Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 15, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 15.

“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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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.

4044 — Why Baptize “in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost?”

The scribe is not a Sabbath-keeper, but I do like those that have the backbone to come out and obey God by keeping the Bible Christian Sabbath. But let me ask, Why do the Sabbath-day church baptize “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”? Is not this popery also? A. M.

The Sabbath-keeping church baptize in that formula for the same reason that they observe the Bible Sabbath, because the Lord has told us so to baptize. Jesus said to His disciples before He left, “All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Matt. 28:18-20, A.R.V. We prefer the term “Holy Spirit” to that of “Holy Ghost.” Apostate churches may use this same form; that does not affect the truth of the Bible. There are always many things in the counterfeit that are like that of the true, else there would be no force to the counterfeit; and apostasy has carried with it many things which are in harmony with the Bible. Its apostasy does not pertain to these things, but to the things wherein they differ. Of course where apostasy does carry mere forms, however, these forms amount to nothing, because they have lost their spirit. Baptizing into the name of the Father is into the character of the Father, and of the Son is into the character of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, into that for which the Holy Spirit stands. The character of the Father stands for righteousness, forgiveness of sins, clothing with the righteousness of God. See Bible Students’ Library, No. 204, “Bible Baptism.” Price, single copy by mail, 2 cents.

4045 — The Bible and Socialists

The principles and statements recorded in Lev. 25:10, 23; Deut. 15:4-11; Ex. 22:25; and Lev. 25:35, 37, are declared by certain Socialistic writers to be Socialistic principles, in the sense that the Israelitish commonwealth, or theocracy, was Socialism in one form established, and that the Socialists of to-day enunciate the same doctrines, more or less. Striving to attain such a worthy object is surely commendable, but not being under the direct leadership of God through prophecy, is it not in one sense a delusion, or a false theocracy? That is, can Socialism be called a false theocracy? Does it not rely too much on self to attain justice? C.

The texts in question have to do with land, with the righteous individual, with usury, with duties toward our fellow men who are poor. Now these are good principles, but the whole history of Israel, directly guided through God, with laws from God, failed to meet the ideal. Why?—Because Israel tried to carry it out according to the letter, without any regard to the spirit. They sought righteousness by their own works, and not by faith. The history of Israel looked at from that standpoint, is an everlasting testimony that no law can make men righteous, or enable them to do righteous things. Of course God’s object in keeping that nation together as He did was for another reason: He must keep the nation together in order to preserve the “seed,” the special family through which Christ was to come. He did everything that He could to induce them to be circumcised in heart, to be separate from the world, to give themselves wholly to Him. At the time of such revival in the nation, when their hearts were in tune with God, all these various principles were carried out, but just as soon as they left God out, and depended on themselves, or on the laws, they failed.

Any society whatsoever that endeavors to reach through law, or to bring about ideal conditions through any human organization whatsoever, will fail. Never, until selfishness is taken out of human hearts, can we have the ideal society, and Christ only can remove that selfishness. The man who assumes to do it, or the set of men that assume to do it, of themselves, are assuming prerogatives and powers that do not belong to them. We may not call it a false theocracy, but it is certainly a kingdom which will sooner or later end by the elements of destruction which it holds within itself. God has set before us the kingdom of man in prophecy. It passed through all phases of human government, from unlimited autocracy and imperialism down through limited monarchies, until at last it is manifest in Socialism, or the clay,—the divided condition of the world. But all these come to nothing. They do not have within them the elements of the divine life. That kingdom only will stand forever the subjects of which get right at heart. Socialists have before them a grand ideal, but they utterly ignore, or reject, the only things which will bring the ideal,—faith in Christ Jesus and the regenerating power of the divine life.

4046 — Hell of Fire

Please explain Matt. 5:22, last clause, “hell fire,” or, as the Revised Version has it, “the hell of fire.” What is it? A. E. C.

