The stage is set for Congress to begin the registration and approval of churches. Before it is over, only approved churches will be allowed to exist. The method to be deployed in destroying religious freedom in America will be taxation. In no other way can government gain control of churches.

Christians know this must come to pass. The Apostle John has pictured the kingdom of AntiChrist in the book of Revelation. The rustlings amid the leaves of our Constitution are only the preliminary stages of an attempt to seize control of churches around the globe. Our greatest persecutor, however, will not come from without: it will come from within; not from unbelievers, but from true Christians who will one day enter into the joys of our common Lord Jesus Christ.

Even now, saints of God in evangelical denominations are beginning to agree with secular government that ministers and churches ought to be members of a recognized denomination. This is "union" mentality, and one to which we are not willing to subscribe. While we are Baptist, we have never Joined a convention. We have, therefore, been told indirectly by an evangelical Presbyterian minister that we have no right to exist!

The truth may be unpleasant, but it is true nonetheless, that each denomination is a man-made institution, and there is no Scriptural basis for one of them. Neither Peter, nor Paul, nor John was a card-carrying member of a denomination. None of the early churches --not the one at Corinth, nor the one at Ephesus, not even the one at Rome, was in subjection to any denominational headquarters. Early believers were more simply denominated-- they were called "Christians."

What then is the purpose of such denominations? It is to promote the organization men have made, and not to promote the work of God. This is the reason members are pressured to conform to denominational policy. Such people are no longer free men --they are part of a machine. No thank you, we do not wish to join.

When law prohibits our existence and we lose our buildings and are forced to worship in hiding, you may shake your head and say, "I told you so" and "You should have joined up with us" --but remember, the authorities will return --for you.

It is our firm conviction that only independent churches meeting in the fear of God and without fear of the king’s commandment --only they will have a hope of surviving to keep alive the knowledge of God in the earth.

CHURCH ACTS WISELY

The years 1984 and 1985 will go down in history as the period in which autocratic communism reached into the pockets of kind but uninformed Americans to secure millions of dollars worth of benefits --free.

The occasion is drought and starvation in Africa. That condition is unquestioned. A natural disaster all the way across the sub-Sahara belt of the continent has destroyed crops and is destroying humans. Between 25 and 30 countries are in critical condition.

We see, however, a strange phenomenon in the field of communications. The media --especially television which follows the liberal, soft-on-communism line--is centering well over 99 percent of its attention on conditions in one and only one country --Ethiopia.

The rest of a tremendous starving region is neglected--ignored.

Those many countries get less than 1 percent of the publicity, and possibly less than that in assistance.

It is well known and documented that the economy of Ethiopia is managed just as tightly as that of the Soviet Onion and its respective slave states. Ethiopia takes the foodstuffs produced in areas that are not drought stricken and uses then for the benefit of the communist governing class, mad for those areas that support or at least accept communism. It has refused to take steps that would have alleviated weather effects, and undertakes no even-handed distribution of available food supplies. Private producers who want to avoid the dictatorship’s use of their foodstuffs are operating black markets at exorbitant prices. To provide an ironic capstone to the entire manipulated flow of food into Communist-dominated Ethiopia, Paul Harvey’s radio news broadcast on January 14 brought information that starving Ethiopia’s Communist government has started shipping food to Egypt, which is not in the drought stricken zone.

Certainly Ethiopia is in need, but assistance cannot be rendered there with any assurance that it will get to the starving.

In other nations of the area, aid can be sent with assurance that it will reach the destitute for whom it is intended.

In contrast to Ethiopia, where the Communist coup disrupted irrigation systems and left land parched, those countries have husbanded their meager water resources for the best interests of their people.

Americans--if they but realize it--are faced with a clear choice: Send food to a place where it my end up on Communist troops’ mess hall tables, or to places equally in need, where every bite goes to the hungry population.

Why does the liberal media studiedly ignore such countries as Mali and Upper Volta?

___________________________

The Angelus is sent without charge. Would the Lord have you help share the financial strain? We are currently in arrears to the amount of $2500. For any gift--whatever the amount, we will send free of charge a copy of Samuel Rutherford’s Letters, edited by Frank Macelein. It is part of the Wycliffe Series of Christian Classics published by Moody Press for $9.95.

Why present our need? We have found over the years the friends of this ministry have constantly told us to make them known, while others who become miffed at us for doing so, do not help us anyway.

_____________________________

THE BIBLE ON CASSETTE: Alexander Scourby’s voice (Old and New Testaments)--only $66. KJV.

...Food must be distributed by dedicated missionaries, and placed in the hands of the hungry by those missionaries. Money sent to Ethiopia may be spent in buying trucks to take food where the Communists desire. Food distribution must go to the hungry, without withholding it from certain segments of the population, as the Communist government of Ethiopia does in boycotting areas which oppose or resist Communism, and areas where Ethiopian Jews are starving.

Someday, l the conscience of America will demand an investigation of the terrible one-sidedness into which propaganda has diverted American generosity. And it will applaud them who have used Christian discretion instead of blind emotion.

Meantime we still see propaganda pictures of starving Ethiopian children. We see no pictures of them being fed. Why?

The Economic History Of The Union (Concluded)

With the depreciation of both coins and currency, prices appreciated. Food tripled in cost. Cotton quadrupled. Wages never rose to meet the increase of prices, and strikes abounded. The bonds the Treasury sold to purchase war supplies were purchased with depreciated paper money. Therefore, the Treasury called for an increase in the volume of bonds. When the paper money rose in value, the government found it necessary to pay more money in interest. Since the interest on bonds had to be paid in gold, the last official act of Secretary Chase before resigning on June 50, 1864 was to "prohibit certain sales in gold, and foreign exchange." 22 The Act also prohibited loans of Coin or bullion to be repaid in Greenbacks. (The government did not want to be left with them!)

