Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 10, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 23.

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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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

4093 — Worship in the New Jerusalem

Will there be no place of worship in the city of the New Jerusalem? Rev. 21:22; Isa. 66:23. C. M.

The Holy City will be a place of worship. One of the best definitions which the Bible gives of worship is service. See Matt. 4:10, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." God's children will come up to worship Him from week to week and from month to month. The expression in Rev. 21:22 simply means that there will be no temple of sacrifice in the Holy City. Our Lord has finished His ministrations for sinful man, and there will be no more ministrations for sin; but the temple is there, we are told, better than any building,—the presence of the Lord Almighty and the Lamb.

4094 — First-Born, Col. 1:15-17

Please explain Col. 1:15-17, in which Jesus is called "the first-born of every creature," and also the Creator of the universe. G. D.

"The first-born of every creature" is an expression that is used to indicate preeminence. He is the Preeminent One who rose from the dead, and through whose resurrection all others rise. So the psalmist predicted of Christ, the Son of David, "I will make Him My first-born, higher than the kings of the earth." This is placed after that other prophecy, "He shall cry unto Me, Thou art My Father, My God, and the rock of My salvation." Ps. 89:26, 27. We read also in Ps. 2:7, "Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee." See also Heb. 1:5, 6. He was the Preeminent One among all God's children, and the One through whom all others are saved; and yet previous to this He had been God's "fellow." Zech. 13:7. He is also the "Word" that was "in the beginning with God," and was God, through whom all things were made. John 1:1-3. And this Being who, under God, created the heavens and the earth, also became sin for us, was made in the likeness of the flesh, and died that we might have life. What the apostle wants to do in Col. 1:15-17 is to assure us that this Being who died for us is the One who has creative power and is able to save to the uttermost.

4095 — Children in the New Earth

Will children be born in the new earth? or will women bring forth at all, according to Isa. 65:23 and 11:6-8, which says they shall not bring forth for trouble? Does that mean they shall not bring forth at all? or that they will bring forth, but not for trouble? It speaks of the sucking child—present tense. D. P.

The only proper way to understand all these Old Testament prophecies is in the light of the New. God wanted to do for the children of Israel back in those days what they would not let Him do because of their unbelief. He desired to give them rest when they went into the promised land; and yet we are told, in Joshua, He did not give them that rest which He designed. He declares, in the 11th chapter of Deuteronomy, that He would make their days as the days of heaven upon earth; in other words, give them eternal life. But they in their unbelief would not accept of the eternal life. Moses himself was characteristic of what God would have done for all His children. At the age of 120 "his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated." He was as young as he was when he came out of Egypt, with the exception of years. So also was Caleb. He could say at the end of that period that he was as able to go out and to come in to war as he was when he was sent to spy out the land forty years before. So God would have given power and strength and life to all His children had they but believed. Then in the days of Ezekiel, in that restoration from Babylon, He would have done wonderful work for them again. The presentation of that sanctuary which Ezekiel saw, as recorded in the last chapters of his prophecy, was a pledge from God of what He would do for His children. The land would be healed of sin, and His people be healed of all plagues, and God's glory would have rested in that temple as it never had rested upon the earth since sin marred His creation. The name of that place would have been "JEHOVAH IS THERE," and the very conditions

predicted in Isaiah 11 and 65 would have been fulfilled among God's children; but, in the language of Ezekiel, "they would not be ashamed." They did not turn from their sins. A partial fulfilment of the prophecy was seen in the return from Babylon and in the building of the little temple over which the old men wept; but the temple of Ezekiel was never seen, nor will it ever be seen on this earth.

It was a conditional prophecy; and those who are saved under the new covenant will enter into eternal blessings far more glorious than those even that were promised in the past, for it will not be simply a little land of Palestine that will be given to them, but the whole earth, of which that land was a type. And therefore we read in Eph. 3:5, of that mystery "which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel." Our Lord tells us that in that new world they that shall be counted worthy to have a part in the resurrection out from among the dead, "neither marry, nor are given in marriage: neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." Luke 20:35, 36. We therefore conclude that the promise in Isaiah includes what God would have done for His people back there, and looks forward even to a better and more glorious fulfilment in the new earth.

4096 — Sprinkling with Clean Water

Will you please explain Eze. 36:25? and is this among those scriptures of Ezekiel that are not fulfilled? E. S. J.

This is among the promises of God to Israel that are not fulfilled, and never can be fulfilled to the literal tribes of Israel, or Israel according to the flesh, and yet this promise is true to every single soul who will enter into covenant relationship with God through Christ. The figure "the sprinkling of clean water" is taken from the ceremonial cleansing by the priest. See Lev. 14:51: "And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times." So the leper was cleansed. It is to this that the psalmist refers in Ps. 51:7: "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean." The cleansing was a judicial cleansing, a judicial pronouncement that the defiled person had become clean. That is what the Lord declares He will do with those who will yield to Him. Water is a symbol of the Word, for it is by the Word that we are cleansed,—"Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you." John 15:3. "That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word." Eph. 5:26. It does not refer to baptism. It is simply God's cleansing of the soul of those who will yield themselves to Him, and that is shown by what follows,—"From all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you," etc. Baptism, in the New Testament, is a sign to the world that the individual is joined to Christ.

4097 — "Let the Dead Bury Their Dead"

What is the meaning of the passage, "Let the dead bury their dead"? Luke 9:60. Ada.

Read the context. The great thought of verses 57-62 is loyalty and love to God, giving up all for His work as against human expediency. One would follow Jesus for gain. Jesus let him know that He had no earthly wealth to give, not even a place to lay His own head. Others would follow, but they wished to do something else first. One wanted to visit all his relatives and get what he could from them, and then go. Another wanted to stay at home till his father died, and then bury him, before he did God's work. These were all excuses. Following Jesus was more important than all things else. Those who could not see this, were dead to their own real interests, dead to the demands of duty. Leave the aged ones with them. They can not help God's cause with such hearts. Let them stay at home to bury the dead. Let those who are dead to the

interests of God's work and their own salvation, bury the physically dead. Let those who understand, do God's work.

4098 — The Jew

Please explain Zech. 8:23. Has that reference to the last days? and what is meant by the Jew? Z.

There is an evident reference to the Christian dispensation, and the Jew is He who is of the tribe of Judah, our Lord Jesus Christ. "Salvation is of the Jews." John 4:22. The expression is a general one. While the Jews have been rejected and cast out, the time will come when the Jew will be high above all others. Of course this is fulfilled in Christ.