Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 1, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 26.

NOTE.—We wish those who ask questions to take particular notice: (1) Only such questions will be answered here as we believe to be of general interest and information. (2) We can not undertake to explain from four to a dozen scriptures, as in one sentence we are often requested to do. (3) Do not ask to “explain” a certain text or passage. State clearly the point in question. (4) Give full name and address, not for publication unless desired, but as evidence of good faith, and to give us the privilege of replying by letter if deemed best. (5) Unsigned communications of any kind find the quickest way to the waste-basket. (6) It is always well to inclose stamp. (7) “Foolish and unlearned questions avoid,” also those that minister to mere curiosity. (8) Study the Scriptures yourselves.

1378.—Sabbatic Year.

Is the command of Lev. 25:3, 4, still binding? If not, why? A SUBSCRIBER.

We do not understand that it is. Conditions are vastly different now than then and there, when all the land was considered the Lord’s. The principles on which those laws were based in the care of the land and the poor are still obligatory.

1379.—Ministers of God.

Will you kindly explain 1 Cor. 3:5. F. O. O.

The subject discussed by the apostle is the necessity of counting Christ all in all. That the Corinthians did not do this, showed them to be carnal. They still looked to men, dividing into parties over men, Paul and Apollos. The fifth verse simply states that Paul and Apollos were only ministers, instruments whom God used to carry the truth to others, and all that either possessed of ability to win souls was what God gave him.

1380.—The Hope of the Wicked.

Please explain Prov. 11:7. What kind of hope is it? A FRIEND.

Genuine faith is founded in God’s Word. Genuine hope is founded in God’s promise. Hope is desire coupled with expectancy. The hope of the righteous is for good in harmony with righteousness. The hope of the wicked is for good,—good sometimes promised of God,—but without yielding to the conditions of righteousness on which God’s promise is based. God reproves the false prophets for strengthening “the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life.” Eze. 13:22. The hope of the wicked is the expectation which will not come; because God is not in it.

1381.—No Evil to the Righteous.

How shall we understand, as in Prov. 12:21, that no evil shall happen to the just? The apostle seems to teach differently. Yet Isa. 45:7 reads that God creates evil.

In Prov. 12:21 the wise man has reference to the end. The end of the just is not evil. He may be tempted, and tried, and persecuted, and even slain: all these are but light afflictions from which God will ultimately and eternally save. So Jesus, in telling His disciples of the troubles they would meet, persecuted, imprisoned, and put to death, declares, “There shall not an hair of your head perish.” Luke 21:12-18. These things are incidental and temporary; the end to the just will be without evil forever; while the wicked will be filled with evil; they shall “eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.” Prov. 1:31; Gal. 6:7. In Isa. 45:7 the evil refers to the righteous judgments of God because of sin.