Question Corner by Milton C. Wilcox

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 23, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 12.

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 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 Name and address must be given, not for publication, but as evidence of good faith and to insure reply by letter if thought best.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.

98—Suppers in Churches

Is it wrong to have suppers in a church basement? also social gatherings?

V. E.

The whole question turns over the purpose of the building of the church. If a church was built with the idea in mind that the basement was to be so used, we suppose that such gatherings, if they were proper for Christians to indulge in anywhere, would be all right in such a place. If the whole church was dedicated to God for His worship and instruction, it ought to be used for that purpose. It seems to us that the object in the building and all these other things ought to be considered in connection with it. A church that is dedicated to God for His service and worship ought to be used for His service and worship. It is a holy place, and we ought always to expect His presence there and regard it as though we expected it. But if there is a part of that church that is designed for the purpose of suppers—if built for that—that part ought to be separate from the regular holy place of worship; and Christians who gather there ought so to conduct themselves that they shall not drive away God’s presence even from the part that is used for common things.

As a general thing, church socials tend downward. It is proper for Christians to meet together in a social way in social gatherings; but when the social gatherings of Christians become more worldly than the gatherings of worldlings themselves, or on a parallel with them, it is time for the Christian to quit and do something else. Very little if any benefit ever comes from them.

99—The Lord’s Supper

Please explain 1 Cor. 11:20-22.

V. E.

The passage reads as follows: “When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.”

The whole context indicates that the Corinthian brethren were making regular meals or feasts of the Lord’s Supper. To them it was not a sacred thing. They did not come together to eat the Lord’s Supper, but simply to eat and to drink. One was hungry, and another was drunken. He tells them that it is a shame for them so to do; that before they come together to eat the Lord’s Supper, if they are hungry, they should eat their supper at home. They have houses to eat and to drink in. The Lord’s Supper is simply an outward token of an inward feast. It is not designed to satisfy the physical man. It is a physical emblem of a spiritual thing. It should not be made a mockery.

100—The Beginning and Ending of the Day

Where does it tell us in the Bible that the day begins and ends at sunset?

C. S.

If you read Genesis 1 you will find that the day was constituted by evening and morning.

Regarding the atonement sabbath, which was composed of a day like all other days, we read in Lev. 23:32, “From even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.” In Matthew 8 we have a record of miracles that Jesus wrought on the Sabbath day. Among these was the healing of Peter’s wife’s mother. The people, however, bound by Pharisaic superstitions, would not come and be healed at that time; but the sixteenth verse tells us, “When the even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils; and He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick,” showing that the day ended when evening came.

As to what is meant by the term “even,” we learn in a record of the same thing, Mark 1:32, “And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto Him all that were diseased.” See also Luke 4:40.

These passages and others which might be given clearly show that the day ended with the setting of the sun, and there, of course, the next day began.

101—Cain’s Wife

Genesis 4 speaks of Cain’s wife and the birth of Enoch. Who was she?

C. S.

The Scriptures do not tell us who Cain’s wife was, nor who Seth’s wife was. The only conclusion to which we can come is that Cain married one of his sisters. Chapter 4 does not tell us the time that elapsed from Cain’s slaying of Abel until he was married. He went out, however, a wanderer. We do not know how long that wandering continued until he possessed a wife. That wife was evidently one of the daughters of Adam, for Adam had other children beside Cain, Abel, and Seth. See Gen. 5:4. It is barely possible, of course, that Cain married one of the daughters of Seth. Men lived to a great age in those days, and could have married very late and still have been strong men.

The Enoch, Cain’s son, was not the same as Enoch the son of Jared. Compare Gen. 4:17 with Gen. 5:18.

102—The Long Home, Ecclesiastes 12

Will you kindly give a brief explanation of Ecclesiastes 12? Does the fifth verse refer to a plague in the land in the last days? And does “the long home” here spoken of mean heaven or the grave?

P. L.

The twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes, verses 1-7, is a beautiful description and figure of the dissolution of man, with an earnest admonition to seek God before these days of dissolution come, before old age draws nigh, before the eyesight grows dim, before “the keepers of the house”—the hands—“shall tremble,” the strong frame itself become bowed, the “grinders cease”—referring to the teeth—“those that look out of the windows be darkened”—the eyes.

