Questions and Answers

The Bible teaches that God creates both good and “evil.” Isaiah 45:7 reads (quoted from the Authorized Version throughout), “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” We are also being told in Jeremiah 6:19, “Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not harkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.” (The New King James Bible translates the Hebrew word for “evil” with “calamity” in both passages. The Hebrew word (“ra”) is the same, though, as used in Genesis 2 to describe the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.)

Originally, God created Lucifer as a perfect being (Ezekiel 28:15), but he was created with the freedom to choose.This meant that Lucifer, by necessity, could and might turn to evil. God, then, created Lucifer with that potential. In the same way, God created man as a free moral agent. He also created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in order to give man the opportunity to choose life and to reject evil and death (compare Deuteronomy 30:19). Later, Jesus…

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These are not the words of a pacifist.” Could you please explain this passage in light of your strong stance against Christian participation in war?

A: Luke 22:35-38 reads in context:

“And He said to them, ‘When I sent you without money bag, knapsack, and sandals, did you lack anything?’ So they said, ‘Nothing.’ [God took care of them.] Then He said to them, ‘But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one. For I say to you that this which is written must still be accomplished in Me: “And He was numbered with the transgressors.” For the things concerning Me have an end.’ So they said: ‘Lord, look, here are two swords.’ And He said to them: ‘It is enough.'”

This passage cannot be used to justify participation of a Christian in war. In fact, the passage teaches the exact opposite. Firstly, “two swords” would be hardly enough to defend themselves against the coming Roman persecution. Secondly, Christ Himself makes clear why they were to buy swords — so that prophecy regarding Him could be fulfilled. What specific prophetic saying had…

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There are different Biblical principles involved. We believe that the following will best express our religious convictions against participating in jury duty:

A true Christian is a stranger, alien and exile (1 Peter 2:11; Hebrews 11:13) while here on earth; an ambassador for Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20); and a representative of God’s Kingdom. As such, and in being a light to the world by proper conduct (Matthew 5:14-16), a true Christian does not take part in this world’s governmental or political affairs, as presently, it is not God who rules this earth, but Satan the devil (Revelation 2:13; Luke 4:5-6). Christians are challenged to come out of the governmental and political systems of this world. Christ, knowing that God’s Kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36), refused to judge a civil matter when He was asked to do so (Luke 12:14). Paul, likewise, condemned judging those “who are outside” the church (1 Corinthians 5:12).

Further, man’s judgments are concerned with the letter of the law. In contrast, God looks on one’s heart, and is concerned with the spirit and intent of the law. Man’s laws usually do not take into account repentance, forgiveness of sins, and other spiritual factors, as…

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There are many passages that convey and support the understanding that oil is used biblically as a symbol for the Holy Spirit.

For instance, we read in Mark 6:13 that Christ had His disciples anoint sick people with oil, and they were healed. We know that Christ healed the sick with the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 8:43-46 — the Authorized Version has here, “virtue,” but the literal meaning is, “power,” compare New King James Bible. Compare, too, Mark 5:30; Luke 6:19).

Christ gave His disciples the same ability to heal sick people by the power of the Holy Spirit (Mark 16:18), which presence is symbolized by the anointing of the sick person with oil (James 5:14).

Another example for this symbolism is found in the famous parable with the 10 virgins (Matthew 25:3, 4, 8). They all fell asleep, and the oil of the five foolish virgins was going out — that is, they were loosing more and more of the power of the Holy Spirit within them.

1 John 2:27 speaks of our anointing abiding in us. This is a clear reference to the Holy Spirit that had been promised by Jesus Christ (John 14:16; 16:13). In 2 Timothy 1:6, Paul…

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In your new booklet, “And Lawlessness Will Abound…”, you are referring, on page 11, to the “law of jealousy,” as quoted in Numbers 5:29-30, as a “ritualistic procedure” to determine whether a wife had committed adultery or not. What is that “spirit of jealousy”? Is this law still to be applied and practiced today? If not, how are we in the Church to determine whether a wife is guilty of adultery or not?

In Numbers 5:11-31, God gave Old Testament Israel a supernatural means of determining whether a wife had committed adultery or not, although she had not been caught, and no witness was present (Numbers 5:13). When “the spirit of jealousy” came upon the husband, so that he suspected a transgression of his wife, the husband could bring his wife to the priest, and he had to bring at the same time the “grain offering of jealousy.” (Numbers 5:15).

