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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
OR. TAIBOT'S
QUESTION BOX
The beloved President oF the Los Angeles a n s we r s your
Bible
Institute of Questions.
Bible
turned his back upon God, he and his descendants built a godless civiliza tion, which became so corrupt that it had to be wiped out in the flood. QUE.: What is the difference be tween "Hades" in Luke 16:23 and "Gehenna" in Rev. 20:11-15? Hades in the abode of the Christless dead, where they await the great white throne judgment. It is not pur gatory; nor is it a place of second chance. It is a waiting place. “Geh enna” is the lake of fire, the “second death,” the final doom of the lost. QUE.: Were the six days of creation solar days of twenty-four hours each, or were they longer periods of time? I believe they were solar days of twenty-four hours each. However, there are_ those who think that 2 Peter 3:8 implies that they may have been longer periods of time: “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” . The insurmountable difficulty in be lieving that the Genesis days were ages is that the Word says that each day of the “days” of creation was di vided into two parts: The light was called “ day,” and the darkness was called “night.” If the night had con sisted of thousands of years, all vege tation would have died. A ll vegetable life must have light in order to sur vive. The motive of certain critics in es timating these six days of creation as longer periods of time is to seek to apply the theory of evolution to the creation story. Certainly the God of all creation is able to do all things; and He could assuredly create all things in six solar days, or less time than that if He so chose to do it. And our God did not bring human life into the world by such a process as organic evolution. To accept such a theory, is to deny the infallible Word of God. QUE.: Is the Holy Spirit an in fluence? I always believed Him to be a Person, but our pastor speaks of Him as impersonal. The Holy Spirit is not just an in fluence, though rationalistic theolo gians and various cults so describe Him, .The Word of God makes it very
plain that He is a Person, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and with the Son. Moreover, the Revised Ver sion of our English Bible always translates the pronoun referring to Him as “He” or “Him”—never “it.” So does the Authorized Version, except in one or two passages, where the trans lation is not as accurate as the Re vised Version. Our Lord repeatedly called the Holy Spirit a Person, es pecially in His farewell message to the disciples in John 14-16. Read these chapters to find the verses for yourself. The entire New Testament is full of many references to the Holy Spirit of God, showing that He is one with the Father and the Son. QUE.: Please explain James 2:19, "The devils also believe, and trem ble." If you read the context, you will see that James, in writing to the man whose empty profession of faith does not bear fruit, says, in substance, “Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well (or, to paraphrase, ‘so far so good’): the demons also believe (that God is one), and tremble.” And why do they tremble? Because they know that their doom is sealed, and that they w ill one day be cast into the lake of fire with the devil and all his wicked angels. Theirs is a head- knowledge, but not a heart-knowl edge. The same might be said of any hu man being who knows that there is one God, yet refuses the atoning work of Christ on the Cross. He trembles at the thought of judgment—unless Satan has so blinded him that he has deceived him into a false sense of security. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, the demons recognized Him as “ the Holy One of God.” On one occasion “they cried out saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?” (Matt. 8:29). Here they express a knowledge of certain doom. When the Lord Jesus “suffered them not to speak” of Him as the Son of God, it seems as though He would not receive this testimony from de mons. i . ■
QUE.: Was Cain ever saved? There is nothing in all the Bible to indicate that Cain was ever saved; whereas there is everything to imply that he died a lost soul. In the first place, he tried to offer to God a blood less sacrifice, the works of his own hands—and this in open rebellion against God. In the second place, wp read that “ Cain went out from the presence of the Lord” (Gen, 4:16); and having Undoubtedly. And the very fact thaLLhe appearances were supernat ural also greatly troubled those to whom the holy angels appeared. However, when we get to Heaven, the sight of all the myriads of angels and of the archangels w ill not trouble us; for Heaven w ill be “home.” Home is the place where there is no embarrass ment and no strangeness. One of the most beautiful descriptions of Heaven is found in the word “home.” We shall riot be troubled there. We shall re joice to look upon the sinless Son of God, unafraid in His presence, because we are washed in His precious blood. QUE,: Why do you not baptize In* lants and very young children? Because it is my firm conviction that baptism follows conversion. I am happy to dedicate infants and young c h i l d r e n to the Lord, for it seems to me that every Christian parent should dedicate his child to God, both as an act of devotion to Him, and as a safeguard to the child. But dedication is not baptism. Ded ication is the act of the parent, in which he presents his child to God and assumes responsibility for the training of that child for Him. Bap tism, however, is the act of the believ er himself, in which he confesses faith in the Lord Jesus, who died for our sins and rose again for our justifica tion. ______ QUE.; We often read in the Bible of how people were "troubled" at the ap pearance of angels. Was this because the angels were holy; and in their presence man was conscious of his sinfulness?
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