1975 Grace And Truth

(Note: This scanned book has not been edited.)

by Jack Hyles

1975

FOREWORD

Someone said, “Never mind the beautiful; give me the durable and the useful.” Let that one behold the yellow-gold of the grainfield, the emerald green of a meadow, the peerless blue of the sky, the sevenfold beauty of the rainbow, the towering mountains with their ceaseless lights and shadows, the snowy white of the snow, the glory of the sunset and the fresh green of the spring. Let him remember that the God Who made the trunk of the tree also made its autumn coat, the God Who made the mighty ocean rolls across its top the whitecaps, and the God Who made the mighty mountains has made for them a sundae-like covering. Yes, we need the strong and the durable, but we also need to add to that strength and durability beauty and grace.

To the acquiring of this balance, this author several years ago set forth a volume called BLUE DENIM AND LACE. Similar truths were presented in the second BLUE DENIM AND LACE which was named STRENGTH AND BEAUTY. Now the twins become triplets with the publishing of GRACE AND TRUTH.

Even the casual reader will note that much of this volume is directed toward the Christian school movement. It is hoped that the following words will be an anchor to the drifting and will be used of God to give strength to the beautiful and beauty to the strong, zeal to the scholar and knowledge to the zealous, majesty to the honorable and honor to the majestic, grace to the truthful and truth to the gracious, until it can be said of each of us as was said of the Stranger of Galilee by one who knew Him so well, “And we be-

held His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14)

Dr. Jack Hyles

Pastor, First Baptist Church, Hammond, Indiana Founder, Hyles-Anderson College,

Schererville, Indiana

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I Be A Childish, Juvenile Adult
2 Don’t Rush the Washing Machine
3 How Not to Change
4. Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out
5 How Not to Be Offended
6 Hear and Do
7 His Name Is jealous
8 Little Things
9 Keeping Buzzards Away
10 Is Teenage Love Real Love?
11 The Hair of His Head Began to Grow
12 The First Step to Getting
13 On Being a Man
14 Give Me Thy Heart
15 Do It with Jesus
16 The Simple Place
17 The Shadow of the Almighty
18 The Christian’s Hate Life
19 When Leadership Is Weaker Than Followship
20 How Long Did She Live?
21 Accreditation
22 The Teacher or the “Teacher-Type
23 Discipline and Punishment
24 When the Student Fails
25 The Basis of Loyalty to Superiors .
26 Counseling with Students
27 The Teacher’s Relationship to the Parent
28 Satan’s Bid for Your Child
29 Sex Education Program Our Public Schools
30 Jesus Had Short Hair
31 A Warning to the Christian School

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jack Hyles began preaching at the age of 19 and has pastored for over 25 years. These pastorates include churches that varied in membership from 19 to over

30,000. All of these pastorates, other than the present one, were in the state of Texas: First, the Marris Chapel Baptist Church of Bogata, Texas; then to the Grange Hall Baptist Church in Marshall, Texas; from there to the,Southside Baptist Church of Henderson, Texas; and then to the Miller Road Baptist Church of Garland, Texas. He pastored the Miller Road Baptist Church for 7 years and saw this church, under the Lord, grow from a membership of 92 to over 4,000. It was from the Miller Road Baptist Church that he was called to his present pastorate at the First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana.

Dr. Hyles has been Pastor of the First Baptist Church since August, 1959. This church has a membership of over

30,000 and during the past year (1973) had 25,044 conversions and additions and baptized 8,044. The church now operates 226 buses and has recently been acclaimed to have the “World’s Largest Sunday School.” During Dr. Hyles’ ministry the First Baptist Church has increased in property evaluation to over $12,000,000.

Besides his position as Pastor, Dr. Hyles is Superintendent of Hammond Baptist Schools-Hammond Baptist Grade School and Hammond Baptist High School-and Founder of Hyles-Anderson College. The college, now in its third year, will matriculate over a thousand students this year. It is housed in a beautiful 71-acre campus with buildings valued at $5,000,000. (All of the schools are operated by the First Baptist Church and are housed in separate facilities away from the church property.) Dr. Hyles has served as President of the Baptist Bible College in Denver, Colorado. He is now Assistant Editor-Conference Director of the SWORD OF THE LORD, America’s foremost Christian weekly. He also serves as a Vice-President of the Sword of the Lord Foundation.

Dr. Hyles is heard weekly on the nationwide broadcast, “Let’s Go Soul Winning with Jack Hyles.” This program is heard on a network of stations covering much of the United States.

He is the author of 22 books and pamphlets exceeding over four million copies in sales. One long-play record by Dr. Hyles is also available, LET’S GO SOUL WINNING (awarded by the Evangelical Film Foundation an Oscar as the outstanding talk record of 1967), as well as many taperecorded sermons.

Dr. Hyles’ experience covers numerous evangelistic campaigns, Bible conferences, etc. He is in constant demand as a speaker for many of the major denominations in the United States. He has preached in virtually every state of the Union and in many foreign countries. His annual Pastors’ School attracts preachers from every state and many foreign countries. More than 2,350 registrants attend each year.

Chapter 1

A CHILDISH, JUVENILE ADULT

A child is not a complete person. He cannot enjoy many things that maturity will allow him to enjoy. tor him many wonderful, enriching experiences yet wait that he cannot enjoy until he reaches adolesconce and adulthood.

The adolescent is not a complete person, for there Ve many rich and satisfying endeavors that can be OWoyed only by adults.

7be adult may or may not be a complete person; that choice is up to him.

The child-adolescent-adult is a complete person. This is a person who, when he became an adolescent did not substitute adolescence for childhood, but ADDED adolescence to childhood. Then when adulthood came, he did not substitute adulthood for adolacence but rather added adulthood to adolescence and childhood. He retained his childhood enjoyment and added to it the enjoyments of adolescence. He then retained his childhood and adolescent enjoyMents and added to them adult enjoyments. He then became the complete person with a complete set of appetites, delights and fulfillments.

Why riot make a list of all the enjoyments unique to childhood. Have you retained them, or did you trade

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them for the enjoyments of youth? Everyone enjoys a teenager who, while possessing the maturity of youth, still possesses the excitement, exuberance and warmth of a child. We all know of adults who have added adolescence to childhood and adulthood to adolescence. This may be what charisma really is. There is a bit of little boy in every attractive adult male personality. There is an obvious pleasance or a bit of adolesence in every adult male personality. Likewise the attractive woman has a bit of little girl in her. She also has retained the flavor of adolescence in her mature, adult personality.

In many of our schools the best teaching is done in the lower grades. Such teachers can appeal to a child because they have retained a bit of childhood in their personalities. The same is true with a youth worker. Perhaps a youth worker is one who has kept his youth while becoming an adult. He was not willing to sacrifice youth for maturity and adulthood, but rather chose to retain his youth while adding the maturity of adulthood.

Think for a moment of some people whose presence you enjoy the most. Notice carefully and you will see that these people are childish, juvenile adults. This is why little children enjoy their presence. This is the reason that young people love to be with them and that other childish, juvenile adults enjoy their company. To be sure, such a person may draw criticism from incomplete people. The suave teenager may not like the teenager who has retained a touch of childhood. The drab adult may not enjoy the presence of the childish, juvenile adult. Perhaps the incomplete man will even develop a jealousy for the complete man. This perhaps is prompted by envy

Be a Childish, juvenile Adult

and covetousness.

All of us know of a young person who has gone off to college and has come home a different person, much to the dismay and disappointment of his parents. We also know of a young person who has gone off to college to return the same person who is just ghore mature and able to enjoy more of life. Such Ipeople bring delight and satisfaction to their parents. A fitrmer worked hard to send his son to the state Wversity. While working in the field one day a neighbor asked him if he had noticed any difference ih his son since he had been to the university for a fear The farmer replied, “Yep. You ain’t never seen i6- much change in one young’in’. Before he went to %e university, when he would plow, he would say to &e mule at the end of the row, ‘Whoa, Reb. Turn Atund and giddup.’ Now that he has been to the

69versity for a year he says, ‘Halt, Rebecca, pivot “d proceed.”‘ Ot is the opinion of this author that K 1he mule walked on.”)

The childish, juvenile adult enlarges his potential fbr service to mankind. He is not a specialist able to *Ork just with children, nor is he a specialist able to *Ork Just with teenagers, nor is he limited to working only with adults. He has enough child in him to work with children, enough youth in him to work with Oung people and enough maturity to work with Oults. Fortunate is such a person and fortunate are those Privileged to be near him.

I am thinking now of a great preacher whom I found one day playing hopscotch with some children. I think Of another great man of God whom I found One day Playing marbles with some junior boys. Such IL Person makes a better pastor, for he can appeal to

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all ages. He makes a better parent, for he can have the proper rapport with his children at every stage of development. He will have a richer life, for he will be able to enjoy the company of any age. He will be a better leader, for he will know the heartbeat of each follower. He will be a more desirable person, for all ages will enjoy his presence. He will be more versatile in that his appeal will span all of life. He will never really grow old, for even in his senior years, he will still in some ways be a little boy and a young man.

I think of my mother, who at this writing is 86 years of age; yet every time I talk to her I see the twinkling eye of a child, the mischievousness of childhood, the optimism and expectancy of a teenager, the glamor of a young woman, the endurance of youth and the wisdom of adulthood wrapped up in one personality. This is why she, at the age of 86, attracts little children and teenagers as well as adults. There are people in their forties who are older than Mother. She is a childish, juvenile adult who refused to trade the joys of childhood for the joys of adolescence, or the joys of adolescence for the joys of adulthood. She has retained them all and in so doing has kept her appeal to others and her enjoyment of others regardless of the age.

In 11 Peter 3:18 we are admonished to grow in grace. The word “grow” could be better translated “increase.” It means to keep what you have and add more. It is like a growing tree. While the tree adds branches, it keeps its trunk. While it adds leaves, it keeps its branches. It is like an army which takes ground. It does not give up what it had; it adds new land to the land that already has been conquered. In

Be a Childish, juvenile Adult

other words, growing in grace is “adding to,” not ik ‘: “substituting for.”

1. Do not exchange poverty for riches, The wise -11Z11′ person will add riches to poverty. There are some Owoyments; that are unique to poverty. How tragic it is when one gives up these enjoyments that are so rich that they cannot be bought with money in order to exchange them for things less valuable which can be bought with money. Such a person becomes povqrty-stricken because of his riches and trades that vdiich cannot be bought by money for that which can

u by money. This type of individual can be the poor rich man or the rich poor man.

I think of my good friend, Russell Anderson, from ti, Michigan. Though his wealth enables him purchase whatever he would want, his wife

,,’4&’xine still sews for the children and makes their Wothes. She often trades at discount stores where the Vommon person trades. They often raise a garden. In other words, because they were once poor they

‘Aftmed the enjoyments of the poor. Now that they ‘I” wealthy they have kept their poverty and have AOUbled their enjoyment rather than substituted one for another.

2. Do not trade simplicity for profundity. Though ‘OverY Person should strive to become as profound in Profe&sion and field as he possibly can, he should

not with the acquiring of profundity discard the pleasUres of simplicity. In reality no one can be profound who has not retained his simplicity, for he will be completely unable to transfer his profundity to others. Simplicity is the tool with which profundity is transferred. Simplicity is the conveyer by which profunditY is transported. Without simplicity, profundity

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is a house built upon the sand.

Our Lord was the master at adding profundity to simplicity. He could take the deepest and most profound truths and wrap them with the simplest of terms. The deepest of doctrines were conveyed to us by such stories as a boy running off from home, a lady losing a coin, a lamb getting lost from the flock, a man going out to plow, a farmer sowing in the field, etc.

When one becomes profoundly simple, richly poor, simply complicated, discerningly naive, weakly strong, conservatively aggressive, excitedly serious, unpredictably stable and unknowingly educated, he has arrived at a place to where he can live the rich life of being a childish, juvenile adult.

L_” DON’T RUSH THE WASHING MACHINE

ntly I was looking at the washing machine in basement and noticed what an amazing piece of

. ery it is. The thing is almost human! All you bin

to do is turn it on; it does the rest. It fills, washes, refills, rinses and spins again. To miss any one means that the clothes will not be done properor example, suppose that after the clothes wash, F

machine were to jump the rinse cycle. Then you n

have soapy clothes to wear. Suppose it were to the refill cycle before rinsing. Then there be no water with which to rinse. The clothes vaWd

Pmwt be their best unless they take the full time for ‘Wh cycle.

klAfe is that way. It is divided into cycles. There is *hncy, childhood, teenage, college age, young adultMod, adulthood, middle age and old age. For one to fftch out too soon and grasp one of those cycles or to *ach back too far for a missed cycle does not make for a complete, happy and fulfilling life. This is why Mom and Dad do not ride tricycles. This is why teenagers do not drink milk out of a bottle with a nipple. It is foolish for one who has passed a cycle to reach back to a former cycle.

It is equally foolish for one who is not yet to a par-

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ticular cycle to reach far out and grasp it prematurely. For example, each young person has a right to receive the fullest of each part of life. Sometimes a teenager will want to marry prematurely. Perhaps a young lady will marry and in a year or so have a baby. She loves her husband and she loves her baby, but she should have waited a few years until the cycle for marriage came. While she should have been in college experiencing dormitory life and enjoying that part of life’s cycle, she couldn’t wait. She reached out and grabbed a part of life for which she wasn’t ready, thereby missing a part of life that will cause her regrets as long as she lives.

Life is short, but it can be enjoyed to its fullest only when we five it as it comes to us as God planned it. Of course, young people should look forward with anticipation to marriage, but they should remember they are now living in days to which they looked a few years ago. They should enjoy the present. We should all let life’s cycle give its fullest at every position. Don’t grasp prematurely the next stage in life. Live this one until it has run its course, and then the next one can be enjoyed to its fullest.

We can all take a lesson from the washing machine. If we want to turn out to be our best, our cleanest, and our most useful, we must take life as it comes, not reaching forward to that for which we are not ready, not reaching backward to that which we have passed, but living today as God planned it for us.

There are several dangers involved here. Of course, one is jumping over a cycle or shortening it by marrying too soon, by quitting school and getting a job, etc. This is caused by an intense desire to grab the future rather than enjoy the present. The type

Don’t Rush the Washing Machine

n that does this seldom enjoys any phase of life, lwso

he is so desirous to reach out and grab the next that he does not enjoy the present one.

e Still another danger is causing one’s mate to miss Cne of the cycles of life. Sometimes a young man, i.lecause he has improper counsel and because he

ts to marry prematurely, will marry a younger causing her to miss some of the most wonderful of life. Of course, the young lady must also share responsibility of the mistake, but whatever the

she still misses all or a portion of a vital part of

re is still another danger, that of holding off a A young person may decide to put off college

a year so he can work for money with which to his college tuition. This is also dangerous. In most this person never gets to college. He becomes torned to a certain life-style from which he must

if he goes to college. More often than not he Wver enrolls in college.

There is also the danger of going too fast in one Male and too slow in another. A teenage couple may ‘dW too close too soon so that their romance will ripen Jpfore they are ready for marriage. The wise young e

AMPI will prepare to marry at the end of their col)Age training. They will, therefore, pace their degree qf.closeness according to the number of years that will elapse before college graduation. This means that their love will ripen so as to reach its peak on their wedding day. If this is not the case, one of three things will happen. (1) They will break up because they have gone too far too fast and are emotionally and physically ready for marriage at a time that is premature. (2) They will do wrong because they have

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not saved anything for the remaining days before marriage. (3) They will marry prematurely cheating themselves of both the enjoyment of the present phase of fife and the proper preparation for the next phase.

The Boy-Girl Relationship Cycle

There is another of life’s cycles which deals with human relationships. For a girl it is as follows: parents, girls, girls and boys, boys, a boy.

For a boy it is as follows: parents, boys, boys and girls, girls, a girl.

As a child, one is occupied primarily with his parents. He then comes to the next phase of his life where he is occupied basically with members of his same sex. Boys have their clubs and circle of friends. Girls have the same. At this time in life all boys plan to live a life that is single and each boy covets the presidency of the girl-haters club and all girls think that every boy is a nuisance and a bad invention.

In a few years, however, something begins to happen. Nature does its work and there is a period when boys become attractive to girls and girls to boys. This is the boys and girls cycle. During this cycle the normal girl will retain her closeness with her girl friends and yet will begin to show an interest in boys in general. Boys, likewise, continue to spend time with each other but also become involved with girls.

It isn’t long until another cycle is reached. Girls like to be around boys and boys like to be around girls. During this stage it is unwise for one to settle down with one member of the opposite sex. Soon, however, the normal young person will find the one for him and enter into what for a girl is the boy stage

Don’t Rush the Washing Machine A,

‘and for a boy is the girl stage. When the right one is

41mmd, then the romance must be paced according to number of years between the finding of the right and college graduation or the suitable wedding

Now it is important for the happy, well-rounded to enjoy each phase of life in its completeness. All usknow some who have missed a phase or have

too long in a phase. For example, we all know people who have stayed tied to Mama’s apron We know other young people who dated too

and settled down with one member of the opposex too soon, etc. The wise young person will enach stage to its fullest while readily accepting .. liew one when it is time for it to come.

cycle is for a purpose. If followed carefully it make it much easier for a young person to find “right one.” If these cycles are abbreviated, it

leads young people to become so emotionally prematurely that they will have to do get married or break up. This is sad, for in

cases the two would have married and should married, but had to break up because of premaemotional involvement and forfeited each other

11-Ar life.

MW wise young person will accept life’s cycles as

4:. OW come, not prolonging one or reaching out to

041P one prematurely, but will accept each one as it COmes, elljoying it to its fullest and happily going to %e next.

Chapter 3

HOW NOT TO CHANGE

Several times in the Bible we are admonished not to remove the ancient landmarks which our fathers have set. The Psalmist said, “I shall not be moved.” All of us know institutions such as churches and schools that have changed and deteriorated with the passing of the years. The sad thing is that this deterioration takes place unknowingly. The Bible says that Samson did not know his power was gone from him. The reason for this is that Satan does not change us suddenly or dramatically. He moves the landmarks a little at a time until we change unknowingly. As slow as the hands move on a clock so Satan leads us to deterioration and apostasy. If we do not succumb to his tactics, it will be because we have a carefully planned program of resistance. Many things should be a part of that program.

1. Analyze and know ingredients. When a victory is won, carefully relive the ingredients of victory. When a defeat is suffered, carefully analyze the ingredients of defeat.

When a person has a good day he may or may not

How Not to Change

f. why he had a good day. All of us have come …’4mow

Aome at night living on top. Before retiring it would wise for us to analyze the day. If the ingredients of day made for a good today, they will no doubt for a good tomorrow.

-When one has a bad day he should not just mark it until he analyzes carefully what he did, how he it, where he went, with whom he was, etc. He can

by avoid such a combination of ingredients toand all the tomorrows.

n we know the ingredients of both success and we will be able to place together the proper If this recipe is used regularly, victory can be

regularly. Institutions as well as individutds reexamine and investigate the means and cirs that led to success and plan the future

9 Y.

now your pattern of behavior. Usually we react vame way to the same stimulus. There are certain that make us mad; there are certain things that us sad; there are certain things that make us If we can intelligently relive our sadness, our

and our gladness, we can utilize the stimuli us to react with some degree of consistency. enable us to continue using the same stimu-

just as we continue using the aforementioned recThe individual or the institution thereby besomewhat predictable because he has learned Y to arrive at a desired end. To be sure, we are

–human, and human beings do not always react to the skme stimulus the same way. However, there are basic stimuli that will usually cause the same

’4eaction and the same response. We should know these and avoid those that cause us to change for the

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bad. We should make friends with those which have done us good before.

3. Do notjudge by the changing of others. Far too many of us judge right or wrong on the basis of our distance from wrongdoers. Hence, as the world changes we change, staying exactly the same distance behind the world, for to us right and wrong is a relative thing in comparison with those who do wrong and with those who do right. For example, it is sad to see the skirt lengths of Christian young ladies rising just because the skirt lengths of the world are rising. We are very careful, however, not to be like the world. We just want to stay the same distance behind them. In doing so we change! As the world gets worse and worse we can find ourselves the same distance from the world and yet be worse now than the world was before. If it was wrong for young ladies to show their thighs 10 years ago, it is wrong today. This is only an example. There are many others. Because of this philosophy, we change and don’t know we are changing, because we are judging ourselves by the distance we keep from the world’s standards and not by what is right and what is wrong to do.

4. One should not expect to change. Do not accept the philosophy that it must be done in these days and that since it is harder to live right, we cannot live as we always lived. The very fact that one expects to change is a part of the changing.

5. One should know the difference between improvement and change. Improvement comes on purpose; change usually comes unknowingly. Improvement is usually enjoyed by the careful whereas change is enjoyed by the careless. Institutions do not deteriorate because they plan to deteriorate. They

How Not to Change

orate without realizing that the process is tak-

are like a boat without an anchor. It place. They

not appear to be moving until we find it far from shore. There are certain anchors that the tian institution should lower. The anchor of the the anchor of the deity of Christ, the anchor of

will of God, the anchor of soul winning and other :anchors will help to keep us from drifting. vement comes by making a habit of the

Change and deterioration come by just suppost everything must be all right.

should weigh himself every day. The clock s a minute a day will in 60 days lose an hour not set daily. The individual or institution

-is not weighed daily and whose compass is not daily will soon find itself way off course and spiritual health. One should check his position to be sure that he is not off course.

the sad things about the Christian life is that not become dissatisfied with a little bit of The best housewife hates a speck of dirt. The

hanic hates a spot of grease. The best hushates one locust. The best preacher hates The best judge hates one crime. The best ates one defeat. The best doctor hates one e best botanist hates one weed. The best hates one unharmonious note. The best tes one grammatical error, and the most

ent Christian hates to veer one degree off Because of this, the land must be surveyed Overy day. Our spiritual height must be measured ev-

day. Our course must be charted every day. of a the things the Apostle Paul did daily. He Abd daily, and he buffeted his body daily. The wise

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Christian will make a daily check on his position. The wise Christian institution will check its position every day, not in its relation to other institutions, but in its relation to what it was when God blessed it most and to its nearness to the purpose of its founders.

Look at the great liberal universities which were founded by fundamental people and financed by fundamental dollars. Their change did not come dramatically. It was a slow, gradual evolution. Even the most astute of its leaders did not realize a change was taking place. The landmark was moved so slowly it could not be seen, and yet one day the institution awakened to find itself asleep, came alive to find itself dead, found enough fight to find itself in darkness, walked straight enough to find itself crooked, had just enough health to find itself incurably diseased and had just enough strength to find itself too weak to recover. Beloved, let us not let Satan do this to our institutions. Let each of us that is connected with a Christian school or church check itself constantly to see if just a little deterioration has set in. Let us go to the doctor before we get cancer. Let us cure its pimple when it first begins and not lament its death later.

All of this is to say that we should hate mistakes; we should hate wrong. Clean the garment the moment it is spotted. See the doctor at the first sign of temperature in order that we may avoid following the path of institutions who were founded as we were founded and who one day held the exact position that we now hold and yet who gradually and unknowingly died.

7. Before eliminating a weakness one should see what is on the other side connected to it. It may be that the very weakness which we eliminate is not a weakness at all, but rather a necessary part of

How Not to Change

For example, one who is tenacious may ap-

to be stubborn. One who is confident may apto be cocky. One who is zealous may appear to d. One who has conviction may appear to be . So often in our sincere desire to improve IV

es we roH into spiritual surgery to remove thing that appears to be bad but which is conto the very thing that makes us unique and

. This is often caused by egocentricity and is spection. Many institutions and individuals t because they become disenchanted with qualities that are necessary for success. Let

with the Psalmist, “I shall not be moved,” and g=d daily the landmarks lest they be moved so gradually by the enemy.

Chapter 4

BE SURE YOUR SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT

Numbers 32:23, “But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.”

Most preachers with evangelistic fervor have preached from this text. The normal interpretation is that overt sins will be found out and that the day will come when sins will be uncovered. This is a Bible truth, but it is not the primary teaching of this passage.

The Israelites were about to cross over Jordan and enter into the Promised Land. The tribes of Rueben and Gad came to Moses and asked special permission. They asked if they could stay on the east side of the Jordan where the land was fertile and was very suitable for the cattle and sheep possessed by these two tribes. They said, “Bring us not over Jordan.”

Moses realizing that God had commanded them to drive out the enemy from Canaan refused to grant this permission. He said, “Shall your brethren go to war and ye sit here?” He would not let them avoid the battles on the west side of the Jordan in order to enjoy the luxury of the fertile land on the east side of the Jordan.

The problem was resolved by the men agreeing to

Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out

a over Jordan and fight. They would build sheepL-q for their cattle and cities for their families. The Os, children and cattle would remain on the east K of the Jordan while the men crossed the Jordan Ot the battle. The agreement was that when the Oe was over the men would return to their famiAnd cattle. Moses accepted this plan but warned

0 that if they did not go forth to battle, if they did prnis the Jordan River, if they did not fight, God

punish them. He said, “Be sure your sin will. out.”

of the members of the tribes of Gad and are still alive today. In fact, America is full of k)2C

ers who say, “We are tired of fighting. Let our victories in the wilderness. It is time for and enjoy the fertile plains on the east side

.” Oh, these people still go to church. don’t want to fight. To be sure, on Sunday be fed. They want sermons to feed their y eat the fat and drink the sweet. They

.1he table for the best wine. They tuck their napkins around their necks and say, “Feed I Feed me! Feed mel” but they do not want

The battle rages on the other side of the and

while the fighting is going on they want kW on the east side and “feed the sheep.” They ktheir conferences, their worship services, their MfOld amen and their anthems. They even love t Bible studies and deeper-fife conferences, yet Fnever turn a hand to do anything in the battle. Y gird no armor, grasp no sword, hurl no spear, W no stones, shed no blood, render no sweat and

9 no tears.

a church has no invitation, they shriek in horror,

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yet if all the converts who came forward were theirs, there would be no need for an invitation. If the church cancelled all its visitation program, they would be angry, but they never show up for one. If the church never baptized any converts, they would classify the church as being dead, but they never lead a convert to the baptistry.

These goldbricks talk about being crucified with Christ, yet they have no scars in their hands, no spear in their side, no jeering mob, no angry critics, no thorns on their brow. They have no pain. They suffer no heartache. They do not want to be called fanatics, and yet they glibly talk about being crucified with Christ.

This crowd of deserters often know much about the Bible. They often know truths that God doesn’t even know, and they find things in the Bible that God didn’t put there. They can tell you all the types concerning what the beasts stand for; they can tell you the symbolic meanings of the leg on the beast, the foot on the leg, the toe on the foot, the nail on the toe and the polish on the nail. They want victories with no battles and crucifixion with no pain.

One of these AWOL’s came to me in Toccoa, Georgia, one time, looked at me through spooky eyes and said, “Dr. Hyles, you strike me as being a very deep Bible teacher. Do you know what ‘the horse’ in Revelation 19 stands for?”

I said, “Yes, I do.”

She excitedly asked, “What?” I replied, “A horse.”

She looked through dejected eyes and said, “It mentions that the horse is a white horse. Do you know what the spiritual significance of that color

Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out

P” Ite is?99

W !4

4ve lied, “Yes.”

-e excitedly said, “I knew you would! I knew you S70

j1dj I knew you would! What does the word ‘white’

‘”plied, “That’s the color of the horse.”

across America these loafers are causing trouble X11-winning churches. Practically every faithful,

4-winning, Bible preacher is hounded by these

JL They gravitate to committees and shun soul as though it were a plague. If a preacher t

_sin, he is a legalist. If he leads as Moses did, he is “RIAN I

:.,.tor. If he loves souls, he is shallow. If he has

40.

Se possesses wild fire.

,,,,Ve Monday-morning quarterbacks never make le, never complete a pass, never kick a field ’40ever block a kick, never make a first down and

win a game. They simply sit in the stands and those who run off sides, are guilty of unnecesess and boo the one who makes the

own. These modern Korahs would think the of the Red Sea too spectacular. They would ihe sensationalism of Joshua making the sun still. They would suggest that the feeding of

15,000 was carnal and certainly would classify AACOst as an emotional experience not worthy of -’4r=9 worship service. These Diotrophes grow qr,41 .-

Mes 0t weeds, sow spiritual crab grass in the Of all the soul-winning churches in America. ,,,,,-:.y are watch-gazers during the invitation. They

“‘notoriously against the bus ministry. They oppose scattered abroad everywhere, and if 3,000 got today, it would be no Pentecost, it would be a

K 21

Grace and Truth

They are termites who eat away at the foundations c.’ our churches. They are buzzards circling the field to pull at the carcass of new converts. They are parasites who live on other’s toil. They are polecats who spray their odor on every church member who gets close to them. They are serpents who shoot deadly venom at every soul-winning church and pastor in America and cockroaches who infest every member of the church on whom they can crawl.

The truth is no Christian has a right to be at peace during the war. No Christian has a right to stay on the east side of Jordan and enjoy the luxury of the fertile plains while the rest are fighting on the west side.

Should I be carried to the skies, On flowery beds of ease,

While others fight to win the prize, And sail through bloody seas?

No, I must fight if I would gain, Increase my courage, Lord!

I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain, Supported by Thy Word.

Am I to receive and never give? Am I to eat and never feed? Am I to wear and never clothe? Am I to drink and never offer a cup?

Ladies and gentlemen, there is a war on! On which side of the Jordan do you dwell? We, like the Israelites, are to cross the Jordan and fight the battles until the battle is over and we can return to our families and see the face of our Saviour and hear Him say, “Well done.”

hapter 5

W NOT TO BE OFFENDED

119:165, “Great peace have they which love and nothing shall offend them.”

churches and schools are plagued with and by who are easily offended. Each of us should be on guard against this deadly enemy of , the school, the Christian and the Saviour.

V in the Word of God. Psalm 119:165 teaches there is a way that we can rise above being Notice the words, “nothing shall offend

Read the Word, memorize the Word, love the Meditate upon the Word, live in the Word and can be had over this adversary.

not look at criticism as being personal. Years ed a little exercise that has helped me treusly. I decided to look upon my critics as bro-

r than as bad. When my watch breaks I do Aght back and throw it against the wall. When *S&O breaks I do not become angry at it. I deridthat when people criticize me, it is not because y are bad; it is because there is a broken part. This

6 not mean that they should be discarded any re than the radio should be discarded. They need fixed.

Grace and Truth

Then I also realized that I too sometimes am broken.

3. Do not love because of the object. Love should be caused by the condition of the heart of the lover, not the attributes of the loved. God does not love us because of what we are; He loves us because of what He is. May He help us to be like Him in this respect.

Being human, it may be somewhat difficult for us to love the unlovely as much as we love the lovely, and the degree of our love may be determined by the degree of loveliness. However, the presence of our love should not be so determined.

4. Do not want things or position. Most of our hurt feelings are caused by disappointments in not receiving things, acclaim or position that we had wanted or craved. The less one wants the less he will be offended. The more one wants for others, the less he will be offended. The only real want or craving a Christian should have toward others is an intense desire to help others. Remember, Christ has no alternative but to love the unlovely, the unloving and often the unloved.

