Marriage and the Family - Dr. Sandy Higgins explores the roles of parents, raising children, abortion, courtship, the Basis of Christian Living in the Home, God's Pattern Under Pressure, Heartbroken Homes, Being Single, Failing Fathers and other topics from the Bible's point of view.

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Gais Goeff

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Martin Prins

“I-I-I don’t know,” I answered, “Nobody knows.”

“I do,” she said confidently. "Sixteen years ago, I came to know the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior and I received eternal life.” She then got out her Dutch Bible. Together we read...

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Stu Thompson

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10 Ways to Read the Bible

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Marta Shutt

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How can God be fair and send people to Hell for eternity?

 “Fair” is a word that implies “treating everyone the same”, or “giving everyone an equal chance”.  In the Bible Jesus tells us a true story (complete with names, Luke 16)" TARGET="_blank">Luke 16) about a very rich man and a beggar, a homeless man so destitute that dogs licked his untreated oozing sores.  He survived on the garbage the rich man threw out.  

Is that fair?  No . . . it is not.  

Many are bitter toward God because He has allowed them to be poor, broken and sick in this life while, taking away friends and family while others sail along without a care or trouble.  The famous poem “Invictus” was written by a man who – through no fault of his - suffered deeply in this life and shook his fist at God in return.

But this story gives us the other side of the story.  When God gives poverty and earthly suffering He tends to compensate by giving spiritual favors to the ones who missed out.  “Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?”  (James 2:5)" TARGET="_blank">James 2:5)  Jesus even said, “Blessed be ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God . . . blessed are ye that hunger now . . . blessed are ye that weep”  and contra positively, “Woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation”  (Luke 6:20-27)" TARGET="_blank">Luke 6:20-27)  

As it turned out, the rich man never prepared for eternity, and the homeless man, having nothing this life, did.  When they died the saved man went to heaven, and the wealthy man opened his eyes in the flames of hell.  The rich man, now the beggar, asked his many times over great-grandfather Abraham to send the homeless from heaven with a drop of water to cool his tongue, but was told it was physically impossible to move from one place to the other.  Abraham reminded the rich man, “Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented”, explaining how fair God is.  

When the rich man appealed for the homeless man to be sent back to earth to warn the rich man’s brothers to get saved we get another insight on how fair God is.  Abraham explains that EVERYONE has the Bible and churches and preachers to tell them all they need to know to get desperate to get ready, and a supernatural visit from a dead person would not change a single mind.  Other Scriptures that tell us that even the creation all around us drives us to seek the One who made it, and that God is carefully looking for any seeking heart anywhere in the world to guide to His Son.  If what you already know should persuade you to drop everything and – to the point of losing everything, if necessary – gain eternal life for yourself, miracles will not change that.  

Turns out God balances everything out very carefully.  Everyone gets enough information to motivate them to find God’s salvation.  The Lord says, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”  (Jeremiah 19:13)" TARGET="_blank">Jeremiah 19:13)   Eternal hell cannot be changed, as this is the unavoidable consequence of dying without knowing God, part of the fabric of the universe.  God has, however, sent His only Son – Jesus – to bear the punishment of hell for us in unimagined and completely unfair suffering on the cross so we can all be born again.  That payment is worth more than the universe, all of us included.  Having done so He commands us all to repent and trust Jesus as Savior and Lord (master).  God expects us to drop everything and do exactly what He says.  When He provides opportunity after opportunity to do so, even with special favors given to us that He withholds from others as well as special warnings aimed directly at us, and we decide we have better things to do, is God unfair when we suddenly open our eyes to find that we have shamed and dismissed Him one too many times?

Alfred Corduan

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What is the difference in Isaiah 9:6." TARGET="_blank">Isaiah 9:6. between the expressions the “child born” and the “Son given”?

