Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 24, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 25.

“IF YE WILL INQUIRE, INQUIRE YE.”

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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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

407 — The Rest That Remains

Please explain the fourth chapter of Hebrews. It appears as though there was a movement afoot at that time to change the Sabbath day. M.

The Sabbath day is not the question of Hebrews 4 at all. Open the Bible with the chapter before you. Read chapter 3. It is the Lord’s special desire to bring His people home to Him to that rest. He emphasizes the thought again and again that the Hebrews of old did not enter into that rest, in both the third chapter and the fourth chapter. In the eighth verse: “For if Jesus” (see the American Revised Version; “Jesus” in Greek is the same as “Joshua” in Hebrew (see also the margin of our Common Version)) “had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day;”—that is, not another week-day, nor another day of twenty-four hours, but another time when God would give His people rest. The only reason why the Sabbath is brought in at all is to show that God’s plan concerning the rest of His people is from the beginning of this world; for He says, “He that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.” Verse 10. And verse 4: “For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works.” That is, that finished earth, as it came from the hand of God, was designed to be the rest home of man for all eternity; but unbelief came in, and man sinned, and consequently there was no rest; for “there is no rest to the wicked.” But He promised them rest when they came from Egypt. If they had believed, they would have entered into it; but Joshua did not give them rest then. The entering in of that rest, therefore, is yet future; it remains. Then again under Solomon and David God would have given His people rest, but unbelief thwarted it again. Now the Lord puts it upon each soul individually through faith. To-day, every day—God’s call to enter that rest is every day; and when man will come to that place where he will give up his own strivings and his own work and his own sins, and yield himself wholly to the righteousness of God, he will enter into the beginning of that rest. He will find rest in Christ Jesus from all his sins and strife of soul, and that rest will be completed when man enters that earth made new at the second coming of Christ. The only reason why the Sabbath day is mentioned there at all is that it is a pledge of God’s eternal rest when His plan is completed in redemption.

408 — Union of Israel

Please give me an explanation, in the “Signs,” of Eze. 37:15-20. What is meant by the sticks? C. R.

The sticks used in this parable were just simply symbols of the two divisions of Israel—ten tribes and the tribe of Judah. Ezekiel was bidden to join the two together, so that they would become one, and that was a symbol of what God was going to do finally for His children. Now He would have done that at that time when Cyrus made his decree of restoration of the people and temple of Israel. That decree went throughout his realm. It was the privilege of all the tribes to return to God with all their heart. Then would have followed the building of the sanctuary which Ezekiel describes, and the division of the land which he gives in his last chapter. But these were based on conditions of repentance and the putting away of sin, and Israel failed to do that. They did not heed God’s call; consequently they were not united as a nation. But the Lord Jesus Christ calls them by individuals; and tho some of the tribes are broken off by unbelief, others are grafted in by faith, according to Romans 11, and in Christ all shall become one, not only of those who were born Israel after the flesh, but also those who accept of Christ by faith, including the Gentiles.

In brief, this is the meaning of the scripture. Out of all the nations God is going to gather His people. The servant David referred to in verse 24 is a symbol of David’s greater Son, the Lord Jesus, and the Israel will be all the saved of God that enter in through the twelve gates of the city described in Revelation 21 and 22,—gates that are named after the tribes which enter through them.

409 — Adam and His Sin

How was Adam punished for his sin? Was his sentence to go to work the penalty, or was it an additional punishment to the death sentence? Also was the pain of childbirth an additional punishment? Did Adam and Eve pay all these penalties? D.

In God’s great plan, consequences are often punishment. There were certain consequences to Adam’s sin, and when Adam sinned, he cut himself off from the great source of life, and its penalty was death. Work is not a part of punishment. Work was designed to be a blessing to man, and not a punishment. It was not a part of the curse, but was given to man as an aid in triumphing over the curse. “Cursed is the ground for thy sake,” the Lord tells him. The very worst curse that can come to humanity is idleness. God demanded that man should till the ground, that he might not be idle. He would learn gospel lessons in that. All these other things come as consequences. So with all the things which the race has suffered. They are the fruitages of the plan of sin.

