Questions on Worldliness

What about—

Television

Smoking

Dancing

The Theater

The Lodge

Gambling

by

FRANK B. BECK

contents

1    What is Worldliness?

2    What About Television?

3    What About Smoking?

4    What About Dancing?

5    What About the Theater?

6    What About the Lodge?

7    What About Gambling?

WHAT IS WORLDLINESS?

I John 5

I.    Definition of Worldliness

What is a good definition of worldliness? Worldliness is the opposite of heavenliness. In the sense in which it is used "in the Johannine writings it comes to stand for the sphere of evil (John 12:46ff.). The world is thus, first of all, at enmity with God; it hates God's chosen (John 15:18) . . . those who unite themselves to Him (John 15:19; 16:33; I John 3:13). It therefore abides in darkness, rejecting the light (John 3:19). It is under condemnation, exposed to the Divine judgment (John 12:31) and needs the Divine mercy; but it cannot receive the Spirit of truth (John 14:17) and Jesus even declines to pray for it (John 17:9). In expressions of this sort, the emphasis is naturally on the sin of the world. It ceases to pass under that name when it comes from under sin. It is in bondage to Satan (John 12:31; 14:30). Its doom is death; 'it passeth away' (I John 2:17); it is to be overcome as an enemy by God Himself; it has been overcome by Christ, and must be overcome by the disciples (John 16:33; I John 5:4; 2:15)."'

According to Dr. James Strong the word "world" (kosmos) means "orderly arrangement, i.e., decoration; by implication the world (in a wide or narrow sense including its inhabitants . . .)" For instance, the word is translated adorning in I Peter 3:3, "Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel." L. L. Legters stated, "From it [kosmos] we get the English word cosmetics."

It is then the godless system of the world which is evil.

II.    Detection of Worldliness

How can we determine whether certain things are worldly or not? What about the theater? dancing? gambling? lodges? The use of cosmetics? television? smoking? and other questions like them.

I give you certain principles in the Word of God to answer these questions. They are not mere rules made by men to be broken or revised. Principles are eternal. Rules can be repealed, but not principles. All rules have legal loopholes; principles, never!

1 A. C. Zenos, A Standard Bible Dictionary (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company), p. 908.

A.    Consider the aim of the matter under consideration. Is it for the glory of God? "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (I Corinthians 10:31). Someone asks: "What is wrong with smoking?" Can you smoke to the glory of God? Does God get glory out of your puffing and blowing? Do people glorify God at the sight and smell of you, saying, "That man, that woman, must be a Christian, he (she) is smoking a cigarette"? If not, it is not to the glory of God, and it is a sin to do it.

B.    What authority do you as a professing Christian have for indulging in the practice under question? "By what authority doest thou these things?" (Matthew 21:23). For it is written: "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him" (Colossians 3:17). To do something "in the name of the Lord Jesus" means to do it by His authority, and with His sanction. Thus we can gather ourselves together in the church in His name (Matthew 18:20), we can bury believers in water baptism in His name (Matthew 28:18-20), and we can do many other activities in His name. What, for example, about the theater? Can you go to the theater in the name of Jesus Christ? Can you pray about this matter and go with a clear conscience?

C.    What of the appearance of the amusement under scrutiny? "Abstain from all appearance of evil" (I Thessalonians 5:22). It may not be evil or wrong, but if it has the appearance of evil, that is enough. What of the dance? What of the close embrace, the feeling of bodies swaying together, the scanty clothing? What right thinking husband would permit any man to so hold his wife in his arms anywhere else except on a dance floor? If it has but the suggestion of evil, abstain, keep away from it. Not to do so is sin.

III. Damage of Worldliness

If you are a worldly person you are in great danger.

A. You are disobeying God Almighty. He says: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." What does God mean by the world? "For all that is in the world, the lust o f the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever" (I John 2:15-17). "Oh, but we are saved by grace!" worldly church members sometimes answer, without realizing that the grace of God teaches us to deny "ungodliness and worldly lusts" (Titus 2:12). A worldly person does not have the grace of God.

B.    You are departing from God. The wicked are spoken of in the Book of Job as follows: "They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ." Job, of course, was not applying this to the modern ballroom, but it is applicable today! "Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us" (Job 21:11-15). Why should they serve Him? Why should they pray to Him? A dancing church member is no true servant of the holy Christ. You will not discover many dancing church members out to a spiritual prayer meeting each week!

C.    You are destroying the Church. The Church of God is no stronger than its weakest member. "It doesn't hurt me," church members argue about worldly pursuits. They fail to realize how selfish such an expression is. What about your brethren? "None of us liveth to himself" (Romans 14:7). If we take our nephews to Egypt, they will live in Sodom, as did Lot (Genesis 13:10). If we take our children down into Moab they will live and die there as did Mahlon and Chilion (Ruth chapter 1). When we depart out of the way we cause "many to stumble at the law" (Malachi 2:8).

Eating meats offered previously to idols did not hurt Paul the Apostle. An idol was nothing to him. But there were weaker brethren who could not understand how Paul could do this without agreeing with idol worship, therefore Paul nobly declared: "Wherefore if meat make my brother to offend [stumble], I will eat no flesh while the world standeth . . ." (I Corinthians 8:13). Now if you will look at Romans 14 you will see that we ought to go out of our way to cease from any action that may prove to be a stumbling block to a weaker brother (v. 13). If we refuse to give up these questionable practices we destroy our brother (v. 15) and destroy the work of God (v. 20). Compare I Corinthians 8 with the passage in Romans: If the weak brother perishes (v. 11), it is because of our influence. Then we sin against the brethren (v. 12), and against Christ (v. 12). We have not the love of God in us (I John 2:10).

D.    You are defeating yourself. So you are a member of such and such church, a Christian soldier! Then why are you all tangled up with the gold and silken threads of this world? "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier" (II Timothy 2:4). You cannot deal any death wounds to the hosts of hell if you are wrapped up in the barbed wire of worldliness.

You and I may argue that the worldly thing we like is such a little matter, there surely can be nothing wrong with it. But is it a weight or a wing? What is wrong with wearing an overcoat? It is most foolish to do so if you are bending over at the starting line, ready to spring at the noise of the gun into a hundred-yard dash. And Christians are in a royal race. Therefore "let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us [and upset us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1).

