Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 7, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 39.

"IF YE WILL INQUIRE, INQUIRE YE."

This Inquirers’ Department is conducted for the purpose of helping those who are studying the Bible. The answers are oftentimes only suggestive. They are never to be considered infallible, only as they agree with the infallible Word. The writer who may answer these questions does not consider that his opinion is infallible. He will simply give the best that he has, and plead with the inquirer to search the Word. Such questions only will be answered as, to the editors, seem to minister to the good of the readers and to the mission of the paper. We can not answer repeatedly in the same volume questions upon the same scripture. The name and address must accompany each question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable. No letters are answered which do not contain the name of the writer. It is well always to enclose stamp for reply.

4195 — Character—Gift or Growth

Is character a gift or a growth? That is, does one inherit certain characteristics or tendencies to either good or bad, and is that character in its finality the result of environment in the main? C. C.

Yes and No. Entirely apart from God, character is made up from what we inherit and from what we assimilate from our environments. Sometimes the environments are such as to overcome entirely the inherited tendencies, and sometimes inherited tendencies are so strong as to make environments. It is possible for a man to surround himself with an atmosphere of himself, and live within that, despite environments, as has been demonstrated again and again in the world’s history. But as regards Christian character, the only true character and the only character that will persist forever, it is primarily a gift. “Ye must be born again,”—literally, Ye must be born from above. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.” The Lord Jesus Christ is able to take the soul, with every tendency toward evil, in the midst of the worst of environments, and to change that soul so that He shall be honored and glorified in the work and character of the one saved.

We know that there is very much said of environment. We know that with some it is the be-all and end-all of character. We know that there are those who are contending that unless government and society make environment right, man’s case is hopeless. But man’s case is not hopeless as long as there is a living God, heaven is open to him, and he will embrace the gifts that God will bestow. The city of Corinth was a fearfully wicked city. There were wicked influences on every side, that bred up a class of wicked people,—fornicators, idolators, adulterers, thieves, drunkards, revilers, and so on. The apostle mentions these classes in 1 Cor. 6:9, 10. He declares that such characters as these can not inherit the kingdom of God. He declares also to those Corinthian brethren whom he called “saints,” “And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” And God is able so to surcharge His children with power from on high that they can live in the worst of environments, and still grow up in beauty in Him.

Consider the lily. How often it is that those who frequent country lakes and rivers will find growing through the ooze of the muddiest portion of the lake, which if stirred up with a paddle exudes a horrible stench and fills the water with mud and filth, the beautiful pond-lily, resting upon the surface with perfect whiteness, surrounded by its great, broad leaves of living green. The filthy waves wash over it, but it is still white, and its perfume is sweet and agreeable. So may God’s child, even if placed in wicked environments, gather so much of heaven’s atmosphere and power that it can form character amid the evil elements which surround it.

4196 — The Millions of Heathen

What will be the final end of the millions of Chinese who for hundreds of years had no opportunity to hear of Christ? Did God do all He might do for these people during all of these years? Could not these have been saved, had they had the living preacher, who will not now have eternal life? S. A. N.

