WHAT DID ONESIMUS DO THAT WAS SO RIGHT?

William Andrew Dillard

Out of the pages of the New Testament comes a story that many who have a general knowledge of its books have overlooked at worse or put on the back burner for later attention at best. It is a story involving three individuals: the apostle Paul, a Christian property owner named Philemon, and a run-a-way slave named Onesimus. Think with me for a moment about it.
How or why Onesimus became a slave is unknown. There were many reasons why one must become such in the days under consideration. Often, many were born to slaves and were by birthright the property of the master who owned his parents.
Regardless, it is clear that Onesimus was an unhappy individual who probably resented his status, and felt life surely held something better and higher for him. Paul acknowledges that in that state Onesimus was an unprofitable slave to his master Philemon., Phil. 1:11.
He proceeded to run away from his master’s home and somehow made his way to Rome where he sought out Paul who was under house arrest there, and whom he doubtlessly knew from Paul’s visit to Philemon’s place.
Paul received him, and led him to the Lord. He remained there for a time ministering to the needs of the apostle. It was then that Paul penned the short letter of importunity to send with Onesimus to Philemon. One can only assume, but safely assume that Philemon was pleased to receive Onesimus back into his home with considerable joy because instead of a rebel, he now received a brother in Christ who was wiser spiritually, and much more mature mentally. As the apostle put it, he departed from his responsibilities for a season, that he should be received for ever. V. 15.
What a wonderful story this is! It parallels the life of most Christians throughout the age.
Unlike Onesimus, it may not be an earthly authority one is running from. It could be initially, of course, but the lure of sin is strong. It leads one to believe the world has wonderful things ready to heap upon its seekers, but so soon one finds out differently. The prodigal son certainly did. In realization at last that the world has no lasting love for anyone, and that life really does offer so much more that the sinner can receive from it, a turn is made to the lovely Lord Jesus Christ Who saves with an everlasting salvation, and fills the heart with eternal hope. Onesimus found peace, life, and goodness in the truest form, and that is so right!

Bias VS. Boastful

Parson to Person

W.A. Dillard

The question arises from time to time, but recently more often: is there bias in Baptist churches and literature against baptism? The question does not mean to indicate that Baptists are openly critical of or disdainful of baptism, rather they purposefully push it into the background or omit discussing it to avoid conflicting discussions with others not of our stripe.  Think a minute!
One evidence is a lack of underscoring its significance from pulpits.  Ministers may feel intimidated by former waves of heresy surrounding the ordinance resulting in ministers being labeled in unfavorable ways.  That may not be the case also, but whatever it is, there is a widespread toning down of its meaning, importance, and beauty.
Another evidence shows up in literature.  The spiritual new birth is heavily emphasized, which is good, but to indicate that one has all that is important, or that there is full leadership accessibility of the Holy Spirit in rebellion or neglect of divine instructions regarding proper baptism and subsequent fellowship in a true New Testament church is to negate the very thrust of the New Testament itself.  Whom do we fear, God or man?  Whom do we seek to not offend by this subject, God or man?
When Baptists are biased against the joyful presentation of baptism are they ashamed of it, or do they think to win others by cunning deception in matters of truth?
Baptism has long served as the door to church membership predicated on the new birth.  If  Baptists are not seeking to win folks to proper New Testament church membership, they are not ministering the New Testament purpose.  The new birth is as old as Adam’s sin in Eden, and while the New Covenant is predicated upon it, so was the Old Covenant as well.  To fail in these matters is to fall into the practice of abandoning new believers to the clutches of heretical religious organizations as so many modern “evangelists” do.
It is important to emphasize the will of God for every new believer of the gospel.  Pentecost is fundamentally important.  There is an office work of the Holy Spirit to and in the Lord’s church whose benefit the unbaptized, unchurched miss.  If the ordinance were not absolutely important, it would not be the consistent teaching of the New Covenant.  Let such scripture verses as Luke 7:30,  Matt. 28:19, Acts 2:38,  and Romans 6:1-5 be revisited, and indelibly impressed in hearts and minds.
On the other hand to be boastful tends to create carnal elitism.  There is a thin line but a definite line between a sense of thankfulness for one’s understanding and blessings, and a sense of arrogance or superiority that one may have over another.
Then let us witness of full truth in love for the Lord and His purpose, but be quick to attribute all of these things to the goodness of God which all may have who will believe and follow Him.

