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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 14, 1913

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

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Question Corner

“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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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.

4199 — Thrones at Jerusalem, Jer. 1:15

Does this text mean that the north kingdoms really set their thrones there? or that in going there their kingdoms are at stake? G. W. S.
No! it simply means that the kingdoms from the north would gather around Jerusalem and take it. That is all. It was God's warning to Judah. They had thought that they would exist forever, because that was God's sanctuary and God's city, and that whatever they did, it would still stay. They did not know, nor appreciate, that their iniquities were working toward the destruction of Jerusalem; so God warns them that the nations from the north (of course when they came against Jerusalem they were under one head, that of Babylon) would gather around Jerusalem, and would there judge the people just as tho their thrones themselves were there. The prophecy may look forward to that time when there shall be a gathering in the last days in the war of Armageddon, when the thrones of all would indeed be at stake. But right here in this prophecy of Jeremiah it seems to have a local application.

4200 — The Judgment of the Wicked

If the wicked are already condemned, why their judgment?
The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death.” Rom. 6:23. But temporal death, or the natural death that we die, is not a punishment for the sins that we have personally committed, but is the result of Adam's transgression. When Adam sinned, he was deprived of partaking of the tree of life, and became subject to death, according to the divine decree; and since he was subject to death, all his posterity must be subject to the same thing. He could not transmit attributes that he did not possess. Hence we have this statement: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Cor. 15:22. We all die in Adam, but Christ gives each one a resurrection. That is the plain statement of the text. And then in the resurrection we stand, not upon the record that Adam made, but upon our own individual acts. Everything that we lost in Adam we receive back through Christ; in the resurrection, the righteous stand in the strength of their own immortal life that they have received as a gift of God through Christ; and when the wicked are resurrected, they stand to receive their reward for the deeds that they did, and that reward is everlasting death. God's plan provides for justice, and does not leave the individual under the necessity of believing that he is called upon to suffer for the transgression of his father Adam. Through Christ both saint and sinner stand upon the record of their own personal lives.

4201 — The Millennial Reign of the Saints

In the thousand-year reign of the saints with Christ, over whom will they reign?
Rev. 20:4, speaking of the redeemed, says, “And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” This thousand-year reign, as will be seen by the rest of the chapter, is the period between the first and the second resurrection, the righteous being raised in the first resurrection, and the wicked raised in the second. The text says that they reign with Christ. Then since they reign with Christ, they would reign over whatever Christ reigns over. Rev. 5:10 represents the redeemed as saying to Christ, Thou “hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.” The same thought is also expressed in the sixth verse of the first chapter. When Christ undertook the redemption of the human race, He arranged the plan to be forever identified with the human family. He is our elder Brother, and we are adopted into the divine Father's family. “For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare Thy name unto My brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee.” Heb. 2:11, 12. And again: “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.” Rom. 8:14-17.
Are we as Christians awake to the wonderful gift that is conferred upon us in the plan of salvation? We are made heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Christ is the only-begotten Son; and when the Father adopts us into His family, we are not stepchildren, but we stand in a joint relation with His own beloved Son. And then, when the great consummation is finally reached, the record tells us: “I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” Rev. 21:2, 3. The redemption of mankind is costing Heaven an indescribable price; and when He shall bring His redeemed sons and daughters into their eternal home, they are to reign with their Redeemer. “And it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” 1 John 3:2.
In the redeemed state, we will not reign over subjects in the sense in which kings reign or tyrannize over their subjects in this world. “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so; but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth. Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath appointed unto Me; that ye may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Luke 22:25-30. The principles of the kingdom of Satan which he has transmitted to the kings of the Gentiles cause lordship and tyranny, and require that the subject shall enslave himself, if necessary, for the king. But the principles of the kingdom of the Prince of Peace exalt and establish that higher and more delightful form of government where each one seeks to serve the other, and to make the other happy. The reigning with Christ is a work of joyful ministry.

4202 — Will Men Be Lost for Not Keeping the Sabbath?

Do you not think it presumptuous to say that those rejecting the Bible Sabbath day as a non-essential are doomed to destruction? It seems to me incompatible with God's mercy that so many hundreds who have rejected the literal teaching of the Sabbath law, yet who live upright, moral lives and seem to enjoy their spiritual experience, are forever lost unless they obey the fourth commandment to the very letter. H. T.
No question involving Bible truth can be properly answered except in the words of Scripture, for it is upon the Scripture itself that we must stand. The Word declares, “So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” James 2:12. It further says: “For there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” Rom. 2:11-13. Then the verdict of the Word in regard to judging is, “But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.” Because a man rejects a doctrine that we have presented, we do not necessarily infer that he has rejected God also; for the way in which we presented it may have been so bungling as to close the mind of the individual completely to a truth that is perfectly plain in the word of God. And hence we are not to judge, for all these persons will stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. But when one does see plain truth in God's word, and rejects it, he must suffer the consequences. The Scriptures are plain upon this point. Speaking of those who had rejected truth when He was here upon earth, Christ says, “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.” Christ could read the thoughts and the motives of men, and He was able to tell when they had rejected truth that meant their condemnation; but He has not left that work, or that kind of ability, with us. We are to live His truth as we understand it in His word. We are to seek to have our consciences educated to divine truth, and to keep our consciences inviolate. We are to teach that truth as far as we have opportunities; but the question of how that truth shall be received, and how individuals will stand in the judgment, is not our part of the work.

4203 — The Sacrifices of Israel

Where in the Scriptures have we any evidence that the Israelites might understand that their sacrifices were typical, and not real? I can not find a hint anywhere that even Moses knew they were typical. S. H.
We would suggest to our inquirer that he study such texts as the following: “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” Col. 2:14-17. Then if he will study the book of Hebrews, which is a divine commentary on the sanctuary service and its sacrifices of the old dispensation, he will get a great deal of added light showing that the Hebrew nation distinctly understood what they were doing in offering their sacrifices. For instance, the first part of the ninth chapter of Hebrews talks particularly of the sanctuary, mentioning its various parts, and telling of its services. Then we have these statements in verses 18-19: “Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Such texts as these show very plainly that the writer of the letter to the Hebrews understood that the sacrifices of the Old Testament pointed forward to the shedding of the blood of Christ.