Melchizedek

QUESTION: Who was Melchizedek?

ANSWER: There have been many guesses, such as Shem, an angel, a Power, or influence of god; but the most judicious of moderns allege that he was an eminent descendant of Ham, discharging the functions of both priest and king. From the absence of any account of the origin of his priestly and regal offices, he is a good type of Christ's priesthood. See your Bible Dictionary.

— Steele's Answers pp. 248, 249.

On Divorce and Remarriage

QUESTION: Is it wrong for an innocent woman to marry again, whose husband procured her divorce by hiring a man to criminate her with false testimony? (2) For imaginary crime?

ANSWER: I believe that the innocent party to a marriage dissolved for the only cause allowed by Christ may marry again. In the sight of the human court this woman was the guilty party, but in the sight of God she is innocent. (2) If the court granted the divorce for a suspected crime when the wife was perfectly true to her nuptial vows, this case is like the first so far as regards her right to re-marry.

— Steele's Answers p. 248.

Where is Hell?

QUESTION: Can hell be in the sun?

ANSWER: It can be anywhere there is a free moral agent persistently resisting the pressure of God's infinite and unchanging love till he has lost all capacity to respond thereto. Remorse is hell. Whether hell is a place as well as a state, I know not, and hope I never shall know. From the figurative language of Christ and his apostles nothing more with certainty can be inferred than that they meant to denote great and unending miseries.

— Steele's Answers pp. 247, 248.

What Hindered the Israelites?

QUESTION: What hindered the march of the Israelites straight from Mt. Sinai the first year of their journey?

ANSWER: "Unbelief" (Heb. 4:6), "disobedience" (R. V.).

— Steele's Answers p. 247.

The Role of the Pastor (Ephesians 4:13)

QUESTION: Explain Eph. 4:13, "And he gave * * * some to be pastors * * * till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."

ANSWER:  Notice (1) the end and aim of the pastor is perfection of manhood of every believer, as evinced in the ideal of which Jesus Christ is the standard. (2) By the oneness of faith and knowledge; not two unities but one, faith merging into certain knowledge (epignosis). (3) "Attain" is in the aorist tense denoting a definite point reached, not at death, but in this life as the following verses plainly show. (4) Christ is at once the source of this perfection and the standard. We find in him a sufficiency for becoming as perfect in our measure as Christ is in his. "In him are ye made full" (Col. 2:10, R. V.).

— Steele's Answers p. 247.

New Converts in Unspiritual Churches

It is a great mistake to bring a young convert into an unspiritual and worldly church. It is like laying a newborn babe on the breast of a dead mother for nutriment and growth. Hence we deprecate the promotion of conversions to increase the membership of a dead church. It is like enlarging a graveyard. A healthful revival always begins, not outside of the church, but within it. Zion must herself travail before living children are born. Some unwise pastors, in their eagerness to swell the number of church members, try to awaken sinners over the heads of a slumbering church, whom they dislike to awaken lest they should be displeased. Men awakened suddenly are usually not kindly disposed toward those who arouse them.

It Is Better Farther On

The doctrine of the immediate contact of God's Spirit with my spirit, without the medium of symbol or sacrament or absolving priest, does not rest upon one, two or three cardinal proof texts, but upon a wide variety of scriptural proofs, such as the communion of the Holy Spirit, the revelation of Christ within the soul, the knowledge of God, the strengthened form of the Greek epignosis, clear, certain, thorough and perfect knowledge of Christ, a favorite term with both Paul and Peter, together with plerophoria, full assurance, excluding all doubt. Count up the many times in John's first Epistle in which he says "we know," and add the stronger words, "ye all know," instead of "ye know all things" (I John ii. 20), found in the Revised Version margin and the text of Westcott and Hort, and our reader will see the broad basis on which this doctrine stands.

The direct witness of the Spirit is intermittent in most young Christians. Before the fulness of the Spirit is received there are only occasional gleams of light through the rifted clouds, followed by sunless intervals when doubts distract and harass the soul. The cry of such Christians when seeking the abiding witness, the indwelling Comforter, is voiced by Charles Wesley, who alone among all the versifiers of the eighteenth century gave due prominence to the Holy Spirit; "the author," says James Montgomery, "of a great number of the best hymns in the English or any other language." The superiority of the permanent to the transient witness of the Spirit is thus finely expressed:

"O that the Comforter would Come!