When someone asked Billy Bray how the world was getting on, he said: "I don't know, for I haven't been there for twelve years."

The worldly Christian defeats himself by physical death. "Every branch in me," says the Saviour, "that beareth not fruit he taketh away" (John 15:2).

The worldly, unsaved church member defeats himself by eternal death. The love of God is not in him (I John 2:15). If the love of God is not in him then the Holy Ghost is not given to him, for "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5). If the Holy Ghost is not in him he has no salvation. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Romans 8:9). He has not been born of God, and is an unbeliever, for he does not overcome the world (I John 5:1-5); and has not "escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (II Peter 1:4).

A worldly person is a lost person before God.

George Whitefield once said, "Eternity, eternity; the very hearing of the word is enough to make one dead to the world and alive unto God." There is but one cure for worldliness, that is, the heaven-sent new birth. "Ye must be born again" (John 3:7). It comes by the bloodstained Cross of Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified unto us, and we unto the world (Galatians 6:14). When that great miracle takes place in your heart, then you will really believe in Jesus Christ and overcome the world (I John 5:1-5). Then you will no longer go with the world, look like the world, talk like the world, and live like the world.

WHAT ABOUT TELEVISION?

I John 2:1-17

Christians are bidden by God to provide "for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men" (II Corinthians 8:21). It is my desire to the utmost to be honest and fair with you in examining this subject, as well as being true to our Lord.

Is television a help or a hindrance to the Christian life, and to the Church of Jesus Christ? It is too effective and powerful an influence not to be one or the other. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (I Thessalonians 5:21).

There are good Christian men on both sides of the question.

One of them, an editor of a weekly religious paper was asked: "Is it wrong to watch television?" He replied in his paper: "It is just as wrong to watch television as it is to listen to the radio, read a newspaper, or listen to a phonograph. You can read that which is wrong, and listen to that which is wrong, through any of these agencies. At the same time, you can see and hear that which is not wrong, but rather helpful. I personally have a television set and am thankful for it." Another will answer that "The fact remains that 80 per cent of that which comes through the eye gate is remembered, while only 20 per cent of what is heard [is remembered]." This means that television is 60 per cent more influential than the medium of radio. Television, then can be 60 per cent better or 60 per cent worse than radio or the newspaper. Please do not forget that. There must be a sufficient difference between the two, or television would not have taken the place of radio in so many ways.

Is television a hindrance or a help?

Television Is a Help

It is a tremendous help in the medical and the surgical sphere. Thousands of student nurses, interns and doctors throughout the world can now look in on an operation close enough to peer right over the surgeon's shoulder via video.

It is a great assistance in the industrial field. Hundreds of students in schools can, by television, view the construction or the repair of mighty engines, of houses, of watches, and see the masters of each trade work. Signature verification of checks and statements can be instantly established between banks and business houses, though miles apart. Meters and gauges and charts can be shared between business firms immediately, though far apart, by industrial television.

It is a great boost to the commercial field. You have already discovered that, if you have looked at television for any reasonable length of time. Advertising, demonstrating, selling are brought right into your home. What a boon and boom to buying and selling!

Television is a help educationally. Students in schools will be permitted to visit throughout the world while sitting at their desks. They will see history as it happens, will go through television into outer space and will penetrate into the mysterious depths of the sea.

Television is a help domestically. In some instances it has undoubtedly brought families closer together. It has made better cooks out of some women. It has made them more neat and beautiful, improved their art with the needle or sewing machine, instructed them how to be better mothers. Men have been inspired and informed in the increasing "do-it-yourself" craft of car and house care and repair.

Television is a help religiously. There may be some who are seeing the inside of a church for the first time, especially a church not of their own particular denomination. This has helped promote sympathetic understanding and respect and tolerance toward other denominations. Some may have been brought to reconsider their own position. This is not contrary to the will of God (I Thessalonians 5:21). Some, unquestionably, are hearing the Word of God in salvation (John 5:24). For this we must thank God! (Philippians 1:15-18).

In Other Ways Television Is a Hindrance

Consider many of the plays on television. Certainly they are (in general) true to life, but are they not in most events godless? A large number of them are Hollywood movies which many professing Christians have refused to attend. Now, through television, they are allowing such movies to enter their homes. Should we not weigh this carefully in the light I Thessalonians 5:22?

A serious objection to television in the home is in regard to the abundant advertising of beer and cigarettes. Do not overlook the truth of Lamentations 3:51: "Mine eye affecteth mine heart." What will these ads do to your children? I beg you to think about this most gravely.

While television is "educational" (like the movies) is not a large amount of it the worst kind of education (at least in the night programs with the bigger audience)? Tell me, in what attitude are love, drinking, smoking and gambling presented? Russell Taylor Smith, preaching in Philadelphia on his radio program, "God's News Behind the News," said: "We live in the world's Saturday night of moral anarchy. We have today what is called 'A Television Generation.' They are children who have never known a world or a home without television, who can rattle off the casts of their favorite crime show before they have learned the alphabet. A prominent educator overheard two members of this new generation—his four- and six-year-old daughters—discussing the best way their daddy could poison their mother. Said the television four-year-old: 'Strychnine is faster. It isn't safe though. The cops can find out where you bought it.' Her sister thought she had a better method. 'I'd use arsenic. It's slower, but safer.'" Of course they could learn these matters elsewhere, but it is doubtful they would look these facts up (could they read) in chemistry books.

We are quick to applaud, let alone acknowledge, that a movement is afoot to upgrade the various television programs. Our hats are off to newspaper columnists such as John Crosby, who try to make or keep the channels clear of such insane, sadistic, horror shows as we have haunting us from time to time. However when men are unregenerate and dedicated to giving the masses what they want, we cannot help but be dubious of such reforms, especially when we remember how often and how vainly the same attempts have been made toward obscene comics and cheap novels and magazines of a low, lewd, level.

