Question: In the “Young Christian” of April, 1922, page 112, do you mean that none of the gifts that God set in the church in 1 Corinthians 12:28, are to continue to the end of the church period? G. J. T.
Answer: Eph. 4:11-13 tells us the gifts that are to continue. Apostles and prophets have given us the foundation (Eph. 2:20). Evangelists, pastors and teachers will continue “till we all come into the unity of the faith,” (Eph. 4:13).
In 1 Corinthians 12:28 some gifts are mentioned that we do not find now; such as gifts of healing, miracles, diversities of tongues. We do not believe that jabbering without sense is a gift. We think it is hysteria akin to hypnotism and spiritism, and forbidden by the Word of God (1 Cor. 14:28).
Question: Please explain Revelation 12:17; 14:12; 22:14. H. E. B.
Answer: We must not think that the law of God (Rom. 7:25), and the commandments of Jesus (John 14:15; 1 John 5:23), are the same as the Ten Commandments given by Moses. The one is Christianity; the other is Judaism, to which Christians are dead by the body of Christ. (Rom. 7:4). The Ten Commandments were never given to the Gentiles, except to those who settled in the land of Palestine with the Jews. There was one law for all who dwelt there (Ex. 12:48, 49). The Jews are still under the law, and therefore under its curse (Gal. 3:10), and having rejected Christ, there is nothing for them but judgment. Faith in Jehovah and His Word, in the Old Testament was what God honored, and it led them to confess their sins (Psa. 32).
In the tribulation, after the church is caught up, there will be Jews converted, and still under law, and they are believers in Jesus at the same time. Some of them are martyred for their testimony (Rev. 6:9-11; 12:11; 15:2). There is also a spared remnant preserved from martyrdom (12:17; 14:1-5). Revelation 14:12, 13, is an encouragement to those whom the beast tries to compel to worship him, rather to suffer martyrdom, for if they die, they will get a place with Christ in glory. If they live on without dying they will be on the earth in the millennium. Revelation 20:4 shows us the martyrs of the tribulation raised to reign with Christ. In that verse all the glorified saints who had been caught up are included in the words, “I saw thrones and they sat upon them.” (Compare 4:4.) “Seats” and “thrones” is the same word. Revelation 6:9-11 and 15:2 are the two classes of martyrs.
The passage in Revelation 22:14 is not the law of Moses, but the law of God. In J. N. D’s and other translations, it is translated, “Blessed are they that wash their robes,” and corresponds with Psalm 1:1, 2; 119:9. It is the application of the water of the Word to their ways (John 15:3)
When the Jews are back in their land, the Sabbath will again be observed (Matt. 24: 20; Ezekiel 45:17).
The saint in every dispensation, because he is born again, desires to do the will of God, but under the law he was in bondage. The saints of this present time are not under law, but under grace. Their failure does not bring a curse upon them, for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. He has an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. All the commandments of the law of Moses was every man’s duty to do. His conscience told him so, with the one exception, and that was the Fourth Commandment—the Sabbath, the sign that they were under the law (Ex. 31:13-17). A heathen man that knows nothing of the law, knows it is wrong to steal, lie, and murder, but the Sabbath is no part of his duty to God. The Jews had it, but did not keep it (Ezek. 20:13).
It is worthy of note that Jesus wrought miracles on the Sabbath day plainly to show that the Jews had broken the covenant, and that God did not regard the Sabbath. John 5:17 says, God’s rest was broken by sin, and now the Father and the Son were working in grace in the midst of the wretchedness their sin had brought upon them.
The Christian has no Sabbath to keep. Jesus does not give one in His commandments. We rejoice in Him and His finished work. He died for our sins.
We are also dead with Him, and risen with Him. The first day of the week finds the disciples gathered around the Risen One (John 20:19).
It was on the first day of the week that the Holy Spirit came down to form the assembly on earth.
The Pentecostal offering lets us know the morrow after the Sabbath is the first day of the week (Lev. 23:15-17). In Acts 20:7 we find the custom of the disciples was to remember the Lord in the breaking of bread on that day. On the first day of the week they were together in 1 Corinthians 16:1, 2. And John in Revelation 1:10, gives it its name. “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” To meet the Jews to tell them the gospel, the apostles used the Sabbath, for the Jews came together on that day; but Christians, gathering as an assembly, were associated with the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the week.
The law is not the rule for a Christian’s life. It is Christ Himself that is his pattern. The Christian, whether he was Jew or Gentile before conversion, fulfills the righteousness of the law in walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, for Christ is the pattern for his behavior (1 John 2:6), and that goes higher than law. It is the royal law, and the law of blessed liberty, for the Lord has given us the new risen life, and the Holy Spirit, who gives us to delight to do His will and also the power to do it.
Now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.