Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 27, 1909

2709.— Woman’s Suffrage.

I would be interested to hear your views on the movement for woman’s suffrage. Would it help the temperance cause? Would it help to make politics purer, or does it conflict with the Scripture? E. H.

The woman’s suffrage movement is a political question, and the SIGNS OF THE TIMES is not a political paper. We do not know whether we would even dare to think of expressing our opinions concerning this movement. In communities where women are elevated and refined, it might help the temperance cause. In some of our large cities where women themselves are inclined to indulge in wine and excesses of various kinds, it is a serious question as to whether it would help at all or not. Take it in Utah. One would naturally think that woman’s suffrage would tend to abolish polygamy, but those who seem to be well-informed state that nearly all the Mormon women are in favor of polygamy; consequently if that question came to be a matter of state balloting, it would probably be carried contrary to every finer moral sense, it would seem to us. Really, the granting of suffrage to this or that class is not going to save this world or permanently help any community. The only true reform which will do this, is that reform which takes hold of hearts and regenerates mankind. That can come only through our Lord Jesus Christ; and in the meantime every Christian father and mother should work for the regeneration and salvation of the rising generation.

2710.— The Bride of Christ.

The New Jerusalem is referred to as the Bride of Christ, the Lamb’s wife. Why is not the description of the city also figurative, as Babylon is figurative, referring to God’s true church in the earth, that which we have learned constitutes Christ’s bride elsewhere? F. L. T.

We have noted in answer to another question as to the difference in the use of the two terms “Jerusalem” and “Babylon,” in the Revelation; the one coming in connection with literal prophecy and promise, the other in connection with highly figurative and symbolical presentations. There are three things referred to as the bride of Christ. First, the individual believer, as in Rom. 7:4; secondly, the church, as in Ephesians 5, and thirdly, the city of God, as in Revelation 21. Let us go back a little further. In Isaiah 62 we are carried beyond the city to the new earth itself. Jerusalem is merely called “Hephzi-bah,” “My delight is in her;” and the land, the new earth, “Beulah,” meaning “married.” You will note that in the beginning of the chapter the Lord is speaking of Jerusalem, or Zion. Verse 3: “Thou shalt also be a crown of beauty in the hand of Jehovah, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah; for Jehovah delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.” By this scripture it is shown that the whole earth, the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, is included in the bride Jerusalem. The capital city stands for that entire land. Therefore is she called the bride, but the most glorious thing in that city will be the saved men and women, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ; therefore, to comfort the hearts of His people during their sojourn here below, the Lord says that He is a husband unto them, and married unto them, because they are a part of that future glorious inheritance. He does more than that. He comes down to the believer Himself with the same wonderfully comforting thought, for that believer is to be a part of that time when the children of God shall all come home; when Jerusalem which is above shall be “the mother of us all;” Christ the “everlasting Father,” and the eternal home forever established. Then will it be true that “as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee; and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.”

2711.— Three Unclean Spirits.

What is symbolized by the unclean spirits of Rev. 16:13? H. F.

The 14th verse clearly tells us they are “spirits of demons, working signs; which go forth unto the kings of the whole world to gather them together unto the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.” A.R.V. The devil has his angels and agents, and these he is sending out to all the world to arouse to war. Does it not seem strange that notwithstanding the fact that all the world wants peace, desires peace, yet they are preparing for war at a rate that was never even contemplated before? Evil spirits are stirring the world to war and preparing nations for the last great conflict.

2712.— The Sign of Jonah the Prophet.

Please explain Matt. 12:39, what the Saviour meant about the sign of the prophet Jonah. J. A. H.

It seems very clear in the text itself as to what He meant by it. In the next verse: “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale [margin, ‘sea monster’], so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” The heart of the earth is sometimes interpreted to mean the grave, but this is a purely arbitrary interpretation. Nowhere else are we shown this. It would seem that it rather means in the hands of the powers of earth, and Christ came into the control of the powers of earth when He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. The term “three days and three nights” would simply mean three days. Day and night was a common expression among the Jews, indicating simply day. It might not be the whole of a day, and yet the part of a day would be spoken of in the same way; so from the time that Jesus was arrested until He arose again from the dead, would be in general terms, three days; and so we read in the 24th chapter of Luke, His disciples saying unto Jesus toward the close of the day upon which Christ rose, “This is the third day since these things were done.”