Television is a help religiously, but how much? How many true-to-the-Bible, sin-rebuking, Christ-exalting gospel preachers appear regularly on television? How many of them preach salvation by God's sovereign grace alone (Ephesians 2:8,9) apart from the will, works or worth of unregenerate man (John 1:12, 13)? How many preach the perseverance and preservation of the saints (John 10:27-30)? How many urge their converts to Christ to be separated from modernism and worldliness (II Corinthians 6:14-7:1); to be baptized (Romans 6:4) into a local Bible believing church (Acts 2:37-47); and to support that church with their presence (Hebrews 10:25,26), prayers (Ephesians 6:18), and purse (Malachi 3:8-10)?

Financially, television may be a hindrance. Comparatively, it still costs more than radio, and takes more to maintain. It is Jehovah's money (Haggai 2:8) we are using. Look seriously into the many needs of your local church. Learn of the many Christians and multitudes of helpless children lacking sufficient food and clothing and shelter in other parts of the world. Listen to the constant pleas of missionaries to send desperately needed medicine, buildings, transportation, funds for furloughs, etc.

It may cost you valuable time. Most of us do not find time enough now to read God's Word, good books, Christian papers and magazines, to pray, to visit people in Christ's name. The little verse, "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:16), often escapes our attention.

Before God, to whom someday I must answer for this article, I place this solemn responsibility before you: If you have a television set, or if you are contemplating the purchase of one, consider that it can be either right or wrong to have it. It is bound to bring you either a blessing or a curse. Will it develop the better qualities in you, or drug you? "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind" (Romans 14:5). If you are in control over your set, you will certainly have to judge the programs closely, especially the quick, ever-changing and effective advertising. This is all the more important if you have children and young people in the home! "Do not sin against the child" (Genesis 42:22). The knobs on the television set are for that purpose. But often it takes a strong Christ-controlled hand to turn the knob.

WHAT ABOUT SMOKING?

I Corinthians 6

Behold the conquering plant of the Nightshade family, Nicotiana tabacum! There sprang up in Yucatan of this continent this herb that has bewitched the world. In the fifteenth or sixteenth century it crossed the Atlantic Ocean and captured Spain. Afterward it captured Portugal. Then the French ambassadors took it to Paris, and it captured the French Empire. Then Sir Walter Raleigh took it to London, and it captured Great Britain, filled all Europe with blowing and puffing and coughing and spitting, overcame the Oriental nations, and now there is no place where the blue smoke of worship and adoration does not arise to this universal goddess (T. De Witt Talmage).

My purpose in addressing you upon this subject is to examine it fairly, to insult no one, to help all, and to speak the truth in the love and fear of God (Ephesians 4:15).

I. What Good Can Be Said About the Use of Tobacco?

A.    There is the pleasure it affords, such pleasure that the essayist and humorist, Charles Lamb of England, puts into the mouth of man these words: "For thy sake, tobacco, I would do anything but die." And the English poet, Edmund Spenser, speaks of it as "divine tobacco." The English novelist, Edward George Bulwer-Lytton wrote: "He who doth not smoke hath either known no great griefs, or refuseth himself the softest consolation, next to that which comes from heaven."

B.    There is the participation of great men it can boast. Who can separate Sir Winston Churchill from his beloved cigar? Or the late Franklin D. Roosevelt from his cigarette? Or former Prime Minister Clement Attlee from his pipe? The newspapers and the magazines as well as radio and television keep us well informed as to how the great ones in the entertainment field and the world of sports find satisfaction through this or that brand of tobacco.

C.    There is the prosperity in business it creates. Roger William Riis wrote in the January, 1950, Reader's Digest, "We spend some four billion dollars a year on tobacco products and supplies." Joseph Kolodny, managing director of the National Association of Tobacco Distributors, reported four years later, "With the marshalling of modern advertising, the tobacco industry has grown into a business that expends annually more than 8 billion dollars." Many small farmers in the South gain much of their income by raising tobacco.

D. There is the power to kill it discloses. I have been told by farmers in Virginia that there is no better way to delouse a hog than to rub it with tobacco snuff. Indeed, there is a product that kills chicken lice which is nothing more in the main than tobacco juice. It will kill all manner of bugs, insects and pests. Three drops of the oil of tobacco upon the tongue of a full sized cat usually causes death within three to ten minutes! Yes, nicotine from tobacco is second only to prussic acid as a poison. Tobacco is good for some things.

II. What Guilt Must Be Laid Upon All Who Use or Sell or Favor the Tobacco Business?

A.    The use of tobacco is devoid of the principles and practice of our Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles. My brother and sister in Christ, whom are we to follow? We are to follow Jesus Christ, who says: "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). Will you be honest and fair about this? Can you honestly picture Paul the Apostle sitting down in a cloud of cigarette smoke as he writes to one of his churches, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God"? (II Corinthians 7:1).

"But there are some preachers who smoke, good men, better men and better preachers than you," someone may answer. You are correct. But we are to measure ourselves with Christ, and not with men except as they follow Him (I Corinthians 11:1).

B.    The use of tobacco is denounced by great men of the world. It has been and is denounced by men in the medical world. What does tobacco do to your heart? Suppose you go to Paris and sit at the desk of Professor Henri Vaquez, probably the world's greatest heart specialist. What would you think if he told you: "It appears that tobacco cannot be freely indulged in without injury to the normal action of [the heart]." He has already said it. It is in print.

J. B. Wight wrote, "In a paper before the annual convention of the American Association for Medico-Physical Research, read by Dr. Chauncey L. Barber, of Lansing, Michigan, he said, 'A baby born of a cigarette smoking mother is sick. It is poisoned and may die within two weeks of birth. The post-mortem shows degeneration of the liver, heart and other organs. Sixty per cent of all breast fed babies born of mothers who are habitual cigarette smokers die before they are two years old.'"[1]

Dr. Evarts A. Graham, Professor Emeritus of Surgery at Washington University, and President of the International Congress of Surgeons, recently concluded (after two years of laboratory tests) that there is now "positive evidence" that cancer can be produced by tar contained in cigarette smoke. These reports may not frighten you, or convince you, but Dr. Graham said he quit smoking after conducting the studies and experiments. My files contain abundant reports from eminent authorities, and are convincing in their statement that tobacco is definitely connected to cancer and other ailments.

