Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 3, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 43.

A Word to Our Inquirers.—We wish to help you; help us to do it. (1) Write your question clear, plain, definite. (2) Do not ask for the explanation of a chapter or a book. State the point clearly upon which information is desired. (3) Avoid foolish questions. (4) We can not always answer questions at once. (5) We can not reply to the same question frequently. (6) If answer is desired by letter, members of the Bible Band will please enclose stamp; others will kindly enclose ten cents. Oftentimes this does not begin to meet expenses. (7) We answer no anonymous or unsigned correspondence. We will not publish the name, nor even the initials if we are requested not to do so.

2967.— Gifts of the Spirit

Is not the speaking with tongues a sign of the outpouring of the Spirit? And may not all have this gift?

INQUIRER.

One of the most unimportant of the gifts of the Spirit is the gift of speaking in tongues. This the apostle declares in 1 Cor. 14:19: “Howbeit in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.” The speaking with tongues, as it is called, as manifested at various times the last few years in the United States, has led to wretched fanaticism. People have agonized and prayed for days and weeks that they might speak with a tongue. The result has been that they have uttered some outlandish gibberish which no one could understand, not even they themselves. Some have been deceived in believing that they spoke in certain Indian dialects or Chinese dialects; but when they have found themselves in other lands, among those peoples whose tongue they were supposed to be speaking, they were as unintelligible there as they were at home. There is but one thing for the Christian to do, and that is to submit himself to God to be used as God desires. There are many gifts which He has to bestow. He expressly tells us that these gifts are not of our choosing. They are of His. After mentioning wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and interpretations of tongues, He declares, “But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He [God] will.” 1 Cor. 12:11.

He tells us that we may desire to prophesy, in other words, to speak for God; but the gift, the prophetic gift, lies with God Himself to bestow. If He sends us to a foreign land where we meet with those who can not understand us, and it is His will and His wisdom that we should speak in that tongue, He is able to give it us; but it is the height of folly for Christians to labor and pray and agonize to obtain this or that gift which is not in any wise needed, and which in the very nature of the case leads to fanaticism. When we ourselves are determined that God shall give us a certain thing which may be contrary to His will, and we still persist in our determination; we may be sure that the devil will furnish us substitutes, and the sad history of such movements very clearly shows that his substitutes have been ever ready.

It is exceedingly important that Christians in these days should understand the Bible teaching concerning spiritual gifts. This the Lord has set forth very clearly and fully in such passages as 1 Corinthians, chapters 12 to 14; Romans 12; Ephesians 4; the parables of the talents and pounds, and other scriptures. If they would study the Scriptures, study God’s plan in the bestowing of these gifts, there would be no fanaticism in connection with them. The reception of the gifts themselves would lead away from fanaticism, and the church of Christ would be built up.

2968.— The Scripture Canon

When was the Bible compiled?

C. J. C.

The Old Testament was compiled by Ezra and Nehemiah up to their time. Of the New Testament it may be said that from the days of the apostles, the Gospels and epistles were read in the churches and generally received. “We possess in the Latin fragment by Muratori in 1740, something like a full list of the New Testament Scriptures from a writer who describes himself as contemporaneous with Pius, bishop of Rome, about A.D. 150; and a similar list may be made out from the Syriac Version, which can hardly be later than the second century. . . . The great Athanasius [A.D. 296-373] enumerates unhesitatingly all the Scriptures of the New Testament as we have them now; and so do the Latin fathers Augustin and Jerome.” So reads the “Sabbath School Teachers’ Combination Bible Helps,” Section 14, page 34. In the Sinaitic manuscript of the fourth century, the New Testament is entire.

2969.— Is It Genuine? Mark 16: 9-20

Is it not true that no part of the 16th chapter of Mark after verse 8 is genuine?

No, it is not true. The only thing that can be said is that it is not found in some early manuscripts. But this does not prove that it is not genuine. Alford, in his Greek New Testament, discussing at length the reasons for and against it, says that it is quoted as early as Irenæus, in the second century. He thinks that it was placed there as a completion of the Gospel, immediately after the apostolic period. There is nothing in the passage which is in any wise contrary to the rest of the Scriptures. He concludes that it is an authentic fragment placed as a completion of the Gospel in very early times, coming to us with very weighty sanction, and having strong claims on our reception and reverence. The “Biblical Encyclopædia” says of the verses in question, that while the Sinaitic and Vatican manuscripts omit them, the Alexandrian, Beza, and Paris manuscripts and the Vulgate support them.

2970.— The Earth Abideth Forever

Will you please explain the last clause of Ps. 78:69, and Eccl. 1:4? In the former text we read, “The earth which He hath established forever;” and in Eccl. 1:4, “The earth abideth forever.” But is it not true that the earth will burn up with its wicked inhabitants?

H. T. H.

No. When God created the earth, He did not create it to be destroyed. He bases His very existence upon His power to preserve His work. See Isa. 45:18: “For thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens, the God that formed the earth and made it, that established it and created it not a waste, that formed it to be inhabited: I am Jehovah; and there is none else.” Again in Ps. 115:16: “The heavens are the heavens of Jehovah; but the earth hath He given to the children of men.” In Psalm 37 we have the promise repeated over and over, that the righteous shall receive their reward in the earth; not only the righteous, but the wicked. “The meek shall inherit the land, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” “The seed of the wicked shall be cut off.” “The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.” Our Lord echoes the same thought when He declares in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”

In referring to the glorious triumph over sin, the prophet Daniel declares, “And the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High: His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.” Read also Revelation 21, 22, where the new heavens and earth are portrayed before us; in other words, the heaven and the earth renewed by the power of God.

“World” in our Common Version in the New Testament often comes from a Greek word meaning “age.” The world, or age, will end, but the earth, the material earth, purified by the fires of the last day and the power of God, will abide forever. Sometimes “world” comes from a word meaning “the inhabited earth.” Of course there will come a time when it will be without an inhabitant, but sin shall not work its will in the domain of God, “World” comes also from a word meaning “order, beauty, arrangement.” This, too, comes to an end. The earth will be purified from sin and will continue forever.

2971.— The Paying of Tithes

If I buy a wagon or a horse, should I pay tithe on it? and if I sell my crop and pay the tithe on the money and then pay for wagon or horse with some of this money, have I paid tithe on these things?

We pay tithes on income and not on purchases. The tithing system does not ask us to pay tithe on anything that we buy. It is on our income, on that which we receive. If we pay tithe on that, then all our purchases are made from money which is tithed, and it meets all the requirements of the tithing law. And one who carries it out in the true spirit of it, finds much more satisfaction in using the nine tenths which belongs to him after he has rendered to God that which is required. The tithe and the Sabbath are two tests of man’s loyalty: the Sabbath of his time, the tithe of his means. He who is loyal to God will find real joy in rendering both to the Master, and in the gratitude of his heart these will lead him to give himself wholly to God.

2972.— War and Christianity

Is not war contrary to the teachings of the New Testament?

Indeed it is. It is contrary to the whole tenor of the Word of God. Men have fought, good men have fought, and God has overruled in the wars of the nations in past times just as He has in the Christian dispensation, yet He is not the Author of war, but the Author of peace. The Gospel is the Gospel of peace, but all true Gospel peace is based on righteousness. This is not only a New Testament truth as taught in Romans 5, but it is an Old Testament truth as well. “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.” Isa. 32:17.