G O D S

The Way of
W O R D
Truth
Vol. 6 No. 1 An urgent call to return to a simple faith in the Word
February 2011 of God

INSIDE
What is Faith?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Why do Sinners Seek Salvation?. . . . . . . . .
An Anabaptist on the Christian Life.. . . . . .
Winning by Losing!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sin shall not have Dominion over you. . . . .
The Prodigal Son. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Way of Truth
Our goal is to encourage a love of the truth
of God’s Word, and a solid confidence in its
literal teachings, such as existed in the early
church and Anabaptists.
The main subjects covered will be the
Gospel of salvation and the importance of
sound faith.
Published six times a year
by.
The Way of Truth
C/O Glenn M. Wenger
2383 Quaker Run Road
Richfield, PA 17086
(Material written or selected from an
Anabaptist Viewpoint, by Glenn Wenger,
Reviewed by various ministers)
For a free subscription, write the above
address, or call (717) 694-3999
1 What is Faith?
3
4 We read in the Bible about
5
7 faith, or “believing”. What does it
9 mean to “believe”. One thing we
need to realize is that there is more
than one definition for believe (in
both Greek and English). This
quickly becomes evident as we
read the Bible. For instance, there
are several references that state
that “whosoever believeth in
Him” shall receive remission of
sins and shall be saved. On the
other hand there are others that
say, “Thou believest that there is
one God; thou doest well: the
devils also believe, and tremble”
(James. 2:19), making it clear that
more than believing facts about
God is necessary.
In Acts 8:13 Simon the
sorcerer “believed also”, yet his
heart was “not right with God”. So
we can believe the facts about
Jesus and yet not “believe to the
saving of the soul” (Heb. 10:39).
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“Believe” is nearly always translated from the Greek “pisteuo”. The

definitions range from “acknowledgment of some fact or event” to “to entrust
a thing to one, i.e. his fidelity”. So it can mean anything from intellectual
knowledge to saving faith, and it is not always perfectly clear by the
context, except when it is combined with the Greek preposition “eis”
(translated “in” or “on”, as in “whosoever believeth in Him”), it is clear
that the reference is to saving faith in Christ.
A common error that is made in explaining the Gospel of salvation
through faith, is to define faith as something that is little more than a
glorified knowledge. “Only believe and you will be saved,” is the cry of
today. Too often faith is not clearly defined and the would-be convert’s
hope of salvation is nothing more than a knowledge of divine things,
rather than a personal acceptance of Jesus Christ through faith in Him.
This is not a new error. The gnostics were various cults of the first
centuries who believed in salvation through “gnosis” or knowledge. But
John 3:16 and other Scriptures tell us that we must believe in Jesus not
just believe about Him. This depicts a trusting, faithful, faith, not merely
a knowledge of Him and who He is. The knowledge about Jesus is vitally
necessary, “for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, . . .”
(Hebrews 11:6), but it is only the first step and should lead to believing
in Jesus, which is the voluntary act of trust in Him and committing our
life to His control. Philippians 3:10 says: “That I may know him, and
the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being made conformable unto his death;” It does not only say “that I
may know about Him”, but “that I may know Him.”
It is important that we understand what it means to have faith in
Jesus. We may believe all that the Bible tells us about Jesus, and yet not
believe in Jesus. In fact, the Bible tells us that the devils believe - and
tremble. Jesus said to the Jews, “You diligently study the Scriptures,
because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are
the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me
that you might have life.” (John 5:39-40 NIV.) They studied what the
Scriptures said about Christ, but they did not allow that knowledge to
lead them to Christ to put their trust in Him.
Even though the situation today is somewhat different, we tend to
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make the same kind of mistake that those Jews did. We diligently study
the Scriptures, which testify of Jesus. We learn many things about Him.
We believe what we read about Him. But so often it stops there. We
confuse our knowledge about Jesus with faith in Him, and we believe we
have faith in Him when in reality we only have knowledge, and our hope
of salvation rests on our faith in our knowledge about Jesus rather than
on faith in Him. As Jesus said, “Yet you refuse to come to me that you
might have life.” Let us not be satisfied with an intellectual knowledge
of Christ, but let us go on and put our trust and faith in Him.
Faith in Jesus means that we recognize that, not only is Jesus’
sacrifice on the cross able to atone for our sins and cleanse us, but Jesus
also is willing and will save us on the one condition that we come to
Him in faith - without any trust in our own abilities - and we go on and
come to Him, applying His salvation to our own lives, enabling us to
overcome sin. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and
to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13) _

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Notable Quotable:
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
-Colossians 3:2
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Why do Sinners Seek Salvation?

