Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 14, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 27.

[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.”]

2882.—Is Any Part of the Bible Obsolete?

How much of the Bible is done away? Is it all for humanity now? O.

The whole Bible is for man now. Every part has its lesson for these days, tho all its laws are not binding. To illustrate: God commanded men to offer sacrifices of different kinds for different purposes. He does not now ask us to offer those sacrifices; for they have all been met in Christ Jesus. Yet from each of these sacrificial laws we may learn important lessons concerning God’s requirements, our duty, God’s love, and Christ’s offering. The sin-offering, the trespass-offering, the burnt-offering, the peace-offering, teach precious lessons of how repulsive sin should be in our sight, how utterly we should renounce it, how great and effectual are God’s love and grace. The injunction to circumcise is not now binding; but the very law and the circumstances of its giving show how absolutely we should put off the domination of the body of the flesh. Some of these laws expired by limitation, but the lessons of the laws and the conditions which called them forth still abide. For example, it is no one’s duty to warn now of a coming deluge, but the lesson of the Deluge still remains. There are many other illustrations. But one law forever abides, God’s great Constitution, Heaven’s Magna Charta, summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments; and the only Saviour from sin is Jesus Christ our Lord.

2883.—Sanctification and Regeneration.

I am told that regeneration is one step; that sanctification is a degree beyond to which we must attain or be lost. Will you please explain these terms? G. D.

The two words express different things. “Regeneration” means to be begotten again, born again. It is wholly of God. It is a new creation wrought by His power in the person who yields to Him. It makes a man a new creature. “Sanctification” means a separation from sin unto God. It is a setting apart to His service. It is both instantaneous and progressive. When man gives himself wholly to God, when he separates from the world unto God, he is a sanctified or separated man, in which man acts his part by yielding, and God His part by accepting and cleansing. The development of that setting apart comes every day as God’s truth is presented, unrolled, revealed by the Spirit in ever-living duty. So Jesus prayed: “Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth.” Yielding to that word, following it, receiving and appropriating it, is constant separation from the world unto God. It is a life-work in the development of character. Regeneration gives the new life; sanctification maintains it.

2884.—Men Shall Worship Him. Zeph. 2:11.

In Zeph. 2:11 we read: “And men shall worship Him, even all the isles of the heathen.” Does this mean to say that all the isles of the heathen shall worship God, or does this mean that they shall all have the Gospel preached to them? M.

It does not necessarily mean either. In the previous part of the chapter the judgment of God is spoken of. Later on some of the wickedness of the nations and those that oppressed Israel and magnified themselves against the people of Jehovah of Hosts, are named; then comes their judgment: “Jehovah will be terrible unto them; for He will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship Him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the nations.” It will be noticed that the word rendered “heathen” in the Common Version is “nations” in the Revised Version, and so ought it to be in most cases throughout the Scriptures; that is, nations outside of Israel. It will further be seen in the Revised Version that the thought is that on account of the judgments of God all the other gods of the earth will be destroyed, in a figurative sense “famished,” no maintenance for them. The judgments of God will turn some to the Lord, and men shall worship Him; not that all men shall worship Him; not that all the isles of the heathen shall worship God; but men shall worship Him, “every one from his place, even all the isles of the nations.” God will have His scattered ones all through the earth, and wherever they are, they will lift their hearts and voices and worship Him who has saved them.

2885.—The Holy Shekinah.

In reading the Bible there is one name that I have failed to find: “The Holy Shekinah.” We enjoy the SIGNS more and more. It seems, if it were possible, that each number is better and better. B. B. No. 265.

The word “Shekinah” is not in the Bible. It is a late Jewish term referring to God’s abiding presence among His people through His glory. It comes from a word-meaning “to dwell” and may, according to the Standard Bible Dictionary be “that which abides.” In a common sense it is generally applied to the manifestation of glory which abode in the sanctuary over the mercy-seat.

2886.—Not in the New Earth.

Will you kindly explain the meaning of Isa. 65:20 in the Question Corner? Several of us can not understand it. It seems to introduce sin and death into the new earth. It surely can not be. J. W. C.

This text has been many times explained. We wonder why it is that so many pass by scriptures far more important. For a better understanding, consider the context. Verse 17 brings in the promise of a new heaven and a new earth, tells us that in that happy state the former things shall not be remembered nor come upon the heart. (See margin.) God’s people will be glad and rejoice forever in that He has restored Jerusalem and her people. Verse 19. “I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; and there shall be heard in her no more the voice of weeping and the voice of crying.” That shows that when God’s kingdom is redeemed and the holy city shall take her place upon it, there will be no more death or sorrow, or trouble. Then He tells us the reason why we may expect this, by turning back to the time when the judgment was completed. “There shall be no more thence,”—from that time forward when God’s children enter upon their everlasting reward,—“there shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days.” One will not talk of children or old men because all that has passed away. For in God’s final judgment upon sinners “the child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed,” referring doubtless to that time of the “little season” mentioned in Rev. 20:3, 7. That little season may refer to the hundred years. The next verse of Isaiah 65 reverts again to the happy state of the redeemed when God’s children shall build houses and inhabit them, plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them; that is, one shall not succeed another. Their lives shall be as the life of the Redeemer.

2887.—God’s Judgments.

Please explain Job 34:20, 25. Does this scripture refer to the second coming of Christ? If so, then Christ is to come at midnight. But Mark 13:32 says, “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man.” Do we know when Christ is to come?—I.

The text in Mark 13:32 simply states this, that no one knew then nor would ever make known the day and the hour or time of Christ’s coming. The text in Job speaks of God’s judgments and evidently His final judgments upon the wicked nations of earth at the second coming. Verse 25 states that these judgments will come in the night; verse 20, at midnight. Then it will be that all who have not been slain in the wars and plagues of the last days shall perish in the glory of Christ’s presence. This, however, does not set the time of His coming. It does not tell us the day or the year. It leaves us as uncertain as tho no time were at all mentioned. It is well for us to remember, however, that previous to the time of Christ’s coming, probation closes, probably one year before that time, or a prophetic day. It is to this time that many of the warnings of the New Testament refer. See tract on the “Manner of His Coming.”

2888.—Tithe Paying

Why shall we pay tithe of what we eat ourselves, but not of that which our animals eat? A. K.

What we eat ourselves comes of our income, of course, and the income is tithed before we expend any of it for our own use, but what is used by our beasts is used to make up the profit which we receive from the sale of our animals or the products of these animals. We tithe our hay for instance in the products which we receive from our dairy. We do not sell ourselves in that way. Our dealing with ourselves as principals and with our beasts as commodities are altogether different. We are sure if our questioner will give thought to the matter he will see that there is a fundamental difference.

No. 2889.—K. Simon the Canaanite, and Simon called Zelotes, or the Zealot, are identical. The expression “Canaanite,” “The Bible Encyclopedia” tells us, does not come from an inhabitant of Canaan, but from cananaios, in Chaldee equivalent to the Greek Zelotes or Zealot. He is named as the tenth of the twelve in Luke, but eleventh in Mark.

No. 2890.—Repentance.—Acts 5:21.—A. K. Our Lord gives repentance to every soul that would seek Him. Peter was talking to Israel. Jesus came to and through that nation, and when the apostles preached to the Gentiles they presented the same great truths.

No. 2891.—K. Lebbaeus, Thaddaeus, and Judas the brother of James, are the same person.