God’s nature. We must be bom in His likeness. This is what John 3:12 tells us. The only way to receive spiritual life is through spiritual birth. The seed is the Word of God. The moment you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ a radical transformation takes place. It can only be reckoned or compared to physical birth. The Scriptures clearly indicate that there are conditions for the filling of the spirit. Make no mistake: the mo ment one is saved he has all of the Holy Spirit. The question on filling is how much of us does the Spirit have ? It is possible to quench Him by our deeds and action. We cannot be filled when we are grieving the Spirit by sin and unyieldedness. Receiving of the Spirit (known as baptism of the Spirit) is a once for all proposition, while filling is a moment by moment experience we all need. Q . Los Angeles, Calif. — “In the book of Revelation there were sealed 12,000 from each of the tribes of Israel, but the name of Dan is not mentioned. Why is this?” A. In the numbering here Joseph re ceived the double portion so that the ultimate result comes out 12 times 12,000. No one knows for a certainty why Dan was left out of the number ing. One assumption is that Dan, ac cording to Judges 18, was the first tribe which as a whole went into idolatry after the death of Joshua. It is further interesting to notice that God does include Dan when He divides the holy land in millennial times among the 12 tribes (Ezk. 48). “Is there any Scripture which says which thief re pented, the one on Christ’s right or the one on the left?” A. There is no Scripture, or for that matter necessarily any tra d itio n , which would indicate the answer. Evidentally it was not a significant enough point for the Spirit of God to include in the sacred writings. One of them, however, certainly took the “right” step. 28 Q . Redlands, Calif. —
Q . Vancouver, Wash. — “Was Mary, the mother of Jesus our Lord, a Jewess ?” A. She certainly was. This fact is made clear not only from the geneal ogy in the second chapter of Luke but throughout the New Testament we realize that both Mary, the natural mother, and Joseph, the legal, adopted father of our Lord, were both of Beth lehem which was in Judea. If Mary had not been a Jew our Lord would have been an impostor. He could not claim the Davidic throne. (David, of course, was of the tribe of Judah.) She was a Jewess in a double sense. Not only was she a descendant of Jacob or Israel but also she came from the tribe of Judah. Q . Yakima, Wash. — “How could Jesus be equal with God when the Bible shows that He was subject to God?” A. We must first understand that Jesus is the God-Man. As God He is equal with the Father. Numerous ref erences of this are given in the Word of God. Jesus is God, the Second Per son, coexistent and coequal with the Father, during His human ministry. Yet even here His divine glory shown through. This was evident, as an ex ample, on the Mount of Transfigura tion. In the flesh, however, our Lord was subject to the Father. Q . Goodyear, Ariz. — “Can you help me on the phrase, ‘ye must be bom again’? What does this really mean? When are we filled with the Holy Spirit?” A. These are two tremendously im portant and practical questions. John Wesley had an interesting answer for those who asked him why he was everlastingly preaching on the theme, “Ye must be bom again.” He said, “It is because, ‘Ye must be bom again!’ ” We have come into this world through a natural birth. This is not sufficient to fit anyone for heaven. We are all children of Adam, and as such as all sinners. This is what is known as in herited or original sin. In order to get to heaven one has to partake of
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