HOW DOES A NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH ORIGINATE?

 

Author: William Andrew Dillard

 

Parson to Person

Church and state is an entirely different thing to religion and state. However, the unscriptural doctrine of universal, invisible church has been in place in the religious world so long (since the Protestant Reformation) that most people, and especially those in government do not know the difference. Additionally, terrible things happen when the government shows favoritism to a literal, visible church or denomination of churches. Furthermore, tax favoritism toward churches has motivated less than honorable men to use such laws to create organizations for fiduciary benefits to themselves. They will tell those under the blinders of their charade to send their money to God, and, Oh, yes, here is his address. With increasing, tax free funds they build their little empire of multiple mansions, yatchs, and airplanes. The increased number and variety of such religious organizations succeed in further blurring the perceptible lines between church and religion. So, one may ask if there really is an important difference, and if so, just how does a New Testament church originate?

Having the prerequisites of personal salvation and John’s baptism, men and women may covenant together to carry out the terms of the Great Commission, ideally under the express will of an established New Testament church that is able to oversee, comfort, and encourage the new congregation. This is succession. It is the New Testament pattern. It is the only pattern acceptable to New Testament churches in their missionary efforts that lead to church succession. Some in the theological world may “guffhaw” at the idea of church succession, but that is their problem. Jesus promised it; historians confirm it, and the meaning of the Word of God is found faulty and meaningless if it is not so. So soon will the bride of Christ who has sailed through bloody seas without mercy from the emmisaries of Satan be welcomed and rewarded by its soon coming king.

Of course, there are those who would be quick to levy the charge of “legalism” to such rigid thinking, but legalism it is not. It is understanding the New Testament pattern while also understanding that Jesus did not give anyone the authority or pronounce any blessings on those who would change the Word of God to fit their own human thinking to placate a sinful world.

On a personal level, let it be known that it is a terrible thing for an eternity-bound image of Almighty God to trust his eternal state to the thinking of others fully as much of a sinner as he, instead of the pure light of the Word. If I were a blind man, I would not want to trust the safety of my travel or the arrival to my proper destination to another blind man.

 

289 – Oct. 16 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Wm. Ward

 

Other missionaries followed him

 

1798 – William Ward was appointed to serve as a printer, along with William Carey in India. Dr. Carey had translated the Bible into many languages in the area, and now was interested in a Javanese New Testament when he invited Gottlob Bruckner, a German, to come to India. Rev. Bruckner, with his two sons, made the journey in 1828. Little did he know that he would return to his wife three years later with only one son, having buried the other with a tropical fever. When the task was completed the missionary and his son boarded the ship with 2,000 Javanese Testaments, twenty thousand tracts, and a set of type faces with Javanese letters. Their ship was almost sunk in a typhoon, then arriving home soldiers seized all but a few of the Testaments, but he would not quit. Gottlob was born in 1783 on a farm in Germany. At age 20 he went to Berlin to seek his fortune and heard a gospel preacher and was saved. Through incredible trials he finally reached Semarang, Java in 1814 and became the pastor of a Dutch church and married his wife. While there Rev. and Mrs. Thomas Trowt, Baptist missionaries from England arrived, and they became great friends. It was Trowt that convinced Bruckner of believer’s baptism and when he immersed him the church folks turned him out of his pulpit. It was only six months later that Trowt died of a tropical fever. Bruckner died in 1857 and saw few direct results from his preaching, but other Christian missionaries followed him, and today there are more professing believers in Java than any place on earth where Islam is the strong majority religion. [S. Pearce Carey, William Carey (London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1924), pp. 177, 410. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. 566-68.]   Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon

 

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Delivered from Darkness

 

“Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son,” Colossians 1:13.

 

Light repels darkness. Let there be Light!  Throughout the history of man, God has likened Christ’s presence to light. The Gentiles will come to your light. The Old Testament closes with the promise, “The Sun of righteousness [shall] arise with healing in his wings” (Malachi 4:2). In the New Testament, we see Jesus the Light of the world, calling out follow Me and you won’t walk in darkness.

 

Jesus took Peter, James and John upon the mountain of transfiguration. Mark states, “His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow” (Mark 9:3). Open the first page of the Revelation. “His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire” (Rev. 1:14).

