Ques. What is the true tabernacle mentioned in Heb. 8:2? Is it Christ, or is it the Church? J. E.
Ans. The true tabernacle for us now is the holiest of all, the place where we meet God. We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. Our worship is spiritual and heavenly. It is the contrast between Judaism and Christianity. Our hearts worship and adore God by the Holy Spirit in His very presence, without ordinances or ceremonies.
Ques. Is there any scripture that tells the state of the departed saints before they get their bodies?
M. E. J.
Ans. All we know about the saints who have died, is in the following verses: "Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise" (garden of delights). Luke 23:43.
“Willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." 2 Cor. 5:8.
“To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." "Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better." Phil. 1:21, 23.
“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." Rev. 14:13.
We must be content with what scripture says. God leads our hearts on to the resurrection, when clothed upon with our bodies glorified. We shall be perfected in His glory.
“He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied," Isa. 53:11; and, "We shall be satisfied, when we awake with His likeness." Psa. 17:15.
Ques. What does the clay and the spittle, and the Pool of Siloam in John 9:6, 7 mean? P. T.
Ans. In John's gospel we have the mystery of the person of Christ as the Son of God from all eternity. He is the Word that was in the beginning with God. He Himself had no beginning. This is a mystery, for we cannot know God's being, but we can believe it.
John 1:14 is His history begun on earth. There we get the incarnation-Man and God in one person.
In Luke 1:35, that holy thing born of the woman is His holy humanity. He is a man, yet God, manifest in flesh, sent of the father into this world (1 Tim. 3:16; John 10:36).
This is what the spittle made into clay presents, and the Pool of Siloam, which means, "sent," presents the thought of faith in Jesus the Son of God, the Sent One of the Father. This opened the eyes of the man born blind.
Ques. Did Paul use guile to catch people? (2 Cor. 12:16). O.
Ans. Paul in that verse is casting it back on them that he did not use guile, as verses 17, 18 show. 2 Cor. 4:2 emphatically says he did not use any such means.