5. If your critic is your inferior, allow that he has not been privileged to know what you know. Give him some leeway.

I am a very criticized man, probably one of the most criticized preachers of this generation. I try to allow that a person can dislike me and still not be bad. We are so constructed that a person could be mean to the rest of the world and good to us and we think he is good, or he could be good to the rest of the world and mean to us and we would think he is bad. There are many people who have not had the teachings that you and I have had. They do not even know the truths that we are now sharing. No one criticizes

How Not to Be Offended

because he cannot ride a bicycle or a child he doesn’t know trigonometry. Why should

our feelings hurt by those who have not eged to learn not to be critical?

not have a lot of unplanned fellowship. Do sit around and talk. Soon it will lead to talking people. Someone has said that great minds talk ideas, good minds talk about things, and weak talk about people. When planning to get to-with other Christians, plan the activities. Do Wy and talk idly. There is a grave temptation lboo much about people. Maybe this talk is not

once we idly talk we are tempted to talk

1e, and once we start talking about people, pted to say bad things about them.

not retaliate to those who try to offend you, unkind to you or who criticize you. I was in Morida, at the airport. I had a couple of hours

to eat a bite. When I entered the coffee ess asked me if I wanted a booth.

“‘Yes, ma’am.”

me if I wanted a menu. “Yes, ma’am.”

e in a few minutes and asked me if I was order.

“Yes, ma’am.,,

looked at me, threw her pad down on the table , “Yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am. Yes, Don’t you know any other words besides ‘yes,

9?9P

looked up and replied, “Yes, ma’am.” She Ped off and from then on treated me as rudely as ve ever been treated. Finally she came back and UUY threw my bill at me. The bill, as I remember,

Grace and Truth

was nearly $2. In fact, I think it was $1.67. 1 left a $5 tip on the table. As I was paying my bill, the waitress came running with the $5 and said, “Mister, you dropped some money as you left.” She handed me the $5 bill. I looked at her and said, “Dear lady, don’t they tip at this restaurant?” Her lips quivered. Her eyes moistened as she said, “Do you mean, sir, that you left me a $5 tip after I had been so mean to you?”

I said, “Little lady, you are not a bad woman. I can tell you have a burden, you have a heavy heart. I hoped that I could brighten your day.” She began to weep and tell me a story of how her husband had left her. She had no money and had to go to work as a waitress to make ends meet and to feed the children. I told her of a Saviour Who loves her, and she received Him as her Saviour.

About an hour later I was walking through the airport and happened to meet this waitress. She smiled and said, “Hello.”

I asked her, “Do you feel better now?” whereupon she said, “Yes, ma’am!”

Memorize Psalm 119:165. Believe it. Practice it and let nothing offend you.

.epter 6

AND DO

omy 30:11-14, “For this commandment and thee this day, it is not hidden from Colaull

th er is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and

unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Nei-

6yond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who r the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that ar it, and do it? But the word is very nigh in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou it.99

2 closes with the words, “that we may hear it.” Verse 13 closes with the words, “that hear it, and do it.” Verse 14 ends with the

t thou mayest do it.” Notice that the hearoff there. Perhaps the dear Lord is saying to He has told us twice to hear and do and that Pnough hearing; it is now time to do!

Inca is full of these who hear and never do. FWS of thousands of our church members have Until their ears must ache, but they do nothing )d- Beloved, the Gospel is not a treasure to be L but a treasure to be carried. The Gospel is not lor to hang in the boat house; it is an anchor to on the boat and be used. It is not food to st-)re

Grace and Truth

in the cellar but food to share with others. It is not a garment to hang in the closet but rather a robe of righteousness to give to others. It is not a weapon to display in a museum; it is a sword to be used in battle. The Gospel is not a lagoon for the feeding of ducks; it is a river that is to flow to the entire world. It is not a relic to be examined; it is a redemption to be spread. It is not an ascetic experience to be enjoyed; it is an estatic experience to be shared. It is not a request to come, but a command to go. It is not a small reading light, but a bright headlight.

Listen to the Word of God. Psalm 143:10, “Teach me to do Thy will, 0 God.” Notice this does not say, “Teach me to be in Thy will, 0 God,” but “Teach me to do Thy will, 0 God.”

Philippians 4:13 reminds us that we can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us. The Apostle does not say, “I can bear all things through Christ.” He did not say, “I can be all things through Christ,” or “I can know all things through Christ.” Certainly these are also true, but he carefully chose to say, “I can do all things through Christ.”

In Acts 9:6 the newly converted Saul of Tarsus, who is someday to become the great apostle Paul, asks, “What wilt Thou have me to do?” His first question was not, “What wilt Thou have me hear?” “What wilt Thou have me to learn?” or “What wilt Thou have me to be?” but “What wilt Thou have me to do?”

In James 1:22 we are admonished to be doers of the Word and not hearers only. In James 4:17 we are told that to him who knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

John 14:12 reminds us, “Verily, verily, I say unto

HearandDo

e that beheveth on Me, the works that I do do also; and greater works than these shall he

I go unto My Father.” Note that we are works of Jesus. God’s people are to do somee did not say the facts that He learned we are the teaching He taught we are to teach, the

that He went we are to go. Now these are true t the great fact is that we are to do what He

1:1, “The former treatise have I made, 0

, of all that Jesus began both to do and Wotice that Jesus began to do and to teach. to do and to teach. Notice the do comes beteach. Beloved, the Word of God is not an be defended; it is a weapon to be used.

enough great preachers; now we need doers. We have enough great teachers; d some great doers. We have enough s; now we need some great doers. Per-

ought to change the ordination paper of a from “Ordained to preach” to “Ordained to

many Christians whose favorite Scripture

23. Perhaps we need some whose favorite is Ecclesiastes 9:10, “Whatsoever thy hand do, do it with thy might; for there is no device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the .,*hither thou goest.”

many Christians whose life’s verse is Ro’28. Maybe some ought to choose as their life’s Matthew 28:19, 20. Perhaps we ought to life verses like Daniel 12:3; Proverbs 11:30

9:4, “1 must work the works of Him that Me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no

Grace and Truth

man can work.”

Maybe we have preached enough on the Sabbath Day, and it is time to emphasize the other six days. Perhaps we have stressed too much the day of rest when we ought to stress more the six days of work. Maybe our favorite song ought to be, “We’ll Work ‘Til Jesus Comes,” instead of “Asleep in Jesus.” Maybe we ought to sing less of “Sweet Peace, the Gift of God’s Love,” and more of “Sound the Battle Cry, See the Foe is Nigh, Raise the Standard High for the Lord.” We have emphasized the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, and well we should. Why doesn’t somebody now emphasize the power of the Spirit!

We have dwelt on the woman at the well. Now perhaps we ought to dwell on the woman in town who left the well and went soul winning. Maybe we have talked too much about David’s harp and not enough about David’s sling. Maybe we have emphasized to our young people too much the importance of making a straight “A” instead of making a straight way to tell sinners how to be saved.

Maybe we have been holding the fort too long; we should take some forts. Maybe we have been gathering around the Word too much when we ought to get the Word and gather around sinners.

We have heard and heard; row it is time to do. What are you doing for God? How long has it been since you won a soul to Christ? Do you teach a growing Sunday school class? Do you have a bus route? Do you go soul winning every week? We have heard. Now it is time to do.

apter 7

E IS JEALOUS

.4hilian leaders once asked Leonardo daVinci to ’46me drawings for a public building. They also g man

TJ named Michaelangelo to do likeauthorities were pleased at the paintings -Wd by Leonardo daVinci. They were over-

by the beauty of those presented by e

lo. It is said that Leonardo daVinci beealous that it almost wrecked his Iffe.

61 ousy is not acceptable or admirable in the

good Christian, it is, however, an attribute of us 34:14, “For thou shalt worship no other f6e Lord, Whose name is jealous, is a jealous V,

times in the Scriptures we find that God is ‘,.,.’see Exodus 20:5; 34:14; Deuteronomy 4:24; and Joshua 24:19. God was constantly reHis people of His jealousy. He reminded

Pilwy as they began their journeys to Canaan, a,they built God’s house, as they prepared to enthe land of milk and honey, and when they

the land. Nahum 1:2 reminds us that God is Zechariah 1:14 tells us that He is jealous for lq,Aem- Zechariah 8:2 reminds us that He is jeal’Ibr Zion. He is jealous when we give others His

Grace and Truth

titles. Matthew 23:8-10. He is jealous as He sees idols, as He sees us counting beads, going to confessionals, kissing toes, climbing sacred stairs, bowing at worship centers, having formal services and putting other things and people in His place. He is jealous of other gods. Since He is the only God, the Creator of Heaven and earth, He cannot endure any creature to wear His crown, sit on His throne, hold His sceptre or wear His royal robe.

Put yourself in His place. Suppose you made the heavens and the earth and then the creatures you made were more interested in worshipping dead wood or a frog or a beetle or the vermin of a muddy river than they were in worshipping you. God once saw such and with holy contempt said, “They have mouths but speak not. They have eyes but see not. They have ears but hear not. Noses have they but smell not. They have hands but handle not. They have feet but walk not, neither speak they through their throat.”

Do you wonder at His jealousy? Look at Dagon falling before the ark of the covenant. Look at the plagues of Egypt when God paralyzed the objects of their worship. Look at Baal being broken. See Jerusalem burning and people going to battle because of idolatry. See the walls of cities falling because God’s people turned to other gods. Look at Ashtaroth being consumed by fire. See the temple being leveled and Mount Zion trodden under foot by the Gentiles because of idolatry. Search the ruins of Babylon and pagan Rome. Behold the heaps of Nineveh and stare at the broken temples of Greece. God is full of indignation when He sees relies, images and shrines. He is angry when He sees people bowing before images,

His Name Isjealous

tag before a crucifix or adoring a rotten bone.

of the world is a graveyard of temples, shrines “sterday’s religions because God will not share kv= with another.

(me does not have to go to far away pagan lands idols. The crib is made a shrine. A wife can goddess. A husband can wear God’s crown.

le can bow at the altar of pleasure. The can idolize his money. The athlete can his sports. Pagan universities can bow before

i tic god of the mind. A preacher can bow denomination.

that thing or that person in your life which jealous? Is it clothes? A girlfriend? Educa? Family? Church? Denomination? God

of you, and He is jealous if He does not have God will not be “King for a day.” He will hors d’oeuvres; He wants to be the entr6e.

be the introduction: He must be the ent

He will not be a vestibule; He wants to be He will not be an ornament; He wants wardrobe. God will not be a moon-lighting a part-time throne. His palace cannot be a

ts us. Why He does only He knows. He e is jealous for us. Let us give Him our all.

Chapter 8

LITTLE THINGS

When I was a student at East Texas Baptist College, I took a course in Pastoral Theology taught by the President of the coLl-ege in the college chapel. It was basically for preache_-r boys.

Every Monday rnc:Drning we would give a report of our activities for tiae weekend. On this particular Monday morning, I was as happy qs a young preacher can be. I had accepited my first pastorate the day before. It was the Nf arris Chapel Baptist Church of Bogata, Texas. It hati 19 members and my salary was $15 every two weeks.

That particular Nf -onday morning I situated myself on the front row at the end of the row so I could be asked first for the weekend report. Sure enough, the teacher looked at rr3-e and said, “Mr. Hyles, what did you do over the wet:Aend?”

I stood to my feet and said, “Dr. Bruce, yesterday I was called to pastc3r -a little church up in the country.” Dr. Bruce said, “S.it down, Mr. Hyles!”

I couldn’t under-stand what I had done wrong. Each preacher w–_-ic had a report to give spoke until the reports were -,,er. With tears in my eyes I looked at Dr. Bruce and asl

Little Things

]Bruce looked at me very soberly and said, “Mr. you said that you were called to pastor a, ‘little’

up in the country. Mr. Hyles, there are no chesl”

something that day that I have never forMay I share it with you today.

uses little people. Who killed Goliath? Daleast likely son of Jesse. Who led the Israelites d of 300 men to defeat the enemy? Gide-

nuallest boy of the smallest family of the tribe of the smallest nation in the world. birth to the great Moses? A little slave lady

ochebed. Who pointed Naaman, the captain of Syria to Elisha? A little maid who ataaman’s wife. Who rimmed the Mediterrawith the Gospel and became the greatest

the world has ever seen? Paul, whose ans “little.” Who was the greatest giver in the Bible? A little widow who gave her but they were all that she had. Who took

ts and lifted them closer to God? oody, with a ninth grade education and he was a shoe store clerk in Boston. Who

revival to America at the turn of the century looked like all was lost? A drunkard named who stumbled into the Pacific Garden ‘Mission and received the Saviour.

were many wealthy and great men living in at the time of the birth of our Saviour, yet was announced to humble shepherds

their flocks by night. There were many of various and profound learning living in d Bethlehem; yet it was the ears of simple heard the announcement first. It was to

Grace and Truth

humble sheepherders that Heaven’s choir sang. There were many ascetics who had left home to fast and pray in the desert, yet it was not their ears that heard the announcement. It was not their eyes that saw the angels, it was not their arms who cradled the Christ child. It was not their lips that kissed His brow. It was not their home where He was born or at their table where He sat. The greatest news the world was ever given or ever heard was sung to lowly shepherds as they watched their flocks on Judean hills.

2. God uses little places. At the birth of our Saviour there were palaces, estates, hotels and universities, yet it was a manger that cradled the Christ child. It was hay that padded His crib.

Where was the last supper eaten? In an upper room. Where was the power of Pentecost prayed down? From that same upper room. Where was David found? Tending sheep. Where was Gideon found? Behind the winepress threshing wheat. Where was Jesus buried? In a borrowed sepulchre. Where were most of the epistles written? From a jail cell. Where was Moses when he was called? On the back side of the desert. Where was Dwight L. Moody discovered? In a shoe store.

Yes, God uses little places and does great things in them.

3. God uses little things. Someone came to Michaelangelo one time as he was painting and asked him why he spent so much time on trifles. He replied, “Trifles make perfection and perfection is no trifle.” Little things are important. God used the little lunch basket of a little lad to feed 5,000 people. He used an ox goad in Sharngar’s hand to slay 600 Philis-

ili, Little Things

win the battle. He used the rod Of Moses t

0 art the Red Sea and bring water from

0 p

A in Horeb. Jesus used mud from which to -47

1icine to heal blind eyes. jochebed used an ;,i

“Wch to protect the greatest of all the Israelie,

“I ago Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., came to our house. W

Iii-who is now married and the mother of two A; 4 was three years old at the time. She came Vj

to the living room. Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., ‘in his pocket and took out a carton of assort.17

-’r I Uflesavers and gave it to Becky. She r breast and took her heart and gave Jones, Sr. He took time for her that day.

She never forgot that gracious deed -d by great man. She often spoke of Dr. i6 Sr

and that package of assorted flavor years passed. I was speaking at Bob for a few days. Dear old Dr. Bob was

in years and was getting rather senile. He came to me. He asked, “How is Becky?” I ve my ears. Could he remember her

Aw ten years? Could he who is now getting ,,member a little three-year-old girl?

“Dr. Bob, Becky is fine. She will have her ald birthday next Saturday. By the way, Dr.

477″

are her favorite preacher. She has loved you you visited our house that day and gave package of assorted flavor Lifesavers. ” A tear

.,,,,,,,Aed his eye, and I think I saw a quiver in his K

Uext Saturday on Becky’s thirteenth birthday a “e

Came addressed to Miss Becky Hyles. It was ke

d from Bob Jones University, Becky excit-

Grace and Truth

edly opened it and what did she find? A carton of assorted flavor Lifesavers! Little things are important.

When our Saviour rose from the dead, He took time to fold the graveclothes. When He died on the cross, He took time to be sure His mother was cared for.

4. Little tasks are important. Everything was important to Jesus. He could have preached a sermon on the mount every morning, but He did not choose to do so. He could have stilled a storm every evening, but He did not choose to do so. He could have been transfigured every day, but He did not so choose. Every day He could have fed 5,000 people, but this He did not do. He could have ascended to Heaven every night and come back the next morning for His work on earth, but He decided against such a procedure. He took time to talk to one woman beside the well, to one man at midnight, to one Zacchaeus up a tree, to one blind Bartimaeus beside the Jericho road.

Yes, every task is important. You say, “But I’m only a mother. I’m only a Sunday school teacher. I pastor just a small church.” Remember, God can use little people in little places with little things doing little tasks to perform great works and miraclesl

Chapter 9

KEEPING BUZZARDS AWAY

Rizpah had lost two sons in death. In order that the fouls of the air did not eat their bodies, she positioned herself by the dead bodies of her sons and protected them from the carnivorous creatures who were circling with inflamed appetites. II Samuel 21:10.

When God told Abraham that he and Sarah would have a son, God wanted to confirm it, so He told Abraham to take a heifer three years old, a she goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle dove and a pigeon and lay them side by side on the altar. This Abraham did. God was going to confirm His promise by allowing fire to fall and consume the sacrifices.

Abraham takes the sacrifices and lays them side by side on the altar, but wait! He sees vultures. Where could they have come from? This he did not know, but he saw them hastening to their prey. Look at old Abraham spring into action. With the vigor of his youth he drives them away and positions himself to protect the sacrifice. We too are to protect the sacrifice and are to drive away the buzzards.

1. The sacrifice of Christ. These vultures who are after the sacrifice on the altar are not all dead. Let a church spring up carrying the message of Calvary,

Truth and Grace

and watch these carnivorous creatures collect to criticize. Let a preacher become aflame with evangelism, and watch these buzzards buzz and burn and bellow and bark. Let a church find its altars filled with new babes in Christ and its buildings begin to bulge, and watch these fouls flock to flay.

This is the great object of attack by our enemy. He attacks the sacrifice of Christ. Beloved, we may differ on baptism and still be brethren, but we cannot differ on Calvary and still be brethren. We may differ on communism and still be brethren, but we cannot differ on Calvary and still be brethren. We can differ on prophecy and still be brethren, but we cannot differ on Calvary and still be brethren. We can differ on predestination, healing, sanctification, or even denomination and still be brethren, but we cannot differ on Calvary and still be brethren.

Notice Genesis 15:11 calls them fouls. These who would take away the bloody sacrifice are not called reverend but fouls. They are not called brethren but fouls. They are not called rabbi or pastor or father or minister, but fouls. God calls them what they are. May we do likewise to these who have disarmed God’s infantry, sealed the gates of hope and nailed shut the windows through which the light of the Word of God wants to shine.

Notice that we are to chase them off. We are not to join their church, belong to their ministerial association, share communion with them, attend their schools or call them reverend. We are to chase them off.

Some of these buzzards are found in college classrooms. Others are found behind high school desks. Still others wear seminary robes. Some even stand

Keeping Buzzards Away

behind pulpits. They lodge in the branches of the kindergarten waiting to destroy the faith of our children. They hide on the limbs to deceive the larnbs. They hover the trees in our high schools to destroy the teens. They wait at the matriculation desk at the university to shipwreck our youth. They hide with flocks of doves and appear as doves in order to peck away at the sacrifice.

One of these kites called me on the phone one day. He is a pastor of a church. He asked me if I could spend some time with him instructing him on how to build a Sunday school. I asked him if he believed in the virgin birth.

He said, “No.”

I asked him if he believed in the vicarious death of Christ.

He said, “No.”

I asked him if he believed the verbal inspiration of the Scripture.

He said, “No.”

He asked me if I would instruct him about Sunday school growth. I said, “No!”

He replied that I had a bad spirit. I told him I did not have a bad spirit toward him but toward his work. I told him, “I am set for the defense of the cross and the Christ of the cross.” I told him if he ever had a flat and I saw him on the street, I would help him fix the flat. If he were hungry, I would feed him. If he were naked, I would clothe him. If he were in trouble, I would help him, but I told him when he got up to preach the next Sunday and denied the Bible, the virgin birth, the new birth, the blood atonement, and the cardinal truths of God’s Word, I hoped he would get hiccups!

Truth and Grace

When I was a little boy my mother used to hold the Bible up before me and say, “Son, this is the Word of God.” She would make me repeat it after her several times. She would say, “Son, say, ‘The Bible is the word of God.”‘ I would say it over and over again, night after night, week after week, month after nionth.

Several years ago I was asked by a nationwide Christian magazine to debate with a liberal and have that debate published in the magazine. This I did. When the debate was over, the liberal preacher complimented me by suggesting that I had a pretty sharp mind. He then asked me how a man with a mind like mine could still believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that Jesus is God’s Son.

I looked at him frankly and said, “Because I’m scared of Mama!” Then I said, “If you had a mother like mine, you wouldn’t be a heathen eitherl”

Beloved, when these ravens come to pick away at the sacrifice of Christ, make light of His Word, His atonement, His virgin birth and the foundations of the Gospel, we ought to love them but their false teachings and their works should make our blood boil, our cheeks flush, our eyes moisten and our fists clench!

Let us stay at the sacrifice and fight off these fouls who teach an earth with no creation, a Gospel with no good news, an altar with no sacrifice, a cross with no atonement, a Christ with no deity, a Bible with no inspiration, an eternity with no Heaven, a Jonah with no whale, a Noah with no flood, a Daniel with no lions’ den, \a Hell with no fire, a kingdom with no King, a death with no resurrection, and a salvation with no regeneration!

Keeping Buzzards Away

There is, however, a danger. We can become so

enchanted with fighting off the buzzards that we spend our entire life chasing buzzards only to find ourselves away from the sacrifice. Abraham was not in the buzzard-chasing businessl He was in the sacrifice-protecting business. Let us never forget the reason we are to keep the fouls away from the sacrifice is to keep the message straight so it can be preached and people can be saved.

Recently while preparing these thoughts I was flying from Philadelphia to Chicago. The stewardess brought a meal. As I began to eat, a fly circled the landing strip with a desire to sit at my snack bar with me. I drove him away. Why? I was protecting the food. I had nothing in particular against the fly. I didn’t even know him and as long as he would leave my food and me alone, I would leave him alone. However, he so irritated me by continuing to share my lunch that I tried to kill him. Soon I forgot I was protecting my lunch and got busy trying to kill the fly. I even turned around to try to get him. I did get him only to find when I turned back to my food that two other flies were feasting because of my folly.

This is what so often happens to preachers. We get busy fighting communism off the sacrifice and we leave the sacrifice and chase communism. We get busy fighting the sex education program off the sacrifice and we spend our hives fighting the sex education program. We leave the sacrifice in order to fight its enemies and leave it unguarded. Let us not leave the sacrifice or other birds will come.

2. The sacrifice of self. Romans 12:1, “1 beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy accepta-

Truth and Grace

ble unto God, which is your reasonable service.” No sooner is a Christian off his knees at the altar until some buzzard offers him a drink, tells him a dirty joke, offers him some dope or a cigarette, or laughs at his Christian faith. No sooner does a person receive the Saviour until he finds some raven criticizing his church or some kite showing him the kingdoms of this world and offering them at a reduced rate.

Beloved, let us give our lives to the guarding of these sacrifices-the sacrifice of our Saviour on Calvary and the sacrifice of our bodies on the altar of service for Christ.

Chapter 10

IS TEENAGE LOVE REAL LOVE?

“Oh, that’s just puppy love.”

“I felt that way about a lot of boys when I was your age.”

“You’ll get over that; it’s just a passing thing.” “I know how you feel; I was your age once.” “You’re not old enough to love really; it’s just teen-

age infatuation.”

These are statements every teenager has heard many times, and most teenagers hate to hear them. A few days ago I was talking with one of our teenagers and this subject was brought up. The young lady asked me if a teenager could have real love or is it true that all love by teenagers is puppy love? I answered that I definitely believe that a Christian teenager can have real love. I do not agree for a second that a teenager cannot have the real thing.

I proceeded to talk with the young lady about teenage love. Now, I am not talking just about love for a boyfriend; I’m talking about love for God, love for friends, and, yes, love for a boyfriend or for a girlfriend. I do believe that a teenager can have the real thing.

What is the difference between the love of a teenager and the love of an adult? The difference is only

Grace and Truth

in the quantity, not necessarily in the quality. Two people can be drinking orange juice. One can have a small 4-ounce glass; another can have a large 12ounce glass. They have the same thing quality-wise, but there is a difference in the quantity. The teenager can have the same quality love as the adult. Of course, with the passing of years he can increase his quantity of love. The teenager’s devotion to Christ, to his friends and to his family can be just as real as it will be in adulthood. He will find, however, that he will get more of this real love as the experiences of life allow his container to become larger.

Many times I ask young folks to wait to get married until they are out of their teens. This does not mean that it is impossible for them to love the young man or the young lady with real love. It does mean that it would be better for them to wait until they have more love to offer each other. This is why the writer wrote, “More love to Thee, 0 Christ.” He did not write, “Better love to Thee, 0 Christ.” To be sure, there are many people who have “puppy love,” infatuation, etc., but these people can be adults as well as teens. All of us need to be sure that we examine our love for its quality, but this examination should not be conducted only by teenagers; it should be conducted by people of all ages.

Yes, teenager, your love for Christ, for your family and for your friends may be immature, but it does not have to be. You can love Christ with a love as real as the love I have for Him. You have the privilege before you of having your cup grow larger so that you can give to love’s objects even more of that pure love which you now have.

This means that teenagers should refrain from cer-

Is Teenage Love Real Love?

tain expressions of love such as holding hands, kissing, embracing, becoming engaged, getting married, etc. until they have as much love as possible to offer love’s object. It does not mean, however, that we should minimize the love of a teenager because the quantity is not at its fullest.

Chapter 11

THE HAIR OF HIS HEAD BEGAN TO GROW

judges 16:22, “Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.”

Samson was not a Jewish “Jolly green giant.” He was no gullible Goliath. He was no retarded Hercules, nor was he an overweight Romeo.

The truth is Samson was one of the great spiritual giants of the Bible. No wine nor strong drink ever entered into his mouth. He belonged to the most consecrated group, the Nazarites. Of him it is said, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him,” more than of any other man in the Old Testament. He was brilliant. He thought of the idea once of tying the tails of 300 foxes together. He set them on fire and let them loose in the grain fields of the Philistines.

He was strong. He once took the jawbone of a donkey and slew 1000 men.

He was a great leader. He ruled Israel as a judge for

20 years. No president has ever held office that long in the United States.

Yet, sad to say, he fell into sin. He lost his hair and his power. The Philistines put him on exhibit at a great festival and public sacrifice to Dagon, their pagan god. The great temple of Dagon was filled to capacity and 3000 were on the roof. They gouged out

The Hair of His Head Began to Grow

the eyes of Samson, bound him and made him grind at the mill.

Picture Samson going round and round at the mill. Suddenly he feels the top of his head. With complete shock and delight, he becomes aware that his hair is growing again. He begins to feel stronger. The load seems lighter. Though his eyes will never see again, his hair can grow again, his strength can return and his power can come back to him. He will never be the Samson he once was but God can use him again. He is weak now, but he will fight again.

Peter is cursing and denying the Lord now, but he will preach at Pentecost and see 3000 people saved. Job is proud now because he stood for God and went through the persecution, but he will be revived and once again give God the glory He deserves. Jonah is running now, but he will return and preach one of the great revivals in history in the city of Nineveh. John Mark is in Pamphylia now, turning back and leaving the first missionary journey, but he will feel his hair growing again and regain his power and write one of the four Gospels. Jacob is cheating now but he will return to ask forgiveness and become a prince in the sight of God. Thomas is doubting now, but he will return and believe that Jesus is his Lord and his God. He will give his life in service in the country of India. David is committing his awful sin now, but he will return and become the greatest king ever to sit on the throne of Israel. James and John are seeking the best seats now but they will rise again and become pillars in the New Testament church. Abraham is lying about Sarah being his wife now, but he will return from Egypt to become the friend of God.

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The gushing wells may be stopped for a season, but soon the living water will gush through again. The beautiful tree in the forest will lose its leaves, but when spring returns, it will begin to bud.

Samson feels his hair growing again. He laughs and cries and prays and laughs and cries and prays for one last victory. The hair does grow. The power does return. The time comes when he asks a lad to lead him to the two middle pillars of the heathen temple. He gives one last prayer to God and he asserts one last lunge. He drags the pillars; the roof falls and all the people are killed. Samson also is killed and as he looks in the face of his Lord he possesses victory.

Is someone reading this who was a Sunday school teacher but lost his power? Feel the top of your head. The hair may be beginning to grow again. Is there one who was a soul winner but has drifted from God? God can use you again. Is there one who was a bus worker who now is on the shelf? Maybe your hair is beginning to grow again. Rise up, ye Samsons, and enjoy other victories. God has them for you!

Chapter 12

THE FIRST STEP TO GETTING

I am grateful to God that many years ago as a young preacher I learned how to get things from Him. During my early college days, in addition to taking a full academic load in school, I pastored a country church which was located 100 miles from the campus and also worked 40 hours a week at the J. C. Penney Company in Marshall, Texas. There was a young lady named jean who worked in the hosiery department and was also a fine Christian young lady. One day jean came to me and asked if I would speak the following Sunday at a small church where she attended. She then informed me that the church was pastorless and that the following Wednesday they were to vote between two brethren, both of whom had candidated. She informed me that I would not be a candidate, but that the church was in need of a supply preacher for the following Sunday. Since the church was close to Marshall I agreed to fill the pulpit the following Sunday. Of course, I had absolutely no intentions of candidating for the church since I was told emphatically that the membership would vote the following Wednesday evening to call one of the two brethren who had candidated.

The following Sunday I preached with liberty and

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blessing and assured the people that I would pray with them concerning which of the two brethren they should call. To my complete surprise the voting went as follows: Candidate # 1-17 votes; Candidate #2-9 votes; Jack Hyles-27 write-in votes. However, there were some unusual circumstances surrounding the election. Only one adult voted for me and that was Jean’s mother. I received 26 votes from children and teenagers, one from a lady and none from the adult men. The teenagers had secretly launched a campaign to elect me as pastor. The moderator was so infuriated that he delegated to the teenagers and the one lady who voted for me the responsibility of informing me as to the result of the election. It was late at night when the kids accompanied by the one chaperone bounced into our apartment to announce that I had been elected pastor of the church by a vote of 27 to 26.

Though the vote was certainly an unusual one, it was nevertheless according to church rules, and with the passing of every day I felt more and more that God was leading me to accept the call, even though at the same time I had a unanimous call to a largei church. After several days of prayer and deliberation and aftei much warning and threatening from certain leaders of the church, I felt God calling me to give an affirmative answer and to become pastor of this small church.

The first day as pastor, I slipped into the pastor’s study with apprehension mingled with hope. I had never had a study before. I opened my Bible quite casually and my eyes fastened on Ephesians 3:19, ” .. . that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Realizing that was exactly what I needed, I fell

The First Step to Getting

to my knees and began to thirst for something that I knew I needed in order to be what God wanted me to be as a young pastor. I was thirsty, so thirsty, and the longer I pastored and the more I preached, the more thirsty I got. I realized that I needed something upon my ministry that I did not have. I did not know it then, but I know now that the first step to getting things from God is to get thirsty.

1. Thirsty for the power of God. There are many prerequisites for the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the first of these is to be thirsty. Isaiah 44:3, “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring.” I went to the Word of God with my thirst and found that the men that He had used in the Bible were men who had the power of the Holy Spirit upon them. I read the story of Jacob in Genesis 32. 1 was impressed as I read the account of his all-night prayer meeting and his fervent wrestling with God for His power. I was arrested especially by verse 26, ” . . . And he Jacob) said, I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.” Jacob had pleaded with God all night and soon the blessing came. God’s promise to him was that he would no longer be called Jacob, but rather “Israel,” which means “a prince.” Jacob became a prince with God because he prayed for the power of God. As I read this my heart began to burn for the power of God to be upon my ministry.