 

“And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; . . . his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength” (verses 15, 16). In the last pages of Revelation one finds the city of light, no need for light, the Lamb is the Light thereof. Paul taught, “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day” (1 Thess. 5:5).

 

Christians are the offspring of eternal Light. Christ’s kingdom living in the children of Light casts out the darkness of fear and replaces it with the light of His love (Matt. 5:14-16).

 

Moses had just spent thirty days with God on the mountain and he had to put a vail on his head to talk to the people of Israel without frightening them.  Get out of your prayer closet and shine on.

 

JUST A THOUGHT – Each of you can depend upon the Light of the world, Jesus. 

 

Robert A. Brock

 

 

 

 

128 – May-08 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

        Earnest Study of Gods’ Word Will Make You Baptist

 

King charles the Second was proclaimed King of England on May 8, 1660. He was known as the “Merry Monarch,” and some religious toleration dotted the political horizon during his rule in which several interesting Baptists came to the fore.   Mr. John Gosnold had been a minister of the established church, and during the civil unrest, he made the Scriptures the center of his thinking. Following earnest study he converted to Baptist convictions, and was chosen pastor of a Baptist congregation at the Barbican in London. His preaching was very popular, and he drew vistors from every denomination. His audience was usually composed of three thousand.

 

Carolus Maria DuVeil, a man who had been born into a Jewish home in Mentz, France. He was educated in Judaism, but as he began comparing the prophetical books of the Old Testament with the New, he was convinced in his heart that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah!  When he embraced Christianity, his father was incensed, and attempted to kill Carolus with a sword.  Carolus became quite well known and the bishop of London sought his friendship which procured the use of the bishop’s library.   There he discovered writings of the english Baptists, and being an honest inquirer, he discovered that the Biblical hermeneutics of the Baptists caused him to realize that they were in agreement with the Word of God.  At that time Carolus sought an interview with reverend Gosnold. In the course of time Carolus was immersed by the Baptist pastor, and became a member of the Baptist church.
Dr. Dale R. Hart, adapted from:  This Day in Baptist History  III (David L. Cummins) p.p.  266   –   268

 

 

126 – May 06 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

A Preacher, a Missionary and a Soldier

 

Philadelphia saved from the plague

 

One cannot peruse the minutes of the Philadelphia Baptist Association from 1707 to 1807 without often seeing the name David Jones. He was born May 12, 1736, and he experienced salvation and was baptized May 6, 1758, when he was just turning twenty-two years of age. We gather from the records of an October meeting in 1772 that the early Baptist missionaries were thrust out by the Holy Spirit and provided for by the local churches according to the New Testament pattern at Antioch.  David Jones wrote several circular letters to the churches making up the Philadelphia Association.  These letters revealed the prevailing spiritual condition and welfare of the churches and country. Days of fasting and prayer were often requested. Jones in writing the letter in 1798 mentioned, ”We have been once more prevented assembling in the City of Philadelphia by a dreadful visitation from God.   Whatever may be the natural cause of this complaint, no doubt SIN is the procuring cause; nor can we reasonably expect a removal of the calamity without a suitable reformation among the inhabitants, for which we ought fervently to pray to God; and who knoweth but He may in His great mercy, graciously answer our supplications.”     The minutes of 1800 record that the association met in Philadelphia. The eleventh entry states, “Conscious that the intereposing Providence of God hath preserved the City of Philadelphia, during the present season, from the malignant fever, and caused the earth to bring forth her fruits more abundantly than for some years past, the Association set apart, and recommend, Thursday the 13th of November next, to be observed as a day of thanksgiving by all the churches in our connection.”

 

Dr. Dale R. Hart: Adapted from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, pp. 184-185

 

 

113 – April 23 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Did the Baptists Begin in 1641?

