Question 57: Please explain Psalm 138:2: “Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy name.” L. S.
Answer: The absolute authority of the Word of God is seen in this verse. Jehovah has made His Word great above all His renown. We must therefore receive and honor the written Word above all that we have heard of Him: above everything else.
Question 58: Is there any authority in the Word of God for women preaching? Does Acts 2:16-17, give any? I. E. K.
Answer: 1 Corinthians 14:34-36 and 1 Timothy 2:12, distinctly forbid women speaking in public, or taking a place as teacher or preacher to men. We never find a woman speaking publicly in Scripture. Mary carried a message to the brethren (John 20:17-18). Philip had four daughters that prophesied, but it must have been privately. They were forbidden to be speakers in the assembly. The quotation from Joel’s prophecy will be fulfilled in the day of Israel’s restoration. The Apostle said, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel,” that is, it was of the same kind. It was not drunkenness, as they supposed.
Question 59: Please give a few scriptures to prove that Question 45 is answered right, as I have heard another interpretation. I. H. (Ques. 45. What does “ALL ISRAEL shall be saved” mean? Rom. 11:26.)
Answer: Romans 11:26. Just now Jews and Gentiles are all alike needy sinners, are all concluded in unbelief (Rom. 11:32, John 3:36).
Ezekiel 37:11-12. “The whole house of Israel” is the uniting of the two and the ten tribes together into one stick, one kingdom. “I will open your graves” in this passage and in Daniel 12:2, is taking the Israelites out from among the heathen nations and bringing them into their own land (Ezek. 37:21).
Zechariah 12:9-13:1. This is the way the Lord brings every one of them who will be saved, to repentance, and the fountain is opened for them; but in Zechariah 13:8-9, we see two-thirds of them cut off and die; in Ezekiel 20, it is the ten tribes who are brought into the wilderness and are purged there, so that the rebels do not enter into the land at all (Ezek. 20:34-38). (Read also Matt. 13:41-42) The antichrist is himself a Jew (Dan. 12:37), and is cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20).
But in the millennium, when the covenant is established with Israel (the ten tribes), and with Judah (the two tribes), then each of them shall know the Lord, from the least of them unto the greatest of them (Heb. 8:8-12; Ezek. 36:25-29).
Question 60: How do we really know that we are at the Lord’s table? There have been so many divisions; how do we know that we are with the ones who have remained faithful to His name and are still meeting on the ground of the one body? Are there any scriptures to prove the same? L. M. S.
Answer: The truth that “there is one body,” that we are united by one Spirit to Christ our head, and to all believers as members one of another, is the blessed truth that brings us together. Every denomination claims to have the Lord’s table, and they have professedly (1 Cor. 1: 2), and many believers in them enjoy individual fellowship with the Lord in taking the Lord’s supper, but it is with those actually gathered to Christ’s name (Matt. 18:20), that His presence is promised, “there am I in the midst of them.” To be gathered to His name, is to be gathered in holiness and truth; His name means that (Rev. 3:7).
The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of truth: He is the gatherer and can gather only to that name. The truth, where it is owned, will have us together as one in separation from evil. The two wave loaves baken with leaven (Lev. 23:17), is typical teaching, that evil, that is the flesh, is in us all, and we need forbearance with each other on this account (Eph. 4:2), but the leaven is not working when it is baked. There are three kinds of evil, which, if allowed, would deprive us of the presence of Christ in the midst.
First: Immorality, or unrighteous living (1 Cor. 5). Second: Bad doctrine that touches the foundation of our faith in Christ and His finished work (2 John 9-10). Third: Divisions (1 Cor. 1:10; Rom. 6:17-18; Eph. 4:1-4).
The first two are easy to understand. The last asks our submission to the truth that we are one, for without this unity of the Spirit, discipline could not be carried out, nor divisions kept out. The unity of the Spirit implies identification with all those with whom we break bread, and judges all those who, though right in their individual walk and doctrine, are associated with loose or independent meetings of Christians, and who are therefore not gathered in the Spirit’s unity.
The start of each meeting of Christians generally tells what principles it is gathered on. If not gathered by the Spirit, it is man’s will that brought them together; they cannot in truth claim Matthew 18:20. A wrong thing will not grow right. It is of no use for any of us to say, we are right, for a right thing often goes wrong. What we need is subject hearts to the truth, hearts that desire to keep Christ’s word and not to deny His name (Rev. 3:8). Going on, subject to, and maintaining, the truth of the unity of the body, in separation from evil, the Lord will be with us according to His Word.
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