Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 7, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 22.

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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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

3145.—Day of Christ’s Resurrection

Did Christ rise on the first day of the week? W. H.

There is one passage of Scripture which very clearly seems to indicate that He did.—Mark 16:9, “Now when Jesus was risen early on the first day of the week.” The Syriac translation by Murdock is very definite. That translation reads, “And in the morning of the first day of the week He arose.” We do not know how anything could be more positive than this. An attempt to crowd in between that and the supposed time of His death a lot of inferences from other texts like Matt. 12:40 is to our mind entirely unwarranted, and yet if our readers find satisfaction in that we have nothing to say. The question of time has no bearing on the day of the week at all. It was a fulfilment of the type. The great event itself and what the event should mean is the important thing in connection with our Lord’s death and resurrection.

3146.—Sunday the Sabbath

It has been said that Sunday is the Sabbath of the New Testament; that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the apostles on the Day of Pentecost, and that day was Sunday. A. B.

It is difficult to tell just what day the Day of Pentecost was. It depends upon the beginning of the reckoning. There are some scholars who contend that it occurred that year on the first day of the week; there are others who feel just as clear that it occurred on the seventh day of the week. If the day of the week had been important on which the Day of Pentecost occurred, God would have told us just what day of the week that Pentecost was; but He did not do this. Pentecost came and Pentecost went, but the Lord says nothing whatever about the day of the week. If it had been the resurrection day which our Lord designed to honor, why did He allow one first day to pass over in silence before Pentecost came? We read in the first chapter of Acts that He was with the disciples forty days. Pentecost came at the end of fifty days, the very meaning of the word “Pentecost.” Between the time that Jesus ascended and the time of the outpouring of the Spirit was ten days. One Sunday at least was passed over during that time. But there is not one single word concerning it. Why the Spirit was poured out upon Pentecost was not because Jesus arose upon that day; was not to make a Sabbath day; was not to show that the day of the Spirit’s outpouring was holy. It was simply to fulfil the type as found in Lev. 23:15-17. The expression “the sabbath” in verse 15 does not mean the seventh-day Sabbath, but the yearly sabbath of the Passover. Pentecost was the offering of the first-fruits to the Lord. Lev. 23:15-17. On this Pentecost was the bringing in of the first-fruits in the Gospel harvest. That type was fulfilled; but so far from its making any day holy, there is not an indication of it in the Word.

3147.—In Closing Days. Isa. 66:22-24

Will you please explain this passage? It seems as though all this might last for months. M. E. M. D.

The closing verses of Isaiah 66 do not present things in consecutive order. The Lord through the prophet carries us forward to the new earth state, to that which is promised in Revelation 20 and 21; but the new heavens and the new earth are mentioned to show that the seed, the children of God, will abide as the new heavens and the new earth remain before the Lord. And in that new heaven and new earth they will go up from week to week and from month to month to worship the Lord of Hosts, from all parts of that new earth to the holy city. The 24th verse describes what will take place when the change from the old sin-cursed earth to the new earth occurs. According to Revelation 20 the wicked, instigated by Satan, will come up against the camp of the saints and the beloved city, which has descended from God out of heaven and rests upon the plain prepared for it by Christ’s coming. Zech. 14:4, 5. When the wicked surround the city in that way, God appears, and the great glory of God destroys the wicked. Then it is that Isa. 66:24 occurs. “They shall go forth, and look upon the dead bodies of the men that have transgressed against Me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.” Note that it is not living persons upon which the righteous may look. It is “dead bodies” according to the Revised Version, “carcasses” in the Common Version, both meaning the same thing, which will be seen. Then just as in the Valley of Hinnom or Gehenna of old, when the worm preyed upon the dead carcasses and the fire consumed what the worms left, these carcasses will be consumed, and the destroying agencies will not die nor be quenched until the judgment written shall be carried out.

3148.—Plagues of Egypt

Exodus 9 states that there was a very grievous murrain on the cattle and other beasts, and that all the cattle of Egypt died, and in the very next plague cattle are again mentioned, and also in 11:5 and 12:29 and chapter 14 that Pharaoh pursued Israel with horses. In what manner did Pharaoh obtain the cattle and horses during that time after they all died in the plague of the murrain? S. C. S.

