Eric Walberer

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Sunday School Teacher Resources

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Sarah Stickfort

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 Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth

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Elton Fairfield - "I am a Christian."

"I didn't buy that status, nor did I work for it. I was not born into it, even though both my parents are devoted Christians. I am a Christian because there was a moment in my life when I accepted the fact that the death of Jesus Christ was for my sins."

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THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH
Does the Holy Spirit go back to Heaven with the Church at the close of the present Dispensation, or, does He still remain here, to convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment?

In other words, is He here in Person only from Pentecost until the “Rapture”?

We learn from 2 Thessalonians 2:5" TARGET="_blank">2 Thessalonians 2:5 that the common view that the apostle in this passage was correcting the teaching of the first epistle is quite mistaken. Exactly the reverse is the case; he was confirming it; “Remember ye not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things?” Add to this the fact that in verse 10 he actually appeals to “the coming of the Lord and our gathering together unto Him,” as revealed in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-20" TARGET="_blank">1 Thessalonians 4:11-20 to counter the false teaching abroad “that the day of the Lord” was then present (see R.V.), for the other must take place first. Verse 6 teaches, I believe, the same truth. Some suggest that “that which letteth” is law, and “he who letteth” the executive of law, government But this seems forced and unnatural. Is it not more in harmony with the context to interpret “that which letteth” to be the Church indwelt by the Spirit, and He who letteth, the Spirit indwelling the Church? When the Church goes at the coming of the Lord, the Holy Spirit will, as an indwelling Person, go too. He will therefore be no longer in this scene as the One in Whom the Church is baptised and united to a Risen Christ. That wonderful and unique work of God belongs only to the present dispensation.

But the departure of the Spirit in this sense does not mean that He will cease to work in the world. He will resume His activities of pre-Pentecostal times toward God’s people and the world. What we read in Revelation 7" TARGET="_blank">Revelation 7 and 14, shows clearly that He will carry on a mighty work of conversion, through the sealed of Israel, far beyond, it would seem, anything known in the present dispensation. This began with 120 sealed ones, that will begin with 144,000 and the zenith will be, “a multitide that no man can number.” We must, however, avoid the thought that the wicked one will be revealed at the moment of the rapture of the Church. This chapter warns us against such an idea, for the apostacy will first fully develop and then the way will be open for the manifestation of the Man of Sin.

W.H.

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Can you please tell me the meaning of the verse in  1 Corinthians 15:51" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 15:51

Is it speaking of spirits?

It says...Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed.
 
First we must answer the question - what is a mystery in the Bible?

The word "mystery" in the Bible refers to a newly-revealed teaching that previous generations did not know.  The word "mystery" carries with it the connotation of being creepy or mysterious as in a crime-solving story.  However, the idea of a Bible mystery is that the truth was previously hidden, but not revealed.

There are several of these teachings revealed in the New Testament that were not known in the Old Testament including:
•    The Mystery of the Jew and Gentile sharing equally in God's Plan - Ephesians 3:1-12" TARGET="_blank">Ephesians 3:1-12
•    The mystery that the Holy Spirit would indwell believers permanently - 1 Corinthians 2:6-16" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 2:6-16
•    The mystery that the Church would be raptured out of the world at the end of the age of the Church - 1 Corinthians 15:51-58," TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 15:51-58, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18" TARGET="_blank">1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
•    The mystery of the will of God - Ephesians 1:9" TARGET="_blank">Ephesians 1:9
•    The mystery that God would come and live among us in the form of a man - 1 Timothy 3:16" TARGET="_blank">1 Timothy 3:16

The mystery of 1 Corinthians 15:51" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 15:51 refers to the moment of the rapture.  All who believe in Christ will not remain in the grave.  Believers in the Old Testament knew that they were awaiting eternal life for them, but the details of the nature of the resurrection were unclear until the New Testament was completed.

The chapter refers to spirits (or the souls) and bodies of believers who have died.  The body appears to be asleep while dead.  The Scriptures refer to the dead in Christ as sleeping.  Those who die in their sins are "dead".  However, the spiritual part of the person is "with Christ which is far better" (Philippians 1:23)" TARGET="_blank">Philippians 1:23) until the moment of the rapture.  Christ will return to the earth, resurrect those who have died in Christ and take living believers directly to heaven.   

