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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Jesus Tomb

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James Dyck

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Should I be baptized again as an adult if I was baptized as a baby?

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101 Ways to Teach a Memory Verse

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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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BRITISH ISRAELISM
What are we to think of “British Israelism,” and what should be our attitude towards adherents of it?

The hypothesis is that “Anglo-Saxons are the lineal descendants of the Ten Tribes of Israel and inherit the wonderful promises made to them. These promises the Anglo-Saxons possess nationally.” This can hardly be “dignified” with the name of “heresy”; it is rather one of those “imaginations” which we are to seek to cast down in the Name of Christ. As far as truth is concerned, it is of “the stuff that dreams are made of;” a simile not so far-fetched, when we consider that the B.I. theory’s prime foundation stone is, as we shall see, confessedly, an invented dream.

Alas! how sad it is to see even pious Christians thus snared by the great fowler, as also numbers of wordlings, taking up as a sort of fashionable pastime the slogan, not “We are lost sinners,” but “We are the lost tribes.” It thus provides for the world another gospel, which captivates and hypnotises them with the thought of capturing great earthly blessings for themselves and the British Empire, apart from repentance and faith in Christ, as though He had never died and risen to procure us blessings, and we must needs make out a fancied identity with the lost tribes (bereft of blessings themselves) in order to get a few for ourselves and the British Empire. Certainly Christ did not die for the glory of the British Empire. If God has blessed our country so signally in the past, the reasons are not far to seek: (1) His Sovereignty; (2) the comparative good treatment England has bestowed on the Jews; (3) the fact that she has been a harbour of refuge for persecuted Continental Christians; (4) because, by His mercy, the Word of God was accepted at the Reformation, and became our national Book for centuries; (5) and because of His many people in our country and their prayers; though now she is on the way to forfeit all this by her national sins and apostacy.

But not one blessing did Britain ever inherit for the “British-Israel” reason, because even if she were the lost tribes, she has not kept God’s laws and statutes, the very condition of blessing (see Deuteronomy 28:15)" TARGET="_blank">Deuteronomy 28:15) and would have put herself outside the covenant, if ever under it, by neglecting circumcision. British Israelism is no mere harmless delusion; its logical effect is virtually to exclude Christ (not He, but the British Empire looms at the centre of things), and to supersede the gospel to sinners with some fancied national position, with its naked abandonment of the heavenly calling of the church and a complete confusion between her and Israel. Even, if we were Israel, she is set on one side nationally for the present so far as earthly blessing goes, and j so should we be. If space allowed, I would gladly take up the general arguments for or against the much vaunted “identifications,” but before . examining the ornaments of a building, it is well to enquire as to the foundation. I believe no castle-in-the-air ever had a flimsier base than this theory. Is there any historic proof that the ten tribes migrated from the latitudes where the Assyrians placed them, to England or anywhere else? There is not a scintilla. No mention is made of their doings either in Scripture or secular history from about 720 B.C., when their Assyrian captors settled them in Assyria, etc., though we have promises in the Scripture of their future restoration, e.g. Isa. i i • iz, where Jehovah promises to gather back again to their only land of blessing the “outcasts of Israel,” along with “the dispersed of Judah,” from whom they are thus carefully distinguished. We may be sure the Assyrians, as long as they had the power, would not allow their captives to wander away at their own sweet will to some other land. Until we have some serious proof that the ten tribes ever started on their journey for the British Isles, it is futile to spend time in proving they never arrived there. On what then does the B.I. theory rest? On a passage in an Apocryphal book, the 2nd of Esdras, (Eadras, Greek form of Ezra. ) purporting to have been written by Ezra the scribe, but really forged 700 years after the captivity by some unscrupulous impersonator living in Egypt. The passage (see chap. 13. 1-12 39-46) purports to be the interpretation of a fictitious dream ascribed to Ezra, to the effect that the ten tribes took counsel to leave the heathen country where they were in captivity and go off into a land where no one dwelt; where they might keep God’s statutes. They crossed the Euphrates miraculously and after a year and a half arrived at some unknown region called Arsareth. “Then dwelt they there until the latter time.” The whole chapter reads like an unholy parody of Scripture, as indeed it is, naturally bereft of all spiritual power, and bristling with the wildest improbabilities. And yet this fake dream and its fictitious interpretation is admitted by the writers of “British Israel Truth” (chap. 7.) to be the “one only tradition of their fate (i.e., of the lost tribes) which past ages have handed on to us.” That a whole system should rest ultimately on a “tradition” would be bad enough, but when that “tradition” is a dream, that nobody really ever had, the edifice must be in a parlous state. As to how to deal with a Christian “in fellowship,” who becomes inoculated with this unscriptural, unhistoric theory; it may be said that as far as is apparent, it does not effect directly fundamental truth as to the Person of Christ, though what it may lead to is difficult to say. Any attempt to propagate it in an assembly, could not be tolerated and anyone persisting in such a course would bring himself or herself under the open rebuke of the elders. Certainly the theory “causes divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine, which we have learned” and we should “mark” and “avoid” those who are in active sympathy with this sad delusion.