As I continued my search through the Scriptures, I affixed my attention on judges 6:34, “But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon . . . ” judges 14:6, “And

Grace and Truth

the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him (Samson).” I Samuel 11:6, “And the Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul.” I Samuel 16:13, ” . . . and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David.” Isaiah 40:31, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” My heart continued to burn, and my soul became even more thirsty than ever.

I searched the New Testament and found that Luke 3:16 records the message of John the Baptist as he said, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” I was impressed to learn from Luke

4:1 that even Jesus had to be filled with the Holy Ghost. I then began to read such phrases as, “the promise of the Father,” in Acts 1:4; “filled with the Holy Ghost,” in Acts 2:4; “baptized with the Holy Ghost,” in Acts 1:5; “be endued with power from on high,” in Luke 24:49; “the Holy Ghost is come upon you,” in Acts 1:8; “1 will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh,” in Acts 2:17; “Be filled with the Spirit,” in Ephesians 5:18. 1 realized that God was simply making me more and more thirsty all the time.

A quarter of a century later that thirst still builds. On the mirror of my bathroom at home I have the words, “Pray for power.” just inside my briefcase the same words are found. On the windshield of my car I have the words, “Pray for power.” I have placed the same words on the desk at my office and on the mirror in my office. Thousands of times a week I pray for the power of God.

Still thirsting I went to the college library and began to read the lives of great men upon whom rested God’s power. I read of Savonarola, who in Florence,

The First Step to Getting

Italy, sat in his pulpit for five hours refusing to preach until the power of God came upon him. The power did come and the people were convicted by his Spirit-filled preaching.

My heart began to burn and the thirsting increased as I read of the great George Fox, who began to thirst for something he did not have. He went to a priest and sought his help, then to another and another. One priest suggested he try marriage. Another offered the solution of joining the army. Another said he should try tobacco and hymns. Nothing seemed to satisfy; the thirsting remained until this founder of the Quaker movement went alone for 14 days. There he fasted and prayed until the power of God came upon him. People who saw him upon his return said that there was a heavenly glow about his face and a heavenly power about his manner. Again my heart burned and my soul hungered and thirsted for something I did not have.

An old country preacher was once praying for the power of God. He cried, “Lord, give me the unctim.90

Someone asked, “What is the unction?”

He answered, “I don’t know what it is, but I know what it ain’t!”

This was my plight. I did not know what the unction was, but I knew what it wasn’t, and I knew that I did not have it. Hungering and thirsting for something, I began to read the life of John Wesley. I read how that on October 3, 1738, Wesley had an evening meal with George Whitefield and 60 other preachers. After the meal they went to prayer and prayed until three o’clock in the morning. Wesley said that it was there that the power of God came upon him, and he

Grace and Truth

was filled with the Holy Spirit. Again I thirsted. Then I turned to George Whitefield for instruction. I noted from his biography that on June 20, 1736, he was ordained. It was at his ordination that he was filled with the Holy Spirit. He said that when Bishop Benson laid hands on him there was such a surrender in his own soul that he knew for the first time the power of God was upon him and that he was filled with the Spirit.

I fell on my face and said, “Oh, God, whatever it is, I hunger and thirst for it.”

Then I read the biography of Dwight Moody. My heart burned as he related his experience of being filled with the Spirit. He told how that he was walking down Wall Street one day and was overcome with the power of God. He asked God to withhold His power until he could get alone. He borrowed the room of a friend and there saw his life completely transformed and the fruitfulness of his ministry multiplied. I then read of George Mueller, who said that he was filled with the Spirit the first time he saw Christians on their knees in prayer. He fell to his knees and God’s power came upon him. I read the great biography of Charles G. Finney, who said that he was filled with the Spirit on the same night as his conversion. Peter Cartright told of how he was anointed as he preached his first sermon. Christmas Evans was riding on horseback as an old-fashioned circuit-riding preacher when suddenly the power of God came on him. He fell off his horse, knelt and was anointed. My soul craved to know in reality the great power of God that is available for His people.

I heard of the great Billy Sunday and how he was filled with the Holy Spirit. It is said that on his pulpit

The First Step to Getting

his Bible was always opened to Isaiah 61:1, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”

I read of the life of R. A. Torrey and of others who spoke of an anointing of God upon their ministries. Soon I found myself praying all night. I found myself wandering through the East Texas pine thickets crying, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” I was begging and pleading for God to do something to me. I did not seek for tongues. I did not seek for perfection. I sought for some supernatural power that would move men while I preached and bring them down the aisles professing faith in Jesus Christ. Finally one morning at daybreak I fell on my face after praying

411. night and cried to God saying, “Dear God, whatever the price, I’m willing to pay it. I must have the power of God!”

In just a few hours my phone rang. It was a longdistance call from Dallas, Texas. A male voice said, “Reverend Hyles, my name is Smith. Your dad just dropped dead with a heart attack.” (My dad was a drunkard, and today is buried in an alcoholic’s grave.) I slumped to my seat and remembered that just a few months before, my dad had promised me that he would be saved soon, and now all hope was gone! After his funeral I went back to his grave. There I fell on my face and promised God that I would wait before Him on the grave of my dad until I was endued with power from on high. I do not know how long I stayed, but I do know that it was for many hours. Some have even suggested that it was for a few days.

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I lost all awareness of time as I begged and pleaded with God for His power. I know not all that happened. I do know I did not speak in tongues. I know I did not become sinlessly perfect, but I do know that for the first time in my life, soul-winning power came upon my ministry, and for the first time in my life I knew what the apostle meant in Ephesians 5:18,

be filled with the Spirit.”

The blessed and wonderful truth about all of this is that it is available for everyone. Joel 2:28, 29 says, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit.” Note the words in verse 28, “1 will pour out My Spirit on ALL Flesh.” Notice in these verses that it is for sons and daughters, old men and young men, servants and handmaidens. All cannot be dynamic, but all can be thirsty. All cannot be attractive, but all can be thirsty. All cannot be humorous, but all can be thirsty. All cannot be learned, but all can be thirsty. The promise is in Isaiah 44:3, “1 will pou, water upon him that is thirsty.”

Once a fine young couple went to adopt a child from an orphanage. Their eyes focused on one little girl who was so lovely. Their hearts were knitted to hers immediately. Soon she came to their home to live. She had her own room, her own bed, her own toys. The first afternoon her mother called her in and offered the little girl a big glass of milk.

The little girl held it in both hands and looked up to her mommy and asked, “Mommy, how deep may I

The First Step to Getting drink?”

As a tear rolled from the mommy’s eye, she said, “Sweetheart, you are not an orphan anymore. You have a mommy and daddy. You have a home. Drink it all, and when that is gone there is plenty more where that came from.”

Far too many of us look up to God and say, “Dear God, how deep may I drink?” His heart yearns for us to drink it all and be filled with the Spirit.

In a southern city there was a pastor who received word that an old lady in his neighborhood was near starvation. He went to her home to check on her condition, only to find that there was no fuel, no electricity and no food. She was literally starving to death. The pastor began to inquire concerning her family. He found that she only had one son and he lived in South America. The pastor asked the lady if the son ever wrote her, whereupon she replied, “No, he never writes.”

“How long has it been since you have heard from him,” asked the pastor.

She answered, “Oh, I get a green card from him the first of every month, but he never writes.”

The pastor then excitedly asked, “What did you do with those cards?”

“Oh,” she said, “I papered the back bedroom walls with them. That is all they were good for.”

“Let me see the walls,” asked the pastor. The old lady feebly led the pastor to the back bedroom. He took one look at the walls and said, “Lady, you are rich and don’t know it. These are money orders. For years you have been papering your bedroom with them. If you just had known, you could have cashed them in. You are wealthy and do not realize it.”

Grace and Truth

Such is the case with every Christian. God has so much for us. He has so many blessings to give us, so many souls to win through us, so many battles to see us through. Most of us are rich and don’t know it. Oh, for the breath of Heaven to settle upon us, and for us to cash in what is rightly ours as we thirst and thirst and thirst for the power of God!

2. Thirsting for success. Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Of course, success inevitably follows the power of God, for that is the purpose of the power of God. The fullness of the Spirit is not to give us some kind of a happy feeling. (Of course, the happy feeling will come as a by-product.) The fullness of the Spirit is not to give us some kind of self-edification. It is to give us the power of God that we might win people to Jesus Christ and thereby have success in His work. There is a real need for God’s people, and especially God’s preachers, to thirst for success. Of course, this is not a selfish thirsting, but rather a thirsting for trophies to throw at Jesus’ feet.

Dr. Greg Dixon is Pastor of the famous Indianapolis Baptist Temple. Many years ago he became the pastor of a little handful of people in Indianapolis, and this handful of people has become one of the largest churches in the world. One day while talking with Dr. Dixon I asked him what he felt caused the success. He said with real humility, “Dr. Hyles, I wanted it more than anything in the whole world. I wanted more than life itself to build a great work for God in Indianapolis and to reach hundreds and thousands with the Gospel. It had been my entire life.” No wonder God is giving him such blessings; he was thirsty!

The First Step to Getting

One night some years ago I was preaching in

Winston-Salem, North Carolina, at the Salem Baptist Church. As I was speaking, two handsome young men walked in. They were impressive in their appearance and carriage. After the service they came to the front. One of them reached out his hand and said, “Dr. Hyles, my name is Jerry Falwell. I am Pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church of Lynchburg, Virginia. Could we take you to the airport?” I answered him in the affirmative. As we drove to the airport Pastor Falwell asked me question after question. I began to realize that he was thirsting to do a great work for God. He invited me to his church and again I saw this same hungering and thirsting and quest for the work of the Lord. Other pastors have testified that they saw this same attribute in Pastor Falwell. He was thirsting to be blessed of God and to build a great work. He did not claim to have all the answers, but in his humility, he inquired of every successful man he met as to the causes for success. It is no wonder that he has built under God the great Thomas Road Baptist Church which is one of the world’s largest. He was thirsty, thirsty for success, thirsty for God’s blessings.

I have pastored five churches. Three of them were great churches. The Grange Hall Baptist Church of Marshall, Texas, was a great country church. I pastored there for three years and three months. The first Saturday night after I became pastor of this church I knelt at the altar and opened my Bible to Psalm 1:1-3. “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. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth

Grace and Truth

he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” My eyes were fixed upon the last five words, “Whatsoever he doeth shal-I prosper.” I then promised God that I would walk not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful. I promised Him that I would delight in His law and meditate therein day and night. I then claimed His promise that whatsoever I did would prosper. I claimed a great church out in the country. God gave us that great church after days and weeks of thirsting, all-night praying and pleading with God.

The same procedure has been followed through the years as I have thirsted for success to the glory of God.

Chapter 13

ON BEING A MAN

Most Americans agree that one of our great needs is to develop men of decision and leadership. This article will not attempt to exhaust the information on this subject nor will it even be repetitious of other articles this au’ thor has written along the same line. It will just be a few thoughts gathered one morning while thinking and walking and walking and thinking. Maybe these thoughts will help some boy to become a man, or for that matter, some man to become

a man.

1. The man should fill every need that he sees. Men should be need-fillers. Any need should become a challenge.

In the army some men become officers because they attend Officer’s Candidate School and still others become officers because of an emergency that arises on the battlefield. Perhaps the commanding officer is suddenly killed or injured. At that point some enlisted man rises to the occasion, takes the place of leadership and spontaneously fills the position of an officer. This kind of promotion is usually the wisest one, for to be a leader one must consider every need a challenge and must become a need-filler.

2. A man should correct every mistake he sees. A

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leader is always a fixer. Something broken should become a challenge. Bill Harvey once said to me, “Brother Jack, do not go to Italy.” I couldn’t understand what he meant. I asked him, “Why shouldn’t I go to Italy?” He said, “The Leaning Tower of Pisa is there, and you will try to straighten it up.” Of course, he was kidding and yet in a sense this should be the reaction of every leader. If something is broken, fix it. Do not e-v,,er enjoy seeing something broken. If a

2′ x 4′ is in the road, move it. Accept it as your own responsibility to fix everything you see broken. This will help one to become a man.

3. A man should do well everything that he does. No job is an unimportant job. The right kind of leader is a perfectionist.

It would be wonderful for every Christian, and especially every leader, to take Ecclesiastes 9:10 as his life’s verse. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” What the writer is saying is that everything we do, we should do it with all our might. Certainly this should be true about the leader, whether it is playing sports, working at a job, rearing children, building a church or whatever it is, we should give it all that we have. This is masculine and will help one become a man of decision and leadership.

4. Strength will listen to and consider the advice of others. One of my preacher boys once said, “I’m old enough now not to need counsel or advice. I don’t need to ask Brother Hyles what he thinks any more. It is time I became man enough to make my own decisions.” This statement itself is a statement of weakness. Weakness cannot stand up in the face of

On Being a Man

counsel. It must avoid counsel. Strength can stand counsel and insists upon receiving it. This does not mean it will always be taken, but it does mean that it will always be considered. Certainly this is part of becoming masculine and a manly leader.

5. Masculinity insists on being the giver, not the receiver. When I think of this I think of my late Uncle Harvey Harris, who was a dear friend and a wonderful man of character and leadership. He wouldn’t eat if he couldn’t pay the bill. He couldn’t enjoy a meal if someone else paid for it. This to an extent is true in the case of any strong leader. He gets more joy in giving than receiving. Of course, this goes back to the same teaching of fixing things that are broken, providing for things that are needed, etc. Leadership is on the fixing end, the giving end and the supplying end; leadership enjoys it more than being on the receiving end.

6. The leader would rather do the work than get the title. Accomplishment is always better than title or position. Recently while I was in a college class I picked out one of the most famous churches in America, one with history and tradition. I asked the college class to tell me the name of the pastor. Less than 10 percent knew his name. I then called off the name of a church that is just a few years old that has had phenomenal growth. I asked the members of the class to tell me the name of that pastor. All of them knew his name. This was to illustrate that it is far better to do the work than to get the position. One man had done a great work and was well known. The other man had accepted the pastorate of a church with great tradition and history and consequently held a great position but was not so well known. Real men are not

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desirous of position or fame. They are desirous of an opportunity to do something for God and for others.

7. To be a real man one must obey himself. He

must develop his will in order to make his body and mind obey his will. The most rebellious person to me is me. The leader must obey his will. He must say to his body in the morning, “Get up.” He must say to his body sometimes, “You can’t eat now.” Other times he must say, “You can’t eat that particular food.” He certainly cannot rule others until he can rule himself. This is why the wise man said that he is greater that ruleth his own spirit than he that conquereth a city.

8. A leader should not use as his ONLY right for leadership the fact that the Bible gives him authority. For example, the Bible does say that servants should obey their masters; citizens, their leaders; wives, their husbands; and children, their parents, but the wise leader will accept his place of responsibility, not only because it is given to him Scripturally, but he will want to be strong enough to merit the place of leadership.

These thoughts are nowhere near exhaustive; they are simply a few thoughts I had while meditating down a path in the woods one day.

Chapter 14

GIVE ME THY HEART

Proverbs 23:26, “My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.”

Isn’t that a strange request? God is using the words, “Give Me.” Usually, we are the ones who say, “Give me,” and now the table is turned. This is not the creature saying to the Creator, “Give me,” but rather the Creator is saying to the creature, “Give Me.” The great Benefactor becomes the petitioner. The great Giver becomes the receiver. The Landlord becomes the tenant. The Provider becomes the beggar. The Satisfied becomes the seeker. The Door seeks entrance. The Living Water thirsts. The Bread of Life is hungry. The Way gropes for your heart. The Prince of Peace fights to get you. God wants your heart.

Why does God want our hearts? There is only one possible reason: He loves us! There is nothing that He needs that we have apart from our love. He is too rich for us to make Him richer. He is too great for us to make Him greater. He is too good for us to make Him better. He is too strong for us to make Him stronger. He is too glorious for us to give Him more glory. If we gave Him all of our goodness, it wouldn’t make Him any better. If we gave Him all of our riches, it wouldn’t make Him any richer. If we gave Him all of

Grace and Truth

our strength, it wouldn’t make Him any stronger. If we gave Him all of our wisdom, it wouldn’t make Him any wiser. If we gave Him all of our knowledge, it wouldn’t make Him any smarter. If we gave Him all of our glory, it wouldn’t make Him any more glorious. If we gave Him all of our greatness, it wouldn’t make Him any greater. If we gave Him all our power, it wouldn’t make Him any more powerful. He simply seeks after our love. That is why He made us. He wanted somebody to love Him and to fellowship with Him voluntarily. It seems so strange that we should not gladly accept this offer when the great omn-iscient, omnipresent and omnipotent God wants our hearts.

It is so necessary that the Christian give his heart to God first. To give wealth without giving the heart is abomination. To pray without giving the heart is mockery. To sing without giving the heart is sounding brass and tinkling symbol. To work without giving the heart is insult. To teach without giving the heart is ignorance. To preach without giving the heart is hypocrisy. To serve without giving the heart is fraud. To witness without giving the heart is perjury.

Years ago I faced the reality that I would never be a great orator or scholar and that I did not have great talent. I did, however, realize that I could do one thing as well as anybody. I could give God all my heart. He has a right to my heart and He has a right to your heart, for He gave His heart to us. When He died on the cross, a soldier pierced His side, and the Bible says there came forth blood and water. Doctors tell us that this means the heart had ruptured. He died of a broken heart. He gave you His heart; He

Give Me Thy Heart

wants yours. He says to you today, “Give ine thy heart.” The happy Christian responds in the affirma-

tive.

Chapter 15

DO IT WITH JESUS

Song of Solomon 5:1, “1 am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, 0 friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, 0 beloved.”

The most important word in the Song of Solomon is ‘.communion.” The entire book is written to tell us of the Saviour’s delight in being with us and in the delight we should enjoy in being with Him. He reminds us that He loves to do things with us. He reminds us that He likes to do things for us. We are His delight. When He saw us coming to Himself, with the first gleam of faith, He rejoiced. When we got to Him He called all of His friends and neighbors for a feast of rejoicing. He cannot be happy alone. He will not eat unless we eat. He will not drink unless we drink. He loves to do things for us. We are His own.

He reminds us also that He loves to do things to us. As a mother loves to feed her baby and dress her daughter, as a father loves to teach the son, as a lover loves to stir emotion in the object of his love, as a gardener takes pleasure in the growth of his choice plants, and as a doctor delights in a cure, so does our Saviour delight in doing things to His own.

Do It with Jesus

In this beautiful picture we find at least four things

the Saviour likes to do with us. Notice He mentions sharing with us myrrh, honey, milk and spice.

Could not the myrrh represent the bitter of life? Jesus is telling us that He wants to share with us the bitter things of life. He wants to go into the operating room with us. He wants to walk the hall and wait with the anxious loved one. He wants to sit with you at the funeral when the dearest of life is taken. He wants to walk with you to the grave. He wants to help you with your financial burdens and sit by you when the baby is sick. He wants to share the room with you at the rest home. He wants to share the bitter.

He also wants to share honey or the sweet with us. He wants to be included in your graduation plans. He wants you to take time to spend with Him on your wedding day. He wants you to share with Him the engagement, the wedding, the coming of the new baby, the new house, the new car.

He then mentions that He likes to share milk with us. This represents the routine of life. He wants to be with the lady as she washes, cooks and keeps house. He wants to be included in the schedule of the man who works at the steel mill, the factory, the office or the shop. He wants to go to school with the child and share the social activities of the youth. He wants to sit and talk to you. He wants you to include Him as you look at a sunset, go to the store, mow the yard, feed the baby, take a test, get a haircut or take out the garbage.

Then He mentions He wants to share spice with us. This could represent the special parts of life. He wants to walk across the platform on graduation day. He wants to go to the locker room and share the vic-

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tory with you. He wants to rejoice with you when you receive your discharge from the army. He wants to congratulate you when you are promoted at work or get a raise of pay.

It is wonderful that He loves us. It is more wonderful that He wants to be with us. Life will be more enriching for us if we will do it with Jesus.

Chapter 16

THE SIMPLE PLACE

I Chronicles 21:28, “At that time when David saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.”

I Chronicles 22:1, “Then David said, This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt-offering for Israel.”

David was commissioned to build a house for God. There must be a place where the people meet God. David searched for years for just the right place. Finally he rejoiced that he could find it. When he had paid the price, the angel of justice went to a certain spot with his sword sheathed and revealed to David that this was the place.

The amazing thing was that the place was a threshingfloor. It was a large flat rock, probably about 50 feet in diameter, where the oxen trampled out the kernels of the wheat. Could it be true that God is going to build His dwelling place among men on a common threshingfloor? Could it be true that the great temple of Jerusalem would be built on a large, flat rock? Could it be true that the high priest will someday enter into the Holy of Holies on a spot where oxen had trampled wheat? Yes, it is. It seems that God is showing us the dignity of toil and the

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importance of the simple place. God is saying He needs man at any place. There is no ground that is not holy. There is no day that is not sacred. There is no place where God will not meet man. God met Abraham under a tree, Moses by a bush, Noah in an ark, Adam in a garden, Jonah in a fish, Paul by the roadside, John Bunyan in jail, Jacob on a pile of stones, and Zacchaeus in a tree.

No arch can compare with God’s rainbow. No ceiling can compare with the azure blue of the sky. No lamps can compare with the sun and the moon. No chandelier can compare with the stars at night. No masonry can equal the city whose twelve foundations are precious stones.

Make your place a holy place. However common it may be, God wants to meet you there. Meet Hiin.

Chapter 17

THE SHADOW OF THE ALMIGHTY

Psahn 91:1, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

In England there used to be a man called “Jack the Huckster,” who used to sing constantly, “Im a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all.” He seemed to have constant composure. They would ask him if he ever doubted, whereby he would say, “I’m a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all.” Someone would ask him if he ever had any ups and downs. He would simply reply, “I’m a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all.” He came to church a-rid the pastor asked him to prove his salvation whereupon he replied, “I’m a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all.” Someone asked him one time if he ever got proud. He answered, “I’m a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. ” He was once asked what he did for his needs. His reply was, “I’m a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all.”

He was right. God has provided for all of our needs. In telling us of these provisions, He uses the figure of speech of a shadow. It is used so often. There are at

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least four times a shadow is mentioned in the Bible.

1. The shadow of a rock. Isaiah 32:2, “And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” This is the kind of shadow that has to do with hiding in a cave. It is the shadow of salvation.

When I was a kid I used to play in a creek near our house. There was a cave made in a big rock. I would go there in case of a storm. I found safety and refuge. This is the only place the individual can find salvation-in the shadow of the Rock. That Rock is Jesus. Someone has said, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me bide myself in Thee.” Another has written, “I am hiding in the shadow of the Rock.” Someone else said, “On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”

2. The shadow of His hand. Isaiah 59:2, “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.” This is the shadow of security. This takes us to John 10:27-30, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out.of My hand. My Father, Which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.” Then it takes us to Revelation

1:16, “And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.” We are safe in the shadow of the Rock. We are secure in the shadow of His hand.

When our children were young they would hold

The Shadow of the Almighty

onto my index finger as we walked down the street. Sometimes we would come to a mud puddle or a dangerous place and I would hold onto their hands. Sometimes Becky would say, “Daddy, I want to hold onto your hand.” She would do so until she stumbled and lost her grip. Finally she realized the best thing was for her to let Daddy hold her hand. This is the case of the Christian. Our security is in the shadow of His hand.

3. The shadow of His wings. Psalm 63:7, “Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice.” This is the shadow of safety and it makes us rejoice. David was banished to a barren land. During the storms he saw the birds as they would fly. As he saw them lift their wings high he reminded himself that he was safe in the shadow of God’s wings. Oh, busy mother, you can be a child again. Busy father, you can be a child again. Busy pastor, you can be as a tender child of God hiding in the shadow of His wings.

4. The shadow of His tree. Song of Solomon 2:3, “As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” This is the shadow of sustenance. The tree provides shade. The tree also provides fruit.

Ah, praise the Lord, He has for us a shadow of salvation, a shadow of security, a shadow of safety and a shadow of sustenance. Yes, He will supply all of our needs. Let us rejoice in the shadow of the Almighty.

Chapter 18

THE CHRISTIAN’S HATE LIFE

General Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, once said he feared the day when the Salvation Army would have a salvation without regeneration, faith without repentance and Heaven without Hell. He could have added “love without hate,” for it is impossible to have true love without hate. One cannot love flowers without hating weeds. He cannot love health without hating disease. He cannot love God without hating Satan. He cannot love peace without hating war.

The truth is there is no quality without its opposite. There is no high without low, no hot without cold, no large without small, no tall without short, and no in without out.

There is no merit in a plus without the potential of a minus. There is no true patience without the potential of impatience. There is no true good without the potential of bad. There is no courage without fear, no true gentleness without strength, no admirable kindness without the potential of temper, and certainly one cannot love if he does not hate its opposite and its enemy.

Patience without potential impatience is laziness. Courage without potential fear is recklessness. Gen-

The Christian’s Hate Life

tleness without potential strength is pacifism. Kindness without potential temper is weakness. A smile without a potential frown is unawareness. Love without hate is hypocrisy and is not love at all.

The truth is that one loves as much as he hates. The more a mother loves her child, the more she hates the cancer that would take its fife. The more a gardener loves his flowers, the more he hates the weeds that surround them. The more a mechanic loves his cars the more he hates the rust that paralyzes them. The more a judge loves justice, the more he hates the crime. The more a doctor loves his patients, the more he hates the germs. The more a Christian loves God, the more he hates sin and the things that are antiChrist.

Now what should the Christian hate? He should hate what God hates.

1. He should hate quitting. Psalm 101:3, “1 will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.”

2. He should hate every false way. Psalm 119:104, “Through Thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.” When someone says a person can go to Heaven by good works, the Christian should hate it. Now he should not hate the person who says it but he should hate the false way. When someone says that one can go to Heaven by taking of the sacraments, joining the church or getting baptized, the Christian should find hatred swelling in his heart for the false way. There is no way to love God’s way to Heaven without hating Satan’s false ways to Heaven.

When I was in college there was a fellow student who was married and had six children. He had not

Grace and Truth

been saved for long and had been saved from a life of extreme wickedness. His vocabulary had been something less than Christian in his past life. Soon after he came to college a small country church called him to be its pastor. One Sunday morning he was preaching on Calvary. He was describing what they did to Jesus on the cross. He blamed this on the devil. He got so mad at the devil that he began cursing him with the most profane language that one can imagine. He cursed and cursed and cursed as the people sat stunned in disbelief.

Suddenly he realized what he was doing. He closed his Bible and walked quietly out: the door, got in his car and drove off. For several minutes the congregation sat silently until the chairman of the board of deacons who was sitting on the front row rose to his feet. He looked at the people, cleared his throat and said something like this: “Folks, I heard what you heard. I have never in my life heard such a display of profanity. However, I have been sitting here for several minutes thinking about what our Pastor said. I have come to the conclusion that he expressed perfectly my opinion of the devil. Now we all know our pastor lived a wicked life before he was saved and though he used words he should not have used, at least we do have a Pastor who hates the devil. Why don’t we vote to give him a raise in pay and keep him as our Pastor!”

The congregation enthusiastically endorsed this action. (Now I would not suggest that pastors who read this attempt to secure a raise in this manner.)

I myself do not think the pastor should have used these words, but I do have more respect for a preacher who will curse the devil than I do for one who will

The Christian’s Hate Life

ask him to lead in prayer on the platform.

3. He should hate empty ritual. Amos 5:21, “1 hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.”

4. He should hate an evil heart against his neighbor. Zechariah 8:17, “And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the Lord.”

5. He should hate lying. Psalm 119:163, “1 hate and abhor lying- but Thy law do I love.”

6. He should hate idolatry. Jeremiah 44:4, 5, “Howbeit I sent unto you all My servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods.”

7. He should hate vain thoughts. Psalm 119:113, “1 hate vain thoughts: but Thy law do I love.”

8. He should hate a proud look, a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood. Proverbs 6:16-19, “These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”

One Sunday morning one of our fine ladies brought a visitor to the services. While I was preaching the visitor looked over to the member and asked, “Who is he mad at?” whereupon my member assured her that I was not mad, it just appeared that I was. After the service I heard about the conversation and I announced that I was preaching the next Sunday on, “I

Grace and Truth

Am Mad, Too.” In the sermon I said that the Christian should hate. He should hate the narcotics which is ruining our young people. He should hate the fiquor which destroys so many lives and homes. He should hate communism which is dedicated to the destruction of our Christian society. He should hate the atheism and humanism that is pervading our college campuses. He should hate the nudity that is destroying our morals. He should hate the permissiveness which is ruining our youth. He should hate the adult bookstores, the sensitivity parlors, the dirty movie industry, and for that matter, even the sin of his own life that causes him so much heartache.

Yes, the Christian should have a hate life. God doesl

Chapter 19

WHEN LEADERSHIP IS WEAKER THAN FOLLOWSHIP

Years ago when I was in college, some of us preacher boys made a weekly visit to an old, retired mi.-sionary who lived near our town. We would listen to him by the hours as he taught us and gave us bits of wisdom and advice.

One day I went to him to tell him that I was quitting school. He asked me why. I told him that I was quitting because so many of the faculty members were weak and seemed spiritually dead. He gave me some advice I’ve never forgotten.

He said, “Mr. Hyles, I want you to be a complete man. You may already be more of a complete man than any individual faculty member. Perhaps none of the faculty members are complete men, but each of the faculty members is an expert in his own field and there is at least one area where each excels you. If you can learn from each man in his own field, then you can become the well-rounded complete man that I want you to become.”

One of the hardest things that followers, especially teenagers, face is the realization that they must sit under people who in many areas are their inferiors and who sometimes can be unreasonable and illogical

Grace and Truth

in their leadership. There are times when a leader is not as good a Christian as the follower. There are times when the leader is inferior to the follower. However, the wise follower will fill his place and follow the leader who has a position that is superior to his.

Every man knows something that I do not know. I must find what it is and learn it. Hence, all men are my teachers. All men are my teachers, for all men know something I do not know.

I have often defined leadership as being one who collects ideas from the followers, compiles them and sends each follower a copy.

When a restless follower shrinks from his obligation to follow his leader, he can develop a bad attitude which will hurt his opportunity for service and harm his future. If he accepts his place of followship, even under a weaker leader, he can learn a tremendous lesson in self-control.

Every follower must realize that it is God’s plan for us to have human leaders. If each follower will assume his rightful place, respecting at least the office of his leader, it will help him to become a better leader as God places him in a place of larger responsibility.

Chapter 20

HOW LONG DID SHE LIVE?

Several years ago I had two funerals in one day. One was of a sweet, dedicated soul-winning Christian teenager. The other was of a lady who had passed away at the age of 83. She wasn’t a Christian, and she had wasted her life in ignoble matters. Someone said at the end of the day, “What a tragedy that the teenager had lived such a short life when the 83-year-old lady was privileged to live such a long one.”

I replied, “The teenage girl lived longer than the old lady.”

The person with whom I was talking could not understand this. “How long did the teenager live?” I was asked.

“Sixteen years,” I replied.

“Well, didn’t the old lady live 83 years? asked the other person.

“No,” I said, “the old lady lived only a few days. Oh, to be sure, she served more time, but she did not live as long. She breathed longer, but she lived less.”

Paul wrote, “But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.” I Timothy 5:6. Consequently, the

16-year-old had lived longer than the 83-year-old because she had lived 16 years with a full, packed life.

How old are you? How long have you lived? These

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answers are not necessarily the same.

