Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Greetings to all from the Republic of the Philippines where more than 500,000 drug pushers and users have turned themselves in to the authorities because the new President declared war on drugs and he means business. Since he took office at the end of June over 600 have died in shootouts with the police or at the hands of unknown parties.  Meanwhile, we are preaching the unsearchable riches of the gospel of Christ to seek and save the lost, thanks to the grace of God and the help of His saints.

In 2006 a five day training class for preachers was held in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental.  Since then, I have made several return trips to visit area churches and to hold 1-2 day meetings attended by denominational “pastors.”  As the years have passed, many new denominational preachers have been converted and young men have grown up learning to preach under the instruction and encouragement of diligent Filipino preachers in this Province.

August 15-19 was the right time to conduct the five days training class again – in fact, it was overdue!

About 50 men attended but we had study materials for only 30.  The others participated on a sit-in basis and took notes.  Half of the group were denominational preachers.

The students are given the four volumes of Robert Harkrider’s workbooks on Basic Bible Doctrine, Strong’s Complete Concordance, Zondervan’s Pictorial Bible Dictionary, and a Bible.  The lessons in Harkrider’s workbooks were taught from 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. each day by Jack Jaco our host, Jonathan Carino, and myself.  The first day we covered lessons giving an overview of the Bible including the Patriarchal Age, Mosaic Age, and Gospel Age.  The plan of salvation including the conditions of pardon as well as the New Testament church were surveyed.

Peter Azuelo is a 79 year old Baptist preacher highly respected by area “pastors.”  His daughter was converted by David and Starla Halbrook in Batesville, AR.  Through her we contacted him on a previous trip and he has been learning little by little through Jack’s efforts, though steeped in Calvinism.  Monday he sat at the very front of the class.  His hearing is poor, so he got up while I was teaching and went behind me (I wondered what in the world he was doing) in order to pick up the loudspeaker and set it right on his table!  I have never seen anyone do that in over 50 years of preaching!  When I see such signs of hunger to learn, I know I have to return to the Philippines!

In the evening the participants were introduced to Strong’s Concordance and Zondervan’s Bible Dictionary.  It was a slow start for some of the men, but everyone tried his best, and Jack and Jonathan circulated to help them as I made the presentation on how to use these study tools.  Most of them have never had an opportunity to use such reference books.  It was a joy to watch them learn and some caught on very quickly.

Tuesday morning classes focused on the New Testament pattern for scriptural worship.  I presented a study on “Giving As God Has Prospered Us” (1 Cor. 16:1-2).  All of the P.M. presentations addressed various aspects of rightly dividing the word of truth.  I dealt with properly interpreting figurative language and how to establish and apply Bible authority.

Some of these men including Peter are heavily indoctrinated with denominational concepts which cloud their minds even when hearing the truth.  Therefore, I shortened one of my lessons in order to carve out 25 minutes to present a spontaneous study entitled “Christ’s Word Is His Law.”  I showed that Moses’ Law lacked a perfect sacrifice for sin but pointed to the coming of Christ as that sacrifice.  Christ died as the perfect sacrifice and replaced Moses’ Law with his own perfect law.  This law embodies God’s grace by providing forgiveness through Christ.  Many passages affirm or imply Christ instituted his own law such as Matthew 16:19, Romans 13:8-10, 1 Corinthians 9:21, Galatians 6:1-2, and James 1:22-27.  Christ will not tolerate men changing God’s Word and inventing traditions which contravene it, but he will judge us by his own word of truth (Matt. 15:7-8; 7:21-23; Jn. 12:48).

Next I showed that Catholicism developed a human organization with a powerful clergy and imposed many man-made doctrines, traditions, and laws on people, claiming men would be saved by submitting to these human works.  Beginning in the 1400’s a great rebellion against this oppressive system occurred, resulting in the development of the denominational system.  Denominationalism overreacted against the abuses of Catholicism by proposing men are saved by grace “only,” faith “only,” and love “only.”  These concepts not only countered Catholicism but also undermined the law of Christ!

Often when denominational “pastors” begin to hear the true gospel including baptism for the remission of sins and the pattern for the New Testament church, they nullify the gospel by appealing to their false theology on grace, faith, and love.  This presentation was an effort to open their eyes to see why they feel resistance to what they hear directly from Scripture and to see the destructiveness of denominational theology to the authority of the Bible.  They were very, very attentive to this presentation.

