Please answer in Help and Food the following questions:
QUES. 8.- is it right and scriptural to take gifts from the unsaved? If not, why?
ANS.-If you mean the Lord's servants taking money from the unsaved for preaching, it is not right. It is misrepresenting the Lord who said, "Freely ye have received, freely give" (Matt. 10:8; Rev. 22:17; 3 John 5-8).
QUES. 9.– How do you explain Acts 21:4 with ver. 13 of same chapter ? Was Paul disobedient to the Holy Spirit?
ANS.-Whilst Luke writes (years after the occurrence) that the disciples "said to Paul, through the Spirit, not to go up to Jerusalem," it is not probable that the apostle recognized it as such at that time, which he probably did later. Mr. Darby, in his Synopsis (vol. 3, pages 83-87), has very instructive remarks on all this part of the apostle's history, going to Jerusalem instead of Rome. Read it with care.
QUES. 10.-How do you explain 2 Tim. 2:12 (last part of verse) :"If we deny Him, He also will deny us?"
ANS.-Need of explanation?-why not take it just as it reads? Let us not pare down the word of admonition. 2 Tim. 2:11 is as true as John 10:28. Christ's sheep will surely "never perish;" but worldlings, who have received the gospel in their heads rather than in their hearts, will do well to remember that Christ's sheep give heed to His voice, and follow Him (ver. 27), else their being Christ's sheep at all is put in question. Let none deceive themselves with an empty profession of being "saved" while walking with the world in the broad road that leads to perdition. Let all concerned read and consider Luke 6:46-49; Rom. 8:12-14; 1 Cor. 10:1-6; 2 Pet. 1:5-10; 1 John 2:15.
QUES. 11.-In several texts it is declared that Christ's reign will be forever. See 2 Sam. 7:13,16; Isa. 9:7; Dan. 2:44; 7:14, 27; Luke 1:32, 33; 2 Pet. 1:11; Rev. 11:15. In 1 Cor. 15:24-28 his reign is limited by a specified event, and in Rev. 20:4 it seems to be limited to one thousand years. How do you explain this apparent discrepancy?
ANS.-"For ever" is used as that which has no end, or that which does not pass away to another. Christ's earthly kingdom will not be succeeded by any other, and His heavenly kingdom is eternal.
QUES. 12.-In Matt. 25:31-46 the judgment of the nations is described. How can nations be saved or lost without regard to the standing of the individuals composing them? How do you harmonize that judgment with Matt. 16:27; Mark 16:15,16; Rom. 2:6; Rev. 22:12?
ANS.-The judgment of Matt. 25:31-46 is not of nations as a lump, but discriminative as "sheep" and "goats," according to the reception or rejection of the messengers going out to the nations in the time of the great tribulation with the message, "Fear God, and give Him glory, for the time of his judgment is come" (Rev. 14:7).
An unparalleled time shall have swept over the earth:the Church having been called up by the Lord (1 Thess. 4:16,17), Satan cast down to the earth working furiously with the infidel masses of men (Rev. 12:7-12); wars and anarchy, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, great upheavals in Nature answering to upheavals in mankind (Matt. 24:7-14; Rev. 6:4-17); all these combined shall already have greatly reduced the population of earth. Then shall appear the Lord in glory to end the awful condition upon earth, take up the universal government and exercise a discriminative judgment amongst the living nations. By angelic servants, He shall "gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity" (Matt. 13:41-43). It is of this that Matt. 25:31-34 and 16:27 speak. Then also will be fulfilled Isa. 24:1-6; Ps. 46:8-10.
A much more extensive and very instructive consideration of Matt. 25 may be found in the Synopsis of J. N. D., and the Numerical Bible.
Other questions left to next No. for lack of space.