“If the apostles picked a replacement for Judas when he died, why didn’t they pick a replacement for James when he was killed?”

We know that the Lord told the Twelve that “in the regeneration” they would “sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 19:28). So when Judas betrayed the Lord and took his life, it was necessary that he be replaced, as Peter explained in Acts 1:15-26.

But had the apostles replaced James when he was killed (Acts 12:1,2), there would be thirteen apostles in the resurrection and only twelve thrones on which for them to sit. Remember, James will rise in “the first resurrection” (Rev. 20:5) to assume his throne with the rest of the Twelve, but Judas will not.

This is similar to how Job lost “seven sons and three daughters” (Job 1:2 cf. 1:18,19) and lots of livestock (1:3 cf. 1:14-17). Later, when “the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before” (42:10), He doubled Job’s original number of animals (42:12) but only gave him an additional “seven sons and three daughters” (42:13). You see, he hadn’t lost his family eternally. They will rise with him in the resurrection, where he will have twice as much family as he had while here on earth. And the Twelve hadn’t lost James eternally either, so there was no need to replace him. With the kingdom program in abeyence, a twelfth apostle would not be needed before the resurrection.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

“If God has withdrawn the gift of healing, how come some people seem to improve after going to see a healer?”

When I was in high school, I took an introductory course in psychology. In that class, the teacher claimed that 75 percent of all illnesses are psychosomatic. That is, they are real physical illnesses that are brought on by an entirely mental process. While there is no way to know if the percentage she cited is accurate, it is hard to argue with her assessment. We know that stress is an entirely mental reaction to the challenges of life, but it can cause a very real, physical, heart attack. So it shouldn’t be surprising that other illnesses are psychosomatic as well.

But if a real, valid, physical illness can be brought on by a purely mental process, then it stands to reason that it can likewise be remedied by a purely mental process, such as believing in a healer’s power to heal. We see evidence of this in what doctors call “the placebo effect.” When testing a drug, researchers give some of the people in the test group the drug being tested, but they give others a placebo, a sugar pill. They do this because they know that people sometimes feel better because they believe they are taking a drug that will help them.

It is easy to then transfer this thinking to what happens when someone with a real illness goes to see a healer. If a person really believes that a healer can help with real, physical illnesses, often he can!

We see the same kind of thing when Solomon declared that “a merry heart doeth good like a medicine” (Prov. 17:22). Doctors have known for years that a positive mental attitude aids in healing. Similarly, the positive mental attitude brought on by believing in a healer’s powers often enable people suffering from physical afflictions to know some short-term relief. But frequently those who are “healed” in this way must return again and again to the healer for more healing, while this is never said to be so of the people who were miraculously healed by men with the gift of healing in the Bible

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

“Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread…And when Jesus knew it, He saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread?…When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto Him, Twelve. And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven. And He said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?” (Mark 8:14a,17a,19-21).

John W. Moore is credited with saying, “Age hasn’t affected my memory a bit. In fact, I can’t even remember the last time I forgot something.” [John W. Moore, from the website of Kent Crockett, accessed December 4, 2016, www. kentcrockett.com/cgi-bin/illustrations/index.cgi?topic=Forgetting] When reading the four Gospels, sometimes one has to wonder if the disciples suffered from memory loss. They definitely experienced faith amnesia.

Mark 6:31-44 is the account of the Lord feeding the five thousand by multiplying five loaves and two fishes. In Mark 8:1-9, they were again in the wilderness with a great multitude of four thousand men present. In Mark 8:2, the Lord said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with Me three days, and have nothing to eat.” In response to this, you’d think the disciples would’ve said, “Lord, simple, just do that miracle again and multiply and create some loaves and fishes like You did the last time!”

Instead they say, “From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?” (Mark 8:4). In other words, “Where could anyone find enough bread in this wilderness? Where could we possibly go in this desolate place to find food to satisfy all these people?” They’re immediately frustrated and dismayed at the impossible task of feeding such a crowd. They’re telling the Lord what He knew, that this was a barren area. Cities were far away. There weren’t even villages nearby. Finding food for this many people just wasn’t feasible nor realistic.

