Untitled article by E. S. W.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, October 1, 1867.

By E. S. W.

To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

I would like an explanation of the above scripture. Coldwater, Mich. W. S. E.

The person alluded to was evidently given over to Satan to be chastised for his wrongs, in order that he might be led to confess and forsake them, and be forgiven and saved in the day of Judgment. We have repeated instances in the Scriptures of the saving grace of affliction. David says, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted,” and again, “Before I was afflicted I went astray.” The prodigal son is represented as coming to himself in his afflictions, and returning to his father’s house. The apostles, by the authority of God, appear to have had power to punish extraordinary cases of transgression; at least we have instances where Paul exercised that power, as in the case of Hymeneas and Alexander, who were delivered over to Satan by him, that they might learn not to blaspheme. And Elymas the sorcerer was struck with blindness for perverting the right ways of the Lord. It was a species of punishment administered in extraordinary cases, in which the body and mind were delivered to the power of Satan to be tortured by disease and terror as a warning to others, and for the eternal good of the person afflicted. But while the body and mind were thus tormented, the spiritual or future eternal life was under the control of Divine mercy, and the chastisement was generally only for a season, but in this case probably unto death, as the “destruction of the flesh,” would seem to imply. E. S. W.