William Hoste

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THE BREAD

At the Lord’s Supper is the loaf a symbol of the human Body of the Lord, and also a symbol of His mystical Body—the Church?

When thus gathered, are we an expression of that Body on earth? It has been stated by a well-known teacher that “the Church which is Christ’s Body” (Ephesians 1:22-23)" TARGET="_blank">Ephesians 1:22-23) is spiritual, and spiritually discerned, lying altogether beyond the range of the natural senses and is without organisation or expression on earth.”
It has often been remarked that the order of things in 1 Corinthians 10" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 10: differs from that of the following chapter, in that in the ioth the cup precedes the bread, whereas it is the bread which comes first in the i ith chapter, where we have the actual order of the celebration. In the former chapter, it is a question of communion which rests on the blood; in the latter, of remembrance, which views primarily the Person. Certainly in 1 Corinthians 11" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 11: , the loaf represents the literal human Body of the Lord, according to His words: “This is My body, which is given for you.” How else could such words be understood, than as referring to His literal Body, which was crucified for us, and in which He bore our sins, and which the bread represents?

But in 1 Corinthians 10:17," TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 10:17, we read: “For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread,” or as the R.V. margin has it, more clearly and I judge, more correctly: “Seeing that there is one bread, we, who are many are one body.” I do not think it is necessary for us to assert that “we are an expression of the body on earth,” for this may, as it has too often done in the past, savour of pretension, but rather that the one loaf is the expression of the one mystical Body of Christ. I do not think that this is out of harmony with the statement quoted above by the “well-known teacher.” The one loaf does not define the unity of the Body, it affirms it and we say, “Amen”!

W.H.

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UNIVERSALISM

Do not scriptures such as Colossians 1:20," TARGET="_blank">Colossians 1:20, Ephesians 1:10;" TARGET="_blank">Ephesians 1:10; 1 Timothy 2:4-6;" TARGET="_blank">1 Timothy 2:4-6; 1 Timothy 4:10;" TARGET="_blank">1 Timothy 4:10; Romans 5:19;" TARGET="_blank">Romans 5:19;  1 Corinthians 15:22-28;" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 15:22-28; Philippians 2:9-11;" TARGET="_blank">Philippians 2:9-11;  teach the universal salvation of the race? Will not all men be saved?

This questioner is a “Universalist,” believing that all fallen creatures will one day be restored to Divine favour, and brought to heaven.

Let us examine each verse in turn:

there is nothing in Phil. 2:9-11" TARGET="_blank">Phil. 2:9-11 about willing submission. All will bow the knee and confess Christ as Lord, if not willingly, then unwillingly. When the Lord utters the terrible words to certain ones, “Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,” is there a hint that this will mean their conversion and restoration?