Chapter 21

ACCREDITATION

“Dr. Hyles, is your school accredited?”

“I won’t let my son go to a school that is not accredited.”

These are words that we hear over and over again. They are often spoken by people who know little or nothing about the meaning of accreditation, and who have perhaps unknowingly fallen into a form of idolatry which makes the diploma more important than the knowledge, acceptance more important than preparation, a union card more important than a job well done, conformity more important than freedom, the grade more important than the education, the face more important than the heart, and an opportunity more important than preparedness.

Our generation needs to take a fresh look at what accreditation really is. It is basically all of us conforming to some standards set by a few of us, chosen by some of us to approve all of us. Though this is an over-simplification, it is far too often an accurate description of what accreditation really is.

It has become a created god who has become omnipotent, far too omnipresent and woefully lacking in omniscience; a god who has a den full of lions for those who will not pray to it and a fiery furnace for

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those who will not bow before its image. Little children may be thrown into the burning fires in the lap of this Moloch, but that matters not. It must be worshipped. It must be served, and it must be obeyed. Following are some observations about this dangerous deity of destruction destined to destroy discipline and to defeat dedication in the lives of Christian young people and children.

1. Education should start with the goal and work backwards. No wise person charts a course until he decides on a destination. The wise educator will decide exactly what end he wants to accomplish in the lives of the children. He then carefully charts a course that will lead him to arrive at this desired end. No wise cook would decide to mix some cocoa, sugar and other ingredients to see what would happen but rather would say, “I think I’ll make some fudge.” The cook then finds a recipe for fudge. Though the end never justifies the means, the end must determine the means. The weakness of accreditation is that we are required to chart a course that takes us to we know not where to become we know not what and to arrive we know not when.

A Christian school by its very nature does not have the same goal as a public school. If we do not share the same goal, how can we share the same methods? If we do not share the same destination, how can we share the same route? If we do not desire the same answer, why then do we work the same problem?

This is not to say that we should not study the advice of educators and even of those who are not working for the same goal. We should examine their chains but not be bound by them. We should study their ropes but not be tied with them, keeping in

Accreditation

mind our destination. We should study their map to find what roads they are traveling that we too may travel, but these roads should not be traveled just because others are traveling them. They should be traveled only as they help us to arrive at our desired destination. We are reminded in the Scriptures that two cannot walk together unless they be agreed.

This is not a suggestion to disregard wise people who have gone before us. It is rather a warning against following a guide who knows every step of the way on the road that leads us to where we do not want to go.

2. Accreditation takes all to the same goal unknowingly. No Christian school sets out knowingly on a path that will make its scholars the same product as that of the public school. If this were true, why build a school at all? What is the need for all the toil, sacrifice, sweat and tears? Every Christian educator wants to turn out a different product and sincerely believes he can. Too often the one who has dared to be different then subscribes himself to conformity and unknowingly travels a path that he has chosen that will lead him to a destination he has not chosen. No wonder he is stunned, shocked, horrified and heartbroken when he finds the product is not what he dreamed it would be. His motives were good. His heart was right. His dedication was admirable, yet he finds that he had wanted the result without the ingredients, wanted the destination without the proper routing.

3. Conformity IS unaccredited accreditation. Though there is no merit in premeditated nonconformity, there is grave danger in total conformity. Let’s go back to the first point and look at our goal.

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The methods of the masses should be used only when they will aid us in reaching our desired destination. We at the First Baptist Church of Hammond have

a nationwide Pastors’ School. We have no desire for anyone to conform to all of our methods and procedures. In fact, we have a desire that no one will conform to all of them. I often say that our Pastors’ School is like a cafeteria. Come through the line, take what you think you need for your own personal health and leave, but do not criticize the rest. No church should conform completely tD another, no school should conform completely to another, neither should one institution desire comformity by another, neither should a group of institutions join together and demand or desire conformity. I see on the horizon in America the danger that some who have pulled out of one golden calf are building the mold for another and who once were martyred by one fiery furnace are now gathering fuel for another. There is a danger that those of us who have been delivered from the lions’ den are raising cubs ourselves, and those of us who have been delivered from Egypt are building our own little Egypt on our way to the Promised Land. Oftentimes it is not bondage we are against, it is being in bondage that we are against. Oh, people of God, let us not return to the vomit from which we have been delivered. Let not those of us who have been delivered cause others to seek deliverance from us. Let those of us who once chafed in the fetters of Pharaoh beware lest we bind others as does a Pharaoh. Let us cooperate but not expect conformity. Let us influence and be influenced but let us allow each other to determine the sphere of acceptance and cooperation without being

Accreditation

placed upon some kind of blacklist and being made to feel as an outcast. Let not us outcasts cast out others. Let not us independents disdain those who are independent of us. Let cooperation take the place of coercion. Let unity be substituted for union. Let liberty be substituted for bondage. Let us offer our help to all and let us seek help from all, but let us beware of treating others like we once refused to be treated.

The wise man told us that there is safety in a multitude of counselors. He did not say there is safety or security in a multitude of conquerors. To be sure, we should work together. To be sure, we should love each other and pray for one another. To be sure, we should offer suggestions and help, but at the same time we should never cause one to forfeit our fellowship or friendship because he feels that in some areas our methods are not best for him. There is a certain denoniinational-non-denominationalism, dependentindependence, conforming-non-conformity and a bound-freedom which will lead the next generation into a needless revolution fought against those of us who in our generation revolted against Pharaohs under whom we could not serve and whose shoes we would not fill!

4. Good men often build systems in one generation that bad men will use in the next generation with which to destroy us. We often fail to realize that it is the system that was wrong, not just the men. A system that encourages the wrong men to rise to places of leadership is a dangerous one. Often good men join a good group and build a system to which they give allegiance. Then as this system changes it changes the men, for they have sworn their allegiance to it. It is always wise for a Christian not to give his allegiance

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to institutions, but rather to principles. Principles never change; institutions do. We should give our loyalty to institutions who are presently embracing our principles and we should be ready to jump from the boat any time it gets in a stormy area outside the scope of our principles.

I wonder how many pastors have accepted new churches only to find their hands bound by committees composed of worldly and unspiritual people. The pastor fights for liberation. He wins the battle and yet all too soon for his own convenience organizes the same committees with different people with whom he can work. He then leaves the same structure and system which he inherited requiring the next pastor to go through the same torture and heartache and to fight the same battle that he fought. I am thinking now of a preacher who chafed for years under the tyranny of a denomination which frowned upon his having guest speakers in his church from outside that denomination. He then joined a good, fundamentalist group so he could follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit in choosing men to fill his pulpit. Now no one can fill his pulpit unless he is a member of this good, fundamentalist group, and he frowns upon other pastors who have speakers outside this group.

The wise pastor and the wise educator will not only seek an organizational framework which can presently fill his needs, but will also seek safeguards to avoid building a system that will attract weak and sometimes bad men to positions of leadership.

Suppose some good men get together and form an accrediting agency. Suppose that all of the requirements of accreditation are good ones. Suppose then that all of the good schools seek accreditation and

Accreditation

give their allegiance to this hypothetical good agency. When deterioration sets in (and it will), it will be major surgery and cause undue pain for a school to disassociate itself with this agency. Again may I say, this is not advocating super-independence but rather super-dependence upon each other for help, for prayer, for advice, but not for coercion.

5. Each generation needs to see the birth of new institu tions just as each generation needs new babies. Imagine a society without children. Imagine a society without adults. Imagine a society without babies. Imagine a society without adolescents. A healthy cross-section of society must include all. A healthy educational neighborhood must also include all. Each generation needs trail-blazers who are willing to be as different from existing institutions as the existing institution is different from what it was when it started. Just as it is not natural for babies to act like grown-ups, it is not natural for young institutions to act like mature institutions. No one expects a baby to conform to adulthood. It would not be healthy. To be a mature, complete adult one must enjoy his infancy, his childhood and his adolescence. For old institutions that have enjoyed such stages to require younger institutions to jump over these stages is unfair. If a child were born in middle age, his life span would be cut short. If an institution is born in middle age, its life span can be cut short.

In many cases the best days that a school enjoys are its early days. This is not to say that its later years cannot be successful ones, but even they will be more successful if they are built on a healthy childhood. For a group of older schools to join together and set norms and standards for younger schools is unfair for

Grace and Truth

this generation and unwise for the next generation. Often the greatest preachers were trained in colleges that were just beginning. History has proved that in many schools the best days were the first days. This is not suggesting that institutions be childish but childlike.

The new institution might be wise not to conform to what the older institutions ARE but to what they USED TO BE. Since a good beginning is so important a new school might be wise to conform to the pohcies, principles and practices of a successful school’s infancy, not its adulthood. This is not to say that its adulthood is bad. It is to say that its adulthood was built on its childhood and the very fact that its childhood is copied is a compliment to the adulthood of the school. No doubt there are many educators who will read these pages who would have agreed with them twenty years ago but will not agree now.

When a baby is born in a home parents are pleased for the baby to act like a baby. Why then shouldn’t mature institutions be pleased for new ones to act like new ones, and for that matter, behave as the older one did at the same stage of development? just as we have in our society younger people coming on the scene, middle-aged people on center stage and older people passing off the scene, so we need the same thi.-ig in our educational community. It is so easy for us not to want anyone else to be what we were. We sit behind our desks in our classrooms and say to our children, “Be yourselves. Don’t copy another. God wants to use you like you are.” Then we go to board meetings and tell other institutions. “Don’t be yourselves. Be like we are. Have our stamp. Bear our mark. Conform to our methods or you cannot be in

Accreditation

our favor.” Just as each individual has his own niche in life and his own purpose for living, so does each institution have its own niche in life and its own purpose for living. America does not need a HylesAnderson College in each state. It does need Christian colleges in each state who will follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit, believe the Bible, take a strong, separatist stand, magnify soul winning and yet be given liberty to be what each needs to be and to fulfill that unique purpose for which God brought it into existence.

6. We must look back at history’s products. There is no way that one can presently test the effectiveness of a school. Someone has said that it takes a generation for a school to test its product. Because of this, many schools live today on yesterday’s reputation. It takes several years for its graduates to prove success or failure. Because of this we must find graduates who are what we want our students to become. We may then examine what the alma mater of these people was at the time they attended. If one is going to conform, he would be wise to conform to what the school was when these successful people were enrolled.

Once again we must go back to the first point. What is our goal? What kind of students do we want to produce? We may then seek people who have reached that goal, and then study the standards, practices, etc. of the institutions they attended at the time that they attended. This should be the object of our conformity.

A fellow can test General Motors by driving a Chevrolet. It takes only a few hours. A fellow can test a restaurant and its cooks by eating a meal. It takes

Grace and Truth

only a few minutes. It is not so easy to test a school. Conformity to the present policies and methods of a school that has turned out great people may be unwise. Conformity to what it was when it turned out those people may be wise.

7. Superiority should not seek accreditation from inferiority. The Christian school movement in America is so superior to the public school system that it is absurd to think of our seeking their approval upon our superior kind of work. I was interviewed by a reporter who was chagrined by my philosophy. In frustration the reporter shouted, “Why, oh, why won’t you be accredited?”

I replied, “For the same reason that Mickey Mantle didn’t seek accreditation from the little leagues.” The wise educator will see to it that his produce is

so much better than the product of the accreditors. He should see to it that in every area his work surpasses that of the public schools. (In these days this is not a difficult task to achieve.) He should carefully and conclusively prove that his produce is superior to the other product and that the student will sacrifice no good thing by attending the Christian school.

One parent said to me recently, “If my child attended your school, he would have to give up a lot.” That parent was right. His child would give up the

presence of smoking, miniskirts, disobedience, disrespect for authority, availability of narcotics, vulgar words and vulgar stories in textbooks, the public school sex education program, hippie-haired boys, teachers who use curse words in class, permission to wear blue jeans to school, the permissive society, those who talk back to teachers, disrespect for law and order, and by the way, an inferior quality of edu-

Accreditation cation!

8. If wejust back up on the same road that has led others to ruin, we will soon arrive at the same destination. Our schools should not count the same cadence as the government schools. We are not going in the same direction. We are not to keep step with them. We are on different wavelengths, we bear different yokes, we broadcast on different frequencies, we travel different paths. One of the pitfalls in which we fall is simply to back up on the same road with the government schools which only postpones our decay.

9. Union is a form of idolatry. Note carefully, I said

49 union,” not “unity.” If a preacher knows and believes that God will care for his needs, open his doors and supply his pulpits, he need not join the local preachers’ union for security. He may cooperate and fellowship with all of God’s men, but he need not do it for fear of having no place to preach or nothing to eat. However, as he loses his faith, he loses his confidence that God will provide for him. As the years pass, his children grow older and the need for security increases. His faith does not increase. Hence, he finds himself wanting to join up with other preachers so that in case he finds himself without a pulpit he will have the security of a union. He then joins up with other preachers and provides for himself a security that once was provided by God. Hence, this union has taken the place of his God and has become a form of idolatry.

This is exactly what communism is. Communism is people building a society that will take care of the people. If they have faith in God, He will take care of them. If that faith is lost, they must build a canopy, a protection that will offer them the security that God

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wants to offer. This is why Christianity and communism cannot coexist. Christianity follows the Holy Spirit of God Who leads us to care for one another voluntarily. Communism forces that care by taxation and regimentation. It offers its people all of the security that an organization of men can offer. Christ offers to us all the security that an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God can offer.

America,was built by men with faith in God. We believed that God would supply our needs, and He did. This eliminated our need of social security, worker’s compensation, etc. We had Heaven’s security and divine compensation. To whatever degree one loses his faith in God, he needs to organize with other men.

10. Each generation needs those who do not readily conform. It needs those who are strong enough to use what has been proven successful to past generations but refuse to conform with its deterioration. It needs those who refuse coerced conformity and offer wisdom and strength enough to challenge others to a cooperative unity and limited conformity on the volunteer basis, where one’s status is not determined by his degree of cooperation and conformity. This is not condoning unkind, unchristian, unethical behavior on the part of rabble-rousers. It is condoning serious doubt and a sincere reluctant willingness to withdraw from decadence if necessary. From this group have come the Martin Luthers, John Wesleys, George Whitefields, Charles Spurgeons, Bob Joneses, John Rices, etc. These were not men desirous of splitting anything, but men who realized that they should try dedication as long as possible and if dedication became a terminal case, surgery became a possibility.

Accreditation

The truth is that most of our great Christian movements started because of a split. Most of the -people reading these pages belong to a church or a denomination that once pulled out of something. Though we should not be desirous of repeating this procedure, God should give us and does give us in every generation leaders who are willing to do so if it is now necessary.

As has been stated before, the danger is that these leaders will want to form the same type of organizational structure and coercion that caused their unrest.

11. We are not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly. This is one of the signs of a prosperous man. We preach this and yet build our Christian schools to conform to regulations set forth by unconverted educators. Though there are many things that we could copy from them, we should not yoke ourselves up so as to be forced to do so. The wise Christian educator will first set his goal. He will then acquaint himself with every suggested means of attaining that goal. He will decide what means he should use and what roads he should travel in order to arrive at that desired destination. He should cooperate, fellowship and enjoy Christian unity with those of like faith. He should neither offer conformity to nor expect conformity from his contemporaries. He should share ideas with them and learn ideas from them. He should attend clinics, seminars and conventions that will offer him a wide choice of suggested ways to attain the goal that he has set. He should be allowed to accept or reject them without being ostracized or losing stature. just as he would yearn to use what he learns that he feels will aid him in the reaching of his goal, so should he teach

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others and allow them the same privileges and freedoms that he has sought.

It is dangerous when all of us expect any of us to conform with the rest of us. It is dangerous when all of us chose a few of us to govern the rest of us. It is dangerous when any of us criticize any of us for not conforming to the rest of us. It is healthy and wise when all of us listen to all of us, pray for all of us, share with all of us, cooperate with all of us, enjoy unity with all of us, realizing that none of us will ever completely conform to the rest of us but that all of us can glean from all of us things that can help each of us become more and more that unique individual, that unique school, that unique church that God wants us to become.

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Chapter 22

THE TEACHER OR THE “TEACHER-TYPE’

“My pastor is not very interesting as a speaker. He is more the ‘teacher-type.’ ” This little statement was made to me by a lady with whom I was talking about the Lord’s work. This statement is typical of many similar ones which I hear from coast to coast. If a person is uninteresting, he is the “teacher-type.” If a speaker is boring, he must be a teacher. If a speaker is able to speak in terms that the hearer cannot understand, he is the “teacher-type.” It seems that to many, teaching is the ability to confuse the hearer so that he will leave the room amazed at the brilliance of the teacher. It might be wise to examine just what teaching really is.

1. Teaching is the transfer of knowledge. To many, it is considered the displaying of knowledge. Teaching is not the taking out of one’s knowledge and displaying it in the presence of the hearer. Teaching is the hearer leaving with the knowledge with which the speaker entered. Unless the hearer leaves knowing what the speaker knew when he came, the teaching process has not taken place. This would indicate that many times the pupil who fails does so, at least partially, because the teacher has failed. Some speakers and professors appear to think that it would be

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plagiarism for the student to learn what the instructor knows. The teacher has failed when the student does not leave knowing what the teacher knew when he entered. Teaching, in a sense, is transferring profound truth into simplicity so that it in turn may be transferred into profound work.

2. Teaching is a transfer of personality. The pupil should not only learn what the teacher knows; he should also, in a sense, become what the teacher is. Teaching is not only the transferring of knowledge, it is the transferring of zeal, honesty, enthusiasm, optimism, generosity and other traits that a good teacher possesses. This transfer of personality cannot be made if there is no teacher. This is one of the weaknesses of correspondence courses and similar forms of educabon. Most of us, as we think back over our childhood and youth, can remember far more of what our teachers were like than we can of what our teachers taught.

3. Teaching is the transfer of procedure. Not only should the pupil learn the facts and how to adorn them with the right personality, but he should learn propriety, procedure, neatness and orderliness if he is to be taught properly. Such lessons can be learned from a neat room, a clean building, an orderly presentation and proper organization and discipline.

4. Teaching is an incarnation of ideas. Most people cannot define such things as loyalty and patriotism. They can, however, point to someone who has these qualities. It is easier to learn loyalty from a loyal person than from a lecture on loyalty. Hence, the right teacher would incorporate these ideals and others into his personality and character so that the pupil can emulate him and reach the desired end.

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5. Teaching is the ability to inspire learning. Good

teaching makes learning easy and, to some degree, fun. Again, this puts not only the burden of teaching on the teacher but also the burden of learning and places the responsibility of failure on the teacher’s shoulders as well as the student’s.

May the dear Lord deliver us from being the “‘teacher-type.” May we be more concerned about making our pupils the “learning-type.”

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Chapter 23

DISCIPLINE AND PUNISHMENT

Discipline and punishment are not necessarily the same thing. Discipline is keeping from wrong; punishment is paying for wrong. Discipline is preventive; punishment is corrective. Discipline is making one’s self or another develop habits and practices that will keep them from doing wrong. It is getting home on time. It is eating the right foods. It is living by schedule. It is the will conquering the appetites. It may be self-imposed or it may be imposed by a mother or father, a boss or another leader.

Punishment is the inflicting of displeasure upon someone for doing wrong. Its purpose is to be a forerunner for discipline. The punishment is to be so distasteful that it will leave an impression upon the guilty person; that is, the crime, sin or wrong was not worth the price he had to pay. Hence, punishment is good only if it builds discipline. The goal of punishment is discipline. Punishment is not vindication, vengeance or retaliation. It is a means that should be used to the end of developing discipline. Following are a few observations.

1. Discipline should always be the goal of punishment. Punishment is a failure unless it builds self-discipline. Such discipline may be arrived at by inspira-

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tion. In other words, the leader may inspire the follower to discipline himself In such a case the follower wants to please the leader, so he disciplines himself in order to receive that pleasure. Proper leadership and inspiration can arrive at this goal.

A clear presentation of the rules and punishment for their infraction will often lead to self-discipline. When a follower realizes the price on his wrong, he often disciplines himself to do right. For this reason each rule should be carefully explained and defined and the punishment for the breaking of that rule should be made just as clear.

Once a rule is broken, honest, loving and yet firm punishment should follow. When the rule and its punishment have been explained, the leader to be honest must inflict the punishment. Such statements as, “You do that one more time and I’m going to spank you!” and “I’ll let you get by this time, but not again,” are not only unwise but they are dishonest and fail to lead to self-discipline.

2. Punishment is often the fault of the leader. Many followers would not be guilty of infractions if the rules and penalties were carefully explained. When such is not the case, the leader has erred too and has become a party to the crime.

3. Punishment should never be vindictive. No child should be punished because he is offensive to the leader, because the leader loses his patience, because he is not liked by the leader or because the leader wants to get back at him. No punishment should ever be inflicted unless the main motive is corrective. When a child knows that he will get a spanking for getting in the cookie jar and that spanking will taste worse than the cookie tastes good, and when the

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spanking is inflicted in an effort to associate in the child’s mind the coo.”e- jar and pain, he will often discipline himself against repeating the crime.

4. The leader should never punish when angry. The parent or teacher could send a child to a room until the parent cools off. This cooling-off period should not be used as a means of evading or avoiding punishment. It should be used as a time when the leader can search his heart to be sure the motives for his inflicting the punishment are right and just.

5. Harsh words should be used only when the leader feels they are needed. They should not be words spoken in anger. This may appear to be the case, but such words should be used only when the leader thinks it wise. Harsh words spoken in an outburst of anger or in a temper tantrum should never be a part of discipline. They should be used only when both the words and the way they are spoken are deliberately chosen for the good of the follower.

6. If possible, punishment should take away more of the pleasure of the crime than that which was gained by the committing of the crime. For example, if a child knows that he can talk on the phone for only five minutes at a time, he should be led to realize that if he breaks this rule, his telephone privileges will be taken away from him for a day or two or more or less, as decided by the parent. Here the parent is hitting the child where it hurts the most. If a young man stays out too late in the car, car privileges could be taken away from him. In other words, he is learning that by using the car more than he is allowed, he will actually end up using the car less than he would have been allowed. The breaking of the rule becomes more painful than keeping it and more privileges are

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acquired by obedience rather than by disobedience.

7. One o the great secrets of discipline is closeness f

between the leader and follower. This does not mean excessive familiarity. It means a tie of love and a desire to please. The worst thing about punishment should be that it breaks the sweet fellowship between the punished and the punisher. It must be noted, however, that closeness often tempts us not to punish. We must constantly be aware of the fact that love chastens, love punishes, love spanks, but it does all of these with a broken heart and a desire to correct.

8. Undisciplined leaders will not build disciplined children. Usually parents and teachers who have learned to practice self-discipline need to punish less than their contemporaries who are undisciplined. Undisciplined teachers invariably give more demerits than disciplined teachers. Punitive action is more necessary to those teachers and parents who have less self-discipline. Such leaders usually keep the upper hand by saying, “I’m the teacher and you are supposed to obey me … .. I’m your parent and you are supposed to obey me,” or “If you don’t obey me, I’ll spank you.” These statements are and should be true. How much better would it be for the follower to obey the teacher because he is a leader and because of position AND because the teacher inspires obedience and followship by his disciplined life and his obvious love for the follower.

9. Leadership should always be for authority. It may be that on certain occasions, authority will disagree with authority. In other words, the parent may disagree with the teacher. Usually it is best for nothing to be said and for there to be a mutual trust between them. If, however, it is absolutely necessary for I M

Grace and Truth

authority to meet and discuss differences with authority, the follower should know nothing about these”differences. The parent, the pastor, the teacher and other leaders should form a solid front in the defense of each other.

There is nothing more harmful to a child than to feel he has one parent going one way and one parent going another way. Currently I am counseling with a teenage girl. Her mother has one set of standards; her father has another set. If her mother starts to discipline her, she finds refuge in her father. If her father begins disciplinary action, she finds refuge in her mother. She always has an out and an advocate. Because of this, she has become unruly, disobedient and nearly obnoxious.

10. The problems of children and teenagers should always be considered important. Regardless of how trivial they may appear, problems of young people are real to them. Leaders should never make such statements as, “That’s just a stage you are going through; you will outgrow it. I went through it one time.” This won’t satisfy a child and especially will it not satisfy a teenager. Their problems are real, They will not return for help if they are not treated as such by their leaders.

11, Thoughtfulness can often inspire self-discipline. Several months ago some parents brought their teenage daughter to see me. I counseled with her again and again. Nothing seemed to penetrate. One day while in a distant state I wrote a little note to the teenager. She couldn’t believe it. She showed it to her family and to her friends. From then on she was open for my counsel and advice. Soon the problem was corrected. Thoughtfulness can go a long way, not

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only in helping the child to develop self-discipline but in preventing punishment.

12. The wise leader should not threaten; he should simply explain the rule and the punishment and then takefirm action in its execution.

13. Be sure of guilt. Serious harm can be done to a young person if he is punished unjustly. Hence, punishment should not be meted out because of suspicion but because of proven guilt.

14. Never punish all for a crime of one. Sometimes the teacher will leave the class only to return and find that a rule has been broken. She will not know who broke the rule, so she will punish the entire class. Suppose that we use the same logic concerning murder. We don’t know who in a town committed a murder, so we will just put the whole town in the penitentiary. This is neither wise nor fair.

15. The leader should note what type of infraction is committed. Was it a crime of character or was it accidental? A child who throws a vase and breaks it should be punished much more severely than a child who accidentally knocks over a vase and breaks it. Punishment should not be determined by the disappointment in the leader in losing the vase.

16. Consideration should be given to the improvement or lack of it shown by the child. If the follower is obviously and definitely seeking to improve, this should be taken into consideration by the wise teacher or parent.

17. Consider the child’s potential. This is especially true in the case of a teenager. There are some leaders and influential teenagers who have great potential for good and for God. When punishing such young people, this should be taken into consideration by the

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parent or teacher. This is not to say that the punishment should be lessened or increased. It is simply to say that this should be one of the factors weighed and considered before the final decision is made concerning the degree and type of punishment.

18. Once the crime has been committed and the type and severity of punishment has been established, there should be no changing of the mind. For example, if a parent can be moved not to spank the child because of his much crying, he is being taught that much crying will always help him avoid a spanking. Without exception guilt should be punished exactly as was presented during the explanation of the crime and its subsequent punishment. Any deviation from this because of crying, seeking of sympathy, etc. is unhealthy for the child.

(Further information on punishment may be found in the author’s book, HOW TO REAR CHILDREN.)

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Chapter 24

WHEN THE STUDENT FAILS

The big burden of the teaching-learning process is on the teacher. The right kind of teaching inspires learning. The right kind of leadership inspires followship. Periodically the student receives a grade. This grade not only reveals the student’s ability to learn but also the teacher’s ability to teach. Hence, when a student fails, the teacher should shoulder at least some of the blame remembering that the grade is his as well as the students. He too should weep when the student fails and should consider himself at least to some degree a failure in the job that God has called him to do. As the teacher contemplates his preparation and action for the prevention of failure he should consider several things.

1. He should have as his goal that every student should pass. This does not mean that he will ever attain his goal, but the fact that the goal is unattainable does not mean that it should be eliminated. Jesus Himself told us to be perfect even as our Father in Heaven is perfect. The fact that we cannot attain this goal does not mean that it should not be our goal. It is not to be implied that any teacher should relax his requirements or the work load of the student in order to attain this goal. It is to imply that the teacher ill

Grace and Truth

should strive to improve his methods of teaching in an effort to reach every student with the knowledge he desires to impart hoping that he and the student together can pass the course.

This is the failure of grading “on a curve.” Before the course ever starts, the teacher assumes that some will fail. In so doing he is assuming that he will fail in transferring his knowledge to some. With the proper kind of teaching, most students can be taught and will learn. The teacher should not make provision for failure but success, and he should do everything in his power to bring it about.

2. The classroom itself should be a place of teaching. This may seem like an unnecessary statement, yet it is tragic how that in some cases little if any knowledge is transferred from the teacher to the pupil during the classroom hour. In many cases the student learns at home and simply is tested or made to recite in class. It is sad when the teacher does not teach and the classroom is not a learning room. During the classroom session knowledge should be imparted from the teacher to the pupil. If the pupil does not walk out with the knowledge with which the teacher walked in, at least to some degree the teacher has failed.

Teaching need not be boring. The teacher should put the jelly on the bottom shelf” so all the pupils can reach it. He should put orange juice in the castor oil so the necessary result can be affected while the taste is improved.

3. In order to keep the pupil alert, the teacher should involve the class in participation. This is not to say that the pupil should teach. It is to say that there should be limited participation. If the pupil can

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do nothing more than finish a sentence begun by the teacher or fill in the blank of a sentence made by the teacher, it will keep the class alert. For example, the teacher can say, “Two plus two equals. . . . ” The class replies, “Four.” The teacher says, “Three plus what equals five?” The pupils can reply, “Two.” This kind of participation will make the teacher more interesting and the pupil more interested.

4. The learning process requires repetition. Every time a fact is stated it makes the groove deeper. Dr. James Stewart once said that the curse of the Scottish ministry is its unwillingness to be repetitious. Someone asked Bill Harvey (who was my music director for two years) what was the secret to the ministry of Dr. Jack Hyles. Bill Harvey replied, “His willingness to be repetitious of the obvious.” The wise teacher will not only repeat the truth over and over again, but will require the pupils to do the same.

5. Some teachers havefound it wise to repeat tests. A test is given once. It is then announced that it will be given again. This enables the pupil to have another chance to learn the facts the teacher wants to transfer to him. Bear in mind, the purpose of the course is to transfer knowledge to the pupil. If the teacher wants the pupil to learn the facts given on the test, this is one way to insure this being done. It gives the teacher an opportunity to pass in his effort to transfer knowledge to the student.

Let’s suppose that the student makes an ‘Y’ on the first test, but he scores an “A” on the second one. This does not mean that he should make an “A” in the course. It does, however, mean that he has learned the facts desired by the teacher and he can pass the course instead of failing it. Perhaps his grade

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would be an average of the two tests. This aids the teacher in fulfilling his goal of transferring the knowledge to the student.

6. In the giving of a grade, the teacher should consider what the student is doing with his time outside of class. Does the student have a job or does he have a lot of leisure time? Is he working or playing when he is out of class? Is there any area of his life which enables him to help learn the subject matter of the course he is taking? Is the student who is taking a course in education teaching a Sunday school class? Is the geography student doing any traveling? Is the student enrolled in the Bible course serving the Lord in a capacity that would necessitate his study of the Bible? All of these things should be taken into consideration before the grade is given.

We hear much about earned and honorary degrees. When a so-called honorary degree is given, it is as earned or more earned than a so-called earned degree. When a man without the opportunity and privilege of attending an educational institution learns on his own what is taught at that institution and becomes an unusual success in a particular field, he should certainly be given honor for this achievement. In receiving the degree the recipient is accepting an earned degree, not an honorary degreel

Such would be the case in a classroom situation. Henc-, all of the aforementioned considerations should be given as the teacher strives to teach the pupil the knowledge that the course requires.

7. The teacher should prepare himself emotionally before he enters the class. He should spend a few moments in meditation. He should think of the goal that he is trying to achieve for that hour. He should pic-

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ture himself at the judgment seat of Christ giving an account for the teaching or lack of it that he is about to do. He should approach the desk and stand before the class with a sober sense of awe, realizing that God is watching him and will someday judge him. May each of us give himself to whatever task God has called us to do, and may those of us who teach pass all of our courses.

