Printable Activity: 8 page mini coloring book and full-sized pictures to tell the story of Peter preaching the gospel for the first time to Gentiles - Cornelius and his family.

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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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 Shawn St. Clair

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Jason My Child

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Jane Aubry - I remember one day in the 1970's playing my guitar, looking up to heaven, and saying, “If there is a God, I want to know Him.” When I met Roger, my husband to be, he told me he was “saved”.  I had never heard the word before.  I had thought we could only “hope” to go to heaven. He told me how he was saved and that was the end of talking about it for a time. more...

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 Abundant Grace

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Is it right to assert that our Lord died of a broken heart, in accordance with the words of Psalm 69:20" TARGET="_blank">Psalm 69:20?

It is surely very important “rightly to divide” the Psalms, as the rest of Scripture, distinguishing what may represent the actual experiences of the Psalmist, from what goes much further either to those of the future faithful remnant of Israel, or to our Lord Himself. Such a Psalm as Psalm 38" TARGET="_blank">Psalm 38 would apply all through, one would judge, to the faithful remnant, and perhaps in parts to Christ, but it is truly a shocking misapplication to attempt, as has been done sometimes, to interpret such words as are used in vv. and 7 of our Holy, spotless Lord. Even in the most clearly Messianic Psalms, a serious mistake is made in applying, or attempting to apply, everything to Christ, e.g., such verses as Psalm 40:12," TARGET="_blank">Psalm 40:12, and Psalm 69:5" TARGET="_blank">Psalm 69:5 (“Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me... they are more than the hairs of my head,” and “Oh God, thou knowest my foolishness and my sins are not hid from thee”). It is blessedly true that He bore our sins, but they were “ours” all the time, not His. “He suffered once for sins,” but it was also as “the just for the unjust,” for even as the sin-offering He was most holy (see Leviticus 6:29)." TARGET="_blank">Leviticus 6:29). There was never any confusion between Him, the guiltless, Holy One and those for whom He suffered—the guilty and defiled.
As for the special verse in question, I regard it as quite erroneous to maintain that our Lord “died of a broken heart,” even though some medical authorities have asserted it; but doctors differ here as elsewhere. How can it be possible to apply the ordinary diagnosis to One whose side had been pierced, since death, with a spear? Any symptoms might occur, one would think, under such circumstances. Above all let it be remembered we are speaking of One who strictly speaking did not “die of anything”, but laid down His life. He did not gradually collapse, as an ordinary dying man; “He dismissed His Spirit” (Matthew 27:50," TARGET="_blank">Matthew 27:50, lit, translation). He died “too soon” in fact, as all testified. He did not die of shock or heart attack, for as He died, He cried with a loud voice and uttered two memorable, articulate sentences: “It is finished,” and “Father into Thy hands I commend my Spirit.” But this being said, I see no difficulty whatever in applying to our Lord the words in question, “Reproach hath broken my heart.” They are clearly used in a figurative sense; for the verse runs on: “I am full of heaviness and I looked for some to take pity but there was none.” Is it not evident that our Lord continued to live after His heart was “broken” in this sense? Heart- breaks, as some know, are not always physical, but moral, and they may not be less poignant for that. But this is quite distinct from the sentimental and mistaken view combated above, that our Lord died in any sense from a broken heart.
W.H.

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Were those of whom we read in the New Testament that they were demon-possessed responsible for being in that condition?

Certainly not in every case. In that of the boy in Mark 9:20-22," TARGET="_blank">Mark 9:20-22, his father in reply to the Lord’s question said that he had been thus from childhood. What was true with regard to the other miracles of healing wrought by Christ was probably true of the demon-possessed also, that in some instances the trouble was due to sin on the part of the person concerned, and in others not so. Contrast the warning to the impotent man in John 5:14," TARGET="_blank">John 5:14, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee,” with the words spoken of the blind man in John 9.3," TARGET="_blank">John 9.3, “Neither hath this man sinned.”

W.R.

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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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As regards our Lord’s burial, is it right to say that, “Burial is a necessary part of our Lord’s vicarious work”?

