QUES. 5.-Will you please explain to us this text, "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved " (Mark 13:13) ; it has given us some difficulty.
ANS.-This chapter is occupied with the tribulation through which the Jewish nation is yet to pass because of their rejection of their Messiah when He first came to them.
The disciples were admiring the grandeur of the Temple (ver. 1 and Matt. 24 :1), and the Lord tells them it was doomed to complete destruction. But not only that, there would be "great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people " (Luke 21 :23), -a time of great persecution-of apostasy on the one hand, and of faithfulness toward God on the other. (Compare Matt. 24:8-13 ; Mark 13 :6-13, and Luke 21:22-24.) Those who will faithfully refuse to worship the Beast, remaining true to God, shall be " saved "-kept for, and have their place in, the Lord's earthly kingdom. Rev. 7 :1-8 points them out to us, in Israel, and vers. 9-12 shows the multitude from among the Gentiles also ; all these are preserved through "the great tribulation," and shall enter and have part in the kingdom when the King returns to establish it upon earth. Matt. 5 :1-10 refers specifically to these.
Mark 13 :13 may be applied to us morally, however, in this respect:that the true disciple confesses Christ as his Saviour to the end, whilst the mere professor falls away in the time of trial.
QUES. 6.-The apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 14 :34 forbids women to speak in the Church, or assembly. How far does that order extend? Does it include gospel meetings, prayer meetings, Bible readings, and house-to-house readings and teachings ?
ANS.-In the assemblies, says the apostle-that is, in any public meeting :a godly woman will not put herself forward in a public assembly. The beauty of God's order is to have all in its God-given place.
Priority and leadership were given to the man. If this be disregarded or reversed, as it was in Eden, disaster follows. Teaching, preaching, praying in public, is taking leadership. A woman doing so, subverts God's order. Helping, serving or ministering is not leadership, and in these woman excels man by far. Helping God's servants, as did those devoted Philippian sisters with Paul (Phil. 4 :2, 3), as did faithful Phoebe in Rome and other assemblies (Rom. 16 :1, 2), as did the sympathetic Dorcas in Joppa (Acts 9 :36, 39), as did Priscilla, with her husband Aquila, in taking Apollos in with them to instruct him more fully in what he but imperfectly knew-all this is not taking a place of leadership, but of service. Service, ability for service, devoted service, this is true greatness in the sight of God (Matt. 20:25-28). Going from bouse to house to read and instruct in the way of truth, is thoroughly in accord with service.