Question Corner by Milton C. Wilcox

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 19, 1915

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 Name and address must be given, not for publication, but as evidence of good faith and to insure reply by letter if thought best.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

78 — Various Questions

1. What became of the other apostles?

2. Can we say that the unclean animals partook of the fruit of the forbidden tree, and then they were cursed, or if their nature was so in the garden of Eden?

T. A. Z.

1. We suppose that by “the other apostles” are meant those apart from John and Paul and James. It is impossible to tell. God does not satisfy our curiosity. There are so many things that we would like to know, so many things that we wonder about, and yet they do not pertain to our soul’s salvation, nor would they be any particular help if we knew them, and so the Lord does not tell us them. Peter wanted to know what would become of John. He asked very earnestly, “Lord, what of this man?” But Jesus said: “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou Me.” And so we, however much we would like to do otherwise, must take the same course in the things that God has not revealed or seen fit to reveal—leave it with Him, give ourselves to the great work of following the Master. Of course there are traditions. Peter, it is said, was crucified with his head downward, because he felt himself unworthy to be crucified as was his Lord. One tradition says he was crucified at Rome. Others contend that he never was at Rome. We find traditions of the end of nearly all the apostles, but they are not certain. Sometimes we run across lists of them, but we must not set them down as anything reliable.

2. It is hardly believable that the unclean animals partook of the fruit of the forbidden tree. Of course we do not know that. We do not think there was anything in that tree that would bring any such curse. The curse came upon man because of his disobedience, and the whole creation was made subject to vanity because of the disobedience of the higher creatures. So when man sinned, all that was below him was perverted. The curse upon the responsible ones—Satan and mankind—extended to all the creation below. God must permit it to do this, or His higher creature, man, would have been inferior to the very brutes, if the brute had remained immortal and untouched by corruption. Of course as the corruption increased, different dispositions developed in these various animals. Some became carnivorous; and becoming carnivorous and preying upon flesh, of course that changed their natures. Just how they developed, of course we do not know. The only thing that we could suggest would be more or less a matter of speculation.

79 — Sin and Death

Are there two deaths and two kinds of sin, one kind from Adam, and one our own? Rom. 5: 13-15; 7: 11-25. Which sin was abolished on the cross?

God gives us but one definition of sin, “the transgression of the law.” See 1 John 3: 4; James 2: 8-12; Rom. 3: 20; 7: 7. When Adam sinned, he broke God’s law, and became degenerate. Nature has transmitted to us Adam’s fallen nature. Men call our inheritance original sin, doomed to death apart from our choice. But Christ redeems all from that death. “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Cor. 15: 22. And to every responsible soul, He gives the choice and opportunity to break from that fallen nature and become the victor. He has redeemed us from every sin, from all sin. His offering “once for all” covers every failure, every defect, meets every need. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 5: 20, 21. Read Heb. 10: 10, 12, 14. The efficacy of His offering covers the Adamic sin and death, and our sin, if we will but receive it freely as it is given.