The same writer who says Christ died because He was mortal, also says He died to get rid of His flesh, and show us the way into the holiest and that He went through as the First and our Forerunner, the last of which is true; but if as the same writer assumes Christ and the Saints are all raised in the flesh and changed afterward, then how much does dying help them to get rid of the flesh? Are such inconsistencies the marks of…
Those who oppose the vicarious offering of Christ, admit, of course, that he died, and to give an explanation of the cause of His death falls upon them, and it is attempted. They deny that in any sense He died in our stead, and one statement made in explanation is: Christ became one of us, to share with us the ills of life, and die like us for the same reason that we die, because being flesh, and the flesh life being forfeited, he must die. The same teacher says: “A little Scripture is worth…
Paul declares that there is one mediator between God and men – the man Christ Jesus, “who gave himself a ransom for ALL, to be testified in due time.” 1 Tim 2:5,6. How few of the Gospel Church are prepared to receive such teaching with any degree of complacency; yet it is a glorious truth, and when rightly understood, is the cause of rejoicing, because of the goodness and love of our Heavenly Father. Opposition to the thought, as it is now understood…
I firmly believe that a profound, divinely ordained correspondence exists between things spiritual and things natural. Observe the order of my words: Between things spiritual and things natural, putting things spiritual first. This is a vital point. For we are wont to think that it is by a species of happy accident that certain resemblances exist between the kingdom of matter and the kingdom of spirit. Thus, we are wont to cite certain metaphors of Holy Scripture as instances of…
There are some very dark and strange things in the Bible – things which to many seem irreconcilable with the character of justice and love which we ascribe to our Heavenly Father. “God is love,” and “by the grace of God Christ tasted death for every man.” “He is the propitiation for our sins, and also for the sins of the whole world.” Why then did Christ say to his disciples: “Go not in the way of the Gentiles, and…
Ages have rolled around, yet the seed of Abraham, although a nation and partially possessing Canaan for a time, have never yet had those promises to Abraham FULFILLED. “I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee.” “And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession.” But Paul shows us how that there was a deeper meaning than the surface promise couched in…
Because of the shortness of human life, we act quickly ourselves and expect others to act so, and we can scarcely avoid carrying the same thought with us when we go to the investigation of God’s Word. We read – “Yet a little while, and He that shall come, will come.” We think, as we look back at the many centuries which have elapsed since our Lord’s first advent, that it has not been a “little while.” No, to us it has been…
“A SPIRIT HATH NOT FLESH” But some, perhaps, may say, Did not Jesus contradict the thought that he was a spirit when he used the words, A spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have? The two thoughts are quite in harmony: they were not seeing the spirit Jesus, they were merely seeing the flesh and bones which the spirit Jesus assumed (or manifested himself) for the purpose of conversing with them, just as the angels assumed…
MARY THE FIRST WITNESS The honor of being the first witness to whom our Lord manifested himself after his resurrection came to Mary Magdalene, who at one time was possessed by evil spirits, but who, being freed from their domination became a faithful and loyal follower of Jesus. This was not the Mary, sister of Lazarus and Martha, neither was it Mary the “sinner,” who washed our Lord’s feet with her tears in the Pharisee’s house. She is called Mary…
Golden Text: – “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept.” – 1 Cor. 15:20. “MANY INFALLIBLE PROOFS” Then comes in our Golden Text, in which the Apostle reassures us that it is no fable, that Christ arose from the dead, that it was not only necessary to our salvation, but that it is a fact well attested. He proceeds in his argument to show that thus by the resurrection of Christ…