X D r . T a l b o t ’s
d c i e s t i o n .
B o x
“Ye shall be as gods.” He sought in vain to obtain worship from the sin less Son of God. He is, even yet, in a sense the “god of this world,” by which Paul means the God-dishonor ing, Christ-rejecting, Spirit-resisting world. Thank God it will not always be so. One day our Lord will come and claim that which is His by right of creation, and which He has purchased from its fallen state by right of His atoning work on the cross. Our God is a God of science and order. But ever remember Paul’s ad monition to Timothy: “0 Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain bab blings, and oppositions of science falsely so called’■’ (I Tim. 6:20). RICH M A N A N D LAZARUS Q. If the rich man of Luke 16:19-31 was in Hades as a disembodied spirit, how could it be said that he lifted up his “eyes, being in torments”? How could he speak of the “finger3’ of Lazarus, who was in paradise, and of his own “tongue?’? A . The spirit has a form, just as the body has a form. The form of the spirit is, in all probability, the same form as that of the body. It is true, the dead, whether in Christ or out of Christ, are disembodied spirits. The Scriptures, however, imply that, while they are without a body, yet they do not miss the body. In other words, they are not conscious of disembodi ment. This is implied in II Cor. 12:2. There Paul t6lls us that he was caught up into the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body, he could not tell. If he were out of the body at the time of that experience, he was not conscious of it. This sheds a great deal of light upon the present disem bodiment of the dead, and this is the explanation of the rich man’s speak ing of his “tongue” and of Lazarus’
AGE OF TH E EARTH Q. As only about 6,000 years have passed since Adam was created, how do you account for all the millions of years scientists claim for the age of the earth? A . Between the first two verses of Genesis there could have elapsed all the time of all the geologic ages. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Possibly that was mil lions of years ago. Then something happened to mar God’s perfect, ori ginal creation; for verse 2 reads, “And the earth became without form and void” (Hebrew text). (Cf. Jer. 4:23- 26; Isa. 24:1; 45:18.) The real mean ing of the word translated “was” is “became.” How long the earth re mained in this chaotic condition God has not see tit to tell us, but certain ly there is room here for all the time of all the ages. Then out of this chaos, God brought a renovated earth about 6,000 years ago; created all life and made man in His own image, as the inspired record states. Just what happened to ruin God’s original, creation, He has not revealed, yet there is scriptural ground for be lieving that the fall of Satan and the wicked angels may have been associ ated with the judgment that came upon the earth. That Satan fell through pride, we know. (Read Isa. 14:12-17; Ezek. 28:12-19.) That- he seems to have been given dominion over the earth before he fell, while he was still an angel, seems to be beyond all doubt. (See John 12:31; 14: 30; II Cor. 4 :4 ; Matt. 4:8, 9.) When Satan offered the Lord Jesus all the kingdoms of this world, if He would worship -him, Christ did not deny Satan’s power to give possession of “the world.” These and other Scrip tures seem to imply that the earth was Satan’s domain before he fell, through pride. He sinned by seeking worship as God. He caused man to fall by the same appeal to pride—
“finger.” It explains also the Scripture reference to the rich man’s “eyes,” in the passage to which we refer.
LEAD ING C A P T IV IT Y CAP TIVE Q. As a subscriber and reader of your wonderful magazine, I wish sometime Dr. Talbot would explain the mean ing of the 8th verse of Ephesians 4 . A . One needs to read the two follow ing verses to complete the thought of verse 8. Ephesians 4:8-10 reads as fol lows: “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led capitvity captive, and gave gifts unto men. “ (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? “He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)” The marginal reading for the clause: “He led captivity captive” is enlightening: “a multitude of cap tives.” As I understand the Word of God, the spirits of the Old Testament saints went to paradise, which then was not yet in Heaven, but was a part of Sheol, or Hades, the place of departed spirits, before the resurrection. It was there the Lord Jesus went while His body lay in the tomb. Proof of this is found in Psalm 16:8-11. Both Peter and Paul quote this prophecy to prove the resurrection of Christ (Acts 2:25- 31; 13:32-37). See Luke 16:19-31; 23- 43. With His ascension, Christ took paradise, with all of its occupants, to Heaven with Him. These I believe were the “captives” above referred to. Since the resurrection and ascension, Heaven and Paradise have been iden tical. However, spirits of the unsaved dead still go to the other compartment of Hades, a place of torment, waiting their final assignment to hell, the lake of fire, Gehenna, as described in Rev. 19:20; 20:10-15.
16
THE KING'S BUSINESS
Made with FlippingBook Online document