All of these various things mentioned are connected with age—the shutting of the doors, the closing of the lips. All pleasures of sense are becoming less, because the senses are dulled. The aged man does not like to ascend the high places or descend into deep places. He is “afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way”—becomes a great deal more conscious of these than before.

“The almond tree shall flourish”—that is, the white hairs upon the head. Little things become a burden, and the desires of sense cease generally. Death then comes. “Man goeth to his long home”—the grave—and “the mourners go about the streets.” “The silver cord” is usually supposed to represent the spinal cord. The blood ceases to flow—there is no more water in the cistern. Man dies, and the dust returns to the earth, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. “The long home” is the grave.

There is no reference to any future plague whatever. As stated in the beginning, under a series of symbols, it indicates the dissolution of man.

103—Judgments Upon the Wicked

There seems to be a discrepancy between the King James Version and the American Revised Version in Rev. 18:20. Please give the correct reading, and account for the discrepancy. If the A. R. V. is correct, is not the prophecy fulfilled in the destruction of the wicked at the end of the thousand years of Rev. 20:5-7, since it is during this time that heaven and saints and apostles and prophets examine the books, and render judgment or punishment, because God cannot judge or execute their judgment before they render it?

A. C. F.

Rev. 18:20 in the Common Version reads: “Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.” The reason why “ye saints” is found in the American Revised Version is because the late Greek copies contain it, and it may have been omitted from the copy from which the Common Version was translated. The copies used in the Revised Version were earlier and older copies than the Greek New Testament copies that were in the hands of the translators of the ordinary version.

We see no reason why this should apply at the end of the thousand years. All systems, nations, kingdoms, organizations, are judged at the Lord’s coming. Individuals are themselves judged at the end of the thousand years. Rather, judgment is executed on each at the time mentioned. Babylon is spoken of as that great world system of apostasy that has persecuted God’s people, and finally included the whole world under her dominion. Surely when she goes down, as she will under God’s wrath at the second coming of Christ, all heaven, and all God’s people and apostles and prophets that are then living, may rejoice, and others take up the rejoicing as soon as they are raised from the dead.

At the end of the thousand years, the individuals who have been connected with these systems, and who have been responsible for the evil that has been done through them, will receive their judgment. The meaning of the last clause is that the very judgment which Babylon has pronounced upon God’s children has come back upon her. She has thought to compass their destruction, and that destruction has fallen upon her.

104—So as by Fire

Will all be saved “yet so as by fire”? Is this the meaning of 1 Cor. 3:15?

C. C. C.

The meaning of 1 Cor. 3:15 and its context has to do not with the individual, but with the minister of God. There are some ministers who build well. They lay the foundation on Christ Jesus, and then they build upon that foundation material which will endure like gold, silver, and precious stones. There are other men who preach Christ, and preach Christ as the Foundation, but they are not good builders. They build wood, hay, and stubble. Their preaching and teaching is not what it ought to be. There is more perhaps of feeling in it than there is of principle, more food than depth; and the work of both classes will be tested. The last day “shall declare it.” One who has built according to the Foundation will see his work endure the test. The other man may not see his work last; yet he has been conscientious and faithful so far as he knew, and he will be saved, “yet so as by fire.” He will suffer loss in the souls not saved, although he himself believed to the saving of the soul.

105—The Unbelieving Sanctified, 1 Cor. 7:14

Please explain 1 Cor. 7:14. How and in what way can the unbelieving husband be sanctified by the wife?

C. C. C.

The Revised Version reads better: “Sanctified in the wife.” The unbelieving wife is sanctified in the brother: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.” That is, God regards His own children. The apostle Paul was speaking to those who had been in idolatry. The husband perhaps had come out of idolatry and accepted Christianity, or the wife had abjured idolatry and accepted of Christ. In the one case, the wife was unbelieving; in the other, the husband. God regards the believing. God also regards the unbelieving, and He would have the believing win the unbelieving if possible. But even though it cannot do this, He tells them that they are to dwell together unless the unbelieving desires to depart. In that case, the believer is not to be held under bondage; but as long as they dwell together, God regards the believing and the children of the believing. To Him they are the children of His children; and the believing himself should so regard them, and train them as children of the Lord. It is in this only that the unbelieving is sanctified. This is to say, God will regard those children for the sake of the believers, just as though both of the parents were believers.