QUES. 34.-When does "the marriage of the Lamb" take place? Is it before, or after, the saints "appear before the judgment-seat of Christ?"

ANS.-It is no doubt after. Rev. 19 :6-9 is where we find "the marriage of the Lamb." Immediately following it is the appearing of the Lord in glory with the armies of heaven. This would seem to leave no room for the judgment-seat of Christ between the marriage and the appearing, at which time the saints will surely have received their rewards. But Rev. 22 :12 leaves no doubt as to it:" Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be." The passing our lives in review will likely be well-nigh simultaneous with the rapture. As the sun, rising in the east and shining upon the scene, reveals everything as it really is, so the presence of the glorious Lord shilling upon every one of us and all our pathway from end to end, will in a moment of time declare and fasten His judgment upon every action and detail of our individual history. How conscientious and careful we ought to be, therefore, that our daily life be acceptable to the Lord ! How thankful we ought to be too that, sheltered by the blood of the Lamb under which we have fled for refuge, no question of guilt can be raised against us in that day !

Did we realize how solemn that day will be nevertheless, how obedient we would be to all the word of God ! which is indeed the judgment-seat of Christ already set up among us. All true and honest obedience to it here, will be approved there; as also every disobedience and violation now, be disapproved then.

QUES. 35.-Will you kindly say what "immortality" means in these texts:2 Tim. 1:10; 1 Tim. 6:16 ; 1 Cor. 15 :53 ; Rom. 2:7?

One has argued with me, about the immortality of the soul, that souls are not immortal at birth, for Jesus holds out the gift of immortality ; and if we had it already, we should not need it to be given.

ANS.-In 2 Tim. 1 :10 and Rom. 2 :7 the word in the original is not immortality (athanasia) at all. It is incorruptibility (aphtharsia). It is the same word rendered sincerity in Eph. 6 :24 and Titus 2:7. It has no reference to immortality. The idea, therefore, that Jesus is holding out immortality to us, which annihilationists have invented and foisted upon the ignorant by means of this faulty rendering, has no Scripture foundation whatever.

In 1 Cor. 15 :53 and 1 Tim. 6 :16 the word is immortality (athanasia). In the first it is purely a question of the body, which we know is sown in corruption, and is mortal, but is going to be raised in incorruption, and immortal. To bring in the soul here is to " corrupt the word of God " and do it violence, as all annihilationists do.

In the second (1 Tim. 6 :16) the subject is God in His essential nature. Essentially He alone has immortality, and He is the only Potentate ; men aud angels have immortality and are potentates only derivatively-as bestowed upon them by God. To deny by this passage that man has an immortal spirit would as well deny the same of angels, as also that there are any potentates among men or angels, which Scripture affirms in many places, and demands that we recognize (Rom. 13 :1).
QUES. 36.-What is the meaning of Rom. 2:7, especially the last clause, " eternal life " ? also, Rom. 6 :22?

Also, is there any difference between John's teaching and Paul's concerning eternal life?

ANS.-The two passages about which you inquire place eternal life at the end of the Christian course, and as the result of that course. It is the sphere in which all true Christians are going to dwell when they pass out of this one.

If you will consider a few passages in John's writings, such as John 3 :15, 16, 36 ; 5 :24 ; 10 :28; 1 John 5 :11, 12, 13, you will easily see that it is the actual present possession of every believer in Christ. It is, in fact, that which makes us children of God, and without which one is no child of God at all.

Thus, as in Paul eternal life is generally used for the hope of the saints-the promise of God to those who walk with Him here-so in John it is generally used for the life which Christ communicates to the sinner the moment he turns to Him in simple faith (John 20 :30, 31). It is a new, a divine life, " the gift of God " at new birth; its nature, therefore, is holy, and makes its possessor shrink from sin, enabling us to love God and all His people, and is our very link with God as our Father, and with Christ as Head of the new creation.