p. 2 | Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 4, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 30.

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.”]

2903.—Signs and Superstitions

Please give Bible references and also opinion on these two questions: (1) Some people believe that birds flying into a home will cause the death of one of its members. What about it? (2) Should people who are followers of Christ seek shelter in caves and dungeons during severe high winds and hail storms, or should they trust to God to keep and protect them? J. S.

1. We do not know what scripture could be given concerning the first question. It is a superstition pure and simple. The writer was a member of a family of father and mother and nine children. All these children grew to manhood and womanhood. During all these years no death occurred in the family. Yet looking-glasses were broken repeatedly through carelessness or otherwise; birds flew into the house and out of the house occasionally as in almost every country home, and all sorts of things which generally arouse anxiety on the part of the superstitious, occurred, but nothing untoward, so far as we can remember, ever came from any of these omens, or were pointed out by them.

There is a scripture which declares: “The curse causeless shall not come.” Prov. 26:2. The Revised Version gives the text: “As the sparrow in her wandering, as the swallow in her flying, so the curse that is causeless alighteth not.” If there is death in the family there is a cause for it. There doubtless is a cause where birds fly into a house. They may be chased there by a bird of prey; so there may be many reasons for many other superstitions.

2. God asks His children to use wisdom and prudence in all temporary matters. Therefore, we read in Prov. 22:3: “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished.” The Revised Version reads: “A prudent man seeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and suffer for it.” Again, in Prov. 14:15 we read: “The prudent man looketh well to his going.”

Humanity in general, even fanatics, protect themselves from cold and inclement weather by building houses and securing clothing. They do this without thinking, because the cold and inclement weather comes regularly. The fearful electric storms that sweep over the earth, and which have been increasing during the past years, come occasionally and irregularly. We know not why one should not protect himself from them just as far as prudence could foresee, as well as from the regular evils which may arise. Faith is not presumption. There are certain things which man can not do. There are certain things which the Lord requires him to do. While He does ask us to believe in Him for salvation, because it is not in our power to do anything to save ourselves, He does ask us to give ourselves wholly to do the work which He only can do for us, and which He must do through us.

2904.—Two Difficult Texts.

Will you take time to explain again Phil. 1:21-23, and 2 Cor. 5:6-8? Do these texts teach that the soul goes to God at death? A. A.

Phil. 1:21-23 reads as follows: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor; yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.” 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 reads thus: “Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (for we walk by faith, not by sight:) we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”

Turning to Philippians note what the apostle says in verse 20, that Christ shall be magnified in his body whether it be by life or by death, and therefore for him to live is Christ, and to die is gain for Christ. In either case God would be glorified, in either life or death. Therefore the apostle declares he did not know which to choose between those two. If it were to live, suffering awaited him; if he were to die, still God would be glorified in his death, and he would rest from all the suffering. Therefore what I shall choose between these two, the apostle declares, “I wot not”—he knew not. “For I am in a strait betwixt two,” that is, the dying and the living. But he did have a desire for a third thing, “to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.”

When the apostle expected to be with Christ he has very clearly shown in other scriptures. As for instance, 1 Thess. 4:13-18. He there tells us that when Christ comes the second time, the living shall be changed and the dead shall be raised, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. The same thought is expressed in 2 Tim. 4:8: It is “at that day,” when Christ shall come; also Phil. 3:21, when Christ “shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.” Jesus teaches the same truth in Matt. 16:27. “For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works.” This was the thing which the apostle desired, a translation either at or before the second coming of our Lord. The original word rendered “depart” comes from the same root as does “return” in Luke 12:36. The word “return” in that text clearly refers to the second coming of Christ.

Now as regards the second scripture. Study the context. 2 Cor. 5:1-10. Note the three states or conditions which the apostle there presents.

First, our earthly condition here, indicated by the following terms: “Our earthly house of this tabernacle,” “in this we groan,” “in this tabernacle,” “mortality,” “at home in the body,” “absent from the body.”

Secondly, the condition of death, indicated by “dissolved,” “found naked,” “unclothed.”

Thirdly, the future state for which the apostle longed, “the building of God,” “an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens,” “clothed upon with our house which is from heaven,” “swallowed up of life.”

These we are sure will be clear to the reader—these three conditions. One, in which the apostle and all other mortals are, a condition subject to trouble and trial and sickness, sadness, and death, in which all groan and long for some other condition.

Secondly, the condition of being unclothed, or dissolved. Having no dwelling-place, so to speak, an utterly undesirable condition.

Thirdly, being at home with the Lord or forever with Him where mortality is swallowed up of life. Compare this with 1 Cor. 15:51-54, when this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruptible shall put on incorruption, at the last trump, at the second coming of Christ. Note also again the parallelism between verses 2 and 4, and Rom. 8:23, where the apostle declares that we also who “have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting [not for death but] for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” That occurs at the resurrection, when “mortality shall be swallowed up of life.” Therefore the apostle tells us that while here we walk by faith not by sight, looking forward to the glorious hope and culmination of the Christian warfare, he labored that whether present or absent, whatever our condition when He came, whether living or dead, we may be accepted of Him, “For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ.” That is the climax of the apostle’s statement, and it was to that time that he looked as a time not of condemnation, but of joyful triumph in his Lord. Therefore, neither of the texts when properly understood and explained by other scriptures, teaches the immortality of the soul or the soul’s conscious existence apart from the body; but they very emphatically teach that the only hope of the Christian is the second coming of our Lord.

2905.—The Father’s Name

Please explain Rev. 14:1. M. M. M.

The scripture reads: “And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on the Mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having His name, and the name of His Father, written on their foreheads.” The class mentioned are set in contrast to those that worship the beast and his image of the previous chapter. The worshipers of the beast are those who receive the mark of the beast and are stamped with his authority. The worshipers of God are those who are said to receive His name, and the name of Christ—name standing for character. “The Lamb” refers to our Lord, as shown in chapter 5:8. There the Lamb is represented as being slain; in Rev. 14:1 He is represented as triumphing. He has triumphed over all sin and gathered with Him this special company of those who have been through the severest of all struggles—the last closing conflict against all the powers of darkness. This representative company of 144,000 are sealed with His name, and the name of the Father. That is, they have passed through such temptations and such trials as fit them preeminently to be named as first-fruits unto God and unto the Lamb. Not first in point of time, but first in pre-eminence.