I remember, many years ago communicating with a man who didn’t
believe in eternal hell fire. He said, you can never frighten people into
becoming Christians with the threat of hell. He said that people become
Christians because they love God.
I doubt that there has ever yet been anyone truly converted to Christ
just because he loved Him. The real reason people come to Christ is to
seek salvation from sin. They know they are under just condemnation for
sin. They are convicted by the Holy Spirit that they have sinned against
the God of heaven before whom they will someday be judged! They
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know they are lost and they are seeking salvation! They come, not
because they love God, but because they fear His righteous judgement!
Sinners, through the conviction of the Holy Spirit seek salvation
from their sins. That is what the gospel is all about: it is the gospel of
salvation from sin. No one can be saved who does not know that he
needs saving (meaning he realizes he is condemned by his sins).
It is only after he has met Christ, been born again of the Spirit and
has taken up His cross that he loves the Lord, who has delivered him
from so great a death. _

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Point to Ponder:
The day when it is once more understood that God will not be responsible
for our sins and unbelief will be a glad one for the church of Christ. The
realization that we are personally responsible for our individual sins may be a
shock to our hearts, but it will clear the air and remove the uncertainty.
Returning sinners waste their time begging God to perform the very acts He has
sternly commanded them to do. He will not argue with them; He will simply leave
them to their disappointment. Unbelief is a great sin; or more accurately stated,
it is an evidence of sin unconfessed. Repent and believe is the order. Faith will
follow repentance, and salvation will be the outcome.
-Tozer
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An Anabaptist on the Christian Life

Those are Christian who are minded as Christ was so Paul says. They
arm themselves for suffering, do not entangle themselves in the ways of
the world, have no fellowship with the works of darkness but rather with
the works of light, are not ashamed of their Master Christ and His words
and follow Him in the same (each according to the measure of grace
awarded). Therefore He will not be ashamed of them before God His
heavenly Father and all His angels as He Himself says, and then
continues: Whoever loves his life will lose it, and whoever hates and
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denies his life in this world for My sake will preserve it for eternal life.
Whoever would serve Me must follow Me, where I am there My
servant must also be, and whoever serves me will be honored by My
Father. If anyone wants to follow Me, says the Lord, let him deny
himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
To sum up, a Christian is a follower of Christ. That cannot be
changed even if the whole world should end in ruins, which it certainly
will do (and I believe soon). For a thousand years are as one day with
God, says Peter. For this reason the Christians lift up their heads and
expect their redemption with joy. It will come in the return of Christ to
judge the living and the dead. _
-Hans Schlaffer, “Brief Instruction”

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Capsule Sermon:
We were not created to die. Rather, we die by our own fault. Our free will
has destroyed us. We who were free have become slaves. We have been sold
through sin. Nothing evil was created by God. We ourselves have manifested
wickedness. But we, who have manifested it, are able again to reject it.
-Tatian (160 A.D.)
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Winning by Losing!
In a religious or any other debate, even though we may try to be
open-minded there is usually a certain amount of resistance to opposing
views. One reason for this may be the desire to “win the debate” so to
speak. If we see we are in error, and we are the ones that change our
views, it seems like we have “lost” the debate. This is one way to see it.
There is another more realistic way of looking at it, and the finest
example I have found is in a debate about religion that occurred nearly
1800 years ago (approximately 210 A.D.). The participants were the
Christian, Octavius and the heathen, Caecilius while their friend
Minucius was to judge the winner of the debate. We will not print the
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lengthy debate here, all that concerns us is the last paragraph. The
heathen Caecilius, as he realizes he was wrong, replies:
"I do not wait for the decision. Even thus we have conquered: not
unjustly do I assume to myself the victory. For even as he is my
conqueror, so I am triumphant over error. Therefore, in what belongs
to the substance of the question, I both confess concerning
providence, and I yield to God; and I agree concerning the sincerity
of the way of life which is now mine."1
Who won? Did anyone lose? If we as Christians could always bear
in mind that our goal is the truth, rather than to overcome in a debate,
wouldn’t more debates end with both sides winning? Christianity is the
truth. What then could be more important than to find the truth? What
other conclusion could we want than to arrive at the truth, regardless of
where we started?
Although we try to remain open to the leading of the Holy Spirit
through the Word, we realize that while on earth we will never have
20/20 vision of God’s workings. The basics are clearly taught in the
Word, and that is all we desire to teach. What is not taught in the Word,
we will leave to God to bring from shadow to substance when we shall
see “face to face”. _

