Shelly McKenna

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Eternal Security

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Stu Thompson

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  I speak in tongues more than you all - A biblical exploration about the gift of tongues. Two pitfalls are pointed out: The dangerous error of counterfeiting the truth and the chilling error of a dead orthodoxy.

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Byrne Foreshew

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Brian Elliott - God’s good news was always bad news to me. All it seemed to do was remind me that some day I was going to die and leave this world to meet God. It constantly reminded me I was going to hell. (more)

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Is the Commission of Matthew 28:18-20" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 28:18-20 for the present dispensation, or only for one yet future?

“The Lord Jesus before His death made just one appointment with His disciples, which was, to meet Him on a certain mountain in Galilee after He had risen (Matthew 26:32;" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 26:32; Mark 16:7)." TARGET="_blank">Mark 16:7). Of this fact we are reminded in Matthew 28:16," TARGET="_blank">Matthew 28:16, the opening verse of the paragraph in which the Commission is contained. There had been some more or less informal meetings elsewhere previous to it, but this was the specially prearranged meeting, which naturally would overshadow them all in importance. yet there are those who would ask us to believe that what He told them when He met them there, was not about their Own work at all; but that He gave them minute instructions and comforting assurances with regard to the work of some other unknown individuals, who would live two thousand or more years after their time. They would have us believe that when He said, “Go ye and teach,” lie meant that somebody else was to go and teach; that when He said, “I am with you,” He meant, I will be with some other people who will be on earth two thousand years hence; and that when He added, “Even unto the end of the age,” He meant, until the end of some other age. Those who can swallow this kind of thing must have good digestion, for I frankly confess I prefer to believe that the Lord meant just what He said.

The statement, which some of these brethren make, that Matthew does not acknowledge the Church period, is absurd. Is it not in Matthew that we have the formal introduction of the Church in chapter 16, and of Church order in chapter 18? Is it not there that we find the Lord’s action, so symbolical of turning from Jew to Gentile, in chap. 13. 1; in which after having been definitely rejected by the Jewish leaders in the two previous chapters, it is said, “The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the seaside”? And immediately after, He speaks the Seven Parables of the Mysteries of the Kingdom, which have so often been shown to picture successive stages of this present Church period. That Matthew’s Gospel has a Jewish tinge, no one who is a careful reader can doubt; but this is far off from the Conclusion that there is nothing in it except for Jews. The Gospel of Luke has a Gentile tinge, but would these brethren suggest that there is nothing for Jews in Luke, nothing about the Tribulation, nothing about Millennial times? As a matter of fact, the Commission as given in the end of the Gospels of Luke and of Mark, has a more Jewish Sound about it than the form of it occurring in Matthew.

As illustrating the fact that the Apostles did carry out Matthew 28:18-20" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 28:18-20 there is a word worth noting in Acts 14:21" TARGET="_blank">Acts 14:21: “They had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught (Gr., discipled) many.” It is the very word, “matheteuo,” used in Matthew 28:1," TARGET="_blank">Matthew 28:1, and this is the only place in the New Testament, apart from Matthew’s Gospel, where it occurs. Were they not here carrying out the Commission as given in that verse?”

W.R.

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What are the crowns that Christ will give to believers for their reward?  At the Judgment Seat of Christ, the Lord will reward believers for what they have done in their life (1 Corinthians 3:11-15)." TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 3:11-15).  From other Bible verses, we can see that the Lord will reward believers with several type of crowns...

1 Corinthians 9:25" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 9:25 - "And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible."

1 Thessalonians 2:19" TARGET="_blank">1 Thessalonians 2:19 - "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing"

1 Timothy 4:8" TARGET="_blank">1 Timothy 4:8 - "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."

James 1:12" TARGET="_blank">James 1:12 - "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him."

1 Peter 5:4" TARGET="_blank">1 Peter 5:4 - "And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away."

Revelation 2:10" TARGET="_blank">Revelation 2:10 - "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."

Revelation 4:4" TARGET="_blank">Revelation 4:4 - "And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold."

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In what sense did the devil have "the power of death" (Hebrews 2:14)" TARGET="_blank">Hebrews 2:14)?

This page was adapted from an answer at Truth and Tidings Magazine by David Oliver.

The terrible trials of Job show us that Satan had no power over Job in regards to death.  Satan had the capcity to kill Job, but only if God had allowed him to (Job 2:6)." TARGET="_blank">Job 2:6). The Greek word for "power" in Hebrews 2:14" TARGET="_blank">Hebrews 2:14 is not exousia, translated power or authority. Only God has such power in giving (John 1:4)," TARGET="_blank">John 1:4), sustaining (1 Timothy 4:10)," TARGET="_blank">1 Timothy 4:10), and ending (Daniel 5:23)" TARGET="_blank">Daniel 5:23) a life.

In this verse, "power" is the translation of the Greek word kratos, which means "manifested power" (W. E. Vine).  It is found 12 times in the New Testament.  It is translated "dominion" four times in the King James Version, each time in a doxology.

In Hebrews 2:9," TARGET="_blank">Hebrews 2:9, we read Christ tasted "death for every man" (or for "everything," John Darby). For the Son of Man to bring His creation into its intended order and purpose, He must taste the full bitterness of death. Through one man, Adam, deatg was brought into the world (Romans 5:12)" TARGET="_blank">Romans 5:12) and ruined God’s intended order (Hebrews 2:6-8)." TARGET="_blank">Hebrews 2:6-8). The Last Adam, after tasting death, is the guarantor that the world will be subject to a man.

