QUESTION CORNER by Milton C. Wilcox

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 8, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 23.

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 pertain to the mission of the paper. Questions of the same import cannot 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 Name and address must be given, not for publication, but as evidence of good faith and to insure reply by letter if thought best.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.

130—QUESTIONS REGARDING JEW AND GENTILE

1. Please explain the ordinances abolished. Eph. 2:15; also Col. 2:16; and Gal. 4:9-11.

2. When did the Jew come into existence? And what difference is there between Jew and Israelite? P. A. S.

1. The passage in Ephesians reads (verses 14-16): “For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby,” or as the margin reads, “the enmity in Himself.”

Now the “enmity,” the apostle tells us in another place, is the carnal mind—the mind of the flesh. See Rom. 8:7: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” When man yielded himself to Satan, his mind was brought into bondage. Previous to this the spiritual mind absolutely dominated, ruled and regulated the mind, but when Satan came in, the God-given spiritual mind went out, and the only mind that was left was the mind of the flesh, which has ever been at enmity to God’s law. Spirit life was lost; only physical life remained.

Our Lord took upon Himself the flesh of man, sinful flesh. He was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh; but the mind of God was in the flesh, and the carnal mind, or the mind of the flesh, was crucified. This mind of the flesh is manifested in ordinances, carnal ordinances; that is, that man by doing something himself can win God’s favor, by doing something himself can overcome sin and put it away; in other words, build up a self-righteousness.

The ceremonial law, in the days of the apostle, had become a system like that. When God first gave it, it was simply an expression of faith. The Jews themselves were trusting in their own works, their own righteousness, in which they hoped to be saved. Our Lord swept that all away. All the efforts of man were nothing, and the blood of Christ alone could save. And the Jew had to accept that just the same as the gentile had to accept it; and both, accepting it in Christ Jesus, were made one in Christ.

That is the lesson in brief of Eph. 2:14-16. The same thought is expressed in Col. 2:13-17. Verse 13 tells us that He has forgiven us our trespasses; verse 14, that He has blotted out “the handwriting of ordinances that was against us.” All those things which grew out of the carnal mind, and which men in that day were trying to make a means of entrance into heaven—all those things which were contrary to us—He took out of the way, and nailed them to His cross, triumphed over sin in every form and every kind, and made new men.

This too included all those ordinances which the Jews themselves held, and which they were using as God never designed they should be used. Consequently if those gentile Colossian Christians were in Christ Jesus, they were not to let the Jews condemn them in meat or drink or in respect of a holy day or of the new moon or of the sabbath days—that is, those ceremonial features which the Jews held to for salvation—which are a “shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”

Now the commandment to have no other gods before the Lord was not a shadow of things to come; nor the commandment, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain”; nor the commandment, “Honor thy father and thy mother”; nor the commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” God’s Sabbath stands. It is not a shadow of things to come. It is a memorial of God’s creative power, and a sign of His present redeeming power. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ writes all the great moral law in the heart of the believer, but it sets aside all those ceremonies or carnal ordinances in which men trust; consequently the Judaisers had no right to judge the believer in respect of those things.

We have a record of these holy days and sabbath days in Leviticus 23. Note that all these are mentioned “beside the Sabbaths of the Lord.” Lev. 23:38. And therefore the conclusion that the apostle draws, following Col. 2:14-16, that the believers are not to be beguiled of their reward; they are not to be turned aside to the worshiping of angels; they are not to be turned aside from trusting in Christ and Christ only, the Head; they are not to be turned aside by the rudiments of the world, subject to ordinances that can do no good, such as “Touch not; taste not; handle not.” We are to trust in Christ and Christ alone.

Gal. 4:9-11 has reference to the same thing, only in a broader sense. Verse 8 declares that the ones to whom the apostle was writing, once did service to them which by nature are no gods; that is, they were heathen. Then they turned to the worship of God; but having backslidden, and giving attention to works of their own, they had gone back to the “weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage.” That is, they were not going back to the Jewish customs and ceremonies; they were going back to heathen customs and ceremonies; they were going back to do service to their own gods which they once worshiped. And as a sign of this, they observed “days, and months, and times, and years.”

Now that does not mean the days that God has given, or the times that God has given, but it means the old heathen days and times and months and years; and among them was the Sunday. And even at that early day probably was manifested the very first tendency toward keeping Sunday. But the apostle said that when they went back to those heathen days and months and times and years, he was afraid of them. We have no such reproof in the whole New Testament regarding the Sabbath.

