What is the difference between the expressions used by the Lord Jesus: “Mine hour is not yet come” and “My time is not yet come” ? There is a difference in these two expressions. When Christ said, My time is not yet come, He was referring to events in His earthly life. For example, in John 7:6, when His - disciples asked whether He was going down to Jerusa lem to the feast of the tabernacles, He said, My time is not yet come. Every step of the Lord was ordered by the Father. We often say that we live a day at a time, but the Lord Jesus lived a second at a time. And wherever He put His foot, the same was in full accordance with the will and guidance of His Father in Heaven. The expression, Mine hour has not yet come, always refers to the cross. No. We should first make every effort, through prayer and influence, to main tain a testimony that is true to Christ and the Bible in whatever church we may join. Then failing that, we should withdraw our membership, and put it where we may share in giving the gos pel to the world, as well as feed our own souls on the Bread of Life. Cer tainly anyone or any church that denies the deity of our Lord and His finished work on the cross should not have the support of a Christian’s gifts or time or interest. Except as we can win them to Christ, we should not have fellowship with them. They will be converted Jews who will be God’s witnesses in the earth during the seventieth week of Daniel, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, pointing many to the coming of the King. This will be after the translation of the Church. It is noteworthy that Israel is being prepared for this ministry, in that there are Jews in every land, speaking every language. When God’s hour strikes, they will go out in zeal, pro claiming the crucified and risen Lord Jesus as their Messiah and coming King. Different cults have claimed to be the 144,000. But what is more ridiculous, in view of the fact that the very names of the tribes of Israel are given in Reve lation 7:4-8? There will be 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes. And they will be Israelites, not some godless Christ- rejecting cult of satanic origin! Moreover, their ministry is still fu ture —all of Revelation from 4:1 to the end of the book is future. How, then, can these false cults today pretend to be the 144,000? They have no scriptural ground for such a claim. T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S Should we support a church whose pastor denies the deity of Christ and His finished work on Calvary? Who are the H i,000 of Revelation 7:4-8; 14:1-5?
Dr. L. T. Talbot
they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” ? Read this verse in the Revised Ver sion, and you will have your answer: “Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to come to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city.” Works do not give the right to the tree of life. It is the grace of God that cleanses our robes in the blood of the Lamb of Calvary. And every believer on the Lord Jesus Christ has right to the tree of life only on the ground of His finished redemp tion. I have heard you say we do not have to DO anything to be saved. Later you quoted Matthew 26:27, 28 which says that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, saying to His disciples, “Drink ye all of it.” How do you harmonize your first statement with this command to DO this? How do you harmonize it with Christ’s command that we be baptized? My friend, this and your next ques tion show how cenfused the legalists are in regard to the plan of salvation; that is, how a sinner is really brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. When He said to His disciples, Do this in remembrance of me, He was not talking of those who needed salva tion, but to those who already possessed it. He had already told them to rejoice because their names were written in Heaven, in the Lamb’s book of life. How were they saved? How did they get their names written in Heaven? By partaking of the Lord’s Supper? No! A thousand times, no! They got their names there when they believed the exhortation of John the Baptist, “ Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). My friend, one does the doing, not in order to be saved, but because he is saved. If you are resting in your doing, as you evidently are, you are going to be a very disappointed man one of these days when you meet Him who said over and over again that salvation is all of grace, without works of any kind.
We have been unable to find a satis factory answer as to what the unpardon able sin, as mentioned in the fourth chapter of Mark, is. Please explain. While the final rejection of the Son of God as the only Saviour is unpar donable, and fixes destiny, yet a careful reading of this chapter, and of Mat thew 12:22-32, and Luke 11:14-23 makes it clear that the unpardonable sin is the accusation that the Lord Jesus Christ was in league with Beelzebub, and that His miracles were performed by the power of the devil. This unpardonable sin cannot be com mitted during this age, because the Lord Jesus is not on the earth. He must be on earth, performing mighty acts in the presence of people, in order that such a sin may be committed. This is the explanation of the words, “Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age, neither in the age to come” (Matt. 12:32). The “ age to come” is the millennium, when Christ will be on the earth to reign. If in that coming age anyone attributes His mighty works to Satan, then that will be the unpardon able sin as referred to in the above- named Scriptures, even as it was the unpardonable sin for the Pharisees to hold that He cast out demons by the power of Beelzebub when He was on the earth nearly two thousand years ago. When Christ spoke these words con cerning this sin against the Holy Spirit, the church age was yet a mystery; that is, something not then revealed to man. The Lord Jesus was speaking at the close of the dispensation of law, which culminated at the cross. The age to come, as known by the Jew, and as fore told in the prophetic Scriptures, is the time when the kingdom will be estab lished. The present church age, then a mystery to the Jews, Christ passed over, because it was to be revealed later through Paul. I f salvation is all of grace, and works play no part in our redemption, then why do we read in Revelation 22:14, “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that
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