1. More open hearts and fewer open mouths. Prejudice closes the heart to the truth (Matt.

13:15, 2 Thess. 2:10). The TRUTH is the only thing which can save (John 8:32). If the heart

were kept with all diligence (Prov. 4:23), it would be right before God and would speak only that

which is good (Matt. 12:34).

2. More sound heads and fewer sore-heads. More lovers of truth and fewer rebel rousers. We

are being plagued on every side by every kind of wild and fantastic idea. Frequently I read of

young men who are set on delivering us from what they call "the bondage of orthodoxy." Many

are being advised to seek God in strange and bizarre ways. The Bible says, "Faith cometh by

hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17).

3. More standing for the faith and less falling for the fanciful (Jude 3). The church has

always been hurt by those who have a desire for that which is new and different. Many are

constantly being blinded by such newness. But the truth never changes (Heb. 13:8, John 14:6).

It is fixed, unalterable, and everlasting. Often the voices of the wise, those sound in the faith, go

unheeded, while the voices of the foolish take over. Paul in 1 Cor. 16:13 says, "Be on the alert,

stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." The landmarks of Christianity are safely moored

in the Holy Scriptures, and we must not allow them to be bypassed by modern Jeroboams. Any

time this is done, it will bring division and destruction, as it did in the days of Jeroboam and

Rehoboam.

~ Paul McClung is a retired preacher who is an elder at the 4th and Stewart Church of

Christ in Brownwood, Texas. He wrote these words in January 1968, but they are still needed

today.