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Point to Ponder:
It has been obvious to me that almost every sin is but a natural good
perverted or carried to excess. . . natural appetite becomes gluttony; sleep goes
on to become sloth. . . love degenerates into lechery; praise sinks to flattery;
determination hardens into obstinacy; a natural childish love of play grows up
with the man and becomes a multi-billion dollar business wherein tens of
thousands of able-bodied persons waste their lives playing for the amusement
of millions of bored adults who are more than willing to work hard to obtain
money to watch them play. -Tozer, The Warfare of the Spirit

1
The Octavius by Minucius Felix Chap. 40 The Ante-Nicene
Fathers V.4 P.197
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Sin shall not have Dominion over you

“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the
law, but under grace.” (Romans 6:14)
Many people today are expending their energy either serving sin or
fighting against sin, yet, the apostle says that sin should not have
dominion over you. Is that possible? How do we get to that point?
We all find at times that we have some besetting sin, either
something that we commit, (in thought, word, or deed) or something that
we omit that we should be doing. What is the secret to victory over
them?
Sin comes from our voluntary preference toward self gratification
rather than serving God. So, sin is a breach of our commitment to God.
This should give us some idea as to how to overcome sin.
When we became converted and received the power of God’s Holy
Spirit, did we receive it by resolving to first rid our lives of all sin? Many
of us first tried that and it didn’t work. As Paul wrote, “Are ye so
foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the
flesh?” (Galatians 3:3). The Bible teaches us that sin is overcome, not
by strengthening the flesh against it, but by surrendering our all in faith
to Christ. Determination is necessary, but it should be the determination
to live for God and let His Spirit bring out His will in our lives.
The apostle explains what to do and how it works in the following
passage:
“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,
but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the
lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those
that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you:
for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we
sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his
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servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of

obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the
servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of
doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye
became the servants of righteousness.” (Romans 6:11-18)
Philippians 2:13 says: “For it is God which worketh in you both
to will and to do of his good pleasure.” So if we want to please God,
we need to allow Him to have His will more completely in our hearts.
That means give His Holy Spirit room in our hearts. If we want to be
more completely at God’s disposal, (and what Christian doesn’t), we
need to let Him have His way in us.
Let’s say there is something in our lives that we know is not pleasing
to God. It might be bitterness or other bad feelings toward someone.
How do we get rid of it, or set it right? We can pray about it and maybe
we can determine to get rid of it by shear determination and force of will
- maybe forcing ourselves to think something else each time.
Determination is important, but I believe there is a more effective
way than relying on the force of our wills to overcome. We need to
recognize that our problem in any kind of sin, is carnality. We are more
concerned about self than we should be. There is one effective solution
for carnality, and that is the Holy Spirit
Romans 8 says: “For they that are after the flesh do mind the
things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the
Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against
God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So
then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in
you. . .
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” (Romans 8:5-
9,13-14)
So, the solution is not to strengthen the flesh against sin, but to
strengthen the spirit, and sin will lose its power. When we have any kind
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of problem, bitterness, worry, anger, or any other sin, the solution is the
same. Draw nearer to God. Tell Him you want to get rid of the carnal
and become more spiritually minded. Focus your determination, not on
your sin, but on allowing God to have His way in your whole life. You
will find your problem solved very effectively, but you will also find
other greater benefits. _

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Capsule sermon:
It is far better to practice things that are revealed than to speculate or argue
over truths that have been concealed. -Selected

