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The Holy Spirit is a Person. He is One of the Godhead. In the Bible, all of the attributes of God are ascribed to Him, including the receiving of worship. It is like this: If our sin nature were taken out of the way altogether, which it one day shall be, then our will would become wholly submitted to the will of God. Then, that persona which we portray to the world would be the Person of the Holy Spirit, in us. Our outward man would mesh perfectly with our inward man. Oh, it will be like that one day! Why do we pray, "Thy kingdom come?" For many reasons, but that chief among them.

We do not make requests of the Holy Spirit. Neither do we make requests of Christ. It is the Spirit of God in us that makes intercession for us according to the will of God when we pray. It is the Holy Spirit in us who prompts us to pray.

No one can control the Spirit of God. He is sovereign, just as the Father and the Son are sovereign. He is described as performing miracles; for example, in coming upon Mary and implanting the Seed of God in her physically. I love the way the KJV describes the Holy Spirit's role in creation: "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Gen 1:2b).

Like everyone else, I have but a dim conception of these things. That as much as anything is the evidence of a God who is far advanced above us. We know very much indeed, yet we know nothing. I do pray to the Holy Spirit, and do praise Him, though what is praise from man to God? It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to serve, who imparts knowledge to us, who reveals to us the things of God. The Holy Spirit leads us inexorably into the will of God as we exercise faith on a daily basis. It is the Spirit of God in us who prompts us to commune with God each day, or to study or minister the word of reconciliation. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals our sin and who imparts faith. It is the Holy Spirit in us who reveals the deep things of God to us. What a Light He is!

God the Father blesses and provides. God the Son loves and saves and keeps. The Holy Spirit enlightens us, strengthens us and makes us profitable servants to God. That they are distinct is obvious. That they are One is necessary. That they are both is inconceivable. Yet, the Bible says that they are, and thus, they must be.

One is not more deserving of worship or praise than another. When you thank your heavenly Father for making you fruitful, you *are* praising the Holy Spirit, for He it is who guides you in your ministry. When you thank Him for guiding you through a difficult time, you *are* praising the Holy Spirit. If you recognize the role of the Holy Spirit in your life, He becomes a great and very real God, to be praised. His wisdom is the very wisdom of God. His power, so gently used upon His children in steering us and orchestrating our lives, every moment, for our good, is the same power that created the entirety of creation..

My relationship with Jesus is different, however. I also pray to Him, though I am careful to ask nothing of Him. He is God, and He said it should be that way. But He is also my Husband, and I shall endeavor to serve Him now, and speak to Him and express to Him my willingness to do His bidding, without hesitation or reservation, the moment I know what His will is.

My sense of gratitude for the death He died because He loved me is inexpressible. To know that He bore the shame that should rightly have fallen on me... and what terrible shame it is. I certainly was moved by that passage in Isaiah 60 that speaks of the glory of the Lord rising above Jerusalem. How I long to see His face and to know what he looks like, to see this One who is God, yet who died for me. What a wise and loving and merciful Lord we serve. We have a Husband, and should consider Him thus in our relationship with Him. Intimate conversations.

There is much to dwell upon when we begin to consider the Persons of the Godhead. The aspects are infinite, the depths, bottomless. If we are allowed to speak to these great Persons -- and we are nowhere told not to approach, but rather, to approach with confidence -- then are we fools not to speak to them? All equally God. Omnipotent. Whew!

Make your requests of the Father, in the Son's name, and claim the authority of the Holy Spirit in your prayers. You surely have it, though you do not know how to use it. We will certainly use it in that Day. Pray to God, but do it in a proper order.

Is the 1611 King James Version the Only Legitimate Version of the English Bible?

I did cut my teeth on the KJV. I do have and use that version, though not exclusively. The most fruitful period of my Christian "career," however, occurred during the ten years or so when I did not use the KJV at all. And I might add that the version of the KJV that I used prior to that period was the '67 Scofield, which was the fourth revision and contained other word changes besides those included in the fourth revision. Thus, in the "KJV only" vernacular, I have never studied any Bible at all, for only the 1611 KJV is correct. However, there is no Biblical basis at all for presuming either that the 1611 KJV is inspired by God, or that any other translation is not. The salient point in this paragraph is that I have never used the 1611 version, and that many of the people I have led to the Lord (another expression that I don't particularly like -- it is the Holy Spirit that draws, not men that lead) have never used any version of the KJV except the NKJV. These people have learned the doctrines as I have and have reached the same level of spirituality that I have without ever even glancing at a 1611 KJV. I have completely worn out two '67 Scofields and three NKJV Scofields, but have not read more than perhaps two or three chapters from a 1611 Bible. Of course, the first two editions of Scofield's reference Bible were 1611 KJV texts, but I've never used any but the '67 edition.

In order to settle this debate conclusively, one would have to show in the Bible how the 1611 KJV is the only valid English Bible, and no one can do that. I am familiar with the various manuscripts used in translating the Bible. Indeed, not all are the same. Some are even earlier than those used in the 1611 KJV. For example, Mark 16:9-20 are not found in the two most ancient manuscripts, the Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus, but those verses are found in the 1611 KJV. The fact is, the translators of the 1611 Bible were extremely reverent men, exercising exhaustive rituals in preparation for their daily work. This is also true of the men who Scofield commissioned to develop "his" reference materials. But I would never dream of saying that he or they were inspired by God. To say that the translators of the KJV (1611) were as inspired as the original penmen is to give to their words the same strength and authority as, for example, Moses. Now, that's a pretty bold thing to do, especially in light of their own caution against adding to or taking away. What about the Spanish version (Reina-Valera Revision)? Did God inspire a translation only into English, or did He inspire the translators who translated it into, say, Portuguese? Why would God choose English, which in 1611 was not the most prominent language in the world, as the medium through which He would give the Greek Scriptures to the world? And why would God allow His sacred manuscripts to fall into the hands and possession of the Roman church? I certainly believe in the inerrancy of the original manuscripts, and I trust that God has so guided the development of His Word over the centuries in such a fashion as to prevent any sort of error that would prevent the dissemination of the truth of the Gospel. But in no way do I ascribe inspiration by God to any translation of the original manuscripts. For that matter, there are none of the original manuscripts available for translation, even those utilized by the panel commissioned by King James. Those were fourth century and later copies of the original manuscripts. At the time of their translation, they were at least eight hundred years old, and the Bible had been copied in the original language for four hundred years prior to the copies being made that were used. I do not say this to disparage the KJV. It has certainly proven its worth down through the years, and I hold it in very high reverence indeed. But to claim that it is inspired by God is to give it an authority which it does not claim for itself, and if it did, would prove to discredit it altogether.

Really, the issue is linguistics. We know far more today about the language of the first century A.D. than was known to the translators of the 1611 KJV. On that basis alone there is reason to lean toward the more modern translations (though I do not lean in that direction, but it is solely on account of matters of taste, not credibility). The linguistic scholars of today have tools at their disposal that the linguists of the early seventeenth century would have drooled over. Archaeology has made tremendous strides in the intervening four hundred years since the 1611 was translated. The only basis upon which to demand that the 1611 KJV is the "only" Bible is the presumption that those translators (and only those translators) were inspired by the Holy Spirit, like Daniel and John. There is absolutely not one shred of evidence that such is the case. The fact that men claim it to be so does not make it so. If it were so, then to change one single word would be to destroy it altogether. And if that were the case, then I have never read the Bible at all, and yet I have arrived at the same body of doctrine that the "KJV Only" camp have, and have done so without the aid of God's Word, but have arrived at these conclusions solely through human reason, and then what does that make of the Bible? A book written by men and not God. Or, at the very least, a book that could have been written by men and not God. Do you see what the insistence on the inspiration of the 1611 Bible produces? Spiritual anarchy. Chaos. There is no way to guarantee that any translation of documents that have been copied and recopied for four hundred years, and then copied and recopied for another four hundred years do not contain any errors. To say that the 1611 KJV is the only Bible is to demand that everyone in the world learn the English language before they can possibly read God's Word, which destroys the Christianity of every non-English-speaking believer. The whole issue falls apart. The approach is parochial. It loses sight of the bigger picture, the place of the Bible in the world, and the practical consideration of God's inspiration of all the other language translations that have been made. It becomes too big a problem for any man or body of men to figure out. Which Swahili version is the right version? Which dialect of Cantonese is correct? Must we all revert to the English language of four hundred years ago and dispense with the language we use today? And then, what of the words that have been added to the English language since then on account of technological inventions and advances? Must we go back to burning sod for cooking and heat, and do away with computers and the Internet, just because those words weren't available in 1611? Language has never been static, and is not today. Go back another four hundred years and English is all but unrecognizable. Give it another four hundred years, and 1611 English will be completely unintelligible. Then who could possibly be saved? Their position is parochial. I don't say that disparagingly, but factually. It simply does not work.