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Chapter 25

THE BASIS OF LOYALTY TO SUPERIORS

Loyalty is not the absence of disloyalty. It is a positive trait, not the absence of a negative one. In other words, a person is not necessarily loyal because he is not disloyal. There is some ground between loyalty and disloyalty. Perhaps we could say there is loyalty, ah-loyalty and disloyalty. Disloyalty criticizes, ah-loyalty is silent, but loyalty defends! Both loyalty and disloyalty are vocal. Ah-loyalty is silent. Loyalty never allows one word of criticism about the leader. It is complete defense and support. It not only never says, “Did you hear about … ?” but also it does not listen to, “Did you hear about … ?” It does not participate in criticism with the tongue or the ear. It does not give itself to satisfaction of criticizing nor does it give a sympathetic ear which gives others the satisfaction of criticizing.

Everyone cannot be talented; everyone can be loyal. Loyalty is one trait that is attainable by all. Disloyalty is the one trait that is not excusable! It is the unpardonable sin! It is the most detestable and deplorable trait that a follower can have. It has caused heartbreak to many leaders. It has caused heartbreak to more followers. It has ruined the reputation of many leaders. It has ruined the character of many

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followers. To those who possess disloyalty, it has become a terminal cancer and professional suicide.

Loyalty is the complete support and defense of a leader. There are several reasons why it should be given.

1. Respectfor the work. A few days ago I received a call from a pastor whose church operates a grade school and a high school. This pastor told me a sad story about his principal becoming disloyal. He had gone from class to class announcing his resignation and giving the reasons why he was leaving.

Many years ago this pastor bought some property and began a church. He cleared off the property with his own hands and with blood, sweat and toil. Over many years he had seen the church, under his leadership, grow to a membership of several thousand, while the school had grown to an enrollment of several hundred. The pastor then employed this principal. The pastor gave the principal buildings that he had helped to build with his own hands, pupils whom he had won to Christ, supplies and equipment purchased with money that he had raised and much of which he had sacrificially given. Hence, the principal assumed responsibility over children whom he had not won in buildings he had not built using equipment he had not purchased. He had no moral right to damage the work on the altar of his own hurt feelings. If and when he felt he could no longer work happily in the situation, he should have courteously resigned and never offered or listened to any criticism of the pastor.

2. Respect for success. When one is a follower to a successful leader the very success of that leader should command loyalty. For example, I am on the

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board of the SWORD OF THE LORD, a weekly publication edited by Dr. John R. Rice. I have been on this board for many years. Now suppose that I disagree with Dr. Rice on some issue. I feel and have always felt that as a member of the board I should prefer his feelings above my own. I have never edited a newspaper; he has been an editor for nearly a half century. His success measured by the one-third of a million subscribers, or by almost any other criterion, should lead the wise follower to have complete confidence in the wisdom of the leader.

It is amazing how that in this revolutionary generation young people who have never built a chicken coop rebel against master builders, who have never led a squad think they can lead an army, who have never had a savings account think they can run a bank, who have never been a dog catcher think they can improve the presidency and have absolutely no respect for success!

At this writing I know of a young man who has just assumed the responsibility of becoming principal of a school operated by a church and led by a pastor who founded the school, was its first principal and has overseen the work for years. This young man who is fresh out of college feels that the diploma he holds in his hand has given him the right and equipment to know more about Christian education than this pastor of many years’ experience. He is manifesting a disloyalty which is disgraceful. Someone in school should have taught him “Loyalty 131,” and if for no other reason, this loyalty should be manifested because of respect for the success of the pastor. He should be seeking the pastor’s counsel instead of shunning it. He should be asking for the pastor’s

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counsel instead of abhorring it.

3. Respect for knowledge. There are some things that the leader knows that no one else can know. This not only pertains to facts, talent, etc., but it also pertains to knowledge of people and circumstances which he, for obvious reasons, cannot divulge to the followers. In other words, the follower does not always have all of the facts. There are some things that only a leader can know. Hence, it may appear to the follower that the leader is taking a wrong course of action, causing the follower to oppose him vehemently. However, if the follower knew the facts that the leader cimnot divulge to him, he would no doubt arrive at the same conclusion to which the leader has arrived. This means that the follower should trust the leader even if his judgment seems unwise, realizing that the leader possesses many facts that only he knows and that if he, the follower, were acquainted with the entire case, he would probably have arrived at the same conclusion.

If, for any reason, the follower cannot give this trust and confidence to the leader, he should never under any condition rebel or revolt. He should very quietly and ethically tiptoe out. He has no right whatsoever to talk to anyone about his differences with the leader, and he should leave without causing as much as a ripple on the water.

4. Respect for the system. To be sure, we are all human beings stranded on a planet whirling through space. Since there is no one here but us we have ‘to govern ourselves. This means we have to choose leaders who will govern us. This is why in our system a country has a king or a president, a state has a governor, a city has a mayor, a family has a father, a church

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has a pastor, and an employee has a boss. Someone must be at the top. The system itself should require loyalty from the follower to the leader. When this system breaks down, anarchy follows the breakdown and chaos follows the anarchy. This is why we are reminded again and again in the Bible to respect our leaders, obey those who are over us and follow those who lead us. Oftentimes the leader is not of God, but the system is of God and the position is of God. This is why God admonishes children to obey their parents, servants to obey their masters, wives to obey their husbands, citizens to obey their governments, etc. The system is God’s plan. We must not rebel against it.

5. Respect for your future. Disloyal followers are seldom given loyal followers when they become leaders. Disloyal followers make poor leaders.

I have known hundreds of assistant pastors, music directors and education directors to be disloyal and to cause trouble in the church by trying to unseat the pastor or spread rumors about him. I have known very few who have won, and in practically every case the damage is far more to the disloyal follower than to the criticized leader. Criticism always hurts the critic more than the criticized. Hatred always hurts the hater more than the hated. Gossip always hurts the gossiper more than the one about whom he gossips. The disloyal follower always stands to lose more than he takes from the accused leader.

There is also a law of sowing and reaping. In the Bible we are reminded that everything is reproduced after its own kind. Over and over again in the book of Genesis we find everything has in itself its own seed to bring forth its own kind. This is true not only in the

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physical but also in the emotional, in the personality and in the character. The pastor who criticizes other pastors will have people who criticize him. The teacher who criticizes the principal will have pupils who criticize him. God has a way of “letting our chickens come home to roost.”

Not only does the subordinate usually lose, but he is also forming a habit of being disloyal that will hound him the rest of his life. Look at Abraham and Lot. Lot and his herdsmen became disloyal to Abraham. Lot chose for himself the best land, but look at the life of heartache that followed. I have lived long enough to see how battles turn out. I have watched young men become disloyal to leaders. I have watched these young men become middle-aged men. I have scrutinized their careers carefully. When as a follower one is disloyal he is usually as a leader suspicious of those who work under him, for he has developed a life pattern which leads to failure and stifles success.

It has also been interesting through the years to watch the development of the children of disloyal people. It is interesting, tragic and almost unbelievable to see how disloyalty in the life of a parent affects the children. Through the years I have made surveys of the children of people who have become disloyal and have left churches that I have pastored. In not one case has a single child gone into full-time service for God, and in most cases they have become adults who do not even attend church. A part of this is because of their secret and maybe even subconscious disgust for the disloyal parents. Part of it is because the kind of churches chosen later by these people does not turn out the best product. A part of it is God’s judgment and the law of sowing and reaping

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doing its work.

6. Respect for the unsaved. When Abraham and Lot and their herdsmen had trouble, there is a statement which is brief but arresting which says simply, “And the Canaanite and the Perrizite dwelled in the land.” In other words, others saw the strife. They heard the bickering. They observed the disloyalty. One wonders how many people will spend eternity in Hell because of disloyalty which results in bickering, gossip, slander, criticism, vindication, retaliation and other traits spawned in Hell by Lucifer and his angels.

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Chapter 26

COUNSELING WITH STUDENTS

One of the hardest things I faced when our church entered into the educational field was the matter of sharing the counseling of my young people with so many different people. My teenagers had always felt free to come to my office for counseling. I was their sole source of advice. Then suddenly I realized that they were going to their teachers and their principals and that I no longer would have the control over them that I formerly had. I accepted it as perhaps being one of the small liabilities that go with the many huge assets of having a Christian school. It did, however, make me realize how important it is that principals and teachers be qualified as counselors and be wise as serpents and harmless as doves as they influence the lives of our young people. I jotted down a few bits of advice to present to my teachers. They are listed below.

1. Girls with no chosen field should take courses in either elementary or secondary education. So many girls who want to go to college pursue a course that leads to nothing except four years of education and training. They find themselves with a diploma, yet with no definite preparation for any field. Because of this, I have found it wise to advise all of the young

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ladies who have no chosen field such as nursing, missions, etc. to prepare themselves to teach in a Christian school. Even if they never use what they learn, it will be a wonderful “spare tire” for them. For example, if they never marry, they will have a wonderful profession in which they can influence the lives of young people and do a service for God and for others. On the other hand, if they do marry and ever need to supplement their husband’s income, they would not need to go into the secular world to be a secretary or a waitress or hold some other secular job. They would rather be able to teach in a Christian school which would enable them to do service to others and to Christ and also to work in a Christian atmosphere.

There are some young ladies who marry whose husbands become ill. In case of such illness the wife has to work. Again, she has the “spare tire” which will enable her to support the family and serve Christ simultaneously.

2. Young people should not marry until they have graduated from college. This will allow the training and preparation for one’s life’s work to be completed without fear of interruption or cancellation because of pregnancy, finances, etc. Far more young people complete their college training who remain unmarried during the college years than those who marry.

3. Young men who are not sure they should preach would do well to prepare to teach. In Hyles-Anderson College we have many ministerial students. There are always some young men, however, who feel they want to preach but who feel unsure that God wants them to. For some reason they are not sure what they should do. Usually the young men do not know whether they should teach in a Christian school or

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preach. In such cases I advise them to take secondary education. If, after graduating from college, such a young man feels that he should teach, he is equipped to do so. If he feels that he should preach, he is still able to pursue his ministry, especially if he has chosen electives in Bible and Bible-related courses. On the other hand, if he were to take the pastor’s course and find that God wanted him to teach school, he would be unprepared to do so.

4. When a young person wants to marry someone whom the counselor feels is the wrong one, it is not wise to say so. When parents, pastors, educators and other counselors vigorously oppose such marriages, it often drives the couple to a premature wedding. I usually ask for a compromise of setting the date a long way in the future. This will prevent the driving of a wedge between the counselor and the young people and will at the same time give them enough time to discover their mistake, if in fact it is a mistake.

A mother and father came to my office. They were furious because their daughter was marrying a young man whom they thought was not the one for her. They had opposed so vigorously that they had severed themselves from their daughter and their relationship was, to say the least, a strained one. She was bent on marrying the boy and they were just as headstrong in their determination to prevent the marriage. I suggested to them that they change their tactics and accept the young man with the agreement that the wedding would be a year away. This delighted the young lady; yet in a few months she began to realize that the young man was not the one for her, a realization that probably would not have come had

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the parents continued their verbal warfare against the marriage.

(A more detailed chapter on counseling is found in the author’s book, THE HYLES CHURCH MANUAL.)

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Chapter 27

THE TEACHER’S RELATIONSHIP TO THE PARENT

The wise teacher in a Christian school will realize that the parents of the children are his customers. They should be treated with the same care and courtesy that an airline stewardess would treat a passenger, that a clerk in a store would treat the customer, or that a politician would treat the voter. Even if the teacher is right in a difference of opinion he must be careful not to offend the parent. He can win the battle and lose the war. He can win the argument and lose the child. In such a case the great loser is the child. The child’s life will be lost to the cause of Christ forever because of unwise behavior of the teacher toward the parent.

The teacher must realize that in many cases he frightens the parent. Because of the respect and awe that we held for teachers in our childhood, it often carries into adulthood, and even the most successful of adults will look to school teachers with excessive respect and awe. Though the teacher may feel inferior to some parents, these same parents may possess an inferiority complex when it comes to the teacher. The teacher must realize this and do his best to develop a relaxed attitude with the parent. The average

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parent thinks the teacher should be the aggressor in friendliness.

The wise teacher will set some guidelines that will lead him to a good relationship with the parents.

1. The teacher should get to know the parent quickly. It is best for him to make a visit in the home of each pupil as quickly as possible. Such a visit will not only develop the proper relationship between the parent and teacher, but it will also give the teacher knowledge4hat can be used wisely in the teaching of the child.

When I pastored smaller churches, I made it a regular point to visit in every home of the church membership during the first few months of my pastorate. This enabled me to get to know my people, to have a better relationship with them and to give me wisdom and help in knowing how and what I should preach in order to fill the needs of my people. The wise teacher will follow this.

2. The teacher could write a note-a-day to parents. In approximately one month each parent would have received a note from the teacher and will feel that the teacher has a personal interest in the children.

3. The teacher should remember the birthdays and other special days of the parents. A notebook could be kept which contains the names, addresses and special days of all the parents. Congratulations could be sent on birthdays, anniversaries, etc., and visits or get-well cards could be sent to the hospital or to the sickroom.

4. The teacher should compliment parents because of achievements, accomplishments, etc. If the parent sings a solo in church, the wise teacher will write a note of appreciation. If some honor is given to a par-

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ent, the teacher could send a congratulatory note. This is just another thing that the thoughtful teacher can do in order to help the parents and thereby help the child and himself.

5. The teacher should always be ready and willing to counsel with the parent regardless of how busy he is. To the average parent, his most precious possession is his child. When he comes to see the teacher, it is important to him, He should be treated with the same importance. He should be received graciously and should be given the time that he needs to explain his problem and to receive a solution. The teacher should never seem too busy or preoccupied, but should realize that for the sake of the child the teacher and parent must have a good rapport. Remember, if such is not the case, it is the child who will suffer.

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Chapter 28

SATAN’S BID FOR YOUR CHILD

(A sermon preached to the congregation of the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, on Sunday night, May 23, 1971.)

If I did not love you so much, I would not preach this sermon. Many will not agree with me. I know our church has many public school teachers. I am sure that in this congregation we have 35 to 40 people who teach in the public schools. I wouldn’t hurt you purposely for the world.

The truth is that many parents do not know what is happening in our public schools. Hence, I am going to be very frank tonight and spend myself to save your boys and girls. I’m going to risk your devotion, your love, your followship, and maybe your friendship, but I’m going to do it because with all my heart I want to save your children.

A lady said to me yesterday, “I went to an elementary school recently to work in the lunch room. Pastor, I never realized before just what is happening in our schools.”

I plead with you tonight for your kids!

I hold before me a copy of a Teenage Questionnai.re. In Sunday school this morning 230 of your high

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school-age students took this survey. Here are the questions it includes:

1. Have you ever heard one of your school teachers use vulgar language in class?

2. Have you ever heard a school teacher take the name of the Lord in vain in class?

3. Do you ever hear students cursing aloud in class?

4. Have you ever been approached by someone who wanted to sell or give you marijuana or any other narcotic?

5. Have any of your school friends used narcotics?

6. Have you ever used drugs?

7. Have you ever given away or sold drugs yourself?

8. Do you know of any teacher who uses drugs?

9. Have you ever been taught evolution?

10. Do any of your teachers wear mini-skirts?

11. Do any of your teachers wear pant-dresses?

12. Do any of your school friends drink?

13. Have you ever taken a drink of any alcoholic beverage such as beer, wine, etc.?

14. Has there ever been in your school any disturbances such as revolts, riots, student disorders, boycotts, etc.?

15. Have you ever heard the American way of life, the establishment and capitalism criticized by a teacher?

16. Have you ever worn slacks to school?

17. Have you ever worn shorts to school?

18. Have you ever been taught that pre-marital sex is all right?

19. Have you been asked to read such books as OF MICE AND MEN, SOUL ON ICE, THE

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GRAPES OF WRATH, CATCHER IN THE RYE or any other book that includes cursing?

20. Have you read any of these books?

Before you leave tonight I am going to tell you what your children said this morning in answer to the questionnaire. Throughout the message tonight you will learn the results of this survey.

If your child’s teacher were walking down the street, how many of you would recognize him? Please raise your hand. That’s not much over 15% of the crowd. How many of you have ever read at least one book that was required reading for your child at school? Please lift your hand. You see, you don’t know what’s going on! Like the ostrich you don’t want to know what’s going on because you don’t want to get involved enough to spend some of your money to save your child. You want to keep on riding high, living it up, and enjoying life without facing the fact, we have a battle on our hands! That battle is not just to save a country; it is to save your children) If we don’t rise up and do something about it, everything decent that we know about our way of life is going to crumble. I AM WEARY OF SOME SO-CALLED SCHOLARS WHO ARE DESTROYING OUR CHILDREN! Not only am I tired of it, but I have ceased to be quiet about it. Because you will not check on what is going on, I am going to open the door to the public schools and invite you in. I challenge anybody to disprove what I say tonight.

You say, “Preacher, you are a rabble-rouser!”

Yes, I am, but not nearly as much so as those who are trying to ruin the minds of our children and destroy the patriotism, decency, honor, character and chastity of our boys and girls. Not only am I going to

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do some rabble-rousing, I am also going to do some school building! I’m going to give our kids a choice!

Satan is after your child. He has pointed every gun in his arsenal at the soul, body, and mind of your child, and he is basically doing it through the school room. There are some institutions that we do not like to see attacked by anyone. The school room has been so deified in our minds that we think that it can see no evil, do no evil and speak no eviL While we have built a canopy of protection over it, it is destroying and stealing our boys and girls. Parents all over this auditorium could stand as living testimonies to what I’m going to say. I could have dozens of parents parade across this platform whose dreams have been shattered. They would say, “My boy (or girl) was ruined by a university, a high school or a teacher!”

Your children may go to the devil; they may not go to a Christian school, and they may not turn out right, but I’ll tell you one thing: It will not be because Brother Hyles didn’t warn you and do the best he could to help you. If anybody gets mad at me tonight, it will be because you just do not understand that I love you and I love your children! In fact, I love you so much that I am going to tell you the truth. There is always a time of preparation before one goes out to fight. The man who is drafted into the army goes to prepare with other soldiers before he goes to battle. The child must be undergirded with truth, character, strength, honor, discipline and right before we send him out to a godless world.

I’m going to give you tonight several methods that the devil is using to attack your child.

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1. REVOLUTION

“The first part of the yippie program, you know, is to kill your parents. And I mean that quite seriously, because until you’re prepared to kill your parents you’re not really prepared to change the country, because our parents are our first oppressors. . . . ”

That statement was made by Jerry Rubin, one of the notorious Chicago Seven. He said it on the campus of Kent State University only one week before the rioting which culminated in the death of four students. Our socialist-minded professors and teachers, with their leftist-slanted textbooks, have dedicated themselves to changing the American way of life through indoctrinating the minds of students.

In 1932 George S. Counts wrote the booklet, “Dare the School Build a New Social Order?” In 1933 Dr. Harold Rugg wrote THE GREAT TECHNOLOGY, a book in which he declares that “through the schools of the world we shall disseminate a new conception of government.” As far back as 1932, the socialists, communists and leftists dedicated themselves to bring about a new social order in America. What tool would they use? The schools!

Louis Budenz, former editor of The Daily Worker, who defected from communism in 1945, mentioned the early days of this communistic effort in his 1954 book, THE TECHNIQUES OF COMMUNISM. In part he wrote, “As early as 1924, in lectures delivered at the Sverdlov University in Moscow, Stalin specified .cultural and educational organizations’ as valuable allies in the communist battle for world dictatorship. … It was in 1933, however, that extensive infiltra-

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tion began in the schools and colleges of this country encouraged by American recognition of Soviet Russia. … ”

During the years of this extensive effort to use our educational system to help change the American way of thinking, a key propaganda gimmick used to keep communists, socialists and other undesirables on teaching staffs was the cry of “academic freedom.” You find a nation where the communists are in charge and then you let them talk about academic freedom. They suddenly hush their talk once they are in charge of the academic program. On our colleges, universities, and yes, our high school campuses there is coming a great parade of leftists, communists, Black Panthers and SDS people dedicated to revolution with their sandals, blue jeans and long hippy-like hair.

In his testimony before the House Subcommittee on Appropriations on February 23, 1968, J. Edgar Hoover made the following remarks in relation to the reason communists are so anxious to get their speakers on college campuses: “The basic purpose … behind the speaking campaign, which has been pursued with vigor since the early 1960′s, is to gain recognition for and acceptance of the Communist party, USA, as a legitimate political party on the American scene. The party considers that college campuses offer an excellent opportunity to reach the youth who will be leaders of tomorrow… .”

The May 26, 1970, issue of The Daily World said that the academic senate of the University of California of Los Angeles adopted by a vote of 209 to 5 a resolution expressing outTage at their regents for attempts to fire Angela Davis, a philosophy teacher and

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a member of the Communist party. Earlier in defending her right to pollute the minds of college students Angela Davis claimed that her teaching was not indoctrination. However, she said, “I can’t and I won’t keep my political ideas out of the classroom,” and only “some form of communism will solve our human problems.” (San Francisco Examiner, October

9,1969)

During the summer of 1969, freshmen preparing to enter the University of Maryland were furnished a booklet regarding orientation and registration which listed three steps to be taken. The first was to fill out four enclosed cards, and the second was to send $13.00 to the university. The third called for the new freshmen to read at least one of a list of books which included: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOM X, BLACK POWER, THE POLITICS OF LIBERATION IN AMERICA, by Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton; CONCERNING CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE by Abe Fortas; THE OTHER AMERICAN by Michael Harrington, long-time socialist leader in the United States; and other books containing a leftist slant. (Human Events, July 19, 1969)

In a report to the National Committee of the Communist party on April 26, 1959, Hyman Lumer, National Educational Director of the party at that time, told fellow conspirators that success was not possible unless they could “win a solid base among the youth.”

Ladies and gentlemen, the truth is, our country is being destroyed by our young people! It is being done because we have driven our boys and girls up to a beautiful building, lot them off in the morning, allowed them to walk through some doors, through which we seldom, if ever, walk, to be taught by peo-

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ple we do not know from books we have not read about subjects with which we do not agree! Behind those doors that we hold sacred where we let our children out each Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning, all Hell is breaking loose and our country is being destroyed while we deify the place where it’s happening. The communists decided 40 years ago to ruin America through our schools, and they’re doing it! You say, “Brother Hyles, that’s in the colleges.” Well, where do you think the high schools and elementary schools get their teachers?

The October 10, 1969, issue of TIME magazine observes: “It has become a truism that each new class of college freshmen is more radical, more tuned in, turned on and dropped out than the last . . . .”

The Tulsa Tribune, December 27, 1968, contained a report from an interview with six graduates of the Holland Hall High School attending six different colleges: “None of the six were willing to reject the radical SDS or the Black Students’ Union flatly, but all said their causes and actions must be judged individually, on their merits.”

The August 1, 1969, issue of New Left Notes proclaimed. “… the war is not just happening in Viet Nam … it is happening here. In black communities through the country. On college campuses. And in the high schools, in the shops, arid on the streets … it is a war in which we must fight… .”

The communists published in the February 8,

1969, issue of The Daily World an article that was headlined, “Battleground Reports from the Nation’s Colleges.”

What success are they having in our area? You say,

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“Preacher, that’s UCLA, that’s New York City.” Hold it! I have in my hand a survey taken this morning. Let’s see how they are doing with their revolution and how they’re affecting our own children. Question

15 on the survey was this: “Have you ever heard the American way of life, the establishment, and capitalism critized by a teacher?” Of the 230 students, over

150 of them said they had heard America condemned in the classroom. That means over 63% of our young people have had to sit in classrooms where some teacher tried to destroy the American way of life. That is treason! The law says they have to sit and listen to somebody try to destroy capitalism, the establishment and the American way of life. If there is such a teacher here tonight, let me say to him, “Your Hell can’t be too hot for you!” It’s amazing! Somebody preaches like I’m preaching and they’re called bigots, but your left-wingers can get up, holler, scream, rabble-rouse all they want to and it is “academic freedom.” You let a right-winger or a conservative stand up and speak what he believes and he’s considered a rabble-rouser. We need some old-fashioned Hell-fire and damnation rabble-rousers! America is being destroyed while we fiddle. Your own child is at stake.

What else is being launched at your child?

II. BOOKS

Many of you do not know what your kids are reading. You have not checked. You have no idea, so I have to tell you. I’m going to open a few of the books. I will not say the bad words; I’ll just spell. them.

NEW WORLDS AHEAD is used in the seventh grade. Included is a story, “The Stray Kitten” by

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Richard Wright. Page 54, “Kill that d-a-m-n thing.” Page 55, “1 had my first triumph over my father. I had made him believe that I had taken his words literally. He could not punish me now without risking his authority. I was happy because I had at last found a way to throw my criticism of him into his face.” Another story in the book is called, “The Blue Serge Suit.” Page 414, “D-a-m-n asthma.” Page 416, “d-am-n asthma’s getting worse.” “Be d-a-m-n-e-d if I see what you’re getting at.” That’s seventh grade readingl

VOICES IN LITERATURE (1) is used in grade nine. “Shoe Shine” by Jerome Weidman, page 21″My G-o-d.” “The Long Night” by Lowell Blanton, page 84: “Well, d-a-m-n it, man.” “The Invisible Aborigine” by Eugene Burdick, page 205: “D-a-m-n-e-d right.” Page 209, “D-a-m-n-e-d-e-s-t thing.” On page

235 parental authority is questioned. “The Sissy from Anaconda,” page 352: “The d-a-m-n-e-d-e-S-t rattlesnake”… “H-e-1-1.”

Ladies and gentlemen, not only is this bad language and bad English, it is not culture! It is not refined nor scholarlyl We are a little above this kind of crudeness. Not only does it prick our religious and spiritual convictions, it pricks our culturel

We are just getting started. Because you won’t check on your children’s required reading I have to read it for you. THEMES IN LITERATURE is used in the tenth grade. “The Colt” by Wallace Stegner, page

127: “G-o-d d-a-m-n you” … “G-o-d d-a-m-n your wild hearts.”

Before you start criticizing me, and before you say that our kids are not having to read stuff like this, remember, I have the poll from this morning. Before

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some of you school teachers say, “Well, I teach school and that’s not going on,” don’t forget, you go to just one school. I have the poll! I’m going to give you the goods in a minute, so don’t shut your ears. I’m trying to help you and your kids.

Also in “The Colt,” page 128: “D-a-m-n.” In “The Mateo Falcon” by Merimee, the father kills his own son. WENTERN LITERATURE: THEMES AND WRITERS,, “The Out Station” by W. Somerset Maugham, page 83: “Oh, go to H-e-1-1.” -D-a-m-n fool.” “YoLi d-a-m-n-e-d snob.” “By G-o-d.- “D-a-m-ne-d fool.” There are fifteen counts of profanity and a murder in this one story on page 83.

In “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” by Evan Hunter, pages 105-411, a gang member is stabbed and the whole story describes how he lays on the sidewalk and bleeds to death. OF MICE AND MEN by John Steinbeck has been required reading in numbers of schools in this area. Page 24: “He’s sure a H-e-1-1 of a good worker.” Page 24: “He’s a G-o-d d-a-m-n good worker.” (My Bible says that you are not to take the name of thle Lord God in vain.) Not one time are my children geiing to sit in school and hear anybody curse my God an ymore! You don’t have to let yours do that either. Pag,e 48: “Them G-o-d d-a-m-n turnips give it to me.” Pa;ge 56: “If that crazy b-a-s-t-a-r-d-’-s foolin’ around toc, much, just kick him out, Slim.” Page 83: “In to”In t),iere’s a w-h-o-r-e-h-o-u-s-e.” Page 83: -J-es-u-s, I’ve Seen it happen too many times.” Page 94: “This here G-o-d d-a-m-n little s-o-n of a – - – - – (female dog) wasn’t nothin’ to George.”

SOUL 0.’,N ICE by Eldridge Cleaver, page 159: “I’d jump over 1 -:en n-i-g-g-e-r ——- (female dogs) just to get one whiite woman.”

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Satan’s Bidfor Your Child

You can sit there in anger if you want to, but I’m

trying to help your kids! I’m doing it at the risk of your becoming angry. Yet, if I lose half the deacon board and two-thirds of the members, there’s one thing I’m going to do: I will try to save your kids for Jesus’ sake. I’m not mad at anybody but the devil, but I’m weary of this crowd of left-wingers, sex perverts, and Sweden-oriented teachers who are taking over our schools and ruining our kids. If you are not one of those, I am not talking about you, but there are thousands of them. It’s getting worse all the time. This kind of garbage is what they are requiring our kids to read. I haven’t even started yet really. I wish I had time to read you much more. Let’s go further.

SOUL ON ICE, page 160: “1 will not be free until the day I can have a white woman in my bed and a white man minds his own business.” I can’t even read all of this.

THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck, published by Viking Press, page 27: “You ain’t too d-a-m-n holy to take a drink, are you?” “And I hear she’s a s-o-n of a – - – - -(female dog).” You’re not checking, are you? Listen to me! You ought to say, “My child is not going to be subjected to this anymore!”

You say, “Brother Hyles, that’s not taking place here.” Oh? Well, maybe I have the goods on you. This morning 230 of our high schoolers were asked this question: “Have you been asked to read such books as OF MICE AND MEN, SOUL ON ICE, THE GRAPES OF WRATH, CATCHER IN THE RYE, or any other book that includes cursing?” “Yes” was the answer given by 35% of our young people. You didn’t know that, did you? Here is the sad thing! Seventy-eight

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said they’d been asked to read such literature, and 51 of them did so. This means two out of three of our best kids didn’t have courage enough to say “No.” Do you know why they didn’t? In many cases they have moms and dads at home who wouldn’t back them up. There are teenagers in this room tonight who come to me weeping because they want to do what is right but their parents want them to be “accepted” in the public high school or junior high school.

What else is the devil launching at your child?

111. NARCOTICS

I was on the airplane the other day and beside me there was a little paper named Midnight, dated May

24, 1971. An astounding result of a study by Lionel Baker, an Illinois attorney was given. For the juvenile court system of Illinois he gave questionnaires to

7,000 youthful drug offenders during the past year. The young people were asked who first introduced them to drugs. Now, listen! Four out of ten said, “Teacher.” Think of it! Forty percent of 7,000 kids on dope said that a school teacher first introduced them to drugs!

Mr. Baker then interviewed over 100 students from various high schools which had been charged with drug abuse and found that 37 had first been “turned on” by their teachers. This verified his original findings. In the article he said, “One girl told me that she knew some of her friends used drugs, but she refused. Then she attended a party where several young teachers, recent college graduates, were chaperoning, and the teachers passed out several marijuana cigarettes. When she saw her teacher smoking she thought, ‘Why noff Now she is a regular user,” said

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Several students said they had often smelled marijuana smoke in the student rest rooms, but one day after school they walked into the teachers’ lounge and smelled marijuana. They said, “If it’s all right for the teachers, I guess it must be all right for us.”

Altogether, 10,000 teachers from 28 states were surveyed and it was found that over 50% of them had used drugs and that 24% used them regularly. Perhaps this is because these young teachers got used to sneaking drug trips when they were college students, and now that they are working and have apartments, they can use drugs openly at their dinner get-togethers and parties. Drugs are a part of their fives.