There are in God’s great plan many things of which we know nothing, but we can not say that millions have lived in these lands without any knowledge of Christ. They might not hear of His particular name, they might not have had the theory of the gospel as we hold it; but the apostle Paul argues and declares in Romans 1, that they are without excuse, even those that had shut away the gospel from themselves. Rom. 1:20. And then he tells us the reason why they were without excuse,—for even though they may have been shut away from God’s living, human messengers and all printed messages or books which come to them, still “the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” And in the 10th chapter of Romans, where the same thought is suggested, of the necessity of hearing the gospel, the apostle asks: “But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.” Rom. 10:18. But this is simply a quotation from Ps. 19:4. We recall the striking comment which Bishop Taylor, the one who did such noble work in Africa among its heathen tribes, made upon this. While reading Ps. 19:1-6, he commented something as follows: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork”—God’s great common school. “Day unto day uttereth speech”—God’s great day-school; “night unto night showeth knowledge”—God’s night-school. “There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard”—God’s great common school of the nations. “Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world”—God’s great common, universal, day-and-night school. And then he told of natives that he had found right in the very heart of Africa, who had laid aside all their idols and had reached out after the living God, the God that made all things, and had simply given themselves to Him by speaking the name which they themselves used, saying, “I am your man.” Connect that with 2 Chron. 16:9, “For the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.” One single ray of light shining from the throne of God, cherished in the heart and dominating the life, will save. The life may be imperfect, the knowledge may be very limited; but if the dominating thought is the great thought of God and loyalty to Him, God requires no more. The Father will bring the added knowledge and the great illumination. All these things the heathen worlds have had, and there have been instances all the way through, among these heathen tribes, of those who have risen above all environments, and have thought out, through the aid of God’s Spirit and heavenly angels, the salvation and peace which come through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wickedest city that we have on record was Sodom; yet God saved Lot out of Sodom, and saving Lot, condemned the rest of Sodom, because every one in Sodom could have known, just as truly as Lot did, the way of salvation, if they had desired it. All these teachings which demand another probation for those who are lost are certainly anti-Biblical, contrary to the teachings of the apostles. God has done and will do everything that He can, and that man permits, with man’s free will, in order to save mankind. On the other hand, God will not do injustice to those who do not long for these things, or yield to the highest conception of good. Man has misused life; God simply takes it away from him, and man dies.

4197 — The Zeal of Thine House

John 2:17 reads: “And His disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up.” Will you please explain? E. F.

The verses which immediately precede John 2:17 tell of Christ’s coming into the temple and finding those who were selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and who were engaged in money changing. The same incident is also spoken of in Matt. 21:12; Mark 11:15; and Luke 19:45. The Master called their attention to the fact that “it is written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer; but,” He added, “ye have made it a den of thieves.” Matthew, Mark, and Luke each give the same statement,—that they had made the Lord’s house a place of thievery.

The most sacred memories clustered around the temple of Jehovah. It was in the holy of holies in this temple that the divine presence was manifested. These men had so far lost sight of the sacredness of the temple and the reverence due to the great Creator, that they had come into the very courts of that sacred edifice with the most common traffic. The Jewish people came to the temple from all parts of the world, for worship and to offer their sacrifices. Those from distant places had to bring the money of their country, and depend upon buying animals for their offerings on reaching Jerusalem. These shrewd money sharks that the Master called thieves, had taken advantage of this situation, and were charging exorbitant rates of exchange on the money, and then were also charging exorbitant prices for the animals that they were selling to the worshipers for them to offer as sacrifices. The One was there who was the Author of the temple and its service, and the spectacle presented before Him was so out of harmony with the purpose for which the temple had been dedicated, and so out of harmony with the plan of His Father, that it caused the divinity of His nature to flash through His humanity in a stern rebuke that gave those desecrators of the sacred precincts a vivid but miniature idea of judgment realities; and in this was fulfilled the statement in the 69th Psalm, that “the zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up.” The Revised Version translates the expression in John, “Zeal for Thy house shall eat me up.” The prophecy in the psalm would seem to show that while the Master would patiently endure all the personal reproaches that fell upon Him, yet when it came to the question of the desecration of His Father’s house and of the divinely appointed service that was for the purpose of showing the sinner the way of salvation, divinity must flash forth. The eternal life of men was at stake, and the Lord could not remain indifferent. Zeal for His Father’s house caused the emphatic display of divine power.

4198 — The Priests in Ezra

In Ezra 7:7 it says there were Levites among those that went up with Ezra to Jerusalem, and in chapter 8:15 it says he could find none. J. E. G.

But if you will read on in chapter 8 to verse 20, you will find that he obtained Levites after all. When he found there was none, he sent for Eliezer and others, and he sent them with a commandment to Iddo the chief, told them what they should say unto Iddo, and to his brethren the Nethinims, . . . that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of our God. And it tells us that they brought a man of understanding of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi. So the statement in the 7th chapter and 7th verse is true, that they really joined that company after all.