Tobacco is a killer, a destroyer. "In pure form nicotine is a violent poison. . . . The nicotine content of a trifle more than two cigarettes, if injected into the blood stream, would kill a smoker swiftly. If you smoke a pack a day, you inhale 400 milligrams of nicotine a week, which in a single injection would kill you quick as a bullet" (R. W. Riis, The Reader's Digest, January, 1950). Not only does such gradual poisoning possess your body, but according to Dr. Herbert H. Tidswell, member of the Royal College of Surgeons, of England, and Dr. J. H. Kellogg, of Battle Creek, Michigan, this poison is transmitted to your offspring!

If what I have presented to you is the truth, it is most certainly a sin to use tobacco, or to sell it, or to refuse to take a stand against it. It is a sin as much as it is a sin to commit suicide, or to murder your children.

To any who would like to quit the use of tobacco for Christ's sake I would suggest:

1.    Recognize the use of tobacco as sinful and harmful. I cannot see how you can do otherwise.

2.    Call upon Jesus Christ the Saviour to save your soul from all sin, tobacco included. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). "The blood of Jesus Christ. . . cleanseth us from all sin" (I John 1:7). Continue to call upon Christ until you know He has heard you.

3.    Trusting Christ to enable you (Philippians 4:13), give up smoking now, instantly, once for ever. Even if it kills you. You will then win the martyr's crown.

4.    Since the use of tobacco is also a disease of the body, God may heal you through medicine. There are several medicinal cures in drugstores guaranteed to cure the desire for tobacco. I see no reason why one cannot trust Christ to heal him through this means. Some have found the victory by going on a strict fresh fruit diet for several days, with water.

For Christ's cause, for the sake of your own body, for the sake of your children, because of your influence upon others, because of the better ways you can spend the money now gone up in smoke (and are not these reasons fair, and enough?) turn from tobacco to Christ!

WHAT ABOUT DANCING?

Matthew 14:1-12

There are several reasons why I am concerned with the subject of dancing:

1.    I believe I am led so by the Holy Spirit.

2.    It is needed.

3.    The Bible speaks concerning dancing.

4.    It is a moral question.

I. Permit Me to Say There Is a Time to Dance Ecclesiastes 3:4 speaks of a time to dance. And there are a number of illustrations in the Word of God where dancing would appear to be approved. "Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances" (Exodus 15:20). This dance was because of redemption. Israel had just been redeemed from the bondage and slavery of Egypt. There is a time to dance.

"When David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine [Goliath] . . . the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of musick" (I Samuel 18:6). This dance was because of revenge. Vengeance was meted out upon the Philistines.

When the prodigal son returned home, there was "musick and dancing" (Luke 15:25). This dance was because of reconciliation. The father freely forgave his wayward son and restored him to his home and happiness.

We have noted the causes for these dances. Next, notice the condition of these and other dances in Holy Writ. Such dances in the Bible were solitary, performed alone, as in the case of Jephthah's daughter, who upon his return from battle "came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances" (Judges 11:34). She danced alone a joyous dance.

Likewise did David dance before the Lord with all his might, and before the ark (II Samuel 6:14, 16). The indication is that he danced alone.

Such dances in the Bible were also sanctified. Women danced withwomen, not with men. The dances were done by the Lord's people, and were done as unto the Lord. "Praise him with the timbrel and dance" (Psalm 150:4). It was not the cheap, lustful dance of the modern day.

Such dances in the Bible were spiritual. When David danced, he danced "before the Lord" (II Samuel 6:14). If the modern ballroom dance is spiritual why is it not begun with prayer? That is what God tells us to do with everything, and if we cannot pray we better not do it. "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him" (Colossians 3:17).

Please do not overlook this fact: There is a progress of doctrine and practice as we come to the New Testament with regard to singing and dancing. Singing continues in the New Testament, and right on into eternity in heaven (Revelation 5:9). But dancing disappears. We cannot defend dancing now in a New Testament age by quoting Old Testament Scriptures.

II. There Is a Time Not to Dance

One should not dance when it is destructive to purity. And how can you tell when the dance is destructive to purity? It is seen in the reason for the dance. Why dance? For the sake of art, some answer, which is no answer, for art can be either for good or evil. Dance for gracefulness, others answer. Better to be full of grace (John 1:14-17). For poetry, still another answers. Which again is no answer, for poetry can be either divine or diabolical. Take one word out of the dance and it would die and be forgotten without a resurrection. Remove the word sex! And I mean, in most cases, sex out of bounds! You do not believe this to be the reason for the modern dance? Then, as William Evans wrote, "Why does a man seldom desire to dance with his wife, or a brother with his sister? The privileges allowed and taken in the ballroom would not be allowed for an instant outside of it without serious consequences following."[2] If sex is not the motive of the dance, why do men not dance with men?

That dancing destroys purity can also be recognized in the results of the dance. Here are some of them:

Drunkenness. Dancing and drinking ofttimes go together. It was so with the Amalekites, when David smote them by surprise (I Samuel 30:16). It was so in a later day, when John Knox thundered out that the common "reward of dancers . . . will be drink in hell," referring to the drinking of dancers in his time. Who will say that it is not so in many if not most cases in our own time?

Adultery. This is another child of the dance. See the children of Israel dancing about the golden calf? It was chaperoned by Aaron! Still they were dancing and were naked (Exodus 32:19 and 25). If they were human their thoughts must have been adulterous, and perhaps their actions. Do not forget that divorce and remarriage (in most cases, Matthew 19:9) comprise adultery. Do you not think the dance floor has become a waxed floor leading to the divorce courts?

Murder. John the Baptist lost his head and life because of a flip little miss who danced in such a manner as to overwhelm King Herod. She requested John the Baptist's death on the advice of her divorced mother, and got it on a dish (Matthew 14: 1-12). It was not the last time murder attended the dance.

Loss of health. T. DeWitt Talmage, who certainly was as lenient as possible, and no kill-joy, wrote of the dance floor: "The breath of the sepulchre floats up through the perfume, and the froth of Death's lips bubbles up in the champagne. . . ." The late hours, the scantily clothed bodies, the undue emotionalism, and often poor ventilation all spell loss of health. "Thou shalt not kill" (Exodus 20:13)—even thyself!

