day the body and spirit will be re united and so shall we all be together and forever with the Lord. ATHLETICS FOR CHRISTIANS ■ Q. Is it all right for a Christian young ■ person to devote his life to sports? ■ A. Every young person, just as every* older person, should seek the will of■ God for his life, and not make aI decision “ on his own” as to how h is* life shall be spent. There is nothing* intrinsically wrong about most sports,* but one who is engaged in any type* of professional athletics has little tim e* for anything else. Many ball players,* for instance, find their Sundays taken* up so there is little or no time fo r * church life during the season. How -* ever, there are fine Christian athletes* who witness fearlessly for Christ and* are respected by their clubs and b y * all who observe their clean, upright* lives. It is a demanding life and one* should consider the matter from every* angle before he makes up his mind.* He should be a strong Christian, with I his feet planted firmly on the W ord* of God so that he may withstand the* temptations of life. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT Q. Do you believe in capital punish-l ment for first-degree ( premeditated , unprovoked) murder? A. Yes, I do. It is the main deterrent! to the crime of murder. God gave u s ! a ruling in this matter long before™ the law was given. In Genesis 9:5-6: ■ I . . At the hand of every man'sl brother will I require the life of m a n ! Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, b y ! man shall his blood be shed: for in i the image of God made he man.” This is a judicial decision which! has nothing to do with personal re-1 venge or personal hatred. The com-l mandment “Thou shalt not kill” in the decalogue refers to murder, and judicial taking of life for murder i: not in the same category at all. Thatl kind of reasoning is based upon sickly: sentiment and has no foundation ini the Word of God. i * T
raised is that Paul took Judas’ place, but this is disproved by I Corinthians 15:5, 7 and 8. “He [Christ after His resurrection] was seen of Cephas [Pe ter], then of the twelve . . . then of all the apostles . . . And last of all He was seen of men also, as of one bom out of due time.” Paul is not listed with the twelve, and he was called to a special ministry to the Gentiles whereas the twelve still min istered to the Jews for the most part. Paul did not take the place of Judas. He had his own place to fill as the great apostle to the Gentiles. The twelve here included Matthias. SOUL SLEEPING Q. Is there anything to the doctrine of “soul sleep” ? A. Absolutely not. This is an inven tion of man, like purgatory and a lot of other nonsense. Nowhere in Scrip ture is the spirit or soul ever spoken of as “ sleeping.” Only the body sleeps. In Rev. 6:9 we read of “ the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:” And these souls, far from being asleep, “ cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” There is no such expression in the Word of God as “ soul sleep,” nor any such teaching. It is clear as anything in the Bible exactly what happens to the believer when he dies. Paul writes of this in his letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor. 5:1-10). Note especially verses 6 and 8 . . . “Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord . . . We are confident, I say, and will ing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lard.” What a glorious truth it is that the moment the believer’s spirit separates from his body, that his spirit is im mediately in the presence of the Lord, without any period of unconscious ness to intervene. We step from earth to heaven in an instant. That is our consolation when our loved ones go to be with Him. We know that one
POSITION OF MATTHIAS Q. W ill you please tell me if you be lieve that Matthias was chosen of God to take Judas’ place, or was this a decision of impetuous Peter? A. This account is given in Acts 1:23- 26. Certainly I believe that Matthias was the Lord’s choice of the one to fill the vacancy left by the traitorous Judas. In fact, Psalm 69:25 predicted this very action, and it was so un derstood by Peter and the others. Some have objected to this for two reasons: first, that the lot was not God’s way of doing things; and sec ond, that Paul was chosen to take Judas’ place. Both of these views are in error, I believe. The 120 who were with Peter at the time “prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two [Matthias or Barsabas Jus tus] thou hast chosen. That he may take part of this ministry and apostle- ship from which Judas by transgres sion fell, that he might go to his own place. And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles” (Acts 1:24-26). Peter had learned to pray before he took action. He didn’t pray before he cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest; he didn’t pray when he was tempted to deny his Lord; but Peter was changed. The lot was Old Testament practice and the disciples were still on Old Testament ground. There are dozens of references to the use of the lot in the Old Testament such as choosing the scapegoat, Lev. 16:8-10; dividing the land, Num. 26:55-56; selecting the Levites, Jos. 21:8; divid ing the cities of Canaan, I Chron. 6:54-65, etc. In Proverbs 16:33 we read: “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.” We must remember that not one line of the New Testament was written at thé time the selection of Matthias took place. God showed His will and spoke to men in various ways (Heb. 1:1). The second objection sometimes 26
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THE KING'S B U S IN E S S !
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