There is an important difference, I believe, and one which the exponents of what they term “the New Light,” as to the Eternal Sonship of our Lord, would do well to consider. Why is the “child” said to be “born,” but the “Son” not born, but “given”? We read in Isaiah 7:14" TARGET="_blank">Isaiah 7:14 that God had been pleased to offer to king Ahaz a sign to confirm his doubting soul, that the line of David would not be superseded by the son of Tabeal, according to the Satanic design of Rezin and Pekah, which would have set aside the purpose of God regarding His future King, who must be of the seed of David according to the flesh. Ahaz had liberty of choice; he might ask for any sign in the depth, that is commensurate with the drying up of the Red Sea, or in the height commensurate with the standing still of the sun in answer to Joshua’s prayer. The king who was continually tempting God by his disobedience, refused this offer: He would not tempt the Lord, he said. Very well, then, the Lord will give a sign greater than any other known so far in the history of the world—the Virgin Birth of Him who was God: “Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (v. 14). A great effort of unbelief has been made to show that the word,” ‘almãh,” translated “virgin,” should be rather rendered “young married woman.” Such an objection hardly shows unusual scholarship, so much as a lack of common sense; for the fact of a young married woman having a son would be no sign at all. In this verse, in the phrase “a virgin shall. . . bear a son,” the same verb is used as in chap. 9. 6, “a child is born.” Here the Son is viewed as the Son of Mary in the sense of Matthew 1:25" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 1:25: “She brought forth her first-born Son.” Why then is the “Son” said to be “given” in Isa. 9." TARGET="_blank">Isa. 9. 6? The reason is that there the One born is viewed as the One who had already been Son from all eternity. He could not become that by human birth. The child was born, but God gave His Eternal Son. W.H.

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THE BODY OF MOSES
What do you understand is intended to be conveyed to us by the dispute of the archangel Michael with Satan over the body of Moses?

Jude 1" TARGET="_blank">Jude 1:

We have the full account of the death of Moses in Deuteronomy 34," TARGET="_blank">Deuteronomy 34, but no account of his public funeral, for he had none, but, as is expressly stated, “He (i.e., the Lord) buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor, but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.” There must be a reason for this. I think it is that were it possible to examine the grave of Moses to-day it would be found empty. But someone will say, “How could Moses have been raised from the dead seeing that our Lord Jesus Christ is in 1 Corinthians 15" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 15 called ‘the first-fruits’ of the resurrection, and in Colossians r, ‘the first-born from the dead’?” This is an important question.

It was impossible for anyone to be raised on to true resurrection ground till our Lord rose. Then if Moses was raised, it could only have been back on to the death plane, as the various cases of resurrection of the Old and New Testaments prior to our Lord’s resurrection, such as the son of the widow of Sarepta, that of the Shunammite, Lazarus, and the widow of Nain’s son, etc. All came back on to the death plane and died subsequently. I think the incident narrated in Jude refers to the raising of Moses back on the earth plane. If he is one of the witnesses he will die again. No man can die physically after true resurrection. This gives an added completeness to the scene on the Holy Mount: The Lord the centre, Elijah representing them who will never pass in death, Moses the raised one. Satan might legally contest a premature resurrection of Moses in the true sense, while he could not possibly urge any legal objection to Moses being temporarily delivered from the state of death. “It is appointed unto men once to die.” If Moses is to be one of the witnesses, his death will be true death.

W.H.

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"They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!’

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey”

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How can we reconcile with human ideas of justice the destruction of the two captains and their fifties?

Were they not only doing their duty in carrying out the orders of their king? Why should they be destroyed with lightning for that? (see 2 Kings 1" TARGET="_blank">2 Kings 1: ).

The key to this difficulty is found, I believe, in ver. 1, in reference to the third captain, who was spared. “Go down with him,” the angel said, “be not afraid of him.” It seems clear from this that Elijah did well to be afraid of the other two captains and their companies, who would have exceeded their mandate, which was simply to bring the prophet to the king, by killing him themselves :—lynching him in fact. Elijah thus acted in his own defence in the spirit of a prophet of judgment, enforcing the law and its penalties. What was fitting for him was not so for James and John, the servants of the Saviour of men, for they were “of His Spirit.”

W.H.

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