“The Gospel includes it as we see 1 Corinthians 15: 3, 4." TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 15: 3, 4. Adam being guilty, the judgment of God required that he should return to the earth whence he came. The burning outside the camp of the sin- offering when its blood was taken inside the veil, points to this”

It is important to distinguish between the penal and governmental consequences of sin. The former are defined in the words of the Lord God, “In the day that thou eatest therefore thou shalt surely die.” There is no mention till later of dust returning to dust, if we must take that as the equivalent of burial, though it is more a putting out of sight, than physical dissolution. Nor indeed was physical death the death primarily referred to in the above warning: additional precautions had to be taken to ensure that, namely the prevention of access to the Tree of Life—”Now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever (i.e., exist in a sin-haunted body), therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden.” Nothing of an outward physical change seems to have taken place at the Fall, but a mysterious moral gulf had appeared between the creature and his Creator; he was afraid of God and hid himself. This was spiritual death.

In verses 16 to 19, the governmental consequences of the Fall are detailed quite distinct from death. The Christian is saved from the penal consequences of sin whereas he often has to know its governmental consequences. I believe the former were exhausted at the cross as the words, “It is finished,” declare, and as the rending of the veil proves. The Lord before breathing out His spirit was now no longer forsaken of His God for He commends it to His Father.

But as the writer Mr. J. T. well says, “The forsaking would not have been a public matter, had not our Lord uttered the cry.” So the death of the body was the outward and visible sign of that other death which had the much deeper significance of separation from God. I am surprised that Mr. J. T. should understand the meaning of the burning of the sin-offering outside the camp in Lev 4" TARGET="_blank">Lev 4 as burial. The word for “burning” is “araph,” representing Divine judgment; it is Christ’s suffering under God’s righteous judgment, outside the camp.

It is difficult to conceive our Lord Jesus as under Divine judgment when with reverent and loving hands He was laid in Joseph’s tomb. We may remark that His grave with the rich man was not a penalty for sin, but, “because he had done no violence neither was there any deceit in His mouth.” It is perfectly true that Christ’s burial is an eloquent testimony to the complete setting aside of the old man; but could it be said that our Lord was buried vicariously? I trow not. It is part of “the truth of the Gospel,” but as far as I remember, is only once referred to by an apostle in any public address in the Acts, which seems to show that it is not a significant part of the Gospel for the unsaved. But the Gospel is very great and extended, and has a close application to the believer. Perhaps we would be right in saying that the cross is the refuge for sinners, the sepulchre, the receptacle for the old man— Signified by baptism; and “in Christ” risen, the residence of the new man.

W.H.

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What is the Illuminati conspiracy theory and One World Government?

The illuminati conspiracy is the idea that there has always been an evil group of men working behind the scenes of world politics and world business with the end of enslaving the masses to work for their purposes.  Supposedly the group began with five men in the order of the Jesuit Priests and continues today after many generations.

It is always assumed that the members of this group control events through manufactured crisis and gradual ownership of global assets.  Unaware of the hidden agenda, we common people, are slipping gradually into their control through organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, International Criminal Court and others.

Major banks, industries, transportation, stock markets are supposed to be in their hands to be able to lead to a one world economy, one world religion and one world government. Whenever this "New World Order" comes to reality, the Illuminati will be the hands at the wheel.

Such fears of global dominion by one person or group of people are based partly on prophecy in the Bible.  We read in the Bible in the person of the Antichrist and his companion, the False Prophet.  2 Thessalonians 2:1-15" TARGET="_blank">2 Thessalonians 2:1-15 tells of his demands for absolute authority, lifting himself as God.  Revelation 13:1-18" TARGET="_blank">Revelation 13:1-18 tells of his rise to power in the symbol of a beast rising out of the sea and his demand of control of all economic activity with his seal 666 on the forehead or hand of every citizen.

It must be remembered that while Satan my be the inspiration behind the Antichrist, God is ultimately in control of all world events and world leaders.  God can use evil people to carry out his plans without their knowing it (Isaiah 10:5," TARGET="_blank">Isaiah 10:5, Isaiah 10:7)." TARGET="_blank">Isaiah 10:7).   He uses nations to punish his people Israel (Judges 2:14-15," TARGET="_blank">Judges 2:14-15, Judges 2:21-23;" TARGET="_blank">Judges 2:21-23; Judges 2:3:12)." TARGET="_blank">Judges 2:3:12).  He can also harden people's resolve to self-destruction (Joshua 11:20;" TARGET="_blank">Joshua 11:20; Judges 7:22)." TARGET="_blank">Judges 7:22).  Even the Antichrist will be under God's control and punished at the end of time (Revelation 20:1-10)." TARGET="_blank">Revelation 20:1-10).

Shad Sluiter

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