What does the Bible phrase mean - "The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous"?

What is the meaning of Proverbs 21:18," TARGET="_blank">Proverbs 21:18, “The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor for the upright”?
Compare the following passages, in which a similar thought is more clearly expressed: “The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead” (Proverbs 11: 8)." TARGET="_blank">Proverbs 11: 8).
“I gave Egypt for thy ransom, . . . I have loved thee, therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life” (Isaiah 43:3, 4)." TARGET="_blank">Isaiah 43:3, 4).
“They hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai” (Esther 7:10)." TARGET="_blank">Esther 7:10).
“Those men which had accused Daniel. . . cast. . . into the den of lions” (Daniel 6:24)." TARGET="_blank">Daniel 6:24).
And note the use of the same word “ransom” in the Isaiah passage, and of “in his stead” in Proverbs 11." TARGET="_blank">Proverbs 11.
The above Scriptures, and others which might be added, suggest two things. First, that God may sometimes deliver His own at the cost of severe suffering, or even destruction, to the unsaved. Second, that the wicked at times suffer the very fate which they themselves had prepared for the righteous. Proverbs 21:18" TARGET="_blank">Proverbs 21:18 contains the first of these thoughts, and probably the second as well.
W.R.

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Severl programs for Bible puzzles that you can printout are listed below.

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Choose one of the 350 Sunday school worksheets that you can printout so student have several types of Bible puzzles including word find and crossword puzzles. You can printout the PDF files on 8.5x 11 paper.

Create and printout one of the following Bible puzzle programs.

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How can I change or control my thought life?

How can I change or control my thought life?

Paul's statement, "Think on these things" (Philippians 4:8)," TARGET="_blank">Philippians 4:8), shows that we can choose the focus of our thoughts.

A controlled mind (1 Peter 1:13)" TARGET="_blank">1 Peter 1:13) characterizes normal Christian living. The power of the Spirit of God within and of devotion to Christ produces obedience to God's Word and likeness to Christ. Spiritually healthy habits - reading and meditating on the Word of God, confessing sins and communing with the Lord in prayer, maintaining wholesome relationships with others, and participating in the spiritual activities of an assembly -preserve us from most problems with an unholy thought life. Healthy Christian thinking is the byproduct of healthy Christian living.

A history of bad habits in thinking, of spiritual departure, or of inappropriate responses to circumstances in life will deepen problems in a believer's thought life. Replacing these habits with spiritual habits helps to change our thought life.

The remedy is focusing on Christ's loveliness and on things positive and Christ-honoring (Philippians 4:8)." TARGET="_blank">Philippians 4:8).

Here are 4 suggestions:

1. When facing conditions that trigger wrong thoughts, read conveniently placed index cards on which you have written relevant Bible verses. This allows God's Word to speak to and strengthen your mind.

2. Prayerfully eliminate idle time, lonely interludes, or physical tiredness.

3. Cultivate the companionship of an omniscient God.

4. Carefully select your food. Some "food" you see and hear will sow seeds of wrong thoughts. Replace this with spiritually strengthening food. Listen to and sing songs rich in Biblical truth. By these means the word of Christ will dwell in you richly (Colossians 3:16)." TARGET="_blank">Colossians 3:16).

D. Oliver
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Who has the authority to "put away" someone from a church?

Does Matthew 18:20" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 18:20 teach that overseers put a person away from the assembly?

The parable of the straying sheep (verses 12-14) is an important part of the context of Matthew 18:20." TARGET="_blank">Matthew 18:20. The differences between this parable and the story of the lost sheep (Luke 15:4-7)" TARGET="_blank">Luke 15:4-7) are important. There the sheep is "lost"; here it has "gone astray." Here, the 99 are not in the wilderness, and the effort may prove to be a failure, as it was in the hypothetical case (verse 17). This is descriptive of the work of godly shepherds to recover a straying believer. Seeing recovery is shepherd work, there is good reason to consider the "two or three" of verses 16, 19 and 20 to be assembly elders or shepherds.

Elders act for an assembly in discipline cases, but their judgment is not arbitrary; it is in obedience to Heaven’s judgment. "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be (having been) bound in Heaven." The action of an assembly carries out God’s judgment. However, it is not merely elders who "put away"; it is an assembly action (1 Corinthians 5:13)" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 5:13) with elders acting for it. Very often there are details of sin that should be only known and handled by elders. They have the confidence of the assembly and act tenderly as shepherds in behalf of the assembly.

N. Crawford
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Why does only Matthew mention people raised from the dead when Jesus died?

Why is this fuller account only in Matthew?

Matthew 27:50-53" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 27:50-53

The events at the cross on that day were not typical acts; rather, they fulfilled the types concerning the Lord’s death. The rending of the veil was not a typical act in an earthly sanctuary which showed that the death of Christ gave access to God in the heavenly sanctuary. The rent veil showed that the death of Christ ended the typical sacrifices of the Old Covenant. God was finished with those types; they were fulfilled in the once-for-all offering of the body of Christ (Hebrews 10:10)." TARGET="_blank">Hebrews 10:10). We do not enter the heavenly sanctuary through a rent veil nor through the "rent body of Christ." We enter through the veil, that is to say His flesh (v 20). It is a living way (v 19), by means of a living Christ.

Matthew writes for the Jews, Mark for Roman proselytes (like Cornelius), and Luke for Gentiles. The Gentiles needed to know that the Jewish system of sacrifices had ended. Instead of being excluded from the value of the offerings, they have an equal claim on divine blessings because of the cross. Mark and Luke therefore include the rending of the veil.

