Interpreting 1 Peter 5:10

[Let us now] examine one Scripture in which it is asserted that our evangelical perfection is in express terms deferred to some future time, namely, 1 Peter 5:10:

"But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you."

John's Baptism

QUESTION: Was baptism by John the Baptist Christian baptism?

ANSWER: It was not. It was designed to combat the error that the performance of external ceremonies is all that is required to enter the kingdom of God. John insisted on repentance. Paul rebaptized, in the name of Jesus Christ, those whom John had baptized. (Acts 19:1-5.)

— from Steele's Answers p. 39.

The Theatre

QUESTION: Cannot the theater be made helpful to Christianity?

ANSWER: We are confronted not by a theory but by a condition. That condition always has been bad, and I fear always will be, despite the opinion of Dr. Sheldon, the author of "In His Steps." I have never found any of "His Steps" leading to the play house. Pollock thus sings in his "Course of Time":

"The theater was from the very first
The favorite haunt of sin; tho' honest men,
Some very honest, wise, and worthy men,
Maintained it might be turned to good account;
And so perhaps it might; but never was.
From first to last it was an evil place;
And now such things were acted there, as made
The devils blush; and from the neighborhood,
Angels and holy men trembling retired."

Nearly a century after these lines were penned Dr. C. H. Parkhurst, in denouncing "Parsifal," confirmed their truth: "A play is an acting lie and a speaking lie. There is no compatibility between a lie and Christianity." Make the theater decent and moral and "the Play will not pay for the candle." This was once tried in Boston in the Tremont Theater, and failed, and the Baptists bought the building, now Tremont Temple, in which the Gospel of Christ is now preached every Lord's day. When the Christian is tempted to go to the theater let him ask himself this question, Will I be sowing to the flesh to reap corruption (eternal perdition) or to the Spirit to reap life eternal life? (Gal. 6:7.)

— from Steele's Answers pp. 38, 39.

The Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testaments

QUESTION: State in a few words the difference between the work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and the New in the production of piety in the human heart.

ANSWER: He is the Author of all the piety from Adam to the convert of today. But since Pentecost he has had a perfect chest of tools to work with, all the facts of Christ's earthly history and all the truths deduced therefrom by the inspired apostles. The result is that of a joyful assurance of sonship to God has taken the place of the servile feeling, characteristic of the saints under the Law. This transition is described in Gal. 4:7. The distinguishing peculiarity of the New Testament salvation is the attestation by the Holy Spirit of the believers adoption into the family of God and of the entire sanctification of those who claim their full heritage in Christ.

— from Steele's Answers pp. 37, 38. 

Regeneration & Baptism with the Holy Spirit

QUESTION: G. Campbell Morgan teaches that "the baptism with the Spirit is always used in the New Testament with reference to regeneration and never with what is often spoken of to-day as the second blessing."  Is this correct?

ANSWER: It is not, because it necessarily implies that the apostles were not regenerated till Pentecost. Who can think that Christ is addressing persons strangers to the new birth when he said to the eleven apostles, "Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence"? No one can read the high-priestly prayer of Christ in John 17th, in which his apostles are described as "Not of the world, even as I am not of this world," without believing that they had been regenerated? Then again the condition on which the Paraclete was to be received was this: "If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter." This implies spiritual life already inspired at the first blessing preparatory to the second. It is surprising that a writer so strong and inspiring as Mr. Morgan, educated as a follower of Wesley, should fall into an error which implies that Jesus commissioned unregenerate men to preach his Gospel.

— From Steele's Answers pp. 36, 37.

On Sin in Believers

What is the difference then, between sin in a sinner, and sin in a believer? The same difference that there is between poison in a rattlesnake and the virus of that serpent injected into a healthy man. The venom is natural to the reptile. He delights in it, secretes and cherishes it with pleasure. But all the vital forces of the man resist the injected poison, and rally to thrust it out of the system.

Who Led Jesus Into Temptation?

QUESTION: In Matt. 4:1, what is the meaning of being led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil? Does it refer to the Spirit of God or the evil spirit?

ANSWER: To the Holy Spirit — in order that Jesus may pass through temptation and victory as the condition of spiritual greatness. Thus were tested Abraham and Moses and all the heroes of faith recorded in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, that Westminster Abbey of the Bible. Jesus never followed the devil as a leader.

— From Steele's Answers p. 36.

Why Did God Harden Pharaoh's Heart?

QUESTION: In Exodus 9:16 is it true that God created Pharaoh, and hardened his heart for the purpose to show his power?

ANSWER: The Am. Revision is, ''For this cause have I made thee to stand," after, as the context shows, he had been "smitten with pestilence." There is no reference here to his birth. There are three forms in which the hardening of his heart is expressed. In verses 34, 35, Pharaoh "Hardened his heart" and "the heart of Pharaoh was hardened." This explains verse 12, "and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart" as the result of his resistance to the Divine chastisements. In no other sense did God harden his heart than to let him rush forward in such a course of rebellion as issued in his hardening his own heart.

— From Steele's Answers pp. 35, 36.

The New Birth and It's Aftermath

Regeneration, or the New Birth, is a change wrought within the soul by the power of the Holy Ghost, creating within the soul a new spiritual life, a life of loyalty and love.

By nature men are the children of wrath. They are spiritually dead. The faith faculty exists, but is in a paralysis so far as spiritual objects are concerned. The divine life begins with the seed of God implanted in the soul. This is the new principle of love. "For the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost." [Romans 5:5] The phrase "love of God" may signify either God's love to me or my love to God. In this quotation it has the former meaning. The Scriptures teach us that God is love. But this is not enough to give me assurance of his favor so long as I read that he is angry with the wicked every day. Therefore, so long as I have a tormenting sense of guilt, I must be filled with painful forebodings till I have a positive and personal assurance that I am taken out of the class of the condemned, and am reconciled to God, who loves me, even me.

How Could Jesus Be Tempted?

QUESTION: Could Jesus be tempted in all points like as we are tempted without a sinful nature?

ANSWER: Exegetes disagree about the limitation of the phrase "without sin." Some say the temptation left Christ without sin; others say it found him without any inclination to sin and left him sinless. They say this phrase "without sin" is an expressed exception to the words "all points." Jesus was tempted, as we are in all points save one, having inherited no evil inclination. Yet his temptation was real because he was human, possessing those susceptibilities, which pure in themselves, may without the resistance of the free will, be incited to sin.  If this is objected to because it implies the possibility that the Son of God might have sinned, we reply that it was certain that he would not sin, just as certain that God will never sin. There is a great difference between certainty and necessity. God is a free agent. He has a conscience which discerns the distinctions between right and wrong, and he invariably cleaves to the right. This brings us to the ground of moral obligation. He who says God does a thing because it is right stands on the foundation of James Arminius. He who says that a thing is right because God does it, that his will is the ground of right, and that he is a law unto himself, and that he can reverse the ten commandments, if he pleases, takes his stand with John Calvin.

— From Steele's Answers pp. 34, 35.