TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I NE S S OR. TALBOT'S QUESTION BOX
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The beloved President of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles a n s we r s your Bible Questions.
Both Peter and Paul forbade anyone to worship them, even to fall dowri before them in reverence. There is not the slightest intimation in any Scripture that either Peter or Paul or any other apostle permitted sinner or saint to confess sins to them as is done according to the so-called doe- trine of “priestly absolution.” Every believer, in his dealings with men, declares sins forgiven or unfor given according to what the inquirer does with Christ. The text has no other meaning. . ^ QUE .: What is the meaning of the expression, “ . . . everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 2 5 :4 1 ) ? Does “ everlasting fire” refer to hell and if it does, would this not imply that hell is not for man? Yes, the “everlasting fire” of this passage does refer to hell—the “lake of fife and brimstone” of Revelation 20 : 10 . The verse implies that hell was not “prepared” for man, but for the devil and his angels. When man fell into sin, God “prepared” salvation for him. But it is clearly stated that, if man rejects that prepared salvation, he will find himself in the place prepared for the devil and his angels. ^ QUE .: What is the teaching of Scripture concerning the univer sal Fatherhood of God? The doctrine of the universal Fatfe, erhood of God is advanced by mod ernist preachers and not by the Bible. Modernists have taken the teachings of the Lord Jesus concerning God as His Father, and have gone out to teach that God is the Father of all men. Some people seem to think that this teaching is in the Bible, but it is not. It is not taught in God’s Book that He is the Father of all men. The Bible teaches that God is the Creator of all men, not the Father of all men. We are God’s creatures, as the angels are His creatures, as the demons (who were undoubtedly angels before they fell) are God’s created beings. Man is created by God, but is not a- son of God until he is born of God. Child hood requires birth. Jesus said that He was the Father’s Son; the Father
and 20: ‘For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the un just, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long- suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a prepar ing, -wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.’ The answer is that Christ went in His Spirit — the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God— the Holy Spirit, and preached through Noah in the days before the flood to those who now are spirits in prison. It does not mean that He has gone to them since they entered the prison and preached there to them. There is mystery about these passages, but this seems to be the true explanation.” ^ QUE .: Do these passages teach “ priestly absolution” as held by the Roman Catholic Church: Matthew 1 6 :1 9 ; 1 8 :1 8 ;John 2 0 ;2 3 ? What did Christ mean when He said, “ Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are re tained” ? There is no such thing in Christi anity as priestly absolution. There was. priestly absolution in Judaism, as in Leviticus; but this does not be long to the Christian Church or to Christianity. In this age of grace, all :of God's children are priests—women, ’ as well as men (1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 1:6). .And4 no other priesthood exists in Christianity. To “remit sin” is to declare sin for given on the basis of faith in the Lord Jesus. We find Peter declaring re mission of sins in the household of Cornelius: "To him [Jesus] give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43). To a man who has taken Christ as his Saviour, we bring God’s message and "declare sins forgiven.” To the man who spurns Christ, we bring God's message that his sins are re tained, and that he is “in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniqui ty” (Acts 8:23).
^ QUE.: How do you explain Luke 1 4 :2 6 ? “ If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” The parallel passage in Matthew 10:37 explains this verse. There Christ says, “He that loveth father or moth er more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.’’ These words show that the Lord is not talking of an actual hatred, but rather of what would seem hatred by way of comparison with the God-given love, implanted in the heart of the born-again child of God, deposited there by the Holy Spirit alone. If I desire to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, yet allow myself to be turned away from that object by my father, my mother, my wife, my children, then I am not worthy of the Lord Jesus, and can never be His disciple so long as this condition of heart remains. This text does not teach that natural relationships, as such",vare to be re pudiated; but Christ must be first, and His claims set before all elses^even one’s own life. ^ QUE .: Please explain 1 Pfeter 4 :6 , “ For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” The answer which the Rev. William L. Pettingill, D.D., gives to this ques tion is as terse as any I have seen. He says of this text: “You notice it doesn't say the men who were dead. It says it was preached to them that are dead. The meaning is that those that are now dead had the Gospel preached to them while they were yet living. The third chap ter of 1 Peter has something on prac tically the same subject, verses 18, 19,
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