Bryon Meyers

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Printable Scale Model of Noah's Ark

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David Jones

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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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Avrell Bowden - "If I die tonight, where will I be? Heaven or hell?” People make commitments to God an confessions of faith that sometimes have no reality.  At age 6 I made a false profession of salvation. That is, I told people I was saved. (more)

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Are we to understand from Genesis 45:5," TARGET="_blank">Genesis 45:5,18 that Joseph actually used divination?

Though divination was common in Egypt, it is hard to suppose that a pious believer in the true God like Joseph should use such practices. Moreover, as one in close touch with God and an interpreter of dreams, etc., what drawing could he have to descend to such heathenish customs?

The cup may very well have been similar to those used for this purpose, but it is noticeable that Joseph only says to his brethren, “wot ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine?” (v. 15), without affirming that he did. It must be admitted that his word through his steward does seem to go further. The true explanation may be that in order to keep up his character before his brethren, as an orthodox Egyptian, so as the more effectually to carry out his deliberate plan for their conviction and restoration, he might feel justified in conveying this momentary impression that he divined. If he did so, it is not commended nor is it specifically blamed. We are aware in reading the Old Testament that even men of God had not the same standards of truthfulness, that are binding on us to-day. The word here for “divine” (nihesh) is translated, “I have learned by experience” (Genesis 30:27)," TARGET="_blank">Genesis 30:27), and “did diligently observe” (1 Kings 20:33)," TARGET="_blank">1 Kings 20:33), but generally, “to use enchantments” (2 Kings 17" TARGET="_blank">2 Kings 17: I7 2 Kings 21:6)." TARGET="_blank">2 Kings 21:6). Such divination is strictly forbidden later in the Word of God (see Levticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 19:10)." TARGET="_blank">Deuteronomy 19:10).
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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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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In Exodus 4:10," TARGET="_blank">Exodus 4:10, Moses complained of “slowness of speech” but Stephen in Acts 7" TARGET="_blank">Acts 7:. says he was “mighty in words and in deeds.” Is there not a contradiction here?

Someone has said that Moses took forty years in Egypt learning all the wisdom of the Egyptians, then forty years in Midian learning that he knew nothing after all, and then forty years in the wilderness in learning what God could do with a man who had learned he knew nothing. There is no contradiction here, or anywhere else in the Scriptures. We read first what Stephen says of Moses, that he was “mighty in words and deeds,” that is, during his Egyptian period; then what Moses says of himself. Perhaps there are good speakers to-day who are genuinely diffident, and are quite unaware they are eloquent. It does not matter, if they think so, as long as they are all the more cast upon God and fulfil their ministry. Possibly the reverse is true of some of us. We think we can speak and would do well to be more often silent. In fact, the word is addressed to all “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”

W.H.

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