The Bible is filled with lessons from those who chose to follow the Creator’s instructions rather than the laws of man. One of the more famous is Exodus 1:17, “The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had instructed; they let the boys live.” Another is Daniel praying to the Creator instead of the king and of course Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Everyone who chose God over man’s law when man’s law conflicted with God paid a heavy price, some were miraculously saved and others were not.

Question 200: Does the doctrine of Yeshua’ divinity depend on the miraculous conception?

Answer:

Even if the doctrine of the miraculous conception were abandoned, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to account for the facts of Moshiach's life, by any other theory than that of His being the incarnation of YHVH. If you regard Him as man, you must explain how He, a plain peasant, trained as a carpenter, brought up in an obscure town, could live such a life as He undoubtedly lived and give utterance to truths which have thrilled the world for over 2,000 years. Besides this He spoke with authority, making claims to a higher nature, which if He did not consciously possess that higher nature, would be false claims. His whole life was consistent with His divinity and therefore, even persons who reject His miraculous conception, have good ground for believing Him to be divine. It is the only theory that explains such a life. There is no need however, to reject the doctrine of the miraculous conception. The more you study the life of Yeshua, the less you will be surprised to learn that the promise of YHVH through the prophets, of the union of divinity and humanity, was literally fulfilled in Him.

Question 199: Who are the “witnesses” who surround the believers?

Answer:

They are probably the worthies referred to in Hebrews 11 chapter, whose triumph through faith is recalled. The word "witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1) has two meanings and it is not certain which of the two the writer of the epistle had in his mind. A witness may be a spectator or he may be one who testifies as in a court of justice. If the word in this passage is used in the former sense, it implies that departed and glorified saints are observing the trials and victories of the believers on earth. If the word refers to a testifier, it means that the believers has good reason for making the effort mentioned in the passage, because of the testimony of the Old Testament saints cited in the previous chapter.

Question 198: What is it to be “Unequally Yoked”?

Answer:

The passage in 2 Corinthians 6:14 may have a wide interpretation. "Unequally yoked" may mean bound together with one who is alien in spirit, although it might also mean that the disparity in culture or possessions, the difference in race or in religious belief, are to be regarded as insurmountable barriers. In early Israelite times, marriages with heathen were forbidden; so, in disciple’s times, unions of believers and infidels or unbelievers in any form, were to be avoided. Righteousness and wickedness cannot pull in the same harness and as our first duty is to YHVH, we should put away from us all avoidable contact that would hinder its performance. Paul in the passage in question clearly had in mind the union of believers with unbelievers.

Question 197: What is known concerning the tree of life?

Answer:

Genesis 29 and 3:22, 24 tell practically all that we know of the "tree of life," although a vast amount of speculative literature has appeared on the subject. Various references to the "tree of life" elsewhere in Scripture show that it was regarded as the means provided by divine wisdom as an antidote against disease and bodily decay. Access to it was conditioned upon our first parents obeying the injunction against eating the forbidden fruit of the "tree of knowledge," which was the test of obedience. Certain Hebrew writers have called the two trees "the trees of the lives," holding that the wondrous property of one in perpetuating physical life and conferring perennial health was in direct contrast with the other, the "tree of knowledge," which was sure to occasion bodily suffering and death. "The tree of life was, in short, a sacramental tree," writes one commentator, "by the eating of which man, in his state of innocence, kept himself in covenant with YHVH."

Frequently asked questions and answers:

Question 196: What was the purpose of the “Tree of Knowledge”?

Answer:

The tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:8) was designed as a test of obedience by which our first parents were to be tried, whether they would be good or evil; whether they would choose to obey YHVH or break His Commandments and the eating of the fruit of the tree revealed to them their new condition as sinners under divine displeasure.

Question 195: What does the word “spiritual” really mean?

Answer:

The word is one which believers ought to guard zealously in religious phraseology. There is a recent tendency to use the word in a loose sense, giving it merely its philosophical or scientific meaning rather than its real Bible and theological significance. In secular phraseology the word means: relating to spirit, rather than to matter. Many varying shades of meaning grow out of this basic idea: one poet may be more spiritual than another; one artist than another; one musician than another. In this sense the word implies a relation to thoughts, emotions, impulses, connected with the soul of a man rather than his body. But the believer’s use of the word is distinctive. It is given as the third definition of the word in the Standard Dictionary: "Of or relating to the soul as acted on by Ruach HaKodesh." An apt quotation from Henry Drummond is given: "The spiritual life is the gift of the living Spirit The spiritual man is no mere development of the natural man. He is a new creation, born from above." In phraseology, then, a man is spiritual as he is possessed, filled and dominated by Ruach HaKodesh.

Question 194: Who are we to understand by the “Spirits in Prison”?

Answer:

The passage in 1 Peter 3:19, 20 is one which has been much discussed. It is generally interpreted as meaning that the preaching to the spirits "in prison" implies not the preaching of the Gospel, but the announcement of Moshiach's finished work. Nor does it imply a second day of grace. The spirits were clearly those of the Antediluvians. The passage however, is mysterious and has puzzled Bible students in all times. Peter is the only Bible writer who mentions the occurrence, whatever it may have been, so that there are no other passages to shed light upon it. The apostle was speaking in the context of the operation of Ruach HaKodesh and it has been generally thought by Augustine among the Fathers and by Dr Adam Clarke and other modern commentators that he referred to the Antediluvians as having, like others who lived before Moshiach, been under the Spirit's influence, though they repelled it. In that case his meaning would be that Moshiach had from the beginning been preaching through or by the Spirit, to men in all ages, as he preaches to men now by His Spirit through His ministers. Other theologians, Dean Al-ford among them, contend that somewhere in the universe these Spirits were imprisoned and that Moshiach preached to them in the interval between His death and resurrection, though that view is surrounded by other difficulties which are obvious. The reference is incidental and does not practically concern us so much as does the lesson Peter is enforcing, that through Ruach HaKodesh we are enabled to live to the spirit and not to the flesh.