p. 196 | TO CORRESPONDENTS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 19, 1879

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

27.—S. B. AND CHURCH FELLOWSHIP.

Can a S. D. A. church hold a member in fellowship who pays no S. B., and who permits his children to labor on his premises on the Sabbath day? I. J.

ANS. The payment of S. B. was never designed to be made compulsory. The offerings to the Lord should be cheerful and freewill offerings. But if a person pledges, he should regard that as sacred, and faithfully meet it. It is of course expected that all will endorse and practice the Bible doctrine in regard to giving. If they do not, it is quite evident there is something wrong. In the matter of the Sabbath, where parents profess to keep it they can control their children in the practice, and are themselves responsible if they allow them to work on the Sabbath. Thus there may be good reason on both these grounds to withdraw the hand of fellowship from a member.

28.—THE NUMBER 666.

In Rev. 13:18, to make the number 666 complete, u and v are both used as numerals representing five. What is the authority for u as a numeral? R. A. U.

ANS. In ancient Latin the form of the letter which we call u was written like our v; and these letters were the same. Thus Augustus was written Avgvstvs; and the motto “Vicarius filii Dei,” which we think is the one referred to in Rev. 13:18, was written “Vicarivs filii Dei.” See inscriptions on the facsimiles of ancient coins as given in Illustrated Bible Dictionaries. Pope Gregory XIII. caused a medal to be struck to commemorate the bloody St. Bartholomew’s day, 1572, on the face of which was the inscription Gregorius XIII. Pont. Max. An. II.; and on the reverse side Vgonotorvm strages, 1572, “The slaughter of the Huguenots, 1572.” This is illustrated in the Domestic Bible, in notes on Rev. 17. In chap. 18, we have a facsimile of what is called “the pope’s own most illustrative medal.” It represents a woman sitting upon a sphere, holding by her side a cross, and in her extended right hand a half-filled cup, in the top of which is a smaller sphere also representing the world. She may call this the cup of salvation; but how aptly it illustrates the declaration of John that she had in her hand a cup full of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, from which all nations had drunk. The motto on this coin is, Sedet super universum, “she sits upon the universe.” The date of this medal is 1825. It shows at once the arrogance of the papal assumption, and the use of the letter v for u in papal inscriptions, even down to the present century. Such testimony might be greatly extended, but this is sufficient.

29.—END OF THE JEWS’ PROBATION.

Why did the apostles preach three and a half years to the Jewish people, if, as we read in the last chapter of the second volume of the Spirit of Prophecy, the probation of the Jews closed before the crucifixion? M. M. F.

ANS. What is set forth in the volume referred to is not the end of the probation of the Jewish people as individuals, but the end of their probation for national preservation, distinction and honor. Had they accepted Christ, and improved their golden opportunity, we are assured in the same chapter that Jerusalem would have stood and been the glorious metropolis of all the earth. But in their hardness and darkness, the Jews of that generation knew not the time of their visitation, but in blind fury threw away their last chance for this glorious distinction, by rejecting Christ. Then the fate of their city and of themselves as a nation was sealed. But to them must the preaching of the gospel first be specially directed by disciples fully qualified as they were on the day of Pentecost, and from them must be gathered the first nucleus of the Christian church. This was accomplished in the three years and a half that followed the crucifixion to complete the seventy weeks.

30.—PAUL AND THE SABBATH.

Where does Paul, who was an able minister of the gospel, who preached the whole counsel of God, and kept back nothing that was profitable, teach seventh-day Sabbath-keeping? J. M.

ANS. We might respond by asking where Paul has in direct language taught any one of the first four commandments of the decalogue. And however complete and conclusive this might be as an answer to the claim that Paul did not teach seventh-day Sabbath keeping, and therefore it is not now a duty, it would be a very weak answer compared with what may be given on this point. No writer of the New Testament insists more strenuously on the sacredness, immutability, and perpetuity of the moral law, than does Paul. But every argument for the law is a direct argument for the seventh-day Sabbath, inasmuch as that Sabbath is an inseparable part of the law. What necessity, then, for him to specify on every item of the law? And how unreasonable and short-sighted any theory which insists upon this. To illustrate: When the administration of this government passed some years ago from the democrats to the republicans, suppose some one had said, Now I can steal and murder; for the republicans do not in their platform expressly prohibit these acts. It would have been at once said to him, unless his insanity was considered hopeless, Do you not understand that a change of administration does not change or abrogate the law of the land? That remains unchanged, and every violation will meet its just punishment. Just as unreasonable is it for any one to insist upon a re-iteration or re-enactment of the moral law for this dispensation. That law was not affected by the change; and to guard against all possible mistake, that fact is clearly set forth all through the New Testament. If it be said that the writers of the New Testament refer to other commandments and thus recognize their existence, we reply that they refer to, and recognize the existence of, the Sabbath much more frequently.