O What does the Bible teach about the ministry of women? Does God call women to preach the gospel? God has a wonderful and remarkable ministry for women, and we need to recognize the clearly defined limitations regarding this subject, as well as the breadth of the Scriptures. Far more women are engaged in Christian activity than men. Women will go where men will not as they seem never to be dis couraged. God has placed a ban on women’s taking the place of authority. “ Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence” (1 Tim. 2:11,12). Having given this command God went on to tell His reason for so doing; “ For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression” (1 Tim. 2:13,14). When the devil brought sin into the world he did not go to the man; he went to the woman. The man had the plaee of authority. When the woman steps out of the place of subjection into the place of authority, the end is con fusion. Jesus said, “ The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do.” How does this make the Son equal with the Father as you claim? The Scripture which you quote from John 5:19 is one of the very strongest declarations of the deity of Christ in the whole Bible. Christ is here affirming that He, the Son of God, is in full union with the Father. In this complete identi fication with the Father He affirms that He does nothing without the Father; but all He sees the Father do He does also. This statement by Him does not mean limitation, but attests the com plete, perfect unity which is between the Father and the Son. In His relation to the Father, the Son can do nothing independently or separately from the Father. If He acted independently of the Father, then He would be another God, which is an impossibility. When the Lord said, “ The Son can do nothing of himself,” He was stating that He would not act differently from the Father, from His own independent will. While I do not agree with modernis- tically inclined ministers who are urging their congregation to practice the Ser mon on the Mount, yet does this dis course not have a message for Chris tians? Yes, this beautiful message from the Word of God does have a distinct mes
sage for every Christian. “ All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous ness” (2 Tim. 3:16). To rob the child of God of these comforting, instructive lessons from the lips of our Lord, would be to “ take away from” the Book of His Word, and to rob His children of price less truth. I have been a Christian for many years. Am I sealed with the Holy Spirit? Every believer is sealed with the Holy Spirit, even as Paul wrote to the Ephe sians, saying, “After that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:13,14). In other words, here Paul is saying that the Holy Spirit is the pledge given to every believer by the Father, guaranteeing the redemption of the body when it is raised from the dead, because the soul has al ready been redeemed by faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus. The seal is the mark of ownership. We belong to God. Does this world, with all its wealth, belong to God or to Satan? This is a question that frequently is asked, and let us read together what the Bible has to say on this subject. Turn with me to Psalm 24: “ The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” We see here that the world and all it con tains belongs to God. However, the devil and his cohorts possess much of it. Christ will one day come and take pos session, and the uttermost parts of the earth will be included in His kingdom. “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth” (Psalm 72:8). If God is omnipotent and omnipresent, and if He saw the wreck and chaos which Satan would produce, why did He not create him so he could not sin, or even destroy him before he wrecked the human race? This is really another point of view of the question so often asked, “ Why did not God create Adam and Eve so they could not sin by yielding to the temptations of Satan?” It must be ac knowledged that the “Why?” will re main a mystery until we come into the full "realization of God’s glory in the ages to come. In the meantime we must be satisfied with the statement in Ephe sians 1 :11, that He “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.”
Dr. Louis T. Talbot Should any man pride himself on his superiority over the pagan blacks of Australia or Africa? If any man thinks he has won a place of superiority by his own development, or by that of his forefathers, let him remember that only by the grace of God did his forefathers have the gospel. Only by the grace of God is he what he is today, whether Christian, or simply enjoying the by-products of Christianity. Let him remember that the savage heathen is today what he is because of the long-continued sins of his race. Many great scientists today have stated that this theory of organic evo lution is false, and even the most ardent supporters always have to admit1that, at best, it is only a theory —which is just another name for supposition. Over against this Satan-inspired theory we have the eternal fact of God’s Word. “ Thus saith the Lord” is not to be refuted. Man would do well to believe the Word of the unchanging, eternal, all-wise God. > f > f > f W ^ t x t te Christmas? Christmas in India, do you say? India scarcely knows the day! Grieving for sins that are unforgiven, Toiling for peace and hope of Heaven. Christ they know not, nor His birthday fair. Christmas? You never will find it there! Christmas in Africa, dark and old? Ne’er in their ears was the story told, Buried so deep in their jungles wild, Nothing they know of the Christmas Child: Buried ’neath the burdens they daily bear, Coming of Christmas they know not, there! Christmas in China, grim and grey? Star of the East, with its golden ray, Gleams o’er their land, but they see it not, Low is their vision, their heart untaught; Filling their days with weight of care, Christ and His Christmas they know not therel Christmas is found at His cradle stall, There we must lead those who find it at all. Show them the Star beaming bright on the way, Steering them onward to walk in its ray Up to His Cross and His love so rare, Christmas? Yes, surely, they’ll find it there! * —Nell Ruth Roffe
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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