The disciples had already seen Christ feed an even greater crowd, but they were still at a loss when a similar problem arose. We can’t be too hard on them though, because we do the exact same thing. We forget what the Lord has done for us in the past, and we doubt, and our faith gives way when difficult circumstances come into our lives. The disciples had to be taught and learn the same lesson again, that of recognizing their own insufficiency in an impossible situation, and their need to depend on the Lord. We often get faith amnesia and are thick-skulled like this. We too have to learn the same lesson over and over again before it gets through to us in our Christian lives.

After the Lord multiplied the loaves and fishes and fed the four thousand, it gets even more amazing and somewhat humorous as you read on in Mark 8. While leaving to cross the Sea of Galilee again, the Lord began telling them to beware of the leaven (or corrupting doctrine) of the Pharisees and of Herod, causing the disciples to be reminded that they had forgotten to bring bread except for the one loaf they had with them. These same disciples, who had barely gotten done handing out the multiplied bread to the four thousand, started worrying and whispering among themselves, saying that the Lord spoke of leaven because they hadn’t brought enough bread (Mark 8:13-16). Perceiving their discussion and thoughts, in Matthew’s account, the Lord incredulously asks, “O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?” (16:8).

He then asked them, “Don’t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of pieces did you pick up?” They sheepishly replied, “Twelve.” “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many baskets full of leftovers did you pick up?” They awkwardly admitted, “Seven.” So He said to them, “How is it that ye do not understand?” (Mark 8:21). Or, “How is it that you don’t get it yet? You don’t have to worry about bread. Just trust Me.”

God had intervened miraculously and worked in their lives, but when the next difficult issue arose, their current situation and problem overwhelmed them, and the past goodness and working of God in their lives were then forgotten. They struggled with the idea that Christ could supply their needs and provide for them. They struggled with remembering what God had done for them in the past and that He is willing and able. They simply struggled with just trusting Him. And truthfully, we too all struggle with these things at one time or another in our Christian lives. Admitting that our faith always has room for growth is important for God, by His Word and the circumstances of our lives, to “perfect that which is lacking in your faith” (1 Thes. 3:10). May we have the same honesty of the man who pleaded for the deliverance of his demon-possessed son: “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief” (Mark 9:24).

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

If you don’t know what that is, I can’t say as I blame you. If I were a smart aleck, I might “explain” that paraskevidekatriaphobia is a derivation of triskaidekaphobia, but that would probably leave most of our readers just as befuddled. But the latter is the fear of the number thirteen, and the former refers to the more specific phobia of fear of Friday the 13th.

Before you start thinking that people with these phobias should just grow up and get over it, you might want to consider how society itself contributes to this fear. You’ve never stepped off the elevator on to the thirteenth floor of a tall building, simply because the highly educated architects that design our skyscrapers superstitiously refuse to include one. If that old movie made it seem rational that Kris Kringle was Santa Claus by noting that the United States Post Office directed mail to him, its easy to understand how buildings without a 13th floor make a fear of the number 13 seem rational as well.

The effects of paraskevidekatriaphobia are claimed to be extensive. Since many Americans refuse to fly or conduct business on a Friday the 13th, it is said the economy suffers an estimated 800 million dollar loss every time this date rolls around. Back in the 1930s, the influence of this phobia even reached the highest office in our land, as FDR refused to travel on Friday the 13th.

It may surprise you to learn that the origin of this phobia finds its roots in the Bible, when thirteen men observed the last supper. One was a traitor, and tradition (wrongly) holds that the Lord was crucified a few hours later on a Friday.

What’s the cure for paraskevidekatriaphobia? An old joke says if you can pronounce the word, you’re cured! In 1913, a pastor tried to cure people by officiating at Friday the 13thweddings without charge. But since superstition is the veneration of something that deserves none, a better way to help people overcome this superstition is to do what Paul did when he encountered some superstitious people (Acts 17:22) and preach the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (v. 23-31). The world considers Paul’s gospel to be superstition (Acts 25:19), “but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). Paul’s use of the present tense here shows his gospel is more than just “the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16). Once we are saved, his gospel “is” still the power of God to help us overcome “the spirit of fear” with the spirit “of…a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7), a mind made sound by a full knowledge of Paul’s gospel.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.