Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 10, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 18.

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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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

3119.—Reading the Bible

Please tell me how to read the Bible understandingly. I know it is the door to eternal life, but after it is opened I wish help in searching it, exhaustively and not at random. W. R.

The true way to the understanding of the Scriptures, to knowing God’s will, is fear, or reverence, and humility before God. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant,” or as the margin reads, “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and His covenant to make them know it.” Ps. 25:14; also the promise of the 9th verse, “The meek will He guide in judgment; and the meek will He teach His way.” Connect that with John 7:17, “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine.” There must be the disposition not simply to know God’s will, to understand His Word, but above all things else to know that Word in order to do it. Therefore the Bible should be read prayerfully, with the highest petition of all that we might know God’s Word in order to do His will.

Secondly, it should be read single-heartedly. Turn away from thoughts of other things, and place the whole thought upon the Scripture, with the mind open and the heart softened to receive God’s Word.

Thirdly, study it intelligently. First, by reading it through by course, thinking over the ground covered, that one may get the scope of the book, the object of God in giving it. Note the great central thoughts, and others revolving around them. Study it by subjects and concordance. That also is helpful. In reading it by course one will come to some particular thing which he may specially desire more light upon, as for instance in the first chapters of Genesis he will read about the Seed, the promise of the Seed of the Woman. While a concordance is not always the surest, safest guide, it will help very materially. We prefer sometimes a good Bible index. Studying that subject he will find that the Seed is the great thought center all through God’s promises to and leading of the children of Israel until all centers in Christ Jesus. In that same lesson he may learn something about the Sabbath, just a little of its origin. He can trace that all through the Scriptures in the same way. It is impossible to point out to any one just how he should study the Bible. True methods grow. Some would get more light in studying it one way; some in another. But we are sure that these suggestions which we have given our querist will prove of great help to him if he will carry them out. Take that Word as the Word of life, place no absolute finality upon any human understanding. We may understand the truth of the light and know that it is true, but that truth may have very much more light than we at first see. Hold the soul open continually for greater illumination. “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”

3120.—Who Wrote the Ten Commandments?

Ex. 34:27, 28 seems to teach that Moses wrote the Ten Commandments. Is that so? W. P. M. L.

No, Moses did not write the Ten Commandments, only as he copied them in a book. He did not write them upon tables of stone. What the Lord told Moses to write was all that was at this time given him in the covenant with Israel; but the third pronoun “he” in the 28th verse refers not to Moses but to the Lord. Sometimes the antecedent is understood rather than expressed. As to whom this “he” refers to, see Deut. 10:1-4, in which the Lord expressly says in the second verse, “I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou breakest;” and the fourth verse declares, “And He (God) wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments.” It seems to us there can be no question at all as to who wrote the Ten Commandments on the tables of stone, both in the first and the second instance.

3121.—The Waldenses

Can you tell me the origin and give me a short description of the Waldenses? A. L. O.

Almost any cyclopedia will give an account of the Waldenses. They are a Christian sect dwelling formerly in the Italian, Swiss, and French Alpine regions. The origin of their name is traced to Peter Waldus, or Waldo, a rich citizen of Lyons who in 1170, from reading the Bible and some passages from the fathers of the church, determined to imitate the mode of life of the apostles and primitive Christians, gave his goods to the poor, and began preaching. He gathered to himself numerous followers; some were called Lyonists, from the place of their birth; some of them Sabotati, on account of their wooden shoes or sandals. Some of them were called Humiliatists, on account of their humility. They were excommunicated by the Papacy as early as 1184, and yet they seemed in a way to have been connected with the church later than that. The great objection to them seems to have been that they were preachers, and their contempt for the mendicant friars led them into more or less opposition to the regular rules of the church. When they held that a bad priest could not validly administer the sacrament, and rejected confession, of course persecution began. The French Waldenses were stamped out by persecution. Then they fled to other places, notably the Piedmont valleys. In these persecutions they were scattered everywhere, and mingled with other sects, losing in some cases their identity. They use now the French language in their services. Each congregation is governed by a council consisting of the elders and deacons under the presidency of the pastor. They are noted for their pure morals and diligent industry. At the time of the Reformation they found themselves in harmony with many of the principles of Protestantism, and have so been considered ever since. Sometimes it is said that they descended from apostolic times, but the true history of the church shows that this is not the case. The larger numbers are now found in Northern Italy.

