter writer by admonishing him to trust Christ. But, humanly speaking, how is he to do this? The only thing that we can know about Christ is found in the Bible, and if the text of the Bible is suspect, how and why should anyone trust in Christ!

Thirty years ago, it was commonly known that anyone who believed the Bible "contains" the Word of God was "a modernist." The great scandal in this generation is that many fundamentalists have imbibed the baseless theories of the higher critics.

-AN URGENT MESSAGE TO THE CHURCHES OF

"For thirty years we have suffered intense persecution, and now freedom is bringing another great harm to our churches. This damage is coming from the Christians in America who are sending rock music and evangelists accompanied by rock bands. Our young people do not attend these meetings because we have all committed not to participate in secular entertainment.

"This is a great burden on our hearts. Many come with Bible in hand and rock music. We are embarrassed by this image of Christianity. We do not know what words to use in urging that this be stopped. We abhor all Christian rock music coming to our country.

"Rock music has nothing in common with ministry or service to God. We are very, very against Christian Americans bringing to our country this false image of ‘ministry’ to God. We need spiritual bread, please give us true bread, not false cakes. It is true that rock music attracts people to the church, but not to Godly living.

"We were in prison for fifteen years and eleven years for Christ’s sake. We were not allowed to have Christian music, but rock music was used as a weapon against us day and night to destroy our souls. We could only resist with much prayer and fasting.

"Now we have a time of more openness, and we are no longer taken to prison. However, now it is Christians from America who damage our souls. We do not allow this music in our church, but they rent big stadiums and infect teenagers and adults with their rock music.

"We, the leadership and congregations of the Unregistered Union of Churches, the former Persecuted Church, have made an agreement to not allow rock music in our Church. We urge you to join with us and we advise you to remove rock music from America, and certainly do not bring it to our country.

"Do not desecrate our teenagers with it. Even the unbelievers recognize it is unholy music and they cannot understand how American Christians can be so much like the world. We can give you the conclusion that after Russian unbelievers have attended these rock concerts where Christ’s Word was preached, the people were very disappointed and disillusioned with Christianity.

"We call this music from hell. We urge all Americans to stop giving money for the organization of such concerts in Russia. We want only traditional Christian music in our churches. This is the unanimous decision of all our leaders."

Co-signed: Peter Peters, Head of the Unregistered Union of Churches, Moscow; Vasilij Ryzhuk, Elder, Unregistered Union of Churches, Moscow

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