On the other hand, the Jews needed confirmation that their sacrificial system had ended. That may be the reason that Matthew tells about the darkness (Matthew 27:45)" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 27:45) and the earthquake (v 51). When the sacrificial system was initiated, it was with a thick cloud (Exodus 19:16)" TARGET="_blank">Exodus 19:16) and a quaking mountain (v 18). The God Who spoke then, spoke now with the same "presence" and power. He ended that sacrificial system. The second confirmation ("in the mouth of two of three witnesses . . .") was the appearance in Jerusalem of saints returned to life. The Law came with the threat of death (Exodus 19:12, 21)" TARGET="_blank">Exodus 19:12, 21) at Sinai. The end of the legal system of sacrifices came at Jerusalem through the life-giving "word of the cross" (1 Corinthians 1:18," TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 1:18, ESV).

D. Oliver

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Online Bible Search on Your Web Site

If you manage a website or have a profile on MySpace, you can provide your viewers with a Bible search form like the one below directly from your page. Their search results will appear in a pop-up window so your web page stays on their computer screen. They can easily return to your site once their Bible search request is finished.

This is what the form looks like.

This is how you add it to your website.

Copy the following code and paste it into the HTML code for your web page. This will provide a link to the Online Bible.

<form action="http://www.gospelhall.org/bible/bible.php" method="GET" target = "new">
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Why does the church use one loaf of bread?

What is expressed by partaking of the bread (1 Corinthians 10:16)" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 10:16)?

As the cup symbolizes the physical blood of Christ, so the bread symbolizes the physical body of Christ. Partaking of both expresses a fellowship, or communion, with God (the cup) and with believers (the bread). The truth of fellowship with God underlies the teaching of chapter 10; fellowship with believers reappears in chapter 11:17-34.

The bread, speaking of the physical body of Christ, does not symbolize the church, the Body of Christ, nor does partaking of it express the fellowship of that Body. Verse 17 explains the fellowship. The believers who partake of the bread are one, because ("for") they have all partaken of one loaf. All are one, because all partake. In this context, Paul must be referring to partaking of the physical loaf at the Breaking of Bread. By partaking of this bread, believers in the assembly express that they are one.

The passage cannot teach that all the Body of Christ is one (Ephesian truth), because all partake of the loaf. All believers on earth have never partaken of one loaf, even in Acts 2" TARGET="_blank">Acts 2 when all in the Body were on earth. Furthermore, some in the Body have never partaken of this "communion of the body of Christ."

In chapter 10, partaking of the cup and bread expresses our fellowship with God and with fellow believers in the assembly. In chapter 11, partaking of these symbols brings to remembrance our beloved Lord, declares the value we see in that death, and anticipates His coming.

D. Oliver
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Do people in heaven have bodies?

THE INTERMEDIATE STATE
If we enter at the very moment of death into our Lord’s presence, do we enter bodily?

If so, in what kind of body do we enter?

If this immediate entry were true, would not resurrection be superfluous; and how reconcile it with 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17" TARGET="_blank">1 Thessalonians 4:15-17?

Certainly the Scriptures do not teach that at the moment of death the believer enters “bodily” into the presence of Christ, and yet the Apostle Paul says very plainly, “To depart and to be with Christ, which is far better” (Philippians 1:23)." TARGET="_blank">Philippians 1:23). He adds however, “nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you;” so that the presence with Christ is not “in the flesh,” it is not bodily: the body is laid in the grave, it sleeps awaiting the resurrection.

Then again in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 5:1-5 the apostle describes his earnest desire to depart and to be with Christ, which was so great, that he was willing even to enter the disembodied state, so as to be with Christ, evep in that imperfect condition. “We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”

The passage in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17" TARGET="_blank">1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 describes quite another thing, namely, the coming of the Lord; the raising of the sleeping saints (sleeping, that is as to their bodies and whose spirits God will bring with Christ); and the changing of the living saints—two companies which will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. This will be the perfected condition.

2 Corinthians 12:2-4" TARGET="_blank">2 Corinthians 12:2-4 is clear proof that the human spirit can exist consciously and intelligently apart from the body, for Paul, when he was caught up, knew perfectly that he was at the third heaven, and in Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for man to utter, and yet he twice assures us that he could not tell whether he was in the body or out of the body. This shows that he believed in the possibility of spiritual existence apart from the body.

W.H.

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What is binding Satan?

Binding Satan

Ministers who try to deliver people from problems often speak of binding Satan or binding a sickness or binding poverty or binding some other problem. A prayer to “bind” Satan usually takes the form of something like this:

“In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, I come against you, Satan, the Prince of Darkness to bind you, paralyzing your power, forbidding you to come near this person and influencing her thinking. I demand that you leave her immediately!”

By “binding” Satan, claims are made to be able to paralyze Satan or silence him or forbid him from influencing a person. As powerful as this commanding prayer may sound, it is unscriptural. Nobody in the history of the Bible ever spoke to Satan this way, nor are we commanded to speak to him like this. We resist Satan by teaching and obeying the truth of the Bible.

For a more detailed answer see the question:

Do Christians have the ability or the authority to bind Satan?

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Who were the 12 disciples of Christ?

Be the first to give an answer to this question. Write an answer in the comment section below. Please provide your name and if you have a website or blog, be sure to include the URL in your answer.
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