Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 13, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 40.

[To Our Inquirers.— (1) The name and address of all who ask questions must accompany questions, not necessarily for publication, in token of good faith, and that we may reply by letter if thought best. All communications will be considered confidential if so desired, and no name will be published unless requested. But we have no time to give to anonymous or unsigned epistles or articles. (2) Let the questions be to the point. Do not say, “Explain Josh. 7:1-8;” but state the thing upon which help is desired. (3) Questions can not be answered immediately in this department. Sometimes it will mean a month or more of waiting. We can not reply to the same question frequently. Read answers to other questions; you may find reply to yours. (4) Members of the Bible Band will kindly enclose stamp if answer is desired by letter. Others will please enclose ten cents. This does not begin to meet expenses oftentimes. (5) “Foolish . . . questions avoid.”

2953.—Under the Law

What is it to be “under the law”?

B. B.

This is quite clearly shown in the passages where it occurs, as for instance Rom. 6:14, Gal. 5:18: “For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace;” “but if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” In the first scripture we are told that sin does not have dominion over those who are not under the law, and that those who are not under the law are under grace. God’s object of grace is the forgiveness of sins. This is shown in an abundance of passages. See Rom. 5:1, 2; 3:20-31. Grace is unmerited favor. By the unmerited favor of God our sins are taken away. The one thing which points out sin, is the law. “Nay, I had not known sin,” declares the apostle, “except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” Rom. 7:7; “Where no law is, there is no transgression.” Rom. 4:15. “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” Rom. 3:20. Therefore, grace brings us into harmony with God’s law: first, by forgiving all the sin which the law points out, for which the law condemns us; and, secondly, by placing within us God’s Holy Spirit in harmony with His law to enable us to keep His law, not in our strength, but in the strength of the Spirit. Those then who are “under the law” are those who are condemned by the law, who are still in their sins. Those who are not “under the law” are those whose sins are forgiven and who by the power of the Spirit of God are keeping the law. “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3. And that love is born within our heart by the Holy Ghost which He has given us. Rom. 5:5.

It is one of the saddest things in this world to hear a Christian say, when confronted with the duty of doing God’s commandments, “I am not under the law,” using an expression which shows liberty from sin, as an excuse or license to disobey. The only thing in this world which leads the soul to disobey is “the carnal mind,” which “is enmity against God;” is “not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7. Therefore the man who declares, as an excuse for disobedience to God, that he is not under the law, is confessing by that very thing that he has the carnal mind; while, on the other hand, those who walk in the Spirit and fulfil the fruits of the Spirit, the apostle assures us in Galatians 5 are not under the law, for “against such there is no law.” Why?—Because they are keeping the law of God.

2954.—Is It a Contradiction?

In Gen. 1:31 it is said that God saw everything that He had made, and behold, “it was very good.” In Gen. 2:18 we read that “it is not good.” Here is a positive contradiction. What have you to say upon it?

G. L.

Genesis 1 is an epitome of the work wrought by the Creator during the six days. The 31st verse expresses in human language God’s satisfaction at the work wrought. It was complete. Gen. 2:4-25 is a particularized account of the work of God in the Garden of Eden, and in the creation of the first pair. That account is summarized in the 27th verse of the first chapter. Man was created on the sixth day, and woman was created on the same day, immediately after. It was after the man alone was created that God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone,” and therefore He created the woman. “Male and female created He them.”

There is absolutely no contradiction at all. Gen. 2:18 has reference to an act prior to the expression of Gen. 1:31. When God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone,” He meant that man was not complete. The great plan of God had not been filled out. That was filled out when the woman was made; and both man and woman were made before God said of all His work, “It is very good.” Consecutive chapters do not always mean consecutive time. That is indicated all through the Holy Scriptures.

2955.—Loving Everybody: Matt. 12: 46-50

Did Jesus mean that we should love everybody as we do our own brothers and sisters? See Matt. 12:46-50.

M. C. A.

In the very nature of the case this is not possible. Yet we are to love everybody. He has told us that. We are even to “love our enemies.” We are to bless them that persecute us, pray for them that despitefully use us. We are to have the same spirit that our Lord Jesus Christ had, who gave Himself for those who hated Him. That is the love which is based on faith, and which sees in every soul the purchase of Christ’s blood and the possibilities of immortality in the kingdom of God; but a personal love is a different matter.

There are souls who are more congenial to the Christian than others. Even our Lord found rest in the society of some while He seemingly did not in that of others. John was the “beloved disciple,” and Jesus was often found at the house of Lazarus and Martha and Mary. That does not mean that He would have died for these quicker than He would for others in His great divine view of things; but in personal friendship He preferred their society to others, altho that never in any way took Him from His duty or turned Him from the mission given Him of God. In the sense of laboring to save others and counting their souls precious because they belong to Christ, we should love every one; but that does not forbid personal friendship.

There are bonds, however, that are stronger than the ties of blood. Our Lord tells us, in the fourteenth chapter of Luke, that love to Him is so important that it will lead us to forsake all earthly relationship, that we may cleave to Him. Living for Him sometimes separates the child of God from his kindred, so that his greatest foes are those of his own household, and they hate him with a bitterer hatred than those who are of no blood kinship at all. In such cases that bond of fellowship in Jesus Christ becomes stronger than any mere human tie can become; but union with Jesus Christ never leads the individual to hate his relatives who are not in Christ. He will still love and labor and pray for them. The hatred, if such there be, is on their part, not on his. Here is something to think over: We may love and not like, we may like and not love, we may both love and like.

2956.—What Is the Lord’s Day?

What day of the week is the Lord’s day? Rev. 1:10.

The question is an important one, yet the answer is very simple if we will stay by the Word. The text itself—“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”—does not tell us what day the Lord’s day was; neither are we to suppose for one moment that John would expect us to find out what day was meant by the use of the term a hundred years later by Tertullian, the first of the fathers of the Catholic Church that unquestionably applies the term “Lord’s day” to the first day of the week. John believed in the Word and he used the language of the Word. To the Word of the Lord must we turn to find out what the Lord’s day was. This is easily settled by two or three scriptures.

First, the Lord’s Word tells us in Ex. 20:10 that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” The Lord through Isa. 58:13 teaches that the Sabbath is His “holy day.” “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day.” In Mark 2:28 Jesus declares, “The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Then according to the Lord’s Word the Lord’s day is the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath of the Lord our God. This is absolutely conclusive, if we hold to the Word rather than human tradition.

2957.—Rev. 20: 5

I enclose a detached slip containing a statement concerning Rev. 20:5 in which it is stated that the words are spurious. Will you please explain?

E. B. D.

Explanation of this will be found in the answer to the first question on page 2 of the SIGNS of Sept. 15, 1909.