Questions and Answers
This well-known law has been grossly misunderstood by some, thinking The “an eye for an eye” principle is Rather than The Wikipedia Encyclopedia states the following about the “an eye for an eye” principle: “The An important tool in understanding a particular passage in Scripture As a The Pharisees had Certainly not. Our free booklet, “Baptism–A Requirement for Salvation,” As Romans 6:3-4 explains, baptism–the With Although in most cases, human anger is wrong, there is nothing wrong with godly indignation or wrath, which is always righteous. But we need to understand the nature of godly anger, and against whom or what it is directed. The context of Psalm 7 shows that “Cush, a Benjamite,” persecuted innocent David. According to the Soncino commentary, Cush is a designation for King Saul. David expresses to God his innocence (vv. 3-5, 8), and asks God to take care of his situation. He points out that God will rise in His anger (verse 6), and that He “hath indignation every day” (according to Soncino). The New King James Bible ADDED the words, “with the wicked,” which do not appear in the original Hebrew. However, the addition is in accordance with the intended meaning. “He [David] removes the false impression he may have created in the foregoing that God had been indifferent to what had happened to him, and that he called upon Him to adjudicate because He had failed to do so. He admits that God is indignant with the wicked every day, constantly.” It is important to note WHY God is angry with the wicked. Verse 12 explains: “If he… No, it does not mean that at all. Quite to the contrary, we are 1 John 3:2 does not tell “Beloved, now we are children of This passage tells us that we KNOW that when Christ is A: For an in-depth Bible study as to HOW, exactly, our righteousness must exceed the “righteousness” of the scribes and the Pharisees, including their actions, thoughts and motives, please look up and study carefully all the Scriptures quoted in this Q&A, especially those passages in which Jesus Christ condemns the scribes and the Pharisees for their concept of “righteousness.” We need to understand the types of “righteousness” Christ is referring to in Matthew 5:20. The Bible says that all of God’s commandments constitute righteousness (Psalm 119:172), and that we sin if we transgress just one of His commandments (1 John 3:4, Authorized Version; James 2:10-12). However, Christ was not saying that we will never enter God’s Kingdom if we occasionally sin. If that were the case, then NO ONE would be able to enter God’s Kingdom, as WE ALL sin from time to time (Romans 3:9-10; James 3:2; 1 John 1:8-10). But we can obtain forgiveness for our sins through repentance and faith in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who died FOR US, and who can and will make us righteous, by living in us, as we will explain. What Christ was addressing first was the self-righteousness of the Pharisees… God’s Holy Spirit is foremost the POWER of God, emanating from both the Father and the Son. But it is also the MIND of God, including all the characteristics of God Himself. When God’s Holy Spirit dwells in us, we are to change, by replacing our human nature with the nature of God (1 Samuel 10:6; Romans 8:13), enabling us to follow God and to be obedient to Him (Numbers 14:24; Ezekiel 11:19-20; 36:27; 1 Peter 1:22). Let us notice several Scriptures which describe in detail God’s characteristics, which are being conveyed to us through the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. Please consider that all of these characteristics are GOD’S–that is, when we read that God’s Spirit is a Spirit of Power, it is actually GOD’s Power that is emanating from God (both the Father and the Son) through the Holy Spirit: — God’s Spirit is a Spirit of Power (Luke 4:14; Micah 3:8; Romans 15:13), of Love (Romans 5:5) and of a Sound Mind (2 Timothy 1:7). — God’s Spirit is a Spirit of Wisdom (Exodus 28:3) and of the Revelation in the Knowledge of God (Ephesians 1:17; compare 1 Corinthians 2:10-16), as well as of Understanding, Counsel and Might, Knowledge and… You are referring to the following statements in our above-mentioned booklet: “In addition, Matthew 28:1 also reveals–correctly translated–that there were actually two ‘Sabbaths’ during the crucifixion week, a weekly Sabbath and an annual Sabbath. Cockrell points out: ‘Matthew makes it plain that two Sabbaths had passed since Jesus was crucified. The KJV [Authorized Version] has this rendering: “In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher” (Matth. 28:1). On this verse nearly all translators have allowed tradition to control their translation. It is not “Sabbath” but “Sabbaths” in the Greek text (the genitive case and the plural number). The verse properly translated would read: “In the end of the Sabbaths…” This allows for an annual Sabbath on Thursday and a regular Sabbath on Saturday. “The Fenton Bible renders this verse correctly as, ‘after the Sabbaths,’ and it includes the following footnote: ‘The Greek original is in the plural, “Sabbaths,” which is retained.’ Alfred Marshall’s Parallel New Testament in Greek and English likewise translate the clause as, ‘after the Sabbaths.’ “In the Greek, the word for ‘Sabbath’ in the clause, ‘after the Sabbath,’ is… In the passage in question, Jesus made the following comment: “… if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.” He We The Bible confirms that all of Christ’s The Gibeonites, who belonged to the Hivites (who were descendants from Canaan, the son of Ham, 1 Chronicles 1:8, 13-15), were one of the peoples which had occupied the Promised Land, prior to Israel’s arrival (Exodus 3:8). God had commanded the Israelites not to make a covenant with any of these people. Rather, He wanted them expelled from the land (Exodus 23:28, 32-33). However, under Joshua, the Gibeonites, pretending to be a people from far away, tricked the Israelites into acting hastily by making a covenant with them to let them live amongst them (Joshua 9). In fact, the capital of the Gibeonites or Hivites was “Gibeon,” a town situated on a rocky eminence, about six miles northwest from Jerusalem and four miles from Bethel, where the modern village of El-Jib now stands (Commentary on the Whole Bible, by Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, page 174; Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, under “Gibeon”). Even though God had not desired of Israel to make a covenant with the Gibeonites, He held Israel responsible to be faithful to it. Under Joshua, the Gibeonites were made servants to the Levites, assisting them with work for the altar (Joshua 9:27). Four hundred years later, God…Would you please explain the meaning of the Old Testament law, requiring "an eye for an eye" and "a tooth for a tooth"?
