Dear family, brethren, and friends,

My July 26-September 4 trip got off to a good start by the grace of God.  No matter how hard I work to get everything organized and ready to go, the last day and night are filled with attending to a multitude of last-minute details.  Often there is no time to sleep, but this time I slept almost two hours before going to the airport at 4:30 A.M. Saturday, which is a victory.

I usually sleep on the first flight, but a Baptist preacher who grew up in South Africa was seated next to me on the Louisville-Atlanta leg and we had a profitable Bible discussion.  I gave him James R. Cope’s foldout tract on “The One True Church” with my email address on it.

It took 45 minutes to walk to the gate in Atlanta to board the plane to Inchon, South Korea, so there was no time for breakfast.  On this plane I took a couple of 2-3 hour naps and got a ton of work done on charts and outlines.  Getting to Manila about 10:15 P.M., I was at the hotel by 11:00 and was able to go to the exercise room for 35 minutes before sleeping, which helps me recover from the long flights.

I started the next day with exercise and was joined by 5 Filipino brethren who helped repack boxes of study materials to ship ahead to various venues I will visit.  Then, James Paet took me to visit Jimmy Battung for an hour to encourage him and to study Psalm 23.  This was a busy day of study and work on charts for upcoming sermons and I was not able to go to bed until 3:00 A.M.

Tuesday morning was busy finishing up some charts and outlines, then James Paet drove me to Angeles City in the Province of Pampanga for the upcoming two-day lectureship at the Southside church of Christ with Lordy Salunga.  We arrived about 5:00 P.M. The young hotel employee who brought my luggage to the room was curious about why I am here.  When I explained I am teaching the Bible, he said he is a dispensational Baptist.  They believe the Apostles preached baptism as essential to salvation to the Jews in Acts, but later Paul preached salvation by grace through faith alone without the necessity of baptism.  I explained that Paul said in Galatians 1:23 he preached the same gospel he once persecuted in Acts and Ephesians 2:8-9 is connected to Acts 19:5 – the Ephesians were saved by grace through faith when they were baptized.  I gave him Cope’s tract on “The One True Church” with my email address.

Even though I was exhausted, I walked 5 miles at the parade ground of the old Clark Air Base, my favorite place to walk in the Philippines.  The tail end of the third typhoon to hit Luzon in the last couple of weeks is still here, so I walked in a light sprinkle which cooled the hot summer atmosphere.  I have finished preparing to teach 4 lessons tomorrow, God willing, and will sleep soundly tonight.

It was my privilege to work with Lordy Salunga Wednesday-Thursday in a lectureship on “The Authority of Christ.”  We met during my first trip in 1995 when Jim McDonald brought me to the Philippine Islands to preach.  An audience of 62 souls gathered at the Southside church of Christ in Angeles City on Wednesday as we studied lessons on how Christ expressed his authority through Scripture, how he uses his authority in the role of our Savior, his authority over the local church, gradual departures from his authority which created the Roman Catholic religion, and a gradual return to his authority beginning with the Protestant Reformation.  

The most interesting question in the open forum concerned the thief on the cross who repented.  When he repented, Jesus said, “Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise.”  Jesus died first, and then the thief, so does this mean the died in the gospel age without baptism?  Our brethren encountered this question from denominational preachers trying to escape the necessity of obedient faith by submitting to Christ in baptism for the remission of sins.  Since Jesus forgave all his sins before the thief died, he had no sins to be forgiven when he died after Christ died.  Also, Christ did not give the Great Commission requiring all men to be baptized until he arose from the dead, long after the thief died.  Furthermore, while the death of Jesus was necessary to bring the Law of Moses to its end, the formal beginning of the new covenant was in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost, long after the thief died.

Every attempt to escape the necessity of baptism for the remission of sins in the gospel age fails!  Why not submit to Christ rather than resist his teaching with empty twists and turns?  It reminds us of Luke 7:30, “But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.”  These twists and turns to escape the truth amount to a rejection of God’s will, which can only end in the disaster of eternal punishment.

Thursday’s attendance was 63.  In 5 sessions we studied the restoration movement, the need to avoid apostasies today, and the necessity of separating essential things and incidental things in properly applying the Scriptures.  

The open forum generated 30 questions on a wide range of topics.  Several questions reflected the maturing process of Filipino brethren in wrestling with issues related to marriage, divorce, and remarriage.  There has been a learning curve over the years as they have gradually shed the concept of their culture and legal system which upholds the Catholic doctrine that there is no divorce.  Filipino brethren continue to work through some of the thorny issues resulting from the fact that God alone has the authority to join us in marriage according to His law and yet we must do our best to conform to requirements of our civil law.  Questions arise about how to manage this because civil law does not conform to God’s law on marriage, divorce, and remarriage.  

I pointed out that civil law does not actually join or bind us in marriage or release us from the divine bond of marriage, but rather it merely makes a legal record of it for legal purposes.  God joins us when we take our marriage vows according to the dictates of His law (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:3-9; Mal. 2:14).  That is essential in every case.  If our mate commits fornication, the innocent party is permitted (not required) to put away the fornicator and God releases the innocent party to marry someone else.  

As much as possible, we must obey the stipulations by which the government records marriage, divorce, and remarriage based on Romans 13.  In the Philippines, some tribal people live and marry in remote areas where the government has no representatives or means to make records.  Are these people joined by God, and, if so, when and how?  When they take the vows of marriage, God joins them even though there is no legal record.  When they come down from the mountains and fall under the jurisdiction of the government, they can comply with any applicable laws, but their marriage is already valid under God’s law.  The same would be true of two people marooned on an island who exchanged marriage vows and were later rescued and returned to their nation.  The absence of such incidentals as a government record, a formal ceremony, a wedding feast, and witnesses would not invalidate their marriage.  But, this does not mean they are free to ignore the law when they return to their native land and government.

Another challenge in application for Filipinos is the absence of divorce laws under Catholic culture.  The only alternative is to apply for an annulment (as designed by the Catholic Church), which is so expensive the average Filipino has no hope of accessing such a procedure.  Are God’s hands tied so that He cannot release an innocent party because the government will not record a divorce?  No, God’s authority to effect that release supersedes all human authorities when the innocent party puts away the fornicator. The innocent party is left to make whatever declaration and records he can in such cases, and he should be wise enough to do so for many reasons.  (In one case I am familiar with here in the Philippines, the innocent party was able to get the fornicator to sign a notarized statement of guilt.)  

In short, Filipinos like Americans struggle to understand and to carefully express how to render to God’s what is God’s and render to Caesar what is his in terms of marriage law.  While there are some differences of understanding and of terminology at times, Filipino saints are learning to study and discuss such matters with patience, mutual respect, and love in spite of some occasional sharp words in the past.  I expressed my confidence that the differences will be healed because the practice is the same among those who differ: They all accommodate the need for native people to comply with government regulations when they come under government jurisdiction.  The healing will not come from some American’s dictate but from the continued study, meditation, and reflection of mature Filipino saints.  Today’s discussions were conducted in a healthy and helpful atmosphere.

Thank you for your prayers for this work, brethren, and may God bless you in your work as well!

In Christian love,

Ron Halbrook