There is not a single shard of proof that the 1611 KJV was inspired by God. And if there were such proof, then where is the proof for the other human languages? Or is God so enamored of the English-speaking peoples that He gave them advantages that He gave no one else? Where is the testimony in the KJV itself that says that God would, four hundred years later, inspire a group of English-speaking men to translate the Bible into a (then) obscure language. It simply does not exist. I also love the KJV (at least, the fourth revision of the KJV), but I cannot so wrap myself around the axle of the works of men that I deny the authority of other versions of the Bible that have proven themselves fruitful. As to the NIV, it is not a translation at all, but a paraphrase, like the Living Bible. It is as if men said, "In other words..." I do not count that Scripture, and have never known anyone personally who was saved through hearing those books read. Neither have I ever led a single soul to the Lord by using" my own words" rather than the Word of God, and I do not believe that it can be done. Paul says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. If these two versions that I support besides the KJV are not Scripture, then all those souls are not saved whom I have led to the Lord, and all the people that they have themselves led to the Lord are not saved, and all those people are out there in the world, holding the same body of doctrine that you and I hold, but are not saved because they didn't hear the Scriptures quoted from the 1611 version. Hmm...

Let me finish by saying that, without Divine inspiration, their position on the 1611 Bible falls apart completely. For Greek is a language of nuances, and many words have many shades of meaning. In English, we have many words for the various nuances, but in the Greek, there are many nuances for almost every word. Picking the correct English word is largely a matter of chance, though context generally can be relied upon to draw one to the correct English word. But not exclusively. Therefore, unless God did indeed inspire the translators of the 1611 Bible, and no other, then the 1611 version is as prone to human error as any of the others. But, by looking at more than one translation, one is able to better determine whether one word is better than another. That is why the Parallel Bible has become so popular. Unfortunately, it is usually found in a format that focuses on the NIV. Let me give an example of English words being variously used to translate the Greek. In Gen 3:1, the first thing that the Bible has to say about the devil (serpent) is that he is subtil (to use the archaic spelling of subtle). The KJV says subtle. The NIV says crafty. The NKJV says cunning. Which word is correct? Is it subtil that is the most correct? I always go first of all to my Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (1611 KJV edition). All three words are found in his Hebrew-English dictionary! The point is, there is no claim in the Bible that God would "inspire" King James' men, or any other body of translators. And if He were going to do that, what an omission that would be if He did not give us such confidence as to tell us that this version or that would be inspired. I believe that he has "protected" the content of the original manuscripts, even today, but I do not think of the 1611 version as any more inspired than, say, the Wycliffe Bible. And the NKJV is as close as it is possible to come to the 1611 version while still using today's English. In out letter to one another, we do not address those to whom we write as "thee or thou." There are no est or eth suffixes on our verbs. If that is the only correct method of speaking, why do they not use it in their everyday speaking? This whole debate is silly. While not every translation is satisfying, it does not necessarily follow that no translation but one is acceptable.

Those who support the KJV only position are crusading around the world, especially in English speaking countries, to condemn the use of any other English version of the Scriptures. I do use the word crusade as a sort of epithet in the sense that this whole debate is no more than a diversion from the work that we are supposed to be doing. I have spent many hours answering letters on this subject when we might have been discussing the great doctrines of the Scriptures instead. It is not at all that I mind answering letters. It is my life's work - this discussion of God's Word, including this discussion of Bible versions. But all involved ought better to be using the doctrinal knowledge that we have out in the world doing the work of evangelists. That is our job. I don't mind at all being in perfect agreement with them on as many things as we can agree upon. I thank God to find Christian brothers out there who know a bit about doctrine. There are fewer and fewer of us every year, it seems, which only serves to point out the crying need for all of us to be ministering the word of reconciliation rather than fighting among ourselves over irrelevancies. Because, when it comes down to our purpose for being here, it has nothing to do with protecting one version over another, but with the salvation of lost souls, which thing I have been diligent to focus upon for many years, and very fruitfully indeed, without once ever having used a 1611 Bible in my ministry. When our Lord appears for His bride, I very much want to be found doing the work that He has given me to do, and that is not to be engaged in doubtful disputations, but to be engaged in the ministry of the word of reconciliation.

Are Tongues and the Other Sign Gifts Valid Today?

Charismatics believe that some sort of physical display of the presence of the Holy Spirit is manifested through the demonstration of visible spiritual gifts in every truly saved person. Conventional Protestantism teaches that the use of those spiritual gifts began to rapidly dissipate, and vanish, around the end of the first century of the Church Age.

Two important passages are: Eph 4:8, 11-14; and 1 Cor 12-14 (all three chapters). The Corinthian passage shows us that we all receive spiritual gifts, and tells us of those gifts and regulates their use. The Ephesians passage shows us that many of those who receive the spiritual gifts are themselves gifts to the church. Due to the limitations of space, this article will deal mostly with the 1 Corinthians passage.

Paul begins by informing the Church that he does not wish us to be ignorant of the doctrine of spiritual gifts (12:1). We should be aware that spiritual gifts exist, and we should understand what they are and how they are and were used. There is much difference between the exercise of spiritual gifts today and the way they were employed in the first century or so of the Church Age.

The problem arises when one studies the Bible with the mindset that proclaims every word of Scripture to have been written directly to its present reader. That is rarely the case. Usually, one person is speaking to another, or to a group of others, about things from which we may draw understanding, but which do not necessarily apply to us. Rightly dividing the Scriptures is the only pathway to understanding, and one of the first principles in rightly-dividing any written material is to determine who is being spoken to, by whom, for what reason, and what is being said.

In the second verse, Paul reminds the Corinthian believers how fickle they were in their understanding of worldly concerns. They followed after first one idol and then another.

In verse three, Paul refers to the Corinthian principle that is so common in charismatic churches today: if a person�s salvation is dependent upon speaking in tongues, then Jesus� death meant nothing. It is no outward show that proves a person�s salvation, but an inner faith in the sufficiency of the sacrifice the Son of God made at Calvary. To judge a person�s salvation by an outward show is to judge a person to be saved based upon his works rather than his faith.

We are told in verses four through eleven that it is the same Spirit who both gives and energizes the spiritual gifts. He makes a point here that he reemphasizes at the close of this passage, to wit, that it is the Lord who administers and orders the use of the spiritual gifts. While the gifts differ in their function, it is the same God who works all of the gifts in all who have them.

The early Church used the sign gifts to authenticate their testimony because they had no New Testament. They testified to the gospel, and then spoke in tongues so that the unsaved could know that their words came from God. Or they performed healings, or miracles, or they prophesied. These were outward signs that were used until the completion of the Scriptures.

Paul says that there are diversities of gifts. In fact, in these verses, he delineates nine different spiritual gifts. He makes it clear that the Holy Spirit gives no man every gift, but that He does apportion them out, severally to each Christian. Not everyone spoke in tongues. Not everyone performed healings. Not everyone could perform miracles. But everyone could and did possess several spiritual gifts (cp 1 Cor 7:7). That remains true today.

In verses twelve through thirty-one, we find that no gift is more valuable than another. Every gift is equal in God�s eye. It is the person�s stewardship of his gifts that matters to God. We are all baptized by one Spirit into the same body, and each Christian has his function in the body. God is no respecter of persons, and gives gifts to all of us. In fact, the least honorable men and women in the eyes of the world are the more honored with gifts (vv 23-24).

Verses twenty-seven through thirty-one establish the order of rank, if you will, of the gifts: Apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, healings, helps, governments, tongues. He goes on to state that not everyone has every gift. There are gifts that are to be used in the local assembly and gifts that are meant to be used outside the local assembly. Any church whose preoccupation is with the �sign� gifts has its focus misdirected. Our preoccupation is to be with the Light, Jesus Christ.

Turning to chapter thirteen, we find the direction shifting somewhat. The gist of chapter thirteen is that the Christian has three resources in the application of his spiritual gifts: faith, hope and love. However, this passage is also where the cessation of the sign gifts is found.

One would not exercise spiritual gifts without both faith and hope. There would be no reason to do so. If we did not believe, why would we practice such things when the world would count us senseless for doing so? The only verse in this chapter that even mentions faith or hope is the last verse. The point of the �love chapter� is that, without love, spiritual gifts have no value at all. It is not only possible, but is often the case that spiritual gifts are exercised without love.

Let us coin a term: Emotionalizers. These are those who reduce the gospel to what they feel, seeking the physical thrill, the euphoria of emotions in which they suddenly �break out� in tongues or engage in other types of �spiritual� ecstasies. These are those who whip their congregations up into an emotional frenzy that has little to do with either spirituality or love.

Love is not about what you say. It is not even about what you feel. Love is about what you do. It is an attitude, in which one does those things for the object of his love that love demands. Many charismatic churches exhibit a veiled xenophobia in which they outwardly profess to love and accept visitors, but their eyes and hearts reveal a clannishness that stands aloof from strangers unless and until they have given some visible proof of their own devotion to charismatic �gifts.� When a non-charismatic enters into conversation with charismatics about doctrinal issues, the response is usually almost militant, angry, defensive, no matter how gently the differences are introduced. Many times the responses are almost spat out venomously. It is a testimony to the emotionalism of the charismatic movement that such should be so, but clearly, it is so. Sobriety gives way to euphoria. And much is lost in the giving. Spiritual maturity is lost in the giving.

These are controversial verses, to be sure. The charismatics want to make �that which is perfect� to be the Second Coming of Christ, so that tongues would not cease until then.

Many non-charismatics today use these verses to show that, when the Bible has come, the partial witness in the sign gifts would be done away. The answer is not to be found in the verses themselves; but in the succeeding chapter, the issue becomes clearer, more certain.

These four verses show that the sensational gifts would cease. If they are not to end at some point during the Church Age, why does Paul even mention it? He is saying that these are childish things, used until such time as the Church reaches some level of maturity. When we see what the sign gifts were used for, then we will more readily see that their end came as predicted. During the era when the sign gifts were practiced, the Church saw �through a glass, darkly� Paul said, �For now�� That is, in that day and time.

