OceanSide church of Christ

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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS (19)

Victor M. Eskew

 

INTRODUCTION

 

A.   Questions are used for many purposes.

1.    Examinations

2.    Interrogations

3.    Interviews

4.    Investigations

5.    Catechism classes

 

B.   Our use of Q & A Night is for learning.

 

C.   It is hoped that you submit your questions to learn for yourself.  However, we know that some submit questions in an attempt to teach others. 

 

D.   In tonight’s lesson, we will be examining two questions.

 

I.             QUESTION #1:  POPULATION OF EARLY WORLD

 

A.   Stated:

1.    When Adam and Eve were driven from the garden, there were people out in the world.  Was it populated already?

2.    When did the people come from that Cain mentioned would kill him?

 

B.   Answer:

1.    Oftentimes this question is posed as follows:  “Where did Cain get his wife?”

2.    We are dealing with population of the early earth.

3.    Facts to keep in mind:

a.    Eve is the mother of all living (Gen. 3:20).

 

And Adam called his wife’s name Eve:  because she was the mother of all living.

 

b.    Adam and Eve were commanded by God to be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth (Gen. 1:28).

c.    Adam and Eve had other children beside Cain, Abel, and Seth (Gen. 5:4).

 

And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years:  and he begat sons and daughters.

 

d.    Cain and Abel were older when the events of Genesis 4 took place.

1)    They were offering sacrifices from their own fields and flocks.

2)    Cain had a wife (Gen. 4:17).  NOTE:  This wife had to be one of his sisters, or, possibly a niece, a daughter of one of his siblings.

e.    Hypothetical:

1)    Adam and Eve were 20 when they were created.

2)    From that time unto the birth of Seth 110 years passed.  If they had a child every other year, they would have had 55 children and 180 grandchildren.

3)    Within a century, over 1000 people could have easily populated the earth.

4.    Other factors:

a.    What if twins or triplets were born?

b.    What if children were produced every 14 to 18 months instead of every 2 years?

c.    What if men and women married at 14 to 16 years of age?

d.    What if some men married more than one wife? (See Gen. 4:19).

e.    It must remembered that men lived extremely long lives at the time (Gen. 5).  Many of those years they could have reproduced.

5.    Within 200 years after the Creation, the population would have been quite large.

 

II.           QUESTION #2:  ARTICLE:  “Regulating the Redeemed”

 

A.   Stated:  I was given a copy of an article entitled:  “Regulating the Redeemed” by Al Maxey.  On the back of it was written:  “I would like to hear your comments on this at one of your Q&A evenings.”

 

B.   Answer:

1.    The purpose of the article is two-fold.

a.    To try to prove that Christians are not bound to rules and regulations today.  “God never intended for His creation to be restricted and restrained by rigid religious regulation…”

b.    To mock those who do believe that absolute obedience to God’s commandments is necessary for salvation.  “The legalistic patternists had combed through the Scriptures to locate all the ‘rules and regulations’ by which they may be saved if they can sufficiently obey them…”

2.    NOTE:  Those who take this position want to be free to do just about whatever they want to do and believe they are still in a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

a.    Doubt the essential nature of baptism

b.    Expand the woman’s role in the church

c.    Corrupt the worship of God:  instrumental music, the Lord’s Supper, etc.

d.    Fellowship with the denominations

e.    Overlook and negate sinful practices:  adulterous marriages, the gay lifestyle, etc.

3.    Instead of living our lives in obedience to the rules, regulations, commands, and principles of the New Testament, they seek to live by other standards.

a.    Al Maxey mentions four:

1)    Live by the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law.  “We have been set free from the letter of the law, now we live by the spirit of the law.”

2)    Jesus alone is our compass.  “Our standard of behavior in the Family of God, our moral compass by which we guide our attitudes and actions is quite simply JESUS.”

3)    We live in the freedom of Christ, meaning we are free from religious regulation.  “We are now free of such religious regulation, and are thereby free to creatively express in our daily lives, in a wide variety of forms, styles and methodologies our faith and love (and, yes, this includes our worshipful expressions as well, whether they be evidenced individually or collectively).”

4)    The law we live by today is the law of love.  “I believe Scripture teaches us that the ‘rule of law’ by which we are governed is simply the royal law of LOVE.”

b.    These are the rants of a false teacher who hates the Word of God and wants to live and do his own thing.

1)    First, the principles he lists are extremely ambiguous.

a)    What does it mean to live by the “spirit” of the law?

b)    What would Jesus do really means:  “What do I think Jesus would do?”

c)    How much freedom does the Christian have in Christ to make his own rules?

d)    Doesn’t love have guidelines by which it is defined? (See I Cor. 13:4-8a).

2)    Second, if these are the only guidelines, we are going to have all kinds of beliefs and practices among the children of God.  We will have to practice “unity-in-diversity” instead of the oneness prayed for by Christ (See John 17:20-22).

4.    Al Maxey’s doctrine violates plain teachings of the Scripture.

a.    The Bible teaches obedience to God’s will (Matt. 7:21; John 14:15; 15:14; Heb. 5:9; Rev. 22:14).

 

Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

 

b.    If there is no law that exists today, then there can be no sin (I John 3:4).

 

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law:  for sin is the transgression of the law.

 

c.    Jesus is not going to judge us according to the spirit of the law.  He is going to judge us according to the words which He has spoken (John 12:48).

 

He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him:  the word that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day.

 

d.    God will hold us accountable to the things written in His Word just as he held the Jews accountable to the Law of Moses (Heb. 2:1-4; 10:26-31).

 

How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation…Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he were sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

 

5.    Ephesians 5:15-17

 

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days of evil.  Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

 

CONCLUSION

 

A.   We have again seen the variety that exists within a Q&A night.

1.    The population of the early earth

2.    The teachings of a false teacher who seeks to cast away God’s cords from us.

 

B.   The teachings of Christ are vital.  It is only through obedience to the will of God that one can be saved (Heb. 5:9).  Do you need to obey God’s Word tonight?