Loss of Christian testimony. Dancing is the enemy of the Christian life. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would" (Galatians 5:17). "I have never known of a pious dancer," remarked Dr. J. M. Pendleton. I have never known a dancing church member who loved the church's mid-week prayer meeting. I have never known one who was a witness for Christ. Job said it is the wicked whose children "dance," who depart from God, desire not the knowledge of His ways, and despise serving Him (Job 21:11-15).

There is another time not to dance. That is when it is in disobedience to principles of Holy Scripture. Is dancing "worldly" in the sense that it caters to the "lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life"? (I John 2:15-17). Then do not love it, but leave it. Can you dance to the "glory of God"? (I Corinthians 10:31). Does God get glory out of your dancing? Hardly? Then do not do it. You are to follow Christ (John 8:12).

Chrysostom, John Calvin, John Knox, and ancient church dogmas, as well as present-day Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Methodists protested against the dance.

If you rebel and resolve that you will continue to dance, perhaps it is because you have never been born again, and subsequently you are a lost soul. "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world" (I John 5:4).

what about the theater?

I John 2

There are some good movies! For example, one can have a home movie camera and projector and screen and take moving pictures of the family and friends to show for the amazement and admiration of present and future generations.

There are good industrial films, travel films and science films. Also when one considers this subject he must keep in mind the stage with some of its pageants, and television with both Christian, and purely educational programs. Nor do I doubt that such a thing as a good moral or ethical film can even find its way into Hollywood production! As has been said, there are some good pieces of bread in garbage buckets, but one would not go there to root them out and eat them.

There are Hollywood films! It is this type of movie or play I desire to consider here. When I say Hollywood film, I do not mean only films produced in Hollywood, California, but all films and plays like the average Hollywood film. The film may be produced in New York City, Paris or London, but if it is like the general Hollywood film it is of such films or plays I refer to now.

I. Consider Then, First of All, the Reason for Such Movies and Plays

Shall we agree that the reason for the movies is for entertainment, enjoyment and education? So far there is nothing wrong with that. In themselves, entertainment, enjoyment and education are not sinful. But that which entertains, or that which gives enjoyment may be an abomination to God! The education one receives may be sinful and wrong! Examine the Hollywood type of film and decide whether it is holy or sinful, right or wrong.

A. What kind of entertainment does the Hollywood movie render? It is a fleshly entertainment. With its suggestive songs, its dancing and display of limbs and body, with its smoking and drinking and free "love," I say that it entertains the flesh. With the flesh we serve the law of sin (Romans 7:25). "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh" (Galatians 5:17). Movie going church member, you are thus serving the law of sin, which brings death (Romans 6:23), instead of the law of God; you are taking sides with the flesh against the spiritual man, or against the Holy Spirit Himself!

B.    What kind of enjoyment does the Hollywood movie render? It is a false enjoyment. It is only "make believe." True joy is in Jesus Christ. He says to us, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (John 15:11). True joy is in the services of the church, "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord" (Psalm 122:1). If you had that eternal joy you would not seek for pleasure in the palaces of sham and shame!

C.    What kind of education does the Hollywood movie render? A mixture of good and bad. Certainly you only go to see the educational films, they are all educational! They educate you how to run around with someone else's husband or wife; how to break into a house; how to hurt and kill; how to remove finger-prints. They show your little children how to lie, how to smoke, how to drink. Remember this, "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7). The carnal mind means the mind of the flesh! Certainly the mind of the flesh gets a good education at the theater!

This, I maintain, is the reason for the Hollywood type of show. It serves the fleshly and corrupt nature of man, and feeds it well. Let every Christian abstain, keep away from it, for it most certainly has the "appearance of evil" (I Thessalonians 5:22).

II. Second, Consider the Reputation of the Theater

What is the reputation of its participants, public and plays?

A. Its participants have what reputation? What of its actors and actresses? I am not going to mention their names, though I have these facts in my files. I do not care to give them that much recognition or advertising. Here is one actress called "the sexy screen siren of the ads." She was only making $2,000 a week when this was written. It says of her, she "has a religious outlook, but not a pious bearing." She should read James 1:27 and Hebrews 12:14! And here is another popular actress who has to live on $3,000 per week! Her husband has been divorced twice, and that means that they are both living in adultery (Romans 7:3). Here is another popular actress. According to the newspaper write-up she had a baby girl, after being married to her latest husband for five months! Shall I go on? Here is a well-known actor whose picture disgraces my files with his fourth wife. There are some actors and actresses who are clear of this marriage, divorce and remarriage mill. But that does not blot out this sinful stink. Hence, when you tell me that some of these actors and actresses, or others like them also play in Bible pictures I am sick to even think that they would dare to take upon themselves the holy characters of the Virgin Mary, Joseph, Noah, Moses or Jesus Christ Himself! Do I hear you saying that there are preachers too who have broken their marriage vows? Alas, it is true. But they are soon without a pulpit or church when such is discovered.

B.    Its public has what reputation? You will not find a soul-winner on fire for God among them! For the most part they are unconverted, smoking, dancing, drinking people. Oh, some of them are members of some church, but so was Judas Iscariot! (Acts 1:17). "They are of the world" (I John 4:5). Not a Bible among them. What, you do not expect them to carry a Bible into the theater, do you? That would be entirely out of place! Correct, and that is why the true Christian is out of place in that mob. A born again Christian cannot have fellowship with the lustful Hollywood crowd. There is too much power in II Corinthians 6:14-7:1!

C.    Its plays and plots have what reputation? Years ago E. A. King wrote: "The billboards and modern newspaper advertisements are an index to their character." It is just as true today. I now quote from the latest movie to be adapted (I was going to say abducted) "from the Bible." I will not mention its name to give it that much credit. It is described as, "Two Years in the Making! A Fortune to Produce!" "The Most Dramatic Story of Temptation Ever Told." "See . . . (the) Pagan Priestess," it says, "in the Temple of Love! Sacrifice of the Innocents on the flaming altar! Revolt of the Slaves and their orgy of vengeance! The Vulture Pit, an awesome sight! Romance of the Prodigal Son in sin-ridden Damascus!" What more could a sex-maniac drool over in one evening! And the film, of course, is all right, since it has been taken from the Bible!

