many true believers who are saved but have not been immersed. War and a God of Love Q. How can we think of God as a God of love when we read of the many times in the Old Testament when He commanded whole cities to be put to death for wrongdoing, yet the Bible says the Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever? A. When you read in the Old Tes tament the commands of God to destroy nations, you must remem ber the depth of degradation into which those nations had fallen. Read the picture God has painted in the first chapter of Romans to learn their utter corruption. Then, too, Israel was a new nation and God was determined to keep it free from such abominations and idol atry because the Messiah was to come through that channel and He was the hope of the world. Those corrupt nations which had fallen into the deepest pit of moral degra dation sought to drag the new na tion to their level and thus thwart all the plans of God for redemption. So God commanded that they be destroyed in order to preserve a race of people that were not moral per verts. To Help an Alcoholic Q. I have a dear one who is addict ed to alcohol. What can I do for him? A. Alcoholism is a symptom of a far deeper malady and that is sin in the human heart. I would first of all present the Lord Jesus Christ to this one as Saviour and Lord, who can, if he will accept Him, deliver him wholly from the bondage of drink as He has done for thousands of others. If he will not accept Christ, I doubt if any permanent cure can ever he effected. Alcoholics
Anonymous has done a great deal for some; m e d ica l s c ie n c e has helped others; but the underlying unhappiness and uncertainty that cause a man to become an alcoholic can only he cured when one knows his sins are forgiven and he is right with God. The Church Defined Q. What is the difference between the visible church and the invisible Church, particularly in relation to the local church? A. The visible church is Christen dom, that professing body of people which can be seen, hence the name, the visible church. The visible church is made up of wheat and tares, mere professors and real pos sessors. The invisible Church is the body of real believers which God sees. The invisible Church is within the visible and will continue to be until the rapture when the Lord will call His own to be with Him. Then the great separation will take place between those who really know Him and those who do not. Is Satan Victorious? Q . If anyone is lost eternally, has not Satan gained the victory over Christ and thus is he not stronger? A. No, Satan has gained no vic tory. It is not Satan who determines that one shall persist in sin; it is the individual himself. If the person persists in sin, Christ is not thereby conquered for He will yet be glori fied. God’s holiness is manifested and God Himself shall be glorified as truly in the punishment of the sinner as in the salvation of the be liever. To illustrate: let me remind you that righteous government here on earth is vindicated as truly when the offender is locked up in prison or executed as when the offender is brought to repentance.
Without Excuse Q. Where do we find Scriptures relating to the people who have not yet had any opportunity to hear the Word of God and who died without knowledge of Christ? A. The question is answered in Ro mans 1 where it is declared that sufficient revelation is given to the heathen, even the unevangelized heathen, to leave them without ex cuse before God. Verse 20 makes that very clear. The heathen do not have the degree of light that people in this land have, hut they do have some light. They know it is wrong to murder, to lie, to steal. Conscience tells them that. They have the light of God’s handiwork in creation because the works of His hand proclaim that He is a liv ing God. The fact is that the hea then are no more in love with the light than are the unsaved in our own country. Men love darkness rather than light. It is my under standing that at the great white throne unsaved men will be judged according to the light they have re ceived. Baptism and Salvation Q. A person quoted Mark 16:16 to me to “ prove” that baptism is es sential to salvation. Was he right? A. The text does not mean “ bap tismal regeneration” at all. If it did, it would contradict many other Scriptures and the Scriptures can not be broken. It does not say, you will note, that “ he that is not bap tized shall be damned.” If this were true, the dying thief would not have been in paradise for he died unbap tized. We are saved by grace through faith and not through bap tism. Thousands of church mem bers have submitted to immersion and are unsaved, just as there are
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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