803.-SYNONYMOUS TERMS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 4, 1901

803.—SYNONYMOUS TERMS.

In 1 Kings 2:3 there are mentioned four things which we are to keep; namely, statutes, commandments, judgments, and testimonies. Statutes, commandments, and testimonies, I understand to mean

the same thing; is the word “judgments” synonymous with the other three terms? For I find, from Lev. 25:18, that we are also to keep His judgments. J. B. I., Trempealeau, Wis.

Ans.—All these words mean substantially the same thing; but there are nice shades of distinction between them, which make it appropriate to use them all together. The word “judgments” is generally supposed, by those who undertake to define the terms, to mean “what God has determined to be inherently and essentially right.” What He has determined to be wrong is essentially wrong. It seems like a play upon words to say, as is so often done, that a thing is good because God has commanded it, or evil because He has forbidden it; but He has commanded it because it is good, and forbidden it because it is evil. This is merely transposing the terms, or to say that one is righteous, because he doeth righteousness, or to say, instead, that one doeth righteousness because he is righteous. It is of course correct to say that certain results will follow certain causes, and that if one has love in his heart, he will do the works of love, or if he is righteous, he will do the works of righteousness. “He that doeth righteousness,” says John, “is righteous.” 1 John 3:7. But if we keep all the things commanded in 1 Kings 2:3, we shall be accepted of the Lord.