What is said in the last two verses of chapter thirteen is also revealing. The glass darkly. �Now,� Paul said. �For now we see through a glass darkly; but then, face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.� In Paul�s day, there was no body of Scripture. They had nothing to show to the peoples in the lands where they lived. They were attempting to sow the seed of Christianity in a pagan world, and they had no Holy Writ. And yet, the Word grew and multiplied. Operating in pagan lands, God empowered these early Christians with gifts which would authenticate their ministries as being from God.

The word of knowledge. It shall vanish away. Long since has it gone. It went with the apostles, who alone had the power to impart spiritual gifts through the laying on of their hands. Today we would call them gifted teachers who have knowledge, and so they are, but they have not this word of knowledge that was imparted to the first century Church. When the teacher spoke then, he knew whereof he spoke, and he spoke truly. Then one might be called upon by the Holy Spirit to speak in another tongue, to authenticate the teacher�s knowledge. Where that happened, another man would interpret the language spoken. The interpretation would validate the teacher�s lesson in some way. Today, we do not need the word of knowledge. We hold the entire Word of God in our sinful hands every day, taking it for granted. We are not left without clear and positive proof of the verity of our words.

Jesus is the Word of God (Jn 1:1, 14). The Bible is that written Word. Until the Bible was completed, no one could look into the face of God in the Person of Jesus Christ, at least, not after the ascension. Now, we can look into both the face and the heart of God in His Word. Neither the word of knowledge nor the word of wisdom reside in any Christian today in the manner in which it was necessary in the early Church, for they had no Scriptures. We are not without wisdom today. But those who had the word of wisdom or knowledge in the early Church were men who spoke with great authority, whose doctrine never contradicted itself, whose facts always bore out truly. Our wisdom comes today from that which is perfect, the Word of God. It is not imparted through the laying on of the hands of the apostles, for the apostles are all long dead.

The gift of prophecy would fail. Nothing struck the Gentile mind like the fulfillment of prophecy. That continues to be the case today. What religious book besides the Bible itself has mass appeal in Gentile markets more than books on prophecy?

In the first century, select men were gifted with the ability to predict future events. They would present the gospel, and then they would tell their listeners what to expect. Shortly, their prophecies would come to pass. It might be in some local matter, or in some natural phenomenon, but they would use those prophecies as signs to authenticate their testimony. All of the �miraculous� signs, including the working of miracles, were used in the early Church as methods of validating the testimony of those to whom the Scriptures had not yet come. We have the Word of God today. In the first century, the church knew �in part.� They knew what they were to speak in that moment. Today, we have it all right in front of us. Then, it was through a mirror darkly. Now, the light of the Gospel shines brightly in His Word.

Those who insist upon the use of the sign gifts today demean the Word of God. What they are saying, in effect, is that the Word of God is not sufficient, but we must now add our works to it so that you can know that it is real. Paul was trying to get across to these Christians at Corinth in chapter thirteen the simple fact that love is so much more important than any of the spiritual gifts. Our �mission� on this earth is not to make spectacles of ourselves, but simply to preach the Gospel.

Now let us move to chapter fourteen. Paul reduces the value of the sign gifts to only two, tongues and prophecy. Chapter fourteen is not a polemic against tongues, but it raises the value of the gift of prophecy so far above the gift of tongues as to almost seem to be such a polemic. In this chapter, Paul gives us understanding of how the gift of prophecy was used in the early Church. He did not say in chapter thirteen that prophecy would cease, but that prophecies would fail. But he did say that tongues would cease altogether. In chapter fourteen, more than anywhere else, Paul rigidly sets forth the regulations for the use of the sign gifts in the early church.

He begins by saying that we should follow after love. No matter what spiritual gifts we are given, without love they are useless. For such, there is no reward. The right use of spiritual gifts, however, produces much fruit, which results in much reward at the judgment seat of Christ. Love is the key that unlocks the mysteries of fruitfulness. Love is the fuel that makes the spiritual gift effective. Love is the Spirit of God in us, reaching out to those whom He would love through us.

Paul says that we are to desire spiritual gifts, but rather that we may prophesy. He diminishes the importance of the tongue gifts by showing how superior the gift of prophecy is.

Paul is speaking about the way these gifts are used in the local church. He says, �For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.� The gift of tongues will convert no unsaved person. Tongues are used to speak to God, but not to men. Rather, one prophesies, and then one speaks in tongues to validate his witness, and then one interprets in order to validate the one who speaks in tongues. The tongues themselves are not a form of witness, but are a validation of witness.

In the early Church, God spoke directly through those who had the gift of prophecy, so that their words carried the same weight as the word of those who penned the Scriptures. The New Testament prophet builds up his listeners� store of knowledge, exhorting them to study and devotion and service. The one who speaks in tongues is building up himself; the one who prophesies builds up the whole church. Paul says, without interpretation, the gift of tongues is useless. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues insofar as he is edifying those members of the body of Christ to whom he ministers. The one who speaks in tongues bears no fruit. Paul said he wished that all spoke in tongues. That would mean fruit from his labors, for if they were speaking properly in tongues, that would mean that the gospel was being preached.

Paul said that he would be of no profit to the local church at all if he spoke in tongues. He said that only by speaking from spirit-inspired revelation, or by the word of knowledge, or by teaching sound doctrine, or with the gift of prophecy, could he edify the Church. He had earlier said, in chapter thirteen, that the use of the sign gifts equates with spiritual immaturity. Now, he says that tongues are not of profit to the church. To further illustrate the futility of using tongues in the worship services, Paul likens the unknown tongue to a musical instrument that plays a discordant note. Sound doctrine must always harmonize with every other doctrine. If there is contradiction, the whole must be discarded as unreliable. If the one who plays the trumpet sounds the retreat when he ought to sound the charge, how shall the army win a battle?

In verse ten of this chapter, Paul says, �There are� so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification�� Here, more than anywhere else, are those �sensational� gifts called �sign� gifts. He implies that they are a crude form of testimony, but they serve till that which is perfect has come. Who will say that Christians cannot use the Bible as their authority in witness? It is the Word of God that quickens.

Paul says that he will pray with the Spirit, and with understanding also, that he will sing with the Spirit and with the understanding also. Be careful. Charismatics will say that praying with the Spirit and with understanding are two separate things that are done together. What Paul is saying here is that they are one and the same thing. When you pray with the Spirit, you are praying with the understanding. The very next verse (16) clarifies that.

Paul says (18) that he speaks with tongues more than them all. But what does he say next? In the church, he would rather speak five words that could be understood than ten thousand that could not. And then a word of rebuke:

�Be not children in understanding� in understanding be men� Get over your child-like fascination with tricks! And then he states plainly: �Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.�

Paul is saying that tongues are not for use in the church services, but as a tool for validating the testimony of those who bear witness to the gospel.

The gift of prophecy today is different in character than it was in the first century or so of the Church Age. Then, the prophets could foretell; today, they forthtell. That is, the Holy Spirit no longer guides the words of the prophets today. The spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet (v 32) That is why they fail.

Let us now go back to verses 23 � 40 and look at some of the ways in which the use of tongues and prophecy were regulated in the early Church.

Paul starts this passage by saying that if an unbeliever were to come into your worship services, and people were speaking in tongues, he would think you were crazy. But if he comes in and someone is prophesying, he will know that he is hearing the truth, will be convicted and be saved, and will report to all that God is in you.

Paul goes on to rebuke them again. He speaks harshly against the great babbling of a thousand voices in their worship services, with each one having a psalm, a doctrine, a tongue, a revelation, and interpretation. He says, �Calm down!� �Chill out!� �Let us have a measure of decorum in God�s house!� No more than three can speak in tongues at any given service of the church, and there must be an interpreter or everyone is to remain silent. Period. The same is true of the prophets. Two or three could speak at a meeting, and the other prophets in the church were to judge what they said.

Whereas not everyone spoke in tongues because not all had the gift (I wish that ye all spoke in tongues�), everyone in the early church, and presumably today as well, could prophesy. It was a function of preparation, of study, of exercising the ability to rightly divide the word of truth. Paul is very clear in his next statement as well. He says, �Let your women keep silent in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law� (34). Apparently, this was a problem in the early Church. It is certainly a problem today. In those churches that are charismatic, it is often the women who are the main practitioners of the sign gifts. Where such is the case, the clear and stern warning of the Scriptures is violated arrogantly.

Paul closes this out by saying, �If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant� (37-38). It is in light of this statement that he also says, ��covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak in tongues� (39). You cannot allow one to be ignorant if you forbid him to speak in tongues. If a man is going to exercise those gifts that no longer obtain, then let him, but do not be caught up in the vain practices with him. Let all things be done decently and in order.

There, then, is the major passage on the spiritual gifts; at least, those gifts that continue to be controversial today. No one argues over whether one might be gifted in, say, teaching, but there remain the fires of controversy surrounding the sign gifts. This latter-day resurgence of the signs is not inspired by God, but is the fruit of the reasonings of men. It is resisted in conservative churches, and bears the stigma of Arminianism almost everywhere it is found. Many charismatic churches reject the eternal security of the believer.

Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people
and your holy city,
to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement of iniquity,
to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy
and to anoint the most holy place.
(Dan 9:24)

Let us begin our study of Daniel�s seventy weeks with a look at a passage in Genesis. This, in order to show that the period of time that Daniel refers to above is not seventy periods of seven days, but seventy periods of seven years. This is an important consideration in the study of prophecy, and must be understood if one is to comprehend the framework of the prophetic writings. It is often said that the writings of Daniel are the key that unlocks the understanding of John�s Revelation of Jesus Christ. If that is so, then this prophecy of seventy weeks of years is the key that unlocks our understanding of the book of Daniel. Scofield says, �Daniel�s prophecy of the seventy weeks (vv 24-27) provides the chronological frame for Messianic prediction from Daniel to the establishment of the kingdom on earth and also a key to its interpretation (New Scofield Study System; Oxford, 1998; pg 1081). Let us examine the Genesis passage to see that certain �weeks� in Scripture may be composed of seven years rather than seven days.

(Gen 29) Jacob had gone to his maternal uncle�s house to marry Rachel. He worked for his uncle, Laban, for seven years in order to marry Rachel, but those seven years seemed only a few days because his love for Rachel was so great (Gen 29:20). He was happy to prove his devotion to her by toiling seven full years in order to claim her as his bride. But Laban tricked Jacob, sending Rachel�s older sister, Leah, into Jacob�s bed chamber on their wedding night. Laban�s excuse for the deception was that it was not their custom to marry off the younger daughter before the elder, and so he sent Leah in instead of Rachel. Jacob complained about the deception, desiring to marry Rachel, and not Leah. Then Laban said to Jacob, �Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years� (Gen 29:27). That is, if Jacob would serve Laban for an additional seven years, which he called �her week,� he would have both Leah and Rachel for his wives.

Thus, in the very first book of the Bible, the principle is established by which a seven year period is referred to as one week. The �week� was composed of seven years rather than of seven days. This is the usage we find in the passage quoted at the opening of this article. In fact, the Hebrew word in Dan 9:24 (shabua) is not even seventy weeks, but seventy sevens. That is, what the angel told Daniel is that seventy �sevens� are decreed, etc. Thus, the period that the angel was referring to was not a period of four hundred ninety days (70 x 7), but four hundred ninety years.

The Jews were required to let their farm lands lay fallow every seventh year according to the Law of Moses. But they had failed to observe the land sabbath (from the same root word as shabua) for seventy sabbaths, or a period of four hundred ninety years, farming the land instead of letting it rest. God proclaimed through Jeremiah (25:11-12) that those seventy sabbaths would be given the land while the Jews were captive in Babylon. Over a period of four hundred ninety years, seventy sabbaths had been violated. Rather than observing those sabbaths once every seven years, God would recoup them all at once, by driving the Jews out of the land for seventy years. But when those seventy years were near their end, God revealed to Daniel another period of four hundred ninety years in which he would deal with Israel as a nation. It is this latter four hundred ninety year period that is referred to as Daniel�s seventy weeks of years. For seventy periods of seven years equals four hundred ninety years. In Daniel 10:2, the expression used is �weeks of days,� in order to distinguish that period from the seventy weeks of years in chapter nine.

Before we get too deeply involved in our study of the seventy weeks of years, let us also observe in the opening verse that these four hundred ninety years do not pertain to any but Daniel�s people, the Jews, nor to any other city than the holy city, Jerusalem. While four Gentile empires are discussed in the book of Daniel, this particular prophecy concerns only the Jews and Jerusalem. Six distinct purposes for this period are defined in Daniel 9:24: 1) to finish the transgression, 2) to make an end of sin, 3) to make atonement for iniquity, 4) to bring in everlasting righteousness, 5) to seal up vision and prophecy, and, 6) to anoint the most holy place. The first three of these were accomplished at Christ�s first advent. Crucifying their Messiah finished the transgression. An end was made of sin by the fulfillment of the Law at Calvary, at which place atonement was made once for all for iniquity. The remaining three purposes will be accomplished at Christ�s Second Advent, when He establishes a kingdom of righteousness, finally fulfilling all of prophecy as He is crowned and ascends His throne in the most holy place in the Millennial Temple.

Turning our attention then to the remainder of this prophecy, let us explore the 25th through the 27th verses in some detail, so that we might come to an understanding of the four hundred ninety years.

Even until the consummation,
Which is determined,
Shall be poured out upon the desolate.

The angel wanted Daniel to understand this prophecy (see 9:22-23). He explained that the four hundred ninety year period would not begin immediately, but would start with the command by a Gentile king for the Jews to begin rebuilding Jerusalem and its wall. Only one time in history has such a command been given, in 444-445 B.C., by Artaxerxes, king of Persia. Nehemiah records this command in 1:1-2:8 of the book of his writings. Daniel was told that the passage of time between the issuance of this command and the First Advent of the Messiah would be a total of sixty-nine weeks of years, or four hundred eighty-three years, which carries us to the beginning of Christ�s earthly ministry.

An important facet of this prophecy must be explained at this point. It is after the four hundred eighty-third year (seven weeks and sixty-two weeks) that Messiah is cut off (but not for Himself � He died for all the sins of the world). The final seven years of this prophecy do not begin immediately after the end of the first four hundred eighty-three years. Several things are said to transpire between the four hundred eighty-third year and the beginning of the final seven years. First of all, Messiah is to be cut off. Then, the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The destruction of Jerusalem did not occur until 70 A.D., so that nearly forty years passed after the end of the sixty-ninth week of years, and still, the seventieth week had not begun. There was a gap in time between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth weeks. We shall see that the gap did not end with the destruction of Jerusalem, but that it continues even until today. Essentially, what we see is that God stopped the clock on this four hundred ninety year prophecy with only seven years remaining. The clock was stopped at some point subsequent to the beginning of Christ�s ministry, and has not started again yet.

After the cutting off of the Jewish Messiah, God ceased dealing with Israel as a nation. The Church Age was begun. It is that mystery that Jesus spoke of in Matthew thirteen when He spoke the parables of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. For a thing to be called a mystery, enough must be known to let man know that there is something that he does not understand. It was this gap in the seventy weeks of years between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth weeks that was the mystery. During this mysterious gap, we would come to learn that the entire Church Age would unfold. Israel was scattered amongst the nations of the world in 70 A.D., and would not again become a nation or have a homeland until shortly before the seventieth week begins. Never in the history of the world have any people retained their national identity for so long without actually being a nation. But God preserved the Jews as a separate people because He had promised that He would restore them to their land and make them a nation again (Ezek 36-37). From 70 A.D. until 1948 A.D., Israel did not exist as a nation, but the Jews retained their separate identity as a people. God had stopped the clock on His dealings with Israel as a nation, but He continued to preserve them as a people, for there were yet seven years to be fulfilled in the prophecy that He gave to Daniel. It would be impossible for God to fail to restore Israel to the land or to make them a nation again for two very good reasons. First, He promised that He would do so after their period of chastisement. Second, His word stands forever, and He had prophesied a four hundred ninety year period, of which only four hundred eighty-three have been fulfilled. If God said that four hundred ninety years must be fulfilled, then the final seven must be fulfilled. For that to happen, it is necessary for Israel to be in the land.

The Bible is not silent as to when the seventieth week of Daniel is to begin. Verse 27 tells us that the prince who is to come (not Messiah the Prince, but the prince whose people destroyed Jerusalem � a Gentile ruler) will enter into a treaty with many. It is the ratification of this treaty in the Israeli Knesset that will begin the final week (seven years) of Daniel�s prophecy of the seventy weeks of years. We know that Israel�s security will be guaranteed under the terms of this treaty (Ezek 38:8,11), and that it will resolve the thorniest and longest-standing problem that has ever plagued civilization, Middle East relations between the Jews and the Arab states.

Then, three and one-half years after this treaty is ratified (�in the middle of the week��), the antichrist will void it and seek to destroy Israel again and at last. The abrogation of the treaty marks the beginning of that period known to us as the Great Tribulation. Then will begin a persecution that would bring about the extinction of the Jews altogether if their Messiah did not return to stop the war and crush Gentile world dominion forever. A description of the Great Tribulation is not a part of this discussion, but may be addressed in a later edition of Christian Chronicles. For now it is only important to understand that the second half of Daniel�s seventieth week is the time in which the tribulation period unfolds. The first half of the week will be characterized by many profound and dramatic events, and the second three and a half years will begin the campaign that we call Armageddon, culminating in the return of our Lord to the earth to establish His kingdom by destroying the Gentile powers that have for so long oppressed His people, the Jews. God allowed the Gentiles to persecute the Jews, just as He first allowed Nebuchadnezzar to carry them away captive to Babylon, but He will fully repay them for their mistreatment of His people. When He pours out His wrath upon the nations of the world, the primary reason for His doing so is really two-fold: 1) because they have mistreated His chosen people, and 2) because they partitioned the land that He gave to Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob.

The salient point in this discussion is that the seventieth week of Daniel�s prophecy begins with the ratification of a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement. This treaty will settle the age-old dispute that began with Isaac and Ishmael and continues even today. That is, its purpose will be to settle that feud. However, the fact that the governments agree to make peace for the sake of commerce does not necessarily imply that the peoples themselves will throw off their animosities toward one another. That feud will not truly be settled simply because their governing leaders have decided that they must make peace for the sake of commerce. While the governments will attempt to keep a lid on the simmering hatred that has characterized this fraternal jealousy throughout the millennia, the �suicide bombers� and other acts of terror will not cease. Pressure will likely become increasingly heavy upon Israel not to respond to the attacks, and Israel�s insistence upon responding in kind may prove to be the catalyst that causes the nation of the beast to abrogate the terms of the treaty and to seek to destroy the Jews. Even today we see that Israel is considered the �bad guy� in the Middle East for its attacks on the Jenin refugee camps and its sieges at Ramallah and Bethlehem. When Israel retaliates for the killing of its civilians, it is Israel, and not her attackers, that is castigated in the world press.

