eBible Fellowship

Chris: I would just like to make one correction. We are pushing the Bible study that we hope to do to early May. We will keep you informed about this as to when this will start. Lord willing, this will be a nightly Bible study, Monday through Friday. Then on Friday, the last night of the week, we will have a question and answer session following it.

For the future, try to be ready with your question right away so that we do not sit here for a few minutes with no questions. We will give it a couple of minutes in the future. If there are no questions, we will just end the question and answer session and move on.

[Note: Comment is made in relation to the difficulties being experienced on Paltalk.]

02:57 1^st Question: Can you look at Proverbs 8:22-25? Is this language that shows that Christ was before the foundation of the earth?

Chris: We read in Proverbs 8:22-25:

JEHOVAH possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:

Yes. In Proverbs 8, this is referring to wisdom and wisdom is personified, because Jesus is wisdom. This is saying that wisdom was “set up from everlasting,” and that is Christ. So, yes, this is definitely indicating the eternal nature of Christ Himself.

 

04:43 2^nd Question: Could you read Luke 8:22-25 and Matthew 25:1-6? In Luke 8:23 when Jesus fell asleep on the boat at the time of the storm, is there any relation between these two passages with the word “asleep” or “slept” or “tarried”?

Chris: We read in Luke 8:22-25:

Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he went into a ship with his disciples: and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth. But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy. And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm. And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.

It says in Matthew 25:1-6:

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

There is no relation that I know of.

In relation to the ten virgins who are sleeping, this is referring to the church age. We have the wise and the foolish together, just as the wheat and the tares were together. Remember that the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13 says, “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat.” In some ways, God views the entire church age as a period of sleeping for the saved and the unsaved, because the Bible was sealed and closed up.

There is a good verse that explains this in Isaiah. It says in Isaiah 29:10-12:

For JEHOVAH hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.

Verse 10 tells us that the Lord poured out the spirit of deep sleep and closed their eyes. When our eyes are closed, this has to do with failing to understand certain truths.

Remember that the Word of God, the Bible, was “sealed till the time of the end,” as God said to Daniel. Therefore, throughout the church age, the Bible was sealed and our eyes were closed, whether we were the wise or the foolish. Whether we were a true believer or just a professing believer, which is actually an unbeliever, no one was able to understand the Bible until the time of the end. Then God opened up the understanding of His people.

This is exactly what we find in Matthew 25. When it says that the ten virgins “went forth to meet the bridegroom,” this did not just happen last year or ten years ago. This has happened throughout the whole New Testament period. Believers have been going forth to meet the Bridegroom, to meet Christ, all throughout the New Testament Era; and yet they fell asleep.

When they awoke because a cry was made “at midnight,” this was actually “in the midst of the night,” which would identify with the great tribulation period and the cry that went out warning of Christ’s coming. Then they all awoke. Some had oil in their lamps, and lamp is the Word of God and the “oil in their vessels” would be referring to the Holy Spirit within them, which enlightens. The Holy Spirit enlightens the Bible and enables them to see; and then their eyes are no longer closed and they can understand what God is saying in many things, as we have learned many things during the great tribulation period. This is the emphasis of this parable.