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Question 370: Should We Pray For One From Whom Ruach HaKodesh Has Departed?

Answer:

Who are you, to assume to judge that such a one has been forsaken by Ruach HaKodesh? It would be a fearful responsibility to act on such a conclusion. Of one thing you may rest assured: if the person is at all concerned about his spiritual condition, no matter how deeply he has offended, that very fact is conclusive evidence that Ruach HaKodesh has not abandoned him, but is still striving with him. When Ruach HaKodesh leaves a man, that man becomes careless and indifferent and has no desire to pray. It is difficult - almost impossible - for us to understand the operations of the Spirit, but you may be assured that the love and compassion and long-suffering of YHVH are infinite. Moshiach said that He would cast out none who came to Him. With such an assurance, no man need wait to try to solve the mysteries of Ruach HaKodesh's work. The practical duty of closing with Moshiach's offer of salvation is the first thing for Him to do.

Question 369: Do Prayers For The Unconverted Help?

Answer:

The most definite Bible passage on this subject is I John 5:16: "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask and he shall give him life." The words of Paul in Acts 16:31, Thou shalt be saved and thy house," probably mean simply that if all the members of the household believed they would be saved. But we have positive Scripture warrant for praying for our unconverted friends and countless incidents from present day life and earlier times prove that many hearts have been won to Moshiach through prayer. The assurance may not always come that those for whom we pray will yield to YHVH, but sometimes the assurance does come very definitely. Prayer for others should be personal, definite and earnest. S. D. Gordon in his Quiet Talks on Prayer takes the position that prayer for others, offered in the name of Yeshua, has the effect of driving off evil influences from the persons for whom the prayer is being made. It projects the personal influence of the one who is praying to the one prayed for and clears the spiritual atmosphere so that the voice of YHVH can be heard and the power of YHVH felt Just as by talking to a person one may be able to persuade him to listen and yield to YHVH, so by prayer one may influence another to submit himself to YHVH. Most important of all is love. We must love ardently, steadily, those for whom we pray. Love will prevent us from doing things that would mar our influence over them or spoil their conception of the religious life. If our friends know that we love them deeply and constantly our words and prayers will have an almost irresistible power.

Question 368: Does YHVH Answer Prayers?

Answer:

Most assuredly He does, but His ways are not as our ways. We are at best but children in spiritual things. Yet there is nothing in this world so clear and so well attested by Christian evidence, as that if we pray with believing hearts and in the right spirit, He will hear us and do what is best for us. No such prayer goes unanswered. The answer may not be as we expected, nevertheless it will be for the best and to the purpose. Says Professor Denney: "When we pray in Yeshua' Name there is nothing which we may not ask. Whatever limitations there may be, they are covered by the Name of Yeshua itself. We must not ask what is outside of that Name, not included in its promise. We must not ask a life exempt from labour, from self-denial, from misunderstanding, from the Cross; how could we ask such things in His Name? But ignoring this self-evident restriction, Yeshua expressly, emphatically and repeatedly removes every other limit. There is nothing which the Name of Yeshua puts into our hearts which we may not, with all assurance, put into our prayers." In His Name, we can ask with assurance for pardon from YHVH; we can ask to be strengthened in temptation and to be kept from falling and restored when through human weakness we do fall, for we have the assurance that He will not let us be utterly cast down; we can ask for the sanctifying work of Ruach HaKodesh in our lives. We can ask that our material wants as well as our spiritual needs may be fully supplied. But in asking, we must have the faith to lay hold and when we pray with this faith, we shall never pray amiss.

Question 367: Why Was Polygamy Allowed For The Patriarchs And Why Is It Wrong Now?

Answer:

Yeshua, in speaking of certain provisions of the Mosaic Law on the marriage question, said: "From the beginning it was not so." Matthew 19:8. He referred to the original creation of one man and one woman as fixing the moral law that a man should have but one wife. The fact that Abraham and the other patriarchs had more than one wife does not make polygamy right any more than the fact that they owned skives makes slavery right. The Bible is a truthful record of the lives of the people of whom it tells. They did many things that were wrong; YHVH dealt gently and patiently with His people, leading them by a long process of teaching and development toward the full understanding of His perfect will. There was no particular time at which polygamy became wrong, but it was the teaching of Yeshua, more than any other influence, that showed mankind that it is wrong. In the New Testament the love of husband and wife is presented as the highest form of love; it is inconceivable that any outsider or third person, can enter into this sacred fellowship. Polygamy means injustice to women; the plural wives are outsiders, deprived, from the Christian point of view, of real wifehood.

Frequently asked questions and answers

Question 366: Does Paul’s Epistles Contain All That Is Essential To Salvation?

