Q, Fresno, California. “It would be in teresting to know what the name Saul means in Hebrew and in Greek. Also the meaning of Paul.” A. Saul is a Hebrew name meaning “asked.” His parents, being followers of the Lord God of Israel and being desirous of a son that the family line might be perpetuated and that through him God might be glorified in coming generations—this son was “asked” of God. Hannah, you recall, asked for a son and Samuel was bom to her. The name Paul actually has no re lationship to the name Saul. It comes from the Greek, “paulos,” which means small, and it is a wonderful testimony to the genuine and sincere humility of this great Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ. Q, San Jose, California. “Some have said that everyone w ill be saved in the last days—even Satan. Is that true?”—“I cannot find Scripture to back that up.” A. The listener is absolutely correct—- there is no Scripture to back up that notion. There is a teaching abroad of universal reconciliation, which believes that those who are saved will, upon death, go directly to be with the Lord, but that the unsaved will go into an intermediate state of suffering at the end of which they will ultimately be saved—Satan and his angels included. There is no Scripture for this. The word “Ionias,” upon which they base their teaching, does mean everlasting when the context clearly states it. But the saved go into everlasting life and the unsaved into everlasting punish ment which was prepared for the devil and his angels. Q. “Am I correct in believing that when Israel is spoken of in the Bible it refers to the Jew?” A. The answer is plainly and simply, yes. In his defence in Acts 21:34, Paul said, “. . . I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia; of no mean city . . .” Also in
Romans 11 that he was of Israel “ . . . for I also am an Israelite of the Tribe of Benjamin . . .” When Israel is spoken of in the Bi ble it refers to the Jew, those who are descendants from Abraham. Natural birth is not what counts ultimately for eternity, what does count is to be a child of Abraham by faith. Q. Portland, Oregon. The listener asks that we please discuss Galatians 5:4 and Romans 10:1. A. Though the passage, Galatians 5:4 has been a crux of interpreters, and has been so for a long while, we have to take it in its context. Paul is writing to the Galatian Church. There were folk there who were just as genuinely saved as any in a true, simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—when lo and behold there came along those who began preaching that they had to maintain their Christian life, not by faith, but by works. So the Apostle Paul asks them in Gal. 3:2, 3—“This only would I leam from you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hear ing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” Is God going to tell you to whip up some human enthusiasm that you may walk well-pleasing to Him? No, He says that some of you are bringing in the law. You feel that while you couldn’t be saved by it that perhaps you could go on now and come closer to the norm of Christian living by the use of the law. Paul tells them in Gal. 5:4—“Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace.” That does not mean that you have fallen out of grace and are unsaved. No, the word “severed” in the original text is cor rectly, “brought to nought” — you are rendered inoperative; you as a branch are not drawing your life from the vine (Christ) — And to think, He is all the sustenance you need! 14
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