We heartily thank God for every politician, athlete, actor or even criminal who comes to know Christ as Savior. But conversion alone does not qualify one for a place of prominence in Christian service. This, especially in Paul’s epistles, is reserved for mature believers, wholly separated to God and established in the truth (See especially II Tim. 2:21).

When hearts beat faster because of the presence of some glamorous personality on the Christian platform; when such personalities receive adulation which belongs rather to the Christ who died for them, God is dishonored and displeased.

True, the motive in procuring such “crowd-getters” may have been to reach greater numbers for Christ, just as some of our spiritual leaders become yoked together with apostate unbelievers in evangelistic endeavors in order to reach souls for Christ, but the end does not justify the means. It is never right to do wrong to accomplish some good end.

Have we forgotten that God’s Word says: “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God” (Ex 20:5) and “I will not give My glory unto another” (Isa 48:11)? True we quote here from the Ten Commandments, but remember, Paul in his epistles quotes all the Ten Commandments except one (re the sabbath). The covenant of the Law has been done away but not the moral law itself, and God is the only Being who has legitimate and urgent reason to be jealous of His glory. Christian leaders are playing a dangerous game when they give glory due to God alone to prominent personalities so as to swell their audiences.

It is time for the Church to realize that salvation is the work of God and that true and lasting results will follow only when we conduct His work in His way.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

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