Question: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17. Here the coming is for the church, is it not? Will all the Old Testament saints, before and after the flood be raised at this time, and caught up to meet the Lord in the air? G. E. F. P.
Answer: Yes, 1 Corinthians 15:23 is quite clear. “They that are Christ’s at His coming.” All the saints who have died and are at that time in their graves will be raised and caught up together with the changed living ones to meet the Lord. The Old Testament saints are dear to Him, though they are not in the church.
Verse 14 is Christ’s coming with His saints to reign.
Verses 15-18 explain that He comes for them before that. These verses are a parenthesis.
The twenty-four elders in Revelation, include all the heavenly saints, of both Old and New Testaments.
Question: What does “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” mean? (Matt. 24:34; Luke 21:32). H. G. C.
Answer: It means that the Jews will have the same unbelieving character when the Lord comes to fulfill His Word as they had when He was on earth.
Question: What is the meaning of the word “Castaway”? (1 Cor. 9:27).
What connection has “keeping the body under and bringing it unto subjection” with “salvation”? C. M.
Answer: Castaway, means: utterly rejected, reprobate, totally bad. “The word castaway troubles some. People have tried to make out that a castaway is not a castaway Paul was perfectly well assured as to himself; but he says if he had been merely preaching, he would have been falsely assured; but if not merely beating the air, he was rightly assured.” (J. N. D. notes on 1 Cor).
To keep the body under and bring it into subjection is to apply the truth of the death of Christ to myself, and this no unconverted person could do, only living Christians. Many preachers are not converted and will perish. (Compare Rom. 6:6, 11, 12; 8:10; 2 Cor. 4:10; 1 Peter 4:1, 2).
Question On Galatians 4:6, by C.
Answer: The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of His Son in the passage, to assure our hearts of our relationship as children to the Father, and that He, loves us with the same love wherewith He “loves His Son. (John 17:26).