that God actually required the maiming of an offender who was guilty of
injuring another person. However, this is clearly not the intended
meaning of the “an eye for an eye” principle, and the Church of God has
never taught otherwise.
commonly known as the “lex talionis,” which is Latin for the “law of
retaliation.” It is mentioned in the Old Testament in Exodus 21:23-27;
Leviticus 24:18-20; and Deuteronomy 19:21.
requiring the literal maiming of a guilty person, this law has been
correctly understood as requiring equivalent monetary compensation. The
law made it also clear that victims were to be compensated fairly, as
determined by judges and magistrates. Victims were not to resort to
“self-help.”
basis of this form of law is the principle of proportionate punishment,
often expressed under the motto ‘Let the punishment fit the crime’…
The Torah’s first mention of the phrase ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for
a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot’ appears in ExodusWould you please explain John 9:31, which says that God does not hear the prayers of sinners. Aren't we all sinners? If so, does this mean that God hears none of our prayers?
is to look at the passage in context, as well as in the light of other
Scriptures. In John 9, Christ healed a man on the Sabbath who had been
born blind. The Pharisees and the Jews accused Christ of breaking the
Sabbath and concluded that He was not from God (verse 16) and a
“sinner” (verse 24, in Greek, “hamartolos”). In response, the healed
man said: “Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is
a worshipper of God and does His will, He hears him… If this Man were
not from God, He could no nothing” (verses 31, 33).
consequence, he was put out of the synagogue (verse 34), and Christ
later told some of the Pharisees that they were not blind, but that
their unrepented sin remained (verses 40-41).
made terrible accusations against Jesus. They had accused Him of
casting out demons with the help of Beelzebub, the “ruler of the
demons”–another designation for Satan (Matthew 12:24). Some even
claimed that He was possessed by Satan (Mark 3:22). Christ warned them
in that context that they were in danger of…Would you please explain 1 Corinthians 15:29, speaking of "baptism for the dead." Are we to be baptized for those who have already died?
explains in detail that only adult LIVING persons are to be baptized,
after they repent of their sins and believe in the Sacrifice of Jesus
Christ. A person who has died, cannot repent and believe in anything,
as long as he is dead. The reason is that a dead person knows nothing
(Ecclesiastes 9:5). Our free booklet, “Do We Have an Immortal Soul?,”
explains that a person who dies is without consciousness–he or his
soul does not go to heaven or hell, because he–the person–IS the
soul. As long as he is alive, he is a living soul, and when he dies, he
has become a dead soul.
total immersion of the person under water–points at the figurative
death of the person. He “dies,” spiritually speaking, in the watery
grave. His old man dies (verse 6), and a new man arises out of the
watery grave (Colossians 3:9-10). In a sense, the new man is
“resurrected,” figuratively speaking, from the spiritual dead.
this background, let us review Paul’s saying in 1 Corinthians 15:29,
which reads: “Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for…Would you please explain Psalm 7:11, which says that God is angry with the wicked every day. Why would God be angry?
Soncino explains:Would you please explain 1 John 3:2. Does this Scripture tell us that we cannot know what our destiny or potential is?
clearly told in Scripture, so that we CAN know, what our destiny is. We
read in Ephesians 3:14-19 that it is our destiny to become spirit
members within the Family of God, and that we KNOW that we are to be
filled with “all the fullness of God.”
us something different. In fact, this passage CONFIRMS, rightly
understood, that we DO know what our destiny is. When we read this
passage in context, it states:
God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we KNOW
that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as
He is.”
revealed or manifested at His Second Coming, we will be LIKE Him.
Christ will return in glory (Matthew 24:30), and so we, too, will
appear or be manifested with Him in glory (Romans 8:17). Right now, we
are not yet filled with God’s glory, as we are still flesh and blood.
That is, it has not yet…Q: Please explain Matthew 5:20, where Christ says that we will not enter the Kingdom of God if our righteousness does not exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.
You are teaching that the Holy Spirit is not a God being or a Person. What then, exactly, IS the Holy Spirit?
You state in your booklet, "Jesus Christ–A Great Mystery," on pages 83 and 84, that the word for "Sabbath" in Matthew 28:1 is derived from the plural form of the Greek word (i.e., "sabbata") and should be translated "Sabbaths." However, the Greek Interlinear Translation shows that the Greek word is in the singular–"sabbaton," not "sabbata"–and it should therefore be translated in the singular ("Sabbath," not "Sabbaths"). Also, in the same phrase in Matthew 28:1, the Greek word for "week" is "sabbaton," but it seems to have nothing to do with the weekly Sabbath.
Would you please explain Christ's statement in John 8:51?
elaborated on this statement in additional passages, such as John 8:52:
“… If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death.” In referring
to our participation at the annual Passover service, He stated, in John
6:50, 58: “This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may
eat of it and not die… He who eats this bread will live forever.”
also read, in Hebrews 11:5, that ancient Enoch “was taken away so that
he did not see death.” But this does not mean that Enoch did not die.
We are told, in Hebrews 11:39, that all the spiritual giants of faith,
including Enoch, have not, so far, received the promises–including the
promise of eternal life. Hebrews 11:13 specifically says: “These all
DIED in faith, not having received the promises…” Hebrews 9:27 tells
us that “it is appointed for men to die once.” 1 Corinthians 15:22 adds
that “in Adam ALL die.”
disciples would die “in Adam.” Some of Christ’s disciples will still be
alive when He returns–they will be…Who are the modern-day Gibeonites?
