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Lord, and shall drink neither wine or strong drink.” Notice that you have a difference here between “wine” and “ strong drink.” The wine would be unfermented; the strong drink, fermented. I do not profess to know just what the wine at the marriage feast was like, but I do know that our sinless Saviour, th roughou t H is inspired Word, warns against the use of intoxicat ing liquor, and that He would have no part in creating a thing that would cause one of His creatures to sin. In Romans 14:21, we read: “ It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offend ed, or is made weak.” We should abstain, not only from wine, but also from anything that would cause the weaker brother to stumble. C A N M E N FORG IVE SINS? Q . Do these passages teach “ priestly absolution” as held by the Roman Catholic Church: Matthew 16:19, 18:18; John 20:23? What did Christ mean when He said, “ Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted un to them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained” ? A . There is no such thing in Chris tianity as priestly absolution. There was priestly absolution in Judaism, as in Leviticus, but this does not belong to the Christian Church or to Chris tianity. In this age of grace, all of God’s children are priests — women as well as men. (See I Peter 2 :9 ; Rev. 1:6.) No other priesthood exists in Christianity. To remit sins is to declare sin for given on the basis of faith in the Lord Jesus. We find Peter declaring remission of sins in the household of Cornelius: “ To him [Jesus] give all the p roph e ts w itn ess, that through his name whosoever believ- eth in him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43). To a man who has taken Christ as his Saviour, we bring God’s mes sage and declare sins forgiven. To
C H A S T E N IN G OF BELIEVERS Q . Please explain how Christians will be punished, fo r wrong-doing. A . One answer to your question is found in First Corinthians 11:30-32. Some of the Corinthians were carnal Christians. Among other sins, they were making the Lord’s Supper a time of eating and drinking. There fore, Paul wrote to them saying: For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened o f the Lord, that we should not be con demned with the world. In other words, if Christians fail to give a testimony to the world of the power of Christ; if they are a hindrance to the spread of the gospel, sometimes God has to take them out of the way. Their souls are saved, but their works following salvation are not worthy o f reward. That leads us to say also that one way a Christian is punished, to quote your question, is by the very fact that in Heaven he will not re ceive certain rewards for service rendered. He will suffer loss at the judgment seat o f Ch rist, even though he himself shall be saved. (See I Cor. 3:11-15.) Again, if a born-again soul does not obey God, he loses the great joy of fellowship with his Lord. The child who disobeys his parent does not lose his sonship, but while he rebels, he is out of fellowship with the parent. So it is with the child of God. He does not lose his sonship, but he does lose the joy of his sal vation until he gets right with God, confesses his sin and seeks to do His will.________________________________ W IN E OF C A N A Q . Was the urine the Lord made at the marriage in Cana fermented? A . Luke 1:15 sheds light on this question. The verse quoted concerns John the Baptist; it reads “ For he shall be great in the sight of the MARCH, 1969
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 in iquity” (Acts 8:23). Both Peter and Paul forbade any one to worship them, even to fall down before them in reverence. There is not the slightest intimation in any Scripture that either Peter or Paul or any apostle permitted sinner or saint to confess sins to them as is done according to the so- called doctrine of “ priestly absolu tion.” Every believer, in his dealings with men, declares sins forgiven or unforgiven according to what the inquirer does with Christ. The text has no other meaning. R E S U R R E C T IO N - N A T IO N A L , PERSONAL Q . What resurrection is meant in Daniel 12:2 : “ And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” A . These words could well be ap plied to the two resurrections: The first to take place before the thou sand years’ reign of Christ, when the believers will be raised; and the sec ond to take place after the reign of Christ on earth, when the wicked dead shall stand before the great white throne. But my understanding is that this verse in Daniel 12:2 re fers to the national resurrection of Israel, for the prophet is address ing Israel in the preceding verse, speaking of the great tribulation period, also referred to by our Lord in Matthew 24. Certainly Israel has long been buried, nationally, among the na tions of the earth. God has repeated ly stated that the national idea will awaken in Israel — and this is lit erally true today! Some will awaken to shame and everlasting contempt because they will become a part of the apostasy, worshipping the anti christ. 27
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