p. 2 | Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 6, 1909

Question Corner

2684.—“Until the Son of Man Be Come.”

Will you please explain what is meant by the expression in Matt. 10:23: “Ye shall not have gone through the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man be come”? A. D. O. D.

To us, the meaning of the expression is this: Jesus sent out the twelve disciples. Verse 5. He charged them that they should not go into the way of the Gentiles, nor in any city of the Samaritans, but to the house of Israel. He tells them how they were to go, in advance of Him; and it would seem that the obvious meaning of the text is that they should not have completed this whole thing until the Son of Man would manifest Himself in these very cities. They were simply precursors of Him. He Himself would be revealed after them.

2685.—“Nine Cents for God.”

In the World’s Mission number of the SIGNS you make the statement that $7,500,000 was given to foreign missions in one year. You also state that our population is 80,000,000. Then you say that seven and one half million dollars divided among eighty million would be nine cents per capita for God, and $44.00 for pleasure. Will you please tell me how you get the nine cents? My rules won’t work. The $3,000,000,000 and $44.00 are easy beside the nine cent deal. G.

We obtain the nine cents per individual by the same method as we obtain the forty-four dollars. Three and one-half billion dollars divided by eighty million equals $44.00. Seven and one-half million dollars divided by eighty million, equals, to be more nearly exact, not quite nine and four-tenth cents. This may be easily proved: multiply 80,000,000 by .094 and it equals 7,520,000. We gave only round numbers. Perhaps our questioner made a mistake in pointing off his decimals.

2686.—Special Resurrection.

Will there be a special resurrection before the general resurrection? J. S.

There have been special resurrections at different times in the past, and we see no reason why there may not be a special resurrection shortly before the great general resurrection. Our Lord’s resurrection was a special resurrection. Those who were raised from the dead at the time of His resurrection constituted a special resurrection; and Dan. 12:2 seems to indicate that there will be another special resurrection, when not all, but some, will be raised to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt, a resurrection in which both righteous and wicked will come forth; that will not be the case in the general resurrection. In the general resurrection, the righteous will be raised first, one thousand years before the wicked. At the end of the thousand years, the wicked will be raised, but in the resurrection referred to in Daniel, there will be those of both classes.

2687.—New Earth Conditions.

Will there be any children born on the new earth? Isa. 11:8 speaks as though there would. Will all the children that have died before the first resurrection be raised at that time? Or what will happen with the children that are living when Jesus comes? J. S.

Isa. 11:8 speaks of conditions that would have been brought about if the Jews themselves had rightly related themselves to God at that very time. They refer not simply to new earth conditions but to conditions on this earth if God’s children had yielded wholly to Him.

Now, of course, the blessed promises can only be fulfilled in the new earth state, but they will be fulfilled far and away beyond any conceptions of conditions which would have existed in the earth in its present condition. As to the salvation of children, it is well for our readers always to keep this in mind, the Bible is addressed to responsible people; those who are not responsible we can leave in the hands of our God. Those who inherited Adam’s sin die, of course, the first death, innocent and guilty alike. Those who die from this death are all redeemed by Christ, and those who are guiltless of sin in themselves, who are worthy of continuance of life in His kingdom, will be saved.

2688.—The Binding of the Strong Man.

Matt. 12:29.

How is the strong man Satan bound by Christ? G. R.

A parable should not be held to its exact wording. And Matt. 12:29 is a parable. How can one enter the house of a strong man except he first bind the strong man? What is meant by it is that He overcomes the strong man. He “cast out devils.” Verse 27. He limited the power of Satan; He met him on occasion after occasion and defeated him. He found poor demoniacs in whom Satan had taken up his abode, cast them out, placed His own presence, His own Spirit, within the men, and left them sane, and in a hundred different ways on every occasion where He met the strong man Satan, Christ, the stronger, defeated him.

2689.—What Withholdeth? 2 Thess. 2:6, 7.

I am interested in the study of 2 Thessalonians and I am desirous of having some help to a better understanding of the 6th and 7th verses of chapter 2. M. W. N.

That passage reads as follows in our Common Version: “And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.” The old English word “let” means “to hinder, or hold back.” All understand this. We use the word now in the sense of “permit.” The Revised Version makes it plainer in that respect. “And now ye know that which restraineth, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season. For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way.” The “he” that is to be revealed in his own season, is the great apostasy foretold in Daniel, even to the very time when it should dominate—“time, times, and a half.”

