of himself. This didn’t please Laban, or his sons, The Lord told Jacob to go back to his own homeland. Rachel gathered up some of their household gods. The verse says that she “put them in the camel’s furniture.” This means in the original language the saddle. The New Scofield Bible on page 46 points out that in the upper part of Mesapotamia archaeologists have found tablets of this era which were supposed to insure prosperity. They also indicated who the rightful heir in the household would be. This shows the gravity of the situation. Legally they had the function of in dicating Laban’s will. The lessons to learn would be to avoid entrapment with a person like Laban. Second, don’t ever steal. These images were worthless anyhow. Third, don’t lie, which was what Rachel had done. Q. San Francisco, Calif. — "J wonder i f you could help on some questions for me? I teach Sunday school, and regarding the fourth commandment concerning the Sabbath day the B i ble clearly states that S a tu rd a y should be so observed. Yet, we in our churches observe Sunday, the first day of the week. How do we reconcile this difference?” A. First of all, are you sure that you observe Sunday as the Sabbath ? Keep in mind that the Sabbath was made for the Jews (Ex. 31:13). This was a sign between God and the chil dren of Israel. Furthermore, God commanded the Jews to do certain things, and demanded that they not do certain things on the Sabbath. These are not commands pertinent to us. We keep Sunday as the proper day of worship because it was then that the Lord rose from the dead. The people, before the resurrection of Jesus Christ, rested on the Sab bath. The new dispensation began on the resurrection side of the cross. This is the reason we worship on Sunday. See Acts 20:7 and I Corin
thians 16:1-2 for day on which the early church assembled.
Q, Fairfield, Wash. — “Is it proper for a pastor to say, ‘Come to com munion to have your sins forgiven’? Also, are there three ways for the forgiveness of sins: believing God, baptism, and communion?” A. There is only one way of salvation and that is through an individual’s personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour (Eph. 2:8, 9). A word of caution in that sometimes one may think he hears the pastor make a statement which was taken in the wrong way. Ask the pastor his convictions on this a ll-im p o rtan t point of the Gospel message. Com munion, baptism or some ritual of the church can never save a person or guarantee that his sins are for given. There is not even part of a verse that would indicate such a view. The statement which is correct and eminently biblical is, “Come to Christ to have your sins forgiven.” No, there are not three ways, and not even two ways, to be saved. There is one and only one way (John 3:16, 5:24, Acts 16:31). The three things you have pointed out do give us the chronological order of what we should do after we are saved. First of all, we should believe God concerning Christ and receive Him as our Saviour. Then we should make known our stand publicly in baptism and by attending the Lord’s Supper with other believers who commemo rate the death of Christ at His table, “until He comes.” Q. Caldwell, Ida. — “In Matthew 2, we read that because of H e rod Joseph had to take the Christ child to Egypt. Here they stayed until an angel appeared and told them that Herod was dead so that they could return to Israel. How then is it pos sible for Herod to be alive in Mat
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