Death reigns as a result of Adam’s sin (Romans 5:17)." TARGET="_blank">Romans 5:17). By dying in obedience (Romans 5:19)" TARGET="_blank">Romans 5:19) to God’s will (Philippians 2:8)," TARGET="_blank">Philippians 2:8), Christ obtained rightousness for each saved person (Romans 5:19)" TARGET="_blank">Romans 5:19) and an eventual physical deliverance for creation (Romans 8:21)." TARGET="_blank">Romans 8:21).

Adam lost his dominion over creation to "that old serpent, called the Devil." He is the "prince (or ruler, English Standard Version) of this world" (John 12:31)." TARGET="_blank">John 12:31). The stench of death spreads over his entire kingdom.

The Devil has exercised his power of death over all of God’s creatures and creation. In a few words, the "power of death" is the devil’s destructive impact on creation as a result of the Fall.

D. Oliver

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Do the two loaves of Levticus 23:17 represent Jews and Gentiles?

And why were they “baken with leaven,” which speaks of what is evil?

The feast of Leviticus 23:15-21," TARGET="_blank">Leviticus 23:15-21, called in Deuteronomy 16:10," TARGET="_blank">Deuteronomy 16:10, etc., “The Feast of Weeks”; in Acts 2:1," TARGET="_blank">Acts 2:1, etc., “The Day of Pentecost”: and in Numbers 28:26," TARGET="_blank">Numbers 28:26, “The Day of the First-fruits”; is doubtless, as C. H. M. expresses it, “a type of God’s people, gathered by the Holy Ghost, and presented before Him in connection with all the preciousness of Christ.” This being so, the presence of leaven in the two loaves is, as he further says, “because they were intended to foreshadow those who, though filled with the Holy Ghost, and adorned with His gifts and graces, had nevertheless evil dwelling in them.” But the leaven was not burnt on the altar to God, either in this case or any other (see v. 20). That the number “two” may represent the elements, Jew and Gentile, out of which the Church is formed, seems reasonable enough.

W.R.

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HOW MANY CUPS?
Is it not as much a departure from the scriptural practice to use two or so cups at the Lord’s table, as it would be to use fifty-two?

Though the unity of the cup is not insisted upon in the Scriptures in the same way as that of the loaf, which in 1 Corinthians 10" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 10: represents the one indivisible Body of Christ, nevertheless it is always “the cup” that is spoken of—the unique receptacle of that which represents the blood of Christ. But even in the case of the loaf, as each member present partakes, the outward unity of the loaf is not preserved. Indeed, even before that, as the brother who gives thanks, breaks the loaf, and for convenience places the portions on different plates, the figure of the unity of the body is in no way affected, as it would be were the loaf originally cut up in in bits. No more would the unity of the cup be, even though it stood on the same ground as the loaf, by being poured into different glasses or cups, for convenience of distribution. It is still “the cup,” each being filled from the one original receptacle. But by the introduction of what is called “the individual cup” for each “communicant,” the receptacles are multiplied and the identity of the wine in them is completely lost and the thought of fellowship hindered. As we practise it, though there be two or more cups, for purposes of distribution, all are filled from the original receptacle and still constitute “the cup”—the communion of the blood of Christ.

W.H.

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DISCIPLINE
What should be our attitude to a neighbouring assembly, where moral or doctrinal evil is allowed to go on unjudged?

I presume what is meant by “moral or doctrinal evil” is something grave and fundamental, and not merely differences of judgement as to such questions as the exact rules to be followed at the Lord’s table, or regulations as to ministry. We have no authority in God’s Word as far as I can see, for cutting off an assembly, but we are not obliged to have fellowship with every assembly.

The Lord in His messages to the Seven Churches of Asia (Revelation 2" TARGET="_blank">Revelation 2: and Revelation 3" TARGET="_blank">Revelation 3: has to reprove Ephesus for “leaving her first love”; Pergamos for allowing among them those holding the doctrine of Balaam, or the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes; Thyatira for  “suffering that woman Jezebel.. . to teach and seduce God’s servants”; Sardis for dead-alive profession; and Laodicea for luke-warmness and self-satisfaction. Yet, though in each case appeal is made to him “who hath an ear to hear what is said unto the churches,” in no case is one church, or alliance of churches, instructed to deal in discipline with some other church.

Not even in the case of Smyrna or Philadelphia, with which no fault was found, is any such instruction given. Is there then nothing to be done? Clearly the exhortation “to hear” what is said to the churches, shows that no church should be indifferent to the state of other churches. Prayer for the erring church must be ever in season, and godly exhortation by word or letter always permissible. But what should be done if all prove abortive? Then all direct contact with the assembly as such must be avoided. It is she who is morally responsible for shutting her doors against those who stand for truth and righteousness. Can we imagine Smyrna having practical fellowship with Pergamos, or Philadelphia exchanging platforms with Thyatira? But the modem method, if we rule out “inferences” and “logical deductions”, of excommunicating churches or groups of churches, is profoundly foreign to Scripture.

W.H.

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