That apostasy came up in the Christian church itself. It was restrained from developing in the Christian church by the presence of the Lord in the hearts of His people, and of His word as the rule of the church. Just as long as His word, and Spirit, and presence were held there by faith, just so long the Papacy would not develop.

No man power could come in when Christ the Head of the church was held high over all; and only Christ by His Spirit in the hearts of His people and as dominant in His church, could restrain that power from developing. It could not be done by man, nor by any man-made set of rules, because it was by the commandments of men in the place of the commandments of God that the apostasy came in. The presence of Christ by His Spirit in the hearts of His people is the One that restrains, and that restrains only so long as His children will permit Him to dwell in the heart and lives of His people. When they bid Him depart, grieve away His Spirit, then something else comes in to take the place.

2690.—What Language Did Our Lord Speak?

Prof. W. E. Howell seems to claim that the Saviour spoke Greek. See page 476 of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES of 1908. R. D.

Our correspondent speaks truly when he says that authorities differ as to the language spoken by Christ. It is generally agreed, however, that the language prevalent that day was the Aramaic, or the old corrupted Hebrew. Most of the Jews doubtless spoke that as did also our Lord, but it is also clearly evident that He spoke Greek. Nearly all the quotations in the New Testament are from the Septuagint or the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. In fact, Greek was quite commonly spoken throughout the world, and in all probability our Saviour spoke both languages.

2691.—Which Is the True Sabbath?

I have many times thought that the seventh day, or Saturday, was the true Sabbath, but people tell me that Monday is the first day, and Sunday is the seventh day. They say that Jesus laid three days in the grave, and Sunday was the seventh, or true day to keep. D. A. C.

Now this is not a hard question to settle; it does not make any difference how long Jesus laid in the grave in the settlement of this question, although He did not lie there three days. Of course we would have to learn when He was placed in the grave. The Lord guards the Sabbath question, however, in connection with the resurrection so that there can be no question about it. Mark 16:9 tells us that He arose on the first day of the week. Luke 24:1 tells us that the disciples came to the sepulcher on the first day of the week, but the verse before that says they returned and prepared spices and ointments and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.

Now the only means that we have, any of us, of knowing which was the seventh day, and which was the first day, is the Bible. That Bible language was written thirty or more years after Christ’s resurrection. The day that Luke called the Sabbath day must be the Sabbath day, and the day he called the first day of the week, must be the first day of the week. Now he tells us that the disciples rested on the Sabbath day; that the first day of the week all were busy. He tells us furthermore that the Sabbath day on which they rested was the day “according to the commandment,” and if we turn back to Ex. 20:8-10 we there learn what day the “Sabbath according to the commandment was.” That expression declares, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” and the seventh day “according to the commandment” must be the seventh day of the week because it came the day before the first day of the week. Furthermore, that was the day which the Jews kept then; it is the same day which the Jews keep now, and they keep the day just before Sunday.

Now there is much more proof besides this, but certainly this is sufficient to show which day of the week the seventh day is, according to the Bible.

2692.—The Soul Within Him Shall Mourn.

Job 14:22.

Please explain Job 14:22. Does it mean that his soul within him shall mourn after he dies? INQUIRER.

No, it does not. The connection must be taken into consideration. Job is telling us of the sorrowful state of man. He will come to nothing. He looks constantly forward to the change which will take place, when he goes down into silence. In that condition of silence, “his sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.” The 13th verse reads, “O that Thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that Thou wouldest keep me secret.” Chapter 17:13 expresses a similar thought: “If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.”

The 22d verse refers to his condition before that. While he is contemplating his end, “his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.” Spurrell’s translation of Job 14:22 is: “Surely the flesh upon him shall consume away, and his soul shall lament over it;” previous, of course, to his death.

According to the unscriptural theory of the soul after death, it has no flesh upon it; it is absolutely free. Therefore, according to that theory, this could not refer to after death. It must refer to a time when one is in the flesh, and the time to which Job refers is when man is decaying, and hastening on to his death. When death comes, then it is darkness, silence, unconsciousness, sleep,