Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 6, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 18.

“IF YE WILL INQUIRE, INQUIRE YE.”

This Inquirers’ Department is conducted for the purpose of helping those who are studying the Bible. The answers are oftentimes only suggestive. They are never to be considered infallible, only as they agree with the infallible Word. The writer who may answer them does not consider that his opinion is infallible. He will simply give the best that he has, and plead with the inquirer to search the Word. Such questions only will be answered as, to the editors, seem to minister to the good of the readers and to the mission of the paper. We can not answer repeatedly in the same volume questions upon the same scripture. The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable. No letters are answered which do not contain the name of the writer. It is well always to enclose stamp for reply.

4060—Not Without Us, Heb. 11:40

Will you kindly explain Heb. 11:40, especially “that they without us should not be made perfect”? V.

Our querist must take into consideration the whole of the epistle up to this. It is the ultimate object of all Christ’s work and His people’s faith, namely, the glorious inheritance. This inheritance is the better thing concerning us that God has prepared. Take, for instance, in speaking of Abraham, “the father of the faithful,” he “looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Heb. 11:10. The promise that Jesus gave to His disciples when He was about to depart was: “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:1-3. That is the ultimate fruition of the hope of the children of God. That is the better thing which God has prepared, and all are to receive that; not from dispensation to dispensation, not from generation to generation, not as individuals die, as we are sometimes taught, but when our Lord Jesus Christ shall come. So the apostle Paul, in 1 Thess. 4:15-17, says: “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” Therefore all those who have gone down in death under all the horrible cruelties that are named and inferred in the last part of Hebrews 11, did not receive the promise, but are waiting for it; and that better thing which God is preparing for us and all His children, will be given to all together, and all will be perfected together, changed to immortality, when our Lord shall come. 1 Cor. 15:51-54.

4061—Punishment for Adam

How was Adam punished for his sin? Was his sentence to go to work the penalty, or was it an additional punishment to the death sentence? Also was the pain of childbirth an additional punishment? Did Adam and Eve pay all these penalties? W. H. D.

Adam’s penalty was also a consequence. God does not pronounce arbitrary sentences alone on men. They get the consequences of the evils which they do. He declared (Gen. 2:17), “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,”—that is, he would lose the heavenly life, the spiritual life which was within him. And all these other things came not simply as penalties, but as consequences, results of his disobedience. When he disobeyed, he cut himself off from the inflow of the life of God into his own being, consequently he was doomed to die. The matter of labor was not given as a sentence. God did it for Adam’s sake: “Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.” It was not designed, therefore, to be a curse to man, but a blessing. One of the mightiest curses that can come upon the race is the matter of idleness. The old proverb that “an idle brain is the devil’s workshop” is preeminently true, and its counterpart is, “The devil has work for idle hands to do”; therefore God gave man work to do that would help him in every way,—show his dependence upon God, strengthen self-reliance within him, and lead him more and more to regard the giver of all good, the sender of rain and sunshine, as his Master.

“Labor is life; ’tis the still water faileth; Idleness ever despaireth, bewaileth.”

Labor was not, therefore, to be considered a punishment, but a blessing, a means of triumphing over the curse, under God.

The pain of childbirth was also a result of sin, departure from God, and one which would constantly serve to call to mind to women and men throughout the world’s history the state from which they fell. Adam and Eve not only met these things for themselves; through their sins, death came upon all men, according to Romans 5, but through the Lord Jesus Christ man is redeemed from the Adamic curse, is placed on a new probation, and abundance of grace given that he may overcome his sin.

4062—Making Oath

How can Deut. 6:13, last clause, also 10:20, last clause, and Matt. 5:34 and James 5:12, be made to harmonize? X. X. X.

The first two texts declare that we shall swear by the name of the Lord our God, and the last seem to forbid swearing. The first have reference to judicial swearing, making oath at proper times on proper occasions, the others to private, individual attestation. Jesus would have our word stand for what is true, without having to confirm it with an oath, as many do, and as the heathen often did. They were such unconscionable liars that they thought a promise was of no worth unless they could confirm it by an oath. This Christians should not do; but when called upon to make oath before proper authority, as was our Lord before the high priest, it is the proper thing to do. Jesus was asked many questions, and answered nothing; but when the high priest put the usual form of oath, “I adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou tell us whether Thou be the Christ, the Son of God,” Jesus replied. See Matt. 26:63, 64.

