HYPNOTISM FOR CHRISTIANS? Q. Should Christians ever submit to hypnotism? A. Under ordinary circumstances, I do not believe any Christian should submit to the will of another, as is required in hypnotism. It smacks of the occult and has no place in a Christian’s life. I know that many psychiatrists advocate this method for all manner of physical and men tal problems but it is a dangerous power to exercise over the minds of other people. We have the Word of God and prayer and the counsel of godly men to help us. Only in the hands of a truly born-again doctor would this be permissible at all. THE ZEAL OF HIS HOUSE Q. I do not understand why zeal- mentioned in John 2:17 is not com mendable. A. It is with the right motivation. The word zelos has either a bad or a good meaning: jealousy or ardor. The background of this passage is the Messianic Psalm 69, verse 9, from which it is quoted in this New Testament passage. The Pharasaic system with its greed, love of the praise of men, and self-righteous ness, had crowded the Lord Jesus Christ out of His own House which was designed to be a place of prayer for all nations. They had turned it into an occasion for gain and pres tige for themselves. Q. Since God is a God of love, why did He tell His people Israel to fight against the heathen nations about them? A. These nations had had their op portunity to receive the truth of God but they had turned their backs upon the light. They were idolaters, corrupt in their lives and a menace to the people of God. Time and again Israel fell into their snares, wor shipped t h e i r idols, intermarried with them — all contrary to God’s explicit commands. Since the nations refused to go God’s way, there was nothing left for Him to do but to cut them off in the interest of His chos en people. When a certain part of the human body becomes diseased, it is often necessary to amputate a limb, in or der to save the whole; and this was true in the body politic. The com mand God gave for the extermina tion of depraved nations suggests GOD’S LOVE AND CORRUPT MAN
the depths of corruption to which they had sunk. In permitting them to exist, nothing would have been accomplished except the continuation of the degradation. Excavations have indicated that if certain peoples had been permitted to reproduce them selves, they would have brought mon strosities into the world, so great were their immoralities, so God was merciful. Ours is a God of love. He does not send a single soul to eternal hell. He gives man a free will in order that He may save all who come unto Him through Christ, who receive His Son as their Saviour. When men deliber ately reject the only Saviour, there is no place for man to go. Our God is completely just. “Shall not the Judge of the whole earth do right?” MEANING OF THE LORD'S SUPPER Q. What was the reason for the in stitution of the communion service? Who should partake of it? A. We believe this ordinance was given by the Lord Jesus Christ for born-again believers only, for those who are relying upon His shed blood, His substitutionary death and resur rection; who are saved by faith, not by works of any kind (Eph. 2:8-9). This ordinance was instituted by the Lord Jesus to remind us of the price He paid for our salvation, to help us keep in mind His love for us until He comes again (I Cor. 11:23- 26). It is simply a memorial feast. There is no change in the elements; they remain grape juice and cracker or unleavened bread. They merely represent the broken body and shed blood of our Saviour. We do not agree in the least with the doctrines of consubstantiation or transubstan- tiation — that the elements them selves undergo a change. When Jesus said to His disciples: “This is my blood — this is my body,” He was alive. His body was intact and the blood was flowing in His veins. We know then that it was symbolic lan guage as much as when He called Himself the Bread of Life, the Wa ter of Life, the Shepherd of the sheep, etc. There is no transforming of these elements into anything else but as we look to the Lord Jesus Christ, and trust the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts, the Lord can draw us close to Him through this communion service. We are told to examine ourselves as we come to His table. Our hearts should be moved every time we come by His wondrous love for us in laying down His life in our room and stead that we might be saved and live with Him forever.
Dr. Talbot’s Q U E S T IO N B O X
RESURRECTION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT Q. Please explain the resurrection of the Old Testament saints. A. This is not an easy subject and I am indebted to Dr. Charles L. Fein- berg for much of this reply. The doctrine of the resurrection occurs only in vague and general terms in the Old Testament. The reason is clear: these matters did not demand clarity until the actual resurrection of Christ. See I Peter 1:3; Psalm 16:10; Isaiah 25:8; 26:19; Hosea 13:14. While all of these verses re fer to the resurrection, they do so in .most general terms, so that the time element is entirely lacking. The passage central in the Old Testament on this subject is Daniel 12:2, which is preceded by an indication of the Great Tribulation. The resurrection is subsequent to that time of trou ble. Thus we can be certain that they are raised prior to the reign of Christ on earth. Many believe that the Old Testament saints are includ ed in Revelation 20:4; they must be, because if their resurrection were later, they would not be in the res urrection of the righteous. Thus this position harmonizes the Scripture on the subject of resurrection: Christ’s resurrection came first, and He is the first-fruits; then come all the New Testament saints; finally the Old Testament saints and martyred saints of the Great Tribulation con clude the final stages of the first resurrection.
H
THE K IN G 'S BUSINESS
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs