In the Question Chair

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 7, 1902

In the Question Chair.

[Designed for the consideration of such questions as will be of interest and profit to the general reader. All correspondents should give their names and correct post-office address, that queries not replied to here may be answered by mail.]

844.— HOW DO THEY BEAR WITNESS?

WILL you please explain how the record and witness spoken of in 1 John 5:7, 8, is borne? also the language of Matt. 19:17, where Christ says, “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God”? Unitarians use this text to prove that Christ was not God, but only a man. L. M. H., San Jose, Cal.

ANSWER.—1. The “record” and “witness” spoken of is doubtless borne the same way that the witness of the Spirit is borne; namely, by enlightening the understanding and making an impression upon the moral nature, and through that channel molding the individuals.

2. In Matt. 19:16, 17, Christ taught His questioners to look more deeply into the nature of the subject they were considering than they were in the habit of doing. The circumstances of the occasion are thus stated: “And, behold, one came and said unto Him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And He said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.” Christ saw here an opportunity to impress a lesson on His hearers respecting himself; and He is not responsible if men pervert His language to mean just the opposite of what He intended according to the fair interpretation of His language. Unitarians, our correspondent says, argue from this that Christ is not God, but only a man. This conclusion we are obliged to consider only a perversion; for His words teach exactly the opposite. Thus: He was addressed as “Good Master.” He did not object to this manner of address. He did not say, Why callest thou me good? I am not good: but, In addressing me thus, you give me a character which I acknowledge, but which puts me in the same category with God; for there is only one Being who can properly and consistently be called “good,” and that is God. So by calling me “good,” you call me God, which I am. The reader will see how far one-sided the Unitarian application is.

845.— A CHAPTER IN REVELATION.

One of our ministers writes for an explanation of Rev. 6:8.

ANS.—We have presented the best light we have on all passages in Daniel and Revelation, in the published works on those books. To them we refer all inquirers on those points.

846.— DAY OF CHRIST’S BIRTH.

Will you tell me what reason you have for saying that Christ was not born on the twenty-fifth of December, and that He was born in the spring of the year? C. C. W., Middlefield, Ohio.

ANS.—We do not say any such thing. The day of Christ’s birth is a point much in dispute. It appears that nothing definite is known about it. The twenty-fifth of December seems to be wholly a matter of tradition. What has contributed largely toward fixing that date upon the religious world, is the attempt to make it coincide with an old festival, borrowed from the heathen, which was fixed upon that date. We have no honor to confer upon the old heathen festival. And inasmuch as the exact date is not known, we can celebrate the birth of Christ as a blessed event without reference to the day.