Your ShelfYour Projects

The* “SIGNS” QUESTION CORNER

8%

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California, U. S. A. · Jul 8, 1930

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 57, No. 26.

Read the full edition

The “SIGNS” QUESTION CORNER

By William G. Wirth

Conducted by WILLIAM G. WIRTH, 5447 EL VERANO AVENUE, EAGLE ROCK, CALIFORNIA
If you have a question regarding Bible doctrine and Christian living, or on other subjects apropos to the field of the “Signs of the Times,” write out your question and send it in, preferably direct to Dr. Wirth. Anonymous questions will not be answered. Do not become impatient if your question is not answered immediately, for Dr. Wirth has scores of questions in waiting, and yours will be answered in order.

HAVE THEY SUFFERED THE WAGES OF SIN?

G. H. Lindsey of Chile has certain questions concerning man’s condition in death, also about purgatory.
The questioner is in error when he writes that the “dead” in Psalm 115:17 and Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6 “refers to those who have suffered the “wages of sin” and not to those who have gained eternal salvation.” The verse in Psalm 115, from its context, applies to the righteous. This is easily seen if the 17th and 18th verses are read together. To the righteous Jews, in contrast to the idolatrous heathen spoken of in the first part of the psalm, the psalmist is declaring that their fathers (note the suggestive “children” in the 16th verse), who enjoyed God’s blessings, are “dead,” and so cannot praise God; “but we [their children] will bless Jehovah from this time forth and forevermore.”
As to Ecclesiastes 9, the words in the 2nd verse of this chapter: “There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked,” the words in the 3rd verse: “There is one event unto all,”—show indisputably that the 5th and 6th verses apply to both the good and the bad. Hence, no stronger scripture could be used to show that in death both the godly and the ungodly are in a state of unconsciousness.
In view of the above, Luke 23:43 cannot mean that Christ expected to see the thief in paradise the day He died on the cross. That Jesus did not go to heaven that day is shown by His statement to Mary, on the day of His resurrection, three days later: “Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the Father.” John 20:17. Further, death by crucifixion was not immediate. Those executed in that way would linger on for hours before death came, and it was rarely that they died the same day. The fact that the Roman soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves crucified with Jesus shows it was most improbable that the repentant thief died on the day of the crucifixion.
What, then, is the meaning of this promise of Christ to this malefactor? That when our Lord would come the second time in His kingdom, answering the thief’s request (see Luke 23:42), this man who believed before it was too late would find his place among the redeemed. (Matthew 25:31; Daniel 7:13, 14; 2 Timothy 4:1.) There would have been no difficulty concerning this scripture had the translators put the comma in the right place. Putting the comma before “to-day,” as it appears in our English Bible, gives the idea that Christ promised entrance to paradise to the thief that day. If the reader will put the comma after “to-day,” he will get the proper understanding of the passage. In other words, what Christ said was, “Verily I say unto thee to-day, shalt thou be with Me in paradise.”
This is fully in harmony with the original Greek. It must be remembered that the original language of the New Testament was not punctuated. Letters, words, and sentences ran together without separation.
The context and evident meaning of the given scripture alone determine how the punctuation should be. Our English translators arranged the sentences, punctuations, etc., as given in our Bible; but inasmuch as this was not done by divine inspiration, it is not surprising that mistakes have been made in punctuation.
The very fact that there is no life in death for the righteous and the unrighteous removes the questioner’s “purgatory.” To have this intermediate state between this present life and the life to come in glory, there would, of course, have to be life in death and during this “purgatory” period.