The Lord does nothing to satisfy our curiosity. The very fact that the record reads as it does, is evidence of its truth. Certainly if one had been writing that which was not truth, he would have taken great care to explain about those seemingly impossible things; but the simple fact that He did not, demonstrates very clearly that He was designing to state only the great essentials of the story, and not cover it with details. The expression, “All the cattle of Egypt died,” may have reference simply to the cattle that were afflicted. The expression in the third verse is that it shall be “upon thy cattle which are in the field.” Those which were not in the field may not have been so afflicted, and there may have been many cattle not in the field. The expression, “All the cattle of Egypt died,” may mean therefore those which were afflicted with the murrain. Secondly, there was some time intervened between plagues. We read that the cattle of Israel were not affected; and they had many. The Egyptians may have taken some of the cattle of the children of Israel. Now in either of these suppositions we can quite clearly understand that the truth was told.

3149.—Rising and Setting of the Sun

Why should not one who believes that the Scriptures are given by inspiration of God, believe that the earth revolves around the sun, when the Scriptures abundantly teach that the sun rises and sets? Note the 19th Psalm for instance, where the sun is said to have a circuit. Why should we not believe that the sun moves and not the earth? A Subscriber.

The Bible uses language that touches things on the side of appearance sometimes. It is said, for instance, that men came to Abraham; but we know they were angels. So it is said that a man came to Daniel,—“the man Gabriel;” but we know that Gabriel is not a man, but an angel. He came, however, as a man and in the appearance of a man. The Bible speaks of the “circle of the earth,” indicating that it is round; it also speaks of the four corners of the earth. One might gather from that that it was square; but we know that common, ordinary language is used, meaning in all quarters. The sun appears to rise and to set; and so in common speech, which nobody misunderstands, which nobody would interpret as a wrong statement in any way, the language of appearance is used. Scientists speak of the rising and the setting of the sun just as much as do ordinary people. Of course they understand that it is the earth which revolves, but which seems to show that the sun rises and sets. There are various proofs, which we have not space to give, which quite clearly prove that the earth, as other heavenly bodies, does revolve, turns around on its axis, or an imaginary line that might be its axis. The earth is a planet the same as the other planets; it is a spherical body the same as the other planets. One of the very best proofs of the shape of the earth is its shadow on the moon at the time of an eclipse.

3150.—The Battle of Armageddon

When does the battle of Armageddon take place? Is it not at the second coming of Christ? or does it take place after the one thousand years are expired? A. Y.

The battle of Armageddon—or better, the war of Armageddon, because more than a battle is implied—will certainly begin before Christ comes. This is clearly shown by Rev. 16:16, “And they,” the evil spirits, “gathered them,” the armies of the nations, “together into the place which is called in Hebrew Har-Magedon,” literally the Valley of Megiddo. Christ comes in the very time of that battle, and men perish by His presence. When the wicked come up in the second resurrection, they are still filled with the spirit of war, and again they come up to the great battle in the closing part of the day of God Omnipotent, and Gog and Magog are gathered together from the whole world; but in the Lord’s presence again they are destroyed. Primarily, then, the war takes place before the thousand years begin, and in a different sense perhaps at the end of the thousand years. That, however, is not called the battle of Armageddon; but the nations will come up around Jerusalem, and will there be destroyed.

3151.—Forgive

Why did Jesus say, “When ye stand praying, forgive”? M. E. M. D.

The whole passage is found in Mark 11:25, and the reason why Jesus said it is told in the very verse itself: “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” God can not forgive trespasses which we hold in our hearts. He can not forgive the unforgiving. The unforgiving will not let go their sins. He holds forgiveness for every one, and will always extend it whenever they are in the condition to receive it; but he who will not forgive his fellow men, is not in a condition to receive the forgiveness of God. Mercy shall be extended to those who show mercy; so whenever one thinks to pray or may be called upon to pray, if he desires that his prayers shall be heard, and he knows aught that he has done against any one or that any one has done against him, he must yield it all to the Lord Jesus Christ and forgive, hold the heart of forgiveness, if he expects forgiveness of God.

3152.—Son of David. Luke 1:32

Please explain why our Saviour is called the Son of David. A Subscriber.

Because He “was born of the seed of David according to the flesh.” Rom. 1:3. It is a common usage of Scripture to call one the son of another who may be removed many generations from that one. How Christ was descended from David is shown in the third chapter of Luke.