3122.—The Beginning of the Day

When was the counting of time changed from sundown to sundown, or however it was reckoned, to the way we have it now, midnight to midnight? W. AND K.

The beginning of the day at evening and the closing at evening is indicated in Genesis 1, and was a Bible custom throughout. That really is the natural day, “the evening and the morning.” Consequently we have the compound evening-mornings to indicate days. See Dan. 8:14. The 2,300 days are literally 2,300 evening-mornings. We have also a Greek compound indicating the same. Hesiod, the Greek poet, refers to the occultation of the Pleiades as lasting forty nights and days; that is, calendar days. Sometimes just the night itself was referred to, as the English se’nnight, or seven days; and fortnight, or fourteen days. The sacred record is verified by earliest tradition. Overall’s “Dictionary of Chronology,” under “Day,” says: “The Roman began at midnight; the Italian from sunset to sunset; the Chinese day had twelve parts of two hours each; the English civil day, like the Roman, began at midnight. The astronomical day begins at noon.” As to the time when the change occurred, the Encyclopedia Britannica says: “The subdivision of the day into twenty-four hours has prevailed since the remotest ages, the different nations have not agreed either with respect to the epoch of its commencement, or the manner of distributing the hours. Europeans, in general, like the ancient Egyptians, place the commencement of the civil day at midnight. Astronomers, after the example of Ptolemy, regard the day as commencing with the sun’s culmination or noon. Some nations, as the ancient Chaldeans and the modern Greeks, have chosen sunrise for the commencement of the day. In the early ages of Rome and even down to the middle of the fifth century after the foundation of the city, no other divisions of the day were known than sunrise, sunset, and midday.”

So that the time when men began to reckon the day at midnight is not known. The oldest beginning we have is of course the natural beginning at the sunset. All later beginnings are artificial.

3123.—Reuel or Jethro

Was Moses’ father-in-law’s name Reuel, as termed in Ex. 2:18, or Jethro, as called in Ex. 3:1? W. P. M. L.

There are two ways by which the passage may be understood. One, is that the same man had two names. That is not an uncommon thing, as, for instance, Jacob and Israel, sometimes called by the one name, and sometimes by the other. However, Boothroyd translates Ex. 2:18, “And when they came to Raguel [Reuel] their grandfather, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to-day?” He makes Raguel the father of Jethro; Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law; and Hobab, Moses’ brother-in-law. The word “father” is sometimes used for a remote ancestor.

3124.—H. K. W.—Luke 12:4, 5.—

The expression in Luke 12:4, 5 is understood in two ways, as referring both to Christ and to Satan. Those who think that it refers to Christ, declare, of course, that He has all power, not only in the life which now is, but the life which is hereafter. Those who refer it to Satan, while they freely admit, of course, that Christ has all power, also contend that it is the purpose of Christ to kill or to cast into Gehenna, but it is Satan’s object to destroy. To us it would seem to depend upon the meaning we will place upon “fear.” If “fear” is used in the sense of loving reverence, it would refer to God. Fear Him. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” If it is in the sense of fear akin to terror, it would apply to Satan. Therefore we should shun him, have naught to do with him. To us it seems the better application to apply it to Satan himself. We read in Heb. 2:14 that he has the power of death. This does not mean that we should fear him in the sense of feeling that he has all power, but fear him in the sense that we should have nothing to do with him.

3125.—Gathering Sticks on the Sabbath

Why is it said that the man who gathered sticks as recorded in Num. 15:32 was gathering them to build a fire? Is there anything to indicate that? M. L. B.

No, there is not in the context. As our correspondent remarks, he may have been gathering them to build a booth or for some other purpose. Of course one of the natural purposes for which one might gather sticks is for building a fire, and that may have been the case, and probably was. The tree branches would probably have been used if he were gathering them for the purpose of building a booth, and yet this is only reasonable conjecture. The definite purpose for which he was gathering sticks is not stated. The context shows, however, that his course was presumptuous sin against God.