In the Question Chair

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 9, 1901

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.]

814.—NO MORE SEA.

Please explain Rev. 21:1, last clause. Why is there no more sea in the earth made new? Is it to make room for the redeemed hosts?

M. E. C., Santa Ana, Cal.

Answer.—We do not understand the text to affirm that there will be no more sea, or that the sea will no longer exist. The prophet was describing the change that is to take place in the present constitution of things. He saw a new heaven and a new earth, “for,” he says, “the first heaven and the first earth were passed away;” and the next and last clause, instead of reading, as in our version, “and there was no more sea,” might be translated, “and the sea was no more;” that is, the sea as it at present exists will be no more. This brings the sea into the same category with the heavens and the earth, and affirms that the great change that is coming will affect the sea the same as it affects the heaven and the earth. “I saw a new heaven,” says John, “and a new earth.” So the sea will also be renewed, or made new, like the heaven and the earth. And the expression, “and there was no more sea,” or better, “and the sea was no more,” would mean that that, too, in its present constitution and dimensions had passed away, and there was a new sea, adapted to the new constitution of things. There would seem to be good reason for a change in the sea, to fit it for the new earth. In the first place, about three quarters of the present globe are given up to the waste of waters; but a large portion of this space would doubtless be better devoted to the occupation of the inhabitants of the new earth, and will probably be used for that object. And when we consider that all who have ever lived on the earth, according to the most liberal calculation, could, when raised from the dead, each find six square feet of standing room in the State of Iowa, it will be seen at once that on the renewed earth with all its present waste places recovered, there will be an amply glorious estate for all the sons and daughters of the seed of Abraham, who are heirs according to the promise. Gal. 3:29. Secondly, inasmuch as the text does not affirm

that the sea will cease to exist, we may argue that it will continue in its modified form, because its presence, accompanied with flowing rivers interspersed over the surface of the earth, would be necessary to the beauty of the landscape and the service and utility of man, and the new earth will be provided with everything that is of any utility and beauty. So we may read Rev. 21:1 with the pleasing thought in mind that when the new heaven and the new earth appear, the sea will be there also, not in its present overexpanded condition, but in due proportion to add to the beauty of the scene, and to be for the service and utility of man in that perfect state. And this possession, when once entered upon, will not be left to other people; it will not be forfeited by crime, nor alienated by poor bargains; but, sea and all, will remain ours forever.

815.—MELCHISEDEC—WHO WAS HE?

Will you please explain Heb. 7:1–3, regarding Melchisedec. Who was he? Was he a man, or an angel, as some think? I would like all the information you can give on this subject, as the question frequently comes up in our study of the Bible.

C. R. B., Anderson, Ind.

Ans.—He was a man; for thus the record speaks of him: “Now consider how great this man was.” Verse 4. He was a king: “King of Salem.” Verse 1. He was also a priest: “priest of the most high God.”—Id. He thus united in his own person the double office of king and priest. He was greater than Abraham; for Abraham paid tithes to him, and from him received a blessing; and Paul says, “And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.” Verse 7. That is, Melchisedec, who gave the blessing, is greater than Abraham, who received from him the blessing: “The less is blessed of the better.” In these circumstances, and in these offices, he becomes a type of Christ; for the record says: “Made like unto the Son of God.” Verse 3. This much we learn from the scripture record. We have other testimony which will be of interest to the reader. In an article from Sister White, in the REVIEW of Feb. 18, 1890, page 97, third col., last par., we read, “It was Christ that spoke through Melchisedec, the priest of the most high God. Melchisedec was not Christ, but he was the voice of God in the world, the representative of the Father.”

Verse 3 contains the supposed difficulty of regarding Melchisedec as a man, like other human beings; for it speaks of him as “without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.” Now it is asked, in amazement, How can it be said of any man in this world that he is without father, without mother, and that he has neither beginning of days nor end of life? This could not be said of any man, spoken of merely as a natural man; but it might be said of one taken specifically as a representative character. Now Paul sets forth Melchisedec to represent Christ. That is why one is chosen who was both a king and a priest; for Christ performs both these offices. It must be one out of whose life a portion can be taken that is not bounded by a beginning nor by an end; for as priest and mediator for the world Christ is without beginning of days or end of life. Still the question will arise, How could it be said of Melchisedec that he was without father, without mother, without beginning of days or end of life? If this was not true of him, he could not be a proper representative of Christ. So it was true of him only in his representative character. The Jews were accustomed to speak thus of any one whose genealogy was not given; and that is all that is meant concerning Melchisedec. He suddenly appears upon the scene as a priest-king. But nothing is said of his origin or genealogy. He performed his acts, received tithes of Abraham and blessed him. But nothing is said about the close of his career. In that respect, as far as the record goes, it is as if he had never died. So the Jews would speak of him as without beginning of days or end of life, and in that respect he would be a fit representative of Christ. He could not have been Shem, as some claim; because Shem’s genealogy is known; he could not have been an angel, for the same reason; as they are all created beings. But he was a man of whom these things could be said, after the Jewish manner of speech, a representative of Christ, “the voice of God,” as Sister White says, “in the world.”