The editorial staff of WebGrace.net does not wish to seem �sensationalist� in its continuing attention to this situation. However, given the fact that, for the very first time in the history of the world, the world leaders are seriously trying to address the issues that divide the peoples of the Middle East and bring about just such a treaty as that envisioned by Daniel the prophet, and seeing that virtually every other �sign� given for the events to follow the ratification of this treaty are already visible in dramatic measure around the world, and seeing that the political alignments prophesied to be in place when the seventieth week occurs, it seems foolhardy not to be aware of where we are on the stage of history. Whether the current atmosphere will continue or will evaporate in yet another prolonged period of warfare and hostility, we cannot say with any certainty; but we surely can say that every major power in the world is intently focused upon the Middle East, with a rising determination to find a solution that will carry the region out of the quagmire of violence and hatred that has characterized those peoples since Sarah demanded that Abraham throw Hagar and Ishmael out. It appears that a great movement is gaining speed and weight, and that the world will not rest until those issues are resolved. Thus, we must believe that there exists the very real possibility that we are standing at the brink of the Age, and that the times and the seasons are upon us when we might realistically expect to hear that shout and that trumpet that calls the bride of Christ off the earth and into the New Jerusalem for our seven-year feast.

The world will be caught completely unawares by the rapture of the Church and the onset of the tribulation period. However, it is incumbent upon every Christian to recognize the times and the season, so that we are not caught doing what we ought not be doing, but that we might be found serving our Lord and our Groom properly and well when He comes for us.

Thomas Paine wrote, �These are the times that try men�s souls.� Perhaps in a political sense it was so. Today, however, the words take on a wholly new meaning. There are Christians who will be found in the service of their coming King, and there are Christians who will be caught sleeping. This is a time for every Christian on the face of the globe to examine his walk in light of the times in which we live, in light of the season of our Lord�s coming for His bride. It is altogether too easy to get caught up in local or national issues, personal issues, social issues, economic issues, professional issues, relationship issues, family, educational or legal issues. The devil has a million ways to divert us from our purpose, and he is largely successful with all of us. However, it is now time to face the looming reality and get about the business of being ministers of the word of reconciliation. As chaos and crime, avarice and hatred swirl about us, it is high time for us to see that these are the days of our testing. It is the prayer of all at Christian Chronicles that all our subscribers � indeed, all the worldwide Church� will realize how very near the rapture must be, and will act in accordance with that realization. We have a Husband, and He has expectations of us that have little to do with our secular lives, but everything to do with the conduct of our spiritual activities. It is time to pray, read and minister to others.

The Church is three-fold. First, it is corporate. All the Christians of the entire Church Age together form the body of Christ. Our Head is in heaven, but the body is composed of generations and generations, upon centuries, of Christians. This body of believers � those already long dead, those who are alive today, and even those who have not yet been born � constitutes a single, living, �corporeal� organism. It is said to be the Body of Christ (Eph 1:23; 5:30). The word �Church� comes from the Greek, �ekklesia,� or �called out� ones. This living organism is called �the Church.� It having never existed before, the Holy Spirit created this new creature (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15) on the Feast of Pentecost, ten days following our Lord�s ascension into heaven. It was at that time a new type of creature, and continues to be even today. With the shrieking of the wind and tongues of fire that appeared on the disciples� heads (for a fuller exposition of this moment, see Perspectives, pg. 1), this was as dramatic a moment of creation as the creation of man had been millennia earlier. A new living being came into existence that day.

Men and women from all those far-flung places where the Jews had been scattered were in that crowd, and the disciples began to speak. The lingua franca was Greek. As they spoke, those in the crowds outside heard the speech, each in his own language. They did not realize that a new creature was formed that day, but those one hundred twenty disciples knew that an extraordinary thing had happened. What happened to those disciples was much akin to that which happened in your own life when you were illuminated to the grace of God by the Spirit of God. When you were made alive. When you were able at last to pick up God�s Word and comprehend what you read. But on that particular Feast of Pentecost, the event was accompanied by great signs from heaven. Now that we have the gospel, we need no signs. Taken together, all born-again Christians from throughout the Church Age are the living members of the organism that was created in that moment. The Church was created; not a new species of something already in existence, but a new created being.

It is a difficult concept. Our Head is in heaven, but we are His Body on the earth, composed of living and dead Christians, some of whom have not yet even been born, sinners all, throughout the length of our temporal lives. Our understanding comes from the realization that, while the body may �sleep� in the grave, every Christian who has ever been born again was more conscious before his birth, and has been more conscious since his death, than he ever thought of being while in that sinful body. The flesh of those who have departed has suffered the corruption of the grave, but none of those who are born again of the Spirit of God die, but pass from death (which is this sinful, temporal existence � separation from God) into the very presence of the eternal God (2 Cor 5:8), there to enjoy the fruits of our labors forever. At death, the Christian simply leaves his body, traveling immediately into heaven, living expectantly there, waiting for the moment to arrive when he will be reunited with his glorified body. But those spirits of Church Age saints who are in heaven are not unconscious beings now. Not at all. Alive, personal, awake, more aware than ever before � this is the state of the saved dead.

Those who have not yet been born (or born again) are nevertheless in Christ today if they are among the elect, though in their fleshly estate they cannot yet realize it. They will, upon their own illumination. Every Christian was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4), and has been in Him throughout eternity. Christ�s body has never lacked any of its members. Those members of the Body of Christ who are not actually living their temporal lives at this moment are nevertheless more alive in Christ, individually and corporately than we can even conceive of in this sinful flesh..

No one is worthy of being counted among the numbers who make up that body, but God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. If we were in Him before the creation of the universe, then we were always in Him. That is a logical necessity, for, outside the universe, there is no time, but eternity only. As Jesus stepped out of eternity, into time, when He was born, and as He walked His temporal walk until He died, and then He rose from the dead and stepped back into His eternal home, so also do we likewise do. Although we have no recollection of our eternal home today, it is only because this mortal mind cannot comprehend the things of heaven. We are nevertheless eternal creatures already, waiting our turn to step back into eternity, hoping that it will be through the window of the translation of the saints rather than through that emerald gate that leads into the earth. Our destiny is not a hole in the ground, but heaven itself, where we have lived down through all the footless halls of eternity past.

Christ is the first-born from the dead, and as He was raised, so shall we be raised also. This Church Age, which seems so long and drawn out to us as we await its end, is to God but a couple of days out of eternity. God sees what He has made. He sees what it shall be, what we shall be, and He has worked things according to His purposes so that this body of godly men and women can live our lives with hope of which no unsaved person can conceive. We are but the ore from which the Holy Spirit is fashioning the greatest gem of God�s creation. The Church is the inheritance that God the Father gave to God the Son. You, my friend. Me. It is humbling, is it not? Oh, you diligent Christian! You may be poor, but you shall wear a crown. This new creature that we are has a glorious future during the reign of Christ on the earth, and then more glorious thereafter in that eternal state which exists outside of time altogether. No other body of men who have ever lived are so privileged and honored as the Body of Christ, the Church. No other group has had the very Spirit of God Himself dwelling in them.

Second, the Church is local. �For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them...� (Mt 18:20; Col 4:15). The local church is not, as many suppose, at the building on the corner of Third and Main. It is all of the Christians in a local community. Just as the Spirit of God dwells in the corporate body, the whole Church, so also does He dwell in the local body of Christians. We may meet in different buildings. Some of us may not even know one another. Indeed, most of us do not know most of us. Few know more than a few. Every cell, every congregation, in the local church brings to the Body that which is its part to bring. There are many Christians in some cities, and few in others. But all of the assemblies of the saints in a place make up that city�s local church. While there are rules governing the organizations of the various assemblies in a city, and while qualified church officers are over individual congregations, there is a sense in which each city has its Christian community, composed of all the Christians in all the churches. Those cities that boast of a high number of churches do not consider that, in reality, there should only be one local church. The only one of Paul�s epistles that was addressed to more than one church in a specific city or region was his letter to the churches in Galatia. Galatia was a large region of Asia Minor. He only wrote to one church at Ephesus, one at Corinth, Thessalonica and the rest.

There is a vast difference between a �professing� Christian and one who truly has been born again and has a genuine relationship with God. It is the relationship of a child to a Father. A professing Christian is one who is only using Christ�s name to justify himself in his own eyes. He calls himself a Christian, but there is no passion for the Word of God or communion with a loving Father. There is only the Sunday ritual and the social interaction. There is the tithe and the choir perhaps, but no relationship. No kinship. He doesn�t want to get too close to God because he knows in his heart that he isn�t good enough. He is one who thinks of himself as probably good enough to squeak by, but he wants to hide from any judgment. He is depending upon being good enough, and not upon the grace of God as depicted in that shed blood.

