saints. In questions of this nature, we must look carefully to the context of the words which are used. Q. San Francisco, Calif. — “What do you think of one who says that Jonah was dead in the fish’s stomach and then resurrected? Is there any scrip tural foundation for this?” A. There are some Bible scholars who hold to this view, however, a close investigation of S c rip tu re would not warrant such an assump tion. There really is no Bible foun dation for this view. This may come from a misinterpretation of Jonah 2. He talks of crying out of sheol. He could not hâve literally done this without first having died. We read, “Thou didst cast me into the depths and the heart of the sea, and the flood was round about me. All thy waves and thy billows passed over me.” If one is to be absolutely lit eral, how. could he say that every single one of the waves of the Medi terranean Sea passed over Jonah? This, you see, is the language of ap pearance. It expresses exactly how the writer felt emotionally. Jonah never said that his soul died within him. Here again we need to remem ber that the soul cannot die. The physical body of Jonah did not die at that time either. We must rec ognize the poetic language of this wonderful book. Jonah may have lost consciousness, but there is no indi cation that he expired and was res urrected. The time element is actu ally the only parallel with Christ’s resurrection. Everything e l s e be tween them was in contrast. Jonah
Q. Golden, Colo. — "For some time now there has been a radio preach er who has been telling us that the Bride of Christ will be taken out of the church. This is causing me great concern. I have taken it before the Lord. As yet, however, I have had no definite answer. Could you assist me?” A. Many erroneous views are being proclaimed over the air today. 'To give a proper answer to this specific question, we would need to know exactly what the speaker said and the context in which the statement was made. Let’s think of terms for a moment. When one mentions “Church,” he could mean some de nomination or group of denomina tions. S c rip tu ra lly , however, the word church in the Bible generally refers to what we know as the body of Christ, composed of all true born- again believers from every tribe, tongue and nation who, during this dispensation, have truly trusted the Lord as Saviour. If the speaker meant that the Bride would come out of the true Church he was en tirely incorrect. If he meant the Bride would be taken out of the church, meaning various denomi nations then this is the correct view. Again, for emphasis we state that there is no Scripture telling us that the Bride of Christ is other than the true Church of the living God. When Christ comes from Heaven (I Thess. 4:13-18) the dead in Christ will rise and then we which are alive and remain will be caught up to gether with Him. There is no “par tial” rapture. It includes all the
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