Question Corner by Milton C. Wilcox

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 27, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 17.

Question Corner

By Milton C. Wilcox

Conducted by MILTON C. WILCOX

Mountain View, California

NOTE.—This department is for the purpose of helping Bible students. Answers must of necessity be brief, often only suggestive, never exhaustive, never infallible only as they agree with the infallible Word. Such questions only will be answered as seem to the editors to minister to the mission of the paper. Questions of the same import can not be answered repeatedly in the same volume. Name and address must be given, not for publication, but as evidence of good faith and to insure reply by letter if thought best. It is well always to inclose stamp, not stamped envelope, unless answer is desired by letter alone.

116—THE TEN HORNS OF REVELATION 17

Will you kindly explain Rev. 17: 16? E. D.

We would say to E. D. and others who have asked questions concerning Revelation 17, that articles have been published in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES recently upon this chapter, that deal with it at much greater length than is possible in the Question Corner. It is almost impossible to explain any verse or two of the chapter unless the whole is explained.

117—WOMEN IN THE CHURCH

Kindly explain, through the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, the following passages: 1 Cor. 14: 34, 35; and 1 Tim. 2: 12. S. H.

The apostle Peter tells us that in Paul's writings there are some things “hard to be understood,” and there is a possibility that in endeavoring to explain them, we might wrest them to our own discomfort at least, if not destruction. And these passages are among them. If we knew the character of the women that lived in the apostle's day, and out of what they had come, we would see with a great deal more clearness the reason for the prohibitions or admonitions the apostle gives concerning them. We do know this,—that one of the wickedest cities in the world was Corinth; that some of those who accepted the faith of Jesus there were among the very wickedest. They believed in all sorts of wickedness, and in fact their idolatry led them into it. Some of these women doubtless harangued as did the heathen priestesses. That seems to be indicated by the instruction in the eleventh chapter of 1 Corinthians. And some of them seemed to think that the church of God could be used in about the same way as the heathen temples, as indicated by the instruction the apostle gives concerning the Lord's Supper.

Now, it is of women of this character, who should be in subjection to those whom God in His providence had placed over the churches, that the Scripture speaks. It does not mean that the Lord would not have women work for Him, because He has honored such through all the past. It does not mean that they should not speak, because God has used women to speak for Him, as witness Deborah, and Miriam, and Huldah, and Phebe, and Priscilla, and Anna, who spoke in the very temple itself. Furthermore, the apostle gives specific instruction as to the dress of women when they should prophesy, in the eleventh chapter of 1 Corinthians. We cannot therefore believe that he utterly contradicted himself in the fourteenth chapter and the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth verses. It was simply to correct abuses of a good thing that the apostle spoke as he did.

We know that there are some who would press the matter, and endeavor to make good, conscientious women believe that it is their business to keep still, even though they wish to praise God for His goodness to them; and there are conscientious women who would take it home to their heart, and feel that they ought to say nothing in meetings of praise or prayer. Let no Christian woman believe that God has commanded that she should keep silent when the spirit of praise and thanksgiving within her tells her to speak. One of the precious promises of God for the last days is that “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” Acts 2: 17. See also Luke 2: 36-38; Acts 21: 9. As to the way in which this should be done, the apostle himself tells us, in 1 Cor. 14: 40, that “all things be done decently and in order.” We believe that if these instructions are carried out in the proper spirit, it will bring blessing to all classes.

118—THE SON OF GOD AN ANGEL

In Question 81, in the SIGNS for February 8, 1915, this statement is made: “During the time previous to His coming to the earth, He was an angel among the angels.” Would you please answer in the Question Corner Heb. 1: 5 and also Heb. 2: 16? W. H. C.

That our Lord was an angel among the angels is indicated by various scriptures. First, in His meeting with Jacob. Gen. 32: 24-30. After Jacob's victory by faith, he says, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” Earlier than this, in fact, we have the meeting of the same Being with Abraham. See Genesis 18 and 19. The One who appeared to Abraham is called Jehovah. He seems to remain with Abraham while the two who were with Him—angels—go on to Lot in Sodom. When the Lord would take the children of Israel out of Egypt to the promised land, He assured them: “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of Him, and obey His voice, provoke Him not: for He will not pardon your transgressions: for My name is in Him.” Ex. 23: 20, 21. Now we could not understand this language of any other except our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Angel of Jehovah,—God's special messenger.

Again, after Joshua had entered the promised land, before the first city, Jericho, fell, he met a man with a sword drawn in his hand. Joshua with boldness and courage went over to him, and said, “Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?” But the answer was, “As Captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.” Joshua fell on his face and worshiped Him. It was the Son of God, as God's messenger, come to Joshua in human form.

There are still other passages, which Isaiah sums up as follows—Isa. 63: 9: “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old.” In the tenth chapter of Daniel we find Him associated with Gabriel; and Gabriel calls Him Michael, one of the chief princes. In the last verse of the tenth chapter He is called “Michael your Prince,” and in Jude 9, “Michael the Archangel,” that is, the chief of all the angels. And this Archangel, we learn from 1 Thess. 4: 15-17, compared with John 5: 28, 29, is the Son of God. He was God's special messenger, even as angels are God's messengers; and He was the chief of them all, because He was the chiefest servant of them all.

Another thought: When our Lord descended, He went to the very lowest depths that sin had reached; and when He ascended, He ascended high above all things, that He might fill every vacancy in God's kingdom. See Eph. 4: 9, 10. That meant that the very rupture that sin had caused among the angels should be repaired by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, in the great gathering in the eternal future, the center. Eph. 1: 10.

What, then, are we to understand of Heb. 1: 3?—Simply this: that God is speaking of the angels as such, not of One who voluntarily took upon Himself the nature of angels. He did not gather His Son out from among the angels. He did not say to any of the angels, “Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee.” It was the Son Himself who gave Himself for the service of all God's creatures, who stepped down among the angels, that He might minister with them to man. Also in Heb. 2: 16, as an angel, He could not make a sacrifice for man. So in His last step downward He did not take upon Himself the nature of angels. This is not the priest whom the apostle to the Hebrews is bringing before us. “But He took on Him the seed of Abraham.” He must take upon Himself the seed of those whom He desires to help. With the angels He labored until He became flesh, and Heb. 2: 16 refers to the time when He took upon Himself flesh and blood. The downward steps are clearly set forth in Phil. 2: 5-7. We quote from the American Revised Version:

“Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.”

First, He had the right to be on an equality with God if any being in the universe had, but He did not count it a thing to be grasped. He therefore “emptied Himself,” first of all taking the form of a servant—an angel among the angels. Secondly, He was made in the likeness of man. Thirdly, as a man He died. Out of the humiliation came His exaltation—able to save to the uttermost all who trust Him.