Dr. Leonard Greenway, pastor of the Riverside Christian Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan is in charge of Our Question Box. This department is for everyone. Questions from all ages are welcome.

From a rcader in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, comes a reqncst that I explain statements appearing in a periodical whose authors can easily be reached by the reader. I prefer not to handle slich requests in Our Question Box. To comment on something that has appeared in print is one thing, but to explain what has been printed is the author’s responsibility, and certainly in this instance where the authors are not far from the reader‘s residence.

Another reader, who failed to give a return address, asks for statistics on how Christendom is divided respecting the Millennial question. I do not have such statistics in my possession.

From a reader in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Question: What in your opinion was Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”? (II Cor. 12:7)

Answer: If Galatians 4:13–15 refers to the same affliction, then Paul’s “thorn” appears to have been some kind of physical disability, perhaps an impairment in vision, since there is reference to the eyes in vs. 15. Paul regarded it as a discipline used by God to check the apostle’s pride following the unusual experience related in II Corinthians 12:1–4. His repeated prayers to have the malady healed were refused. The apostle learned, what we all have to learn, that sometimes God refuses what we ask in order to give us what we need. No one knows for sure what the “thorn” was. There have been many conjectures. including one by Sir William Ramsay who suggested that it may have been intermittent malaria fever.