4063—Whom He Will, Deut. 2:30

God hardened Sihon’s heart, also Pharaoh’s. Does that not look as though He saves whom He will, and whom He will He destroys? X. X. X.

And God does. He saves whom He will, and whom He will He hardens and destroys; but first of all He hardens those who utterly reject His will, those who will not yield to Him; and He simply hardens by the withdrawing of His Spirit. Whom does He save, and upon whom will He have mercy? The second commandment tells us that He has mercy upon thousands of generations of those that love Him, and keep His commandments. But what of the sinner? “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Isa. 55:7. Then those whom God will save are those of any class whatsoever on the face of the earth who will forsake sin and come to Him, while those whom He hardens He simply hardens by the withdrawal of His Spirit, after infinite love has been exhausted in endeavoring to save them.

4064—Eating of Forbidden Things

What will be the reward of those who eat swine’s flesh and horses, mules, dogs, rabbits, rats, through ignorance of the word of God? J. H. Y.

First of all, it is not the eating of anything, or the abstaining from eating, that saves us, “for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Rom. 14:17. We are saved through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Being saved through Him, there is one motive that ought to actuate the Christian,—“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31. Some have very clear vision concerning the glory of God and one’s duty; they have very sensitive consciences regarding it. They are very diligent students of the word of God. When the clear light of that Word shines upon them, they see that such creatures as are mentioned in this question are not fit to eat, that they are no help in the keeping of a pure temple for the indwelling of the Spirit, that their flesh is unwholesome, and that the animals themselves are unhealthy. They therefore reject them. They can clearly see, by comparison, that there is better food for the Christian to eat, and they select the better. On the other hand, there may be those who have not the same opportunities, who still continue to eat such foods, not knowing that they are detrimental to bodily and spiritual health. Still, they have a heart to do God’s will perfectly, and the Lord accepts them as such. These are questions which no one can solve save God. He knows the heart, and knows all about it. Those who delight in such things as that, of course, will perish with the things they delight in, not because of the eating of any particular thing, but because of the condition of the heart, which is not such as to make them in harmony with the perfect laws of the kingdom of God.

4065—Time of the Plagues

Could you tell me about what time of the year the Egyptian plagues started? And have we any idea of how long they continued? G. W. S.

The time covered by the plagues was probably several months. This seems quite evident. The first plague probably occurred during the annual inundation of the Nile, which would be about the middle of June, according to Edersheim; and Hastings’s Bible Dictionary puts it in August; the second in September, the time when the frogs came, and even now in a limited way Egypt suffers, it is said, in this way: the seventh plague came when the barley was in ear and before the wheat was grown—this would be January or February; and the tenth in the following March or April.

4066—Crucifixion

Will you please tell me if there is any record of any one’s being put to death on the cross before the coming of Christ? Or was it used in those days? H. J. T.

Yes, the cross was used before the time of our Saviour. That very thing is implied when Pilate asked what they should do with Jesus. The cry at once was, “Crucify Him, crucify Him.” This would indicate that such was the regular way the Romans had, at that time, of executing criminals. The “International Encyclopedia,” under the word “Cross,” says: “The cross was a common instrument of capital punishment among the ancients; and the death on the cross was deemed so dishonorable that only slaves and malefactors of the lowest class were subjected to it by the Romans. It was customary to proclaim the name and the offense of the person crucified, or to affix to the cross a tablet (‘album’) on which name and offense were inscribed. Malefactors were sometimes fastened on a single upright stake, and so left to die, or they were impaled upon it, and to this upright stake the Latin name ‘crux’ (cross) was originally and more strictly applicable; but very generally a crosspiece (‘patibulum’) was added to the stake, to which the arms of the criminal were tied, or to which his hands were nailed. The person crucified often lived for days.” As an emblem, it runs away back into idolatry. The same authority says: “It appears that the cross was in use as an emblem, having certain religious and mystic meanings attached to it, long before the Christian era. The Spanish conquerors were astonished to find it an object of religious veneration among the natives of America.”