III. Finally, Consider the Result of the Theater

How does it affect the common person, the Christian, the Church?

A. How does it affect the common person, the unsaved? It causes adultery! "Whosoever looketh on a woman," says the Son of God, "to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matthew 5:28). Can you not do this outside the theater on the street, in the home, even in church? Yes, but it is still adultery and God spare us from it! Why sit in a chair in a theater with no other intention than to have your eyes full of adultery, or an adulteress (moichalis), which is the real meaning of the Greek word? (II Peter 2:14).

B.    How does it affect the Christian? The same way. He will find that old Adam is still with him. He will know the battle of Romans chapter 7. He will realize with sorrow the truth of Lamentations 3:51, "Mine eye affecteth mine heart." He will grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30), and will pray the prayer of Psalm 51. Let him try to pray before he goes to the movie and ask God to bless the show to the salvation of souls, in keeping with Colossians 3:17. His prayer will sound like hollow mockery!

C.    How does it affect the Church? The Hollywood theater and playhouse is the enemy of the Church of Jesus Christ! A soul won to the movies is lost to Christ and the Church and heaven. "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other" (Matthew 6:24). I defy anyone to show me a church on fire for God, filled with God's Holy Spirit, fervent in prayer, longing for lost souls in order to win them to Christ, where the majority of the church members are regular attendants at the theater!

Theater-going church member, perhaps you have never been truly born again in the first place, for "whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world" (I John 5:4). I am sure that if you love the movies and cannot give them up for Christ and His Church you have never been saved! What are you going to do? There is but one wise thing to do: Repent of your sin and give up the world and come to Christ!

what about the lodge?

II Corinthians 6-7:1

Dr. Theodore Graebner, well known Lutheran scholar, and author of many articles and books, now with the Lord he loved, compiled a book of 368 pages entitled, A Handbook of Organizations. With his usual thoroughness Dr. Graebner analyzed 185 organizations operating under the lodge system. It is impossible to deal with any two of these organizations with any degree of detail in one message. Therefore my remarks will be, for the most part, of such a nature that they can be applied to all lodges and clubs and societies.

When one is initiated into the Masonic lodge he gives three raps at the door. I would like to make three homiletical raps, as follows: 1. the association of the lodge, 2. the activity of the lodge, and, 3. the authority of the lodge.

I. The Association of the Lodge

Are unbelievers tolerated in the lodge? "No," someone may answer. "Everyone who enters our lodge must believe in the one living and true God. He must believe in a supreme Being." What God is that?

Jesus Christ is the true and living God. "And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life" (I John 5:20). Jesus Christ says of Himself: "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30); "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6); "And this is life eternal," Christ prayed to the Father, "that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3).

Is this the God your lodge recognizes? Certainly it is not the god of the Masonic lodge, and I will prove it from their own authorized statements. I quote from Albert G. Mackey's Encyclopedia, p. 641, "The religion of Freemasonry ... is not Christianity." Every Mason knows this encyclopedia is one of the outstanding authorities written by one of its most learned and famous men. "The religion of Freemasonry . . . is not Christianity!" It is a religion, but not Christianity. That is what Mackey said. Then it is a false religion. Then Christ is ignored and dishonored. Thus on pages 271 and 272 of The Masonic Ritualist, also by Mackey, we have the "charge to be read at the opening of the lodge" in which I Peter 2:5 is read, but the words, "by Jesus Christ" are omitted! Why? Again in Webb's Monitor, page 122, II Thessalonians 3:6 is quoted, but again the expression, "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" is excluded! Why? The same is also true of their quotation of II Thessalonians 3:12. Why is that name which is above every name (Philippians 2:9), the only name whereby lost sinners can be saved from hell to heaven (Romans 10:13; Acts 4:12)—why is that blessed name of Jesus Christ ignored in these mutilated Scriptures? Why is it that of the 28 prayers in the Masonic Ritualist none of them are offered in the name of Jesus Christ? Because "There is nothing in it to offend the Jew" (Mackey's Encyclopedia, p. 641). And even where Christ is mentioned in the ritual of the Knights Templar, the same worshipers can join the Mystic Shrine, there to take part in prayers and ceremonies which are Mohammedan! "Onward Christian Soldiers" can be sung at the Knights Templar conclave, or prayers chanted to Allah at the Shriners festival!

In the Royal Arch Degree Jehovah is placed on the same level as Bel, the pagan god of Chaldea, and On as one of the chief gods of the Egyptians. Just another god! So what if Jesus Christ is mentioned in some of the ceremonies? The God of the Bible will have no other gods before Him (Exodus 20:3). Is Jesus Christ just another god in your lodge?

Where Jesus Christ is not recognized with the Father and the Holy Spirit as the only true God the association is one of unbelievers! The born-again Christian is commanded by God to separate himself from all such alliances (II Corinthians 6:14-7:1).

II. The Activity of the Lodge

Does your lodge perform good works? That is their main boast! Think of the widows and children they have helped! I have heard lodge members quote James 1:27, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction . . . ." "See how our lodge does that?" they exclaim. But what about the rest of that verse? "And to keep himself unspotted from the world"! How does that fit in with their pagan worship, their smokers, dances, card parties?

Good works and murder do not commend a lodge. What kind of oaths must you take in joining or advancing in your lodge or club? The so-called secret oaths of Masonry have been published again and again.

The booklet, Is Masonry a Religion? (Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo.) has a chapter on the oaths.

William C. Irvine wrote, "The oaths are murderous. And as the degrees increase the penalties extend. For the first degree, your tongue is torn from its roots; for the second, your heart; for the third, your bowels, and then burnt."[3] In the thirtieth degree of Scotch rite Masonry —Knight of Kadosh—the candidate is made to declare: "I swear to take revenge on the traitors of Masonry" (A Frank Exposure of Masonry, p. 21).

