30.—What does the Bible reveal concerning man?
ANSWER: The Bible reveals that man is a living soul or creature, originally made of the dust of the ground, in the image of God
PROOF: “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul (or creature)” (Gen 2 7) “In the image of God created He him” (Gen 1 27) “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen 3 19) “He knoweth ow frame, He remembereth that we are dust” (Psa 103 14) “I (Abraham) have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes ‘ (Gen 18 27)
31.—Is man an immortal being?
ANSWER: NO he is mortal He dies and returns to the dust
PROOF: “Man dieth, and wasteth away” (Job 14 10) “Shall mortal man be more just than God ‘ (Job 4 17) “That which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts, even one thing befalleth them, as the one dieth, so dieth the other all are of the dust and all turn to dust again” (Eccl 3 19-20) ‘What man is he that hveth, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave ” (Psa 89 48)
32.—Has man an immortal part that lives in death, as held by nearly every religious system on earth?
ANSWER: NO that doctrine is one of the many religious lies that have come to be regarded as truth Man is wholly mortal God only has immortality Immortality is something a man has to seek for, it is a matter of promise and hope
PROOF: “The serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die” (Gen 3 4) ‘The Gentiles shall come unto Thee from the ends of the eaith, and shall say, Surely our fatheis have inhented lies” (Jer 16 19) “The blessed and only Potentate only hath immortality” (1 Tim 6 16) “The King eter- nal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God” (1 Tim 1 17) “To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, (God will rewaid) eternal life” (Rom 2 7) “Jesus Christ hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim 1 10) “In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot he, promised before the woild began” (Tit 1 2) “This is the ptomise that he hath promis- ed us, even eternal life” (1 John 2 25)
33.—May not man’s life be immortal though his body is mortal?
ANSWER: Man’s life is not himself It is the power of God by which he lives, and which returns to God when man dies If God were to gather it all to Him- self, man would perish from the universe
PROOF: “With Thee is the fountain of life” (Psa 36 9) “God giveth to all life, and breath, and all things” (Acts 17 25) “In His hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12 10) “The dust shall return to the eaith as it was and the spint shall tetutn unto God who gave it” (Ecc 12 7) If God “gather unto Himself His spirit and His breath, all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust” (Job 34 14) “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils’ (Isa 2 22)
34.—Has man, then, no conscious existence in death?
ANSWER: Man has no existence of any kind in death He is dead — entirely dead for the time being, and knows no more than if he had never been born .
PROOF: “The living know that they shall die, but the dead know not any- thing” (Eccl 9 5) “In death there is no remembrance of Thee” (Psa 6 5) “There is no work, nor device, not knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest”(Eccl 9 10) “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, in that very day his thoughts per ish” (Psalm 146 3-4) “The grave can- not praise Thee death cannot celebrate Thee they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth The living, the living, he shall praise Thee” (Isa 38 18-19) “Oh that I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me, I should have been as though I had not been I should have been can ted from the womb to the grave” (Job 10 18-19)
35.—Why is man in his present mortal and evil state?
ANSWER: Man is mortal because of sin It is God’s law that sinners must die Adam, our first father, sinned, and was sentenced to death before he had any children Death began with him, and came to us through him We receive the nature that he had after he was condemned to die We thus inherit his sen- tence of death Besides this, we are all sinners ourselves
PROOF: “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6 23) “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men” (Rom 5 12) “Because thou hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee not to eat dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen 3 17-19) “In Adam all die” (1 Cor 15 22) “By the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation” (Rom 5 18) “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3 23) “We had the sentence of death in ourselves” (2 Cor 1 9) “This mortal (that is, “deathful”)” (1 Cor 15 53) “This body of death” (Rom 7 24) “Our mortal flesh” (2 Cor 4 11)
36.—Does God intend that the human race shall always be subject to its pre- sent evil state?
ANSWER: NO He purposes to take away sin from the earth altogether, and to cause death to cease
PROOF: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death O death, I will be thy plagues, O grave, I will be thy destruction” (Hos 13 14) “He will swallow up death in \utory” (Isa 25 8) “There shall be no more death neither sorrow noi crying” (Rev 21 4) “The last enemy, death, shall be destroyed” (1 Cor 15 26) “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the woi Id” (John 1 29) “He hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light” (2 Tim 1 10)
37.—Will God bring about this great change without any reference to whether men please Him or not?
ANSWER: NO the work will be thoroughly done in righteousness As death came by sin, so life will come by obedience
PROOF: “AS by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so, by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous” (Rom 5 19) “The right- eousness of God without the law is manifested even the righteousness of God which is by faith” (Rom 3 21, 22) “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God9” (1 Coi 6 9), “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ‘” (1 Pet 4 18) “Be not deceived whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal 6 7) “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:20)
38.—The Scriptures declare that “there is none righteous, no, not one.” How then can salvation come, if it is to depend on righteousness?
ANSWER: The state of man, left to himself, is what the Scriptures describe But God has not left man to himself He has interposed in his affairs, and opened a way of righteousness in which He invites men to walk God has brought righteousness near through Jesus Christ and asks men to lay hold of it by faith in him
PROOF: “He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor therefore his aim brought salvation unto him, and his righteous- ness, it sustained him” (Isa 59 16) “By the righteousness of one (Jesus) the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life” (Rom 5 18) ‘Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor 1 30) “They being, ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish then own righteousness, have not sub- mitted themselves unto the righteousness of God For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that belreveth” (Rom 10 3 4)
39.—How can men who have been sinners lay hold on the righteousness of God in Christ?
ANSWER: Because God calls on them to repent, and offers to forgive their sins if they believe in Jesus and put on his name
PROOF: “God commandeth all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17 30) “Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 13 38) “Let the wicked for sake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him letwn unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isa 55 7) ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remis sum of sins” (Acts 2 38) “There is none other name under heaven grven among men, whereby v\e must be saved ‘ (Acts 4 12)
40.—Are such saved by faith in Christ alone?
ANSWER: NO Faith justifies from all past sins, and ensures peace with God, but works are requisite to retain His favour and secure acceptance at the last PROOF: “Being justified (or cleansed from past sins) by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5 1) “But let him that think eth he standeth take heed lest he fall” (I Cor 10 12) “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die” (Rom 8 13) “If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world they are aqam entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning” (2 Peter 2 20) “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only” (Jas 2 24) “Do the first works… I will give to everyone of you according to your works Rev 2:5,23