Shad Sluiter

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Do bad dreams/nightmares warn us about hell?

Dreams allow us to experience things that are not real as though they were.  That can include our “daydreams”, where our spirits create scenarios to exercise our mind and emotions, as well as dreams as we sleep, over which we have little control.  In both cases we can gauge our feelings and reactions to things that have not happened.  

The Bible is clear that dreams can be misleading and unhelpful.  Solomon said, “For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.”  (Ecclesiast. 5:3)  He is telling us that dreams of things that do not exist can distract us from the vital need to deal with the things that do.  Some people waste countless hours examining their dreams, trying to find meaning in them.  People who smoke opium have wonderful dreams, from which they must always awake to a reality that is depressing and deteriorating.  The devil can use dreams to unnecessarily terrify us, as Job experienced (Job 7:14)." TARGET="_blank">Job 7:14).  Some people experience strange nightmares if they eat a big bowl of ice cream just before going to bed, perhaps from a hypoglycemic blood sugar drop a couple of hours later.  Just because we had a bad dream or a good dream does not mean anything about it is real.  We must exercise control over our dreams by learning from the ones that help move us in the direction we should go, and ignoring the rest.

Yet God can and does use dreams to “wake us up” to realities that we have never considered seriously.  A dream about hell can make us think hard about what it would mean to be there, because we know from the Bible it does exist and real people will be there.  Dreams of great tragedies can make us taste the inevitability of our own death.  In the Bible a wise man explains it this way:  “For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.   In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed;   Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.” (Job 33:14-17)" TARGET="_blank">Job 33:14-17)

We all tend to get comfortable with life and begin to ignore the realities of death and the eternity that lies beyond.  God would like to humble us all to take Him very seriously while we still have time to do so.  Time is running out, and He very much wants us all to be saved.  If a dream will help make us serious, He may purposefully allow it.

Alfred Corduan

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What scriptural reason is there for stating as a fact that the seventieth week was cut off from the rest and is yet to be fulfilled?

The scriptural reason is understood by reading the passage (Daniel 9:24-27)." TARGET="_blank">Daniel 9:24-27). The seventy “hebdomads,” or periods of seven years are said by Gabriel to be “determined upon Daniel’s people (the Jews) and the holy city, to punish the transgressors. . . and to anoint the Most Holy.” Then, in verse 25, this whole period of 490 years is resolved into its constituents of 49 years (during which building operations were completed), then a further 434 years to the cutting off of the Messiah, that is 483" TARGET="_blank">is 483 years in all, or 7 years short of the total 490. Why is this? Because as Zechariah 11:10" TARGET="_blank">Zechariah 11:10 tells us, when “the staff, even Beauty,” is cut off (a description of the same event as the cutting off of Messiah), Jehovah’s covenant, which he had made with all the people, is broken, so that one period of seven years, or one “hebdomad,” still remains to be fulfilled. This will have its place when the prince of the people who destroyed the city (the Romans in 70 A.D.) will confirm a covenant with many for one week or period of seven years. The fact that He will break His covenant in the middle of the period, i.e., after 3 1/2 years, will not override the fact that this “hebdomad” will complete the 490 years determined on the Jews, to end with “anointing the Most Holy,” which will take place when Christ returns in glory to reign.

W.H.

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What will be the nature of the Jewish sacrifices offered at Jerusalem during the Millennium?

They cannot, of course, in any way be connected with sin since Christ has died and “their remaineth no more sacrffice for sin.” Will they be sacrifices of praise and adoration or of remembrance?