But are not these oaths just mere pretense? A list of fourteen names is given in the booklet, A Frank Exposure of Masonry, by John R. Gilpin. The men listed were murdered for breaking their Masonic oaths. The best known was Captain William Morgan of Batavia, N.Y., murdered in 1826. One no less than John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States, condemned the courts of New York for struggling for five long years without bringing the guilty to punishment, because of the political influence of Masonry! "Thou shalt not kill" (Exodus 20:13).

Are the good works of your lodge principled somewhat on the order of this pledge taken in the third degree of Masonry? "I promise and swear that I will not violate the chastity of a Mason's wife, his mother, sister, or daughter, knowing them to be such" (Is Masonry a Religion? p. 32). What about those who are not related to Masons?

Good works are a curse to the average Mason, for he believes by them he will enter heaven, the grand lodge above. I quote from "Definitions of Freemasonry," by Oliver, in his Historical Landmarks of Freemasonry: "The definitions of Freemasonry have been numerous; but they all unite in declaring it to be a system of morality by the practice of which its members may advance their spiritual interest and mount by the theological ladder from the lodge on earth to the lodge in heaven." But practicing lodge morality will not take anyone to heaven! We are saved, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to the mercy of God through Jesus Christ (Titus 3:5,6).

Those works are only good which are done to the glory of Jesus Christ as the Head of the Church (Colossians 1:18), and which are performed by the power of God working in the believer in Christ (Philippians 2:12,13). Any other good works lead to "human pride and vainglory," as the Seventy-seventh General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada declared of fraternal society works, meeting in Ottawa (RNS).

III. The Authority of the Lodge

As I have shown, Masons have authority to take your life, according to your oaths, if you transgress them.

According to Robert Morris, in Webb's Monitor, their authority is greater than the laws of the land, for of the Masonic covenant or oath, he writes: "No law of the land can affect it" (p. 240).

And they have the authority to open heaven to you. Hear this! When a candidate is accepted in the Masonic lodge, he raps three times at the door of the lodge, guarded by the Tyler. The Senior Deacon asks from within, "Who comes there?" The Senior Steward, who prepared the candidate for initiation, answers for him, "Mr.—, who has long been in darkness, now seeks to be brought to light" (Is Masonry a Religion? pp. 22, 23). How can a true Christian allow such to be said of himself? When he was saved he was brought out of darkness into God's marvelous light (Colossians 1:13), and he has Jesus Christ living in his heart (Ephesians 3:17), who is the Light of the world! (John 8:12). But, no, he is in darkness until he raps at the door of the lodge! And, quoting from Mackey's Masonic Ritualist, pages 22, 23, it is said that the one who stands at the portals of the lodge stands "in darkness, helplessness, and ignorance. Having been wandering amid the errors and covered over with the pollutions of the outer and profane world, he comes inquiringly to our doors, seeking the new birth, [!] and asking a withdrawal of the veil which conceals divine truth from his uninitiated sight." He comes to the lodge seeking the new birth! He will not get it in a Christless lodge! The new birth is given by the sovereign grace of the Holy Spirit (John 3:3-8), through the unadulterated preaching of the Word of God (James 1:18; I Peter 1:23), and is possessed by all true believers in Jesus Christ (I John 5:1; John 1:12, 13). What utter blasphemy is the Masonic pretension!

And finally when the Mason dies, a Masonic and Christless prayer is read over the grave as follows: ". . . And in Thy favor, may we be received into Thine everlasting kingdom, to enjoy, in union with the souls of our departed friends, the just reward of a pious and virtuous life. Amen."[4] This means nothing. Christ is the only Way to heaven, and His sacrificial blood is completely ignored (John 10:9).

How can a Christian who bows to the Word of God have anything to do with the lodge insofar as it is an assembly o f unbelievers, whose activities are boasted of as charitable, but are mixed with murder, or evil, or used as a vain hope to attain heaven; and which has taken the authority of the Church, yea, of God Himself, to order life and death, give the new birth to whom it will, and "exalt every brother" in the lodge that is, "to the glorious companionship of the undissolving Lodge above" (as in the degree of Royal Master, the eighth degree of the York Rite, A Frank Exposure of Masonry, p. 33).

The lodge is a rival, an enemy of the Church of Jesus Christ. I have addressed you on this subject, 1., To bring you out of the lodge, if you are in it, 2., To keep you out of the lodge if you are out of it, and, 3., To warn you that your lodge membership and lodge works and degrees cannot take you to heaven if you are in it. Forsake the lodge and seek the Lord!

what about gambling?

Romans 12

When Governor Youngdahl of Minnesota waged his successful campaign against gambling, the gambling interests published the statement: "Attention, Governor Youngdahl! If nobody were willing to gamble, nobody would buy a farm or plant a crop, start a new business, take a new job, get married, raise a family, or vote . . . ."

Two things must be said to this argument.

1.    There is some doubt as to whether the word gamble can be used correctly as to buying a farm, planting a crop, starting a new business, a new job, or getting married. Risk would be a better word.

2.    If we accept the statement that we all gamble in a sense, then we still must make this important distinction, that there is an honest and legitimate gamble we take on numerous matters every day. This does not mean that any other kind of gambling is right, any more than drinking milk proves that drinking whiskey is right, because both are received by drinking, or that stabbing a knife in a fellowman is right because surgeons do the same every day throughout the land in our hospitals! There is a great difference. It should be noted.

Then there is also a dishonest and illegitimate gambling, and it is of such gambling that I now speak. I do not refer therefore to the "casting of lots" as used in the sacred Scriptures, and as ordained and sanctioned by God (as in Leviticus 16:8; Numbers 26:55 and Acts 1:26). I do not condemn the Moravian Brethren when they use the casting of lots in the appointment of their clergy if they feel led by the Holy Spirit to do so by the example of Acts 1:26. I realize that the very word clergy comes from the Greek klerikoi, kleros, meaning "lot or assignment by lot." But I raise my voice against gambling in its worldly and popular sense.

I. A Definition of Gambling as It Is Evil

Gambling in the evil sense is when two or more persons engage in a game or contest of chance or skill, where one or more must lose something of material value to pay the winner or winners.

Potentially this kind of gambling exists in games of card parties, bingo, horse racing contests, where prizes are not at stake, if such wonders exist, for it will soon lead to outright gambling.