It is possible that the “spirit of jealousy” describes the fact that the husband became jealous in his spirit or mind. It is also possible, that the “spirit of jealousy” was at times actually a spirit being causing the husband to become jealous. We need to note that the “spirit of…

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Matthew 24:34 is not dealing with the same set of events as in chapter 16:28. Note the context of Matthew 24 and 25. In verse 3 of the 24th chapter, the disciples of Christ asked him the following: ” ‘Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age.’ ” Christ then goes on to answer them by pointing out events that literally span the entire church age, but He deals primarily with those events that signal His imminent return to the earth.

In verse 34, Christ says, ” ‘Assuredly I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.’ ” From the broader context, we understand that in this verse Christ is speaking about that generation that is alive when the dramatic intervention of God in human affairs actually occurs.

In Matthew 16:28, Christ is here quoted as follows: “Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the son of Man coming in His kingdom.” Does this verse imply that some of the disciples would live over two thousand years?…

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Paul is talking here about rulers in general, who uphold certain laws to guarantee a civil and peaceful harmonious lifestyle amongst their citizens. Paul is referring to the submission to and the enforcement of civil and criminal laws, such as theft or murder.

Paul is not talking here about the Hitlers or Neros, etc., who are encouraging their citizens to betray Christians or the Jews, so that they can be killed. We need to remember Christ’s statement to OBEY the Pharisees in all that they tell the people, but later, Peter did not obey them when they told him not to preach in the name of Christ. Christ would not obey them, either, to follow their rules of ceremonial washing, or to have no contact with “sinners.” So, Christ was talking about matters which were not in conflict with God’s word. (Notice, too, that John the Baptist openly rebuked Herod for committing adultery with his brother’s wife (Luke 3:19-20). Also, Daniel refused the obey the order of king Darius, not to pray to God, and his three friends disobeyed the order of king Nebuchadnezzar to worship the golden image).

In John 19:11, Christ told Pilate, “‘You could have no power at all…

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1 Corinthians 7:14 reads, “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified
by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband;
otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.”

The Ryrie Study Bible gives the following correct explanations of this passage:

“The
presence of a believer in the home sets the home apart and gives it a
Christian influence it would not otherwise have. A believing partner,
therefore, should stay with the unbeliever. However, this does not mean
that children born into such a home are automatically Christians. They
are holy in the sense of being set apart by the presence of one
believing parent.”

Christ makes it very clear that one must be
called by God to have access to God. Generally, when Adam and Eve
sinned against God and were driven out of the garden of Eden, God cut
Himself off from mankind. Christ says in John 6:44, “No one can come to
me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” In this day and age, God
the Father calls or draws only very few. Most people today simply
cannot understand the truth of God, because God has not chosen to
reveal it to them yet…

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Isn’t the Sabbath for the Jews only, and didn’t God introduce the Sabbath to the Jews for the first time in Exodus 16?

It is not correct that the Sabbath is mentioned for the first time in Exodus 16, or that God introduced the Sabbath to the people at that time. The Sabbath is mentioned in the very second chapter of the Bible, where God set it aside as HOLY, to be USED by man for a HOLY purpose.

God created the Sabbath at the time when He created man. We read in Genesis 2:2, “He RESTED on the seventh day from all His work…Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work.” The word for “rested,” in the Hebrew, is “shabath,” and it means, according to Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, “to cease, rest, keep Sabbath.” God created the Sabbath at the time of the creation of man, by RESTING or ceasing from His work, and He “sanctified” that day, that is, He “set it aside for a holy purpose.”

Later, we read, in Exodus 20:11 that God had “rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the SABBATH day…

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Can you please explain how the term “Apostle” should be used today in light of its usage in the New Testament?

Jesus Christ is the only individual who is referred to in Scripture as “the” Apostle (Hebrews 3:1). Paul and Peter refer to themselves as “an” apostle,” or, as “an apostle of Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:1; 9:1; 2 Corinthians 1:1; 12:12; Ephesians 1:1; Colossians 1:1; 1 Timothy 1:1; 2:7; 2 Timothy 1:1; 1:11; Titus 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1).

The Authorized Version translates Romans 11:13 this way, “I [Paul] am the apostle of the Gentiles.” However, in the Greek, there is no definite article (“the”) in front of the word, “apostle.” By contrast, in Hebrews 3:1, in reference to Jesus Christ, there is a definite article (“the”) in the Greek in front of the word, “Apostle.” Many translations, including the New King James Bible, or the Revised Standard Version, translate Romans 11:13, in this way, “I am an apostle to the Gentiles.”

When referred to apostles as a collective group, we find many times the expression, “the apostles.” (Matthew 10:2; Mark 6:30; Luke 9:10; 17:5; 22:14; 24:10; Acts 1:2, 26; 2:37, 42, 43; 4:33, etc.). The designation as…

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