Holy Spirit who made Jesus Christ alive, the message of repentance and salvation was preached in Noah's time to those who are now in prison or hades. You see, the same blessed Saviour who died in the body was made alive by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit. It’s the same Spirit who in the days of Noah plead with men. They were disobedient, however, and now they are in prison, awaiting their final judgment and consignment to hell, the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10-15). Q. San Francisco, Calif. — " I f a min ister divorces his wife, remarries and still preaches the Gospel, is this correct?” A. We would need to know many more of the circumstances in order to give a proper answer to this. Di vorce was never God’s solution but was allowed only on the basis of infidelity. Is this involved in this case? Much is said about the “in nocent party” ; however, as one jurist pointed out, “There are always three sides to every question: his, hers and the truth.” Further, what is implied in the statement, “is this correct?” Do you mean scripturally, morally, physically, socially or theologically? Following the only s c r i p t u r a l grounds for divorce the innocent party is free to remarry in the Lord. Generally, it seems the best counsel that if a minister divorces his wife and remarries, he ought to find some other line of work where he can still bring glory to the Lord. Q. Vallejo, Calif. — "My husband is not a Christian but I am. He wants me to go out dancing with him. I f I refuse to go and he goes without me, am I pushing him into tempta tion? What’s my responsibility to wards him in this regard f ” A. I t would seem rather that you are encouraging him to stay away from such temptation. In these seri- 19
ably and are synonomous. It is not enough just to believe, for the de mons do this much. They have an in tellectual apprehension of the truth of the deity of Jesus Christ. This is not salvation, however, in my sense. Believing in or on means resting the weight of one’s entire life and eter nal destiny upon the Saviour. A well- known preacher illustrated this by showing his audience a chair. He ex plained, “I believe in this chair and that it will hold me up and be a comfortable place to sit. But I could stand here until I fall in a dead faint unless I actually sat in it.” This is the difference between believing in and believing on. Q. Chilliwack, B.C. — “There is a teaching that makes much about the stone under the throne of England. Is it really the stone on which Jacob was sleeping, and i f so, where is there any promise of his being an Israelite ?” A. All of these teachings are erron eous and generally come from the cult known as British Israelism. No one knows where the stone is on which Jacob slept. This is as false as those who feel they have part of the Cross on which our Lord Jesus was crucified. If all of the so-called splinters were put together, they would make a lumber yard. The promise of Jacob being an Israelite is found in Genesis 32:27-28. Q. Meridian, Idaho — “Please explain I Peter 3:18-20 which has bothered me for a long time. Who were the spirits in prison? Where was the prison and what is the relationship, if any, between the disobedience of Noah’s day and the spirits in prison? A. There is a masterful work on this difficult portion by William Kelley, Preaching to the Saints in Prison. He points out how that the Bible does not offer a second chance after death. The verse tells us that by the same
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker