p. 7 | Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 17, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 38.

Question Corner

1279.—An Indefinite Question. Acts 10.

Here is a sample of many questions we receive: “Please explain the tenth chapter of Acts to me, and oblige. My understanding is that it means the Jews, while some claim it is in regard to eating any kind of meat.” Now the tenth chapter of Acts contains forty-eight verses. Its general subject is Peter’s mission to the Gentiles. He was unprepared to go, because of Jewish prejudice; and God, therefore, gave him the vision and lesson of the chapter to teach him the one thing only, that he “should not call any man common or unclean,” Verse 28. This may meet the querist’s point. Make questions definite and specific.

1280.—Another Day.

Does “another day” in Heb. 4: 8 refer to another Sabbath day? L. A. G.

It does not refer to any Sabbath day at all. When Joshua led the children of Israel into Canaan, God designed to give them rest, rest from sin and all their enemies, but they did not grasp it by faith, and failed to enter the rest. The “another day” was that “certain day,” the only certain day, set forth by David, “To-day, if ye shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” Never again will a nation have the opportunity which Israel rejected when God rolled away from them at the River Jordan “the reproach of Egypt.” God is gathering out His people, inviting them into His rest (of which the Sabbath is a perpetual pledge) one by one, and the only time to enter is “to-day.”

1281.—Try the Spirits.

Does the word “spirit” (1 John 4: 1) refer to individuals? This text is used largely in defense of Spiritism. L. A. G.

The word spirit would refer to an individual spirit. There is the Holy Spirit, which God gives to every one of His children, and which He also places upon His holy angels, and so makes them messengers to man. Heb. 1: 14. His Spirit uses men also. These all come to do God’s will. Then there are evil spirits, the angels or messengers of Satan, which he sends in the guise of the spirits of light; and these spirits of evil and darkness possess and speak through men. 2 Cor. 11: 3, 13-15; Rev. 16: 14; 2 Tim. 3: 1-5. There are good and evil; prove them, try them, and never by the sense, but always by the Word. Isa. 8: 20; Matt. 7: 21-23. Another test is given in 1 John 4: 3, 4. Jesus Christ comes by faith into the flesh of every one who wills it in God’s way. Spiritism, and other false systems, make man his own saviour.