 

The premise of the authors of this devotional, historical volumes has been that history vindicates the succession of Baptist principles from the days of the New Testament.  In other words, Baptists did not spring from the Reformation.  They preceded it, and the New Testament principles that we call distinctive have long endured.  “In the report of the Council of the Archbishop of Cologne about the ‘Anabaptist movement, ‘ to the Emperor Charles V,  it is said that the Anabaptists call themselves ‘true Christians,‘  that they desire community of goods, ‘which has been the way of Anabaptists for more than a thousand years, as the old histories and imperial laws testify.‘  At the dissolution of the Parliament at Speyer it was stated [of] the ‘new sect of the Anabaptists‘ . . . ‘It is a fact that for more than twelve centuries baptism in the way taught and described in the New Testament had been made an offense against the law, punishable by death.’”   The full report of the Council was presented to Emperor Charles V, and on April 23, 1529, the Decree of the Emperor against the Anabaptists was issued.  In the decree one reads language such as the following: “.  .  . yet do we find daily that, contrary to the promulgated common law and also to our mandate issued, such ancient sect of the Anabaptists condemned and forbidden many hundred of years ago more and more advances and spreads.”  The decree called for the following penalty:  “ .  .  .that all and every Anabaptist and re-baptized man or woman of intelligent age shall be sentenced and executed by fire, sword, of the like .  .  .”  When reading this decree, it is apparent that the so-called “anabaptists” did not spring from the Reformation.  They long preceded it.

 

 

 

Dr. Dale R. Hart, adapted from:  This Day in Baptist History  III (David L. Cummins) p.p.  235   –   236

 

 

34 – Feb. 03 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

The Eternal Optimist
Glen H Schunk was born in Scales Mound, Illinois, on February 3, 1918 into a German-Irish Catholic family.
Glen met an honor student from his local school in Freeport, Illinois, on a blind date, Irma Hartwig. After two years of courtship, they married August 29, 1938, in Dubuque, Iowa.  Irma was converted at the age of thirteen. When Glen enthusiastically came to his new-found faith, his personal witness led some family members to the Lord.
America’s involvement in World War II  saw Glen being drafted into the army.  Being on the front lines,  often in foxholes, with bullets flying overhead, he would take out his New Testament for consolation.  During  those experiences Glen won many fellow soldiers to Christ.  Glen was wounded in action and sent to a military hospital in Naples, Italy and placed in a ward with 1,000 men.  There the Lord moved in Glen’s heart as he saw the spiritual need of the men, and concluded that God wanted him to preach.  As a result of his converts there, over 400 men were in attendance at the Bible study classes.  Many of those men went into the ministry.  Glen and Irma Shunk traveled together for twenty-two years, and in nearly 900 revival meetings, it is estimated that they witnessed the salvation of over 60,000 people.  On June 6, 1978 the Lord called his servant home.  An amazing number of preachers attended his funeral in South Bend, Indiana, with the auditorium filled with those who wished to pay respects to a man who had faithfully proclaimed the Gospel of Christ.
Dr. Dale R. Hart, adapted from:  This Day in Baptist History  III (David L. Cummins), pp. 69-70

25 – Jan. 25 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

She was found guilty and sentenced to death by drowning. 
The unnamed daughter of Hans Hut, the outstanding Anabaptist leader in Germany died the martyrs death for her faith, by drowning, on Jan. 25, 1527 in the city of Bamburg.  Hut was a convert of Hans Denck, and on May 26, 1526, followed His Lord in believers baptism.  His daughter was one of his first converts who followed him in his new found faith.  Women among the Anabaptists held a superior position above other groups.  They referred to them as “sisters” and the ladies had a ministry of personal witnessing.   Their enemies accused them of practicing “free-love.”  There was no basis to the lie.  In fact, the high basis of morality of the Anabaptists was often mentioned by sincere historians of that era.  Hans daughter lived but a few months following her conversion to Christ.  Hans was accompanied by his family when he went to Bamberg in evangelistic work where he met with considerable success and then left them there when he departed for Augsburg.  While he was gone, his daughter was arrested.  She had participated in many Anabaptist meetings and had a firm grasp on the New Testament.  When arrested by State Church authorities (Lutheran) she gave clear answers as to her faith in Christ and refused to disavow her Lord.  She was found guilty and sentenced to death by drowning.  On this date, she was led to the river where she was placed in a bag with heavy weights and thrown to her death by drowning.  How blessed it must have been, as Stephen of old to have been greeted by our Lord Himself, who no doubt stepped off his throne to greet such a precious prize jewel, and no doubt gave her a name that her Lord has reserved just for her.  Revelation 2:17 “To him that overcometh will I give…a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”
Dr. Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. IIII: Cummins, pp. 51-52.