January 21, 2022

JANUARY 21 , 2022
Editor | Dr . Shelton Smith Vol . LXXXVIII , No . 2

Getting Assurance

12

“ And ye will not come to me , that ye might have life .”— John 5:40 .
A wave of excitement swept over the students . “ Why didn ’ t you tell us ?” one boy asked . But I did tell them . Five minutes before I had stood before the group and said , “ I want to test your ability to pay attention and to take advantage of opportunities .”
I then warned that , if they would listen carefully for three minutes , they would be glad ; but if they did not listen , they would be very sorry . I then repeated four mottoes that I had learned when I was in school , repeating each one twice and having them repeat after me .
They were , first , “ Keep on keeping on ; never give up ”; second , “ It can

UPON This

ROCK

Why Are People Lost ? DR . JAMES T . JOHNSON

be done ”; third , “ Work wins ”; fourth , “ Finish the job .”
After they had repeated all the mottoes , I then said , “ Now I will give what I have in my hand to the person who will rise and repeat those four mottoes within thirty seconds .”
No one responded . After thirty seconds I opened my hand and showed them a twenty-dollar bill . That is when the boy cried , “ Why didn ’ t you tell us ?”
I did tell them , but not how much was involved . Of course the lesson , if learned , was worth more than twenty dollars .
When Jesus stood before the people in John 5 and talked with

British Scientist : High COVID Death Rates Are History

A key British scientist who advises the U . K . government made waves … when he said that Omicron is “ not the same disease we were seeing a year ago ,” and that high COVID death rates are “ now history ,” according to the Guardian .
Sir John Bell …[ who ] has been one of Britain ’ s most prominent life scientists for years , made the comments while explaining why the British government would not be instituting additional holiday restrictions in response to the Omicron variant . Bell is … a professor of medicine at Oxford and an adviser to the British government on life sciences .…
Bell conceded that hospitalizations had increased marginally under Omicron in Britain , but said that Omicron “ appears to be less severe and many people spend a relatively short time in hospital .” Bell also stated that patients who are hospitalized are needing high-flow oxygen support much less often and are … staying an average of [ only ] three days .…
… By all appearances , Omicron appears to be highly more contagious than previous variants , which has led to increasing panic among certain segments of the population . On the other hand , it also appears , based on preliminary data , that Omicron appears to be much

national conf e r e n c e

How to Please God

DR . HAROLD SIGHTLER
A great truth is set forth from the wisdom of Solomon in the words of the text ,
“ When a man ’ s ways please the
LORD , he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him .”— Prov . 16:7 .
Every man has certain ways or characteristics about him . Those “ ways ” either please or displease the Lord . The promise of the text makes it worthwhile to see that our ways please Him . God makes our enemies to be at peace with us . If this promise is true , then the one great concern with which we are to be occupied is to please God . We are to see that our ways and characteristics are those that please Him . Once we set ourselves to please Him in all our ways , we can trust Him to do what He promises — make our enemies to be at peace with us .
In another text , Jesus said , “ I do always those things that please him ” ( John 8:29 ). Every deed , every act of the Saviour ’ s life , was to please God . Could any of us honestly say this ? It is my desire in this message to challenge us to

J ULY 18-21 , 2022

W A L K E R TOW N , N C
In recent months there has been a rash of well-known professing Christians who have announced that they were “ deconstructing ” their Christian faith . The term was new , but what it described is not new at all .
Several of these individuals have been entertainers . One was a contemporary Christian music personality . One was the “ lead ” pastor of one of these new-breed , newly-branded “ contemporary ” churches .
They are people who at some previous point in their lives had decided they would be Christians . What they believed and what they had been taught about salvation
“ But now he hath promised , saying , Yet once more I shake not the earth only , but also heaven .
“ And this word , Yet once more , signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken , as of things that are made , that those things which cannot be shaken may remain .”— Heb . 12:26 , 27 .
We do not realize the full significance of the truth , but we are living today in the midst of the greatest shaking this old world has ever experienced .
Nothing seems secure . Nobody seems to know where to turn or what to do and certainly nobody knows what the future holds . Nobody knows whether or not we will have anything left . Frankly , it begins to look to me like when it is over , there will be very little left of anything that we have held onto for these years — anything that we might call ours .
I believe God is taking the world through that period today that we read about in chapter 12

Failure , Not Really

and other scriptural subjects is not at all clear . What is clear is that they said they were Christians and for a time they identified themselves that way .
New Testament Examples Provide Precedent
Yes , in the New Testament era of the first century the Bible gives us several examples of individuals who seem similar to these “ decon - structionist ” folks .
1 . John 6:66 : “ From that time many of his disciples went back , and walked no more with him .”
Basically , disciples are learners . Continued on p 22 ▶ Continued on p 10 ▶
of Hebrews . The most arresting thing in this Scripture is the state - ment in verse 26 , “ But now he hath promised .”
Never before had that word “ promised ” stood out so strikingly to me . God is talking about shaking both the earth and the heavens in such a mighty way that all material things will literally be swept away . Not only the earth but also the material universe will be in that great shake-up and only those things shall remain which cannot be shaken . Then the writer says , “ But now he hath promised .”
GOD HAS PROMISED
God has not only said that there will be a shaking , but He has promised that some things will abide . When it is all over , some things will be left — things that cannot be shaken .
We are living in the midst of a most unusual shaking up of the whole world . The wisest men of
Continued on p 2 ▶ Continued on p 7 ▶
Continued on p 13 ▶

11

March On

3

The “ Deconstruction ” Myth and Matter

DR . SHELTON SMITH

Unshakable ! JOE HENRY HANKINS ( 1889 – 1967 )