The latter, the born-again Christian, knows that there is no justification for any sinner outside the cross. Born-again Christians do not always walk as we ought. It would be wonderful if we could. But we are those to whom the Bible speaks nonetheless of glory and honor and service, of great treasure in heaven, all by God�s grace, and not because of any merit on our part. We are those whose treasure is in heaven, and not on the earth. When these men and women get together to study God�s Word together, that is the local church, whether or not it is organized. The true Church exists within professing Christendom, but is a regrettably small part of it. It is difficult to work within the confines of many congregations, for they expect to be told how to get along in this world, how to be nice to others, how evil the barbaric practices of the Gentiles are who kill their own babies or whatever. Rarely does one go into a church today and hear theology taught. Or doctrine. Three verses and twenty minutes of entertainment. Eh? In some �Christian� churches, there are no Christians at all, including the pastor. It should be shocking statement. Conservatives know that, concurring with the Word of God, it is not shocking at all. Those who are shocked and disbelieving are those who are part of that worldly system.

But in most churches, there are at least a few Christians. These will be those who have a hunger that drives them to study together reverently, who will consider their Bibles their most prized possessions. If you know where to find them, every city is supplied with a sufficient number of ministers to preach the gospel to that city. Otherwise, God would not be fair. The trick is not in supplying the ministers; the trick is in getting those ministers to do the work they have been given to do. We in the congregations are taught how to live, but not what we should do. The notion that every Christian is as much a minister of the gospel as every paid preacher is foreign to most local churches. Yet, the chief function of every Christian church is to educate the membership so that they are capable of going out and becoming fruitful with the word of reconciliation (Eph 4:11-16; 2 Cor 5:20). The work of the local church is to teach its membership how to be effective and fruitful ministers. Every Christian is a minister of the gospel, and should so consider himself or herself. Your treasure in heaven is measured by how you fulfill your ministry now.

Though the preacher is held to a stricter judgment (Jas 3:1), he is no more �important� or �moral� in God�s eye than any other Christian. That stricter judgment comes from God, not from man. It is right that a church officer should be held in high esteem on account of the work that has been given him to do, but he is no more moral than the weakest Christian. Those who expect him to be are always disappointed. The preacher who teaches his own superior morality deceives both himself and his listeners. It is the Holy Spirit that accomplishes anything in him, and he has nothing of which to boast. It is often the worst people who make the best preachers (1 Cor 1:26-29). It is the opposite impression that is often given in churches, and held among members of the congregations. A local church will fire a man in a moment if they catch him in what they consider a big sin. There is no �big� sin (Jas 2:10). The most moral among every congregation, if he has committed a single sin, has committed every sin.

A full-time, paid minister is responsible to fill his office as a good steward of the responsibilities that God has given him, but every Christian has ministerial responsibilities. Every Christian ought to be able to pick up his or her Bible and introduce lost souls to the amazing grace of God. We are all ambassadors, here to minister the word of reconciliation (Mt 28:19; 2 Cor 5:20). This is the only task with which we are charged, and we are told that we cannot be good while we are yet in this sinful flesh (Rom 7:15-25). All attempts to reform the old man make a mockery of God�s Word rather than pleasing Him. As we walk in the Spirit, then alone do we walk in holiness. Our aim is not to be good or to �drop old habits,� but it is to keep our minds and hearts fixed upon heavenly things, not earthly things (Col 3:16-23). The local church, if it would only view life from that eternal perspective, then God could evangelize great numbers. The Holy Spirit will take care of the things that need correcting in our lives if we will focus upon our spiritual growth and readiness for service, if we will turn our eyes from things earthly, including our own selves, and turn them toward God, who alone is wise or good. We look to Him and He provides the faith to make of us what He will make of us. The moment the Christian begins to take over the task of cleaning up his own life, he not only prevents the work of the Spirit, but begins a process that drags him deeper into the twin pits of pride and judgment of others.

Every saved person is predestined to be conformed to the image of God�s Son (Rom 8:29). It is through the diligent labor of the various congregations in every city that sin-darkened and fear-burdened souls are enlightened to the goodness of our God. It does not happen without real Christians preaching the Word of God, the gospel of grace, the shed blood of the Lamb of God. The former President Bush called for �a thousand points of light in America.� There is no light except that Light, who is Jesus Christ. Every congregation in which the gospel of grace is preached is a light, penetrating the darkness of sin and despair that is the world. Though there may be many congregations of genuine Christians in a given city, it is important for all of those congregations to see themselves in the light of the larger Christian community as well, and to seek together to advance the cause of the Gospel in whatever city where they may live. As these saved men and women come together to pray and to study, the Lord Jesus makes His abode with them. As the whole Church, the Body of Christ is the Temple of God because of His presence in it, so also is the local assembly His Temple, and for the same reason.

Third, the Church is individual. You are the Church. Your citizenship is not in the nation in which you live and work, but it is in heaven itself (Phil 3:20). Now. Already. You are not only a citizen of heaven, but have the high honor also of being an ambassador to earth, charged with a single responsibility. In heaven, you also have a home. It is the very household of the great Creator God. That is your home. Jesus, your Carpenter (your building Contractor), has been two thousand years building your home. You may expect it to be exquisite beyond your powers even to conceive of today. Surely, He is setting the table by now for our wedding feast. Though you cannot see it, you walk by faith. And you will walk by sight soon enough. When the table is set, it is time for the Groom to go and collect His bride.

We have all been with Christ and our heavenly Father throughout all the eons of time, and before that, back into the endless reaches of eternity past. Jesus is even now in heaven, building our eternal homes in that New Jerusalem. When He is finished building it, He will come and take His bride to the home that He has prepared for us. We are the body of Christ, and we are His beloved bride. It is a marvelous thing to be a Christian, a child of God Himself. His Seed was born in each of us the moment we first believed, and that can never be taken from us. For that Seed to die, God Himself would have to die. At last report, He was not even ill. Rather, because He did die, we have eternal life.

Christians are few who often consider what it means to be in Christ. We reflect upon our assurance. We serve, and reflect upon the marvelous ways that God works in our lives providentially. We reflect upon the magnitude of the sacrifice He made on our behalf. We meditate on His teachings. We consider our responsibilities as Christians, and we attempt to regulate our lives in accordance with the Word of God. But we do not often consider what sort of creatures we truly are. When we think of that �new creation� at all, it is usually in connection with our walk, deciding what we should or should not �do.� We think of how we hope to �be,� but we do not consider what we �are.�

Not the most exalted of the Old Testament prophets can approach the stature of the Christian. This Age of Grace has produced a people unlike any others who have lived. Moses, Elijah, Noah, Abraham, David, Adam, Solomon and all the rest � all these will remain in their graves for fully seven years after the Church Age saints are resurrected. None of those men had the abilities or the understanding of the weakest Christian. They did not have the Spirit of God dwelling in them. They did not have the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16). The prophets desired to know the things that we know, but did not know them (Mt 13:16-17).

Christians have not only the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, but Father, Son and Spirit (Jn 14:16; 17: 22-23). The fullness of Him who created the heavens and the earth dwells in every born again saint. All of the knowledge, wisdom, power and glory of that great God is in every Christian. Of course, we in our sinful state cannot tap all of this fullness, but it is in us nevertheless. Indeed, the entire created universe � stars, planets, trees, rocks, bugs, animals, fishes, and birds � all of these and everything else is even now groaning as the creation awaits the revealing of the glory of the children of God. We are that heavenly city that the Apostle John saw descending from heaven to overshadow the new earth (Rev 21:9-27).

When a Christian prays, it is not as the Old Testament saints prayed. Oh no, when we pray, we pray in the name of Jesus. We pray in His name because we are in Him. And when we pray in accordance with the will of our Father and not our own wills, we have all the authority before the throne of grace that Christ Himself has. That is why we are told to come before God�s throne boldly (Heb 10:19 KJV). It is because we are in Christ that Jesus tells us not to ask Him anything, but to ask the Father in His name. When we pray, �Lord, do this, or Lord, do that,� we are praying to Jesus (cp. Acts 2: 36), asking Him to do things that we ought to be praying for our Father to do. But when we pray as we ought for those things that should be our priorities, then we can rest in the assurance that God the Father treats our prayers with the same seriousness that He treated the prayer of our Lord in John seventeen.

There will be nations on the new earth during the eternal state ( Rev 21: 24), and they will have access to the city of New Jerusalem, as will the earth-bound members of the house of Israel, but the Church Age saints will dwell in the New Jerusalem with our Groom. He will Himself be the Light of that city, and the Light of that city shall illuminate the entire earth throughout eternity, where there shall be no night at all.

Because the whole Body of Christ is a new creature, so also is everyone who is a member of it. Every man or woman born on the earth since Adam and Eve is born an earthly creature. Thus were we born when we were born in this sinful flesh. But every man or woman who has been born again is to reckon that �old man� to be already dead and we are to live as that new creature, that heavenly person, already seated with Christ in the heavenlies. We are already heavenly creatures, with citizenship and a home and a job.

Most people live their lives focused upon earthly goals. They think of career, family, friends, finances, education � those sorts of things. Their perspectives on everything are temporal and earthly. Christians ought to view their temporal lives from that eternal perspective in which everything earthly pales in comparison to that which awaits their arrival on the other side of time. We have an eternal inheritance, and if we view ourselves as heavenly creatures, trapped if you will, in temporal bodies, then it is much easier to understand what Paul meant when he called every earthly thing no more valuable than dung (Phil 3: 8 KJV). And surely, that is what it is. Every earthly thing that we value must eventually depart from us, whether it is family or fame or wealth or great skills. For each of us (except that generation of Christians who are alive at the translation of the saints) must face the theft of everything we own and are by that grim specter, the grave. All of the elements of creation will melt with fervent heat (2 Pet 3:10-17).