2713.— Revelation 20: 5.

Please give the reason why Rev. 20:5 is not spurious? M. W.

Why should reason be given that that is not spurious any more than any other text? It is there in the Bible, and the American Revised Version, the best probably that was ever translated, does not even raise a question concerning it. “The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years should be finished. This is the first resurrection.” There are one or two ancient copies that do not have it in; and on the other hand there are just as ancient copies which do have it. There is no reason whatever for considering it an interpolation. The only reason why it has been put forth as an interpolation is because it strikes against some cherished unscriptural doctrine.

The second question that is asked by M. W. will be answered later.

2714.— The Date of Christmas.

I would like to ask if we can be sure of the date of the birth of Christ, and how should the day be kept? E. H.

No, we can not be sure of the date of the birth of Christ. No one can be sure of it. We can conjecture that it probably came in the autumn of the year, but as to just the day of the month on which it came, it is impossible for us to tell, and all the best scholars recognize this. The keeping of the day is a question very easily settled. Inasmuch as God has not said anything in regard to the keeping of the day, inasmuch as we do not know the day, the only way to keep it is to keep it as we do all other days which He gives us—in doing faithful service and work for God wherever we are. A day concerning which the Bible says nothing, certainly can not be a sacred day to us. And inasmuch as we do not know what day it is, or where it falls, there is nothing required of us in the observance of it. Now, of course, we have a day which has been molded more or less by heathen custom through Christianity, kept generally in a jovial, fun-loving, and hilarious manner, and by doing as the ancient Romans did, in the heathen festival, sending gifts one to another. If we are to keep the day at all, it would be to keep it in recognition of God’s great mercy and goodness, and by giving to those who are needy, remembering the words of Christ, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

2715.— A Charity Fund.

Will you kindly inform me if Seventh-day Adventists have a fund for charity regardless of the religion of those helped? I think many would like to contribute, especially at Christmas. E. H.

Seventh-day Adventists have no general charity fund for this purpose. They endeavor usually to help those who may be in need. Any funds placed in their hands for that purpose they would endeavor to use wisely to help all who are needy, irrespective of belief. For instance, just recently an incident came under our own observation of a family that was in sore need. This family was helped almost solely by the young women of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and this is true in many cases. We regret that we could not get to this question before Christmas was past.

2716.— Conscience.

Is the conscience always an infallible guide for the Christian? J. A. H.

No. It is almost never an infallible guide, and yet it is never safe to violate conscience. That may seem to be almost a contradiction of terms, but if we violate conscience we shall get to that place where conscience will not speak to us at all. What our duty is, is to have an enlightened conscience. We have God’s holy word, we have His great and infallible law. That law is God’s voice to us, and that voice is the test of all other voices. To illustrate: A forester might have a compass which was not absolutely accurate, and yet it would not be wise for him to throw that away when he was alone in the forest, would it? He would better depend upon that than the aberrations of his own mind, and then if it was not absolutely accurate, to either correct it or throw it away and get one that was. An engineer on a train whose watch was not absolutely correct would do better to follow his watch than to guess at the time. His business, however, is to see that that watch is regulated and kept in harmony with some standard timepiece. The Bible speaks of those who have an “evil conscience,” and those whose consciences are “seared as with a hot iron;” those are the ones who have constantly violated conscience until conscience becomes a voice to them no longer, and impulse leads wholly. An unenlightened conscience sometimes leads to fearful sins. It leads the Hindu mother to throw her babe into the Ganges, and she may be perfectly sincere in doing it. That very thing shows the world’s awful need of a revelation. And therefore, God has given us the revelation of His word to which we can come and bring our conscience, but when we set conscience against its clear precepts and its positive duties, that very thing should show us that our conscience is itself wrong and ought to be reformed.

In a land of Bibles we never should depend upon the conscience for a guide, unless our conscience is in harmony with the word. That is one of the daily duties; one of the great means of Christian advancement, to bring the conscience daily to God’s word and before His mercy-seat and plead that He will cleanse the conscience from everything that is out of harmony with His will, and bring mind and heart and conscience in harmony with His holy law. Then in the many, many things which will come to us in our daily life concerning which the word has not told us as to what duty is, the very first impulse of conscience will be the voice of God speaking to us. We do not believe that the Lord will ever suffer His children to go astray if their conscience is right toward Him, and their whole heart is to do His will and His alone.