410 — Judas

Please explain about Judas in your paper. Could he help that he sinned, when it was according to the Scripture? And will he be lost for doing so, or did he repent? L.

God’s foreknowledge does not mean God’s foreordination. God’s foreordination only takes in the characters of the holy. He marks out those, predestinates those, and calls men to those characters; and so He called Judas, so He gave Judas the greatest opportunity in the world of developing a character under the instruction of the holiest teacher that earth could ever know. But Judas rejected all these things, and cherished the thought of selfishness, which molded the character that he had. It was Christ’s own compassion which led Him to give Judas the opportunity; and when he killed himself out of despair and remorse, in that death he went “to his own place.” Acts 1:25. It is for this reason that Jesus calls him “the son of perdition,”—that is, the son of utter destruction. That Judas might have done differently is shown in the very fact of his acknowledging it after the deed was wrought. He evidently thought that Christ would release Himself, that Christ by His mighty power would not suffer Himself to be taken; and so he used the power of Christ to trade on, in order that he might get gain from it. Yet he had opportunity to repent of all his plans, right up to the very time, almost, of their consummation. It is often true that men who will do the greatest sins against God will be forced by the Spirit of God, insincere though they are, to confess at the very last, in order that God’s cause may be vindicated. See Matt. 27:3-10.

411 — Abolishing the Commandments

Please explain Eph. 2:15. I do not understand it. A Brother.

For an exposition of this part of chapter 2 of Ephesians, see “Studies in Ephesians” in the “Signs of the Times” of March 23 last. This verse is explained under note 5. The thing which Jesus abolishes is “the enmity,” and the place where He abolishes it is in His “flesh.” He took upon Himself the flesh of those whom He saves (Heb. 2:14; Gal. 4:4, 5; Rom. 1:3), and therefore the flesh that He took was the flesh that possessed all the tendencies toward sin, just the same as the flesh which the children bear, and if our Lord had followed those tendencies He would have been led into sin as every human being has been; but by the power of the Spirit of God dwelling in Him by faith He overthrew that enmity, abolished it. Man lets his mind run in harmony with his flesh, and it becomes the carnal mind, and “the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7. The mind therefore is in bondage to sin. Jesus began His work where man failed, in the mind, and there He abolished the enmity in the flesh, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances. Out of that very idea of the carnal mind have come all of the great human ordinances that men have devised to enable them to live better. All the various stated fasts and the crucifixions of the flesh have arisen out of human effort to earn salvation;

but all these passed away in the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. In a way there may be involved in this expression, “the law of commandments contained in ordinances,” some of the typical services of the Jews, the Jew looking to them for salvation rather than as mere types and forms to express faith. Jesus abolished them, and made in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and He invites both Jew and Gentile to let that new man come into the heart, that sin may be forgiven and overcome, and that they may be one in Christ Jesus.

412 — Foolish Questionings

Please explain 1 Tim. 4:1 and Titus 3:9. I think we have to love one another, and help each other, and believe in Jesus, not worry. C. C.

For an explanation of 1 Tim. 4:1-5, see later. Titus 3:9 reads: “But shun foolish questionings, and genealogies, and strifes, and fightings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.” All of which is very true, and quite plain without explanation. Foolish questionings are questionings which do not profit, questionings over non-essentials, questionings that do not affect moral conduct, or the struggle for life, in any way. Genealogies fall into this class. Never mind if we can not trace the genealogy of all God’s children. Leave all these. There are expressions concerning the ceremonial law, some things hard to be understood. Why discuss them, when they lead to fighting and strife? The things that do not profit in the way of building up, better not be debated, or argued.

413 — E. J. C.—See answer to question entitled “First-born,” in the “Signs” of June 10.