QUES. 1.-Will you please explain in your next issue of " Help and Food " the last verse of chap. 6 of Isaiah, with special reference to the latter part:" So the holy seed shall be the substance thereof."
ANS.-"The holy seed" is the remnant of the Jews which shall constitute "the Israel of God," the new nation in the kingdom of Christ upon earth. The devastating judgments of verses 11, 12, sweep away the mass returned to their land in unbelief. Then '' the holy seed'' will bear the character described in Matt. 5 :3-10.
QUES. 2.-Will you please give through Help and Food an explanation of 1 Cor. 7 :29 as compared with Eph. 5:25, 28, 33 and Col. 3:19?
ANS.-The thought in 1 Cor. 7:29 is made plain by vers. 30, 31 -neither marriage, nor sorrow, nor causes of joy, nor increase of property, nor enjoyment of thing? for this life should come in between our souls and the Lord to hinder in His communion. How easily they do, many of us have proved. To have a heart free for the Lord (ver. 32) is the great desideratum for the Christian.
Eph. 5:25, 28, 33 and Col. 3:19 show, on the other hand, that when the word of God rules in our hearts, the relations He has established become occasions for the display of His grace.
QUES. 3.-Some professing Christians here have thought to prove by 1 Cor. 3 :16,17 and Acts 1:25 that a child of God can perish. Please give us some light through Help and Food.
ANS.-The very Scriptures they cite condemn their theory, for Acts 1:25 states that Judas (the betrayer of Christ) "went to his own place." Of him the Lord had said, long before, "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil ? " (Jno. 6 :70.) Appointed as one of the twelve, in fulfilment of prophecy (Jno. 13:18; Ps. 41:9), Judas' real character and object became manifest:" He was a thief," says John 12 :6. He seems to have aspired to treasurership in the expected kingdom. That failing, he sold his Master for SO pieces of silver. Are these the marks of one born of God, or the self-seeking natural man?
As to 1 Cor. 3:16,17, the Corinthian Christiana were the "temple of God." Evil teachers had come in among them-defilers of God's temple. God will destroy such, in His own time. (See 2 Cor. 11:12-15).