p. 11 | Question Corner by Milton C. Wilcox

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 2, 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 Name and address must be given, not for publication, but as evidence of good faith and to insure reply by letter if thought best.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.

91—Three Days and Three Nights

Will you please explain Matt. 12:40? We are told that the Lord did not lie in the grave three days and three nights. Now I do not doubt the Scriptures, but my neighbors do, and I should like to have an explanation; and in this connection read Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:1; and John 20:1.

W. H. H.

The subject can be treated quite at length, but we have not space for it here. If one wishes to get a much fuller exposition of it, let him read the book “Questions and Answers,” question 26, pages 28-34.

First of all, Matt. 12:40 does not demand that Jesus should be in the grave three days and three nights. That scripture said He should be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now what is the heart of the earth? There is absolutely nothing in Scripture to prove that it was the grave. Then to what does it refer? May it not refer to the powers of earth? The heart of the earth under Satan at that time was the Roman power. Over and over again the enemies of Jesus sought to take Him, but we read that His time was not yet come, and consequently He was not delivered into their hands. On the other hand, we read that of the night when He was betrayed He Himself expressly said, “When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched not forth your hands against Me; but this is your hour, and the power of darkness. And they seized Him.” Luke 22:53, 54.

It was concerning this hour that He prayed: “Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour.” Again: “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” John 12:27, 31.

That was on what we would call Thursday or sixth day night, belonging to the next day, or Friday, when Jesus was delivered into the hands of the authorities. We have, then, Friday night and Friday, the Sabbath night and Sabbath, and Sunday night, with some of the early part of that day—three days.

Secondly, what would be called in the Scriptures “three days and three nights” simply means three days. In order to prove that it must involve seventy-two hours, we would have to prove that Jonah was in the stomach of the sea monster just seventy-two hours; but the scripture says, “As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Jonah’s record broke up the three days and three nights, that covered the whole thing. It met what is demanded. This is in perfect harmony with the use of such terms in the Scripture elsewhere. Read the record of Samson and the periods of time connected with the record as found in Judges 14:12, 15, 17.

Note also what is said in the twenty-fourth chapter of Luke, in the very close of what the disciples themselves say: “We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel, and beside all this, to-day is the third day since these things were done.” So the three days included not simply the time that Our Lord was in the grave, but the time that He was persecuted and beaten—in the hands of His enemies, given up, in God’s wisdom, to them—and that part of the first day which followed His resurrection.

Now regarding the texts: There is no disagreement certainly between John 20:1; Luke 24:1; and Mark 16:1. They all mention the morning of that first day when the disciples came to the sepulchre. The only one that seems to disagree with that is Matthew; but Matthew does not contradict the others, and it should be understood that the time was the same that is recorded by the other evangelists. Greenfield, in his Greek Testament, gives a different reading of Matt. 27:66 and Matt. 28:1. We would like to say to our correspondent, that in the early copies, there were no divisions of chapters or verses, or words even. They all ran together solid, just the same as “afterthreedaysIregain.” Matt. 27:66 belongs with the twenty-eighth chapter. Read it this way, and we have perfect harmony with Mark and Luke: “So they went, and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch in the end of the Sabbath. As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher.” That is the way the text could read, and it is the suggestion that Greenfield makes in his Greek Testament.

92—The Sabbath and the First Day

The Christian Church people believe that the seventh day was and is the Sabbath which God gave to Adam. They also believe that the day Jesus arose from the dead is more important and is therefore to be observed. As the old laws were for the people before Jesus came to earth as our Saviour, we have nothing to do with the Old Bible or Testament. Please tell me why we are not to honor and keep the day of Jesus’ resurrection; for that day meant eternal life to us, so it seems it ought to be observed. Is there a command where it says we shall not observe it?

R. H.

First of all, human belief or disbelief does not affect in any way God’s word. The great truth of God’s word remains, whether we believe it or not. Let us settle that great fact in our Christian experience first of all.

Secondly, God is not a changeable being like man. He gave His law to His people in the very beginning, even before sin entered, so that man might be like Him. As He created man in His own image, He designed that man should be in His own image morally; consequently He gave the moral law, or the Ten Commandments. And He Himself said: “Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Eccl. 12:13, 14.