The Act became law on June 17, 1864. The day it passed, gold was quoted at 198. It required $198 in paper to purchase what $100 in gold could purchase. The next day it reached 208. The next day, it was 230. Three days after the passage of the bill, Mr. Chase wrote Horace Greeley, "The price of gold must and shall come down, or I will quit and let somebody else try." 23 By the end of the month, gold reached the 250 ratio, and on June 30th, Mr. Chase resigned as Secretary of the Treasury. The law remained in force only 2 weeks. Congress repealed the Act without debate on July 2nd.

Mr. Chase was not a financier. After he had been appointed to the position, he tried to decline He did have enough principles; however, to acknowledge his economic mistakes, but it was all too late.

"Thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and measure shalt thou have." (Deuteronomy 25:15)

Footnotes

1 White, Horace. Money and Banking. Copyright 1895. Boston: Ginn and Company, p. 148.

2 Ibid. p. 135. 9 Ibid. p. 165.

3 Ibid. p. 125. 10 Ibid.

4 Ibid. Pp. l50-151 (note). 11 Ibid. Pp. 232-233.

5 Spalding, E. G. History Of The Legal Tender Paper Money Issued During The Great Rebellion; Being A Loan Without Interest And A National Currency. Second Edition. Buffalo, 1869. Introduction, p. 11.

6 White, Preface, p. III. 12 Ibid. p. 233.

7 Ibid. p. 154. 13 Ibid. p. 254.

8 Ibid. Pp. 231-232. 14 Ibid. p. 149.

15 Halleck, Reuben Post. History of Our Country. New York, 1923; p. 394.

16 Ibid.

17 Horace White, p. 443.

18 Ibid. p. 407

19 Reinfeld, Fred. The Story of Civil War Money. Copyright 1959 by Sterling Publishing Company, p. 54.

2O see Reinfeld.

21 "Coins And Currency Of The United States", published by the Office Of The Secretary Of Treasury, June 50, 1947. p. 17

22 White, p. 160.

23 "New York Daily Tribune", January 20, 1895, published in White’s Money and Banking, p. 161.

"LORD, WHAT WILT THOU HAVE ME TO DO?"

Text: Acts 9:6

Saul, whose name means, "much sought after," early distinguished himself by his religious zeal. As an infant, he had been circumcised the 8th day according to the Law. He was of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews. He belonged to the strictest sect the Jews –- a Pharisee. As touching the Law, he was blameless. So zealous was he for the "faith of the fathers," as he understood it, that he became the scourge of the early church.

He had just received written authorization from the high priest to go to Damascus and there arrest any who professed faith in Jesus Christ, whether men or women, and to bring them bound to Jerusalem. Suddenly a light shines from Heaven, and blinded Saul falls to the earth. He hears a voice from Heaven saying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" (Our Lord takes personally the troubling of His people.) Saul calls out, "Who art Thou, Lord?" And he hears, "I am Jesus Whom ye persecute. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." The response of Saul is profound: "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"

This is the scene of Saul’s conversion as is evidenced by the statement of Ananias, a servant of God who has received a vision to go lay hands upon Saul that he might regain his sight. In verse 17, the servant of the Lord is brought face to face with him who persecutions have allowed the church no rest. He greets Saul with the tenderness expressive of mutual faith -- "Brother Saul." Now, note what it was Saul had prayed.

"Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" The great change in conversion is brought about in the will. So long as man’s will is in opposition to the will of God, he is in rebellion to God, and a rebel to God cannot be at peace with God.

Saul had just conversed with the high priest --the most important man in his religion. What was it that caused the zealous persecutor to swear allegiance to a different Lord? He does not ask what the Jewish elders would think of him, nor does he return to ask the high priest what he should do. His lips frame the words, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"

His address --"Lord"--is an expression of authority and a confession of the right of Jesus Christ to rule over him. No one can honestly claim Jesus Christ is his "Lord" who lives in rebellion to His will. And note too, that submission to the will of God comes at the time of true conversion. If there is no willingness to have the Lord rule over him, where would be his repentance? It is the children of disobedience who cry out, "who is the Lord? I know not the Lord."

What possessed Saul to turn his back on his religious training?

First, he realized this voice was none other than the voice of God. What happens then when a person revolts and will not do as the Lord would have him to do? People are always punished spiritually for rebellion and God may afflict physically, financially, or mentally. While we must not brand all illness or financial woes as evidence of God’s judgment, it is true nonetheless that many Christians seek psychiatric help and are experiencing nervous breakdowns in record numbers because of continued rebellion to the known will of God.

Second, Saul submitted himself to the Lord Jesus Christ because in a moment he saw his whole life had been a mistake He was wrong! He did not argue, "What shall this man do?" But, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" It was the cry of a soul prostrated before the Lord. His will had been converted! Now he sought to be instructed in the way he should go. He would now be the Lord’s disciple. He would now be at His disposal.

Reader, Saul’s name was changed to "Paul", which means "Little" and he wrote, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." God the Father forgives repentant souls for Jesus’ sake; but there is no salvation for any who will not have "this Man" to reign over them.

We sing --

Again,

And again,

And again,

Here is all the evidence there is to show we have been converted: "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"