Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 12, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 46.

1286.—The First That Should Rise from the Dead.

Please explain Acts 26:23. As Christ died in the sinner's stead, did He not pay the penalty—nothing more, nothing less than that which is due the sinner, and which is recorded in Rev. 20:14? We know that many were raised from the state we call “dead” before Christ was raised. W. T. P.

“Christ died for our sins.” 1 Cor. 15:3. “The wages of sin is death.” Rom. 6:23. Jesus met it all. But to say that His death meant “nothing more” in the bald sense is limiting the great offering, of which death was the climax, wherein all the great love, and power, and wisdom, and glory of God are revealed to all the universe, to all eternity. As to the meaning of His rising, read as in the American Revised Version: “How that the Christ must suffer, and how that He first by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles.” He was the first in whom was demonstrated for the world the great power of God over sin and death.

1287.—“Not of the World.”

Does Matt. 24:36-39 and Luke 17:26, 27 infer that when Christ comes those who are looking and waiting for Him will not be doing as the world are—eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, as they were in the days of Noah, and knew not till the Flood came and destroyed them? Will there not be a time before the coming of Christ that His people will not be like the world in that as well as other things? M. E. W.

What the world does it does for the thing itself. What the true Christian does, he does to the glory of God. There would be much less eating and drinking, there would be many fewer things eaten and drunk, there would be fewer marriages, and no divorces, if men and women would but use this world as not abusing it, and would eat, and drink, and do all that they do to the glory of God. God's people must continue to eat and drink as do others. We presume that they will marry as others, outwardly, but they will not eat and drink to satisfy a depraved and abnormal appetite, nor will they marry to satisfy lust or animal passion. The true question should always be, Will this glorify God?

1288.—What Church?

The apostle James says, chapter 5:14, “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil,” etc. I would like to ask you for answer in your Question Corner. Which church does the apostle mean? Does he mean any church, Catholic or Protestant? or does he mean some church that has no specialty except Jesus the Christ, and Him crucified?

He means the church of Jesus Christ. It must be an organized church, for it has elders. See Titus 1:5-9; 1 Peter 5:1-4; Acts 11:30; 20:17, et al. How to find that church is by the Word of God. See Apples of Gold Library, No. 36, “The True Church, and How We May Know It.” (Price one cent and same for postage, if but one copy is sent for.) John the Baptist was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, but he had his disciples, and he was the follower as well as the forerunner of Christ Jesus. When Elijah thought he stood alone, the Lord told him that he was but one of a remnant of 7,000. It is true that persons in various Protestant churches (we never heard of Catholics doing this) have sought God's healing through the elders of the church, the only church they knew, and have been healed. God in His mercy meets men where they are that we may stand with Him where He is. Sometimes a “church that has no specialty except Jesus the Christ” has nothing. The term becomes a catch phrase, a covering, under which great truths are rejected and great error maintained.