2. The word “Jew” comes from the word “Judah,” consequently any member of the tribe of Judah was a Jew. It afterward came to be applied to the whole Hebrew people. The first reference we have to it is in Esther 2:5. From that time on, it was used sometimes as synonymous with Israel. In a technical sense, the Israelites would include all the twelve tribes of the descendants of Jacob; the Jew would simply refer to the tribe of Judah; but “Jews” is used for all, and “Israelites” is used for all. In the New Testament, we have both terms used of those who are true and faithful to God. “He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, . . . but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly.” See Rom. 2:28, 29. All who are saved in the kingdom of God will come in through the various gates of the city of the New Jerusalem, and these are named after the twelve tribes of Israel. See Rev. 21:12; Rom. 9:6.

131—THAT WHICH DEFILES

Please explain Mark 7:15-23. Does it mean that we can eat anything and it will be all right? A. M.

It will be seen, by reading the context of this passage, that our Lord was talking to the Jews, not to gentiles. The question of clean and unclean meats did not come into the matter at all. The real question was regarding the Jewish ordinances concerning defilement. The Jews believed that if a man ate with unwashed hands, he was defiled. See the first nine verses of the chapter. Their traditions were so strong in that way that they made the word of God of no effect. What Jesus wanted to show them was this: that no righteousness could come by mere outward acts of men. We could abstain from this or that, but that would not make us righteous. We could wash our hands as we would; that would not make us clean in heart, because all the wickedness of a man’s life springs from his heart.

Now this does not mean that we should ignore cleanliness. The Scripture teaches elsewhere that we should regard it—“cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.” 2 Cor. 7:1; Rom. 12:1. It does not mean that we should ignore the things that we eat, for we should eat and drink to the glory of God. 1 Cor. 10:31. But it does mean this—that no eating or drinking will bring us salvation, and no abstaining from this or that will bring us salvation; “for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Rom. 14:17.

And the apostle adds, “For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.”

Now, a man who occupies that relationship to God will endeavor to eat that which is good, that he may better glorify God, and that he may render better service for God. Consequently he will carry out in his life 1 Cor. 10:31: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” But such a man will not make his life a bondage by questioning this or that or the other thing. He will find, many times, that the best way to do is to carry out the apostle’s instruction to eat what is set before him, making no question for conscience sake. 1 Cor. 10:25. At the same time, he will try to pursue such a course as will set a right example before those who are weak. 1 Cor. 8:13.

That clean and unclean animals do not come into this scripture at all is a thing that should be regarded, because we know that what was good for the Lord’s people then is good for them now; what was bad for them then is bad for them now. However, the Lord does not put upon us the bondage of the ancient law. He wants us to regard the principles in our lives.

132—“ENDED HIS WORK,” GEN. 2:2, 3

Would you kindly explain Gen. 2:2, 3? Some versions set forth the idea that God ended His work the sixth day. A. G. B.

So far as material work is concerned, God did end His work on the sixth day; but it is true, in a larger sense, that His work was finished on the seventh day. That is to say, God made the week for man; and He made also, in that week, the crowning day of that week, the Sabbath. Consequently it would be true that God’s work for the week was not finished until the Sabbath itself was completed, and the finishing of God’s work included His resting just as well as His working. So in a very large sense, on the seventh day God ended His work by resting, blessing, and setting apart the seventh day for a memorial monument to His great creative power. There is no need whatever of departing from the regular translation of both Common and Revised Versions. The Revised Version, however, is better in the sense of “finished His work” rather than “ended His work.”

133—UNDER BONDAGE IN MARRIAGE RELATIONS

Does not the expression, “A sister is not under bondage in such cases,” imply that desertion is a Bible ground for divorce? See 1 Cor. 7:12-16. C. B.

No. The apostle deals with the matter of desertion before in this chapter. See verses 10, 11: “Unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord. Let not the wife depart from her husband; but and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.” It would seem to indicate that the mere matter of desertion is not ground for divorce. This, however, nearly always results: the wife who willfully deserts a husband, or a husband who willfully deserts a wife, will soon become legally connected with other men or women, and ground for divorce follows. But this is not always the case.

134—THE MAN IN CHRIST, 2 COR. 12:2-4

Who was it that Paul had reference to as being caught up to the third heaven? J. R. H.

Clearly himself. He tells us, in the first part of the chapter, “I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.” And then he refers to the abundance of revelations which God gave him fourteen years before—views so clear and vivid that he did not know whether he was actually in Paradise bodily, or whether it was only in vision. It is of such that he says he will glory. Verse 5. But of himself in this earthly state he would glory only in his infirmities.