II. The Denunciation of Gambling

Gambling has been and is sorely and severely condemned by many good and outstanding people who ought to demand a hearing. Why? Why is it that even at this present time an authority in the field says: "In almost all States, gambling transactions have been rendered invalid by statute, either expressly or implicitly. Hence the aid of the courts cannot be invoked to collect election bets and other wagers."[5] Why did the evangelist Billy Sunday say: "I believe that cards and dancing are doing more to damn the spiritual life of the church than the grogshops"? Why did St. Augustine of the fifth century say, "The Devil invented dicing"? Why did the early Christian writer and preacher Cyprian of the third century vigorously denounce gambling? Why did St. Bernardino in 1423 preach his famous sermon against cards and gambling? And why did the early Puritan Fathers attack gambling and cards especially? Why did T. DeWitt Talmage say with as much fairness as possible: "I had a friend who played cards with his wife and children, and then at the close said: 'Come, now, let us have prayers.' I will not judge other men's consciences, but I will tell you that cards are in my mind so associated with the temporal and eternal damnation of splendid young men, that I should no sooner say to my family: 'Come, let us have a game of cards,' than I would go into a menagerie and say, 'Come, let us have a game of rattlesnakes.'" Why did the United States Navy ban card-playing? Why did the board of governors of the New York State Association of Police Chiefs, at their recent meeting in Albany, vote to stand against "any legislation that would provide for any extension of legal gambling in New York State"? After gambling in New York was open, prior to 1721, and was licensed in 1721, it was so abused the State of New York took over gambling as a State monopoly in 1784. After this the fraud and racketeering were so abundant that in 1821 the case was declared hopeless as to regulating, and finally in 1824 a law was made against gambling as a part of the State Constitution. Why is it that Trina Mascott, a former gambling-house dealer with a Reno gambling hall, writing in The Saturday Evening Post of May 13, 1950, confessed: "Professional gambling is grueling, cruel and completely mechanical. It has no place for a woman with a conscience and a tender heart. It requires a type of woman who has the stamina and personality to stand before an ironing board and iron the same piece of clothing over and over again for eight hours a day, six days a week . . . and enjoy it. It also requires the type of woman who can picnic complacently on a cliff edge while people around her are leaping to their destruction!" Why are these sharp words directed against gambling? Certainly not without cause.

III. The Damage of Gambling

From a logical standpoint, what is the harm of gambling? I ask you just to use your common sense. The U.S. spends sixteen billion dollars a year or more on gambling. Do you know what that would do? One billion of the sixteen would place a new $300,000 hospital in each of the 3,000 counties of the United States. Just one of the sixteen billion. Another billion would build a new $300,000 high school in every county in America. Another two billion would build a new junior college in every county. And there would still be twelve billion left! With that two hundred new homes could be built in every county, costing $10,000 each. That would ease the housing shortage. One could build a new library in every county and furnish each with books for three billion, and then build a playground costing $150,000 for each county in our land. All this on the amount of money spent (or thrown away) on one year’s gambling. Common sense says that gambling is wrong (Evangelist James V. Lamb).

From a moral standpoint gambling is wrong. It made a murderer out of Samson (Judges 14:9-19). Is the life of a young man worth anything? Is the soul of a young man worthy of your protection? Charles F. Weigle relates that a boy named Eddie Arnold was hanged in Nevada sometime ago for the murder of Lady Youngblood. On the day he was to be hanged the jailer informed him of the arrival of his mother, who wished to see and speak to him before he died. Arnold answered that he did not want to see his mother. When asked why, he replied, "I committed murder as the result of a card game. . . . My mother taught me to play cards, and I hold her responsible for my crime and for my death. Tell her I don't want to see her." Think of that, you who may permit your children to play cards at home! God's Word says, "Thou shalt not kill" (Exodus 20:13).

God also says: "Thou shalt not steal" (Exodus 20:15). Gambling is stealing! Evangelist William E. Biederwolf has well written:

"Someone has said that gambling bears the same relationship to robbery that dueling does to murder. One man will meet another in a dark alley and take his life at the end of a pistol, and you call it murder; two men will meet each other in an alley and agree to shoot each other until one or both fall dead, and you call that dueling. But the only difference is that in the first case there is one murderer, and in the second case there are two. One man will meet another in a dark alley and take his money at the end of a pistol and you call that robbery; two men will meet each other round a table and agree to take each other's money with dice or cards, and you call that gambling. But the only difference is that in the first case there is one robber, and in the second case there are two."

From a spiritual standpoint gambling is wrong. The Christian is a follower of one person, and only one, Jesus Christ. "Follow Me," He calls (Matthew 4:19).

Spurgeon wrote, "I think that no Christian man will ever like the rattle of dice when he remembers that they were used at the cross; all games of chance should be put away from us, for we can, as it were, see our Master's blood bespattered upon them."

Gambling! How sinful, how foolish! But the worst gamble I charge every unsaved person with, is that you are gambling with your soul! The odds are against you when you gamble with your soul. Time is against you, sickness is against you, accidents, death—perhaps sudden death! The unexpected second coming of Christ and the day of judgment are against you. The time to be saved by Jesus Christ is now, right now! The next hour may be too late. Repent therefore of all your sins and unbelief, and turn to Jesus Christ crucified and risen and living to save you now and forever! Will Christ save you now? Hear His sure word of promise: "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). Will you believe Him and come—now?

[1] J. B. Wight, Tobacco, Can It Be Defended? (Butler, Indiana: Higley Press).

[2] Quoted by permission of Moody Bible Institute, Chicago 10, Illinois. 18

[3] Wm. C. Irvine, Heresies Exposed (New York: Loizeaux Brothers, Inc.), p. 83, note.

[4] The Masonic Burial Services (Chicago: The Charles T. Powner Co.), p. 10.

[5] The New Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia (New York: Unicorn Books), Vol. 15, p. 5497.

Table of Contents

1 What is Worldliness?

2 What About Television?

3 What About Smoking?

4 What About Dancing?

5 What About the Theater?

6 What About the Lodge?

7 What About Gambling?

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