As the whole Church and the local church are shown to be the Temples of God, so also is the individual Christian such a Temple. God dwelt in the Temple in Israel, and He dwells in the Temple today, in the person of every Christian who has ever lived or shall live. It is not our morality that makes us holy, but God�s presence in us. Even when we are sinful, we are still holy in that sense. God does not leave us, though we might break fellowship with Him.

You, Christian, are far more valuable than you might consider yourself to be. Not because you are wealthy or healthy or well-respected, but because you are a child of God. He loves you every bit as much as He loves Christ. He loves you as you are, like the Baptists sing, but for the most part do not really believe. When you were still darkened by sin, He loved you, not some idealized form of who you will be in eternity. You are now His child, and nothing can ever separate you from His all-encompassing love. Even today, our Groom might be leaving the New Jerusalem to come for His Body and His Bride.

At the precipice, perhaps already fallen over it by the time you read this, or stepped back from it: there stand Israel and the Palestinians today. At the very brink of that scarlet descent into all-out war. Have you noticed how very absent God has been from all the discussions? The Palestinians make more noise about Allah than the Israelis make about the God of their fathers. Oh, that tiny nation will yet turn back to God and enter a millennium of glory and blessing, Jesus Himself seated on the throne of David. Her God will once again be her King, a visible and personal presence among them. But not yet. Today, the Israelis and the Palestinians are reasoning among themselves, unable to find a way to stanch the flow of blood, let alone make peace. And the blood that is flowing is bad blood between them.

Israel�s time of glory and righteousness and prosperity comes after �the time of Jacob�s trouble� (Jer 30:7), that seven-year period between the rapture of the Church and the Second Coming of Christ. Upon our Lord�s return, Israel will enjoy a relationship with her God such as she has not heretofore enjoyed. Before that glad day, however, certain things must intervene.

The Jews must fill up the measure of their rebellion against God. They really became angry with God after 70 A.D., when He drove them from the land by the swords of the Romans. They are a people, chosen by God; unfaithful then, unfaithful still. Having rejected her Messiah, hanging Him on a tree, Israel fulfilled that portion of Daniel�s prophecy which reads:

The clock stopped on Daniel�s prophecy of the seventy weeks of years when the Messiah was rejected. There are events prophesied to take place between this rejection of Christ and the final seven years of this prophecy. Thus, the clock must stop until these things are completed. Of course, we now know that the entire Church Age has intervened since the rejection of Christ. When it has run its course, the Church will be removed from the scene, �translated� into heaven. Then the clock starts again. This Age is that mystery age that our Lord spoke of so eloquently in Matthew thirteen. When the Church Age has run its course, the last soul has been joined to the body of Christ, then shall come the time when Israel is brought to her knees and the Gentiles are punished. Then comes the arrival of the King to reign in glorious righteousness and power. Daniel records the events that must transpire before the restarting of that prophetic clock:

In seventy A.D., Rome, a great Gentile power, attacked Israel. That mighty beast, kings with their armies, all serving under Caesar, overflowed the area in a crimson tide, dispersing the Jews across the �civilized� world, forbidding their return to the land that God had long before promised to Abraham, father of both Arabs and Jews. It seemed that the descendants of Ishmael might inherit the promised land after all.

But God was specific in declaring which of Abraham�s descendants should receive the inheritance. God had declared that it would be Isaac�s descendants (Gen 21:12), not his older brother Ishmael�s, who should receive the promises of God.

Indeed, that inheritance is tracked in the Bible, proving Christ�s right as a Descendant of Isaac, to sit upon that throne, thus ensuring that the land would become a possession forever of the Jews, descendants of Abraham through Isaac (Gen 21:12) and Jacob (Rom 9:13). Furthermore, the land that God promised Abraham included all the land between the Brook of Egypt (in the Sinai Peninsula) and the Euphrates River (in what is now Iraq). At the Second Coming of Christ, all of that land, every square inch, will finally be given to the Jews, with Jesus on the throne.

For two thousand years the Jews were dispersed among the nations of the world. From 70 A.D. until 1948, there was no nation of Israel. There were Jews in every nation on earth, but they did not have their own state or government. They were still God�s people, but He had removed them from the land. How can that be reconciled with God�s promises to Abraham? It is impossible for God to abrogate His promises. If He could abrogate His promises to Israel, then what assurance should we have? His Word is very clear on the matter. Hear the words of Daniel recounting the starting of that clock. The Jews must then be back in the land:

After this final week of years, that seven-year period that Jeremiah called the time of Jacob�s trouble, and that which Jesus Himself described in great detail (Jer 30:7; Mt 24:4-31): after this time of trouble, Christ will return to the earth and fulfill every promise that God ever made to the Jews.

Before then, however, something else must happen. God must restart the clock on His dealings with the nation of Israel. We are told specifically when this will occur � not the day or the hour, but the circumstances that will exist at that time. It is again Daniel, in the conclusion to this prophecy, who tells us what the order of things is.

It is the confirmation of a covenant that the �prince who is to come� (the antichrist) will engage in with Israel and her neighbors that starts the clock on Daniel�s prophecy of the final seven years of Gentile dominion over Israel. There are two reasons given in the Scriptures for the tribulation period to occur. They are: 1.) to bring Israel to such a place of repentance that she will accept that Messiah whom she had earlier crucified (Zech 12:10; Jn 19:34,37; Rev 1:7); and, 2.) to punish the Gentile nations for partitioning the land that God gave to the Jews (Joel 3:2).

When the Jews, on the very brink of complete extinction, look up and see Christ returning to save them, they will immediately and with one accord accept Him as their King. He will become their King, and will also rule over every kingdom on the earth. Every nation shall have its king and its princes, its lords, its governors and its mayors, and all of those governing officials will be Church Age saints, in perfect submission at last to the righteous will of God. Jesus will be the King of kings, and Lord of lords, and His great glory shall arise over the city of Jerusalem as even the sun does today (Isa 60:1-3). Unfaithful Israel will be restored to the loving favor of God. She will receive that great expanse of land that God gave to her father Abraham at the first, and she will both worship and serve her great King in the Holy Land, all upon her repentance at His Coming.

Today, Israel is still in rebellion against her God, and she has pretty much made Him irrelevant in her affairs. She is estranged from Him, and is fairly comfortable being estranged from Him. She looks to herself and to her own for her security and prosperity. She looks to the United States and to Europe, to Asia and to Africa. And look at the state she is in. Powerful, but threatened from every direction.

Even today, Israel is standing at the brink of a great escalation of the present conflict. All sides everywhere are groping in the darkness of ignorance for the light of reason that will result in a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement. They hope to eliminate the threat of widespread destruction and loss of life. Nobody wants war, but both sides seem inexorably drawn toward it.

As the violence escalates, so also does the desperate search for peace spiral wildly upward in the minds of government leaders around the world. The eyes and minds of every continent are fixed expectantly upon the Middle East, apprehensive lest that dispute should turn into a great war. It shall indeed do that very thing, but not until long after the end of this Church Age. That will be the war that culminates on the plains of Megiddo in the Second Coming of Christ. There Christ shall break the Gentile dominion over the earth and wrest His Kingdom from them.

Two small peoples. One would wonder why the world would even care what happens to them. Except that these are the two sons of Abraham, still disputing the birthright. We hear nothing of this aspect of things in the press today, nor shall we. The world could not care less about what God gave to whom. The United Nations reigns supreme on this planet, under the guiding influence of the United States (say what might be said about an equality of nations � the guy with the most money and the biggest gun usually wins). The U.N. feels perfectly justified in partitioning that land however it deems most appropriate, regardless of God�s expressed intention and promise of some six thousand years ago. But it is not the United Nations that reigns supreme over the nations of the world. It is God. His apparent passivity must not be mistaken for acquiescence.

The Arabs want to take what God gave Israel. The people of Esau wish to renege on the deal that Esau made with Jacob. And the Jews, why just listen to the rhetoric! They are seriously considering ceding much of Jerusalem, their very own capital, the eternal seat of their faith, to the Palestinians. They would do much better to look to God and seek to recover all that He has given them. But they will not do that. The prophets have long before told us that the Jews would do just as they are doing today. It is regrettable for them that they should act this way, but it is to our great advantage, for it can only serve to hasten our departure. They will sign that treaty.

But God is not bound by treaties made between men. When the time comes, Christ will reclaim all that promised land and rule over it with equity and righteousness, two things that no civilization that has yet existed has been able to accomplish. We know that Israel will remain faithless until Christ returns, but we also know that she shall yet enter her greatest glory. Furthermore, we know the tribulation period, that time which culminates in her restoration, begins with the ratification of a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement. For her humiliation must precede her glory. That is fitting. For Christ�s own glory was preceded by His humiliation. And the glory of the Gentiles shall come when God is their King.

And now we see Israel and all the leading nations of the earth in an increasingly desperate search for some road to a peaceful settlement of the issues that today threaten to engulf the region in fire and blood. As the time approaches for the return of the Lord, the devil must accelerate all his designs in an attempt to install his own counterfeit Christ on the throne of the world. He seeks to have finally established his own global authority and unity prior to the time when Christ should return. And so he shall, but it will not stand. It will be crushed and blown away like the chaff from the summer threshing floors. When that false messiah, the antichrist appears, he will be shortly thereafter deposed by the King of kings.