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The Prodigal Son

The fifteenth chapter of St. Luke teaches us to rejoice for the penitent
sinner. In the first part of the chapter we find the parables of the lost
sheep, with the shepherd leaving the ninety nine sheep to seek for the
hundredth sheep, and of the lost coin, in which the housekeeper sweeps
the whole house in search of it. In both cases, there is rejoicing when the
lost is found.
From verse 11 to the end of the chapter we find the parable of the
prodigal son. The word prodigal is not used in the text, but prodigal
means one who is recklessly extravagant and wasteful. This is a
description of the son before his repentance. So we want to focus on the
rejoicing that his repentance caused.
Let us consider to whom, or in what setting this parable was first
presented. The first verse says that the publicans and sinners came to
hear Him. The Pharisees and Scribes, the “keepers of the faith” in their
own minds, were disgruntled. They attempted to judge Jesus by the
company He kept: “This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them,”
they complained. That is when Jesus began with the parable of the
prodigal son.
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Having considered that this parable was being directed to the

Pharisees who thought they were the true representatives of the Jews, the
chosen people of God, let us take a broader view of what Jesus may have
been teaching.
After the flood the human population greatly increased and God was
forgotten as the people began following imagined gods. Some of the
religions prevalent in the world today are remnants of the ancient
religions that sprang up after the tower of Babel event. People were
spread throughout the world with a faint knowledge of God retained in
their collective minds. Many cultures around the earth have a flood story
in their legends with a Noah figure, who, along with his family were
saved from a Great Flood. This is an amazing fact. But they did not serve
God as He intended them to do. So God called a people unto Himself
through Abraham, which became the Jews. That is the reason that the
Jews were known as the Chosen People of God. The other people were
known as the Gentiles.
Can we see a parallel with the second son, who left his father and
lost whatever contact he still had with him? We can take this second son
to be the Gentile nations that became a part of the world. Many pagan
religions are closely tied to nature worship, worshiping the sky, trees,
various animals, etc. They were like the second son who “joined himself
to a citizen of that country”. He would have liked to fill his belly with
what the pigs were eating. But all looked hopeless. Is that not also what
the religions of the world have to offer? They are very demanding yet
offer no fulfillment or hope.
It was through Jesus Christ that these pagan nations, the Gentiles,
could also receive the blessing of eternal life. “Then Peter opened his
mouth and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of
persons: But in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh
righteousness, is accepted of Him.” (Acts 10:34-35). We, who are the
descendants of the Gentiles, have needed to feel ourselves in the
hopeless state that the second son found himself and we had to make the
commitment to go back to the Father as a servant. He was looking for us
while we were yet afar off and welcomed us. This is true on an
individual basis for the Jew as well as the Gentile.
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But what about the older son? He was out in the fields doing the will
of his father. He could be thought of as representative of the Jewish
people who thought they were the only people of God. As the older
brother, they said, “I have worked hard for you all the time and you don’t
appreciate it while this, your son has wasted all his inheritance on
women and drink, now you kill the prized calf to celebrate!” He was not
happy when he saw the festivities going on in honor of his brother. Who
was Jesus talking to here? Again, He was talking to the Pharisees and as
we observed above, the Pharisees considered themselves the authority of
the Jewish religion. Like the elder son, they were offended that Jesus
associated with what they considered the scum of the earth. As the
second son was received back to his father, so are the Gentiles also
received back to the Heavenly Father. Peter realized this when he had a
vision and was told not to call anything common or unclean that God had
cleansed. (Acts 10:11-18)
We are grateful toward God that He extended His grace and salvation
to us whose parentage was of the Gentiles who had squandered their
heritage like the prodigal second son. _
-Irvin N. Shirk

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Quotable:
A sound mind . . . will eagerly meditate upon those things that God has
placed within the power of mankind, and has subjected to our knowledge. Such
a mind will make advancement in them, rendering the knowledge of them easy
to him by means of daily study. These things are such as fall under our
observation and are clearly and unambiguously in express terms set forth in the
Sacred Scriptures.
Irenaeus (180 A.D.)

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Quotable:
Faith is a Declaration of Dependence in opposition to sin which is man’s
Declaration of Independence.
-Bernard Ramm
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