Here again we see the importance of dispensational truth—according to the oft-quoted words of Augustine: “Distinguish the dispensations and the Scriptures will agree.” Here, what is quite out of place in the present Church era, will evidently from Ezekiel 43:26" TARGET="_blank">Ezekiel 43:26 once more be in vogue. After the measures of the altar are given (chap. 43. 13), the ordinances of the altar are laid down, and the sin offering is mentioned again and again (e.g., vv. 21, 22, 25, and Ezekiel 44:27-29)," TARGET="_blank">Ezekiel 44:27-29), but certainly not in the sense of taking sin away. The Old Testament dispensation was characterised by an altar on which typical sacrifices (a shadow of good things to come) were offered, the present is characterised by a table, on which the memorial symbols of bread and wine are presented, and partaken of, in remembrance of the One Sacrifice of Christ, the only and sufficient ground for the atonement and taking away of sin. But the future millennial age, when the earthly people are once more restored to the place of testimony and blessing, will be characterised once again by an altar of remembrance—on which literal sacrifices will be offered, no longer pointing forward, but backward—and that by earthly priests—the sons of Zadok alone (chap. . 15). So that we see that what is a Satanic delusion to-day:—the pretended offering up again and again of the sacrifice of Christ, will in a future dispensation be renewed in a figurative and memorial sense.

W.H.

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“BROKEN” OR “GIVEN”?

Is it right or wrong to say, as we find in some hymns, “Thy body broken”?

With us, some substitute the word “given,” on the ground that “broken” contravenes the prohibition, “A bone of Him shall not be broken.”

The expression in the said hymns is based on the A.V. of 1 Corinthians 11:24" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 11:24: “This is My body, which is broken for you.” Whether or not this is correct, it is difficult dogmatically to decide, but I think we are safe in refusing “given” as a substitute for “broken” in the Corinthian passage, for there is no serious manuscript authority for it, and it is only supported by three versions—the Latin Vulgate, the Egyptian and the Ethiopic, and the editor of the 4th or 5th century—_Euthalius. This reading, however, has the bulk of authority in Luke 22:19." TARGET="_blank">Luke 22:19. The choice then lies between “broken” and simply, “This is My body for you” (lit, the one on behalf of you), though one cannot help feeling that this sentence seems to need completing with some verb.

However, although some good authorities like Drs. Tregelles and Christopher Wordsworth, refuse to give up “broken,” which has a considerable body of weighty authority behind it, there seems still more authority for omitting. Then again there is the prohibition: “A bone of Him shall not be broken.” which some quote as conclusive against our reading, “broken,” as the verb in 1 Corinthians  11:24. It is perfectly true that the bread is broken, but surely this is not as a symbol of anything that occurred at the cross, but simply for purposes of distribution. It is the breaking of bread which stands for the communion or sharing of it by those participating. Whether again the breaking of the body, i.e. of the skin and flesh, as was undoubtedly the case at Calvary, might take place, without the unity of the body being compromised, is a question. It is the bones which matter, for they are the foundation of the bodily frame, and alone preserve its unity. I have sometimes wondered whether the prohibition as to breaking a bone of the Paschal lamb (Exododus 12:46 and Numbers 9:12)" TARGET="_blank">Numbers 9:12) did not mean that the carcase should preserve its entirety, the bones being not only unbroken, but unsevered. The flesh would be carved off, the bony frame remain intact. It seems as though nothing short of this would represent the unity of the Body of Christ symbolised by the Lamb. Our Lord’s prophetic words in Psalm 22:17," TARGET="_blank">Psalm 22:17, “I may tell all my bones,” no doubt refer primarily to His physical bones, but they go further to those whom He in His omniscience even then knew as His members, and as being crucified with Him. In Psalm 34:20," TARGET="_blank">Psalm 34:20, we have the assurance, “He keepeth all His bones, not one of them is broken”— where “broken” might well bear the sense of “severed.” In the next Psalm we have the testimony of each and all of these “bones”—”All My bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto Thee, which deliverest the poor from Him that is too strong for him” (v. 10).

Our conclusion must be on the whole that while “given” is doctrinally correct (Luke 22. 19)," TARGET="_blank">Luke 22. 19), it cannot be upheld by the textual authorities of the Corinthian passage as what Paul wrote by the Spirit. As for “broken,” though well supported, it certainly has the general understanding of the prohibition of John 19:36" TARGET="_blank">John 19:36 against it, as well as the larger bulk of manuscript authority. I think we are safer then in accepting with the R.V. the version of the words in question as, “This is My body, which is for you,” though we may not be able to do so with absolute conviction.

W.H.

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