TO CORRESPONDENTS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 27, 1878

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

E. L. TOWN: A licentiate is one who is exercising his gift simply on trial, the position of an evangelist being his prospectively, if he shows sufficient qualifications for the same. A person cannot properly perform the work of a gospel minister in such things as baptism, organization of churches, &c., before ordination; and it is not thought best to ordain a person before he has, by actual trial, shown his fitness for the work and given evidence that he is called of God to that service. This is why a licentiate is not given authority to baptize, &c.

1. Do S. D. Adventists indorse the views of Wesley and Clarke on sanctification? 2. Are S. D. Adventists Unitarian or Trinitarian? 3. Is there an English version of the Bible in which Luke 23:43, is translated, “That day shalt thou be with me in paradise”? and if so, will such translation bear criticism? C. J. A.

ANS. 1. Not altogether. We do not believe that a man in this present state ever becomes so holy that he has nothing more to learn, and no more progress to make. 2. Neither. We do not believe in the three-one God of the Trinitarians nor in the low views of Jesus Christ held by Unitarians. We believe that Christ was a divine being, not merely in his mission, but in his person also; that his sufferings were penal and his death vicarious. 3. We know of no such translation; and if we did, we could have no confidence in it; for the word “to-day” (Gr., semeron) never means “that day,” but always “to-day” or “this day.”

J. H. HENLEY: For an explanation of Daniel 7, throughout, see the volume, Thoughts on Daniel. The expression “The Ancient of days did sit,” means that he took a position as judge in a court of justice. See the late work on the Sanctuary.

C. C. WARD: For an exposition of Dan. 2:43, see Thoughts on Daniel. We think it refers to the ten kingdoms, not to Catholics, as such, nor to the Jews.

What chain was Paul bound with when he appealed unto Cæsar? * *

ANS. Such a chain, probably, as any person under arrest would be bound with.

MRS. E. JONES: For an explanation of 1 Tim. 5:23, see the tract on Wine, among the health tracts published by the HEALTH REFORMER. the expressions which Paul uses, “Whatsoever is sold in the shambles [market], that eat, asking no questions for conscience’ sake,” 1 Cor. 10:25, and, “Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving,” 1 Tim. 4:4, were not spoken with reference to articles of diet from a health standpoint. If so, then we must understand him as saying that if we were in China we must eat rats, cats, and puppies, if they should be set before us; or if we were among some of the tribes in the interior of Africa, we must eat snakes! This was not the question upon which Paul was speaking at all. See the context of 1 Cor. 10:25. The question was in relation to eating things which had been offered to idols. It was the custom of the pagan Gentile nations in the days of Paul to offer sacrifices to their idols, and then, having satisfied their conscience in reference to their god, to save their money by putting the flesh of the animals thus offered, into the market for sale. Some of the Christian converts thought it was wrong to eat meat which had thus been offered. Paul told them to ask no questions on this point. If they ate it and didn’t know that it had first been offered to an idol, they were all right. And if they did know it, but no one took any exception to it, all right again. But if a person of weak conscience was present, and told them that it had been offered to an idol, and that their eating it was an offense to him, then they should desist, not for their own conscience, but for his. Now to say, as they do to whom you refer, that what Paul here says about things offered to idols, takes the curse off the hog, and makes the scrofulous old scavenger and bombshell of trichina, a healthy article of food, is the height of absurdity. As to 1 Tim. 4:3, 4, there is no evidence that Paul refers to flesh meats, at all, for the word “meats,” in verse 3 is broma, which means simply “food,” and “creature” in verse 4, is “anything produced or created” by God, there being no indication that any reference is made to the brute creation.