Questions and Answers By R. A. TORREY
in the lifetime of the présent' génération. “How may we know that The Poiil of the unregenerate is immortal (in the sense of never ending, conscious existence) in view of i Timothy 6:l6 and the fact that eternal life is promised only to believers in Jesus Christ?" , -The soul of the ünrejgénéfate is not na turally immortal, but all men get resur rection and endless ' existence in Christ.- Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:22, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive,” which clearly means, when taken in its context, that as all descendants of Adam lost life in Adam, so; in Christ shall all the same persons be made alive, i. e. they shall all be raised (as the con text'shows). Whether this resurrection is a resurrection unto “eternal life” or whether it is a resurrection unto ■ everlast ing shame and contempt (see Dan. 12:2); Or to put it in another way,-whether it is a “resurrection of life” or a “resurrection of judgment” (see John 5:29) depends al together upon what those who are raised have done with the Christ in whom they get resurrection: We must furthermore re member that “eternal life” does not mean merely endless existence; it has to do with th quality of the existence as much as with its duration (see John 17:3). Existence is not life (in this sense). We are told in 1 Timothy 5 :6 that “She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth." She ex ists but she has not life. All persons, good and bad, believers and infidels, get endless existence in Christ, only believers get “eter nal life” in Christ. "Was Cornelius a saved man before Peter was sent to him? In other Words, would he' have been lost if Peter had not gone to : him?” Cornelius wâs not a saved man before Peter went to him. Hé wâs distinctly told 'when :he was directed to' send for Péter Concluded on P ag e 418
“Aré we in the time of which our Lord speaks when He says, ‘When ¡these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draiih eth nigh?’’ (Luke 21:28). There are many things that would seem to indicate that we are. Certainly men’s hearts are “fainting for fear and for ex pectation of the things which are coming on the world” (v. 26). Certainly, there is upon the earth “distress of nations with perplex ity” (v. 25) But it .is never .safe to, con clude that because in some ways our times closely resemble the picture of the last times as1given in the Scriptures (see, for :example, 2 Tim.-3:1-5) that therefore our Lord will immediately come. Time and time again in the history of the world since the ’ascension of our Lord, riiarty things have seemed to indicate the very near approach of our Lord. Martin Luther, for example, in his day saw in many things that were ,then, occurring on the earth what appeared to him to b¿ indications that the coming oí the Lord was very near. So have many other mighty men of God thought througn- out the centuries. And they were not mis taken; the;ones who were mistaken were, those whq thought that the coming of our Lord was so far away that they let it have no practical effect upon their lives. There is reason to hope that the coming of our Lord is very near, but we aré not warranted on that account in saying that He will come within a certain specified time, nor even in teaching positively that He will come during our lifetime. The entire matter of setting dates is strictly forbidden in the Word of God (see, for example, Acts Í :7). In the light of what our Lord says in Acts 1:7 anyone who tries to set times or seasons is going directly counter to the revealed will of God. There is reason to hope that our Lord will, soon come and certainly every intelligent Christian heart must cry, .“Even so, Come, Lord Jesus’’ (Rev, 22:20), But there is nq ground for prophesying that He will come át once or even that He ’will come
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter