Q. Referring to vol. 2 Q. 379, please explain 1 Tim. v. 11, 12 in connection with verse 14. What is the "first faith " which they have cast off?
A. I should like to send the explanation I heard a short time ago as to this query, viz., that the word faith in 1 Tim. 5:12 is the old English word meaning faithfulness, in which sense it is also used in Rom. 1:17. "faith to faith," (i. e., faithfulness on the part of the giver to faithfulness on the part of the receiver) Rom. 3:3. Gal. 2:20. and 1 Peter 1:5. The verse might read thus.-"Having judgment (being talked about and judged by their neighbors) because they have cast off their fidelity" to their first husbands.
Q. What becomes of the departed spirits until the resurrection? Where are they?
A. They go to Hades. This word is used in Luke 16:23 for the present abode of lost souls; in Acts 2:27, 31 for the abode of Christ when absent from the body; in I Cor. 15:55 for the abode of spirits of believers. We therefore see it is the place of all departed spirits, and is divided by a great and impassable gulf into a place of blessing and of misery. At the first resurrection the former will be emptied, at the second resurrection (or death) the latter (Rev. xx. 13), and then hades (or hell) having no further use is shown in a metaphor (ver. 14) to be finally abolished forever.
Reply: Is there not some slight confusion in the above answer to this query? (What becomes of the departed spirits until the resurrection? Where are they?) The question is as to the spirits. Are we not told, " Absent from the body, present with the Lord How then can this be, if, as you say they are in Hades or the grave? The entire answer is to me and others so confusing that I think you must have misunderstood the question. Further is not Luke 16:23 rather a figure of the future than the present? Again the latter part of your answer seems to huddle up the grave, Hades and hell all as one; surely it cannot be said that Luke 16:23 is " a metaphor, to be finally abolished.”
Answer: If our correspondent will re-read our reply to Q. 8, he will see that all allusion to the grave (where the body lies) is entirely on his part, as well as any mixing up of this with Hades. The reply mostly speaks of the latter. It is also not stated in the reply, as the writer seems to refer, that Luke 16:23 is a metaphor; as to this being future, the fact of the rich man's brethren being alive sufficiently refutes this.
Q. Please explain John 1:29, where John the Baptist acknowledges Jesus as the Lamb of God, as compared with Matt. 11:2, 3, where he appears to stand in doubt of Him.
A. Does it not appear that in Matt. 11 his faith had failed somewhat, owing to the fact that he was left (in the mysterious ways of God) to languish in prison at the time when with a word Jesus could have released him. Lest however any should point a finger at the great prophet, see how the Lord seizes this very opportunity to speak well of him (Matt. 11:7-12) in His own blessed manner.
Reply: I cannot think that John's faith in Jesus as the Messiah was failing. It had been revealed to him by God Himself that the One in whom the Spirit should descend was He that would baptize with the Holy Ghost; he had borne record that Jesus was the Son of God; and he had heard the voice from heaven proclaim the same truth. It seems very improbable that, after having these weighty testimonies, his faith should ever waver. I think a reference to Luke 7:11-18 may furnish the true reason why John sent his disciples to ask the Lord. "Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?" In the 12-15 verses we have the account of the raising to life of the widow of Nain's son, and then in the 15th and following verses we read, "And there came a fear on all; and they glorified God, saying that a great prophet is risen up among us, and that God path visited His people. And this rumor went forth throughout all Judea, and throughout all the regions round about." And then the Evangelist adds, "And the disciples of John showed him all these things." Now it seems only natural that the Baptist should think his disciples faith would be shaken by this report. He had said " Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," whereas this "rumor" simply acknowledged Him to be great prophet. So to re-assure their (not his own) faith, he sent them to the Lord to get from His own lips the confession that He was the Messiah.
Answer: The above remarks are very interesting, but we still think that John's long imprisonment from which no act of Jesus rescued him, together with all absence of any direct claims to an earthly kingdom on the part of the Lord, had shaken even the Baptist's faith.