please give me some help on I Peter 3:19-21? These verses seem hard to understand. Where was it that Christ went?" A. Some theologians feel that this is one of the most difficult pas sages in the New Testament. Wil liam Kelly wrote an excellent vol ume on this small section, “Preach ing to the Spirits in Prison.” Un fortunately, it is now out of print. Our Lord Jesus Christ was put to death in the flesh but He was made alive by the Spirit. Christ once for all suffered for man’s sins on Calvary’s cross. Death is the time when the soul and the spirit be come separated from the body. By the Holy Spirit, Christ preached to the lost souls who are now in prison, the abode of the wicked dead, while they were here on this earth. This is when they were “at one time disobedient.” (Noah, you remember, preached 120 years in the power of the Spirit.) Why were these sinful people preached to so' long? “The longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing.” Still, only eight were saved. This is a figure of baptism. There must be an internal change, the answer of a good conscience toward God. These were not preached to after they died and went to hades, but before when they could make a free choice of redemption or con demnation. The Bibl e cl early teaches that there is no second chance after death. “For it is ap pointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment.” The pas sage does not indicate in any sense that once these unbelievers had died they were preached to again, or that they had any opportunity to change their eternal destiny. Q. Salinas, Calif. — "Proper observ ance of the Sabbath is a question to me. Should it be on Saturday or on Sunday in accordance with
the Bible? One told me Christ’s rising on Sunday changed its ob servance. Where in the Bible can one find this question settled ?” A. Keep in mind that the Sabbath and Sunday are not synonymous. No one changed the Sabbath. It was a sign, strictly speaking, of God’s covenant with Israel. One who puts his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation doesn’t depend upon the day he worships for eternal life. Salvation is based wholly upon the finished atone ment of our Saviour. The weekly Sabbath law is found in the Ten Commandments. There were also many other sabbaths in Old Testa ment times which the Jews were to observe. Exodus 31:13 states emphatically, “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths (note that it’s in the plural here) ye shall keep: for it is a sign be tween me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” Those who worship today on Sa t u r d a y , strangely enough, do not observe any of the other sabbaths in the Old Testa ment. Scripture, positively asserts, “Everyone that defileth it shall be put to death.” Further it is sig nificant to note that every one of the Ten Commandments, except this, the fourth, is specifically re ferred to in the New Testament. There is absolutely no reference in the New Testament, stating that we should worship on the seventh day. While Paul went into the synagogue, as stated in Acts, on the seventh day, he did so not to worship but because the Jews were there and to preach to them the Lord Jesus Christ. We wor ship on the first day of the week for it was on this glorious day that our Saviour arose from the dead. 21
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