Question: Could you please shed some light on Rom. 8:10, “If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Answer: Paul spoke frequently of “Christ” as the total embodiment of the knowledge of God and all that it meant to him. “Christ in you” … [Read more…]
Answer: What does Paul mean when he says that we are to make all [men] see what is the fellowship [dispensation] of the mystery?” Other translations of this text use the word “administration” in place of fellowship’ “To bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in … [Read more…]
Question: What is the ‘mystery’ that Paul talks about in his Epistles? Answer: The apostle Paul in his Epistles used the term “mystery” often (twenty-one times) when speaking of the Divine revelation. He spoke of the “mystery of the gospel,” “the revelation of the mystery,” “the mystery of God,” “the mystery of Christ,” “the mystery … [Read more…]
Question: Did Jacob Arminius move the church away from Augustine and toward Pelagius? To what degree? Answer: Your question is beyond the scope of our discussions, but we might say that from the records of history, Arminius was one who, during the Sixteenth Century, disagreed openly with the doctrine of predestination as it was being … [Read more…]
Question: What did Paul mean when he wrote to Timothy, that he should be a “partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God?” What are the “afflictions of the gospel?” Answer: This text contains Paul’s words to his son-in-the-faith Timothy: “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our … [Read more…]
Question: Is it right to pray for transgressors and non-believers, or only for those who are truly Christ’s? Answer: Although many of the prayers in the Bible were of believers and for believers, there are many examples of prayers for transgressors and non-believers. Let us mention a few. The apostle Paul instructed Timothy that in … [Read more…]
Answer: We are not told all we would like to know about how God hears the members of His human family. However, if God limited His listening to the righteous, the upright, He would be cutting Himself off from helping those who are on the way to becoming righteous, because no one starts out righteous. … [Read more…]
Question: What did Jesus mean when He said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” How are we to pray for those who “despitefully use” us? Can you offer any thoughts? Answer: In Matthew 5, Jesus … [Read more…]
Question: An article in the February 1988 issue of the Megiddo Message entitled “Does God Create Evil?” brings up another question. The article is an explanation of Isa. 45:7: “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” The explanation of the verse is … [Read more…]
Question: I have in front of me where you wrote, “This is the very condition that God predicted.” I would qualify that by adding to that sentence the words “and directed” to complete the thought and show that it is God’s doing, not just God’s prediction. Revelation 17:17 is explanation enough, even though there is … [Read more…]