The article went on to say that when students get together with their teachers for after-school work, at school dances, etc., they see many of their teachers indulging in their favorite pastime, which is taking dope. Students who would never have dreamed of touching marijuana or other narcotics even if they knew some students used it then picked it up easily. Many times they do it to prove to the teacher that they are hip. Students w–re interviewed. who were seared to death of LSD but who used it because their teachers told them all about their trips. Of course, in every case students were interviewed who had been caught using drugs while their teachers went free since no one ever suspected them of being the real culprits.

Lionel Baker points out that as the average age of teachers drops, the rate of drug use among them climbs. Many young people who were part of the drug generation of the mid and late 60′s are now teachers, so it is logical that much information about

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drug use will be passed down to the next generation by today’s young teachers. Here is the sad thing: An educator said, “We can’t fire the teachers who use drugs, because we’d have only half of our teachers left. And we can’t tell the kids to stay home. I guess we’ll just have to live with it.”

“Well!” you say, “Preacher, I’m glad our students don’t do it.” Oh, do you want some statistics about that? All right. This morning this question was asked of our First Baptist high schoolers: “Have you ever been approached in school by someone who wanted to sell you marijuana or any other narcotic?” Over

20% of our children said somebody had approached them at school trying to sell or give them narcotics.

The next question will shock you! “Have any of your school friends used narcotics?” Over 50% of our high school children this morning said they run with somebody who uses narcotics. If you take away the Hammond Baptist High School kids out of this, do you think any of our teenagers that go to the public schools have a crowd completely free of narcotics?

“Have you ever used drugs?” was also on the questionnaire. “Yes” is the answer given by 27 of the children in our Sunday school this morning. Imagine, 27 out of 230, over 10%, of our boys and girls have used drugs.

Everybody, listen to me! Some of you parents are a little peeved at me right now, and I know your child has smoked marijuana! Don’t come to me and ask me, for I won’t tell you. If you haven’t enough faith in me to believe me and put some trust and confidence in somebody who sees what’s going on and is trying to help your kids, don’t you come and ask me! I’m not going to tattle on your kids. I’m trying to help them,

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and that’s more than you’re trying to do. Usten, since I’ve been Pastor of this church, practically every parent who has defended his child and said, “I trust my child! My child wouldn’t lie!” has a child who has lied. I know! That kind of parent rears a child that plays around. You say, “Well, I trust my child!” You should know where your child is every moment of every day. You’d better see to it that your child is in the right crowd all the time. There’s not a child in this building, I don’t care who it is-my boy, my girls, every kid in this building-that couldn’t be lured if he were in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong crowd!

I’m not through with that subject. Now hang onto your seats! We also asked, “Have you ever sold any drugs?” We had 10 pushers in our high school department this morning! In most cases they come from the homes of people that would not defend what I’m saying right now. I could call the names of five of them who are in this building right now! They have been caught pushing marijuana. I know who they are.

“Do you know of any teacher who uses drugs?” was also asked this morning. Twenty per cent said, “Yes!” They know teachers who are on drugs.

The devil wants to get your child. He is using revolution, dirty books and narcotics, but there’s more:

IV. ROCK MUSIC

Nothing reveals the condition of a nation quite like its music and its art. Not only does music reveal what we are, but more than we realize, it makes us what we are! Music wields a tremendous and powerful influence on our lives. When Moses and the Israelites crossed the Red Sea on dry ground there was music

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involved; they sang a song of victory. (Exodus 15:1-

21) David composed a song upon hearing of the death of Jonathan and Saul. (11 Samuel 1: 17-27) Deborah and Barak sang a song after the great, miraculous defeat of the forces of Sisera when the stars in their courses fought against the power of evil. audges 5) Psalm 45 is a song which was used to celebrate a wedding. The Psalms themselves are simply a compilation of songs that formed the hymn book of the Jews. When God gave Samuel to Hannah, she sang. (I Samuel 2:2-11) When Mary heard of the coming of the Christ child, she sang. (Luke 1:46-55) The Jews in their journey toward the temple for the feast days would sing. The Song of Solomon is a beautiful love song. The Bible certainly teaches us the importance of music.

Who hasn’t cried on graduation day when the Alma Mater was played or as a band played a stirring number in a parade? Who hasn’t thrilled as the flag was raised and “The Star-Spangled Banner” was played?

In one of my books I tell about a man who was in my church in Texas. He managed a cafeteria. He took me one day to the cafeteria and said, “Now I want to show you something, Preacher.” He asked the organist who played during the lunch hour to play something very, very rapidly-a march, if you please. The people began getting their food more quickly. You could see them hurrying. He said, “I can speed up the line and serve twice as many people with a march.” Then he said, “Watch.” He asked the organist to play a waltz. The same people who selected their food with quick motions a few moments earlier were now leisurely choosing foods and slowly placing the items on their trays.

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Sometime as you’re driving down the highway turn

on some good FM station and listen to good music. Observe how slowly you drive. Then turn on one of these rock ‘n’ roll stations and notice what’s flashing in your rear view mirror! Music has a tremendous effect upon us.

Did you know that hypnotism is certainly closely associated with music? Dentists say that good music will even help alleviate pain.

Check the great soul-winning churches in America and you’ll find that a certain kind of music and a certain kind of church always go together. You cannot divorce the atmosphere of a church from its music. In many churches, a good, faithful Gospel preacher stands to preach after the audience has been tranquilized with a choir special. Nothing can wake the people from their slumbering lethargy after the organist or a soloist has sufficiently tranquilized them with dead music. Your church will become sooner or later what the music dictates. Nothing is deadening our churches any more than our musical programs. Our music departments in our colleges oft times are being led by men that know nothing about soul winning, nothing about evangelism and nothing about reaching the hearts of people. They are appealing to the heads instead of the hearts. We sing the Gospel songs and the songs of joy with a lilt, a delight and a thrill. Now I’m not talking about the rock ‘n’ roll beat. I’m not for the jungle beat whether it’s across the street in the “Village Boutique” (a hippie hangout) or whether it’s over here in the First Baptist Church of Hammond.

I am also not advocating “long-haired” music in church. I love the classics, but there’ll never be a clas-

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sic played on that organ during a service as long as I am pastor of this church. The church service is not the place for the classics. I’m saying that if our churches want to get back the power of God and have changed lives, revival atmosphere, mourners’ benches, and folks getting born again, they’ll have to have the right kind of music. I’m talking about Billy Sunday, Homer Rodeheaver, Dwight Moody, R. A. Torrey kind of music. I’m talking about “At Calvary,” “At the Cross,” “Dwelling in Beulah Land,” “How Firm a Foundation,” “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” “Wonderful Words of Life,” “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” and ‘Jesus is Coming Again.” I’m talking about the solid songs that have helped build the church and great revivals.

Now if music is so life changing and so atmosphere determining, the communists are certainly not going to bypass it in their efforts to take over America. The communists are master propagandists. Something that affects a nation so much would certainly not be bypassed by people who are as brilliant as our communist adversaries. In 1920 Lenin spoke at the third all-Russian Congress of Young Communists Leagues, and said: “If we are going to spread our doctrine, we’re going to have to rework the culture.” In 1929, the Russians founded an Association of Proletarian Musicians just for one purpose-to place communist influence on the music of the world. That means, ladies and gentlemen, that for forty years there has been a department in Russia-just like our Department of the Interior, Department of Commerce, Department of Agriculture, etc.-dedicated to spreading communist-type music around the world. The House Un-American Activities Committee called Sid-

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ney Pinklestein the “cultural spokesman of the communist conspiracy.” Pinklestein said, “Break down the barriers in America between classical and popular music.” It is no surprise then that that barrier is being broken down.

Television and radio programs by the dozens which have traditionally been for good solid music now have on their programs such guests as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. I can’t sing, I don’t know much about music, but I know that is not music!

You say, “Foolishness, Preacher. How could the communists take over the country with music?” Plato said in his “Republic,” “The introduction of a

new kind of music should be shunned as imperiling the whole state.” Many generations ago Plato begged the legislature to ban all music of an effeminate and licentious character, for “It will destroy our nation,” he said. One hundred years before the Beatles ever came Henry David Thoreau made this statement in his writing at Walden: “Music may be intoxicating. It has helped cause the destruction of the Greek and Roman Empires and it will sooner or later destroy America and England.” These were not excited reactionaries. These were men who knew what music could do to a society. The ancient legislators felt that they could not form a state without the help of a lyric and maybe even a dramatic poet.

Scientists have experimented with dogs and have found that certain music played while dogs are eating causes them to lose their appetites or to increase the action of their salivary glands which causes the dogs to eat more.

just as music will stir the appetite for food, music will also stir other appetites as well. There is a direct

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correlation between music and beastly living-immorality, indecency, dope addiction, LSD, filthy bodies, long hair, shaggy beards and dirty feet. You have a jungle beat and you will have jungle people!

1. Rock music is being used by communists to bring communism into America! Consider the Beatles’ hit, “Back in the U.S.S.R.” Capitol Records says of this song, “It is the fastest selling record in recording history.” Many of your kids are listening to it, and you know nothing about it. Here are the words:

Been away so long I hardly know the place, Gee, it’s good to be back home,

Leave it to tomorrow to unpack my case; Honey, disconnect the phone,

I’m back in the U.S.S.R.

You don’t know how lucky you are, boys, Back in the U.S.

Back in the U.S. Back in the U.S.S.R.

Well, the Ukraine girls really knock me out They leave the West behind,

Moscow girls make me sing and shout That ‘Georgia’s always on my mind’ I’m back in the U.S.S.R.

You don’t know how lucky you are, boys, Back in the U.S.S.R.

Show me around your snow-peaked mountains Away down south

Take me to your daddy’s farm

Let me hear your-(I would NOT pronounce this word)-ring out,

Come and keep your comrad warm I’m back in the U.S.S.R.

Boy, you don’t know how lucky you are, boys, Back in the U.S.S.R.

That’s the Beatles’ latest hit and it is being sold in record numbers to your boys and girls. Young people, if you buy it or listen to it, you are not only unpatriot-

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ic, you are not right with God! A lot of you parents have no idea what your children are hearing.

We spend seventy million dollars a year in America fighting the communism and the atheism of Russia, and yet the outstanding record as far as sales is concerned is not “Back Home Again in Indiana,” “Back in Virginia Where I was Born,” or “The Eyes of Texas,” but it’s “Back in the U.S.S.R.” The honest simple truth is that we are being choked to death by our so-called freedom. Nobody has a right to be free enough- to steal our freedom! We have the idea that we can have peaceful coexistence with Soviet Russia. My brother, Russia is as dedicated as ever to destroying “American freedom.”

Paul Cantor of the “Jefferson Airplane” said on the Les Crane Show, “The new rock music is intended to broaden the generation gap, alienate parents from their children, and prepare young people for revolution.” There was a day when such filth was given in little papers that were sold between the covers of magazines or underneath the counter, but now they get on the television programs, look us square in the eye, and with the Supreme Court’s sanction say, “We are trying to alienate children from parents and cause revolution in America.” And we pay them to do it! How long will we be so foolish!

Bob Dylan is called by communist People World Publication as “America’s greatest poet.” LOOK magazine said that he is “unchallenged as a teen and college-crowd absolute hipster.” Here is one of his recordings:

Come, mothers and fathers throughout the land, Don’t criticize what you can’t understand.

Your sons and daughters are beyond your

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Your old road is rapidly aging;

Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand

For the times are changing, The line is drawn,

the curse is cast,

The slow one now will later be fast As the present now will later be past The order is rapidly fading

The first one now will later be last For the times are a changing.

So much of the music in our nation is dedicated to revolution. Phil Ochs is one of the heroes and darlings of the revolutionaries. (By the way, these songs are played on radio stations in Hammond and Chicago, and their records are selling by the millions.) Phil has one called, “I Ain’t Marchin’ Anymore.” That one is against the Vietnam war. How do you like this one for a song, “The Draft Dodger Rag”? Our boys and girls are listening to it! Phil Ochs said, “The Vietcong are right. We should support Ho Chi Minh.” He has created such popular lines as “White boots marchin’ in yellow land, We’re fighting in a war we lost before the war began, We’re the white boots marchin’ in a yellow land, and Cops, soldiers of the world.” Here are some of the words: “We rammed into your harbor, tied to your port; our pistols are hungry, and our tempers are short. So bring your daughters around to the port, for we’re the cops of the world.” “The War’s Over” has these words:

Serve your country in her suicide Find a flag so you can wave good-bye But just before the end,

Treason might be worth a try.

The “Lovin’ Spoonful,” another singing group, pub-

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lished an album recently entitled, “Revolution ’69.”

2. Rock music is definitely promoting the sale and use of drugs in America. In the authentic biography of the Beatles we are told that they started using drugs at the beginning of their career. This is no secret. Every time you buy their records you are paying for dope and are hooked up with a culture that is dedicated to the destruction of America and the propagation of narcotics. The Beatles have a song entitled, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Lucy-L-in the Sky-S-with Diamonds-D-and it’s publicized “LSD.” They have code words in their songs the hippie crowd understands. As they sing the songs, they are speaking about drugs.

Gordon McClendon, a Texan who owns thirteen radio stations across the country, decided to take all the music off his radio stations that had anything to do with drugs or the use of drugs. He was attacked and blasted even by a leading magazine because of his action!

If I weren’t a Christian I think my cultural taste would be above such trash. If I didn’t believe God, I still would find it disgusting. Not only does this jungle beat go against my Christian principles but it also opposes my culture, refinement and taste.

Many of the leading songs have been admittedly written under the influence of drugs. Here is “White Rabbit” as sung by the “Jefferson Airplane”:

One pill makes you larger, One pill makes you smaller,

The one that mother gives you don’t do anything at all;

Go ask Alice when she’s ten feet tall And if you go chasin’ rabbits,

Then you know you’re going to fall

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Tell ‘ern a hook, a smokin’ caterpiller Has given you the call,

Feed your head! Feed your headl

Wouldn’t Shakespeare have been proud of that? (By the way, what ever happened to Shakespeare?) We’re rearing a generation of revolutionaries, and this music has much to do with it!

Now listen to the words of the Beatles’ hit, “She’s Leavin’Home.”

She’s havin’ fun,

Fun is the thing that money can’t buy, Something inside that’s always denied for so many years,

Bye, bye, she’s leavin’home. Bye, bye.

I wonder how many girls have heard that “song” played by some disc jockey on a radio station and have left home to go into sin. One mother called me the other day, and she was crying as she said, “Brother Hyles, my daughter has been to your Sunday school. She has gone to your church, and she’s left home and gone over :_-) the Village Boutique! She’s over there! What can I do about it? What can I do?” I wonder how many young girls have listened to this kind of communist-inspired filth and have left home, Mother and decency.

I wept as I read about a rock music festival on the east coast. A half million young people attended. They said it was characterized by narcotics and nudity, yet, the merzhants of the town said, “They’re fine young people.” Do you know why? Nowadays we define “fine young people” as those who do not loot stores and burn buildings. “Fine young people,” but they gathered there and lived in a cesspool of iniquity, vulgarity, lasciviousness, adultery, fornication,

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dope and everything that’s indecent and got by with itl

CHEETAH is one of the big magazines aimed at teenagers. It quotes a New York musician as saying, “If the establishment knew what today’s popular music is saying, not what the words are saying, but what the music itself is saying, they wouldn’t just turn their thumbs down on it, they’d ban it; they’d smash all the records and arrest anyone who would try to play it!” That was said by one of the leading New York City musicians. Anybody that knows anything about music knows that the music itself carries a message.

Frank Zappa, leader of a rock group called “Mothers of Invention,” said, “The loud sounds and the bright lights of today are tremendous indoctrination tools. It is possible to modify the human chemical structure with the right combination of frequencies. If the right kind of beat makes you tap your foot, what kind of beat makes you curl your fist and strike?” Zappa, whose group has recorded some “lollapaloozers” in the fields of sex, drugs, and revolution, knows what he’s talking about despite his mangy beard, long hair and hippie costume; he has a master’s degree in music.

Fifty years ago Lenin stood before a Communist Youth League and said, “We’ll have to change the culture of a nation if it is to go communistic.” Nine years later (about forty years ago) a department was formed by the communist government in Russia to infiltrate America with what we have facing us now!

Such atheists as Madeline Murray O’Hare have taken cases to the Supreme Court, which has taken the Bible and prayer from our public schools; yet, under the guise of freedom, traitors are allowed to speak on

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our college campuses. We have become a nation that allows someone to flaunt God and shout in our faces, “I’m going to kill you,” while we say, “You’re’free’ to do it.” They appear on our television stations speaking in the name of peace, make light of the Bible, deny God, and talk about free love while we say, “Freedom.” I wish they’d put more television cameras on places like Bob Jones University where girls have to wear their dresses down to their knees and decency prevails, I’m an American citizen who thinks that when a person uses an American flag to wash his car, he ought to be put in the penitentiary! I’m an American who thinks if a man says he’s going to break our laws, burn our buildings, and destroy our society, we ought to put him in prison before he does it. I’m an American who says when a man kills seven nurses in cold-blooded murder, it shouldn’t take a quarter of a century to make him pay for his crime. I’m an American who still believes in capital punishment because the Bible teaches itl

It is time some preachers got angry at what Satan is doing TODAY. We must get back to decency. Rock music is ruining our young people and overwhelming our country with communism. What can we do about it? Here is what we must do:

1. Teenagers, destroy every record, picture and magazine you have that has anything to do with these revolutionary singing groups. Don’t give them away. Burn them! Break them! Destroy them!

2. Parents, don’t allow such music to be played in your home. I mean, do not even allow it on your television screen!

3. Do not allow Gospel words sung to a jungle beat.

4. Do not just take away the bad music, but put

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good music in your home.

Recently I listened to good music as I went to sleep. I’d wake up again, listen to music awhile, and go back to sleep. I found myself wanting to sleep and wanting to wake up both because I wanted to hear the music. Do you know what? I slept better. I was refreshed the next morning. Good music will do something for you. Play good music on your radio. Be sure that the music you play doesn’t have the jungle beat that is dedicated to the destruction of the morals of your children and the freedom that your children enjoy.

Some of you will rebel against what I’ve preached, and you’ll walk out those doors criticizing me at the expense of your own children! You’ll let your little darlings have their own way, listen to rock, and follow the suggestions of the words and music, but you wait! You will regret it later. I know of families who have walked out after a sermon like this criticizing the Preacher and the message in front of their children. Now they wish they hadn’t done it. “Preacher hash” for a midnight snack doesn’t hurt me one bit, but it really does hurt your children.

In Jesus’ name, sing “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Colossians 3:16) while you are “speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. ” (Ephesians 5:19)

V. SEX

Coming into our schools are books, slides, and filmstrips on “How Babies Are Made.” These are for little children. “How Babies Are Made” shows chickens and dogs “in the act.” It shows Mom and Dad in bed!

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It is climaxed with a few pictures of a nude mother giving birth to a baby who was conceived several pages earlier. That is being taught in our schools to little children!

A coloring book of animals “in the act” is also available for the little ones, as is a teacher’s guide, which explains how babies are made. The purpose is to create an atmosphere of honesty and freedom of discussion concerning matters of reproduction and proinote understanding and correct usage of the names of body parts!

The organization that is leading the fight to place sex education in our schools is called SIECUS. The editor of SEXOLOGY magazine is on the Cooperating Board of SIECUS. Mary Calderone, who heads SIECUS, is a cooperating member of the Board of SEXOLOGY magazine. I sent someone to buy a copy of it. It contains all kinds of questionable articles. One is, “Can a Woman and a Beast Enjoy Each Other?” Listen to this: “SEXOLOGY magazine fills an urgent need in its awareness of people. Because of this qualification it is being slightly revised with a different cover and title for use in the high school.”-from SEXOLOGY magazine.

SIECUS helped to promote and organize seminars and special training courses for teachers in sex education. During 1967 at least 16 summer institutes for teachers were held across the country. In 1968 it more than doubled. The ultimate purpose i’s “to meet youngsters with frankness and honesty.” They begin with dramatic visual aids, such as “the Little Brother Doll,” priced at $17.00, and a lovely set of slides called “How Babies Are Made.” This set of colored slides largely designed by Dr. Mary S. Calderone, Ex-

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ecutive Director of SIECUS, presents an animalistic viewpoint of sex which is shocking and completely inappropriate for children three to eight years of age. These slides are for ages three to eight! They are cleverly and realistically executed in paper sculpture. They depict animals and human beings in “the act.” (I’m using words that are not as blunt as the ones suggested by SIECUS.) While the children watch the slides, the teacher reads the narrative which describes the action in adult, medically accurate terms.

These promoters of NEWSEX programs quote such obnoxious phrases as, “Children must discover their sexuality no later than kindergarten,” and “we must ‘give them the whole story as quickly as possible.”

At the age of ten at the latest both boys and girls should have mastered the factual aspects of reproduction, they suggest. In many cities and schools traveling sexologists carry their wares in large canvas bags from school to school. They display their materials to sex-liberated students. Homosexuality, self-gratification, abortion, pre-marital relationship, and films such as “The Game” which depicts “a boy’s feelings after ——– with a pure girl,” are but a sampling of that to which young students are exposed, “The Game” purports to warn 13 and 14-year-old girls of the game of love and its many traps. They are also taught about sex deviation, illegitimacy and venereal diseases.

If your child were in Palo Alto, California, he may very well have the opportunity of bathing a little boy. If she were in kindergarten in Evanston, Illinois, she would be exposed to the full details of the human birth process. Perhaps she would listen to the heartbeat of a baby inside a visiting expectant mother. In

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the Chicago area (a few blocks away), for example, parents of only 16 out of 3,200 students refused to consent to this, and those sixteen were called by the SATURDAY EVENING POST “fundamentalists from the Appalachian hills.” Brother, I’d be proud to bear that brand.

The ten-year-old students are given a detailed description of the human sexual relationship. This is followed with the step-by-step filmed growth of a baby inside the another, the woman in labor, and the baby’s birth. Would all of the children ten years old stand up, please. That’s it! That’s the age child to whom they want to teach this “stuff’! Thank you, kids, you may be seated.

You ask, “Brother Hyles, how about our kids?” I’m glad you asked. Here’s the question we asked this morning. “Have you ever been taught in school that pre-marital sex is right?” In the high school departments of our Sunday school this morning, 48% said, “Yes!” Now you know that kids idolize their teachers. Think of it! Nearly half of our teens have been taught in the classroom that pre-marital sex is all right! Now do you wonder why some are turning out bad?

This afternoon as I read the results of our survey I wept as I learned what our kids had experienced. I thought, if this is true about our kids, I wonder in what kind of shape most teenagers are. I warn ours constantly. If they are in this condition, how about the others? I’ll tell you about the others! Millions have swallowed this philosophy of loose sex, loose love and free love. Our country is gone unless we have a moral revolution!

What else is the devil shooting at your child?

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VI. PROFANE LIVING

We asked, “Have you ever heard one of your school teachers use vulgar language in the classroom?” Eighty-seven percent said, “Yes.” “Have you ever heard a school teacher take the name of the Lord in vain in class?” Fifty percent said, “Yes.” “Do you ever hear students cursing aloud in class?” was answered “Yes” by 93%.

Now, get this. “Do any of your school friends drink?” “Yes” was answered by 85%. “Have you ever taken a drink?” Of the 230 high school students that filled out this form this morning in our high school departments, 69 of them said, “Yes.” That’s over onethird of our First Baptist high schoolers! They’re sitting here tonight! This has happened to your children-the ones you “trust,” the ones of whom you said, “It can’t happen to my child. If he’s going to go out in the world someday, let him go now.” If 69 of our 230 high school kids have already taken a drink of beer, whiskey, or wine, I wonder what it’s like down at the liberal churches! Do you wonder why our teens drank? I know! They were in the wrong crowd. Eighty-five percent were in a crowd that did it and

33% went ahead and took it themselves!

What is another method the devil is using to get your child?

VII. SENSITIVITY TRAINING

Now listen carefully! John Guernsey, education writer of the Portland “Oregonian,” recently witnes.–d a group of school administrators having their first experience playing sensitivity games. This is the ultimate in beastly living. Mr. Guernsey said, “About

50 of the top Portland school district’s wheels, both

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men and women, recently took part in a sensitivity s–ssion conducted by University of Portland psychologists.” Not wishing to go all out, they removed only their shoes. In one exercise the school administrators formed a circle and then took turns standing in the center letting themselves fall backward. Someone. wasn’t paying close enough attention and one participant landed on the floor. The school officials’ sensitivity session also called for everyone to close his eyes, wander about the room in bare feet with arms outstretched, and try to identify others with his hands when he touched someone. You say, “Well, that’s in Oregon.” It also happened at one of our local high schools! Yes, teachers from this area met, men and women closed their eyes, blindfolded themselves, took off their shoes, felt each other, and tried to identify who they were by feeling each otherl That’s heathenism! It’s going on all over this nation tonight.

Sensitivity training is sex education encouraging students to express all points of view freely. They also use four-letter words. They get together and say, “Okay, now express yourself.” If anybody wants to use a dirty four-letter word, he just screams it aloudl They say that is expressing yourself, removing all the guilt feeling, removing all the inhibitions.

In 1946 Dr. Leland Bradford, an executive of the National Education Association, and a number of social psychologists worked with Kurt Lewin, a pioneer behavioral scientist, researching how science could change man’s behavior. They surveyed the work of numbers of behaviorists and sought out new methods of reeducating human behavior and social relationships. A technique was developed which they called “sensitivity training.” Dr. Bradford and his associates

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then decided to open shop in a large rambling Victorian estate in Bethel, Maine.

Another view of man held by sensitivity theorists is that an individual is actually many persons. He is continually faced with deciding what he is.

Here is an example of sensitivity training. Some nude marathons last 20 to 48 hours. Some have been staged in California under the direction of psychotherapist Paul Bindrim. Bindrim maintains that man’s clothes are both a safe-guard for his privacy and a self-imposed constraint to keep out people whom he fears. Listen! You don’t realize this, but nudity is coming to your child’s school room. There is a high school in this area that has already had a play with a nude actor.

Marathons are held in which no words are spoken; only non-sense noises are made. Gestures are permitted as well as looks, stances and caresses. Often the people slap each other freely. Finally they collapse on the floor in a giant tangle of sublimely relaxed bodies. Sometimes people immerge from these sensitivity encounters virtually shouting, “I’m changed! I’m savedl”

Do you get it? A group of people, about the size of our choir, take off their shoes, blindfold themselves, walk around feeling each other, scream dirty fourletter words as they wish, identify someone by feeling him and hollering his name, fall back in a trance into the arms of another, and collapse in a big quagmire of human flesh on the floor feeling their way around, feeling everybody’s body while blindfolded. That is so-called “scholarship.” It’s coming to America!

Dr. Carl Rogers says, “This differs from religious conversion in that the person is saved of himself rath-

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er than from the outside.”

Now, get this. The sensitivity-oriented worship service was demonstrated at the World Council of Churches’ Assembly. At this Assembly in August,

1968, at Uppsala, Sweden, Mr. McGaw of WBSI at LaJolla, California, said, “We find ourselves a puttputt church in a go-go world.” In their “touch and tell” service, everyone held hands in a circle during silent prayer to begin the service. Physical contact supposedly stimulates prayer. (I say, it stimulates the need for it!) Each worshiper takes his turn to stand in the center of the circle, close his eyes, fall backwards, and be passed from one member of the group to another.

Recently in two congregations in the Baltimore area, about 30 people had a sensitivity session. One of the preachers had a predominately black congregation and the other was white. Part of the session was non-verbal and they danced and hugged each other. Most participants said they had a good time. I can imagine they didl

Let’s go further. Some of the liberal churches are making every effort to have the sensitivity training as demonstrated by the World Council of Churches’ film, “Another Pilgrim.” In the final scene of this film the pastor stands nude before his congregation.1 Yes! Listen carefully, because some of you are supporting this filth. Why was the pastor nude? He wanted to demonstrate complete honesty to his flock. That’s church!

That film, however, is but a feeble gesture compared with the primitive nude orgy recently staged by the “Living Theater” at a suburban Madison, Wisconsin, church. The UPI report points out the new

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direction the church is taking. Orgiastic nudity and sensitivity training have moved up to the godless temple which now frantically seeks something or someone to worship. The newspaper account tells us that “seven members of the audience stripped naked. There was swearing, spitting, arguing, and a flesh pile. The general scene made Dante’s INFERNO look like a temperance union meeting.” The pastor said he allowed the performance “simply on terms of civil liberties.”

You can see what you get in the guise of “freedom.” The mixed cast in loin-cloths and halters was upstaged at one point when five men and two women, members of the audience, disrobedl That happened on the platform of a church! A naked man and woman leaped over a wall in the back of the church into the arms of the audience. “I love them,” a girl said when she was asked why she was naked. A couple from the audience and two cast members spit at each other. (If I had been there, I would have spit at the whole bunch!) There were no arrests!

If one of the fellows on this platform walked down the street in his underwear, he would be put in jail. These folks were naked in church, yet under the guise of worship there were no arrests.

The effect of college seminars on sex and sensitivity training has been nationwide in scope. A survey reveals that in Washington, for example, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction last year recommended in-service sensitivity training for all teachersl That includes your child’s teacher. You say, “Brother Hyles, you shouldn’t mention all this in public.” I would not have to if you would look into it.

As we survey the American school system we find

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that even in Hawaii a sensitivity training program has been in effect for administrators and faculty members, according to the Honolulu Star Bulletin, December 20, 1968. Teachers in a Chicago suburban high school (that is near us!) have volunteered to undergo sensitivity training during after-school hours. The superintendent hopes the sessions for teachers will open an expanding program which will eventually qualify teachers to offer sensitivity training to students. It’s on the way, folks!

Now hear of the experience of the teenagers in Evanston, Illinois, involved in a sensitivity session. According to the Chicago Tribune, Wednesday, January

22, 1969, several high school seniors took part. They met in students’ homes where Thomas Klein, a 27year-old high school teacher, had them crawl around on the floor wrapped in blankets and identify each other by touch. One girl had hysteria and later engaged in a shouting match with her mother. One boy reportedly found himself wandering along Dodge Avenue in Evanston several blocks from his home at three o’clock in the morning. He had no recollection of getting out of bed and leaving home.

Of course, nudity is the main thing. Recently a traveling drama company performed a play at a Michigan University in which the actors stripped naked for fifteen minutes after the play got under wayl For twenty minutes they were nude at the end of the play. The advance billing enticingly proclaimed that the actors would kiss and fondle each other from head to toe. That’s culture!

Listen! If every deacon in this church walks out on me, and if every member of this church gets mad and quits, or if this church rises up tonight and says,

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“Don’t you preach what you’re preaching or we’ll fire you,” you can have your church; I’ll be on my way! I am going to fight this dastardly attempt by the devil and his crowd to wreck our children and destroy our boys and girls! Brother, don’t you think that this is a one-time-only sermon. You’ll be getting this right alongl

WHAT YOU CAN DO

1. Get in a good church. You say, “I’ll pray about it.” You don’t have to pray about that. Get in a good church now! You say, “I’ll do what the Lord leads.” The Lord is leading you out of that liberal church nowl You say, “Where is a good one?” See me after the service and I’ll recommend one to you.

Now students, you hear mel God pity your lack of courage when you do not refuse to read these dirty books. If you have to be a Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach or Abednego, stand for right! Do not participate in the high school dances which, by the way, are just the early stages of sensitivity training. Do not take a drink of liquorl Do not take narcotics, and get out of the crowd that does! Get in a good church.