Note that the duty which was demanded of man then—the whole duty—was embraced in the law, and in that law, that expression of duty, mankind would be judged at last. That judgment has not yet taken place. Would we have God judging one class of people in one age by one law, and another class of people in another age by another law? That law, that duty, was the expression of God’s character. But we read in Malachi, “For I, Jehovah, change not.” Mal. 3:6. We read in James 1:17, “With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

In the second chapter of James, verses 8-12, we have the same law and the same duty, “the royal law according to the Scripture,” therefore the Old Testament Scriptures, because there were no other Scriptures in James’s day.

Thirdly, it is a “royal law,” or the law of the great King.

Fourthly, it is the law which says, “Thou shalt not kill,” and, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”; therefore the Decalogue.

Fifthly, it is the law by which we are to be judged. It is therefore the same law that is mentioned in Eccl. 12:13, 14—the one unchangeable law of God, of which Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Matt. 5:17. And then He tells us that “whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments; and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least [or as Campbell’s translation—a Christian translation—says, “of no account”] in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5:19.

Again Jesus said, “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.” Luke 16:17.

Therefore God’s law stands.

There were laws, of course, that passed away—the laws regulating sacrifices, offerings, ceremonies, etc. Those laws pointed forward to Christ, His death, His priesthood. When our Lord came, the shadow ended, and the substance was here. Those laws expired by limitation. Laws regulating the nationality of the Jews, passed away when the na- tion itself passed away. But the great eternal law of God, spoken by Him, written by His own finger on tables of stone, manifested in the character of our Lord Jesus Christ, remains and will forever remain, because God does not change.

Regarding the first day of the week, we have no commandment for it whatever. Granted that our Lord rose on that day, which He doubtless did—but which is disputed by many—that is no reason why we should observe the day. He did not take the whole day to arise. He arose just before daylight—seemingly, from the record, in a moment of time. The early disciples did not keep the day. We have no commandment whatever that it should be kept. Every act of Jesus had to do with the salvation of mankind. There is no more eternal life for us in His resurrection than there is in His death, or in His blameless life. Our resurrection was pledged by every righteous act of Jesus, for He was raised from the dead because He was righteous. But God has given us no commandment concerning any day as a memorial of that great event. On the other hand, He has given us an ordinance which shows forth the resurrection of Jesus, and that is baptism. See Rom. 6:3, 4.

The baptism of the believer is the marriage ceremony that unites him to Christ; and the newness of life in which he walks every day, is a constant memorial, every day of the week, and every hour of the day, of the power of the resurrection in Jesus. The inquiry of the Christian should not be, “Is there a command against a thing?” but, “Is there a command for it?” Jesus said, “Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” Luke 6:46. Again, “Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” John 15:14. Again, “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3.

The great test of our love to God is not the doing of something He has not commanded, but it is the doing of just what He has commanded. Those who endeavor to substitute their own way for God’s way, place their own institutions in the place of God’s institutions, and try to supply, by an uncommanded service, a substitute for obedience to God’s commands, and may well merit what the Lord Himself has said by His prophet: “When ye come to appear before Me, who hath required this at your hand?” Isa. 1:12. Any substitute that we may bring, will never meet God’s simple requirement of obedience. “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” 1 Sam. 15:22.

One other thought in this connection, and that is, for what did Jesus die? The answer is, of course—for there can be no other answer—He died to save us from our sins. “Thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.” Matt. 1:21. “Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity.” Titus 2:14. Now, He does not save us in sin, but from sin; not in iniquity, but from iniquity. But what is sin?—“Sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. “Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” Rom. 7:7. The only law which says, “Thou shalt not covet,” is the Ten-Commandment law.

Jesus came, then, to save us from the transgression of God’s eternal law. And in order that He may do that, He not only forgives the sin, or the transgression of the law, but He writes that law in our hearts. Heb. 8:8-10. It is well to note also that this expression in Hebrews is not of New Testament origin. It is quoted from Jeremiah, and the law that God writes in our hearts is the law that Jeremiah knew six hundred years before Christ.

Why, then, should we keep God’s law?

First of all, because it was given by the great God of heaven, and is as unchangeable as Himself.

Secondly, because Jesus died to save us from its transgression.

Thirdly, He Himself left an example of perfect obedience to that law.

Could there be better reasons?