Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 18, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 32.

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2911.—What Days?

Please explain Gal. 4:7-11. To what days does the apostle refer? S.

The passage is not difficult to understand if we will study the context. It will be seen from the eighth verse that the Galatians were at one time heathen, they were in bondage to them that “by nature are no gods.” In Lev. 19:26 we learn that the Lord forbade indulging in the customs of the heathen. “Neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.” See also Deut. 19:10.

The heathen had their days dedicated to their gods. Sunday was the day dedicated to the sun, Monday to the moon, and so with all the days of the week. The months also were named in some cases after the gods, as January for Janus, the two-faced god. Those idolatrous feasts were many times scenes of the greatest license; they were essentially bestial and low. They were carried on throughout all heathen lands. Therefore, when the Galatians turned from the Lord Jesus Christ to self-justification, they naturally fell right back to the observance of the heathen days and times. For the apostle declares: “But now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again?” What were those weak and beggarly rudiments? It was “bondage to them that by nature are no gods,” and it constituted evidence that they observed days and months and seasons and years; that is, the heathen days and times and months and seasons, hoping for salvation in them.

Are we to understand from this that God would have us observe no time?—No, because He has Himself given us one time that should be observed; His great worship-day, the Sabbath, the seventh day.

2912.—Jesus and the Sabbath Commandment.

Why did Jesus not mention the Sabbath commandment when He enumerated the others? F. J. S.

In the first place, our Lord nowhere enumerates the Ten Commandments. He gave some of them, as in the nineteenth chapter of Matthew. He quotes those, to show to the young man that he was not really keeping the commandments after all. The young man had declared that “all these have I kept from my youth up,” but Jesus showed him by the principle upon which the commandments quoted were based and the application of that principle, that the young man really had not kept the commandments at all. He had outwardly observed them. His life was blameless, probably, so far as a negative example was concerned, yet he was wealthy and the poor were all around him, and he had not given to their needs. But in that enumeration of commandments, we do not have any one of the first four precepts of the Decalogue, and we nowhere in the teachings of Christ have any reference to the second commandment of the Decalogue. Extra judicial oaths are forbidden, but the third commandment is not quoted.

Why should we demand that our Lord should restate the Ten Commandments? He expressly tells us, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” Matt. 5:17. There would be no change in God’s government. God’s moral law is perfect, and Christ came to restore men to allegiance to God. That was His sole purpose. He declares, “I and My Father are one.” Again: “I came not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.” God’s will is expressed in His law. Ps. 40:7, 8, and Jesus declares that those who say, “Lord, Lord,” and do not the will of God, will have no part in God’s kingdom. To them the Lord will say: “Depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” “I never knew you.” “Iniquity” is lawlessness; doing things contrary to God’s law. All the teaching of our Lord, in precept and example, in His sacrifice upon the cross, taught the immutability, the inviolability, the absolute necessity and eternal perpetuity of the law of God in every jot and tittle, for He declares: “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one tittle of the law to fail.”

The change from the old dispensation to the new dispensation, as they are sometimes called, was not the change in God’s purpose or the change in God’s plan. It was simply a greater development of that plan. The old object-lesson offerings which pointed forward to Christ, ceased because the shadow reached the substance; but the government of God underwent no change. Faith was demanded before Christ came, faith in the Sacrifice and Redeemer to come; faith was demanded when He came, faith in the Sacrifice who was there with them. Obedience was demanded before He came, the obedience of faith to all God’s commandments; obedience was demanded after He came, the obedience of faith, the following in His footsteps.

There was no more change in the constitution or fundamental laws of God’s government when Christ came than there is when one administration is succeeded by another in the United States Government. Had Mr. Bryan been elected instead of Mr. Taft, the Constitutional laws of this government would have been the same. The administration might have been different, but this would have had no effect whatever upon the Constitution. Every word and act of Christ’s life confirms the Sabbath commandment with the others.

2913.—Breath of Life.

Is “breath of life” in Gen. 2:7 and Gen. 6:17 the same in the Hebrew? H. W. L.

The word “life” in both cases comes from the Hebrew word chay, pronounced khahee, from the root word chayah, meaning “to live,” “to keep alive,” and so translated “life,” “live,” “quicken,” “recover,” etc. The word “breath,” however, comes from a different word in Gen. 2:7 and in Gen. 6:17. “Breath” in Gen. 2:7 comes from n’shamah, from nasham, meaning “to blow,” and is defined as “wind,” or “vital breath,” and rendered in the words “blast,” “breath,” “inspiration,” “soul,” “spirit.” “Breath” in Gen. 6:17 comes from the Hebrew ruwach, and that from a primitive root meaning “to blow,” or “breathing,” and is rendered by the words “air,” “blast,” “breath,” “spirit,” and so on. The meanings are really similar, so there is but very little difference between the two expressions. The translators and revisers evidently considered the words similar in meaning, because they rendered in both places “breath of life.” In the first instance it refers to men, and in the second all flesh whether man or beast, simply the breath of life from God.

2914.—The Weekly and Yearly Sabbaths.

Kindly explain the difference between the yearly sabbaths and feast-days and the weekly Sabbaths? G. A.

The Sabbath of Jehovah is eternal. It is a memorial of God’s creative power and love. Gen. 2:1-3; Ex. 20:8-11. It comes to sinful man as a sign of God’s power to sanctify and save. Eze. 20:12. As it was through Christ the Lord that God created the world, as it was Christ who wrought and rested (John 1:1-3; Col. 1:16; 1 Cor. 8:6), so the Sabbath is, therefore, the Lord’s Day (compare Mark 2:27, 28; Isa. 58:13; Ex. 20:8-11; Rev. 1:10). That Sabbath will exist forever. Isa. 66:22, 23.

The yearly feast-days and sabbaths all came in because of sin. They were of the nature of types and prophecies pointing forward to Christ. They are all enumerated in Leviticus 23 and were connected with the great feasts of the Passover, the First-fruits, the Feast of Trumpets, and the Atonement. All these met their fulfilment in Christ Jesus, and are distinct from the weekly Sabbath. The weekly Sabbath was always the seventh day of the week, in constant succession; the yearly sabbaths might fall on any day of the week. The Lord distinguishes between the two by the expression, “besides the Sabbaths of Jehovah” (Lev. 23:38), and by the very nature of the institutions.

2915.—Afflictions of Christ.—A. K.

Col. 1:24 intimates wherein the afflictions of Christ were behind. Our Lord identifies Himself with His church, and what touches His church, touches Him. He is the Head, His church is the body, and all the afflictions which His church suffers He suffers. The afflictions that were behind, which Paul helped to fill up, were the afflictions that would come upon the church of Christ following the sufferings of our Lord. His church are partakers with Him in suffering; but if we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him.

2916.—Articles on Spiritism.

Have you the papers containing the series of articles on “The Spirit World and the Future Life” by Prof. George W. Rine for sale? W. F. K.

The articles by Professor Rine have been placed in pamphlet form, and will soon be announced in the SIGNS for sale, and the price will be given.