2. Get your child in all the activities of the church, When the doors are open, get him here. Get Junior in the choir. You say, “He’s thirteen and his voice is changing.” Okay, let him stand with the choir and croak. You say, “He can’t sing.” Let him hum. If he can’t hum, just let him move his mouth, and pray nothing will come out. “But,” you say, “Brother Hyles, junior won’t go.” Oh, brother! What kind of parent are you? I dare my boy not to go. He is seventeen years old now, but he obeys his dad.

Get your child involved in the activities of our

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church! Every time I stand up and read announcements about activities, you go home and tell junior, “You’re going!”

You say, “But Preacher, what if they balk?” Tell them, “You’re going balking.”

You ask, “How can you assure that?”

When they are five and six years old and there’s an Easter egg hunt at the church, make them go. See that they do not miss anything while they’re young so they will build their lives around the church!

It is the same old story, ladies and gentlemen. Kids go wrong because of two words-WRONG CROWD! It is the same story, BUT the wrong crowd is more wrong than it used to be! It used to be that if a kid didn’t behave in school, or if he just got a bad grade in conduct, Mother said, “You can’t play with him after school anymore.” He was part of the wrong crowd! Nowadays if a kid smokes marijuana and takes LSD, we just say, “Well, it’s a free country.”

GET THEM IN THE ACTIVITIES! KEEP THEM OUT OF THE WRONG CROWD!

3. Get your child into a Christian school. I mean it. Get your kids in a Christian school. We have here on this platform a man who has to take second place to no principal when it comes to scholarship and education. We have a faculty at our school that does not have to bow to anybody’s faculty. Ladies and gentlemen, your children don’t have to go to the devil anymore. We are opening a college in September of

1972. This means that a child can start attending our schools when he is four years of age and stay there for

16 years. He doesn’t have to go to the devil.

You say, “Brother Hyles, I can’t afford it!” Then afford it anyway.

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“I just have too many bills.”

Sell your car.

“I can’t do it this year.” Don’t say, “can’t.”

If your child were burning in a house tonight and you were told there’s only one chance for the child to live, you would not know 41 can’t.” Honestly, it would be better for some of your kids in the nursery to burn than for you to say that you can’t send them to a Christian school.

Somebody says, “Well, I grew up in this church and I didn’t go to a Christian school.” Yes, you’re one of the reasons we feel bad. That kind of arrogant spirit is the very thing I’m talking about. Send your kids to a Christian school!

“Brother Hyles, we cannot afford it!”

Eat beans for breakfast, mashed potatoes for lunch, and fried potato peeling for supper. Eat potato soup the next day. Do like we used to do. Go down to the store and ask for a bone for the dog. After you eat the bone then eat the dog, but get your kid in a Christian school!

You say, “I don’t make enough money.” Get your kid in a Christian school!

You say, “I can’t afford it.”

Get your kid in a Christian school!

You say, “Brother Hyles, I just don’t see my way through.”

Get your kid in a Christian school! You say, “What if I … ?”

You can do it! “But I can’t…

Yes, you can! Get your kid in a Christian school.

4. Give. It will take a lot of money for us to do all

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we are going to do. Give! Some of you ought to give $1,000 or $10,000. Listen, the best money you ever spent is money invested in this kind of future for our children.

Every person ought to tithe. I’m calling on every member of this church to give 10% of his income from now on. Every child, every man, every woman, every boy, every girl, every couple, everybody should tithe. We can’t rise up and build and do what God wants us to unless we give.

It is time we called a national emergency on the devil. We’ve got to do it. Let’s save our children! Of course, many of you have closed minds. You don’t want to be confused with the facts; your mind is made up. You’re too scholarly. Your mind is closed. Listen! If you could have interviewed the kids in our school before they went as I did, and if you could know them now, you’d be a believer! Be honest with me, teenagers. How many of you kids in Hammond Baptist High School were just pretty backslidden a year ago? Maybe you didn’t want to go to the school or maybe you were on the verge of not being what you ought to be. You were somewhat of a little troublemaker or something. How many of you kids would be honest about it and say a year ago that was your situation and now you’re sold on the school? How many of yo” would admit that God has blessed you and changed you? Would you be honest about it? It will take a lot of courage but you will help a lot of people. Would you lift your hands, please? Look at them. Yes, thank you! A girl came to my office and sneered as she said, “I don’t want to go to that old religious school.” The mother simply said, “You’re going!” She went! A few days ago she came to my office

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and with culture and refinement, sitting properly and gracefully with a skirt long enough, said, “Brother Hyles, I thank God for Hammond Baptist High School. I just wish I weren’t a senior. I don’t want to leave.”

Now if you knew what I know, you would heed what I’m preaching tonight. I don’t have a thing to gain. I want to help your kids. Really! The truth is, we don’t need too many more students. We have scores already, but we’ll make a place for them. If you want your child to get a Christian education, I assure you we will see to it that he does. Of course, if he does not keep the rules, he may get kicked out, but we’ll see he gets a chance. Let’s save our children from sensitivity training, sex, indecent morals, dirty books, narcotics, rock music and revolutionl

I’ll close with this:

Have you ever heard one of your school teachers use vulgar language in class? “Yes” was answered by

87% of our high schoolers.

Have you ever heard a school teacher take the name of the Lord in vain in class? Fifty percent said, ‘Yes.”

Do you ever hear students cursing aloud in class? “Yes,” said 93%.

Have you ever been approached by someone who wanted to sell or give you marijuana or any other narcotic? “Yes,” said 54 of our kids.

Have any of your school friends used narcotics? “Yes,” replied 50%.

Have you ever used drugs? “Yes,” admitted 27 of our teens.

Have you ever given away or sold drugs yourself? “Yes,” said tent

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Do you know of any teacher who uses drugs? “Yes,” said 20%.

Have you ever been taught evolution? Nearly all said, “Yes.”

Do any of your teachers wear mini-skirts? Nearly all said, “Yes.”

Do any of your teachers wear pant-dresses? Many, many said, “Yes.”

Do any of your school friends drink? “Yes,” answered 85% of our own kids.

Have you ever taken a drink of any alcoholic beverage such as beer, wine, etc.? “Yes,” admitted 69 high schoolers!

Has there ever been in your school any disturbances such as revolts, riots, student disorders, boycotts, etc.? “Yes,” replied 71 %.

Have you ever heard the American way of life, the establishment, and capitalism criticized by a teacher? “Yes,” said 63%.

Have you ever worn slacks to school? Dozens said, “Yes.”

Have you ever worn shorts to school? Dozens said, “Yes.”

Have you ever been taught that pre-marital sex is all right? Almost one-half said, “Yes.”

Have you been asked to read such books as OF MICE AND MEN, SOUL ON ICE, THE GRAPES OF WRATH, CATCHER IN THE RYE or any other book that includes cursing? “Yes,” said 78.

Have you read any of these books? “Yes,” said 51 of our young people!

They are your kids! I tried! I have tried for years and I’ll keep trying. I’m not against anything except wrong, but I am against wrong wherever it is. I know

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what I’m called. I hear gangs of boys come by the church when I’m getting in the car. I hear what they say about me. I know what they say on the radio, the newscasts, the call-in programs. I hear about that. I’m a fanatic. I’m a bigot. (Do you know what the word “bigot” is? Bigot is a word for decency used by bigots. Bigot is a word bigots use to call decent people.) Yes, I know! I was walking in a shopping center the other day. Three boys spit at me. I know! I get the phone calls. I get the letters. I’m a fool, but I’m glad to be one if I can save your kids! We’ve dedicated ourselves to try to do it! Won’t you let us?

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Chapter 29

SEX EDUCATION PROGRAM IN OUR PUBLIC

SCHOOLS; WHAT IS BEHIND IT?

In the first seventeen verses of Romans, chapter 1, we have the discussion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Starting at verse 21, we have the deterioration of the culture of a nation, or the society. Now anyone who knows anything about history knows this: the Gospel of Jesus Christ, whatever else it brings, elevates society. It elevates womanhood. It elevates men in general. There has always been a positive influence upon a society that has accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now there is a deterioration of society, and you see it here in Romans, chapter 1. Here is a cultured society. And here is the step down. Look at verse 21:

“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. ”

What is the first step downward? People who know God, who are not thankful to God, and do not give God the proper place in their lives.

Now verse 22:

‘Trofessing themselves to be wise, they became

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Sex Education Program in Our Public Schools; What Is Behind It? fools.

That is the second step. When you quit giving God the rightful place in your life, then you profess yourself to be wise, and you exalt your own self-your own mind, your own thinking, your own reasoning, your own logic-above the Word of God, and the Bible says you become fools.

And now step number three, in verse 23:

“And changed the glery of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

That is modernism. Man first does not glorify God as he should. Then he becomes wise in his own mind and thinks he knows more than the Word of God. Then he becomes a liberal. He says the Bible is not true. He says, “I have my own ideas about God. Everybody has a right to interpret God for himself. And this is what I believe about God.” He becomes a liberal.

Now the fourth step is verses 24 and 25:

“Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator. .. – ”

That next step in deterioration is humanism. Now you start off not giving God the rightful place in your life. Then you become wise in your own conceit. Then you decide you will be religious but you will not believe in the God of the Bible. And then you be-

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come a humanist. Your philosophy of life is based on humanism.

And by the way, that is basically the difference between communism and democracy. Humanism is the great central word and theme of communism.

Number five-verse 26:

“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. ”

That is homosexual perversion. Notice verse 27: ‘And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves the recompence of their error which was meet. ”

This Deterioration Now Going on in America Notice the progression now in America: first, a Christian nation, a cultured, refined nation, decided not to give God His rightful place. Men took the Bible out of the public school system. They took prayer out of the schoolroom. Now that they have done that, they can say, “We (or “I”) know more than God.” The Word of God,” then, ceases to be the criteria for truth, and then you deteriorate into your own concept of God. “Everybody’s searching for the truth!”- how many times have you heard that in school? “Everybody’s searching for the truth. Nobody has a corner on the truth.” My Bible says that Jesus said, “I am the truth.”

A person who knows Jesus Christ not only knows the truth but He knows the One who is the Truth.

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So we become wise. Then we become liberal. Then

after that, we change the truth of God into a lie and humanism comes. And when humanism comes, we worship the creature more than the Creator. Then comes paganism. Hey, that is where we started! Paganism, conversion, culture, not giving God everything, human wisdom, liberalism, humanism, paganism. That is your cycle.

We send missionaries to a country, like people came to America, with the Gospel. From that Gospel comes culture and refinement and decency and character and integrity and honesty and morality. Then what happens? There comes that culture. Then we get pretty smart. We do not honor God. We do not give God His rightful place. Oh, we believe the Bible but we do not honor God. We don’t say much about it. We don’t get excited about it. We don’t go to church on Sunday night. We don’t give God His tithe. We don’t stand up for Christ. We are not the right kind of Christian people.

Then what happens? We become wise. You see that vacuum that is left when we leave God? Here wisdom comes in and fills that vacuum. We become enamored with ourselves. We become impressed with our education, our culture, our refinement; then we think we know more than God. When we do that, we have knocked the Bible out from under us; we have knocked the foundation out from under the house, and then we have liberalism.

Liberalism is nothing more than humanizing God and that in its end is humanism. So we have humanism.

Then after we have humanism, we worship the creature; then the creatures get together in perver-

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sion and homosexuality and we have nothing but heathen paganism. Why? Because we are back where we started. Because we have left the things that made our culture, you see.

The thing that made America refined and cultured and decent and honorable was the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And if we leave that, it doesn’t matter how many degrees we have, how many colleges, how many universities. Listen! If you leave the salt out, you can’t have salt, you can’t savor. So we have left out that which has savored, and now we find ourselves a heathen nation.

Look! We are just as lawless today as they were in Wyatt Earp’s day. Isn’t that true? Listen, twenty years ago when we heard of what was going on in South America and Europe, with the demonstrations and riots and folk being shot in the streets and a person’s life endangered when he got outside his own house, we thought of pagan, heathen countries doing that. And we were right. Nations are pagan and heathen when they do that. Now the honest truth is, we face tonight a moral breakdown and deterioration, and we face paganism and anarchy. Why? Because we have followed the time-tested pattern of deterioration.

Steinbeek’s Book Required Reading in Some Schools It is surprising how few parents know what is going on in the public school system. Apathy is killing America, especially apathy on the part of God’s people.

I ha,.,e in my hand tonight a book, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. This book is a best-seller. John Steinback was the winner of the Nobel Prize. This

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book was at one time required reading at a school in this area. Now at the school where some of my children go, they made it required reading but backed out because there was so much complaint about it, of which complainants I was one! I will not read this language; I will let you guess what the words are. I want to read to you some statements from this book, required reading not in a college but for freshmen in high school. Will all you high school freshmen stand up, please? Now, this book was required reading in a high school-at least one, maybe more-for boys and girls this age. Thank you.

Here we go. On page 33 1 read:

“Don’t let him pull you in-but-if the ——- (son of a female dog) socks you-let ‘im have it.

Page 35:

“Listen to me, you crazy b —— (an illegitimate child),” he said fiercely. “Don’t you even take a look at that b—— (a female dog.)”

Now one reason I am preaching on this is that a lot of you parents are so lazy that you don’t check on it. Tonight I am going to cram it down your throats. You are going to know what your children are reading. Page 39:

Carlson said thoughtfully, “Well, looka here, Slim. I been thinkin’ That dog of Candy’s is so g —— d—– old he can’t hardly walk. Stinks like h ——- too. ”

Page 48:

Candy went on, ‘Either you guys got a slug of whiskey? I gotta gut ache. ”

That kind of stuff is not vulgar but it sure goes against my refinement. There is a word for gut which decent people use-it is called stomach. And you peo-

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ple who think you are educated and refined, listen, when you use that, you are nothing but a heathen with a degree. Not only do you not know how to use decent language; you are not even cultured. Now that book is required in some high schools.

Page 48 again:

Gotta bad gut ache,” said Candy. “Them g —— d —— turnips give it to me. -

Not only is it vulgar talk, but that is not even good English.

Don’t get mad yet. We haven’t begun. I see a lot of folks frowning already. You may have a stroke before we are through.

Page 59:

Whit stood up. “I guess maybe Id like to see this, he said. “Curley’s just spoilin’ or he wouldn’t start for Slim. An’ Curleys handy, g – - – - – -d – - – - – handy. ”

Page 61:

George sighed. “You give me a good w —— house (place where prostitutes do their business) every time,” he said. “A guy can go in an’get drunk and get ever’thing outa his system all at once. ”

You didn’t know your kids were having to read that, did you?

Page 83:

Candy rubbed his cheek angrily. “You g- – d- – right we’re gonna do it. . . . -

“Yeah?” said Crooks. “An’where’s George now? In town in a w —— house.

Page 95:

“This here g —— d —— little son-of-a —— (female dog) wasn’t nothing to George.

Page 107:

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“That big son-of-a- – - – - (female dog) done it.”

“I’ll kill the big son-of-a —– (illegitimate child) myself. I’ll shoot ‘im in the guts.”

Now you hear me, and you hear me well. If you would cram this filthy, rotten, stinking trash down the innocent minds of these little boys and girls who stood up awhile ago, you ought to be in the pcnitentiary. You ought to be in jail. And, by the way, there was a day in this country when you would have been!

Now this book is required reading. My boy was supposed to read this book, but there were so many complaints about it-mostly by our people-that they took this book out and put another one in. It had a lot of these vulgar words and they still D-A-M-N the name of God all the way through it. And when I told the committee, “My boy is not going to read it,” the committee said, “Now let’s talk about it.”

I said, “Talk about it all you want to, but my boy is not going to read it.”

“Well,” they said, “we will reach an agreement.”

I said, “Yes, and I can tell you now what the agreement is going to be: my boy is not going to read the book.”

They said, “Well, you find worse things than that on the rest room walls.”

I said, “Yes, and when you make the rest room walls required reading, I will come back up here.” The simple truth is, there is too much good litera-

ture that has been taught through the years in America to let such trash as this be crammed down the minds of our tender freshmen boys and girls.

The book, Caine Mutiny, is not as bad as this one I have quoted but it condemns the name of God all the way through. I heard a teacher say that she thought

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Caine Mutiny ought to be read, that there was nothing wrong with freshmen children reading Caine Mutiny. You think this is bad; you ought to read Baldwin’s book that some of our kids are having to read. It contains the most vulgar four-letter words you ever saw written on a sidewalk. But they said to me, “Now Rev. Hyles, Caine Mutiny is the language of a sailor. That is the way sailors talk.” I know a lot of sailors who do not have to use dirty words to talkl

Now you had better check and see what your children are being required to read. There has been a deterioration in our school system in the last five years that you would not believe. And in the next five years when these demonstrators and long-haired beatniks get out of college and are teaching our children, it will double the deterioration we have seen in the last five years. And that is only the beginning.

One of our students in our church overheard two teachers talking recently in school. One said, “If we are going to get something real vulgar in next year, we had better get something a little less vulgar in this year. And if we can get a certain book in this year, next year we will wriggle in the real vulgar ones.” And that is only the beginning.

THE IMMORAL PEOPLE WHO BACK SEX TEACHING IN SCHOOLS

On May 14, 1964, an organization was started in the State of New York called the Sex Information ard Education Council of the United States, called SIECUS. It reached its full bloom on July 1, 1965. It broke in at 1855 Broadway in New York City. It is this organization that is influencing school systems all across America in sex education. Anybody knows

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that. It is either directly or indirectly responsible for the battle that is going on in almost every city of any size all across this great country concerning sex education in our school system. We call it SIECUS. Now its mother was a magazine called SEXOLOGY, which I will show in a few minutes. SIECUS, this sex education institute, was fostered by the editor and contributors and co-editom of a magazine called SEXOLOGY. SEXOLOGY is one of these magazines that was sold only behind the counter, a paperback that was considered pornography years ago. Now it has come to be ‘a popular magazine because we live in an age when PLAYBOY, etc. can be popular. The people who founded, fostered and promoted the SEXOLOGY magazine are the people who are behind SIECUS. Those people are the ones who are behind the sex education program in our public school system.

I have tonight a copy of SEXOLOGY. Boy, you think I didn’t have a hard time getting this copy! SEXOLOGY magazine is the forerunner of SIE-

CUS, and I will prove it to you in a minute. I want to introduce to you tonight the people behind the sex education program.

Editor Rubin Proved Communist, Editor SEXOLOGY First, I introduce to you Editor Isadore Rubin. Mr.

Rubin is editor of the SEXOLOGY magazine. He is the treasurer of SIECUS. Yes, the editor of this magazine SEXOLOGY is the treasurer of the organization that is behind the sex education program in Highland schools, in Munster schools, in Hammond schools, in Chicago schools, in Anaheim schools, in San Diego schools, and in school systems across this great nation.

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The editor of this pornographic literature is the treasurer of SIECUS! Mrs. Mildred Blauvelt was a detective for a number of years on the New York police force. On May 3, 1955, before the House Un-American Activities Committee, she identified under sworn statement that he, Isadore Rubin, editor of SEXOLOGY and treasurer of SIECUS, was a communist and she named the communist organizations to which he had belonged. In March, 1945, he was in service, the editor of this magazine and the treasurer of SIECUS, and he sent a ten-dollar donation to the communist party fund drive. When discharged from the army, he attended meetings of the Flatbush Club of the communist party.

He was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and asked to refute his communistic affiliation but he refused to do so. He had a chance before the committee to say, “I am not a communist.” He refused to disassociate himself with communism. He was for awhile the editor of the New York Teacher News, the magazine of the newspaper, the official organ of the New York Teachers Union. The New York Teachers Union was expelled from AFLCIO because of its communistic affiliation, and this man was the editor. And he is the treasurer of SIECUS! Isadore Rubin, one of the men who is trying to teach your boys and girls about sex, edits this pornographic magazine!

Associate Editor Kirkendall of SEXOLOGY Meet Lester A. Kirkendall, professor of Family Life at Oregon State University, and the author of many lewd articles. And he is a noted pornographic writer. He is an editor of SEXOLOGY. I read in this paper:

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Lester A. Kirkendall, Ph.D., Editor, Parent Guidance of SEXOLOGY magazine. He has articles in SEXOLOGY. Now let me read you some of the “nice” articles in this magazine. Here are a few of the titles;

“Alcohol Can Solve Sex Problems.” “My Wife Knows I Am a Homosexual”Group Sex Orgies”

“Can Humans Breed With Animals?”

These are some of the articles from the SEXOLOGY magazine. I read some from the June issue of

1969:

“The Girl Who Couldn’t Say No” “Sex Life of a Dwarf”

“Hypnosis, a Sex Aid”

“The Prostitute and Her Customer”

Mr. Ruben, who advocates the sex education program, the communist, the brother of communists, and the editor of this filth, is the one you are promoting. And then Mr. Kirkendall is a faithful contributor and editor of SEXOLOGY magazine.

Mr. Kirkendall has suggested a revision of SEXOLOGY “for use in the public school system.” He is the past director of the American Humanist Association, which is an organization given to fighting religion. So far you are walking in good company, aren’t you?

Co-Founder of Sex Education Program William Genne

Meet “Rev.” William Genn6. Rev. Genn& is one of the co-founders of SIECUS. In 1966 he affiliated himself with an organization that was shady. A report in May 22, 1968, from the files of the House Un-American Activities Committee, spoke of his belonging to a communist-front organization. He has belonged to

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the Community of Peaceful Alternatives, to the Atlantic Pact, the World’s Peace Appeal, and other organizations, avowed communist front organizations. Meet “Rev.” Genn6 also of SIECUS.

Pornography Writer Dr. Pomeroy

Meet Dr. Wardell Pomeroy, also connected with SIECUS. He is a psychotherapist and marriage counselor in New York City. He is the co-author with Kinsey on “Sexual Behavior of the Human Male.” In the June, 1968, issue of SEXOLOGY he describes “Most Unusual Sex Case” with this subtitle: “Introduced to Sex by His Grandmother and to Homosexuality by His Father, This Man Literally Tried Everything.” Isn’t that a wonderful article? Aren’t you proud that you are for a sex education program that is promoted and fostered by men who write such articles as thisl Mr, Pomeroy is on the Board of Consultants of SEXOLOGY.

President and Executive Director of SIECUS Meet Lester Doniger. Lester Doniger is the current president of SIECUS. He gives two birthplaces: one in Poland and one in Australia. How convenient! His wife has sold tickets to communist meetings in her state. He now is president of SIECUS. He himself has had a shady past and much contact with communist-front organizations.

Meet Mary Calderone, the biggest serpent of them all. Mary Calderone, the executive director of SIECUS, advocates the teaching of sex in the kindergarten. Concerning homosexuality she said, “I cannot condemn it.” She directs SIECUS! She is the one who heads the program, trying to put sex education in our

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public school system. She said, “It will be some time before homosexuality receives general acceptance in America.” I quote again Mary Calderone: “By the age of ten, a child should master the factual aspects of reproduction.”

In the SATURDAY EVENING POST her motto was quoted as being, “TELL THEM EVERYTHING!” Listen, I cannot tell you all this wicked woman advocates. I cannot tell you the words she wal;ts kindergarten pupils to know. I cannot tell you completely how she wants the term of sex organs to be known, called off by kindergarten pupils. She is the executive director of SIECUS, and we have not yet begun!

Another Director Specializes in Nude Photos of Sex Sin

Meet William Masters, also a SIECUS director. He, William Masters, employs unmarried people to perform sexual acts before cameras so films can be made of sexual acts for presentation to others. Can you feature it! Look! Why, a liberal preacher, an atheist, an agnostic, ought to be against this trash! Why should a fundamentalist preacher have to stand almost alone? Every preacher in this area who believes in God ought to be against people who try to fight religion and the existence of a God. Taking our unmarried people and having them perform sex acts before cameras! He is also a SIECUS director! Aren’t you proud of yourselfl Go home and look in the mirror and say, “Boy, you are walking in good company.” Also these demented perverts and communist people who edit and found and direct a magazine that was so indecent a few years ago you had to buy it between

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the covers of other magazines. Now these people are affecting and changing the lives of millions of boys and girls in our nation.

William Masters has been quoted in that satanicinspired PLAYBOY magazine time and time again.

David Mace and Ashley Montagu

Meet David Mace. David Mace is the immediate past president of SIECUS. He fights morality and calls this Bible “the folklore of ancient Hebrews.” Now look. This kind of communistic humanism always is anti-God and anti-Bible-always is!

Meet Ashley Montagu, who is on the SIECUS Board of Consultants. Ashley Montagu also is a part of the SEXOLOGY magazine’s team. He said he approves “the demasculinization of the human male” and advocates what I have preached against from this pulpit again and again and again. This one-world crowd, this one-church crowd, this one-race crowd comes eventually to one-sex crowd. And now they want one sex! The feminization of the American male! Look around at some of these fellows, or whatever they are, and you will see it-wearing their hair like girls, wearing jewelry like girls. There is a definite correlation between feminine dress, feminine hair styles and homosexuality. Hold it. I didn’t say that every hippie is a homosexual. But I say when a nation gets to the place when you can’t tell the men from the women, there is a reason for it.

He says-Mr. Montagu-that the feminization of American males is a step in the right direction.

I have read to you and am reading to you a list of men whose pictures ought to be in post offices across America with the word WANTED underneath them.

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They are doing more to curse America than’ the biggest convict in this nation. Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker couldn’t reach the hem of their garments when it comes to destroying our nation like these are doing.

“How to Publish Dirty Books for Fun and Profit” Meet Barney Rossit. SIECUS lists Barney Rossit as a source of information. He has been repeatedly in court because of his pornography. In the SATURDAY EVENING POST for January 25 he was the subject of an article, “How to Publish Dirty Books for Fun and Profit,” and he is affiliated with SIECUS, the organization that is putting sex education in our public schools! He is known for glorifying communism.

Now here is the one that will curl your hair. Meet Albert Ellis. Albert Ellis is recommended by SIECUS. He is an oft-married fellow. He said about religion, “The religious person sells his soul so that he may feel comfortable with this heavenly helper he has invented.” Another one of your team members! Quote again, “Religion is a needless inhibition.”

Would Debase His Sister, He Says

Meet Albert Ellis. Albert Ellis advocates free sex and homosexuality. He made this statement. I hate to read it, but I am going to, leaving out just one word: “If I were stuck on a desert island with my sister, I would almost surely ——- and let the chips fall where they may.” Yes, meet Albert Ellis. He says, “Religion is a form of mental sickness.”

I hold in my hand a copy of the HAMMOND TIMES, Section B, Sunday, May 25,1969. “Symposi-

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um Schedule, Hammond. Six top men in the field of psychology are scheduled to take part in the second Symposium of human growth and development in October. The second Symposium is being sponsored by the psychology department of Hammond schools. Emotional Education is the subject of Dr. Albert Ellis. … Five of the six sessions will be held in Morton High School Auditorium.” This is not in California; it is in Hammond. Dr. Albert Ellis is speaking at Morton School. He said, “If I were stuck on a desert island with my sister, I would almost surely ——- and let the chips fall where they may.” “Religion is a form of mental sickness.” “Homosexuality is all right.” “The religious person sells his soul so that he may feel comfortable with this heavenly helper he has invented.” “Religion is a needless inhibition.”

Listen! If it is illegal to read this blessed Book, the Bible, in the public schools, it ought to be as equally illegal to have an atheist and a sex pervert like this to feed the minds of our boys and girls rotten filth. I say that if it is wrong in the public schools to say the Bible is true, then it is wrong to say it is false. Either have both sides to present or leave it alone. You say, “I don’t like the way you are preaching.” But you don’t mind the Rap Browns and the Stokely Carmichaels getting up and shouting, do you? It is time some decent people started speaking up.

Well, Dr. Albert Ellis is coming to our city.

Meet Dr. Joseph Fletcher, recommended by SIECUS, who said, “For me, there are no rules at all.” He was cited by the House Un-American Activities Committee as the sponsor and supporter of the communistic party. Herbert Philbrick was a secret agent of

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the F.B.I. who ran with communists for years. He says he worked with Joseph Fletcher actively in the communist party. Fletcher is one of the SIECUS team.

I could go on and on and on. I could call off thirty or forty-five names of other men who have this same affiliation and the same perverted, indecent, vulgar minds as these men. Now whether you believe it or not, or like it or not, when you have a meeting with your school board concerning sex education, though many of them do not even know it, this is the thing that they are promoting, and these are the men whose literature your children will be reading.

How the Sex Education Program Works

What is their program? If you lived in Palo Alto, California, your child in kindergarten would very likely come home and say, “Mama, guess what happened today at school?” “What happened?” “The teacher borrowed a little boy baby and a girl baby and bathed them in front of our class today to show the difference.” That is a part of their program.

If you lived in San Diego, California, your child would receive seventeen lessons on sex in the schools. Slides would be shown to the sixth grade, roving teachers would go from school to school giving five days of lectures. Get this. Your child would see a Walt Disney animated cartoon entitled “The Story of Menstruation.”

If you lived in Anaheim, California, your child would go to a school system superintended by Mr. Paul Cook. Mr. Cook said, “Not long ago they would have hanged me from the nearest telephone pole for what I am doing now.” He said, “God-centered reli-

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gion is pass6.” And yet ninety-two per cent of the parents in Anaheim, California, voted to stand solidly behind what he is doing-the SIECUS program.

A news reporter named John Steinbacker asked a Marine one day on the streets of Anaheim why the Marines all came to Anaheim on a weekend. Now Anaheim is the show place of SIECUS. Anaheim, California, is the place where SIECUS has done more dirt than any other place, I think. The Marine’s answer to that question was, “Man, everybody knows that high school girls are available here!” I wonder why?

Kirkendall, whose name I mentioned awhile ago, said, “Just sneak it in.” What? Sex education. “Go to the PTA. That is where the power lies.” And, by the way, let me say a word about them. There is a magazine called the PTA magazine that is going to answer to God for a lot of the rot in America. “Go to the PTA. There is where the power lies.” Now get this. This is an “aboveboard” way to do it. “Don’t say you are going to start a sex education course. Say that you are going to enrich and expand and make it better. And sneak it in.” Then Kirkendall advised to get a group of leading businessmen, doctors, lawyers-and form a committee. Get them to endorse it, then you can sneak it in better.

Ladies and gentlemen, what is happening in America is the same thing that happened in Spain, in Russia, in Greece and other nations. They have leveled their attack at the next generation. And we have bowed down before the god of secular education so long that our youth have been sorely affected.

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Supreme Court Struck Down Decent Laws

Against Pornography

You say, “Preacher, who is the main offender?” Now hang on to your seats for we are really going to ride rough for a minute. I think I see a Texas ‘norther’ coming up! The main offenders on whose hands rests the blood of America more than any other men are those on the Supreme Court. Earl Warren and his cohorts have opened the door to allow such filth to become respectable.

I have-and I am not going to show them but I am just going to tell you what it is-I have two pictures here that are used in sex training. One picture shows two dogs together, and I won’t say anything else. The next picture shows a man and woman in bed together.

In Chicago was shown a movie on sex education. Out of 3200 students, sixteen refused to see the film, and they were branded by the SATURDAY EVENING POST as fundamentalists from the hills of West Virginia. Now you can say what you want to say, brother, but I would rather be an ignorant fundamentalist from the hills of West Virginia who couldn’t even write my name nor wear shoes on my feet, than to be so smart I thought I knew more than God Almighty!

I thank God that in the State of Louisiana the legislature there voted ninety-four to four to make it illegal to teach sex in the public school system unless it was approved by every parent of every child. There are a lot of God-fearing, decent American citizens who still have some integrity and character left in these places that are being sold off to you by the news media as bigots, and that is just not so.

