Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 7, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 36.

1558.—Keeping the Sabbath Holy.

Are we keeping the Sabbath holy when we drive our stock to church or Sabbath-school on the Sabbath. Ex. 20:8–11; Matt. 24:20. Please answer through the Signs of the Times. S. M. M.

As regards the injunction concerning the beasts, it is for the one sole purpose that the animals may rest physically, and not be cruelly treated. Ex. 23:12. “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast.” Prov. 12:10. On the other hand, we are told that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as some do, and so much the more not forsake it, as the day of the Lord draws near. Heb. 10:25. But to meet with those of “like precious faith” is impossible for many of the scattered ones to do on foot. Sometimes they are too far away from the place of meeting; sometimes there are old and feeble ones. We see no transgression of the Sabbath commandment, in the light of Isa. 58:13 and Matt. 12:1–12, in the use of horse or ox or ass in going to church or Sabbath-school, if the beasts are properly nourished and cared for and have sufficient rest through the week. He is not presumedly using the beast for his own profit, but to the Lord’s glory. The priests did double work in the sanctuary on the Sabbath, but they did it for God’s glory. It is possible so to regard the Sabbath as to make it a burden in strictures of our own conception, or to make it a curse by using it as a day for pleasures of the sense; or, on the other hand, to keep it holy, joyfully, gladly, according to His Word and our Lord’s example.

1560.—A View of the Coming Kingdom.

“Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, TILL they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” Matt. 16:28. Who is referred to by the phrase, “There be some standing here”? Surely not those to whom Christ was speaking, was it? And, “shall not taste of death TILL they see the Son of Man?” Was this clause intended to be understood, that some would be stricken dead immediately after they had seen Christ coming in the clouds of glory, the second time? S. A. B.

1. The words are found in the same connection in Matt. 16:28; Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27.

2. They are preceded by a prediction of Christ’s suffering and death, and the necessity of following Him, and are followed by the story of the Transfiguration.

3. Taking the Transfiguration with the lesson it was intended to convey, and the lesson it did convey according to one of the apostles, and we are forced to the conclusion that Christ referred to His own disciples by the “some standing here.”

4. His promise was that they should “see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom (Matthew), “see the kingdom of God come with power” (Mark), “see the kingdom of God” (Luke).

5. The great essential things in the kingdom of God are the King, the subjects, and their condition. These subjects will be made up of two classes when Christ comes, the righteous dead who have been sleeping and are then raised from the dead, and the righteous living who will then be translated. 1 Cor. 15:51–54; 1 Thess. 4:13–17.

6. In the Transfiguration scene we have all these concomitants: there was Christ, the glorious King, whose countenance was altered and whose garments were so exceeding white and glistening as no fuller on earth could whiten them; there was Moses, the representative of those who had died and were raised from the dead (Rom. 5:14; Jude 9); there was Elijah who had been translated to heaven without seeing death (2 Kings 2:11). It was a miniature representation of what Christ’s second coming will be to His people.

7. Peter refers to this very transfiguration scene as the proof that the apostles had not followed “cunningly-devised fables” when they made known “the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:16–18.

A word further: “Till” does not involve the meaning suggested. The whole scene of Christ’s future kingdom was given to encourage the disciples in their coming trials.

1561.—Old and New Dispensations.

Will you please explain through your paper the difference between the New and the Old Dispensations? Much is said about the superiority of the present age of “free grace”—the age of the “Holy Spirit,” etc., and there must be a great difference some way, since the angels sang for joy at Christ’s birth. But yet the “law,” or commandments, are as binding now as then, and faith was as essential then as now. The righteous men of old were filled with the Spirit as fully as are any now, and people were saved then as now by virtue of Christ’s sacrifice. Of course Christ’s life and death made clearer the character of God and His plan of salvation, but is this all? F. E. A.

1. The word “dispensation” simply means a dispensing, a weighing or dealing out, a distribution, a stewardship. Old and New Dispensations are not Bible terms. If used at all as distinguishing different ages, they would refer to the forms and modes of administration of God’s blessings, not to the character of the blessings.

2. God’s character, and hence His character-requirements, are always the same. He demands obedience to His will, the keeping of His commandments in all ages alike. He appoints the same means of salvation, the sacrifice of Christ, and faith in God. Neither time nor circumstances can change these principles.

3. But there has been a constant development or disclosing of God’s plan in varying degrees throughout the ages; and instructions have grown fuller and completer as the ages have gone by.

4. In the patriarchal times the family was the center around which all worship revolved, the head of the household being the priest and chief dispenser of God’s blessings. More elaborate, more detailed, were the ceremonies and the worship during the Levitical age, and the chief ministers or dispensers of God’s truth were the Levites. All the shadows of the past met the substance in the person and sacrifice of Christ Jesus, and the dispensation of blessing was largely among the ministers and elders of God.

4. But there were “free grace,” and “the Spirit,” of old, and the efficacy of Christ’s offering then availed, as now, and it was necessary to believe God to be saved.

5. Wherein, then, lies the great difference?—In these chiefly: (a) It was a great step in the development of God’s plan; (b) It demonstrated the power of God over sin in human flesh; (c) In this perfect life of our Lord the world safely passed its crisis (John 12:31), and the doom of Satan and sin was forever sealed; (d) Until that time even the angels had been, if not in doubt, at least in perplexity, but all was settled in the personal triumph of Christ (Rev. 12:10–12). See Rom. 16:25, 26; Eph. 3:3–6; Rev. 5:1–10. Much more might be said, but we have not the space. But our correspondent will see that the glorious confirmation in fulfilment of all God’s promises in Christ Jesus were marvelous events. All these were the manifestations of the mystery of godliness for which the church had been in travail, and the world had been waiting.