Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 30, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 25.

[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.”

2871.—“The End of the World Is at Hand.”

Why did Paul and the other apostles in their day say that the end of the world is at hand, and that they were living in the last days? How long has it been since the end of the world has been said to be imminent? B. B. 1600.

1. Christ’s second coming is life to His people. Even tho they may sleep in death, that sleep is but for a moment, so far as consciousness is concerned. To him who falls asleep in Jesus the next moment of consciousness is seeing Jesus come. Therefore Christians in all ages ought to be prepared for that coming, ready to meet their Lord.

2. The apostles wrote for all time. The word was not their word, but God-breathed through them. They wrote therefore for the last days as well as their own day, and for all days in view of the last great day. But that they did not believe that the Lord was coming in their day is shown by the apostle Paul in his first and second letters to the Thessalonians. In the first epistle he again and again refers to the coming of the Lord as tho it were imminent. See chap. 1:10; 2:19, 20; 3:13; 4:13-18; 5:1-6. From these repeated references in the first epistle the Thessalonian brethren had come to believe that Christ’s coming was impending. This the apostle corrected in his second epistle as follows: “Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him; to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is just at hand; let no man beguile you in any wise; for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” Chapter 2:1-3. It is very clear, therefore, that the apostle Paul did not look for the second coming of Christ or the end of the world in his day.

3. The last days would be times of special peril (See 2 Tim. 3:1-5; Luke 21:34, and many other scriptures); Satan would do all in his power to blind the minds of men to the importance of that great event, to its nature and its time. Therefore we have the solemn warnings handed down to the last generation of men. These things are confirmed by Matthew 24 and Luke 21, which chapters clearly show that God’s children may know when Christ’s coming is near. “When ye shall see all these things, know that He is near, even at the doors!”

2872.—“Shall Follow Them That Believe.”

Will you please explain Mark 16:15-20?

“And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned. And these signs shall accompany them that believe: in My name shall they cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken unto them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen.”

O. J. S.

God gave all His gifts for the Christian age, coextensive and coeval with the great commission. These signs, wonders, or miracles are not wrought to satisfy curiosity or ambition or desire for superiority. They are given always for God’s glory as He will. 1 Cor. 12:11. But these gifts are “set” “in the church” till the perfect day shall come. Compare 1 Cor. 12:28; 13:9; Eph. 4:13. They “follow them that believe,” not to confirm the faith of believers, not according to direction of believers, but to confirm the word preached and to be exercised as God will. When God’s people will count as the greatest of all miracles a regenerated heart and life, which delights in doing God’s will, then He can bestow upon them lesser things. When they will use His daily bestowed gifts to His glory, He will trust them with greater gifts and they will have faith to recognize and receive them when they come. Think of Isa. 57:15.

2873.—Seeing God.

Please harmonize John 1:18 and Isa. 6:1 and Dan. 7:9. J. M. J.

John 1:18 refers to the person of the ineffable God, the great Jehovah, the Father. The other texts are visions of God’s workings and of the future judgment, both of which may have been given in a dream. Wherever the Scriptures declare that men have looked upon God, it is clearly evident that it referred to the Son, who revealed only so much of the unapproachable glory as mortal man could endure. “The only begotten Son . . . He hath declared Him,” the Father. See John 1:18; 14:9. But thank God, there is coming a time when “the pure in heart shall see God,” and “they shall see His face, and His name shall be in their forehead.”

2874.—Gen. 4:10 and Rev. 6:9.

I would like to ask you to explain Gen. 4:10 regarding Abel’s blood crying to the Lord after Abel was dead; and Rev. 6:9, where John saw the souls of them that were slain in heaven. C. M. Z.

There are various figures of speech recognized by all students of language. One of these is personification, by which a thing having no life is made to speak and talk as tho it did have life. This figure is often used in the Bible. For instance, in the second chapter of Habakkuk, the stones in the house are represented as crying out, and the beam that is in the house, answering the stones. That is, the house was built in iniquity. It is so evident before God, that He speaks as tho the very stones were crying out against it. So regarding Abel. Cain had shed his blood. The hitherto innocent earth that had never known bloodshed was made to drink of the evidence of his crime. Cain thought to hide that crime from God, but the Lord wished to show the guilty man that his sin was just as evident as tho the very blood were crying it audibly from the ground.

Of course, no one thinks for a moment that the blood was alive or speaking, but God remembered it just as truly as tho that were the case. This same figure of speech is used in Rev. 6:9 under the period of the pale horse Death. During the time of the persecution of the Dark Ages, thousands of God’s children were slain. John is represented as seeing these underneath the altar. This altar was not in heaven. Only the altar of incense is represented as being there. Rev. 8:3. The altar of sacrifice was on the earth; and they are represented as being underneath the altar of sacrifice, consequently were not souls that were in heaven.

The awful sin of putting these souls to death was so great in the sight of God that the inanimate beings who had suffered are represented as crying to God. And God cares for them and hears in their behalf just as truly as tho they were speaking audibly. That is all that is meant by it; for we certainly could not conceive for a moment that if those souls were in heaven, they would be crying out for vengeance against their persecutors. We could not conceive heaven to be a place of happiness if that were the case. Those souls would know that in a little while the wicked would be doomed anyway, and it would be utter folly, yea, more than that, hard-heartedness and contrary to the Spirit of Christ, for them to be crying out against their enemies. It is an illustration of how God feels and cares for His oppressed and persecuted children. He may seem to forget them, and centuries may pass since the crimes have been committed against them, but just as truly God remembers them as tho they were audibly crying to Him from the places where they were sacrificed for His sake.