the unclean animals, fishes, birds and creeping things, as set forth for Israel by Moses in the ceremonial law. Only those animals which had the cloven hoof and chewed the cud were pronounced clean by Jehovah. Likewise only those fishes which had fins and scales were clean. Certain fowls and the creeping things were “an abomination” unto the Lord. The fins suggest power to rise above degrading things that tend to drag us down to defeat. The scales, too, remind us of the “whole armour of God” given the Christian to enable him to resist the devil “ in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation” (Eph. 6:11; Phil. 2:15). Certain birds and the creeping things of earth speak of the depravity and deceitfulness of sin, over which the child of God can live victoriously—by His grace through the power of the Holy Spirit and the sacred Scriptures. Is there anything in the Bible about the cities of Petra? I have read the Bible through several times and have not found them mentioned. No, they are not mentioned by name, nor is there any direct proof that they are referred to in the Bible, but many students of prophecy wonder if they may not prove to be a place of refuge for persecuted Israel during the great tribulation. In Daniel 11:41, we read that Moab “ shall escape out of his [the Antichrist’s] hand.” In His message to the disciples concerning this “ time of Jacob’s trouble,” the Lord warned them that those who will be living in that day in the land of Judea will have to “flee into the mountains.” In this same chapter (Matthew 24), He said, “ Ex cept those days be shortened, there should no flesh be saved.” It will be a time of horrible bloodshed and suffer ing and persecution. Israel will need a place of refuge. Also, in Isaiah 26:20, we read a verse that is suggestive of the manner in which God will protect the faithful remnant of His people, Israel, in that day. Please explain First Corinthians 15:52. Does it not teach that the church will go through the tribulation, even to the last of the trumpet judgments de scribed in Revelation 8:11? The passage to which you refer in First Corinthians has nothing to do with the trumpet judgments of Revela
tion. It describes the first resurrection and the translation of the church which take place before the Antichrist is re vealed on earth. Note these words, ad dressed to Christians: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised in corruptible, and we shall all be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51,52). Now compare this passage with First Thessalonians 4:13- 18, which refers to the same event, and calls the “ trumpet” the “trump of God.” The seven trumpet judgments of Revelation are sounded by angels; “the trump of God” will call the church home. Perhaps it will be just the word Come, even as we read in Revelation 4:1, the message to John, “ Come up hither.” This call to John is prophetic of the call of the church when the Lord translates His bride. You will note by careful reading that everything from this first verse on to the end of the book has to do with events which will take place after the rapture of the church, including the seven trumpet judgments. As I read Matthew 12-.US-U5 1 am puzzled to know if Christ has bidden this unclean spirit to depart, or if it was done by the man in whom he had taken refuge. What is your answer to this question? These are the words of Christ, but the unclean spirit mentioned has merely gone out of the man of its own accord, and most assuredly was not cast out by the Lord. This is a case of self-reforma tion by a man seeking to clean up his life; he still belongs to this “wicked generation” (verse 45). In another place Jesus said, “Ye must be born again.” These words in Matthew were spoken to the Pharisees, who had at tributed to Beelzebub the works of Christ. The house of Israel had been “ swept” and “ garnished” of the spirit of idolatry by the captivity; these lead ers of Babylon, still unregenerate, were self-righteous hypocrites. Read verse 34 of this chapter: “ 0 generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.” These words were spoken by the Lord Jesus, and this passage (verses 43-45) described their state, not the state of the redeemed who had fallen into sin. T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
Dr. Louis T. Talbot
Please enlighten a new Christian on Romans 8:16: “ The Spirit itself bear- eth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” Read this entire eighth chapter of Romans, counting the number of times the Holy Spirit is mentioned. He fills the scene! This chapter might be called the climax to this profound epistle. Paul, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, has already set forth in the pre ceding chapters the irrefutable fact of a guilty world before a holy God, of redemption in Christ Jesus, “ unto all, and upon all them that believe,” yet has also disclosed the conflict in the born- again soul between the old, sinful na ture and the new nature in Christ. That struggle, every one of us knows full well, would be a losing battle but for the indwelling Holy Spirit of God, whose presence with us bears witness within that we are children of God, and that He will give us the victory— by His unfailing power. This is the message of the eighth chapter of Ro mans—that, through the power of the Spirit of God, there is “no condemna tion” because we are “in Christ Jesus” ; there is victory over sin as we let the Holy Spirit control our lives, and that we may be sure of eternal sonship, and of Heaven, as we look beyond the suffer ings and testings of this present life. I am filled with curiosity as I read Leviticus 11:12. Why should fish with out fins and scales be forbidden as food to the children of Israel? Here God gives us a picture of the believer’s walk in a world of sin, and of the spiritual food provided for him in the Word of God, that he may main tain that walk with the Lord “ in holi ness and righteousness.” This chapter as a whole has to do with the clean, and Page Six
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