Christ we will not be subject to the conditions which must be governed by physical laws. Christ will reign upon the earth during the millennium. But throughout all eternity heaven and earth will be in large measure one. The vastness of God’s universe is going to be the future “play ground” of the Christian. It is not a question of Christ’s ruling on the earth and God ruling in heaven. The Trinity is omnipresent. Q. Yakima, Washington — UJ have heard the fig tree in Mark 11:12 being lik ened to the nation of Israel. Is this possible?” A. The parallel passage is found in Matthew 24:32. There are some who feel this refers to the people of Israel. Others are very emphatic against this from the aspect that if this fig tree represents Israel, and it is cursed to be barren forever, then it lends con firmation to the erroneous view which declares that God is through with Is rael forever. ("Romans 11:1 and verses following should reveal the falacy of such teaching.) Ordinarily, this pic ture in the Bible does not represent the people of Israel. A better picture is found in the vineyard as a symbol of the nation (see Isaiah 5 and 22 and Jeremiah 24). God uses the vineyard as the future picture of Israel. The fig tree here gives an illustration of the barrenness of the people as well as the nearness of the time of our Lord Jesus Christ returning for His own people Israel after He has taken the church out of the earth. "WiU, you please explain about Me l c h i s e d e c where it says, 'Without father, with out mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.’ ” A. There are three portions of Scrip ture dealing with Melchisedec. The first is in Genesis 14:18-20. Abraham was coming back from the war with the kings. Melchisedec, the priest of the most high God, met him with a Q. Yucaipa, California —
Dr. Samuel H. Sutherland (left) Biola president, chats on Campus with Dr. Robert Thieme, pas ter Berachah Church, Houston, Texas; Dr. Thieme was a recent Campus speaker.
blessing. Abraham gave tithes to him. The next Scriptural reference is in Psalm 110:4. Here it speaks pro phetically of our Lord Jesus Christ Who is “a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec.” The first verse gives us a better description of Him, “The L ord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” The re jected Messiah is none other than God’s High Priest. Our Lord Jesus had no earthly father so in this re spect the parallel is not comparable. The Bible doesn’t say, “Christ was made like unto the Son of God.” Christ IS the Son of God. So Melchisedec was n o t a preincarnate appearance of Christ. In Genesis, where genealogies are carried throughout, it is remark able that there are no written his tories of this interesting figure. The final Scriptural reference is found in Hebrews 7 :1-14. We do not know any thing about his ancestors or his de scendants. We know that as a son of Adam he certainly went on to death. He is much like a photograph. When a picture is taken it captures the image at that moment of time. The person will never appear younger, never older, never changing, and never altering. So the Spirit of God has taken an interesting photograph of Melchise dec. He is the best illustration on a 24
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