WORDS
WE CAN HELP YOU WINYOUTH
from the
WORD by Charles L. Fein berg, Th.D., Ph.D., Director, Talbot Theological Seminary After Their Kind
A lthough the Bible does not claim to be a book on matters scientific and technical, nevertheless, where- ever it touches upon such subjects in its disclosure of God’s glorious re demptive plan, its words are reliable and can stand the most searching test of the most advanced scientific investigator. We may illustrate this statement by a consideration of the important words “ after their kind” found in Genesis. The word “kind” is a translation of the Hebrew min which lexicographers indicate an swers exactly to the Greek eidos and the Latin species. The word occurs in Genesis 1:11, 12 (twice), 21, 24, 25 (thrice); 6:20; 7:14; Leviticus 11:14- 16, 19, 22, 29; Deuteronomy 14:13-15, 18; and Ezekiel 47:10. In modem Hebrew the word is used with refer ence to a schismatic or heretic, that is, a Christian. The term is found in Genesis in connection with the mention of the herb, then in relation to the lower animals, and finally with reference to man. It is especially interesting to note that the word is reiterated in all the statements regarding the cre ation of organic life. God has thus set down an all-comprehensive law, operative in the animal and vege table world, that certain distinctions exist in the original plan of creation. Scientists are not yet agreed upon what to call a given unit of creation, but they are prepared to admit that creation will allow individual varia tions in a created unit or a given unit in creation, but will not allow unlimited variation. God has set cer tain bounds in His created universe. Thus it is that we can find certain races in man, distinct members of a vegetable family (such as the cab bage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower which belong to the cab bage family), and different varieties of the canine family or the feline family. Hybrids have been realized in plants on the lower levels of classi fication. But a cat cannot become a dog; a fish cannot become a frog or lizard. No one yet has proved that man issues from lower forms of ani mal life. There is a distinct break between these units of creation. Un questionably God has set certain lim-
its in creation, so that there can be no mixing or crossing. These im passable barriers or constant laws are touched upon in these passages dealing with our phrase after their kind (one word in the original He brew)'. Does this principle operate in the spiritual realm? Yes, it does, and here we have its most important ex emplification. It was our Lord lesus Christ who said to religious, moral, educated, and refined Nicodemus: “ That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is bom of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6.) Nico demus may be as well-intentioned and deferential as it is possible to be, but this does not alter the abiding law that like produces like. That which is of nature, that which is of self, that which is of the curse under Adam, can only issue in the natural, the selfish, and the accursed. That which is of God, wrought of the Spir it, regenerated of the Spirit, must ever be spiritual. It is the unflinching law of reproducing after kind. Men still cannot gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles, even though they may produce the hydrogen and the co balt bomb. (Matt. 7:16.) The ungod ly can only accomplish works of un godliness (Gal. 5:19-21); the work of the Holy Spirit in the godly is ever holy and pleasing to God (Gal. 5:22, 23). This rule is in effect also for Satan, the enemy of our souls. The children of the evil one manifest the characteristics of their progenitor. (John 8:42-44.) Does this truth have practical value for you and me in our Christian lives? Indeed, it has. Do we earnestly de sire the power and fruit of the spir itual life? Is it our longing to be conformed more and more to the im age of God’s blessed Son? Then hear again the operation of the law of reproducing after kind: “ But we all, with unveiled face behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:18.) The Spirit alone by His sovereign work ing can reproduce in us the image of the glorious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. END.
A THRILLING WEEK WITH THE P rophetic W ord vnim nimico 1 Annual Bible Conference
on Prophecy and the Jew AUG . 30 over Labor Day, SEPT. 6 W INONA LAKE, INDIANA
HEAR these celebrated prophetic scholars Dr. Hyman J. Appelman, Dr. Paul Bauman, Dr. John W. Bradbury, Rev. Herman B. Centz, Rev. Max Cohn, Dr. William Culbertson, Dr. V. R. Edman, George Hayes, Jr., Dr. Peter Hoogendam, Dr. Herbert Lockyer, Sr., Dr. A. B. Machlin, Dr. Alva J. McClain, Dr. J. Palmer Muntz, Nate Scharff, Rev. Nath'an Stone, Dr. Chester E. Tulga, Judge W. R. Wallace NEW PROPHETIC CONFERENCE! CANANDAIGUA LAKE, N .Y . J U L Y 3 -TO PLAN NOW TO ATTEND! For Full Information ---------------------------------------------------w rite :---------------- THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR JEW ISH EVANGELISM Dept. K Winona Lake, Indiana
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JULY, 1954
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