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TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I NE S S
OR. TALBOT'S QUESTION BOX
The beloved President o Los Angeles a n s we r
the Bible Institute of your Bible Questions.
In this day of grace, believing sin ners find rest in a Person, not in a day. That Person is the Lord Jesus Christ. Concerning Him, we read in Heb. 10:12 that He rested in a perfect work of redemption. The Lord Jesus was dead, and His body was in the sepulcher on Israel’s Sabbath. By His death God blotted out “the handwriting of ordinances,” according to Col. 2:14. And, as we read in Col. 2:16, believers in this age are not to be judged “in respect of . . . the sabbath.” The first day of the week speaks of resurrection, and believers today are resurrection people. But the first day of the week is not the Christian Sab bath; it is the Lord’s Day, and speaks of the new creation, of which every believer is a part. ^ QUE.: Please explain I Cor. 15:50, “ Flesh and blood cannot in herit the kingdom o f God.” Is this not a denial o f the resurrec tion o f the physical body? Does not the statement in I Cor. 15:44 also deny that our resurrection bodies will be material? “ There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” Not at all.' The first verse you quote, which mentions “flesh and blood,” refers to our bodies as they now are, as natural, corruptible, mor tal bodies. Our resurrection bodies will be like the resurrection body of Christ. (1 John 3:2; Phil. 3:20, 21), His body was material, but it was “flesh . and bones” (Luke 24:39). Christ’s resurrection body did not have one drop of blood in it, for He had shed His blood on Calvary as a sin offering. “The life of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev. 17:11). But our spir itual bodies will be, like Christ’s, of “flesh and bones,” glorified, immortal, incorruptible. That our Lord’s body was real, even as ours will be real, is seen in His words, "Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones,, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet” (Luke 24:39, 40). There they saw the marks of Cal-
vary, even as Thomas also saw, in his risen Lord, the nail prints and the riven side. (John 20:24-29), The statement in 1 Cor. 15:44 means that our material, resurrection bodies will be governed by our spirits. A natural body governs the spirit; a spiritual body is governed by the spirit. Hence we shall know no limi tations, such as the laws of gravita tion. Christ passed through walls and closed doors, even with a body of flesh and bone. And we shall be able to do likewise. ^ QUE. : Please explain Rev. 20:5, “ This is the first resurrec tion.” If the dead are raised prior to the tribulation, how could this be the first resurrection? Rev. 26:5 refers to the tribulation saints, w ho. are included, in God’s reckoning, in the first resurrection; i.e., the resurrection of believers on the Lord Jesus Christ. The translation of the Church before the tribulation, and the resurrection of the tribulation saints at the close of the tribulation— these constitute the “first resurrec tion,” called in Luke 14:13, 14 “the res urrection of the just,” and in John 5:29 “the resurrection of life,” ^ QUE.: Please explain Dent. 10:17, “ For the Lord your God is God o f gods, and Lord o f lords.” Is there more than one God? There is only one God in the abso lute sense, though there are many false gods—gods in the minds of men, but not in reality. This is what Moses had in mind when he wrote these words under the guidance of the Holy Spirit He was emphasizing the sov ereignty of God over all the universe. Satan is called “the god of this world” (2 COr. 4:4), and seeks worship. His desire to be "as God” led to his fall; and his desire for worship causes him to deceive multitudes, obtaining their worship. The prophet Isaiah answered your question, as does all the Word of God: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isa 45:22).
^ ■ QUE.: Was tlie Sabbath ever changed from the seventh day to the first day o f the week? First let us quote from Exodus 31:16, 17: “Wherefore the, children oi Israel shall keep the sabbath, to ob serve the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the chil dren of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.” Here we learn that the Sabbath was a sign between Jehovah and the nation of Israel. There is not a single Scripture to show that God ever gave the Sabbath for members of the Body of Christ, in this day of grace. The believer today is delivered from the law, is dead to the law, and is not under the law. In Gen. 2:2 we read that God rested, or “sabbathed,” on the seventh day. But God’s rest was of short duration. Satan came on the scene; and four thousand years later the Lord Jesus said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and § work” (John 5:17). From the, sin of Adam until the time Israel left Egypt, twenty-five hundred years later, there is not a word concerning the Sabbath. Noah found grace in the sight of God. Abram believed God, and was declared righteous. But both Noah and Abram rested in a Person, not in a day! On Mount Sinai, the Sabbath was given to Isrhel in connection, with the covenant of the law. Israel had a Sabbath, but no rest. God “sabbath ed” after He had done a perfect work. At Sinai God gave to Israel, the law, which demands perfection. When Christ was on earth, He said to Israel that none of them had kept the law. They were zealous Sabbath-keepers, but they killed the Son of God. Before He went to Calvary, He said to Sab bath-keepers,. "Come, untome . . . and I will give you rest” (Matt, 11:28).
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