Certainly 1 Corinthians 15" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 15: 22-28 is a strange passage to prove the salvation of all. It refers to the terrible scenes in Revelation 20" TARGET="_blank">Revelation 20 when Satan and the impenitent will be judged and cast into the lake of fire. It is said that Christ at the end will “put down all rule and all authority and power” (v. 24). If this meant their reconciliation, then death would be reconciled too, for “destroyed,” in verse 26, is the same in the Greek (Katargeo) as “put down” in verse 24. The real meaning is explained in v. 25: “all His enemies will be put under His feet,” or “made His footstool,” as in Psa. cx. This would be a peculiar way of expressing reconciliation. It was not thus that the father in Luke 15" TARGET="_blank">Luke 15 welcomed the prodigal. Joshua did treat the Amorite kings just in this way, and it sealed their doom, and they were executed before nightfall.

Romans 5:19" TARGET="_blank">Romans 5:19 does not say a word about all being saved, but merely that “as many were made sinners by the disobedience of Adam, so many will be made righteous by the obedience of Christ”. The condition of repentance and faith is enforced throughout the epistle. How divorce it from this verse? Romans 2:5" TARGET="_blank">Romans 2:5 tells us of those who refuse to repent.

1 Timothy 4:10" TARGET="_blank">1 Timothy 4:10 simply says that God is the Saviour of all men, “specially of them that believe.” Why “specially,” if all are equally saved? Many believe, and I think they are right, that Saviour here means “Preserver.” (The French—version has usually ‘Conservateur,” i.e, Preserver.)  The Lord cares for all, and in a special way for His people.

1 Timothy2:4-6" TARGET="_blank">1 Timothy2:4-6 does not say that all will be saved, but that God is willing that all should be saved. We glory in this truth, and we are sure that wherever He can righteously apply the saving efficacy of the blood of Christ, He will do so. The ransom is paid for all. It is sufficient for all, efficient for them that believe. But those who refuse to believe will perish in spite of the work of Christ. To some the Lord had to say, “Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life”. Neither Ephesians 1:10" TARGET="_blank">Ephesians 1:10 nor Colossians 1:20" TARGET="_blank">Colossians 1:20 says a word about “things under the earth,” or infernal things, as Phil. 2:10" TARGET="_blank">Phil. 2:10 does, when the sujection of all is in view. It is, moreover, “all things” that are to be reconciled. How could heavenly persons need it? But sin has entered the heavenly sphere; discord has marred the harmony there as here, and things, so far, need adjustment or harmonising. Certainly, all things in heaven and earth will be “headed up” in Christ (Ephesians 1:10)," TARGET="_blank">Ephesians 1:10), but the impenitent are not included. They will be vessels of wrath to display God’s power and wrath. The questioner allows there are some verses which seem to teach otherwise, and quotes one—John 3:36" TARGET="_blank">John 3:36—which he really explains away by leaving out the first part, and dwelling on the fact that “the wrath of God abideth in the unbeliever” is in the present. But it is clear that the future is referred to from the first words, “He that believeth not, shall not see life.” This cannot refer to the present, for as long as breath is in the body, a man may turn, believe, and see life; but once the unbeliever passes from this scene he will never see life, but will exist under the wrath of God for ever. Space will only allow me to point out, that our Lord gave no hint of a future probation and restoration of all. Do His words (to quote only one Gospel) in Matthew 10:28;" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 10:28; Matthew 13:42;" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 13:42; Matthew 18:9;" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 18:9; Matthew 25:46," TARGET="_blank">Matthew 25:46, teach universal salvation? The Lord spoke of many passing down the broad road to perdition; of a “closed door,” and of many asking in vain for admission; of “a great gulf fixed,” which none might pass! The hope of Universalists is a false hope, as all who trust in it will one day find. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, He that believeth not shall be damned."

William Hoste

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