Answer:

It is quite proper to lay special emphasis upon the writings of Paul, because he was especially chosen of YHVH to interpret the life and death of the Saviour to the hearts and minds of men, particularly of those who were not Jews. Furthermore, Paul was authorized to show that the requirements of the Ceremonial Law as recorded by Moses, were done away with by the sacrifice of Moshiach. In this way it is easy to see that the explanation of the salvation wrought by the atonement is of more spiritual value than the precepts of the old Law of sacrifices and ceremonies, which are no longer in force. The tremendous value of Paul's writings lies in the fact that he shows men the practical, immediate way of receiving salvation, not by the keeping of Commandments, but by faith in the crucified Saviour. Granting all this however, it is great folly to say that the other parts of the Bible are unimportant. The Pentateuch is full of flashes of YHVH's presence and YHVH's will, containing holy principles which are eternal and recording the experiences of men who knew YHVH; the historical books show YHVH working in the life of a nation; the poetical and wisdom books give us inspiration and instruction for daily living; the prophetic books give us glimpses of the coming Saviour and are pulsating with direct, personal messages from YHVH to the human soul; the Gospels help us to get acquainted with the Redeemer and to understand the kind of life He wants us to live and His hope for the world; the Acts give us clear pictures of men who were impelled by the power of Ruach HaKodesh and challenge us to let the risen Moshiach work through us as He worked through them; the other epistles are full of spiritual help and the book of Revelation gives us visions of the life to come. All are important; all help us to know Moshiach better; all lead us to YHVH. We must not slight these other books, even while agreeing that Paul is the direct messenger to us Gentiles to show us the way of salvation by faith.

Question 365: Will People From All Races Be Saved?

Answer:

The ablest scientists hold to the unity of the race and in this they are in accord with Scripture, which declares that the Creator "hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth" (Acts 17:36) and that the "free gift comes upon all men to justification to life." Climatic variations extending over long periods account for physical differences. Years ago this question was most often applied toward those with black skin. The black person is the descendant of Ham, the head of one of the three great divisions of the human race. He was the progenitor of the Egyptians, the Cushites and the African nations and his descendants were the founders of great empires in Ethiopia, Babylonia, Arabia, Abyssinia and, according to some authorities, in a considerable part of Asia, as far as the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf. Christian converts from Cyrene in Upper Libya were among those who were identified with the formation of the first Gentile church in Antioch. Mark the evangelist, laboured during a large part of his missionary career in Africa. Simon, who bore our Saviour’s cross (Matthew 27:32), was a Cyrenian and a native of Libya. The Copts, who were active in the early days of Christianity, were a mixed race, chiefly black. The Coptic Christian Church is one of the oldest in existence and possesses some of the most valuable early Christian manuscripts.

Question 364: Does A Man Have Two Natures?

Answer:

In Romans 7:25 Paul says: "So then with the mind I myself serve the Law of YHVH, but with the flesh the law of sin." The argument of the preceding verses has been the hopelessness of the struggle which that man must fight who strives to obtain salvation through the Law. He is defeated by his own body or the flesh, as Paul calls it. It drags him down and forces him to obey and to yield to its cravings; so that in his despair he cries, "What I would I do not; but what I hate that do I." The picture is one that appeals to every unconverted man's experience. His reason, his pride, his manliness directs him to renounce some sin, such as drunkenness or lust. He resolves, but suddenly the craving arises and in spite of the resolves of his mind - his real ego - he is swept off his feet and yields to his passion. The revelation of Moshiach as a helper crosses Paul's mind and he thanks YHVH. In the eighth chapter he is going to explain this at length, but he halts here at verse 25, to mark the stage reached by the man he is describing. "With the mind, I myself," the real ego am serving YHVH; while with the flesh, the animal nature, I am serving sin. In Romans 8:10 this problem is solved. Through Moshiach the spirit is strengthened and the flesh is controlled and subdued. He is freed by the spirit of life (Romans 8:3).

Question 363: Is Misfortune A “Judgement” Of YHVH?

Answer:

We have no right to sit in judgment on others and when some people censoriously announce that a misfortune which befalls a person or a community is "a judgment" of YHVH, they assume undue authority. We are distinctly warned against judging others. See Moshiach's teaching on this subject Luke 13:4.

Question 362: How Long Have We Had A Trained Ministry?

Answer:

The Bible informs us that even in the days of Samuel there were "schools of the prophets," in which men were trained for the high function of moral and spiritual teaching. The priests and Levites were trained in the knowledge of the ecclesiastical Law and the ceremonies, In later Jewish history, twelve great institutions for educating priests, teachers and elders existed. Yeshua Himself passed a considerable portion of His ministry in instructing and training His disciples. We read in Acts that the apostles imitated His example in personally instructing the younger disciples. John spent his later years teaching at Ephesus, qualifying youths for the ministry and Mark did likewise at Alexandria. Early believer’s training schools were established in Caesarea, Antioch, Laodicea, Nicomedia, Athens, Edessa, Seleucia, Carthage and in Mesopotamia and there were many minor institutions of the same class. Thus, all the evidence goes to show that even from the earliest days, those who were designed to convey YHVH's message to the hearts of men were set apart, consecrated and fitly prepared. It is so today. A trained and educated ministry is essential to the advancement of religion just as training and preparation are needed in other vocations. The apostles, even if they had nothing more, had a course of several years' personal training with the great Master as their teacher before they were sent out on their full mission. It is true that many converted laymen and women too, have done and are doing noble work in soul saving, but they are exceptional and the fact that their labours are owned and blessed of YHVH is not a valid argument against a trained ministry, but rather the reverse. With due training they might have accomplished even more.