Nor visit as a transient guest,

But fix in me His constant home,

And take possession of my breast,

And make my soul His loved abode,

The temple of indwelling God."

This alternation of experience from sunshine to shadow affords occasion for the temptation to cast away our confidence in Christ and to abandon His service. Many yield to this suggestion of Satan and go back to the world instead of climbing to altitudes above the clouds. Some are told by stationary and retrograde Christians that they will never be so happy as they were when they first entered the kingdom of God. This dismal outlook upon the future intensifies the temptation with which they are wrestling. Hence It is not surprising that not a few young converts turn away from Jesus and walk no more with Him. They should have been told that in the normal Christian experience "it is better farther on." It is to be regretted that there are so few normal Christians who are at hand to give the discouraged convert this word of good cheer. Many professors of faith in Christ are living on so low a level amid the miasmas and fogs that they never have even a glimpse of the sunny spiritual uplands,

"Where dwells the Lord our Righteousness,

And keeps His own in perfect peace

And everlasting rest."

— The Gospel of the Comforter Chapter 16.

The Earnest of the Spirit

"Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." — 2 Corinthians 1:22 KJV

From its very beginning the normal regenerate life is a continuous progression in spirituality, arithmetical if not geometrical, receiving with its widening capacities richer gifts of the wisdom and holiness of God.

"New births of grace new raptures bring;

Triumphant the new song we sing,

The great Renewer bless.

Darkness and dread we leave behind,

New light, new glory still we find,

New realms divine possess."

With respect to the obligation which the earnest of the Spirit lays on its recipient, it has been well said that it is a lien upon the future service of the receiver. If the service be unperformed, the earnest will be withdrawn; whereas if the service be lovingly rendered with the whole might of the heart, the measure of the gift will be filled up even to the sanctification of the whole body, soul and spirit. The Church in its infancy as to the realization of spiritual blessing, as mankind is in babyhood in its appreciation of electricity to human utilities. To what surpassing altitudes will the individual believer and the Church as a whole be lifted when the gift of the Spirit is fully realized and appropriated.

"Spirit, who makest all things new,

Thou leadest onward; we pursue

The heavenly march sublime.

'Neath Thy renewing fires we glow,

And still from strength to strength we go,

From height to height we climb."

— The Gospel of the Comforter Chapter 16.

The Witness of the Spirit

This is the doctrine of assurance which Wesley did more to elucidate and to relieve of obscuring misapprehensions than any preceding theologian. He thus describes the direct witness of the Spirit as "an inward impression on the souls of believers, whereby the Spirit of God directly testifies to their spirit that they are children of God."

The indirect witness is an inference from the discerned presence of the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, etc., and it follows the direct witness in the order of time, "because," says Wesley, "in the nature of the thing, the testimony must precede the fruit which springs from it." The voice of the Spirit within the believer is to all who know God the most real of all realities. It is sometimes called a seal which secures, authenticates and appropriates.

The Devil, Demons, and Angels

QUESTION: (1) Is there more than one devil? (2) What is his origin? (3) Is there more than one archangel? (4) What does the name Gabriel signify? (5) What is a demon? (6) His origin? (7) Are the kingdoms of this world delivered to the devil as he claims (Luke 4:6)?

ANSWER: (1) The Greek diablos (devil), - Hebrew (Satan) denotes the one prince of demons. But in Paul's epistles to Timothy and Titus it is plural and translated in the R. V., "slanderers." Demons are fallen angels subject to the devil. In sixty-two places in the N. T. the R. V. simply transfers this word instead of incorrectly translating it "devils," as in the old version. This is a great improvement. (2) An apostatized being of a high angelic order. (3) It seems to be plural in Daniel 10:13, "Lo, Michael, one of the chief princes," etc. Seven is their number in Rev. 8:2 "And I saw the seven angels that stand before God." (4) God's hero, or the man  of  God. (6) Created by God. (7) No. The devil lied. He has usurped about all the political control of all nations; it was not given by God. This usurpation of so-called popular governments in modern times is easy when good men are too busy or too lazy to vote. When a city allows the saloon, the brothel, and the gambling hell to rule, it has as good a government as it deserves. Let every one when tempted remember that every promise of good which the devil makes is a false promise. It is our business to become sharp-sighted enough to detect his falsehoods and not to put our feet  into his trap for the sake of nibbling his poisoned bait.

— Steele's Answers pp. 245-247.