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In the past several months I have enjoyed some great discussions with different pastors across our great country. I thank God for good fellowship with other believers. The word of God says "iron sharpeneth iron", and I know it to be true. I am thankful to God for good friends that the Lord puts in our lives. Yet, while I have enjoyed wonderful fellowship and have had some great discussions with fellow pastors and friends, I have had the sad experience of hearing long-time friends tell me that they no longer believe the same way they used to on many issues. One pastor said he no longer preached about dress standards-he said that it is just "legalism" anyway. He said he only held to those standards in the first place because it was the "party-line". Another once-zealous young preacher informed me that he had never grown as much as when he started listening to the nationally-known radio teachers. Now, he has dropped his standards and has become openly critical of fundamentalists. He's suggested to me that it was the attitudes of "those fundamentalists" that have made him what he is now becoming. But it's not just young preachers making this move to the left. Another well-known fundamentalist preacher said publicly, "You can't run a thousand-member church by preaching on cigarettes and separation." Of course, God didn't call us to run a thousand-member church, did He? Among other things, God called us to be faithful to the Word of God, to contend for the faith, and to be the light of this world. Sadly, this dear brother has now lost his first wife and family and has left that ministry.

My question is this: Why are so many men leaving the standard they once held; and what are the ramifications? Clearly, it's not just men getting soft in their old age who are dropping the standard, it's young preachers giving up their convictions early in their ministries. Why? I've seen many church members become disillusioned when they got their eyes on men, so I'm sure preachers do the same thing. No doubt some held certain positions because that was where their Bible College stood-not because it was their own conviction; therefore, it was easy for them to change, especially if it meant getting some people to come to church. Some have just drifted away from the Lord. Let's face it, backslidden people drop their standards. Perhaps the majority just want to go an easier route. Yet the danger in all of this is that churches will go the direction that they are taken by their leadership (pastors). If the leaders move to the left and begin dropping their standards, so will our churches; and if our churches move to the left, so will our society. This is happening on a massive scale today. How can this be avoided? Perhaps I Timothy 5:22 sheds some light on this very issue. The Bible says, "lay hands suddenly on no man". What does that mean? It means do not ordain a man too soon. It means it is easy to be straight in a Bible College where the pressure is on the young men to see who can be the straightest, but it is a lot tougher to be straight when it will cost you several members and a lot of trouble. Perhaps we should wait a bit longer to see how a man will really stand. Maybe pulpit committees need to dig a little deeper. One Bible College professor said, "Whatever direction you see a man taking when he begins to gray will be the direction he will be take for the rest of his life". One thing is certain-there is a great falling away taking place across our land, and it has started in the pulpits and is working its way down.

Steven E. Mays - Trumpet Editor