to act upon or divide the Word of truth but rather we are to proceed straightly by the Word of truth. We are to allow it to act upon us, rath er than having us act upon it. Our lives are to be governed by the Scriptures. We should be guided and directed into a more holy manner of life and living. Q. "In Deuteronomy 8:3 'word' is in italics. But in Matthew 4:4 where Christ quotes the same Scripture, it is not. Is there an explanation for this?" A. In the freedom of inspiration through the Holy Spirit there can be these word changes, just as any author can do. Christ certainly did not do violence to the basic orig inal meaning of the Old Testament in this quotation. He could not have been more accurate. So, while "word" is in italics, it is certainly understood clearly as being there. Q. "In the light of Matthew 13:34, did the Lord teach in any way ex cept by parables? And, exactly what is a parable?" A. The quotation does not refer to the whole ministry of Jesus but rather to those occasions of public ministry. In the Beatitudes, for ex ample, He did not use parables. A parable is simply an imaginery story used to illustrate certain spir itual truth. Someone has phrased it as being a heavenly story with an earthly meaning. It is to illumine important truths.
John does not record this event. One prophecy definitely fulfilled at this point is Malachi 4:5. Our Lord Jesus had indicated that if Israel had been in a believing atti tude toward Him as their Messiah, then the coming of John the Baptist would have fulfilled the function of Elijah. A number of prophecies were fulfilled when the Lord met with Moses, representing the Law, and Elijah, representing the proph ets. This was the subject of their conversation (Luke 9:30, 31). The patriarch and the prophet were talking about the death of Christ which He was to accomplish at Jerusalem (Isaiah 53). Q. '7 am confused by the multi plicity of translations and para phrases. Why do some ministers approve of those which are ques tionable?" A. God has told us to study to show ourselves approved unto Him (II Timothy 2:15). This does not mean that if anything is made easy we do not have to study it. This is a day when everything has to be made simple in every area of life. We prefer to recommend the King James Version. We also recognize the value of some of the later works for comparative study in working with various groups. Young people seem to understand and appreci ate that which has been written in their own vernacular. While some modern translations are good, oth ers cannot be recommended. We believe the New Scofield Refer ence Bible is extremely practical. There are helps in the margin and in the footnotes which are valu able. The phrase, "rightly dividing the word of truth," does not mean in the original Greek that we are
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