I put a chart of this short lesson on a white board and left it at the side while teaching the subsequent lessons of the week with PowerPoint.  As the simple passages were projected on the wall, I occasionally stepped over to the white board to remind them why it might be hard to accept what the passages clearly taught.

The Wednesday session began by concentrating on the nature, mission, and work of the church.  My first presentation dealt with passages distinguishing individual action and local church action.  This can be clearly seen in passages such as Matthew 18:15-17 and 1 Timothy 5:16.  Jonathan presented the affirmative case on the mission of the church and I followed with a lesson exposing various errors of those who make the church a social and recreational services agency.  Jack exposed the errors of centralizing the work of the churches through a sponsoring church and Jonathan exposed the errors of churches maintaining human institutions for the work of evangelism, edification, and benevolence.  He is well versed on the subject because when he was young, his father required him to type out the entire Cogdill-Woods Debate covering these issues!

Before the day ended Jack introduced our series on the Holy Spirit by answering the question, “Who is the Holy Spirit?” and I answered the question, “What is the work of the Holy Spirit?”  At the evening session using the concordance and Bible dictionary, we covered the words “psalm,” “making melody,” and “blood.”  The participants had an assignment to write short paragraphs on what they learned from the dictionary on an Old Testament person, a New Testament person, and a Bible location such as Bethany or the Jordan River, and they shared their research.  Their progress in using these study tools was evident.

Peter had to miss the afternoon session because he had an appointment, but he again expressed great appreciation for all the lessons he was hearing and he requested a copy of any handout sheet to be distributed in his absence.  Another man requested all of the PowerPoint charts because he is permitted to teach a group of 25 “pastors” and he is going to present some of these lessons.  That should make for some interesting discussions!  Peter later asked me to send all the charts on email to his son so they can review and study them again.

When we first taught in Bacolod City almost 20 years ago, denominational preachers hotly debated with us during open forums and some even tried to distract the audience by setting games of checkers and chess at the back of the room.  They threatened to beat up anyone who would be baptized.  The atmosphere has changed greatly.  Now these men are constantly expressing appreciation for the lessons.  Peter exclaimed how he wished he had found us when he was younger and he could have traveled with us to attend our studies through the years.

During the Thursday morning session, I discussed Holy Spirit baptism and how the Spirit dwells in Christians.  He has fellowship with us as we fill our hearts and lives with his word and teaching – he shapes and molds our lives.  Jonathan and Jack dealt with various aspects of water baptism today and all three of us exposed errors of Calvinism.  I contrasted the Bible doctrine of predestination – God chose to save all men who are in Christ – with the Calvinist theory of God designating certain persons to be saved and all others lost before they are born.

At the evening session I explained how to use a reference Bible and maps of Bible lands.

Friday was our last day – the week flew by quickly.  Jack presented the simple Bible affirmative case on what will happen when Christ returns, then I presented four studies on various errors of premillennialism.  During a break one of the denominational preachers approached me and said, “All of these years I have believed in the coming of the rapture and I though we are in the tribulation age now, only to learn today that none of it is true!”  He was delighted to learn the truth.

Later in the day Jonathan exposed errors of Catholicism, Jack examined 7th Day Adventist errors, and I refuted false doctrines of the Jehovah’s Witnesses especially regarding the claim that Jesus is a created angel, not God.  Jack extended the gospel invitation and four men submitted to Christ in baptism including a Pentecostal preacher and a Baptist preacher.

Peter was not converted but is near the kingdom – he repeatedly thanked us for the lessons, asked for clarification on several matters, and promised to continue studying the books and other materials we provided.  He brought Jack, Jonathan, and me to his house where we were served a delicious supper of bangus or milkfish, one of my favorite Philippine dishes.  Please pray for Peter.

What a wonderful encouraging week this has been!  And, to top it off, the last two nights as I have taken my late night walk for exercise, the moon has been beaming down all of your loving messages!

In Christian love,
Ron Halbrook

To see good Bible study material, go to:
http://www.HebronChurchOfChrist.com
http://www.biblework.com
http://www.truthmagazine.com
http://www.CEIbooks.com