The text reads: “And whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of fire.” The margin is “Gehenna of fire.” There are two words rendered “hell,” with one exception, in the New Testament,—“Hades,” meaning the place of the abode of the dead, whether righteous or wicked, and “Gehenna,” a place of punishment. “Gehenna” comes from two Hebrew words meaning the Valley of Hinnom. The Valley of Hinnom was a place outside of Jerusalem where was cast all the debris and offal of the city. Bodies of malefactors, refuse of all sorts and kinds, were placed here. Upon this mass of rubbish the worms preyed, yet they could not consume it, and to avert the pestilence which might arise from it, constant fires were kept burning; so that the imagery of such texts as Mark 9:43 and on is derived from this literal valley and its use. Here the worm continually devoured, here the fires continually burned. But note this fact, that the worm consumed what it fed upon, and the fire burned up that which was cast into it. So that Gehenna, instead of implying everlasting torment to the wicked, implied absolute and complete destruction, just the same as in Matt. 3:12, “He will gather His wheat into the garner, but the chaff He will burn up with unquenchable fire.” That is, the worm will not die until that which it consumes is gone. The fire will not go out until that which is cast into it turns to ashes. The same finality of punishment is indicated in Isa. 51:8, “For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but My righteousness shall be forever.” Matt. 5:22, therefore, simply means the place of punishment. The man that shall call his brother “Thou fool,” or who shall utterly condemn his brother, is in danger of the punishment of destruction.

4047 — Master and Servant

Eph. 6:9; Col. 4:1; 3:22; 1 Tim. 6:1; Titus 2:9; 1 Peter 2:18.—Master and servant. The conditions stated in these texts are to a Socialist unthinkable. They find no brotherliness in such an attitude. They declare Socialism to be Christianity applied. In what way can the above texts be harmonized with the Socialist attitude, or vice versa, if at all? C.

Now it is true, as Socialists contend, that the ideal condition is that men are brothers. So Jesus states, “One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.” That is what the Christian church ought to be, and if the Christian church were truly a regenerated body by each soul being regenerated through Christ, that is what it would be. There would be no classes, no servant and master, no lord and servant, in that church. But those are not the conditions in this world, and the Bible is speaking of the conditions in this world just as they are.

It is not the object of the gospel to regenerate the world through reforming politics. As Vice-President Marshall recently said, “Christ was not engaged in repealing bad laws, nor in providing criminal punishments for the violators of good ones. Jesus Christ was more than a reformer. He was a regenerator. The church is to stand as the representative of the kingdom of God on earth, and ‘except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom.’ He brooded over Jerusalem as a hen broods over her chickens, and yet He never strove to make bad Jerusalem appear to be good Jerusalem.” That is all that laws can do,—make the bad appear to be good by restraining them; and the only excuse there is for civil law, is to compel civility and restrain incivility. It can not change the heart.

The Lord took all this into account. Some of those who accepted Christ were servants. Some of them, in the nature of the case, were masters. His whole aim and object was, whatever position a man was in in this world, that he should have the Spirit of Christ, and live the Spirit of Christ, to demonstrate that men could live Christians whatever their environment. If all the world were a republic to-day, a Socialistic state, it would not continue that way, and could not, one year. Just as long as men’s hearts are unregenerate the old conditions would persist, and there would be master and servant still, those who dominated and those who served. Socialism is endeavoring to bring about through law and system that which can only be brought about through the power of divine grace, and in this Socialism must fail.

4048 — Observing the Wind

Please explain Eccl. 11:4, “He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.” In its connection in the context I fail to grasp its meaning. C.

Ecclesiastes 11 is a good missionary chapter. It opens with “Cast thy bread upon the waters,” meaning so that we shall find it, just as rice was cast upon the flooded marshes, seemingly lost forever, but later to bring abundant crops. The second verse has also a missionary injunction,—“Give a portion to seven, yea, even unto eight.” That is, do not discriminate; in other words, feed all you can with the truth of God. And then nature does this: “If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth.” Blessings abundant are poured out from the full clouds. So it ought to be with God’s children, and will be if they are full. The lesson of the tree seems to be a contrary one: “If the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.” That is decay and death; but the live missionary is the one who develops, expands, gives. Do not stop to regard the wind. “He that observeth the wind shall not sow.” There is a time for sowing. Some superstitiously would not sow if the wind were this way, and some if the wind were that way. But when the time is right, and the land is right, then sow the seed, regardless of wind or cloud. And the fifth verse shows that God is able to make it effective in ways which we know not. The same thought is expressed afterward in the sixth verse, “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand.” We should not be satisfied, like the dead tree, with doing nothing, but regardless of all seeming appearances, work for God, and He who can do in secret things of which we know nothing is able to make our own work effective.