p. 2 | Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 20, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 41.

Question Corner

[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.”]

2958.—Signs of His Coming

You speak of general increasing wickedness as a sign of the times. Has not the world always been wicked? Have there not been many earthquakes before, and destructive ones? and so with other so-called signs of His coming? READER.

Yes, most of the experiences that we are passing through have been duplicated at one time or another in the world. In and of itself the prevailing wickedness is not a sign that the coming of the Lord is near. The Bible declares that “the whole world lieth in wickedness;” “lieth in the wicked one,” some versions give it. It is like a child lulled to sleep in the arms of its nurse. Satan is lulling to sleep the whole world in that way. The unregenerate heart has always been in rebellion against God and not subject to the will of God. Sometimes this wickedness has been unrestrained, the same as in the closing days of the Roman Empire, as in Sodom and Gomorrah, as in other ages of the world. Sometimes when God’s children were living as near to Him as they ought and His Spirit was resting upon them, their very presence has been a restraining influence in the world.

The sad fact at the present time is that all the sins that are mentioned by the apostle Paul in Romans 1 as being in the heathen world, are in the last days to be found in the Christian church, among those who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. See 2 Tim. 3:1-5. So the perils of the last days are not because there is wickedness in the world, nor because wickedness in the world is increasing; but it is because wickedness has come into the church of Christ, and all the evil principles of the unregenerate heart are manifest among those who ought to be a restraining influence by their very presence. If the salt have lost its savor, how can it help to save that in which it is cast? When the professed church of Christ sets aside God’s standard, and has none other save the wishes of the natural heart, times are indeed perilous. And this is what the apostle points out.

There have been earthquakes before, great and terrible ones, destructive to life. These earthquakes have nearly always been confined to few localities. And of course we hear more of them now, that instruments have been perfected, than before; and yet the very best records show that there has been a tremendous increase in the number of destructive earthquakes during the last years of the preceding century and the first years of this. Our Lord tells us that when these earthquakes occur in divers places, they are the beginning of sorrows, or literally the beginning of the birth-pangs which shall issue in the destruction of things earthly and the coming of the Master. The great evidence at the present time is not that there is simply one sign or two signs of Christ’s coming, but a great aggregation of signs, a concentration of a score or more of signs all focusing right down in this time of the end, in which we are living; and it is the Master’s words which declare, “When ye shall see all these things, know that He is near, even at the doors.”

2959.—This Generation

Can you tell us in the SIGNS the full meaning of Matt. 24:34? When does that generation begin and when does it end? F. W.

If our inquirer will read carefully Matthew 24, Mark 13, or Luke 21 he will find that they all together give the discourse of our Lord in reference to the destruction of Jerusalem and Christ’s coming in the end of the world. Much that is said concerning the destruction of Jerusalem is used as a type of the second coming of Christ. You will notice various signs are given of Christ’s coming. These signs begin with the darkening of the sun and the moon. Luke enlarges upon these and tells us there will be other signs. Christ our Lord, who saw clearly the various events which were to take place, must have seen among the signs which He predicted all the various signs which would precede His coming.

We are not told that His coming is near when the sun was darkened; that was only a beginning. Redemption was simply drawing nigh to the world at that time; but when all the various signs took place, then we would know that His coming was near, even at the doors. Then He tells us “this generation,” not the generation to which He was then speaking,—for of that generation He says, that no sign should be given it but the sign of Jonah the prophet,—but the generation which saw “all these things,” should not pass till all be accomplished. This would not mean necessarily the generation that saw these things with their physical eyes, but that saw them fulfilled in the light of the prophecy. That necessarily includes the last message to the world, the great threefold message of Rev. 14:6-14. That message began in 1844. Since that time that message has been going to the world, and the generation that gives that message shall not pass till the Lord shall come. This, in brief, is our understanding of this text. There will be, seemingly to all human understanding, a failure in God’s program, but our Lord Himself guards us against that and assures us that the heaven and earth may pass away, His word shall not pass away. Read the evidences in this number.

2960.—The Incarnation of Christ

Where do Methodists and Seventh-day Adventists get their Scripture for the incarnation or that Christ was incarnated into the flesh? INQUIRER.

They and all other Bible believers get it from the Word. John very expressly tells us that Christ was with the Father in the beginning. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.” John 1:1, 2. In the 14th verse we read: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.” The apostle tells us in Gal. 4:4 that “when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.” Through Jesus Christ those who believe in Him have that same Word incarnated in them, Christ in them the hope of glory, even as the Father was in the Son. Col. 1:27; Gal. 2:20.

2961.—The Four Living Creatures

Please explain in your Question Corner what the beasts of Rev. 4:8 refer to. Are they really beasts, or are they men? J. S. M.

“Beasts” is an unfortunate translation. The original word is not the word translated beasts elsewhere. It simply means “living ones,” or “living creatures.” There is a great difference of opinion among Bible scholars as to what they are. Here are some suggestions that may be helpful. When the tribes of Israel of old pitched around the sanctuary, they were arranged under four great standards, that of Judah, Ephraim, Reuben, and Dan. Those standards, tradition tells us, were that of a lion for Judah, a man for Reuben, an ox for Ephraim, and an eagle for Dan; the same creatures that are spoken of in Revelation 4 and Eze. 1:10. It would seem that they represent in that case the hosts of God on the earth, but the view in Revelation seems to give a broader idea than this, including not only the hosts of God on earth, but in heaven as well. For aught that we know, God’s angels may have been arranged in these very forms when the prophet saw them. When Elijah was taken up to heaven by the angels of God they came in the form of chariots and horses, not literal horses or literal chariots as we would understand them, but angels of God in the form of horses and chariots. So John saw them arranged, millions of them, in these forms, showing that the Lord’s plans in the heavens were in harmony with His plans in the earth, as exemplified in ancient Israel.

Then, too, this is suggested by these four living creatures: by the man, wisdom; the ox, patient endurance; the lion, strength; and the eagle, glory. All His living animal creation is suggested also in the four creatures, but it seems to us the view first named, that these represent the hosts of God in wisdom, strength, glory, and persevering patience, is the better view.

2962.—Zechariah 13

When will the 13th chapter of Zechariah be fulfilled? S. W. B.

This is one of those questions which cover a great deal of ground. The chapter is one of those great double prophecies which relate to God’s children in the past and through them are a prophecy of what is to occur in the future. This prophecy was in a measure fulfilled when the children of Israel returned from their Babylonian captivity. It will in larger measure and under different conditions be fulfilled in the great final restoration. Our inquirer will have to be more specific if he desires a more specific reply. If there are any particular parts of the chapter which he does not understand, and we can help him, we will be glad so to do.