That treaty will not come from God, but from Satan himself. When the devil enters into the body of the antichrist, he will give him a plan, so subtle and so seemingly inarguable that it will be accepted almost by acclamation. Satan knows that the time is already short. He would love to so corrupt the world and God�s people that God would have no kingdom over which to reign. His counterfeit messiah will appear before the ratification of that treaty.

Yes, the Middle East is at the brink of a terrible war. This will not be like 1967 or 1973. Oh, no. This war will claim many casualties on both sides. One of two things must happen now. Either the parties will shunt aside the danger of a virulent war by engaging upon some peace agreement now, or they will engage in war instead and make their peace afterward. Of course, it remains to be seen whether this treaty turns out to be that treaty, but it appears more and more likely every day. If this is not that treaty, it will surely lead to that one. The treaty that begins the tribulation period is ratified for a seven-year term. Before that treaty is ratified, the Church will have been translated. We will be physically removed from the earth, taken to the New Jerusalem in Paradise, where we shall enjoy the marriage of the Lamb to His bride while the awful judgments of the tribulation period unfold upon the earth.

Israel�s time of glory follows after her time of trouble: humiliation before honor. The Bible tells us much about the state of Israel entering that period of supposed peace. Supposed, because the treaty engineered by the beast will not stand. He will break it himself at the midpoint of that final week. The Jews pay lip service to God, but they dishonor His Son, even as they did two thousand years ago. Otherwise, why would God now be gathering the tools with which to bring repentance upon them? The ground is being plowed and tilled, made ready for the advancing Son of God.

While there are many signs of the times in which we live, the Middle East, as always, is the key to our understanding. As goes Jerusalem, so goes prophecy. It might be a thousand years before that treaty is agreed upon and ratified, but it appears to be more like a thousand milliseconds. That is, we should be constantly watchful. The next event on the prophetic calendar for Israel is the entrance of the devil into the body of the antichrist. Before that happens, we will be translated. It cannot be considered insignificant that the Jews and the Gentiles are in a race with disaster and are not quite frantically seeking some formula for peace.

This is not a time for Christians to sit atop the mountain expectantly. Not at all. We are to proceed with our lives, but we are also to remember our reason for being here in the first place (Jn 15:16). These are the days when the bride of Christ ought to be smoothing her skirts, preparatory to going out into the street to meet her Groom. These are the days� oh, they are coming to a close�of laying up treasure. These are the closing moments of the Age, when we know that we shall shortly come into our heavenly inheritance carrying a weight of glory we cannot now imagine. These are the times of our steadfastness and service. These are the days of our testing.

Every Christian in all the world ought to be so seriously focused on the events in and around Israel that everything else is a distraction. We must lead our lives as usual, but we should have a greatly heightened awareness of where we are on the great span of time that bridges eternity past and eternity future. Let us find what fruit the Lord will grant us, keeping watch vigilantly on the prophecies of God, even as we also minister the word of reconciliation. Let us shine the light of the glory of God�s grace and mercy into the sin-darkened hearts of the lost and perishing. Let us preach the gospel to the brokenhearted and dispirited. Let us lift every burden and serve as if there is no tomorrow. For us, there may not be, but eternity. We are remarkably near the end of this age.

Four kinds were used by the Romans. There was probably no symbolic meaning in the minds of the Romans when they chose a particular type of cross. Probably, the place of the crucifixion determined which sort of cross was used, depending upon the space available.

The simplest crucifix was a straight pole, set in a socket pre-drilled in the ground. The prisoner�s hands would have been raised above his head and nailed to either side of the pole, and then the pole would have been raised and dropped into the socket in the ground, possibly shaking the man�s shoulders out of joint at the very beginning of the process of killing him. His feet might have been nailed to the cross while it was lying on the ground, or that might have happened after the pole was raised and dropped into its socket.

Then there is the common form that is familiarly pictured among Christians, the tee-shaped cross with the crossbar below the top of the pole. On this type of cross, the criminal was usually nailed to the crossbar, which was then raised to fit into a slot on the pole that remained permanently in the ground. There may or may not have been a block upon which his feet would have been nailed. If there were such a block, it would be added to cause the suffering to last longer, not to provide comfort to the victim. Alternatively, this type of cross might have had the crossbar resting atop the pole rather than slightly lowered.

A third type of cross that was commonly used was the X-shaped cross. On this cross, the dying man could not rest his head against the pole, but his hands and his feet would be spread out. It is said that this is the type of cross upon which Andrew was crucified.

The fourth type of cross was a straight pole, with two crossbars, one at the top and one at the bottom. On this �altar,� Christ�s hands and feet would have again been spread wide apart, nailed to the crossbars. This configuration would have been very painful, but the X-shaped cross would have been the worst. Clearly, no matter the shape of the cross, our Savior died a horrible death for us.

The role of women has been under some scrutiny in recent years, especially among Southern Baptists and in the public media. The issue has primarily been whether or not wives should be submissive to their husbands. The secular world is quite troubled by this issue since, if it still applies, it conflicts with modern political correctness, threatening the status of the "liberated" woman.

This may seem a strange way to begin a discussion of whether or not Christians ought to go into apostate churches and attempt to introduce sound doctrine to them. Given that woman, however, is a "type" of the Church, a foreshadowing in the Old Testament of some New Testament truth, it is certainly germane to the discussion. It will be shown that woman in Scripture, especially in marriage, portrays the relationship between Christ and the Church. Thus, the issue of subjection and submission take on a whole new light when viewed from the perspective of Biblical types since the true Church has been called the "Bride of Christ."

When a thing has been determined to be a type (whether it is a person, place, thing or event), then wherever that thing is mentioned in the Bible, there is sure to be either an explicit or implicit reference to the antitype. For example, wind is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Wherever wind is mentioned in the Scripture, there is going to be some sort of spiritual reference to the Holy Spirit. The same is true with fire. It is also a type of the Holy Spirit. A lot of the spiritual applications are fairly obscure, but a bit of study will usually reveal them. And, of course, the Scofield Bible notes (Gen 2:23) declare that, for a thing to be considered a "type" in the first place, there has to be a clear and unequivocal New Testament "antitype." That is, there must be some statement in the New Testament that explains the symbolism in clear terms. The antitype for woman and marriage being types of the Church and her relationship with Christ respectively is found in Eph 5:22-33, where Paul speaks of the wife's submission to her husband and the husband's love for his wife, concluding by saying that the entire passage has to do with Christ and the Church. Thus, we know that wherever woman is mentioned in the Scriptures, there is some reference to the Church, whether it is explicit or merely implied. Wherever marriage is referred to, it has spiritual undertones that reflect the relationship between Christ and the Church. Where either are mentioned, there will be some spiritual principle espoused that has a direct or indirect bearing on either the Church or her relationship with Christ.

Even from the very beginning, when God created Eve, the first statement is found concerning the fact that a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife and the two shall become one flesh. It's odd that God should say those words at that time (Gen 2:24), seeing that neither Adam nor Eve had a father or mother, but were created beings. But God was establishing a principle that would be forever true. He was establishing marriage as a "type" of the relationship between Christ and the Church.

We are "in Christ," one flesh with Him. Adam and Eve remained two separate beings all their lives, even though it was said of them that they became one flesh. So do we remain separate from our spouses, though we're considered "one flesh" with them. In the eternal estate, we will not be "one flesh" with our spouses any longer, for there is no marriage in heaven except that between Christ and the Church. But we will forever be "in Christ," even though we will also be distinct persons ourselves, as we are today. God's choosing to say those particular words at that time is very significant, because He was not speaking of Adam and Eve, but of Christ and the Church. Adam and Eve, as noted above, had neither mother nor father.

Isn't it odd, when you stop and think about it, that successful marriages are generally those in which the husband spends much more time and attention on his wife's parents than she does on his. A husband generally spends more time and attention on his wife's folks than he does on his own. Men continue to love and respect their parents, but their greater responsibility lies with the care of their wives' families. Ministers confront that situation all the time in counsel. God didn't say that the woman should leave her father and mother, but only that the husband should do so. It speaks of the way we are made, not of some iron-clad "rule" that we must follow. Woman was created subject to her husband, just as the Church is created subject to Christ, our Husband.

Subordination does not mean subjugation. There is a difference between the two terms, and men today tend to get it wrong, thinking that their wives are somehow "less" than they are, and that they must lord their dominance over them. A lot of men think that it's Ok to be discourteous to their wives, or to push every "dirty" job onto them, demanding also that their wives tend to their every need and desire and cater to their whims. And a lot of women don't know any better than that because they haven't been taught any differently by preachers who don't fully understand the doctrine themselves. The relationship between a husband and his wife should portray the relationship between Christ and the Church, so that it is important for men to understand it correctly.

Subordination is a thing of order, not of quality; of position, not of ability. Women are not "second class citizens of heaven," and are not "less" than their husbands. Submission in a marriage works because that is how woman was created, but it has nothing to do with slavery. A subjugated woman is one who has been beaten down and forcefully dishonored, against her will, into a place "beneath" her husband. A subordinated woman is one who has recognized how God has made her, and has willingly submitted to her husband because that is the order prescribed by God's Word. By submitting to her husband, she submits to God, and she avoids those internal conflicts that plague those who do not order the various areas of their lives in accordance with the Scriptures. The reason that God made woman that way, and places her in a position subordinate to her husband is for the simple