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There are still a lot of counties in America where they have voted dry and you can’t buy beer. The county I pastored in Texas for almost seven years was dry. You couldn’t even buy a bottle of beer. Some

300,000 people lived in the area where I grew up and it was dry as a bone. You couldn’t buy a bottle of beer anywhere in that area. We voted liquor out every year in the town where I pastored in Texas. The town only had 28,000 people, and 4,000 of them belonged to my church, one out of seven! And every time we voted liquor down they would say, “It was those Bible-tot’n'Baptists!” Arnenf

What are the results? Venereal disease is reaching almost epidemic proportions in our country. You don’t hear much about this. SIECUS won’t publish this. They won’t put this in the movies. Eighty thousand reported cases in America in 1966, and who knows how many thousands of others! A seventy per cent increase over 1956. In one year, 90,000 unwed teen-age mothers. Teen-age marriages have risen 500 per cent, and teen-age divorces are three times the proportion to divorces of those twenty-one and over.

Here is the sad part. You and I are paying for it. The United States government last year invested 1 V2 million dollars to promote this program in thirteen school districts across this nation. You and I are paying for it. Now the honest truth is, it is morally wrong to teach another’s children religious convictions. Did you hear what I said? It is morally wrong. Now it is not morally wrong to read the Bible. But it is morally wrong to teach your religious convictions to somebody else’s child unless that parent approves.

Now listen. Mr. Kinsey said, in his report that came out some years ago, that the greatest influence on

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morals is religion. If that be so, said by one of their own group, that means that when you teach another’s child or you allow your child to be taught by another, the subject of sex, they are teaching your child something that is prompted by religious convictions. And it is wrong for our public school system to put our children at the mercy of just whoever happens to be teaching biology this year.

WHAT CAN PEOPLE DO?

Now what can we do? I have skipped a lot, but what can we do?

1. Check on your child. I am going to ask you a question. How many people in this house have children in school? Yes. Many of you do. Another question: How many of you have taken time to read as many as ten pages of any book this year that was required reading for your child at school? Will you be honest and raise your hand? Now there is your trouble. Not one-tenth of the people who have children in school even check what the child is reading.

They showed a sex film in a certain school in this area. I think there were six children who didn’t see it, and these went to a room together. And five of them belonged to First Baptist Church of Hammondl

You say, “But how about our church?” Listen. Unless your preacher barks as loud as I do on the subject, folks won’t hear him Look. I had a little run-in with a teacher-not a serious one; in fact, I probably have as good relation with the teachers of my children as anybody in this area could have. Our kids are required to write notes of gratitude to their teachers every year, and we do our best to keep our relationship wholesome between the school and this church and this

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preacher. But I was talking with a certain teacher about a rule, and the teacher said, “You have no say in it. Your child is ours when she is at school.”

And I said, “You hear me, and you hear me well. I don’t care if she is at school or at the zoo, she is my child. And you’ve got a battle on your hands if you think she is your child because she is at school.” And I repeated, “You hear me, and you hear me well. You are going to respect our religious convictions, or I am taking it to the Supreme Court of America.”

She said “I have neither the time nor the money to do that.”

I said, “I have the time and I will raise the money.” Check on your child. Stand up, be different. Good night! What is wrong with Christian people in this area! Take a stand. Well, you say, “I am afraid little Johnny will be embarrassed.” It wasn’t easy on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you know. Daniel was not the most popular boy in the senior class. When Paul was stoned outside Lystra, he wasn’t elected “the boy most likely to succeed.” He wasn’t on his way to the Senior Prom. What’s wrong with Christians believing something, living by it, standing by it, dying for it! Stand for something.

Good night! You Methodists, stand for something! You Presbyterians, stand for something! You Episcopalians, stand!

I heard a story about folks who went to Heaven. And they saw a fellow dancing. He was just dancing all over Heaven and he had a bunch of folks with him. People asked, “What are those folks doing?” And St. Peter said, “That’s Hyles and First Baptist.” “Well, what are they dancing for?” He said, “They didn’t get to dance on earth, so they are living it up,

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up here!”

They saw a bunch of folks baptizing-1 mean just down up, down up, down up, down up, baptizing, baptizing. “Who are they?” asked the inquisitive one. And St. Peter said, “They are Methodists. They never did baptize on earth, and they are having a time baptizing up here.”

Over in the corner were some people just sitting, bored to tears. And the guest asked, “Who are those people doing nothing?” St. Peter answered, “They are Ecumenicals. There ain’t nothing they didn’t do on earth!”

Stand for something! There are enough Bible believers in the Calumet region to change some things if we stand. Stand!

You say, “How do we do it?” Well, one way is this way. Walk up to the teacher and say courteously and kindly, “I am not here to cause trouble, but I am here to say that my child cannot participate in this, which is against our religious convictions.” Now ninety per cent of the teachers are the kind of folks who will let your child do something else for credit. And it is time somebody stood toe to toe with the other ten per cent and slugged it out. Stand! Good night! Young people, stand! stand!

God Has a Payday for All Who Stand True

We Christian people tonight stand on the blood of martyrs who died for what we believe. People have been burned at the stake for this old Book. People have been dragged to death in the streets, with their brains dashed out on the rocks, for this old Book. People have put their heads in the guillotine, and had their heads severed from their bodies, for this old

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Book. People have been stripped naked and boiled in hot water until they died, for this old Book. People have been thrown to the lions in Rome, thousands of them, for this old Book. People have shed their blood, had their tongues cut out, had their eyeballs plucked out with sharp pincers; people have been dragged to death, beaten to death, stoned to death; people have been gassed and suffered every form of martyrdom in the world; people have lost their fives, their families, their homes-everything so you and I would have the Book. Now let’s do something about standing for it, too.

Must I be carried to the skies On flowry beds of ease,

While others fought to win the prize, And sailed thro’bloody seas?

Sure I mustfight, if I would reign; Increase my courage, Lord;

III bear the toil, endure the pain, Supported by Thy word.

And when the battle’s over, We shall wear a crown,

We shall wear a crown,

Yes, we shall wear a crown;

And when the battle’s over, We shall wear a crown

In the new Jerusalem!

What difference does it make if we are hated here! I am called everything a man could be called. I am lied about, gossiped about, and hated, and cussed, and folks won’t speak to me on the streets. But I will tell you one thing, brother, when I walk down the golden streets of the New Jerusalem, Peter and Paul will speak to me. I will tell you another thing: those of us who stand for decency and those of us who stand

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for the Bible, and those of us who stand for what is right and against what is wrong, one of these days they will put on a parade for us. Some of you little mealy-mouthed Christians who never did stand, and folks didn’t criticize you, up in Heaven you will have to borrow money for a shoeshine. You didn’t stand. Stand! Stand! It wouldn’t be so hard on some of the kids to stand if all the kids would stand.

How many times have things like this come up and I have called the teacher and spoken kindly and I mean it. When I get in personal conversation with people, I do my best to be kind. That is the honest truth. Don’t you go up to school and preach like I am preaching now. This is my pulpit and the signs say FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH and you didn’t pay to get it. You come to my house and visit me and I will just romp and stomp all I want to. It is my territory, and I own it. Not the whole church, but this up here is mine, deeded to me. I have told the deacons, “You can have all the church you want, but from right over here in this corner to over here in this corner belongs to me, and no board, no deacon, no organization, no denomination will tell me what to say behind this pulpit. I feel sure some of you are going to choke before you leave! We had better stand so you can breathe a bit! A lot of you folk never heard a prophet before. To stand true whatever the people thinkmany of you have never heard that before. And that is to your disgrace. Your boys and girls ought to be growing up in a church that stands for something. The Apostle Paul wrote to a young preacher and said, “And having done all, Stand.”

2. Get your family into an old-fashioned, Biblepreaching church, where an old-fashioned Bible

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preacher can build theirfaith in the Word of God. But you say, “Brother Hyles, Granddad belonged to the church that I belong to now. They don’t believe the Bible, but I hate to leave Granddad’s old church.” If Granddad were alive, he wouldn’t set foot in it now, if it doesn’t believe the Bible. Get in a Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church that has conviction that will instill in your boys and girls decency.

3. Get good books for your children to read. My boy David is a freshman in high school. Tonight he rode to church with me. David was quiet and I hadn’t said anything. He had a book, and I said, “David, what are you reading?” It was called, I think, The Best of Billy Sunday. I didn’t make him read it. He just has good books around his room. We give him good books.

4. Oppose SIECUS in your public school system. Oppose it. I mean, let your vote be counted. Oppose it.

5. Get in a church that preaches anti-communism, anti-socialism, and decency. I picked up my newspaper one day and I could not believe what I saw. A pastor in this area was lauded and was proud that he uses the PLAYBOY magazine as text for his sermon. If you go there, God pity you! And God pity him, when he stands before God. And instead of laughing, you ought to be crying about it. I would rather be a bootlegger when I stand before the bar of God, than be a preacher who preaches from PLAYBOY magazine. And I hope to my soul that he is here tonight. God pity him! Have you ever heard of the Bible?

6. Be faithful, Sunday school teachers. Sunday school teachers, we have a big battle-a big battle. Son, you on the end, will you come up here? What is your name? Gabriel? Gabriel? I have read about you

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in the Bible. You blow a horn, don’t you! How is Michael doing? This little fellow is good looking, isn’t he-for a boy. Boys are made Out Of rats and snails and puppy dog tails. Did you know that? Is this little boy going to have to sit under SIECUS? Of course, he doesn’t have to, because his parents can keep him from it. You say he will flunk. But he will pass in Heaven. If he has to sit under that kind of program five days a week, and you are his Sunday school teacher, God pity you if you just go out of town because you want to go out of town for the weekend every once in awhile, and this boy goes without your teaching on the Lord’s day. God pity you if you don’t spend your life trying to save this boy. You say “Amen” to me, yet you teach boys and girls in Sunday school and you won’t come forty Sundays a year. Now put your money where your mouth is. Dedicate yourself tonight to say, “By the grace of God, my boys and girls need the best teaching I can give them, and I will do it.”

Thank you, little fellow. See there. “You are welcome.” He learned that in Sunday school. Didn’t you? “Yes, Sir.” Did you hear that? That is the kind of boys we grow, Our Sunday school teachers dedicate themselves to combating evil. Give yourself to your class. Choir directors of children’s choirs and folks who work with youth groups, dedicate yourself by the grace of God to do your best.

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Chapter 30

JESUS HAD SHORT HAIRI

Several years ago musical groups such as the Beatles presented to society a hair style that was new to our generation. Soon long-haired young men began to appear on our streets. The hippie movement adopted this hair style, as did the Jesus freaks and other religious cults.

Soon many men and boys who are not hippies, Jesus freaks, religious cultists or revolutionaries adopted these hair styles,

When protests began to come from parts-of the Christian world, the advocates of these newer hair styles replied that they saw nothing wrong with men wearing long hair since Jesus Himself bad long hair. They referred to paintings of Christ which picture Him with long flowing hair. This sent the older generation and some Christian leaders hurrying to the Bible and history books to find if, for a fact, Jesus did have long hair. This booklet is dedicated to the task of revealing such a study.

1. GOD IS CONCERNED ABOUT OUR APPAREL, HAIR STYLES, ETC.

That He is concerned about our apparel is found in Proverbs 7:10,

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And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.

Notice the words, “attire of an harlot.” There is a wicked philosophy being spread abroad by some Christians that God is not interested in our attire. This philosophy tells us that God looks on the heart and we are not to judge by the outward appearance. The embracers of this philosophy use it to justify inappropriate dress, long hair, mini-skirts, etc. They obviously ignore such passages as Matthew 5:16 where our Lord admonishes us,

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Which is in Heaven.

They seem to believe that God is not concerned about what the Christian wears. This is not true. Proverbs 7:10 shows us that there is such a thing as the “attire of an harlot.” Now what that attire is, is not the issue at this point. The issue is that God is interested in what the Christian wears. Consequently, the Bible does teach us concerning the outside as well as the inside.

In I Timothy 2:9 the Apostle Paul admonishes Timothy to exhort women to wear “modest apparel.”

In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array.

In Deuteronomy 22:5 we find God exhorting the Jewish men and ladies concerning their clothing.

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The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.

In I Peter 3:3 God shows an interest in the outward as He discusses women’s hair styles, jewelry, and clothing.

Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel.

In I Corinthians 11:14 God discusses the hair style of men, and in verse 15 He speaks about the length of the ladies’ hair.

Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her. for her hair is given herfor a covering.

Hence, the most casual observer of Scripture finds that God does manifest an interest in the outward. He is interested in the way His people wear their hair, clothing, jewelry, etc. The argument that God is interested only in the inside makes a very spiritualsounding clich6, but it is simply not based on the Word of God.

Hair was very important to our Lord. He reminds us in Matthew 10:30 and in Luke 12:7 that the “very hairs of your head are all numbered,” signifying the importance to Him of every aspect of our life and appearance.

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H. THE REVOLUTIONARIES ARE ALSO

INTERESTED IN THE OUTSIDE.

The radical Jerry Rubin says in his book, DO IT, Young kids identify short hair with authority, discipline, unhappiness, boredom, rigidity, hatred of right, and long hair with letting go … Wherever we go, our hair tells people where we stand on Vietnam, Wallace, campus disruption, dope. We are living TV commercialsfor the revolution … Long hair is the beginning of our liberation from sexual oppression that underlies the whole military society.

It is no secret that outward things such as art, sculpture, dress, hair styles, etc. are changed prior to a Communist revolution. A cultural revolution precedes a political revolution. For example, Lenin set out to destroy the classics in the early days of his revolution. He said,

If we are going to spread our doctrine, we’re going to have to rework the culture.

Plato said in his “Republic,”

The introduction of a new kind of music should be shunned as imperiling the whole state.

Henry David Thoreau made this statement in his writing at Walden:

Music may be intoxicating. It has helped cause the destruction of the Greek and Roman Empires and it will sooner or later destroy America and England.

Revolution requires a break from the old. Hence,

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revolutionaries are using modern art, modern music, and a change in dress styles and hair styles as a part of this break from the establishment. This opens the mind of the youth to a break with the old political ideologies and prepares him for revolution. This is why the Christian should not fall prey to the enemy by adopting the outward changes that are used to bring about a new social order.

In no case is this cultural change so obvious as in our literature. For example, in the famous book, CATCHER IN THE RYE, which is on the required outside-reading lists in many of our high schools, words are used which are quite distasteful, vulgar and unscholarly to the refined Christian.

It is beyond comprehension that the parents of America would allow such vulgar, blasphemous words to be read by our youth.

Since the outward is so important to the revolutionary, it is not surprising that he resorts to the use of symbols as a part of his tactics. For example, one of the methods that the revolutionary is using in his battle for the minds of men and in his effort to capture the youth is the now-familiar peace symbol. This symbol is found embroidered on jackets and other garments which Americans wear. It is manufactured as a metal trinket which is worn on a chain. TIME magazine carried on its cover on June 7, 1968, a picture of a young man with a long beard representing the 1968 graduate. He wore the peace symbol. Men’s stores and ladies’ ready-to-wear stores sell it openly on garments and advertise it to the American public. Many misguided Americans wear it not realizing what it represents.

It is believed that the peace symbol goes back

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2,000 years, and tradition says that the first one was designed by Nero in 67 A.D. for the crucifixion of the Apostle Peter. The peace symbol was reportedly found stamped on the closed doors of Russian churches and branded on dead bodies of Jewish martyrs. It is the symbol of the broken cross. It is the emblem of anti-Christ.

Richard Wurmbrand, formerly of Romania, is quoted as saying,

The symbol of the Community PEACE is a very well-known symbol. It was called the witch’sfoot in the Middle Ages and it was a common symbol of the devil, with the cross reversed and broken.

In our generation it was designed February 21,

1958, for use in an Easter peace walk in England. In the beginning it was supposedly merely a composite of the semaphore letters “N” and “D” standing for nuclear disarmament. When the symbol is inverted it is a composite of the semaphore letters “U” and “D” standing for unilateral disarmament.

Its designer was reportedly Mr. Bertrand Russell, who was reportedly a Marxist from youth. He is quoted as saying,

The world is damnable … There is no hope in anything but the Soviet way.

The hippie movement also makes much use of the symbol of the flower. This flower is sold as decals and stickers and can be found regularly on American cars, mailboxes, book covers, etc. This flower is a symbol of the hippie movement. Hippies speak readily of “flower power,” as many of them get their “power” from the flower. It is tragic, but true, that oftentimes this

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flower power is marijuana and heroin. Many Americans do not realize what they are doing when they display this emblem on their car, clothing, etc.

Alongside the aforementioned signs is the definite sign of long hair worn by boys and men. Such a sign should not be worn by patriotic and loyal Americans who love our heritage, who embrace Christian principles, and who oppose the Comm unist revolution. Since long-haired youths use as an argument the fact that Jesus supposedly had long hair, it is only fair to examine the Scriptures to find if this be true.

III. THE BIBLE PLAINLY TEACHES THAT IT IS A “SHAME” FOR A MAN TO WEAR LONG HAIR. I Corinthians 11:14 says,

Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?

The Greek word for “shame” in this verse is translated elsewhere in the New Testament as “dishonor,” “vile,” “disgrace.”

In Romans 1:26 the same word is translated “vile.”

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature.

You will notice that these “vile affections” have to do with homosexuality. It is very interesting that as the trend toward long hair increases, the acceptance of homosexuality increases. This is not to say that long hair and homosexuality always go together, but it is to note the fact that both are on the rise in our generation. Several of the major denominations have now accepted homosexuals. In some cities there are

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churches for homosexuals pastored by avowed homosexuals. At least one major denomination has ordained a homosexual preacher and others are considering following suit.

IV. THE BIBLE SAYS NOTHING ABOUT JESUS HAVING LONG HAIR.

The paintings of Christ are simply artists’ conceptions and have no Scriptural authorization. At least one historian of His day described Him as being a tall man with chestnut-colored hair, parted in the middle, with short hair which turned up at the end. In the book, THE MODERN STUDENT’S LIFE OF CHRIST by Irving Vollmer, published by Fleming H. Revell, the author says,

Archeologists object to the conventional pictures of Christ because they are not true to history.

A German painter, L. Fahrenkrog, says,

Christ certainly never wore a beard, and His hair was beyond a doubt closely cut.

For this we have historical proof. The oldest representations going back to the first Christian centuries and found chiefly in the catacombs of Rome all pictured Him without a beard. All the pictures of Christ down to the beginning of the first century and even later are of this kind. Students of the first century and Roman history are aware of the fact that the time of Christ was characterized by short hair for men. This author has seen many coins and statues which bear the likenesses of emperors who reigned during and after the time of Christ. Such likenesses reveal that the Ceasars and other rulers and emperors had short

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hair, and of course, the subjects followed the example set by the emperor. The plain simple truth is that during the life of Christ, short hair was the acceptable style. That Jesus wore the conventional style of His day is proved by the fact that Judas had to kiss Him to point Him out to the soldiers. Had Jesus been somewhat different, as a long-haired freak, Judas could have simply told the soldiers that Jesus was the One with the long hair. This, of course, is not true, as Judas had to place a kiss on Him in order to identify Him.

V. JESUS WAS NOT A NAZARITE.

Since it is generally believed that a Nazarite has to let his hair grow long, and since Jesus was from Nazareth, there are many who mistakenly identify Him as a Nazarite. There is no such Scriptural evidence. Jesus was a “Nazarene” because He was from Nazareth, but He was not a “Nazarite,” and He did not take the Nazarite vow. A Nazarite could not eat grapes or drink grape juice or eat anything made of the vine.

Numbers 6:2-4 says,

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord: He shall separate himselffrom wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried. All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk.

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Hence, our Lord could not have been a Nazarite. Observe the last Passover in Luke 22:J14-18,

And when the hour was come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. And He said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it befulfilled in the kingdom of God. And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves: For I say unto you I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.

The Passover was characterized by the fruit of the vine, and as a Nazarite our Lord would not have been allowed to partake of the Passover.

He also partook of the fruit of the vine when He instituted the Lord’s Supper. Luke 22:19, 20 says, And He took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is My body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of Me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you.

Likewise a Nazarite could not touch a dead body. Numbers 6:6,

All the days, that he separateth himself unto the Lord he shall come at no dead body.

When our Lord raised the daughter of jairus in Mark 5:41, the Bible says,

And He took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpret-

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ed, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.

Then He also touched the bier which contained a dead man’s body in Luke 7:12-15.

Now when He came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And He came and touched the bier. and they that bare him stood still. And He said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And He delivered him to his mother.

Since the Nazarite could not touch the fruit of the vine or touch a dead body, and since our Lord did both, we must arrive at the definite conclusion that He was not a Nazarite.

VI. IF JESUS HAD BEEN A NAZARITE, HE STILL WOULD NOT NECESSARILY HAVE HAD LONG HAIR.

The Nazarite vow was taken for only a short period of time. The Bible says it was just for “days.” In Numbers 6:5,6, and 13 we read,

All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days befulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the Lord, he-shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. All the days that he separateth himself unto the Lord he shall come at no dead body. And this is the law of the Nazarite, when the days of his separation are fulfilled: he

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shall be brought unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

After these “days” were over the Nazarite was to shave his head. Numbers 6:18 says,

And the Nazarite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation, and put it in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace-offerings.

So it is obvious that the Nazarite was as likely to be bald-headed as he was to have long hair. Of course, this argument is needless as our Lord was not a Nazarite.

VII. ABSALOM WAS BOTH REBELLIOUS AND LONG-HAIRED. The only long-haired person other than a Nazarite

mentioned in the Bible was Absalom, a son of David. It was he who rebelled against his father. It was he who started a revolution. It is worth noting that even in Bible days rebellion, revolution, disobedience to parents, and long hair were associated.

Now what should the Christian’s attitude be concerning male hair styles? First, we men should follow the admonition of the Scripture and have short hair. It should be short enough so as to be obviously contradictory to the revolutionary symbol. Many Christians allow their hair to become longer in an effort not to be identified as fundamental believers. Why shouldn’t a Christian be just as proud of his identity with the Word of God as the hippie is to identify himself with revolution? Men, let us wear our short hair

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with pride as a symbol of our belief in the Bible and its Christ.

Parents, start your son with haircuts and short hair when he is a baby. With discipline and, if needs be, punishment, see to it that as he grows up he uses his hair as a symbol of patriotism and Christianity, thereby following the admonition of the Scripture that says in Romans 12:2,

And be not conformed (fashioned) to this world. but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

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Chapter 31

A WARNING TO THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL

One of the most exciting movements in America today is that of the fundamental, Christian school. Scores of elementary schools and many high schools and yes, even colleges, are being started in America each year by fundamental churches. It must be noted that as soon as God starts something, the devil attacks it. just as God is life, Satan is the author of death, and just as death sets in on the human body at birth, so it does on the Christian school. It is the job of the administrators, teachers and supporting churches to postpone this death as long as possible and to use every force and power that we have to fight it off. It would be appropriate then for us to look at some danger points.

1. We must keep the school obligated to and dependent on the church. What happened to schools in America which were once great centers of fundamentalism but are now hotbeds of humanism and modernism? In many cases heavy endowment was a contributing factor. When a school is so heavily endowed and financed from without that it has no need of financial help from the church, then it can be independent of the church. It is healthy for the school to keep its very survival dependent on the church. As

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long as this is true, the church can dictate the policies and program of the school, and it has every right to do so since it is its founder and benefactor.

This is why the school should flee government support. The wise administrator, pastor and school board will see to it that the only organization whose financial support the school MUST have is the church, When such is not the case, a school can say to the church, “I have no need of thee,” and death is inevitable if not imminent.

2. The church must not become obligated to andlor dependent on the school. Most of the Christian schools that are being built in America share church buildings with the Sunday school and other church organizations. The danger here is in the church incumbering an indebtedness which is largely repaid by the school. In such cases the school can pretty well control the church. Then the tail is wagging the dog, the employee becomes the boss, the dependent becomes independent, and the independent becomes dependent.

This leads to the church needing the school. In other words, if enough students are expelled or quit, the church and the school combined could not meet the budget for debt retirement. Actually, the student body then holds the destiny of both church and school. In case of a revolution, such a church-school would have one of two choices. Either appease the students or fail to meet its financial obligations. It is always wise for a school to arrange its finances so as that losing half the student body would not cause it to fold. Beloved, whoever pays the bills is the boss. Uncle Sam has taught us this. When a church builds a Christian school, the church should be the boss. If it

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retains this position, it must not only keep the school obligated to the church but it must keep the church from being obligated to the school.

3. The church must be the dominant force. The church is God’s institution. A school built BY the church is good. A school built IN the church is better. This does not mean the school should or should not be conducted in the church buildings. It does mean that the control of the school should be in the hands of the church. Because of this, it would seem wise for the church board to be the school board. The HylesAnderson College, the Hammond Baptist High School and the Hammond Baptist Grade School are all governed by the deacon board of the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. The 105 men on the deacon board are the school board. In some cases it may be better for the school board to be somewhat smaller than the church board, but in such cases the school board should be chosen from the church board or at least from spiritual members of the church. In such cases much care should be taken to keep the board large, for there is safety in numbers.

It is best that since the church board is the school board, the pastor then becomes the chairman of the school board. He should know everything that is going on. He should not be timid about making it plain that he is over the school administration and that the administration and faculty are responsible to the board through the pastor. The administration and faculty should be accountable to the pastor.

We must not lose sight of the fact that the building of the church is a dominant goal. The church is the daddy of the entire church program. When Daddy gets sick none of the bills are paid. A child may be-

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come ill, but Daddy can still pay the bills. The same is true in the church/school relationship. If the school becomes ill, “Daddy” can still keep things in order, but if the church is overlooked and becomes ill, everything will fall. The health of the entire family depends on the health of the breadwinner. The health of all the ministries of the church depends upon the health of the church itself.

4. The entire school family should promote the church program and should participate in it. The faculty and administration should be required to attend all the public services. They, like other members of the church, should hold church offices such as Sunday school teachers, bus workers, etc. Each faculty member and administrative officer should be required to be a regular soul winner. All Hyles-Anderson College faculty members and Hammond Baptist High School and Grade School faculty members must go soul winning weekly and turn in a report.

No school activity should be held on church nights. When the church is having public services, the school should not be in competition. Recently I was in a Bible conference in a certain church. The assistant pastor introduced me to his daughter before the service one evening. He said, “Dr. Hyles, I wanted you to meet her because she won’t be in the service tonight. Our high school is having a basketball game and she is a cheerleader.” Now here was a church having a Bible conference. The basketball players, the cheerleaders and many of the members attended a basketball game less than a block from where the Word of God was being taught and preached. This is a house divided against itself and it will fall.

A well-known Christian leader in America has said

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that the youth programs notoriously suffer in a church that has a Christian high school. This should not be true. A Christian high school should not and cannot take the place of the local church. It is a school, not a church. The school administration should promote church activities. just as the case would be if the students were in a public school, church should be the biggest thing in their lives. It is the more important of the two institutions and should have preference in scheduling.

To implement this, the Hammond Baptist High School has found it wise to have most of its activities during school hours. School athletic contests are conducted at 1:00 each Friday afternoon. This enables the entire student body to attend and helps prevent the death of the church youth program. We have found that by changing the lunch hour on Friday and by adding a few days to the school year we still have as much time in the classroom as we had. Therefore, the school, both in its studies and its extra-curricular activities, is a daytime organization, leaving the nights open for church activities and keeping the church where it should be-as the more important of the two organizations.

5. The Christian school should have only one basic premise-that of the Bible-teacher-student. This is not to say that visual aids, teaching helps, modern teaching methods, etc. are all bad. It is to say, however, that the right kind of teacher teaching the truth to the right kind of student is all that is absolutely essential. America has over-emphasized the importance of modern methods, modern curriculum, modern equipment and modern buildings. The greatest teaching ever done was done by the great Teacher

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Who had as His classroom a hillside, a seashore or a field. His textbook was God’s Word. His building had a floor of dirt, a ceiling of clouds and stars, walls of fresh air and was lighted by the sun and the moon. His desk was a tree stump or a boat. His equipment was composed of sticks, dirt, a lily and a bird.

The greatest nation this world has ever seen was built by people who were trained in little schoolhouses with kerosene lamps and lanterns and outdoor rest room facilities, but we had the right kind of teacher teaching the right kind of truth to the right kind of students. If we could have added nice buildings and new techniques to what we had, it would have been fine, but we have become dependent upon the new and with the improvement of the nonessentials we have seen a deterioration of the essentials. It is still true that the right kind of teacher teaching the truth to the right kind of student is basic enough to build the right kind of people who will, in turn, build the right kind of nation.

6. The school must not have bigness or planned growth as its main goal. While we should hope to reach all the students we can, this should not be done at the expense of financial soundness or the breaking down of standards. What we ARE must keep up with HOW BIG we are. In a school every bit of growth should be solid growth and we must remember that we are not a reformatory; we are a school!

It is also a dangerous thing for a school to borrow on projected growth. To incur indebtedness of this kind is like building a house upon the sand. The simple truth is that we may face persecution in this generation. If and when we do, it is entirely possible that the size of the school may diminish. Such could also

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be the case in the event of a depression or serious recession. Though a church and Sunday school should reach everyone it can, a school must be careful and selective in choosing its student body and should certainly not be obsessed with bigness. The school should grow, but that growth should be governed and dictated by its standards, positions and by financial soundness.

There is a danger in wanting to match the growth of others. There is a danger in wanting to be restrained by the growth of others. It is wise for a school not to be affected by the growth of others. The growth should be as fast as possible, but it should be a solid growth and one within financial sanity.

7. We should not be afraid of ridicule. Let the government schools call us bigoted. Let the natural man accuse us of being unscholarly. We should go about our business in the building of schools that are superior in every right way to the government schools and we should not have an ear to hear what the “spirit of disobedience saith to the churches (and the schools).”

This fear is often caused by too close association. When we become inclined and interwoven socially, scholastically or athletically we then find that often natural people have good personalities, are friendly, courteous and gracious. Learning to like them causes us to lose our hatred for the error which they embrace and also causes us to want their approval and sanction. It is always wise for the Christian to be courteous and kind to those that embrace the world system, but we should not become so closely associated with them, either individually or collectively, as to develop an inferiority complex or a relationship that would cause us to want their favor. God certainly had

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this and other things in mind when He gave us the doctrine of separation.

8. The Christian schools must reproduce themselves as soon as possible. The Christian school philosophy and the government school philosophy are complete opposites. Often the public school teacher who is a dedicated Christian is not oriented in the philosophy of the Christian school. Hence, the wise administrator will staff his school predominately with those either trained in the Christian school or who have been rooted and grounded in a strong, fundamental church which has enabled them to understand and embrace the philosophy of the Christian school movement.

We do not need to send our professors to study under Karl Barth in order for them to be scholarly, refined and cultured.

Let us not be deceived. The devil and his world system are launching and will launch every attack possible and are using and will use every weapon in Satan’s arsenal in order to destroy the Christian school. Beloved, if we use the same methods, curriculum and philosophy that they use, we will arrive someday at the destination where they have already arrived. We are not going the same directionI We are not in the same army, division, company, platoon or squad! Let us not be afraid to be different; neither let us stubbornly make difference our goal. Rather, let us wisely, carefully and spiritually chart our course according to the will of God, being willing to fight and die for the truth that we want to convey to our youth.

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